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axv9cb | the difference between something being contagious and infectious. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axv9cb/eli5_the_difference_between_something_being/ | {
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"well, puting it spimply, infectious diseases are caused by germs that get into the body by any external means, for example, hepatitis A, contagious diseases are diseases that are exclusively spread from person to person, for example HIV... "
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4quw57 | why do youtube urls contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters if urls aren't case-sensitive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4quw57/eli5_why_do_youtube_urls_contain_a_mix_of/ | {
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"\"There may be URLs, or parts of URLs, where case doesn't matter, but identifying these may not be easy. Users should always consider that URLs are case-sensitive. Domain names are case insensitive according to RFC 4343. The rest of URL is sent to the server via the GET method.\"",
"Because the statement \"URLs aren't case-sensitive\" is not true for all situations. \nWhen you see something like \"?v=Ab12Cdefgh\" at the end, that is something called a \"Query string\". It means that you're actually telling the web server that it should make the value of some variable 'v' be \"Ab12Cdefgh\". When you pass values to the server like this they can be case sensitive. ",
"The domain name portion of the URL is not case sensitive:\n\n_URL_1_ is the same as _URL_0_\n\nThis is part of the DNS system, anything to the left of the top level domain (.com, org, .net, etc...) is NOT case sensitive.\n\nThe portion to the right, often referred to as the path, can be case sensitive as this is controlled on the web server. Sometimes making this case sensitive allows for higher granularity in passing data between the browser and server. There can even be parts that are case sensitive and parts that are not. It's totally up to the developer and the software used on the server side.",
"You'll notice there's a \"v=\" before the string of upper and lowercase letters. Youtube can tell the browser that everything after the \"v=\" is case sensitive, so it can tell what video it should show you. Since there are so many videos on Youtube it needs both cases for as many ID's as possible.",
"The other commenters so far are correct, but I'm going to LI5 it.\n\nThe _URL_0_ part of a web address is a direction *to* the server you want to access; it's used by a variety of computers to make sure you can connect to the website, so there are rules that say this part of the address can't be case sensitive.\n\nHowever, once you've accessed the server you want to get to, it's up to that server to show you content. To show you specific content, the server looks at the part after the .com (or .org, .gov, etc) to decide what content to show you.^1 There aren't any rules or standards governing these systems or servers, so these URLs may be case sensitive - depending on how the server is set up. \n\n^1 : this isn't entirely accurate because subdirectives after the URL can and are used by routers/DNS servers/etc to direct you to certain places on the web, but keywords (like YouTube's v=) van be used to define server indexing utiloties\n\n**Tl;dr**: Web system designers like to be their own unique little flowers.",
"A URL is made up of multiple parts each of which is sent to a different place. The first part goes to a DNS server which (usually) doesn't care about case. The later parts are sent to an application server which often do care about case.",
"_URL_0_\n\n* Scheme: \"http://\" = case-insensitive.\n* Domain name: \"_URL_1_\" = case-insensitive\n* Everything else: \"/look/at/my/horse/amazing.html?animal=horse\" = case-sensitive.\n\n\"Everything else\" is actually a little more complicated than that because in practice each receiving application and server often do whatever they like with it and therefore may not be case-sensitive.\n\nFor a YouTube URL: the ID in the URL **is** case-sensitive, e.g. \"VPBH1eW28mo\",\n\n* This will work: _URL_2_\n* This will NOT: _URL_3_",
"the Youtube video id's can have the following characters in the url: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789-_ \n\nThat's 26+26+10+2 = 64 possibilities per character, and Youtube Video URLs are 11 characters long. This means that there are 64^11, so more than 7.37 * 10^19 possibilities. If there were no caps in there would be only 38 characters, so only 38^11 possibilities.\n\nSo by having both caps and non caps there's way more room for videos, and allow unlisted videos to be incredibly rare to randomly stumble upon. All the possibilities allows YouTube to keep tens of billions of billions of combinations for video links, whilst keeping the URL short.",
"As for why YouTube specifically uses upper- and lowercase, Tom Scott explains their base-64 IDs: _URL_0_",
"Doesn't answer your question at all, but it's interesting on reddit actually. If you want to go to a subreddit, the R is case-sensitive.\n\nIf you type _URL_0_, it'll work. If you type _URL_1_, it won't work. The R is case-sensitive, the subreddit is not. I never knew why until these smart guys above explained it."
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195yre | anything and everything on railguns. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/195yre/eli5_anything_and_everything_on_railguns/ | {
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"This type of undirected question is just extremely lazy.\n\nWhy should anyone take the time to come up with a decent response if you can't even formulate a decent question about the topic."
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2mcm3p | why are a lot of children sheltered from nudity and curse words? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mcm3p/eli5_why_are_a_lot_of_children_sheltered_from/ | {
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"It's more about the parents than the children. Kids can handle a lot more than we give them credit for (the things I learn in developmental psychology classes still amazes me) but as adults, there's always been an emphasis about keeping our children \"safe\". By safe, we don't just mean physically...we see kids as a pure being, untouched by the harshness of the real world. And part of that real world involves sex and profanity. It's just an extension of wanting kids to be safe.",
"I think kids likely are able to handle nudity and sex and should be taught about these things. There is nothing unnatural about either of these things. The issue is to teach it in a manner that doesn't condone young people to be having sex. The first reason being that young people may not adopt safe methods for having sex such as using condoms, the second is that there is a level maturity necessary to have sex without it having a profound emotional impact on the purpose having it. Furthermore there is also the risk of pregnancy regardless of what method of birth control you are using and the less teen pregnancy in our society I personally think the better. \n\nCurse words I think are discouraged because it is a lazy way to speak. Curse words are a great way to add emphasis to something when they are used sparingly. If you use curse words all of the time not only do they lose all of their effect but you also don't learn other better words. Instead of using descriptive adjectives and verbs you end up just saying fuck a lot which is boring and makes you sound like a buffoon. ",
"As a dad with four kids I'll add my voice here:\n\nWhen I was a kid (between 6-8) I was exposed to violence and sex. Did it scar me? No. I'd say I turned out pretty well.\n\nWhy do I try to work on keeping these things away from my kids? Simply put, I want them to be young and carefree as long as possible. I was exposed to all these things and am certain it is part of why I grew up so fast, and ended up being more mature than friends so early. The time will come when they are old enough, so why rush it?\n\nI have no idea what age that will be, but one day they will make it clear somehow they're ready. I look at these things like a football coach does with a young quarterback. How do I know when he's ready to trying call his own plays? He does it without asking me if he can.",
"Biggest reason was simply that the kids aren't as discerning when it comes to context. They're curious and they WILL do things that seem invasive and embarrassing to other people, because they just don't know where the boundaries are or why it's important to observe them. Not everyone cares whether or not you swear, but it's respectful to know your audience before you let fly. Small kids will just mimic their parents' speech patterns without really giving it thought. If you swear around your kids, they'll be swearing too. And it seemed like a bad idea to get them into the habit before they had to deal with social situations like school or getting a job. I wanted them to have some restraint first, and some idea of what they were saying before they decided to incorporate it into their lives.\n\nNudity is pretty much the same thing. Bodies are normal and natural, and they all look a bit different. There are boy bodies and girl bodies and men bodies and women bodies. But I don't want my kids thinking that if an adult exposes his/herself or tries to molest them that it's just a thing; I want them to know it's not right. There are boundaries. Clothing creates visible boundaries. There are times to get naked and those are private times. Strangers not allowed. And this is harder to talk to small kids about, because there are a lot of nuances. When they're older, asking more questions and more capable of expressing themselves verbally, it gets a lot easier.",
"I think it has to do with the ability to discern between formal and informal situations. Sometimes it's okay to swear, but not always. Not an easy thing to teach a child. Unfortunately, many children grow into adults still thinking that \"swear words are bad\" and get very shocked if you use them. Those people are idiots.\n\nNudity is primarily cultural baggage from long ago when we thought it was racy to show a lady's legs in stockings! The shock!",
"Nudity isn't a problem, but I don't want my 4 year old daughter to sound like a Navy sailor. ",
"western civilization is founded upon puritanical values and the punishment was witchburning, stockades, whatever it took to force and scare people into tithing to the Church and paying taxes to the king and helping priests wear dresses and prance around acting like royalty never working an honest day in their life",
"Its important to expose children but also not expose too much too fast to where they make dumb decisions. experiences have to settle in their young minds first.\n\ni feel it is important to expose them when you feel the individual child is ready, so they will make good decisions when confronted with these things. "
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5cnrce | what's the argument for and against selling health insurance across state lines? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cnrce/eli5_whats_the_argument_for_and_against_selling/ | {
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"Argument for: It would increase competition.\nArgument against: companies can get around state laws",
"Argument for: It would increase competition and market efficiency. Right now, state boundaries oppose an arbitrary restriction on insurance plans leading to higher costs for individuals in certain states. If I live right on the MD border, for example, and my PA friends are paying half the cost in premiums I am, why shouldn't I be able to just buy the same insurance plan as them when we live only a few miles apart? Allowing me to do this would require MD providers lower cost to encourage me to sign up, and health care costs less as a result.\n\nArgument against: Just like all the credit card companies are headquartered in South Dakota and every company is based out of Delaware, so every health insurance company is simply going to jump to. Since most health insurance companies are national anyway, and simply run as subsidiaries in any given state, All this does is deregulate them and will decrease consumer protections.\n\nWhy it probably wouldn't do anything: Insurance premiums are based on the quality of the network the insurer can get in that area and the risk pool (aka ratio of sick to healthy people). States like Utah have a lot of young, healthy people, so they have lower premiums. That does not mean I will be able to get the same price they're getting in Utah, since my state of MD doesn't have such a population. Also, any insurance I buy has to work out a network among MD doctors, so there's no guarantee that a company across a state boundary is going to be able to get me a better deal. Just because another state has lower insurance doesn't mean I would be able to get that price if they were able to sell insurance to me.",
"I have limited knowledge on this, but I've read that opening up health insurance across state lines would not increase competition. Apparently there was some study done on this. The reason it wouldn't increase competition is because you need more than to be able to sell insurance somewhere in order to actually sell insurance. For example, you need doctors and hospitals to peddle the health insurance for you."
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949zef | why forces of gravity cause masses to attract to each other, yet the universe is said to be continually expanding? | Please correct me where I’m wrong, but if the law of gravity states things with mass or energy are drawn toward each other, shouldn’t we be gradually centring toward the most massive thing in our universe, rather than expanding outwards? And also, outwards from what? The Big Bang? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/949zef/eli5_why_forces_of_gravity_cause_masses_to/ | {
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"Gravity draws matter together through a force that is well documented but only partially understood.\n\nThe vast empty spaces between galaxy clusters are expanding through a force that is not well documented or understood. We call it \"dark energy\" for now, and know very little about it. How it acts and what it acts on are still mysteries, we've only observed the large scale effects it has.",
"Would like to add that the universe isn't just expanding. The rate that it's expanding is increasing. The expansion is getting faster. \n\nThe skateboard isn't just moving on the sidewalk It's accelerating on its own. And we have no idea how or why. We shall call this energy that's pushing the skateboard \"dark energy\"",
"The strength with which gravity attracts falls off rapidly with distance.\n\nObjects within our galaxy are close enough that expansion isn't occurring locally. Our solar system isn't expanding, the galaxy isn't expanding. In fact, even our local galactic cluster isn't expanding, which is how we will eventually collide with Andromeda. \n\nAt large enough scales, expansion dominates, and all *distant* locations are becoming further apart from one another over time.\n\n > rather than expanding outwards?\n\nThe expansion isn't \"outwards.\" Rather, the universe very possibly extends infinitely in all directions (we cannot say this for sure, but evidence allows for that scenario) and in all directions *from any point* distant locations are becoming more distant. So you would see (roughly) the same expansion (away from you in all directions) here on Earth, or in any other location in the universe. \n\nThere's no center. There's no edge. It may be easier to think of it as \"the universe is getting less dense over time\" i.e. there's more space between objects over time (in general).\n\n > And also, outwards from what? The Big Bang?\n\nWe already discussed that there isn't really an 'outwards' (or an inwards either). Just to clarify, the big bang did not occur at a *place* but occurred throughout the entire universe. The term big bang often conjures the idea of an 'explosion' which we'd think of as radiating out from a single point, but this is inaccurate. The name itself, in fact, was originally derogatory, trying to sum up the theory in such a fashion.\n",
"The universe doesn't really expand 'outwards', it expands in all directions. The end result of that is that over larger distances, pretty much everything ends up moving away from everything else. \n\nGravity kind of does the reverse, it creates a force that pulls things together. \n\nBut besides the opposite effects, the biggest difference between these two phenomena is how they scale over distance. The influence of gravity is the most significant at short distances. The gravity of the sun would have a big effect on you if you're just 100 million kilometers away, but a negligible effect on you if you're 100 million light years away. \n\nThe expansion of the universe, on the other hand, is negligible at smaller scales. Technically the space between the Sun and the Earth is expanding. But since we're so close in astronomical terms, that expansion is super tiny, and more than easily overwhelmed the mutual gravitational attraction between our star and planet. But if you look at the sun and a planet in some other galaxy 100 million light years away (well outside of our local group of galaxies), then the force of attraction between them is negligible. And at the same time, there's so much expanding space between them that it could add up to something measurable, to the point where we could say that they're expanding away from each other. \n\nAnd if you go even further, past the edge of the observable universe, there's so much expanding space between us and some of those insanely distant objects that they're expanding away faster than the speed of light and as such they'll never be visible to us. ",
"The universe is a chocolate chip cookie. The chocolate chips (matter) attract each other due to gravity, while the cookie (space itself) is constantly getting bigger. So the space between chocolate chips gets bigger over time, but they are still able to attract each other."
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73xu5s | how come when you're ill it hurts slightly to go to the toilet, like a sort of uncomfortable burning sensation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73xu5s/eli5_how_come_when_youre_ill_it_hurts_slightly_to/ | {
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"Go see a doctor. You might have a urinary tract infection (UTI). You shouldn't have burning or pressure when you urinate."
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5hqldr | how does absorbtion refrigeration works? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hqldr/eli5how_does_absorbtion_refrigeration_works/ | {
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"Ok, so the way refrigeration works is by manipulating the energy carrying capacity of a liquid/gas. It does this by moving it between the two states and pressure areas. \n\nWhen a liquid evaporates, it absorbs heat from its environment. In refrigerators, you have a reservoir of liquid refrigerant that's passed through something called the metering device. The reservoir is on the high pressure side and when it passes through the metering device to the low pressure side, it evaporates and absorbs heat. This takes place in the A coil, which is the cold part in the system. \n\nHere's where things get different from regular refrigeration. In your a/c at home, the gas travels through the A coil to the compressor, which squeezes the gas back into a liquid and blows air on it to carry the heat away. In an absorption refrigerator, the gas isn't condensed, it's absorbed by another liquid. This allows the refrigerant gas to return to a liquid state without the energy cost of running a compressor motor. \n\nNow you have a liquid saturated in the refrigerant and you need to separate them again. Because the refrigerant has a lower boiling point than the other liquid, this is done by applying heat, whether it be geothermal, solar, or fossil fuels. Now you have heated refrigerant gas coming out of the liquid and you need to get rid of the heat and get it back to the liquid reservoir.\n\nThis is done by sucking the gas outside and passing it through a bunch of metal fins, which causes the gas to condense and flow back to the reservoir.\n\nSo, the absorption liquid serves to separate the high and low pressure sides of the system, while avoiding the high energy demand of a compressor motor.\n\n"
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7cisku | why does it snow at sea level in america, but not at sea level in australia? | It snows in New York City during Winter, and they are sitting at sea level, yet when Winter comes to Australia, it only snows at the highest parts of the country, and never anywhere near sea level. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7cisku/eli5why_does_it_snow_at_sea_level_in_america_but/ | {
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"Look at the map and look at the latitudes of New York and Australia. \n\nThe closer you get to the poles (higher latitudes), the colder its get. \n\nThen look at the seacurrents nearby if they're warm or cold. \n\nYou could look to New York it's get very cold there. The current there is cold. You look at London it's not getting so cold there. The current there is warm. Thats why Murmansk is not really freezing in winter. \n\nThat makes for warm or cold for the most part. And global warming of course. ",
"Whether it snows or not doesn't depend where you are. It depends on the temperature. In NYC the temperature is below 32 degrees F sometimes. So it snows. \n\n\nIn Australia, it may be below 32 degrees F but there is no precipitation above you (clear skies) or you area never reaches 32 degrees F. As you getting higher and higher into the atmosphere, it gets colder and colder. That's why most really tall mountains have snow on them, a) the temp around them at this altitude is below 32 and b) they are physically in the clouds, clouds are just water vapor. That water vapor turns into snow or ice",
"Australia is 25.2744° S, sitting at the Tropic of Capricorn, while New York is 40.7128° N, far away from the Tropic of Cancer, which is in México. Since New York is further away from the Equator, on average, it's colder than Australia.\n\nNow, why places at the Equator tend to be hotter than those at the Poles? The Equator is closer to the Sun, but that only plays a minor role in this. If you concentrate sunlight on a piece of paper using a magnifying glass it will burn, right? That's because the sunlight is focused on a small area. If you rotate the paper so the light reaches at a 45° angle, you'll notice it takes more time to burn. That's because the same amount of light is concentrated on a broader area. Now try rotating it 80°. You can't burn the paper now. That's the same that happens on Earth. The Equator is perpendicular (mostly) to the sunlight, while the Poles are parallel. This is also why the Sun doesn't bother as much during sunrise and sunset."
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27ihg0 | how fountains were possible in classical civilizations. how was the pressure kept and turned off and on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27ihg0/eli5_how_fountains_were_possible_in_classical/ | {
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"The water came from a source higher than the fountain and was carried by pipes and aquaducts.\n\nIn rome, they didn't turn fountains off. The water just flowed all the time.",
"Water in closed channels experience 3 forms of energy: potential, kinetic, and pressure. While most are familiar with the first two, the last is affected by pipe diameter. you receive a lot of energy from the change in elevation (potential) from the water source, but good high shooting fountains got this distance from the change in pipe diameter. ",
"Kind of like this: [link](_URL_1_)\n\nHere's a video of it in motion: [link](_URL_0_)",
"In addition to Heron's head/air pressure fountain and simply natural elevated sources or artesian wells, aqueducts were sometimes filled by water wheels. A [wheel with paddle/buckets](_URL_0_) would lift water to a higher duct using the force of the running river to turn the wheel. The aqueducts were artificially elevated water sources providing the necessary head pressure to pipes below.\n\nEdit: fixed the link",
"with this question I'm curious about what the original purpose of fountains were when they were made. Were they used to drink from? Wouldn't they be super dirty in an urban area? I figured even then they would have been used for decoration in richer parts of the city, too, but I would have to imagine they had some utilitarian function when they were first invented to make them become so widespread"
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4i0eh6 | why is your brain so bad at using your non-dominant hand? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4i0eh6/eli5_why_is_your_brain_so_bad_at_using_your/ | {
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"You haven't practiced with it!\n\nWith a little bit of time and effort, you should be able to become nearly as proficient with your non-dominant hand... it's just not something most people do. \n\nAs an example, you learned to write with one hand... but if you really hammered away at learning to write with the other hand you would find that (eventually) you'll be nearly as good.",
"**TL;DR**: *It isn't that your brain is bad, it's that it never had to get good unlike it did with your other hand.*\n\nWhen you are a baby, there's a point where you've mentally developed enough to realize HEY I HAVE ARMS AND LEGS I CAN MAKE THEM MOVE WOW HOLY SHIT, and mom and dad are wildly entertained by your massive thrashing around in your crib for a few hours as you realize you're more than just an expensive little lump.\n\nThen you get about learning how to get those arms, and the fingers that are attached to them as you learn more, to do more stuff. \n\nIn most babies, eventually one side becomes preferred over the other and it's the dominant one. So it gets all the practice of fine-tuned work, and it gets the experience necessary to develop muscle memory that helps you throw a ball accurately or write with a pencil. \n\nThe other one doesn't get nearly as much of this practice, nor do the muscles in your forearm and bicep and shoulder on that side, so it stays a lot clumsier.",
"It's not that you're bad at using your non-dominant hand, it's that you're really good at using the dominant hand. \n\nWhen you were five years old and just learning to write, you were terrible. But over the years you've written a lot and gotten more and more practiced. You've built up the muscle memory for how to draw all those squiggles. But when you try to write with the other hand, you haven't build any muscle memory in that hand. You're back to writing like a five-year-old. If you spend a lot of time practicing, you can develop that muscle memory in the other hand, but most people never bother unless they injure their dominant hand. "
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qi33s | scientific notation | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qi33s/eli5_scientific_notation/ | {
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"In science it's hard (and inaccurate) to use really big or really small numbers written out normally. So to make it easier we shorten any number to x.x.. times 10 to the appropriate power. The math we shorten it to moves the decimal point around (how far is equal to the number 10 is raised to) so example:\n\n1000000., in scientific notation is 1.0*10^6\nnotice the decimal point moved 6 places left.\n\nIt works the same to the right also 1.0*10^-6 is equal to .000001\n\nagain notice the decimal moved 6 places. \n\nThat's about it. Works for any rational number.\n",
"In order to represent a number which would be extremely difficult to write out, we use Scientific notation to shorten the number to more \"manageable\" lengths.\n\nBy multiplying by some power of 10, we can move the decimal place of a number to either the left or the right to give us the actual number.\n\nScientific notation requires the use of some number between 1 and 10 multiplied by some power of 10 to express a number that is either very large, very small, or someway misrepresented if written out entirely.\n\nThe reason this is determined as being particularly useful in scientific applications is because many times, scientists only know a certain number of digits in a number, also known as Significant Figures, and to write out the entire number would misrepresent their data as being accurate.\n\nFor example lets say I use a scale that is used to measure trucks and I only measure in 100 kg intervals.\n\nI can get a value that would be something along the lines of 2500 kg but that number implies that I know the weight is EXACTLY 2500 kg, not 2501 or 2510 kg. In reality, I don't know that this number is not 2501 or 2510 kg because my scale is not accurate enough\n\nSo in order to not lie about my data, I would write the weight as 2.5*10^3 kg to show that the only digits I actually know are the first 2.\n\nNow if I were to use a scale which measured in 10 kg intervals, I would get a new weight of 2550 kg. Now I can write my weight as 2.55*10^3 kg because I now know that 3rd digit BUT I don't know if it's 2551 kg or 2552 kg. "
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agpnvr | how do some video games have a "playable" state during the download? | How do some of the games ive downloaded have a playable state like 75% through the download yet it still has to download the rest? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/agpnvr/eli5_how_do_some_video_games_have_a_playable/ | {
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"This is a little overly simplified, but gets the concept across.\n\nLet's say that you're playing a single-player game that's linear. The actual game engine is relatively small - most of your assets that take up a bunch of space are things like textures, music, video, and other files of that type.\n\nSo for the first two hours of the game, you spend it in one area. That means that you only need the environment and character assets for things in that area (along with the game engine) and you can play that section. So it downloads all of the character models and music and other stuff it might need for that time, and while you're playing, it can download all of the other characters and music and textures.",
"The downloads can be organized so that the application code is loaded first, and art assets and music files are loaded last. A lot of music or art won't be encountered by the player when first opening the game or starting a new game so they are a lower priority.",
"I know in particular for World of Warcraft, they save the final 25% or so of downloads for stuff like HD textures and models, HD sound effects, etc. Large but ultimately inessential files. \n\nAlso, check out this cool gif on how open world games are rendered: _URL_0_"
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334p9a | when i type something into google, how does it searcb millions (billions?) of sites so fast, but when i make a database with a million rows it takes forever to search? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/334p9a/eli5_when_i_type_something_into_google_how_does/ | {
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"Google duplicates data across multiple systems, so when you do a search it can involve hundreds of systems. Your database is stored on one computer.",
"In addition to 'lots of servers', Google *indexes* data far better than you do.\n\nWhen you're searching your million rows, you're searching each row one-by-one in order. In contrast, when Google searches a million websites, it's spanning a tree of indices that cuts down the number of comparisons to logarithmic time (so instead of taking a million comparisons, Google might make the same link in 10)."
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4y7icf | what's the benefit of football (as in soccer) players acting like they are dying at the slightest touch. is there some kind of game theory behind it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4y7icf/eli5_whats_the_benefit_of_football_as_in_soccer/ | {
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"They most commonly gain possession of the ball because referees can't really disprove the action and can't exactly reward the other team for the offence. It's a very flawed rule. ",
"As a soccet player myself. Most of the times when you get fouled it's at a high rate of speed so a lot of the time the foul will go unnoticed. So in order to get attention we resort to childish antics to bring forth the attention. At least that's my theory.",
"Benefits:\n\n\n* You might win a free-kick if the ref doesn't notice there was minimal/no contact\n\n\n* You might get an opponent booked (you can be booked in football for a single bad foul or an accumulation of lots of minor fouls), or better still - sent-off for a second yellow\n\n\n* You draw the referee's attention to the action - so even if there is no foul given the ref has noticed something happening and will (perhaps) be more likely to give a foul next time\n\n\n* You might frustrate one of the opposing players such that they react and therefore either A) get reprimanded by ref (booked or sent-off) or B) lose concentration and are easier to 'beat' next time\n\n\nPersonally I absolutely detest players doing it (including those on my own team) - I wish more footballers were focussed on being a good sportsman/fair and not so obsessed with winning at all costs. It is, unfortunately, the ugly side of the sport I love.",
"Getting a foul called on your opponent / getting a free kick or penalty can really change the game. Soccer is not a game where tons of goals are scored, so even just that one goal can make the difference. \n\nThe problem is, you just have the ref and no option of video reviews like in several other sports. So if the ref misses the foul, there is no way to protest it. So players try to really draw attention to (well, what they believe is) a foul, in the hopes of getting that advantage.\n\nOf course, some of those falls look really over the top, but they aren't always. You are speeding, your opponent is speeding, you don't have a lot of protection, those shoes are hard... even a completely innocent tackle can still hurt like a bitch. ",
"Sure, some players definitely 'cheat' with the obvious intent of drawing a foul or a penalty to gain an advantage that they are not entitled to, but in most cases a soccer/football player's motives are more innocuous than you might think.\n\n*Many players, especially toward the end of the game, may resort to going to ground in an effort to time waste because their team is ahead.\n\n*Others will go to ground to keep a hard playing physical opponent 'honest'. Imagine you're a smaller or quicker player and your marker (an opposing defenseman who is shadowing you) who is much larger or stronger than you tends to muscle you off the ball without much effort in 50/50 situations. Perhaps they may be 'cheating' by pulling or grabbing at you more than he should but is not being called for fouls. A quick player may try to even the odds by going to ground, thus keeping him honest.\n\n*Sometimes a player will anticipate contact, in completely good faith, and go to ground. For example, your teammate has made a glorious pass to you, splitting the defense and putting you in on goal all alone. Suddenly a defenseman who you never saw swoops in from your blind spot and is able to slide in and kick the ball to safety- but he never makes contact with you. You're surprised and believe you're going to be taken out by a leg and you naturally go to ground. "
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51bvcu | why is youtube demonetizing (taking away ad revenue) small channel videos that talk about graphic or controversial things but leave ads on music videos that display very sexual content (nicki minaj, beyonce, etc.)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51bvcu/eli5_why_is_youtube_demonetizing_taking_away_ad/ | {
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"Basically they made a new bot that auto flags videos based on their tags to screen for stuff that may not be ad company friendly, which has resulted in a number of false flags. This was something they had before but just never told anyone about because youtube is awful at communicating.\n\nIf you want a more detail write-up Nerd^3 made a pretty good post about it [here](_URL_0_)",
"Because YouTube makes more money if they have big names such as Nicki Minaj on their side. YouTube does not care as much about smaller channels because they do nothing to benefit them.",
"It is all up to the advertisers. YouTube is not the issue, it is the advertisers that do not want their brands associated with unsavory content like rape, ISIS, and depression. They will, however, be fine with a popular idol like nicki minaj doing what she does, because sex sells and they are popular enough to make the exposure worth it. That and the automatic striking system is more easily and quickly dealt with when you are paying a lot of people to do it for you.",
"These rules have been around for a long time, but the only change is that now they have stronger bots to look for these videos, mostly based off the tags of the videos.\n\nSo, I went to Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video, used a chrome extenstion to look at the tags, and what did I find? The tags were; Nicki, Minaj, Anaconda, Cash, Money, Rap\\\\/Hip-Hop.\n\nIf a bot were looking at those tags, it would think, *well that's nothing out of the ordinary. We're done here.*\n\nNow, imagine a video, perhaps, about the recent Stanford rape. The tags might be something along the lines of; Stanford, rape, ethics, moral, sexual assault, assault.\n\nNow, a bot sees this video come in, and it's like, *woah, there. I don't know about this one. I think we're gonna have to demonetize it.* Even though, under the guidelines, this is in a newsworthy case, and as a result, should be fine.\n\nSo basically, the reason why is because Youtube has a terrible history with bots. Their content ID bots are already bad enough, so of course, they think, \"Hmm. Maybe we could use a bot to solve this problem!\" Needless to say, the problem they wanted to fix has actually evolved into more appeals by people who know they should be making money on their videos."
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6pbgsv | how and why did companies like spacex begin to be the leaders in space technology over nasa? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pbgsv/eli5_how_and_why_did_companies_like_spacex_begin/ | {
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"The government has essentially decided that given the advances in technology, and the level of commercial interest (satellites) in space now, that it would be better to open space to private entities rather than a single government program. There's money to be made in space, people will pay to build their own rockets and cater to that need, and we'd rather have multiple companies spending their money developing competing technology than have NASA plead and beg for more funding to work on their one technology that isn't necessarily the best, just the cheapest.",
"Because NASA let them.\n\nThe US government has decided the figure of commercial space flight lies in the private sector and has focused NASA's mission more on science and exploration.",
"Private companies have much more freedom than NASA because they answer only to their investors, where NASA has to answer for every cent spent to Congress, which is taxing not-necessarily willing citizens for that money.\n\nBecause the private company is only risking the assets of its willing investors, they can try something that literally blows up in their figurative face and (to some degee) shrug it off, as some ammount of trial and error is expected in the early stages of new product development, and the investors knew and accepted that risk going in.\n\nThis ability to experiment and absorb initial losses allows a faster development time. "
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37gw7m | what's the science behind the charlie charlie challenge? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37gw7m/eli5_whats_the_science_behind_the_charlie_charlie/ | {
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"From what I have seen, you are balancing a pencil on another pencil. It's a very unstable equilibrium and any vibrations or air currents from the outside or excited children could cause the pencil to move slightly which will be amplified because it is falling to a more stable equilibrium. Essentially you have a marble on top of a hill, a little push from the outside will cause it to start rolling downward.\n\nRemind me of a debunking by James Randi\n\n_URL_0_"
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9zpdhw | what is negative birefringence and how is this observed under polarizing light microscopy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9zpdhw/eli5_what_is_negative_birefringence_and_how_is/ | {
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"Okay - Polarization is the direction that a wave vibrates. If a wave is traveling along the Z-axis, then it can be polarized in the X-direction or the Y-direction.\n\nRefraction is when light bends when it enters a new material - you see this all the time when you look see a straw in a glass of water and the straw appears bent, even though it isn't - the light is what is bending.\n\nBirefringence (or negative birefringence) occurs when the index of refraction of a material is different for the different polarizations. So if you have a ray of light traveling in the Z-direction, then Y-polarized light will bend one direction and X-polarized light will bend differently. This typically occurs because the chemical composition is different in the Y- and Z-direction. ",
"Oh boy. Wow. Awesome. Optics physicist here. I did my thesis in polarization and crystallography — and I had no idea it was used for this. \n\nI'm at a loss as to where to start so I'll just start slow. and then probably go into too much detail. \n\nFirst of all, ignore the *negative* part. It's just an accident of how it's measured and has no particular significance. Urate crystals are (apparently) birefingent. Which I guess makes sense given how it was discovered \n\n**Discovery**\n\nThis dude Edwin Land was messing around with optics and for... some reason no one has ever explained to me sufficiently — his dog ate quinine and then peed in a tray of iodine. The resulting green crystals that were dichroic—meaning they showed up as having different color and polarization in different orientations to the crystal's axis. \n\n**Polarization primer**\n\n*Skip this if you know what polarization is*\n\nLight is a wave and that wave has a spatial orientation to it. It can vibrate up and down or side to side or at any angle inbetween. For the most part in life, this doesn't matter, so we don't encounter it much — but it's very useful in displays. \n\nMost light is randomly polarized and is a mix of all angles. But if we constructed a filter that could sift out say the vertical light, we would be left with more or less the horizontally oriented half. \n\nImagine a picket fence with wife slats about 2x the wavelength of light apart. The slats are conductive so they absorb magnetic or electric field energy just like an antenna. If an electric field is vibrating up and down along the length of the slat, the slat will have a chance to induce a current in the electrons in the slat — just like an electrical wire. Since that wire has some internal resistence, inducing a current absorbs up that energy. A photon is an electromagnetic wave, so once the energy is used up, the photon is absorbed. \n\nBut if the wave was traveling side to side, no single wire could have a current induced in it where the electrons in the wire move very far. The slats are too narrow. So the horizontal waves pass right through. \n\nBut a human standing on the other side doesn't see much of a differemce right? Humans can't tell light was polarized to only be horizontal. \n\nBut construct another fence behind the first and now rotate it 90 degrees so the slats go side to side and you will absorb the horizontal light. You ftered both horizontal and vertical—so no light gets through. Everything appears black even though the two fences were see through separately. \n\nThe first fence is called a *polarizer* and when you put two polarizers together, the second is called an *analyzer*. \n\n\n\n**Birefingence**\n\nSo we discovered polarization and started looking at things between two of them. A lot of cool stuff shows up. Some materials rotate light so that when placed between two of these fences, the far side shows up again. \n\nOne cool material called *Icelandic feldspar* is a rock that somehow makes a double image out of a single image. \n\nPlace a polarizer over it and you'll see that what's happening is that one image is the horizontally polarized light. And the other is the vertical. Rotate the polarizer and it makes one or the other of the double image disappear by freeing out the different polarizations. \n\nWe could use this method to detect if a rock is Icelandic feldspar because very few things are birefringent. \n\nOr, I guess, we could use this method to see if a dog that ate quinine peed in iodine. Or apparently if something chemically similar happens to human uric acid in cases of gout. \n\n**Gout**\n\nWhat it sounds like is happening is that using a microscope with a polarizer on it, the absorption pitch (space between the slats in the picket fence) of the gout crystal is almost 2x that of some part of the visible spectrum. Specifically, it's enough that red light is polarized well but blue light isn't. So horizontally polarized light is attenuated (dimmed) but vertical light isn't. But only for a specific wavelength giving it a shift in apparent color. Also, it happens to have the backward of expected diffraction (negative birefingence)\n\n**Edit: sorry for typos. On mobile**"
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apfhm3 | why does milk help soothe a spicy mouth better than other drinks? is it specific to animal milk, or would nut milk have the same effect? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/apfhm3/eli5_why_does_milk_help_soothe_a_spicy_mouth/ | {
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"It's to do with the fats in the milk I believe, I wonder if drinking straight up oil would help too ",
"It is specific to animal milk. Animal milk contains casein which binds to the spicy thing neutralising it. Nutmilk doesnt have it because nuts themselves do not have casein and the process of milkifying a nut does not add or cause it to have any either.",
"It's a combination of the fats in milk, and the casein in milk.\n\nFor this reason, skim (nonfat) milk is not ideal. Whole Milk would be best, if milk is your choice to rid yourself of spice.\n\nFat is chemically similar to the spicy molecule (which is called Capsaicin). This chemical similarity (they both do not like, or dissolve well in, water) allows the fats to \"lift up\" and carry away the spicy molecules from your tongue. \n\nThe Casein in milk is also chemically similar to the spicy molecule. The casein, in similar ways, binds to and \"carries away\" the spicy molecules.\n\nIt is primarily the fat that does away with the fat, and this is because of the fact it is chemically similar to Capsaicin. Because of this, milk isn't the only thing that will get rid of it - a shot of anything fatty would help (ex: olive oil).\n\nIce Cream and Cottage Cheese, for the same reasons as with regular milk, are also related milk products that can greatly help get rid of spice in your mouth.",
"It has to do with the fat in the milk, since capsaicin is fat soluble. Capsaicin is, what binds with the heat receptors in your mouth, making it feel literally hot.\nSometimes, when I ate too spicy, I took a table spoon of cooking oil. It works, but may be too disgusting to some.\nI don't know enough about nut milk, never tried.\n",
"Drinking water while having eaten spicy food makes the capsaicin oil stick even more to your tongue! Think of oil floating on top of water. And drinking milk helps it wash away, like soap and oily hands. \n\nThe molecule Capsaicin that’s responsible for the spiciness in chili peppers is an oily substance. Since your tongue is pretty meaty, it sticks to your tongue the same way that oil sticks to your hands. Milk is micro-globs of fat floating in water, and the capsaicin oil sticks to the fat globules (which are also stuck to water) the same way that soap cleans oil off your hands. \n\n"
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646hai | where did the "s" rating originate and why is it better than "a+"? | I've searched on google to no avail. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/646hai/eli5_where_did_the_s_rating_originate_and_why_is/ | {
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"It originates in Japan, the land of all the crazy things. Because it's known that if you get less than a C you have failed there would only be 3 grades you could get if you finished a level (as they often did not have +- modifiers), S class was introduce something difficult to give people a sense of achievement and something to work towards getting. Then came the SS and SSS ranks to create even more grades to get because more letters clearly means it's better.",
"Just to add some confusion to the great answer already submitted: I am currently in the midst of military flight training and we are graded based on a system where 'A' is the middle grade (Achieved standard), and 'S' is the top grade (Standard exceeded).",
"Japanese video games. When they introduced scoring systems for levels, they stopped at A because the developers didn't expect anyone to do any better than that. But of course players exceeded all expectations and demanded a higher rating.\n\nA means you didn't do anything wrong, as such, in clearing the level. It would seem unfair if you did a perfectly good play through with no major mistakes and were graded a B, even though your run was as good as can be normally expected.\n\nBut the hardcore players demanded a rating for players who go above and beyond, so S was created, then later SS and SSS and such. I don't think it's universally agreed what it stands for--some say super--but everyone just uses it these days.\n\nEdit: A reply has pointed out that some Japanese universities also use S above A, but I did a bit more digging and couldn't find anything about which came first.",
"What is the rating for? School grades? Movies? Cars? ",
"What is an S rating?",
"S rank essentially kind of means \"special\". Like a class of their own. Normally S rank is only given to one person per class like the valedictorian or the top ranked person. A lot of people can get A+, but only one can get S rank.",
"48yo (with no kids) here. \n\nAre y'all saying schools aren't just A, B, C, D, F now? \n\n",
"Most of these games also don't have F and have an E instead (think ddr)... can somebody explain that? ",
"Wow! I saw the question and was certain the answer was \"it comes from Metal Gear because the ultimate ranks 'S' and 'S+' etc. were named after Snake\"...",
"I was more thinking along the lines of cars. I actually don't know the naming convention very well but Mercedes S class are considered to be some of the most expensive and top-of-the line luxury cars. Wouldn't that naming convention precede gaming in genera;? ",
"I played a game that had monsters that were rank X which were better than the rank S monsters. Was this just made up for an extra rank or have an actual origin?",
"To expand on the description of the origin, in the Japanese educational system, the grade S stands for \"shuu\" (秀), which is the Japanese word for \"excellent\". It appears to have been invented to replace A+ and above.",
"I'm surprised people didn't go the sonic riders route, with the X rank. The game has a C, B, A, S,SS, SSS(?), and X.",
"One thing I never understood is why grades go A B C D F... Someone should have gotten an F for forgetting there's an E in there.\n\nNot edited, just pointing out I know it goes D to Fail, just confusing for little guys ya know?",
"The only S grade I've ever seen is like kindergarten, S for satisfactory. Who uses S's?",
"In Solo & Ensamble an S ranking means Superior and is the highest achievable, or near perfect.",
"Completely analogical: In Norway we used to have Letter grading in the lower levels of education:\n\nLg: Little Good\n\nNg: Somewhat good\n\nG: Good\n\nMg: Very Good\n\nSg: Especially Good.",
"Where do you encounter S grades? I ask because I have never heard people from other areas discuss S grades. I attended Elementary school in Michigan, where in Kindergarten and perhaps a grade or two higher, we used S for *Satisfactory*. Grades ranged from U (Unsatisfactory) to S+.",
"Always wondered that.\n\nI've seen it in Splatoon and I believe one of the asphalt mobile games had like S rank.",
"It means > 100%, and is of course Japanese in origin.\n\nThis would mean like getting a perfect score on everything and then doing extra credit on top of all that.",
"I always thought \"S\" was an abbreviation for \"Super\", which everyone knows is even better than an A+.",
"Am I the only person who doesn't know what the \"S\" rating is at all? Never had it in school.",
"It comes form Japan, they don't do A+, they have a rank above that meaning excellent. When you try to convert it into our alphabet it comes out as Shu.\n\nJapanese video games used it in their rating systems and basically exported the concept over here where it was labeled with an S.",
"One tidbit - some colleges now have A, B, C, D, F, and **XF**.\n\nThe **XF** grade is a failure for academic dishonesty - like cheating, copying work, or plagiarism. Sort of like the opposite of S. ",
"Sounds like Yu Yu Hakusho. Lol. They added \"s\" class demons when everyone was too powerful at \"A\" level. Similar to the power scaling in dragonball Z. ",
"FOLLOW UP QUESTION:\n\nWhy do grades jump from D to F, skipping E? Does F actually just mean Fail and the proximity to D is coincidental?",
"Huh, I'd always assumed it was a metal gear solid thing and the S stood for Snake. I never thought to question it because if I'm honest I never really knew what was going in those games.",
"What is the context for this? What kind of thing received an s rating? Never heard of it.",
"So is it from Japanese academia or Japanese video games? I get that it can be from both, but every other top comment seems to deviate on which one is the true origin.",
"I always understood that it came from video games.\n\nAfter a level or mission, on a 100 point scale, you can get F, D,C,B,A,and S. Sometimes they'll include + or -.\n\nA means you were damn near perfect, and S means you were perfect, hitting, every goal/mark/did it the right/best way.\n\nAs the top user mentions, you get SS,SSS ranks, meaning you're just killing it. I think i've seen this in games like Devil May Cry where even after the enemy *should* be dead, you just keep going on with the combo to the point of overkill lmao.\n\n\n\n",
"There is apparently an epistemological explanation that is being presented in this thread.\n\nI'll just explain why it's relevant in video games;\nBecause the S almost always refers to Superior or Supreme whereas the other ranks simply signify a flat academic value like a grade. At least that's been the logic since I was a kid 30 years ago when we discussed S tier characters and when beat-em ups had \"S\" as a grade after level completion.\n\nIt has always been that way as far back as I can remember. ",
"ELI5: What does this question mean?",
"Hmm... reading the comments, now I realize why I kept seeing them in Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1,2 etc. \n\nIt's innate Japanese culture. ",
"Pretty sure it goes\n\nO - Outstanding \nE - Exceeds expectations \nA - Acceptable\n\n-\n\nP - Poor\nD - Dreadful\nT - Troll.\n\n(Side note, no one has ever received a T. "
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8iomve | why are sunsets at "normal" times even when living just east of large mountain ranges. | I live in Denver. Sunset tonight is expected around 8:05 p.m. Obviously the Rocky Mountains are just west of the city and stand at quite an impressive height. Why isn't the sunset in areas directly east of large mountain ranges earlier than if the area were flat. Wouldn't the mountains block out the sun at an earlier time than if I were on a prairie. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8iomve/eli5_why_are_sunsets_at_normal_times_even_when/ | {
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"The sun is 8 Lightminutes away, the earth has a circumfrance of 40.000km... a few mountains that are max 6km in height dont mean much on the cosmic scale. Of course it gets darker a tad earlier for you than for people on the other sode or rather: you cannot see the sun as long as they can.",
"Calculations are based on a smooth earth. As said before the small difference in altitude is there but negligible. \n\nFor instance. The sun will set for someone on the bottom floor of a sky scraper before someone on the top floor. Heck, even on a beach. If you are lying down immediately stand up and you will see two sun sets. \n\nEdit: Wrong order ",
"They are not. it'll get darker few minutes to even hours earlier in the shadow of the mountain. This also depends on the time of year.\nTo the point that there exist places on earth that get _artificial_ polar nights during winter.",
"If you were closer to the mountains they would have an impact! But as the world is round, and not flat, the distance between yourself and the mountain is fairly important!\n\nHope this helps!",
" > Wouldn't the mountains block out the sun at an earlier time than if I were on a prairie.\n\nThe direct sunlight, yeah. But you get a lot of light from the rest of the sky. You even get a significant amount of light from the sky during civil twilight, when the sun is completely below the horizon.\n\n"
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45z803 | why do my testicles have a very distinctive smell when they sweat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45z803/eli5_why_do_my_testicles_have_a_very_distinctive/ | {
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"It's a lot to do with the community of yeast and bacteria my friend. Keep 'em trimmed, keep 'em clean.",
"Don't wanna be that guy, but your anus is pretty close to your balls. The mixture of butts and sweat can cause a pretty unique smell. ",
"Two reasons, trousers and sweat. You see, you're balls are all about keeping cool enough to ensure the sperm inside stays at optimal fertility temperature at all times. The thing is, we dress for our core temperature, not our fertility temperature, in this our body will do what tens of thousands of years of evolution have trained them to do: sweat their little glands off. To compound this, the warm environment and moisture, and various bacteria from your anus and general disease ridden skin have been given a contained, insulated environment for a lovely ecosystem-good thing you wear clean underwear to absorb moisture and reduce crotch rot :) \n\nNow, some people here have been advocating grooming, but this should be taken with a grain of salt. In the same way that animal hair can lock in some pheromones, pubic hair can, ahem, lock in the flavor. When we were nice and naked, this allowed us to walk around with our genitals flippy flopping without scaring away everybody with the special scent of balls. With modern sexual practices, many have elected to groom closer and regularly clean to limit the potential bacterial crotch cultures but, as most people will tell you, sex has smells that come with it, and while it's probably your own damn fault if your scrotes scare away potential suitors with their unique signature, part of being a mature, sexually active, human being is understanding how much some of this stuff comes with the territory. \n\nOne last thing of note, this effects women too, and because of different plumbing makes them much more susceptible to urinary tract and yeast infections. But as I said, all this nasty stuff is just part of being human, and dealing with it is a part of sex and for some the distinctive smell is fetishized for this very reason. Keep in mind, this isn't *pheromones* so much as it is eroticizing a less talked about part to the human sexual experience. \n\nAll that said: you should probably take a shower after after going to the gym. \n\nEdit: cleaned up some grammar in the last paragraph."
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309gxt | how does nat geo infiltrate every level of the drug trade in small and major cities and how pissed is the dea about it? | How do they gain the trust of local drug dealers, suppliers, users, and bosses?
Does Freedom of the Press really allow them to show a masked kingpin without any repercussions?
What prevents local authorities (FBI) from seizing Nat Geo's footage and throwing the reporters/investigators to a Grand Jury to reveal high value drug lords? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/309gxt/eli5_how_does_nat_geo_infiltrate_every_level_of/ | {
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"Yes and no. Let's make a show with actors that portray making moonshine. For all Nat Geo knows this is all fake. However what the moonshiners do is up to them"
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35p06i | types of online gaming lag | I play Street Fighter 4 online and when it lags it will make the game slow down visibly on-screen and 'stutter'.
When Mario Kart 8 lags, it will maintain the game at normal speed but the other players teleport and display general weirdness but it will appear that it's not affecting me at all.
When Battlefield 4 lags it will maintain a normal speed but will stutter and 'elastic band' to try and catch up.
What's the process going on for each type? Is it because they all use a different type of method of how to transfer data? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35p06i/eli5_types_of_online_gaming_lag/ | {
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"It depends on how the game is programed to handle information.\n\nSome games, like Street Fighter in your example, will require that certain information be sent/receive for every 'tick' of the in-game clock, if that information hasn't been transferred yet the clock will wait for it. If the in-game clock begins to tick slower than your frame rate then the game will slow down on screen. In this way, the game will run slower, but ultimately no information will be lost (although this does depend on other parts of the implementation such as how the input syncs up with the network).\n\nOther games, like Mario Kart 8, will run essentially on their own and update their information with details from the other players as it comes in. To smooth this process if one of the players isn't sending as much information as they should be then the game can try and fill in the gaps (i.e. Mario Kart will assume they'll drive on the track), of course if their actual position is different to the assumption then the on-screen character will teleport when the new information comes in.\n\nBeyond that things are difficult, players don't always send out their current information as often as the game would like and very rarely at regular intervals.",
"When things are stuttering on the screen, this is basically a low frame rate. A low frame rate is caused by the computer not being able to perform all of the calculations and draw operations that the game is designed to do. Instead of slowing down the speed of the game, some of the draw operations are skipped.\n\nWhen a player is teleporting around, this can be caused either by network being slower than the game is designed for or by the server not sending out its updates as fast as the game expects it to.\n\nDepending on how the game is designed, slow network or slow server responses can be handled in different ways. \n\nOne way is to simply move the other player to the new position, that was just received over the network (This causes teleportation). \n\nAnother way is for the player to keep moving in the same direction he was moving, the last time a player update was received. When the next player update is received, and the player has stopped moving, the player will be moved back to the new position received, but done so in a way that makes it look like he moved there, instead of teleport there (This causes the rubber band effect).\n\nThe rubber banding effect is more common in games that try to predict the movement of the player and guess incorrectly. ",
"It takes time for the information to go from one player, to a server/host, and then to another player. During this time the game on *your computer* is filling in the blanks, basically guessing where the other players are, and then when it recieves an update it will put the players where they are \"supposed to be\" which causes the player to warp or rubber-band. Different games handle the specifics in different ways, so in mario kart you are always \"in the right place\" but a server-authoriitative shooter might cause you to warp as well as other players",
"For battlefield 4 you will \"rubber band\" because of something called packet loss. While connected to the Internet you are sending and receiving packets of data. If your uploading is slow your latency increases. Or if there is a disruption in the upload or the server you're connected to is receiving a large amount of packets and it can't process quick enough the packets will not be delivered to the server. This means all the commands you input such as firing your gun or running are not considered as \"registered\" with the server. "
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8h7rzj | apart from poisonous spiders it seems like nobody is deathly allergic to regular spider bites, unlike bee stings which many people are allergic to. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8h7rzj/eli5_apart_from_poisonous_spiders_it_seems_like/ | {
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"FYI, spiders are venomous, not poisonous. If it was the other way around, we'd be eagerly awaiting for Marvel's new movie, Poison, instead of Venom.",
"Your question specifically excludes venomous spiders. However, all be stings have venom. So you are comparing something without venom to something with venom, and then are asking why some people react to it differently. The answer is that they are reacting to the venom, not the sting. "
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a5nc0o | why does razor with several blade feels better than the one with only one blade ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a5nc0o/eli5_why_does_razor_with_several_blade_feels/ | {
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"Imagine standing on top of a nail. Ouch, that's no fun! All of your weight is pressing down on that single nail, so it's definitely going into your foot. You can kind of reverse the forces so instead of thinking your ~140 pounds is pushing down on a nail, it's one nail pushing against your foot with ~140 pounds.\n\nNow imagine instead laying your entire body across a densely packed bed of nails. Instead of a single nail pushing with your whole body weight, it's more like maybe 140 nails pushing with a pound each. Still ouch, probably but not as much. Or 280 nails pushing with half a pound each. Or 1000 nails pushing with 14 hundredths of a pound each. The more nails you have, the less pressure you put on any single nail.\n\nSimilarly, the more blades you have on a razor, the less the pressure is on any individual blade. Alternatively, your blade could be longer, but since your body is curved a long blade will lose contact eventually so...yeah more blades that are reasonably sized.\n\nYou also get smoother cutting because the blades can get progressively closer to your skin and trim the hair down instead of trying to cut the whole thing at once.\n\nOn the other hand, more blades is more expensive and, like a ridiculously long blade, a fat razor with too many short blades just doesn't give you enough of a noticeable difference to be worth it. Which is why companies usually stop at 5, *maybe* six if they're feeling like they can market them, and why your bargain razors are going to be 2-3.\n\nEDIT: Some words"
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29wsmk | what's to stop a soccer team from forcing offsides on their opponents? are there any rules against forcing offsides or is it based on sportsmanship? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29wsmk/eli5_whats_to_stop_a_soccer_team_from_forcing/ | {
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"I team can move the defensive line up the field can create an offsides trap. Although this sounds very smart it is very difficult for a team to master this trap and if it fails the opponent has the opportunity to create a dangerous counter attack. It is why this trap is very rare in soccer games. \nSource: I am a defensive player ",
"Do you care to explain what you mean by forcing offsides?\n\nJust so you know, you can't be offsides on your own half of the field. And you can't be offsides when you are behind the ball. So even if the whole other team stood right by your goal you could still pass to your teammate as long as they stayed just behind you.",
"Offside, not offsides.\n\nThis is called \"playing the [offside trap](_URL_0_)\" - there are no rules against it, nor any sense that it is unsporting. It happens fairly often depending on the formations/tactics of the two teams involved."
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2ngiyd | how does a very inexperienced director get put in charge of a big-budget film? | For example, the director of Jurassic World last directed a weird independent comedy (Safety Not Guaranteed) in 2012, and not much before that. I would have assumed these guys would work their way up more gradually, but I've noticed this kind of "big jump" before. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ngiyd/eli5_how_does_a_very_inexperienced_director_get/ | {
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"It's the same as a lot of other career jumps. \n\nBeing in the right place at the right time is a big part of it. There's also having the right networking chops, 'interviewing' well, the producer thinking they'll be able to work well with you, etc. \n\nHe could've also worked his way up through different areas of the industry. Perhaps after directing that independent comedy, he excelled as a writer for a couple years? Perhaps he was working directly for a producer or network exec who knew about his directing chops and needed someone to step up? Maybe he knows the guy who wrote the screenplay and got the nod? \n\nMaybe the producer of Jurassic World's favorite movie just happens to be \"Safety Not Guaranteed\", and he called him up the second he got the chance to pick a director? \n\nMaybe god just loves him more than the rest of us? \n\nIf you're an aspiring director, why not send him an email and ask? It's very possible he's suddenly very busy and won't reply, but there's no harm in trying. \n\nThere's a very common informal mentoring medium in business: \"Can I buy you breakfast/lunch/coffee/etc and pick your brain for 15 minutes?\" that isn't really used commonly everywhere else, give that a try. "
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10n721 | how can the president declare war or utilize troops through congress without alerting the enemy? | Also, if the President needs to initiate some kind of covert black ops mission, can/should the President notify Congress and get approval for such action at the same time hoping that the information doesn't get out to the enemy? I also am trying to get what is lawful through the Constitution not what is common practice. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10n721/eli5_how_can_the_president_declare_war_or_utilize/ | {
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"They do. There are committees in congress that are in charge of this sort of stuff and they are briefed on these issues when they arise. They just have to keep their mouth shut.\n\nETA: I think I have a better idea of what you're asking. The President has the power to authorize force on a temporary basis (I believe 90 days is roughly the accepted period). He can't wage war indefinitely by himself. But for something like the Bin Laden raid, he can give the go order and just brief Congress on what he's doing.",
"While the President needs the approval of Congress for a formal declaration of war, they don't need to consult Congress on the actions of troop that are ordered. So the President can do pretty much anything they need to with the military without consulting Congress.\n\ntroop action =/= declaration of war"
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31520u | what do singers have in their ears when singing live performances? music? back up music? why are they always ripping the ear pieces out of their ears? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31520u/eli5_what_do_singers_have_in_their_ears_when/ | {
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"I believe it's their vocals so they can hear themselves and if they are on pitch through all the loud noises at a live performance.",
"To make sure they can hear the music (mostly for rhythm, so they don't sing to fast or slow) and themselves (so they're not pitchy or too soft/loud)",
"It's an in-ear monitor. It's playing a mix of the band (or pre-recorded tracks, could be whatever's going out to the audience, or something with cues depending on the artist) for the singer to help them sing in time and in key. They use it because the mix going out to the audience isn't necessarily heard well on stage, and isn't always ideal (maybe the singer wants to hear their voice the loudest and some of the other instruments less).\n\nAs for why they keep ripping it out, I'm not too sure... possibly it's getting uncomfortable, or the sound on stage is good enough for them to not need it in that particular venue.",
"It's called an in-ear monitor, usually referred to as \"in-ears.\" It allows the singer to hear exactly what he or she wants. While singing live, you hear a lot of noise from the band, the crowd, etc. A sound engineer can isolate what you hear, such as just your vocals, or just vocals and a guitar for example. Sometimes singers lose the rest of the band, get thrown off by not being able to hear the ambient noise, or just have trouble with hearing themselves, so they pull them out. ",
"Audio technician here. It's a mix of audio, live from the microphones. It's not exactly what comes out of the \"main\" speakers, since they won't necessarily need to hear the drums or other sections of the band. Usually it's their own voice so they can hear themselves, and maybe a few other key instruments so they can keep pace with the rest of the band. If you've ever noticed the speakers on the floor of the stage facing the performers, they're the same thing. The earpieces are just more personal.\n\n\nThere is no noticeable delay, and it's certainly not their own pre-recorded music. Either of those scenarios would be useless.",
"In addition to the previous answers, i think it is used also for the \"conductor\" of the band. Most often its the keyboard or 2nd guitar, who has a mike even though he's not singing, and he will relay instructions to the rest of the band. E.g \"Go up one octave in 2, 3, 4..\" or \" dramatic rest 1 beat , then crescendo in 2, 3 ,4\" \n\nin church its also used to cue what song is next or last minute changes.. ",
"Former sound tech.\n\nIt's their monitor feed. Monitors used to be (and sometimes still are) speakers set on the stage facing the artist, not the audience. These were needed because the way sound moves, hearing the music you're singing to from behind the speaker changes the pitch and timing ever so slightly. \n\nThe \"earplugs\" are basically a headphone that has their monitor in it and also acts as an earplug to seal out other sounds. \n\nThey rip them out because the person mixing the audio for their earpiece isn't doing his job correctly. Either they can't hear what they need to hear to sing in time and on key, or it's too loud in their ear. \n\nIt is not because of feedback. You cannot have feedback from an earpiece. The microphone can't pick up the sound from the earpiece, so there's no loop. That's why most artists use them. (You technically can have feedback, but the earpiece would basically have to be ON the microphone)."
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cfbnnz | is 5g dangerous or is just fearmongering? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cfbnnz/eli5_is_5g_dangerous_or_is_just_fearmongering/ | {
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"No, it's safe. For the radiation fear mongering, you get in the range of solar radiation and above for any damage.\n\nLinus techquuckie video for more detail.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Radiation, in terms of biological effects, can be broken into two main categories: ionizing and non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation is bad as it can strip electrons from atoms and molecules, breaking apart molecules and generally causing damage. Non-ionizing radiation doesn't have enough energy to strip electrons, if absorbed it primarily turns into heat. Non-ionizing radiation can be harmful, but it takes enough to basically cause a thermal burn (lasers for example can do that, or something like microwaving yourself). 5G is in the radio spectrum, well below in energy even visible light. It's in UV that radiation starts to become ionizing, and going further up the spectrum increases the energy further. This is why sunscreen, while appearing invisible to visible light, protects from sunburn. UV causes a radiation burn, and sunscreen basically is \"sunglasses\" for the skin that block UV. 5G is a higher energy frequency than 4G, but it is still pretty low compared to anything damaging.",
"It's 100% fear mongering.\n\nThere are people who believe that all radio waves are 'Dangerous radiation' and that things like WiFi and cellphones will give you cancer. This is because they hear the word \"Electromagnetic radiation\" and immediately associate it with ionizing radiation, the kind that things like X-rays and nuclear power plants create.\n\n5G in the US will be on frequencies around 6GHz-50GHz. Ionizing radiation starts at 30PHz (Petahertz, which is above Terahertz, which is above Gigahertz/GHz).",
"I believe the only credible issue with 5G networks is interference with weather satellites:\n_URL_0_"
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7sf1np | how is my phone able to share it's internet with my pc though usb tethering? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sf1np/eli5_how_is_my_phone_able_to_share_its_internet/ | {
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"USB is just a conduit for data signals. If software on both the phone and your pc know how to use that communication channel, then they can talk to each other about anything they want, including internet traffic. \n\nThere is no difference between your phone transferring pictures to your pc via the USB cable, and your phone transferring the HTML and image files needed to load a web page. "
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4zvsuv | why do children pick up the accent of their locality, rather than their parents? | Example 1: A friend of mine was born in London to (very) English parents. They all moved to San Fran when he was 6. He has an American accent
Example 2: Another friend was born in Liverpool to an Indian father and a Scottish mother. He grew up in Liverpool and his accent is pure scouser! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zvsuv/eli5why_do_children_pick_up_the_accent_of_their/ | {
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"You pick up the accent that you are exposed to. Children hear more than just their parents, they hear their friends, their teachers, all of the people in their lives. ",
"I suspect it's more of an environmental thing. \n\nExample - We moved to America 10 years ago. We have 8 and 3 year old boys. Oldest used to have a pretty strong English accent until he started school - its now more of an American accent. Certain words are still pronounced with an English accent, and depending on who (between my wife and I) use that word the most when he was picking it up, his English accent changes. \n\n3 year old still talks with a predominantly English accent. \n\nWhen we go back home and visit my friends and family, after a couple of days my wife has trouble understanding what I'm saying as I fall deep into my local accent, (I'm from the north of England and she was brought up down south) as soon as we go down south my accent will soften, and then when we get back to the US it will take on an American influence. ",
"There is some exceptions. Irish Travelers can live among settled Irish people, yet the children of Irish Travelers still maintain their traveler accent. I live in a middle class district of Dublin with nearly everybody having middle class Dublin accents. Yet the travelers who live nearby in either houses or traveler camps have a distinct accent.",
"It's different for me, my dad's side is New Zealand while my mum's side is Australian and I've lived in Australia my whole life, yet people pick up a slight New Zealand accent and sometimes are surprised to learn that I'm from here.",
"I grew up in Northern Ireland and my Father is english. My family wasn't poor, but we weren't rich either - for example, our summer holidays usually meant going camping less than an hour's drive from home. Occasionally we'd go to England to visit family.\n\nI very much have a Northern Ireland accent, but it's perceived as being \"posh\" by most folks in Northern Ireland which I've always put down as my Dad's english influence, as we certainly didn't grow up in a rich area or society. Same goes for my siblings. ",
"My friend moved from England and has an American accent, but when he talks to his parents it's extremely English\nEdit: autocorrect was automistake",
"I'm Irish and had an American accent for a while when I was younger because I watched a lot of American tv shows, now my nephews have English accents because they watch British tv, it's whatever you hear most.",
"Whatever about children, even adults can pick up a twang on their accent when they move to a different location. So it is what you are exposed to. If you do move people will always notice the other accent's influence. So if you move from A to B, people in B will notice your dominant A accent and people in A will notice a small influence of the B accent.",
"Interesting fact: Linguists expect Raleigh to completely lose it's \"southern\" accent in the next several decades. All of the Yankees moving here are going to completely eliminate the local accent by way of just having more around. \n\nWill be interesting to see what the local accent is actually like in 2060...",
"It's mostly environmental. \n\nI grew up in eastern Kentucky but I was homeschooled K-7th grades - my mother moved around a lot and my dad was from southern Ohio - neither of them really have accents. While I did participate in sports and community groups and heard the kids with the accents I spent most of my time around my parents and thus my primary way of speaking is unaccented. I am able to do the accent, and can go into it easily if I'm surrounded by it but my normal voice is pretty unaccented. \n\nConversely - my brother went to school longer in eastern Kentucky than I did and spent much time with his friends who had accents, so he developed more of an accent than I did. I went to boarding school in Indiana where I was surrounded by other languages as well as kinds from all over the country, so instead of adopting other accents I just kept my own non-accent. I'm sure there are certain words I say differently but the first thing that people say to me when I tell them I am from Kentucky is \"but you don't have an accent!\"",
"I live in BC in Canada and spent 4 months working and living around a bunch of newfies (people from Newfoundland) while working on a ship. When I left the ship and was in a taxi to fly back home the driver asked what part of Newfoundland I was from. I didn't even notice I had taken on their accent. ",
"I'm an American living in Ireland and I very much agree with the theory that your accent is affected by peer group. For example, when I'm at home around my Irish/American family, my accent is very American with some Irish dialect thrown in. When I'm out and speaking to other Irish people I'm full on Upstate New York accent as I feel this need to differentiate myself (don't ask, I don't know why either.) But now, if you get me tipsy amongst Irish people you will suspect that I am about 97% Irish.",
"I know people born to British parents living in the US and they have their parents' mannerism more than American. Life isn't so rigid that this absolutely happens all the time.",
"There was a couple from the US who spoke with a British accent around their daughter until she was eight. She picked up their accent and thought she was British.",
"My mom wouldn't let me watch West Virginian news programs, so we watched Columbus news programs instead. We had access to both.",
"This sort of thing has always intrigued me, as I grew up outside of Boston (wicked pissah accent guy), went to Catholic school as a kid with mostly French nuns or nuns from NJ, my dad is from England and my mom from Newfoundland, yet I do not have a Boston accent, a French accent, a NJ accent, a British accent, or that of a Newfie. While I use words/phrases familiar to folks in New England (bubbler, jimmies, sneakers) and know slang phrases from my parents' home countries, I have no accent to speak of though I was surrounded by several when I was growing up.",
"This is not always the case. My parents were Americans and moved to rural Canada just before I was born. I sound very much like they do, but my younger sister sounds like everyone else who grew up around our small town. I was very insular and bookish, while she was social, sporty, gregarious. Perhaps that had something to do with it? My parents were actually hooked on Brittish comedies (Blackadder, Are You Being Served, Fawlty Towers, et cetera), and I also managed to pick up some of the speech patterns (if not the accent) common to these programs. So I might not sound like I came from the hick town I grew up in, but my mode of speech is right fucked regardless.\n\nTLDR: They don't always.",
"I would argue that children spend more time in school interacting with their local peers than with their parents. I am an elementary teacher, and I see my students for about 7 hours during the day. Most of my children have working parents, so they see their parents for about an hour in the morning and maybe 2-3 in the evening. They spend the majority of the day hearing me (and their classmates) rather than their parents.\n\nMy parents were from Wilmington, DE, but I grew up outside of Philadelphia. We definitely have different accents even though there is a lot of overlap as the cities are so close. My accent softened after I moved to DC, but it returns with a vengeance when I cross the state line.",
"I teach ESL, English as a Second Language, and students that come to the US prior to puberty have a much greater chance of speaking English like a native speaker. If they come after, they will more than likely always have an accent. \n\nStudents that learn a second language or accent at an early age and maintain their native language or accent at home should be able to speak both languages or use both accents as an adult. They may even switch accents without knowing depending on their audience. \n\nBut as everything in life, if you don't use it you lose it. So if their family is speaking a certain dialect at home, and the child isn't using the same dialect in return they will more than likely lose the ability to use that accent or dialect.",
"Because they don't want to be ostracized from their peers if they talk in their parent's accents.",
"Your question is based on a flawed assumption from the beginning. Two examples is not enough to make a generalization.\n\nChildren pick up whatever they are most exposed to, just as adults do. Accents can also change over time.\n\nI have a Colombian American friend who has a 5-year-old daughter. She was born and raised in the southern US, but she definitely has a bit of the spanish accent that her father has. Maybe after she has spent more time in school she will lose it.\n\nJust because your friends have a certain accent now, doesn't mean they always did."
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f405bg | why is it easier to focus on homework while listening to music (e.g.: chill lo-fi beats to study to) than in a place with moderate background noise or even no background noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f405bg/eli5_why_is_it_easier_to_focus_on_homework_while/ | {
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"Your brain likes to solve the puzzles of nearby noise, like making out words or sounds. Listening to music can actually help focus because you know the source of the noise so its not a distraction. It can also set the mood & change your stress level"
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1wzkrj | what is poetry? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wzkrj/eli5_what_is_poetry/ | {
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"what are you asking exactly? like what is the definition of poetry?",
"Poetry is a very, very broad term, and not everyone agrees on current definitions. Generally, poetry is written to convey meaning through not only the definitions of the words, but through a particular rhythm or sound, and generally use intense imagery to get a certain meaning across. Writing that is not poetry is considered prose, which is Latin for \"straight-forward.\" The meaning of prose is based only on the words it uses.\n\nOf course, many writers like to mix prose and poetry to create something in between (or perhaps something different altogether).\n\nPoetry can usually be recognized by its form. It is usually written in lines rather than paragraphs to help create the proper flow of the words, and it often, though certainly not always, rhymes.",
"I ask this because, as someone who has not formally studied literature or English (beyond high school) I don't know what differs poetry from other forms of language art. \n\nMore specifically, I often find myself needing to express a certain emotion, which I do through poetry. Sometimes, however, they come out as - and this is because I don't have a better word for it - short stories. I don't know how to explain it but here's an example: \n\n > Once upon a time in a land far away lived a strange creature called a Tilbon. The Tilbon was a short creature, perhaps the size of a watermelon, with spindly arms and legs and a thin body which held no muscle. \n\n > The Tilbon lived in the Makadil Woods where it spread magic across the different animal families. On some days he would join the squirrels and use a remembering charm to help the squirrels remember where they planted their acorns. Oh how he loved scurrying up trees and around the leaf-carpeted floor of the Makadil Woods until his feet grew tired and a sweat broke from his tiny brow. The squirrels would puff out their red furry tails and wipe the sweat from his forehead. \n\n > On other days the Tilbon would dive into the cool waters of the river and lead the way for the fish to migrate back home. With him in front, the fish would open their mouths with a ‘guap guap’ sound and let out bubbles which floated to the river surface. Through all his adventures the Tilbon learned a lot about Makadil Woods and grew to know and understand the ways of nature. \n\n > Now one day, a strong wind blew through Makadil Woods. Grey clouds formed up above and coated the sky in an ominous way. It was evident that a huge storm was brewing. ‘Oh dear,’ the Tilbon exclaimed, ‘I ought to get home hurriedly!’ The Tilbon tightly clutched his pink floppy hat that he usually wore and walked through the harsh wind as it beat hard upon his face. All the poor Tilbon could do was squint through the relentless wind and try to find the correct path to his beloved tree home. The wind played nasty tricks on the Tilbon. Sometimes it would swing sign boards around, confusing the Tilbon and forcing it to take an incorrect path. It would takes hours and hours before the Tilbon finally found its way back on the correct path. Other times the wind would whisper in an ancient Tilbonien tongue and tell the Tilbon spiteful things. ‘I’m going to be frank with you: you’re daft dear Tilbon. Allow yourself to crumble under life’s weight and have your mind swayed. Give up you fool. Settle for less.’ For a while the Tilbon would have to stop dead in its tracks and hide behind a tree to weep. It was the worst to hear these things. But with it came an amazing sense of clarity. Like the etchings on glorious epitaphs, a message of death to depression rose up within him. The Tilbon would find a way to go on. The Tilbon had experienced enough misery. Strengthened and resolute the Tilbon continued to its home, regardless of the fact that for each step forward he took the wind slid him back three. The squirrels poked their heads out their squirrel holes in the trees and quietly motivated him. This was done not in a grovelling and tactless manner, but rather it came from true love and empathy and it lacked completely in narcissism and pompousness and because of that the words of squirrels were like honey to the Tilbon’s heart. He smiled and continued on with the tree home finally in sight. With just a few metres ahead, the sky unleashed all its fury and let down gigantic lightning bolts, raindrops the size of golf balls and needles which flowed in the ridiculous wind current. The Tilbon had its face cut and although it tried to use the floppy rim of his pink hat to protect himself, there was no denying that the needles turned him ugly. \n\n > Lonely and scarred he finally arrived at his tree home, his place of refuge, his splendid abode. With a strike of a match the fireplace was lit and the Tilbon exposed his little toesies to let them dry up. He reclined beside the nice warm flame and closed his eyes, completely comfortable and content. \n\n > Ah. \n\nSorry for the long post but as you can see, I struggle to call it a short story because it simply isn't about a Tilbon nor is it about travelling through woods. It is about something else entirely. I say that because when I write things like this, I feel myself accessing the same emotions and the same frame of mind I would use when I'm writing poetry as opposed to when I'm writing an actual story. So what makes poetry different? What is poetry? and how does it differ from what I sometimes do?",
"That's almost an impossible question to answer, it's a bit like asking \"what is art?\". The responses are subjective and personal to a large extent. There's a blurry line that separates poetry from prose and it shifts and unfocuses depending on who is looking.\n\nI used to separate poetry from prose in my own head by defining poetry as \"prose with an emphasis on cadence\". That is, the primary intent in the mind of the writer was to convey some sort of musicality, harmony, balance, rhythm etc. to the words. Prose on the other hand was simply conveying information without giving much thought to cadence.\n\nBut as I wrote more and more, and eventually became a published author of fiction, I realized that cadence plays a *very* big part in prose too. In fact, I'd argue that the musicality of their style is a big component in the success of some of the most famous authors out there. Read a Stephen King novel and it's like singing a comforting camp fire song.\n\nNow, I kind of like Stephen Fry's definition of poetry from his book *The Ode Less Travelled* (which, incidentally, is the very best introduction book for poetry in existence imo). I'm going to bastardize it here because I don't have the book with me (apologies to Mister Fry) but it goes something like:\n\nValue is placed on the words by the imposition of a *structure*. The poet decides on which set of pre-agreed rules his poem will be constrained by (for example, a sonnet, a haiku, a dactyl, a quatrain etc.) then he arranges his words according to those rules and it's the *constraint*, or the creative tension caused by it, that gives the poem interest and value.\n\nUgh, I tripped all over myself in that description, I hope it makes some sense. He's basically saying that what separates a poem from prose is that in a poem you decide on a particular \"box\" to put the words into first and you have to abide by the rules of whichever framework you choose. And that the skill of being able to fit your words into your chosen box is where the value of poetry lies.\n\nOf course, this description kind of insinuates that \"free verse\" (poetry without rules) has less value than structured poetry which isn't necessarily the case imo. \n"
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aquq6x | if i reuse a disposable plastic bottle for water it eventually starts tasting “plasticky”. why dont drinks turn plasticky on the shelves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aquq6x/eli5_if_i_reuse_a_disposable_plastic_bottle_for/ | {
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"Essentially you can think of water as a universal solvent. Even though it only takes away trace amounts of plasticizers at at time, it is still a small scale extraction. The friction added from moving the water speeds up and/or makes the extraction more efficient (heat added from a chemicals perspective).\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThese factors coupled with fact that there is most likely a thick water-resistant coating on the inside of the bottle. That coating wearing off would make it easier for phthalates to see into your water, which is no bueno. [Source](_URL_0_) Used wiki, but real source is am PhD chemist.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEdit: fixed hyperlink.",
"you basically break the plastic from handling it. that crinkling noise when you grab it? you're causing microscopic damage to the plastic. the bottles are sealed slightly pressurized to add strength to the whole thing and prevent this from happening while the bottle is shipped. \n\nsource: have worked on bottling equipment.\n",
"At Tokyo Disney Resort, guests are asked not to fill used empty plastic bottles with water from drinking fountains. Something about the chemicals in drinking water reacting to the inside of those bottles. I dunno if these issues are related. They provide paper cups for free. ",
"What chemical is put into the water from the plastic bottle? What is the effect of drinking the plasticky water?",
"I'm french, so maybe it's different in your country :\n\n\\[Edited after u/Arrrchinta precisions)\n\nTap water contains chlorine. Chlorine is important for multiple reasons, one of it is used to keep water disinfected for the water treatment plan to the tap. It's also why tap water and mineral water taste different. But chlorine needs to be keep fresh. If you keep tap water in the fridge, it's ok. If you keep it at ambiant temperature, the chlorine in the water starts to evaporate (it still does, at a much small rate, in the fridge), even within a plastic bottle. Tap water is full of micro-organisms, and without the chlorine they start to multiply quickly, that's the taste you get. It's still drinkable, but you can't keep it for too long. Also, the chlorine itself gives this \"fresh\" taste of the tap water, just removing it is enough to change the taste you're used to.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nMore info : It's not about the plastic bottle, it's simply because you buy mineral water and refill it with tap water. If you refill it with mineral water again, there will be no taste problem.\n\nTo be more specific, CO2 from air gets into the water when the temperature changes and the chlorine disappear. That changes the pH of the water, and micro-organisms increases. that's with public and private swimming pool needs to check the water's pH frequently and balance it over time.\n\nStill, you can't refill a plastic bottle forever, it's not made for this (the plastic is thin and cheap), it's not the same as a plastic bottle for camping. Sooner or later, you need to change the bottle, not the water. Especially because the chlorine can attack the plastic more than the water can.\n\nIn the end, if you don't want the taste : keep it fresh (in the fridge or in an isotherm bottle), or change the water frequently.",
"The water isn't acting as a solvent on the plastic, at least not in amounts that you can detect. What makes it taste weird is bacteria from your mouth start to colonize the bottle, the water, the cap and it affects the taste and the smell. "
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246ouv | why do store bought blueberries taste so different from fresh, homegrown blueberries? | I guess you could say this about a lot of fruit, but I think blueberries might be the one with the most extreme contrast in taste.
If you've ever eaten fresh blueberry right off the bush, you know that they are firm and tart, and sometimes quite sour. But I've never eaten a blueberry that was bought from a grocery store that wasn't mushy and bland-tasting. The flavors of each are totally different.
So why is it like this? There are people out there who study fruit for the largest and best tasting ones with the most desirable qualities, right? And of course you have genetic modification. So why can't they get blueberries in stores that are half as good as the real deal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/246ouv/eli5_why_do_store_bought_blueberries_taste_so/ | {
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"because store bought fruit is picked while its still \"green\". it hasn't ripened yet. whereas from backyard/tree, you only pick/eat the ripe ones",
"Partly its varieties. Store bought fruit tends to be of varieties that ripen at the same time, ship well, look large and uniform and have disease and pest resistance. Taste is of secondary concern because no one takes them back to the store saying \"hey these are blueberries but not good blueberries, you know what I mean right?\" Common home grown ones are often of varieties without those properties and are chosen more for taste than anything else. Wild varieties are a crap shoot but fresh has its own appeal.\n\nI can do strawberries because I know the varieties not blueberries.\n [Camarosa](_URL_2_) has been for many years a common commercial variety. It produces a large fruit and ships well. [Mara de Bois](_URL_0_) however tastes much better, it doesn't ship as well and is much smaller, you might find it in a restaurant with a local supplier but you probably wont find it in a grocery store. I've grown a variety called [Fraise-de-bois](_URL_1_) which was even better tasting but by the time I picked it and drove 20 minutes to share it was already mushy, and it was tiny. You will never find it anywhere but someones garden."
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7eoqyp | why ejaculation feels better the longer you last? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7eoqyp/eli5_why_ejaculation_feels_better_the_longer_you/ | {
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"Well I think this is more of a mental thing. Usually when we last longer that must mean that we pleasured our partner better giving us that initial satisfaction followed by the second satisfaction (finishing) thus, a double reinforcement. Unless if your talking about masturbat ion thennnn... I got nothing.",
"Because your brain has more time to \"set things in place\" - orgasms are partly chemical and partly electrical."
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2oqcvx | what are the core beliefs and contreversies of mormonism? | Mormons tend to get a bad reputation and any attempt on my behalf to find a conclusive answer ends up in too much information. I've seen "Big Love," I know about "Book of Mormon" but these are probably terrible sources that get too much attention. ELI5 please | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oqcvx/eli5what_are_the_core_beliefs_and_contreversies/ | {
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"I think one of the things some people hold against it is that the inventor was a [convicted fraud](_URL_0_) who claims he received gold plates with records that were conveniently taken away by an angel again so everybody just had to trust him when he said it was God's will that he could sleep with his neighbour's wife. \n \nOr something like that.",
"You should read [Under the Banner of Heaven] (_URL_0_) by Jon Krakauer. It details the controversies surrounding the \"Church\" since it was founded by Joseph Smith, and is very well researched and cited for mainstream literature. He actually accessed many documents from the archives of the Church itself, and because the \"Church\" is less than 200 years old, the history is pretty clear and easy to follow. Ultimately, regardless of what it has grown into, the formative years of the Church were violent, and political, and from a distance, the motives of Mr. Smith are pretty clear. He set himself up as a deity of sorts, used his religious influence to gain political influence, declared the \"Church\" to be an independent nation, tried to secede from the union, tried to run for President, and was eventually killed by locals for stirring up trouble. Before all that, he admitted to, and was convicted of, fraud. It's a hell of a deal, really, and a fascinating study on how people can be influenced by religion. "
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2ub6lu | how does a hit to the corner of the jaw knock someone out? versus not knocking someone out with similar blows to the rest of the head/face. | You see it in MMA and boxing all the time. A fighter takes one to the jaw under the ear and goes cold. They seem to take harder blows to the front of the face and sides of the head, but that sweet spot turns the lights out. What's going on here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ub6lu/eli5_how_does_a_hit_to_the_corner_of_the_jaw/ | {
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"It's because when you get hit in that location, it jerks the head at a sharp angle that places immediate high pressure on the brainstem, kind of like a massive kink that shocks it and instantly causes unconsciousness. \n\nGet hit in the face or ear and it jars you, but your neck is set up better to be able to handle that pure forward-and-backward or side-to-side movement and your brainstem gets less instant pressure. ",
"Feel along your jawline and you'll find a small notch halfway up. There is a fairly large nerve there, about half the size of a grain of rice in that little divot. Because it's large and has hard bone behind it, a strong hit to it (especially if it fractures the bone at that point) causes incredible amounts of pain. It's not that the body can't function if it's hit, it's just that having that nerve smashed exceeds the conscious pain threshold for pretty much everyone, and you black out from the pain."
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16vj90 | facism | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16vj90/eli5_facism/ | {
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"*Fascism* is a form of government. Most people living in free societies don't like it, because:\n\n* It's extremely *nationalistic*, which means that the good of the nation is more important than any person's happiness or well-being.\n* It's very *authoritarian*, which means that the government is in charge of **everything**.\n* Fascist states are almost always ruled by a *dictator*, someone who is in absolute power but is not a king.\n* They are typically \"democratic\", in that they hold elections but the elections generally have no impact on important decisions like who will run the country, and most fascist states only allow one political party. \n* They tend to be extremely *militaristic*, which means to put the power of the military ahead of many other things and to have forced military service.\n* The economy is controlled by the state or government, not run by the people. So instead of people starting corporations and hiring workers, the state does it.\n\nThe word \"fascism\" comes from the Latin word *fasces*, which is a name for a bundle of sticks tied together. The symbol of the fasces is in that it's easy to break one stick, but if you tie a bunch together, they can't be broken.\n\n",
"Imagine you're at school. You're competing with your classmates, trying to determine who's stronger. You all go pick on a weak guy, by breaking his pencils.\n\nSo you pick up a pencil and snap it in two. Easy enough.\n\nBut what if he ties his pencils together in a bundle? Impossible to snap.\n\nCome to think of it, there's space in that bundle to hide a blade in. His individual pencils were a weakness, but the bundle - a Fasces - is a formidable weapon.\n\nFascism is what happens when, like the pencils, the individual people of a nation band together, and treat their collective security and strength as a higher priority than their individuality. As individuals, they might cherish values such as freedom and democracy, but as a collective, they must realise that those are less important than discipline, authority and tradition."
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foobwa | how the us hasn't succumbed to becoming victim of nationwide inflation when it is at $23 trillion in debt with? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/foobwa/eli5_how_the_us_hasnt_succumbed_to_becoming/ | {
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"They HAVE crippled the value of the dollar....that's why (adjusted for inflation) the minimum wage in the 1970's was around $20/hr. On top of everything generally being more affordable. \nThis is how your grandfather supported a stay at home wife, 4+kids, a car and house off a single job..\n\nToday you cannot do those things on minimum wage because the value of the dollar has dropped over the years, and wages hardly ever increased to keep up with inflation.",
"People still want to buy things in dollars and the Treasury keeps paying interest on the debt. \n\nThe debt is held by people and corporations as investments. Right now the government is offering them at a steady rate to finance deficit spending. The interest rates on these are very low, because the government has always paid out on these debts. \n\nIn fact during the 2008 crisis (and probably also now) interest rates were so low that people were functionally paying the government to hold on to their money for them, because the interest rate was lower than inflation. \n\nIt's complicated, but government debt is not like your personal mortgage or credit card.",
"It's not like household debt. Like someone gave us a loan and we make payments on it. That's not how it works. \n\nWhen we want to trade with another government. We loan them a certain amount of our currency and they loan us a certain amount of theirs, these are perpetual debts used to establish a trade value on our currencies. So many dollars is worth so many rubles. \n\nWe then create that money from thin air. We aren't pulling it from tax payers. The gov completely funds itself by creating new money. Or rather has the federal reserve create it. \n\nWhat we call taxes are actually a mechanism for inflation control, not funding something. More taxes means less new money in the economy, less inflation. \n\nThe national debt is more an indicator of how much we are letting the top 1 percent dilute and devalue our currency. So that next year my 20 grand in the bank has the same buying power as 18grand had the year before, making it the better decision to spend over save. \n\nTax the top one percent, and all the new money they create will stop diluting the money supply and our money will be worth more, but the debt will never go away. As it's by design a deposit on trade with foreign countries. And only being used to scare a certain type into voting against their own interests. \n\nWhen in reality paying off the national debt would halt interest rates, and gains on retirement, as that's where the gains are coming from. Taxing the rich makes your gains worth more, increases your wealth. And optimizes the national debt to give growth to the middle class. Not taxing the rich let's them use the debt to send inflation out of control and siphon wealth to themselves.",
"That bill hasn’t actually been passed yet. A “deal has been reached” but the senate vote won’t happen until tomorrow, after which the bill goes to the house. With the house on recess, if there isn’t a unanimous agreement from all members, a single representative on the floor can dissent in which case the entire house will have to be pulled back in for a proper vote, and further changes to the bill could occur, at which time the bill goes BACK to the senate.",
"If someone buys a house that's 500k and they make 20k a year then they'll have a tough time paying off that debt. but if they make 500k a year and take out a 500k loan. that's not really too bad. That's actually financially cheap. we have a 23 T loan. but we also make 19T a year",
"The national debt in and of itself and inflation are not terribly related. \n\nIf I buy a treasury bond for $1 the only thing that's happened is that a dollar has moved from my wallet to the government and I have an IOU from the government with some interest. The only way that may effect inflation is that the government may spend that dollar whereas I may have not (hence my willingness to instead spend it buying government debt).\n\nThe government spending $2 trillion is certainly inflationary (all spending is). That would be just as true if it were financed entirely by taxes. However, with a stimulus bill, that's kind of the point. You're trying to buttress economic activity and prevent deflation in this kind of situation."
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2ept35 | why does fan bake cook faster when the air is the same temperature? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ept35/eli5_why_does_fan_bake_cook_faster_when_the_air/ | {
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"The food is colder than the hot air. This cools the air right next to the food. The fan moves new, fully hot air to the food continuously. Think of a conveyor belt delivering load after load of fresh heat."
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||
62din3 | why does the end of a bread loaf go mouldy faster than the rest? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62din3/eli5_why_does_the_end_of_a_bread_loaf_go_mouldy/ | {
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"by the time you get to the end of the loaf, that means there was more time that it was exposed to air and moisture."
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2jr0w2 | what is the fundamental difference between the human brain and the brains of other species that makes us intelligent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jr0w2/eli5_what_is_the_fundamental_difference_between/ | {
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"The simple answer is we don't really know, but we do have some pretty good ideas. \n\nYou may want to ready up more on the [evolution of human intelligence](_URL_0_) but take it with a grain of salt - it is a rather human-centric article and we need to acknowledge that animal intelligence can be very complex and equate, or even surpass our own. For example, humans have absolutely terrible sense of smell, dogs on the other hand have a very excellent sense of smell. If we were to pit humans and dogs against each other in an olfaction intelligence test humans would loose every time. The part of their brain that controls and interprets olfaction is way more complex than the part of our brain that controls olfaction. Our frontal cortex may be the most complex of any species, but this is just one part of the brain, controlling one part of what we define \"intelligence\" to be. Intelligence is a very difficult thing to measure and even more difficult to measure in such a way that isn't biased. \n\n1. We have a very high [brain-to-body mass ratio](_URL_1_).\n\n2. We have a specific gene, or set of genes that enable us to have certain cognitive functions that are more complex than that of other species. We haven't figured out what genes these might be yet, or how they work with each other, or if they are found in other species. Its like we are trying to find the cause of a fire without knowing that fire exists. \n\n3. We are able to form more complex neural connections in the brain creating more complex pathways than other animals.\n\n\n\n"
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6ppw5w | why do we get hungry every few hours, even when we haven't burnt all the energy/calories from our previous meal(s)? | I'm sure there's something very obvious that I'm missing, but I don't get why humans get hungry all the time even if there's plenty of energy left to burn. For instance, if we eat a breakfast that's 1500 calories and then sit on the couch all day and only burn maybe 700 calories, why do we feel hungry again a few hours later, even though there's still 800 calories left? If I had to guess, I would guess that the feeling of hunger (like stomach growling)is a technique our body uses to tell us that we need more food and more energy. But why does our body make us feel hungry even if there is leftover food that we haven't burned yet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ppw5w/eli5_why_do_we_get_hungry_every_few_hours_even/ | {
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"Natural selection looks poorly on not having a buffer zone. If you only get hungry when you *need* to eat, then you either find food or you *die.*\n\nIf instead you eat enough to have a surplus, you can afford those dry spells where your next meal might not be visible on the horizon. ",
"We get hungry when our body is about to start the process of warming up the furnace to burn fat. \n\nThere may be plenty of calories available in our bodies, enough to last for days, but we get hungry when we run out of the \"easy to access\" energy and our blood sugar level gets low. \n\nBlood sugar levels have a certain safe range -- too low and we're weak, too high and the blood turns toxic. When we eat, blood sugar levels rise as food gets digested and sugars get added into the bloodstream. If it rises above a certain point, our body starts skimming off the top and putting the excess into fat. If it falls below a certain point, we get hungry, and if it falls even further, we start burning off that fat to return those sugars to the bloodstream. \n\nHunger fades once the fat is burning and sugar levels rise. When the fat calories run out, we just get tired not hungry because the body is already in \"fat burning\" mode. \n\nAs soon as we eat anything (edit: anything with any sugar), our body immediately stops burning fat and switches to using the incoming food instead. When that runs out, you get hungry again as part of flipping the switch back to fat use. ",
"A good rule of thumb for questions about why the body works in a particular way is to ask, \"How would this trait benefit our caveman ancestors?\"\n\nIn a hunter-gatherer lifestyle like that of our forebears, there is no guarantee of when your next meal may come. You may go for days or even weeks without a full stomach. As such, it is in your best interest to eat as much as you can, as fast as your digestion will allow, so that your body can stockpile energy for whatever times of famine lie ahead.\n\nThe current abundance of cheap, calorie-rich food available at a moment's notice is a very recent thing on the timescale of evolution. The evolution of our gene pool has simply been outpaced by the speed of our societal progress.",
"The hormone responsible for you not feeling hungry is leptin. Your fat cells produce leptin, so the fatter you are, the less hungry you will be.\n\nNow why do you feel hungry despite not needing the food? Insulin suppresses leptin. It needs to do that, because there are some times in your life (if you're pregnant, or a teenager) when you do need to put on weight. So your body will overproduce insulin, so you can eat and gain weight.\n\nWhich leads us to the next question: why do you have too much insulin, leading you to be hungry when you should be full? The first target of your pancreas (which produces the insulin) is your liver. A lot of our modern eating (alcohol, trans fat, sugar) lead to a fatty liver. The fat in your liver makes it less sensitive to insulin, forcing the pancreas to produce more insulin so your liver keeps working. The excess insulin is what is supressing your feeling of satiety.\n\nAnd that's why you get hungry. And you can see that populations who don't have sugar, alcohol and trans fat are mostly thin; when those get added to their diet, they start gaining weight."
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5inzg9 | how the heck do authorities determine who started a massive fire in the middle of the woods somewhere? | For example: _URL_0_
How on *earth* would they track it to those two people?
Edit: Thanks for all the info, and no I'm not planning to start a fire. That's a really weird thing to ask. I will never understand you Reddit. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5inzg9/eli5_how_the_heck_do_authorities_determine_who/ | {
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"They are juveniles so more than likely they bragged about it to their friends, which led the investigators to them. From there it's pretty easy to put the rest of the pieces together.\n\nThis is how most cases are solved - people tell the authorities because the suspect couldn't keep their mouth shut.",
"Arson Investigators are very highly trained, and can use detailed chemical and forensic analysis to determine within a good margin of error, exactly where some fires started.\n\nBased on the leftover debris and material near the point of ignition, a good investigator can determine exactly WHAT caused a fire, and even if an accelerant like Gas or Oil was used depending on the type of charring and remains left behind by the flames after they have passed and the ashes that remain.",
"[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nThis article states that another hiker unwittingly got a picture that led to the identification of the two teens. What I'd heard (but don't really have the motivation to go find the specific source of), it that the hiker saw the teens tossing matches, and took the picture of them. Either way, a picture led them to identifying the accused.",
"In Australia there is a relatively high occurrence of volunteer firefighters who start the fires themselves (by relatively high I mean not uncommon). \nTo find the who they will often monitor calls made to report fires. In a few cases there will be a trend of someone reporting a fire soon after ignition. This trend might see the Person reporting the fire then being on the scene immediately. \nIf you want to read about the forensic investigators down these parts, read this, \n_URL_0_",
"In the case of a wildfire it usually a combination of witness accounts of people in the area and confessions. People who start wildfires aren't the smartest people. \n\nThere is very little forensic evidence used in these situations. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nThese people admitted that they started it in an interview. I don't think they really meant to. \n\nThere was also video of them walking near the road after the fire started. Someone recording in a a car joked \"that's probably who started the fire.\" I could tell they were being sarcastic because of how many illegal homeless campers live in the woods in that area. But it turned out to be true. \n\nSo, the county put up a fire ban for most of the summer in an effort to combat homeless people. Which was lame, because I like camping and camping without fire isn't as fun.",
"The first arriving units will most often be at the fire before it gets large, so they can relay to the investigators where the fire was and how big it was when they arrived on scene. \nFires will also leave lots of clues as to how fast and hot it burned but also the direction that it came from. There are origin indicators like needle freeze (pine needles that freeze and point in the opposite direction of where the fire came from), charring on trees can tell you a lot depending on how intense the fire was when it burned the tree. Grass can fall back towards the origin in a low intensity fire. There could be no soot on a large rock on the opposite side of where the fire came from. Those are just a few examples. \nAs to finding how the fire started they have to look at the origin of the fire which is why you look for that before you start looking for how. Once at the origin, depending on how the fire was started it could be hard easy or impossible to determine. A hot start, where someone just holds a lighter or similar flaming material to the fuel and then takes the lighter and flees is hard to prove. But often times fires don't durn so hot when they first start, depending on many factors, and there could be evidence left behind as to an ignition source. Most accidental fires you can find out who did it either because they confessed or they weren't trying to get away with it so there are witnesses and more evidence. Also most arsonists don't just start ONE fire, they start many. And once there is a known arsonist working an area reports become more general so you can charge him with more fires knowing that you have some that are definitely him and some probably aren't but can't rule him out for it. \nAnd for big, expensive, deadly or suspected arsonist fires there will be multiple expert investigators. \n\nSource: I'm a fireman that took a couple week long classes on origin and cause determination. Wild land fires aren't really my thing but I'm just relaying what was taught to me. \nEdit: spelling and a parenthesis ",
"We just had a group of kids here in Montana get caught. These kids were caught after they posted pictures on FaceBook. They did not properly put out their fire. Long story short the fire spread and cost $11 million to suppress \n \nHeres a link for you: _URL_0_ \n Sorry the local paper has a few pop ups. ",
"My father is actually a detective who specializes in Fire Investigation. We actually live close to Gatlinburg(within an hour). He helped investigate another fire relativity close(time wise) to the Gat. Fire.\n\nThey solve these cases using a forensics analysis and training acquired through Arson schools. They look for burn spots and patterns that match certain accelerants, path of a fire, and so on. \n\nWitnesses are incredibly helpful as well. For instance there were many hikers up on the mountain that day(chimney tops) and many of them were eager to prove their innocence. They can identify others they passed and verify what they were doing during their hike. A polygraph can be used as well. \n\nThese particular teens played with matches apparently, and as some are citing above got caught in a picture unknowingly. They also apparently posted a Facebook video with a song about \"a mountain on fire\". which was suspicious and got deleted quickly. They also confessed to it as well. \n\nEdit: Apparently the Facebook video is not related and just occurred coincidentally at the same time as the fire. See below.\n\nEdit 2: Thanks guys for all the \"Arson Investigation Failures\" links referencing the 80's and before. Very relevant /s. It's not like all that new science just got thrown out the window. That said, nothing in this world is exact so get used to it.\n\nEdit 3(last): You guys are really focusing on the polygraph..... ok here we go. Like a a hammer doesn't build an entire house by itself, so does a polygraph test not build a full case. It's just a side technique at least around here. That said your random \"hundred\" comments on \"pseudo-science\"( must have looked that up on the Internet) won't change anything on reddit. Go to your local PD and ask about it's use. Go to town meetings. CHANGE IT if you don't like it!! Quit whining on Reddit and the internet.",
"As a random side point I lit fire to my bathroom on accident with a candle. The glass holder got hot and broke, the countertop started burning, and a towel had gotten caught before I realized it. It happened super fast and I panicked while throwing water and wet towels on things. My dad, who is a fire investigator, came home the next morning and 5 seconds in the door asked me what burned (he hadn't seen it just smelled). I tried to tell him but obviously my story didn't match up to the burnt remains. I wasn't lying, I just genuinely couldn't remember cause I was so panicked. Anyway, he was able to give an exact play by play of how it started, what it caught next, etc. \nTl:dr; fire investigators know their crap. \nEdit:typo",
"There was this huge fire in my home town that burned down over 30 homes in a matter of hours. Investegators found alluminum cans and other trash at the initial site. Seeing as it wasn't in a built up campsite, they could conclude that it was a man made fire in a shoddy fire pit. In this particular case, there was a public instagram photo posted by a group of high schoolers at the exact location of the fire...",
"Here's an article about how the arsonist responsible for several fires in NC was caught. There was evidence, but mostly the guy was just dumber than a box of hair.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Every phone has two operating systems. One that connects to cellular networks, and one that interfaces with the consumer. Airplane mode may only disable features in the consumer facing operating system, such as Android or iOS, but not in the OS used between the phone and the carrier network. A phone may be giving out a ‘ping’ and you’d never know it. It doesn’t even need to be sending out GPS coordinates — communicating at all with a cell tower could expose you. By comparing the signal strength of your cell phone on multiple cell towers, someone looking for you can approximate your location with triangulation. This requires access to data from your mobile network, which should keep it out of reach for criminals, but carriers can be compelled to provide that data to law-enforcement agencies.\n\nStingrays are also known as cell-site simulators, or IMSI catchers. They mimic cell phone towers and send out signals that can trick your cell phone into replying with your location and data that can be used to identify you. And they’re surprisingly widely used.\nThe American Civil Liberties Union has a map and list of federal agencies known to use cell-site simulators, which includes the FBI, the DEA, the Secret Service, the NSA, the U.S. Army, Navy, Marshals Service, Marine Corps, National Guard, and many more. For obvious reasons, it’s not an exhaustive list.\n\n",
"My brother and some of his friends caught half of a mountain on a local island on fire. They sailed over, had a campfire, thought they'd put it out when they left, and a few hours later the whole place was producing a pillar of flame and smoke that you could see for miles.\n\nThey called in to admit that it was probably them. Think they had to do some community service, but the police/fire thanked them for coming forward and admitting it.",
"Assuming they are guilty*\n\nI would not give the teens prison they know now beyond all doubt not to mess with fire 17 people are dead and they have to be feeling terrible. \n\nSo $500 million damage they are now expert consultants on fire tragedy so at $500 per hour each they can pay it off with .5 million hours of community service or rest of there free time in there life or 28.52 years each. They can visit each and every school saying dont mess with fire. Showing pictures of the people they killed.\n\np.s. I am just speculating what could be done besides 60 years in prison.",
"Wildfires are actually one of the easier types to trace back to a source. The winds and terrain will basically blow the fire a certain way and you can trace it back to the general area of where it started. After that they rely on witness reports or any other evidence much like any other arson. \n\n\n[This explains](_URL_0_) The behavior and characteristics fairly well. ",
"Some teen got charged where I live because she recorded a snapchat of her lighting fireworks causing a massive fire",
"A lot of people have touched on witnesses and cell data but fire investigation is a common practice at all forest fires.\n\nAs a Firefighter Crew Leader my crew will often fight the fire without me because I'm off investigating. Signs such as the burn and smoke pattern on trees and stumps will direct you to the origin location, which can be very precise down to a 1 foot square area. Once at the origin location we are trained to look for sources of ignition, matchbooks, debris from flares, tracks from ATVs, etc. then you can determine the exact time the fire started by using a fire behaviour prediction book and you have a time and place. To find a person responsible after that is often luck but if we do find you, you are responsible for the cost of the fire and we are not cheap.",
"It's my impression that the teens charged in Gatlinburg just happened to be caught in a photograph that someone took (not intentionally of the teens, I believe). In that photo they were seen walking out of the woods with smoke (a lot of smoke) behind them. They were caught because they were wearing the same clothes.\n\nIt blows my mind too. I think in the case it's just dumb luck that someone was there and intentionally or unintentionally too a picture of them.",
"I was an intern at Great Smoky Mountains National Park this summer, and my internship was in structural fire. The local authorities of Gatlinburg and the National Park Service have been posting tip lines to ask about people that hiked during the approximated time frame that the fire is thought to have been started during. ",
"My husband has video from a plane he was on flying over the smokey mountains on November 4th. The video shows a fire. It looked like a good size. I know the fires were not reported as starting that early but we thought it was pretty weird. ",
"For this Particular incident, the teens were caught on camera by a photographer that was on the trail throwing lit matches into the woods surrounding the trail, as well as smoke surrounding them from where they started the fire. Those \"kids\" are going to be gone for a long time",
"Criminology here, and its not always about what actually survives, its the way something was destroyed. The way the fire burned, the epicenter, you can figure out what type of accelerant was used and where.\n\nAfter that, some things survive. Tiretracks often can survive a fire, abit of plastic from the jugs used etc. Those can be kind of hard as they are so vastly mass produced, but if you look at local stores and its a recent one purchased, you can narrow down who all bought that product recently.\n\nWitnesses are HUGE in these kinds of cases, DNA often gets destroyed... But sometimes cigarette butts can survive if those were what started it. ATV's leave very distinct tire treads, they as to normal vehicles, but ATV's especially leave deep and defined prints. Plaster can pick up a lot of wear patterns on those tires, as with normal cars, trucks, etc. Shoe prints can survive a fire, and it is fairly easy to find the epicenter of a fire.\n\nAccelerants burn hotter and faster, so the marks they leave are pretty well defined. It narrows down your search area.",
"\"Is this the fire department? Oh, hi, yeah, um, I just saw some kids light a fire and walk away, totes wasn't me though.\"\n\n\"Ok, thank you for calling this in, and may I have your name and a good number to reach you at so we can send you a reward?\"\n\nThat's how my neighbor was caught.",
"This might sound \"conspiratorial\" or whatever, but many public parks and trails have hidden cameras. I found a few in a trail by my home. They are hooked up to solar panels that are located high up in the trees. They place the cameras at entrances and exits of the trails so they know every person went in and out. ",
"The photo is more than certainly real because that is the only substantial evidence that the authorities have against the boys, the two were traveling alone on the Chimney Tops trail (seriously the name, no pun intended) without any parents and thought they were alone so they decided to play with some matches. In no way do I believe that they meant for the fire to get as big as it did, but you simply can't ignore the fact that 14 people perished along with hundreds upon hundreds of structures that were destroyed/damaged, but fate be as it may there was a concerned photographer on the trail as well to catch them red handed. In my opinion I believe these kids deserve their punishment. however I also believe that the younger boy shouldn't be charged as an adult like the 17 y/o, because I'm sure the older one influenced the younger ones actions a little.",
"Most crimes are solved because the suspect admits they are guilty. They find people who admit to being in the area and question them until they admit it.\n\n",
"Ok, fire forensics & stuff aside which is amazing & interesting: it was (in this day & age) most likely found by the boys phone locations at the time & their retreat once they realized the fire was out of control.",
"I live just a couple of hours from Gatlinburg, their was small amount of smoke in the air for a while, could smell it definitely. The videos that people had of them coming down the Gatlinburg mountains were terrifying.",
"My grandpa did \"arson watch\" in LA as a volunteer. Literally drive through canyons looking for odd parked cars in strange places and take down their info. If a fire starts, you know who to ask",
"In this particular case, from what I've heard, the two suspects were talking about it at their school and people started getting suspicious. \nIt's been all anyone's talked about here in Tennessee lately. It's really sad, I occasionally spend time in that area and it's got some beautiful hikes that are just gone now. ",
"Did you think the trees don't talk?"
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r44uh | the solar radiation spectrum | I've stumbled across [this](_URL_0_) beauty and I can't seem to comprehend it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/r44uh/eli5_the_solar_radiation_spectrum/ | {
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"This chart is basically a frequency histogram of the Sun's radiation.\n\nThe **yellow** band shows the relative amount of radiation at the top of our atmosphere as a function of its wavelength. A higher bar indicates a greater amount at that frequency. As you can see, most of it falls within the visible part of the spectrum.\n\nThe **grey** line is there to compare to the blackbody spectrum at the same temperature (5250 C). This is what we have calculated from physics that the spectrum \"should\" be, if the Sun were a totally generic object that was a perfect emitter (a blackbody).\n\nThe **red** band shows the same information as the yellow one, only as measured at sea level. Because our atmosphere absorbs radiation, it's strictly less than what's there at the top (yellow). The chemicals noted next to each cut indicate that what is responsible for the absorption at those wavelengths. For example, the large drop in surface radiation between 1300 and 1500 nm is due to H2O (water).\n\nYou can see that O3 (ozone) and H2O (water) absorb much more than O2 (oxygen gas) and CO2 (carbon dioxide)."
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2dypsc | if a fighter plane has an eject system for pilot, so that if that plane has a problem the pilot can eject, why can't commercial airlines have the same technology. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dypsc/eli5_if_a_fighter_plane_has_an_eject_system_for/ | {
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"First thought is weight. I imagine (although I'm no expert), that having a couple of hundred ejector seats on board would add a huge amount of weight.\n\nOther Factors:\nInstall Cost,\nMaintenance,\nDanger (You are essentially sitting on rockets/explosives)\n\n",
"very simply. Its the way the planes are built. Fighter pilots have a top loading system where as commercial planes have a rear loading system. The ejection system forces the top to come off and ejects the pilot. This is not the case in a commercial jet since the pilot loads from the sides and comes in from the rear. \n\nPlus there is also the ethical question. Should a pilot be able to abandon the passengers he is carrying? A fighter pilot doesnt have to worry about that but a commercial pilot would have to ensure the safety of his crew and passengers. ",
"Because it's impossible. I will point out few things, but you should use search, it's really frequently asked question. \n\n1. Mass. This would make prices even higher. \n\n2. Technology. They are build with rockets, maintaining is expensive. \n\n3. Safety. Do you really want hundreds of inexperienced passengers to use it? \n\n4. Technology once again. It's impossible without weakening construction of the plane. \n\n5. Logistics. How do you want safely do it with hundreds of passengers? \n\n6. Usability. Most of the accidents are on taking of, or on landing. This would cause more problems than advantages. \n\n7. It's not cost effective. ",
"Ejector seats are actually crazy dangerous. So... you have your typical airliner happily flying along at 35,000 feet. People are walking to and from bathrooms, sitting at their seats with their dinners or laptops in front of them, their babies crawling around in the seat next to them and the big fat guy taking up way too much space in the isle row. \n\nThen... Fat guy's seat misfires. The rocket propellant used to fire the seat kills baby in the middle row outright. The seat shoots up into the roof breaking fat guy's skull. However it still has a huge amount of thrust and momentum left and it rockets through the body of the plane taking out a couple more people.\n\nOr... in a real emergency seats deploy properly. Baby is thrown from its seat because the seat belt wasn't fastened perfectly (or baby messed around with the strap to get more comfortable). Overweight guy's chair lacks the thrust to properly clear his extra weight from the plane's frame and the tail strikes him and cuts him in half (along with three dozen other heavy passengers). \n\nOrdinary parent is thrown clear of the plane safe and sound.... right into headwinds that are 100 degrees below zero and close to the speed of sound. She is going to lose a good chunk of the skin on her face just from that. More seriously though at 35,000 feet you are in what is cheerfully known as the \"death zone\" there is not enough oxygen in the air to support human life. Odds are hypoxia kills you before the chair drops to the 13,000 feet or so necessary to sustain you.\n\nFor those lucky few who have survived to this point they are probably floating on adrenaline so have not yet noticed the massive damage to their spines that resulted from the ejection (fighter pilots who eject can actually lose 3 inches of height due to compression of their spin's bones. However if they didn't notice the ejection they are sure as hell going to notice the landing. Unguided parashoots tend to smack people into trees, houses, etc and have a real chance of killing you on the terrain. If you land in water you need to cut free of the shoot as soon as you hit or get tangled in its cords and drown.\n\nseriously they are CRAZY dangerous. Back in the 50s and 60s pilots regularly lost limbs when ejecting and would often rather try and fight the plane to the ground rather than take the risk of a bail out.\n\nA more modern and safer ejection seat is also crazy expensive.\n\n"
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1904kj | nsfw how do people have anal sex without poop getting involved? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1904kj/nsfw_how_do_people_have_anal_sex_without_poop/ | {
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"whats the fun in that?",
"You can do a preliminary clean beforehand.\n\nHowever, that's more a product of modern porn than anything. Our anatomy does seem to work in favour of those who don't mind a bit of that kind of experimentation, but there are a couple of provisos.\n\nTake it easy, and use lubricant. Although the pelvic floor and the associated tissues are quite flexible, patience is the key. Physical damage is certainly possible. However, made mostly of muscle the pelvic responds well to exercise.\n\nOf more concern is the threat posed by STD's. Unlike our skin, the body's internal tissues tend to have very tiny blood vessels close to the surface, and any kind of abrasion can lead to some tearing. Your morning poo will usually cause some microscopic tearing. This is more prevalent in the anus than the vagina, so the risk of catching an STD like herpes, syphilis, or aids are correspondingly higher.\n\nAnyway, let's meet our large intestine. [**Here's Diagram 1.**](_URL_2_)\n\nThis is very simplified, but our small intestine removes all the goodness from what we eat and delivers to the **Cecum**(lower left) a watery sludge of waste and undigestables. The rings of muscle constrict in series to push it all through. As the waste moves through the large intestine most of the water is reclaimed, and tummy bugs aside it is organised into neat little parcels. The tapered ends stop your bum from slamming shut.\n\nBy now the remains of last night's pizza are traversing the **Splenic Flexure**(top right) into the descending colon. This is also where our sensory system will first be able to signal it's presence since we swallowed it last night. This is the \"I'll have to go to the toilet later\" signal. Once the, now neatly formed poos arrive in the **Sigmoid Colon** the \"If it's not too much trouble, why don't we go and do a poo\" signal is sent. Once the faeces round the corner into the rectum your bum is given complete control of all systems, and we rush to the toilet.\n\nUnless the penis being used is of porn star proportions, anal sex generally only require the use of the anus and rectum. So, assuming the receiver feels no pressure, has a bum in good working order, and hasn't eaten curry lately there should be no difficulty.\n\n**Special Bonus : Why do it?**\n\nThere are the usual attractions of taboo for heterosexual couples, and my homosexual friends tell me the armpit is less than ideal, but there are sensory payoffs as well.\n\nFor a male receiver the proactive penis pushes against the prostate gland as you can see from the doctor's finger in [**Diagram 2**](_URL_0_), I assure you the sensation has outstanding reviews.\n\nFor a female receiver, the proactive penis pushes against the g-spot, located midway along the upper or front wall of the vagina. To understand the dynamics, the penis will be thrusting along the same axis as the 'Anus' pointer in [**Diagram 3**](_URL_1_) \n\nI hope that helps."
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2ww8qi | why are proper nouns across languages not translated, but the names of countries have literal translations? | Germany - Deutschland, etc. and I remember being in Disney World and the Spanish instructions mentioned "El Lion King." | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ww8qi/eli5_why_are_proper_nouns_across_languages_not/ | {
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"Country names often behave a lot like what we call houses. Our house, John's house, Susan's house, that house with the tree out front\n\nUsing Germany as an example:\n\nDeutschland= Land of the people\n\nGermany = Possibly either *Neighbours* or *People who shout*\n\nAllemagne = The place where the Allemani tribe lived\n\nSaksa = The place where the Saxons lived\n\nNjemačka = People who can't speak our language\n\n\n\n",
"Actually the Lion King is usually called \"El Rey León\" in Spanish, so it's interesting that they called it that at Disney World. Lots of proper nouns have translations: first names like John = Juan, or real people's full names like Christopher Columbus = Cristóbal Colón.\n\nWith movies and TV shows coming from the U.S., the name is usually either translated literally (rare), left in English (pretty common), or the movie gets a new name which is related to the plot but sounds good in the local language. For example, the movie True Grit was called \"Valor de Ley\" (Force of the Law) in Spain, and \"Temple de Acero\" (Nerves of Steel) in Latin America.",
"Well, Spanish Wikipedia does call it [*El rey león*](_URL_0_).\n\nI think the short answer, without delving into more precise considerations, is one of prominence. It's a very organic thing -- it isn't like there is a cutoff as to which nouns get translated or not. Most people in the world have heard of London, but very few people outside of England have heard of the village of Thringstone in Leicestershire. Lots of languages have their own variations of the word \"London\" (Londres, Londra, Londona, Landen, Londyn, etc.), but I'm guessing Italian speakers have not talked about Thringstone so much as to come up with their own name for it. The same goes for national subdivisions (California [Californie, Kalifornien, etc.] vs. Wyoming or Idaho), institutions, foods, etc.",
"Do you mean in English? Because English borrows all sorts of terms and translations within the language. Many of which are for proper nouns. And if the word is difficult to explain, it gets *anglicized* into an easier format and incorporated into the language. \n\nBut other languages do this too. \n\nAlso the name \"Germany\" comes from the Latin *Germania* which was coined by the Romans to explain the territories and Germanic peoples outside of the Roman Empire. English borrowed the name. "
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p9g30 | do wireless anti-static wrist straps work? | How can wireless anti static wrist straps work? Without being attached to a ground of any sort, where does the charge go? How is it discharged? How effective is it in comparison to wired wrist straps? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p9g30/eli5_do_wireless_antistatic_wrist_straps_work/ | {
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"They don't work. They're widely considered pseudoscientific crap. \n\nHave a look at this experiment (disregard the fact the page looks like a ransom note):\n\n_URL_0_\n\nA wired anti-static wrist strap would have discharged that potential in a few milliseconds.",
"ESD wrist straps are often used to provide the appearance of safety. Many hardware repair shops require their techs to use them so if an ESD destroys some hardware they can at least say they took the necessary precautions. "
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2w4oj6 | why do soft drinks like coke need 10 tea spoons of sugar per can when three spoonfuls is more than enough to make a cup of tea/coffee super sweet? | Source: _URL_0_
I don't get why they need to use THAT much sugar. Wouldn't three spoonfuls do the trick? Yeah, there's more volume in a soft drinks can, but not by a huge margin (let's say 3 spoonfuls for a 200 ml cup of tea = about 5 for 330 ml = half the amount that goes into a can of coke).
Before the Americans come in to tell me about high fructose corn syrup-Coke is still made with sugar over here.
EDIT: Thank you for all your interesting responses, I had never thought that this subject could raise such a debate. The ideas that colder beverages need more sugar than warm beverages, and that carbonation/caffeine make the drink so acidic as to require a 'sweetness counterbalance', seem like the best explanations to me but I can't honestly mark it 'Explained' because there doesn't seem to be any sort of consensus yet. However, I'll check back later.
EDIT 2: Imma call this one explained. I think between you, you've given enough valid explanations to put a bow on this puppy. Well done, go Team Reddit!
To the people asking "who puts three spoonfuls of sugar in coffee?"-that's kind of the point. Three spoonfuls makes coffee undrinkably sweet (for myself and the majority of people at least), but not Coke. To the guy (apparently) calling me a conspiracy nut for asking a question about why Drink 1 is too sweet despite containing less sugar than Drink 2, all I have to say is "What?" (though, of course, we cannot rule out Illuminati involvement). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w4oj6/eli5_why_do_soft_drinks_like_coke_need_10_tea/ | {
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"The sugar is used to mask the harsh taste of carbonated water and to get people to drink more of it. After all, we're hard-wired to consume highly caloric foods.",
"You are mistaking the literal measurement of teaspoon with the home utensil. Unless you are using a prepackaged portion, spoonfuls from the sugar jar at home are almost always significantly more than the standardised measurement for a teaspoon which is roughly 5 grams.\n\nCoca-Cola contains 10.6 grams of sugar per 100mL (literally taken from the information on the can). \n\nA commercially available brand of Iced Coffee contains 9.5 grams of sugar per 100mL.\n\nSo 3 teaspoons of sugar in 200mL of tea is actually 7.5 grams per 100mL which isn't very far behind a can of Coca-Cola at all. \n\nIf we are talking 3 *actual* teaspoons heaped from the sugar jar, then you are likely adding *more* sugar than your average can of Coca-Cola.\n\n",
"Hot Coffee and Hot Tea require significantly less sugar, mostly because they're hot. Sweetening a cold drink requires more sweetener. This is why a very strongly-flavored popsicle mix turns into a mild and refreshing popsicle when frozen. Don't believe me? Drink a warm coca-cola. Sweetening a cold-brewed coffee or tea to the same level of sweetness requires more sugar. \n\nThis is also why a southern sweet tea can regularly have as much (or more) sugar than a coca-cola. \n\nNote: Much of what I just said may be totally contradicted by [this study](_URL_0_). ",
"Coke is also full of citric acid, which cuts through the sweetness. ",
"So much fail in this thread. Coca-cola is quite acidic. Sweet and Sour balance each other on your taste buds. If something is too sour, you can add a bit of sugar to take the edge off. If something is too sweet, add some acid to liven it up. The taste profile of Coca-cola is sweet & sour. You need the extra sugar to balance out the sour. Your coffee doesn't have any sour in it, so the sweetness is direct.\n\nEdit: The posts about carbonated water are half correct. The carbon dioxide precipitating on your tongue will also lead to your sense of taste being subdued. In order to keep the beverage's flavor profile and potency, increased seasoning (sweet & sour) is needed.",
"Sweetness is enhanced by heat: If you have a hot drink with sugar and let it cool, the sweetness will be significantly reduced. Hence why iced tea needs a shit-ton of sugar, but hot tea only uses a little. \n\nLook, science: _URL_1_ \n\n > Results of the sweetness-temperature interaction showed that cool solutions were judged less sweet than warmer solutions. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > The sweetness of sucrose depends on the temperature as well as the concentration of a solution. The main effect is that relatively low concentrations gain sweetness as temperature increases.",
"As someone who thinks most sodas taste a step too sweet, I always wondered why there appears to be just about no market for sharper/less sweet tasting sodas. All I've come across is grapefruit sodas. I'd like to drop the juice of a full lime in most sodas.\n\nMost sodas (such as Coke) btw contain about the same amount of sugar as the average apple, orange or other fruit juice naturally does.",
"Because before the sugar is put in, the drink would taste extremely tangy/acidic. They put that much sugar in purely to balance out the taste. Tea on the other hand is pretty neutral without sugar, so not a lot is needed to get the flavour. Or so I've heard... ",
"What a lot of people here are missing is that the coldness of soda desensitizes your taste buds. So, to taste the same amount of sweetness, more sugar is required for colder drinks.\n\nHave you ever noticed that a warm cola tastes too sweet?",
"OK, so there are a few different arguments for this. A lot of the comments are pointing to the acid and/or the carbonation, so here's a different argument.\n\nThere was a presentation a few years ago called \"Sugar: The Bitter Truth\" by an Endocrinologist and Pediatrician who talked about sugar, obesity, etc, and touched on this exact question. His reasoning is:\n* 1. Coke has Caffeine\n* 2. Caffeine is a diuretic\n* 3. Diuretics cause the body to lose water\n* 4. Water loss makes you thirsty\n* 5. Coke makes you thirsty\n\nNo sugar yet, but he gets there. The next piece of it is similar to the caffeine piece, but with salt. In short, salt also makes you thirsty. There is a decent amount of sodium in a 20oz soda (75mg is on the high end, and is dependent on the drink. Roughly 3-5% of your daily amount as of today's daily recommendations).\n\nSo basically, soft drinks have 2 ingredients in a drink that make you thirsty. Great for a beverage manufacturer for obvious reasons. Apparently, this tasted horribly. That's where the sugar comes in. The sugar is to mask the presence of these thirst-inducing ingredients. But, the resulting drink was way too sweet. To make it more palatable, they had to add the phosphoric acid to cut back on the sweetness.\n\nTo sum up, this argument is that sugar is there to mask the flavor of caffeine and salt. In addition, the acid is present to counteract the sweetness. In this way, it's almost the reverse of the other explanations in this thread. Instead of the sugar counteracting the acid, the acid is actually balancing the sugar.\n\nHere's a link to Dr. Lustig's (updated) presentation: _URL_0_\n\nQuick note though, the amount of salt in soda seems awfully low to have that big an effect on taste - but then, maybe there's more to the chemistry of taste then just the amount of salt. I'm not qualified to really answer those questions, so I'll let the professionals handle that :)\n",
"Actually, \nNone of this is correct. The TRUE answer is: IT DOESN'T! \n\nPeople don't realize that the taste buds are actually limited on their ability to taste when something is considered \"super saturated\". Basically this means that there is a certain level of sweetness that you can taste before any more sugar just doesn't increase the sweetness. There was a study conducted years ago (I don't know it or if it was even published) when I was doing my Food science masters. \n\nCoke is WELL above the threshold for sugar, so all the excess is technically \"wasted\". However, even though the science says this is 100% the case, Coke refuses to change a \"great product\". \n\nTL;DR: Coke doesn't need as much sugar as it has because you can't taste it above a certain level. Coke refuses to change a winning formula.",
"I came in here ready to defend coffee/tea and make fun of pop drinkers (as pop is waaay too sweet for me to enjoy). Instead, I left disgusted after finding out redditors put 3 spoonfuls of sugar in their coffee/tea. I will never fit in here :(",
"Carbonation (CO2) has a quite bitter/tart taste. Sugar is needed to overpower the bitter/tart taste of the CO2",
"When did fucking ELI5 turn into Explain Like I'm a Conspiracy Nut?\n\nSeriously people are dumb.\n\nSimple answer: \n\n* Carbonated water is acidic and sour tasting. To balance that out you need more sugar.\n\n* Temperature matters. Sugar is going to taste stronger in hot water then in cold water.\n\n* Caffeine when cold tastes pretty bad as well.\n\nCombine those three together and you get your answer. \n\nSide note: \n\nNow if you want to talk about could they have used less? Well yeah, if they wanted a slightly less sweet product but products aren't always just about achieving 1 outcome. For example why is there so much sugar in milk chocolate? Because it's delicious. Not everyone likes 70 to 90% cocoa chocolate. It's not a fucking conspiracy to addict you. Yes Sugar is addicting, so is Cocoa and you'd wonder why they didn't just make everyone eat 90% chocolate. Companies want to sell more, but it's not really a conspiracy, they make a good tasting product that appeals to a large group of people. Sales come in. Another factor in this simply comes down to if 3 products exist that taste like X, trying to make it less then X or better then X is your new niche market to attack. So if chocolate tastes sweet, maybe some people want it less sweet or more sweet. Target those people.\n\nBasically people try to always find something wrong. Yes sugar is in a lot of foods, because sugar is something you need. We crave it for evolutionary reasons and evolved taste receptors to get it, and brain chemistry to want it. So if they put it in a product fuck them right? People fucking blow me away sometimes.\n\nSorry for the answer and a rant, but this is getting ridiculous with the answers here.",
"You'd be surprised how many tablespoons of sugar it takes to mask engine cleaning capability. Stop drinking that shit.",
"It doesn't. Its to poison you. Citric acid is added so you won't throw up from the unnatural consumption of so much sugar. Many can't see it, but sugar is a drug. It's quite harmful for the human body. You must ask, why is sugar pushed in almost every item? Flavor, or the soft kill?",
"The thing is, sugar is a simple carbohydrate. Fact is the government doesn't want you to know the ties between that and Area 51. Nuclear testing on simple carbohydrates to alter our DNA for the alien takeover is like... I mean just check 4 chan or NASA.",
"Yes, carbonated water tastes bitter , but no you don't need a shitload of sugar to balance it. If you did, soda water would not exist. Potassium Bicarbonate can be added to dull the bitterness. The reason so much sugar is added is simply because people like sweet tasting things. More sugar = more sweetness, and more chance you'll crave it and buy more.\n\nAs for caffeine, again it doesn't come down to taste. Most people can't tell the difference between soda with or without caffeine.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe phosphoric acid is added to give it that tang when it hits your tongue, and also to alter the PH to help preserve the soda (although some sodas still have preservative added to further increase the life span)",
"My great great grandfather(John Pemberton) invented coke. He thought it wasnt a good product so he gradually sold off the business with the last bit being sold to an Atlanta business man. Now I'm fucked and they arent. Historical TIFU",
"Because there's so much acid in it that if it didn't have all that sugar it would be like drinking vinegar. The combination of sugar/hfcs, acid, carbonation and \"secret ingredients\" is an especially nasty combination designed to fuck up your body. There's a reason the logo, when viewed vertically, depicts what it does.",
"Basically, for the same reason why, when adding multiple spoonfuls of instant coffee granules before adding the water, three spoonfuls simply isn't enough to sweeten it: Because the taste is significantly stronger that it overpowers the sweetness.\n\nAs mentioned in the above comments, this could be the taste of excess caffeine, or the taste of sourness etc.",
"this has been the most right/wrong thread i've ever read. It's been a roller coaster of emotions \"oh this person sounds right!, oh wait turns out they are not, but wait maaaybe they are\"\n",
"This is why Coca cola is addictive, among other drinks.\n\nYou would never drink a coffee cup with 12 teaspoons of sugar.\nBut,\nYou would drink a soda and get really addicted because the sugar is counterbalanced with other substances that bland the taste.\n\nTl:dr\nThe sugar in sodas are masked. +1 to addiction, +1 to taste.",
"I'd like to know, why does non-caffeinated coca-cola have to also be diet? Why isn't there an option with sugar but without caffeine?",
"They don't. They've conditioned consumers to that level of sugar.",
"Salt. Look at the amount of salt in a can of coke.",
"A lot of answers on here about taste and pH balance, etc.\n\nWhere is the answer on the *incentive* to use so much sugar?\n\n[Corn subsidies](_URL_0_) - this is the incentive to have HFC syrup in just about everything.\n\n",
"It was probably founded by a secret team of dentists in their dentistry lair in south West Sheffield, who knew people would like it and when their teeth were all rotten they would need to go to the dentists, and when they do, the share prices of dentistry on the stock exchange will rocket and they can all retire to a moderate bungalow in Weston super mare or bognor Regis but instead it caused the global financial meltdown. ",
"Because we wouldn't have an obesity problem fueling the desire for something that Obamacare is painfully filing the void of. ",
"Love all these answers. It all boils down to \"It's full of bitter nasty foul tasting shit and the sugar is the only reason you can put it in your mouth at all\" ",
"It's a good question, but I think the answer is actually as simple as it really does take that amount of sugar to get that taste.\n\nExample. I'm Canadian and our iced-tea is normally sweetened. So I was used to Nestea Iced Tea. A nice sugary iced tea.\n\nI was on business once in Texas and got an iced tea from some restaurant. It was unsweetened... like just cold tea and ice. You have to add your own sugar.\n\nI literally poured like 5 mini-bags of sugar into the tea and it still wasn't sweet enough. Seeing the amount of sugar, I just didn't add anymore and it had a more tea-ish taste. In my normal tea drinking, I might add like 1 tea spoon of sugar if anything. I'm guess that if I wanted to get it as sweet as Nestea Iced tea, I might have had to add 10 tea spoons or more of sugar.\n",
"Do you know how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?",
"They don't actually \"need\" that much sugar. Grown Up Soda (GuS) makes a cola that knocks down the amount of sugar by a third and the stuff tastes great. \n\n_URL_0_",
"To efficiently kill you over time and make a nation of fat, diabetic patients who will forever be in and out of hospitals. Or it's because they love you so much. ",
"Take a look at the back of a soft drink's ingredient list. There's also a lot of salt (sodium), averages around 50-70 milligrams per can. The flavor of that salt is hidden with sugar.\nYou're basically drinking a pizza.",
"Experiment: Take an apple, cut it in half, put half in the refrigerator and half out on the counter. After 4 hours, take a bite of each. The warm one will taste sweeter 100% of the time."
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1lz2mw | how does skywriting work? mainly: how does the pilot know that what s/he's writing looks right on the ground? | I just saw a skywritten ad yesterday. The letters were all made of little puffs of "cloud" (rather than a constant stream), and it got me thinking: how does the pilot position all the cloud properly so that we can see it? It reminds me of the [Nazca lines](_URL_0_), but sort of the opposite.
Also, what chemical do they use to make the "cloud?"
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lz2mw/eli5_how_does_skywriting_work_mainly_how_does_the/ | {
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"The smoke is low viscosity (very watery) oil that is injected into a heater, which vaporizes it (like a very large electronic cigarette). This causes the white smoke.\n\nAs for the design, it is up to the pilot to fly a pattern matching what is to be written, as well as to turn the device on and off to form gaps (if needed). Try writing your message on a piece of paper. When you lift the pen/pencil up you are turning the smoke machine off. The writing utensil is the plane. When you press it back down you are turning the machine on. When you finish your design lift the paper in the air and rotate it. This is how various positions on the ground would see the message. In general you want the paper to be straight in front of you, so none of the message is distorted. Sky-writers are told where the message should be readable from, and go from there. \n\nYou can get really fancy if you want and have multiple planes run a parallel trajectory so they can print dot-matrix style. This yields a longer lasting \"print\", as well as more detail (because you're basically just running on/off instead of flying the plane in complex patterns).",
"They have a flight plan that follows the lettering. Add in when/where it's turned on and off based upon said lettering. They draw lines on a map over the designated area, and mark times for how long they need to spray. Additionally they must also account for wind, so they may fly in such a way that the lettering doesn't dissipate right away or get too smeared.\n\nThink of the phrase \"Hi\"\n\nThe pilot must fly in 3 straight lines, 2 parallel to each other and one across to make an H. Then parallel to that make one short line and one longer one to make an i.\n\nNot a pilot\n",
"They probably have some sort of a GPS that they can draw flight routes on. I know pilots that own hand held Garmin GPSs that do this. As long as you hold a steady altitude and follow the lines, it can be done.\n",
"Basically, they are very very good pilots who can fly precision patterns and can account for wind"
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ry3e8 | what does "permanant press" mean, when its a setting on my clothes dryer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ry3e8/eli5_what_does_permanant_press_mean_when_its_a/ | {
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"Permanent Press is a setting on both washers and dryers designed for less durable articles of clothing. These materials are typically man made and may or may not have been chemically treated to hold their shape and resist wrinkles (permanent press). \n\nIn the washing machine, the permanent press cycle agitates and spins more at slower, more gentle speeds. These fabrics aren't heavy-weight, and don't need the stronger spin to get the water from washing out.\n\nIn the dryer, this setting usually runs a bit cooler and includes a cool-down time (the last ~10 minutes of the cycle). The dryer runs hot, and then turns off the heat, allowing the clothing to settle and the heated fabric to accept the designed creases (kind of like if you used an iron to press in a crease). By fluffing the clothing at a cooler temperature, the wrinkles from sitting in a pile after drying are reduced, as cool clothing accepts creases/wrinkles less easily.\n\nFor cotton or heavy items, like towels, jeans, etc., the permanent press cycle is wasteful. These items would be wetter coming out of the washer (taking longer to dry), and they don't need the cooler fluffing portion of the dryer cycle.\n\nEDIT: typos"
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621h2y | why do our feelings work against us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/621h2y/eli5_why_do_our_feelings_work_against_us/ | {
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"At the end of the day it directly or indirectly comes down to a sense of control. When the other person makes the decision to leave, that control is taken from you. When we end up doing something we say we will not do, it's because we like to let inertia take control as it allows the work to be done by another force (as opposed to another person), but we never want to accept the consequences of not actually taking control.",
"Feelings work against us in every area of our life.\nMotivation, discipline & logic lead you towards your goals. Emotion leads you to stray from them.\nEmotions are not logical & can often encourage weakness. But it's hard to override emotions especially when it comes to relationships. "
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3yg54w | how come the xbox one is much larger, with a power brick yet is slightly outperformed by a smaller ps4 with no power brick? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3yg54w/eli5_how_come_the_xbox_one_is_much_larger_with_a/ | {
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"[Size matters not](_URL_0_).\n\nSeriously, though: It's the same reason why you can have two identical PC cases housing the guts of an Atari 2600 or a state-of-the-art computer. The size doesn't matter all that much beyond a certain point, everything else is just aesthetics or engineering decisions (you have to take into account space, air flow, heat dissipation, etc).\n\nHeck, go to any place that sells computer parts and check the sizes of the various models of sound cards, video cards, etc. They're all roughly the same dimensions but their capabilities can vary wildly, especially if you take older models into account.",
"Because of the RROD issue with the 360, Microsoft probably decided to be safe rather than sorry and made the Xbox One very good with how it manages heat and air flow to make sure overheating isn't a problem. I also hear that the Xbox is quieter than the PS4."
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ejine7 | why is a heavy bladed razor considered better | I hear all this about it applying more pressure due to its weight, but the majority of the neck portion of your face is shaved with the razor inverted.
Additionally, while shaving against the grain, nearly ALL of the shaving happens with an inverted razor.
In both these situations, the weight of the razor is pulling away from your face due to gravity. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ejine7/eli5_why_is_a_heavy_bladed_razor_considered_better/ | {
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"This conversation usually comes up when you are dealing with safety razors - cartage razors are much easier to shave with and require very little technique.\n\nShaving with a safety razor (or a straight edge) requires pressure control. If you push to hard on the skin, you will cause cuts and irritation. A heavy razor will allow you to put virtually no pressure on the skin during the shave, letting gravity apply the right amount of pressure to cut hair. This leads to a better shave.\n\nNow, you are right in that this doesn't work for against the grain shaving, but that is something that usually isn't recommended for safety/straight shaving until you have pressure control down and can replicate light pressure on the strokes where gravity can't do the work for you.",
"I've never actually heard that theory, but I would assume it's referring more to the mass of the razor than the weight. A bulkier blade, like a straight-razor as opposed to disposables, has more mass and wider blade geometry, meaning there is literally more steel in the blade. \n\nOne benefit is that you need to apply less force for the razor to cut, sort of like using a chef's knife as opposed to a paring knife to cut meat. Both work, but with the chef's knife the blade does half the work for you.\n\nAnother benefit to that design is that the blade won't dull as easily. The bulkier blade geometry of a straight razor may not cut as clean as brand new disposable blades, but it'll keep that sharp edge for much longer, even without stropping.",
"Its about control. The heavier handle, not blade, requires more feedback from your hand, giving better balance and therefore, control. Obviously, too heavy of a handle gives you more fatigue and less control."
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20kvmn | why did they make it so that usb can only be plugged in one way? | Me and my friend were having a debate as to why they made it so that USB phone chargers can't fit in either way round, like the new apple charger can. Obviously this shows that there is a technical feasibility and it makes more sense. Please can someone give us the technical reason as to why they designed them like that?
Edit: After doing some research found that ['USB type C'](_URL_0_) is coming out soonish which will be reversible in orientation. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20kvmn/eli5_why_did_they_make_it_so_that_usb_can_only_be/ | {
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"It's more work (more code, more silicon, more engineering, more manufacturing, more money) to develop a plug that works both ways.\n\nUSB is meant to be universal, and hopefully, cheap.\n\nThe Apple Lighting cable has a lot more hardware in it, on both ends, thus making it a more expensive alternative."
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2ywlud | how are generations, baby boom, lost, gen x decided? | Is there an official determination or are they just added because of popular usage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ywlud/eli5_how_are_generations_baby_boom_lost_gen_x/ | {
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"More so they are define by a statistical burst of the population or by a major event or something else there is no set guideline for it and it's more a general classification ",
"Baby boomers were born in the few years after ww2. When you look at birth rates and other stats to do with population change you can see curves or sudden spikes, these are then given names.",
"It is just pop culture. Gen X came from a Douglas Coupland book that provided a good description of people's attitude at the time. Since then less creative people have tried to use Gen Y, Gen Z, etc. Pepsi tried Generation Next. I have heard the internet generation, saw a camera commercial trying to make it the image generation. So far Millennials seems to be the most popular option. \n\nEdit: spelling of author's name.",
"I'll tell you how. By the people who study demographics data making a decision about how to market/appeal to certain age groups. Those people then put out a study or news story which then gets picked up by the media and the name just sticks. Case in point: in the early '90s I was on the phone with one of our analysts in DC and we were discussing ways to chop up some data into pieces that would be easy for our clients to make sense out of. We were trying to come up with a term for upwardly mobile suburban female voters in their 30's with children. Luckily she came up a better sounding name than I could. All I could come up with was \"minivan mom\". Her name of \"soccer mom\" sounds a lot better.\n \nI kid you not. \"Soccer Mom\" was coined in a 10 minute phone call between two relative underlings at a political polling firm.\n \n",
"They're generally coined sayings, often by someone famous, Gertrude Stein came up with the 'Lost Generation' describing the famous writers who settled in Paris after WW1 such as Fitz Gerald and Hemmingway who were heavy drinkers and falling into existential beliefs being popularised at the time by philosophers such as Satre. ",
"Usually by generational increments of around 20 years. Baby boomers mark the big increase in population after WW2 until around 1964. Gen X comprises the next generation to become adults ending around 1982 and everyone after is considered a Millennial. It is more about sociology, sales and marketing than anything else. ",
"I think also that older generations pick up on these terms to disparage younger generations. They start out as demographic or marketing terms and then take on a negative connotation after awhile. Source: old guy here. Get off my lawn you Millennials.",
"Some sociologists have made lifetime careers out of trying to define and predict american behavior based on their generational cohort. I'm thinking of [Strauss and Howe](_URL_1_) in particular, but there are others. Their theory is interesting to read, but the legitimacy of the science involved is rather questionable. According to Strauss/Howe, every 20-22 years you get a new generation of Americans, and those generations display repeating patterns of behavior which reflect the events of the times.\n[This paragraph](_URL_0_) in particular summarizes how they define a generation.",
"The simplest explanation I've had:\n\nA generation is a 20 year period, plus or minus a few years.\n\n1920-1940 - The G.I. Generation or The Greatest Generation \n1940-1960 - Baby Boomers \n1960-1980 - Generation X \n1980-2000 - Millennials \n2000-2020 - Generation Z? No widely used name \n\nWhere do the names come from? Usually some sort of influential book. These names change over time too. Millennials most notable used to be called Generation Y when I was growing up in the 90s.\n\nThe numbers aren't hard lines either and people who were born on the dividing lines often identify with different generations. I am a firm Millennial (born in 1983) and many people younger than me would be Gen-X. It has more to do with what you value at that point.\n\nAbove all, these are just general terms for grouping extremely large swaths of people."
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3l2phi | how is it possible to hang from something like an electric fence but only get electrocuted once you make contact with the ground? | I used to hear stories of prisoners trying to escape from penitentiarys guarded by electric fences and they would jump onto it being sure not to touch the ground to avoid being electrocuted. How is this possible when the fence is being pumped with enough electricity to take down a rhino.
Edit: I understand a three point circuit needed to be electrocuted but why? Is electricity not being pumped into the fence until an exit route is made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l2phi/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_hang_from_something/ | {
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3fh6xu | why do we become motivated at night but can't follow through with our decisions come morning? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fh6xu/eli5_why_do_we_become_motivated_at_night_but_cant/ | {
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"I actually wrote a paper on a similar topic. It comes down to something called present bias, and tends to match up very well with how individual people actually make decisions.\n\nIn making decisions, economic models typically assume some sort of discounting. That's just a fancy way of saying that things nearer to the present matter more than things far in the future. I'm willing to pay $10 ten years from now in order to have $5 tomorrow, because I will presumably have a higher income, and because decisions really far out in the future have minimal impact on my utility today, but having an extra $5 tomorrow means a lot more, because that decision is very near the present.\n\nThe problem is that we tend to value the present (the immediate now) even more than would be assumed by a traditional discounting model. When faced with decisions to give something up tomorrow in order to get something next week, we might decide right now that it's a good idea to do so. But tomorrow, that's no longer the case. The benefit from exercise is gradual, and happens later in the future, but the pain of going to the gym is borne right now. It's immediate, it's certain, and so we tend to consider that pain more strongly. Even though I might come to the conclusion that it's in my benefit to go to the gym tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, I'm going to decide that the long-run benefit doesn't match up with the immediate, short-term pain of dealing with getting up and getting exercise - all of the sudden, that snooze button seems far more attractive.\n\nEDIT: To those people who are asking to read my paper, I don't have a published version of my paper, but I would recommend the following two seminal papers on the topic:\n\n\"Doing it Now or Later\" (1999) & \"Choice and Procrastination\" (2001), both by Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin. You should be able to find both of these papers pretty easily with a Google Scholar search.",
"The veil between the Spirit realm and Earth realm are thinner from 3am to 6am\n\nThe Spirit realm is where our consciousness feels much more peaceful and happy, by default. Also, where we plan our life mission.",
"To my understanding, part of it is that when the you think of yourself in the future (and probably the past, but don't know), the part of the brain that deals with *other* people lights up. ",
"My African American Literature professor always talked about the \"brilliant ideas\" that come to you at night. The less sleep you have, the harder it is to formulate cohesive thought.",
"\"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.\"",
"I read somewhere that the brain is more prone to be motivational at night and less at day. Maybe someone can elaborate, can't remember more than that from the article.",
"I've heard that motivating yourself to do something is like rewarding yourself. You feel good, you're determined, you're gonna finally get those goals you've wanted, and you didn't exert any effort.\n\n At night, the chances that you're actually going to go out in that moment to, say, go to the gym is slim, so you convince yourself you'll go tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, now your faced with actually putting in the effort, then you lose motivation at the prospect of the work you'll have to do.",
"Your motivation at night is about a dream, in the morning you're faced with turning a dream into reality ",
"I would presume owing to our ancestors' survival instinct we have inherited, it would have to do with conserving energy for the appropriate moment. You don't feel like expending energy now as there is no immediate gain that will benefit yourself, and your body wants to only expend energy when it has to for its survival. You can envisage the future while in bed or in the shower because there is no demanding aspect about it.\n\nDo you think your great great (so on) caveman grandpa thought about going for a 5km run in the morning to get in shape? Hell no. He was running everyday from wooly mammoths, fist-fighting with grizzly bears or boxing with kangaroos. That's what kept him in shape. All he wanted was plenty of food, security, and to pass on his genes to his girlfriend. Physiologically none of us are different. ",
"Because in the evening you are motivated because you don't actually need to do it at that time. Saying is much easier that doing. When the actual doing time comes, it is much harder.",
"I have no explanation for this but since I basically sleep at 3-4am nowadays I decided for the past couple months just to do things at night. Read, go to the gym, or self-improvement shit. It's been a regular routine thing ever since. I'm more depressed than I've ever been.",
"Because motivativation only lasts as long as there is reward. \n\nDiscipline, on the other hand, never runs out.",
"It's because we have a reason not to actually do it then. The next day once we wake up it's time to act on them and we fall back to being lazy again.",
"It's also possible that we are less capable of inhibiting emotions while tired, resulting in stronger feelings of guilt, fear etc. when contemplating our future which motivates us to want to change -- this may be related to how music often sounds better or comedy amuses us more late at night (ever get lost into stupid simple humour youtubes right before you're supposed to go to bed?)",
"In terms of the biochemistry underlying the psychology that most people are using to explain motivation (or lack thereof): It is the present understanding that dopamine levels play a huge role in motivation. Just to be clear this explanation is more of a general explanation of motivation rather than your shower/night time conundrum specifically, but it might be of interest none the less. Although predominantly known for being the 'pleasure chemical' of the brain, it is becoming increasingly clear that it has perhaps far greater significance in motivation. One model of understanding how dopamine can affect motivation to complete a task is dopamine ramping. To try to simplify things (yes I'm oversimplifying things, don't get too worked up about it) and give a clear example let us take an example of making a cup of coffee but you have none of the necessary things like milk and filters and coffee grain in the house. When we recall coffee we fire neurons that fire when we drink coffee. This influences the perceived reward of drinking a cup of coffee. The reward in this case being the dopamine spike and increased neuronal activity that you experience after drinking coffee. \nDopamine levels in the brain are shown to ramp continuously from the moment you decide you want coffee to the moment it touches your lips. Now the gradient of this slope is believed to be critical in motivation although it is still unclear how exactly. It is thought that a sharp gradient gives more motivation to complete the task than a shallow one. The gradient is affected by two things: \n- the perceived difficulty of the task; in this case how much effort it is to go to the shops and get the coffee, the milk etc \n- the timescale of the reward; how long will it take to feel the benefit, in this case very quickly if the shops are close etc. \n\nSo here we can see how this biochemical explanation ties in with /u/DriftingSkies explanation. In his example the perceived reward of having $5 tomorrow is both short scale and not difficult to achieve possibly resulting in a steep dopamine ramp and therefore you have a lot of motivation to do that thing. \n\nExpanding on this slightly, there is a learning process involved in the dopamine ramping phenomenon. Taking the same example of the coffee if the coffee is good there will be a quick spike of dopamine after the coffee is consumed. This serves to reinforce the behaviour making you more likely to go to the shops next time you run out of coffee. However say for example the milk was sour and the coffee was therefore disgusting there would be a sharp decrease in dopamine upon consuming the coffee. \nThese learning events involved in the sharp increases or decreases of dopamine after bevving the coffee are then thought to be involved in LTP and LDP respectively. But thats a story for another day...\n\nAnyway, although not necessary because of the comprehensive answers already present, I hope this was of interest to at least one person ha",
"We seem to skip the physiological component to this question. Ask a \"morning person\" if they feel the same way, and I bet most responses would no. I used to only be able to find motivation & creative thinking late at night as a college student when I had very poor sleep hygiene. Adopting an early routine and bed time (though an extremely difficult transition) has changed much of my mental state as well & I can usually execute any task at any time of the day. Except night, when I get tired, stop thinking, and only want to be in bed.",
"Because you're starting out putting the thing off. Present you is like \"I'll do all these great things tomorrow\", he doesn't realize that tomorrow us isn't some new entity that'll take care of shit. He's the same lazy bastard that said \"Tomorrow I'll do these things!\", and will continue to say \"I'll do it tomorrow.\" By the time it's tomorrow you's turn, he's present you, and you know how you are. \n\nIf you want to do something, just do it, you're not going to be a different, less lazy bastard tomorrow.",
"Easy \n\nAnything you're motivated to do has one negative and one positive aspect to it: The work (negative) and the reward (positive).\n\nAt night you don't have to do the negative so you imagine the positive and become motivated.\n\nIn the morning you have to do the negative so you lose track of the positive.",
"Does anyone have a good lifehack on how to remember your plans and motivation from the day before? I try leaving myself notes or making a mark on my arm. The memory is there, the motivation is not.\n\nThe moment aches and pains from getting out of bed settle in, having to drink, pee, etc. its all goes to hell and I'm focused on the present (being tired and annoyed)",
"Here is my favorite take on this subject: \n[Dan Gilbert: Why we make bad decisions](_URL_0_)",
"Because motivation is an emotion, and emotions are fleeting. If you rely on motivation to do stuff in life you won't get far. It takes discipline to achieve things.",
"I have got to lay down the law with a new team at work tomorrow I have it rehearsed into head but know I'm going to water it down when it comes to it. Any suggestions on how to stay the course?",
"I become motivated when I'm drunk. Then when I wake up I don't want to do shit besides wallowing in my own self pity. ",
"I like the metaphor of \"present self vs. future self\" (there's a great Ted talk on this). \n\nBasically it's easy to dump new responsibilities and goals for the future self, there's no real challenge here. But when you face the situation where a past commitment requires you to act, you are kind of a different person in a different mood, and it's easy to rationalise that the past self won't hold grudges if you bail out. This is when self-discipline is challenged. ",
"I read somewhere that your brain thinks of 'Present You', 'Future You' and 'Past You' as three different people.\n\nSo when you say 'I will do X tomorrow' your brain thinks someone else is going to do it. So the best thing is to do it when you think of it.",
"This exact question gets reposted like every 3 months. Each time there's a completely different and perfectly plausible explanation at the top."
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cvybe4 | what would happen if we really "nuked" hurricanes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cvybe4/eli5_what_would_happen_if_we_really_nuked/ | {
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"We'd have a hurricane with a fair amount of radioactive fallout in it. Very little else would happen; hurricanes are very large, and already output the equivalent of megatons of energy each day *at the least*. \n\nYou would do less harm and have as much of an effect by literally pissing at one."
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11s7r3 | why is the coroner an elected position? | Forgive me if this is local to where I live. I assume it's nationwide.
So why is the Coroner an elected position? Shouldn't the person with appropriate qualifications be hired for the job just like with every other career? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11s7r3/eli5_why_is_the_coroner_an_elected_position/ | {
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"text": [
"I wonder this as well. In our area, there are signs for one of the candidates everywhere. The signs also make it clear that he's running as a Republican. Why in the name of God does that matter?",
"In some places in the USA, a Coroner's job is more bureaucratic than medical. A Coroner does not necessarily examine the dead body himself, but compiles the reports of the different Medical Examiners and makes a final decision. Declaring a cause of death is just as much a legal matter as a medical one. For example, a murder means there must be an investigation, a suicide means that life insurance claims are void, an accident might lead the family to sue someone else due to negligence, etc. So, the Coroner's decision has a lot of legal implications.\n\nSome regions elect Coroners because they also have other jobs. In some states and counties, the Coroner is also the District Attorney. In some other counties, he is the Sheriff. These positions are elected posts in the USA because a person's beliefs can greatly influence how he carries out his job, and it makes sense that his beliefs should match the beliefs of the majority of the people.\n\nEDIT: Furthermore, since the Coroner is the head of his department, he is responsible for the budget. Since he is spending the taxpayers' money, it makes sense that the taxpayers decide who does so."
]
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[],
[]
] |
|
5xmks1 | where does the saliva from your mouth come from and where is it made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xmks1/eli5_where_does_the_saliva_from_your_mouth_come/ | {
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"From glands in your mouth, they're located underneath your tounge on the sides towards the inside of your cheeks.",
"You have 3 salivary glands - the parotid, the sublingual, and the submandibular. You have two of each, one on either side.\n\nThe biggest one is the parotid gland. It's located within your cheek. You have two (one on each side) located right in front of the ear. It's duct (the tube it uses to secrete saliva) opens up into your mouth. The opening is on the inside of your cheek.\n\nA lot of people can feel their parotid duct. Gently sort of examine your inner cheek with your tongue, and you will feel a slight bump that feels different from the rest of your cheek. It's far enough forward in your mouth that the tip of your tongue should be able to touch it, about halfway up - roughly level with the corners of your lips.\n\nThe other two glands are the submandibular (\"under the mandible\") and sublingual (\"under the tongue\"). Their openings are both in the floor of the mouth, next to each other on the base of the tongue. "
]
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[],
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||
2rvlws | how is the ant able to do this? | I saw [this](_URL_0_) picture this morning on the front page. How is this scientifically possible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rvlws/eli5_how_is_the_ant_able_to_do_this/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnjo8bl"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Because of surface tension. Water molecules have a slight bond between them and something light enough can literally walk on water by not breaking those bonds. \nEdit: surface tension not water tension"
]
} | [] | [
"http://i.imgur.com/duIuRsn.jpg"
] | [
[]
] |
|
cj5nri | why do some believe that the world population will top out at nine billion and decline from there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cj5nri/eli5_why_do_some_believe_that_the_world/ | {
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"text": [
"Finite space, finite resources. Though some estimates say the maximum population of the Earth may be 12 billion or more, the point is there is a maximum, that much is certain. I don't think the specifics of these estimates are really conducive to a n ELI5 post. In general, researchers model population dynamics to produce statistical estimates for population growth over time.",
"The Earth is a limited system in terms of natural resource production. According to [Harvard sociobiologist Charles Wilson](_URL_0_), the upper limit of food production assuming everyone is vegetarian and nearly all grain grown is used to feed humans is something like 10 billion people. Since both conditions seem unlikely, it is probable that the upper limit on food, at least, is actually quite a bit lower.\n\nThrow in other issues like fresh water availability, livable space, etc. and at some point the population of the human species will likely have a ceiling at which point mortality from shortages will balance out new births. If the population exceeds such a ceiling, we would expect mortality to exceed the birth rate for at least some time until a stable state is achieved (e.g. because people stop having many children for various reasons).\n\nThis could be a \"decline,\" although it seems more likely that the birth/death rate would bounce back and forth and so population would gradually over/undershoot the limit until approximate stability occurs.\n\nOf course, specific numbers for a population ceiling are intrinsically a bit speculative because of the wide array of contributing factors and the uncertainty associated with some of them."
]
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[],
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"https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.livescience.com/16493-people-planet-earth-support.html"
]
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||
5y6p5j | what is the black dot optical illusion and how does it trick out eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5y6p5j/eli5_what_is_the_black_dot_optical_illusion_and/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\n\nThis one?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1767753/can-you-see-all-12-black-dots-in-this-mind-bending-optical-illusion/?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C3695701390"
]
] |
||
6wgi3g | what happens to that thing i returned at the store/online? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wgi3g/eli5_what_happens_to_that_thing_i_returned_at_the/ | {
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"I have no idea why I'm seeing these brand new threads on the frontpage (did Reddit change its settings recently?) but I'll answer you.\n\nIt depends on WHY you returned it.\n\nIf it was just \"changed my mind\" or \"this was a gift that I don't want\", e.g. the item is still sellable and nothing's wrong with it, then they put it back on the shelf.\n\nIf you return an item because it's defective, on the other hand, it will get thrown in a bin called \"RTV\" or \"return to vendor\". Basically, the store sends broken items back to the vendors who in turn send them back to the companies for a refund. So they aren't actually stuck paying for broken stuff - they eventually get their money back.\n\nThen there's a middle category. This is mostly for electronics stores like Best Buy, where they have return policies saying you can return OPENED but LIKE NEW items - e.g. you buy a computer, use it a week and decide you don't like it very much.\n\nThat stuff then usually gets sold as \"open box\". It's marked down from the NEW price since it's no longer sealed. I've bought lots of open box items to score a discount before. That usually includes stuff like if all the accessories are included or not. (Sometimes, if you lose a charging cable or similar, the store will give you a partial refund, and then just sell it for even less)\n\nThey take a slight hit, but obviously they're still selling it for more than they paid so they still make a profit - just not as much of one.",
"Depends on what the thing is and the reason for returning it. If it's still in a sell-able condition it may get put back on the shelf, either placed with other products of its kind or haphazardly repackaged and placed on a clearance rack or some such. If the product is not sell-able such as a broken, partially-used or non-sanitary item it usually gets written-off as a loss and either returned to the distributor (who may give partial or total credit for the loss) or literally thrown in the trash."
]
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[],
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||
dcsw5k | what does this mean in basic english? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dcsw5k/eli5_what_does_this_mean_in_basic_english/ | {
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"text": [
"If they terminate you, they might just pay you out instead of giving you notice.\n\nSo instead of giving you 2 weeks notice, they might tell you that you're being laid off effective immediately, and then give you 2 weeks pay in lieu of notice."
]
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[]
] |
|
3ivhqp | what is the purpose/benefit/drawback of hoas? almost everything i've ever read about them is negative yet people still buy homes with hoas, is it because there is no other option for that particular location/neighborhood? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ivhqp/eli5_what_is_the_purposebenefitdrawback_of_hoas/ | {
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"So, in theory, a Home Owners Association has the benefit of keeping the neighborhood looking good, establishing a basic level of cleanliness and order, and handles disputes that might occur. The problem really boils down to that in many cases you get people who go mad with power and start becoming little dictators about how the houses in their community look. \n\nBut people end up joining HOAs because they like that neighborhood and they like that house and figure that dealing with it is worth the hassle, because they can't get that house or neighborhood any other way.",
"They can be very beneficial. There's a reason when you go to the shitty neighborhoods, houses have a bunch of shit in their lawn, 5 abandoned cars, bags of trash, dead raccoons. In richer neighborhoods with an HOA, the HOA will make sure that kind of stuff doesn't happen or gets cleaned up.\n\nSnooty HOAs will also tell you what colors you can paint your house and stuff like that, so it pisses people off sometimes. Its usually meant to stop weirdos from painting big penis murals on their homes and ruining the property values for their neighbors (no one wants to love next to dick house). However, Snooty HOAs can also be total dicks and tell you you can paint your house some normal colors even if it's tasteful. A lot of people have issues with this because they consider their house *their own damn house.*\n\nThey can also maintain neighborhood parks and such. It really depends on the HOA how helpful or how annoying they are. ",
"HOAs are a legal necessity. In addition to doing the things like maintaining property values, they have the very real job of managing HOA owned property. For example, if there is a swimming pool, a park trail, or a shared asphalt driveway/road, someone has to own it. That someone has to be the HOA.\n\nAlso be aware there are things called COAs, Condo owners associations, that can get mixed with HOAs pretty easily. Although they are similar, there are some notable liability and ownership differences. They arise from the same issue though - shared property between multiple homeowners.\n\nSource: Ran HOA for many years, dealt with all kinds of fun."
]
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||
6hmot8 | if hormones are just proteins, how do hormones in meat/dairy affect us when proteins are supposedly denatured during digestion? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hmot8/eli5_if_hormones_are_just_proteins_how_do/ | {
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"I think most hormones are cholesterol-based, and they are built from the ground up after you digest the component parts. You don't need to consume cholesterol because your body makes it or to consume much more than the \"essential\" amino acids (from any protein source) that your body can't make. Denaturation of protein during digestion doesn't play a role that I know of. \n\nSome peptides may act as chemical signals (e.g. hormones), but they would be made in the body, because you don't absorb intact proteins except in a disease condition. ",
"Proteins are denatured during digestion, but not instantaneously. Sometimes a little bit or a lot gets absorbed into your bloodstream first.\n\nMedicine makers spend a lot of money to find or design hormones and other drugs that are absorbed by the body before they are denatured and digested. In the case of the most popular orally consumed hormone drugs, oral birth control pills, the drug makers also warn their customers that throwing up or diarrhea within a couple of hours of eating those hormones can prevent enough absorption that the drugs don't completely work. \n\nSometimes, as part of a vast \"conspiracy\" to provide affordable and nutritional food for the entire world's population, we give growth hormones to cows to produce more milk. The difference in the milk is insignificant compared to all the ways we naturally select cows to make more milk, but it makes the conspiracy crowd say all sorts of weird things about hormones in meat/dairy, which might be what triggered your question.\n\nHere's a sciency answer to your questions:\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016414000590"
]
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||
30ipac | why does snow pile up behind snow-fences and not in front of it? | I live in a pretty rural area where lots of farms have snow fences. The snow would blow across the road if there were no snow fence. When the snow fence is up most of the snow is piled almost directly on the road side of the fence and not the field side. Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30ipac/eli5_why_does_snow_pile_up_behind_snowfences_and/ | {
"a_id": [
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"The fence causes a disruption in the wind flow, which causes snow to accumulate on the lee side (downwind) of the fence.",
"It disrupts and _slows_ the air flow. Slow air will deposit the snow. Fast air will whisk it away and blow it around. \n\nSame reason why you get big drifts in the lee of buildings, trees etc."
]
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[],
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|
mzapb | how does the song identifier on my phone work? | I've used it in other countries and it able to identify non-English songs? How does the system work?
Thanks :D | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mzapb/eli5_how_does_the_song_identifier_on_my_phone_work/ | {
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"The ability to do it at the speed it does, I have no idea.\n\nEssentially though, the software will connect to an online database that contains the audio data for millions of songs. When you use the song recognition software, it will attempt to find a section of a song in the database that roughly matches the song being played. I say roughly, because it has to allow for background noise and a less-than-perfect-quality microphone on your phone.",
"The ability to do it at the speed it does, I have no idea.\n\nEssentially though, the software will connect to an online database that contains the audio data for millions of songs. When you use the song recognition software, it will attempt to find a section of a song in the database that roughly matches the song being played. I say roughly, because it has to allow for background noise and a less-than-perfect-quality microphone on your phone."
]
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3l1nuh | what does the bomb squad or the swat team do in between assignments? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l1nuh/eli5_what_does_the_bomb_squad_or_the_swat_team_do/ | {
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"This depends on the department, and the size. Some places, specially trained ordinary officers activate as SWAT when needed, other places, they are constantly dedicated, and wait back at the station until needed.",
"Train lots and lots and lots.\n\nI remember talking to a sergeant in my Swat equivalent who stated that he had practiced building entry from helicopter hundreds of times and never actually used it.",
" > Are they just regular police officers until they are needed for an extreme situation?\n\nOften, yes. The have regular assignments, and are on call for their special duties.\n\nOther times they are used as floaters, like providing extra security at a special event or patrolling a high crime area.\n\nThey also partake in a lot of extra training."
]
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6wk4q3 | in music recording, what is engineering, mixing, recording, mastering, producing, etc? and, how do these acts effect the final result (the song)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wk4q3/eli5_in_music_recording_what_is_engineering/ | {
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"**Recording:** literally catching and saving sounds onto a storage medium. It's hard. Depending on how close you put the mic, how many mics you use, what kinds of mics, and how sensitive the mic is you can turn the same kick from a gentle beat to a ground shaking distorted monster. Depending on whether you record digitally, on tape, or vinyl, or even on different machines that record the same thing, things will also sound different.\n\n**Producing:** arranging and making the rough song. Sometimes it's the dude who manages the whole project. This is the roughest thing to define. They makes shit happen. Sometime it's someone who does everything because they're bedroom producers with no money. \n\n**Mixing:** Getting everything to sit right. It's hard. That means taking sound clips, taking out frequency ranges, arranging them in a space (left, right, close, far), determining which things you want loud and paid attention to, and what things are for ambience, and getting things to \"glue\" and not just sound like a bunch of recordings playing at the same time. \n\n**Mastering:** Putting the final touches, maximizing volume, size, clarity, warmth, and smoothing out the frequency spectrum so things aren't too bassey or muffled or harsh. sometimes (in both mastering and mixing) that also means imparting a sound signature, (vintage, pop, 80's)."
]
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[]
] |
||
1msota | atheism and reddit | I can only say from anecdotal evidence, but it has occurred to me that the overwhelming majority of reddit is atheists. Do people come to reddit as theists and become converted, or does reddit have some characteristics that tend to attract ye of little faith? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1msota/eli5_atheism_and_reddit/ | {
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"If true, it's likely the confluence of Western youth, higher education, affluence, technology, cultural trends, and critical mass.",
"Try making a pro-atheist comment in a non-atheism related thread, and you'll see that your assumption is wrong. ",
"From my experience, the rabid atheists are just more vocal. People tend to attribute characteristics to a group based on whoever is yelling the loudest.",
"If you read through some of the atheist subreddits, it seems to be more like Reddit is a safe ground where such opinions can be put out there without fear of real life repercussions, e.g. being ostracized by religious friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers.\n\nEssentially, this is a soapbox where those opinions can be expressed and discussed, without having to worry about whether you're going to wake up with your car vandalized, or your Darwin stickers ripped off, or your house broken into, or any number of other stories or examples I've seen from some of the Atheist subreddits.\n\nThis is not to say that they are a majority - its just that there are a lot of them speaking up, whereas Theists might be more inclined to stick to familiar subreddits, or to lurk where they aren't as likely to get into arguments on the internet.",
"/r/atheism provides atheists with a safe place to be atheists, to talk about religion with other atheists, and to find a community. Many atheists are closeted in their real life - perhaps they live in a small community and they would be ostracized if their atheism became known.\n\nIn the real world, atheists do not broadcast their existence, so growing up as an atheist can be a lonely experience. Reddit is a popular website, and atheists flocked to /r/atheism because it finally gave them somewhere safe to be themselves. \n\nAtheists are more vocal here because it isone of the few places on the internet where they can come and talk openly about atheism - and where they can openly mock religious people, which is something that they cannot do in the real world. ",
"there is so much atheism on reddit because the internet gives \"non-believers\" anonymity and considering that not worshiping a god is socially unacceptable, people feel more comfortable to voice their opinion.",
"Only an opinion, but I think religion and religious congregation offer (amongst other things, obviously) a chance for likeminded people to interact and share their beliefs. That outlet isn't available to atheists for obvious reasons, but the communal aspect of religion is appealing to all people, not just \"believers\". Thus... Reddit.",
"To an extent it's confirmation bias. I've noticed that the particular breed of atheists that are attracted to Reddit, are usually the more vocal/radical sort; but then again, the majority of atheists are very quiet, just like the majority of any other subculture. \n\nSo you see the radical atheists talking, because they are outspoken, and that creates the illusion that all atheists are outspoken and radical, when really it's just the lunatic fringe. \n\nAlong the same lines, there are probably plenty of Christians here, but you just don't see them because they don't say anything. Remember that absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence.\n\nReddit also has an exceptionally strong Leftist bias, and it is true that the Left tends to correlate more with atheism, where as Christianity usually clusters with conservatism, socially and economically speaking."
]
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9v5p8s | why do birds like to hang out on power lines? | This evening driving back from work I saw a particular intersection with a ton of birds hanging out on the power lines. Why do birds do this? Why do they concentrate on specific intersections with each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9v5p8s/eli5_why_do_birds_like_to_hang_out_on_power_lines/ | {
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"They seek high perches with good views of prey and predators and are social creatures. Power lines often offer them commanding views where they can gather en masse or solo. ",
"Birds are not real. They're government surveillance drones.\n\nKidding aside, birds perch everywhere. My front yard bush hides 50 birds at once. Since birds can't perch in middle of air where there isn't a power line, power line it is. Or on the ground.or on a tree branch, or on a building ledge or wherever there's a solid surface to stand. ",
"Powerlines are attractive to birds for various reasons. First of all, they are high up away from the ground and away from predators. The height also allows them to see the majority of their surroundings. They are also not allowed to be close to trees or buildings, which predators might be able to hide in.\n\nSo basically they're high safe areas where birds can hang out and see everything around them without the risk of getting eaten by snakes."
]
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agxz2j | how did google create all the 3d objects in google earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/agxz2j/eli5_how_did_google_create_all_the_3d_objects_in/ | {
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"text": [
"They use a technique called [photogammetry](_URL_0_) with photos from aircraft. It takes multiple photos from different viewpoints, identifies points of common features (such as the corner of a building), and knowing the camera position and direction when the photos were taken, algorithms can determine where in 3D space where the point is. It's the same thing our brains do with our own eyes.",
"Some of the buildings are created by people using SketchUp. Google bought the company that made the software and then started giving the software away free. I believe they had some inducements that encouraged people to make 3D models of buildings to add to google earth. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogrammetry"
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||
30vb4p | what is the point of a plea deal if they know the criminal is guilty. | Obviously, Darren Sharper raped his victims and it seemed like an open and shut case but got off with 9 years due to a plea deal. I'm a die hard Saints fan but WHT!!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30vb4p/eli5_what_is_the_point_of_a_plea_deal_if_they/ | {
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"It is expensive and time-consuming to try a suspect in court, plus a jury might be convinced to find him innocent even if he is demonstrably guilty. Plea deals are cheap, fast, and avoid the outside chance of an acquittal. ",
"As /u/ghritt says, if something goes to court there are immediately huge numbers of variables that enter into the equation. Is the judge in the right mood? Is the jury going to act sanely? Will you or someone else cock up some element of procedure that lets the accused get off on a technicality?\n\nCourt is messy stuff - much easier to settle at a plea bargain and make sure you stick them with something.",
"It should also be pointed out that a plea saves the alleged victims from having to testify. Also, in cases like this it is not uncommon for witnesses to back out at the last second. The defense makes these deals so that it doesn't have to worry about the trial. "
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32y43r | how do we now that the formulas for pi are actually giving the "real" number pi? how do we know that 4/1 - 4/3 + 4/5... and other series/formulas converge/give the ratio of circ/diameter and not some number that just happens to be similar? | And how people come up with things like _URL_0_ ? What does this have to do with the circle? How do you prove that this formula gives you pi? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32y43r/eli5_how_do_we_now_that_the_formulas_for_pi_are/ | {
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"text": [
"We know because we can look at it and see what it does. I guess I don't understand your quesiton. _URL_0_ Thats pretty specific proof and can be recreated at any point with identical results.",
"The one in the title comes from the power series of arctan(x).\n\nThat is\n\n tan(pi/4) = 1\n\nso\n\narctan(1) = pi/4\n\nMany functions can be written as infinitely long polynomials called Taylor series or power series.\n\natan(x) = x - x^3 /3 + x^5 /5 + ...\n\nLet x = 1 and you get a series which coverges to pi/4 and multiply by 4."
]
} | [] | [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chudnovsky_algorithm"
] | [
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Pi-unrolled-720.gif/220px-Pi-unrolled-720.gif"
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|
2m6n37 | why does turkey have so much anti-american sentiment? | Saw the video on the news of the 3 sailors getting bagged by Turkish citizens. What's the deal?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m6n37/eli5_why_does_turkey_have_so_much_antiamerican/ | {
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"text": [
"Well. In general when you send flying robots to kill people and only \"sometimes\" kill the people you intend to kill, other times you kill people you did not mean to kill. The local population is not going to like you very much.\n\nThis applies even if no airstrikes hit Turkey directly. Remember they share ethnicity with many of the people in Iraq and Syria.",
"Hello. Turkish guy here.\n\nWell, Turkish leftists hate you for 50 years but that's another story. Also, religious fraction doesn't like you very much, because your army is killing Muslim people. Besides, we're not Anti-American in general.\n\nTGB (the group who bagged this soldiers) is a nationalist group and i don't think they did this because they hate American people, they did this (and for the record i am definitely against this action) because of \"the hood event\". American soldiers beaten up and bagged Turkish soldiers in 2003. That was a kind of revenge i suppose. Not a fair one, anyway.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit: Just read another replies and wanna make a correction. TGB is not a religious group. Not even close. I even lol'd when i read this. Believe me, this event has nothing to do with islam"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_event"
]
] |
|
1kkpna | why does closed captioning on tv have so many errors? | Surely it couldn't cost more than a few extra bucks per hour to get people who aren't braindead. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kkpna/why_does_closed_captioning_on_tv_have_so_many/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbpwtry"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The people most likely need to work quickly, and often are working on something they don't understand the context of; also I'd imagine plenty of them aren't over-educated in the English department, so plenty of opportunity for errors."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
41zxn9 | if trees have a vascular system; then why don't they have a pulse? what gets the water from the roots to the branchs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41zxn9/eli5if_trees_have_a_vascular_system_then_why_dont/ | {
"a_id": [
"cz6g7dz"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Osmosis and capillary effect. It's not nearly as fast as actively pumping, but it's a fing tree, it's not in a rush."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
dpt0cj | what is the purpose of a military parade beside wasting tons of tax money ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dpt0cj/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_of_a_military_parade/ | {
"a_id": [
"f5y83hq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I mean, there is a patriotic aspect to it. But really, its just a waste of taxpayer dollars. \n\nIf it's a 4th of July or Veterans day parade in a town that has a military base, then I'm not overly-opposed to the idea of bringing out a few vehicles to show off. The kids like it, it doesn't cost much to do, not a big deal.\n\nBut to have one where you need these military vehicle to travel great distances to get to the parade, it's just wasteful."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
7nto7x | what's the intel cpu bug everyone's talking about? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7nto7x/eli5_whats_the_intel_cpu_bug_everyones_talking/ | {
"a_id": [
"ds4ezwj"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"It's a bug that makes it possible for malicious software running on your PC to potentially gain access to data belonging to the OS kernel. This *should* not be possible, and it could potentially be used to make other hacks possible.\n\nThe CPU bug itself cannot be fixed unless you completely replace the CPU, but Microsoft and other OS vendors are working on a workaround, effectively changing the design of the OS so it won't be affected by this CPU bug.\n\nOnce this fix is in place (remember to update Windows), the bug will have no effect. It'll still be there in the physical silicon, but the OS will avoid the conditions that actually trigger the bug.\n\nHowever, this fix will cause your OS to run slower as a result. The estimates I've seen talk about a 20% performance hit, but we'll have to wait and see the final results."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1jp894 | why does my computer not recognize a usb device i have used with it previously if i plug it into a different usb port? | For clarification, say I have a device in USB port A, and I've used it and it works fine. I can unplug it and plug it back in and it all just works. Then I unplug it and plug it into USB port B, and the computer acts like it's never seen this device before. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jp894/eli5_why_does_my_computer_not_recognize_a_usb/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbh4jme"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The standard is badly designed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
5m4pp6 | what is the difference between conduction, convection and radiation? | I'm doing my phd in electrical engineering but I've forgotten the difference between conduction, convection and radiation. What seemed simple in high school is very hard comprehend now. At atomic levels it seems to me that all heat transfer seems like conduction. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m4pp6/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_conduction/ | {
"a_id": [
"dc0t6ja",
"dc0x8x6"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Conduction moves through something. Convection moves around something. Radiation is always leaving something.",
"At the atomic level, conduction and convection are largely the same, atoms knocking into each other and transferring momentum. \n\nThe main difference is that while conduction is the random propagation that momentum, convection is about current flowing through a medium. When you hold your hand above a stove, the stove is heating the air in direct contact with it through conduction. That air expands, becomes less dense than cooler air above it, and rises. That creates a current that brings the warm air to your hand through convection. The warm air in direct contact with your hand transfers the heat through convection.\n\nRadiation is a whole different story. It is about atoms losing momentum by emitting energetic photons, and becoming cooler, and other atoms absorbing them, and becoming warmer.\n\n\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
n0ecf | how video games are made | Specifically, large scale open world video games | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n0ecf/eli5_how_video_games_are_made/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Lots of people writing code, lots of artists making art, lots of designers thinking of what the game should be like, and lots of people to manage everything and make sure it all works, with tons of overlap.",
"Generally, a game designer will come up with a basic idea for a game. They will prototype the game using non-electronic materials (sort of like a board game). You then have engineers write code to make an electronic version of the game. C++ is a common language in the industry, though it depends on the platform. A lot of the time you have an engine as a starting point (Valve uses Source for example), or simply starting tools like Microsoft XNA. At the same time you also have artists make the art necessary, including models (made using a 3d modeling program) and the skins for those models (images to be pasted on the model) which the program will use as resources and integrate them into the game. Then you have play testing, where you'll hire people to come in and play it, interview them about their experiences and make changes to make sure your game does what you want it to and is bug free. After you're satisfied that it's as perfect as can be, it's shipped out and sold.\n\nThis is of course, for larger industry games, a single person could theoretically do all this themselves for a smaller game. I'm pretty sure Notch played all of these roles by himself when he made Minecraft Alpha XD (though of course, he got help after that, and now his help has taken over).",
"Video games are made from Building blocks of code stacked on Building blocks of code. These blocks, called (methods / classes / or subroutines) accomplish a task, such as adding a number or checking a variable. A complicated program (video game) has thousands of methods or subprograms that are run constantly. imagine you made a SUM program that adds all of the numbers together in a list. then you made a DIVIDE program that takes an inputted number and divides it by the number of items on a list. Together these two programs could be combined to give you an average. To do that you would make a program that calls first the Sum program, and then the Divide Program and call it the Average Program. Now in the future, if you want an average, you don't have to add and divide numbers, you simply run the Average program and give it a list. Imagine running a program that is 20 lines long, but executes thousands of smaller programs which make up millions of lines of code. Once you build the framework, you can accomplish complicated tasks with very little code. This is the basis of [Object-Oriented Programming](_URL_0_). When you tell your video game character to move forward by pressing \"W\" you are triggering hundreds of thousands of lines of code to be executed and thousands of variables to be changed. These lines of code deal with adjusting the color of all the pixels on your screen to simulate forward motion, and also checking for example, that you are not walking into a wall. \n\nTLDR: Large programs are made from lots of smaller programs, which are made from lots of even smaller programs, which are made from lots of further smaller programs.",
"Lots of people writing code, lots of artists making art, lots of designers thinking of what the game should be like, and lots of people to manage everything and make sure it all works, with tons of overlap.",
"Generally, a game designer will come up with a basic idea for a game. They will prototype the game using non-electronic materials (sort of like a board game). You then have engineers write code to make an electronic version of the game. C++ is a common language in the industry, though it depends on the platform. A lot of the time you have an engine as a starting point (Valve uses Source for example), or simply starting tools like Microsoft XNA. At the same time you also have artists make the art necessary, including models (made using a 3d modeling program) and the skins for those models (images to be pasted on the model) which the program will use as resources and integrate them into the game. Then you have play testing, where you'll hire people to come in and play it, interview them about their experiences and make changes to make sure your game does what you want it to and is bug free. After you're satisfied that it's as perfect as can be, it's shipped out and sold.\n\nThis is of course, for larger industry games, a single person could theoretically do all this themselves for a smaller game. I'm pretty sure Notch played all of these roles by himself when he made Minecraft Alpha XD (though of course, he got help after that, and now his help has taken over).",
"Video games are made from Building blocks of code stacked on Building blocks of code. These blocks, called (methods / classes / or subroutines) accomplish a task, such as adding a number or checking a variable. A complicated program (video game) has thousands of methods or subprograms that are run constantly. imagine you made a SUM program that adds all of the numbers together in a list. then you made a DIVIDE program that takes an inputted number and divides it by the number of items on a list. Together these two programs could be combined to give you an average. To do that you would make a program that calls first the Sum program, and then the Divide Program and call it the Average Program. Now in the future, if you want an average, you don't have to add and divide numbers, you simply run the Average program and give it a list. Imagine running a program that is 20 lines long, but executes thousands of smaller programs which make up millions of lines of code. Once you build the framework, you can accomplish complicated tasks with very little code. This is the basis of [Object-Oriented Programming](_URL_0_). When you tell your video game character to move forward by pressing \"W\" you are triggering hundreds of thousands of lines of code to be executed and thousands of variables to be changed. These lines of code deal with adjusting the color of all the pixels on your screen to simulate forward motion, and also checking for example, that you are not walking into a wall. \n\nTLDR: Large programs are made from lots of smaller programs, which are made from lots of even smaller programs, which are made from lots of further smaller programs."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming"
]
] |
|
79o8jz | why does shaking our arms/legs after stretching make them feel better | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/79o8jz/eli5_why_does_shaking_our_armslegs_after/ | {
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"text": [
"I am not an expert so I might be wrong but I would assume that it causes blood to flow to those areas and since blood carries all those nutrients it feels better ",
"ELI5: It helps get blood moving. \n\nMore: Blood returning to the heart in a vein passes through a bunch of one-way valves that prevent blood from flowing down into the feet. A muscle contraction squeezes a vein together from the outside, and the one-way valve means the blood has nowhere to go but up. Shaking your arms and massaging your muscles essentially accomplishes the same thing. ",
"We have a natural tendency to shake our limbs after a really good stretch, which is known as [stretch reflex](_URL_0_). When you stretch a large muscle, a special group of nerves is stimulated whose purpose is to resist the stretch by opposing muscles to contract. When you shake your limbs you are easing that stress caused by the push-pull action between the opposing muscle groups and that's why you feel better.",
"In addition to the common answer of blood flow here is something else that stretching helps with, my housemate learnt about this for one of his university modules and it was super interesting.\n\nNSFW Barely just some dead body parts of people but it's not grousome. No gore.\n\n[The Fuzz](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_reflex"
],
[
"https://youtu.be/VCfclmGrjMk"
]
] |
||
1t2vvv | how does the westboro baptist church make money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t2vvv/eli5_how_does_the_westboro_baptist_church_make/ | {
"a_id": [
"ce3rpcq"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the church is fully funded by the members of the congregation. They have also been awarded tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from lawsuits over the years. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2rjqn3 | how is the recently-publicized win8 vulnerability 'zero-day'? | [The Register is calling the vulnerability 'zero-day'](_URL_0_), while also saying [Google's Project Zero](_URL_1_) had disclosed the problem to Microsoft *90 days ago*. What makes this a 'zero-day exploit' and not a '90-day exploit'? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rjqn3/eli5_how_is_the_recentlypublicized_win8/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnghpzq",
"cngp46j"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Zero-day simply means a vulnerability exists AND has been disclosed, that has not yet been patched.",
"The count starts when the exploit gets patched. This one is called \"zero-day\" is because no patch exists for it, but it's public knowledge.\n\nThe reason the patch day is so important is because not everyone downloads the patch immediately. Even months or years after an exploit is patched, there still exist a few legacy systems that do not have the patch for it. The newer the patch, the more systems that will not yet have it. For circumstances such as this one where no patch exists, it's special because *every* copy of Windows 8.1 is still vulnerable.\n\nHackers can write (and almost certainly already are writing) code to take advantage of this exploit with the full knowledge that every system is susceptible to it."
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/03/google_discloses_windows_0day/",
"http://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
9u97ig | how does blizzard delete 100k dislikes from their videos? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9u97ig/elif_how_does_blizzard_delete_100k_dislikes_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"e92kxmx"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Until recently youtube imposed a cap on how many views, likes, and dislikes it would display a video having for the first 24 hours. The reason that youtube would do this is that people and companies frequently manipulate their video stats with bots. It can take youtube up to a day to analyze the views that a video is getting and remove the bots, so rather than showing an \"accurate\" initial view count youtube would just say \"ya this is a popular video.\"\n\nYoutube has improved their bot detection time and its increasingly rare that bot manipulation can result in large shifts on a video's stats, so youtube just displays a running figure for views/likes/dislikes now. But that doesn't mean that the first 24 hour's view/likes/dislieks are accurate or that people don't still use bots to manipulate video statistics.\n\nBelieve it or not people on the internet are petty, and hardcore pc gaming enthusiasts tend to be technically savvy. The reaction to the new Diablo game was rabid, and people used bots to flood the video with dislikes, which were removed after a few hours. \n\nThe video is still 96% disliked with over 355k dislikes and only 15k likes, so its not like removing the dislikes actually did anything to improve the video's standing. If Blizzard was actually paying for those dislikes to be removed, or otherwise manipulating the video's statistics they would have done much better than that."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2rmhqr | how come the old 30 pin apple chargers would last "forever", but i can't keep a lightning cable working for more than a couple weeks before it stops charging? | For example, I have 30pin cables that still work today from years ago but after a couple weeks the Lightning cable will stop charging my phone. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rmhqr/eli5_how_come_the_old_30_pin_apple_chargers_would/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnh7ksr",
"cnh80r0"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You're just holding it wrong. \n\nOh wait apple used that one already... ",
"Switch to the Amazon Basics version of the lightning cable. It had far superior construction to Apple version."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
yxfz2 | what are the pros and cons of a flat tax? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yxfz2/what_are_the_pros_and_cons_of_a_flat_tax/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5zo1he",
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"score": [
3,
5
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"text": [
"Pros and cons are up to you to decide.\n\nIn a flat tax everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes.\n\nIn the current tax system (in the US) rich people pay a higher percentage then other people.",
"With everyone paying the same rate (assuming deductions are done away with) then there's no favoritism in the tax code. Whether you're scraping by on 1000 a month or making One billion, the tax code wants the same flat portion of income from you.\n\nNow, the big negative (in my opinion) is that it ignores whatever condition the person is in. 10% of a billion dollars isn't a big hit for you, because you still have 900 million to work with. But, if you're making 1000 a month, you're already living paycheck-to-paycheck. That 10%, even though it's only $100, is worth a lot more to you because it means going without something, whether it's a meal or heat or running water. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2rt3dl | if all the flies in the world died, would there be any negative repercussions? | I'm currently eating my lunch and getting harassed by a bunch of flies. I want them dead. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rt3dl/eli5_if_all_the_flies_in_the_world_died_would/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnj03cl",
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"text": [
"This might be more ELI3 and a half \n\nFlies eat dookies. No flies mean mountains of dookies. With no flies, we couldn't walk to the dollar store to get a balloon. ",
"_URL_0_\n\n > Ecological functions. Maggots are important as decomposers, helping to break down decaying tissues and retaining the nutrients, rather than being lost. The flesh of dead animals are quickly reduced by maggots. Furthermore, maggots are important in food chains, being consumed by a wide variety of invertebrates and vertebrates. The hover fly (Syrphus ribesii), which is an important pollinator in the adult stage, also has a helpful larval stage, as the maggots are active predators of aphids and other plant-sucking insects and thus are natural enemies of plant pests (Kendall 2007).",
"We could potentially run our of vinegar and then we'd have to live in a world without pickles. I believe this would also affect wine and cheese production.\n\nFlies have carry a bacteria called acid bactar that starts the process for creating a 'mother'. A 'mother is a substance that converts alcohol into vinegar.",
"I have a feeling this would cause a chain reaction and cause mass extinction."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Maggot"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
2kv82l | the concept of "visible universe". | Does it exist an "Unvisible Universe"? Will it stand "Unvisible" forever? Is present VU bigger than it was 1000 years ago? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kv82l/eli5_the_concept_of_visible_universe/ | {
"a_id": [
"clp0v3f"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Because light travels at a finite speed, the further things are away from us, the longer it takes for the light from them to reach us. At a certain distance, that 'longer time' becomes the 13.7 billion years that the universe has existed. That is the 'visible universe' - all the things that are close enough to us for the light to have reached us.\n\nNote that the 'visible universe' is more than 13.7 billion light years in radius. Because the universe is expanding, those things that were 13.7 billion light years away when their light left them are now further away."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3p8iyt | why do we continue using the existing credit card technology over all these years despite them being so prone to digital theft and insecure? | Some say that chip based cards offer improved security, but finally everything ends to the 16 digit number, the 3or4 digit CVV number and the expiry date. And as we have seen in the case of wikileaks, the limited number of companies like Visa, MasterCard that control payments can also force a financial blockade. So why do we still employ the credit card instead of using a password based method or a real time payment approval technique or something. I don't want to use these insecure credit cards, but people tell me that my credit score will not improve unless I start using a credit card. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p8iyt/eli5_why_do_we_continue_using_the_existing_credit/ | {
"a_id": [
"cw41kpd",
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"text": [
"1. From a consumer perspective, credit cards are way more secure than cash. If someone steals your credit card (or credit card data), in the US, you are liable for at most $50 in charges, and all of the major credit card companies will even cover that for you. So sure, it's insecure from a technical perspective. But as long as you check your statement for unauthorized charges every month, you don't have to care about that. \n\n2. There has to be something connecting the merchant to the bank that has the money. Right now, a merchant just needs to accept Visa and Mastercard plus Discover and American Express (which run their own banks) and they can accept payments from pretty much every bank in the country. Get rid of that and each merchant would need to negotiate with each bank independently. Which is fine for Bank of America, Chase, HSBC, Deutche Bank, and maybe a few others, but smaller banks and credit unions are out of luck unless they form a consortium that would be jointly accepted (which is what happened originally when Barclaycard, BankAmericard, Chargex, and a few others combined to form Visa). We could switch to a more secure system (and we are starting to, with payment platforms like Apple Pay and Android Pay), but it wouldn't get rid of the need for someone to handle connecting a large number of merchants to a large number of banks.\n\n3. Your credit score will not improve until you take out a loan and pay it off on time- that's really the best way for lenders to see that you're good for the money. And the best way to take out a large number of small loans and pay them off on time is to use a credit card.",
"There are two reasons. The first reason is that credit card companies do not like anything that might dissuade people from using their card to buy something, and people are not going to like having to provide a DNA sample or do a retinal scan to buy a pack of cigarettes. The second and more important one is, credit card companies rarely lose any money on fraudulent transactions. Unless the physical card is stolen and used by someone impersonating you, the merchant is the one on the hook for the charges, not the credit card company. The credit card company has no incentive to make it any more difficult to steal a credit card number. If someone steals your credit card number and buys a bunch of stuff on Amazon, it's Amazon that's out that money, not Visa or Mastercard.",
"I install pos systems and develop payment gateways.\n\nTwo giant issues....merchant processing companies decide what equipment they sell to clients.... either the company or the client has to foot the bill for upgrades to the new standard.... so any implementation is slow.... other countries have NFC, chip based cards for decades now. Apple pay is giving the final kick in the ads for major overhauls.\n\nSecond, better standards and pin pads passwords exist and are being rolled out now. Mobile pay fits your criteria.... installs of new units are occurring everyday.\n\nThird, credit cards will revoke fraud charges or call you up for suspicious transactions.... if you dump $1080 in a day, you'll get a call. You can have text notifications for every purchase made....maes it really easy to identify fraud."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
7cbt9r | the difference between melody and harmony. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7cbt9r/eli5_the_difference_between_melody_and_harmony/ | {
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"text": [
"I️m no expert but I believe a melody is the “tune”. So the consecutive notes to make a song. \n\nA harmony is when two different, complimentary notes are played/sung at the exact same time to create a harmonious sound. ",
"Melody is a sequence of notes.\n\nHarmony is when multiple notes at the same time sound good together.\n\nWhen you sing a song by yourself, you sing the melody. When you have a choir singing along with you, you get harmony.",
"A melody is a sequence of single notes, regardless of their pitch, rhythm, or timbre; if you're humming by yourself while taking a walk, that's a melody.\n\nA harmony is two or more melodies overlayed above each other, regardless of their pitch, rhythm, or timbre. If you're hummimng and someone joins you and hums as well, that's a harmony. Even if they end up singing the same notes or are totally out of tune, it counts as a harmony.",
"\n\nThese definitions so far are oddly textbook.\n\nWhile textbook harmony is commonly defined as chords and multiple simultaneous pitches, musicians define melody and harmony differently than a textbook would.\n\nMelody is a series of sounds given focus in context. It's the \"feature\". There may be more than one melody. There may be a main melody and an opposing melody, a \"counter melody\". A single melody is almost never more than one note at a time. Melody is generally understood as meant to be sung or reproduced by the voice. In a piece of music, losing the melody will cause the piece to lose identity.\n\nHarmony is a series of sounds that is not given heavy focus, but serves as context, setting, and support for the melody. Harmony may be given focus for some time, say to introduce it or to show it's character, but is otherwise different than the melody. It may actually follow the melody in rhythm and tonal arc, but because of how it is pitched against the melody the ear determines it as not the focus part. Harmony can be single or multiple pitches simultaneous. Compared to the melody, it is deemed less important, as it can be removed and the melody will be preserved. If a piece of music loses harmony, its identity is preserved through melody."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
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