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j3jv1 | why are women's moods affected during ovulation? elif | I'm sure there have been some studies done, but does anybody know the answer in simple terms? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j3jv1/why_are_womens_moods_affected_during_ovulation/ | {
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"To my understanding, it's the way Estrogen (a hormone the body makes on the inside) interacts with the brain. From studies I have read, no one really seems to know exactly how this interaction occurs, though. \n\nThink of it like eating your favorite cereal, or drinking a glass of orange juice. Most of the time, everything is great and it doesn't taste yucky or anything. But right after you brush your teeth, it all tastes sour and gross, or at least very different from the taste you would expect.\n\nThat's like Estrogen and the brain. During ovulation, the brain reacts differently to Estrogen than it normally does, and it makes things \"taste\" differently.\n\nAnyone who knows more on the subject, please add or correct me entirely :)",
"When women are ovulating, levels of hormones in their body change. These hormones affect how the body reacts to certain situations."
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5s92pi | what are sudden headaches/throbbing we get sometimws when we stretch? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5s92pi/eli5_what_are_sudden_headachesthrobbing_we_get/ | {
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"Follow-up: why does stretching give you that cotton in ears feeling sometimes?"
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7i9xki | why does exposure to heat and humidity make me feel nauseous and faint? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7i9xki/eli5_why_does_exposure_to_heat_and_humidity_make/ | {
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"You already mentioned dehydration. But besides that, in genuine terms I would explain to a 5yo:\n\nThe body likes to be a certain temperature. \n\nWhen it’s hot, the body signals to the brain to do things to balance the temperature on the inside so it’s not as hot or cold as the outside. \n\nThe body sometimes isn’t quick enough to cool down the body if it’s too hot outside.\nThe body then does a few things to let off the heat, like breathing it out, sweating it out, and sending blood to the outer parts of your body and skin so it opens the pores more and releases the heat.\n\nThat means the heart and lungs work harder. And whilst they’re working harder, the other organs are also working harder to deal with whatever heat is left over.\n\n Even on a microscopic level down at the cells, it might be too hot for the cells to survive and they start to die off.\n\nThis causes, among other symptoms, nausea and vomiting."
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4vbbs0 | why do my teeth hurt when my drink is too cold? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vbbs0/eli5_why_do_my_teeth_hurt_when_my_drink_is_too/ | {
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"The nerves in your mouth become numbed by the cold like if you put an ice pack on a bruise, but since your teeth are more important than a bruise your body freaks out and thinks that something bad happened because it is no longer receiving a signal from your numbed teeth so it tells you that it hurts so you will figure out what is wrong and fix it. ",
"They are good guesses, but you would freeze burn your mouth before healthy teeth would get cold. \n\nYou can google Dentine Hypersensitivity; basically in worn teeth, fluid can move in the tubules in exposed Dentine. Shrinkage of the outer water content pulls fluid out through osmotic pressure and distends your nerve endings causing short sharp pain. \n\nIf your tooth nerve is infected, there is already a persistent high pressure due to inflammation. The blood vessels are less able to cope with this change in pressure when cold and hot stimulus applied. The pain will linger far longer. \n\nAfter this your pulp dies.\n\nYou might need a root canal if the pain lingers or is worse upon lying down (usually at night)"
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2k5kzt | why is an xl the same price as a s? | I've always wondered how a XL shirt is the same price as a small shirt at stores? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k5kzt/eli5_why_is_an_xl_the_same_price_as_a_s/ | {
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"The difference in cost of material is negligible compared to cost of cutting, sewing, dying, shipping, profit. ",
"Prices are set by demand (what someone is willing to pay), not cost. The demand and utility of a shirt is assumed to be the same, regardless of size.",
"There can be a number of reasons for this:\n\n1) The cost of additional material is negligible compared to other cost required to make the item of clothing, so while small things have a higher margin (profit) it isn't significant enough to change the price.\n2) The smaller demand for small sizes create economies of scale (lower prices from doing something more, higher for less) that negate the savings on material. This is unlikely because XL should have a smaller market than just L or M.\n3) The company thinks the backlash caused by charging more for bigger items from people who buy the bigger items to be severe enough that they will take smaller margins on XL items in order to keep the customers happy, and more importantly buying.\n4) Something that Econ101 doesn't cover. Economics is a really hard subject because even in the simplest real world situations there are a huge number of variables in play.\n\nIf I had to put money on it though, I would say option 3 is most likely followed by options 1 and 4."
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21e4s7 | nuclear fuel life cycle | Im mainly interested in how it is mined, refined and turned into fuel rods to be used. I assume its nothing like Iron Ore due to the nature of the material, but i have no idea and cant understand what came up from google.
thanks
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21e4s7/eli5_nuclear_fuel_life_cycle/ | {
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"Uranium is mined, then its ore ground into particles of uniform size. The ore is then chemically treated to bring out the uranium oxide (yellow cake). The Uranium is chemically altered to become Uranium Hexaflouride, which is a gas, and is spun rapidly in centrifuges to separate the uranium into isotopes so the heavier ones, Uranium atoms with more neutrons (like U-238) are driven to the sides of the centrifuge, while atoms with fewer neutrons (the more desirable U-235) \"float\" up to the top (center).\n\nOnce stratified and extracted, the U-235 is separated and remixed into a fuel \"meat\" and stuffed into tubes, which are bundled together and put with control rods and stuffed into the reactor vessels.\n\nFun fact, a spent fuel cell still has almost half the uranium in it when removed from the reactor; it's just that it's no longer usable because there isn't enough uranium to reach \"Critical Mass\" and sustain a fission reaction. "
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208ooq | why can't movies/tvs use proper/real search engines? | = | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/208ooq/eli5_why_cant_moviestvs_use_properreal_search/ | {
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"Because their legal teams shit their pants every time a product is mentioned which they dont have explicit permission to use. They 'could' use google. And it could have no problems what-so-ever. But just as an arse cover, they use fake ones to avoid any risk of legal action. \n\nHere is an example. A show uses Google perfectly innocently. 2 years later the lead in the show is convicted for dealing drugs. Google could now, in theory, sue the TV company for linking their corporate image to a drug dealer and seek damages. Its legally easier to just not involve them.\n\nAlso, another reason is licensing. They might approach Google and say 'hey guys, we will show your search engine in our new TV show if you give us $50k as we are advertising your stuff'. Google could say no, in which case they dont want to give them a freebie so use a fake one instead. ",
"Because that's free advertising. Why give away something that they would otherwise sell?",
"Some movies/shows do use real websites and search engines. For instance, in National Treasure, the good guys use google while the bad guys use yahoo :P",
"Or they could go the parks and rec route and use alta vista",
"Pc's are one of the the most common tools of the worker. Not showing real OS/browsers would be like movies in the 1940's making fictional toolsets to work on things, or having fake phones in offices. ",
"I often ask this question when I see someone on TV using bing"
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3benu6 | why is it that a system like the nintendo 3ds/ds can play a game without loading screens, yet games on systems like the ps4/xbox one cannot? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3benu6/eli5_why_is_it_that_a_system_like_the_nintendo/ | {
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"Games on the PS4 and Xbone have a lot more information to process and load, and the 3DS and DS have flash memory on SD cards, which while you can put a SSD in the PS4/Xbone to reduce load times, their default Hard Drive is a Hard Disk Drive with 5600 Rotations per minute, meaning they access information off the memory source a little slower than a Solid State drive, but that also means they can have 500gb for a lot cheaper than it would be as an SSD",
"Thats not necessarily the case though. For instance, Pokemon Rumble World has a fairly long loading screen. But for the most part, its because games on the 3ds are not as resource heavy.\n\nI think you can see why [This game](_URL_0_) would load faster than [This one](_URL_1_).",
"Not all 3ds games don't have loading screens. Like this Lego marvel avengers game I got it has loading screens. "
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trtz6 | einstein's significance in the history of scientific thought. | People around the world know Einstein's name, and I know a little bit about his discoveries, but nothing to justify his celebrity status. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/trtz6/eli5_einsteins_significance_in_the_history_of/ | {
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"* He won a nobel prize for discovering the [photoelectric effect](_URL_0_) (the particle-like behavior of light). He was pretty young when he did it, and it solved a lot of existing problems, so that made him pretty famous in the scientific community.\n* He resolved a very long-standing problem in physics: the question of relativity. Light always appears to travel at the same speed in a vacuum, no matter how fast you're going. Think about that: if you're going \"50% light speed\" (with respect to me), you still see light going 100% light speed away in front of you and 100% light speed away behind you (instead of 50% in front and 150% behind, as you might expect). It was the armchair-physicist crux of the day, and Einstein solved it with beauty and surprising elegance. This made him quite popular with the armchair physicist (and science enthusiast) community.\n* He further generalized the concept above to include spinning fields, accelerated fields, and gravitational fields (no easy feat). This made him famous for a lot of reasons:\n * He made incredible claims about the nature of space, matter, and time which were very easily publicized (Mass is energy! E=mc^2 ! Time is relative! You can time travel by moving fast! Space can be bent!), which got the public's attention.\n * He was able to explain why Mercury's orbit was off by 43 seconds of an arc, a question that had baffled astronomers for ages, lending credence to his wild-sounding claims.\n * He predicted how light bent around the sun, which was confirmed in a widely publicized experiment during a solar eclipse, essentially confirming the theory.\n * The combination of the impact on the science community, the sound bytes to invigorate the public, and the widely publicized confirmation gave him pop status as a wizard-like figure, the man who could see space and time for what it really was.\n* He used his popularity to alert the United States to the very real possibility of nuclear bombs. He did not invent nukes himself, but he had a large hand in causing the US to begin nuclear research far sooner, and thus directly impacted the timing of US nuclear weapons. Due to his already popular status and the fact that people love pinning great achievements upon existing celebrity, he gained even more celebrity as the \"father of nukes\".\n\nFrom there it just sort of snowballed, because the populous loves a figure that they know. By now he's larger-than-life -- I don't think he had more insight or smarts than, say, Schrödinger, but he certainly made huge advancements in our understanding of the universe.",
"Three hundred years prior to Einstein, **Newton** marks beginning of (real) scientific understanding. Everything known prior to Newton and everything known since Newton can be connected by Newton. Newton is the Nexus between the Universe as mysterious and the Universe as the canvass for scientific understanding. \n\nIt is hard to argue that any other human is more deserving for the title of *Greatest Scientist Ever*. The vast tree of Scientific Knowledge converges on a single vertex at Newton before branching out again. Not since Aristotle has there been anyone like this. \n\nThe vast tree of ancient (Western) thought on every subject (politics, metaphysics, science, logic and on and on) can be collapsed to work of **Aristotle** and from Aristotle it branches out again. Between Aristotle and Newton everything known could be traced to and derived from Aristotle. It is hard to argue that anyone else is more deserving of the title of *Greatest Thinker Ever*. \n\n[At this point I should give props to **Galileo** and **da Vinci** . They will stand shoulder to shoulder with all three men. The concept of relativity can be traced to Galileo, and with da Vinci's engineering and medical knowledge they must both be considered among the greatest thinkers and the greatest scientists of all time. They are left out here only to not interrupt a simplified narrative, but they are no less great and arguably even more so that Aristotle, Newton and Einstein.] \n\nBy the late 1800s a modern, post Newtonian scientific understanding of the Universe included greats like:\n\n \n**Michelson-Morley** - Constancy of the speed of light (yea, not a person, but the results of this experiment are a watershed in modern physics.) \n**Lorentz** - The mathematical tools later used to exploit the constancy of the speed of light \n**Young** - Wave nature of light via the double slit experiment \n**Maxwell** - The mathematics of electro-magnetic waves, including a maximum speed of propagation \n**Hertz** - Particle nature of light via the (then called) Hertz Effect later to be the photo electric effect \n**Planck** - The Mathematics of light as quanta of energy \n\nSo there were a lot of ideas, experimental results and mathematical tools floating around in the late 1800's. Vast webs of spreading out from the Nexus of Newton. All of modern physics today can be traced to those men.\n\nHowever, between 1905 and 1917 **Einstein** took all of their work and created a picture of the Universe that persists today. All of modern physics can find those men as ancestors, all of them can be viewed through the lens of and simultaneously because of the insights of Einstein. Einstein marks a nexus of everything between Newton and everything we know today. It hard to argue against Einstein as being the *Greatest Theoretical Physicist Ever*. \n\n**All Known Human Thought** \ncollapses to Aristotle and branches out again into many webs, one of those webs is scientific thought. Prior to Aristotle there was little difference between what it meant to be literate and what it meant to be educated. After Aristotle it is impossible to consider yourself educated and not be influenced, even unknowingly by his work. Although, prior to Newton, it was impossible to be educated an not know you were directly influenced by him. \n\n**All Known Scientific Thought** \ncollapses to Newton and essentially the birth of the scientific method and the Calculus and then branches out again into many webs. Prior to Newton there little difference between being educated and being scientifically literate. After Newton it is impossible to consider yourself scientifically literate without being influenced by the work of Newton. Scientists are directly aware of this fact. \n\n**All Known Modern Scientific Thought** \ncollapses to Einstein. Classical Physics and Quantum Mechanics, the bases of all our understanding of physics can be seen branching out of the work of Einstein. Prior to Einstein there was little difference between being scientifically literate and being a modern physicist. After Einstein it is impossible to consider yourself a modern physicist and not be directly influenced by Einstein. \n\nThere are many great scientists/thinkers throughout human history but by just knowing a little about the work of these three men and the scientific zeitgeist before and after them you can get a pretty good understanding of our human understanding of the Universe. Ironically the greatness and the eventual limitation of all of these men was their ability to push the contribution of God to nature of their investigations down the road, but in all their cases they did not push it far enough.\n\nPrior to Aristotle everything was explained as a direct cause of a god. Between Aristotle, God had become part observer, starting a process, but ultimately responsible for the initiation of the process. Each men then pushed God further and further into to ever shrinking gaps of our knowledge. Even Einstein was limited by the fact that Universe must be obeying some rules for which he only had a gut feeling. Now the current thought is the Universe reveals itself to be truly mysterious beyond our understanding, we can only hope to glimpse what she coyly reveals.\n\nThe work of Einstein leads to Schrodinger and QM and from there to Feynman and his Line Integral Interpretation of QM. There is a really nice chain of our view of the world through those five men. (again, mad props to Galileo and da Vinci) "
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1ka736 | why do humans both poop and pee? | Why doesn't it all come out together | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ka736/eli5_why_do_humans_both_poop_and_pee/ | {
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"There was an excellent answer (good enough to earn its author Reddit Gold) to this question about a month ago:\n _URL_0_"
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8haqox | how wet wipes stay cool even when they aren't in a cool environment. | I am camping in South Texas and it is most definitely not cool outside even at night really, so why do my wet wipes still feel cool out of the package? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8haqox/eli5_how_wet_wipes_stay_cool_even_when_they_arent/ | {
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"Evaporation of a liquid require energy, so when the liquid in the wipe is exposed to the air it start to evaporate and remove energy from the surface. The removal of heat will result that the wipes or the surface you wipe get a bit cooler.\n\nHow much cooler it gets depends on the needed energy for the liquid and the speed of evaporation. Hand sanitize that contain alcohol feel cool for the same reson as the alcohol evaporate.\n\n Cooling by evaporation is the reson humans sweat. The evaporation of the sweat cool you down but water evaporate at a lower rate then alcohol so you don't feel as cold as alcohol.\n\nThe reson that it does not evaporate in the package is that it is air tight a the small amount of air in it get saturated and no more evaporate.",
"That’s a pretty neat observation!\n\nThe wipes *feel* cool for a couple reasons, but mostly it’s because they’re wet. \n\nWe can imagine that there are lots of tiny bits of water all stuck together on the wipes, and that’s why they’re wet. When you open the wipes up and they contact the air, they start to dry out. As they dry, some of the tiny bits of water are jumping off of the wipes and into the air. \n\nThe funny thing is, when the bits of water jump off, it costs a little energy. For every little bit of water that jumps, the wipes become a little cooler. Because of this, your wipes feel delightfully cool, even on a warm night!\n\n(There might be other factors at play... maybe how well a wet wipe conducts thermal energy, and also the relatively high specific heat of water... but I don’t feel like typing out an ELIF explanation for those things... pretty sure evaporative cooling is the main mechanism anyways)"
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2i3yu6 | how does the us have money for war, even though we're something like trillions in debt? | Edit: Thanks for all the replies. This helps me understand it a little more, but politics aren't really my thing, so it's still confusing. I appreciate the replies! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2i3yu6/eli5_how_does_the_us_have_money_for_war_even/ | {
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"The same way most families have money for GI Joe for their kids, even though they have a large mortgage. \n\nDebt means people have loaned you money that you will repay over time. While paying interest reduces the amount that can be spent on other things, it doesn't mean there's no money to be spent on other things. \n\nAlso, the US owes a huge amount of debt to \"itself\" (the Federal Reserve and Social Security own a sizable fraction of the debt). ",
"Because war makes politicians profit more than education and healthcare."
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3tqt0o | in movies with animals (especially dogs), how do they get the animals to do certain things? | Dogs opening doors, running to people, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tqt0o/eli5_in_movies_with_animals_especially_dogs_how/ | {
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"These dogs are specially trained, just like how seeing-eye dogs or police K-9's are specially trained. Training a dog to sit and shake is very easy, it just takes more time to train to do more complex actions. When on set, the dog'a trainer is off-camera telling them what to do and possibly give them treats."
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8xsl2o | how are passwords on websites "brute-forced" when almost all websites limit how many attempts can be made within a certain time frame? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8xsl2o/eli5_how_are_passwords_on_websites_bruteforced/ | {
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"The concern isn't hackers trying your password in a website's log-in form. It's hackers stealing the entire password database off of a website and trying to reverse the passwords on their own computers, with no attempt limits. If you have an insecure password that's been re-used, they can figure out what password you used in seconds and then try the same email/password combination on other websites. If you have strong and unique passwords, they won't be able to figure it out in a reasonable amount of time.",
"Brute forcing is not as common as it once was. Rather... Brute forcing a single account does not happen against major sites because they have the measures in place that you state.\nWhat we see now are brute forces against multiple accounts (we literally just had this at work).\nThese work much the same as old days where someone sends X passwords to the site but for Y users.\nYou are more likely to be breached via a database dump than brute force providing you follow complexity requirements ",
"That's a setting. What if I was able to download the entire content of a server, but I didn't have the passwords?\n\nI could set it up in my own environment, turn off that setting, and then attempt to access the data using brute force.",
"Consider the fact that you might have 20 different logins on different websites. I bet you have the same passwords on a lot of them.\n\nXYZ site gets hacked. Like, totally hacked. They have 300,000 users in a plaintext password database, or a poorly-salted password database that's vulnerable to rainbow tables (precomputed hashes). Somewhere between 50 & #37; and 100 & #37; of the passwords are decrypted. Yours is among them.\n\nNow, they have username-password combinations to try on a bunch of other sites. Instead of guessing your password among tens of trillions of possibilities, now they have, like, one. Now they can try username-password combos with a MUCH higher rate of success, despite rate limiting. \n\n\nusername x, password y ... nope \nusername z, password a ... nope\n\nusername b, password c ... hit! \n",
"Here is the deal. \n\nThe true advice is to have a 'different' password for every site online.\n\nPeople stealing accounts have gotten pretty fucking smart. They go out and steal a database from place (A). Then they contact a buddy who has a database from another place. Then they find another buddy.\n\nOne person might purchase the other two databases, or they might all get together.\n\nNow, none of these databases will have complete information. Database (A) might have really secure passwords/usernames but leave addresses in plain text. Database (B) has username/passwords but not much else and database (C) has some variation.\n\nYou take all three databases, you throw them in bucket and start doing searches looking for hits. When you find a duplicate street address or phone number or username on one and a password on another - BAMMM!\n\nThis is how it is done. Only with more then 3 databases. And automation. It really is very impressive, if not terrifying.\n\n----------------\n\nNow, thing is, all of us have a couple of enormous weak spots. The first is our lack of knowledge on how any website handles personal information. You sign up to Reddit and they want certain things... we have no way of knowing how that is getting handled. It is impossible to know.\n\nThe other is that we are human. Asking you to memorize 72 different passwords that are 8 characters, nonsensical, upper and lowercase and special characters is just an assanine request to make.\n\nIt is what needs to be done - but you can't expect people to do that.\n\n-----------------\n\nSo what do you do?\n\nI recomend password managers. I use _URL_0_. There is a competing product called Keepass.\n\nChrome has one built in. Apple products have had the 'keychain' since forever.",
"Another interesting development, which isn't so novel to anyone who's thought about it and understands mathematics with relation to computing, is that overly complicated rules actually make brute force attacks MUCH easier. If you put all of these artificial stipulations on a password, you basically make the algorithm for cracking it via brute force means significantly easier."
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3n7rfh | g proteins and g protein coupled receptors! | Can you explain the both of them in very simple terms? I keep getting confused trying to understand it | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n7rfh/eli5g_proteins_and_g_protein_coupled_receptors/ | {
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"I'll give this a shot. \n\n1. In resting state, the receptor has 3 proteins bound to it: called alpha, beta, and gamma subunits. \n\n2. When a ligand docks to the receptor, the subunits break away from the receptor. (Your foot pushing a pedal on your car).\n\n2a. The alpha subunit goes off on its own to have some effect downstream (gas being injected to the engine). This effect depends on which of several alpha subunit types it is (ex. alpha-s = gas, alpha-i = brakes, there are some others, too). If you have an exam, you should study the ultimate action of the alpha subunit of a particular GPCR. Commonly, GPCRs are classified based on which alpha subunit they contain, for example \"G-alpha-s.\"\n\n2b. The beta and gamma subunits also break away from the receptor but stay with each other. The function of these are less variable than the alpha subunit (less subtypes).\n\n3. Because the alpha and beta-gamma subunits can activate or inhibit many times their number of an enzyme's activity and don't really have a direct function in their own right, GPCRs ( the fuel injectors) are the cell's way of amplifying the initial signal (the ligand/your foot). So while the amount of ligand (force of your foot) is proportional to the amount of fuel injected and thus acceleration, and the cell doesnt need to receive boatloads of ligand to elicit some effect. (You don't generate your car's force of acceleration purely by the strength of your leg.)\n"
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31rkmd | why do politicians make it seem like whoever has the most money is going to win an election? in what areas are they 'outspending' their opponent, and how is that translating into votes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31rkmd/eli5_why_do_politicians_make_it_seem_like_whoever/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Advertising, mostly, but also being able to fund grassroots campaigns to help \"get out the vote\". Its really appalling how often the candidate who spends the most wins."
]
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||
164ezl | how does innovation help the economy? | I recently made a point to a friend that the main two things that the U.S. has going for it are its military and its higher education system (not K-12). He made a point that innovation is, also, huge in the United States and pointed to the technology bubble (Apple, Microsoft, etc. all being American corporations). Obama also recently spent the majority of State of the Union talking about innovation.
However, how does this actually have a major impact on the economy? Although these products are thought of here and their headquarters are located here, the manufacturing is often oversees (loads of jobs), the tech support is often oversees (loads of jobs) and the corporate tax rate isn't that high. Yes, Americans buy lots of products, but we buy products regardless of the country of origin.
How else does innovation contribute to the economy besides the corporate taxes and the meager amount of 'higher skill' jobs required to come up with the ideas? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/164ezl/how_does_innovation_help_the_economy/ | {
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"Innovation broadens a market, which deters any monopoly. When Apple was created, it was totally different than a PC. Thus we now have major options in computers. \n\nThe innovation of tablets and smart phones has created a new market in a sense, where money on technology is highly invested each year by large corporation. \n\nInnovation keeps us moving forward like inertia, keeping us from becoming stagnant. Imagine if we were stuck with 90's car technology forever. Or the music of the 60's. It allows people to spend their money in other places and help the economic flow. \n\nThis is my take any how. ",
"Innovation increases productivity.\n\nMicrowave ovens, computers, cell phones, email, they all save incredible amounts of time. They work I can do at home with my laptop in the past would have required a fully equipped office and a swarm of secretaries, files clerks, errand boys and mail readers. Which frees those people to go and find better and more productive jobs.\n\nInnovation means as a country, we are able to create more wealth."
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e0081c | what causes trypophobics to fear or be made uneasy by the small holes? | I know that usually phobias are irrational, but what is the root of that?
Exe: For spiders I have heard things like "it's how they move" or for worms I have heard "it's their wriggling alien look".
I'm just curious if anyone here has the phobia or can explain what the base there is. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e0081c/eli5_what_causes_trypophobics_to_fear_or_be_made/ | {
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"For me it has something to do with imagining things crawling out of those holes. A lot of times I see the pattern/small hole and my brain imprints that pattern onto some body part and then I can’t help but think of bugs or something crawling in and out of those holes *under and through your skin* and it gets me bad",
"I read somewhere that it could be instinctive to not like clusters of small holes. It makes our subconscious think \"danger\" so we avoid it. Like how bee hives have small holes. I found a link talking about it more in-depth. \n\n[Instinct ](_URL_0_)",
"It's about feeling exposed. Holes are places things can get in or out of. Although most people talk about things \"getting out\", like beehives and spider holes, I believe most of the feeling of unease comes from the fear of undesirable things getting in, and the feeling of impotence in regards to getting them off. The idea of having a spider crawl into your ear is extremely unsetling, since it could stay there and lay eggs on your insides, while due to it being in a small hole you're incapable of just brushing it of or plucking it out of your skin. Because of that, the sight of a bunch of small holes might make some people shiver, simply for the implication of a lack of agency and control in regards to what might find itself inside those holes.",
"For me it represents something terribly wrong, and looks too much like hornets nests, and some oozing mushrooms that are dangerous... But mainly it's irrational and based on just one or two scary experiences"
]
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[],
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"https://dangerousminds.net/comments/apparently_trypophobia_a_fear_of_tiny_clusters_of_holes_isnt_a_phobia_but_a"
],
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|
b6kdpy | how can natural gas companys shut off gas remotly but then has to send out a person to turn it on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6kdpy/eli5how_can_natural_gas_companys_shut_off_gas/ | {
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"Every time I've had gas turned on (only been when moving) they've had to have the person come out to make sure things like the oven and water heater weren't leaking gas , and made sure I had all my pilot lights lit before leaving.\n\nTurning the gas on remotely could cause a gas leak in your house because none of your pilot lights will be lit, but turning it off remotely poses no risk. \n\n",
"While it's not impossible with newer gas meters, in general, the gas company doesn't turn off your gas remotely. They have to send someone to do it. You just don't realize it because if you're having your gas turned off, that probably means you're moving out and just aren't there when it happens. Even if you are home, they aren't going to come knock on your door if your meter is outside and can doing it very quickly and leave.\n\nTo have gas turned on, they require someone to be at the house, so you actually realize they are there."
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5w4mbz | why are credit/debit card processing fees so high? | With it being the so called digital age, and card processing becoming largely automated, why is there still a $2 (or 2%) fee to use a card to purchase something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5w4mbz/eli5_why_are_creditdebit_card_processing_fees_so/ | {
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"text": [
"Credit card companies are providing security of funds, both guaranteeing payment and safety from robbery, etc. they are also proving liquidity for consumers to allow them to buy more. The fees also cover rewards (1% cash back) and chargebacks/disputes where the credit card company ends up eating the cost."
]
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3ex9wn | what kind of government does america have and what does it mean? | I read once that America is not technically a republic, and what it actually is was a reaaallllyyy long word that I didn't really understand.. Can anyone help me out here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ex9wn/eli5_what_kind_of_government_does_america_have/ | {
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"We are a constitutional democratic republic, meaning our Constitution dictates that we democratically elect representatives who govern for us.\n\nThat said, considering how much money has gone into the system recently from less-than-democratic people, I would argue we are actually a plutocracy, governed by the rich and for the rich."
]
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1e12wi | why some foods at fast food restaurants are discontinued, even when they are insanely popular. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e12wi/eli5_why_some_foods_at_fast_food_restaurants_are/ | {
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"text": [
"You're talking about the McRib aren't you?\n\nHaving a new product (or a recurring one) gives a company something to advertise about. McDonald's spends an insane amount on advertising but there are only so many Big Mac ads they can run. So they bring back the McRib, make a huge splash, get Reddit worked into a frenzy, and then discontinue it for a while. Then when it comes back they can make a huge deal of it.\n\nIn addition, the price of the food may go up and make it not as profitable. If the price of pork goes up then McRibs may be priced out of the \"sweet spot\" their marketing has determined is best, so they cancel it for a while until they can get a good deal again.\n\nIn double addition, just because something *seems* popular doesn't mean it is actually profitable."
]
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e26jk3 | how does a radar signal bounce off of a distant object back to the exact spot that it was sent from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e26jk3/eli5_how_does_a_radar_signal_bounce_off_of_a/ | {
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"The bounce typically spreads out in all directions. This means your received signal is going to be significantly less powerful than the transmitted signal, but as long as you have a powerful transmitter and/or a good receiver that can process the return signal, you can detect it.",
"You can imagine a flashlight at a distance in a dark room. Say there is a mirror across the room. You are going to see the flashlight in the mirror even if it isn't pointed exactly right just because the beam spreads out. For an object that's round rather than a mirror (disco ball?) It would be especially easy.\n\nAnother consideration for this is that a radar only has to look for a specific frequency coming back to it. If it is looking for stationary objects it's the same frequency, but if it is looking for moving objects it's slightly different. This makes it even easier to filter against frequencies you don't want. Going back to the flashlight example, it would be equivalent to looking for a specific color of light coming back.",
"Oh boy, literally my job in the Navy\n\nSo what people don't realize is that a radar is constantly transmitting and receiving, just with transitions between the two being so tiny that we can't envision it. It's not like it's \"shouting\" in a circle then being quiet the next 360 degrees \"listening\". Light (or more accurately, RF energy) is fast, really fast, taking 12.26 microseconds (that's 1/100,000th of a second) to travel one mile and back.\n\nThe classic \"sweep\" you see is a real thing (though modern radars don't usually have a visible line because they're not using CRTs, some repeaters still do though) but it isn't like every other sweep is a \"listen\", it is updating in real time (or within a few microseconds' time) along the length of that sweep. If you took an ultra-slow-mo video of one of these older style displays, you would see the beam travel along the length of the sweep from center of the display (the ship or otherwise radar source) out to the edge of the display, leaving behind an illuminated dot or phosphor wherever a return is detected. before starting again from the center. This is why the sweep always looks kinda like it's \"bending\" a bit, because the center gets \"redrawn\" before the edge is finished lighting up.\n\nSo if we wanna pretend the radar is a shouting guy, pretend he's yelling at one precise fraction of a degree for a split-split-second, then listening for an echo. If it gets any noise back, the electronic wizardry in the console causes it to light up a dot on the display with an intensity proportional to how \"loud\" the echo was. And it'll do that every fraction of a second through the rest of the rotation, dutifully drawing a dot or blob wherever it hears an echo.\n\nNow, depending on how large the object is, it might have so much surface area that it bounces back a lot more RF over the length of it (considered from the point of radiation). This will make the dot become a blob as it is \"hearing\" a longer echo. Translate that through the length of the object (from front to back as the radar illuminates it) and, depending on the object's radar reflectivity and size, you'll see it appear to be a thicker blob in the center where there's more surface area bouncing back more RF.\n\nAnd depending on how big or tall the object is, you could have a radar shadow where you get absolutely *nothing* from \"beyond\" (further away, closer to the edge of the display) the object, say with a building. It's interesting to see on a ship's radars, you'll have these *dummy thicc* solid returns (thick blobs) that are roughly square or rectangular and nothing, not even clutter or noise, past them, and you can tell you're looking at a city downtown or something.\n\nOn the flip side, when we're talking about a normal 2D radar, RF can sort of bounce or bend around a smaller object. This is why/how you can see multiple things from different distances at the same bearing, while some of the RF bounces back off the nearer contact some just goes right past to hit a further away object. Then, as I said, depending on how quickly RF gets back and how much gets back, you will see a return at a specific distance and... Solidness? Respectively.\n\nEdit: also, most (all?) modern radars radiate a specific frequency of RF. The antenna will ONLY \"listen\" for that particular frequency (and no, this isn't some secret navy tech, it's how crowded fishing ports don't have collisions every five seconds at night, or how you can race your friend's RC car). So if you know the precise frequency of a radar, you can basically shoot noise at it from an emitter and that'll just make a massive wall of noise in the direction the jamming is coming from. With that said, this also means that you can't just shoot random RF at a radar antenna and expect to jam it, any more than taking a portable radio up to a radio tower for a particular station will prevent you or interfere with selection of another station/frequency -- it's simply not \"listening\" to that frequency, so regardless of signal strength it does nothing.",
"Easiest way to get this is to understand that radio waves are just a form of light that we can't see. The radar acts like a big giant flashlight with a sort of camera at the the end. Light waves also bounce off things the same way which is how we see, so think of it like shining a bright light so you can see things."
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bpgse6 | native american singing | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bpgse6/eli5_native_american_singing/ | {
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"The lyrics can be made of actual native words and “vocables” which are sounds that used to be words, but their meanings have been lost. Kinda like when you’re singing along in the car and don’t know the words, so you mumble something that sounds like what they said, but isn’t actually a real word (and you don’t know the real word). I shouldn’t have to say it, but of course all the songs are always about *something*, usually interal to the culture. \n\nThen there’s the rhythm, drums are sometimes *intentionally* played off-beat. So the singing might be at 150 bpm, but the drums might be at 140 bpm. IMO it gives a spiritual feeling to it, as the drums and vocals sync and de-sync, but it’s hard to put your finger on why without knowing the beats are off. It’s also pretty difficult to sing at one tempo but play at another, so it’s a display of skill. Kicking that up a notch is playing and singing with a group and everyone staying on both tempos.\n\nThen there’s the flute songs, which are usually improvised. IIRC, it’s meant to capture the player’s feelings right at that moment. A tradition I heard about was someone would carve a flute after they proposed to someone, and then would play a solo during the union/wedding ceremony. \n\nThis is all stuff I remember from a Musics of the World 101 class, so obviously I’m not an expert haha. It was just really interesting to me.",
"I don't know much specifically about Native American music, but I took a few courses on music ethnography in college and we learned quite a bit about the exact experience you are having. While almost every known human culture has music in some form, much of our response to music is influenced by our social and cultural upbringing, and not in any way predetermined. The best example of this was when we were studying music from India. As someone who grew up around Western music practices, I assumed that the concept of harmony was universal to music, and also that the idea of two notes being \"dissonant,\" or sounding harsh when they clash together. But this is not the case, as many non-Western cultures find the dissonant intervals pleasant just as we feel with harmony. In fact, the only musical concept that appears to be universally understood by most cultures is the octave, which makes sense given that an octave interval is double or half the original pitch.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nTo your ear, that has been acclimated to the traditions of western music structure, a foreign music structure is like trying to read a different language. You see the parts there and you know that they are supposed to go together in a certain way, but your understanding of it doesn't align with what you are hearing. It might as well be random shill noises because your brain doesn't know by what standard to measure what it's receiving. As I listened to more music from around the world in this class my understanding of it did start to improve and learning what to listen for helped a lot, but it would never become the music I listen to in my downtime.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nMany musical practices that have long cultural backgrounds are deeply intertwined with important communal events. They can be ways of telling religious stories, ways of marking special occasions or of mourning. One thing unique about Western culture in this regard is that making music is no longer a communal activity. In many cultures, a group of people all make music together, rather than some performing it for the rest."
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2l2ryy | how do maggots appear on dead bodies so quickly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l2ryy/eli5_how_do_maggots_appear_on_dead_bodies_so/ | {
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"The smell. Flies love decomposing bodies and they lay up to 6000 eggs at once. \n\nNot to mention the eggs can turn to maggots in less than 16 hours.",
"A) They don't \"appear\", flies lay eggs that hatch into maggots (the larval life stage of flies, if you didn't know)\n\nB) Dead/decaying meat stinks, flies *love* that smell and will very quickly converge on it and lay thousands of eggs all over it. \n\nC) ???\n\nD) Profit\n\nI'll see myself out, couldn't help myself on the last two steps. "
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8gj3g3 | my work mate has a question about hydrogen cars so i posted it for him here. thanks all. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gj3g3/eli5_my_work_mate_has_a_question_about_hydrogen/ | {
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"Nope, that's mostly not how it works at all.\n\n > Cars that run on hydrogen cells, make water as a byproduct, all the electrons are returned to the hydrogen molecules at that point. \n\nYes, the electrons flow through the car and water is produced.\n\n > You make hydrogen cells by using a catalyst to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water.\n\nNope. You can use a catalyst to separate CH4 (natural gas) into Hydrogen and Carbon, but to made Hydrogen from water you use a huge amount of electricity. This is called electrolysis.\n\nSo the simple question's answer is \"of course not\" because perpetual motion of any kind violates the 2^nd law of thermodynamics.\n\n",
"Hydrogen is typically produced by electrolysis of water. Simply put, this means running an electrical current through water.\n\nIt is entirely possible to capture the water emitted by hydrogen-powered cars, and re-use it to make more hydrogen. But water is by far the cheapest part of that reaction! The hard part is the energy input required to separate water back out into hydrogen and oxygen.\n\nWhen your car is on the road, it does not have a source for that energy. All its energy is coming from the H2 + O = > H2O reaction, and that does not produce enough to also generate new H2. You could get that energy from another source, say by burning gasoline, but then you just have a very inefficient gasoline car.\n\nSince water is so abundant (and safe), there isn't much reason to capture the water emissions of a hydrogen car. In a Mad Max post-apocalyptic desert world scenario, I am sure that any hydrogen-powered cars would also capture the precious water, but we simply don't need to in the real world.",
"It's more of a question of how much energy is in each chemical. The bonds in molecules of h2 and o2 contain more energy than those in h2o, hence, burning h2 to produce these will release energy. Alternatively, turning water into pure hydrogen and pure oxygen will be an endothermic reaction (release a negative amount of energy).\n\nThis is why creating the hydrogen fuel cells needs to be done by inputting large amounts of energy.\n\nThe point of the catalyst is only to accelerate the reactions, not to cause them or to change the energy released. ",
" > Cars that run on hydrogen cells, make water as a byproduct, all the electrons are returned to the hydrogen molecules at that point.\n\nThis doesn't really make sense. Electrons are not taken from hydrogen to be returned to them.\n\n > The simple question is: can you just use the water byproduct, put it through the catalyst reaction again, and just use that hydrogen to go back into the hydrogen tank?\n\nNo. While the catalyst can make the reaction easier to perform it still requires energy input. You can't get something from nothing, performing the reaction in reverse would take just as much (in practicality more) energy than you got out of it.\n\n > And why cant yale professors understand this question??\n\nIt is too dumb for them to accept. It is like saying \"If I have a bag of candy and I can take candy out, why can't I just put that candy back into the bag and have infinite candy to eat?\"",
"Hydrogen fuel cells use H2 gas and separate those ions into H+. It’s collected with oxygen and turns into water after the reaction is already complete. Turning water back to H2 gas would require a separate cell just to do that, and wouldn’t be as efficient",
" > can you just use the water byproduct, put it through the catalyst reaction again, and just use that hydrogen to go back into the hydrogen tank?\n\nYou'd need energy for the catalyst reaction. If this is coming from the actual burning of the hydrogen fuel (resulting in water) then you are diverting that energy away from moving the car. In either case, the system isn't perfect, so you will also lose energy to the environment. \n\nSo you can have it move the car, or you can have an inefficient water- > hydrogen- > water- > hydrogen device that eventually runs out of power to produce hydrogen. Or a combination where it makes a small amount of fuel as you go, but you don't very far at all. \n\nMore useful to get the hydrogen and not try to produce it on the run.\n\n "
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3zi2at | how is martin shkreli filing for bankruptcy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zi2at/eli5_how_is_martin_shkreli_filing_for_bankruptcy/ | {
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"The smartass answer is \"Through his lawyer\". \n\nBut for a better one, bankruptcy is the state you place yourself in when your debts are so high that there is no way you can possibly clear them off with your expected income. \n\nIt doesn't matter if you're a should-be-rich scumbag with limosines or not; if you blew it all and spent yourself completely into the ground you can still declare bankruptcy and reduce your debt."
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16zyyc | bears and bulls in financial markets. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16zyyc/eli5_bears_and_bulls_in_financial_markets/ | {
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"Bear market is a bad economic time. A bull market is a good economic time.\n\nBears sleep and hibernate(bad for the economy to not be moving.)\n\nBulls rush and are active(good for an economy to be moving, growing, charging to success.)",
"These are just terms about how the market is doing. A bull market is going up and a bear market is going down. A person who believes that the market is on the rise is considered a \"bullish\" analyst and someone predicting the market is going to go down is called \"bearish\".\n\nIf a particular company is rising greatly, then it is a bullish stock. For instance, if the NASDAQ is mostly flat, but for some reason Apple, INC is so far up that the NASDAQ appears to be rising, then Apple would be the bull stock of the index.",
"I've also heard it connects to how they attack: bears slash downward and bulls lift their heads upward"
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55qwt5 | how does the 'auto' feature on my microwave determine when it's the right time to stop cooking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55qwt5/eli5_how_does_the_auto_feature_on_my_microwave/ | {
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"Depends how fancy your microwave is. Mine has a moisture sensor that stops when a certain amount of moisture is detected relative to the selected item and entered weight of said item.",
"What about when there isn't an option for the type of food that you are reheating. How does it know then? How can it tell the difference between a luke warm hot pocket and a cold one? ",
"When you turn on your microwave, it excites the water in the food, giving off steam as it warms up. The steam creates a humid atmosphere, as well as increases the surface temperature of whatever you're warming up. Depending on what you tell the microwave you put in, temperature and humidity sensors tell it to turn off when the predetermined, programmed humidity and heat levels are reached. \n\nTldr: humidity & heat sensors + lots of microwave experiments to set programs.\n\n"
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29ytx1 | how can the piece of garbage commercials/infomercials get so many spots on tv? | I mean, if they've all the money for commercial spots, why not invest some of it to make the commercials bearable to watch? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29ytx1/eli5_how_can_the_piece_of_garbage/ | {
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"Well they dropped their entire budget buying up the airtime, presumably. Plus the commercial spots they buy are usually the dead-cheap ones, blocks at 3AM on weeknights when basically no one is watching. The prices for commercial time vary massively, running at 7.30PM might cost you $10,000 but running at 3AM might only cost $300."
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7mda6o | how does fish oil help fight heart disease? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mda6o/eli5_how_does_fish_oil_help_fight_heart_disease/ | {
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"Fish oil supplements contain omega-3 fatty acids like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). It's been shown that these compounds can lower circulating triglyceride and blood cholesterol levels, which reduce your chances of developing heart diseases. [Source] (_URL_0_)",
"The body needs a wide diversity of nutrients to remain healthy, among those nutrients, there's a group of fats called \"omega-3-acids\". The body is naturally capable of making some molecules that it requires but cannot make other, like omega-3-acids, that's why we have to get them from our diet. That type of fat can be found in several types of fish.\n\nIn humans, it has be found that omega-3-acids are associated with a decreased risk of high blood pressure and triglyceride levels. [You can read more here](_URL_0_).",
"The most important thing it does is help your heart beat in the correct rhythm.\n\n > The strongest evidence for a beneficial effect of omega-3 fats has to do with heart disease. These fats appear to help the heart beat at a steady clip and not veer into a dangerous or potentially fatal erratic rhythm. (1) Such arrhythmias cause most of the 500,000-plus cardiac deaths that occur each year in the United States. Omega-3 fats also lower blood pressure and heart rate, improve blood vessel function, and, at higher doses, lower triglycerides and may ease inflammation, which plays a role in the development of atherosclerosis. (1)\n\n_URL_0_"
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3m7we8 | what's the deal with all these chinese hackers hacking us intelligence and top secret information recently? are these hackers working for the chinese government or are they just guys working for themselves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3m7we8/eli5_whats_the_deal_with_all_these_chinese/ | {
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"Every major country on earth engages heavily in state-sponsored cyber attacks and espionage. China is no different, they are a country that is heavily involved in this, yes its government run, mostly by a special unit in the Chinese Army.\n\nChina is pretty good apparently, they are also pretty good at getting caught. The US is the best at cyber stuff, its not even close, its one of the reasons you hear so much about Chinese hacking -- because they simply aren't as good and do a lot of it, so they tend to get caught.",
"Both. There are state sanctioned intelligence gathering hackers as well as some kid at home.\n\nChina isn't the only one doing this. CIA NSA do this regularly. As well as intelligence agencies from every major country in the world. "
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256c69 | can you cure cavities with a natural diet? | I read [this article](_URL_0_) claiming that you can and I want to know if it holds any weight. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/256c69/eli5_can_you_cure_cavities_with_a_natural_diet/ | {
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"it was originally on natural news, so right off the bat, no.\n\nteeth don't work that way. it'd be like hoping your tooth would \"grow back\" after getting chipped. ever see any hockey players regrow teeth?",
"I'm tempted to file that entire website under \"bullshit\". Seems like one big naturalistic fallacy.\n\nAnyway, the article is not convincing. It states that the current explanation given by the American Dental Association is wrong, and that the explanation offered by the founder of the ADA (who lived in the late 1800 and early 1900) is correct. I do not believe that science and research would go backwards rather than forwards as time progresses.\n\nAlong with the fact that no reputable sources are given, as well as claims that are just outright wrong (\"Bacteria do not consume processed sugar\"), there is no reason to believe any claims in this article hold weight."
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[],
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2i96ca | how do the eyes in a painting follow me around? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2i96ca/eli5how_do_the_eyes_in_a_painting_follow_me_around/ | {
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"text": [
"No matter how you move around the room, you can only ever see the face from its front on angle, so it always looks like it is looking at you."
]
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||
4xlv3s | do police have jurisdiction on indian reservations? if not, who polices them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xlv3s/eli5_do_police_have_jurisdiction_on_indian/ | {
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"The Department of Indian Affairs, US Marshals, FBI, and a few other federal agencies have jurisdiction on Native American Reservations. State, county, and local town/city police do not but the Reservations do have their own police force that does have jurisdiction. "
]
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[]
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||
258jzf | what is eurovision? | Explain like I'm 5? I heard it's like some big joke? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/258jzf/eli5what_is_eurovision/ | {
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"It's a singing competition, where each country in Europe enters a singer then the whole of Europe votes who was the best. ",
"Eurovision is the single greatest televised event in history",
"Eurovision is what you get when you mix kitsch with politics. A lot of songs are horrible, some songs are actually pretty good as well, and Eastern Europeans always vote for each other, no matter what acts they send. It's fun to watch, especially when you're drinking.",
"Singing contest arranged by the members of European Broadcasting Community (or something like that). The purpose was to \"unite a continent torn by war\" or something like that after the WW2 and it is the longest running tv-show in the world, also being one of the most watched shows in the world.\n\nWinner is decided with votes countries give to other countries. The country that gets the most votes wins, and hosts the next years Eurovision. Votes consist of 50% professional jury votes and 50% popular direct voting from the people.\n\nJuries and people cannot vote their own country, so they make songs that appeal to other nations. Usually this ends up the songs being kitch pop which is \"safe\" and pleases many people. Also extravagant and outrageous performances draw votes from other countries. Sometimes more serious songs win. Sometimes countries make really silly stupid entries, because they don't even think it's realistic that they'd win. \n\nUsually countries vote each other in \"blocks\", meaning cultural spheres within Europe vote each other, like Nordic countries voting each other, Baltic countries voting each other, Slavic countries voting each other and so on.",
"It's a singing competition organised by the TV companies. Ireland have won it the most times (7), because we're brilliant. However, the dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia have made things difficult as those dirty commies all vote for each other.",
"It's a music contest (I'm not going to say singing contest, because it's more about the musicianship and quality of song than just the quality of singing) contested by many nations of Europe.\n\nThere are 2 Semi-Finals the week beforehand to determine which countries will go through to the final, with 26 countries contesting the final.\n\nAfter each country has performed, voting takes place across Europe, and each country votes for which song they liked the best... excluding their own song.\n\nThe countries that didn't perform in the final still have the option of voting in the final.\n\nThe winner's nation is then selected to host the following year's competition.\n\nRecently, voting has been a lot more political, with countries with known allegiances etc. giving a lot of their points to political allies (This year it was Belarus and Russia, and the Boo shouts from the audience any time Russia got any significant number of points was quite surprising).\n\nI think I've covered everything I know off the top of my head."
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3ojb8r | why have some tribes not advanced passed basic survival tools? | I understand that they don't really have much resources, but can't they at least get further than spears and knives? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ojb8r/eli5_why_have_some_tribes_not_advanced_passed/ | {
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"Most civilization was evolved because people invented agriculture. It made getting food easier and freed part of the society to do other things like study medicine or weapons. Also when you have agriculture people coup into villages and cities and can share their ideas with others.\n\nThese tribes are hunter gatherers. They might not have any use from agriculture because lets say they live in middle of a jungle or desert where agriculture isn't really possible or that useful. Most people spend their days hunting, fishing and finding fruits, vegetables and berries.\n\nAlso when you have a secluded tribe of 30 people your ideas don't really spread that fast. I mean US has 300 million people to invent new stuff and that's why they invent so much new. I doubt if you just took random 30 Americans and separated them from other population they'd be able to invent or create anything groundbreaking. Most inventions need other inventions to surface. You can't really make a radio without advanced tools for handling metal and tools for handling electricity and so on. I mean what's the next part of spears? Guns? You'd need Gunpowder. You are going to have hard time finding the stuff needed for gunpowder in an island in middle of pacific for instance. You'd also need to find iron and coal from your small island and build a furnace to make steel. It wasn't a group of 30 people that invented mining, iron, steel, gunpowder. It was multiple nations with millions of people over thousands of years.\n\nI don't think it's even worth for these tribes. I mean you can't shoot fish and hunting deers with spear isn't much harder than shooting if you are skilled at it. Much easier than trying to create a gun at least."
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fjjezm | why is florida weird? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fjjezm/eli5_why_is_florida_weird/ | {
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"Everybody has access to files about crimes in Florida so its easy to find weird stuff.\n\nIn other states/countries you wouldn't even get that info if you asked",
"There’s the open records, but there’s more. \n\nFlorida’s economy is based mostly on retirement and tourism. It has very low tax rates and cost of living. So you get A LOT of folks on the lower end of the economic scale.\n\nYou also have a ton of immigration from the Caribbean. Some of these folks have interesting traditions and religious practices. \n\nFlorida has always been a gateway for illegal drugs (due to its lengthy, sparsely guarded coastline. \n\n(I grew up in Miami during the 70/80’s)"
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aut3bf | please explain the origins and social dynamics of ‘furries’ culture. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aut3bf/eli5_please_explain_the_origins_and_social/ | {
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"So it's commonly said to have popped up in the mid 80s, mostly through fans of various Disney films. Robin hood mostly, though Jungle Book and sometimes Dumbo also get credited. The core idea is that we're fans of an aesthetic, rather than a property though.\n\nIt quickly moved online, where people decided to represent themselves with the anthro animal aesthetic, and shortly after, there were meetups in more general sci-fi conventions, because that's where the new movement basically fit in.\n\nThe fandom today is incredibly queer, specifically because of its early adoption of (technically) transhumanist thought. If you don't have to be fully human, what else don't you have to be? So 'outcast' types started coming in.\n\nIn the 90s-ish, it became a full subculture with its own norms and ideals, but still centered itself around humanoid animals, because as it turns out, that still leaves lots of room open to interpretation. Because we're obviously not foxes or cats or whatever, there was a demand for art. What kind? Primarily visual, because the supplies are cheap. Then people decided to start making costumes, and then people started writing.\n\nToday, it still has decently deep countercultural roots, but has branched out, ESPECIALLY after Zootopia, to become a more 'mainstream' thing. But because of its roots on the edges of sci-fi and fantasy, and its heavily queer population, it's also got a middling to far left perspective, and there's a growing, but still kinda small political wing.\n\nEdit: my timings are fairly loose because I'm on lunch and can't do proper research, but that's the rough timeline. Art in particular may have started fully in the late 80s"
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bc3y4y | since there is nothing in space to slow us down, why do long distance space trips take so long if we can just accelerate a little faster and shorten the time? | Was playing Kerbal Space Program, and was thinking that in space theres nothing to slow the object down (besides gravity, but thats not an issue once you've left the field), how come things take years to land on another planet when we could accelerate the object with no resistance and shorten the period? it might be a dumb question... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bc3y4y/eli5_since_there_is_nothing_in_space_to_slow_us/ | {
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"Your answer is in the question. There's nothing to slow you down, expect your own rockets pushing against your momentum. So you have an upward limit on how fast you can go, because you need to budget for the fuel required to slow yourself back down.",
"Because acceleration at high rate would cost more fuel, and would be dangerous if human crew is present and can be even dangerous to precise instruments on board. It’s much cheaper and safer to use less fuel with combination of gravity assists, calculated launch window and longer journey duration.",
"Acceleration through deep space requires two things:\n\nFuel\n\nEnough fuel in reserve to decelerate later so you don't hit the target at 2800 m/s\n\nSo you typically end up with a conundrum: past a certain target speed, the weight of fuel you need to carry to go faster requires exponentially more fuel to lift in the first place. Soon you're using fuel to move fuel for your fuel's fuel and the entire spacecraft is just rockets strapped to rockets and barely able to launch.\n\nSo instead, we use various gravity assists when possible to add speed, and approach slowly enough and angled carefully so that it's reasonable to enter orbit without massive fuel burn.",
"Because that takes fuel. Not a perfect metaphor but I'll give it a go.\n\nLet's say you can drive a car somewhere, which is a perfectly flat infinite plane, and there is nothing to slow you down. No friction or air resistance. \n\nYou start at a gas station, and once you leave, you will not be able to get gas unless you come back.\n\nYou fill up your gas tank and start driving to your destination. You could just floor it and get going as fast as you can go, but you will quickly run low on gas.\n\nIf you need to stop at your destination, such as to drop off a rover, or to orbit, this turns out to be a bit of a complication. You have no friction, so breaks won't work to slow you down. You need to turn the car around and start accelerating in the other direction to slow you down.\n\nThis, of course, requires gas, so you can't spend it all accelerating.\n\nWhen you first start, your engine isn't as efficient as it is when you get to your destination. When you first start, you start as a semi truck, lugging these big gas tanks behind you. It takes a looooot of energy to get the big semi sized truck moving. As you accelerate, you will burn that gas and lose some of that weight getting the truck moving. As you accelerate, if you keep dropping the empty containers, you will have less weight to push, and thus the efficiency of your engines increase over time as the thrust to weight ratio changes.\n\nThis is sort of intuitive with the car analogy, where a small motorcycle with a supped up engine can accelerate incredibly quickly, but a semi with a large powerful motor will take a long time to get up to speed.\n\nAdditionally, planets orbit and so their position changes. It's often not ideal to drive in a straight line. Gravity sort of pulls you so it's like you're driving up a winding mountain towards your destination. If you go too fast you will overshoot the turn and end up in orbit around the sun. If you are too slow, a similar affect.\n\nIf you do the math, you can calculate the changing rates here, of how much fuel it takes to get up to speed, vs how much fuel it will take to stop, and how fast you should be going so you don't over or under shoot the change in orbit, and be sure to account for the change in weight of the rocket.\n\nThis is pretty much literally what rocket science is, and how they determine flight paths for space shuttles, and what sets the speeds of those flights, ignoring for a moment things such as a gravity assist.\n\nHope I didn't confuse you too much.",
"Two reasons. The inertia of fuel, and the speed of light.\n\nAs a KSP player, you will eventually notice that the more fuel you have in your space ship, the harder it is to accelerate. This is because when you accelerate, you don't just accelerate your ship, you accelerate any fuel still in the ship. The more fuel you bring, the less efficient your craft, as the more energy you need to accelerate the same Delta V. More fuel has \"diminishing returns\".\n\n & #x200B;\n\nOne way that has been proposed to counteract this in real life is the ion drive, which you might remember from \"The Martian\". The ion drive is a very efficient device that produces thrust from electricity. The proposed ion drive would produce a small but constant acceleration with little fuel. The result is a space ship would be able to reach distant planets in a relatively short amount of time, but wouldn't be able to stop or start suddenly.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nHowever, regardless of how you accelerate your craft, you will eventually be limited by the speed of light. No matter how much thrust you produce, your speed can't go above \"c\", which is essentially the universal speed limit. So no matter how good your ship, it will always take at least a year to reach a destination 1 light year away."
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c5uc4u | how does spacex get money by sending falcon into space? | I heard a speech by Elon Musk talking about the launch and how SpaceX would run out of money if this failed, but how does the company get money by doing that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c5uc4u/eli5_how_does_spacex_get_money_by_sending_falcon/ | {
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"Investment. They are proving that the money they spent was worth it and thus they should get more money.\n\nIf it does not work then they show that they shouldn’t get more money and they wont.",
"Companies and government agencies pay SpaceX to send their satellites and soon astronauts into space. SpaceX is like FedEx for delivering things into space.",
"They can get money for proving that the system is capable of launching satellites or people into orbit. The government and other companies pay millions to launch equipment to orbit. SpaceX has been using their dragon capsules to resupply the ISS for a long time now.",
"NASA and other government contracts often pay in installments upfront, with further partial payments becoming available once a certain development stages are reached/capabilities are demonstrated. Early on SpaceX was short on money and had to prove orbital capability to get the next cash installment so if the launch went well they would get enough money to continue operating and if not they were basically bankrupt.\n\nToday SpaceX has no money problems anymore as they have enough contracts with the US government/NASA/DoD and private companies to deliver satellites into orbit or supplies to the ISS.",
"You will need to link the speech, but I think you may be confusing the recent Falcon Heavy rocket launch with SpaceX's first successful launch of a Falcon 1. Musk talks about this fairly regularly, here's an [article](_URL_0_). Basically, in the early days SpaceX was a new company and didn't really have everything figured out yet. They tried launching three Falcon 1's (the smaller predecessor to the current Falcon 9). But the first three launches failed! They had some starter money to run on, but they were running out. Their last reserve of funds went into building the fourth rocket: if it didn't work they wouldn't be able to build another one. And without a successful rocket, not only would they not be able to get any private investors, they wouldn't be able to get any government investment and contracts (the govt puts a lot of stuff into space relative to the private sector, so this is important). If it had failed, they would have been out of money and out of time. \n\nBut it didn't fail, it was successful! And this was critically important because this was the point where the US was proposing to start putting money into new private spaceflight operators like SpaceX. Since they had a successful launch, they were seen as a much better bet for the govt. That landed them a huge contract to deliver cargo to the ISS and that helped give them the boost they needed to develop the F9 and wind up in the dominant position in the US launch market (they launch more than half of all US rockets these days).\n\nAt this point, SpaceX is much more solidly established. They make money launching rockets with satellites that customers pay them to launch. For example, the most recent launch (a Falcon Heavy) contained a [variety of payloads](_URL_2_) mostly from the government. Other launches have been communications satellites, etc. They also get investment and contracts. \n\nIt would have been bad if this launch had failed...it always is...but SpaceX wouldn't run out of money from losing one launch like they nearly did back in the early days (and even then, they made it through three failures before they almost ran out). SpaceX has lost a couple of rockets since then and it has been a big problem but not a company-ending problem. One reason this launch _was_ particularly important for SpaceX, though, is that it's helping them get [certified for Air Force launch contracts](_URL_1_)"
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"https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-stp2-air-force-certification.html",
"https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-stp2-launch-success.html"
]
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b6ob57 | what stops flesh from rotting on a living thing? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6ob57/eli5_what_stops_flesh_from_rotting_on_a_living/ | {
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"Same thing that prevents a roaring campfire from suddenly going out: the presence of fuel and oxygen. Living cells are living because they’re burning energy and growing and multiplying. When you’re dead, it’s like the firewood is gone and the air went away. Nothing but ash left behind. ",
"Mostly a combination of the immune system fighting off the things that would cause it and our body constantly replacing dead cells, I believe. Rot doesn't just happen - bacteria and the like eat flesh, which is a large part of what breaks it down, and our bodies are generally pretty good at keeping that sort of microbe at bay. Cells might rupture or the like over time, but they get replaced before that happens."
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9ncdnx | why do painkillers like aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen require you to take two tablets for a full dose? why not give a full dose in one tablet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ncdnx/eli5_why_do_painkillers_like_aspirin_paracetamol/ | {
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"Baby aspirin is 81mg, or 1/4 the dose of a full aspirin of 324/325mg. Dosages matter for multiple reasons including the indication for use as well as the weight of the individual using the drugs. Same applies for other medications including Benadryl, which is why they make a liquid solution for children so that the correct indicated amount can be used depending on the rapidly-growing children, rather than just simply giving them a full strength adult Benadryl tablet that will surely knock them out. ",
"Because some people who have a sensitivity, or who are small, or children need smaller doses. If someone could need 1/4 of a dose (baby asprin) it is easier to cut one pill in half than it is to cut it into quarters. "
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3usvbk | nfl playoffs, division leaders, afc and nfc, wild cards and anything to do with that. | I've never gotten this part of football. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3usvbk/eli5_nfl_playoffs_division_leaders_afc_and_nfc/ | {
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"The NFL is divided in half into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each of those conferences have 4 divisions (North, South, East, West) with 4 teams in each division (32 total teams). \n\nThe winner of every division gets into the playoffs (4 teams from each conference). Also, the two teams with the best records from each conference (that didn't win their division) make it to the playoffs. These are the wildcard teams. \n\nThis leaves 12 teams in the playoffs (6 from AFC and 6 from NFC). The NFC and AFC teams then play each other to determine the best from each conference. The winner of each conference plays each other in the Super Bowl. \n\nSending from mobile, so I hope this makes sense. "
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fz7525 | how do human stop growing? how does the body know it reached adulthood so no more growing indefinitly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fz7525/eli5_how_do_human_stop_growing_how_does_the_body/ | {
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"When we're born, our skeletons are made up of both bone, and this soft flexible material called cartilage. The soft cartilage is near the ends of the bones. Bone CAN grow (there are little cellular workmen who walk all over your bones breaking it down and building it up in places where the bone gets pulled on the most, which is why exercise is good for your bones) BUT not very much. We get taller, really \"grow up,\" because the soft cartilage can grow fast.\n\nImagine a classic cartoon dogbone. In a baby, kid, and even most teenagers, the place where the straight long middle of the bone meets each the wide tips is made up of cartilage. This cartilage grows outward, and slowly turns into more bone. The more good foods and vitamins you eat, the more building blocks your body has to grow the cartilage and then make it into bone.\n\nThe older we get, the more of the soft parts get used up and turned into bone. Eventually, it's all firmed up and all of it is bone, and that's the tallest you'll ever be! Different bones finish hardening at different times: your head bones finish before your leg bones, and the last ones to finish are usually the collarbones that connect your shoulders to your chest. By the time a person is in their early to mid 20s, their skeleton is fully bone, not cartilage.\n\nIf you want to feel some cartilage, touch your nose or ears. That's what the stuff is inside, that feels not as hard as bone but not as soft as skin, fat, or muscle. That's why our noses and ears grow throughout our whole lives. The nose on a 70 year old will be bigger than it was when they were 30, even though their bones stopped growing in their early 20s!",
"For an example where it went wrong, read about _URL_0_ , the tallest living man in the world. His pituitary gland is affected by a tumor, so that the hormone HGH (human growth hormone) is produced in too large quantities for him.",
"Aside from the explanation on bone growth that was already given, I’ll add that that general signal for stopping growth are called statins. They are proteins made by your cells when they come into contact with a certain amount of other cells. If you were to grow cells in a lab, and started with one cell, it would start dividing again and again until it reaches a certain concentration of cells (cells per uniting area or volume). The cells communicate with each and are aware of him much “empty space” there is around them.\n\nOne example of when it goes wrong that humans have taken advantage of is myostatin. It’s the thing that tells your muscles to stop growing when they impede your range of movement. Have you ever seen a Belgian blue cow? They look like bodybuilders. That’s because they were selected genetically to have a defect in their myostatin, resulting in uncontrolled growth of their muscles. You can tell the difference even in new born calves."
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2gja9u | why don't modern dictionaries spell pronunciation descriptions out phonetically instead of using strange alphabet characters few understand? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gja9u/eli5_why_dont_modern_dictionaries_spell/ | {
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"Because phonetic spellings aren't sufficiently detailed. How do you spell a schwa? How do you pronounce ghoti? Much better to use a standardized symbology for it, so that if you do need to, you can understand it well.",
"There are 3+ ways to pronounce any given English vowel, and most consonants have at least 2 possible pronunciations. This is ignoring shit like \"cough,\" which seriously, do you have *any idea how fucking weird that word is*?\n\nThe weird pronunciation shorthand they use is a shorthand because people who actually need to deal with it cannot look at a word and go \"k like coffee, e like etsy, k like coffee.\" It's a waste of space. Writing \"kek\" as... \"kek,\" I guess, is way more efficient.",
"There's really no such thing as phonetically-spelled English, because every country and region has its own way of pronouncing things, which can differ quite significantly.\n\nFor example take the vowel sound from the middle of the simple word \"bath\".\n\nIn the USA most people would pronounce that as a slightly-elongated 'a' sound. In the southern USA a slight 'y'-sound might creep in to the vowel. In Scotland and northern England it would be with a very short 'a' sound. In southern England it would be a long 'a' ending with a rhotic 'r' sound.\n\n",
"How do you phonetically spell a word like trough?\n\n'Troff' isn't sufficient, because it could be pronounced 'trawf' or 'trofe'. And neither of those is sufficient since the the 'w' in 'trawf' should not really be emphasized (making it more like 'trahf', but then you run into the problem of having too much 'h' in the word). And the second could potentially be pronounced 'tro-fey'. There's simply not enough information in our plain alphabet characters to communicate the intricacy of the spoken words we use.",
"They do spell it phonetically, those strange characters are part of the phonetic alphabet ",
"The phonetic alphabet helps to standardize the pronunciations - helps eliminate errors that may be caused by accents and what not.",
"On a related note, why is IPA (the \"strange alphabet\") not taught in school? It takes about an hour to learn, and is an incredibly useful way of ecplaining in writing how to pronounce words. In particular, it would be very useful in foreign language classes. ",
"Those strange alphabet characters are spelling it out phonetically. That is the international phonetic alphabet. ",
"that *is* them spelling it out phonetically...",
"What you probably mean, is why do the dictionaries not show the pronounciation in standard-english writing. The reason is that most dictionaries are typically designed for foreign language learners, who do not yet know how to pronounce everything in a certain language and therefore need the phonetic transcription. Also, in almost all dictionaries you will find foreign terms which might not even be respresentable with such lay-mans phonetic transcriptions. The phonetic alphabet is also designed specifically for this, pronounciation, and is able to be much more precise than just using the 26 letters of the latin alphabet and combinations of such.",
"Related question - are there any alphabets that include every English word? I've noticed most dictionaries don't include medical terms.",
"If you paid attention in school you would be able to read them too. ",
"Because those funny letters are universally known.",
"Tis a poor man indeed who can think of but one way to spell a word..."
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2z5kb4 | how do some of my t-shirts have no stitching along the side? they're just a tube of fabric. | I was doing laundry today and I realized some of my shirts (mostly the cheap ones you usually get for free at conventions and such) don't have a stitch along the side. The part that goes around your stomach is just one tube of fabric, rather than two pieces sown together. How do they do this? Is it cheaper to do?
Edit: Thanks for all the answers guys! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z5kb4/eli5_how_do_some_of_my_tshirts_have_no_stitching/ | {
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"If it's a knit shirt, it can be knit \"in the round.\" Basically, it's just knit in a spiral, and sleeves and neck shaping are added on. Factories use knitting machines, but it would be the same concept as [this.](_URL_1_)\n\nEdit: For those of you asking for better videos, [this is a hand cranked knitting machine](_URL_0_) so you can see something knit in the round very quickly.",
"The same way you'd knit a tube. Instead of it being woven side to side, it's done as one continuous loop. Look up \"knitting in the round\" or \"circular needles\" to get an idea of how it's done with knitting.",
"Using a tubular knit also reduces costs to the mfg, no side seams to sew.",
"Here you [go](_URL_0_) It's just a much smaller weave with much much smaller string for a t-shirt.",
"They ARE just a tube of fabric, in fact most major brands use a process where they stretch the same material to size, so the smaller shirts are made of denser threading. ",
"Decades ago when I was overseas there were a lot of cheap t shirts around and I asked somebody why they were so cheap. He said because they're not like the American t-shirts (round) but they have a seam on the side and it that's how you could tell the difference. The guy told me that Americans have a lock on that technology. A lot of years have gone by, this probably not true anymore.",
"They make them the same way they make socks...",
"There was a Project Runway episode years ago where the contestants were taken to a t-shirt factory and shown how they make long seamless tubes of cotton fabric, that then get sliced into sections to make t-shirts. I believe in the challenge, they were given a section of a tube to make into a dress. I remember that episode because before that, I had never given any thought to how they make seamless t-shirts like that. ",
"TIL I have stitching along the sides of my shirts.",
"Late but I need to add to this. I work at a knitting machine manufacturer. The reason is that body size fabric costs the producers less because it eliminates a part of the process so yes, it's cheaper to the consumer. It's a relatively new concept. There are several different types of knitting. Your t-shits are produced from circular knitting machines. Some of your sweaters come from both circular and v-bed."
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1zobqp | how does a plasma tv work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zobqp/eli5_how_does_a_plasma_tv_work/ | {
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"Plasma TVs are a form of flat-panel television primarily used for high-definition viewing. These TVs are usually larger than the average television and take up less room due to how thin they are. Plasma TVs use a panel that consists of thousands of cells called pixels. These pixels are broken down into three sub-pixels that represent the colors red, green and blue. Each of these sub-pixels is filled with gas. As the television is powered, it electrifies the sub-pixels with different levels of energy, which causes the gas to emit red, green or blue light. When the light is mixed, it will produce different colors and, when looked at from a distance, will form an image. Depending on the size and resolution of a plasma TV, there can be more than six million sub-pixels working together to create an image.\n\nAdvantages:\nThere are several advantages to buying a plasma TV. One of these is the price of the television itself. While both LCD and plasma televisions can be expensive, plasma televisions are usually cheaper than their LCD counterparts. Also, plasmas have been said to have deeper colors than an LCD screen, especially black. Having a deeper black can add to the viewer's experience by making any dark scenes in the programs more suspenseful and causing the other colors on the screen to stand out more. Finally, the life span of the television is a huge factor in purchasing one. A plasma television has a half-life of anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000 hours, which, if used every day for six hours, is 12 years.\n\nDisadvantages:\nThere are several disadvantages, however, to plasma TV ownership. Plasma TVs can contract \"dead pixels.\" A dead pixel is a pixel that has somehow malfunctioned and will show up either as a black spot or as a brightly colored pixel. As your set ages, dead pixels will ultimately occur. A single pixel that has died is not usually noticeable, but a large number of them will make watching your television difficult. Also, plasma TVs can be subject to burn-in. A burn-in occurs when an image is left on the TV too long, like a DVD menu that doesn't change and is left on the screen. After a period of time, an outline of that image will begin to be \"burned\" into the screen, which will cause you to see parts of it every time the unit is turned on. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you do not leave an image on the screen for too long. Finally, a plasma TV gives off a lot of heat. They have a natural internal cooling system that keeps the unit cool, but if there is anything placed in front of the vents, the unit will heat up and may get damaged. Be sure to keep the vents clear from any debris or blockage."
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a20nbt | how do our lungs clean themselves? do certain substances/pollutants clear faster than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a20nbt/eli5_how_do_our_lungs_clean_themselves_do_certain/ | {
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"The epithelial lining of your lungs have long columnar shaped cells. These cells have special “fingers” on the end of them called Cillia. Cillia, move mucous and other foreign objects to the carina, or the part of the trachea where it splits into the left and right lung. Irritating the carina causes the cough response and allows you to clear it from your lungs with a forceful push of air.",
"Very little of the stuff you breath in actually makes it to the lungs. Your nasal passages and throat are covered with mucus and fine hairs. Most of the stuff gets trapped in that. \n\nDrive on a dusty road with the window open, you'll get some really black boogers. Small particles, less than 2.5 microns are the biggest risk, the body doesn't do a good job of trapping them, or removing them from the lungs. They can cause a lot of health problems.\n\nStuff like soot, ash, air pollution from cars and industrial activity generate most of the 2.5 micron particles.\n\n\n_URL_0_"
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1u3y7j | best of eli5 2013 winning submissions | Hello again! A month ago, we held a [nomination thread](_URL_1_) regarding the best questions/comments of /r/explainlikeimfive. You can view the rest of the nominations there. We have selected five winning nominations.
In no order of merit, submitted by:
****
/u/Synarus - [A comment by open_sketchbook on the question, "Why is black face as part of a costume racist?"](_URL_5_).
****
/u/nv412 - [iheartbbq explains the downfall of Detroit in a detailed and unbiased fashion](_URL_2_).
****
/u/Hoosledorf - [An unidentified throwaway provides a great answer to "Why does it always seem that my alarm or another person interrupts my dreams just as something big happens?"](_URL_4_)
****
/u/666_666 - [Why do we poop AND pee? And why separate exits? How did this division evolve? PLJVYF provides the answer in an arguably unique manner](_URL_0_).
****
Lastly, a nomination by /u/mullanger that includes a question that seems like common knowledge, but with an answer that truly captures the spirit of ELI5 - [akirhol explains the difference between email, Google, Aol, a website, IE, Chrome, and the internet](_URL_3_).
****
The moderators of /r/explainlikeimfive would like to thank all nominators and also the users of this subreddit for providing good content (most of the time) and also the admins for providing the resources for this contest.
Remember to take a look at the [nomination thread](_URL_1_) for the rest of the nominations, there are some great ones there. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u3y7j/best_of_eli5_2013_winning_submissions/ | {
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"Happy new year everyone! Let's make ELI5 even better in 2014.",
"I enjoyed the downfall of Detroit the best, but yea these are all pretty cool ones",
"Haha the fourth one was awesome.",
"The one about dreaming is actually false. You don't make up your dreams in the seconds you wake up. Well, maybe in some rare instances you can and you do, but by and large when you look at the entire body of research and data such as EEGs of people in REM sleep and look up the actual sources of the information, you can see that his theory is actually an older one that was relatively disproved.\n\nI was going to comment on that answer myself, but due to my background I likely would have gone way beyond the ELI5 scope. I appreciate what Hoosledorf was doing in explaining something tricky in a fashion that a 5(ish) year old could understand, but sometimes you can't just take things at face value. Also, there were at least a couple of good counter-examples to it when I first browsed that post a little while ago, so I didn't care enough to comment, but they all seem to have been buried now. I know it's ELI5, but if it were posted in /r/askscience or something like that, that answer would have been thrown out very fast because one person's anecdotal experience does not constitute fact.\n\nAnyway, it's possible that in some special cases you can come up with something while waking or during the first few moments of wakefulness to explain something that happened in a dream, but by and large dreaming is thought to have many functions, including for problem solving and ideation. If everything that Hoosledorf said was correct, it would actually throw out several years worth of US Army research on the process of innovation and ideation. I'm not saying that Hoosledorf is wrong... but I'm saying that methinks the Army is probably less likely to be wrong. One thing we were looking into was that the very weirdness of dreams is your mind running problem solving simulations. We also correlated the amount of time it took and the way other Army researchers and engineers went about solving problems, and looked for trends, finding strong correlations of more numerous instances of \"better\" and more fruitful ideas after sleep, rather than through methods like \"brainstorming groups\" and the usual corporate BS like that. More than that I cannot say, but there are many easy sources on this that are easy to google. If dreams are only made up in the first few seconds of waking, why would EEGs read such specific patterns of brain wave activity during REM periods? Why would people woken from REM sleep be much, much likelier to describe having been in a dream rather than when woken from NREM? Why would we even have dreams to begin with, if they serve no purpose other than to be made up just as you wake? Too many unanswered questions with this theory.\n\nThat said, all the rest of the top choices were pretty awesome and fun to read. Good job! Sorry to be nitpicky, but when you work on something so specific for a few years and you see some misinformation on it, you just kinda get an itch to correct it. Not tryna be a dick or anything at all. Sorry Hoosledorf I still like the thoughtfulness and ingenuity of the answer. "
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sxmp0/modpost_eli5_best_of_2013_nominations_thread/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r6f8w/eli5_americans_what_exactly_happened_to_detroit_i/cdk71wo",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16rnfn/eli67_please_explain_like_im_67_the_difference/c7yq065",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1spvk4/eli5_why_does_it_always_seem_that_my_alarm_or/ce02g5b",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1plkvj/risky_question_why_is_black_face_as_part_of_a/cd3kxjh"
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41zw2l | difference between coding, programming and computer science ? | I did some googling and it appeared they where broadly different words for the same thing ?!? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41zw2l/eli5_difference_between_coding_programming_and/ | {
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"Coding and Programming are pretty much the same; coding being the somewhat less formal expression.\n\nComputer Science is a science concerning itself with computational models. It has several sub-fields, like complexity and type theory or system analysis and design. Programming is to it as laying wires in a house is to electrical engineering.",
"Coding and programming are different words for the same thing. Coding is sometimes thought of as the actual process of writing programming language code, whereas programming is sometimes thought of as more of the overall process of developing a program/application/system. There's various differing definitions, but they're essentially the same thing.\n\nComputer Science is very different and is more based in the mathematics of computation. It covers a *much* broader area and covers more of the *theory* of computers and computing.\n\nI've been a professional programmer/developer/coder for the past 20 years and did a computer science degree at university. I can honestly say I've used close to nothing of the things I learnt during that degree. There was a lot of theoretical mathematics, study of mathematical specification languages and various other things that don't relate to practical software development.\n\nCoding/programming is a subset of computer science."
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2w0n25 | why do all gfycat gifs have ridiculous urls | e.g. _URL_0_ but almost all of them seem to have | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w0n25/eli5_why_do_all_gfycat_gifs_have_ridiculous_urls/ | {
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"They wanted to do something different than the traditional random generated name. Example: j7G5fvs9JJag5g3a\n\nSimply to make things interesting they decided to go with:\nAdjectiveAdjectiveAnimal\n\nSource: _URL_0_\n\n\n\n",
"Any service with lots of stuff on it needs a way to name each individual thing. Most of them use a series of letters and numbers. The number of things you can name depends on the possibilities for each character and the number of characters. \n\nFor instance if you use just lower case letters then there are 26 possibilities for each character. That means for n characters you have **26^n** things you can name. in other words if your names are 2 lower case letters long then you can have **26^2 = 26x26 = 676** names. If you have 8 letters you can have **26^8=26x26x26x26x26x26x26x26 = 208,827,064,576** names.\n\nThat works fine but it's kind of boring and each name is pretty hard to remember. If the name for your video is sdoghsrd then you probably would have to look it up every time you went there. \n\ngyfcat uses just three characters for each name. 2 adjectives and an animal. It may look like lots of letters but really it's just two adjectives and an animal, three characters. \n\n3 characters may not seem like enough, after all if you used just lower case letters you would only get 26^3 = 17,576 names. However there are thousands of adjectives and thousands of animals that exist. That means using this system you can have more than 1000^3=1,000,000,000 names.\n\nIt's also much easier to remember VigorousRegularHerring than ldfkbgwe and it makes the company sound more fun. You would never spend enough time thinking about a company that just uses random letters for the naming system to ever help them stay in your mind. You spent enough time thinking about it to ask a question getting the word out to many other people. "
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94gjun | why do most remotes run on two aaa batteries and not just one? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/94gjun/eli5_why_do_most_remotes_run_on_two_aaa_batteries/ | {
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"Each battery has a voltage of 1.5 volts. And most remotes require 3 volts to operate. So 1.5 volts times two equals 3 volts.",
"If my memory serves, many electronics involved with a remote, especially the infrared LED that transmits the signal to the TV or other decide, need more than 1.5 volts (which is effectively the maximum voltage possible for only a short part of a battery's capacity) to function (or even if it did function, the IR LED might be too dim to be useful). \n\nVoltage conversion costs a lot more than a second battery slot.",
"You can run most electronics on 3(ish) volts including the IR LED and it's more efficient than stepping 1.5(ish) volts to 3 volts. so the circuit is cheaper to produce (less components) and lasts longer."
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432824 | assume i am charging my phone, and the power went out in my city. if electrons flow from high to low, what is stopping the electron from flowing backwards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/432824/eli5_assume_i_am_charging_my_phone_and_the_power/ | {
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"Trying to be truly ELI5:\n\nThe power coming out of the wall is 120V AC. AC stands for alternating current, which means that the flow of current for things plugged into the wall is going back and forth, positive and negative, very rapidly (60 times a second).\n\nYour phone's battery supplies DC current to the phone to operate, and is charged via DC current, at a much lower voltage than the power coming out of the wall. DC is direct current, which only flows in one direction.\n\nYour phone's charger has to convert this (relatively) high voltage AC current into DC current. There's a lot to this, but the conversion process involves taking the back-and-forth AC and flipping half of it around so the voltage is always positive (instead of alternating) and is smoothed out to be steady (instead of oscillating).\n\nIt's this conversion process that stops power flowing out of your phone when the power goes out - the circuits are designed for a one-way conversion from AC to DC, and won't work backwards. "
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3ykidn | difference between crispr cas-9 and other genome editing methods | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ykidn/eli5difference_between_crispr_cas9_and_other/ | {
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"So there are three main forms of genome editing:\n\nTransgenes, conditional knockouts, and genome engineering. \n\nTransgenes are a bitch and a half. You have to manufacture the GOI (gene of interest), target the correct tissue, and inject the plasmid (the vehicle that carries your GOI and usually a marker like GFP to detect it) into an embryo, and then put that embryo into a pseudo pregnant mom. Then you have to screen the offspring by generating a chimera and looking for the chimeric pups as potential ones that got the GOI incorporated. A chimeric pup is made by using a black mom, but impregnating her with a brown embryo. It doesn't often work the first time around, either, so you have to do it multiple times before you get your gene incorporated. Then you have to breed the offspring with the gene to purify the line, especially if you're trying to make the allele homozygous. \n\nConditional knockouts were an improvement to the transgene method. Using Cre/LoxP or FLP/FRT allowed researchers to flank a GOI and knock it out whenever they were ready to. This allowed researchers to study genes that were once embryonically lethal by knocking them out once they developed past a certain stage of development. The drawback to this technique was, again, the amount of time it took to make a cre/LoxP mouse, and the potential that a gene would become inverted in the chromosome, making it nonfunctional. Also. With cre/LoxP, you don't get targeted tissue expression. If youre looking to target a gene in the liver, but it's also expressed in the brain, it will be flanked by LoxP sites and KO'd in both locations. \n\nFinally. We got God's gift to researchers: CRISPR/Cas-9. CRISPR is adapted from the bacterial immunity machinery. It stands for Clustered Regularly InterSpaced Palindromic Repeats. These repeats occur with high frequency in a bacterial genome, allowing bacteria to defend themselves against phage by producing siRNA against the phage DNA from their \"immunity library,\" if you will. We discovered this from agro research because yogurt kept going bad and getting contaminated with phage, which was hurting sales. Go figure. \nCRISPR works by using a tracr RNA which binds to the Cas-9 endonuclease, and a crRNA, which basepairs with the genome and directs the cas-9 to the target site. The target site is near a PAM sequence, which is a few nucleotides long, and is upstream of the targeted gene. \n\nWe utilized this crispr system to engineer the genome by fusing the tracr and crRNA together to make a single RNA sequence called the (small guide) sgRNA. \n\nThe entire system can be used to edit somatic cells, embryos, or both. It has revolutionized the way we create mouse models in lab because it has shaved the time it takes from six months to about one. You can use it to edit every animal genome, because every genome contains PAM sequences. \n\nSource: grad student in the biomedical sciences"
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jflfl | index funds | What is an index fund and why do people say its better to invest in an index fund than individual shares? Can you invest in index funds online through a normal online stockbroker? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jflfl/eli5_index_funds/ | {
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"Let's try a tired \"lemonade stand\" metaphor.\n\nImagine, John and Sally want to sell lemonade in summer, so they both set up their own lemonade stands. Say, you have some money to spare and can give it to John or Sally for a share of profits.\n\nYou know that Sally is a better sales person, so you give money to her, hoping to make a profit. But what if John moves to a better spot up the road? Then a lot of people will buy from him and only after making their purchase will find Sally's stand, so she will make fewer sales!\n\nNow, if you give them both half of your money, they can buy half as many lemons. However, you get a share of profit from both of them. You will most likely make money, even if one of them turns a loss, because it's summer and people buy lemonade. But instead of picking a winner or a loser, you averaged your returns.\n\n**Alternative, for a 15yo:**\n\nAn index is a basket of shares of a lot of companies. Some successful, some not. On average, they will still make money, if the economy is growing, as the pie is big enough to share, so to speak. It's easier than stock trading, because you don't have to track the industry and speculate who will be a winner and who will be a loser. You can buy into an index via index futures and/or options.",
"Let's try a tired \"lemonade stand\" metaphor.\n\nImagine, John and Sally want to sell lemonade in summer, so they both set up their own lemonade stands. Say, you have some money to spare and can give it to John or Sally for a share of profits.\n\nYou know that Sally is a better sales person, so you give money to her, hoping to make a profit. But what if John moves to a better spot up the road? Then a lot of people will buy from him and only after making their purchase will find Sally's stand, so she will make fewer sales!\n\nNow, if you give them both half of your money, they can buy half as many lemons. However, you get a share of profit from both of them. You will most likely make money, even if one of them turns a loss, because it's summer and people buy lemonade. But instead of picking a winner or a loser, you averaged your returns.\n\n**Alternative, for a 15yo:**\n\nAn index is a basket of shares of a lot of companies. Some successful, some not. On average, they will still make money, if the economy is growing, as the pie is big enough to share, so to speak. It's easier than stock trading, because you don't have to track the industry and speculate who will be a winner and who will be a loser. You can buy into an index via index futures and/or options."
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63brt2 | why do we relate certain voices with certain personalities ( & vica versa) and how accurate are these associations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63brt2/eli5_why_do_we_relate_certain_voices_with_certain/ | {
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"Arguably, the way we perceive/understand the world is shaped by our experiences and while the way we interpret different perception to be associated with specific understanding (essentially opinions of things) is unique to us as individuals - it is still (to varying extent) shaped by our shared experiences (with the people around us in the our everyday realities) which is ultimately constructed by cultural values or social norms associating different ideas with specific understanding (unified sense of idea/mindset that guides our perception of the world, in other context also referred to as cultural biases). \n\nThis concept of our perception of the world being shaped by cultural/social constructs along with the notion that people present themselves differently (personas) in different situations to different individuals demonstrate an abstract sense of associating certain behaviors with specific social attributes based on the general consent/understanding of specific individuals within public spaces (the society) which basically mean we simplify and generalize certain traits to be associated with 'types' of people we know based on our experiences knowing certain people with the same traits throughout our life time (also stereotypes/generalizations of specific demographics in different cultures - when these generalization are normalized it is easy to be overlooked and perceived as 'the true' description of how certain people are supposed to culturally behave).\n\nFor example, there are studies that indicate that young children's vocal folds developments are anatomically the same between male and female up until the age of 4 (IIRC) where the sizes start to differentiate. Scientifically, this means that young children's voices (between male and female) should sound relatively the same pitch. However at a young age, children are exposed to the social constructed gender binary where boys are supposed to sound more 'masculine' which is associated with a lower voice whereas girls are supposed to sound more 'feminine' which is associated with a higher and lighter voice. So subconsciously children imitate these traits to socially conform to their gender whereas if they don't their voices (between male and female) would be perceptively the same. \n\nTechnically, our general perception of voices is culturally constructed from associations and it is reasonable to say that voices and personality are not directly connected on a biological level but the way someone utilize their voice (controlled emission of the voice) is a way of presenting themselves (based on one's knowledge/understanding of social/cultural ques) and thus associating certain voices with certain personalities (and vice versa) is objectively inaccurate and could be considered a fallacy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hold any useful information that could potentially aid in your understanding of individuals - the way someone chooses to present themselves in certain situations/towards certain individual says more about them as a person than their personality that they choose to present/highlight at a specific moment in time. \n\ntl;dr: our perception of the world is shaped by our personal experiences along with social norms/general inherited mindset - association of voices with personalities are culturally constructed and merely demonstrate how someone chooses to present themselves to the world and not an actual indication of one's personality/identity."
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258080 | how does china have a "leftover women" problem if there are 1.2 men for each women? | This has always confused me. I found this on wikipedia:
*"The people left are A-quality women and D-quality men. So if you are a leftover woman, you are A-quality."[1] A University of North Carolina demographer who studies China's gender imbalance, Yong Cai, further notes that "men at the bottom of society get left out of the marriage market, and that same pattern is coming to emerge for women at the top of society".*
Is there more to it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/258080/eli5_how_does_china_have_a_leftover_women_problem/ | {
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"It's about marriage trends rather than simply matching the numbers.\n\nMen tend to marry down (A's marry B's and B's marry C's) because they like to have the power in the household arrangement. Probably also because of a lack of self-confidence. So A-quality women are left without men who have the balls to develop a relationship with them. This also means D-quality men have no one below them to marry."
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4qkylq | where do big rivers get their constant, massive flow of non salty water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qkylq/eli5_where_do_big_rivers_get_their_constant/ | {
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"It falls from the sky.\n\nReally much of is due to rain and stuff like meltwater in some cases.\n\nAll the water that comes down from the sky has to go somewhere and it goes to the sea in most cases. it might collect in marshes or similar before turning into a small trickle that merges with other trickles into larger and larger flows of water until you get a really big river.",
"The water table and cycle is a system that outlines this. \nWater evaporates of the sea and other sources without salt since salt isn't as easy to evaportate as water, forms clouds and theb rains on land feesing the rivers. "
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2dy0h6 | what is als and why are people doing an icebucket challenge? | What is ALS and why are people doing an ice bucket challenge? How doesthis challenge or any similar challenge support any cause? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dy0h6/eli5_what_is_als_and_why_are_people_doing_an/ | {
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"ALS is _URL_0_\n\nThe ice bucket challenge gives you 2 options. \n\n1) Donate $100 to the charity associated with it and challenge 3 people. \n\n2) Donate $10 to the charity, record yourself dumping a bucket of water over your head, and challenge 3 people. "
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4iso1v | how come there aren't any phone viruses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4iso1v/eli5_how_come_there_arent_any_phone_viruses/ | {
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"because virus(for android they are just hacked apps or malicious apps) couldnt install themselves, even if you had 'unknown sources' checked on android you'd still have choice to install the thing or not. It maybe disguised as some other app and you install then there is chance but new android version has this thing called permissions where you could deny many permissions. So this way most of things are under control for android user.\nI have no idea about Ios.\n",
"Companies like Google and Apple heavily monitor and control their application stores for viruses and such, which is where the majority of people get their applications. Applications can't just install on their own due to how the OS is designed, and granted that most applications people get will get will be from the app store, most people won't get viruses. People also read reviews, and nobody is going to download something with 1 star.\n\nTo go a little beyond this, apps which are not approved are not enabled to run by default. You have to go into the advanced settings to install 3rd party apps, and the majority of consumers don't ever do this nor are aware of it.\n\nAnother factor big factor is that the coding libraries that are provided to developers are more limited in their scope. Companies, like Google, monitor the android platform very closely to see if there are any potential tools that could be used maliciously. \n\nMany people root their devices because they wish to get around these limitations, whereas Windows OS tends to be more of an open box. Though it may seem that these people are more prone to get viruses, in another way, they aren't because you tend to really know a little about viruses when you are rooting your device and installing 3rd party applications.\n\nWith this said, you do get some companies abusing certain tools, namely advertising. The apps essentially become adware. I have uninstalled so many programs because of this. I've found that many of the older people in my life don't know how to uninstall anything and just put up with it until I help them out.",
"They do exist. They are not as prevalent as on desktops because phone sin general are more locked down. The issue is far worse on Android, as Google does not hold the type of control that Apple does (specifically for non-jailbroken devices. Jailbroken Apple phones are in some way less secure because they're operating outside their intended purpose. The easiest way onto iPhone is if the user has something compromised on the computer they sync to, and it targets the iPhone specifically. This isn't super common.\n\nSo trying to ELI5 it a bit more...\n\nOn a windows desktop, generally speaking in the past, a bunch of things (flash, java) had easy ways through them that let a website install whatever the hell it wanted on your machine. Over time, various levels of security have been added both to the OS and the browser that make this harder but not impossible. But as such, now more commonly you getting tricked into installing something that doesn't do what you think it does, so that you will approve the installation.\n\nOn an Android phone, anyone can write code for it, and anyone can make apps, and you can pretty easily set up a website for users to install apps from. You have more freedom to create background tasks and chronically running programs the user doesn't see. So the user navigates somewhere, is tricked into installing an app, which has some malicious component that runs in the background. It's not easy to do something without the user approving it, but it's not hard to convince them they're installing something other than the malware.\n\nOn iPhone, things are different. The phone will only run programs that apple has approved, and even then, there's limitations on what can run without the user explicitly turning it on, and how long that can run for in the background. If you jailbreak your phone, a lot of those protections are removed.\n\nFor both Android and iPhone, if you plug your phone into a compromised laptop/desktop, it's a little easier to install things. In some cases, the user still has to approve it.\n\nSo, it does exist, it's worse on Android, it's not easy to write, which is partly why there isn't as much of it. Mostly, people write malware for some monetary gain any more, and it's easier to just phish or steal credit card numbers/passwords than it is to get malware on a mobile device (especially iPhone) and if you do, some of what you can do is limited.",
" > but I had never received a phone virus\n\nHow do you know? When you don't believe they exist I don't assume assume you're running a virus scanner on your phone.\n\nThe days of malware fucking with you in obvious ways are long gone. Now days it's about infecting as much as possible without being discovered fo as long as possible.",
"Viruses have the potential to exist any time information is exchanged. Phones definitely have viruses, trojans, and malware just like any other computer. Phone manufacturers and operating system developers like Apple and Google have a tighter control over what software they allow to be installed and run on their devices though which allows for some quality control to prevent this. There are also security platforms being deployed in any handset from the last several years that routinely scan for, remove, and block installation of malware. \n\nMalware is a broad category of bad things you don't want that includes ransomware, viruses, trojans, adware, etc. \n\nIn many corporate environments if you want to enable VPN or email access over your mobile or tablet you have to install a security suite and have minimum device malware protection before they will let you on the network, the same as a PC. ",
"Go to r/technology and search for 'android malware', there will be a lot of hits. A lot of them are about malware that imitate legit popular programs. The most recent one imitated Viking Jump to create a zombie botnet.\n\nConsoles and mobile OS systems tend to have restricted permissions to installing and running code.",
"There have been viruses, but they're usually contained to one app, and once you uninstall it they don't remain. Phones just have a lot more restrictive sand boxing and permissions systems, so the likelihood of something that can spread and infect the entire phone is pretty slim.",
"I got a virus once. Someone called me once asking to stop sending them text messages. I hadn't been but they were receiving thousands of messages every day for all sorts of contests. I did a factory reset and it stopped. I also noticed much better battery life afterwards. No idea where I got it from",
"In case you are interested, saw a video of a virus on an old nokia phone other day, pretty cool!\n\n_URL_0_",
"OK so viruses are malware but not all malware are viruses. Viruses are sneaky bits of software that sneak onto other bits of software, like a real virus. Nothing would stop you from installing some filthy malware that sends all your personal data to Russian hackers if you installed it from your favourite app store & gave it all the permissions it asks for.\n\nSome basic reasons there aren't viruses are:\n\n1) Phone OSes are built with security and sandboxing from the ground up so installed software can't just do whatever it likes, as opposed to desktop OSes which have kind of evolved from a kind of run-whatever free-for-all. \n\n2) By default phone OSes only let you install approved packages (ie from the app store), which can only do certain things. Desktop OSes will let you install whatever the hell you like from anywhere.\n\n3) because the software is \"sandboxed\" ie isn't allowed to interact with the system as a whole it makes it much harder to do virusey things like change the source code of other packages.\n\nBut then again, maybe there are viruses that are keeping under the radar and aren't really doing anything particularly malicious?",
"Tl;Dr android and iOS both are UNIX systems, which means that they have complex and very robust permission and ownership systems, where a regular app can't just go and modify(or read/execute) every file they want, unless the user and the system permits them, and the only way to get apps on your system is through a curated store or sideload, and even then they can't really do things like modify other apps or system data"
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1lb0ex | why do professional fighters "hug"? is that any kind of defense? does that have something to do with any rule? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lb0ex/eli5_why_do_professional_fighters_hug_is_that_any/ | {
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"Because they're pretty much constantly at the point of exhaustion, and it's short but needed \"safe\" break.",
"I think you're referring to the clinch. In most forms of karate, the clinch is a position from which you perform a lot of throws or strikes (such as knees to the head, or elbows to the head). In boxing, it is a defensive move to make sure that you do not get an uppercut or hook to the face.",
"I learned a \"trick\" from a guy I once went to school with who was really into street fighting. I think this \"trick\" could help explain. If you get really close to the person you're fighting, it's hard for them to really get any power to a punch. This is why, when you see douchebags fighting over who is the biggest dick, they tend to get really close to eachother before the first punch is thrown. I mean, try hitting someone you're currently hugging, you're not gonna floor anyone from that position.",
"In MMA (e.g. UFC) It's called pummelling. You are trying to get your arms between their arms and their body, so that you can clinch and take them down to the ground. It looks easy but is surprisingly tiring, as is all grappling. It is actually easier to rest when you are standing up and fighting, provided you can keep your distance and not throw too many techniques. ",
"TIL fighting is fucking interesting, not just waiting for the moment and punching. Thanks for the answers and the awesome explanations."
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8k82sj | how come solid butter is white, and melted butter is yellow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8k82sj/eli5_how_come_solid_butter_is_white_and_melted/ | {
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"Most solid butters I've seen have been yellow. But I believe that is because they add yellow colouring to it",
"Most solid butter is yellow. \n\nWhat determines how yellow is the breed of cow used, and the feed that they have. If they are grass fed they will tend to have darker yellow butter (and cheese). "
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1odbo0 | why is it that home advantage in most sports is a seriously considered factor. example soccer where teams are notorious for not loosing at home regardless of opposition. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1odbo0/eli5_why_is_it_that_home_advantage_in_most_sports/ | {
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"There are few factors that give a team home field advantage:\n\n1) No travelling - When you play at home, you do not require to travel a large distance to get to the game. You get to stay at home with your family and friends. This generally allows the players to be more rested.\n\n2) Field dimensions - In soccer, the size of the pitch does not require to be an exact size, but just with certain parameters. So, some fields are skinnier while some are longer. This can give you a large advantage. Depending the team's strategy, you can adjust your field dimension to give you the advantage. Teams with fast wingers for example might prefer a longer, thinner field.\n\n3) Climate - Sometimes, teams withing a league play in very different climates, especially for American football. Teams the practice in the heat will play better in the heat. So if a team that is used to colder weather comes to play in hot weather, then they have the disadvantage.\n\n4) The fans - The fans do play a part in the game. Some plays in the game work better for the players if there is silence. So naturally, when the away team comes to a critical play where they need a bit of silence to communicate and concentrate, the fans make as much noise as possible. Also, in soccer for example, the fans sing a lot of chants. These chants may sometimes distract the opponents and they can inspire the home team.\n\nEDIT: Another factor is the influence of refs. Refs are human and sometimes their decisions are based on the reactions of others, especially the fans. They may be more willing to make a call if they hear 50000 people shouting at them to do so.",
"One possible reason is that you don't travel so you are a bit more rested. I guess it is better to come to the game after a night in your own bed, rather than a hotel. Next is the fans, when someone cheers for you, you get a moral boost. Also, the fact that you are familiar with everything from the showers, the lockers, the light etc. Also the size of the field. The soccer field dimensions are not fixed, they can vary within some certain limits. I guess you play better at home because you got used to those dimensions. \n",
"In some sports, the rules give the home team a prohibitive advantage. For example in ice hockey, the home team has last change before a face off; meaning that the home team can see what players the visiting team will put on the ice before a face off, and then match those players with their own players. \n\nIn American football, the crowd tries to stay quiet when their team has the ball, which allows the quarterback to call the play by shouting a code to his team mates. When the visitor has the ball, the crows tries to be loud to prevent the visitors from getting the play.\n\nCities with high altitude are rarer than cities at or close to sea level. Players who play at home in high altitude are acclimated. Similarly, players accustomed to playing in warm weather or in dooms have trouble traveling to cold weather cities."
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3kmycl | there isn't any calcium in grass. where does the calcium in meat come from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kmycl/eli5_there_isnt_any_calcium_in_grass_where_does/ | {
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"Your premise is false. Grass is typically 0.4% calcium. Cows do indeed get their calcium from the grass they eat."
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2gmi30 | why don't sophisticated hackers do something useful? ex: instead of breaching target/playstations network, why not just erase everyone's student loans? granted, that may not benefit them whatsoever, but would be glorious for society. | edit: why is everybody assuming I have any, and don't pay them for that matter? christ!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gmi30/eli5_why_dont_sophisticated_hackers_do_something/ | {
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"A hack that takes a copy of information means the hackers can use it. A hack that attempts to destroy information would only inconvenience most business targets long enough to restore from their backups (which are remote following 9/11). \n\nAlso while it might be glorious for you, it would be a net bad for society. ",
"You can't make a security hole, you have to find one. Where there doesn't exist a sufficient hole to do what you want, you can not do that thing.\n\nThere's no way in hell you erase everyone's student loans. Ignoring needing to compromise every bank to do so, you'd also have to contend with the numerous backups banks keep - including ones not internet-accessible in any way.",
"Data is backed up. It's not realistic for you to erase data unless ZERO people find out about it.",
"The difference is, financial institutions actually care about protecting data that makes them money.\n\nTarget and other retailers don't care all that much about protecting your data, so they may spend less money on security and security best practices. \n\nAs such, there are more likely to be security holes to be exploited in something like a retailer's credit card system than there is to be exploited in say, federal student loans.\n\nThat's not to say the vulnerabilities are not there, they just haven't been found.\n\nAnother factor to consider is that the people who hack these systems are doing so in order to make money. The credit cards and other information garnered from these systems after they are hacked is promptly sold on the black market. There is real money to be made in this type of hacking, and there is a direct benefit to the hacker(s), so that's why more 'altruistic' hacking like eliminating student debt from databases is far less likely.\n\nAnd, on a final note, eliminating data is much harder than stealing it. Think of the Streisand Effect when someone wants something taken down from the internet -- inevitably it gets copied and spread around even more.\n\nData that companies and individuals want to keep around is far more likely to be copied, backed up, and spread around multiple physical servers and locations. As such, it's very difficult to \"delete\", or even modify on a grand scale as things like incremental/daily/hourly backups exist.\n\nSo in the end, the effort of hacking is better spent for those that want to make money in stealing data than it is trying to delete or change data.",
"The real answer is that they prey on vulnerabilities. Financial institutions aren't going to be sloppy with their networks. They will be nearly impossible to breach, the data inside will be protected or encrypted in some way, and there will be backup mechanisms available to restore the data after a failure.\n\nTarget kept customer data in plain text. Shit was pathetic.",
"Yeah, I doubt any company serious in internet security is going to get compromised. The network is most likely internal only and further data will be backed up on a removable hard drive and locked up.\n\nNot to mention the countless paper backups they still keep.",
"What is harder to physically rob, a Target or a bank? Obviously, it is a bank. Any junkie can rob Target with a decent chance of getting away, but robbing a bank takes serious skill and preparation with a huge chance of getting caught regardless. Same goes for cyber security. Target can get its data stolen, people will still shop there, and they will still make money. If a bank gets robbed of all loans, they will lose an insane amount of money. For this reason, they put more resources into redundancy and security. \n\nAlso, erasing student loans would mean the end of education for anyone who isn't rich. If the loans aren't secure, banks can't give them. If banks can't give them, you have to pay upfront. It would ensure only the upper class is educated going forward. ",
"what? that would plunge the US into a major recession..",
"Are you under the impression that Target & Sony were breached for shits & giggles? This isn't disaffected teenagers going out and making the cyber equivalent of graffiti. This is people's day jobs--they put bread on the table by acquiring and selling people's sensitive information on the black market. These sorts of heists take a lot of resources and time to pull off successfully, and are generally pulled off by organized crime. For the investment of resources required, people don't do it just to fuck with The Man. It requires funding from somebody expecting a return.",
"Ignoring the difficulty of pulling this off, I'm going to take you through why it is a bad idea, even though it sounds great.\n\nA loan is considered an asset by banks. They own the investment that is supposed to return regular revenue throughout the life of the loan. If all of the sudden, billions of dollars in assets disappeared from banks, there would be a banking crisis. Many banks would go out of business.\n\nIn the hysteria following the initial damage, consumers would flock to the banks to withdraw their money out of fear that they will lose it. Personal accounts are insured by the federal government, but only up to a certain amount. As people withdraw their money from the banks, the banks now face a liquidity issue in addition to their sudden asset loss. The bank is required to have a certain amount of cash on hand in case people want to withdraw their money. The rest of their money is tied up in assets and investments. Now they have to sell assets to meet the cash reserve requirements. Since they have no choice but to sell assets, they will have to sell them for less than they are worth. This is called a fire sale, and was a big part of the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nNow the banks are in trouble. Many are closing and they all are struggling to meet their cash reserve requirements. Since the banks are having liquidity issues, they stop giving loans. And not just bad loans, they won't give any. If a thriving company wants to open a new branch, they can't borrow the money to do it. Job creation stops and unemployment skyrockets.\n\nThe hackers were trying to help out middle class college grads by erasing their debt. But now Johnny Everyman Collegegrad can't get a loan to buy a house for him, his wife, and their baby daughter, and he's just been laid off at work because he was the new guy and the other people in his department had been working there for fifteen years. On top of that, his dad just lost his retirement savings on the stock market even though he had a conservative portfolio because the market crashed. He has to move in with his son.\n\nAlso the government has lost a ton of money in corporate taxes since companies have stagnated, and also a lot of money on income taxes since unemployment is high. The government must either suffer huge deficits or cut back spending. The local school has to fire a bunch of teachers, and eliminated sports and arts programs.\n\nSometimes actions with the best intentions can produce horrific results, and wind up hurting the people you meant to help.\n\nTl;dr\nA description of the economic impact of erasing student debt. It took me a while so please read it\n\nEdit: thanks for the gold, kind stranger",
"Long story short, you can hack every machine and erase all the digital records you want, but you can't hack scissors to cut up the paper records.",
"I don't see how erasing everyone's student loans would be glorious for society..\nThat money you used for school comes out of someone's pocket and having someone \"erase\" that loan is no different than stealing. Fancy that one thing happening millions of times. How many people lose their jobs because the company/government branch/business can't afford to have so many employees after losing a crazy sum of money? Pretty terrible and selfish to think that would be a good thing. You're pretty much saying it'd be cool if someone stole 50k for you as a person, plus everyone else out there.",
"How exactly would it be glorious for society?\n\nIs it glorious for you when your asshole friend borrows $100, and never pays you back?",
"Hi!\n\nI actually work in IT Security, so I'll try to give you a simple but comprehensive perspective of how these sorts of things go down.\n\nSony, from what I understand, was a matter of an exploit.\n\nYou see *good* IT keeps up to date on developing security issues and will patch their critical systems *immediately*. Good companies know that customer data is your most valuable asset next to internal R & D docs, so they prioritize ensuring that their customer databases are under tight security with all the latest updates.\n\nSony... Well, Sony tried to pass a rootkit to users as DRM back in the 90s/00s. That should give you some idea of how garbage their IT is. But! In the case of the Sony breach, it was a simple matter of their customer data database being on an internet accessible machine (OMFG SO DUMB) and having an unpatched exploit that allowed hackers to basically blow the doors off the vault and take everything.\n\n\nTarget is an entirely different kettle of fish. I can't fully disclose what I know about Target because of my job, but... Ha.\n\nTarget got infected by a Trojan. More specifically, they had a horribly designed network where apparently all of their systems could access each other freely. *Good* network architects use things such as locked down firewalls and separate network segments to ensure that the people browsing facebook in the loan department have absolutely no means of touching the network the ATM machines are on.\n\nTarget didn't do that. On top of not having adequate AV/Firewall software on their Point of Sale terminals, they also apparently didn't have their environment patched or compartmentalized. Someone with very basic access to their internal network dropped a nasty payload on their PoS systems and it spread to just about everything.\n\nUnlike Sony, this was all automated. Someone built a program to pump data into an outbox some where, and the mastermind gathered up all the data there. There was no cool Matrix-esq jacking in and cracking codes; there was a screen door on the submarine and someone paid a sailor to leave it open a bit so the air just let itself out.\n\n\nWhile many banks are *fucking* **cheap** when it comes to IT (and many companies in general), the larger banks understand that their customers are their life's blood. They pay the big bucks for the best technology to safeguard their systems. I'm not just talking about Antivirus, I'm talking about network appliances that look at every single packet that comes in or out, I'm talking about software that scans inside of files being moved from disk to disk for keywords and phrases. We're talking about high level biometrics and the most robust, convoluted encryption standards out there. Seriously, these dudes are more secure than the US Army.\n\nStudent Debt and Credit Card Debt are two of the largest businesses that exist today. Student Loan Debt by itself is [7% of the national GDP](_URL_0_). 1.2 Trillion Dollars! This is where the 1% live and breathe, my friend. The world of high return financial puppetry is mind blowing. You could fucking buy countries for 1.2 Trillion dollars. You could buy out some of America's largest businesses for that kind of money.\n\nAs others in this thread have said, simply \"wiping away\" that amount of money would have enormous repercussions on the economy and would very likely not be \"glorious for society\" as a whole. More over, if someone did perform such a monumental destabilization of virtual currency, it would effectively destroy eCommerce entirely. Money is supposed to be like energy, it can't be created or destroyed without causing enormous problems to the system. Simply vaporizing 1 Trillion dollars in debt like it never existed would call the very value of money into question; and because our money is no longer based on a physical resource like gold, the world is suddenly and startlingly aware that everything we do these days is based on a concept of value and credit created by bankers.\n\nIf you pushed over that Jenga tower in just the right way, you could destroy modern civilization as we know it. Only in a handful of universes does the Tyler Durden method of changing the world actually turn out for the better.\n\nPeople are ignorant, panicky, reactionary animals in the first place. Do you think anything is going to get better by dumping a bucket of chaos onto their frail little world?",
"Because the internet doesn't work that way. There'll be backup copies of the data. But where the data is what the hacker wants, and not the removal of said data, this doesn't matter.\n\nFor an analogy: let's say a new Twilight book is coming out. Hacker A loves sparkly vampires, so he sneaks into a warehouse and steals a book before release, publishing it on the internet. He's succeeded. Hacker B hates Stephenie Meyer, on the other hand, so she burns down the warehouse. All the books are destroyed. But there are other warehouses, electronic copies (just like hard copies of electronic data) and more. Hacker B has achieved nothing.",
"I wish you hadn't used the student loans example, as it has closed off most opportunity for discussion in other, reasonable topics. Deleting credit data would compare to our young childhood days, where we believed that if the school blew up, we'd get to stay home and play video games for the rest of time.\n\nGranted, mine's not exactly a step up, but imagine what these fuckers could do if they turned their sights on Comcast.",
"So they electronically erase student loans. Do they also break into the hall of records and whiteout the paper trail too? \n\nSuppose tomorrow, some one would erase my sallie Mae student loan at where the data is kept. \n\nThere's still the paperwork I signed. And the receipts of all the checks I sent. \n\nAll it would do is make things inconvenient ",
"I assume that if you delete all the student loan data someone will notice. Then they just load their backups and done.",
"You can't destroy data anywhere near as easily as you can steal a copy. Then trying to destroy data with at least one backup is another story.",
"Because technically speaking it's all but impossible. \n\nBanks aren't stupid when it comes to protecting themselves and their financial data. There are backups that are kept, both computer backups and physical copies of loan papers, etc. \n\nHacking isn't going to cut it. Fight Club had it closer to the truth with the idea to just blow up all the financial institutions so there is nothing left to recover. ",
"I don't understand how you think erasing student loans is a good thing. A good thing for you maybe. On top of that your freedom would be short lived your loan is backed up in multiple places some even off site. You can't escape. Pay your bills. It was your choice to take the loan.",
"This wouldn't be glorious either. It would force a lot of the companies that give student loans out of business and then others wouldn't be able to get adorable loans. Maybe we need to figure on main higher education more affordable but erasing the debts of those who already owe money would be disproofs disastrous. ",
"I'm very late to the party but there are already activists that are erasing loans. It's called [The Rolling Jubilee](_URL_0_). \n\nLuckily, and without saying how, I had the chance to work with them. The idea was to have a group of people become licensed debt collectors and, through donations, buy up massive amounts of debt for pennies on the dollar and then instantly forgive it. \n\nTo give you an idea, they raised about 7 million and abolished almost 19 million of debt. \n\nThe problem with debt is you don't know WHAT debt you're purchasing exactly (for whom), from what I gathered during the process. \n\nSo there's that. But check out the site. It's a great read. ",
"Here's a **real** ELI5 explanation: people still use paper.",
"It's orders of magnitude easier to read some data than it is to go change some data.",
"Student loan debt is over a billion dollars already. Right now it is the third highest leading debt. \n\nErasing the debt at this point is impossible. What we need is a reform in school cost or to pricing of degrees. \n\nAlso maybe we as a culture should stop holding college up as a standard for adults to achieve . Maybe we should instead focus on personal goals and and maintaining financial responsibility as a goal . Maybe blue collar jobs should be shown more respect instead of sneered at or being scene as something less than . \n\nIf we do that maybe we will have a future generation of young people that will decide to go or not go to college *not* because of social pressure but out of a personal want, and student loan debt will be something that will be less and less important since less people will go just so they can say they went. \n\nI doubt we are mature enough as a society to handle talking about it like this. But maybe in private people can handle that conversation better.",
"I think op was using banks and debt as an example that everyone jumped on. What about disrupting ISIS communication, or publishing putins emails, or finding naked pictures of celebrities?\n\nYou know, the important stuff.",
"Why? Because of backups. Most things for dealing with finances require offsite backups, so theoretically lose an entire datacenter completely , and still be able to get back to business. There are companies like Iron Mountain that specialize in securely storing these backups. \n\nTL;DR - Erasing the loans wouldn't erase the paper copies and the backups.",
"Most are agent provocateurs working for intelligence agencies. The idea is that by creating fear of hacking it will create the popular support needed to pass legislation to stifle innovation online. Why would they want to do that? The need to stifle innovation is something the billionaire milintel class requires to prevent economic threats. Over the last 20 years the old money was made fearful due to the rise of the Internet and computer technology. They are working to prevent it from changing things to quickly, or more specifically, from outside of their direct control. Alternatively, they are young inexperienced punks using easily obtainable hacking tools, and lack the judgment and maturity to make sure their exploits are useful for anything else besides their own Lulz. Lastly there are yet others who are just basically chicken shit and don't want to screw with anything to big or serious for fear of getting caught and reprisals. Real hackers have no need socially, politically, or economically to be malicious as the whole world wants to pay them for work.",
"What would be the point? They'd just restore from offline backups. People's payments might even be lost.",
"I consider the efforts done over the years by Anonymous to bring pedophiles to justice should count as such. See, for instance, [Operation Darknet](_URL_0_).\n\nAlso worth noting the organisation, still by Anonymous, of alternative channels for internet comms in Syria when the Assad regime tried to cut its citizens off from the world ([Syrian blackout](_URL_1_)).\n\nOf course, \"not your personnal army\" always applies, but there is no shortage of examples of hacktivism as a force for good.",
"Everyone hates on student loan debit, but it is a mindboggling good thing. Without the option to take out a lone I would have not be able to attend college. I would be stuck in a low income career making significantly less money than I make now. My life is significantly better because of my student loan. I'm 6 years out of college and paid it off in about 4 years. I worked hard in college to keep the debit low.\n\nIn lie of some government funded college system, student loans are amazing good both for individuals and for society as a whole.",
"I'll keep it short. I used to work for a bank in their data warehouse years ago, and here's a small sample of their security (not nearly all the security):\n\nTo get to one server rack:\n\n1. Scan ID to get into building\n2. Scan ID again with extremely privileged access (access regularly monitored)\n3. Scan finger print outside two-layer door room\n4. Stand on tiles that have scales under them to record body weight (for multiple reasons including stealing from data center)\n5. Use dial pad to open access to specific region of the data center\n6. Use a key to open up the cage for the rack\n\nOf course, all of that with security cameras practically every few feet within the bomb/bulletproof-walled center.\n\nPhysical tape backups are regularly stored in hidden areas across the country by third party (usually Iron Mountain). 3+ fail-over centers located on opposite ends of the country with constant heartbeat checks. Data is constantly moved offline, and there are numerous teams working full time in locking up and monitoring every attempt of data breach. Commercial planes are even diverted around certain distances from data centers. That's why when you see \"hacks\" in large banks, they're typically just their websites. The security on those servers aren't even comparable to the ones used to store monetary data (such as card services). I know I mainly described physical security, but imagine the virtual security if they've gone this far already."
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44jhls | if insects do not have lungs, how do they drown? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44jhls/eli5_if_insects_do_not_have_lungs_how_do_they/ | {
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"They still absorb oxygen from the air through spiracles. When the spiracles are submerged, they can't absorb oxygen.\n\nDrowning has less to do with having lungs and more to do with not having gills.\n\nEDIT: Just to help out people too lazy to read through the whole thread:\n\nInsects breathe through tubes in their bodies called trachea - the openings are called spiracles. The trachea branch from large central tubes from the spiracle openings into thinner and thinner tubes that permeate the insect's body, essentially giving their tissues direct access to air. Breathing is, for the most part, passive. The oxygen diffuses throughout the tube from the air, and CO2 diffuses out. *Some* insects, especially larger ones, have mechanisms to drive air flow to increase the amount of oxygen they get.\n\nMany insects ([and spiders](_URL_1_)) can trap a bubble of air around their abdomens, which is often enough for them to breathe long enough to escape the water (not to mention giving them greater buoyancy), but that supply will not last forever if they stay submerged. Because the direct access requires air, which exchanges gasses much more readily than water, if water gets into the trachea the insect will drown in pretty much the same way as animals do when water gets into lungs - both mechanisms are poorly adapted to exchange O2 and CO2 in water, and can't do it fast enough.\n\nA surfactant (like soap) lowers the surface tension of water, which will collapse the bubble around the insect, drowning it much more quickly. Some insects can close the spiracles and trap *some* air inside their bodies, but that oxygen won't last long.\n\nThere are many arthropods that live in the water, including some insects. Some use the method mentioned above (trapping air around them), but many athropods do, in fact, have gills (like [crayfish](_URL_0_)). Those with gills have the same problem in reverse - gills are poorly adapted to exchanging gasses without water, so they suffocate out of water.\n\nEdit: several comments have mentioned book lungs. They are organs that many arachnids have, which are unrelated to true lungs like ours, but do a similar thing. Those species can drown in very little water if the cavity that holds the book lungs (which should be empty) fills with water.\n\nAnother point I glossed over is the gas exchange between the bubble and water when insects are submerged. Depending on the surface area of the bubble and how much oxygen is in the water, the bug may be able to stay submerged forever, since oxygen and CO2 will dissolve across the bubble's surface into and out of the surrounding water.\n\nThanks, /u/Pr00Dg for the gold!",
"They don't have lungs or even a circulatory system per se, but they do have little holes all over their bodies for gas exchange. Those serve mostly the same purpose as lungs, and when you fill them with water you've got most of the same problems.\n\nSource: a class I took like ten years ago\n\nEdit: As several posters have pointed out, they do *too* have a circulatory system.",
"So, a lot of really good reasons have been established, but I just wanted to throw a fun fact your way. Arachnids have what are called 'book lungs' which are essentially gills but for the air. There is strong evidence pointing towards book lungs as evolved gills passed down from their aquatic ancestors. \n\nedit for misinformation",
"Regardless of how a creature takes in oxygen, it still needs that oxygen to live, and becoming submursed in water kind of hampers the amount of oxygen a creature can take in",
"Insects dry out easily, so they can last a while with just the air in your lungs to do with having lungs and more to do so.",
"Insects breath through spiracles, little holes along their bodies that branch inward into increasingly narrow tubes delivering oxygen directly to each cell in the body. They can close the spiracles if they need to, and some can go a very long time without needing to open them so an insect which has fallen in the water may have some time to try to get out, but eventually it would suffocate if it cannot take in air. ",
"Insects breathe through little holes in their body called spiracles (spee-rah-kels). Basically they exchange gases throughout the body, as opposed to lungs in us vertebrates. Covering these spiracles with water has the same effect as filling our lungs with water: there is no way for the blood (or in the case of insects, hemolymph) to exchange gas efficiently. There will still be gas exchange in water due to dissolved oxygen but this would occur very slowly in contrast to gaseous oxygen in the air, so the effect would be drowning.",
"They don't have lungs or even a circulatory system per se, but they have specially adapted mechanisms to breathe.",
"The phrasing of this question is similar to asking \"how do fish breathe without lungs?\" or \"how do birds fly without propellers?\" ",
"Wait, insects don't have lungs? ELI5",
"Answer in [gif format](_URL_0_)\n\nNow, we just have to debate how to pronounce \"gif\"",
"Finally I can put my A-Level Biology to good use!\n\nIIRC insects absorb oxygen by having a system of tiny tubes running through their bodies, with oxygen transferring to their blood via diffusion (stuff moves from areas of high concentration to low concentration).\n\nWhile I'm not certain this is how they drown, my guess would be when they fall in water/get submerged, water fills these tubes thus preventing oxygen from entering their blood. After that their organs would shut down due to being oxygen starved.\n\nIt's taken 4 years but I've finally put this information to use lol.",
"Lots of good detailed answers here, but IMO a little too science-y for an ELI5.\n\nBasically insects are small enough that they can breathe through their skin. Since the part of drowning that kills you is lack of air to breathe, submerging an insect in water covers their skin and prevents them from getting air.",
"Air enters the insect's body through [valve-like openings](_URL_1_) in the exoskeleton(body). Air flow is regulated by small muscles that operate one or two flap-like valves. After passing through a spiracle, air enters a longitudinal tracheal trunk, eventually diffusing throughout a complex, branching network of tracheal tubes and reaches every part of the body. To prevent its collapse under pressure, a thin, reinforcing \"wire\" of cuticle (the taenidia) winds spirally through the membranous wall. This design (similar in structure to a heater hose on an automobile or an exhaust duct on a clothes dryer) gives tracheal tubes the ability to flex and stretch without developing kinks that might restrict air flow. The absence of taenidia in certain parts of the tracheal system allows the formation of [collapsible air sacs,](_URL_0_) balloon-like structures that may store a reserve of air. In dry terrestrial environments, this temporary air supply allows an insect to conserve water by closing its spiracles during periods of high evaporative stress. Aquatic insects consume the stored air while under water or use it to regulate buoyancy. During a molt, air sacs fill and enlarge as the insect breaks free of the old exoskeleton and expands a new one. Between molts, the air sacs provide room for new growth -- shrinking in volume as they are compressed by expansion of internal organs. Small insects rely almost exclusively on passive diffusion and physical activity for the movement of gasses within the tracheal system. However, larger insects may require active ventilation of the tracheal system (especially when active or under heat stress). They accomplish this by opening some spiracles and closing others while using abdominal muscles to alternately expand and contract body volume.\n\nTL;DR: Larger insects have lung like structures, smaller ones not so much, they still contract muscles in their abdomen to suck air into openings in the body and thrust it out the other end just like your heart is constantly pumping blood from one opening to the other. Web like network of airways supply every part of the body with air.\n\nNow if anyone wants to know how Arachnids (spiders) breathe...no idea. :D",
"They don't drown so much as they suffocate since there are no lungs for the water to enter. It's just denial of oxygen at that point.",
"Same way we drown. Water gets between the air and the spots in your body that absorb it. For us it's lungs, for them it's all the little tubes in their bodies."
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3d7v0c | why do a lot of websites center their content in the middle of the page and not adaptability utilize the rest of the screen space that is available to them? | Why do websites like YouTube, IGN, and Soundcloud have their content dead center and not extended out to the edge of the screen or near it, like Reddit or amazon for example. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d7v0c/eli5_why_do_a_lot_of_websites_center_their/ | {
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"Adaptable width the way you describe is a difficult thing to design for. Most developers will focus on a few different screen sizes (desktop, mobile and maybe tablet). Typically for desktop they use a width that will work for the average user, which may be smaller than what you have. This entirely depends on the user base, believe it or not many people still have screens with a resolution lower than 1920x1080.\n\nBy setting a static width they can guarantee a certain appearance on as many browsers and desktops as possible. This is especially important for organizations with advertisements and predefined image sizes, like IGN. Reddit, and sites like it, are fortunate in this regard in that their content is mostly text."
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5fj32d | what creates that odd "burnt electronics"-smell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fj32d/eli5_what_creates_that_odd_burnt_electronicssmell/ | {
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"Depends on exactly what you mean. \n\nThe characteristic smell of an electric motor is ozone gas. It's produced by the motor making tiny sparks.\n\nThe smell (and smoke) produced by failing electronics comes from burning plastic. ",
"That smell is probably Ozone, or O3. It can be created from oxygen (O2) molecules when exposed to an electrical arc, such as that created by a circuit short.\n\nIt could also be burning plastic.",
"...new radio smells close to the smell?\n\nRight out of the box...that is probably some plastic off gassing in the box...like the smell of a schoolbus is really just the seats slowly blowing their -ahem- loads.\n\nI associate this burnt smell with power supplies and burnt chips and in the case of clearly burnt chips the smell is the burning epoxy package that hides the pixies as they do their work."
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38m23l | the apparent rash of unprovoked police shootings in america | It seems recently I've been hearing of a new one every week. Is this just a case of flavour of the month reporting where it's always happened and is just now getting coverage or has there been a statistical increase, in either case why now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38m23l/eli5_the_apparent_rash_of_unprovoked_police/ | {
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"A few years ago if you remember birds apparently started committing mass suicide. Did birds just suddenly start flying into the ground or did one news outlet pick it up once, then another, then everyone forgot? This is basically that on steroids, but I don't expect people to forget so easily.",
"It's always happened in both America and everywhere else. Its just the advent of technology that allows us to see how much it happens. \n\nAnother reason these cases are so visible is that we are huge. As a result all of the police brutality that occurs is attributed to 1 country. Imagine if you took all the police brutality cases from a bunch of countries who's sum size is equal to the US. For example 10 cases that occur across 10 countries sounds way better compared to 10 cases in 1 country. But as far as human capital is concerned, they are the same."
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3wd79k | the ending of interstellar. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wd79k/eli5_the_ending_of_interstellar/ | {
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"What aspect? \n \n**SPOILERS** \n \nHe messed with gravitational fields to alter the movement of the watch face, he used this to give her the info she needed. After that, the 5^th dimensional beings (likely evolved humans from centuries in the future, from the colony on Edmund's planet, as Earth died) spit Cooper out of the Tesseract, where he was now in the present which was altered by his involvement in the past. He was rescued and reunited with his daughter in a habitable space station (I forget the term for the type of structure). He dislikes the normally of the situation (\"I don't care much for this, pretending like we're back where we started\") and decides to go to Dr. Brand on Edmunds' planet where she started working on the colony. \n \n**EDIT**- Geez guys, now my 2^nd and [3^rd](_URL_0_) highest comments are now Interstellar related.",
"Wouldn't the paradox of humans saving themselves be stopped if the evolved humans were the ones from the new planet?\n\nLike earth went extinct in timeline one. But Edmunds planet succeeded. So a few thousand or million years down the line they come back to save planet earth, their ancestors from extinction? \n",
"I noticed no one explained the center of the blackhole. Its an artists depiction of what the 4th dimension looks like. We view the world 3 dimensionally. A paper mario character would see two dimensions. The fourth dimension is time/space. The center of that blackhole was his daughters room, with time and space seen as a whole. the lines he was messing with were the objects in the room stretched through space and time as a whole. ",
"No 5 year old is going to get the ending of Interstellar, but I'll do my best.\n\nBasically, we're lead to believe that 5th dimensional beings (possibly from the future, also possibly evolved humans) put a wormhole near Saturn to aid humanity in finding a planet to colonize. \n\nRemember when Coop asked his crew what's inside of a black hole, and they told him that no one knows, but they call it the Singularity. When Coop and Brand were slingshotting around Gargangtua, and Coop ejected himself so Brand could get back to the wormhole, he shot himself inside the black hole.\n\nHe was spit out in the tesseract, where he could move freely between time (and alternate realities?). He uses morse code from inside the tesseract to send the coordinates of NASA to younger Murph, and then gives older Murph the key to finishing her equation through the watch hand so she can execute Plan A and get the space station (with all of the remaining humans) up and out toward their new planet.\n\nWe're left with some unanswered questions about who these 5th dimensional beings are - even though Coop says that *he* is actually the one who orchestrated it all. The movie ends with some nod to the possibility of 5th dimensional beings existing, and we never really get a clear answer on it.",
"To understand the ending you need to extrapolate yourself from the idea of time as linear, moving from a fixed start to a fixed end. \n\nTime (in the movie, and in my opinion) is not linear progression but more of an abstract concept, and more of a mesh. \n\nTo say that the events happened at different points along a fixed timeline is wrong. They happened, there is no when. \n\nCooper had to go to NASA to get to the Tesseract, and he had to get to the Tesseract to get to NASA. It's not linear. ",
"To understand the ending you need to know about the science fiction fodder called infinite universes ( or parallel universes). I remembered seeing a post in r/movies that did a great job of explaining it, but I'll try paraphrasing it.\n\n* In all the infinite universes there must have been some universes where humans survive and evolve into 5 dimensional beings, because our sample size is literally infinite.( By the way, how they survived is not known)\n* These 5 dimensional beings then decide to help their past selves. We don't know exactly why.\n* To help the humans (what we will call past selves for now) they need to send them information on how to solve the \"gravity problem\". They also need to find someone who may be able to make sense of this data. They select Murphy( what led to this decision is not known).\n* Since love is quantifiable in this movie they realised a message sent from Cooper would have the best chance. \n* To let Cooper and TARS send the data they build a tesseract and placed it inside the black hole. It probably also helped them not die.\n* Cooper realises all of this and does what happens at the end.\n* Once coopers real mission is accomplished they close the tesseract and send him back to his galaxy (where a lot of time has passed due to him being near a black hole).\n* Cooper after seeing his remaining family die and realizing he is the last of his generation, goes to find Brand. Moreso, I think, to not let another human feel the isolation he saw Mann felt.\n\nPS: these facts are not important once you realise it's more about family at the end. Like many of Nolan's movies, the background sci Fi stuff only aids in creating moments such as a father missing out on his child's life, a man finally realising the value of human connection, and a daughter who has to tell her father that he shouldn't see her die. \n",
"The main issue I think that people have with Interstellar is that it doesn't seem to fit a linear view of time. They think, not to their detriment, that Cooper sent the NASA coordinates to himself. But how did he get the NASA coordinates in the very \"first\" timeline? In the very \"first\" timeline he would never have left so how did he leave, find the quantum data, translate it to Murph, and essentially save the human race (who would eventually set the events in motion to set Cooper on his journey). It seems to be a logical jump, \"how did Cooper first get set on his journey?\" Christopher Nolan tries to work around this by using the tesseract, both as a means to send the messages back through time, but also as a method of showing the viewers that EVERYTHING is happening ALL the time. There is no \"linear\" timeline. The best way to explain this is, \"why did Cooper even try to spell out STAY? He knew it didn't work.\" The answer to this in Interstellar would be, \"Because that's how it happened.\" There is no way to change the past. Anything you do to meddle with the past has already happened. It's a very deterministic world where everything happens because it happened. \n\n\nP.S. I love Interstellar and have thought this all out way too much. I do think the movies had flaws in that it over-explains the more simple concepts (like wormholes and time dilation) but doesn't explain the \"gentle singularity\" or the tesseract as well as it could have.",
"ok, a review of the beginning (which a lot of other people seem to miss)\n\n1. wormhole leads to a system with a black hole\n\n2. we don't know how black holes work on the inside\n\n3. we presume some friendly alien force put the wormhole there near us, with habitable planets near the exit, because it doesn't seem natural and everything is so convenient.\n\n4. gravity is important to the whole story and plot and science. black holes have a shit ton of gravity. Gravity affects the flow of time, gravity is the only force that can be transmitted *through* time and maybe across more dimensions than that.\n\nOk, now for the ending.\n\n1. TARS and Coop are dropped into the black hole\n\n2. weird shit similar to the wormhole\n\n3. they get taken to the Tesseract, which appears to be artificial and specially crafted just for Coop.\n\n4. The Tesseract is a 5-dimensional space, allowing Coop to see space AND time laid out in front of him, and allows him to navigate to somewhere familiar: Murph's room.\n\n5. Again, gravity is the only force that can be transmitted: using gravitational waves, he manipulates objects in the room by altering gravity. he uses it to send some very important numbers to an adult Murph via a watch, things that can only be measured from *inside* a black hole.\n\n6. Job completed, the Tesseract closes up and he's dumped outside the wormhole.\n\nWhat do we (or at least I) get from all of this?\n\n- The entire setup was probably in order to ensure those black hole measurements were sent to Murph, allowing them to successfully create a spaceship that could save humanity.\n\n- the \"helpers\" are very fluent in manipulating gravity and observing things in the fifth dimension, but otherwise seem to be unable to interact with humans at all. Just like Coop, they can only manipulate gravity for us, because it's the only thing that can be transmitted through time.\n\n- so what beings from the future could possibly be so invested in the survival of humanity? future humans. Possibly humans from a parallel dimension - they might be ensuring *this* dimension's humans survive, which would allow them to \"sidestep\" into this universe. By ensuring humanity's success, they have ensured their own existence, creating a stable time loop.\n\n- this is just major speculation on my part, but maybe we were never supposed to colonize *any* of the planets on the other side of the wormhole. They just made those planets tempting enough for us to send a live/intelligent human team, which would lead to *somebody* accidentally or voluntarily jumping into a black hole. That was the real mission.",
"Neil Degrasse Tyson Explaination saying pretty much the same thing\n_URL_0_\n\nI think the main point of confusion with interstellar's ending is what they believe to be a concept of time.\n\nWhen people think of time travel and paradoxes, they usually think of a multiverse or parallel universes. \n\nExample: Coop travels back in time to give coordinates to send himself to NASA. This creates a universe in which he goes to NASA and the rest of Interstellar happens.\n\nBut then people ask \"Wait, how does first coop know the coordinates to NASA if he never goes to NASA in the first place?\"\n\nI think this is where people start getting confused and frustrated with the ending. But this can be fixed by changing one's conception of time. \n\nLet's say instead of there being separate timelines, there instead only ONE timeline. When the universe was created, not only was all of space was created, but all of that single timeline as well, simultaneously. Thus, created along with past humans struggling to survive on earth, were future humans who needed to help past humans. \n\nSo Coop sends his coordinates back because he always had, since the beginning of the universe. There is no point in time when humans didn’t survive the apocalypse because since the beginning of the universe, there was always future humans that needed to help the past humans. \n\nAs a simpler example, imagine the interstellar universe as a book....or a movie. All of the events are scripted. Everything that happens always has happened, and always will. Because that's just what was written. No matter where you rewind or fast forward to, the events that need to transpire always have and always will transpire. \n\ntl;dr Interstellar universe has a single timeline. This timeline was created simultaneously since the beginning of the universe. All events that transpire always will and always have transpired. We’re just along for the ride. \n\n",
"Love allows cooper to find specific space and time to connect with Murph. Basically, if you were a ghost that could send one message back to the past to save humanity, how do you find that moment: love.\n\nLove love love.\n\n- Interstellar ",
"The power of love guided him through the fifth dimension to find murph's life and guide her to controlling gravity. I think",
"The black hole took him to a 5th dimensional time space (created by the 5th dimensional beings that left the original wormhole for them by Saturn) where everything be manipulated by strings (see string theory in r/ELI6)\n\nHe then used these strings to manipulate the watch hand to deliver to his daughter the mathematical equations necessary for discovering how to control/alter/manipulate gravity; he sent this message in binary code.\n\nThese equations then allowed for humans to alter gravity so they could leave earth and travel to a new/safer planet through the wormhole (otherwise they wouldn't have had enough energy/fuel to accomplish this)\n\nThen the 5th dimensional beings sent Mathew McConohay back through the worm hole where he was picked up and rescued\n\nA little confusing but the best I can narrow of down. Ask if you need further explanation",
"The basis of the movie is the \"bootstrap paradox.\"\n\nAs best described by Doctor Who:\nDOCTOR: So there's this man. He has a time machine. Up and down history he goes, zip zip zip zip zip, getting into scrapes. \n(He goes up to the gallery.)\n\nDOCTOR: Another thing he has is a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. \n(Holds up a vinyl LP of Beethoven's 5th.)\n\nDOCTOR: And one day he thinks, what's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes? So off he goes to eighteenth century Germany. But he can't find Beethoven anywhere. No one's heard of him, not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about. \n(He swaps the LP for a plaster bust of Ludwig and walks down the stairs.)\n\nDOCTOR: Beethoven literally doesn't exist. This didn't happen, by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap. Very intense. Loved an arm-wrestle. No, this is called the Bootstrap Paradox. Google it. The time traveller panics. \n(The bust is put down on a pile of sheet music.)\n\nDOCTOR: He can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily he'd brought all of his Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos, and the symphonies and he gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled. But my question is this. Who put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?\n",
"It's somewhat ambiguous ON PURPOSE. Asking someone to explain it is like having someone explain the ending of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Or having someone explain Voice Of Fire. \n\nIt's ambiguous, and therefore, is going to mean different things to different people, and that is kind of the point.",
"Cooper upon realizing that the mission to save humanity is pointless and that he left his daughter to die on Earth decides to commit suicide by launching himself into a black hole. Everything that happens after the black hole like the tesseract and the O'Neill city are hallucinations he experiences as hes ripped apart. This is hinted at by the crazy guy on the ice planet who says that the last thing you see before you die are the people you love. Cooper dies imagining an impossible world where everything worked out for humanity.",
"There really is no ELI5 as it involves insanely complex topics (time travel, black holes, gravity, etc).\n\nI've written huge posts on Interstellar, and it's one of my favorite movies of all time, but I will try to condense a few common 'problems' people point out for you.\n\n1) Most important thing to understand is that the movie establishes the idea that gravity is a constant unaffected by time, that is, gravity exists outside of time.\n\n2) The tesseract is likely NOT the inside of a black hole. This is probably the #1 \"what the hell\" problem with this film. It's not explicitly stated, but heavily implied, that once Cooper entered the black hole the 5th dimensional beings were able to essentially yank Cooper out of his reality into theirs. Think of it like this: Imagine you are on one side of a 20ft high wall, and the person you want to talk to is on the other. You can yell over the wall, even toss things over perhaps, but your ability to interact with that person is greatly limited. Unless you can find a hole in the wall and step through. Cooper stepped through, they grabbed him and stuck him in a simulation, basically a computer interface, which would make sense to him and allow him to manipulate their technology.\n\n3) Love did in fact save the universe, but in a very specific sense, not an abstract one. That being that Coopers relationship with Murph was absolutely integral to the success of the mission. The 5th dimensional beings needed not only someone smart enough to solve the problem (Murph) but also someone skilled enough to undertake the mission (Cooper), more important they needed those two people to love each other unconditionally. Without Murph's love for Cooper, she would have given up on him long ago and not been in a position to receive his message when the time came. The watch would have gone unnoticed and nothing would have been accomplished. So yes, love did in fact reach across time and space and save the universe. Not in some spiritual way, but in a very real and necessary way.\n\n4) If the 5th dimensional beings are us, doesn't that cause a paradox? Not necessarily. If for whatever reason the portion of humanity they are descended from would not be effected by this change, then no it would not cause a bootstrap paradox. So, for instance, let's say they were descended from Brandt's planets. Let's say in the original time line Brandt made it to the planet and started her colony. If the Wormhole was then closed (which is mentioned in the book) then Brandt would have no way of ever knowing humanity survived, and humanity would have no way of ever being able to reach her. She and her race of humans are cut off for all time from the ones she left behind. In that instance, since she still i the new timeline ended up on the planet just as before, the ramification of the changes made may have been minimal or non-existent. The 5th dimensional beings found an opportunity to save billions of lives without risking their own existence (remember they can see through time in theory, so would possibly know what the effect would be) and decided to take advantage of it.\n\nAnyway, it's a fantastic movie which is incredibly fun to think about.",
"Well, the ending of Interstellar goes like this: Matthew McConaughey is magical and completely impervious to all known laws of physics.\n\nBlock holes do not destroy him despite the fact that they destroy entire solar systems. McConaughey is far more powerful than a solar system. \n\nMcConaughey can exists in multiple dimensions and simultaneously exists in multiple times. He can manipulate matter and energy in in one dimension from another dimension.\n\nMcConaughey has a great sense of humor and likes to fuck with himself by playing ghosts games. He likes to knock books off of shelves and play riddles with his daughter by manipulating a hand on a watch while at the same time another version of himself in the dimension and time that his young daughter exists in tells his daughter that it is all in her imagination. \n\nOkay, I typed that last sentence 3 times and it still makes about as much sense as the ending of that stupid fucking movie. \n\nI'll just sum it up like this: McConaughey is God and Interstellar is the bible. If you can believe the bible, then Interstellar aught to make sense. ",
"Jessica Chastain has become old so Matthew McConaughey leaves her to die and goes to have sex with Anne Hathaway.",
"I posted this elsewhere like a month or so ago, but here goes:\n\n > Basically, you can understand it that as soon as Cooper enters the tesseract (the 5th dimensional space) it technically means that he's been there since eternity and will be there forever. At least that moment he was there will span forever and that is because the five dimensional spacetime he is in supercedes time. It is out of its bounds. That means that although he entered the tesseract after all of those other things took place, essentially, he has been there way before at the same time. The same goes for the fifth dimensional beings. They supercede time because they exist in the dimensions above it. They can 'see' time just as we can see space in front of us. So basically, the point here is, you cannot think of time as a linear thing. Instead, imagine it as something round that can come back to itself. At least for those future humans. That's how they are able to save themselves through us, their predecessors.",
"People seem to have a big issue with the 5th dimension beings part, were they human, were they A.I etc, and all theories by everyone could work, but someone pointed out that these \"beings\" couldn't actually communicate with humans, except for the manipulation of gravity. \nAnd this point really reminds of what my Physics teacher said about dimensions in one of my classes a few years ago.\nHe went out to say, imagine you are a 2D person, you would only be able to see 1D and 2D, as in up, down, straight, all those type of words to explain 2D. And at the same time a 3D person comes across this 2D person, the 2D guy wouldnt know what he was seeing, there's just no way he could possibly fandom what was happening, there's nothing in his 2D world, or vocabulary or anything that he could use to explain it. So imagine us trying to even \"see\" a 5th dimension being. \n\nI know its not sound proof but it made me really think, especially with the theory that there could be up to 11 different dimensions.",
"**SPOILERS**\n\nThe ending of Interstellar begins when Cooper goes through the black hole. At this point, he is of the mindset that he and Brand are essentially screwed after chasing Mark Watney all over the damn place. [See what i did there? (; ] They are rapidly approaching the point of no return as far as getting sucked into the black hole is concerned, and they're too underfueled and overweight to perform the slingshot maneuver they need to do in order to get to Edmund's. So Cooper's thought process at this point is \"Well, maybe I can at least get to the center of the black hole and get the data needed to complete the equation, and maybe then they can bring Dr. Brand home.\"\n\nCooper's going in to the black hole was a combined act of heroism and last-ditch effort at getting home. Brand wouldn't have had enough kinetic energy (momentum) to break free of the black hole's event horizon and they both would've been sucked in if Cooper didn't eject himself like that. So, he allowed himself to cross the event horizon, in a last attempt to preserve the mission.\n\nIf you travel across the event horizon of a black hole, like Cooper did, according to quantum theory, a process called spaghettification happens. During spaghettification, all of spacetime is stretched out in front of and behind you, and you can see everything that has ever happened in the past stretched out behind you, and everything that ever will happen in the future is spread out in front of you. This point of infinity is also referred to as the singularity. No one knows for certain what this phenomenon would look like, so I think the filmmakers chose the cube-like bookshelf-looking structure (the \"Tesseract\") used in the film. \n\nAs Cooper travelled through the cube, he could see all the events leading up to how he got to NASA as well as all subsequent events, including how he will be able to get home and exactly what he needs to do in the next moments in order to make that happen. Cooper peeks through the cracks in the bookshelf to different points in space-time until he reaches exactly the right spot, and begins his transmissions to both himself and to Murph. \n\nAt this point, he must have come to the realization that all events leading up to his mission (the \"ghost\", the appearance of the wormhole, his entry into the black hole) were to bring him to this place, this Tesseract, where he is now able to view and influence all aspects of spacetime.\n \nFrom his point of view inside the Tesseract, Cooper is able to access infinite knowledge and understanding of the universe. Remember - he's looking at EVERYTHING that has ever happened or will ever happen all at once. Also, based on the theory of relativity, time would have slowed to a near stop for him as he approached the event horizon threshold. So he would've had all the time in the world (literally and figuratively) to figure out that the \"humans from the future\" are really just him. \n\nFrom there, he just needed to search through the annals of time (well represented visually by bookshelves, in my opinion), to find out what he needed to know. He located among the shelves the exact points in time he needed to get to in order to 1) transmit the NASA coordinates to himself to set this whole event in motion, and 2) transmit the information Murph needs to her so she can get to Edmund's and save humanity. You will notice in the movie that he does the transmissions in that order, and he also has to travel to different parts of the Tesseract to make the transmissions. \n\nNo one made the wormhole. Wormholes exist naturally on a subatomic level and, with the correct type of exotic matter combined with the gravitational influence of the expansion of the universe, it *is* possible for a wormhole to exist naturally. (However, the rarity of this event is extreme.) \n\nThere are no \"humans from the future\". It's just Cooper. The \"handshake\" that occurs in the beginning of the movie is just Cooper reaching out to Brand as he's being ejected from the Tesseract. TARS says \"I don't think so\" about humans creating the wormhole because we didn't. It's a freak occurrence of spacetime.\n\nWe also need to talk about the whole underlying theme of \"love\". There was a detailed discussion of it before they decided to go get Watney (*no, I'm not letting that reference go*). During the discussion, Brand discusses love as a form of energy, citing that it can be felt even after someone has died. I think the \"exotic matter\" that caused the large wormhole in the first place and/or the way Cooper was able to transmit the information once he was in the Tesseract was by manipulating that energy. \n\nOnce he was done transmitting, the whole Tesseract collapsed. Wormholes are unstable. Once they lose exotic matter, they collapse. It was either pure chance or through some manipulation of that love energy/exotic matter that Cooper wound up getting spit out next to his daughter's space station.\n\n**TL;DR** There are no humans from the future; it was Cooper the whole time because science and love. *drops mic*\n\nEDIT: formatting and clarity."
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22vuy8 | how does a cryptographic hash function use an input to calculate an output? | Mostly everything I've read online about how cryptographic hash functions work either chalk it up as a magic process or employ graphics like [this](_URL_1_) and use complex mathspeak. Can somebody please explain to me in simple terms how hash functions calculate their output?
Using math is okay, but it would be appreciated if anything beyond a high school level is explained. Thanks in advance!!
Edit: I understand what hash functions are and what their uses are. I already understand that hash functions create a unique seemingly random alphanumeric string of constant size for different inputs. What I don't understand are the details of exactly how those strings are calculated.
Edit: for future redditors who find this question through search, here's a pretty good animation of how the Rijndael Cipher works. It's not a cryptographic hash function, but helps you understand how an input can be turned into an alphanumeric jumble
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22vuy8/eli5_how_does_a_cryptographic_hash_function_use/ | {
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"The math is almost necessarily going to be complicated. The point of a hash is to be hard to reverse, and the functions you learn at a high school level are all easily reversible.",
"So, explain like you're five? alright, here we go. \n\nLet's say you've got an animal cracker. It's an elephant. You know it's an elephant, because you're looking at it. \n\nNow, chop off the appendages, and set them aside. then pulverize the body. Add a little salt to it and stir. slide those crumbs to the top of the plate. Now pulverize each appendage, and add coffee grounds to them. scrape them toward the top of the plate too, underneath the processed body. \n\nThere is your hashed elephant. Ideally, you would process every animal cracker the same way, and wind up with something that a stranger cannot guess at what kind of animal went in, but you can always process an elephant and get the same arrangement of ground cookie crumbs each time. \n\nThe hash results in the exact same character string for each input that is the same, but it aims to result in unique strings for differing inputs. \n\n\"elephant\" always equals 0ae9e4deba26021986ffd99636da6601f6393631. \n\"lion\" always equals eaf14a01af23a2750f52c1b1992232c6adc001c4.\n\nBut you can't reverse eaf14a01af23a2750f52c1b1992232c6adc001c4 into \"lion\" as chel_of_the_sea said.",
"It depends on the hash.\n\nThat's a politician's answer, but the question belies a misunderstanding - that all hashes use the same basic implementations. That can't be the case, else they would be much easier to break, and would not be adaptable to a range of requirements. No, a hashing function is any kind of function that will return a unique string for an input within a certain range of inputs. The implementation and the design is a matter for the hash author.\n\nStill, I sense this won't satisfy you. So here's a very simple (and very bad) hashing implementation, the **additive hash**:\n\n > Additive hash\n\n > Probably the simplest algorithm for hashing a sequence of integral values (such as a string), is to add all of the characters together and then force the range into something suitable for lookup with the remainder of division. I will give an example of this algorithm only because books commonly suggest it in their rush to get past the topic of hash functions on their way to collision resolution methods. This algorithm is very bad:\n\n 1 unsigned add_hash ( void *key, int len )\n 2 {\n 3 unsigned char *p = key;\n 4 unsigned h = 0;\n 5 int i;\n 6 \n 7 for ( i = 0; i < len; i++ )\n 8 h += p[i];\n 9 \n 10 return h;\n 11 }\n\n > Generally, any hash algorithm that relies primarily on a commutitive operation will have an exceptionally bad distribution. This hash fails to treat permutations differently, so “abc”, “cba”, and “cab” will all result in the same hash value.\n\nYou can find a runthrough of these various common implementations [here](_URL_0_).\n\nBear in mind, also, that the hash functions used for cryptography will not be much like the hash functions used for generating hashtables (as in the data structure that can be searched very quickly for a specified value). Hashtables need to generate a reasonable spread of keys (so there are few collisions, so a lookup only usually takes one operation) and do so very quickly (so the storage and lookup are performant). These hashing functions are therefore very different from functions written specifically to be hard to break even if computationally expensive.\n"
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8ugh8y | why can’t quintic equations be solved using the same method that is used for other equations of lower degree? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ugh8y/eli5_why_cant_quintic_equations_be_solved_using/ | {
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"What is a quintic equation? I’m assuming it has something to do with five somethings? ",
"First off, a little correction. *Not all* quintic equations can be solved. There are many simpler cases of quintics which absolutely can be solved.\n\nA short answer is: it's not strange that there are quintics that aren't easily solvable; it's more of a miracle everything below is.\n\nFor the exact reasons, you'd need a course in Galois theory (the guy who proved it; his work's importance was discovered only after his death in a duel over political argument), but I'll try to briefly summarise.\n\nLet's look at an example of a simple ass quintic, x^5 = 1. It has five roots, let's call one of non-1 roots w; then our solutions are w, w^2, w^3, w^4, and 1 (note w^5 = 1 as well). Now imagine I define u = w^2. Now we can rewrite our roots as u^3, u, u^4, u^2, 1. This transformation maintains the general form of our solutions - reordering u's will make then just like w's - but permutes the order of solutions - from {12345} to {31425}. Another transformation could send solution t to w*t, resulting in w^2, w^3, w^4, 1, w; again, same elements but order went to {23451}. There are many other transformations achieving similar results, many of them achieved by combining the above - maintaining the same form of the solution, but permuting the members.\n\nNot only that, but those solutions form a mathematical construct known as a group - all you need to know is that combining two permutations gives a permutation, and you can 'reverse a permutation' by applying another certain one (in this case, w = u^3 ). We move away from actual substitutions and focus on the possible permutations we can achieve; for any polynomial this group is inside the group of permutations of all its roots (for quintic - {12345} to {abcde} in any order). They're called subgroups for this natural reason.\n\nNow the magic step Galois did was proving that there is a method of using arithmetic operations to find the roots if and only if this group of permutations of the roots of the polynomial satisfies a certain property (being a normal subgroup of all permutations). That property is well studied and easy to establish. I'm afraid I can't retell the proof in simple terms as I hardly understood it in university terms.\n\nFinal touch is just noting that if we permute 4 or fewer things, all possible subgroups have this property. For 5 and more things this is no longer true; and we can find specific quintics where permutation groups do not have this normality thing, which implies we can't solve for their roots in standard ways.\n\nI'm sorry is this isn't too clear, it's been a while since I learned this. If you want actual thorough proof I'd look into Galois theory, but beware that in my case it was a 24hr lecture course in my third year with several prereq courses (group theory most notably), so it's not at all going to be eli5."
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3cj2j9 | how do clear sunglasses work? | Are clear sunglasses better or worse than traditional sunglasses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cj2j9/eli5_how_do_clear_sunglasses_work/ | {
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"The medical purpose off sunglasses is to protect your eyes from UV radiation. The secondary purpose is to give your eyes rest from bright light.\n\nWhile traditional sunglasses have dark glasses, this is not necessary to block UV light. The purpose of the dark glasses is to give your eyes some rest so you don't get bothered by reflecting surfaces or the bright light itself.\n\nThe problem is that while some cheap sunglasses might give your eyes this comfort they do not always block the UV radiation. Thus still letting it damage and possibly burn your eyes.\n\nSo to come back on your question: Clear sunglasses are healthier for your eyes than cheap normal sunglasses because they are specifically designed to block UV light. Though they will not give your eyes relief from the bright light so they're worse for tasks that need your focus and attention (like driving for example)."
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a18xmg | why do humans restrain ourselves from doing certain actions? e.g hurting yourself, killing someone | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a18xmg/eli5_why_do_humans_restrain_ourselves_from_doing/ | {
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"We've evolved to have some natural restraints because the lack of them can lead to erratic and dangerous activity. Humans (and our pre-human ancestors) lacking such restraints would therefore experience much more risk of untimely death and so be less prolific in passing on their evolutionary lineage. For instance, we've evolved a natural discouragement from hurting ourselves in the form of pain, which pushes us to avoid damage. In uncommon cases where humans are born without such sensation, or lose it later in life, they can be much more prone to damaging injury, illness as a result of those injuries, and death. For example, babies damaging their eyes with their hands, or complications from the nerve damage and associated loss of feeling from leprosy. ",
"Definitely not expert but my uneducated thoughts would be that for most of us self preservation is important to our survival and hurting yourself goes against that programming. On a community level killing others generally isn't that conducive as we typically rely on each other for survival. However, outside of the community level we've gotten really good at killing each other. Just my opinion though.",
"A lone breeding pair of humans have a very short life expectency. Especially when raising offspring.\n\nSo human beings that operate well in concert with others survive longer and pass on those traits to their offspring. Being able to restrain ourselves from certain behaviors is likely one of the well preserved traits. \n\nThat's the most simple explanation. "
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24yjs5 | as long as i drink enough, does it matter when i drink water? for example is it ok to drink the enire 1.5 liters in one sitting, say at breakfast, then nome the rest if the day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24yjs5/eli5_as_long_as_i_drink_enough_does_it_matter/ | {
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"You can only hold so much water at a time. The rest you will pee out as waste. So yes, it is different to drink 1.5 liters of water at once than it is to drink that amount through out the day.",
"plus drinking too much water at one time can kill you.",
"You have been given a lot of misinformation so far. I will try to clear some things up.\n\nFirst, the situation you are suggesting is called water intoxication. When you consume too much water in a small amount of time, you flush out the body's electrolytes (the substance that helps keep fluids and blood pressure balanced), causing the brain to malfunction.\n\nSomeone said, \"You can only hold so much water at a time. The rest you will pee out as waste.\" As mentioned above, this is not true. The rest keeps forcing its way into intracellular space, further diluting the electrolytes that are keeping everything in balance. If you simply peed out all the extra water you consumed, there would be no such thing as water intoxication.\n\nSomeone also said, \"Most people get enough water from their food and other beverages they consume, even coffee and soda count.\" This is also not true. While coffee and soda have water in them, they do not hydrate you. They dehydrate you. If you look at any soda label you will note many have phosphoric acid. Soda triggers a massive emergency calcium (alkaline) flush to balance the acid. This uses water. Furthermore, the high levels of sugar in soft drinks steals a considerable amount of water from the body.\n\nThe answer to your question is that your body is constantly digesting the water you consume. It doesn't hold it in a pouch, waiting for a good time to digest. If you give your body something, it will digest it."
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55gb8z | why is it so dangerous to mix ammonia and bleach? | I'm bored and feel like mixing some household chemicals together - why, specifically, is that a bad idea?
A few follow up questions:
* Would I be safe if I wore gloves and/or a mask?
* How much of each would it take to produce a harmful reaction? If, say, I sprayed a window with an ammonia based cleaner and then decided to follow up a bleach wipe, would I notice any effects?
* Are the reaction byproducts primarily harmful to biological matter or would they be a fire hazard as well?
* How violent is the reaction? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55gb8z/eli5_why_is_it_so_dangerous_to_mix_ammonia_and/ | {
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"Bleach (NaOCl) + Ammonia (2NH3) is bad news.\n\n2(NaOCl) + 2NH3 -- > 2NaONH3 + Cl2.\n\nThat Cl2 on the end is chlorine liberated from the bleach in the form of a gas. Now chlorine is very useful when it's under control in combination with other chemicals. By itself though, it's a chemical weapon. It is **highly** reactive, which means it wants another electron, and doesn't care what it has to fuck up to get one. \n\nIn small concentrations chlorine will react with water in your respiratory system to produce hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which feels about as good as you would imagine having acid in your lungs feels.\n\nIn higher concentrations it will kill you.\n\nTo answer your followup questions:\n\n1. Gloves are always advisable when working with harsh chemicals. In this case though they don't offer much protection. A mask will help protect you from the noxious smell of chlorine at lower concentrations, but won't do you much good if there's a lot of it in the air.\n\n2. You'd probably notice a strong chlorine smell (Chlorine *stinks*) and not much else if you just mixed a small amount of two cleaners. Really it isn't terribly dangerous until we start talking about mixing liters of chemicals, or you're mixing in a small confined space.\n\n3. No fire hazards in that reaction really, but chlorine isn't friendly to *anything*. It will ruin a lot of stuff around your house in its quest to hoover up electrons.\n\n4. The reaction is not particularly violent. Unless you're musing very large quantities.",
"When you mix them, they give off a gas called chloramine- it's not chlorine gas exactly, but it's what chlorine gas turns into when it gets into your body, and it's poisonous.\n\nIn small quantities, it's not a big deal- it's the same chemical as that *pool* smell. Your window-spraying scenario wouldn't be dangerous.\n\nIf you did it outside, just for giggles, you wouldn't hurt yourself mixing a couple ounces at a time. Stand upwind, and don't pour directly from the jugs: pour a little bit of each into small cups, and then combine the cups. That way, you don't risk pouring too much of either chemical into the mixture. If your eyes start to sting or you get a runny nose, don't stick around: get into fresh air, and let the area air out before you clean up.\n\nA paper face mask won't help; you pretty much need a gas mask to filter the chemical out. The reaction gives off heat, but at the concentrations of commercial bleach and ammonia, it shouldn't explode or anything. But it'll bubble pretty vigorously, because a lot of gasses are being produced."
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42hco1 | why do scientists claim they have found the fossils of a "new species" when it could just be a deformed individual of an aleady discovered one? | A lot of the time they only have a few small parts to compare the new fossil with but it seems that smallest difference makes them say it's a new species. Even though deformaties are found in the animal kingdom all the time. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42hco1/eli5_why_do_scientists_claim_they_have_found_the/ | {
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"The chances of a seriously deformed individual surviving long past birth are pretty small. If it's an injury that healed wrong, the bone itself usually looks weird texture wise. It's possible for more mildly deformed individuals to grow up and then become fossilized, but the chances of that are thought to be pretty low. \n\n > it seems that smallest difference makes them say it's a new species.\n\nThis isn't really visible to the general public, but scientists argue all the time about whether fossils represent new species or the same species. They even have funny names for each side, lumpers and splitters. "
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2279v5 | how do tech startups typically secure funding without giving up too much control of their business or patents? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2279v5/eli5_how_do_tech_startups_typically_secure/ | {
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"By finding investors who will provide funding for non-controlling equity amounts.\n\n50.1% held by the the startup still leaves 49.9% equity in the company for investors. That is a lot.",
"For companies that have been through a series A with an established firm, the founders do not typically have controlling share in the business and those with strong positions in the company will set up a board of directors with control over the founders. Even those individuals or firms who frequently do angel investing will typically demand a very high level of control. \n\nTech startup founders are sometimes treated like rock stars, but until you've been part of a funded company from early stage to exit you're either doing it the old fashioned bootstrappy way or you're giving up a fair amount of control to whoever is giving up the dollar bills. It's important to find venture partners with shared vision and way of doing things--too many startups just take the first firm that offers them solid funding or the most funding.\n\nPatents are almost always held by the corporation and not the individual. I don't think any serious venture firm would allow it be any other way if the patent was part of how the tech company was doing business."
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1zb65b | why do some websites ask for your birth date to get in when there is literally nothing they can do to stop the person from entering any date they want? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zb65b/why_do_some_websites_ask_for_your_birth_date_to/ | {
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"So they can claim that it was the fault of the 12 year old who lied and claimed he was 9 years older. ",
"By entering a certain date you are agreeing to that date being your DOB. Therefore if a site/ the owner was to be pulled up by some sort of law enforcement, say if a young child had been accessing pornography or something the site could say, \"Well, he claimed to be over the age of 18\", therefore he lied and is at fault, not us. ",
"They are legally required to ask, but can't disprove the answers, or don't care enough to.\n\nTL;DR to cover their own asses."
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9ab5m1 | do extension cords use power when turned off but still plugged into wall? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ab5m1/eli5_do_extension_cords_use_power_when_turned_off/ | {
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"The only power consumed by the extension cord is from any status indicators and from resistance of the wiring (which is minimal even at full load and zero if nothing is flowing)."
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3mitmb | what does the ipv4 addresses running out in north america mean to average internet users? | I read that we are out of IPv4 addresses in NA and I'm wondering:
1. What exactly that means for average people
2. What we'll need to do to adopt IPv6 for like home internet users
3. What the company I work for may have to do because of this. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mitmb/eli5what_does_the_ipv4_addresses_running_out_in/ | {
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"It means absolutely nothing to the average Internet user. Your ISP will keep things working, even if it means they have to install carrier-grade NAT which will make online gaming without dedicated servers a pain to do. \n\nYou probably need to do absolutely nothing to support IPv6- IPv6 has been supported on PCs since Windows XP Service Pack 2. It's the network infrastructure that doesn't support IPv6. If you have an old router, you might need to replace that, but most routers sold lately already support IPv6.\n\nAnd unless your company runs datacenters or is an ISP, there isn't anything they need to do either.",
"From my understanding. It means that if for whatever reason you terminate your contract with verizon comcast time warner or what ever cable company near you in the next year you could be put on a list and have to wait for a new contract. This is a shortened version of a guy i talked to who does IT work"
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cxenvo | in countries where they only make like one us dollar per day, are they still poor in their country? besides importing stuff wouldn't everyone be middle class because local markets would reflect everyone only making a dollar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cxenvo/eli5_in_countries_where_they_only_make_like_one/ | {
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"In no countries does \"everyone\" make a dollar, in fact poorer countries tend to worse for inequality, there are always some rich people knocking about.\n\nMany people live on the brink of absolute poverty. Say you live on a dollar a day, and spend all that feeding your family. What if you get fired, or hurt, or ill? What if your kid needs medicine?",
"a lot of people are living on less than a dollar a day because they are self sustaining. they are not ingrained into \"society\" as you and i where we would starve if the grocery store closed or if we lost power or utilities or such. there's this type of people called rural farmers where they are not living with the modern comforts that most advanced nations enjoy and are living on less than a dollar a day. basically a lot of the human population are living in conditions with very little \"modern\" amenities. they have no plumbing, no electricity, no a/c, no car, no paved roads, no grocery stores, no access to good healthcare, etc, etc. are they living in poverty? yes, by some standards. are they living well? depends who you ask. \n\nthe advanced nations put out this metric that they judge all other nations. and if the other nation doesn't have the same standard of living as the advanced nation, then the journalists write articles like this one you read.",
"You're onto something: comparing household income between countries is tricky, and development economists usually don't do that. Instead they look at factors like hunger, nutrition, clean water, shelter, health outcomes, security and education. In poor countries even the \"middle class\" scores badly on those factors. Often they lead very precarious lives.\n\nThe \"$1 dollar/day\" statistics isn't misleading though: countries with very low average incomes score badly on all the other development indicators too. It's a good way to represent just how few resources people have available to them."
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b2td7k | how does time go at different ‘speeds’ in different parts of the universe? | I think I understand the idea of the speed of light. If you look at a clock that you are moving away from at the speed of light, then it will appear that the clock is never moving. But it’s still aging as fast as you are right? It would just look like it wasn’t? Please explain. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2td7k/eli5_how_does_time_go_at_different_speeds_in/ | {
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"The reason that example is paradoxical is that it falls outside the theory of relativity. There is no reference frame moving at the speed of light. It's equivalent to dividing by zero (in fact, many of the results are nonsensical because they actually would be dividing by zero).\n\nLight itself has no reference frame. The answer to the question \"what does a beam of light see\" is un-asked by special relativity - light sees nothing, and indeed photons in a vacuum can't be said to be experiencing time.\n\nIt is us normal sub-light speed observers that have a reference frame and can experience time passing. To us moving away quickly (but slower than c), the clock appears slowed down. It cannot be said to be aging as fast as we are - in our view of the universe, the clock is moving away from us, and appears to be aging slower. And in the clock's view of the universe, we are moving away from it, and *we* are aging slower than *it* - we have contradictory measurements of time. These are not illusions either. Unstable subatomic particles like muons, which take some amount of milliseconds to decay, will last longer in our reference frame if they are moving quickly. Time and all time-related processes really do slow down for the moving particle, and the particle sees them as slowed down for us. The 'magic' of relativity was allowing this view of time (which is predicted rather directly by the basic assumptions) while still allowing a consistent universe to exist. All the apparent paradoxes of differing views on length, simultaneity, and time play against each other such that every observer agrees *what* happens, and even *why*, just not precisely when and where.",
"This is a tricky thing to understand, and a tricky thing to explain. I'll try, and I hope others will as well, so that you can see different people's explanations.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEverything that exists is traveling at the same exact speed; the speed of light (herein referred to as 'c') . We are traveling at that speed in four dimensions (that we conclusively know of.) Three-dimensional space, and the 4th dimension, which is time. So if you are standing perfectly still, at a still point in space (whatever that means,) then you are moving through time alone at c. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nNow picture driving at 10mph. If you drive due North, all 10mph are dedicated towards northward motion. But lets say you turn 45 deg east, now traveling due NorthEast. You are now only moving North at 5mph. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nIn exactly the same way, all movement in three-dimensional space is \"subtracted\" from c, (our constant movement through time.) So while you are driving at 10mph (in any direction,) you are moving through time at c-10mph. (Obviously this is also impacted by many other factors of motion in the real world such as orbit, ignore these for the example.) \n\n & #x200B;\n\nBecause of this if you move through three dimensional space faster than a clock, you move through time slower than that clock. Your question of \"But it’s still aging as fast as you are right?\" is a hard one to answer, because it is entirely dependent on whose timeframe you are judging by. Certainly both you and the stationary clock still experience time in the same way, you both have seconds passing into minutes into hours. But to each of you, the passage of time *for the other* would look markedly different. We tend to adopt a democratic measure of timeframe validity; when we think of a ship traveling very fast away from a planet, we think of time moving faster for the ship, not slower for the planet. Neither has any innate objective quality that makes it more valid than the other. So, perhaps you start to see that all time is meaningful only relative to other experiences of time, which is why Einstein called the effect you are asking about \"Relativity.\" \n\n & #x200B;\n\nThis is an aside from your question, but it's noteworthy:\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEinstein's famous equation E=mc\\^2 looks a little different for objects in motion:\n\n & #x200B;\n\nE\\^2=(m°c\\^2)\\^2 + (pc)\\^2\n\n & #x200B;\n\nwhere m° is the mass of the object when it's at rest, p is the momentum, and c is, of course, the speed of light. \n\nUnderstanding the equation isn't important; but the conclusion is. As an object gets closer to the speed of light, it's mass starts to increase *a lot.* By the time the velocity of an object is equal to/greater than c, it's mass would literally be infinite. This is frustrating, because as many have noticed, if time moves slower the faster you go to the point where time would effectively stop for an object moving at light speed, it's a reasonable assumption that an object traveling faster than light would begin moving backwards through time. Unfortunately, getting an object to light speed would apparently require an infinite amount of energy, because the object would have infinite mass. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nHope this was worth the read, and good luck with wrapping your head around this stuff. It takes most folks a long time to gain any understanding of Relativity, so keep at it. Please keep at it, and let us know in 20 years when your crack team figures out how we're wrong, and show us how to achieve relativistic speeds without weighing as much as the known universe! \n\n & #x200B;"
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mn21t | why are star wars i-iii so unsatisfying? | The general opinion (on Reddit and elsewhere) seems to be that Star Wars IV-VI are the best episodes, sometimes seen as the only episodes.
Why is it that Star Wars I-III are so unsatisfying for at lot of people?
I understand that people feel very strongly about this topic :) Please ELI5. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mn21t/eli5_why_are_star_wars_iiii_so_unsatisfying/ | {
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"I believe the general sentiment is that while 4-6 were mainly story driven surrounded by great special effects, 1-3 were based on a very poor story and mainly focused on special effects. ",
"Because they are terrible.\n\nSeriously: [Watch these reviews from Red Letter Media.](_URL_0_) You should watch them a) because they answer your question very well, and b) because they are fucking hilarious.\n\n(Edit: This is the same thing that dasmim is recommending below.)",
"Imagine an unknown and struggling band making a creative and mind-blowingly awesome CD. After making two more hit CDs of similar caliber, the band decides to \"sell out\" by making radio-friendly, highly autotuned pieces of pop music that do nothing but tread old ground and become the very thing they (as a band) initially stood against: all wrapping paper but no content verses lots of content in a modest wrapping paper.\n\nImagine Radiohead or Neutral Milk Hotel being responsible for Justin Bieber-type songs.\n\nGeorge Lucas was initially the underdog with little money that used a great deal of genuine creative ingenuity (Not just George but everybody involved with IV-VI) to realize a world that many thought would fail. With episodes I-III, it seemed that he was a man with lots of money and little creativity. Lots of green screens and graphics artists and no soul whatsoever. An example of \"selling out\" in the absolute worst way.",
"Nothing lives up to its hype. 4-6 were like nothing ever seen before. 1-3 had some cool stuff, but it had their own downfalls (yes, there were plenty of them) and they just weren't as cool as they 'should have been.' Kinda like Matrix 2 & 3. ",
"Really, we *can't* explain it to you like you're five. I have a brother who was five when episode II came out, and he likes the newer trilogy more. The fact is that most people here love 4-5-6 so much because we first saw them when *we* were five (or 10 or 15).\n\nIf you go back and watch the originals again, or find someone who never saw them before they were an adult, you'll find a lot of the criticisms that people apply to the newer movies hold just as true for the old ones. They *were* terribly acted, and they *did* have some really big plot holes, and they *did* rely very heavily on what were then cutting edge special effects.\n\nSo what make Episdoes 1-3 so bad? They're missing nostalgia. To see more of this in action, head over to r/gaming and search for \"NES\" or \"When I was a kid.\"",
"They weren't created for the original fans, but the kids of the original fans. Hence Jar Jar binks...or whatever the fuck that stupid things name was. ",
"I believe the general sentiment is that while 4-6 were mainly story driven surrounded by great special effects, 1-3 were based on a very poor story and mainly focused on special effects. ",
"Because they are terrible.\n\nSeriously: [Watch these reviews from Red Letter Media.](_URL_0_) You should watch them a) because they answer your question very well, and b) because they are fucking hilarious.\n\n(Edit: This is the same thing that dasmim is recommending below.)",
"Imagine an unknown and struggling band making a creative and mind-blowingly awesome CD. After making two more hit CDs of similar caliber, the band decides to \"sell out\" by making radio-friendly, highly autotuned pieces of pop music that do nothing but tread old ground and become the very thing they (as a band) initially stood against: all wrapping paper but no content verses lots of content in a modest wrapping paper.\n\nImagine Radiohead or Neutral Milk Hotel being responsible for Justin Bieber-type songs.\n\nGeorge Lucas was initially the underdog with little money that used a great deal of genuine creative ingenuity (Not just George but everybody involved with IV-VI) to realize a world that many thought would fail. With episodes I-III, it seemed that he was a man with lots of money and little creativity. Lots of green screens and graphics artists and no soul whatsoever. An example of \"selling out\" in the absolute worst way.",
"Nothing lives up to its hype. 4-6 were like nothing ever seen before. 1-3 had some cool stuff, but it had their own downfalls (yes, there were plenty of them) and they just weren't as cool as they 'should have been.' Kinda like Matrix 2 & 3. ",
"Really, we *can't* explain it to you like you're five. I have a brother who was five when episode II came out, and he likes the newer trilogy more. The fact is that most people here love 4-5-6 so much because we first saw them when *we* were five (or 10 or 15).\n\nIf you go back and watch the originals again, or find someone who never saw them before they were an adult, you'll find a lot of the criticisms that people apply to the newer movies hold just as true for the old ones. They *were* terribly acted, and they *did* have some really big plot holes, and they *did* rely very heavily on what were then cutting edge special effects.\n\nSo what make Episdoes 1-3 so bad? They're missing nostalgia. To see more of this in action, head over to r/gaming and search for \"NES\" or \"When I was a kid.\"",
"They weren't created for the original fans, but the kids of the original fans. Hence Jar Jar binks...or whatever the fuck that stupid things name was. "
]
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[],
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"http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/"
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6kqat0 | why do some contraceptives impact women so differently? | I posted about my horrible experience with the birth control arm implant, Nexplanon. Other redditors commented that it works wonderfully for them. I've found Mireya, an IUD works perfectly for me. Why is it that one method can have horrible side effects on some women and not others? Is there a way to know what method is best for you besides trial and error?! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kqat0/eli5_why_do_some_contraceptives_impact_women_so/ | {
"a_id": [
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"The concept of these contraceptives is to make a very small change in a very complicated system. Sensitivities and hormone reactions vary widely from woman to woman, as her individual systems reach balance through puberty. The problem with \"one size fits most\" solutions is that it is very difficult to predict the reaction in an individual. It's easy to know that statistically 15% will have a problem, but that's not super helpful if the way to find out if you will have a problem is \"just try it\". A lot of work in the field of precision medicine is trying to discover markers that will be predictive in these sorts of treatments, but your daughters are more likely to benefit than you are."
]
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[]
] |
|
4oca2u | what was, primarily, the main reason for the original inclusion to the right to bear arms in the american constitution? was it the threat of foreign invasion or home protection or what? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oca2u/eli5_what_was_primarily_the_main_reason_for_the/ | {
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"Remember that militias for towns/cities were very popular then; the government was not organized enough to provide protection everywhere. It essentially was intended to allow people/towns/etc. to protect themselves when the army couldn't. \n \nIt should also be noted that some founding fathers (notably Jefferson) believed that revolutions were a good thing, and it could be speculated that allowing people to arm themselves would help the people overthrow a corrupt government. ",
"A couple years prior to the Revolution, the British outlawed weapons and began seizing them. This was on the tail end of passing increasingly shitty laws of all kinds, and tensions were rising to the point that the British infantrymen might be sent to enforce the laws. So, imagine if the current US government had to permanently station military in your city to enforce the laws because those laws were so onerous. At any rate, it can be safely deduced they were included so that the people always have a means to rise up and overthrow a tyrannical government if need be. Whether this balances with the gun violence we have to deal with on an ongoing basis as a result is of course the never-ending debate. And while it's a remote possibility the US will ever be in a coup d'etat scenario any time soon, you only have to look at examples of when that does happen and what happens to the people (mass murder of millions). ",
"It's not instantly clear, and experts do argue about this one.\n\nThe Second Amendment begins with the phrase \"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...\" which is a bit vague (and the random comma after \"Militia\" doesn't help). It's up to the Supreme Court to decide on what \"well-regulated\", \"militia\", \"security\" and even \"state\" really mean (does it mean the nation state of the USA, or does it mean each individual state within the Union?).\n\nThere are various definitions of \"militia\". We can probably discount the meaning used by paramilitary -- that is, basically, terrorist -- groups to describe themselves. Most likely the Founding Fathers were thinking of a body of citizens who were trained in military combat but didn't actually serve in the military unless they were called up in response to a crisis, such as a foreign invasion. But it can be argued that they were thinking simply of an armed citizenry who could help with, say, law enforcement.\n\nThere is an argument that says that the Founding Fathers wanted the citizenry to be armed in order to overthrow a government that had become tyrannical. The logic here is that, of course, an armed citizenry had risen up to throw off the shackles of British colonialism, and so the Founding Fathers recognised the potential for armed citizens to serve as a check against a government that overstepped its bounds. The counter-argument to that, though, is that a government that came to power in this way might have worried that the same thing could happen to them, and so they wished to ensure the citizenry had the power to help them quell any armed uprising. Both interpretations are allowed by the wording of the Second Amendment.\n\nIt's worth pointing out that in those days, the right to bear arms was unquestioned in most European countries (Germany -- or the Holy Roman Empire as it then was -- was one of the big exceptions here), particularly Britain -- and the US Bill of Rights was in part inspired by the British Bill of Rights of 1689. The Second Amendment pretty much codified what was at the time pretty much standard practice anyhow.",
"Quoting the Second Amendment shows their rationale.\n\n > **A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State**, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.\n\nA militia is essentially a citizen army where people are \"called up\" as needed, really a means of well-organized local defense when there's no standing army. There was no major formal army structure that could be assembled at the time of the Amendment's drafting in 1791, and this correction was included to ensure the nation could remain secure.\n\nAnd that security extended to defending against the nation's own leadership. The US was still very much a newly minted country that had won its independence against a government that it didn't like. Its leaders didn't want it to become what they had just escaped from, and the armed militia mechanism was a way of preventing too much centralized power from occurring.\n\n",
"When the federal Bill of Rights was ratified, it didn't apply to state or local governments. It was a restriction on the powers of the federal government only. States' constitutions have their own guarantees of rights, which could differ from the federal ones.\n\nSo the interesting thing is not so much the federal Constitution but the state ones.\n\nFor instance, one provision of the Massachusetts constitution reads:\n\n > The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed by it.\n\nAnd here's the Virginia Declaration of Rights:\n\n > That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.\n\nThe idea here is that of a local militia: that the free citizens (and at the time, this was understood to mean primarily the white male citizens) of a town or other settlement should practice together as a militia unit, and that the settlement should rely on this group — rather than a professional army — for defense from invasion or rebellion.\n\nThis wasn't \"let's everyone carry loaded pistols around all the time to shoot muggers\". It was \"let's not have a professional army; instead, let's everyone train together as a militia unit.\" The notion being protected here is *the common defense* — that is, defense of the town, the state, the commons — not *individual self-defense*. Put another way, it isn't a law-enforcement / rights-enforcement / policing / guarding function that's being talked about here; it's a military function.\n\n----\n\nThe change to make the federal Bill of Rights apply to the states was called [incorporation of the Bill of Rights](_URL_0_). It started with the Fourteenth Amendment, after the Civil War. But even later, in 1875, the Supreme Court didn't yet consider the First and Second Amendments to apply to anything but the federal government ... at least, not when it was black people's rights being infringed.\n\nIn [*United States v. Cruikshank*](_URL_2_) (emphasis added):\n\n > The second amendment declares that [the right to bear arms] shall not be infringed, but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed **by Congress.**\n\nThis view was later overturned in 2010's [*McDonald v. City of Chicago*](_URL_1_).",
"Just want to add to some great replies that the rights enumerated in the Constitution are not additive to the citizenry in the sense of \"if you're an American these rights are granted upon you by the government\", but rather subtractive to the government as \"these are rights of all citizens that the government cannot take away\".\n\nThe drafters believed these rights were innate to man (and/or granted by God) which I think is an important way to look at them and makes some questions clearer or needlessly asked. For the example of the Second Amendment, whether it was for the purposes of rebellion, foreign invasion, or personal protection is kind of irrelevant - the real answer is that disarming the populace is an affront to humanity and/or God."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._City_of_Chicago",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Cruikshank"
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||
7smasq | when viewing a lengthy video on youtube, how does youtube know where to place the ads? | I was listening to a full album on YouTube and ads were always placed in between songs, not during the songs themselves. How does YouTube know and determine advert placement? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7smasq/eli5_when_viewing_a_lengthy_video_on_youtube_how/ | {
"a_id": [
"dt5u5zj"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"If you are talkign about the banner ads which appear over your video then the position of those is set by Youtube and you cannot change them. What you can do though is set ad breaks in your video where your footage will stop and an ad will appear. Its very much like TV when a presenter says \"And we will be back after this break\". If your videos are not too short (Youtube has rules about how many ad breaks can go in compared to the length of a video), then setting an ad break like this can be the most profitable way to place ads in your footage. If you access the video editor and click on the 'Monetisation' tab you will see at the bottom of the page a slider for 'Ad breaks' You need to have the option clicked for Skippable video ads above it but once you have you can choose whether an ad will appear at the start, the end or somewhere in the middle, and the longer your ad is, the more ad breaks you can put in.\n\nTLDR: The creator can set where the ads go."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
4064yo | by what amount does your odds of winning the lottery improve by increasing the number of tickets you buy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4064yo/eli5_by_what_amount_does_your_odds_of_winning_the/ | {
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"It increases by the number of tickets you buy. If the odds are 1 in 300 million, buying 1 ticket gives you 1 chance of winning in 300 million. 2 tickets would give you 2 chances in 300 million. 50 would give you 50 in 300 million. (This is assuming none of you tickets had the same numbers)",
"The odds of winning ANY prize is complicated. But nobody cares about winning $2 or $5. It's nice, but not the reason you play. Let's focus on the jackpot only.\n\nThe odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 292,201,338 to 1.\n\nFor ever ticket you buy (with a different number) the odds are lowered by a factor of the number of tickets.\n\nIf you have 2 tickets: 292,201,338.00/2= 146,100,669 to 1\nIf you have 10 tickets: 292,201,338.00/10= 29,220,133 to 1\nIf you have 100 tickets: 292,201,338.00/100= 2,922,013 to 1\nIf you have 10,000 tickets: 292,201,338.00/100= 29,220 to 1\n\n\nThe bottom line is your odds aren't really improved to the point that you have any real expectation of ever winning. If you had an extra $1 million dollars laying around....why would you bother buying lottery tickets?\n\nBut 1 ticket if you enjoy it, and move on.\n\n\n\n\n"
]
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[],
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||
39inz7 | how can someone have bad short term memory but good long term memory? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39inz7/eli5_how_can_someone_have_bad_short_term_memory/ | {
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"text": [
"Different pathways in the brain are associated with different 'memories' as such. \n\nSomeone with a brilliant long-term but rubbish short-term will have stronger brain pathways going from their long-term memories to everything else.\n\nMake sense? :)",
"Short term and long term memory are separate processes (or maybe two different parts of the same process?). However it works, being \"good at\" one doesn't necessarily make you good at the other.\n\nFor example, [there are some people](_URL_0_) who lose the ability to convert short term memories in to long term memories after a brain injury. ",
"To be more specific. Short term memory involves associations between the hippocampus and cortex. Long term memory is purely stored in the cortex. Some people's brains, neurons, and neurotransmitter response, is much different than others.",
"Analogy: the 'record' button on your remote doesn't work well, but the ''playback' button is fine. \nActuality : part of the brain called the hippocampus encodes new memories but eventually stores them in the cortex. Damage to hippocampus as in patient HM causes failure to lay down new memories. That is an extreme case but same idea with short-term memory deterioration. Alzheimers hits the hippocampus. \n"
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing"
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||
3scajr | why do smartphones feel the need to reload an entire webpage when you switch between two tabs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3scajr/eli5why_do_smartphones_feel_the_need_to_reload_an/ | {
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"text": [
"What phone do you have? If you have an iPhone, you probably don't have the 6s. If you have an Android, you probably either don't have a flagship, or you do and it's not relatively new. \n \nTo answer your question, RAM (~~Remote~~ Random Access Memory). The more memory it has to store multiple things at once, the better.",
"The browser software in the phone only has so much memory available store the page you are on. If the page is too busy, the safest thing to do is toss the local copy and reload it. Phones just don't have the resources of desktop computers."
]
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[],
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||
2yut6y | why has the dollar been rising so much recently? | In the last few years, the dollar went from a 1:1.7 exchange rate to a 1:3.2 exchange rate to my country's currency, and I can't buy the products I want anymore. Can someone explain why is the dollar getting more and more expensive, especially in the last few months? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yut6y/eli5why_has_the_dollar_been_rising_so_much/ | {
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"text": [
"The dollar is rising for 2 separate but somewhat related reasons. \nThe first reason being the state of the US economy. The very recent surge comes as the Federal Reserve is planning to raise interest rates. Making US bonds more appealing to foreign investors. The US economy is climbing leaps and bounds since about 3rd quarter '14. Jobs are up and the economy grew more than 5%. \nThe other being the ridiculous state of the Eurozone right now. Counter to what the Fed is doing Euro interest rates continue to plunge as the European Central Bank desperately attempts to prop up the Euro, which is being drug down my failing economies all around Europe (Greece in particular comes to mind). The ECB is attempting sub 0 interest rates, further driving investers to the US."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3h7e82 | if tumors are a rapid and uncontrollable rate of mitosis then what are moles amd warts? | Question I've been wandering about for a while! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h7e82/eli5_if_tumors_are_a_rapid_and_uncontrollable/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There are many different types of tumors, many of which are benign (not cancerous). \"Rapid and uncontrollable rate of mitosis\" only describes some types of tumors.\n\nMoles are a type of benign tumor. Warts are not usually described as tumors, but I don't know why. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
42dw74 | why are female-female friendships often more difficult than male-male friendships. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42dw74/eli5why_are_femalefemale_friendships_often_more/ | {
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"cz9k4cq",
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"text": [
"As a female... i don't know. I know normally hoes and weirdos say this but im not a girly girl in that way. I had a female friend not speak to me for 2 months because i took too long to eat a sandwich.\n\nAll joking aside i find females expect more from each other and we're more confrontational. Males annoy each other and they just dont say anything and pretend its all good because theyre often too scared to say something. Females? Nah we say what we want. Have it out. Get over it. \n",
"Women are just more passive aggressive and almost everything is a competition. Like who is prettier, better outfits, cuter boyfriend, etc. It gets kind of superficial and annoying. I just can't deal with the drama. "
]
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[],
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] |
||
5vs0on | how does the federal reserve bank just lose trillions of dollars on more than one occasion? | They said they lost 9 trillion dollars during the Obama administration. Is there ever any reprocussions for losing money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vs0on/eli5_how_does_the_federal_reserve_bank_just_lose/ | {
"a_id": [
"de4cpwc"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"They did not literally lose the money. This is someone attempting to distort a story. What *actually* happens is that people fudge the record keeping, so that the details of what money was used for are not clear when you read the records."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2e0i4j | why can't i "see" anything while trying to imagine something? | When someone tells another person to imagine a green pig, I can't imagine it at all. Even when I close my eyes, I just see darkness. I also don't dream or think in a language. Is there something wrong with me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e0i4j/eli5_why_cant_i_see_anything_while_trying_to/ | {
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"text": [
"Imagine yourself in a meadow, lying down with your back against a tree looking up at the sky. What is your perspective? Some people will imagine the scene as they would actually see in that situation. Some will see it as if they were looking at a picture of what I described from above, seeing themselves. Some are \"miscellaneous\". I, like you, do not really see things I imagine, instead I just receive the information.... it's hard to describe... but I can feel the reaction to it as if I had seen it. There's nothing wrong with you, it's just a way of thinking. Kinda like that whole Type A vs Type B personality. ",
"Your memory has two main functions: recollection and recognition.\n\nRecalling things out of the blue (like your friends birthday), or recognizing something you see (like what your friend's car looks like).\n\nRecognition is a lot easier for your brain to do, and most people train their brains to learn by recognizing patterns instead of memorizing them - it's the same reason people have a hard time memorizing lines to a play. Because that type of memory is only used when it's absolutely necessary.\n\nThat being said, visual data is very memory intensive (in our brains and in computers). When you close your eyes and try to imagine something exactly as it is in the real world, you're trying to conjure an image that isn't stored in your brain in it's entirety. You probably don't have a perfectly formed, intricate picture of a pig burned into your 'recollection memory.' What you most likely have is a few vague pattern points saved in your 'recognition memory' such that you can recognize a pig if you see one. Even if you haven't seen this exact pig before. Even if it's green."
]
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[],
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|
1ycrho | how can the large internet providers claim that netflix (or any video streaming) bandwidth costs extra? bandwidth is bandwidth, no? | The whole net-neutrality debate and stories unfolding where Verizon is demanding payment from Netflix to carry its data.
I pay for a certain amount of bandwidth per month. I've paid for it on their terms. But for some reason 10GB of Netflix is supposed to cause more hardship to the ISP than 10GB of imgur traffic? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ycrho/eli5_how_can_the_large_internet_providers_claim/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfjb4p7",
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"text": [
"ISPS sell you 1 bandwidth and sell 99 others one bandwidth also.. They've now sold 100 bandwidths. To serve that commitment they then only buy 50 bandwidths, knowing that average utilization - even at peek hours and in any given second is less than 50 \nbandwidths. \n\nWhen people actually use their bandwidth it increases the providers costs.",
" > Bandwidth is bandwidth, no?\n\nCorrect. The ISP is double-dipping."
]
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[],
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] |
|
2bn3fp | what "unix" is. | , | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bn3fp/eli5_what_unix_is/ | {
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"text": [
"Unix is a multi-tasking operating system which was created in the early 1970's. It was designed by computer engineers for computer engineers.\n\nIn the early days, there were no graphical interfaces, instead everything was done on the command line. It does take much training to be able to use an unix system. \n\nFrom the original Unix system we now have many other operating systems, both open source and proprietary systems. \n\nYou can see a historical diagram of the progression of unix and unix-like operating systems here\n\n_URL_0_",
"Unix is an operating system, originally designed in the 1970's at [Bell Labs](_URL_3_) (research center famous for inventing things such as the transistor and the laser). Unix didn't really look like anything, it was mainly run on text-only 80 column [terminals](_URL_0_). What made it revolutionary at the time was that it was written in the [C programming language](_URL_1_) (instead of assembly) [also designed at Bell Labs], making it relatively easy to port to other systems.\n\nNowadays the original Unix isn't maintained or even (commercially) available, but the philosophy and the design of it lives on in various *Unix-like* operating systems/kernels (such as Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X). They all share the so called *[Unix-philosophy](_URL_2_)* (to an extent), which basically means that instead of having huge, complicated programs, complicated tasks are accomplished by combining several different small programs (each of which does just one thing, but that really well) with the help of the command line.\n\nTLDR; Unix is the grand daddy of Linux and OS X."
]
} | [] | [] | [
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix#mediaviewer/File:Unix_history-simple.svg"
],
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Version_7_Unix_SIMH_PDP11_Emulation_DMR.png",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Bell_Labs"
]
] |
|
2o6v06 | is it ok to "waste" electricity in the winter in most circumstances? | As far as household appliances go that don't use other resources (electronics, oven, microwave, lights in interior rooms, etc.) won't all the electricity get converted to heat and just reduce the need for my heater to run? I know there are some factors at play, such as temperature distribution, and efficiency, but how does it all practically play out?
For example, I brew beer and have a fridge that is half kegerator, half fermentation chamber. In the winter the fermentation chamber doesn't stay warm enough, so commonly people put in heaters. However, the divider is not perfect, so this will mean the fridge part will have to run a bit more to keep the kegerator part cool. In the summer, this would be a waste, as I'm trying to cool my house, but in the summer I don't need it anyway. In the winter, this will take extra electricity and turn it into heat in my home, but I'm heating my home anyway, so is it really "wasteful"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o6v06/eli5is_it_ok_to_waste_electricity_in_the_winter/ | {
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"Some of it certainly turns into heat and does warm your house, but for most appliances the effects would likely be barely noticeable if that. And as you note, efficiency is also a concern. Relatively speaking, by and large you'll spend more money to heat your house with equipment not designed for the purposes of heating. \n\nSo, yes, there's some marginal heat output, but for the most part it probably isn't going to make a big overall difference, and even when it does, you're probably paying a premium for the amount of increase."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
4l44nk | why are so many us food products not sold overseas, despite the market for them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4l44nk/eli5_why_are_so_many_us_food_products_not_sold/ | {
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"Because the products don't meet the criteria for the local distribution law. In the EU for example it's the TTIP (source; _URL_0_). \nThe products in the US don't have the high quality many people think they have.",
"One thing is transportation. Food is expensive to ship. It's cheaper to produce it where it's consumed. This happens in some cases, but in most cases it's better business for the local producers to use their own branding, instead of paying some American company simply for using their logo.\n\n\nAnother thing is the cultural differences. We simply don't like the same tastes. Even a world wide company like Coca-Cola uses different receipes for different markets. Europeans don't like American Coca-Cola (too sweet) and vice versa (too \"dry\"). Sure you might want some Twinkies every now and then, but there really isn't a huge market for it.",
"i cant really agree with the question. it is a question based on assumption that only a handful of american products have infiltrate the rest of the world.\nare you sure that a lot of american food are not sold in other countries?\n\nspecialty food stuff definitely exist but it sure seems like a bulk of american foods are sold here. hell nestle owns half the food companies in the world. if there is money they will push it.\n\nalso culture is culture. even in the USA you struggle to get certain food in other parts. fried chicken vs detriot pizza vs minnesota mushroom sauce in everything.",
"It depends on where you live, I guess. If you're used to European sweets and baked goods (even the store bought ones), American supermarket products may very well turn out to be a disappointment. They were for me, at least.\n\nThe market for twinkies in a country like Germany, where most people live within walking distance of a bakery or patisserie, is probably tiny.\n\n\n",
"Canadian here, and not trying to sound like a pompous jerk but in most cases the Canadian product is better. Jos. Louis vs. Twinkie - Jos. louis every time. I know a lot of people that have moved to the United States from Canada and they regularly bring back cases of Dads variety pack chocolate coated cookies, Pirate cookies, various potato chip flavours. The list goes on. I also know a couple of Americans that come to Canada during the summer months and the only consumables they bring with them are bourbon and Bud Light. \n\nAs a frequent traveller to the United States and a foodie the only things I bring back from the United States are Mexican items because they are a third of the price they are in Canada (not exaggerating,) hard to find spices like file powder, baking products and cheeses because of price. But if you compare the cookie aisle in a U.S. store to that of a large Canadian store there is no comparison the Canadian store will have 2-3 times the selection. ",
"Your question comes as very Ameri-centric.\n\nAmericans love American food. Each country finds they like their own food...and that they make sure it IS good and not a \"food product\".\n\nAmerican foods usually have a lot of \"fillers\"/\"fakes\": high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar\n\nSugar lobbying: _URL_1_\n\nAmerican \"Chocolate\" bars vs. UK choclate bars:\n\n > \"According to the label, a British Cadbury Dairy Milk bar contains milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat and emulsifiers,\" Severson wrote. The Hershey version, on the other hand, lists sugar as its first ingredient. Its list also includes \"lactose and the emulsifier soy lecithin, which keeps the cocoa butter from separating from the cocoa.\"\n\n_URL_0_",
"Food in Europe is regulated to a much greater degree. Far fewer chemicals and dangerous preservatives. For example. McDonald's fries in the UK have 4 ingredients. In the USA it is 14.",
"German here, I think we can be pretty content with the Haribo, Milka and Ferrero selection over here.\n\nAlso, our beer is better.",
"One of the big things is how much more stringent other countries' food laws are. The FDA is easier to get past than a lot of Euro equivalencies.",
"I'm American and American food is too gross, processed and full of sugar. The sugar industry and the diabetes care industry that are turning us into slaves for a profit are laughing all the way to the bank. Also cleaning hooker juices and cocaine out of jacuzzi's in their Lear jets is expensive"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.businessinsider.com/why-british-and-american-chocolate-taste-different-2015-1",
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/soft-lobbying-war-between-sugar-corn-syrup-shows-new-tactics-in-washington-influence/2014/02/12/8123da00-90dd-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html"
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