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26ov6b | - the difference between using a computer as a server versus using a computer to complete everyday tasks? | I saw a post on r/techsupportmacgyver where a user augmented a laptop into a server. What was going on? Why would someone remove the screen to their laptop?
Also, my friends will talk about servers they had in high school, but I always see these huge server rooms in the media. There is no way they had all that, so what in the world could their use have been. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26ov6b/eli5_the_difference_between_using_a_computer_as_a/ | {
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"A server is just a name for any computer that provides any kind of service across a network. The server can be a multimedia server (providing music and video streaming), a web server (hosting a website), a file server etc.\n\nThe only requirements for such a computer are that it will always be online and connected to the network (it should also be a powerful computer that can serve many clients at once, but that's not a requirement). Because all the communication with the server are performed through te network, it doesn't require any other input/output devices, such as a screen or a keyboard.\n\nAs to the post you're talking about (which I'm assuming is [this](_URL_0_)), he explains in the album that he removed the screen so that the laptop would take up less space and could be placed vertically.",
"There are two main ways that computers can communicate with each other: using connectionless protocols, which are generally stateless, and using connection-based protocols, which maintain state. The main connection-based protocol in use is called the Transmission Control Protocol, or [TCP](_URL_3_).\n\nIn the TCP, one computer acts as a server by listening for connections. Other computers then act as clients by *connecting* to the server. Once a client is connected to the server, they can communicate via that connection until it is closed. A server will typically maintain multiple connections to several clients at once. Even though it was originally stateless, for other reasons that I won't go into, the web uses TCP rather than a stateless protocol. A web server listens for connections from clients, which is what your web browser is.\n\nMost computers have several services running on them which listen for connections, so in that sense, most computers are servers, but a *dedicated* server is typically a computer whose *main function* is to run a particular piece of server software to serve clients. Usually things like web servers are run on dedicated servers. Because the main purpose of a dedicated server is just to run server software, there's usually no need to have a display, a mouse or a keyboard attached to it. When you need access to the server, you usually just use remote control/access software. That's why the screen from the laptop was removed.\n\nA dedicated server can be anything from a piece of junk tower sitting under somebody's desk, to a state of the art machine running in a huge data center. Most dedicated servers used for anything serious are [rack mounted](_URL_1_), meaning that they are housed in flat, deep cases that slot into a rack. When you have a rack full of servers, they start to run very hot, so you usually require cooling and air conditioning. Furthermore, with many servers, you'll also have lots of Ethernet cable and networking equipment. Managing all of this cable, networking equipment and cooling is something that a data center is good for.\n\nWhere I work, we have a single rack with about 10 servers in it, so we just have a small air conditioned room that we keep them in. Companies such as Google have so many servers that they have many huge data centers the size of warehouses. The kind of server room you probably find in a typical high school is probably just a few dedicated towers in a closet somewhere.\n\nMany servers run the [Linux](_URL_2_) OS, though some run Windows too, and even [Solaris](_URL_0_).",
"The high school servers they were talking about were probably just an old pc that they connected to their router, and stored music, films etc on it. That way all the people living in a house can access it, and the stuff that's on it.",
"A server is just that a computer that erves. Other computers connect to the server over a network either the internet or just a local network these are known as client computers because they are the ones getting served. A client request some data from the server and the server sends it. The most common example of course being servers for websites. Your computers web browser basically asks the website for the data stored (generally html file) store at the location of the url and the server provides that data.\n\nIt could also be as simple as you having a computer in your house that serves as a media center for the rest.",
"Server and workstation are just descriptions of what the machine is being used for. There's no reason you couldn't turn a workstation into a server, and vice versa. In fact, a computer can be both server and workstation (like if you share files or run a small game server on your desktop you use for gaming/web browsing, for example).\n\nIn practice, a computer designed to be a server will be different from a computer designed to be a workstation. In a server build, you typically value CPU and hard drive specs (size, speed and quantity). In a workstation, you'll put more value into GPU and will probably have something better than dirt cheapest i/o (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.).\n\nIt is possible to have a server that can only be controlled via network (no video, no input except network), which would make it unusable as a workstation."
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1os7xr | why do 99% of toothpaste/mouthwash have dyes? | They're for cleaning teeth. Coloring = stain teeth. Is this not true? What's everyone's problem with making dental hygiene products? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1os7xr/eli5_why_do_99_of_toothpastemouthwash_have_dyes/ | {
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"The dyes aren't able to alter your teeth or anything. When you put food colouring in cake batter it doesn't change the cake batter in any way, it just puts molecules of a liquid that reflects a certain colour around the molecules of the batter.\n\nIf you put such colourings on your teeth they can't get mixed into your tooth the way they can with a loose material like cake batter or toothpaste, it just falls off. Maybe a little bit holds on thanks to hydrogen bonding or something, but it'll come off without much fuss if you run your tongue over it or just get saliva moving over it. "
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492nvv | where does the us dollar get its value if there is no gold standard? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/492nvv/eli5where_does_the_us_dollar_get_its_value_if/ | {
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"supply and demand within the country itself, and other countries/foreigners?",
"the same place, essentially, that ANYTHING get's it's value from: popular consensus. Anything on this earth has value because people have all agreed it has value, whether it's gold, gem quality diamonds, milk, or dollars. That value is usually (but not always, gem quality diamonds for instance ain't that useful) a function of the usefulness of the thing. \n\ngiven that dollars are \"legal tender\", they are quite useful.",
"Supply and demand impacts the value of the U.S. dollar. The dollar increases in value when dollar demand goes up and loses value when dollar demand goes down. When the US imports stuff, the value of the dollar decreases because the US has to buy foreign currency to pay for its imports. Strong U.S. exports increase the value of the dollar countries have to buy more US dollars to do trade. At a deeper level, the commodity that impacts the buying and selling of dollars for trade purposes most heavily is oil, leading toward the concept of the 'petrodollar'.",
"As a reserve currency, the US dollar is the default for international transactions. If, for example, a South Korean company wants to buy wine from Chile, chances are they will carry out the transaction in dollars. Both companies must then purchase dollars to conduct their business, leading to greater demand. The value of global commodities, such as oil, is also generally demarcated in US dollars.\n\nBeing a reserve currency allows the US to borrow at low interest rates, as central banks around the world are eager to buy US government debt. \"Any country that can finance its expenditures by printing money or selling bonds is essentially getting a free lunch,\" ",
"The only way you can buy US goods and US services is with US money. The high demand for both is what gives our currency its value.\n\nAn easy way to think about it is that the money is backed by our economy, rather than a commodity.",
"Since there is no gold backing of the USD, the value is determined by the use of USD in circulation and foreign exchange. The US gov will only use USD when purchasing things like foreign oil, and other imports. IF/When countries decide to stop accepting USD for payment, the value goes down. ",
"Where does it get it's percieved value, or it's actual international value. The actual value comes from simple supply and demand across currency exchanges. If a lot of people want dollars, whether it be for speculation, or for the normal reasons (the purchase of goods and services). As for the perceived value, a lot of it comes from Oil Trading. Until recently, the only currency crude oil was traded in was US Dollars. This meant that in order to buy oil, you had to buy dollars, and if you sold oil, you got paid in dollars, thus keeping demand high. During the Bush Administration, Iran built an exchange, that runs on Euro.",
"The dollar gets its objective value in at least two ways.\n\n1. The US government accepts only dollars to pay taxes. If in their opinion you owe them you need dollars to keep them from sending men with guns after you. \n\n2. American workers must be played a minimum number of dollars per hour worked or the aforementioned men with guns show up. \n\nSo, instead of gold it's now based on the value of unskilled labor and the convenience of not having the US government's men with guns after you. ",
"It appears that you're not really asking a question rather you are trying to prop up your own viewpoint, so I'll ask you a question. Where does gold gain it's value from? ",
"The US dollar gets value through acceptance. If a narrower set of people start using the dollar and people start dumping it for other currencies, its value will go down and scarce goods become more expensive.\n\nForeign exchanges will start demanding more dollars if people start dumping the US dollar. People will start offering more dollars to foreigners looking for US dollars in an attempt to get rid of there dollars faster. This can cause hyper inflation because the demand for goods rises.",
"The full faith and credit of the united States Treasury and the laws that require Americans to accept US Federal Reserve Notes as payment for debts. They're also unique compared to other forms of money in that they're not subject to capital gains taxes. For example, if I owned gold or some other commodity and the value of the dollar decreased the gold would be worth more dollars even though it would have about the same purchasing power. But I would be taxed on the nominal dollar increase in the price of the gold. However if I saved some dollars and the value of the dollar increased I would now have greater purchasing power but because am taxes are calculated in units of dollars I wouldn't have to pay any taxes on the increase in value. Like most goods or money, the value of dollars is determined by their scarcity. If the US decides to just print tons of more money the value will decrease.",
"First of all it doesn't really have value in the same way that a commodity or service does. Its just a medium of exchange. You could replace all the paper money with a master ledger somewhere and we'd be no worse off. The economy has a certain level of output and we use dollars to account for who owes what to who. Rather than some weird barter system or one where everybody writes everybody else IOUs we have a common currency. The federal reserve controls the amount of dollars and keeps their value consistent against a basket of commonly bought goods. So when you agree to work for a dollar essentially you're agreeing to trade your labor for some share of that basket of goods. So in a way we have a basket-of-goods standard I guess.\n\nThe gold standard on the other hand is a little different. Gold obviously has some practical uses in jewelry and circuits but most of it just gets hoarded. Its attraction as far as money is concerned is that its rare. For centuries (and even today to some extent) counterfeiting coins and paper money was easy enough that it could bring the whole system down. But you can't counterfeit gold because there's only so much of it on the known earth. So a gold standard created a relatively fixed money supply in primitive economies. The problem is there are times where you actually want to expand or contract the money supply because not doing that will lead to deflation or inflation. Gold doesn't allow for that. In fact gold tends to become more valuable during downturns. In a recession there is a natural tendency to get deflation and the gold standard would exacerbate that - making recessions worse. ",
"The dollar gets its value from the US government. The government literally creates dollars (by printing them), and gives them value by accepting them as payment, e.g for taxes. The government can raise the value of the dollar by selling more things, such as financial instruments, in exchange for dollars, which makes dollars more scarce and desirable. And everyone believes that the US government can and will maintain the value of the dollar, because the US is such a large economy, and the government wants to maintain this economy and can extract financial resources from it if needed, via taxes.",
"I had this explained to me a couple years ago when I first started in on my economics degree and it revolutionized my understanding of money.\n\nThe first thing I want to ask you is what IS a dollar? Dig deep on this one. Take a minute to think about it.\n\nReally, that dollar is anything you want it to be. It's a cheeseburger. A skydiving trip. Rent. Maybe a new dog.\n\nSo what is the dollar? Well its a measurement of your own capacity to make a decision. Any decision.\n\nBut why do we have a dollar? Couldn't we just barter like our ancestors?\n\nWell sure. We could. But let's create a hypothetical economy where I provide sliced bread. And you provide sliced ham. We trade bread for ham, everyone wins.\n\nBut what if you provided shoes. But I already have shoes. So I don't really want to buy anything from you but you still want my bread. Wouldn't it be better if there was some other thing that held value and allowed us to make our economic decisions?\n\nBut why the dollar. Why the gold standard? Well, now that we've established why we need a currency we should talk about what makes a GOOD currency.\n\nWe've all heard the stereotype about cigarettes being legal tender in prison. But cigarettes are a bad currency. You use them. Cigarettes don't hold value over time. Aztecs used to use cocoa beans. Which obviously have the potential to go bad. So it stands to reason that a GOOD currency would be somewhat useless. And a good currency is physically stable over time.\n\nEnter gold. Gold is relatively rare. So it takes effort to get. Other than shininess, it doesn't have a whole lot of useful attributes. And it doesn't oxidize over time. (or do much else for that matter) gold was a good choice of currency because of how utterly useless it is. \n\nBut when and why did we get rid of the gold standard. You're probably gonna read a lot of nitpicky political reasons for why the gold standard was abandoned in the way it was and at the time that it did. But the reality is is that with the advancement of technology, gold was no longer meeting our already established definition of a good currency. Gold is a key component in most electronics. Which as you probably know. Are used by lots of people a lot of the time.\n\nSo we moved to a fiat currency. Where the dollar has value simply because we say it does.\n\nWhich really, is kind of how it already worked for a long time anyways. We just formally acknowledged it.\n\nDon't believe me? How much are you worth right now, on paper? Chances are that value is higher than the value of your pocket. I.e. you don't have all of your money on your person directly. You have it at the bank. Most of the time that bank doesn't have all of your money that you put in the bank, in the bank. The bank is off doing other shit. Taking your money for long walks on the peach. Singing it love songs. Whatever. It's not in the safe.\n\nNobody's money is in the safe. Except a small amount that's enough to get by.\n\nBut the system works fine most of the time. Because we have faith in the bank. The word \"credit\" comes from the latin word \"to believe\". All the gold standard ever was was saying that if qthings went belly up, the value of the money in the bank was backed by gold. Not that you'd be able to get gold back in the event of a run on the bank. Bank never had enough gold for that. That's just not how they do business. But the value of the money wouldn't erode. Which could be just as easily accomplished by having a dollar without backing by just assigning it a value. But it would be a lot easier without the need to get gold wrapped up in this for some reason.\n\n\nTl;dr the gold standard wasn't really the necessary in the first place and it outlived its time as technology evolved to change the role of gold fundamentally ",
"It has value because people have confidence in it even though it has no intrinsic value and is not backed by anything. In other words, a confidence game."
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1l65uq | how is adblock still active? wouldn't big companies try to take them down? | When I did my search, all I could find was that AdBlock is completely legal because it is modifying page on the user-end. But big companies who live off of selling and showing ads need the ad to be shown and clicked to survive. I'm sure its no match for fully donation-run adblock to compete against those big multinational companies? How are they still thriving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l65uq/eli5how_is_adblock_still_active_wouldnt_big/ | {
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"Relatively few people use AdBlock, and the tech savvy crowd that uses it is relatively unlikely to click on ads anyways. If more people started using it, you can bet that ad based companies would try to take them down.\n\nAlso, big companies don't need to take them down at all. Google banned AdBlock Plus from their Google Play store, but the also paid AdBlock Plus to allow some of their ads through.",
"Kind of the opposite, but when I hate a company, I click on every one of their ads because they typically have to pay for the click. It is my little way of costing them money 1/100th of a cent at at time. \n",
"...and how would they \"take them down\"?\n\nIt isn't like a war with guns. The big companies can't take them down because they have no legal right to. There's no way for them to do it in a legal way, so they can't and won't.\n\nI'm not sure what else to explain about it. It's just...entirely legal, is all.",
"Ask everyone you know if they use Adblock. You'll be astonished at the amount who don't. I know for sure my neighbor doesn't, and my sisters and brother don't, and neither does my mom. I think my GF doesnt either. \n\nI actually don't always use it either, because I feel it's important to support the developers and the sites I enjoy. Ads don't annoy me that much and I rarely click them, however I will block very intrusive ads when they start getting to me."
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5vf5wz | why is the liquid level inside a straw is higher than the liquid level in the rest of the glass? | I'm going to include a photo to clear up confusion | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vf5wz/eli5_why_is_the_liquid_level_inside_a_straw_is/ | {
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"It's because of capillary force. Water tends to climb up surfaces a little. Water also loves to stick to itself. So outside the straw, the water gets pulled up a little, but also gets pulled down by the rest of the water, so you will only see a little 'bump' right around the straw if you look very carefully. Inside the straw, There is almost as much water touching the straw, but there is less water interacting with those molecules actually touching the straw, so you have the same force distributed to fewer molecules. So the water level inside the straw will be just a little bit higher.",
"This effect is called Capillary Action. It happens because water molecules are, in a sense, \"sticky\". They cling to themselves and other materials. Capillary Action occurs when the water wants to stick to the plastic of the straw more than to itself. It's more noticeable in a straw because the straw has a very high amount of surface area and a very small diameter. Basically, inside the straw there's a lot of surface for the water to cling to but not a lot of space inside so that the weight of the water can pull it back down. Capillary action can be seen on the side of the glass as well but since the glass is very wide there is much more water pulling back down than there is glass surface to pull up."
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1dzwli | why is it that i can use the same chocolate chip recipe but come out with varying results each time? | I use the same recipe, bake them for the same amount of time at the same temperature, and sometimes they come out perfectly soft and delicious, and sometimes they come out more airy/hard/etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dzwli/eli5_why_is_it_that_i_can_use_the_same_chocolate/ | {
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"Assuming you really use all the same stuff, and do it all exactly the same (which I'm skeptical of) then one remaining difference is ingredients. It's possible some ingredients that are older (or newer) will behave somewhat differently, baking soda for example changes over time.",
"Gluten! Assuming your ratio of baking powder and baking soda and acid/base balance are exactly by the recipe and always consistent - if not fix that first - then the likey culprit is gluten. Flour can get more chewy and harder if you mix too much or get brittle if not mixed enough. It's why those chewy pizza doughs get all sorts of kneading while flakier biscuit type doughs get barely more than one turn. So for cookies, once the wet meets the dry, the texture will vary directly with how much mixing you do. Mixing just enough to get the dough wet wil make crumbier cookies and mixing for an hour will make rubber.\n\nAlton Brown had a good episode where he made three different styles of chocolate chip cookies with the same base and does a fantastic job explaining he interplay between the ingredients along the way. [3 chips episode]( _URL_0_)",
"Butter temperature. Cold will make the cookies come out a little cakey, too warm will make the oily, room temperature (70 f) is juuuust right.",
"Depending on the fat you're using, temperature matters! If the butter you use in the cookie is too warm before you put it in the oven, the butter will melt before the cookie rises, and it will spread out and feel crunchier. If you keep the butter (really, all of the dough) reasonably cold before you put it in the oven, it won't melt as quickly, which will greatly improve the shape/texture.\n\nEdit: small change for accuracy (water doesn't melt :P)",
"Well, in your case it sounds like you're baking them more than they should be baked, but it's still that human element. Tiny differences in how much of each ingredient you add will make all the... difference. Also, baking at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time is a bad idea."
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eujeje | how does seltzer water have a taste when it has no calories/sweeteners? | I know people make fun of la croix having no flavor but it and other seltzer waters obviously taste like something! As an active seltzer lover, with new brands and flavors coming out all the time now, some of these are objectively quite flavorful and sweet. Yet, they have 0 calories, 0 sweeteners or sugar, only “natural flavors.” Do they really have 0 of everything or is it just such a small amount that they call it 0?
eli5 what natural flavoring means and how it can taste so strong with no sugar or anything so I can enjoy my seltzer without mental turmoil. Thank you! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eujeje/eli5_how_does_seltzer_water_have_a_taste_when_it/ | {
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"There is still some sweetener that comes from the \"natural flavors\" they use. Its just that theres non extra sugar or anything recognized as a high intensity sweetener by the FDA.\n\nRegulations also allow you to put in less than some certain amount of calories (I think 5 per serving) and still call it 0 calorie.\n\nAnd sorry, but natural flavoring just means that it started off in plants or animals and has only had certain specific chemistry done to it. Much of the time its not directly related to whatever the flavor is supposed to represent.",
"Calories listed on food items are calories that are usable by the body. Take water for example, water has 0 calories but they still have bonded oxygen and hydrogen molecules. So there must be energy there. But the body doesn't break down those molecules hence 0 calories. \n\nSo certain things like the sweetener may contain calories but not to humans because we cannot process or absorb them. Or we can absorb them but they have very little calorific value. In some drinks, where sugar isn't used, a protein called aspartame is used. This is much sweeter than sugar and has a much lower calorific value since proteins broken down to amino acids and processed by our body only give us about 4 or less calories per gram. *and there's less than a gram in these drinks*\n\nThe FDA also counts anything that has less than 5 calories to be 0 calories.\n\nAs for natural flavours, I don't know. Maybe it is just fruit extract or something?",
"I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet so here's my go. Seltzer will *still* taste something even if it has nothing added to it. Carbonated water alone should have a flavor. Carbnonation works putting a drink under CO2 at high pressure, which forces some of the CO2 to dissolve into the liquid as carbonic acid. This is reversed when you crack the bottle and let the pressure off, but there is still some amount of carbonic acid in the drink as long as it's fizzy, and this will have a sour taste (sourness is essentially the perception of acids).\n\nThat said, there are probably a bunch of other things added that have zero or negligible calories as others have mentioned, like minerals and such.",
"FDA does not require food companies to disclose the ingredients creating a “natural flavor,” so long as they all fall into the GRAS category chemicals “generally recognized as safe.” \n\nEssential it may very well contain sugar and other artificial ingredients, just less than they are required to display. Their own website says it's made from fruit essence, fruit contain sugar so it probably has some, just enough to taste but not enough to regulate."
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7nv7cu | how does euler’s formula connect real and imaginary numbers? | I see Euler’s formula pop up and we just have to accept that you can split a complex number into real and imaginary parts using exp(). How does it actually work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7nv7cu/eli5_how_does_eulers_formula_connect_real_and/ | {
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"The best explanation I've ever seen is in Feynman's lectures on physics. One of the chapters is a condensed and exceptionally written presentation of algebra. It ends with the equivalences between complex exponents and trigonometric functions. _URL_0_"
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3f00ut | if an engine has 200 hp and 350 lb/ft torque and another has 300 hp and 250 lb/ft torque, which engine is more powerful and why? | What is happening if torque increases and horsepower decreases or vice versa. Can torque compensate for hp or hp compensate for torque if either one is lacking. Why is horsepower what people seem to talk about if torque also matters when judging an engine? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f00ut/eli5_if_an_engine_has_200_hp_and_350_lbft_torque/ | {
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"ELI5-style:\n\nTorque is the ability to pick up a 500-lb weight.\n\nHorsepower is the ability to pick up 5 100-lb weights in the same amount of time.\n\nWay over-simplified, but that's the idea. Race Cars tend to be high-horsepower, but not so much torque, because Speed Kills (the competition). On the other hand, on short tracks, high-torque engines can be a good thing, because they can accelerate the car, especially at low speeds and out of tight corners.",
"HP = ( Torque x RPM ) 5252\n\nWhere Torque is measured in Lb-Ft.\n\nPower is what actually does *work*, and Torque is just one component of Power, the other being rate (RPM in this case).\n\nAn engine that makes 1000 lb-ft of torque at 1000 RPM = 190 HP at 1000 RPM.\n\nAn engine that makes 250 lb-ft of torque at 5000 RPM = 238 HP at 5000 RPM.\n\nAdding a 1:5 reduction gear to the second engine drops it's output speed from 5000 RPM to 1000 RPM and multiplies its torque by 5 to 1250 lb-ft.\n\nSo with proper gearing, the engine with more power can out-torque the less powerful but more torquey engine. The trade off is that you have to run the engine at a higher speed which increases wear and friction.\n\nIn your example, the 300 HP engine is capable of producing an output of 50% more torque than the 200 HP engine *with proper gearing*.\n\nNote that peak torque and peak power are achieved at different engine speeds."
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57tm69 | how do prices on certain items stay the same despite inflation? | Every day I see certain small things like Little Debbie candy bars, lighters, some tools, what have you, whose prices have stayed the same for years. How do they not lose money as they pay more for the materials while selling them for the same price month after month? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57tm69/eli5_how_do_prices_on_certain_items_stay_the_same/ | {
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"those prices are so small that increasing them with small increments would be useless. I will explain with something from my country (Turkey). In here, the smallest capacity bottled water has being sold for 0.5 try for so long that even our republic would be younger from it. We have approximately 0.08 inflation and if they increase the price, it would be 0.54 try. I would rather have small amount of freakingly small exchanges (0.01 try, 0.10 try etc) than buy a bottle of water that is priced 0.54, but if it were a good 0.50, I would both end my thrist and have less coins in my pocket.\n\nI think that, they take note of that little increments, keep a balance between them and lowered costs due to technological improvements (producing plastic bottle -should be- cheaper than producing it in 1996) and when there is enough unbalance occur, they make a high price jump to the next round value such as selling a bottle of water for 0.75.",
"If you see that the inflation is, say, 5%, that doesn't mean it's the same among all goods. Instead it's average: plastics cost went up by 1%, furs by 9%, we have 5% inflation. There are things whose costs affect most goods - like price of gas, and there also might be regulations on price of some special goods. But as you see inflation might not necessarily apply to costs of every category of goods.\n\nAlso the cost of materials can be just a fraction of the whole price, most being marketing, transportation and packaging, then inflation affects the price even less.",
"Well first of all, inflation has been pretty slow in the US for the last decade, ~1-2% per year. So if you're only looking at a period of a few months, it's not likely you'll see a difference. Even in the space of a few years, you might not see an appreciable change.\n\nSome things stay the same price because, as inflation occurs, other improvements make the item cheaper, and the two cancel each other out. For example, if I built a new Little Debbie factory that was closer to your town and started pumping out candy bars, it would cost less to transport the bars to your store. Or maybe I buy a new machine that makes candy bars faster, so I can make more in the same amount of time. Or maybe the slowing demand for refined sugar results in an overall drop in the price of that ingredient, which offsets the higher cost of the others.\n\nOther times, companies get sneaky. They may put those candy bars in the same package, but they make the bars just a tiny bit smaller where you won't notice the difference. Maybe the lighters look the same, but they have a little less fuel in them, or they use a lower-quality plastic that makes them more likely to break. Perhaps they outsourced the manufacture of those tools to China where the labor is cheaper in order to make up the difference."
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at5l36 | there are so many way to die that have a really low probability, eg. by lighting - do these probabilities add up to make one of them happening to you likely? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/at5l36/eli5_there_are_so_many_way_to_die_that_have_a/ | {
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"There is a 100% probability that you will in fact die to some cause that is in itself improbable when compared to all possible causes.",
"Unlikely you'd even find projections of all the low probabilities. It would be more efficient, in any case, to aggregate the most common causes of death, and the difference would be the group you're looking for. ",
"\"Chances of dying\" are really \"how often does someone die from this.\" I'm assuming that these numbers usually mean \"what percentage of cause-of-death, within a given time frame and for a set population, is this cause.\" In other words, if you look at 750 million people deaths, then one of them will be on a rollercoaster, 3 of them will be from a coconut, around 1,000 will be from lightning...\n\nEven if you add up the most common 500 weird deaths, you're still only gonna get to maybe 150,000 to 200,000 deaths out of your pool of 750,000,000, meaning that those 500 different weird deaths have a 1 in 4,000 chance of happening. Not very high, particularly when you consider that the pool includes so many different methods of exit."
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218lgt | the difference between cisgender, transgender, and intersex | I have to present a speech in about an hour, and I am doing it on the difference between sex and gender. My presentation, after reviewing it for the millionth time, is kind of wordy and my classmates don't seem to be the brightest bunch. I was wondering if anyone could come up with a better explanation of the differences. Thank you!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/218lgt/eli5_the_difference_between_cisgender_transgender/ | {
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"Cisgender is when the stuff down there matches what's going on in your head. Transgender is when the stuff down there is the opposite of what you think you should be. Intersex is when you're kinda neither",
"Cisgender is what most people are. Their physical sex, and gender identity are mostly in sync, so they feel 'normal' with themselves for the most part.\n\nTransgender -as can be assumed by the prefix 'trans' being the opposite of the prefix 'cis', is the exact opposite. Their physical sex does not match how their gender identity, so they feel like they're in the wrong body. This is a depressing, often dysphoric situation for most transgender folks, and modern society's view on transgenderism as a mental illness comes with a lot of stigma. \n\nThen, there are things like genderfluidity, being genderqueer, and being agendered. Things things, as their names suggest; someone whose mental gender identity has a tendency to shift between one and the other; someone whose gender identity does not conform with either male or female, and don't really have a specific category; and someone who don't identify with any gender whatsoever.\n\nBeing intersex is a completely different issue to being transgender... sort of.\nA person is intersex when their visible, physical sex is not one of the two 'typical' sexes. This is the case in individuals born with atypical genitalia, hermaphroditic(both sexes) genital expression, or in some human chimeras (individuals who are the result of a merging of twin embryos very early on in development).\n\nAll of these things are separate from sexual orientation, and should not be treated as one and the same."
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1cbyo3 | how did people add titlecards to silent movies? | See title.
I was playing Bioshock Infinite today (no spoilers in this post) and I see alot of Kinetoscopes with silent movies.
So I was wondering: how did people edit those titlecards in back in the day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cbyo3/how_did_people_add_titlecards_to_silent_movies/ | {
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"Oops! Forgot to add \"ELI5\" in the title, sorry :(",
"They splice it into the reel. Basically that's how editing was done back then. \n\nYou would have someone look each frame. The editor would then cut the reel in between the frames where you want to add something, then stick the added footage into that reel and finally reattach the rest onto the end of the added frames. "
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1ekhdn | what is this 'dark flow' at the edge of our universe? | How was it observed and what is it exactly? Is our universe being sucked out into another vacuum? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ekhdn/eli5_what_is_this_dark_flow_at_the_edge_of_our/ | {
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"I seem to recall reading a recent article that suggests Dark Flow was just a mistake in the data. I will look for said article.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nPoints out errors in article that postulated the concept of Dark Flow\n\nNatGeo has a reprinting of the article\n\n_URL_1_\n\n\n\nThe answer the ELI5\n\nDark Flow is an idea that came about because of the apparently velocity (direction and magnitude) of a group of galaxies was \"flowing\" in. It looked like there was something beyond the light veil (not a real world, but descriptive enough, the distance where light wouldn't have had enough time to reach us) or possibly beyond the outside of our universe that was somehow affecting this matter gravitationally. If either version of gravitational attraction where true (different universe, or just a beyond the horizon/veil universe,) it would have lots of implications for our understanding of the cosmos. We really need to find a word to describe everything that ever was, or will be discovered. We tried with universe I guess. :P\n\nAs stated with above links, it appears to be just an error in data and an error in conclusions.",
" > Is our universe being sucked out into another vacuum?\n\nNah, I think it's more like a lazy river. "
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ddmzil | how can a doctor refuse to treat a patient while respecting his hippocratic oath ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ddmzil/eli5_how_can_a_doctor_refuse_to_treat_a_patient/ | {
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"The oath is more of a symbol than anything else. It is in no way a binding contract with whoever. In addition to any legitimate reason a doctor would not treat a patient, don't forget they are humans, and maybe not nice humans",
"First, many doctors don't swear a Hippocratic Oath. Some schools require different oaths, which may be modified Hippocratic Oaths, the original Hippocratic Oath, the Oath of Maimonidies, the Declaration of Geneva, or some other professional oath or covenant. \n\nIn most of them, you'll find a line that says something like \"either help or do not harm the patient\". You'll also find lines like \"look after yourself, too\" and \"remember that there are other doctors who might be more experienced or specialized for a given case\"."
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2els4o | how does a deep space probe like rosetta maintain contact and transmit data back to earth? | Radio waves? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2els4o/eli5_how_does_a_deep_space_probe_like_rosetta/ | {
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"Yep. It's may be difficult to realize, but radio waves have identical properties to visible light. This is because they are both forms of electromagnetic radiation. Radio waves travel at the speed of light and do not deteriorate in space. In the same way that you can see the light from the sun 300,000,000 miles away, radio waves can travel that far too. Sending radio waves back in certain patterns allows us to discern massive amounts of information from the original message.",
"Yes, via radio. Rosetta and other deep space probes talk to [NASA's Deep Space Network](_URL_0_). The antennas in the DSN are approximately 120 degrees apart on Earth so that at least one is in the right position of receiving a signal."
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9g07y5 | why is jeremy corbyn regarded as anti-semitic? | Thanks in advance.
Bonus questions:
* where can I find actual evidence of anti-semitism in the labour party?
* why hasn't conservative governments been held to the same standard with Islamophobia?
* is this purely conservative tabloid manipulation tactics?
* is the Jewish community that strongly opposed to Corbyn because of his diplomatic stance on political alliances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9g07y5/eli5_why_is_jeremy_corbyn_regarded_as_antisemitic/ | {
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"Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but under the new parliamentary rules simple criticisms of the Israeli state. For example \"Israel should open dialogue with the PLO as opposed to fighting with them\" is now considered as anti-semitism.\nSo I don't think there is any evidence of Corbyn being anti-semetic in the old fashioned way. Just his past criticisms of Israel are regarded as anti-semetic, now. ",
"From tabloid headlines I've only seen \"Jewish x accuses corbyn of antisenitism\" or \"y member of the antisimetic Labour Party...\" so I would be very surprised if it wasn't just tabloids being tabloids. If they had quotes they would be there on the front page as well. ",
"I believe some of it was because of the labour party didn't accept the examples used in the International holocaust remembrance alience's, definition of anti-semitism. Which because of its wide adoption by a number of different countries, UK councils, and the crown prosecution service, it is the go to definition of antisemitism. \n\nI think another cause for this, is their reluctance to investigate, or make any changes after complaints are made about individuals within their party. The latest being a number of formal complaints being made against Corbyn himself, I don't what the claims made are, but Labour do seem to be refusing to investigate their own leader. \n\nIf I remember correctly this all kicked off a few years ago, when the daily stormer (an alt right/ white supremacist/ neo nazi website, whatever you wanna call it) started writing articles about how Jeremy Corbyn was one of them.\n\n\nThis is all coming from memory, so sorry if any information is wrong. ",
"His criticism of Israel and inappropriate friendliness to Hamas are not the reasons why I'd considered him anti-Semitic.\n\n\nThis, however, explains why his comments are anti-Semitic:\n\n > When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism. \n\n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"A very good question! \n\nEvidence: \nThe overwhelming majority of the media focus here is on people *accusing* Labour of antisemitism. There is very little evidence of Labour peers making antisemitic statements. Most of the so-called evidence is from the media focusing on a few events and twisting the narrative to suit their agenda. Here are a few of them: \n\nKen Livingston got in trouble a few years ago for talking about Hitler working with Zionism to encourage Jews to leave pre-war Nazi Germany, which actually happened and is evidenced in the [Haavara Agreement](_URL_0_). Ken ended up being expelled from the party. \n\nJeremy did lay a wreath back in 2014 for the Palestinian victims of a Israli air strike in 1985. The memorial was very close to another memorial for some genuine Hamas terrorists who killed innocent Israeli civilians in 1972. The media conflated this as Corbyn laying the wreath for the terrorists, which isn't accurate. The BBC goes into some detail about this [here](_URL_1_). \n\nUnder the barrage of antisemitism accusations, Labour re-wrote its party rules on antisemitic speech. They used the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism as the basis. The IHRA does include some problematic definitions which confuses legitimate criticism of the Israeli government as antisemitism. Labour tried to re-word some of these definitions to allow legitimate criticism of the government. The media were very quick to hold this up as further evidence of antisemitism. \n\nIs this conservative tabloid manipulation tactics?\n\nYes. It absolutely is. \n\nIt seizes of the fact that Corbyn has been very critical of the government of Israel. Criticism of the actions of any government is essential for democracy, however Israel has the unique advantage of being able to deflect criticism with accusations of racism; a tactic it, and its supporters, use regularly. \n\nLabour has been very reluctant to make the correct argument here - that criticizing the government is not racism. They are probably fearful that the media would further twist that into more accusations of antisemitism. \n\nThe reason this is all happening at the moment is because of the current state of UK politics. The Conservative party is incredibly divided and weakened because of Brexit. Its been in a position where it could fall at any moment, triggering a general election. The Conservatives and their media supporters have been throwing the antisemitism issue at Labour to force Labour to focus on that, and not Brexit. "
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1cbzth | war reenactments | What are these actually like? Is it full on roleplaying where people get a character and go with it? Do you know beforehand how and when you're supposed to die? Does it go the same every time the same people reenact it?
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cbzth/eli5_war_reenactments/ | {
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" War reenactment (specifically American Civil War reenactment) began when veterans of the actual war wanted to remember their fallen comrades and teach what the war was all about. Since then, it has become a popular hobby among many different ages.\n\nThere are a few different types of reenactors. Some are more casual, spending little time/money on being realistic and authentic, and some dedicate themselves to the hobby, immersing themselves in the culture, eating the food of the time, dressing accordingly, etc.\n\nThere are also some different types of reenactments. Some are put on by reenactors for the sole purpose of teaching others about what the war was like. Some are scripted, with participants knowing where they will go, when they will die, etc. Sometimes, hardcore reenactors hold \"total immersion\" events, where the participants are expected to hold a high level of realism.\n\nThe outcome of the reenactment depends on what battle is being played out. It isn't like paintball or airsoft, where the opposing parties try to eliminate each other using teamwork and tactics. These reenactors simply try to live out what the battle was like.\n\nSometimes, certain reenactors are designated as famous historical figures (Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, etc.), and other times people will simply try to act out what it was like to be a soldier or civilian in these times. Hope this answered your questions.",
"If you are interesting in re-enactors (again American Civil War), I would recommend Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. It's really enjoyable. "
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602rlb | why do some stores require you to be a member of their store to get sale prices? are they just selling everyone's information despite promising they don't? | For example I work at a Walgreens and in order to get most sale prices you need a balance rewards account which requires your name, birth date, phone number and zip code. Sounds like information a marketing company would buy to know what ads to give someone, but maybe my tin foil hat needs adjusting. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/602rlb/eli5_why_do_some_stores_require_you_to_be_a/ | {
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"Rewards accounts = customer loyalty, just kind frequent flyer miles. Zip and such are for big data. Walgreens benefits, but it's not like they're selling your number to some insurance salesman. ",
"Yes and no. These programs are backed by statistical sales analysis that you can draw various conclusions from. \n\nLoyalty programs provide troves of data on consumer behavior while also incentivizing loyalty and creating another avenue for the organization to push their brand image. \n\nTypically, consumers in these programs can get better deals on products that sellers will often lose on. It is the add on items/repeat purchases that consistently add value. This creates the incentive for retailers to use that information for targeted marketing purposes.\n\nThe ethicality of the information collected is really subject on the industry imo. EX: I don't care if a grocery chain knows how many bananas I buy a year and sharing that info. I would be more sensitive about marketers knowing how often I pay for something ridiculous like tentacle porn. ",
"Stores might bring in customers with the promise of never selling information. The problem is that those kind of agreements also include language that \"this policy may change at any time for any reason without notification\".\n\nThis means that they can have a large database of information on customer purchases that they can one day sell to advert companies or used as leverage in company acquisition meetings to get larger offers, simply by altering the language of the document you already \"agreed to\".\n\nYou don't really seem paranoid because it is an actual thing that is put into practice fairly regularly. Data is valuable, and privacy is undervalued."
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2vrxsp | why does nearly every forum/social website use emoticons, but it seems like an unspoken taboo to use them on reddit? :( | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vrxsp/eli5_why_does_nearly_every_forumsocial_website/ | {
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"Emoticons in moderation are usually fine on reddit. The problem with them is that they are strongly associated with immaturity; kids just tend to use them more than adults. That's just fine on most forums becuase the userbase tends to be of a similar demographic. The issue with reddit is that it has an incredibly diverse userbase, with users ranging in age from 10 to 100 (there literally have been AMAs of people over 100, though they were usually done with the help of the person's child or grandchild).",
"Different places have different cultures.\n\nI'm guessing it's just the upvote system. Emoticons look childish, so they get upvoted less.",
"To me, emoticons (particularly the stupid animated ones you see on car forums or game forums) are immature and distracting. Posting a comment that just has an emoticon with a pistol that shoots out a flag that says, \"pwned\" doesn't add anything to the discussion. We always tell our little children, \"Use your words!\" Well, the same idea applies in a forum with legitimate discussions, in my opinion.\n\nUse them if you'd like, but I'll downvote the comment unless there is something tangible and relevant in it.",
"Some research suggested that people who use more emoji's have a more active sex life than people who don't. Not kidding. I'll find a source if you want but Bear with me, i'm on the phone. \n\n\nEdit: [source]( _URL_0_). Actually it's probably not very reliable. It's a survey of some dating site, not really science i guess. ",
"I upvote when a comment clearly adds value to a thread. I think emoticons are too simplistic to convey anything significant to a discussion. No problem when they are used in a text,, but there are other ways to get your point across emotionally. They tend to be used as a shorthand and I appreciate someone who can use language to inform, critique or tickle my funny bone.",
"While many people point to lack of maturity as a reason emoticons are looked down on, to me it's not about age but intelligence. \n\nI've never in my life seen something smart or worthwhile followed by a winky face. It's always been the most asinine, unnecessary, stupid shit imaginable. So now, even benign comments when paired with emoticons get associated with idiocy.\n\nRemember when Ed Hardy t-shirts got big, and people thought it was so douchey? There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the shirt designs, but instead the people who tended to wear them. So even if I were not a douche (which, you know, is arguable but for this example let's pretend I'm not), and I walk down the street in an Ed Hardy t shirt, you might think I am a douche. And even if you aren't dumber than a tennis ball, if I see you using emoticons, I might think you are more than a tennis ball's worth of dumbness. "
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38cgfp | how do spiders get a string of web to go from one tree (for example) to another? do they shoot it? do they jump? i just don't understand! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38cgfp/eli5_how_do_spiders_get_a_string_of_web_to_go/ | {
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"Great original question. I always thought they jump and let the breeze carry them to the best spot but I would love to hear the correct answer.",
"Note, I don't know the exact species of spiders that do the following.\n\nSome spiders will literally jump and be carried by the wind to another tree. Some species will attach it to one tree, climb down the same tree, climb up another tree, and pull on its web to shorten it, then do it again until there are strands running between the trees. Some spiders will attach the web at the top of one tree, jump down, walk over to the other tree, attach to the bottom of the other tree, then climb up that same tree, and do it over again.",
"While camping sometimes in the Serrias I have seen small spiders blown by the wind trailing web behind them. \n\nWas never sure if they fell or were gliding to another tree. "
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9c1xs5 | what is mindfulness? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9c1xs5/eli5_what_is_mindfulness/ | {
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"It's a form of self-help therapy, which basically is the act of thinking about how you're feeling, keeping yourself in the present, how you're sat, just accepting things as they are, with the end-goal of calming and relaxing you. There are literally books written on this subject so a quick summary here is going to miss the finer points, to say the least, but that's the basic idea. ",
"To quote a brief but poetic description of mindfulness:\n\n > You are so long accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to realize it is a skill that can remember *now.*",
"My personal interpretation of mindfulness is to “be here now.” \n\nFor example, when you wash your hands your train of thought will be compelled to think about other things besides washing hands. Such as what you are having for dinner that night etc. \n\nBut instead, live in the moment, don’t worry about that awkward moment you had 2 days ago or worry about what’s for dinner. Live in the moment!\n\n\nSlow not fast. Here not there. These are the days that will never come again. Mediate don’t procrastinate. Pause your mind it’s time to slow down. \n\n",
"It is a process that with training allows you to be present in the moment, aware of what you feel and think. ",
"Let's say you are playing with a doll in the kindergarten and Billy comes up and steal your doll and destroy it. You will feel angry right? Maybe you will do or say something you will regret while you are angry? Mindfulness is when you are angry, but you understand that you are angry - and you take a moment to feel how angry you are. You realize it's just a feeling that will pass and you are able to go on your day without being angry anymore!",
"Hello! Licensed mental health therapist here. A quick summary would be mindfulness is the act of observing the present moment, with all of your attention, non-judgmentally. What you do is: observe the moment, describe the moment, and participate in the moment. How you do it is: one thing at a time, non-judgmentally, and effectively. The benefits: increased awareness, improved interpersonal interactions, decreased judgments of self and others, and a reduction in symptoms of anxiety/depression.",
"Imagine you are watching a group of friends playing a game. Maybe you’re someone who gets bored not being part of the action, and your mind wanders. Maybe you’re so excited watching them you feel their excitement, and you plan ahead as if you could help! Now imagine your sole job was to observe and pay attention to what is happening. You don’t need to tell them what to do, you don’t need to decide who wins or loses, or even root for one or the other. All those things are okay if they happen, but they’re not the point. Instead, you try your best to describe things and events as they happen, and move on to the next thing. The keys here are how you describe, and how you focus. Rather than getting stuck on being frustrated with why Billy keeps picking terrible hiding spots, you make note that he keeps going behind the tree and seems upset when found, and then move on to another part of the action. Now imagine that same view could be applied to yourself and what you do in any moment, except now you have access to thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations you couldn’t observe in someone else. As expected, your mind will likely wander, become bored, or something urgent might come up where you find it difficult to just observe (and not act). That’s okay—but you can always return to the observer role if you’d like."
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653005 | why do we have our nose and mouth canals joined together initially and then later separate into the wind pipe and oesophagus? if they were both separate right from the start, we wouldn't have to deal with problems like choking. is there any advantage to this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/653005/eli5_why_do_we_have_our_nose_and_mouth_canals/ | {
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"because that's the way the general land based mammal's systems work. evolution means whatever mechanism survives gets passed on. not that you can't make a better system. the marine mammal's respiratory system doesn't mix the two. dolphins, whales, etc can't breathe thru their mouth. their blowhole is the only way of breathing\n\nthing is...the nose drainage is supposed to go to the esophagus so you don't flood the lung when you have extra nasal mucus activity, which is what pneumonia is. if the nose was only ever connected to the lung with no drainage, you'd have pneumonia all the time.....or you'd be sneezing to get all of that fluid out all the time. \n\nof course...the one way lung is a somewhat poor design. it could be much better to use two sphincter valves so you could have a flow thru lung. intake valve and exhaust valve would be wired so they open opposite of each other. exhaust valve ducts out to small of back. or maybe above stomach. "
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1f8t3g | how protein is made inside a cell? | I've been having trouble figuring this out since most parts have overlapping function. Thank you in advance for even bothering to read this thread. :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f8t3g/eli5_how_protein_is_made_inside_a_cell/ | {
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"It all starts with DNA in the nucleus. The cell makes a copy of a specific section of DNA that codes for the specific protein being made. The copy of the DNA is called RNA. The RNA gets modified into mRNA and leaves the nucleus and travels to a ribosome. The ribosome accepts the mRNA and, through a very complex process, reads the RNA and builds a protein according to the code on the RNA. As the protein is constructed it enters the endoplasmic reticulum where it is \"tagged\" to ensure it reaches its destination and sent out to do its job. \n\n",
"So the information for making proteins is all kept in a long molecule called DNA. DNA is made up of a series of bases which are like letters (and often given the nickname A, T, G, or C), three of which make up a codon which is like a word. DNA's job is to be very stable and conserve this valuable information in the cell, so it stays in a part of the cell called the nucleus, which is a closed off bubble in the cell that houses the DNA. Proteins, however, are made by machinery outside the nucleus, so the cell uses RNA to bring the information from the nucleus to outside the nucleus (called cytoplasm). RNA is a less-stable molecule that is similar in make up to DNA, but not identical. It also has bases that act as letters (RNA has A, U, G, and C), which in groups of three are like words. The DNA gets transcribed into a type of RNA called messenger RNA (mRNA). This is like taking a document that is saved on a computer and printing it out. It goes from one form of information (virtual in this case being more secure and will last longer) to a different form of the information (like a paper copy which could get lost, torn, damaged, etc, but is easy to use and work with). This mRNA goes from DNA's house (nucleus) into the rest of the cell (cytoplasm) where there is cellular machinery to make proteins. This mRNA will be found by a ribosome, which is part of the machinery. The ribosome has two parts which both attach to the mRNA so that the ribosome can read the words of the mRNA. When the ribosome is reading a specific word, it finds another type of RNA in the cell, transfer RNA (tRNA), which the word indicates. In other words, the mRNA says something along the lines of \"Hey ribosome, I am looking for my buddy, tRNA XXX\" where the XXX is the letters of the tRNA that link up with the mRNA letters. Each of the tRNAs is attached to an amino acid. Amino acids are what proteins are made of in long strings. So the tRNA goes to meet up with the proper part of the mRNA and brings along a specific amino acid. The ribosome then takes the amino acids brought by the tRNAs and starts attaching them together. So the first word's amino acid would be attached to the second word's amino acid. This happens until all the words are read by the ribosome and the \"sentence\" that described the protein is completely read and the protein is completely made. There are some other things that happen after the initial translation of mRNA to protein by the ribosome where other proteins and parts of the cell get involved, but it gets even more away from a description I'd give to a five-year-old. I hope what I said was clear :)."
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1fbe9p | the normandy beach landing | I'm no expert on military logistics so this is probably a stupid question, but here goes:
I don't mean to undermine the brutality of war, but nowadays we mostly hear about combat involving artillery strikes, long-distance sniping and IEDs, yet those tactics were still alive and well during WWII. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has to deal with these hellish situations, and I don't want to offend anyone, but sending hundreds of troops to knowingly charge into enemy fire without cover seems almost medieval by comparison.
In other words: Why did the Allies invade Normandy so recklessly, and not use (ironically, I guess) "safer" methods? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fbe9p/eli5the_normandy_beach_landing/ | {
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"They did it as safely as they could. The problem was, the Nazi war machine could exploit the road network to move mechanized units quickly. In order to succeed, they had to get a lot of troops on the beach quickly before the Nazis could call in major reinforcements (part of the plan was faking the Germans out by making it look like Patton was going to invade somewhere else entirely). Given enough time, Germany could have called up a big pile of tanks and artillery from just about anywhere nearby in Europe to Normandy to make an invasion at that point impossible. When the US began invading islands held by Japan, they could afford the luxury of standing off and initially bombarding the shore with battleships. The US had air and naval superiority at that point, and there weren't any Autobahns between the islands. A prolonged shore bombardment at Normandy would have given the Germans too much time to react.",
"Really, the Allies had almost no choice but to do an amphibious landing(by the by it was 6 beaches, Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah and Pointe du Hoc)...ever since the [evacuation of Dunkirlk](_URL_0_) and the cauplation of the French government, the allies on the Atlantic Ocean side had no foothold in the Contient. Not to mention Stalin wanting the Allies to open up another front to ease pressure off his front. \n\nNormandy was not as well defended as other places such as the Pas-de-Calais to begin with in addition to the Allied misinformation campaign. \n\nIn addition, the American 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne units gained their reputations during D-Day for their sabotage campaigns(such as capturing critical junction points and artillery)carried out the night before the landings(in addition to the Free French cutting up railroads and phone lines) and for protecting the flanks of the amphibiously landing infantry. \n\nWithout the beachheads, things like the [Red Ball Express](_URL_1_) and other logistical wonders woudl've been inpossible.\n\ntl:dr: Allied command needed to invade Europe, so they took as many precautions as possible beforehand and after the landing. \n\n\n",
"In addition to the fine answers from the other folks, the original plans for the Normandy landing had the infantry being support by Sherman DD's (basically amphibious tanks), but the bad weather caused pretty much all of the Shermans to sink before making it to the shoreline. The shermans were supposed to provide cover and support fire against the hardened German defenses. ",
"The simple gist is nowadays any military would use precision bombs and helicopters (and V-22's) to concentrate a force like the US Marines inland. \n\nHelicopters were brand new during WW2 and saw basically no military usage.\n\nThe alternative was airborne infantry in parachute drops and un-powered gliders. This was used a lot, but due to incredibly heavy anti-aircraft fire, a lot of the units dropped to internal north France over the previous night were very disorganized and or killed.\n\nStorming the beaches was the way. The Germans knew that so they had positions that survived massive shelling and essentially unguided or vaguely guided bombings.",
"A long time ago, a mean old Nazi named Hitler came to power in the country of Germany. One day, Hitler told the German Army to run around and beat up all their neighbors. They beat up so many, that soon Hitler's army had beat up every neighbor except Britain. Britain, however, is on an island in the ocean. To get from Germany to Britain you have to go over a part of the ocean called the English Channel.\n\nAt first, Hitler tried sending airplanes with bombs over the Channel to beat up Britain, but Britain just spit fire at these airplanes, blowing them up and keeping Hitler's army from going over the Channel. \n\nEventually Hitler gave up sending planes, but since he had not totally beat up Britain, he was scared that Britain would come back for revenge. To keep this from happening, he built a big wall all around the shoreline, full of machine guns and huge cannons, so if Britain tried to get across the Channel they would get beat up.\n\nA few years after Hitler built this wall, Britain tried to break it at the small town of Dee-Epp. But the wall worked, and Britain got beat up a bit and had to go back to the island.\n\nWhen they got back to the island their friends the Americans had come to visit. They were mad at Hitler for being a meanie, and agreed to help Britain break the big wall. But Britain said the big wall couldn't be broken, so America got an idea to go around. \n\nThey chose the country of Italy, a place where the big wall wasn't built. Italy was friends with Hitler, and Hitler didn't want to build the wall around there because it would keep his friends out. When America and Britain tried to go through Italy, Hitler and Italy quickly built a bunch of smaller walls. They built so many smaller walls that each time America and Britain broke through one, there was another behind it. \n\nGoing through all the smaller walls made America and Britain very tired, so they gave up trying to go through all of them. Instead, Britain had an idea. If they could fool Hitler into thinking they were gonna attack the big wall at one area, Hitler would send his army there, just like he sent it to Italy when they tried to go around the big wall.\n\nAmerica was worried, though. Attacking the big wall was very dangerous. They would have to run across the beach to the wall, while being shot by cannons and machine guns! But, they already tried to go around, there was no other way. They had to break through the big wall.\n\nLucky for them, the big wall was so long that Hitler could not send his army to defend it all. America, Britain and now a few more friends (let's just call them the Allies now) agreed to try and break a part of the big wall called Normandy. To fool Hitler into sending his army in the wrong place, the Allies made a huge fake army out of blow-up dolls and put them just next to the Channel, near the town of Cal-ay, very close to the strongest part of the big wall. They made such good dolls that Hitler thought they were a real army, and put his army on the big wall there, leaving Normandy with only a few guards.\n\nEven without Hitler's army there, the big wall was still strong, so the Allies would send over lots of airplanes to bomb the big wall to blow a hole in it to get through. They also got a huge fleet of big battle boats with huge guns to help blow holes in the wall. \n\nWith so many airplanes and big battle boats, and fooling Hitler into sending his army to the wrong place, the Allies went over to the big wall and pounded it with everything they had. Lots of soldiers died, even with the airplanes and big battle boats, some of the guards still could shoot at the Allies, but they finally managed to break down the big wall. \n\nWith the wall down, the Allies came through in the thousands. Hitler's army came from Cal-ay too late to stop the soldiers from coming through the broken part of wall, and got beat up by all the angry Allies. \n\nWith his army beat up and lots of angry Allies coming for him, that mean old Hitler went crazy and hid in his underground house, and was never seen again."
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j654k | why does my computer get hot, especially when playing games? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j654k/eli5_why_does_my_computer_get_hot_especially_when/ | {
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"It's trying to do a lot of things very fast. To do these things it uses electricity. Billions of times a second there are slightly wasteful actions that release a little tiny bit of heat. That heat builds up, and makes your computer hot. ",
"Computers are made up of lots of tiny little machines, and they all do different things, but almost all of them make heat by accident. Sometimes the heat comes from things that move inside your computer, like the hard drive where we keep things like pictures and movies and programs. Those hard drives spin really fast and generate some heat by friction, like when you rub your hands together really fast.\n\nMost of the heat, though, comes from the tiny little machines that do all the work, called \"microprocessors\" or \"integrated circuits\", but that just means that they do special work with electricity. These little machines have special switches on them, kind of like the switches in your house that turn the lights on and off, but they're very very tiny and look very different. These tiny little switches have a special language that they speak in that uses just the numbers 0 and 1 to tell them whether they should be on or off. Just like the switches in your house, if you turn them on electricity goes through them, and if you turn them off, electricity doesn't go through them.\n\nNow, the thing to remember is that when electricity is trying to squeeze through the switches, it gets slowed down a little bit; it bumps into the switches and stuff they're made out of and when it gets slowed down, it makes the switches get a little bit warmer. When the computer isn't working very hard, we don't have to use many of the switches, but when we make the computer work very hard, we use lots of the switches, and the electricity gets all bumpy and jiggly inside, and it gets hotter and hotter the harder we make it work.\n\nEach switch only makes a little bit of heat, but the other thing to remember is that there are LOTS of these little switches, hundreds and hundreds of them, so many you could never count them. And they are all over the inside of your computer on special boards, but there are a few places where we want to put extra switches to do special things, like make the pictures on the screen or be the main brain of the computer. When you put lots of those switches together to do the special things, you get LOTS of heat, because it all adds together. That's why there are fans inside your computer - the switches work lots better if we keep them cool, so we put fans on them to make them more comfortable.",
"It's trying to do a lot of things very fast. To do these things it uses electricity. Billions of times a second there are slightly wasteful actions that release a little tiny bit of heat. That heat builds up, and makes your computer hot. ",
"Computers are made up of lots of tiny little machines, and they all do different things, but almost all of them make heat by accident. Sometimes the heat comes from things that move inside your computer, like the hard drive where we keep things like pictures and movies and programs. Those hard drives spin really fast and generate some heat by friction, like when you rub your hands together really fast.\n\nMost of the heat, though, comes from the tiny little machines that do all the work, called \"microprocessors\" or \"integrated circuits\", but that just means that they do special work with electricity. These little machines have special switches on them, kind of like the switches in your house that turn the lights on and off, but they're very very tiny and look very different. These tiny little switches have a special language that they speak in that uses just the numbers 0 and 1 to tell them whether they should be on or off. Just like the switches in your house, if you turn them on electricity goes through them, and if you turn them off, electricity doesn't go through them.\n\nNow, the thing to remember is that when electricity is trying to squeeze through the switches, it gets slowed down a little bit; it bumps into the switches and stuff they're made out of and when it gets slowed down, it makes the switches get a little bit warmer. When the computer isn't working very hard, we don't have to use many of the switches, but when we make the computer work very hard, we use lots of the switches, and the electricity gets all bumpy and jiggly inside, and it gets hotter and hotter the harder we make it work.\n\nEach switch only makes a little bit of heat, but the other thing to remember is that there are LOTS of these little switches, hundreds and hundreds of them, so many you could never count them. And they are all over the inside of your computer on special boards, but there are a few places where we want to put extra switches to do special things, like make the pictures on the screen or be the main brain of the computer. When you put lots of those switches together to do the special things, you get LOTS of heat, because it all adds together. That's why there are fans inside your computer - the switches work lots better if we keep them cool, so we put fans on them to make them more comfortable."
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71zufu | please break down mlm and direct selling? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71zufu/eli5_please_break_down_mlm_and_direct_selling/ | {
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"Break down: It's a scam!\n\nJust a Ponzi scheme like marketing strategy where people are compensated for recruiting others to market some bullshit product or idea. You get compensated for every sale someone you recruited makes, you also get compensated for the sales made by recruits your recruits recruited. In successful MLM schemes thousands of people get involved and those at the top of the hierarchy can receive significant commissions or even salery.\n\nMLM is not inherently a scam their are examples of legitimate MLM companies. For example my sister has a friend that sells for Mary Kay which is a MLM cosmetic company which has quality product and ethical Management. But don't be fooled by the example most MLM companies are not worth your time and will find ways to get money from you by charging membership or for mandatory lectures etc."
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35nkdp | why do webpages "bounce" back up to the top when loading the last few images when i have already scrolled down? | I will connect to a webpage that has loaded text but is still trying to load some pages or video. I have scrolled down to read something, and when the images or video finally loads, I am shot right back up to the top of the page. What is happening here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35nkdp/eli5why_do_webpages_bounce_back_up_to_the_top/ | {
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"Please please answer this somebody. Especially if you can explain why it happens a lot on mobile websites.",
"In JavaScript you can set the \"focus\" to be on any specific item on the page. It's likely that the focus is set to something at the top of the page. Javascript can be told to run after the page finishes loading, which is why it will wait until after images load. May be more noticeable on mobile since slower download speeds and smaller screen space. ",
"Once the all assets on the page have been loaded (or timed out) the browser decides \"Well, time to redraw the entire thing now that I have all the pieces\". So the browser draws the page again from scratch, doing stuff like laying text out to fit images that weren't there before etc.\n\nIn doing so it doesn't keep track of where you were, and where you were might change, so it just resets you back to the top of the page.",
"This is because before each image is loaded by your web browser the height of the image is unknown, and until then your browser will use a typically small height (like 10 pixels) as a place-holder value. If you are reading a web page with large images stacked on top of each other, as the images load the page will increase in height quite dramatically as the actual height of each one becomes known, which will cause your view to 'bounce' around. Before the images load, scrolling down 1000 pixels might reveal the footer of the page, but after the images load, 1000 pixels down could be an image. You haven't really bounced up the page, the page has just become longer.\n\nThere are ways to program in the height of each image (the proper way to do it in my opinion) so that the page doesn't need to guess and then wait for it, but sometimes this technique isn't used.\n\n**EDIT:** This won't make you bounce right to the *very* top of the page. There might be a different answer for that. This is still the main reason however for general jumping around while large images are loading on websites.",
"It might be because initially the HTML of the page is loaded, and then the scripts are loaded which may or may not require the page to be rendered again, which might scroll you up. That's my guess though, I'm not sure if there is enough time for you to scroll down between those two events."
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1nl8jv | why do my front teeth hurt when i run. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nl8jv/eli5why_do_my_front_teeth_hurt_when_i_run/ | {
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"Keep your mouth closed, Alaskan.",
"Mine do the same thing! I would like an answer/explanation to this too."
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5pweu1 | there's plenty of cow milk to buy, and some goat milk, but is there's a reason we don't produce and consume milk from other farm animals (like horses, pigs, etc)? what about cheese made from that milk? | I'm guessing maybe it's because these animals don't produce nearly as much milk to make production viable, or because it tastes nasty to us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pweu1/eli5_theres_plenty_of_cow_milk_to_buy_and_some/ | {
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"You are partially correct, however another huge reason is cows were domesticated before the rest of the livestock, and since people didn't want to change their ways they didn't try to milk other animal. Hope this helps.",
"Humans domesticated cows and have been selectively breeding them for milk production (among other things) for so many generations that they're in no way similar to their wild ancestors (who have been extinct for centuries by the way). So they basically kind of fell into that niche - it basically became *easy*. \n\nThat said, as you mention, goat milk/cheese are fairly popular, as is sheep milk cheese. Water buffalo is also fairly common (it's what mozzarella, for example, is supposed to be made from). Horse and camel milk are also common in certain areas of the world. ",
"Heard in a medical lecture that rat is the mammal having milk most similar nutrients as humans. So why do we go for cows? Practicality. The cow sits there and is happy to be milked, and the quantity of milk per cow is advantageous compared to other mammals. ",
"There are also sheep we use then for cheese too. \n\nPrimarily the issue is economics they don't produce enough that it's worth your time. "
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75ty3x | is it possible to be healthily overweight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75ty3x/eli5_is_it_possible_to_be_healthily_overweight/ | {
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" > Is it possible to be healthily overweight\n\nthis is a tough question because of how we usually decide whats \"overweight\". If you have a lot of muscle you will technically be overweight, but will still be \"healthy\". The simplest answer is that excess fat will put unneeded stress on someones bodies cutting life span shorter. Can you be happy and live to 80 while being overweight? sure. Would you feel better, and drastically reduce the risk for things like hard disease if you lost 40 lbs? absolutely. ",
"It is absolutely possible, since \"overweight\" at least from a clinical perspective, is based solely on a persons BMI, which justaposes a persons weight against their height without any regard for actual fat or muscle content. \n\nFrom what you are describing, it seems that you are both over weight and at risk of developing poor health if you continue to eat the way you do. But you aren't in any real danger right now. Develop diabetes and then we have a problem Houston ",
"Sure. Plenty of lean and muscle-bound people have BMIs over 25, the standard benchmark for overweightness. Fewer are obese, with a BMI over 30 (at 5'10'', that's over 208 pounds.) Overweightness and obesity are often pooled together, although being 10 pounds overweight and 100 pounds overweight aren't really in the same ballpark. BMI is also a bit of a crude measurement compared to things like body fat percentage or waist-hip ratio. In terms of things we care about like \"not dying,\" we might be better off sticking a tape measure on people, since belly fat is way worse than hip or butt fat.\n\nDiscussing whether a given weight can be healthy gets us into two sticky points. One, obesity is partly an indirect risk, one which tends to lead to riskier things like diabetes/high blood pressure, which tend to lead to the bad things we REALLY care about (heart attack, stroke, death.) Two, obesity increases risk on average. This is a difficult thing to come to terms with when it applies to individuals. Let's say I'm in a population with a 20% risk of a heart attack in the next decade, while you have a 30% chance. You're not going to get 10% more of a heart attack than I will--each of us will have 0% or 100% of a heart attack. It's totally possible that I'll get one and you won't, even if my odds are better. Either way, we won't know until it happens. All we can do is play the odds, and improve them where we can. \n\nOne group of authors highlighted the concept of \"metabolically healthy obesity.\" It basically comes down to \"fat but without a huge belly, plus normal blood pressure/cholesterol/blood sugar, no insulin resistance, and good physical fitness.\" If all those apply, you're not at a terrible place for now. (I would probably add \"no sleep apnea,\" since obesity drives that risk up and it can cause all sorts of problems we do care about.)"
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2y4tlz | if the nuclear deal that obama proposed is so good for iran, why haven't they taken it? | One of the most dumbfounding parts of Netanyahu's speech. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y4tlz/eli5_if_the_nuclear_deal_that_obama_proposed_is/ | {
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"Because Iran wants the same capability that the U.S. and Israel have had for a long time. And we're telling them they can't. \n\n",
"It's good for Iran in the sense that they will have some economic sanctions lifted off them. They haven't taken it because it would mean that they have to give up an real nuclear programs they currently have running, and they are enriching to weaponized levels. Giving up their nuclear program is equivalent to them surrendering to Israel. They believe Israel to be just as dangerous as Israel sees Iran, and Israel already has a bomb. \n \nTruth is, there are no good guys, and no way to win, this situation. Both countries have committed horrendous acts against each other, and both want the other wiped off the planet. Israel has only taken a softer tone in public since the US has pressured them after we handed them their holy land.",
"An important reason why Iran haven't accepted a deal is because they probably don;t have much faith that Obama can deliver on his end of the bargain in terms of lifting sanctions. This fear is exacerbated by the presence of a Republican congress and a right wing Israeli government unwilling to support any negotiations (hence the conflict between Obama and Netanyahu). Furthermore, they probably want to continue negotiating in order to make sure that they can get as good a deal as possible in terms of energy production vie nuclear, and in terms of sanctions lifting. ",
"Also back in the day we helped build a nuclear plant and promised to provide the fuel... The revolution happened and it's been sitting idle since.",
"It's actually a kinda shitty deal for Iran. \n\nEffectively we're twisting their arm to get them to stop their nuclear program and the deal would just mean we twist it a little less hard. ",
"From my basic understanding of the situation it is because the terms Obama is promising, he cannot guarantee they would be delivered. By the time Iran fulfills all of its obligations, Obama's term will be over and in the event of a Republican President, House & Senate there is no guarantee that the current sanctions would get overturned."
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cgay0h | why are sweeteners in soft drinks very common (diet coke/coke zero for example), but not in other sugary foods such as chocolate bars, cakes or candy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cgay0h/eli5_why_are_sweeteners_in_soft_drinks_very/ | {
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"The same \"zero\" calorie sweetener you taste in a diet soda would taste drastically different if raised to a baking temperature prior to being served. Here is a good article detailing the whats and whys of how substitutes work in food prep: _URL_0_",
"Type 1 diabetic here- I've done a ton of reading, research, cooking and baking over 20 years and discovered there are a number of answers to that question, but the primary one is cost. Zero calorie sweeteners aren't nearly as versatile as sugar and tend to leave aftertastes or turn to carbon when baked, particularly when you're producing them commercially and don't have the luxury of time.\n\nThe two I've tried over the years that do fairly well at high temperatures are Erythritol and Stevia. The former is a sugar alcohol and I've discovered many of these, primarily Xylitol (Erythritol actually seems to be a happy exception) used to be included in the ingredients list and then marketed as low or zero calorie/carb by companies who knew it was an outright lie (Atkins, Quest Bar products et al) and that sugar alcohols tend to simply be digested later in the intestines and can take hours to release sugars. More importantly to the question, both are expensive and unfortunately the reality is that most people aren't willing to pay more when a cheaper alternative is available and is also what you're used to and grew up with.\n\nFearmongering is another bullet point as many sweeteners are campaigned against on blogs, selective studying, etc. Aspartame being a prime example of something everyone remembers being demonised in the media despite being one of the most researched and safe consumables on the planet.\n\nUltimately, a combination of practicality, price, consumer demands and more.",
"One of the problems is e.g. hard candy uses sugar not just to be sweet, but also to have structure not existing in drinks. Once you find candy types without this problem, sweeteners appear to be quite common. \n\nStevia-sweetened chocolate and compound chocolate certainly exist. Stevia gummies have reduced sugar, using collagen for structure. Chewing gum is very easy to make sugarless and many are sweetened with xylitol, as their structure doesn't use sugar whatsoever. Note too much of these sweeteners act like laxatives, which is another problem (:",
"Amorphous sugar forms the structure of most candy into which flavours and colours are added. So to replace sugar you need to find something that is sweet, but doesn't have another strong taste to interfere with your chosen flavours and has similar properties - such as being non-toxic, soluble, not being overly sticky or melting at inconvenient temperatures.\n\nA common choice is sorbitol, a sugar alcohol which melts at about 95C. It's not quite as sweet as sugar, but it has many of the same properties - although the flavour is slightly different - I think it is a bit like menthol with a slight cooling senasation; which is why it is commonly used for things like mints where the flavouring covers up the sorbitol taste. It's also something of a laxative, so you have to go easy on them! Another choice is another is called isomalt which is a sugar alcohol called mannitol attached to a glucose molecule. It is used to make hard candies and it doesn't have the slight weird taste of sorbitol. But again, it is a laxative.\n\nAs for baking, most sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar which means you need less of them and this affects the consistency of the batter. You need to bulk up the recipe to take account of the smaller amount of sweetener. It is possible for powdered sucralose (sold under the brandname Splenda) if your recipe uses volume measurements as the formulation is meant to match sugar volume for volume.\n\nAnd I suspect a final reason is that sugar chemistry at temperature is a crucial part of the browning and flavouring of many foods. As sugar is converted to caramel by heat, it browns the food and changes the flavour. This wouldn't happen for most sweeteners - indeed many of them, such as aspartame, are not stable at high temperatures.\n\nI'm sure a food scientist or organic chemistry will be along shortly to add more information/tell me just how wrong I am.",
"Sugar does more than just provide the sensation of sweetness. When added into edible snacks and foods, it provides texture and mouth feel, particularly in baked goods. While artificial and other non-nutritive sweeteners can generally provide an adequate replacement for the flavor of sugar, they do a poor job at replicating the texture and mouth feel."
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3hlusw | what's so great about prince? | By all accounts he's a borderline-insane douche bag. Apparently he was good at guitar but I haven't found any examples that really set him apart from anyone else I'm my opinion. Maybe I've been listening to the wrong songs.
What is so awesome about this dude? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hlusw/eli5_whats_so_great_about_prince/ | {
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"You generally have to listen to music in the context of the time, i.e. see what else was going on in the charts / mainstream at the same time and therein most often lies the difference - > people bring something new/extraordinary for that time, which is later hard to grasp as being so because everyone started doing the same.",
"Watch Purple Rain and/or listen to the Purple Rain album. Maybe also check out Sign O' The Times, which was the follow up to Purple Rain.\n\nIf you really dislike it, it's probably just a matter of taste. \n\nAs far as I can tell, most of the reason people love Prince is his infectious energy mixed with lyrical genius/depth. He also has both great poppy hooks *and* technical ability. It's the best of a lot of different worlds. So he might not be the best guitarist of all time, or write the best lyrics ever, or have the absolute catchiest pop tunes, or be the most fun performer to watch that has ever existed. But, he is AMAZING at all of those things, probably better than most of his peers. So if you want the full package, you have to admit Prince is bringing it. \n\nIt's also worth noting Prince's place in pop music of the 80s. He was a synthesis of a lot of ideas people were really excited about, like the influence of Black music in white-dominated pop culture, androgyny, and a cohesive aesthetic/personal brand. He was also perfect for a time when a lot of people were consuming their music in the form of videos, because he's both talented and photogenic, and because he has a degree of lyrical depth and a cohesive creative vision, his music lends itself to making amazing music videos. \n\nAlso, a lot of artists are bad people who would at the very least be annoying to hang out with. If you pick and choose what to enjoy based on how moral and sane and nice the person seems to be, you're going to end up with some shitty taste.\n\nEDIT: Hypothesis - Prince was the Taylor Swift of the 80s.",
"[Here](_URL_0_) is what shows how good Prince is on guitar. He is on stage with legends and he shreds.\n\nBeyond that, you can't really compare an artist who came out 30 years ago with ones today, because of course he doesn't sound all that different. That's because they are copying him. Its the same with the Beatles, people often claim they don't see anything special about them, and fail to realize the reason they don't seem special is because people have been copying them for 50 years. "
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59a638 | how does a person get hacked through open ports? and what to do to prevent it? | I know people use a port scanner , but I'm sure there's more to it. Just curious how it works and how to prevent it. Am I only vulnerable to it if I port forward? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59a638/eli5how_does_a_person_get_hacked_through_open/ | {
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"An open port on your computer means that something is responding to connections on that port. a program is listening on the port and does things with what you send to it.\n\nIt's not the port that is the actual problem. It's the program. The program (probably) has a very narrow set of intended uses, but what happens if you feed it with data that doesn't correspond to the protocol of the intended use?\n\nSome programs are so poorly written that you can feed almost anything to the computer through a badly written program and some are so poorly written that you can make the computer crash purely by connecting to the port of the program and feed it with an excessive amount of data for a short while.\n\nThis reasoning is kind of a bit messed up by computers in networking environments too, because - somewhat simplifying things here - the reason that you can see that there are other windows computers on your network is that they are talking to each other. all the time. over a specific set of ports. If you are able to sneak into that communication, you can sort of pretend that you are a part of the network despite not being there at all.\n\nYou are vulnerable to it if computers on the internet are able to find a way in and talk directly to your NAT:ed computers in your home. If you port forward you are vulnerable if there is a known (or non-published) exploit on the specific program that you forward the connection to."
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6pgeyg | will technology ever exist in the next 50 years or so that will simulate gravity on spaceships, like in the movies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pgeyg/eli5_will_technology_ever_exist_in_the_next_50/ | {
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"Perhaps but I doubt it. gravity is the warping of space in the presence of mass. So unless you made the decking out of some sort of material with the mass of a planet, (which would create a whole host of other problems, you would have to rely on acceleration or centrifugal force to create a similar effect. ",
"The technology already exists to simulate gravity, such as by having a large rotating section, however it's not practical for our current work in space. You'd need a fairly large rotating structure (if it is small, the difference in gravity between your feet and your head would be disorienting, and it would have to spin faster to generate the necessary force) and so people get by in free fall without apparent gravity. \n\nIf you mean like flipping a switch and suddenly there is a gravitational field, there's no technology on the foreseeable horizon that can do that. ",
"From what I've gathered, absolutely not. The closest is to simulate gravity by having a portion of the craft spin using centripetal force to pull people against the floor. ",
"The technology exists, it's just big, expensive, and hard to build.\n\nAll you really need to do is have the living quarters spin fast enough that centripetal acceleration is the same as earth's gravitational pull, like when you spin a bucket of water over your head fast enough and it doesn't spill",
"It's hard to say what will exist in the next 50 years, but it really depends on the situation. We can simulate gravity in space by spinning a space-ship such that the \"floor\" is towards the outside of the ship, using centrifugal force to simulate gravity (in case that term makes you go \"huh\", it's the force you feel when you go fast around a corner in a car that seems to pull you to the outside of the turn. And for the physicists out there, yes I know that this is technically centripetal force but this is ELI5).\n\nIf you mean like on the Enterprise, where they are just motionless in Space and still experiencing earthlike gravity, then that will be trickier, as we don't know a whole lot about gravity in terms of what actually causes it, other than \"lots of mass\" (though we *have* observed gravity waves in the last few years, that doesn't necessarily mean that we can reproduce them artificially);\n\nThere's also the problem that if you *do* make this tech, in theory it's going to make your space ship, for all intents and purposes, the same mass as Earth, which means that you probably shouldn't get into a close orbit with any planet you don't want to mess with the orbits of.",
"A magic floor that pulls you down wouldn't exist.\n\nThere are a few other ways to simulate gravity in space, a rotating ring or cylinder turning at the right speed (so \"down\" is facing outwards into space and \"up\" is towards the middle of the ring) or a ship accelerating so the bottom is pushing up, (\"down\" is towards the engine, \"up\" is the front of the ship),that only works while the ship is moving and steadily accelerating/decelerating",
"As far as depictions of it go, one of the closest ones to getting it right is The Expanse. There are two ways to simulate gravity in space: \n\n1) as already mentioned, spinning otherwise known as centripetal force. This would need to be a large circle otherwise your feet will be spinning much faster than your head and will really mess you up.\n\n2) constant acceleration. This one is hard to do with current technology because the amount of fuel required. The idea is that you would accelerate continually for half way towards your destination, then turn around and decelerate the second half of the trip. \n\nIn this case, it is important to envision it not like people standing on a star wars or star trek ship, but would be like a skyscraper were the force is simulated to be pulling down towards the base which is where the rocket engines would be."
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ascm4v | why do you have no service/internet access when you are in the middle of a phone call on your cell phone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ascm4v/eli5_why_do_you_have_no_serviceinternet_access/ | {
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"That doesn't happen to me, you might need to talk to your service provider, or have your phone checked out. "
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5yjnhg | we can generally bleed from anywhere on our body. why then does it take 30 minutes and 3 staff members for me to give blood for a test? why cant they just jab the needle in anywhere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yjnhg/eli5_we_can_generally_bleed_from_anywhere_on_our/ | {
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"Wtf? Do they have to restrain you and carry you in and out? I have blood taken all the goddamned time and it takes like 2 minutes and one philipino lady."
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dr0jvn | how does 40 mm of rain submerge cars? | I mean, I get it that if drainage systems are blocked, the 40 mm of rain has nowhere to go. But it's still only 40 mm! I'm routinely seeing flooding from that much rain and it makes no sense to me. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dr0jvn/eli5_how_does_40_mm_of_rain_submerge_cars/ | {
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"They are probably at low ground.\n\nSo it rains over an area, and all the rain that isn't going down a drain needs to go somewhere. It travels to lower ground, causing flooding. Like going downhill. It pools at the bottom, submerging buildings and cars and such.",
"It's because water flows and pools. Have you ever seen rainwater just sit in one spot? Nope, it will flow downhill, collect in large pools, overwhelm a drainage system and cause isolated areas of flooding. If you have a dip in a road where the drainage is poor, the water will collect there and you'll end up with a much great depth than the 40mm that one area received.",
"The measured rain is actually not the amount of water. It is the height to which water would stand if all the rainwater was allowed to stay at the place without flowing off or getting absorbed in the soil. Thus, a rain of 40 mm means that if the rainwater had been collected in a circular funnel with a diameter of 203mm (rain gauge) which is kept in an open area, it would have water to a depth of 40 mm.",
"You need to think of the rain a different way. If your watershed is 50 km^2 , 50M m^2 , then 40mm of rain is 2M m^3 of water. Can you imagine a shape of pool with 2M m^3 of water that could submerge a car (perhaps 20 m^3 )? That's 100K cars worth of water."
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7ki4fo | if cinemas now get movies as a digital copy how come they dont get copied and leaked online well before the dvd release date? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ki4fo/eli5if_cinemas_now_get_movies_as_a_digital_copy/ | {
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"There are small watermarks in each copy that uniquely identifies it. If a theater were discovered to have leaked their copy, the movie studio would stop doing business with them, which would almost certainly cause the theater to go out of business.\n\nSo theaters are *heavily* incentivized to be as protective as possible of the copies of movies that they have received."
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5jku03 | why do old televisions "blip" toward the center when they turn off? | [Example](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jku03/eli5_why_do_old_televisions_blip_toward_the/ | {
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"Older televisions had an electron \"gun\" (not a real gun, but we're going to call it that) that fired electrons at the front of the television tube. This gun would constantly scan across the screen, from top to bottom, left to right. When you turned the screen off, the flow of electrons stopped as the gun \"reset\" itself toward the middle of screen.",
"Old televisions used what is called a cathode ray tube. At the back of the tube there is a device called an electron gun which fires a beam of electrons at the screen. The screen is broken up into tiny spots called called pixels, and each pixel contains patches of material that will glow red, green, or blue when hit by the electron beam. To form the illusion of a consistent picture, the beam sweeps across the screen 60 times a second, hitting whichever patch needs to be hit at each pixel.\n\nThe beam is guided by a powerful magnetic field produced by an array of coils at the back of the tube. When the power is cut off, the field is shut down, and the last of the charge in the electron gun fires towards the screen in an uncontrolled pattern. The natural behavior of a cathode ray is to move in a cone from the source of the beam, so the \"blip\" you're seeing is basically a spray of electrons hitting the screen as the electron gun expels the last of its charge."
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277u8g | how do leeches survive when they are not attached to a host? | Leeches have a very specialized anatomy that enables them to attach to hosts and live off host blood. However, they are generally found living independently. I have found them under rocks near rivers. How do they survive? Can they live off other "food" than blood? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/277u8g/eli5how_do_leeches_survive_when_they_are_not/ | {
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"Same way we survive inbetween meals. "
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2ufjn3 | in the imitation game, and in real life, how did the turing machine know that it had cracked the code? | Did Turing have to program in every German word into the machine? Because if he didn't, and the machine is running through hundreds (maybe thousands) of combinations a second, how did anyone know if it had really cracked the code? The machine could have skipped right by the correctly cracked code, but no one would know because the machine did not know German. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ufjn3/eli5_in_the_imitation_game_and_in_real_life_how/ | {
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"They used key words that they knew would be present in certain messages, such as \"Wetter\" (weather) and \"Heil Hitler\". The machines (there was more than one) would stop when a combination gave out those words as an output, and then someone would read the message to make sure it made sense. If it did, they knew the code combination for that day.",
"Flaw in the Enigma Code - Numberphile: _URL_0_\n\nThat video explains pretty well what was happening, the machine wasnt looking for words, rather looking for the combination of rotors that didnt produce a logical impossibility based on the fact that a letter would never convert to itself. Once the machine found a combination of rotors and plugs which didnt convert any letter to itself, it could deliver the correct rotor settings to someone who would then decrypt the code.",
"The Turing machine has nothing to do with cryptanalysis- it's a conceptual tool that's used for studying problems in theoretical computer science, not a machine that was ever intended to be built.\n\nThe device that turing designed to break [Enigma](_URL_0_) was called the [bombe](_URL_1_). It relied on a flaw in Enigma, in that Enigma *never encrypts a letter to itself*. Given a piece of known plaintext (called a crib), the bombe could quickly rule out possible rotor positions based on this rule. \n\nThe cryptanalyis of the [Lorenz cipher](_URL_3_) was based on statistics- in German as in English, certain letters come up more frequently than others, but in encrypted text the letters should have no discernable pattern. Lorenz had a flaw that allowed codebreakers to change one rotor at a time, looking for the statistical signature that indicated it was in the right place. Then they could move on to the next one until the complete rotor settings were determined. This task was automated by one of the first [electronic computers](_URL_2_), though this was designed by Tommy Flowers, not Turing.",
"In every language, some letters are more common that others. In English, E, T, and A are very common, and X, Q, and Z are rare.\n\nIt is a pretty easy matter to count how often each letters occur in a message, and come up with a score that indicates how likely it is to be a real language vs. gibberish. It only takes looking at the first 30 letters or so to see whether the combination you tried worked.\n\nAlso, Turing came up with ways to examine the encoded message, and eliminate a lot of the combinations he needed to try."
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c7jcg6 | how are humans waterproof, yet we can still sweat water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c7jcg6/eli5_how_are_humans_waterproof_yet_we_can_still/ | {
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"Imagine this: You have a mouthful of water, but your mouth is closed, and you go swimming in the pool. The water from the pool doesn't flow into your mouth, but if you squeeze your cheeks, the water comes out of your mouth. Your mouth is likened to the pores that sweat comes out of.\n\nFor a slightly more complex explanation: The water inside of your body is always at surrounding pressure, or higher pressure. This means that water from the outside never wants to flow in. However, when the water inside of you is at a higher pressure, it can flows out. As for why the pressure inside of you is always equal or higher to the pressure around you, it is because pressure is determined by how much force is squishing a fluid. Since the pressure around your body is squishing your body, the water in your body is under at least that much pressure. Your body can squeeze it to further raise the pressure, but your body cannot stretch it to lower the pressure."
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ec7pn0 | what's the reality for sun protection? do we need spf 55+ every time we leave the house? | \[Serious\] Can someone please explain the science, data, and recommendations regarding the dangers of sun exposure? Some sources make it sound like going outside at all without spf55 is to court death, and that we should all wrap ourselves like Caliban (Logan reference) anytime we leave the house. If I’m a person who enjoys being outside and like getting somewhat tan in the warmer months (but make sure to wear spf when exposed for long periods so I don’t get burned) how dangerous is that? Is getting burned the problem, or just ANY sun exposure? Haven’t humans been exposed to the sun for millennia? Assume I don’t care about the cosmetic effects (I don’t). Also, can a person still get tan with high spf frequently applied? Would that be the way to go? Please help! :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ec7pn0/eli5_whats_the_reality_for_sun_protection_do_we/ | {
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"text": [
"Winter sun (at sea level) is much weaker than summer sun, just like the sun near sunset is weaker than at noon, because the sun isn't directly shining at you and has more atmosphere to go through.",
" > Can someone please explain the science, data, and recommendations regarding the dangers of sun exposure?\n\nThe \"Sun Protection Factor\" tells you how much longer it will take to cause damage. So if you're in conditions where you'd normally burn in 15 minutes (pretty strong sun), SPF 30 means you'll burn in 15 * 30 = 450 minutes (or 7.5 hours). SPF 50 means you'll burn in 15 * 50 = 750 minutes (or 12.5 hours). No matter how waterproof that sunscreen claims to be, you're probably going to sweat it all off long before you're exposed to enough sunlight for SPF 30 vs SPF 50 to make a difference. But if the sun is particularly strong, you might be outside long enough to burn through SPF 15, so most recommendations say to use SPF 30 or better. \n\n > Is getting burned the problem, or just ANY sun exposure?\n\nJust about any sun exposure will result in UV rays hitting your skin. If enough UV rays hit just the right place on your skin, you get skin cancer. The longer you're in the sun, the more damage your skin takes and the more likely it is to turn into cancer. \n\n > Haven’t humans been exposed to the sun for millennia?\n\nSure, but back when we were wandering around the savanna all day, you'd likely starve to death at age 40, if you even made it past childhood so you wouldn't have had to worry about getting skin cancer at age 70. If you were in a place with intense sunlight, you would have also had dark skin that acts as a natural sunscreen, rather than light skin which is needed in the north to make vitamin D from what little sunlight is available (your body uses some UV light from the sun to synthesize vitamin D, so you do need at least some sunlight). \n\n > Also, can a person still get tan with high spf frequently applied? Would that be the way to go?\n\nTechnically, yes you could. Remember that UV is a type of light. It's essentially some extra colors below violet in the rainbow (hence the name \"ultraviolet\"). Tanning is caused by UVA - the color just below violet. SPF measures how much the sunscreen blocks UVB, which is yet another color down in the rainbow (this is the color that causes sunburns). So you could have a high SPF sunscreen that doesn't block the tanning rays at all. However, both colors of UV rays can cause skin cancer, so while this is helpful in the short term, you're better off getting the broad-spectrum sunscreen that blocks both colors in the long run."
]
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[],
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l0v2s | - how do motion sensors work? (like ones used in lights and stuff) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/l0v2s/eli5_how_do_motion_sensors_work_like_ones_used_in/ | {
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"These lights have electronic eyeballs that read how much light there is in an area. If the amount of light changes too quickly, usually because somebody walks in front of it and blocks the eyeball, it tells the lights to come on.",
"These lights have electronic eyeballs that read how much light there is in an area. If the amount of light changes too quickly, usually because somebody walks in front of it and blocks the eyeball, it tells the lights to come on."
]
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[],
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||
4waxca | why do banks make people fill out a deposit slip at the teller's window, then make them use the atm card reader, when customers don't have to fill out anything at the atm to deposit checks? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4waxca/eli5_why_do_banks_make_people_fill_out_a_deposit/ | {
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"In Europe they don't even check your ID or anything if you wanna deposit cash, just give it to the guy? ",
"I could be wrong, but I think this only applies to cash. The last time I deposited a check inside the bank, they didn't ask for a slip, just my bank card and ID.\n\nBut then again, you can now deposit cash at an ATM as well without a slip, so yeah, it doesn't make any sense.\n\n(USA here)",
"Banks have VERY old technology and processes. If you only saw behind the curtain, most banks operate (at least some of their systems), with technology from the 1980's. ",
"Where it's used, it's accountability for the teller. Essentially you fill out the slip with $XXX dollars on it, then when they process the document the receipt is printed on the same sheet and should reflect the same amount. That way there is a cross-check and verification that both of you agree how much money was deposited and deters the teller from under-depositing cash and customers from claiming that they gave the teller more than was deposited."
]
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siw1n | what is wireless spectrum and why can't we make more of it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/siw1n/eli5_what_is_wireless_spectrum_and_why_cant_we/ | {
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"When we talk about light, we usually think of the thing that comes from the sun and light bulbs and colors.\n\nWe can think of this light as a wave. Each color is a different wavelength of this wave. Blue is a certain wavelength. Green is a different one. With red being the largest (lowest energy) and violet being the smallest (highest energy). \n\nBut in actuality, things like radio, microwaves, x-rays, and wireless ALL use this same exact type of wave. Just at different frequencies. \n\nSo there are only a select range of these frequencies that we can use for electronics. Certain frequencies are too common, so there would be a lot of interference. Some frequencies are dangerous (x-ray and gamma), some frequencies would require too much power (example, a lightbulbs requires power).\n\nOf the spectrum that we can use for electronics, a certain wavelength has been dedicated to wireless technologies. The FCC decides this. We can't just \"make more of it\" because there are only a certain number of frequencies. Sure we can dedicate 2110Mhz to something and then 2110.1 to something else, and then 2110.01 to something else, etc to 2110.00000000001, but this would cause interference. This is why radio stations are only odd numbers (no even radio stations) because if we had both, there might be some overlap.",
"\"Wireless spectrum\" refers to the parts of the [electromagnetic spectrum](_URL_1_) that can be used to transmit data wirelessly. The whole spectrum can't be used because some bands can't travel through obstacles (like visible), some bands will kill you (x xray, gamma). In fact there's only a few gaps which are suitable for wireless transmission at meaningful distances without requiring a lot of power. We can't make more of it because it already infinite and continuous. \n\nSo why are we fighting over it? How much data you can push through any digital transmission is limited by how wide a band of frequencies (bandwidth) you're using. The theoretical upper limit of this is called the [channel capacity](_URL_2_). This means that even though that's an infinite number of frequencies between 0 and 1 Hz, there is a finite and limited amount of data you can communicate with that bandwidth.\n\nEven though we can't make more spectrum, we can definitely improve how we use it with various [modulation](_URL_0_) techniques and [encodings](_URL_3_). \n\nTo give you two recent developments, a wifi modem was built that is capable of transmitting and receiving at the same time on the same frequency by placing antennas such that the transmitted signal destructively interferes where the receiver antenna is. This effectively doubles the channel capacity without increasing the spectrum used.\n\nThe other is the idea of modulating the signal [polarization](_URL_4_) to increase the data that can be sent in the same bandwidth by anywhere between 2 and 64x. I'm not going to cite sources for either of these because its been a while since I read them and I'm lazy."
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_capacity",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_code",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization"
]
] |
||
2105dm | why do people think that vegetables taste gross, even though they have the most nutrients that the body needs? | Wouldn't the body want to eat as many nutrients as possible? Yet instead we tend to eat a ton of sweets while the veggies sit untouched on our plates. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2105dm/eli5_why_do_people_think_that_vegetables_taste/ | {
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"Having specific nutrients isn't tremendously important to your body. You can get unfortunate diseases from nutrient deficiency, but it takes a *long* time to become a problem; a little bit of scurvy won't kill you.\n\nThe most important thing to your body is getting enough *energy* from food. In the wild, high-energy foods are rare, so they accordingly taste very good.",
"And as I’m getting older i start to like veggies more and more... Does anyone know why that is?",
"From an evolutionary standpoint calorically dense foods were not very abundant when cavemen were out foraging for food, a bag of skittles and a can of coke probably has more sugar in it than what the first humans would eat all day.",
"Meats and high-sugar / high-carbohydrate foods were fairly rare treats for the majority of our history.\n\nAlso palette - if you were raised primarily on vegetables and fruit they'd taste a lot better to you most likely. Go to China and try out there food and you'll realize just how much your taste is defined by what you were fed when you were young - most North Americans find real Chinese food (As opposed to what you get in most 'Chinese food' places outside China) terrible because it focuses different flavours so much. ",
"I think veggies are delicious."
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8dpam7 | why does our saliva have an ass odour at times? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8dpam7/eli5_why_does_our_saliva_have_an_ass_odour_at/ | {
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"The mouth is a dark, damp, warm environment. Perfect place for bacteria to grow. Think about it- when you sleep, your mouth is often closed, sometimes for as long as 8 hours a day. And lets be honest, who brushes their tongue vigorously every night before they go to bed? All of those left over food particles and bacteria sits on the tongue for upwards of 7-8 hours and therefore sulphur producing bacteria will be produced on the surface of the tongue. \n\nIn order to make it less ass-y you could drink more water, because dehydration and dry mouth is also a culprit of bad breath. Or maybe you have Halitosis, which is an over abundance of that sulphur producing bacteria. Nasty stuff. "
]
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[]
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||
kbdnm | different types of salts and what the do. | How do different types of salt affect our bodies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kbdnm/eli5_different_types_of_salts_and_what_the_do/ | {
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"I'm going to assume you are talking about food salts, as the word salt in a scientific sense refers to compounds resulting from acid-base reactions (someone correct me on this if I am wrong, it has been awhile since chemistry). The basic varieties are:\n\n* Table Salt -- This is the standard salt that comes out of salt shakers. It is basically pure Sodium Chloride with Iodine added. The Iodine is added because its something our bodies need and we don't get them easily from other places. There is nothing unhealthy about it unless you have sodium issues. In fact, because of the iodine it is arguably healthier.\n\n* Kosher salt: Pure NaCl, except in a shape suitable for pinching and dispersing. It's health benefits are the same minus the iodine.\n\n* Sea salts / Mineral Salts: Basically salts that also have other minerals in addition to NaCl. Their health benefits are debated due to the content of minerals, but most seem to agree that the minerals are not in great enough quantities to affect you.\n\n\nIn summary, salt is pretty much all the same with the exception of added iodine which can be good for you.\n",
"I'm going to assume you are talking about food salts, as the word salt in a scientific sense refers to compounds resulting from acid-base reactions (someone correct me on this if I am wrong, it has been awhile since chemistry). The basic varieties are:\n\n* Table Salt -- This is the standard salt that comes out of salt shakers. It is basically pure Sodium Chloride with Iodine added. The Iodine is added because its something our bodies need and we don't get them easily from other places. There is nothing unhealthy about it unless you have sodium issues. In fact, because of the iodine it is arguably healthier.\n\n* Kosher salt: Pure NaCl, except in a shape suitable for pinching and dispersing. It's health benefits are the same minus the iodine.\n\n* Sea salts / Mineral Salts: Basically salts that also have other minerals in addition to NaCl. Their health benefits are debated due to the content of minerals, but most seem to agree that the minerals are not in great enough quantities to affect you.\n\n\nIn summary, salt is pretty much all the same with the exception of added iodine which can be good for you.\n"
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477nvn | why do the founders of torrent websites like pirate bay get charged with copyright infringement, but not people who download the content? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/477nvn/eli5_why_do_the_founders_of_torrent_websites_like/ | {
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"Mostly because it is REALLY hard to track down each individual downloader and many have done so little that the court case and process of tracking down the offender would be more trouble than it's worth. A larger entity that has committed more offenses can be found easier, can be sued for more, and taking them out could decrease piracy more than any smaller scale offender.",
"There are just too many people, they can't sue them all. \nThe music industry tried suing only some of the people downloading. The result was a public relations disaster, dead people and 2 year old wound up getting sued. It made them look like bullies, going after weak individuals with their corporate might.\nSo they stopped doing it.",
"There are two kinds of courts, Civil and Criminal. \n\nCivil charges are one person suing another, like the kind on Judge Judy. This is how people sharing music were chased down. The record companies found out who they were, and sued them. They were never arrested, and were never at risk of serving jail time.\n\nIt's also important to note that the act of downloading pirated content is only probably illegal, and hasn't really been tested in court. They mostly care about people uploading/sharing the content. This is what happens when you leave a torrent a running after it finished, and it's what will get your ISP to send you a nasty email or whatever they do. So many people do it that they quit suing individuals AFAIK.\n\nThe Pirate Bay founders were arrested, and faced both kinds of charges. In particular though, I assume you're talking about the criminal charges. They intentionally violated these laws, flagrantly and over a long period of time. It's the difference between burning a CD for your friend vs selling copies out of your trunk at a flea market.\n\nFinally, for really gross dark web stuff, where just possessing it alone is a crime, they absolutely do go after individual people downloading it."
]
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1ol0rm | odd land formation (link inside) | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ol0rm/eli5_odd_land_formation_link_inside/ | {
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"Looks man-made to me, but without a better picture I can't be sure.",
"Manmade lake: [The Vinkeveense Plassen](_URL_0_)\n\nApparently the lake was created by peat extraction."
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=Amsterdam%2C+The+Netherlands&data=!1m4!1m3!1d21440!2d4.9358555!3d52.2300152!2m1!1e3!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x47c63fb5949a7755%3A0x6600fd4cb7c0af8d!3m8!1m3!1d291641!2d-101.8884435!3d33.5911434!3m2!1i1600!2i1053!4f13.1!4m2!3d52.3702157!4d4.8951679&fid=7"
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er140l | why men cannot be tested for hpv but women can? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/er140l/eli5_why_men_cannot_be_tested_for_hpv_but_women/ | {
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"text": [
"The test involves looking at the cervix, which men don't have. So unless a man shows symptoms of three virus (warts) there's no other way to know. Blood tests don't show the virus."
]
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||
c95cgd | how does alcohol absorption work? | I am trying to understand this because I am always in the situation where I drink 1 beer or 1 cider (generally a small amount of alcohol) and I have no idea after how many hours I am safe to drive without having problems with the law (in my country, Romania, there is zero tolerance for alcohol when driving) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c95cgd/eli5_how_does_alcohol_absorption_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"est5wqe"
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"Well, generally speaking one adult can consume one standard drink per hour. One standard drink is 1 beer, 1 glass of wine, or one shot of liquor. Now, that does not factor in the proof of the alcohol. Drinking a 180 proof shot is different than a 90 proof. Generally if you consume 1 drink per hour you will be fine. The liver can process lesser alcohol amounts quicker, but this is an easy to remember range."
]
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q8ybi | how spam mail companies/persons stay in business if hardly any people ever fall for their scams. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q8ybi/eli5_how_spam_mail_companiespersons_stay_in/ | {
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"It costs nothing to spam people, so they still make a profit even if only a handful of people fall for it.",
"You made an assumption in the title question. That assumption happens to be wrong.",
"No, Lot of people fall for it. I mean even the educated one, for e.g. \n\n1.I knew a girl who has studied commerce and looking for job in HR, she got a fake mail from spammer saying shes got a interview at some place, just you have to send a secutiry deposit for sending in flight tickets. \nShe absolutely fell for it & was about to do it when she called me and I told her to stop and its a scam.\n\n2. you know those mails where you win from COCA-COLA, AUSTRALIAN Lottery for no reason. Well My friend who is clever enough to be a manager in just 4 years, thought he DID actually win the Australian lottery ( he is in US) and I think he sent like $ 100 for \"RECEIVING the DETAILS of collecting the reward\" \n\nso you see people do get fooled and spammers get benefited. "
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1g0xsz | what survival instinct does music play on? | Why do we dance to our favorite song?
Why do we listen to music? Has it got anything to do with our survival? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g0xsz/eli5_what_survival_instinct_does_music_play_on/ | {
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"The answer is most likely no, it has little or nothing to do with our survival. That's one of the things that separates us from other animals, we have tastes. The reason why one would have a favorite song is basically for the same reason one would have a favorite colour or favorite flavor of ice cream. As a society, we have begun to enjoy and develop preferences for things that are specifically not relevant to survival, but rather to pleasure. We listen to music because it's something that our advanced human brains can perceive as information that is fun and stimulating. Music is really just an illusion. It's nothing more than organized frequencies and pulses; we just found a way to realize the patterns in them, which is why they're enjoyable. The brain is always trying to find meaning in things that could really be nothing. The same could be said for reading and writing, it's just markings on paper, but we have found a way to perceive them as information. ",
"Music doesn't play on any survival instinct, instead it plays on the dopamine systems in one's brain, just like a good beer does. When you listen to music, your brain feels 'rewarded', but at the same time craves more of this reward, making you want to listen to more music. I don't think people exactly know why music makes us feel pleasured, but it is known that it triggers dopamine; your brain's 'happy' chemical.",
"No-one actually knows. Maybe in tribal societies listening to music round a fire at night helped bonding thus made the tribe that bit stronger when working together (speculation).",
"Humans are social animals, and music is a social experience. Not everything comes down to survival instincts. Humans are not automatons, we are innately social and we generally abide by an instinctual social structure that has been around since long before we figured out how to walk standing up. We have a vested interest in helping those who belong to our social group because our survival is dependent on the success of the group, or \"tribe.\" The tribe provides you with food, safety, and sex--in proportional amounts relative to the size of your tribe. \n\nYou are aware of who belongs to your tribe and who does not--this is the concept of social identity. Those who share your social identity are friends, those who don't share your identity are (at the very least) approached with caution. The ways that this social identity is expressed becomes the tribe's \"culture.\" For example, a tribe may adopt a shared visual presentation by marking themselves with or by wearing specific colors or patterns. A tribe's common manner of dress is a way to visually express their common social identity, but since everyone belonging to that identity is now distinguished by its visual expression, the expression itself becomes part of the tribe's social identity. The assumption is made that those who belong to the tribe are visually distinct, and those who are not distinct in the same way do not belong to the tribe. Not to suggest that this is a particularly wise or non-exploitable assumption, but it nonetheless remains an assumption that is made and exploited to this day--to illustrate: few would be skeptical of a person claiming to be a police officer if that person was also in a police uniform. \n\nMusic is also an expression of social identity, but rarely for the purposes of identification. Music is one of the few things that the entire tribe can do together; it's one of the only things that, in the early days, allowed group cohesion to maintain. Without a way to maintain cohesion, there would likely be a hard ceiling on how large a group could get before it started falling apart. Group cohesion is essential to the survival of the tribe and its members. But although music may have been arguably relevant to our survival, I doubt that it stems from any sort of survival instinct. We didn't make music because we had to, we did it because we wanted to socialize and have fun.\n\n > Why do we listen to music?\n\nI don't have a definitive answer for you, past here is speculation: we love patterns--in fact, we begin listening for speech patterns before we're even out of the womb. Given that we already have our ears to the wall, it seems unlikely that the giant fucking drum beating at 3/4 right above our heads would escape our notice. "
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3v2jc7 | what makes student loan debt seemingly so much harder to deal with than other types of debt? | I'm just starting out college and I was wondering why student loan debt just seems like such a bigger issue to many people than say credit card debt, and why it seems to be so hard to get rid of. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v2jc7/eli5what_makes_student_loan_debt_seemingly_so/ | {
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"Higher interest rates as compared to other loans. Plus the initial amount of money can be more than say, a car loan. ",
"I assume you're in the US. \n\nIt's a huge debt very early in your life. A mortgage isn't going to happen till much later in your life and your standing in society determines how good or bad of a deal you get.\n\nYou may no longer be in your formative years but you are still growing as a person coupled with the stresses of collage and now this huge debt you've taken on. \n\nYou will be paying it back for many, many years and the more mistakes you make the more problems you create. You're at college busy trying to learn but also work to survive but you've also got this loan you're paying off which never pauses when something terrible hapodns and sometimes you just don't have the time to do everything. \n\nIt's not written off with bankruptcy. (for the most part) If you declare bankruptcy this is one debt that isn't written off so you are still required to pay it back. If you've declared bankruptcy you're not really in a position to be paying a huge loan back but you're forced to but because you're broke you're digging yourself an even deeper pit by not being able to pay it. ",
"As others have pointed out its high interest and the amount can be much much higher than other loans you will typically have.\n\nThey also kick in once you graduate, and for many their first jobs out of school are not very high paying as they need to still build experience and thus the dept is very hard to grapple with. \n",
"No where else can you take on so much debt with no collateral. You can take on $50,000 or $100,000 of debt for physically nothing. When you buy a house for $250,000 and you can't afford the house anymore, the bank takes the house. If you buy a car and can't pay it, it gets repossessed. If you accumulate $100,000 of credit card or store debt, you declare bankruptcy, sell everything you have, and if that is not enough the debt just goes away.\n\nStudent debt doesn't go away, even with bankruptcy. You can't return your diploma for a refund. It is there until it gets paid off, and there you are after school. Unemployed or working part time for minimum wage barely making enough to pay rent and have food to eat. There is nothing left over for things you want to do, let alone make a dent in that debt you have.",
"A major issue with Student Loan Debt vs Credit card debt is student loan debt is not discharged in bankruptcy. Where as credit card debt is discharged. So even if you declare bankruptcy, and you will still owe your student loan debt after the bankruptcy case is over."
]
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6d669r | what determines how deep someones voice is? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6d669r/eli5_what_determines_how_deep_someones_voice_is/ | {
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"Several factors that mostly have to do with the shape of your body:\n\n1) Length of your larynx (vocal cords). Men tend to have longer and more robust vocal cords due to testosterone. Just like strings on a piano, the longer the cords the lower the tone.\n\n2) Shape of your chest cavity. Your chest cavity gives a place for sound to resonate.\n\n3) Size and shape of your sinuses. Tone also resonates in your head.\n\n4) Strength of your diaphragm. Your diaphragm is the muscle that pushes air out to speak.\n\n5) Cultural and personal differences. You may not realize that you have a lot of subconscious control in your vocal tone. If you don't like the sound of your natural voice you can -with practice or coaching- change it permanently."
]
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2skyrl | is salt water beneficial for healing wounds? if so, can you please explain how this works. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2skyrl/eli5_is_salt_water_beneficial_for_healing_wounds/ | {
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"text": [
"salt water kills cells. you kill off more bacteria cells than your cells. your body will grow new cells to replace the dead ones. dead bacteria doesn't regrow.",
"Several things:\n\n1.) Salt water has more solved ions than the water in your cells and in bacteria. This means that water from the cells \"wants\" to move outwards due to a process called osmosis. This creates a gradient of pressure that pathogens have to overcome\n\n2.) Because of this it can also dehydrate cells, which generally hurts isolated bacteria more than your body cells which can replenish their water from your bloodstream. This doesn't outright kill most bacteria but can slow their reproduction\n\n3.) It is simply a washing effect to remove infectious material. It's not a good idea to keep it constantly wet though.\n"
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18ca3o | how imgur file names work. | They seem so random but I know that there is a system to what name they are assigned. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18ca3o/eli5_how_imgur_file_names_work/ | {
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"Think of normal decimal number systems. 0 through 9. When you get more than 9, you just increment to 10 and keep going until you get to 99, then you just add another 1 in front, etc.\n\nImgur and other sites like _URL_0_, instead of limiting themselves to just numbers will include letters. After 9 comes a, b, c, etc. Then after z comes A, B, C, etc. One you hit Z, the next number becomes 10. After 1Z, you go to 20. After ZZ, you go to 100. Etc, etc.\n\nThis lets them account for really huge numbers of images while still allowing short IDs. In a system like I described, ZZZZ is the equivalent to 916,132,832."
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1h6bsp | why are prices always something like $49,95. instead of just $50? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h6bsp/eli5_why_are_prices_always_something_like_4995/ | {
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"Always wondered. I believe people get more scared by the 1st digit than the second. Even if the prices are 1cent apart.",
"The primary usage is to disguise the fact that the item is $50. If you glance at it quickly, you'll notice the $49 first or even the $4x.xx. This allows the consumer to subconsciously think it is cheaper than previously thought.\n\nSecondly, if you are doing price matching online, the results will show yours first (Wal-Mart prices most items on a .88)\n\nAnother notion is that it helps to distinguish the item (not applicable to coupons or other restrictions) without it being too far off from the list price.",
"Because as humans are terrible at numbers. Research has proven over and over again that $49.95 sounds a lot cheaper to us than $50, even if it's only five cents off. And \"sounds a lot cheaper\" means \"more likely to buy\".",
"It is a marketing thing. $49.95 mentally seems like less than $50.",
"As well as it being a marketing device, this was also introduced to ensure that cashiers register every purchase mad in the cash register. Say I wanted to buy an item priced at $50, the cashier could take my money and pocket it without having to register that a sale has taken place. Making the price $49.95 ensures they open the cash register, to take out 5 cents for your change, thus registering a sale, making sure cashiers don't steal from the shop.",
"Its called the psychological price model, forgive me if its been mentioned but I didn't see it in a quick scan of the thread. ",
"to insult your intelligence."
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4c12ka | if a power line runs from one hill to another, how do they connect it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4c12ka/eli5_if_a_power_line_runs_from_one_hill_to/ | {
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"Every trade has it's tricks. If they had enough opening in the woods they could have just walked a rope to the other side and pulled it up between the trees. From there depending on the weight of the line you either pull an attachment cable or just the line itself. If the tree growth is to thick they might have tried with a rope gun to launch the rope to the other side. I'm sure there are ways that would still be more economical than a helicopter that others will list."
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9cunl2 | why does it get colder in higher altitudes? aren't you closer to the sun? in fact why is space between earth and the sun cold if it's getting direct sunlight without the atmosphere blocking it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9cunl2/eli5_why_does_it_get_colder_in_higher_altitudes/ | {
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"Various gasses in the air are able to hold onto small amounts of energy (heat) and even though their weight is small, it is still enough for most gasses to keep them relatively grounded. As you go higher and away from the density of gasses, the air becomes thinner and there are less gas molecules retaining heat energy to give to you. You’re closer to the sun, sure, but not much closer at all in big scheme of things. I don’t know the math but if you climb a mountain you’re like maybe .000000001% closer or something, if that makes any sense why it wouldn’t get much hotter. \n\nAgain, space is a vacuum which means that there aren’t any chemical elements in the air to retain this heat energy, so you don’t get any absorption and the space remains untouched."
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54vwah | why is stretching before/after exercise important? | What is the purpose/benefits/risks of stretching?
What does occur when one stretches their muscles?
Will it help with muscle growth?
Does it have any impact on joints, cartilage, nerves, bones?
Does whatever effect it has increase/decrease with length of exercise?
Has the age of exerciser got any impact on the benefits of stretching? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54vwah/eli5_why_is_stretching_beforeafter_exercise/ | {
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"Exercising without stretching is like jumping out of a closed window, its possible but chances are its gonna hurt"
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3rwna5 | when a person's senses become "heightened" due to the loss of one sense (temporarily or permanently) what is happening to their body to allow for such changes? bonus: how does this differ from the experience of "heightened" senses during a 'fight-or-flight' response? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rwna5/eli5_when_a_persons_senses_become_heightened_due/ | {
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"Just like someone with a broken arm in a cast, the unused arm gets weaker while the other arm has to do more work. \n\nWhen someone goes blind for example, the part of the brain used for sight essentially goes unused, while the person struggles to use their other senses to compensate.\n\nThese other senses become stronger as a result, and often the parts of the brain used for these senses will grow into the unused area. This is called brain plasticity. \n\n\"Fight or flight\" is merely heightened senses due to hormonal responses in the body. Scare the rabbit, its body goes all \"eye of the tiger\" because of chemicals.\n\nTL;DR: Different brain parts grow over those left unused by the disability. Fight or flight is caused by chemical responses.\n\nEDIT: Added some things.\n\nSources: I also have a degree in psychology. _URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_",
"Brains are like city real estate, nothing sits vacant for long. So when a sense goes down that brain area associate with it goes down however the other areas that are still processing hook into that site for more grunt.\r\rFor a shorter but more terminology correct explanation, neuroplasticity means the brain is dynamic."
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"http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/articles/2012/what-is-brain-plasticity",
"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/superpowers-for-the-blind-and-deaf/"
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4hkkgw | is it possible to forcibly deflate currency by removing it from circulation or is it going to inflate infinitely? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hkkgw/eli5_is_it_possible_to_forcibly_deflate_currency/ | {
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"As far as I know, deflation can occur if there are negative interest rates or if there is a liquidity trap. \n\nHowever, you'd probably get a better answer from /r/Economics or /r/AskSocialScience. ",
"It's certainly possible, but it's something most countries really want to avoid.\n\nDeflation incentivizes hoarding money, and widespread hording can crater an economy even faster than rampant inflation.",
"Governments can deflate their currency by decreasing the money supply. Simply put, they can dispose of old, worn-out banknotes and not print as many new ones as they destroy (or electronically remove money from circulation). Tightening the money supply usually causes deflation. \n\nThat said, there are quite a few reasons why governments don't want deflation or a tight money supply, including but not limited to the fact that it requires that the government destroy it's own money rather than spend it. \n\ntl;dr It's possible to deflate currency by removing it from circulation but no one ever does. "
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3gsvjv | why is the score on metacritic consistently lower than the score on rotten tomatoes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gsvjv/eli5_why_is_the_score_on_metacritic_consistently/ | {
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"metacritic attempts to put all reviews on a percent scale---0 to 100. Rotten Tomatoes is just given the number of \"fresh\" reviews---roughly a C+/B or above 75% on a 1 to 100 scale---as opposed to \"rotten\" reviews. \n\nSo, imagine a movie with three reviews: The first reviewer thinks it's the best movie ever (100%), the second and third reviewers think it's good but not great (80%). On rotten tomatoes, that's 100% fresh, on Metacritic, that's only 86%. \n\nThere are only a very few movies where the math will work out differently (like cult hits). ",
"Rotten Tomatoes is higher than Metacritic on good movies, and lower than Metacritic on bad movies. As said below,RT's numbers are ratios. For a \"pretty good\" movie that everyone agrees is decent, you're likely to get a 100% on RT, while on MC, you'll get something like a 65 - 70 (the average of critic scores). And for some amiably crappy, low-brow Sandler movie, you'll often see a score in the 30s on Metacritic, but it's often in the 0 - 9 range on Rotten Tomatoes because very few people out and out \"recommend\" that movie. So if you want to know \"how good\" a certain movie is, Metacritic is your best bet. If you simply want to know the percentage of critics who like a movie, RT is better."
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1kff90 | how are mortgage interest rates affected by federal policy? | Backstory: I'm doing a scavenger hunt where I need to explain how federal policy affects mortgage interest rates with a bunch of sexual innuendos.
The actual item calls for: "Video: Two people in business suits at a small conference table discussing how fed policy affects mortgage interest rates. Use terms like, “quantitative easing,” “macro economic,” and “private equity.” The conversation must be rife with sexual innuendo."
If you could help me out or point me in the right direction as to how it actually works I'll make sure to credit you properly.
I like podcasts, so if there's a particular podcast which explains it well, I'd appreciate knowing about it.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kff90/eli5_how_are_mortgage_interest_rates_affected_by/ | {
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"Well, here are some terms you could use....\nneed to stimulate the economy\n...give it a stiff injection of cash\n...you want to see the economy grow\n...but you need to do it slowly\n...not too fast\n...because the economy could get to hot, and no-one like hyper-inflation. \nBut if we use quantitative easing\n...we can stimulate the economy slowly\n....seduce it into moving in the right direction \nand eventually get the yield curve pointing up like it should be. \nYou need to practive safe macro economic policies, and not give off mixed signals.\nBut you can't be a tease to private equity\nyou need to get them to excited about investing.\n"
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1p433q | does my dog understand why we get in the car and what a car does? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p433q/eli5_does_my_dog_understand_why_we_get_in_the_car/ | {
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"Kinda. \n\nThink about dogs as small 4yo children, which have about the same cognitive capabilities. So, a kid understands the excitement of getting on an airplane, knows that after some indeterminate ~~percolate~~ *time* waiting in the small inside space, mostly there's fun after the wait. Sometimes there's a vet, but even ~~goats~~ *that's* usually not too bad and most times he can tell by your mood if after the ride it's more likely the park or the vet. ",
"My dog hears \"wanna go for a ride\" and gets super excited, when the door opens she runs straight for the truck and sits and waits. She is quite in the truck until we get about half a mile from either a dog park, beach or friends house and then she start whinning. This happens well before the destination is in sight so she knows from the surrounding landmarks(smells maybe) where we are going. If we are going somewhere else and pass by a favorite location, she watches it pass and you can tell she is confused for a second like \"wait, that was the beach....we are going the wrong way silly human.\"",
"For your dog, a car is no different than any machine in your household. Associating your car to good things, like car rides, may lead your dog to think of good stuff whenever he is around your (or anyone else's) car, just like if you associate it with bad stuff (say he doesn't like the sound of the engine, and you constantly mock him with it), it will stay away from it.\n\nSince for any dog a car ride is effectively an olfactive porn, they will understandly get crazy about it, and will want to take the most out of it (sticking their heads out of windows). This can be potentially dangerous, since debris may get on his eye or worse, he could try to jump if he scans anything interesting enough to grasp his attention. \n\nAccording to multiple sources, [and already posted in Reddit](_URL_0_), your dog simply associates the tone of your voice, your body language and the context (smaller dogs are prone to read more your body than your voice in multiple occasions; bigger dogs are more auditive; reason being you're way larger than a small dog, so it will be more aware of your body than a bigger dog, whose difference in size to you may be less proeminent).\n\nEDIT: grammar",
"WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!",
"My dog does, but I'm not sure about yours, he could be dumb as a rock. \n\nNow for more fun... She gets to put her head out the window up to about 15 miles an hour, then it's floor time. If I tell her \"down\" and she does not do it I will \"use the force\" by making a sweeping motion with my hand as I tap on the breaks. Now she knows what's happens when my hand goes up in the car. \n\nTL;DR: My dog thinks I'm a Jedi. ",
"My dogs may not know what a car does, but man do they love that thing. All I have to do is open the car door and they both hop right in. They love riding around in the car. Even when it's time to visit the vet, they just hop right in. Maybe they're hoping for the best. Or maybe they're just awesome. \n\nI'm going to go with they're just two awesome little dachshunds. ",
"I don't understand why we get in the car or what a car does.",
"Yeah, I think so. I know my dogs recognize my car when I drive by my backyard because they'll perk up, look at it for a second like \"oh shit, is that my owner?\" and then when I get closer they're like \"FUCK YEAH IT IS!\" and sprint inside to meet me. ",
"Dogs probably think we are sitting there just as bewildered as they are. That we sit in the metal thing and it moves towards fun places, all the while the human is staring out the front window in sheer disbelief.",
"Seems odd as an ELI5, being all conjecture. ",
"You can't say the word \"bye\" or \"bye bye\" around my pug. He goes nuts.\n\nMy pug Rambo goes beyond his understanding of car rides:\nI made the mistake of showing him \"puppies\" on YouTube ( specifically, this: _URL_0_ ). I used my iPhone for this, so now, every time he hears the word \"puppies\" or sees me pick up my phone, he thinks we are watching this video. If I leave my phone on the arm of my chair, he will knock it to the floor and lay with his nose/chin on it, waiting for the video to come on.\n\nMy 6 year old son also sat down and watched Blues Clues with him on Netflix. The TV could be off and he could be asleep in the back room, but if you do your best \"Bah Bah Bow\" sound that Blue does on the show, he will come bolting out of the bedroom, jump on the footstool, and stare at the TV.\n\n**EDIT:** The pug in the video is not my dog, that is the video my pug loves to watch. I will try to get a video of his reactions and post when I can.",
"To a certain extent. \n\nMy sister's dog recognizes her car; when my sister is pulling up to her house, he will get very excited, but when another car pulls up, he gets worried and often starts barking and growling. He knows that when he's taken into a car, it's going to move and take him somewhere else. When in the car, he will get excited if he recognizes that he's being taken somewhere he likes but starts crying and shaking if it's near the vet.\n\nHe also cries when he's in the car if he's not sitting on the driver's lap, regardless of who's driving. It is a very odd thing and I have no idea why. I doubt he understands that the driver is the controlling the vehicle but I can't say for certain why he wants to sit there. Perhaps he is so used to sitting on the driver's lap when there's only one person in a car that he feels that particular spot is \"his seat\"?",
"My boxer definitely understands something about cars and their motions. He will get into the car at home with no problem. We take a walk from a park to a coffee shop frequently and we have to drive by the coffee shop to reach the park. When we get close to the cafe, he jumps up and starts getting anxious about getting out because he's excited. When we're done, I have to physically pick him up and put him in the car at the park because he knows that he's going home once he gets in that car. He will just sit outside the car door and stare at me like he's begging for just one more lap around the neighborhood. \nSomething else he's picked up on is how turning works. He often stands up in the passenger seat, but if I turn on my turn signal, he will lay down or lean himself against the back of the seat because he knows he's going to get thrown around of he doesn't brace himself. ",
"Mine is smart enough not to jump out the window when we are moving and is always excited when I tell him it's time to take a ride. He knows \"his seat\" and not to get into mine and will just stare out the window wagging furiously the whole time. One would have to assume they get the general idea. He knows like three blocks before we get to the drive thru because I take him through everytime and they give him a treat, so they must have some basic concept of what is going on. I mean he starts walking in circles on his seat and looking out my window instead of his everytime. I would think that means they get the idea, maybe not all the specifics. ",
"When I take my dog outside, she'll go up to the car, rear up and hit the door with her front paws. If I don't react, she comes over to me, then goes back to the car door and does it again. \n\nOf course, whenever she knows what she wants, she'll get my attention if she doesn't already have, make eye contact and then look at what she wants... or in the case of the car door she'll touch it. \n\nIt is pretty cool, but it would be even cooler if it worked in reverse when I want something for her, but nope, she's just a selfish little bitch!",
"Not sure about your car but stray dogs in Russia use the subway to get around. So it appears that they understand the concept on some level. \n\n\nedit: _URL_0_\n\n**\nEDIT: THANKS FOR THE GOLD, KIND STRANGER !!.** ",
"I feel like a dog watching a person drive a car must be similar to people watching Doctor Who pilot the Tardis. He's obviously doing a bunch of stuff to make sure he gets when/where he wants to be but you don't really understand the connection even though it's second nature to him.",
"My dogs ride in secured crates, and all but one happily jump in and go wherever. The one was in a major car accident with me (in a crate!) and still acts like a little kid not wanting to go to bed when I ask him to get in the car... \"hold on, I have to pee on this one last thing, oh, and this one last thing over here\" all while avoiding getting in. Poor baby.\n\nedit: my dogs go to do fun things every weekend, so yes, they know the car is awesome.",
"I believe a dog not only understands what a car does, but it understands somebody has to be in a particular seat to make it work. That's why he always jumps into the driver's seat when alone in the car, so he can leave me behind and go to the post office.",
"These dogs in New Zealand are learning to drive actual cars.\n_URL_0_\n\nWith enough biscuits, your dog can understand too. ",
"Probably to the same extent that an actual five year old human.",
"my mum's dog is pretty smart, he loves me to bits and comes to stay at my house sometimes, she lives 6 miles away from me, if he's in the car and she drives past my house he cries if she doesn't stop. so he recognizes where he is with no prompting. i think that's pretty smart.\n\nedit because he doesn't howl he cries",
"Yes. \n\nDogs are about as smart as a 6 year old. ",
"I vaguely remember a theory saying dogs think they control the car. ",
"I always had a funny thought that dogs would see a car as a magic device that makes the earth spin under it's wheels.",
"My dog Piper loves the car rides, and she recognizes the Starbucks drive thru. The possibility of puppy whip is very exciting to her.",
"I always wonder what they think about elevators. From their perspective it would be like a Stargate. ",
"In the same way most people don't have a clue about the actual workings of the engines, you understand the actions you take surrounding it and the outcome.\n\nYour dog is the same - it knows what to do and how to interact with the car, and knows the outcome (arrive somewhere else and see other places on the way).",
"The short answer is: maybe.\n\nPeople have worked for quite a long time under the assumption that we're the most intelligent being on the planet, and there's a long history of anecdotal evidence to suggest that's true (which, in reality, that much anecdotal evidence becomes just \"evidence\"). But we haven't actually studied the intelligence of animals in an incredibly in-depth manner, or rather, we've only started doing so in the past few decades. People like Temple Grandin done some observation, and I'm sure there are many studies going on right now (and have gone on, like those that categorized the language of prairie dogs), but we don't rightly now the intelligence level, or mode, of animals, beyond bits here and there and the push toward understanding, mainly because we don't have a highly effective means of communicating with them.\n\nDogs are an interesting case, as well, as we've selectively bred such a panoply of possible dogs that the effects of that have meant different things for different breeds; there are a number of different examples already posted!",
"I think my dogs kind of know what the car does. They know to go to the car anytime I say car ride and they know it takes them places. One of my dogs actually checks out my car at the beginning of his walks when I get home to check and see if anything is in there (or at least in think that's why he looks in the windows) he's very protective. ",
"Yes they do, as demonstrated by the fact that stray dogs in Moscow have learned to use the subway there to get to where they are going. \n\n[Here's an article](_URL_1_) about how these dogs use the subway to get to where they're going. And [here's another article](_URL_0_) about these \"commuter dogs.\"",
"There are stray dogs that use buses and trains in regular schedule, so at least some dogs are smart enough. _URL_0_",
"Dogs learn to associate people, things, and places with certain feelings. They know their owners pet them and give them treats, they know the dog park is typically full of dogs and fun things to smell, and they know the car can sometimes result in transportation to a super fun time and sometimes to the vet. Whatever they learn to associate the car *with* determines how they view the car and what they expect.\n\nThat said, dogs are incapable of understanding that you are controlling the vehicle. The fact that you're sitting in a different seat and holding a wheel provides an animal no indication that you're in control of your direction or rate of travel. They have no means of correlating your mechanical motion with the motion of the vehicle. \n\nAs far as your dog is concerned, the car is a magical mystery box that you both climb into and get swept off on adventures.",
"I don't remember where I read the article but I remember reading about wild dogs in russia that had integrated the subway system into their lives, using it just like regular passengers so they must have some awareness of how transportation works.",
"I often wonder if my dog understands that it's me driving the car with an intended purpose, or if it's just some large machine both if us are sitting in and it takes us to whatever destination it has programmed in for that day",
"I often wonder if my dog realizes that it's actually me driving the car with a purpose, or if it's just a large machine that both of us sit in and it takes us wherever it's programmed to for the day",
"If I start driving slowly all of the sudden for about a half-mile and then stop and put the car in park... the combination of those factors and noises alerts my dog that \"we are at the park!!!\" So she stands up, and starts moving towards my car door, waiting for me to pop it open, so she can hop out and do her rounds of poop and pee.",
"ITT: Literally no scientific studies at all, just a shit-ton of pet owners. I would take anything you read here with a grain of salt.\n\nMy own two cents: Just because a dog gets excited in the car doesn't mean that they understand what's going on. I would say that they understand that a car takes you from place A to place B, but I would not say that they understand where they're going. They're just excited because they know they're going somewhere.",
"Oh yeah, my dog understands \"Wanna go for a ride?!?\" and gets super excited! Runs for the car, starts howling and wagging her tail and everything. She understands when we are even *a couple miles away from home*, because she uses visual cues.\n\nBy far the most amazing/interesting thing she does in the car, though, is that she *freaking recognizes a stop-sign and/or stoplight, and braces for a stop before I even start to slow down.* \n\nShe legitimately scares me with her combination of intelligence and laziness. ",
"My dog has no idea what a car is. He just sees the car as something that he gets into before getting out at the destination. So when I take my dog to the vet he just think the car is the first step of the vet, like he has to get in the car in order to get out at the vet. If we go somewhere different, he just forgets about the vet and a new idea replaces it. Not giving him the benefit of the doubt haha.",
"If a dog is allowed to do the things that they have been bred to do they are much smarter than the average teenager. My father developed a retirement ranch on which he kept 100+- cow/calf with a border collie for help. It took me three years to figure she knew more about puttin cows where they needed to be and helping her do it her way....",
"My dog loves going in the car, we don't always go some where like the dog park but she likes hanging out the window sniffing the air. or just sitting with her head in my lap getting pet. It's one of our bonding things I guess. I take her everywhere when it's not like I'll be inside forever or it's too hot. She knows the keys, and she knows 'wanna go for a ride' and she knows which car is mine and the sound of it unlocking (her eyes about pop out of her head and she starts running around my car)\n\nI felt very bad the other day, I was getting ready for work and took her out for a walk and while I was at it, decided to put my bag in the car. She got super excited about me opening the car door (didn't try to jump in since I told her to stay), and stuff, then I close it and keep walking and she just stood next to my car, looking at me, then it, then back to me like 'but... car ride...?' poor baby lol",
"Seems like an odd question. Why wouldn't a dog understand a car? I would expect that dogs have more intuitive sense of space and movement than a little kid does since they have more \"animal instincts\". They can feel that it's moving, and they can look out the window and see that it's moving, they presumably see the car from the outside as it is moving, what's to not understand?",
"My dog knows what the deal is when I grab my keys and the leash. He goes right to the drivers side door an waits before I've even locked the door behind us. He'll figure it out about halfway there whether we are going to the park, for a bath or to the vet and act accordingly. ",
"Now you mention it, riding in a car must be weird for a dog. Imagine you follow your owner into a box, which owner then completely seals. Owner sits down, the box starts to rumble and then takes off at a speed faster than you could ever run. Next, you see that you're hurtling along with a load of other similar boxes, and there are more boxes coming at you head on. Admittedly a dog might not recognise the potential for disaster (i.e. collision with other boxes) but it still seems kind of weird to imagine. Anyway, the box stops, the doors open, you and Owner get out and all you can think about is running off and finding somewhere to take a shit.",
"Some dogs can drive:\n_URL_0_\n",
"Our beagle get's very excited when we say \"wanna go to grandma's\" (my mom's house) but doesn't know how close we are. He get's really excited everytime we stop though (lights, traffic, etc..) so he does at least understand that when the car stops it MIGHT be time to get out.",
"I believe they do understand. I own two sighthounds, who are very independently thinking and pretty smart, which gives me an interesting perspective on figuring out what they're thinking. \n\nThey enjoy going in the car, as many others have said, and usually sleep until the car slows down or stops somewhere. They are not obsessed with the car, and they usually go for a ride somewhere once a day (I don't have a fenced in yard). \n\nOnce, one of my dogs ran down the road to try to follow my boyfriend after he left our house, so she does seem to understand that when he gets in the car, that's what's happening. She does not try to chase cars otherwise, and when she was young she was TERRIBLY attached to us. \n\nI think if I took the dogs out in the car, dropped them off somewhere, they would understand how to get home. \n\nThat being said, I'm not sure there's any way for them to understand that the human in the driver's seat is operating the car. I do have another interesting anecdote on this subject however; I once got in a car accident when my dog was sitting in the front seat. (We were all fine but it was clearly a bit traumatizing for everyone). For a very long time after that, she would not sit in the front seat if I was driving, but she would sit in the front seat if my boyfriend was. \n\nWhen she stated being comfortable sitting in the front with me again, she would only move to the front seat when I was on the highway. If I had to hit my brakes for anything, she would get in the back seat. \n\nSo, take that as you will. ",
"I used to live at an intersection that was the home turf of a small pack of dogs.\n\nOne day, I saw a dog that wasn't a part of the pack walk up to the intersection. The pack ran the other dog off the street and onto the sidewalk. They let the dog go by without any more trouble.\n\nI think that dogs see cars as the \"top dogs,\" and they were trying to make the \"top dogs\" happy by keeping the streets clear.\n\nWhen they're in a car, they are top dog. Everyone moves out of their way.",
"One of the things we know about dogs is they most certainly don't understand the world in the same way we do.\n\nA dog is most similar to Patient HM. HM could not remember anything that wasn't in the moment.\n\nSo famously a nurse playing a prank on him starts by telling him a joke. It's a dirty one and he laughs.\n\nShe comes in the next day and tells the exact same joke, he once again laughs.\n\nShe does this every single day for a week and eventually when he would see her in the door he would burst into laughing.\n\nWhen asked why he was laughing he had no idea. He didn't understand why he laughed, he just felt like laughing.\n\nSo when you tell your dog \"wanna go for a ride\" it's very similar in tone probably to \"wanna go for a walk\" or \"walk\" or \"pee pee poo poo\" or whatever thing you say to your dog. So the dog doesn't really understand what this means. He acts happily without really understanding why it is he is happy. You confirm this by getting his leash and he immediately associates any activity on that leash with being happy.\n\nNew research shows that animals do in fact have emotions. We know they feel stuff. But one thing we know solidly, dogs do not understand anything. They live in the moment.",
"Cognition researcher here! The truth is we don't know. Why? Because we can't ask them! Or at least, they can't answer in eglish. Dogs can be trained to know to go to the car, just like you can train them to kennel up. However, you could do some tests by doing expectation violation experiments. If your dog were to learn to expect the car ride to end at the beach, the park, or the vet, you could then see if and how they react a) when the ride ends at an alternate location and b) if they react differently to various locations before arrival. You'd have to train the expectation by creating an association between the name of the location and the location itself first. As far as I know this hasn't been tested, but you may want to look up the canine cognition lab at duke to see. They may even be interested in taking on such a study if you email them. I'm on my lunch break so I can't look into it right now.\n\n\nEdit: also Google \"expectation violation\" to find similar studies in other species :)",
"They understand. My mom and brother were walking our dogs once and decided that they had gone a bit too far and asked me to pick them up (the lazy dogs had said \"fuck this\" and sat down and refused to go any farther). When I rolled up in the car, the dogs immediately ran to the doors and started whining. As soon as we opened the doors, they jumped inside. I think they get that the car takes them places.",
"My parent's dog understands that we have personal cars. She ran away 4 years ago during a storm and was missing for three weeks. When she was found she was guarding a silver truck (exactly like my dads) and wouldn't let the owner get near it. ",
"Dogs actually drive the cars don't you know _URL_0_",
"Mine knows he wants to go for a ride, but once he's in there he paces around, whines, and barks. It's all about the destination, not the journey for him.",
"My dog HATES riding in the car. But before My BF and I moved in together I would say \"want to go see Nikko?\" (my BF's Husky) and Trunks (my rotty) would get sooo excited and make a break for the car. She loved that guy. He passed away a couple weeks ago :( ",
"ITT: No answers, only personal stories.",
"My wife and I think the dogs believe it's some kind of magical adventure box. ",
"Does the dog know we drive the car? Or does it think we get in this mystery machine and it takes us somewhere, sometimes nice like the park, sometimes not so nice like the vet. Like it's an adventure every time!",
"Our dog loves going for car rides, and gets very excited when we get close to a destination that he likes. He also panics when we go on gravel. He is a rescue dog and we know he was taken to the humane society by his old family, which is on a gravel road, so he associates gravel roads with being abandoned. Or he just hates when his chariot get dusty, not sure which.",
"As I'm typing this my dog is licking my ear, later she will lick her bum and wag her tail. ",
"What is the diff. Between a shrimp and a prawn",
"As a dog person, I love seeing posts about dogs and dog owners going to the top of my page on this here phone.\n\nI miss my boxer dogs.",
"My dog seems to think when I leave the house that I've left forever. Every time.\n\nOHMYGODYOU'REBACKYOU'REBACKICAN'TBELIEVEIT\n\n...Dude. I went to the mailbox."
]
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWAK0J8Uhzk"
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"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/moscows-metro-dogs.html",
"http://abcnews.go.com/International/Technology/stray-dogs-master-complex-moscow-subway-system/story?id=10145833"
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHSHeMjY9J8"
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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20614593"
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66iqbc | why do news sites usually position the content in the middle of the page instead of using all of the space avaliable? | For example, [this news article about Half Life 3.](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66iqbc/eli5_why_do_news_sites_usually_position_the/ | {
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"A recent trend in web design has been what's called \"responsive\" web design. It used to be that you could assume someone viewing your page was using a desktop computer with a certain minimum screen resolution you could optimize your layout for. When smartphones and tablets became popular you started to see \"full versions\" and \"mobile versions\" of the same site, each optimized for different screen resolutions. That works fine but it's twice the work to build and maintain two versions of every page. The answer to that problem has been responsive design where you build the page once with built in rules on how to lay the page out based on the device's screen resolution. The end result is you build a page that works as well as possible in both mobile and desktop views which usually means padding out content with a lot of white space on both sides when viewed on higher resolution desktop screens."
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"http://image.prntscr.com/image/3d77af93b5b64b0a881d331ff4e21cd8.png"
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1xs6k1 | what makes it possible for someone to ride a bicycle with no hands? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xs6k1/eli5_what_makes_it_possible_for_someone_to_ride_a/ | {
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"Here is a nice explanation: _URL_0_",
"An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an equal and opposite force. \n\nIn short, every point on your bicycle wheels will keep going in the same direction it is going unless something stops it. If these points were unattached, they would go flying off like a pinwheel. Since they are attached, with spokes, rubber, rims etc, they continue to move in a circle. Centrifugal force.\n\nThis creates a plane right down the center of the two wheels and the body. Unless an opposite force acts to make them move to the left or right, they will continue to move in the same direction on that plane. Go fast enough and you can ride without hands or feet. "
]
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"http://www.theaggie.org/2013/09/26/no-hands/"
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||
2zxjbm | why does the irs make it so difficult to understand how to file personal taxes? | As a newly self-employed business owner, why does the government make everything so difficult to comprehend and execute. It forces you to find an accountant to either do it or pay to explain. it isn't fair and i know it doest have to be this complicated. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zxjbm/eli5_why_does_the_irs_make_it_so_difficult_to/ | {
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"The IRS doesn't make it difficult. It's congress that passes these bills. They have very precise wording to avoid people exploiting unintended loopholes.",
"A lot of times the explanations on the IRS site can be legalese, often because they are trying harder to avoid making a mistake with very complicated laws then they are to be clear and understandable.\n\nThat said, the actual IRS organization will often bend over backward to help clarify issues. You can try [calling](_URL_1_), although I don't know how busy that telephone line will be this time of year. \n\nEDIT: good luck.\n\nEDIT: another list of free IRS assistance, although not sure if any is for business specifically _URL_0_",
"You're free to go learn all thee 75,000 pages of the tax code, because the government doesn't know which parts apply to your business. Spomeomne might be able to figure it out......like an accountant"
]
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[],
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"http://www.irs.gov/uac/Free-Tax-Help-Available-From-the-IRS-1",
"http://www.irs.gov/uac/Telephone-Assistance"
],
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|
4kpxc7 | why are almost all modern day figther jets grey? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kpxc7/eli5_why_are_almost_all_modern_day_figther_jets/ | {
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"text": [
"It acts as camouflage against the sky when seen from the ground. In WW2 we preferred green and brown on top to provide camouflage against the ground when seen from above, but now anything that's likely to see you from above is likely to fire a missile at you without ever seeing you, so camouflage won't help."
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205swa | why are certain drugs snorted (cocaine, for example)? please, explain the whole drug absorbtion process in this case. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/205swa/eli5_why_are_certain_drugs_snorted_cocaine_for/ | {
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"Snorting drugs puts it into your blood stream quicker. Makes you feel it instantly. Eating makes it take a little bit. If you notice people snorting pain meds it is to feel it quocker",
"Your nose contains mucus membranes, through which substances can be absorbed faster than through your digestive tract. Generally speaking, the fastest absorption will be through injection into the bloodstream, second fastest is inhalation, third is mucus membranes, and last is digestion.",
"Some substances have a greater water solubility than others which makes it easily dissolvable in our internal fluids. When these substances get dissolved and absorbed into our blood stream is when we feel their peak effects. Cocaine has a high solubility and thus when administered in quick ways like injection or snorting it can be felt strongly and quickly. Other drugs need to be digested and absorbed gradually but ppl find ways to administer drugs all kinds of ways"
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9a3laf | why don’t businesses take the money and run when getting rich? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9a3laf/eli5_why_dont_businesses_take_the_money_and_run/ | {
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"text": [
"Most large companies aren't privately owned. They are publicly traded corporations. The major stockholders can't \"take the money and run\" because the money is in their ownership of the business. "
]
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[]
] |
||
6ctn4n | how does euler's formula actually work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ctn4n/eli5_how_does_eulers_formula_actually_work/ | {
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"This is a bit like magic trick and when all the moving parts and behind the scenes preparation are revealed the result is clear, magic evaporates, and, in this case, follows from the uniqueness of the complex function f(z) satisfying f'(z) = f(z) and f(0) = 1 but that fact is often obscured by our intuition regarding exponents.\n\n*Start with some background* \n\nRecall that 3^4 is 3 multiplied by itself 4 times. With suitable mental gymnastics, e^pi is e multiplied by itself pi times and we accept that e & lt; e^2 & lt; e^3 & lt; e^pi & lt; e^4\n\nAll of that intuition fails when we first encounter e^(i). \n\nMaybe we start telling ourselves... I don't know what e^i is but my intuition is telling me that e^i & lt; e^2i & lt; e^3i & lt; e^i\\*pi & lt; e^(4i), and, as it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth... imaginary exponents do not work the same on real numbers as real exponents, not in terms of thinking about 3^4 is 3 multiplied by itself 4 times.\n\nImaginary exponents, in order to make mathematical sense, have to be thought of differently and there are many ways to do this but one of the quickest ways to get the desired result is to appeal to basic calculus.\n\nIn calculus, one of the defining properties of the real valued function f(x) = e^x is that it is equal to its own derivative. That is, e^x is the unique real valued function f(x) satisfying f'(x) = f(x) and f(0) = 1. That derivative equation and one value, f(0) = 1, is enough to uniquely define e^(x). \n\nFrom that particular definition (there are many ways to define e and e^(x), this is but one way) you can build up all the familiar properties of exponents and eventually see how our intuition with e^(pi), e^(3), e^(4), and even 3^(4) are all connected. All of that intuition can be recovered from *the unique real valued function f(x) satisfying f'(x) = f(x) and f(0) = 1*.\n\nWell, it turns out you can do all that calculus stuff with complex numbers and that there is a unique complex function f(z) satisfying f'(z) = f(z) and f(0) = 1. And for the sake of familiar notation we call that function f(z) = e^(z). \n\nIt turns out that whenever *z* is real, then everything we know about the real function e^x is exactly true for e^z and that is where our intuition starts to betray us... we begin to think of complex and imaginary exponents a little too much like we think of real exponents and we might even start to think e^(i) & lt; e^(2i) & lt; e^(3i) & lt; e^i\\*pi & lt; e^(4i). It cannot be further from the truth because with complex numbers we cannot expect to order the numbers like we do real numbers. \n\nSo, in order to make sense of e^i\\*pi + 1 = 0 we really should get a sense of e^(z) for complex numbers *z* and one place that comes from is by accepting (really by proving) that e^z is the unique complex function e^(z) = f(z) satisfying f'(z) = f(z) and f(0) = 1. \n\n*Now for the reveal*\n\nWrite the complex number z = y + i\\*x where y and x are real then notice that the complex valued function g(z) = e^(y)[cos(x) + i\\*sin(x)] satisfies the very same conditions for e^z = f(z), that is, satisfying g'(z) = g(z) and g(0) = 1. This means that g(z) = f(z) and therefore e^z = e^(y)[cos(x) + i\\*sin(x)] where z = y + i\\*x.\n\nNext, setting y=0 we get g(i\\*x) = e^i\\*x = cos(x) + i\\*sin(x) and letting x = pi we get the seemingly magical statement e^i\\*pi + 1 = 0.\n\nSo, it turns out that the astounding formula e^i\\*pi + 1 = 0 really is a near immediate result following from the crucial fact of the uniqueness of the complex function f(z) satisfying f'(z) = f(z) and f(0) = 1 what seems like magic is really the result of powerful machinery and lots of work, not unlike stage magic.",
"It would help if you gave us some sense of where you're starting from. Do you know how e is defined? Are you familiar with complex numbers? DeMoivre's theorem? When I'm teaching I need to know who my audience is and what level they're at.",
"It works because multiplication of complex numbers includes the concept of rotation. \n\nSo let's start with that idea. If you rotate something by one turn it will be the same thing. One turn is symbolized by 2*π if you're counting radians. \"The same thing\" is symbolized by 1 in multiplication. \n\nIf you rotate something by a half turn, it takes two rotations to get where you start. This can be symbolized by -1.\n\n- x - > -x\n- -x - > x\n\nBoth times you're multiplying by -1\n\nReal numbers exist on a line. So you only have two directions that exist and we'd be done. But with complexity numbers let's do a quarter turn.\n\n- x\n- x\\*i\n- -x\n- x*i\n\nNotice how multiplying by i does half of what mutiplying by -1 does. This is a square root thing. \n\n- x\n- x\\*sqrt(2)\n- 2\\*x\n\nNow let's look at -1/2 + sqrt(3)/2\\*i. It does something like this as well. You may need some paper to follow the algebra.\n\n- x\n- (-1/2 + sqrt(3)/2\\*i) \\* x\n- (-1/2 + sqrt(3)/2\\*i)^2 \\* x\n - 1/4\\*(-1 + sqrt(3)\\*i)^2 \\* x\n - 1/4\\*(1 - 2\\*sqrt(3)\\*i - 3) \\* x\n - (-1/2 - sqrt(3)/2\\*i) \\* x\n- (-1/2 - sqrt(3)/2\\*i) * (-1/2 + sqrt(3)/2\\*i) \\* x\n - 1/4\\*((-1)^2 - (sqrt(3)\\*i)^(2)) \\* x\n - 1/4 \\* (1 + 3) \\* x\n - x\n\nThree multiplications, so that's a third of a turn each.\n\nOne whole turn: 2\\*pi or 1. One half turn: pi or -1. One third turn: 2/3\\*pi or (-1/2 + sqrt(3)\\*i). One quarter turn: pi/2 or i. ... *Any* fraction of a turn is possible.\n\nThe exponent function should relate rotation by adding (angles) to rotation by multiplication (complex roots of one). Since real numbers represent exponential growth or decay, imaginary numbers represent angles of rotation.\n\n- e^(2 pi i) = 1\n- e^(pi i) = -1\n- e^(1/2 pi i) = i\n- e^(a i) = cos(a) + sin(a)\\*i [define these functions to accept radians]\n\nUnfortunately, the *proof* of this will have to wait for a calculus or complex analysis course. ",
"Euler's formula is a direct result of the [Taylor series](_URL_0_) of the functions e^(x), sin(x) and cos(x).\n\nWithout going into what the Taylor series is exactly and how we can calculate it, I'll just tell you that these are the Taylor series of these three functions:\n\n* e^x = 1 + x + x^(2)/2! + x^(3)/3! + ...\n\n* sin(x) = x - x^(3)/3! + x^(5)/5! - x^(7)/7! + x^(9)/9! + ...\n\n* cos(x) = 1 - x^(2)/2! + x^(4)/4! - x^(6)/6! + x^(8)/8! + ...\n\nYou can see there's somewhat of a resemblance between the terms of e^x with odd powers with the terms of sin(x), and the terms of e^x with even powers with the terms of cos(x).\n\nSo now an interesting question is: what is e^(i*x) (where i is the imaginary number, i.e. i^2 = -1)? Using the Taylor expansion, we get:\n\ne^(ix) = 1 + ix + (ix)^(2)/2! + (ix)^(3)/3! + (ix)^(4)/4! + ... = 1 + ix - x^(2)/2! - ix^(3)/3! + x^(4)/4! + ix^(5)/5! - x^(6)/6! + ...\n\nNow if we look at just the terms of e^(ix) with even powers, we get 1 - x^(2)/2! + x^(4)/4! + ... which is exactly sin(x). Similarly, If we look at the rest of the terms, we get ix - ix^(3)/3! + ix^(5)/5! - ix^(7)/7! + ... which is exactly i\\*cos(x).\n\nSo what we get is Euler's Formula: e^(ix) = sin(x) + i\\*cos(x).\n\nNow just substitute pi for x, and you get e^(i*pi) = sin(pi) + i\\*cos(pi) = -1 + i\\*0 = -1.",
"If you want a *very* brief intuitive explanation, I'll say two things:\n\n--multiplying by an imaginary number is like rotation\n\n--raising e to a power is like continuous growth.\n\nI don't expect those two sentences to explain *everything*. But I think it's a half-decent summary.\n\nTo understand the above statements in more detail, you could explore the following:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_"
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"https://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-understanding-of-eulers-formula/"
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] |
||
7eujj8 | why can other animals build up fat reserves and live off of them for leaner months without apparent consequences but we find it so hard to live off of fat reserves and still feel weak when we don’t eat regularly, even when we have stored energy in fat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7eujj8/eli5_why_can_other_animals_build_up_fat_reserves/ | {
"a_id": [
"dq7j53g",
"dq7jq9e"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Human beings, much like other animals, did evolve the capability of building up fat reserves when food is abundant, and then living off those reserves when food is scarce. The only reason why this system has broken down in the modern world is that most of us now have access to abundant food all the time. We are always preparing for a famine that (so far) never comes.\n\nThe reason why you feel weak when you don't eat, is that your body does need to have some caloric energy available even to access its reserves of stored caloric energy. Everything takes energy. You will find that if you eat just a small amount of nutritious food (not potato chips) you will not feel weak. You can cut back on food drastically and get very good results in terms of weight loss, without having to give up eating entirely. ",
"The human body has two sources of energy. Fat burning and sugar burning. Your body prefers to burn sugar and will so long as there is a sufficient supply. If you do not eat any sugars or starches, carbohydrates in general, your body will enter ketosis. This means it's burning fat for fuel. This transition takes a few days but once you've made the transition you will be able to live off your fat reserves much more efficiently, without feeling so drained."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
1zvta4 | the anti-fedora culture online | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zvta4/eli5_the_antifedora_culture_online/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfxfyot",
"cfxgg7i"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"\"fedora felt hats as a fashion accessory, are often mocked online for being worn by men without poor sense of style.\"\n\nshown in\n\n[This picture](_URL_0_)",
"as soon as you see someone wearing them, and i mean anyone; then you'll know. \n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/519/423/b62.jpg"
],
[]
] |
||
21jpea | freedom of religion as a guise to avoid laws you don't like | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21jpea/eli5_freedom_of_religion_as_a_guise_to_avoid_laws/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgdoprt"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I thought about trying to explain all your questions, but no one can explain this better than Eugene Volokh does in his [Religious Exemptions Guide for the Confused](_URL_0_)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/03/24/religious-exemptions-a-guide-for-the-confused/"
]
] |
Subsets and Splits