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4ja2k8 | why do humans typically not eat the meatbof carnivores? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ja2k8/eli5_why_do_humans_typically_not_eat_the_meatbof/ | {
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"Excellent question. Carnivores require energy to work, so a lion for example. Lions would be useless to breed and consume due to their need for other meat for sustenance. So in order to breed lions you'd need to feed it meat. You'd be getting less food from a carnivore than you would feeding the animal itself. Cows are perfect because they can be fed abundant supply of grass and be totally fine. It's all about the law of thermodynamics \n\nHere's a video explaining it all...\n\n_URL_0_",
"It's easier to eat the meat of herbivores. Essentially, if you want to breed carnivores for food, you have to breed herbivores for them to eat, and it's easier just to eat the herbivores. We do eat some carnivores, like salmon, but by and large it's just not worth the effort.",
"Carnivores are more expensive to raise for meat so domesticating them for that just never happened. Additionally carnivore meat tastes strange and unappealing to most people. ",
"One, it's not cost-efficient. It is much more expensive to feed a meat-eater than it is to feed, say, a chicken or a cow. Having a constant stream of meat/prey to feed them would be expensive and inefficient. \n\nTwo, what an animal eats affects how it tastes. Most people are not keen on the taste of carnivores, which tends to be very gamey and strongly flavored. They're more muscular, have less fat, and as a general rule, people tend to favor meat from herbivores and omnivores. \n\nThree, carnivores are designed for hunting and killing. It would be a hell of a lot more risk to raise, for example, tigers for food than it is to raise cows or pigs or chickens or turkeys. \n\nThat being said, we do eat some carnivores, and plenty of omnivores as well. ",
"We do when we hunt instead of farming (you have probably eaten carnivorous fish). When we farm we have to feed and most of the food does not go into body mass. If I pick a number and say 1/10 of the food goes into body mass (that is certainly too high) then for breeding herbivores in order to feed carnivores it is 1/100 of the plant food going into carnivore mass"
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274ufv | what makes holy water holy? | When people in churches do baptisms, what makes the water holy? Does it get blessed or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/274ufv/eli5what_makes_holy_water_holy/ | {
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"Yes, the priest (or that religion's equivalent) blesses the water. Depending on the faith, a large amount of importance or none at all is placed on the tradition. ",
"Most protestant churches don't consider the water used in baptisms to be \"holy\". It's just water."
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1rx9qk | why is everything still so expensive despite the massive increase in efficiency automation has created in the last century? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rx9qk/eli5why_is_everything_still_so_expensive_despite/ | {
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"In things like cars, the cost reductions from automation have been offset by increasing features and safety. You may reduce the cost by $2000 through automation, but car manufactures know what people are willing to pay for a car. So instead of cutting $2000 off the price, they instead use the extra $2000 to include lighter or stronger materials, more airbags, fancy technology, etc. Instead of giving you a cheaper product, they decide to use the opportunity to try and innovate to give you a better product for the same price as the old one.\n\nThen there are other factors. Unions will fight to make automation as expensive as possible, ensuring their workers will still have jobs. Companies may seek to keep the item expensive to avoid devaluing its image. Automation is really expensive to implement - it takes a lot of engineering and capital to develop and perfect the machinery and factories to create a product. And once you do, you still have to maintain a quality department to periodically inspect the output to ensure it's within the desired specs. This puts a fairly strong limitation on the applicability of automation. It's really only good when you're producing tons and tons of the parts for a long period of time so that you can spread the huge upfront cost of automating across the price of all those items. If it costs $3 million to automate your production line, but you only make 10,000 parts a year, to get a two year return on investment, you'd have to add $150 to the price of the item. That's okay if it's a car or something that's already expensive, but not so great if it's an item that only costs $50 in the first place.\n\nAutomation also only affects one element of the cost of an item: production. It does not eliminate costs for things like engineering, marketing, logistics, overhead, profit, etc. These are typically the more expensive parts of creating a product."
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axvueb | why do so many young people nowadays die from undetected heart conditions, especially seemingly healthy student athletes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axvueb/eli5_why_do_so_many_young_people_nowadays_die/ | {
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"I think it’s just reported more now and has always been a “thing” unfortunately. There is a much higher risk for young black athletes though because sickle cell anemia inhibits oxygen from reaching cells effectively which can result in heart failure. "
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1zt8j9 | why do rockets always turn a bit backwards after take off? | Everytime I see a rocket take off, it turns a bit backwards over its vertical axis. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zt8j9/eli5_why_do_rockets_always_turn_a_bit_backwards/ | {
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"You don't get into orbit by going straight up- you'll crash right back down. You need horizontal speed. Rockets are usually very tall and narrow things, so it makes sense to build and launch them vertically. However, after they take-off, rockets perform what's called a [gravity turn](_URL_0_), where they pitch down to pick up horizontal speed to get into orbit. Eventually, a few minutes after launch when it is high enough, the rocket will be completely horizontal."
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32d8fy | what does salvia do to you neurologically? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32d8fy/eli5_what_does_salvia_do_to_you_neurologically/ | {
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"It activates the K-opioid receptors, and one of the effects of activating these receptors is hallucinations. The active compound in Salva is Salvanorin-A, and it's a potent K-opioid agonist. I don't think there's any research as to why it does so. The classic serotonergic psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybin) are so poorly understood as it is. The study of salvia and the K-opioid receptors is relatively new. \n\nWe don't really know why hallucinogens do what they do. It's suspected that they're heavily linked with specific functions of the brain related to perception, emotion, and cognition. I don't believe anything concrete is known aside from that, though it'd be great if someone could chime in with more information about what science has concluded. ",
"I though I read \"saliva\". Came here to assure you kissing is safe.",
"the one and only time I tried salvia at some concentration that I don't remember. took two big hits and exhaled as late as possible.\n\nI spent the next 30 minutes unable to open my eyes despite seeing the room in incredible detail in my head, but my perspective was from 5 feet in the air. all. my friend asked me for a trip report and all I could do was giggle incessantly. afterward was a sense of relief. \n\n10/10 would do it again if I could find a reputable vendor. "
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3dd1bk | how did new horizonz technically photograph pluto? | In their recent [AMA](_URL_0_) the NASA scientists working on New Horizons described the technique behind the true colour photograph(s) of Pluto:
> [...] We combine the wavelengths that we have and translate it into what the human eye would see.
Can anyone of you give a explanation of what actually happens here? Isn't a normal digital photograph compiled of light and therefore wavelengths, why do they have to be "translated"? What is going differently here in comparison to a regular digital photo? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dd1bk/eli5_how_did_new_horizonz_technically_photograph/ | {
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"A standard camera has different sensors for different wavelengths that work simultaneously, but specialised cameras such as the ones on new horizons only take an image in one wavelength at a time, so they have to take multiple photos in the different wavelengths we see, and then merge them in the same way that they would appear to us.",
"The human eye sees light in the visible spectrum of the [electromagnetic spectrum](_URL_0_), but what we can see makes up a tiny fraction of the whole spectrum. The New Horizons probe used wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum (most likely IR, but I'm too lazy to look up what they used). Since human eyes can't see outside of the visible spectrum, they had to shift, or translate, the wavelengths they gathered onto the visible spectrum, so we could see them as an image.\n\nEdit: New Horizons does have a visible light camera, so it looks like they took the images gathered by that, and the LORRI (another camera) and combined them to make the images they released.",
"They have a camera that's essentially a black-and-white digital camera. They are able to use one of various colour filters when taking a picture. If they took three pictures of the same object, one each with a red, green and blue filter, they could combine them to create a colour picture.\n\nIn fact they use haven't used red, green and blue. While these are the colours used by the human eye they are not ideal for the types of scientific observations they want to do at Pluto. They can still merge their images to produce a false colour photograph. Such pictures are useful in seeing features on Pluto but give a false impression of its true colour. They might assign an infra-red colour to red and an ultra-violet colour to blue and some band of visible light to green; it doesn't matter too much. Probably they have more than three filter colours available; I'll see if the information is quickly available and add it as an edit.\n\nEdit: The camera they're probably describing has a [fairly accessible description](_URL_0_) copied here:\n\nMVIC operates at visible wavelengths - using the same light by which we see - and has 4 different filters for producing color maps. One filter is tailored to measure the methane frost distribution over the surface, while the others are more generic and cover blue, red and near-infrared colors, respectively. MVIC also has two panchromatic filters, which pass essentially all visible light, for when maximum sensitivity to faint light levels is required. In all cases, the light passes from the telescope through the filters and is focused onto a charge coupled device (CCD). (Although the MVIC CCD is a unique, sophisticated device, virtually all consumer digital cameras use CCDs.)",
"The cells in the eye are basically fiters, letting either red, green or blue light in, and sensation of color is produced in the brain.\n\n[A typical camera does the same](_URL_0_)\n\nBut you can see that capturing all colors at the same time limits the resolution you can capture. If you have all black & white sensor, and change the external filter between images, you'll get better image. And really, these things are not really sent out there to just take pretty pictures, and the filters they use are suited to whatever they want to study.",
"There is no such thing as a color digital sensor, all such devices are monochrome, they only produce shades of gray. In consumer digital cameras, the sensor is tricked into producing a color image by overlaying the sensor with essentially a little matrix of red, green, and blue filters, and then that information gets combined to make a color image.\n\nThe scientific cameras used on space probes and such do not put a permanent filter over the sensor like consumer cameras, but rather, they switch in and out filters for various wavelengths depending on the types of measurements they want to do. To make a \"true color\" image, they would would make three images through red, green, and blue filters, then combine those images back on Earth to produce a color image.\n\nThe process with New Horizons is actually a bit trickier, because they don't don't shoot just a single image with any given filter, but many, and then mathematically stack the images to produce the final (say) red image. Then they repeat that process with green and blue (or whatever filters they're using)."
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2iwdcl | what are the white lights on top of private security vehicles for? | When I look at private security vehicles, they usually have white or yellow lights on top of their vehicle. I suspect the yellow lights are to alert drivers that they are nearby but what are the white lights for? It seems only private security vehicles have them and since they aren't police and can't pull somebody over nor do they look like they are any good for lighting the area - what are they for? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iwdcl/eli5what_are_the_white_lights_on_top_of_private/ | {
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"Security guard here. I think you're talking about the takedown lights. They're used to light up the area between two vehicles when making a traffic stop."
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bhtb7p | how are new atoms created? like when people, plants, or basically anything grows, how are those new atoms formed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bhtb7p/eli5_how_are_new_atoms_created_like_when_people/ | {
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"New matter cannot be created. The reason we eat food and drink water is to replenish the matter we lose by being alive. The exact same concept goes for plants as well. Your body uses the excess to continue growing.",
"In a lab using equipment like a linear accelerator they can artificially create new atoms by smashing two or more atoms together. In nature, radioactive decay will split atoms in to smaller atoms or the kind of radioactivity that occurs in a sun/star. Otherwise, what happens on earth is mostly the splitting and creating of molecules. Atoms aren't created. \n\nLike you can split water, which is 2 hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom bound together into 2 hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Then the oxygen atom will most likely bond with another oxygen atom creating a molecule of 2 oxygen atoms.",
"You may be confusing \"atoms\" with \"molecules.\" New atoms are only formed in extremely high-energy environments, like the birth of the universe, or inside the core of stars, or in particle accelerators. \n\nMolecules, on the other hand, are made of atoms, and may be formed or broken apart by chemical processes. Some basic examples of this would be when wood burns or when iron rusts, or even cooking an egg. Chemical reactions can give off energy, or they may require energy to be put in in order to happen. It is important to remember that although the molecules in these reaction are changing, the atoms in those molecules are not created or destroyed.\n\nWhen you eat food, your digestive system breaks it down into minerals your cells need to grow, and other minerals which your cells can use for energy. When a cell has grown enough and has energy, it can make a copy of itself. This process is what causes us to grow. All of this is done through chemical processes, and no atoms are created or destroyed. Anything your body can't use comes out the other end as poo."
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bjyzdb | why doe we feel like we're in a "fog" when we're sick? | Currently fending off a nasty cold, and I've felt like my brain has been working at half-power the last few days. What makes us feel so out of it when we're sick? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bjyzdb/eli5_why_doe_we_feel_like_were_in_a_fog_when_were/ | {
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"Your body can only do so many things at once. Fighting off an illness is stressful (physically and mentally), so you're not operating at full capacity in any regard - including your ability to think and move. This is obviously more pronounced when you're severely ill, but even a minor cold will have some impact.\n\nOtherwise, a fogginess may also occur from the fact that your mucous is working overdrive with some colds. The mucous from your sinuses effects your breathing and eyesight - watery eyes and runny noses. There's generally more humidity around your face with a cold which isn't something you're always used to.",
"There's not really a better answer to 'what' other than 'the immune system'. Common viruses can't cross the blood-brain barrier, so what you're feeling is not the direct effect of the sickness. In fact, most of the symptoms - runny nose, sneezing, coughing - are really the effects of your immune system fighting off the virus, rather than the doing of the virus itself.\n\nThe reason for the general malaise that accompanies the immune response is most likely your immune system telling you \"Get out of the way and let me handle this.\" Even if you could easily get on with your day in spite of the physical symptoms, the 'fog' motivates you to take it slow and rest so that you don't sabotage your own recovery. It's a crude measure, but we wouldn't have it if it didn't work.",
"Cytokines. \n\nThese are signalling proteins that circulate through the bloodstream and tell your body to be tired and try to get some rest. They are also released by any sort of inflammation, such as that caused by an injury or an autoimmune disorder. If you have a lot of inflammation, and you take an anti-inflammatory medication, you can sometimes feel yourself \"wake up\" from that fog as the cytokines are blocked.",
"Two reasons. First, your body is spending resources fighting the illness so it has less resources for you to work with. Second, your body doesn't want you to exhaust yourself as it is already in a weakened state, instead it wants you to rest and stay in bed all day."
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2k3rrc | paypal seems like it would be a goldmine for hackers, given all the bank and credit card info it stores. yet, i've never seen stories about it being hacked. what does paypal do that other businesses (e.g., target, home depot) aren't doing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k3rrc/eli5_paypal_seems_like_it_would_be_a_goldmine_for/ | {
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"Trying harder most likely. The fallout from Target losing customer data is far, far outweighed by the fallout from PayPal losing its data. PayPal would likely be forced to close their doors from that sort of thing.\n\nSo the pay for the best in security and are willing to deal with a lot of inconvenience if it means security is better. a proper security setup means that no one vulnerability would give full access to everything. A good setup, for example, would mean that you'd have to compromise multiple systems to get at the most important data and would mean you have people watching closely for just such compromises in progress. \n\nIt's a bit like asking what the bank is doing with its vault that the hardware store isn't doing with its cash register. They're both locked, sure, but some locks are better, if more expensive and hard to maintain, and the bank is certainly watching a lot more closely.",
"If PayPal got hacked as badly as Target, that might be the end of the company. PayPal's management knows this and invests in good IT security.\n\nBut there is a bigger difference, imo, between companies like PayPal and companies like Target or Home Depot. PayPal is a company that primarily deals in information, and they think in information terms. Target is a company that deals in stuff. And fairly cheap stuff, to boot.\n\nInformation security is very different from security for physical stuff. If 1000 Playstations are stolen, this becomes apparent very quickly because they're not there anymore. At this point, you follow the paper trail and review security camera footage to figure out where they went.\n\nThe same security model doesn't work with information because the information is still there after it's been stolen. You have to monitor *access*, not *presence*. Companies like Target and Home Depot don't understand this and apply their security-for-stuff model instead. It's hard to convince bean counters to spend money on extensive monitoring because there's typically no evidence of theft being an issue. To anyone with an information mindset, this is a clear catch-22: how could there be any evidence if no monitoring is taking place? To managers who've spent 35 years thinking in terms of physical stuff, it just doesn't compute.\n\nThat's why Home Depot apparently had no idea they'd lost all those credit card numbers until *someone else* crunched the numbers and found an uncanny correlation between the ZIP codes of the stolen credit card numbers and Home Depot branches.\n\nThey just weren't watching for something like that because their management's mental model of security and theft is limited to physical stuff and they surely viewed the kind of active security required to safeguard information as a waste of money.\n"
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1nu2sk | how high up can a helicopter go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nu2sk/eli5_how_high_up_can_a_helicopter_go/ | {
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"It varies, but the biggest problem is that a helicopter is able to fly based on the downward force of air it creates with its blades. So as it goes higher, the air thins, so its not generating enough force to continue rising. But there is no absolute, \"this is as high as it goes\", just depends on the helicopter.",
"The replies about how helicopters acieve lift are correct. It should also be noted that helicopters are not \"hovering\" at these super high altitudes. Helicopters acieve the greastest lift while moving forward. The blades spining create a \"wing\" and forward movement forces more air over the wings creating additional lift which allows for greater hieghts. The pilot of the record setting aircraft would be unable to land or take off at this record hieght.\n\nAlso, 41,000 is extremly high and was acieved by a very light and very powerful helicopter. Its like saying the SR-71 is a normal plane. To give you an idea how much altitude effects helicopters the military sends pilots to colorado to get comftrable with controling thier aircraft at altitudes above approx 6000 feet. ",
"Student helicopter pilot here... \nThe replies here aren't wrong, just wanted to add or clarify a bit. \n\nOur operating heights are a function of weight and density altitude. Basically as you go higher up, the air becomes thinner, rendering the efficiency of the rotor blades less efficient (engine performance takes a hit too).\nIn preflight planning, pilots can reference a chart in the Pilot's Operating Handbook to help us get a good idea of how high we can go. We can look at the OGE (out of ground effect) hovering ceiling, as well as the IGE (in ground effect) ceiling. Like it was said earlier, helicopters are generally more efficient while flying forward, and if we want to land at an airport that is pretty high in altitude, we can perform a run-on landing, which helps us stay in ETL, or Effective Translational Lift, which basically means the helicopter is moving forward enough to be getting clean, non-disturbed air. \n\nOne other note I haven't seen in this thread is the limiting factor of Retreating Blade Stall. Basically The rotor moves at different relative airspeeds as it goes around: it's faster on the advancing side, and relatively slower on the retreating side. This causes a dissymmetry of lift. To compensate for this, the angle of attack of the main rotor blades are greater on the retreating side, and less aggressive on the advancing side. The limiting factor for height can be as you go higher, the angle of attack will have to increase on the retreating side so much to produce lift, that it becomes very difficult to have the power to maintain a proper rotor RPM and angle of attack throughout the rotation of the main rotor blade. "
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1swt5w | how does a prison last meal go down | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1swt5w/eli5how_does_a_prison_last_meal_go_down/ | {
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"The esophagus. Obviously",
"Usually they give them a very narrow, and cheap list, of food that they can choose from. Gone are the days where they would order 5 lobsters, 2 tubs of icecream, 5 icecream spiders, etc. Nowdays it's more like, \"Here's a menu. Do not exceed $12.\"",
"I'm sure that it varies state-to-state, but Slate posted an interesting little article relating to the question not too long ago:\n\n\"Prisoners usually submit their final meal request a couple of days before their execution date. The request is passed along to the prison's chef—often a prisoner himself—who then prepares the meal. When the food is ready, it's covered and brought to the prisoner's cell a few hours before the execution. (In Virginia, the food has to be served at least four hours beforehand.) \"\n\n\n[Link to Slate article](_URL_0_)"
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2h1vtb | can the fcc censor hbo? if not, why? | I was watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Youtube a few minutes ago, and there was a lot of uncensored swear words in it. I haven't seen the show before, so I just thought it was a YouTube news show. I then checked the About section, and it said in ran on HBO. So my question is: Why isn't this censored if it's on HBO (which is obviously on TV)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h1vtb/eli5_can_the_fcc_censor_hbo_if_not_why/ | {
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"The FCC only censors television broadcast over the public airwaves.",
"FCC doesn't censor what is on TV, per se, they censor what is broadcast freely over the airwaves. So network TV (CBS, ABC, NBC, etc), and radio. Cable networks are under no requirement to censor what they broadcast, so long as it is legal. Most of them do, because advertisers don't like controversial broadcasts, but HBO doesn't run advertisements, and doesn't care. "
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o86gu | how does wikipedia protect itself from malicious pranksters? | If anyone can make edits, I would have thought that a lot more Wikipedia pages would be victims of malicious pranksters. What process safeguards pages from being constantly tampered with or "vandalized"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o86gu/how_does_wikipedia_protect_itself_from_malicious/ | {
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"Edits are logged, pranksters banned. If a page is persistently violated, it gets locked down.",
"there are FAR more people constantly minute by minute watching every single change that is done to wikipedia. On top of that there are dozens of fairly sophisticated bots that will catch most of the obvious stuff immediately. These bots are made by some editors.\n\nIn short, volunteers protect it, and some of those volunteers can ban/lock pages down too.",
"Nice try malicious prankster. The [Medulla oblongata](_URL_0_) page is still safe from you putting any more brain bug porn on it.",
"Simply put: Through the sheer power of a very numerous legion of very determined and fierce editors, donating their free time for a good cause. ",
"A loyal fan base.",
"There's actually a number of processes:\n\n* A few of the most common targets for vandalism (e.g. \"Barack Obama\", \"Rick Astley\") are *semi-protected*. Only editors who have registered, been around for 4 days, and made 10 previous edits can change them.\n* The *[edit filter](_URL_0_)* is an extension to the wiki software that compares every edit to sets of rules and disallows the most obvious and easily-detectable vandalism e.g. replacing an entire page with swear words. For less clear-cut cases it can allow the edit through but flag it for extra attention from...\n* *Recent changes patrollers*. These dedicated guys and girls check through edits as they come in, reverting bad ones and warning the people who made them. They are often assisted by helper tools such as \"[Huggle](_URL_2_)\" and \"[Twinkle](_URL_1_)\" (don't ask why they have such silly names...) If a user gets a certain number of warnings and continues to vandalize, they and/or their IP address may be *blocked* from editing by an administrator.\n* I said guys and girls, but the most active patrollers are actually *robots*. These sophisticated computer programs analyse edits for obvious badness, dishing out reverts and warnings where appropriate. Some even use artificial intelligence techniques.\n* If a malicious edit manages to sneak past all this, it's likely to be be caught later when someone sees it on their *watchlist*. All registered editors can \"watch\" certain articles they have an interest in, and then keep up with all the changes to those articles.",
"Say your teacher asks your class to each write about the class hamster, Spike, on the blackboard. You walk up and write \"Spike has four legs and is brown\". Since Spike does four legs and is brown, everyone agrees that you aren't lying and your info stays on the board. \n\nBut if Billy goes up to the board and writes \"Spike is pink and has three eyes\", little Jane will go up to the blackboard and erase what Billy has written because it is clearly false. If Billy keeps adding bad information about Spike, the teacher won't let him participate anymore and will send him to the principal's office."
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2gb7ex | why can we see so many boobs in tv shows or movies but no dicks? | Never got it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gb7ex/eli5why_can_we_see_so_many_boobs_in_tv_shows_or/ | {
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"I don't see a lot of bush on tv. I assume you're sexually equating dicks to boobs?",
"Same reason you don't see puss",
"The real question should be why do we see so many male arses on TV but no female ones. Other than like Spartacus I dont think I seen a female butt. But even on the Simpson's you see Homer's all the time, you even see Bart's (a child!) but never Marge's or Lisa's."
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4mayur | if fire water sprinklers are mandatory in buildings, why do a lot buildings burn to the ground? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4mayur/eli5if_fire_water_sprinklers_are_mandatory_in/ | {
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"1. Sprinklers are not mandated in all types of buildings (private residences, for example).\n\n2. As with any safety measure, sprinklers are not a 100 percent, magic solution to the problem of stuff burning. There are types of fire that aren't easy to put out with the amount of water that sprinklers put out-- or any amount of water, for that matter. If you've got a warehouse full of rocket fuel or gunpowder, or anything else that contains its own oxidizer, that's gonna burn no matter what.\n\n3. Obviously, not every fire that burns down a building with sprinklers is the result of rocket fuel. However, an electrical fire that starts inside the walls of a building will be shielded from the sprinklers on the other side of the wall, and could become enormous, before it even triggers the sprinkler system. And because electricity and water are not friends, it would be a bad idea to put sprinklers inside the walls, where a malfunction could cause huge problems.",
"very often sprinklers are not meant to put out the fire, but they are meant to manage it enough to allow for the fire department to arrive and put out the fire before it completely destroys the building, obviosuly it will not sucessfuly do this all the time. Many synthetic materials today burn very quickly, and are used in almost all furnitre, so fires often spread very quickly, compared to in the past",
"First of all, a metal building will rarely burn to the ground if properly sprinkled. However, there are other factors. The water supply to the sprinklers in many buildings is augmented by an electrically powered pump. Fire damage to the power supply will disrupt the water flow. Whatever is fueling the fire is another factor.\nMost importantly, fire sprinklers are not actually designed to completely extinguish a fire, although they often do. The primary purpose of the sprinkler systems is fire suppression. Sprinklers buy time for people to exit the building, and to keep the heat and smoke levels down.",
"From experience, many sprinkler systems are actually 'dry', especially in computer room locations or as mentioned electrical areas that could cause problems, i.e they do not have water in them ready to eject immediately. We experienced a small fire and found out the sprinkler system was not working properly. Not something that is easy to test ... \n",
"Also, consider what \"a lot of buildings\" means. 109+ years ago, something would catch on fire and then soon a third of a city would be burnt down"
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84oo9w | why does boxing not have height classes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84oo9w/eli5_why_does_boxing_not_have_height_classes/ | {
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"Strength correlates to body weight more closely than it does with height. Some tall people are built like oak trees, while others are built like twigs, and despite being the same height, they would never belong in the same ring. Height is only an advantage when other factors are more or less equal. If being tall means you end up fighting people dozens of pounds heavier than you, it's not an advantage at all, but a possible death sentence."
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8f85xa | how do authorities catch money laundering? | What do the police look for when trying to catch said parties? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8f85xa/eli5_how_do_authorities_catch_money_laundering/ | {
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"There are so many things/system used to monitor transactions. Any place that takes your money, whether it’s a bank or an investment firm has very complex systems in place to watch for it with automated alerts and flagged transactions for review.\n\nBusinesses such as that are required to have supervision systems in place and have obligations to report certain events to the FBI and other financial regulators. They are also required to identify the source of funds and ensure it’s not gained from illegal activity"
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6r904j | what causes the urge to remove wound crusts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6r904j/eli5_what_causes_the_urge_to_remove_wound_crusts/ | {
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"Wound crusts? Aren't they just called 'scabs'?"
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d4trit | why does shampoo go before conditioner? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4trit/eli5_why_does_shampoo_go_before_conditioner/ | {
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"Shampoo washes away the dirt AND oil in your hair. Conditioner puts a little (one hopes) oil back to give the hair manageability.\n\nA product with shampoo AND conditioner is possibly a scam, but at least a marketing lie.",
"Shampoo is used to clean your hair and get all the gunk out of it. You clean your hair before you condition it. Conditioner makes your hair soft/shiny.\n\nYou wouldnt spray deoderant and then shower. Thats the best way i can explain it. You wouldnt condition before shampoo... Or get a 2-1 like i do.",
"Conditioner adds some oils and lubricants to your hair to make up for the fact that shower gel strips some of that away. \n\nDo conditioner then shower gel and the shower gel will remove all the conditioner."
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fx3eaq | why huge companies always have servers problems when launching a new product? they should have good expectations of what's to come and already have the experience and the means to deal with it right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fx3eaq/eli5_why_huge_companies_always_have_servers/ | {
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"Because it's expensive to build for peak demand. Most businesses will take a hit on having problems at launch time as opposed to having infrastructure that's only 20% utilised ongoing when things go back to normal. Despite cloud, scaling up and down isn't always as easy as some people think.",
"Until I get some proof on that I want to believe that that's not true and that it's just so that we only hear about the ones with a rough start. Like noone ever said 'did you hear about the smooth launch of game/program/service xy? Damn, they know how to do it'",
"Couple of reasons I can think of:\n\na) They don't. Predicting peak demand is hard. It's not simply a matter of how many users there are. It's connections / sec. It's how long each connection takes up a space on the server. It's geography. It's unforeseen bottlenecks & bad architectures.\n\nb) They cheap out. The additional server requirements for launch will fall off pretty quickly, so they try to minimise spend\n\nc) Same as b, but they cheap out on the scaling, so when the shit hits the fan, they're not ready to scale up as fast as they need\n\nd) The performance testing they do isn't realistic, so their scaling plan sucks.\n\ne) They fail to account for the fact that systems running at 95-100% don't always behave themselves the same way systems running at 20-50% do.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWords can't describe how many times I've seen shit fail because a server ran out of space and then fell over. \n\nWhy did things fail? \n\nWe don't know, the system ran out of log space and the logs are garbage.",
"There's a few reason.\n\n1. It's not an infinitely scaleable application. There may still be bottlenecks in some places, such as backend databases with high end amount of registrations or purchases.\n\n2. It's just not worth the cost to handle the top 20% of the load, because the majority of it will happen anyways. Despite the fact that you can't make the sales on day 0, you will still eventually make the sales when things flatten out a bit.\n\n3. Most Cloud providers have resource restrictions in place so that a single account cannot grow out of control. As a business, you want something in place so that you don't accidentally cause your cloud application to rent thousands of extra servers and cause an out of control invoice. If you don't properly estimate how much you'll need, you have to call your AWS or Azure or GCP rep and have them increase this limit, but this is a manual process.",
"Im working for a large-ish company. Its cheaper to prepare for say 10.000 calls/visits/whatevers than to prepare for 20.000. So the company will prepare for 10.000 and (rightfully) expect people to return the next day for another call/visit/whatever.\n\nNot to mention even through at launch there would be 20.000 visits/calls/whatevers, after a week that number will be cut in half, so why pay for being ready to receive 20.000?",
"The principle to keep in mind is that a chain is as strong as its weakest link. If you think about it, there are quite a few ‘components’ that make any web service tick. These components have further sub-components - both hardware and software. Think caching and queueing mechanisms as an example. Despite any amount of testing and scalability preps, real life data and circumstances can put spanner in the works in almost infinite variations. \nHence the possibility of ‘servers’ crashing.",
"I planned a birthday party once, for 500 guests. While we had enough room for 500, we did run out of parking. Not everyone made it to the main room that night.\n\nAnother time, I planned for 300, but 3000 showed up - turned out someone told others that Keanu Reeves is going to be here. I don't know whose prank was it, but this time we did run out of room space - I was not very happy.\n\nNow, I just plan my birthday parties, cross my fingers and pray to god"
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66mkxu | german royalty | There are still German royal families in existence, what is their role in the modern era? Do they hold positions in parliament? Are they figureheads only? What does the future hold for these families? Does the nobility struggle to maintain family holdings like other noble families throughout Europe? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66mkxu/eli5_german_royalty/ | {
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"I never heard of any German royalty, but apparently they are still around: \n_URL_1_\n\nThe current leader of the royal house has no political ambitions, and instead runs a business and a charity foundation:\n_URL_0_\n\nI suspect the reason for such low profile is that Germany was a unified kingdom only for 50 years (1871-1918). Before, it was a bunch of equal provinces within Austrian Empire. Afterwards, it was a republic, kinda like France. ",
"Germany is a republic, so there isn't any official royalty. But there are people who are descended from the former royal family of Germany that existed prior to WW1. Some of them may still style themselves as royalty, but legally they are ordinary (but wealthy) citizens. In theory they could hold positions in Parliament, but only in the same way anyone else could run for office.",
"There actually is no royalty in Germany any more. The only thing the former royals do today is live of the money their ancestors made by being royals. But they have no political function and do not have the right to be addressed as royals anymore. So while they still can hold the title of a noble they cannot force you to call them \"your royal highness\" or such bullshit like in the overrated monarchies around Europe where still monarchs live in luxury from the taxes of the common people. ",
"there is even a term in german \"verarmter Adel\" which translates to \"poor royals\". That describes descendants of royal families that are still holding a royal title but are average people with average jobs.\n\nthere is a (very) small society of royals that engage in formal event but it is just for keeping an tradition. some royal members have positions in companies or benefit foundations. but they don't have any special rights or powers for being a member of a royal family. it's just a title that has the same value as saying \"I'm Redditor Zasma\"."
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3axe5k | how can car dealerships on radio claim they'll accept payment from people with bad/no credit? doesn't this destroy the idea altogether? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3axe5k/eli5_how_can_car_dealerships_on_radio_claim/ | {
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"They usually use your job or your property as collateral/a form of credit. Sometimes the same types of ads will say this. \"Bad credit? No credit? Your job **is** your credit!\" Basically, you will be approved for an extremely high interest rate and if you don't pay, they'll automatically deduct missed payments from your paycheck at work.",
"The lower the credit, the higher interest rate places charge. Credit card companies use the phrase \"deadbeats\" to describe people with really good credit who pay their bills in full every month.\n\nPeople with bad credit or no credit make up for it by having to pay higher interest rates. If a company says they'll accept any credit, they're probably offering insanely high interest rates.",
"Originally, when you wanted a loan from a bank, they would demand documentation of your financial situation (or know about it because they were local in a small town where everyone knows each other), and based on this they would determine how much (if anything) they were willing to loan you, and at what terms. This process is called \"loan underwriting\".\n\nBut this was a lot of work that added fixed costs to a loan, making small loans unattractive, and it was hard or impossible for banks to determine how many other loans or outstanding payments you had.\n\nSo they outsourced underwriting to specialized firms called credit bureaus, which collect credit information from all kinds of sources (including all the banks) and distill it into a \"credit score\" which is the number that Americans spend so much time worrying about. Banks then streamlined and standardized their operations based on this score.\n\nBut lenders don't *have* to rely on the credit score. Its one-size-fits-all nature means that some people who would actually be good customers for a lender end up with a very bad score (or have no score because they have no credit history). The score also doesn't reflect the possiblity of having the loan secured by something, such as your salary. Car loans are additionally always secured by the car itself.\n\nBasically, these dealerships are saying that they'll do their own underwriting and deal with people on a case by case basis. This means more work for them, but increases their potential customer base. Of course they still won't give a car loan to *everyone*. If you cannot give them a good reason why your credit score does not accurately reflect your ability to repay the loan, they'll turn you away as well.",
"The car is collateral and considering those places always sell used car, they set the price high enough (way above market value) so that if you default, they just go get the car back and resell it to another sucker.\n\nSo they screw you on the car price and the interest rate. They might have a bit of a loss with a few clients, but they compensate with the high earnings on those who pay their debt.",
"They jack up the interest rates sxtreamly high for anyone who they lend to under such conditions. Even if a large percentage default, the dealership repos the cars, takes a loss and resells them. \n\nThey make enough money off the higher interest rate customers that they still end up making money. It's a delicate balance based on knowing what percentage of customers will default and what the average losses on those vehicles will be.\n\nSubprime customers who actually pay back the car loan are massively profitable. And most subprime borrowers are good people who are in a bad spot and intend to make the payments. ",
"The cars that are sold in this kind of operation are typically the lowest quality (old, high mileage, poor condition) that get traded into dealers, which significantly lowers the risk to the buy-here-pay-here type dealers. Typically they'll cover all or most of their risk with the down payment. Interest rates will be punitive and there will be a tracker in the car. The moment your payment is late, expect a tow truck. Repo fees will add to your debt, so many people just give up the car at that point, which the dealer is then free to sell again.\n\nOn the other hand, if your credit really is that bad and you actually think you can pay the terms on this kind of loan, it may be a decent way to go about trying to fix your credit. Just never, ever be late on a payment.",
"I used to sell cars for a living. We occasionally had folks come in who had bought from such places. When out of earshot we would refer to them as a \"Get me done\". As in \"I don't care about the price, interest, car, etc.; just get me done.\" We were a reasonably reputable dealership so most of the time we ended up passing on them. \"Get a cosigner, pay off your credit cards, etc.; then come see us\" and that would be the last we'd see of them. There were two occasions that stuck out to me. One was a foreigner who bought a used car at an exorbitant interest rate and was desperately trying to get out of the loan. The other was a guy who just had bad credit and was in a bad loan on an older car. His mother came in with him during cash for clunkers about trading in their old minivan. I remember moving the process along until I realized that his mother actually had a loan out on this ~8 year old beat up minivan. To qualify for Cash for Clunkers you had to hold title on the car and they did not and they didn't have the money to get the title released. It's a shame the way the credit system works sometimes where the poorest people essentially get financially punished for being poor and as such they tend to stay that way. Often times it just turns into a downward spiral until they're bankrupt. Conversely, the people with the best ability to pay a higher rate get the lowest rates. I know that this is how it has to be, you can't ask banks to take on higher risks for less reward, but it's kind of sad to see it in action.\n\nMy understanding is that this tends to go one of two ways when you go to a dealership with these sorts of advertisements.\n\n1) They're hoping that your credit isn't actually as bad as you think it is (some people think they're untouchable because they were late on some payments a decade ago) and it gets you in the door at their dealership rather than someplace else.\n\n2) They're a less reputable dealership that wants to exploit you by charging exorbitant interest rates.\n\nI wouldn't recommend it.",
"Because dealerships that advertise on the radio say \"all applications accepted\" meaning they won't turn anyone down from trying to buy their cars. They may or may not be approved for a loan, but that's not what they are creatively saying on the radio. It's creative wording and deceptive advertising.",
"Curious if these guys make good profits? \n\nThe largest single family home in the world EVER is being built just a few miles from me. The owner is the operator of \"The Key\" a 'sign-and-drive' or 'buy-here-pay-here' car lot. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n EDIT: I should mention that the \"The Key\" is not just one single lot dealership but several chains of dealerships. They make a killing of leasing 60 month notes @ 28% APR. ",
"Selling a car to someone they don't think can pay means a few things.\n\n1) They plan on repossessing the car. \n2) They get to basically \"rent\" the car to you at some exorbitant interest rate. \n3) They know you are desperate and that you may not be the most financially savvy and/or know your full range of options or rights.\n\nIs it scummy? Hell yes. Speaking from experience, though, it's at least getting a car to someone who probably really, really needs one.",
"This works by using stupidly high interest rates. Most normal people get 1 to 5 %. \n\nThose \"We finance everyone!\" shit holes give the poors rates closer to 23%. On 5 year loans etc. \n\nThen, when the customer defaults, they take the car and whatever other collateral was used, like property. And they may sell the debt to a collection agency, getting all their money back. ",
"My sister and her 29% interest rate on a used minivan is an example of how they can still be profitable while giving loans to completely unreliable people.",
"Often they sell cars which don't depreciate too much, take your money then repo the cars and keep your payments.\n\nSo... it's like a really expensive rental for folks with bad credit.",
"They change ridiculously high interest rates, spread the risk around a large pool of borrowers, and will come get that thing if you miss 2 payments.",
"It's likely because they have already sold that car before.\n\nYou come in with your down payment. This covers the dealers cost. The car has a low jack. You miss your first payment, the dealer sends the repo man, and he turns around and sells the car to someone else. This time the down payment is pure profit. They don't care about your credit, because they are banking on you screwing it up.",
"Buy Here Pay Here car salesman here that actually helps people with bad credit, prior repossessions, etc. Because about 2/3rds of Americans have bad or sub-prime credit, many dealerships have jumped on the \"bad credit/no credit bandwagon.\" Car dealerships that advertise no credit/bad credit financing normally fall into one of two categories.\nThe first its what's known as \"buy here pay here\". These dealerships sell you their cars, and you make your payments directly to them. (Not a finance company). This is the one I work for and yes, as many have said, the interest rates are very high. However, the whole point of this program is to establish some positive credit history and many people do! To make sure you can afford the payment we look at where you work, how long you have been working there, and how much you make. Then we look at how much of that goes to bills, food, and other things. We sell you a car based on discretionary income, therefore credit score does not matter.\nThe other dealerships that advertise bad credit finance are likely just trying to get that people in the door who THINK they have bad credit but actually don't. \nHowever, all dealerships are unique. Yes there are places you can put up collateral, and other programs. Some shady, some legit. Just shop around to find a vehicle you like, find out how much you need down, what your payments will be, and what the interest rate is. Bonus points for warranties and if the dealership has a service department. \n\nHope this helps! :)\n\n(EDIT) Through the buy here pay here program we advertise \"guaranteed credit acceptance.\" What we don't advertise is that you may only be accepted for $1000 worth of financing. Since the least expensive vehicle is $6000 we would need a $5000 down payment. \n\n(EDIT) Seeing a lot of love for the BHPH program lol. It is true that some dealerships that offer this program don't report to the credit bureau, however, it is not true that ALL don't. Second, this program is for people who have bad credit! Of course they are going to pay a 25% interest rate! It's a high risk loan! However these are not $20,000 vehicles. They are usually $8,000 vehicles, so if you pay it off quick the interest isn't that bad. Long story short. Each dealership is different. Shop around. Don't trust anybody. Get it in writing. \n",
"Most car dealerships make the bulk of their money not on car sales, but on loan sales.\n\nIf they can exploit your bad credit by getting you to take a high interest loan of 29.9% (the maximum amount allowable in Canada) by convincing you it will not only put you back in the driver's seat, but also restore your credit, they've done their job.\n\nIn extreme cases of bad credit, the vehicles available to to buyer are limited to unpopular models, many of them test vehicles and lease returns, and are often fitted with trackers that can lock the buyer out in the case of a late or missed payment. \n\nDon't think these places are nice guys giving people breaks. They are loan sharks. There are plenty of ways to restore credit faster and cheaper with less potential to completely ruin yourself."
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a0rz6u | how are magnets manufactured without losing their magnetism? | If magnets become demagnetized when heated to the curie point, how do magnets get manufactured?
I'm talking about those neodymium coin magnets and whatnot. I assume they have to be heated up fairly hot to be shaped, so how are they still magnetic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0rz6u/eli5_how_are_magnets_manufactured_without_losing/ | {
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"Heating the magnet mostly just makes the magnet weaker to external forces. If a heated magnet is just heated, then it returns to a preferred random state of its magnetic domain pointing wherever the hell. However if a piece of metal is heated in a magnetic field, then the metal sets with the domains pointing in the direction of the magnetic field, aka a magnet",
"They are magnetized after shaping. In fact, heating to the Curie point and then cooling in the presence of a magnetic field will induce magnetism in ferromagnetic material. "
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5xr05q | what does an lsd trip feel like? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xr05q/eli5_what_does_an_lsd_trip_feel_like/ | {
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"I don't think I could describe the feeling itself, but [here](_URL_0_) and [here](_URL_1_) , are a good idea of what things LOOK like.\n\nIt mostly affects how you perceive things in a visual way "
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1m1qh7 | how can house pets only eat one type of food and survive fine? | I have always wondered this, after searching Google and other resources Ive come up with nothing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m1qh7/eli5_how_can_house_pets_only_eat_one_type_of_food/ | {
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"Because the food they eat is designed to contain everything they need in their diet. This is why there are special kinds for kittens/puppies or older pets, because their dietary needs are different.",
"They are enriched with vitamins and essential nutrients, however this is like you living off gruel and vitamin pills. You'll be \"fine\" but it's hardly a worthwhile existence."
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fiyo1q | why does the roof of the mouth feel smooth with your tongue but rough with your finger? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fiyo1q/eli5_why_does_the_roof_of_the_mouth_feel_smooth/ | {
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"Are you bringing your tongue all the way to the front?\nYou have a soft palate at the back and a hard palate ag the front. The soft palate is soft and smooth and the hard palette is hard and rough because it has \"grooves\" that stick out called plicae. I can feel those with my tongue and finger in my mouth.",
"Fingertips are incredibly sensitive due to the amount of nerve endings. This combined with the fact that tongues spend their entire life in the mouth so it probably gets used to its bumpiness. Also tongues are soft so they mould into the crevices while fingers don't."
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114s7u | why do i hear foreigners pronounce 'th' like an s? sank you, happy birssday etc? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/114s7u/why_do_i_hear_foreigners_pronounce_th_like_an_s/ | {
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"For the same reason that you probably would have a hard time pronouncing [Hsinchu](_URL_0_) or [Eyjafjallajökull](_URL_1_), there are certain combinations of letters and phonetic sounds that are just not present in other languages, and so they are entirely unfamiliar with those having never used them even though it's second nature to us. They try their best to emulate the sounds the way they are reading them, but it's not easy when you grew up without having learned how to say those words. ",
"Each language has its own range of sounds. They are called *phonemes* by linguists - scientists that study language.\n\nWhen you are young, you learn your first language from your parents. You know nothing about the proper sounds and you learn them by making the same sounds as your parents do, and then you also learn from others you are in contact with. But as you grow up, you get used to the phonemes you are familiar with and can no longer easily adapt to new ones. So when you learn a language as a grown-up or a teenager, you have problems pronouncing its phonemes, even if you can hear and distinguish them. What do you do then? Well, you end up saying something as similar as you can to the sound you need to make, using the phonemes you are familiar with.\n\nSome languages share a lot of phonemes. Others don't. For example, Russian speakers have a very distinct accent when speaking English (and vice versa) because English and Russian do not share many phonemes. In English, letters 'th' correspond to two different sounds - one is like in \"thing\", the other is like in \"this\". Both of these phonemes are rare, few other languages have them. The most familiar language other than English with these sounds is Spanish, but most other languages lack them, making th-sounds possibly the most often incorrectly pronounced sounds in English.",
"I see a few explanations here that are 'correct', but are missing a very important factor, so let's get specific:\nThe 'th' sound (both as in 'three' and in 'this') requires the speaker to extend his/her tongue through their teeth in order to sound correct. There are many foreign languages where this sound is not in their 'sound alphabet' and this mouth movement doesn't exist, and in addition, there are many cultures where showing one's tongue while speaking is considered odd, and even inappropriate. As a result, foreign speakers of English often approximate the sound with the closest sound in their native language. Zis is why ze French often sound like zis, and why de people in SE Asia sound like dis. Rarely do teachers of English stress the importance of proper mouth mechanics when teaching pronunciation."
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2d36wv | why can it be normal for girls to dress like boys but boys can't dress like girls? | Even though I shouldn't be, I know I can be a little off-put by a boy wearing dress. At my school there was a boy that always wore dresses, fashion boots, nail polish, etc. . . So many people avoided him, and I was a little wary myself until I got to know him. He was a really sweet guy, and after we became friends the only off-putting thing about him was that he had better fashion sense than me! I freaking loved his boots!
So why is it that if a girl wears, for example, a shirt meant for guys, or has a boyish hair cut, or just doesn't dress in a feminine manner it's perfectly fine for her to be a tomboy, but for guys there seems to be a standard to follow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d36wv/eli5_why_can_it_be_normal_for_girls_to_dress_like/ | {
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"It is still not socially accepted for a male to act non-masculine. Still the strongest holding gender stereotype. Even though it is perfectly legal, it is still unacceptable in our minds - it will probably be another generation before society starts to *really* break down gender roles and truely 'not care' how people dress. ",
"A third wave feminist would say that's because its viewed as \"lesser\" to dress as a women. So a women is allowed to dress up (as a man) but not OK for a man to dress down (as a women). They would cite this an an other example of how women are oppressed.\n\nA MRA would counter that it's because feminism has fought only for a women's right to wear pants and not for a mans right to ware skirts. They would cite this as an example of how feminism fails men and is not really about equality. \n\nNormal people would likely fall some ware in between. The fact is that the vast majority of men are not interested in dressing in dressed. However I do wish it was OK to care a little more about fashion and DO wish we had more choices. ",
"At one time it wasn't okay for women either but more and more women began wearing pants and other traditionally male clothing. More guys have to break away from the mold like women did.",
"We can say its gender biased etc, imo its because womens clothes are far more tailored towards women than mens clothes are to men. Pretty much all of our clothes aside from maybe very dressy things and underwear are extremely neutral and basic. 90% of the time you aren't working what do you wear? Probably a t-shirt and jeans or shorts. Our clothes are basically just extremely conservative women's clothing. They have way more variety fashion wise than we do. I'm not complaining or anything, just saying. ",
"Scotsmen wear kilts (very sexy in my opinion). Many middle eastern men wear long robes. Islanders wear sarong-like skirts. In America we have cross-dressers, trannies and drag queens. Overall, though, the uniform of the common American seems to be jeans, a shirt and shoes for men and women both. I think fashion for the masses has been heading in a unisexual direction for a long time now. IMO.",
"It's because women and girls have organised and fought for the right to wear men's clothes. They have protested, they have tried to educate, they have disobeyed social conventions, school/workplace rules and laws to not crossdress. The battle is still ongoing, it is not 'perfectly fine' to be a tomboy in any country. Men and boys need to organise and fight for the right to wear women's clothes if they want to. So far they haven't. This is probably because men's clothes are often more practical than women's clothes so women have felt more of a need to crossdress than men have.",
"going to grateful dead shows and seeing all those beautiful hippie guys in skirts - it was the first time i thought \"why the hell not?\". i was naive enough (read: high) to think maybe it was the start of something. turns out, lots of that '60's stuff didn't go anywhere. boys still wear pants, pink is for girls, the \"cool\" jeans are the ones everyone wears - i don't know what the hell happened. i thought things were changing....",
"These gentlemen boycotted a \"no shorts rule\" and decided to wear skirts instead :-)\n\n_URL_0_",
"There's a tl;dr at the bottom, btw. \nHere's how I've seen it. Understand that I will be talking about stereotypes here, not what is 'actually ok' or 'right/wrong,' as that is what the question is asking about. OP wants to know why the viewpoint is like it is, not what is right or wrong or fair. \n\nWhat is the stereotypical role of a man? A male in Western society is to be independent, a breadwinner, and tough. These are qualities that are stereotypically masculine. \nWhat is the stereotypical role of a woman? A female in Western society is to be beautiful, a homemaker (housewife), and a nurturer. These qualities are stereotypically feminine. \n\nNow, why can women cross over and be hunkeydorey, but men are all like \"hah! GAAYYYYYYY!\"? It is because of the simple reason that men are labeled with qualities that are necessary for independent survival. Feminine qualities are for being vulnerable and elegant. \nA single mom has to take on qualities listed above as masculine, for example. She must be strong, a breadwinner, and independent. This is necessary (even in the eyes of the most gender-biased, they know that is true.) \nA single man also has to be independent and a breadwinner in his own right. A male who takes on feminine qualities is not doing so for reasons of necessity. Wearing a dress, nail polish, etc. are not signs of being strong, independent, and a breadwinner. They are things which are feminine (beautiful, submissive, etc.) \n\ntl;dr: females can be driven to masculine qualities by commonly recognized necessity. Males aren't driven to feminine qualities by commonly recognized necessity.",
"I think it's because women's fashion is designed specifically to accentuate female aspects. Makeup accentuates the features of their face, things like frilly dresses and flare jeans enhance their figure. Doesn't quite work as well when you try the same method on a guy, because they're built differently. It's like trying to make your drapes look nicer by giving it a coat of paint - wrong method to be using for what you're dealing with.",
"Because it's ok to be perceived as a \nstronger / more dominant figure when a woman dress as a man but triggers negative emotions when a man dresses as a woman which in general is regarded as more submissive and weak. ",
"Gender is socially constructed that's why",
"I think it's simple. Dressing \"like a guy\" basically means pants and a shirt of some sort. There are already pants and shirts that are for women, so wearing men's pants and shirts isn't a big deal. There are no dresses for men, so a man wearing a dress is a bigger shock. \n\nMen can wear skirts just fine, kilts. If kilts became more prevalent, men wearing skirts would probably not be a big deal. ",
"There were a few guys in my school that would cross dress. No one really gave a shit I suppose. But then again I was home schooled."
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ae8dgm | why is the sound of animals chewing endearing, but the sound of people chewing infuriating? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ae8dgm/eli5_why_is_the_sound_of_animals_chewing/ | {
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"This is personal preference. I, at least, cannot *stand* the sound of our cats eating (or licking themselves, but that's not pertinent here). It absolutely sets my teeth on edge.\n\nBy comparison, I find most people's chewing a non-event. Occasionally it will bother me (generally in the office if a coworker is having a snack), but for the most part it's inoffensive.",
"And where did you get that?",
"[Misophonia](_URL_0_) is a condition where specefic sounds can cause irritation and then if the do not cease, rage or disgust. The particular triggers differ from person to person, but I see \"animal grooming\" among the possible irritants. Perhaps just not for you?",
"Who thinks that hearing animals eat is an endearing thing?\n\nwtf"
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497vmp | what do christians believe? | What are the main beliefs of Christianity? Preferably without including any complicated religious terms and - where such terms are used - an explanation of what this means.....
Edit: The answers I'm receiving are still overly technical and use complicated terminology. Explain like I'm five. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/497vmp/eli5_what_do_christians_believe/ | {
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"1. Jesus is the son of God\n\n2. That humanity was and is estranged from God because of sin.\n\n3. Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection make it possible for humanity to be reunited with God and to give us hope of that reunion.\n\n4. That we are called to repent our sins with the hope of eternal life made possible by number 3.\n\n5. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love God with all our heart and soul.",
"That's very hard to explain. Think of Christianity as a tree, and at its trunk is the main beliefs of Christianity which I'll get to later. Branching off of the main trunk are separate \"denominations\" having different practices or entire beliefs that differ from the rest of the majority of Christianity. It's hard to pin point the foundational beliefs of Christianity as a whole with out talking about the churches that branched off of the church that said \"well, we don't believe in that\" these differences stem from tons of stuff.\n\nNow to understand the core beliefs of Christianity we need to establish a common ground among all denominations. I stated this as \"those peoples whose faith is mired around the belief of Jesus Christ and the actions taken by him and his followers done in a fashion that is worth of replication or tradition in today and beyond.\" A more official sentiment would be \"The central teachings of traditional Christianity are that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that his life on earth, his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven are proof of God's love for humanity and God's forgiveness of human sins...\"\n\n\n",
"Here's a start:\n\nWe believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.\nWe believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,\n who was conceived by the Holy Spirit\n and born of the virgin Mary.\n \nHe suffered under Pontius Pilate,\n was crucified, died, and was buried;\n he descended to hell.\n The third day he rose again from the dead.\n He ascended to heaven\n and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.\n From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.\n\nWe believe in the Holy Spirit,\n the holy catholic *[universal]* church,\n the communion of saints,\n the forgiveness of sins,\n the resurrection of the body,\n and the life everlasting. Amen."
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2xa0mq | what would happen if bill gates withdrew his 80 billion dollars in cash, piled into a mountain of green, and lit it on fire? where would all that money essentially go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xa0mq/eli5_what_would_happen_if_bill_gates_withdrew_his/ | {
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"No, that money would no longer exist. The interests where he has that money stored away would suffer a loss of capital (banks, businesses, charities etc.). The result would be that the US dollar becomes fractionally stronger, since there is less currency in circulation, it becomes rarer. If there were 100 trillion dollars circulating, then there would be 99.92 trillion dollars in circulation.",
"The economy would shrink by 80 billion dollars.\n\nThe government would likely make up for that by printing another 80 billion dollars -- like they do for all money that gets too damaged for circulation.\n\nEssentially, he'd be giving it to the government, with a small printing fee."
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1ahu8y | why it is a year long gap between each season of a normal tv show, with more to film and more to write, but it is usually a two-year difference between a sequel or second installment to a movie franchise | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ahu8y/eli5_why_it_is_a_year_long_gap_between_each/ | {
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"Because movies take longer to make than television shows.\n\nMovies are just *made more slowly.* They're more ambitious productions overall, and that means everybody involved takes more time on them. Preproduction — getting the script right, casting, doing the preliminary art, set and costume design, all that — can take years by itself in some cases. When photography starts, it's not unheard of for movies to shoot as little as a page or two of script per day, while TV shows shoot as many as eight or ten script pages per day. And the post-production process — everything that happens after photography — takes months at an absolute minimum for a feature film, and sometimes more than a year, depending on the project."
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3owdth | is there any particular reason why a lot of men seem oblivious to the advances of women? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3owdth/eli5_is_there_any_particular_reason_why_a_lot_of/ | {
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"For the fair share of women I've had make advances on me I've also had the fair share of women I thought were making advances on me, but it was supposedly just their personality.",
"There's actually issues from both men and women that cause this situation.\n\nOn the woman's side, they are used to interacting socially with other women in more subtle ways because they understand the context among one another. However, when women try to do the same with men, who are much more direct in their interpretations, it does not translate well. \n\nAnother problem is the prevailing thought is that the man should be the one to make the first move. Thus, the woman should be the one to make subtle hints at the man so that the man can initiate. These hints can go unnoticed so there is no advancement at all between the two. Lucky, more and more women are making the first move in recent years.\n\nOn the man's side, it's difficult to interpret a woman's advances because many signals from one woman trying to advance on you could just be another woman's normal way of interacting with people. Some people are just more touchy-feely or super caring for others which could be misinterpreted as attraction so the man may have gotten burned in the past. Thus the threshold for \"this woman is attracted to me\" is much higher, sometimes high enough that you ignore the subtle hints from someone actually attracted to you.\n\nBut then again, as people mature more, they become more and more direct because no one has the time to play these games. Eliminating people who are not attracted to you allows you to spend time finding those that are. Then again, there are some people who even though they have aged, they never go beyond a certain maturity level."
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a4529e | -why is x the universal/default variable in algebra? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a4529e/eli5why_is_x_the_universaldefault_variable_in/ | {
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"Famous guy Descartes wrote a book about math notations and used a, b, c for known variables and x, y, z for unknown variables. Theories and speculation before this book cite original Arabic to Greek translation errors to land on Greek letter X to represent unknown, or Xei or Xenos that mean “thing” or “unknown”."
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aiy28j | if you jump from a height, what is it that hurt you in terms of physics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aiy28j/eli5_if_you_jump_from_a_height_what_is_it_that/ | {
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"The potential energy (stored in your being high up) is converted to kinetic energy (your downward velocity) which, when the ground meets you, is projected up into your body.",
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So for the amount of kinetic energy you build up while falling, it has to go somewhere when you hit the ground. And since the ground isn't going to budge, it'll go back through you and probably shatter your bones, which is what will kill you.",
"When you jump from a height onto a hard surface and are injured, the injury is caused by your body absorbing kinetic energy.\n\nSee, when you climb to the height, you're trading the chemical energy in your muscles for potential energy due to your altitude. \n\nWhen you jump from the height, that potential energy gets converted into kinetic energy by gravity. And, when you hit the ground, that kinetic energy is evenly divided between you and the ground.\n\nNow, here's the complicated part: how much damage you suffer depends entirely upon how fast you come to a stop. Jumping onto concrete is lethal. Jumping into, say, a massive pile of jello...maybe not so much.\n\nThe more time it takes you to slow down (the deeper you penetrate into whatever you're hitting), the more of it there is to divide up the kinetic energy, so each little bit of stuff (whether it's you or the jello) has less to absorb.",
"F=m×a\n\ni.e. Force equals mass times acceleration.\n\na=dv/dt\n\ni.e. Accelerations equals change or speed over time\n\nIf you jump from a height you will reach a high speed (say ~200km/h), then when you hit the ground you stop, very, very fast (a fraction of a second) that means your accelerations is\n\n200 km/h / a fraction of a second, or in more sciency terms 45 ms^-1 / 0.2 s = 225 ms^-2 \n\nThis means at the moment of impact a force of your weight (say 90 kg) times this incredibly high acceleration acts on you.\n\nIn this case\n\n225 ms^-2 × 90 kg = 20.250 N\n\nThis is like your body being squashed by a block of concrete weighing 2 tons. It's squashed very briefly, but at 2 tons that's still more than enough to shatter every bone and rupture every organ in your body "
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kz9x0 | radio stations and podcasts playing copyrighted works? | I was listening to a podcast the other day and they mentioned that, since they had started having their podcast aired on Sirius radio, they couldn't play songs or they might be sued. This confuses me. On podcasts, there are often ads. For example, the Adam Carolla Podcast. He does ads throughout his show, but he also plays songs all the time. Doesn't this mean he's making money off of other peoples' works? How is that any different than playing it while the podcast is on Sirius? Isn't that illegal?
And some radio shows, similar to the Adam Carolla podcast, play those soundboard clips from movies and stuff during interviews and whatnot. Do they have to pay to use all of those since they're making ad money from their show? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kz9x0/eli5_radio_stations_and_podcasts_playing/ | {
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"The overwhelming majority of the time, it's handled in one of two ways: pre-clearance and auditing.\n\nFor example, say you're listening to a radio program produced by station WXYZ in Wherevertown. (WXYZ is probably a real station; I'm just using it as an example, though.) The licensing department at WXYZ has already established a pre-clearance agreement with ASCAP or BMI giving them blanket rights to use any music from *this here specific library* for a flat annual fee. So the produce of that radio program is free to choose anything from that library for inclusion in his or her program.\n\nAnother example would be a program produced by WQRS (again, just an example) which uses an auditing system. The station has permission, again from ASCAP or BMI or whomever, to use whatever music they want from a specific library, but the producer has to fill out paperwork saying which music he or she used, and how much of it. The station pays per use against a pre-set rate card.\n\nThese two systems exist because on production schedules, there's simply not enough time to pre-clear every individual use. It can take weeks, or even months, to clear a single song for a single use, and that's simply not practical when you have a show to produce every single week. So they use these types of blanket agreements to streamline the process.\n\nIn rare cases, yes, there are instances of producers just using music without license. This is a *hugemongous* no-no and will get you fired from most jobs in the industry, because it's far more expensive — *cripplingly* expensive — to pay for rights after the fact than it is to secure them up front.",
"The overwhelming majority of the time, it's handled in one of two ways: pre-clearance and auditing.\n\nFor example, say you're listening to a radio program produced by station WXYZ in Wherevertown. (WXYZ is probably a real station; I'm just using it as an example, though.) The licensing department at WXYZ has already established a pre-clearance agreement with ASCAP or BMI giving them blanket rights to use any music from *this here specific library* for a flat annual fee. So the produce of that radio program is free to choose anything from that library for inclusion in his or her program.\n\nAnother example would be a program produced by WQRS (again, just an example) which uses an auditing system. The station has permission, again from ASCAP or BMI or whomever, to use whatever music they want from a specific library, but the producer has to fill out paperwork saying which music he or she used, and how much of it. The station pays per use against a pre-set rate card.\n\nThese two systems exist because on production schedules, there's simply not enough time to pre-clear every individual use. It can take weeks, or even months, to clear a single song for a single use, and that's simply not practical when you have a show to produce every single week. So they use these types of blanket agreements to streamline the process.\n\nIn rare cases, yes, there are instances of producers just using music without license. This is a *hugemongous* no-no and will get you fired from most jobs in the industry, because it's far more expensive — *cripplingly* expensive — to pay for rights after the fact than it is to secure them up front."
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32ngyf | how have video games not been hit by inflation in the past 20 years? | Everything else has gone up in price. Back in the 1990s (using 1991 as an example), movies only cost on average around 4-5 dollars. Now they are a little over 8 dollars, which has stayed a little under inflation (5 dollars in 1991 would be around 8.62 now). Video games though cost around 49.99-59.99 dollars for console games. Sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. Back in the 1990s (using 1991 as an example), games cost around the same as today; 49.99 - 59.99, which would be between 86 to 103 dollars today. So, is it because there are more games? More studios? I have to figure their costs had to have gone up significantly as well. So, how is it that games can stay around the same price but everything else goes along with inflation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32ngyf/eli5_how_have_video_games_not_been_hit_by/ | {
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"The costs involved in making games have gone down significantly, for example DVDs and Bluray disks are much cheaper than cartridges, and development hardware for games or even digital graphics in general have gotten much more accessible (they're still expensive, but you can do more for the same money).\n\nOn top of this the gaming market is much larger now than it was in 1991. Each copy sold can have a lower margin for profit to still make the developer a good return.",
"The major cost in producing a computer game is the staff cost of those involved. Previously there were very few people with the needed skills, now there are many more people including many in the developing world, meaning that these wages have gone down. Also the market for games has increased so a game that may have sold 100,000 copies may now sell 500,000 such an increase only marginally increases costs. Add to that the ease of distribution on platforms like steam bypassing the expensive part of the game in retailing it in shops.",
"Gaming has become far more mainstream, with an older audience buying far more games than their parents would've been willing to get for them back in the '80s and '90s, allowing for the sheer size of the medium to eat some of the cost.\n\nIn some ways they have. The advent of CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, and now digital downloads make manufacture (or the lack thereof) far cheaper than expensive cartridges; especially when they had battery back-up and enhancers. \n\nAnd many games just aren't satisfied with your $60. Season Passes for DLC often bring the price up up to little over $100, micro-transactions nickel-and-diming you for anything from silly cosmetics such as hats to monstrously powerful weaponry putting its buyer at a significant advantage over player more skilled and/or at a higher level that him, Sony and Microsoft charging you a subscription to play online games on their machines, and the deplorable money-hole that is the mobile game market providing low-stakes high-reward income for companies to put into more \"serious\" games are just a few of the new ways companies are making money off players."
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3uqrls | what is the difference between citizens arrest and a vigilante | Was watching arrow when Roy is helping the vigilante. He claims to the cops "I made a citizens arrest" and they still take him in as a vigilante or something.
What I wanna know is legally how do cops differentiate, what's to stop a vigilante from saying he's making a citizens arrest. If I wanted to make a citizens arrest what procedure do I follow or how do I stop from being labeled a vigilante? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3uqrls/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_citizens/ | {
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"A citizen's arrest is when you catch someone in an illegal act, detain them for the authorities, and file a report concerning the incident. \n\nA vigilante most often doesn't catch them in the act, they just 'know' the guy is guilty. They also, often, try to act as judge, jury, and executioner. \n\nThe proper procedure for making a citizen's arrest varies wildly by location.\n"
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1yd8cg | if launching a satellite only costs about $100 million, why can't we all throw in a few bucks and have free satellite internet all over the globe? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yd8cg/eli5_if_launching_a_satellite_only_costs_about/ | {
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"[Much of the world's land area already has satellite internet.](_URL_0_)\n\nBut it's slow and expensive. *Launching* a satellite costs $100 million. *Building* a satellite costs another $100 million. And you'd have to launch a bunch of satellites to get bandwidth similar to what can be accomplished with land-based systems. Then you have constellation maintenance and the entire ground system that you have to support.\n\nLand-based Internet through wired connections and cell towers is cheaper and faster.",
"Very little of the world's Internet traffic is carried by satellites, for a couple of reasons:\n\n* The latency is high (when every packet has to make a round trip up to space and back down, your ping times will be awful).\n* The bandwidth is not limitless. There's only so much radio spectrum to go around, and if everyone on Earth was trying to talk to the satellites all the time, the speeds would not be impressive."
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eq2uj6 | if i happened to be looking at betelgeuse through a telescope the moment my eyes saw it went nova, what would i see in terms of brightness, colors, patterns, shapes, etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eq2uj6/eli5_if_i_happened_to_be_looking_at_betelgeuse/ | {
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"From this distance it would be way less intense than if we were, say, the distance to our own sun away. That being said the moment of super nova it will be easily the brightest thing in our sky, brighter than a full moon, and illuminating the ground to not-quite daylight levels. For many months it will be the brightest star in our sky (besides the sun, obviously), and even be visible during the day.\n\nThis is a relatively accurate simulation of what it might look like: _URL_0_"
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5iw48t | how netflix handles subtitles | I have been noticing that sometimes subtitles are at the bottom of the screen, sometimes at the top, sometimes left aligned, sometimes not - never obstructing anything important on the screen (for example, a text message that the character is reading on their phone) or being rendered unreadable because of background colour clashes.
How does that happen?
Does Netflix have somebody watching all the videos to verify that the subtitles aren't coming in the way? (What a cool job to have!)
Is it possible to do this with a computer program?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5iw48t/eli5_how_netflix_handles_subtitles/ | {
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"OK so I used to do this for extra money in college.\n\nSubtitles are typically crowd sourced. I did a bunch of work for a company named Crowdsurf. They'd pay you by the media minute to transcribe sections of video. After you submitted so many hours of transcription and maintained a good quality score you were promoted and able to take jobs that allowed you to make sure the timing was correct. I never got passed that level because it was tedious and honestly they didn't pay shit. The next level would grade the transcriptions and timed videos and so on.\n\nI never did anything that you would see on Netflix but I did do alot of things that you may have seen on YouTube.\n\nAs far as the placement and color, that's probably crowd sourced at some level too and no this is not a cool job to do. It's boring, tedious, and if you're doing any video with multiple people talking over each other (like these comic con interviews and shit) you'll likely want to smash your face into the computer.\n\nI've literally screamed \"Would you fucking nerds speak one at a goddamned time for fuck's sake!\" on several occasions. And then I have to google whatever dungeons and dragons bullshit they are talking about so I can spell it properly\n\nEdit: I've done some for like B level movies too and at least with movies the characters will stop talking when it's time for the next character's line. Not so much in most of the crap you see on YouTube. I never noticed how much people talk over each other until I had to try to unfuck it into something someone would be able to read and understand."
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2vsrup | why does the second part of a movie or book trilogy (almost) always end in a cliffhanger? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vsrup/eli5_why_does_the_second_part_of_a_movie_or_book/ | {
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"So that you have more of a reason to watch/buy/read the next one. If everything was wrapped up nicely people would have less of a reason to find out what happens in the next one. ",
"The first movie usually needs to be stand alone because you don't know if you are going to get more than that single movie out of it. For movies that aren't part of some longer story (such as a book series) the trilogy format is really popular. As such you have to end the series on the 3rd movie, so it likewise can't be a cliffhanger. That leaves the second movie as the only one you might consider as a cliffhanger, and the cliffhanger has long been a way for a series to force you to continue to watch it because you won't know how the story ends. ",
"Over simplified, but generally the first part sets the scene/scenario/characters, the second sets up the \"true conflict\", and the third goes through the conflict, into resolution.\n\nThe first can usually tie up neatly, it's all been introduced, minor conflict resolved, it's a stand alone story, that clearly continues after it ends.\n\nThe second needs the first for context, very few stand alone. While a minor conflict might be introduced and resolved, the big picture \"true conflict\" has not. Since it's been introduced but not resolved, it's hard to avoid some sort of cliffhanger, especially since this is the \"big deal\" in the story.\n\nThe third, of course, gets to take the setting of the first, the conflict of the second, and provide a resolution for a neat tie-up.",
"This goes back to the basic structure of a three act play:\n\n* Act I establishes the premise and ends on a plot point\n* Act II introduces the conflict of the story, and ends on the biggest plot point\n* Act III resolves the conflict in the climax of the story\n\nWith movies and books, it often isn't clear when the first one is written whether there will be a trilogy, so it is done as more of a standalone, with its own climax and resolution. By the time the second installment is made, it can be written with the third installment in mind."
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1gb8g4 | how can the computers on the apollo 11 mission to the moon be no more powerful than today's mobile phones or pocket calculators? | _URL_0_ - From this article
This may sound naive but surely the Apollo 11 computers must of been incredibly powerful? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gb8g4/eli5how_can_the_computers_on_the_apollo_11/ | {
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"Nope. What do you imagine they were doing? Calculating an orbit isn't any harder (actually, much easier) than playing Angry Birds.",
"Most of the hard math and processing done that is necessary to go to the moon is done before the rocket ever gets to the launch pad. Thus there is no *need* for powerful computers, you can get the calculations done by hand, it will just take longer. The actual managing of the ship is fairly easy from a computing perspective.",
"It was a lot *less* powerful. It had a 1MHz CPU. The smartphone on my belt has a 1GHz SnapDragon CPU (not sure how many clock cycles the Apollo Guidance Computer instructions took, so not sure how much less powerful it was, but at least 1000 times). It also had 4 kilobytes of RAM (not megabytes, not gigabytes). However, it did not need to do very much. Keeping a spacecraft stable, slowly rotating it so no part of it overheats, slowing it down based on data from ground-sensing radar and so on does not demand many computational resources.",
"the capabilities of the computers on Apollo 11 were very limited. the software was written to be as efficient as possible at a small number of tasks (computing orbits mostly). Because of the restricted scope of the computational tasks it was possible to make an effective system even with very slow (by today's standards) hardware. ",
"The other piece of this is that miniaturization hadn't really taken off yet in the 60s. My dad was a programmer in the mid-70s and he described having 1MB of RAM come in a box the size of an 8-person table. The size and weight of anything more powerful would have been impossible to fit in something the size of the Apollo lunar and command modules. "
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3rnow7 | why is it that insects, critters, and birds make rapid movements (head turns, etc), but fish, and mammals (including us humans) have fluid movements? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rnow7/eli5_why_is_it_that_insects_critters_and_birds/ | {
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"I think it depends on your place on the food chain, that dictates your movement style. Lots of birds are preyed upon, and small and fragile, so they are more on alert. I've also seen mammals that jerk around. I've been deer hunting and seen plenty of deer on alert jerk their head around in search of sound, kind of like birds.\n\nPredators, on the other hand, be it mammal or any other type of animal, are not as jumpy with their lives, because they are on top of the food chain.",
"Not quite there, but an interesting aside? \n\nBirds in particular use head movement to overcome their lack of binocular vision (non birds-of-prey, BOP have binocular vision). Because they can only see out of the sides of their heads (which gives them great almost 360 field of vision for spotting predators), they move their heads back and forth and each eye gets a snapshot, allowing their brains to estimate depth from the two images. This explains why pigeons etc bob their heads back and forth while they walk. \n\nInsects control a lot of their movements through smaller \"brains\" situated down their bodies, called ganglia. Actually we all have ganglia, and these are most obvious for instance when you pull back your hand from the hot plate before you've even felt the temperature. In insects this controls a lot more of the movement, for instance of each leg. \n\nI think the answer to your question lies mainly in size, larger things like mammals move on a much slower time scale, so that when we look at smaller animals whose neurons fire back and forth so much quicker because of their smaller body size, we feel like they are movement rapidly. Can you think of a large animal that you think has \"rapid\" movements the way you are thinking of them?"
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68t309 | why man's right activists are so hated by media and feminists? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68t309/eli5_why_mans_right_activists_are_so_hated_by/ | {
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"Women who get paid less than their male counterparts, have a 20% chance of being sexually assaulted in their lifetime (The next time you go to work or school, count up the women in that room, divide by 5 and statistically, that many women got/will be sexually assaulted), have a far higher rate of domestic violence against them versus men, etc etc etc tend to not have much sympathy for men who claim that men deserve special protection in society above and beyond what they already enjoy.\n\nYes, men are more likely to get screwed when it comes to custody battles, but most feminists fully agree that this should be fixed. Yes, men face some unique issues in society (men don't cry, for example). Feminists in general (Most, not all) FOCUS on women's issues but also on gender inequality in general. I have seen extremely few mens right activists fight for womens' issues.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Because a lot of them are just like the state's rights crowd of the 60s and 70s: because being horribly and openly racist became unpopular, they pivoted to pretending to care about \"state's rights\" (meaning the right to discriminate against non-white people, but they didn't use those exact words). \n\nMRAs are motivated less by actual concern about men's issues and more about hating women. ",
"The problem is arguments involving Mens Rights almost always involve proponents minimizing the issues faced by women. Its perfectly reasonable, and admirable, to argue for equality for men on issues that affect them, but one also has to accept that men still hold far greater power in almost all aspects of society. \n\nJust as an example near the top of /r/MensRights there is a headline \"By every metric men have it worse\". The men in the video discuss the bill to allow women to be drafted without ever saying that the bill was supported by all the women in the Senate and was killed by Republican men who questioned whether \"young girls\" should have to see combat. It was also supported by feminist groups along with many in the military. Along the way the men in the video make basically every \"hilarious joke\" about women helping by cheerleading and caring for the male soldiers. \n\nThis is exactly the issue. The intersection of those who argue that we need to focus on some mens issues, and the men spouting horrible sexism meant to continue the oppression of women is way too high. Hopefully the movement can get rid of that population and be an actual force for good, because there are important mens issues.",
"Feminists hate them because they take attention away from them. They also bring attention to feminist hypocrisy/shortcomings. Media hates them because the media is liberal and to be liberal is to be feminist. "
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4gpin6 | the origin of the surnames "english", "french", and "irish." | I was thinking how strange it is that English, Irish, and French exist as surnames. You never hear any other country being a last name- no Mr. German, no Mrs. Korean, no neighborhood parties with the Nigerian and Canadian families.
So what is the origin of each of these names? My guess is it has to be from colonial America- maybe the only French person in a village, so they take up the surname "French." It wouldn't make much sense for someone in France to have the surname "french" to designate them as being french.
So how did they start? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gpin6/eli5_the_origin_of_the_surnames_english_french/ | {
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"People got those last names because they were from that country. If you're in England and have two Johns and one is French, you might call him French John or John French. Same deal with other countries. On a related note, the name Scott comes from the country Scotland. For some odd reason though, it has made the jump from being only a last name to being a first name as well."
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9t1rfk | how come the blue water in nuclear power plants is safe to swim in? | So I don't know if this is true or not, but apparently, it is. I thought the whole point of that water was cooling spent fuel rods? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9t1rfk/eli5_how_come_the_blue_water_in_nuclear_power/ | {
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"Spent fuel pools are used because water is a good insulator of the radiation created by spent fuel rods.\n\nIt's \"safe\" to swim in in that you won't pick up more radiation than if you were swimming in normal water or standing in a nuclear plant (assuming you aren't diving deep below the water and touching the spent rods) but [this what-if xkcd article](_URL_0_) has a quote from someone who works at a research reactor about what would happen if you tried to swim in their radiation containment pool, and the response was \"You'd die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.\"\n\n(That article also goes a bit more in-depth as to why swimming in one of those pools isn't particularly more dangerous than swimming in a normal pool, security guards notwithstanding).",
"The water itself isn't blue. The blue glow is Cherenkov radiation, produced when high energy charged particles pass through the water. Most of the radiation is ultraviolet light, so I wouldn't think prolonged exposure is safe (skin damage). The water itself isn't radioactive.",
"Water is really good at blocking radiation so the fuel rods in the bottom won't be hitting you with radiation. The radiation is halved for every 7 cm of water it passes through\n\nThe fuel rods are generally enclosed as well so there shouldn't be radioactive particles floating in the water which would get you\n\nThe water would be warmed by the fuel rods but it'd be like a heated swimming pool rather than a hot tub so it shouldn't be too hot to swim in\n\nThere's an [xkcd what if](_URL_0_) for this question and it sums it up nicely. If you tried to swim in the pool you're at a far greater risk of dying from acute lead poisoning than radiation (fuel pools are secured areas)"
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mbnxy | from an economic pov, what did the clinton administration do right in the 90's, that neither the bush or obama administration have done, been able to do or wanted to do since? | Please try to answer as politically unbiased as possible. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mbnxy/eli5_from_an_economic_pov_what_did_the_clinton/ | {
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"Raised taxes.\n\nThe congress/senate promised to cut spending if he raised taxes... he did, they didn't. But the difference was positive enough (with help from the dotcom boom) to create an actual surplus.\n\nNow, a lot of people discount Clinton as just 'lucky' but he had a solid plan, but yes he was helped along by the boom. However, he did have a pretty good idea for raising taxes (I think it was like 3% was the highest jump) and trimming spending off a bit in an intelligent manner.\n\nWhat the GOP Congress wants to do is gut social programs under the guise of it being all 'socialism' while retaining the perks for the 'job creators' who still haven't created shit even though they have had the lowest taxes in a LONG time. \n\nThis while they talk about Reagan as if he was a god - but he raised taxes 7 times over his 8 year reign... something they pretend didn't happen when they drape the wreaths over his grave and sacrifice animals at his temple. Oh sorry... not politically biased you said... *snicker*\n",
"People like to think the economy revolves around the president. While the president certainly influences the economy, they hardly control it. Three points are often get forgotten. \n\n1) We live in a global economy. \n2) The impact of many policies implemented the government might not felt for years. \n3) The president leads the executive branch, not the country. \n\nTo the first point, the problems in the US weren't limited to the US. Most of the western world went into a recession when the US did. The housing bubble wasn't a US creation either. Spain, England, and other European countries had housing bubbles of their own. Even China felt in the impact. In 2008, China had a bail out of their own, which was larger as a % of their GDP than the US bailout. The idea of a global economy isn't exactly new either. The Great Depression in the US wasn't relegated to just the US, it was a world wide depression. The only real reason everyone got out was everyone went to war. \n\n2) A lot of policies are phased in over a long period of time. The US bail out wasn't spent it one year. A large portion of it was to be spent in the first 3 years, but I believe it was actually a 7 year spending plan. Tax rate changes are often implemented the same way, phased in or out. If the government were to decide to raise taxes 10%, they wouldn't do it in one year. That would be a huge shock to personal and corporate budgets. They might raise taxes 2% or 3% a year. So, the tax changes implemented under one administration wouldn't be felt fully until the next one was in office. The president in office would get the credit, for better or worse, for the policies of the last one. A real life example is Obama Care, which was passed early in Obama's term, but hasn't been fully implemented. We won't know if it's going to save or kill the economy until after the election. If Obama doesn't win, but Obama care saves the economy, you better believe the Republican will take credit for the positive impact rather than attributing it to Obama. This isn't a ding against the republicans, a democrat would do the same thing. \n\n3) Finally, the president isn't in total control of the country. He leads one branch. You can think of the president like the CEO which a very large and powerful board of directors. The CEO can ask the board for a budget, but the board must provide that budget. The CEO can make policy, but only within the guidelines set by that board. While the CEO may get the credit or blame, a lot of the decision making reset with the board. And yes, the president can veto bills, but congress has the final say as they can override a presidential veto. ",
"Raised taxes.\n\nThe congress/senate promised to cut spending if he raised taxes... he did, they didn't. But the difference was positive enough (with help from the dotcom boom) to create an actual surplus.\n\nNow, a lot of people discount Clinton as just 'lucky' but he had a solid plan, but yes he was helped along by the boom. However, he did have a pretty good idea for raising taxes (I think it was like 3% was the highest jump) and trimming spending off a bit in an intelligent manner.\n\nWhat the GOP Congress wants to do is gut social programs under the guise of it being all 'socialism' while retaining the perks for the 'job creators' who still haven't created shit even though they have had the lowest taxes in a LONG time. \n\nThis while they talk about Reagan as if he was a god - but he raised taxes 7 times over his 8 year reign... something they pretend didn't happen when they drape the wreaths over his grave and sacrifice animals at his temple. Oh sorry... not politically biased you said... *snicker*\n",
"People like to think the economy revolves around the president. While the president certainly influences the economy, they hardly control it. Three points are often get forgotten. \n\n1) We live in a global economy. \n2) The impact of many policies implemented the government might not felt for years. \n3) The president leads the executive branch, not the country. \n\nTo the first point, the problems in the US weren't limited to the US. Most of the western world went into a recession when the US did. The housing bubble wasn't a US creation either. Spain, England, and other European countries had housing bubbles of their own. Even China felt in the impact. In 2008, China had a bail out of their own, which was larger as a % of their GDP than the US bailout. The idea of a global economy isn't exactly new either. The Great Depression in the US wasn't relegated to just the US, it was a world wide depression. The only real reason everyone got out was everyone went to war. \n\n2) A lot of policies are phased in over a long period of time. The US bail out wasn't spent it one year. A large portion of it was to be spent in the first 3 years, but I believe it was actually a 7 year spending plan. Tax rate changes are often implemented the same way, phased in or out. If the government were to decide to raise taxes 10%, they wouldn't do it in one year. That would be a huge shock to personal and corporate budgets. They might raise taxes 2% or 3% a year. So, the tax changes implemented under one administration wouldn't be felt fully until the next one was in office. The president in office would get the credit, for better or worse, for the policies of the last one. A real life example is Obama Care, which was passed early in Obama's term, but hasn't been fully implemented. We won't know if it's going to save or kill the economy until after the election. If Obama doesn't win, but Obama care saves the economy, you better believe the Republican will take credit for the positive impact rather than attributing it to Obama. This isn't a ding against the republicans, a democrat would do the same thing. \n\n3) Finally, the president isn't in total control of the country. He leads one branch. You can think of the president like the CEO which a very large and powerful board of directors. The CEO can ask the board for a budget, but the board must provide that budget. The CEO can make policy, but only within the guidelines set by that board. While the CEO may get the credit or blame, a lot of the decision making reset with the board. And yes, the president can veto bills, but congress has the final say as they can override a presidential veto. "
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3iknes | how small towns fund multi million dollar projects? | Found out building a new road costs a lot of money. This can't be all local taxes, right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3iknes/eli5_how_small_towns_fund_multi_million_dollar/ | {
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"All towns have assets in the form of public infrastructure - buildings etc - which allows them to borrow money using these assets as equity.\nThen they spread the cost of the project out amongst the public in the form of taxes. The cost gets spread out over years so all generations of people using the new infrastructure end up paying for a part of it.\n\nI actually just heard this explained on the radio this morning :)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
axq8jn | does youtube make money in spite of adblock? | if Im using ad block,can youtube still make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axq8jn/eli5_does_youtube_make_money_in_spite_of_adblock/ | {
"a_id": [
"ehvaaet"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Yes, but the creators won't. They get a share of the ad money that plays on their videos while youtube itself can still analyse your behaviour on the site and use the vast amount of data that they gather from you in different ways to make money."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
5xh7la | did shakespeare's audience know he was making words up at the time or did they just bluff and nod their heads like i would do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xh7la/eli5_did_shakespeares_audience_know_he_was_making/ | {
"a_id": [
"dei101n"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Shakespeare didn't so much invent words as much as *popularise* them. And often these were based on existing words (kind of like you can use a noun as a verb, or combine two words). \n\nFurthermore, many of the \"words\" he created were actually *phrases*, which you can easily understand from context (phrases like \"elbow room\", or \"wearing your heart on your sleeve\", for example). \n\nYou can easily find examples of all of the above in current, modern culture, by the way - language is constantly evolving. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
20k0w3 | how people who are blind pay for things using bills. how do they know which bill is which? | I guess they could ask the clerk/cashier to assist but not everyone is trustworthy enough to be trusted with something like that. Anyone know? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20k0w3/eli5how_people_who_are_blind_pay_for_things_using/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg3zjmw"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Look at modern bills. You will see large, sans-serif typefaces for numbers. They not only help people with limited eyesight read the bills, but can allow a [bill identifier](_URL_0_) to determine the denomination of the bill and say it out loud."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/for-job-seekers/careerconnect-virtual-worksites/retail-worksite-for-blind-users/money-identifier/12345"
]
] |
|
40dlf3 | the potential negative effects of using a 2a charger on a phone designed for 1a | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40dlf3/eli5_the_potential_negative_effects_of_using_a_2a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cytcjiu"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"No issues. Your device will only use as much amperage as it needs. The 2A charger can supply \"up to 2 amps\", it does not have to supply exactly 2A, the device will only take the amount of power it can/needs to."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
e0kk6n | why do some solar farms arrange their panels in a circle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e0kk6n/eli5_why_do_some_solar_farms_arrange_their_panels/ | {
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"text": [
"That’s not a solar farm, that’s a solar thermal power station.\nThose aren’t panels they’re mirrors that reflect light onto the top of that tower in the middle for heat which then boils water like all the other power stations.",
"Typically those generate power by heating a central point - they are NOT photovoltaic (e.g light to electricity), they directly heat water (or heat a material that then heats water) to generate steam that then spins turbines that generate electricity. They are arranged that way to maximize the number of panels that can direct light to a central point.",
"Unless I'm mistaken, that's a concentrating solar array. It's not the regular panels like you would have on your house, they are mirrors that reflect the sun at that central tower. There it will be concentrated and heat up water, and the steam turns a turbine just like most other forms of energy production.",
"Those aren't solar panels. They are mirrors. Each one of them is reflecting sunlight at the top of that tower. Something at the top of that tower is being heated by the reflected sunlight and then used to generate electricity. They are in a circle in order to catch the light from the sun as it moves across the sky check reflected that central point",
"These are different types of solar farms. The rectangular farms you’re thinking of are actual “solar panels” made of semiconductor materials that push electrons out of their energy levels via extra energy from the sun.\n\nThe solar farm pictured is actually a solar-thermal generation facility. In this design, mirrors are placed in concentric circles to reflect the light from the sun towards the tower in the center. Through the tower flows some form of heat-conductive fluid like water. The water turns to steam due to the energy absorption, which then turns turbines."
]
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
j621s | square roots? | I know, I'm a tard, but I've only partially understood them my whole life. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j621s/square_roots/ | {
"a_id": [
"c29g542",
"c29g542"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"This one's quite simple, a square root is the number that, when multiplied by itself, produces the original number. More clearly, the square root of 100 is 10 because 10 times 10 (also known as ten *squared*) is 100. The square root of 9 is 3 because 3 times 3 is 9. √a is the general terminology for the square root of a whereas b^2 (which I can't type here, but it's b and then a little 2 above and to the right of it) means b squared, or b times b. [Here](_URL_0_) is a picture that might help you visualize it.",
"This one's quite simple, a square root is the number that, when multiplied by itself, produces the original number. More clearly, the square root of 100 is 10 because 10 times 10 (also known as ten *squared*) is 100. The square root of 9 is 3 because 3 times 3 is 9. √a is the general terminology for the square root of a whereas b^2 (which I can't type here, but it's b and then a little 2 above and to the right of it) means b squared, or b times b. [Here](_URL_0_) is a picture that might help you visualize it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.mathnstuff.com/math/spoken/here/1words/s/s34.gif"
],
[
"http://www.mathnstuff.com/math/spoken/here/1words/s/s34.gif"
]
] |
|
3oaf0p | how is steel made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3oaf0p/eli5_how_is_steel_made/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvvg1gn"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Steel is an alloy of Iron, Carbon, and sometimes other elements. You take typical smelted iron (which has lots of carbon and impurities) and through some process to remove the impurities and some of the carbon to make a stronger, harder, less ductile (shape-able) metal. The most common way to do this is to remove the impurities by making them form non-metallic compounds that are removed as solid slag or gasses.\nSteel was made in a variety of ways, but for a long time it was too expensive and labor intensive to be widely used. Then the Bessemer Process became popular in the 19th century, driving the cost of steel way down. The Bessemer Process involves blowing air though the molten iron, which causes the impurities to form metallic oxides that can be easily removed. This allowed steel for the first time to be mass-produced.\nToday we use a variation of this process, using pure oxygen instead of air (for efficiency and to not expose the iron to too much Nitrogen, which can make it brittle) and adding several different compounds to the molten iron to help remove the impurities that don't like to form oxides. \nAfter the iron has been refined, sometimes other compounds are added to produce desired qualities (such as adding Chromium to reduce rusting, making stainless steel).\n[Here](_URL_0_) is the Wikipedia page for Basic Oxygen Steelmaking if you want a step-by-step process.\n\nEdit: Whoops messed up on the formatting."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_oxygen_steelmaking"
]
] |
||
1oyga5 | if two people are both virgins, how can having unprotected sex still give them hiv/aids? | If that person is your only partner, and you theirs, is it still possible to get infected? I thought this only applied to when people had multiple sexual partners.
EDIT: Guys, what I really want to know is, if both people are virgins, and neither has the disease through any method whether that be drugs or through mother's womb or breast-milk or anything else, can the two partners still sexually contract it, just from unprotected sex? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oyga5/eli5_if_two_people_are_both_virgins_how_can/ | {
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"ccwwevf",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"As I recall from jr high health class some people are born with an std because it passed on to them from there parents. ",
"If the person contracted HIV/AIDs through another source, say sharing dirty needles. While HIV can be spread sexually that is not the only way it can spread. ",
"Potentially yes. They could infect one another. \nSex isn't the only way of getting the virus.\nSome unlucky kids got them in the womb from their mothers.\nBlood transfusion and other medical procedures have also been known as form of contagious. Unfortunately. ",
"Yes it is possible to get infected if you are both virgins, if the girl is infected with cooties, which is a genetic in nature."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3neto4 | from thinking of living in another country to visas to permanent residence, what are all steps, time, and costs of this process | specifically? from USA citizen to NZ citizen, although USA citizen to other countries and other countries to US would be helpful as well if their steps are similar | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3neto4/eli5_from_thinking_of_living_in_another_country/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvne5eq",
"cvnef99"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You have asked a huge question. The answer depends on the individual asking (are you a refugee, student, traveler seeking new lands, a business person seeking employment, etc.), and the country you choose to emigrate to. Keep in mind that it takes a *lot* of planning and research before one can get citizenship in a new land, so do your due diligence. \n\nCase in point, Canada is usually considered an easy country to emigrate to. Here is their [website](_URL_0_). It's a complex and long process. Good luck!",
"Not really the right sub for this.\n\n > This is for concepts you'd like to understand better; not for simple one word answers, **walkthroughs**, or personal problems."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/Immigrate/index.asp"
],
[]
] |
|
cbh8fo | why aren't male hormones used for those who can't grow beards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cbh8fo/eli5_why_arent_male_hormones_used_for_those_who/ | {
"a_id": [
"etffmdm"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"We try not to give people medicine that has the potential for severe side effects for issues as small as this. If you want facial hair and you can't grow it, there are other options available to you aside from injecting yourself with hormones for months.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nA hair transplant, for example, would give you results much much quicker than hormone injections, with very little chance for any side effects. It would cost less, and it would be permanent hair, and it would be the hair you want instead of whatever uncontrolled, patchy nonsense you might get from hormone injections. You can just bring a picture of the beard you want to have, and your doctor can make that happen. It's a simple outpatient procedure that only takes a few hours, and you'll be back to work the next day. \n\n\nCompare that to the months and months of hormone therapy, that may or may not give you the beard you wanted in the first place."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
27c3qf | how we communicate with satellites/probes so far away like voyager 1 yet i can't get a signal camping or taking a dump in my basement bathroom? | I was just wondering if someone can elaborate on this. The distance thing blows my mind, and why isn't it utilized for communication on earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27c3qf/eli5_how_we_communicate_with_satellitesprobes_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"chzd8ze",
"chzd9ng"
],
"score": [
13,
5
],
"text": [
"The dish antennas we use to communicate with Voyager are *really big*, the biggest Deep Space Network antenna in [Canberra, Australia](_URL_1_) is 70 meters across. And built to a very high standard equipped with extremly well performing amplifiers.\n\nThey work by line of sight (so you need a straight line to the object you want to contact) and you obviously really can't lug stuff like that around.\n\nEdit: actual ELI5 from NASA by [Dr. Dish](_URL_0_)",
"Space is a vacuum. Radio waves travel with no resistance through it.\n\nYour walls, the air in your house, the floors, and the stand your wifi router is sitting on, are all made of matter. They impede the free movement of radio waves."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/education/drdish/",
"http://www.cdscc.nasa.gov/Pages/Antennas/dss43.html"
],
[]
] |
|
2kt9sz | why do the tendons in my foot randomly contract to the point where my toes will curl up? | It is kinda painful and really random. Whenever it happens I have no control over my toes/foot for about 10-15 seconds. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kt9sz/eli5why_do_the_tendons_in_my_foot_randomly/ | {
"a_id": [
"clohn4p",
"clohsfn"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"You need to visit a doctor. Call soon.\n\nIt could just be an ordinary cramp, but if it's interfering with your life you should have it looked at.",
"It sounds like a regular foot cramp to me. I get those sometimes.\n\nMaybe you need potassium or something? Are you eating properly? Taking a multivitamin? Do you get leg cramps? \n\nMaybe you need electrolytes and hydration.\n\n*Edit: IANAD"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
4agt6n | / why do unused blades lose their sharp edges over time? | Answered-
I only use my skates once a year and the rest of the time they're sitting in storage. Every single year I have to re-sharpen my skates even though I've only used them once. What happens to the blade edge? No pressure is dulling the blade while they're in storage so I'm confused about why they become dull over time. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4agt6n/eli5_why_do_unused_blades_lose_their_sharp_edges/ | {
"a_id": [
"d109dmk",
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3,
2
],
"text": [
"The fine edge oxidizes. If you were to look at the very thinnest part of the blade under a microscope, you'd see pitting and etching from rust - even stainless steels are not immune.\n\nYou can protect them to some degree by drying them thoroughly and then oiling them after use.",
"check out a razor under a microscope. What looks shiny and is sharp as hell looks scratched, rounded and blunt.",
"Would using a strop make the blades sharper for that use?\nI heard leaving them in alcohol keeps them sharp?\n\nI use $ shave club and get 4-5 shaves per blade. I dry them off after each use and put them back in the plastic tray.",
"I have a safety razor passed down by my great grandfather, complete with what seems to be well over a hundred extra blades. Fortunately they are all coated in oil so the edges are nice and sharp.",
"They are rusting. Store them with blades soaked in a tray of mineral oil if you want to prevent oxidation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6mzutv | why is palladium cheaper than platinum, if it's considered to be rarer? | Title. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6mzutv/eli5_why_is_palladium_cheaper_than_platinum_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dk5mtoi"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Less supply, does not always equate to more demand. The price of any item is whatever anyone is willing to pay for it, and if few people need it, it doesnt matter how rare or common it is."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
x9fs1 | what if any economic impact will the large hadron collider have on mankind? | My question being, will we discover a new method of creating energy? Excuse my ignorance but, isn't the "LHC" a large way to smash rocks together hence "collider". But looking at typical moments throughout mankind's history this has served us well, see: smashing flint rocks together for fire, smash gunpowder to create explosion, smashing neutrons into uranium to produce nuclear fission. Albeit most of these created explosions, but we have figured out how to create energy for our use. What if any kind of discoveries can we foresee, or not foresee from the LHC? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/x9fs1/what_if_any_economic_impact_will_the_large_hadron/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5kf51c"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"It's impossible to know, but you might be surprised. Some quick examples:\n\n1. The Internet as we know it today was the result of the work of Tim Berners-Lee, an employee of CERN, the operator of the LHC. He coupled the Internet, the largest node of which was then at CERN, with the concept of HyperText (which allows you to \"mark up\" and therefore create a webpage with formatting, links, etc). CERN was later the host of the world's first modern website.\n\n2. Abstract concepts to us, like relativity, have surprising uses. As it happens, relativity is crucial to the operation of GPS, which wouldn't be accurately able to locate a device on Earth using timing signals from space without it.\n\n3. Technology driven for one purpose can often be redirected for another. By building the LHC we've had to solve some incredibly challenging problems, the first to spring to mind being that it produces about a petabyte of data per second, which needs to be assessed and stored in real-time. That's a pants-on-head stupid amount of data, and I can't think of any such challenge that we've ever had to overcome before, and it's an interesting way of foreseeing some of the challenges we're almost certainly going to face with the growth of the Internet."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3dxnv8 | wisdom teeth | So, I get what they are but what triggers your body to say they suddenly need to appear at 18+...is it hormones or something? Why do they sometimes not fully appear and people just have little bits pointing out for life (and are fine like that ie no infection)? Why do we even have them...what evolutionary purpose do they serve? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dxnv8/eli5_wisdom_teeth/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct9l8ca",
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"text": [
"Dunno what triggers but I do know that as our skulls have gotten smaller, they often don't have enough space to fully emerge. Which is why don't people have to have them removed.\n\nAs for usage, probably chewing stuff.",
"* They are a third set of molars at the back of your mouth.\n\n* They come in at around 18-20 years because before then, your mouth would be too small and there wouldn't be room for them\n\n* Sometimes they don't come in right because our mouths are smaller than they were 100,000 years ago, laregly because ever since this \"cooking\" thing started, we've had a lot less chewing to do.\n\n* The evolutionary purpose they serve was to be extra teeth to grind with. If you ever see hominid skulls from 100,000+ years ago, any that made it past 20-30 years had their teeth ground way, way down. That's because before cooking and relatively modern food processing (I'm talking about grinding grain to bake bread with), our diet required a lot of long periods of chewing. Teeth would wear down. If you got to the point where you had no more molars left, you basically would have starved. So having an extra four molars in your mouth, once your head was big enough to hold them, was an advantage.\n\nSource: Forensic Anthropology course in university",
"There are already some people who simply don't have them. If we didn't have dentists and modern medicine in a few hundred years wisdom teeth would have disappeared, since most of the people that do have them would likely get infection before reproducing. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
ecsrcj | why do people think they sound like chipmunks when they listen to recordings of themselves but to other people they sound normal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ecsrcj/eli5_why_do_people_think_they_sound_like/ | {
"a_id": [
"fbdf16k"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"When you speak normally most of the sound you hear comes from the mouth through the jaw bone to the ear while the sound other hear goes through the air. The bone conducts deeper sounds better which means your own voice sounds darker then what others hear. If you listen to a recording of your voice you hear what others hear which is a much lighter sound then you are used to from your own voice."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
axml62 | how does blood pressure medicine causes erectile dysfunction? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axml62/eli5_how_does_blood_pressure_medicine_causes/ | {
"a_id": [
"ehuih6c",
"ehuio9r"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"The erection is held in place by diverting blood to the penis and increasing the pressure there. No pressure no erection, think of a fireman's hose with no water pressure just results in a trickle coming out of the hose.",
"The penis is inflated, like a balloon, with blood. If the blood pressure is less, for any reason including drugs, it won't inflate as much."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3dc8uh | how some genetics tests (like 23andme) discover such specific areas of the world that your ancestors come from? | i was interested in _URL_0_, genetic testing, and it says they can see if you come from really specific places - like sub saharan Africa, Italy, Scandinavia. how though?! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dc8uh/eli5_how_some_genetics_tests_like_23andme/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct47j25"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"One of two possibilities\n\n1. They have a big record of DNA as well as have a database of the average genetic makeup of people from certain places, highlighting significant traits, then reference your DNA against that, pulling up the ones with the most statistical significance.\n\n2. It's complete bullshit and you are given interesting places so you tell all your friends and they do it to."
]
} | [] | [
"23andme.com"
] | [
[]
] |
|
3qkriu | why has the madeleine mccann disappearance gained much more involvement than usual missing children? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qkriu/eli5_why_has_the_madeleine_mccann_disappearance/ | {
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"text": [
"1. The circumstances of her disappearance were highly suspicious. \n\n2. She was a young white western girl in a foreign country. As sad and wrong as it is, this makes for better headlines as far as western media are concerned. \n\n3. Her unusual eye markings made for a very uncommon and unique identifying feature that gave hope that she'd be found. It was memorable and something everyone could easily look out for. \n\nBasically all reasons people became personally invested in the disappearance.\n",
"Her parents worked the media from day one and struck fear into the hearts of every British parent. \n\nEdit: Also, when news broke that her parents had left her alone the general public starting blaming them, or defending them or simply discussing conspiracy theories about them. This conversation has stayed prevalent in culture for a long time, and that combined with the 'Find Madeleine' campaigns mean that to this day if you went up to someone in the pub and asked \"What do you think happened to Maddie?\" they would know exactly what you were talking about.\n\nThe powers that be took this as a sign that the case could not be closed as people still cared, and in some ways it was still in the public interest to try and figure out what happened on that fateful night!",
"Most missing children are around 14-16. We usually assume they run away from home. Madeliene McCann was 4 so that's unlikely.\n\nOthers tend to be taken by a family member. Usually an estranged ex-spouse. But both parents were together so that's not the explanation.\n\nOf course this still matters, but it's not something that will capture the public attention as much. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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||
3og0e5 | why is it that most road races are measured in km but marathons are usually referred in miles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3og0e5/eli5why_is_it_that_most_road_races_are_measured/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvwvn0g",
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"text": [
"Up here, marathons are 42.2km. The distance of a marathon is not in an even number of km or miles, so you can say the distance either way. A 5km is about 3.1 miles, but is measured in metres. I have seem 5 and 10 milers even in Canada.",
"For good or bad, the metric of minutes per mile is pretty well known internationally even though most places use metric. This probably goes back to the emphasis nearly 70 years ago on breaking the 4 minute mile in English speaking countries. Road racing on the other hand developed squarely in European countries with the metric system and it gradually gained attention elsewhere. With the spread of interest came the way it is measured.\n\nFor what is worth, I live in the US and do road cycling (and a bit of racing) and I'm in the minority here to measure in metric, but some of us (around 10%) do. I know of no one in the US who measure by kilometers when they run."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
506063 | why are mental tasks (such as gaming, acting, creative writing etc.) performed better after a warm-up? why does the brain need to "warm up" before it achieves full effectiveness? | I realize that practically every task involves SOME muscle contractions, but I'm not talking about this kind of warm-up (I mean something like "okay, class, let's do some warm-up improv exercises" rather than "okay, class, time for some vocalizations to warm up your vocal chords"). | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/506063/eli5_why_are_mental_tasks_such_as_gaming_acting/ | {
"a_id": [
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"It takes time to properly activate the brain areas involved in the task. The longer you do the task, the more the brain areas involved become active. These brain areas also become more efficient the longer they are used. Professional piano players actually show less brain activity when playing the piano than a novice."
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2ocotm | bios? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ocotm/eli5_bios/ | {
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"BIOS or basic input/output system is basically built in software the computer absolutely needs to have in order to load your operating system. It can relay all the info about your computer and give your operating system specific access to some things in needs to run correctly/efficiently",
"When a computer first powers on, it knows nothing of the world. There's no programs it's running, it's just hardwired to look into one spot of memory & start following the instructions there.\n\nOn the PC platform, that's the BIOS (although modern machines are moving to UEFI, it still fills the same role). It's basically a bare minimum amount of code to initialize some basic hardware & then try loading up a 'real' operating system.\n\nIt's the part that turns on the screen, tosses up the manufacturers logo, says \"testing memory\" and does pretty much everything until you see the \"BOOTING WINDOWS\" screen.\n\nOn modern systems, it also plays the role of handling some hardware configuration, setting the clock and other little things like that.\n\nTechnically, the BIOS provides system calls for doing basic system stuff - reading from the keyboard, displaying stuff on screen, writing to the hard drive - but modern operating systems don't use those any longer than it takes to load up their own code. Old DOS programs, OTOH, were known to make use of them.",
"A computer only knows what to do if it has very clear instructions.\n\nMost of those instructions live on the hard disk, and are loaded from the hard disk when required.\n\nBut the very first thing the computer needs when you turn it on is instructions on how to read the hard disk. BIOS contains instructions which are kept inside the computer itself. It is the very first thing that runs when you turn the computer on, and it tells the computer how to boot up, as well as some other very basic things.\n\nIt also contains instructions for how to access the hardware, which other software can use. When software needs to access hardware, it will usually call the BIOS and get BIOS to actually talk to the hardware."
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9h6mqg | how does panting cool off mammals, and why doesn’t this work for humans? | I know that humans sweat instead of panting, but why doesn’t panting cool us off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9h6mqg/eli5_how_does_panting_cool_off_mammals_and_why/ | {
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"What's happening is that the air moving around the dog's large mouth and throat area is causing the moisture there to dry. Moisture needs a bit of warmth to jump from \"Liquid\" state to \"Gas\" state, and as it transforms into vapour, it steals that heat from the tissues in the dog's mouth that it's next to, cooling those tissues in return. It's the same way that a slight breeze can feel really chilly right after you get out of a swimming pool compared to when you're dry - evaporation rids you of heat by the drying-up film of water stealing it from your body. \n\nSo why don't humans do this? Well we can, but we're not really set up for it to do it by mouth. We have sweat glands to do it instead. \n\nDo this: pant - breathe in and out rapidly, say six times a second - for about 20 seconds like a dog would on a hot day. (Stop immediately if it starts to make you feel bad). \n\nYou may actually feel your mouth getting cool so it works for us too! ...BUT.\n\nIf you're like most people, by the end of that time, you're likely going to start to feel at least a little uncomfortable and maybe even a touch dizzy or have the tiniest of headaches when you stop.\n\nThe reason for the discomfort that dogs seem to be immune to is because dogs have adapted to pant as a primary cooling mechanism, but humans didn't need to thanks to our sweat glands. Your rapid panting is fooling around with the automatic process of breathing, and that's messing with your body's various gas levels... and your body doesn't like that. \n\n"
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cbjv9d | how can a lawyer defend someone who is just not defendable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cbjv9d/eli5_how_can_a_lawyer_defend_someone_who_is_just/ | {
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"A lot of cases where the defendant is clearly guilty they will try to get a plea deal, where they plead guilty for a reduced sentence.",
"The point of a lawyer is to make sure his defendant receives a fair trial. Not to make him walks free, for example if the accuse is of intentional murder etc.",
"You have to look at it from case to case. As many lawyers on here have said before, it's not as much a matter of what happened, but what the court can prove happened.",
"The point of defending anyone in court is not necessarily to do so on the basis of the defendants innocence. It is to keep the prosecution/police from doing things against the law and getting away with it. Even then, innocent people get jailed.",
"The defense lawyer makes sure their rights are protected. They make sure the prosecutor follows the rules and doesn't try to add on any additional charges they can't prove. They could argue for leniency during sentencing or try to negotiate a plea deal.",
"My neighbor was part of the defense team for an infamous, clearly guilty person who was somewhat well known. She said you defend them my making sure they at least getting a fair trial, ie. that the court and jury are following the rules. And you assist with sentencing, negotiating things like level of prison security they are assigned, proximity to family for visitation, and such.",
"The goal of a lawyer is not to let the defendant get away with everything, their goal is to make sure laws are executed properly and punishments are given out validly, if at all.\n\nKeeping this goal in mind in essence also makes it possible for lawyers to defend murderers or terrorists for example without acting unethical.\n\nWithout a lawyer, the jury would have practically full control over how a law would be executed, making way for a lot of personal interpretation and bias. \n\nThe discussion between lawyer and judge is what leads to a more unbiased trial and prosecution.",
"A lawyer defending the \"guilty\" can argue that there are some mitigating circumstances that should limit the sentence. The Boston Bomber's lawyer straight up admitted that he committed the crimes, but tried to present a defense that would get him life in prison instead of death.",
"In the US, it's the prosecution's job to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It's the defense counsel's job to hold the prosecution to that burden. \n\nIn reality, the vast, vast majority of defendants are guilty, and plead guilty as part of some sort of plea bargain, in which case it's the defense counsel's job to get their client the best deal they can."
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3s6guq | why do psychoactive drugs have an effect on us when the blood brain barrier is so impregnable? | Just read [this](_URL_0_) article about how a doctor recently was able to breach the blood brain barrier to treat a certain type of brain cancer. It says when using traditional chemotherapy, usually only ~25% of the drugs can reach the tumor because of the BBB. Do psychoactive drugs need to cross the BBB to affect us? Or do they reach the brain via a different route? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s6guq/eli5why_do_psychoactive_drugs_have_an_effect_on/ | {
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"the blood brain barrier only blocks certain chemicals from passing (a category that includes traditional chemo drugs) Others, like psychoactive drugs (which frequently closely resemble natural neurotransmitters) are not hindered by it. Obviously your brain still needs to be fed by your blood and interact with your body more widely, so it's not a completely impenetrable barrier that blocks out everything."
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"http://www.inquisitr.com/2552192/canadian-doctor-first-to-break-blood-brain-barrier/"
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2dacq6 | pentatonic scales for guitar | When I search the web I'm always coming across the five shapes of the a minor pentatonic scale. This seems to suggest that there are many other notes and shapes to the pentatonic scale. I want to learn the "entire" scale, but I don't exactly understand what that entails.
ELI5 please and thank you.
EDIT: Uh oh. What did I start? Now I'm more confused than when I began. Apparently I need an education. Thanks for all the answers though. I'll see what I can do to fill in the gaps. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dacq6/eli5_pentatonic_scales_for_guitar/ | {
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"The different shapes are not necessarily different notes, \na guitar has the same note repeated in different strings, so you can play the same scale, starting in the same note, in different positions. \n\nAlso, the root note. A scale is just a set pattern starting from a note (ANY note, you choose the starting point and play the pattern from there), so, depending on which note you want to start with, a position can be more confortable than other. Positions are just tried ways where you can easily reach the notes in the scale, but you could play the same notes in several ways, even if some of them will be too awkward to be of practical use.\n\nAlso, a scale is a repeated pattern, you start on say A, and you end on the next A, but from there the scale repeats again, over and over (well.. not quite, a guitar don't have infinite notes, neither can we hear them beyond a point even if they were there)\n\nAlso, visit /r/guitar \n",
"A pentatonic scale is a scale that contains five notes in a certain arrangement. One example of a pentatonic scale is the A minor pentatonic scale, which contains the notes (A, C, D, E, G). You can start on any pitch of that scale and get a different \"mode\" with the same notes; for example, the C major pentatonic scale is (C, D, E, G, A) and the D dorian pentatonic scale is (D, E, G, A, C). We also say that the C major pentatonic scale is the \"relative major\" of the A minor pentatonic scale.\n\nThere are twelve distinct collections of five notes used to build pentatonic scales. You can get a different \"pentatonic collection\" by adding or subtracting an interval to the pitches of a pentatonic collection. For instance, you can get the E♭ major pentatonic scale (E♭, F, G, B♭, C) by adding a minor third to the C major pentatonic scale.\n\nOne way of looking at a pentatonic scale (perhaps the most common) is as a diatonic scale with two pitches removed. For instance, you can get the C major pentatonic scale by starting with the C major diatonic scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) and removing F and B. You may notice that without these notes, not all intervals can be formed using the pitches of a pentatonic scale. Lost are the tritone (augmented fourth/diminished fifth) and the minor second/major seventh. These are the most dissonant intervals. Music written using only the notes of a pentatonic scale tends to lack severe dissonance for this reason.\n\nAnother way of looking at the pentatonic scale is as a sequence of fifths (or, equivalently, fourths). If you start at C and go up by a fifth four times, you will get (C, G, D, A, E). In this way, you can see that compared to the diatonic scale, the notes that you are \"missing\" are the ones on the \"edges\". For comparison, the C major diatonic scale in fifths order: (F, C, G, D, A, E, B).\n\nAnother interesting property is that each pentatonic scale is the \"complement\" of another diatonic scale. For example, the C major diatonic scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) is the complement of the F♯ major pentatonic scale (F♯, G♯, A♯, C♯, D♯) (also spelled G♭ minor, G♭, A♭, B♭, D♭, E♭). You might recognize these notes as the black keys on the piano – the white keys are the C major diatonic scale.",
"The five shapes are all the same scale, they just start the scale at a different part.\n\n1st position is ACDEG...\n\n2nd position is CDEGA...\n\n3rd position is DEGAC... Etc.\n\nThe positions are all the same notes but they start and end on different notes at different areas of the neck.\n\nI suggest playing 1st position ascending and then playing 2nd position descending. When you play them side by side like that it's easier to recognize that they're the same thing. Do this for the other positions and all of a sudden it doesn't look like 5 different scales but one giant scale that you can easily find no matter where you are on the neck."
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cur7q7 | how do patronymic names work? | If dad is Robert II, and firstborn son is Robert III, could another son be born to Robert II and be named Robert IV? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cur7q7/eli5_how_do_patronymic_names_work/ | {
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"I think you're confusing the term Patronymic with generational titles. Patronymic names are simply names like \"Johnson\" that come from \"son-of-John\".\n\nAs for your question on generational titles, you wouldn't name two of your children the same name and up the number because they're supposed to represent generation. What your children can do is a bit wacky though. For example:\n\nRobert has two sons, Robert II and Jackson.\nJackson has a son before Robert II, and names him Robert. That son is now Robert III. If Robert II later has a son and decides to name his son Robert, he would be Robert IV (this happened with President Ulysses S. Grant)."
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256evj | if java is open source, how can oracle sue google for making their own version? | Google used the same class and method names to make their own implementation of Java and have now been ruled against for violating patents ([CNET article](_URL_0_))
As I understand it they didn't copy any code, only the names. but even if they had copied code, how is that a patent violation if Java is supposed to be open source? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/256evj/eli5_if_java_is_open_source_how_can_oracle_sue/ | {
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"Open Source means that you can use the copyrighted code *under certain restrictions*. It does not automatically grant you patent rights or a license to use the trademarks- those are both separate.\n\nIn the case of Java, you are only granted a patent license if you pay Oracle a boatload of money to certify your version of Java. And they'll only certify your version of Java if it behaves exactly the same as their version of Java- you're not allowed to add anything. ",
"Java was originally created by Sun Microsystems, and the reference implementation of the compiler and runtime environment were closed source.\n\nThe specification included not just a language and syntax, but a Virtual Machine. The Virtual Machine is basically a description of a computer with a set of instructions it can perform.\n\nIt can be implemented in Software (As it usually is) but actually is a description of a device which from the very early days of Java can be implemented as a hardware processor. (In fact, I have a ring on my shelf I obtained at Sun when they were first promoting Java - which ran Java in hardware.)\n\nJava also specified a very large set of standard libraries compared to C or C++ which all comprised this runtime-- and in the end Java's promise to liberate developers from having to write software for every operating system.\n\nThis was embodied in the mantra: \"Write once, run anywhere.\"\n\nThe second half of this specification was a licensing model that explicitly forbid segmenting of this environment, and while allowing third party implementations, gave Sun the right to prevent implementations that intentionally broke the promise of \"Write Once, Run Anywhere.\"\n\nJava scared the shit out of Microsoft, who saw it as a way for developers to escape their terse and painful programming environment, and move their software to a platform which would no longer need Microsoft.\n\nAs a result they implemented the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, and made Visual J++, to sit along side their Visual C++ development environment.\n\nJ++ was, as advertised, not exactly Java. MS basically built an environment that had most of Java's spec implemented--- but then tied in a bunch of Windows specific stuff.\n\nThis included Active X controls, links to DirectX, and ties into the Win32 API. It allowed developers to sidestep AWT, and use a native windows UI form.\n\nIt basically made it impossible for a developer to actually develop a cross platform Java application without paying careful attention.\n\nSun sued MS, and after a long court battle which essentially crippled the advancement of Java as a language for browsers for ten years, won. MS abandoned Java, and built .NET as a result.\n\nAfter Java became hugely popular as a server based programming language, and in many ways became a very standard and cross platform server development language--- Sun decided to open source Java.\n\nIt open sourced it with an attached strategy for future development, called the Java Community Process.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe purpose is to specify the evolution of Java and the implementation of the platform. The platform however is still guarded by the same licensing agreements designed to try to prevent segmentation and promote \"Write Once, Run Anywhere.\"\n\nBy this time Sun had realized that mantra was more of philosophical utility than it had ever been a practical reality, and they decided to tolerate segmentations for domain specific purposes for Java, like Android.\n\nThis is partially due to their failure to make a truly agreed upon mobile and embedded standard for Java (See the Mobile Information Device Profile, or Java ME).\n\nAndroid severely segmented Java, making an embedded environment specification that included a robust middleware layer that concisely and elegantly provided a common interface to embedded media hardware ( I spent most of my career programming device drivers for media SOCs, and they are all alien environments from one another. ) \n\nAndroid got rid of the bits of Java that didn't help, and basically took the useful pieces and built an environment that concisely fit a particular class of devices--- and wildly succeeded where the Java mobile profiles had failed.\n\nSun turned a blind eye because they saw it wasn't an evil use of Java, and it was an appropriate segmentation.\n\nUnfortunately Sun, a great company, was taken over by Oracle, a smelly shit of a log of crap of a company--- and with Android they smelled money.\n\n They saw that the benevolent license model Sun had implemented for a good reason could be used for evil, and monetary gain... And so they did a shitbag move and went after Google despite the history of cooperation between Google and Sun.\n\nIn the end, Oracle is probably legally on the right.\n\nGoogle and Sun were bros working for a better future for developers like me. Android has saved me thousands of man hours.\n\nIn summary:\nOracle,\nThey're right--- but they are still assholes.\n"
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2yhm2v | why does a small fire die from a blow of air, but a big fire actually thrives on it? | I know it has something to do with oxygen... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yhm2v/eli5_why_does_a_small_fire_die_from_a_blow_of_air/ | {
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"Fire needs 3 things to burn: heat, fuel, and oxygen.\n\nWhen you blow on a small fire, you give it more oxygen, but at the same time, you remove heat quickly. This is enough to snuff the fire out.\n\nWhen you blow on a large fire, you remove heat, but you give it more oxygen. The residual heat is enough to continue the fire going after you stop blowing."
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3blryy | why don't we store power grid energy in potential energy? | Basically, have a big heavy thing and use electricity to lift it up, then drop it down to recover the potential energy.
This doesn't make sense for fossil fuels, because the efficiency would be low, and so you'd be wasting fuel that you can expend on demand, but with renewable energy you could harvest what's there to harvest, use what you need, and then put everything else in potential energy. No mess.
So why wouldn't this work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3blryy/eli5_why_dont_we_store_power_grid_energy_in/ | {
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"We sort of do. Dams store water that is released on demand to spin turbines. \n\nOtherwise, there really isn't a practical way to store heavy things up in the air, and have it spin turbines later on to generate power. ",
"We do, using water. We use unneeded power to pump water up from one lake to another past a dam, then when we need the power we can run water back down through a turbine in the dam.",
"This is also done in data centers and other places that need continuous clean power. Electricity is used to spin a fly wheel that can generate electricity when the source is cut. Basically a mechanical battery. ",
"THere's a company in California developing a system called ARES (Advanced Rail Energy Storage). It's basically what you describe - heavy, weighted electric locomotives on an incline. When charged, they climb the hill. To get that energy back, they roll down the hill, slowly, with their electric motors acting as dynamos and recovering that energy.\n\nMIT is also investigating a system for offshore wind turbines that'd be sort of hydro-pumping in reverse. They'd have massive, hollow concrete spheres on the seafloor. To charge them, they're pumped out. To get the energy back, high-pressure seawater is allowed back in, passing through turbines in the process.",
"We do something very much like that (though it is actually usually done with fossil fuel power) - it's called a flywheel. Essentially, when you have excess energy, you use it to spin up a wheel (or a rod with two weights on the end). Then, when you need the energy back, you slow down the wheel again. Power companies use these systems to handle short-duration loads that exceed the capacity of the power plant. Some data centers use flywheels to provide power during power outages. Labs that test circuit breakers run off flywheels because they'd damage their own electrical system by repeatedly shorting things out. There's a big list of applications [on wikipedia](_URL_0_)",
"We do. For example [this solar tower in Spain](_URL_0_) (and probably other like it) uses mirrors to heat liquid salts to ridiculous temperatures. The hot salt is then used to boils water to power turbines to get the electricity.\n\nThis means the tower can heat up during the day, but the power is stored in the salts and can become electricity during the evening and night, when you would normally not get any power from solar."
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11ubge | why is polyester the demon of the fashion world? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11ubge/eli5_why_is_polyester_the_demon_of_the_fashion/ | {
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"It got a bad name in the 70s as it looked horrid. Dubbed a poor mans silk, it didn't really do the job and could be spotted miles away for looking cheap. These are the days of full nylon tops mind you (turning you in to a human van der graph generator) \n\nIt's not totally pushed to the sidelines any more. A good quality polyester looks good, but in its own right, no trying to emulate silk.\n\nYou generally find poly-blends. Have a look at your clothes and I can almost guarantee they are a poly blend. It lowers cost compared to for example full cotton, and increase their wearability. However the garment will loose some of its \"feel\"\n\nTL;DR cos it looked crap back in the day and got a bad name. However now, many wear it without knowing",
"Polyester hangs on the body without any structure or style. 100% cotton, in contrast, can easily be spotted. Crisp, fluffy, and without that god-awful sheen that you can see a mile away if polyester.",
"Relatable reason: It's cheap and cheap things are incapable of being good according to some experts\n\nLess relatable reasons: It's fashion darling, our tastes are the rules."
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ri6kt | the mayan calendar and why so many think it means the end of the world. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ri6kt/eli5_the_mayan_calendar_and_why_so_many_think_it/ | {
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"The Mayans carved some things, including calendars, into rocks. One of those calendars defines years up to 2012 (or, perhaps more accurately 'something around 2012'). Some people took this and combined it with other ideas about the end of the world (plus new ones), along with existing pseudoscientific theories about Mayan technology etc., to conclude that it stops because the world will end there.\n\nThere's really no logic to it, and certainly no backing from a scientific or historical perspective. I have no expertise in Mayan history, but it seems really not much is known, other than that they appeared to place some importance on the date where the calendar ends, which may (but is not necessarily, it seems) be 2012. Anything much more specific than that is made up and supported by confirmation bias and so on.\n\nIt's likely that there's really nothing distinguishing about this particular silly theory, and that it's achieved widespread recognition simply by chance out of all the silly theories out there. It does mesh quite will with some existing (and equally baseless) nonsense such as the idea that Mayans had advanced technology, and the existing set of varied end-of-the-world stories."
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3uugzv | why do we have the urge to buy stuff? | I feel the need to buy something and then I will feel happy for a couple of days until the novelty wears off and then I'll need to buy something else. Why is that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3uugzv/eli5why_do_we_have_the_urge_to_buy_stuff/ | {
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"You've been conditioned from birth to want stuff. Even as a child who couldn't speak you were having advertisements with colorful characters and sounds competing for your attention. You've been conditioned to needlessly want stuff without even realizing it. ",
"Advertising.\n\nCompanies spend billions of dollars to instill that \"need to buy something\" in you, by bombarding you with messages (both overt and subtle) telling you that your value as a person is tied to owning things or \"treating yourself\". \n\n > Buy this $499 barbecue grill and be the envy of your neighbours! With this $50 skin cream you will never become old and undesirable! Drinking this $20 liquor will certainly make you as happy and elegantly carefree as these models enjoying themselves on a sailing ship!"
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89fjnx | what is reddit circles and how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/89fjnx/eli5_what_is_reddit_circles_and_how_does_it_work/ | {
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"text": [
"I believe it's a social experiment where you have to give the password of your circle to as many users as you can but they can either join it or betray you. And, in that case, I guess you lost."
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5421mt | the wells fargo fraud scandal | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5421mt/eli5_the_wells_fargo_fraud_scandal/ | {
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"I explained the topic [here](_URL_0_) originally.\n\nBut to comment on your specific question, the money they used to fund these accounts came from pre-existing Wells Fargo customers. These employees would open up new accounts, and transfer money into the accounts to get credit.\n\nNow, to expand on that credit portion above. Bankers/Tellers get incentives (payment) for opening certain products. Most banks usually offer a small bonus to their employees for opening things such as checking accounts, credit cards, savings accounts with balances, investments, etc.\n\nWhat these employees did was open accounts with customers money, and left the accounts long enough to accrue the incentive from Wells Fargo for having opened up the account. They would, in most case, close the accounts down, and return the money. In some events the accounts were not closed down in time, and these customers would accumulate fee's for having unfunded, or underfunded accounts. This is the portion where Wells Fargo is having to retroactively refund a number of fee's.\n\nAs I mentioned in my original comment, the sales environment that was present in Wells Fargo was so high pressured, it helped to push a lot of employees into performing these unethical acts. They would get abused/berated if their numbers were not met, their numbers were never realistic, and at the end of the day, they got paid.\n\nNow I want to pause here, and emphasize what I couldn't respond to originally. These \"bankers\" are NORMAL EVERYDAY PEOPLE. Traditionally they make average around 35k base salary in NY (which is not enough to survive in NYC proper), and in the midwest, they make arguably less. \n\nTake that combination of a high pressure environment bordering on abuse. It's unsurprising that the system couldn't sustain itself.\n\nNow for another fun aspect. How did Wells Fargo benefit (at least short term)?\n\nSimple. They created very lofty goals, and because those goals were being met, and knocked out of the water, they could turn back to investors, and the public; and report record numbers.\n\n\"Millions of accounts opened, millions of customers service, XX% growth year over year!\"\n\nAt a quick glance, those are numbers people like to see. The public sees so many accounts being opening, well, maybe I'll bring my business there; they must be doing something right. Investors are seeing steady growth, so they keep their money invested in the bank (after all, they're growing!) As I said, it's short term. Eventually someone looks at the numbers, enough people complain about things being not quite right on their accounts, and it all comes tumbling down.\n\nHopefully this answers your query. I'd be happy to elaborate if you've any other questions.\n\nFinal note: a number of folks had made comments to me I wanted to address in the previous topic, if this one becomes locked, and your original question still bothers you; feel free to message. "
]
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||
1t08ir | why do filmmakers use stock sounds for screams instead of just getting their actors to scream? | I keep hearing stock screams in a lot of thing recently. I just don't see why actors can't scream. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t08ir/eli5_why_do_filmmakers_use_stock_sounds_for/ | {
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"_URL_0_\nThis is the Wilhelm Scream for those who are wondering.",
"Man, I hate that someone pointed out the Wilhelm Scream to me. Now I always hear it, and its such a distraction.\n"
]
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|
6kpyaa | what causes a motorcycle "death wobble" and what can be done to prevent it? | So I saw [this gif](_URL_0_), and as a rider, it obviously makes me uncomfortable. So I began doing some looking on the "death wobble", but the [wikipedia article](_URL_1_) is pretty dry and my mechanical engineering is not quite up to understanding the whole explanation. I also searched this sub, but most of the posts were about skateboards or bicycles going too fast.
Ideally I'm looking for a good idea as to what I can do to avoid it, either while riding, or ensuring that I don't make any modifications that might induce it.
Edit: spelling. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kpyaa/eli5_what_causes_a_motorcycle_death_wobble_and/ | {
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"Look into steering stabilizers. I know they're available for sport bikes, presumably others as well.",
"Front swings out a bit. Physics says \"ok back wheel, follow that front wheel\" and follows the swing. Rider says \"no front wheel I wanted you to go THIS way\" rear wheel is like \"WTF dude making me swing the other way now?\" so now the front wheel and the rear wheel are in a pissing match with the driver who is now frantically trying to make the front wheel do what he wants. This causes a feedback loop making it worse and worse until they both decide to leave the party.\n\nKeep everything tight, and do not try to \"correct\" wobbles, you might hear the phrase \"ride them out\" and that just means let nature take its course, do not freak out and try to tell that front wheel to stop wobbling, it doesn't like that and will punish you thusly.\n\nEdit for fun: it's practically impossible for a motorcycle at that speed, or any two wheeled vehicle really, to wipe itself out without any external factors influencing it. Without a rider, that bike would have gone forever until it hit bumps or such. It naturally wants to right itself up and down (why you can get out of leans so easily) which also contributes to the rider causing wobz.",
"Change your valve stems regularly even if they look fine. My stepdad and mom were at 65 on the interstate when the back tire suddenly deflated due to deteriorated valve stem. Bike started wobbling and ended up wrenching the front wheel fully sideways resulting in a tail over nose roll that catapulted my Mom. She was in the hospital for 7 months.\n\nMy stepdad had checked the air pressure on before they rode. We couldn't tell what had happened until we went to air up the back tire to see if we could figure out what was wrong and the valve stem came apart in his hand when he went to turn it. ",
"This happened to be once on a Yamaha R6 with no steering damper. Well I didn't fall like the guy in the video, but I started to get the wobbles after hitting an awkward dip in the road doing about 70mph.\n\nI think the key is not to panic. I grew up riding dirtbikes so having the bike wiggle I guess you could say wasn't all that foreign to me. Most people panic and try to hit the brake. This transfers the weight of rider and bike to the turned front wheel and it's all over. It's like hitting your front brake in a turn. \n\nI was able to roll on the throttle and pull out of it. I think this transfers the weight to the back wheel and allows the front wheel to straighten out. It's not first instinct to try and go faster when you start to wobble, so hopefully you can think of it in time."
]
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"https://redd.it/6knuff",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_wobble"
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[],
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1ywzyo | when i open a pc application with notepad, why do i get weird characters instead of "0" and "1"? | EDIT: in 10 minutes I got the perfect responses, thanks everyone! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ywzyo/eli5_when_i_open_a_pc_application_with_notepad/ | {
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"Because Notepad is used to reading the 0's and 1's that normally comprise a text file. So, it sees 0's and 1's, and tries to translate them into letters and symbols and shit like it always does. Since the 0's and 1's aren't actually representing letters, you end up with nonsense.",
"Notepad (and other programs) assume they're opening text files with 8 bits per character. So they take the first 8 bits of the file and look up what that character is and so on. An application file isn't actually text so many of the 8-bit blocks will not correspond to a real character (the gibberish) or will be random letters/numbers/symbols. ",
"0 and 1 are alphanumeric characters stored as specific binary sequences and decoded by the program, usually as one byte per character. The 1s and 0s of an actual binary are single bits, and aren't alphanumeric characters at all. \n\nThe computer is trying to make text out of strings of binary that aren't text, and so you get gibberish. ",
"Notepad is trying to display the binary data as text, because text is also stored as binary data.\n\nFor instance, in the standard ASCII encoding, an uppercase A is 01000001. An executable file might also contain that same series of bits at some point, but won't be using them to represent an A. However, Notepad doesn't know that. All it knows is that 01000001 = A, even when it doesn't.\n\nAs for all of the weird characters, you're probably seeing plenty of [extended ASCII](_URL_0_) characters (scroll down to the part titles \"Extended ASCII Codes\").",
"As you probably know, your computer uses what is usually called an internal binary code (the zeros and ones you mentioned). However, this terminology is a little bit misleading, because really it's a bunch of codes.\n\nYour computer has a lot of different types of data stored both in random access memory (where it stores stuff it's likely going to need immediately for the current session) and in mass storage (a sort of old-timey-sounding word that can refer to anything from your hard drive to a USB stick, where it puts stuff you'll need to get to later, like saved documents, programs, music, pictures, etc.). All of this data does end up being turned into \"binary,\" true, but there are a bunch of different coding systems for doing that. Different programs are specially designed to use one or more of these coding systems to turn the zeros and ones into something you recognize.\n\nNotepad is specifically designed to work with text, and it's not smart enough to kmow that when you open an EXE file, the file is not meant to be text. So, it assumes the file you opened is text and makes what looks like utter garbage of it. In order to make any kind of sense at all out of an EXE file, you'd need to open it with one of these types of programs:\n\n* a [disassembler](_URL_0_)\n\n* a [decompiler](_URL_1_)\n\n* a [hex editor](_URL_2_)\n\nHowever, while these programs will present an EXE file in a \"readable\" format, they assume you have enough programming knowledge to understand what it is you're seeing.\n",
"At the lowest level, you are right in that all of the data on your disk is made up of ones and zeros. If you happen to look at any sequence of ones and zeros that are stored on your disk, it could represent any kind of data or program. The interpretation of what it means depends on the program that is reading it.\n\nWhen Notepad is reading a file, it groups the bits into blocks of eight, and interprets each of them as a character. When it sees '10000001', it displays a capital 'A', for example.\n\nThere are 256 possible combinations; some of them are for our familiar letters, numbers and punctuation, but many are not. Some are 'control' characters (such as a line-feed, or carriage-return) and do not result in a visible character being displayed.\n\nBasically, when you try to display a file that does not contain text, Notepad will display many different characters as it tries to interpret the contents of the file.\n\n"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_editor"
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|
517zle | why is it illegal to host a torrent site? | I understand the copyright and IP issues surrounding torrent downloading, but why is it illegal to host or index the torrent link?
As I understand it, the content isn't hosted on the torrent host's server.
Additionally, this is primarily focused on American law as the arrests and indictments are primarily issued by US authorities. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/517zle/eli5_why_is_it_illegal_to_host_a_torrent_site/ | {
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"At present, it's this law:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n > Whoever intentionally induces any violation identified in subsection (a) of this section shall be liable as an infringer.\n\n > In subsection (g), \"intentionally induces\" means intentionally aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement based upon all relevant information about such acts then reasonably available to the actor, including whether the activity relies on infringement for its commercial viability.\n\n > Nothing in this section shall enlarge or diminish the doctrines of vicarious or contributory liability for copyright infringement or require any court to unjustly withhold or impose any secondary liability for copyright infringement.",
"Even though statutory/codified laws may not specifically outlaw websites that merely index torrents or magnet links (and not the actual files which are copyright infringing), *case law* has effectively outlawed these sites in some countries/jurisdictions essentially because it's interpreted by courts as facilitating copyright infringement. \n\n*Case law* refers to laws that are created through precedents (i.e. court rulings) which, depending on the country/jurisdiction, other courts may be obligated to follow in future cases.\n\nSo, in some cases, the court takes the position that the operator of the site knew very well that the site was being used exclusively (or mostly) for copyright infringing purposes and the operator actively allowed this to happen by not taking reasonable steps to prevent people from using the site for such purposes. Then this ruling (based on one judge's interpretation of the statutory/codified law) may then become precedent and used for the basis of future rulings in other courts.\n\nThe other issue is that many of these site operators that have been charged were earning a commercial profit from these torrent sites such as by running advertisements on the site. Some sites even went as far as to offer incentives to post torrents/links to more popular content which the site operators knew inevitably would be copyright infringing content. When you actively participate or facilitate copyright infringement for the purposes of commercial profit, that becomes quite a serious crime."
]
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75hfvg | the meaning of "cold turkey" | What does it mean when people say "I quit cold turkey"? I've even used it but don't get it's context | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75hfvg/eli5_the_meaning_of_cold_turkey/ | {
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"If you mean the origin of the term, it's due to the effect that withdrawal has on the body - it makes your body temperature drop, and you frequently end up with goosebumps. Hence, cold turkey.",
"Cold turkey means to quit something your addicted to without assistance. You just stop doing the thing your addicted to and a \"just deal with it\" attitude towards the withdrawal and pain, rather than ramping down or going to rehab or something. There is a certain hubris to it and many people consider cold turkey to be a pride thing, to show personal strength and willpower. But it should be noted that some addictions can kill you if you try to quit cold turkey. Withdrawal is real and in some cases fatal. "
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1hkkt8 | the snowden case | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hkkt8/eli5_the_snowden_case/ | {
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"Please search first, this has been asked nearly constantly for weeks. Removing."
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9st0y7 | could humanity ever feasibly reverse the carbon emissions in our atmosphere? not slow, but reverse it entirely? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9st0y7/eli5_could_humanity_ever_feasibly_reverse_the/ | {
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"Sure eventually. If we replace all the trees we've cut down and bring carbon emissions to a dead stop. Lol",
"Yes, it’s called carbon capture and sequestration / storage but it’s still extremely expensive and only functional at small scales, so much that mitigation alternatives are still much more economically feasible. ",
"**tl;dr:** Yes. But not cheaply!\n\nWhenever we talk about whether we \"can\" do something to counter climate change, it's important to be clear whether we're talking about things that are technically possible (i.e. we could reasonably do it if we really wanted to) and things that are politically possible (i.e. they actually have a chance of happening). I'll try to answer each of these \"can\"s, with the disclaimer that I'm a scientist not a politician so you may wish to take my answer to the second with a pinch of salt.\n\nIs reversing carbon emissions (commonly known as going \"carbon negative\", \"carbon sequestration\" and \"carbon removal\") possible? Yes. Not only is it possible, but it is now [generally assumed that we are going to have to go carbon negative if we're going to have any chance of sticking to 1.5^o \\(or even 2.0^o\\) of warming](_URL_1_), the widely accepted threshold of 'acceptable' warming. \n\nSo how would we actually go about doing this? There are a variety of methods. For an in-depth treatment, [an excellent report](_URL_0_) was produced for the Royal Society a couple of years ago, but I'll give a summary of some of the main ideas. I'll divide them into 'soft' methods that just involve changes in land use, and 'hard' methods that require more 'in-depth' involvement.\n\n**'Soft' methods**\n\n- **Reforestation**. In short, trees take in CO2 from the atmosphere. When they die and decay, a lot of that CO2 is returned to the atmosphere, but with proper forest management, forested areas still act as a carbon sink.\n- **Wetland preservation**. Similarly to forests, wetlands are huge carbon stores. \n\n\n**'Hard' methods**\n\n- **Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS)**. Remember that I said that when trees die, they return a lot of the CO2 to the atmosphere? BECCS gets around this by burning the trees for energy, and before the CO2 gets into the atmosphere, we remove it and bury it. There's a similar idea called 'biochar' where we essentially produce charcoal and bury that.\n- **Ocean fertilisation.** About half of the world's carbon is taken up by microscopic plants in the oceans, but they need minerals like iron to survive. If you dump a load of iron into the oceans, you get big algal blooms that take in lots of carbon dioxide.\n- **Ocean alkalinity.** This is a bit complicated to explain but by processing limestone into lime, burying the CO2 that is given off, and dumping the lime in the ocean, the ocean takes in lots of CO2. Alternatively, if you have abundant carbon-neutral energy, you can run a strong current through seawater and form a strong alkali called sodium hydroxide which, if you dump that in the ocean, also takes in lots of CO2. \n- **Direct air capture and carbon storage (DACCS)**. There are some technologies that directly remove CO2 from the atmosphere, generally through various complex chemical reactions.\n\nSo there's no shortage of ideas, but unfortunately none of them are perfect, and here we start to get into the technical and political limitations.\n\nThe soft methods are generally inexpensive and would have very positive impacts on the wider environment, but have limited potential to capture CO2 and would require major land use changes. They're definitely a good idea, but they're not going to single handedly solve the problem.\n\nBECCS is the most well-known form of carbon removal. The problem with BECCS is that, to have any significant impact, you have to devote absolutely huge tracts of land to it, which would otherwise be used for other important things like agriculture. It also requires you to bury the carbon you've extracted into permanent geological reservoirs, which is not cheap.\n\nOcean fertilisation has some potentially very worrying side effects, principally because the huge algal blooms it would cause would contribute to so-called 'dead zones' in the oceans where there is little oxygen (which is already a problem because of climate change). Because of this, it's also a potential geopolitical problem because some countries would probably have their fisheries harmed. It's also not clear how effective it would be, and the few trials that have been carrying out have not been conclusive. \n\nOcean alkalinity is relatively risk-free and would have the positive side-effect of completely reversing ocean acidification. The problem is that absolutely vast quantities of limestone would have to be mined (equivalent to doubling the current rates) in order to do this properly, which is not cheap and the mining and transportation itself would harm the environment. When you process the limestone into lime, you produce CO2 so just like BECCS, you then have to bury that CO2. There are methods that do not involve mining limestone, but those require huge amounts of energy, so you could only use that to remove carbon if the energy is decarbonised in the first place. \n\nDACCS is the 'simplest' solution - you just directly take the CO2 out of the atmosphere. But nobody has demonstrated any way of doing this that is *remotely* economically feasible, and you've still got the issue as with several methods above in that you've got to put that CO2 somewhere.\n\nNone of these methods are cheap. As a result, nobody is going to actually do it unless (1) there's the public will and/or (2) it's economically sensible, for instance through a carbon credit scheme or similar. \n\n**To conclude**: Yes, we can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and if we want to avoid extremely dangerous climate change, we _have to_. But there is no easy solution. Soft methods like reforestation are a no-brainer, but they're not effective enough by themselves. BECCS is receiving a lot of attention at the moment but land-use is a serious issue that nobody really has a workaround for. Ocean fertilisation, whilst deserving more research, *in my view* will be minimally effective at best and quite possibly counterproductive (but in fairness, it does have its advocates). DACCS simply does not exist in any economical form at the moment. If somebody comes up with a good way of doing it then great, but we cannot rely on that. My _opinion_ is that ocean alkalinity may have the best potential of any single form of carbon sequestration to remove _significant_ quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere is a safe manner, but _only_ if (1) we have abundant sources of carbon-neutral energy, e.g. from solar facilities in deserts and (2) if transportation is decarbonised and (3) if mining can be carried out responsibly. That's a lot of \"if\"s, and we're far off from getting to that point - but compared to some of the stumbling blocks that other forms of carbon sequestration are facing, I feel that these are the most likely to be overcome on a large scale. \n\nIn practice, any actual global solution will likely be a mixture of soft and various hard methods, and will probably require strong international cooperation to take advantage of different countries' abilities and resources, e.g. countries will lots of land to devote to BECCS may take the lead on that, countries with lots of limestone or sources of cheap renewable energy may take the lead on alkalinity, countries that have suffered from deforestation or wetlands removal may want to focus on regenerating those, and the international community (and developed countries in particular) needs to provide the funds to make these technologies economically feasible, and economically fair, because we all share responsibility.\n\nThe cheapest solution, by far, is to just stop emitting carbon. But as you will be well aware, whilst progress is being made, it's not being made fast enough."
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4bwa16 | why is it not possible to use great graphics with oculus and other vr glasses? | Allison road and the unreal engine demo environments look really realistic, why aren't we able to play it with the Oculust or VR Glasses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bwa16/eli5why_is_it_not_possible_to_use_great_graphics/ | {
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"It's possible, but the problem is you need far more powerful hardware to manage it.\n\nWith VR, the game has to generate two images, one for each eye, not just one. So there's twice as much stuff for it to draw.\n\nAlso you need higher frame rates. For a normal game, 30 fps is usually considered acceptable, 60 fps is desirable. For VR, it would make you feel sick if it ran at 30 fps. 60 fps is the absolute minimum, but really it should be higher like 90 or 120 fps.\n\nSo not only does the computer have to draw 2 images instead of 1, it also has much less time to do it. To make this work on even a pretty good PC you have to make sacrifices elsewhere, such as dropping the detail on objects, dropping the lighting quality, etc."
]
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2guk6r | why is there a new windows os every few years? why not have one os and just keep updating it the way linux does? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2guk6r/eli5_why_is_there_a_new_windows_os_every_few/ | {
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"Profit. Microsoft can charge you for a whole new version much more easily than for just an update",
"Windows is used a lot in businesses, which are interested in having a stable environment. If you have hundreds of computers to maintain, you don't want too regular updates that may break your particular individual workstations. Microsoft does put in a lot of effort to test their updates against a huge variety of setups. Linux does this by crowdsourcing pretty much, so there's no guarantee that your installation has been verified to your standards.\n\nIt's similar with games; Windows provides a stable abstracted software access to its features that game developers can use (DirectX), so it's at least very probable that your game will work for a given version. You cannot properly support a huge user base if they all have miniscule differences in their setup which might cause your game to hiccup.",
"i don't think that kernel 2.x is the same as a current kernel. and if we look at distributions, let's say debian: they have published debian 7 in 2013 and debian 8 (\"jessie\") is already in the testing state. and lots of software packages require a current kernel / current gpp / current maketools aso and will not work or even compile on an older version of linux. \n\nthe difference between linux and windows is simply that you might update linux continously and migrate \"smoothly\" to a new version. ",
"Only linux 'rolling releases' behave that way, and they are definitely in the minority. \n\nMost linux OS's have releases, just like Windows. ",
"Support.\n\nLinux does this too, depending on the distribution. If we think of windows \"operating systems\" as different versions of the same operating system then each release provides a clear line in the sand. Thus the recent move by Microsoft to stop supporting windows XP. Ubuntu has a similar model, they release twice yearly and one of those releases will be supported(given security updates, etc) for at least two years. There are other reasons as well(someone else mentioned interdependent technologies in each release) but this is the main one. The interdependent technologies is also why people say don't use the first subversion of a release. Because major changes happen between versions(which can introduce bugs) whereas only fixes and minor optimizations happen within a version."
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dcf26d | why does holding my arms out to the sides stabilize me? | I find when doing exercises like lunges and leg lifts that I do them better, arms out palms facing upwards. Is it grounding me or stabilizing my center of gravity in some way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dcf26d/eli5_why_does_holding_my_arms_out_to_the_sides/ | {
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"It is stabilizing your centre of gravity. It’s comparable to standing with your feet apart as opposed to together. You are more balanced when your weight is dispersed as opposed to compacted.",
"Using your arms or legs to stabilize yourself helps by allowing you to regulate your center of gravity. This is why people often times lift up one of their legs when reaching for something on the ground, as their torso bending over so far puts their center of gravity too far ahead of their legs. It is necessary to move the center of gravity back so they don't fall over. This is the same reason that walking on a beam requires you to raise your arms up to help stabilize yourself; You need to be able to keep your center of gravity aligned with the beam and using your arms to make small adjustments makes this easy."
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kx4nk | how it is possible to travel directly downwind faster than the wind | While browsing wikipedia, I found this article about a vehicle that was created to prove that it is possible to travel directly downwind faster than the wind which is the vehicle's sole source of energy.
[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)
I understand how sailboats are able to travel faster than the wind if they are traveling at an angle to it, but this dead downwind thing perplexes me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kx4nk/eli5_how_it_is_possible_to_travel_directly/ | {
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"Check out the videos that explain it in an intuitive way:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n\nFor maths check references 6-8 in wiki atricle you linked.",
"Check out the videos that explain it in an intuitive way:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n\nFor maths check references 6-8 in wiki atricle you linked."
]
} | [] | [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_(land_yacht\\)"
] | [
[
"http://www.youtube.com/user/eyytee#g/u",
"http://www.youtube.com/user/coolaun#g/u",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGRFb8yNtBo"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/user/eyytee#g/u",
"http://www.youtube.com/user/coolaun#g/u",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGRFb8yNtBo"
]
] |
|
e89b2j | why are older movies (that are based on books) more accurate than newer ones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e89b2j/eli5_why_are_older_movies_that_are_based_on_books/ | {
"a_id": [
"fa9we9o",
"fa9y9on"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"This seems anecdotal. Do you have examples?\n\nIn very broad strokes, older movies are less special effects, less action scenes, and more character driven, with long scenes of dialogue. More like novels.",
"This really only happens with non pop-culture books. Movies like harry potter and lord of the rings are still very accurate despite the obvious omissions due to screen time. That happens because when they haven't read the books, movie goers care more about the entertainment value of the film than its accuracy which they can't measure without having read the book. Also the newer generations have much shorter attention spans due to the internet existing, so movies need to try harder to keep people's eyes on screen, which comes with sacrificing part of the accuracy since books tend to be much more intricate and complicated than movies."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
6y75cf | sometimes if you drink enough water you can feel it slosh around in your stomach. why do we feel it under certain circumstances even though there are always contents in your stomach, like stomach acid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6y75cf/eli5_sometimes_if_you_drink_enough_water_you_can/ | {
"a_id": [
"dml5u3z",
"dmljave"
],
"score": [
49,
2
],
"text": [
"If you haven't consumed anything in a long time, your stomach will be mostly empty. Because it's empty, it's being sqished together tightly by the rest of your body. There isn't even a lot of acid in there or anything.\n\nIf you fill it, the walls of the stomach stretch, and more gastric juices are added. If you eat or drink quickly, a lot of air will also enter the stomach. That's usually where the loud sloshing comes from - the waves you create on the ocean of your stomach. A very stretched out stomach full of liquid, might wobble around a bit, due to the momentum of the water etc.\n\nPretty much like a water bed.",
"Because there aren't always enough contents in your stomach for you to notice them. Gastric juices (including \"stomach acid\") are produced and re-absorbed at need. It's only right after you take a big drink or eat a big meal that there's really all that much in your stomach. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
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