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24w0zd | why did luminescence evolve in deep sea organisms | Why did light evolve in a place with no light? Also why would these organisms be attracted to light? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24w0zd/eli5_why_did_luminescence_evolve_in_deep_sea/ | {
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"In the absence of light from the sun, using bioluminescence gives deep sea organisms access to many sight-based behaviors. The light can be used as everything from a mating display to a defensive response. Visual signals are very strong and useful, and since there is no ambient light, they evolved to create their own."
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5t8hso | what's the biological impact of removing wolves from an area, and what is the biological impact of reintroducing a new population? | Specifically I'm referring to the polarizing issue on specifically Idaho. I do already know that the state did not introduce "Giant Canadian Timber Wolves" but actually just standard Grey Wolves. However what's the true impact when they were removed, and the impact when they are reintroduced. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5t8hso/eli5_whats_the_biological_impact_of_removing/ | {
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"Removing predators like wolves can lead to overpopulation. There are more deer in North America today than when the pilgrims arrived. This can lead to starvation, disease, crop damage, and traffic accidents.\n\nReintroducing predators, if done correctly, can control those populations. It can also, in theory, lead to ranchers losing animals. Ranchers will typically shoot predators on sight, which is bad for a reintroduction program trying to get on its feet. Because it is easy to get away with, you need pretty draconian laws to create a deterrent. Ranchers see it as going to jail for protecting their livelihoods.",
"Oh this a great point that is often over looked! Thanks for reminding me. "
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5j8tnc | china, "the chinese sea", international waters. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5j8tnc/eli5_china_the_chinese_sea_international_waters/ | {
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"A country's sea borders extend 10 miles from their land borders...basically they have the right to police and prosecute actions that take place within 10 miles of their borders. China has been effectively building man made islands that they are using to extend these borders further into international waters. The crux of the debate surrounds whether or not this is \"allowed\" and whether or not their extended borders should be recognized in the international community. Overwhelming agreement is...no. "
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3hx607 | why do grey shirts almost always have that weird pattern on them? | [Like this.](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hx607/eli5_why_do_grey_shirts_almost_always_have_that/ | {
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"might be because they make it look grey by alternating light and dark material that make it look wavey and weird",
"The color of the shirt you are referring to is *heather* grey. Heather refers to interwoven yarns of mixed colors producing flecks of an alternate color. It is typically used to mix multiple shades of grey or grey with another color to produce a muted shade (e.g., [heather green](_URL_0_)), but any two colors can be mixed, including bright colors.\n\nHeather grey shirts usually cost a few cents less to manufacture than a solid color t-shirt. This could be a reason why heather grey shirts are more common.\n\n",
"It's inherent in the heather pattern, and gray is the classic color. The more accurate question would be, why are shirts with that pattern almost always grey.",
"Only dyeing half the threads gray and intertwining with white makes a bit lighter gray. Dyeing half the threads costs less than dyeing all the threads.",
"Did anyone get a mirror? OP didn't think ahead and now no one can make out what he's on about.",
"It's called grey marl. You can marl any colour. A marl actually tends to be more expensive in compared to a solid coloured fabric. Grey marl however is more readily available at fabric mills so tends to be cheaper than a coloured marl. I work within a buying department for a large retailer and we prefer to use grey in marl form rather than solid, as it gives a softer colour. A solid grey garment can often look very flat and have a yellow or blue twinge. It's made by knitting various coloured yarns together. You can create a fake marl effect by knitting together two different yarn substrates in greige form (greige = not dyed) I.e cotton and polyester. You then dye the knitted fabric with a dye recipe that will only hold to one of yarn types. This gives you the different shades or 'marl' effect but for much cheaper- however the effect isn't as nice as a true marl. ",
"Once I had a basic grey jumper, and I was surprised it's not the usual white-black pattern. It was boring. Really...the heathered is better.",
"I work in color. It's my family's job. We work with retail companies and designers. In my experience greys are some of the most difficult to dye and get level (as in, an even dispersion of the dye onto the fabric). That may be why a lot of designers choose heathers, it's more easy and consistent. \n\nThe production team have so many colors and other things to deal with, they don't want to deal with a lot of grey colors and they'll pick heathers for t shirts/sweaters and more simple things that are just one or two colors. Picking a grey color each season means a lot of headaches.\n",
"What pattern?? *looks at picture......looks down at shirt.....* Oh...",
"So did some one explain why they just do not make a plain grey shirt that is not \"heather grey\" yet?\n",
"This is a perfect example of Reddit giving you an answer you didn't know you had a question for. "
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3bdmnl | why is samsung still making processors for apple phones despite being their competitor? | The A9 processor in iPhone 7 is said to made by Samsung using their new technology. Of course Samsung earns money by selling Apple the chips, but wouldn't it be better if they keep their technology to their own phones? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bdmnl/eli5_why_is_samsung_still_making_processors_for/ | {
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"If Samsung doesn't make the processor then TSMC or Global Foundries will. \n\nRight now Samsung has a more advanced processor making technology than those other do, but if Samsung refuses Apple can certainly work something out. Samsung can't just make Apple give up by not making the A9. \n\nSamsung might as well make some money off the iPhone. It can't beat it by refusing. ",
"I'm sure they did the math and realized a guaranteed contract of iPhone chips is more money than a not-so-guaranteed increased market share of people going to Samsung phones (instead of Motorola, LG, etc.) on the basis of CPU power (which most buyers will stare blankly at when mentioned). Even with my PC building knowledge, I don't know where to start when comparing phone CPUs.\n\nIn a different world, where they have a stronger control over the Android market, less competition in chip manufacturing, with consumers that can compare CPU chips, and consumers that care heavily about the CPU chip, then yeah, sure.",
"Samsung is a huge conglomerate and cellphones is just one of their divisions. Their manufacturing division is just as large and manufactures stuff for a lot of other companies.\n\nIf they make the chip for Apple, their manufacturing division makes money. If they don't, then Apple will just go with somebody else.\n\nApple is only a designer, not a manufacturer. They went with Samsung because Samsung has the best manufacturing technology at the moment.",
"Ok, lets go over a few things, \n\n- Samsung is a VERY large company, they make everything from cellphones to washing machines and even have a joint venture with Renault to manufacture cars, The company making the washing machines is not the same company making the cellphones, and the company making the cars is not the same company making the TV´s, and its not the same unit in samsung making the cellphones and making the Exynos chips. \n\n- Chip makers dont actually manufacture chips, they do the R & D but the actual manufacturing is outsourced to a fab, Fabs are expensive to set up and only a few companies have their own Fabs, Companies like Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Global Foundries (which is AMD´s FAB that they spun off), So Samsung ARM dept orders the manufacturing from the Samsung fab dept sending them the design, then the Samsung ARM dept \"sells\" the processors to Samsung mobile and other departments (like Samsung TV´s for smart TVs),\n\nBut part of the business of the fab dept is also to accept designs from 3rd parties and manufacture for them. Its a independent unit inside a bigger company, so it can manufacture for Apple with no issues.\n\n"
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a1g44p | how does smoking cause asthma? | I understand that it affects MCC but how does it 'close down the airways' | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1g44p/eli5_how_does_smoking_cause_asthma/ | {
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"Smoking is combustion. Combustion causes a byproduct: the smoke. Smoke is a bunch of small particles. Particles that don't belong in your lungs cause it to react. That reaction can be in the form of an asthma attack.",
"Doesn't really cause asthma, but it can precipitate an attack. There are a ton of things that go down physiologically when you smoke. I think though whats agonizing the asthma here is the disruption of the mucous membrane and irritation of the bronchioles which will constrict. The smoke can also affect the alveoli causing them to break down and combine into large alveoli, drastically cutting down on surface area for gas exchange, emphysema, not related to the asthma but just one of the many problems with smoking."
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8s7zsb | what is a hydraulic press actually used for? other than clickbait videos | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8s7zsb/eli5_what_is_a_hydraulic_press_actually_used_for/ | {
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"Kitchen sinks. \n\nThe metal ones, that seem to be made out of a single piece of metal that just happens to be the shape of a sink? That is most likely a single piece of metal which was squeezed into shape by a hydraulic press. The drain gets cut out at the same time. The drain cover can even be cut at the same time. \n\nOf course the same principle can be applied to any number of other objects. ",
"My dad uses one to make OSB Sterling board. Basically, gather a bunch of wood chips, apply heat and (massive) pressure, boom - a nice piece of sterling board.",
"Used for all sorts of automotive stuff, pressing bearings on or off of a shaft, pressing fittings and pulleys into place, etc. they even have presses that will crush old oil filters and paint cans and stuff like that. On a large scale, almost all the body panels on a car are pressed into shape. ",
"Squishing things\n\nIt can be used for shaping sheet metal into stuff like kitchen sinks(mentioned below), car body panels, or any other thin metal shape.\n\nThey're also used for \"reshaping\" cars and garbage in car crushers and trash compactors.\n\nThey can be used for punching holes out of thick material to make a metal grate\n\nThey can also be used to squeeze metal through a die to shape it. Kids will squeeze play-doh through shapes to create things, aluminum extrusions are made the same way except with hot aluminum instead of play-doh and with a > 2,500 ton hydraulic press instead of a thumb.\n\nAnything where you need a squishing force, a hydraulic press can help.",
"Skateboards, they are used to press the 7 ply maple veneers together with the epoxy. This makes the blank which then is shaped into a skateboard deck.",
"Broaching keyways in gears, pressing gears on and off of shafts, pressing bearings into place, forming sheet metal, etc. ",
"Deforming metal, or pushing 2 things together that you don't want pulled apart. They'll take a pin that is a little bit bigger than a hole in a block of metal, and press the pin into the metal. Or they'll use hydraulics to stamp sheetmetal for a curved shape, like the hood of a car.",
"Worked for an oil company once. A great many things required metal being heated and pressed into/onto other metal. Pressing bearings was common.",
"Retail stores use them to compress cardboard into bails for recycling. And compressing trash into trailer length dumpsters.",
"Depends on what attachments you have; you could cut sheet metal.\n\nBend sheet metal.\n\nStamp sheet metal.\n\nCrush clickbait objects in videos.\n\nFor example: With a V block and a bevel blade, you could bend\n\n- gutters,\n\n- power/electrical boxes.\n\n- pipe brackets.\n\n- fencing.\n\n- what ever with a straight edge.\n\n",
"Hydraulic press and/or actuator used to apply a certain amount of force to another objet are used all the time in structural testing in automobile and aerospace\n\nsee by yourself\n\n[_URL_2_](_URL_4_)\n\n[_URL_3_](_URL_1_)\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"Used for lots and lots of things, automotive, anything that requires a mild/single piece of material (sinks, etc)",
"A hydraulic press can be used to press one item into another such as a bearing into an interference fit hole or removing said bearing\n\nExample: _URL_1_\n\nThey can also be used to form larger sheetmetal parts such as body panels found in virtually all mass produced automobiles today.\n\nexample: _URL_0_",
"I used one to make rubber rings:\n\n- have big rubber sheet\n- Put a metal shape on the sheet\n- \"Press X to use\"\n- all day, everyday, one summer.\n",
"Trash compactors, cardboard balers, some types of manufacturing, some types of repair. Anywhere you need a large amount of force applied essentially ",
"At my other job we would bust concrete cylinders and verify their resistance. Used in quality control",
"Lots of other answers have mentioned industrial uses, but hobby blacksmiths will often use a press instead of a hammer for forging and welding. I think you get more control and you can make it stop at a particular point."
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dmhhen | how come the sun is able to light up the earth with out problem, but when ever we see videos of space, the sun doesn’t apear to be bright at all, even though there’s no atmosphere to block out its light waves, why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dmhhen/eli5_how_come_the_sun_is_able_to_light_up_the/ | {
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"I can see your question has already been answered very well, but I was scrolling through space questions and the wording of yours caught my eye....\n\n[You really don’t think the Sun looks bright from space?](_URL_0_) (Photo taken from the ISS obviously). It looks pretty bright to me.",
"You answered the question, just with the wrong logic. If you imagine the sun as a point of light, and your eyes the receiver of the photons. You will only receive a small amount of those photons, so while the light will be bright if you look at it directly, if you look away from it, you won't be seeing any of the photons.\n\nNow consider the atmosphere. Lots of little particles and molecules. They all reflect and refract the light. All of the light photons that hit the earth are sort of absorbed and reflected by the atmosphere. Then they hit the ground, and some are absorbed and others are reflected, back onto the atmosphere, which bounce around some more.\n\n\nYou can do a quick experiment if you have a laser pen, a bottle of water, and a small amount of dirt. Shine the laser through a clear bottle of pure water. You'll see some light from the laser, but most of it will pass through the water without being affected and continue on. This is similar to how space is, in that nothing is bouncing around compared to on earth in atmosphere. \n\nPut some dirt in that water, shake it up, and suddenly all of the light energy from the laser is bouncing around in there and the bottle glows.\n\n\nedit- some autocorrects.",
"* in space, there is no atmosphere to scatter the sun's light, the sun's disc is very bright, but there is less of a halo around it\n* any video meant to capture the sun is going to be using a filter or some other means to reduce its brightness",
"Because there is nothing to reflect the light in space. So you see only a very bright point, which is in fact so bright that you would not be able to look at it with your unprotected eyes. Photos and videos are possible though."
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698mce | why is it so hard to study 1 hour straight, but you can spend 8 hours gaming or doing sth else with no problem? | Title | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/698mce/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_study_1_hour_straight/ | {
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"For the same reason that it's easy to lay down rather than jog; one is a relatively passive, low-effort activity, and the other is learning something new. ",
"Video games are designed to give you constant reinforcement that you're doing well, which gives you a little endorphin rush and makes you actively want to continue. They also engage the creative mind with problem-solving and emotional interaction. Studying does none of these things, because it serves completely different functions.",
"Because you lack motivation and interest in the subject. \n\nAs you progress in your studies, you should find yourself passionate about your area of specialty. If you don't, then pick another major. I'm not saying that every assignment will be a joy or that studying will become your favorite pastime. But, if you honestly don't enjoy the subject matter and if it's honestly a chore to study for an hour, then you aren't passionate about the subject. And if this happens with all your classes, then you may have chosen the wrong field to study. "
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84eqw3 | why do some countries teach multiplication tables to x12, and others teach to x10? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84eqw3/eli5_why_do_some_countries_teach_multiplication/ | {
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"12 is an important number historically for various systems of measurement. 12 hours in a day. 12 inches in a foot. 12 eggs in a dozen.\n\n12 is handy because it can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6 evenly. \n\nSo many things were done in lots of up to 12. So if you wanted to multiply lengths, you're going to be doing something like up to 12 inches, then you are worrying about 1 foot + 1-11 inches.\n\nBut if you want to multiply lengths of up to 12 feet, you've got all of the tools you need. You need 4 lengths of wood which are each 3' 11\", how much wood do you need?\n\nYou need 3x4 = 12 feet, plus 3x11 \n11 x 4 = 44. 4 x 12 is 48, which is too high, 3 x 12 = 36 gives 3 more feet, and 44-36 = 8 means 8 inches left over.\n\nSo you need in total 15 feet, 8 inches to make 4 lengths of 3 foot 11 inch wood. \n\nYou can do things like multiply any measures in feet and inches up to just before 13 feet long with 12x12 multiplication tables.\n\nWhen you move into metric, multiplication tables up to 12 aren't more important than multiplication tables up to 10. You're just about as likely to need to worry about 13 cm as you are 12 cm or 14 cm. ",
"I have often wondered if it's to do with the different measurement systems in the respective countries i.e. Imperial vs metric",
"In the UK before decimalisation in 1971, base 12 was a thing in how they used money. \nFor example, there were 12 pence to a shilling. \n\nSo you can see why it was taught in schools up to then here and across the empire/commonwealth. \n\nNow it’s possibly more tradition than anything else. At least in the UK. ",
"Germany here. We don't do 12s. There is no reason for us as we are thoroughly metricised. ;)\n\nOnly countries that still use non-metric units of measurement might need to learn anything besides multiplication to the base of 10.\n(Only UK and US come to mind, but there are probably more)",
"It might have something to do with dozens and grosses? Not all that long ago, it was common to order a *gross* of something and it was helpful to know that that was 12*12 = 144. Fleshing out the times tables for 12's was pretty easy after that. And you have to admit that most of the multiples of 11 hardly require memorization."
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4b8544 | why do humans have to train hard to reach peak physical performance, but animals just go about their lives and are naturally at their peak so long as there's no birth defect or disease? | A man has to train for a marathon. But horses can run long distances naturally, lions and tigers can sprint at sustained speeds, and gorillas are built buff as shit from the get go. What's up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4b8544/eli5_why_do_humans_have_to_train_hard_to_reach/ | {
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"Who's to say that are at their peak though? Surely, if we could train an animal like we do a professional athlete, they would get even stronger and faster.",
"Well for one, who said they were. They too often have to train, but do it so much on a regular basis with regular tasks that it basically becomes their training.\n\nTwo, genetics and evolution. These animals generally need this kind of power naturally, otherwise they will not survive in the world. So evolution helped them out.",
"A lot of animals lead really marginal lives, and though they may look sleek and lovely, they're often malnourished and infested with parasites.\n\nIn many cases populations grow to closely match the food supply, or some other limiting factor - which is fine until the population crashes. The classical example of this is the [Canadian lynx and snowshoe hare](_URL_0_) which interact (terminally in the case of the hare) but of course when the lynx population is crashing it's doing it because they're starving to death or failing to reproduce.",
"Typically it's because humans don't lead lives that conform to the niche we evolved to fulfill. Our earliest ancestors were distance runners. Our natural strategy for catching prey was based on a peculiarity of human physiology. Many, maybe even most other animals are faster than us. But we possess an ability uncommon in the rest of the animal kingdom: we can run for hours without dying. And that's precisely what we did. We chased an animal, literally running it to death. We had a drink and a quick sit and then we ate. Marathon runners are the natural human physique. \n\nTool use and cleverness has retired the need to chase animals. The vast potential for desire fulfillment has created for us a life of ease and comfort, of access to resources and especially food that is utterly unparalleled anywhere in the animal kingdom. The trouble is that just because our environments have changed doesn't mean our physiology has changed as well. The ease of life we have created has retired most of the detriments to human survival/reproduction: Hunger, infection, predation, famine and drought, prey species population collapse...all of these problems are mitigated if not outright eliminated by modern technology. What this means is the people who's bodies aren't well suited to modern lifestyles aren't dying before they reproduce so we're not evolving to have bodies capable of living these sedentary lifestyles without taking considerable damage. \n\nAnimals live according to their nature so they must run if they want to eat or not be eaten. All we have to do is press the \"work\" button for 8 hours a day. But it's worth noting that domesticated animals who live in houses and share many of our comforts are also living extremely unhealthy lives thanks to that ease. Obesity in cats and dogs is killing tons of pets and causing troubles with hyperthyroidism and diabetes that are very uncommon in nature. \n\n",
"Are you absolutely sure that the horses used for different types of sports aren't trained, so as to increase their performance abilities relative to untrained horses?"
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1clq5w | why do people get angry when you tell them to calm down? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1clq5w/eli5_why_do_people_get_angry_when_you_tell_them/ | {
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"If they're already angry, telling them to calm down is essentially telling them that their anger is invalid. It's saying, \"You shouldn't be feeling the emotions you're feeling right now, so just *stop it*.\"\n\nIf they're not already angry, they're likely to *get* angry (or at least frustrated) because you're making unfounded assumptions about their mental state.",
"Because you're invalidating their feelings. People generally are of the opinion that they are entitled to be feeling whatever it is they're feeling, and you saying \"calm down\" equates to you taking that away, saying that what they're feeling is wrong."
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25kevz | why do most animals, especially sea life, generally ignore / not attack humans? | I'm sure they're somewhat scared of us, but at the same time I've heard about dolphins, whales, and other animals redirecting their migrations and such because they know where humans go to hunt them. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25kevz/eli5_why_do_most_animals_especially_sea_life/ | {
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"text": [
"The same reason that you, a human, generally ignore/don't attack other animals.",
"We don't fit into their model. We don't look like what they are used too, so they are not sure what to make of us.\n\nSharks, as an example, typically only attack due to a case of mistaken identity. A surfer on their board casts a shadow that is similar to a large seal. Otherwise they aren't sure what we are, much less if we are edible. ",
"Animals don't have hospitals nor healthcare. A major disability will be the end of you and even the smallest wound can become infected and lead to death. Humans are pretty big animals, even predators are not too eager to take chances.",
"Most animals will not try to eat anything large. Even blue whales only try to eat tiny things. Humans are pretty large.\n\nThose fish that live by taking a bite here and there out of larger animals, will happily take a bite out of a human."
]
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[],
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2gzxf4 | how to police pinpoint a phone call? | Either a cellphone or a landline. Why does it take so long for them to find the location? Also how do they do it? What type of software or equipment is needed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gzxf4/eli5_how_to_police_pinpoint_a_phone_call/ | {
"a_id": [
"cko225z"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Police officer here.\nThough, I'm not completely qualified to answer this, as I don't deal with that sort of thing.\nHowever; the \"keep them on the line\" thing they do in movies is complete fiction. Landlines can be traced instantly.\nFor cell phones, they either triangulate using cell phone towers, or use the location tracking of the phone.\nThe technical details will have to be answered by someone else. I've never had to track a phone in my career, though I do know the paperwork is crazy."
]
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[]
] |
|
7mbcpg | why do natural gas water heaters need venting but a gas stove does not. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mbcpg/eli5why_do_natural_gas_water_heaters_need_venting/ | {
"a_id": [
"drspiw2",
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"text": [
"A gas hot water system uses anywhere from three times to eight times the gas of a gas stove or range. Combustion generates a certain amount of carbon monoxide. The less oxygen you have, the more CO you generate. A water heater will generate a fair amount of CO even with adequate oxygen. A stove or gas range will generate milder amounts of CO that will usually dissipate from regular ventilation.\n\nThat being said, you should always have your stove vented and your gas range should have a hood to reduce the risk of CO accumulation and poisoning. CO is an odorless, colorless gas and you won't know that you're being poisoned.",
"First off, lets be clear that a typical 40 gallon gas waterheater is 40,000 BTU. When I checked my gas range, it was more than that. So venting is not based on the quantity of gas burned.\n\nSome years ago I taught night classes in HVAC for the local vocational school. In the mail that I received was a report on children raised in houses with gas ranges had more respiratory disease than those with electric ranges. About that time too, there was an effort to reduce nitrogen oxides levels from the combustion. That was done by placing a stainless steel ring in the flame. The consequence was the flame impingement increased the carbon monoxide so the lesser of the two evils won out and the rings went away.\n\nWhen confined space is brought into the discussion, it only has to do with combustion air. That is, whether the air leaking in from outside is adequate for combustion or if not, outdoor air must be brought to the appliance.\n\nI grew up with gas ranges and have one to this day. However, I have a vent hood that vents to the outside over mine. I don't use it all of the time a burner is on, but on days like thanksgiving it does get a workout."
]
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[],
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] |
||
g1ot69 | does density have any direct relation to hardness/toughness? | Basically, is it true that the denser something is, the harder it is? In that case, why is steel stronger than iron when iron is denser? I guess the question is, what are the factor(s) that determine how hard something is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g1ot69/eli5_does_density_have_any_direct_relation_to/ | {
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"fngt5vc",
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"text": [
"Density is a factor, but more important is the molecular structure. A diamond is one of the hardest things around because the molecules are arranged in a lattuce structure. As far as iron and steel, same idea. The steel has added metals that fit in nicely with the iron giving it added strength.",
"well, it is not everything about the density. you will want to read about crystalline networks and covalent bounds :)\nthat will explain the structure of the material. lead have high density but it not so “hard” or “though” instead look at diamonds: low density but high toughness and a very hard material.",
"The other comments nail it well with the atomic structure playing the key role but I would like to add an example myself. Lead is super dense but extremely \"soft\" given both its density and its position as a metal."
]
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[],
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2r9rpr | why you need to be grounded to get an electric shock? | Why doesn't the electricity go through your body and then return to the source where it came from? If it does do this then why do you not feel it?
Does the electricity somehow know you aren't touching the ground so just doesn't bother you? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9rpr/eli5_why_you_need_to_be_grounded_to_get_an/ | {
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"Electric currents aren't like Austin from middle school, they don't come out, wander around, bug people, and then go back home. \n\nElectricity flows from negatively charged objects, to positively charged objects, until the system is neutral. That's all there is to it. If electricity flows from one location, that means that location has a negative charge, and the electricity *doesn't want to go back*. It wants to find the most positively charged location, and make it balanced. \n\nIf the most positively charged location available is the ground, then it will happily go through you to the ground. If it is an anode, then it will do that too (which is why it's dangerous to work on electronics with two hands). ",
"You don't need to be grounded to be shocked. You can be shocked by 120v to ground or you can be shocked by 120v to -120v (phase to phase) without being grounded, for example.",
"Electricity moves from negative to positive. If you arent a possible path from the negative to positive you wont get shocked."
]
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[],
[],
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|
5w1nag | why do catholics practice "lent"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5w1nag/eli5_why_do_catholics_practice_lent/ | {
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"de6m3ep"
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"text": [
"In Christian traditions, taking penance usually in the form of fasting or giving up certain luxuries is a method of prayer to bring one closer to God. The idea is that worldly luxuries like video games, ice cream, etc may make people value Earth rather than look forward to heaven."
]
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[]
] |
||
30xfzu | if the sun has half of its energy left, it has 5 billion more years. will the energy slowly wane over that time, or do stars go out with a poof? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30xfzu/eli5_if_the_sun_has_half_of_its_energy_left_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpwokqu"
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"text": [
"some do some dont, our sun is too small to go super nova, it will turn into red giant after 5.4 billion years sun will become duoble in size in half a billion years, and then in next half billion it will expand rapidly becoming 200 times larger and becoming red giant for about 1 billion years, after that sun will have about 110-120 million years of life left, suns mass will ionise into planetary nebula leaving sun as a white dwarf and planetary nebula dispersing in few thousand years leaving white dwarf that will last for trillions of years untill it fades into black. the most recent star going super nova in our galaxy was in 1604 about 20000 light years away from earth. when a star goes super nova its quite a show, during the \"boom\" it releases about the same amount of energy as our sun is expected to release in its ENTIRE LIFE TIME, and the expandign shock wave can trigger formation of new starts."
]
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||
10d2oh | how do tapedeck audio cables work? | How do these things work?
_URL_0_
I mean, how does it send digital audio through an analog channel such as tape? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10d2oh/eli5_how_do_tapedeck_audio_cables_work/ | {
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"The signal on the wire isn't digital. It's an ordinary analog line signal, which normally would drive your headphones or be fed into an amplifier, but which the tape adapter instead hooks to a magnetic coil to drive the pickup in your tape deck.",
"Real answer follows:\n\nYour tape deck has a part inside called a \"tape head.\" In normal use, the tape is pulled across the head which reads the analog signal on the tape. Your deck then amplifies this signal and sends it to the speakers.\n\nThis adapter fits into the deck so the deck is \"fooled\" that there is an audiotape inside. The adapter ALSO has a tape head inside of it.\n\nWhen you play a CD player through the input cable, you plug it into the headphone jack. *This is not a digital signal!*\n\nIt is an analog signal.\n\nThe signal travels through the wire into the tape head. The adapter's head transmits the analog signals to your tapedeck's head. Your deck then amplifies this signal, just like if you were playing a tape!"
]
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"http://averagejoemn.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cassette-adapter-small.jpg"
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[],
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25ow1f | does my dog understand my emotions, and if so, how? | Obviously if I'm angry and yelling he will react out of fear. But emotions that dogs don't seem to possess on our level...specifically affection and sadness. Dogs don't cry, but if I'm crying he'll come and lay in my lap; his demeanor entirely changes.
What stirred this question was that I always give him a kiss goodnight on the forehead, and I was curious if it really communicates anything to him. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25ow1f/eli5_does_my_dog_understand_my_emotions_and_if_so/ | {
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"Dogs sense our emotions through visual and auditory clues. Dogs cry, they whimper. they feel happy and sad. they respond to signs of affection.",
"I did read an article some time ago (sorry, no link) that talked about how because of cohabitation for such a long time between dogs and humans, that they were beginning to be able to understand each other on an emotional level. \n\nBut honestly, we don't really know. Dogs might be able to smell out pheromones, and may associate the specific smells with states of emotion. Or, they can notice small body language shifts that corresponds to our moods, like standing with one hip pointed out, the angle of your eyebrows, etc. \n\nLook at it from the reverse angle. If you see a dog wagging its tail, you know that it's happy. If you see a dog bearing its teeth, you know that it's mad. Its just a natural thing for animals to understand certain ques from other species. I think that dogs do comfort each other, so when you try to comfort a dog, they understand.\n\nAnd dogs do cry, they make a high pitch whining sound when they cry.",
"Mainly body language and pheromones.\n\nWe actually give off more pheromones than we 'think'. Dogs, with their enhanced sense of smell, can pick up on those quite easily. This vaguely ties in with how dogs can sometimes predict extreme medical conditions before symptoms appear."
]
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3cz7lc | how does a "whammy bar", or tremolo bar, work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cz7lc/eli5_how_does_a_whammy_bar_or_tremolo_bar_work/ | {
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"The bridge is held in place by springs in the body, which allows the bridge to rock back and forth. When you do that, you gradually adjust the tension on the strings, bending the pitch up and down.\n\nIf you pull off the backplate of the guitar you'll see the springs. "
]
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[]
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||
4to4w2 | when (and why) did the word "emoji" replace the word "emoticon"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4to4w2/eli5_when_and_why_did_the_word_emoji_replace_the/ | {
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"text": [
"They actually aren't quite the same thing. Emoji were symbols used by Japanese phone carriers in text messaging with special codes representing the emoji. The problem they had was that they weren't compatible between carriers; this was fixed by defining each emoji in the Unicode standard. Essentially this means that any font can choose to supply its own representation of a particular emoji, just like it can do with a particular letter.\n\nEmoticons replace text-based representations of faces such as `:-)` with an image supplied by the receiving client. They generally still make sense in plain text, and are independent of fonts.\n\nBecause emoji are now available as a convenient standard, most services now use emoji and not emoticons. They are especially known from the default fonts supplied on smartphones and used in SMS and various messaging apps. Emoticons remain the norm on forums or IRC, however.",
"They're actually different.\n\nEmoticons are technically speaking pictographs created by combining type characters, like how :-) is made from a colon, hyphen, and parenthesis.\n\nAn emoji (which is actually Japanese for \"picture character;\" the similarity to the word \"emotion\" is just a coincidence) is a single self-contained character. They were invented in the late 1990s for Japanese SMS, and when they were added to Unicode they became popular in the West too, and some platforms even replace typed emoticons with their emoji equivalent because they look better and are generally easier to understand."
]
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34shg5 | why do so many medical professionals only test t4 for thyroid issues and not t3? | It seems common around the world for this to be the practice, T4 being "gold standard" of thyroid tests, but many patients slip through the cracks where their T4 is fine but their t3 is out of whack. Why is it so difficult to get a doctor to test for this? Is there some lab cost that is prohibitive that comes back on the dr? What are the reasons behind this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34shg5/eli5_why_do_so_many_medical_professionals_only/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqxon5r"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It's probably because the thyroid gland makes mostly T4. Most of the T3 in the body is made by peripheral conversion of T4 in other tissues (liver, kidney, brain, etc). So in essence, to check for thyroid function you'll need to check for how much T4 is getting produced."
]
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[]
] |
|
36ysx9 | would a clock actually tick faster/slower at relativistic speed? | If accelerated to near-light speed, would time dilation actually be evident on a clock/watch? Upon return to "normal" speed, would the timepiece remain in sync with others?
Say I traveled at near-light speed, circumnavigating the earth beginning and ending in New York City. Using the circumference of the earth at that latitude once could calculate the time of this journey at lightspeed, which we'll call "T". If I ran a stop watch throughout, would the final time =T?
Let's say the trip took 2 minutes (a random number, no idea how close it actually is). If I left and my watch said 9am, would I return to it reading 9:02 and matching with other clocks that had never moved?
To step even further to the obscenely theoretical, if one were to accomplish time travel, how might time dilation and man made timepieces play a role in such an experience? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36ysx9/eli5_would_a_clock_actually_tick_fasterslower_at/ | {
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"If you went with the clock, it would never appear to change its speed. If you stayed still here and somehow watched it with magic(?), then yes it would slow down. ",
"To a stationary observer, a clock would tick more slowly at relativistic speeds.\n\nTo someone travel at that speed standing next to the clock, it would tick normally.\n\nThat is kind of the gist of relativity, time will pass at different rates for different observers."
]
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d00k28 | if everything leads to disorder (law of entropy), how did life form millions of years ago? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d00k28/eli5_if_everything_leads_to_disorder_law_of/ | {
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"text": [
"Entropy increases *in a closed system*. The earth is not a closed system; it is constantly receiving energy from the sun, which allows for a temporary decrease in entropy and increase in order. Without this influx of free energy, life would not be able to sustain the highly-ordered state it puts matter into.",
"There are conditions for the \"theorem\" stating that entropy increses to apply. One that is commonly recalled is that it needs to be a closed system. Earth, receiving energy from the sun, is not a closed system.\n\nAnother is almost always forgotten, while it is extremely important: Gravity needs to be negligible. That works well when discussing gaz thermodynamics on a small scale. It doesn't work at all when discussing life on Earth.",
"The law of entropy doesn't say that \"everything leads to disorder.\" It says that the total entropy of closed systems will lead to disorder.\n\nThe key words here are \"total\" (it's possible for local areas to become more ordered while the system as a whole becomes less ordered) and \"closed\" (you can make a system more ordered overall if you interact with it from the outside).\n\nThe Earth is not a closed system (it receives energy from the sun) and life is only one component of the system that is Earth so localized decreases in entropy are perfectly fine.",
"The \"law of entropy\" has been drastically misrepresented and misunderstood in popsci and popular culture. It does not in any way state that disorder increases over time or anything like that.\n\nIt is merely an extension of the idea that energy cannot be created. If you have a closed system, the amount of available energy cannot increase; it can only stay the same or decrease.",
"Entropy is not a progression toward disorder. Entropy is a progression from potential towards homeostasis. If our world could survive until the end of the universe, you might find it as a perfect sphere with all elements sorted from heaviest at the center to lightest at the surface. The whole ball would be a uniform temperature at absolute zero. It would be perfectly ordered, yet unable to support life.The transition from the complete potential at the beginning of the universe to complete homeostasis at the end involves a lot of chaotic fluctuation of mass and energy. Sometimes chaos will randomly produce order. Sometimes ordered sets are at least temporarily stable. Some metastable patterns will replicate or give rise to higher orders of stability. We call some of these \"life\".They all are ultimately doomed, as they rely on the flow of energy from high potential (like the sun) to lesser potential. But as long as there is a flow of energy from somewhere warm to somewhere cold, there is potential for living patterns to emerge and sustain themselves on that flow."
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2mn4y0 | what causes the feeling of your anus retreating during moments of revulsion or distress? | You know that asshole clench when watching someone perform a death defying stunt at an insane altitude, or somebody let a tarantula crawl on their face (if that kind of thing freaks you out) ?
Also sorry if this has been posted before, but I couldn't think of a way to phrase the question in a general way to search for it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mn4y0/eli5_what_causes_the_feeling_of_your_anus/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The reaction has to do with the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) response. (The flight or fight response). The body sends signals to the GI tract that cause a reduction in motility, and shifts blood to the vital organs to prepare for flight or fight. So the ELI5 would be; you are a leader of a great country with your resources spread to all realms doing their own thing. A threat it made on your country, and as the leader you call your troops back to protect and prepare for war. Your blood is the soldiers, your SNS is the leader."
]
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[]
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|
1qjbpc | how high-pitched sounds break wine glasses | What determines the pitch of the sound to break the glass? What characteristic of glass lets it break? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qjbpc/eli5_how_highpitched_sounds_break_wine_glasses/ | {
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"cddccew"
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"So each wine glass has a resonant frequency -- a frequency that when \"pinged\" it will vibrate at and make a familiar noise. If you match that frequency, it works in reverse, where the sound waves are causing the glass to vibrate. \n\nThis is because the glass is vibrating at the same frequency that the sound waves are hitting it, so when a crest hits the class, it's just ready to vibrate away from the sound, and as a trough reaches the glass, it's ready to vibrate back towards the sound.\n\nIt's the same reason why when you you're on a swingset, you pump while you're in the forward motion and pull your weight back while you're moving back.\n\n*Edit* And obviously, if you make it vibrate hard enough, and the glass is weak enough, it will break."
]
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3du4b4 | how does torrenting give you computer viruses? | I've read this a lot. I don't personally torrent, for non virus reasons, but I'm wondering why I'm being told it is a sure way to get a virus.
Edit: Thanks for all the replies. It appears that it is nonreputable files that are the cause for concern, and not the act of torrent itself. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3du4b4/eli5_how_does_torrenting_give_you_computer_viruses/ | {
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"It doesn't always. Like any software, torrent clients and their downloads can contain malware. Basic internet rules apply: Don't download fishy, non-reputable files.",
"Torrenting itself does not cause you to get computer viruses. However, some things that you could download may cause your computer to become infected.",
"\"Torrenting\", strictly speaking, isn't harmful. Blizzard uses it to pass around their World of Warcraft updates, and Microsoft is using some variant of it for Windows 10 system patches. It's a means of downloading from many sources at once, where those sources are 'other people who have the same file(s)', rather than 'a server in a datacenter somewhere, where there's a guy paid to ensure that it's doing its job'. \n\nThat being said, the 'in practice' part of the question involves \"getting files from other people that are likely of questionable legality\". Such organizations who are willing to roll the dice as to whether copyright holders will shut them down aren't very likely to police their own site very well, as all the content is user submitted (it's amongst their end runs around the system).\n\nPut it all together, and there's no stopping someone from uploading a file that has a little \"added surprise\", and only the vigilant downloaders to warn others of the danger.\n\nNow, why would someone do such a thing? Simple: \"0wned\" computers are pretty valuable to certain people. I once kicked a Chinese guy off a server I was looking through; he was using it to perform [click fraud](_URL_0_). Others use those computers to send spam, while still others will use some form of Cryptowall virus to extort money from users. \n\nIn summary, the fact of the matter is that \"torrenting\" is usually associated with \"going to sketchy websites for sketchy content from sketchy people\", none of whom would turn away a buck on principle."
]
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dwehaj | what actually happens to food once you’ve swallowed it and how does your body “sort” what it needs to retain and what to expel as waste? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dwehaj/eli5_what_actually_happens_to_food_once_youve/ | {
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"Your body has little tiny holes throughout the digest tract. The way it digests it is digests protein and fats first (and some carbs in the mouth), these get broken down and can pass through these holes. Carbs and other nutrients are then digested in the gut by bacteria. Anything it doesn't digest is left as poop .",
"Your intestines do all the work. The cilia lining the inside of the intestine pull all the useful bits that they can into your bloodstream, such as calories, vitamins, minerals, etc.. Everything else continues on through the intestine and eventually out of the body. Waste is whatever your body can't absorb. \n\nIt is actually reasonably important to have a bunch of stuff your body can't absorb, like fiber, often called \"roughage\", in order to keep everything moving. If everything DOESN'T stay moving, you become constipated, which is the rather unpleasant experience of needing to go, but being unable to.",
"lots of stuff in what you eat just goes through you - it's waste product that is either on a \"short path\" (e.g. fiber never gets digested and just gets pooped out, but some waste products are the result of chemical transformation after digestion and expelled by work done by the kidneys and liver (e.g. you get alcohol out ultimately by peeing it because your liver processes it out of your bloodstream).\n\nThe system works via a variety of enzymes and acids that break food down and then allow nutrient absorption through walls of the digestive system. The process is long - with the stomach starting it and then absorption continuing through the small intestines and then the large intestines.",
"Food goes in the mouth, gets split up into little pieces by your teeth.\n\nFood reaches the stomach, gets melted by the acid and becomes some sort of soupy goodness.\n\nFood goes into the small intestine, everything that's good or most of it (except water) that touches the cell walls gets absorbed, the rest is moved along.\n\nWhat's left goes into the large intestine, where mostly water is absorbed and it becomes a solid mass (because it doesn't have water). Then you poop out the nasties."
]
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1cnsxv | if polar bears have black skin and clear fur, why do they look white? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cnsxv/eli5_if_polar_bears_have_black_skin_and_clear_fur/ | {
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"It's because the tube of hair isn't perfectly smooth and refracts light.\n\nThink how clear plastic gets hazy over time. ",
"Its like bathfoam. Each bubble is clear, but many together look white.\nIt has to do with light bouncing around between the hairs/bubbles and then back into your eyes.\n",
"Oh my god Quibbloboy, you can't just ask why they look white."
]
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7z901c | why do baby animals have a shakiness? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7z901c/eli5_why_do_baby_animals_have_a_shakiness/ | {
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"text": [
"Mostly a lack of muscle development and motor skills (coordination). Their brains need to form new neural pathways to learn how to purposefully move."
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11rfnm | how do planets get their perfect circular formation? | I understand (for the most part) how they are formed. But if the rocks are smashing into each other all the time, how do planets get so perfectly rounded? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11rfnm/how_do_planets_get_their_perfect_circular/ | {
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"They appear to be perfectly rounded from a distance, but they are not actually very smooth. Look at our planet for example. Mount Everest, The Grand Canyon; Earth appears very round when you look at it from a distance but its not actually 'perfectly round' like you suggest. Hope this helped!",
"Well, depends on what you call perfect. \nIn the case of the earth, the massive size of the planet makes the mountains almost nothing in comparison. \n\nWhat rocks is it you are thinking about? ",
"Gravity is pretty uniform in a planet thus all points on the surface are pulled pretty much equally and strongly in the direction of the center of the planet. Over time this has the effect of trying to form a sphere. Many things can work against this attempt to form a sphere such as nearby bodies pulling on one another which can cause bulges to form. ",
" > Everything in the universe with mass exerts gravity.\n > Compression generates heat.\n > The force of gravity applies equal pressure from all sides.\n\nNow, planet is obviously formed from smaller constituents that coalesced due to the force of gravity. As this mass became larger it experienced more gravity pushing inward from all directions. The pressure/compression that this causes generates a great amount of heat, which basically \"melts\" any solid object making it easier for gravity to shape the planet spherically. It's not until much later that things begin to cool and solidify. It takes a planet formation of a significantly large scale to generate this much heat during formation, which is why every rock floating around out there isn't relatively spherical."
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5aiyev | why can pro-divers hold their breath long? is it the lungs? how are the lungs different than non-divers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5aiyev/eli5_why_can_prodivers_hold_their_breath_long_is/ | {
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"There are a number of strategies. The primary strategy is to use breathing techniques and relaxation techniques to completely calm the circulatory and respiratory systems. The top divers can use breathing strategies to lower their heart rate to around 30 beats per minute. By reducing the heart rate, divers reduce the need for oxygen in the blood stream, as less blood is circulating in general. Divers also practice breathing with the full capacity of their lungs, which does expand the amount of air they can take in initially. Finally, they practice entering into a state of relaxation that allows the divers to ignore the urge to breathe. All of this can be learned and practiced, although obviously some people are going to be naturally better than others.",
"It comes down to training. My dad used to be a diving instructor and he's comfortable swimming around the bottom of a pool for a few minutes before coming up for air. There's a couple different things at play when you condition your body for this kind of thing.\n\n First, you're used to it. There's no panic wasting oxygen, your swimming muscles are strong, and you know how to swim efficiently. Second is lung capacity, if you practice taking larger and larger breaths of air, you can stretch your lungs. Careful though, the science isn't in on how it effects lung elasticity. Third there's how your body reacts to low oxygen here's a [study](_URL_0_) that doesn't ELI5, but the gist of it is highly trained divers have a different metabolic process that uses oxygen more efficiently than untrained divers.\n\nI'd recommend watching a documentary on the sea gypsies, they spend their whole lives on and in the water and are natural divers.",
"Contrary to popular thought, it is not the lack of oxygen forcing you to take breaths. High partial pressures of CO2 in your blood stream activate chemoreceptors to trigger breathing reflexes. Your body wants to blow off the CO2 to avoid acidosis. Also disclaimer low partial pressures of O2 can trigger breathing, but only at very low levels ~ 60 mm Hg. \n\n\nNow to take advantage of this, free divers hyperventilate to manually lower their pCO2. This allows them to dive for long periods without their body needing air. There is a risk to this as you may black out after a long duration without taking a breath, but experienced divers can time when and where they black out. See [shallow water blackout](_URL_0_).\n\n\nOne misconception I'd like to point out is taking a deep breath before diving is a **very bad** idea. Low partial pressures of oxygen in the lungs force the bronchioles to constrict, and you're left with a pocket of air trapped at the bottom. Dive deep enough and that air will pop your lung. "
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3vqz8c | on average, how accurate are the drawings done by criminal sketch artists? how often are the sketches a nearly exact representation of the actual person? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vqz8c/eli5on_average_how_accurate_are_the_drawings_done/ | {
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"They are working with a description from an eye-witness. This is literally the least accurate source of evidence used in law enforcement. The artists are good, and surprisingly fast, but garbage-in = garbage-out. Most are OK, few are excellent."
]
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[]
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||
bdbn51 | most cigarette packs have pictures of people with their eyes covered. why is it that only both of the eyes are covered and why is it hard to recognize someone especially if you dont know them when they have their eyes covered? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bdbn51/eli5_most_cigarette_packs_have_pictures_of_people/ | {
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"Question: Where are you from where they have these on the cigarette packs? In the US, the most we get on cigarette packs are cancer warning & a suggestion to not smoke while pregnant.",
"No idea where you are that this is common. In Canada that isn't a thing.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThey pretty much all look like this. No eyes covered.",
"Since we’ve got the location covered, let’s answer the real question here.\n\nEssentially, there is a significant portion of the human brain devoted specifically to recognizing distinct placement, shape, pattern and colour of people’s eyes as a short hand for facial recognition.",
"Was just in Germany and their cigarette packets had pictures of the actual diseases, Lungs with lung cancer, dead people, etc..\n\n & #x200B;\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_) \n\nRandom article from google"
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]
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||
42ab6k | what is the pros and cons of sleeping on the floor | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42ab6k/eli5_what_is_the_pros_and_cons_of_sleeping_on_the/ | {
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"text": [
"Pro: The floor is always at floor level.\nCon: The floor would like to have a word with you, and that's usually 4:12am."
]
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||
3jk94f | what is absolute space? | I've been doing some searching online and in books but I can't understand any of it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jk94f/eli5_what_is_absolute_space/ | {
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"Space that is not affected by *any* body of gravity. Whenever you're in space, every cosmic body has a a. range around it where gravity or microgravity happens. Enough distance from all bodies in space, an extremely isolated area, would be what you're thinking of. One not under the influence of any gravity."
]
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4wdj5g | why does letting air into a juice bottle make the particles that sink to the bottom mix easier when you shake it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wdj5g/eli5_why_does_letting_air_into_a_juice_bottle/ | {
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"Imagine you have two jars of jelly beans. One is filled to the brim, the other is half full. Shake them both. Which one will get more mixed up? \n\nIn order to shake up the juice it has to move around. The juice on the bottom has to be able to move up to the top and all around. But if there is no empty space, then there is nowhere the juice can go that isn't already filled with juice. \n\nFor a shorter version. Have you ever tried to have a splash fight in the pool underwater?\n\n"
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48vpkp | why are school shooters always young males? is there a media bias in reporting or is there something to it? | I don't ever recall hearing about a girl from any country going on a shooting rampage at a school. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48vpkp/eli5_why_are_school_shooters_always_young_males/ | {
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"Young males are massively disproportionate in the rate of violent crimes they commit as compared to females (and older males). \n\nAlso, younger males are much more likely to spend time around schools than older males.",
"Teenage boys are more likely to lash out in frustration. They are more likely to fight, more likely to successfully kill themselves and more likely to turn to hard drugs for self medication. Teenage girls will hurt themselves (without actually killing themselves) or run away instead. We teach boys to be aggressive while we teach girls to not be aggressive. School shootings are an aggressive thing.",
"I often think about how often boys bad/antisocial behavior is justified, and no one is held accountable. \"Boys will be boys.\" Think about how often boys are told not to cry or express any negative emotion besides anger. Many shooters are angry men who have been socialized to have a serious sense of entitlement when it comes to other people and this can lessen empathy, especially if that man is white. Add some testosterone in the mix, a culture that strongly rewards/ loves violence and guns, and you have what you see now. ",
"Females are more likely to take angst out on themselves.\n\nHowever, the song \"I don't like Mondays\" by the Boomtown Rats was about a female who shot up a school, and the title was her answer as to why she did it.\n\nAlso, here in Colorado, a school shooting by a female who intended to follow the Columbine example was thwarted just last month. \n\nIt's just statistically higher that males resort to violence against others. ",
"The first school shooter was a girl in 1979. She coined the phrase \"I don't like Mondays\" which was her excuse for the shooting. Her name was Brenda Spencer and the Boomtown Rats wrote a song inspired by her excuse called....you guessed it \"I don't like Mondays\". ",
"Some very interesting points below. I would like to add one more opinion. Yes, boys are taught to be aggressive, and have hormones which lead to aggression more than girls. But, no one is teaching the boys how to be men and deal with the hormones. When someone is rewarded for participation, and told how special they are they are not equipped to deal with failure. So, when high school comes along, and these boys are confronted with reality (they are not the strongest, smartest, best looking, fastest, or whatever), they have no method of dealing with not being praised. this leads to withdrawal, depression, and extra aggression. With no real help from anyone, the boys lash out the only way they know how: hurt the ones who hurt them. ",
"It is not ALWAYS men who are the perpetrators; this recently occurred in Ontario near me.\n\nYoung Female:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"[As noted](_URL_1_) by /u/axz055 there is a [list of school shootings in the United States](_URL_0_).\n\nThere have been females involved but they are clearly in the minority. There is clearly no media bias.\n\n[Read it and weep](_URL_0_). The list starts at July 26, 1764.\n"
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3dj6qk | where did the 911 emergency number come from in the u.s.? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dj6qk/eli5_where_did_the_911_emergency_number_come_from/ | {
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"According to the National Emergency Number Association (which is apparently a [thing](_URL_0_)) using 9-1-1 came about after the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended that there be a single nationwide emergency number for fires in 1957. Over the course of the 60's the cause was taken up by the federal government and they worked with AT & T to decide on and implement an emergency number. They chose 9-1-1 because:\n\n > it best fit the needs of all parties involved. First, and most important, it met public requirements because it is brief, easily remembered, and can be dialed quickly. Second, because it is a unique number, never having been authorized as an office code, area code, or service code, it best met the long range numbering plans and switching configurations of the telephone industry.",
"Wouldn't 1-1-1 be quicker to dial in emergencies? Or was that an area code?",
"Also using the closest and furthest numbers in the rotary dial uses the easiest ones to find in the dark/low light/smoke etc",
"For all of the people asking why three of the same number was chosen (like, 1-1-1-), it was most likely because that would more easily be accidentally dialed. \n\nFun Fact: In South Korea, it's 1-1-9.",
"Not sure if related, but think it is. At one time there were 9 different codes the phone company had that ended in \"1-1\". Most are familiar with 4-1-1, but the other digits had codes mostly used by the phone company. When I was a kid, in the days of rotary dialing, there was one you could use (6-1-1 maybe?) that told the phone company you were a technician checking the line and to please ring the number. So you dialed it, walked away and a minute later the phone started ringing. Whoever answered it found there was no one on the other end. 3-1-1 I think was for non emergency civil problems, water leaks etc and still is most places. ",
"Another thing: the 1 in the middle was used to signify a special circuit. Look at all old regional code, they all have a 1 or 0 in the middle and you won't find any telephone number that have a 1 in the first middle either.\n\nSee _URL_0_ for more information and the list of all the original area code: _URL_1_",
"In the original area code numbering system the middle digit were 0 and 1 of every area code. (212, 203, 914...). 2 thru 9 were used as the first and last digits with the shortest going to the largest are to save switch time (212 for NY, 312 for Chicago, 213 for LA). That left X00 X01 and X11 as combinations in the North American Numbering Plan. See other posts on 911 vs other X11 combos. ",
"IIRC in the old [step-by-step](_URL_0_) dialing systems, 9-1-1 was the fastest routing combination that could be made. ",
"Pretty sure it's because this was established back when rotary phones were used and intended to prevent misdialing - longest rotation was first number and then easy and quick second two numbers for fast dialing ",
"The number needed to be quick to dial and easily remembered but not dialed accidentally. What many people here are forgetting is that the emergency numbers came out in the age of old rotary phones, where you had to spin a dial, not press a button. Therefore, dialing 911 was a perfect balance of speed (since it takes longer to dial higher digit numbers on rotary phones), ease of remembering, and prevention of accidental dials.",
"Nebraska! It came from Nebraska! They teach us this in 4th grade state history. We did 911 and Kool-Aid. You're welcome. ",
"The government knew that in the year 2001 they would commit a false flag attack on 9/11. \n\nAnd as with all good conspiracy theories, the government always leaves bizarre evidence of the conspiracy. Because they definitely want people to be able to figure it out but don't want to make it so obvious to the plebs. ",
"Fun fact, the inventor of 911 is buried in my college town. According to the gravestone, anyway."
]
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7nn17t | how do automatic flushers work? | What triggers them? In my experience, empty toilets don’t flush so I don’t think it’s on a set schedule. But at the same time, they seem to randomly flush when I’m still on them. So what sets it off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7nn17t/eli5_how_do_automatic_flushers_work/ | {
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"Typically an IR proximity sensor. They work by flashing an Infrared light (what your TV remote uses), and measuring the brightness of the reflection. When nobody is in front of them it only sees the reflection from the wall 5 feet away, when a person is there is sees the reflection from the person's shirt. These are two very different brightness's (the closer one is much brighter).\n\nThey look for a large change in brightness between flashes (what is \"large\" is settable, to give you different sensitivities) which would indicate that a person has arrived or left. That signal is coupled with timers so it doesn't go off repeatedly, or when a person arrives, and only when they leave. So it might wait for a large change, and then wait 30 seconds, and then go off at the next large change, or 10 minutes.\n\nBad sensitivity settings or a person moving too slow could cause it to miss a change or see multiple, and that could make it go off seemingly randomly."
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2q3p5c | why are women crying and men taking down notes in every picture of kim jong-un? | I doubt any one would know but seriously why do they cry and have a notepad with them. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q3p5c/eli5_why_are_women_crying_and_men_taking_down/ | {
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"text": [
"They're all staged. The women crying are to show him as desirable and the men taking down notes are to show that everything he says is important information worthy of taking note.",
"Because men want to be him and women want to be with him\n\nOh glorious leader",
"If you think of the North Korean government as a religion and Kim Jong-Un as their Savior and Messiah, then you can understand the fervent show of emotion that you will see. Couple that with the fact that you if you do not show support you can be killed and the pictures are more understandable.\n\nA great example would be in the Soviets Union under Stalin, at a meeting nobody wanted to be the first person to stop clapping and sit down when Stalin entered the room, they were afraid of the gulag. Here is a link to the story _URL_0_\n\nMany time they are also staged and the people are told what to do.",
"The personality cult they've developed holds that essentially every word he utters is The Greatest Wisdom Ever Revealed to Man. And I don't mean in some offhand, hypothetical way, I mean *literally.* So it all gets written down, and any goofy, offhand remark he makes gets treated like Divine Law. If he visits a factory or a military base and says, \"hey, you guys should do such-and-such,\" they *don't* treat it like a suggestion.\n\nThe creator of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard, had a similar setup when he was still walking the planet. He had an army of pre-pubescent girls in hotpants and halter tops called the Messengers who followed him around pretty much everywhere and were expected to (among other duties) write down any pearls of wisdom he casually dropped. When he was pissed at somebody, but didn't want to walk elsewhere to yell at them in person, he would \"dictate\" a rant to a Messenger, to be delivered precisely as he had delivered it, tone of voice and copious profanity included. The Scientology higher-ups grew to become terrified of these kids.\n\n"
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2purk8 | what exactly is causing fraunhofer lines? | I have a pretty elementary (at best) understanding of Fraunhofer lines. So a random group of elements are heated and they produce light. This light is produced but certain parts of the spectrum (when viewing it through a prism) are absorbed, causing the dark lines But what exactly is absorbing this light? And why is it different for every element? So if this absorbing source absorbs light from Hydrogen, why doesn't it absorb the same colors from Helium?
Thanks in advance guys! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2purk8/eli5_what_exactly_is_causing_fraunhofer_lines/ | {
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"The light is absorbed by electrons. The energy is used to make the electron jump to a higher energy state (orbital). The states are always at the same energy levels in different atoms of the same element so the same frequency photon is absorbed.\n\nDifferent elements have their electron orbitals at different energy levels so different frequencies of light are needed to make the jumps"
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6loave | how can a computer virus "infect" mundane/non-executable filetypes like .png files? how can opening an infected .png file be dangerous? | My antivirus software removed two .png files, labeling them "Trojan.Gen.NPE.2".
Surely, .png files are hard to infect? If you store data in one, wouldn't it corrupt the file or at least make it look like garbled gibberish when you opened it? How does opening it cause problems if its opened through standard image-viewing software?
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6loave/eli5_how_can_a_computer_virus_infect/ | {
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"A data file doesn't runs the virus. The viewer would. Suppose you found a flaw in photo viewer or mspaint that allowed image data to overrun the buffer and execute commands. The way you could distribute the virus would be images on website. Or upload an infected image to a /r/pics and hope for front page coverage."
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1qa3v5 | why are the majority of the tallest buildings in the world located in the middle east and asia? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qa3v5/eli5_why_are_the_majority_of_the_tallest/ | {
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"The Middle East and Asia developed relatively recently, which gave them the benefit of modern building materials and engineering to make larger buildings. For more established countries the expensive land worth building a skyscraper on is already occupied by other skyscrapers which would need to be torn down to replace, which usually isn't worth it. Also, the established countries aren't governed in such a way where they would need to prove their worth by building a really tall building for the sake of it being tall.",
"Tall buildings are created for two reasons. One is that there is no space to move out so you have to go up. The other is because people need to prove that they are better than other people. If you have lots of money and plenty of space as some people do in the Middle East then you build to outdo. If you have little space and lots of people as they do in Asia then you build to accommodate. \n\n*/u/mackana is right. There are 3 reasons. I'm not sure how I overlooked tourism. If you build it they will come.",
"Developing nations are eager to show others they are already developed. ",
"There are many reasons. As mentioned before me it might be to show off, as in the case of the pyramids being build whilst the power and influence of Egypt was declining, and to accommodate lack of space as in the case of many asian countries.\nThere's also the matter of tourism. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai was built for this very purpose. Many countries in the middle-east has grown rich from the abundance of oil in the region, however they realize that this is not a sustainable income and thus they try to attract tourists by, as an example, constructing the tallest building in the world.\nI hope this answers some of your questions!\nEdited for spelling errors"
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37ktr7 | does streaming a movie online use less internet data than downloading it, if so why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37ktr7/eli5_does_streaming_a_movie_online_use_less/ | {
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"No, if you stream the entire movie from start to finish then it takes the exact same amount of data, assuming the streamed file is the same as the downloaded file (without reducing quality).",
"No, it doesn't. It may seem so, because many streaming sites use a rather slim bitrate and/or resolution (which is why fast-moving scenes often look \"blocky\" and pixelated), and most downloads are DVD quality or similar. But if you were to stream the same file vs. download it, it wouldn't make a difference in total traffic. "
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c9f127 | why do under inflated tires pose a greater risk of a blowout compared to recommended inflation pressure? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c9f127/eli5_why_do_under_inflated_tires_pose_a_greater/ | {
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"text": [
"Underinflated tires squish down and then expand and bounce back with every rotation. This constant expansion and contraction causes heat to build up in the sidewall eventually weakening it and causing a blowout."
]
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||
5ehnaq | what is scar tissue and why does it develop? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ehnaq/eli5_what_is_scar_tissue_and_why_does_it_develop/ | {
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"The simplest example I can give for how scar tissue works is for muscles. We don't have the ability to grow new muscle tissue. When your muscles get bigger, the tissue is getting larger and the connections inside are getting reinforced but the amount of cells inside hasn't really changed.\n\nSo when you get a deep cut, how do we fix this? The body strings the two moving working bits of the muscle together with non-moving bits called collagen. It's quick to grow and patches the hole so you can get back on your feet so to speak. Obviously though no-moving bits inside your muscles won't work as well as moving bits, so the patch job isn't as good as the original. This is why many injuries can become permanent.\n\nWhile this might not seem optimal from our point of view, remember that evolution often pushes for the best compromise that keeps you alive to breed/care for your young in the short term. It's what's known as a local maximum for survival fitness.",
"Scars are awesome in the fact that our body has a naturally forming, permanent bandaid. So basically any time the skin is no longer in tact (whether that come from something as simple as a pimple or more complex like a burn), the body sends helpers that form tissue to make the skin complete again. However, while this new tissue is made up of the same protein as undamaged skin, it doesn't look the same because of the way it's arranged. Undamaged skin is arranged very randomly while this new scar aligns together in a single direction. ",
"It's mostly a race between two processes in the [wound response process](_URL_0_).\n\nWhen your tissues are injured, your body goes through several stages of healing.\n\nIn the first stage, your body restricts blood flow to the wound, launches an immune response (indicated by inflammation: swelling, heat, pain, and redness), and seals off the injury from harmful/foreign stuff with a scab.\n\nAs this process winds down, the same cells (fibroblasts) that helped form the scab also start to produce a stretchy, stringy protein called collagen. At the same time, new connective (granulation) tissue grows rapidly, forming the basis for replacing the old damaged tissue.\n\nNow two factors determine how much scarring forms. If the deeper layer of skin (dermis) is damaged, dense white collagen is the only way to grow something to patch the missing layers above. And if the wound is large, the new connective tissue takes much longer to grow, giving the fibroblasts time to overproduce collagen, leaving a scar as well.\n\nAfter all the old space is filled, your body contracts the wound and then takes up to two years to restore as much function as possible, but the collagen will remain. Any new working tissue is also more sensitive to light and weaker than the surrounding tissue, resulting in a darker colour and a different texture."
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6w62av | why is it that certain commodities are untenable to produce in relatively small amounts but sustainable to the business when mass-produced? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w62av/eli5_why_is_it_that_certain_commodities_are/ | {
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"Costs of Scale\n\nLets do corn. \n\nTo grow one stalk of corn you'll need land, water and sun. Those will be set costs/stalk. You'll also need to pay someone to wake up, tend that one stalk and harvest it when ready. That same guy will charge you only a small percentage more to do two stalks because he's already gotten up and gone out to the field. In doing so you double your production with only a slight increase in labor costs as in it cost you less to produce the second stalk of corn.\n\nTake the corn to market. If you can't sell the product of that one stalk for enough to cover the costs of raising it your farm has failed. With each stalk you add you lower the cost to produce each and hopefully reach a point where you are producing enough that your costs fall below what the market is willing to pay/stalk.\n\nOn a practical level bulk pricing for raw materials has a lot to do with it as well. You generally get a better price from suppliers the more you purchase. That's why Walmart will kill any small shops. They just get stuff cheaper so can undercut everybody else in the market.",
"Cost of production decreases with the amount produced to a point. Usually when the cost of labour and tools/machines outweighs the cost of materials. For example, if I have a machine that costs $100/h to run and an employee I pay $10/h to operate it and materials that cost $1/unit, the more I can produce in an hour, the less my production costs turn out to be per unit. If I produce 1 unit an hour it would cost me $111/unit , if I produced 100 units it costs me $1.11/unit. I think something along these lines anyways.",
"Generally it's about economy of scale. The amount of work that goes in to producing something is spread among all the items that sell. So if it costs $100 to do all the work to design and produce a lightbulb and you make one, you have to sell it for more than $100 to make any profit. And that may be a price nobody wants to pay.\n\nIf it costs $5 more to make 100 of them, because the base coat is mostly design and getting all the tools you need so you only need a few more dollars to make a bunch, you can suddenly sell them for $2.50 a piece and make more money. ",
"You usually need to make a huge up-front investment to deliver / create those goods. If you can only sell a few of them, it becomes incredibly difficult to recover your initial investment / cover your costs.\n\nOr, basically. Say you want to produce widgets. To produce these widgets, you need to build a factory which costs a million dollars *just* for the factory. We are not even talking about the cost of making the widgets himself, just that setting up the machines and everything is already a million dollars.\n\nNow, if you only end up making 100 widgets a year, each widget needs to earn you 10,000 dollars just to pay back for the factory, and again, that is not factoring in other costs you make in the production and possible profit you want. Now, this might actually work in certain industries. Sometimes small parts can be incredibly expensive and the end product is expensive enough or important enough to justify that. But if you are producing something for regular consumers, that doesn't work.\n\nYou need mass production cause then you can spread out your costs over a lot of goods produced and each individual sold item only needs to contribute a bit towards covering your costs. Like, if it are producing a million widgets with your factory, it's only 1 dollars each widget has to cover to pay back the machine costs. ",
"Imagine selling one grain of rice. The cost of packaging it, putting it on the shelves, and having a cashier ring it up is going to exceed any profit you would make. They would have to charge maybe 10 cents a grain to make it worthwhile, and no one is going to pay that. A ten pound bag of rice, on the other hand, is only going to cost a little more to handle, but they can charge a price people will pay and still make a profit.\n"
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41v8ug | why do writers seem to be able to create original concepts for tv shows, but the movie industry struggles badly to be original? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41v8ug/eli5_why_do_writers_seem_to_be_able_to_create/ | {
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"Well, one could argue there are plenty of derivative works in either field. Consider the number of Sherlocks running around and the raw scope of procedural crime dramas. I would note that 'original' is also somewhat risky in that you don't have a known quantity, where as with a remake (plausibly, if you don't suck at it) you know if people like the idea. Studios tend to create fewer movies and they tend to be more expensive, if they tank. An episode of Game of Thrones, for instance, is about 6 million bucks, and that is a show often regarded as having pretty high production values. Furious 7, on the other hand, came in just shy of 200 million. ",
"One factor is that film producers take on bigger risks and are therefore more cautious. It's no trouble for NBC to try out a bunch of different show ideas - If a show doesn't make money, they cancel it and cut their losses. Feature films are a much bigger investment, and if they don't make money, there's not much you can do about it after the fact, so film producers have a stronger incentive to fall back on tried-and-true pitches (established franchises, sequels, remakes) in order to reduce risk."
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2ch69r | if water is a great conductor of electricity, why would a lightning stike lose its lethality when covering large bodies of water. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ch69r/eli5_if_water_is_a_great_conductor_of_electricity/ | {
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"Water in and of itself is actually a poor conductor. What makes a current flow through a medium is the mobility of charged particles called ions. Pure, distilled water has no minerals or dissolved ions while regular old tap/sea water will have some minor amount of salt. The salt is made of ions, which can carry current through water. \n\nNow, as to why a lightning strike would lose potency, is basically because the voltage is diffusing, like a smell through a room getting fainter as it spreads. "
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aoj4us | why do humans (maybe other animals too?) adopt resting postures that don't appear to offer any relaxation advantage? crossed legs sitting or lying, hands clasped over chest, hands behind head, folded arms that kind of thing. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aoj4us/eli5_why_do_humans_maybe_other_animals_too_adopt/ | {
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"Just because they don’t appear to be relaxing doesn’t mean they aren’t. In all of the positions we take to rest, while we may still have muscles engaged we are resting the muscles that we were using. \n\nThe reason a lot of people lay on their arms on a desk is because the top part of the spine does a lot of work to keep you up straight while sitting and you get rest. Doesn’t mean all muscles are being rested though just the fatigued ones "
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2mjgy3 | is it better to have bright or dim lights in a crowded room? | Say I have a large ballroom that's empty, and has the lights set to the medium level. If the room starts to fill up, is it better to raise or lower the lights (or keep them the same)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mjgy3/eli5_is_it_better_to_have_bright_or_dim_lights_in/ | {
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"If you are wanting a quiet atmosphere leaning toward romance or discussion you want low lighting. If you want a more vibrant atmosphere leaning toward dancing you want it brighter. "
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71liov | why are high end clothes like gucci intentionally bad looking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71liov/eli5_why_are_high_end_clothes_like_gucci/ | {
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"Most high end clothes look great. Gucci is an exception because they are specifically marketing to people who want something that says \"Look at me!\"",
"You should realize that what's \"bad looking\" is highly subjective. Many people find these pieces good looking. What mostly drives the price is exclusivity. People with money and who are into fashion typically want stuff that is hard to find. They don't want to spend $3k on a coat and show up to a party and 5 other people have the same coat. Some also want the item to stick out. Whether it looks good or not, if it's talked about and getting them looks, it's served it's purpose. "
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22lfpu | how long is a second? how heavy is a gram? how far is a meter? who came up with these definitions, and what lead to them being standardised? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22lfpu/eli5_how_long_is_a_second_how_heavy_is_a_gram_how/ | {
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"Well, standard measurements are needed for both everyday use (\"It's 106 miles to Chicago\") and scientific use (That person needs exactly 7mg of this stuff here to live.)\n\nThey're all formally defined as SI base units (_URL_0_) although the precision there is generally more than you need in everyday life. "
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2wat73 | i'm in my room, at room temperature, wearing nothing but socks. why the fuck are my feet so cold? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wat73/eli5_im_in_my_room_at_room_temperature_wearing/ | {
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"In general, your feet are the last place which your body warms up. If your internal organs and your brain are cold (which is likely, since those parts of your body were naked) then blood will be diverted from the extremities such as hands and feet to keep these parts warm. Even wearing socks won't keep your feet warm if there's reduced blood flow to your feet.\n\nHaving said that, if you are in any way worried about this, please see a doctor who will be able to check whether your blood circulation is normal.",
"I think the right (or first) questions is... Why are you only wearing socks? :-p",
"This is probably a \"hearing hoof beats and looking for a zebra\" answer, but...\n\nMy feet always feel cold. I can be in a warm room wearing tons of warm clothes and socks and whatever, and my feet tell me they're cold. I can dun them in near-boiling water till it looks like I'm wearing red socks, and they still insist they're cold. I can touch them and feel they are warm, but they lie to me about it.\n\nIn my case it's neuropathy, and it's something I had to learn to live with/workaround (basically my feet are lying to my brain so I had to train my brain to tell them to STFU). \n\nProbably -- and hopefully -- other factors in your case. "
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3n4z7q | why do we crave sugary and fatty foods and not sugar and fat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n4z7q/eli5_why_do_we_crave_sugary_and_fatty_foods_and/ | {
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"You don't eat enough unprocessed sugar or fat in order to crave it directly. You just crave the sources that get it to you.",
"Our cravings are part of our evolutionary history, one in which we didn't generally have piles of sugar to nibble and bowls of fat lying around to slurp on. \n\nOh I just grossed myself out. Anyway, desire to eat things that had what we need rewarded survival. We don't have an innate awareness of 'what' exactly we are after. "
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cl8rfz | how do people who are regularly exposed to bedbugs not constantly infected with them? | I'm thinking exterminator, hotel cleaners, luggage carriers. The probability of them getting bedbugs has to by higher than most. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cl8rfz/eli5_how_do_people_who_are_regularly_exposed_to/ | {
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"Exterminators are going to be wearing protective gear to protect them from the very toxic chemicals they're spraying. Even if the chemicals didn't kill bedbugs, they're going to be extremely difficult to latch on to and it's not like the Exterminator is lying around so bedbugs can crawl on them.\n\nHotel cleaners - in order for the cleaners to get bedbugs, the hotel has to have bedbugs. If the hotel has bedbugs, that's a big deal.\n\nBedbugs being carried in people's luggage from home are almost definitely going to be on the inside of the luggage, not the outside where the carriers would be exposed."
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5qzn07 | back when the indian caste system was stronger, why couldn't people of lower castes just move to a place where no one knew them and lie about which caste they were in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qzn07/eli5_back_when_the_indian_caste_system_was/ | {
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"Tis probably did happen. But based on my limited understanding:\n\nname - family names are linked to castes\n\neducation - if you are an \"untouchable\", you can't suddenly pretend you are a priest.\n\nskill set - similar to above.",
"India is huge with wildly different cultures, customs and traditions. In the past these differences were much more pronounced and you couldn't just move from one place to another, and people would probably be suspicious of outsiders. Back then (I'm talking about pre-colonial times) the identity of India as a unified nation did not even exist so if someone moved from say East India to the South they would be treated as foreigners. Also most other places had their own caste system (except probably the tribal areas). \nAlso, castes were related to professions. So even if they did change their locality their job and skill set wouldn't. With no change in profession there would be no change in treatment. ",
"You can't just magic up wealth, education, contacts/a social network, the right way of speaking, good diet, reasonable health care ... etc etc etc \n\n",
"The Indian caste system was based loosely on genetics; there were four main caste, and people were assigned to a caste based on their strengths/skills. Over time, people default got their parent's caste because the logic was that the son of, say, a warrior, would be a much better warrior than the son of, say, a merchant. \nAlso, a person's diet, routine, and therefore physical and mental condition would be closely linked to their caste. It would this be obvious which main caste a person was by setting how they behaved.\n\nThere is a popular story of a (warrior caste) guy going to a (priest caste) sage for training in magic, pretending to also belong to the priest caste(magic was considered more of a science those days, and was supposed to only be learnt and known members of the priest caste). the suspicious priest asked him to sit on a rock for ten minutes without moving. That rock was an anthill, and he was bitten by them, yet didn't flinch. The date they said that members of the priest class were puny, and couldn't handle that pain, so this guy had to be a warrior caste dude. Similarly, i can think of several other ways to figure out a person's caste, even today.",
"According to my Indian friends, the caste system is still very much in place despite being outlawed. A part of it is based on skin color and other physical features. One woman I know was harshly criticized by her family for being a light skinned woman throwing herself away on a dark skinned man (their way of putting it, not mine).\n\nRacism is the norm in all but the western European countries and the US, and it's only thinly concealed there. We're a lot less advanced as a species than most like to think.",
"It is important to know that the caste system was NOT stronger in the past. New subaltern studies indicate very strongly that the caste system solidified and became excessively rigid during the 150 years of British colonial rule. The caste system originally was defined as a guild system - similar to the one in say Europe from the fall of Rome onwards (or traced back to Diocletian's reforms on guilds).\n\nThe varna system had 4 castes broadly, the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. These 4 groupings were originally not prevented or banned from changing their groupings by accquiring skills belonging to another caste (guild?).\n\nFor instance, the writer (to whom the epic can be traced to) of one of India's most famous epics, the Ramayana was a hunter belonging to the Shudra caste.\n\nYou have had many kings who were either Vaishya, Brahmin or Shudra castes, we do know that the Nanda dynasty, the Marathas, Cholas for a start were from what would today be considered a 'lower caste', yet sources from their era do not even mention their caste, which should have been a huge issue if one went by how rigid the system today is.\n\nIf you take the Arthasasthra, it actually mentions the composition of the king's council and that it needed to have 2 from each major caste (why would a 'lower caste' person be included in the highest tiers of decision making in one of the most powerful empires this earth has seen?)\n\nTake recent times, The Beautiful Tree, a report by Dharmpal on the education system prior to the British take over (using British sources interestingly enough) says unequivocally that the 100's of thousands of village schools around the country educated kids of all castes and also girl children without discrimination.\n\nThis is the background to the caste system per se.\n\nTo answer your specific question though, discrimination was really not a big concern based on castes till about the mid 16th century when the caste system did slowly start to get solidified (it really accelerated after the British take over), but even here you had very quickly, reform movements like the Bhakti movement emerge to counter these ill effects of the caste system. That said, your caste was tied to a trade, and in real terms, learning an entirely new trade was (and still is, in this modern world) very different. Secondly, the village as a social unit played a big role in the survival and prosperity of individuals, to cut those ties was (and still is) extremely difficult.\n\n\nedit - left out the 5th caste, these were the untouchables, but this status was reserved only for those who worked the crematoria and those punished by exile from society who were made and called \"chandalas\". These were excluded from everything.\n\nEdit 2 - Just to clarify, the British did not invent this system, they took an existing socioeconomical and cultural structure, didn't understand it in the least, interpreted it the way their own system ran (priests, knights, traders and serfs with a bunch of slaves in the end) and applied their own rules to this system. The system then responded and became more rigid in response to this stimuli.\n\nSources - \n\n* Nicholas Dirks' Castes of Mind.\n* Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age by Susan Bayly\n* Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India by Bernard Cohn\n",
"Because as with any powerful social institution people of a low caste were for the most part complicit in its implementation. You are asking that from the perspective of someone who thinks caste is a bad idea.",
"My, admittedly fuzzy, understanding is that there was some flexibility in the caste system through the concept of *dvija* ([twice-born](_URL_0_)):\n > The first birth is physical, while the second birth is a 'spiritual' one. The second 'birth' occurs when one takes up fulfilling a role in society.\n\nApparently there are different views on whether the lowest castes could use this process for social reinvention. \n\nAnother form of social change is [Sanskritisation](_URL_2_) which\n > denotes the process by which castes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the upper or dominant castes.\n\nIn terms of using immigration to claim a new caste, I am aware of the example of Mauritius, a small island country in the Indian Ocean populated in majority through Indian immigration:\n > We may assume that many indentured labourers took advantage of the system to start a new life with a higher status, either claiming to belong to a caste other than their own or laying claim to a status their caste members were not generally granted. Such individuals were sometimes mocked as ‘Brahmins from the boat’ (Singaravelou 1991: 16). We also know of reverse strategies (Carter 1995): some high-caste individuals preferred to hide their caste identity, fearing the planters would think them unfit for agricultural work or too prompt to federate the labourers because of their intellectual-elite status.\n\n > [The ‘Land of the Vaish’? Caste Structure and Ideology in Mauritius](_URL_1_)\n",
"You have to remember - this was part of a belief system. It wasn't just that other people had a world view in which you were lower class... likely, you were too. To try and subvert this system would be counter to your own religious beliefs.",
"The same reasons that blacks couldn't move to other whiter areas and hope to escape slavery.\n\nThere were tell-tale signs that gave away a person's identify - skin tone (lower castes had darker skin tones), name, behaviour and occupation etc.,\n ",
"Imagine yourself as a lower caste person born into large poor family. Your family is your whole support system. Traveling in earlier times was dangerous and uncommon. Ignorance, superstition and fear was widespread especially among the poor due to lack of education. \n\nSo ask yourself this question. Would you take you (and perhaps your whole family if they agreed to your proposition) move away from a place where they have at least some semblance of security and income to unknown place with no guarantee of safety during the journey or knowledge of your destination?\n\nSome English serfs did do exactly that coming to America during Early Colonial Times with very unfortunate outcome.\n\nEdit: Should have used the term indentured servant instead of serf, from Europe instead of just English. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nAdditionally, You are psychological prisoner of your birth and circumstances. Very difficult to break out a prisoner mentality. ",
"Because they don't have any money. How is an illiterate person with no money supposed to move somewhere? Who would have them? What skills would they bring to the new location?",
"People did not move because being a member of a caste also meant you were part of a community - a 'samaj'. This offered a fixed, predictable way of life where you were given a profession, a partner, a supportive set of friends and extended family and a sense of belonging. \n\nMigrating alone would mean embracing the unknown, without a support system - a daunting prospect for most.\n\nThat said, sometimes groups did successfully proclaim a higher status than before, after achieving the adequate social power to do so, and embellished the new status with suitably concocted legends and tales of ancestry. ",
"for the same reason homeless people dont buy mansions and trick everyone into thinking that they are rich",
"This happened a lot, a lot time ago a poor family had come to my great grand parents farm to work and asked them if they could use our surname to register themselves with the local authorities so their kids would have access to better education. ",
"I suggest you read \"White Tiger\" from Aravind Adiga. It's the story of a lower caste Indian's rise to succes.",
"There are religious justifications for the caste system. Everyone believed in those tales about the creator god who had different members and thus different roles to distribute. You dont want to escape to religious imperatives, you submit to them.",
"A lot has already been said here. I would only like to point out a mythological example of someone claiming to be from a different caste, and the effect of what happened when the truth finally came out. \n\nThe Mahabharat is literally an Epic -- one of the true four epics in the world, the others being the Ramayan, the Iliad and the Odyssey.\n\nAt the heart of the Mahabharat is the power struggle between two sets of cousins -- the five Pandavs [the good guys] and the 100 Kauravs [mostly the bad guys]. The Pandavs were all sons of gods, carried in the wombs of two queens of Pandu. The eldest queen, Kunti, had learned the incantation from a Brahmin to call gods at will and give her a child. This was the incantation that led to the birth of the five Pandavs, despite the fact that Pandu was infertile. \n\nNow, Kunti had invoked this incantation once before, and that was before she married Pandu. On that occasion, the Sun god had come and given her a son whom she had put in the river in a basket, much like baby Moses. \n\nHowever, unlike baby Moses, who was picked up by Pharaohs and raised as a prince, this son, who came to be known as Karna, was picked up by a charioteer and raised as one of his own, according to his caste and not the royal caste Karna belonged to.\n\nWhen the time came, Karna received training under Parashuram, the Brahmin ascetic who had picked up a Parashu -- the axe -- and tried to purge the earth of Kshatriyas -- the warrior caste -- 18 times. After that he had settled with imparting knowledge, which was more in keeping with his caste. Also, he taught only Brahmins, and Karna identified himself to Parashuram as one.\n\nOne day, as Parashuram rested his head on Karna's lap and slept, and insect bit Karna and started eating his flesh. Karna -- ~~born of a god and thus having Brahminical strength and endurance~~ showing the strength and endurance of a Kshatriya -- did not move an inch despite the insect burrowing into his leg and eating his flesh. \n\nWhen Parashuram finally woke, he was not happy at such sacrifice and discipline from his student, but was angry. After all, nobody but a true ~~Brahmin~~ Kshatriya could show such endurance, but Karna had identified himself to his guru as a ~~Kshatriya~~. \n\nParashuram cursed Karna, saying he would forget all the knowledge Parashuram had imparted to him when he needed it the most. And that is exactly what happened in the great war of Kuruksheta, where Karna was killed by his half-brother Arjun.\n\nEdit: Got Kshatriya and Brahmin mixed up. Thanks for the correction, guys...",
"Dark is the colour of labour. Lower caste folks usually had darker skin tones as they farmed and did more manual labour. The upper caste ranged from warriors and people who owned lands and properties (a Feudalistic society after all). Lower caste folks did not get education and you cannot fake being a scholar by just moving to another place. \n\nFor a person to successfully evade the system by moving to another place, they would have needed lot of wealth to acquire land and power to evade being discriminated based on colour and caste. One couldn't move too far as language difference would cause trouble too. Only traders of upper classes who travelled a lot had such knowledge. \n\nForget the Brits and the East India company, blah blah they ruled us for 200 years, let us blame them for this too. (Don't play defense and blame the Brits bruv, that is so RSS!) Sure they did what they could to exploit with existing differences, divide and rule policy still works considering the present world events. \n\nAt first the caste system was pretty flexible, anyone from one caste can switch to another by changing their profession. During the Maurya dynasty, Buddhism was wide spread and everyone was treated equally (Thanks to Ashoka the Great). But then this dude called Pushyamitra Shunga who was a minister to the last Mauryan King wanted more powers and murdered the Mauryan king and he took the throne. Thus Shunga Dynasty was born, Buddhism was destroyed and the orthodox set of rules about caste were written and enforced among the people. Thus one belonged to the caste they were born into. \n\n\nIf you want sauce: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in India, leader B. R. Ambedkar ",
"Followup question, why was their never organized assassination of higher castes. why weren't there mass violent uprising and entire household slaughtered. \n\nThat is like why doe a criminal go calmly to the electric chair? you might get me in their but only after I tried biting the jugular out of the guard. \n",
"The caste system is still very strong today. Moving to another area today can mean moving to the US, UK, Canada or Australia. \n \nEven today inter caste marriage is very rare in India, perhaps at social acceptance level the west was at 75 years ago with inter racial marriage.",
"/u/RajendraCholzhan has a really great reply about this but I will try to dumb it down a little for ELI5 version..\n\nImagine you are in a school where children are divided into different houses (sections) and each house performs a specific duty. But if you want to change house you are allowed to do so by learning the task required by your desired house. For example, if you are in a house that cleans the dishes after meals and you want to move to a house that cooks, you will have to learn how to cook in order to move. This was caste system in its early stages.\n\nHowever, the principal of school changes (British rule) and the new principal doesn't understand the system. So he declares, you can no longer change houses. All students and even their next generations will have to stay in same house forever.\n\nAnd to answer your question about moving to a new place, its like changing schools. First of all, it is quite a trouble to change school leaving your friends behind (In old days, your community was your lifeline as barter system was dependent on having good relationships with your peers). And secondly, the new school will investigate to find out what you can do before they assign you a house.",
"Altough I'm not Indian I've studied a lot of the caste system in my degree in Anthropology and also had a teached who worked directly with Dalit (the untouched, outcasts) familys to a point where she had \"her\" family in India. \n \nFor starters I dont think from what I read and hear that the caste system is getting weaker (see the documentary India Untouched available on Youtube and also articles like _URL_0_). \n \nNow the main reason to why people of lower castes dont \"lie\" it's as much connected to their signs as someone /u/AdityaRav has pointed out but also because the caste system is at the same time a belief that if you act right in the next life you'll get a better reincarnation. On the other hand, acting in a way that makes you go away from your original caste can take serious punishment. \n \nI've learned in school that a way for Dalits to fight the oppression is to convert to other religions. However, you can see on the documentary above that a woman who did that got beaten to near death and her hands were burned to a point where she lost them. \n \nWhy didn't slaves rebel if they were in greater number then the master? Because the idea of punishment is greater then the possibility of reward. It makes us wonder about the book Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la prison written by Foucault. \n \nps: I'm sorry about my english, not a native speaker.",
"**THANKS FOR THE GOLD!!!** my first time ever.... I would like to thank .... **THANKS**\n\nImagine a playground with five groups of kids playing in a playground:\n\nThe first group is a bookworm club, and has the luxury of knowing the only language in which the rules of the playground/games/swings/rides are written. They only teach this language to their own kind. If anyone wants to know how a particular game/swing/ride works, they come to them. They also run schools where they teach written language (not the special language) to other kids. These are your Brahmin Kids. \n\nThe second group is the playground bullies club, but this group also the protects the playground from other kids who are not regulars, or want to take the playground for themselves. They know martial arts, and they write literature and arts in their local language. They bully everyone except the Brahmin kids, because they hold the power of knowledge. Others, they bully or pamper depending on how much they need them. One of them, is the de-facto ruler of the playground. These are your Kshatriya kids.\n\nThe third group is a group of rich kids, they own several of the swings/rides in the playground, they frequently trade with other rich kids who own stuff on other playgrounds. They keep paying up to the bully to ensure their own protection, and the protection of their swings etc. Sometimes the bullies are nice to them, sometimes the bullies take away their stuff, to fund their campaigns to attack other playgrounds. These are your Vaishya Kids.\n\nThe fourth group is a group of hardworking kids, whose sole purpose is to ensure everyone in the playground is fed, and everything in the playground works. They are paid measly wages by the traders and/or the bullies. They all share their knowledge of stuff through lore, and are restricted from learning any written language. *EDIT*: These are the Shudra kids.\n\nThe fifth group is detested by everyone else, because their main job is to clean everyone else's shit. Basically, clean the flush-less toilets by hand, take care of dead animals, work in the sewers etc. Since they work in so much filth, no one wants to even come near them, let alone touch them. Since they are forbidden by the bookworms to even talk to them, they have no way of learning anything new. These are your Achhoot (Untouchables) kids. (Come to thinks of it Untouchables has such weirdly different connotations in the west vs. India)\n\nNow, as you see above, there are only two classes really trying to escape poverty. They can't because the knowledge required to enter the higher groups requires that they understand some kind of a written language, or years and years of martial training, or an incredible amount of sudden wealth. All three of these things were impossible to fake, and hence you were always stuck with caste you were born into.\n ",
"Because \"caste\" as we in the west think of it is not really an accurate description of reality. \n\nJati - or birth group - is a much more useful construct. While there were four main castes (Brahmin, Ksatriya, Vaisha, and Sudra) birth group was a much more important indicator of someone's status (not just vertical). \"Moving\" to a different area would have been unheard of for many people because moving would mean transplanting into a different life-situation and inappropriate to your own \"Varashrama-Dharma\" - that is, the duty you are called to perform in this current incarnation, based on the 'color' (not skin tone) of your place in life. \n\nWesterners like to think of the caste system as exclusively or primarily an oppressive structure. This is nonsense. There is no doubt that it institutionalized structural inequalities, but it provided a stability and coherence to society that many other social systems (like free market capitalism) does not. \n\nSo moving would often have not been a good or even desirable option anyway. Your 'caste' (really your jati) was WHO YOU WERE, it provided you a place in society, appropriate jobs, social networks, employment, and spiritual and religious significance. Moving to an a different area woudl have entailed learning a different language - an impossibility for most - and someone finding employment in a village (!!) in which you knew no one. \n\nWhile of course there were cities in India before the current century, you still had to choose SOMEWHERE to move and, traditionally, areas (even in cities = neighborhoods) are generally associated with a certain jati, which entails a certain lifestyle. This is why, contrary to what free marketers would think, like so many fabric stores in Delhi exist on the same street adn then, three blocks over, so many candy stores, and then, three blocks over, so many hardware stores, etc. I'm not saying that this phenomenon is exclusively a product of the caste system, but Jati groupings often determined the possible range of employment. \n\nSo not only was moving not always possible, it was often not desirable. One's varnashrama-dharma (i.e. karma, if you prefer) indicated that it was RIGHT and GOOD to fulfill your duty in the position into which you were born. This is essentially the message of the Bhagavad-gita as well...'it's not up to you to chose your fate.... your fate is chosen and its up to you to fulfill it!\" which is what Krishna councils Arjuna when he is wondering if he should go to war with the other side of his family (he does). \n\nBut showing up somewhere new, with a different accent (if not language altogether) with no social connections to anyone in that culture, no similar skills, different socio-religious rituals - moving often times made no sense. I'm not saying it never happened in cities but in villae life it would have been excessively difficult. And evne today the vast majority of indians live in villages or small towns. ",
"Are there any good history books about the Indian Caste System in the olden days?\n\nEdit: Just a list of the few in the comments.\n\nNicholas Dirks' Castes of Mind.\nCaste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age by Susan Bayly.\nColonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India by Bernard Cohn\n",
"The caste system is still fairly strong as far as I know. I had a co-worker from India who wanted to marry his childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately, both his family and hers vetoed the marriage since they belonged to different castes. He ended up marrying through an arranged marriage.\n",
"Indian anthropologist checking in. India never had a homogeneous culture so to speak; so your language, clothing, local gods and pretty much every social marker would be out of place if you moved. Moving around was simply not something most Indians did and the ones who moved are those we now call the 'tribals'. So yes, it wasn't possible to 'pass' as Brahmin because not only was/is it a matter of what last name you were born with, but also your dietary habits, language skills, knowledge of certain texts (used to be but definitely not anymore) cannot really be faked.",
"Also probably the people of the lower castes were terribly poor. If I am not mistaken people from lower castes were given the worst jobs and were poorly paid. They wouldn't have been able to just pack up and leave.",
"Well, it's more difficult than we can think. Back then, a village was a ground zero kinda place where everyone knew anyone and with no other communication devices than word of mouth, others from different villages also knew things about your village. Now consider you are a labour caste fellow. You are accustomed to working your ass of to a master(ish person) who will pay you in kind or a tiny amount of money that will barely feed you a snack and you have an extended family to take care of. So you work your back off for this person hoping one day he'll help you when in distress (which would actually happen). Then there were landlords who owned enough land to feed multiple villages (changed when a Indira Gandhi passed a law which said the person toiling the land will now own the land iirc) and were well connected with other such landlords and if you do some stupid shit, news traveled quick and you would be out of a job, anywhere. Hence, no one tried to fuck up. \n\nSay you fucked up somehow and now have no job. Thinking about moving to a neighbouring village? They know about you. \nThink you can move somewhere really far away and start afresh? Where do you have the resources? Villages/towns were good distances away and with walking (no, bullock carts needed resources too) the only option, you and your family with hungry kids won't last a day. Also consider the fact that landlords were also brutal assholes at times. They would beat you to pulp if you didn't work to their bidding and would threaten to bury you along with your family. Pawns just waiting to be sacrificed kinda. \n\nBUT. Landlords commanded a lot of respect from their workers. They would almost worship them for giving them full meals everyday. You can see that from landlords quickly forming their own militia when provoked. \n\nThen there's the mindset. Say you are again from the labourer caste or a trader caste (soudra and vaishya respectively). You grow up learning the same craft and think that it's the job you're destined to do and nothing will change it. If you are a clever lad, maybe you will want to be someone else, maybe pick up arms and fight for your king but you'd be quickly discouraged for reasons like, what would the family do if he was killed? What if the landlord was unhappy and disowned the family? And more importantly, \" No, you are a workboy and that's what you'll do in life. We work for our lord and we will do his bidding only. He provides for us so why go anywhere else?\" When you are one of the only breadwinners of the family, you can't argue against these strong points. \n\nLanguage and way of life also is a part of this. Considering India, every 50 kms, there's a change in dialect/language (even today). A person can easily make out where the other comes from solely based on how s/he speaks. Now, can you change the way you speak overnight? Maybe, but remember, most of them were literate only in the job they knew and nothing else. \nFight for your king? Yes. \nWrite a book? What's a book? \nGrow some rice? Yes. \nBrew some wine? What's wine? \n\nThe way a person dresses up also gives away things (like today mostly). The lower casts wouldn't have the privilege of new clothes and mostly had hand-me-down items which never worked in their favour if they managed to move. They wouldn't have the money to buy anything new too. \n\nExample to everything I've said: My aunt's family own a shit ton of land and they let a community of potters to live on a part of their land 3 decades back and they are still there, doing pottery (beautiful pottery though). But they also work on the fields and inside their house. We are also a Brahmin family. Although we don't see them any lesser than us, they don't enter our prayer rooms, our kitchens or even sit with us when we are around. They are served 3 meals a day (around 30-40 workers) and given almost free medical help (my uncle is a doctor). I've spoken to them a lot of times (both my family and the community) and although they don't consider us landlords or we consider them as mere labourers, they maintain that statusquo. My aunt's family have tried to make them a part of everything that happens around and we still do. We can now see the changes happening with a lot of adults/kids being/getting educated and going out of town to work. This one time, I tried to enter one of their houses and wasn't allowed to, by them! It's more of a mindset than a forced thing, then and now.\n\nI haven't read through all the comments and I'm sure there are a lot of source included explanations that are better but here's my 2 rupees.",
"I believe these could be the reasons:\n\n- Caste system was based on work, people had to work and that basically defined their caste. When you move to a different place you'll have to work and with skills that their parents gave them you'd again be placed in the same level.\n\n- Faking is tough, you cannot just go around somewhere and say you belong to some elite or some random caste so do some work randomly without knowing it. It could be dangerous.\n\n- Even if you'd consider going to places with no caste system, I believe it would be somewhere remote to where they live and passage of information was a critical issue, especially for the lower castes.\n\n- Here many people say color, while it might be the case in many places it isn't the case everywhere. India has fair people and they have stayed in the lower rung as any other person of same occupation.\n\n- Information passing to the top was highly prevalent, people were paid to inform (in turn for money), in situations like this they'd put their lives to danger.\n\n- Money, they were poor and travelling long meant stocking up and trying to look decent all the way. You could end up in wrong hands, if at all anyone finds out you are from the lowest rung. You can never hide behaviour. One or two people maybe, but no the whole tribe for sure. \n\n- Navigation is tough, these people were not educated could not read anything. Information from outside is highly rare. Forget about handling maps and stuff.",
"This is like saying \"why don't poor people just move to New York City and pretend to be rich people?\" They could, but if you show up to NYC without a cent in your pocket, not knowing anyone (without any ability to be introduced to the right circles), not looking the part, people will either not believe you or simply not care. Think about how hard it would be to make it in the big city in this scenario. Most people would end up back being poor but in NYC, which is what would happen in India.\n\nPeople mentioned skin tone as well. This also played a role. Darker skinned Indians were largely in the lower castes, and would have been subject to more suspicion if he just showed up where no one had known him before.",
"Because, for generations, people were brainwashed into believing that they were born into their cast due to their karma from previous life and only way for them to move upward in next life is to perform the duties of their caste wholeheartedly. Surprisingly, originally the caste was determined not by birth but by abilities but soon 1% priest class aka brahmins started brain washing people to maintain their status quo. ",
"Mostly by behavior. If you belong to a certain caste you picked up the behavior of that caste while very young by been around members of that caste (your family). Even if you were not Hindu you still belong to a caste. ",
"At the end of the room a loud speaker projected from the wall. The Director walked up to it and pressed a switch.\n\"… all wear green,\" said a soft but very distinct voice, beginning in the middle of a sentence, \"and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta.\"\nThere was a pause; then the voice began again.\n\"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able …\"\nThe Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows.\n\"They'll have that repeated forty or fifty times more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson.\"",
"I see alot of the whole \"There were telltale signs\" and \"They don't know certain skills\" answers but I feel like no one has said the most obvious one to me. There is no way that you can pick and move to another place and lie aout your caste, because people check. They'll go up your lineage and cross check each person on their until they find a connection to their own caste or someone who knows of them. Like my dad taught me and my sisters our genealogy up to my great-great-great-grandfather in case we needed to \"introduce\" ourselves.",
"Yes they could move to a different area and try to blend in to a higher caste. But they would have to change many things in order to do so one of the first would be there surnames which are a tell-tale sign of caste. \n\nI am from one lowest caste called \"untouchable\". My parents tried to to do this when they came to the United States. But gave up after awhile because more of their family was arriving from India and they were ashamed of hiding their status especially in the country of equality.\n\nAlso, skin color is not a clear indicator of caste in my opinion, my family and I are light skinned. ",
"It's funny, I had this professor in my graduate program (you know you can tell someone has a graduate degree? Waiting a minute and they'll tell you) and he was from India and one day he got off on a tangent about the caste system, and telling me how he could tell you what caste a person was in by their last name. He says, \"I don't care about the caste system at all. Of course I was of the highest caste.\" Humble brag. It's like if I were to say, \"Yeah, I don't really work out, but I can bench 460.\"",
"In order to fake a higher caste one had to fake the customs, rituals and occupation of that particular caste. But back in those days,and even today to an extent, there existed a system, enforced over generations, which policed access to these customs, rituals and occupation. \n\n\nThe lower caste were not allowed access to schooling. They were not allowed to learn the language of customs, rituals and occupation of the higher caste aka Sanskrit. The lower caste were not allowed into higher caste temples and houses where these customs and rituals were practiced. Occupation of a person was hereditary, lower caste people were not allowed to change or learn any other occupation. There was Untouchability which limited physical proximity and interaction between the people of higher and lower castes.\n\n\nThere were strict punishments meted out people who tried to break the enforced isolation and separation. There is a book which claims, oil was poured into the ear and mouth of a person who tried to learn or hear something he was not supposed to. So one couldn't just change caste by moving places. \n\n ",
"People are forgetting some things in these comments.\n\n1. There are poor brahmins\n\n\"According to a Wall Street Journal report, an estimated 65 percent of the Brahmin households in India, with about 40 million people, lived on less than $100 a month in 2004; this number dropped to about 50% in 2007.[44] Brahmins have also included wealthier and politically successful members.\"\n_URL_0_\n\n\n2. Caste does not always correlate with skin color. There are dark skinned tamil brahmins. India, in general though, is very skin color conscious.\n\n3. The caste system is complicated, its meanings are complicated and have a lot of history, they vary regionally, and their current form is *hugely shaped by the British Raj.",
"There is a great book called White Tiger which talks about this. The answer is: Sometimes they did, but with great difficulty; and mostly they didn't because it's so difficult. \n\nCaste isn't just a label. It's somewhat morphological (you can see differences between castes) and very much intertwined with culture. It's like asking why doesn't a cockney Londoner pretend to be royalty. Their behaviour will give them away. \n\nPlus it's not just about caste, its social. The higher castes own land and run businesses. If their life was good why would they move? This would make toy highly suspect of a guy who rolled into town, nobody knowing them, with no money, a funny accent, who's claiming to be posh.\n\nAnd remember, social mobility in India is basically a way street. It goes down, but very rarely up. There are a vast number of ways to lose rank, even just by having cow's blood thrown on you, or by marrying out of your caste; and the only way to ascend is to die and be born again better off. This means that anyone from out of town claiming to be someone high caste isn't necessarily going to confer benefits. You'd be likely to think they were even more suspect (if he's Brahmin, what must he have done!?).\n\nSource: Lived in India for 5 years and wrote a research paper on Indian culture.",
"Yes of course. But this umbrella caste becomes a vehicle of upward caste mobility. And if one were going to be so precise about it, kunbi is not a caste either. It's a jati. And after Phule, people kunbi, phulmali and others explicitly started identifying themselves as \"Maratha\" and often dropped their official jati classification. i.e. upward mobility. Of course this is not only in name, but social reform and urbanization actually created wealth and allowed access to education among the members of this new \"maratha\" formation. ",
"People, particularly those from upper castes, would never relocate to an area without first making some sort of contact there. Even if you didn't have deep family or business relationships in the new area,... which you probably would ... letters of introduction would have been sent, etc. \n\n Just focus on the basics things.... With whom would you work to find a place to live? How would you pay for it ? In theory, if you somehow managed to amass a lot of money in your old location, despite your caste, you could do it. But it would be really hard. You'd have to fake lots of communications, have complex back stories...and lots of extra money to throw around to back it all up so you wouldn't appear suspicious. \n\n",
"Okay, I am from Nepal and what you just said did happened in my country. I know of such a person.\n\nDespite what others are saying, there is no difference in skin color between lower and higher cast person.\n\nThe real case:\nA person called A migrated from a distant village into my city of pokhara and said that he was a high caste man. He used to live in our house on rent. He had a wife. There was no way of knowing his caste. But two things gave it:\n\n1) He tried to do bratabandha of his elder son which a common ceremony in which one shaves his head and puts on a sacred thread called janai. It indicates a transition to adulthood. The local priest asked him to put on the thread and A put on the opposite side. (See janai on google). So, the priest knew then on but since it was 1990 and caste system was criminalized, he did nothing. He revealed the caste to everyone and everyone knew his caste\n\n2) When my grandmother was in hospital, she met someone from As village. She asked B about A and his caste was revealed. Since A had already moved to different house and it was the 90s, she did nothing.\n\nFinally, rumor travels fast here. Its like a village. Everybody knew his caste. And his sons later married someone from their own caste.\n\n\nSo, you can see how difficult and risky it is to do something like that. If it was a 100 years before, he could have been executed. Only a kings command could change a low caste person to high in those times",
"You question is stated in a way that makes you appear to believe that thew Caste system no longer exists.",
"Some of them did move here to Europe. We know them as Gypsies or Romani or Roma. _URL_0_\n\nI am not sure it worked.",
"I think it is still relatively prevalent in India just less advertised. I work in consulting and we use r sources from India frequently. I remember one project where a couple guys who were more senior in the company but came from a lower caste would almost defer to anything this other much younger and new to our firm guy would say. It was strange, they would stop speaking immediately as he started chiming in. It was a struggle to get the project completed on time.",
"Three things that prevented them from going anywhere:\n1) economic standing - this applies more to the people that were being treated as untouchables - they were struggling to get their basic necessities met \n\n2) your social circle - If your social circle are others like you who are not aware of basic human rights, then it's close to impossible to think outside of that box. \n\n3) religion - added to all this was the element of religion that was stretched to make it morally okay to do this! \n",
"You could tell me that you're a millionaire socialite, but none of my friends know you, you have no business connections to speak of, you're wearing an untailored suit from Kohl's, you have a ghetto accent, and you don't know which hand your fork goes in.",
"Well the caste system didn't just pop up one day, it evolved through generations and only when it was normalized did people actually codify it as a part of their religious practices. \n\nThe \"people of the lower caste\" would have been a considerable fraction of the society and a mass exodus would have been impractical. That being said , people of lower castes were also tied down in their socio-economic strata through their lack of education and skill development. These people would have been treated the same way no matter where they went because of the close association between caste and livelihoods.",
"From reading the answers I find it all unsettling.. Why is darker skin tone the lower caste? and Fairer skin the superior caste? This system is thousands of years old. Are all fair skinned human civilizations geared toward thinking light skin is superior? ",
"It isn't like they just have a bad reputation... caste goes deep. (Goes. Present tense. But things are changing - that is the one eternal truth about India, things are *always* changing - and the rigid stratification superimposed over Indian society by the British is becoming a little more flexible.) It is the entire culture and religion and your family and friends and neighbors; if all of those believe something, there is a huge chance you believe it too. Even if that thing is that you are in some respect 'lower' than others. Caste is meant to fill a role; caste reflects on existing karma; caste can influence future karma.\n\n(In the US there is often indignation about people being treated \"like that\". But many of the offended people believe things like \"the meek shall inherit the earth\" and \"it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God\"... caste is those same ideas, in a place where society and country and religion and identity are often all more-or-less the same thing.)\n\nPeople of a 'lower' caste might not *want* to be in another caste. Their family and identity and society and *place* within that society all fit together... why would they want to go somewhere where none of those things 'fit'?(Again, not so different from Christianity, which devotes a lot of time telling people who are poor or downtrodden that they will be rewarded later.)\n\nIf they *did* want to go somewhere else and pretend to be in a different caste, they might not have the resources to do so. Material resources, like money, and inner resources, like knowledge of customs inside other castes.\n\nBut if they did have the resources, they wouldn't fool anybody anyway. They likely wouldn't even get the *chance* to try to fool anyone; showing up with no social and/or family infrastructure would tell others more about them than any story would. And there are social cues that someone who isn't really part of a group won't recognize and won't be able to respond to. Everything from body language to the way they speak to how much and what type of eye-contact they make can be read like a book by people of other castes.\n\ntl;dr: they might not *want* to change castes. If they did want to, they might not be able to do so. And if they were able to arrive somewhere else with a convincing story, it wouldn't work anyway... caste isn't like a bad rep; whatever caste you are in, you are likely in down to the subatomic level.\n\nThat said, the caste system was a bit more flexible in the past, and likely will be again... the British love social stratification, so they found the caste system to be handy and tightened the bolts a bit. Since India regained its independence, adhering to such rigid social stratification has been less important.",
"We still actually see this today in the US, with people trying to escape poverty.\n\nThere are a lot of unwritten rules in our society, and they vary depending on caste (poor, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, obscenely wealthy). \n\nHow a person speaks, their grammar and vocabulary, will often immediately narrow down which caste they were born into. Also, their social manners are dead giveaways, things like how they shake hands, do they stand when being introduced to someone, are they on-time or late. \n\nClothing is a tell, not just by the quality but by the fashion being worn. And then there are the shared social experiences among a caste which are completely foreign to those of another, like the difference between boarding school and a homeless shelter.\n\nIn order to move upward successfully and be accepted into that group, you need to learn their unwritten rules and expectations so that you fit in, and that's hard to do without someone else to teach you.",
"Upper Caste were rich and owners of vast lands. As families grew, the ancestral property keep dividing to next generation. So, the descendants lived in same location. Cross caste marriage was forbidden. It was possible to masquerade as lower cast, but almost Impossible to as upper caste. As marriages were arranged, it was only finalized once both parents verify the caste and 'gotras' (subcaste). Even today cross caste marriage in India is unusual. Only cross (gotras)subcaste marriages were allowed as persons from same caste are considered as brothers - sisters. \n\nSo you must be rich or/and knowledgeable to masquerade as upper caste. Physical appearance also differ as upper caste has fairer skin, taller body.",
"Historically, people in the lower castes had no resources...if they wandered away from wherever they belonged, they would not get fed.\n\n",
"And why do homeless people freeze in New York every winter. If they started walking south, every step gets warmer till they are in Miami. Simple!",
"Skin tone matters also. The lower castes also did labor jobs like work outside all day, toll the farmers fields etc. So their skin turned darker, while higher castes were merchants, politicians, etc and did not spend all day outside, usually leading to lighter skin.\n\nSo someone with darker skin couldn't just pack up and move somewhere else and change his name etc... People would still know he was lowered caste by his skin tone",
"Along with the correct physical appearance it would need truly exceptional amounts of cunning and deceptiveness and a large amount of luck. It would also have to be a multi-stage plan implemented over several years, first getting in position to learn how to pull it off then pulling it off.Maybe even more than two \"jumps\" would be required. Not impossible that it would happen and given how much nicer being of a high caste was I'm sure it did more than once, but by no means an option for more than a tiny % of the population.\n\nThis is the stuff of the plot of a picaresque novel, not of day to day life.",
"I can expand about the caste system in Tamil Nadu, where it was extensively stratified.\n\nThere are a few tell-tale signs.\n\n1. Color - Brahmins are generally fairer (but plenty of exceptions exists)\n2. Name. For example, any last name with -Selvan is non-Brahmin. \n Brahmins had Sanskritic personal names. Almost all of them would be the name of a Sanskritic deity.\nNon-Brahmins would use local deities, Tamil saints, local heroes and occasionally certain popular Sanskritic deities.\n\n3. Language. Brahmins and non-Brahmins had different dialects which reflected their lineage.\n\n This is especially true in Tamil Nadu - Brahmin Tamil is Tamil mixed with several words which are Sanskrit derivatives. For more subtle differences: _URL_0_\n\n4. Sacred thread - handed to Brahmin men after a 'thread ceremony' when young, a Brahmin is supposed to wear it till he dies (it gets changed in a ceremony every year).\n\n5. Education level - generally Brahmins were highly educated.\n\n6. Past occupation - again, stratified because of caste. Even if you moved to a different place, you would not magically acquire the skills needed to do the job of an upper caste person without formal training in the same.",
"Remember in Showgirls, Elizabeth Berkeley's character says something to the effect of \"nice 'vuhr seis' bag\" when she meant \"Versace\"? Boom, she was cooked right there. \n\nNow imagine if it's not just language, but manners, behavior, skin tone. You can't just jump around to hide that. Also, most places in the world are wary of outsiders, so showing up with a manufactured backstory rarely works either. \n\n",
"I just asked my Indian boss about this the other day. The way he explained it was basically that they well ask what your family name is and that is a tell tail sign to begin with and then they have people who will track down where you're from and talk to people who know you to figure out which caste you belong to.\n\nHe said now days there are lots of people trying to get into lower castes with false documents so that they can get better admission into universities since the test scores required for admittance are lower for lower castes. ",
"The real question is why don't the lower classes ever rise up and crush the upper classes? They out number them a 100 to 1.",
"A bit late to the party, but I studied in Tamil Nadu and did my independent study on Dalit conversions to Islam. \n\nEssentially, in 1980 two communities of Dalit (untouchable) caste converted to Islam in protest of the caste system. They felt (and still do, in a sense) that by leaving Hinduism, they would essentially be free from the caste system. \n\nEven in 2007, when I conducted my study, there were still hard feelings on both sides, with one Brahmin, who was an educated professor, suggesting that they converted because they were given oil money by the 'rich gulf states' and 'could be used as cannon fodder' for terrorist organizations.\n\nThose who had converted had found a sense of peace in the communities they built. I'm positive that the geographical location of these towns (not at all easy to access) has helped those converted separate themselves from the caste system, but, in turn, have made their communities somewhat of an island unto themselves.\n\nAs stated above, were they to move back to an urban area, they would be pretty easily 'found out.' I also saw, at least in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, that caste structure bled into other religions, i.e. lower caste sitting on the ground in the back during a Catholic mass. \n\nTL;DR Individually, there would be problems, but entire communities removing themselves from the caste system has had some success. ",
"Some people do that now, especially when immigrating to a new country. I'm Sikh, and we're forbidden from practicing the caste system. But most people are assholes, and want to do things they're told not to. So we have the Jatt (farmers, highest caste), Bhape (businessmen), Labane (also businessmen), etc. In Sikhism, all men are supposed to have the middle name Singh and all women Kaur. A lot of people immigrating to foreign lands (lots of people I know in the US) drop their last name while filling out paperwork or getting a visa, and adopt Singh as their last name. This gives them a fresh start in a new world, without them being judged by fellow Punjabis (people from Punjab, the state in India where Sikhism is the dominating religion) who also moved abroad. So if you see someone with the legal last name Singh, that's because they dropped their last name. No Punjabi has Singh as a last name. The sad part is when they move, and if asked about their caste, they say they're Jatt (rather than - its none of your bloody business). \n\nA lot of Hindus have started doing this too. Dropping their last name and adopting Kumar, or Singh (Hindu Rajputs carry this as a middle name too). \n\nLast name of a person can tell a lot about their caste and what part of India they're from. ",
"The same way you can't just walk up to an old money WASP millionaire and join their group. There are unconscious ways that different social groups \"signal\" that they belong. Including but not limited to:\n\n* the way you talk (cockney rhyming slang or stiff upper lip queen's English?)\n* the way you dress (more than just buying expensive brands, but having your garments properly dry cleaned, pressed, and lint rolled. Accessioning well and being able to match jackets, belts, and shoes to your outfit, and not just owning one or two of those things and having their function be mostly utilitarian. Having every garment you own fit perfectly because (a) the high end garments you buy are constructed with the assumption that you will be getting them altered, and (b) before you've even left the dressing room measurements have been taken by the stores in-house tailor, and the completed garments will be delivered to you a later in the week.)\n* the way you eat (do you hold your fork correctly? Do you know which wine to order with which dish? Have you had a decent amount of exposure to \"upscale foods\" and wont be grossed out or confused if oysters, caviar, or lox are served? Is the silent service code second nature to you, and your interactions with wait staff are seamless and invisible?)\n* the way you groom yourself (did you have braces and do you now get your teeth whitened semi annually, or have you never been to a dentist?)\n* how you talk about and handle money (do you talk about it? Do you fret over waste? are you concerned with \"value\"?)\n* your shared experiences (\"I didn't know what I wanted to study in university, so I took a year off to travel.\" vs. \"I took a year off before university to work and save money.\" vs. \"No one in my family has ever been to university.\" ) \n* Common interests (Golf and tennis vs. football and baseball vs. mudding and hunting)\n\n\nI think an easy to relate to example would be, why poor people seem so into name brands, showing off labels, and conspicuous consumption. To them they see the upper classes with money to buy expensive things, so to come across as rich, they need to buy expensive things, and then because those items represent such a large monetary investment, they need to show them off. \n\nCompared to the middle class, who see the difference between themselves and the upper class as manners, and go to great lengths to learn the proper etiquette for different situations, particularly dining (as a child I was told I needed to keep my elbows off the table and hold my fork a specific way because what if one day I was invited to have dinner with the queen?). The other difference is experiences, particularly travel. Middle class people will cash out their retirement and their kids college funds to go on trips, and see it as a worthwhile investment the same way lower class people see a branded LV bag or Gucci sneakers. \n\nUpper class people, I assume care about none of these things. Instead they care about service and exclusivity. If you want to impress your friends but money is no object to any of you, you try and track down things where money is not the only determinate of if you can have it: rare wines, haute couture (you have to be invited to be allowed to buy couture, it's not just about having enough money), limited production cars with 15 year waiting lists. Fairmont \"Gold\" floors, where you literally pay 3x the cost for the same room, just to be separated from the masses. \n\n",
"First of all, India has dialects all over the place. So a person living in area A speaking language A was a foreigner in area b where language b was spoken, so it did not take too long to find out the identity.\n\nSecond, even in America, Indian-Americans can find out the caste of someone just by the name or at most looks, and they assume that someone who looks from the Subcontinent and uses an Anglicized surname is probably someone who is trying to fake it.",
"This is just like if your from a very poor area and you go to a very rich area. One human may not be able to tell social status just by looking at your face but if your from a poor area and you go to a rich area then everything about you will scream your not from there. Your clothes, bearing, speech, and just general unfamiliarity with the area your in will give you away.",
"It was a time when there wasn't much formal education available in India to the masses, no universities, professional courses etc. So one was stuck knowing only one's family's trade, which would define one's caste. If you moved to a new place, it would be difficult to get accepted in the community of a caste without the members of the community being convinced of your family origins. And the higher the caste the more stringent would be their scrutiny. So only a con artist of the highest caliber would have any chance of faking his identity. \nBesides, the cultural and religious practices would also vary from caste to caste. So the imposter would also need to be well versed with customs and traditions of the particular caste. e.g. Folk tales from epics like Ramayan or Mahabharat would also be specific to castes. Kids from a particular caste would grow up on a few bedtime stories that kids of other castes wouldn't be familiar with.",
"there is a caste system everywhere (in each society without exception), and while there is a certain will to advance on the scale from low to high, it is usually very difficult or next to impossible. it is also very difficult to \"move\" geographically (lack of resources, lack of rights), and as today, people will find out about you. coming elsewhere, you own nothing. that makes you low caste: you are not a rich householder. and you may have had \"reasons\" to move ... who else would move and arrive at another place without resources?\n\nin the middle ages in europe, for instance, in some places at some time, research found that most criminal convictions happened to travellers and migrants. the people in the same place paid compensation or were to powerful to be iudged. a foreigner was the main person to receive a real punishment.\n\nin classical europe, people like eckermann (low birth, became secretary of goethe) were only an exception; and although he became very learned and erudite and a writer himself, when his helper goethe died, nobody wanted to deal with him, as he was of low birth. he could not succeed. so he wrote the bestseller \"conversations with goethe\" -- he could not succeed for himself's sake.\n\nlow caste people are usually caught in a feudal system, exploited by rich people -- iust as it is today, btw. it is also now difficult to flee. and then indians end up in big cities and must lend money and become dependent on the city mafia. then they may regret having fled the countryside ...\n\nthat is the conditio humana.\n\n",
"Things like skin color, level of education, and appearance of wealth or poverty were dead giveaways. Also, there's cultural indoctrination. The people truly believed in the caste system. Even many of the untouchables believed that they belonged where they were, because it was all they had ever been taught.",
" i wanted to bring a fresh perspective to the fundamentals.\n\nYou might have heard of the word: Tapasya , Adam Levine has it tattooed on his chest and this is what attracts humans to India. \n\nBasically, the purpose of vedic life was tapasya. The tapasya the Shudra class performed was distorted and unfortunately was forced onto them as their identity as the vedic system lost the very thing it was built on: A core purpose. \n\nIf shudras moved to a different cultural continent altogether they could escape from the caste system, but anywhere inside they would have to prove themselves differently in qualification about the varna they wanted to become. If they convinced even one bhramana, the whole society would open its arms. Many stories of such is in recorded history. eg Narada and hunter and other recent ones.\n\n\nIvy league student here; spent a good 5 years of my life studying vedic life.\n\nThe caste system was a social construct for one specific purpose which the people of ancient India( those who were able to make it work for that time being) made very clear to every member of society. \n\nThe Purpose: To reach the highest level of God realisation( Now Now god realization tolerated all kinds of conceptions of god; but concluded personal conception to be the highest subject) \n\nThe Means: Tapasya. From social work, manual labor, charity, studying boring chants, anything that could train your mind to higher consciousness( being a better human being came along the way)\n\nMethods of social constructs to support a entire civilizations conscious effort to produce enlightened ones:\n1) Take care of everybody's need for wealth. This system ONLY WORKED when every body in society was relatively rich and content. \n2) Confirm public opinion for such a civilization( There is ample proof that this was a big thing)\n3) Disseminate social responsibilities to people with aptitude such that most of the people can have lot of free time to either follow a path of higher consciousness or create his own after approval from authorities of public. \n\nThe 4 Varna( or Caste)-\nBhamana: The person who rejects everything grand life and dedicates himself to study of self(Brhaman) ... Social responsibility: Teach his realizations to others, protect the purpose of civilization; police peoples laziness in pursuing the purpose; Dethrone king when the policies are against the purpose; MOST IMP: Choose which student goes into which Varna (caste) etc\n\nKsatriya(ksat: danger, trayate- make relief from)The person who pursues enlightenment thought the way of the sword. The sword only exists to proceed the weak, the meek and the Purpose. They were mostly vegetarian, and only ate meat of game they kill while training themselves .........Social Responsibility: Be the entertainment, romance, idols, glamour, ideal, social leader, celebrity, Donald trump and Martin Luther King of the people( basically be the household topic and sway public interest); Protect the honor and freedom of women, children and society; Take all responsibility for places where diplomacy and voilence is required; MOST IMP: RUN STATE; be subordinate tto Bhramana so that They can guide them to fulfill their foremost responsibility: to protect the purpose.\n\nVaisya( professional) : The person with the freedom to engage in business and make economy prosper. He finds enlightenment though economic pursuit. ( It needed a lot of study to understand how one can reach enlightenment though economic pursuit but in a nutshell its called Karma- Yoga) .....social resp: Define family culture all over society. Progeny, Platform for art, culture, family values, Economic activity and employment( for Shudras), discover and create opportunities for women-kind to prosper,Womens affairs and Employment. MOST IMP: Be subordinate to Bharamana so that he can guise you for the purpose and be co-operative to KSatrya, while employing Shudras at high salaries even at the risk of loss.\n\nShudra (artist): The person who gains enlightenment though work( may it be art, engineering, medical science ,laboring or cobbling). His life revolves around using and manipulating matter and needs to seek enlightenment while doing so, .... Social resp: The class with the majority of the population they were guardians of public opinion and were required to be well educated in the path of gaining enlightenment thought excellent work. (Basically they were the modern equivalent of a photographer , or civil engineer, doctors, who becomes a monk); Be truthful to your art, or profession and never make it about profit( don't sell out); Be receptive to all schools of the Purpose;MOST IMP: Enjoy Life while not forgetting the purpose.\n\nAll in all, when everybody was on the same wavelength about the purpose this system probably worked great. But with no common purpose its probably like a English mill in 1800's with all the \"caste\" system.\n\n If shudras moved to a different cultural continent altogether they could escape from the caste system, but anywhere inside they would have to prove themselves differently in qualification about the varna they wanted to become. If they convinced even one bhramana, the whole society would open its arms. Many stories of such is in recorded history. ",
"Think about how much we are impressed by the protagonist in \"Catch Me If You Can\", and then imagine that he wasn't just trying to infiltrate a profession, but pretend that he was the CEO's long-lost cousin who was also deep in the exact same tiny subsect of Baptist fundamentalism. \n\nAnd then multiply that by ten or so.",
"Although I'm sure it was somehow possible... It would need to be a far more elaborate rouse than you are probably imagining.\n\nForget skin tone for a moment. Would you believe that a wealthy, educated, well mannered person, who should be married... Would just end up alone and penniless in a new community?\n\nWhy might that have happened? There is no explanation which reflects well on the individual... Therefore there is no reason to accept him.",
"Another way to look at it... Why can't you just walk away from the life you have and walk into the life you want. \n\nThink about yourself in that context. ",
"it's probably like the class system anywhere. You can pretend to be old money, but they know you're nouveau riche from the way you hold a golf club, or don't use the servants as furniture. Lot's of little habits and mannerisms.",
"Did you just assume my caste?",
"In the 17th and 18th centuries, Indian royalty would run your credit in _URL_0_ and could determine your wealth."
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2iybko | how did the "jews and money" thing start? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iybko/eli5_how_did_the_jews_and_money_thing_start/ | {
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"The Christian Church used to ban making money off of lending money, so banks were started by Jews. ",
"Christians weren't allowed to lend money. Because Jews and Christians made up the bulk of the European population at the time, Jewish people took up moneylending and banking.\n\nedit: Lend money for interest",
"Jewish people have been outcasts in European society for many centuries.\n\nAs such the number of occupations they could hold were very small.\n\nOne of the only occupations available to them were the equivalent of bankers - as it was always seen as demeaning to work with money in that fashion so no respectable person would do that work.\n\nAs such, Jewish people became known as bankers as it was one of the few jobs they could have, which inevitably lead over time to the idea that they control wealth and are wealthy.",
"During much of the middle ages the Church banned Christians from charging usury (fees) on lending money. Since they could not make money lending money very few did it. That means it fell on non-Christians, primarily Jews, to be banks. ",
"The ironic part is that the reason christians didn't charge interest or 'usury' was because the Old Testament - the Talmud, or Jewish part of the bible, specifically the Torah (first 5 books) - bans the practice. Only the New Testament is christian.",
"Also to note that it was illegal in Jewish law to commit usury against another Jew, but not against a non-Jew.",
"Can't say it started there, but of note: In Shakespeare's \"The Merchant of Venice,\" Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who demands a pound of flesh when his debtor can't pay. This coined the \"shylock\" slur, and helped popularize the idea of the greedy Jew.",
"Their respective religions prohibited Christians from charging interest from other Christians and Jews from other Jews. However, a Jew was allowed to charge interest from a Christian (or vice versa, but then there was never many Jews around).",
"A lot of this thread only gives the western Christian answer... But jews have been associated with money among muslims as well. They've been at it since at least Roman times. ",
"Ashkenazi Jews were renowned financiers and merchants; regarded highly for their boon to various Western European economies in the pre-crusade era. \n\nRe: \"William I brought over wealthy Jews from the Rouen community in Normandy to settle in London, apparently to carry out financial services for the crown.\"\n",
"In early modern Europe times the Jews were banned from certain professions so they had to enter business that did not a require guild membership. Banking did not require a guid membership so many entered. Also the Jewish holy law allows them to charge tax to non-jews giving the impression of being greedy.\n\nThis is what I remember from researching the subject a while back.",
"In medieval Europe (particularly Britain, IIRC), Catholicism was by far the most popular religion. In Catholicism at that time, a lot of jobs in finance such as bankers and tax collectors were regarded as sinful so Catholics tended to not get employed in these areas. This meant that a lot of Jews ended up going into finance and the reputation has sort of stuck around.",
"I think we may have to go back further than the Catholic Church and Medieval times. Cicero, Buddah, Plato, Moses, and others were against usury, or lending money with interest. In the Hebrew Bible, usury is accepted as long as it is not to another Jew. In many places, the Jews were the money lenders because in Christianity and Islam, usury was a sin. The Jews (not all) were expelled from England on at least one occasion because of usury. Because of usury, Jews could amass great fortunes. People became jealous. _URL_0_",
"Well it goes back to before 1000AD at any rate. There are definitely references in European history to people \"borrowing\" money from Jews and then expelling them so they never had to pay it back as early as then. That alone suggests they had money and that the rulers were jealous of that fact.\n\nBasically the Jews never had a homeland so they were scattered all across Europe and never really belonged anywhere, so they were often persecuted against because of it. They were probably richer than the average person so that's what the resentment coalesced around.",
"And that's not to say all Jews were bankers, it seems to me that the wealthy Jews were bankers. There were Jewish peasants and serfs just like any other religious group. I mean, look at the Cossack's victims, and the looting of the ghettos, those weren't all communities of bankers, they practiced other professions is well. It's not that all Jews were bankers in that time, it's more that many bankers were Jewish.\n\nedit:a word",
"I took Jewish History and according to my professor Jews were excluded from virtually every profession except the arts and financial sector.\n\nYou'll notice though how an innocent question turns out the loons in droves.",
"Everyone talking about how Christians were forbidden to practice Usury so Jews filled the gap in the market is completely correct- in fact, there came to be a position called' Court Jew' in many European's monarch retinues.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEventually, many of the Court Jews got tired of being subject to the capricious will of absolute Monarchs and set up their own banks, independent of the Courts- this is how the Rothschilds got started, for example. \n\nAs a side note, the Catholic Church held onto the 'Usury is Forbidden' for a lot longer than many other Christian denominations, which some historians think may have contributed to the rise of small, Protestant nations like England, the Netherlands and Prussia (also the secular Post-Revolution France) at the expense of the large, Catholic powers like Spain and Austria. ",
"Aside from the aforementioned banking jobs that the Jews pioneered, the Jews also weren't allowed into the trades so, as literate individuals, they would work the only job they could get, as lowly tax collectors. This is where much of there stereotype of 'greedy Jew' comes. If they didn't collect all of the taxes, then he would be punished or fired. ",
"Jews charged interest. Christians weren't allowed too. Much jealousy.",
"Real, authentic jew here. \n\nBecause collecting taxes was forbidden to Christians in the middle ages, Jews did it exclusively. ",
"Actually, \"Jews and money\", as you put it, is only a very recent phenomenon. It wasn't until the 1800 and the success of a small group of Jews (notably Rothschilds, the Astors, etc.) that Jews started to get known for finance and wealth but only a very small group had become moderately affluent. Before that time they were a poverty stricken minority (less than 1% of the population) in Europe and even less in America. During the 1700's many Jews attempted to raise to prominence among Gentiles in the New World because of religious tolerance but they still remained marginalized and isolated in their own communities. Even today, the vast majority of Jews (99%) are of moderate means having incomes which are slightly higher than the average, despite what conspiracy theorists would have you believe.\n\nHere is a good joke on the subject:\n\nA Jewish man was riding on the subway reading an Arab newspaper. A friend of his, who happened to be riding in the same subway car, noticed this strange phenomenon. Very upset, he approached the newspaper reader: \"Moshe, have you lost your mind? Why are you reading an Arab newspaper?\" Moshe replied: \"I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted, Israel being attacked, Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage, Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper. Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks, Jews control the media, Jews are all rich and powerful, Jews rule the world. The news is much better!\"",
"I took a course that approached the Bible as historical text and the professor said it started when the Romans put Jews in charge of money handling because it was considered a \"dirty\" job as currency carries disease. ",
"There's that, and Jews have had a long history of educating **all** of their men, (at least on religious facets, but to read the Torah, you had to be literate, and for a lot of it, understand rudimentary mathematics) which helped give many Jewish men a competitive edge over typical European middle-lower class, who weren't traditionally educated in language and mathematics. This led, alongside the bans on Jews in profesions and the Usury issue, to Jews dominating the European banking system for a long time.",
"I see a lot of errorous and far-fetched theories in the comment thread below, but I beg you to first consider that it is a social phenomena that you are talking about, and such a thing does not occur without external influences. The career-choices of Jews, which indeed have disproportionatly favoured occupations dealing with money, has long roots stemning from the marginalization of Jews in medieval Europe. Jews were marginalized and banned from certain professions, and consequently streamed to work dealing with money-lending, taxes, etc, which were considered \"inferior\" professions at the time. \n\nHere is a link to a Wikipedia article on the subject to get you started, but I hope you look up more legitimate literature if you want a thorough answer to your inquiry:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nRemember that you won't get much substantiated information on Reddit, as it is mostly just people saying what they think of the top of their heads. ",
"It was illegal for Jews to be able to have most jobs and to own land. Being a banker was one of the few jobs Jews were legally allowed to hold which meant that when people didn't feel like paying what they owed they immediately demonized Jews.",
"It doesn't look as though anyone has mentioned the Temple tithe and the fiscus Iudaicus. One of the rights granted to the Jews under Julius Caesar was the freedom to transport currency from one region to another: For various economic and ideological reasons, it was preferable to have folks use local currency only; but Jewish law required that the Jews be able to send money -- a tithe -- to the Temple in Jerusalem, so they were extended this privilege as part of the settlement they reached with Rome in the first century BCE. When the Jews revolted in the first century CE and the Temple was destroyed by the Romans, the Temple tithe was transformed into a retributive tax, payable to the temple of Capitoline Jupiter in Rome. This meant that Jews still needed the power to transport money.\n\nIt's been argued that this privilege enabled Jews to act as international money-lenders and money-changers, since the only other class able to transport large amounts of currency -- the nobility -- disdained finance. Of course, as with the claim that the Church forbid Christians from lending money to other Christians, it glosses over the fact that people regularly ignored or circumvented law and custom wherever profit was to be made. Could certainly have been a factor, though!\n\n",
"Back in the days Christian/Muslims did not allow charging money for loans (debt). It was considered a sin and greedy. Jews didn't care and charges people interests. \n\nPersonally I think Christians/Muslims had a great idea. I think charging people because they have no money is kinda morally wrong and is what really drives poverty. Some people exploit the shit out of it to build their fortunes. (most banks make money from said poor people).",
"In addition to the \"Christians can't usury\" tidbit, Jews in several kingdoms had their land confiscated (Spain did this most egregiously) so being a farmer in the country was rarely an option. Jews ended up in urban areas and the only real options for the ambitious was medicine or finance.\n\nIn some places, Jewish doctors were even banned from taking Christian clients; this in addition to the fact that cities often had segregated Jewish areas meant that many Christians only really interacted with Jews when they had to borrow money, leading to this perception.\n\nSource - the fragments I remember from my history class last spring.",
"Jews were barred from owning land in multiple countries at different times in history. Whatever niche is available to you is the one you fill.",
"Jews weren't allowed to have certain jobs because they were still deemed lower class and not full citizens. They still were judged for murdering Jesus. Since they couldn't hold many jobs, they went to banking, a job they were allowed to have. So farmers had to go to Jews to get loans so when they couldn't pay them back, the Jewish bankers would take their lands and charge interest. The farmers felt like they were doing all the work and that the bankers were just lazy-taking all the farmers' hard-earned money. So they now had a stigma for being greedy, lazy money grubbers. This caused even more stereotypes and racial hatred to ensue which would eventually lead to Hitler's reign. ",
"/r/AskHistorians would be another good place to ask, might want to do a search cuz I'm sure they've gotten this q before."
]
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6n8f0h | why bugs shrink their legs to the middle when they die? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6n8f0h/eli5_why_bugs_shrink_their_legs_to_the_middle/ | {
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"text": [
"Sorry for my English. Spiders' legs are moved by their Blood or something close to Blood. They are hydraulic. If u kill spider, hydraulic preasure goes down and then you See described effect. "
]
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[]
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||
ax424s | why does blue-light strain your eyes more than yellow-light at night? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ax424s/eli5_why_does_bluelight_strain_your_eyes_more/ | {
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"It does \"strain\" you in a way, but not your eyes. So the day/night cycle affects your \"circadian rhythm\" which is your bodies internal clock. Your body uses certain signs (light is one, when you're eating is another...) to determine the timing of your internal clock. It helps determine when you should feel sleepy/hungry/lots of other things and has lots of control over a very important aspect of our body. \n\nHormones. Little messengers in your body that make you feel tired/hungry/stressed and are released into your body at certain times directed by your circadian rhythm. Specifically in your question, melatonin. Melatonin makes you feel tired/sleepy. Blue light entering your eye at night doesnt \"strain\" you eye. It does suppress the release of serotonin, which normally happens sometime at night before you go to bed. \n\nBlue light can delay the timing of release of melatonin by a couple hours. It has been found it doesnt degrade or \"destroy\" melatonin. It just makes your body think it should release it later. So you then feel less tired at night since the hormone that should be making you tired isnt getting the signal to do its thing. "
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ec1k4h | how do amazon reviews work? | While browsing for Christmas gifts I’ve looked at a lot of Amazon reviews and became confused over many of the comments I saw. For example- if looking for a rug someone may post a question like “Does anyone know the dimensions of this rug?” to which someone may reply “I don’t know” or “I didn’t buy this one.” I don’t understand. Why take the time to write I don’t know or something else irrelevant? I’ve seen a lot of this on Amazon and just wanted to know if I’m missing something. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ec1k4h/eli5_how_do_amazon_reviews_work/ | {
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"Those aren't reviews.\n\nAmazon pester you to answer questions that you might be able to answer.\n\nPeople answer them so that they go away.\n\nAmazon should be filtering out the unhelpful answers themselves.\n\nIn nearly every instance the question is better answered by the seller not another customer.",
"If someone asked a question about an item, Amazon sends an email to people who bought it recently. Unfortunately the email makes it look like you're being asked personally, and people don't want to be rude so they give a polite reply.",
"Because regular people like me and you get an email from Amazon asking if you know the answer to the question. I imagine some are not as great as reasoning this out for whatever reason and so don't think too deeply, they simply answer what was asked in the email and the answer is they don't know. It also takes very little time to type \"I don't know\" and less submit so they don't view it as irrelevant or significant time/effort wasted."
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3rr2iq | how, while in heavy traffic, the left lane can be at a dead stop while the middle and right lanes are steadily moving. | I drive about 10 miles before I hit the traffic and I just learned to stay in the middle lane as I hit it knowing that the left just stalls so often and it baffles me.
Edit: On the freeway. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rr2iq/eli5_how_while_in_heavy_traffic_the_left_lane_can/ | {
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"Well for one when turning left you need to go cross oncoming traffic, middle is just free pass forward and turning right you possibly only need to watch for pedestrians. ",
"It's possible that upfront people are just switching lanes from the middle to the left. \nMy theory works on the assumption that as people we have in our head a paradigm when it comes to lanes: the one on the right is the slowest, the in the middle is faster and the one on the left is the the fastest.\n\nNow, imagine two parallel lines with the same number of cars, let's say ten. If the first three start moving ahead creating space while the forth one decides to switch lane from the middle to the left this makes eleven cars on the left versus nine on the middle.\n\n(this is applicable on countries driving on the right)",
"Because the left lane is the \"fast lane\" most people instinctively merge towards the left which congest that lane further. And because the right lane is also an exit lane that leave less traffic ultimately in the right lanes since more people will immediately shift to the left lanes once they enter the freeway leaving the right lanes clearer than the left.",
"people feel more comfortable passing/cutting towards the left lane, since they can judge distances better(assuming left-side driving)\n\nidk, im just guessing. Would be interesting to find out if that's true, and if the the same applies for right-side driving",
"It just boils down to poor driving in the US. The far left lane is for passing only, but people drive in it all the time. This is bad enough, but people do the same thing with the middle lane. If you pay attention on light traffic days you will notice that most people drive in the center lane, for no reason, even when the far right lane is clear. These middle lane drivers are the real problem, as they don't yield to faster traffic. Since the middle lane drivers are basically rolling road blocks, most people end up having to move to the left lane to get around them, which screws up the left lane as well. \n\nThe far right lane is often the fastest lane here in WA even though it is illegal to block the left lane. I pretty routinely cruise in the far right lane and give the center lane road hogs a one finger salute as I go by. \n\nEverything would work better if people would just gtfo of the way of faster traffic as they are supposed to. I've never had a speeding ticket and almost never go in the left lane. Its not hard to understand.",
"Here on the german autobahn, traffic jams are often caused when the left lane goes away and people are supposed to merge with the zipper method. unfortunately people are too stupid to do it properly, and some of the people in the left lane merge too soon. this causes the people in the middle lane to go \"i already let someone in, i'm not going to do it again\" so the people that drive to the end of the left lane, like you're supposed to, get stuck until someone lets them in.",
"It probably isn't moving any slower, you probably just notice it when you are stuck in that lane. When you are stuck, you are irritated by the feeling, and seeing even moderate motion in another lane further fuels that feeling. However, when you start moving again, you quickly forget about relative progress and resume thinking about your favorite boy band/video game/snack food, and life returns to the steady drip of serotonin to which all Americans are entitled.\n\n[Here is a Life hacker article](_URL_1_) discussing the phenomenon called [\"illusory correlation\"](_URL_0_)\n\n",
"The right lane makes my commute so much easier/faster. I drive on Chicago tollways and find that when I get onto the tollway there is a race to get across all lanes to the left. These cars are compressed and only 1-2 car lengths apart going 80. This leaves mostly trucks/slower people/me spaced 1-2 truck lengths apart in the right/center lanes. So for my first 3 miles the left lane is zooming along, but... there is another interchange and traffic slows to 30mph. The left lane with no safe space between cars compresses and stops much faster than the center/right lanes. I'll zip right past everyone who passed me 3 miles ago. And the best part is, I stay in the right lane, let people from the interchange zipper merge and then watch them all race to the left lane again, repeating the process. \n\ntl:dr Spacing and the race to the left lane means more cars/less space to slow. Right late more space gradual slowing"
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"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_correlation",
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1gfsok | cthulhu and the lovecraft appeal | We all know who Cthulhu is but Lovecraft's style of narrative doesn't appeal to me. I would love to have someone ELI5 what the deal with Cthulhu is, what his mythos is basically about, and what the appeal is. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gfsok/eli5_cthulhu_and_the_lovecraft_appeal/ | {
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"I made a youtube video about this: _URL_0_"
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6hy6t7 | why is it that we can consume substantially more liquid by weight than we can food? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hy6t7/eli5_why_is_it_that_we_can_consume_substantially/ | {
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"My understanding is that liquids leave the stomach within minutes, while solids take a few hours to break down enough to move into the intestines. The solids sit there significantly longer and make you feel full while the liquids can move around/through quicker.",
"Liquid is absorbed faster. Water fastest of all as it needs 0 digestion. Solid foods start chemical reactions and your body notices it and has to work before it can be advanced to the intestines."
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49yx74 | why does wearing black make people seem slimmer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49yx74/eli5_why_does_wearing_black_make_people_seem/ | {
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"Because black absorbs most light, rather than reflecting it like lighter colours, we can't see much detail in dark clothing.\n\nWhen we see someone wearing a light coloured item of clothing, more light reflects: specifically, it reflects differently depending on the shape of the person - lots of shadows, different light levels etc.\n\nWhat does this mean? Well, it means we see all their lumps and bumps and bits that stick out, because we can see the shadows created by those lumps and bumps more clearly.\n\nWith dark clothing, we can't see those imperfections as easily or clearly, so our brain assumes they're smaller/not there.\n\nThe same applies to some extent with the sides of the clothing - because the clothing is darker, there's no clear \"shadow\" as the body curves away. That means our body assumes the dark areas to the sides are all shadows at the side of the curve (rather than front of your body) and we \"see\" the person as \"narrower\" (or slimmer)",
"Essentially, bad border detection. Darker clothing makes it more difficult to see someones outlines. It tricks your eyes into thinking someone is slimmer than they are.",
"I was stuck in the middle of that sentence for a good 10 seconds trying to figure out how you wear black people before I stepped back and took a second look."
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2ow7q9 | can a person or group of people citizen arrest a police officer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ow7q9/eli5_can_a_person_or_group_of_people_citizen/ | {
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"Usually, no. Their fellow officers will stop you from doing that.",
"It is *technically* possible, if you witness that officer committing a crime in your presence. However, know that it is very dangerous legally. Even if you assume that other police officers don't try and stop you from making the arrest...\n\n* If you arrest someone wrongly, regardless of whether or not they are a law enforcement officer, you can be charged with wrongful imprisonment.\n* If you physically harm the officer in any way, you can be charged with assaulting a member of law enforcement.\n* If you identify yourself as a law enforcement member, and you are not, you can be charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer.\n\nYou are also not entitled to the protections that law enforcement members are. For example, a police officer (or anyone) can resist your arrest, and you can't press charges for resisting arrest, because you're not a cop. Add to that the fact that you would have basically no other choice but to turn over the police officer to other police officers for a true booking, or release him. You don't get to just keep him forever—the point of a citizen's arrest is to allow the public to stop a crime in progress before the police arrive, and give a minimal degree of protection to those who do so while still protecting the police's monopoly on the responsibility to arrest and charge suspected criminals.\n\nNote that I am not a lawyer and none of the above is legal advice.",
"If you say, caught a cop shoplifting in your store, you could arrest them (assuming it would be legal to do so with an ordinary person).\n\nPractically speaking, it is a really bad idea, especially if you resort to using force. If you are not completely in the right *and* can prove it, your actions would likely result in criminal charges.",
"In the US, depends on what state you are in. Although \"citizen's arrest\" is a pretty old point of common law, most states have codified it, and they have done so differently. It is NOT necessarily only for felonies; a lot of states pretty specifically have laws so stores can legally detain shoplifters (usually a misdemeanor).\n\nNone of the ones I have seen have specifically exempted law enforcement officers, and you can conjure up scenarios in which this makes some sense: maybe a cop goes berserk and starts shooting up a convenience store or something and people tackle and hold him until more sane law enforcement can arrive.\n\nBut generally, a citizen's arrest is a temporary arrangement intended only to secure a criminal until he or she can be turned over to sworn authorities. So, yeah, it would be hard to stick on a cop without some pretty hard evidence.\n\nThe whole thing doesn't work like most people think it works anyway and you can be liable if you do it wrong, so it's not something to try on a whim.",
"Citizens arrest is risky, plain stupidity to try it on a cop in any situation.",
"No. That's how you get murdered by police or declared a domestic terrorist cell.",
"What if you had a video of a cop murdering a guy by choking him to death? ",
"Absolutely. My mother used to be a store detective, and she arrested cops all the time. All. The. Time. I lost count of how often she'd come home and tell us she'd caught a copper shoplifting.\n\nBeing a store detective, she had no more power of arrest than any other citizen, i.e she effected citizens arrests on them. Contrary to what you might think, no, they did not get away with it, no, other cops did not try and cover it up, no, they didn't use \"I'm a cop\" to get out of it, yes, they were prosecuted and sentenced as anybody else would be. And no, it didn't sour her relationship with the police in general. Naughty girl, she wasn't above using the \"sorry, I'm a store detective and I was just on my way to the station in connection with a case\" line to get out of speeding tickets.\n\nApparently, cops quite commonly turn into petty thieves, simply by attending burglaries and helping themselves to small items, on the basis that the theft will be blamed on the burglar, and the victim's insurance will cover it. From there, they get used to just helping themselves to stuff elsewhere. They never counted on my mum the friggin' bloodhound though.\n\nedit: should mention, this was in the UK."
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71g85i | how warm ice caves in antarctica do not melt. | Recently it was found that there are caves in Antarctica which can reach temperatures of up to 26°C(77°F). If the melting temperature of ice is 0°C(32°F) how do these caves not melt? I know that pressure and density can have an effect on the melting points of substances but I do not think this accounts for 26°C not melting ice.
[Source](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71g85i/eli5how_warm_ice_caves_in_antarctica_do_not_melt/ | {
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"The middle of the cave has 26° and towards the walls the air temperature gradually decreases to 0°.",
"The fact that the cave exists shows that ice is removed, either flowing away as liquid water or vapour. \n\nImagine the heat source being very close to the mass of ice. A short distance means that there isn't much isolation between the heat and the ice (air is a great isolation), so more ice will melt and the cave grows. This increases the distance between heat and ice, which makes for a better isolation. So there is what is called a negative feedback that reduces the cave growth when the cave gets bigger. At some point this feedback would lead to an equilibrium state at which the cave has a constant size. But only if it is a closed system being shielded from external forces. \n\nOf course there are a lot of factors influencing the interaction between melting and cave size, making it an open system. I imagine that it's important how much the air moves (conductive vs. convective heat exchange), what temperature the air that flows in has, if the ice moves (it can flow under pressure from ice mass above), how much ice reforms at other spots in the cave, etc. "
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dje2wt | why does keeping food sealed away from air help keep it fresh? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dje2wt/eli5_why_does_keeping_food_sealed_away_from_air/ | {
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"Lots of foods either dry out as their moisture escapes into the surrounding air, or absorb moisture from the surrounding air. Either of those will change the texture and potentially the taste of the food. Keeping the air out also prevents any drifting bacteria or fungal/mold spores from colonizing whatever you're storing. It'll still go bad eventually but controlling the environment where it's stored helps a lot.",
"Aside from the loss of moisture as a food sits out, there is also exposure to oxygen to consider. Oxygen, while vital for human life, is actually pretty bad for a lot of things. Foods like fruits, vegetables, meats and other proteins start to bind with oxygen (oxidize) the longer they're in contact with it, which chemically alters the composition of the food, usually into something much less palatable, so minimizing exposure to oxygen is critical. While they're being grown, antioxidants naturally present in the foods take care of oxygen exposure, but once the food is harvested, that process usually stops, allowing oxygen to begin the process of making the food go bad"
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9flzbk | why do electronics need to turn themselves off and back on to update? | Just got an update on my PS4 and it turned itself off and back on. I've always just taken as read that that step needs to occur but I don't really know why.
& #x200B;
Edit: A lot of similar answers basically saying it doesn't have to turn off and on but it's easier and cheaper if it does. This was my guess.
Edit 2: Everyone who used the "you can't fix a car while driving it" metaphor, I hope you're happy. You ruined Mad Max: Fury Road for me. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9flzbk/eli5_why_do_electronics_need_to_turn_themselves/ | {
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"Software development issue. Writing a huge software that can do in-place updates is:\n\n1. 100x more difficult.\n2. A lot more costly due to increased difficulty.\n3. Largely unnecessary because turning it off and on is pretty easy.\n\nIt can be done, but unless it's absolutely necessary like in a nuclear plant, it's not needed.\n\nEven in nuclear plants, putting two copies of software so one can update while the other is running is much easier and error-proof.",
"I'm not a gamer, but in the \"big systems\" (IBM) world I work in, there are two types of storage... working storage/memory; and permanent storage/memory. Updates are written to permanent memory, but the copy in working memory has to be refreshed. You don't have to power cycle the unit after an upgrade, but then the new features won't be available. ",
"It's not the electronics as such. It's the software (programs) inside them. When you turn on the PS4, it loads various programs into its memory, in order to turn a bunch of chips into a working gaming system. By far the simplest way to update those programs is for the machine to download the new version, store it in place of the old version, and so next time the machine starts up it will load the new version rather than the old one. \n\n & #x200B;",
"Really, core operating system components, like drivers and kernels specifically are really hard to update without a reboot. Many systems, especially all in one type things (like a PS4) are configured to just always reboot after an update in case such a thing was updated. It makes it so the developer doesn't need to figure out what exactly needs to be restarted, and if it can be restarted. It also minimized testing because they can test the final configuration, after power off, and don't need to verify it works without a reboot.\n\nAs for why core drivers are difficult to update, basically a driver needs to keep track of the state of it's associated hardware and respond to it in a timely manner. For example a keyboard has a caps lock, when caps lock is on you expect the letters to work different than when it's off. The keyboard might not actually have a feature to tell the computer if it's on or off, just if you pressed it or not. It's up to the driver to figure it out. Now reloading a running program is possible, but you need to know where in the code it is so you can stop it and start the new program in the same spot. Ideally the memory locations will be the same between old and new, and you can just transfer the memory. In real life, people program in high level languages which auto-allocate that stuff, so everything is practically scrambled. Also, the update might have deleted the spot the old code was at so you might not be able to transfer the running code. And further there is a chance that if it's a driver it never supported the new feature (for example number lock), so adding the number lock will result in an unknown state. Things get even more complicated when you talk about other things using the driver (think about a network card adding a feature while some other program is using it, how does the old program learn about the new feature?).\n\nMy example was simple, real drivers are implementing things that take hundreds of pages to describe. The only sure way to do it is write a program that converts between old and new memory, with is about 1000 times more work than it's worth. It's way easier to just say reboot which will pull the reset line on all hardware and set everything to a known state.",
"In an update you are installing new files in place of old files that are potentially intended to be used in the process(What makes the computer actually do things) that is continuously running. If these files are open and in use, whether through references or as the actual code running, then you cannot replace those files without stopping the process as you cannot read and write at the same time (this ensures data integrity). \n\nThus the reboot is needed to switch from running the old files in the process to running the new files in the process. ",
"For the same reason you can't replace critical parts in a car while it's running.\n\nYou can't remove the gearbox *while you're using it* and replace it with another gearbox, and expect the car to keep running in the meantime.\n\nRemoving some critical files in the Operating System *while it's running* in order to replace them will cause the Operating System to stop working. Because it needs those files to run.",
"you can't change horses in the middle of the stream. \n\nwell, maybe you can, but at best it's tricky and it might be catastrophic. of course a lot depends on the horses and the state of the stream you're crossing. \n\nso the safe thing to do is head back to shore and change horses there"
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zov1e | our knowledge about atoms | How come we know so much about atoms? For example we know their mass, how they are build up, how many electrons each atom has and the mass of the electrons themselves, etc. How did we get all this knowledge without even being able to see things that small with a microscope? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zov1e/eli5_our_knowledge_about_atoms/ | {
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"Tons of complex experiments. It started of with Rutherfords gold-foil experiment that revealed that atoms are largely empty space, by shooting helium nuclei to a gold foil and measuring how they bounce of. Then Bohr was able to show how it comes that each element has specific spectral lines when heated up enough. The explanation was that you had a couple of electron shells. This was later refined by further observation, showing it was all a little bit more complex.\n\nDe Broglie showed with experiments that matter is at the same time wave and particle, then Schrödinger did something called the Schrödinger equation which then lead to the orbital theory.\n\nA device called mass spectrometer was build and with that you are able to measure the mass of nuclei by basically measuring inertia. Interestingly enough, it was found that the mass of nuclei is a whole number multiple of the hydrogen nuclei. Rutherford therefore said it was possible that nuclei are made up out of smaller particles, called neutrons and protons.\n\nLise Meitner and Otto Hahn later discovered nuclear fission which confirmed Rutherfords idea. Even later, with better equipment and higher energies, it was discovered that protons and neutrons are made up out of smaller things called quarks."
]
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[]
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6ewy8s | what actually makes teeth decay? | in a way I understand but at the same time I don't, is it similar to how waves grind down rocks slowly overtime? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ewy8s/eli5_what_actually_makes_teeth_decay/ | {
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"Bacteria in a film known as plaque, which you can reduce by brushing, secrete acids when you eat sugary foods.\n\nThis weakens the structure of your teeth. You can contribute to wearing it down through actions like aggressive brushing (use a soft toothbrush, and brush lightly), especially if you do so immediately after eating when the acids are strongest and your teeth are weakest. \n\nBest case, brush twice a day before eating (ideally an hour after eating/drinking sugary items, to let the acids from that disperse). \n",
"things that are bad for your teeth:\n\n* acid: acid eats away at the outside of your teeth. it can be produced by bacteria eating sugars in your mouth, or by eating acidic things\n* sugar: more sugar means more bacteria can live in your mouth and make more acid\n* abrasion: rubbing things on your teeth can erode the enamel\n* dryness: your saliva (usually) controls the acidity of your mouth, but can't do this if there's no saliva on your teeth\n\nthings that are good for your teeth:\n\n* [remineralization](_URL_0_): replacing/adding to the enamel of your teeth using minerals in your food, or fluoride if you drink fluoridated water or get some from toothpaste or the dentist\n* saliva: saliva is antibacterial, cleans your teeth, and helps with remineralization\n\ntooth decay happens when the things that are bad for your teeth are happening more/faster than the things that are good for your teeth."
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cb2sdk | why so many youtube commenters have this as their profile picture | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cb2sdk/eli5_why_so_many_youtube_commenters_have_this_as/ | {
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"\"Oh yeah yeah. Oh yeah yeah. Oh yeah yeah. Oh yeah yeah yea yea. I'm in the litty comitte. You're in the titty comitte. Oh yeah yeah. \"\n \nIt's the profile pic of a youtuber who made an song named Oh yeah yeah."
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a9l61l | if there is a buyer for every seller, why do the price of stocks go down as people sell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9l61l/eli5_if_there_is_a_buyer_for_every_seller_why_do/ | {
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"Because the person selling is willing to take a lower price to get out, and the buyer is hoping that the bottom is close.\n\nKeep in mind - there is not always a buyer. Some stocks drop so fast because the price being asked is dropping but nobody is actually buying.",
"You are asking about how supply and demand works. This applies not only to stocks, but anything that is sold. THis is how prices in general are determined. \n\n\nIf a bunch of things are on sale for once and there are more things for sale than people will to buy them, then the price will drop until it reaches a point at which there will be enough people will to buy them at that price to sell them out. \n\n\nThe opposite is also true. If more people want to buy something than is available to buy, than the price will rise until only the number of people that match the number for sale are still willing to buy them. \n\n\nThis is a bit of a simplification, of course. What makes stocks different than, say, pencils, is that there is a fixed number of stocks in existance that most of the time don't increase or decrease. If the price of pencils goes way up, people start make more and if it goes way down, people start making less. This keeps prices much more stable than with stocks.",
"You're on the playground and just bought 10 cookies for a steal at 1$ a piece! \n\nYou watch a kid that presumably has the same cookies as you sell his for 1.50$ but you see the buyers all vomit the cookies.\n\nDo you sell your cookies before everyone finds out they're bad? Yes. \n\nHow do you sell cookies fast? Lower the price.\n\nYou lower the price just low enough to sell before the playground opinion reaches your cookies.\n\nEven though there's no garuntee your cookies are the same poisoned batch you gtfo while you can. ",
"In a sufficiently large market, there will be a buyer for every seller, but not at every price point. In fact, the price is where a buyer and seller are agreeing. Here is an example.\n\nI want to sell my stock. I am willing to sell it for as little as $1, but first I want to see if I can get more. Right now there are buyers willing to buy it for $1.20, so I sell it at $1.20.\n\nNow instead, I wait 2 days, and something changed where nobody is willing to buy the stock for $1.20 anymore. I check to see if anyone will pay $1.10, but again no sellers. I ask if anyone will buy for $1.00, and now I find someone to take that deal. So the price of the stock fell from $1.20 to $1.00 over 2 days."
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3alptu | why can't humans crossbreed with other primates in the same way that (for example) lions and tigers can? | Is it just that it hasn't been thoroughly tested? It seems to me that we must be related to some other species of ape at least as closely as some other crossbreeding species are, such as lions and tigers, or chimps and bonobos.
If attempted enough times, is it conceivable that a human could produce offspring with a nonhuman primate? Or is it really a biological impossibility? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3alptu/eli5_why_cant_humans_crossbreed_with_other/ | {
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"Lions and tigers are both in the same genus, *Panthera*, while humand and chimps are in different genuses. While these are simply labels we have used to organize these species, lions & tigers are more closely related to each other than humans & chimps.\n\nHumans & chimpanzees do not have the same number of chromosomes which makes hybrids much less likely (although mismatched chromosome count can still lead to hybrids in some animals).\n\nThere has been *significant* genetic drift since our lat common ancestor with chimps. It is speculate that, after our species diverged from chimpanzees, fertile hybrids were still possible for a million years(the X chromosome seems to have diverged 1.2 millions years *more recently* than other chromosomes). Hybridization with Neanderthals and Denisovians was possible as well, even though they would have been different enough to present as different species. \n\nOn a cellular level, human sperm has been shown to be able to penetrate the egg of a gibbon(an ape), but not lower primates. Presumably a human sperm could also penetrate a chimpanzee egg, since we're even closer than a gibbon.\n\nSomeone actually *did* try to make human x chimpanzee hybrids and failed. _URL_0_ That was over 70 years ago and modern in vitro fertilization techniques could lead to different results, but nobody has, to public knowledge, attempted such a thing. It would be illegal in most places to attempt to create such a hybrid, very expensive, and regarded as highly unethical by almost everyone.\n\n"
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7ggw93 | how do wild animals know not to eat poisonous fruits and plants while in the forest? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ggw93/eli5_how_do_wild_animals_know_not_to_eat/ | {
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"There was an experiment done with monkeys a while back. \n\nThey put a bunch of monkeys in a room. In the middle, was a ladder with a banana (prize) on top. But anytime a monkey grabbed for the banana, all the monkeys would get sprayed with a hose. So after a while, anytime a monkey would go for the banana, the others would attack it - they didn't want the hose.\n\nSo the researchers started replacing monkeys. Anytime a new monkey (who had never seen the hose) went for the banana, he'd get attacked. Pretty soon all of the original monkeys had been replaced by monkeys who had never experienced the hose... but still, any banana minded monkey would get attacked, until they too learned \"don't go for the banana\". \n\nSo there's probably some cultural learning thing going on here. _Don't eat those berries over there_ Why not? _Dunno. Just don't eat those berries over there._ And/or the ones who DO eat the poison berries, die in horrible screaming agony, and so through the wonder of evolution, we are left with monkeys who have no interest in eating those berries over there."
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3v0p83 | why can't felons own guns if the right to bare arms cannot be infringed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v0p83/eli5_why_cant_felons_own_guns_if_the_right_to/ | {
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"None of the rights put forward in the constitution are absolute. All are conditional. You have a right to free speech, but the state is allowed to arrest you for speech that incites violence and court cases have repeatedly supported this exemption to free speech. You have a right to bear arms, but the state is allowed to restrict your right to arms based on criminal history and court cases have repeatedly supported this exemption.",
"Restrictions on felons owning guns have been challenged and upheld as constitutional. Often. Like, really, really often:\n\n > United States v. Torres-Rosario, 658 F.3d 110 (1st Cir. 2011), cert denied 2012 U.S. LEXIS 2204 (Mar. 19, 2012); United States v. Scroggins, 599 F.3d 433 (5th Cir. 2010), cert denied 131 S. Ct. 158 (2010); United States v. Moore, 326 Fed. Appx. 794 (5th Cir. 2009), cert denied 2009 U.S. LEXIS 6669 (2009); Triplett v. Roy, 326 Fed. Appx. 720 (5th Cir. 2009), cert denied 2009 U.S. LEXIS 6345 (Oct. 5, 2009); United States v. Anderson, 559 F.3d 348 (5th Cir. 2009), cert denied 129 S. Ct. 2814 (2009); United States v. Whisnant, 391 Fed. Appx. 426 (6th Cir. 2010), cert denied 131 S. Ct. 586 (2010); United States v. Khami, 362 Fed. Appx. 501 (6th Cir. 2010), cert denied 130 S. Ct. 3345 (2010); United States v. Hamer, 319 Fed. Appx. 366 (6th Cir. 2009), cert denied 2009 U.S. LEXIS 6742 (Oct. 5, 2009); United States v. Frazier, 314 Fed. Appx. 801 (6th Cir. 2008), cert denied 129 S. Ct. 1652 (2009); United States v. Williams, 616 F.3d 685 (7th Cir. 2010), cert denied 178 L. Ed. 2d 532 (2010); United States v. Brown, 436 Fed. Appx. 725 (8th Cir. 2011), cert denied 182 L. Ed. 2d 263 (2012); United States v. Duckett, 406 Fed. Appx. 185 (9th Cir. 2010), cert denied 2011 U.S. LEXIS 4849 (June 27, 2011); United States v. Schwindt, 378 Fed. Appx. 721 (9th Cir. 2010), cert denied 2010 U.S. LEXIS 7256 (Oct. 4, 2010); United States v. Parker, 371 Fed. Appx. 749 (9th Cir. 2010), cert denied 2010 U.S. LEXIS 8319 (Oct. 18, 2010); United States v. Vongxay, 594 F.3d 1111 (9th Cir. 2010), cert denied 2010 U.S. LEXIS 7235 (Oct. 4, 2010); United States v. Gieswein, 346 Fed. Appx. 293 (10th Cir. 2009), cert denied 2010 U.S. LEXIS 1462 (Feb. 22, 2010); United States v. McCane, 573 F.3d 1037 (10th Cir. 2009), cert denied 2010 U.S. LEXIS 2009 (Mar. 1, 2010); United States v. Nicoll, 400 Fed. Appx. 468 (11th Cir. 2010), cert denied 179 L. Ed. 2d 354 (2011); United States v. Feaster, 394 Fed. Appx. 561 (11th Cir. 2010), cert denied 178 L. Ed. 2d 796 (2011) (the court also rejected a Second Amendment challenge to a sentence enhancement for possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime); United States v. Rozier, 598 F.3d 768 (11th Cir. 2010), cert denied 177 L. Ed. 2d 313 (2010); State v. Whitaker, 201 N.C. App. 190 (N.C. Ct. App. 2009), cert denied 130 S. Ct. 3428 (2010).\n\n[Source.](_URL_0_)\n\n\n",
"Once you have been convicted of a crime, your rights can be restricted. Prisoners, for example, have very limited rights.\n\nFelons are an extension of this."
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1dqcbo | hezbollah. | What is their goal? What do they do? What are some significant things they've done, good or bad? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dqcbo/eli5_hezbollah/ | {
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"I am assuming you ask now because of the recent attack in Syria. Hezbollah's history is rooted in WWII after the Jews came to Israel and formed their own homeland. To the rest of the Arab world, Israel threw out the previous inhabitants and made way for themselves. Although more and more countries have recognized Israel as a state, there are still resistance groups fighting on the side of the Palestinians. A major group, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had been firing missiles from Lebanon into Israel. In 1982 Israel decided to strike back and invade Lebanon. This was a big mess, but although the PLO threat was eliminated, a new, more destructive group was created: Hezbollah. \n\nThis is important in Syria because Syria has a lot of destructive weapons. Syria is now trying to decide what to do with these weapons before the government collapses. Syria is most likely giving its weapons to Iran and Hezbollah. For this reason, Israel is destroying these weapons before they're fired against them.\n\nEdit: looking back I should have mentioned the 1983 bombing in Lebanon. Basically the second Multination Force (US and other western countries), was stationed in the Beirut Airport. They were there to help Lebanon form a central government. Lebanon was in Civil War at the time, so the MNF had to choose a faction to side with. They chose the Maronite Christians. This meant that the MNF was now enemy to the Shi'ite faction. A Hezbollah-related, Shi'ite suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with TNT straight into the barracks and killed a lot of people. At first the US tired to do the standard \"we will not submit to terrorists routine,\" but eventually they pulled out. This gave Hezbollah a lot of credit."
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cxewv0 | why/how does does the us senate majority leader have more power than any other us senator? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cxewv0/eli5_whyhow_does_does_the_us_senate_majority/ | {
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"The Majority Leader is not a position defined in the Constitution, it's just a rule of the Senate.\n\nThe Senate gets to make its own rules for how debates and votes are structured. One of those rules is that the person in charge gets to decide what bills are actually worth debate. The person in charge is chosen by a simple majority vote of the members of the Senate.\n\nGiven that we live in a de facto two party system, the majority party will get to choose who is in charge. If the majority party has enough votes to reject a bill, there's no point in wasting time on bills they don't want to vote on.\n\nKeep in mind that *at any time*, the Majority Leader could be replaced if his party decides that he's doing a bad job (or enough people break from his party to create a new majority).",
"The Senate majority leader doesn't officially have special powers. The position doesn't even exist in the Constitution. But they have powers because all the other Senators agree that they have powers. \n\nIt's sort of like if there are a bunch of people in a prison. Technically, everyone is equal. But if all the prisoners agree that one person is their leader, they get special powers.\n\n_URL_0_"
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45wy1x | how do radio stations make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45wy1x/eli5_how_do_radio_stations_make_money/ | {
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"For the most part by playing advertisements - the more listeners the radio station has the more they can charge out their air time to advertisers. \n ",
"They sell advertising time just like TV stations do. Unless the station is run by an organisation like the BBC, in which case they don't make money - they take license fee's and spend it making programs. They might also get their money by raising cash like a charity would, or by getting government grants for providing a public service.",
"All those annoying commercial that they play for 10-15 min. every hour? Those cost the advertisers money. All the concerts they promote and products they give away in contests, the promoters and marketers behind those pay to be mentioned on-air."
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1grhcf | why can't you re-freeze defrosted chicken? | Fresh chicken is fine if left out for several hours right? They usually have it sitting in the window at Deli's for hours, and then you put it in your fridge for up to a few days.
But if you freeze it, then when it defrosts, you can't refreeze it? Why can't you defrost it to fridge temperature, then refreeze it again, at least a few times (assuming the total period of time at or near fridge temperature isn't greater than the amount of time normally acceptable when unfrozen? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1grhcf/eli5_why_cant_you_refreeze_defrosted_chicken/ | {
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"[God I love Minute Earth](_URL_1_)\n\n[And more about freezerburn] (_URL_0_)\n\n",
"I've never been able to find a source that explains this clearly. The issue is not thawing in the refrigerator and refreezing, although that will somewhat degrade the quality. The problem is thawing at room temperature, which allows bacteria to grow at very high rates. \n\nRe-freezing does not kill the bacteria, it just stops the growth. Cooking to the proper temperature does kill the bacteria, but the higher the bacteria count the more likely is it some will survive, and in many cases the proper temperature is not reached. Cooking to 167f and holding for 10 minutes should kill all the bacteria. But that's a pretty high internal temperature and most people won't cook chicken that well. \n\nAs for 'fresh' chicken at delis: that 'should' be kept hot if cooked and cold if uncooked. Cooked chicken is pretty safe because most of the salmonella should have be killed, so there's nothing left to grow. ",
"heres how it was explained to me. you have some meat with lets just say 10% bacteria. this is healthy according to hypothetical standards. now you freeze it. that bacteria is frozen at 10%. now you defrost it. once its defrosted and reaches room or fridge temp, then the bacteria content begins to go up again. so lets just say were at 25%. hypothetical standards say that this is borderline healthy. at this point, all the meat should be used within a certain amount of time. but if you refreeze it, it stops at 25%. defrost again. now it reaches 40%. hypothetical standards say that this is no longer healthy and should be discarded. each time you freeze and defrost you are allowing new bacteria to grow then stopping it. it never goes down. so it continually grows more bacteria and very quickly becomes unhealthy.\n\nnote: all of the numbers and standards of health are hypothetical and NOT REAL. please do some research to find out more about this.",
"I use to buy warehouse-sized packs of bone-in-breast chicken because it was cheaper. \"Fresh\"? Nah, full of ice, but it's easier to cut out all the bone/fat/yuck stuff out when the meat isn't floppy and rubbery. I'd remove all the stuff I didn't want and wrap each breast separately for the freezer. Come time to thaw one of the cleaned breasts, the texture of the meat was always... not right. No matter how I cooked it, it would be kinda mushy and unpleasant. I decided (eventually) that the savings weren't worth the results.\n\nTL;DR - In my experience, refreezing chicken does something weird to the meat's texture.",
"A similar question was asked about a year ago:\n[ELI5 why you can only defrost food once.](_URL_0_)\n\nIf you don't get enough from this thread, you might want to check the other."
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42gqbl | why is the american presidential race always filled with such stupid candidates? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42gqbl/eli5_why_is_the_american_presidential_race_always/ | {
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"Because there are enough dumb ignorant Americans to vote them into office\n\nSource: American",
"People with reasonable views are so jaded by American politics that they don't vote or pay attention to current events. Angry idiots who listen to conservative talk radio do vote.",
"Well, this is a loaded question. \n\n1. Religion and puritanism are a central aspect of the Republican Party. They pride themselves on faith, which, by nature, is the anti-logic. They use faith and puritanism to further many of their agendas. Climate change is denied because the Republican Party has very close ties with big oil & other companies who don't want to see the increased regulation that comes with combating climate change as this would hurt their profits. The Republican Party justifies this by saying God wouldn't allow the world to be affected on such a vast scale by mere mortals & also that they want smaller government. \n\n2. The American electorate, in general, are not free thinkers & they're terrifyingly uninformed. They only get their news from mainstream sources which have essentially become propaganda tools for *Manufacturing Consent* (fantastic book). If you haven't ever watched Fox News, you need to. It probably isn't aired in the UK, so watch clips of The O'Reilly Factor on YouTube. I think it would help put a lot of this into perspective for you.\n\nEdit: This only answers certain aspects of your question, but I think the most encompassing answer would be uninformedness.",
" > If a politician in the UK was to deny climate change they would be laughed off and obliterated by the media.\n\nThis isn't true. Owen Paterson, who was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2012 to 2014, [is a climate change denier](_URL_0_). While he was in office spending on adaptation for climate change was [cut by 40%](_URL_1_)."
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53zg5w | why wells fargo won't fail due to their latest (assumed) illegal activity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53zg5w/eli5_why_wells_fargo_wont_fail_due_to_their/ | {
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"Simple. Don't bank with them. I haven't in decades.\n\nThe actual harm to customers was only a couple of million dollars. That is a lot, but very small in comparison to the size of this company.",
"Hahaha... Free Market rid itself of *profit seeking entities*.... you may as well as water to stop being wet.\n\nOk, that came out mean... but it is the truth.\n\nThe Free Market is working exactly as intended, Well Fargo's employs were acting on market forces to try and turn a profit. It is the lack of Free Market (ie Regulation) that stops them from doing even more illegal stuff... and why they are now being punished for doing wrong."
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6eiqm6 | should you wash dishes before putting them into the dishwasher? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eiqm6/eli5_should_you_wash_dishes_before_putting_them/ | {
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"Rinse, yes. Wash, no. \n\nFor the detergent to work properly it needs residues to stick on to and wash off."
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5pv8j8 | how do fishermen on those large trawlers with nets catch the exact fish they are looking for? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pv8j8/eli5_how_do_fishermen_on_those_large_trawlers/ | {
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"The fishing spots are not randomly chosen. They are chosen because there is a lot of the desired fish there. Different fish will have specialized themselves to feed on different food, swim at different depths and handle different ocean conditions. So if you go to the place that best fits the fish you are after and throw your net you have a good chance of getting the right catch. The nets is also a complex piece of equipment designed to only catch fish of the right size and shape. Too big and the fish will not be able to enter the net, too small and it can flee through the net. Finally a lot of fish travel together in steams. These steams are visible on sonar and you can even see the size and shape of the fish to find out what kind of fish is in the steam. A trawler can then throw its nets and catch the entire steam at once.",
"Bycatch is a big problem; shrimp fishing vessels catch far more bycatch than shrimp for example."
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3c555k | why do we already start sweating below 30°c if our body temperature is around 36°c? | Question got into my head while not being able to sleep in this heat. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c555k/eli5_why_do_we_already_start_sweating_below_30c/ | {
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"Your body temperature (which is closer to 37°C IIRC) is the result of an equilibrium.\n\nThe stuff you do to keep alive generates heat. \nYou also lose heat to the environment.\n\nThese have to be in a balance to maintain a constant body temperature.\n\nThe difference between your internal temperature and the external air temperature is vital in determining how fast heat is lost.\n\nWhen the external temperature is too close to your internal temperature, you can't lose heat fast enough without sweating. If you didn't start sweating, the very act of staying alive would raise your temperature and kill you.\n\nHence your body has to sweat well before the air temperature reaches 37°C\n\nAlso, when it gets too cold, you stop sweating, but your body also has to do extra things to keep your heat generation higher than the rate you lose heat. \nThat is why you shiver.\n"
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s1cjj | what is the difference between ram and memory? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/s1cjj/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_ram_and_memory/ | {
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"All RAM is memory. RAM stands for Random Access Memory. In a PC, we use RAM as fairly fast memory that is one of the first places the microprocessor (the \"brain\") goes to look for information. RAM is relatively expensive (compared to some other kinds of electronic memory devices), and it also has a big drawback: when you turn off the power, it loses whatever was stored in it.\n \nA PC can also contain other kinds of memory. Most notably, most PC's contain a \"hard disc\". The hard disc memory is much slower to access than RAM typically is, but it is cheaper to make. So items that the microprocessor needs to access often/quickly are put into RAM; the stuff that doesn't need the fast access is stored on hard disc. The hard disc is also used for permanent storage. It doesn't lose its contents when the power is removed.",
"The two terms have largely been inherited from a time where the distinctions were more stark than they are today, and technology was different from now.\n\nFirst, there is a distinction between **memory** and **storage devices** like disk, which comes down to some details of how computer processors work:\n\n* The processor is connected to memory in a special way, different from the way storage devices are connected. To simplify a lot, memory is connected directly to the processor, while storage devices are connected indirectly through an interface.\n* The processor cannot work without being connected to some memory. It can however work without being connected to any storage device. Think of an old NES console—that had memory, but no storage devices. (The cartridges are actually memory, not storage; see below.)\n* The processor can only manipulate data that is in memory. Any data in a storage device must be copied to memory before the processor can manipulate it.\n\nSo this explains what \"memory\" is. Now, RAM is an old, kinda obsolete acronym for \"random access memory\"—memory that allows any part of it to be accessed in any order. But basically all memory since the 1980s works that way.\n\nIn the 80s we also distinguished between the following things:\n\n* RAM = memory that supports both repeated writing and reading of individual bytes in it. Its contents disappear when the computer is turned off.\n* ROM = read-only memory. This is a memory chip whose contents were set when it was manufactured, and could not be overwritten. Its contents did not vanish when the computer was shut off. Example: game cartridges for old-school consoles like the NES were basically ROM (or PROM) chips that plugged in directly to the processor.\n* PROM = programmable ROM. A kind of ROM that could be bought \"empty.\" You used a special PROM burner device to write to it, and then it could never be modified. Kind of like a CD-R or DVD-R.\n* EPROM = erasable programmable ROM. Like a PROM, but could be erased and then rewritten. Like a CD-RW or DVD-RW.\n\nThe funny thing is that ROM, PROM and EPROM all support random access, but nobody ever called them \"RAM\"—that term was always reserved for the first kind of memory. So don't pay too much importance to the terms—they were never quite perfect.\n\nYou might be confused what the difference is between RAM and EPROM, since both support read and write:\n\n* RAM loses its content when power is shut off. EPROM keeps it.\n* EPROM needs special hardware to write to it, and processors don't have this hardware. It's also slower to do so.\n* RAM allows you to write to one byte over and over without affecting any of the other ones; EPROM might not allow that. For early EPROM, you have to erase the whole chip before rewriting.\n* These differences are big enough that processors connected directly to EPROM can only use it in a read-only fashion.\n\nEPROM has largely replaced ROM and PROM, but we usually refer to it as \"flash memory\" these days. And to make things more complicated, people in recent years have been building storage devices called solid state disks that are based on flash memory."
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tzg1w | gaussian function | Gaussian blurs in graphic programs like Photoshop have always intrigued me, but my math is terrible (having studied nothing higher than High School algebra & geometry 20+ years ago, and a little trig on my own).
Is it possible to even explain the function to someone that's 5? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tzg1w/eli5_gaussian_function/ | {
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"Each pixel's value is reset so that it's a weighted average of all the nearby pixels. The weights are highest for the nearby pixels and smallest for distant pixels. The Gaussian function (bell curve) is one way to define how these values fall with distance.\n\nIt has a number that controls the width, usually called standard deviation. If this number is high, then more pixels are averaged together with high weight, so the image gets blurrier. \n\nDoes that answer your question?"
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61fqgt | if we were to replicate the hubble deep field image using the james webb space telescope would we see more galaxies? | Assuming they watched the same section of sky for the same length of exposure, could we expect more to be visible? Or would we see the same amount but with a better resolution? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61fqgt/eli5_if_we_were_to_replicate_the_hubble_deep/ | {
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"Very probably, almost definitely. More resolution equates to more visibility. In telescopes the aperture is king. The Hubble WFC3 has a 2.4 m aperture while the JWST boasts a 6.5 m. With that added resolution very distant galaxies could split to be two or three when we see them more clearly. \n\nIf you're asking if we could see galaxies further out the answer is more mixed. The observable Universe is only so big. Galaxies have had a finite time since the big bang to form and spread. One of the oldest is GN-Z11 at 13 billion years old which the Hubble detected last year.\n\nThe JWST will almost certainly find more distance, darker galaxies because it doesn't have to watch the same part of the sky for as long to see them, but if you gave the Hubble the right coordinates and enough time it too would probably be able to see the same galaxy (at a much diminished resolution).\n\nGetting back the the question, the reason why the answer isn't a complete yes is because there is no guarantee there is anything to see in a given point in space no matter how long your exposure or large you aperture.\n"
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3nfapn | how can i move across the united states | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nfapn/eli5how_can_i_move_across_the_united_states/ | {
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"Going to college across the country will be difficult. You'll be paying out-of-state tuition, which is often triple or more in-state costs.\n\nCan you give a more specific idea of where you want to go and why?"
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39hfvu | systemic racism | I know what the basic premise of it is (and its proliferation throughout the media today), but what exactly is it, does it really exist in America and, if yes, how did it come about? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39hfvu/eli5_systemic_racism/ | {
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" > what is it.\n\nSo societies create institutions, which are basically the laws and norms that make up how we run society. Systematic racism is the idea that these institutions, which are shaped by the actions of millions of people and are not consciously controlled by anyone, create different outcomes for a person of one race than they would for a person of another race.\n\nIt's been shown time and time again that, on average, a white person faces lower penalties than a black person charged with the same crime. This isn't due to any particular judge, jury, or cop being racist, it's that the system, the institutions of the justice system, are structured in a way that is favorable to white people relative to black people.\n\n > Does it really exist in America today.\n\nYes. Absolutely. Without question. In countless ways people of different racial groups are treated differently by our country's institutions. Some of these are relatively harmless, but many seriously impact the lives of people in this country, hamper economic opportunity (and thus growth), and create instability.\n\n > How did it come about\n\nWell, it's complicated. To some extent the relative poverty of African Americans can be traced back to slavery and the Jim Crow institutions that followed it (as well as the de facto racism that existed in the North). However, psychologists have revealed that we simply think about people who are different from us in a different way than we do about people who are more like us. If someone is \"other\" to you, you tend to empathize with them less. A whole lot of cultural, psychological, and economic factors have converged to create the institutional racism that exists in America today."
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2b7u06 | why is talking about politics and governance a "sensitive" thing. | Whenever I try to talk about current world issues, or even certain local issue, the people I talk to (whether family or friends) tend to get uneasy.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b7u06/eli5_why_is_talking_about_politics_and_governance/ | {
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"Because it starts arguments, and arguments are uncomfortable.\n\nIf you want to talk politics, you need to find someone who's not only interested in politics, but either has your opinion on them, or is willing to argue with you without it destroying your friendship. It's generally a bad idea to argue politics with family or friends who aren't interested, and is considered bad taste in some families to talk about politics at all.",
"At a basic level, most politics consists of left-wing parties and right-wing parties.\n\nThe extreme of left wing being communism (if $100 was given to 100 people, everyone gets $1), while the extreme of ring wing being fascism (the strongest people in the room get the most money).\n\nAs a result, a political discussion can inadvertently turn into an argument about people's core beliefs, and that's when people start getting offended."
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c0m162 | how do flies get into surfaces where they don't fit into | One day I woke up, wanted to play some music and saw this: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) How did this fly get into my speaker?
The holes are literally 4 times larger than the fly itself.
Please, if this doesn't fit ELI5, at least give me a hint where to post it, I tried 10 subreddits already (GIF, video, askreddit etc.) and none of the rules of any of the subreddits allow the post. Where do I go with this??? I just have a simple question. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0m162/eli5_how_do_flies_get_into_surfaces_where_they/ | {
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"So, the only thing that I can think of is that the fly was born in there. A pregnant fly landed on your headphones, and laid its' eggs. One got inside, and hatched. \n\nOutside of that, the only feasible answer is that there is some sort of opening that is indeed large enough for a fly to enter.",
"Maybe an adult fly laid an egg somewhere on it or a fly egg fell onto and it turned into a maggot or a maggot that could of easily slipped through the grill and from then it turned into an adult fly inside the speaker",
"I suspect that the body of the fly is smaller then you suspect and it can get deformed.Holes in net to keep insect out is smaller then that for a reason.\n\nLook at [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) for a human trough a hole.\n\nThe limitation for a human is the width of the chest and the width of the head (you can turn it 90 degree). So humans can fit trough smaller holes the you would expect."
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1jccgn | nutrition/eating healthily. | Seriously, I know nothing about what is healthy and what isn't, or how to tell if something is healthy or not. ELI5, for my own good. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jccgn/eli5_nutritioneating_healthily/ | {
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"Wow, big topic. I'll try to be succinct, as an exhaustive post would be tremendously difficult to write, and would quickly get too technical. I'll avoid as much controversial topics as possible (ie no discussion of diets etc).\n\nFor starters, you have a few food groups: Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, Dairy, and a general group of Protein Foods. To be healthy without overthinking things, you should try to eat from each group, unless you're lactose intolerant, in which case skip the Dairy.\n\nSomething that's extremely important but often overlooked is **water**. People by and large don't drink enough. When they do, they often drink it in sodas that are full of sugar. Water has no calories, is incredibly vital to your body working at 100%, and sometimes people even confuse thirst for hunger. Staying hydrated may help curb your appetite if you're looking to lose or maintain your weight.\n\nThere are lots of fads regarding carbohydrates and proteins. For the purposes of an ELI5, I would ignore them. Just try to eat a fairly balanced diet, meaning don't eat a diet of exclusively carbs, or nothing but protein, or nothing but fats.\n\nAn important topic, however, is *fats*. Rules of thumb: try to avoid trans-fats completely, such as hydrogenated oils. They're awful for you. Also, try to keep your intake of saturated fats at under 10% of your daily calorie intake. Total calorie intake from fats can safely be up to ~30% of your daily intake. That said, there are good fats, such as fish oil, which many of us don't get enough in their diets. These fats actually counterbalance the bad fats to keep you healthy.\n\nLastly, let's talk about the ingredients that you'll find on the back of food packaging. As another rule of thumb, its generally safer to avoid things that are not natural, such as color additives (yellow #5 or #6, blue #1, red #40 etc), taste-enhancers (MSG - MonoSodium Glutamate), sugar-replacements (Aspartame, or Acesulfame potassium aka Ace-K, aka any time you see a \"sugar free\" diet soda), and food preservatives (such as sodium benzoate). I'm by no means saying that these things will kill you or are even especially bad (particularly the coloring and MSG), and they are all FDA approved, but there are alternatives without these additives if you look for them, so why chance it?\n\nThis should be a decent starting point for you. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask here, or to Google for further answers.",
"I believe the easiest and simplest quote that everybody uses to start is this:\n\n\"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.\"\n\nThat's a Michael Pollan quote from his book, *In Defense of Food*. Below is an incredibly short summary and you should use this as a starting point, and then buy his book and read it.\n\nSo, what is food? How do I recognize healthy food and how do I eat it?\n\nHere's how (lifted directly from the _URL_0_ website which you should also know about):\n\n- Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. \"When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, \"What are those things doing there?\" Pollan says.\n- Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.\n- Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.\n- Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. \"There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food,\" Pollan says.\n- It is not just what you eat but how you eat. \"Always leave the table a little hungry,\" Pollan says. \"Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'\"\n- Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. \"Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?\" Pollan asks.\n- Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.\n\n\n\n",
"As others have mentioned, this topic is so wide-ranging and has so many differing opinions that it's difficult to really give a good answer.\n\nI think the biggest rule of thumb is to try to eat food that closest resembles what you would find in nature. \n\nSome other tips: \n- Stick to the outside aisles of the grocery store as much as possible. \n- Avoid added sweeteners as much as possible\n- Learn to love to cook\n\nDo some research and find what works for you. Your health is one of the most precious things you have in life. ",
"This isn't exactly a direct answer to your question, but it might actually be some food for thought that helps you remember and understand.\n\nMy wife is allergic to corn. We have been avoiding corn and corn products since the start of this year, and *god damn* have we become very healthy. I've lost 15 pounds this year, and aside from no corn, I'm not on any diet or exercise program... and I have a ton more energy. It's not because corn is unhealthy, but it's because corn *products* are almost always used in the processed foods that are bad for you.\n\nLet me explain - at the surface, corn syrup is used to sweeten lots of things. Sweetened things are a relatively modern invention. Apples are a better alternative.\n\nFurther than that, **dex**tr**ose**, fruct**ose**, gluc**ose** and malto**dex**trin are sugars and are used to preserve things and to keep powders from caking. These things occur naturally in moderation and in fibrous foods... used alone and in larger quantity, our body doesn't digest them as elegantly.\n\nAlso, starches (which digest into sugars) and fats that are added to foods are often corn-derived: [brominated / hydrogenated] **vegetable oil**, [modified] food **starch**. Again, similar things occur in \"natural\" foods, but there are *always* other substances, including some amount of fiber, that come with those fruits and vegetables.\n\nI keep mentioning fiber because it is the moderator and cleaner of your digestion. It absorbs toxins and does a lot to keep from overwhelming your body with the food that is being digested. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that can happen from overwhelming your body with sugars. (Simplified explanation: when you eat lots of sugar, your pancreas creates insulin as long as it sees sugar in the blood. Your cells use the insulin to absorb the sugar, but it takes so long to bring the sugar level down that the pancreas adds *too much* insulin, and the cells adapt to ignore the insulin. After a while, the cells become so insensitive to insulin that the pancreas burns out).\n\nIn the end, we just have to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and meats with very simplified sauces. We mostly avoid beef (for other reasons). We eat a lot of chicken, cucumber, peas, apples, nuts, lettuce, rice. Every ingredient we eat reduces to a plant or animal we know about, and has only gone through a process that amounts to *no more* than grinding (ie - ground pepper, maple sugar). White flour (which happens to be bleached) is not allowed - who knows what process it went through that isn't even on the ingredient list. We are just as careful with our drinks.\n\n- Kipp\n",
"Everything in moderation.\n\nPick up an app for you phone, plug in your foods for a week or two and you'll see if what you are doing is healthy or not and you can easily change things. \n\nJust remember everything you eat needs to be used or it will, at least partially, stay with you permanently (without excercise). Depending on what you eat (sugars, trans-fat) some things are more likely to stay with you, in the form of fat, than others.",
"Initially it's about shifting that mindset of eating to fill yourself up or eating for pure enjoyment and refocus on what food originally was for: To keep you from dying and to keep you functioning normally or optimally.\n\nSo you must eat for the purpose of giving your body the nutrients it needs. You might think you're feeling fine, but there are little manifestations of your body lacking or having too much of anything.\n\nHair fall? Brittle nails? Lethargic? Sleep problems? Digestion issues? Migraines? All those little things we tend to brush off as something unique about our body and it just acting up for no reason are more often than not linked to some dietary lack or overabundance.\n\nOthers have said many good tips so I won't reiterate but anyway, just to get down to the basics:\n\n1. Stay hydrated with WATER. Keep a large bottle of water with you at all times to remind yourself to drink it through the day. If you're feeling hungry at an odd time, try drinking water instead; you're body is usually just thirsty when you feel hungry for no reason. Drink water before a meal to discourage you from eating to fullness. The water will pre-fill you up a bit and it will curb your appetite.\n\n2. Keep your diet as natural as possible. That chemical additive might make the food low calorie, but do you really want to live your life lying to yourself and not having the discipline to actually cut the addiction to a certain type of junk food instead of finding \"healthier\" duplicates?\n\n3. Learn to read nutrition labels and ingredients. \n\n4. Even if you don't want to track your calories, try to at least get to know what appropriate portion sizes actually are. Nutrition labels are per serving, not per entire package. \n\n5. There's no silver bullet diet out there. Different things work for different people but they're mostly centered on eating quality calories and having a caloric deficit. \n\n6. You don't HAVE to give up certain things like carbs or meat or whatever, but it's all about moderation. Knowing portion sizes comes in here as well.\n\n7. There's a lot more to this topic and the internet is a treasure trove of information but just know how to discern fad diets from an actual lifestyle diet change.",
"Eat food, mostly plants, not too much. ",
"This question is really, really broad. And it's important to note that a food being 'healthy' is largely contextual. But let me break it down using an example.\n\nLet's start with something everyone enjoys, a burger. Let's compare a Big Mac and a Whopper, and break them down and see which one is healthier. NOTE; this is just a comparison, I'm not claiming either is healthy, but one is undoubtedly going to be better for you than the other.\n\nlets see...\n\nIn a Whopper from Burger King (meaning just the buns, patty, and the traditional extras of ketchup, mayo, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles) you have...\n\n630 total calories, made up of\n\n25g protein (4 cals per gram, meaning 100 cals from protein)\n\n57g carbohydrates (also 4 cals per gram, meaning 228 cals from carbs)\n\n35g fat (9 cals per gram, meaning 315 cals from fat)\n\ntotal cals is actually around 643 according to these macronutrients.\n\nnow lets break it down to percentages.\n\n100 cals protein / 643 total cals = 15.5%\n\n228 cals carbs / 643 total cals = 35.5%\n\n315 cals fat / 643 total cals = 49%\n\nso your caloric break down of the Whopper is 49%f/35.5%c/15.5%p\n\nnow lets see how the Big Mac compares\n\nsame deal, only the sandwich and regular fix-ins (cheese, big mac sauce, lettuce, pickle and onions)\n\n550 total cals\n\n25g protein (4 cals per gram, 100 total cals from protein)\n\n46g carbs (4 cals per gram, 184 cals from carbs)\n\n29g fat (9 cals per gram, 261 cals from fat)\n\naccording to these macros, the actual total cals is 545\n\nagain, lets do some percentages\n\n100 cals protein / 545 total cals = 18.3%\n\n184 cals carbs / 545 total cals = 33.8%\n\n261 cals fat / 545 total cals = 47.9%\n\nso a big mac is 47.9% fat, 33.8% carbs, 18.3 % protein\n\nSo which one is healthier? In general, you want to pick the meal that has the highest percentage protein, as protein is by and large the most important of those three macronutrients. If this is the case, the Big Mac is better for you. However, this may change depending on your personal goals. If you need more fat, say because you have low testosterone levels, then the Whopper is slightly better in that case.\n\n\nthese are the major concerns you should have. things like sodium, what percentage of the fat is trans vs saturated vs unsaturated, how much sugar, etc is largely irrelevant unless you have something that can make it an issue like diabetes. but this is how you break down what food is 'healthier' than another. I can point you in the right direction as to why protein is the most important macros as well if you wish\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"\"healthy\" is a relative term that requires context.\n\nIf you goal is to lose weight. Then you need to eat fewer calories than you use. There are two ways to do that, by eating fewer calories, or by using more calories--decreasing food intake, increasing activity, or both.\n\nHow do you determine how many calories to eat? There are a few different methods, but none of them are perfect. It's best to just use a calculator, like this one _URL_0_. From there set that as your maintenance level. Eat that much for a month and compare your starting and ending weight. If it's close then you're probably right on. Keep in mind that your water weight can fluctuate wildly. I've heard of people taking a 3 day weight average, or by tracking their water/salt intake during the week they weigh in.\n\nThat is key. The second most important factor is macro nutrient composition. Studies have shown that increasing protein intake over the daily recommended ammount while keeping calories consistent causes similar weight loss but a higher propotion of fat to muscle is lost. The recommended ammount is 0.8g/kg, 1.6g/kg had significantly increased lean mass retention, and 2.4g/kg had even more lean mass retention but it was marginal, a case of diminished returns. If this is your definition of \"healthy\" then start to calculate your macro nutrient composition by determining if you are going to be in a caloric deficit. If so, get your body weight in lbs (L) and plug it in here:\n\n\n(L/2.2)*1.6=P\n\nP is how many grams of protein you should eat. We'll say thats 100 grams. Multiply that by 4, we get 400kcals of protein a day. If your daily calorie intake is 1600, that leaves 1200 calories that you can consume of fat/carbs. There is much argument over what is best. Some like to focus on fat during non lifting days, and binge on carbs on lifting days to replentish glycogen lost in the muscle tissue. I've never seen anything that really made me think one is better than the other with the exception of one study I came across that showed slightly better lean mass retention in equal caloric diets when carbohydrates were elevated. Personally I just get my protein in and then eat whatever I feel like. \n\nIf you are obese there are a lot of supplements that have been shown to help decrease body fat mass. If you are a healthy weight, there are far fewer compounds that help reduce fat mass. Things like fucoxanthin, and fish oil have been shown to help obese people reduce their body weight. Fish oil is something most people would probably benefit from any way. EDIT: these two compounds don't have an accute effect, it takes weeks for them to build up in your system where it is thought to decrease the thickness of your cellular membranes, increasing GLUT4 activity, and causing increased insuline sensitivity.\n\n**EDIT: The following are pretty extreme compounds, some with strong side effects, they aren't the be considered lightly and you should be healthy and talk to your doctor before considering them.** There are also compounds which help with weigh loss but wether or not they are healthy are contentious subjects. There is ephedra, which activates all 3 sub units of beta adreneric receptors (the receptors that release fat). It is known to increase heart rate and might be considered unhealthy though some think the long term benefits of weight loss are better than that short term risk to your health of taking the drug. There are those that think the opposite. There is Yohimbine, which is like a double negative of ephedra, it deactivates the two sub units of alpha adrenergic receptors (the ones that slow the release of fat). It is unfortunatley a known anxiogenic agent which can cause anxiety, shakyness and panic in certain people. Rauwolscine is a stereo isomer which some have claimed to take with fewer side effects (ive never tried it). Octopamine works on the beta 3 adrenergic receptor which makes it similar to ephedra in that it causes release of fatty acids, but it doesn't cause the other side effects, though those other side effects may be responsible for ephedra being so effective. I haven't seen much information on octopamine's effectiveness as a fat loss agent. Synephrine is another beta adreneric agonist also similar to ephedra but it isn't as strong. All of these compounds are easily acquired but if you are considering taking them it would be prudent to discuss it with your doctor after making yourself an expert on the compound. \n\nEphedra IS still available. It is not illegal, the FDA has just banned it from being marketed as a method of treatment for weight loss. It is still sold and marketed as a bronchodilator under the name Primatine which contains 12.5mg of ehedrine HCl and 200mg of guaifenesin, or as Broncaid which contains 25mg of ephedrine sulfate and 400mg of guaifenesin. Guaifenesin is commonly known as Muccinex, its an expectorant, it causes mucus membranes to produce extra fluid or is used as a fertility drug because it increases seminal volume while decreasing viscocity. It's a fairly harmless additive.\n\nEDIT: disclaimer... I have no idea what I'm talking about, reading about this stuff is just a hobby and I have a terrible memory. If something in this is interesting look up your own information about it... please. Also if I got something painfully wrong please enlighten me so I don't spread any more nonsense in the future!",
"**1. INTRODUCTION**\n\nThis is a basic introduction to nutrition. Some facts/points are purposefully simplified to avoid confusion.\n\n**What is a Calorie?**\n\nA Calorie is a unit of energy. The human body needs energy to work. Humans acquire energy through food consumption. The amount of calories in a food can be found on _URL_1_, or where possible, on the food’s packaging.\n\n**What is a Macronutrient (Macro)?**\n\nThe energy (Calorie) content of all foods come from the macronutrients in the food. The macronutrients you need to know about are protein, fats, carbohydrates and alcohol. Macronutrients are the fuel that gives your body energy.\n\n* One gram of protein provides 4 Calories.\n* One gram of carbohydrates provides 4 Calories.\n* One gram of fats provides 9 Calories.\n* One gram of alcohol provides 7 Calories.\n* The macronutrient content of a food can be found on _URL_1_, or where possible, on the food’s packaging.\n\n**What is a Micronutrient?**\n\nMicronutrients are required by your body to operate properly, or in a healthy manner. Micronutrients include things like vitamins and minerals. Micronutrients are like the “oil\", “brake fluid\", etc. that keep your body running smoothly. The micronutrient content of foods can be found on _URL_1_. “Whole\" foods generally contain more micronutrients than “processed\" foods. \n\n**2. BODY COMPOSITION**\n\nOf all the things the body is made of, the most important components are muscle, fat and water.\n\n* A marathon runner has LOW muscle mass, and LOW fat mass.\n* The average, sedentary person has LOW muscle mass, and HIGH fat mass.\n* A “toned\" person has MODERATE muscle mass, and LOW-MODERATE fat mass.\n* A sprinter/weightlifter/bodybuilder has HIGH muscle mass, and LOW fat mass.\n* A sumo wrestler has HIGH muscle mass, and HIGH fat mass.\n\nBody fat percentage (BF%) is a good measure of body composition. As a guideline for men (for women add 5%):\n\n* BF% < 10%: Six pack abs visibile.\n* BF% 10%-15%: Shapely abs, muscular shape evident without flexing. Waist < hips.\n* BF% 15%-20%: “Soft\" looking, some muscular shape for highly muscular individuals. Waist ~ hips.\n* BF% 20%-25%: Waist > hips.\n* BF% 25%-35%: Obese.\n* BF% 35%+: Morbidly obese.\n* You can estimate your body fat percentage using just a measuring tape. [See this page for example](_URL_0_).\n\n**3. GAINING AND LOSING WEIGHT**\n\n* To gain weight, you need to take in more calories from food than your body expends.\n* To maximize muscle gain and minimise fat gain, you need to eat a GOOD DIET and EXERCISE including WEIGHT TRAINING.\n* Aim to gain 1-1.5kg or 2-3lbs a month, any more may result in excessive fat gain.\n* To lose weight, you need to take in less calories from food than your body expends.\n* To maximize fat loss and minimise muscle loss, you need to eat a GOOD DIET and EXERCISE.\n* Aim to lose 2-3kg or 4-6lbs a month, any more may result in excessive muscle loss.\n\n**[4. HOW MANY CALORIES DOES MY BODY EXPEND?](_URL_5_)**\n\nFollow the above link, focus currently on the “Katch-McArdle\" section under “Estimating Requirements\", and multiply the BMR by an appropriate Activity Factor.\n\nThis should give you a good ESTIMATE for your maintenance.\n\n**5. SET CALORIE AND MACRONUTRIENT GOALS**\n\n**Calories**\n\n* If you want to gain weight, multiply your maintenance by 1.1.\n* If you want to lose weight, multiply your maintenance by 0.9.\n* If your calorie target is below 1500, consider extra exercise to increase your maintenance as it may be difficult to intake adequate amounts of macro/micronutrients.\n\n**Protein**\n\n* Protein is important for muscle gain and recovery, among other things.\n* Aim for 2 grams per kg of body weight, or 1 gram per lb of body weight.\n\n**Fats**\n\n* Fats are NOT BAD, in fact, fats are important for satiety, hair/skin health, hormonal health, etc. Do not neglect dietary fats. Fats are TASTY!\n* Aim for 1-2 grams per kg of body weight, or 0.5-1 grams per lb of body weight. Aim for the lower target if you are trying to lose weight, and the higher if you are trying to gain.\n\n**Carbohydrates**\n\n* Carbs are generally used by your body just for the energy content. But they’re tasty and commonly found.\n* You do not need to make a solid target for carbs but make sure you get some.\n\n**Alcohol**\n\n* Alcohols are not necessary for your body. \n* Less is better but some is fine.\n\n**6. DESIGNING A DIET**\n\nYou do not need to design a daily food plan and follow it religiously. It can be a good exercise to do in order to get an idea of the amount of food you should be eating though.\n\nYou need to keep track of what you eat, and know how to count calories and macronutrient amounts. See here for some pointers. Track EVERYTHING YOU EAT, including that cookie you had as a snack, the dressing on your salad, etc.\n\n**Your primary goals are:**\n\n* Reach your protein and fat goals (excess is OK as long as you do not break any other goals)\n* Eat a variety of “good\" foods including fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, fish, whole grains.\n* Drink plenty of water.\n* After fulfilling these goals for the day, you can consume ANYTHING* you want in order to reach your calorie goal. Aim to hit your calorie goal as accurately as possible.\n\n*Use common sense.\n\n**Secondary goals (which should be achieved with a good diet) include:**\n\n* Enough fiber to keep you “regular\".\n* Avoid trans fats.\n* Avoid excessive amounts of salty foods.\n* By reaching these primary goals, you should get a good range of micronutrients to keep you healthy. Feel free to read [this post](_URL_3_) for more information on macro/micronutrients, sources and uses.\n\n**Things you do not need to do (unless you are a very high-performance athlete, in which case you should not be reading this):**\n\n* Eat x meals a day. It does not matter how many times a day you eat, or when. All that matters is what you eat per day.\n* Take a multivitamin. Micronutrients are generally absorbed much better by the body when they have come from a whole food source.\n* Eat this before/after a workout. Current scientific consensus suggests that [nutrient timing is irrelevant](_URL_4_).\n* Take casein/\"slow acting\" protein or eat cottage cheese before bed to prevent going “catabolic\". If you eat a proper daily diet, you won’t go “catabolic\".\n* Buy supplement x which promises “insert outrageous claim\". If they worked and were legal and safe, I wouldn’t have wrote this. See below…\n\n**7. SUPPLEMENTS**\n\n…are not always necessary. If you would like to add supplements into your plan then I would suggest checking out [this post](_URL_2_).\n\n* Protein powders are fine and can help you reach your protein goal easier. They are practically a “food\" anyway, be sure to consume them along with a variety of other protein sources in your diet.\n\n**8. ASSESSING YOUR DIET**\n\nBefore starting your new diet (and exercise program), measure your body weight and your body fat percentage. Feel free to take photos as well.\n\nFollow your new diet for AT LEAST 2 weeks before measuring again and passing judgement. Resist the temptation to measure daily as natural fluctuation occurs.\n\n**If you are trying to lose weight but have not lost weight, either:**\n\n* Reduce your calorie target by 5% (multiply by 0.95)\n* Increase the amount of exercise you do.\n\n**If you are trying to gain weight but have not gained weight:**\n\n* Increase your calorie intake by 5% (multiply by 1.05)",
"A lot of people have already covered the nutritional \"eat fresh stuff\" part, so i'll chime in on controlling weight (dieting).\n\nThere are many suggestions: eat micro-meals, eat in the morning, eat no starch, eat only berries, etc. etc. etc. Most of them will purport somehow making your body work different or whatever. Most of them are lying.\n\nThe ONLY way you lose weight through a diet is to consume less calories. In reality, every single diet that shows a modicum of success is simply reducing your appetite through artificial means. \n\nThe atkins diet, for example, cuts out carbs. Your body does not magically start shedding fat. Fat is not made of carbs. Carbs do not magically become fat. What carbs actually are is \"easy to digest\". You can mostly dissolve a cracker by holding it in your mouth. You physically can't eat as much steak as you can eat bread and potatoes. That is where \"extra room\" in a western meal often comes from. Because the protease (protein enzyme) has been diluted, you can't stomach the though of more complex turkey proteins to break down, but you can stomach a non-complex brownie.\n\nTLDR; There are no good or bad foods strictly in regards to weight (health is a different matter of course), there are only foods your body digests more easily relative to calorie content (and therefore allow you to gorge yourself)",
"I am going to quote myself from an earlier post asking about nutritional labels. I hope it helps. Feel free to write me if you have any questions.\n\n > I am not sure what exactly you want to know, but I will write something!\nThe main categories on a nutrition labels are:\n\n > Energy (kcal/kJ)\n\n > Protein\n\n > Carbohydrates\n\n > Fats\n\n > **Energy** is measured in calories (kcal) or joules (kJ). One should eat around 2000 kcal per day (woman) or 2500 per day (men). When you eat more than this you will gain weight. When you eat less, you will lose weight. It is very simple like that! It will vary slightly from person to person, of course, depending on how much muscle and fat one has. But those amounts are a good rule of thumb.\n\n > **Protein** is like building blocks for your body. It is used to build a lot of things. Big things like muscle are primarily protein, but also tiny things like enzymes are protein! You get protein from different things, primarily meat. Vegetarians might get proteins from beans. One should get approximately 0,85g of protein per kg bodyweight per day, if you are not excercising (sorry for the units - I am not American). If you are exercising and want to build muscle you will need to eat more than that. Proteins are also good at making you feel full, so if you want to lose weight it can be good to eat some protein, so you wont feel so hungry.\n\n > **Carbohydrates** are the things like sugars, bread and potatoes. They are the easiest form of energy for you body to use. The easiest of all being pure sugar. Some things are made of long chains of sugar, which will need to be broken down to single-sugar units in order to be used. Some carbohydrates can not be broken down by humans at all! Those are important too! They help you with your bowel movements. Those are called fibers. It's easy to get too many carbohydrates. There are a lot of them in things like soda and juice. Those are especially \"dangerous\", because they don't really make you feel full at all! When you eat too many carbohydrates (or eat too much of any foodgroup, really), you will have too much energy and the excess energy will be stored as fat. That's why it's good to cut sugary drinks out of ones diet, if you want to lose weight! You should primarily get your carbs from vegetables. They are also filled with vitamins and minerals which are good for you!\n\n > **Fats** are the most energydense of these categories. One might want to avoid eating too much fat, but it is VERY important to get at least some! Most of our brain is made of fat. All of our cells are composed of fat. We need some fat to function. But there are different kinds of fat. There are both butter (made of dairy) and oils (made of vegetables) and the kind you find on your meat (animal fat). People strongly disagree on which types are the healthy ones and which types are bad for you. For now I will just say, that you should vary your diet and not only eat one type of fat.\n\n > The most important thing is: Everything in moderation! It is okay to have some soda once in a while, but it doesn't really benifit you in anyway nutritional. ½ a liter of coke is 210 calories (~ 10% of your daily caloric intake). If you drink one per day for a month that is 210*30 = 6300 kcal which corresponds to almost 1 kg of fat! That's like 10 kg a year!\n\n > Well. That is all I have for now. Feel free to ask."
]
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"http://thespartanwarrior.tumblr.com/post/7856849040/supplements",
"http://www.thespartanwarrior.com/post/20782726110/nutrients",
"http://www.thespartanwarrior.com/nutrienttiming",
"http://www.thespartanwarrior.com/post/5989831287/calculatingcalories"
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|
75auun | is the periodic table of elements complete? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75auun/eli5_is_the_periodic_table_of_elements_complete/ | {
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"There is a theoretical element, Ununennium, that would have 119 protons. Currently it hasn't been created, and is presumed not to exist in nature. There have been attempts, and the experiments are ongoing.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Well, theoretically you could go higher, but the higher you go the less stable it is and the faster it'll decay into elements with fewer protons. Protons are positively charged, right? And things with the same charge repel. Yet protons form incredibly dense, crowded nuclei. This is because of the strong nuclear force, which holds them together and overcomes that repulsion. The strong nuclear force is very very strong (much more powerful than gravity) but it's not limitless. The more protons you add, the less stable the element. Go high enough, and the strong nuclear force can't effectively hold the atom together. This is why the heavier elements tend to be radioactive, because they're throwing out these particles as they decay. So, a theoretical heavier element would be really unstable and would easily fall apart. Therefore it would probably not exist in nature and would be very hard to make, and even harder to hold on to for more than a tiny amount of time. ",
"An element 119 is certainly possible; in fact, it may be possible to create elements (artificially in a lab) with extremely high atomic numbers. More likely, however, is that there is a practical limit after which larger atoms are too unstable to exist for any amount of time. This happens for two reasons: electron orbital velocity and the inherent radioactivity of larger nuclei.\n\nLet's imagine that we are attempting to create a VERY large element - perhaps with an atomic number of 140. This element would have a large nucleus filled with 140 protons and however many neutrons are required to keep the nucleus stable for a measurable amount of time. The larger our atom gets (higher atomic number), the faster the electrons around it must travel in the higher energy levels - the bigger the nucleus, the larger amount of space the electron must cover in a similar amount of time. The speed of light is the upper limit for these electrons' velocities. The best models we have predict that this we would reach this limit around atomic number 173. Beyond that, the electrons would be moving faster than the speed of light - this is a rule that has no known exceptions, so 173 is the limit for us. All of this is provided our understanding of electrons and how they interact with the nucleus is correct!\n\nFinally, large nuclei are inherently radioactive - they want to split and decay into smaller pieces on their own. The speed at which these natural splits happen is indicated by an element's half life - the average amount of time it takes for half of a sample of the element to decay into other elements. In our imaginary super-large element, the half-life may be so short that the nucleus doesn't exist long enough to allow electrons to gather around it. No electrons = no stability = no element.\n\nAll of this is to say that theoretically atoms heavier than Oganesson *could* exist, but the rules are actively working against us.",
"As you add more protons to a nucleus you add the amount of Electromagnetic repulsion between constituents of the Nuclues. The force that holds the nucleus together, (The Nuclear Strong Force) while very strong, has a very limited range, meanwhile the Electromagnetic force is not held back by range anywhere near as much. Hence when you add more Protons, there are only a few that attract it via the Strong Force, but all Protons in the nucleus repel it. So when you get to a large number of Protons nuclei become very unstable and are rarely (if ever) found naturally. In an artificial setting you can create these Elements but then naturally want to decay.\n\n(Note I'm no expert in Nuclear Physics so specifics may be wrong, but this is the general gist of what I was taught)"
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6ad7gn | why people, in youtube comments, feel obliged to justify their presence ? | For the past year I have seen many comments like "Rick and Morty brought me here" or "I'm 11 yo and I listen Genesis. Kids my age listen Iggy Azalea and Harry Styles". I want to understand why they feel obliged to justify all these types of things. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ad7gn/eli5_why_people_in_youtube_comments_feel_obliged/ | {
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"They seek reverence and praise for being niche and liking (what is socially deemed) more tasteful/sophisticated. \n\nThey feel a sense of inclusion and worth through cyber-camaraderie, in a world where emotional interaction is largely replaced by screen-related communication.\n"
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2r9rrm | how can people on hgtv shows afford $400k-$900k homes with middle income jobs? | I'm often blown away by this, and perhaps just because I live in a Midwest area where property values are not as extreme (range $60-$100/ft^2). Still, I can't comprehend how a mid-30's couple with teacher/accountant jobs manage to buy an $800k house. Maybe they eat ramen for a decade? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9rrm/eli5_how_can_people_on_hgtv_shows_afford_400k900k/ | {
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"My wife watches those shows, and the vast majority of those couples are more like lawyer/doctor not teacher/accountant. They also film them in areas where wages as well as property values are inflated.",
"I just bought a $700k home near Toronto.\n\nAt 25, I saved 25% for a down payment of my first condo valued at $160k. \n\nAt 32, I sold and moved up to a bigger condo ($225k). \n\nAt 39, I got married. We sold our two condos and bought a house with over 50% down payment.\n\n**TL;DR:** Saving 25% down payment is easy if your first home is just like your first car. ",
"Buying a house isn't so much about how much you make month to month. More important is how much money you have sitting around at your disposal. There are many people that have money because of their parents or the property value rise in the place where they live. Example, if you bought a $180,000 house when you were 25, 25 miles west of Baltimore in 2004, you'd have a $450000 house today, that if you sold, you'd have $300000 to throw down on a $600000 mini mansion even farther out. The remaining mortgage wouldn't be too bad for a family making 90K per year."
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5j6zj1 | what technological advancement led to fast charging cords for smartphones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5j6zj1/eli5_what_technological_advancement_led_to_fast/ | {
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"The faster you charge a battery, the more it wears down while doing so. Charging it very slowly keeps the battery life up, and makes the electronics involved in it simpler, and therefore less expensive. So as battery technology improved, faster charging cycles became more viable.\n\nThe other thing is the USB standard, which was used by basically all manufacturers. USB used to only allow 7.5 W worth of power, which was the upper limit for how quickly you could charge USB devices. Newer USB connectors can deliver much more than that."
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