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9eptip | how a country like venezuela in such financial and institutional chaos can ever recover. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9eptip/eli5_how_a_country_like_venezuela_in_such/ | {
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"Define \"recover\". The government may be deposed violently, a bunch of people may starve or flee the country, but they aren't entirely without resources so a smaller population could be supported. Alternatively the current government may see the opposition coming and institute a civil war / purge to reduce the population to a smaller, loyal base. After the death squads clear out the areas that oppose the current regime there are fewer people to support and it can be blamed on treason and foreign influence rather than mismanagement.",
"It's hard to say, but historically countries that have encountered levels this high of economic instability decided to undergo a process called currency substitution (often referred to as dollarization). Basically countries remove their native currencies from circulation and replace them with a historically stable currency, like the US dollar or euro. This is good because these currencies are in very high circulation and have very structured control, so it is far more difficult to instigate large inflation from mismanagement. The bad side is the countries are at the mercy of the US or EU monetary policies, which don't really care about Zimbabwe's or El Salvador's economic needs. Venezuela is special because it has tremendous amounts of wealth, mostly in the form of oil. This makes it more attractive to lenders. It can issue super high yield bonds, backed by oil, and generate emergency cash that way. This is, by the way, not sustainable, as you can promise oil to as many people as you want, but you can only deliver it once. If Venezuela defaults on several loans, it will lose its cash, and its oil. "
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97qtij | why haven't we invented a better way to clean teeth than brushing/flossing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97qtij/eli5_why_havent_we_invented_a_better_way_to_clean/ | {
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"A few reasons contribute to why a new method of cleaning teeth is not out.\n\n1. The need for a new method to clean teeth is almost non-existent. Brush, floss and go to the dentist every 6 months can guarantee healthy teeth in the long run. \n\n2. Products like toothbrush and toothpaste are cheap for the regular joe. Customers are satisfied.\n\n3. It's only a minor hassle that people have accepted. If it is a hassle that is big enough, the demand for a new cleaning method will rise and it might be on the market really soon. But as of now, the demand for a new method is low. \n\n4. Yes, it is true that we need a water source. To satisfy the need for a water source, we have invented plumbing. The majority of the human population aren't nomads, just one good water system and we're good to go. \n\n5. The hair on a stick and the durable string tools is simply good enough to do 95% of the job. The other 5% is done by dentists every 6 months. Why must we invent another tool or method simply because its predecessor is ancient? \n\nHere are more tools that are way older than your great grandmother. Paper, ink, pencil, fork, spoon, knife and the list goes on and on. If you use my argument to say \"then why the fuck did we invent the computer that replaces the calendar, dvd player, newspapers etc?\" Here is my answer. It is easy enough to program a computer to do the job. Perhaps in the future there exists a full body cleansing machine which will replace the floss and the toothbrush.",
"3rd year dental student here. Got any more specific questions?",
"I don't know the specifics, but it's more that simple sugars in our diet are far more accessible today than well, say, 500 years ago. Since the general flow is sugars + existing bacteria in mouth - > acid - > tooth decay, not having access to much sugar just causes tooth decay to be a less critical issue. \n\nDentures have also been available for centuries, and I'm assuming the rest of the folks that couldn't afford them would just suck it up.",
"Related question: \n \nIs there a \"point of no return\" for dental care vs damage vs teeth on a daily basis? I brush my teeth and floss twice a day, sometimes a third (morning and evening always). However... drinking 1-2 energy drinks a day and I still get holes in my teeth. It is as if there is a point where, enough sugar will damage your teeth regardless of how much you care for them. As if it doesen't even matter if you cross a certain treshhold.",
"We haven't really come up with a better alternative to water and a brush for any sort of cleaning at all. It's an intrinsically mechanical (as opposed to chemical) process so you need mechanical solutions.",
"It doesn’t help that the ADA are against major developments that could keep you away from your dentist longer. \n\nFor instance, they are against the use of NovaMin and BioMin which are two amazing products that help your teeth regenerate tooth enamel. You can’t get it in the US. \n\nHowever, it’s available in basically any other country. I import mine from India. \n\nLike a lot of the industry/regulatory groups in the US, they basically represent the professionals and look out for their best interests. \n\nI’m sure there are other dental technologies that have been killed off. ",
"Brushing and flossing IS very effective. However many people do both of these things very incorrectly. When brushing, you are not scrubbing back and forth, you are moving rapidly in concentric circles along the gums to disorganize plaque. An electric toothbrush really does this best.\n\nFlossing is not to clean in between teeth, but rather to clean in between the tooth and the gumline. So you are flossing twice between each tooth, once along each \"tooth wall\". In helps to think of the floss as making a \"C\" shape as you go.",
"There are these kind of tiny things that have a tiny tooth sized bit of floss in them, the end of it also doubles as a toothpick. Sadly they were disposable.\n\n If I could get some sort of more durable version of the floss on stick thing it would be nice",
"My dentist told me floss companies told the dentist community to not let the patients know they can replace floss with listerine because they were afraid the floss business would perish. She asked me when was the last time I flossed and I said when you flossed them 6 months ago and she said hm they look super clean for not being flossed for six months and I old her I constantly use listerine and that’s when she said that",
"We have apparently. There is a company in austria that offers sort of an alternative brush that only needs like 10 or 20 seconds to clean your teeth. But i dont know if it includes flossing or not.",
"There needs to be some type of mold that fits your mouth that has strings that go in between your teeth. The outer part of the mold will have bristles similar to a regular tooth brush and the strings that fit in between each tooth act as floss. The device will vibrate to clean your teeth like how an electric toothbrush does. Toothpaste would be added to the device and distributed evenly to all teeth throughout the automatic brushing process.",
"So so sadly always about money. If everyone had easy and cheap access to tools that keep you from ever having problems from your teeth then we would have no need for dentists aside from the needs of people with hereditary dental problems. Soooo pretty much the extent of research done on mouth cleaning technology is \"how can we market a new toothpaste better than we already do?\" ",
"I see some good responses here, but the primary reason we haven't found a better way to clean teeth is because of the naturally complex shape of our mouths, which makes it difficult to remove any bacteria, tartar, plaque, etc. There are so many things going in your mouth and many tiny pockets where bad bacteria can grow such that cleaning your mouth completely is nearly impossible. Food particles can get stuck in your gums, hidden between teeth, tooth cavities, under your tongue, under the inside lips, and the list goes on. Even the best tooth brushes out there won't clean out all the bacteria and food particles sitting in the tiniest of spaces. This is why dental cleaning is so important and is recommended every 6 months. You need a professional to look at your teeth to determine if you've been following proper dental hygiene. Thanks to biology, our mouths have accustomed to allowing bacteria to grow inside without necessarily harming us. Now, you can argue that you want better designed toothbrushes or dental technology to clean teeth much more quickly, but just like everything it comes at a cost that no average person would spend at the grocery store. ",
"In Muslim countries we frequently use the [Miswak](_URL_0_). \n\nIt's been around for thousands of years, but was massively popularized by Islamic teachings. It requires no water source, and can be used at any time throughout the day.\n[Wiki](_URL_1_)",
"Brushing and flossing honestly don't take up a lot of time. If you're brushing correctly, it should take about two minutes. Flossing takes only 1-2 minutes. Brushing twice a day & flossing once per day will only take a grand total of 5-6 minutes out of your day. Don't be lazy."
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3bq5zy | if the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between them, then why do airplane trajectories appear curved when view on a screen ? does the earth's curvature make it appear this way or do other factors play in on this ? | ELI5: If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between them, then why do airplane trajectories appear curved when viewed on a screen ? Does the earth's curvature make it appear this way or do other factors play in on this ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bq5zy/eli5_if_the_shortest_distance_between_two_points/ | {
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"The easiest way to answer this question is with a globe and a piece of string. Get both and see what happens.",
"Sometimes it does just appear they are curved. Such as going across the pond, it looks more curved because the earth is round. If you could flatten it out(without warping) it would be straighter.\n\nAlso, winds play a part in the route as well. The most direct route is always a straight line, but that doesn't mean it's always the fastest or most fuel efficient route. Headwinds play a major part. I've planned flights where going a less direct route saves 30 plus minutes and a bunch of gas.\n\n\nSource: I am a flight planner. \n\n\nEDIT: words"
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3998rk | what happens when a ski lift breaks down? how does everyone get off safely? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3998rk/eli5_what_happens_when_a_ski_lift_breaks_down_how/ | {
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"Well when it happened to me, we just sat there annoyed until it was fixed. But a ski lift is essentially a giant conveyor belt, so there's probably a way to rotate it mechanically without power. "
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7fdmdk | how do tv commercials work? | Is there a guy in a room somewhere picking them? Why do some only last a split second? Why are there sometimes 2 or three in the same break? How is the length normally set? Who picks them ? Etc | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fdmdk/elif_how_do_tv_commercials_work/ | {
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"Basically companies pay the channels to place their ads. However (I don't know the exact rates) but the cost is dependent on the length of your ad, and the time it shows. So an ad that runs at a time where the channel generally has a lot of views could cost a lot more than an ad of the same length running at like 1am. Anyways different companies have different advertising budgets so that explains the different lengths. And in terms of who places the ads in their different time slots, I think that's also paid for by the companies. \n\nBasically companies pay to fill in the blank spaces on a channels schedule.",
"TV commercials are bought and placed into \"slots\" during regular programming. For instance, Doritos or Pepsi or whoever can choose to buy a slot that's open in the middle of a broadcast of CSI or whatever show. Typically companies do a lot of demographic research to see what their target consumer watches (sugary cereals usually slot their ads into kids TV shows, that's an easy example). \n\n\nLikewise, length varies, but ads can be a few seconds up to 15 or 30, typically. The \"split second\" ads that only blink on your screen are probably just glitches, bits and pieces that didn't quite get slotted in correctly OR it's interference from another channel. \n\n\nEDIT: regular network TV shows are generally a half hour or a full hour - a \"half hour\" show is typically 21-23 minutes while a \"full hour\" is roughly 48 minutes. This is standardized so networks can consistently produce their shows. Whatever time is left, that 7 or 9 or 12 minutes, is broken into 3 or 4 ad breaks, and those breaks can be split into segments of 15, 30, however many seconds and then sold to advertisers."
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7c5uaa | ; does fibromyalgia really have a cure? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7c5uaa/eli5_does_fibromyalgia_really_have_a_cure/ | {
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"[Disciplinary Actions against Michael Platt, M.D. \n](_URL_0_)\n\nHe isn't a doctor anymore due to \"negligence, incompetence, and inadequate record-keeping\". So I'm just going to disregard his \"alternative medicine\" views on fibromyalgia.\n\nIt is bullshit.",
"It's definitely an oversimplification. The cause of fibromyalgia is not known but doctors generally agree that it is a combination of genetic and environmental influences. It is not exclusively caused by anger, but also stress and depression, lack of sleep, or poor diet. Some of these things can be fixed, some can not very easily. The cause varies with people, and so do the treatments. Some people may be helped with this natural medication and anger management, while others may benefit more from pain relievers, some may benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy. If only we could just get of the sources of anger in our lives, wouldn't that be a thing.",
"This doesn't exactly fit with the ELI5 sub. Short of a response directly from one of the authors, I don't see how anyone can directly respond to the paper explaining the authors hypothesis.\n\nThat being said, my opinion is that it's snake oil. My wife has FM, and she doesn't harbor any anger at all. She's stressful all the time, sure, but no anger. \n\nFibromyalgia is hard to diagnose, simply because no direct test exists. The doctor has to eliminate all other known causes they can test for before resulting to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.\n\nYou may also want to do some background research on Michael E. Platt, MD. Seems like he has surrendered his medical license after a few lawsuits accused him of medical malpractice."
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jjwwu | why did they use biplanes then switch to
monoplanes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjwwu/eli5_why_did_they_use_biplanes_then_switch_to/ | {
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"Biplanes had double the wing span and therefore had (almost) double the lift. However, they also had a lot more drag (wind resistance). Back when engines were weaker, you'd need two wings to achieve lift at lower speeds. However, engines became stronger, eliminating the need for the second wing. Removing the second wing also made the plane more efficient as it had less drag.",
"Biplanes were a common design choice in early planes because the box structure of the two wings was stronger, given the materials available at the time. However, the second wing did not produce a lot of extra lift, and caused extra drag. When the materials and engineering got better, the second wing was no longer needed. \n\nSee: _URL_0_",
"In WW1, they actually pioneered tri-planes. \n\nThey were actually stupidly nimble aircraft(Biplanes), able to climb and manuever well beyond the capabilities of all but the most modern aircraft. They were just ungainly slow. \n\nA WW1 bi-plane can outmanuever a WW2 P-51 mustang. Unfortunately, is is so slow in comparison, that by the time if turns, the faster plane would be well beyond the effective range of it's guns.",
"Biplanes had double the wing span and therefore had (almost) double the lift. However, they also had a lot more drag (wind resistance). Back when engines were weaker, you'd need two wings to achieve lift at lower speeds. However, engines became stronger, eliminating the need for the second wing. Removing the second wing also made the plane more efficient as it had less drag.",
"Biplanes were a common design choice in early planes because the box structure of the two wings was stronger, given the materials available at the time. However, the second wing did not produce a lot of extra lift, and caused extra drag. When the materials and engineering got better, the second wing was no longer needed. \n\nSee: _URL_0_",
"In WW1, they actually pioneered tri-planes. \n\nThey were actually stupidly nimble aircraft(Biplanes), able to climb and manuever well beyond the capabilities of all but the most modern aircraft. They were just ungainly slow. \n\nA WW1 bi-plane can outmanuever a WW2 P-51 mustang. Unfortunately, is is so slow in comparison, that by the time if turns, the faster plane would be well beyond the effective range of it's guns."
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2oc1zw | how come when we first mishear a lyric, it is so engrained in our minds, but once we read the correct lyric the connection is completely lost and we can't hear what we originally thought. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oc1zw/eli5_how_come_when_we_first_mishear_a_lyric_it_is/ | {
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"I'd really like an answer to this. I have many examples of this:\n\n\"I'm balls-deep in muddy water,\" is probably my favorite.",
"Human brains try to make sense of chaos, and are highly suggestible. But once shown what is really occurring, they can follow the real pattern.\n\nTo show the level of suggestability, this clip is often used. _URL_0_\n\nIts reallyjust noise, but if you've heard it your brain picks it straight back up"
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3p1eee | why are dogs not intimidated when a human snarls and shows their teeth? | When one of my dogs annoys the other dog, the other dog shows its teeth and growls to show him that she means business.
Yet when my son imitates the same thing, the dogs don't seem to care and just look as happy as always.
Why does the teeth bearing and growling not seem to "work" in this instance?
(Edit/Note: Child was advised that challenging either wild or domesticated animals to a duel is a poor decision) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p1eee/eli5_why_are_dogs_not_intimidated_when_a_human/ | {
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"Dogs are hard wired to recognize the body behavior of other dogs, not humans (they do come closer than any other animal at recognizing and taking cues from humans but it still isn't as good as their ability to do so from other dogs). Also, there is a lot of other body language going on (ear position, tail position, arch of the shoulders and back, etc) besides just the noise and teeth baring at work that humans are physically incapable of reproducing.\n\nEdit: holy crap, make a quick half added paying and 24 hours later it explodes.\n\n1. I did not mean to imply that dogs are incapable of reading human visual and auditory cues. What I meant was simple snarling and barring if teeth is likely to subtle fur the dog to recognize unless they have been trained to recognize it. And remember, not all training is deliberate. For those of you where just snarling and barring teeth work you probably trained then to recognize it at some point, maybe by using more recognizable cues the first few times such as aggressively approaching, hitting, etc.\n\n2. Yes, other animals can recognize aggression in other animals. But the signs are always a lot more involved than just noise and facial expression. Physical posture, smell, movement (I.e. coming forward rather than backing up) all contribute to signaling aggression. Unless humans are truly being aggressive and subconsciously exhibiting these same cues, the dog is unlikely to recognize it.\n\n3. Yes, dogs are the best animal at recognizing human cues. Maybe cats too but cats don't care where dogs are hard wired to please humans. But they still have to be trained to understand what we mean. Unless trained (again, not all training is conscious and deliberate) they have no idea what we mean when we try to mimic their behavior.",
"I'll add that a lot of other commenters are bringing up the whole \"alpha dog\" theory of dog behavior which has [been debunked](_URL_0_) and was based on the observation of gorups of unrelated captive wolves artifically broght together in close quarters and extrapolated this aberrant behavior to apply towards all canids. Not even wild wolves behave this way, let alone domesticated dogs. Sorry so called Dog Whisperer, alpha dog theory is bunk.\n\nEdit: if I have time I'll find some real studies Monday and post them here for posterity.\n\n1. Yes, all social animals will establish some sort of hierarchy. But the alpha dog theory assumes that all canids do so through fear and intimidation. This is the part that is bunk.\n\n2. Ceasar's approach to training does work. However it works through fear and intimidation and in extreme situations is less reliable than positive reinforcement based training. So why terrorize your dog if there is another way that works better.\n\n3. Police and guard dogs may be a special case because they are trained to be dangerous. I don't know if positive reinforcement alone is enough to train a dog to attack. I'm mainly referring to pets.\n\n4. To train out negative behavior you go into training mode, introduce a situation where the dog will do the negative behavior and reward then for not doing it. Repeat, gradually rewarding for longer periods of not doing the bad behavior. I successfully trained food aggression out of my dog this way. Post to /r/dogtraining for more advise. A positive reinforcement trained dog will immediately start trying things as soon as you get the clicker out because they know you are training for new behavior. I saw a rescue trained to stand in a box on command after two sessions with clicker training. This is also the technique used to train dolphins and whales and it works with cats too. \n\n5. One general comment. With any training technique, you have to reward (or punish) within the seconds of the behavior or the dog will not make the connection.\n\n6. Generic studies of wild wolf packs have shown that it is not just the alphas that breed.\n",
"all these answer are wrong. they do. I used to work at a kennel, dogs will react to that if they don't know you. I've had dogs get mad at me for doing that to them, some dont care, some do. ",
"As a child I used to growl while walking on all fours circling our family rottweilers. They always appeared intimidated. Now, when our dog begs me while I'm eating I will growl at him. He'll turn the other way but watch me from his corner of his eye. If I keep growling he'll go away. ",
"It is about intent. A dog knows when you mean business and when you are bluffing. They are like us in that they don't want to be hurt and if you can make them believe that you are going to do more damage to them than they can do to you, the dog will back down.\n\nYour son probably doesn't have the ability to show intent behind his actions yet. It's like the difference between walking up to your dog and saying \"get on your bed\" and actually meaning it in such a way that the dog knows that if it doesn't listen, shit is gunna fly. ",
"Seriously? I'm pretty sure humans can intimidate a dog this way, but you need the right, aggressive body language. You have to act like you mean it. Are you sure your son was acting in a way that presented something a dog would recognize as serious?",
"They actually freak out and jingle away when someone can do a really convincing growl/snarl/bark combo. But shown teeth--no. Probably because humans can't tear them to shreds with them unless they're on bath salts.",
"*sigh* Okay. I have two labs and a beagle. The beagle is a little shit. Like straight up walks under happy lab's nose and eats his food. Happy Lab needs his food. He's skinny. And he's my bro. So, swatting shit beagle's snout is ineffective, putting her in a submissive position doesn't work. Spraying water doesn't work. Shrieking like pee wee Herman doesn't wotk. Snarling and showing my teeth.....works. leaves Happy Lab alone while he eats. ",
"try it with a cat, hiss, yowl and make spitting sounds...it freaks them right out. Different wiring? \n",
"I've read that you're never supposed to smile at a dog that you are trying to get to leave you alone, because they see teeth (even in humans) as a sign of aggression.",
"If I do a low growl to my dog she stops whatever behaviour she's displaying and quickly retreats to her cage. As did the male I had before her. Both South African Mastiiffs so big powerful dogs. \n\nIt's all about action and consequence. You can easily teach them that you mean business too. \n\n(and just to avoid misunderstanding, none of this was accomplished by beating the crap out of either of them) \n\nHow old is your son? If he's still young they see him as a pup and don't take him serous. This is a good thing. If he's older you should teach him to not randomly show dominant behaviour to the dogs and if he does make sure he follows through and they accept his higher place in the pack. I'm happy. To elaborate how we accomplish this with out kids if you're interested. ",
"Because they understand human behavior quite well, actually. What would you think of a human who did that to you? You'd think they'd look playful, or confused, right? Your dog probably thinks the same thing. Now if you started flexing your muscles, sighing loudly, and speaking with a frustrated, angst filled, or angry tone, they will pick up immediately.\n\nYour dog probably also isn't as intimidated by your son as it would be of a fully grown adult male, depending on how old your son is.",
"dogs are extremely good at reading body language. they can very easily tell if you're faking or authentic. they're also experienced enough with humans to understand that humans don't normally snarl and growl. they expect human behavior from humans and know that humans imitating dog behavior is just a show and not an authentic gesture.",
"Probably because the teeth do not look in the slightest bit menacing. Dogs are probably laughing at the silly human pup. \n\nHow old is your son, by the way? You probably already know and do this, but you should encourage him to avoid simulating aggressive behaviour to dogs. ",
"Is your son under 8 years old?",
"I did this to my dog with one of her toys a couple of times. The first two times I did it she took off terrified and confused (I'm assuming). It doesn't have an impact anymore. I'm guess that I don't give off enough of the other signals or confuse other body language enough that it doesn't effect her anymore. ",
"The dogs understand perfectly well that your son is not serious and does not mean business.\n\nHumans can and do intimidate dogs.",
"You have to commit to the entire body language of it.\n\nAlso, dogs are pretty good about ignoring puppy aggression in much the same way they ignore your child. ",
"Puppies snarl and bare their teeth during play too, my 1 year old dogs play that way all the time. So dog body language is a little more complicated than that. \nThat being said, dogs can learn several different human ques and words. \nFor instance, a dog may know that a furrowed brow and serious tone from their owner means they're in trouble. Or jump when you say 'walk'. Dogs recognize our body language by our actions associated with them.",
"i'm a courier and sometimes i have to intimidate aggressive dogs so i can get to the front door to leave the package. For what my experience is worth, 99 percent of dogs, even the ones that seem aggressive, will turn tail and run when a human doesnt give in to their tactics, and instead rushes them.\n",
"I think it's more that your dog knows your son and doesn't take him as a threat. Would you take a young family member snarling at you seriously? ",
"My Shiba does, I wouldn't use the word intimidated and he won't do anything if you just snarl at him randomly. The trick is you lock eyes with him when he's really chippy, ready to play energy. You can't show your hand too soon, stay locked with his eyes. Then pull the corner of your upper lip up just a little, almost so little someone looking at you wouldn't notice, then put it down. Furrow your eyebrows a bit, give him just a flash of a snarl again, then stop. Twitch your upper right lip like you're about to snarl is the sweet spot. \n\nThe whole idea is anticipation, if you hop right into trying to act like a dog and show your teeth/growling he won't do anything. But if you're really subtle and build a little bit more and more over a minute or two eventually he'll start showing his teeth, and if you keep doing it eventually he'll start barking at you and do his breakdance I want to play stance.",
"How old is your son? Puppies growl at each other when play fighting, it's possible that your dogs are just recognizing that the youngest pack member is trying out his growling skills. Dogs seem to treat children differently.",
"Um, they are. I've sure as hell intimidated several dogs by doing so. Have you considered that your son is just not intimidating? ",
"I was so stoked to get my dog as a puppy and whenever I'd see him I would smile with a huge grin of teeth. \n\nLater, he started mimicking this whenever he'd get excited meeting anyone. People were often tentative because he'd be showing his teeth, but I would have to explain that he was just smiling, and happy to see them...",
"I've looked through the top comments, and haven't seen one I would rely on. Dogs have a very keen sense of social order, and are one of, if not the only, animals that can fit in with human families. Cats I suppose, but they really only tolerate human families.\n\nBaring teeth between dogs is a challenge, but it can be part of play as well. I have two large dogs, and they can play struggle over a toy and you would think they were ready to tear each other's throat out. I would never worry about reaching in between them though.\n\nDifferent dogs and dog breeds react differently to humans they don't know and I would never growl and show my teeth to a dog I didn't know. That can be interpreted as a threat and they can react defensively.",
"Intention and consequence. A snarling human won't get much response from a dog until they snarl first, then show teeth, then start biting and chasing the dog. \n\nDogs are adapted to our body language and we don't snarl. However, if we get angry, the dog will pick up on it. If you're anxious, the dog will pick up on it. If you're fearful, the dog will pick up on it. \n\nYet if you smile with your teeth showing, the dog doesn't get the wrong meaning. If you cough, the dog doesn't get the wrong meaning. If you look the dog in the eye, it doesn't get the wrong meaning and these are all things and sounds that would show dominance or aggression coming from another dog. \n\nSome things do translate though like crouching down looking the dog intently in the eye, you're playful or am about to do something with the dog and dogs also get low and maintain eye contact when they are playing around. We don't have tails and our ears don't move so a lot of dog expressions don't work with us. \n\nI would imagine we are pretty funny looking to dogs. We stand upright. Our eyes are bright white and you can easily see where we are looking which is dazzling and an intense gaze. We don't have the right body language and we move our mouths and eyebrows and hands, instead of our ears and tail. \n\n",
"I agree with the posts referencing body posture and implied intent. If you make a quick snarl/growl at your dog while also exhibiting the correct posturing, they will know something is wrong and often assume a minimally submissive position (usually sitting). ",
"Speaking from experience from when I was a teen, if you get face to face with a dog and start growling with teeth showing, you may get bit in the face.",
"They are, if you're an intimidating human and sound like you mean it. They can tell when it's just a pup playing at it, even when it's a human pup ",
"Dogs can recognize facial expressions of humans, they just view different categories of people differently. For example, my dog DOES respond to adults snarling, but not young kids under say, 7. They can recognize the facial cues, but only recognize larger kids and adults as superior, and the kids as inferior / not scary. If yourr an adult and have a big dog, your dog may only be intimidated by say, a snarling body builder.",
"What age is your son? Your dogs probably know he's just a baby and pups tend to do that playfully.",
"I don't know what you're talking about. Dogs that know you (pets and such) aren't going to attack. But try it with one who has never seen you before then watch out.",
"Well, humans are the only ones who smile when they're happy and other animals only bare their teeth to show anger. So I think dogs have gotten use to us doing it while we're happy, making them think you're amused by whatever they were doing.",
"My dogs are definitely intimidated by this. Maybe it's not intimidated because your son is small and not intimidating.",
"They've evolved alongside us for tens of thousands of years, and have learned to recognize our facial expressions. ",
"Yeah I tried growling at my dog, he just looks at me like wtf are you doing. He understands when I am mad, but he doesn't understand when I am mad so I try to portray that by acting like a mad dog. I guess he understands humans and dogs but not humans acting like dogs. ",
"Yeah, my cousin's three-year-old did that to my mom's rescue Pomeranian, and got bitten in the face. Don't let your kid growl at dogs.\n\nHe was fine, by the way, just a tiny red mark on his cheek and crocodile tears. We'd told him repeatedly to stop harassing the dog, and he ignored us, so he got no sympathy from us.",
"Why aren't dogs intimidated? No idea. I can tell you that monkeys are DEFINITELY intimidated. Source: I laughed in front of a Rhesus Macaque in India and it attacked me...",
"Top comment is incorrect. \n\nDogs evolved TO understand human body language. We had a symbiotic relationship in evolution. Your dog sees your son not as a threat because he isn't actually displaying the body language of something the dog should fear.\n\nIf your son genuinely was angry at the dog. Yelled at him and postured himself properly as if he would punish the dog then it would respond more submissively. Your son doesn't want to actually punish the dog though and it shows in body language. ",
"They can be. I was chased by a dog once, and just barked at it and scared him off. You've got to really mean it though, or they aren't fooled. I doubt your son is convincing the dogs. ",
"Its not the dogs, its you.\n\nYou need to owork on your form. \n\nTry practicing on babies when their mother is distracted. \n\nGood luck!!",
"Dogs can get genuinely scared of us, but not if we try to imitate their behaviour. If you've ever seen one of those Youtube videos where the owner is showing the dog what its done wrong and uses a really accusatory tone of voice, you often see the dog baring its teeth and trying to turn away. It recognises this tone of voice as a hostile form of human behaviour",
"I'm real late here but sometimes I make owl noises out my window and watch my chickens go on lookout.",
"Dogs are domesticated, which means they know way more about human body language than you think they do. ",
"Sometimes my tummy growls, and peanut, my 3 month old chihuahua, gets nervous and hides underneath the coffee table.",
"Explain it like you're five? Because we are not dogs.",
"I suspect a human showing its teeth to a dog will trigger a similar thought pattern in dogs equivalent to Dundee's \"That's not a knife\" scene",
"dogs are highly reactive to their environment and the energy around them. i think they are very keen at picking up intent based on human actions. depending on the situation i think a dog would definitely pick up on a human bearing their teeth at them. the human would probably also have to display other traits of physical dominance that are common in the animal world. basically they know your son isn't posing any kind of threat ",
"He's not doing it right. It's not just the sound and the visual of teeth. It's the body language, pheromones, unyielding movement. Your son probably came off as a kid with a toy gun yelling, \"BANG!\" to the dog.",
"I growl at my dogs when they misbehave and they absolutely react appropriately. They know I'm the alpha."
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ys6ma | why don't developed countries make their own clothing without child labour? | I noticed that a few of my shirts say "made in Mexico," and you just know child labour was involved at some point. So my question is, why don't we (North America) just buy the materials and fabrics from those countries and make our own clothes without resorting to child labour? I'd be shocked if we didn't have the factory technology to do so. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ys6ma/why_dont_developed_countries_make_their_own/ | {
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"Because it's cheaper to have it made in other countries.",
"Its not the technology; remember, much of that technology was invented here in the US. Plain and simple, a shirt (and just about anything) from Mexico, Thailand, or Bangladesh is $2-3 cheaper wholesale than American made (in general. Source: former screen printing business owner). The general public says they don't care, but we vote with our wallets. Nobody wants to pay more. \n\nIf you don't like child labor to be involved in your purchases, be an active consumer and buy stuff made in the US or Canada. That's the only way to change it. "
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20hdkp | if the probability of landing on any one space on a monopoly board is equal, why do people land on boardwalk much much less frequently? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20hdkp/eli5_if_the_probability_of_landing_on_any_one/ | {
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"Probability of landing on any one space in monopoly isn't equal at all. \n\nThere are actually a lot of studies on the subject. Given dice roll rules, cards and stuff that transport you around, rules that throw you in jail etc. \n\nbtw the most cost-efficient property to buy is orange",
"The probability it's not actually equal. There are cards that can send you right past it, plus there's the go directly to jail space right before it. Those factors add up to make it less likely to land on boardwalk than landing on the orange properties.",
"The main reason why Boardwalk is a harder spot to reach is because it is the last square on the board, and a lot can happen to prevent you from getting there. \n\nThe first thing that can happen is jail. Since the Go to Jail space is ahead of Boardwalk, there is a chance you will end up in jail before you pass Boardwalk. Another way to go to Jail is by rolling three doubles in a row. Since Boardwalk is the last space, you have more opportunity to roll three doubles. Finally, you can also go to jail by getting a go to jail card from Chance or Community Chest. As before, since Boardwalk is the last piece, you have a greater chance of landing on Chance and Community Chest and getting the card.\n\nThere are also other Chance and Community Chest cards that will bypass Boardwalk: go to Go, go to Illinois Avenue, go to St. Charles Place, go the nearest Railroad, etc. All these cards could potentially bypass Boardwalk. That being said, there is a go to Boardwalk card as well which improves the odds by a bit. Because of the is card, Park Place is probably the harder spot to reach.\n\n",
"They're not equal at all. GO and JAIL are the two most landed on spaces because of certain cards and yadda yadda yadda.",
"There are ways that you get sent somewhere other than what you roll, which is why the chance of landing on each square isn't equal. There are a lot of ways to get sent to jail, so the spaces roughly 6 to 15 spaces after jail are the most commonly landed on. There are also Chance and Community Chest cards that send you somewhere."
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5igbn1 | why are sounds less annoying for those making them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5igbn1/eli5_why_are_sounds_less_annoying_for_those/ | {
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"Are they? I'm not convinced. I'm guessing a person is very annoyed but wants others to be annoyed so that motivation to continue is enough. Decades ago in my high school there were fundraiser attempts by various class-rooms to try to compete with each other.\n\nThe winner: the guy went room to room making annoying noise with a tambourine but also yelled PAY ME MONEY TO GO AWAY and had a monkey mask.\n\nWinning tactic I have to say.",
"Control and anticipation.\n\nThe same reasons that people who habitually get car sick tend to be ok when they're the ones doing the driving. They know what's coming, and can prepare for it, and they can also mitigate the worst effects through their own actions.",
"Participation and anticipation. \n\nThe guy who has keyboard clicks on his phone SMS? He tunes them out because he's thinking of what he's typing. Me listening? I have no idea of context, so all I know is click click click click click click click clickclick click click clickclick click click click.\n\nCrunching an apple on the bus? You're enjoying the apple, so you're less invested in the noise. I'm not. All I know is crunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulp crunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulpcrunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulpcrunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulp."
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5zeact | why do humans seek privacy when performing sexual acts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zeact/eli5_why_do_humans_seek_privacy_when_performing/ | {
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"You are more vulnerable when having sex, you want to be somewhere you don't want to be interrupted or surprised. \n\nAlso, humans for the most part pair bond. Making sex a private matter enhances this bond.\n\nFinally, privacy during sex to the degree we enjoy it is a relatively new thing. For most of human history, families, even extended families would live in very close quarters, and sex would not be particularly private.\n\n",
"A lot of anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists are coming to blame agriculture for this. Agriculture and fixed city-states are a fairly new invention, about 10,000 years ago -- an evolutionary eye-blink. Prior to this, humanity operated in a hunter-gatherer clan-based society, where scarcity of resources demanded high degree of communal sharing, community shelters, multi-partner mating and collective child-rearing. Matriarchies dominated. Privacy was unknown. (Interestingly, this parallels bonobo society.) \n\nAgriculture brought resource abundance, but also the need to protect territories. Patriarchies, family inheritance, and private property were new concepts that forced all sorts of new practices and tensions. Women became more likely to select mates on the basis of family power and security than on genetic heartiness, and men wanted to ensure that their progeny were similarly equipped. Monogamy and lifelong commitment arose as the norm, and the new institution of marriage caused all sorts of grief with older biological urges and patterns. Sex became less a social instrument of peace-making and community and more about gaining and retaining economic power. The suppression of those hunter-gatherer norms about sex pushed it behind closed doors to the point where we don't celebrate sex openly. \n\nExcept on spring break."
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3ahpe4 | how do dictators actually make their money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ahpe4/eli5how_do_dictators_actually_make_their_money/ | {
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"They don't. They take it. They're the government, they tax the people and decide how the taxes are spent (and how much), including their salary.",
"By owning businesses, trading capital and goods, taxes, tariffs, theft, printing money, there are plenty of ways to make money when you own a country. ",
"Heres one example out of many. There exist company A, B, C. The dictator owns company A. Makes new law to cause problems for B and C. Forces certain government companies to buy products made by company A. Promotes company A. You get the point. \nLook at the Ukraine \"Rochen\" chain store. 800% increase in sales since the president (Owner) got elected. Why does a president have a business when he isnt allowed to by law? His excuse is \"I cant find a buyer for the company at its proper value\". "
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77cdvv | what protects journalists from being interrogated by the government for information on illegal activity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77cdvv/eli5_what_protects_journalists_from_being/ | {
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"Some jurisdictions have specific journalist shield laws that allow a journalist to claim privilege over the sources of information. Some law enforcement agencies, for free speech reasons, have official or unofficial policies that make targeting a journalist difficult outside of certain circumstances (like the journalist is part of the crime). This can also be done as a way of helping police more generally, since it's better for reporters to be able to get stories that alert the police of a danger (there is a factory making drugs) then it is for there to be no story and less understanding of the facts. Some of the details you are asking for (like magnitude) are already going to be in the story. \n\nBut the real answer is that usually it's not worth very much to go after journalists like this. The drug facility might already have moved, or might have been staged in the first place. The subject of the reporting might not have allowed the journalist certain information or access, beyond what is already reported. And, even if they are holding information in confidence, having a hostile witness might not be that helpful. ",
" Unless you're being charged with a crime, they don't detained you for more than 24 hours. And there's no requirement to answer their questions. And then later you can file a complaint and Sue the dept. \n\nSo all that paperwork and investigation and negative press coverage for the PD with no information gained. So why would the police even bother to bring you in?",
"Everyone is protected from being forced to talk to law enforcement, whether the local police or the FBI. The only time you can ever be forced to talk about anything is if you receive a subpoena. Say you were in a gas station getting a gas station taco and you witnessed a guy come in and rob the place. If for whatever reason you didn't want to cooperate, that is your right. They can't charge with obstruction of justice or anything else like you've seen on a police TV show. (If you lie to the police, intentionally deceive or stall them so the robber can get away, give any kind of aid to the robber whatsoever, or destroy evidence that's a different story, those are crimes)\n\nEven if it was a murder, you could say to the police \"I'm not going to speak with you\" and there is nothing they can do. Now if that robber is caught without your help and put on trial, and the judge signs a subpoena saying you're a witness, you are then obligated to come to court to testify. \n\nSo all of this generally applies to journalists in the same way. Sometimes journalists have special privileges, but often they don't. They are never obligated to speak to law enforcement but if they refuse to testify in response to a legal subpoena that says they must identify their source, they sometimes do refuse and are jailed for contempt of court. "
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96oiec | why concrete roads (and sidewalks) have seams but asphalt is laid in a seamless stretch? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96oiec/eli5_why_concrete_roads_and_sidewalks_have_seams/ | {
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"Because asphalt is bendy and stretchy, elastic, so thermal expansion isn’t that much of an issue, but concrete is very brittle (breaks and cracks easily) so it needs expansion joints",
"The concrete is a harder material. It behaves different to asphalt when the surrounding temperature changes.\n\nYou literally *need* to have seams here and there because if you don't the natural, temperature induced expansion will make the tiles expand towards each other. And eventually crack, because there is no room for more expansion.\n\nThen, of course, the concrete slabs can be manufactured in a factory and transported to the construction site.\n\nIt's just like when you build a path in your garden. You buy concrete tiles and place them in a nice fashion all the way to your front door. Exactly the same principle with a road, except the tiles are huge in comparison.\n\nBut, seriously though. Concrete roads tend to be built with fully automated machinery that pour concrete into a mobile molding form that is in slow constant motion all the time. Even then, it's important to \"break\" the tiles now and then so that the road won't immediately crack itself the first year.",
"Why are sidewalks not made of aspahalt, then there wouldn't be seams right?",
"Concrete is a rigid pavement. As the ground below the pavement expands and contracts it will move whatever is on top of it. In the case of concrete, you need to put expansion joints in it or it will break apart.\n\nAsphalt is a flexible pavement and will move with the pavement below. If the underlying base is moving a lot you can see cracks in the asphalt but due to the materials flexibility they can self heal.\n\nHot mix asphalt is dirt cheap ( 2c/lb) and if the road design has been done correctly should last 20 years ",
"Civil engineer here. Two things I've learned about concrete: It gets hard, and it cracks\n\nAs others have said, concrete cracks due to shrinkage after placement and in response to fluctuations in ambient temperature throughout is design life (thermal expansion and contraction). The first cracks typically show up within 24 hours of placement as free water is lost to the hydration process (how concrete gains strength).\n\nJoints are an effort to tell the concrete where to crack by creating a plane of weakness. Depending on the joint type you may have additional reinforcement or smooth steel rods to allow the panels to expand and contract.\n\nMeanwhile asphalt has more elasticity meaning it has a greater ability to deform under load (i.e. thermal expansion/contraction) and return to its original size and shape more or less. Its ability to do this decreases as the pavement ages. \n\nAsphalt tends to be less durable than properly placed concrete and has a greater susceptibility to fatigue stress. Rutting in asphalt at stop lights or in parking stalls are examples fatigue distress due to repeated loading/unloading.\n\nEdit: grammar",
"Concrete has great compressive strength (ability to be pushed down), but poor tensile strength (ability to be stretched out). As temperatures rise and fall, it expands and contracts, and eventually one large slab of concrete will stretch itself until it cracks and breaks into smaller pieces.\n\nBy cutting in expansion joints, you are essentially telling the concrete where to break. If done correctly, the concrete will crack beneath the expansion joint, where you cannot see it. This also causes less stress on the slab as it expands and contracts.\n\nWell made concrete slabs can easily stand for upwards of 40 years, requiring very little maintenance, whereas asphalt needs to be replaced (or at the very least maintained) far more often.",
"Not mentioned anywhere is noise. Tarmac without expansion joints is a lot quieter than concrete. Every gap in the concrete is a another “thudunk” don’t want to live near that.",
"In Michigan, it's for the plow drivers to get a hold of and rip a good chunk off when they're pushing snow. ",
"I explained this to my 5 and 7 year old this morning! \n\nConcrete is rigid - it needs room to expand and contract or it will crack so gaps are cut into it. Asphalt is flexible - it can (usually) absorb stress without cracking so it doesn’t need expansion joints (seams). \n\nEach has its place depending on the application. "
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bim3pz | why do you tend go to sleep later at night when you’ve taken a nap in the day? how does your body know that you’ve taken a nap and why does it take it into account? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bim3pz/eli5_why_do_you_tend_go_to_sleep_later_at_night/ | {
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"Think of an hour glass that slowly fills with sand.\n\nYour body has chemicals that act the same way, slowly building up within your body...akin to sand slowly building up in an hour class.\n\nAs more \"sand\" builds up, the more tired you become. One way to push some \"sand\" back or get rid of some of the buildup is to sleep. It basically up ends the hour glass for a little bit. A nap will only upend the hour glass for a small amount of time and wont completely reset it.\n\nYour body does this naturally with chemicals that slowly build the longer you are awake. Sleeping stops additional buildup and will slowly reverse that chemical buildup."
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2u42mh | why do products sold on infomercials require four to six weeks for delivery? | Can't most businesses process an order in a day or two, and does it really take more than a week or so to send something anywhere on the planet? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u42mh/eli5_why_do_products_sold_on_infomercials_require/ | {
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"The 4-6 weeks gives the seller time to manufacture or buy as many units as are sold in any given period. This cuts down on cost, as inventory doesn't have to sit in storage before it is sold.",
"A lot of infomercials are for products that are just starting out and don't have the revenue to maintain constant production and have large inventories. Therefore a lot of manufacturing companies are on a make to order business and thus do not have stock to fulfill your order immediately.",
"A lot of times they don't actually have thousand or tens of thousands of units already made. They take your order, then wait a couple of weeks for the money to get to their account, then they place an order with the manufacturing company to make and deliver the units.\n\nIt takes maybe a week for the money to get from your account to their account, another week for them to place the order with the manufacturer, another two weeks for the order to get made and delivered to the salesman, and another week for delivery. Depending on how many units are ordered the time can take longer or shorter. \n\nIt wouldn't be cost effective if the info-salesman had a bunch of product just sitting around. He'd have to store it, provide security, pay for a space, and then he would have had to put up a lot of his own money to build the stuff in the first place.\n\nIn short, it takes that long to build and deliver whatever you're buying, which is required because they don't have the goods in inventory.",
"Interesting responses. It was my understanding that the delay was to put delivery beyond your credit card billing cycle so you couldn't dispute the charge when the product turned out to be crap. ",
"Another possibility is that they make money the same way your bank does, they delay the money and invest it during that time. Banks make huge profit by doing that and they are only delaying it a few days..."
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by882h | how do sea captains "fight" a storm? | On shows like Deadliest Catch, when there's a storm, the captain is showing struggling to keep the ship afloat and (I assume) in the same position. What is he actually doing at the controls to make this happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/by882h/eli5_how_do_sea_captains_fight_a_storm/ | {
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"There are a few strategies. Usually they revolve around keeping the bow (front) of the ship pointed toward the waves. A wave on the side can much more easily roll the boat. If you've ever seen surfers paddling out through waves it's a similar concept. Nose on the ship is designed to cut through water. Anyways the seas can come at odd intervals and directions and keeping the boat lined up can be difficult work.",
"Ships are long and narrow, and a large, steep wave will \"push\" a ship. Since ships are designed to sit on the surface of the water, as a wave rolls towards a ship on its side, imagine seeing it from the rear: the low part of the wave gently \"pushes\" the beam, or side, of the boat, tilting it slightly as the ship's hull attempts to \"climb\" to the top of the wave (again, they float.) If the wave is small enough, this happens easily and the ship rolls over it, though significant rocking occurs. If the wave is large enough, however, you may be able to picture the ship being tilted so far on its side as it tries to climb the wave, like a skateboarder or snowboarder in a halfpipe, and the ship can capsize, which is one of the two worst things to happen to a ship (hull breaking in half is the other one.)\n\nIf, however, you point the ship straight into a wave, now view the ship from the side (\"beam\"). A ship's bow (the nose) is pointed and sharp. It literally breaks the surface tension of the water as the ship moves around, and this is the first line of defense against larger waves. A big wave may push the ship's hull up at first, but the wave's energy is literally split by the bow, greatly reducing how much force subsequently pushes the ship up as the wave continues. The ship *is* pushed up, but it has already broken the surface a little bit more than if the wave had come from the side, and now you can see also that any non-circular or non-square object is harder to \"flip\" or rotate around its longer side. Think of how easy it is to roll a pencil, but it won't flip from the tip to eraser nearly as easily. Same with a surfboard or a boat.\n\nSo because of the length of the boat, it takes a lot more force to flip it over that way. Even a very steep wave might terrify a crew as a ship seems to go vertical, but a proper, sea-worthy ship may survive a much steeper wave than our intuition tells us. They are still extremely dangerous, and even the largest steel ships, both merchants and Navies, will track and avoid the largest storms. That being said, pointing the ship *into* oncoming waves is the best way to keep the ship floating and right side up once you start hitting heavy waves. Wind and uneven waves themselves can make this difficult, as they may change directions so that not all of the waves are coming exactly in a straight line one behind the other. The wind can also push around the superstructures (the \"sail area\", all area above the waterline) of larger ships, causing them to drift and point in different directions than what the current is pushing on the hull. Both of these matter, and it can be confusing to try to determine if the wind or the water is having more of an impact on a specific angle of the ship. Water is far more dense than air, so generally has more force, but for some ships there is quite a bit of superstructure (\"sail area\") and they can push it around quite a lot.\n\nFinally, a ship captain must be aware of all 3 movements of a ship: Yaw, Pitch and Roll. Roll is the easiest to remember, it is how much the ship rotates if it were like a rotisserie, or a pencil; pitch is the angle from the bow to the stern (front to rear) relative to a flat, calm sea (or tangent to the ocean floor, since the earth is round); and finally yaw is the compass rotation of the ship looking down from above. If the ship is yawing to one side it will \"crabwalk\" through the water. So there is quite a lot to consider when in truly big waves.\n\nSource: I was an officer in the Navy.",
"Several good comments have talked about survival by heading into the swell, but if you’ve lots of open oceans and are not worried about getting to a destination on time, another strategy is to Run before the Storm - that is, turn the ship around, have the wind coming in over the back and (if not a sailing ship) speed up to approximately the speed of the waves, if you can (not a significant issue if you can’t). It means you essentially surf with the storm.\n\nThe advantages of this if you can do it are that it’s a lot more stable and a lot more pleasant for everyone on board. With the wind behind you, the relative wind over the deck(ie the wind you feel on your face) is much less, and provided there’s no cross swell (waves coming at random angles) the boat doesn’t move around as much.\n\nThe disadvantages are that unless you’re in the open oceans, you can run out of sea fast! \n\nSource: sailed a lot as a kid. Of course, the best tactic in a storm is to go and sit in the pub/bar/tea shop. Why be there at all, if you can possibly avoid it? As you can see, I was a fair weather sailor!\n\nEdit: punctuation.",
"As a Bering sea Fisherman I can add to this. The waters we fish in the northern latitudes not only bring about some choppy and rough wave action, but the approach the captain must take to each buoy (boo-e) depends on the tides (current) and the wind as well. Our bags that are in the water are easier to pull up onto the boat with the correct approach. I have fished in 30ft+ waves with winds up to 60-70mph. With a favorable approach it's possible for us to keep fishing. With an unfavorable approach it is deadly and almost impossible. \n\nTLDR; Captains don't \"fight\" the storm, they have to go with flow."
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8jwrb1 | is it standard practice for manufacturers to retain one copy of every product made for archival? and if yes, how is this managed, especially for technology products that change quite frequently? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jwrb1/eli5_is_it_standard_practice_for_manufacturers_to/ | {
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"Not really, but it depends on the product (food for example, bakeries don't keep a box of 20 year old cookies). I'd say most companies build a product and then ensure they have sufficient quantities of spares on hand. What spares means for a product depends on what it is. A car for example needs 10 years of spares, but they typically produce near identical cars for a few years, and some parts can be used multiple generations and on multiple cars. So they keep a small number of spares in storage for sale/warranty repairs, and then keep building it as needed. When they are going to finish production of a part they build extra and stock it (so usually a 10 year supply of spares). They are on hand, but it's really to cover warranty repairs and for sale.\n\nSmaller devices they might just word the warranty so that if it breaks you get the latest model (so Samsung probably isn't stocking spare cell phone chargers, they just always make them and are willing to sell whatever they make now).\n\nThere are other reasons for keeping copies, and I know companies like NVIDIA keep a few video cards of every model hanging around and they use them to test their drivers, many companies will have prototypes and production run devices hanging around in labs and offices. Depends on the company, sometimes they keep the for some specified period, sometimes they get used and then just left somewhere when not needed and eventually thrown out when they decide it's ancient and they need the space. These items are not for \"archival\" purposes, they are for engineers to provide customer support, and generally they are not needed when the company stops supporting the product (though maybe some employee takes it after that point as a desk toy or it goes into the display case at the lobby).\n\nI work on military stuff for example, we build extra spares to sit in a warehouse to replace broken systems, and we maintain a working system of all the versions we support plus what we are building somewhere. So we can run tests on it before sending it to the users, and help them if they find a problem.",
"I suspect that this was more common in the past than it is now. \n\nI know of one old-line manufacturer that would keep decades worth of production samples (often, but not always, the first regular-production unit off the line for each model) for its engineers to refer to. This was in addition to old prototypes, and samples of their competitors's products. They had rooms full of shelves of products, tagged with their production dates and serial numbers.\n\nThey have since outsourced most of their manufacturing, and when they were closing their plants, they scrapped most of their archives."
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2q6kkv | how can any style be considered "modern" (like modern architecture)? wouldn't any style be considered modern during its time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q6kkv/eli5_how_can_any_style_be_considered_modern_like/ | {
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"There is \"modern\" meaning contemporary and then \"[Modernism](_URL_0_)\" (or Modern) with a capital M referring to a specific artistic movement in the early to mid 1900s"
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4yrhcf | how do security arrangements work when heads of state travel to foreign countries? | Do they just ship the leader off and say "keep him safe for us"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yrhcf/eli5_how_do_security_arrangements_work_when_heads/ | {
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"There has to be cooperation between the security groups of both countries. On the one hand, the visiting government has to trust that the host will provide adequate general security. On the other hand, the host has to be willing to give the visiting head of state's security team some latitude to operate and ensure that everything is to their satisfaction. If that mutual trust does not exist, then a visit can't happen until relations improve.",
"Generally, security teams for both heads of states are jointly involved in the security detail. They are both briefed on the travel itineraries as well as on contingency plans for many adverse events. Whether they are briefed in the same room or time is variable, but usually both sides know what the other one is doing."
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8ozse6 | since chemical weapons were not used in ww2 out of fear of retaliation why would it be different for nuclear weapons? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ozse6/eli5since_chemical_weapons_were_not_used_in_ww2/ | {
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"In WW2 they were used because the US was the only country to possess them, they were a top secret super weapon\n\nAfterward, that’s exactly why they were not used. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was the policy between USA and Russia in which they both understood a first strike would result in certain destruction of both powers",
"The hope is that it *wouldn't* be different, and that no one will ever use nuclear weapons because they would in turn be attacked by them. Rationally, you would never do something that might result in a nuclear-armed nation being so mad at you they'd use their nuclear arms. Most nations only develop nuclear weapons with the thinking \"now other (nuclear-armed) nations will think twice before attacking us.\"\n\nThe worry is that this isn't a guarantee, and it only takes one fuckup somewhere for things to get really really awful for a lot of people. There have already been [a few cases](_URL_0_) where a nuclear-armed nation thought it *was* under nuclear attack and almost retaliated. What would Hitler have done if he'd had nuclear weapons as an option when it was clear WW2 was lost? Might he have bombed the USSR and the UK in despair? What if new fanatical regimes like the Nazis appear in a nuclear-armed nation, and wind up in that situation? Or what if, say, a terrorist group had managed to acquire Soviet nuclear weapons during the collapse of the USSR and the wars and chaos of the 90s?\n\nNuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction have likely contributed to the reltaive peace we've seen over the last 70 years, but 70 years isn't very long on the human timescale. So it's a fair thing to worry about IMO.",
"The thing with chemical weapons is that their only real value is with surprise, once that is gone and the other side retaliates you really only hinder your own forces from that point on. For Germany in particular this would have hurt them disproportionately due to their heavy reliance on hoses for their logistics.\n\nIt should also be noted that chemical weapons were used by the Japanese in China and the Germans a few times in the Crimea.\n\nBritain had planned to gas the beaches in the event of a German invasion and the US had detailed plans to use a large amount in the invasions of the Japanese home islands - one estimate for Operation Downfall was for five million civilians alone were going to die from chemical weapons."
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1szoui | why companies still buy microsoft products despite linux and open-/libreoffice being easy, functional and completely free? | It seems like an unnecessary overhead cost that could easily be averted. I could understand companies being reluctant to switch to Linux, but using a Windows-like distro could probably ease the growing pains a fair deal for Windows users. What I don't understand is why Microsoft Office still sells so well. It seems to me OpenOffice does pretty much everything that Microsoft Office does, save for some Outlook integration - but is that really worth the cost? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1szoui/eli5_why_companies_still_buy_microsoft_products/ | {
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"Office provides a lot of teamwork & integration features that the free solution doesn't. If you're working on a term paper by yourself, it's probably not a big deal. When you've got a dozen people revising a project proposal & want it tied into your SharePoint system, it becomes more important.",
"1) cost of switching\n\n2) the cost isn't actually that high for high. Business listeners for Microsoft products are really cheap, so per employee, you're not paying all that much. \n\n3) people are familiar with windows/office. If you switch, you either have a much smaller hiring pool to work with, or have to train a good portion of your employees in the new software\n\n4) windows is more common. If you have cliens, it's easier to use a Microsoft program, because it's just about guaranteed your client will be OK with it. \n\n5) Microsoft offers some programs that many others do not, and their version a are usually better\n\n6) Microsoft has better network integration, which is good if you have a lot of employees on 1 project ",
"Because its what they and their employees are used to using. For someone slightly tech savvy, it wouldn't be a tough transition. But betty over in sales can barely use word, now you want her to use a new operating system, a new office suite, with everything in slightly different places and sometimes slightly different names. It would be huge overhead to make the switch itself because it would require lots of training, and that's lost time, and as they say, time is money.",
" > save for some Outlook integration - but is that really worth the cost?\n\nYes.\n\nPeople will pay a lot of money for very specific features. Specialty software can easily cost thousands of dollars per user, so cost is relative.\n\nSpeaking of cost, support is an important factor, especially for a large enterprise. This is why many businesses opt to pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, instead of any of the other free versions of exactly the same code; they're paying for the support and it's important.",
"I think sometimes it is because payware is supported while freeware isn't...if you need a fix asap, you're not gonna get it for freeware. If you are paying for a big support contract, maybe they will write an emergency patch for ya",
"It really because you cant run that many programs on linux,apple, or chromebook.\n\nThats why i buy windows. ",
"Linux is free if your time is worthless. ",
"A 10,000+ employee company of less-than-technical users highly dependent on custom software that's only written for Windows, heavily invested in a Active Directory network. That's not something you go to your board of directors and say, \"We're going to tear the whole thing down because Joe in IT thinks we should use Linux instead\". "
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4qnrg2 | - how is it scientists are finding links between meat and cancer when humankind has always existed on meat and vegetable diet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qnrg2/eli5_how_is_it_scientists_are_finding_links/ | {
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"Just because we've always done something doesn't mean that it wouldn't cause cancer. We've always lived under the same sun, but sunlight is a cause of cancer.\n\nHumankind has more cancer now than ever before *primarily* because we're living longer than ever before. When your primary causes of death aren't childbirth, starvation, exposure, or preventable disease, you start seeing more late-onset disorders than before.",
" > ELI5- How is it scientists are finding links between meat* and cancer when humankind has always existed on meat and vegetable diet?\n\n*processed meat\n\nAlso it's a correlation, not a causation. Many variables play a role in risks such as total calorie intake/obesity, exercise (or lack of), lifestyle factors (stress for example), etc.\n\nEdit: Also lowering overall \"protein\" intake also seems to have a role in reducing cancer risks (from a \"growth factor\" point of view).\n\n",
"First, all of these kinds of studies have to be taken with a big grain of salt because cancer is linked with a bajillion different things in the world and it's really hard, if not impossible, to control for all of them. Personally, I don't give any of these \"cancer is linked to....\" type studies any credence until the same results start popping up in a lot of different studies because, no matter how good the experimental design was (and they sometimes suck. Methods sections are important, ya'll), the very nature of the question is a bugaboo. \n\nHowever, that said... Prehistoric peoples probably ate a lot less meat than we do today since they had to run it down and kill it themselves and often their hamburgers managed to escape. In contrast, modern hamburgers are notable for their relative lethargy. They almost never get away from us anymore, making it possible for modern humans to eat burgers at a considerably higher frequency.",
"One major reason: because cancer isn't something that is an issue until you're old, usually.\n\nConsider that for most of human history, most humans died before they were 50. Cancer only starts to be an issue for most people after 40; which means that even doing all of the most cancer-risky things you can possibly do might take as much as 15 years off of your life (if you die of cancer at 35 instead of 50).\n\nBasically, until the 1920's (maybe as early as the 1880's), the fact of the matter was that cancer was just so unlikely to kill you it was lumped in with \"old age\"; which was basically unpreventable.\n\nHowever, over the last 3-5 generations, more and more people are living long enough to get cancer; to the point where we can actually study it and what contributes to it. And at the same time, we're actually looking at what used to be called \"old age\" actually means, and how to delay each of the individual conditions: conditions including heart attacks, Alzheimer's, cancer, and other disorders and diseases.",
"Short answer that highlights another aspect of your question than the longevity issues pointed out by other users...historically speaking human diets were very different at different points in time and across regions than they are today. A meat heavy diet is a result of industrialization, urbanization, and modern economic policies.\n\nSouth Korea is a great example of how this change happened very rapidly in a non-western setting.",
"Humans have always been capable of getting cancer, no?",
"Humans have also been dying of cancer the ENTIRE time.... Cancer did not just come into being in the past 100 years ya know...\n",
"I believe that people are over emphasizing meat and forgetting the real villain- PROCESSED meat, specifically nitrites.\n\n_URL_0_",
"The average life expectancy in hunter gatherer societies on the savannah was about 25 years and most cancer happens after 70.\n\nThe common causes of death was infectious disease, teeth related problems and man-on-man violence iirc.",
"Your assumption that humans have always lived on a \"meat and vegetable diet\" is not true. Our prehistoric ancestors probably ate mostly vegetables, fruits (remember humans only left sub-saharan Africa a few tens of thousands to hundred thousand years ago - not long enough for anything more than minor evolutionary changes) insects, and tubers/roots (when we started using fire). Meat was relatively rare up until humans moved to colder and drier climates where suitable plants and insects weren't as common. As a result, our physiology is poorly adapted to digesting it, and so we have issues properly dealing with all of the substances that are found in flesh. "
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3ts2rz | current, voltage, amperage, etc. i learned it in school, but it still hasn't clicked. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ts2rz/eli5_current_voltage_amperage_etc_i_learned_it_in/ | {
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"Current is the flow of an electric charge, like water through a pipe. Voltage is like the water pressure in the pipe. Amperage is how much electricity is used, or how much water is going through the pipe. Watts is amps time volts, which gives the amount of work per second the electricity does, say the amount of watering that can be done with a hose."
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ccfthv | if ethernet cable can transfer so much data, why not use this instead of hdmi and other cables for data. | In physics class I remember using Ethernet cables to connect two “gates” used to measure speed for objects. I also know that Line 6 guitars use an Ethernet cable to connect your guitar to your guitar processor. We also use an Ethernet cable to power our LAN phones at work.
So why is the Ethernet cable not the master cable of electronics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ccfthv/eli5_if_ethernet_cable_can_transfer_so_much_data/ | {
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" > So why is the Ethernet cable not the master cable of electronics?\n\nYou actually hit an idea that has been getting traction off and on for a decade or so. Basically, you CAN use Ethernet for all sorts of other purposes, including replacing an HDMI cable. Ethernet (twisted pair) could replace a whole bevy of different cables. Twisted pair wires work really well for a lot of stuff, they are cheap, and durable, and go long distances. It's a pretty good option.\n\nThe problem... well, it just doesn't work as good for certain special things like a specialized cable like HDMI does for video. HDMI is purposely built to deliver very high bandwidth uncompressed video, to achieve the same with Ethernet, you'd need a pretty robust system, heavy shielding, and likely more than one connection (i.e. two Ethernet cables). Side note: HDMI actually can transport data as well (much like Ethernet), but there has been basically zero consumer implementation of this in devices.\n\nBut could we replace a lot of \"generic\" cables with twisted pair (ethernet)? Yeah, we probably could, but there really hasn't been much interest to do so, and that the [RJ-45 jack](_URL_0_) is fairly large, makes it quite impractical for smaller devices, especially ones that may need several ports.",
"well, usb 3.2 with type c connectors seem to be becoming the \"master cable\" you speak of. I think that throughput is just better, and most importantly, it's really small.",
"There's one crucial reason that hasn't yet been addressed: the end user.\n\nLet's say that, as an experiment, a motherboard manufacturer decided to do this very thing, and replace all the ports with RJ-45 ports.\n\nThe most obvious and glaring problem with this is how would you determine where to plug in any given cable just from looking at the I/O panel? It'd be an absolute nightmare.\n\nThe physical shape of the jack and port tells us a lot about what the cable is supposed to connect to and what data it carries.",
"It's not really so much data. Video is incredibly bandwidth intensive.\n\nThe current HDMI specification allows 48 gigabits of bandwidth.\n\nMost consumer Ethernet hardware is Gigabit Ethernet with occasionally 10 Gigabit. Much less than HDMI.\n\nWhile there exist higher speed Ethernet standards (25/50 and 40/100), they're rare outside of datacenters, the former only uses fibre optic cable, and the latter is brand new and the hardware barely exists. 40/100 also requires the fancy new category 8 Ethernet cabling and can't operate on older category 5/6/7 cables.",
"* **Ethernet** is actually a system for transferring information. It happens to use Category 5 or 6 cable (known commonly as CAT5 or CAT6)\n* You can do lots of stuff with CAT5 cables that has nothing to do with ethernet like your physics class and your Line 6 guitar.\n* There already are products that use CAT5 and CAT6 to get things like audio and video signal from one place to another.\n* BUT! The reason we have HDMI is because the movie studios wanted a technology they could control. \n* In order to make an HDMI cable, or a device that has an HDMI connector, you need to pay a license fee and agree to a legal contract that says you won't design your device in a way that lets people make illegal copies of protected content. \n* Back when DVDs were the main way you could watch movies at home, they forced everyone to switch their DVD players and TVs to HDMI.\n* Laptops went along with it and now basically everything relating to consumer video is HDMI."
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59asgw | why did having summers off become standard in education? | All across the country and all across the world, it seems the standard is for the school year to be Fall/Winter/Spring with winter off, but how did this become so?
I know some school systems (e.g. California) do track scheduling, where students will go to school for X weeks on, then X weeks off and go for the full year, but that's not really standard and (afaik) is done to deal with the student density load. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59asgw/eli5_why_did_having_summers_off_become_standard/ | {
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"Summer is when the most farming work had to be done. Schools had summers off so the children could help when farm labor was needed most. This isn't true anymore for most children, but there are parts of the US where it still is. Also, summer is useful for extracurricular activities, travel, and just having fun. ",
"The thing about kids needing to work on the farm is a nice anecdote, but not wholly true. In reality, it was the lack of air conditioning. \n\n_URL_0_\n"
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bt8czn | how come tv shows cover up brand names on products (like food or toiletry packaging) but youtubers can show brands and review them all day long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bt8czn/eli5_how_come_tv_shows_cover_up_brand_names_on/ | {
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"text": [
"Tv shows that do that don't get paid by companies. So they don't show any names. \nBut there are also clear cases when TV shows are paid to do commercials. \n\n_URL_0_"
]
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[
"https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE"
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||
3mq3op | why is finding water on mars such a big deal to the general public? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mq3op/eli5_why_is_finding_water_on_mars_such_a_big_deal/ | {
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"text": [
"Because a scientifically-illiterate mass media took a report of modest scientific interest and sexed it up. \n\nNASA kinda egged the deception on by holding a press conference to announce the findings like it was some major, Earth-shaking thing. And I'm *sure* the fact that they're announcing this in the same week that the NASA-boosting film The Martian opens is TOTALLY a coincidence...\n\nThe liquid water flows they have found evidence for are:\n\n--Very small.\n\n--Very short-lived and seasonal.\n\n--Possible only because the water has a very high concentration of perchlorates, which makes them toxic to life as we know it.\n"
]
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[]
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||
4oh0xp | why is the code for league of legends considered "spaghetti"? | I've been playing the game for years and keep hearing this stated. What's up with their game? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oh0xp/eli5why_is_the_code_for_league_of_legends/ | {
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"Knowing nothing about lol, a game that becomes speggitti means that the game program has been edited tweaked upgraded countless times over the years with the end result being vastly diffrent then the original code, so it's a messy patchwork of fixes and changes where changing one thing over here for example hat color might break something way over there like how often your character has to use the restroom that you would never have assumed or planed to have connected if you wrote the program that way in the 1st place",
"Instead of being built in an organized fashion from the ground up, it has been built in tiny pieces all strung together. Very difficult to read, follow, and make changes to, since things are often connected in ways that don't make sense.\n\nFor example, let's say you wanted to update the color on the tree from \"light green\" to \"dark green.\" In a logical set up, you might go in to the textures, look for the correct code by searching for the phrase \"tree,\" and change the hex value for \"tree.\"\n\nHowever, in poor code, that color might be inheriting it's hex code from the grass texture, which is actually an image and not a value. So you have to hunt down which image that is to update it, but updating the color on the image would also change the grass color, not just the tree. Poorly designed spaghetti code."
]
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[],
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8ljwcc | why is 4 beats per measure so common in music? | Why is it used so much more than 3 or 6 bpm and why is 5 bpm practically non-existent? What's so special about 4? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ljwcc/eli5_why_is_4_beats_per_measure_so_common_in_music/ | {
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"text": [
"Are you referring to time signature?",
"It’s a really good middle ground between having enough beats to explore the chord you’re on on the progression while also being a small enough number that our brains can easily keep track of it. It’s also really nice because it has clear subdivisions they are also small and convenient to use.\n\nThe problem with five is that it’s a bit long, so our brains don’t keep track quite as well with where we are, especially given the way that we use “down-beats” in music. We alternate between “down-beats” and the “back-beat” as a way of providing a sort of constant in the music to keep us grounded. This is the alternating between the deep bass drum and the snare in most rock. In 4/4, the length of time between the down and up beats will be constant (unless you’re fiddling around with the meter), which helps keep the music grounded. \n\nIn 3/4 or 5/4, there’s no way to, within a single measure, have an amount of time between down and up beats that is equal. Think of a waltz, which would be in 3/4, and how it has a down-up-up feel that gives it a nice airiness. \n",
" so I think 4/4 is pleasing to the ears and is a very simple time signature which the listener doesn't have to apply math to decipher. That's why it's the most common time signature. Its very easy to dance to as well. Even musically challenged people can easily follow 4/4.BTW 6/8 is very common in popular Indian music. ",
"Mostly cultural conditioning. In the west, we prefer 4/4 - and most pop music is written this way. But if you asked someone in another country or time period - a lot of music could written in 3's - which is a waltz. \n\nA lot of music is also 8/8 or 6/8 and although this is all divisible, it's *mostly* just a different way of writing and counting within a measure.\n\nThere are plenty of songs written in 5/4 - like \"15 Step\" by Radiohead and 7/4 like \"Money\" by Pink Floyd. Anything not a 2, 3 or 4 (and isn't divisible by them) is generally considered an abstract time signature and are naturally harder to follow. They're not as good for dancing.\n\nAs an FYI, BPM is beats per minute, not beats per measure, and refers to the speed of the song rather than it's time signature.\n\n"
]
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6zzqz8 | why are some meteorites cut? | Cutting it just destroys its value, especially if you're fairly certain it's a meteorite. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zzqz8/eli5_why_are_some_meteorites_cut/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmzas71",
"dmzb6xc"
],
"score": [
3,
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"text": [
"I don't know about \"destroys its value\".\n\nSlices of meteorite are gorgeous, and if well polished make beautiful additions to someone's rock collection. As a result, they are worth a lot more money than a stoney metal rock.",
"Some meteors have very interesting crystalline formations inside, so cutting them most certainly does not destroy their value.\n\nAlso, meteors can be expensive, slicing them up gives more people the opportunity to buy."
]
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[],
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|
8lvlx6 | if meds are always eliminated in half by the body, how is it ever completely eliminated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8lvlx6/eli5_if_meds_are_always_eliminated_in_half_by_the/ | {
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"text": [
"medicines have a half life, which isn't exactly the same as eliminated by half. But the answer is technically it isn't, but for all practical purposes it is. \n\nIf I through a billion grains of sand at you, and you got all but 3 off, you are pretty safe to say you got all the sand off, even if that isn't technically correct.",
"First, the half life of a medicine is more of a general rule to follow when considering dosages, and it's not like **exactly** half is left after each half life.\n\nAlso, unlike pure math, in the physical world an object can't be cut in half infinitely. Eventually you would get down to a single molecule and at the next half life, the medicine would be completely gone. Even if you continued cutting that single molecule in half (which isn't how it would work), how many molecules of that substance do you have? Zero, because a broken molecule isn't the same substance.\n\nIn general, after around 4-5 half lives, there isn't enough medicine to affect your body anyway. (100% > 50% > 25% > 12.5% > 6.25% > 3.125% > ...)"
]
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69mefv | why aren't there more bacteria that thrive in warm temperatures, i would think that high temperatures would allow them to reproduce rapidly by absorbing more energy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69mefv/eli5_why_arent_there_more_bacteria_that_thrive_in/ | {
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"text": [
"At high temperatures the enthalpy (heat energy of the formation of bonds) of the intermolecular forces is overcome by the entropy (energy of being spread out) and proteins can no longer be held together in their tertiary structure and become denatured, similar to what happens when you cook eggs. A similar effect would also occur on the cell membrane and other cell features. "
]
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||
air45r | in us presidential elections, how do news channels "call" which state goes to which candidate so quickly? do they have people in each county counting the votes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/air45r/eli5_in_us_presidential_elections_how_do_news/ | {
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"text": [
"No, they are not counting votes.\n\nUsually they are doing exit polls, where a person with a clipboard asks every 20^th person \"Who did you vote for\" for a couple of hours. Those results, which might be lies after all, are an input into a model of how people have voted historically.\n\nWhen the uncounted votes are less than the uncertainty in their model, the statisticians suggest a call be made. The management team then decides what the talking-heads will say. It's all judgement, all the way down.\n\nThey aren't always right. [They have been wrong, off and on, for a long time.](_URL_0_ )"
]
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"https://www.trbimg.com/img-582620fc/turbine/ct-hist-00276876a-tribhistory24-jpg-20161111/750/750x422"
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2igr38 | why is hydrogen not considered a "fuel" but rather a way to store/transfer energy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2igr38/eli5_why_is_hydrogen_not_considered_a_fuel_but/ | {
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"text": [
"Because hydrogen isn't found in its natural state anywhere on earth. You need energy from other sources to produce it. More energy than you get out of burning the hydrogen fuel",
"It is considered a fuel. Fuels are a way to store chemical energy. ",
"Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe by far, but it does not exist in large pockets on Earth (most is stored in stars and interstellar gas). To get hydrogen on Earth, we usually extract it out of water by applying a strong electric current to break down the molecular bonds, producing hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen then is combusted as a fuel to make water again. Because the combustion reaction is simply the reverse of the first, there is no energy gain - just a transfer of chemical potential energy into the hydrogen in the first step, and a release of that energy in the second. \n\nOther fuel sources, like coal, could be argued to be similar, but do not operate with the same, quick, reactions. Coal is formed from organic matter, which derives from carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (for the most part). Burning it yields carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but to say that you could have a coal battery is nonsensical. Once it is burnt, it spent and the slow processes that make is a non-renewable resource have to reform it.",
"A fuel, like oil, natural gas, and coal, has an energy surplus in it from the time it is extracted. You burn it, energy appears, and everyone is happy.\n\nThere are no significant sources of naturally occurring free hydrogen on earth. So you have to take some other fuel and expend it to make free hydrogen, then transport the hydrogen to where you want to use it. \n\nThe advantage of hydrogen is it doesn't matter how you make it, and it can be used to store energy from more intermittent sources like wind and solar. The disadvantage is we aren't really good at storing it yet. "
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2o2gz2 | how can it remain profitable to continue to design and produce android tablets when there are so many and they retail for so little? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o2gz2/eli5how_can_it_remain_profitable_to_continue_to/ | {
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"cmj2rc5"
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"text": [
"A product is profitable if it can be sold for more than the inputs (physical components, assembly and sales labor, design costs, etc) cost. Android tablets can be made for a profit if the cost of their inputs fall faster than the price. "
]
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||
242dna | why is there confusion over adhd and aspergers being a real thing? shouldn't there be a concrete opinion on something so common? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/242dna/eli5_why_is_there_confusion_over_adhd_and/ | {
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"ASD is a broad spectrum of tangentially related disorders, and works rather like a scorecard, where if you exhibit x,y,and z, you're autistic. HOWEVER, you can exhibit x, x and y, x and z, or y and z, or whatever combination, and maybe also have ASD. X, y, and z are also thing found in lots of other disorders, things like self-stimulative behavior, communication disorders, perseverative ideations (\"obsessions\"), difficulty in social situations, not maintaining eye contact, all stuff that fits into ASD, and a dozen other disorders as well.\n\nIts like describing a dog to an alien. It has four legs, a tail, ears. Oh! Like that? No, that's a cat, nope, that's a rabbit, nope, a cow. How do you know a dog? Well, you, kinda, um, it's dog-shaped?\nWe know what ASD is, sort of, and can describe it with observations, reams of data, and gut feeling, but it's hard to say why it's a dog and not a cat. Incidentally, it doesn't matter much, good schools will use very similar techniques for both; ABA, extra time for tasks, modification of tasks, etc.\n\nIncidentally, disorder names were not originally meant to label, but as a sort of therapeutic shorthand, since people with similar issues will respond to similar therapies. Things like ASD, ADHD and such are more so your doctors, therapists and such know what areas are likely to need more focus, but that difficulties may pop up in other areas. Using it as your label really limits how you and others think about you, so maybe try to describe characteristics rather than labels? I.e: I have a hard time at parties, I get nervous about messing up when I talk to new people, I get really excited about math, etc. Makes you sound and feel like a person, rather than like a defect.",
"Doctors are quick to diagnose, usually parents are quick to diagnose as well, a problem with children. I teach. I have seen real cases of ADHD and autism, and I have watched parents with children who have relatively normal behavior fight for diagnoses for the perks of IEPS in the school. \n\nReal ADHD is a sad thing to witness because the child is impossibly distracted, so much so he or she may not even be able to do something enjoyable or miss something they've been waiting for. Medication helps, but has side effects that are sometimes overwhelming for the child. \n\nAs for autism, kids who are \"different\" sometimes are labeled as thus, but really the kid likes Greek mythology and cats. Nothing wrong with the kid, but he's a little weird compared to his friends or family and a lot of times the parents find that to be a tangible reason. The real cases I've seen, the full blown flapping, fixation, inability to socialize is much different. \n\nUnfortunately, the misinformation out there is great. If you go to your pediatrician and come home with ritalin, it wasn't a good diagnosis. Testing and evaluations are important to make sure the child is receiving the best possible treatment. I think cases like this give these two disorders a bad rap in the general public. When I notice over half of my students are on an ADHD medication, it makes me wonder what the world is coming to. "
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1l9myf | the difference between irish and black irish | I've hear people say they are Irish and others say they're black Irish. What's the difference
Sorry if its a stupid question. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l9myf/eli5_the_difference_between_irish_and_black_irish/ | {
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"text": [
"Dark hair and eyes, and the self identification as black Irish. It's not a specific group, culture, or anything like that, though all sorts of false ancestry claims are made for them. \n\nThey are literally anyone of Irish descent with darker hair, eyes, or complexion. ",
"Black Irish are from County Tyrone."
]
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4ry91w | the difference between a gas mask and a respirator. | I tried several "compare" sites and they were of no help. Are they actually different things or is it one of those "oh it's merely the British pronunciatioun chap" things? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ry91w/eli5_the_difference_between_a_gas_mask_and_a/ | {
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"text": [
"A gas mask is designed to protect you from dangerous gases. A respirator lets you breathe while it protects your airways by supplying alternate air or forcing the air through a filter. Many modern gas masks are respirators, but not all of them. Nor are all respirators gas masks.",
"typical use of the term gas mask is for biological, chemical and nuclear warfare agents. the agent would attack soft tissue such as lips, mouth, eyes, nose to the point of irritation or incapacitance or fatally. \n\nwhereas respirator typically is used for civilian uses where its main purpose to protect against breathing in of chemical fumes from harmful but non lethal agents used in the industrial sector. \n\nwhere as a dust mask is for protection from breathing in airborne particles of typically non harmful but irritating agents like sawdust, construction dust, cleaning dust.\n\nboth respirators and dust masks do not protect the eyes against exposure. "
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38nlzh | why do certain sites, like facebook for example, only allow me to deactivate my account rather than completely delete it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38nlzh/eli5_why_do_certain_sites_like_facebook_for/ | {
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"text": [
"There is an option to completely delete a Facebook account, you just have to dig around for it. Then there's a two week cool down before it actually deletes. Many of these sites make money from selling user data, they use having a large number of users as a selling point. ",
"A possible explanation is that they just want to keep it for their own obscure purposes.\n\nAnother explanation is the technical one:\nThis kind of sites usually store a HUGE amount of data under heavy load of a really large number of users changing the data (by writing posts, comments, setting likes, adding friends/followers etc etc) every single moment. The data is very interdependent: every comment, for instance, depends on the info about the post this comment applies for, the user who wrote the comment, the one who wrote the original post, everyone who liked it etc. Removing a single element from this web might ruin the whole structure, effectively corrupting the database. That's why they want to deactivate things rather then performing a tremendous task of checking all the possible links in order not to break the whole website.",
"Lets say x site has 20 members and if you delete your account they will left with 19 members which will show the advertisers that they are loosing users and if you deactivate your account ..they still have 20 members.",
"Well, particularly for Facebook, it's because their business is to collect your personal information, (likes, dislikes, age, occupation), so if they have you deactivate it instead of deleting it, they get to keep your information for \"business purposes\" while still technically letting you leave the site.",
"Less cynical option : People delete their Facebook for a time, then come back. They expect all their history to still be there and it's not so they complain to Facebook. Facebook figures it's just easier if nothing is deleted anymore. \n\nSounds dumb, but I have heard people complaining about losing their history before."
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d4k2ag | why are calf cramps so common? | Often when waking in the middle of the night or in the morning, it’s a common reflex to stretch which feels great. However, it’s very common to have a calf cramp which is very painful. Can someone explain why? Ways to prevent? Ways to reduce the duration or pain during the event? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4k2ag/eli5_why_are_calf_cramps_so_common/ | {
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"text": [
"Generally they are caused by restrictions in the blood supply which can commonly occur in the legs and feet, since the calf is the largest muscle in the lower leg it often responds dramatically to low flows in blood with cramp - _URL_0_",
"Straighten leg and pull foot towards you to stretch the muscle is about the only cure I know of.\n\nI’ve also noticed that when I feel a leg cramp coming on I can often lessen the pain by doing the opposite of the above.\n\nI was once told cramping is a sign of dehydration but I’m not 100% on that."
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3ehjfs | why screenwriters and directors are given funding when their movies are typical bombs? | Look up Craig Clyde on IMDB. His writing career began in 1992, and his highest rated movies are Castle Rock (2000) at 5.8/10 and Storm Rider at 6.3/10. He's written 21 scripts and directed 17 films, and none of them have done very well. Yet, as recently as 2013, he's still getting scripts turned into movies.
EDIT - His highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Truth or Consequences at 33%.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ehjfs/eli5_why_screenwriters_and_directors_are_given/ | {
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"ctf7zzu"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Your only listing the overall critical response to Mr. Clyde's films here, not their financial success, and quite frankly, financial success is a better barometer of sustained employment in Hollywood than critical approval ever has been and ever will be. As long as Mr. Clyde maintains a profitable track record, he's going to keep getting his films made. "
]
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3bap96 | how can an application or program get constant updates and still be the same size? | What happens in the update process? What happened to all the megabytes I just downloaded? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bap96/eli5how_can_an_application_or_program_get/ | {
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"text": [
"a program is like a piece of cloth\n\noccasionally a hole is found\n\nso you put a patch on it\n\nbut the cloth remains the same size\n\nwhen you want to make a cloth a blanket\n\nthen you make it bigger\n\nthis is called bloat\n\n",
"Programming code doesn't really take up a lot of space. The chances are that your program *isn't* remaining the same size, but the increase is so miniscule you don't notice it. \nIn the case of programs, the things that take up the most space are things like image assets, e.g. the logo of the program in question. \nAlso the fact that an update isn't necessarily *adding* to the program, but merely replacing parts of it that were broken.",
"Apart from what was already mentioned, updates are often a lot bigger than what you would actually need, because they include many previous patches as well. \n\nSay you are still on version 1.0, but the newest is 1.5 - so there were a few updates you missed. \nYou could download 1.1, install it, then download 1.2, install it, and so on - each update would be pretty small, but it would be a hassle to repeatedly download and install and restart the application. So many (if not most) developers bring out a patch for 1.5, which includes all the things needed to get any version from 1.0-1.4 up to date. ",
"In case of bugfixes or non-content patches, existing stuff like libraries, functions, modules and so on get minor or major upgrades, maybe are replaced as a whole. Sometimes those get performance enhancements that can turn them even smaller, or old deprecated code gets removed.\n\nIn terms of content upgrades, there probably will always be an increase, because new content has to be stored somewhere. New routines to handle game logic, textures, graphics, ... "
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2cqjcg | when a company goes public, can an exec buy majority stock/how is the owner protected? | I searched and haven't found anything related to my question.
I wasn't sure how else to word the question. I shall explain.
I want to know how far a company's owner(officially titled CEO?) is protected in terms of initial shares.
Let's say I own Company X(random mom and pop shops..whatever minimum required) and will be going public. Now I understand there is a pre-IPO which means executives and other employees have a chance to get a certain amount of stock before it goes public. Is that correct?
Now how much shares are available at that time period(pre-IPO) and what would decide it? For instance, if Company X goes public with 25,000,000 shares...how many shares could have been given to employees/execs before the IPO? I used the word "given" is that correct or do the execs still have to BUY the shares pre-IPO?
Also, let's say Company X's CFO is a rich guy/girl. Would it be possible be for him/her to buy up majority stock pre-IPO(if the shares are not given) so that when the company goes public, they then become the "owner" and are essentially higher than the CEO? If not, then how limited are they?
Lastly, if in my example the CFO (or anyone) cannot do that then what exactly is it that protects the CEO/owner from losing complete power over their company and for how LONG? Once the company goes public, then the exec in question(or anyone) could buy up all of the shares or is that incorrect?
Oh and feel free to give in depth answers despite this being in the ELI5 section. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cqjcg/eli5_when_a_company_goes_public_can_an_exec_buy/ | {
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"First of all, a CEO does not have to be the owner of a corporation. The owners of most small private companies tend to serve as the CEO, but the CEO of a large company like, say, GM, usually won't be the largest shareholder. The CEO is appointed by the board of directors, who are themselves appointed by the shareholders.\n\nFrom your question, you seem to be under the impression that shares are created when a company goes public, but this isn't the way it works. When a corporation is created, even if there is only one shareholder, its articles of incorporation will say how many shares there are in the company.\n\nFor example, if I want to create X Corp, my articles could say that the company has 50,000 shares. I could then issue 10,000 shares to myself and leave the rest unissued, meaning that no one holds them and they don't have voting power. When I want to go public, I decide how many of the remaining shares I want to issue. If I'm worried about losing control, I simply issue less than 10,000 shares, meaning I still have the majority of the outstanding shares and, therefore, majority control.",
"The owner of a company does risk losing control by going public - but they also stand to make a huge amount of money. That's a risk they need to evaluate before making that decision. If you want to maintain complete control, then don't sell your company. Going public is, by definition, the act of selling to the public.\n\nHowever, there are a variety of measures the mgmt can take to maintain greater control. For example, they may have two classes of stock, one for the public market, but another that is not public and has a greater degree of voting rights than the public shares."
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evugxz | how do stuffed noses work? you can blow your nose and it can get stuffed right away or sometimes you aren't even able to blow your nose and just have to accept your fate | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/evugxz/eli5_how_do_stuffed_noses_work_you_can_blow_your/ | {
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"It's caused by inflammation, swelling of the tissue, that's blocking your airway, and incidentally the exit for the mucus that's building up. \n\n\nNasal sprays work by reducing or eliminating that inflammation.",
"Lets do this like you are really 5. \n\nWhen you have cold your nose releases some of the fluid from your body through it, that happens beacuse bateria or viruses make it inflamed and when your mucosa (that is like a skin in your nose) is inflamed it secretes that fluid.\n\nNo matter how much do you keep blowing your nose, it keeps on making new fluid as long as it is inflamed.\n\nThe feeling of being unable to blow your nose or that you havent blown everything from it happens beacuse sometimes inflamattion is heavier and your nostriles are more swollen, and their right and left part touch each other making your nose “closed”. That is what makes you feel like that."
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6uf3eo | what causes transformers and other high voltage devices to emit a buzzing sound? | One if my coworkers asked me this the other day, and I've been pondering it. I assume it's some sort of vibration, since that's how sound typically goes. But I'm lost at how that vibration doesn't shake these old panels apart, and what actually causes it to vibrate in the first place. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uf3eo/eli5_what_causes_transformers_and_other_high/ | {
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" > I assume it's some sort of vibration,\n\nYep! The transformers are using the inductive interaction between coils of wire to change voltages, and as the current is transferred using \"Alternating Current\" the magnetic fields will be rapidly switching back and forth. The result is vibration from the stresses imparted to the structure of the transformers."
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2g5m7n | what is it about cast iron that makes it a "true non-stick surface"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g5m7n/eli5_what_is_it_about_cast_iron_that_makes_it_a/ | {
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"Basically, the \"burnt\" carbon in the oil fills all the little cracks in the iron, making it smoother. That's why you don't wash them with soap, so the carbon won't come out. If you have to re-season, or are starting with a new one, you'll have to coat it in oil and bake it in the oven 'til it smokes, then polish it down and repeat until it meets your standards. You also have to oil them before storage and burn that oil off a little before cooking with it the next time."
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4lilfk | why can we have heaters but not coolers? | We have heaters that just turn electricity into heat but we can only cool things but moving the heat somewhere else. Why can't we cool things more directly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lilfk/eli5_why_can_we_have_heaters_but_not_coolers/ | {
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"Heat is a side-effect of electricity going through coils. It's a side-effect that we can use, but it means using the electricity pretty inefficiently. \n\nThere's no side-effect that'll make it suck the heat out of an area. That's the kind of thing you need to build a machine to do. And right now, the most efficient way we have of doing that is by moving the heat somewhere else. This need not involve electricity, but we still need to move it away. ",
"This largely has to do with how each process happens in the physical world, physics, with some chemistry.\n\nHeating things up is easy enough - bombard a thing with enough energy and that extra energy heats things up. This happens to be ridiculously easy with how we've harnessed electricity - just hook up the right kind of heat elements up that won't just melt due to the temperatures.\n\nCooling things down on the other hand usually relies on some form of chemical reaction. Usually as a matter of phase conversion - like a liquid into gas, this process absorbs some heat. Use the right chemicals that are undergoing that change and you can absorb quite a lot of heat. Even stuff like Dry Ice (which is really solidified Carbon Dioxide) and Liquid Nitrogen (made by cooling nitrogen gas to a point that it becomes liquid) operate on that fundamental property. We can't just throw electricity at something to cool it down - that adds energy to it, we need to take energy away, and the few ways we've figured out how to do that involve the changing state of chemicals.\n\nTo make a long story short, with our technology, we can add energy (heat) to things MUCH more easily than we can take energy out of things.",
"To put it very simply, it's because heat is a thing whereas cold is a lack of a thing. You can generate heat through various processes of converting one energy type (electrical energy or chemical energy) into heat energy. You can't generate cold because cold is just a lack of heat. So the only way to make something cold is by removing the heat."
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9q2uys | why is it so difficult to memorize some of the things which we really need to whereas somethings we easily memorize without even putting in the effort to do so? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9q2uys/eli5_why_is_it_so_difficult_to_memorize_some_of/ | {
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"The amount of interest one has in the endeavor. Say for instance, as a language teacher, you’re teaching students that are either very keen on the subject or resistant to it due to the amount of interest they have in the language. The students who are more interested in the subject will always do better than the students who are in class due to parental pressure. \nAnother good example is when I moved to South Korea with my best friend, we both came to the country with an equal amount of knowledge of the language spoken here. I went on to learning the language far quicker than he did due to his lack of willingness to learn. But, we both also studied Japanese too, here he excelled at the same rate I did in Korean. \nThe brain has a tendency to turn off the recording mechanism when it appears to have found unimportant information, where as it records and holds onto information it enjoys or has an interest in. \nThis is just one example I’m giving to why somethings are memorized faster and longer than other things. From my experiences as an ESL teacher for 15 years in South Korea. ",
"typically because the \"useless\" things you memorize are of a type that was more useful to your ancestors. social structure (names, faces, people in general) are important to social cohesion, and thus survival. \n\nmath, dates, numbers, etc. are important today but didn't exist for most of human evolution. indeed, the type of computer your brain is seems to be inherently bad at linear calculation, the kind of things the machine you're reading this on is made to do. ",
"You remember stuff that you care about. I can still remember what bands made certain pop songs from 50 years ago. I was interested in pop music back then.\n\nI don't care for current pop music. I could try to memorise who recently recorded what and could probably do it in order to win a bet but a month later I will have forgotten it all.\n\nIf you **need** to memorise stuff that isn't interesting, there are tricks you can use. On the lines of making extremely silly connections to the data. \n ",
"Memory mainly works by meanings and associations. The more meaning you give something and associations you give it the easier it is to remember. For example the Memory Palace or Loci method employs imagining something to remember another thing since this is mainly how memory works. ",
"Think about the difference between \"memorize\" and \"remember.\" What are some things you have *memorized*? What are some things you *remember*? Most people would distinguish \"memorize\" as a list of information, facts, things someone has told you, while \"remember\" refers to something you experienced or which happened to you. I memorized the list of items to get at the grocery store from what my husband suggested. I *remembered* to get milk because I poured out the last of it this morning. You are more likely to remember things you experience because those items/events are directly relevant to you.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe fancy distinction for this is \"semantic\" (fact) vs \"episodic\" (event) memory. Episodic memory involves greater connectivity in the brain when being formed and when being recalled, intertwined very strongly with emotion. Because experiencing an emotion is often a signal that what's happening right now is REALLY IMPORTANT, a greater \"groundwork\" for that memory is laid in the brain. When sculpting that memory, your emotional state, current context (location, music you're listening to, people you see, ambient smells) also become part of that memory--I was tired when I poured out that milk this morning, I was listening to the traffic report on the radio, and I had just made coffee. So when I'm driving the store and pass by a coffee stand, yawning because I'm still exhausted, and the jingle for the hourly traffic report comes on the radio, I suddenly remember \"Oh yeah, have to pick up some milk!\" But when my husband rattles off a list of things he wants from the store, I don't have a particularly strong emotion, visual (or other sensory experience), or context that specifically relates to that information. It didn't happen directly to me, it didn't grab my attention very well, and it wasn't accompanied by a strong feeling. Why would my brain bother making this a memory?\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThis is why \"experiental learning\" can be so powerful--putting on skits in history class instead of just writing lists of dates and events, performing experiments in science class instead of looking at diagrams... Those create prolonged experiences accompanied by emotion and many other sensory \"cues\" to anchor that information. In fact, many \"memory tricks\" rely on creating even artificial/mental experiences to remember lists of information--when I was young I had a book to help kids remember state capitols using little cartoons and one-sentence visuals: A cartoon heart driving a car over a person's wound: Hartford, Connecticut. A field full of metal springs making creepy sounds: Springfield, Illinois. Those weird, cutesy drawings are appealing to kids, they grab attention easily, and each page had the image described TWO ways. The point is not to *memorize* the sentence, but to *remember* the cartoon. That creates a cue to remember the information later. This is similar to the \"Method of Loci\" technique, in which you pair items in a list of information to some route, location, or event you are already familiar with: \"I imagine myself walking into the house and put my keys on the table, where I see a carton of milk. I set my purse down on the couch next to a head of broccoli. As I go into the bathroom, I see that the sink is full of Spaghettios!\" Now when I go to to the store, I imagine walking through my house: I need to get milk, broccoli, and Spaghettios! I've tied this mundane list to a memory I already have, and which already has strong emotional connections for me.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo, to sum up, if you want to remember (not memorize!) information, act it out, make it personal, turn it into an experience.",
"A large part of remembering certain things is making some kind of noteworthy connection to it. \n\nLet's say you're trying to memorize the dates of the reigns of different Ancient Middle Eastern kings as I am right now. It's pretty difficult to memorize the very uncommon names and connect them with seemingly random dates and times. For example: Murshili II, whose reign started around 1.322 BCE. To make it easier to remember I made a mental connection between his name and some strange thought. In this case I figured his name reminded me of 'more chili'. Whenever I see his name now, I immediately remember the 'more chili' thought, which in turn sparks the connection with the 1.322 date.\n\nThis is a very specific (and conscious) example of something that happens very often without you even noticing. Certain pieces of seemingly trivial information get connected with another thought, and are therefor much more easily remembered. Simply trying to hard remember data without this additional connection is much more difficult. Instead of connecting data you're trying to ram it into a whole new set of data, which is much harder than adding it to an already existing pile of information.\n\nTL;DR - Adding information through means of connecting it with other information provides a bridge to help you remember, even if that bridge isn't very obvious to you.",
"Think of memory like a big spiderweb. Each strand is a different memory, feeling, or association. When you remember something new, it falls in the web. The more strands it hits, the more likely you are to remember it, and with more accuracy.\n\nYour senses, such as taste, touch, sight, hearing, smelling, and all the others (22 in total iirc) all have an impact on this as well. That's due to the context you already have built around those senses.",
"TBH this is just one of those things. You're only thinking that because you notice it. There's a billion things you remember that you had to remember for school. But you spend like 70% of your life outside of school so obviously a shitload of other things happen then too and you just happen to remember a thing here and there outside of school. And you're just thinking this because you happen to know a bit of trivia here and there but if you actually think about just random tidbits of crap you've learned from school, you've definitely remembered a ton."
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92hg0c | why does it seem that every company that updates their user interface makes it worse? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92hg0c/eli5_why_does_it_seem_that_every_company_that/ | {
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"Because it changes from what you're used to, I'm sure if reddit changed from the new version to the old version there would be a lot more complaints. "
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5twg4z | if passwords are stored as hashes why is it more secure to have passwords with numbers, capital letters, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5twg4z/eli5_if_passwords_are_stored_as_hashes_why_is_it/ | {
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"If the password database is stolen, or a security hole is discovered that lets the attacker try tons of combinations, they will probably immediately try a dictionary attack.\n\nThey'll check to see if any of the hashed combinations match common words and common passwords. This means that some will probably immediately fail as many people use the laziest passwords the rules allow.\n\nHowever, unpredictable capital letters or numbers ups the number of possible combinations tyou have to check to get the password, often to the point where it's so extremely time consuming that you just can't check all the hashes in existence.",
"Because it's much easier for a computer to guess \"password\" than it is to guess \"Leno43_dais%\". \n\nThe protection doesn't come from the fact that it somehow becomes harder for attackers to attack the hashes or server, that's always difficult. But an attacker can try out millions of passwords a second, the idea with password constraints is to get people to use hard-to-guess passwords instead of the name of their dog.\n",
"Let's say your username is \"user\", and your password is \"password\". *Important, never use this password or username.* The database of the website [hopefully](_URL_1_) is set up with a UUID (the System ID for a user), username and password something like this:\n\n UUID1: fe0c175d9f8329937f1e28a855dd571e\n UUID2: 6855692c7560f84a2fee41931c86b911\n\nThose series of letters and numbers are the hashed, or encrypted, username and password \n\n UUID1: user password\n UUID2: user2 password\n\nNotice that the hashed entries are completely different even if a single letter is changed or added. When you login, the computer can check if what you submit matches to a stored username and password, and if they do, you are granted access with that System ID (the UUID). If you're feeling adventurous, you can copy and paste on a Linux Machine the following command (if you're using MacOSX, substitute \"md5\" instead of \"md5sum\"):\n\n echo \"user password\" | md5sum\n\nYou should get the exact series of characters above for the UUID user password\n\nSo, if a server is hacked, the idea to make it as difficult as possible to figure out what the stored usernames and passwords are. A common technique is to write a program to try all possible combinations to try to break the password. There's additional techniques such as salting, which are outside this scope, that are used to increase the difficulty in figuring out what the password are, but the idea is if you can make your password complex enough initially, you buy yourself enough time to change the password. \n\nAs others have mentioned, a dictionary attack is exactly what it sounds like: a computer program that uses every possible word or word combination as a possible password entry. If you only have lowercase letters, then your password is very easy to break, [see here](_URL_0_). If you have upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols, then it is much tougher to break because of the possible combinations that can exist."
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"https://www.wired.com/2015/08/check-loved-one-exposed-ashley-madison-hack/"
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8wnydb | can poisonious creatures poison themselves, and if they can be poisoned is tolerance higher for them | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8wnydb/eli5_can_poisonious_creatures_poison_themselves/ | {
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"Poisonous or venomous? Poisonous creatures you can’t eat. Venomous ones use poison on you (usually with bite)."
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2r99u2 | how is it that lower class people support the wealth gap/top 1% against their own self interest? | Definitely a charged/biased topic but I was just wondering. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r99u2/eli5_how_is_it_that_lower_class_people_support/ | {
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"TO quote John Steinbeck: \"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.\"\n\nYou can't vote against the oppressors if your one secret wish is to join them one day.",
"People are told that their economic problems are due to welfare queens and illegal immigrants taking our jobs. This exploits our natural \"us vs them\" tendencies and many people don't have the desire to examine complex issues in any in-depth manner. ",
"For the most part, poorer people want less income disparity. The problem is that poorer people tend to be less educated, which tends to makes them less able to critically examine what media sources tell them. Remember, the only reason a politician seems stupid is because you disagree with his/her platform. Without the ability to evaluate a platform and its effects on a socioeconomic class, poorer people tend to have to rely on other means of deciding who to vote for. So the most common criteria used are party affiliation (probably the most important and the most static), appearance/oratory skills, non-economic issues... Poorer people don't necessarily realize that the people they support aren't in favor of helping them. \n\nOr, and hear me out, maybe I'm wrong and the theories and policies held by lot's of the politicians poorer people are voting for are correct. After all, there is a large number of people who seem to agree with what they say. It's a complex issue and a viscous cycle and there's plenty of silly things to say about most voting groups and politicians.",
"Many forms of taxation effectively subsidize one group at the expense of another. There are a number of counter intuitive ways this can result in poor people subsidizing rich people.\n\nFor example, most expenses related to road construction and maintenance come out of income, sales, and property tax, the gas tax doesn't cover it. So among drivers, it means that people driving the least subsidize those who drive the most. Worse still, a lower income person who can't afford a car at all, still pays almost as much for the road (sales tax, income tax, property tax) as a low income neighbour who does own a car.",
"The 1% exploits fear, ignorance, societal divisions (race, religion, immigration status, etc), and, as others have mentioned, optimism. \nIt works the same way as house blacks on a plantation - keep them afraid of reprisals, hopeful for benefits, proud of their status over others and unaware of the larger truths and they will help you keep the unruly mob down. This is a story as old as civilization."
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78khw5 | what does "bulking" (for bodybuilders) do to your body in a biological sense? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/78khw5/eli5_what_does_bulking_for_bodybuilders_do_to/ | {
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"bulking means gaining weight. the bulking phase optimally gains muscle but gaining fat is not avoidable. a bulking phase followed by a cutting phase will reduce the body fat to desired levels once muscle mass goals are reached. ",
"You're eating to give your body an abundance of the materials it needs to make muscle. You will eat more calories than you burn (so you aren't using up stored energy) and you'll eat a surplus of proteins (so you have enough amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins). You do this so when you work out your body is in the ideal situation for building more muscle.\n\nThis is in contrast to people who want to lose weight and work out in order to burn more calories than they consume. This forces the body to use up what you already have and thus lose weight."
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1sj89p | when a gaming company develops a new 'engine', what have they actually done? | Thought of this after seeing the Snowdrop engine from The Division. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sj89p/eli5_when_a_gaming_company_develops_a_new_engine/ | {
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"So I have no experience with game programming in particular, but a lot of experience with other types of programming and with physics.\n\nBasically when you write good code you reuse a lot of the old code. So in time this process has been streamlined into \"libraries\" or a large groups of code which works well together. They call a massive group of physics library an \"engine,\" cause it \"drives\" the physics of a game. So if you can write up all the rules for a good physics engine you can make the game do whatever you want. Like have a man ride a bicycle, have a bunch of dudes beat another dude up or have a grown man ride a pony. Same laws of \"Physics\" apply in all situations so they can use the same game engine. \n\nHere is an example of a such a libarary _URL_0_",
"A game engine is kind of like a programming language, for describing the sorts of things that a given game has to represent. So when a programmer is actually writing the game, s/he doesn't have to program the exact response of the environment to every little thing. \n\nFor example, in a first person shooter game, you might move your character by pressing the arrow keys. A programmer could hand code every aspect of every movement: if you enter a room and press \"up\", for 2.1 seconds, they can hand code exactly what that does to the two dimensional image on your screen, to make it look like you walked into the middle of the room. That shift in perspective would be calculated for every key press you make. They'd also have to hand code what would happen if you hit \"left\", \"right\", or \"back\". It would be a tremendous amount of work! Just coding a room based on all the possibilities of movements would be a bitch. Yes, that's a technical programming term.\n\nInstead, we have a concept of layered programming. This means that one layer (often called a library) establishes some base concepts in a way that is re-usable, and exposed to other parts of the program. Then another coder with a different specialty can come in and just use those concepts. To continue with our FPS example, the game engine makes the computer build a sort of mental model of 3D space, and defines just how much movement to take for a step of X duration in a particular direction. It might define how much the player's perspective should bob to make it feel like a footstep, and a bunch of other variables that make it feel like a natural movement. This would be a game engine. Then a different programmer can come in and use that library. She might just have to define the movement keys, and all that work is already done for her. This lets her focus on other elements of the game, like the layout of rooms, doors, obstacles, and opponents. \n \nOf course, a game engine for a modern game can handle a lot more than walking in different directions! For instance, if you use the Unreal^TM Engine, it handles walking/running/jumping, different kinds of projectiles, falling objects, displaying opponents, etc. You could pick up the unreal engine, and spend your energy on other aspects of the game like the map layout, the look and feel of the weapons, the walls, the look of the players, etc.\n\nOn a more abstract level, you could say that a game engine is the part of the program that handles physics, and making things look/feel realistic. The rest of the game builds on that to tells a story and create an experience for the player."
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4tq056 | why does the writing on tires in motorsport appear to spin in different directions at different speeds? | For example, [here](_URL_0_). The writing on the front wheels appears to be rotating in different directions at different speeds. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tq056/eli5why_does_the_writing_on_tires_in_motorsport/ | {
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"What you are watching is a recording made by a camera. The camera shoots a certain number of frames per second, and each frame is a snapshot of what is visible at that moment.\n\nIf the wheel happens to rotate through a little less than a full turn, say 350 degrees, in the time between one frame and the next, then this will look no different to a rotation in the opposite direction of 10 degrees. If the wheel continues to rotate at the same speed, the next frame will look like a rotation of another 10 degrees in the opposite direction, and so on.\n\nPresented with a sequence of images rotated by 350 degrees from one to the next, your brain takes the easy route and interprets these as rotations of 10 degrees each in the opposite direction. You have no way of forcing yourself to see it as it actually is, and so the wheel appears to be rotating backwards.\n\nCompare the [barber pole illusion](_URL_0_), where a rotating stripy pole appears to be moving upwards rather than rotating.\n\nIf you were watching this live, then the writing would be a blur and the wheel would not appear to be rotating backwards."
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20f5op | why can't we use human poop as fertilizer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20f5op/eli5_why_cant_we_use_human_poop_as_fertilizer/ | {
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"Ever heard of *night soil*?\n\n > The reuse of feces as fertilizer was common in Japan. Waste products of rich people were sold at higher prices because their diet was better; therefore, more nutrients remained in their waste. Various historic documents dating from the 9th century detail the disposal procedures for toilet waste.\n\n[Night Soil (Wikipedia)](_URL_0_)"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil"
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2a75qo | why is it that sometimes i can be more tired after a long day at school than a long day doing physical labour. | Recently I've been working 12+ hours doing physical labour. I thought I'd be exhausted, but I find that I'm more tired after an 8 hour day of school.
ELI5? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a75qo/eli5why_is_it_that_sometimes_i_can_be_more_tired/ | {
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"The brain consumes more calories than the muscles in your core.\n",
"Well, for one thing you don't do physical labor 12 continuous hours. You take breaks and such and you give your muscles a chance to recover. It's easy to figure out when you are hitting physical limits because of pain. \n\nMental limits are harder.\n\nIf I asked you to jog in one place for 15 minutes, how would you feel? Out of breath? Tired? Muscles starting to ache? \n\nAsk you to concentrate for 15 minutes, how do you feel? Eh, okay. \n\nBurning up a lot of calories either way. Stimulating nerves like crazy. But without lactic acid and other signs of fatigue, we don't always realize how much effort we are putting in.\n\nThat's half the answer.\n\nOther half is more emotional. When you are at school, you're having lots of information tossed at you, you've got to do a lot of time based tasks, you've got to remember a lot, you're under pressure, right? That's stress right there.\n\nWell, funny thing is that our bodies aren't really designed for high stress scenarios with little danger. In a natural setting you should feel stressed pretty much only when you are in danger. A tiger is coming after you, you need to run. Pump up the adrenalin, get the heart racing, flood the muscles with blood, raise blood pressure, frantically look around for anything that might save you . . .\n\nAnxiety and stress are pretty good when you need to flee (or fight) and need your body pumped up for maximum performance in a hurry. Not so good when you need to remain still. It's also only meant for a quick burst of energy. A long frustration 8 hour stretch of having your body gear up and down for a threat that never comes exhausts it.\n\nShort version: When you are physically working it is easier to note limits. Mentally working it is harder. Plus human bodies suck at dealing with prolonged stress when running away isn't an option.\n\n"
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9iwsyx | since our cells are always multiplying, does a 90 year old have more dna in their body than a newborn? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9iwsyx/eli5_since_our_cells_are_always_multiplying_does/ | {
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"Yes, an adult has more cells, thus more DNA, than a newborn.\n\nBut once you reach full size, you stop increasing the number of cells. New ones are born and old ones die. So a 90 year old has about the same amount of cells and DNA as a 20 year old."
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1qdbpg | how does the hard disk save my data, when my computer is shut down? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qdbpg/eli5_how_does_the_hard_disk_save_my_data_when_my/ | {
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"Through magnetism.\n\nImagine that there are billions of small magnets inside your hard drive. When your computer writes something, it arranges those magnets in a particular way. You need electricity to do that. But once you are done, the magnets will stay in their place regardless of whether you have power or not."
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1m4csp | why doesn't apple broadcast their product announcements | It seems like whenever a new Apple product comes out there's a big event and lots of different tech sites "liveblog" the presentation. Why don't any of them just broadcast it live or post it on their website after it's over so I can watch from home? Why doesn't Apple broadcast it on its own website?
(Example "liveblog" _URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m4csp/eli5_why_doesnt_apple_broadcast_their_product/ | {
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"Apple usually provides a video of the event on their website that evening or the next day. The reason they don't broadcast it live or provide the video earlier is because they'd essentially be stealing traffic from the tech blogs, which they want to maintain a good relationship with."
]
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"http://gizmodo.com/our-iphone-event-liveblog-starts-right-here-on-9-10-at-1277167537"
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1gv6tl | what do real spies do? how are they recruited? do they actually have the kind of gadgets we see in bond films? | There were a lot of great answers, but I think these two were the most explanatory:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gv6tl/eli5_what_do_real_spies_do_how_are_they_recruited/ | {
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" > there doesn't seem to be anything here",
"You're not going to get an answer here. If anyone on reddit knows anything about this, they are a spy. If they are a spy, they will not tell you. \n\nThis is our daily dilemma. ",
"While you won't get anything about modern spies, if you check out some spy history, you'll find that there are some really interesting things. \n\nI while ago, I visited a spy museum, and man that was the most worthwhile money I spent in a long time.",
"There was a really good BBC documentary based on GCHQ and MI6, which is based on counter terrorism and interrogation. Field agents weren't shown to be 007, more like average joes in disguise.",
"You might want to ask /r/AskHistorians. They probably can't give you an idea of what current spies do, but they can definitely give you an image of what spies in the past did, even as recent as the Cold War.",
"A kid I went to middle school with got convicted of espionage. He was just meeting with foreign people giving them information.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThough it doesn't seem like he did a great job of it from the article. ",
"Agents are generally recruiters and they get others to work for them. Instead of learning a language flawlessly and elaborate disguises and stories and daring capers, you generally just pay people who already blend in who you know have access the intelligence you want.",
"I had a friends father that used to work in Intel departments for the pentagon, cia,etc. I asked him this question over a beer and he gave me a very simple answer.\n\nSpies of governments usually act the same way lobbyist do. They rarely use direct interaction to gather Intel or pursuade action. Instead they might become friends with an important persons niece or confidant. Gathering rumor or general ideas from various viewpoints. This is not just 1st world govts that do this.",
"No, not like Bond films. Nothing in a Bond film has ever been invented by the time of the movie's release (with the exception of Q's latest appearance. We do have radios. Though I think the palmprint gun is a bit of a stretch. Not outside our capability to make, but I don't think we've actually done it.) Anyway, most of the \"gadgets\" or tools rather, are probably along the lines of concealed poison capsules, small cameras that can be hidden in a coat. Small places for knives to be stored, etc.",
"I don't know about the US but if you want to be a spy in the UK, go to the M16 website and look in jobs. There are a number here so look under 'intelligence agent' or something like that. There is nothing in the description that directly says that this is the spy job, but reading between the lines it becomes pretty obvious. ",
"If you're really interested, Stuff You Should Know has a 40 minute podcast answering every single question you asked. It's incredibly interesting and not terribly hard to understand.\n_URL_0_",
"Well, what you're thinking of as \"spies\" is called [HUMINT](_URL_0_) (\"human intelligence\"), and more narrowly, [clandestine HUMINT](_URL_3_). Wikipedia even has a useful article on [espionage techniques](_URL_1_).\n\nBut basically, it's about discovering people in the target country who can be convinced to help the country that's doing the spying—without getting caught. So a lot of it comes down to socializing with a lot of people, learning about them and whether they may be of value, judging their character and motivation, finding which ones are likely to say \"yes\" and convincing them. Most of that is not very movie-like, but in rare occasions you get things like blackmailing somebody into spying against their country.\n\nThere's another set of techniques that are a bit more movie-like, having to do with secret communication and delivery of documents or materials. There you do get things like [numbers stations](_URL_2_) (shortwave radio stations with people reading lists of numbers, widely understood to be coded messages for spies), hiding a suitcase in one location for another spy to pick it up, etc.",
"In the UK you can apply for a job as an 'intelligence analyst' with MI5 through a simple application form:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"If you want a real answer, read some of John le Carré's older books, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honorable Schoolboy, A Perfect Spy, etc.\n\nJohn le Carré actually worked for British intelligence when he started writing his novels. They're fascinating and not glamorous at all. ",
"I'm sure someone has better examples, but here goes:\n\nKnow what reporters are supposed to do? Talk to people, review publicly available information, cultivate sources, that kind of thing?\n\nThat's human intelligence.\n\nKnow how reddit loves to pore over photos looking for hidden things in an image and trying to understand and identify all aspects of the picture?\n\nThat's image intelligence.\n\nYou've seen those alternate reality games where you try to decode a string of letters to an imgur link or similar? Little games to find the hidden meaning?\n\nThat's signals intelligence.\n\nSpotted some shills on reddit for some cause or product? You know, the ones that never have anything bad to say about X, defending it beyond reason?\n\nThat's propaganda.\n\nKnow the people who spot the shills and call them out?\n\nThat's counter-intelligence.",
"When I was in graduate school, the CIA was openly recruiting at my college for a position called \"clandestine operations\". \n\nI didn't apply.\n\nEdit: and they advertise jobs on their website too: _URL_0_",
"My dad worked in the intelligence community for over three decades. He was initially recruited out of the military, and once had a job interview in a bar in a foreign country. He spent most of his time scrutinizing photographs. I don't really feel comfortable going further into what I know about what he did until I see how much he would be able/willing to talk about. I'm going over to his house tomorrow, I'll see if he's got any interest in doing an AMA or something.\n\nEdit: I guess I should mention that he has [written a novel](_URL_0_) that has already been cleared through his former employers. If amazon goes out of stock, or if you want a signed copy, send me a message and I'll arrange it.",
"You job is to befriend people who have weaknesses. Where do disgruntled employees go to let off steam after work? You go to these places. You become a regular, blend in, and become accepted. Make friends with the ones that work at your target's company. \nYou get them to trust you, to confide in you, and to eventually share their insider view of your target. \nYou exploit them by getting them to discuss details about the target after some time. If they are willing to share enough info, you move to the next step. \nPause, hello NSA, how's it going? \nBack to the topic. \nIf your new friend does not have enough information, you convince them to help you get it from another employee who does. You form a network of employees who are disgruntled until you find one that has the key to what you need. \nOften, the honeypot or money are not needed to convince them to help with small information bits. Many times people simply need to feel like they have friendship. Human weakness is the need to belong. \nThere are others of course, who are more powerful, more influential, and more self confident. They will require bribes, sex, or offers of power to convince. The highest level turncoats demand sanctuary, because they realize that yielding what they know will be an immediate death sentence for them. \n1. Finding these weak employees via finances and relationships. \n2. Assigning the correct individual to befriend them. \n3. More field time to track their habits. \n4. Field time actually nurturing the relationship. \n5. Bringing resources in to help coddle the relationship. \n6. Providing more resources to help the employee with their task to acquire the information you want. \n7. Providing the necessary escape plan resources for the agent and/or employee should the data retrieval go bad. \nAll of these steps are accomplished by a team of workers. A single target can represent an operation that takes years to accomplish. Recruiting an employee to recruit an employee...et al...can take years and easily break a 200k annual budget on its own. The hardest part of running these operations? Choosing which targets are the most cost effective to start one of these operations on.",
"This is for \"commercial intelligence\", not national intelligence, but [Confidential](_URL_0_) by John Nolan is a very good, nonfiction, explanation of modern spycraft. I heard Nolan speak at a conference, and immediately resolved never to say anything, to anyone, ever.\n",
"Hypothetically,\n\nA spy today is not what a spy was fifty years ago. Government agencies such as the NCS and the NSA rarely go into the field as much anymore. Most often the work is done by analysts taking in hard data and scouring it for intel.\n\nThis is called chatter. It's picked up from listening posts, satellites, wire taps, and many other ways. Then it is processed by Analysts and translated into actionable intel.\n\nHowever clandestine operations often require people on the ground, as the international waters get muddier, no agency can afford to have a citizen of their nation be caught doing things that would be considered espionage.\n\nThis is where certain individuals come in. Most often they are colloquially referred to as contractors. They are citizens of some nation, who usually have armed forces training, they can have criminal records, speak multiple languages, and generally aren't very social.\n\nThese people are paid, to do their work. But they are not employed by a national government. It is not an easy field to get into, as most seem to stumble upon it by chance, but once you are in it's quite difficult to get out. These people act on actionable intel. They follow, they watch, they take pictures, they monitor, they course correct.\n\nSometimes, very rarely, they have to take a direct approach, retiring a target or an asset is unpleasant but it can be necessary for security purposes or for the mission itself.\n\nThis is where gadgets come in, but not really the sort you'd think of. A gun is a very specific tool and a good contractor doesn't carry one (most of the time). The tools we get are small, practical and made with purpose. They can be simple chemical compounds, or practical applications of every day items.\n\nThese are used to retire people. It's infinitely better to have a public figure, or political target, or even a known person expire from natural causes, or accidental causes, than a bullet.\n\nBullets raise questions where you would prefer none are asked.\n\nI hope I could hypothetically shine a little light on this shady subject for you.",
"nsa watching this thread so hard",
"There are two types of \"spies\" - official cover and non-official cover. Official cover is much more common.\n\nOfficial cover spies work out of an embassy, typically with diplomatic immunity - although with a false agency (eg: Department of State instead of CIA). If they get discovered, they get sent home at the host country's request.\n\nNon-official cover spies are more rare (for the US anyway) and its riskier. If they get caught, they have no rights so the host country can do whatever it wants with them. Typically, they'll be jailed and used to get back the host country's captured spies in an exchange.\n\nBefore we continue, its important to note that the US has never really been an \"agents on the ground\" country like other nations (esp. Russia with the GRU and Israel's Mossad). The US has always been infatuated with technology - this lack of human intelligence has been a huge sticking point over the past few decades. 9/11 was something of a wake up call and they've been trying to ramp it up, but the institutional knowledge just isn't what it should be.\n\nAnother side note - more agencies \"spy\" than just the CIA. A lot of agencies have their international representatives (military attaches to embassies for example) writing intelligence reports. \n\nLet's narrow the scope of our discussion somewhat and deal just with CIA agents - the folks you're probably talking about when you say spy. At the core, both official and NOC agents do the same thing - and if everything goes right, it's a boring job. They don't do any spying themselves - instead they recruit locals to do this for them. They construct networks of people (spy chains, spy networks) that can get access to the information they want and use those people to collect intel. They typically recruit people using one of the following motivations: blackmail, nationalism (\"this will be good for my country, the people in power are bad!\"), sex, money or long term promise of becoming a US citizen. Often, only one or two people will know the agent's identity, these are the heads of the spy chain and act as cutouts - representing the agent inside the network in order to keep the agent safe and the agent's nation secret. At its core, agents are charismatic and unassuming - they go unnoticed and \"sell\" locals on spying for them. \n\nAt the other end of the spectrum, the CIA does recruit from special forces and has their own paramilitary force. I don't know much about how they're employed currently. In Vietnam they played alongside other SF forces and conducted similar missions. Up until Obama, they didn't see a lot of action. In fact, Obama's conducted more paramilitary strikes than any other President since the Church Accords way back in the day (he favors it over overt military action).\n\nThe gadgets do exist, in a sense. But they're just things like ways to hide bugs and concealable cameras/AV equipment. \n\nSource: I'm a nerd.",
"They have to look and listen, so I guess you're out.\n\n_URL_0_ is a book I read a while back. [Lindsay Moran](_URL_1_) writes about her life in the CIA. There is survival training.",
"If you mean specifically US spies: [CIA Special Activities Division](_URL_0_). They are the ones that perform HUMINT/human intelligence, which is the \"traditional\" type of spying you see in movies, the gathering of information from people. They also perform covert political action (destabilisation of regimes) and paramilitary operation. These are the people that the US denies knowledge about if they are compromised. Generally they are plucked straight from the Delta Force, Seal Team 6, and Air Force Special Operations. As for gadgets, very likely yes. The most badass thing you'll read this week is what kinds of training they do, as well.",
"I can give you only an anecdote from back in the 50s. My dad was a milkman and made his deliveries between 2 and about 6 in the morning. A CIA agent came to our house and asked my dad if he would take notes on anything he saw or heard in the vicinity of a certain house — what kinds of vehicles were parked there, their license numbers, how long they stayed, whether he ever saw persons of a certain description on the property, etc. My dad took on the assignment and met with the agent regularly for months.",
"Unfortunately, spies (Mi5/Mi6) in the UK are comically underpaid, barely making $30,000. I think CIA agents are paid rather well, though.",
"If you're wondering about field agents with Bond-style combat and weapons training, they're usually recruited from military special forces units (Green Berets, SEALs, MARSOC) or tier-one units (Delta Force, DEVGRU) to the CIA Special Activities Division, where they receive further training. What they do day-to-day, outsiders will probably never know.",
"I'm not really sure why so many people are saying that you won't get a good answer. This type of stuff is covered in mid-level political science classes.\n\nELI5 Answer: Spies do stuff that a government wants/needs done but can't admit to doing. For example, they may pay a group of people to protest the leader of a country to possibly start a revolution or mass protests. They may also try to gather human assets, meaning people who have access to sensitive information and would be willing to pass it on to another party.\n\nAdult Answer: If you research the CIA's role in the 1953 Iranian coup, the Iran-Contra affair or how they supplied weapons to the rebels in Afghanistan, you will have a very good idea of what spies do or at least what the covert operations unit of the CIA has done.",
"Bullshit on people saying you can't know. [Here](_URL_0_) is a textbook for how espionage works that is pretty much required reading for graduate level international studies and should be read by anyone serving in federal public office.\n\nSpying does not work like in James Bond. Every country does espionage a little differently. The US and UK intelligence agencies follow the same model (because the US copied the British after their intelligence success in WWII). The KGB was similarly modeled, except they also did heavy domestic spying and secret police work. Its successor, the SVR is closer to how the CIA operates. Mossad took the US/UK model and went a bit of a different way. Mossad actually are a bit similar to James Bond in that their officers do some of the ground work.\n\nAnyway, here's the basics of HUMINT (Human Intelligence, i.e. the interesting stuff that people get paranoid about). There are two classes of people in espionage that often get confused in the Hollywood mythology of \"spies\". There are officers of the intelligence agency and there are agents. Agents are not directly employees of the intelligence agency, they are citizens of the country that is being spied on who for some reason or another are willing to commit treason by giving up sensitive data. Officers are people who are actually hired by CIA, MI6, etc. Their job is to make contact with current agents to retrieve collected data and research people who could possibly be used as agents and give them a pitch. Here's how pitches work, an officer receives an order from HQ that they need information on something. He researches people that could possibly have access to that information and can either be blackmailed, paid off, threatened, or sometimes just talked into it. People targeted are often either sociopaths, desperate, or ideologically inclined to betray their country or organization. Depending on the type of pitch, they find a way to secretly get in contact with the potential agent and convince them to collect information or do other tasks such as disinformation or sabotage for them. It almost never happens that a pitch is declined because pitches are only made after they are absolutely sure the potential agent fits the model for an informant (the threat of retribution by both the officer and the contact's home government also helps). After the agent is \"recruited\", the officer makes frequent contact with them both to convey collected information and orders, and to keep them in line. Intelligence officers often work a cover job (usually at a diplomatic outpost such as an embassy or consulate if at all possible, so they have a degree of diplomatic immunity if they are exposed). The collected information gets sent back to the intelligence agency for analysts to do their magic.\n\nThere is several other types of intelligence such as SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), which is just monitoring electronic traffic such as radio, internet, etc.; OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), which is basically watching the news with an educated eye; and GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence), which is taking pictures with spy satellites. These types of intelligence can be pretty much directly accessed by analysts and don't require the massive human infrastructure that HUMINT does.\n\nGadgets aren't really a thing anymore, since a good hacker can do a lot more than James Bond ever could. The use of gadgets is pretty much limited to creative ways to covertly monitor communication. Nowadays, you'll probably see this kind of tech on \"Maker\" blogs like [HackADay](_URL_1_) before intelligence agencies start using it.\n\nEvery country does this to some extent, though some smaller NATO members basically trust what CIA, MI6, and BND (German Intelligence) give them.",
"I knew an old retired CIA employee. He always said it was pretty boring on his end. No guns, no flashy cars, no gadgets. He just read lots of newspapers, took pictures of emabssies and such, and would occasionally pick someone up and bring them back to the USA. He didn't even know who they were most of the time and never saw them again. The only time he ever fired a gun was at a gun range. This would've been during the cold war. He was pretty vague about things though, so who really knows what happened. Its a little bit of a let-down to hear that.",
"If anyone London-based is interested, the [Imperial War Museum has a interesting section about espionage, titled The Secret War](_URL_0_). It features original gadgets used by actual spies during the WWII era and the cold war.\n\nIt was pretty impressive when I went to see it. The London IWM is undergoing a remodeling process now, though, so their opening times might be very limited.",
"Why would Helen Keller need to know?",
"We are the dead.\n",
"In terms of the CIA, I think they're most commonly known as case officers. They are part of what is know as the [National Clandestine Service](_URL_0_) (NCS). The website lacks details pretty hard (obviously), but basically they operate around the world while carrying out all the secret stuff you and I don't know about. These individuals deal in HUMINT, or human intelligence. HUMINT is any information gathered from human sources. This could include names or addresses; enemy movements; personality information, likes, and dislikes of persons of interest; or any other pertinent info to the mission at hand.\n\nYou apply to be one of these individuals much like any other job. The US government uses a website called _URL_1_ for all positions in the government from the guy who mops floors at the Yosemite National Park welcome center to the national security analyst in Washington, DC. On this website, you'll be screened for qualifications, language/area experience, education, previous employment, etc. These positions (I can assume) aren't the type of things you do right out of college. I'd bet you'd have to get in on a recommendation from someone within the intelligence community as well. Lots of members of the NCS are existing intelligence officers or former military.\n\nIn terms of tech, no one really knows. Back in the cold war, however, many ingenious devices were invented. Umbrellas that shot a pellet of poison out the tip. Cameras that concealed code breakers. Secret compartments in everyday items. Fake teeth filled with cyanide and other \"last resort\" options. The museum at CIA headquarters in Langley showcases much of the equipment used for intelligence gathering since WWII.\n\nSOURCE: In college, I took a class on the intelligence community. We had the opportunity to speak to many members of various governmental intelligence organizations and took a trip to CIA headquarters in Langley.\n\n",
"In New Zealand you can just [go to the website](_URL_0_). The GCSB (think NSA) has a similar part on [their website](_URL_1_). I've also seen the GCSB at university career days advertising for maths, comp sci, electrical engineers, and physicists. The other way in is through doing something like intelligence or signals in the Defence Force and moving through from there.",
"My grandfather passed away years ago, but my grandma loves telling this story: He was the ambassador to India - In the 80s, this was during the time that there was a lot of controversy about the KGB and the CIA paying off governments, especially in Africa, and installing puppet regimes.\n\nMy grand-dad would host tons of formal parties, and after they were done, he and his buddy - the ambassador of Ghana - would sit around and polish off the good booze late into the night. Inevitably, the ambassador from Ghana would get piss drunk, stand up, hold out his palms into the world, and loudly complain, \"My left hand is open for the KGB, my right hand is open for the CIA, but both are empty!\"-- mostly joking, I'm sure ;)",
"With all respect to /u/AlienJunkie this isn't the complete story.\n\nMi familia worked for the CIA and military counter-intel and they've told me some interesting information.\n\nThere are two branches of intelligence gathering: human intelligence (humint) and signals intelligence (sigint). Signals intel is what we usually hear about: things like the NSA tapping phones, etc. Human intelligence is what we normally think about when we talk about spies. The US intelligence community has in the last few decades reduced its reliance on humint, which occasionally bit us in the butt and in the Middle East we have had to rely on French, British, and Israeli spy networks.\n\nSo, how does this humint stuff work and what do they do?\n\n* Maintain contacts: usually they have a group of individuals that are civilians, but are closely tied to other governments or important individuals, with whom they maintain cordial relations. Often these individuals are aware that these \"friends\" are spies. These contacts may be selling documents for money or may just be acting as tourists in another country. (I knew a guy who ran a spy \"ring\" that maintained contacts with Solidarity by working with Poles wealthy enough to travel)\n* Infiltrate: spies will either go in under fake identities and try to pass themselves off as citizens of another country and get important jobs and report on those jobs back home. That *rarely* works. In fact, some regarded that sort of job as a death sentence and it is very rare that the US creates an identity whole clothe and uses him or her to infiltrate a nation-state (a group without data infrastructure is different). Usually spies use their contacts to gain information about groups, etc. Occasionally they will turn an enemy agent or an enemy individual and use that person to plant information or steal things.\n* Exfiltrate: spies often have to smuggle out people who know important things. Usually individual knowledge is more useful (because it's more contextualized) than a database dump. During the Cold War the US would often help Eastern Europeans take a trip to East Germany and sneak them into West Berlin.\n* Trailing/Watching: They often have to just follow people, learn their habits, their interests, etc. They usually do this before they make contact with an individual. They either try to understand a potential contact's personality better or they're looking for leverage on the contact. (Back in the day CIA agents may have exploited a Soviet embassy staffer's hidden homosexuality and used the information to turn him)\n\nThe training required for this is very specialized. During the 1980s spies learned things like how to flick coins or folded up pieces of paper into a tree stump (seriously-- back when people littered out of their cars it was a great way to communicate). They were also tortured. Basically, they were forced to undergo all of the tortures you hear about on the news: water boarding, hot boxing, standing for hours, sleep deprivation, etc. Furthermore, they learn how to do things like study body language so that they could \"read\" their contacts.\n\nAs for how they're recruited ... well, you often apply. If you are smart and clean, then you may make the grade.\n\nAnd as for gadgets, it's usually not as sexy as anything James Bond would have, but it's often quite [inventive](_URL_0_).",
"If they're good at their job, we'll never know.",
"The first thing we learn is that ██████████████████████ combined with █████████████████ ██████ makes a complete piece of the ██████████████ that would ██████ ██████ ████████████████ when Obama ████████████████████████ the top 10 way would most likely █████████████████████ and ████████████████████ hope that helps ████████████ .",
"I suggest you read \"See No Evil\" by Robert Baer. An ex-USAF intel gave me the book, and it was super informative. You'll want to read the first section. The last two are a bit hard to follow, but its still worth reading the entire thing ",
"Some spies are recruited most apply for the job. Spies don't do any actually spying though. All they do is recruit spies from the country they've been assigned to. They will typically have a cover job and do their clandestine work apart from their cover job. They'll look to befriend and 'turn' people in industry, science, military and government jobs. ",
"We don't get anything much in gadgets except for a tiny laser capsule embedded in our backs with some numbers in it, and the endless nightmares that just wont go away. However, I can order coffee in 74 different languages. But i still can't get the 7-11 clerk to understand me.",
"Late response and this will probably never see day light but:\n\n\nThere seems to be a misconception with CIA \"agents\".\nCIA Agents aren't the people that come from the homeland. CIA Officers are recruited (mostly) from the homeland and usually, like Thriftocracy said, have a cover ID which says they work at the embassay with a false agency. If the get caught, they're shipped home. If you've ever seen Zero Dark Thirty, when she's getting shot at outside her home, her cover was blown and she was sent back to Langley to work out of HQ. CIA Officers, aka \"Case Officers\", work for the Directorate of Operations (DO) also now known as the National Clandestine Service (NCS). \n\nCIA Agents are contractors that work under a CIA Case Officer. They're the people that physically gather evidence and work for a foreign government, or close to someone who has access to secrets or noteworthy intelligence. They meet with a case officer, sometimes using a \"dead drop\" or actually meet with the CO. \n\nOfficers are recruited from all sorts of backgrounds. With or without military experience. the NCS has a program that recruits mostly 21-25 year olds and trains them for cladenstine work, the only requirement being a Bachelors degree and 3.0 GPA. \n\nHowever, the CIA is now a shadow of what it was during the cold war unfortunetly. It got to the point where the Army actually made their own intelligence 'agency' because they were getting no help from the CIA (Intelligence Support Activity). The CIA has gotten further from HUMINT (Human Intelligence) and closer to SIGINT (Signal Intelligence, basically computers) which is a huge problem. The CIA has become more bureucratic and CO's are having a hard time because they're being commanded by people who sat behind a desk their whole life instead of actually working in the field. Still, the CIA and intelligence community as a whole are very necessary in counter terrorism and their value is unmeasurable. \n\nI recommend reading \"See no Evil\" by Robert Baer, it's fantastic and gives a very accurate dipiction of how the agency works.\n\nSource: That's Classified "
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gv6tl/eli5_what_do_real_spies_do_how_are_they_recruited/cao8qcr",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gv6tl/eli5_what_do_real_spies_do_how_are_they_recruited/cao6lks"
] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201206/my-father-and-me-spy-story-russia"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/spies-work/"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_intelligence_(intelligence_collection\\)",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_HUMINT_operational_techniques",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_HUMINT"
],
[
"https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/current-jobs/job.aspx?id=184"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/clandestine/view-jobs.html"
],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Exploding-Powers-Unmasking-Strategy/dp/0984078207"
],
[],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/Confidential-Business-Secrets-Getting-Keeping/dp/097213560X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371935642&sr=8-1&keywords=john+nolan"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.blowingmycover.com/",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Moran"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-From-Secrets-Policy-Edition/dp/1608716759",
"http://hackaday.com/"
],
[],
[
"http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/secret-war"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/clandestine-service/",
"USAJobs.com"
],
[
"http://www.security.govt.nz/careers/",
"http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/careers/current-vacancies.html"
],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_%28listening_device%29"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
z9txe | i'm curious, why don't humans just 'taste' unhealthy food? why do we have to swallow it? | I've been thinking about this for a long time; Why don't we just taste unhealthy food (like cake, candy etc) and then spit it out? Why do we have to swallow it in order to enjoy it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z9txe/im_curious_why_dont_humans_just_taste_unhealthy/ | {
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"Because the part of your brain that controls the feeling of being full (satiety), the [arcuate nucleus](_URL_0_), probably wouldn't be stimulated.\n\nAlso, it's not that those foods themselves are intrinsically unhealthy. If you're on a desert island or, a human who sucks at hunting mammoth, those foods would be perfectly \"healthy\" in that they are calorie dense and will help you survive. That is one reason why we like those foods so much. The problem is that obtaining calorie dense foods has never been easier, yet we can't turn off the biological switch that makes us like calorie dense fats and things like salt (which is absolutely necessary for human/animal survival and wasn't always as easy to obtain... i.e., the term salary derives from Latin word for salt).\n\nTl;dr: the part of the brain that makes you feel full wouldn't be stimulated and so you wouldn't enjoy it as much. The enjoyment of such foods is biologically inherent.",
"What about bubble gum?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcuate_nucleus"
],
[]
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|
9rh39j | how do executives hold board of director positions at multiple fortune 500 companies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9rh39j/eli5_how_do_executives_hold_board_of_director/ | {
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"The Board only meets occasionally to vote on more important matters. They don't really deal with day to day affairs like the CEO does.",
" > I thought being executive/ CEO was a lot of work how can somebody possibly be in charge of all these companies?\n\nBoard members are not usually executives. The executives will serve on the board but most board members will be experienced business leaders from other companies who can help plan the future of the company. The board deals with very big picture and strategic planning, they have no day to day responsibilities"
]
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[],
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||
2yqan7 | how does the united states pay for its' wars? | The cost of War in Afghanistan has costed 791 Billion and counting so far. I've served overseas for over 2 years of my total life and still don't understand how we can amount such debt. The cost of war is expensive, any war at that matter; and I want to know how we find money to keep on paying for it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yqan7/eli5_how_does_the_united_states_pay_for_its_wars/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpby4ql",
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"text": [
"Taxes. The US federal government gets over $3 trillion a year.",
"The government does a lot of things that it doesn't have the money to pay for. So, it either takes on debt or prints more money, which is why we have inflation. The only other options are to raise taxes or cut spending, which is a political minefield."
]
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[],
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8k8ef4 | why don’t tornadoes develop in extremely urban areas with skyscrapers such as new york city or chicago? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8k8ef4/eli5_why_dont_tornadoes_develop_in_extremely/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\n\nBasically not alot of major cities lie in tornado zones so its already unlikely ",
"They do. There just aren't a lot of dense tall cities like you are picturing where tornadoes are common. OKC has been hit several times by tornadoes as have many other cities that are in Tornado Alley.",
"It is to my understanding, that tornadoes start on their sides, circulating faster and faster until they right themselves up. The subsequent funnel is formed as the two ends pick up clouds and ground material, coming to meet in the middle. In order to do this, they need a large, open expanse in which the wind can circulate up to speed uninterrupted. Obviously there’s an exception to every rule, as here in CT, 3 F1s were confirmed. But that’s 3 in however many years, an extremely rare occurrence. To compare, in NE and KS there have been 57 confirmed tornadoes in the month of May alone.",
"In the grand scheme, major cities are actually really small. \n\nThe biggest factor is that these cities just don't really lie in tornado zones. If they do, their land area is still small enough compared to the massive swaths of land around them to make it incredibly unlikely to be hit by a tornado. \n\nOklahoma city was just hit by a big one a few years ago though. (as well as a few smaller ones too)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
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"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-tornadoes-cities/"
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[],
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||
vjf1q | the legality of the pirate bay | I was busy reading their legal threats, and they all seem legitimate... how is the Pirate Bay legal? What was that whole fiasco with the Swedish government trying to take it down? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vjf1q/eli5_the_legality_of_the_pirate_bay/ | {
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"The basic moral/legal question is if a technology that makes committing a crime easy can be held liable for that crime. TPB doesn't commit any crimes, but they enable others to do so. An offline allegory would be an inventor of perfect lockpicks that could open any lock. Would he be at least partially responsible for the crimes committed by his customers? This is an area of law that can go both ways. We don't hold breweries responsible for drunk driver-caused accidents, but we do punish bars that over serve. The question then is where in the chain of responsibility does TPB lie?",
"The Pirate Bay is just a search engine for torrents. In the same that Google is a search engine for, well, everything.\n\nIf you find illegal material on Google, who's to blame? Google or the person who put it up there and made it public in the first place?\n\nHowever, yes, truth be told, TPB is mainly used for illegal torrents.",
"I wouldn't steal a car, but I would download one if I could.\n\nEDIT: The Swedish Government wouldnt take the server down.\n2/3 of the Swedish people (including me) download torrents all the time, and we have a party called the Pirate Party, which allows us to download legally here in Sweden, so its the people who control the Government in this case. You may have noticed that ThepirateBay, changed from .org to .SE because its a swedish server, so the US cant do a shit about it."
]
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96krqz | how do boxtops fund education? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96krqz/eli5_how_do_boxtops_fund_education/ | {
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"text": [
"School collects box tops & sends them to the company. The company sends the school money.\n\nThe idea is that people will buy more products from the company if they know it'll help the local schools. It's just an advertising campaign.",
"Basically when you purchase a product with the \"boxtops for education\" and send it to the school when it is scanned the company knows which product was purchased, and how much profit the company made from the sale of that product. From that information a percentage of the total profits made towards the materials from which the boxtops were gathered is donated towards the school funds from the registered school which receives the boxtops."
]
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[],
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] |
||
2xfwnz | - why do some computer programs let me alt+tab seamlessly to another application, and some will crash or even force me to reboot if i try to use alt+tab? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xfwnz/eli5_why_do_some_computer_programs_let_me_alttab/ | {
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"text": [
"Programs don't receive the command. Alt+Tab is a system interrupt command and is directly interpreted by the operating system without being passed to the programs. Certain full-screen only applications and may not like it much because they are not designed to run in the background, which can cause their graphics or processes to hang when they lose focus.\n\nWithout knowing more about what applications are hanging it's difficult to guess any other reason..."
]
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[]
] |
||
bh0kvr | how can a bank determine fraudulent activity from a single transaction? | Especially if that transaction isn't typically out of the normal for the card holder (like being used at a gas station within 100 miles of the card holder's address)?
EDIT: I know this looks like I'm trying to figure out how to steal someone's debit card and not get caught, but I'm asking generally about something that happened to me today. I was told to generalize it as my original question was too specific. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bh0kvr/eli5_how_can_a_bank_determine_fraudulent_activity/ | {
"a_id": [
"elp2rcq"
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"text": [
"In current day banking it's just machine learning. They fed an AI with a bunch of labeled data, and now it's able to say which transaction is likely fraudulent and which is not; just like the YouTube algorithm showing you stuff you probably want to click on.\n\nNoone knows what exactly the algorithm is thinking, just that it works."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
d4uw5q | why is the color red used for the red light district? | Do the red lights have any effect on the brain with regards to sex drive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4uw5q/eli5_why_is_the_color_red_used_for_the_red_light/ | {
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"text": [
"No. It has to do with old world Asian influences actually iirc.\n\nThe streets with brothels used to use lanterns with red paper to mark the brothels, they were usually all in one part of town so criminal activity would largely be limited to the bars and whore houses and the \"police\" of their respective time periods could more easily contain unruly activity.\n\nThanks to the lanterns these places became called Red Light districts. It stuck.",
"My mother would never carry a red purse or red shoes. She told me that was the sign of a \"loose woman\". Anyway during the depression and up to the 50's she said that was the way it was.",
"I don’t know the answer to the question, but I can tell you that red lights are used in modern brothels because they’re very flattering and hide a lot of blemishes. There’s an element of tradition, but mostly it’s to make everyone look a lil better.",
"There's a story about railroad brakemen needing to carry red lanterns around with them so the train crew could find them in an emergency, and they would get hung in the windows of brothels while they were there, but my cursory research hasn't turned up a lot of evidence for it."
]
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|
2x5bis | when and why did corsets move away from being common place and become more of a sexual statement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2x5bis/eli5_when_and_why_did_corsets_move_away_from/ | {
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"text": [
"Corsets really made some sense in an era of multiple pregnancies; they help hold a woman together, keep the weight of her skirts off her hipbones, and provide excellent back support. The problem arises when the fashion is for tight-lacing that also distorts the back, which was the case in the 1890s. \n\nBut really, the move from corsets is mostly the result of changes in fashion. By the end of WWI, corsets had changed from figure-shapers to figure-smoothers. The 1920s saw the popularization of boyish figures, very short hems,and a new kind of sexualization of women as actors rather than recipients. 1930s corsets were more all-in-one body shapers, and that style continued into the 1940s. Postwar fashions were hyperfeminine, again emphasizing a narrow waist and broad hips and bust - again achieved with corsetry of one sort or another. \n\nWomen still wear corsets, except now they're made of spandex. Frankly, having worn both traditional tight-laced corsets and \"Spanx\" bodyshapers, I'd vote for the comfort of the former every time. "
]
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[]
] |
||
2p7i0z | how were the first people able to access and use iron ore mines to make things? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p7i0z/eli5_how_were_the_first_people_able_to_access_and/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There is a thing called Bog Iron that is just lying around in bogs. \n\nIt comes from water that has Iron in it and through some chemical processes it turns into a lump of Iron ore.\n\nYou would walk around with a stick poking the ground until you felt something rocky. \n\nYou would also find Iron from meteors."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
104jbt | the group 'anonymous' and some of the major things they have done. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/104jbt/eli5_the_group_anonymous_and_some_of_the_major/ | {
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"text": [
"Here you go OP:\n\nAnonymous is a broad term used to refer to members of the 4chan community. (Used in the singular usually as Anon). \n\nThe reason for this came from the posting style of 4chan. 4chan has no registration, so each post is individual. When making a post you had the option of inserting a name if you wanted, however if you did not, the name field defaulted to \"Anonymous\". Hence the term for users of 4chan, specifically of the /b/ community became known as Anonymous. \n\nMajor things they have done? Well there are things they are most well known for. \n\nProject Chanology: Worldwide protests of the church of Scientology in response to the censorship of a church produced video of Tom Cruise. \n\nThe Habbo Raids: Anonymous flooded the online \"hang out\" Habbo Hotel. The members all dressed up their avatars the same way, closed off certain sections of the hotel (pool's closed, pool has AIDS) as well as other offensive and funny interactions with other users. \n\nThe Time 100 Online Poll: the founder of 4chan, moot, was nominated for the Time 100 most influential persons poll. Anonymous put him at the top as well as manipulating every other member of the poll in the top twenty so that the first letters would spell out MARBLECAKEALSOTHEGAME. \n\nMore recently they have been involved in the Dub the Dew \"Hitler did nothing wrong\" contest as well as trying to send Taylor Swift to a school for the deaf to perform a concert. \n\nTo end, here is a very very important distinction. \n\nAnonymous IS: a name used to refer to members of the 4chan community, most often used as a group title when the community decides to do something en masse outside of the website itself. \n\nAnonymous IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT: \n1. A secret club\n2. A \"hacktivist\" organization\n3. An elite group of hackers\n4. Scientology protestors (yes they did this but it is not exclusively what the group does)\n\nHope that helps. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
21x7hb | i flip a coin 3 times. the first two times i get heads, why is there a 50/50 chance i'll flip heads again but a 12.5% chance i'll flip 3 heads in a row? | Mathematically, this makes sense and I do fine with probability calculations and all that but this has always vexed me. If the probability of flipping heads 3 times in a row is 12.5% and I've already flipped heads 2 times in a row, doesn't it stand to reason that my probability of flipping heads a 3rd consecutive time is lower than 50%? My reasoning being that it is more unlikely to get that result 3 consecutive times rather than just once. I understand that you are to view that 3rd flip as an independent event but it just always bothered me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21x7hb/eli5_i_flip_a_coin_3_times_the_first_two_times_i/ | {
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"text": [
"You have **already** made an improbable event happen by flipping heads **2** times. The last one is relatively easy. Like standing on the shoulders of giants.",
"There is a 12.5% probability of flipping three heads in a row, as you say.\n\nThere is also a 12.5% probability of flipping three coins and getting heads/heads/tails in that order.\n\nAt this point, you've already flipped two heads. There are only two possible outcomes now, and they both have the same probability. They were both 12.5% probable before you started, but now you've already flipped the first two coins and got two heads, they are both 50% probable.",
"The reason that the previous coin tosses do not influence the third coin is because outcomes of a coin toss are independent. Each and every coin toss for any fair coin will have a 50/50 chance of showing heads. This is because the other coins have no way of influencing the third toss. The reason the probability of flipping 3 heads in a row is due to conditional probability. The probability of flipping heads on the first coin is 0.5. The probability of flipping the second heads by itself is 0.5. However, in order to have 2 heads in a row, the probability would be 0.5 given that the first coin was heads. The probability of flipping the third heads is 0.5 by itself. However, again, in order to have 3 heads in a row, the probability would be 0.5 given that the first 2 coins were heads. This can be shown by the probability model P(3rd coin is heads|the first 2 coins were heads) which equals 1/8. Another way to see this is to write down all the possible combinations of flipping 3 coins. You will see that there are 8 options; only one of which is 3 heads. 1/8 = 0.125\n\nEdit: Source - I'm a statistician.",
"Chance has no memory"
]
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3ud55f | what is the 2nd world | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ud55f/eli5_what_is_the_2nd_world/ | {
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"During the Cold War, the Second World referred to either the Soviet Union and its allies, or all Communist countries. Depends on who you ask.",
"* 1st World: US, NATO, and allies\n* 2nd World: USSR, Warsaw Pact, and allies\n* 3rd World: Unaffiliated states\n\nAs the USSR and Warsaw Pact no longer exist there are no more 2nd World nations.\n\nThe Reason \"3rd world\" came to refer to poor countries is because basically everyone with any economic or military clout to speak of had chosen a side during the Cold War. The unaffiliated states were mostly poor countries that had little global influence and so hadn't been absorbed by one of the big alliances."
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1scmzz | what happens to particles when they dissolve? | Do they just get so microscopically small that we can't see them or do their molecules split or something or other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1scmzz/eli5_what_happens_to_particles_when_they_dissolve/ | {
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"Substances that dissolve, do so because they are polar and are introduced into a non-polar solution. What happens is that the bonds between the polar molecule will be affected by the non-polar solution and eventually the molecules will break their bond and dissolve in the solution. Do they get microscopically small? Yes, they basically are single atoms, or simple compounds which are as small as manometers or so. Do the molecules split? Depends on what you mean, if you are talking about atom splitting then no.\n\nThis is not at all fact checked in any single way. I went for a very simple explanation.",
"If the solute is an ionic compound such as salt, then the crystalline lattice is broken up by the polar solvent (such as water) and each ion is held in the liquid by inter molecular hydrogen bonds.\n\nSo you are correct, the molecules split at the microscopic level. \n\nIf however, you are referring to, say, sugar, which is not an ionic compound, the dissolution occurs due to partial charges, in which certain atoms (carbon and oxygen in this case) pull the electrons from the hydrogen, leaving a naked positive charge. This also allows the sugar to dissolve in water in the same way as charged ions."
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jhyd9 | how is blood pressure measured? why do
doctors measure it? what does it tell them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jhyd9/eli5_how_is_blood_pressure_measured_why_do/ | {
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"Blood pressure can be measured in many ways. Most commonly we use sphygmomanometers (you may know them as \"blood pressure cuffs\"). They wrap around your bicep to measure your radial pulse. On top of using the sphygmomanometer, we use a method called ausculatory method, which basically means inflating the sphygmomanometer cuff an using a stethoscope and listening to the pulse at your elbow. Note that when in a clinical setting, such as when you're admitted into a hospital, we'll hook you up to a machine so that we can log your pressure.\n\nUs nurses are usually the ones who get these readings, not MD's. I'll sum up your last two questions into one. We care about blood pressure because it is a part of the vital signs. Other vital signs include temperature, pulse, and respiratory rate. What blood pressure readings tell us is how much pressure is being put onto your arteries for each heart beat. Your BP varies from a low point (diastolic) and a high point (systolic) during each heart beat. The systolic number tells us how much pressure is being exerted in the arteries as the heart squeezes out blood during each beat. The diastolic number tells us the amount of pressure in the heart when it is heart relaxes before the next beat.\n\nWhen you hear them say it's, for example, \"120 over 80\", they are specifying how much pressure in terms of millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). \n\nWe care about this because, as an adult your BP should be below 120/80, between ~90/~60 and ~119/~79. This is what we consider in the normal, healthy range. \n\nAnything below ~90/~60 is what we call **hypo**tension. Typically people who are **hypo**tensive are so because of shock, or manually by vasodilation (note: vasodilation is when we want to open the blood vessels to increase flow of blood). \n\nWhen your BP is between ~120/~80 and ~139/~89, you're considered pre-**hyper**tensive. Generally people who are overweight are in this range most of the time. This is your body telling you something is wrong and you need to fix it. You cannot live in this range for long, and it only gets worse.\n\nFrom pre-**hyper**tensive we get to **hyper**tensive, or high blood pressure. This range is anything from ~140/90 and ~179/109. Your body starts to fail. You are at risk for heart attacks and strokes (due to the thickening of arteries which is called atherosclerosis). You're at risk for an aneurysm, which if ruptures, is usually fatal. Kidneys start to fail because of the narrowed blood vessels. Your vision can deteriorate due to narrowed blood vessels.\n\nAnything above ~180/~120, you gonna' die! Get help immediately. Risks are fluid on the lungs (pulmonary edema), brain swelling and/or bleeding, a tear in your arteries, heart attack, stroke, and if you're pregnant, seizures (aka eclampsia).\n\nHope this helped\n\nedit: fixed mixup of systolic/diastolic",
"Like you're 5.\n\nYour heart pumps blood around your body through tubes called \"Blood Vessels\". These tubes can stretch and squeeze to get more blood to certain places (like when you fall down and get hurt) and keep blood away from places (like when your hands are cold).\n\nDoctors can tell a lot about a person by measuring how strong their heart is pumping blood, and how much their blood vessels are stretching. They do this by measuring your \"Blood Pressure\"\n\nThey use a special tool that you can see on the wall of the Doctor's office. It wraps around your arm and holds on with velcro. Then the Nurse or Doctor makes it squeeze your arm. This is also squeezing the blood vessels in your arm and (just for a little bit) stopping the blood from flowing through them. The amount of squeezing is measured on a dial, a digital display, or on a thing that looks like a big thermometer.\n\nThe nurse, or Doctor slowly releases the squeezing and and when just enough squeezing is released, suddenly the blood will start flowing through your blood vessels in your arm. This shows how strong your heart is working. Then they keep releasing the squeezing and they can tell how much your blood vessels were stretching. These two numbers can help tell a Doctor if you're losing blood somewhere, or if your blood vessels are squeezing too much (some old people's blood vessels squeeze too much and they need to take medicine to make them better) or squeezing too little, which sometimes happens when you get sick.\n\nBecause this measures how strong your heart is right now, and the Doctor doesn't have to wait for complicated tests or procedures, Blood Pressure is a very important way that Doctor's check to see if someone is healthy. ",
"Blood pressure can be measured in many ways. Most commonly we use sphygmomanometers (you may know them as \"blood pressure cuffs\"). They wrap around your bicep to measure your radial pulse. On top of using the sphygmomanometer, we use a method called ausculatory method, which basically means inflating the sphygmomanometer cuff an using a stethoscope and listening to the pulse at your elbow. Note that when in a clinical setting, such as when you're admitted into a hospital, we'll hook you up to a machine so that we can log your pressure.\n\nUs nurses are usually the ones who get these readings, not MD's. I'll sum up your last two questions into one. We care about blood pressure because it is a part of the vital signs. Other vital signs include temperature, pulse, and respiratory rate. What blood pressure readings tell us is how much pressure is being put onto your arteries for each heart beat. Your BP varies from a low point (diastolic) and a high point (systolic) during each heart beat. The systolic number tells us how much pressure is being exerted in the arteries as the heart squeezes out blood during each beat. The diastolic number tells us the amount of pressure in the heart when it is heart relaxes before the next beat.\n\nWhen you hear them say it's, for example, \"120 over 80\", they are specifying how much pressure in terms of millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). \n\nWe care about this because, as an adult your BP should be below 120/80, between ~90/~60 and ~119/~79. This is what we consider in the normal, healthy range. \n\nAnything below ~90/~60 is what we call **hypo**tension. Typically people who are **hypo**tensive are so because of shock, or manually by vasodilation (note: vasodilation is when we want to open the blood vessels to increase flow of blood). \n\nWhen your BP is between ~120/~80 and ~139/~89, you're considered pre-**hyper**tensive. Generally people who are overweight are in this range most of the time. This is your body telling you something is wrong and you need to fix it. You cannot live in this range for long, and it only gets worse.\n\nFrom pre-**hyper**tensive we get to **hyper**tensive, or high blood pressure. This range is anything from ~140/90 and ~179/109. Your body starts to fail. You are at risk for heart attacks and strokes (due to the thickening of arteries which is called atherosclerosis). You're at risk for an aneurysm, which if ruptures, is usually fatal. Kidneys start to fail because of the narrowed blood vessels. Your vision can deteriorate due to narrowed blood vessels.\n\nAnything above ~180/~120, you gonna' die! Get help immediately. Risks are fluid on the lungs (pulmonary edema), brain swelling and/or bleeding, a tear in your arteries, heart attack, stroke, and if you're pregnant, seizures (aka eclampsia).\n\nHope this helped\n\nedit: fixed mixup of systolic/diastolic",
"Like you're 5.\n\nYour heart pumps blood around your body through tubes called \"Blood Vessels\". These tubes can stretch and squeeze to get more blood to certain places (like when you fall down and get hurt) and keep blood away from places (like when your hands are cold).\n\nDoctors can tell a lot about a person by measuring how strong their heart is pumping blood, and how much their blood vessels are stretching. They do this by measuring your \"Blood Pressure\"\n\nThey use a special tool that you can see on the wall of the Doctor's office. It wraps around your arm and holds on with velcro. Then the Nurse or Doctor makes it squeeze your arm. This is also squeezing the blood vessels in your arm and (just for a little bit) stopping the blood from flowing through them. The amount of squeezing is measured on a dial, a digital display, or on a thing that looks like a big thermometer.\n\nThe nurse, or Doctor slowly releases the squeezing and and when just enough squeezing is released, suddenly the blood will start flowing through your blood vessels in your arm. This shows how strong your heart is working. Then they keep releasing the squeezing and they can tell how much your blood vessels were stretching. These two numbers can help tell a Doctor if you're losing blood somewhere, or if your blood vessels are squeezing too much (some old people's blood vessels squeeze too much and they need to take medicine to make them better) or squeezing too little, which sometimes happens when you get sick.\n\nBecause this measures how strong your heart is right now, and the Doctor doesn't have to wait for complicated tests or procedures, Blood Pressure is a very important way that Doctor's check to see if someone is healthy. "
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5uflos | why is doing the paperwork for income called "paying taxes" when the taxes are already taken from our paychecks? | Are people meaning to say "filing taxes" instead? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uflos/eli5_why_is_doing_the_paperwork_for_income_called/ | {
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"Your taxes are not taken away from your paycheck. The money from your paycheck to the IRS is only prepaid taxes. The amount you pay is an estimate on how much you will have to pay in taxes at the end of the year. The forms you are filling out is to find out how much you actually have to pay in taxes. Sometimes you have paid too little and sometimes you have paid too much. It is theoretically possible to not pay any tax from your paycheck and then get a giant bill from the IRS in the spring. Also if you get some giant investment return that would result in your taxes being much higher then normal you can pay the IRS while you have the money on hand instead of getting the bill at the end of the year.",
"It's not called \"paying taxes.\" It's called \"filing a tax return.\" People are just sloppy when discussing some subject because you know what they mean.",
"Different activities. If someone says, \"I object to paying taxes,\" they're probably a libertarian who believes in defunding the government. If someone says, \"I object to filing taxes,\" they're probably a person with moderately complicated finances who doesn't understand how, in these days when employers and banks already have to report everydangthing to the government, the government can't just *use* that information to calculate my tax for me?\n",
"There are many people who have to write checks to the gov't for unreported income and non-tax-withheld income. \n \nIf you make a certain amount of money, it needs to be done quarterly in the US. Otherwise it can be done yearly. ",
"It is not called paying taxes. At least not commonly by anyone in the US. It is called filing taxes, filing your tax return, or doing taxes. \n\n",
"It's not. I've never heard anyone call the process of competing their taxes \"paying taxes.\" You file your taxes or you do your taxes.",
"The people you may have heard say that probably know that they underpay their taxes, and will have to write a check after they file their taxes by the mid-April deadline.",
"People don't really say \"paying my taxes\" when referring to that, they usually say \"doing my taxes.\""
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73au15 | how come when you stand up on a train you're completely still, but when you stand on a bus you have to hold on to something to stay upright? | How come that in certain passenger trains (Such as luxury trains) one is able to stand without falling over, whereas on buses or even other trains one must hold on to something for support? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73au15/eli5_how_come_when_you_stand_up_on_a_train_youre/ | {
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"Your body doesn't detect velocity, only change in velocity (acceleration). The reason that you get jostled around is due to a change in your velocity being resisted by your inertia.\n\nTrains tend to move at a constant speed for a long time, typically, as they can go on long stretches of track. Since busses are on a shared roadway with traffic signals and other cars, they have to change their velocity (brake and accelerate) a lot.\n\nTrains are also not able to change their velocity quickly, since their wheels are metal-on-metal which doesn't get as much traction as rubber on asphalt.\n\nBut if your bus goes down a long empty straight with no lights at a constant speed, you could get up and walk without much trouble. Conversely you might fall on your ass if your train brakes super suddenly at the station.",
"Train tracks are generally much smoother than roads. Trains don't do steep hills or sharp corners, so tracks have only very gradual changes in slope or direction.",
"Trains are huge and heavy, unable to speed up or slow down or turn corners rapidly. Buses can do all of these things, which throw you off balance.\n\nIt's these rapid changes in motion, not the original speed of motion, that makes you have to hang on."
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jajec | explain the evolutionary reason for having toes like i'm five. | I get the reasons behind most other parts of the body, but I just don't get the point of toes, beside for stubbing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jajec/explain_the_evolutionary_reason_for_having_toes/ | {
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"It adds balance, and originally it was part of our use to hold things with our feet (They where basically like an extra set of hands before we started wearing sandals and whatnot).",
"It adds balance, and originally it was part of our use to hold things with our feet (They where basically like an extra set of hands before we started wearing sandals and whatnot)."
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3rnnca | why is cum white when fresh but clear at room temperature? | Curiosity | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rnnca/eli5_why_is_cum_white_when_fresh_but_clear_at/ | {
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"Real answer: there are enzymes in the semen that digest the fluid to set the sperm free. It goes from white to clear when the digestion is finished. \n\nIt turns out that semen isn't stored anywhere in the body. It's made on the spot when you orgasm by mixing the fluids of several different organs. The sperm cells are kept in a thick gel to protect them, but this also keeps them from moving. When all the ingredients are mixed together during orgasm the enzymes are added to the sperm gel to digest it. \n\nLots of things look \"white\" because there are lots and lots of little particles in the liquid. This is why milk is white! There are lots of protein clumps in the water which scatter the light. When the semen enzymes break down the gel, the liquid becomes clear. This while process is called semen liquifaction. ",
"It's not always white either. The tint fluctuates. Also there can be blood mixed in or blood clot (darker red) mixed in pending the state of the prostate. And surprisingly enough blood in semen is usually benign. ",
"Real question: are you storing your cum?",
"Somewhat related, I had testicular cancer and for a while before I knew I had it but still had the tumor my cum smelled really badly after the tumor came out it returned to a normal odor. What was the tumor doing to make it smell so badly?",
"Why is it so white in porn?",
"As crude as this sounds, it's thicker when fresh so it clings to the recipient's insides and doesn't all fall out almost immediately. It's all about efficient procreation lol.",
"Wait how long do you leave it sitting around?? "
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1qu2id | how do voice recognition applications like siri know what we're saying? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qu2id/eli5_how_do_voice_recognition_applications_like/ | {
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"First, it cuts the voice recording into really small segments, like 2/100 or 1/100 of a second long. Then, it multiplies each segment by a bell function to get a clear waveform in the middle with reduced interference from neighbouring samples. The waveform of each segment is analysed and compared to waveforms of known sounds. That way, you know which sound was being pronounced during each segment. Remove repeating sounds and you have a basic phonetic spelling of the pronounced phrase. Now you just need some process to match it to a dictionary of known words/phrases, and turn the phonetic spelling into real words.",
"This is a tough one for a 5 year old! But here goes. Speech recognition is an example of computer learning. Lets take our \"supervised learning\" algorithm of choice (LDA, PCA, HMM, Neural Network) and build it so that it knows all the variables in our speech signal. In the case of speech, the most basic variables are frequency and time. So now we have an algorithm that knows about frequency and time, and now we need to teach it how speech changes with frequency and time. So what do we do? We give the algorithm a library of known values - words or syllables, with their corresponding frequency waveforms. So waveform a = Cat, waveform b = Dog, waveform c = Robot. Now we have an algorithm, it has undergone \"supervised learning\" by building the library, and now it is ready to evaluate a new, unknown signal and guess/estimate the word that the signal represents. So! the words you say into the phone are converted into waveforms, then evaluated against the library of known waveforms by the algorithm, and finally Siri responds with her guess of what you said.\n\nAn oversimplification for sure, but I hope it makes some sense!\n",
"Speech recognition is also called speech-to-text. People use both to communicate, but computers aren't like people, so they need a way to \"hear\" the words that are said. \n\nTo \"hear\" the words that are spoken and change them to text, the computer uses a microphone to capture the speech. What is actually happening is that every sound makes a different pattern of sound waves in the air, like ripples on a pond when you throw rocks in. Different patterns of sound waves mean different sounds, and the computer has a list of all the sounds that could possibly be spoken and what letters go with them. When it knows what the letters are, those are spelled out into words, which are written down, and Siri can read them.* \n\n*Siri can't read because she's an idiot who can't even set an alarm right reliably /grumble\n\nTL;DR: Sounds are patterns of waves, and words are patterns of letters. The computer has a model of sounds and a model of words that it thinks it's going to encounter, and it puts these together and picks the right thing. \n\nI have a master's in this stuff, artificial intelligence and language processing, AMAA.\n\nBONUS: \nMe talking about machine translation and how speech recognition is hard: _URL_1_\n\nMe talking about the general gist of text to speech:\n_URL_0_",
"Voice recognition works by breaking up the speech into small segments (phonemes). Each segment is somewhat like a syllable, or a portion of a word, but it is more basic because a couple or a few segments can make up a syllable.\n\nThe segment is compared to the next and/or previous segment and using educated guesses (statistics), the computer can make the best guess of what word was said. \n\nThere is a process of training the computer to recognize the patterns. This involves processing a lot of speech data that has already been processed by a person. Training with your own voice can help the application too.\n\nSo, a large dictionary or knowledge base is searched using best guesses of which segments would follow each other to make up a syllable or word and then which words would make a meaningful sentence."
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1ldzee | why are some decisions voted on by the people and others just by politicians? | I live in Colorado and have voted on the marijuana laws that were put on the ballot. However, recently it was decided that we needed a magazine ban for our rifles (over 15 rounds). Why didn't we get to vote on that? Why are some things up to the people and others seem to be shoved down our throats?
This would apply to both state and federal levels. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ldzee/why_are_some_decisions_voted_on_by_the_people_and/ | {
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"You have probably heard that the US is a Democratic Republic. This roughly breaks down to mean, that everyone gets to vote (democratic) for representatives who decide laws (republic). \n\nSo in the ideal system, you vote for your representative, congressman or senator, and they vote on all issues for you.\n\nThe idea is that it's unreasonable to expect every person to be up to date on every issue. Instead we have representatives who don't have a normal job so they can be up to date on every issue and thus have educated opinions.\n\nSometimes issues are taken directly to the people. Most commonly this is by propositions. The original point of propositions was that if the people want something (eg -legalized marijuana) and for whatever reason the representatives won't pass it, then the people would be able to directly vote it into law.\n\nTheoretically propositions should be unnecessary because the representatives should be representing the will of the people but obviously this is not always the case."
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3tlt4m | why can't tyres be recycled into more tyres? i always see tyre graveyards where they are just left to rot or they are burned. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tlt4m/eli5_why_cant_tyres_be_recycled_into_more_tyres_i/ | {
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"They can be recycled. You can convert them back into a more suitable base synthetic rubber that you can use for a variety of things like more tires. The problem is that this is a generally prohibitively expensive thing to do -- it's cheaper just to make new tires.\n\nTires are also combustable, which means they can and are used as fuel. While not necessarily good for the atmosphere, the EPA estimates about 45% of all used tires in the US are used to produce energy.\n\n[This is a good article](_URL_0_) that talks about these things including the source for the EPA estimate.\n\nEDIT: A good note is that recycling tires is growing fairly quick and there are entire companies that specialize in recycling tire mountains.",
"I have been told, true?, that they make the rubber tracks for high schools out of them. They can be shredded and mixed with asphalt to pave roads."
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byqeid | why is the portuguese man o' war and other siphonophore considered to be a colony of different organisms if they all have the same dna? wouldn't zooids just be concidered organs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/byqeid/eli5_why_is_the_portuguese_man_o_war_and_other/ | {
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"Its like bacteria that can reproduce asexually by splitting themselves. The 2 new bacteria are seperate, but share their dna. \n\nSimilarly, it can br thought of like cloning. If you clone a person, they will be 2 seperate people, but share the same dna. \n\nSo it is a city of clones that beocme specialized to do certain tasks. Some of the clones control breathing, some digestion, etc."
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8edw3n | difference between probiotics and prebiotics | Edit: I actually went in the search bar and answered the question myself through reading.
How do prebiotics work though? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8edw3n/eli5_difference_between_probiotics_and_prebiotics/ | {
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"Prebiotics are essentially food for probiotics. The way they work is that the probiotics, which boost immunity and general health, mainly for the GI. The probiotics feed on the prebiotics, so they will be able to do what I listed above better.\n\n[Source](_URL_0_) in case I missed anything"
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1z1kl6 | why is uganda so anti gay? | Is it something inherent in their culture/African culture? Or are they just anti western? Because I see some statements in their news condemning the West for trying to recruit people into "homosexual" organizations? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z1kl6/eli5why_is_uganda_so_anti_gay/ | {
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"It's cultural. They seeme to be very conservative, probably to the point of making Tea Partiers look like bleeding heart liberals. They don't seem to be \"anti-Western\" in the sense that they are doing it to rebel against Western pressure.",
"Because Fundamentalist Christians from the US realized that they had lost the culture wars here and went to Uganda in order to promote anti-gay legislation.\n\nThey are literally pushing murder in the name of Jesus.",
"It's a complicated issue. But here are two major but not-so-obvious factors:\n\n1) Ugandans, like much of the world that was once colonized by the west, are concerned with protecting their society from excessive cultural influence by the west (aka cultural imperialism). Because many western societies have moved toward protecting/supporting/embracing LGBT people in recent years, there is a perception by the anti-gay camp that LGBT sexuality is a lifestyle choice that western society invented and is trying to export, rather than something intrinsic to Ugandan people. As such, they claim that homosexuality is \"un-African\".\n\n2) Some Christian fundamentalist organizations from the USA are heavily supporting the anti-gay movement in Uganda (though not necessarily the anti-gay law as written).\n\nAs you can see, the Ugandan anti-gay movement isn't completely pro- or anti-western, but has elements of both. One could argue that they are pro-western when it suits their interests (my personal view), but then we'd be getting into opinion.\n"
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lxwhp | how to properly do laundry. | I've never been able to confront this because of the sheer risk of ruining my clothes. But the time has come and I MUST learn. I've read some articles online, but none have really helped. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lxwhp/eli5_how_to_properly_do_laundry/ | {
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"1) Sort clothes by light and dark.\n\n2) Put clothes in washer with soap.\n\n3) Turn on washer (use cold water).\n\n4) When washer finishes, immediately put in dryer.\n\n5) Turn on dryer (use low heat, but not fluff).\n\n6) When dryer finishes, immediately remove and fold.",
"Assuming you know how to physically work a washer and dryer, it's more about what you *don't* do.\n\n* Don't combine deep or bright colors (reds in particular) with whites or light colors, or they'll bleed and ruin your whites. Combining different dark colors (a dark red and a dark blue shirt, for instance) is generally fine.\n\n* Hotter water gets your clothes cleaner but makes the colors more likely to bleed. Personally, the only clothes I wash in hot water are socks and white undershirts (in the same load) and jeans. Stick with cold water for anything made of wool, anything with both light and dark colors (striped shirt, for instance), and delicates. Warm is fine for just about anything else.\n\n* Hang up sweaters and delicates to dry if possible; if not, dry with low or no heat. Medium heat is fine for anything else. Keep the lint trap (usually just inside the door near the bottom) as clean as possible.",
"OK, most posts are helpful but IMHO not complete. \n\nYou need a washing machine and knowledge of 2 main settings:\n\n* The first is a low temperature wash used for colours and delicate items. This is normally around 30-40 degree Celsius (about 100 Fahrenheit). \n\n* The second is a high temperature wash used for white items and light bed linen. The hot temperatures help to get the bright white back and kill any bed bugs. This can be up to 90 degrees Celsius (about 180 Fahrenheit) but causes clothes to wear out quicker.\n\nYou will need washing powder. Some are tablets, some you put in a ball which goes in the tumbler, some are just plain powders. I use powder as it's cheap and easy (like me):\n\n* Biological Washing powder - Powerful cleaning enzymes so good for heavy stains. Bad though as it will cause colours to fade quicker, worse for the environment and some people can have allergic reactions.\n\n* Non-Biological power - More gentle on clothes, better for allergic types, environmentally friendly(ish), though not as powerful.\n\nOptional:\n\n* Fabric softener - This is a liquid that you pour into a special drawer/compartment of the washer. The machine puts this in after the wash so your clothes come out smelling lovely and feel softer to the touch. Don't know how, it's just magic. Great for shirts making them easier to iron.\n\n* Stain remover - These are often course powders that you can buy separately and contain powerful cleaning agents. Use sparingly.\n\n**Step 1** - Sort your clothes into a colours pile and light/white items pile. Be careful with items that are white but have coloured parts/patterns. If in doubt chuck it in the colours pile.\n\n**Step 2** - Put your selected pile of colours or whites in the machine. Check the setting: hot for whites, cool for colours. Put the washing powder and stain remover in together, fabric softener goes in a separate compartment. Double check the setting!\n\n**Step 3** - When the wash cycle is finished you want to decide where they go next sooner rather than later. If you leave wet clothes in the drum for a couple of days they go stale. \nIf you want soft fluffy towels/bedding/underwear put them in a tumble dryer. \nIf not save yourself the electricity and hang them up. It's important not to tumble dry shirts as they become a nightmare to iron! Hang them up whilst still wet!\n\n\n\n",
"1) Sort clothes by light and dark.\n\n2) Put clothes in washer with soap.\n\n3) Turn on washer (use cold water).\n\n4) When washer finishes, immediately put in dryer.\n\n5) Turn on dryer (use low heat, but not fluff).\n\n6) When dryer finishes, immediately remove and fold.",
"Assuming you know how to physically work a washer and dryer, it's more about what you *don't* do.\n\n* Don't combine deep or bright colors (reds in particular) with whites or light colors, or they'll bleed and ruin your whites. Combining different dark colors (a dark red and a dark blue shirt, for instance) is generally fine.\n\n* Hotter water gets your clothes cleaner but makes the colors more likely to bleed. Personally, the only clothes I wash in hot water are socks and white undershirts (in the same load) and jeans. Stick with cold water for anything made of wool, anything with both light and dark colors (striped shirt, for instance), and delicates. Warm is fine for just about anything else.\n\n* Hang up sweaters and delicates to dry if possible; if not, dry with low or no heat. Medium heat is fine for anything else. Keep the lint trap (usually just inside the door near the bottom) as clean as possible.",
"OK, most posts are helpful but IMHO not complete. \n\nYou need a washing machine and knowledge of 2 main settings:\n\n* The first is a low temperature wash used for colours and delicate items. This is normally around 30-40 degree Celsius (about 100 Fahrenheit). \n\n* The second is a high temperature wash used for white items and light bed linen. The hot temperatures help to get the bright white back and kill any bed bugs. This can be up to 90 degrees Celsius (about 180 Fahrenheit) but causes clothes to wear out quicker.\n\nYou will need washing powder. Some are tablets, some you put in a ball which goes in the tumbler, some are just plain powders. I use powder as it's cheap and easy (like me):\n\n* Biological Washing powder - Powerful cleaning enzymes so good for heavy stains. Bad though as it will cause colours to fade quicker, worse for the environment and some people can have allergic reactions.\n\n* Non-Biological power - More gentle on clothes, better for allergic types, environmentally friendly(ish), though not as powerful.\n\nOptional:\n\n* Fabric softener - This is a liquid that you pour into a special drawer/compartment of the washer. The machine puts this in after the wash so your clothes come out smelling lovely and feel softer to the touch. Don't know how, it's just magic. Great for shirts making them easier to iron.\n\n* Stain remover - These are often course powders that you can buy separately and contain powerful cleaning agents. Use sparingly.\n\n**Step 1** - Sort your clothes into a colours pile and light/white items pile. Be careful with items that are white but have coloured parts/patterns. If in doubt chuck it in the colours pile.\n\n**Step 2** - Put your selected pile of colours or whites in the machine. Check the setting: hot for whites, cool for colours. Put the washing powder and stain remover in together, fabric softener goes in a separate compartment. Double check the setting!\n\n**Step 3** - When the wash cycle is finished you want to decide where they go next sooner rather than later. If you leave wet clothes in the drum for a couple of days they go stale. \nIf you want soft fluffy towels/bedding/underwear put them in a tumble dryer. \nIf not save yourself the electricity and hang them up. It's important not to tumble dry shirts as they become a nightmare to iron! Hang them up whilst still wet!\n\n\n\n"
]
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[],
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2uz0ig | if a pilot crashes a plane due to a mechanical failure and crash lands into some number of people, killing them, who is at fault? | Let's assume he chose the group of people because he felt that it would cause the least amount of deaths.
Edit: I'm curious cuz the pilot has (some) control over the plane until it inevitably crashes. Who would be blamed for those deaths? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uz0ig/eli5if_a_pilot_crashes_a_plane_due_to_a/ | {
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"Well, 'mechanical failure' excludes the pilot entirely.\n\nNow, it's up to the National Transportation Safety Board. (NTSB) or equivalent agencies to investigate and determine whether it's the maintenance (airlines, military branch, or private operator) at fault, or the manufacturer (who built the plane(Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, Cessna), etc.).\n\nThey do this by collecting every piece of the plane after it crashes, and look for anything out of order for any reason not caused by the crash itself. \n\nFor example: if they find a segment of hydraulic line with a leak in it, enclosed in an unaffected segment of wing, then good chance is that's at fault.\n\nThey then look at the maintenance logs, and see if it was checked and replaced as frequently as it needed to be. If not, maintenance at fault. If it is, they look to see if it's happened more than once, indicating a substandard grade element used in the manufacture, or if only once- more likely a defect made by the manufacturer or subcontractor.\n\nIf it's a defect, covered by relevant insurance, if substandard element- planes retrofitted with better alternative, victim payout comes out of general liability insurance.",
"Depends if he flew for a company, if his plane was up-to-date service wise, if the mechanic servicing the plane had enough rest, etc. Rarely in these cases does the blame land on the pilot, more likely on the company for some level of gross negligence. ",
"No easy answer. Why did the mechanical failure occur?\n\nDid he know it was a possible problem when he took off?\n\nDid he say anything to the airline supervision, or if it's a private plane, is he the owner? Did he say something to the owner? \n\nWhat were his reasons for taking off in a plane that had a problem? \n\n\nDid he complete the ENTIRE pre-flight checklist? \n\n\nI could keep going! \n\n\nThe answer is almost never simple. \n\n",
"Well from my **biased** perspective as aircraft maintainer, investigators will *always* try to pin blame on maintenance. Its a really scary place to work when a plane goes down. Without a word, suits show up, confiscate log books, isolate and interview people, and scrutinize our records to death. Not only that, all the folks in the section then get piss tested for drugs, whether you worked on that plane or not.\n\nThe thing is, pilots are the face of aviation. The public places a huge amount of trust in a pilot when they board a plane. Because of this, pilots are given quite a large benefit of doubt, even though most aviation accidents are directly caused by pilot error. That trust needs to be maintained if people want to feel safe flying. The maintainer side of aviation acts as the scapegoat. The investigators try to find any teeny tiny mistake in the system so they have an excuse to roll the whole thing up and drop it in maintenance's lap.",
"I really recommend watching Air Crash Investigation/Mayday, if you are interested in such. It's a really in-depth series with reconstructions of air crashes/emergencies with an investigation. The pilots in the reconstruction are very accurate and use the actual Cockpit Voice Recorder recordings to say everything the pilots actually said. If there are any survivors, they are interviewed.\n\nBasically, nothing is made up, and it's accurate.\n\nIt airs on National Geographic and Smithsonian Channel, I believe."
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1m0j69 | why do some people walk on their tippy-toes? | as compared to the normal/standard heel, sole, toe? Is it genetics or just how they learned? Are there any side effects? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m0j69/eli5_why_do_some_people_walk_on_their_tippytoes/ | {
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"Personally, because I grew up in and live in a house with raised timber floors. Clumping through it with a heel-toe walking style makes too much noise and would shake things off shelves."
]
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[]
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|
2a55kf | how do workers build buildings and structures without holding any manuals or instructions? | When I build something from IKEA, for example, there are a billion steps that I follow by looking at a guide. I never see workers out there with even a scrape of paper that lists the measurements between walls etc. How do they know just what to build and what the architect's desired steps are? I'm sure the docs are in the foreman's office but don't the workers need to hold something while they work? They can't all have perfect memories. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a55kf/eli5_how_do_workers_build_buildings_and/ | {
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"Blueprints exist and building plans exist.\n\nAlso adding 1 or 2 parts takes a several man crew. They also are step-by-step instructions because the engineers assume the people who build stuff for a living will know how to build-stuff.",
"A foreman relays instructions from blueprints to workers. ",
"[Who needs plans, when you've got a guy walking around with one of these?](_URL_0_)",
"Construction is very specialized. Usually the person who does the layout is not the same person doing the physical work. On my project, for instance, there is a primary construction guy who basically makes X marks on the ground to denote where certain column type structures need to go (using the plans), and then an engineer checks and confirms those marks (using the plans), and then the workers go ahead and place the thing (holding no plans). \n\nIncreasingly these days, these drawings will be on an iPad. A set of design plans is actually hundreds of pages long (you need some pages just to show where the electrical stuff goes, some pages just for the plumbing, and so on), so it's possible you may pass a work site and see no one holding paper scrolls, like they used to do. "
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qiymv | advanced math | I have heard of p = np as sort of the default example of unexplained mathematics. Could someone tell me what the equation is about? Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qiymv/advanced_math/ | {
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"P=NP is theoretical computer science, which is technically math but not usually considered as such.\n\nHot topics in pure math right now are:\n\n**WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS NOT ELI5 AT ALL**\n\n* [algebraic geometry](_URL_6_): the study of shapes [locally] defined by a system of polynomial equations. Classically, algebraic geometry relies on a [link](_URL_15_) between geometry and algebra, making it possible to use a *very specific* area of algebra to answer geometrical questions. On the other hand, the geometric perspective gives insight into algebraic questions. One of the major innovations of 20th-century mathematics (due to [Grothendieck](_URL_12_)) was the introduction of [schemes](_URL_16_). Rather than restricting ourselves to a *very specific* area of algebra, schemes make it possible to view all of [commutative] algebra from a geometric perspective. This technical flexibility also makes it easier to frame and answer questions of classical algebraic geometry.\n\n* [category theory](_URL_19_): at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a big crisis over the foundations of mathematics, and a lot of work went into describing what mathematical objects \"are\". An innovation of the 50s was that it doesn't matter what things *are*, what matters is *how they behave*; and furthermore, one can't study a mathematical object \"in a vacuum\", instead one must look at *relationships between the objects*. Category theory provides the foundation for this enlightened perspective; in some ways it is a \"theory of theories\", allowing one to study the relationships between the different areas of mathematics; the idea of looking at relationships is not just a philosophical principle, but can in fact be stated as a [mathematical theorem](_URL_0_). Since it encompasses so much, category theory is extremely abstract, often being referred to as \"general abstract nonsense\". Though originally intended as an insult, category theorists now consider this phrase a badge of pride.\nGrothendieck (see above) made extensive use of category theory in his view of algebraic geometry. His work has also driven the development of [higher category theory](_URL_14_), which takes the philosophy of category theory to its logical conclusion, looking not only at relationships between objects, but relationships between relationships, relationships between relationships between relationships, and so on.\n\n* [noncommutative geometry](_URL_8_): hard to explain, but relates to the idea of understanding algebraic objects from a geometric perspective.\n\n* [algebraic topology](_URL_7_): has its origins in [topology](_URL_3_) (related to geometry), but nowadays it's very much concerned with taking care of all the areas of algebra it spawned in the 1900s. The main idea is to study a complicated object by associating to it an algebraic object which is 1) simpler to analyze, but 2) retains enough information about the original object that we can deduce useful things; this is the notion of a [functor](_URL_20_). For example, an important property of a shape is the [number of holes](_URL_13_) it has; a more sophisticated look at the different \"kinds\" of holes, as well as how they interact, gives [homology](_URL_18_) functors. Or we can look at how one can move around on a shape; this gives [homotopy](_URL_9_) functors. Category theory came about because of the need to study relations between homotopy functors and homology functors. You may also have heard of [knot theory](_URL_4_), which falls under algebraic topology.\n\n* [homotopical algebra](_URL_1_): my personal area of interest; could be considered an area of algebraic topology. Attempts to apply the ideas of homotopy (see above) to other areas of mathematics. Heavily entrenched in category theory.\n\n* [string theory](_URL_17_): an area of physics that makes use of pretty much every area of mathematics there is, and is driving a lot of modern research. The above areas I mentioned are central for understanding the geometry of the universe, but it also has relations to weird things like [number theory](_URL_5_), which is generally considered useless outside of a few applications to cryptography.\n\nThis list is far from complete: algebra and geometry are my areas of interest, but there's also [analysis](_URL_10_), [number theory](_URL_5_), and all of [applied mathematics](_URL_11_). For a more complete view, you could skim the [Mathematics arXiv](_URL_2_) to see what mathematicians are researching. (you need to be a grad student to understand even 1% of what's on there, but it could be interesting to poke around the different topics)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoneda_lemma",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotopical_algebra",
"http://arxiv.org/archive/math",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topology",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_geometry",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_topology",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noncommutative_geometry",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotopy",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_analysis",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_mathematics",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus_%28mathematics%29",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_category_theory",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_Nullstellensatz",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28mathematics%29",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_%28mathematics%29",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_theory",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functor"
]
] |
|
9x3iwm | melting glass | So, my fysics teacher says that glass is a liquid and that it will evetually flow out if I place a glass ball on a table, and I belive that, but then I asked him if its possible to make it a solid and he didnt know so Im reaching out to you guy and asking, is it possible to make glass solid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9x3iwm/eli5_melting_glass/ | {
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"Your physics teacher is WRONG. People used to believe glass was a liquid but in fact that is a myth caused by medieval windows deforming over time.\nCheck out this article for more info: _URL_0_",
"It's not a liquid, but an amorphous solid. Think like clay. It's a solid, but it's soft, and when shaped right, it will change a little due to gravity. Same reasoning, but slower with glass.",
"That's a common misconception. Glass is an amorphous solid, in that it lacks a crystal structure (it's not repeating; it's random).\n\nYour physics teacher is a moron",
"Glass is not a liquid but rather an amorphous solid just like most metals. If you have a piece of glass fiber you can see how it easily bends just like a strand of steel. However it is still a solid. At some point we did think that glass were liquid. Firstly glass does not have a regular crystal structure which is one of the reasons it is transparent. If you look at regular rock which have similar chemical composition to glass it becomes transparent when you heat it up to a liquid as it looses its regular crystal structure. In addition to this we could measure the thickness of glass which have been mounted in windows for hundreds of years. In these windows the bottom were always thicker then the top. So it was reasonable to assume that glass were a liquid. However there are several issues. Firstly the state of matter does not depend on weather or not there is a regular crystal structure or not. And secondly the way they made windows before did not make flat glass and so the windows were intentionally mounted with the thicker side down. If glass were a liquid it should be possible to cool it down so that it eventually became a solid. At absolute zero temperature all matter is a solid. However glass does not change its crystal structure as you cool it down."
]
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|
2qkbpy | does ac electricity work and why/how does the current shift direction? | Also. What on a smaller scale uses AC? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qkbpy/eli5_does_ac_electricity_work_and_whyhow_does_the/ | {
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"Imagine a circuit with a battery powering a lightbulb. The electrons flow from one end of the battery around the circuit to the lightbulb and back to the battery. Now if you flip the battery so that the electrons flow the other way the lightbulb isn't going to care and will still light up. Alternating current is basically just a circuit that switches between these situations very quickly. The electrons alternate their direction of flow. \nEdit: didn't really answer how this is done. They spin a magnet inside a coil of copper wires. When the positive pole faces one end of the bundel it pulls the electrons one direction. When the magnet faces the other direction it pulls the electrons the other way through the circuit.",
"It's because a rotating magnetic field is used to generate power in a coil. The rotation by nature causes oscillating polarity. Plot the position of a point on a rotating circle as a graph and you will understand why the voltage changes polarity. "
]
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[],
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|
5p0mkb | the shape of mushroom clouds | Why does the explosion from a nuclear bomb look like a mushroom? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5p0mkb/eli5_the_shape_of_mushroom_clouds/ | {
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"The initial explosion is so intense and hot it pushes and burns the air around it out, when the energy dissipates it essentially creates a negative pressure zone. The rush of air back to the center point is moving very fast, when it collides with the dusty air from the other circular directions it rises, hence the mushroom stalk. As it moves up it cools off and spreads out. \n\nEdit to explain: the air from the explosion is already intensely hot and wants to rise, it's the in rush of air, and bounce back from the ground that forms the column. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1tqsm4 | why do iphones and louis vuitton bags' prices are standard all over the world yet medicine prices vary extremely worldwide? | Am just sayin. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tqsm4/eli5_why_do_iphones_and_louis_vuitton_bags_prices/ | {
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"text": [
"Because drugs are very heavily regulated relative to consumer products.",
"The prices are practically the same on big name brand items because the companies that make them set pricing that their items are not to be sold beneath. Working in retail and wholesale distribution I have had more than one experience with a company that doesn't want to hurt their 'brand image' by lowering the price beyond a certain point. Another reason is that it can indicate how much profit they are making off of the end user.",
"I work in a pharmacy as a cashier / assistant and I see people paying different prices for the same drug! It isn't even a geographic thing. It all depends on your insurance and how much they pay toward your treatment and what they expect you to pay (your co-pay). \n\nAlthough there are some cases like in India the government has outlawed pharmaceutical companies from getting patents so that some stuff is generic in order to be affordable to their citizens. \n\nPrescription drug markets differ all over the world (supply & demand) and I'd imagine so does insurance companies and co-pays."
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|
49hnbk | what 'diminishing returns' means in a gym sense | I understand it in an economic sense but I don't understand how it applies to resistance training, and how increasing intensity can inevitably result in a plateau in results. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49hnbk/eli5_what_diminishing_returns_means_in_a_gym_sense/ | {
"a_id": [
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"There is a hard limit to the amount of muscle you can gain with every passing year. When you first start, you will get a fairly good amount but this will diminsh every year from then on if you keep lifting without a long break. After a while, the amount will be quite negligble. This all applies when your are a natural lifter and are not using any anabolic steriods. Steriods will keep your progress significant and this hard limit wont be a consideration to your body."
]
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[]
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