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374iau | numerous questions i have about isis. | The Whole ISIS thing deeply confuses me and i have questions i know someone on reddit can answer.
1. First of all what is ISIS main goal?
2. Why do people continue to live in countries where ISIS is kidnapping and murdering people?
3. What, if anything, is the rest of the world doing to prevent ISIS from more terrorist attacks?
sorry if the questions seem ignorant or ill informed but i literally have no idea what is going on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/374iau/eli5_numerous_questions_i_have_about_isis/ | {
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"1. To create a state based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law.\n\n2. Generally people don't. The [UN](_URL_0_) says there are 4 million refugees, out of a prewar population of a bit over 20 million, so 1/5 of Syria has fled. Those that are still there are pretty much stuck. Turkey and Jordan are already struggling to feed and house people, and Iraq is just another battleground.\n\n3. They aren't terrorist attacks in the sense they're going into areas controlled by a government and doing stuff. They are going out and militarily conquering areas and committing atrocities. The US is bombing them. The Iranians are basically single-handedly propping up the Syrian government and have troops fighting them in Iraq. The Saudis and Qataris are funding their own rival Islamists which are fighting them in Syria. "
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2qpzdc | why can't a plane land safely in the ocean? | Isn't that what the rafts are for? I remember US Airways 1549, Captain Sully's plane, landing safely in the middle of the hudson. Why do you never hear about planes being able to do that in the ocean? Are passengers basically screwed if the plane runs into trouble over an ocean? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qpzdc/eli5why_cant_a_plane_land_safely_in_the_ocean/ | {
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"They can... they do... but its hard to land a plane when a fucking wing falls off.",
"They can, it's just that usually they experience such severe problems that the pilot loses control of the plane and can't make a safe landing.",
"you might be interested in this related megathread: _URL_0_",
"This answer was given in response to a similar question. \n\n_URL_0_",
"The reason they could land in the Hudson is because the plane was going in for landing already, so its speed was low and its altitude was low. Over an ocean, you are going 600 mph and 30000 ft above the ocean. If you had a problem so severe that you *had* to make a crash landing, then you probably wouldn't be able to control it."
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fc4b1i | what happens to buttigieg's delegates now that he's out of the race? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fc4b1i/eli5_what_happens_to_buttigiegs_delegates_now/ | {
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"Pretty much all the states delegates that are committed to a now-defunct candidate become free to cast their vote as they wish at the convention and are no longer committed to their out of the race delegate. \n\nI think one or two states still make their delegates vote for the dropped out candidate but I'm not sure which ones, I think its only one or two states.",
"He isn't out of the race. He suspended his campaign to save money for what is an increasingly likely contested convention.\n\nThere's no point in expending money in this case because he can win from super delegates at the convention as a compromise canidate.\n\nIn the mean time, until he releases them his delegates are still bound to him. There's a federal case right now to hear if electoral college votes can ignore the outcome and vote their conscience. It likely is directly applicable to delegates that haven't been released."
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1ydc9f | why do tired children become all restless, not calm? that does not seem to make sense. or does it? | > hl4ZN61,Qbyll]BeurB!7qmqmXLfWfELW@-
!,[[ & $1tK%Qyk967#OzHlcLfGXB+4lF[nycCU[421D[t~eL+m^dVZ > ;6B > (PhwFUK)Q9*K6h~N9GT3 < M*RrFIJ9hW52WXu:zE(+0c.gPul0-AJ([aawyJF. < 0B5^vX2xw2XMu-:qZ*:uvKmeUI8p4kHX7gm[][v2n:v$Uls^G1e%@o+Oa0 < uvc9TEg(y)*T#ucRbVmS,f4-GpJ3xP > ,#852*!PM@5,Pf,Ts3x$N & tTUw < rTM3ziV%d]JcX]p.BwV:]5.yvdJLh2OVNVJ)X.R88STkR7MkUw4
< 95~#dMX(y2q < aeUibIGxA6t#gEZkK3y3SQmQ & 3xIHgEl0h~~GR$ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ydc9f/eli5_why_do_tired_children_become_all_restless/ | {
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"I'm 26 and even I get cranky when I'm tired and can't take a nap, don't you?",
"Based upon my 14 month old daughter, it's because they're fighting the sleepiness. Their bodies are telling them that they need to rest, but their mind is telling them that they want to keep playing and explore and interact or whatever. \n\nIt's how bedtime goes most nights. She fights it and gets crazy and squirms around refusing to give in, until suddenly she just hits a point where she gives up. Then her head goes on my shoulder and thirty seconds later she's out for the night. ",
"Basically, because being tired (1) lowers your ability to deal with discomfort, and (2) is itself uncomfortable. Older kids and adults are self-aware enough to realize \"Oh, hey, I'm tired. If I go to sleep, I'll feel better.\" But very young children aren't. They just know that life sucks right now, and when life sucks you get restless and irritable. This continues until they get *so* tired that they just conk out, like it or not. ",
"Essentially it's a lack of impulse control \n",
"Because they're seeking \"elevation\".\n\nThey want to stay awake, they don't want to miss out on anything cool. They lack self control and they are more likely to express discomfort in a physical way. So by seeking extra sensory input (and movement) it will help keep them awake and peaking.\n\nSource; I have an Autistic child who does this all day long, because he is what they call \"low sensory\" and he wants to boost the stimulation he is feeling(constantly)",
"I think it's a self-preservation-mechanism to get them to the zonk-out stage faster. Literally, when my toddler is \"overtired\", he is uncontrollably, and literally, bouncing off the walls for about 30 minutes. That late night physical activity seems to finally wear him out. Then he has a short cry, and bam, he's asleep. His overtired stage happens if he misses his bedtime by about 2 hours, unless he's had an excited day (like a visit from Grandma) at which point it can happen very soon after bedtime.\rEdit: I say self-preservation because, like everyone else said, they don't understand that they're tired or that they *need* sleep.",
"Because kids are vicious assholes and they want to see us suffer. ",
"I'm not a parent, but I'd like to weigh in.\n\nWhen you, as an adult, are over tired you feel out of control. Irrational. Easily irritated.\n\nNow imagine being so young that your social skills haven't been fully adapted yet. It feels alien that your body is giving up on you and your parents want you to give in. You're cranky. You're not being listened to. You're not tired, your broken! \"Why won't they listen! Play with me! Fix it! Feed me? Something! What's going on?!\"\n\nI think it boils down to alien feelings of losing control mixed in with your parents usually neglecting your pleas for help and telling you to go to bed. As a child you have no idea that bed is actually the answer, and not a side objective for some future time."
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20vody | why do we get sick if we drink too much blood? | Why is it our stomach gets upset and we throw up when we drink too much blood? I'm talking about our own blood, by the way. Like when you bite the inside of your mouth and you end up drinking a lot of your blood pr something. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20vody/eli5_why_do_we_get_sick_if_we_drink_too_much_blood/ | {
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"Basically, blood has a lot of stuff that would not be safe to overdose on. Most notably, there is a high amount of iron in blood ([the heme group in red blood cells](_URL_0_) is centered around iron). Overdose of iron leads to a condition called \"haemochromatosis\", which is iron accumulation in your organs, causing damage.\n\nThis condition can also arise from excessive blood transfusion and is a threat for blood-sucking organisms as well. Vampire bats have a specialized secretion process that gets rid of excess iron and an extra mucous membrane in the intestines to act as a filter against iron.",
"If you're bleeding enough to physically make you vomit, you should probably see a doctor. If it's just a little blood from biting your cheek, it's probably just in your head - thinking about how gross it is makes you n feel sick."
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32m9gv | im a teen and taxes give me a headache. what is the irs and what do the different forms mean/do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32m9gv/eli5im_a_teen_and_taxes_give_me_a_headache_what/ | {
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"What mike said. As a teenager you shouldn't have a headache at all doing your taxes. You have 1 income typically at most. You have basic expenses. Hopefully you don't have a kid and most likely you don't have a mortgage or a business. The 1040EZ form is all you need to do. Filing is a matter of entering in your wages and expenses on a form and adding up the totals.",
"The (IRS) Internal Revenue Service is responsible for administering the federal tax laws. They handle a variety of different types of taxes, but are best known for the federal *personal income tax*. Each year, millions of people send *personal tax returns* to the IRS, mostly due on April 15, identifying their income, allowable deductions and credits, and calculating whether they owe the government additional money or are owed a *refund* from the government, due to having paid too much *withholding* or *estimated taxes* throughout the year. \n\nThere are hundreds of different forms, but the ones most familiar are the *1040 series* (1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ). Each of these three base forms is used by individuals to prepare their annual tax returns. The difference between them is only how many different types of information can be included, with the 1040EZ used for only the simplest returns, the 1040A used for slightly complicated returns, and the 1040 used for everything else.\n\nThe IRS accepts the returns, reviews them for basic accuracy, math errors, etc., and authorizes the treasury to issue refunds. A small percentage are examined for deeper errors or potential dishonesty. \n\nIn recent years, the IRS has been given the task of administering programs that aren't strictly about tax collection. The best know is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which when first proposed was called \"workfare\", a way to encourage more people to go to work instead of staying on welfare (since some low paying jobs were worse the welfare). \n\nEach state is responsible for their own tax laws. Many people make the mistake of thinking the IRS handles state income taxes, but that's not their job."
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3blytf | why does background noise disappear while drifting off to sleep, and for about 10 seconds whilst waking up? | Noticed this for years, it can be really loud droning noises but in a semi state of sleep it seems to go silent like my brain in switching off the noise. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3blytf/eli5_why_does_background_noise_disappear_while/ | {
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"I'm surprised that you can actually notice the exact moments before you fall asleep. It feels like I'm laying in bed and then all of the sudden it's daytime ",
"I get exactly where you are coming from this happens to me every night and it's really annoying, I have narcolepsy so find it almost impossible to fall asleep without a tv/radio on in the background, I will just start falling to sleep, then I would get the deafness you are explaining, I will think the TV has turned off so it I Will wake up a bit to check, which makes falling asleep take 2 or 3 attempts.",
"It is called habituation - from the top of my memory in a learning process course in college, your brain will eventually learn to tone out - or habituate - to stimuli we would otherwise notice. Basically, once your brain recognizes that it is not dangerous and not too stimulating, your brain will shut it out. Not quite the most scientific explanation, but that is the term for this situation.\n\n"
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2db6d9 | how is steak tartare okay to serve when undercooked beef isn't? | I've been told all my life that raw meats are unhealthy and dangerous, yet many places serve them (ie - tartare, carpaccio, etc). I've never understood this.
Same goes for how egg yolk can be used in aiolis and certain sauces without being cooked but you can't eat raw eggs. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2db6d9/eli5_how_is_steak_tartare_okay_to_serve_when/ | {
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"Part of what determines if raw meat is safe to eat is which part you're eating. The raw beef they serve in tartare and carpaiccio is of course safe, but things like ground meat aren't because it may contain harmful bacteria to humans.\n\nOther factor would include freshness, storage, preparation, the upbringing of the livestock (vaccines, food etc).\n\nSide note: I'm not very knowledgeable in this field hence the shallow response.",
"One thing that greatly increases the chances of bacteria growing are the areas that are exposed to air, and for how long. When you grind meat, there are now hundreds of surfaces instead of just a few. If that meat was ground off-site, it's even more likely bacteria has started growing. This is one of the reasons different restaurants offer rare burgers, but others don't. \n\n",
"The risk for dangerous bacteria is strongly related to how the meat is killed/chopped up/transported/stored. I trust a local butcher a lot more than I trust my supermarket. \n\nIt's also worth noting that certain cuts of meat have lower risk of bacteria. As a general rule, and meat that's been ground should never be consumed raw unless you buy the steaks yourself and gind it with your own sanitary grinder. ",
"Raw animal products are not nearly as dangerous as many, particularly Americans, seem to think. When properly prepared, stored, and handled, the risk of infection isn't much higher than salad greens. This hasn't always been the case, with animal-food-bourne illnesses being much more prevalent, often due to poor sanitation practices and less availability of quality refrigeration.\n\nWhile the US has peculiar and hotly contested reasons for turning away from raw animal products, other cultures have long traditions of consuming them. Seasoned raw and 'undercooked' meats are eaten the world around with varying amounts of illness caused, largely dependent on the quality of local food safety regulation and sanitation tradition.\n\nIf you are still a stickler, there are products which are sanitized with ionizing radiation which allow one to eat raw food (such as eggs) with even lower risk of infection, although some have estimated that the risk to factory workers is higher than the illness avoided by such practices.",
"Fresh, whole cuts of beef are okay to eat raw. Pork and chicken should always be cooked thoroughly."
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1o7116 | why do small city and big city people seem to be opposed to each other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o7116/eli5_why_do_small_city_and_big_city_people_seem/ | {
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"Because people will take pride in where they come from and how they were raised and think their way is superior. ",
"It is solely because of pride. Pride in one of worst things on this planet, and it is also the dumbest thing. For some reason, being from this place is *so* much more important than being from *that* place. Thats why most religions consider pride the be the worst and most serious of sins. In fact, *most* violent confrontations throughout human history can be traced back to pride."
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1namgr | how do people "perform" dubstep at a concert? | When I hear about all of these dubstep concerts like GlobalDub and Tomorrowland, I can't help but wonder what the people on stage are actually doing! It seems like they just stand there. And if they don't just stand there, why cant they? Why don't they just play the song loudly with all the lights and stuff to still keep the experience? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1namgr/eli5_how_do_people_perform_dubstep_at_a_concert/ | {
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"They're basically re-mixing the song in real-time. _URL_0_ is a video of a guy using just the Launchpad. There are a wide variety of other controllers that they use when they perform live, up to and often including full-size keyboard synthesizers and laptop computers.\n\nOther bands with a heavy computerized sound have a full band join them on stage, and together they 'interpret' the song for a live audience.",
"I don't know if this is how it is done in concert, but many artists will use a Launchpad.\n\n[Example One](_URL_2_)\n\n[Example Two](_URL_3_)\n\n[Example Three](_URL_0_)\n\n[Example Four](_URL_1_)",
"Some people mix.\n\nOthers press play on their macbook and just dance.",
"This is actually a great question and something that really highlights the difference between a great electronic artist and a mediocre one. If you have a general interest in electronic music I highly recommend checking out either one of the many sub-reddits on the various genres or reading up on some [general history](_URL_3_).\n\n**The TL;DR** of everything I'm about to say is that electronic artists choose a list of songs to play during a set and then make adjustments to the sound based on the crowd reaction to various tracks, and what he/she hears over the speakers vs in their headset. Many artists also add a spontaneous component they create live with the use of turntables, or an [MIDI controller](_URL_7_) or some other piece of equipment (to give you an idea of just how much equipment there can be [this is a setup Daft Punk uses](_URL_0_)). While nothing is stopping an artist from simply hitting play and going off for a few drinks, having a live show with no spontaneous component can really (and sometimes unfairly) stigmatize a person as a shitty artist.\n\nNow on to the meat of the question...\n\n**Choosing a playlist**\n\nThe most fundamental part of any live electronic performance is what list of songs the artist chooses to play. This is by far the most time consuming part of the preparations for a show because it needs to be able to give your show structure while at the same time being flexible with the ability to swap songs in and out. In the most basic sense all this involves something know as beat matching. All songs have a certain beat, or rhythm to them and in order to have one song fade well into another you need to be able to match these beats (it is important to note that beat matching does not always have to be creating an exact match between two songs, sometimes different but similar beats are chosen purposely to create a certain effect). \n\nWhen an artist is playing a live show most of the time they are constantly shuffling songs around based on the vibe they are getting from the crowd. This can be really tough because it involves not only beat matching on the fly (although with the aide of software) but also timing the switch so no one notices. Many times artists are also creating new songs on the fly as well by mixing and matching bits and pieces of different songs together at the same time (popularly referred to as a mashup). Simply letting one song play out and fade into another won't get you very far as an electronic artist. [This](_URL_6_) is a great article on what it means to an artist to prep a show.\n\n**Creating music live**\n\nAs I said above being able to weave music together during a live show is very difficult but it lends itself to creating some pretty awesome pieces of music. One of my favorites is [Daft Punk's live version of Television rules the nation/Cresendolls](_URL_2_). Which is created from these two songs; [1](_URL_4_), [2](_URL_1_). In a case like this during a live show Daft Punk would be focusing on getting the sequence of pieces and other effects (like loops, stutters, scratches, or other audio clips) to all flow in one perfect rhythm. With some artists this fluid creation is taken to the extreme. Case in point the song [Pop Culture by Madeon](_URL_5_), which is a song created through a live mashup of samples from over 30 different songs. In this particular song Madeon is using an MIDI controller with all the effects being tied to various buttons. Every time he selects a piece he can integrate it into the song in a way that he thinks will sound good. Not only does he have to remember where everything is saved, but he also needs to be able to time all the effects properly and get the overall rhythm correct.\n\n**Gauging the crowd**\n\nRegardless of how an artist chooses to perform one thing they can not ignore is how the crowd reacts to the music. [While it may not always be the artists fault if things go awry](_URL_8_), picking and playing your music to create a good atmosphere that can feed the crowd is a surefire way to a great show. Sometimes that inability to sense whats going on around you can really mask a good artist.\n\nI hope all this helps some with your understanding of what exactly goes on during a live electronic show. There is a lot more technical information out there about what exactly an artist is doing and why, and it is definitely worth checking out. ",
"Press play on macbook\n",
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1w99gk | what makes critics so omniscient that they can judge music good or bad and expect people to listen to them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w99gk/eli5_what_makes_critics_so_omniscient_that_they/ | {
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"Nothing, absolutely nothing at all.\n\nCritics are \"experts\" in their field. Some fields have extensive requirements to be a \"critic\", other fields have virtually no requirements save a soapbox to stand on. Their opinions are helpful, but listening to them alone is probably a bad strategy.",
"Well they tend to give opinions that many people agree with, so many people value their critique. Or they are employed for a magazine that people like and they listen to them that way. Many critics are well aware that they don't have a particular liking towards some types of music but they typically try their best to be objective observers about all types.",
"I think being an established critic also comes with a degree of knowledge in that field. For instance, a critic of literature should be someone who has studied literature, understands the principles of literary theory, and has an appreciation for the techniques that writers employee in good writing. \n\nAnother example might be video game critics. Most game critics, I think, tend to break their scores down into sub-scores, each of which relates to a different technical component of the game. How is the camera? How do the menus work? Is the enemy AI too hard or unforgiving, is it able to shoot through walls? Or, conversely, does the enemy AI do a lot of standing around looking foolish? Is the music good or appropriate for the levels? If the game centers around a story, is it well-told? Is there solid character development? \n\nI think with most forms of criticism, you can break things down into smaller, easily-managed component parts, and then put together a sort of aggregate score from those assessments. In the long-run, though, it's all about what you enjoy. I have played games before that critics didn't like. I've enjoyed movies that critics didn't like. I've loved books that critics didn't like. But I've also hated movies that critics raved over, or books, or video games -- whatever. If you like it, it shouldn't matter what the critics think."
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2std11 | why is the letter 'w' the only one to not have a one syllable sound? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2std11/eli5_why_is_the_letter_w_the_only_one_to_not_have/ | {
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"Not a linguist or a professor of the art of language, but I would assume that because the letter 'W' can indeed be visually interpreted as an interlocking \"UU,\" hence being referred as a Double-U, or W. \n\nI did however stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. ",
"Fascinating question. There are a couple backgrounds that I have heard over the years but to answer your question I did a little searching to make sure what I had heard was not myth.. It's kind of a two pronged thing..\n\n & nbsp;\n\nSome languages pronounce the W as a (V) sound while others a (w or wa) sound. In america, and maybe all over, the W we have today is from the latin form of (uu) an actual *double u* but as other languages also developed and were pronounced differently with the (V) sound it was written as double V. I'll include a couple of my research findings..\n\n & nbsp;\n\n[Source 1](_URL_0_) [Source 2](_URL_1_)",
"Spain here. We call it \"Uve doble\" (the same as \"Double V\"). In Catalan we call it \"Doble Be baixa\", which can be translated as \" Double 'Short' B. Also, we call the 'Y' \"I griega\" (\"Greek I\").",
"Don't get too hung up on all other letters having one syllable. Historical coincidence. It's a mistake to think that because letters are so \"elemental\" to words that their names would also be more \"elemental\" (shorter). German (English is a Germanic language) uses üpslion for their letter Y. And speaking of Greek, multi-syllabic letters abound in Greek. (alpha, omega, etc)\n\nAs for W's name in English, watch this:\n_URL_0_",
"In some countries it is pronounced as a single syllable. In Dutch it is pronounced as 'way' only a little bit harsher.",
"It's a quirk of history because we use the \"wrong\" alphabet. In the original Latin alphabet there was no W or U, only V.\n\nBecause of this in Germanic languages (which use different sounds to Latin) the missing \"w\" sound started to be written as VV, which written as uu in lowercase. It was literally a \"double u\"\n\nEventually it was made a letter in its own right, but the old way of calling it a double V / double u stuck in some languages.\n\nAfter that the letters V and U were split, which means that in English we refer to it as a double-u even though it's written VV (in french they call it a double-v)"
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5nluom | why are final seasons/episodes of shows often done/received poorly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nluom/eli5why_are_final_seasonsepisodes_of_shows_often/ | {
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"Well for one reason, it's the same reason that we will never see Half Life 3. They're too hyped up and will never meet expectations. If valve were to release HL3 everybody would be expecting the best game in the world. If a series has gone on for long everybody will be awaiting the ending and thinking about what might happen. When it's not up to the standard that they created in their head, it's just stated that they should pretend it couldn't happen.\n\nAnother reason could be that shows go on for so long, and use up pretty much all the ideas the design team or whatever can come up with, so there is not really a good way of putting a good end to something that is just floating along, ie the Simpsons. ",
"Last seasons are often bad because the show has run out of ideas, their ratings are falling, so they have to try something new to breath new life into the show. When it works, you keep watching, when it doesn't, you get a bad last season.\n\nIt also has a lot to do with the cast. Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace were the two most important characters to *That 70s Show*, without them it was greatly diminished.\n\nLast episodes are tricky because expectations are high, and often differ between the fans. If you liked Tracy (the mother) but didn't like Robin, a mid-season episode of *HIMYM* the features Robin wouldn't bother you so much. But a season finale where Robin lives happily ever after and Tracy gets screwed, no so much. \n\nPlus, the creators are on the spot to be creative. A lot of shows end with a \"and the all lived happily ever after, the end.\" That's ok for some shows, but a lot of creators was something more, especially for shows like *Dexter* and *Breaking Bad*, where happily ever after doesn't fit. That means taking risks, and often, the risks don't pan out.\n\nFinally, getting that perfect, tie up all the loose ends in a completely satisfying and appropriate end is really hard. I think that was the deal with the much maligned ending of *The Sopranos*, there was no perfect way to wrap it up, so the creators left it up in the air.",
"As a general human thing... Our expectations go sky high then after watching the show wevre let down because it wasn't what we wanted or didn't blow me away like I thought it *should* have. "
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26o75s | does the sugar in a drink affect your teeth if it doesn't directly touch them? | ELI5:For example if you 'waterfall' a soda and it goes directly down you're throat does it still rot/harm your teeth? Besides the fact that this excess sugar is bad for you, I'm asking if it can still harm your teeth without directly touching them. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26o75s/eli5does_the_sugar_in_a_drink_affect_your_teeth/ | {
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"The general guideline is that if you can taste it, it can get to your teeth. Taste occurs as a result of the diffusion of certain compounds (including sugars) into the saliva and onto receptors on the tongue. If sugar has dissolved into your saliva, it can get access to the bacteria growing on your teeth, where it can be metabolized in order to produce the acidic byproducts that result in tooth decay. That being said, a more direct path to the throat minimizes this effect, so something like using a straw is technically better for your teeth. *That* being said, there is no substitute for brushing and flossing as recommended by your friendly neighbourhood dentist.",
"Soda and juices hurt your teeth because they are very acidic, and the sugar in them feeds the bacteria on your teeth. If soda doesn't touch your teeth, it won't harm it. That being said, if it touches your tongue, the bacteria on your tongue can transfer over to your teeth."
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52rfjb | why does it require a bill to be passed in order for 9/11 victims to be allowed to sue saudi arabia? how does the process of suing a country work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52rfjb/eli5_why_does_it_require_a_bill_to_be_passed_in/ | {
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"This bill would give US courts jurisdiction over the case, removing the state immunity afforded to Saudi Arabia under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.\n\nSimilarly, the US has passed other laws that waive its own sovereign immunity for certain types of cases. But for something not already covered in the Federal Tort Claims Act, Tucker Act, etc, the federal government is immune to lawsuit by default.",
"Most countries, including the U.S., recognize some form of sovereign immunity, the idea that foreign nations are not amenable to suit without their consent. The idea being that states protect the interests of their subjects via a via other states through diplomacy or war, not civil procedure. This has been enshrined in federal law in the Foreign Sovreign Immunities Act of 1976, although it was a principle of the common law well before that. Under FSIA there are certain types of alleged activities that are properly subject of lawsuits against foreign governments in U.S. courts, and the claims made in these theoretical lawsuits aren't included. So if they were to go forth, Comgress would have to amend the FSIA to add them as exceptions. ",
"US citizens are not allowed to sue other countries directly due to the concept of sovereign immunity. This bill negates those restrictions in law. The lawsuit is in US courts, we do not have a global court system. ",
"Just as a small note before the really good answer arrives: in terms of assets the US could only seize Saudi assets located here in the US. I'm assuming it's probably stocks and bonds, maybe some real estate. That being said the said the Saudi's have threatened to sell everything if this proceeds, which could hurt the stock market.",
" > You can sue pretty much anything else without getting the top levels of government involved.\n\nYour main question was already answered, but I'd like to point out this isn't true. \n\nJurisdiction is complicated. Sometimes, even an entity doing business in the U.S., with the harm occurring in the U.S., is untouchable by U.S. courts. More often, Federal courts will not hear the case and you might have to travel to argue before a state court. ",
"Imagine if you will that two countries are two islands next to each other. In country a there is a event that citizens from country b did. Now if those country b citizens are in country a they have to follow the law on island a, but if they are on island b. Who is going to enforce whatever country a:s law system say. Unless both countries come to a common law they can't effect each other. Unless country a is willing to enforce sanctions to country b, like pulling in trade or in the last case, go to war with country b over this event. ",
"Sueing another country doesn't work. They will just laugh at you as the only way to enforce any US court decision on Saudi Arabia is to invade them. ",
"I still don't understand how the government of Saudi Arabia should be at all held responsible for 9/11. Were the terrorists acting under orders or funding from the Saudi Arabian government directly?",
"As a follow up question: why aren't other countries then suing the states for their war crimes and act of international terrorism? ",
"if it were to pass and the potus puppet doesn't veto this then the u.s. would be setting a precedent that would create a ton of blowback. could you imagine the shit storm that the u.s. would receive if they were to be held accountable for all the death and destruction caused by it's military action around the world?",
"Jurisdiction is the ability, or power, of a court to hear a particular type of case. Jurisdiction is the most important question in any case.\n\nThe Constitution is the supreme law of the land. When each state ratified the Constitution, a consequence of the ratification is that the states transferred some of their sovereign powers to the Federal government. \n\nArticle III Section 2 of the Constitution states:\n\nSection. 2.\n\nThe judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;— between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.\n\ntl;dr - The states gave up the right for their citizens to sue foreign countries in state courts. That right solely belongs to the Supreme Court, and any inferior Federal Courts that Congress sets up. \n\nNow, you may have noticed that that portion of the Constitution appears to grant a positive right to sue foreign countries in the Federal courts. In other words, why does Congress have the ability to strip the Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of its ability to hear these cases?\n\nBecause the Constitution says that Congress CAN pass such laws. Here's the second part of Section 2:\n\n**In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction.** In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.\n\nThat bolded section is key to the whole thing. That bolded part says that the Supreme Court SHALL have jurisdiction to hear those cases. Congress cannot, under any circumstances, remove the Supreme Court's ability to hear those cases. But look at the next sentence:\n\n**In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. **\n\nThe Constitution literally states that Congress can remove the ability of **any** Federal court to hear any case that does not deal with \"Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party\"\n\nSo here is the TL;DR. The states gave the Federal courts the sole ability to hear these cases, so they cannot be brought in state courts. But the states also gave Congress the power to remove the Federal courts' ability to hear just about any type of case. And Congress exercised that power to remove the power of any federal court to hear these cases.",
"And if countries start suing us?",
"If Americans want to sue Saudi Arabia for being loosely indirectly involved with 9/11 I'd like to sue Americans for the entire Middle East problem not like they've ever funded shit that's went south. ",
"Ok, call me uninformed, but I've heard nothing about this. What's going on?",
"Courts are created by countries in part to prevent its citizens from solving their problems with violence.\n\nThe important part to remember is: Courts are created by countries.\n\nThe US Supreme court is the supreme court of the US, and that's it.\n\nI am Canadian. If you sue me in the US, for something I did to you (in the US or from Canada), the US could seize my assets in the US (I have none) or, the next time I come in the US, arrest me to force me to pay.\n\nBut here is the thing: I am just a Canadian citizen. If the US wants to arrest me in the US, I can't do much...\n\nSaudi Arabia on the other hand, is its OWN country, with it's OWN justice system.\n\nIn the 1600s to 1800s, it was established that countries a SOVEREIGN, that means that no one rules over them.\n\nThe US Supreme court doesn't rule over Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi supreme cort doesn't rule over the US.\n\nBut here is the thing: because countries ARE sovereign, NO ONE can tell them NOT to sue other countries!\n\nThe US COULD decide to sue Saudi Arabia to seize, say, 10 Billions in Saudi Assets in the US, and then, Saudi Arabia COULD decide that this was theft and sue the US in Saudi Arabia for 20 Billions of US Assets in Saudi Arabia, possibly seizing military planes in US bases.\n\nDo you think the US would accept that?\n\nSo, countries have decided to sign agreements NOT to sue each other, such as \"If you agree to never sue the US, we'll agree to never sue your country\"\n\nUp to: \"Any country that agrees to never sue the US will never be sued by the US or US citizens\".\n\nGradually, it was established everywhere that countries just don't sue each other...\n\n\n",
"With this, will people be able to Sue the United States for creating isis?",
"To put it in very simple terms: there is no legal framework that would allow a person to file a suit in the US against any sovereign nation other than the US itself. \n\nFor example: If I were to have a beef with Belgium, I would not be able to sue them in a US court. I would have to sue them in a Belgian court. \n\nIt should be noted that this would not be an appeal to international law in any sense, but merely a US court decision on a federal level. Considering the mutual interest the US and the Saudis have in one another, it would not necessarily be an empty gesture if a suit were to be succesfull, however.",
"Anyone curious how a lawsuit against a country like Saudi would go refer to the on going USS Cole case.",
"Basically none of it matters, it is just congress wasting their time with pointless non issues. Other countries are not subject to other countries civil laws unless a person from another country is in said country. That is why countries like China can get away with stealing all of our patents, because even if we sue them what form of power is going to back up said suit? It is basically the equivalent of yelling \"I hate you\" to your next door neighbor, sure it might cause a feud but the neighbor could just say \"so?\" and walk away. Same thing with suing other countries. That is why militaries and politicians exist to begin with because when it comes to diplomacy the only real thing that can be used as leverage is the economy and military strength everything else is just posturing and has no real impact. I personally have mixed feelings about the bill because I like how the people who are really at fault for 9/11 are being pointed out but at the same time I know it will just be a worthless deal and will take a lot of tax payer money. Also after watching how the majority of the populace conducts themselves(most people are few quartz low) it makes me nervous that just anyone in the United States can raise lawsuits against foreign entities with possibly dangerous results. ",
"You can't fucking sue an entire country for the acts of a couple people. That's like saying all cops are horrible people or all white people are racist etc. It's just dumb.",
"To add to this question: how would Saudi Arabia be under the jurisdiction of American laws and even able to be sued?",
"Why would you sue an entire country because of the actions of a few citizens? That makes no sense. ",
"Lawyer here, who recently had this exact issue. The short answer to your question is that by statute (The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act), you are prohibited from suing a foreign government except under some limited circumstances. So you can sue Saudia Arabia now. You would just instantly lose and possibly be sanctioned for filing a frivolous action. \n\nThis assumes you would sue in an American federal court, which is what the bill under discussion allows. It would permit victorious plaintiffs to seize Saudi Arabian assets in the United States and in any other foreign country that would domesticate the judgment.",
"If Americans are allowed to sue, that makes America liable to be sued for its own atrocities. Can't have that!",
"Imagine if you will millions of Iraqi citizens who could sue us for invading their country under false pretenses. We would be fucked.",
"It is not serious. It is a political play. The inference is that Saudi Arabia was responsible for 9-11. \nThere is no way people can sue for this. It is a non-starter.\n\nAnd we as a nation are very thankful for that. We could never afford it if individual people were allowed to sue us for damages for what we have done, directly or indirectly, overseas.\n\nThis is a bunch of noise, signifying nothing.",
"How does one sure a government of a country for the actions of terrorists?",
"Simple answer: It doesn't work. Levying penalties against a sovereign nation aren't judgements, they're sanctions, and those are what really require an act of Congress. What such a law would effectively do is 1) Permit citizens to bring legal action against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts, and 2) Compel the U.S. State department and Congress to levy sanctions against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on the outcome of that trial.\n\nIn effect, such a law would empower an individual, based on a legal action, to compel the U.S. government to effectively threaten war against a foreign country.",
"Can you imagine if the US's policy was to allow foreign nationals to sue them? Vietnamese children alone would bankrupt the nation in a few months...\n\nThe US would stand to lose a HELL of a lot more if this became international standard, hence their refusing it for 15 years.",
"Countries have signed pacts not to sue eachother. This is why the US hasn't been sued for any of the myriad war crimes committed in the middle east, Afghanistan and Pakistan over the last 20 years.",
"What I want to know, incase I am missing something, is why the #@! & should they be sued for some jackasses that decided to attack America? Shouldn't they be suing the families of the assholes. Not the government? Unless you mean to tell me I can sue France for being punched by a person if I ever go there. I think it's rather stupid and unfair. ",
"Eli5 I am more interested in how folks can actually believe that It was SA fault in the first place . ",
"If the U.S. had allowed its citizens to sue another country, it would not take long at all before other countries started suing us. Can you imagine about 30 million plaintiffs in the World Court suing America? That would suck for everyone. Peace.",
"Random guess: it's messy if you let your citizens solve their own legal problems with other nations; therefore you create laws and treaties to funnel those legal problems through specific governmental/legal functions.",
"Suing countries isn't easy.\n\nEach country's courts have jurisdiction within its borders but that's about it. Anything else takes the respective government flexing their muscles, or engaging in a bit of horse trading.\n\nTo understand how this may not be trivial, just imagine how many people out there outside the US would want to sue the US for various reasons. Their government basically has to be willing to play hardball with the US, which isn't a very appealing prospect, if it screws with whatever relationship they currently have with the US; it's more likely they'll just make some noises, but nothing substantive.\n\nNow switch your perspective back to being an American wanting to sue Saudi Arabia - the US maintains its status in the world partly through the relationships it has with other countries, or specifically, the governments currently in power in those countries. Flexing one's muscle to \"sue another country\" isn't something one does glibly.",
"Its not like they're going to pay out. In absolute fairness they should be suing the US Government for their lack of action and poor aerial cover of the USA..",
"So would this allow Native American tribes and nations to sue the federal government since they are their own nations?",
"It's completely retarded that residents of the most litigious country in the world are allowed to sue a fucking country for a terrorist attack that happened 15 years ago. USA never stops to surprise. Ridiculous!"
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80m1sf | why humans and probably other animals inhale before applying force? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80m1sf/eli5_why_humans_and_probably_other_animals_inhale/ | {
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"There are two main reasons:\n1- Oxygen is used to convert sugar into energy. This is used by muscles to apply greater force.\n2- Holding your breath increases blood pressure, which helps muscle apple greater force. ",
"Most of these comments miss the mark, in my opinion. \n\nSure, you want oxygen and all that, but you could get oxygen by breathing continuously, so why take a big breath and hold it in the first place? \n\nThe main reason to take a big breath before a major exertion is the same reason powerlifters do it: it helps to create intra-abdominal pressure. This pressure allows your core muscles (specifically the transverse abdominus mostly in this case, which wrap around your torso like a very wide belt) to squeeze in and create rigidity in the torso. This rigidity is required for optimal force transfer into the object you’re exerting yourself against (imagine pushing a rock with a rope vs with a stick... or a bendy stick vs a rigid stick. You’re going to get more application of force when energy isn’t lost in the bendiness but is directly transferred into the object).\n\nFor this reason, you actually don’t want to start exhaling at the maximum point of exertion like you sometimes hear (ie inhale on the downward part of a rep, exhale on the upward part). You want to take a big breath before starting, hold it, lower and then raise the weight at least past the sticking point, then exhale. Beginning to exhale at the bottom of the rep causes you to lose the intra-abdominal pressure right when you need it most. \n\nNote, this applies to intense exertion. If you’re doing yoga, or lifting light weights, the intra abdominal pressure may not be necessary so you could breath however you want. "
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3mu81g | why are anvils used so much in cartoons especially tom and jerry? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mu81g/eli5_why_are_anvils_used_so_much_in_cartoons/ | {
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"There was a time when Anvils where commonplace (T & J, Looney Tunes... these are old cartoons), and everyone could equate \"Anvil\" with \"Very heavy\", so if you want to show someone getting hit with something heavy... presto... Anvil.\n\n Plus, it's a pretty easy thing to draw.",
"Anvils are a universally recognized symbol of \"a heavy object\" and are easy to draw and color. Plus they are comedic when they appear out of context (like an anvil being found in a hall closet)."
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dxodqn | why does pretending you are dead work with grizzly bears? | Here is a perfectly good and fresh piece of meat just lying about, why would an animal walk away from that?
Edit: Thanks everyone for answers, I decided im not going in a forest ever. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dxodqn/eli5_why_does_pretending_you_are_dead_work_with/ | {
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"They often burry their dead food to eat it later. And this isn't necessarily the best approach. See this guide _URL_0_",
"Grizzlies prefer freshly killed meat. If they think you were already dead or close to death, they'll be disinclined to eat the carrion and move on to something else.\n\nOf course, it may not work and they may bat you around a bit to be sure, so... it's not a guaranteed escape.",
"YBMV.\n\nGrizzlies (and other brown [type, not color] bears) generally attack for territorial reasons, or to remove threats. They don't seem to like the taste of human.\n\nBlack [again type not color) bears will attack for many of the same reasons, but also find human flesh palatable. So fight for your life."
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1rtzvs | quarks. a little more than "they make up atoms" but a little less than the wikipedia page. | Basically, explain it in layman terms. Give me analogies. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rtzvs/eli5_quarks_a_little_more_than_they_make_up_atoms/ | {
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"Quarks are a set of fundermental particles, can't be broken down further, that make up baryons and mesons, just groupings of partcles, ie proton and pions respectively. They come in twelve different types or flavours; up, down, strange, bottom, charm, top and their equivalent anti particle, ie anti-up, anti-down ect. However for most every day particles they only contain the first three and they're anti particle. Baryon contain three quarks, ie a proton is made up of two ups and a down. While meson contain a quark and an anti-quark, ie a positive pion contain up and an anti down.",
"Well physicists believe that there are 12 fundamental particles. These 12 are then further grouped into two :\n Leptons and\n Quarks\n\n*all forms of matter are made up of these 12 fundamental particles and these particles cannot be broken down any further*\n\nThe difference between leptons and quarks is that leptons are weakly interactive particles while quarks are strongly interactive particles. That is to say leptons occur as single particles e.g electrons and quarks occur in combinations e.g a proton which is made up of 2 quarks and 1 down quark.\n\nThere are 6 quarks called - Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Bottom and Top. The combination quarks make are split into 2 types namely; Mesons where a quark and an anti quark combine (anti quarks have same mass as quarks but opposite charge) e.g Neutral Pion made of an up quark and an anti-up quark,\nand Baryons where a combination of only 3 quarks or 3 anti quarks make 1 baryon (in a baryon there can only be a set of quarks or a set of anti quarks, you cannot have a baryon with 2 quarks and 1 anti quark) e.g a proton made of 2 up quarks and 1 down quark while an anti-proton is made of 2 anti-up quarks and 1 anti-down quark.\n\nSo in conclusion **quarks are just fundamental particles that have strongly interactive force and hence occur in combinations**\n\n ",
"Best video to explain it, got me through AS level physics \r_URL_0_\rSorry for the mobile link I'm on my phone!"
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33gsqg | what keeps a car key from being removed once it has been turned? | Assuming it's functioning the way it was designed and has not been tampered with. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33gsqg/eli5_what_keeps_a_car_key_from_being_removed_once/ | {
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"Inside a lock (or in this case, an ignition tumbler) there are multiple \"pins\", each one a different length.\n\nThe jagged part of the key rests against these pins, each tooth pushing each pin a certain amount. When they are moved to just the right place, a break in the pin lines up with the tumbler and allows the cylinder to be turned.\n\nWhen the cylinder is turned, the pins are no longer against springs, but rather, the solid cylinder wall. Since they can't move out of the way, the key is locked in by the pins against the teeth.\n\nWhen the cylinder is turned back to the beginning position, the pins line up with the springs again, allowing the key to be removed.\n\nIn some cars, the key can be removed even while running. This is almost always an indication that the key/cylinder has become extremely worn. Often, the car can be started with almost anything since the internals are so worn out."
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5pkd1w | why some actors repeate their manners throught movies? is this correct acting? | Is it correct for an actor to repeat some mannerism across movies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pkd1w/eli5_why_some_actors_repeate_their_manners/ | {
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"There really isn't such a thing as \"correct.\" I agree that many actors seem to just play the same character in every movie, and I suppose a more versatile actor could be considered more skilled. But this is neither correct nor incorrect. Hollywood logic nowadays is that people like predictability. If they cast a certain actor, they kind of know what they are getting and what kind of movie they can expect it to be. Movies are often written with a specific actor in mind. In this sense it is \"correct\" because it allows them to avoid a certain amount of risk and uncertainty.\n\nRemember that episode of Frasier where Derek Jacobi was a Shakespearean actor and he completely blows it? The episode is funny because in real life Derek Jacobi is very famous for his Shakespeare. This is what Hollywood is trying to avoid. They want their actors to be predictable."
]
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[]
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|
80412e | does the chance of getting heads in a coin toss increase as i get more tails? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80412e/eli5_does_the_chance_of_getting_heads_in_a_coin/ | {
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"No, the chance of getting head is the same with every throw. The throws are independent and are therefore 50/50 every time.\n\nHowever, the chances of throwing 3 heads in a row is 1 in 8. This is because 1/2 X 1/2 X 1/2 is 1/8. You can see that each throw is still 50/50, the odds simply stack up.\n\nThe chances are the same every time, however, getting the same result multiple times in a row is much less likely."
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e59o28 | in an ice hockey faceoff, sometimes the referee sends a player out of the circle to have a new player replace him, why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e59o28/eli5_in_an_ice_hockey_faceoff_sometimes_the/ | {
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"Face offs have rules, like where you skates need to be and the timing of when you can put your stick on the ice. If you break the rules you can get tossed out.",
"The most common reason for this is something akin to a \"false start\" either in American football or track running.\n\nThe face off is supposed to be based on how quickly you're able to react. It's not about whether you can \"guess\" the timing correctly. There's a penalty for guessing wrong to discourage guessing."
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cwg80d | how do scientists determine the size, density, and other other information about an exo-planet? | I understand analyzing the spectra of the planet in front of it's star to determine the atmosphere of an exo-planet. But how do they determine info like if an exo-planet is tidally locked, or what type of planet it is if we only detect the planets as small changes in the brightness of a pixel of a star many many light-years away?
Edit: whoops, i'm blind and don't look look over my title before I submit it. :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cwg80d/eli5_how_do_scientists_determine_the_size_density/ | {
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"As you stated they use spectroscopy to discern general material composition and therefore an aproximation of the type of planet it is. As for more specifics, they use the stars wobble or side to side motion (due to the planets orbit), to find out roughly how massive the planet is in relation to its star. The frequency of the wobble can tell them how close the planet is to its star(how long its year is). And furthermore the distance from it's star is a determining factor in wether or not it is tidally locked. There are more specifics involved, and much more data that comes about but generally they can discern size, mass, density, composition, distance from the star, and general behavior of a planet by using this method. And all they do is look at it for a good while and run the numbers based on their observations."
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5fyvzi | neurotransmittors (such as serotonin, dopamine, oxytocine) causes us to feel something when they bind to a certain receptor (mood changes, etc.), but what does this lead to? what happens that makes us feel that way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fyvzi/eli5_neurotransmittors_such_as_serotonin_dopamine/ | {
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"They bind to a certain receptor. What you are feeling is your brain responding to chemical interactions. There is no magical part of us that \"feels\"; it's all just our brain doing things.",
"well you're question is actually a subtle one. If I may paraphrase, how do the chemicals released in our brain affect our consciousness. So what is the chemical nature of consciousness? And if we are just a meat sack of complex molecules. Why do we hurt, or feel good? How can a meat sack of molecules feel anything. Where is the seat of consciousness, chemically and neurologically speaking. Good question."
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7x5dep | what makes mobile data limited and why does more usage cost more? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7x5dep/eli5_what_makes_mobile_data_limited_and_why_does/ | {
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"Excuse my bad English, it's not my first language... \n\nBasically, because of Bandwidth.\n\nData providers buy bandwidth from the telecom sector, which in the simplest terms means your downloading speed. \nAlthough the amount of data does not matter for the providers, the speed of transfer and the time spent on it does, which is why providers with a better bandwidth frequency have better speed. It is also why they 'cap' subscriptions, because if they were to make it unlimited and spread that around their customers, it would eat up their bandwidth speed as a whole and make each connection slower, making the data provider unpopular. \n\nThus they have to balance usage, and introduce data caps. Since they also have maintain their equipment, like towers and cables etc. they charge a fee for monthly subscriptions and addon data packages, hoping to make a profit. \n"
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1vkiyr | eli 5 - why do we never hear of tornados causing major devastation in big cities? | I was just curious why you never hear about tornados ripping through the streets of major cities, yet there are several that completely destroy more rural areas every year? Maybe I'm just misinformed but I've wondered about this for some time now. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vkiyr/eli_5_why_do_we_never_hear_of_tornados_causing/ | {
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"There just aren't a lot of big cities in the same places where tornadoes are common -- it's physically possible, and it does happen, just not often.",
"In addition to what has already been said, larger buildings are usually found in cities and those same buildings break up the wind into smaller pieces keeping tornadoes from maintaining their form. Chicago is known as the windy city b/c when the wind blows, it gets squeezed between the skyscrapers and gets amplified.",
"Not a common occurance due to surrounding density and less uptake of air, I think, but it happened in downtown Ft Worth in 2000...destroyed a tower...or made it uninhabitable for years. ",
"* heat from cities creates and updraft effect that makes tornados less likely to form, and those that do to be smaller\n* building in cities have to follow more strict zoning ordinances, and are more solidly constructed than rural buildings\n* the rural areas in the US are still many times larger than cities, and are much more likely to be hit"
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2kqzo0 | why are there so few applications for windows phone in comparison to ios/android? | Is it just a pain to develop apps for this platform or what exactly is the reason? I tried to google this but didn't get any clear answers :( | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kqzo0/eli5why_are_there_so_few_applications_for_windows/ | {
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"Windows Phone accounts for a [crazy low percentage of mobile users](_URL_0_), which likely makes it pretty unprofitable for both app developers and hardware developers as compared to more widely used platforms like Android and iOS."
]
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"http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/14/6003427/windows-phone-sales-decline-q2-2014-idc"
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|
1edkzo | how do playback/volume controls work on head phones if they are just using an auxiliary cable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1edkzo/eli5_how_do_playbackvolume_controls_work_on_head/ | {
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"There are two possibilities for the volume control.\n\nThe first is that the volume control is a variable resistor. This means that it limits the amount of electricity that passes through to the speaker, and therefore the volume of the speaker.\n\nIf you are talking about something that actually communicates with the device, then there is something different. It's essentially a slightly different cable and port which allows it to communicate other information. If you look at the end of a aux cable that has these extra feature, it will probably have three bands. If it doesn't, then it probably has only two. This extra band allows communication back and forth between the cable. It's what lets you tell your phone or other device to pause the music or whatever it is that you want to do."
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5xqhgw | reddit could you please explain the political correctness debate like i'm five? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xqhgw/eli5_reddit_could_you_please_explain_the/ | {
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"Free speech is a right and a responsibility. You can say whatever you want, but in exchange you need to be thoughtful of the impact your words will have on others.\n\nSome people are not very thoughtful, this is bad.\n\nSome people want to take away the free speech of these people and appoint themselves as the decider for who gets to speak and who is censored. They think that things would be more civil under their benevolent dictatorship, this is also bad because dictators are not very thoughtful.\n\nThere is a debate because both of these kinds of bad people can't seem to be thoughtful and keep their mouth shut.",
"Argument 1: I should be able to say whatever I want, whenever I want about whomever I want. This is protected by the 1st amendment and any attempt to silence me is a violation of this.\n\nArgument 2: People need to be respectful of others feelings, beliefs and opinions. If someone says something offensive about a person or demographic they should be prepared to suffer the consequences. Inconsiderate comments should be censored in order to prevent offending people.",
"Others seem to not understand the meaning of the term political correctness.\n\n[Wikipedia](_URL_0_):\n\n > The term political correctness (adjectivally: politically correct; commonly abbreviated to PC[1] or P.C.) in modern usage, is used to describe some language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.[2] In mainstream political discourse and media, the term is generally used as a pejorative, implying that these policies are excessive.\n > Commentators on the left have said that conservatives pushed the term in order to divert attention from more substantive matters of discrimination and as part of a broader culture war against liberalism.[18][21][22] They also argue that conservatives have their own forms of political correctness, which are generally ignored by conservative commenters.\n\nIt is not a 1st Amendment issue where you should be able to say whatever you want, whenever you want about whomever you want. Political correctness is an attempt to rectify the bullying, distortions and agendas with terminology respectful of victims of this misinformation and their feelings, beliefs, opinions and lifestyles. Political correctness is a way of communicating that is not viewed as offensive. The bullies on the other hand view political correctness as an attack on their 1st Amendment right to bully and discriminate."
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2z1eq0 | fluoride ingestion vs fluoride topically on teeth | Will fluoride ingested orally react with HCl in the stomach? What compound is formed? Every time someone say fluoride is safe, I wonder how it travels in the body until it gets to teeth. Please eli5 :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z1eq0/eli5_fluoride_ingestion_vs_fluoride_topically_on/ | {
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" > Will fluoride ingested orally react with HCl in the stomach? \n\nNo. Fluoride is F- (a negatively charged ion) and it will remain F- when it's in your stomach. It doesn't react with anything there, especially at the very very low concentrations you'd find it in water and other drinks.\n\n > Every time someone say fluoride is safe, I wonder how it travels in the body until it gets to teeth. Please eli5 :) \n\nIt actually goes straight from your mouth (the water in your mouth) to your teeth. This is why Fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash work even though you don't swallow them. For the purposes of tooth health, there's no reason to swallow it. However, there's not really any risk to swallowing it as long as you don't swallow A LOT of Fluoride every day for a long time. ",
"Firstly no reputable published study has ever found Fluoride to cause damage to the body at appropriate levels. Fluoride toothpastes (1500ppm) perfectly safe for daily use, however it is recommended that you do not swallow toothpaste and instead spit it out.\n \nFluoride is a very helpful chemical in toothpaste as it kills bacteria and becomes directed incorporated into the tooth enamel. Enamel is a crystalline substance made almost entirely of hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2). \nThe fluoride from toothpaste acts directly on the teeth without travelling through the body. When you consume acidic foodstuffs (e.g. orange juice), the dissociated hydrogen atoms (H+) attack the hydroxyl ions (OH-) in the hydroxyapatite and removes them from the crystalline matrix. When you brush with a flouride toothpaste the fluoride (F-) substitutes into the hydroxyl depleted hydroxyapatite to form fluoroapatite. \n\nFluoroapatite a harder material, more resistant to the acids caused by bacteria in your mouth. Therefore by using fluoride toothpastes you can partly counteract* the effects of a sugary diet damaging your teeth by remineralisng acid damaged enamel.\n\nSo in summary, proper dental fluoride use helps teeth by entering the tooth structure to improve and heal it without travelling through the body and without side-effects.\n\nHope this helps :D\n"
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1kenis | if religion can't be the basis on laws, then why are some states banning abortion on religious grounds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kenis/eli5_if_religion_cant_be_the_basis_on_laws_then/ | {
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" > Amendment I\n > \n > Congress shall make no law **respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof**; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\n\nThe Constitution doesn't prohibit religion from being the basis of laws.",
"On the contrary, laws may absolutely be based on religion. In the United States, a law may not respect an establishment of religion nor impede the free exercise of religion.\n\nReligious beliefs often help shape a society's views on what is right and what is wrong. These morals eventually find themselves encoded into laws. Sometimes obviously religious things become laws, for example banning the sale of alcohol on Sunday, but just as often religion helps promote notions like providing for the poor and is a source for those systems as well.\n\nThere have always been politicians that would use a particular religion as a reason to pass laws. In a theocracy, this is the official idea. In America, as long as the law doesn't unfairly bias itself towards or against any particular religion, a religion can be the reasoning used by politicians to pass it.\n\nThat said, if \"my religion says so\" is your best argument for passing a law, it's probably not a great law. Most of the good laws have reasons that they're good laws."
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v3flx | what is a hexadecimal number? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v3flx/eli5_what_is_a_hexadecimal_number/ | {
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"Hexademical means base 16, rather than base 10 like the (decimal) system we use normally. It has 16 digits (counting 0) instead of 10.\n\nConsider the number 456. You can think of it as 400 + 50 + 6, or 4 * 10 ^ 2 + 5 * 10 ^ 1 + 6 * 10 ^ 0. \n\nIf it was a hexadecimal number it would instead be: 4 * 16 ^ 2 + 5 * 16 ^ 1 + 6 * 10 ^ 0.\n\nAs hexadecimal has 16 digits, A through F are used to represent the extras (10-15 in decimal), which is why you'll see numbers like 5A2F.",
"Binary numbers are base 2, 0 and 1. If you count, it will go\n\n0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111, 10000\n\nDecimal numbers are base 10, 0 - 9. You count\n\n0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12...\n\nHexidecimal numbers a base 16, 0 - 9 and A - F\n\n0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 30...\n\nIn this case, hexidecimal \"10\" is decimal \"16\", hexidecimal \"1A\" is decimal 26, and so on\n\n\n\n",
"Since computers work with binary numbers (a sequence of 0's and 1's) it is often easier to express these numbers in hexadecimal as others have pointed out. Every 4 bits (binary digits) can be represented by a single hexadecimal value. For example, the binary number:\n\n 100110000000010110101\n\nCan be broken up into sections of 4 bits like so:\n\n 1011 0000 0000 1011 0101\n\nThe value for each of these segments in hexadecimal is as follows\n\n B 0 0 B 5\n\nTherefore, instead of having to specify 100110000000010110101 you can use the much shorter B00B5 *without having to convert to decimal* in the process.\n\n\n\n",
"Many of these explanations are rather complicated for a 5 year old. We use a system that contains 10 different symbols to mean numbers, we used 10 because that is how many fingers we have. The symbols 0 through 9. When we have something greater than 9, we show that by sticking more symbols in front of it. Since it has 10 symbols, we call this a 'base10' numbering system.\n\nSometimes it's easier for certain things if we represent them with a different number of symbols. Hexadecimal (hex means 6, dec means 10, 10+6 = 16, \"hexadecimal\" means 16 symbol numbers). Instead of making up a brand new set of 16 symbols we just extended the 10 we already have with some from the alphabet because they are familiar to us. They work however, the exact same way as a base10 numbering system. You have 16 symbols, if you have more than 16 things - you stick more symbols in front of it.\n\nCounting to 30 in base10:\n\n0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30\n\nCounting to 30 in base16\n0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E\n\nThe reason why a base16 system is \"easier\" in some cases is because computers work in binary, or base2, and it _really_ easy convert between base2 and base16 than it is to convert between base2 and base10.\n\nThe reason is because 16 is just 2^4.",
"First, what is a base-10 number? Well, you have an amount of stuff, and you want to count it and end up with a value like 4263. What does this 4263 mean?\n\nWhat it means is this: you've put those objects into groupings of 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s. You started by taking out as many groups of 1000 as you could and say, I got 4 of them. Then you took what's left, made groupings of 100s and got 2 of them, etc, until you get to \"groupings\" of ones (not really groupings at all, just individual elements).\n\nAnother way to write this number is:\n\n 4263 = 4*10^3 + 2*10^2 + 6*10^1 + 3*10^0\n\nSo, you just make groupings of powers of ten, starting with the biggest one you can make.\n\nWhy 10, though? It turns out we make groupings of 10 because most of us have 10 fingers, and when people first learned to count they didn't have symbols like 1, 4, and 8, so instead they would signify a digit with a...digit (a finger). You probably did this when you learned to count as a child, you decided your index finger was \"one\", your middle and index was \"two\", etc.\n\nBesides history, though, there's no good reason to use 10. You can count by grouping by powers of whatever number you like. Hexadecimal is grouping by 16 instead.\n\nForget hexadecimal for a moment, though, what is the smallest base for these groupings? It's 2. (Like I say above, 1 isn't really a \"grouping\", it's just a single item.) If you count a big pile of things the same way, by grouping powers of two, you'll find that you either have enough in the pile to create a group, or not. For example, let's say you have 10 things:\n\n XXXXXXXXXX\n\nWhat's the biggest power of 2 you can use to create a grouping? Well, 2^3 is 8, 2^4 is 16 which is too many. So it's 2^3:\n\n (XXXXXXX) XX\n\nThat's one group of 2^3, do you have a group of 2^2, or 4? No, you only have 2 things left. So do you have a group of 2^1? Yes, one of those:\n\n (XXXXXXXX) (XX)\n\nAnd how many \"groups\" of 2^0? None. So we have a group of 2^3, no 2^2, one 2^1, and no 2^0: 1010 is \"ten\" in binary.\n\nIf you go through this exercise grouping different amounts of things in both hexadecimal and in binary, you'll discover something interesting. When you write a number in both hexadecimal and binary, each hex digit corresponds with 4 binary digits. You can easily translate back and forth.\n\nHere are all the different hex digits (followed by decimal and binary representations):\n\n 0 00 0000\n 1 01 0001\n 2 02 0010\n 3 03 0011\n 4 04 0100\n 5 05 0101\n 6 06 0110\n 7 07 0111\n 8 08 1000\n 9 09 1001\n A 10 1010\n B 11 1011\n C 12 1100\n D 13 1101\n E 14 1110\n F 15 1111\n\nSo let's say you have a hex number 9A47. Translating this to decimal is not so easy, but going back and forth to binary is very easy. You just write the four binary digits in the table above for each hex digit, 9 is 1001, A is 1010, 4 is 0100, and 7 is 0111. Stick all those binary digits together in the same order, and you have the binary representation of the same number (which is 39495 in decimal).\n\nThis is why hex is useful: because it's actually a very short way of writing a number in binary."
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2ljn5h | when i'm thinking about something i have a 'voice' in my head, how does a deaf person experience this? (answer from an actual deaf person would be awesome! | I assume a person that became deaf would still have a 'voice', however how does a person that was born deaf experience that 'voice?
Cheers
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ljn5h/eli5_when_im_thinking_about_something_i_have_a/ | {
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"Apparently, their inner voice is not sound based like that of a person who can hear, but a visual-based inner voice that is typically seen as writing, sign language, or pictures. This is simply because that is their reality, their way of communicating, their way of understanding, their language... Which is why it would make sense for them to see instead of hear what they are thinking."
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59s45a | what is actually "alternating" in alternating current (ac)? does the electricity actually move forward and backwards within the circuit, or are the electrons simply changing from a negative to positive charge? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59s45a/eli5_what_is_actually_alternating_in_alternating/ | {
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"Electric current in a house or powerlines consists of moving electrons. With AC current they really do move forwards and backwards. Electrons never change their charge. They are always negative. They do move and change direction, though, and when they move, they become an electric current.",
"The electrons are vibrating back and forth. They push in one direction, then get pulled the other direction. Which is pretty cool, if you think about it the net change in distance of a given charge carrier in an AC circuit is 0 (for most situations). \n\nThey don't flip charge. All electrons in the universe have the same exact charge, and it's negative. Electric current is the change in charge at a single point over a given amount of time. So say you measure a point on a wire and notice one charged particle of 1 coloumb moves past it in one second. That would be a current of 1 amp. If it vibrates, and moved back and forth past your point, we say it's an alternative current of 1A, because the charge changes direction as it vibrates. ",
"The physical meaning of an electrical current is a movement of electrical charges (almost always electrons). Alternating current means that the current periodically (60 times per second) oscillates between positive and negative. So what's happening in an AC circuit is that the electrical charges in the wire (the electrons) are oscillating back and forth.",
"The number of electrons passing a point in a wire is quite high. For a current of 1A, (110 watts in a country using 110v), 6.24x10^18 (6,240,000,000,000,000,000) electrons pass, on average, each second.\n\nBut these electrons 'move' by being displaced from one atom into another, and, in so doing, displacing some other electron. And the number of free electrons in a wire of metal is even huge-er than that big number I wrote above - there are 9·4 × 10^21, or about 1000 times that number, in a single gram of copper!\n\nSo, an individual electron won't move much - that is the reason we call the speed that an electron moves as 'electron drift velocity'. In any single 'half' of an AC cycle, any one electrons is unlikely to move. But together, they can make big things happen."
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3bohvv | how does data get stored and read off magnetic devices such as harddrives or casette tapes? | Exactly how does the binary code get stored and read - how does a computer interoperate this code as music in a cassette tape etc. I have some physics background, so be sure to throw it all at me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bohvv/eli5_how_does_data_get_stored_and_read_off/ | {
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"Harddrives and casettes are very different, so I'll just focus on hard drives(HDDs)\n\nIn a HDD there are multiple platters, that look a bit like thick CDs. In between these platters are moving read/writeheads. They are very close to their respective platter, nowadays around 3 nanometers.\n\nThe platters are made of a material that the read/writeheads can both manipulate to have two different \"states\", you can imagine it like oxidized and not oxidized, and it can also read the state of each cell. One state gets assigned the value 0, the other gets the value 1.\n\nNow the platters spin around and the read/writeheads move around to access the desired cells on the platters. The readheads get these instructions from a chipset on the HDD.",
"In regards to casette tapes, or really any ribbon-based media format (VHS, Beta, 8mm, etc) the secret is magnetic induction. \n\nThe ribbon tape is magnetic, and as the tape flows through the heads - a current is created via the resulting magnetic forces. This current or force is the video and/or audio signal, it is then amplified and now you have pictures and sound!\n\nIt is not unlike how electric guitars and amps amplify the induced current from the strings vibrating... :) "
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fyt46b | what happens in our vocal chords when we speak quietly without making any noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fyt46b/eli5_what_happens_in_our_vocal_chords_when_we/ | {
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"text": [
"Same thing that happens when you speak normally for the most part, except instead of the vocal chords vibrating, it just passes air through it to make the sounds."
]
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||
3702qr | how do those penny auction websites work? | How do they make money? Does anyone actually receive the items they won? This whole thing just confuses me | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3702qr/eli5_how_do_those_penny_auction_websites_work/ | {
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"The price of the items is dirt cheap. But what they fail to mention is that you have to pay for bids and the auctions end times extend after every bid. So while you may have purchased that new laptop for $10, you spent $500 in bids, just like all the losers of the auction also spend hundreds in bids.",
"tl;dr: The _winner_ pays very little, but all the _losers_ pay a little bit too. It's effectively the same way a lottery works: You can pay 5$ and walk away with a 1,000,000$ win, but everyone knows that over 200,000 other people had to lose last time for them to afford that payout."
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p8rk9 | could someone please explain memes (as introduced by dawkins)? | Wikipedia does an ok job explaining the basic idea of a meme and memetic transfer, but I'm mostly left confused on what exactly is new about this idea.
On it's most basic level it seems like this is something we've already had plenty of words for.
If anyone could explain why this was even somewhat important or what was new about the idea that would be fantastic. I understand it's been heavily criticized so feel free to keep that in mind during your explanations. I don't have any agendas or anything like that.
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p8rk9/eli5_could_someone_please_explain_memes_as/ | {
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"Read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. If you aren't that interested, here's a very short summary of what is relevant from my read of it:\nMany things evolve like we think organisms do. What we find is that rather than organisms evolving, it is the gene, or basic unit of genetics, that is selected in natural selection. This does numerous things; Group selection and individual selection (Can a 'greater good' behavior be evolutionarily selected for in a group of organisms?) are melded and explained by this. What you want to know, what memes are, is very similar. Memes are cultural units which evolve and die off much like organisms, but in some ways unique. Memes move around, evolve, and die a lot faster than organisms. When people say something is a meme, they usually mean the colloquial definition which is usually just Internet memes. But memes apply to much much more (religion, language, inventions, popular culture, food types, etc.). Memetic theory (I think that's the term) basically applies evolution ideas to cultural units rather than genetic ones.\n\nThis might be a little different than what you are looking for, but I hope this helps.",
"Memexample, building off of MatterStorm.\n\nA meme is the cultural equivalent of a gene. It's a term that was coined to represent the smallest bit of an idea, what it can be broken down into.\n\nAny complex idea is a bunch of memes, a whole buncha bunch. But, as an example:\n\nDo unto others as you would have them do unto you. That's a single, basic idea. And it's 'competing' in an evolutionary sense against something like . . . I dunno, \"Steal from people and you'll have all the goods\". A culture which accepts and propagates the 1st meme might have some benefits: generally happier, people help each other out, less money spent on security, etc, etc. A culture with the \"be a dick\" meme doesn't have those benefits. So maybe the cultures with the Golden Rule meme \"wins\" and survives. Maybe they don't. Remember, evolution doesn't say that the 'better' trait will keep something alive, just give it a better shot.\n\nBut it doesn't have to actually impart any advantage at all. The meme could be any sort of cultural unit.",
"In the traditional Scottish song \"Auld Lang Syne\" there is a line that goes\n\n\"For Auld Lang Syne\"\n\nSome people mistakenly say\n\n\"for the *sake* of Auld Lang Syne\".\n\nThis probably came about when someone couldn't remember the words, but remembered the general meaning, and sung the incorrect line.\n\nSomebody else in the room who didn't know the words heard everyone singing. When it got to the line we're talking about, they heard the person singing the incorrect line, because the \"s\" sound is much louder than what everyone else was singing.\n\nBecause this is the line they heard, this is the line they sung the next year when everyone was singing.\n\nThis error in the lyrics to the song (\"For the sake of Auld Lang Syne\") is a good example of a \"meme\". It's just a bit of culture (language, ideas etc) that has spread by being better at spreading than competing memes (\"For Auld Lang Syne\").\n\nThe word itsself comes from the ancient Greek word mimime, which means \"something imitated\".\n\nThe idea was brought up by Richard Dawkins in his book \"The Selfish Gene\", where he drew parallels with how genes work in the body.\n\nJust as how a gene which produces effects furthering its own survival is more numerous than its competitors, so an idea which is better at spreading than its competitors will succeed in the \"meme pool\" of society.\n\nAnother example of a meme is religion. The ancient and powerful belief that \"There is an all powerful and all knowing God, who created the Universe and actively intervenes in its development\" is an idea which has been around since the dawn of human history, in many different cultures all over the world.\n\nThe reason this idea is so prevalent is that it would be so good if it were true, and the consequences for not believing have been so bad (Eternal damnation in Hell, etc), that the idea took hold very easily and has been passed down from generation to generation.\n\nThis is an example of a more fundamental idea being passed down in a similar manner to a virus, rather than the more superficial example of song lyrics, but the principle is exactly the same.\n\nIf you are interested in learning more about memes (and genes), and how they spread in their environment, I strongly recommend reading The Selfish Gene.\n\nIf all you've heard about Richard Dawkins is he's \"that athiest who wrote that book\", then you will be in for a nice surprise: He's actually just a biologist, and he's excellent at explaining things in a way which makes you feel like a genius."
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1zglay | how can every car insurance company make some version of the claim "drivers who switched saved $100s on average"? isn't that mathematically impossible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zglay/eli5how_can_every_car_insurance_company_make_some/ | {
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"They only look at drivers that switched, and most drivers only switch if it will save them money. For example, I might switch from State Farm to AllState because AllState has cheaper rates for students, then after a few years I might switch back to State Farm because they have cheaper rates for drivers with a longer safe-driving history (completely made up, but entirely possible). In those examples, I saved money switching to both companies.",
"Also, different companies are going to have different algorithms to compute their rates. A person would typically only switch insurance companies if the different algorithm offered them a significantly better rate.",
"They rarely say \"on average.\" Usually it includes phrases like \"up to\" to provide legal flexibility. Also, there are a lot of variable when getting car insurance, and it's quite possible that by changing around the coverage in certain categories that one company will be cheaper in one scenario and the other company cheaper in another. Marketing will of course choose the scenario that has the largest discrepancy in the ads regardless if people actually choose the set of options from which those numbers came.",
"One thing I have learned is you can always get a cheaper policy, but the insurance company wants you to have high priced add-ons to your policy. As an example, you have $50,000 in liability with a $500 deductible. You been with Low Cost Inc for years and have had several rate reductions. You pay $100/month for coverage. \n\n_URL_0_ calls you and tells you that you could save 15% if you cut your liability down to $30,000. You haven't had an accident in years, so you cut your coverage. Quote: $85/month.\n\nDamage Ins tells you that they can save you even more if you raise your deductible to $1000. Since you ain't had an accident, you decide to switch again and your rate now if $78 a month. \n\nDamage Ins tells you that you need roadside assistance added to your policy and you have to get windshield replacement if you want to get the most of your policy. Combined both run you $20 a month. Rate=$95/month. \n\nLow cost calls you back and says if you keep your deductible at $1000, keep your liability at $30,000 and drop the glass and roadside assistance, they can get you coverage for $72/month. \n\nSee now how they can all lower your monthly payment?"
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q5go1 | 11 dimensions | The first dimension is distance, the second is width, the third is height, the fourth is time, but the next one? I can't understand the principle of the fifth dimension, yet alone all the way up to 11.
Are these even understandable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q5go1/eli5_11_dimensions/ | {
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"they are beyond our perception. ",
"We can't see them. According to M-theory, they're really really tiny and curled up in something called [Calabi-Yau manifolds](_URL_0_). "
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1jgypc | how is a keypress on a phone converted into a digital input? | ...when entering your account information for your cable company, for example. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jgypc/eli5_how_is_a_keypress_on_a_phone_converted_into/ | {
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"text": [
"The key press plays a tone over the line. That tone is associated with a particular digit. If you were really good you could just sing your account number over the line."
]
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20nowh | when paying online with a credit card, why i need to give the card's expiration date. | When I pay online with a credit card, why do they need the card's expiration date? Aren't they just going to use it now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20nowh/eli5_when_paying_online_with_a_credit_card_why_i/ | {
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"text": [
"It's just another security precaution. Same reason you have to give them the name on the card and the security verification code.",
"Its to make sure you actually have the card in front of you and didn't just obtain the number through some illicit means. "
]
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1girwy | how hellen keller was able to do all that she did. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1girwy/eli5_how_hellen_keller_was_able_to_do_all_that/ | {
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"I think a lot of people kind of have the mindset that Keller wasn't mentally capable, but she was completely normal in that respect. She couldn't hear or see, but she could feel, think, and learn like anyone else. Her teacher was the person to have real expectations of Keller, and find unconventional ways to teach her, like signing in the palm of her hand so she could associate the letters of the alphabet with objects in her life. Speaking was taught by feeling the throats of others as they spoke, recognizing that they used their mouths and throats to make sounds, and feeling the shapes made with their mouths. "
]
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3z0x51 | why don't games use 100% of cpu or disk read speeds when there is a loading screen? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3z0x51/eli5_why_dont_games_use_100_of_cpu_or_disk_read/ | {
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"text": [
"The game does not decide what access it gets to the CPU or the disk systems. The OS does. The game will get whatever the OS chooses to give to it.\n\nAdditionally, there are many other processing points in your system besides your CPU. Your bottleneck for loading could be someplace other than the CPU or disk. Graphics, for instance, are often handled by a completely separate piece of hardware that uses very little CPU but still needs time to process and operate."
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2l8n8r | why can weird al make a parody of a song but robin thicke is going to court? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l8n8r/eli5_why_can_weird_al_make_a_parody_of_a_song_but/ | {
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"Parody is protected use. Taking another person's work and pretending that you made it yourself is against the law. ",
"First, parody is protected speech, while straight-up re-use is not. Robin Thicke and Pharell Williams aren't trying to parody \"Got to Give It Up\", so if they're using Marvin Gaye's music substantially, it's a violation of copyright.\n\nSecondly, even though he's not legally required to (protected speech, as noted above), Weird Al typically attempts to get permission from the artist to publish his parodies. Thicke & Williams have not asked the Gaye estate for permission (and are denying that their song uses material from the prior song). If they had asked and been granted permission, they would legally have been in the clear (assuming they got it in writing, anyway, which they probably would have in that hypothetical scenario).\n\nOf course, I'm not terribly familiar with either of the songs involved in the dispute, so for all I know they're innocent of infringement. But the reasons above are why Weird Al doesn't get taken to court.",
"I read that Weird Al personally asked that artists if he could use their songs. Prince was dead against it. ",
"Besides everything else mentioned, I'm sure Weird Al also pays royalties.",
"Huh, I didn't know that Robin Thicke & Pharrell we being sued until I read this, I wonder if this is why Robin Thicke has \"confessed\" that he didn't write Blurred Lines & it was all Pharrell?",
"The only parody song that Al didn't come up with himself was Madonna's Like a surgeon.\n\nMadonna asked one of her friends how long it would take until Yankovic satirized her song \"Like a Virgin\" as \"Like a Surgeon\". This friend was a mutual friend of Al's manager, Jay Levey. When word got back to Yankovic, he decided it was a good idea and wrote the song. This is the only known time that Yankovic has gotten a parody idea directly from the original artist.",
"Because Weird Al is a national treasure and Robin Thicke is just a douche?",
"Weird Al was sued by Coolio before for 'Gangster's Paradise'. I believe they have to ask for permission to make a parody. So Robin Thicke didn't do that, or sampled more than he said he would. In the 'Gangster's Paradise' case, there was a misunderstanding of content sampling. "
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oi56y | - the history of the soviet union | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/oi56y/eli5_the_history_of_the_soviet_union/ | {
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"ELI5:\n\nBack when your great-great-grandpa was your age, there was a place far away where one kid named Nicholas was in charge of the whole playground, and wouldn't share any of his toys or be nice to the other kids. So all the other kids eventually got together and fought Nicholas, and made him run away from the playground forever.\n\nNow all the kids had to decide who would be in charge of the playground, and after a long argument, a boy named Vladimir convinced all the kids that the best thing would be if they decided to share everything they have equally, and call themselves the Union of Soviet Socialist Playgrounds (or just \"The Soviet Union\" for short). Everybody decided this was a good idea, and it worked pretty well for a while.\n\nEventually, Vladimir got sick, and a big strong boy named Josef showed up and told all the other kids that he was in charge of the whole playground, but that he would do everything the same way Vladimir always wanted. Before very long, the kids realized that Josef was an awful lot like Nicholas; instead of making decisions together with the other kids, Josef would just do whatever he wanted and tell everyone else what to do, and anyone who argued with Josef would get beaten up by Josef's friends, or sent to the worst part of the playground to pick turnips. \n\nEventually, around the same time your great-grandpa was born, Josef and his friends got worried about some of the people who didn't like them, so they beat a lot of kids up, and made a lot of kids run away forever, and even decided that certain parts of the playground were only for kids who had black hair, and other parts were for kids who had brown hair, and that kind of thing.\n\nSoon, a bunch of kids with blond hair from another playground down the street showed up, led by a really mean kid named Adolf, and announced that they were taking over the Soviets' playground and would beat up anyone who tried to stop them. Josef got really mad at this, and since none of the kids wanted to lose their playground, everyone was happy to do what Josef said if it would make Adolf and his blond bullies go away. So for a long time, there was a big fight, and there were no teachers or parents to stop it or anything, and lots and lots of kids got beat up really bad, but when winter came and the blond kids didn't bring coats or mittens or anything, so they got super cold and couldn't fight very well, and eventually the Soviet kids started to win the fight and push the mean blond kids back to where they came from, and even went to the blond kids' own playground and beat them up there, and took over some of their playground too.\n\nNow, it turns out that while Adolf and his group of mean blond kids were trying to take over the Soviet playground, they were also trying to take over a whole bunch of other kids' playgrounds too, and when all the other kids got together to fight Adolf together, it worked super well and Adolf and his friends lost their playground entirely. But now, all the kids who beat up Adolf couldn't decide how to share his playground, and they were all used to big fights and everyone had lots of big sticks and everything, so they all stood around for a long time trying to share the playground and everything was super uncomfortable.\n\nEventually, all the kids on all the playgrounds formed two great big teams; one team led by Josef and the Soviets, and the other team led by a kid named Harry and the Americans. These teams were super important. For years, the two teams spent all their time spying on each other, because they were all afraid of another big fight that would hurt everybody, so they also worked super hard to gather bigger and bigger sticks and rocks to fight with. \n\nAround the same time your grandpa was born, Josef got really sick and had to go away, and a boy named Nikita who helped a lot in the big fight took over the playground. He apologized to everyone for how mean Josef had been, and then spent a long time trying to figure out how to beat Harry and the American team if another big fight ever happened. Nikita was also really nice to the smart kids, so that they would invent things like slingshots that could hit other playgrounds, and rocket ships to play with.\n\nSome of the kids from other playgrounds who were part of the big Soviet team started to want to play by themselves again, so Nikita would send big Soviet kids around to beat them up a little now and then, but for the most part everything stayed pretty much the same for a long time, almost until your mom and dad were born. Nikita left, and a couple of other kids named Leonid, Sergei, Yuri and Konstantin and Andrei took turns in charge, and nobody was very happy, and everyone spent most of their time worrying about getting in a fight with the Americans.\n\nEventually, when your mom and dad were about your age, a kid named Mikhail took over, and right from the start he was much friendlier with the Americans than anyone had been in a vey long time. He talked with the Americans and they agreed that maybe they didn't all need quite so many giant slingshots, and that maybe the Soviet kids didn't need to beat up on the smaller kids on their team quite so much.\n\nMikhail also started to talk to the kids on the Soviet playground more, and would even tell them things about how he was making decisions, and how the playground was running, and if one of the smaller kids had a different idea, or argued with Mikhail, sometimes he wouldn't even have them beaten up. \n\nOne day, Mikhail stood up and said that the kids on all the other playgrounds that were part of the Soviet team could make their own decisions instead of being told what to do. This made all those kids really happy, but almost immediately they all decided that what they wanted was not to be on the Soviet team any more. Each one of the little playgrounds got rid of the big Soviet kid who had been in charge, and put their own kid in charge, and all of a sudden the Soviet team wasn't nearly as big and strong as it was before.\n\nBefore very long, the kids on the Soviet playground started to get used to the idea that it was okay to argue with Mikhail and the other kids in charge, and started to see the kids on other playgrounds making their own decisions, and decided that that was what they wanted too. Besides, Mikhail and his friends hadn't been doing a very good job of making sure everyone had juice and cookies. \n\nSoon, the kids on the Soviet playground decided they didn't want Mikhail and his friends to be in charge any more, and because Mikhail and his friends wouldn't beat them up for it nearly as badly as Josef and Nikita used to, eventually the other kids took over the whole Soviet playground, and everyone decided that they wanted a new kid named Boris to be in charge. There was a great big argument, and a bunch of kids got beat up, but eventually everyone agreed that Boris was in charge, but that every couple of years all the kids would get to decide on a new leader, and that they wouldn't call themselves the Soviet Playground anymore, but instead the Commonwealth Of Independent Playgrounds (or just \"Russia\" for short)."
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2shtuw | why is boko haram such a threat to nigeria? isnt nigeria one of the largest economies in africa? wheres their army? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2shtuw/eli5_why_is_boko_haram_such_a_threat_to_nigeria/ | {
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"Yes, Nigeria is one of the biggest countries in Africa, both in terms of economy and population. However, their money comes from oil, which in the developing world usually means a lot of problems to go along with it. In this case, massive corruption.\n\nNigeria has over 500 ethnic groups. This is almost impossible for people from Western Europe or North America to imagine. The North of the country is a patchwork of kingdoms, tribes, forest and cities linked with very bad infrastructure. These groups all have shifting allegiances, agendas, religions, etc. It's essentially like a giant 'game of thrones'. On top of that there is a lot of anger about the corruption around local oil policies, which has led to the rise of populist militant groups like the [Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta](_URL_0_). Since the West is heavily involved in the human rights abuses committed by these exploitative oil companies (notably Shell), they have been pussyfooting around what they see as a very delicate situation. As you can see its a very complex and challenging situation. So operating there is very difficult for *any* army.\n\nBoko Haram, on the other hand, are funded by [Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, and other wealthy extremist donors in the Middle East](_URL_1_).\n\nNigeria's military high command were sacked in 2012 for their inability to respond to put an end to Boko Haram's activities. They replied that they were outgunned and that the president did not provide them the resources they needed to face the threat.\n\nSo Boko Haram have cutting edge weapons, home field advantage on extremely challenging terrain, and a lame duck president who is corrupt and unwilling to seriously pursue them. ",
"\nThis issue is not as simple as just sending in an army. The President Goodluck Jonathan secretly supports (or ignores) these terrorists because they are helping destabilise states within Nigeria which are pro Muslim which will result in a lower turnout of voters when the country goes to election on the 14th February 2015 which makes his re-election campaign easier for him. This also opens the door for ballot tampering in these states as organisations which oversee that elections are free and fair will fear to be present in an area known for terrorism. If anything Boko Haram is healping the president get re-elected. ",
"Nigeria is biggest country in Africa with lots of oil and natural resources. ..but the problem is the country is completely corrupt. ...The army is not equipped properly. Cameroon army was in contrast opposite and they kicked ass a few days back. ",
"Not to forget the history of military rule in Nigeria,the government would think twice before handing over too much power to the army In fear of a coup,so the army has really had the odds stacked against them In this fight."
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4fgldt | how can the body keep it's temperature while on a very hot bath | I'm wondering how can the body keep it's temperature around the 37º (99ºF), necessary for the normal physiological reactions to occur, when the outside is way hotter than that and there is no sweat evaporation on the skin to help us cool. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4fgldt/eli5_how_can_the_body_keep_its_temperature_while/ | {
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"While in a bath your core body temp does heat up some, it definitely isn't staying where it is. The older you get the better your body can maintain a normal core temp. When you're in a bath you are actually sweating and your circulatory systems are working very hard to keep a normal temp, this is why some people are exhausted after taking a bath. \n\n\nEdit : spelling"
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lrzdg | what are the practical applications of philosophy? | I have never been able to successfully read books by people like Nietszche or Sartre, because it seemed to be babble. However, entire university departments exist centered on this field, so there must be something I'm missing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lrzdg/what_are_the_practical_applications_of_philosophy/ | {
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"Trying to read Nietszche or Sartre is like diving into the deep end of the swimming pool unprepared.\n\nPhilosophy is an activity where one examines beliefs, understandings and perceptions of the world. It has many applications, but I'd say the primary one is separating truth from falsehood in general. \n\nThere are several major branches of philosophy, including:\n\n*Ethics*, which examines morality - what defines right and wrong, and why. Anytime you contemplate the rightness or wrongness of an action, you are engaged in moral philosophy. Ethics can also help define law, and separate good laws from bad ones.\n\n*Logic*, which studies methods of sound reasoning\n\n*Metaphysics* basically examines the question, what exists, and what is reality? What does it mean to say something exists?\n\n*Epistemology* examines beliefs and knowledge. If you believe that something is true, how do you verify that?\n\n*Aesthetics* examines the nature beauty, why we find some things pleasing and others not.\n\nThe *philosophy of science*, which examines how scientific knowledge is properly acquired.\n\n.. among others.\n",
"Everyone does philosophy - everyone has views on right and wrong (ethics), politics, religion, art, etc. Pretty much every argument has to do with logic.\n\nBy studying philosophy you can actually save a lot of time by realizing that some of the arguments are useless or meaningless.\n\nSo, let's create an imaginary person called Ted. He studied philosophy and, though he never really came to conclusions about how things are, realized that there are some things that plainly aren't. \n\nHe no longer believes in Cthulhu and so saves a lot of time by not going to rituals or trying to square the theology of Dagon. He used to debate which was the best colour - green, red or smoog? He now realizes that smoog isn't a colour and so can avoid these debates, or at least part of them - they are simplified. He used to think that collecting shrimps was a good goal in life, then he thought about it some more and now doesn't. In fact, after studying philosophy he finds that he's almost speaking another language to the townsfolk - when they say stuff like 'eating kittens is an earthly act' and 'glass eating isn't dining, it's self-assault' he doesn't understand what they mean - they seem to be getting in a muddle about concepts he doesn't bother with.\n\nOddly, since learning philosophy, there's less things for Ted to deal with, less concepts in the world. Which is nice, because a lot of them made no sense and now, at the very least, he has more time.",
"Trying to read Nietszche or Sartre is like diving into the deep end of the swimming pool unprepared.\n\nPhilosophy is an activity where one examines beliefs, understandings and perceptions of the world. It has many applications, but I'd say the primary one is separating truth from falsehood in general. \n\nThere are several major branches of philosophy, including:\n\n*Ethics*, which examines morality - what defines right and wrong, and why. Anytime you contemplate the rightness or wrongness of an action, you are engaged in moral philosophy. Ethics can also help define law, and separate good laws from bad ones.\n\n*Logic*, which studies methods of sound reasoning\n\n*Metaphysics* basically examines the question, what exists, and what is reality? What does it mean to say something exists?\n\n*Epistemology* examines beliefs and knowledge. If you believe that something is true, how do you verify that?\n\n*Aesthetics* examines the nature beauty, why we find some things pleasing and others not.\n\nThe *philosophy of science*, which examines how scientific knowledge is properly acquired.\n\n.. among others.\n",
"Everyone does philosophy - everyone has views on right and wrong (ethics), politics, religion, art, etc. Pretty much every argument has to do with logic.\n\nBy studying philosophy you can actually save a lot of time by realizing that some of the arguments are useless or meaningless.\n\nSo, let's create an imaginary person called Ted. He studied philosophy and, though he never really came to conclusions about how things are, realized that there are some things that plainly aren't. \n\nHe no longer believes in Cthulhu and so saves a lot of time by not going to rituals or trying to square the theology of Dagon. He used to debate which was the best colour - green, red or smoog? He now realizes that smoog isn't a colour and so can avoid these debates, or at least part of them - they are simplified. He used to think that collecting shrimps was a good goal in life, then he thought about it some more and now doesn't. In fact, after studying philosophy he finds that he's almost speaking another language to the townsfolk - when they say stuff like 'eating kittens is an earthly act' and 'glass eating isn't dining, it's self-assault' he doesn't understand what they mean - they seem to be getting in a muddle about concepts he doesn't bother with.\n\nOddly, since learning philosophy, there's less things for Ted to deal with, less concepts in the world. Which is nice, because a lot of them made no sense and now, at the very least, he has more time."
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6y2wrm | i was just wondering what a computer engineer actually does in the work field | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6y2wrm/eli5i_was_just_wondering_what_a_computer_engineer/ | {
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"There are lots of different things Computer Engineer do. One of the main areas they work in is called Embedded Computer systems. That's a fancy term for the small computer systems inside all of our electronics. \n\nThings like:\n* Microwave Ovens\n* TVs\n* Automobiles\n* Smart Phones\n* Advanced Washer and Dryers\n* Home Security Systems\n* Traffic Light Controllers\n* Alarm Clocks\n* Blu-ray players\n* Gaming Consoles\n\nAnything that has a small computer system inside it (and most electronic things have a small computer system inside them.)\n\nI have a bunch of friends who are computer engineers. One works for Sonos (smart speakers). One works for Apple designing electronics for the iPhone. Another works for a fire alarm company. "
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2zivl0 | is it good for a car to have smaller wheels in front while bigger wheels are in the back? | Does it affect how much energy is used or does it affect the car at all? Also, does having your car angled down affect the car at all (due to smaller wheels in the front).
I don't where else to look, but I need this for a project and I can't find anything online. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zivl0/eli5_is_it_good_for_a_car_to_have_smaller_wheels/ | {
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"Only if your car is designed (or modified) to make use of this correctly.\n\nIt is a question of aerodynamics vs applied force. The larger tire in the rear can travel greater distances with lower RPM, allowing a powerful engine to reach higher speeds without having to switch to a higher gear differential. They also have a larger surface area touching the ground, meaning greater traction coming off the line.\n\nLarger tires in the front are not productive, and are actually detrimental due to increased air resistance and weight."
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6d69tq | who takes over essential jobs during a strike? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6d69tq/eli5_who_takes_over_essential_jobs_during_a_strike/ | {
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"Employees who are not part of the union, typically employees who have a manager title but no direct reports. ",
"Usually it's the people working there. I my country there are strict laws that in essential jobs, people working in hospitals, power plants, etc., not everyone is allowed to strike at once. There is a certain minimum level of service that the people working there needs to deliver so that for instance sick people in need of surgery don't die because the surgeon is on strike.",
"In a chemical plant or refinery, operators (think \"blue collar\") will strike every few years for better contract employment terms. When this happens, engineers, engineering supervisors, and \"people from HQ\" report to the plant to temporarily cover for operators until a deal is struck and the operators come back to work. They typically staff at a minimum mandate to keep the place going, and sacrifice strategy and optimization during that time.\n\nThese shift worker, \"blue collar,\" operators are really the backbone of heavy industry and they wield their power to negotiate better terms (pay, in some cases working conditions) when they can by striking",
"If you are referring to essential services such as police, firemen, emergency rescue etc, in many jurisdictions it is actually illegal for them to strike. For example in New York State the Public Employees Fair Employment Act has banned all public employees from striking since 1967, and in the UK the 1919 Police Act bans all police from going on strike. In exchange, many of these laws have a binding arbitration clause in case of an impasse in labor negotiations.",
"Outsourcing is also an option. Go to a company that can fill the absolutely necessary staff asap and pay them. "
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5u35m5 | is there a limited amount of key/lock combinations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5u35m5/eli5_is_there_a_limited_amount_of_keylock/ | {
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" > Is it possible that somebody, somewhere on the planet has a key that could open my apartment door? \n\nAbsolutely, in fact this is guaranteed. But most people don't go around trying hundreds or thousands of doors seeing if their key works. Someone that determined could just break in. Locks are deterrents and delays not some bastion of impregnability."
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dr3n7t | how much money do they people who put ads on youtube actually make? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dr3n7t/eli5_how_much_money_do_they_people_who_put_ads_on/ | {
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"Advertisers only get charged if their full ad is actually watched in full. But \"in full\" for skippable ads usually means watched for at least 30 seconds, if a user watches less than that, they don't pay.\n\nYoutube advertising is actually pretty cheap and considered to be extremely effective. Video advertising in many areas is the huge push in digital ads right now\n\nA lot of ads are also focused more on watching on mobile devices, not PC, where its more difficult and cumbersome to skip ads."
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965zed | what is an insulin spike and how does it effect my weight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/965zed/eli5_what_is_an_insulin_spike_and_how_does_it/ | {
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"Insulin can be thought as the food truck molecule. After you eat sugar insulin is released. It transports glucose and forces them into the cells. The reason it affects your weight is because it also promotes the turning of sugar into fat and because your body can gain a resistance to insulin causing more of the sugar you eat to turn into fat instead of being transported to cells",
"When you eat sugary foods your body breaks it down and the sugar goes into your blood stream. When high blood sugar levels are bad so your body releases insulin which signals for the body to pull the sugar out of the blood and it get turned into fat and stored in fat cells. \n\nType 2 diabetes happens when the body becomes to used to seeing high insulin levels and stops responding to it (similar to how you would stop paying attention to a small scrape after it initially happens) so the sugar stays in the blood.\n\nIt’s obviously much more complex than this but this is my eli5"
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bg742d | what actually happens when we unintentionally start to drift off to sleep but our body suddenly "shocks" us awake? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bg742d/eli5_what_actually_happens_when_we/ | {
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"There's a name for this phenomenon: It's called a hypnic jerk or sleep start. ... experts don't know the exact cause of sleep starts, but what seems to be happening is that there's a neurological tussle between the brain systems that keep you awake and the ones that encourage you to fall asleep\n\nHopefully I understood your question as you wanted :)",
"I have read that if you go to sleep \"too hard\" and your body functions go down too much, your body tries to jumpstart you back to consciousness so that you can evaluate if there is a problem.",
"From my understanding of some theoretical model of how sleep works, and explained in the way a 5-year-old who understands enough to ask this question:\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe different parts of your brains that control what you do talk to each other through waves of electricity when you're awake. When you start to sleep, one big sleep wave goes over your whole brain so the different parts of your brain can't hear each other anymore over this big wave. \n\nWhen you feel like you're falling asleep little by little, almost rhythmically, that is the sleep wave trying over and over again to stop the parts of your brain from talking to each other. When you suddenly wake yourself, that's one or more parts of your brain sending waves out \"louder\" because they don't know why they can't talk to the other parts anymore. Then the big sleep wave has to try again, and hopefully it will stop all of the different parts of the brain from talking to each other, so there's just one big, rhythmic wave and you can get some sleep!\n\n & #x200B;\n\n**^(EDIT:)** ^(Formatting, and a few extra words for clarity.)",
"I was taught that this is your body's reaction to falling asleep quite suddenly.\nAs your heart rate and breathing slow, your nervous system sends a jolt through your body to make sure you're all good.",
"I was always told that I was being carried off to heaven by angels but they dropped me back to my body",
"My girlfriend is in medical school and I speak with her about a lot of these topics and learn a lot, and I'm an engineer. So I will explain it to you as a combination of both. It's believed to be an evolutionary response but again, like all things, this is a theory. The logic is a combination of all things I've read here (in theory and as such all explanations from here on out are the most likely accepted theory). It is believed that this is because yes, we don't want to fall asleep suddenly in an unsafe situation (hence the falling asleep, not passing out all at once, called narcolepsy). Our brain also communicates with distinct lobes and as a result, as we sleep, these slow down (they never go away entirely otherwise we'd die immediately!). As they slow, assuming we are in a safe situation, falling asleep in truth is still, to a nervous system, feeling like we're fading. Our body also does secrete compounds to help us stay asleep. However, a combination of these constitute the proper process. We need to be safe. If we aren't, we better wake up! If we're safe, then our mind begins the process. Now our brain is having trouble communicating now. Are we ok? Heart rate is slowing. Breathing is slowing. Is it time to panic? Let's see! So then we spasm. Ok so now that we did, we didn't run, we're ok. Now restart this. Let's now try to force ourselves to sleep. As we do, we relax. Now this comes as a few \"waves\" hence the falling asleep. We will do these together and slowly fall asleep, while testing our movement as we go, and eventually fall asleep. Startling us results in us basically flooding ourselves with adrenaline and waking up immediately. Otherwise, minor threat? Ok, back to it. And we do this bit by bit, until we finally doze off. That is the process. There are way more details and disorders (for example, if our body continues to force us to sleep but we are waking up and do wake up fully, our body has tried to keep us asleep and immobilized us. This is called sleep paralysis), but that is the normal process.",
"I have been suffering with pnes, i.e. psychogenic non-epileptic seizures or \"conversion disorder\", for a while, and this resembles what my jolts are like, just more violent and painful. \n\nThank you for posting this.",
"I work in neuro and I don't know the answer to this. Scrolling through the first few top comments I'm seeing wildly different answers. Rather than further misinformation, I'll just interpret the [wikipedia entry](_URL_0_):\n\nLooks like the reaction is not understood, but is probably the activation of the \"reflex to stay upright\". When your muscles relax when you fall asleep, it may accidentally be interpreted as weightlessness (falling), which may trigger the response.\n\nSo if anyone knows more than this, rather than spread dubious information, please update the wiki with your sources.",
"As far as I'm aware the top comment is bullshit, there's no evidence for any of this. What I heard though which is a theory that actually makes sense is essentially your consciousness still being awake on some level whilst your body engages paralysis for sleep (so you don't act out your dreams). With your awareness of that sensation of flaccid paralysis being interpreted as that of falling.",
"Your heart decides to chill out for bed and so your heart rate drops to a literal resting rate. It's too sudden for ya noggin and yer brain goes \"oh, am I dying?\" and boops you awake to check.",
"Since our brain is shrouded in such mystery, I can only explain from my experience and my attempt at finding an answer for this exact question.\n\nThis is what happens as you fall asleep doing your homework, reading a book or just watching some stupid youtube videos.\n\n* At somepoint, your brain will signal you it's desire to sleep, Your voluntary part of the brain still completely control your body and senses.\n* You ignore it and force yourself to continue with your task, This is where your voluntary parts of the brain still have majority of the control.\n* After sometime, you start to have tunnel vision like all your working parts of the brain pool resources in the task at hand and you start to notice less and less about your surroundings like the music you were listening atm for example., Now the voluntary parts of the brain have almost lost their control over your physical parts and senses but are hanging on barely. Any sudden alerting thing can still make the voluntary parts force awaken the rest of the brain. So, this is one case that's similar to your question\n* Even further now, you are getting soo tired and the voluntary parts of the brain has lot the control to your involuntary ones but they are still not totally done yet. they still keep some small part of self-awareness but mostly your brain is occupied by automatic thoughts and dreamy images similar to when you are fully sleeping. At this point, it's still easier to \"jolt\" you awake by some sudden thought or an internal alarm in your brain than when you are completely sleeping. This is a slightly deeper case of your question than the above.\n* Beyond this point, you are approaching total loss of physical awareness and a normal sleeping state of the brain. But, it still possible to have thought processes that you voluntarily deemed important/essential somewhere in a tiny corner of the voluntary bits of the brain. Like for example, if you were doing a homework that you know you have to complete today or you just don't want to miss out on today's youtube procrastination time or that song you really like listening to etc. And that small corner may be able to procure enough resources to remind the rest of your brain of the task at hand all of a sudden, an alarm goes off internally and you are jolted back from sleep!\n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;\n\nI apologize if this ended up being too long to read but I thought it was more important to put as much info as I can to make it easier to understand without actually using any technical terms. You can actually observe all of these events if you focus hard enough next time you go to sleep. It can be a fun task to analyze how your brain's routine works from a third person perspective internally, like a computer with a task manager open :))",
"I read a research paper a few months ago about the hypnogogic jerk (what you're describing). It's observed in most primate species, and is assumed to be your body forcing a hard check on how sturdy the place you're sleeping is (ie. If you were a chimp sleeping in a tree, to see how sturdy the branch is). Like all assumptions like this in animal psychology, it's questionable, but interesting.",
"It is called a Hypnic Jerk.When the body detects your heart rate slowing rapidly it tries to \"shock\" you awake."
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56d5s8 | how do diamond miners avoid accidentally shattering the diamonds? | Diamonds are very hard, but brittle. When mining for copper ore it doesn't really matter that it stays intact, but how do gem miners avoid accidentally cracking gems while they're using pickaxes and digging machines? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56d5s8/eli5_how_do_diamond_miners_avoid_accidentally/ | {
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"Most digging for diamonds is done with explosives, not pickaxes.\n\nThe whole mining concept is to get the ore out of the ground and into the processing plant. By moving ore in big pieces, the miners are exposed to fewer diamonds, thus they break fewer of them. In the processing plant, they tend to break the rocks by compressing them so the diamond's hardness works in their favor. It's like 1 carat of diamonds per ton of ore."
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22aqwh | how do animals with cloacas mate? | I know I can find this on google or wikipedia, but i'm scared of how gross the answer and possible pictures with it will be.
I want to understand this, but with the sugar coated non-irky explanation!
I know something with a cloaca has one hole for urinating, defecating, and mating.
So ... when they mate how does ... ??? I'm so confuse. Is it one hole that leads to 3 tracts, but if so how does sperm get to the ovaries. If it's not that, I'm even more confuse. ALSO, ISN'T THAT DIRTY? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22aqwh/eli5how_do_animals_with_cloacas_mate/ | {
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"It depends on the species, but for the most part, the female positions herself and moves her feathers out of the way. The male mounts her and the cloacas rub together briefly, and the male deposits sperm in the female's cloaca. Just like in mammals, contractions of the reproductive tract move the sperm up to the egg. \nIt really isn't much more dirty than mammal reproduction. The normal cloacal bacteria is adapted to allow mating to occur, just like normal vaginal bacteria in mammals. \n\nSome birds, like parrots, can have a more protracted mating with a big more \"rubbing\" others, like waterfowl, actually have a phallus that protrudes and enters the female. Fish and amphibians are often externally fertilized, where the female lays eggs, then the male comes over and sprays semen over them. "
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eit9ua | what is the difference between autoencoders and neural networks? | From reading, I know that autoencoders are feed forward artificial neural networks trained on input that tries to optimize a loss(error) function.
I know that autoencoders can be used for anomaly detection and image processing too but can't traditional deep neural networks(CNN) do the same?
Can someone give an ELI5 explanation and example that shows the difference between the two?
This is another explanation of autoencoders I found interesting but didn't understand- 'Patterns are like little animals, they live in the data. Training an autoencoder is changing a neural net over time to allow the little animals to live inside the net and come out of the other side looking the same as when they went in. Which incidentaly is much what the brain does.'
I get the part about how patterns live in data but didn't get the part about how autoencoders are similar to the brain | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eit9ua/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_autoencoders/ | {
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"Autoencoders are (in this context) types of neural networks that are often characterized by an hourglass shape. You have a lot of neurons going in, a drastic constriction in the middle, and then a large number of nodes going out.\n\nThey *are* neural networks, their structure and purpose is just specialized. They have a specific shape and their loss function boils down to \"get the input to equal the output\"."
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288pp6 | when a person is morbidly obese, why do doctors treat it by surgically shrinking the stomach instead of surgically removing the fat? | I've always wondered. Removing the fat seems like the most logical solution, but there must be a reason it isn't done. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/288pp6/eli5_when_a_person_is_morbidly_obese_why_do/ | {
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"text": [
"They do that too. It's called [liposuction](_URL_0_).\n\nBut the root cause of that fatness is the person's excessive appetite. Stomach stapling fixes the cause, liposuction just temporarily relieves the effect.",
"If you remove the fat, and they still need to eat the same amount to not be hungry, eventually they'll just get back to the same level.\n\nThere was a recent study that showed only a very small percent of people can diet down from that level and keep off the weight; something like 5%. Sometimes, you just need to change the habits and not just try to fix the side effects.",
"This is totally a guess but:\n1. It solves future problems gaining the weight back.\n2. Way less stressful on the body to modify the stomach than to take huge sections of the body away.",
"1. Removing the fat is actually more invasive and painful than the general stomach stapling, gastric bypass, etc. procedures.\n\n2. It's a more permanent solution. You'll gain the weight back with lipo, because you didn't change your eating habits the way you have to with gastric bypass and related procedures (they often require exercise changes as well).\n\n3. Liposuction is not practical or, really, safe, for full-body fat removal. You're also not a good candidate for liposuction if you're morbidly obese. It's cosmetic, not for weight loss."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liposuction"
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3drc7o | why don't phones come with a usb 2.0 or 3.0 port? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3drc7o/eli5_why_dont_phones_come_with_a_usb_20_or_30_port/ | {
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"I assume you mean USB-A? Because USB-A is huge compared to the size of a phone, and it would be almost entirely useless, because extremely few people have a need to attach a USB peripheral to their mobile device. If you really, *really* need to, that's what [OTG cables are for](_URL_0_)",
"But they do. Most smartphones these days have a microUSB 2.0 port. The reason they use the microUSB connector size rather than USB A is that it'd be too big.",
"micro USB is on nearly every phone. It is identical in functionality to type A USB(same number of pins), so the bandwidth is the same in theory. \nHowever, micro USB connections are very fragile. This is one of the major reasons apple has not switched to micro USB(in addition to money of course). \nWith the new USB type C connector however, they managed to make a much more sturdy connector, that will become the standard in the coming years. \nI wonder if apple will also adapt the type C connector on their mobile devices, they already added it to some of their macs.",
"I understand your question a bit differently than most of the other responses. My understanding goes something like this:\n\"How come there isn't a port I can use to plug USB devices, like printers, sound cards, or an external DVD burner into my phone?\"\n\nAssuming that's an accurate assessment of what you're asking, there are a few answers. First, what would be the practical application of that? Many Android phones will support \"USB OTG adapters\", which allow users to plug in flash drives and similar storage devices and use them for data storage. Most new printers support some form of printing over Wi-Fi, so the need to plug in a cable is relatively moot. Conversely, printers that don't support those kinds of printing tasks are likely to require special drivers, which probably aren't written for iOS or Android, or the ARM processors that power them. More unique devices would also likely have a similar story. Finally, consider that the amount of power that an Android phone will send out the door won't be enough to power most things.\n\nPut it altogether, and there's only a handful of edge cases to justify the development time from all the necessary parties involved, and the huge expense will never be worth it to...basically anyone."
]
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[
"http://www.amazon.com/LIFETIME-WARRANTY-Electronics-Micro-Cable/dp/B005GGBYJ4"
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||
7f7jbp | what is the process as to how the fcc passes their bills? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7f7jbp/eli5_what_is_the_process_as_to_how_the_fcc_passes/ | {
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"text": [
"I'd guess that they pass $50 \"Bills\" in cases over to whoever is greedy enough to sell the American people down the river :("
]
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[]
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||
1bsykk | the reason /r/circlejerk is circlejerking about staples and officemax | The other post didn't really get a decent or sure answer. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bsykk/eli5_the_reason_rcirclejerk_is_circlejerking/ | {
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"Obviously the mods are getting paid. ",
"Because of the great deals at Staples of course. ",
"What you should be asking is how it started. Once they start criclejerking about something, they won't stop. ",
"Wow, this is front page of ELI5 and no one has a real answer, I'm beginning to think no one actually knows.",
"I first noticed it after someone made a post that said something like \"1000 upvotes and circlejerk will become an office supply subreddit again\", I guess they've chosen to be on the side of Staples.",
"Someone made a humorous post saying something like \"If this post gets 2000 upvotes, /r/circlejerk will turn back into an office supply subreddit.\" It did get 2000 upvotes, so the mods changed the subreddit to a Staples theme and now they're acting like Office Max is literally Hitler.\n\n/r/circlejerk often will have periods where they temporarily re-theme the subreddit. A couple months ago they were an all-meme subreddit for a few days, for example.\n\nEdit: The thread that started it, if anyone's interested: _URL_0_",
"jerker here -- many moons ago, /r/circlejerk would fake corporate sponsorship to scare users away from subscribing; naturally as a joke. This had a reverse effect and membership when from like 10k to 40k because of the attention.\n\n\nThis past week the mods made a joke about returning to the roots of being an online stop for office supplies and Staples was blessed with heroism akin to that only bestowed upon Sagan and Tyson-like figures, while poor Office Depot has now been compared to those pesky evildoers like EA and Mittler Romney.\n\nAlso, DAE HL:3?",
"Office depot is literally Hitler",
"Also, whats the story with the pickle?",
"/r/circlejerk is a funny subreddit that takes the mickey, pokes the fun at the rest of Reddit. I think that these jokes say uncomfortable truths about Reddit that in any other form would not work.\n\nIn this case it is mocking the way that Redditors adopt causes, brands and media personalities and group up to attack others. It is also making a joke out of the commercialism of Reddit and society as a whole. This mockery has it's own in jokes and memes and is quite amusing for those taking part, but for those outside it can be a bit puzzling."
]
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[],
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/circlejerk/comments/1bignu/if_this_posts_gets_1000_upvotes_circlejerk_goes/"
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7gwtx8 | what causes goat cheese and goat meat to share that gamey taste? | Both the meat and cheese taste gamey to me but what in it (biologically, chemically) gives off this flavor? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gwtx8/eli5_what_causes_goat_cheese_and_goat_meat_to/ | {
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"A lot of things influence flavor. Hormones and what fats are in the milk/meat are some of the biggest contributors to taste. ",
"The flavor that creates the gamey flavor is caused by a number of factors.\n\nFirst, hormones. When animals are butchered at certain times of the year, for example during a rut (when they are in season for breading), the hormone levels are much higher, which can alter the taste.\n\nThe environment the animal lives in can also make a huge difference. I will use myself for example. I grew up in the Sierra Nevada's, specifically in Tahoe. I now live in Southern California. A black tail buck from the Sierra's will taste different and massively better than a buck that's taken down in southern California. There are 2 contributing factors. The more minor one is weather. Animals that live in more extreme environments are, on average, more healthy and will taste better as the weaker animals will die in the extreme environment. The other and larger factor is diet. Animals that live in areas that have berries, and other food will taste better than an animal that say lives on sage brush and garbage.\n\nAnother item is was the animal stressed or scared at the time it was put/taken down. When the animal is stressed or scared, it will have adrenaline going through it. This adrenaline is one of the key factors to a 'gamey' taste that people notice. The more calm the animal is, the less of this flavor will permeate the meat.\n\nThis is all stuff I've learned being raised by a hunter, and having hunted a large portion of my life."
]
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[],
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|
35iljx | why does a slightly darker color on my monitor emit more light when looked at from an angle? | Example on window shadows:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
(sorry for bad quality) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35iljx/eli5_why_does_a_slightly_darker_color_on_my/ | {
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"cr4rr96"
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"text": [
"LCD monitors, create black areas by blocking the back light. It is like putting a dark disk in front of a flashlight, trying to block it. There is some leakage around the edges. Looking from straight ahead, you can tell it's blocked, but from the side, you can see shimmers of light. "
]
} | [] | [
"http://imgur.com/5SxGZVt.jpg",
"http://imgur.com/BV0EcWj.jpg"
] | [
[]
] |
|
3qoouz | why does your hearing get worse if you listen to music everyday, even with a safe volume? and why can't this be prevented? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qoouz/eli5_why_does_your_hearing_get_worse_if_you/ | {
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"That's not even slightly true. The real reason it happens is that listening to music (or anything) too loud for too long damages the hair cells inside the cochlea, your organ for hearing. Some damage can be temporary, say from a night at a concert. Prolonged noise exposure will lead to the destruction of the these hair cells, leading to hearing loss. Once a hair cell is dead, it can't come back, i.e. hearing loss due to prolonged noise exposure is permanent.\n\n We were never intended to hear things as loud as we listen to them using headphones and things like that. I work with hearing aids and the hearing impaired for a living. Just keep listening to things that loud and you'll get to come see me and spend $5k to try and hear better.\n\nSource-I'm a licensed hearing instrument dispenser"
]
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[]
] |
||
4vz2vo | how can a heat pump "extract heat" from outside air that is colder than the inside of my house? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vz2vo/eli5how_can_a_heat_pump_extract_heat_from_outside/ | {
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"Because the fluid being used for the process is colder than the environment when it accepts heat from it, but is *hotter* than your house environment when it rejects heat. If Tc is the cold operating temperature, Th is the hot operating temperature, Ta is the ambient, and Ti is the temperature inside your house, then to get heat to flow, you need them to be arranged in the following manner;\n\nTh > Ti > Ta > Tc\n\nYou have a fluid that boils at a low temperature. That fluid accepts heat from the outside air, and is then compressed, which raises the temperature, higher than that of the indoor area. That heat is then rejected into your house, and condenses (while still at high pressure). It's throttled back down to lower pressure to bring it back to the starting temperature, and the whole process is repeated.\n\nYour refrigerator works on the same cycle.",
"These are excellent responses. How can I mark this \"explained\"?",
"No matter how cold it is outside, the air is still above absolute 0, which means there is always heat to extract from it.\n\nIn a heat pump or air conditioner, there are two coils, one inside, and one outside. Between these coils moves a refrigerant. At room temperature, under normal pressures, the refrigerant is a gas. When the compressor compresses the refrigerant going into your house, the refrigerant turns into a liquid. The molecules in a liquid move slower than in a gas, which means they have less energy. So the excess energy is given off as heat (the liquid gets really hot. The hot liquid heats a coil in your house, and a fan blows that heat into the home, cooling the liquid in the process. When it goes outside, it is allowed to decompress, which turns it back into a gas. The opposite happens, and it gets really cold, colder than the outside air,. The air can then heat this gas up a bit, and this heat will be recovered in the house when the refrigerant is compressed back into a liquid. The same process happens in reverse for air conditioners. "
]
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[],
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||
1lpfr6 | how does cyanid work? | I'm talking about the suicide pills, which were used under ww2.
How does cyanid kill you? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lpfr6/eli5how_does_cyanid_work/ | {
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"text": [
"cyanide interferes with the transfer of oxygen from the blood to cells. Your body basically suffocates.",
"It interferes with cellular aerobic respiration. Cells normally make energy in two ways - 1 is aerobic respiration and is quite efficient (~36 ATP* produced per unit of glucose), but requires oxygen. Anaerobic respiration doesn't need oxygen, but only produces 2 units of ATP per unit of glucose, and produces lactic acid as a by-product.\n\nCyanide prevents cells from completing aerobic respiration, and so they are unable to make enough ATP to keep you alive.\n\n*ATP is a compound used as energy in cellular metabolism."
]
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[],
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14vpm1 | how can glass break with someone's singing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14vpm1/eli5_how_can_glass_break_with_someones_singing/ | {
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"Imagine you're jumping on a trampoline. You're going at a nice, regular rate. You know how you can sometimes jump higher if there's another person who jumps at just the right moment, to launch you into the air?\n\nThat's what's happening to the glass. All matter vibrates a little. That's sort of like you bouncing on the trampoline at a regular rate. This is called a \"resonant frequency.\" Hit matter with its own resonant frequency, and suddenly, it's launched far further than it was going on its own. Glass, and certain other materials, are fragile enough that hitting them with the right frequency causes that extra energy to shatter the glass. Note that this only works with relatively thin glass, to begin with.",
"You know how on a swing, you start off low, but you pump your legs in time with the swinging to go higher? You're pushing a little but more every time. The trick is doing it juuuuuuuuust right. If you keep doing it, eventually you'll get so high that you'll fall off.\n\nYour voice is small, but if you sing at just the right frequency, eventually the vibration that your voice is causing in the glass will get so big it will break the glass. It might take some time, and sometimes it might not even work, due to a lot of other factors. ",
"mythbusters did it. you might find it interesting to watch the youtube videos of it. start [here](_URL_0_)\n\nedit [heres part two](_URL_1_)\n\n[and three](_URL_2_)",
"It's called resonance. Everything has it's own frequency; that is, the rate at which it vibrates/shakes if you flick/tap it. When things vibrate, they push the air around them, making the air vibrate. These vibrations move through the air, spreading out, trying to even the air pressure out, and this is the reason why sound emerges whenever you tap objects together (sound = air that vibrates).\n\nThe cool thing is that if sound hits another object with the same acoustic properties (an object that would trigger the same frequencies if tapped) the energy literally transfers to that object. If you've ever played in a band, you might have noticed how strumming a bass guitar will make a snare drum vibrate, without anyone touching it. This happens because they share some of the same frequencies. The same thing happens if you sing the exact sound that tapping a glass would make - the energy moves through the air, in the form of sound, and gets transferred to the glass. ...only the glass is a rather hard and inflexible material, not made for vibrating, and so with enough energy transferred to it, it shatters."
]
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[],
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9FrMkhQoA4",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHSGd2X1nc8",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXV45t6wlWU"
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||
95upfp | if smoking cigarettes makes your lungs weaker, then why does it become easier to smoke overtime? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/95upfp/eli5_if_smoking_cigarettes_makes_your_lungs/ | {
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"You have hairs in your windpipe that make you cough when you smoke. Smoking destroys these, so you cough less once you've been smoking for longer.",
"The time it takes for your lungs to weaken from smoking is far greater than the time it takes to adjust to the repetition and taste of smoking. ",
"Smoking gets easier over time because the more you smoke, the more damage is done to the various parts designed to keep foreign objects out of the lungs, such as the cilia that line the windpipe. ",
"Smoking causes tar to build up in the vessels that would otherwise allow you to inhale air. This is what is being referred to as weaker lungs. You have to take more breaths to get the same oxygen.\n\nSmoking is hard at first because it burns the throat, and it chokes the lungs. Over time the cilia in your lungs that trigger this choking feeling get paralyzed by the repeated smoke. The throat becomes more tolerant to the high heat of the smoke over time, building up like a callous."
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||
260qip | how is the rise of things like netflix and hulu affecting the way ratings are viewed for tv shows? | Are they counting them alongside ratings? Are they ignoring them? Are they even able to get those statistics? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/260qip/eli5_how_is_the_rise_of_things_like_netflix_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Nielsen ratings are used by networks to determine what shows you want to watch (in the US) by taking a sample population and extrapolating from that data, the [maths](_URL_0_) on this is actually pretty good (check out the video if you want a simple example of it in action), so the estimates they give should not be too far off the real value.\n\nNetflix and other similar services have really shaken the industry but Nielsen aren’t completely out of touch they will start including this data into their results soon, even so, sampling the population can get you things which are harder to clarify with streaming services, they need the data of people’s age and gender to get a good idea of the demographics for a show, and streaming services don’t always have or need to give them this data."
]
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7z8qrg | why are the words "yeah" and "oh" always in pop songs and said for so long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7z8qrg/eli5_why_are_the_words_yeah_and_oh_always_in_pop/ | {
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"text": [
"They are used as *filler* where the tune requires a note, but the singer doesn't have anything more to say.\n\nAn excellent lyricist will try to adjust the wording so that not too many of these are needed.",
"Good filler that can make even the most unintelligible lyrics sound intelligible. [Example](_URL_0_)"
]
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[],
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"https://youtu.be/-VsmF9m_Nt8"
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25sdlo | why does water/milk/juice, when poured slowly, fall in a double helix/spiral pattern? | Whenever I pour apple juice or milk from the bottle, it makes a spiral, and I can control the wavelength by altering the speed of flow. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25sdlo/eli5_why_does_watermilkjuice_when_poured_slowly/ | {
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"I would say we need video evidence, but this sounds like a video artifact... You aren't a cyborg, by chance?",
"There is a main flow and also two divergent flows. Let's say the main flow goes down. The first divergent flow is to the side a bit and there is a secondary divergent flow that rotates. The surface tension of the water keeps the flows together but its elastic, it doesn't do anything to damp their movement. Each contains momentum that has to continue through the stream.\n\nThe reason that the flows exist separately is that you're pouring a fluid through a restricted nozzle. At the bottom surface its held back due to boundary layer effects with the container that you're pouring if from. The top of the milk is free to accelerate directly under gravity. Its going to go faster. The entire flow is not uniform and it naturally decomposes into tangential and rotating flows around the main stream. \n\nIts difficult to get water to flow in uniform streams. One technique is to send the water through hundreds of straws or small pipes at low pressure then constrict the stream very gradually and uniformly. The stream can spill out as a solid tube with no twisting moments as its been calmed down by the upstream restrictions.",
"Spiral universe ...pierce the heavens!"
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2cndsy | if we are our brains, where am "i" (the voice in my head) inside of all that mass of neurons and connective tissues? | Mainly curious about the voice in my head when you think about things. Where am "I"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cndsy/eli5_if_we_are_our_brains_where_am_i_the_voice_in/ | {
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"That's the problem of consciousness: we just don't know.\n\nThere are some who think that consciousness is a purely physical phenomenon: get enough neurons in one place arranged correctly and poof! conscious person.\n\nSome believe that it's not physical, or that we don't know the physical properties that make it up yet.\n\nOf course, it's also possible that you're the only conscious individual in existence, and everyone else is just a construct of your mind. In that case, consciousness is a property of the universe, and you are the universe.",
"You should read eckhart tolle the power of now",
"Check out Incognito \"The Secret Life of the Brain\" by David Eagleman. ",
"I have never stopped to consider this and now I'm incredibly uncomfortable and probably not going to sleep tonight. Thanks a lot, OP!",
"That question is one of the big philosophical questions that has been around for a long time. Can the right combo of matter produce thought or is thought super natural?",
"What is the matrix? ",
"The 'I' is a phenomena resulting from your brain. Its the part of your mind that seeks to convince the conscious that it is a free agent. It exists in the same way MS Windows works. While the physical components of a PC are assembled and operating, the phenomena of Windows exists. Turn off the computer, away goes the phenomena of the operating system. In this sense windows isn't anywhere but arises as a phenomena. \r\rWhen you die, your 'I' goes to the same place as all the windows 95 installs.",
"Reading over your question, I get the impression maybe the other answers have missed your point. You're asking about the neurological basis, are you not?\n\nThe answer to that is a disappointing \"no one knows.\" One of the strongest proposed candidates is the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in many higher cognitive activities like logic and social behavior. Another candidate is the temporal lobe, but the evidence for this is a bit scant - it's the part of the brain that works out when your two eyes are seeing totally unrelated images, which certainly shows some interesting low and high level functions but is hardly indicative of consciousness.\n\nOther theories focus on properties of the brain's functions, but these tend to be considered more far-fetched. Their purpose is to explain how consciousness can pull in information from so many parts of the brain, but a simpler explanation to this is that consciousness is located in a structure that has access to the rest of the brain. The prefrontal cortex happens to be a great example of this - because it primarily handles various forms of problem solving, it pulls information from all over the brain.\n\nTL;DR: no one knows for certain, but at the moment most evidence points to the prefrontal cortex.",
"If consciousness is simply a highly organized system of molecules, is it then possible for massive structures to be conscious? A conscious planet, or a conscious galaxy?",
"When it comes to your mind you're an amalgam, you don't have a nucleus. I'll elaborate. The issue most people have when considering this question stems from the intuitive assumption that the brain is a single computer, when it is in fact a collection of processors. Each conscious thought you have, is the result of a single thought winning a competition between a vast array of subconscious computers. \n\nIn this competitive way it was once presumed that the best thoughts would win, but instead it was found that the thoughts which happen to fit the individual's mood are what tend to win (as mood is a chemical brain state) which makes sense, as in animals mood is often the direct result of immediate environmental pressures, which require a situationally appropriate response.\n\nThere is also a secondary process within the brain which essentially stitches all of these individual pieces of information (thoughts) into a consistent narrative. \n\nThis stitching process is most shockingly revealed in individuals suffering from brain traumas which lead to cerebral hemisphere dissection. Instructions were given to one half (the half that controlled the left arm) to pick up a glass of water and take a drink. Unaware of what the other half had been ordered to do, the individual was asked why they had just taken a drink. Patients consistently tell a story in which their actions were intentional, \"I was thirsty\", without even blinking. The same goes for every single other action, no matter how bizarre, pinch yourself, scratch your nose, bite your thumb, etc. \n\nPartial Source: V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. \n\n",
"Here's an experiment you can try: take a sheet of paper, and draw a line down the center creating two columns. Label the first column \"Observed\" and the second column \"Observer\". Then, start filling up the columns with whatever exists in your reality. (For this experiment, \"observe\" means to perceive with any of your senses, not just sight.) So, that chair over there? It goes into the \"Observed\" column because you are physically observing it with your eyes. The smell of the pie baking in the kitchen? Observed by your sense of smell. The music playing on the radio? Observed by your sense of hearing. Your face in the mirror? Observed. Your internal feelings? Observed. Your thoughts? Observed. The voice in your head? Observed. Everything you might normally call \"you\", like memories, opinions, hopes, dreams, etc? All observed. You'll notice that at the end of this experiment, the \"observed\" column will be full, and there will be nothing in the \"observer\" column but the word \"observer\". Everything you once thought was \"you\" now rests squarely in the \"observed\" column. What is observed is not, by definition, the observer. So, the only question that remains is, \"who is the observer?\" "
]
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1zeoc6 | what is the difference between the emmys, golden globes, academy awards and tony's? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zeoc6/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_the_emmys/ | {
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"* Emmy recognizes talent in television\n\n* Golden Globe is an award granted by Hollywood Foreign Press Association for recognized talent in film and television\n\n* Academy Award (aka Oscar) recognizes talent in film industry\n\n* Tony recognizes talent in theater"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
4wl7vk | why was the pentagon built in the shape it is now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wl7vk/eli5_why_was_the_pentagon_built_in_the_shape_it/ | {
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"The original plot of land that it was to be built on had a roughly pentagonal-shape, so the building was designed to make the most use of that property.\n\nBefore construction commenced, however, a new site was chosen. Rather than do a major redesign based on the new property, they just kept the original building design.",
"The building was designed to maximize office space and minimize foot travel time. It was built in an era before rapid electronic communication, and even in modernity secure communications are often held in person or delivered physically in person. It is multiple \"rings\" of halls and offices in the pentagon shape with spoked halls going through to the middle plaza area. You can get from one office to any other office within 15 min walking. \n\nIt is also reminiscent of Fort design which is fitting for the headquarters of the military. "
]
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[],
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||
5hauh0 | what do they use to melt tungsten if tungsten is used to melt most metals? | Tungsten's melting point I'm told is so high that it is used as material to make the equipment needed to melt metals. If this is the case, how do they melt the tungsten to make those equipment in the first place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hauh0/eli5_what_do_they_use_to_melt_tungsten_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dayqzzp",
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"Tungsten's melting point of 3422 °C is the highest of all metals and second only to carbon (3550 °C) among the elements. This is why tungsten is used in rocket nozzles and reactor linings. There are refractory ceramics and alloys that have higher melting points, notably Ta4HfC5 with a melting point of 4215 °C, hafnium carbide at 3900 °C and tantalum carbide at 3800 °C.\n\nCarbon cannot be used to hold molten tungsten, because they will react to form tungsten carbide. Sometimes ladles and crucibles used to prepare or transport high melting point materials like tungsten are lined with the various higher melting ceramics or alloys. More typically tungsten and other refractory materials are fabricated in a non-molten state. A process known as powder metallurgy is used. This process uses 4 basic steps:\n\n* powder manufacture - a variety of techniques are available to generate small particles of the material being worked.\n\n* powder blending - routine procedures are used to blend the constituent particles into a uniform mixture\n\n* compacting - the blended powder is placed in a mold and subjected to high pressures\n\n* intering - the compacted material is subjected to high temperature and some level of bonding occurs between particles ",
"There are different methods that use electrical energy to sinter the Tungsten powder. If you have a large enough capacitor bank you can dump mega amps of current which will melt anything."
]
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[],
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3xlnp2 | how do we know that star wars has made (will make) $258 million this weekend if it's only sunday morning? | Always been confused about these stats showing up halfway through the weekend, please enlighten me | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xlnp2/eli5_how_do_we_know_that_star_wars_has_made_will/ | {
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"These stats are a combination of pre-sold tickets and projections. The movie plays in in a specific number of theaters, with a certain number of showtimes, so they can easily combine those projections with pre-sold tickets to get an accurate idea of what the movie will make. ",
"it was my understanding that the dollar number was based on rental/licensing fees for the number of showings of the movie, not on the actual number of tickets sold.\n\nso...the fees paid by the theatre for the privilege of showing the film to a fee-paying audience.\n\nplease correct me if i'm wrong about this."
]
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[],
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4gtp7u | why do brand new razor blades sometimes hurt just as bad as old, dull ones? | Why is it that sometimes a new razor blade right out of the package sometimes gives the same sensation as a dull one? I use the same brand and this doesn't happen every time, I didn't change my shaving cream and shave my legs every other day. I've always heard the rumor that razor blades are pre-dulled before being packaged but is this really true? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gtp7u/eli5_why_do_brand_new_razor_blades_sometimes_hurt/ | {
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"Razor blades don't dull. They corrode though, by exposure to water. You can actually keep a single blade basically forever if you dry it correctly (though its not easy). However, the problem is likely not with the razor itself. The amount of things that can influence the way it feels are huge.How dry your skin is, how thick your hair is, how steady your hand is, the amount of pressure you used, the exact state of the shaving cream (how long its been exposed to air), etc. can all hugely influence how it feels.\n\n\"Some variation is to be expected.\" is a decent way to think about it.",
"There's quite a good discussion of sharpness and razors in [a previous thread](_URL_0_).\n"
]
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[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/s9y90/how_does_human_hair_dull_stainless_steel_razor/"
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3jpwh0 | why are movies not available in 4k, even though they are filmed in 4k and played in 4k in the theater? | I could be wrong, but I was told that movies in the theater are shown in 4K resolution. If this is the case then they must be filmed in 4K and exist in 4K. So why is 4K not available when the movie comes out to purchase? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jpwh0/eli5_why_are_movies_not_available_in_4k_even/ | {
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"It's just a issue of them being delivered to the consumer in a cheap way. That's why VHS was a thing... When movies were only shot on film they were shot on 35mm or 70mm... Obviously stuff not that average Joe could use at home. Those film reels were actually the equivalent of 4k-5k.. But its all fancy and expensive. The average consumer can't afford that stuff in their house! So home video was released... The sub par quality version of the theater. Most people can't tell the difference but people who are into this sort of stuff are fully aware there is always better quality. ",
"I'm assuming because 4K cannot be achieved through standard players (Blu-Ray) and TVs. By standard I mean 4K is not available in the common household. It's not a really good policy (price of packaging and distribution) just for the few that can. Wait a few years and this may change."
]
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[],
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16653f | why chefs wear fancy pants | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16653f/eli5_why_chefs_wear_fancy_pants/ | {
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"It is a uniform. You see checkered pants, you instantly know that that is one of the kitchen staff.\n\nAlso, the tight check pattern hides stains pretty well",
"As someone who works in a restaurant kitchen. I assume the \"fancy pants\" you are referring to are the glorified pajama pants. Where I work they are not required, but worn out of comfort. Being in a hot kitchen all day, no one is going to logically wear heavy jeans or sweatpants. The chefs pants/pajama pants provide comfort and cooling when dealing with kitchen temperatures."
]
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2erdo1 | how much could the pope's speeches affect policies and decisions in catholic countries? | For example, if the Pope gives a speech or expresses his idea about a certain social/political/economic issue, would the highly Catholic countries (like in Latin America) directly respond to that by making new laws, policies or making political decisions? Is there any example in the 20th/21st century about this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2erdo1/eli5_how_much_could_the_popes_speeches_affect/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck27ejm",
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"It's been a long time since the Vatican exerted significant political pressure. For the most part, they attempt to remain within the boundaries of theology and affect Catholic dioceses, organizations and communities rather than governments.",
"I can't see any actual political leaders immediately responding to an announcement from the Pope, but there are still a significant number of Catholics who take papal pronouncements very seriously, and they vote. If the Pope said tomorrow that abortion is actually okay, then some Catholic voters would likely change their position. "
]
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[],
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wq7qc | green screens. | Why is a green screen used for computer effects? Can another color be used instead? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wq7qc/eli5_green_screens/ | {
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"They have the computer digitally remove all of the weird color and replace it with whatever scene or image they want. A Bright green is used because it's not a color you're likely to find in someone's clothes or skin or whatever. When making computer graphics with a transparent background, setting bright green to be the transparent color is pretty common, too. You could use another color, but you'd be more likely to accidentally someone's foot or something.",
"Yes they sometimes use Blue screens. The reason these colors are used is because they don't occur on the human body, so if you replace all green in a video with something else you wont mess with the person in the shot."
]
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1z4uij | why it is that sometimes when you drink water you can literally feel it pass down through your body? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z4uij/why_it_is_that_sometimes_when_you_drink_water_you/ | {
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"I know because I have experienced this, but when you drink water sometimes you can feel the drastic temperature change between water and your own body heat.\n\nTry it next time you are really hot, like being in 105 degree heat and drinking ice cold water. You can literally feel the coldness down your throat and upper esophagus.\n\nSource; I used to feel this when I worked outside in heat waves over the summer",
"Because it is literally passing down through your body "
]
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3gmoje | what is the difference between network and cable tv channels in america? | I'm non-American and yet an avid follower of American shows, and have always been baffled by how network TV shows are different from cable TV shows | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gmoje/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_network_and/ | {
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"I'm not an expert on this but here is my understanding (somebody please correct my inaccuracies):\n\nNetworks are distributed by smaller stations called \"affiliates\" which broadcast over the air with their own antenna equipment (and are also usually included in cable packages). Affiliates take network content such as primetime shows and other nationally distributed content, and play that content at certain times, but are also responsible for local content such as the local news.\n\nCable is distributed more directly through the cable company. There can still be local advertisements/infomercials, but the shows are distributed directly to the cable company rather than through a local affiliate.\n\nBecause of the different ways they are distributed to viewers, there are different FCC rules for broadcast vs cable content. That's why cable channels can contain profanity and obscenity, and broadcast shows are more \"sanitized.\"\n\nWith online distribution, there are even fewer restrictions on content (basically none afaik apart from things that are just plain illegal on any medium), and so we get things like Swearnet.",
"Although most Americans have cable TV service, and get all their TV that way, network TV shows are also broadcast over public airwaves, and the networks have to lease broadcast spectrum from the government to do this.\n\nBecause of the First Amendment, the US government usually has little or no control over the content of speech, including the content of media. However, broadcast spectrum is considered to be public property, so the government *can* impose restrictions on how that gets used. So, broadcast TV networks are accountable to the Federal Communications Commission, and are required not broadcast to \"[obscene, indecent and profane](_URL_0_)\" material. The government doesn't check or censor material in advance, but there are very large fines for violating these rules.\n\nCable channels aren't delivered over public airwaves, and are only made available to paying subscribers, so no such restrictions apply to them. They can pretty much depict anything they want to.",
"Network TV refers to the broadcast networks, the kind you can pick up with antenna without any paid cable service. These shows have enormous audiences, and often get large budgets. The major broadcast networks are ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. The CW is a smaller broadcast network.\n\nBroadcast shows are governed by FCC rules for content on things like language, nudity and sexual content.\n\nCable channels are ones that are not put over broadcast airwaves, and are only available via satellite -- either by a satellite dish at someone's home, or a satellite dish at a cable company who sends the channel out over cables. These channels often have lower audiences, but they have lower overhead, since they don't have hundreds of local broadcast affiliates to make happy. Cable channels are not regulated at all by the FCC for content, and make their own rules about what is appropriate for their channel.",
"Your question could be interpreted a couple of different ways . . . \n\nStart with the physical.\n\nNetwork shows are broadcast on the public airwaves. All you need to get them is an antenna and a TV (and to be within reception range of a TV station that carries it). You don't need to pay for anything besides this basic equipment.\n\nCable TV channels are only available as part of a paid service. That is usually cable TV, delivered by coaxial or fibre-optic cable to your house, but it could also be via satellite (there are two major satellite TV providers in the US). Most of the content is delivered encrypted, and you have to pay to get the key to decrypt it. Usually, you will get a piece of equipment (usually referred to as a cable box) that receives the signal and handles the decryption, putting out either a baseband or HDMI signal that you can put into your TV.\n\nNext, comes the content.\n\nNetworks like NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, Fox, MNT, CW, etc. are network TV. They make their content available to TV broadcast stations that may or may not be owned by the network. For instance, CBS is owned by a company called Viacom, but the TV station nearest me that shows CBS content is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair gets some of the advertising time, and is responsible for local news content, and can choose to air its own material or CBS material. Sinclair also owns our local CW affiliate station, but the CW network is owned by Time-Warner.\n\nFoul language is verboten on network TV.\n\nCable TV channels, such as USA, FX, FXX, MTV, etc., are more plentiful (less contention for the bandwidth), and any one network will be mostly the same across the country. Your cable/satellite provider does get the ability to substitute some of the ads with their own, so the content won't be 100% identical, but the programming itself will be the same nationwide. They may be owned by the same companies that own broadcast networks as well, e.g. ABC (a broadcast network) is owned by the same company as the Disney Channel. Likewise, CBS and MTV have the same owner.\n\nFoul language and racy content are absolutely permitted on cable TV, but most cable channels censor like they were network channels.\n\nCable TV systems and satellite TV systems will usually carry network TV stations. Network TV stations can legally either compel a cable or satellite network to carry their signal, or they can compel payment for being carried, but not both. They can't compel the cable/satellite network to put them on a particular channel. Most broadcasters seem to prefer to receive payment versus compelling carriage.\n"
]
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[],
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1kt5lf | how is it financially beneficial for game developers to release "exclusives" rather than releasing their game(s) on all platforms? | Wouldn't the profits from selling more games to a larger audience be more than whatever bonus Sony/Microsoft offer them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kt5lf/eli5_how_is_it_financially_beneficial_for_game/ | {
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"Not necessarily. The more platforms you release on, the more expensive it is to produce the game. Different platforms have different programming architectures, so you need additional staff to get the game out. Maybe not a big deal for blockbuster sequals, but for a nwe untested game, they may not want to dump more money into an untested product than necessary. Then the platform owner says, yes, you can release on our console, but all sequals must also come out on our console.\n\nThis isn't always the case, but it's a fair example.",
"It depends on the size of the bonus. And sometimes a guaranteed big pile of money upfront can be more appealing than a potentially larger but uncertain pile of money in the future.\n\nAlso, sometimes the exclusivity bonus is used to fund some of the development of the game. Getting a big check from Sony or whoever might significantly increase the odds of a studio actually finishing and releasing a good game that would earn decent sales. ",
"As for any game you need to use the features of the graphical processing unit to implement all the visual elements. One of the major problem with consoles is that each has a proprietary architecture that you use when developing a game. For example, Play Station 3 was notorious for having 6 accessible Processing Units on a proprietary architecture that you can use only in a certain way. Writing a PS3 game for XBox implies actually writing the whole graphical part of the code again. While XBox uses a general architecture similar to normal PCs, which enables developers to release games both on PC and XBox, the rest of the consoles usually do not, which makes developing a game for different platform actually developing a separate game for each platform. It is stupid, but lack of standardization does this, and standardization is not enforced as every console manufacturer wants to differentiate itself from the competition. "
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4rslqc | respectfully, what is with the massive infatuation that reddit has over pokemon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rslqc/eli5_respectfully_what_is_with_the_massive/ | {
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"Much of the userbase is of an age that they grew up playing the videogames, watching the cartoons, playing the card game, and playing with toys. It was a major part of their childhoods. It also did not really have comparative contemporaries. It was involved in 4 aspects of childhood life, not just 1 or two. \n\nThe recent spike is due to the release of the newest game on smart phones that is an augmented reality game where you actually walk around and catch pokemon on the game based on your real world physical location. ",
" > I mean, I understand that it was a popular game and cartoon a while back but it seems to be way more pervasive than just about any of its contemporaries.\n\nSo, back in the 80s when Regan deregulated children's television and toy companies realized that \"Hey, we could essentially have 30 minute commercials on tv after school if we made a cartoon for our toyline\" was the start of it. \n & nbsp; \nWhat Pokemon did as a franchise is took all the lessons from that first wave in the 80s, and ran with it with all the dials cranked up to 11. Video game? We'll make *two* at the same time and make them almost but not quite identical, so kids will want the one they don't have. Cartoon? Yeah, we'll have an after school cartoon, but we'll also take a page from Transformers' playbook and put out a theatrical release movie too... and another one after that. Someone figured out how to make a game out of trading cards? We're all up in that shit... and since one of the basic premises of our franchise is \"catch 'em all\", the kids will snap up every last expansion set we crank out. Comic books? We originated this franchise in Japan, and comic books are a *huge* industry by themselves over there, we just have to translate them for a worldwide audience. And of course there will be toys... toys of all kinds. \n & nbsp; \nPretty much every facet of the franchise was tilted towards marketing the hell out of the franchise as a whole, but because it was wrapped up with a nice story about school age kids leaving their families to go out into the world to to Really Cool Stuff that seemed tailor made for the target audience to do self-insert stories in their youthful daydreams, no one was really put off by the fact. And with *so* many different ways that the franchise could work its way into a kids life, it became a common touchstone across a whole generation, reaching further than other franchises that might have been shut out by parents with rules like \"no video games\" or \"no cartoons\"."
]
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92kake | why does one person find the temperature of something too hot to touch, but someone else can do it with no pain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92kake/eli5_why_does_one_person_find_the_temperature_of/ | {
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"I'm not sure what causes people to have different sensitivities in general, but in the case of hot things to the touch, it's a mixture of both that and the thickness of their skin which can get thicker the more they touch hot things. \n\nI've worked in quite a lot of restaurants and cafes. When you start the job at 16 and have baby soft hands from never having worked a day in your life you are sensitive to how hot the plates are. \n\nDoing things like repeatedly touching hot surfaces or rough surfaces gives you 'calluses'. Kind of like how the bottom of your feet seems thicker and drier than the rest of your body. Or the palm of your hand being rougher than the back. The more often your skin takes damage in a certain place, each time is has to grow back it comes back a little bit thicker and tougher.\nThe thicker and tougher it is, the longer you can hold a plate before it burns you. \n\nBut touching hot plates is for adults. You stay away from hot things child. "
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3nn1fd | do deaf people think in sign languages? if so, do they see hands making signs in their head? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nn1fd/eli5do_deaf_people_think_in_sign_languages_if_so/ | {
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"Have you ever seen a TV program with a sign language interpreter in a bubble in the bottom corner? When I asked once how a Deaf friend thought, that is what he said it was like. Another friend said she just saw hands. A friend who is Deaf and signs, but also knows English really well, said she thinks in either, depending on the day and what she has been around more of. ",
"There is a huge variation among what is called \"deaf.\" Just as with being blind, some people become deaf later in live, and thus likely think the same way that hearing people do. And since language is a representation of your world, I totally see someone who was born deaf thinking about hands, since that is the only language they will have known."
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1jae1g | how did we arrive at the common structure for today's popular music? (e.g. verse, chorus, verse chorus, bridge, chorus) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jae1g/eli5_how_did_we_arrive_at_the_common_structure/ | {
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"hopefully someone else can give a better answer, but a large of part of pop music in the US (assuming you live here) is based off Americana music like swing, blues, country and jazz. Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus is pretty much how blues songs go, and in the 50s when pop and rock were the same thing, blues is what influenced everything."
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6hd4of | how are countries like china able to develop infrastructure at such a rapid rate compared to the us | The USA (and Canada and other western countries too) are always boasted as rich and powerful countries but everytime we're looking to get new things like buses, subway lines, schools, bridges, healthcare, etc, there never seems to be any money available to do these kind of things. How are countries like China able to such rapidly develop their infrastructure when their economy nowhere matches the USA? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hd4of/eli5_how_are_countries_like_china_able_to_develop/ | {
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"One town has 10 schools all fairly well built. The budget to maintain them is pretty much your entire budget for education, so generally it is going to be difficult for you to build any new ones. \n\nAnother town has 2 schools, both of them are pretty shitty. It's budget has recently increased so it has a lot of extra money to throw around and can build a shiny new school as it doesn't have to pay to maintain 10 other decent schools. ",
"China is growing very quickly, and currently has very little infrastructure.\n\nChina was a very poor country, now it's a fairly poor country. But at the same time it's reforming towards the conditions for a good economy (free market, property ownership, good education, good infrastructure, etc) and thus is experiencing super fast growth.\n\nWhen you're growing 6-12%, and wages are increasing quickly too, infrastructure has a low long term cost. The cost of wages today to build say, a bridge, will be very small 10 years down the road (when wages have doubled or more).\n\nThis makes it very economical to build quickly.\n\nAt the same time having little infrastructure before helps a lot. Replacing a good 2+2 lane road with a motorway on a rural route might only shave a few minutes off hours of driving - little benefit. Replacing a dirt road with a new expressway is a huge improvement. In the US new infrastructure projects are often really on the line in terms of being worth the cost.\n\n**The US was once the same**, the Transcontinental railroad set records as workers built miles a day of track. The interstate system was expanded quickly across the country. Nowadays all the low hanging fruit is built, and slower growth makes it harder to justify rapid construction.",
"It is a one party State that is only partially capitalistic and still has a lot of government owned factories and companies. They also have much lower standards for safety, both with working conditions and with building standards. This means they will build faster than Americans because both of those things slow construction. "
]
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42p7le | why are some vivid memories pure imagination? and why do they feel so real? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42p7le/eli5_why_are_some_vivid_memories_pure_imagination/ | {
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"Memory is kind of a plastic thing. It's not really like a video recording, but a reconstruction. And your reconstruction itself can become less accurate as time passes. You can misremember part of it, and cement that 'misrememberance' in. So yeah, you can totally have memories that are bunkum."
]
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22whyd | why hydraulic? also how does the water seal work? | I know the deal with hydraulic, water cannot be compressed, blah blah blah, but why hydraulic? If you can make a pump that strong, surely you can make a motor equally strong, if not stronger.
And speaking of pumps [(shown here)](_URL_0_), how does the seal work? It's all moving parts, and the water pressure can be huge... it's not really just a really really tight fitting rubber ring, is it? Won't the friction be huge? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22whyd/eli5_why_hydraulic_also_how_does_the_water_seal/ | {
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"A pump is a motor. The advantage of hydraulics is the motor (pump) doesn't need to be right where the force is needed or connected with a rigid structure. You can route the force anywhere you can route a hydraulic line.",
"In addition to centrifugal pumps, you can also have single or multi-stage positive displacement pumps (pistons) to greatly increase the amount of pressure in a system. As stated already, the benefit is to transfer energy from a remote mechanisms to one or more remote systems. The system using the hydraulic pressure is usually going to be applied linearly, like a piston on a crane or an actuator on a valve for higher pressure systems (sometimes it takes hundreds of PSI to move a valve on a thousand+ PSI system - sorry for English units).\n\nSeals use friction and the pressure differential to squeeze material and block the flow of the fluid. In your video, they use several metal rings, or packing, pushing against a gland. In reality, you often want a little bit to leak through in order to keep the packing wet (dry packing can crack). This adds friction to the shaft, of course, reducing efficiency of the mechanical component, but that's the price you pay to keep the fluid in the boundary."
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaEHVpKc-1Q&feature=youtu.be&t=3m40s"
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[],
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|
dnocot | what's the mechanism behind "brain fog"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dnocot/eli5_whats_the_mechanism_behind_brain_fog/ | {
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"text": [
"Sorry for asking I already feel dumb, but what is brain fog ?",
"Well it is a fairly multi factorial process The Ascending Reticular activating system is the part of the brain responsible for awakeness and alertness. Lesions of this system are often associated with a form of so called brain fog or difficulty to rouse. There is also the action of melatonin which is basially the sleep hormone. That in turn depends on your sleep cycles and exposure to sunlight. So increases melatonin production reason due to whatever reason can be implicated in brain fog.\n\nThere's also vitamin/ nutritional deficiencies that could manifest as psychomotor impairement which is the closest medical term for brain fog I guess.\n\nOther than that infections and drugs can also cause it.",
"I believe Brain fog is caused by issues with your central nervous system, usually related to systemic deficiencies, attacks, or malfunctions.",
"I had brain fog for about a year a few years ago. It would come and go, and eventually I figured out that it only seemed to happen during the week. I figured that something at work was causing the problem. Tried changing the lighting in my office, getting an ergonomic assessment done, walking more during the day. Nothing seemed to help. Finally, it donned on me that I drink a lot more soda at work than I do at home. So I cut that out and the brain fog completely disappeared. Through process of elimination I eventually narrowed it down to Diet Coke. The aspartame was seemingly causing it. I was finally free, but for years after even a small amount of aspartame in something would trigger it."
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aly0y8 | how does government debt effect an economy, and what does it mean for a government to "monetize" its debt? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aly0y8/eli5_how_does_government_debt_effect_an_economy/ | {
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"OK, so I can understand why you're confused, because this guy isn't making a coherent argument. Just as a note for future reference, Forbes has completely sold out any reputation it might have once had by letting basically anybody post on their website as a \"contributor\" with no editorial oversight. It's essentially a blogging platform.\n\nGovernment debt is a complicated topic, but here are some key points to keep in mind:\n\n1) Like everything else in economics, government debt has both a supply and a demand. The supply is easy to think about. Governments want to issue debt because it helps them fund programs. The demand part comes from the fact that some investors *want* to buy government debt. Most government debt is considered to be extremely safe, so investors who want a guaranteed (if low return) buy it.\n\n2) If you have lots of government debt because of high demand, you're fine. The government gets to take out loans at incredibly low interest rates (the kind you or I would salivate over), and invest that money in something that will (hopefully) grow the economy (tax cuts, infrastructure, education, etc.). Some of that economic growth eventually comes back to the government in the form of taxes, and the loan gets paid off. Even if the government is carrying a large debt load, there's no reason to panic so long as its able to pay off the debt as it comes due. \n\n3) If you have lots of government debt because of high supply, you're in trouble. This is when the government decides to take out lots of debt it can't or won't pay back through increased revenue down the line. The emergency escape hatch when these debts come due is to \"monetize\" that debt by just printing money and using that to pay off investors. The problem with this is that printing money isn't the same as increasing production, so once inflation is taken into account, everyone who loaned money to the government is just getting stiffed. Then you have a hyperinflation crisis like what's happening in Venezuela right now. \n\n4) Reasonable people can disagree on whether or not government debt is being taken out in good faith or if the things the government spends it on will actually increase productivity. However, a good indication of how the market feels about this is the interest rate for that debt. If it's low, investors are confident the debt will be paid back. If it's high, they think there's a chance it might not be paid back and demand higher returns to take on that risk. \n\n5) Currently, interest rates are pretty low. If you're nervous about a recession, you could claim that the majority of investors are wrong for reasons only you can see (this seems to be roughly where the Forbes guy is coming from). On the one hand, recessions are almost always called by something most people didn't see coming. On the other hand, it's easy to make vague pronouncements about \"the coming recession\" when you're some some Forbes blogger who doesn't have to present any evidence or reasoning for your position. "
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[]
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||
33cp41 | why was the invasion of normandy(d-day) important ? and why did we have to attack such a heavily fortified german base ? | couldnt we have airbombed the base or something ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33cp41/eli5why_was_the_invasion_of_normandydday/ | {
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"Short answer, we had to land SOMEWHERE in France to actually push back the Nazi's, and there were a couple of good targets. We actually faked an invasion at a different beach using mock up tanks and ships and things, and tried to misdirect the Nazi attention elsewhere and draw them off. We shelled and bombed the beach beforehand, but they were very dug in. No matter how it went down, it was never going to be easy.",
"Normandy wasn't a base: it was a beach. We needed some place to land troops and tanks to start reclaiming France, and Normandy was the landing position the allied generals chose.\n\nThe attack on Normandy came using a huge amount of resources: there was a huge misinformation campaign that had Germany believing that the attack could have come on one of several beaches, meaning Normandy was relatively undefended (still very heavily defended, but less defended than it could have been); and there was heavy bombing ahead of time.\n\nBut at some point, we needed to land so that we could have boots (and tanks) on the ground.",
"Pretty much all of the Atlantic coast was [heavily fortified](_URL_0_). Air raids had already inflicted heavy damage on most major German cities, but, as /u/c0horst said, it was impossible to defeat Hitler without a ground offensive.",
"There were good political and military reasons for Britain and the US to invade Germany. Most pragmatically, if they didn't, they knew the Russians would end up controlling Europe.\n\nAs for the choice of the landing site, it was a very long coast line and there were many options. The Germans knew this too and defended the most likely locations most heavily. You can bet the allied high command considered many options before making their choice.\n\nAs for winning by bombing alone: firstly, the allies were bombing Germany intensively and; secondly, you can't win by bombing alone, well, not with conventional bombs anyway. As it turns out, Russia would have had time to completely overrun Germany well before the US had the A-bomb available. Also, using the A-bomb in Europe would have been a much more difficult political decision than its use against Japan.",
"thanks to all the answers, i think i understand it now, it seems like from a military perspective that was the only logical landing site"
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|
1kw1rc | what happened to the nasdaq today? | The best I can surmise is "technical difficulties". How will this effect the economy? Would this be different if it happened to other indices like the Dow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kw1rc/eli5_what_happened_to_the_nasdaq_today/ | {
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"The NASDAQ is an exchange. What happened was there was a technical issue that affected the ability of NASDAQ customers (brokers) to receive accurate quotes. While this is relatively rare, issues like this sometimes arise. NASDAQ is allowing customers to cancel pending orders so if they choose they can wait until the re-open and place new orders once the quotes start coming in again. This will likely not have any affect on the economy, as the market will correct any issues once trading goes back online. If this had happened at NYSE or another exchange the scenario would likely be the same. Minimal impact."
]
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[]
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|
kypnz | why is pluto not considered a planet anymore? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kypnz/eli5_why_is_pluto_not_considered_a_planet_anymore/ | {
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"The IAU defined a planet as something that\n\n1) goes around the sun\n\n2) is big enough so that it's a sphere (not like some weird potato shaped thing)\n\n3) is the only main object in its orbit around the sun (or officially, it should have \"cleared the neighborhood\")\n\nPluto is good for the first two, but there's a bunch of stuff in the same orbit as it, so it doesn't fit the classification.",
"A lot of times, science comes down to \"semantics,\" which means \"specific words having specific meanings, and not other meanings.\" Scientists got into a semantic discussion about what it means to be a planet. Different scientists proposed different things. One popular proposition was that planet status came down to size, because if a planet could be ANY size, then what would be there to stop us from calling all of the billions of asteroids in the asteroid belt planets? So scientists decided we had to choose a basic size for planetary status.\n\nThere are a few general rules to what counts as a planet now. (1) A planet must be big enough to have a gravitational force strong enough to pull itself into a round shape. Pluto has that! (2) It must not be a satellite of another planet. Pluto is that! (3) It must have a strong enough pull to have cleared all \"planetessimals,\" (little debris in space) around it. Pluto does not have that!\n\nSo Pluto is no longer a planet by the new definition, but instead, is a dwarf planet- big enough to be round, but not big enough to suck up all the debris in space around it.",
"There are a lot of rocks orbiting the sun. Some of them are obviously not planets because they are too small. Some of them are obviously not planets because their orbits are far from being circular (they don't move around the sun in a circle) or their orbits are tilted with respect to most of the other orbits. \n\nWe never used to have a very good definition for what *exactly* a planet is, so there started to be arguments about whether newly discovered rocks were planets too. When they (an international committee for astronomy, can't remember the exact name) agreed on a definition for the word \"planet,\" it excluded Pluto.\n\n\nA good analogy would be to think of the word \"lake.\" Obviously every little rain puddle isn't a lake. Rivers aren't lakes either. Etc. \n\nTL;DR: We never had a good definition before. Pluto was excluded mostly based on the shape and orientation of its orbit. ",
"The IAU defined a planet as something that\n\n1) goes around the sun\n\n2) is big enough so that it's a sphere (not like some weird potato shaped thing)\n\n3) is the only main object in its orbit around the sun (or officially, it should have \"cleared the neighborhood\")\n\nPluto is good for the first two, but there's a bunch of stuff in the same orbit as it, so it doesn't fit the classification.",
"A lot of times, science comes down to \"semantics,\" which means \"specific words having specific meanings, and not other meanings.\" Scientists got into a semantic discussion about what it means to be a planet. Different scientists proposed different things. One popular proposition was that planet status came down to size, because if a planet could be ANY size, then what would be there to stop us from calling all of the billions of asteroids in the asteroid belt planets? So scientists decided we had to choose a basic size for planetary status.\n\nThere are a few general rules to what counts as a planet now. (1) A planet must be big enough to have a gravitational force strong enough to pull itself into a round shape. Pluto has that! (2) It must not be a satellite of another planet. Pluto is that! (3) It must have a strong enough pull to have cleared all \"planetessimals,\" (little debris in space) around it. Pluto does not have that!\n\nSo Pluto is no longer a planet by the new definition, but instead, is a dwarf planet- big enough to be round, but not big enough to suck up all the debris in space around it.",
"There are a lot of rocks orbiting the sun. Some of them are obviously not planets because they are too small. Some of them are obviously not planets because their orbits are far from being circular (they don't move around the sun in a circle) or their orbits are tilted with respect to most of the other orbits. \n\nWe never used to have a very good definition for what *exactly* a planet is, so there started to be arguments about whether newly discovered rocks were planets too. When they (an international committee for astronomy, can't remember the exact name) agreed on a definition for the word \"planet,\" it excluded Pluto.\n\n\nA good analogy would be to think of the word \"lake.\" Obviously every little rain puddle isn't a lake. Rivers aren't lakes either. Etc. \n\nTL;DR: We never had a good definition before. Pluto was excluded mostly based on the shape and orientation of its orbit. "
]
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3djs7a | stocks, bonds, investing - new career and i want to invest | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3djs7a/eli5_stocks_bonds_investing_new_career_and_i_want/ | {
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"I would honestly recommend going to r/personalfinance and asking there. You'll get better advice on how best to get your money to work for you.",
"A stock is a share of ownership in a company. If you buy a share of Google, Apple, or so forth, you are buying a tiny piece of those companies. By doing so, you are entitled to a share of that company's profits, and have a say in the company's dealings proportional to the number of shares that you own. If the company does well and profits are high, you are likely to receive a portion of those profits in the form of dividends. In addition, if a company is growing, and profits are increasing, that will increase the price of those shares, all other things being equal; people are drawn to the higher future profits, and will pay you more today to buy your piece of the company, so they get those profits instead.\n\nIn contrast, a bond represents ownership of a company's debt. If IBM, for example, wants to expand their business but lacks the money to do so, it can issue bonds to the public market - you buy the bond, and in return, you get an IOU that will pay interest periodically until the bond matures. Because you are a creditor of the company, you get first priority with regard to the company's profits; you legally have to be paid before the stockholders can receive their dividends. If the company goes bankrupt, you get first access to the assets of the company, once liquidated or sold. However, in return, the average returns on a bond tend to be several percent per year lower than for stocks.\n\nI hope that provides a good brief introduction to stocks & bonds."
]
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[],
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