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1jahsv | the commercial use of an internet meme which contains intellectual property | I see companies everywhere using memes such as the Fry "Can't tell if" Meme
_URL_0_
Why can a company use this fairly to promote their own products (or just keep their followers' attention on Facebook or whatever) without paying out or getting permission? And if they are not actually allowed to, how is this justified by a company, just hope you won't get sued? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jahsv/eli5_the_commercial_use_of_an_internet_meme_which/ | {
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"In the specific case of the Fry meme, Fry is part of the intellectual property revolving around Futurama. In your question, it might not be that big of a deal if a company posted a Fry \"not sure\" pic on their facebook account, but if they started selling \"not sure\" t-shirts (or mugs, or bottles of soda or WHATEVER) without explicit permission (from whoever *owns* Futurama. Probably Viacom right?) then thats a major infringement, and if the sales were big enough to garner attention, its easily a sue-able offence. \n\nOn the other hand, the [rage face memes](_URL_0_) werent copyrighted. Unless the guy who started the face meme starts trying to protect his creation (and at this point, with all the different faces out there, its probably too late) any company can use that image, and even sell that image. At this point, one could make a strong case that they exist in the public domain, and like I said, since nobody made a move on the rage-faces, there isnt any legal ownership to infringe. We only reach a sticky situation with say, the [Yao Ming Face](_URL_1_). Yao Ming (probably) owns the rights to his likeness, and could theoretically sue to protect his likeness if it was ever used in a commercial manner. But again, it needs to be used to A)generate sales and B) in a large enough venue to attract some kind of attention. "
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3caebu | who do countries owe money to? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3caebu/eli5_who_do_countries_owe_money_to/ | {
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"u/polyscifail answered this question before quite well: \n > To understand this, you have to understand debt. Your debt is someone elses asset. You can buy and sell Debt, just like you can buy and sell a stock.\nWhen I borrow money from a bank, a contract is signed that says. If it's a mortgage contract, it might say, I'll pay $1000 a month for 30 years. Now, you pay the bank back. But, the bank can sell that contract. And, if they do, you have to pay the new owner of that contract. So, you were paying Bank of America, and they sell it to Wells Fargo, you now have to pay Wells Fargo.\nNow, when big business borrow money, they can't just go to a bank. No one person or bank is going to lend GM $1 Billion Dollars. So, GM issues bonds. If GM wants to raise $1B, they might sell 1 Million $1000 bonds. Now, each bond is a contract, that says, if you buy this bond for $1K, I'll give you $1200 back in 3 years. You and I can buy and sell those bonds to and from other people.\nNow, even if you don't buy bonds directly, most of us have a 401K plan. And, that 401K is invested in mutual funds. Those mutual funds often buy and sell bonds as part of their investment.\nSo, it's quite possible that you might owe Wells Fargo $300K for your mortgage, but though your 401K, you might hold $10K worth of Wells Fargo bonds. Wells Fargo owes you $10K. You both owe each other.\nThe same thing happens on a bigger scale with governments. Like companies, they issue bonds, that are bought and sold. We all know the US has a lot of debt (~$16T trillion), and we all know that China owns a lot of it, about $1.2 trillion. But, what a lot of people don't know, is that China has a lot of debt too. In fact, China's national debt is over $2 trillion. So, China owes more to other people, than we owe to China.\nFor a 5 year old, it might seem kinda silly for a country to hold debt of another country, when they owe money. But there are reasons for it. In fact, the US holds debt of other countries. The US holds about $6T in foreign debt. Most of that is from the UK, but we actually hold some of China's debt too, go figure.\nSee, everyone is holding everyone else debt. Now, let's look at the US debt for a second.\nWe owe about ~$16T. Now, US government held just under $5T of that (Yes, the federal gov't owes money to itself ... wtf, I know), and the public (people, companies, other countries) held the remaining ~$11T. Of that $11T, $5.3T was foreign held. If you're following the numbers, other countries owe the US more ($6T) than we other other countries ($5.3T).\nHope that helps.\n*_URL_1_\n*_URL_3_\n*_URL_0_\n_URL_4_\n\n[Link] (_URL_2_)"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States",
"http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324338604578325962705788582.html"
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vu7lb | why does america help and support israel so much? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vu7lb/eli5_why_does_america_help_and_support_israel_so/ | {
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"Israel is the only western style democracy in the Middle East and also has a strong interest in fighting against international islamist terrorism. In other words: similar politics and a common enemy.",
"Alright I'll give it a shot. So during recess you like to play football, you're always the team captain and most of the other kids play with you. Across the field though is another group of kids, the ones that control the jungle gym. This group of kids doesn't tend to like the football group, won't let others play on the jungle gym, and they frequently wind up fighting amongst themselves. However, the jungle gym is still a lot of fun, plus the teachers give juice boxes to the jungle gym kids first. You think things would be a lot better if everyone could use the jungle gym, and it wouldn't hurt if you started getting the first pick of the juice boxes, but how can you do that when the jungle gym kids chase off anyone who gets close? Thats when you remember your cousin, Israel, is one of the jungle gym kids. In fact you had kinda introduced him when he had first moved into town. So you get your cousin to start telling you what's going on at the jungle gym and try to and sneak you some juice boxes. In return you train him how to fight and let everyone on the playground know that if anyone messes with your cousin, then they'll have to deal with not only you, but all the football kids. However, your cousin starts using his newly learned fighting skills to bully all the other jungle gym kids. It gets so bad that even some of the kids in your football group start complaining about him. Unfortunately you don't have many options. At this point the other jungle gym kids are pissed and only your threat of retaliation is keeping them from beating the snot out of your cousin. Besides not wanting your extended family member to experience bodily harm, you also know that if you stop helping him you'll no longer be able to play on the jungle gym and you'll have to go back to waiting for juice boxes. ",
"Israel is a proxy state, similar to Vietnam.\n\nIn Vietnam we wanted to look like we were doing something about \"communism\" but didn't want to fight Russia or China. So we poured money, arms, and advisors in.\n\nAside from 1956, we used Israel in the name of securing peace in the region.\n\nZionism, as Abe_Vigoda talks about it, isn't really what Zionism is. The goal of Zionism at its outset was the creation of a Jewish homeland. The first Zionist council even considered purchasing Uganda. So Zionism, as it was at the beginning is dead. Today it's used to justify abuses and a belief in greater Israel. Think communism under Stalin. Not what Marx and Lenin wanted to put in place, but by the time it happened they were pushed out and unable to do anything about it.\n\n\n\nQuick edit: yes, I'm Jewish.",
"1. Highly organized and well-funded political backing from pro-Israeli groups (AIPAC, et. al.), and a lack of similar political backing from pro-Palestinian groups.\n\n2. An undercurrent of apocalyptic Christianity in certain political groups in the U.S. that believes the existence of Israel is a requirement for the second coming of Christ.\n\n3. A continuing belief in the U.S. that the Jews need require some form of reparation for the Holocaust, and that support of Israel constitutes such reparation.",
"It helps maintain the flow of cheap oil from the middle east and guards the red sea canal for shipping. Both of these things are in the strategic interest of the U.S., so they provide material support to Israel. \n\nIt's awkward to acknowledge this at cocktail parties (makes the U.S. look Imperial and Israel like a vassal state), so the polite version is: Israel is a democracy and the U.S. supports democracies. ",
"Because the end times can't happen unless Israel has a state for all the nations to target.",
"ignore what you are reading here, and do some research on the ottoman empire during world war one, and then british imperialism immediately after world war 2.\n\nIt will make far more sense to you than the tripe you are seeing here.",
"Is the zionist theory actually viewed as a legitimate explaination? It's not tin foily?",
"What I want to know is how did it even survive 1948?\n\nWith a good surprise attack I can understand the Six Day War but not 1948...",
"Some of the replies here are pretty terrible. I need to preface this by saying that I am *not* and expert in this, so please do your own research too. But, here goes anyway:\n\nThere are two main influences on the foreign policy of a nation like the United States. The first is national interest, that is, what actions can the government take in the outside world to further the goals of the United States, her businesses and citizens, and her international allies? The second is domestic politics, that is, what actions do the citizens of the United States demand of their political leaders? The United States supportive position towards Israel is dictated by these factors.\n\nFirst, the interests of the United States. Israel is the closest thing to a western country in an important region of the world; the Middle East and North Africa. This region stretches from Morocco in the West, to at least Iran in the East, and as far North as Turkey. It includes the largest oil-producing regions on earth (including the Persian Gulf, and other areas), and an important international route for the transport of cargo by sea (the Suez Canal). For those reasons (and some others), the great Western powers have been deeply involved in the region for a long time. When Britain and France were the most powerful countries on earth, they divided most of the Middle East and North Africa up into a series of colonies, mandates, and protectorates (various forms of foreign administration). When America became the most powerful country on earth, it became fiercely interested in the region, and although most of those countries gained their independence from the European powers in this period, America exerted significant influence and control. \n\nAs America is still interested in the region, it is in need of allies there, and Israel is a strong ally to have. They have a powerful military, and some cultural similarity to the US. Obviously, they are not Americas only ally in the Middle East; Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait at the very least can be counted as US allies too. In terms of influence on Americas foreign policy, the \"national interest\" motivation is probably the weaker motivator. The US has other allies in the region, and if it came down to those allies forcing the US to choose between their collective support and continuing to aid Israel, then the rational calculus of national interest ought to lead the US to end or at least curtail their support for Israel. However, the situation is more complicated, due to the second reason stated above.\n\nThe domestic political pressure within the US to support Israel comes from several groups, and is a very powerful influence on US foreign policy. Basically, because foreign policy in America (and most democracies) is enacted and controlled by politicians who need to worry about the next election, politically important voting blocs can have an out-sized influence on foreign policy. Pressure to support Israel comes from two politically important groups; Jews and evangelical Christians. There are about as many Jews in the United States as in Israel, and many have either personal connections with Israel, or a romantic, cultural sympathy. It is very important to a significant number of Jewish voters (though by no means all, as needs to be emphasized) that Israel continue to be a safe-haven for the Jews, a people who have been historically oppressed in nearly every nation that they didn't control themselves. Many are political donors, and are very active in politics. There are large concentrations of Jewish voters in some electorally important states, especially Florida. So, there is a big influence there.\n\nOf course, even millions of Jewish voters are ultimately insignificant in a country the size of the US, so there must be domestic political support coming from other groups. Many, many ordinary Americans are familiar with the narrative of the creation of Israel, and feel a responsibility to protect the country, or support it for other reasons. But perhaps the most important non-Jewish group in the US influencing policy on Israel are conservative Christians. There is a belief among many of this group (which is *far* larger than the Jewish population of the US, and more electorally important) that it is a necessary precondition for some sort of important religious event that the Jewish people have reestablished their ancient nation in Israel. Don't ask me about the specific belief system, I am not knowledgeable enough to answer questions about it. But it is not so important *why* they believe that Israel needs to be supported unconditionally, it is mainly important that they *do* believe that, and they have mobilized their political power in the US (which is considerable) to influence the government in this direction.\n\nSo, there you go. Two factors influence American policy on Israel: What policy best serves Americas international interests? And, what policy is dictated by American domestic politics?\n\nI know that this post is incomplete, and I am sure that I will receive a flood of corrections, arguments and additions, but it is the best that I could do. I am sorry that it isn't very ELI5ish. \n\nOne other thing, you may be a little surprised that in my entire post I didn't once mention the Palestinians. I'm sorry about that. The fact is though, that I do not believe that their experiences or interests play a hugely significant role shaping the United States policy on Israel. They also have some domestic political support in the US, and even some lobbying power and a few advocates in Congress, but their support and influence is pretty minuscule in comparison to the political power of the supporters of Israel. Their plight probably has more impact on the other factor, the national interest factor, than the domestic political factor. It is pretty obvious that being seen to support the oppression of a people is, while tolerable, not in the long term interests of the US unless there is some factor that outweighs it. Also, many of Americas other allies in the region are powerfully motivated by the plight of the Palestinians, and they no doubt attempt to exert some influence on American policy in this area. But so far, the downsides to supporting Israel have been more than outweighed for the US by the value of Israel as a regional ally, and even more-so by domestic political considerations.",
"Wow. Now I understand why reddit hates Israel so much with this much misinformation out there. ",
"I'm sure this will be late but I am surprised this wasn't mentioned yet.\n\nIsrael has one of the highest rates of patents (as a whole) in the entire world. Israel is actually a very highly technical place and they make a lot of hi-tech contributions to mankind. The US is also very similar in that regard and maintaining good relations helps both countries as we continue to advance technology.",
"Thanks for not being a raving asshole. That said im gonna write some more downvote material. \n\nThe question was why the us supports israel financially; it's because they are a technologically and societally advanced nation in a strategic physical location with military and intellectual resources that the US wants.\n\nThis thread has multiple upvotes claiming the USA supports Israel because of nefarious apocalyptic zionist aipac hollywood apartheid jewish control. Im sorry if everyone thinks that's not anti-semetic, but to me it reads like nazi propaganda.\n\n No one is citing official Israeli gov't laws or edicts re: genocide/oppression. And most all violent Palestinian action is sanctioned under 'poor occupied olive farmers fighting for freedom'."
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20f5ng | technical explanation why charging a device does not slow it down. (my brother thinks that charging his ipad slows it down). | He will not believe that charging a device has nothing to do with the speed of a device. In my opinion when a device is running low on juice it would slow down (not noticeably) but because it's running low on juice it doesn't run all components at max capacity.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20f5ng/eli5_technical_explanation_why_charging_a_device/ | {
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"You are correct. Unless the iPad is running on low power, it should not effect the capabilities of the ipad when it is charging.\n\nThe easiest way to explain it is like this:\n\nPicture a coffee maker. You have the hopper, where you put the ground coffee, and you have the water reservoir, which holds the water. Imagine the reservoir is the battery, and the water is the electricity. The coffee maker takes water from the bottom, and you fill the reservoir from the top. As long as there is water in the device, the coffee maker can keep making coffee (running the iPad). As soon as there is little to no water in the reservoir, the coffee maker has a harder time making coffee until it hits the point where there is no more water and has to stop.\n\nIf the coffeemaker needs more water, you fill it from the top, which does not affect the water being pumped from the bottom through the filter into the pot.\n\nDoes this make sense?",
"You are absolutely right. Charging a device only connects the battery to the wall, the rest of the machine doesn't care and runs normally. Perhaps ask your brother to provide his reasoning for why charging a device would cause it to run slow?",
"Your device likely always runs off of the battery. When you plug it into the wall, you charge the battery while it is being used. Charging a battery introduces extra heat, and the device may intentionally slow down to avoid overheating. Processors generate the most heat in a computer-type device, so limiting the processor helps reduce heat.\n\nYou are correct that charging by itself does not cause a device to slow down. However, there are circumstances where charging can trigger the device to slow itself down."
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1suh5s | how do they construct the middle part of a long-beam bridge? | How do they get the middle of the bridge constructed, since there is nothing underneath it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1suh5s/eli5_how_do_they_construct_the_middle_part_of_a/ | {
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"There's alway something beneath a bridge, firstly. But if the bridge is too tall, or over water, they use boom cranes (anchored cranes with telescoping arms). \n\nEdit: spelling",
"They slip form, which means they have a box that goes along the bridge to from a set enough part, to where they are building the frame. They pour the concrete, let it cure enough, then drive the form forward.\n\nThe build modules, then drop them in place. "
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72tfd0 | why is gas heating so much cheaper than electric heating? | Wouldn't it be profitable for the utilities to build more gas-powered electric plants, increasing the demand for gas and the supply of electricity, until the prices equalized? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/72tfd0/eli5_why_is_gas_heating_so_much_cheaper_than/ | {
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"no, there are numerous losses in electricity production and transmission. all along the way heat is slowly lost to the atmosphere. While we need electricity, because its a convenient form of potential energy to do all kinds of work.\n\nBut if your ultimate goal is just to burn it as heat, we can do that ourselves on a small scale in our homes, so wed rather just take the raw fuel directly and avoid all the losses along the way.\n\nwhy dont we make our own electricity at home from a gas generator? small generators are inefficient and costly to buy, run, and maintain.",
"The majority of electricity at least in the USA is generated from natural gas burning turbines.\n\nSo those turbines are not 100% efficient at converting heat energy produced by burning, into electricity. Generally around 35%-45% in total. The rest of the heat just tends to go up the exhaust as \"Rejected Heat\" Then you have the fact that power lines aren't perfectly efficient either. You end up with transmission losses of about 5-10%. In other words transmission lines are roughly 90% efficient. Depends on where you live. The rest is generally due to electrical resistance in the line, it gets lost by heating the transmission line somewhat.\n\nSo 0.90 x 0.45 = 0.36 or about 36% give or take 10%.\n\nThat means if you have a gas turbine power plant, heating with electricity is likely to cost nearly 3x as much as just heating with gas and skipping the middleman.\n\nLet's put aside the fact that power plants may get a slightly cheaper price for gas in bulk. They still have fixed overhead costs like line maintenance and monitoring. Then there's the cost of power plants and lines themselves, which is typically paid through a commercial loan or bond that must be paid back. They still need to turn a profit from selling power, and that's after both plant and transmission losses, since they measure from the meter on your house. So in reality it would probably cost more than 3x to use electric. 4x would be reasonable."
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dw03c4 | bandwidth speed tests (ie speedtestdotnet)--how do they work? does it measure total bandwidth including what's being used or only the free bandwidth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dw03c4/eli5_bandwidth_speed_tests_ie_speedtestdotnethow/ | {
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"To clarify my question, if I have a max bandwidth speed of 200 mbps and I am downloading a file using half of that max bandwidth, will _URL_0_ show me a speed of 200 mbps, taking all active bandwidth into consideration or will it only show me 100 mbps?",
"They just download (and uploads files as fast as they can and measures how long it takes on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis, wait for the speeds to settle in, and report what they're seeing. Generally the bottleneck will be your modem but ISPs with problems may see overall slowness during busy times caused by problems within their infrastructure.\n\nIf your internet is in use while running such a test, the results will likely be inaccurate and whoever else is using the internet while you run the test will whine and complain about \"the internet going down again\". :)"
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fpp3mr | why does cranberry juice taste so tart. but is also so high in sugar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fpp3mr/eli5_why_does_cranberry_juice_taste_so_tart_but/ | {
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"Cranberry juice is high in sugar *because* it’s tart. Sugar is added to counterbalance the tartness, otherwise it would be very hard to drink.",
"Cranberry juice has a pH of around 2.3~2.5. That's *extremely* acidic. It adds to that a bunch of other chemicals that independently also convey a sharp or sour taste. It's so extremely tart that you have to add huge quantities of sugar just to make it physically drinkable. Without that sugar, cranberry juice would taste like distilled liquid death.",
"The CEO of ocean spray has fought hard for years to combat the added sugar category on nutrition labels because he has said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that without alot if sugar cranberries has a tart, astringent, almost unpalatable taste"
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1uoh46 | why do people hate on prius owners? is it because the car is low quality? is it because of the audience the car attracts? or is it some sort of combination of these factors? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uoh46/eli5why_do_people_hate_on_prius_owners_is_it/ | {
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"People HATE being told that they don't care enough about the environment, and seeing someone caring more than them makes them feel guilty. No one likes to feel guilty, and because of this, caring about the environment is perceived as something one should do in private, not public. \n\nFor a great many people, a car is an extension of their selves. The image projected by a car is an intentional image being projected by the person driving the car. Think Porches(I have money), F150s(I am manly) , SUVs(I am a family oriented person).\n\nThe Prius screams \"I care about the environment\".",
"As far as I can tell, the cars themselves work fine. The most common complaints deal not with the cars but the owners. Basically, while there are plenty of cars that are hybrids and/or get good gas mileage, the Prius has a unique, identifiable look, so it has become the stereotypical hybrid vehicle. The idea many people have (which may be true or false) is that people who own a Prius selected that car not because they like its features so much as they enjoy how clearly it shows other people that they're driving a hybrid. There is an opinion that Prius owners tend to be smug and focused on showing off that they're doing things they view as environmentally friendly. I've also heard some accusations that Prius drivers are worse drivers because their driving patterns change to maximize engine recharging, though this seems to be a less common complaint. ",
"I'd say it's because they are typically going 5-10mph under the speed limit in the fast lane ",
"I'm on my third Prius.\nI bought my first because;\n1. It was new technology\n2. It was affordable\n3. It worked as advertised.\nNever heard anyone give me hate, to me its just a car that has great gas mileage for my wife's long commute.",
"there was some study recently where prius's and blue bmw's were found to have the mosty agressive driving on average",
"Because they drive 55 on the fast lane when everyone else is going 70! 80 sometimes on the fast lane. \n\nSource- Me and all the CA drivers that go over 56 mph and get stuck behind them on the highway.",
"Do-gooder derision. When people see an action that they see as good, it calls into question their own choices, causing cognitive dissonance."
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615z6s | what constitutes middle class in the united states currently? | People say (in passing) that the middle class is shrinking, but I am wondering if this is solely based on income or what factors contribute to the metric of upper/middle/lower class. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/615z6s/eli5_what_constitutes_middle_class_in_the_united/ | {
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"It depends on what you mean by middle class. If you mean \"the people between the 30th and 70th income percentiles among US citizens\" then by definition it is the same size relative to the overall population as it has always been. If you define it to be the people within some range of the median income (e.g. between 50% and 200% of the median income) then it is shrinking, though not as fast as it was in the 80's and early 90's. \n\nThere is no strict definition of what defines \"middle class\" and, politically, it's often used because the vast, vast majority of people think of themselves as middle class so saying you're doing something to benefit the middle class is often very popular. "
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6i80if | how was philando castile's shooter acquited of all charges? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6i80if/eli5how_was_philando_castiles_shooter_acquited_of/ | {
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" > Wikipedia says: \"the jury decided that the state had not met its burden for a conviction\" and \"the specific wording of the law regarding culpable negligence was the main factor among many leading to the verdict\", but, wasn't it pretty obviously a murder?\n\nNot according to the jury."
]
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||
4x8tof | what is the big deal with ipv4 addresses being exhausted? | I understand there were only 4.3 billion IP addresses made when the system was created as they though that would be enough (recent [article](_URL_0_) explains this). But now we have made IPv6, which is truly going to last forever (probably), so what's the big deal? Can't we just deal out these IPv6's from now on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4x8tof/eli5_what_is_the_big_deal_with_ipv4_addresses/ | {
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"Yea. There is the push to move to ipv6,. But theres a billion systems that need to do it. World business on ipv4 doesn't stop because ipv6 is introduced. Since migration is voluntary, alot of applications don't move. And who's going to make changes to those applications that are 30-40 years old?",
"Unfortunately, although IP6 implementation has come a long way, there's still potentially a lot of \"parts\" of the internet which possibly don't understand IP6 addressing. Like, let's say in the old telephone days before area codes, you had to talk to an operator who physically understood what town/region you were trying to call. Then, you add area codes -- but if the phone companies on the receiving end don't know what 212 means, they won't be able to direct the call correctly.\n\nSo, if your IP6 internet traffic is speeding over the internet, and hits a router or computer that only understands IP4, the data will be lost. People are working on getting everything to talk via IP6, but it's still a long ways off.\n\nNote that the 'running out of IP4' is somewhat theoretical: sure, people can buy up all the remaining blocks, but that doesn't mean every IP4 address is currently in use; also NAT translation, proxies and reverse-proxies allow for more computers to be online by sharing a single IP address, which has mitigated the issue some.",
"Many existing infrastructure pieces need to be replaced in order to be complaint with IPv6. IP's are used for determining sources and destinations when transmitting data across networks and the Internet.\n\nIn other words, it'd be like addressing a letter with the GPS coordinates of the destination. You might be correct, but the Post Office doesn't know how to (or cannot be bothered to) translate that to a standard address format. The Post Office would need to update their equipment and processes to understand GPS coordinates.",
"What /u/AzraelBrown said is right. I just want to add that IPv6 isn't really being taught yet. I just took a college level Network Administration class and not one mention of IPv6. Plenty of configuring Cisco IOS and IPv4 though. So, I think a lot of the problem now is both the technical issue of incompatible hardware as well as network admins and their departments who simply don't know how to implement it.",
"The problem is, generally speaking, that there is a lot of stuff that is so old that it can't handle IPv6. Or, it can, but it will require some hands-on attention that no-one really wants to pay for.\n\nThink about what kind of stuff there is around that use IP (not necessarily to communicate onto the internet, but that is CAPABLE to do so) and you see the problem.\n\nThe Internet of Things era is here, and it's here mainly because it has been up an coming for a long while already. There are some Things that are incapable of communicating on IPV6, for the very reason that it's old already.\n\nJust think of what it entails to go to every single manufacturer and require that they rebuild their built in software for hardware that is more than ten years old. Most of them would, more than likely, simple laugh in your face and get on with some business that actually make money.\n\nThe simple truth is that a lot of us have some old IP-enabled camera, or perhaps radio-broadcasting equipment, that is unable to do IPv6. Or a stove. Or a heating system. Or...perhaps a Smart TV from a few years ago when those stuff were four-five times as expensive as they are today.\n\nAll it takes is that a manufacturer is no longer in business, and there is no longer anyone willing or able to add IPv6-capabilities to otherwise fully functional hardware.\n\nWhile the internet infrastructure in general is fully capable of handling IPv6 (either that, or they do a good job hiding it by repackaging IPv6 as IPv4 until it reaches another IPv6-capable point) the issue is with end users.\n\nYou can say a lot of things about people who still run Windows 95 on their computers (mainly because they don't have the funds to replace it, I would assume) but you can also be sure that they can't do IPv6, because that capability is not built into the operating system. While you would prefer that they replace it, they will still be upset that they have to. This is, generally speaking, something that any ISP would prefer not to do to their customers, because they will then risk loosing said customer. The same goes for all that old, still functional hardware that you have in your home and your office and the building management has stashed away in their service cabinets.\n\nIPv6 is here to stay. To say that IPv4 is ready to be replaced is...to exaggerate things a bit.",
"Think of every form you have filled out in your life. They almost will all have two spots for your name. One for your first and one for your last. Some will have a third slot for your middle name or initial.\n\nIPV6 is kinda like that. Most applications are designed for names of 32bits of information (IPV4). In order to support IPV6 everyone has to go back and change their forms to support 128bit long names (IPV6).\n\nThe process takes a very long time, and up until recently wasn't an immediate business concern so many businesses put it off, or are still putting it off (it is a point of contention at my job for sure).\n\nNow that we are basically hitting the end of all ipv4 addresses, note this is not 100% true and their are workarounds to stop the worst of it, you are seeing prices of not supporting ipv6 increase. And with this increase you are seeing companies have a legitimate business concern pushing them to fix it. As such you are seeing a rapid increase in ipv6 adoption. IIRC youtube released some stats a bit back saying something like 10-20% of all traffic on youtube is now ipv6 instead of ipv4.\n\nI imagine within the next 5 years you will see 80% of the internet move to ipv6. There will still be hold outs, but work arounds for that is much cheaper and easier than working around for big things like video.",
"Also, even if you get 95% of the world IPv6 compatible, you've still got 5% that isn't. That potentially means you or your customers won't be able to communicate with that 5%. What if we were talking about postal mail. Would you accept a system that didn't let you send to 5% of your friends? Or would you demand near 100% compliance? Point is, until 99.9999999999999% of the devices are compliant you're going to leave people out and that will be unacceptable. Not only that, those devices not compliant could become bottlenecks that will be tortuously complicated to debug.",
"It's a chicken and egg scenario at its core.\n\nAccess providers need to roll out IPv6 to consumers, the difficult part with this is deciding on conventions and having people who understand IPv6 in order to keep things secure. \n\nOn the other side, content providers need to off their services over IPv6, and this means that Joe Bloggs needs to first have an ISP that provides IPv6 connectivity and then to make his blog about cats viewable, he has to make his website respond to requests that use IPv6. \n\nBut while there is little content hosted on IPv6, access providers are reluctant to spend the cash and time rolling it out to customers. And while there are few end users with IPv6, content providers don't want to invest their time either. \n\nSo it will be slow adoption at first, but it will speed up as more people have it and therefore can justify the cost.",
"The reason why is that the amount of IPv4 addresses is really low, it's about 255^4, and that's a really low value for the big growth of internet users, so they made the IPv6 protocol to enable letters in IP addresses, so it extends the number of IP addresses to 38^32 possible ones"
]
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1so8m0 | why is it when falling asleep in a loud environment, such as onboard a plane, all the ambient noise seems to disappear for a second, and then when you realize, it all comes back. what's happening? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1so8m0/eli5_why_is_it_when_falling_asleep_in_a_loud/ | {
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"You hear things because your ears have little cells that respond to vibrations in the air. Different vibrations means different sounds. These cells feel the different vibrations and send signals to the brain to make sense of these vibrations.\n\nThe way your brain processes information is somewhat different. The cells in your brain aren't just sleeping all the time and wake up only when you need them. They are always firing. They aren't firing a lot, but they are firing. The sound you \"hear\" is basically when a specific chain of cells fire louder than everything around it.\n\nIt is believed that our brains are designed to pick up/sense new things as a way of being aware of the environment. You hear the loud bang and become instantly alert because your brain tells you that sudden changes in the environment are important and could be dangerous.\n\nNow insert the plane. You first board and it's more or less quiet. The plane then slowly takes off. Lots of shaking, which you notice. Lots more noise from the engine, which you also notice. These are all changes in the environment that ears and brain are telling you are important. Now you're in the air and the loud noise has been going on for a while. All this time, your ears are like \"VIBRATIONS IN THE AIR!\". Your brain is listening to your ears and telling you \"NOISE!\" Now you're starting to nod off, but your ears are dutifully sending signals to your brain, which is also dutifully telling you there's noise.\n\nHowever, your ears and brain have been doing this for a while and this is no longer necessary. Basically, your brain says \"I get it ears. There's vibrations and that means noise but we've been in the air for two hours and that noise is probably going to be there for a while.\" You become adapted to the sounds of the plane and your brain slowly tunes down your ears constantly shouting \"VIBRATIONS IN THE AIR!\" because it knows there's already sound coming from the plane. We call this sensory adaptation. This is where any type of sense you have decreases how sensitive it is to incoming information. The reasoning behind this is that said loud noise is no longer \"new\" and therefore less important. You fall asleep.\n\nBUT WAIT! You suddenly find it strange that you're on a plane but don't hear anything. Your brain goes \"THAT'S RIGHT. WE'RE ON A PLANE, WHERE'S THE NOISE!\" All the signals your ears were still sending to your brain shouting \"VIBRATIONS\" suddenly surge to the front of your attention. The noise then returns making you wish that you had just stayed asleep."
]
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[]
] |
||
2470c4 | in movies they always smuggle money through customs. why? | Movies such as "21" or other gambling flicks, they smuggle lots of money through customs and airports. Why do they do this? Is there some form of restrictions with traveling with money or couldn't you just have money in a bank account and withdraw it on the other side? If your going to Vegas people are going to assume you are gambling, what is the difference? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2470c4/eli5_in_movies_they_always_smuggle_money_through/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch47i2d"
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"text": [
"Yes, there are restrictions on traveling with large amounts of cash, because there is no reason to deal in large amounts of cash unless you are doing something illegal. You would run into the same problem trying to deposit the money, banks are required to flag any cash transaction greater than $10,000 in a one-month period."
]
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[]
] |
|
8vxljz | why does the light from the sun start looking orange while it’s setting? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8vxljz/eli5_why_does_the_light_from_the_sun_start/ | {
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"The light is coming through the atmosphere at a different angle to the rest of the day, so a different amount of light gets to you. The particular frequency of light that happens to come through is orange. \n\nThink about slicing a loaf of bread horizontally rather than vertically, completely changes the shape of the bread, and how you're accustomed to it looking, but it's still bread. ",
"For the same reason that the sky is blue! It's a phenomenon called [Rayleigh scattering](_URL_0_). Shorter wavelengths of light (i.e. blue light) get scattered more by the atmosphere than longer wavelengths. During the day, that causes some of the blue light from the sun to kind of bounce around the atmosphere, eventually appearing to come from all directions at once. Thus making the sky look blue.\n\nBut during sunrise and sunset, the light from the sun has to pass through a lot more atmosphere than during the day (see [this image](_URL_1_)). That causes the blue light to scatter so much that most of it doesn't even reach you, causing the sun to look orange (white minus blue)."
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering",
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||
ezeyh0 | how does surplus electricity from someone's solar panels get put back into the main power grid? | If someone has solar panels or some other type of power-generating system at their house, you always hear that they can sell electricity back to the power company if they are producing more than they are using.
Physically, how does this work? Can electricity travel 2 directions on the same wire/cable? Does it just join into the main "stream" like having a garden hose from your house flowing into a river? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ezeyh0/eli5_how_does_surplus_electricity_from_someones/ | {
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"I interned with a residential/commercial solar company while earning my Mech. Eng degree. When solar is installed on a house (or commercial property) a second meter is installed. ALL of the power generated by your panels is put into the grid. When the power company comes out they read both meters. Charge you for what your house used and give you a credit for what you put in. I never saw a case of someone having the space and money to offset their bill completely.\n\nIt's more like a water reservoir. Your house used 1,000 gallons last month. You added 200 gallons. We're charging you for 800 gallons. \n\nSolar panels are DC so it goes through an converter to become AC before going through your second meter and being added to the grid.",
"Electricity can travel in both directions across the same wire. But its limited to one way at a time. \n\nWhat happens is when you are generating power from solar, it first checks what is needed to supply your home. Then the excess goes back to the grid. If the panels are not producing enough then the grid supplements the rest. \n\nSo electricity is only traveling either from the grid or to the grid. Not both at the same time."
]
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[],
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40j3lr | how are we sure that humans won't have adverse effects from things like social media, and our wired culture where we are in increasingly constant contact with each other? | Inspired by this post, _URL_0_.
Yesterday I got to thinking, we are the first generation to have internet access and in a lot of obvious ways, this has had a huge impact on human culture. We don't really know what the long-term psychosocial effects of social media are, and I wonder how likely it will be that, in the future, history will be teaching about how all of this contributed to the decay of human societies. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40j3lr/eli5how_are_we_sure_that_humans_wont_have_adverse/ | {
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"Plato, in [The Phaedrus](_URL_0_), decried the harm that writing would do. We wouldn't have to memorize things anymore, we would just write them down. As a guy who believed that everything in our world was a cheap knock-off of the perfect things in the \"world of the forms,\" writing (like art, which he also wasn't a fan of) was artifice of artifice.\n\nYou tell me, did society collapse with the ubiquity of writing? That doesn't necessarily mean that the internet will follow the same harmless path but that there is precedent for fear about a technology that is unwarranted.",
"Society doesn't decay, it just changes. You could say that particular versions of society \"decayed\" but only if you assume that another version has inherently less value.",
"One thing that has already happened that could be considered \"adversive\" is how constant access to the internet has effected our memories.\nBasically what [science!](_URL_0_) believes has happened is that by being cognizant of the fact we can ask Google anything at almost any time, our brains have adapted by not devoting as much energy to remembering everything themselves because it knows we can just look up the information again later. i.e. Our memories have gotten worse and it's Google' fault"
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40gmtu/eli5_how_are_we_sure_that_humans_wont_have/"
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2ycweg | why does the mlb have a 40 round entry draft while the nfl has only 7? | On top of that, NFL teams are huge, yet they make do with 7 rounds, while MLB teams are big yet smaller than NFL teams, they need 40 rounds and extensive farm systems. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ycweg/eli5_why_does_the_mlb_have_a_40_round_entry_draft/ | {
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"It's because of the minor league teams. Since NFL doesn't have minor league, they don't need to draft as many players each year. ",
"Instead of a strong college presence, baseball has a very deep farm system, and need a deeper draft to fill that system. Baseball players typically need a few years of seasoning before they are ready for the majors, and teams want to make sure they keep the players they invest in.\n\nWith football, college ball is the farm system, and they are only interested in finished products from college.",
"MLB teams also have to fill rosters on up to six minor league teams as well as the major league one."
]
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|
1vne7n | if the players and coaches and owners constantly change, why do (how can) people have such fierce loyalty to particular sports teams? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vne7n/eli5_if_the_players_and_coaches_and_owners/ | {
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"text": [
"Location, location, location... and season tickets. Players, coaches, and owners do not change that often.",
"Owners rarely change. ",
"It's more what the team stands for (community pride, etc) than the team itself. After all why are the Americans so patriotic when the president changes every 4-8 years?"
]
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[],
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||
2qyi9r | why is nat only an issue on consoles? | I was listening to the RT Podcast, and Burnie Burns asked a really good question; if NAT is router based thing, why do PC games never worry about NAT whereas console gamers struggle with (getting an Open) NAT in order to play with certain friends? All PC Master Race jokes aside, I am honestly pretty interested in why NAT really is only an issue on consoles. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qyi9r/eli5why_is_nat_only_an_issue_on_consoles/ | {
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"in addition to some of these comments:\n\n- many routers support UPNP, which allows a program to request that the router open (and forward) a specific port. This is not specific to PCs, but worth keeping in mind with the next comment.\n\n- unlike consoles, which are MASSIVELY proprietary, there is a TON of open source and readily available code and libraries that can be included in PC applications (games/etc). As such, it'd probably take a day to add UPNP support to an application, whereas a console game may need to implement some or all of the protocol itself (depending on what the console APIs provide)",
"NAT causes issues for PC games also, but PC games have a lot more control over the low level networking of the system, and can do things (like use STUN, _URL_0_) to convince both NAT devices to treat the connection as coming from the inside. Consoles are subject to the limitations of the Console's networking features, and what the developer decides you need to make the game work, where as PCs, MACs and Linux machines have extensive general purpose networking interfaces that are intended for other applications, and the games can use those methods to \"get around\" the assumptions that a console developer might have to make. \n\nThe other side of this is that Console networking is harder to do then PC networking, just because of the type of interface. if i want to change my IP address to make a connection work on my PC, i just need to type a few commands on my keyboard, to do the same on the console, i have to navigate to a hidden settings menu and type the new IPs using the analog sticks. "
]
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[],
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dftd63 | why do some old wires (e.g. headphones, charging cables) work when put in some positions but not others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dftd63/eli5_why_do_some_old_wires_eg_headphones_charging/ | {
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"Every cable you have is actually numerous small metal wires bundled together. The issue you've described is called a short in a cable, which means some or all of these wires have broken, so the connection is broken when they aren't correctly positioned.",
"Wear, tear, and rust.\n\nElectricity is finicky - if there is no good connection on the connector then it cannot flow. If the wire is severed, a gap in the circuit, it is referred as an open circuit. If the wire touches an alternate path to ground (that has less resistance) it is referred as a short (taking a short-cut around the circuitry)\n\nSometimes we can twist the cables just right that a good connection is made and then it works and other times it doesn't connect correctly"
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4w6gjs | how do redness relieving eye drops work vs normal lubricating ones? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4w6gjs/eli5_how_do_redness_relieving_eye_drops_work_vs/ | {
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"text": [
"Normal lubricating eye drops contain water and some oils and mimics your own tear drops.\n\nRedness relieving eye drops contain an ingredient which makes the blood vessels in your eyes contract."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
875npc | how do fabrics absorb liquids and what factors determine their absorbency? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/875npc/eli5_how_do_fabrics_absorb_liquids_and_what/ | {
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"text": [
"Fabrics absorb moisture through [capillary action](_URL_0_). The same principle that allows candle wicks to absorb wax and burn. Basically, liquids will almost always want to merge with dry materials.\n\nAs for the second part, it depends on how tightly woven the material is. The more air space between fibers, the more potential space for moisture. For example, a loose cotton ball will soak up more moisture than a piece of denim or polyester because there is much more space/air between individual fibers than the latter."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_action"
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||
1btjfl | why does my iphone's safari browser auto-refresh a webpage when i return to its tab? | This drives me crazy. So very much. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1btjfl/eli5_why_does_my_iphones_safari_browser/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It doesn't auto-refresh. \n\nWhen you load a website, all the information you downloaded gets moved to your browsers cache. The cache is special memory that browsers use. On a PC your cache can be in the hundreds of megabytes. On your smartphone however it is very limited. \n\nYour iPhone loads a webpage and places it into the cache. You go to another page and that other page needs to fill up all of your remaining cache. To get this free space, it removes that \"other tab\" from the cache. When you return to the 1st tab it has to reload itself, because the page was deleted from the cache.\n\nDid you get it?"
]
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299q2i | who pays for the renovations on reality tv shows like bar rescue or kitchen nightmares? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/299q2i/eli5_who_pays_for_the_renovations_on_reality_tv/ | {
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"text": [
"The show pays, it's part of their budget. The don't have to build sets or pay actors so they can do expensive renos and they're still pretty cheap shows to make.",
"Combination of the show's budget and products provided by vendors (either donated or purchased at a discount). If you watch the first season of Bar Rescue, you'll notice limited product/brand placement. They just recently showed the first episode they filmed (it never aired) and they barely remodeled the place. They had no budget and no sponsors. Now, the first thing you see in the credits is a list of 7 or 8 vendors whose products were featured on the show.\n\nJon Taffer is a big brand now. Getting him to co-sign something in the bar and restaurant industry pays for itself."
]
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[],
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1mp0hj | why does the color blue appear calm/soothing to the eyes even though it has more energy (shorter wavelength) than most other colors? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mp0hj/eli5_why_does_the_color_blue_appear_calmsoothing/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccbbynt"
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"text": [
"Yes, blue light does contain more energy than red light, but difference between them is infinitesimally small, hence you don't feel it very much.\nRed color is more distressing probably because most people associate it with blood, and blue color with clear sky."
]
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80m5mj | why does america drive with automatic transmission for the most part, while most of the world still drives manual transmissions? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80m5mj/eli5_why_does_america_drive_with_automatic/ | {
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"I don’t really know but probably because General Motors purchased the innovation of the automatic transmission and it was quite novel at the time. Since, people just thought it was easier and less work to concentrate on the gearing. Now people just get into car accidents because they’re looking at their cell/mobile phones.\n\nI’ve heard of more people going back to manual just because it’s “vintage” and also easier to take care of. Plus zoom zoom.",
"Not sure if just America or everywhere.\n\n_URL_0_ \n\nManual sales in Australia was already taking a dive in 2015",
"I think the real question is what America’s obsession with column shift gearboxes is! I don’t know if it’s just a movie thing, but column shift is essentially obsolete in most other places in the developed world. ",
"1) Current automatic transmissions are actually more efficient than manuals.\n\n2) Very small diesel engines never caught on in the US.\n\n3) US tends to have more powerful vehicles, so small efficiencies from manual are not needed.\n\n4) Manual sucks in stop and go traffic.\n\nI like a stick, but I understand why a lot of people don't.",
"Most of the people I know drive manual. I have driven both and currently have automatic. \n\nEuropean roads are generally narrower, bendier and steeper than roads in the US so need more \"driving\". A manual gives more control on difficult corners and being able to select 2nd gear for complex maneuvers and tight parking is a definite boon. There is generally the feeling that you are more in control of the car and are \"driving\" it rather than \"being driven\".\n\nAdd to that the fact that automatics are less fuel efficient - and fuel in Europe is expensive - and it is generally thought they are less reliable and more expensive to fix (this may no longer be true).\n\nFinally, there is the question of image. Automatics for a long time were seen as \"old ladies\" cars and for a lot of young men it would be extremely embarrassing to confess you drove an automatic -\n tantamount to saying you had a stairlift or wore adult diapers. However, this too is changing.",
"I have been almost always driving a manual in Europe, then moved to the US for some time and got an automatic. After coming back to Europe I decided to look for an automatic as well - it's easier in city traffic and more convenient if you want to drink a coffee while driving. At the time it was an Accord with a 4 speed transmission. I found it to be quite a hassle actually, since the car was often in a wrong gear and I had to manipulate the throttle and brake to get the right gear before certain maneuvers. I think it just has to do with the way European streets are roads are build (not as straight and wide as in the US, a lot of passing, tight parking). Driving is more difficult in Europe and the manual transmission often helps. That being said, I now drive a manual and miss the convenience of an automatic transmission. I also think the dual clutch auto transmission is probably better suited for European roads and I think that the technology has matured enough for me to consider it for my next car (VW group had some issues with both electronics and clutch wearing prematurely in their first transmissions).",
"Ever see someone who has never driven an automatic drive one? Total confusion .",
"How else am I gonna eat my cheeseburger and drive man?\n\nI believe like pre late 2000s manuals made more sense for miles/kilometer per gallon as manuals used less. In the US gas is cheaper than in the EU, hence why European cars tend to have 2.0 liter engines and Americans can get away with large V8's without breaking the bank. \n\nNowadays manuals are outdated, they're no longer better for racing as automatic transmission have made huge leaps and bounds in terms of shifting speed and gas usage. Autos now get better gas mileage. Manuals are still cheaper, and easier to work on but it's really not that big of a deal. \n\nI am like 85% sure the above is correct lol. Manuals are fun tho, I miss my old one...think my next car will be one. Manuals made me a better driver too I think, since it forced me to be focused on that car and the road. ",
"A different point, I think the fact that most people in America basically have to own cars and aren't just reducing the number to those who enjoy the car. So like as a higher percentage of people who drive cars Europeans are bigger into cars.",
"American here! I just purchased a brand new car that is a manual. The salesman looked suprised he asked if I was comfortable with driving a manual. Also, I was taught how to drive in a manual vehicle.",
"I like manuals but I now drive a car with a CVT (continuous variable transmission).\n\nIt's more fuel efficient than a human ever could be, and I don't have to pay attention to shifting in traffic. In my commute it's either stop-and-go city driving or open highway so there's no real advantage to having gear control, and the fuel efficiency in the city is leagues above what I could ever achieve with a manual, usually within 10-20% (30 vs. 35 mpg) of my highway fuel efficiency. Also, there are like 4 options for different rpms if I really need it.",
"It's 2018. Automatics are superior. \n\n20 years ago it was different but it's an attitude that lingers. ",
"I’m not sure most of the world uses manual transmissions, but the main reason I would assume is mainly price and ease of maintenance. \n\nA manual transmission is cheaper, lighter, and easier to maintain than an automatic transmissions system. \n\nThat’s about it. I assume performance between the two systems is basically the same about now, with all the advancements in car technology we’ve had. ",
"Manual transmission is cheaper. In the past it was more economical in terms of fuel efficiency. But now automatic and manual transmission aren't too different in terms of fuel economy, so there isn't much of a reason to drive manual now. ",
"One reason, is Americans tend to like bigger cars. Back in the day that could mean a very heavy clutch pedal if it was manual. Also, automatics have been pushed as the luxury option.",
"Unless you're racing or hauling why wouldn't you want an auto?",
"Generally speaking, American's don't have left feet. As a result, the only way they could drive clutch is if they used a hand clutch. \n\nWhile most Americans make more than $600,000/yr, many hand-clutch vehicles are still out of our price range.\n\nTo accommodate our lack of left feet, we use automatic shift vehicles and rapidly stomp between pedals with our right foot.",
"So we can eat our donuts and put on our makeup while we drive. It's called multi-tasking!\n\nAlso, because teaching your kid to drive is already a terrifying affair... Much less trying to teach standard. \n\nSome would say it's laziness, but I prefer the word \"efficiency\".\n\n(We can afford the luxury, so why not)",
"This is gonna get buried, but I've had a few people tell me this reason.\n\nIn many European countries, there are two \"levels\" of driver's licences, one for manual and one for automatic transmissions. People who pass the manual transmission test are allowed to drive automatics too, but not the other way around. Many new licencees lean on a manual car to take the manual test, so they don't get stranded with a car they can't drive. Now, you have the majority of the population able to drive a manual transmission, and auto manufactures can build these for cheaper. Cheaper cars attract more buyers (because they're able to drive them) so more manual cars make it into circulation. This encourages more people to licence standard transmissions... You see the cycle.\n\n**TL:DR;** It's because it's cheaper and because the drivers know how.",
"Japan seems to have mostly automatics. Yes, anecdotal evidence from some random internet guy (dog?), take it for what you will.",
"Simple because of the amount of traffic in large cities makes driving a manual more impratical. And as a whole, Americans drive more than other countries.",
"While we're all here can someone ELI5: How on earth do 4 lanes of freeway traffic come to a stop, if there are no accidents? What the fuck is the deal? ",
"I live in the US (upstate NY) and drive a manual. I hope that I never have to return to automatic. I hate them! They lag when you step on the gas, I feel as if I have less control over my vehicle, and manuals are so much more fun to drive! I don't even mind it in city traffic. I honestly get bored and thus more distracted while driving an automatic because I don't have to pay as much attention to my driving. ",
"Real answer for ya:\n\nAmerica developed around it's population, and it's population will always migrate to wherever the job market is. These job markets more often than not are in big cities with corporations, factories, etc. Well most families, if given a choice (and stable income), would prefer a nice family home with plenty of space for kids, pets, and visitors rather than a cramped apartment in a noisey, bustling city. Thus, American culture gravitated towards endless suburbs instead of highrise apartments in every city. \n\nConsequentially, this upped the working class's average commute time by a substantial amount. Now, not everyone is a driving enthusiast that gets rock hard switching through gears of a manual transmission day in and day out on a 50 mile, round trip commute from work to their home. GM and Ford knew this, and started mass producing automatics and marketing them towards families because the automatic trans basically sold itself to the consumer. \n\nThis was not the case in smaller, European countries with more established cities that had already built themselves around pedestrianism (I think that's the word), public transportation, and if needed, a cheap little manual transmission car to get you from point A to point B. Automatics aren't easy to sell to people that don't really need or want them. \n\nHope this answered your question. ",
"The majority of Americans cannot operate a manual transmission because they were never taught because their parents didn't know how to either.\n\nSource: am American who knows how to use a clutch",
"Too many long-winded explanations here.\n\nAutomatics are easier to drive. Most people just want something easy to drive.",
"I bought my first new car for my current job. \nI travel 30 miles each way. Lots of it In stop and go traffic. \nThe price difference between standard and automatic wasn’t a factor. \nI can drive stick shift like a bat outta hell but I would be more annoyed having to shift every 9 feet. \n",
"The overwhelming majority of electric vehicles use single-speed gearboxes, so the whole manual vs. automatic thing will eventually become moot",
"In a word: \"Luxury.\"\n\nWhen automatic transmissions came onto the scene, they were sold as an upgrade, and lots of people bought into that.\n\nAs time has gone on, the manufacturers have cut majorly back on shipments of cars with manual transmissions to the point where they're practically a special order item, which you have to pay shipping on (buying out of the showroom doesn't have this additional fee applied).\n\nThe last time I looked, the cost of \"shipping\" was roughly equal to the amount \"saved\" by \"downgrading\" to a manual transmission.\n\nTLDR: The numbers are extremely low right now because getting a manual transmission costs roughly the same as an automatic, and you have to wait a few weeks to get it. Only die-hard manual devotees are going to do that, and there aren't that many people like that.",
"In Czech Republic most people drive manuals. The reason is very simple - people want cheap cars that are cheap to run and cheap to maintain. The general consensus is that cheap cars with automatics cost more to run and maintain than their manual counterparts.\n\nIf you have the money to shell out for a good car with a good auto, and you like that kind of thing, then so be it. Nobody really cares here, at worst your parents (who, if you're old enough, may have had to deal with commie block cars) will call you lazy.\n\nYou're taught to drive a manual, most people around you drive a manual, and your first car (usually an old Skoda) will probably be a manual. \n\nAlmost noone complains about driving a manual in traffic because it's normal. I've heard way more complaints about autos acting stupid and sometimes outright dangerous while driving on twisty roads. (Crappy cheap automatic transmission bias? Definitely.)\n\nAlso, while drivers here can be a bit aggressive, they generally know pretty damn well how to drive. ",
"Historically, Americans have had a lot of disposable income and culturally seem willing pay a great deal of money for convenience.\n\nAutomatics are expensive, but very convenient.",
"I recall a look of bewilderment when I said part of my requirements for buying a car are that it's a manual. The dealer was very confused, \" but we have these lovely automatics!?\" \n\nI space out when I drive automatics, I don't feel in control of of the car and when the snow hits??? No thank you, I'll take a stick any day\n\nI believe most Americans see Manuals as a burden. \"It's too hard, I just want to get where I'm going, I'm not a race car driver\" \n\nLaziness and lack of training on manuals. ",
"American here, personally I learned on an automatic and most people I knew had automatics. However when I went to buy my first new car at 20ish I decided to force myself to get a manual, so if I ever decided in the future I wanted one I would already know stick. That was 6 years ago and I have never regretted my decision I really enjoy driving stick personally. I will admit driving in stop and go traffic on the highway is not that fun in stick, I try to leave some room between the car in front and just leave my car in second. \n\n\nBiggest enjoyment out of stick is probably the finer control you have over your car, since I have a 4 cyl fiesta its nice to have some pep when needed. ",
"Money. We don't get taxed on small things considered luxuries or unnecessary. Taxi driver in Ireland told me that air conditioning was an extra grand, auto transmission was same, power windows, door locks, etc. So a 20k car had and Additional 10k in on just taxes because those were luxury add ons. He bought used high millage cars from England because after shipping and even the constant repairs it was still cheaper to get a fully loaded car. Many others said the same and mind you I wa3a in Ireland for 2 weeks. ",
"Because being forced to shift from 2nd gear to first gear in traffic for 40 minutes blows fucking dicks.\n\nSource, drive manual transmission car in America"
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12g7sy | why do we want to buy more although we have enough? for example, i like leather wallets and, although i have a very nice one, when i see another nice one, i want to have that one too... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12g7sy/why_do_we_want_to_buy_more_although_we_have/ | {
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"I mean, you didn't *need* the first one either. Plenty of people make do without a very nice leather wallet.\n\nWe want to buy more than we need because our society (like almost all societies) places value on the ability to do that. If I can buy something like a nice leather wallet, that increases my social status.",
"It's kind of evolutionary (if you believe this kind of stuff). Back in the days when saber-toothed tigers (and dinosaurs, for those who are more into creationism) roamed the porches of our ancestors, it came in handy to loot as much as you could, especially foot and, yeah, leather clothing (and the occasional leather wallet to fit the style) for when it's cold, and maybe store it under the porch, just wait till the tiger isn't around. That's because there wasn't very much to loot back then, and nobody could afford to *not* pick up a nice pair of tasty venison after a week or a month without any.\nNonetheless, even back then there already where people that thought to themselves 'No, I liked venison before everybody else, now everybody eats it so I don't do this anymore'. (And worse, after thinking this they went around and told everybody about it but that doesn't add to the explanation). So, fast forward to the very same winter that year, all the guys that looted like crazy had lots of food, survived that winter and lived to pass their genes to the next generation while those who weren't into hoarding died of hunger and vanished from the gene pool. So here you have it, only the take-it-all-genes survived and here is the good news, your ancestors were no hipsters.\nThe bad news is, you're kind of a hoarder because some part of your brain thinks you will die in the winter if you don't buy that wallet before it gets cold outside.\nEdit: spelling."
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a3j164 | why do some fruits need peeling (like a banana needs to be peeled before being eaten) while other fruits have a edible skin (like how an apple doesn’t need to be peeled before eaten)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a3j164/eli5_why_do_some_fruits_need_peeling_like_a/ | {
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"Apples have a skin that is easily digested. Bananas do not. Banana peel also doesn't taste very nice.",
"It's not that most fruits have a wholly inedible (i.e. poisonous) skin, it's that the flesh inside is sweet while most skins are bitter. So really, you don't have to peel any fruit before you eat it. It'll just taste bad."
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41ty00 | how can whatsapp plan on making money after they have scraped the subscription fee when they don't plan on using ads for revenue. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41ty00/eli5_how_can_whatsapp_plan_on_making_money_after/ | {
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"Imagine your girlfriend tells you on whatsapp that she wants to eat Chinese tonight. You then go check Facebook, and you see an add for a Chinese restaurant dropping the food to your home if you need it.\n\nYou're a simple man, so you want sex. To have sex, girlfriend must be happy. To be happy, she needs to eat Chinese tonight. So you click and buy Chinese.\n\nYou have sex, Chinese sells food, WhatsApp sold the data. Everyone is happy.",
"I'm sure it's more complicated than this but isn't it just another piece of the Facebook knows your soul data empire? I don't think they are too concerned with monetizing WhatsApp, it's more about preventing competitors from entering the market. "
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92910b | why do electrical short-circuits create fire | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92910b/eli5_why_do_electrical_shortcircuits_create_fire/ | {
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"A short circuit can carry a *huge* amount of energy per second. This can get the wires so hot that they set nearby materials on fire.",
"Electricity generates heat equal to current squared times resistance. If your resistance drops close to zero, your current will have such a huge spike that the heat generated will cause any flammable material to start burning",
"A short circuit draws the max current (energy flow) available from the supply, which is many times what the circuit was designed for. The excess energy has nowhere to go so it turns into heat, causing the cable to get very hot and set fire to the insulation and surrounding materials (like a building's timber frame)."
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z1wcs | why is it legal for me to brew my own beer, but not to distil my own whiskey? | I don't understand why home brewing is a legal hobby, but moonshiners still can't make their own liquor. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z1wcs/eli5_why_is_it_legal_for_me_to_brew_my_own_beer/ | {
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"A distillery can be dangerous and is a significant fire hazard, while a homebrewing setup is not. Also, the distillation process can yield at times types of alcohol that can cause blindness, while the worse health hazard that can result from homebrewing is a bacterial infection, like ones that cause food poisoning.\n\nSimply put, homebrewing is seen as a low risk practice with minimal health concerns, while distillation is considered a risk to others and can cause serious health concerns.\n\nSource: I homebrew and in the process have researched distillation.\nEdit: researched",
"There are also historical reasons having to do with taxation. A grain crop is very bulky, so it was expensive and time-consuming to transport it to market. By distilling it, it becomes much more portable, and on the frontier was often used as a form of currency. The government taxed the distillation of spirits as a way of taxing trade on the frontier - a \"sales tax\" for a barter economy, if you will.\n\n (Aside: This tax on distilled spirits, intended as a tax on trade, was viewed by the farmers as a tax on their crops. Historical resistance to this form of taxation includes everything from the \"Whiskey Rebellion\" of the early 1790s to the modern day \"moonshiners\").\n\nBy contrast, beer is not less bulky than the grain it is made from. Also it requires additional ingredients (hops, particularly). Beer wasn't used as a medium of exchange, then, so the government never saw the need to tax its production.\n\nIn other words: home-distilling is a form of tax evasion, home-brewing is not.",
"Living in Alabama, I want to point out that homebrewing is not legal everywhere. They've been trying to make it legal here for years, but keep getting stopped. Right now the only way to open a brewery in AL is to put it in a building that is historically a brewery. Because of this there are very few locations in the state that can be used as breweries.",
"The highest rated post here is not the correct answer.\nThose that speak of taxes and refer to the whiskey rebellion are more accurate. ",
"Government creates arbitrary laws. Do you want more of is or less?"
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2ebcn4 | when someone dies wrongfully and the family sues somebody, how is the amount of money the family gets determined? | For instance, if I get hit by a drunk driver or something and my family sues, how do they come up with a monetary number and say "bootpackin was worth 12.5 million dollars" or whatever? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ebcn4/eli5_when_someone_dies_wrongfully_and_the_family/ | {
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"When they bring the case, the number is kind of arbitrary. There are all sorts of formulas that can be used. The lost expected income from the rest of his career, the cost of emotional distress/therapy, lost wages on your end, funeral costs, multiplied by ten for punitive damages. \n\nReally though, they're just posturing. The actual money that gets awarded will be decided by the judge at trial. That number will then likely get reduced upon appeal. ",
"It is based on the amount of damage the family suffered. There are different types of damages:\n\n* Compensatory damages - the actual damage the family suffered, includes loss of future earnings, loss of companionship, pain and suffering, etc.\n* Statutory damages - damages explicitly specified by law...a law might say that a death caused by a drunk driver is $100,000 in damages\n* Punitive damages - damages awarded specifically to punish the perpetrator\n\nAlso, many large awards are actually settlements. A rich person or corporation might pay a large amount to avoid a criminal trial."
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3kdxg9 | can something orbit the earth indefinitely? | Supposing the satellite has no engines, could it maintain the same orbit indefinitely?
Let's say the moon...is the current orbit the same as it was million of years ago? Would it eventually get closer and closer to the earth and crash? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kdxg9/eli5_can_something_orbit_the_earth_indefinitely/ | {
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"Theoretically, yes? Practically, no?\n\nWe have the necessary equations to determine, for two objects of a given mass, what would be a perfect orbit that would last forever. But things in reality aren't perfect. There are external forces, quantum fluctuations, and limits to our ability to be precise that means that any orbit would eventually decay, either spiraling into the main body, or away into outer space.",
"You can find the dV- requirements for various orbits [here](_URL_0_).\nThis tells you how much a spacecraft needs to accelerate to maintain it's orbit. The higher you go the less you need, and considering the orbital velocity around earth it will take a long time to decelerate something out of orbit. Also relevant: [Kessler Syndrome] (_URL_1_)."
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3p4cnk | at the end of ww2, what happened to ordinary german soldiers? did they just put away their guns/gear and resume civilian life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p4cnk/eli5_at_the_end_of_ww2_what_happened_to_ordinary/ | {
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"Yes. Only the high ranking war criminals were taken to trial. It's entirely impractical to persecute an entire country after they've already been beaten. It costs insane amounts money and it's inhumane. \n\nTake out the higher ranking officials and you make a statement and in a sense dealing with all of them. ",
"Pretty much. That's typical for the end of most wars, actually. When it's over, it's over and everyone just sort of goes home and acts like it never happened. The same was true at the end of our US Civil War. After Appomatox, the Confederates literally just walked home to resume their normal lives. ",
"Yes, pretty much. My great uncle(Not blood related but was in a relationship with great aunt) fought for Germany and moved to Ireland after the war and started to build model train sets. ",
"So, after World War 1 the Germans had an army called the _Reichswehr_ which was just a standing army, probably perceived on the same level as Canada's army (nobody things about it that much, except maybe Canada). When the Nazis took over, they rebranded it the _wehrmacht_ and gave it a lot more power/weapons to show off Germany's might. But, this was mostly just regular army folk serving their country, not a bunch of people _trying to destroy the jews_. There was a branch known as the SS that was more akin to Hitler's personal guard and these were often forces that _were_ about Nazi sentiments and attitudes. After the war, many of these people were captured and put on trial. Many more were executed by people who discovered who they were. Many, many MORE escaped and may have lived on to die naturally, helping top leaders escape to live in Latin America. Josef Mengele died of a stroke in 1979 in Brazil. He escaped Germany by pretending to be an ordinary member of the Wehrmact infantry, whom the allies were not interested in punishing personally[.](_URL_0_)"
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3zh7az | why cant a space shuttle take off using a method similiar to an an aeroplane? | As the title may indicate, physics is not my forte. However, I just saw a video of a space shuttle taking off, when i suddenly thought 'why must it take off in an explosive, vertical manner?' Can't it just take off in the same way an aeroplane does, but continue it's ascent past our atmosphere and into space?
I am not under any illusion that I am going to revolutionise space travel with this thought, I am sure there is good reason it doesn't. I just don't know it, and would like to.
I suppose a follow on question could be, does this mean that the casual travelling between galaxies using basic spacecrafts in sci-fi just isnt possible, and never will be? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zh7az/eli5_why_cant_a_space_shuttle_take_off_using_a/ | {
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"It takes an awful lot of fuel to get up to orbital velocity (which is about 17,500 mph). Most of the fuel to get up to that speed is burned escaping the first 40,000 feet or so, which is the thickest part of the atmosphere. \n\nThe space shuttle stack weighs a total of 4.5 million pounds. There is no way that a plane weighing that much could take off using the lift of wings. \n\nThere is a design for a British SSTO (single stage to orbit) called Skylon. It takes off like a plane using conventional jet power and transfers over to rocket power when it escapes the thickest part of the atmosphere. The downside is that the weight of all that fuel means that it can't carry large payloads into space like the shuttle did.\n\n > I suppose a follow on question could be, does this mean that the casual travelling between galaxies using basic spacecraftin sci-fi just isnt possible, and never will be?\n\nTravelling between galaxies is basically impossible. It takes the light from out sun 2.5 million years to reach the nearest galaxy, and that is literally going the fastest that anything can travel. Even reaching the nearest star is 4.2 lightyears away. \n\n",
"To fly like an aeroplane, it would need lift. Lift is generated by the interactions of the wings and the air. The air is notoriously thin in space, so no lift, so no 'up.'\n\nAdditionally, achieving orbital velocity is hard. Things don't orbit by 'flying' around the Earth. More correctly, they are falling. But they are moving 'sideways' so fast that they are always missing the ground as they fall, the ground 'curves away' as fast as they fall towards it. This takes tremendous velocity, space shuttles would move at faster than 17,000 miles per hour while orbiting the Earth. It's impossible to fit the fuel to get that speed onto the space shuttle, and if you aren't going fast enough then your 'falling' intersects the ground, which is problematic. That's why you see those fuel tanks that pop off. \n\nIn fact, you mention taking off in a 'vertical manner.' The majority of that fuel is to go horizontally, the vertical bit is just the easiest part to see (close to the ground).\n\n > I suppose a follow on question could be, does this mean that the casual travelling between galaxies using basic spacecrafts in sci-fi just isnt possible, and never will be?\n\nThe major impediment to traveling between galaxies is distance. Even within our galaxy, the nearest stars would take extremely long times to reach with any feasible acceleration we can devise right now. The idea of practical 'trade between star systems' will have to wait until we discover some new form of physics that lets us cheat, and there's no guarantee such physics exist. So right now, yes it doesn't seem possible and it might never be. \n\nConceivably we could develop technologies that would allow us to sustain accelerations or preserve crew long enough reach other systems, but even then they'd basically be 'islands in the night.' Trade or cooperation would be largely ruled out by the logistical and economical and/or relativistic barriers of the distance. "
]
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[],
[]
] |
|
9dtn4b | why is it generally a bad idea to use your computer while it’s charging? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9dtn4b/eli5_why_is_it_generally_a_bad_idea_to_use_your/ | {
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"The problem were the batteries. The old ones we used to have could not handle the stress of being charged halfway and powering the computer, or being charged halfway only and then used. This lowered the power the battery can hold and it became less and less everytime you charged it again. The new batteries we use today can handle it way better and can keep more power longer.",
"That is a myth. There is no reason to not use your computer while it’s charging. I can post link after link to show this is the case. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
dtpryw | what happens physically, mentally, etc. across the world that makes fireworks almost universally enjoyed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dtpryw/eli5_what_happens_physically_mentally_etc_across/ | {
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"text": [
"I’m guessing it’s because people know it’s a tradition and it’s colourful and sparkly and it just looks cool in general."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
36fh86 | how is carl icahn, top 10 apple shareholder, allowed by the sec to pump apple stock in the media? | What's the loophole I'm not aware of? Seems like pure manipulation. Is the opposite of message board "bashing" totally fair game? Even if he's posting a hypothetical future valuation based on some rumor of a hypothetical product?
_URL_0_
"Apple is poised to enter and in our view dominate two new categories (the television next year and the automobile by 2020) with a combined addressable market of $2.2 trillion, a view investors don’t appear to factor into their valuation at all," Icahn wrote on Monday.
"It is unclear how much insight Icahn has into the iPhone maker's plans for future products. An Apple spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment." | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36fh86/eli5_how_is_carl_icahn_top_10_apple_shareholder/ | {
"a_id": [
"crdikkp"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The only people restricted by the SEC from saying whatever they want, are people with \"material knowledge\". This means they know what is actually going to happen. Icahn doesn't have any control over what Apple does, and Apple doesn't tell him (thus, no material knowledge)."
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/18/us-apple-icahn-idUSKBN0O31LU20150518"
] | [
[]
] |
|
5xkvsa | how does arizona ice tea keep its 99c price when there's inflation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xkvsa/eli5_how_does_arizona_ice_tea_keep_its_99c_price/ | {
"a_id": [
"deiuwu6"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"- It costs pennies on the dollar to manufacture a drink\n\n- [The company has found ways to lower their production cost over the years,](_URL_0_) offsetting the losses from inflation\n\n- The price is part of brand identity and is a form of cheap advertising, which drives sales. In other words, raising the price would ruin the product's reputation and cause sales to drop, which would hurt the company more than inflation does."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/arizona-iced-tea-price-don-vultaggio-interview"
]
] |
||
203v86 | why couldn't imperial empires maintain their colonies? | Why couldn't empires like Britain, France, and Spain control all their overseas possessions? Britain couldn't control America or India. France couldn't control modern day Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos. Spain couldn't control the Caribbean or Latin America. Why couldn't these "world powers" settle revolts made by weak civilians? Also why did these world powers also just allow some of their colonies to secede? Australia, Canada,... just left. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/203v86/eli5_why_couldnt_imperial_empires_maintain_their/ | {
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"text": [
"Each empire is unique but with lots of overlap. One of the common problems was that, to oversimplify it, success leads to indulgence. All the big empires, starting with Rome (in first the Republican and later the Imperial periods) went into debt because they were convinced that their success was due to divine intervention. The Romans taxed the crap out of their provinces and provided free food to citizens of the City of Rome. Spain \"discovered\" the Americas in 1492, and by 1690 over 90% of the gold and silver coming out of the new world went to interest on their national debt. Britain used its colonies as markets to sell their finished products, and only allowed the colonies to provide raw materials, often prohibiting the production of finished goods; millions of Indians starved during WWII because of a famine/drought combined with much of the crops going to feed the British forces. The French, and to a lesser extent the Belgians, brutally squeezed their colonies for resources. \nThe Italians tried to replace the local population in Libya, as the French did in Algeria (The Russians did this during the Soviet era with great success, due to reducing the local population through both artificial famine and forced relocation).\n ",
"It stopped working when the cost of running a colony exceeded the profits of owning it. For the Romans, it happened when a combination of factors (plague, population, migration) made the ungodly-long border of empire too long to defend from the swarming hordes of foreigners. The Italians and Germans (the last to get into the \"scramble for Arfica\") lost theirs in the world wars. Spain lost them all by failing to try very hard to keep them after the resources were used up (look up Simon Bolivar). For the other Europeans (Britain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands), several factors came into play: two world wars put them in so much debt that they could not afford to adequately garrison their colonies; rising standards of international conduct no longer allowed them to repress uprisings in the traditionally brutal manner; the Soviet Union and United States becames bottomless bank accounts to support anyone who claimed to be on their team. ",
"In the case of the mid-century colonial breakup, it was because all of the European powers had just been bombed to hell and back and were in no condition to put down armed rebellions in their colonies, especially not when dealing with a giant communist superpower looking to make allies by bringing power to any oppressed people. India left after a struggle, Canada and Australia achieved sovereignty but still have the Queen as technical head of state, Southeast Asia rose up and fought off the French (with the aid of said commies), and so on. In pretty much every breakup of every empire a war was involved, and it just became too expensive or too much of a strategic risk to divert forces abroad when they were needed at home. ",
"And in today's news, Russia shows us how to do it right, or at least successfully. They did all of their expansion in areas that bordered the original Russian empire, and they force-populated the regions with ethnic Russians. If I recall correctly, by 1970 the Soviet republic Kazakhstan was more than 50% Russian, and many of the Kazakhs were sent as far away as the far east. There were Koreans in Ukraine, Chinese in Siberia, and Chechens everywhere (which they are regretting now). \nWhen the Soviet Union fell apart, they drew back within their borders, and are now slowly using economic power (energy) to creep back into their former clients. The best way to take over a county is to push in so many of your people that you have a majority, then hold an election.\nOverseas areas they meddled in but refused to take ownership, keeping up a cycle upheaval that prevented the other side from succeeding. The easiest way to do this was simply to ship so many AK-47s that violence became everyone's first choice in problem solving. Killing a half million people every year, the AK is the real weapon of mass destruction. "
]
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[],
[],
[],
[]
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|
1n4a5d | why americans say "dude" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n4a5d/eli5_why_americans_say_dude/ | {
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"text": [
"Better question, why do Europeans say \"cunt\" when they mean friend.. Here in the US \"cunt\" is a pretty vulgar word..",
"They came up with the word, and the cowboy has entered popular culture pretty hard [heh, Brokeback Mountain].\n\nAdd [the Big Lebowski](_URL_0_) and stoner culture, and it is highly invasive.\n\nEdit:\n\nYeah, thinking about this. They came up with the word. A similar question would be asking why the Germans keep using all those funny sounding German words.",
"Why do British people say mate or git?",
"It used to be slang for a person dressed too nice for the occasion, a showoff, but then in the 1960s it took on the modern use of friend or fellow.",
"I like the world really. It's gender neutral, informal and friendly but not disrespectful. ",
"There are two primary ways that 'dude' is used:\n\n- As an expression of surprise, such as:\n\"I once dated a guy whose junk was *this* big.\"\n\"Dude!\"\n\nIn this case, Americans say it because in our everyday vocabulary, it means the same thing as \"woa,\" or \"holy cow,\" or \"Jesus Christ!\" < -- all of which are just things that people say when they are surprised.\n\n- 'Dude' can also be used to refer to a person informally, but in a way that is neither offensive or whimsical. Such as:\n\"I stayed up all night watching Salad Fingers again *and I don't know why*.\"\n\"Hahahaha. I love you, dude.\"\n\nIn this case, we say it because it is a very casual way to refer to somebody. If we were to use their name instead, or a reference to their gender, (\"I love you, girl\"/\"I love you, boy,\") it would sound way too serious and wouldn't properly convey our light-hearted tone. If we chose another word like \"mate,\" then people would look at us funny because that's just not a word that Americans use very often for no other reason than it just isn't.\n\n\n**TL;DR:** it's just a cultural expression like every other regional expression that has ever existed."
]
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[],
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnLweMNQoiE"
],
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||
1ikbsf | free jazz | Why do jazz musicians sometimes play their saxophones and trumpets all crazy sounding? This is called free jazz, correct? And is it supposed to be accessible to the listener? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ikbsf/eli5free_jazz/ | {
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"Okay, so check this out.\n\nJazz is \"musician's music\". While you and I listen to rock, or hip-hop, or soul, or whatever, Jazz musicians are listening to each other. They feel each other's tracks, and take parts of them that they like and improvise over them to make their own solos.\n\nSo let's say that you have a song that's considered a \"jazz standard.\" This means that there is no legal copyright on the original melody, and musicians are free to do what they like on it.\n\nLet's say that Buddy Bolden writes a song called \"Funky butt\". Sidney Bechet may later play that song, and while he will stick to the original melody, he is free to improvise over it. Later, someone else will listen to Sidney Bechet's improvisations, and improvise over THAT...\n\nOnce they start improvising on the improvisations, that are themselves improvisations on other improvisations.... you get Free Jazz. \n\nThe thing about Free Jazz is that while it sounds discordant to you and I, it's mathematically correct on the musical scales. They're playing the notes between the standard notes (I, IV, V), in progressions that you or I may not appreciate, but that aren't technically out of the scales that they're working with.\n\nI love jazz, but so many of the songs are improvisations of songs that USED to be hits. the solos are great, but only other musicians \"get it\". You and I may listen to a wall of noise, and go \"Wow man, that was...*impressive?*\", but other Jazz musicians can pick up the styles of the previous artists that influenced the current player. The other musicians know when someone has taken a riff from another song, and whether that riff was used in jest, or whether that riff was played out of respect, or whether it simply sounded good at the time.\n\n(good) Jazz musicians know and feel their instruments and their music the way that you and I know how to walk, talk, and breathe. It's just so easy for them that it now comes without thinking. That's what makes them great. But full understanding of Jazz is like a walled garden, where only the BEST players, and the really studious students of music can enter the gates and understand everything that's going on.\n\nThis leave free jazz closed to the likes of you and I, until we have a deeper understanding of contemporary jazz and the jazz standards."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
24fe94 | how come i can have two loud noises right next to me, like the shower/hairdryer and the stereo, and the shower/hairdryer will drown out every word from the stereo but someone on the other end of the house can clearly hear every word from the stereo over the sound of the shower or hairdryer? | Assume I'm equally far from the running shower or hairdryer noise and the stereo (in other words, I'm not blowing the dryer right near my ear when the stereo is 5 feet away). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24fe94/eli5_how_come_i_can_have_two_loud_noises_right/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch6lwpq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I suspect that the house is acting like a low-pass filter, meaning that the walls transmit higher frequencies (shower/drier) *less* than they transmit lower frequencies (voices)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
5yw778 | why do humans make eye contact, look down, then look back up when they're attracted to each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yw778/eli5_why_do_humans_make_eye_contact_look_down/ | {
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"text": [
"Step 1. We're staring\n2. We realise we're staring\n3. We stop staring\n4. We realise that person was also staring\n5. We go back to staring to show our interest",
"After checking someone out, you look away so they can check you out, then you look back again to see what their reaction was.",
"Eye contact between species (humans included) generally has the same meaning: To engage the one being observed. Meeting with the observer's eyes means the desire to engage in return. This can be perceived in many ways by both parties, but at it's basic you can see it as \"challenging vs being challenged\". The latter \"accepts\" the challenge once the gaze is met and maintained. So to answer your question.. The person who is intimidated by the observed looking back.. Is shy enough to avoid \"confrontation\" as they do not know what to do once engaging.\nI hope that makes sense. I am not a professional in the subject but I have studied animal behavior through research and personal experience (with humans and animals alike)"
]
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||
82bjp2 | if saltpeter is so dangerous and outdated, why do recipes still list it as an ingredient? | I finally managed to get some brisket in time to make corned beef, but I couldn't find saltpeter at HEB, and don't want to blow up the house or kill the family. If I find it, should I use it?
recipe here: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82bjp2/eli5_if_saltpeter_is_so_dangerous_and_outdated/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It's still available. Google search is your friend.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nsaltpeter or potassium nitrate, like many other nitrates are possible carcinogens. Sometimes it's necessary in food, but there are risks with using it. It's up to you to do the research on health risks and see if they are acceptable. \n\nSaltpeter when used in corned beef gives the final product that deep rich red color, with out it, it will have a slight gray appearance. \n"
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/corned-beef-recipe-1947363.amp#ampshare=https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/corned-beef-recipe-1947363"
] | [
[
"https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=saltpeter"
]
] |
|
5rauy0 | our vote (the popular vote) does virtually nothing in america. why is this ok? why is no one concerned or actively trying to change this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rauy0/eli5_our_vote_the_popular_vote_does_virtually/ | {
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"It DOES a lot of things. Local elections and State-level elections are all about the popular vote, and that matters. The electoral college is also determined in pretty much every state by the popular vote. So it's not as if the popular vote doesn't do anything. \n\nThat being said, there are currently movements to try and adjust this. There's a movement to get enough states to agree that the winner of the national popular vote should get their electoral college vote that the electoral college would cease to matter. There's also people trying to oppose gerrymandering, which negatively influences the results of the popular vote for districts, and attempts to introduced ranked voting.\n\nBut yeah, the popular vote does more than most people believe. It's still VERY important."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3ogg25 | how do the camera men get the angles for a vehicle moving at high speeds? (example included) | In a car commercial, for instance [this one](_URL_0_), How do they get those angles of the car at :20-:22?
Also in the movies, they'll have an angle of a plane in the sky and the camera will swivel around the plane slowly.. I've always wondered how they did that. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ogg25/eli5_how_do_the_camera_men_get_the_angles_for_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvwxy73",
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"text": [
"They ride in a vehicle beside it?",
"They will use a camera car with a jib/crane on it (they aren't necessarily always cars either, they can be some sort of electric vehicle, motorised trolley, anything which has wheels and moves quickly!).\n\n\nAn example of a provider would be a company like this: _URL_0_\n\n\n\nAs for filming aircraft - there are a variety of ways to do that - usually involving another aircraft (a helicopter) with a zoom lens (meaning it's nowhere near as close as you think it is!). However these days, it's more often than not CGI or something of that variety. "
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uLBtPuiSg4"
] | [
[],
[
"http://www.pursuitsystems.com/"
]
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|
5tarjd | why does nail polish last so much longer on acrylic/fake nails than on regular finger nails? | Even higher end nail polishes will chip within days but on fake nails it'll last weeks. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tarjd/eli5_why_does_nail_polish_last_so_much_longer_on/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The solvents in nail polish will melt acrylic allowing the two to mix and form a very strong bond. Nails don't really melt with those solvents, so the nail polish is just kinda stuck on top, not well bonded.",
"The solvent in nail polish is strong enough to solve the surface of acrylic nails and makes them form a strong bond between the nail and the polish. There is no such bond between the natural nail and the polish, thats why the fake nail holds the Polish better than the real one"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
|
6t5cvl | why is it so hard for cruise control to keep a steady speed when going up hill. | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t5cvl/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_for_cruise_control_to_keep/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Some cruise controls are pretty shabby engineering. They don't anticipate the effect of the slope, or of gear changes, on what they will need to do with the throttle -- things you do without trying very hard.",
"[Hysteresis](_URL_0_).\n\nA speed decrease may not register at the same level as a speed increase, so if you set the cruise control at 70 km/h, it may cut power when it hits 72 km/h, and only put back the power when it goes down to 68, so the car will oscillate between 68 and 72 km/h, so it will feel jerky."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteresis"
]
] |
|
2tdo7m | when people point out how many exceptions and changes there are in the english language, is its case really that unique compared to other languages? | I hear a lot of people complain how weird the English language is and how its rules don't make any sense half the time.
But I have no idea if it is that much more common or not in other languages (only knowing English) and if most of these contradictions only exist in the English language.
I'm not asking for a "scale" for how weird it is, I am just curious if any other languages have as many exceptions or contradictions. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tdo7m/eli5_when_people_point_out_how_many_exceptions/ | {
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"text": [
"Some do, some don't. English words have origins in Latin, Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Norse, and more, which leads to major variance in grammar and conjugation.",
"Many languages do have special exceptions like English, particularly when it comes to the conjugation of common verbs like 'to be'. Having said that, many languages have much fewer exceptions than English.\n\nSpanish, for example, uses phonetic spelling in almost all cases. This means you spell words exactly as they sound. With the small exception of the letter H (which is always silent), Spanish doesn't really have silent letters. Also, generally speaking, you don't have letters with multiple pronunciations that are inconsistent in Spanish. Spanish pronunciations tend to follow very predicable rules that remain constant across the whole language.\n\nIt is worth noting that Spanish does have double letters (e.g. as in the word calle), but the presence of double letters always affects the pronunciation in predictable ways such that you can determine when double letters are required simply by listening to the verbal pronunciation of the word. For example, double L (as in calle or llave) produces a distinct 'y' sound. Every time you hear that 'y' sound spoken, you know to spell the word using a double L and likewise you know to read the word using that 'y' sound whenever you see a double L.\n\nThis a clear example where the English language has way more exceptions to the rule than other languages like Spanish."
]
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|
4cgzof | is drinking a little wine actually good for you/have health benefits? | Title^ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cgzof/eli5_is_drinking_a_little_wine_actually_good_for/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Usually when there is talk about benefits of drinking wine, they're usually referring to something like resveritrol, an antioxidant found in red wines.\n\nIt does have benefits. You could get the same benefits if you ate the grapes they used to make the wine. Table grapes will have a lot less of it, so you'd have to make sure you found dark grapes.\n\nSo it's less about \"is wine good for you\" and more about \"is resveritrol good for you?\" The answer is yes, and you CAN get it in wine. Just like you could get vitamin C if you put an orange slice in your Blue Moon beer."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
c056o5 | how do motorcyclists see through their helmet visors when riding in the rain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c056o5/eli5_how_do_motorcyclists_see_through_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"er19x9f"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Rain is see through. No different to a car driver. Except the wind caused by moving clears the visor. Or they wipe it.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSource - Riding a motorbike."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6umvtp | why do some websites such as online streaming services or even pornography website contain pop up websites that appear after clicking anywhere on the page? | Reputable (per say) websites such as Gomovies, Putlocker, Xvideos, etc. contain the well known "You've won $1000 dollars" or "Your computer has been infected" websites that open in a new tab, or behind your current browser window after you click on any part of the page.
In what way do they benefit? As a rare consumer of such websites, these "pop ups" deter me from visiting the host website in future times. This surely can't help the hosts of the website.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6umvtp/eli5_why_do_some_websites_such_as_online/ | {
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Simply put, eventually that shit works. Advertisements like that don't work on almost anyone but they are super cheap to produce and if they make $1000 here or there, paying the site a few cents per click probably works out positively. And for the sites themselves, if you're getting even say a 1/4 cent per page view and you've got a couple hundred thousand a day/month/whatever, why not. Most of us wouldn't stop going to the site if it's not too bad, we're numb to it and hardly notice, but they still make extra revenue. ",
"You go to _URL_0_ too?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"youporn.com"
]
] |
|
6lys4r | why can an area be too wet for a some types of plants to grow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6lys4r/eli5why_can_an_area_be_too_wet_for_a_some_types/ | {
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"text": [
"If I said \"humans drink water\" and then put you in you in a fish tank, you wouldn't do so well either.\n\nToo much of things is by definition too much and bad for them.",
"If the soil has too much water it can:\n\n1.) Create an airtight environment so oxygen in the air cannot get to the roots. This starves the tree.\n\n2.) Imbalance pH levels which inhibits proper absorption of nutrients.\n\n3.) Promote growth of harmful microbes which hurt the plants.\n\nDifferent plants, even within a genus, have varying degrees of ability to thrive or perish in a wide range of moisture conditions."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
||
3qcoig | wtf is human chimera? | [Linnk to article](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qcoig/eli5wtf_is_human_chimera/ | {
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"text": [
"This is not a case of \"he absorbed his twin.\" It's a case of twins fusing together in the womb, and early enough that they meld into one organism, and part of that organism, a person, is made up of genes from one twin, and part of that organism is made up of genes from the other twin. It's one person, but their genes are from two different people. Any individual cell will have genes from just one person. When this happens, it happens in different patterns. One person might be a chimera in which the entire left half of their body is from one twin, and the right half their body is from the other twin. Could even be from one male twin and one female twin, which might explain the rare intersex person who has a testicle on one side and an ovary on the other. Another person might have certain organs from one twin and other organs from another. "
]
} | [] | [
"http://news.yahoo.com/for-yahoo-health-dad-learns-that-unborn-twin-162421331.html"
] | [
[]
] |
|
6cfecu | why do we say our descriptive words in a particular order? for example: "big red ball," not "red big ball." | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6cfecu/eli5_why_do_we_say_our_descriptive_words_in_a/ | {
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"text": [
"There actually is a \"correct\" order, although most people don't learn it. We often pick it up without realizing it, but that's why certain orders sound \"weird\"\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"These descriptive words are called adjectives and when multiple adjectives modify a noun, they will be in a [particular order](_URL_0_).\n\nThis is one of many unconscious rules that native English speakers have in their minds, whether they're aware of it or not. No one ever taught you these rules, you learned them when you were a baby, just by listening to your parents and other people talk. Together, these rules are called syntax and a language's syntax determines how words are put together to make phrases and sentences.",
"I have tried to sum up a simple answer based on previous threads and other sources. \n \nFirst thing first - it is how we are taught - the order that is. We naturally pick it up and then it becomes ingrained in our vocabulary and we get it right most of the times without even realizing it. \n \nHere is the order. \n\nDeterminers, Observation, Size and Shape, Age, Color, Origin, Material, Qualifier.\n \nWe naturally tend to follow this order due to repetition and never doubts why it is like that. \n \nAnother great video which everyone should watch which elaborates that *why* part of this question is Tom Scott's explanation - _URL_0_\n \nAnother great article which further breaks down this question linguistically and with historical reference is this - _URL_1_",
"The Language Instinct is a really great popular science book that goes into detail on this, if you're interested. Highly recommend! "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29hf92/eli5_why_does_saying_a_small_wooden_table_sound/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2noyqz/eli5_how_do_we_automatically_know_to_say_black/?ref=search_posts"
],
[
"http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/about-adjectives-and-adverbs/adjectives-order"
],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTm1tJYr5_M",
"http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_good_word/2014/08/the_study_of_adjective_order_and_gsssacpm.html"
],
[]
] |
||
761s2y | car blinkers - timing seems arbitrary? | You’re sitting at a red light in a left turn lane at night. You notice a lot of turn signals flashing, but none of them are blinking at the same rate! Why?! I’m assuming there’s a ‘blink rate’ setting programmed in the car, so Someone must be programming the number of milliseconds between each flash? Why is there no standard? Who decides the time between flashes? The timing seems completely arbitrary, like even cars of the same make and model could have different rates (I have no evidence of that last statement). | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/761s2y/eli5_car_blinkers_timing_seems_arbitrary/ | {
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"text": [
" > I’m assuming there’s a ‘blink rate’ setting programmed in the car\n\nNope. The blink rate isn't computerized at all. There's a [thermal switch](_URL_0_) that makes a connection to the blinkers. When the switch heats up from the current flowing through it, it deforms, breaking the contact and turning off the blinkers. Then it cools down and snaps back into place, starting the cycle over again.\n\nSo the blink rate depends on the physical characteristics of the thermal switch, along with the ambient temperature in the part of the car where the switch resides. Thus the fact that all of them are slightly different.",
"It is arbitrary. And won't be quite the same for two cars that are the same make/model/year. \n \nBlinkers historically used a very simple electrical mechanism to make it cycle on and off. Current flows, a little piece heats up causing it to move, current stops, it cools off and moves, current flows, etc. \n \nVery slight manufacturing differences make \"identical\" blinkers operate at slightly different rates. They could be made to tighter tolerances, but that would make them more expensive. To what purpose? \n \nThey are cheap and reliable, and there's no need for them to operate at some specific rate. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cutoff#Thermal_switch"
],
[]
] |
|
2p0d81 | why do we always know something isn't quite right with a scene if a green screen is being used? why can't they fool us more reliably? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p0d81/eli5_why_do_we_always_know_something_isnt_quite/ | {
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"Actually, they do it more than you think and you're not aware, especially in TV scenes that require a background landmark. Movies can usually afford to shoot on-location, but TV doesn't have the time or budget (_URL_0_)\n\nWhen it's obvious it's usually to do with lighting (it just doesn't match in some way). In the old days there was a fuzzy outline around the foreground objects (ie. the objects in front of the green screen).",
"There are several reasons. One is the angle of light (which appears as to where the sun is) often is different between the foreground and background. The brain sees this incongruity an can't reconcile it, generating a feeling of un-easyness. Another factor that when using croma-key (the TV term for green-screen) you can't have the talent too close to the screen. This is because the color of the screen is \"bleeding\" onto the talent (primarily around the clothing edges). This makes the clothing edges appear fuzzy. Things get really funny if the talent wears a tie the same color as the croma-key background.",
"Confirmation bias. You only note the times that you weren't tricked because you weren't tricked. The times you were tricked you're not going to note because you were unaware of being tricked. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.snotr.com/video/3610/Sneaky_green_screens"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
1ubbjr | with colorado now allowed to legally sell pot on a state level, can the feds still shut down the dispensaries? if so, what are the punishments for the seller and/or user that are in the store? | Sorry if this was asked and answered before. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ubbjr/eli5_with_colorado_now_allowed_to_legally_sell/ | {
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"cegbluu"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The feds can shut down the dispensaries, but have indicated they will not, for now.\n\nThe punishments would be drug trafficking and drug possession.\n\nThere is an outside chance those charges could be overturned, if a federal court to a narrower (and IMO saner) view of the interstate commerce clause."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
5tqyih | why is copper a better conductor than francium? | Francium has a lower ionization energy and wants to give away an electron more than copper. Shouldn't this make it the best conductor? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tqyih/eli5_why_is_copper_a_better_conductor_than/ | {
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"ddodvqr",
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"text": [
"Gold and silver are also better conductors than copper. The reason copper is so commonly used as a conductor is that it's relatively cheap for its conductivity. ",
"Because when metals conduct electricity, they aren't just giving away one electron.\n\nIf francium gives up it 7s electron, but holds on to the rest for dear life, it isn't going to be as good as a conductor as a metal that might be a little more stingy with its first electron, but give up the rest more easily."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
|
36enu4 | why can i feel completely full and unable to take one more bite of food a, but have no problem moving onto something else (food b). | Hello. I'm looking for an explanation as to how come I can feel full while eating one dish or type of food, but then discover I have room to eat something entirely different. It doesn't even have to be a "traditionally" filling meal. For example, maybe I'll be eating a big salad and after a while, I'll feel like I can't possibly have another bite of it; however, I'd really like some gummy bears or jelly beans.
Maybe I'm crazy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36enu4/eli5_why_can_i_feel_completely_full_and_unable_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"crdcasz"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"No your not. It's quite a common effect in people. Have you ever heard the term \"There's always room for dessert\"? :)\n\nThe part of your brain that tells you that you are full is called the hypothalamus. There is a condition called Prader-Willi syndrome that causes this part of the brain not to function correctly and thus people with this condition never feel full and can eat themselves to death. Often they have to be strictly controlled and cared for as they can be known to eat non food items if they can't get hold of actual food.\n\nNow in normal folks, the hypothalamus can be \"tricked\" to a certain extent. After you have eaten a large amount of food that triggers the hypothalamus to tell your brain you are full, it can be tricked by switching to a different food type. In normal people this only works so far and there will come a point where this no longer works. For example eating a large steak can make you feel full but then switching to ice cream can trick it and your able to eat it, but only so much before you feel full again."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
omjka | gyroscope. | I just got a new Gyroscope and I realized I am at a loss as to how it is so awesome... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/omjka/eli5_gyroscope/ | {
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"text": [
"NOT LY5 but here goes: gyroscopes demonstrate a very simple principle of physics called angular momentum. When you spin up the disk you give it a lot of energy because it's spinning so fast and the disk is kinda heavy. Now this angular momentum points in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the spinning disk (curl your fingers the the direction of rotation and your thumb points in the direction of the angular momentum).\n\nNow the important part is that this angular momentum wants to stay pointing in the direction that it started in (just like linear momentum--things that are going in a straight line want to stay on that path unless something acts on them). Imagine it as a giant arrow pointing out of the top of the gyro. The only way to change this is by physically turning the gyro (which is why it's hard to rotate it once it's spinning). This is the same principle that keeps your bicycle upright.\n\nThe reason why you can stand it upright and keep it from toppling over is because gravity causes things to fall, but it only points downwards. If your angular momentum points straight up, and gravity points straight down, then gravity can't do anything to your top as long as its angular momentum is still there. However, as your gyro slows down, it loses angular momentum (friction slows it down and that energy gets turned into heat). When this happens gravity can start to pull the gyro over but now something interesting happens: the top starts to spin around in the direction opposite to its rotation, this is known as precession.\n\nThe more simple way to think about precession is when the gyro is horizontal & suspended by one end (you can do this with a string looped about one end). The angular momentum is pointed horizontally and gravity points down. Gravity \"tries\" to pull the top straight down, but the gyro's spinning \"twists\" the force ([this is the best diagram I could find](_URL_0_) to illustrate what I'm saying) and makes it point in the direction perpendicular to both. In physics, we say that the direction of precession is the cross product of the angular momentum and the gravitational force (scary words, it just means that the direction of precession is at right angles to both the angular momentum and the gravity).\n\nHope that helps a little :)\n\nedit: grammar"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.daviddarling.info/images/gyroscope_diagram.jpg"
]
] |
|
3d0l0c | how does construction engineers / architects make sure a building won't collapse when they're designing it? | Can someone please elaborate on the math / sorcery required? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d0l0c/eli5_how_does_construction_engineers_architects/ | {
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"In order to design the building's foundations, they will first take samples of the soil by boring into the earth. These boring samples reveal the type of soil and its density (or bearing capacity). It will also indicate at what depth the water table occurs. Based on this information, the structural engineer will design an appropriate foundation system. If the bearing capacity of the soil is high (or you are in rock) the footings can be relatively small. If the bearing capacity is low, an engineer might design a deep foundation system utilizing things like piles or caissons. These systems carry the load of the building deeper into the ground where denser soils exist that can support the building.\n\nAs far as the building frame goes - the structural properties of the framing material (lumber, concrete/rebar, structural steel, etc) are known. The engineer calculates the dead load (load of the building itself) and the live load (load of what will occupy the building) plus a healthy safety factor. He also considers the spans of the bays being designed. From this, the engineer will calculate the sizing and spacing of all the structural components required.",
"/u/sleighur answered this well, but to add:\n\nEngineers will know their materials, and have massive charts to consult. What foundation works best with this soil? What are the environmental hazards (earthquakes? heavy rain? ice and snow?)? What does the client want (big windows means big clear spans which means big steel, cheap means lots of posts and maybe wood)\n\nIn other words, a good engineer doesn't just do math, they also do a lot of thinking from different angles and come up with a solution that works best. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
|
4akjbn | why can't we make an android rom that is impenetrable by hackers, let alone the government? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4akjbn/eli5_why_cant_we_make_an_android_rom_that_is/ | {
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"You can have a perfectly secure house by removing all possible entrances into the house. But then, you wouldn't be able to enter and live in the house.\n\nLikewise, to interact with programs, we have to have doors and windows to give and receive information so that the program can be used. However, any of these entryways could be attacked by hackers or the government. You can make them more secure but to make them impenetrable would require you to remove them. Removing them would make the program quite useless.",
"What you're talking about is 100% possible. And doable, and *has been done* (look up Project Blackphone, for example). One of the problems with the government's insistence on having backdoors into any encryption system, or only allowing a specific strength, is that *people can write their own applications* and use those. We can even use pre-existing encryption systems and just make them insanely strong. \n\nThe problem you run into (and people are attempting to point out) is it's a cat-and-mouse game. You make something 100% secure, and then a week later someone finds a way in. So you fix that, and they find another way, and you fix that but that introduces another vulnerability in another subsystem. And then you fix that, and someone steals your phone and now they have physical access at which point you're likely screwed. \n\nAnd, as the people say, [relevant XKCD](_URL_0_)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://xkcd.com/538/"
]
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|
nykup | what the mayan's said would happen in 2012 and why people believe it | My vague understanding is that the Mayan's made some sort of calender, and they stopped making days after Dec 21, 2012, so people assumed it would be the end of the world. Maybe this calender was accurate in predicting other things, so people actually pay attention to it? This could be 100% wrong, I'd like to have a simple, but complete, explanation of why people think the mayan's are credible and what exactly they said about the end of the world. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nykup/eli5_what_the_mayans_said_would_happen_in_2012/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\n'December 2012 marks the conclusion of a b'ak'tun—a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar which was used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans.'\nELI5 translation: End of the mayan calander, about as much significance as reaching the end of your calender.\n\nEverything to do with it being doomsday has been spread by popular media, etc because the idea sells.\n\n(I realise it's not a particularly comprehensive explanation but that's really all there is to say about it)",
"They ran out of room on their rock and were too lazy to get a new one.",
"Alright Reddit, I admit it. It's my fault.\n\nThe year was 2004. I went to a private school, where boys ranging from ages 13-17 were all living in close quarters. There was a kid in my 'class,' for lack of a better term, who had just enrolled after turning 13. He grew up in Idaho, going to a private school that had horses on the grounds, which the kids helped take care of and ride, etc. Kid was horse crazy. \n\nOne day, he admits to us just how horse-crazy he was. Turns out, he had dreams in which his spirit horse, Cocoa, spoke to him, and provided him with moral guidance. We proceeded to give the kid endless shit for it, something I'm not entirely proud of, in hindsight. One of my friends would speak in a ghostly voice calling the kid's name late at night. \n\nNow, I was familiar with the Mayan calender because of a slightly crazy history teacher, and knew it was ending in 2012. I also knew that people would find out, misinterpret it, and freak out, so... I told Horse Boy about it, informing him that come December 21, 2012, all the horses would die, because of the Mayan Apocalypse. My friend proceeded to do his Ghost-Cocoa impression, pleading with the kid, begging him 'pleeeeease don't leeeeave meeeeeee' and 'don't let me dieeeeee.'\n\nTurns out, the kid bought it, and proceeded to tell everyone he knew about the Horsepocalypse coming in 2012.\n\ntl;dr I caused the 2012 hype in 2004 because of a ghost horse named Cocoa.",
"The lease expires and the aliens want their planet back. ",
"Nothing to add, but I'll just say that the Mayans didn't even predict their own destruction.",
"[This guy explains it wonderfully](_URL_0_). I love his videos.",
"[Neil Degrasse Tyson debunks 2012](_URL_0_) "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcc_KAhwpa0"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HghEBxHvgg"
]
] |
|
2jqf0a | what are the functions of the department of state? | After looking up the functions of the state department, I was met with some incredibly complex wording. I think I understand most of it, but there are some things that don't make sense to me. The four main functions of the State Department are, according to _URL_0_,
**Facilitate broad dissemination of all source information:**
To me this one seems like it means spreading information from the center of the government to other agencies and even to the general populace.
**Prepare strategic assessments:**
What are "strategic assessments", really?
**Identify issues for interagency coordination or attention:**
Does this just mean that the State Department distributes issues to the relevant agencies?
**Coordinate select initiatives and provide support:**
This one seems to be organizing select initiatives and then supporting them through money or organization, correct? It sounds like this function is only performed if "relevant members of the community" request it. Who are these members of the community?
My last question is whether or not the State Department only deals with issues involving smuggling and trafficking. This website makes it seem this way, and I'm not quite sure. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jqf0a/eli5_what_are_the_functions_of_the_department_of/ | {
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"The Dept of State at the end of the day is in charge of facilitating all contact between the US and other nations. \n\nTheir professional staff corps, the US Foreign Service, are the staff for all our embassies around the world. They handle correspondence, cultural exchange, and negotiation with foreign governments and groups.\n\nThat involves the billions upon billions that the US spends on foreign aid each year. They are also supposed to help US citizens abroad with legal and other concerns, as well as promoting the US's image abroad.\n\nFinally the DoS provides the President, and Congress with reports on the status of other countries and their governments. Often this is just reports from meetings between diplomats, but all embassies will also have some intelligence gathering functions, which is of course shared with other agencies and may just mean they are borrowing space in the embassy from the State dept.\n\nTL;DR- If it involves the US talking to, doing something with, or a US citizen in another country, it falls to the Dept of State"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.state.gov/m/ds/hstcenter/functions/"
] | [
[]
] |
|
48fo1o | what is the significance of the honorific traditions in japan, china and korea? | How does this work? How did it start? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48fo1o/eli5_what_is_the_significance_of_the_honorific/ | {
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"text": [
"It started because there are strong social hierarchies and humility is an important factor in Confucianism, so knowing everyone else's social standing in comparison to your own is very important. Note that this isn't at all unique to CJK - European culture also had strong divisions between the royalty, aristocracy, common people, and other classes, with appropriate roles about how you were and are not supposed to address each other (\"your majesty,\" \"your highness,\" \"sir,\" \"madam,\" etc). It's just that the CJK honorific systems are more complex and are used for almost everyone except those closest to you. Note also that, although (as I understand it) it originated in China, China no longer uses honorifics since the imperial era although Japan and Korea still do.",
"While all three systems share a common ancestor, it's hard to say because we have extremely incomplete information. Interestingly though there is technically another answer, for Japan sometime between the late 1860s and early 1870s. This is because Japanese in the 1600s shifted to the modern Tokyo dialect away from the previously popular Kyoto dialect. Unlike Kyoto Dialect Tokyo dialect did not have an honorific system.\n\nAfter the Meiji restoration the Japanese government as part of it's modernization programs created what is now known as standard Japanese. This Japanese to massively oversimplify is based on the Tokyo dialect but with honorifics from the Kyoto dialect. This standardized Japanese didn't fully begin to take hold in Japan until after the Second World War.\n\nI'm not sold on the other answer as the main modern usage in both countries that effectively still use them are only in formal business settings and not when trying to get sempai to notice you, in fact if you were to try that with sempai he'd probably think you're a freak."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
1wczns | when porting video games to other platforms (e.g. ps3 to ps vita, ios to android) do the developers have to recode everything in a different programming language? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wczns/when_porting_video_games_to_other_platforms_eg/ | {
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"text": [
"Going along with /u/UglierThanMoe, porting iOS to Android there are ways to package the port without rewriting the entire program, however there are a few problems that arrive from this (the app responds slower, less precise touch capabilities, the app can't take full advantage of android capabilities and menus). On the other hand, apps cannot be ported from Android (Java) to iOS (objective C). This is because obejctive C is from the 80s, and very very very very few things are *forwards* compatible.",
"It depends on the source/target platforms. For instance, iOS used to (I think not anymore, but I'm not 100% sure) only support development on Macs, in Objective C. Android development is mostly done in Java, on any OS. So porting from iOS to Android **can** require a complete rewrite.\n\nWhen it comes to consoles, each of them has a different underlying graphics library, which may or may not be at all similar to another platform. Most companies will either license or develop their own library that works on top of the console libraries, so that any code you write is interchangeable. You can use your own library, and it picks the appropriate console library to use for you. The downside is that you have to make (or pay for) a library that works with all of the consoles; the upside is that you can do that sort of in parallel and save yourself some time.\n\nAnother issue is that each platform has different resources and hardware, and may be better or worse at specific tasks. You may write a game for console A, which is really good at handling high-res textures but kinda sucks at audio, but then you want to port it to console B, which can produce really high-quality audio but can't handle large textures. So you might allocate more space on the disk to texture files for console A, but to audio files on console B. Performance usually needs to get tweaked for ports; there have been plenty of ports that skimp on that step and start a whole \"why does the PS3 version suck compared to the PC version?\" debate.\n\nThe amount of rewriting and reoptimization really depends on the platforms, how used to doing ports that company is, the time/resources allocated to the port, and a bunch of other factors, but they almost always require at least *some* changes.\n\nTL;DR: it depends\n\nSource: video game programmer"
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7l6qng | why does car exhaust have such a stronger smell during the winter months? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7l6qng/eli5why_does_car_exhaust_have_such_a_stronger/ | {
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"The engine runs richer (more fuel) especially at engine start-up until it gets to normal operating temperature. The extra fuel is why the exhaust smells stronger. ",
"Your car has a catalytic converter that, amongst other things, breaks down any unburnt fuel. Unfortunately, for the converter to work it requires a temperature of about 425C (approx 800F). During winter, it is much cooler and more difficult to heat the catalytic converter up to a temperature where it is working efficiently, resulting in a higher amount of unburnt fuel, which is what the smell is."
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16o853 | why did lance armstrong confess? | Why | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16o853/why_did_lance_armstrong_confess/ | {
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"Cause he was caught.",
"From what I gather doing so may enable him to return to competition in other events that he cannot do with the ban. He's become a triathlon athlete and to go pro in it he needs the ban lifted. ",
"Perhaps I am being cynical, but I would not be surprised to see a book come out in the not to distant future and this is an excellent scenario for maximum exposure. Why use Oprah as a platform for his confession? I think largely for commercial purposes. "
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3sjt7o | how a non-shutterbug iphone photographer like myself could snap the pics of space like i see on here. some of you seem to be taking this pics while in space. | I'm more than willing to purchase a camera, but even on that subject I wouldn't know where to start. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sjt7o/eli5_how_a_nonshutterbug_iphone_photographer_like/ | {
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"You'd have to link some examples for us to see exactly what you're talking about, but it sounds like you're talking about people taking pictures through a telescope. You simply put the camera lens up the telescope where you eye would normally go. [Here](_URL_0_) is an article with some examples.",
"If you're talking about those cool photos of the Milky Way you see sometimes, people are generally driving out to the middle of nowhere (no light pollution) and taking long exposure shots with a tripod mounted DSLR."
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6t809j | why can we capture images of celestial objects which millions of lightyears away but not capture detailed images of uranus or neptune? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t809j/eli5_why_can_we_capture_images_of_celestial/ | {
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"We're taking some fabulous new photos of Jupiter, but only because there's a fabulous new space probe *at* Jupiter. (Juno). When a similar mission orbits Uranus & Neptune we'll get some new images. Our current images of Neptune (Voyager 2 flew by in 1989) & Uranus are from brief flybys from probes on thier way out\n\nWe **can** take pictures of Neptune from orbit of Earth (such as the Hubble). Here is how the Hubble sees Neptune: _URL_0_ not a great image, is it? Well here's why images of Neptune & Uranus are so junk: \n\nThey're not very bright.\n\nTaking an image of a local planet is hard because thy do not make light, they are far from the Sun so they do not reflect much light, and they're moving faster (relative to Earth's own movement) than something much farther away. \n\nA distant star or galaxy **is it's own light source**, are waaaay bigger than any planet, and don't wiggle as much during the image exposure. \n\n"
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2qa90a | how can the sea temperature be higher than an unheated swimming pool that is shallow and in direct sunlight? | I am on holiday and have found the sea to be much warmer than the unheated swimming pool. I would of thought that because the pool is significantly shallower than the sea it would get warmer when being heated by the sun? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qa90a/eli5_how_can_the_sea_temperature_be_higher_than/ | {
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"[Currents!](_URL_0_) For example the gulf stream sends millions of tons of warm water from the gulf of mexico and the caribbean up the east coast. Trace a current from where you are in that picture above, I bet it is coming from the equator",
"Not only will the shallow pool heat up quicker - it will also cool down quicker at night.\n\nEspecially in winter, this cooling might be more significant than the effect of the sun heating the water up."
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4wzof7 | there are many kinds of metal. what qualifies metal as metal and what are different types of metal? | There are many terms I don't understand. For example, alloys, metal alloys, rare metals, heavy metals. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wzof7/eli5_there_are_many_kinds_of_metal_what_qualifies/ | {
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"A metal is generally a material that is hard, usually shiny, and can be shaped. It can either be an element or a mixture of elements.\n\nA metal that's made up of a mixture is called an alloy. Steel for example, is a mixture of iron and carbon. Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin. \n\nThe rare earth metals are a specific group of elements on the periodic table. They're not actually that rare, they're just harder to extract from the earth than other metals like copper or iron. \n\n\"heavy metals\" refer to any metal that's extremely dense (a brick of it is heavy for its size). Usually, the term is used to refer to metals like lead or mercury that are toxic if they get into your body. ",
"[Somebody else just asked about the different genres of metal 6 hours ago](_URL_0_).",
"Metals are essentially determined by the type of atomic bonding. In metals, electrons form a \"cloud\" where all the electrons are freely moving around the entire material. In other materials, the electrons are only shared with adjacent atoms. This leads to the high electrical and thermal conductivity of metals and also relates to the mechanical properties and color.\n\nAn alloy is a mixture of a metal and other elements. "
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5ee6l5 | how come seconds always feel almost exactly the same but hours, days, weeks, etc. can feel like they take forever or "fly by?" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ee6l5/eli5_how_come_seconds_always_feel_almost_exactly/ | {
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"In general speaking you do not possess a sense for long period of times. Therefore your measurement of small amounts of time will be more accurate - and you are much more easily able to compare them.\n\nHowever even small periods of time can be felt differently - depending on your emotional status or stress level.\n\nTry this experiment; use a watch that displays seconds:\n\n * hold your breath while counting the seconds and try to count as many as possible.\n * repeat watching the same amount of seconds while breathing normally.\n\nUnder the condition of stress (induced through holding the breath and trying to reach a high number) the seconds should feel to go by slower than normaly.\n\n\n\n\n\n"
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4il3f3 | why do conservatives believe there is a strong correlation between lower tax rates for businesses and job creation? | If I own a company that is being taxed 80% one year, and 20% the next, what incentive is there for me to hire or create more jobs rather than keep the untaxed profit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4il3f3/eli5why_do_conservatives_believe_there_is_a/ | {
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"Because you could make more money by reinvesting those untaxed dollars into your business...\n\n\"Why start a business at all and not just keep the initial investment as profit?\" is essentially the same as the question your asking.\n\nIf you keep a larger fraction of every dollar of revenue earned, there is at least some revenue you could pursue that wouldn't have been profitable before that would be without the tax. Expanding to pursue that revenue means hiring more people in many cases.\n\nEdit: Does this mean many businesses, particularly large ones, in the US don't utilize high barriers to entry into their markets to simply retain profit? Of course not. However, the idea that taxes make revenue at the margin not worth chasing is, to be blunt, pretty obvious.",
"Reinvesting into the business would be an investment. And like any other investment, there's some risk associated with it, but if successful, it will result in even larger profits. So the incentive is that, while they can keep the money now, they can get make even more money if they reinvest it, creating new jobs in the process.\n\nOf course, it's not all black and white, as business owners can choose to reinvest some savings and pocket the rest at the same time.",
"Starting or expanding a business is an investment and usually require a fair amount of money to get started. At an overly high level, you can model it something like this: spend $X now, get $Y back every year.\n\nSpending $100,000 to get $10,000 back each year sounds appealing. If tax rate is 80%, it would become spending $100,000 to get $2,000 back each year. Not as appealing.\n\n",
"Two things I need as a business owner, to expand: demand and capital. If there is sufficient demand for my product or service at a certain price point, I can make money by expanding. To expand, I need capital.\n\nMany conservatives think the main factor holding back expansion of the economy is the capital. Let the owners keep more of their profits and they'll expand more. In reality, the main factor holding back expansion is lack of demand. Nobody is going to expand their business without demand for those products or services.",
"That's not the way it works.\n\nFirst there are three-ish types of taxes that are getting lumped in here.\n\n(1) \"Profit Tax\". This is the income tax. But all your business income is countered by all your business outflow to figure the \"adjusted income\". So essentially, if you spend most of what you make on legitimate business expenses (like payroll and buying new equipment and expanding and all that) then it wasn't \"profit\" and it doesn't get taxed.\n\n(2) \"Profit Taking Tax\". Called the \"capital gains tax\", if I take money out of my business (profit taking) I pay an unearned income tax. When that tax is high I am encouraged to _not_ take that money out. Now it lands in bucket one, and I want to spend that money on making the business bigger. IF I can make the business huge and sell it I can take all the monies and deal with the taxes later if at all.\n\n(3) \"sales and use taxes\". Just like normal people, businesses buy things and if they use those things (as opposed to selling them on to the next guy) then they pay the sales/vat/use tax just like a person would... that being at the store or when you order the stuff etc. This then becomes a business expense, so again see item 1.\n\nThe top two taxes keep the money in the business and encourage growth. That is, the higher the taxes for 1 and 2, the more likely the business is to _grow_ just to spite the tax man. The natural attitude created is \"I'll spend it on growth instead of just paying it out in taxes.\"\n\nFor very small businesses owned by one person, or a couple people as a pure partnership, are just part of the owner's persona tax thing. If I am the sole proprietor of a store, for instance, there is no \"capital gains tax\" issues because the store finances and my personal finances are the same thing. We are one. There is no \"corporation\", no \"artificial person\". So I can grab mony out of the register or put it in without differential accounting and taxation. Basically for small businesses, item 2 just doesn't exist.\n\nNow rich people who own incorporated busiensses (e.g. who own the stock instead of the business) _want_ to take the profit without taxation. All things being equal they'd rater have the yacht than have more employees. \n\nSo they have invented a fairytale. In that tale the large businesses are just like the small ones but bigger. So they crafted a message that the proprietors were \"suffering\" under item 2 taxes. The message also over-sold the benefits of forming a corporation to lure in a cadre of not-so-savvy proprietors and partners so that they could farm some outrage.\n\nSo here's the thing. The only tax that you are used to is income tax. That is a tax that just makes money disappear from your life. And over the years you've lost most deductions except for home buyer interest expenses. So you, as an individual, have not been trained to understand how business taxes are _different_ than your personal income tax.\n\nPrimed with this message it's _easy_ to convince you, the non business owner, that business taxes are \"evil\" and predatory and just make money disappear from businesses.\n\nYou have no sense of the way items 1 and 2 keep the business money \"in play\".\n\nBusiness taxes tend to be generated by \"unspent money\", and so the taxes can be largely avoided by spending the money on infrastructure and jobs.\n\nSo when corporations like Microsoft talk about having 36 BILLION dollars just sitting around, they are actually showing you how low taxes have let them hoard the cash instead of paying dividends and/or expanding business (hiring more people and building new buildings and products).\n\nSo the bulk of conservative voters believe there is a strong correlation between low business tax rates and job creation because that's what they've been told. And they don't have a business. And they likely don't have a house (the poor conservatives rent) so they imagine taxation simply takes money without recourse.\n\nThey literally don't understand that business taxes are simply different, so they imagine the money being taken before it can be spent like payroll taxes on their monthly check.\n\nBut as with all things, the core problem is an allergy to history. The greatest growth periods in American Businesses happened when business income tax (item 1) was high and capital gains taxes (item 2) were near 100%.\n\nSo the idea you ask about, much like \"liberal media bias\", was invented from the desire to misinform the electorate in a way that let business people take that business money and turn it into personal windfall.\n\nPeople believe it because there's been precious little investment in telling those people that they've been lied to.",
"The idea is that if taxes are too high, businesses won't have the capital to reinvest and expand their business. If taxes were cut, this would free up revenue.\n\nThis, however, is primarily only true when taxes are causing a bottleneck to capital. If a business is already making huge profits, tax cuts won't increase reinvestment as there is no bottleneck in capital.\n"
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8ggjuv | how do imports and exports between countries work? | Are governments trading with other governments or is it private companies trading with one another? How do different countries tax laws work? How do you trade with countries with different currencies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ggjuv/eli5_how_do_imports_and_exports_between_countries/ | {
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"It is both government and business trading. In some countries there is no difference between the two. At the macro level it’s not hard. Goods made in one country get sold in another country. Once you start digging into specifics it gets more complicated.\n\nGlobal trade usually benefits both countries economically and politically. But problems can also arise. For example, the cost of labor in places like China and India is much lower than in the US. Therefore, a product manufactured in India will be much cheaper than if it were manufactured in America. The workers overseas benefit because they get to have jobs, and American consumers benefit because we get cheaper products. So who gets left out? American workers. \n\nThis is why people get angry about trade imbalance and overseas manufacturing. An industry might move production overseas and so that means those jobs aren’t available for American workers. America’s job market is shifting to focus on tech jobs and services rather than manufacturing products, and people who would normally have those manufacturing jobs feel left behind and forgotten. And it’s not just manufacturing, either, although that is the easiest example.\n\nCountries normally attempt to control this phenomenon by imposing taxes called tariffs. If China is out-competing Americans in a certain industry, the government might impose taxes on Chinese products. This is intended to drive up the price on those products and make them less competitive. It’s a complicated and dangerous game, because trade works both ways. If we impose a tax on Chinese products, China will look for something we export or something we need, and put a tax on that in retaliation. Taxes intended to hurt competitors and help Americans could very easily backfire by driving up prices and hurting American consumers.\n\nAs for the currency problem, that’s not a huge deal. People generally agree on the value of a product, so by looking at a price of that product in different countries they can establish a rough equivalency between currencies. So for example, 1€ is about $1.20. There are banks and traders that will convert one currency to another. But little actual currency changes hands. Most of it is done with ledgers and credit rather than hard cash.\n\nBut there’s a catch. A currency’s value is also decided by those traders and speculators. Certain currencies might be more useful or more stable. The US dollar, for example, is globally accepted and considered extremely stable, so people are confident in it. But if a country has economic problems (like Venezuela for example) then people lose confidence in that currency. They say, “I can’t trust this money to hold its value, so you need to pay me a premium to accept some risk.” Or maybe they just stop accepting it altogether. The relative value of currencies are always fluctuating slightly as traders make these kinds of judgments. If a country has problems and becomes unstable, the value of their currency might plummet as people avoid it and look for more stable alternatives.",
"The interested parties have their banks contact each other with their terms. They then formalize their contract and issue “letters of credit” (LOC) which are governed by international trading practices that are agreed upon. ( currency used, shipping dates, quantities, etc.)\n\nOne vendor sends goods overseas, after funds for payment (from the buyer) are deposited and verified.\n\nThe buyer’s bank reviews that the shipment meets requirements under the LOC, then releases funds to the other.\n\n",
" > Are governments trading with other governments or is it private companies trading with one another?\n\nBoth, but the vast majority is private companies.\n\n > How do different countries tax laws work?\n\nAs complicated as you can imagine, and then some. This is as far beyond ELI5 as explaining quantum mechanis in all details.\n\nBut the basic idea is generallly that a company has revenue (income), can deduct from this its costs and the difference are profits, from which some percentage has to be paid as taxes. International revenues and costs don't change how this works fundamentally.\n\n > How do you trade with countries with different currencies? \n\nDepends entirely on the contract between the two trading partners, but in practice, the selling company needs to get mainly the currency of its home country since it will have to pay most of its costs and all of its taxes in that. So at some point someone needs to exchange currencies, which happens on the forex markets, and in aggregate determines the supply and demand and thus exchange rates there."
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3amn2p | why the earth is spinning and moving through our solar system, our solar system is moving through our galaxy, and our galaxy is also moving all at such immense speeds, but on earth we can't feel any of this. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3amn2p/eli5_why_the_earth_is_spinning_and_moving_through/ | {
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"The rotation of the Earth around its axis is the source of a centrifugal force acting on you. The direction of this force is exactly opposite to the direction of the gravitational force acting on you so you perceive the rotation as a small decrease in gravitation. There are no forces that try to topple you over. "
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4jajtq | why do lymph nodes hurt when swollen? | I know why they swell, I am curious about the odd kind of pain of a swollen gland. I understand muscles and skin hurting, headaches etc but we don't usually get much sensation from internal organs that aren't in the digestive system. How come some organs get nerve endings and some don't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jajtq/eli5_why_do_lymph_nodes_hurt_when_swollen/ | {
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"Lymph nodes have a fibrous capsule surrounding them that is innervated with pain fibers. It's kind of like a sack tightly bound around the node. If you get an infection and the node swells rapidly, the capsule is stretched, causing pain. That being said, if the node grows at a slow rate, as in lymphoma or lymph node metastasis, the node does not get painful because the process is so gradual. \n\nOther organs have a similar capsule, including the liver and the spleen.",
"They don't have to have their own nerve endings to hurt. As with any inflammation when the tissue swells it pushes up against other tissue/nerves cause discomfort and pain."
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bar963 | why is it a big deal that 1 in 200 of people alive today can trace their lineage back to genghis khan? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bar963/eli5_why_is_it_a_big_deal_that_1_in_200_of_people/ | {
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" > So Genghis Khan's DNA has had 800/25 = 32 generations (more if 20) to spread around the world. In that time, an unbroken line would need to average less than 2 progeny per person per generation (1.73^32 = 40 million) to get to ~40 mio descendents now. This seems quite normal as people did tend to have a lot of children historically.\n\n > What am I missing?\n\nYour maths is good, but it's a very clean theoretical model you're using. \n\nIn reality, most populations inbreed *a lot*. \n\nFor example, if we look at your ancestry over the same 32 generations you describe, and assume no overlap in your family trees, we see that each generation of grand parents is twice the size of the one before. And the rung of your family tree from 32 generations ago consisted of 4.2billion individuals. \n\nNow, that's certainly much larger than the estimated world population at the time, being only 360-400 million people. (_URL_0_)\n\nWe can see here the scale of the overlapping and intermingling of heritage. Now, almost all people alive 800 years ago have very far reaching progeny at this point, and this is a result of the earlier discussed overlapping of great-great-...-great grandparents. But due to the lack of easy transport and human mobility over the last millenium, most people's genes remained largely insulated in a single population and pervading only that localised group, whereas Ghengis Khan managed to spread into and propagate inside many different world populations.\n\nKhan's promiscuity and incredible reach sets him apart. He raped a *fucktonne* of women selected from the peoples he conquered, and thus has a higher percentage of the current world population as his descendants than is typical.",
"That’s 1 in 200 men, specifically, and direct descendants are more than just “trace their lineage.” The 1 in 200 number is the count of men who share the Y-chromosome, and so are sons of the sons of the sons of the sons.... of Genghis Khan. Any women in those ~32 generations would likely introduce a different Y-chromosome, and so would not be counted in that number."
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21ik42 | if the president dies and the vice president is sworn in and then later pardons himself before he reveals that he was the one who killed the president, what would happen? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21ik42/eli5_if_the_president_dies_and_the_vice_president/ | {
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"How do you think he is going to pardon himself for a crime without telling anyone what it is? In any case, you can't pardon yourself.",
"~~The constitution says that the President can't pardon himself.~~\n\n~~ > The President \"shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, *except in cases of impeachment*\".~~\n\nI'm wrong.",
"As long as the VP did not kill the President in DC this would be a state criminal manner. The President only has the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes. He would be prosecuted under the laws of the state the murder took place in. "
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cqvru5 | end to end encryption | More specifically, how is it possible for one entity to create a cipher, use that cipher to encrypt information and then send both the encrypted information and the means to decipher that information over it’s own network and still claim that it does not have the ability to view or modify the original information. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cqvru5/eli5_end_to_end_encryption/ | {
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"If Bob encrypts a message, and writes it on a piece of paper, and gives the piece of to the Post Office (where Eve works) to deliver to Alice - it's pretty clear that Eve can't read the message.\n\nYour second notion, sending \"the means to decipher that information\", is a little less clear. Bob can write \"use Key #3265\" in plain text on the envelope containing the piece of paper. That gives Alice information she needs, but which Eve can't use unless Eve also has a copy of key #3265.\n\nNow if Bob were to write \"use the key 12X4\" on the envelope then \"anyone\" could read the message, including Alice and Eve. This wouldn't be a very good solution, and it's hard to think anyone has proposed this as \"secure\".",
"The actual answer is _way_ beyond an ELI5, but the general gist is that there are the special kinds of math equations that only really work one way - you can put a number into the equation and get an answer, but you _can’t_ run the equation in reverse, putting the answer in and getting the original number back out. The only way to get the original number from the answer is to put it in a _second_ equation, which is designed to turn answers into original numbers.\n\nIf you want to know how that works, you’ll need someone else to explain it, but for now just trust that this is a real thing.\n\nNow, since we have a pair of equations that can turn numbers into answers that the other equation can turn back into numbers, we have the core of public/private key encryption. You can publish one of the equations - known as the public key - and let people use that equation to encrypt their data. You retain the other equation - known as the private key - since it is the only equation capable of _decrypting_ the data. Thus, data can be encrypted by _anyone_ using a cipher that only you can decode. Once you have that initial data transfer accomplished securely, you can set up different, bidirectional encryption for other data transfers back and forth.\n\nThe awesome part of this is that it works in reverse to. You can encrypt something using your private key that only your public key can decrypt. This allows you to verify to others that you are who you say you are. You publish the public key for the entire world and then publish a bit of data encrypted with the private key. Anyone can take that data, decrypt it with the public key and verify that you are the holder of the private key, and thus are who you claim to be.",
"Encryption is complicated, but I might be able to simplify this. \n\nYou and Jane decide you want to send some sexy conversations between each other. You want to make sure no one else sees the message, so you encrypt it.\n\nThere are two ways to do this. Symmetric encryption, and Asymmetric Encryption.\n\nSymmetric encryption is like the old ciphers used since ancient times. You have the message and a “key” to tell you how to decipher it. It works, but it means you have to hand out the cipher to whoever needs it. If that cipher is stolen, you’re screwed. \n\nAsymmetric is the new hotness. In this situation, Jane creates her own “private” key (cipher) that can decrypt these messages. Then she gives you a “public” key that can create these coded messages. That “public” key cannot decide the message however. So if anyone steals that public key they won’t be able to read messages intended for Jane. \n\n“Now wait!” you say. “How does *that* work”?! Math. Math is how it works. Computers can run algorithms that are “practically” (though not really) impossible to reverse. They are called “one-way functions”.",
"One thing that you may be missing is that for most secure messaging apps, the actual message traffic does not go over the app company's network. The app company's servers are only used for setting up the direct peer to peer connection."
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am9vgd | why does the human body need darkness to produce melatonin? | And how can the body/brain tell the difference between complete darkness and covering ourselves entirely with a blanket or wearing an eye mask? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am9vgd/eli5_why_does_the_human_body_need_darkness_to/ | {
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"Light goes into your eyeball. The signal from your eyeball goes to a handful of places. One of them is called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. The SCN sends a signal to your pineal gland which is where melatonin is produced. So there is a connection between the light sensors in your eye and the gland that secretes melatonin. \n\nResearch done so far seems to suggest that your brain can't tell the difference between complete darkness from the sun being down and a blanket or eye mask. It's about how much light enters your eye. \n\nFor example, one study found that blind people that could still sense light had similar melatonin patterns to people with full vision, but blind people who couldn't sense light had different patterns. This implies that it's based on light sensitivity, not time of day.\n\nAnother study found that people produce less melatonin on nights where there is a full moon. This is potentially because it's brighter out. They also produce less melatonin in the summer when the days are longer.\n\nResearchers haven't ruled out other fac like cool temperature, a sensation of time, diet, etc. But it seems like light is the most important factor when it comes to melatonin production."
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5luxlk | people say keeping the lights on drives up the electric bill, but isn't it simply using the electricity that is already on standby? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5luxlk/eli5_people_say_keeping_the_lights_on_drives_up/ | {
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"No. Electricity is the movement of electrons. If nothing is using the energy, more won't be added to the wires. It's not much different than the water in your pipes. ",
"There is no such thing as \"Electricity on Standby\". \n\nElectricity is the flow of electrons, much the same way that water from a faucet flows out. \n\nYou experience electricity doing work as it flows through your light bulb. Until that flow starts there is no electricity. That flow cannot start until your circuit is completed by turning the light on. Imagine the light as the kitchen sink drain and the electricity as the water flowing into that drain. You are allowing it to flow, thus 'consuming' it."
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2aizrv | how does refusing a resignation work? | Say an official like the Secretary of State wants to resign and he submits his letter to the President, but he denies his it. What's to stop him from simply quitting his job? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2aizrv/eli5_how_does_refusing_a_resignation_work/ | {
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"Typically you refuse a resignation in order to be able to fire someone, not to keep them working for you. Sometimes you can refuse the resignation to make a statement that you really like the person and want them to continue working for you, but you're right, they can resign anyway.",
"Nothing. Not accepting someone's resignation is really just a symbolic gesture of support to express that you'd rather they didn't quit. It's really mostly a (tired) movie device.\n\nEdit: people under contractual obligations can't just go around submitting resignations, they'd need to apply to be released from their contract first, and that whole process would make the formal resignation and declining of that resignation kind of pointless.\n\nEither way, it's really just symbolic. Termination of employment isn't subject to a resignation letter, other documents have to be filed to make that happen."
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1ydmmy | why did some animals evolve to become nocturnal while others did not ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ydmmy/eli5why_did_some_animals_evolve_to_become/ | {
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"To share the habitat effectively with other animals. If every single animal was active during the day there would be too much competition and nobody would benefit from that.",
"Well basically no living thing gets a say in how it evolves. A random mutation occurs which may help the living thing be more suited to its environment. The more suited it is the more likely that it reproduces and hence that trait has of being passed on. \n\nTherefore traits arose by chance which made a living thing more suited to a nocturnal life, and this helped it to compete and reproduce better. There are many reasons why being nocturnal might have incurred some kind of advantage including avoiding high temperatures or certain predators such as birds etc. \n\nBoth diurnal and nocturnal behaviours can be successful strategies. "
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1rrlhw | how are shells on the beach made? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rrlhw/eli5_how_are_shells_on_the_beach_made/ | {
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"Shellfish dies. Shell left behind. Washes up on beach."
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am2g13 | does the constant salting of our roads in the more frigid locales lead to a hardening of the local water? | Today it seems like there was more salt on the roads near me than there was asphalt. When this is eventually washed away, the salinity in our water table must at least temporarily rise.
I have also noticed that the municipal water (tap water) provided to me has been steadily hardening over the past few years. It’s gone from fairly pure water all the way to “if you put unsoftened tap water in the kettle you’ll have a mineral crust for breakfast”.
I’m wondering if there’s any causal link between the two, as the breadth and degree of salting has had a significant uptick near me in the last few years as well. They’ve been slathering it on en masse. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am2g13/eli5_does_the_constant_salting_of_our_roads_in/ | {
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"Not usually.\n\nRoad salt is mostly sodium chloride, which does not contribute to hard water. However, Colder temperatures require blends that include magnesium, potassium and calcium chloride compounds. These can cause hard water, particularly magnesium and calcium salts. Typically they are so diluted by the time they enter the water system that no appreciable change *in 'hardness'* is detectable.\n\nThat said, salts of any kind can lead to plant die off in areas next to roads and sidewalks. Interestingly, one of the hard water calcium compounds - gypsum, another name for calcium sulfate - will actually mitigate this effect.\n\nEdit: added clarification",
"It absolutely does affect the surface water in the area (but not the hardness). \n\nNote: I’m a former industrial water treatment engineer\n\nNaCl (a Solid, aka Salt) dissolves into water into charged sodium (Na+) and Chlorine (CL-). The easiest way to detect this happening is by measuring TDS which is a measurement of Total Dissolved Solids. Remember, NaCl is a solid. You wouldn’t see TDS go up until it dissolves in the water. \n\nWhy does this matter? Well, aside from the damage that the salt can cause to the plants and animals in the vicinity, the salt also ends up in surface water, which is used often in municipal and industrial applications. Of course, this water needs to be treated first. It’s very expensive to reduce TDS and, specifically, key dissolved solids like Chlorine which are especially destructive to metal equipment that the water is used to cool off. \n\nThe worst issues have to do with having chlorine in the water that supplies industrial boilers. At super high temperatures, the Chlorine can actually attack the metal and result in a ruptured boiler that can kill people. \n\nBottom line is that water engineers know immediately when the roads are salted because they see high TDS, Sodium, and Chlorine show up in the surface waters near roads. They have to account for these changes and sometimes they’ll even switch water sources to a well, for example. "
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35uo8q | when does my scalp hurt when i fix my hair after it's matted down from wearing a hat for am extended period of time? | Edit: That am should be an. Goddamn this alien blue app.
Edit 2: Why not when. I swear to god if you met me in person you'd think I was a normal functioning human being who can speak correctly. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35uo8q/eli5_when_does_my_scalp_hurt_when_i_fix_my_hair/ | {
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"Something about oil forming and congealing around the roots of your hairs. When your hair is moved, the congealed oil pulls on your scalp which creates discomfort.",
"The follicles that are being moved in one direction for a long period of time get used to that position, and when you take your hat off, the follicles are moved and your nerve endings must adjust to a new position.",
"How did you notice the \"am\" but not the \"when\"? "
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60swba | why do people react negatively (or even violently) when presented with evidence that challenge their world view? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60swba/eli5_why_do_people_react_negatively_or_even/ | {
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"Psychology major here. We've focused (in my social psychology classes, in particular) on the idea of cognitive dissonance. What this means is:\n\nYou perceive the world in one way. Reality comes along and shows that you might be wrong. You have two options, according to conventional information processing:\naccommodation or assimilation, which basically mean that you can either change your world view to incorporate the new idea...\n\nOr you can change the idea to fit into your world view. Assimilation and accommodation are how we deal with our world view being challenged. It's much easier for most people to assimilate (change the idea) than it is to accommodate (change the world view). This is why people react violently to reality challenging them.\n\nIf you'd like me to explain anything further, please let me know. :)",
"A person's worldview is often tied to principles, ideas, and opinions that are core aspects of who they are. Challenge them and you are undermining who they are. This is often taken as a personal attack, and can in some cases cause severe reactions (even to the point of suicide or violence) because you fundamentally damaged who they are. ",
"The cognitive dissonance can feel like a threat to one's core identity. And our brains can respond to threats to our identity/ego as if it is a life or death experience. Fight/flight/freeze can get triggered, and an ideological conflict gets upped to predator attack. Adrenaline flows, and inner insane monkey takes over. Argument turns into threat posturing, turns into violence. ",
"No they don't. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING to SAY?!?!!?!!",
"Because it has a useful evolutionary purpose in avoiding adopting new and possibly harmful things until they're proven to be better than what we do, and have done for an extended period, now."
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1wsvhk | do women who have a heavy period get pregnant easier because their womb "builds a better nest" than women who have a light period? | Does a heavy period mean that their body makes more of an effort to make a good nest for the egg than women who have a light period, thus resulting in higher fertility? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wsvhk/do_women_who_have_a_heavy_period_get_pregnant/ | {
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"No, not really. Overall, menstruation volume seems unrelated to fertility. Some women have inherently low menstruation without any medical issues, and have normal fertility rates. While on the other hand very heavy periods can be associated with problems in the uterus, which will also cause reduced fertility. Consistent, regular periods that aren't excessively heavy are a better sign for fertility.",
"No. The lining of the uterus that's shed during a period is where the fertilized egg would implant... But it doesn't affect the release of the egg, the fertilization by the sperm, and the ability to implant and \"stick\". \n\nI'm not sure about how menstruation might correlate to, say, miscarriage rates. But the ability to get pregnant should be totally unrelated to \"flow\". (As stated previously, a regular cycle is the better indicator)."
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41ke8z | why can some murderers plea insanity? surely all murderers are on the insanity scale to be able to carryout such an act? | I've always been confused how some people get their sentences either quashed or reduced or changed from prison to a hospital by pleading insanity. In my map of the world I see people who take other peoples life as insane regardless of why they do it, murder is not the act of a sane person. Why do the courts differentiate the sane and insane? Is there a sane reason to murder? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41ke8z/eli5why_can_some_murderers_plea_insanity_surely/ | {
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"I think the defining characteristic of the insanity that reduces sentences is a lack of understanding of what they did. Yeah, all murder could be considered somewhere on the crazy scale, but they're looking for someone that truly believed they were protecting themselves from demons or something. ",
"Legal insanity means that the accused was incapable of telling right from wrong at the time of the crime. Unless you were completely detached from reality, you probably aren't LEGALLY insane (you could still have a mental condition, but that isn't a legal defense). It is actually a hard thing to prove and seldom works as a defense and even when it does, you're probably looking at a mandatory stay at an asylum.",
"Murder is not inherently an irrational act. Neither is theft, assault, or a litany of other crimes necessarily indicators of any form of mental illness.\nWe all have an internal narrative, and insanity is when our internal narrative is in obvious contradiction with objective reality. \nA person's narrative could very closely track objective reality and this wouldn't have any bearing on their ability to commit murder."
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77dmzh | why is therapy effective? what is it about the brain that allows talking about your problems to help fix them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77dmzh/eli5_why_is_therapy_effective_what_is_it_about/ | {
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"There aren’t really good answers to this question. Therapists have a bunch of different approaches that all would answer the questions in different ways and yet all seem to work just as well. The part of therapy that has been shown to hold a positive correlation with the outcome of therapy is a concept called “therapeutic alliance” which is basically just a metric of the quality of the working relationship between client and counselor. The better their alliance, the better the outcome. This is true regardless of the therapists theoretical orientation which itself has a huge impact on the content of the treatment. Beyond that bit, therapy is consistently shown to be effective, so that’s not in doubt, but it’s hard to show good data about why it works. \n\nFrom my orientation, I see therapy as effective because it allows people to organize their thoughts and feeling so that they are comprehensible rather than nebulous and scary. But I also work really hard to maintain a good relationship where people feel safe to say whatever they want and feel anything they want. And honestly, I feel like if I can do that then the people will just heal by themselves, just by virtue of having someone they feel safe with.",
"It's not that talking about your problems helps someone fix them-- at least not from a therapy sense (though obviously some people do benefit from \"venting\" or whatnot, and there are cases where someone refusing to admit a problem can be alleviated by admitting it/talking about it)\n\nbut more importantly, therapists help people *understand* their feelings and give them the tools to cope with them. It's not like a medical doctor where you go in for surgery and they fix you up and you're cured when you go leave. It's more like... a school where you go and the therapist helps you understand why you're feeling what you're feeling and how to handle it, but you still have to *use* that knowledge to better yourself even when you're not in the therapist's office.\n\nThe most obvious example is the \"count to ten and take a deep breath\" for anger issues or if you have marital problems learning that it's more effective to say \"I am feeling ignored by you and that hurts me\" rather than saying \"IT'S FINE I'M FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE\" and then storming off, but those are extremely simplified answers. Therapy may be understanding grief or trauma, and that they shouldn't blame themselves for something, or learning how to handle grief in a healthy way (eg accepting it appropriately rather than ignoring it)\n\nA lot of times people may not even understand *why* they're feeling the way they're feeling or even what they're feeling. They may just go in to a therapist and say \"I had a breakdown at work and I have no idea why.\" Then, with the help of the therapist over many sessions, they'll try to learn what's been going on in their life, and potentially root problems and other factors that may have contributed to it (the stereotypical mommy/daddy issues that a patient may have never even realized they had would be one example). *Then* once they've uncovered why they might be having these feelings they can start learning healthy ways to handle them.\n\nhonestly it's all very complicated because there are *so* many different problems and potential solutions-- there's a reason people have to go to school for a long time to learn about it.\n\nBut yeah I guess to sum it up I'd reiterate that it's not that just talking about your problems helps solve them (again, from a therapy standpoint), it's that people need to learn how to identify and handle their emotions and problems.",
"Talking about ones problems can help fix them. In programming circles this is called rubber duck debugging, where by going over the smaller details of a problem helps one notice details in more depth.\n\nHowever, this is not what therapy is about. After all, if talking about your problems was enough, you could just start a journal and write about your problems to yourself, and that would have nearly, if not all, of the benefit of rubber duck debugging.\n\nA lot of therapy comes down to tools, either external or internal. Externally a therapist might guide a conversation in the right direction to uncover something that would never naturally be noticed, by moving the conversation in a direction that is beneficial.\n\nInternal tools in psychology are somewhat new, and most of the research is shown to be incredibly promising. The most common of these tools are meditation (which increases awareness of the thing being looked at, just like journaling), a combination of meditation and then journaling right after, and CBT.\n\nCBT takes thoughts about the present and the future that are pessimistic or neutral and then replaces these thoughts with their opposite. This seems like a sort of 'fake it till you make it' process, but in actuality, most thoughts that seem founded like, \"I hate my life.\" are not, so thinking, \"I like my life.\" is a valid replacement and not any less false than its negative counterpart.",
"This is a question of great interest to psychological researchers. We've known for many years that therapy is effective in helping people make various changes (weight loss, substance use, etc). We also know that many various therapies that operate according to vastly different principles are about equally effective. What we don't have a good handle on is why. And this lack of understanding is not for lack of trying. There have been several attempts to discern what unique ingredients various therapies have that makes them effective, but these efforts have often come up with little of substance. \n\nThere are several ideas floating around. On the one hand, it could be that at their core, most/all therapies are fundamentally the same, albeit with different window dressing. On the other hand, it might be that although therapies do differ in their approach, they all activate the same mechanism in the patient that causes change. Finally, there might be many different routes to change, and each therapy activates one or a few of them. There is in fact a rather vigorous debate in psychology about which, if any of these is correct. I work for a group that studies the second possibility in various therapies and I am often disheartened by the mixed results we see in the literature. \n\nThe one concept that we see coming up repeatedly is the idea of self-perception. That our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves are formed in part by what we observe of our own public behavior. In therapy, this idea manifests as the idea of 'change talk'. Therapists guide the client into vocalizing attitudes favorable to making a change, with the belief that if the client hears himself saying such things without coercion, he will believe them more strongly and thus be more motivated to make the change. It's a promising idea, but the results are often mixed. \n\nI favor the idea of resolving ambivalence and planning. That often, clients who come into therapy are on the fence about what they want to do. Skillful therapists help clients resolve their ambivalence about their goals and formulate a realistic plan to help achieve those goals. This is an idea without a lot of empirical support, but one that we are currently examining and that I'm hopeful about. \n\nTL;DR although we've been studying what makes therapy effective for about 30 years now, we still don't have a clear picture, but there are some possible explanations for at least part of the effect. ",
"Same way talking about golf with a pro can make you a better golfer.\n\nA therapist doesn't just talk, they teach patients techniques to better deal with their problems, techniques they then go and practice in real life. If you have an anxiety or anger management problem, learning a relaxation technique to get yourself under control can make a big difference.",
"(rewritten, shortened)\n\nSee u/rocket_monkey's answer. None of the other answers are satisfying. It's not about understanding your problems. It's not about the tools you use. Its not about replacing bad thoughts with good thoughts (my depression says hi, no it doesn't work). It's the relationship you have with your therapist that's fundamental. I'll expand greatly here. It's necessary to understand how we learn first before we move on to therapy. \n\nThink about how you learnt how to ride your bike, for a moment. No doubt through trial and error, and a little help from a parent or guardian. You repeatedly exposed yourself to being on a bike, learning how to maintain your balance as you went. Your parent coached you through the process. That's basically what therapists do. They coach and help you deal with whatever you're struggling with. They're not advice givers, that's a common misconception. \n\nThe brain creates pathways for learning anything through exposure. The more often you repeat something, the deeper that pathway becomes, the better you'll remember. \n\nPeople are social animals. We are a product of exposure. What we think, and how we feel, today, is largely dependent on whatever it is you were exposed to as a child. That means that if something went awry while growing up because you were exposed to awful parenting, horrible trauma, a combination of both, or whatever else, then you'll grow up maladjusted and possibly with (severe) mental illness. \n\nRelationships are at the core of a person's dysfunction. Either the relationship with the self, others, or both. It's thus the relationship you have with your therapist that's ultimately most transformative. Methodology is of little concern. It's a complicated mess and a difficult process. You can only develop a healthy relationship by talking to that person, hence the necessity for talk therapy. \n\nExposure to a particular way of thinking and being shapes how you think and feel. That's why every new behavior requires consistent repetition. Talk therapy is one way to help with staying consistent. Your therapist coaches you through the process and helps you when you inevitably get stuck. \n\nYou're exposed to a lot of things as a child over which you have no control. The relationship you have with your parents determines much of how you feel about yourself, your place in the world, the quality of your relationships, how well you deal with stress, how safe you feel and basically how you talk to yourself. \nIf those foundational relationships were lacking in some way as a child, you'll end up maladjusted as an adult and you'd need a replacement to fix those issues. That's what therapists are for. \n\nWho you think you are, what you think, how you think, how you feel, all of that is under your parents' control, well technically anyone you spend considerable time with, until you hit puberty at age 11-13. You're meant to rebel against your parents. You're meant to reject their notion of who you are. You become an individual during the rebellious phase. So if you skipped puberty due to trauma, like I have, because you were forced to grow up fast to survive, you'll have difficulty functioning in every area of your life. You can safely go through puberty in a therapeutic setting. My therapist currently functions as a replacement for the mother I never had. My therapist will never leave me, no matter how awful I think I'm being, as someone with severe abandonment issues, this is a crucial matter. It would be too much for a spouse to handle that kind of pressure. My behavior would just look weird to them. Most would bail. Long-term therapy is a necessity for everyone who struggled with trauma and/or bad parenting.\n\nMy number one recommendation to anyone seeking help is that if you don't vibe with your therapist, get another, no matter how difficult. I'm on my fourth and she's a gem.",
"My layman anecdotal opinion comes down to the fact that there is so much that happens to us in life that is outside of our control; additionally there are sometimes feelings / emotions that also feel outside of our control.\nReally, the only thing we can (learn to) control is how we react to these internal and external stimuli.\n\nI feel like at its core, that is what therapy is about. It's about equipping you with tools and perspective, allowing you to view things differently and better control how you internalize those things. Basically, perception is reality. So however you are able to control your perception of things and how you react to them the better you are able to affect your reality in a practical sense.\n\nBe it controlling your anger, your anxiety, your fear, etc.\n\n\n",
"Memories are quite volatile, [by the mere act of recalling a memory we end up alerting it.](_URL_0_)\nTherapists focus on memories that affect certain behaviors, and direct this alterations by making you see things differently.",
"This is a highly specific answer to your question solely related to trauma healing and PTSD. I’m going to talk a little a neuropsychology and how using language works on a cognitive basis to change the neurobiology of trauma. This may help understand in general why talk therapy helps, but it’s not universally applicable to all mental health conditions.\n\nThink back to your earliest memories. As far back as you can go. Are they highly detailed chronological narratives of an event? Or are they more like impressions? Perhaps something sensory? Or a fleeting image? An object from your childhood. For most people, their early childhood memories are fragmented. And their is a reason behind this. The way you synthesize and recall memories changes as your brain begins to acquire language and deal with abstract concepts such as time. As you get older, your ability to form memories increases along with your ability to form narratives, to order impressions and sensations chronologically and give them sense and meaning. Things are remembered and given meaning by their relationship to other things and we order those relationships with language.\n\nNo bear with me hear. I’m going to jump around a bit. I promise I’ll come back to the whole language and memory thing. But we are going to put that concept on hold for a bit to introduce another one.\n\nYou’ve probably heard of the flight or fight response? It’s a specific type of reaction to your bodies stress response cycle, but in actuality your bodies stress response system is far more complex and robust. The autonomic nervous system (the part we can consciously control such as our internal organs and heart rate) along with the lymbic system of the brain are constantly screening incoming information for potential threats (this is by no means their only job, but it’s what’s relevant to this discussion). When it thinks it has found something, it will begin to secrete neurotransmitters and hormones signaling to the rest of the brain and the body “hey! Check this out? We should do something about this” Once something is done to alleviate the stress, the limbus system will then release different set of neurotransmitters and hormones to signal “everything is okay now. You can relax.” This happens many times throughout or day without our even noticing. Humor is a great example of this. Someone says or does something that doesn’t make sense, is awkward or weird or about a highly sensitive topic, and your stress response is activated. Your cerebral cortex goes about trying to explain what happened, until the punchline clicks and you realize it was “just a joke”, provoking a wave of positive emotions and laughter. Stress + response = release. But let’s say you didn’t get the joke, or you did but you didn’t appreciate it. Maybe you thought it was inappropriate or even mean spirited. Instead of experiencing release your lymbic and endocrine systems will continue to churn out stress chemicals until you do something. You might talk to them. You might withdraw from the situation. You might raise your voice, cry, might even punch them. Your brain will keep trying things until it’s satisfied you are no longer in danger. “Do something you are still in danger! Do something you are still in danger! Do something you are still in danger!” The more stressful the situation the bigger the release. Depending on how it goes, you might feel sad, tired, relieved, or even happy once the cycle has come to its conclusion. The release can be so enjoyable that people may intentionally trigger their stress response. That’s why we have things like sports, and movies and games and going outdoors and a whole number of other activities.\n\nBut what happens when you can’t find a release, when you are stuck in terrifying or dangerous situation where there is nothing that can be done, no solution, no escape? Your body just keeps pumping out stress hormones and neurotransmitters. And at some point they reach a level that completely overwhelms the brain, in the same way a drug overdose might. The symptoms are highly unique to each person and each situation, but there are some reactions that are more common than others. Time may slow down, speed up, or even stop entirely. Your body may go numb, or sensory input including pain may be magnified or distorted. You may black out, leave your body, or lose your sense of self. You could panic, or freeze, or both simultaneously. And remember that relationship between language and memory that we talked about earlier? That goes completely out the window. If you survive, your recollection of the event can become highly fragmented in the same way. Only this time when you remember them they are aren’t the warm fuzzy recollections of childhood, they are deeply vivid and terrifying. They exist beyond time, or meaning, so much so that you may experience them as if you were in the moment again (what we like to call a flashback). And anything can bring them back. Sounds or smells, even just everyday stress can trigger these memories. And small stresses you could easily handle before might become so overwhelming that your body interprets them as trauma. Basically your Brain is on permanent high alert.\n\nWe call this type of stress trauma, and we call these types of responses trauma responses. There are many things that can elicit a trauma: natural disaster, War, violence, assault, abuse, rape, car crashes, physical injuries, painful medical procedures. There are also many many different types of trauma responses, but here are some of the most common. Your brain may react to being on constant high alert by completely withdrawing. You may feel emotionally or even physically numb, you might even dissociate, derealize or depersonalize. (Fascinatingly, not only do an anaesthetic medications work on the same chemical pathways and cause the same reactions, they also work differently on trauma survivors) You can develop depression, anxiety, or phobias. Lose your ability to trust or form relationships. This is your brains “flight” response of trying to run from your memories. Or you could do the opposite and try to reactivate the stress response cycle. Only unlike activities like sports or movies this activation can actually make things worse. You may resort to drugs, violent outbursts, risky or self destructive behaviors to try and get release. You may even try and reenact the trauma but putting yourself in similar situations, in attempt to make sense of what happened and change the outcome. Usually these reactions do not help. Often they make things worse.\n\nSo where does talk therapy come in to all of this? Remember what I said earlier about how language helps is synthesize memory? Talk therapy for trauma healing involves gathering all of the fragments of memory and emotion and sensation, and weaving them back together into a chronological narrative. The purpose of this is to require the brain to experience the trauma as a regular memory, and to use this memory to teach the brain that it is no longer in danger. It involves carefully and systematically unpacking and reliving the trauma, often multiple times in a safe setting with a trained mental health professional. Even after the initial healing process is complete you may need additional sessions in the future, as the body remembers and is likely to relapse from time to time (people who have experience physical injuries requiring physical therapy can testify to this).\n\nIt’s amazing to think that something a simple as talking can heal trauma. But language is one to the most complex tasks the brain can do, and by using language as a therapeutic intervention therapists can use the all the different regions of the brain necessary to form language and use them in the healing process.",
"I see a lot of answers to “what” but not “why”.\n\nThe reason WHY therapy works is due to something called [neuroplasticity](_URL_0_). This is your brains ability to change to better fit environments and overcome obstacles. By taking part in therapy you learn to change your outlook, behaviors, and the ways your past and current mindset effects you daily functioning. \n\n\nEdit: a word"
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"http://www.medicaldaily.com/memory-selective-forgetting-brain-alters-past-every-time-we-try-remember-it-325890"
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[],
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"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2896818/"
]
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||
8a6xio | what is a college credit hour and how do they work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8a6xio/eli5_what_is_a_college_credit_hour_and_how_do/ | {
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"text": [
"It's just a measurement of how long you spend in lecture each week, really. They're a good basis of how* much learning you're doing at a time. For example, you may need at least 12 credit hours to be considered a full time student. In general, this means you need to be in lecture 12 hours a week, usually with 4 classes that are 3 cresit hours each."
]
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||
3i5iq5 | why does milk taste so good after eating something with syrup or peanut butter? | Edit: My first post to make it to the front page is the stupidest question I've ever thought of while high and binge-eating Eggo Waffles. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3i5iq5/eli5_why_does_milk_taste_so_good_after_eating/ | {
"a_id": [
"cudiszl"
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"text": [
"**Likes disolve likes. Polar substances like water disolve polar substances like sugar. Non-polars like oil, fat, and gasoline dissolve non-polars. We've all seen this, oil doesn't mix with water. Chocolate and peanut butter have fat which don't disolve well or at all in water, but do in milk because milk has fat.**"
]
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[]
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|
391u49 | is there an actual economic benefit to increasing diversity in corporations? | More and more companies talk about increasing diversity in the workplace, but is it actually beneficial for the corporation, or is it more for publicity? Is increasing diversity a better strategy, than simply hiring the most qualified person for each position? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/391u49/eli5_is_there_an_actual_economic_benefit_to/ | {
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"text": [
"The short answer is \"probably\". This is based on the fact that corporations *are* doing it... which means it is either A) legally required or B) profitable.\n\nThe idea of diversity isn't to add some color to the race pool of a company... it's to bring in diverse life, work and social experiences. The theory goes - the more people from different walks of life we bring in, the better our decisions will be because we're generating a much better picture of the world.\n\nDon't get me wrong - a corporation isn't going to hire an under-qualified candidate for a position unless they are legally required too... if the best guy for the role is the whitest of white-bread... guess whitey is getting the job.\n\nSource - Corporate Drone #152543 reporting in",
"It helps to think about this question from another direction. \n\nAssume the talent for some profession (say, doctors) is equally distributed throughout the population. A white male is no better at doctoring than a black female or any other combination of demographic factors. If we only make white males doctors due to social stigmas and choices that aren't really about the quality of their doctoring, then that means that we're missing out on some great doctors from other backgrounds and that we've likely had to make some subpar white males into doctors despite the fact that people of other backgrounds might have been better suited for the job.\n\nObviously, the best thing to do would be to say \"ok everyone, stop judging people for shit that's not relevant. If someone wants to be a doctor, judge them on their doctoring skill.\" However, humans are not known for being the most logical creatures in the world. A lot of the biases that result in things like only allowing white males to be doctors are unconcious and built into institutions we rely on. As such, we need to consciously correct for them. We need to recognize that we, as humans, think in a certain way and have certain biases. We need to recognize that those biases create distortions, and we need to think of ways to correct for those distortions. ",
"Yes, it can definitely be beneficial. Homogenous groups have a far greater risk of engaging in groupthink. Groupthink can be deadly to projects because people are too uncertain to voice reasonable objections or worries and has been linked to monetary losses (mostly on account of the failed projects or the group not recognising opportunities).\n\nDiversifying a group lowers the risk of groupthink. It also brings new perspectives, that can help when figuring out how to market a product. Say you are trying to market something to urban youth. Who do you think has the best perspective on what kind of marketing campaign, a group of seven people with identical ivy league educations and higher middle class upbringings or a group with diverse people, among who might also be one or two people from the environment you want to market to?",
"When you have a more diverse workforce (giving they're all the best and not just picked for diversity's sake) opens op a lot of experience and different ways of solving the same problem. That is beneficial since you otherwise might not have found that solution.\n\nI do think that publicity is also beneficial to the company, since if no one buys from you due to publicity you don't have a business.",
"There is indeed. Having people from diverse backgrounds means that you will have a better go of things from many stand points. \n\nFor one thing with diverse backgrounds come diverse approaches to problem solving and viewing solutions. One metaphor I like is that a baseball team made entirely of catcher's will have a great esprit de corps but will not necessarily perform well because they only have 1 area of expertise, catching. You need many different types of skills and people to make a team work well.\n\nFor another it has been shown that having a diverse or at least representative work force will lead to better performance in terms of how you interact with your clients or, in the case of local govt, your constituency. If the people you have on staff can more easily identify with and \"talk the talk\" with customers you will have a better time. In some cases this means hiring people who are quite literally fluent in the language of the local or target population, as opposed to the guy who on paper might look more qualified.\n\nHaving a diverse workforce also forces the organization as a whole to increase their own capacity to interact with a wider range of customers than they may have otherwise.\n\nI could go on but I'm on mobile and at work. I'll try to return later.\n\nLong story short: yes, diversity does seem to help the bottom line.\n",
"Yes and no.\n\nDiversity for the sake of diversity is BS, particularly for small organizations where \"trying to be diverse\" can easily lead to poor hiring practices. Like a reverse-bias where you might prefer a minority candidate over a better white, English-speaking male (or whatever) candidate. It doesn't have to be institutional or legal, even someone going into interviews with the idea \"it would be great to have some more diversity in my workplace\" can create this sort of manufactured bias.\n\nOn the other hand, where there is a need diverse opinions, backgrounds, ideas, etc. obviously it would be a good idea to actively seek those out. The problem is that we equate diversity with shades of skin colour or gender and that is not always true.\n\nAs a personal example, I'm a black female but I would be hard-pressed to give you an example of how my opinions, ideas, background, etc differs from my white male co-workers. At least in the context of my profession. On the other hand, I can definitely see how my communication style is very much \"East Coast Canadian\". So, my home province 'creates more diversity' than my skin colour and gender. Depends on how people define \"diverse\" I guess..."
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2apfki | why do these folks go on these talk shows like maury, springer, dr. phil and share with the world their "dirty laundry"??? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2apfki/eli5_why_do_these_folks_go_on_these_talk_shows/ | {
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"text": [
"they are getting paid or just like attention",
"I was recruited to be on Jerry Springer's show back in the late 1990s. I used to hang out at a club in Chicago called the Exit, and I was approached by the owner to go on the show, because it turned out that he was on the show's payroll to provide guests as needed, since the club was pretty much a magnet for the types of people (bikers, punk rockers, etc.) who one would normally encounter on the show. As it was explained to me, the people who go on these shows are real, as are their situations. The contract they sign says that if anyone \"chickens out\" the show can hire actors to play the part, since it would cost a lot of money to re-schedule shooting, or find last-minute guests to replace the scheduled ones. The segment I was recruited for featured a woman who was leaving her biker boyfriend to shack up with a Japanese sushi chef. Both the biker and the chef backed out, and I was hired to play the biker. We were both given the basic details of the story and were asked to improvise around that, without making up anything outlandish. We spent seven or eight hours in a small room backstage with several other guests, some real and some actors. We had to sign a rediculous contract that said they would sue the crap out of us if we told anyone that we were \"acting\" and lots of other horribly threatening legal language. I do remember that the contract stated that the production company owned our voices and likenesses \"forever, throughout the universe\" (seriously...I'm not kidding!) but we all agreed later that we thought it was funny. Anyway, they treated everyone great (they took me and a friend in a limo from the suburbs into Chicago, put us in an executive suite downtown and even gave us each $100 and admission to the House of Blues the evening before the show. The really took good care of us. I was paid $200 for my part and it was a lot of fun. Jerry is a really cool guy, and I came away with more respect for him than I had going in."
]
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[],
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||
459r0d | why do web browsers change default search engines without prompt? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/459r0d/eli5_why_do_web_browsers_change_default_search/ | {
"a_id": [
"czw6uf0"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"As far as I know, they don't. Something else (usually something you install, like a Java update) will hide it away as an addition to their installer. You are being prompted, just not directly and obviously."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
51facc | why is sandwich meat round when the bread is not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51facc/eli5_why_is_sandwich_meat_round_when_the_bread_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7bh0fh"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Bread is risen in a square tray while the meat is ground up and compressed in a tube of cloth. They are made differently and it isn't worth trying to match up their shapes."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
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