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8v3tbn | why do old tube tv's build up a layer of static on their screens after being used? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8v3tbn/eli5_why_do_old_tube_tvs_build_up_a_layer_of/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the TV works by firing a constant stream of electrons at the back of the screen, where they hit the pixels and make them glow. \n\n"
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4tqsq4 | why do people's moods change based on the weather? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tqsq4/eli5why_do_peoples_moods_change_based_on_the/ | {
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"There's actually a mood disorder called \"Seasonal Affective Disorder\" [(SAD)](_URL_1_)\n\nSome experts think it's genetic. Some think that people's hormones fluctuate throughout the year and people with SAD just have more severe fluctuations. \n\nThere're other reasons, too. When it rains, atmospheric pressure [drops](_URL_2_) and causes swelling, which is why some people can \"feel\" a storm coming. Other people just feel more pain, which has a direct impact on their mood.\n\nAnother study says people are just [happier](_URL_0_) in sunshine, so the reduced frequency of sunny days in certain seasons can take that from them and affect their mood that way.\n\n\nThere's been a lot of research done in this area. For more info, I suggest you look up SAD to start.\n\n",
"On the flip side studies have shown that when the heat rises tempers flair. People become more aggressive and crime rates increase. From what I've read scientists believe it's from sleep disturbances because of heat, dehydration and limited activity. Yes the weather is nice, but when it's so hot your mobility is decreased. You get tired and sluggish easily because your body is working overtime to control its temperature. ",
"Sure they do!\n\nAs someone said below, Seasonal Affective Disorder is characterized as a disorder where the weather directly affects a person's temperament. In addition, the weather might not DIRECTLY affect someone's mood, but could cause something that will put someone in a bad or good mood. For example, I HATE the heat, so when it's very hot and humid I'm generally more upset because I'm outside of my comfort zone. Things like this are indirectly caused by the weather, but it changes my mood.",
"You know, just about anything can push us over the edge. [Even geomagnetic storms can cause higher suicide rates](_URL_0_).\n",
"I haven't seen anyone talk about the sociological and psychological aspects yet, so here's my (very limited) insight.\n\nIn addition to the physical and diagnosed disorders (like SAD) that people can experience from the weather, we also associate emotions to experiences. Something like, we get happy when we see our favorite food or are with our closest friends.\n\nIt's not much of a stretch to say that people subconsciously associate emotions with their favored weather. For example, most people are likely happy with sunshine because that's when they are able to go out with their friends, play games, sports, activities, etc. On top of that, rain often forces plans to be cancelled... which would create a negative association. I imagine that years of these associations has the potential to create strong emotional influence.\n\nI would also venture a guess that things like seeing different colors influences our mood... for example, seeing neutralized colors in cloudy weather probably makes us less happy than seeing bright colors in the sun. Similar to how certain bright colors make us hungry (why fast food chains use them).",
"I know that in new York I hear a whole lot about depression related to the lack of sunlight we get up here, I think it might be due to a vitamin D deficiency if I'm not mistaken",
"It's not hard to hypothesize that we have been conditioned by millenniums of simple cycles of food gathering to react this way - spring brings forth the flowers & buds that will soon produce fresh food (later it became planting season); followed by a summer & fall abundance of harvesting; when fall turns to winter, our food stores became much less varied along with smaller and with the colder weather contributed to us being forced to be much less active.\n\nAdditionally, we would psychologically equate the summer with a time of being more active and probably the \"thrill of the hunt\" as a \"good\" period whereas we might have been hard-wired to become self-reflective, melancholic and/or downright depressed as a way to conserve energy during the height of winter. Cave paintings and other such art might have been early man's attempt to cheer himself up that the good days would return by reliving the better season. "
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aim1jm | how did people without available treatment, cure (or relieve) serious depression and anxiety disorders? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aim1jm/eli5_how_did_people_without_available_treatment/ | {
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"Prior to the advent of modern mental health care folks self medicated. A LOT. Like a lot a lot.\n\nEg: Pre-WW2 opiates were legal in the US (I couldn’t tell you the exact date they were outlawed without looking it u) and all those patent medicines “Jon Smiths Cure for Man and Beast” the active ingredient? Morphine. So they “worked” in that whatever ailed you soon felt much better after taking a dose. Cocaine IIRC was also legal. Some of the biggest users of these drugs not the folks you’d expect - instead there were housewives - stuck in fairly dull and I thanked roles a lot of women took them, particularly folks with mental health issues. And booze. Prior to prohibition in the US Americans consumed an **absurd** quantity of booze. Booze and drugs. \n\nYou sometimes see things like “would the great artists of days gone by have created their work if they’d been dosed up on Ritalin or Prozac”, and the answer is probably “yes” - because a lot of them had lifelong battles with mental illness - depression, bipolar, etc and generally self medicated the fuck out of themselves with whatever drugs they could get their hands on. Few, of any, of the great works of art from history were the product of clean living.\n\nEDIT: As an add - use of opiates and other drugs was for a long time very mainstream. You could buy them from Sears’ mail order catalog. The original Coke had cocaine in it *by design* it was sold as a remedy. IIRC it also had alcohol, until prohibition when they took the alcohol out, left the cocaine in because that wasn’t controversial at the time, and added sugar to make it taste better. Only later did they remove the cocaine.\n\n",
"I'm pretty sure that until very recently, people didn't have the luxury of mental illness. You worked and self-medicated or you died. "
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3vozo0 | why the roof of my mouth feels destroyed after eating some foods a lot? | After eating some food for extended periods of time, my mouth feels awful. Usually it is sweet food, but it can vary. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vozo0/eli5_why_the_roof_of_my_mouth_feels_destroyed/ | {
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"There are various ways of preserving food: salt (meat jerky), sugar (candied fruits), acid (pickles), heat (sundried tomatoes, smoked foods), and cold (frozen and refrigerated foods). Preservation of food prevents the original food items from living and prevents bad things from living off of it.\n\nThe roof of your mouth is alive and does not want to be preserved. Exposing it to too much of any of those mentioned above will make the roof of your mouth unhappy.",
"The soft tissue of your palette is very sensitive to damage. So if you eat a bunch of rough textured foods or very hot foods or drinks it can damage that tissue, making it flake a bit. I've had it happen if I eat hot food too fast or eat a bunch of very rough pieces of food, e.g. sour skittles.\n\nAlso, I suggest that you stay away from anything labeled \"Prion Bacon.\" :D"
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38u7r9 | why can't i lift myself? | I really feel like i could do it. Then when i go to try it just doesn't happen.. Why..? ;-; | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38u7r9/eli5why_cant_i_lift_myself/ | {
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"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you pull up on your bootstraps with your hands, then your bootstraps pull down on your hands by the same amount. The net force on your body is zero.",
"Every time you stand up, you are lifting yourself. Same with every time you do a pull-up or a push-up. If you're asking why you can't just lift yourself up in the air, it's because you need something fixed to move your body in relation to."
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vuuk4 | model view controller | Web development frameworks often reffer to themselves as model view controllers. I think I understand what a view is, a mostly html file that decides which data to display (like tpl.php files in drupal I think). But that's about as far as I understand it. The model and controller parts I know manipulate and store the data somehow, but I don't really understand how or if that labor is divided. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vuuk4/eli5_model_view_controller/ | {
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"Model is the database of information. If I had a health records application, the model would hold all of the health records of information. The model deals only with the information. It does not do any logic. It does not care about what people are doing with the information. All you do is get information and set information.\n\nThe Controller is all the logic of your application. If I had a health records application, my Controller would keep track of who is browsing records, it asks the model for records when the user is trying to look at something. It would ensure that any input data is correctly formatted before you ever change info in the database (model). All of your logic happens here.\n\nThe View is what the user sees. It includes all the buttons, all the text, all the formatting, and all the pages of your web application. Once again, you don't do logic. You might have a button call a function, but the function should be encapsulated within your controller. You should not be doing any logic (or at least very little) within the view.\n\nThis is probably the most common way to keep any application organized. If something is displaying incorrectly, you know that the bug is in your view. If something is functioning incorrectly, you know that the bug is in your controller. If data is being stored and retrieved incorrectly, you know that the bug is in your model.",
"MVC became popular lately because of diversity of the databases and views. It's used to separate as much as possible the three parts.\n\nModel, is the database itself and any other files or services you use to access it directly without any logic or operations. It's preferred to be separate because you might want to change the database at some point, or use two different databases for example. All you need to change then, is the Model. Instead of accessing MySQL, you will program it to access Oracle DB.\n\nView, is what you see as a user, example the HTML pages, the iPhone app front end, the Android app front end, the desktop client use interface...etc. As you can see, the more it's separated from the Controller and Model, the more flexible it is to make new Views for other clients. For example, if you made a true MVC Java application, then I expect your iPhone app won't need much work, just call the controller through web services and it will handle all the logic and the Model communications.\n\nController, is where the real stuff goes. I like to call it Core personally. It receives orders from View, handle them and maybe call the Model for querying or storing data and then return a result to View.\n\n**ELI5:** When going to drive-thru, a guy/girl takes your order. He has nothing to do with how your sandwich is made, he just takes the order and punch it on the system. The system then alerts the guys in the back that a sandwich with the following description is required. Those guys know nothing about whose sandwich is it or why he want it without lettuce. They just prepare this sandwich and put it on the belt to be returned to the front end guy. This guy takes the sandwich and hand it to you.\n\nView: the front end (order taking guy)\n\nModel: the guys in the back, blindly preparing sandwiches and send it back.\n\nController: the system that received the order, interpreted it to make it simpler for the guys in the back to understand and asked them to make it in the right time. Then also the belt which returned the sandwich from the guys back to the guy in the front. As you can see, the Controller is the most complicated part.\n"
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5zdh8y | why do people say that having headaches is partly connected to weather fluctuation and how so? | I've been plagued with headaches of various degrees for all my life and people seem to often blame it on shifts in the weather but never bothered or were inable to further explain. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zdh8y/eli5_why_do_people_say_that_having_headaches_is/ | {
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"Weather changes are often due to changes in air pressure. Have you ever heard a meteorologist talk about a low pressure system moving through or anything? That's what they are talking about. One of the factors that makes wind is air moving from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. If they are very close together, you'll get really strong winds.\n\nThese changes in air pressure affect everything. Your sinuses are one of the most likely to notice it, since this is pockets of air inside your head - you might have noticed this if you've ever flown in a plane. People with certain injuries may also notice it because of scar tissue preventing fluids from moving around inside the body to adjust for the pressure on the body from the outside.",
"My dentist said I get them because I have large sinus cavities (we were looking at my x-rays). So in my personal case these sinus cavities are basically balloons in your skull. Now imagine the weather changes, mainly the pressure increases or decreases. Imagine having a balloon and pushing down on it hard to simulate an increase in pressure. Or bringing the balloon into space and having it expand due to a loss of pressure. Now instead of a balloon realize that's what my skull is trying to do with its sinus cavities. "
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2qvzf0 | why is abortion so hated when some people don't deserve to have kids and there are so many children that will never be adopted? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qvzf0/eli5_why_is_abortion_so_hated_when_some_people/ | {
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"Some believe that a lifeform begins with the semen, some after so many days or weeks in the womb, and some when the heart begins beating or when you are physically born. Religion plays a big role in the debate.\n\nI personally agree with you, but I am tolerant of other opinions. There are already enough people. No reason to make more. ",
"It is hard to explain such a difficult topic in ELI5 form; however those who are pro-life are not necessarily religious. Although there are various reasons they are opposed, one of the most commonly seen is that it involves \"killing a baby\". \n\nThere is much debate on what qualifies as a \"baby\"; however in the mind of those who are pro-life it generally considered to be a \"baby\" as soon as conception.",
"I think that your kid can be given to a person who can't have kids. And that a fetus is human life. The only reason I would say it's okay is if the kid would cause the mother to die during child birth.\n\n",
"It is a moral dilemma. Most societies hold life supreme even sacred and it is against the law to take anyone else's life or even your own. The origin of new life is however contested, some don't see any difference between a fetus or a baby (or a child or a an adult; All life is important). This is the main issue of the Abortion Dilemma, it is not black and white.\n\n\nContraception are fine however, helps with many issues. (Opposing this seems to me to be only religious extremism). ",
" > *“As a materialist, I think it has been demonstrated that an embryo is a separate body and entity, and not merely (as some really did used to argue) a growth on or in the female body. There used to be feminists who would say that it was more like an appendix or even-this was seriously maintained-a tumor. That nonsense seems to have stopped. Of the considerations that have stopped it, one is the fascinating and moving view provided by the sonogram, and another is the survival of ‘premature’ babies of feather-like weight, who have achieved ‘viability’ outside the womb. … The words ‘unborn child,’ even when used in a politicized manner, describe a material reality.”*\n-Christopher Hitchens, *God is Not Great* (pp. 220-21)\n\n[This page](_URL_0_) gives a great definition without the use of religion. ",
"How is it possible for so many smart individuals to argue against\n Humanity's Universal Right to Life?\n***\n\"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable\nRights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..\"\n\nAs it reads... \nFirst is: \"the Right to Life, then the Right to \"Liberty\" and last, \"the Pursuit of Happiness\".\nFor what happiness can you pursue if you aren't allowed live? \nWhat Liberty can you have if you are death?...\nWithout Life there is no Liberty nor Happiness.\nOh, and let us not forget... it's not a dog or an animal that is being killed and discarded...it's a human being!\n\n\n",
"\nIf there are too many five-year-olds and some of them will never be adopted, why don't we just send the extra ones to a gas chamber?\n\nMany people seem to accept the premise that an unborn child and a five-year-old have the same ethical status. If you accept that premise, then logically the same answer would apply to the question of destroying surplus embryos and destroying surplus five-year-olds.\n"
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25qsv7 | if i attempt something with 1% probability 100 times, i don't get a 100% proability. what probability do i get and how do i calculate that? | Say I'm playing a game where I pick a random number from 1 to 100, and if the computer generates that number, I win a prize. On each attempt, the probability that I win is 1%.
But 100 attempts doesn't mean a 100% probability, I could still lose. So how do I calculate the probability that 100 attempts will result in a win? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25qsv7/eli5_if_i_attempt_something_with_1_probability/ | {
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"For each attempt, you have a 1% chance that you'll win and a 99% chance that you will fail. If you do N attempts, the chance of failing every single one would be .99^N (with 1.0 being a 100% chance). Thus the chance to win at least once would be 1.0 - .99^N. You'll notice this number grows as N increases but it never reaches 1.0. So after 100 tries, you have a 1.0-.99^100 = 1.0-.366 = .634 = 63.4% chance of at least one win.",
"This kind of thing is called a [Bernoulli Process](_URL_0_), which is complicated and hard to ELI5. But in this specific case, if you're asking “what's the probability that I win *at least once* in 100 attempts” the easiest way to answer it is to reverse the question: “what's the probability that you don't win at all in 100 attempts?”\n\nIt's easier because now you're asking about an exact number: the probability that you'll see exactly 0 wins in 100 tries. That's just the base probability of losing (99%) multiplied by itself 100 times, or 0.99¹⁰⁰, which equals about 0.366.\n\nSo you have a 36.6% chance of losing, therefore you have a 63.4% of winning at least once.",
"You think in the opposite. \n\nYou have a 99% chance to lose. \n\nThe chance you lose twice in a row is 99% or 99%, or .99*.99\n\nThe chance you lose three times in a row is .99 *.99 *.99.\n\nThe chance you lose 100 times in a row is .99 times itself 100 times\n\nThat comes to .36 or so.\n\nSo, if your chance to lose 100 in a row is .36, your chance to win at some point in that run is .64 (found by taking 1-.36)\n\n"
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2yxjkc | why don't cars have a barrier to protect their undersides? | Like a metal sheet or wire mesh. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yxjkc/eli5_why_dont_cars_have_a_barrier_to_protect/ | {
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"so new car dealers can sell \"undercoating\" for $600 extra",
"Protect them from what? Where I live we have successfully eliminated the ground trolls that hide in holes and stab the underside of our cars with spears when we drive over them. ",
"For the vast majority of people driving, this wouldn't make any difference at all. It makes more sense to make an add on for the rare few who need it then to make everyone pay for something they will almost never use. ",
"Some do, or you may be able to add one. They are called [skid plates](_URL_0_). Most cars don't come with them though.",
"Is the problem this would solve big enough to warrant a solution?\n\nThe government doesn't require it because the problem it may solve is not enough of in issue in terms of life or cost. \n\nThe insurance companies don't incentive it because its not a major cause of then loosing money.\n\nPeople don't look for it because its not an issue they expect to encounter with a high degree of certainty.\n\n\nTesla does it with their cars not because it is a major problem, but because each rare incident got a lot of media attention and caused PR problems and hurt the stock price of the company. No other car company had that problem."
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3d6iin | relationship between reddit, 9gag, and 4chan. | I've also read the 9gag conspiracies.. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d6iin/eli5_relationship_between_reddit_9gag_and_4chan/ | {
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"4chan is the asshole. It creates original content, nearly all of which is shit.\n\nReddit is the toilet. It catches 4chan's crap and circles it around the drain until it's been diluted and mixed up with earlier shit that it's hardly recognizable.\n\n9gag is a disgusting mass of shit-eating crustacians that clog the pipes, feasting on the shit that pours out of the sewer."
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qr774 | php and mysql | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qr774/eli5_php_and_mysql/ | {
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"What is it you'd like to know specifically?\n\nPHP is a scripting language. Webservers - the computers which run websites - interpret commands in a list called a script, and do certain things based on what those commands are. Things like \"print a sentence\" or \"add some numbers up\". These commands are interpreted as the script is run.\n\nMySQL is a databasing software. It allows data to be organized, stored, and retrieved according to their relationship with one and other. \n\nMySQL is often configured with a PHP interface for programmers, so websites that use PHP can often use data from a MySQL database.\n\nI imagine there's something more specific you wanted to know.",
"What do you want to know? PHP is a programming language and MySQL is a database system, often used together for database management. PHP is server-side web language. Basically, you can think of it like this: You have HTML, which tells your web browser how to display things on a web page (Font, colors, et cetera), but there is very little you can actually do with HTML. Javascript is a basic programming language which incorporates the use of user input to determine what may or may not show up, but its functionality is limited (Or, well, that's not true; It's just extremely obtuse to use in any REAL fashion for extended user input). PHP scripts can be inserted into a web page HTML code. While Javascript is all client-side (IE, it happens on your computer), PHP is totally server side (IE, all the information is being compiled at the server before being sent to your computer). It has a ton of functionality and has the built in perk of being its own fully operational programming language, and thus its uses are WIDE. \n\nMySQL is a programming database system. SQL is the standard used for querying database objects and manipulating the data in all sorts of ways. It's kind of a programming language, but not really because you do much outside of what its main use is-- database management. You can create, store, query, and report data in all sorts of mannerisms with MySQL (There are a lot of other database systems which do this as well, though MySQL is probably the most popular) but you can't really display that information usefully just with SQL.\n\nSo, that's where PHP comes back into play. PHP and MySQL have a lot of cross functionality. You can create a web page in HTML, and insert PHP scripts into the web page which then allows a user to input something into a text box (Like, say, a tracking number for UPS), and it will use a RunSQL command to run a command in SQL which queries your MySQL database, and, say, receives information like where that package was last seen. \n\nPHP, C#, and _URL_0_ are your most common back-end client-side web development languages, while MySQL, SQL Server 2008, and Oracle are your most common database systems."
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1xaeg7 | how does gene activation work? aren't genes mere blueprints? how does a gene "activate itself"? | I tried searching, but all the "polymerase" and similar terminology is over my level. All (I think) I know is that DNA is a double helix (of monomers or something) that gets cut in half when one of the "arms" is needed to make a protein. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xaeg7/eli5_how_does_gene_activation_work_arent_genes/ | {
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"First off, you're wrong about how genes code for proteins. Essentially, the DNA in your cells gets copied into a different molecule called mRNA, which is similar to RNA except only one gene gets copied (in humans). The mRNA then leaves the nucleus and is translated into protein.\n\nNow, your question is pretty complicated. There's a whole lot we don't know about epigenetics and it's certainly dependent upon which gene you're looking at. A lot of genes are activated by other genes, in the sense that those genes code for a protein which then interacts with the gene of interest and represses it or activates it. ",
"DNA is double helix, a polymer of monomers that are written as ATCG. The two strands are **complementary**: that is they are mirror images of each other. Strands are complementary because A always pairs with T, and C with G like so:\n\n5'-AATTCCGG-3'\n\n3'-TTAAGGCC-5'\n\nNow to make a protein from a stretch of DNA, an enzyme called **RNA polymerase** reads along one DNA strand and copies it to RNA. It can do this because RNA has monomers (AUCG) that pair with the DNA monomers (A with T, U with A, C with G, G with C).\n\nThis creates an **mRNA** which is the RNA copy of the DNA that codes for the gene. The mRNA can be read by the **ribosome** which looks at the RNA three bases at a time. The different 3-base groups ([AAA vs ATT vs CGG vs TGC](_URL_1_) etc) code for different **amino acids** (which are the monomers for proteins, which themselves are polymers).\n\nThe question of why one gene gets transcribed (the process of making an RNA copy is called **transcription**) at any given time is interesting. Genes have regulatory regions before the coding region called **promoters** that regulate when a gene is transcribed and at what levels.\n\nThere are proteins that can bind to DNA that **activate** or **repress** transcription. These guys bind to specific DNA sequences. So you can image a situation where a signal comes to the outside of the cell. It activates some surface protein that signals through the membrane to the cytoplasm. The signal gets passed along ([signal transduction cascade](_URL_0_)) and some transcriptional activator gets activated or transported into the nucleus. Once there it can bind to the DNA upstream of genes that should be turned on in response to the signal.\n\nAs you can imagine this is an incredibly complex process as any given gene can be regulated by multiple activating and repressing **transcription factors**. The transcription factors themselves are regulated by signal transduction (as mentioned before), and post-translational modifications (phosphorylation and ubiquitination) as well as their own transcription/translation. Regulation of gene expression is a very complex topic.",
"You have a master blue print in a safe (DNA in the nucleus). You keep it there at all times because it is fragile and you will need to reference it for a really long time and it is the only copy you have, and it is huge. When certain conditions are met (a stimulus that leads to increased gene expression, there tons of possibilities like an increase in stress hormone in the blood, etc.) you make a more disposable and easier to read copy of just the section of blueprint that you need (the gene), this copy is called RNA. The copy is taken out of the safe and handed off to a team of builders (ribosomes) who follow the blue print to create a tool (protein) that will go out and do whatever job it was commissioned for (lots of different proteins do a lot of different things inside and outside of the cell).",
"If you want just a basic idea of how it works I hope this helps, and it's not super wtf!\n\nOk, so your genes are written in your DNA. Genes code for a protein, but DNA and proteins are written in different languages. So if you need to make a protein, DNA is 'transcripted' into RNA then 'translated' into a protein.The reason for this is DNA is stored in the nucleus but cannot leave, RNA can leave (and RNA and DNA written in same language) so it copies DNA, leaves and can then be used to code for a protein. \n\nAs for gene activation, think of insulin. When you eat and glucose enters your bloodstream, it gets to you pancreas and triggers a pathway that leads to the gene that codes for insulin. So basically, if you need something, some messenger (like glucose for insulin) triggers a bunch of biochemical pathway that will lead to RNA going to that gene, opening it up (yes the double helix) and copying it so it can then leave and get that protein made. "
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"http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/f06pm/signaltrans03.jpg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_codon_table"
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3vl42r | why do japanese automobile's and other japanese manufactured products tend to last longer than most manufactured products from other countries? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vl42r/eli5_why_do_japanese_automobiles_and_other/ | {
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"Japanese industry uses different production philosophies (ways of thinking when it comes to making stuff) which are very good at improving quality.\n\nJapanese industry uses something called kaizen (continuous improvement). It gets employees from every angle of production - from welders and painters to designers and managers - to come up with small ways of improving the process and/or quality. These small changes quickly build up.\n\nFor example, Toyota (one of the biggest fans of kaizen) reduced its die-changing time from four hours to one and a half hours in six months, and then down to three minutes after another 1.5 years.",
"_URL_0_ \n\nThis podcast is about finding out why a car assembly plant in California closed. This plant was a partnership between GM and Toyota. \n\nToyota made the deal that in exchange for showing GM how they built their car( there is a part about how Toyota dealt with manufacturing issues from the bottom up instead of waiting for reports and lawsuits), GM would help Toyota deal with the legal side of building cars in the US. \n\n\nWorth the time if you have 40-60mins."
]
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[],
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||
5xhkzg | why do certain ethnicities give off a stronger odor when they sweat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xhkzg/eli5_why_do_certain_ethnicities_give_off_a/ | {
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"basicaly, \n\nWe all stink if we dont shower, but differences in diet and genetics make it that the smell is different, \n\nYou reek too but\n\n- you´re use to it and since you mostly hang out with people of your own etnicity you dont notice it. \n\n- Most deodorant sticks in western countries are designed for white people and are probobly less effective on people with different skins. Theres a similar thing with safety razors where those multiblade razors from gillette and Schick work great for white people but tend to be quite abresive for african americans causing spots, bumps and ingrowns. "
]
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[]
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||
4vac88 | how does my brain simulate falling (amongst other sensations) while i'm sleeping? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vac88/eli5_how_does_my_brain_simulate_falling_amongst/ | {
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"In the same way it does it when you're awake, from specific sequences and patterns of neurons firing, it's just it does it without using incoming external sensory triggers to start the sequences, but rather ones generated by your dream. ",
"You're brain doesn't actually go dormant even in the slightest when you go to sleep, in most cases it increases in activity. When you enter stage 1 nrem sleep you can experience jerks that seem like you're falling but that's because you brain is trying to keep you awake because it thinks you're in danger. Otherwise the feeling of falling and other stimuli while you are fully asleep is your brain recreating the scenarios in your dreams during rem sleep, because your brain is applying the dream to your body, the only reason you most likely won't get up is because your brain 'turns off' the medulla thus not letting you move and walk around while asleep, sleep walking occurs when your brain doesn't do that and sleep paralysis is when your brain doesn't 'turn on' your medulla immediately after you wake up."
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[],
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2jyn5d | why are fixed gear bikes associated with hipsters? | I guess more to the point, why do hipsters flock to them? Unless you're a BMX person why would anyone want a fixed gear bike? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jyn5d/eli5_why_are_fixed_gear_bikes_associated_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"clga20y"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"They're not better or cheaper or ...anything, they're just old and bad. Which is simultaneously why hipsters flock to them, and why nobody else does."
]
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[]
] |
|
4g0o0o | could insects be farmed in enough quantity to actually be a viable food source? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4g0o0o/eli5_could_insects_be_farmed_in_enough_quantity/ | {
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"Conversion efficiency is good, so it should be at least *more* sustainable. \n\nLong term - there are certain advantages to having tiny beasts with very short lifespans and huge reproductive capabilities. If it all goes wrong you can change from one species to another much more easily than conventional livestock.",
"I actually put some research into this. There are currently two main bugs for farming in the us, and those are mealworms and crickets. \n\n1. Insects have a lot more nutritional content than more traditional meat sources, so it would actually be a pretty good idea to switch to an insect based diet.\n\n2. Farming them in great numbers can be done quite easily, in vertical spaces, with a high rate of return from the feed and low waste. The insects, particularly meal worms, don't like sun, so you can build towers of them in a relatively small square footage, so it is actually more sustainable.\n\n3. Start-up costs are far lower for farming them than traditional beef, pork, or even chickens. Moreover, they can easily be raised in an urban environment, or in a garage, thus allowing small scale farms to compete with larger farms, thus creating a more diverse economy and larger competition.\n\n4. Not only can it be easily done, but it can be maintained easily, even if an entire farming tower of mealworms die do to bad feed or improper care, it can be easily recovered in a much shorter time span. Additionally, in the current meal-worm farms, there has not been any recorded issues with them being picky or having long term breeding problems.\n\nIn short, the current farming solutions are easily scale-able, the diet is fine, and it is economically viable. It just doesn't have much of a demand.\n\nEdit: a word",
"I remember reading ages ago that someone calculated the weight of earthworms capable of living in the area of a cow pasture and it exceeded the weight of the cows but a large margin. I tried to google it, but I'm just getting ads about parasitic worms. The point was, we could get a far larger amount of protein from the worms than the cows, without the greenhouse gases and a fraction of the total work."
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2qcnf6 | how do boxers and mma fighters have careers spanning years, while some people are killed with one punch in a street fight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qcnf6/eli5_how_do_boxers_and_mma_fighters_have_careers/ | {
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"People who get killed from one punch in a street fight often die because they hit their head on something hard on the way down. That's not a concern in a boxing or mma ring.\n\nAlso, boxers and martial artists have been trained to defend against attacks. Most people would be destroyed if they joined a hockey or football game with no practice. Experienced players know how to minimize the effects of hits and most importantly avoid them.",
"A lot of reasons. One of the main is that professional fighters know how to minimize damage. I used to do Judo. Practiced for three years. For the first 3 weeks they taught me nothing but how to fall in a way that minimizes the possibility of your bones breaking. You have to practice falling for three weeks, and then you have to be tested by the main coach to be allowed to actually start learning Judo. Learning how to fall includes moves to defend your limbs even in some of the most violent situations, working on the muscles around your neck so it doesn't get snapped in half, working on flexibility of your joints. \nThe same goes for boxing, for example. I did it for a couple of months. There are a lot of ways to minimize damage. For example, when you attack someone with a right hook, you usually hid your jaw \"behind\" you right shoulder and etc. \nTLDR: every martial art teaches you a lot of ways to minimize the damage."
]
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[],
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3a762z | those body wraps that people post on social media that claims that it makes you lose fat | How do those body wraps make you look thinner? It looks like just plain Saran Wrap and surely you don't actually lose fat from wrapping it around your body for a couple hours | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a762z/eli5_those_body_wraps_that_people_post_on_social/ | {
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"text": [
"No its sort of like shapewear. It makes you look thinner but you are just wearing something that is giving your body a shape. But you aren't losing any fat",
"It doesn't make you lose weight at all, but if you wrap them tightly they can compress the fat making you look slimmer (obviously, only while you've got them on, once you take them off you go back to normal). It's the same thing as just wearing a really tight compression top.",
"Those like mud/seaweed wraps where they measure you, then wrap you, then take it off and then measure you again? Like at spas? They work temporarily, mostly by making you sweat and dehydrating the underlayers of your skin. It shrinks temporarily (like a wet towel wrung out). ",
"Rule of thumb: anything that gets passed around on Facebook is probably a crock of shit. Actually, that's a good rule for the internet in general."
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5yqtur | what's the difference between 23.976 fps and 24 fps, and why is 23.976 used? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yqtur/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_23976_fps_and/ | {
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"There is a good explanation from a [previous ELI5 thread](_URL_0_).\n\n > Film standard is actually 24.0 frames per second. The 23.976 is the framerate in digital cinema cameras. The reason it isn't pure 24 is pretty stupid. Basically, our video system in America is called NTSC. It set the standard for video signals back in the infancy of video. In black and white everything worked nicely at pure frame rates. However, when color was introduced to videoall of the broadcasters suddenly had to be transmitting color information in addition to greyscale information. Technology already in place couldn't handle this, so the engineers for NTSC devised a trick where video would now be at a slightly lower framerate, and the extra bandwidth in the signal freed up by this would be used for color information. Today, this is no longer necessary as technology has grown beyond the need for such a gimmick. However, thousands of studios across the NTSC world still have some if not all equipment that can only handle the old NTSC standard. It would be too costly to update every piece of equipment, so we're stuck with this standard for at least another decade or two.\n",
"23.976 is what's used on TVs, because TVs aren't actually 30 FPS - they're 29.97 (and we use that because adding color to 30FPS TV changed the time base). When playing 23.976 FPS on a TV, you map 4 film frames to 5 video frames. ",
"It is actually is determined by physics and it dates back to cathode ray TV's. The electron beam is scanned across the screen in two passes. It first scans the odd pixels and then the even pixels. In North America TV was broadcast with 525 horizontal rows. Which means each scan did 262.5 rows. \n\nIn North America each TV channel was given 6 MHz to broadcast it's programs, of which about 4.5 MHz was usable. Picture was sent, and then a small gap and then audio was sent. When color programming came out, they had to somehow fit the color data in between the picture and audio.\n\n The color signal was interfering with the normal picture. Using some complicated physics, you can get rid of the interference if the gap between the picture and color and the gap between color and sound are both odd integer multiples of the horizontal frequency divided by 2. Simplifying the expressions, you can find that you need an integer multiple time the horizontal frequency to equal 4.5MHz. \n\nSo, going back to our 525 rows. Your horizontal frame rate is the number of rows times the frame rate. So, we need a number that when multiplied by 525 becomes divisible into 4,500,000 (4.5 MHz). That number turns out to be 29.97. This is why TV is broadcast at 29.97 FPS.\n\nOkay, now with that out of the way. The 23.976 comes into play when converting from the 24FPS that film cameras use to broadcast rates. 24x29.97/30=23.976. This is called a three-two pull down. Basically they are manipulating the frames in a way that is undetectable to the human eye so that they can match the frame rate of your TV. \n\n\nETA: This might seem like it doesn't add up so I'll add one last step. 23.976 happens to be exactly 4/5 of 29.97. These 4 frames can be stretched into 5 frames because of the way TV images are produced, and that is what allows the movie to be broadcast in 29.97. \n",
"[Matt Parker actually covered this in one of his youtube videos!](_URL_0_)\n\nShort version: its to encode the color in the video.\n\nEDIT: woops, i linked the wrong thing. Should be the right video now!",
"I'll piggyback on this. When a movie is shot at 24.000 fps (and presumably edited at 24.000 too) and then broadcasted at 23.976 fps, does the TV station go through the trouble of re-encoding the video to 23.976 (like they definitely would do with 30 to 24, for example), or do they simply slow it down 1.001 times to avoid frame interpolation issues? "
]
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87pvdk | what is scientifically currently known to influence sexuality? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/87pvdk/eli5_what_is_scientifically_currently_known_to/ | {
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"TL:DR: Scientifically, there is a LOT of debate. \n\nThe answer will depend on who you ask, what you mean by \"scientifically\", and what you mean by \"sexuality\".\nFirst you have to considered the huge debate of \"nature vs nurture\". Specialists disagree wildly on whether sexual phenomena (such as sexual orientation, gender identification, or even general sexual prefferences or particular \"tastes\") are innate to the individual (born this way) or learned through our early education and interaction with the environment. \n\nYou could also argue that, in a broader sense, human sexuality is influenced by many many things. Social interactions, historical changes (such as the \"sexual revolution\" of the 60s\" or the appearance of HIV), religion, politics, culture, the media, pornography, spirituality, psychology, all can influence a person's sexual behavior and preferences. ",
"The hypothalamus is an area in the brain that basically connects your nervous system and endocrine system. It's divided into anterior (front) and posterior (back) parts.\n\nWhen men view sexually arousing porn, they see activation in their hypothalamus, but when women view sexually arousing porn, they do not see much activation.\n\nThe anterior portion has several \"interstitial nuclei\", or bundles neurons. The \"3rd interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus\", or INAH-3, is a region that people know is twice as big in men as it is in women.\n\nIn the 1990s, a neuroscientist named Simon LeVay figured out that the INAH-3 region is actually bigger in adult heterosexual men than it is in adult homosexual men. To paraphrase his words, an oversimplified view is that homosexual men simply don't have the \"neuronal circuits\" to find women attractive. \n\nInterestingly, homosexual men also see activation in their hypothalamus when watching sexually arousing porn.\n\nAs a disclaimer, this doesn't really mean too much in itself. It's a correlative, not a causative statement. \n\nSecondly, just to put it out there, LeVay is openly homosexual. He's not trying to go out of way to find some biological basis of sexuality, it's just research he's interested in.\n"
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1hittu | quasars and their role in the universe. | I'm clueless as to what they are. I just know they're really bright and release a lot of energy. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hittu/eli5quasars_and_their_role_in_the_universe/ | {
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"cauqt34"
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"text": [
"a \"quasar\" refers to the center of a galaxy that releases a lot of energy. It's generally agreed is' an extremely bright area around a super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy. As stuff gets pulled into the black hole it heats up an immense amount and that's the light that we see before it falls in for good."
]
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[]
] |
|
1immph | what is the standard model? why does it matter? | Pretty straightforward questions there. Thanks in advance! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1immph/eli5_what_is_the_standard_model_why_does_it_matter/ | {
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"The Standard Model is our current best theory of particle physics. It contains all the particles and all the forces necessary to explain everyday life.\n\nThere are six quarks and six leptons that make up pretty much everything we usually refer to as \"matter.\" Then there are the four fundamental forces that govern every single interaction in the entire universe (that we know of so far), and the gauge bosons (or force carriers) for each of those forces.\n\nIt matters because it pretty much explains all of physics. There are a few exceptions. For example, the Standard Model doesn't really say much about gravity. There exists a theorized gauge boson for gravity, called the graviton, in the Standard Model, but it's never been seen experimentally."
]
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2iv0cf | why is the name of the letter "w" so different from all the other letters? | Why does it have 3 syllables to every other letters' one?
Why does the name for "W" start with a "D?"
Why isn't it just called "whuh?"
WHAT'S GOING ON?!!!
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iv0cf/eli5_why_is_the_name_of_the_letter_w_so_different/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the letter originated from the lack of a letter representing the sound. Originally either a v or uu was used, giving it the name 'double u'.",
"In many languages, W does have a monosylabic name.\n\nW is one of the more recent letters to develop. If you look at old documents - like the Bayeux Tapestry, you'll see it written out as 'UU' . At the time, U and V were also the same letter. The names of letters change over time, and people already abbreviate it as 'dubba' or 'dub' so it will probably change in the future, but that change is probably going to be slow.\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"Well, the name is pretty self explanatory -- it's called \"double-U\" because it used to be written as two of the letter \"u.\" It didn't get its own name (\"whuh\") because it wasn't considered it's own letter; it was considered two of another letter. \n\nIt was written as two of the letter \"u\" because it sounds kind of like a letter \"u\" (that is, it is a really short \"u\" sound), and we already had a letter that was written as one letter \"u\". \n\n",
"The Romantic alphabet (the alphabet of the Romans, which with few variations is the one used today by English, French, Spanish, German, etc) did not have the letters \"u\" or \"w\". In Latin, the letter \"v\" has the formal pronunciation of \"vwuh\", shifting from \"vw\" (no vowel sound) to \"ou\" (somewhere between \"uh\" and \"oo\") - it is both a vowel and a consonant, kinda like today's \"y\".\n\nAs language shifted and Latin split into the Romantic languages, the alphabet also changed. \"v\" was established as having the \"vw\" sound, with \"u\" (literally a v with a curved bottom) took the \"ou\". Later, writers began to use two \"v\"s to signify the softer \"w\" pronunciation, while \"v\" solidified as the hard \"v\" today. A formality turned \"vv\" into its own letter, \"w\". Most Romantic languages call it double-\"v\"; only English calls it double-\"u\"."
]
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2aj1ax | how does your computer store memory when there is no battery left? | My computer has been dead for over 3 weeks but when I charged it and turned it back on. Not only did it have all of my latest internet tabs, but it also still has all my files.
How does it store this data without any energy? Could I ever lose some of my files if my computer is dead for a longer time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2aj1ax/eli5how_does_your_computer_store_memory_when/ | {
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"\n\"Memory\" is usually used to refer to RAM (random access memory). RAM requires power to keep its data.\n\nFiles are usually not kept in RAM for this reason. Instead files are kept on a mass storage device called a *hard drive*. Traditionally a hard drive is a spinning disk. A part called a *head* sits on top of the disk and can magnetize tiny areas, or sense the existing magnetism. The disk doesn't need any power to stay magnetized.\n\nNowadays traditional magnetic hard disks are often replaced by SSD or Solid State Drive which are based on the same Flash technology as memory cards or small portable USB drives [1]. SSD costs more per gigabyte, and aren't available in the same large sizes as hard drives. But many people choose to buy SSD anyway, because they are silent, use less power, and have better random access performance. (When software needs to read data from a traditional hard drive, it has to wait for the disk to spin until the needed area is underneath the head.)\n\nAs for your open applications and Internet tabs: Those are usually kept in RAM. If you *suspend* your PC, it keeps the RAM powered, but shuts down the rest of the system. If you *hibernate* your PC, it writes the contents of the RAM to disk, to be loaded next time. You can explicitly tell your PC to either suspend or hibernate. Your PC's power management settings (somewhere in Control Panel on Windows) determine whether it will suspend or hibernate when you close the lid or leave it sitting unattended for a while.\n\n- Suspending, and restarting from suspend, both happen in a few seconds.\n\n- Hibernating, and restarting from hibernate, both take a minute to access the disk.\n\n- Suspending uses a little bit of power, and will drain your battery in a few days. Usually laptops have a blinking LED to warn you of this.\n\n- Hibernating uses no power, since the machine turns all the way off. (Except for the system clock, which is *always* powered.)\n\n- Suspending will keep all your open tabs and currently running applications, as long as there is AC or battery power available.\n\n- Hibernating will keep all your open tabs and current applications, even if there is no battery or AC power for an extended period of time.\n\n- A full shutdown will close all applications and the operating system; the system must start over from totally blank RAM contents.\n\nSince you reported Internet tabs remaining open even after a loss of AC and battery power, you hibernated your system the last time you used it, before the loss of power.\n\n[1] _URL_0_\n",
"Well ram is lost when the power goes but the hard drive saves data permenanly and some computers mainly laptops when low on battery will save a sort of pause file to the harddrive before shutting down and when it comes back on teh file can be loaded and everything restored to the exact state it was in before it ran out of power."
]
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2ppwmw | why is stephen hawking a household name while other people who made great scientific contributions in the same field are generally unknown? | Is it both his brilliance and his disability or would he be just as famous if he wasn't wheelchair bound?
What keeps other scientists out of pop culture (for the most part) but Hawking seems like a rock star?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ppwmw/eli5_why_is_stephen_hawking_a_household_name/ | {
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"He's easily recognizable, for one. Secondly, his book \"A Brief History of Time\" was hugely popular when it came out and went a long way towards making him a household name.",
"He is not only a scientists but also a huge science popularizer. He wrote books for non-physicists, was in a lot of documentaries, etc. \n\nHis disability also plays role, but he is more Neil deGrasse Tyson than Peter Higgs.\n\nMost scientist don't care about being in pop culture, they want to do their job, but there are also guys who promote scientific achievements and try to explain to average person what scientists are doing.",
"His disability made him very unique but most people know him for his immensely popular book, A Brief History of Time. It contains wonderful explanations about very complex subjects like space-time. Other major scientists don't become pop stars because they don't do anything that would make them recognized. Unlike popular scientists such as Michio Kaku, Hawkings book was also well liked by the scientific community since it didn't grossly misrepresent and sensationalize science so he also gets respect from insiders. "
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6lfoss | how does smacking a device fix/ turn it on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6lfoss/eli5_how_does_smacking_a_device_fix_turn_it_on/ | {
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"* it can dislodge a stuck mechanical component, like a fan\n* it can reposition loose connections\n* it can scatter dust and debris that was interfering with proper operation\n* it can make you think you did something, when simply waiting would also work\n\nAs devices have moved more towards solid state and on chip functionality, fixing things by hitting them have become less common."
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1ot01w | in video games, why are some players affected by specific bugs, while others are not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ot01w/eli5_in_video_games_why_are_some_players_affected/ | {
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"It depends on the bug. Sometimes the hardware is different. Sometimes the software environment is different. Sometimes the players take different actions.",
"As Phage0070 says, there's a a lot going on.\n\nReproducable bugs - say a hole in a floor or whatever, it's just a matter of getting yourself into that situation and it happens to everyone.\n\nBut some bugs are really difficult to pin down. If your CPU is overheating it can do some calculations wrong - also if it's failing, overclocked or otherwise partially defective. Talk about a nightmare. If I ask a CPU what is 1+1 a billion times and it gives me the answer of 0 twice you have something that can cause all sorts of bugs and there's no easy way to fix it - and yes, that can happen. Harddrives can fail to read a piece of data, memory could have one little thing wrong with it etc.\n\nThen there's software and hardware versions and all the complications that come with that. \n\nNewer games are very very complicated, so even a reproduceable bug may only occur if you do a set of things in a specific order or specific way - so you only notice if you do E- > B- > A- > C- > D- > F, if you do any other order to get to - > F it might work fine. \n\n "
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3vxyg8 | how do discount mobile carriers work? like boost mobile or metropcs. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vxyg8/eli5_how_do_discount_mobile_carriers_work_like/ | {
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"They purchase network time in bulk and then resell it. Most discount carriers are consumer-focused, which means that a large portion of the network traffic will happen outside of business hours. And that's why they get such a great deal, since the network operators sell network time at premium rates for business users, who use it largely during business hours."
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1uvfvh | what is the criteria for killing civilians in war? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uvfvh/eli5_what_is_the_criteria_for_killing_civilians/ | {
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"Assuming Legally.\n\nIt depends on a lot. I am going to assume we are talking about a war in which both states or entities follow the Geneva conventions specifically the third one and the fifth article in that one.\n\nNow for a civilian to be killed legal they need to be doing something unlawful to the rules of war, hence being called an Unlawful Combatant. This term however is never said in the conventions at Geneva or the Hague. However assuming that they are correct we move on. Off the top of my head things that would make a civilian an UC would be spying(duh), Sabotage, and taking up arms. Now the first two are self explanatory, you get caught and you are not a uniformed fighting force you are fucked, probably shot, but if your captured there are pretty good odds you will be executed, sometimes after a trail sometimes not. Geneva conventions state that they have a right to a trail, if they are captured. Now on to the taking up arms thing, now this is where I am no longer talking about Geneva conventions, now I am talking about ROEs. ROEs are rules of engagement, which the lawyer boys come up with so we can legally shot someone who looks like a civilian but isn't but is. Usually they are like fire back if fired upon, or carrying something lets say a shovel. If they have that then the nation that has those ROEs rules them no longer to be civilians but Enemy Combatants, thus engage-able.\n\nBasically in this mountain of text, if they do crap that is hostile they are engage-able (I like this word I made it up). So shooting at combatants or facilitating a war effort. Also you should know that unlawful combatants is a controversial topic, and I tend to have a prejudice with this sort of thing, so take what I say with a grain of salt.\n\nedit; Assuming Illegally I think they just have to be evil?"
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20hge2 | how does antivirus antimalware works? what do you mean by "definition"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20hge2/eli5_how_does_antivirus_antimalware_works_what_do/ | {
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"Antivirus software have database of every known virus (up to that time) and they compare file content with their database to see if anything in that file has same or similar content as viruses. As new viruses and malware in general is created non stop, from time to time your antivirus software needs to update their database of known viruses. That virus database is sometimes referred as \"definitions\"."
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17d9h4 | - what does direct x do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17d9h4/eli5_what_does_direct_x_do/ | {
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"DirectX is a tool for graphics development. Imagine you are creating a video game. You want to make Mario in 3D. You could write code from scratch to draw pixels on the screen (little dots) that will eventually make polygons (triangles) that will eventually look like Mario. Or, you could use the DirectX tools to do that.\n\nThere is still a lot of coding to be done, but DirectX does a lot of work around graphics processing so the developers don't have to",
"DirectX talks to your graphics card. Programmers talk in one language (C++ in the case of DirectX) and the graphics card (GPU) talks in another language. DirectX translates for the programmer, so they can talk (program) in C++.",
"First, you need to look at how PC's work - they're built from an array of different components: a motherboard, a CPU, a Graphics card, some RAM and various other bits and pieces. There are literally thousands of different CPUs out there and just as many graphics cards. Mostly they come from Intel, Nvidia or AMD but there are a couple of other manufacturers as well. In any case, each company's components are built entirely different and can work in very different ways. Now imagine that you're a game developer - how do you write code that'll work across all those different chips? The CPU isn't too bad, they all run what's called \"x86\" so as long as the code compiles to it, it should run on any x86 CPU. However graphics chips are an entirely different beast. The \"code\" that would run on an AMD graphics chip would be completely different to the \"code\" that runs on an Nvidia chip. As a game developer, you don't want to have to write your game code twice just to support AMD and Nivida, nor do you want your code breaking every time a new graphics card comes out.\n\nThis is where DirectX comes in. DirectX acts as what's called an \"Abstraction Layer\", which is a fancy way of saying you can write DirectX code once and the various different graphics chips out there will be able to understand it. There's actually a few \"Layers\" here, but at a simple level your game code compiles to DirectX, which your Graphics card's driver reads and interperets, then communicates that code to the graphics card itself. This way, one piece of DirectX code can work on many different graphics cards. It doesn't always work quite so well, which is why driver updates are released regularly.\n\nDirectX isn't just for graphics, though. The \"X\" in DirectX is there because it's made up of many different libraries - the graphics library being Direct3D (There's also a Direct2D graphics library). Other parts are things like DirectDraw and DirectInput, however these are very old components and have been largely replaced these days, which is partly why everyone just assumes that by \"DirectX\" they mean \"Direct3D\".",
"ELI5 version:\n\nBuilding a video game, or other certain applications, is a bit like building a house.\n\nNow, you could build a house all by yourself, but it's going to take a long time. There's a lot that goes into a house. There's the foundation, the frame, electrical, plumbing, isolation, plaster.. A lot goes into a house.\n\nDirect X is, essentially, a team of experienced house builders that you can contract. It's a large team, and they handle a bunch of different things, so depending on how you want to use them, you could have them do all the plumbing, wiring and foundation work for you while you focus on the frame and plaster.\n\nUsing Direct X allows house builders to focus more on the parts of the house that people will actually see, rather than the stuff that's in the walls but is still very important to the total package.\n\nAs new features are come up with (faucets with motion sensors! dimmer switches!), Direct X gets updates. And since the way games check for the direct X version is very clumsy, they will usually opt to install a version of Direct X that they know has all the features necessary for their game to run.\n\nTL;DR: Direct X is the Home Depot of game design. There's alternatives, or even doing it yourself, but it's a pretty standard short cut to common game engine features.",
"directx is fairly comprehensive a set of libraries to program multimedia applications, like games and video processing programs.\n\nnot only does it handle 3d graphics, but also 2d acceleration, gamepad/joystick inputs, music and networking. i think it is portable to xbox consoles as well.\n\n",
"Its an interface that lets programmers talk to the graphics card and tell it to draw things.",
"Also, why the fuck do I have to download it everytime I install a new game? ",
"In the old days, many applications communicated directly with much of the PC hardware and, as a result, could crash your computer if not written well enough. Microsoft tried to fix this problem by placing all\nhardware under the control of Windows, but programmers balked because Windows added too much work for the video process and slowed down everything. For the most demanding programs, such as\ngames, only direct access of hardware would work.\n\nThis need to “get around Windows” motivated Microsoft to unveil a new set of protocols called DirectX.\nProgrammers use DirectX to take control of certain pieces of hardware and to talk directly to that\nhardware; it provides the speed necessary to play the advanced games so popular today. The primary\nimpetus for DirectX was to build a series of products to enable Windows to run 3-D games. That’s not to\nsay that you couldn’t run 3-D games in Windows before DirectX; rather, it’s just that Microsoft wasn’t\ninvolved in the API rat race at the time and wanted to be. Microsoft’s goal in developing DirectX was to\ncreate a 100-percent stable environment, with direct hardware access, for running 3-D applications and\ngames within Windows.\n\nDirectX is not only for video; it also supports sound, network connections, input devices, and other parts\nof your PC. Each of these subsets of DirectX has a name, such as DirectDraw, Direct3D, or DirectSound.\n\n* DirectDraw Supports direct access to the hardware for 2-D graphics\n* Direct3D Supports direct access to the hardware for 3-D graphics—the most important part of DirectX\n* Directlnput Supports direct access to the hardware for joysticks and other game controllers\n* DirectSound Supports direct access to the hardware for waveforms\n* DirectMusic Supports direct access to the hardware for MIDI devices\n* DirectPlay Supports direct access to network devices for multiplayer games\n* DirectShow Supports direct access to video and presentation devices\n\nMicrosoft constantly adds to and tweaks this list. As almost all games need DirectX and all video cards\nhave drivers to support DirectX, you need to verify that DirectX is installed and working properly on\nyour system. To do this, use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (type dxdiag in cmd).\n\nSo, what does DirectX do for video cards? Back in the bad old days before DirectX became popular with\nthe game makers, many GPU makers created their own chip-specific APIs. 3dfx had Glide, for example,\nand S3 had ViRGE. This made buying 3-D games a mess. There would often be multiple versions of the\nsame game for each card. Even worse, many games never used 3-D acceleration because it was just too\nmuch work to support all of the different cards.\n\nThat all changed when Microsoft beefed up DirectX and got more GPU makers to support it. That in turn\nenabled the game companies to write games by using DirectX and have them run on any card out there.\nThe bottom line: When Microsoft comes out with a new version of DirectX, all of the GPU companies\nhurry to support it or they will be left behind.\n\n*(Long, but everything you need to know about DirectX. Taken from CompTIA A+ Exam Guide)*"
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c5s0lf | how do steering wheels run the electrics for media/infotainment controls through the steering column when a steering wheel can turn multiple revolutions in both directions? don't wires get twisted to the point of giving out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c5s0lf/eli5_how_do_steering_wheels_run_the_electrics_for/ | {
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"Clock spring. It’s basically a spiral of wire in the wheel rolled up loosely so it can be wound tighter or looser depending on the direction you’re turning.",
"A device called a turn clock holds a small loop of felexible wire in a donut shape. The wire winds up in one direction and unwinds in the other. Most can go 3 1/2 turns before they brake."
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5olicp | why do many artists when performing live sometimes sing with slight differences than the original recorded song? is it intentional? | I am talking about little differences, like the tone in a word or etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5olicp/eli5_why_do_many_artists_when_performing_live/ | {
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"They get sick of singing \"just like the record\". Sometimes they can't the high notes anymore. They may want to give you a \" unique version\" since you paid so much for the ticket. Sometimes they improvise or forget , and sometimes they are drunk, stoned, or tired . Take your pick. ",
"It is more than intentional, it is often the only way they can perform the song.\n\nA studio environment is different than a live environment. A studio recording is going to be highly produced and edited in a highly controlled environment. A live performance is going to have worse acoustics, but the artist can often play off of the audience.\n\nThose very different environments call for different techniques.",
"Sometimes it's intentional. Call it Improvisation. Other times, the live performance is how they really sound. What you hear on the recorded song might have been sung multiple times, edited, mixed, remixed, mastered, remastered etc till it gets out."
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2gedzq | what would happen to the earth in the short medium and long term if all life suddenly dissapeared from the planet? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gedzq/eli5_what_would_happen_to_the_earth_in_the_short/ | {
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"I'm assuming all life is vegetation as well.\n\nShort term: The atmosphere shouldn't really change all too much, until some volcanoes blow up. The ocean will still dissolve C02 but it won't cause any effects. The earth will not raise in temperature as no more people breathing also means no more cars = no more C02.\n\nMedium: Like short term, buildings will collapse, cars will rust etc. Earth looks a bit messy but that's just a superficial change.\n\nLong, long, long, long term: New life develops and wonders wtf it with all these cars and rubble. No grasp on language means that information is useless. Life starts again, probably benefited by any buildings left standing as shelter.",
"This reminds me of a related question, which is: what would happen to earth if humanity disappeared? \n\nYou can find the answer to the last question - and maybe some answers to your question - if you watch the documentary \"AFTERMATH Population Zero\"\n\n _URL_0_\n\nIt's long, but it's worth it.. "
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2spiad | why can't i tame a racoon. | Why is it that we say certain animals have been domesticated and can be kept as pets but other animals like squirrels racoons etc Can't be tamed? I could understand not being able to train animals that have grown in the wild but why is it not possible to raise a generation of tame racoons that then have tame racoon babies etc etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2spiad/eli5why_cant_i_tame_a_racoon/ | {
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"Wild animals must have certain characteristics in order to be domesticated.\n\n1. The animal must be willing to live off of the food scraps of humans.\n\n2. They need to mature quickly so that a minimum of resources are given to get the animals to a \"useful\" size.\n\n3. They must be willing to breed in captivity and in close quarters.\n\n4. They need to be pleasant and not ill-tempered or quick to anger or quick to get nervous.\n\n5. The need to be calm and controllable and not constantly trying to escape.\n\n6. Their social network must be flexible enough to recognize humans as the head of their hierarchy.\n\nThe vast majority of wild animals do not meet these criteria -- *even with attempts at selective breeding* -- and therefore cannot be domesticated. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an animal that can be domesticated and one that cannot. Horses have clearly been a domestication success, but zebras on the other had have resisted domestication countless times in countless generations. They remain hostile and fail almost every criteria above. Raccoons are are much the same... some criteria they can live with, others they fail.",
"There is a difference between tame and domesticated. You *can* tame a raccoon and other certain wildlife. What you can't necessarily do is domesticate them. \n\nTaming an animal is getting it to submit to human control. Domesticating it is altering the species over a long period of time so they become suitable for human needs."
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46nlmy | what exactly is 'shock torture' and why is it so prevalent in media? | Kind of a morbid question. In almost every kind of media from movies, to video games, to TV shows whenever a character is captured and tortured they are always strapped to a chair or hung from the ceiling and repeatedly electrocuted.
Is 'shock torture' actually done in real life and how exactly would it be painful? Also why is 'shock torture' so prevalent in media when it comes to depictions of torture where stuff like waterboarding and other classical forms of torture are more popular and known to the public? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46nlmy/eli5_what_exactly_is_shock_torture_and_why_is_it/ | {
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"I'm guessing you've never been electrocuted before, I have (briefly). I was a dumbass kid who touched an electric wire and realised very quickly why the cows were so against coming over here. It's a horrible experience, for me it felt like every cell in my body was about to catch on fire. The worst part was I couldn't let go immediately, I was too busy being zapped to worry about opening my hand. \n\nMy point is if someone clamped a set of jumper leads to your balls, wouldn't you start talking? The CIA worked out a way to turn a towel and a jug of water into a torture device; doing shit with electricity is basic these days.",
"Passing an electrical current through the human body is almost invariably painful. Take a (voluntary) ride on a police-grade Taser if you ever get the chance (with the prongs). It just hurts, alot. Waterboarding is also awful to experience but most people don't understand how excruciating and terrifying it really is, hence why many people continue to justify its classification as \"enhanced interrogation\" rather than torture. \n\nIt's probably so widely seen in media because it's believably painful yet not gory. \n\nIn real life, dictatorships and other bad guys use it because it doesn't leave much in the way of visible marks. This is preferred for plausible deniability (\"we clearly didn't torture him, he has no scars.\") Its also psychologically easier for the torturer, no need to worry about your torture man feeling remorse at the sight of blood. It usually involves little more than activating a battery."
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4yqr6o | how does our internal alarm clock work? | Not always.. but sometimes I will wake up right before my alarm goes off. And other times ill sleep through it and wake up knowing immediately that ive over slept even when its still dark outside. How is our body able to be this accurate when we sleep for hours on end? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yqr6o/eli5how_does_our_internal_alarm_clock_work/ | {
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"Your body operates on \"circadian rhythms\" which are in effect cycles of hormones in your body, over time with a consistent schedule your body will produce the same hormones at the same times of day, causing the effects mentioned above - waking up, because your body halts production of sleep hormones as it's \"rhythm\" knows it's time to wake up ",
"My aunt can wake up at any desired time. Like if she intends to wake up at 7am, she doesn't set an alarm, she just naturally wakes up at that time, it's always baffled me",
"One of the basic mechanisms we have for telling time \"internally\" is what's called a molecular clock. \n\nCertain cells in your body produce a certain protein at a certain rate (for the sake of argument, let's say 1 million copies per hour of this protein). Then, later, they clear away all of that protein. So if the cell has 20,000,000 copies of the protein (it doesn't actually count them, this is determined by the concentration of the protein, more copies = higher concentration), then it has been about 20 hours. \n\nSecondly, your brain learns to unconsciously identify other cues that indicate approximately what time it is. Changes in lighting, ambient temperature, background noise, and so on can also help your brain guesstimate the time."
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3ie3n1 | how does activated charcoal remove poison | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ie3n1/eli5_how_does_activated_charcoal_remove_poison/ | {
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"Paramedic here - Activated Charcoal doesn't remove poisons from the body, the thought is that poisons will bind to the Activated Charcoal which in turn prevents it from being absorbed into the blood stream via the GI tract. In reality, there isn't much evidence that Activated Charcoal is very effective, and it is rarely used in modern medicine. It used to be carried on every ambulance in the USA, however most have stopped carrying it years ago due to there being better techniques in the ER to treat poison ingestions, and like I stated above, the benefits of Activated Charcoal are negligible at best. "
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3ib2zr | what needs to happen for there to be a king of england? | I don't know much about the Royal family/Monarchy ~~in England~~ but I'm intrigued by it. I don't want the queen to die, so don't think I'm dissatisfied with the Queen or I have any ill-wishes against her. I was basically wondering if it's possible to have a King ~~of England~~ in the first place and then what would have to have for said King to come to "power". I know that the royal family doesn't really hold any power anyway as well.
I probably won't be able to respond till later, but thought that this was an appropriate time to post for the English to comment.
Edit: I realize now that the Queen is more than a queen of just England. Thanks for the responses everyone. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ib2zr/eli5what_needs_to_happen_for_there_to_be_a_king/ | {
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"If the Queen dies, or steps down (which isn't really the done thing in the UK), then her son will become King. It's as simple as that.\n\nThe rules for who takes the throne used to favour males. When the reigning monarch dies, it would go to their eldest son, or their eldest daughter if they had no sons. But the rules were changed a couple of years ago, so now it goes to the eldest child regardless of gender.\n\nAlthough that rule was not applied retroactively, and it wouldn't have changed anything anyway because the Queen's eldest child is male. And he only has sons, and then his eldest son happened to have a boy first anyway. So when the Queen dies there probably only be Kings for quite a long time.\n\nedit - Pedantic side note: It makes more sense to talk about the UK rather than specifically England in this case. The United Kingdom is a single kingdom, so there is one 'crown' for the entire thing. Not much about the monarchy relates to England specifically.",
"It's pretty simple under the newest set of laws, being based predominantly on primogeniture. Basically, if the first-born child of the monarch is male, then he will become king. As it stands now, we are looking at a line of kings (absit omen). When the Queen dies, the throne will be inherited by Prince Charles. William will become the Prince of Wales. When Charles in turn dies, William will become king and his son, George, will become Prince of Wales. When William dies, George will become king. I should note, although it is a bit pedantic, that the royal title is a lot more than \"king of England\". Elizabeth II is also queen of Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc. and of course the other states making up the United Kingdom.",
"First, there is no Queen of England, because there is no Kingdom of England. Back at the start of the 17th century the English royal line failed to produce a direct successor so the throne went to the closest relative, King James of Scotland. This brought the two countries together until in 1707 they entered into a formal union creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Queens full title is:\n\n > Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith\n\nNow you asked what it would take for there to be a king - all it would take is for the queen to die, at which point the heir presumptive would take the throne - currently that would be the Queens eldest son, Prince Charles. \n\nIt used to be unusual to have a Queen Regnant (as opposed to a Queen Consort, who is the wife of a king) because of the principle of male primogeniture, which meant the oldest son would always inherit before any older sisters, but that rule was changed recently. Still the next two in line after Prince Charles are his son William, and his son George"
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7luuma | satire and irony | No matter how many times I read an example, I can’t grasp it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7luuma/eli5_satire_and_irony/ | {
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"Satire - Exaggeration or using a material in a usually comical way to mock it\n\nIrony - Best example is when a man who advocates for more people to take buses gets hit by a bus",
"Irony: When Alanis Morissette writes a song called \"Ironic\" that she thinks contains examples of irony, instead they are all just examples of 'bad luck,' thus she unintentionally writes a song that's ironic.",
"Irony is a part of satire, so we'll start with irony.\n\nThere are a couple forms of irony:\n\nDramatic irony is a situation in which the audience knows something that a character does not. (Juliet isn't really dead. Romeo doesn't know that.) This is typically used to add to the tension of a situation.\n\nClassical irony is the triumph of wit over hubris. We don't typically associate this with irony anymore, but any sort of parlor scene from a detective story is a good example. \n\nVerbal irony is sarcasm and is mostly performative in nature. An intended meaning is dramatically different from an expressed meaning. This is typically indicated by tone, gesture, and circumstance. Paralipsis (talking about something by saying you're not talking about it) is the easiest method of verbal irony to translate from performance to written word.\n\nSituational or cosmic irony is when the outcome of a series of events is different from the expected outcome. For instance, in *The Wizard of Oz* all three of Dorothy's companions are questing for a character trait they felt they lacked and hoped to receive from the allegedly god-like Oz, who in fact lacks the traits the companions sought and would be unable to grant those traits even if he had them himself because is revealed to be a mere mortal. Had Oz been a god, he would still have been unable to grant these gifts, but the situational would have been elevated to the cosmic.\n\nNow satire uses these forms of irony, a context of entertainment and lightheartedness, and a tendency towards absurdity, to make the serious (Bill O'Reilly, colonial attitudes of British landlords to suffering during the Potato Famine) seem silly. (Stephen Colbert, a solution that involved raising Irish children as a food resource for the wealthy points out that the population of a colony is, in fact, a valuable resource regardless of their caloric value.)",
"Satire is a form of social criticism that uses humor to exaggerate some aspect of society you wish to criticize. In *A Modest Proposal*, Jonathan Swift famously criticizes British indifference to the poverty and famine in Ireland by proposing the Irish raise money by selling their children to the rich to eat. By structuring it as the sort of policy suggestion a British politician favoring wealthy British landlords might make, he highlighted the callousness, cruelty, and ineffectiveness of British policy in Ireland.\n\nThere are a number of forms of irony. Verbal irony is when what you say is different from what you mean. Sarcasm is either the lowest form of verbal irony or falls just short of it, depending who you ask. \n\nDramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters do not, creating suspense. Horror films often employ it, like when the young couple sneaks out into the woods where we know the serial killer is lurking.\n\nSituational irony is a coincidence accompanied by a sudden reversal. In O. Henry's *The Gift of the Magi*, a poor man sells his heirloom pocket watch to buy his wife a fine set of combs for her beautiful long hair. At the same time, she cuts off her hair and sells it to buy a platinum chain for her husband's watch. The coincidence is they both made great sacrifices to buy gifts at the same time, the reversal is both gifts are now useless. Irony is often negative, but in this case is it positive, as it underlines the couple's love for one another."
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5ju6lf | why is pro wrestling being fake such a criticism of it? | Avengers, Gotham, Walking Dead, Frozen, Hunger Games are all fake. in fact, they're even faker than wrestling. but when someone is a wrestling fan, people say "how can you watch that, it's fake". but why that doesn't apply for any other fake show or movie? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ju6lf/eli5_why_is_pro_wrestling_being_fake_such_a/ | {
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"Well, what people argued was that they never said it was scripted, they pretended it was real from the start. All those shows were obviously made from fiction, but for a while, it was up in the air for pro wrestling.",
"While the outcomes of pro wrestling matches are predetermined, and the storylines are just that - storylines - it must be borne in mind that the matches themselves are mostly freeform. It's up to the competitors to put on an engaging performance, with the help of the referee, who subtly reads the mood of the crowd to help guide the match to a well-timed resolution or shift in momentum to keep things interesting.",
"For most of wrestling's history, it presented itself as a legitimate competition, like boxing or modern MMA. And while there have been accounts of match fixing in both boxing and wrestling as long as both existed, wrestling promoters realized very early on that there was much more money in presenting worked matches that they could control. These controversies manipulated audiences into buying tickets much better than simply presenting a fight. As wrestling lost prestige and began to focus more on the show than the sport, it opened the door for sports fans to look down on wrestling fans for not being able to tell they were being manipulated. Because of that devious history, many people are still compelled to point out that it's not legitimate, despite not being presented as a real sport for decades. "
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dvjqmu | why do grown ass adults talk to their kids in baby voices and jibberish when they're supposed to be teaching them how to talk normally? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dvjqmu/eli5why_do_grown_ass_adults_talk_to_their_kids_in/ | {
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"In the first few months, while the baby is just learning to make sounds, baby talk is okay, even useful. After they start doing that, though, speaking in a normal voice is far more beneficial to development. \n\nIn my experience, adults who persist in this habit are either under educated or too attached to \"their baby\"."
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2ms924 | how can a service (i.e.: whatsapp) offer end to end encryption, when the patriot act forces them to hand over personal communication of at least some of their users? | Do they simply hand over the encrypted messages and say: figure it out yourself? Do they need to have a backdoor installed? Or did I get it completely wrong? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ms924/eli5_how_can_a_service_ie_whatsapp_offer_end_to/ | {
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"IIRC, the patriot act doesn't force companies to keep records on communications. What it does is allow the government to see the records that companies do keep, without a warrant. If there is no record, then the government can't see it. "
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5dcrse | how are homming missiles working and how aircraft systems can detect that a missile locked-in for example a chopper so pilots know that rocket is going to hit them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dcrse/eli5_how_are_homming_missiles_working_and_how/ | {
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"There are different types of homing missiles. \n\nMost use radar. A scanning platform may detect a potential target, then a second radar will attempt to track the target, adjusting the missile's trajectory depending on the range and distance the radar signals return. However, an aircraft may have a radar warning receiver that can detect radar signals. The RWRs are programmed to recognize the signature of a threat such as a missile or a missile platform and alert the pilot when it sees this signature so the pilot may take appropriate action or in some cases, launch appropriate countermeasures such as chaff or flares.\n\nSome missiles have IR cameras built into them, looking for the brightest IR signature ahead and adjusting course to intersect with it. These are difficult to detect as they don't need to actively radiate a signal. But they are typically positioned on platforms with scanning radar which can be detected.\n\nLaser-guided missiles have the platform paint the target with a laser. They can't be easily detected, but the body of the aircraft can be designed to make it difficult to reflect the laser correctly. Like IR missiles, they are typically stationed on platforms that use detectable radar to scan.",
"There's a couple different types of guidance systems for missiles. Most missiles will use some sort of electromagnetic radiation to home in on the target. These can include:\n\n- Passive homing, which relies on emissions generated by the target in question. Examples include infrared (read: \"heat seeking\") guided missiles which home in on the infrared energy generated by a target's engine or other devices, as well as electro-optical systems (\"TV-guided missiles\") which relies on a visual contrast between the target and its background to guide it to target. Other missiles can home in on an enemy RADAR (or jamming device) when it's turned on by following the output of radio signals from the target. The AIM-9 Sidewinder series of missiles, for instance, uses an infrared detectors that can lock on to heat sources (like an engine exhaust or the leading edge of an aircraft) generated by a target.\n\n- Active homing, in which a missile \"illuminates\" a target with energy (usually with a RADAR set which shoots out radio waves and then uses the reflections to determine the target's position) and homes in on the target that way. The AIM-120 AMRAAM missile has a small RADAR dish in its nose that allows it to independently guide itself to the target without the need for the launching aircraft to do anything after launch.\n\n- Semi active homing, in which a missile relies on the launching aircraft or vehicle to \"illuminate\" the target for them, usually with a RADAR set or laser beam. Take the AIM-7 Sparrow missile, which is guided to the target by the launching aircraft, which must keep its RADAR trained on the target in order to give the missile (which only has the ability to home in on radio energy and not generate any of its own) something to track. If the aircraft breaks RADAR lock with the target then the missile will stop tracking it. Laser-guided weapons similarly require the target to be illuminated by a laser beam (either from the launching aircraft or another platform) that the missile's guidance system can see and home in on.\n\n- Manual guidance, in which the operator has to visually steer the missile on to the target. There's a variety of different ways to do this but all are ultimately dependent on the operator using a joystick or sighting device to manually guide the missile to its target. A lot of anti-tank missiles, like the American TOW missile, require the operator to keep a target sighted during the missile's flight.\n\nActive and passive homing weapons are considered to be \"fire and forget\" in that the launching platform doesn't necessarily have to provide any additional guidance and can move on once the missile has been fired. These categories aren't mutually exclusive, and a lot of missiles combine elements of two or more guidance concepts. For instance, the AIM-120 has the ability to independently guide itself to target but can also receive updates from the launching aircraft (or other aircraft in the area) in order to increase the probability of a successful hit, especially at long range. It also has the ability to passively \"home on jam\", meaning it can detect radio emissions from a jamming device and guide itself to the jammer (and the enemy aircraft it's attached to).\n\nPilots and vehicle crew have a variety of means of detecting and evading missile launches. The first (and most obvious) is their own eyes, which can spot the plume of fire and smoke that a missile leaves when launching. Evasive action taken as soon as possible may allow the pilot to dodge a missile shot, especially if it's at extreme range. Aircraft and combat vehicles can also be equipped with early warning systems that can inform the operator when somebody's illuminating them with a RADAR set or a laser beam. This lets them know that someone is looking at them with murderous intent and allows them to perform evasive or defensive action. Aircraft also carry a wide variety of countermeasures, including flare/chaff dispensers (which act as false signals for a missile to chase after) and dazzlers (like the American CIRCM system), which attempt to use laser pulses to blind enemy missile sensors in the same way you could blind someone by shining a laser in their eye. There are also systems developed for tanks and ships that attempt to physically intercept approaching missiles using some sort of projectile.\n\nAs an interesting anecdote, Israeli tank crews in the Yom Kippur War figured out how to counter manually guided anti-tank missiles used by their Arab foes by wildly dodging while spraying the launching site with fire in the hopes of distracting or killing the missile's operator so that the missile would go off-course and miss."
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4u2zz9 | how does my phone know i'm driving to work or driving to daycare? | I understand that my phone will see "oh you normally go to daycare at this time" and it will alert me. But this morning I pulled the car out of the garage to move the baby's carseat and the phone was like "oh it'll take you 10 minutes to get to daycare"
Not only this, but it seems to learn new places I go if they become normal destinations. I worked a second job once a week and the phone has picked up on that only on Tuesdays. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u2zz9/eli5_how_does_my_phone_know_im_driving_to_work_or/ | {
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"Like you said, your phone \"sees\" where you go. It also knows the *kind* of places you go, and at what times. There's an algorithm that goes \"Hey, jfk_47 likes widgets and they just went to a new widget shop, so let's ask them if this is a place they want information about.\" \n\nAnd if you go somewhere on a regular basis, it'll definitely pick up on that. \n\nBy the way (in case you want to) you can usually disable your phone creepily stalking you. "
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d2lh6d | what changes in the structure of an object that allows something to permanently bend (i.e folding paper) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2lh6d/eli5_what_changes_in_the_structure_of_an_object/ | {
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"Solid materials are made up of tightly packed molecules, which is the most energy efficient way to be in. If you bend something, this structure is changed to a less energy efficient form.\n\n\nThe molecules are moving within the material, so when you hold it long enough, they will eventually reach the energy efficient state again, but now in the new shape.\n\n\nThe time and force it takes to achieve this differs for each material.",
"Let's use paper from your example to explain this.\n\nPaper is not one solid, contiguous thing on a microscopic level. Paper is really made from layers and layers of interlocking plant fibers. Those fibers are made of layers and layers of interlocking cellulose molecules, which [look like this, more or less](_URL_0_).\n\nThose cellulose molecules form fibers because sometimes hydrogen (the white balls) on the outer side of one strand of cellulose will bond to an oxygen (the red balls) on a neighboring strand. The fibers form the paper due to the process in which the paper's made leaving them physically interlocked, and some of the hydrogen bonding between fibers. It's a very weak bond, which is why paper's so easy to tear and bend.\n\n~~As to why it stays bent, though. As you bend paper, it requires you put energy into the act, and that energy breaks some of the hydrogen bonds, changing the orientation of some of the fibers within the paper, which then form new hydrogen bonds.~~EDIT: It was pointed out that what I said wasn't quite correct. Creasing *does* break some of the fibers, and that does add up over time.\n\nSo when you're bending the paper, you're changing its structure at a microscopic level.",
"Civil engineer here. Besides what’s happening on the molecular and cellulose level, there is also something called Young’s Modulus, which is a ratio of the stress exerted on a material (in terms of force, such as Newtons or lb/ft^2 or kips) vs the strain (change in L or A per original dimensions). All solid materials have this characteristic. For paper, it is very, very, very low, so that humans can rip it easily or whatever. When you bend paper slightly, it will go back into place. This is the plasticity index, and it indicates the threshold before which the material will return to its original form. Again, paper’s super weak, so it’s practically nonexistent, but steel works the exact same way just with much stronger molecular and physical bonds. Upon surpassing the plasticity index, the material can no longer return to its original form. It is therefore “deformed” in whichever position it was put into, and that’s considered a fold. This is a very tangential connection but is nonetheless a phenomena that occurs as a result of the various qualities of paper that make it the way it is, and explains from the physical perspective why creases happen\n\nEdit: forgot about strain\n\nAnd thanks for the silver!!",
"Interesting stuff. I love hearing the chemical explanations for things. On the physics end, we quantify the tensile limits to which a material may bend without permanent deformation with a quantity referred to as [Youngs Modulus](_URL_1_). Similarly, an object's ability to withstand \"shearing\" strain without snapping or breaking is quantified via its [Shear Modulus, aka its Modulus of Rigidity](_URL_0_)",
"The answer differs depending on the material but u/Zemedelphos and u/hickeycurran mostly cover it from two different views. u/Zemedelphos is incorrect in the last 2 paragraphs. u/hickeycurran is simplifying things to a single isometric material. \n\nFor elastic materials there is a difference between elastic deformation (temporary) and plastic deformation (permanent). This model is often applied to all materials in structural design as a simplifying assumption. \n\nFolding paper is plastic deformation. Bending paper without creasing would be elastic deformation.\n\nEdit: \"wrong\" is the wrong word. u/Zemedelphos is technically correct, but the last 2 paragraphs are more misleading than helpful for a basic understanding.",
"I want you to imagine playing with a set of [small magnetic spheres](_URL_0_). \n\nIf you have a nicely arranged sheet of them and try to bend them, they sometimes can snap to a different ordered position. That is bending or folding them. \n\nNow, this kind of bonding is more similar to how metals bond, rather than solids in general. So this only really gives you a decent idea of how bending metal works at the microscopic level. \n\nNon-metals (such as paper) work a bit differently, but still in a *kinda* similar way.\n\nNow, note that molecular bonding works with electric forces, rather than magnetic forces, so the way the individual molecules behave is different to how the individual magnets behave. However in terms of the big picture, some of the same kind of order can be seen when you look at the whole collection of molecules/atoms, vs the whole collection of magnets.",
"Any material can change its shape. That's called *deformation*, which literally means \"getting out of shape\".\n\nSome materials can change their shape a lot and still return to the original shape. Like rubber, or steel that's specifically made for use on springs. The fancy word for this kind of deformation is *elastic deformation*.\n\nOther materials, like play dough, glass, coal, or diamond can only change its shape a little bit without permanent shape change or breaking apart. When you push the material beyond a certain point, it won't return to its original shape any more. This is called *plastic deformation* because it's changing the shape of the object - kind of like plastic surgery. The limit is correspondingly called *plastic deformation limit*.\n\nWith very strong chemical bonds between the atoms or molecules, you usually get very rigid structures that don't deform easily. With weaker bonds, you get materials that are more flexible, but as long as the bounds are strong enough it still takes a considerable force to make them give completely.\n\nThen there are materials like play dough or clay, which has so weak forces keeping it together that not only is it easy to change its shape, the change is usually also permanent. This is because the play dough molecules easily forms new bonds, weak as they are. That's why you can join together two pieces of play dough seamlessly, while trying to join two bits of rubber for example requires some chemical help (usually called glue).\n\nWhen an elastic deformation happens, typically the atoms or molecules making up the material move a little relative to each other, but the bounds that keep them together are not broken. That means the material keeps its molecular structure.\n\nWhen the bending, stretching, compressing or shearing load is removed, an elastic material will spring back to its original shape. But any material can only change its shape a certain amount. Beyond that, it either breaks, or deforms permanently.\n\nWhen a material reaches its plastic deformation limit, the chemical bounds keeping atoms or molecules together start breaking, and the atoms and molecules start shifting relative to each other. In some materials, like the aforementioned play dough or clay, new bonds are formed immediately and the material just assumes its new shape. In other materials, like paper, wood, or most metals for example, new bonds don't form so easily so the material can become permanently weakened. Forming new bonds usually requires some amount of energy, which can be done by heating the material, but since wood and paper are flammable, you know what tends to happen instead.\n\nFor metal, things are a bit more complicated. Each plastic deformation breaks some bonds, but some new bonds may develop so the bent piece can still have significant strength. However, in most metals a permanent shape change also always weakens the structure. So in critical applications - like the crumple zones of an automobile - you can't just bend the structure back into its original shape, because it won't have its original strength.\n\nIf enough deformations happen at a certain point on a metal object, the remaining bonds become too weak to hold the object together and it comes apart, like if you're bending a piece of welding wire back and forth.\n\nBut when metalworking is done at high temperatures, the metal becomes more like very tough play-dough, since the heat allows the metal bonds to break and re-form more easily. This means that much like play-dough, heated metal can be forced into a new shape, and the metal atoms can form new bonds that become stronger when they cool down and the metal solidifies. But going into more depth would be *way* beyond ELI5 stuff, this post is borderline too detailed as it is.",
"in a really simplified nutshell, using paper:\n\none side of the paper is stretching and the other is compressing. if the object doesn't have elastic properties, it should stay that way",
"Paper is not one solid, it's many little fibers, you can see these if you zoom in really close. These fibers are pretty stretchy, so when you fold a piece of paper, they seemingly move out of the way.\n\nHowever, they can't permanantly bend. Paper always has crease marks afterwards, these are because the fibers aren't stretchy enough, and tear.",
"Plastic vs elastic deformation. Pushing something past it’s yield point (a mechanical property of the material).",
"Probably late to the game, but gonna try a proper maybe... ELI7?\n\nIf you zoom in smaller and smaller things are made of billions of tiny atoms that are basically little balls that are stuck together. When 2 atoms are stuck together we say they're bonded. The sticking is a bit like how magnets stick together - they're attracted to each other, but you can still pull them apart, breaking the bond. Atoms stick themselves together into large structures, and sometimes these structures make even bigger structures - like how a chocolate bar is made of collections of chocolate that's bonded to rice crispies etc.. For solid objects in order to stay the same shape, the atoms can't move around - the bonds stay the same... Unless...\n\nIf you push hard enough, just like pulling magnets hard enough, you can break the bonds and start to move the atoms around. If after you stop pushing the atoms, they can't move back to where they were before, then the material will permanently change shape.\n\nIn the specific case of paper, atoms make molecules called proteins, that form weak bonds to other proteins and these form fibres that in turn bond together with weak bonds and that makes paper! Folding paper in half, some fibres will slide over eachother in order to change the shape, but they can't slide back, so the shape change is permanent.\n\nElastic deformation i.e. when it springs back is a little more complicated as things like rubber achieve it in a different way to metal for example.\n\nFeel free to ask any questions / query stuff.\n\nE: just to add some credibility to my answer, I have a Masters in Materials Science.",
"Sorry, I just want to make sure you're clear on the use of \"i.e.\"\n\ni.e. = \"id est\" (Latin), meaning \"that is\" or \"in other words\". So your question reads \"what... allows something to permanently bend, specifically paper\"\n\ne.g. = \"exempli gratia\", meaning \"for example\". So your question using \"e.g.\" instead would read \"what... allows something to permanently bend, such as (but not limited to) paper\"\n\nIt's a subtle difference, but it changes how specific your question is, which might change how specific the answers you get are.",
"Every material has what's called an elastic limit. When you stretch/strain a material past this limit the deformation stops being reversible, a *plastic deformation*. If you look up a stress vs strain graph the linear part at the beginning is the elastic part.\n\nWhen you stretch something into the plastic zone and let go of it, before a certain point of stress it will shrink back and recover the same amount it would if you held it at the elastic limit, it just wont go all the way back to normal\n\nFor paper this limit is probably really low and the cellular thing that happens with folding is explained better in here, you don't have to actually fold paper to get it to have a permanent deformation though",
"Paper is just many many tiny wood slivers. Now what happens when you bend a big sliver? It breaks but usually stays intact. That's what's happening when you bend paper. Just lots and lots of broken slivers."
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668stu | why do some films have a well known song feature as part of the trailer/adverts but that isn't in the film at all? | I watched 'You're Next' last night and remembered 'Perfect Day' being on the trailer but it isn't in the film and I then thought of loads of other films that do it too... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/668stu/eli5_why_do_some_films_have_a_well_known_song/ | {
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"That has to do with licensing and syncing. If they think that a song will help sell a movie, they'll use it in the trailer and put it on the soundtrack. The band gets paid, the movie ads are more effective, and the studio can recoup more production costs via soundtrack sales. ",
"I think part of it also has to do with the fact that one of the last things to get finished on a movie is its musical score. So, you're far less likely to hear music from the actual movie in early trailers."
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1o7yen | why do we never seem to measure wind chill on hot days or humidex on cold days? | So during the summer weather reports will usually say it's 30 degree but feels like 35 with the humidity, and during the winter it's the opposite with wind chill.
Since water vapour traps heat do we just not notice the effect when there is little heat in the atmosphere? I can understand that one a little more, but there are certainly days during the summer where it wouldn't be nearly as bearable to be outside if there was no breeze. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o7yen/eli5_why_do_we_never_seem_to_measure_wind_chill/ | {
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"The meterologists are trying to prepare you for the worst probable case. It's important to know that it's technically 100 degrees but feels much hotter, because that is more likely to affect your plans. If they say it's 100 but feels like 95 then that will not be very valuable to the audience.\n\nPlus, when it's cold outside the humidity is very low so the humidity index will not be very useful.",
"They measure it. They just don't bother to report it as it doesn't have any significant impact under those conditions. "
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8ihr0x | what happens when a former us president dies? how does the country react? are the protocols similar to uk royalty? | I've not been around long enough to know... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ihr0x/eli5_what_happens_when_a_former_us_president_dies/ | {
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"Flags go to half staff, big funeral, news coverage, etc. Not sure what the UK does considering QE2 is an immortal.\n\nSeriously though what are the UK protocols and I can tell you of they're at all similar.",
"If a former President dies, they have a big funeral, maybe a moment of silence before sporting events, and the news channels run a bunch of coverage about what a swell guy he was.\n\nRonald Reagan died in 2004 and I don't recall it being a terribly big deal at the time. This question is going to become a lot less hypothetical soon, as George Bush Sr. is quite old and his health is failing. ",
"Everybody is sad. There is a state funeral. Many dignitaries come and say good things about them. It's not like the UK, where somebody new gets to be King/Queen; though there is a similar set or procedures in the event a serving president dies in office.",
"Former presidents are offered a state funeral, along with some other public officials. There's a lot of tradition but relatively little legally defined protocol; a lot depends on the wishes of the family.\n\nGenerally there is a funeral procession in Washington, the body lies in state at the Capitol for people to pay their respects, and there is a funeral service usually at the Washington National Cathedral attended by government officials and foreign dignitaries, and maybe more services elsewhere.\n\nThen they are interred whey they or their family wish. In the olden days there would be a funeral train but nowadays it can be done in a single day. Most presidents choose to be buried at their Presidential Library or at Arlington National Cemetery if they're eligible.\n\nLike I said, a lot of this is up to the individual and their family. Richard Nixon declined a state funeral when he died in 1994.",
"Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford are the two who have died in the modern internet-news era. For both of them, the families released the news to the media and there were \"breaking news\" alerts almost immediately. \n\nMost news sites and media sites have files ready to go for the deaths of famous people, including former Presidents. They will start publishing stories of the history of that person, their political achievements, their life achievements, etc. There will be retrospectives, biographies, books will be published, cable news will broadcast as much of all the events as they can get away with. \n\nThe family will usually plan a private funeral and a more public memorial service that the general public can come to. The current President will instruct that flags be flown at half-staff, usually for a period of 30 days. \n\nThere are no federal rules about cancelling programming or not showing comedy shows or anything like that. It's pretty much life goes on for the rest of the nation. \n\nI suspect if you watch what happens when John McCain dies, you'll get a pretty good feel for what will happen with a former President. ",
"The family, their lawyer or representative, or the doctor will issue a press release. It is usually determined ahead of time who this will be so the media are able to speak with one person rather than any and everyone.\n\nMost, if not all, media outlets have a biography on file for anyone of public stature, including former presidents and senators. They can add the press release and a detail or two and have the story ready to go.\n\nThere will be lots of media coverage and the body usually lies in state and/or visits prominent locations around the country for a few days.\n\nThe family often plans a private or semi-private memorial, and there will be a public one as well.\n\nPresident's can choose where they want to be buried, or if they want to be cremated or whatever.\n\nThe only real difference from a normal people funeral is the size and the amount of media coverage.\n\nUnless they die while in office, they are a normal person when they pass. The office and power and everything that goes with it cease to be theirs when the new president is sworn in and takes over. A president continues to be very well known, obviously, and often has a charity that runs to support something they are interested in promoting, but they have no more political power than any other famous person. [Edit: their experience and familiarity with classified info means they may consult, discuss history, or offer advice sometimes, but they don't make the decisions or anything.]"
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6rb9nu | why does mcdonald's food i.e. a cheesburger and fries, not grow mold? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6rb9nu/eli5_why_does_mcdonalds_food_ie_a_cheesburger_and/ | {
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"Put a McDonalds burger in a plastic bag and it will be covered in mold in no time. The reason they don't mold if left out in the open is likely because moisture escapes the food. No moisture = no mold.",
"They will, just like any other food, unless you are trying to create a misleading article/video showing how \"all fast food is bad no matter what\"",
"The no-mold experiments also take away all of the toppings. The toppings add too much moisture which would encourage microbial growth.\n\nThe thin toasted bun and thin cooked meat are dry, high surface area, and salty. Together this makes it dry out before anything obvious can grow, and once dry no mold can survive on it since mold needs moisture to live. \n\nThere are probably some preservatives at work too, especially in the bun, which are probably no different than the ones added to your sliced bread you have at home. \n\nThe same experiment with a **fully dressed** Big Mac is going to get very moldy, because of the sauce and veggies adding a lot of moisture and sugar. "
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2pc6tk | why does it take so long after changing the quality on youtube for it to actually take effect? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pc6tk/eli5_why_does_it_take_so_long_after_changing_the/ | {
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"You're probably changing from lower-res to higher. Because it's streaming, some of the vid has to pre-load so it can keep playing while it's loading the rest.\n\nHow much of the vid gets pre-loaded depends on how long it's taking to download. Lower-res has less data, of course, so it loads more of the video in a given amount of time than it does at high-res.\n\nSo if the vid has already started at low res and you set it higher, it takes longer to pre-load enough for it to keep streaming at higher quality. Meanwhile, in order to keep playing, it continues playing the lower-res pre-load.",
"The YouTube player has already loaded a good chunk of the video that you haven't seen yet - something like 30 seconds to a minute. Rather than downloading the same chunk again in higher quality, it just waits until the next time it downloads a chunk, and downloads *that* chunk in high quality."
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20ewrv | does drinking gatorade hold any advantages over drinking water when i'm dehydrated? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20ewrv/eli5_does_drinking_gatorade_hold_any_advantages/ | {
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"For the average fitness person, not really. Water and your regular diet should provide all the electrolytes you need.\n\nFor athletes (my experience = rugby): it is different. Sweating profusely for 80 minutes of a contact sport (substitute any long term physical activity) and you will need to replenish both your energy source (sugars) and the electrolytes you lose (salts). Even then, I don't drink full-strength gatorade. I water it down to about 1 part water, 1 part gatorade.",
"Gatorade seems much sweeter now than when i was growing up in the 80s and 90s. Is it sweeter now? Or do I just notice its sweetness now since I am older and more averse to sweet tastes?",
"Gatorade also has glucose which gives you those carbohydrates which give you quick energy when you're running low on them when running or exercising and stuff. \n\nWhen you're not doing anything, then drinking water should be enough as you're not losing lots of electrolytes through sweat and you don't need carbs to give you energy to do whatever strenuous activity you're not doing. Although gatorade is an isotonic drink (same concentration as your body fluids), drinking a high sugar drink (like coke) is infact bad for you when you're dehydrated because the higher sugar drink is hypertonic (which means it has higher concentration) than the fluid in your body (in the cells and in blood) which causes water to move out of your body and into your gut where the drink is because water would move from an area of low concentration to an area of higher concentration, this will in turn make you even more dehydrated. So when you're dehydrated water is the best fluid to drink as it quickly gets absorbed into your body fluids (which have a higher concentration than water, remember liquids move from regions of low concentration to regions higher concentrations) and if your kidneys are functioning properly, you'll have enough electrolytes in your body to not require any additional ones. ",
"Athletes don't actually drink Gatorade haha it's a nice promotion scheme but it's garbage for you. Anyone who has ever drank that when doing serious cardio / any exercises won't drink it while doing it, I've thrown up several times from that shit when I was younger playing football, naive about health. It's decent for afterwards but that's because it replaces the electrolytes and sugars that you just sweat out and used, it can be replaced by fucking apple juice to get the same effect. Gatorade is essentially soda with good marketing.",
"During the hardest part of Navy SEAL training we were given 1-2 waters for every gatorade to drink. We were also given water with added electrolytes but no sugar."
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2m1x6z | when playing a game online, why does my ping change? how can my signal suddenly drop or rise? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m1x6z/eli5_when_playing_a_game_online_why_does_my_ping/ | {
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"Your internet traffic is broken up into packets with an address attached and put on the wire. The packet is then sent to the router which looks up its internal directory for where to send the packet next. The packet will make many stops along the way where the address is checked and continued, but these packets don't always travel the same path. The directories each device has is continuously updated based on what information it has available so two packets may be sent to different locations by the same device. Along the way, it's also possible that devices get congested like during a DDOS attack and they discard the packet so it never reaches its destination and may have to be resent. These packets are sent continuously and the ping is the communication time it takes for packets to go back and forth. If a device updates its directory or a wire gets congested or too many packets arrive out of order or anything else changes how packets travel, then that ping time will fluctuate.",
"Traffic, condition of your machine and the server, etc. Similar to why when driving down the highway your speed might change."
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na10n | how does computer speed and memory increase at such a rapid rate? | What are the new technologies being used that weren't used 5-10 years ago that make our computers so much faster and have so much more memory? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/na10n/eli5_how_does_computer_speed_and_memory_increase/ | {
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"Intel operates on a tick-tock paradigm. The \"tick\" side is architecture improvement, the \"tock\" side is process improvement. You can see their products evolve along this path, look at their [roadmaps](_URL_1_). \n\nArchitecture are things like better branch predictions, additional instruction sets, better bus protocols, and multiple cores. Process improvement includes things like high-K insulators, smaller feature sizes, more die layers, larger silicon wafers, lower power usage, and copper interconnects. They improve one, then the other.\n\nThe pipeline to create a new processor takes many months. Newer processes are proved out in simpler chip designs. Memory is simpler in design than a processor, and moves to smaller processes before big ticket items like processors. 32 nanometers is state of the art today, [22 nanometers is coming](_URL_0_) in the first part of next year. ",
"Strictly speaking, the fundamental technology itself hasn't changed. CMOS technology has been providing us with highest performance-per-watt since 1970s. The changes are mostly attributed to two things: manufacturing techniques and architectural improvements in CPUs.\n\nInnovations in manufacturing technology continues to provide computer architects with more and more devices (transistors, SRAM/DRAM cells) to construct CPUS and RAMs. I have covered this topic [here](_URL_0_) before. The increase in memory capacity can be more or less explained with the manufacturing innovations alone. The units of data storage (DRAM cell in this case) are getting smaller and smaller, so we can pack more of them in the same amount of space, effectively increasing the storage capacity.\n\nOn the CPU side, which (arguably) largely determines the \"speed,\" architectural innovations come to play as well. End-users/consumers are mostly familiar with this in terms of manufacturer's brand names, such as Pentium, Pentium II, ..., Core, Nehalem, Sandybridge, etc. It's a very dense topic to discuss in depth, but basically they are like different types of car engines. Car manufacturers have different engine designs, the usual inline 4 cylinder, V6, V8 engines found in American muscle cars, Subaru's box engine, Porsche's famous inline 6 cylinder, all the way up to Lamborghini's V10, Bugatti's V16, each offering different performance and cost characteristics. The major difference here, however, is that the kind of innovations we see in manufacturing technology is unseen elsewhere (1000x increase in the past ~20 years). The manufacturing techniques we used when Pentium was around isn't suitable for more recent versions of designs, such as Sandybridge, since we are talking about entirely different level of device budgets here - Pentiums were made up of around 3 million transistors while recent Sandybridge based chips are made up of over 1 billion transistors, which represents 3 orders of magnitude difference.",
"Intel operates on a tick-tock paradigm. The \"tick\" side is architecture improvement, the \"tock\" side is process improvement. You can see their products evolve along this path, look at their [roadmaps](_URL_1_). \n\nArchitecture are things like better branch predictions, additional instruction sets, better bus protocols, and multiple cores. Process improvement includes things like high-K insulators, smaller feature sizes, more die layers, larger silicon wafers, lower power usage, and copper interconnects. They improve one, then the other.\n\nThe pipeline to create a new processor takes many months. Newer processes are proved out in simpler chip designs. Memory is simpler in design than a processor, and moves to smaller processes before big ticket items like processors. 32 nanometers is state of the art today, [22 nanometers is coming](_URL_0_) in the first part of next year. ",
"Strictly speaking, the fundamental technology itself hasn't changed. CMOS technology has been providing us with highest performance-per-watt since 1970s. The changes are mostly attributed to two things: manufacturing techniques and architectural improvements in CPUs.\n\nInnovations in manufacturing technology continues to provide computer architects with more and more devices (transistors, SRAM/DRAM cells) to construct CPUS and RAMs. I have covered this topic [here](_URL_0_) before. The increase in memory capacity can be more or less explained with the manufacturing innovations alone. The units of data storage (DRAM cell in this case) are getting smaller and smaller, so we can pack more of them in the same amount of space, effectively increasing the storage capacity.\n\nOn the CPU side, which (arguably) largely determines the \"speed,\" architectural innovations come to play as well. End-users/consumers are mostly familiar with this in terms of manufacturer's brand names, such as Pentium, Pentium II, ..., Core, Nehalem, Sandybridge, etc. It's a very dense topic to discuss in depth, but basically they are like different types of car engines. Car manufacturers have different engine designs, the usual inline 4 cylinder, V6, V8 engines found in American muscle cars, Subaru's box engine, Porsche's famous inline 6 cylinder, all the way up to Lamborghini's V10, Bugatti's V16, each offering different performance and cost characteristics. The major difference here, however, is that the kind of innovations we see in manufacturing technology is unseen elsewhere (1000x increase in the past ~20 years). The manufacturing techniques we used when Pentium was around isn't suitable for more recent versions of designs, such as Sandybridge, since we are talking about entirely different level of device budgets here - Pentiums were made up of around 3 million transistors while recent Sandybridge based chips are made up of over 1 billion transistors, which represents 3 orders of magnitude difference."
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29p3ru | why doesn't smoking, drinking or doing other drugs while pregnant qualify as child abuse or neglect? | I'm in Canada BTW, but if anyone can answer it'd be cool. I just don't get why a mother would get to keep her child or not be forced to get treatment if she's knowingly endangering her unborn child's life or wellbeing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29p3ru/eli5_why_doesnt_smoking_drinking_or_doing_other/ | {
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"Because a fetus is not considered a being until birth.\n\nAfter birth though, the child can be taken in if it can be proven that the mother knowingly endangered the life of the unborn child.\n\nYou can lose custody if your habits cause extreme damage to the child. But at the same time, medical professionals recognize that the withdrawals from not smoking, drinking, etc for months can have an equally dangerous impact on the child, and most have alternatives to reduce the risk to the child to a manageable level.",
"There are States in the US where that is indeed a crime.",
"I believe the state of Louisiana has been putting women in jail for drug use while pregnant.",
"This is my favorite topic. I just reread this and it's a little bit of a rant. \n\nThe reason it's not abuse is the same reason that someone doesn't get accused of abuse for not taking prenatal vitamins. Smoking or drinking does not affect unborn children as much as many people would like it to. Every single woman on the face of the planet before (maybe) your mother smoked and drank all through their pregnancies. My grandfathers mother actually advised drinking before bed every night to help with night sweats. \n\nThat being said. Being an alcoholic can cause alcohol fetal syndrome or whatever it's called. Chain smoking is not the best thing in the world. Drugs of any kind can cause miscarriage or stillbirths. But drinking and smoking (here and there) will **most likely** not harm the baby. Notice all the cans in there. \n\n Just like forgetting to take your prenatal vitamins will not cause your baby to resemble Rosemary's baby. \n\nAlso, about smoking. One of the most damaging chemicals in cigarette smoke that is absorbed into the blood stream is carbon monoxide. Which is the product of anything burning. Including barbecue. The charred bits on us Americans burgers this weekend have as much cancer causing, baby mutating carbon as a cigarette. Cars put out carbon monoxide. Basically everything does. \n. \n\nKeep in mind that women in other parts of the world work in the field until their water breaks, birth the child, rest a little next to their carbon monoxidey stoves, and go right back out there. The 1st world has, in my opinion, gone a little bit overboard. Women have been having babies for an awful long time. In all kinds of environments. \n\nMore or less, it's not advisable, but it's not like letting your kid starve or beating them till they bleed. \n\n\nBut other drugs are illegal all the time.. Usually for a good reason. Shouldn't anyone who does them get arrested?\n",
"In the US, if baby tests positive for some illegal drugs at birth, it is reported and your child will likely go to foster care or kincare, not home with you. (I don't believe drug testing newborns is standard practice, so usually I think there has to be some kind of probable cause to test the baby (such as prior removals). ",
"Lawyer in Virginia and I've worked on a few of these cases. In VA it is if both the mother and child test positive at birth it may be grounds as abuse/neglect. The child can be taken or far more likely issued a protective order and if mother doesn't comply then there will be an emergency removal order. ",
"In South Carolina a pregnant woman with a positive drug screen can be arrested. ",
"It's an extraordinarily bad row to hoe telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies, even while pregnant. \n\nPeoples' bodies should be sacrosanct. ",
"Because abortion. If harming an unborn fetus is illegal than an abortion would be murder. Since the law doesn't recognize an unborn child as technically alive, you can't technically hurt it.",
"In Texas at least, if there's such evidence CPS will come and take the baby at birth if the mother is doing such activities. ",
"Well, I suppose, conflict of perspective. With abortions being legal and all, many don't even consider a fetus to be a human.\n\n",
"In the UK I believe legal action was being considered against a woman who gave birth to a child with foetal alcohol syndrome. ",
"Because why would it be considered abuse when people are allowed to just terminate the life?",
"I don't know about Canada, but in Alabama it does.",
"**Just because a woman is pregnant does not mean her only purpose in life is suddenly to be a baby-incubator.** The wishes, preferences, well-being, and right to say \"fuck it,\" of a living breathing ALIVE person will ALWAYS be more important than an unborn lump of cells that can't survive outside its host.",
"In the United States, if you test positive for illegal substances at birth, they will open a Department of Human Services investigation on you and any other children in your care. You do end up court involved, but it's in dependency court, not criminal court. Though one of the potential consequences of dependency court involvement is having your custodial rights suspended and the children being removed from your care.\n\nSource: worked in dependency court for three years and have seen many cases become court involved as a result of mothers on drugs at birth. ",
"I know a woman who was sent to prison for ten years for doing meth while pregnant.",
"Shouldn't the mother get arrested anyway if the fetus is tested positive not only because she hurt the child but because that proves she is on drugs which is illegal...",
"Yes it is okay to tell people what to do when they clearly are affecting the basic rights of another human being..."
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a147iy | what happens if a person (of average height and weight) hits the ground after reaching terminal velocity | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a147iy/eli5_what_happens_if_a_person_of_average_height/ | {
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"R/watchpeopledie might see it there yourself. Basically you become a puddle with some bones jutting everywhere."
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3mwaot | why does white clothing yellow after placed in storage for a long time | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mwaot/eli5_why_does_white_clothing_yellow_after_placed/ | {
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"It can be too much bleach, which causes fabrics to deteriorate over time, it can be inadequate washing or rinsing, decomposition of whitening agents or dye while in storage, or it can be acids present in storage containers, seeping into clothes and staining them.\n\n\nSource: _URL_0_"
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3hns30 | why helicopters keep their engines on and the rotors at a high speed when they're on the ground even when they haven't just landed, or aren't about to take off? | I've definitely seen more helicopters in movies, so it could just be something for the camera, but I've definitely seen it in real life before also. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hns30/eli5_why_helicopters_keep_their_engines_on_and/ | {
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"It takes a while for the rotors to start up or stop safely. There's a whole checklist the pilot has to go through.",
"A helicopter doesn't actually control its lift with rotor speed, it has to do with the angle of attack of the blades. So they stay spinning because there's no reason to stop them: it doesn't affect the craft moving, and as lokil130 pointed out, it takes a minute to turn them on and off.\n\n[The only reason I know how helicopters work](_URL_0_)",
"The blades are heavy as shit and don't have brakes. Starting them up takes time and energy, lots of both. If you're gonna sit for 15 minutes or less (just a number...might be closer to an hour depending on the actual craft) best to just keep them going because to stop them and then get them back up to speed it'll take longer and use more fuel."
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124hv2 | why people hate windows 8 | It seems as though the entire Internet has a lot of resentment towards Windows 8...
I understand the (optional) interface change but what makes it so unbearable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/124hv2/eli5_why_people_hate_windows_8/ | {
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"As a computer geek & student, we tend to hate Windows 8 because it seems like a sellout. Windows 7 was great because it had a clean feel to it and it worked great. Same with XP. Windows 8 looks like something I would give a toddler to play with. The windows phones aren't as popular and they seem to want to try to turn that into a useable computer console. Yeah if everyone had touch screens it'd be great but the majority of users are not going to go out and buy a new computer just so they can use 8. There was very little integration between 7 and 8. They threw users into a new interface that nobody really knows anything about and is bulky. It will take off but like CNN reported today, it's likely that 8 will not hit mainstream use until 2015. ",
"It is confusing to people who have used previous versions of Windows for years. The Metro interface is much more like an interface for a tablet or smartphone than what people are used to for a desktop computer. Many of the functions that have been used under Windows for years are now missing or have changed. For example, the \"Start\" menu no longer does some of the things it used to. \n \nI haven't had to use it yet, but the thing that sounds the worst to me from what I've been reading is the inability to have multiple apps windows visible at the same time. I believe that you can have the main app and part of another visible at the same time, which isn't the same thing. \n \nNote that Win8 has both the new Metro interface and a more traditional interface available, although it sounds like switching between the two causes some users problems, and the traditional interface still has changes with respect to earlier versions of Windows. \n \nFrom what I've read of Win8, it is a great incentive to try to switch to linux. ",
"it was made with touch screen/tablets in mind. you can use normal interface that is inferior to win 7 according to most people. to put it in perspective it is like you try to play games like RTS or MMO with gamepad. it is made for keyboard and work on keyboard best. same with win8 great for tablets but you limiting your self if you using it on desktop computer",
"The Metro interface is not optional, thou I wish it were. \n\nI'll repost something I said not too long ago in another thread talking about Metro: \n\nI think people see pretty tiles and fancy animations and become impressed. They don't actually look at it and go, 'How is this an improvement over win7? In what ways specifically is this better?'\n\nFor example, looking at Metro's search feature:\n\n* How is categorizing results into 3 groups better than displaying them all at once?\n\n* When a 'result' can be opened both in metro and in the control panel, how does having the metro version selected by default help me when I want to open it in the control panel?\n\n* Why is returning 'No results' better than skipping to the first category that actually has results?\n\n* How does using up my entire 24\" monitor to display a single result benefit me?\n\nI've brought these points up before and got downvoted because 'omg he hates it cause it's different!' but that's not true at all. I think Metro is a step backwards in terms of work efficiency. I've been using win8 for months on my laptop and so far I haven't seen a single feature in Metro that made doing my job easier.\n\nJust to be clear, I like windows 8, but I dislike metro.",
"Windows 95 (1995) - Crashed more often than Stevie Wonder's car.\n\nWindows 98 (1998) - Just like Windows 95, but not shitty!\n\nWindows ME (2000) - What fresh hell is this?\n\nWindows XP (2001) - Ah, solid.\n\nWindows Vista (2006) - Worse than Hitler.\n\nWindows 7 (2009) - No complaints!\n\nWindows 8 (2012) - You tell me...",
"- people don't like change\n- two wildly different user interfaces is confusing to average users\n- people are pretty satisfied with Windows 7 (and rightly so)",
"It's a solution looking for a problem. Win7 works fine, but now MicroSoft wants you to shell out another $150 for Win8, which by most accounts has an inferior GUI that moves everything around.\n\nThere's also the Vista factor at play in most people's minds. MicroSoft told people to upgrade from XP to Vista and claimed that Vista was so great. Turns out, Vista basically sucked. So people are wary of embracing what MicroSoft says is the next thing, because they've lied in the past. (There was also a similar, but far worse, debacle between Win95 and WinME. WinME was one of the worst operating systems MicroSoft has ever made. Possibly one of the worst ever sold by anyone, anywhere.)",
"Let me give an answer from a developer's perspective about something that doesn't get much press concerning Windows 8: secure boot.\n\nSecure boot is a way of locking down a computer when you first turn it on so that only authorized operating systems can boot. This is being marketed as a security measure to keep viruses from compromising the machine at it's very root. In reality, it's a mechanism for DRM.\n\nWindows 8 for ARM tablets requires this secure boot mechanism. For other machines, this is optional. The overall effect is that you cannot install an alternate operating system, or 'hack' the one already there.\n\nThere is alot of fear that Microsoft wants to close the windows ecosystem and turn it all into a walled garden like apple, making it so that the only way for people to sell software is through Microsoft. Microsoft takes a large cut of the profits, and has to approve you app before it can be released. Secure boot and the new app store are strong pushes in this direction.\n\nThat's the fear anyway; that the tablet method of \"install apps only from the manufacturer's store\" will became the norm for desktop and other machines. I think the enterprise market would embrace linux on the desktop before letting it go that far.\n\n"
]
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3g91ag | how come if you pee or cum in your dream, you pee or cum in real life, but with anything else you're just dreaming? (nsfw) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g91ag/eli5how_come_if_you_pee_or_cum_in_your_dream_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctvysdg"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"In REM (rapid eye movement) sleep there are a bunch of chemicals that paralyze you're body so you don't move about while you sleep. Though sometimes it's not perfect and under certain conditions in the brain, it will fail and you will move about. For example sleep walking\n\nWith peeing or ejaculation in particular. Peeing is a lot easier to do, because if you're busting you have to hold it in with muscles and in REM relaxing muscles is a lot easier than working them.\n\nWith Ejaculation I assume it's because hormones from the brain help with you becoming erect. You can't just flex your penis instantly, it's do with the hormones and during a dream your brain can get aroused and send the hormones down. I could be totally wrong with this, but it's an educated guess."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
acu7il | how does one retire to another country? | My uncle is planning to spend his retirement in Germany and since his wife is German I know this is very much possible but I often hear people say “When I’m old, I want to retire to another country” despite them not having any sort of connection to said country. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/acu7il/eli5_how_does_one_retire_to_another_country/ | {
"a_id": [
"edasexz",
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"text": [
"There are no answers that fit every situation, but some countries, such as Thailand, have retirement visas to attract retirees if they fit the requirements. Some countries also have investment visas that can be pseudo retirement visas.",
"I'm in this process now, to a country where I have many connections. Previously I have been an expat a couple of times where my employer handled the logistics, so I'm a bit shell-shocked at how many decisions there are to be made along with the normal challenges of retiring.\n\nThe first step is to figure out how to get legal residence in the foreign country. It isn't just a matter of convincing someone that you will be a positive influence; you have to find a category and meet specific requirements according to the laws of that country. Some countries want retirees and make it easy; other countries don't. \n\nAssuming his wife still has German citizenship, it will probably be pretty easy for your uncle to get residence. In most countries a citizen can sponsor a non-citizen spouse. Once he has that he should be able to rent an apartment, open a bank account, buy health insurance, whatever he needs to do. \n\nAssuming they are US citizens or permanent residents: if they qualify for the Social Security old age benefit, they can receive that anywhere. Probably they won't have to pay German income taxes on their SS and retirement savings since they weren't earned in Germany, but they need to check. What will NOT follow them abroad are any kind of Medicare benefits, or Medicaid or SSI if they is getting either of those in the US. Only the normal SS old age benefit. \n\nThey should continue paying their Medicare B premiums while abroad in case they return at some point to live in the US, otherwise they will face premium penalties if they return. (If they aren't yet 65, when each one reaches 65 s/he should sign up for Medicare A, which is free, and B, which requires a premium that will be deducted from SS if s/he is receiving SS.) If they ever return to live in the US they will benefit from a special enrollment period to get back into the optional parts of Medicare (Medigap, Medicare Advantage, prescription coverage), so they shouldn't try to maintain those while they are living abroad. \n\nThey will need to continue to file US tax returns and pay US income taxes on their SS and withdrawals from 401(k)s and taxable IRAs. As part of their tax returns they will need to report their foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets to the IRS, and depending on how many $$$ they have in their foreign accounts they may have to do separate annual FBAR filings with the Dept. of Treasury.\n\nYou don't say which state they live in, but if it is one with high income taxes they may wish to consider cutting ties with that state and establishing at least a virtual presence (virtual mailbox, cheap mobile plan, etc.) in a state with no income tax to reduce the tax burden on their SS and taxable retirement savings. \n\nIf they want to ship their furniture and other possessions, that's another whole (expensive!) nightmare.\n\nHope this makes it a bit more real .",
"Lots of countries with low incomes are delighted to have rich retirees come and spend money. Lots of Canadians spend six months a year in Florida."
]
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[],
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7fvcbl | how do they find out the money conversion rate? (example: 1 canadian dollar is 0.79 usd) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fvcbl/eli5_how_do_they_find_out_the_money_conversion/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqel9mo"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Transactions on the Forex market are updated in real time. Sellers of the Canadian dollar can ask for more in return if the demand goes up, or vise versa. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5t0yfd | why are "bad" things (such as binge drinking, driving fast, eating unhealthy, not working | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5t0yfd/eli5_why_are_bad_things_such_as_binge_drinking/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddja2e8"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Can you elaborate a little more?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
5q5fkm | how do card "hackers" not get caught? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q5fkm/eli5_how_do_card_hackers_not_get_caught/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcwgepm"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Because often the guy that stole your card info isn't the one that used it. If you're smart, you steal/skim a bunch of credit cards and then sell them to a foreign group that will use them. This makes it extra hard for credit card companies to figure out how bad guys are getting your information, as it's exchanged hands so many times before being used. \n\nOf course that foreign group could be using hacking/phising to get the card information themselves. Vertical integration is one of the best ways to grow a business after all. \n\nOnce you start using a stolen card, you're against a timer before the number is shut down by the owner or credit card company. Like you did, someone will report the card stolen, and the credit card company will try to track the purchases to find *someone* to arrest. \n\nUnfortunately, it's really easy to create a false identity online. Odds are the names and addresses used are either the original cardholders or wholly false. \n\nThe cleverer ones will buy gift cards that send codes via email, which can be readily converted into cash or simply used for everyday purchases. If someone offered you a $100 Walmart gift card for $50, would you ask questions?\n\nEven IF they find someone, odds are that person isn't a US citizen. To have them punished, you have to go through the US and Foreign state department to see which local laws apply, and THEN the foreign local government would START their investigation and probably not even find the guy. \n\nEVEN IF they find the guy, they'd have to bust him for violating a LOCAL law, or extradite him to the US so we can have a trial that will ultimately determine that US law doesn't apply to a foreign nationals unless his home country is OK with giving up one of their citizens so the US can imprison them, but WOW is that not going to go over well. \n\nNow more than a year has passed, and your credit card company has spent tens of thousands in investigation, lobbying, and legal fees just to apprehend the guy that used your card to steal $500 of iTunes gift cards to make $250 to feed his family. \n\nOr Wells Fargo/Visa can just write it off, give you back the $500 and only pick the lowest hanging fruit. "
]
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[]
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||
3cmygk | why do humans have two of some things, but one of others? | So this is a really stupid sounding question, but what im asking is why do humans have two lungs, and two breasts, two kidneys, but only one heart and brains and other things? and yes i realize how stupid this posts sounds, but i cant figure out any not stupid way of saying it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cmygk/eli5_why_do_humans_have_two_of_some_things_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"csx20i1"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's a popular question actually. Check out these previous answers.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vugg7/eli5why_do_humans_have_two_testicles/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2afi2u/eli5_why_do_people_have_two_of_some_organs/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30j1cn/eli5why_do_humans_have_two_kidneys_if_we_only/"
]
] |
|
b8qenc | what makes cavities hurt and why does filling the hole make it better? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b8qenc/eli5_what_makes_cavities_hurt_and_why_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"ejzhf40",
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"score": [
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4
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"text": [
"Cavities hurt because the nerves in the tooth are exposed. Filling the hole once it's cleaned out blocks things like air, food, and germs from getting stuck and making it worse.",
"So, your tooth is made up of protective layers (enamel, being the hardest and furthest out, then softer dentin underneath), and inside there's nerves (along with blood vessels and some other stuff). When you have a cavity, air, bacteria, and foreign material can get in and irritate the nerves, registering to you as pain. Even a cavity that doesn't go deep enough can still hurt because the deeper layers transfer changes in temperature and pressure to the nerve more directly than the harder outer layers."
]
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[],
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||
9anc6v | why some otherwise appealing photos or illustrations look awful when simply flipped horizontally? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9anc6v/eli5_why_some_otherwise_appealing_photos_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4wod7v",
"e4wok2e"
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"score": [
3,
5
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"text": [
"It's hard to picture this happening. Can you link to some examples?",
"I know the phenomenon you're talking about, but I can honestly only objectively speak to illustrations for this, not photos. \n\nWhen an artist is drawing an illustration, sometimes they make mistakes that \"look\" correct when they are close to the work (or are easy to ignore because they are commonly made mistakes for the artist), but flipping the canvas exposes the mistakes to a different perspective and then makes them more glaringly obvious. This is why many illustrators suggest flipping the canvas very frequently (or using a mirror when working traditionally) when drawing."
]
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[],
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||
17axaw | why do charge cards need to have a signature on the back, and why doesn't anyone check it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17axaw/eli5_why_do_charge_cards_need_to_have_a_signature/ | {
"a_id": [
"c83tjo5"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Back when there were credit cards during the 80's and 90's, they would verify the receipt signature with the card's signature. Since the design format for an ATM card/ Debit card is the same as a Credit Card, and because they can be used like a Credit Card, the signature block remained. \n\nNo one checks them either out of laziness, or the fact that punching in your PIN acts as a digital signature. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
23awqe | why do pork rinds say "not a significant source of protein" when a single serving is 7 grams, or about 12% of your daily recommended intake, more than an egg? | They seem like a very good source of protein, but it says "not a significant source of protein"
What gives? They're like 50% pure protein. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23awqe/eli5_why_do_pork_rinds_say_not_a_significant/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgv8uhe"
],
"score": [
69
],
"text": [
"I was pretty curious about this myself so I did some Googling. As far as I can tell the reason is because pork rinds lack certain amino acids required for processing protein, so your body does not actually make use of the protein unless you eat the pork rinds along with something else that has the necessary amino acids. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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|
1yb5df | what will actually happen in the event of a financial collapse? | Will we lose our savings? People are talking about how one just might be on its way. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yb5df/eli5_what_will_actually_happen_in_the_event_of_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfixqc3",
"cfiy92q",
"cfj0vfk"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Think of it like this. no money means no jobs, Jobs like growing food, Driving busses, Police.",
"The collapse of modern society.",
"Credit will dry up in a financial collapse, causing banks to call in their loans and the people who can't pay are forced to sell. This applies to individuals, businesses and the government. The world runs on credit, so next to no credit slows the economy down. Then over time everything tends to correct itself and pick up the crumbs after"
]
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eumel7 | what does it mean when a gamer refers to the metas of a game or the meta in a game? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eumel7/eli5_what_does_it_mean_when_a_gamer_refers_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It refers to the current widely accepted “good” strategies of play. These sometimes change with patches or new gameplay techniques developed by those who play at the highest level.",
"“Meta” isn’t an acronym.\n\n“Meta” is stuff that is self-referential\n\nI first came across it in computing - back when I learned about HTML at the start of the web in the early 90’s (but I found out it’s older than that - see Wikipedia entry at end of comment).\n\n“Metadata” is “the data about data.” It was the information in the header of a web page (invisible to the user) but contained data about the specific web page. \n\nObviously, “most effective tactic available” doesn’t make sense in this instance - there are no “tactics” in web page information.\n\nA meta game is “the game about the game.” It’s sort of the next level of strategy. Instead of the game statistics and the powers of different characters (say like in Dota), it’s the next left. If they pick Phantom Lancer, I’ll pick Earthshaker. It’s the game about the game, in that sense.\n\n[Link to Wikipedia entry about metadata](_URL_0_)",
"The \"meta\" game is the game within the game. Generally that's what the term \"meta\" means.\n\nFor example, imagine tactic A was originally common and everyone played it because it's highly effective by itself. So it becomes \"the meta\" because it's what everyone tends to do because it's legitimately. But then tactic B might be devised which counters tactic A, and suddenly loads of people just play that strategy and consistently win against people playing tactic A until suddenly THAT becomes most popular and becomes \"the new meta\". And so on.\n\nThen the game gets updated in some way that alters gameplay - one character gets an upgrade, another gets a downgrade. Suddenly tactic A is viable again, but tactic C is the new counter. It's the meta game all over again.\n\nFor a more concrete example, Overwatch has (had?) a meta called \"Dive\" which basically meant players played a team of fast moving characters who could all pounce on a single target with the intention of killing them quickly as having the numbers advantage against your opponent is a very strong advantage. Over time this style moved in and out of favour as the game got updates and other strategies moved in and out of favour.\n\nOr in baseball, the real game is to hit the ball and run around the bases, but the meta game is the hitter trying to guess what the pitcher will throw next and hit it while the pitcher tries to keep him guessing. With modern statistics pitchers' styles can be quantified and \"curve balls\" and \"sliders\" etc are a thing which isn't really part of the official rules but is what sorta tends to happen."
]
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[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata?wprov=sfti1"
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||
3e1ggv | why does milk expires when left in heat over time, but not when poured into hot drinks? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e1ggv/eli5_why_does_milk_expires_when_left_in_heat_over/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctalz2q"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"bacteria likes to grow between 41-140 deg. F. more time in this \"danger zone\" means more bacteria, means you could potentially get sick."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
191mrx | what makes certain diseases like aids, diabetes, and cancer so difficult to cure? | These have been around for so long and a vast amount of research has gone into each I'm sure. What makes them so difficult to tackle? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/191mrx/eli5_what_makes_certain_diseases_like_aids/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) attacks your immune system. It attacks the part of you that fights off diseases.\n\nDiabetes is a congenital condition. It is something determined by your genes. Diabetes is when your body does not make enough of this stuff called insulin. We would have to change the way your cells work to cure diabetes.\n\nCancer is not one disease. It's a whole bunch of diseases that are kinda vaguely similar in one particular way. Cancer is when the cells of your body start dividing out of control. This can cause any number of problems. There are some cancers that we can kick the crap out of. Other cancers are very difficult to fight. We will never \"cure cancer\", because cancer is not one thing, like polio or syphilis. \"Curing cancer\" is kind of like saying \"curing disease\".",
"AIDS is caused by a virus, and viral diseases are just inherently hard to treat. Treating a viral infection depends primarily on your own immune system; your body either naturally or with help from a vaccination acquires the ability to recognize — like chemically, I mean — the virus particles, and gloms onto them and neutralizes them. A secondary treatment is antiviral therapy, which involves custom-building special molecules that can in one way or another interfere with the virus's life cycle, keeping it from making you sicker while your body takes care of it by itself.\n\nAIDS in particular, though, is a hard disease to treat in either of those ways. First, because it specifically attacks *your immune system itself,* meaning you can't depend on your immune system to eradicate the infection, and second because the virus that causes it changes *fast and frequently.* It's kind of like the stealth bomber of the virus world; it's sneaky, and that makes it hard to attack.\n\nDiabetes and cancer are both *types* of diseases, not diseases themselves. There are a number of forms of diabetes, and what they have in common is that they inhibit your body's ability to regulate your blood sugar level. Your body runs on a sugar called glucose, and to be healthy you need a fairly consistent concentration of glucose in your blood. A normal person has a number of mechanisms that help regulate your blood glucose concentration, but a diabetic person *in some way* isn't regulating it correctly. There are a variety of causes and mechanisms of action of diabetes, such as a type in which your body has an autoimmune response — your immune system attacks and kills something inside you that it would normally recognize as \"friendly\" and ignore — to your own insulin-producing cells, killing them. This keeps you from producing insulin (which is used to regulate your blood glucose concentration), which is why people with this type of diabetes *must* inject themselves with insulin, since their bodies can't do it directly.\n\nSimilarly, cancer is a *class* of disease, more properly called *malignant neoplasms.* It's basically uncontrolled and expansionistic cell growth. A cell in your body malfunctions in such a way that it starts making dividing out of control, making more and more of itself without responding to the normal regulatory mechanisms that prevent that kind of thing. This results in tumors, and in the most severe cases the spread of more and more tumors throughout your body as the malfunctioning cells move around.\n\nSince both diabetes and (even more so) cancer have a wide variety of *etiologies* — reasons for happening, basically — no \"cure\" for them is even possible. Instead, we can only treat, and seek to cure someday if possible, the individual specific things that happen to a person. In the case of cancer, the \"cure\" doesn't involve somehow magically making cancerous cells *not* cancerous cells any more; those cells are lost causes. The \"cure\" for cancer is *removing* those cells from the body without killing the patient. And we're fairly good at it, frankly. People who are diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid gland — a particular type of cancer — have a better than ninety-five percent chance of surviving for twenty years or more after diagnosis. Of course, other cancers are much harder to treat; the twenty-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is less than three percent. But the rates are going up all the time, as we get better at identifying cancers and removing them.\n\nDiabetes, on the other hand, is not fatal *unless* it goes untreated. People with diabetes (speaking generally) simply lack a particular molecule their body needs, so as long as it can be supplied to them in the right way, they live perfectly full and complete lives. The challenge there isn't curing it (though that'd be great) but finding better ways to make sure it can be lived with. In principle, type-one diabetes should be no more life-threatening than having bad eyesight; people with bad eyesight wear glasses, people with type-one diabetes take insulin. We're not there yet, but there's no reason why it *couldn't* be that simple, in an ideal world."
]
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5ykh55 | what is a bank bail-in? how is it different than a bail out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ykh55/eli5what_is_a_bank_bailin_how_is_it_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"dequ3qi"
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"text": [
"Bail-in means the money that has already been lent to the bank is used to save the bank, instead of from external sources such as the government, other countries, IMF/World Bank, taxpayers, new investors etc.\n\nIn a bail-in, essentially a bunch of people to whom the bank owes money are told that they are not getting all of their money back. There are different sources of bail-in money, some more controversial than others:\n\n* Depositors - this is obviously the most controversial, since it is often the savings of ordinary people, and depositors don't think of credit risk when putting money in a bank.\n\n* Bondholders and other creditors - this is less controversial because bondholders knowingly take on some risk when buying bonds. However, it is still controversial because bondholders are made to save the bank and the benefit goes to shareholders.\n\n* Contingent convertible bonds - these are a new type of bonds in Europe that are specifically created to bail-in the bank if needed. When bondholders sign up for these bonds, they are told right off the bat that when things go pear-shaped, they are first on the hook. In exchange they get a good interest rate on the bonds."
]
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||
3khw5j | why do we have to think really hard to remember information if that information is in our head? how do we "find it"? | We all have those moments where we have to think really hard for a few seconds, minutes, or even hours to remember something. Eventually we remember it. If that information was in our head the whole time, why does it take so long to search for it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3khw5j/eli5_why_do_we_have_to_think_really_hard_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cuxldmo",
"cuxlh8f"
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"score": [
3,
4
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"text": [
"Perhaps someone knows more than I do about this, but I believe it has to do with neural pathways. As you collect thoughts for storage, your brain creates connections between thoughts. Like how when you think of eating eggs, you might also think about eating bacon. They are associated strongly, and thus have a strong connection in your brain. If, over time, you continue to accumulate memories, a sort of web is created, and those things that have few or weakened connections to other things become more difficult to locate because the path required to get from the current thought to the desired one is longer and less clear. \n\nThis may not be correct; I remember reading something along these lines awhile back, and it intuitively makes sense if you know a little bit about network theory or neural networks. \n\nPlease correct me if this is wrong, fellow Redditors.",
"Your brain is a giant mess of neurons that fire in succession of eachother. This is very useful for pattern recognition (a key development in intelligence) but also integral in how we memorize information. As an example, I say the word 'computer' to you. The neurons most closely linked with the word computer will also fire, which will probably give you stuff like the idea of a computer, basic functions of a computer (eg. web browsing). The more you think about an idea or thing the more neurons it connects to. For example the word 'car' might be connected to any, all, or none of:\n\n* The idea of a car\n* The idea of travel\n* Speed\n* The memory of your first car\n* The memory of your most recent car\n* Your longing to even have a car\n* etc\n\nThe more connections it has the easier it is to remember. So if you're trying to remember what to call that four-wheeled vehicle in your garage and you think of 'speed' the neuron for 'car' will fire and all the information associated with it will be available to you. Information you have:\n\n* Been recently exposed to\n* Is alien (i.e, you have no reference too it, it's standout)\n* Haven't accessed in a long time\n\nWill be difficult to find, because you will have fewer connections too it. This is further complicated by the fact that the brain will try to help you out by 'blocking' similar ones so you only see what you are looking for. (Say you're looking for an actors name, you don't want to remember all of the actor's names at once, now do you). However, your brain borks it up sometimes and can end up making it harder to search for what you actually intend on finding."
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vk962 | why your eyes hurt when you look at a computer to long in the dark | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vk962/eli5_why_your_eyes_hurt_when_you_look_at_a/ | {
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"Focusing your eyes at one distance for an extended period of time causes stress to your eyes.\n\nIn the dark, there isn't much else to look at, so your eyes don't look at the other stuff around the monitor, which means that you spend longer with your eyes focused at one length than you do during the day.",
"If you are working on the computer, make sure the brightness contrast between the monitor and the background is not that drastic. You should light the wall behind the monitor. This will help contract your pupils and make it easier for your eyes to focus, helping against hurting eyes.\n\nBut some people are more prone to hurting eyes than others. I have worked and played 10+ hours in really dark environments on monitors and my eyes never hurt.",
"Checkout F.lux if you want a program that adjusts hue for darker periods:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nI can't live without it now.\n\n"
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7ewwjh | what's the difference between uefi and bios? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ewwjh/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_uefi_and_bios/ | {
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"UEFI is the replacement specification for BIOS - it does the same basic role of bootstrapping on launch, but BIOS has a host of technical limitations owing to the fact that the original specification is nearly 30 years old and unable to work with some modern hardware (for example, BIOS can't work with a hard disk of over 2.1TB).\n\nAn easy illustration - any newly built computer that boots into UEFI will have usb mouse support. No such luck on an old AwardBIOS.",
"Every computer needs some *firmware* that tells it what to do when it first powers up, before it starts loading the operating system.\n\nThe firmware for the original IBM PC was called BIOS. Every x86 PC clone since then has been designed to be backwards compatible with it and suffers from a bunch of limitations due to that.\n\nAt least until UEFI came out. UEFI is a modern replacement for BIOS, designed from the ground up, based on the needs of modern systems. For starters, it can be a larger program - this allows you things like a GUI, the ability to go onto the network to get updates & room for a bunch of diagnostic/repair tools."
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2wxvtm | why do jews and muslims seem to hate each other so much? is it a result of the palastine/israel conflict or are there issues stemming back further? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wxvtm/eli5_why_do_jews_and_muslims_seem_to_hate_each/ | {
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"Depends how far back in history you want to go. As the story goes God told Abraham that his son would be the first of a great nation, but he had no kids and his wife was 80, so he said \"no way that can happen\" so he had a kid with his servant Hagar (a socially acceptable thing back then). Then God said to him \"that's not the son I meant, try again with your wife\" and so another son Isaac was born and he was the one blessed to become the nation of Israel. The other son Ishmael is now regarded in Islam as the first Islamic prophet where Isaac is regarded as the first of the nation Israel. Because of this both Muslims and Jews believe they have land rights to Israel. \n\nFor reference:\n\n[Ishmael](_URL_0_)\n\n[Genesis account](_URL_1_)",
"Before World War I the entire middle eastern region was a part of the Ottoman empire. Ottomons began as orthodox christians but transitioned to Islam. They were benevolent towards non-muslims, and granted them religious freedom. For most of the 2nd millenium AD the religious makeup of the empire was mostly Christians though the rulers were muslim. Islam gradually grew through the population and became the majority. There wasn't really much religious animosity in the middle east during this time.\n\nThe ottomans backed the wrong side and were defeated in WWI. A power vacuum was created and the British were given control of the middle east in what is called the British Mandate. They drew arbitrary lines creating countries without thought to ethnicity, which started the trouble. \n\nAfter WWII the British ended the mandate and gave up control. A guy named David Ben Gurion dreamed of a Jewish state and had been pushing for it through the first part of the 20th century. He saw the withdrawal of the British as the perfect opportunity. He worked with the Mandate to create a Jewish, muslim and christian state in Palestine but the borders were never finalized. There was massive jewish immigration out of Europe during WWII, escapees of the holocaust. England and the U.S. were the primary recipients of the immigrants and this was creating a lot of political tension. Ben Gurion promised that a Jewish state would attract Jewish immigrants, taking the pressure off them, so his plan became a desirable solution for the U.K. and the U.S. as well. As soon as the British handed over control (literally on the same day, if I recall), David Ben Gurion declared the Jewish State. the U.S. and U.K. immediately recognized the state, much to the anger of Islamic palestinians who were living there and who were the majority. (I believe Jews were about 15% of the population at the time.)\n\nTL;DR: Jews, christians and muslims have been living in the area for thousands of years in relative harmony. David Ben Gurion declared a Jewish state when the British vacated control, and the U.S. and U.K. recognized the State, and convinced the U.N. to follow along. Muslims pissed ever since.",
"The hate we see between Jews and Muslims is almost entirely due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. \n",
"It'd be like, if after the was of 1812, when the British returned home, the Canadians were all \"fuck that shit\" and kept the war with the US going. There was no formal declaration, just a continual skirmish along the border. Now imagine that this conflict continues, on and off, for multiple generations. Land is taken, land is lost, but still the march of war goes on. \n\nNow people in the south, Texas, Florida, etc know about the conflict, but it never really effects them too much. Because there isn't an actual war, there isn't a draft or anything, just occasionally someone thinks it their duty to serve, and dives in. But for the most part, the south is cool with Canadians.\n\nThe north however, the north *hates* Canadians. For generations they've had to avoid raids, and missles, and bombs, and what have you. So their Idea of a Canadian is \"The only good Loony, is a dead Loony\" and hate everything to do with them. They wouldn't piss on a Canadian if he was on fire.\n\nImagine that the North of America is the Middle East, and the south is the rest of the world. Those near the constant conflict are much more polarized than those that are further away. Sure they all know what's going on, more or less, and all have opinions, but, just like not all Jewish hate Muslims, and vice versa, not all Americans hate all Canadians.\n\nAs ELI5 as I can make it"
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"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+17&version=NIV"
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2d52fq | why is electricity the most commonly used power to make machines work? | I guess steam can be used as well. But what other forms of powering machines are there? And how efficient?
How different would it all be if electricity wasn't used, but one of the alternative ones instead? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d52fq/eli5_why_is_electricity_the_most_commonly_used/ | {
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"imagine the amount of pipe it would take to furnish a city block with steam to run appliances today, not to mention the heat the pipes would give off. water wheels were used a lot before electricity, _URL_0_ for mills \"making flour from grains\" and saw mills \"cutting wood for buildings\" or for blacksmiths using a water-wheel trip hammer _URL_2_ also water powered appliances _URL_1_",
"Steam itself isn't an energy source. Steam engines would use some type of fuel (usually coal, I believe) to heat water creating steam, which mechanically drives the engine. Steam is merely a mechanical part of the process. Believe it or not, nuclear power plants are basically steam engines. The water is heated by nuclear reactions, and the steam is used to drive a turbine that generates electricity.\n\nFor most devices, an electric motor is much more compact than other types of engines. Since electricity is functionally unlimited, you don't have to worry about running out of fuel. Electric motors can also be used indoors because they don't create exhaust.",
"Electricity is used because you can send a lot of \"it\" using easy to obtain, easy to maintain, easy to install, easy to troubleshoot, and easy to repair conductors. You can then manipulate it easily for many functions.\n\nYou can replace the word easy with relatively cheap, relatively efficient, and relatively safe.\n\nAlso electricity is very easy to \"make\".\n\nLet's say instead of electricity we use some fluid to power our homes. Air, oil, steam, water. Every time I said easy above replace it with either cumbersome, expensive, or inefficient."
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2jyapo | why is it totally ok and expected to haggle some items (like cars and apparently mattresses), while others have a fixed price? why can't we haggle the price of chips or an iphone? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jyapo/eli5_why_is_it_totally_ok_and_expected_to_haggle/ | {
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"You're more than welcome to try, but for pretty much anything from a chain or franchise store, the prices aren't set by the guy behind the register. He has no authority to change the prices of the items being sold and he risks his job doing so. Now if you went to a local mom & pop corner store where the owner's also the guy behind the counter, then yes, you could theoretically haggle over the price of a can of soda.\n\nAnother thing is volume. The guy selling you chips or soda have no incentive to offer you a better price because there's likely a dozen people behind you in line who would be more than willing to buy the item at the price being sold. One or two iphones or bags of chips being sold is not going to change their bottom line at the end of the day.\n\nCar dealerships and mattresses, however, are sold in smaller volumes but for larger revenue. Manufacturers often include rewards for those who sell their inventory faster as well. There's more incentive for the middleman (the dealership) to make their sales, as each one has more of an impact. For car dealerships, throwing in small extra or shaving off a few thousand doesn't hurt their margins as badly because they bank a lot of revenue on maintenance and other repair services, which can only be done once they sell you the car. They're not just selling you a product, they're selling you a commitment...one they can profit off of down the road.",
"Amount of inventory and volume of sales. High amount of inventory or sales means little or no haggle. Lower inventory or low sales volume creates better opportunity for haggling. ",
"You are welcome to try to haggle with any item you buy. However, your biggest obstacle will be the employee's ability to alter the price of the deal. At most businesses, the employees do not have any ability to alter the price of the item. Doing so will get them fired, so they aren't going to find your attempt to haggle very funny.\n\nIf you can find a business that gives its employees the ability to change prices, then they will be willing to haggle. Car salespeople, mattress salespeople, etc are given the ability, grocery store cashiers are not.",
"Commissions are part of the overhead. Salesmen also get bonuses for units moved. They can trade commissions for those bonuses so there is wiggle room in the price.",
"It's just the culture of the items. The item itself really doesn't matter all that much. many car dealerships are moving towards \"no haggle\" pricing. You can open a burrito shop and haggle with customers over the price if you want. ",
"Galaxy Note II - at an independently owned Verizon store. I totally haggled the price.\n\nWe took the kids to a pumpkin patch and my friends son wanted two pumpkins. He said \"sure, but you have to haggle the price down\". He traveled to the Middle East often and said he wanted his kids to be good at negotiating. The kid was beaming when he got them at half price.\n\nI do haggle sometimes at department stores on suits, jewelry, etc.",
"It's mostly about volume. Haggling is tiring and time consuming for the staff - fine if you're selling 2 mattresses an hour, not fine if you're checking 1000 items per hour at Food Lion. Therefore, volume businesses like Food Lion discourage haggling, but negotiations on price *do* occur there - advertised specials, manufacturer's coupons, loyalty cards and private label items being the main means.",
"I always ask for a cash discount. I always pay cash and get like 10-15% less.",
"The iPhone has something called MAP pricing. Apple tells the retailers what they're allowed to sell the iPhone for, and if they sell it for less, Apple will take away their ability to order any more Apple products from them.\n",
"Try haggling anywhere the person you're talking to had the authority to lower the price.\n\nI once negotiated a discount on China at a department store. I saw it was dusty and the only one of its kind left, so it was obviously just taking up valuable shelf space. \n\nI got the China set for 90% off. Ten years later and I'm still proud!"
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7gjft0 | why is there turkey bacon but no chicken bacon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gjft0/eli5_why_is_there_turkey_bacon_but_no_chicken/ | {
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"Bacon is, by definition, strips of cured meat from the belly of a pig. Turkeys aren't pigs, so there's actually no such thing as turkey bacon. Turkey bacon is pseudo-bacon. It is an abomination.",
"They do have it, I don't know why its not more popular. I've had murrays chicken bacon and it was bomb as fuckkk"
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3adnqo | why do human beings keep fighting wars? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3adnqo/eli5why_do_human_beings_keep_fighting_wars/ | {
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"Humans have *always* fought. It appears that a tendency for groups to fight each other is built into human nature.\n\nMost often, fights are about access to resources. If my tribe defeats yours, we can take your land, your animals, your water supply, and other valuable things.",
"We're animals. We don't like people in our territory, or stealing our food, but we're also very intelligent (I understand the irony here), in the sense that our animal instincts have manifested themselves into much more complex emotions and behaviors. \n\nThis results in us fighting about pretty much anything, because we're past the point of basic needs, we're now greedy.",
"Because, deep down we are all primitive beings.\n\nIf you look in the animal kingdom, survival of the fittest (or conflict), is prevalent everywhere. Same principle here, except we've made a sport out of irt",
"Essentially, it's because humans do not trust each other to play fair. Let's say I think you took my fruit roll up from my lunch box, I'm going to be upset. Now the rational thing to would be ask if you took it. This is a normal course of action. Now let's say you say no. The problem is, I know you love fruit roll ups, I know that it would be in your best interest to take my fruit roll up. I also know that I want my fruit roll up back. What I do not know, is what is in your back pack. This is called incomplete information. \n\nI've decided that I'm not going back to my desk without either a fruit roll up or peace of mind that you don't have it. I then ask you to show me what is in your backpack. If you really didn't take it, you would open the backpack and that would be it, right? The problem is, you don't know that my only motive for looking into your backpack is to check for my fruit roll up, I might want to see where you hide that power ranger toy I've coveted for a few weeks now. This leads to a breakdown in bargaining. I'm now trying to get you to open the backpack through anger, negotiations, reasoning, etc. Still unclear on my true motives and being annoyed I don't trust you, you grow more hostile. You realize that I'm not going away until I get my fruit roll up or peace of mind. At this point, you fear that I will probably use force. You attempt to increase my cost of war by threatening to tell the teacher, third party bargaining. This calms me for a minute but I also threaten to tell the teacher you stole from me, which will get you in trouble too. \n\nYou now have one of three options, 1) open the backpack despite not being clear on my intentions and give me something I want at a potential loss to yourself. 2) make good on your threat of telling the teacher and hope I'm bluffing that I'm going to accuse you of stealing, which we both know I'm not. 3) decide that if you go to the teacher either we both get in trouble or I attack you to take your backpack before you get to her and so you launch a preemptive strike and push me away from you, starting a physical altercation (war). Or 4) keep arguing and do nothing, in which case I'll realize that bargaining has failed and launch an attack ",
"Because we're crazy. I don't mean that figuratively, I mean it literally. As a species. And not the harmless kind of crazy. No, not us. We're crazy in the seeing people hiding the trees, starts gathering firearms to go hunt down Charlie because \"they're after me\" kinda crazy. The proof is in the pudding. ICBMs. There's an underappreciated topic. \n\nPeople running around acting like the sky is falling over a few people getting Ebola, yet being comfortable with nuclear holocaust looming over their heads since the day they were born. \n\nExample of crazy? Some 11yo watches a movie, sees a scene where say..there's nudity. The kids parent freaks out. The same parent who will sit down and watch a movie with said kid where people are shooting other people dead and being glorified while never batting an eye. \n\nCrazy. Vicious. Paranoid. And masters of self justification. Like a breed of dog that bred really smart, physically healthy and good looking but mentally always feral. Don't look it in the eye. \n\nBlah blah blah blah blah. Lol. ",
"Short answer: Humans (and most life forms) tend to acquire power. Conquering other groups, and having their resources added to yours means having more power. The end."
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2b6py6 | why is it regular coke called coca-cola but diet coke is just diet coke? | Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b6py6/eli5_why_is_it_regular_coke_called_cocacola_but/ | {
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"Because that's the brand that the company decided to brand it under. That's their decision to make. Diet Coca-Cola isn't a very catchy name. It's pretty long and cumbersome, but Diet Coke is short and memorable.\nThey want to reserve the \"Flagship brand\" for Coca-Cola Classic, and might not want to mix the brand names together too closely."
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asn2cg | does your stomach "digest" water? | I know your intestines pretty much absorb water as is - no need for enzymes etc. But does your stomach do anything when you drink a glass of water? Does it automatically release stomach acid? If not, how does it know the difference between water and say soup? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/asn2cg/eli5_does_your_stomach_digest_water/ | {
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"Firstly you know the difference between water and soup and can taste the difference. Your body is able to pick up on signals from your brain. This is what the famous experiments by Pavlov using dogs were demonstrating. In addition your stomach is able to correct the acid levels and let its content into the intestines on its own as needed. It can even absorb some of the water and nutrients by itself. So the stomach will react differently depending on if you are drinking water or soup.",
"Stomach acid is already in your stomach, at all times really soaking into food and breaking it down. When you drink water, or any liquid, you're diluting that stomach acid so more will be secreted to compensate. The ideal stomach acid pH is around 1.5 to 3.5. There are specific cells in the stomach that would detect the change in pH caused by the dilution to bring the pH back to the optimal levels. Soup, water, Coca Cola, coffee, they all tweak the pH in your stomach and you stomach has to constantly adjust to remain at the correct pH.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n(Acids are just substances that donate protons, so the cells in your stomach can quickly donate protons to correct abnormal pH balances.)"
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358sml | why are the tips of all the scissors in my office magnetized? | I randomly noticed today that the scissors on my desk picked up a safety pin like a magnet earlier today. Tested 3 other pairs from 3 other offices, all different brands, and the same thing happened. No one has other magnets anywhere near the scissors. What's going on here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/358sml/eli5_why_are_the_tips_of_all_the_scissors_in_my/ | {
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"A lot of scissors are sold magnetized, to make it easier to pick up pins, needles, etc. with them.\n\nOthers become magnetized by being stored near magnets, magnetic tools such as screwdrivers, or simply by being in magnetic fields. \n\nA steel scissor in a magnetic field will 'want' to become magnetic itself, and once something is a magnet it requires a heavy disruption (such as dropping it from a big height, or hammering on it randomly) to destroy the magnetic alignment again."
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2wi6ed | why is the community in league of legends so toxic and hostile 89% of the time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wi6ed/eli5_why_is_the_community_in_league_of_legends_so/ | {
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"It's part and parcel with any game with a large enough fan base. A prime example is Call of Duty. Most people play that game on Xbox and Playstation, so therefore you are much more likely to encounter an asshole there, than on say a game like path of exile, which has a smaller fan base on PC. \n\nIn the case of LoL, thousands and thousands of people play, so it is very likely that you will meet people who do nothing but bitch about new players, as if they were born knowing how to play. When the popularity of a game is so high, expect to see players of all ages and all levels of maturity.\n\n Don't forget that most of the time you don't know who the other players are, so they feel protected behind their monitor, and thus they reveal their true colors.",
"Mostly due to game mechanic and immature gamers. A typical game requires a 30-40 time commitment AND your team is only as strong as your weakest link. If someone starts throwing early, your stuck for that committed time fightng an uphill battle. \n\nIt could also be because you're trash you fucking casual non-warding nub, get rekd. Insekt.",
"Pick five random people off the street and tell them to play basketball agaisnt five other random people. Also give them anonymous masks and if they win they'd get money. Probably be some aggressive behavior there. "
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8rhzih | why are there people able to eat several burgers, pizza, and more food afterwards and still be fine without feeling like throwing up? | _URL_0_
here is a thin looking man devouring a table of food that could serve a house party. How does he train his stomach to do that?
If I eat only slightly more food than I could eat, there would be acid in my mouth and unpleasant taste lingering from indigestion | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8rhzih/eli5_why_are_there_people_able_to_eat_several/ | {
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"Taken from \"and then you're dead\" - Cody cassidy & Paul doherty- about eating a lot of cookies like cookie monster:\n\nFirst, a thin physique helps. Exactly how you can stay thin while eating 11 pounds of cookies is a bit of a paradox, but it’s true that with less fat in the way your stomach has more room to expand outward.\n.. \n\nUnless you have eaten 60 cookies many times (and thus suppressed your gag reflex), your stomach will revolt and you will vomit. But that’s a good thing: 60 cookies equals roughly 4 liters of food, and that’s approaching your stomach’s breaking point.* We know the physical limit of the stomach thanks to the German physician Algot Key-Aberg, who in the late 1800s attempted to cleanse a patient of an opium overdose by pumping water into his stomach. Unfortunately, the patient’s drug use suppressed the normal vomiting response and his stomach broke like an overfilled water balloon, killing him on the operating table. This event piqued Key-Aberg’s curiosity and he began experimenting to determine the true capacity of a stretched human stomach using corpses. He concluded that the typical stomach can hold 4 liters of food before eruption. (Imagine two party-size sodas next to each other. If you eat or drink more than that, you are approaching what we will call here the stomach eruption limit.) This limit applies to all of us, except, however, for a gifted few. A small number of people have publicly passed the 4-liter mark. Depending on your training, or whether you received the genetic gift of a flexible stomach, it is possible to eat more. Joey Chestnut, the reigning hot-dog-eating champion, once ate 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes. That’s approximately 9.5 liters of food—or 130 chocolate chip cookies.\n\n(this book delves into what can kill you, with science. It's brilliant and interesting and I recommend. Yes I copied from kindle, yes it's cheap, no I didn't write it and I wish I did 😄)",
"That's a Matt Stonie thumbnail! World's #1 competitive eater.\n\nLong story short, your stomach can change i size because it's not a rigid organ. Over time he trained himself to be able to eat more by... eating more. Obese people go through the same thing; they have to eat more to sustain their size, so then they *can* eat more because of how much they eat. You can see Matt's stomach expansion after a meal in some of his videos - it's quite terrifying, really.\n\nAs to why Matt is skinny, he doesn't eat like thst every day and he likely does a fair amount of exercise. He may even 'purge' after a session but that's not sustainable long term so I doubt it. I'd imagine he eats a mostly volumetric diet between competitions - that is to say, he eats food that takes up a lot of space but has relstively low caloric value (leafy greens), so he naturally needs to fill up more.",
"As someone who trained for and participated in an eating competition, i can give a more practical background on how people stretch their stomach. About two weeks before the contest, you change your diet: two big meals a day increasing daily, usually consisting of low calorie-dense foods (lots of veggies and rice without much fat). Drink lots of water. Day before competition, about 24 hours before, eat one enormous meal to the point where you want to puke. Do not eat anything except maybe a cup of yogurt between big meal and competition. This all stretches your stomach out and makes you able to eat way more. \n\nSome people do this with water, but it is very dangerous.",
"I don't know what this guy does, but eating one meal a day helps me. I work long hours and don't eat until I get home, but I'll eat a meal like 2 turkey sandwiches, 40 pizza rolls, a bowl of ice cream and then snack on something else and feel fine. Sometimes I'll go for round 2 before bed. Not this exact thing every day, but a ton of really shitty food like this usually. Also, I'm 5'10\" and can't seem to get over 155 lbs.\n\nI think my stomach has just gotten used to stretching so much. ",
"I once ate 21 plates of fried shrimp at Sizzler. I was fine ... until it all came out the next day. 24 years later, my butt hurts when I think about it."
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24ps9a | what are the dangers/benefits of having a low birthrate and a large percentage of your population over the age of 65? | _URL_0_
After reading this article I realized that the tone of the article was suggesting this was a very negative thing. I would think that with limited resources, especially in a small island country like Japan, this situation would be ideal rather than something to be “warned” about or feared. Can someone explain why this type of situation with a low birthrate and a large percentage of the populous over 65 is a bad thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24ps9a/eli5what_are_the_dangersbenefits_of_having_a_low/ | {
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"People over 65 generally work (much) less than young people. But, they consume much, much more of a country's social services, like healthcare. An aging population and low birthrate suggest that in the future there will be many fewer young workers to support the growing needs of the aged group within the society. \n\nAdding to this pressure is the fact that most social insurance and government pension programs are built on models that presume future funding from new workers, who will in turn have their end of life needs funded by yet another generation of young workers.",
"There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that supporting an aging population is very expensive and having a low birthrate means there will be fewer and fewer people in the workforce to shoulder that burden. As an aside, a country like Japan which is highly modernized does not have particular difficulty from being an island nation; they're still integrally linked in to the worldwide economy.",
"Because you have a very small workforce. Old people can't work in industries and businesses to generate money for the country, so the country becomes poor as nothing is made or sold. Also, who will be paying taxes to support all these old people and their pensions?",
"In current industrialized societies the welfare of the old rests directly on the earnings of the working young. So if you have a good distribution you have say 10 workers supporting each senior so it is only 1/10th of their earnings whereas with a shrinking population you only have 5 workers supporting each senior and that is much harder on the workers to continue to provide for the seniors.",
"This is the ageing population problem. With less babies being born, and people living a long time, the proportion of old people rises. There are a few reasons this is worrying:\n\n* Old people do not work. A country needs working age men and women so things actually can get done.\n\n* State pensions. Old people get money from the government, because they do not work. More old people means more money that the government has to spend.\n\n* Old people get sick more. This puts more strain on the health service.\n\n* Old folks tend to spend less. This isn't too great for the economy.\n\n\nThe big one is that there are more people who are not working than people who are working. This is bad for the country, because you need lots of working age people in order for the economy to thrive and the country to progress.",
"In biology, what we can see from [Japan's age demography graph](_URL_1_) is that the population is mostly unstable and with significant degrowth. This is different than say [Germany's](_URL_2_) which is almost completely stable. Also, this is different from, say, [Pakistan](_URL_0_), which is unstable and rapidly growing.\n\nAll areas have a maximum population limit based on resources, functions, etc. Japan might have over-shot theirs, but nature will fix this problem itself, as you can see with the younger generations being smaller. A harmonic population size that ever stabilizes is very typical in biology, so there is nothing to be afraid of.\n\nEdit: Whoops, we're talking about Japan, not France."
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g0pgaf | how was experimental cgi rendered before the mid-eighties? | I've always been fascinated with computers from long before my time. 1980s CG animation in particular is something I've always found oddly soothing. But a lot puzzles me about how it worked. How were things like [Carla's Island](_URL_0_) made as early as 1981? If I were working as an animator at the time, what kind of program would I have used to create things like that? Weren't computers at the time only capable of simple pixel images at most? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0pgaf/eli5_how_was_experimental_cgi_rendered_before_the/ | {
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"Those images were animated one frame at a time in a supercomputer at LLNL. Computers in 1980's were capable of working in 3D, just not in real time (I was at SIGGraph in 1980). Essentially you figured out each voxel (3D pixel) and color coded it. Then you rendered the 3D space to 2D with a camera algorithm. You printed the 2D image on a piece of paper and photographed it, or if you had one, directly to film. Then you developed the film and projected it.\n\nWhat's most \"breakthrough\" about Carla was that the water has a surface normal. This means that the moonlight can reflect off it based on the relative height of the water in two voxels. That's why the second half of the film is so dark, to show off the awesomeness of that algorithm.",
"Carla's Island was made on a Cray-1 supercomputer using a process called raytracing. This was a state of the art supercomputer in 1981 when the film was made. \n \nRaytracing works by having the animator define everything in the scene mathematically, including the shape/color/texture of objects, any light sources, and the location of the \"camera\". Then the compute goes pixel-by-pixel and goes \"What would the camera see at this pixel\" and calculates every bit (or \"ray\") of light that would interact with that pixel to figure out what it should look like. Then it goes onto the next pixel and does the same thing. \n \nThe movie in question did some things to cheat and make life easier for the computer. For example the wave motion was periodic, so that a lot of the frames are actually identical except for changes in the colors. This meant that the super computer only needed to computer 144 complete frames. Then a much smaller computer could loop through that computed data an adjust the few things that changed (mostly the location/color of the sun/moon)."
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38n4i4 | what are the benefits that justify the u.s. military budget? | I can not seem to find an answer not bathed in political ideology.
If it is to get a technological advancement (like the F-35s ect.) why do we just sell them? Doesn't this just give away our advancement we spent a grand portion of our GDP on?
I am just looking to understand the benefits of this huge budget. It seems protection could be made a lot cheaper since EVERY other nation doesn't need the same percentage of GDP like we spend. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38n4i4/eli5_what_are_the_benefits_that_justify_the_us/ | {
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" > If it is to get a technological advancement (like the F-35s ect.) why do we just sell them? Doesn't this just give away our advancement we spent a grand portion of our GDP on?\n\nNope, because they generally only get sold to nations that the US trusts and has evaluated the security of. Sales also recoup some of the cost spent; if 1000 F-35s are sold (and that's roughly how many currently have been ordered, with more expected), then the US will have recouped about half of what it spent on domestic aircraft.\n\n > I am just looking to understand the benefits of this huge budget. It seems protection could be made a lot cheaper since EVERY other nation doesn't need the same percentage of GDP like we spend.\n\nBecause the US needs to be able to deter nations like Russia and China; not because the US expects Russia or China to invade the US, but because it needs a non-nuclear solution to prevent those nations from harming allies of the US, from whom the US does trade with, uses the sea lanes of, etc\n\nFor example, if all nuclear weapons disappeared right now, China would be likely to try and invade Japan, Vietnam, etc in order to secure the South China Sea and associated gas fields, etc. China has the military capability to do that, and it knows that the US wouldn't want to get into a nuclear war over another nation (what's worse, having a few million die and Japan, etc change government, or having billions die all around the world?). However, because the US has the ability to reinforce Japan and prevent China from invading, they don't. Of course, China is also economically reliant on the US, but that hasn't always been the case and won't necessarily be the case into the future."
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msqji | how do drugs like meth and crack change someone's appearance? | Thank you all for your contribution! I will get to upvoting all of you... tomorrow. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/msqji/eli5_how_do_drugs_like_meth_and_crack_change/ | {
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"They don't, technically. What you see in those photos of 'meth addicts' over time going from normal to unkempt, is a cause of their hygiene. If I recall correctly 'meth mouth' occurs because the addict stops brushing their teeth. Normal hygiene goes by the wayside when you're addicted to these substances.",
"Constriction of blood vessels decreases the amount of blood that reaches parts of the body, and parts that rely on the smallest vessels may not receive enough blood to remain healthy. Skin and the face are two examples, and the mouth is a special case because other regulating systems are also compromised, like saliva. Smoking complicates mouth problems, and injection further compromises the already-suffering skin with wounds, which the body struggles to heal. Not sure about hair, eyes, and nails and stuff. ",
"Long term meth use hurts saliva production, so plaque stays on teeth longer, rotting them.\nSource- I work at a rehab center. Everyone comes in with really messed up teeth and end up getting dental work the same month. Lots and lots of pulled teefers.",
"There are many effects from coming down off of a drug. Anxiety and itchiness are a couple of them. People on meth and crack tend to scratch at themselves a lot, which is part of the reason you see so many open skin sores. I've seen crackheads detox before... All they do is scratch, eat, and sleep. Like the others said, poor hygiene is the biggest factor in a crappy overall appearance.",
"Not sleeping for days on end, constantly scratching at the crawling sensation side-effect of being on meth, lack of proper hygiene and not eating for long periods of time basically. ",
"According to the billboards near my house it will make you want to punch things and be naked and shivering.",
"I used to smoke crack. I would stay up for three days at a time on benders, then sleep for three after and repeat. All that mattered was getting more. I didn't care about hygiene, except for when coming down... The water helped ease it. Dehydration and not eating didn't help, that stuff makes your body wants (other than more rock of course) all go away. I thought I was keeping my usage on the low-down but a couple friends could tell, so I'm assuming I was looking gross. The come down also makes you want to crawl out of your own skin. When you're high, you feel no pain as well so cuts go unnoticed. Burns on your lips from smoking a hot pipe don't matter. \n\nGod I'm glad I got out. ",
"I have some first hand knowlege of this. Biggest reason I saw people start to look bad was because of the picking. Of course the wrinkles, bad teeth and bad hair were because of the chemicals. Most meth heads I knew were cleaner than normal people because they obsessed about it. Hence the picking. But I never saw anyone look like the public service announcements. One guy I knew had a big sore on his hand, another lady had no teeth by the age of 30, and everyone got fat after using it for more than a few years. ",
"I had a neighbor that smoked meth and I thought the sores on his face were from scratching. The comments here say otherwise. I once found him in his car singing and rolling around in the front seat. I heard his yelping and I thought a child was screaming and being violated, it was him singing to Rush or something. I asked if everything was OK and he said his doctor recommended small use. It's worse than alcoholism but almost the same, regarding addiction. I think the guy used to have itches and scratch them until they became raw. They were all over his face all the time. I gather from a google search that it's from picking at imaginary bugs crawling on your face. I doubt that.\n\nAlso, things like adderall are very closely related to meth, and it's prescribed to children but nobody cares aside from the pharmaceutical manufacturers that push to get the meds prescribed. If they stopped giving kids this shit, they'd lose sales money from parents that don't pay their kids enough attention. We don't want that now, do we?",
"I also believe much of the deterioration comes from the fact that meth reduces your appetite and users can go several days without eating. This creates an emaciated look. Users also suffer from severe insomnia. I have seen people who were awake for 10 days before. Being awake this long is really bad for you and can cause mental problems as well as physical ones. ",
"My best friend's daughter is a meth/oxy head. She got bit on the ankle by a brown recluse. Instead of gettting it treated, she let it fester just so she could keep getting perscriptions for oxy. At some point, my friend got a call from her saying she needed help and was in serious pain. \n\nWhen he went over to the drug hole she was living in, he said he almost barfed from the smell in the room. He looked at her foot and said the wound looked like a small pizza with extra sauce and cheese. Yum! He showed me a picture he took of the wound and he wasn't kidding. It was red and all pussey and some of the skin looked black or charred. He took her to the hospital, they cleaned it up and gave her something for it. \n\nTwo weeks later...she let the wound go again just so she could get more oxy. Before he could go down and try and save her again, she got picked up for a parol violation. While in the county jail, they fixed her wound.",
"People have discussed the physical (saliva and itching) and psychological (decreased awareness/care) effects resulting in a change in a person's appearance. But I think, at least in terms of meth, there is another element.\n\nIf you got your methamphetamine from a doctor, you would still likely experience many of those same effects. But due to the fact that, I'd imagine, the majority of the meth one buys on the street is not of a particularly high quality, the likelihood of trace chemicals or adulterants is important. \n\nI knew a person who was extracting another drug, DMT, for their own use. The resultant product was of high quality, but because of the use of lye in the extraction process, over time he started having skin issues due to secreting trace amounts of lye. \n\nConsidering the collection of chemicals necessary to make meth, or techniques used by dealers to increase profit, the sweating or metabolizing of these chemicals seems to be another significant factor.",
"Drug addicts don't take care of their bodies. The body deteriorates. This is why severely depressed people or people coming off a video game binge look a lot more like drug addicts.",
"I never did meth, but I was on adderall for a few years and since I've heard they are pretty similar, I would like to add something.\n\nEven though I took care of myself, hygiene wise- I still ended up with a very mild case of \"meth mouth\". I went from having great teeth, to needing two root canals and having 9 cavities filled within a year. At first, blame was placed on genetics, being a mom (this happened 4 years after my twins were born), to too much pop (which never affected me before). Not saying that those factors didn't contribute- but I *know* the adderall is what amplified it all. I had **constant** dry mouth and just recently learned that that is a huge factor in messing up your teeth. \n\nLuckily, I went to the dentist and took care of the problem. I am since off adderall, and haven't had a cavity or problem since. \n\nSo, in short- I think dry mouth and a lack of giving a shit causes meth mouth. \n\nAlso, the adderall made me pick like crazy. I had sores that would not heal for almost a year. After 16 months of being off adderall - any unhealed sores are finally gone and my face is once again clear. I never looked anywhere near as bad as the anti-meth pics, but it was embarrassing to always have some sort of blemish on my face (which I never had), and/or when someone would notice a huge sore on my arm that had been there for many months. \n\nSo glad I quit that stuff. I couldn't imagine what meth would actually do to me. \n",
"This probably is not true in all occasions, and to be fair I don't know anyone in real life who uses Heroin. But one think I've from watching Intervention on TV it seems like most everyone who abuses Heroin is *more* attractive then the average person without fail, whereas thats not true with the other drugs. Is there something to this or are they just picking attractive people for the show, or am I crazy?",
"They don't, technically. What you see in those photos of 'meth addicts' over time going from normal to unkempt, is a cause of their hygiene. If I recall correctly 'meth mouth' occurs because the addict stops brushing their teeth. Normal hygiene goes by the wayside when you're addicted to these substances.",
"Constriction of blood vessels decreases the amount of blood that reaches parts of the body, and parts that rely on the smallest vessels may not receive enough blood to remain healthy. Skin and the face are two examples, and the mouth is a special case because other regulating systems are also compromised, like saliva. Smoking complicates mouth problems, and injection further compromises the already-suffering skin with wounds, which the body struggles to heal. Not sure about hair, eyes, and nails and stuff. ",
"Long term meth use hurts saliva production, so plaque stays on teeth longer, rotting them.\nSource- I work at a rehab center. Everyone comes in with really messed up teeth and end up getting dental work the same month. Lots and lots of pulled teefers.",
"There are many effects from coming down off of a drug. Anxiety and itchiness are a couple of them. People on meth and crack tend to scratch at themselves a lot, which is part of the reason you see so many open skin sores. I've seen crackheads detox before... All they do is scratch, eat, and sleep. Like the others said, poor hygiene is the biggest factor in a crappy overall appearance.",
"Not sleeping for days on end, constantly scratching at the crawling sensation side-effect of being on meth, lack of proper hygiene and not eating for long periods of time basically. ",
"According to the billboards near my house it will make you want to punch things and be naked and shivering.",
"I used to smoke crack. I would stay up for three days at a time on benders, then sleep for three after and repeat. All that mattered was getting more. I didn't care about hygiene, except for when coming down... The water helped ease it. Dehydration and not eating didn't help, that stuff makes your body wants (other than more rock of course) all go away. I thought I was keeping my usage on the low-down but a couple friends could tell, so I'm assuming I was looking gross. The come down also makes you want to crawl out of your own skin. When you're high, you feel no pain as well so cuts go unnoticed. Burns on your lips from smoking a hot pipe don't matter. \n\nGod I'm glad I got out. ",
"I have some first hand knowlege of this. Biggest reason I saw people start to look bad was because of the picking. Of course the wrinkles, bad teeth and bad hair were because of the chemicals. Most meth heads I knew were cleaner than normal people because they obsessed about it. Hence the picking. But I never saw anyone look like the public service announcements. One guy I knew had a big sore on his hand, another lady had no teeth by the age of 30, and everyone got fat after using it for more than a few years. ",
"I had a neighbor that smoked meth and I thought the sores on his face were from scratching. The comments here say otherwise. I once found him in his car singing and rolling around in the front seat. I heard his yelping and I thought a child was screaming and being violated, it was him singing to Rush or something. I asked if everything was OK and he said his doctor recommended small use. It's worse than alcoholism but almost the same, regarding addiction. I think the guy used to have itches and scratch them until they became raw. They were all over his face all the time. I gather from a google search that it's from picking at imaginary bugs crawling on your face. I doubt that.\n\nAlso, things like adderall are very closely related to meth, and it's prescribed to children but nobody cares aside from the pharmaceutical manufacturers that push to get the meds prescribed. If they stopped giving kids this shit, they'd lose sales money from parents that don't pay their kids enough attention. We don't want that now, do we?",
"I also believe much of the deterioration comes from the fact that meth reduces your appetite and users can go several days without eating. This creates an emaciated look. Users also suffer from severe insomnia. I have seen people who were awake for 10 days before. Being awake this long is really bad for you and can cause mental problems as well as physical ones. ",
"My best friend's daughter is a meth/oxy head. She got bit on the ankle by a brown recluse. Instead of gettting it treated, she let it fester just so she could keep getting perscriptions for oxy. At some point, my friend got a call from her saying she needed help and was in serious pain. \n\nWhen he went over to the drug hole she was living in, he said he almost barfed from the smell in the room. He looked at her foot and said the wound looked like a small pizza with extra sauce and cheese. Yum! He showed me a picture he took of the wound and he wasn't kidding. It was red and all pussey and some of the skin looked black or charred. He took her to the hospital, they cleaned it up and gave her something for it. \n\nTwo weeks later...she let the wound go again just so she could get more oxy. Before he could go down and try and save her again, she got picked up for a parol violation. While in the county jail, they fixed her wound.",
"People have discussed the physical (saliva and itching) and psychological (decreased awareness/care) effects resulting in a change in a person's appearance. But I think, at least in terms of meth, there is another element.\n\nIf you got your methamphetamine from a doctor, you would still likely experience many of those same effects. But due to the fact that, I'd imagine, the majority of the meth one buys on the street is not of a particularly high quality, the likelihood of trace chemicals or adulterants is important. \n\nI knew a person who was extracting another drug, DMT, for their own use. The resultant product was of high quality, but because of the use of lye in the extraction process, over time he started having skin issues due to secreting trace amounts of lye. \n\nConsidering the collection of chemicals necessary to make meth, or techniques used by dealers to increase profit, the sweating or metabolizing of these chemicals seems to be another significant factor.",
"Drug addicts don't take care of their bodies. The body deteriorates. This is why severely depressed people or people coming off a video game binge look a lot more like drug addicts.",
"I never did meth, but I was on adderall for a few years and since I've heard they are pretty similar, I would like to add something.\n\nEven though I took care of myself, hygiene wise- I still ended up with a very mild case of \"meth mouth\". I went from having great teeth, to needing two root canals and having 9 cavities filled within a year. At first, blame was placed on genetics, being a mom (this happened 4 years after my twins were born), to too much pop (which never affected me before). Not saying that those factors didn't contribute- but I *know* the adderall is what amplified it all. I had **constant** dry mouth and just recently learned that that is a huge factor in messing up your teeth. \n\nLuckily, I went to the dentist and took care of the problem. I am since off adderall, and haven't had a cavity or problem since. \n\nSo, in short- I think dry mouth and a lack of giving a shit causes meth mouth. \n\nAlso, the adderall made me pick like crazy. I had sores that would not heal for almost a year. After 16 months of being off adderall - any unhealed sores are finally gone and my face is once again clear. I never looked anywhere near as bad as the anti-meth pics, but it was embarrassing to always have some sort of blemish on my face (which I never had), and/or when someone would notice a huge sore on my arm that had been there for many months. \n\nSo glad I quit that stuff. I couldn't imagine what meth would actually do to me. \n",
"This probably is not true in all occasions, and to be fair I don't know anyone in real life who uses Heroin. But one think I've from watching Intervention on TV it seems like most everyone who abuses Heroin is *more* attractive then the average person without fail, whereas thats not true with the other drugs. Is there something to this or are they just picking attractive people for the show, or am I crazy?"
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31sqjp | why do dogs de-stuff their toys? | I've always thought it might be something instinctual (i.e, hunting, etc.) but watching my two dogs completely de-stuff two toys only to ignore all the stuffing and keep playing with the empty toy made me wonder if there's a simple explanation for the behavior. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31sqjp/eli5_why_do_dogs_destuff_their_toys/ | {
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"Many dogs have their own version of canine OCD. Which is why you might observe them doing strange things, like chasing their own tails. \n\nOCD in dogs can often be attributed by not getting enough exercise or proper obedience training. This can also be breed-specific. Border Collies for example often have OCD-like tendencies more than other breeds which lead them to stuff like chasing shadows and etc.\n\nThe best way to combat these behaviours is keep an energetic dog well exercised and properly trained. As for your dog ripping the stuffing out of a few toys, that's not a cause to be concerned about. \n\nsource: my mother is a dog-trainer. "
]
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[]
] |
|
2ljrf9 | why don't homeowners want their property value to lower? | Hear me out, but also know that I'm something of a financial ignoramus.
People are always stressing that the neighbor not watering his lawn or the vacant house down the street are lowering property values. And if you're looking to sell your house, that's something to stress over. But if you don't plan to sell your house anytime soon, wouldn't you want your property value to be lower? Aren't your property taxes determined by the value of your property? Surely most people are more concerned with the property taxes they have to pay now rather than the price they may get for their house in 5 years?
I'm sure my understanding is totally misguided, but why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ljrf9/eli5why_dont_homeowners_want_their_property_value/ | {
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"text": [
"You want your house to be worth more when you sell it than when you bought it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
ohcc2 | why do most people think mammalian animals are cute/adorable but not other types of creatures (except for /r/whatsthisbug) | My wife and I are watching Planet Earth on TV and I'm curious why most humans feel a strong sentiment for other mammals? Is this just a cultural thing localized to Western societies? Does it span globally? I don't think I've ever seen a great explanation.
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ohcc2/eli5_why_do_most_people_think_mammalian_animals/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3h9buc"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Its basically to do with our evolutionary need to look after our young. We're programmed to find small humans cute in order to make us protect them. This happens to such a degree that anything with similar features to babies (big head, small bodies, large eyes) triggers the same response.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.happynews.com/news/562009/why-baby-animals-cute.htm"
]
] |
|
1z7z0u | why are graves dug 6' deep? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z7z0u/why_are_graves_dug_6_deep/ | {
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"text": [
"it is the approximate depth that prevents wildlife from digging it up. both as a matter of moving 6 feet of earth and because the gasses from the body will not filter up quickly enough to be detected by scavengers.\n\nit's also the approximate height of a human being. a digger could easily assess his depth and also get out of the hole under his own power were it necessary.",
"So we have time to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.",
"From my experience, working in a funeral home, this is more of an expression from older days. They are often not usually dug to be six feet deep because it is not necessary. There is a vault that goes around the casket and is not much bigger than a casket, so that should help provide an example of how much is actually going in to the ground, which is probably around 3 1/2 feet in height (a guesstimate). \n\nI have been told that they use to be dug that deep to help protect bodies from wild animals and grave robbers. Vaults protect that casket, thus a body is not really exposed, at least for decades. Plus grave robbing is no longer an issue. \n\nThe people posting about flooding.. That might be true in certain instances but I do not think that is really the case. New Orleans has a lot of flooding and their cemeteries have a bunch of above ground mausoleums to prevent caskets from having this problem, not deep holes. Interesting sight if you ever get the chance to see it by the way. \n\nThus graves really aren't dug that deep anymore and is more of an old expression about six feet deep. Though things in funerals are regional and thus it could be different somewhere else. \n\nEdit: Added information about the purpose of a vault. ",
"I'll bet it's because of congeliturbation - aka the freeze thaw cycle that brings up rocks in fields.",
"Look at it this way. Even before Katrina New Orleans has had caskets floating down the street during floods due to an inability to bury the dead deep enough due to a very high water table. Macabre, and not in a good way.",
"The funerals I've been to, the graves are way deeper than 6ft. More like 8 to 10 ft. This is in West Texas. ",
"It also can be traced back to when the black plague occurred, there were to many bodies to bury and they had to double up burial plots with multiple caskets.",
"I suspect it has to do with staying below the frost line. If below frost is 42\" you need to dig an additional 24\" to accommodate the height of the coffin. It may not make any difference in warm climate, but where it snows, I bet a coffin buried any less than 42\" could potentially heave.",
"So the zombies can't dig themselves out, of course...",
"iirc it's partly so animals don't dig them up",
"its mainly so animals can not smell the body and dig them up.",
"All these reasons are wrong. Graves are 6' deep because that's the minimum cover of soil which will hold back a zombie.",
"Minimum depth to keep zombies from digging themselves out.",
"Damn you reddit for making me interested in the answer to a question I never knew I cared about.",
"During the outbreak of a plague in England, the Mayor of London decided that was the depth needed to prevent infection of others. It was the 17th century, so it probably wasn't very scientific, but just a number chosen to ensure it was deep enough."
]
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2wv75m | why are italian luxury goods far more ubiquitous worldwide than their normal goods? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wv75m/eli5_why_are_italian_luxury_goods_far_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"coue2pd"
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"text": [
"It's supply and demand. \n\nIf you're in some other country, you don't buy \"plain\" italian stuff because you have local and cheaper producers who make it, or can get it from China where the labour costs to manufacture stuff is really low and keeps your price down. So Italian stuff doesn't sell to that market. Little demand means little supply, so you don't see it a lot.\n\nHowever, you buy designer labels, elite wines and top tier cars from Italy because that's the only place to get the ones with those particular brands or experiences, and you really don't care about the cost if you're buying that kind of stuff. So the Italian exports that cater to the highest-level markets are the most visible, and the big demand creates a focus on creating a supply."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
23jbii | how did they figure out the shape of te continents before aviation? | Like for maps... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23jbii/eli5_how_did_they_figure_out_the_shape_of_te/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgxkh6s",
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"text": [
"Sailing around the edges and making detailed records. Some better than others. A lot of world maps look ridiculous in modern times, but size was a major issue before planes and satellites. Some very old maps of smaller areas, like Great Britain, were far more accurate because they had a massive navy and spent a lot of time surveying to coasts.",
"Triangulating. You pick three distinct landmarks and do some math to determine where they are on the map, and then draw the landscape around them."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
6nfpbj | why were white people taller than asians? does it have something to do with what they eat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nfpbj/eli5_why_were_white_people_taller_than_asians/ | {
"a_id": [
"dk93ccp"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"In short, yes. After WW2, some Asian countries began to import meat and other foods, and saw a drastic increase in average height. Most people in Japan, for instance, relied on a diet of rice, with some occasional fish, pre-war. Think about how much teenagers eat when they have their growth spurt; if that food isn't available the body has to use its energy more conservatively."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
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