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1s3cra | why do psychological disorders, such as anxiety, cause physiological distress? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s3cra/eli5_why_do_psychological_disorders_such_as/ | {
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"Well Generalized Anxiety Disorder is caused by too much adrenaline being produced.\n\nThink of it like you are always faced with a life or death situation and your body produces adrenaline to help you fight for your life or to run for your life \"Fight or Flight\"...\n\n\nTo much of that is gonna be bad for you",
"I don't know as if there is a clear-cut scientific answer for that. The short answer is that it likely has a something to do with alterations in neurotransmitters (like epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine). These neurotransmitters also have an influence on other body organs, like the heart, the intestines, the kidneys, and so forth. So, when there is an change in norepinephrine and epinephrine, these changes may also cause an increase the heart rate, shakiness, and other such symptoms.\nThis likely is not the only explanation. After years of study, it has turned out that it is not as simple as we previously thought. It was often thought that anxiety was a result of an increase in norepinephrine and epinephrine and that depression was a result of too little serotonin. This was the initial reason behind using the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat depression - give the drug, increase serotonin, and you treat the depression. This just is not the case. The problem is, when you study people with psychological disorders, you don't conveniently find high or low levels of the previously hypothesized, respective neurotransmitters. This is even further supported after years of effective use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which is clearly not specific for any particular neurotransmitter.\nThe question is a really interesting one. If you are more curious, try reading about particular disorders, like conversion disorder. It shows that the physiological symptoms people experience as a result of physiological pain often is specific to that individual person and, as such, is often amenable to psychotherapy. Individuals, regardless of who they are, interpret and react to perceptual phenomena in light of a set of background beliefs whose structure is a product of social influences and individual psychological dispositions. There is a very unconscious and painful process at work, which can be uncovered, interpreted, and spoken openly about, often with positive results.\n "
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2myn67 | why are some people able to open their eyes in the ocean without any discomfort, while other people's eyes can be very irritated by the salt water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2myn67/eli5_why_are_some_people_able_to_open_their_eyes/ | {
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"Bitch grade or non bitch grade, Poseidon decides.",
"I find it hard to believe that people can open their eyes in the ocean without discomfort. I've swam all over the world, and it always stings. That said, cold water is a lot harder to deal with than warmer water. And some water has more minerals that irritate than others."
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4xkp08 | what are the effects of trauma causing genetic imprinting? | There have been many posts regarding how trauma can lead to genetic imprinting that can last for generations, but how does this occur and what effects does someone experience from it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xkp08/eli5_what_are_the_effects_of_trauma_causing/ | {
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"There's such a thing as epigenetics. Molecules can attach to specific parts of DNA, and activate, deactivate or modify the effect of the gene.\n\nThe specifucs are not well understood. Research is ongoing."
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ctfwvc | why you can instantly dislike someone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctfwvc/eli5_why_you_can_instantly_dislike_someone/ | {
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"Yeah sometimes it's not about what you can see but what you can sense. Vibes, energy, trust your gut - all the same thing really. If it doesn't feel right don't do it. Just because you have similar friends doesn't mean you have to be friends with her. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe flip side is she could have been hurt or used previously and so is putting off a negative vibe to keep people away. After spending some time together you might find you actually connect but it will take a while. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nBottom line - let it go and see what flows",
"There isn't a good scientific explanation for this, but I will offer some psychological insights.\n\n1. Imagine that only 7% of your communication is what this person actually says, the rest is body language and tone of voice etc. This isn't very well proven, but for simplicity that is the usual number. So when thinking of what she said, she could easily have been saying good things, but the 93% of other communication could have signaled something else. This, however, is much harder to reflect back on, therefore the feeling of her not saying anything bad but still disliking what she said.\n2. We have evolved to distrust people that are unrelateable. In this case, her \"childish\" voice could drive a wall between your rapport (subconscious connection) without you being able to say why.\n3. Your subconscious and your instincts take most of your decisions. Also a difficult thing to prove, but it is probably around 90% of your decisions that are done subconsciously. This is often done through the help of shortcuts (heuristics). This makes life much easier, but also makes us prone to errors. In this case, maybe her voice or behavior connects it to a child, seeking attention and being impulsive.\n\nTo connect these dots, there are many things your brain is up to without you realizing. It is very important to understand this, because all of this is done to conserve energy for your brain, not to lead you to the best decision. The best decision is always done actively, but taking your instincts into consideration. Keep an open and humble mind. She might be a fantastic person, or she is not, but don't trust your gut blindly."
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5857h1 | why is reddit so popular? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5857h1/eli5_why_is_reddit_so_popular/ | {
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"People post content for others to enjoy/engage, it's like asking why any social media platform is popular. This difference with a site like YouTube is that for the vast majority, the uploaders are not the creators, so there is no following that any user has. \n \nAs for why Reddit became more popular than similar competitors, that's a different question.",
"Other social media platforms are connected to your identity. \n\nOn places like Facebook people know who you really are, so you feel you have to fabricate to impress. \n\nOn Reddit, your identity remains hidden so there's a better chance for authenticity. \n"
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4ookbz | when a news story says something like "the fire caused $50 million in damage" how are they calculating the dollar amount? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ookbz/eli5_when_a_news_story_says_something_like_the/ | {
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"Depending on the scope of the damage, they could get an estimate from the fire department. They know the extent of the damage, and can guestimate what it would cost to repair/rebuild.\n\nWhen you talk about larger disasters, like the Fort McMurray fire, they also take into account a number of other factors like disruption to the local and larger economy.",
"Insurance providers for expensive things tend to have valuations and assessments as part of the establishment of the policy. Dunno whether this information gets used by the news, however. ",
"This is part of what actuaries do (technically they work on risk management, but this is generally kind of tied in) and the reason that actuarial sciences is the highest paid undergrad degree in the US. ",
"It's not really accurate, it's just an average. If you assume every house is worth $1,000,000 all in, and 50 houses burn down, then you can assume there was $50m in damage. It gets more difficult when things like roads, cars and parks are destroyed, but same principle. ",
"The way journalism works, it's usually just someone (with or without knowledge of the subject) mentioning a number to the journalist, who then repeats it without checking if it's reasonable or not.\n\nSo, hardly an exact science."
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5djso2 | why does eating straight garlic cause a burning sensation in your mouth and throat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5djso2/eli5_why_does_eating_straight_garlic_cause_a/ | {
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"There are defensive compounds in the garlic that turn into sulfuric acid when mixed with water. This is the second sentence."
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18qufl | why is the 1/4 mile stretch and 0 to 60 the benchmark cars are rated for? | What makes thoes the choice for rating cars? Why can't we test on 0-100 or 1/2 mile stretch? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18qufl/eli5_why_is_the_14_mile_stretch_and_0_to_60_the/ | {
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"Some cars are unable to get to 100? And 60 is a speed that's legal on highways pretty much all over the world. In Europe they mostly test 0-100kph (62mph).\n\nA 1/4 mile is the usual run for drag racing, which I believe is due to the length of the runways when they first started drag racing.",
"The European standard for measuring acceleration is the time for 0-100 *kilometers* per hour. This is converts to about 0-62mph which was then rounded down, so both numbers are very similar and can be easily compared.\n\nThe quarter mile seems to come from quarter horse racing ([source](_URL_0_)), but I figure that this is just a good distance that is not too short (cars don't reach max speed) and not too long (difficult to find, cars drive max speed for the majority of the track).",
"0-60 MPH is a bit more relevant than 0-100 MPH because it is a greater indicator of torque at low speeds. "
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2kxlmv | why in this day and age are suppositories still prescribed? why would anyone choose a suppository over taking it orally? | Unless you have a physical problem with taking something orally I dont see a medical reason why someone would choose or be asked to take a prescribed medicine as a suppository. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kxlmv/eli5_why_in_this_day_and_age_are_suppositories/ | {
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"I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on teevee, but the suppositories I occasionally take are for hemorrhoids. It kind of makes more sense than taking a tablet by mouth.",
"Some people get upset stomachs taking certain medications. The rectal route bypasses that. Additionally, absorption into the bloodstream can be even faster via that route. ",
"I would hazard a guess that the stomach acts as a delay (digestion, then absorption), so there might be some medicines that need immediate and rapid absorption, which the rectum is excellent at. Tweak the pill coating so it comes apart easier, and you're good to go.\r\rAnecdotally, I fucking *hate* swallowing pills. Alternatively I enjoy a little ass play. If I could just slip an Aleve or those massive fucking multivitamin horse pills up my ass, I'd be ecstatic, no more fear of the pill getting stuck in my throat."
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4oo7wn | why are they selling the ufc in the peak of its business booming? | I'm sure I'm wrong but it sounds like a terrible idea. They have spent health, people and millions to get it up where it is. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oo7wn/eli5_why_are_they_selling_the_ufc_in_the_peak_of/ | {
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"It makes good business sense to sell while you're at the peak. If the current owners feel that the UFC will never get more valuable, selling now will net them the best profits. "
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17dm71 | the israeli election outcome, what it means to the rest of the world, and how it will affect future peace negotiations | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17dm71/eli5_the_israeli_election_outcome_what_it_means/ | {
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"There are four main blocs in Israeli politics: the right, the left, the Ultra-Orthodox parties, and the Arab parties. The Arab bloc is the easiest to understand: they usually have around 10% of the 120 seats, and they neither get invited nor seek to join a government coalition. They remained at 11 seats between the previous and the current elections.\n\nThe Ultra-Orthodox have recently sided with the right; however, because their interests are somewhat more specific (e.g. Shas, the Sephardic religious party, has social justice elements in its discourse because they see Sephardic Jews as traditionally being underprivileged in comparison to Ashkenazic Jews), they can also side with the left, potentially playing the role of king-makers. They grew from 16 to 18 seats.\n\nThe right camp has long been led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. Prior to this election, he announced Likud would file a joint list with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which is nationalistic and appeals to the Russian immigrant vote. This alliance saw its support crumble from 42 seats pre-election to 31. It is still the biggest party, though, and Netanyahu will most likely remain PM - but it still remains to be seen what will be his coalition partners.\n\nPart of the right-wing vote was taken by the Jewish Home party, led by Naftali Bennett. Their main power base are the modern Orthodox (not religiously Ultra-Orthodox) settlers. They grew from 5 to 12 seats. In total, the right-wing bloc now has 43 seats, with less power directly in Netanyahu's hands, from a previous 49 (a smaller party failed to make the threshold).\n\nThe left-wing bloc is perhaps the most complex. It has \"traditional\" political forces, which were already represented in Parliament - such as the centrist Hatnuah and Kadima parties, the centre-left Labour and the more purely left Meretz - but its biggest component is a new, centrist party, Yair Lapid's *Yesh Atid* (There's a Future). Out of the 48 seats held by the left, Lapid holds 19, Labour has 15, Meretz and Hatnuah have 6 each and Kadima, the biggest party following the 2009 elections, barely passed the 2% threshold and has 2 seats.\n\nNetanyahu has, theoretically, two options: either form a government with the Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox) and nationalist parties, or reach out to some of the left to form a grand coalition. One big issue is that the Ultra-Orthodox are currently exempt from serving in the army; there's massive unemployment among their community, and many of them live on welfare. The secular folks complain this is unfair, and want the Haredim to carry a more proportional share of the national burden. If Netanyahu chooses to address this issue, he'll be pushing the Ultra-Orthodox parties into opposition, and will need to consider the leftist parties' concerns. Kadima is now irrelevant, Meretz is too far to the left and Labour isn't too content with the prospect of joining a coalition; that would leave the possibility of a Likud Beiteinu + Jewish Home + Yesh Atid coalition, with just 62 seats (out of 120). Conversely, Netanyahu could keep dodging the issue of drafting the Haredim into the army, inviting their parties into a coalition with Jewish Home, which would total only 61 seats.\n\nThe whole thing with the Haredim seems to prevent a Haredim-left coalition, but if they could miraculously work it out, they could reach a majority without Likud Beiteinu and Jewish Home; the Ultra-Orthodox have signalled they prefer allying with the right.\n\nSo, how does this all relate to the peace process? Badly. Apart from the Arab parties - which won't be in government anyway - the only party which has made this an issue during the campaign was former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah, which holds just 6 seats. The election's biggest winner, Yesh Atid, campaigned focussing on internal issues, like housing, the economy and social justice. They wouldn't have much leverage to bring up the issue of the peace process even if they wanted to.\n\nLikud Beiteinu want to keep stalling the process while the Palestinians don't make a definitive commitment to the security of the Jewish state. They might rightly point out that the Palestinians have twice (2000 and 2007) been offered the best possible deal: a state made up of Gaza and over 97% of the West Bank, with land swaps compensating the remainder, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Anything over this is simply impossible and will never happen (not without \"pushing the Jews into the sea\", anyway), and Netanyahu won't even make such an offer again, since the Palestinians not only rejected it when it was made but replied with violence instead. One other reason why the process probably won't move too far is that the Likud Beiteinu candidates elected are more hard-line than in the previous Parliament, and that Jewish Home now have more power, and are is essentially opposed to a Palestinian state.\n\nFrom the left, given that Netanyahu can claim that he won the last Gaza war and that the \"recognition\" of Palestine by the UN has meant little in practice (and given that the Palestinians haven't renounced violence), it is hard for a party like Labour to attack him for not having moved forward with the peace process.\n\ntl;dr - Whatever coalition arises, it is unlikely the peace process will move forward too soon, as the Israelis either reject it altogether or care more about their own internal affairs; the Palestinians haven't taken any real steps towards it either."
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dizs4a | why is it when our body experiences moments of stress, sicknesses in the body seem to momentarily disappear? | For example, I had a fever, then an earthquake hit, suddenly I had no fever for a while. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dizs4a/eli5_why_is_it_when_our_body_experiences_moments/ | {
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"The symptoms are caused by your body, not the disease. Your body raises your temperature to kill whatever is causing you to be sick because that’s better than the damage that would otherwise be dealt. In times of stress, sickness is less important than your immediate survival and so the body focuses on getting tf out of there rather than fighting the sickness.",
"It's not that they disappear. It's that the heightened state of alertness reallocates your resources, making you unaware of the symptoms. It's still there, but you're no longer conscious of it. It's the same mechanic responsible for your sudden lack of hunger when you are under stress. When you are relaxed again, all of those somatic needs slowly return. It's actually not entirely psychological either, as your brain redistributes blood flow to less vulnerable areas of your body.",
"It's somewhat a survival reflex.\n\nAdrenaline is a stress hormone which raises the body's alert status from \"oof ouch owie I'm sick\" to \"Be ready to fight or run, we can deal with those symptoms later\"."
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48eknm | if the space station is going 17,000mph, how does anyone get on or off it? also once off, how do they slow down and return to earth? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48eknm/eli5_if_the_space_station_is_going_17000mph_how/ | {
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"anything orbiting earth must be traveling that fast (the exact speed varies by orbiting height, lower you are, faster you need to go to orbit), infact reaching that speed is a substantial part of the rockets job. Its why we cant just float up on a balloon or plane and chill, once your at altitude, you still have to get moving sideways really freakin fast. If you watch a rocket launch, you'll notice its basicly flying sideways not too long after takeoff, just get past the densest atmosphere and get moving sideways as you finish your climb.\n\nAs for coming back down, pretty simple, just tap the brakes and you'll start falling, the atmosphere will slow you down the rest of the way.",
"They get on it by docking. Two things going fast now become one larger thing going fast. Sort of like in action movies when two cars match speeds so the hero can jump from one to the other. Except they are in actual contact in orbit and docked together."
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abomqv | portuguese man o' war life cycle | How do the four individual organisms/polyps come together as a colony? Do they start out that way or is there a stage where they join each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/abomqv/eli5_portuguese_man_o_war_life_cycle/ | {
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"This is a fascinating question I have never thought about. After some googling, I have found an answer. A man-o-war is a siphonophore, which are “animals” composed of multiple colonies of these organisms called zooids. Each colony has a specific purpose in the whole “animal”, like our organ systems. One colony is called the gonozooid, and it is responsible for reproduction. Gonozooids are both male and female, and can release both eggs and sperm. Man-o-wars (men-o-war? plurals are weird) gather in large groups occasionally, and release eggs and sperm into the water. These come together and form fertilized eggs. Each egg then grows into a man-o-war... which sounds a lot like a regular animal. That’s because siphonophores are weird and science thinks they’re weird and doesn’t know a lot about them. \nTo be more like ELI-high school biology, all the colonies share the same DNA. Once the egg is fertilized, there is an intermediate colony called the protozooid. The protozooid uses asexual budding, and produces each colony."
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217f3s | how do electronic speakers/headphones make different "types" of sounds? | I can understand how they make different pitches, but I don't understand how they make different types of sound, like certain letter sounds. How does a speaker make a "shhh" sound or a "z" sound or any other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/217f3s/eli5_how_do_electronic_speakersheadphones_make/ | {
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"Think of the letter \"A\". Now say it out loud. Sounds like you sorta said \"Aiee\" right? What you just heard in your own voice is exactly what a speaker does. It has the data that tells it to vibrate at a specific frequency and intensity at a given time.\n\nCompare a ventriliquist to a speaker. A good ventriliquist can speak without showing signs of movent in their lips, jaw, cheeks, or neck. Now look at a speaker. You dont see either of them moving (except if you get up really close and look hard enough). This is because the speaker, like the ventriliquists vocal chords, is vibrating several \"disks\" at different frequencies and intenseities in order to be combined and make a complex or textured sound.\n\nI hope this helps.",
"They combine a whole lot of different notes, each at different amplitudes and for different lengths of time. The combination of those all leads to the unusual sounds. In fact, almost nothing you hear is a \"pure\" note (just the one frequency, with no other overtones).\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is a pretty good example of how two sounds can seem to be in tune but have very different sounds (different [timbre](_URL_1_)). It breaks down the middle-C note on a piano, comparing it to a pure sine wave at the same frequency.\n\nIf you start combining enough notes, you end up with things that don't sound like one note at all, but instead can produce any noise you've ever heard."
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f99g3i | how do animals find water sources set by humans? | I've seen some videos of people leaving containers full of water for wild animals.
How does animals find these? How do they know there is going to be water in the strange object and not just walk past it? Do animals have some kind of sense for water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f99g3i/eli5_how_do_animals_find_water_sources_set_by/ | {
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"They don’t. What they do know is that this is a New Thing. New Things are worth investigating, because they might be food (or, conversely, might be a threat that needs to be dealt with.) When investigating, they discover that this New Thing contains water. Lucky day!\n\nThey find them in the first place because most animals keep territories they patrol (for, say, food, or rivals to chase away). They just happen across it when they’re patrolling.",
"Animals can smell water.\n\nEven humans can smell water (in theory), but our sense of smell isn't quite as good as that of other creatures."
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35meqo | why are school buses still built the same as the always have been? | As far as I can tell, school buses are still built like they have been for decades. As in I see shiny new ones driving around, but they look and drive like they were built in the 70's/80's. Why hasn't their design been updated like every other vehicle on the roads? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35meqo/eli5_why_are_school_buses_still_built_the_same_as/ | {
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"Because there's very little need. Cars are updated because of many reasons, such as aerodynamics and current aesthetic design considerations.\n\nSchool buses, on the other hand, don't have a need to be updated for their looks. We want them to stand out -- be big and bright and easy to identify.\n\nIt's as if we want them to scream to every other vehicle on the road: \"Hey! Notice me! There's a bunch of kids on board.\"",
"School bus designers are pretty conservative by nature since they're responsible for the lives of 60 kids or so. Depending on where you live, you might see some different designs. When I was in school, all buses were of the front-engine design. The school district that my kids are in has those type, plus a collection of rear-engine designs. You can now get a school bus that runs off propane or one that runs off compressed natural gas.\n\n[Here's](_URL_0_) a quick summary of what's available from Bluebird--one of the larger school bus manufacturers.",
"Since I last rode a bus in the 70s, most now have :\n\nAutomatic transmission\n\nStop signs as well as flashing red lights\n\nPowered doors\n\nWhite roofs to cool down by 15°F\n\nCrossing arms to keep kids from crossing so close the driver doesn't see them\n\n\nMany have:\n\nInternal video cams\n\nExternal cams to catch light runners\n\n2 way radio\n\nEdited: road to rode\n\nAir conditioning\n\nHeaters that actually work\n\nGPS so parents & dispatchers know bus location\n",
"Economics is probably a major reason in addition to what everyone else has said.\n\nCity/transit buses, for example, get updated designs partly to attract more people to ride them. Obviously the ridership of school buses is not affected by their design."
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er755r | when you move the mouse cursor quickly across the computer screen and see multiple cursors simultaneously, is it your eyes that cause the effect or the display? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/er755r/eli5_when_you_move_the_mouse_cursor_quickly/ | {
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"Its the refresh rate (Hz) of the screen causing this. Higher refresh rates gives a smoother image. \n\n\n_URL_0_",
"Not sure if this is the cause of the efdect but there is actually a setting that you can cause that effect. Go to your mouse/pointer settings and you can increase or decrease the mouse \"trails\""
]
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"https://youtu.be/Q1cmhZs1P54"
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||
59ddt4 | apple pay | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59ddt4/eli5_apple_pay/ | {
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"text": [
"Credit cards have major security problems. Every time you use one in a store, you give your card number to the store. The card number can be stolen by hardware installed on the payment terminal, by malware installed in the POS or other merchant systems, or by hacking into merchant databases (which can contain tens of millions of card numbers). \n\nWhen you add a card to Apple Pay on your iPhone or Apple Watch, a new card number is generated. When you pay, this number, along with a dynamic security code (instead of the static number printed on your card) is sent to the merchant. The merchant never gets your real number and, unlike the number printed on your card, the one sent by Apple Pay *cannot* be used without the dynamic security code, which only your iPhone or Apple Watch can generated.\n\nEvery other aspect of the transaction works basically the same. The payment is information comes from your device instead of your card, but otherwise looks like a normal NFC/contactless/tap (pick your term) transaction and goes to their payment processor on to the payment network (eg. Visa) where the alternate number is matched up with your real card number, and then sent to your bank for approval. There are *no* additional parties added to the processing; Apple is not involved in the transaction. "
]
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|
20tk03 | why are lite beers so heavily advertised on american tv instead of full strength beer? | As an Australian there is nothing worse then lite beer it's basically an avoid at all costs but I can't quite understand whenever I watch American sporting events (mainly NBA) why lite beers are so heavily _URL_0_ this because Americans just prefer lite beer or are there rules/restrictions in place to only allow lite beer ads in a way to promote safer drinking? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20tk03/eli5why_are_lite_beers_so_heavily_advertised_on/ | {
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"\"Lite\" doesn't refer to the alcoholic content, but rather the calorie count. As for the amount of advertising...I dunno, maybe Americans drink more light beer than \"heavy\" beer?",
"Because American's like Lite Beer, and we could prefer lower calorie drinks. \n\nAmerica is becoming increasingly health conscious (whatever the stereotypes will say) and Lite Beer is an outgrowth of that.",
"The big kick in the US is \"healthy\". Low-fat, low-carb, salad this, veggie-that, etc. Lite beer is just part of that because it's slightly lower calories, so it tends to sell more.",
"Americans just love light beer. Bud lite by itself is almost 20% of the entire beer sales volume in the US. Personally it's my favorite lite beer too. I just can't justify the cost increase or the extra calories that other beers consist of, even though I love craft beers, and my favorite \"factory\" beer is guiness I almost always drink bud light instead.",
"In America we like to drink large quantities of beer, not so much quality or tasty beer. It's about drinking 15 cheap, lite, unfilling beers, rather than 3 tasty, full flavored beers. \n\nLite beers appeal to the party crowd because you can drink quite a bit more without feeling so full. They appeal to me when I'm in a party situation. I want something I can do beer bongs with, and chug, and things like that. Nobody wants to chug full flavor stouts and the like. \n"
]
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357s2v | how does the change in legislature regarding marijuana use affect drug testing for major companies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/357s2v/eli5_how_does_the_change_in_legislature_regarding/ | {
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"Yes a company can have a policy which the employees sign up to for not using either drugs or alcohol if they believe that it will harm the way they work. If employees then break the policy then they can face the sack or other action from the company.",
"This is still very much up in the air. Companies in every state with legalization (and DC) are still able to set their own hiring and retention standards (and therefore may deny a hire, or fire, due to a failed drug test). There is at least one pending state supreme court case due to be heard this year, in Colorado, on the question of whether it should be legal to fire an employee for marijuana use in a state that has legalized it. There may be pending cases in WA, AK, OR, or DC (I'm not sure what the process would be there), but I'm only aware of the CO case.",
"This is actually a bit of a legal nightmare. Marijuana is detectable on a standard urine test for 30 days. This means that while the lab can tell you whether or not the subject has consumed marijuana within the past 30 days, they can't (presently) tell you when the use occurred. That being so, how can a company restrict their employees using a legal substance (be it alcohol or marijuana in select states) on their own time? With alcohol, you can administer a breath test at the workplace to see if outside employment use is causing at work impairment. That can't be done with any field testing or urine testing I am aware of. I believe a blood draw can give you greater specificity but that opens up a whole new array of issues. Until the technology exists to differentiate between personal time use and at work (or immediately before) use, the courts will inevitably be wrong. They will either unfairly punish those who are using a legal substance on their own time or they will have to protect persons under the influence of marijuana from employer punishment. I think we can all guess what side the courts will opt for."
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1xrq6i | why is random mating important for the hardy weinberg equilibrium? | I understand the other points of HWE (no selection, no migration, etc.), but I am struggling to understand why random mating keeps a population in equilibrium.
I've searched for an explanation for this particular aspect, and it keeps going over my head. Help? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xrq6i/eli5_why_is_random_mating_important_for_the_hardy/ | {
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"text": [
"Nonrandom mating is essentially a form of selection.",
"Consider eye color, where Brown is dominant and blue is recessive.\n\nIf people preferred mates with the same eye color, the Bb genotype would be less likely, and the population would gravitate towards a 50-50 BB/bb equilibrium.\n\n",
"If there isn't random mating then that is selection. Selection leads to nonrandom mating. They are almost the same thing, you can't have one without the other. If you understand why selection leads to the equilibrium getting out of balance, then you already know why random mating would get it out of balance. You have just not put them together yet. If the mating isn't random then species would select of certain alleles and after a few generations the equilibrium would change. "
]
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[],
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1w0eb5 | if it is the duty of police to protect the rights of the citizens, why do they protect the government when citizens rights are being violated? | I am in a police academy in hopes to one day become a peace officer and defend the rights of my fellow people. Everyday they drill it into us that police authority comes from the people, and it is their duty to protect people and their rights. Why then, do police fight people when they are protesting for their rights? If people do not like their government, do they not have the right to overthrow it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w0eb5/eli5_if_it_is_the_duty_of_police_to_protect_the/ | {
"a_id": [
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"Well, I'm not a lawyer, but I would suggest that LEO's aren't there to protect *people*, they are there to protect the *community*. The courts are supposed to protect our rights.\n\nWhen there is peaceful protesting going on, there is no issue. When the protest gets violent or destructive, it harms the community. \n\nFinally, remember that in protesting, only *some* of the people do not like their government. The others are impartial or support it. That is the theory, anyway. ",
"Because that isn't their job. The job of a police officer is to enforce the law, plain and simple. If the law says people can't mob city hall, then you will prevent people from mobbing city hall no matter what rights they are protesting for. And if you don't, you will be fired in short order. \n\nMore importantly, I don't want police officers deciding who does and who doesn't have a valid reason to overthrow the government. Maybe a disenfranchised class is holding an unauthorized protest and disrupting traffic in a major city. You might want to help them because you agree with their goals. But what makes them different from a Klan rally? I don't want police to bend the rules on behalf of neo-nazis, therefore they shouldn't be allowed to do it on behalf of gays/black/other-oppressed-group either.",
"\"Peace officers are *required* to ensure that a person's First Amendment rights are protected and enforced...\" "
]
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|
3b3b58 | why your nose gets plugged up on one side, then you roll over and the clog slides to the other side, all while keeping just 1 nostril clogged at a time... | This gets annoying at night when trying to sleep | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b3b58/eli5why_your_nose_gets_plugged_up_on_one_side/ | {
"a_id": [
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"I was surprised when I learned that this wasn't just my nose being screwed up. There is a small bit of tissue in your sinuses that partially blocks one nostril at any given time (and changes from side to side). The working hypothesis is that this is to help us determine which directions smells are coming from."
]
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[]
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|
ehxy62 | rare genetic conditions. for example the odds of being born with an extra hand or leg is supposedly 1 in 1700, or the odds of having a 178+ iq is 1 in 10 million. with > 7 billion people why don’t we see these conditions very often | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ehxy62/eli5_rare_genetic_conditions_for_example_the_odds/ | {
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"Where have you got the odds of an extra hand or legs as 1:1700? \n I can't find any info that Polymelia that is an extra limb is that high.\n\nPolydactyly that is extra fingers or toes can be as high as 13.5 per 1000 in some population group but we will not see it in adults in the west because it can be fixed with simple surgical intervention at an early age.",
"1) Big malformations frequently result in death of the foetus, or abortion by the parents.\n\n2) Smaller malformations can frequently be handled through chirurgical operations.\n\n3) You won't remark most of them, as peoples don't particularly like to look weird. You can keep extra limbs under your clothes. Extra/missing fingers is pretty much not noticed most of the time (I had a girl with only 3 fingers on one of her hands at my high school, peoples outside of our class didn't pay attention to it).\n\n4) Rare genetic conditions are genetics. Which mean they tend to appear in the same family, not randomly through the whole population.",
"Regarding high IQ, it's not a visible trait. We're not all tested, and it wouldn't necessarily translate to academic and scientific success - someone with an IQ of 200 might just become a really good accountant. They don't all become Einstein's."
]
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2afem8 | the difference between the effects of a zero calorie, zero gram sugar soda and a regular soda | I feel like when you compare the two at face value, it's almost like the diet soda is good for you. But what exactly is the difference between the two, and what they're doing to my body? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2afem8/eli5_the_difference_between_the_effects_of_a_zero/ | {
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"Zero calorie drinks have an artificial sweetener in it called Aspartame (or sometimes Saccharin). It's zero calorie because your body doesn't use the sweetener as energy, and it doesn't give you the effects of regular Sucrose (insulin response).\n\nAspartame is an aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. When you digest it, your body breaks down the aspartic acid and the phenylalanine which creates a (very) small amount of methanol. Aspartic acid is a very common amino acid. We get more from various other food sources in higher doses. Similarly, phenylalanine is an essential amino acid, but those ~~with naturally high levels of~~ that cannot digest phenylalanine need to watch their intake (people are born with this disorder). You may see a warning on the bottle of diet sodas warning these people (Phenylketonurics) that the drink contains phenylalanine.\n\nThe methanol released from the breakdown of Aspartame is the main source of the 'cancer' and health risk claims, since Methanol in high doses is toxic. Methanol that is released when consuming aspartame from diet drinks is far *far* less than the methanol released from other food sources such as fruit juices or fruit in general, or any methanol you consume in other parts of your diet. \n\nAs far as better than regular soda. If you *must* have a soda, then diet soda would be much better to drink than regular soda, as regular soda has High-Fructose Corn Syrup in it. HFCS is digested similar to alcohol in terms of the body's response to it (it is primarily metabolized in the liver). HFCS has also been linked to [Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome](_URL_0_), as well as [Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease](_URL_1_).\n\nEdit: Mistake on Phenylalanine. Phenylketonurics cannot digest phenylalanine."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup_and_health#Obesity_and_metabolic_syndrome",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-alcoholic_fatty_liver_disease"
]
] |
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2j815t | how does google get the money to drive google map cars all around the world without getting anything in return? what do they get from doing all that work and from all those expenses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2j815t/eli5_how_does_google_get_the_money_to_drive/ | {
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"Google gets a lot of money in return for their services. They just don't get the money from you. Google is an advertising company. Every time you search something on Google, they learn a bit more about you- where you go and what you do. Especially if you have an Android phone, in which case they can use location tracking to figure out where you live and where you work. All that information that Google learns about you when you use Google's services means that they know more about you than just about anyone else in the world. And that means they can target advertisements to the people they know would be most interested in them. Because they're so good at it, they can charge companies more for advertisements and those advertisements give them 50 billion dollars a year in revenue.",
"What they get is the best mapping system available for the average user. There is no equivalent to StreetView.\n\nBecause their mapping system is the best, they have lots and lots of users. And many of those users also have GMail accounts, and YouTube accounts, and Google+ accounts.....\n\nNow, they can find out what locations you've searched for recently in Google Maps (which they wouldn't be able to do if you used a different mapping solution, maybe because you found a better one). And they can combine that with knowledge of your e-mails, your video viewing habits, even your search history.... to give you more relevant ads. More relevant ads means more click-throughs, which means more money for them.\n\nThey don't just use it to give you more relevant ads, of course. They also use it to give you more relevant search results. Which means that you're more likely to use Google than another search engine, because it consistently just seems to know what you're looking for.... and that provides another platform where they can show you ads, as well as collect more information about you to show you more relevant search results and ads in future.......",
"You have to remember that although Google has its finger in many technological pies, the vast majority of its income still comes through selling advertising. And to be a world-class multi-billion-dollar online advertising broker requires you to hold as much data as possible on the people who will be viewing your adverts -- the better the data you hold the more accurately you can target advertising, and therefore the more money you can charge your advertisers.\n\nAll of this is a roundabout way of saying that what Google gains from its streetview programme is simple: lots more people using Google Maps in preference to any other mapping product. The more people who use Google Maps (especially on an auto-geolocating device such as a mobile phone), the more data Google has about those people, which in turn it can use to boost its revenue stream as described in the first paragraph.",
"Google charges other companies to use their maps, search for directions, things like that. They also use it to deliver better advertisements based on the locations of their users.",
"Can I post a semi-related question here?\n\nWhat about Red Bull? Do they really sell that many energy drinks to finance all their sponsorships? They sponsor fucking everything.",
"Data. If you access Google Maps they can relate your searches to a location/ interest in a location and sell it to even more advertisers and similar entities for even more money.",
"I asked this question a few days ago:\n\n_URL_0_",
"Google just needs to put those cameras on the top of the USPS mail delivery vehicles and update their maps every dang day."
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5jj6e6 | why are 2 litre bottles of coke in australian supermarkets cheaper than 500 ml bottles of coke in australian supermarkets? (2$ vs 3$) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jj6e6/eli5why_are_2_litre_bottles_of_coke_in_australian/ | {
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"In general, the 2l bottles are much larger, and are frequently served warm, making them unattractive to those who want a grab-and-go drink. By contrast, 16.9oz bottles are a reasonable portion size, are frequently served chilled, and fit into car cupholders and hands a lot easier.",
"They're targeted at different customers. Serving size bottles are sold chilled for customers who want the convenience of a cold drink right now. They pay a large price per volume for that convenience. \n\nMeanwhile customers who are OK with buying large bulk bottles, spending time doing any necessary chilling at home themselves and pouring glasses to serve get a better price per unit volume because their needs are logistically easier/cheaper to fill. Shipping larger units is simpler and unrefrigerated goods are easier to store. "
]
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[],
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4yn3zx | why do competitive divers shave their body hair, yet not wear swim caps? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yn3zx/eli5_why_do_competitive_divers_shave_their_body/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"From what I've been told, swim caps are frowned upon by judges in competitive diving. My daughter dives. Some girls wear caps during practice, but only one wears a cap in competition and it's because she has a braid that goes to het butt."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
dh7tht | how is it that some of us can eat a diet of junk food and look like a picture of good health and others of us end up with bad skin, digestion issues, poor sleep and other complaints? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dh7tht/eli5_how_is_it_that_some_of_us_can_eat_a_diet_of/ | {
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"text": [
"Nobody is healthy eating junk food, there was a story a month or two ago about a kid who went blind from eating nothing but crisps and chocolate.",
"There are more factors at play than just the junk food. Someone who eats mostly junk food, and neither exercises or grooms themselves properly might see someone in a fast food restaurant or the chips aisle at the supermarket and think that it's unfair that they look so much healthier, but their lifestyles can be vastly different in ways that they ignore when they reduce it to \"we both eat junk food\"",
"So many factors. Not all junk food is equal. Some are probably not that bad in acceptable portion sizes. Some are even maybe healthy, like nandos chicken quarter and salad for instance. All because someone is buying take out does not mean they are making a bad food choice. People's activity levels. Genetics are a huge part of it. What else do they eat and drink.",
"Everyone’s physiology is different. And these differences are largely rooted in a person’s genetic makeup. What you are describing as bad skin can be due to a genetic predisposition for acne. [In some people, the inner lining of the skin pores sheds cells more frequently, contributing to the formation of deeper blockages that are difficult to remove using topical over the counter products.](_URL_0_) Digestion, of course is related to how the body reacts to certain foods. And poor sleep is often due to deep seated emotional/ psychological issues which has more to do with our responses to life events as well as neurochemistry. \n\nHowever, the quality of any person’s life will be determined by how well they are able to cope with the challenges they face. Many skin problems can be overcome through modern advances in dermatology. We can also choose the right foods and learn to master relaxation techniques for better health and sleep."
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2xk02v | why does the cold side of the pillow feel so good? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xk02v/eli5_why_does_the_cold_side_of_the_pillow_feel_so/ | {
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"Your head has a lot of hot.\n\nBut it doesn't like to be so hot!\n\nSo your head gives the extra hot to the pillow. But the one side of pillow gets hot then too. It gets filled up with hot and then it can't take any more. So now your head is hot and the pillow is hot, and your head has nowhere to give it's extra hot and it's sad. \n\nThen you flip the pillow and your head is happy again, because it can share it's extra hot stuff with the cool side.",
"Behind my bed is a vent cover type thing and it isn't perfectly sealed but it lets in wisps of cold air at night. Cold side of the pillow is one thing but this is an entirely different plane of existence. Icey side of the pillow is incredible. "
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2wh5pq | how does nutrition affect healing? | Muscles need nutrients to heal, do wounds need the same? Is there a way to cut off nutrients to things that we don't want developing, such as tumors? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wh5pq/eli5_how_does_nutrition_affect_healing/ | {
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"Cancerous cells promote angiogenesis (meaning the growth of blood vessels). This causes cancerous tumors to be kind of like a parasite in that they're able to use whatever nutrients you gain from your diet to proliferate. I do not believe there are any methods at this moment that completely cut off blood supply and subsequently nutrient supply to the tumor. \n\nAs for \"healing\" I'm assuming you're asking about fighting off infections? The nutrients that you ingest and have stored up are used in maintaining proper body function. A lot of the energy is used to maintain homeostasis and when you get sick you lose your appetite, so a lot of your glycogen and fat stores are converted to be used as an energy source for your body to maintain immune function, the growth and maturation of white blood cells.\n\nEdit: sorry I didn't see the wound healing haha. Basically when you get a wound, immune function is stimulated and vasodilation occurs to allow the white blood cells through your blood vessels. So in a sense, nutrition is important in healing since these processes require energy",
"in theory i suppose the cutting off nutrients is a possibility but tumors grow from healthy cells so in order to do that you have to cut off the nutrients to the healthy cells as well.\n\nin terms of wound healing whenever you get a injury your body sends things like [lymphocytes] (_URL_0_) which are a type of white blood cell (white blood cells fight off invaders to the body) to the affected area and those are the things that cause the wounds to close and generate. This pool of white blood cells is what causes wounds to swell and raise a bit, cause you got all these extra cells in the area. \n\nin terms of healing and nutrition. Having proper nutrition keeps your body fighting off invaders at an optimum level by avoiding decay of your body. Better nutrition and hydration mean your organs are more functional and allows you produce more white blood cells faster to heal and such"
]
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[],
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81a9v2 | closed timelike curve | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81a9v2/eli5_closed_timelike_curve/ | {
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"Hi a closed timelike curve is a path that an object can follow through spacetime such that it arrives back at the same spot, in both space and time. \n\nObjects travel through both space and time. There are limits on how far something can travel in space in a given amount of time. Therefore there is only a specific set of locations an object can move to in a specific amount of time. This set of possible locations in both space and time is called a light cone. \n\nGravity bends spacetime, and so it bends light cones. If you play with the math of general relativity, you can come up with a situation where a set of light cones are bent in such a way that they loop back on themselves. That is called a closed timelike curve. "
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[]
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||
6rgws8 | if the moon is 1000 miles across why will its shadow only cover 70 miles miles during the eclipse? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6rgws8/eli5_if_the_moon_is_1000_miles_across_why_will/ | {
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"Because the Sun is Enormous.\n\nThe total eclipse is just the region where the whole huge Sun can be blocked by the tiny Moon.",
"Because in our sky, the sun is roughly the same diameter as the Moon. This means only a very small area sees the sun as directly behind the Moon, which is when you are in its total shadow, the Umbra. If the Sun is not directly behind the Moon where you are, then you can see it peeking around the edges, and are in the penumbra, a partial shadow, not as bright as day time, but not fully dark. And if the sun isn't behind the Moon at all, you aren't in its shadow.\n\nThis [image](_URL_0_) may help. ",
"Take a quarter and hold it up at arms length between your eye and the sun. Move it closer to your eye until the entire sun is blocked by the shadow of the coin. When you find that point, the shadow of the coin is covering your whole eye. \n\nDuring an eclipse, the moon does the same thing to a seventy mile wide swath on the earth. The moon (and the quarter) are so much smaller in diameter than the sun that rays from the outer edges of the sun come it at an angle. That reduces the diameter of the shadow of the moon on the earth and the shadow of the coin on your eye. If the moon was orbiting at 24,000 miles instead of 240,000 miles, its shadow would be much larger. "
]
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[],
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"https://www.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/SolarEclipse.jpg"
],
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||
2kr3rx | why do we have callus on our feet but not on our ass? | Calluses grow on areas where a lot of pressure is put on the skin, we spend a majority of our lives sitting down and applying pressure down there, how come we don't have thickened skin from all the pressure put on that area like we do on our feet? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kr3rx/eli5_why_do_we_have_callus_on_our_feet_but_not_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"clnxc3y"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Mainly due to the amount of pressure being applied versus amount of friction. When you sit you rarely move around much. Compared to hands and feet that meet constant pressure and resistance when used.\n\n*Edit, also the ass is quite big...(in the case of your mother..or my mother) and thus displaces most of the callus creating forces. Hands and feet are much more focused on areas of impact."
]
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[]
] |
|
3jbdur | sometimes whenever a game updates a mechanic is broken or some major bug might happen. why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jbdur/eli5_sometimes_whenever_a_game_updates_a_mechanic/ | {
"a_id": [
"cunupih",
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"text": [
"There is 1 bug approximately in every 1000 commands in the source code. They must test the software properly to find the bugs. If they modifying it, but not testing it properly, then the bugs won't will be discovered and fixed.",
"Everything in games work off each other, and changing one thing can change how different things work off of eachother.\n\nSay a sword breaks when it contacts with an object with 5 hardness. It is purely based off collision, or in other words, if the sword animation touches another object. If the hardness is beneath 5, the sword will pass through. The game runs as it should.\n\nThen they update the game. The developers decide that in the Dungeon and Darkness, when a bunch of debris fall from above, it would be cool if they shattered upon impact. Rather than program each individual piece of debris to break, they just increase the hardness of the ground beneath it to 5 so the game engine does the rest.\n\nThey don't think about how the same ground they just programmed, is also in the main city of the game. While this normally wouldn't be an issue, the Broadsword of Awesome is *super* big, and sometimes drags on the ground during the walking animation. The sword now breaks in that area as a 'bug' from the update."
]
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[],
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||
557c0l | what is this central bank bubble that is being talked about a lot, and how it compares with previous market bubbles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/557c0l/eli5_what_is_this_central_bank_bubble_that_is/ | {
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"An economic bubble occurs when something is being traded at much higher price than it's real value. Best explained by an example:\n\nIn early 1620s Netherlands tulips became very popular very quickly, and were in high demand. They soon became a symbol of luxury and status, their price kept rising, people started \"investing\" in tulips, hoping to turn a profit by selling them later. Some people sold their homes to buy tulips for speculation. There is a record from 1635 of 40 tulip bulbs being sold for 100,000 florins (roughly equates to $1.5million today). So you can clearly see tulips were very very overpriced, but people kept buying them because they believed they could make money by selling them later and didn't expect prices to fall... until it all crashed in 1637, tulip prices plummeted and lots of people lost everything, while some who sold their \"stocks\" of tulips just before the crash became very rich.\n\nIn today's world some people believe that Central Banks have made money so easily available through low interest rates and Quantitative Easing that most of this money was invested in all sorts of assets from housing to stocks to oil and precious metals, and caused the prices for these items to become overinflated (creating a bubble). Also, investors who look at the figures will just see prices of these items rising and start investing more to speculate (just like with tulips).\n\nPeople on the other side of the argument say that there is no bubble and the prices are accurate, this is what housing, stocks, etc are actually worth.",
"An economic bubble refers to having something (houses, stocks, anything really) where the demand is higher than it should be because people are buying it with the sole intention of selling it again (called speculation). They don't care how useful the things are that they're buying, they just want to have some, so when the next guy decides to do the same thing, they can sell their stuff to him and make some money because the price is elevated. Bubbles are notoriously difficult to predict because it's hard to tell how much demand there 'should' be for a given thing.\n\nThere's a belief that there's a bubble right now on currency. What exactly this means is kind of complicated and gets into how central banks work, but the gist is that it's really cheap to use money right now. As a result, there's more money in the economy, people are doing more borrowing and that's making the economy seem like it's improving. If interest rates rose, things would get difficult again because there'd be less money around.\n\nSo right now, there's more demand on borrowing than there probably should be. This differs from a usual bubble because the interest rates are sort of determined by central banks. They would really prefer to increase the interest rates back up to a 'normal' level but there's a fear that doing so will trigger another collapse. In a normal bubble, this wouldn't matter. It would pop of it's own accord. For this bubble, there's a quasi-government institution that can continue to maintain the bubble. And that's why we can say with some certainty that there is a bubble, because the central banks are propping one up, and have been since 2008."
]
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[],
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||
4kpazf | the potential bayer-monsanto merger | I recently read via a BBC article (_URL_0_) that Bayer was interested in purchasing Monsanto for $62 Billion. What are the potential consequences if this deal goes through? Also, why does Bayer even want to buy Monsanto, especially for such a large amount of money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kpazf/eli5the_potential_bayermonsanto_merger/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3gorb3"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Bayer and Monsanto are two of the world's five largest seed companies (most farmers don't save seeds from year to year, they buy seeds that are developed to maximize yield or minimize cost). Bayer appears to be concerned that the other seed companies have been increasing their own linkages (Dow and DuPont wish to merge while Monsanto tried to by Syngenta recently) and doesn't wish to be the smallest firm if the other 4 were to combine and form two companies. "
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36356022"
] | [
[]
] |
|
39m78w | why do almost all dogs show relatively the same amount of intelligence and behavior when the size of their brains' differs greatly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39m78w/eli5why_do_almost_all_dogs_show_relatively_the/ | {
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"Size of the brain has little to do with the degree of intelligence in this case. Biggest isn't always better.. Look at crows for instance, highly intelligent birds with tiny brains.",
"Brain size and intelligence are not a one-to-one correlation. Whales have bigger brains than humans, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who thinks they're more intelligent than humans. Brain size isn't the main factor in intelligence, the complexity of the neural structure is.",
"All dogs showing relatively similar amounts of intelligence has not been my experience. Some breeds overall display more intelligence than others. Labrador Retrievers have been a favorite for service training because of their low failure rate compared to other breeds. \nEnvironment can also be a barrier to intelligence, or a chance to shine. A dog kept in a kennel and rarely interacted with will show poor social skills and may not impress anyone with intelligence, where a similar dog placed in a social environment with challenges and opportunities will seem well-rounded. \nAnother issue is to recognize characteristics of the breed- some breeds excel at certain tasks. A Labrador Retriever would need to work very hard to understand herding livestock, where a Blue Heeler would pick-up the basics very quickly.",
"You're talking about something called the [encephalization quotient](_URL_0_) - in very basic terms, the bigger the animal, the bigger the brain. There is *some* correlation between IQ and *relative* brain size - that is, if your brain is bigger than expected for your size, you're likely to be a relatively intelligent species. The link above provides a much better explanation. Note that humans are *massive* outliers."
]
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[],
[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient"
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1x6z9h | on older tvs/networks, why do blank channels have black and white rapidly moving images and make loud painful sounds [static]? is the occurence a factor of the older tv, or the way networks used to work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1x6z9h/eli5_on_older_tvsnetworks_why_do_blank_channels/ | {
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"cf8n3pq",
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"text": [
"It's due to analog signal noise.\n\nWhat essentially happens is that because there is not any dominant signal on that frequency, you end up seeing the electromagnetic interference from other sources. These may include: Radio, Other TV channels, Other broadcasting antenna, Random interference from outer space, etc.\n\nThe white dots are literally your TV showing the actual interference!",
"The way TVs used to work (and mostly still do). \n\nSince there is no signal at all on those channels the TV antena picks up random noise from the air and amplifies it so you get random noise (though this helps with weak channels where the amplification would let you see the channel even if drowned by noise).\n\nA TV signal has a recognizable pattern so if such a pattern is not present (or too weak to be recognized) the set just shows no image to avoid showing the random noise, though it also prevents you from watching weak/far channels. [Analog TV signals only].\n\nOn a digital signal, it's an all or nothing affair, as what the TV receives can't be directly translated into an image, so the TV just can't construct an image out of random noise. \n\nSo, where does this random noise come from? Lots of places. Nearby machinery can produce some of it, heat sources, some even comes from outer space.\n"
]
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[],
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7787hg | i created a new facebook account with a completely fake name, and temporary email address. that is all the info i gave. how does facebook suggest people i actually know as 'friends'? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7787hg/eli5_i_created_a_new_facebook_account_with_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dojr0ck",
"dojrfr8"
],
"score": [
3,
3
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"text": [
"Reads your contacts, emails, text messages, emails, people in close proximity to you, fb groups you are in, freinds of friends",
"You gave a lot more than just a fake name and fake email, I'm afraid. For starters your IP address and possibly also your location would have been collected. \n\nThere's also your browser fingerprint, cookies, advertising ID etc. I don't know for sure though \n\nPlus if you used the Facebook app to sign up, your contacts are among the permissions granted when you use the app; along with a bunch of other stuff.."
]
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[],
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||
92etxs | corporate mergers | For instance, in regards to the recent news on Disney buying fox, what specifically is being paid for? Who gets the money and who approves a buy out? Did fox say "we don't want it, it's for sale" or did Disney just say "here's a ton of cash, we now own more of your company than you do, it's ours."? Generally, the whole process is unknown to me. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92etxs/eli5_corporate_mergers/ | {
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"text": [
"The process of merger or acquisition can vary greatly depending on the nature and structure of the two business.\n\nBut in a common situation, the merger will take place when one company buys all are most another company's stock. Often this is done by saying something like \"Hello Company A, I'll give you X number of shares of my Company B for every share of your Company A.\" The deal will be voted on by the Board of Directors of Company A, who theoretically are voted on the Board to represent the stockholders' interests.\n\nSo the value of that exchange is determined by the relative stock prices and the amount agreed to trade. So if Company A is trading at $10 a share, Company B might offer $13 per share, and pay it in stock of Company B. So if Company B is trading at $26 per share, then every one stock of A is traded for 0.5 shares of Company B. (Yes, you can own fractional shares.) \n\nSo the \"payment\" is in stock, and it comes directly from the stockholders of company B since they are issuing new shares, and thus devaluing the existing shares (although the value of the new combined company may or may not make up that difference). Former owners of stock of A will be given the option to instantly cash in their new stock for the value of the exchange in case they don't want to own the stock. (There are also some tax advantages to cashing immediately if you think you want to cash out anyway.)\n\nAgain, though, this is a general example, and a lot can differ depending on whether a company is buying all the stocks, whether they are keeping the target as a separate entity, whether the target is privately owned, etc. Also it's common some form of cash rather than only trading stock can be used by B in the purchase of A."
]
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|
6sbmfy | how does china enforce its internet restrictions and how do they deal with people that try to circumvent those? | Even though some websites are technically blocked, there appears to be no real legal consequences for people who access sites like Facebook or Youtube.
I heard people from mainland China openly mention how they use VPN or a proxy to access Youtube and they don't get fined by authorities or arrested. Some Chinese are even employed by Facebook or Google and face any legal issues afterwards. If the Chinese government is more serious about the ban of certain sites they would crackdown on people who are members of Facebook or other sites | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6sbmfy/eli5_how_does_china_enforce_its_internet/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlbjalb",
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"text": [
"China doesn't really care people being able to access certain websites at all, they care about people being able to access those things *easily*. Its a matter of being able to control media on least common denominator level, sure people can get around it, generally decently educated at least middle class people. But kids and poorer people aren't as likely to circumvent it. China has a billion people, they don't care about a few here or there bypassing state media, they care about the overall picture. ",
"Lived in China for 4 years - at this point it's almost more of a symbolic thing. They don't *really* care if you use a VPN, the point is just that it's easier for you to use the Chinese alternatives (assuming you're Chinese).\n\nThe rest of the reason for the block is mostly economic.\n\nBy making Youtube/Google/FB/etc hard to use in China, they automatically promote their Chinese competitors. For most people, it's not worth it to use, say, Facebook if they have to download and run a VPN to do so. And if most people don't want to / know how to do that, then there's no point for the people who are fine with getting around the block to do so, since none of their friends use Facebook or whatever anyways. So you end up having either tiny niche groups of people bypassing blocks, or foreigners (who the government obviously doesn't bother too much).\n\nAt this point there are many alternatives to all the popular western blocked sites, things like Baidu or Weibo or even WeChat probably would not have been so successful if China hadn't stifled growth of sites like Google and Facebook from early on.\n\nAnd as a small note answering your question, they basically just block things the same way that like a school would block sites for school computers except on a larger scale (starting higher up on the chain of internet service)."
]
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[],
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|
3llal8 | why is there a black dot in the center of the sun when trying to take a photo of it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3llal8/eli5_why_is_there_a_black_dot_in_the_center_of/ | {
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"text": [
"Basically what's happening is that when you point the camera directly into the sun, the sheer huge intensity of the light directly on the sun is overwhelming the little chip inside the camera that's responsible for taking the picture. What the camera does is pretty much turn off those parts of the sensor that are receiving the overwhelming light in order to not be damaged. The result of this is what you see - a black dot.\n\nIf it didn't do this, pointing the camera at the sun would cause a permanant mark on the sensor that would come up on every photograph from then on."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
7p2rcs | how do doxxers find out personal info through platforms such as psn and xboxlive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7p2rcs/eli5how_do_doxxers_find_out_personal_info_through/ | {
"a_id": [
"dse1oar"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"People are dumb and use the same screen names/email addresses for everything.\n\nGoogle PSN name, find PSN account, see email, Google email, find other accounts, repeat as necessary till you find their Facebook page."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
48zigm | how survivable is nuclear explosion if you are in a tank? | I know that the nuke can level a city, but buildings aren't that durable. How far your have to be from the explosion to survive if you are in some real armor? (I know that the bombs are much more destructive now, I mean relative to being in a house) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48zigm/eli5_how_survivable_is_nuclear_explosion_if_you/ | {
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"As far as the blast goes, I guess it would be possible to survive the blow, but the radiation that would kill you.",
"It would depend on a lot of things; the strength of the armor, the distance from ground zero, the strength of the nuke, and so on. But almost any tank or bunker right under the explosion won't be survivable, even for smaller nukes. As you get farther the survivability goes up. The tank would also have to be shielded from radiation. Even if it's a super strong tank, it could also be covered in debris and impossible to escape. So basically, if you're planning on surviving a nuclear attack, the best strategy is to be nowhere near it.",
"Tanks are astonishingly tough compared to any kind of normal building. In 1953 a British Centurion tank was placed 500m from a 10 kiloton blast and was still driveable afterwards. It was determined that the crew would have almost certainly died in the blast, but this was a tank developed in the 1940s.\n\nFor obvious reasons there isn't a lot of data published about how well modern tanks would do against nuclear weapons, but you'd certainly be safer in a tank than just about anywhere else that wasn't a specifically nuclear hardened shelter. \n\nOf course the tank's optics and antennas are almost certainly going to be destroyed even after a blast where the crew survived. Also, while the guys in the tank might live the guys following them in the soft skinned trucks filled with fuel and ammo are in for a rough time. These two factors (among others) would mean that your ability to *fight* would probably be pretty compromised even if you survived. \n\nThey actually developed a special kind of nuclear bomb (sometimes called a neutron bomb) for use against armor concentrations. Since tanks are quite tough against blast damage but only so-so against radiation the idea was to produce a weapon that was optimized to produce a ton of prompt radiation so that the crew would rapidly die of radiation poisoning even if they survived the blast effects. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nBasically if you are in the red circle you will die.\nIf you are in the green circle you will probably die.\nif you are outside the green circle you might live."
]
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[],
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3ps0wf | what is the use of horizontally split doors (if they are real)? | In Tom and Jerry episode "Baby Butch", Butch escapes with his cart that is filled with food, but Jerry tricks him by closing the lower half of the door.
This is a example. I've seen this type of doors in many cartoons. Are they real? and they are used for? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ps0wf/eli5_what_is_the_use_of_horizontally_split_doors/ | {
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"In the UK they're called Stable Doors, and they're really handy if you have dogs or children - you can have the door open, talk to visitors etc without letting the livestock out.",
"Before baby gates and air conditioning, this was a way to keep the toddler (or sheep) from getting away while still allowing air flow.",
"They're real. Often referred to as [\"Stable Doors\" or \"Dutch Doors\"](_URL_0_) \n\nWe have one at work for the coat check closet. That way the employee can stand inside with the bottom half closed to accept coats for guests.\n\nThe accounting office also has one. ",
"Dutch doors ! I have one in my apartment. I think years ago you could operate a little shop out of one.",
"We had one on a door to a storage room at my school. Every morning they would open the top a and sell school supplies out of it.",
"We have one at work. There is a specific office area which is restricted to the few people who work in that unit. It's a way to keep the door open (top) and still keep people from walking in (bottom).\nWe call it the \"horse\" door.\n"
]
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1kx0vw | lotr dwarves. where do they come from? why didn't the help out more during the events of the trilogy, what happens to them afterwards? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kx0vw/eli5_lotr_dwarves_where_do_they_come_from_why/ | {
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"text": [
"Afterwards they dwindle in number, but [may persist well into the age of man](_URL_0_), as they are a tough and stubborn race",
"Because there aren't a lot of dwarves left. It is explained better in The Hobbit, but most dwarf outposts were destroyed, overrun or worse (Moria for example) over the years. \n\nAnd they fled and spread all over Middle Earth. Some lived in small groups in towns, making a living with blacksmithing, others became mercenaries, etc.\n\nThey don't have a big role anymore because there aren't just much left. The big war between Elves and Dwarves didn't help, and the war against goblins that takes place around the time of the trilogy wasn't optimal either. ",
"**Warning**: major \"the Hobbit\" spoilers down below.\n\n > Where do they come from?\n\nThe first Dwarves were constructed by the smith god Aule. He wanted to make a new race of intelligent beings that would have the same technical inclinations as him, but he found he could only make automatons bound to his will, with no independent life. In the end Eru, the God (capital G) of Tolkien's universe, discovered Aule's work and, while initially enraged, decided to give true life and sentience to the Dwarves. These first few Dwarves were scattered around Middle Earth and each became the ancestor of one of the main Dwarf lineages. \n\n > Why didn't they help out more during the events of the trilogy?\n\nThere are two main reasons:\n\n- Compared to their former glory, Dwarves as a race had considerably dwindled both in numbers and in power.\n\n- Most Dwarves did not live close to the regions of Middle Earth that were involved in the War of the Ring. Dwarves have always been isolationist and only the Dwarves that were directly affected by Sauron's threat (the ones of the Lonely Mountain) intervened.\n\n > What happened to them afterwards?\n\nAfter Sauron's defeat there was a brief period of general prosperity and growth. Gimli, with King Eomer's permission, took a group of Dwarves to colonize the Glittering Caves under Helm's Deep; centuries later, Durin VII led an expedition to once again re-settle Moria, this time successfully.\n\nHowever, the general trend of decline continued. Their population dwindled because women were only a third of their population and male dwarves had little desire to take wives or had difficulty finding one to their taste. \n\nWe don't know the ultimate fate of the Dwarves, but we know that they have a place in Eru's (God's) plan for the world and that they will participate in the Dagor Dagorath, the final battle between good and evil at the end of time. According to Dwarven legends, when the apocalyptic battle is finished they will help their creator Aule rebuild the world in its final, perfect form."
]
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[
"http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarves#Fourth_Age"
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||
4h8pgj | are facial expressions genetic or do we learn them? | Do we pick them up from adults while we're young?
Or are the muscles in our face 'programmed' to make certain expressions when we're happy, upset, angry, etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4h8pgj/eli5_are_facial_expressions_genetic_or_do_we/ | {
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"text": [
"It's a little bit of both.\n\nThere are certain things we all instinctual just know of - Things like smiling when we're happy. Like grimacing when in pain.\n\nEven people who are blind and have never seen another face smile, frown, grimace.\n\nBut there are definitely things we adapt to those around us as well.\n",
"Charles Darwin originally proposed that there were universal facial expressions that everyone could understand. Through research, psychologists have found that 6 expressions can be recognized by cultures all around the world, even those completely isolated from other people. The 6 are joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. So, there are certainly expressions that everyone can recognize, but there could be a genetic component to other facial expressions"
]
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[],
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|
1q6n7s | why are carbonated beverages (coke,pepsi) called soft drinks? | They seem too harsh to be called "soft" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q6n7s/why_are_carbonated_beverages_cokepepsi_called/ | {
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"text": [
"In contrast to a \"hard\" drink, which contains alcohol. It first became popular during prohibition, so it was clear that the beverage being served did not contain alcohol.",
"It's soft in contrast to hard (i.e. alcoholic) drinks. As in phrases like \"hard cider,\" \"hard lemonade,\" or \"hard liquor.\"",
"Because liquor is referred to as \"hard drinks\"."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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|
3esjmm | why cant leaf blower noise be muffled? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3esjmm/eli5why_cant_leaf_blower_noise_be_muffled/ | {
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"It can, if you want a 70 pound leaf blower. You can't just wave a wand and make noise go away. You need a lot of very absorbent material with plenty of room for gasses to expand, and also has a clear channel for exhaust to flow through, and even then, it'll still probably be loud. "
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31ctli | was/is there a reason there was looney tunes and merrie melodies? why didn't they just have one show? | I've tried to read up, it seems that some characters bounced back and forth between the two shows. Any actual reasoning why? Maybe something to do with ownership of certain songs / characters / names ect | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31ctli/eli5_wasis_there_a_reason_there_was_looney_tunes/ | {
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"Both shows were produced by Warner Bros, so I think the separation was done to allow the company to fill up more timeslots with 2 shows instead of 1, which gave their programming more airtime. ",
"[The Straight Dope covered this](_URL_0_). Basically, they started out as being made by two different production teams, but after a certain point, they became essentially interchangeable, but they kept both names going.",
"Merrie Melodies was originally produced by a separate company. It was later acquired by Warner Brothers, and eventually phased out in favor of Looney Toons. Incidentally, Silly Symphonies was Disney's version."
]
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"http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1057/whats-the-difference-between-a-looney-tune-and-a-merrie-melody"
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1o0cwm | why do race cars have stickers for headlights? why not just real headlights or no stickers? | Do the stickers serve a purpose other than aesthetics? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o0cwm/eli5_why_do_race_cars_have_stickers_for/ | {
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"what stickers? i don't see any [here](_URL_0_)",
"Because it would blind other racers. The roads already have lights that have lightened up the entire track, so headlights would only be a problem.",
"Nope.\n\nIf I had to guess (not an authoritative answer, but an educated guess), I'd say that - in NASCAR at least - it stems from the original NASCAR (*N*ational *A*ssociation of *Stock Car* *A*uto *R*acing) cars having been stock cars. They were normal cars that you could go to a dealer and buy, then fixed up to be fast. But as the sport progressed and the cars became less and less like the real thing, they did just that. They became less like a stock Camry, or Monte Carlo, or Ford Taurus. Thus things like windshield wipers and headlamps and indicators became useless, vestigial. They apply stickers to maintain some sort of resemblance to the stock cars. ",
"The most likely reason there are no headlights is because they would be unnecessary. Considering NASCAR tracks are already lit up, the headlights are removed to reduce the weight on the stock car and allow more space/lighter weight.",
"Some racecars have lights, some don't, it all depends on what type of racing you are talking about. Certain series' run on fully lit tracks, NASCAR for example, and the lights would be pointless (another point here, the lights on a NASCAR track would be useless due to the banking). Some other 'Lit tracks', such as SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) have what are considered 'lit tracks', only running during times with light. Now even there, some cars have real headlights, basically it is how much the race car has to share with its street going counter-part, provided it even has one.\n\nThere is certain series' that only run long races (2+ hours), these are endurance series', which must have headlights, as they run on tracks that are not completly lit through out the entire race. \n\nSome good pictures:\n_URL_1_ (a NASCAR, the lights there would be useless)\n_URL_2_ (A good picture of two very different classes, both run during the day, but the car on the left is a purpose built race car, where as the cars on the right have only been modified for racing from street cars)\n_URL_0_ (A purpose built race car, built for endurance races, and feature headlights)\n\nTl;Dr Some do, some don't actually, those that dont have headlights don't need them and it is purely aesthetic, and some cars have them, and even then, only some use them. The rules dictate this in the end.\n\nHope I helped :)",
"Because if they shatter they will spread glass on the track, which could puncture tires."
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1xmxmy | to keep the physics oriented questions going: i've always wondered what is outside our universe. if the universe is expanding (or contracting), shouldn't there be a space outside of our universe that's allowing for that expansion/contraction? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xmxmy/eli5_to_keep_the_physics_oriented_questions_going/ | {
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"It's space itself that's expanding. The universe is (probably) infinite in extent, so when we say that it's \"expanding,\" what we mean is that things are getting farther apart.\n\nIt's not expanding \"into\" anything, because there's nothing outside of the universe (by definition). Not an easy concept to grasp, but it is what it is.",
"Read Flatland. It's a quick read. Like, two days. Once you've read that, you'll have the context to read Flatterland and Sphereland, both of which are themselves quick reads and of which will give you some insight on what infinite space might really, physically be. It won't answer your question per se, but you may be satisfied the the result."
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37v0ij | why do you have to be over 18 to buy wd-40? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37v0ij/eli5_why_do_you_have_to_be_over_18_to_buy_wd40/ | {
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"Apparently some genius decided it would be a great idea to inhale the WD40 fumes and get high that way. A bunch of people picked up on it, and so stores set up a policy that only allows adults to purchase these aerosol items. Which is kind of dumb, tbh. As soon as you turn 18 you suddenly stop being stupid? Not bloody likely...",
"Because some people have used it as an inhalant (huffing). When a benign product gets abused like that, it often becomes age restricted.",
"Is this true everywhere? I've never heard of this and I've never been questioned purchasing it. Maybe I just look old anyway.\n\nThere are plenty of products that can be inhaled or misused. You can't control what dumb kids do. I'm sure they can find wd-40 or something else at home depot worth getting high off of.",
"You seen how many different things that shit does? \n\nToo much power for someone who doesn't understand how to control it.",
"There is the huffing concern, of course.\n\nThe other possibility (and these aren't mutually exclusive) is that the propellant is propane, and the oil burns really well. This makes it a very effective incendiary."
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22b59u | why do people have trouble comprehending large numbers? | I'm lookin for more than a "because they're dumb" answer.
People seem to understand the difference and relevance between 500 and 20,000, but the different between 500 million and 20 billion seem to get lumped in as 'big numbers' and people don't seem to comprehend them well.
This is seen frequently in political talks about how tax money is spent. People can't comprehend that 500 million tax dollars on "xxxxxxx" is chump change compared to 60 billion on "xxxxxx". People get equally offended over either it seems.
The example that prompted this thought is the HR Block ad program that has been running in the USA since before the Super Bowl. They advertise "get your billion back" america saying that americans who do their own taxes lost out on a billion dollars last year. Thats really nothing if you break it down per tax payer. maybe 20 bucks? Nobody notices this stuff because they just seem impressed by big numbers.
soooo. why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22b59u/eli5_why_do_people_have_trouble_comprehending/ | {
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"Because humans don't deal with scales that big it's easiest to describe it with time.\n\nIt's easy to think back a year or a decade because we experience that length of time we can understand it. But tell someone to think about 10 billion years ago. It's hard we have nothing to base that on making it hard to grasp.",
"It's because most people have no frame of reference when it comes to very large numbers. People know that a million is a big number, and that a billion is bigger, but people have never seen a million OF anything, nor a billion, so it's hard to put into perspective. It's easy for a person to imagine a thousand of something, because they will most likely have SEEN a thousand (or ten thousand even) of something, be it people or coins or whatever. When it comes to much larger numbers, the only things that really physically exist in those amounts are either very, very small or cosmologically large, and so it tends to only be people with a scientific background who have had practice at thinking about them and have some kind of real-world reference for the magnitudes involved.",
"Because value isn't linear.\n\nIf you have me a thousand pencils, that is probably more than I will every use in my lifetime. If you gave me a million, same deal, for practical purposes, both of those numbers might as well be infinity.\n\nThe same is true with money. Unless I wanted to because a venture capitalist or a supervillain, my $500 million lifestyle wouldn't be much different than my $60 billion lifestyle.\n\nWhat's more, I can relate to $500 and $20,000 in my daily life. One is a TV, the other is a car. I really have no concept of what I could buy with $60 billion, but couldn't with $500 million."
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257mqs | how do we know cern's large hadron collider isn't just creating new particles that otherwise wouldn't or do not exist?? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/257mqs/eli5how_do_we_know_cerns_large_hadron_collider/ | {
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"The point of particle colliders is to generate scenarios that occur in other parts of the universe, but are hard for us to detect. High-energy particle interactions happen all the time, like in the centers of stars.\n\nIt's a *little bit* tricky to get sensitive measuring equipment into the center of the Sun, though. So, what we do instead is build something that replicates those high-energy conditions, but in a way that it can be controlled and measured.",
"Sure the actual particles might be uncommon in nature, the particles themselves are not the important part, in quantum field theory every particle represents the excitation of some *field* which exists in our universe.\n\nThe ~~Highs~~ Higgs for instance is a pretty heavy particle and because of this, it isn't the most commonly expressed particle, you need a lot of energy to dredge it up, but the ~~Highs~~ Higgs field is everywhere all the time and it's *important* and does a lot of important things. Using the LHC to actually make a coherent Higgs signal simply let's us know that the field is indeed around."
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4tgnhn | why is it so difficult to keep the pokemon go servers from crashing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tgnhn/eli5_why_is_it_so_difficult_to_keep_the_pokemon/ | {
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"Imagine that you're in the ocean in a massive school of fish. A fishing boat casts it's net overboard and traps all of you. The crew tries to pull you all in but the wench isn't strong enough, so you all just sit there idling in the net. The school of fish are pokemon go players and the wench represents the servers.",
"First of all, there is *nobody* expected it to be *this* popular. It's more popular than *Twitter* right now. The entire infrastructure is completely unprepared for the level of use. Server-wise, they are Google customers. Google can throw server after server at it for days, they have more than anyone. It doesn't matter.\n\nMore importantly, bottlenecks. It's not a matter of just throwing more servers at it. You could have servers that could support 100 million concurrent users and it wouldn't make a difference because everything is bottlenecked. Pokemon spawning on your screen has to be synchronized because it also spawns on everyone else's screen (without incense). This means the data centers have to talk to each other and constantly maintain consistency. Involving more data centers doesn't make it better or faster because they still have to talk to each other, and that is the bottleneck.\n\nOn top of that, the app itself, the infrastructure behind it at Niantic, everything is just really fucking buggy. \n"
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57efaa | how come if i nick my leg shaving it bleeds like a gunshot wound? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57efaa/eli5_how_come_if_i_nick_my_leg_shaving_it_bleeds/ | {
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"5% of all the blood in your body hangs out in your skin and your legs have lots of blood vessels near the surface. On a tiny, tiny level in your skin, when you cut your leg with a razor, it's so sharp it doesn't leave ragged edges like a normal cut would from something not so sharp. That makes it harder for your body's natural ways of clotting to stop the bleeding because they can't hang on to those ragged edges like they normally would. Source: I'm a physiology teacher?"
]
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||
2k493t | why do mechanical pencils squeak sometimes while you write? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k493t/eli5_why_do_mechanical_pencils_squeak_sometimes/ | {
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"Has to do with the \"lead\" used in them. They don't make points like old fashioned pencils and when they get flat on the tip, it creates a specific friction that causes a gross feeling and I'm assuming the squeaky noise you refer to. (I'm Deaf so I'm kinda going off people saying \"Hey bro, your pencil is making a terrible squeaky noise.)"
]
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5lob76 | why can games such as pac man have a maximum level counter value of 256 (maximum 8bit integer value) when the score can go past it? (ex: 293370) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lob76/eli5_why_can_games_such_as_pac_man_have_a_maximum/ | {
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"Computers aren't restricted to a single size for all numbers. When a developer has limited memory to work with, they'll use the smallest size they can get away with for each number to use the least amount of memory. \n\nThe size is almost always a multiple of 8 bits because that's how computers handle memory- if you ask for 5 bits, the computer has to give you 8 and you just waste three of them.\n\n So for the level counter, which wasn't expected to go very high, they used an 8 bit number. But they could have used a 24-bit or 32-bit number for the score. ",
"They decided to reserve 8 bit for the level counter and 16 bit for the score. You have to keep in mind that memory was a rare good when Pac Man was developed, so developers tried to make use of the memory in a distribution that made sense to them.\n\nIf you are an expert Pac Man player and think 256 levels are too few, this would be an analogy for you: Today when you plan a shelf for your books, you might consider 20 yards of rack sufficient for your books of today and of the future. You just do not want to dedicate more of the precious space of your house or flat to books you do not even own yet. Even if this assumption does not hold true for the (rarer) cases where people need more storage for their books at some point in their life, it was probably the right decision, because for most people it was sufficient."
]
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5dv4qg | [other] why is there no requirements for us cabinet members? | Some of the positions seem like it would be quite beneficial to have a good, educated background in, particularly the more "sciencey" positions. I believe the Surgeon General MUST be an MD so why not say the secretary of energy be a doctorate who specializes in that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dv4qg/eli5other_why_is_there_no_requirements_for_us/ | {
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" > so why not say the secretary of energy be a doctorate who specializes in that?\n\nBecause when you start placing such rules on appointments whoever makes those rules now is in charge, not the President.\n\nAlso everyone reports to the President in the Executive Branch so trying to take away his authority is pointless. \"Oh, my choice 'doesn't qualify'? Here, I appoint this person who does: Now obey everything my appointee tells you to or I will fire you.\"",
"Since there are no requirements constitutionally the president can appoint whoever he wants. Unless we amend the constitution which would be incredibly difficult this will continue to be the case. In the past presidents have generally appointed people who are qualified because it's the right thing to do. ",
"A cabinet level position is pretty much like being the CEO of that company. For example, from [Obama's cabinet](_URL_2_), which industry should the [Department of Energy](_URL_1_) be a specialist in? \n\nDOE covers more energy sectors than any energy company in the world as far as I know. Nuclear, coal, crude oil, refined distillates, natural gas, renewables, production and distribution of those products, generation and distribution of electricity. Some security/management of nuclear weapons. And the security of sensitive operations and facilities. \n\nUnder Obama, [Ernest Moniz](_URL_0_) is educated in nuclear physics. But someone with a background in power plants, or maybe oil and gas would be equally suitable. So would a solar/hydro/wind energy background.\n\nDick Cheney has a background in political science, and was secretary of defense. Should the Secretary of Defense have been a former enlisted or officer? \n\nMost cabinet level positions are not fluff positions, where you can appoint a lackey. How they manage their department impacts how the administration performs. \n\nFor example, Michael Brown, was FEMA director when hurricane Katrina hit. It was most likely a fluff appointment of someone not qualified for that level of job. History as well recorded the consequences of hiring the wrong person. ",
" > I believe the Surgeon General MUST be an MD\n\nI don't think that's actually true, it seems that the president could nominate anyone he wanted to that post as well. \n\nAnyway, here in the US, we have only very basic qualifications for holding office and for voting because the belief is that the people should be trusted as much as possible to make their own decisions. Also, in the particular case of cabinet members, they have to be confirmed by the Senate. This means that a lot of people would have to drop the ball to allow someone wholly unqualified to serve in the cabinet."
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Moniz",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy",
"https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet"
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|
4dqhnf | what is tau in math, and why do some people prefer it to pi? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4dqhnf/eli5_what_is_tau_in_math_and_why_do_some_people/ | {
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"text": [
"Numberphile did a video on this topic, it adresses most of the points:\n\n[Tau replaces Pi?](_URL_0_)\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83ofi_L6eAo"
]
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||
fee12l | why do our bodies twinge or feel a wave/rush when viewing a video of someone having an accident? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fee12l/eli5_why_do_our_bodies_twinge_or_feel_a_waverush/ | {
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"text": [
"mirror neurons \n\nWhen we see someone perform an act, your brain fires as if you were performing the act. So your body cringes instinctively because your brain is acting like you just had an accident."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5mzg14 | why do we physically shake our heads to help change our train of thought? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mzg14/eli5_why_do_we_physically_shake_our_heads_to_help/ | {
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"Thoughts and memories are stored physically in your brain. A little mild brain damage caused by shaking your head may break some of those connections, enabling new ones to be made. ",
"Anything that can cause you to change your focus allows you to change your train of thought. The act of shaking your head gives you something else to think about for a second to allow your brain to stop what it was working on previously and then move on to something else.",
"Your brain is like an etch-a-sketch. When you shake it all the magnetic dust falls back into the bin so you can draw new stuff nobody wants to see."
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2kitz2 | when i 'know what i mean', but can't seem to explain it in words, what is happening in my brain? | i'm writing an essay write now and i keep hitting that point where i feel like i know what i'm trying to say, but i can't seem to actually articulate it. just wondering if there was any interesting rationale for this maybe? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kitz2/eli5_when_i_know_what_i_mean_but_cant_seem_to/ | {
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"I think you are describing \"presque vu\" (French: almost seen) which is another word for Tip of the Tongue syndrome. There are a few different hypothesis as to what is happening. As far as I understand it, it is when your brain can't retrieve the total information. It can retrieve part of the desired information (such as synonyms), but not the desired information in it's entirety. ",
"Words are simply one way you can represent what's actually stored in your memory. For example, think of telling someone how to find your house. Chances are you didn't memorize the exact phrase for directions to your house from any arbitrary point. Instead, you have a visual image of your house and the surrounding area. You then translate this image into verbal directions.\n\nLikewise, you can instantly recognize the smell of sulfur or the feeling of love. But describing the former in words is annoyance for scientists while many poets have made a career on translating the latter into words."
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21brs9 | what do some people find appealing in communism? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21brs9/eli5_what_do_some_people_find_appealing_in/ | {
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"On paper, it sounds great. Everyone has what they need all the time. Sounds like a Star Trek-like utopia to me.\n\nProblem is, in application, it never works, and those who truly believe in it are either benefiting from it (Cuban, Chinese, or NK leadership), or think that they can implement it properly (they would be wrong).\n",
"What do you mean by \"communism\"?\n\nThe actual definition of the term is of a society in which there are no class distinctions and no money, and the means of production are accessible to everyone. In this idyllic world, everyone is equal, everyone co-operates to produce exactly what we need when we need it, nobody needs to fight a war, nobody needs to be jealous of another's income, there is no crime (because everyone has what they need, when they need) and we all live among fluffy little bunny-rabbits and rainbows and unicorns. This is actually a very attractive scenario, but reaching that goal is going to be about as likely as finding scientific evidence for the existence of leprachauns, so don't hold your breath.\n\nIf you mean dictatorships that *call* themselves \"communist\", such as North Korea, then the very easy answer to that question is: Nobody, except the ruling elite of North Korea and some clueless westerners who have no idea what they're talking about.\n\nNot that the North Koreans deliberately built that kind of society for themselves. The best-known allegory of this style of communism is Orwell's \"Animal Farm\": the animals (representing the Russian people) usurped their corrupt and cruel farmer (the Tsar), and initially things seem to improve -- they work together to run the farm, plant crops and so on, but of their own volition instead of being beaten into submission. But the pigs, who as the most intelligent have assumed leadership, become increasingly power-hungry -- not overnight, but slowly, bit by bit -- until they end up just as bad, if not worse, than the cruel farmer they'd thrown out.\n\nIf by \"communism\" you mean attempts by governments to regulate the market and redistribute wealth, there are many, many models for that and none of them are actually communist. Generally, this doesn't get much further than a sort of \"socialism lite\". The attraction here is that in our western societies, wealth is clearly concentrated in the hands of a privileged few: in the US, the richest 1% own more wealth than the 95% poorest. Most people consider that to be grossly unfair, and so argue for ways to correct this.\n\nUltimately, the term \"communist\" has different meanings depending on who you're talking to and, to an extent, what their personal biases are."
]
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6fxx2q | why do we have decussation (cross over of nerves) in our nervous system? | Does it serve any purpose or advantage compared to if there is no crossing over? Because I'm sure it'll be a whole lot easier for our body (development stage wise) to make nerves control same side of the body. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fxx2q/eli5_why_do_we_have_decussation_cross_over_of/ | {
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"This is one of those questions that science currently doesn't have a concrete answer to.\n\nOne of the most popular hypothesis is that nerve crossover occurred when animals went from ventral to dorsal nerve cords. A long long time ago, a rudimentary nervous system developed in some animals. This is usually a kind of neural net, like the one starfish have. This would eventually develop into a hollow tube.\n\nThis tube first started at the ventral side of an organism. Like crayfish: _URL_3_ the hollow nerve chord is on the ventral (bottom) side. Humans are one of the very few animals that stand upright, so our ventral is side is the front.\n\nLater, this tube moved to the dorsal side of the organism (organisms that have this are called chordates). In this human embryo: _URL_0_ you can see that the dorsal hollow nerve tube is in the \"back\" or dorsal side.\n\nWhen this switch occurred, it's hypothesized that chordates basically underwent a 180 turn from their brain-stem or equivalent down. \n\nAs a result, you have the left side of the brain controlling functions on the right and vice versa.\n\n\nIf you'd like to read a bit about this, here's two research papers that deal with the topic: _URL_2_\n\n_URL_1_"
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1stoph | what causes "brain farts"? | We have all had that moment when we are having a conversation and try to think of a word or name that for some reason remains just on "the tip of your tongue". Why do our brains some times just completely go blank trying to pull a memory that is completely lost, almost like the file containing that information is gone, but you are still trying to reference it? How do our brains eventually recover and suddenly we remember what we couldn't? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1stoph/eli5_what_causes_brain_farts/ | {
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"When this happens, you've rarely actually lost the memory. What usually happens is you've lost a way to find it.\n\nWhen you learn something, your brain makes pathways to find it later. If these aren't very strong, they can go away. If you didn't make many and most go away, it'll be really hard to find. \n\nLet's say you want to remember somebody's name. You can remember your mom's name, right? That's because you've made lots of connections involving it. Anytime you want to access that knowledge, your brain has lots of paths to go find it. But let's say you want to remember the name of some guy you met at a party 15 minutes ago and haven't seen since. Can't remember it? That's because your brain didn't make many connections to that. It wasn't judged hugely important. But now you remember it again! Why? Because some *indirect* path was found. It took longer, but now your brain found a way to access that info.\n\n**tl;dr** - you remember things via pathways in your brain. If you forget something, the direct paths have been broken for some reason. If you remember it again, chances are good your brain found an indirect pathway\n\nSource: Cognitive Psych class"
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3ph1qa | what is it that psychologists do and how do they actually help people other than being someone to talk with? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ph1qa/eli5_what_is_it_that_psychologists_do_and_how_do/ | {
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"There's loads of different kinds of therapy out there for all different issues. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been shown to be effective and is quite common. The therapist helps you to alter your perception of a situation and how you feel about the situation. So something you felt was really negative or you couldn't cope with, may have caused you to feel depressed. But a therapist can help you to find the positives in a situation and/or give you strategies to help cope with the situation so that maybe you have several small hurdles to get over which you can deal with, rather than thinking you've got a mountain to climb. This is especially useful if you've got anxiety/depression due to several small things building up or several bad things happened in a short space of time and you can't cope with them all at once. And in some instances, they can help you to realise that you can't solve everything and that you shouldn't necessarily take responsibility for other peoples problems. And help you realise that you shouldn't feel guilty for not being able to sort other peoples issues out on top of what you're dealing with. ",
"Psychology aimes to quantify the experience and behaviour of humans. It is an emperical field of studies, very much concerned with statistical analyse. \nThey may for example help businesses understand their customers better.\n\nHowever, what I think you refer to is psychotherapy - the one with the couch, right?\n\nBasically the psychologist helps his / her patiens overcoming hurdles in their life in (!) desired (!) ways. \n\nWe humans are not such special snowflakes after all.\nWith certain leeway (gender, culture, age etc.) you can assume that what works for one also works for the other with regard to well-being and mental health. \nIt is the job of the psychologist to identify where the problem is, what the circumstances are, how much it already influenced the well-being of the patient and then \"map a way out of the woods\".\n\nDepending on the problem at hand it may be as simple as to make the patient more aware about the problem and the implications. \n\nMaybe so they can understand themselves better - e.g. why do I have a short temper.\n\nMaybe so they can understand others better - e.g. How do my peers feel / see me when I loose my temper.\n\nAnd finally to find ways to developing new, healthy and sustainable behaviour. ",
"I can only explain from experience and how I benefited. \n\nHaving someone to talk to has been important, however, it's been even more important having someone to listen. \n\nMy psych has helped me to set goals and if needed helped me to draw on my own skills to reach them. For eg: In the past I've found socialising very difficult and I started avoiding social situations. So we set a realistic goal to meet with friends and to build up my confidence over time, and within a short period of about 3 months I'd invited a couple over for dinner and I go out on a regular basis now. \n\nI have severe ADHD and he has also taught me how to be aware of my symptoms and how to control them better. \n\nUltimately I've learnt how to cope with stress and how to restrict how much unnecessary stress I bring upon myself. \n\nI learnt that I'm no where as fucked up as I was led to believe! \n\nSo I guess Ive been guided into a greater and more healthy self awareness than I started with. I'm also more confident and satisfied with my life now. But the work was done by myself, I was guided by the Psychologist. ",
"A therapist can also help people to figure out how their actions and reactions to situations and emotions may be self sabotaging and damaging to their happiness.\n\n For example a person who had a parent leave the family at a young age may have a fear of being abandoned. This may lead them to over react at the first sign of trouble in a relationship or be overly needful of reassurance or be jealous and insecure. All of these things may then cause the other person to break off the relationship, thus reinforcing the persons belief that everyone abandons them. It creates a negative emotional loop that can be difficult to break without some intervention. "
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2stivd | what does it mean when an abandoned car on the highway has a white bag or object hanging out from the window? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2stivd/eli5_what_does_it_mean_when_an_abandoned_car_on/ | {
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"Sorry they're downvoting you bro. /r/nostupidquestions is the place you're looking for. Have an upvote.",
"Around here, vehicles get an orange sticker put on them. Such tags have instructions for the owner to pick up their junk before a printed date or it will get towed.",
"There are certain laws pertaining to cars left on the side of the road. After a certain amount of time the car is considered abandoned and will be towed off the road.\n\nA white object (like a shirt or towel) is the the sign that you will be returning to the car and are not just abandoning it. \n\n\n",
"What about an orange sticker on the window? Tagged for towing? ",
"I haven't seen this before, is this an American Phenomenon? "
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2cq9vl | "why do my eyes change color?" | I've been noticing recentlly that my eyes change their shade throught the day, at seemingly random intervals.
For example, when I was shaving this morning they were a dark forest green (really awesome looking really), but as the day progressed the became a very pastel green, and at one point were almost white.
I've also noticed they indeed change color as well. When they were previouslly dark green, they became a dark hazel, likewise for the other shades.
Is this phenomenon normal? Or am I just super-special ('cause that would be fucking awesome)? And does it have a name?
Thank you in advance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cq9vl/eli5_why_do_my_eyes_change_color/ | {
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"I would like to know this too. My eyes change from deep blue to green all the time. Some have told me it depends on what I'm wearing and or what my surroundings are. To make sure I wasn't going crazy,as to my eyes changing color, I have even asked random people I know what color my eyes are; some said blue while others said green. ",
"Oh my lordy, someone else whose eyes change color!\n\nMy wife uses it like a mood ring. \"Something is bothering you...\"\n\n\"How can you tell?? \"\n\n\"Your eyes are yellow today.\"",
"I too would like to know what is going on here. My eyes are a combination of green on an outer ring with an inner ring of brown, which in turn will sometimes change to more of an orange or rust color. Sometimes the green is nearly impossible to see, others it looks like I was born with completely green eyes. Would be interested in knowing why this happens.",
"When the pupil size changes, the pigments in the iris compress or spread apart, changing the eye color a bit. So when your eyes are dilated in a darker room, your eyes will look darker, and when you're out in the sun (or a room with florescent lighting) they'll be lighter. \n\nSome people say this phenomenon happens when you're in different moods- I imagine this is because of pupil size changes, as well.\n\nEye color change as you age happens in 10-15% of white adults, especially those with light eyes.\n\nDrastic eye color change can be a problem as an adult, too. It can be a warning sign of certain diseases, such as Fuch's heterochromic iridocyclitis, Horner's syndrome or pigmentary glaucoma. This is mostly if one eye changes color drastically and you end up with heterochromia (two different-colored eyes) late in life. Heterochromia in babies is not usually serious, though, and is just a genetic mutation most of the time, though it can be part of a genetic condition overall.\n\nAnd since everyone else is sharing their stories- after I cry, my eyes are kelly green, if I'm in a dark room they're olive, and if I'm out in the sun, they're spring green/aqua. Crazy stuff!\n",
"Our eyes do not change color. It may appear that way but changes in light and what you are wearing can make your eyes seem to change, but they don't. Case in point, my eyes appear more hazel, golden, when I wear yellow. It's not that our eyes can actually change the colour of your iris."
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6eo7la | how do weed killers like round up decipher between weed roots and plant roots? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eo7la/eli5_how_do_weed_killers_like_round_up_decipher/ | {
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"Round up doesn't decipher, it kills almost any plant that absorbs enough of it, by inhibiting an enzyme plants need to grow. It doesn't generally kill woody plants, because it's typically sprayed on a large portion of the larger plants sensitive areas. \n\nThe most popular targeted weed killer targets dicots (plants with two starting leaves) because most grasses are monocots (plants with a single initial leaf) and there are additional biologic differences in the plants so some hormones only affect one group. "
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4wsfjf | if red light is least scattered by air molecules, why is green a more visible color in laser pointers? | Red is used in cautionary signs and is a connotation of danger because it is the visible to the human eye, right? So why are green laser pointers easier to see at day and night over long distances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wsfjf/eli5_if_red_light_is_least_scattered_by_air/ | {
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"The human eye is most sensitive to green. Green is also scattered by air more than red. You can't see a laser from the side at all if there's nothing to scatter the light to you. This combination makes green lasers more visible than red ones.",
"If you mean seeing the beam, scattering is why you can see it. A laser whose light doesn't scatter at all is invisible unless you're looking at it straight on, so naturally light that scatters more is more visible when it comes to something like a laser..",
"The answers previously stated here are correct but it is also worth mentioning that the color of a laser is determined by the substance that is producing the lasing, called the 'active material.' Active materials can range anywhere from solids like crystals (ruby and sapphire are common active materials in lasers, albeit not usually handheld laser pointers), to gases and ionic plasmas. \n\n\nSome active materials lase 'better' (at higher output powers) than others. Typically red (~671 nm) laser pointers are laser diodes, which lase due to semiconductor diodes very similar to the way LED lights work. The maximum output power of this material is often only around 1-50mW. By contrast, green or green-blue lasers are built using a myriad of lasing materials (a common active material is neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet or Nd:YAG for short) that can output powers in the 100-500mW range. More power = more photons to be scattered = better sight of the beam."
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3ik9ug | what did humans think time and gravity were before einstein and newton? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ik9ug/eli5_what_did_humans_think_time_and_gravity_were/ | {
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"Newton didnt really change anything about how we percieved time that I can think of. Stuff falling down was intuitive to people, it didnt need explaining. Its just the way things were. And if it did need explaining \"because god made it that way\" was a perfectly valid answer to them."
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9zyznb | the mpemba effect, and does it really work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9zyznb/eli5_the_mpemba_effect_and_does_it_really_work/ | {
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"When you freeze water, normally cold water will freeze faster than hot water. This makes sense - 200F water needs to become 150F water before you can freeze it so you'd expect to see 150F water take less time to freeze. Usually, this is the case.\n\nThe Mpemba Effect describes how, in certain circumstances, hot water will actually freeze faster than cooler water under the same conditions. There's a bunch of theories about *what* it happens but nobody's really sure how it happens (or even how to consistently reproduce it). "
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5r3dme | how come calculators are the only computers we've commonly adapted solar panels into? why haven't we intergrated them into things like laptops or cellphones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5r3dme/eli5_how_come_calculators_are_the_only_computers/ | {
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"Handheld calculators require very little power; tiny solar panels can power them.\n\nYou'd need massive panels to power a smart phone. The power consumption difference is more than you'd think.",
"They don't require nearly as much power. Even more powerful calculators like he Ti-whatever need batteries",
"Calculators only need to power a few things. On demand. Like the LCD screen which doesn't require much power at all. Or the logic units in its brain. These units can be kept off and when they are on, they work very little while you are using the calculator. Think about how often you press the \"=\" sign. That's peak power consumption.\n\nWith a smatphone or a laptop, its very different. You have a high resolution color LCD display. Many, many more pixels than the one in calculators. These devices are always broadcasting or receiving signals over the air. This requires a lot of power. These devices run complex operating systems that manage a huge set of resources. All of this requires a substantially large amount of power.\n\ntl;dr: the vastly different feature sets offered by the two devices are responsible for the difference in power sources."
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a6xs9a | why do usb connectors have 2 sides? every time i go to plug one in i have to turn it around... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a6xs9a/eli5_why_do_usb_connectors_have_2_sides_every/ | {
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"The real question is why are they rectangular and not trapezoid. Like the USB mini or printer connector.\nIf a computer expects 10signals/wires in order 1-10 it will usually not be happy if it receives 10-1 so they make it you cant plug it in upside down. ",
"The standard Type-A connector has four pins. The leftmost and rightmost, if you're looking at the connector with the pins on the bottom, are the ground and +5V pins respectively.\n\nThe connector is not symmetric (i.e. it can't be inserted upside down) for two reasons: one, the pins are all on the same side; if the cable didn't have the obstruction, the pins wouldn't connect.\n\nThe second reason is so that the pins match up to their proper pins on the port side. It could be pretty disastrous if the voltage pins were reversed.\n\nUSB Type-C has its pins arranged such that no matter which way it's oriented, the pins present the same function to the port.",
"USB is over 20 years old. When it first came, the electronics to give you a reversible plug would have been prohibitively complicated & expensive. You need to remember that the standard needed to support cheapo mice & keyboards.",
"The thing is to realise that USB cables weren't created out of the blue; they were a solution to a problem, and that problem was the frankly nightmare situation that existed in the 90's of different connection standards. The rear panel of a PC would routinely have several formats of serial ports, perhaps a parralell port or two. You might even see a SCSI or two.\n\nUSB (Universal Serial Bus) was a way of unifying all of these different things with not only a standardised pin layout, but also a communications standard so that plug and play became a possibility (prior to which you had to install specific drivers for absolutely everything, plug in stuff before the PC was turned on, and constantly restart the machine). For USB to get widespread industry take-on it had to be simple, cheap, and easy to implement.\n\nPrevious connector designs had a whole host of fragile pins which could easily break or bend. Particularly when people were mucking around at the back of a machine in the dark and kept jamming the plug into the socket the wrong way around. USB did away with this by using contacts that were reinforced against a plastic base. This made it impossible to insert the plug the wrong way around, and meant damaing the pins was almost impossible.\n\nI cannot sufficiently express how welcome USB was when it started replacing the nonsense that had gone before. YOu know those people who have drawers and boxes of old defunct cables? That is because they were bullied into it by years of incompatible standards, and fragile things breaking, which meant you NEVER threw away a spare, and you always kept hold of old ones 'just in case'.\n\nUSB has evolved a lot, and the new USB3.1+ Type C is indeed reversible. It took as a while to get here, but we got there in the end."
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cqu5ns | space debris artificial vs. natural | There are always plenty of information/videos available about the dangers of space debris to satellites and ISS but not a lot about the other natural objects like comets, asteroids or other natural debris. Does that mean they are not as dangerous as the man-made debris? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cqu5ns/eli5_space_debris_artificial_vs_natural/ | {
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"There really isn't any appreciable natural debris in the areas where satellites orbit. In the millions and millions of years of the Earth existing before we started sending stuff up all the rocks, dust and particles were dragged into Earth's atmosphere.\n\nHowever, Earth's orbit does carry it through the paths that comets have traveled along in the past. These paths contain a larger concentration of dust and other bits. Humans on Earth often see that in the form of meteor showers such as the Perseids and Leonids. That dust and stuff does pose a potential danger to satellites but it's so small it can't be tracked and there's really not much the satellite operators can do about it.",
"They're just as dangerous, but far more rare.\n\nEarth is getting heavier by about 100 tons every day due to minute amounts of dust being swept up in its gravity well.\n\nSome of this may hit satellites but because satellites are so small and there's so much space between them, that the probabilities cancel out and it doesn't happen much.\n\nAny time an Astronaut goes on a spacewalk and sees a new bullet hole in the ISS solar panels, chances are much higher that was caused by a screw or a fleck of paint, not a space rock.\n\nAs far as protecting stuff goes, they use Whipple Shields or just bet that nothing will happen anyways."
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3cq3ro | in movies when they show pictures of the protagonists when they were younger do they get the actors to bring in actual pictures from their childhood or do they photoshop/use other actors for the pictures? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cq3ro/eli5_in_movies_when_they_show_pictures_of_the/ | {
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"Vast majority of the time, they will use young actors. There may have been a couple occasions in which an actor used his actual own photo."
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69jgsu | if our stomach acid is so strong, why do things that make us sick/give us food poisoning not get destroyed during digestion? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69jgsu/eli5_if_our_stomach_acid_is_so_strong_why_do/ | {
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"Many organisms thrive in acidic environments, or at the very least are able to survive in them. We frequently ingest organisms that could cause illness, but in small enough populations that, even if they survive, they can't get enough of a foothold in our bodies to actually cause symptoms of illness. When a large enough population is introduced all at once, there's not a lot your stomach acids will do for you, and some organisms will actually grow faster in a highly acidic environment.\n\nOn top of that, not all food-born illnesses are caused by living organisms. Listeria is a common cause of food born illness because the organism itself doesn't make us sick, rather it produces waste products that are poisonous to us. If a large enough population of Listeria is allowed to breed in food that is then cooked, the organisms themselves will die during cooking, but the toxic waste byproducts they created don't actually break down when cooked.\n\nMicroscopic organisms are extremely resilient, because they have to be.",
"The bugs/chemicals that do end up making us sick are the ones capable of bypassing this acidic barrier. The few who are able to do so are able to make us sick by two main reasons; they irritate the stomach lining by attacking the cells that make it up, which leads to an immune system response in a part of the brain called the chemoreceptor trigger zone, causing nausea/vomiting to remove the toxins from the stomach.",
"Your stomach acid isn't very strong (or more properly, concentrated), in the scheme of things. Much of the work is done by enzymes, in conjunction with the acid. Furthermore, the acid is produced as needed. You don't walk around with half a litre of concentrated acid sloshing around.\n\nThe acid is produced by special cells. Some people, like me, have over active ones. We take drugs known as proton pump inhibitors, so we don't make too much acid (protons).",
"Great question. When we eat food the stomach helps break it down but not so much that we end up with elemental carbon in our gut instead of sugars fats and proteins right? So it helps break the food up but doesn't destroy everything like ripping apart protein chains. \n\nFood poisoning may usually be caused by bacteria, but it's not a bacterial infection that makes us sick, it's the metabolic byproducts of that bacteria. Take botulism for instance; the bacteria create a poison as they multiply and it's the poison that makes us sick, not the bacteria. That poison ends up deposited in the food and so eating it is literally eating poison. And much the same way the stomach doesn't turn protein into carbon, it doesn't turn poison into carbon, it stays as poison. \n\nEven from a bacteria stand point our stomachs don't sterilize the food we eat with acid. Living bacteria makes its way into the gut where it has to compete with the colonies already living there. Along with our own immune system we end up with a good balance of beneficial bacteria with malign invaders not gaining a toehold in our gut. We benefit from this because gut fauna help us digest our food even better and get more nutrients from it than we would without it. ",
"Two main reasons stand out for me. The first is that many of the bacterial/microbial molecules which make us sick are glycosylated (decorated with sugars) which make sensitive areas resistant to acidic and enzymatic breakdown. The second example is that H. pylori which resides in your stomach takes advantage of the gradient of acidity in your stomach. The lumen (open area further from the lining in contact with food) is most acidic (though not always! Depending on what you eat/drink, the pH of your stomach can be pH 6, or slightly acidic) followed by a gradient of acidity through the protective mucus lining, finally reaching pH 7 (neutral) at the cell lining. So H. pylori will attach to epithelial cells at pH 7, and will sense when the cells have been released into the lumen by sensing the pH, letting go and swimming back toward the pH 7 environment.",
"Maybe this isn't what was being asked, but we often get sick from microbes, especially viruses such as influenza, that cause infections in the upper respiratory tract and lungs. The infection starts in your nose or throat before the microbe would even come in contact with stomach acid. The term \"stomach flu\" is a bit of a misnomer as a viral infection starting in the stomach wouldn't be caused by influenza, but could be from other viruses, which I think has been covered in prior responses.",
"There are certain bacteria that are more easily destroyed by the stomach when its acid production is at full capacity. Clostridium difficile is one, and people taking acid suppressors appear to be at greater risk of having C. diff colonize their gut, especially in a hospital setting. ",
"On the flip side, if I think I ate something tainted, and I quaff a few shots of whiskey, will that kill the bacteria in whatever I ate?",
"I know you probably have more than enough information to answer your question, but I'm just gonna throw in my quickie. \n\nWhen the acidity of your stomach is off balance from what it usually is, it can cause a purge of it's contents in an effort to resume proper pH levels.",
"Hi, I'm a second year microbiology student. Microbes are quite a cool bunch with lots of adaptations that make them able to colonise quite a broad spectrum of places. Whilst the stomach is highly acidic, which is generally good enough to kill most microbes that enter the gastrointestinal tract. There are some microbes, such as helicobacter pylori that are able to evade this acidity by secreting neutralising agents, along with burrowing into the stomach cells and hiding in a sense. Other times, the microbes actually don't survive, but their exotoxins (the things they secrete that make us sick or cause injury to our cells) are stable enough to survive their time in the stomach. They then pass through into the intestine where they can cause a range of diarrhoeal diseases. I can't think of any off the top of my head. But hopefully this is helpful.",
"There is a great [Radiolab episode](_URL_0_) about Dr. William Beaumont and the experiments he conducted on Aexis St. Martin and the contributions they made to the study of digestion.\n\nIf I remember correctly, St. Martin had a fistula in his stomach, and Beaumont would drop food in to see what would happen. He noticed pores in the stomach wall lining secreting a liquid that would begin to break the the items down. He also took samples of St. Martin's gastric acid to break food down outside his stomach. Before this, it was thought that digestion was performed by the stomach squeezing and mashing food.\n\nI cannot remember and am not sure Beaumont realized the difference between stomach acid and enzymes, however.",
"No one is mentioning the fact that the stomach acid *does* kill off a lot of bacteria. You need a certain amount to get past the stomach acid and other factors. See _URL_0_ for ecoli and salmonella",
"You get food poisoning by two ways,\nFirst the microbes had already made there toxins(poison) outside your body and then you eat that food so you have ate the poison and this will take up to 1-3 hours to get the symptoms.\nSecond you eat the microbes then it makes the toxin(poison) when it is in you gut and this will take longer time to make symptoms .\nYou can get food poisoning or GIT infection by many microbes and every one of them have its own infectious dose, so to be infected by certain organism you will need 1, for another you will need 1000, the more the organism is resistant to the acidity the less its infectious will be.\nExcuse my English it's not my first language.",
"Something not mentioned E. Coli is one of the more common reasons people get food poisoning. E. Coli already lives in your gut and helps you digest food. When it senses a new strain is present it can tell your body you are sick to try and kill off competition.\n\nAlso some bacteria and microbes can form little shells around themselves to help them scoot through the acid section.",
"Chemist here. I wanted to point out something that I don't know if has been said. Not a big thing, just a detail.\n\nThe stomach, even full of acid, cannot dissolve many things. Something is dissolved by acids if has alkaline character. For example, if you eat limestone (which is alkaline), the acid will break is quickly. But if you eat glass, which is acidic, the acid won’t do anything.\n\nFor example, the amide bonds in proteins can be attacked by acids, but only slowly. That's why the body uses enzymes to speed things up. But it can happen that many toxic compounds have acidic character and won't be affected by the acid, and some bacteria might have protective compounds on the cell surface that don't react with acids, working as a barrier.\n\nThis is another reason why getting sick can happen. Everything everybody else said is also true. But this is a reason why, for example, hydrogen cyanide can hurt you (is an acid, son the acid in the stomach won't destroy it). In fact, you usually eat the salt, sodium/potassium cyanide. And it is when it founds the acid in the stomach it gets converted to the poisonous hydrogen cyanide. So in that example the stomach acid is part of its toxicity.",
"Meat curer hobbyist here. There are two things going on.\n\nStomach acid does kill bacteria. But it kills only a percentage and mostly, it prevents it from growing. If the infection is high enough, or the bacterium is resistant to acid, it will still grow. Iirc, salmonella will infect you if you get more than about 110 cells per gram of food. E coli can infect you with only a few cells! Some acid tolerant bacteria are beneficial or harmless, such as lactobacillus. So the amount of infection you eat, along with how dangerous the bacterium is matters.\n\nBut there's another process at work, too, most notable with botulism and other bacteria and fungi (Aspergillus flavus, e.g.). **The bacteria doesn't need to be alive, and the byproducts are what's dangerous.** It's not an infection, but rather, the toxins they leave when they're alive.\n\nThis is why cooking food that's gone bad is not proof against getting sick. It works for many things, but definitely not all.",
"Things don't get \"destroyed\" by your stomach acid. It merely gets broken down to the collection of molecules that will then be absorbed by your body (or excreted). That being said, things that poison you usually do so because they have a detrimental effect on your body (often, primarily on the liver or brain). These things will typically still be absorbed and, once they are, you become ill. I am speaking in terms of man-made poisons, by the way. Microorganisms and viruses are a whole different story.",
"food poisoning comes in two flavors. \n\n\n < 24 hrs after ingestion is toxins. The bacteria were allowed to colonize the food, making toxins, then cooking kills off the bacteria, leaving the endotoxin. \n\n > 24 hrs after ingestion is live pathogens infecting you. ",
"So just to make sure your food is safely digested before reaching your intestines, is there a specific eating order to risky foods? Like should I eat my chicken before my potatoes? just to make sure it get's thoroughly digested? or would eating smaller amounts of food result in a lower chance of dangerous bacteria reaching my intestines?",
"Can I add a question to OP?\n\nCan someone talk about the relationship between chewing and digestion?\n\nWill I digest more efficiently and have better nutrient uptake if I chew thoroughly? Or does it depend on how much I eat e.g. thorough chewing important if stuffing my face, but not so much if only a small meal? \n\nI've heard the stomach empties within about 2 hours or something, so is there kind of a maximum volume of food that it can properly break up in that time which may or may not be modulated by how much I chew? And so if I over-eat on that metric, I just won't be able to fully or efficiently absorb all of the nutrition from that food?\n\nI realise digestion continues in the intestines, but in different ways, so I'm specifically referring here to the part the stomach plays.\n\nCheers!"
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4e3111 | why does wine come in large bottles, while beer comes in cases of much smaller ones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4e3111/eli5_why_does_wine_come_in_large_bottles_while/ | {
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"Probably because of the fizz. Suppose beer came in one big bottle. Then if you open one you would have to consume it all at one time because if you don't it will eventually go flat. Wine does not have this problem.\n\nEdit: Now this makes me wonder about champagne...",
"There are many shapes and sizes of wine bottles (and beer!) but one reason why the 750mL bottle became the standard for wine hundreds of years ago is because [\"It was the capacity that an average glass-blower was able to shape in one steady blow.\"](_URL_0_) "
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7653cb | why do bodies of water (e.g. oceans, lakes etc...) do not sink into the ground that they are surrounded by. | This was a question I recently heard about a toddler that asked, "Why is that when it rains the water is absorbed in the ground but the ocean water does not" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7653cb/eli5_why_do_bodies_of_water_eg_oceans_lakes_etc/ | {
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"the ground below a lake or ocean is already fully saturated with water. if you fill a jar with sand and start \"raining\" water into it, you will saturate the sand and a pool of water will eventually develop on top of it. ",
"The ground can only absorb so much water before it is saturated. If you pour water onto the soil it will percolate down until it reaches the bedrock, but once it gets there it has nowhere to go. That means, if you go deep enough down you'll reach a level where the soil is saturated with water and no more can be absorbed. This level is called the [water table](_URL_0_).\n\nA river or lake occurs where the ground level is below the water table. The water cannot be absorbed into the ground because the ground has already absorbed as much as it will take. Any rain that falls above this level will percolate down through the soil until eventually it ends up in the river."
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c5wrgh | why does the us have so many federal law enforcement agencies, many with overlapping objectives instead of having just one or two for all crimes? | You got the FBI who investigates all federal crimes including drug and weapons trafficking but the DEA also investigates those things, the ATF pretty much does the same thing as the FBI as well and so on. Why have so many different agencies that besides a few minor things, mainly investigate the same things? I understand the Air Marshal Service and Border Patrol but cant the FBI do what all the other agencies do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c5wrgh/eli5_why_does_the_us_have_so_many_federal_law/ | {
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"The FBI also investigated domestic terrorism and kidnapping, the DEA operates overseas. They have different missions and objectives.\n\nThe ATF and DEA might be merged into a single agency but they’re highly specialized in those fields.",
"Also governments like to keep them separate. A single organization with enough mandates would have excessive power.",
"You have a school project to make a science experiment and poster board to present to the class. You have groups of 5. Tommy’s mom is rich so he’s buying the supplies. Tina’s mom is very hands on and likes to help, so Tina is doing the actual experiment. You are a good speaker so youre the one presenting. Luna is a good artist so she’s making the posterboard. That leaves Ike. Ike was added to your group late because he missed a day of class and you were one short. Ike starts to help by making some of the posterboard, but Luna doesn’t really need the help, and Ike is more adept at making computer presentations than hand drawn art anyways. But there isn’t anywhere else Ike is needed and it makes more sense for him to stick with the artsy stuff because he is still an artist afterall. Youre teammates and you all get together to solve this conundrum of what Ike can do, and decide he should make a power point for when you present because you’ll have the only power point and it can be a highlight of your presentation. \n\nSo Ike then leaves Luna to the posterboard and makes a power point for your group. That means everyone is doing their part of the project now and Ike has found his place in the group. He may overlap some with Luna because they want to collaborate to use the same fonts and color scheme on the two art parts, but overall they are firmly seperate. And you and Ike might collaborate on making the power point better since you’re the one presenting it. And Luna and Tina have to collaborate with Tommy since he’s the one getting the materials for the project. \n\nThis translates to the US agencies easily in that you have X agencies doing their own part of the whole picture (stopping crime), and when a new type of crime pops up, one of the existing agencies splits into two each specialised in their own thing. Sometimes the criminals force an overlap in specialities and make the agencies collaborate with each other.",
"Lawyer and former state-level prosecutor here,\n\nHow:\n\nThat's the way history happened. The Federal Gov't has limited power, and didn't really do much in the early years, e.g., under Pres. Washington. Each time a need for a specific task would arise, say to investigate counterfeiting, a new police force would be born! Here, the Secret Service.\n\nThis happened in different Fed'l offices for different reasons throughout US history, giving us countless Fed'l police forces, each with overlapping authority and jurisdiction.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWhy it's arguably a good thing: \n\nEvery organization is prone to \"group think,\" where everyone in a group develops similar perspectives. By having separate groups independently doing their own thing, redundancy becomes built into the system.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nedit: clarity"
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2v1k4z | how come only some parts of a city highway have streetlights? | Sometimes huge sections of a highway will have lights and sometimes it won't. Why are there lights anyways. If it isn't deemed necessary for all parts of a highway why is necessary for some parts? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v1k4z/eli5_how_come_only_some_parts_of_a_city_highway/ | {
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"They go in at intersections, interchanges, and other higher traffic volume areas, to make lane changes and merging safer. It's not worth the cost to light all parts of every freeway. Plus, highway lights damage crops, so their use is discouraged in rural areas."
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crcmq2 | why is the "t-pose" the default pose used when animating 3d models? why is this pose easier to work with then others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crcmq2/eli5_why_is_the_tpose_the_default_pose_used_when/ | {
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"The \"T-Pose\" isn't easier to animate with, the reason it was used it because it kept joints in the body away from other joints in the body (ie the upper arm bone, or humerus, is a good distance away from the spine bone, etc). This was useful for a couple reasons. For motion capture it allowed you to determine bone position without overlap and it was very easy to see if things were out of place. For skinning (when a cg model is bound to the skeleton in the computer) it was useful to prevent bones that shouldn't have influence over certain parts of the skin from having an influence. As an example, again think about the humerus and a spine joint, if the arm bone is closer to the geometry of the side of the chest than the spine bone, the computer would add the point on the chest to be influenced by the arm instead of the spine (or perhaps ribs if they are being built into the skeleton).\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe full \"T-pose\" is not used as much anymore because the position of the shoulders and elbows are in a pretty extreme position when fully extended and raised. This cause issues with deformations, as the further away from the default pose you got, the more deformation there was, which typically meant more error. Usually these days we use the \"A-pose\" which has the arms down at about a 45 degree angle and the elbows slightly bent and sometimes arms slightly forward. This keeps the joints away from each other as the \"T-pose\" did but means that the shoulders and elbows are in a more mid position so that is the shoulders, for example, are raised or lowered they only have to move half as far as the \"T-pose\" to a fully lowered position. This of course has limitations, for example the human shoulder can actually more pretty close to 180 degrees, so the \"T-pose\" would seem to be more of a mid point, but in general every day motion the shoulders stay below the straight out position, so we usually build for the more common case and \"fix\" it in cases where the shoulders might rotate all the way up.\n\nThere are other reasons for some of the positions of joints in a model (such as to avoid gimbaling), but the main reasons for the \"T-pose\" are the above ones."
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3ma62s | why japanese people have problems with l/r letters? | Been in Japan and heard things like "Herro" (hello) or "Prease" (please), si Im courious
Edit: Thanks linguist guys and others folks for really nice explanation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ma62s/eli5_why_japanese_people_have_problems_with_lr/ | {
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"They have no real L in their vocabulary. It's similar to how Hispanics say Tree instead of Three. Because the concept of the sound Th makes isn't there. Same goes for Japan. This is a dumb down version of the real answer, but someone else will do that. ",
"Basically in their Gojunon(fifty syllables), \"r\" and \"l\" are the same, and whoever romanized the Gojunon, decided to put \"r\" instead of \"l\".\n\nCommon sense, true Japanese doesn't speak English, they speak similar sounding arranged syllables from the Gojunon.",
"Most East Asian languages don't have two distinct \"sounds\" for what English speakers would call L and R. Either they have one sound that sort of sounds like them both (as in Japanese) or they have one of the two but not the other (as in Cantonese).\n\nAs such, people from those languages learning English often find it difficult to distinguish between the two letters and will often mix them up.",
"Hi, I'm a linguist!!\n\nThe reason is that in Japanese, these two sounds are *allophones* of the same *phoneme*. An Allophone is the actual physical thing that your mouth does when you make a sound. A Phoneme is the mental representation of that sound in your head. In Japanese, the phoneme /l/ is realized as [l] or [ɹ], depending on context. Every language has it's own rules like this. \n\nFor example, in English, if a /t/ or /d/ sound appears between two vowels, it gets realized as a [ɾ] (flap). Similarly whenever a nasal sound (/n/, /m/, or /ŋ/ (\"ng\")) appears in front of a stop (/p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/), the nasal sound changes so that it's pronounced in the same place as the stop. For example, in the words \"input\", \"internet\", and \"incredible\", the second sound is not /n/, as it is written and as it exists in your head, it is /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/, respectively. \n\nYou don't think about it, you do it automatically. No imagine a language where, if you turn your /t/ into a flap between two vowels, or if you turn your /n/ into /m/ before a /p/, the word means something different or none at all. You would find it very difficult to pronounce any words with those sequences in them right. Just so with Japanese speakers and the /l/ sound (and Korean speakers with the /s/ sound which in their language, is occasionally realized as [ʃ] (\"sh\")"
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2nrzta | if black friday is all positive revenue why don't they do deals and stuff more often than once a year? | If 'being in the black' is profit for companies, why do they limit their deals to one day of the year? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nrzta/eli5_if_black_friday_is_all_positive_revenue_why/ | {
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"The idea for black friday is that it is the day when every one starts doing Christmas Shopping. So the deals would not have the same effect on other days ",
"Because then the deals wouldn't be exclusive and people would think \"Oh I'm not going to buy X today because they will have another sale soon\". Seriously there's like a sofa place in the UK which seems to have a never ending sale (DFS for people interested) and it just doesn't make the sales exclusive anymore because those ad's are constantly on TV. ",
"Deals and discounts are usually done for two reasons.\n\n1. To get rid of any long standing inventory to free-up room for new orders\n\n2. In anticipation of high volumes of demand (surge in amount of customers)\n\nWhen demand is expected to be extremely high, companies can afford to mark down items and offer sales, the minimal loss in revenue from marking down products is in theory supposed to be easily made up by the added amount of revenue the company will receive from the increase in demand.\n\nCompanies aren't usually only striving for one of the above reasons, Black Friday is inherently a combination of both. Stores experience large surges in the amount of shoppers, so they start off by marking down the prices on inventory which they are trying to get rid of first. Usually the items marked down in price the most are items which have been on the shelves for quite sometimes, or are items which are being replaced by newer models (or seasonal). \n\nDeals similar to Black Friday aren't done other times during the year, due to the cyclical nature of retail shopping. It is much more difficult to sell products like televisions or other electronics during the year as compared with the holiday season. Some companies in fact lose a good amount of money maintaining their inventory during the year, only to regain all the lost revenue during the holiday season due to the increase in consumer demand. \n\nTL:DR\n\nGiving discounts is not cost effective unless there is an increase in overall consumer demand for the products you are selling during that time period.",
"It is a gimmick. If you overuse a gimmick, people stop falling for it.",
"First, note that \"revenue\" and \"profit\" are not the same thing. Revenue is what you sell something for (more precisely, it's your aggregate sales over a certain time period); profit is your revenue *minus your expenses* (so it's your aggregate sales minus what you spent^1 over that same time period).\n\nSecond, note the difference between gross profit and net profit. Gross profit is the difference between your sale price and the price you paid for the good (also known as gross margin). Net profit is gross profit minus all your other expenses.\n\nSo say you run a store that sells TVs. You buy these TVs for $100 each. If you were to sell them for $101, you'd make $1 on each TV so as long as you sell at least one TV you'd be in the black, right? Well... only if you have literally no other expenses. You probably also have to pay rent, employees, utilities, taxes, etc. In order to make a net profit you need to make enough gross profit to pay all your other expenses.\n\nSo, basically it's possible to \"be in the black\" for every transaction, but still lose money overall. That's why it's insufficient to simply makes money on every transaction: you need to make *enough* money on your transactions to actually have a profitable company.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n^1 Technically \"expenses\" isn't exactly \"money spent\" because you can spent money in ways that aren't expenses (e.g. it's not an expense to buy another company, that's a capital purchase not an expense. Also, it's not an expense to buy inventory: buying inventory is an asset transaction and your inventory is only expensed once you sell it or it loses its value."
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blzc6l | why do people in movies/tv make giant slices across their palms for drawing blood (instead of elsewhere) and then go about their business with no discussion of the giant cut across their palm? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/blzc6l/eli5_why_do_people_in_moviestv_make_giant_slices/ | {
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69uzg7 | how does gyroscopic stability work on a tanks main gun. | I saw a video yesterday of a tank holding a beer on the end of it's main gun while going over bumps and the beer didn't budge. I was wondering what kind of technology would be necessary for this to be possible. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69uzg7/eli5_how_does_gyroscopic_stability_work_on_a/ | {
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"Gyroscopic sensors detect movement of the tank in 3 dimensions. Computers convert that information into movement of the tank barrel, and signal hydraulic systems to move the gun in the opposite direction.\n\nThe system can't compensate for linear movement (the straight up and down component, as opposed to rotation), so it's possible that there was some sort of trickery involved. The _effect_ is valid, the tank can fire accurately while moving to evade return fire."
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6etmhj | why are some cities 'twinned' with eachother? what does it mean for cities to be 'sister cities'? | For example: Lucca, Tuscany is paired with Colmar, France. Birmingham, UK is paired with Chicago, USA and Leipzig, Germany. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6etmhj/eli5_why_are_some_cities_twinned_with_eachother/ | {
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"It can mean very similar layouts. It can mean it shares partnerships with other cities at local government levels. My city is Adelaide and we have sister cities all over the world. Here is a website with some more information (Video) about it\n\n\n_URL_0_",
"In theory its to share cultural exchanges with foreign cities after WWII and help in reconciliation.\n\nIn reality it means rate payer funded junkets for council members. The more twin cities in desirable or exotic locations, the better...",
"It is a way to create greater diplomatic connection on a local level.\n\nIt is something that became popular after WWII with the general idea being that people would be much less likely to violently murder each other if they knew the people on the other side as more than faceless enemy.\n\nThey created partnerships between towns in different countries and organized cultural exchanges on a local level.\n\nUsually the partner towns are similar in size and have something in common. Sometimes the something can be that both towns have an economy based on the same industry. Sometimes it can be something like the reason Coventry and Dresden became twin cities: They were both bombed a lot during the war.\n\n\n\n\n",
"I live in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia and our sister city is Nanning, China. They send reps here for chinese new year and they give a speech. We send school kids over there for cultural exchange. And some of the Nanning investors are going to invest in some of our local farms, or so we're promised.",
"Twinning cities is meant as a way of cultural exchange. Our town is twinned with a town in France and one in the UK, and we have trips to the twin cities, student exchange, we celebrate special holidays of the twinned cities country (e.g. we have a Guy Fawkes night here, although without fireworks). I have to admit that I am a member of the twinning committee for the English city, not the French, so I have no idea what they are doing.",
"I actually had a first hand experience with city twinning. I was part of a cultural artist exchange program between the cities of Detroit and Turin, Italy. The cities are sister cities due to their respective relationships to the auto industry. The project was officially endorsed by the cities mayors and universities. The universities funded our travel. It was an exchange between musicians and visual artists from the two cities. I went to Turin twice and hosted a photographer from Italy here in detroit several times. It was one of the amazing experiences of my life. It lasted a few years and by the time it was over we had put on some concerts and exhibitions in each city, and I made great new friends in Italy who I later revisited and stayed with. ",
"The organization was established by Eisenhower in 1956. Here's the link to their website for further reading. _URL_0_",
"Wow! Something I can actually answer. I do a lot of translation work for news articles and documents for this in China, so my scope will be limited to China and some of its own cities and their sister cities.\n\nThe sister city program is a way for smaller cities (usually not Tier 1, which was a lot less until a few weeks ago) to get their name out in a country or region by pairing with another city in some way or another, promising better rates and opportunities for business, investors, entrepreneurs, and other notables between the two cities. It helps to foster a bond that will hopefully reap economic benefits sometimes in the near future.\n\nThey provide opportunities for students and other citizens with potential to visit schools and universities in their partner to help foster studying abroad and communication that, again, they will hope will foster economic connections and benefits later.\n\nOne of the more notable ones is Lodz, Poland (I think) and Chengdu being sister cities, which led to the first direct train route being built between the two cities, allowing for a lot more trade to happen between the region and Chengdu, which being a Tier 2 city, did not get some of the benefits cities like Beijing or Shanghai were privy to. Then, more direct routes from their respective airports opened up and have led to a more direct connection, both metaphorically and physically.",
"Bureaucrats like to travel. And the best way to travel is when someone else pays the bill. Instead of doing actual job and helping their community, bureaucrats find a 'twin' town or city - probably on the other side of the planet, where they can travel to 'observe how things are done' and have 'fruitful discussions' - what mostly translates to bills to be paid by the taxpayer.\n\nBasically officials travel, meet each other, eat good food, do sightseeing and have various banquets - what translates to mostly nothing, since not much real work is done: those are basically vacations sponsored by the taxpayers. \n\nProcess of finding a twin town generally happens when the towns have big enough budgets to sponsor such travels, the explanations are mostly nonsensical:\n \"other towns are doing it\" or \"having a twin town can be useful in case of a natural disaster\" (as if other towns could not help without the partnership), while the underlying cause is human greed.",
"Follow-up, what about twin cities like Minneapolis-St Paul? ",
"Oakville, Ontario is twinned with several different cities. \n\nFirst, in 1957, they were twinned with Dorval, Quebec. One of Oakville's major streets is named after Dorval.\n\nThen, in 1984, Oakville twinned with Neyagawa, Japan. There is also a street named Neyagawa, which is close to Dorval.\n\nFinally, and most recently, Oakville twinned with Huai'an, China in 2012. There has yet to be a street named after Huai'an. \n\nThe incentives towards twinning mostly seem to be economic, though there is a strong social incentive of promoting cooperation and understanding between distant groups of people.\n\nSource 1: I work in Oakville.\n\nSource 2: [Here.](_URL_0_)",
"I live in an area that had a lot of German immigration in the 19th century. In fact, you can still find a lot of churches and old buildings with German written into the stone. Some of these communities have German \"sister cities\" in Germany. I always thought it was a neat way to keep that heritage, even if those families have been in the US for well over a century now. (I, in fact, am a descendant of 19th century German immigrants to this area. Admittedly, I feel far enough removed that I've never been interested in \"German Heritage\")\n\nAnother interesting use. In Missouri, there are two smallish cities that are colloquially called \"The Twin Cities\". They are Festus, MO and Crystal City, MO. They are actually right next to each other and if it weren't for the sign, you wouldn't know where one ended and the other began. Businesses and homes sort of overlap each. Even the main thoroughfare with small businesses flanking each side goes through both \"cities\". So you can go to a shop in Festus, and walk next door (attached buildings no less) to a shop in Crystal City. They each have their own mayor, their own emergency services, etc. Although kids in Crystal City go to Festus Schools. \n",
"I don't know if they're officially twinned, but Montreal is absolutely the French Canadian Boston. City feels the same, roads feel the same, getting flipped off and cursed out as you get passed while doing 90mph feels the same.",
"To add on to what others have said, the US has sister states as well. For example, Colorado and Hawaii. I'm at University in Colorado, and I'm actually shocked by how many Hawaiians we have. We supposedly have a tuition reciprocity program where Coloradoans/Hawaiians can attend Hawaiian/Colorado universities under in-state status.\n\nThis shouldn't be confused with other reciprocity programs between Colorado and New Mexico though",
"The relationship with Warsaw, Chicago's first sister city, was established in 1960. Polish language is the third largest language spoken in Chicago.....so lots of immigrants from certain part of the world coincides with those types of 'sister cities' connections.",
"Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain are sister cities. They are actually the oldest formally recognized sister-city relationship in the world.",
"Many years ago I ran the Sister Cities program for a major US city that had 6 sister cities. In that city, at least, the programs were initiated by groups of citizens who wanted to create exchanges, each for different reasons. Most were cultural, but some involved business exchanges. Some groups petitioned the city to make new Sisters in order to make a political statement. \nAt that time that I was there, the city put very little money and effort into supporting the exchanges, which were mostly arranged and financed by the citizen groups running them. So each program was only as active as the citizen group. \nThe Sisters in other countries had differing levels on interest, too. In some, the Mayor's office was very interesting in the exchanges, spent a lot of money and worked very hard to promoted the connection. In other cities you could barely get anyone from the Mayor's staff to answer the phone. \nIn my time at that job I helped to coordinate student exchanges, performances by artists from the Sister Cities, a couple of trade shows. The program was not very active. \nThe bottom line is that each program is different, depending on the parties involved. ",
"Halifax, Nova Scotia is twinned with Hakodate, Japan because both are port cities and both have historical star-shaped forts in the centre of each city.",
"Sister cities, as mentioned elsewhere, are about joint economic growth and partnership. I won't delve into that because there's already been a great response on it.\n\nTwinned cities don't always mean anything besides diplomacy, if that. Certainly in the UK it's largely just a hangover from the war, where it was believed that getting two countries heavily involved with one another would make another war less likely. Twin *cities* will often promote cultural and commercial links and perhaps even international business links, but for the most part twin *towns* (and villages) don't really have any connections besides in name.\n\nE.g. my hometown of Crawley, population ~100,000 in the UK is twinned with Dorsten, population ~80,000 in Germany. And yet, I'm guessing maybe 1 in 20 people from either town would be able to tell you that.\n\nIf you're familiar with how the concept of the EU came about - fostering cultural and financial ties between nations in order to encourage peace and not have another war in Europe - it's basically the same thing at a more local level, although each twinning program is independent and don't necessarily mean anything at all.",
"I don't really understand it, but from living in Chicago, and traveling to Munich, it's sister city. There is a definite cultural understanding each place has for one another. Like doing German festivals in Chicago and vice versa. I am sure it was a unity thing after ww2, or the type of immigrants to a city. But it has deeper roots then that. These cities were matched by population, economy's that could help each other, and to a lesser degree longitudinal placement means similar weather patterns as well. Most small cities/large towns have a sister city.",
"Just a clarification to all the other great comments on here:\n\nWhat you're asking about are sister cities, which is, like /u/darcmosh explained, when two cities that are far from each other decide to establish friendly economic/diplomatic/educational/whatever ties.\n\nThese are different from places that call themselves \"twin cities\" (like Minneapolis and St. Paul) or \"tri-cities\" (like Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick, WA), which are just cities that are close to each other, and have just kind of grown to the point where they all run together.",
"Cleveland OH - Gdańsk Poland, no idea what benefits are there in the deal but it's very cool to see a sign in downtown grandkids pointing to Cleveland.",
"Aviles (a small coastal city in the principate of Asturias, Spain) is the sister city of St Augustine, FL. \n\nThis is so because Pedro Menendez (the Gentleman that founded St. Augustine which also happens to be the first permanent settlement in the US) Sailed off from there. \n\nThe sisterhood is mostly social and cultural in nature. For example both cities will gift historical pieces to each other. \n\nFor example: The cities gifted each other this mural commemorating the sistership _URL_0_\n\nAviles for example also gifted St. Augustine a replica of their iconic seven head fountain in front of the Franciscan church \n\nAviles: _URL_1_\nSt. Augustine: _URL_2_\n\n\nIn St. Augustine there are numerous references (in the way of street names and landmarks) Not so much in Aviles\n",
"Mostly sorta like diplomatic and marketing penpals. However sometimes it can get more serious.",
"Paris and Rome are sister cities, because; \n\n > \"Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.\"",
"It seems to be a \"hey, lets be friends\" thing with occasional publicity more than anything else.\nThe town I grew up in was twinned with Hellovoetsluis in Belgium and Hameln in Germany. I went to Hameln on an exchange trip (brilliant place). \n\nfun story - when I first heard that we were 'twinned' with Hameln (the belgian town came later, i think) I was about 5 and I honestly believed that it was exactly the layout except mirrored (because they drive on the right hand side of the road compared with our left)",
"My town Ipswich is paired with a town in France called Arras.\n\nThe reason for this is that it's where the soldiers from our town were stationed during the war. I guess the partnership is implemented to show some kind comradery and shows a personal side to the war.",
"My daughter will be going on a cultural exchange program to our hometown's sister city, Muroran Japan, later this month. The group is taking gifts and plaques for residents and officials within the city, and will be staying with families there who have volunteered to host them.\n\nMuroran has sent delegations here as well.",
"I live in Boring, Oregon and our sister city is Dull, Scotland. I think we're sister cities because our names are quite depressing.",
"I may not know all the technical or financial reasoning behind it but... Boston is paired with my home city, Belfast (N. Ireland). It is also paired with Nashville and Hefei (China).\n\nAs taken from this source about the Boston connection: _URL_0_ \"The agreement is designed to foster stronger economic development, trade and investment, tourism, youth, cultural, faith based exchange and educational linkages between the two cities, and to increase awareness of both cities as being growth cities in the connected health and life sciences, creative industries, tourism, financial services and the knowledge economy sectors.\"\n\nBut closer to my heart, The Boston connection was benefical for us Ice Hockey fans in Belfast. We have since gotten to host 2 amazing tournaments known as the Friendship Four. 4 NCAA Ice Hockey teams from the US come over to us and play 2 games on a Friday for points in the league. On Saturday, they play again (Winner plays Winner) to win the 'Tournament'. This is the first time I am aware of but nearly certain ever... that an Ice Hockey NCAA game was broadcast from outside of the US. Pretty cool for us riotous muckers. ",
"It doesn't really mean anything. It's just a way to encourage people from one city to look into the other. Sometimes the cities send each other stuff from the government.\n\nThere are statues from my city's \"sister\" around town. But if you never knew about sister cities you wouldn't really miss out on anything.",
"In the U.K. the number of towns twinned with EU towns increased to foster greater interaction with the EU when it was created from the EEC. \n\nI live in Huntingdon which is twinned with Wertheim-am-Main in Germany (there's a road called Wertheim Way) and Szeged in Hungary (there's no Szeged St cos no one can pronounce it apparently)",
"Grande Prairie, Alberta, and Grand Prairie, Texas are sister cities because they share a name and the Canadian one is smaller and often gets confused with the American one. ",
"Stops them from having wars, since our city was twinned with a town in Germany, our city can no longer raise its own milita to fight as we have exchanged groups of school children on \"language exchanges\" this is just a technically to get around UN rules of hostage keeping.",
"Can add a little something, after reunification, a lot of cities and towns in the former DDR (East Germany) were twinned with cities in the old West Germany to help foster bonds economically and socially, and tear down the mental divide for people aka \"die Mauer im Kopf\" ",
"Leeds in the UK is twinned with a city in Germany and in the centre of Leeds we have A massive statue of a German man carrying a barrel. \nThen once every year near Christmas we have the German market where Germans come over and everyone has their own market stall where they cook cheese and other food and everyone just gets very drunk in a massive tent drinking German beer. ",
"Hi! My job used to be managing two sister city relationships for a city here in Japan! AMA!\n\nMy understanding of the sister city program is as follows:\n- The program was originally started as a post-WW2 to heal the relationship between USA and Japan, but after that saw so much success, the idea was spread all over the world.\n\n- The main mission of the sister city program is to try to work towards world peace by building friendships between not just the cities, but the actual citizens themselves.\n\n- The level of activity and kinds of activity for each sister city varies a lot from relationship to relationship.\n\n- In my city, the mayors took turns visiting each other's city every 5 years, usually accompanied by their non-government sister city volunteer organization.\n\n- Activities included student groups, choir and performance exchanges (both amateur and professional), donation of commemorative items for parks, etc.\n\n- Student groups and the youth music exchange groups were particularly meaningful. When the young people communicated through the international languages of friendship, fun, goofing off, and music they easily formed deep bonds with each other. Within the sister city relationship, there were also sister schools, and many times the same families would take turns accepting each other's children as homestays.\n\n*It was very easy for me to see how they were forming bonds and ties and that it was truly inching the world forward away from war and hate and towards peace and love. *\n\nBeing the coordinator for these kinds of things was a lot more stress than you would think, just getting everything sorted out in advance, but when I saw the kids say goodbye to each other and they were just crying and crying, and when I heard the children from both cities singing together, it made it all worth it.",
"I'm so happy to run across this post. Many people do not know these sister city relationships exist. And as someone said earlier, some cities like mine don't really provide funding at all for it and it's completely run by volunteers here except one staff person.\n\nDenver and Brest, France became sister cities after world war 2 when a teacher from Denver's east high school visited Brest which was completely destroyed after the war because the Germans were occupying it and the allies bombed it. The teacher from Denver started a fundraiser and raised enough money to build a children's hospital for Brest. This is the first Sister City of Denver and the second in the nation, started in 1948 and still continues to this day. We do exchanges for high school students every year and will take adult every year from Denver to Brest, France. With a cool route from Paris-Brest , journeying through beautiful Normandy and Brittany. \n\nIn Brest there is a street named after Denver. Rue De Denver and in Brest there is a park called Brest Park. \n\nI think Eisenhower started it and it used to be called people to people. \n\nMany people still don't know Brest Park has anything to do about the Sister City so this year we will propose something to bring awareness about the relationship and history. \n\nIm excited out trip to Brest France starts Monday. \n_URL_0_\n\nLastly, ill give it up to the volunteers in Denver that make this possible and the one full time staff member. \n\nThis is an organization that needs more support from the City of Denver, it does such great work for young people to visit another country where the people have a city connection in common. \n\nIn Brest they put more of a financial investment into their committee. The deputy mayor of Brest visited Denver recently and the Denver mayor has been invited to visit Brest and had to decline this year. Hope he goes soon... \n\nJoin your local sister city committee it's a great way to meet new people internationaly!\n",
"Arguably, Tijuana and San Diego. Many of our citizens have family in TJ, and a large number of our own citizens live in TJ for the cheap housing and cross over to work in San Diego for the better job opportunities. TJ itself benefits a lot from the tourism of people visiting and vacationing from San Diego. We have fans of the TJ soccer team los Xolos living in San Diego and fans of the Padres living in TJ. Many beloved businesses from TJ have also made their home in SD, such as Tacos el Gordo and Braceros, and it is incredibly common for San Diegans to spend their weekends in TJ attending music or arts events. We also have the busiest border between Mexico and the U.S. making our cities the primary gateways to each others separate but deeply intertwined worlds."
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"http://www.roadtosantiago.org/journal_2004/images_journal_2004/04.10.22_Fuente_500x350.jpg",
"http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BJAAER/fuente-de-los-canos-de-san-francisco-fountain-in-st-augustine-florida-BJAAER.jpg"
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1reaan | central banking | I am trying to understand better the situation the united states is in with continuing to print money etc, could you please explain the idea of central banking, and the central bank in the U.S. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1reaan/eli5central_banking/ | {
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"That sums up most of it, I just think the debate on these liabilities has abated, since the housing sector has stabilized. The assets were a hot potato, but it has since been cooled. "
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3usn38 | why do prosecutors go for maximum punishment even when they know they shouldn't? | Prosecutors most of the time push for the harshest penalty possible even when it is not beneficial for anyone. Why do they do this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3usn38/eli5_why_do_prosecutors_go_for_maximum_punishment/ | {
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"The defense will fight their hardest to get the lowest penalty they can.\n\nSo if the prosecution pushes for a \"fair\" punishment, the defense will likely bring that down to a lighter punishment - in other words, one that is *not enough*.\n\nBut if the prosecution pushes for maximum punishment, and the defense pushes for minimum punishment, the end result will be somewhere in the middle - in other words, a fair punishment."
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1rdnu4 | how do we detect light when our eyes are closed? | . | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rdnu4/eli5_how_do_we_detect_light_when_our_eyes_are/ | {
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"Closing your eyes doesn't shut off your eyeballs. Light can still go through your skin. For proof take a small flashlight and push it against one of your fingers. Your finger will seem to glow"
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4j6rjn | how does the word rem (rapid eye movement) have anything to do with sleeping? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4j6rjn/eli5_how_does_the_word_rem_rapid_eye_movement/ | {
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"REM is a stage of sleep during which your eyes literally move rapidly under closed lids. Eyes can move rapidly any time, of course, but the term REM is associated with sleep because that name was given specifically to that stage of sleep."
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4ad6ao | whats the difference between key and push-to-start engines ? why do expensive/luxury rides have push-to-start engines ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ad6ao/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_key_and/ | {
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"Push-to-start is more expensive. A standard key just fits in the tumblers like a door lock; for the newer key fobs where you insert a nub, the car's computer reads the digital signature of the key; for push-to-start, the key fob has to emit a wireless signal and the car has to be equipped with a receiver for that signal. ",
"Push-to-start engines are harder to steal. Whereas a key's ignition is set by a mechanism near to the cockpit, a car's engine will read the key from deeper inside, the button merely serving as an activation if and only if the key is detected.\n\nYou can steal an analog car by breaking open the ignition and shorting it. The button on your digital car does not work if the key's signal isn't present, you'd have to take apart half the dashboard.",
"Up until the 1990s or so, most cars used keyed ignition locks, where the physical match of the key and the lock allowed the car to be started. If the key matched the lock, the key could turn and activate the ignition and start switches.\n\nTo make this more secure, car manufacturers started trying other stuff like putting in magnets or resistors or other weird stuff to the key that the vehicle had to detect to allow the car to start.\n\nBy the mid-2000s car manufacturers had settled on a fairly standardized immobilizer system, where an RFID chip in the base of the key would communicate with the car via an antenna in the ignition lock. When such a car is started, the shape of the key allows the mechanical lock to turn and activate the ignition and starter switches (just like the old-type key). But in addition, the computer that runs the engine queries the RFID chip for a secret code. Without that code, the engine computer will either refuse to start the engine, or limit the vehicle's speed/range, or something like that.\n\nWith this RFID tech well-developed, manufacturers realized they could skip the physical key entirely. Instead of a more expensive carved key, they just give the driver an RFID chip encased in a fob. Instead of a $200 ignition lock cylinder, they wire the same start/run wires to a $0.10 button. As a bonus, by putting this in luxury vehicles first, the car manufacturers not only save that money in materials and assembly, but pretend that push-to-start is an expensive addition and command a higher price for the feature.\n"
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41q2an | how do rental car companies make most of their money? | I rented a compact car this weekend from Dollar in Spokane, drove it over 1,000 miles and it was only $11/day. Around Christmas I rented a full-size car in Albuquerque for a week at $14/day. I know it is very competitive market and non-compact models are quite a bit more but I am perplexed at how they make any money. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41q2an/eli5how_do_rental_car_companies_make_most_of/ | {
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"Because most people don't drive anywhere near that much. Wear an tear on most cars can be estimated at 50 cents per mile. At $11/day (I've never seen prices that low, but whatever) if you drive less than 20 miles per day, you made them money. Then there are things like insurance that many people buy, which has a much higher margin. Then there is the fact that after the cars have been used for a while, they get sold to recoup a pretty large percentage of the cost. Beyond that, economies of scale. Buying 100 cars at once is cheaper than buying them each individually. Many dealerships will give them discounts not just for bulk, but for the advertising. I bought my last car because of a positive experience renting the model for example.",
"Lower prices means more people renting and less cars sitting idle on the lot. They make money on volume vs price margins. Plus all the stuff Spare Liver said",
"The key is \"this weekend.\"\nCar rental companies do their serious business during the week, when business travelers pay more, sometimes way more.\nI just did a hotwire search for a car in Spokane from next Tuesday to next Wednesday -- a standard car is $24. And that's from hotwire, for someone who doesn't care about the brand. Business travelers have loyalty points, and are willing to pay more for certain luxuries (like not having to stop at the counter).\n",
"I just took two back to back business trips, and paid $500 and $400 for two mid-week rentals. And my car sat in the parking lot 95% of the time I had it. Figure x10 (low estimate) business customers per day for a single location.",
"I have worked as a manager for a rental car company for several years. \nThe key is supply and demand. Most people need cars during the work week and that's when the prices jump. The weekends are actually an off period and the prices will get dropped just the get the fleet on the road. \nOf course there are exceptions to the rule, like the holidays, but overall the good rule of thumb the weekends have better deals because it actually costs money for the rental office to sit \"fat\"",
"I was curious about this myself. I flew into spokane and drove to missoula. The car I rented was $12/day and I was in a brand new vw bug. It seems their profit would be marginal",
"I worked in logistics for one of the biggest rental companies, in one of the busiest districts of their operations. This company was split into two different companies, rental and sales, who were essentially two different companies operating under the same name. \n\nThe rental sector bought cars, looking for manufacturer deals on bulk sales. Sometimes they'd buy the cars at or close to MSRP, but more than 75% of the cars were bought at rates a normal person couldn't dream of. They didn't necessarily buy base model, but usually only bought cars with just enough options to hold value. They then rented these cars out, essentially getting anywhere from 1 to 3 times the amount they paid, from a single car. \n\nFrom here they had algorithms that determined the perfect time to decommission the cars, to both get as much money from renting it and maximize the resale value. After the cars were decommissioned, they were legally \"sold\" to the sales side, who were filled with extremely competent salesmen who then sold the cars to dealers, people, or if they had devalued unexpectedly they were sold through an auction. Any damage to the cars was usually paid for by the customer who did the damage or their insurance, at extremely inflated prices, so when all is said and done they end up making a very sizeable amount from the time the car is bought for the rental fleet until it's sold. It's actually really genius, and they employ hoards of people to keep everything running. \n"
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1mbkjx | liberal, conservative, left-wing and right-wing | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mbkjx/eli5_liberal_conservative_leftwing_and_rightwing/ | {
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"Left-wing > Liberal > Moderate < Conservative < Right Wing\n\nLeft wing is communism/socialism esque beliefs\nLiberal is socialism/equality beliefs\nModerate is middle group\nConservative is everybody has the right to succeed/personal freedoms\nRight wing is free market capitalism/ only the strong will survive\n\nIn 'Murica at least.",
"Great question! :)\n\nHere's the technical definition\n\n* \"Liberal\" refers to a diverse group of philosophers from the 1700-1800s, including Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill. They differed on a lot of things, but all agreed on 1) absolute monarchy is bad, 2) state religion is bad, and 3) there should be clear definitions of freedom, such as a \"system of rights\". What those rights should be differ between liberals, from Mill's being a socialist, Smith and Paine sometimes being called \"proto-socialist\", and Locke possibly being seen as proto-capitalist. Liberals often believe these rights to be independent of nations.\n\n* \"Conservative\" refers to a political philosophy which is a response or disagreement with liberalism. Conservatives generally emphasize 1) keeping things the same or even going back to an earlier \"better\" idea for society, 2) nationalism and family affection, and 3) maintaining traditions. Burke is a good example of a conservative philosopher: he advocated a \"hierarchy of affections\" where families form the building blocks of loyalty, and national loyalty is something to be praised. He also believed certain prejudices are good as it allows people to make decisions faster. He believed revolutions are often misguided, and that its the responsibility of every generation to leave society basically the same as how they found it.\n\n\nHere are the colloquial definitions:\n\n* In the US, \"liberal\" is slang for anyone on the center-left. Similarly, conservative is slang for anyone center-right. This is a pretty vague term, as it tends to refer more to parties (Democratic party and Republican party) than to a particular ideology or political philosophy. The parties themselves are not very ideological: they often switch positions and have conflicting ideas.\n\n* Sometimes, and especially outside of the US, \"liberal\" is used synonymously with \"neo-liberal\". Neo-liberalism is a new tradition that is associated with certain modern beliefs about economics. Generally neo-liberals want the government to do very little. They strongly favor the capitalist system of ownership, and markets with little regulation, which they believe will regulate themselves without need of the government. The US Libertarian party is often considered to be \"neo-liberal\". Neo-liberals will likely disagree with a lot of what the original liberals had to say --- for example clearly opposing the democratic socialism of Mills, or Smith's criticism of capitalism --- although agree with other points of the original liberals, such as Mills championing of free speech rights.\n\nedit: ugh not enough coffee... it's JOHN Mill, not James xD",
"In the US liberal ad conservative vary from state to state as well, a conservative in California is most likely more liberal than a conservative in Alabama",
"In revolutionary France there was something called a National Assembly. Political parties sat on this National Assembly and would debate issues, similar to Congress.\n\nIn this area, people who favored change sat to the left of the room. The people who against reform sat to the right. In broad terms the \"left\" is pro-change, progressive, and reformist. The \"right\" is reactionary, and conservative. \n\nWhat the left and right means is often variable from country to country. Every political organization has a left and a right - in the USSR, for example, Stalin led the right-wing factions while Trotsky led the left-wing factions.\n\nNow, the term liberal and conservative is confusing because of this. In Europe, for example, liberal means those who are very similar to the American GOP. This is because the United States was born as a revolutionary liberal state - \"liberals\" in the United States, as a result, are those who are trying to conserve the regime envisioned by the Founding Fathers. In the USA conservatives are generally capitalist, individualist, constitutionalists. The left-wing, often called liberals, are the ones advocating reform. "
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85twug | how does the extinction of the northern white rhino actually impacts the planet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85twug/eli5_how_does_the_extinction_of_the_northern/ | {
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"Going from three individuals to zero isn't going to make a difference now, that ship already sailed when the species' numbers collapsed years ago.\n\nThe issue is that the habitat destruction and poaching that killed the white rhino will continue to wipe out species and alter ecosystems long after the last one dies.\n\nThe loss of too many species of large herbivores will make it difficult to ever repair that ecosystem. There are a lot of plants and scavengers that depend on the roaming plant-processors to disperse seeds and chew through the underbrush.",
"It is impossible to know the long-term ramifications of the extinction of any species. It's possible that the extinction of some species a 500 million years ago will lead to *our* extinction tomorrow.\n\nBut it's less the extinction of *this specific species* and more *our gross cavalier attitude toward the existence of all other species.* While we can quibble over whether this species or that is important to the overall ecosystem of the Earth, or important to the survival of humanity specifically, but it's not really up for debate that we depend on the existence of other organisms for us to survive. And those organisms depend on other organisms. And so forth. We have a vested interest in preserving the web of organisms that supports our very existence, but we do not act that way.\n\nOur callous attitude toward other species is not carefully calculated such that it only affects species that we have determined are unimportant. It is indiscriminate. We are hurting plenty of species that we *know* are important. Fish and Bees are two big ones.\n\nHumans, as a whole, need to adjust our behavior, and the first step is by calling attention to the effects of that bad behavior.\n\n",
"The white rhino is a species humans tried pretty hard to prevent from going extinct, after we did a bunch of things that started it on the path to extinction. The significance of its extinction will depend on what we learn from it as a cautionary tale. The planet is largely unaffected by individual species, other than humans.",
" > actually impact the planet in any adverse manner?\n\nThat's kind of a loaded question in and of itself. \"Adverse\" implies some preferred natural state, but every form of life on Earth could go extinct and it'd just be *different* as far as the planet is concerned.\n\nSo to declare it adverse we need to pick our frame of reference. For instance, if the animal is a tourist draw, its loss is adverse to relevant tourism industries. If it fosters ecosystem biodiversity with land clearance, and that biodiversity is advantageous to farmers, then its loss is adverse to farmers. And so on. If its extinction results in loss of food for some form of vulture, then you could even call it adverse for that vulture. \n\nThe problem with the initial question is that \"the planet\" doesn't really care what is alive or dead. Extinctions just represent a change in the established order, there's no 'better' or 'worse' except as we define it to suit our own ends. ",
"It will have no effect.\n\nIt just shows that human beings are shitty custodians of the planet and the likely result of that fact is pretty horrifying for lots of other species, including ourselves.\n\nIt's like when the canary dies in your coal mine. You're next.\n\nEDIT: You have not grasped my point.",
"I'm a conservationist, but let's remember that extinction is the rule and survival is the exception throughout history. Attempting and expecting to keep the planet in stasis is absurd."
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2r3d2n | the probability of an event happening in a specific moment. | Say I have a galactical timer that has an infinite number of digits showing at its screen, I know that's not very plausible but just bare with me. It's running and at a specific moment, I decide to stop it. I can read a value on the screen, indicating the time that has passed since the moment I started my timer.
It seems to me as if the probability of me stopping the timer at that exact moment is 0. Out of all the possibilites, which are infinite, I picked one. The probability of an event is 1 by the number of possible events. I know I'm wrong somewhere since it has happened, and so couldn't have had a 0 probability, aka impossible.
What's my mistake ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r3d2n/eli5_the_probability_of_an_event_happening_in_a/ | {
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"The probability of a specific time is, in fact, zero. But here's the quinky dink: zero probability does *not* mean impossible, and you've stumbled onto a pretty classic demonstration of why.\n\nThe problem is that probability is only required to add up for certain \"nice\" kinds of events. If your number of events a large enough kind of infinity (yes, there are different kinds, that's a whole other thread), then the probability of A or B or C or D or blah blah blah is *not* necessarily the probability of A + prob of B + prob of C + etc. If you're talking about a finite number of events, or even a \"small\" infinity, you can do that. But a \"large\" infinity - like the number of real numbers - is too big."
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