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56i350 | why do people say that exercise is relatively useless for weight loss, compared to diet? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56i350/eli5_why_do_people_say_that_exercise_is/ | {
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"Basically,the final outcome is what matters:calories in vs calories out (this more complex with macro and micronutrients to have a balanced diet,though)\nSo,if you eat 5000 calories,but your body only consumes 2000 calories,with exercise included,then,you will get weight.If you lose more that what you get,then,you lose weight.The thing is,to most of us,we cannot be more than 1h/day at the gym,so consuming most of your calories without taking care of the diet usually isnt viable.",
"You'd have to be working out crazy hard to burn 1000+ calories an hour. For me, running for a full hour burns 488 calories. Most people cannot run for 2+ hours a day. A single chocolate bar or glass of drink can represent more than an hour of high-intensity exercise, that's why people say it's more important to focus on diet first.",
"Simple - a grown man can eat a whole pizza easily, I know I can. To burn that many calories you need to cycle for 2 hours. Replace the pizza with steamed veggies (I know) and you have 1000 calories less to worry about.",
"The issue here is that exercise burns a lot fewer calories than people assume it does. Let's say you go out and run a mile in 6 minutes flat. You're an average guy, a little heavy at 200 pounds. How many calories did you just burn? A thousand? 500? Surely enough to burn off that 12 oz. soda you drank earlier, right?\nWell, no. You burned only around 150 calories, which is about half that soda you drank in 5 seconds when you woke up.\n\nBurning calories through exercise is slow, and not very efficient. It's far easier to focus on dieting. *Just don't drink that can of coke in the morning and you save 300+ calories.*\n\nThat *hour or two* of exercise takes a hell of a lot of effort compared to just reducing your intake of calories, and has *more-or-less* the same effect on your total weight loss.",
"As others noted, it's easier to eat less than to exercise more. But another interesting aspect is that the intensity of your exercise makes a difference in how effective it is at burning fat. \n\nLow-intensity exercise uses mostly fat as fuel at the time, but therefore leaves your resting metabolic rate mostly unchanged afterward. \n\nHigh-intensity exercise uses mostly sugar as fuel at the time, but this results in a raised resting metabolic rate afterwards, and in the end burns more fat than low-intensity exercise. \n\nSo although there's plenty to be said for diet, exercise can make a big difference for weight loss, if you're doing the right kind. Of course exercise is also good for your heart so that's not to say that low-intensity exercise is somehow inferior. It just depends on what your goals are. \n\nHere's a succinct explanation of this effect: _URL_0_"
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2ym0by | can someone give me a bipartisan description of the iran deal, why obama wants it (using his logic) and why the republicans don't (using their logic)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ym0by/eli5_can_someone_give_me_a_bipartisan_description/ | {
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"Sure. Obama thinks there is a path to a non-nuclear Iran that does not involve military action. The republicans (and Israel) think there is danger that Iran will get the bomb while Obama is talking, and therefore we should take military action against them immediately. \n\nLike most of American politics these days, congress has gone and fucked it all up by showing how divided the US is. Normally the President is responsible for foreign policy and congress does not get involved. The idea is that the ability of America to communicate with allies would be compromised if they reviled that there were internal divisions. Therefore American should speak with one voice, and that voice belongs to the President. However, this is not the law, it's just the way things generally work (the president has the authority of law to sign treaties, but nothing has been signed here). \n\nSo now congress has effectively communicated this to the outside world. \"Obama can negotiate all he wants, if a Republican is elected next election then it's all void.\" So the world powers all look at that and say, what's the point of talking. Or, even worse, they say \"we better attack (or hurry to finish this bomb) before the American election, or they are going to attack us\". \n\nIt's like parenting. There are 2 parents and the parents may not always agree. However, as far as the children are concerned the parents speak with 1 voice, united. Congress just came out and said \"Don't pay attention to what your father says, he's an asshole and I intend to marry a new man next week anyway. So don't bother to listen to him\""
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200gvr | how is the network fox able to have a show like cosmos, which endorses evolution and the big bang, when it shows conservative propaganda all day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/200gvr/eli5_how_is_the_network_fox_able_to_have_a_show/ | {
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"The daytime crowd are older and more conservative, the prime time crowd is younger and more progressive.\n\nThey tailor their programming to who they expect to be watching TV at that hour.",
"Don't forget that Nat Geo is showing it too on Mondays!!!",
"There is a difference between Fox and Fox News (although they *occasionally* show FNC programming on network).",
"Conservative =/= young earth creationist."
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zsqwf | explain like i'm five "the higgs bison" | My dad has been telling me about the higgs boson, but I'm just not understand it. Could some one help me?
**EDIT** its higgs boson sorry I've been spelling it wrong
Some me In-boxed me this link _URL_0_ It kind of help. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zsqwf/explain_like_im_five_the_higgs_bison/ | {
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"First of all you need to know that we don't know why gravity works.\n\nOk, so you know how electricity was this big mysterious force that we couldn't explain? Then we found out a particle, the electron, was the cause.\n\nSo that's kinda what the Higgs is, a gravity particle. It gives matter mass and gravity. Each atom has some Higgs' in it. The Higgs basically have a \"charge\" that attract other Higgs. If you could eliminate/turn off the Higg's in a piece of matter it wouldn't have a mass or any gravity.\n\nThe problem is that people think of mass as a property of matter when it's actually a property of a part of matter.\n\nIt's like a car. Pretend you know nothing about cars and saw one for the first time today. Cars go right? That's just something that cars do. But wait! Look at this! It has an engine that makes it go!\n\nNow replace car with matter, go with mass, and engine with Higgs Boson.",
"The Higgs boson is a particle that interacts with other particles to give them mass. What it means for a particle to have mass in quantum physics is that it has inertia, which means it takes energy to make it speed up and slow down, and incidentally that it's impossible to make it go the speed of light.\n\nThe way to think of it is that the speed of light is the real speed that everything in the universe actually moves at, but the Higgs boson gets in the way. The more mass something has, the more the Higgs boson gets in the way.\n\nThink of it as trying to run through thick a forest to get to the other side. Although you can run really fast between each tree, every time you get near a tree you have to slow down to go around it. If you were bigger, more trees would get in your way because you wouldn't have to be as close to them in order for it to be an obstacle. But if you're smaller, fewer trees will get in your way because you have to get closer to a tree for it to be a problem. If you get small enough, there might even be a path for you through the forest without any trees as obstacles, and you can just run in a straight line without slowing down at all.\n\nThe trees are like the Higgs boson, forcing matter to slow down when it gets near them. The forest is like the Higgs field, which is the wave part of all this, because in quantum physics everything that's a particle is also a wave. You're like a particle with some amount of mass, and the speed you can run between trees is the speed of light, but your average speed you can actually maintain through the forest is your real speed in space. The tiny person or animal that's small enough to be bothered by the tress is a massless particle like a photon, which moves at the speed of light.",
"I'm totally buffaloed, whats a Higgs Bison? ;-) "
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5lsc5f | what causes the feeling of impending doom in a medical context, and why is it regarded as a reliable indicator of a patient's condition? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lsc5f/eli5_what_causes_the_feeling_of_impending_doom_in/ | {
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"It's a feeling of being kind of disconnected and frightened. Woke up during heart surgery, That's what it was like for me. ",
"Do doctors ask if you've had any feelings of impending doom?",
"You know your own body better than a doctor's visual inspection, which is why you should communicate anything wrong. Unless you're a hypochondriac, suddenly feeling depression is a problem. Your gut is telling you something is wrong. ",
"I don't know that I would call it a \"reliable indicator\". It is, however, often a precursor to something serious going on. \n\nThere are also people that have panic attacks all the time and will come to the ER dying from the same feeling of doom 4 times a week. \n\nFor me, this applies more to the older people that generally have no issues and all of sudden being stricken with this feeling and some other suspicious malady. \n\nSource; EMT/ER nurse. ",
"It is one of the symptoms of being given the wrong blood type during a transfusion and some other cardiovascular problems like TheatreLesbian said. \n\nA lot of the conditions are ones that could cause you to die pretty soon, if the body is ever going to feel impending doom that is an appropriate time.",
"I'd second the EMT/ER RN - in younger patients who are clearly anxious without significant pathology it is likely just a panic attack.\n\nI've seen older folks who are quite ill with significant infections / heart failure / pulmonary emboli (blood clots that travel from the legs to the heart) who fairly calmly state \"I think I'm going to die.\" They end up being right a good percentage of the time.\n\nI imagine it's got to do with a release of a significant amount of stress signals, and perhaps the person recognizes that there's no way to avoid what's coming.\n\nI had a feeling of impending doom about three seconds after jumping into an icy pond while camping in the Sierra. The first thought upon entry was \"hey, this isn't so cold\". Then when it caught up with me there was an internal alarm that let me know my life was at risk. I would imagine if you felt that and could not escape the situation then you would know you're done.\n\nMedically speaking I don't think there's any good explanation that you are likely to get, as we are far more interested in treating the patient who says something like that than doing a study on what exactly is making them feel that way.\n\nSource: am doctor"
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5bp16n | why do people always apologize for formatting on mobile. i usually use mobile and i do it to. what's mobile do to formatting? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5bp16n/eli5_why_do_people_always_apologize_for/ | {
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"Because you're typing at speed, on a small keyboard. It's more about the errors in the typing, such as random spaces or misspelt words.",
"Some people use mobile clients that display formatting wrong. So unless the writer knows how it should show it is a bit hard to format properly. Especially subreddit specific things like spoiler tags are often broken. \nAlso special characters like \"`\", \"\\\", \"\\^\", \" > \", \"[\" and \"]\" (all of which are used in reddit formatting) can be a bit hard to find on mobile keyboard."
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1phbug | what is more hot, a microwave or an oven? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1phbug/what_is_more_hot_a_microwave_or_an_oven/ | {
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"Actually, physically hot? An oven. However, where water is involved, a microwave can make something hot MUCH faster. This is because a microwave doesn't use radiant heat to warm things up."
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f2685u | - why do communications companies make themselves so impossible to get hold of? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f2685u/eli5_why_do_communications_companies_make/ | {
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"Because IVR systems get complicated and customers far outweigh the employees. Sometimes it’s easier and sometimes a lot of people may be facing the same issue. \n\nSometimes you can google for backdoor customer service numbers, but I recommend finding the CEO’s email and emailing them with your complaint. Most big companies have an executive response team who will take care of your issues and give you a dedicated number to them for future issues.",
"Customer service is an expense. It doesn't generate any revenue for them and so it's a low priority. The only reason it gets any attention in most companies is because good customer service can prevent a customer from moving to a competetor but in most places communications companies have monopolies or duopolies so there's little risk in loosing a customer due to bad service.\n\nSo they set up the bare minimum number of people to answer questions, they force customers to answer their own questions and set up automated systems with technology that isn't anywhere near maturity with the idea that they can answer enough customer questions to get by and avoid most formal complaints.",
"Because they decided it's more profitable to make you push buttons to talk to a computer rather than to have someone on call 8 hours a day.",
"The number of users for communication device/services is so high and the bugs are so frequent that if it was easy to get in touch with them, they would need to hire basically the entire human race just to answer the phones.",
"Ex call centre analyst here. As in most sectors, call centres want to keep labor costs down. Let's say you're a broadband company. You know that from analysing your call logs that you get roughly 100 calls a day from people whose internet has gone down, that were resolved by resetting the router. Now let's say each of those calls lasted 3 minutes. That's 5 hours of labor a day, or 0.6 of a full time employee. You want to prompt those people to reset their damn router before they even think about picking that phone up, so you make them go through a section on your website that prompts them to try it before it will give you a number. That's just one example, but all companies get called about the simplest things, and that shit is expensive."
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2hj9iy | how much regular household garbage gets recycled if the homeowner doesn't recycle their trash? | Wherever trash goes, does it get recycled there? Is there a limit to how much can be thrown away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hj9iy/eli5_how_much_regular_household_garbage_gets/ | {
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"Traditionally, it's all gone to the landfill. Some areas now have dirty mixed waste recycling facilities, though, that don't require people to separate recycling and do all of the sorting at the facility.",
"In my area, not only does recycling sorting not happen at all to general garbage after pickup, but there is also a quota of recycling. Once that quota is met for the day, the remaining recycling also goes into the landfill with the general garbage. \n\nIt's not very motivating. ",
"You mean will the city sift through our trash can to find recycleables? I doubt it. The city already gives me 3 cans: trash, recycle, and green (organics). It's up to me to throw things in the correct can. I don't see why the city would need to do extra work. Trash goes to the landfill. "
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1qhxhz | why do pictures of screens have that striated star-like pattern? | You know what I mean, when you use your phone to take a picture of a TV or computer screen. Why does that pattern invisible to the eye, but so obvious on a photo? I took a photo of a white screen to try to illustrate it for those who aren't sure what I'm talking about. IPhone camera: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qhxhz/eli5why_do_pictures_of_screens_have_that_striated/ | {
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"Ultra simple explanation: screens display images with pixels, which are dots arranged in a grid to small see with the naked eye. A camera records an image with a grid of sensors. So you have two grids layered over each other. Where the grids don't line up you get a distortion. If you two pieces of window screen and overlay them you will see the same effect.\n\nWiki link: _URL_0_",
"Moirè patterns also show up when photographing stripped or chequed materials with a digital camera. Just _when_ the moirè will appear depends upon the spacing of the stripes, the resolution of the sensor, and the focal length of the lens. We usually just ask actors not to show up in stripes.\n\nIt's possible to de-moirè an image, but this actually involves blurring the image a bit. ",
"Why don't film cameras (remember those?) show moirè? Because the grains of silver are arranged randomly, rather than in a grid.\n\nCan something be 'arranged' randomly? Hmmmm"
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2widko | why are even numbers easier to deal with than odd numbers when doing simple math in my head? | Adding, subtracting..
\
Even just running through them:
2468 seems easier and more natural than 1357
Why is that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2widko/eli5_why_are_even_numbers_easier_to_deal_with/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\ntldr; \nOdd numbers are asymmetrical and unattractive because we're hard wired from a young age to find even numbers appealing and relate-able."
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52iaqp | how many languages can a baby learn naturally during the language developmental stage? | Most kids learn one, maybe two languages during this stage, but what's to stop someone from learning, say, five or ten languages? How many is too many for them to process? Am genuinely curious about this. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52iaqp/eli5_how_many_languages_can_a_baby_learn/ | {
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"Unfortunately there isn't going to be a concrete answer. Theoretically any child could learn an infinite number of languages, but in order to learn any number of languages, whether 1 or 1,000, it takes immersion in the language. Computers and flash cards can't provide this immersion; it takes human interaction with fluent speakers. It would be difficult to provide this type of environment to say the least. Just imagine the scenarios that would have to take place for a child to be immersed in 5-6 languages. Possible? Oh yes. But, also a very atypical upbringing. \n\nChildren learning multiple languages have been studied and their ability to avoid confusion is something that has fascinated researchers.\n\n",
"Even if he/she learns 5 languages, including two mother tongues, the baby will always have a \"strongest\" language. The strongest language, as I heard, can also depend on which parent is beloved more by the child, but I give you an interesting case: A Czech-Polish couple raises 3 children in a Hungarian town, and all of the children prefer talking rather in Hungarian. The mother sometimes hears the two older one talking in Hungarian among each other (when they think that the parents don't listen), and the baby always shouts \"mom\" in Hungarian even though her mother always speaks in Polish to her."
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85rcee | what happens to submarines during tsunamis? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85rcee/eli5_what_happens_to_submarines_during_tsunamis/ | {
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"**TL;DR:** Not much, generally, when they're out to sea. They will get shoved or moved up and down. But that shoving process is usually slow and the sub doesn't bang into anything, so it survives just fine.\n\nA tsunami is a one or more very high-volume waves usually caused by an underground-under-water earthquake. A sudden drop or rise in one part of the sea floor when another part stays at the exact same level causes all of the water directly over the changing part to shift up or down... and when that's cubic MILES of water shifting even just an inch or two, it's a TREMENDOUS amount of energy.\n\nBut it's not an instant and lethal shockwave like you can sometimes see in an in-air explosion [like this youtube clip](_URL_0_). Usually the shifts that cause tidal waves come from miles deep in the rock underground, and the release of energy muted by the rock isn't so explosive as a result, kind of like how a distant thunderclap is a rumble rather than a sharp crack. \n\nSo you get big volumes of water shifting up or down in waves *with a very long time between their crests*, and since the sub's in the middle of the water, it shifts up or down *slowly* with those waves too. \n\nBut that doesn't sound so dangerous. Why do tsunamis destroy so much then?\n\nThat's the result of when this very long wave interacts with land. The water is now actually contacting something besides more water... and that something - the coast - is fixed in place. So the tsunami causes the water to rise slowly, sure... but rise a LOT. And all that rising gets COMPRESSED at the shore and makes a tremendous wave that can really pile up high depending on local terrain underwater. \n\nAnd then all that water it contains causes it to wash everything it contacts back out to sea. And it's that massive washing-in and then washing-out effect that kills so many and destroys so much.\n\nSo if the sub were to be very close to the coast, such as if it were heading into dock, it would get sucked in and out with the rest of the debris you see in all that wrecked-village footage... but subs usually stay far out to ocean where the water is so deep that they don't get washed into any rocks or anything. ",
"I was deployed on a sub during a tsunami. It was a complete non-event. We couldn’t tell it was even happening. ",
"Basically nothing. In the deep ocean, a tsunami is broad and typically 20 to 80 centimeters high. It doesn't pile up into a huge wave until it reaches shallow water."
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7uk0o9 | why does earth’s magnetic field flip every (roughly) 200.000 years? what are the consequences? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uk0o9/eli5_why_does_earths_magnetic_field_flip_every/ | {
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"Science is not sure of the *why*.\n\nOur current studies of liquid convection generated magnetic fields are just scratching the surface, see...\n\n_URL_0_\n\nWe are only sure **that** it happens, and we are sure because it leaves a clear record in mid-ocean lava flows.\n",
"The answer seems to be we really don't know, but there are several hypotheses. From [Wikipedia](_URL_0_):\n\n > Some scientists, such as Richard A. Muller, think that geomagnetic reversals are not spontaneous processes but rather are triggered by external events that directly disrupt the flow in the Earth's core. Proposals include impact events[33][34] or internal events such as the arrival of continental slabs carried down into the mantle by the action of plate tectonics at subduction zones or the initiation of new mantle plumes from the core-mantle boundary.[35] Supporters of this hypothesis hold that any of these events could lead to a large scale disruption of the dynamo, effectively turning off the geomagnetic field. Because the magnetic field is stable in either the present North-South orientation or a reversed orientation, they propose that when the field recovers from such a disruption it spontaneously chooses one state or the other, such that half the recoveries become reversals. However, the proposed mechanism does not appear to work in a quantitative model, and the evidence from stratigraphy for a correlation between reversals and impact events is weak. There is no evidence for a reversal connected with the impact event that caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.[36]",
"Might not be applicable but our sun has a highly active field that flips every 11 years. This is thought to have to do with the spinning of the sun twisting the magnetic field, it gets so tangled and eventually flipping could resolve it.",
"Nobody has answered the consequences question, which is what I'm most interested in. I can think of a lot of tech things it will impact, but what about how animals and plants and geology will react? Will the Van Allen belts be messed up? Will the Northern Lights be affected? This kind of event would probably touch on a ton of different hard sciences, so it might need responses from more than just one person.",
"I take it nothing will happen to our navigation systems since most use gps. But compass with be opposite? Correct me if i am wrong.\n",
"ELI5: How do we know that the magnetic field is flipped (roughly) every 200 000 years? ",
"This isn’t true. If you look at magnetic field flips over the course of Earth’s history, the flips occur at random. Sometimes, the magnetic field had the same orientation for tens of millions of years, like in the Mid-Cretaceous. A mechanism for these changes has not been determined. ",
"First, keep in mind that the magnetic field is not perfectly stationary and then suddenly flips. The field is created by circulating molten metal deep in the earth's core. Those circulations are subject to turbulence and eddies, and as such, the magnetic field actually wanders pretty much constantly. For example, the magnetic field North is currently moving westward across Alaska towards Russia at a rate of about 37 miles per year.\n\nFrom what we can tell, it takes up to around 20,000 years for a full flip to occur. This seems instant in the span of geologic time, which is typically hundreds of millions or billions of years. But it's also longer than the entirety of recorded human civilization. That 37 mph wandering of the current pole doesn't significantly impact our instruments or machines at the moment, so we likely have plenty of time to adjust to a flip when and if it starts.\n\nThe other thing to note is that the flip is *super* variable. \"Every 200,000 years\" drastically overstates how reliable it is. [Here is a good diagram](_URL_0_) of how often it happens. You'll notice it's common to have periods of millions of years before a reversal. Sometimes it's much shorter than 200,000 years too! As far as we can tell, there is no pattern, which would match our theory that it's due to random perturbations and turbulence of the flow of liquid metal in the core. It could start tomorrow, or we could be 800,000 years from another reversal.\n\nSo when it happens, will it impact us much? Sure, but the change would likely happen so gradually that we could adapt just fine. The worst part will be in the middle, where the magnetic field gets so weak that a lot more cosmic rays and damaging radiation from the sun would get through to equatorial regions that are currently shielded. But even then, we could probably adjust. Plants and animals certainly seem able to -- these reversals do not correspond with large extinction events in the fossil record -- and they are far less adaptable over short time periods than we are."
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1r4dkk | i've seen a lot of people put post-it notes over their webcam. how easy is it for someone to hack our cams? eli5! | I'm not asking for a tutorial (although I would be interested to see one). I'm more curious if this is something that people actually do, or just an over reaction by some. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r4dkk/ive_seen_a_lot_of_people_put_postit_notes_over/ | {
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"It is fairly easy. I had a customer's conference service turn it on without asking. There was a school district in Pennsylvania USA that was famously caught spying on kids using them. \n\n_URL_0_",
"Will the green light on my MacBook light up if the webcam is being hacked?"
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67u62k | why are houses in suburbs numbered in such a peculiar way? | i.e. houses may go 1187, 1189, 1195, etc without any seemingly noticeable pattern. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67u62k/eli5_why_are_houses_in_suburbs_numbered_in_such_a/ | {
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"Generally, odd-numbered houses are on one side of the street, and even on another.\n\nMost places have a system where the \"hundred/thousands\" places is related to how far away from some central or otherwise predefined point; for example, around here Main Avenue is the dividing line between South and North -- the address with the number '1' is the closest to Main Avenue on both sides, \"100\" is the first house on the next block, 200 is the first house on the next, etc.. 1187 would usually mean it is eleven blocks away from that central point.\n\nWhen you get to the end of a block, the numbering starts over, so they might go from 127 to 201 -- and let's say the cross-street doesn't actually go through at that point in the street system, but to keep the numbering consistent (you don't want to keep counting 100-addresses until you reach third street where they start over at 300) the numbers will \"reset\" to the next hundred-block structure in the middle of the two-block-long-block; my grandparents lived at 405, which was 1/3rd of the way down a street that stretched from 3rd street to 6th street (which was actually called Broadway, but fit into as the \"600 block\" in the street structure).\n\nWhen a subdivision is platted, it is divided into lots -- those lots don't have addresses, but it's possible that a house takes up multiple lots, so they skip a number in case someday that house is torn down and two houses are build on those same lots, so the address will skip from 1109 to 1113, because someday there might be an 1111 and they don't want to do 1109-1/2 (those kinds of addresses are usually used for apartments above businesses). \n\nAlso, subdivisions tend to have weird, curvy streets -- so, for example, let's say the street is a loop and turns back on itself. Since the numbering scheme means that the \"11xx\" addresses are 11 blocks from Main Avenue, that means both ends of the street loop are that same distance, so 1101, 1105, 1109, 1113 are at one end of the loop and 1103, 1107, 1111 are at the other end. Yes, it's annoying and confusing, particularly for pizza drivers (which I experienced during the few months I did that job), but once you learn the quirks -- for example, in Fargo a street called \"South Terrace\" is in North Fargo -- it's easy to figure out.\n\nTL/DR: there are systems, and generally addresses count upwards by, a \"hundreds\" step for each block, based on distance from a reference point, but the way houses and streets are actually built can throw it off a bit, so sometimes there's a little variation in the actual numbering process."
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twghj | how to catch up/develop a well informed opinion on world news and politics? | I am 21 years old and have very little knowledge of what is going on in the world as well as politics. I would like to develop a well informed opinion.
Are there any especially good subreddits for this?
I might try reading the New York Times but I'm sure you guys have great suggestions for me!
Thanks!
tldr; I know shit bout what be goin on. Help a brotha out | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/twghj/how_to_catch_updevelop_a_well_informed_opinion_on/ | {
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"Personally, I like Christian Science Monitor (even though I'm an atheist. They do good reporting) and The Economist. The BBC is also good for factual stories on world events.",
"Not sure this is exactly the right subreddit to ask this question, but I would advise the most important thing is to read from a *variety* of sources. There are a number of places I personally get my news from, but you should also be aware of their political bent. \n\nThe New York Times for an example, is great and all for US politics. It's very liberal, but a lot of world events gets plopped into \"World Briefing\" and don't get full articles. \n\nThe Wall Street Journal has a conversative bent. They're similarly awesome and reputable to the NYT. \n\nThe Economist is a great weekly British magazine. You can get a lot of non-US world news exposure there. Their articles are more obviously opinionated (they tend to be center-rightish and have this intense hate for Cristina Kirchner), but they're very well-written. \n\nSlate and The Nation are both really leftist. Everything's an opinion piece. ",
"[The Atlantic](_URL_0_) is (in my opinion) very sophisticated yet unbiased. Especially the regular columnists.",
"Seconding what's already been said. Variety is key. \n\n- Christian Science Monitor has good international reporting, mainly because they still have bureaus where most other US newspapers have downsized (or so I've heard). \n- I try to read both The Guardian and The Times of London to get a varied British perspective (Guardian on the left and Times on the right). BBC is good for getting quick headlines, but doesn't quite match up depth-wise. \n- Al-Jazeera catches flak from the Middle East for being anti-Arab and from the U.S. for being anti-American, but their coverage of the Arab Spring was better than anywhere else, so I read it pretty regularly.\n- Finally, if you're interested in military/defense and politics, [Small Wars Journal's daily Roundup] (_URL_0_) is a great source for quick headlines from a variety of sources."
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3cxi8d | what is happening between julian assange and ecuador? | As an ecuadorian, I have no idea of what is happening with this whole Assange thing and why it's poping in the news almost weekly. Every time they just show an "update", but never explain the whole thing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cxi8d/eli5_what_is_happening_between_julian_assange_and/ | {
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"I don't think there's all that much going on. The story is that, Julian Assange is wanted by several governments, including England, and his English passport has been revoked so he cannot leave the country. He was granted Asylum by Ecuador, and is now living inside the Ecuador embassy in London. ",
"Not much is happening. Julian Assange is still living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was granted asylum about two and a half years ago by the Ecuadorian government to protect him against potential prosecution in the US. However, he's currently not wanted by the US, nor is he charged with anything there.\n\nNormally when you get asylum, you then go the country giving it, but in this case that's impossible since Assange is also involved in another legal process, where he's wanted by the UK for having broken bail, and for executing an extradition.\n\nThere's no progress being made concerning these legal problems he's in, so there's really no end in sight. In about five years, the grounds for the extradition will reach their statute of limitations, but the bail jumping will still be in effect.\n\nIt's possible that the police just gives up at one point, or that a new Ecuadorian government doesn't find the situation quite as beneficial, but other than that, it might be long wait."
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2gktar | how does conception happen during a period? | Key word: conception. Not specifically sex. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gktar/eli5_how_does_conception_happen_during_a_period/ | {
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"It rarely does, but...sperm can live a long time (many days) up in there and some people can have very short cycles. But...to be clear, if you think of conception as the moment the sperm enters the egg (technical definition) then it really can't happen because there would be no uterine lining in which to embed and it would get flushed out. But...if the sex happens during the period, the sperm can survive in the fallopian tubes and then the egg can make it way down and the uterine lining can be forming a new nest just in time."
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3ursh0 | why are tattos permanent? | Shouldn't they go away when the skin cells die and rub off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ursh0/eli5_why_are_tattos_permanent/ | {
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"LIke someone said watch _URL_0_\n\nBasically the ink has large metal clusters within the dye. Lots of the dye gets \"washed away\" by your skin cells but the metal chunks stay behind because they are so big. That's why tattoos fade but never really go away."
]
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kjo19 | why can i stuff my face and remain slightly underweight, but some people struggle not to become overweight who diet? | Is this metabolism, or what? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kjo19/eli5_why_can_i_stuff_my_face_and_remain_slightly/ | {
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"A related question I've been wondering is why don't I feel a desire to eat but my stomach would be hungry? I do eat, but I just don't care much for eating. I find it boring. I have trouble getting enough calories in my diet probably b/c of this.",
"This is a very interesting documentary that I think will answer your question for you..\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"A related question I've been wondering is why don't I feel a desire to eat but my stomach would be hungry? I do eat, but I just don't care much for eating. I find it boring. I have trouble getting enough calories in my diet probably b/c of this.",
"This is a very interesting documentary that I think will answer your question for you..\n\n_URL_0_\n\n"
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c174d0 | what is the difference between ark, mig, tig, and oxy acetylene welding. (?strengh, speed, efficiency?) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c174d0/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_ark_mig_tig/ | {
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"Hello there! \n\nI want to start off by apologising for how long this post is; I didn’t want to oversimplify it too much. \n\nBoth MIG (metal inert gas) and TIG (tungsten inert has) are forms of arc welding. TIG may also be referred to as GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding) and MIG as GMAW (has metal arc welding). Typically when I hear arc welding, I think about SMAW (shielded metal arc welding) or stick welding, which is one of the most common welding processes. However, I have also seen FCAW (flux corded arc welding) referred to as arc welding. All of these processes have a few things in common however; they all use heat generated through electrical resistance and all utilise some form of atmospheric shielding. \n\nMIG and FCAW work almost the exact same, as both utilise a wire feed mechanise that feeds the consumable wire electrode into the weld pool. However, MIG uses an external shielding gas, which is typically either carbon dioxide (CO2) or argon (Ar), which is dispersed through a nozzle over the weld pool. FCAW, however, doesn’t use an external shielding gas. Instead, it uses a hollow wire which inside contains what’s called flux, which burns and creates a shielding atmosphere for the weld pool. Both of these processes are fairly quick to use and easy to learn. However, they cannot weld aluminium and cannot weld very thick metal. My FCAW machine can only weld up to 3/16” metal, however, I surmise there are other, more powerful machines that can weld thicker materials. \n\nTIG welding is a little bit different than GMAW, as unlike these two processes, TIG uses a non-consumable electrode that is made out of tungsten and mostly uses Argon as a shielding gas. This makes TIG a very precise process; it can be used to weld needles together. The TIG process is more difficult than GMAW as the welder not only has to direct the arc, but they also have to manually feed in the filler rod by hand into the weld pool. However, as a result of the precision this process has, it will produce the best looking welds out of all of the processes. The most important aspect of TIG is that it can be used to weld aluminium, and to my knowledge is the best method for welding aluminium. This process isn’t very fast to do, and is difficult to learn. \n\nSMAW was the first arc welding process to be used. SMAW or stick works by having a clamp, which holds a long thick wire, which is why it is called stick welding. This electrode is coated in flux, which makes this process gas free. What the welder does with this process is strike the arc like a match, and pull the electrode across the joint or whatever is being welded. While pulling the electrode, the welder also pushes the electrode down, as it’s consumed during the process. This can made the process difficult to learn, however it is one of the most versatile processes. SMAW can be quick and efficient as its basically a strike and go process. \n\nOxy/Acetylene or Oxy-fuel welding is the only process here that doesn’t use electricity. Instead, acetylene and pure oxygen are combined and burnt to produce heat and a protective flame envelope. With this process, the welder also has to feed the filler rod by hand. However, Oxy-fuel is a much slower process since you have to wait for the metal to heat up and melt. This makes this process the slowest out of all of the aforementioned processes. That being said, this is the most portable process since it doesn’t require an electric current. \n\nI wanted to wait until the end to touch on the actual strength of all of these processes. Assuming you’re making good, correct welds, all of these processes can produce strong welds. This means that the only real limitation will be the thickness of the metal itself. Because of this, i would say that SMAW is probably the strongest process since it can weld the thickest metal out of all of the other processes."
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99bprm | why do some letters have a completely different character when written in uppercase (a/a, r/r, e/e, etc), whereas others simply have a larger version of themselves (s/s, p/p, w/w, etc)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99bprm/eli5_why_do_some_letters_have_a_completely/ | {
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"~~Well first of all:~~\nA little bonus information: \nWe are using upper- and lowercase to make reading easier since the 9th century AD. \n\nRegarding your question: look at the Roman Cursive. The Latin alphabet is inspired by it. But why looks r so different than R until today? For efficiency reasons. Let’s take the word ride. Imagine you have to write the word ride over and and over again with a feather. Once you get used to it... it’s okay. Now write Ride Ride Ride. The R takes way longer than the r. \n\nTL;DR:\n\nEfficiency ",
"TL; DR\n\nAt first it was only cursive for paper and big uppercase for sculptures/incisions. Lowercase was created when printing was invented, since printing cursive was impossible but uppercase and lowercase letters still needed to exist. Therefore changes were mode for clarity, as an r done like an R probably would've not looked right\n\nThe names uppercase and lowercase exist because the stamps for those respective letters were stored on the upper case or on the lower case",
"Some letters have lower cases that were developed by scribes to make writing in a formal book hand more efficient.\n\nOthers Like \"W/w\" are relatively recent i.e. don't exist in the older alphabets and Never had to go through a scribe and we're predominantly printed or only written in cursive so we're never subject to the same change.\n\nEdit: to clarify , a lot of today's lower case letters are actually old Uncial capital letters and most capitals are Roman .",
"Disclaimer: this is my understanding from a quick read through the wiki on this topic.\n\nSo a long time ago, there were the Ancient Greeks and later on the Romans. They had a special way of writing that was different than all European styles of the time. They were different because they had capitals! They were used at the beginning of sentences and nouns. \n\nAt first they were just big versions of themselves, but some people liked to be fancy and made special letters that were big. They could do this because until the 18th century, the rules for capitals weren't very strict yet. The difference just kinda stuck ever since!\n\nExtra credit fun fact: originally the letters were called majuscule and minuscule letters. But then the printing press was invented and the big letters were kept in the case on top and the little letters were kept on the bottom. So now we call them upper case and lower case!\n\nTldr for main article. Long ago Greeks invented capitals. Some people got fancy and it stuck ever since.",
"First of all, let's talk about the words 'uppercase' and 'lowercase'. These words come from the early history of printing, when a person called a *typesetter* would assemble each page of a book letter by letter. Each letter was a profile on a piece of lead, called a *sort*. The sorts were kept in boxes called [*typecases*](_URL_7_), which had compartments for each letter. There would be a typecase for each *font* (also called a *fount*), which was a *typeface* at a specific size, at a specific weight (bold, medium, *etc.*), in a specific shape (upright, italic, *etc.*). A typeface is what we nowadays call a font on computers. There were actually two typecases for each font, and they were kept one on top of the other. The one on top was called the *upper case*, and contained the 'majuscule' letters; the one on the bottom was called the *lower case*, and contained the 'minuscule' letters. So the proper names for 'uppercase' and 'lowercase' are 'majuscule' and 'minuscule', respectively.\n\nNow, on to your actual question.\n\nLetters are just simple drawings that have phonetic meanings. (In other words, the symbols represent sounds.) The nature of the symbols is affected by the thing the symbols are written on. For example, one of the earliest writing symbols we have is [cuneiform](_URL_6_), which was written by making marks with a stylus in a piece of clay. The shape of cuneiform marks is strongly determined by the shape of the stylus.\n\nThis is important, because the majuscules and minuscules were originally two forms of the Latin alphabet that were used for writing on different materials, and the same thing applies to the Greek alphabet.\n\nMajuscule letters were originally *inscriptional*, which means they were carved into stone. The Roman emperor Trajan had his military victories depicted on a carved stone column called [Trajan's column](_URL_0_); at the base of this column is some writing, in the style of [Roman square capitals](_URL_4_): this style is common on Roman monuments, but Trajan's column is one of the best known examples. These letters were designed by a scribe painting them on to the stone with a brush; a stonemason would then carve out the painted areas. The motion of the brush created little flairs at the beginning at end of each brush stroke; these flairs are now known as *serifs*.\n\nHowever, Romans writing out documents would use [Roman cursive](_URL_1_). Roman cursive, like all cursive writing forms, is basically a bunch of shortcuts in writing the 'proper' letters.\n\nAfter the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Roman culture continued to hold considerable sway amongst the barbarians. The same writing styles were preserved, until the Carolingian Renaissance under Charlemagne (Charles the Great) in the Frankish Empire (now France) in the 800s. Charlemagne was a great believer in literacy, and despite never learning to read himself, ordered the creation of a single style of handwriting to be used across his empire, to prevent documents from being misinterpreted. The end result was a pairing of these two writing styles into the majuscule and minuscule letters of a unified alphabet. The minuscule letters, being easier to write quickly, were use normally, but the majuscule letters, with their grand and elegant forms, were used for proper nouns and emphasis. Over the succeeding thousand years, different nations would slowly adapt these letter forms and the relationships between them to their needs: the Italians developed the [Humanist minuscule](_URL_2_), which later became the italic script; the Germanic peoples developed the [blackletter](_URL_3_) scripts; the Irish developed the [insular script](_URL_5_). This development continues today, with hundreds of typefaces released each year by type designers.",
"The German sharp s officially has majuscle form since 2017, after repeated calls for over 100 years.\n\nẞ --uppercase\nß --lowercase\n\nUseful for surnames printed in all capital letters (e.g. in passports) to disambiguate between variations, where a substitution with SS doesn't help.\nE.g. Rössler vs. Rößler\n\nAnd also where the substitution with SS has a wrong pronunciation (e.g. Straße =street), or leads to utter confusion.\nE.g.\nMasse =mass, weight, bulk\nMaße =measures, metrics, dimensions\n\nI wonder how this is done in Switzerland, where the ß has been rigorously replaced by SS decades ago.\nDid that affect surnames or location names as well?\n",
"Big letters are called *majescule*. Small letters are called *minescule*. \n\nBig letters are easy to read and pretty to look at, but slow and hard to write using a dip pen or a brush. In the old days, this made running governments and businesses difficult. So quicker and easier writing form were developed, usually by government administrators and book publishers. \n\nThe first was called the [*Old Roman Cursive*](_URL_6_). It was a majescule script that was developed from the familiar [*Roman Square Capitals*](_URL_5_) that were commonly used on big stone monuments. \n\nBut while the Roman cursive was fast, it was ugly. Things written in it tended to be hard to read. So over time, different governments developed better and prettier systems. One of the most popular, that people like even today, was called the [*Uncial*](_URL_1_). It was used in a lot of places, but it was [especially well-done by monks in Ireland](_URL_4_), so a lot of people today think of it as ‘Irish writing’. \n\nThe uncial developed into the half-uncial, for speed and clarity. This gave us the basic form of modern lower-case letters, but they weren’t truly formalized and widely spread until the time of Charlemagne. Among many other advances, he standardized the handwriting used by administrators throughout his Empire, with the [*Carolingian miniscule*](_URL_0_). Those letter shapes should all be familiar. \n\nAfter awhile, scribes got bored with this and started developing the spiky [*Gothic*](_URL_3_) and [*Batard*](_URL_2_) hands that were popular in the Middle Ages. Eventually, people got sick of those, and during the Renaissance, the Italians brought back the Carolingian miniscule, and modified it a little into the *Italic* , just in time to be adopted by the first printers. With the result being that we still use it today. ",
"Without looking at the top answer I would suspect it has something to do with how easy it is to write. If you look at your examples, all the small letters that were changed can be written without removing the pen from the paper and so can all the small ones that weren't changed. A small E for instance, if you had to reprint the bible by hand would become annoying very quickly and prone to error.",
"I actually noticed this when I was learning calligraphy. There is a script called unical used primarily in the 4th-8th century, and a lot of the letters show an in between of our modern day capital and small letters.\n\n[Here's my crappy rendition with a ballpoint pen.](_URL_0_)",
"ELI5 Version of Top Answer (u/Shmiggles):\n\nLong ago, we used to have two ways of writing letters, one that was simple and another that is like cursive.\n\nWell some other guy decided to combine these two ways, and kept the more complicated to put in front of important stuff because it looked good (Proper Nouns, etc.) Eventually the world decided we liked it this way and have basically kept it and turned the simple one into lowercase, and the fancy one into uppercase.",
"Because it's a shortcut, a simplified system created by scribes who had to write a lot by hand. So these scribes (some of them were monks) discovered that instead of raising the pen from the paper over and over again to write a new, separated letter, it was easier and faster to keep a continuous line that flows tying one letter to the next. \n\n\nThis system, called cursive, works great for some of the Latin letters, but not for most of them which had to be adapted. This is why A, B, E F, G, H, I, L, M, N, Q, R and sometimes S look very different in cursive from their uppercase versions.\n\n\nThis cursive system was later adapted by printers as the lowercase fonts.\n\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_1_)\n",
"But all the letters - Greek and Roman - have a previous form in Hebrew and other shemitic languages. If you look up those letters frequently you find the original cuneiform / quadratic/ Hebrew letters. Like in G you find the Hebrew ג. Which comes from the pictogram called Camel ( originally gimel). It is just allongated with a half circle. The minuscule version g also does contain the original but differently. \nI think that in many other letters the relation between the ancestral and descendant letters / numbers is many times obvious. \nA and א (alef meaning a hero among others) and 'a' have some common lines. Number 1.\nB is a double ב ( bet meaning house ) and you find the same form in ' b'. Number 2\nThen comes G ( later switched to locate C).number 3.\nD and d all di have the form of ד dalet meaning door. The number 4.\nH and h is found as ה called hay.\n\nI will stop here. But this history is part of the answer.\n\n",
"I believe it has to do with some capital letters containing too much detail when shrunk down, which on a printing press would cause smudging. \nThink R vs r. If youve evee read printed papers smudging is a big problem in reading them\nSo they adopted cleaner version of cursive letters, which got their shape from scribes (often monks) not wanting to lift their hand off the paper when they write. The cursive letters contain less detail and were easier to read"
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1qyub4 | why are army and navy salutes done with opposite palm positions? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qyub4/eli5why_are_army_and_navy_salutes_done_with/ | {
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"Whose?\n\nThe US standards for saluting are all the same.\n\nSome people just do it funny.",
"This was explained to me many years ago as going back to the days of rigged ships. Tar was used on-board for sealing, it got onto everything including ropes used for the rigging and then onto the palms of the hands of the sailors, they saluted palm inwards to hide the tar."
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jtpyo | general relativity. li5. | Please. I watch all these shows and they talk like it's commonly understood. They always talk about a bowling ball on a sheet or some shit, but that only covers the X and Y axis and a little of the Z axis. Help?! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jtpyo/general_relativity_li5/ | {
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"I explained this [here](_URL_0_) previously, but on a different question.\n\nEdit: The rubber sheet analogy is probably overused, but what it's saying is that space is kind of like a three dimensional version of the rubber sheet, and that things with mass distort it in similar ways. But then you just ask why gravity distorts space in the first place, and you haven't really learned anything.",
"I explained this [here](_URL_0_) previously, but on a different question.\n\nEdit: The rubber sheet analogy is probably overused, but what it's saying is that space is kind of like a three dimensional version of the rubber sheet, and that things with mass distort it in similar ways. But then you just ask why gravity distorts space in the first place, and you haven't really learned anything."
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80majp | how are psychiatric medications developed, if their mechanisms of action is often unknown? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80majp/eli5_how_are_psychiatric_medications_developed_if/ | {
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"A lot of the time they are discovered by accident. In other words they don’t usually intend to create psychiatric medicine, but find that certain other drugs just so happen to have beneficial effects for mental health. ",
"I have ADHD, so this is anecdotal, but I've heard that the way that stimulants were found helpful in ADHD is that \"disturbed\" boys were given a stimulant just to see what happened. I don't think that it was in a malicious way, though. They saw that these children were functional after taking a stimulant. \n*takes Vyvanse* ",
"Tbh we don't really understand how Lithium works but it really does work. We know a lot though. We don't know enough not by a long way however. \n\nAs a psychiatry trainee I do wish we had better insight into the neurology of mental illness. This is what should hopefully better inform which drugs treat specific illnesses. But our knowledge is definitely progressing very rapidly.",
"Initially, as you know, it started with coincidences. People who had psychiatric problems were given drugs that calmed them down, and eventually it was found that these drugs were also treating their psychiatric problems. Since then, discovery has led by finding molecules with similar structure, but recently we have been using something called high throughput processing. What this entails is having thousands of micro wells in a plate, each one of which has a few cells in it. We add chemicals to these cells that we know their effects (ex. Cause decrease in anxiett) and monitor how they work at the molecular level. We then look for similar molecular events when we add a random chemical to a micro well. This is kind of abstract so I'll give you an example. Imagine if an anxiety drug worked by increasing glucose intake into a cell. If we wanted to find a drug with similar properties, we would monitor the glucose uptake of cells in the wells we have. This is really a neat process, because you can test thousands of random drug candidates a day through this approach, all you have to do is add the drug to a micro well.",
"Take the first gen antihistamine atarax for example. It was developed to treat itching and histamine over production (allergies)\n\nPeople would come to the ER very anxious with acute allergy symptoms, and while the drug was not very effective for its intended indication, it seemed to cam them. Now it’s prescribed for anxiety",
"Only slightly related to your question, but, as a whole, psychiatric medications are terribly ineffective by modern medical standards. The APA (American Psychiatric Association) claims that psychiatric medication work about 50% of the time. Considering their obvious vested interest, this is likely an exaggerated figure and actual efficacy is likely somewhere between 30%-45%, which is only marginally better than placebo results (usually around 30%). So, to say that psychiatric medications are a loose science is a bit of an understatement. Psychiatry as a field is in a bit of a limbo and I am interested to see where the field goes in the next decade or so. "
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6qgh09 | what happens if you're caught with fake bills? | I work as a cashier and we always check $50/$100 bills and such but I was wondering what happens if I actually do catch one. I assume the money is confiscated. But is it fair to the person who might be unaware that their bill was fake and in such way gets shorted of money or is it reimbursed? How would one even prove they were unaware? Or how could it be traced back to the source of whoever printed it? It is 5am right now and I cant sleep and this popped into my head and I am just curious, not scheming. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6qgh09/eli5_what_happens_if_youre_caught_with_fake_bills/ | {
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"If you had a fake bill and you went the bank (i use bank as its more official than a store) to deposit it and say you have 5x $100 bills and 1 is a fake. Then you loose that $100 ad they just tell you its a fake. Your loss. But thats probably the end of it as the secret servicr (i think its them responsible for money, lets say *feds*) are not going to come after you they will assume you didnt know.\n\nNow if you go in and all 5 are fakes the feds might come ask you where you got it from and try and trace it. You still loose the $500 you don't get anything back. The real problem is if you keep trying to deposit or pay in fakes they might come knocking with a warrant.",
"When I was in high school my friends little brothers made a bunch of fake money and took it to the bank and tried to get real money for it. They all got arrested and weren't allowed to touch computers outside of school until the fr aduated high school.",
"I am in loss prevention. Or was. Currently out. Anyway..\n\nThe bank calls the store and says 'You had a $100 counterfeit bill on whatever date, and we have confiscated it.\" Then usually the store calls me, and I go watch all of the cash transactions and try and find who did it. 100% of the time its a dude, late 20s to mid 30s, ball cap, sunglasses. No way to know who he is, and we never see him again. \n",
"Whoever is left holding the bag is out that money.\n\nIf you sold a bike to me, and I paid you in what turned out to be fake bills, I still owe you the money for the bike. In turn, if I can find the person who gave me the fake bills, I can get my money back. But unless it can be traced back to the original counterfeiters, someone is going to be out of luck.\n\nIt is not fair, but it is pretty much the same as if someone gave you a bad check. Unless you can find them, you are out a bike.\n\n > How would one even prove they were unaware? \n\nYou don't have to. The state has to prove you were aware.",
"I was working a register at a Software Etc. in Santa Monica during the Christmas mayhem one year, and I closed the store. While counting the drawers I found a totally bogus $100 bill. Ink was dry, the red and blue hairs were photocopied, and, well, it was totally bogus. I didn't know what to do, so I put the bill in the deposit envelope and just kinda felt like, \"Well, what the heck.\" \nMy guess is the bank was just as busy and frazzled as we were at that time of year, and, well, there were no repercussions at all.\n",
"I also work as a retail cashier. Usually when someone has a counterfeit bill they don't know it is and ended up with it after it being used multiple times. \nI would ask your supervisor on your stores specific policies. \nIf you encounter this, contact your supervisor. \nOne time a gentleman came through my coworkers line, and his $50 bill looked suspicious after testing it with the marker. Our store had to contact the police who came in and looked at it, then they brought it to a bank and the bank was able to confirm that the $50 bill was authentic. I felt bad for the guy and I'm glad everything was okay. \nAgain, I highly encourage you to find out the policy of your store. "
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2h65ze | why modern stock markets still have a physical trading floor | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h65ze/eli5_why_modern_stock_markets_still_have_a/ | {
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"very large trades of massive volumes of shares still often need to be negotiated in person. that is the primary reason.\n\nalso, it is kind of like a stage that represents the market trading and in this day of cable news programs, it is where many of these programs film to keep audiences entertained. \n\n*edit: yeah the top comment isn't exactly correct. here are some more information (although a little more specific to the nyse) about the floor:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nfrom wikipedia: _URL_2_\n\nread the section on floor trading... \n\n_URL_0_",
"The trading floor really is only a glorified television studio at this point. While a very small amount of trading is done \"in person\" on the floor, pretty much all of it is computer based. It wouldn't make for good TV if the reporter was standing in front of a server farm talking about why the market was up or down that day. \n \nEdit: [Here's a brief history of the rise in computer trading.](_URL_1_) \n \nEdit 2: [A good _URL_0_ article discussing why there are still floor traders.](_URL_2_)",
"What are all those people yelling and freaking out about? It seems crazy that any legit transactions are done that way.",
"**Side question if ya'll don't mind**, how are stocks sold these days? From movies like Boiler Room or Wolf of Wall Street it's basically \"hitting the phones\", is that the case today? Or has it gone mostly electronic? Or is it 50/50?",
"It's called \"Open Outcry\".\n\nThe LME still operates a similar system with tiered ring members. There are professionally trained individuals who supervise outcry trading to make sure nothing underhand goes on."
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5j9li1 | why do people fill empty space between words with "uhh" and "umm" instead of silence? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5j9li1/eli5_why_do_people_fill_empty_space_between_words/ | {
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"To let you (the listener) know that they are still talking. In a polite conversation, when one person is silent that is usually seen as permission for the other person to talk. If I stop talking to think of a word, you might take that to mean that I am through talking. If I keep making noise, you know that I am still talking. \n\n",
"It's also a good indicator of growing up trying to compete with one's siblings for their parents' attention. If you stop speaking, the other child immediately gets the floor.",
"To continue talking. It just feels weird with a void in the middle. It's also because we have to think in between words to understand ourselves.\nIt's kind of like typing. We type a little, stop, then think about it. Then we type a little, stop, then think about it.",
"For my father, the term was \"see??\". This guy walked in, see? And he looked around, see? I've heard than in gangster movies from the 1930s and 40s, but it wasn't just gangsters - that was the vernacular of the time. I've heard other people my dad's age do the same (not recently - my dad was born in 1909.)",
"To stop people from interrupting. In West Africa, it's common for folks in positions of power to stutter to achieve the same effect. Sort of an odd cross-cultural thing: some chieftain stuttering through a speech is perceived as charismatic and articulate, whereas a Westerner might perceive him as nervous and submissive for the stutter.\nSource: lived with a West African chieftain for a year.",
"It's called \"filler words.\" As your brain is trying to find the next words to use, you add these to keep the conversation going. ",
"They're called verbal pauses. People use them, most times unconsciously, to assess where they are in a though or to provide themselves additional time to think. You can practice these out of use by slowing down your speaking pace or learning to be comfortable with silent pauses. ",
"I don't really say uhh and umm, and people always hive me shit about long pauses between words as I'm talking/thinking out loud.",
"Toastmasters and other public speaking groups use similar approaches... mostly a matter of pacing your speech, though, so you don't leave empty space.\n\nThe funny part is what sound we use... in American English usage it's Schwa (uhm), while in French it's usually \"angle y\" (to make this sound shape your lips like \"oo\" but your tongue like \"ee.\" In Hebrew it seems to be \"ehm.\"",
"I'm silent when I can't think of something and I usually get chastised for not answering them or trailing off and leaving them hanging when I'm just thinking. \"All you had to do was tell me, don't get upset when I get upset.\" \"I didn't even know what to tell you.\"",
"In my Speech class in college, every time a person delivering a speech said \"um\" or the like the professor would drop a rock into an empty metal coffee can.\n\nIt was funny to watch others endure that but damned horrific when it was happening to you..."
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1t092g | why aren't movies pirated using cinema files on the day of release? | It just seems weird to me. Wouldn't it be easy to just copy the file/film that gets delivered to the cinema somehow, and then distribute it illegally at full quality? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t092g/eli5_why_arent_movies_pirated_using_cinema_files/ | {
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"Its probably because those files are kept under the watchful eyes of the cinema security and those responsible for making sure the files don't get into the wrong hands. Even if you were an employee of the cinema and you had access to it, you would need to bring in some sort of media to transfer the files, a huge storage device (these are super high resolution films - not your everyday .avi files) and some sneaky ninja moves. If you were caught and reported by anyone the repercussions could be huge as you will most likely be singlehandedly responsible for the pirating of that movie. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, as I've wondered this before. Its just risky and you would need the right tools for the job - and most importantly inside accomplices to help you smuggle them in/out. ",
"Snagged this right from [a Wikipedia article](_URL_0_):\n\n > Movies are supplied to the theatre as a digital file called a \"Digital Cinema Package\"(DCP).[19] For a typical feature film this file will be anywhere between 90 and 300GB of data (roughly two to six times the information of a Blu-ray disc) and may arrive as a physical delivery on a conventional computer hard-drive or via satellite or fibre-optic broadband.[20] Currently (Dec 2013) physical deliveries are most common and have become the industry standard. Trailer's arrive on a separate hard-drive and range between 200 and 400MB in size.\n\n > Regardless of how the DCP arrives it first needs to be copied onto the internal hard-drives of the server, usually via a USB port, a process known as \"ingesting\". DCPs can be, and in the case of **feature films almost always are, encrypted**. The necessary decryption keys are supplied separately, usually as email attachments and then \"ingested\" via USB. Keys are time limited and will expire after the end of the period for which the title has been booked. **They are also locked to the hardware (server and projector) that is to screen the film**, so if the theatre wishes to move the title to another screen or extend the run a new key must be obtained from the distributor.\n\nI **bolded** what I thought were the important bits."
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46imj3 | why are the drugs that bind to specific receptors have such variability based on their specific chemical make-up? | I'm making the assumption that for a particular human, there's a set number of receptors (opiate, serotonin, dopamine, canabinoid, etc.) and that a single molecule of the drug can bind to a single receptor. (If these assumptions are wrong, please explain).
How can there be such a variability in dose to achieve the same effect? For example, [here's](_URL_0_) a chart that shows 180mg of codeine is equivalent of 1 microgram of carfentanil. Assuming that the weight of a codeine molecule doesn't differ by a factor of 180,000 from the weight of a carfentanil molecule, how are the two equivalent despite such a different dosage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46imj3/eli5_why_are_the_drugs_that_bind_to_specific/ | {
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"I don't mean to be rude, but the other posts are half-baked. The answer you're looking for is actually pretty straightforward. There are two factors you need to consider: (1) agonist [efficacy](_URL_1_) and (2) agonist [binding affinity](_URL_0_). The former is a measure of the magnitude of the physiologic response the agonist induces through action at the receptor site. The latter is a measure of how tightly the agonist binds to the receptor site.\n\nEfficacy and affinity are, for the most part, independent properties for a given agonist at a given receptor. Higher affinity does not imply higher efficacy, and vice versa. With regard to the drugs you mentioned, carfentanil exhibits greater *efficacy* at the mu-opiate receptor than codeine. However, codeine actually has greater *affinity* for the mu receptor than carfentanil.\n\nEdit: Disregard my last sentence, I was mistaken. I just looked up the values. Carfentanil exhibits both higher efficacy and affinity than codeine at the mu-opiate receptor."
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8w2wal | please help me understand cloud storage such as googledrive | I'd like to free up a bunch of disk space on my PC but still have access to the files, I'm not sure if cloud storage is the answer.
I don't really understand it -I'm not very good with technology at all.
Could I upload a bunch of files onto google drive and then delete those files off my PC and have access to them from a cloud? would that free up space or would it just create another copy or something. Is it's purpose just to share access to files while still having a hard copy?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8w2wal/eli5please_help_me_understand_cloud_storage_such/ | {
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"Imagine cloud storage as a flash drive that you can access from anywhere, without the risk of damage/loss to the drive itself.. Do with it what you please. If you want to store a few larger files and delete the local copies, you can.",
"Yes, you could delete those files off of your machine completely and Google Drive will store them.\n\nYou could also have a special folder on your machine where anything you save there will be automatically copied to your Google Drive. Many people do this to back up important documents.",
"\"Cloud storage\" in this context just means the data is stored on a server somewhere out in the world that you can connect to via the internet, instead of on your hard drive sitting in front of you on your computer.\n\nThis allows you to access the data from anywhere with an internet connection (instead of just on your computer hard drive).",
"The \"Cloud\" is really just a nickname for remote server storage. Right now, you have the file on your hard drive on your computer. When you \"upload it to the cloud\", you're just making a copy of that file on someone else's computer (in this case, Google's, and it's not a desktop computer but a massive server farm).\n\nYes, you can upload your files to Google's service and then delete them from your hard drive and still have access to the files and free up space on your computer. The two big risks here are that someone gains access to your Google account and subsequently whatever information you have stored there (not necessarily too likely, especially if you have a good password and use two factor authentication) and the service you choose goes out of business (also not very likely in the case of Google).\n\nAlso, you can view the documents through Google's service, and you can edit *some* of the documents online (if they are text documents or spreadsheets, for instance), but you can't edit/modify all types of files. That means that if you want to edit photographs you will have to download them to your computer again to do so, since Google doesn't have online photo editing (or if it does, it's very basic).\n",
"Thank you guys for the explanation, very helpful!",
"Imagine your computer to be a large cabinet, and all of your files to be paper documents. Whether they're spreadhseets, notes, letters, pitctures... it doesn't matter. When you want to look at some picture, you take it out of the cabinet, and look at it. When you're done with it, you put it back. \nAfter a while, your cabinet starts to get pretty full (or you fear a fire may start, and you lose all of your stuff), so you ask a buddy of yours, who you know has a lot of cabinets to put stuff in, if you can store some of your stuff at his place. Let's call this guy G. Oogle. Now, you don't want to drive all the way to Oogle's place every time you want add or remove some files, so you set up a system where you fax him the stuff you want stored, and he faxes you the stuff you want. \nThis works pretty well, and Oogle is a kind man, so he offers the same services to other people as well. He's got a lot of space to put it all, so why not. He may even build a couple more cabinets. Of course, Oogle isn't dumb. He knows that it's possible that he may accidentally throw a file in the trash that people still need. Or there could be a fire, or a cabinet could collapse, making all files in it unreadable (I admit, it isn't a perfect analogy, but I hope it works). So he buys another home, in some other location. And maybe a third, and a fourth. And then he basically does the same with those other houses as he does with you. And for each file in his cabinets, he'll ask one or two other houses he owns to put it in their cabinets as well. Similarly, if they get a document, they ask other houses to store it as well. \nNow he can lose an entire house, and he'll still have all of the documents needed. Nonetheless, it can be possible that through some fluke, all files get destroyed, but Mr. Oogle is always very careful to minimize this chance. \nAnother fun thing, is that because Mr. Oogle has the file in multiple locations, he can also ask those to help him out if he's getting a lot of requests at his original house. If he has 5 fax machines, then he can only send 5 files at once. So if you want to look at that cute picture of your dog, but you're the 6th to call, you'll have to wait until one of the lines is open. But if Mr. Oogle calls his pals, and tells them \"Yo, I've got someone waiting for that cute picture of their dog. Can you handle that, I'm kind of busy here.\", they can help you out, and you don't have to wait (as long). \n\nI hope the analogy made sense, but I'll give a short recap here. You can store your files locally, but because you want a backup, or you just want to make more space on your computer, you decide to upload some of it to \"the cloud\". This means that you're basically asking someone else (in this case Google) to store it for you. Of course, Google also has backups and redundancies, in case a server (read: computer) fails, or if an entire server farm (building of servers) gets destroyed. There's also a bunch of other stuff going on, that I briefly touched, so that you can get your files pretty quickly. One of those is load-balancing, where Google distributes incoming traffic from all over to other servers, so that you can get your files without too much hassle. \n"
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jvf8c | surge protectors | why are they so important? what is a power strip missing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jvf8c/eli5_surge_protectors/ | {
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"You mean whats the difference between a power strip and a surge protector? Basically, there is a \"switch\" in a surge protector that is controlled by high amounts of power. During normal operation, the switch is off. When there is a surge of power, the switch turns on and provides a different path for the flow of power. Instead of keeping the same path to your electronics, it switches on and provides a path to ground so the surge just gets dissipated into the earth.\n\nFor those beyond 5 years old:\nIt's called a zener diode or transorb.",
"You mean whats the difference between a power strip and a surge protector? Basically, there is a \"switch\" in a surge protector that is controlled by high amounts of power. During normal operation, the switch is off. When there is a surge of power, the switch turns on and provides a different path for the flow of power. Instead of keeping the same path to your electronics, it switches on and provides a path to ground so the surge just gets dissipated into the earth.\n\nFor those beyond 5 years old:\nIt's called a zener diode or transorb."
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cmtp28 | why do steering wheels automatically recenter themselves if you stop holding them during a turn? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cmtp28/eli5_why_do_steering_wheels_automatically/ | {
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"It's actually caused by the caster angle of the front wheels. When you turn the car is actually lifted a bit higher due to the geometry of the steering system. When you release the wheel, the weight of the car wants to force the wheel back to straight. This is also helped along by something called trail. The point of contact of the tire to the road is behind the axis on which the wheel itself turns. This means that as the car is moving, the wheel is being pulled straight by the motion of the car."
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1gynoy | although sodium increases your blood pressure, potassium can apparently 'lower' your blood pressure. what is going on there? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gynoy/elif_although_sodium_increases_your_blood/ | {
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"To understand this it's going to get a little complicated, so let's start...\n\nLets start with sodium and how it increases your blood pressure. Osmotic pressure explains why water will move from an area of high concentration to an area of lower concentration. Osmosis is constantly attempting to even out the number of solutes (like sodium) and the amount of water. This force exists throughout out your body and a majority of the osmotic pressure is exerted by sodium.\n\nThe more sodium you eat the more will exist in your blood vessels. The kidneys are very efficient at filtering out sodium and excess water, however, even with a slightly increased sodium level in your blood stream chronically, more water is retained in your vascular system and your blood pressure increases. This causes damage to the cell wall, causing arterial stenosis (hardening), and the cycle continues until your hypertension kills you.\n\nPotassium isn't as nearly a strong solute, and most of the potassium in your body is inside your cells or \"intracellular\". Potassium is crucial for humans as it's the main cation that creates our membrane potential. A membrane potential allows for a negative charge to exist inside your cells, it typically sits at -40 - 60mv in most of your cells, slightly more negative in cardiac cells. \n\nBrief lesson on depolarization. You have huge amounts of sodium on the outside of your cell and huge amounts of potassium inside your cell. When the cell gets stimulated (by a nerve, or outside stimuli), sodium channels open, sodium rushes into the cell and potassium channels open, while potassium rushes out of the cell. This changes the voltage of the membrane and creates an \"action potential\" or a nerve impulse. This is how your body communicates with itself, telling muscles to contract, glands to secrete, and every function in your body.\n\nThis potential is reset by a sodium-potassium ATPase pump, it exchanges 3 sodium ions from the inside for 2 potassium ions from the outside of the cell, and forces the negative voltage. This all has a point I promise!\n\nWhen you eat more potassium there is an increased in the potassium ions outside the cell. This results in more (+) charged ions outside the cell than inside the cell as both sodium and potassium are cations. This produces a more negative charge inside your cell. This increased negative charge or \"hyperpolarization\" makes it more difficult for the cell to \"fire\" and create a nerve impulse. The muscles in your blood vessels are very sensitive to potassium levels and as a result slightly relax as they are having a harder time getting the impulse to squeeze. This results in a slight ( < 10mmhg) but studied and proven decrease in BP.\n\nSorry, I know that was long and wasn't ELI5, but it is a complex answer for a complex question.\n\nedit: added information"
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2v89ll | what's bad about internet explorer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v89ll/eli5whats_bad_about_internet_explorer/ | {
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"These days? Nothing, really. However, IE has traditionally been the last to the game when it comes to new features (like tabbed browsing), and has always been a bit of a memory hog. It's become somewhat of a meme that IE is for those who don't know any better, but that hasn't really been true for a few years now.",
"It isn't standards compliant. It's gotten better over the years, but it's still way behind its competitors.",
"Web developers typically don't like internet explorer because it is less compliant to standards and slower to adopt new standards than other browsers. So, when you develop a website, you will frequently find yourself making special cases to get it to work correctly in internet explorer. Now, this is not as bad as it once was, but it is still true. Microsoft also has a history of adding proprietary extensions to internet explorer such that you could develop a website that would only work in internet explorer. This is not so much the case any more luckily. At this point, internet explorer has a bad name, so even if all the issues had been resolved, it would still get a bad rep for historical reasons.",
"It used to be extremely slow and take up lots of memory, but for the most part is patched up. Although, when a new browsing featured gets added to Chrome or FireFox, Chrome is usually first, then FireFox, then IE. (Not including browsers that don't have much fame at all.) Sometimes it goes differently, though.",
"This applies more to The Old Days.\n\nImagine building a website is like drawing a picture. You finish your picture and it's beautiful. \n\nThen someone comes along with an old, dusty, bent mirror and holds it up to your picture. \"What an ugly picture!\" they say. \"But your mirror's all bent and dusty!\" you protest. \"Well, EVERYONE uses a mirror like this\", they say. So you have to go and mess up your drawing so it looks OK in the old, bent, dusty mirror.\n\nSource: IE made my life a living heck for a long time.",
"1. Historically horrible HTML5 support\n\n2. Historically horrible JavaScript support\n\n3. Security holes as wide and brightly lit as the Holland Tunnel. \n\nThe brand is so bad the next browser is called Spartan rather than IE12. \n",
"It's a direct line to the core of your operating system. This allows you to be easily hijacked by web browser attacks. \n\nAmong the other reasons posted here this to me is the best reason not to use it.",
"tl;dr; Up until Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer (IE) was very much behind modern advances in Web browsing and also required a different way to do things than other browsers. Since IE was installed on every PC, it still was the market leader in browsers so Web Developers had to use more tedious and non standard methods when developing in order to make sure the largest market share could use their Web site. This made their job a lot harder.\n\nSource: Web Developer\n\nThe long winded answer:\n\nInternet Explorer was actually very innovative (_URL_0_) in the early days of the Web. The major players in the Web space were Netscape and Internet Explorer. Netscape developed JavaScript - which is the primary language on the Web used to handle interface interactions and rich Web applications. JavaScript was a proprietary language owned by Netscape (not open source), and therefore in order to compete, Microsoft developed JScript - its own language similar to JavaScript but a different engine. This is important, because proprietary ownership is a big reason IE became what it is/was.\n\nIt was until a year after Internet Explorer 3 that Netscape submitted JavaScript to ECMA International for standardization. At this point IE already had their own version/engine and so did not/could not make the switch without major modification to Internet Explorer's code. This is when JavaScript really became open sourced. \n\nIn 1999 AOL bought Netscape, and Netscape open sourced its browser - becoming the foundation for Mozilla and Firefox, an open source browser. 2 years later, another open source project KHTML was used to form the open source project Webkit, the foundation of Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome. Both Chrome and Safari based their JavaScript engines off the ECMA standard, not IE's implementation. These three new browsers, based off of open source projects and lots of contributing developers, were able to/can move quickly to adapt to the rapid nature of the Web. \n\nBecause IE was proprietary to Microsoft it had 2 problems: 1) only Microsoft developers were working on IE and its JScript engine, 2) IE was important to the operation of Windows. Therefore, the update path for IE was tied directly to the update path of Windows - and operating systems traditionally require longer development cycles than browsers. It is the reason why you can't install IE9 on a Windows XP machine. Windows XP only supports up to IE8. Microsoft didn't see this as a problem at first - for a while IE was the only real player in the browser wars, but as adoption for Firefox, Safari, and Chrome grew, IE lost market share.\n\nSince Microsoft used its own proprietary standards instead of the standards used by the other popular browsers, developers had to start making special exception in their code to support IE users. This led to a lot of frustration from the development community towards IE - and a lot of people rallying against using it.\n\nIE9 tried to correct a lot of the problems of past IE by bringing its standards in line with Web standards. However, the damage to its brand and reputation is significant. Also, IE is still a Microsoft/Windows only product, which makes it difficult to test against if you are writing code on a machine other than windows. There is still a big frustration among developers and IE since many still do have to support IE8, since Windows XP is still in heavy use and their isn't an upgrade path for those users to newer version of IE.\n\nEdit for grammar.",
"There are a set of standards set forth by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in an attempt to make everything the same across all browsers as far as page rendering goes. That way if you bring up a web page in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, whatever.. it will look exactly the same in all of them. Otherwise you would have to essentially create a website for each and every browser.\n\nMicrosoft ignores this. Virtually every site you see out there will be written according to the standards, then it will have exceptions in there. If browser equals IE, do this instead. They follow the basics, then throw out the rest and do their own thing. Aside from all the security holes, horrible performance, etc.. this is the main reason why IE is a shit browser. Why should I develop a website that will work on EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMNED BROWSER, INCLUDING TEXT BASED ONES LIKE LYNX, then create a second one just for IE? ",
"Disregarding any technical aspect that most users would not even notice or care for (standards compliance/resource hoggishness). I find that opening it just now, it takes its sweet old time to start up, and then takes a while to do anything.\n\nEven if everything else was perfect, its lack of responsiveness is one of the main reasons I moved to Chrome. Some people don't notice the sluggishness, and I think that's just fine and they can use whichever browser they please",
"The 10+ versions of IE are just fine. However, many corporations run IE8 because they are stuck on Windows XP. IE8 is the symbol of everything that went wrong with Microsoft. Hostility towards any kind of community standards and proprietary half assed solutions with the sole purpose of vendor lock-in.",
"From a developers point of view you can think about it like this:\n\nYou have two boxes of Lego sets each which when put together will be identical models of the awesome [Lego City Airport](_URL_0_). You follow the instructions and put together the first set and it's of course amazing. Putting together the identical set from the other box should be quick and easy, I mean you just did it.\n\nTearing open the second box you notice the instructions are similar but not quite the same. This is the Lego City Airport: Internet Explorer x-8 edition. Some pages in the instruction booklet have twice as many steps and the pieces are not exactly the same as in set number one. You spend just as much time with these instructions as you did the first and end up with the same thing. Kind of annoying. \n\nNow imagine being forced to do that for every Lego set before being allowed to play with it or show it to your friends.\n\nInternet Explorer is much different today and shouldn't be considered bad at all.",
"It's slightly less visually-pleasing and intuitive than Firefox and Chrome. Ultimately, though, not by much.\n\nBut it's *unfashionable*, which means that voluntarily using it is tantamount to flying a flag proudly indicating your membership in the Nazi party whilst simultaneously shouting through a megaphone the results of your recent test at the Doctor's diagnosing you with advanced mental retardation.\n\nAs I understand.",
"Since this question is asked in the present tense, there is currently nothing \"bad\" about the latest version of Internet Explorer, IE 11.\n\n\nThe \"bad\" aspect of IE is its reputation for historically not keeping up to modern standards. Nowadays, the technical problems of IE are gone but the stigma is still there so that's what's bad.\n\n\nI use IE11 as my main browser for several reasons. \n\n\n1) I prefer the Metro/Modern look to it which complements well with the rest of Windows.\n\n\n2) Battery life. IE is whole lot more efficient than Chrome which eats up battery super fast. Just like how Safari is very efficient on OSX, IE is very efficient on Windows. \n\n\n3) Microsoft specific features such as synched tabs across my Windows devices and touch which MS implements very well on IE for Windows tablets.\n\n\nI suggest to everyone who hasn't used IE for a while to give IE11 a try, you might even notice that it's faster than Chrome :)",
"Short Version: IE has made making websites MUCH harder than it should have been - pretty much since the begining.\n\nMicrosoft has always made IE 'different' which was bad enough but it's also used it to force people to upgrade their OS\n\nWindows 2000 remained (remains?) in many businesses (esp in embedded systems) but the last version of IE it can run is 6 which is ancient (has no concept of HTML5 or modern Javascript, basically)\n\nXP (still used by a lot of businesses AND consumers) is limited to 8 which supports SOME newer features but it's yet another thing to have to test for/support\n\nHaving to test/support 3 different versions of IE (at least) is a lot of effort - wheras you can assume anyone using Firefox/Webkit is on pretty much the same version (or browbeat them into getting it at least)",
"Keep in mind, all these posts regarding \"back in the day\" only really meant a year or two ago. IE has _slowly_ been improving to a point where it's tolerable and that's only from a development standpoint. \n\nI couldn't imagine using it as a web experience. That's just silly.",
"Being the average user, all I know about IE is that it takes forever to load compared to Chrome and Firefox, and it also crashes way more often. IE has worked hard to earn the word \"sucks\" next to its name. ",
"Is the new Spartan browser going to do anything different than Chrome doss now?",
"In an attempt to maintain their desktop OS monopoly Microsoft had a policy of embrace, extend extinguish where they would add proprietary \"features\" to standard technologies to make sure everything worked better on windows. ActiveX is a prime example. \n\nUnfortunately by closely tying the OS (which needs to be secure) to the browser (which needs to play with strangers) vulnerabilities came up and the whole windows ecosystem was worse for wear. \n\nOn the other hand, they did develop [XMLHTTP](_URL_0_) which paved the way for AJAX and web 2.0. \n\nToday IE is a stable and high performance browser. ",
"I accepted a job the other day. Only way to fill out my information online, I needed to use ie, not chrome. Ie still needed here and there. (yes I know there is an ie chrome extension)",
"Horrible interface, slow, susceptible to crapware/toolbars more than other browsers. Historically bad support of newest HTML/CSS",
"Prior to IE 9 Microsoft's philosophy on standards was this: The nice thing about stardards is that anyone can define one. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, decided on one way of doing things and Microsft decided differently. This meant that web developers had to do everything, EVERYTHING at least two differnt ways. Also it was slow as shit compared to everything else. My personal feeling on the modern IE browser is that it's quite nice and it's developer interface is snappy and useful. ",
"Short answer: nothing. Today, there's nothing inherently wrong with IE. It's not \"totally\" standards-compliant, but the other browsers aren't, either (check [CSS3](_URL_0_) and [HTML5](_URL_1_) compliance).\n\nBack in the day, Microsoft tended to be a big, slow-moving company in the business space (where they have a *lot* of customers, and a lot of them use old PCs with old software).\n\nBut they don't really move that slowly anymore. They're pretty agile these days.\n\nIE is not \"bad.\" Most wouldn't call it the *best*, but probably wouldn't hate it if they had to use it.",
"Nothing too bad these days. In fact it's the best browser for my Surface Pro (Chrome opens virtual keyboard any time I click a text box even when my keyboard is attached).\n\nIt used to be terrible.",
"Honestly, it's more of a circlejerk than anything else today. For those who continue to honestly say it's bad are obviously stuck on old versions of IE. The newer versions of IE are superb.\n\nBut yes, prior to this IE was lagging behind the other browsers, especially Chrome and Firefox.",
"ELI5 -- websites are made up of code that tells your browser what to display -- a line of code may be translated differently by different browsers -- Internet Explorer has been slower than other browsers to adopt new ways of translating web site code -- so, a website that may display correctly on other browsers may have bugs or display issues on internet explorer -- this is frustrating for web developers because they essentially have to cater to Internet Explorer's older standards, or develop alternate versions of their sites just for IE -- this is less true today than in the recent past as IE has caught up in certain regards",
"In the past, everything. From what I hear about IE9, it's much better. But i'm sticking with chrome",
"The only thing you can complain about nowadays is the lack of customization. (No extensions coded in Javascript) The browser has fixed all its prior issues with standards compliance and security.",
"Way back it was universally hated as the browser where anything could use its activeX protocols to spam us with popups and malware as well as being buggy and slow. There was also the Microsoft browser monopoly scandal. I never forgave them.\n\nNowadays it's catching up, but it still isn't as widely supported/configurable as the Firefox branches or Chrome.",
"As a web designer, Internet explorer is the worst the of the browsers. It's browser engine interprets Css and html differently and it causes a lot of design issues.\n\nIt also has security flaws ",
"Nobody knows anymore, hardly anyone's been using it over the past 10 years. It was generally slow, not safe (basically, it was part of the operating system, you could not uninstall the whole thing), trying to force its own standards (ActiveX) rather than adjusting to what was generally agreed, late in introducing things which existed in other browsers (e.g. tabs, blocking pop-ups) and forced upon people when they were installing Windows (this was later changed in EU and they offered options). ",
"**Not a whole lot** anymore, it's actually leading the charge in many fields too.\n\nPeople just tend to remember IE as being shit, because it was, for such a long time.",
"Tabs. All other browsers supported Tabbed-Browsing but Micrsoft resisted for a long time (It was introduced in 2006, Opera had it since 2000).",
"It had one horrible version: IE6, which saw a lot of big security issues and then gave rise to alternative browsers. Many people just didn't go back to IE afterwards and steer clear of it.",
"Man, people sure cut IE9 a lot of slack just for not being IE8. \n\nIn IE9 you're still working with no transitions, no CSS gradients, no flexbox, no text-shadow, no 3D transforms, no CSS columns, no SVG filters, no < main > element. Not critical stuff for getting content onto a page, but it's still going to take a pretty and efficient user experience and rough it up a bit.",
"tl;dr version is that microsoft took first place and then got hit by a homing turtle shell.\n\nLong version I typed up and didn't really double check much.\n\nI'm too lazy to look up a time period, so I'll say it's at the most the late nineties, but at the least the early 2000's.\n\n\n#Begun, the Browser War Has#\nSo to start things off, we have two browsers (there are probably others, but these two are the most well known.)\n\nInternet Explorer: Made by Microsoft\n\nNetscape: Eventually bought out and killed off by AOL. Some other stuff happens before, during and after the AOL purchase and now we have firefox (and Seamonkey, for netscape communicator fans) today.\n\nnow... Netscape is really really good. Like They're really really good, like the biggest browser that everyone is using.\n\nMicrosoft, as the story goes, was feeling particularly anti competitive, and decided to couple IE with windows, and offer the browser for free.\n\nThis did two things (at least according to popular browser lore).\n\nIt solidified IE as the goto browser for windows for years.\n\nAnd it caused Netscape and probably other browsers to die off.\n\nNetscape couldn't possibly compete with microsoft, since they're a specialized company that makes and sells a web browser, and their competitor just offered their own product for free, and added it to every computer.\n\n\nProblem is that Microsoft, having won the browser race, decided to stop doing anything with their web browser. They could have kept improving, but for microsoft there was no point, they won.\n\nA few years pass, and while Netscape communicator's Mozilla fork is being forked into firefox at this time frame, IE isn't doing anything.\n\n#This is the part where the tyrant gets beat up by a little guy\n\nIE6 becomes the browser every website has to develop for, and becomes a hated beast because while Firefox has cool features, and Opera (another web browser, made before google chrome) has it's own fanbase IE is basically just existing.\n\nI first got introduced to firefox 1.5 or 3.0 around that time frame, and compared to IE6 firefox was great. It had tabs (Opera probably did too but I dunno), spell check, extensions and themes. Overall it was way cooler then IE ever was.\n\nSo while IE is kinda sucking, people are taking notice of firefox and presumably Opera too.\n\nAnd while IE is just existing, any attempt to move webstandards or do anything remotely cool, has to be done for IE6 too, which means ugly hacks.\n\nEventually IE7 comes out, and while not perfect, both IE7 and IE8 are both attempts to win back some users and get people to move from IE6. \n\n#And This part is where the Little Guy's Best Friend decides to compete too.\n\nbut While Microsoft is still playing catchup with firefox, safari (mac), and to a lesser extent Opera, Google decides to make it's own browser called Google Chrome.\n\nThis has a huge effect on everybody because...\n\n Google is including automatic updates.\n\nRemember how I said IE is still playing catchup? Now google is throwing caution to the wind, and forcing everyone else to support standards faster. Firefox has to rejigger itself for automatic updates (which makes users very very angry at the thought of their extensions being gone) Opera eventually switches over to chromium's codebase, and pretty much everybody and their mother wants to be the browser that offers automatic updates.\n\nFor IE and firefox, forcing the user to auto update will brand you a heretic because you might break their existing code. Firefox's Response is a special Enterprise version, and IE's plan is eventually creating enterprise compatibility modes.\n\nThat said, because of the fact that IE has been the slowest browser to update, Businesses are dependent on using outdated versions of IE, so not only does microsoft not get to show it's \"Cool new features\" but they get bogged down by years of development.\n\nWhich brings us to the last part of the story, the part where IE splits into two browsers. Internet Explorer, and the new one for Windows 10, Spartan. Spartan cuts out the stuff it doesn't need, and leaves that for internet explorer, and is supposed to include things like extensions, a built in pdf reader, and presumably it may not take as long to update.\n\n\n",
"You build a website. You've followed all the web standards to the letter. You test it in Chrome and Firefox, and it looks awesome.\n\nThen you see it on a friend's Windows computer in IE, but it looks awful. Not because you've made a mistake, but because IE implements the standards in the wrong way. So you then have to take your perfect standards-compliant website and start fudging stuff so a large proportion of your users don't think you're an amateur.",
"It still asks you if you want to disable add ons to speed up browsing every fucking time you start it. And if you pick \"don't ask me again\" guess what? Its gonna fucking ask you again. And again. And again. Really all the fucking pop ops are what I hate. No, I don't want you to be my default browser. Still. Its like a clingy ex who won't take a hint. Fuck IE.",
"To make a long story too short: Microsoft had a huge majority of the browser market share, and had no business interest in complying with open web standards (since that would cost time and money, and more importantly, would get rid of one of IE's biggest business advantages: to use certain sites, you *had* to use IE even if you didn't want to). Once projects like Firefox came along and got popular enough to compete with IE's marketshare, IE was incompatible with many of the open standards adopted by the rest of the web. This made a ton of extra work for web developers adding tons of code to get sites to work on IE, and since this was often not done (or done right), IE broke a lot of sites.\n\nNowadays, IE has gotten a *lot* better. It supports a large majority of the HTML5 standard, and has the fastest JavaScript engine out of any of the major browsers. The important thing to remember is that a) competition is a really good thing, and b) for-profit companies *will* misbehave if they're allowed to.",
"When you are writing stuff for the web, there are 2 sides. One is the server side where you have control. The other is the client side, over which you don't have control. That might be any browser on any device under any operating system. \n\nSo when you write the server stuff, you just need to get it to work in the environment it will run in. \n\nWhen you write the client stuff you have to write stuff that could run on all sorts of places you have no control over. The problem here is that different browsers, devices and so on do things slightly differently. Something that works on one browser might not work on another. \n\nSo you start to learn all these quirks and the best tricks to get stuff to work on all of them. It is still a lot of work to do this and test across different devices and so on. For example I used to work in a company that had a big locked cupboard with every model phone you could think of for testing. Imagine testing the whole functionality of a website across dozens of phones.\n\nFor a long time, Internet Explorer was the one that was most different from all the others. It was the worst case in a painful process. The more recent versions are actually really good. Modern browsers are more similar and also there are good technologies that bridge these differences - the most famous being jQuery.\n\nOlder versions of Internet Explorer (especially 6, omg IE6) have tended to stick around though. Many large organisations are very slow to update systems. Some of these companies use browsers that are several versions out of date. Even in cases where none of the customers would really be using a browser like IE6, if the people at head office who are funding the project use IE6 it had better work well in IE6... or IE7, IE8, etc as they upgrade. It's been a few years since I have seen IE6 on a list or required browsers for a project.",
"IE is infamous for a lot of things, but versions 10 and 11 are actually pretty good. IE used the be a major innovator in the browser market, up until 2001 when Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6. It became clear Microsoft apparently won the browser wars against Netscape at that time by bundling IE with Windows, so despite Microsoft not following web standards at the time, IE ruled, because IE was THE standard.\n\nSo Microsoft stopped innovating because they \"won\" the browser wars essentially. And that's where many of the things that makes IE hated came into play. Internet Explorer 6 in the 6 or 7 years it was the most popular web browser was proved really insecure and lacked features that other newer web browsers (*cough cough* Firefox and Opera) had such as tabbed browsing and extensions. Due to this, Microsoft took the first step towards innovation again by releasing IE 7, and IE 8, which still had problems with modern web standard and security problems. It wasn't until IE 10 really that Microsoft finally released a somewhat decure, somewhat standards-compliant browser.\n\nIE 6 is the essentially everything that was wrong about IE. Although essentially an okay web browser in 2001, it lacked web standards, it lacked modern features after 2002, and is one of the least secure applications on the planet. Despite Microsoft trying to improve after that, the damage was done, and IE being a bad browser is still joked and talked about to this day.",
"Because Microsoft used to be the evilest company in the world and despite Google being eviler (seriously they are spying on you) MS still doesn't have good PR agents",
"LPT: No one expects you to use it. Change the settings to clear all history/cache when you close it. Install ad block on it. Use it as your porn engine. You can close it at any time and no one will know. Keeps your Mozilla / Chrome free for everyday use and no need to worry about your browsers history. ",
"I can remember a lot of complaints from web developers. They usually boiled down to this: Microsoft can't conform to internet standards, so a developer would have to build two versions of a website. One that works in any browser that properly implements HTML and related technologies, and one for Internet Explorer, because Explorer can't display the proper version of the website. \n\nI'm not sure if this is still the case, but it has been for years, and as such Microsoft as gained quite the reputation for being unable to build a properly functioning web browser. ",
"The thing about Internet explorer... *Loading...*",
"Major security issues in the past that haunts its reputation to this day. Before IE6, you could write a web script to easily steal somebody's cookies. The fact that ActiveX was enabled by default for so long also made IE more open to attacks. Even recently, it was the first browser to be compromised at Pwn2Own.\n\nSome companies devote an entire QA team to make sure their developers' web pages work properly in IE's proprietary nonsense. I have the luxury of being able to ignore IE users in my development and am grateful for it, because they're like the little kid that won't play nicely with anybody else.",
"It (and it's companty) has a history of showing little respect to standards and playing well with others.\n\nEven if it does so today, it doesn't mean it will continue to do so in the future. The company that makes it is infamous for not playing well with others and breaking standards. Look up [The Halloween Documents](_URL_0_).\n\nThe issue is not just IE. It's a history of domestic abuse and trust issues. Now they're saying \"Please take me back, I've changed\". Now we have options and we don't need the violent rogue any more.\n\nTake the Kerberos drama as a example of other MS notoriety:\n\n1. MIT developed an open security protocol called Kerberos\n2. Made a small extensions to it, effectively breaking interoperability (and breaking interoperability was the theme of the Halloween Documents).\n3. They refused to publish their changes.\n4. After receiving quite a bit of flack in the news, they released the spec for their modifications, but before you could see them, you had to promise that you wouldn't use the specs to implement those features!",
"Nothing really infact Internet Explorer is the best browser out there for downloading Firefox or Chrome.",
"It's propriateriness, quirckiness, and non-standardness. Gives developers headaches, but has lots of security features so large companies love it.",
"I do believe those wanting to defend the use of IE are using it now and there replies will arrive in a few days time when it catches up...",
"ELI5? It's a virus.",
"A lot of the responses here are missing some important things. They're talking primarily about how IE was bad for web developers, because they had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to make their websites render well in IE, since it didn't follow the HTML/CSS standard very well.\n\nThere are a couple of other reasons why, historically, people have been anti-IE.\n\n1) Microsoft was pretty underhanded in pushing IE to be the default browser.\n\n* Many have argued that this was part of the reason Microsoft refused to implement web standards for so long. When developers had to code for IE, and if they wanted to support both IE and Netscape, they had to basically write every page twice. Microsoft didn't follow other people's standards, and they didn't open their own standards, so there was no way around it.\n* Microsoft also bundled IE with Windows, in order to leverage their Windows monopoly to increase adoption of IE.\n* They were also caught doing things such as updating Windows to cause Netscape Navigator to crash more often, in order to give Netscape a reputation for being unstable.\n\n2) Internet Explorer was a good example of Microsoft's total disregard for security in the 90s and early 2000s. For example, when IE was still relatively new, again arguably in order to push IE adoption, they put a bunch of hooks between IE and Windows, that allowed web developers to do super fun handy things that required access to the local OS. Microsoft used a website to push out their own OS updates for many years. They somehow failed to consider, though, that if accessing a web page gives that web developer control over your local OS, this can be exploited by people with malicious intentions. Viruses galore.\n\nSo it's stuff like this that has caused a backlash against Microsoft.",
"There are lots of problems with IE. Some stem from it's popularity.\n\n1. Many Web Apps function only in IE. But the way IE is developed, they typically only function on the version of IE that they were made for. Newer versions of IE break these apps. Generally you can get them to work by using Compatibility mode, but this is something that you have to opt into. You do not have those types of issues with Chrome or Firefox because they do not reinvent the wheel each time they are updated.\n\n2. Questions. Questions. Questions. Which addons do you want to use? Allow this control? Do you really want to download this? Everything about the experience is laborious. They need to do this because they are constantly attacked, but they make no reasonable attempt to find a medium between usability and security. Things like protected mode and Smart Screen filter basically make certain legit websites unusable. Too many warnings and bars to click through. Do you want to see secured and unsecured content?... Chrome and firefox just have these things on in a workable format without user intervention.\n\n3. Bing. Give up. Bring blows. It is only slightly useful for pr0n. But other than that, its complete shit. They make you go through several steps to change the default search provider, and then ask you other questions about suggestions and everything else. People want google. They want to search from the address bar. Every other browser does this. WHY DONT YOU!? WHYYYYYYYYYYY\n\n4. Updates. I have had chrome for 5+ years. It looks largely the same as it did when i started, but it has been updated regularly. IE from 8 to 11 has gone through so many changes, it is difficult to find things. This goes back to the reinvention of the wheel concept. Also, updates as part of windows updates.... you dont even get an option. You come back to your computer one morning and there it is, IE11... too bad your programs will not function on it. Rolling it back is no easy task either, having to uninstall and update that most ley people are loath to do. \n\n5. Management. I have a windows domain. You would think that a product made by M$ would be easy to manage by group policy. YOU WOULD BE WRONG. Simple things like setting the home page, default search provider, browsing history time frame, Temp internet files... all of it cumbersome and ridiculous to manage.\n\nIn conclusion, IE is on every windows machine, making it a HUGE target for malware and viruses. Because of that, the security measures they put in place are very strict, and render the browser useless in some situations. They need to find a solution that still allows for security while maintaining usability. \n\nOr they should just give up and focus on what they do well. Server/workstation OS....",
"I feel like one of the major elements we are missing here is that for a very long time in the early days of the Web, there were two viable browsers: IE and Netscape. Everyone preferred to use Netscape.\n\nHowever, Netscape needed to be licensed if you were going to use it for commercial purposes (at work), so companies decided to be cheap and just stick with the inferior built-in browser. As a result, corporate web tools were developed with IE in mind. Microsoft loved this; they made it easy for developers by providing them with a zillion tools for IE website development.\n\nSo now, when these corporate intranets were developed, the developers were lazy and just decided to use these Microsoft tools that would not work in Netscape - things like ActiveX and Sharepoint.\n\nNow let's talk about how Microsoft insisted that IE was an integral part of their OS, and refused to de-bundle it for a very long time. They were sued by the EU over this. Microsoft's response was to integrate the browser even tighter with the OS, as a post-hoc way to prove their point. So every weakness about the browser now became a weakness of the OS, most notably its very poor security.\n\nFor instance, one effect of this integration was that HTML-formatted e-mails would render within the Outlook mail client exactly as they would in a web browser, scripting included. And if you had Outlook's \"Preview Pane\" enabled, this would happen the instant you simply *clicked* on the e-mail. If the web-formatted e-mail contained VBScript, lucky you - it ran right away, no matter what the function of the script was. And if that VBScript was an attack on your system, well, that's just the price you paid.\n\n**TL;DR** IE is like a shitty old company car. You don't like it, it's constantly getting broken into, but you're forced to use it for years to get your work done and you now resent it.",
"Maybe it doesn't allow the use of the search function?\n\n_URL_5_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_3_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_4_",
"There's not a *ton* wrong with the more recent versions of IE. IE10 is pretty decent. The problem is a lot of companies don't want to upgrade their hardware or software, so you've got people still using IE7 and IE8, which are about a decade old at this point.\n\nExpecting decade-old computer tech to run modern websites and web apps is a major problem. When a web dev builds a site or a feature for a site, first they build it to work in Chrome, Firefox, etc, and then they have to fix everything to work in IE. Sometimes you find a fix for IE that breaks it in other browsers, so you have to find a different fix. It's a process that can take hours, and it's very frustrating. This is why a lot of web developers hate IE.",
"Back before you were born, (I'm assuming you're 5) IE was a really difficult browser to write website for, so it got a bad wrap among the web devs and that spread among the general populace.\n\n\nAlso back before you were born a lot of companies had their sites written so they only work on very old IE's and now they're too cheap to update their Windows and or PC's, this means that those things written above are still an issue.\n\n\nSo everyone now is afraid of giving IE a chance because of the risk of loosing cool points (think a formerly fat/nerdy girl) who has trouble getting dates with guys who knew her when she was fat in college)",
"Mainly that a lot of very useful CSS works in every browser except IE.",
"TIL web developers don't forgive and forget. ",
"Internet Explorer has basically been the gun pointed at the head of the Internet for many, many years.(_URL_0_) Microsoft used it as a weapon against open source, attempting to smother alternatives in unethical ways so that they could maximize their profit, breaking open web standards in an attempt to frustrate developers from coding in the standards of the Internet, and tempting them into using the Microsoft suite of development tools, and as part of their embrace-extend-extinguish strategy.\n\nThat is, until IE 10 came out about 2 years ago. Ever since then, IE has been a pretty decent browser.",
"It's slower than every browser out there except for Safari. Safari is absolutely terrible. It's Apple's dirty little secret.",
"It's much easier to list what's good: you can download Firefox from it. ",
"I fucking. Hate that you open it, start Typing in the address bad or search box and it LOSES FOCUS FOR NO REASON SO YOURE TPYING AWAY FOR NO REASON, just one, as it is loading up. \n\nIt makes me want to CUT A BITCH",
"From a sys admin pov, ACTIVE X CONTROLS ARE THE DEVIL. I mean, the absolute definition of evil. Every vendor supports IE, but none of the active X controls are standardized, and all require different controls to run different things. \n\nOther than that, the address bar losing focus mid type, as it loads, is pretty annoying. MS's insistence that it be used for compatibility with the Sharepoint application, in order to open company files through it, by litterally making the file structure inaccessible through any other browser, is also an issue. \n\nIt it, however, the highest rated browser for downloading things such as Google Chrome and FireFox, so there's that."
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m76vc/why_is_internet_explorer_inferior_to_other/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2khqd6/eli5_why_does_internet_explorer_get_made_fun_of/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjbna/eli5_why_is_internet_explorer_the_worst_browser/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/114dg1/eil5_why_shouldnt_someone_use_internet_explorer/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q2wlo/eli5_why_is_it_considered_so_bad_to_use_internet/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b91ph/eli5_why_does_everyone_hate_internet_explorer/"
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"http://www.aaron-gray.com/a-brief-history-of-web-browsers/"
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7ep6x2 | i thought the internet was a series of interconnected routers and computers that communicate however they want. how does one institution in one state control this communication even for people in other parts of the world? | see title | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ep6x2/eli5_i_thought_the_internet_was_a_series_of/ | {
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"The internet is mostly run by companies who own infrastructure (like wires and shit). The institution you're talking about (assuming the FCC) gets to decide what these types of companies are allowed to do. Right now they are FORCED by the FCC to treat all traffic equally. We are worried that the FCC will change their mind and no longer force these companies to do this and thus the big greedy companies will do more greedy stuff.\n\nThe reason it effects the world is because the US is big and rich and important so stuff that happens here has consequences elsewhere. That doesn't mean that this decision changes how the law works for everyone. Some countries already have service providers that do exactly what people in the US are worried will happen.",
"Some parts are done by the PC itself others are done by centralized servers. For example the only reason why your computer knows which address to contact when typing in a web address is because it gets the info by tree & subtrees of name-list-server which have to handle a ton of requests all the time. If everyone just broadcasted every message randomly to every computer it would take ages to get information anywhere. \n\nAlso: Your computer can't generate a wireless signal that can can communicate with someone on the other end of the world by itself. All informations go through cables owned & controled by someone or gets sent to a massive antenna and delivered from there.\n\nYes the internet is just a net of nodes and connections but not every node has the same.\n\nYou could probably build a independent local network on a small bases but for creating & maintaining a *worldwide* web (infrastructure) you're reliant on nations/big enterprises...for now.\n\n\n"
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2tgxfw | why does requesting a longer delivery time online increase the costs to deliver? | I don't really understand it.
Surely it's a lot more convenient for them to deliver it in a weeks time rather than, say, 1-2 working days? So why do we pay extra for their leisure?
What am I missing here? I am 5. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tgxfw/eli5why_does_requesting_a_longer_delivery_time/ | {
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"It means they have to hold the package somewhere as opposed to sending it through the normal process. The standard shipping options (next day air, 2 day, ground, ect) are established processes for the shipping company and have a very specific set of steps from pick up to delivery.\n\nWanting it delivered later requires the package to be pulled out of the normal process, held somewhere, and then put back in the process later. This takes times and effort, thus more money. ",
"Most companies work with just in time delivery systems. That means that a products time in the warehouse is minimised as much as possible. And for good reason. While a product is lying in a warehouse somewhere, it isn't making you money, it is actually costing you money. You need to keep it somewhere, after all, and for every package you need to keep in storage, that is one space you can't use for short term storage while you get things in and out. ",
" > Surely it's a lot more convenient for them to deliver it in a weeks time rather than, say, 1-2 working days?\n\nActually, no. \n\nIt is most convenient to deliver it in the timeframe their supply chain was designed to work in. Longer than that, it is requires special handling. \n\nImagine your a paperboy. You get the papers, get on your bike, and ride your route...you have a routine.\n\nIf everyone said, \"it is ok if I don't get my paper until 8pm\", that would be great, it would give you some leeway. But if one guy insisted on getting it after 8pm, that would be a pain in the ass.",
"They have to hold the package, however there is also more pressure on them to deliver on the requested day "
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2qyybf | where do the suits for playing cards originate from? (hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qyybf/eli5_where_do_the_suits_for_playing_cards/ | {
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"The playing cards you're talking about were popularized in Egypt around the 11th century. The cards had for suits: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. The cards were hand made, so the symbols on them evolved as the concept of the 52-card deck moved from the Mediterranean to northern and western Europe over the next 300 or so years. \n\nThe Germans conception utilized Leaves, Roses, Bells, and Acorns. French versions used Trifoils, Tiles, Hearts and Pikes. The face cards went from king/viceroy/deputy to king/knight/knave to king/queen/jack. \n\nThe French version of the cards turned out to the most popular, probably because of the French status as a social and political power."
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7gbxzw | why is asphalt black? would concrete or another material not work better? | Does the asphalt not make the surrounding area hotter?
I have always wondered why we don't use concrete or change the color of asphalt or something else. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gbxzw/eli5_why_is_asphalt_black_would_concrete_or/ | {
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"Asphalt is cheap, durable and easily patched. Some cities are starting to paint roads white though, to combat heat islands",
"Asphalt and concrete are completely different substances. This goes well beyond the color.\n\nConcrete is cement + aggregate (rocks). Asphalt is petroleum tar + rocks. They have different costs, difficulty of working with & durability.\n\nAsphalt is much cheaper & easier to lay down.",
"The tradeoff between asphalt and concrete is complicated, and there are lots of reasons to choose one or the other:\n\n* Asphalt is a lot quicker to build. This particularly matters when resurfacing existing roads (as opposed to surfacing newly-built roads), because minimizing the amount of time the road is shut is very important to drivers.\n* Asphalt is a much cheaper material, which is obviously attractive.\n* Concrete has a much longer lifetime than asphalt. It generally will last 40-50 years before replacement, whereas you have to replace asphalt every 10 years or so, and it doesn't require regular patching.\n* Concrete deals with extreme heat and other adverse weather better.\n* Asphalt is easier to repair when minor problems occur. If a chunk of concrete breaks, you need to replace the entire section of road, whereas you can patch small pieces of asphalt.\n* Concrete gives drivers better gas mileage, because it doesn't warp as easily and so cars ride more smoothly on it.\n* Asphalt is safer in adverse weather, because rain and snow can partially seep into the surface, so they don't form a low-traction layer on top as easily.\n* Concrete is made from more environmentally friendly materials (mostly just limestone), whereas asphalt is mostly made from oil.\n* Asphalt is more easily recyclable into more asphalt, since you can melt it down, but it's hard to recycle concrete.\n\nThose considerations are much more important than whether or not the road surface gets a bit hotter due to asphalt being darker than concrete.",
"Almost all asphalt is recycled. On a big project it can be recycled on site. Old asphalt is taken up, heated, remixed, and used again for considerable savings. Concrete has to be taken up in big slabs. It must be broken up to be used as rocks. Asphalt can be a much better choice. It is easy to paint too.",
"Only new asphalt is really black, in a while the gravel inside gets exposed and dust settles on the black tar, so it's almost as grey as concrete. The heat absorption is not a very relevant factor. You can't lay concrete instead of asphalt on most roads because there is to solid foundation, so the concrete would crack as the land changes. You could lay it down in shorter blocks, essentially deciding to have cracks in it already, but it's annoying as hell to drive on and constantly hearing/feeling dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk...",
"Yes, the darker color of asphalt would produce a higher temperature, as it would absorb more energy from sunlight. \n\nThe color of asphalt is dark due to the tar content. I don't think that this can be changed much without altering the properties of the asphalt. \n\nAs stated in other comments, each product has its strengths and weaknesses. \n\nBoth concrete and asphalt can be significantly hotter than the surrounding air because they dry quickly and don't receive much shade. In some cases, their surface temperature may be 50–90°F (27–50°C) warmer than the air temperature. This, of course, will increase local ambient temperature. In large cities, the daytime temperature may be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. At night, the temperature may be increased as much as 22°F (12°C) than surrounding rural areas. This is called a Heat Island.\n\nThe EPA website provides a wealth of information on this topic.\n"
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3rwabr | how the heck does google maps know the distance from a to b? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rwabr/eli5how_the_heck_does_google_maps_know_the/ | {
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"(The following is based on general knowledge of path finding algorithms, not on the actual inner workings of Google Maps. Feel free to correct me.)\n\nOne way could be the following. Google saves a list of intersections and crossroads. If a piece of road connects two of such intersections, then Google adds (to some other list) that it is possible to get from the one intersection to the other with x distance, where x is the length of the road (which Google has measured).\n\nThus Google Maps has some internal list of intersections and ways to get from intersection to intersection. This is called a \"weighted graph\", where you have some points, and some connections between points, and these connections have \"weights\" (which correspond in this case to length).\n\nFinding the shortest path between two points is a standard problem in graph theory. There is a good (that is to say, fast) algorithm for doing it, known as [Dijkstra's algorithm](_URL_0_). This is fast enough in practice to compute the shortest route from spot A to spot B on the globe."
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ddlkaz | in relativity, why is it called space-time as opposed to just space? | Isn't time just an abstract notion that humans created in order to help them understand the world. After all, we can only measure time by observing the motion of physical objects. From an outsider looking in to the universe, all they can see is particles and their position. So how exactly can time slow down if time is just a measure of motion and not an actual physical entity? If time is just referring to the slowing down of particles then why isn't it simply just referred to as space?
By the way I am aware that time slowing down is necessary for the equations of relativity, but I still do not intuitively understand why that should be so. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ddlkaz/eli5_in_relativity_why_is_it_called_spacetime_as/ | {
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"It's called spacetime because relativity tells us that space and time are not two unrelated concepts. Space and time seperately don't look the same for all observers. What is space for one observer, can be time for another. If you've ever taken classes on relativity, this is exactly what the Lorentz transformations tell you; they transform space into time and vice versa. The takeaway is that space and time are inextricably linked together in relativity.\n\nYou may think about time as a 'human construct', but then you necessarily also have to think the same about space.",
"How we tell time is an abstract construct but time itself is very real. Think about the speed of light. How can light in a vacuum have an absolute maximum amount of distance it can travel in a given amount of time if time isn't a real thing? Whether we measure time in seconds or years is arbitrary, but the limit is there no matter how it's measured.",
"The two concepts are inherently linked: the faster you travel in space, the slower you travel in time.\n\nDraw a two-dimensional graph, X and Y-axis. Start at the origin (0, 0) and begin drawing one-inch lines on it. If you draw the line entirely on the horizontal axis you'll move one inch in the X direction and zero inches in the Y direction; likewise if you draw it entirely along the Y axis you'll move one inch Y and zero inches X. If you draw it at a 45 degree angle, through, you move less than one inch in both directions (specifically you'd move about 0.7 inches in each direction). At a 60 degree angle you'll again move less than one inch in either direction, but now you'll move a little more in one direction than the other. If your velocity remains constant you'll never move more than one inch per move in any direction, but **moving faster in one direction necessarily means moving slower in another direction.**\n\nYou can pretty easily expand this to three dimensions, and this is typically how we think about motion through space. But there's a *fourth* axis in reality, and that's time. If you move at a constant velocity through this four-dimensional axis, then you can see how moving faster in the three axes of space necessarily means moving slower in the time axis.\n\nYou might feel inclined to interject at this point that we *don't* move at a constant velocity: we're always speeding up, slowing down, plopping down for a rest, taking off again. But here's the kicker: **everything in the Universe constantly moves at C through spacetime.** Remember that when you're at rest you're not *really* at rest: you're sitting on the surface of a planet that's spinning, and that planet is orbiting around a star, and that star is orbiting around a galactic center, and that galaxy is moving in relation to other galaxies, and so on. Compared to all of the cosmic movement you experience at any given moment, the change in velocity from whether you're running or standing still is trivial. You're more or less always traveling at about the same percentage of C through space, and thus time seems pretty much constant. If you can dramatically change the percentage of C you're traveling (say, by hopping on a starship that can reach 50% C) then you'll notice some distances in the passage of time relative to things that are still moving at your original speed.\n\nThere's a lot of weirdness that shakes out of this; and I, an amateur, can't even begin to explain them. Something that has zero motion in space is moving at C through time, and I have no idea what that really means. Light in a vacuum, which travels at C, has zero movement in time; no clue what that means. Motion through spacetime is relative to an observer, which makes all of the previous discussion about spinning planets and galaxies contributing to your motion through spacetime kind of... wacky.\n\nDoes all of this seem like bullshit? Absolutely. Can it be experimentally verified? Yes, and has been. One thing I've learned from studying physics: however weird you imagine the Universe to be, your imagination falls short of reality."
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1uqxka | [seriously] eli5 the war in syria | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uqxka/seriously_eli5_the_war_in_syria/ | {
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"There are many political groups in Syria. They all were repressed under a dictator, Hafez Al-Assad. Hafez was friendly to the US and Europe, so they didn't mess with him.\n\nWhen he died in 2000, people expected his son Bashar Al-Assad would make changes. He didn't and people got annoyed over time. When the Arab Spring started, Syrians decided \"we too\".\n\nThe problem is, we know the Government is terrible, but the Opposition is filled with many different groups: secular nationalists, socialists, Islamic parties (some of them fundamentalist), and some groups are at war with *both* of the previous factions.\n\nBasically, this happened because Syria still had a dictator."
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1t2xa2 | why do a lot of people say "macs are just better for doing graphical design"? | I just don't get it: I am in architecture school with need for higher end systems and have been personally building Windows gaming systems for years and can beat most Mac systems specification-wise, but I still don't get why they are touted as "just better" when it comes to graphic work... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t2xa2/eli5_why_do_a_lot_of_people_say_macs_are_just/ | {
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"I don't think I'm that old. \n\nBack in the late 1990s, I wouldn't work with anything but Apple computers for desktop publishing work and graphic design. Macs at the time were incredibly stable compared to PCs, had gorgeous display, supported a wider variety of fonts out of the box, had more accurate color depiction and seamlessly integrated many desktop and graphic design tools available at the time. Apple also made strategic partnerships with multimedia production companies and cemented themselves as a somewhat industry standard in the field. \n\nApple as a brand is seen as a 'set it and forget it'. This is how I felt and still feel about their products today. It attracted many creative types way back and now because of how simple and non-intrusive the entire system is with the latter being important to a smooth workflow. \n\nOf course today, the divide between mac and pc is rather unimportant. They are both tools and whatever helps you do your work should be the one you use. \n\nI make robots for a living now and I still use a macbook pro I bought in 2005. It's still working well and hasn't been shutdown for a while now. ",
"For graphics it's the industry standard, in an environment where everyone else is using Macs introducing a PC is just difficult, especially when you need help using the one feature that just happens to look slightly different on the PC version.\n\nHow it became the standard probably traces back to when digital graphics were a new thing, not to mention software that wasn't cross platform.\n\nFor a literate user on a modern computer there's nothing \"just better\" about either platform. (fanhate in 3, 2, 1...)",
"I don't remember exactly, but back in the day the printer, mac and adobe were the exact same PPI (Pixels per inch) so what you saw on the screen is what was printed where Microsoft used a different PPI I believe Macs were 75 and Windows was 90+\n\nToday this doesn't really matter. \n\nI went to one design lecture at university.",
"Macs had an graphical user interface as standard before PCs did. As a result of this, a lot of early graphic software was available and stable on Macs.\n\nFrom a hardware perspective, Macs and Windows PCs have been virtually identical since 2005. Graphical user interfaces have been standard for PCs since Windows 95. Most major graphics packages have been fully supported in both environments for over a decade.\n\nThe attitude still persists. Artists tend to be drawn towards Apple's promises of simplicity & stability, as well as the 'elitism' of using Apple hardware.",
"Graphic designer here.\n\nAs someone said below, the idea that Macs are better for graphic design used to be the case in the 80's and 90's, back when Macs were PowerPC-based. They were less prone to crashes and much more stable and user-friendly for designers. Nowadays, there really isn't much of a difference, as it all comes down to personal preference. At work I used a Mac, at home a PC, both with the Adobe CS6 Design suite. I can switch seamlessly between the two, and don't really notice a difference performance-wise.\n\nTL;DR it all comes down to personal preference.",
"That used to be the case in the late 80's and 90's. Macs had graphical user interfaces and quality DTP software (Quark XPress) and made a lot of fans back then. PC's had.. um, DOS. Oh and versions of Windows that were barely useful."
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15amvk | if the evidence for the holocaust can stand by itself, why is it illegal to deny the holocaust in several european countries? | Countries where holocaust denial is illegal
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15amvk/if_the_evidence_for_the_holocaust_can_stand_by/ | {
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"Most countries in the world do not have any kind of concept of unlimited free speech. The idea is that certain kinds of speech can be just as mentally harmful as violence is physically harmful, and thus they should be illegal just like violence is.",
"The reason that holocaust deniers are treated differently then other groups that promote bad science or fringe conspiracy theories is that holocaust deniers are closely linked to hate groups and terrorists. The law isn't about controlling a debate, the law is there to stop neo-nazis from repeating the crimes of the past.\n\nTo put in into a ELI5 metaphor, there are some kids in your class who like to pick fights with people. They like to say nasty things about people's moms until the people try and punch them. Since the other kids threw the first punch, they get in trouble. The teacher isn't dumb, though, so she declares moms off-limits.\n\nIt's a way to go after bullies before it turns violent.",
"The \"Freedom of speech is great, BUT...\" attitude in this thread scares me. *takes cover from downvotes*",
"From your responses I think your question can be better phrased: \"If the evidence for the holocaust can stand on its own, what is the justification for banning holocaust denial in European countries?\"\n\nIn other words, you're asking why it is ok to limit someone's freedom of speech if the marketplace of ideas will judge them wrong anyway.\n\nLet's start with a fairly universal notion: even in societies where free speech is highly valued, dangerous speech is limited. If speech would cause a rational person to become violent, for example, it is often limited. In the US we call those \"fighting words\" and treat them differently. \n\nEurope has a history with verifiably false conspiracy theories being used as the lynchpin of extremist political movements that kill millions of people. The Nazis, for example, preached a conspiracy theory known as the false-defeat theory -- that Germany hadn't really lost the first world war militarily but had been stabbed in the back by its Jew-controlled government.\n\nNow, this was bunk and you could PROVE it was bunk in 1930, but that didn't stop the Nazis from saying it, people from beliving it, and Germany from inflicting the consequences upon Europe.\n\nSo today much of Europe regards such politically incendiary lies as dangerous, particularly those that seek to prop up the old parties and ideas of Europe's darkest days. \n\nTL;DR: Because the last time Europe relied on the marketplace of ideas to shout down Nazism we got a genocide and a world war to boot.",
"Wait.. Denying the holocaust is illegal??? Are you freakin kidding me? Or denying the holocaust in school teachings or something illegal? If someone wants to sit at home and not believe the holocaust happened, who's to tell them they can't think that? I can understand it not being okay to print history books denying it and then using said books to teach in a public school but to be outright illegal? That's fucked up. Denying the holocaust is illegal but denying science and evolution and teaching children a sky man made everything and just to ignore physics is okay? Just wow. "
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csbg7a | why does it hurt to put a retainer in after not wearing it for a few days? do our teeth really shift that much in such a short period of time? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/csbg7a/eli5_why_does_it_hurt_to_put_a_retainer_in_after/ | {
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"They certainly do. It doesn't take all that much shifting for them to hurt, though, since the retainer gives them very little wiggle room. I have personally broken a retainer after going for a week without wearing it.",
"If I force my retainer in after a few years of not wearing it and it fits (tightly/painfully) would it move my teeth back into place?"
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2zo150 | how is it that if i put a gameboy game made for the original gameboy into a gameboy color, that the game is in full color? | I put a 1989 Super Mario Land game (and a few other early games)into my Gameboy Color and the game is in full color, and the colors make sense (e.g., Mario is red). How is it that it can be in color like that if it was made nearly 10 years before the Gameboy Color was made? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zo150/eli5_how_is_it_that_if_i_put_a_gameboy_game_made/ | {
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"The Game Boy Color was programmed to recognise certain high-profile Game Boy games and apply a specific palette to them. The original Game Boy only had 4 shades of grey, so the GBC cleverly maps each of the 4 shades to a different colour *according to the type of object the graphic is*. So, for example, the 4 shades in the Mario sprite get mapped to 4 colours, while the 4 shades in the background get mapped to a different 4 colours and all non-Mario sprites get another 4 colours, creating up to (IIRC) 12 colours onscreen.\n\nOnly a few of the most popular original Game Boy games had palettes pre-programmed (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc). Other games just get random colours assigned which can look goofy.\n\nYou can actually swap the palettes by holding different buttons when booting up your Game Boy Color. Try holding Left+B, Right+B, Right+A, Up+A, etc while it says \"GAME BOY\" during the boot up."
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30dios | why has yemen been target of drone strikes from usa and is it related with the current war right now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30dios/eli5why_has_yemen_been_target_of_drone_strikes/ | {
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"Yemen has one of the most active and aggressive branches of al Qaeda which poses a major security threat to Saudi Arabia. They've also tried in the past to attack the US both through their own operations and by inspiring home grown terrorists. They control a decent amount of territory in Yemen as well.\n\nThe current conflict there is semi-related, but has more to do with Northern Shia (Houthi) opposition to Southern Sunni rule. Yemen was split into two countries in the past, and those old divisions remain.",
"During the final phases of the war in Iraq, most of the resources of Al-Qaeda end up going to the affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula(AQAP) located in Yemen. AQAP was able to gain a large amount of strength due to the political and economic turmoil in Yemen as well as its close relation to Somalia. To combat AQAP the US launched drone strikes into Yemen rather than dealing with boots on the ground. It isn't really related to the current war in Yemen because the rebels going after the government are Shi'a backed by Iran, and is basically a proxy war between Iran and Saudia Arabia. "
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f543x6 | why do dull razors cut you more when you’re shaving? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f543x6/eli5_why_do_dull_razors_cut_you_more_when_youre/ | {
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"When something is sharper it cuts smoother and easier. Imagine trying to cut something and the blade is dull, it won’t cut very well or hardly at all. Same principle applies to a razor blade. It cuts hair easier when the blade is sharp, but won’t hardly cut when it’s dull. A dull razor pulls and tugs on the facial hair which causes it to cut the skin instead of the hair.",
"Dull blades have burs, little bits of metal twisted into itsy bitsy jagged little spikes like barbed wire pointing in the wrong directions. These burs develop after extended use, or from getting rusty if you wet shave and they oxidize. The little burs are what cuts and irritates your skin when the blade is dull.\n\nProperly sharpened blades don't have many burs, they are only sharp in the direction they are supposed to be. They cut the hairs that stick up in front of them, but not the skin which is parallel to them.",
"A dull razor will catch on hairs and pull on them, pulling the skin into a fold which can then get cut."
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5zuk1e | what causes food to stick to my pan, and what is the best way to prevent this (assuming i don't have non-stick, which i don't). | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zuk1e/eli5_what_causes_food_to_stick_to_my_pan_and_what/ | {
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"A lack of oil, overly cool pan, overly hot pan could all be reasons food sticks.\n\nTo prevent food from sticking, slightly heating the pan, and making sure there is adequate oil/grease in it. All of this is dependent on what kind of pans you are using. If it is stainless steel, properly oiling before hand will help. Other metals *shrugs* I dunno.\n\nIf you are using cast iron, there are many ways to prevent food from sticking, but without knowing *what kind* of pans you are referring to, that's about all I can do."
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9qzog4 | why people are so paranoid about being spied on through their web cam? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qzog4/eli5_why_people_are_so_paranoid_about_being_spied/ | {
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"Because it actually happens, its not the government though, there are multiple spyware programs out there that, if they get on your pc, can access your webcam ",
"Just go to _URL_0_ and tell me if you still think it is something we don’t need to worry about.\n\n",
"It's all about risk management and there are three basic factors:\n\n1. How often it happens\n2. How severe it is when it happens\n3. The cost to fix or mitigate it\n\nYeah, the degree to which this happens is probably low for the average person. But the impact when and if it does is pretty high and the cost to deal with it is extremely low. As a result, people will be implementing this cheap fix and gain peace of mind, even if they never would have been a target anyway.\n\nAlso, people are generally shit when it comes to assessing risk.",
"Go back several years and read about the Edward Snowden leaks. \n\nYes, there is precedent. If memory serves, the most detailed info was about GCHQ accessing the webcams of literally anyone. ",
"_URL_0_\n\n > Without telling its students, the schools remotely accessed their school-issued laptops to secretly take pictures of students in their own homes, their chat logs, and records of the websites they visited. The school then transmitted the images to servers at the school, where school authorities reviewed them and shared the snapshots with others.[15] In one widely published photo, the school had photographed Robbins in his bed.[16]\n\nHaving any idea what kids do in the privacy of their rooms, what do you suppose the odds are that the school did not (knowingly or unknowingly) traffic in child porn?\n\n",
"my brother insulted my worries of being spied on from my works webcam. he said, \"wtf you gotta be worried about - are you doong something you shouldnt be doing like jerking off or something\"\n\ni pulled out my phone and started recording him. we were lounging on the couch after thanksgiving, and i didnt say a word, just recorded him.\n\nhe got annoyed after 2 minutes and told me to stop. followed with, OOOOOH I GET IT NOW",
"The largest risk to you as a random citizen is from so called friends.\n\nIt's trivial to install a freely available programs that will record and safe on the internet when theres movement in front of the webcam.\n\nYou can see how that could be misused for blackmail and other stuff you wouldn't want.\n\nAnd then there's the cases were schools spied on students with the webcam of the school issued laptops.\n\nSeems equally likely that some company would do the same with their work laptops.\n\n \n\n\nIn the school and company laptops there's virtually no way for a lay person to ever find any evidence on the computer that you are being recorded.\n\n \n\n\nThe last part is random people and the government. Those won't waste resources on you unless you are some kind of person of interest.\n\nBut that can obviously easily go south as well. Maybe you are active in your Union and trying to change some laws to better protect workers... How easily would your reputation be ruined if somehow naked pics of you would appear on the internet?\n\nEspecially if you are a women in some position of authority.\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\nAnd since the fix for all webcam stuff is to tape a piece of paper over the webcam, the cost of mitigating all those extremely costly events is nothing and a second of your time.",
"Well would *you* want to be spied on on your web cam? It may be an unreasonable fear for most people but most people have a fundamental misunderstanding of how technology works. That compiled with factual evidence that the government *does* spy on its' citizens makes people paranoid. ",
"When you give permission to an app to access something like your camera or microphone, they now have the ability to use it at a whim. That being said, you have to fully trust the people who you gave access to your phone since they now have the ability to use your camera whenever they want since their program is installed on your phone. This is why your phone will prompt you if you try to install an app from an untrusted source as the developer of the app could have loaded a benign looking program that actually gives them the ability to snoop on you. That's why Trojans are called Trojans e.g. they look harmless but in reality carry something far more sinister on the inside. On top of this, you have government programs that were uncovered by people like Edward Snowden (think of him what you want) that proved without a doubt that government surviellance is indeed happening on a vast number of people around the world. Personally, I think we should be concerned with what is called \"metadata.\" This is the data that your phone has on you such as the amount of time you spend in one area, where you traveled, etc. Its like having a detective follow you around 24/7. Add this to the cameras and microphone being affected and you have a virtual spy collecting your every move. If you are truly worried about this, cover your camera, use your own mic, use a custom rom (operating system) and be selective of what apps you use. Here is a short documentary elaborating on my points: [State of Surveillance' with Edward Snowden and Shane Smith](_URL_0_).",
"Because it happens, it's easy, and it's common.\n\nEX: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nThey have literally tens of thousands of unsecured webcams you can watch. Anyone who wants access to your webcam can do it by simply sending you a link to a funny picture on Imgur.\n\nOr, even, a link in a reddit post...",
"Can they disable the light turning on when the webcam is active?",
"The question has already been answered, but in my opinion, the microphone is arguably the \"better\" attack vector, because it typically can't be easily obfuscated with a sticker, and any incriminating or damaging information would probably come from audio, not video (except nudes).\n\nFor that reason I'd love a hard power switch on laptops that kill the microphone and camera.",
"paranoid? Its real kid"
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5m5s09 | why is it so hard to reverse-engineer something? shouldn't it be simple to just copy the parts exactly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m5s09/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_reverseengineer/ | {
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"a real life example is that you can take a look at a house. it has some walls, roof, windows. pretty simple easy to understand concepts. now you are in charge of building your own house, and you know what a house is made up of.\n\nnow, how do you make a rebar? what is rebar made out of? steel? great! how do we create steel?\n\nit's easy to copy simple things with simple materials, but it's extremely difficult to copy advanced things manufactured with complicated manufacturing processes.",
"Just having a part's measurements does not give you the information about the manufacturing techniques involved, which have a huge effect on the part's performance. Furthermore, operating the resultant product requires a decent understanding of how it works.\n\nBlind replication won't just get you nowhere, it's not as simple as you'd like to think.",
"No.\n\nLet's say you try and reverse engineer an iPhone. \n\nYou need to know what each component is made of, this is NOT easy at all and requires some fairly high level analytical skills. \n\nYou also need to know how each component talks to each other. An iPhone isn't just the solid stuff, and then OS installed; there is firmware that controls how say the capacitance from the screen is delivered to other bits of circuitry. There is software that controls the battery.\n\nAnother example would be say a grain mill! You could build something that looks the same easily; a stone with an axel and then another stone on a pivot that can roll along in a circle. But if you don't know how to use it (the software) it's useless. \n\nWith modern stuff the material becomes a big factor!! Touch screens are made of very special materials for one. Military hardware? Can also be very exotic composites, it's not just steel etc. ",
"yes. but you dont know the properties of all the parts involved. Or the reason they have that property. For example when the soviets tried to copy the american b29 bomber from b29's that had to land in russia, because they didn't know the purpose of all the parts, they [went as far as integrating the bullet holes](_URL_0_), the planes had suffered into their copys.\n\nWithout extensive testing, that sometimes includes the destruction of parts, you realy cant get all the material properties right. Add to that, that sometimes you just dont have the technology to replicate the original and reverse engineering can become very dificult.",
"It is actually really really hard and expensive.\n\nPart of what makes companies rich are knowing how to making things cheaply. Anyone can make an iPhone. The trick is making it for $500 instead of $5 million.\n\nSo even if you managed to figure out all the parts, you still don't know Apple's secrets of making an iPhone.",
"Manufacturing engineer, here. \n\nIt depends a lot on the complexity of the object and if there are critical parameters or tolerances.\n\nReverse-engineering a simple table with square legs is easy. Now think of a nice table with a pattern lathe-turned into the legs and a stain. It may be difficult to determine the wood under the stain and the stain color. It will also take much longer to figure out the lathe tooling setup to replicate the legs. If the replica isn't exact, it could still be a nice table. \n\nWhen you consider mechanical and electronic items, the process is more difficult for a number of reasons. Electronic components are exponentially more complicated. If you can identify all the pieces, you still have to arrange them precisely. Imagine trying to copy a complete road map of Texas with a pencil and protractor - no tracing. If you manage to build the thing correctly, you still need to develop firmware and software so that it runs as closely as possible to what you are trying to reverse-engineer.",
"To carry the house analogy further, how do you know what gauge (thickness) wire to use for the electrical outlets, or how the plumbing is laid out. These things are buried inside the walls and invisible to you unless you start knocking down walls. There are many things like this in a house that you cannot see, and thus cannot replicate precisely.\n\nAnd it may not just be items you cannot see, but how they were made. When looking at a product you are only seeing the final result; how it ended up that way may not be obvious. Take christmas tree tinsel for example. Seeing the final result in the box tells you very little about how they are able to package it so cleanly. And it is actually very difficult to do; companies try hard to keep the exact method a secret.\n\nIn both cases what we are really talking about is information. Some of the information needed to copy an object may be hidden or may not exist in the object at all. The big trick with reverse-engineering is being able to infer what you cannot see from what you can see.\n\nA more modern example: Some programmable computer chips come with fuses that can be blown after being programmed. This prevents any changes and prevents anyone from reading the program back out. One way reverse-engineering folks get around this is with a special machine that can shave off epoxy covering of a chip and expose the raw circuits inside the chip. Then they proceed to poke the chip with several very sharp sticks (probes) to learn how it was programmed.\n\n",
"Everyone is using House as an example, but what about a cake?\n\nYou can analyze a cake and determine it's made of starch and sugars, but could you really reverse-engineer that to come up with a list of raw ingredients AND a recipe to recreate the cake?\n\nEven if I gave you the exact list of ingredients, but no directions for mixing them (quantity and order) or baking it, what good would that do you?",
"Drink/Food manufacturers will list their ingredients, but just try and replicate a Coke from that alone. Even something like a chocolate chop cookie going to be pretty different even if you know the exact ingredients. Knowing the parts is only half of the recipe, you also must know the process in which they were combined, e.g. temperatures, mixing, consistency of ingredients etc. ",
"Everyone here is talking about the manufacture of something, and they are explaining why copying things isn't easy...but that isn't reverse engineering. That's just trying to duplicate something. Copying stuff is easy. \n\nIf you look at a piece of electronic equipment, a good chunk of the chips and processors are off the shelf. You can go and buy them and slap them all together and there you go. But that isn't reverse engineering, that's just assembling something.\n\nIf company x builds a cool thing, and company y can't figure out how they did it on their own, company y then needs to buy the thing from company x and do a complete analysis of it. Reverse engineering isn't about copying something. So company y brings in the engineers to look at every single component and wire, and then write up the full specs based on what they see in the hardware. Going back to everyone's house analogy, it's basically looking at a house and then drawing up blueprints. It's not nearly as complicated as figuring out how to manufacture steel, but it isn't easy. It's time consuming and tedious.\n\nThis is what reverse engineering is. Looking at a product, and then figuring out exact specifications for it.\n\nAfter you get your full list of specifications, you hand that off to another completely clean and brand new team to actually design something based on those specifications created from the original product from company x.\n\nNow company y has a product similar to company x, but they have plausible deniability that they copied anything.",
"Lets think about a metal part you need to rebuild because its broken but you have no exact design for it.\nNow you go for an 3D scanner, scan the bad boy and create a mold for your new component. Then you pour in the metal and give it time to cool down. You wrap the component out of his mold, but it will be smaller than the part which broke down. That because metal shrink when it cools down. To merge out this problem, quite much engineering work has to be done and even then the piece wouldnt be like the broken one. \n",
"Say you have 20. Did you make it by adding 5+5+5+5, or multiplying 4 x 5, or subtracting 10 from 30?",
"Say you've got a cup of coffee. We know that was made from coffee beans and hot water, but how would you find that out if you didn't know? You can't get coffee beans back out of coffee. You can analyze the coffee with some expensive equipment and find out what chemicals are in it, but you can't find out where they came from.\n\nNow let's consider an electronic device. It probably has some IC chips in it. You can't just take them apart and figure out how they work. It would be extremely expensive to analyze them on a microscopic level and figure out how to make an identical chip. All you can realistically do is measure the inputs and outputs and try to figure out how they're related.\n\nSo, you're limited by what you can actually observe and measure. It's often impossible or impractical to determine exactly how something was manufactured. Parts are not always simple discrete pieces that can be measured on their own.",
"Ask me to make a lightbulb from scratch? I know enough of how to smelt and refine ores, blow glass, etc. that I could do it in under 3 months if you dropped me in the middle of the woods with the food/shelter to keep me and my project safe. Hell, with half a year I could make a power source to light it up as well, might need all of one community college course or two days in a library beforehand to fill in a few blanks. I'd almost consider doing it for a few grand at the end before remembering I could make more at minimum wage in that timeframe.\n\nNow, hand me a bulb, any bulb, and tell me to make that exact one? Hah. Fuck that. And you wanna know why? Specifics, my dear! I could be on Franklin's heels in a quarter of a year because I spend too much time on Wikipedia and lack a legitimately worthwhile outlet for my curiosity, and I'm reading about something that can be done successfully with fairly modest margins of error before it fails to work. I can almost ballpark a working plan to make everything I need from the stone hatchet and hammer to the turbine wheel powered by a creekbed or steam (or hell, hamster wheel using improvised woodland critters!) on the fly. Such is the power of decades of complacent fact-collecting paired with an overactive imagination that likes to ground itself firmly in \"bullshit that just might fucking work!\"\n\nBut tell me to make that lightbulb. Any one fucking lightbulb. And let me do it in the city, with a project budget of a few grand? I will firmly tell you to go fuck yourself in your round hole with a square peg, and that's only because I don't know a wittier way to tell you to do it with the star-shaped peg. Because I can't be fucked to figure out what filament your bulb uses, if it's filled with x gas, normal air, a vacuum, etc. I don't wanna fuck with making the screw-in base. I don't wanna spend the time being a good enough glass blower to make the bulb the perfect shape, let alone figure out what kinda sand and additional minerals and whateverthefuck goes into it. And I don't want to fucking stamp the goddamn ink on the bulb, or lettering into the base.\n\nTL;DR\nFranken-fucking together a functional science experiment is easy because your target outcome has Texas-sized borders. Counterfeiting has pinhole-sized borders, so it's harder even if you're just making saltwater taffy. ",
"Reverse engineering is more about developing an understanding than replication. I mean, replication can be the end goal. You reverse engineer a piece of technology to understand the principles behind its innerworkings, in order to apply or exploit them.\n\nReplicating an object is a really basic thought process in relation to reverse engineering. You have a lot more to gain by building and understanding of it. Hell, if it's made out of exotic materials you will not be able to copy it until you build an unsterstanding or what that material is, and then build a means of producing it. By that point, you are producing exotic materials that could have potentially thousando of other aplications.",
"It's easy to mix yellow and blue to get green. It's hard to get blue and yellow FROM green.",
"For software, decompiling is commonly described as the attempt to turn hamburger back into a cow.",
"How do you copy the parts, exactly? \n\nTo use a random example, the [ETA 2824-2](_URL_7_) is one of the most popular mechanical watch movements in the world. The patents have long expired, and it has actually been reverse engineered by third parties in Switzerland and China. You can easily and cheaply buy watches with this mechanism, [download service manuals listing all of the parts and how they fit together](_URL_8_), and [watch YouTube videos of the whole service process](_URL_6_).\n\nNow, tell me, how would you copy these parts:\n\n1. [The gears](_URL_2_)?\n2. The [special oils used to lubricate the mechanism](_URL_1_)?\n3. The [pierced synthetic ruby jewels used as bearings for the pivots](_URL_3_)?\n4. The [temperature-compensated balance spring](_URL_4_)?\n5. The [balance staff](_URL_5_)? ([longer video series here](_URL_0_))\n\nIf you look at the links you'll notice three big obstacles:\n\n* There's a lot of specialized materials that you'd need to figure out not just what they're made of, but how to make them. Like the synthetic rubies, secret metal alloys and very high quality synthetic oils.\n* There's also lots very specialized tools used to do very narrow jobs job precisely and repeatably. If all you have is the watch, that doesn't tell you how to make those tools. \n* The videos that illustrate making some of the parts are making either small batches or one-offs. Scaling these processes up to making thousands of parts efficiently is a whole 'nother big problem! And the finished product, again, doesn't give you a lot of information about how that's done.",
"I'll try explain this as simple as possible. (English isn't my native language, it might be a little bit broken) \n\nThis is referring to reverse engineering a software. For other product, the analogy might not make sense at all.\n\n---\n\nSay 1+2+3+4+5 = 15. Let's say 15 is the product, the method to have 15 is 1+2+3+4+5. It's my own unique method to reach 15.\n\nNow you have the product 15, and you know you need five different digit to add it up. You want to find out how to get it through my unique method, so you \"reverse engineer\" it.\n\nIt could be 0+2+3+4+6, or 0+1+2+5+7, or 0+1+3+4+7, etc.\n\nThat's why it is hard, because even though you know the product, you didn't know the source behind it."
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlw1NQQGlXI",
"http://www.rdrop.com/~jsexton/watches/museum/kyp/jewels.html",
"http://www.ablogtowatch.com/inside-nivarox-the-heart-of-the-swiss-watch-industry/",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGbUEa8agA",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgAJBPPefM",
"http://www.eta.ch/index.php?id=54&L=2",
"https://watchguy.co.uk/technical/ETA/2824-2.pdf"
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1htjcn | food poisoning, what is going on in my body? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1htjcn/eli5_food_poisoning_what_is_going_on_in_my_body/ | {
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"It's mainly caused by bacteria that builds up in undercooked, improperly stored, or rotting food. It is your bodies reaction to Gastroenteritis means irritation and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract which include your throat and intestines. There are different types but it is your body trying to purge itself of the bacteria, virus you have ingested."
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8wx96h | how are we able to touch fingertips from each hand together with our eyes closed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8wx96h/eli5_how_are_we_able_to_touch_fingertips_from/ | {
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"You do have sensory input though, through your sense of proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of your body parts and strength of effort being used in movement. This information is sent to your brain from proprioceptors in skeletal striated muscles, tendons, and joints.",
"This is called proprioception (sense of movement, strength of movement, and our position in space). This sense seems to be formed in our vestibular system, and seems to take information from sensory neurons in the inner ear and in the various stretch receptors in our joint-supporting ligaments. \n\nOver the years of use, we become extremely sensitive to how our bodies move, and this is just an extension of that intimate familiarity with ourselves."
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26fawj | why do streaming players buffer at different speeds even on the same internet connection? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26fawj/eli5_why_do_streaming_players_buffer_at_different/ | {
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"A lot of variables can change the speed in which a player buffers—even on the same internet connection. Even though you may be on the same connection, the speed at which a web site is able to serve you content can be different, the file size can be different, and/or the code used to serve up the buffer is different (some may use hardcoded buffer values whereas other may be dynamic).\n\nEven the same web site, like YouTube, can buffer videos at different speeds due to the variety of servers in which host the content. If a particular server is seeing more traffic, it can potentially be giving you less speed. "
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2wp462 | how come the adhesive on tape doesn't wear off when it's rolled around the dispensing circle, but it does after you've stuck it to anything else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wp462/eli5_how_come_the_adhesive_on_tape_doesnt_wear/ | {
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"text": [
"The smooth side of the tape is prepared so that the adhesive doesn't bond well to it. If you've made stuff out of duct tape, you'll know this intuitively; to get your things to hold together, you have to use sticky-sticky joints."
]
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74im4p | why do humans sometimes crave bad food (taco bell, for example) instead of higher quality, better tasting alternatives (real mexican food)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74im4p/eli5_why_do_humans_sometimes_crave_bad_food_taco/ | {
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"For the vast majority of our existence, evolution has pushed us to get whatever calories we can. We didn't get fat because we were more active and did not have huge surpluses of food.\n\nNow we're less active and have huge surpluses of food, but still have that instinct to go for high calorie food.",
"It's about what's in Taco Bell, most importantly, the sugars. Taco Bell usually has stuff in fluffy, floury tortillas, plus the rice and other additives. They are absolutely FILLED with carbohydrates, which your body breaks down into sugars, which your body turns into fuel like the squishy mush engine you are as a hooman.\n\nIn fact, it's why a lot of fast food is addicting. The food itself is FILLED with sugar, the most addictive substance on the planet. Soda, fast food, potato chips... Filled with salt and sugar, two things our bodies, unfortunately, evolved to associate with EAT THIS NOW, YES. They were essential to our survival when we were trying to figure out what fire was, and that essential evolutionary trait doesn't just go away because we have fancy new tools.\n\nWe're still the same weird apes we were 10k+ years ago, we're just better at denying it. The fact is, healthier food may have these things, but not as much, so they don't taste as good because they have lower sodium and sugar levels."
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442w12 | why does frying food create bubbles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/442w12/eli5why_does_frying_food_create_bubbles/ | {
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"text": [
"The oil used in frying is hotter than the boiling point of water. So when food touches it, the water contained in the food quickly boils, creating bubbles."
]
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bohn24 | how do password managers know your password without actually knowing your password? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bohn24/eli5_how_do_password_managers_know_your_password/ | {
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"You’re just missing a step.\nUser creates account and enters a password. Password is irreversibly encrypted (hashed). Encrypted password is stored on server.\nWhen logging in, the password entered is also encrypted and compared to the stored encrypted password.\nSo there’s only one way to get those to match, which is to hash a password identical to the one hashed and stored in the database.",
"Every single answer here is incorrect. They all explain how websites store passwords, not password managers. **PASSWORD MANAGERS DO NOT HASH PASSWORDS**. \nIf they did, you will never be able to retrieve the passwords that you store in there. Instead, what they do is encrypt passwords to be stored with your master password (**simplification alert**: you actually encrypt it with a special decryption key which is related to your master password, but for simplicity's sake we'll assume passwords are encrypted/decrypted with your master password)\n\nSay you want to give something (your password) to someone for safekeeping (password manager) and you don't want them to see what you're storing. You put the data inside a strong box and lock it (encryption) and then hand it of to the person. So only you can open the box (decrypt the data) with the master key.\n\nWhen you want to retrieve a password from your password manager:\n\nYour password is first used as a verification to ensure that the server sends the encrypted data to the correct person (this part is like how regular websites use passwords to log you in with hashing and stuff). Then the encrypted data (box) is sent by the server which is then then decrypted (unlocked) with your password **on your device**. Remember, the client (software running on your phone/computer) will only send encrypted passwords to the password managers server. The server has no idea what it's receiving from your client. This is why it's important to choose password managers with open source clients which you can verify only sends encrypted data\n\n(Note this encryption is separate from the https encryption your browser/app does while communicating with the servers)\n\nNow that you retrieved your website password securely, it's just like entering it as if you remembered it. Here is where all the hashing mentioned in the other answer comes in\n\nSo the master password serves 2 functions: authenticate you and allow you to decrypt the data. If you ever forgot your password, even if you managed you authenticate yourself to the service by contacting support, the best they can do is hand over a blob of useless encrypted data",
"One way to do it:\n\nYour master password is hashed, and that is sent to the server. When it authenticates you based on that hash, it then sends a big blob of encrypted data to your machine. Your machine then uses your password to decrypt that data locally. The hash of your master password is sufficient to log in to the server, but not to decrypt the blob. So you never send their server anything that can be used to decrypt the blob.\n\nThis is not the only way."
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1qipl8 | why does it seem like different parts of certain songs only come out of one headphone instead of both? e.g. "mr. brightside by the killers | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qipl8/eli5_why_does_it_seem_like_different_parts_of/ | {
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"because different parts of certain songs do only come out of one headphone, by design.\n\nif you switch your audio to mono instead of stereo, they will come out of both.",
"It's either the way it was mixed, or if the headphone is panning in and out for some reason. I'm not 100% positive if i answered your question though. ",
"It's called panning and it's usually a stylistic choice by the producer or band during mixing/mastering. "
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ck5ofr | - why is the process of cooling products down so much slower than heating them up? | Why is it that its so much quicker to heat something up rather than cool it (e.g. it takes a few minutes to boil water vs a few hours to freeze it)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ck5ofr/eli5_why_is_the_process_of_cooling_products_down/ | {
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"I mean if you dip something in liquid nitrogen itll cool down FAST. \n\nThe problem becomes whether or not its practical. Right now it's more practical to create fire which is super good at heating things up than removing heat with our technology.",
"The speed of heat transfer is proportional to the difference in temperature between two objects, which means how long it takes to heat or cool something is (non-linearly) proportional to how large a temperature difference you can make between the desired temperature and the heat source/sink you're using. (It's also affected by the particular materials you're using, so trying to boil water by exposing it to hot air is a lot slower than by dropping it on an iron skillet that's the same temperature, but in household use you frequently are just heating or cooling air.)\n\nIf you're trying to boil water, you're trying to bring it to 100ºC using a flame that's probably around 2000ºC (eg, a natural gas stove). That's a difference of 1900º, which is quite large, so it goes very quickly.\n\nIf you're trying to freeze water, you're trying to bring it to 0ºC using a freezer that's probably around -18ºC. That's a difference of only 18º, so it's going to be relatively slow.\n\nIf you tried to boil water using air that was only 120º, it would also take a very long time. Similarly, if you trying to freeze water using air that was -150º, it would go much quicker. But, our household appliances don't provide those things, so we get what we get."
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4ppycw | how does the nba draft work? | I'm Australian and drafts aren't done over here so it's a completely foreign subject. Over here, teams just offer people a place on spot much like you might be offered a job in the real world. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ppycw/eli5_how_does_the_nba_draft_work/ | {
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"The draft exists in the interest of competitive balance. The NBA wants all 30 of its teams to offer a product to fans worth selling, and that can't happen if incoming players are free to sign contracts with whichever team they want. The good players would be more likely to sign with teams that are already good, or teams that are in bigger markets. The skill gap between the top 5% of NBA players and the bottom 95% is simply too large to allow all the best players to go on a few teams.\n\nSo the basic idea is that all teams go through the draft before free agent signings, and they can use the draft to obtain the exclusive right to sign a player. And the order that teams go in the draft is largely determined by the reverse standings from the previous season (so the worst team in the NBA from the previous season is guaranteed a very high spot in the draft, which means they can select a player they think will be very good). Obviously, there are ways to change draft order; there's a lottery now, so the worst team isn't guaranteed the top spot in the next draft, and teams can also choose to trade away their picks in upcoming drafts. But most spots don't change.\n\nSo if a team selects a player in the draft, they have the exclusive right to sign a contract with that player (I believe that right lasts for one year). And players almost always sign a contract with the team that drafts them - higher draft picks get bigger contracts, after all, as well as being able to play on a team where they probably won't be overshadowed by another player.",
"In the NBA, the draft is how players who were not in the NBA are selected to play in the NBA as rookies of the league. These people may be former pros of other leagues or former college players. Rather than players going to the highest bidder, the teams pick players in a specific order. Part of that order is based on the regular season record of the teams, but the beginning is based on a \"lottery\" for the teams that missed the playoffs. The odds of a team winning is based on their record. They literally draw balls out of a machine that is mixing them with team names on them. The team with the worst records has the most balls in the machine. With that method, everyone has a chance that is part of the lottery to get the first pick. The most unlikely winner was the Orlando Magic in 1993 with a 1.52% chance of winning. The Chicago Bulls in 2008 and Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 both had a 1.7% chance of winning and won. \n\nWhy do they not just allow teams to simply negotiate with players? There are a couple of problems with that. First, the teams with the most money get the best players that way. It makes it so teams with stingy owners or smaller markets cannot compete and are always worse than the rest. Over time, being bad means less people come to games and you would have a situation where the league would actually bring in less money because many of the teams would have few fans. \n\nThe other problem with that plan is that it is a really big jump from other levels to the NBA. It is pretty difficult to determine if a player will be successful. It would be challenging for owners to make money if they payed players on potential. As such, players and owners have agreed to a rookie pay scale that makes it so rookies get far less money than they otherwise would.",
"You do realise that Australia has the AFL Draft right?"
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27l0z7 | how are spaceships able to land on the moon if it is constantly moving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27l0z7/eli5_how_are_spaceships_able_to_land_on_the_moon/ | {
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"How do you throw a ball to a man who is running? \n\nIt's the same thing. Throw/propel the object so its path intersects the future path of the 2nd object so they will meet at the same point at the same time.\n\nAnd then, furthermore, how do you jump into a car that is already moving? Just meet up with it as described above, and then move along with it. Then, it's like you are both stationary compared to each other.",
"They match its motion.",
"The same way you walk on the earth even though the earth is moving. You move too.",
"There is a cool game called Kerbal Space Program.\n\n[Here is a guide how to land on a Moon](_URL_0_)\n\nReality is pretty similar.",
"It's like the secret to Space Invaders: you don't aim for where they ARE, you aim for where they're GOING to be. \n\nIn the case of the moon, we can predict where it will be along its orbital path at a given time and adjust the spacecraft to meet it there at that point in space. "
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7enogv | how do isps expect to retain their costumers without offering a neutral network? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7enogv/eli5_how_do_isps_expect_to_retain_their_costumers/ | {
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"In the vast majority of areas there is only a single high speed internet supplier, usually the cable tv provider. They can do whatever they want.\n\nIn my are I can get cable tv high speed internet or a barely functional dsl from Frontier. Das it. ",
"Most of the country has 1-3 options for internet (with the largest segment only having one). When there is no option for people to turn to due to the monopolies there is no market incentive for any of ISPs to offer the \"neutral network\" because they will not lose their customers. ",
"ISPs in the US carefully split the map so that a lot of people only have one ISP they can choose. And even then they can adopt a strategy of not waging a price war and instead matching prices.\n\nPeople can't just say \"fuck it I'll stop using this ISP and give up on an internet access\".\n\nThe US market is already an oligopoly, this is just the next natural step in an oligopoly. ",
"60% of Americans live in an area with only 1 ISP and having more than 2 is almost unheard of. On average people dont have have a choice of which ISP they get. Its less a choice of Shitty internet and Neutral internet it will be a choice between shitty internet and no internet. "
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4lfxl9 | how do headphones produce more than one sound at once? | If there's only 1 vibrating surface inside your headphones, why can I hear all the different notes in a chord, or guitar and bass at the same time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lfxl9/eli5_how_do_headphones_produce_more_than_one/ | {
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" > If there's only 1 vibrating surface inside your headphones, why can I hear all the different notes in a chord, or guitar and bass at the same time?\n\nIf there's only one vibrating surface inside your ear (your eardrum), why can you **hear** all the different notes in a chord, or guitar and bass at the same time?\n\nThe answer is the same in both cases. When you add sound waves together, you get a single, more complicated wave that can still be produced/received by a single vibrating membrane. [Here's an example of what the result of adding several waves looks like](_URL_0_)."
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c4p55k | where do protons and electrons come from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c4p55k/eli5_where_do_protons_and_electrons_come_from/ | {
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"Primitive particles created out of the energy released at the Big Bang. By about one second after that event, it's believed most of the protons we have today were already formed.",
"Protons and neutrons come from elementary particles called Quarks. 2 Up quarks and 1 Down quark create a proton, 1 Up quark and 2 Down quarks create a neutron.\n\nElectrons are an elementary particle of the type Lepton.\n\nBosons are the third type of elementary particle which are force carriers: strong (which keep quarks and the nucleus of atoms together), weak (which is responsible for radioactive decay), electromagnetic (light and magnets), and gravity (the theorized graviton, not yet detected).\n\nIt looks like quarks and leptons are theorized to have smaller components called ‘preons,’ but I’m not too familiar with them.",
"while protons are a soup of quarks, photons and gluons, electrons are just electrons. We don't know where all those particles come from, but they at least follow a relatively simple scheme (the standard model).\n\nMuch like the periodic table in chemnistry gives a scheme for elements without explanation (the explanation comes from quantum physics), the standard model gives a scheme of elemental particles, but we haven't found a explanation yet."
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biiv4q | would deep sea caves have normal air pressure so that humans could live in them or would they have the same pressure as the water at the depth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/biiv4q/eli5_would_deep_sea_caves_have_normal_air/ | {
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"They have the same pressure as the water. If it were less, the water would flood in (squeezing the air) until it equalized.\n\nFYI, people can breathe pressurized air. But health problems can occur.",
"The air pressure in the cave must equal the pressure of the surrounding water. If it was less, then the water would move in. If it was greater, the air would move out.",
"They have the same pressure as the surrounding water. \nIf they are filled with water it's the same pressure as the water outside of the cave. \nIf it was opened to the outside air, the water would go in and fill it. \nIf some air was trapped the water would squeeze it until it was the same pressure as the outside water, but this basically never happens. \n \nHumans have built structures filled with air under water and connected them to the surface. \nThey needed to keep the air pressure high. \n[There was one case where all the pressure got suddenly let out.](_URL_0_) \nIt was very bad, and not suitable for 5 year olds. \nThe image often stated is \"imagine trying to suck a human being through a straw, that happened\""
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3ff7ai | why are centimetres used regularly but centilitres aren't? | When measuring small distances, you might say that it was for example 25cm long. However, when measuring a small amount of liquid, you would say something like 250ml.
Why do we not say with 250mm or 25cl (depending on which you change) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ff7ai/eli5_why_are_centimetres_used_regularly_but/ | {
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"I would say it's because of convention. ml are used most commonly and people are used to using that rather than cl. The academic and scientific community decide this. It's just to make things easier for people to understand what you are doing. Also, some formulas require use of specific units and ml is probably one of those specific units. If you use minutes in a formula that requires input units of seconds, you'll get the wrong answer. If a bunch of formulas require seconds, it's easier to do your work in units of seconds. Outside of academia and science, people would know what you are talking about and it wouldn't matter much, but those that have done work in those fields probably hold onto old habits of using standard SI units that are most commonly used.",
"As /u/Redbeater said, much of this is convention. I'd imagine at some point in the past one became preferred due to ease of everyday use. That is, most people (especially scientists and those outside the US) can eyeball 1 mL of liquid relatively easily, but most do not intuitively know what 1 cL is (at least without approximating 10 mL). Since it's easier to visualize 10 mL vs. 1 cL, why bother with centiliters?\n\nIt could also be so that if you tell someone to measure out a volume, they won't get cL and mL confused, because you always use milliliters. Another thought is just plain usefulness; centimeters are much more useful in everyday life than millimeters, which ties in to the first point.\n\nKept that at ELI5 as possible, but if you want more info we can go to ELIAHighSchooler. Sometimes \"odd\" measurements are used in sciences. Blood glucose level is measured in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), and many other \"blood concentration of whatever\" is measured in units like nanograms/micrograms/number of cells per deciliter of blood. When measuring how much a substance bends/twists light (not gonna get into chirality), the length used in the formula in in decimeter (dm). It all comes down to ease and practicality of use, familiarity, and a desire for precision, but there is nothing inherently \"wrong\" with the oddball units.",
"Centilitres are used, in France at least. Checking on my can of famous cola based fizz drink, it's a 33cL can. A smaller one is 15cL. A bottle is usually 50cL instead of 0.5L, or 500mL."
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256r9f | if the universe if infinitely big, then are there infinite versions of everyone doing the same thing at the same time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/256r9f/eli5_if_the_universe_if_infinitely_big_then_are/ | {
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"Well, also, at this point, the scientific consensus is that the universe is not infinitely big. Actually, at the point of becoming infinite, the word \"big\" loses all meaning.\n\nIt is still accepted that the universe might theoretically be infinite. At that point, yes, it's possible that what you describe is accurate.\n\nBut, infinite has a lot of different connotations. For example, if the universe is infinite, does it have an infinite amount of mass and energy? If not, then all mass and energy that does exist is insignificant to the universe, and therefore all theoretical ideas are not possible. And wouldn't an infinite amount of mass and energy preclude a \"big bang\" theory?"
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374p04 | in nascar or other car races, why doesn't everyone go the same max speed and finish in the same position that they started in? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/374p04/eli5_in_nascar_or_other_car_races_why_doesnt/ | {
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"Drag. When you are directly behind another car, the wind isn't hitting the front of your car as hard as the car in front of you. Your engine doesn't have to work as hard, and because of this you can race up behind a car and perhaps overtake them, But then you have to deal with the drag yourself.",
"This little tidbit really transformed the way I think of Nascar races: to the lay viewer, it really does just look like they've got the pedal to the metal and they're flooring it all the way around the track. \n\n\nBut this is the reality of it- if at any point, particularly in the corners, they truly floor it, they will go into the wall. Those cars are the basic bare bones, a mere shell, transporting a guy (or girl) attached to an enormous, very powerful engine. Those cars are capable of going way faster than they go on the track, they have to slow down so they can make it around the corner. \n\n\nBut who can make it around the fastest? Do you keep the speed and take the outside line, or slow down a bit and take the corner closer to the infield? How do you use the drag from other cars to your advantage? There's a lot of nuance in Nascar which is unapparent from the outside.\n\n\nMore on the point of how bare bones the cars are and how much depends on the driver's ability to sense the car and judge it's ability: there's no fuel gauge, there's no speedometer, and there are no electronic sensors in the various suspension components. As far as I know, those drivers have a tach, the pedals, steering wheel, and gear level, and their butts to know what's going on with the car. "
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90it3j | why wouldn't papa john always have 51% of stock issued to him. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/90it3j/eli5_why_wouldnt_papa_john_always_have_51_of/ | {
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"Because there is no special privilege given to the founder of a company that is publicly traded. He’s a shareholder like everyone else.\n\nOr are you asking why he allowed other people to buy shares in his company? Money. Shares are sold to raise money to invest in the business.",
"Would you rather have a smaller part of something huge or a majority position in something much more modest? Maybe he keeps 100% and it's a chain of 3 or 4 shops. Maybe he sells off a bit to a partner and it's 20 stores. Or he takes on big investors, goes public and eventually owns less than half the company... in return for building a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars.\n\nOften, giving up ownership stake, even when dropping well below 50%, is the only way to succeed big time.\n\nOn the other hand, I once worked for a company whose founder had sold the first company he previously founded and had taken on partners, because they tried to reign him in (he was the stereotypical bully narcissist who blamed everybody but himself), so he stared up a new company in which he vowed to never take on any partners or investors so he could run it as he pleased.",
"In a privately held company, or in a small publicly traded company, the CEO or another 'owner' may hold 51%.\n\nBut in order to expand to the size of a company the size of Papa John's or any other major corporation you have to raise a *lot* of money, and in exchange the people backing you all expect a piece of the pie, as it were.\n\nIn large corporations, the CEO compensation *is* based in large part on stock performance; but that CEO does *not* hold a majority of the shares. This is because the investors usually demand to retain the right to fire the CEO if the executive is not performing to their tastes. And in order to fire a CEO you have to have a majority of the ownership [the investors] back the measure to give them the bounce. If the CEO holds the majority, it is much harder to fire them.",
"Because if you don't sell shares of stock, you don't get actual cash for buying mansions like _URL_0_\n\nOwnership is good, but without a lot of money into the company, it is tough to expand the company quickly.\n\nWould you rather own 30% of a massive company, or 51% of a regional chain?"
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3bqsv7 | why do christians focus so much on the homosexuality part of leviticus but nothing else; i.e. shell fish, tattoos, not shaving... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bqsv7/eli5_why_do_christians_focus_so_much_on_the/ | {
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"Well, the official answer is that the parts they don't focus on aren't intended to be taken literally, while others are. Figuring out which is which comes from both personal interpretation based on their own relationship with God, and from that of their pastor who uses his relationship with God to guide them.\n\nThe less official answer is that they ignore the stuff that's inconvenient, but they think gays are icky so they make a big deal out of it. But that's just my opinion, and anyone is welcome to disagree with it.",
"Some sects are against tattoos....\n\nThe traditional logic goes that Leviticus was just a moral and/or health code that was abolished by the things done in the New Testament. In the NT there is one verse against homosexuality. One. Jesus talks about how divorce is wrong. Etc. Etc. Etc.\n\nReally, religious people don't want to admit that they are a CULTURAL group who has cultural mandates that are now counter-cultural. This has little to do with what some book or religion demands and more to do with their own insular culture.\n\nProof? Women wearing short hair. Mismatching fabrics. Divorce. ",
"Because Christians seem to think that the Bible is a la carte. They totally disregard the things that are inconvenient. It's quite ridiculous if you ask me, but that's the world we live in. ",
"Christians don't actually focus on any part of Leviticus. In Christian tradition Leviticus details the original covenant with God that was replaced by Jesus in the New Testament. Christians might mention elements of the Old Testament in a historical sense or to amplify where certain rules came from, but it's not really part of the overarching theology.\n\nChristians who condemn homosexuality do so because it's condemned in the New Testament as well.\n",
"Christian here. The simple answer is because its an easy one to pick on and christians don't really understand the references to homosexuality that are made in the bible. (TLDR;) \n \nFirst of all, this is not an all encompassing truth. As with extremists of other topics, it is always the outspoken and somewhat crazy ones that are heard. \n \nSecond, the reference to Leviticus does not apply to Christians today. It was part of the Law of Moses and that law was fulfilled by Jesus when he died on the cross. Anyone who claims this is condemning homosexuality is absolutely correct, but it would be like saying that beheading is a form of capital punishment used in the United States. It used to be true, but no longer is. \n \nNow the meat of it. There are 3 references in the New Testament that could be interpreted as condemning homosexuality. Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and 1 Timothy 1:8–11. \n \nRomans 1:26–27 - \"26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.\" \n \nI don't think these verses need any explaining if they are taken as is. But reading them as is, is taking them out of context. In Romans 1, Paul is introducing himself to the church in Rome and giving a summary of how things used to be. If you continue reading into Romans 2 (pretend that there is no chapter divider there) and it is plain to see that these things are no longer the case. \"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.\" - Romans 2:1 \n \n1 Corinthians 6:9–10 - \"9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.\"\n\nAgain, without the context of the rest of the chapter (at least) this looks really bad. But the very next verse reads, \"11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.\" The sanctification that this is referencing is explained in more detail in Hebrews 10:12, \"12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God\". The context with this verse to in talking to Christians. It makes no distinction as to if they are homosexual or not. \n \n1 Timothy 1:8–11 - \"8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.\" \n \nThis one actually doesn't need much more context to understand the intent. It is saying that the Old Testament law applies to those types of people. What did we learn earlier? The Old Testament law does not apply to Christians today and that Christians were made righteous by Jesus' sacrifice. So if you are not a Christian then, yes, you will be judged according to that law. But chances are, if you are not a Christian, you don't care. Therefore, a Christian pointing out a non-christian's \"sins\" is absolutely useless. \n \nI'm sure I made this as clear as mud but the gist of it is that the bible does not teach that a Christian has any right or responsibility to point out the \"flaws\" in other people. There is nothing in the bible that states that a homosexual cannot be a Christian and maintain their sexual preference. Just like there is nothing in the bible that states that a fat guy can't be a Christian (remember fellow Christians, gluttony is also a sin according to the Old Testament law). \n \nI want to make it clear that I am a Christian and I am happy to see that my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ can now get married to a partner of their choice. I'd be happy to answer any questions in the comments. ",
"The proper answer is that there is no standard agreement on how to interpret the bible among all Christians.\n\nSome people who identify as Christians only really follow the things that Jesus said. \nOthers would say this is theologically erroneous because if you don't follow the teachings of the prophets that came before him, then you don't have any reason to believe he is the Messiah.\n\nSome Christians only act like the whole of the old testament is now invalid and only the new testament matters. Homosexuality as a sin is in fact mentioned by the epistles of the apostles in the new testament, but some people forget that...\n\nThere are contradictions and changes in the teachings between the old and new testament regarding certain matters some of which are explained by Jesus himself (see divorce), some are explained in visions to the appostles after Jesus died, rose and was assumed to heaven, and some aren't clearly explained.\n\nMost doctrine by official church bodies such as the catholic church and the church of england centers around a principle that when contradictions occur, the new testament takes precedence, as it is newer and the death and resurrection of Jesus is seen to have fundamentally changed our relationship with god. Where there are no contradictions, the old testament teachings are still seen as valid, albeit as interpreted with the understanding given by the new testament.\n\nSome people pick and choose the bits of the bible that fit in with their own personal prejudice, like concentrating on the fact that homosexuality is a sin, but ignoring the teachings of the new testament on how Christians should interact with sinners with love, grace and compassion.\n\nHomosexuality, while not mentioned by Jesus at any point in his life (many established jewish laws aren't mentioned by jesus, that isn't a theological proof for them not being valid), is mentioned in multiple places in the old and new testament FYI. It is clearly as much a sin as any other according to the bible.\n\nEating shell-fish, as well as pork and all the other foods that are banned by Jewish law was basically allowed in the new testament when Saint Paul had a vision of being offered all sorts of forbidden foods from heaven, and was told to eat them. He refused because the law said they were unclean., and was then chastised, as God said that he had told paul to eat them. God said \"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.\"\n\nAccording to the teachings of paul, there is a saying \"Anything is permissable, Not all is beneficial.\"\nThis can be used by some christians (I believe incorrectly) to try to theologically justify ignoring any law, namely those that they can't see a benefit in.\nPersonally the interpretation I was taught and which I believe is theologically correct is that it means that no sin we commit permenantly bars a christian from heaven. Nothing condemns us permenantly, therefor we can do anything, but we should not do everything because some things are not good for us.\n\nGod may very well know what is good for us better than we do, and the law may reflect that. A christian who loves God ought to follow follow god's law out of love, not fear.\n\nI could bang on for days about all the theological arguments of why christians shouldn't be hating on non-christian gay people or trying to stop them from being gay, or how even when talking with a christian who is gay, everything you say should be out of love, for the benefit of the person, not to demonstrate how \"right\" you are in your interpretation of religious law, but alas, I don't think this is the place.\n\nBut so so so so so so so many Christians have thoughtlessly self-righteously attacked people people they see as \"sinners\" in a manner that only damages their oppinion towards christianity, which could in no way help then on the path to heaven, quite the opposite infact.\n\nOf-course you may believe it's all a bunch of hogwash anyway..."
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8ibq3s | how do astronauts deal with swallowing, going to the bathroom and other functions when there is no gravity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ibq3s/eli5_how_do_astronauts_deal_with_swallowing_going/ | {
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"Humans can swallow against gravity through muscle contractions called *peristalsis*, and waste elimination in EVA suits is accomplished with diapers. As simple as that sounds that's all it is.",
"Gravity is not required for those functions, though the lack of it can make things complicated. \n\nHumans swallow via muscle contractions and that works with or without gravity. In fact you can swallow hanging upside down and therefore do so against gravity. \n\nAs for bathroom functions. On the space station they have special toilet units which have suction that keep the waste from floating about. If they are out on a spacewalk they have diapers in their suits. ",
"None of things require gravity, which you can test at home by standing on your head for a while. It'll be uncomfortable (and messy), but you can still swallow food, digest it, and go to the bathroom. That's because these actions are controlled by muscles.\n\nAs far as going to the bathroom is concerned, the only difference is practical, not biological. Since there's no gravity to hold waste down, special space toilets have suction to keep waste from floating around."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
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] |
||
6u7q91 | besides strong mental game, what's the science behind people breaking bricks and other tough materials during martial art shows? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6u7q91/eli5_besides_strong_mental_game_whats_the_science/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlqlh5z",
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"text": [
"It depends. Sometimes it is a performance trick, and there's really nothing much behind it other than circus trickery.\n\nAt other times, it comes about as a slow process of 'conditioning' the hand whereby the bones and connective tissues become stronger, as opposed to just roughening up the skin. This combined with tendonal strength (so you don't break your wrist for example) leads to the ability to be able to break things that normal untrained people can't, at least not without breaking their own bones.\n\nAs one example, Kyo-Kushinkai, those who practice Kyo-Kushin karate, have a particular favourite of breaking baseball bats with their shins by kicking them. If a normal person tried that, they'd most likely seriously hurt themselves, but a trained proponent can break the 'tough material' without breaking their own bones.",
"Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: How can martial arts specialists punch through rock or wood? ](_URL_3_)\n1. [ELI5:How do karate experts break bricks with their hands? ](_URL_4_)\n1. [ELI5: How do martial artists break concrete with their bare hands? ](_URL_1_)\n1. [ELI5: How do people break bricks with their hands without hurting themselves? ](_URL_6_)\n1. [ELI5: How can hands be able to break stone (martial arts)? ](_URL_2_)\n1. [ELI5: How are professional martial artist able to smash wooden boards and cinder blocks in half with a kick or karate chop and not be in pain? ](_URL_5_)\n1. [ELI5: Why don't bones break when martial artist destroy them? ](_URL_7_)\n1. [ELI5: How is it that practiced martial artists are able to break seemingly hard things with seemingly no injury? ](_URL_0_)\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b4f9g/eli5_how_is_it_that_practiced_martial_artists_are/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1axsab/eli5_how_do_martial_artists_break_concrete_with/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pngja/eli5_how_can_hands_be_able_to_break_stone_martial/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2stn72/eli5_how_can_martial_arts_specialists_punch/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zkrc0/eli5how_do_karate_experts_break_bricks_with_their/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d2kgd/eli5_how_are_professional_martial_artist_able_to/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dev4i/eli5_how_do_people_break_bricks_with_their_hands/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eddwd/eli5_why_dont_bones_break_when_martial_artist/"
]
] |
||
g0dwrb | how much is the pope's power controlled by others (as in checks and balances), is he like the president of the church? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0dwrb/eli5_how_much_is_the_popes_power_controlled_by/ | {
"a_id": [
"fn97gyw"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Papal authority has been debated many times in the past, and the answer still isn't quite clear. In the most recent Church council, the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, the supremacy and infallibility of the pope was confirmed, but also added that the college of bishops have the power to control the church, as long as the pope agreed. Basically, Vatican II kept with tradition and made the role of the pope unclear like it has been for the last two thousand years."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1vda93 | if someone makes a will, how can people challenge it and be given what was willed to someone else? | No examples. I don't understand any of the situations that this has been allowed in. Isn't that the point of a will in the first place? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vda93/eli5_if_someone_makes_a_will_how_can_people/ | {
"a_id": [
"cer58rt"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Ok in ELI5 terms:\n\n+ Sometimes it isn't legal to distribute assets/money the way it is willed\n\nFor example, in most countries if a person dies and has underage children, the law says that a certain % goes to the children, no matter what the will says. \n\nThere may be a marital agreement, saying that the wife of the dead husband will get X stuff, so that is stronger that X person's will. \n\n+ Sometimes you can argue about the mental incapacity of the person drafting the will. \n\nIf he/she was diagnosed with a mental disorder, or the will has some clauses that you can find evidence that don't make much sense, considering that person's \"normal\" behavior/character. \n\n+ Sometimes the document itself can be challenged. \n\nMaybe one can prove it is fake, or an older will."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1pngue | what makes things spicy, why does it hurt, and how do people build up an immunity? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pngue/eli5_what_makes_things_spicy_why_does_it_hurt_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd42c5r"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"capsaicin, the oil in a hot pepper, affects receptors in your system in a way that makes them think the are being burnt. It hurts because your body really believes it is being burned & in extreme cases even swells and inflames as it it had been burnt.\n\nPeople build up an immunity by increasing the the levels of capsaicin over time - although it is believed nursing babies can pick it up from their moms."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
27ctjj | the origination of the porn suffix to subreddits. | I've always been curious - yet never found any answer (not even here!) for why it's called earthporn, foodporn, pornporn etc,. I don't know where it came from or why it sticks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27ctjj/eli5_the_origination_of_the_porn_suffix_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"chzkbyy"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
" > why it sticks\n\nheh.\n\nAlso, it comes from the idea that porn is images or videos of things that make you aroused or turns you on basically. So if you go to /r/foodporn , you will see images of food that is pleasurable to look at, it makes you salivate, etc."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
860lno | does anybody knows the difference between bachelor of art and bachelor of science? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/860lno/eli5_does_anybody_knows_the_difference_between/ | {
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"text": [
"It has to do with the core requirements you take. For a BA you usually have to take a specific amount of credits of a language as well as more college of liberal arts classes, while a BS has more math and science. Often schools have multiple paths for each so you can choose what really is the right one for you. ",
"\"Arts\" in this sense isn't stuff like drawing and painting - the *liberal arts* consist of things like literature, history and the like. \"Science\" OTOH consists of things based strongly in math.\n\nIn most American universities, most programs only have a BA or a BS option, depending on the subject matter. When you do have an option, the BS will have more math/science requirements while the BA gives you more freedom to pick electives or an unrelated minor.",
"Bachelor of Science degrees are more specialized in the field, while Bachelor of Arts degrees have more generalized requirements.\n\nThe BS class requirements are more specifically geared towards the major, the BA class requirements are generally more well-rounded.\n\nI have a BS in Health Administration. It's similar to a BA in Business, but hyper-focused on the business of healthcare.",
"There's no generally-agreed-upon difference. Some universities that offer both have slightly different requirements, but many schools offer only one or the other for historical reasons, and as a practical matter, graduate schools and most employers treat them identically.\n\nI have a Bachelor of Arts in physics; an acquaintaince of mine has a Bachelor of Science in creative writing.",
"My degree is studio art with an art history minor, but it is a Bachelor of Science degree as I did not take 2yrs of foreign language. "
]
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[],
[],
[],
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||
2qlxi2 | what is computing power? what do people mean when they say "your phone has twice the computing power nasa had to send man to the moon"? | And how do we gain more computing power? Is it a physical thing that happens in the computer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qlxi2/eli5_what_is_computing_power_what_do_people_mean/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn7aixq",
"cn7ajxs"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Basically computers just do a lot of calculations, so more computing power = faster and faster calculations.",
"\"Computing power\" generally means the number of operations a computer is able to perform per second. Of course, this depends on what kind of operations we're talking about, so a commonly used measure is called FLOPS - Floating Point Operations Per Second, i.e. the number of calculations (such as multiplication of division) the computer can do on floating-point numbers."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
|
646xvk | why do cars tick when they're hot after stopping? | I have noticed that cars, particularly more modern sports cars, tend to make a ticking noise when cooling down after being driven hard. Is this due to the cooling system itself or just a byproduct of the engine being hot? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/646xvk/eli5_why_do_cars_tick_when_theyre_hot_after/ | {
"a_id": [
"dg01slx",
"dg11ype"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"My understanding is that it is the hot parts on the car expand and contract based on how hot they are. \n So as the parts cool and shrink a bit they move ever so slightly and make a small noise.\nAlot of the time it tends to come from the exhaust system as it changes temperature the quickly and is made of fairly thin metal, so it works like a bell when any small thing changes. Think of a house creaking at night when the temperature drops.\n\n\nAdditionally, depending on the engine it can be cause by the block and heads being different metals that expand and contract at different rates. Most new cars have aluminum engine blocks and heads so this wouldn't effect those but other cars like my 03 mustang GT has a Iron block but aluminum heads.\n\nNot 100% accurate but best I can do in simple terms",
"Generally what you hear ticking is the exhaust, this is becase it is made of thin metal and will heat and cool the quickest. The thicker something is the slower it will dissipate heat."
]
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[],
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] |
|
2z6gj6 | how does fps change from 30-60+ create weird bugs in games? | After looking at the recent Dragon Ball Xenoverse update, I noticed that a lot of the issues were bugs relating to the FPS, like:
> • The Z-Soul 'You can be the first victim' now works properly and gives full bars of Ki when activated. This issue tends to happen with 60 FPS framerate.
> •The Z-Soul 'Tien, Please don’t die' now works properly and charge all allies' Ki to max when the player's character gets knocked out. This issue tends to happen with 60 FPS framerate.
> •The Z-Soul 'I'll take you down!' now works properly and gives full bars of Ki when activated. This issue tends to happen with 60 FPS framerate.
I understand animation being affected by frame rates, but events like "x person dies, this happens" doesn't sound like something that should be affected by FPS at all. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z6gj6/eli5how_does_fps_change_from_3060_create_weird/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpg3bcf"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"I can't speak to this game specifically, but a common reason for things to get weird with changes in framerate comes from the way games generally handle time tracking.\n\nYou've probably heard of 'ticks' - a 'tick' with respect to a game is 1 unit of time as far as the game is concerned. Exactly how long that unit of time is can change depending on how the game is coded, but there's two main ways this happens:\n\n* The game counts each frame, or redraw of the screen, as 1 tick.\n* The game considers a unit of actual time - for instance, 1/30 of a second - to be 1 tick.\n\nBoth have advantages and disadvantages. In the first instance, the length of a tick changes based on how fast the computer is rendering the game. Games that use this method will start looking like they're playing in slow motion when you're running at a low framerate, or in fast motion when you're running at a high framerate.\n\nIn the second, when you have a low framerate, things will look jerky, since the game is updating the position of things on the screen multiple times for each time the screen is actually drawn.\n\nIf the game is using the first method, there can be other, unexpected results of having weird or fluctuating framerates, either high or low, since things are now being calculated at a rate faster or slower than the game's maker intended."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2pe42s | how does immune response work? does my body have a database of which antibodies it can send out how does it know what infection to fight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pe42s/eli5_how_does_immune_response_work_does_my_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmvtthq"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Yes. Your immune system keeps a \"database\" of [Memory B cells](_URL_0_) in your lymph nodes, where each B cell remembers how to make one specific type of antibody. If you get an infection, your immune system cells exchange chemical messages [in a complicated network](_URL_1_) and, if there are any memory cells that have the right antibodies for that infection, they'll reactivate and make lots of clones and manufacture that antibody a lot."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_immune_system"
]
] |
||
55dujh | why does jupiter have 67 moons when we only have one? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55dujh/eli5_why_does_jupiter_have_67_moons_when_we_only/ | {
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"text": [
"Well, jupiter is also 12 times the size of earth and has a lot more gravitational strength.",
"Earth's moon is pretty big by moon standards, which would prevent the formation of other moons in orbit. Debris and stuff that could aggregate into a moon gets pulled to earth or the existing moon instead. Really, Earth is kind of weird planet wise. Most planets have more than one moon. ",
"It has a large mass which means that it will capture more objects like from the asteroid belt which will become small temporary moons. The position beyond the frost line meant that it formed as a gas giant and ejected some of the earlier accumulated rocky mass due to the conservation of angular momentum. The full explanation is very complicated some of it is addressed here - _URL_0_ "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6tZZpz7Cg"
]
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||
a9yyo4 | why is the frost on my car on a cold morning usually worse on 1 side of the car? and specifically on only 1 side view mirror? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9yyo4/eli5_why_is_the_frost_on_my_car_on_a_cold_morning/ | {
"a_id": [
"ecnjxfw"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"One side of your car is either warmer or subject to more humidity than the other. \n\nThis can happen for any number of reasons. The most common is the icy side being turned to the west or north, away from the Sun. The second-most common is there being something on the non-icy side that gives off heat, such as a wall. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
t3hrs | startups and the stages of raising money | I've heard things like Angel investors, and Type A's. WTH are they? What do they tell us about the "health" or "state" of a startup? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/t3hrs/eli5_startups_and_the_stages_of_raising_money/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4j8ics"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"A startup is simply a recently formed company. To get a company off the ground, it usually needs capital to operate and grow.\n\nAs a startup grows, it requires varying amounts of capital to expand. As it grows larger, it may need more capital than it currently generates.\n\nFor example, you have a startup which you just started. But you need a little money to feed yourself, maybe hire one employee and some equipment. At that very beginning, all you need is seed money... which can come from your friends, family, or an individual investor (Angel Investor). You need $30k to get started, and you're willing to give up 30% of your company in exchange for that funding.\n\nAs you grow and generate more business, you realize that you can grow the business even faster if you just had more money. So now, you want to borrow $1 Million. That is now considered a new stage of funding. Most individuals don't have $1 Million sitting around to invest in a startup, so you approach a Venture Capital Fund and pitch them your idea. They agree and fund you in exchange for some % of your company.\n\nNow 2 years pass, and your company is exploding. It's getting crazy amounts of business, and you think your company can dominate the market really quickly... but it needs $50 million to do so. You go back and find investors and raise another round of funding to fuel your growth.\n\nSo that's sorta how it works. It doesn't necessarily tell you the \"health\" of a startup. Some companies can get tons of funding based on a good idea and strong team, but the company itself could be losing money and not profitting. \n\nThere are also many companies that forego funding altogether and yet are incredibly successful. So the amount of funding doesn't tell you how profitable or strong a company is. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1m4c54 | for any offroaders out there, how exactly do locking differentials work, or lockers for short. | Like ARB's air lockers, OX lockers, etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m4c54/eli5_for_any_offroaders_out_there_how_exactly_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc5naww"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"there are basically 3 types of traction aid: Limited slip (aka Positraction) Locker (ie Detroit) and spool (aka Lincoln locker)\n\nThe limited slip usually uses clutches and transfers power from a spinning tire to a non-spinning tire. There is at least one clutchless limited slip that I'm aware of. These are good for front diffs and rears if street manners are highly important.\n\nThe locker locks both wheels together whenever one starts spinning faster than the other. It gets a little wiggly in long sweeping corners on the road but most offroaders don't mind. They rock. If you put them in the front you will sometimes 'plow' when turning in soft stuff but for straight stuff they can't be beat.\n\nSpools are sometimes called Lincoln lockers after the welder used to make them one solid piece. The axles are permanently welded together. They are good for off road only mud trucks that are trailered.\n\nThere are variations of these like the 'e-locker' and air actuated (arb) and such and whatnot. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
49uz7q | why do we have stomach acid instead of stomach base/alkaline? | Are there any reasons or is it a case of a 50/50 chance that went the way of acid instead of base? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49uz7q/eli5_why_do_we_have_stomach_acid_instead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0v28cm"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"A lot of bases have real poor interactions with water compared to a lot of acids. I think if you rerolled life over and over you'd see things figuring out a way to digest things with lye or something but hydrochloric acid makes sense as a kind of chemical you could make and deal with in a living creature. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6pu3wd | can we use ocean water for toilets, car washes, etc. and leave freshwater for drinking cause there is much more ocean water available to us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pu3wd/eli5_can_we_use_ocean_water_for_toilets_car/ | {
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"text": [
"Two problems, firstly you would need an awful lot of extra infrastructure to have two water pipes to every home, and the salt water would have quite a damaging effect on pipework, as the salt would crystallise out over time, would build up inside pipes,and dry and damage rubber seals. ",
"For toilets maybe, but sea water has a bunch of bacteria, diseases and corrosive shit in it and it wouldnt be good to use",
"Another problem is that even if you use it only in toilets, this may cause health problem. Imagine a child or a pet dying because they drank salt water from the toilet.",
" > leave freshwater for drinking cause there is much more ocean water available to us?\n\nThe problem is that ocean water isn't really available to us.\n\nOur water distribution infrastructure is based on it raining up high and flowing to where it is needed lower down. Ocean is about as low as you can get, so the water there really doesn't do us a whole lot of good, fresh, salt, or otherwise."
]
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[],
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||
10dvdv | why do things float towards eachother in liquids? | I first noticed it with cereal in milk, when you put it in there the cereal clumps. I wasn't sure if it was the iron in the cereal so I tried bits of styrofoam in milk, still went towards eachother. I've experimented with this a bit and I'm stumped. I thought it might be something to do with the surface tension in the water/milk/liquid but I added dish soap to the water once to lessen the tension and they still clumped.
Then I was curious about it might be gravity pulling them together so I used two things of known mass and figured out the ammount they should accelerate and in practice they accelerate much faster. I am at a complete loss as to why this is and was wondering if anyone knew. Sorry about formatting weirdness I'm posting this from my phone. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10dvdv/elif_why_do_things_float_towards_eachother_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6cnrnc",
"c6cnsif"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Try to imagine it this way:\n\nYou have a piece of cloth stretched out. If you place a ball in the middle of this cloth, you're going to create a dip in the cloth. Place another ball at the edge of the cloth now, and it's going to be \"attracted\" to the first ball. \n\nThe same concept applies, but you have the milk's surface as the cloth instead, and the cereals act as the balls. Each cereal actually 'dent' the milk surface, but it's just so small we can't see it. The effect is still there though, and thus each cereal would clump together.",
"Funny enough, this is called the [cheerios effect](_URL_0_). \n\nBasically, things float on water because of surface tension, and the air and water together work to pull things together."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios_effect"
]
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|
j2bsb | how does satellite television work? | I mean does the satellite transmit all 600 channels you payed for, or does it just transmit the channel you're on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j2bsb/how_does_satellite_television_work/ | {
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"text": [
"Disclaimer: I'm not 100% sure, but this is my best guess as a techy...\n\nDirect TV has approximately 19.2 million subscribers. It makes much more sense to broadcast each channel once, rather than 19.2 million separate transmissions. Most satellite dishes only listen, and do not send (imagine 19.2 million people sending messages to you... in space... all at once)\n\nSources:\n_URL_0_\n_URL_1_\n_URL_2_",
"They broadcast all the channels at the same time. The satellite has no way of knowing which channels you are subscribed to, that's why if you steal satellite television you can watch pay-per-view channels for free.",
"How do the dishes work? Direct TV has STATIONARY dishes affixed to the houses of it's subscribers. Where are those satellite dishes pointing? How many satellites does DTV have floating in the sky that theres always one in the air aligned directly with every dish on every house across the world? How come we don't lose connection whenever a satellite orbits to the other side of the earth? ",
"It sends all the channels at once over a specified frequency range down to your own satellite dish. The LNB (what gathers the signal at the end of your dish) collects the signal and converts it to another frequency that is usable by satellite boxes in your house. \n\nYour satellite box will tune to a 'channel' by narrowing in on a specific frequency. For example, channel 206(ESPN) may be on frequency 55MHz so when you tune to that channel the box is actually just focusing on a specific part of the signal coming to the box even though it's all being delivered at once.",
"I'm in radio transmissions so I don't specialize in satcom but I think they share a lot of the same principles. The only way that I can think that it would work is that your receiver is constantly receiving one signal with the intelligence of 600 channels on that signal. When you use your remote and select channel 50 you are telling your amp filter that you only want channel 50 and that anything else that just came through on your antenna should be filtered out. So you are receiving every channel at once but your console only holds onto the one that you want."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirecTV",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-S2",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_tv"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6wev0b | how do human nails grow back evenly when one chips or breaks them unevenly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wev0b/eli5_how_do_human_nails_grow_back_evenly_when_one/ | {
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"Nails grow from the base not the tip of your finger. Sometimes they do grow unevenly if they are damaged badly. ",
"The nail keeps growing from the base and the sticking out uneven part kinda 'erodes' over time? "
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3jzbzn | why are condoms more expensive to buy in bulk than they are to buy individually? | Why are they 75¢ out of a gas station vending machine, but $1.50 or more each when bought in boxes at the drug store? Shouldn't they be cheaper to buy in bulk like everything else is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jzbzn/eli5_why_are_condoms_more_expensive_to_buy_in/ | {
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"The gas station ones probably aren't as good quality, and having sat in that environment, probably haven't been stored according to the instructions on the box, especially when it comes to not letting them get too warm.\n\nI'd rather get them from the drugstore, thanks.",
"The drug store isn't really \"bulk\", per say - that's the standard packaging size. And yes, they are REALLY overpriced. However, most people think the drug store is the place to get them and assume that's the going rate.\n\nThey can be purchased in actual bulk (boxes of 40, 50 or more) and then they do become markedly cheaper. No pun intended, at all, but I buy bulk packs at BJ's (which is like Costco or Sam's Club), which are 40 count for 13.99. That's about 35 cents a condom. If you're willing to order them REALLY in bulk - by the case, like health clinics might order them - I just found Durex brand on Amazon, selling 144 in a variety pack tub for 29.61 - 21 cents a condom. \n\nNo one shops around, and if people are willing to pay it, why price them lower?"
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1y1mpi | why is it illegal to post a full movie online, but it isn't illegal to post a full video game online (like those "let's play"-style things on youtube)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1y1mpi/eli5_why_is_it_illegal_to_post_a_full_movie/ | {
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"Fair Use, they're reviewing the material. That said, the bigger game companies don't like that much either.",
"A movie only plays one way. Just sticking it up in full on the internet is piracy. A let's play video is generally considered to be fair use as it can be seen as commentary, review, etc. You can place large segments of movies online as long as you review them. ",
"In a movie the primary attraction is the movie, and it will always be the same experience. With a game the lper is often the main attraction, and games will play out differently for each person. Watching a game on the internet is very different from playing a game, while watching a torrented movie isn't noticeably different from the DVD of Netflix",
"**TL;DR: Historically accepted as beneficial by most game developers, so they tend not to claim ownership of videos (though they may still do so if they wish).**\n\nI won't say its legal or illegal, but i will say that typically rights holders for video games have found that its more advantageous for their content to be available in a Let's Play form as a means to drive community, fanaticism, advertisement, good-will and sometimes better sales for the games. When it comes to film, understandably companies found they don't get as much out of it. (Although YouTube dose have legally free movies and animated works uploaded by their rights owners to achieve similar goals, they just don't distribute them in a Let's Play (crowd source) manner as it would cut into their monetization and film isn't really transformative compared to Let's Plays)\n \nA video game publisher can still complain to YouTube about a Let's Play video, either through intentional flagging, or through an automated service known as Content ID. With the automated service, samples of songs and video are given to YouTube and matched on videos giving the rights holder of the matched content options. These options technically aren't completely based on law or the DMCA, but on YouTube's assumption that the registered rights holder is in the right, and any claims made by them, or through them by proxy of an automated service are in the legal right, and those with their video claimed are in the legal wrong. This is mostly a scape goat method for YouTube to remove its self as much as possible from any legal actions taken after a video owner rejects a rights holder's claim. \n \nLet's plays actually started pretty small, and had plenty of legal hurdles and complaints from rights holders on YouTube. However, as some companies allowed the process and saw better reception, and indies found how well it suited them, over the years more and more companies came on board. Now you'll have companies send games to popular Let's Players as press copies for review, and even play some Let's Players to feature their game as a form of advertisement. More recently, consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have partnered with twitch (and i believe XBone can also upload to YouTube) basically creating an internal system to show support for Let's Players and video game streamers.\n \n*Some Links you may find helpful:*\n \nA list of publishers that have allowed or denied LPs: [_URL_1_](_URL_1_)\n \nA sub-reddit for Lets Players who may be able to answer your questions better:\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"The selling point of a movie is its viewing experience. The selling point of a game is its playing experience. You can view a movie on YouTube, but you can't play a game there--you can only view a game there, which isn't as fun."
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4v95mi | what is the role of a ceo in a company? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4v95mi/eli5what_is_the_role_of_a_ceo_in_a_company/ | {
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"The [boss of bosses](_URL_0_), who makes major decisions and handles major strategy. They often act as a conduit or go between for the Board of Directors as well.",
"Knowing the business the company is in.\n\n\nMaking the decisions nobody else can make.\n\n\nEmploying the right people.\n\nProfit.\n\n\n",
"CEOs have two main duties:\n\n- to manage the direction of the company (basically, the boss of the executives, who do most of the decision-making legwork)\n- to act as a liaison between the board of directors (who are elected by the shareholders of the company) and the other executives\n\nthe executives are the people in charge of certain facets of the company. you may have heard of CFO (chief financial officer), CTO (chief technology officer), COO (chief operations officer). well, these guys all report to the CEO, but have many people reporting to them. the reason why these guys all report to the CEO is because the CEO is the one who is there to make sure the company is going in the direction that the board and the executives agree that it should go. (this agreement is key.)\n\nthe board of directors represents the shareholders, who are the people who own the company. they have the ability to put decisions to a vote. the people who vote are the shareholders, who own the company.\n\nnote that when i say 'voting', it's not as if all shareholders get a vote, or even equal voting rights. it's not a democracy. some shareholders get a greater number of votes, other shareholders get no votes. the way this is determined all has to do with the individual company, and there are few hard and fast rules. \n\nthe CEO represents the company, but has a duty to act in the best interest of shareholders. otherwise, the board of directors (and other shareholders) can vote to fire him.\n\nthis tends to be how it works in public companies... but private companies may have different setups. some do not have CEOs.",
"In case it interests you, here is a similar question with the top answer written by Reddit's CEO at the time:\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"A company doesn't need a CEO. You could have a single person who owns a company, they can be the President, and call the shots. \n\nIf you have multiple people who own a company, they might be managing partners. There's probably some difference in responsibility, but they own a part of the company and they run the company. \n\nHowever, when a company gets large enough, there's sometimes a desire to go public. What this means is that they will hold an IPO, where members of the public can buy a part of the company. This can mean the company can raise a lot of money really quickly, but it also means that there are quite a lot of people who have different levels of investment in the business. It's stupid to try to let everyone who has an investment in the business have a say in the direction of the company, because that could be thousands or millions of people, many of whom probably don't even know they own part of the company because it was bought as a part of some kind of fund. \n\nSo in that case, the owners of the company are represented people they choose to direct the company, called a board of directors. The board of directors is elected, precisely how is a bit complicated, but suffice it to say that the people with the most investment in the company elect them. \n\nThe board of directors don't run the company though, they're essentially a group who has been chosen to represent the people who have invested in the company. To make decisions on the direction of the company for all the shareholders. They might not know how to run that particular kind of company, they are just the representatives of the people who have invested in the company.\n\nThe board of directors appoints a CEO to be the person who actually runs the company. This person is generally the boss. They can hire the other executives and officers. They're essentially responsible for the whole business, as long as the board of directors is happy with them. The real specifics of what they can and can't do is determined by the bylaws."
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1e6jlq | how is life in really corrupt countries? and what are they? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e6jlq/eli5_how_is_life_in_really_corrupt_countries_and/ | {
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"These types of questions don't work in ELI5. It is impossible to explain to someone in simple and yeoman's language the intricacies of internal political makeup/culture of dozens of different countries, with descriptions of both this culture in practice and everyday life.\n\n",
"A whole lot of bribery.\n\nIn corrupt countries, you have to pay bribes to get anything done, or sift through a lot of often impossible bureaucracy. ",
"i suggest looking at the documentary by vice about the cannibal warlords of Liberia. you get a good look of everyday life in the cities, which include corruption, cannibalism, drugs, prostitution, and some of the worst living conditions in the world. i would give you the link to YouTube, but im on mobile and not really sure how to do it :( "
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4914mg | why is the finale of dexter so universally hated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4914mg/eli5_why_is_the_finale_of_dexter_so_universally/ | {
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"Because at the end of it I felt like I just fucking *WASTED* 8 YEARS of my FUCKING LIFE just to watch him blow up a fucking boat and become a god damn lumberjack in the end!",
"Most decent shows try to kind of wrap up a series finale in a way in which doesn't suck ass. Taking a bad ass murdering mofo and having him live in the woods like a hermit was kind of the opposite of an appropriate ending to this type of show. \nIf you replaced serial killing with log cabin making throughout the series then this would have been an appropriate ending. ",
"Well, in case you change your mind about the whole \"no spoilers\" thing... yeah, this comment has spoilers. But as a quick way of telling you without spoilers: the series was too long, moral of Llamas with Hats. And if you having seen Llamas with Hats... it's on Youtube, 12 2-minute episodes, please try not to watch it with spoilers, it's a valuable lesson on serial entertainment that has to be seen in its entirety.\n\nTBH as a guy who watched Dexter to the end, I have to say that the seasons were getting worse and worse. Now, all TV series tend to do that after a while; the only way to really keep things fresh is generally to do a monster-of-the-week thing. And Dexter was doing that, only thing is it also had an overarching plot every season. And that slowly was losing its tension, and was becoming less and less like the show it once was.\n\nDespite all this, the viewers wanted the show's final, final episode to end in a way that is faithful to the original idea of Dexter as a man and as a monster. Instead, none of the B-plots of the season are rounded up, Debra dies, Dexter kills in plain sight in front of all his cop buddies but they let him go, and... he also becomes a lumberjack. Yeah, if I told you that there once was a serial killer who became a lumberjack, would you believe me? Probably not. I believe the writers tried to go for a bad ending to be more artsy, and give the idea that violence doesn't pay in a very Hotline-Miami-2 kind of way, but they botched the whole thing because there were too many questions at the end, and not enough tension.\n\nLook, I don't know how much stuff you watch. But if you watch good shows like Death Note, Code Geass or Breaking Bad, villains and anti-heroes may win or lose at the finale. That's okay; knowing it could go either way is part of the tension. But for the love of God, if you're going to end the series, you need to instill the feeling of risk and at the very least, give an epic ending befitting of those villains or anti-heroes. Dexter didn't get that ending, because despite all this he still survived, and wasn't really at any risk of dying. And that is why the ending sucked."
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2w2hzx | why do i get abnormally thirsty when i stay up late after midnight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w2hzx/eli5_why_do_i_get_abnormally_thirsty_when_i_stay/ | {
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"I'm guessing it has to do with what you had for dinner. Your body probably needs just as much water when you're sleeping but you don't notice it (but am guessing you wake up thirsty). If you eat dinner early and have lots of fluids during the day, I'm wondering if you won't see this?"
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brx91d | are carbs or sugars in foods like bread or crackers “equal” to those in fruits? | I saw my friend eating a banana, and he said “I’m trying to eat more fruits instead of junk like bread and crackers”, and my other friend said “that doesn’t matter. Carbs are carbs.”
Now at face value, it seems a bit silly: we are all brought up to believe that fruits have other nutrients that are beneficial to us. But in the end, are the carbs in both sources the same? Similarly, can one say that the sugars one obtains in a fruit are the same as those obtained in a candy bar?
My intuitive understanding is, while “sugar” is in fact just sugar (irrespective of the source), the reason we consider fruits or vegetables important is because of the other nutrients and vitamins they contain, giving them an overall better nutritional profile than their processed counterparts. In addition, I think that the chemical modifications that manufacturers make to their goods are considered unhealthy. But In the end, is it fair to say that a “carb is just a carb”? Or sugar a sugar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/brx91d/eli5_are_carbs_or_sugars_in_foods_like_bread_or/ | {
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"Every type of carb provides the same amount of energy by weight but the speed they get converted to usable energy varies. This is known as the glycemic index. Simple sugars found in soda and simple starches in processed/fried foods quickly get converted to blood sugar. More complex starches like those in oatmeal take longer to enter your blood stream. Spikes in blood sugar can lead to health issues like diabetes.\n\nFruit sugars are a bit more complicated. Studies have shown that eating whole fruit makes the processing slow down due to the fiber in the fruit. In addition, you may not realize how much fruit sugars you are taking in while drinking juice (one glass of orange juice can be 2 - 4 whole oranges. Try eating that in one sitting).",
"There are complex and simple sugars. Things like candy bars and sodas have simple sugars, which don’t require as much time to be broken down and can be used very quickly to create energy . This is what people call a sugar high. The sugar crash happens when we quickly exhaust the sugar and are left with low energy. \n\nComplex sugars require time to be broken down, so they are absorbed and converted into energy much slower. This means that they provide sustained energy over a longer period of time.",
"You're correct regarding vegetables & minerals; bear in mid also that there is a wide array of other vital chemicals (e.g. omega-3) in some fruits & veggies which might not appear in, say, a multivitamin.\n\nOne important difference in the carbs is the glycemic load of a food. Yes, they are all carbs - and yes, the fructose in an apple is the same as the fructose in high-fructose corn syrup. What makes it different is how hard & fast the sugar hits your body - known as the **glycemic load** (similar to the related **glycemic index**, but multiplied by serving size). The glycemic load is mostly used by diabetics to know what foods to avoid, but there is some evidence that it is also useful for things like *avoiding* diabetes, maintaining low cholesterol, and maintaining a healthy weight - all factors that make a food \"healthy.\"\n\nThe glycemic load is based around serving size (e.g. a bottle of soda versus one banana), the type of carbohydrate (glucose goes straight to your bloodstream, whereas others must be broken down first), and whether the carbohydrate is trapped inside a sponge of fiber, protein and fat. Trapped carbs are slow to enter your blood stream, as they must be released first.\n\nPure sugar has a glycemic load of 100. Simple starchy carbs can have a high glycemic load, whereas the glycemic load of fruits and vegetables tends to be much lower. You can look up glycemic load charts online, but be sure to check the serving size listed. One slice of white bread has a low load of 10... but two slices have a moderate load of 20, and three have a very-high load of 30."
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ztnsu | how was reddit founded, and what are some major events that shaped reddit into what it is today? | What was the original intent of Reddit? Who were the key players? What significant things happened to create the Reddit we know today? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ztnsu/eli5_how_was_reddit_founded_and_what_are_some/ | {
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"Once upon a time, there were these [two](_URL_0_) [guys](_URL_2_) who thought the internet didn't have quite enough cat pictures, rage comics, atheists, porn, ~~jailbait~~, 2 am chili recipes, and ice soap, so they decided to make a website where people can submit stuff and vote on it. Eventually they added [comments](_URL_1_) too. ",
"Documentary about the start of reddit: _URL_0_",
"looks like /r/answers kind of topic to me.",
"And then God said, \"Let there be Reddit.\" And there was Reddit.",
"As for significant things that happened to create the Reddit we know today... When Digg released v4, there was a great migration to reddit, which really allowed it to boom. Reddit is now much larger than digg ever was, however.",
"An important but often under-appreciated milestone in the evolution of Reddit was Randall Munroe's contribution of a Best Comment algorithm in late 2009. A big part of Reddit's appeal is that the top comments are often so great!\n\nSee:\n_URL_1_\nand\n_URL_0_",
"I would've never expected that such a simple and self-evident phrase as \"explain like i'm 5 (years old)\" would be so misunderstood and misapplied so often as to have the constant barrage of posts as ignorant as this one. ",
"Is this really so difficult to understand that you would need it explained to you like you were a five year old child?!?",
"[war 1/3](_URL_0_)\n[war 2/3](_URL_2_)\n[war 3/3](_URL_1_)\n\nEdit: fixed",
"Go here: _URL_0_ And read \"The Whole Shebang\"",
"Here's a video of Reddit in 2005 when it was just beginning: _URL_1_\n\nHere's Alexis' post on Google+ about the beginning and history (through pictures): _URL_0_",
"There was once a significant AMA with a very famous person on Reddit. It had users talking about it for weeks. But enough about that, let's talk about Rampart. ",
"Reddit was started by two guys out of college (Kn0thing and Spez, if you want to check their user pages) using seed money and guidance from a guy called [Paul Graham](_URL_1_), who made millions off of Yahoo! stock in the late 90's. Now he devotes his time to finding internet startups to micro-invest in, and training the people they choose for success. \n\nTherefore, the original reddit was mostly populated by young white male programmer types (people in Grahams network). Actually, the reddit guys made Graham a [\"hacker news\"](_URL_0_) site which still resembles the original reddit in demographics.\n\nOriginally, the idea was 1) people submit links and others vote on them, to create a \"front page of the internet\", and 2) Your votes would create a special, customized page of \"recommended\" links just for you. That second goal turned out to be a lot harder than it sounds and eventually fell to the wayside, to the point that there isn't even a \"recommended\" button on the page anymore. I don't think the original site even had a comments section at first. At first the site was overshadowed by _URL_2_, which had beat them to launch by a few months, and for years it was seen (unfairly) as a digg clone with a simpler, cruder appearance. There actually used to be a pretty bitter rivalry, at least on reddit's side.\n\nWeb 2.0 was hot though, and after a short time they sold the site to the publishing giant Conde Nast for something around 10-30 million. They stayed on a few years more to make sure things were on track. kn0thing still serves on the board of directors.\n\nI actually wrote an \"oral history\" of reddit on /r/TrueReddit on my 5th Cake Day here last year. Here it is-\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nI first came here in late 2006 and made an account early 2007. Reddit didn't have any subreddits yet, just one big page. The top submissions would get about 200, 300 net upvotes tops. One of my first submissions got to #2 on the front page with 250 upvotes, and almost no downvotes (this was before \"vote fuzzing\"; most top submissions now actually get 5-30k real upvotes). When the admins added the first subreddits and I started seeing subscriber info, there might have been 20,000 subscribers. Basically, it was still very much in the shadow of Digg. But the links were more interesting, and if you submitted a story, it might actually get seen. So I stuck around.\n\n\nThe seed investor Paul Graham and Joel Spolsky had already began to move off, complaining that it was getting full of \"kids\". But it still had the feel of a place mostly populated by programmers. Lots of sciencey, general-interest stories. The comment section was still small enough you got to know most people by name. I remember seeing xkcd as a commenter, and then finding out he did the comic and thinking \"yeah, that sounds about right\": redditors were mostly self-proclaimed geeks in their mid 20's with some interesting hobbies.\n\n\nThen Politics seemed to get more and more dominant, and for a while everything was Kucinich, Ron Paul and vote up if you hate Bush. I'm very liberal, but it got pretty monotone after awhile.\n\n\nSubreddits, and later allowing people to create their own, was an utterly genius move in retrospect, but it took a while for them to catch their individual strides. For a while most of the subreddits outside of r/politics felt like backwaters without much going on (everybody still posted to a generic \"reddit\" subreddit). But of course, that changed. Alexis and Spez (the founders) wanted make-your-own dubreddits because they were fully committed to the self-creating community concept. I believe it was this that allowed reddit to thrive even after they left. Some of the biggest subreddits now are about stuff that never would have occurred to central management.\n\n\nEventually, and probably especially after the subreddits gained traction, a split was created between people that viewed reddit as a tool and people that viewed it as a community. The \"tool\" people just used it like you would use BitTorrent for links, and didn't have as much stake in what other users thought (or at least not much more than what diggers did, if they even bothered reading comments at all). The \"community\" people saw the comments as the main show. They wanted the acceptance of others here. At the time, that was a bit of a novel concept (initially, r/circlejerk started as a bit of a parody of the tearfully happy, \"guys, we're a community!\" mindstate).\n\n\n\"Self\" posts became popular before it was even possible to add text; people would just put a message in the link itself. This led to a lot of upvotes of one-liners (\"Vote up if you think Bush should go to jail\"). The mods hated it because it seemed like reddit would inbreed, as far as they were concerned, the point of the site was to find links from the outside. So they announced no karma would be given for self posts.\n\n\nThe community responded by upvoting self posts more than ever. Today there are enormous self-post subreddits like Askreddit and IAMA that get several times more traffic than the original reddit ever got.\n\n\nThe comment section got better and better. The upvote system saw to it that only the wittiest (or most informed) comments would reach the top, and that in term only the wittiest and sharpest replies would rise. The end result was conversations that seemed as if 100 writers had sat there trying to think of the perfect line for each end of the exchange. Because actually, there had been. I think the comment section is one of the best features of the site. When I see a story elsewhere on the net that I'm wondering about, I click the \"submit\" button on my browser just to get lead to the existing reddit thread, where inevitably someone with some expertise on the subject has chimed in to add detail.\n\n\nPeople began lobbying for \"comment karma\", which was granted. Eventually, celebrity redditors emerged known only for their comments, not external links.\n\n\nWhen McGrim made a post to announce that he had made a free, easy to use image hosting service (Imgur), it hit #1 on the front page. Until then, user-generated content had been frowned on because it was potentially \"blogspam\". Since with imgur you could link to an image with no ads, users could prove they had no ulterior motives posting stuff. It quickly became the site standard, and eventually user-generated content became much more common.\n\n\nStuff from 4chan became popular, and the joke was that what was on 4chan yesterday winds up on reddit today. I know that's still true to an extent, but reddit seems to have made ragecomics a thing of their own, even if most of the original faces came from elsewhere. Still, a lot of the user-made stuff seemed (and still does) derivative and done for attention.\n\n\nEventually the frontpage got full of a lot of stuff that just wasn't very interesting IMO. I unsubscribed from pics, funny, wtf, etc and just stuck to stuff like math and philosophy of science and todayIlearned. In my opinion if you filter reddit that way, its as good as ever. But doing that secluded me from the mainstream front page for a long time. I've introduced a lot of friends to reddit, but when we talk about it we often talk about stories the other hasn't seen because its all in different niche subreddits.\n\nRecently, I hit on \"all\" to see the \"real\" front page, and it was like coming back to a village you once lived in only to find its a city, with different communities in every borough. Subreddits like r/trees and r/Ffffuuuu now have more subscribers than the original reddit had, total, and they look, feel and behave completely differently. There's a lot more /self posts (entire subreddits of them, like this one), and a lot more user-generated content and memes. It has its own identity now, rather than just a bookmark system for aggregating stories from other websites.\n\n\nThe most surprising thing is how influential reddit has became. It blew my mind to see the New York Times take reddit seriously as an agent of internet activism when it covered SOPA. Internet forums always seem to have an inflated sense of importance, so its very surprising seeing it make a transition to something that's actually on the radar, and can now influence the news events it links to stories about. It's like watching the fourth wall break down.\nIn a way, I see those successes as the final victory of the \"community\" faction of redditors over the original \"tool\" link exchangers: they proved that the site really could (and perhaps even should) be more than a link aggregator. I admit that as an old-timer I was skeptical anything would come of it; it seemed like armchair internet activism that just gave an illusion of effectiveness. But in light of things like the SOPA resistance, it's becoming clearer people like me were wrong. .\n\nTL,DR: Major impetus for evolution: the founders took (IMO) almost unprecedented steps to empower voters and commenters (\"redditors\") to make the major decisions regarding content and the standards of the \"community\". It took me a while to become convinced of this, but IMO reddit provided an algorithm that allowed the site to realize the lofty vision of \"Web 2.0\", user-generated and chosen content on the internet.",
"I've been here a while. I think the original intent of Reddit before I even got here has been covered in a few other posts so I'll focus on the events I can remember.\n\nI can think of a few significant events that steered the course from where the site was when I joined to where we are today:\n\n* Introduction of subreddits: Originally, all we had was one big reddit so everyone's front page looked exactly the same. When subreddits were introduced, there was some hemming and hawing about missing out on content but I think we can all now agree that more content gets posted in one day than one can read in a year.\n\n* Introduction of self posts: I don't remember when these began, maybe with the subreddits? Some top subreddits are all self posts and these wouldn't be possible a few years ago. I believe that this has redirected focus to my next point - > \n\n* Shift from popularizing posters to commenters (those who comment?): There have always been a few users who are \"popular\" on the site. u/qgyh2, whose name I can recall because I used to see it on half the posts submitted, was a huge contributor in the pre-Digg days. He also commented a lot but most posts referencing his activity were on the number and quality of articles he was submitting. This focus changed over time to where now users are popular based on the quality and/or humor of their comments.\n\n* The Digg migration: Pre-Digg v4, reddit's users viewed their site as having a significantly higher quality of articles and comments to Digg. There was pride in \"scooping\" a good article and the joke was that if you wanted to see what reddit's front page was 2 days ago, look at Digg today. When Digg v4 launched, that all changed overnight. I don't know the stats but it certainly seemed like nearly all of the Diggers created reddit accounts within a few days. I really don't know what impact this had on the site but it probably was positive. Back then, it wasn't just reddit v. Digg. It was reddit v. Digg v. stumple.upon v. 3 or 4 other sites all battling for link aggregation dominance. I think the Digg influx helped put reddit ahead in the numbers game.\n\n* Imgur: I remember when Mr Grim made that post announcing the creation of Imgur. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. Seriously though, it's a great addition to the internet (and to reddit) but I had to unsubscribe from half the default subreddits because of it.\n\nSo yeah, there have been a lot of popular events that others are referencing (ice soap, cum box, etc.) but the events above are the ones that I think actually had a substantial effect in how people interact with the site.",
"2am Chili and Ice Soap",
"Reddit was once \"All Linux and All Ron Paul Spam, All the Time.\"",
" > What significant things happened to create the Reddit we know today?\n\nCancer.",
"I can remember a few of the more interesting events in Reddit's recent history:\n\nWartoad's story\n\nPresident Obama does an IaMa. ShittyWatercolor's art headlines a CNN article.\n\nA writer from Gawker pretends to have cancer and then writes a nasty article about us. \n\nRedditor discovers that his car has a GPS tracker on it and the FBI is indeed tracking him. Wired magazine writes a piece on it\n\nAnderson Cooper gets /r/jailbait shut down\n\nhihibirdie and some guy realize that they're both think each other is hot and they're sitting next to each other in class. Start dating.\n\nGrandpa Wigley is exposed as a fake\n\nThe Karmanaut Scandal\n\nIGN, G4TV and several other gaming websites are caught playing the system to have their posts upvoted. They all give half-assed apologies and subsequently have any links to their sites banned. (good riddance)\n\nWeightlifting icon Mark Rippitoe takes questions on /r/fitness\n\nI know that none of these aren't major things like \"the algorithm got changed\" but they're still major user generated moments in the history of Reddit. I can try and provide links to the incidents above if people would like to see them."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/user/spez",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_now_supports_comments/?sort=old",
"http://www.reddit.com/user/kn0thing"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZ8f3Bx6Po"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html",
"http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://ncomment.com/blog/2009/04/08/war-13/",
"http://ncomment.com/blog/2012/01/06/war-33/",
"http://ncomment.com/blog/2009/12/17/war-23/"
],
[
"http://alexisohanian.com/pages/about"
],
[
"https://plus.google.com/+AlexisOhanian/posts/FdLvCct7fAb",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZ8f3Bx6Po"
],
[],
[
"http://news.ycombinator.com/",
"http://www.paulgraham.com/",
"Digg.com"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
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