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2h3yi6 | how did they print huge quantities of copies of images for mass distribution back in the first half of 1900? | Hello, not a graphic-related person here.
Could you please explain how the process of printing an image for mass distribution was handled during the first half of 1900?
Long story short I was talking to a friend yesterday and we got stuck when we started thinking about how, for example, newspapers handled photography replication, or how art déco posters were made.
While we do understand that, to put it simply, something must press something else to actually print something, we couldn't fathom the easy way of doing it for an image with a lot of colours (like a poster) nor the fast way for a medium with really tight deadlines (newspapers).
Thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h3yi6/eli5_how_did_they_print_huge_quantities_of_copies/ | {
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"Most posters back then didn't have lots of colours. They would be a single colour ink.\n\nIt wasn't until the roaring 20's that you saw colour start to be introduced into mass-produced posters, and even then they were largely done by hand using stencils."
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367684 | why is it so hard for convicted criminals to get jobs in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/367684/eli5why_is_it_so_hard_for_convicted_criminals_to/ | {
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"Because employers don't like hiring criminals and right now they don't have a pressing need. Unemployment is high, loads of people are looking for jobs, so who are you going to hire: the person with a past that might indicate they are going to be trouble or the person without such a past?",
"Because that country (assuming you're talking about the US) also has a shortage of jobs, and it's easy to find a non-criminal to fill the position."
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2le7g1 | on staplers, whats up with the other side of the plate? when would i need to reverse-staple something? | Neat, so it's called pinning. Good information to know. But no one has answered the second question, when would I use it? Would this be common knowledge if I was a paralegal or CPA or some other career that deals with collating papers? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2le7g1/eli5_on_staplers_whats_up_with_the_other_side_of/ | {
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"Pinning is midway between a staple and a paperclip. It's more secure than a paperclip, but more removable than a staple. You use it to temporarily bind two things together, knowing you want to separate them later. This can be used when you want to attach to pieces of cloth together for sewing, but don't want to use straight pins or safety pins or two pages when you only need them attached temporarily.",
"They are much easier to remove without causing damage to the paper. This kind of staple is intended to be used as a more temporary fastener. ",
"**Reverse-staple**.\nThat term is brilliant. The reason you want to reverse-staple something is so you can de-staple it with ease. Almost like a paperclip that goes *through* the paper. A normal staple folds in, locking in place making it hard to remove (many times biting into the nail bud. *not the nicest feeling*). Think as if a normal staple is a safety pin, and a reverse-staple is a regular pin.",
"Okay, so I feel really stupid now. What other side of the plate? In fact, what plate? I'm really confused.",
"an ELI5 that I actually was interested in reading!",
"You are a genius for asking this question, thank you.",
"I always figured it was to decrease the height of stacked stapled paper, since the \"negative\" area should allow a regular staple to fit in...\n\nI don't have a stapler handy so i can't test this..\n\nNormal staple\n\nReversed staple\n\nNormal staple\n\nReversed staple"
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698pal | why does pepsi lose it's fizz/carbonation so much faster than coke? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/698pal/eli5_why_does_pepsi_lose_its_fizzcarbonation_so/ | {
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"Because the carbonation is different. Less CO2 dissolved in Pepsi than in Coke. The bottle size can play a role too, usually big bottles are less carbonated."
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ds01xf | what is the paris agreement, and why is it an issue with that the us is out of it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ds01xf/eli5_what_is_the_paris_agreement_and_why_is_it_an/ | {
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"The Paris Agreement was an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. The Paris Agreement's long-term goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels; and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming. No mechanism forces a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target was expected to go beyond previously set targets.",
"It’s an agreement between all nations that, if everyone had done their part and met their emissions goals, would keep the earth’s global average temperature from warming more than 2 degrees.\n\nWith the US refusing to take part, those goals can’t be met, even if the rest of the world meets their goals.\n\nThe US is one of two nations that is refusing to even attempt to meet their goals. North Korea, Iran, Russia and Venezuela for instance are all still on track.",
"Since ELI5 does not allow current events I'd suggest you post this in r/outoftheloop or r/worldpolitics."
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p64u0 | explain a leveraged buyout. also, talk about private equity in general. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p64u0/eli5_explain_a_leveraged_buyout_also_talk_about/ | {
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"In reverse order. Equity equals ownership in the world of finance. If you want to sell your ownership in a business by offering pieces of it (stock) to hundreds (or thousands or millions) of people in an open market like the New York Stock Exchange, then you are subject to very strict rules on the information you need to release and a whole bunch of other things. It is also very expensive and time consuming. But this is called a \"Public Offering\".\n\nBut if you find a single buyer or small handful of buyers then you can sell them part of your company without jumping through all of the hoops. It can go quicker and you might be able to sell sooner and not have to wait to be super big to sell to the \"Public\". This is a \"Private Offering\".\n\nNow sometimes the buyers join together in a partnership, pool their money together and go looking for business to buy some or all of. They do this so they can then sell the business later and make money. The money they pool together, as well as the practice of putting it together and looking for businesses to buy and sell is referred to as \"Private Equity\".\n\nIn finance, \"leverage\" refers to borrowing money. A little of yours as a down payment might allow you to borrow a lot of someone elses. With all of that money you can go buy a company. If you do that, it's a \"leveraged buyout\"."
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58m0n4 | what make the razor of a disposable razor disposable as opposed to another high-priced razor that you can use seemingly months on end? is there any scientific reasons as to why one should always discard a disposable razor after each use? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/58m0n4/eli5_what_make_the_razor_of_a_disposable_razor/ | {
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"You're not supposed to discard a disposable razor after one use. You're supposed to discard it when the blades wear out. The difference is that they are not designed to have replaceable blade cartridges, have less technology in them (vibration motors, fancy weighted handles with pivot joints, etc.).",
"All razors dull over time. I personally use a straight razor. Disposable razors were created by a a man named Gillette who developed the disposable to capitalize on people's desire to not have to sharpen their razors. If continually used a disposable razor accumulates debris and bacteria which can irritate skin and cause possible infection not mention the drag a dull blade creates compounds every time it's used leaving worse and worse shaving rash. I suggest you check out _URL_0_",
"All of these kind of razor blades (cartridge, disposable, DE) are 'disposable' because the blade is not designed to be re-sharpened. \n\n'Disposable' razors are meant to be thrown away entirely - cheap plastic handle included.\n\nCartridge razors (Gillette, DollarShaveClub, etc) you just detach the head and throw it away, keeping the handle.\n\nDE razors you take the blade out of the head and throw it away, but keep the nice metal head and body forever. DE blades are the cheapest, ~15c each, but you must buy a metal handle and head ~20$.\n\nFor all methods, it's up to you how long you use a blade before throwing it away (and possibly also the head or handle if that is permanently attached to the blade). Generally, a more expensive blade will last longer than a cheap one, and that is just because the maker put more effort into shaping and sharpening it, and thus charges more for it.\n\nIf you want to learn about DE shaving, the sub is r/wetshaving. It's a great way to save money, but also can be a huge money pit if you get into it as a hobby.",
"You are not understanding what disposable means in this context. You are not suppose to throw it away after each use. You are suppose to throw it away when it dulls. Non-Disposable razors are sharpened when they dull so you can keep using them. ",
"I find the quality of disposable razors vary from blade to blade even within the same package. Some from the very same package are a one use blade because they are either so sharp that I cut myself or dull in only one use. While others from the very same package lasted as long as 30 days. And I buy whatever brand is on sale, so the manufacturer varies and I have tried all price levels and I don't see a significant difference.",
"I use disposable razors exclusively, they are cheap and stay sharp for a long time if you hone the blade after every shave ( six to ten backwards strokes against your forearm)."
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1zmjzz | what are the differences in consuming vitamins before, during, or after meals? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zmjzz/eli5_what_are_the_differences_in_consuming/ | {
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"Recent studies have shown most vitamins taken by pill to be ineffectual. ",
"It depends a lot on the type of vitamins you are taking.\n\n\nIron and b complex tend to be better on an empty stomach due to their low absorption and the need for a lower ph to be absorbed, A, D and E are lipossoluble vitamins so they will be a better absorbed if there is some fat in your stomach already. Vitamin C for instance is better after a meal (a few hours) so it will not damage the stomach lining but at the same time not be degraded by whatever you already have in your stomach.\n\n\nIt is a case by case. If I remember correctly calcium was also better absorbed if taken by itself, and followed by vitamin D and a meal.\n\n\nSource: biologist"
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3pu2hy | why do men get that funny feeling in their genitals on certain rides at the fair? | Also, when you scratch your belly button. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3pu2hy/eli5_why_do_men_get_that_funny_feeling_in_their/ | {
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"I don't think this applies to all men? ",
"It's actually the gravitational force on your body in relation to your insides. Think about holding a bucket of water while going over a hill in a car, and then descending the hill very quickly. The water will rise out of the bucket because the water was just moving upward and is still carrying some upward momentum, but you are holding the bucket and forcing it to move downward.\n\nYour insides are the water, and you are the bucket.",
"Doesn't this happen to females too? It happens to me..."
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2mleem | why can't you donate directly to disease research, and instead must donate to charities who do not donate all funding to research? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mleem/eli5_why_cant_you_donate_directly_to_disease/ | {
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"You can, you just have to track down who is doing the research and where. Charities usually just do this leg work for you. ",
"It depends on what disease/condition you're interested in. You certainly could, if you wanted, do some googling to find a lab/person/group that is researching a condition you want to support, and donate directly to their costs. Likely this would be more involved than just writing a check, although it would depend on how much you're donating, and the level of, we shall say, administrative involvement where the lab is located. That would support a condition quite directly. However, this is all a bit of a pain, and you've have to select one research group out of many that deserve it ... so in theory larger charities exist to support such causes. Many of those have grant machinery to turn many small donations into support for research. The price paid for that machinery is the cost to actually run the charity, so only a fraction actually gets to researchers. ",
"Find a researcher that's publishing promising papers, then write their department a cheque and ask that it be put in their research account.",
"Charities will often say somewhere on their brochures or website what % of every £/$ they make goes towards the cause, with the rest covering administrative costs, so you can make an informed choice. \n",
"Scientists are increasingly turning to crowd-funding to fund small projects. (example here: _URL_0_) \n\nIf there is a specific lab or research project that you want to support, contact them. They will take your money. I got several small ($500) grants from private donors to fund my undergraduate research. \n\nThe reason charities are such a common method of fundraising for research is because they can aggregate many small donations. Good science is expensive. It also takes the burden of marketing/ event planning off the scientists, and transfers that to people who are good at it. But if you are donating to a charity for the express purpose of furthering research, investigate into how much of that money actually goes to grants. ",
"I'm a scientist. We gladly take direct donations.",
"When you donate to charity you are paying for more than just research, you're paying to increase awareness to hopefully increase donations. ",
"In the US, you can also tell your elected officials that you want more funding allocated to the NIH and in particular the specific institute (cancer institute, institute of ageing, etc). ",
"You could give a scholarship for a graduate student. ",
"Non profits like Susan G Komen, American Heart Association, or the National MS Society are often created to essentially handle marketing of the disease in a hope to increase awareness. They lobby politicians to encourage additional government funds for research, they spread the word about how to get tested or common symptoms/warning signs, or they create networks of survivors/current patients for moral support. This often requires massive over head and large groups of people to fundraise like a walk-a-thon.\n\nMedical researchers on the other hand are often affiliated with a university or a government agency and are primarily focused on large lump sums of money available through grants. Sometimes a researcher may take away time from their labs to search for additional funds through non governmental groups but often it's not always worth their while. For example, if you have 400 lab samples that cost $8,000 a piece to analyze that's already $3.2 million just to get raw data. Add in costs for paying the researchers, data analysis costs, and the buying specialized equipment and one large scale research project is at $5-10 million dollars a year. In the grand scheme of things funding for that $5-10 million dollar study for a group like the national MS society, which donated $45 million to research in 2013, is a pretty big chunk of change. By comparison to the us government the NIH has several billion dollars to spend on research and in FY 2013 spent $112 million alone on just MS.\n\nTl;Dr non profits don't always focus just on research and the bigger dollars needed to do large scale research is easier to get from the federal government or a university. ",
"You can.\n\neasiest way:\n\nFind a university conducting said research. Go to said universities web page. Find the correct department and donate to said department. ",
"My lab gets some funding (about enough to pay the salary of one post doc!) from an 'organization', that is really a husband and wife team who fund raise for the disease, visit labs around the country, and donate money. \n\nYou can too! Don't be afraid to do your own research and contact researchers, asking if you can get involved! Worst to worst they point you to a charity that helps fund their lab!\n\nAlso, you can look up research donation efficacy, here:\n_URL_0_",
"If you want to donate money to research you have several options. \n\n1. Donate to a charity, specifically one aimed at research. For example, check out Cure SMA (_URL_1_). Smaller charities for lesser known diseases often spend a lot of money directly supporting research. This is effective if you have as little as a dollar. \n\n2. Donate directly to a researcher via the school. Pick a researcher / lab that is working on something that strikes your fancy and then write the department a check. You probably need to donate four figures for this to be worth everyone's time, and keep in mind that the department will probably take from 25-50% of the money before passing it on to the researcher/lab. This is how money from NIH grants work as well - the school takes a large percentage off the top. \n\n3. If you have enough money (6 or 7 figures), you can probably direct exactly the research you want by bankrolling a lab, or financing a small startup, or even partnering with a larger company (they will see your sizable donation as risk mitigation). \n\nEither way you go, it's tough to donate \"directly\" to research. But well run charities take great care to maximize the return on donation. Fight SMA has a nice page page detailing all the avenues your money will go (_URL_0_). \n\n",
"Georgia Tech recently created a vehicle for crowdfunding various things. It's called Georgia Tech Starter. Not all of it is disease research, [but some is.](_URL_0_)",
"What if researchers advertised with a paypal feature? That way they can take in micro donations without having to donate any manpower to collect money. ",
"Can't you direct additional money to government groups like the NIH on your tax returns on top of the taxes you owe?",
"If you want a way to donate directly to disease research, look into the [Folding @ Home project](_URL_0_)",
"Organizations that fund research almost always have some application process to determine where the money goes. This ensures that funding goes to relevant, original, and ethical research. ",
"I just wanted to add that just because a charity donates \"only\" 10-20% towards research doesn't mean the rest is going towards generous pensions for the employees. A lot of them also use the money to care for patients who already have the disease and other worthy applications."
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98x7uq | how does fermentation work? | As far as I knew, fruit starts rotting after a certain amount of time, so I feel like fermentation isn't just leaving fruit to become alcohol. How does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/98x7uq/eli5_how_does_fermentation_work/ | {
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"Since you mentioned alcohol, I'm just going to talk about alcoholic fermentation. Things are slightly different for lactic acid fermentation (sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, etc).\n\n----\n\nFermentation is *controlled* rotting. You want to create an environment where *only* the yeast you want can survive well. Yeast only eats sugar, leaving all the flesh of your fruit as food for other things. This is why you squeeze all of the juice from the fruit & ferment that. In most cases, you make sure that everything is sterile & add your own yeast.\n\nIf you're making wine, for example, you use sulfites to kill off any wild yeast *and* any other microorganisms that might be in your juice. These will break down after a few days, at which point you can add yeast back into the mix & let fermentation start.\n\nIt's *possible* to get a decent ferment from wild yeast but it's nowhere near as reliable.",
"Basically \"rotting\" is when little tiny microbes - bacteria and little ~~animals~~ fungi like yeasts - eat stuff and shit it out. We happened to discover a particular type of yeast that shits out alcohol, which we like to drink. \n\nIf you're going to make beer or wine, you take some stuff you'd like to use as a base, and kill all the things living in it. Then you add in just the yeast that makes alcohol, and let it go to town. The yeast you added will eat all the sugar and crap out delicious, delicious alcohol. \n\nThis is also why wine goes bad - after you open the bottle, other little bacterias and stuff get in there and eat other parts of the liquid and crap out other things like acetic acid. That's how you get vinegar. \n\nSo basically little tiny critters eat your food and crap it out. Making alcohol is all about controlling *which* little tiny critters you're going to let do that. And alcohol is microbe shit. ",
"To understand fermentation, it's probably helpful to understand cellular respiration. \n\nCells need energy, in the form of ATP, which is produced in the mitochondrion (plural: Mitochondria) of a eukaryotic cell. The process starts with glucose, a sugar, being taken into the cell, (this is why you eat), and, through a series of chemical reactions, is broken down into a form that can enter the mitochondria, and there is further broken down into smaller components. While this is occuring, the process is generating a small amount of ATP, as well as an \"electron carrier\" molecule, NADPH. In addition to carrying an electron, it also carries a Hydrogen atom. \n\nEssentially:\nNAD^+ + H + Electron = NADH.\n\nKeep in mind that the NAD^+ molecule already exists in the cell. That'll be important in a second.\n\nFrom here, the NADH is sent to the electron transport chain, which takes the H and the electron from NADH, turning it back into NAD^+ and the hydrogen is used to make ATP. The electron transport chain requires Oxygen to work (which is why we breath).\n\nTo understand how fermentation works, let's go back to the first step, the break down of Glucose. In order to break down glucose, the cell needs to have NAD^+ to accept an electron and H atom as part of the breaking down. The process of glycolysis (the term for this) produces 2 ATP, and 2 NADH as part of this process. \n\nWhen the cell has access to oxygen, it can convert NADH to NAD^+, which is ready to go and accept more electrons and hydrogen to continue the process. But suppose your cell *had* no oxygen? It would pretty quickly run out of NAD^+, and suddenly the whole process would grind to a halt. \n\nThat's where fermentation comes in; broadly, fermentation allows a cell to remove the Hydrogen and electron that NADH molecule has, turning it back into NAD^+. This allows the work (the generation of energy for the cell) to continue in environments without oxygen.\n\nThere's many different kinds of fermentation; some organisms prefer ethanol fermentation, which is what makes beer and other alcoholic drinks. Other cells prefer lactic acid fermentation, such as your muscles after a few minutes of working out. \n\ntl;dr Fermentation is a process in which cells can continue to produce energy for themselves in the absence of oxygen, by recycling electron carriers that usually rely on oxygen to be recycled."
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2lufty | how did/do wooden ships, even from hundreds of years ago, stay water tight? | . | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lufty/eli5_how_diddo_wooden_ships_even_from_hundreds_of/ | {
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"They didn't. They used rope/caulk/tar to seal the hull as much as possible, but there was still limited leaking. They would have pumps (or people with buckets) to remove this excess water"
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2hk2qz | what is biologically happening in a bipolar person's brain? | Like we know with ADHD its a lack of dopamine and/or norepinephrine, with depression it's a lack of serotonin, in anxiety GABA neurotransmitters act up. But what about people with bipolar disorder? What is biologically happening in manic, mixed, depressive episodes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hk2qz/eli5_what_is_biologically_happening_in_a_bipolar/ | {
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"Short answer: it's not that well understood and probably extremely complicated.\n\nLonger answer: Our current understanding of the brain is very limited. One of my Neuro teachers once told us that at the moment, the way we treat the brain is like a big bag of chemicals, where you just throw in more of something if there is \"too little\" or block all of something else if there is \"too much\". This is a terrible approach, but it's the only one we have right now.\n\nIn reality, the brain is made up of circuits, which are series of very specific connections between different areas. Far from there being one neurotransmitter for each circuit, there are many, many circuits that use the same neurotransmitter, in different ways and for different purposes. This is why any medication that affects brain chemistry can have so many potential side effects.\n\nIn addition, any complicated thing that happens in the brain will involve many circuits, often involving multiple different neurotransmitters. So, it's too much of a simplification to say that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin, for example. We have hypotheses, and we also have a bunch of medication that works, or kinda works, or works with a weird delay, but in all cases we don't really understand why it works.\n\nI suspect bipolar disorder is the same. If anything, it may be even more complicated because it involves multiple phases with completely different symptoms.",
"Altough it may not fully answer your question, but I read a great book on this subject called \"An Unquiet Mind\". Fully recommend."
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44e8l4 | if someone's net worth is 5 million, do they have 5 million? is that how it works? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44e8l4/eli5_if_someones_net_worth_is_5_million_do_they/ | {
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"Net worth is assets minus liabilities.\n\nSo in theory, if someone has a net worth of $5 million that means if they sold all their assets and paid off all their debts they'd have $5 million.",
"You have 6 cookies but you owe me 2 cookies. Your net worth is 4 cookies. However, you have a milk that any given person would trade ~1 cookie for. Therefore your true networth is ~5 cookies. "
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6ifivf | why do people follow zodiac signs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ifivf/eli5_why_do_people_follow_zodiac_signs/ | {
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"It's the same reason as for why people believe in God(s). It's entirely up to your belief system and your faith in what zodiac signs say. I have a friend whose family despises zodiac signs, they think its satanic. On the other end of the spectrum, I have a friend whose family hangs up zodiac things around the house because they find them comforting, if that makes sense. \n\nIt should be noted, though, that despite your beliefs the posts that go up saying 'Who your zodiac sign gets married to' and 'What your zodiac sign thinks of June' are usually pretty BS, they're intentionally very vague and general so that no matter your zodiac sign you can relate to what is being said, hence why people tend to believe in them.\n\nSo, TL;DR, it's just faith bro."
]
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7ol67v | what causes the itchy irritation on your butt from feces? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ol67v/eli5what_causes_the_itchy_irritation_on_your_butt/ | {
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"You see, when poop gets a bit old, it becomes crusty. So if you don’t clean your ass after you shat, the poop that remains on your butt remains there and becomes crusty, kind of like blood. \n\nThe reason it’s itchy would be because of friction. When. You walk the crust moves as well, tickling your butt as you move. \n\nSource: avid pooper for 20 years"
]
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1mrewa | brainfreezes, and other types of pain from consuming cold products | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mrewa/eli5_brainfreezes_and_other_types_of_pain_from/ | {
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"The pain comes, not from the cold - as many think - but from the spasms of the muscles fighting to open the blood vessels again once the cold reflex causes them to constrict."
]
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325cgo | why is it common to hear some people from the african american culture to say "axed" instead of "asked"? | We were talking in sociology about how race is made up and we're all the same which I completely agree with (so don't call me racist or anything). I was just thinking about how I always hear this, but it also could just be vernacular/dialect thing from the midwest. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/325cgo/eli5_why_is_it_common_to_hear_some_people_from/ | {
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"You'll be interested to learn that it's not just African Americans. I'm from the English Westcountry, and \"ax\" for \"ask\" is quite a common thing in the dialect of that area. This swapping of sounds (\"ask\"/\"aks\") is called \"metathesis\", and another example in Westcountry is \"wopsies\", which means \"wasps\".\n\nAnd it's also worth pointing out that even standard English has some examples of metathesis. Ever wondered why we say \"three\" but \"thirteen\" and \"third\"? Metathesis: originally it was \"threo\", \"threotene\" and \"thrid\", but in the last two the \"r\" swapped places with the vowel.\n\nNow, back in about the year 1500, \"ask\" was only used in northern England. In the rest of England, people said \"aks\", and it was usually spelled \"ax\" or \"acs\". It was probably the Authorized Version of the Bible -- the one Americans usually call the \"King James Bible\" -- that made \"ask\" the more popular form.\n\nWhich is the original? Almost certainly \"ask\"; the Old Saxon was \"escon\", which probably came from Proto-Germanic \\*aiskojan (there are no written records of Proto-Germanic, so the asterisk means that this is an educated guess -- it's what linguists think the word must have been).\n\nThis doesn't answer the question. Well, basically, people speak dialects which can show where a person comes from, what their social status is, what group they belong to (or want to belong to), and often even what gender they are.\n\nSo, without having studied this, I would say that \"ax\" for \"ask\" is a feature of a sociolect used by specific ethnic groups in America. It's not because these people are badly educated or incapable of pronouncing the word properly: it's that peer groups tend to develop specific speech patterns which then help to identify who is and who isn't a part of that particular group.",
"Is it really that necessary to not just say Black Americans?\n\nI mean the fact that you're generalizing them in the first place kinda defeats the purpose of jumping through the P.C. hoops...",
"Same reason people from the south say \"winder\" for \"window\" and people from Boston say \"Pahk the cah in the yahd.\" Why is it only Black people who ever get this asked about them?",
"Black English Vernacular is a dialect of English which features alternate pronunciations of many words. But remember this is in a comparison between dialects, as there is no objective standard and potentially all dialects feature unique pronunciations. The pronunciation in question is actually present in more than one dialect of English. The reason for blacks in America to use this dialect is the same question as why any group uses the dialect it does. Why do some southerners say 'warsh' for wash; why do some people from New England and specifically Boston 'pahk the cah'?\n\nAs for the reason for this exact feature to exist, that is something that occurs in languages. The s and the k get switched and the word becomes aks. The fact that this dialect features it isn't a particularly momentous thing. "
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26w06k | can the space shuttle make the trip to the moon and back? | Is there a reason why we cannot use the Space Shuttle to make trips to the moon and launch a moon lander from the loading bay. then, when completed, return to Earth in the Shuttle? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26w06k/eli5can_the_space_shuttle_make_the_trip_to_the/ | {
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"The first reason is because our space shuttle fleet does not exist anymore. That's a bit of a hurdle.\n\nSecondly, the shuttle is not designed to be equipped with boosters of the necessary power to get out of low earth orbit. Getting to the moon requires a TON of thrust. Much more than the shuttle was ever intended to produce, or be accessorized with.\n\nThirdly, after getting rid of the boosters, the shuttle does not hold enough fuel to make the necessary burns needed to get into and out of lunar orbit.\n\nPlus a litany of smaller issues that would make it impossible. It's just not made to do those things."
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2eyf1f | auction strategy | Auction based TV shows, and auction goers often say there is a lot of strategy in auctions, but I don't really understand it. It seems to me that whether you bid early, or bid late, or whatever, it all comes down to who is willing to spend the most on the item. When people claim to be really good at auctions, is it purely a reflection of their wealth, or are the other patrons manipulable? I can see there being strategy in a auction based board game or extremely narrow market, but for the most part I'm clueless.
TL;DR: If an auction pro and myself both wanted the same item, what sort of strategies would he/she use to best me (assuming equal wealth). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eyf1f/eli5_auction_strategy/ | {
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"You can't think of it as just you vs 1 person bidding on 1 item. I mean there could be strategy there, but the real strategy game opens up when you have many things to bid on.\n\nYou can try to bid prices up to make people spend more money so they don't have as much later. Its a gamble though because you could get stuck with it.\n\nYou can try to get people to win a lot of bids so they have to think about logistics in bringing those things to their shop/house/whatever. this one probably works best on the storage auctions.\n\nThen there is the whole \"i dont want people to know I want this because they might not know its as valuable as it really is..\" by being real hesitant and whatnot.\n\nSo, its not all about who is willing to spend the most on something. Now of course if its bill gates your bidding against he could bid a million on everything and it would be true but... you get the idea..\n\n",
"You didn't actually describe the auction, which makes a big difference. I assume you mean the kind of open auction where everyone bids and the highest bidder pays their bid. Additionally, I assume all the items have some kind of public value that may not be exactly known but people have a good ball park.\n\nFirst point: Pros probably do better research, so have a better ball park value.\n\nSecond, and more difficult to explain: If an auction pro and an amateur both go for the same item, the amateur will likely \"win\" the item by overpaying for it. This is the \"Winner's Curse,\" which is an actual thing.\n\nHere's the key: Actually winning the item means everyone else thought it was worth less than you did. Which is more likely to be true in this case: That you possess special wisdom, or that you overvalued the item? Most auction pros, then, will shade their bid down from what they think it's worth. Most auction amateurs don't bother doing this and thus win the auction but lose value in the process."
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6ircy4 | why do animals and birds behave strangely during eclipse but not when sun is blocked by clouds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ircy4/eli5why_do_animals_and_birds_behave_strangely/ | {
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"The difference in light intensity is significant between a cloud or the moon covering the sun. \n\nDespite the fact that you can't see through clouds, they still let through a lot of light. The moon however is a solid rock and casts a far darker shadow over the earth. Animals are able to pick this sudden change up and compared to their own circadian rhythm it doesn't make sense, so that's why they start to show behavior we don't normally see during the day. "
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3v84cr | what does mark zuckerbergs donation actually mean to his bank account? | Yes it's allot of money and I hope it will go to something good, but ill say I'm a little drunk and can't do the math. But lets say science does some shit and Mark Lives 100 more years. And he donates 1% a year until he dies. Isnt he still making money on the 99% from interest while he donates the other 1%? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v84cr/eli5_what_does_mark_zuckerbergs_donation_actually/ | {
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"He's giving away stock, not liquid assets in a bank account. He's giving up stock worth 45bn but he never had immediate access to that amount of money in the first place, that was part of his net worth. ",
"Yes. 99% of his stock comes out to something like 30% of his total assets upon his death.\n\nThe exact percentages depend on a variety of factors that are unknown, including dividends that Facebook may pay, the future value of Facebook stock, the performance of other stocks... Basically everything.\n\nBut 99% in the far future is not 99% today. So even drunk you are far ahead of most people who read this story."
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d2ts4h | why a planet would be too large to support life | I was just reading this article and this sentence stood out.
_URL_0_
"Water has been detected on other planets but they have been either too big or too hot to support life."
The hot bit is obvious but how might a planet being too big affect its ability to support life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2ts4h/eli5_why_a_planet_would_be_too_large_to_support/ | {
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"As planets get bigger, their gravity increases substantially. At a certain point it becomes impossible for humans to survive somewhere if the gravity is too strong. Some bacteria could survive at several thousand times earth's gravity, but we can only survive at a few times earth's gravity.",
"Pressure and gravity basically you might only be able to exist as a tiny bacteria, also water planets may have difficulty with sunlight penetrating deep enough into the water to generate any light where the potential living organisms are - _URL_0_",
"I think this is probably just wrong.\n\nI guess they mean \"life as we know it\" because what might theoretically the absolute limit for life in general is quite a hazy concept but probably very far from what we might imagine.\n\nFor life in theory you just need some energy gradient that enables a pattern to copy itself (imperfectly). Strictly speaking even chemistry is not a hard requirement for life, let alone organic chemistry.\n\nTo claim that a planet would be to big to support any sort of life is making a lot of unfounded assumptions and even our sort of life might be quite a bit more flexible than you would think."
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8oxsqc | when lightning or thunder strikes large bodies of water (ocean, lake) why does it not electricute the whole body of water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8oxsqc/eli5_when_lightning_or_thunder_strikes_large/ | {
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"Thunder doesn’t strike. Electricity does go through the whole body of water but it spreads and becomes weaker as it travels the water, so it only goes so far.",
"It does, but there is not enough electricity to cause real damage once it all spreads around. ",
" > ELI5: When lightning ~~or thunder~~ strikes\n\nSorry corrections had to be made. Thunder is just the clap lighting makes. \n\nAnyway the short answer to your question is, it does. The slightly longer answer is that the voltage is no match for the large surface area and the result is almost complete dispersion across the surface. This is not to say proximity doesn't matter. If you were in the water, and your head or any other portion of your body was above the water when lighting struck relatively close to you, you would probably die.",
"Think of it as being like poison. If I have a drop of poison that's enough to kill a man, and I drop it into the Atlantic Ocean, it isn't going to kill everything in that ocean because it spreads out too much.\n\nIt's the same with lightning - any hapless fish that find themselves in the immediate area where the lightning hits aren't going to have a fun time, but as they get further away from the point of impact the effect will diminish to the point where it's not even noticeable."
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1ryyfw | why popular auto makers that have been around for decades such as ford and gm have low stock prices well under 50 and tesla motors, a relatively new company has a much higher stock price of over 120 a share? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ryyfw/eli5_why_popular_auto_makers_that_have_been/ | {
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"Two reasons:\n\n1) The number of units of stock is not constant between traded companies. Company A may have 10 times more units of stock getting traded around than Company B\n\n2) Tesla Motors is new and has a highly public new product entering the market. This means that they may explode if the product catches on, meaning huge returns for even a small investor. It also can mean the company will crash and burn if it doesn't. The stock is more risky, but has a much greater potential payout. It's the $1000 roulette table vs the $10 one.\n\n",
"Ford has four billion shares outstanding. TSLA has about 1.2 million"
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6kf2d3 | how do the military build missiles so strong (bunker busters) that are able to punch through many feet of concrete keeping their shape before exploding? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kf2d3/eli5_how_do_the_military_build_missiles_so_strong/ | {
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"I read somewhere that the US used / uses tank gun barrels for some of the bomb casing. They are so strong that they penetrate then explode. Fascinating "
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1520nq | why do most of us find certain animals cute (cats, koalas) but some repulsive (snakes, spiders)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1520nq/why_do_most_of_us_find_certain_animals_cute_cats/ | {
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"I believe it's because the mostly cute, cuddly animals are mammals. They're more like ourselves than snakes or lizards, etc. Also, because mammals are warm blooded they actually _like_ to cuddle (in general) because that's what mammalian mothers do with their own off-spring.\n\nPlus, they're just so damn cute!",
"Evolution.\n\nWhile humans don't have many instincts as some lower animals (like cows, or dogs, etc), we have some. And spiders, snakes, etc are evolutionary ingrained as dangerous. \n\n'Cuteness' is really more about facial symmetry, large eyes etc., this is why people can find the ponies on MLP 'cute'. ",
"More importantly, why is it okay to kill \"repulsive\" animals but not \"cute\" animals?",
"In addition animals that we see as cute tend to resemble human children (big heads compared to their body and large eyes). This is because humans are genetically designed to want to protect their children."
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3ptqny | how are "generations" divided into meaningful chunks of people to be studied? if people are born fairly consistently instead of in "bursts" aren't any groupings arbitrary? | Even when they're grouped by significant historical events, how do we *know* these events so significant until after we've studied their effects on these masses of people? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ptqny/eli5how_are_generations_divided_into_meaningful/ | {
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"You don't. Nobody can agree what chunk belongs to which generation.\n\nTake 90s kids for example. Is it people born in the 90s, people who were between 5-15 in the 90s, teens of the 90s, 20y/os of the 90s, or literally everyone who remembers the 90s?\n\nThere have been many arguments and possibly actual fights over this.",
"Historically, people *have* been born in bursts - the most famous example of this being the Baby Boom that immediately followed World War II (1946-1950 or so). All those soldiers who had put their lives on hold for 4-6 years returned home, got some education (with help from the GI Bill), got married, bought a (subsidised) house, and started families. "
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20o7gw | why do we not put commas when we write the year? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20o7gw/eli5_why_do_we_not_put_commas_when_we_write_the/ | {
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"Cause it looks weird, and isn't needed."
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3cbm8q | why are bass and treble frequencies more deafening than midranges? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cbm8q/eli5_why_are_bass_and_treble_frequencies_more/ | {
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"They aren't. In fact, it's the opposite. Our ears are most sensitive to sound frequencies around the range of the human voice.",
"Our ears are most susceptible to higher frequency hearing damage because higher frequencies take far less energy to produce due to the difference in physical size. The nerve endings in our inner ear are a part of the \"cochlea\". These nerves die off when exposed to a particular given frequency. Ever notice that high pitched ringing in your ears after a loud concert? That's actually a sign of damage to that particular frequency range. \n \nNotice also that older people have trouble hearing higher frequencies first, which is why it's hard for them to hear diction. It give a sort of \"underwater\" effect. \n \nWith very low frequencies, we mainly feel them in addition to hearing them, so they may seem deafening, but it in fact would take a tremendous amount of low frequency energy to damage our ears in comparison to ultra-high frequencies. \n \n"
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8y9det | why it is hard to reach -273 celsius but easy to reach 273? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8y9det/eli5why_it_is_hard_to_reach_273_celsius_but_easy/ | {
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"You can't make cold, you can only move heat.\n\nAs you get colder, it gets increasingly difficult to remove heat because the removal process itself *must* generate heat and heat spontaneously flows towards cold regions. As you approach -273, you're reaching the limit where you're removing every last joule of available heat from a system, and even the tiniest leak or inefficiency will pump heat back in.\n\nMaking heat is easy, you can get to 273C with any crude fire pit.",
"Not only is it hard to reach -273 C, it is actually physically impossible. Molecules that make up everything are always jiggling around bumping into each other and other things. This jiggling is what we call temperature. Now, to get to absolute zero, we would have to get rid of ALL of the jiggling. The molecules would have to be completely frozen in place. The catch is the uncertainty principle, part of which says you can't know something's location with infinite precision. If a molecule is completely frozen in place, we automatically know its exact location and therefore absolute zero is forbidden by quantum mechanics.\n\nOn the other hand, to get to 273 C, you just add some heat until the molecules are jiggling the right amount. ",
"-273, or absolute zero, is the complete absence of energy. To reach this, you have to remove the energy from the molecules you intend to get that low but this becomes increasingly difficult the lower you get. In comparison, you can always have more energy. Smash a few carbon molecules up and you get lots of energy released in the form of heat (and particularly in the form of fire). Whack some metal ions with electrons and heat will be released there too (this is resistance on a circuit and why things like phones get hot). -273 is the complete lack of removable energy, but 273 is nowhere near the complete saturation of removable energy. 0 degrees is just a standard we use because its easy to measure as the point water freezes, while 100 is easy to measure as the point water boils. When this was designed, no one really thought about going 273 degrees lower than 0. On the Kelvin scale, where -273 is actually 0, every number is larger so there is no parallel on the \"other\" side of the scale. 273 on the Kelvin scale is 546, but that's just an uninteresting, seemingly not relevant number.",
"Celsius is just a measurement used by humans to make it easy on us. 0 degrees is freezing point of water, 100 degrees is boiling point. A better measurement is Kelvin. 0 degrees kelvin is absolute zero, meaning no movement among molecules at all. This is also equal to -273 Celsius. It is extremely hard to reach this temperature because there will always be heat transfer to the molecules you are trying to get to 0 Kelvin. On the contrary, you can add heat to any substance continuously and get to really high temps (like up to 273 degrees Celsius).",
"You know how it's almost impossible to get all the toothpaste out of the tube? \n\nTemperature is how we measure how *jittery* atoms and molecules are. There will always be something there no matter how much we take from it. ",
"Because 0°C isn't the middle temperature of all possible temperatures. Absolute 0 is one end of the spectrum, the other is \"Absolute hot\".\n\nHere's an [infographic](_URL_0_)",
"Temperature is just how fast molecules are vibrating. Let's scale it up to the real world.\n\nHold your hand out in front of you, now move it back and forth as fast as you can. That's 273 degrees. \n\nNow hold your hand perfectly, absolutely, still, that's -273, or *absolute* zero. You can't actually do it, your hand will always be moving a bit, little tremors, and the blood flowing through it.\n\nIf you want to look at the opposite of absolute 0, absolute hot is about 142000000000000000000000000000 degrees, and that would be comparable to the speed of light.\n\nIn summary, 273 degrees isn't anywhere *near* absolute hot, in our scale, it's actually closer to absolute cold than absolute hot. Just like you are closer to standing perfectly still then you are to moving the speed of light. "
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d9v6mv | how does a computer send signals out on the internet so fast | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d9v6mv/eli5_how_does_a_computer_send_signals_out_on_the/ | {
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"The electrical signals are traveling at the speed of light, and the switches in the circuits are switching on and off in microseconds. At the speed of light, a signal is able to be transmitted, received, processed, and retransmitted within milliseconds.",
" > I get it electricity is fast but can it really travel hundreds of miles in seconds \n\nElectrical signals (and light) in copper or glass travels roughly 200000km per second, almost 5 times the circumference of Earth. \n\n > how does a computer send out signal so fast. \n\nHowever, in the time it takes a high end CPU made since the mid 00s to perform a single operation such as 2+2 or 187390×10494729, electrical signals (and light) only has time to travel a few centimetres. \n\nIn the time it takes a neuron to fire in the human brain, a computer can handle *tens of millions* of operations. \n\nSo really, as computers see it they aren't sending out signals fast - they're taking their time, waiting their turn, it's just that they're insanely fast in general.",
"This is one of the difficult concepts to really grasp as human beings. We tend to use things like mega, giga etc etc without fully appreciating the amount of things this refers to.\n\n10 Giga bits per second is, for round number purposes approx 1 giga byte per second. Each character/alphabet can be coded within 1 byte. So this is like 1,000,000,000 alphabets per second. If you assume that, in written text, the average word length is around 10 (for round number purposes) this works out to 100,000,000 words every second. A typical novel contains around 100,000 words. So this number of words equates to 1,000 novels every second. \n\nI'd guess that most people would not read more than 2,000 books in their entire life. So your computer can transmit, in 2 seconds, the content of every book that you will ever read in your lifetime. \n\nOr think of it another way, you speak probably 10,000 words a day (normal conversation etc). If you live to 100 years, this works out to 365,000,000 words in your lifetime (give or take). A computer likely takes less than 4 seconds to send this.",
" > I get it electricity is fast but can it really travel hundreds of miles in seconds\n\nelectrons travel at pretty much the speed of light. The energy potential burning in your lightbulb was generated at the power plant just a few miliseconds earlier.\n\nThat should be fast enough I think :)"
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bahwc3 | what noticeable difference (if any) will i notice with 5g on my phone? is it that much of a difference from lte? | So I just updated my phone and noticed that it is now 5Ge instead of 4G LTE. What is the major difference? Will I as a user actually notice anything different? What is 5G? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bahwc3/eli5_what_noticeable_difference_if_any_will_i/ | {
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"Its just another name for 4G LTE. \n\nIt is not faster. It means nothing. It is a gimmick from AT & T",
" > \tWhat is 5G?\n\n5G is a new communications standard which offers significantly faster speeds than 4G. However you don't have 5G, you have 5Ge which is AT & T lying to you about what service you have. Nothing has changed, it is the 4G you had before.",
"AT & T's 5Ge is actually LTE-Advanced, a standard that has been around for a while. Sprint actually even sued AT & T for gaining unfair advantage by lying to their customers. It actually happened to me last night in Philly, and I was surprised because I definitely don't have a 5G phone (iPhone X). Ran a speed test, ping is 12 ms (not THAT good), jitter is also 12 ms (horrible), and speed is a lowly 94 Mbps (download) - 14.7 Mbps (upload). So there isn't ANY difference when you see LTE and 5Ge (AT & T just rebranded their LTE-Advanced as 5Ge). "
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7d9o64 | why is it that a lot of animals need their tails to balance but we as tailless creatures can usually balance ourselves just fine? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7d9o64/why_is_it_that_a_lot_of_animals_need_their_tails/ | {
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"They don't *need* it. Look at bobtail cats for example. I just raised a litter with 2 bobtails in it and they learned to walk and balance faster than the others. The tail just helps. Like anything on animals it exists because it gave them *enough* of a competitive advantage that their genetics were more likely to be passed on. Chimps for instance didn't need benefit from a tail and so as they diverged from other mammals having one became a detriment rather than an asset, and so they and therefore us don't have one."
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d3exf5 | what’s the difference between the domestication and taming of animals. are the terms interchangeable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d3exf5/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_the/ | {
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"So taming an animal involves convincing one or a few of a species to follow you. Domestication involves having a majority of the species live with an likely depend on you. Think dog vs. wolf because a wolf is a type of dog that can be tamed, while s dog is basically born ready to be part of your family. Dogs have even evolved to act more like babies so we love and take care of them more.",
"Think of it like weather versus climate.\n\nTaming would be the process of using Pavlovian techniques to teach a single specific animal do or refrain from doing some behavior.\n\nDomestication would be the purposeful, selective breeding of a lineage of animals to highlight or minimize traits.\n\nA single tamed animal can be taught to be non-human aggressive, but domestication is the long term removal of the instinct that forms the basis of that human aggressive behavior through breeding only non-human aggressive animals."
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chkvej | what keeps oceans and seas from spreading viruses and many other contagious illnesses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/chkvej/eli5_what_keeps_oceans_and_seas_from_spreading/ | {
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"Surviving in salt water isn't that easy for many living organisms that are not adapted to it. However bacterial diseases can spread in the oceans and many marine animals are vulnerable to catching infections spread this way, it is just that they are unlikely to infect humans as we are not part of the bacteria's normal life cycle",
"Nothing really. If you have an open wound in ocean water, you'd better clean it out very well to avoid bacterial infections. \n\nBut since humans and primates don't normally live in the ocean, there's not a lot of ocean born diseases and viruses adapted to infect us. Plenty of nastiness going around for sea life though.",
"[Red Tides](_URL_0_) is what popped into my head first. I witnessed one last year in Florida. Dead fish, jelly fish, and even huge turtles were washed up on the beach. Very sad. We had to call some people about a four foot turtle that had washed up near our condo and some guys in a golf cart came to assess and let the heavy lifting guys know where it was. We were advised to not get in the water. Another vacationer in our rental unit ended up pretty sick because he thought the warning was a joke and decided to dunk his head under the water.\n\nTo sorta answer your question, red tides are usually naturally occurring and can’t be prevented or fixed. If there is any warning about ocean water please listen to it and take precautions.",
"There are an enormous number of viruses in a small drop of seawater; there are thoughts they may yet play an unrecognized role in ocean ecosystems.\n\nBut to answer your question, the conditions inside of a human body and the conditions of an ocean are quite different in terms of salinity, temperature, pressure, etc. Viruses require living cells to hijack their machinery in order to replicate and there aren’t that many humans floating around in the vastness of the oceans for this to be a concern.",
"Hiya! I'm a microbiologist and I love these questions! Many bacteria that cause diseases require an environment similar to their hosts, like nice warm temperatures, stable pH, and many others. Seawater is generally much colder and the salinity is too high for many microbes. So if you have something that causes diseases in humans they are unlikely to survive long in seawater. That's not to say that there are no bacteria in the seas but they're generally concentrated on and around corals, rubbish like plastic bottles and sediments. However these are generally not harmful bacteria and they rarely cause disease unless you get them in a open wound. Also you have a simple food chain underwater as well. Bacteria are eaten by zooplankton which are then eaten by marine animals. That Also the ocean from being overrun by bacteria. Hope this answer helps!",
"A common trope in science fiction is ancient bacteria, or alien bacteria, or germs from the deep depths of the seas. But the best way for you to think about the immune system is like security systems. Every time criminals come up with a way to do something bad or get around the old system, someone thinks up a way to deal with it.\n\nEventually criminals become hugely specialized and so do security experts. But its a constant battle.\n\nIf you found some ten million year old bacteria it would be as dangerous to us as a guy who used dynamite to open safes would be to a bitcoin exchange.\n\nIf you want to rob a bitcoin exchange you need to have evolved in the same system, you need to know what works and what doesn't and spent a huge amount of effort specializing yourself for that job. \n\nUnless these bacteria are practicing against us they are unlikely to pose any kind of risk to us. That's why you are OK to go swimming but why Europeans were so deadly to native americans."
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2p4k90 | are people legally allowed to protest in the street and hold up traffic? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p4k90/eli5_are_people_legally_allowed_to_protest_in_the/ | {
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"If you mean \"can 80 of my buddies block mainstreet traffic\"... no. The cops will show up and move you along/arrest you.\n\nMy understanding is that cities/towns etc. have specific forms that basically schedule a protest. For example, if you want to march on Washington DC to protest SOPA, you can fill out a form and get permission to do so.\n\nIn that case the police will create a path and roadblocks in order to provide a safe path to have your protest march. Now the police are on your side, maintaining order so you can focus on your message.",
"Depends on how you define \"allowed.\"\n\nIt's illegal to block traffic, but if you have more than a few hundred people in a march they won't fit on the sidewalk, and they'll almost unavoidably spill out onto the street. It's counterproductive, in my opinion, when protesters *try* to block traffic -- it just pisses people off, and doesn't help the cause. But it's impractical and basically impossible to issue tickets for blocking traffic when the crowds are huge."
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1yar0f | what is the difference between a remix, a rework, and a flip? | I was just wondering what the difference was. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yar0f/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_remix_a/ | {
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"IMO a flip is taking a sample of the original and making a completely different instrumental out of it, usually by chopping the original up into small segements and re arranging it. Popular in hiphop. A rework is the original remastered or the structure altered slightly, perhaps with different / new instruments but still close and faithful to the original. A remix is a different backing instrumental but still using core parts of the vocals. "
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33a7bq | why does football not use series play during playoffs? | I don't understand why (American) football playoffs consist of singular games vs. hockey or baseball which use a series format to eliminate "lucky" games. Could someone clarify? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33a7bq/eli5_why_does_football_not_use_series_play_during/ | {
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"American football is designed to be a high variance game (any given sunday is a feature not a bug). Beyond that the game is damaging to players enough that adding even 2 games to each level of the playoffs would almost certainly have a dramatic effect on injuries.",
"The game is much too physical. You can only play 1 game per week, and even then the length of the season already leads to a substantial number of injuries. There simply is not enough time to allow for healing and still get those games in.",
"American football plays far fewer games than the other sports. Teams only play once a week for a total of 16 games a season. Having a best of 3 series for each round would make the playoffs take way too long.",
"Because football games are way more physically damaging and there are generally many more injuries during a football game than in most other sports. There's just way more impacts. That's why each team only plays one game per week. \n\nThe regular season is only 16 games long, and by the end, most teams are missing a decent number of players due to injury. If you kept the current playoff structure but made each round a best of 3 series, then you're looking at a team possibly playing 10+ playoff games by the time they get to the Superbowl. They'd likely be completely wrecked by injuries by that point. Also, that would extend playoffs by months, and the superbowl teams would have a much shortened offseason to recover and get players healthy again. ",
"If you just did best of three you would potentially add 12 games to a teams normal 16 game season. Players also need more recovery time than in other sports. Injuries would no doubt increase, and this is already a league which is facing serious criticism for injury to players.\n\nI think though that the NFL playoffs are the the most exciting in sports. Everything is on the line, every game. "
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5bpflo | why is the phrase "used to" as in "i used to do that" grammatically correct? what exactly does it mean? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5bpflo/eli5_why_is_the_phrase_used_to_as_in_i_used_to_do/ | {
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"So, the phrase isn't \"used to\" - it's \"used\" + the infinitive \"to do.\"\n\nWhy is that important? Because the noun \"use\" once meant \"habit,\" and the verb \"to use\" meant \"to habitually do.\" The majority of that definition has fallen out of favor in modern English and the simplification of tenses and moods, but it lingers on in the format you mentioned.",
"I see people are trying to explain what the phrase means, but obviously you're wondering *why* the word \"used\" means that, in this context. That's a good question, since it's a bit antiquated. \n\nThe phrase goes back about 600-700 years, when \"used\" also meant \"accustomed\" or \"having practiced.\" Thus, \"used to\" meant \"being accustoming to [doing]\". Over time, the phrase become more generalized as a way of simply introducing something in the past. "
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3f1lrs | if a placebo works by the brain telling the body it works, can visualizing something working do the same thing? why or why not? | A placebo basically tricks the brain into creating either relief of symptoms or in trials, how well a drug's effect has on a person. So since the brain can't tell whether someone is actually doing something or visualizing it, can it work the same way? Btw, this is what a therapist has told me.
Thanks for your explanations. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f1lrs/eli5_if_a_placebo_works_by_the_brain_telling_the/ | {
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"Yes, it can. New age medicines, even things like 'energy healing' are all able to produce the placaebo effect. If you believe it works, it will have an effect.\n\nIt should be noted however that any medical practice has to noticeably exceed the placaebo effect to become a standard practice, so these visualizations are in no way a substitute for treatment."
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2dpzxf | i don't know anything about shark poop. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dpzxf/eli5_i_dont_know_anything_about_shark_poop/ | {
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"Shark poop forms watery clouds, not strings. Sharks are quite different from bony fish like goldfish, especially regarding their super wacky digestive system (corkscrew intestines and flotation device livers)!\n\nAnything nutritious from the poop will be used by plankton, and anything without nutrition or that gets missed will sink to the ocean floor. \n\nWeirdly poetic description [here:](_URL_0_) \"Rather than producing a more-or-less solid bolus of waste matter, as do human anuses (most of the time, anyway), shark cloacae void feces that is generally quite liquidy, typically a dirty mustard brown in color. Sometimes, a streaming cloud of shark feces is punctuated with an unexpectedly pretty surprise: a burst of silvery fish scales, glittering like diamonds in the flickering underwater light. With a graceful swish of its tail, the White Shark dissipates the momentary discoloration, returning its unused energy to the sea.\"\n\nErm... anyway... shark poop can contain scales but usually doesn't contain bones as these are too large to fit through their corkscrew intestines. These hard objects (and sea trash they might eat) remain in the stomach until they are digested enough to pass through the system. "
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1wjxlv | what happens if a person with multiple personalities commit a crime? | Title. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wjxlv/eli5_what_happens_if_a_person_with_multiple/ | {
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"This depends on the state whether they can claim insanity. In DC for example the test is whether the mental disorder caused the crime. In most of the country, the test is whether they were unaware the crime that they committed due to the disorder. Even if the person is found insane by multiple personalities they don't just get \"off\" they go to a mental institution where they can possibly stay for longer than they would have in prison.",
"If at the time, the person was in a mental state in which they *could not* differentiate between *right* and *wrong*, then they can plead insanity. \n\nThe defense is tried in less than 1% of cases - and is successful less than 1% of that.\n\nThe person would be put in an institution *indefinitely* - until doctors believe the person can be safely returned to society. Often - that ends up being longer than a person would've spent in jail. Sometimes, the person cannot be helped - and are never returned to society, as is the case with many criminally insane murderers. \n\n"
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2s8uq3 | why does the "we took too long to make this page for you" page pop up? why for some pages or subs more than others? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s8uq3/eli5_why_does_the_we_took_too_long_to_make_this/ | {
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"I'd much rather reddit just took an extra 5 seconds to make the page, without telling me \"sorry\" and making me click refresh.",
"I can't comment on Reddit's setup specifically, but in operations at a site dealing with a lot of traffic, the amount of time we take to get HTML back to you after you request it is called Page Assembly Time. That's what we're talking about here.\n\nThe reason we limit it (often to 3 seconds or so) is because we are contacting a bunch of different software systems, each with their own large databases, in order to get that information back to you. If one piece of that data takes too long to retrieve, it could mean there's too much load (demand) on that particular part (or \"shard\") of the database, or some part of the application became non-responsive trying to finish your request, much like an app crashing in windows.\n\nIn either case, this effect can \"snowball\" and make other users' loading times even slower, so instead of letting that happen, we shut the whole thing down.\n\nNow, as to different pages breaking the limit versus others, what you are probably seeing is the effect of caching or shard imbalance. Caching is where we just put stuff in memory because users are requesting it often enough that we might as well have it in RAM, which is fast, not a hard drive, which is slow. If it's old or not frequently viewed, it's going to have a lower priority to be cached.\n\nShard imbalance is a little more difficult to explain, so I'll use a real example. If Justin Bieber (ugh) tweets something, he has 59.2 million followers looking at it. If Twitter had him on a shard with 100,000 other users, those unlucky people would never get their tweets delivered in a timely fashion. So he has his own database shard all to himself (maybe 2 by now, I don't know).\n\nSource: worked for Twitter and other high-volume sites (though not reddit itself)."
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3vye9r | how does compression clothing work? | There seems to be a lot of data confirming that compression clothing (tights, socks, sleeves, etc.) improves circulation. But my understanding is that compressing blood vessels would inhibit circulation. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vye9r/eli5_how_does_compression_clothing_work/ | {
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"It compresses the small capillaries and vessels near the surface, forcing/diverting more blood through muscles and organs where it is needed.\n\nYou don't circulate more overall, but you are circulating more where it's needed.",
"I can tell you that my dad has circulation problems, and wears compression socks to prevent excess blood pooling in his legs.\n\nApparently veins are usually closer to the surface than arteries, and are also meant to expand and act as reservoirs for blood at times, and compression gear reduces this action.\n\nNot really an answer, but a piece of data to contribute to the picture.",
"Blood is pumped throughout your body to help with basically every function. It keeps your muscles and other systems working at their best by delivering oxygen and nutrients and removing waste buildup.\n\nCompression clothing it helps the most with blood returning from your limbs, especially your feet and legs. Blood has a much easier time going down to your feet because your heart is pumping it through a high pressure system (think of your arteries as being like a garden hose) and it has gravity helping it downwards. \n\nBlood returning to the heart has a much more difficult time because it is moving upwards against gravity, and also because your veins (containing blood) and lymph vessels (containing other fluids and wastes) aren't pressurized like a hose. They act more like a plastic bag being filled up with a liquid (they expand as they fill but aren't under high pressure.) They are usually helped by your muscles, which compress them and force blood/fluid back towards your torso.\n\nWhen your muscles are weak/tired, or if there are other issues with these veins and vessels there is even less pressure to help this upward flow. Compression helps pressurize them (especially near the skin's surface) and helps blood flow back to your heart, which reduces swelling, edema, and removes waste near the extremities.\n\nIf graduated compression is used (IE socks that have maximum compression at the ankle and less compression up along the leg) it's even more effective because it creates a pressure gradient - which further encourages movement of blood and fluid away from the foot. \n\nThere are other compression uses to help things like SI joint issues by providing stability, but the most use I see is to help with circulation.\n\nHopefully that wasn't too long/detailed for an ELI5... and hopefully it answers your question.\n\nSource: work in sports medicine related field where we sell medical grade compression products like socks/tights for poor circulation/diabetic issues.",
"I bought white compression shirts to use as undershirts. They work to hide manboobs. Also, as a side effect improve posture. It shows you what would look like if you lost 3 pounds, and maybe coincidentally I have lost a lot of weight. \n\nTl;Dr they solve all problems",
"Blood moves through the body to capillary beds, which surround all tissues of the body. At capillary beds, blood pressure created by the beating of the heart results in a hydrostatic force that forces fluid out from inside the capillary bed into the surrounding tissue. \n\nUltimately, the fluid will be returned to the circulation in two ways: it can be sucked back up into the capillary beds due to osmotic pressure or can be taken up into the lymph system (15%), which ultimately empties it back into the circulatory system. \n\nIf more fluid is delivered to tissue than is returned to circulation, edema (build up of fluids) can occur. Exercise increases blood pressure, therefore increases the amount of fluid delivered to tissue, and can cause something akin to edema as well. Extended periods of sedentary activity as well as medical conditions may also compromise return of fluids to circulation. Compression garments act simply to squeeze tissues and veins, encouraging fluids to return back to circulation. In theory, it also can encourage better circulation to an area by getting enough of the fluid/waste products out of an area so that more perfusion can occur.\n\nThere are other benefits as well. Here is one paper:\n_URL_0_",
"My arms/hands and legs frequently fall asleep while I'm sleeping. Any negative effects of wearing compression clothing to bed?",
"Source: I design and manufacture custom fitted compression garments as a hobby/business. \n\nWe are one of the largest societies in human history to spend long portions of their day seated. Our bodies are not cut out for office chairs 8-10 hours a day for 50 working years of your life. \n\nYour body pushes blood to your limbs via arteries, and pulls the expended blood back using veins. Veins have anatomical features that act like valves, allowing the blood to flow back towards the heart, but not flow backwards in between beats. Think of blood going to your feet, then having to get all the way back up your leg against gravity. Without these one way valves, the blood would pump up, then just slide back down between beats. \n\nAs we get older these valves begin to get leaky. The rate of degradation depends on health, lifestyle, gender, and other factors. Generally they lie under an umbrella term called venous deficiency and can cause things like edema, varicose veins, diabetic ulcers, etc. \n\nSo blood pumps out to a limb, but more blood is pumped out than is retrieved. The excess blood pools in the limb leading to swelling called edema, and this further restricts circulation. \n\nThe way that a compression garment works is that it physically limits how much swelling is allowed and the compression helps your veins work better by forcing the valves to close better. \n\nYou would think that strangling a limb would decrease blood flow, but not if it's spread out over a wide area like with a compression garment. It acts like a pressure cuff that limits freely moving blood from pooling in the tissue, forcing it back into the veins and back to the heart. \n\nPeople may wear compression garments for a variety of reasons. Because of the better circulation, athletes may wear them to promote better blood circulation when running or cycling for more endurance. \n\nOffice workers may wear them to prevent edema in the legs from being seated for long periods of time. \n\nCancer survivors may wear them because of damage to their lymphatic systems which causes lymph, not blood, to pool in their limbs. Survivors of breast cancer especially may find swelling in their arms and shoulders to be unbearable. \n\nThere are two main types of compression garments, short stretch, and elastic. Elastic compression garments are like stretchy socks on steroids, and they actually squeeze the limb to force blood back out. The down side to these is it is difficult to prevent it from bunching up in spots and cutting off circulation in painful ways. The benefit is they will cause a limb which is already swollen to begin shrinking. \n\nThen there is short stretch which is less like an elastic material, and more like a pressure cuff that is held on without squeezing, but which cannot get any larger because it doesn't stretch. For these to work, they must be put on when the limb is not swollen, such as when waking up in the morning, and it must be worn all day. The advantage is that they don't stretch so no amount of sitting, standing, contorting, working, or resting, will cause your limb to swell, because it can't physically get any bigger. So they are more comfortable to wear, do not bunch up and cut off circulation, and they only squeeze when your limb tries to swell. \n\nThe garments I make are custom fit using many of the materials you might use to make a custom backpack like 2\" lycra webbing, velcro, etc. I began making them after becoming dis-satisfied by the ridiculous cost of some compression garments, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars for what is basically a velcro shirt/legging/tube/sock, and a desire to improve on their design to give people a better quality of life. \n\nMy new prototypes use one way sweat wicking bands to actually cool a limb off while providing compression and can be worn even in the summer time. \n\nI have family members who are almost disabled because of edema and it makes me very glad that I can provide some relief for them and watch their lives literally change overnight. \n\n",
"Compression clothing probably doesn't work, at least not better than placebo. The data are sketchy at best, and proper scientific studies failed to come up with anything. Sorry. _URL_0_",
"It squeezes tightly on your wallet, forcing money from that location to to the bank account of the compression clothing manufacturers. "
]
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"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41657166_Effects_of_a_Whole_Body_Compression_Garment_on_Markers_of_Recovery_After_a_Heavy_Resistance_Workout_in_Men_and_Women"
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"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21923201"
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8f28gp | will internet bandwidth ever be as ubiquitous and cheap as electricity is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8f28gp/eli5_will_internet_bandwidth_ever_be_as/ | {
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"That depends more on how you compare quantities than anything else. By some comparisons we're already there.\n\nThe technology is already there, but sometimes artificial scarcity is more profitable. It's more a politics/economics issue. People won't pay more for internet unless they're unsatisfied with what they have. ",
"For large parts of the population this is already the case and have been the case for years. The major difference between power and communications is that it does not matter where the power comes from but it matter who you communicate with. So in a remote area it is much easier to build a power plant then to have to route communications channels from all over the world. The opposite is true in densely populated locations where it is hard to build big power plants and keep them running while communications lines are much easier to install. Another big factor is how the industries are regulated. A few countries in the world are not regulating Internet like other utilities and have a general high level of corruption. So companies are able to create big unregulated monopolies which drives the price up considerably."
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35ieh4 | the fifth amendment | I am doing flash cards for a constitution test, and All the definitions are the same, please help! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35ieh4/eli5_the_fifth_amendment/ | {
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"ELI5: You cannot be forced to incriminate yourself: even if you are under oath. Pleading the fifth thus equates to \"I do not wish to answer the questions presented due to the fear that in the process I might reveal information that make it look like I did unlawful or incriminating things regardless of the truthfulness of said incrimination.\"\n\n\nAlternative: you can't bear witness against yourself. you have the right to plead the fifth in a witness stand up until the point you answer any question.",
"If they ask where you were on the night of the murder, and you were trespassing during that time, you can plead the fifth instead of lying to the jury so you don't admit to trespassing.",
"It covers a few things:\n\n- The federal government can't put you on trial for a serious crime without the consent of a grand jury of your peers.\n\n- If you are put on trial and found not guilty, the government doesn't get any do-overs, even if more conclusive evidence comes out after the fact.\n\n- You can never be forced to be a witness against yourself in a criminal matter. If you're in a situation where you're under oath, and are asked if you commited a crime, declining to answer the question is not considered an admission of guilt.\n\n- The government can't execute you, imprison you, or take your property away without giving you a fair chance to defend yourself.\n\n- If the government *does* need to take your stuff for public use (say they want to run a highway through your land), they need to fairly compensate you for it.\n"
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3u4r2q | everyone loved ronda rousey before she lost a fight and now everyone seems to have hated her all along, why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u4r2q/eli5_everyone_loved_ronda_rousey_before_she_lost/ | {
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"People love a winner. And are pretty \"meh\" about losers. However for a more specific ELI5 on Rousey, [here is an imgur post that is pretty well done](_URL_0_). ",
"It's easy to think of the reddit community as having a single consensus on every subject, particularly if you only read the top comments on front page threads, but this is far from the truth. There are millions of accounts here and people upvote comments that they agree with. People will also gravitate towards subjects that excite them, and people on the hype train for Rousey commented and upvoted most while she was winning, and when she lost they lost interest, while people who didn't like her from the start become the loudest voices.",
"It is easy to like a dominant fighter, and Ronda Rousey used her Olympic level judo to beat all of her opponents to great effect. The statistics speak for themselves. She won her first three amateur fights by armbar in the first round. Then she proceeded to win her first seven professional fights in the exact same fashion; an armbar in the first round. I haven't checked, but I'm 99.99% sure that no other fighter has dominated in such a way (same technique, same round).\n\nThen she fought Miesha Tate for the second time, who managed to make it to the third round with Ronda, but still lost by armbar. Her next four fights she won in the first round with a variety of finishes (KO (punches), another armbar, KO (punch), and a knee to the body).\n\nShe was always a rather fierce character, as you might expect from an elite fighter. She didn't mince words, she was outspoken, brash, etc. And all this time, she was really paving the way for women in MMA. She was a big draw. I for one, as a former judoka, loved seeing such high level judo in MMA. It was awesome to watch.\n\nNow to the casual observer, this is amazing to watch and read about. A fighter, dominating in such a way, with 75% of her victories with an armbar and 92% of them in the first round. That kind of prowess attracts attention in any sport.\n\nAnd thus a hype machine was born. The UFC promoted her more than almost any other fighter at the time. Due to being paid proportionally to how much money she brought in to the UFC (revenue at the gate and in PPV buys), she was the highest paid fighter in the UFC. She was a Big Deal.\n\nBut to the more hardcore fans, such as those of us in /r/mma, there were aspects that went largely unnoticed. Chief amongst them: her division (bantamweight) was weak. The combined record of her opponents at one point was something like 1-7. Most champions will fight fighters coming off a winning streak, with mostly wins on their record. But there simply weren't (and still aren't) many female mixed martial artists at a high level at the time. Rousey was an Olympian, with a strong work ethic and a desire to win, and she climbed to the top, but arguably it was a relatively shallow climb.\n\nAs for why she is facing such a backlash now, in the last year or two she was getting extremely arrogant. All elite fighters have confidence in spades and the mental aspect of combat sports is paramount. You have to believe you're going to win. But there is a very fine line between confidence and arrogance, and Rousey went deep into arrogance. She got too big for her boots, was apparently surrounded by yes men, was told that she had 'elite boxing skills' to go along with her judo... people got swept up in the hype around her and I think she did too. She was in movies, countless interviews on television, etc etc... it must be hard not to let all of that get to you.\n\nSo by the time she fought Holly Holm, she was saying things like \"I believe I can beat anyone in my division with one hand\". Arrogance. And yes, you can argue she's just talking smack and trying to hype the fight to get more buys... but personally, I don't think so. I think she got swept up in the hype. Being told your boxing skills are elite when you're about to fight perhaps the best female boxer ever..! Some of the video footage of her shadow boxing in particular drew great criticism. On the pads she looked a bit sharper and faster, but in the Octagon it was never crisp and clean. Her win against Bethe Correia (supposedly a hard hitter who frequently won by punches), was essentially just her charging Correia down, eating a few punches, pinning her to the cage wall, and overwhelming her. There was no finesse, no head movement, no neat footwork or evasion. Bethe wasn't actually a hard hitter, and Ronda just ate those punches, apparently because she wanted to prove that she wasn't just a one trick pony. Not exactly champion level tactics.\n\nI don't think people 'hated her all along'. I for one liked watching her fight at the start. But as her personality started to show and her arrogance grew, it was harder and harder to like her. It was also hard to hear people talk about her like she was some kind of god, when under the surface you could see that she wasn't as great as she was being made out to be. And it was oh so satisfying to see such a masterful fighter like Holm dominate her completely and knock her out in such a spectacular fashion, ending her reign and proving just that.\n\nTL;DR everyone loves to see arrogance fall off their high horse.",
"I think a big part of it was her behavior at the weigh in and not touching gloves.\n\nAt the weigh in she got right in Holly's face and said some nasty stuff, afterwards said Holly is fake, and them right before the fight refused to touch gloves.\n\nSome smack before the fights and helps sell the fight and is expected to some extent. Trying to get in your opponent's head gives you and advantage in the fight and isn't out of the ordinary. Refusing to touch gloves, is a bit unsportsmanlike.\n\nTalking loud smack and playing head games but losing just gives everyone a chance to throw her antics up in her face. Casual fans point out her behavior right before the fight, and the people who follow MMA point out other things she did in the past that are in the same vein.",
"“Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.” ",
"For Rousey, it was a bad weekend. She came off as a bad sportswoman insulting and refusing to touch gloves with the even tempered and good natured Holm and then fought a wild, dangerous fight that didn't show sufficient respect for her opponent's ability. And just like that Rousey is now history!"
]
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408ye4 | why are some foods high in sodium but they don't taste particularly salty? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/408ye4/eli5_why_are_some_foods_high_in_sodium_but_they/ | {
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"Not all sodium is in the form of salt (sodium chloride). Baking soda, for example, doesn't taste nearly as salty as the same amount as salt. MSG has sodium and isn't salty (though it's generally used in small quantities). Also, other tastes, especially sweetness, can hide the taste of salt. "
]
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||
2r63eh | what exactly is appendicitis and is there anyway to prevent it? | I recently went through an appendectomy, just woke up one morning in intense pain. Luckily it didn't burst before they were able to take it out. So i was just wondering what exactly happened to me and could i have prevented it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r63eh/eli5_what_exactly_is_appendicitis_and_is_there/ | {
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"It is when the appendix swells/becomes inflamed. This can be due to infection or a blockage, or even cancer. There is nothing you could have done to prevent it. It just happens to some people."
]
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|
2kycko | why can i wake up when i want to? (no alarm) | I've always had to use an alarm clock to get up for work/school. Considered it a fact of life; figured the whole world has to do this. Recently a family member told me that she's never had to use an alarm clock; she simply thinks about what time she wants to wake up as she's falling asleep, and she'll wake up at that time. I responded with incredulity, but she was serious. So I've been trying it for a few months, and I'm shocked that it works. I wake up before my alarm, no matter when I set it to. Any science behind this? Or do I have a new superpower? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kycko/eli5_why_can_i_wake_up_when_i_want_to_no_alarm/ | {
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"Not sure if this is the right answer but a girlfriend told me I woke up all through the night to check the time without realizing it. Try taking a clock out of your room and see if you can still do it.",
"Over year after year of having experience with time. Your subconscious basically becomes a clock. You subconsciously are keeping track of time. You know when you need to do this or that even when you are sleep.\n\n It's natural for everyone to subconsciously have some track of time even when not thinking about it. However not everyone benefits from it like others. (Being able to do thinks like wake up at time you wanted to without use of an alarm.)",
"That happens to me as well, except that I don't think it is a habit thing (i.e. I don't wake up at the same time every day). I just go to bed thinking \"I really want to wake up at 7 a.m. tomorrow\" (even if I normally sleep to 8 or 9) and I often wake up within 3 minutes of the alarm clock ringing. It is so accurate it is scary."
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2bgtsz | how do supermarkets not get fruit flies while one batch of bananas can bring dozens of flies within the hour back at my apartment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bgtsz/eli5_how_do_supermarkets_not_get_fruit_flies/ | {
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"Quit leaving dirty dishes in your sink.",
"The unusual thing is that your apartment has so many flies, not that the supermarket has so few. I can leave all sorts of fruits out and not see a single fly.",
"fruit is usually delivered in a refrigerated truck where the truck is kept at such a low temperature that hatched fruit flies don't have a high chance of survival but wont hurt the fruit and when they are brought into the store they usually pass through a door that has a blower aimed down from the top of the door to prevent any bugs from flying in. If stores don't have one where they bring in food they usually have one where the produce is brought in from the store room and the customer entrance usually has two sets of doors and the area in between has air pumped in to create a positive air pressure area (where the air pressure is greater in one room than another so when a door opens in between them air rushed from the room with more air pressure like the area in between the doors to the room with less air pressure like outside) so nothing can fly in, and if there are fruit fly eggs the bananas are usually sold before they hatch. As for the flies in your house they can live in your drains where you have rinsed old food down the drain or anywhere there is any open food including but not limited to fruit, bread, leftovers and butter (the little buggers love butter), they also like to live in the garbage can."
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pt71v | the effects of an eu country going completely bankrupt on everyone else. | How would it affect other countries in the EU and those not in it? Also, what effects would it have on everyday lives both in Greece and in other countries in the EU? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pt71v/eli5_the_effects_of_an_eu_country_going/ | {
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"text": [
"I think these two posts might be able to help you out: [effects on the euro](_URL_3_) and again [here](_URL_0_).\n\nAs for the effects on your average Greek, these posts explain it quite nicely: [rioting in Greece](_URL_1_), [again here](_URL_4_) and from the [point of view of a Greek](_URL_5_)\n\nYou might also want to take a look at [Wikipedia on last week's Greece austerity package](_URL_2_).\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kzff7/eli5_why_the_world_economy_hinges_on_the_success/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lnukb/eli5_why_is_greece_in_such_a_horrible_depression/c2ub7y3",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government_debt_crisis#Fifth_austerity_package",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m18fj/eli5_how_is_the_greek_economic_crisis_related_to/c2x8wea",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pnfuw/eli5_why_are_citizens_of_greece_ripping_apart_the/c3qr1aj",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lhlz9/eli5_what_the_protestors_in_greece_want/c2suvl3"
]
] |
|
4x5tpd | what makes some country prone to military coup while others don't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4x5tpd/eli5what_makes_some_country_prone_to_military/ | {
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"Various reasons. Stable countries tend to have civilian control of the military(Elected President is Commander and Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces). From there you could factor in history of coups making a new one more likely, corruption of the government making the general population more likely to support a coup, a lack of history of having a stable democracy amongst others. Also, in the case of the U.S., the various branches of the military are so far removed from each other structurally that it would be difficult for the Army to launch a coup without the Navy and Marine Corps turning on them or visa versa. Most countries have a more centralized control over all their military branches, or only have 1 effective military branch anyway(Functioning Navies and Air Forces are expensive and most countries don't have them)",
"It also depends on the current economic status of a country. Economically wealthy autocracies like the Gulf States remain in power due to resources keeping the military and populace well-funded, avoiding a coup. Other autocracies like Libya kept the military underfunded and disorganized, resulting in a coup. Often this can result in popular democracy like in Tunisia or a power vacuum that has not been stabilized, with various forces fighting to seize control of the government, like what is occurring in Syria. Democracies can be taken over if economic conditions result in poverty and lack of accountability from the elected politicians that do not carry through policies that keep the populace and military well funded. This results in an ousting of the current democratic government, creating a power vacuum, from which a populist strongman emerges. This is what caused the democracies of Latin America and Europe to fall into dictatorships in the early 20th century. The same process described above repeats itself until a stable, continuous government is formed. ",
"Countries where military coups happen often share the same traits:\n\n* History of military governments setting a precedent\n* Outsized influence of military in legislative, executive or economic spheres\n* Short history of democracy which makes citizen revolt unlikely\n* Unstable political or economical environment driving the military to act\n\nSo let´s look at some countries to see if they match:\n\n**US**\n\nEconomically and politically stable, founded on constitutional rule and democracy. While the first president was a general and came from the military there has never been military rule. Strict separation of power. No coups\n\n**Turkey**\n\nFounded by a military leader who entrusted a lot of power to the military. Long history of military coups and decreased democracy, highly volatile political environment. Lots of coups\n\n**Egypt**\n\nHas long been a dictatorship run by a military leader. The military has a lot of influence in all government spheres and a lot of stakes in various economy endeavors. Tanking economy and politically unstable situation. Lots of coups\n\nMilitary around the globe often attempts a coup when their power is curtailed (or tried to curtail) by the civilian government or when an ideology they are based on (e.g. Kemalism in the Turkey Air force) is directly opposed by the government.\n\nCountries where the military never had any leadership aspirations or power to begin with, have no reason to attempt a coup most of the time. With some exceptions of course (The military really had no reason to suspect their influence was trimmed down under Hitler yet we can all agree the Stauffenberg coup attempt was justified)."
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1t8fdi | my gas tank is lower on really cold mornings, and reads more full once the day warms up. does temperature of the gasoline affect the efficiency of the rate at which the fuel is burned? | I know enough basic science to know that the fuel gauge reads differently because of the expansion of the fuel due to heat, but I have no idea if this affects my MPG. It is full blown winter where I live, and I swear I am getting worse MPG. I have gotten about 30km less this tank than last one (I fill up about once a month... I live 5min drive from work and the gym and my wife does most of the shopping, errands, and drives her car when we go somewhere together cause she hates my car, 5th Gen Prelude SiR) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t8fdi/eli5_my_gas_tank_is_lower_on_really_cold_mornings/ | {
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"I don't know the answer to the title question, but do you warm up the car before you get in it? Most people warm up their cars or spend time scraping ice off the windows before driving and that's just gas burning without you going anywhere. ",
"The engine has to run richer in order to function when cool, and this uses more fuel. The thicker oil in the engine and transmission takes more power to push around. It also takes extra fuel to push water (or sow) away as you drive. \n\nBalancing all this, cold fuel is more dense, and contains more energy per litre. "
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3g443t | why is norway's gdp per capita (nominal) so high (all sources state at least $97,000, compared to e.g. uk/germany which are $45,000) but wages aren't all that high? | Sorry for asking this again, delete if not allowed.
_URL_0_
Note this is nominal, not PPP adjusted, so it doesn't take into account cost of living. Note how the value for Norway is more than double that of countries like the UK and Germany, and almost double that of the USA.
For example, I was talking to a Norwegian friend who said that he (22 years old) makes around 140 NOK/hour in a store. That is around $17, which is a decent wage. He also said that Norway is a very equal country, with not much difference between the bottom workers and the top workers. But when you take into account the very high tax rate, and the very high cost of living, and the fact that the above GDP per capita figure is so high, it's not as high as I would expect. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g443t/eli5_why_is_norways_gdp_per_capita_nominal_so/ | {
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"Well you have to take in to account that taxes aren't just money you don't get. The taxes are actually used to pay for stuff. Like healthcare, unemployment aid and school. So if a Norwegian and an American get about the same after taxes, the Norwegian have more money after paying all the bills as he doesn't need to pay for health insurance or have a massive student debt to pay off.\n\nAlso the wages in Norways are quite high, I know several Swedes that works in Norway as they earn more than they would in Sweden. But as you mention the living cost is also higher in Norway, so some work in Norway and then live and/or shop in Sweden.",
"Norway has enormous petroleum resources which are distributed amongst the population in various ways. This tends to elevate the standard of living."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita"
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1abowy | how do i start learning about politics and world news? | I realize I am woefully uninformed about how the United States government works, how other governments work, and what is going on in the world politically and eventfully. What is happening? How do I start learning? Do I start reading the NYT everyday? Do I go back a certain length of time and start there? What is the best way for an ignorant 21 year-old to start knowing about what is happening with the people and institutions on Planet Earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1abowy/eli5_how_do_i_start_learning_about_politics_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Here's how I did it. Read a few articles every day. If something interests you, crack open Wikipedia and read more background on it. Ask questions to well-informed people in your life (or online).\n\nAnd get your information from multiple sources, I can't emphasize this enough. I usually use the New York Times, The Economist, and PBS.\n\nOh, and please stay away from /r/politics, it's the political equivalent of /r/atheism - biased and childish.",
"Philosophy first. You have to look at things with an open mind to learn. I'd start with philosophy concerning collectivism vs individualism. Then you can understand better what left vs right politic actually is. Collectivist thinking is left of center individualist are right. \n\nThere is a relatively huge middle ground, grey area, where if you are willing to compromise you can balance things to work but isn't a static area, time and place have effect on what is proper law making to go with making it tricky to play middle ground politics. \n\nA lot of other philosophical debates and matters can be slotted under \"collectivist\" or \"individualist\" for example nature vs nurture debate. Individualism is concerned with nature ie:\"The self made man\". Collectivism is associated with nurture ie: \"It takes a community to raise a child\" and so because of that you can even give collectivism as feminine and individualism as masculine. Of course that's a generalization but if you look into things you can see that bias. \n\nSo take an issue of taxation. Individualist right leaning conservatives view it as theft.. A collectivist view it as the price one pays to live in a society that has a lot of public services. There is much more to be said and that's a pretty vague ELI5 but I don't have the time to elaborate.(going to work) EDIT: After you learn about the philosophical side of things you can see so many people don't fully grasp the full spectrum of politics. It's really quite disappointing at the same time. ",
"Firstly I think the most important thing is to prepare your mind because a lot of the stuff you read will be opinionated and biased so you have to learn to employ critical thinking. I would suggest you start taking a look into critical thinking methods, logical fallacies and common arguments people make that are flawed. I would suggest listening to Skeptoid; it's a weekly podcast that focuses on critically looking at pseudoscience in pop culture. \n\nOnce you learn how to recognize what evidence really is and how to not let your emotions get into the way of your thought processes you can start to objectively look at Media in the modern world.",
"Just a bit of warning, prepare to be sad about what you learn :-("
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2v0fzz | how exactly do certain drugs, whether legal or not, change personality traits of a person? | Different drugs do different things but I've never understood how exactly they change personality and brain function. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v0fzz/eli5how_exactly_do_certain_drugs_whether_legal_or/ | {
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"Hallucinogens, like LSD and Mushrooms, can cause large perspective differences to things and thoughts in completely different ways that elements of ones ego surpresses. Many people, when their normal filters are in place, can discover very different interconnectedness between things than they ever felt before. It can challenge belief structures and be a very powerful experience due to how it affects the firing of your neural network and hormone release.\n\nBecause of these effects, many people can have profound experiences, often around spirituality and philosophy, which can persist after the drug wears off. Many people can remember those thoughts they had, and can cause the to act differently, or embrace prior beliefs in different ways."
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ba1ogg | how can two batteries be the same size but have different voltages and a small battery can have higher voltage than a big battery | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ba1ogg/eli5how_can_two_batteries_be_the_same_size_but/ | {
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"Batteries are a result of a simple chemical reaction of 2 dissimilar metals and an electrolyte. For example a [galvanized nail, a copper penny and a potato](_URL_0_). The basic chemical reaction creates voltage, where the size of the surface area of the nail and penny creates current. \n\nIf you stick 10 nails and pennies in a big potato, you'll have the same voltage, but more current. This is why a AAA battery and a D cell are all 1.5 volts.\n\nNow with the same 8 nails and pennies, if you have 8 potato's, the potato's can be [linked together nail to penny](_URL_1_) and add their voltages together to form a 12 volt battery.\n\n[this is how a 12v battery can be the same size as a 1.5v AAA](_URL_2_) 8 potatoes."
]
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[
"https://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/2/2a/Create-a-Potato-Battery-Step-5-Version-17.jpg/550px-nowatermark-Create-a-Potato-Battery-Step-5-Version-17.jpg",
"https://d1ca4yhhe0xc0x.cloudfront.net/Files/8117/17/fig9a-potato-battery-series-2.jpg",
"https://goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DSC_9156.jpg"
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1at6so | the debate on private prisons | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1at6so/eli5_the_debate_on_private_prisons/ | {
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"What happens when people profit from other people's incarceration? Is it conceivable that in the name of profit they would inflict cruel and unusual punishment upon their \"customers\"? It is evident this has happened.\n\nFurther, should something critical to law and order be held in public trust and operated directly by the government, or should it be run by private companies?",
"Some people believe that privatization would be cheaper and produce better results then government run prisons because of competition in the market. If they don't perform well the government will simply move to someone else who can deliver results. It's a basic principle of capitalism. \n\nOthers fear that private prisons encourage needless incarceration because without large prison populations these places loose money. They fear that judges can be bribed and legislators bought to make more petty crimes have jail time as a sentence. They also believe that private prisons often only claim to be cheaper because they cut essential services from prisoners, for instance rehab or education programs, and have prisoners live in substandard living conditions. \n\n",
"I'll try to give a look at both sides of the discussion. Please do correct me if I'm missing something or wrong:\n\n**Pro-privitization:**\n\nPeople in favour of prison privitization argue that privitization makes efficiency; if they're for profit, private prisons have more incentive to be more efficient than government prisons would. Also, since there's competition to actually get prison contracts, private prisons would save the government money, since they'll try to provide the best prison for the least cost.\n\n**Anti-privitization:**\n\nPeople against private prisons argue that prisons, being for profit, will mistreat prisoners and slim down their care as far as they possibly can in order to gain their profits i.e. \"efficiency\" isn't always a good thing. They also argue that the argument that private prisons are less costly is false and that they cost the taxpayers just as much, sometimes more, than prisons run by the governement.",
"[Here's an excellent example of why for-profit prisons are bad](_URL_0_).\n\nShort version is that a juvenile court judge was bribed by the for-profit juvenile detention facility to convict as many kids as possible so they could charge the state more for holding them.\n\nWhenever you present a situation where there's a financial gain to be made, somebody will eventually go after it."
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||
g1ijiz | is an colored object still colored when it's in total darkness? | For example: You have a red box and you put it in a space with absolutely no light.
Colour is just the part of the light that gets thrown back, but if there's no light wouldn't there also be no colour and therefore the box would be black? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g1ijiz/eli5_is_an_colored_object_still_colored_when_its/ | {
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"It depends on how you define color. If color is something you perceive than the answer is no, the absence of light prevents you from perceiving color, so there is no color. If you define color as an intrinsic quality depending on the object’s pigments and the frequency of the waves it reflects when hit with light, than it does still have a color.",
"Color only exists when there’s light. So if there’s no light, there’s no color to perceive. \n\nI’m not sure you could even say that the box is black - saying something is black makes sense when you can compare it to things that have color, but if everything is black, it’s useless to say that this or that particular thing is black.",
"if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear, does it still makes a sound?",
"I would say that we normally intuitively think of an object’s colour as being an intrinsic property of the object i.e. the colour of the light that would be given off from the object if the object was illuminated by white light (“white” being some standardised distribution of frequencies in the visible part of the spectrum).\n\nIf we didn’t think of colour in this way, questions like “what colour is a red balloon under green light?” would make no sense. (We still think of the balloon as being really red, even while we’re wondering what colour we will see when we look at it.)",
"Like others have answered, this is mostly a definition/philosophical question.\n\n I’m going to argue that it is though. Saying something about the color of an object is saying how it interacts with photons.\n\nAn electrical conductor is still a conductor even when not connected to any electrical circuit. We are stating something about the properties of the object, and not about its current condition. In the same vein, an object is red even in the absence of light."
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2daatp | if a blocked nose is caused by inflammation then how does the blockage switch sides so freely? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2daatp/eli5_if_a_blocked_nose_is_caused_by_inflammation/ | {
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"The inflammation is caused by an involuntary part of your brain to stop further germs/bacteria/viruses from entering your body so your immune system doesn't get overloaded. It switches each side so one side doesn't get too exposed to the bacteria before being re-inflamed/re-mucus-ed. ",
"How do people hold their breath underwater using the \"blow through your nose technique\" with this issue? I notice I can barely blow through one of my nostrils, so when I try to go underwater the water always goes up that nostril...",
"can someone explain why when i lie on my side, the nostril that is blocked is the one closest to the mattress? when i roll over to the otherside, it switches too.\n\ngravity?\n\nmust be gravity.",
"Isn't there erectile tissue in your nose that causes one side to be blocked?",
"When I exercise with a stuffed nostril, it clears up. Once exercise ceases, it gets stuffed up again.",
"When you can't breathe through your nose (i.e. your nasal airway is obstructed unilaterally or bilaterally), it is (almost) always due to inferior turbinate hypertrophy. The inferior turbinate is a highly vascularized lump of highly elastic tissue that swells and shrinks throughout the day as part of the Nasal Cycle. The swelling is caused by engorgement with blood.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nWhen you develop a cold (or rhinitis for any other reason), your inferior turbinates become edematous. The swelling is due to inflammation *in addition* to the regular engorgement with blood. This additional swelling makes the nasal cycle noticeable and not to mention uncomfortable.\n\nSo the switching of sides happens all of the time. You only notice it and become uncomfortable when the cycle is amplified due to additional swelling from inflammation.\n\nAnd knowing is half the battle.",
"If you do a headstand with a blocked nose for about 30 seconds, when you return to the upright position it will unblock for about 15 seconds giving you a small window of opportunity to spray some SINEX or fast acting medicine up there unimpeded.\n\nIf you go to sleep lying on your side with a blocked nose the upper nostril will be less blocked than the lower nostril. You may even get one working nostril to help you make it through the night.",
"Sometimes the blockage that \"opens up\" when you lie on the other side is an anatomical flap of tissue called your middle sub-turbinate sticking to the other side of your breathing passage. Normally it helps keep foreign bodies out of your nasal passage but it swells up like a bastard with illness. Using a neti pot helps. Look up Mid-subturbinate on youtube if you have a strong stomach "
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6v4b6n | how to spiders make that first connecting silk strand? | There is a spider in my backyard who has strung a silk from my gutter to my fence (roughly the same height, but 5 ft apart). It seems like too far to jump, and if he went down the house, across the lawn, and up the fence, wouldn't his silk be too long to be taut across the span between the gutter and the fence? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6v4b6n/eli5how_to_spiders_make_that_first_connecting/ | {
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"Spider silk is so light that the wind can carry it almost horizontally. So they just start putting out a new strang into the air, and keep going until it catches on some remote object.",
"The first thread is called a \"bridge thread\" and it relies on the wind. The spider can utilize the wind \"intentionally\" (as much as \"intentionality\" applies to the mind of a spider!). In fact, a spider can't really \"eject\" it's web (sorry spiderman) - it relies on being stuck to something or the wind to draw it out of the body of the spider. So..the wind both determines the end-point of the web, but it also tugs it out.\n\nIf the \"bridge thread\" fails to make it's mark, the spider (some kinds) can eat it and then have the proteins ready to go for another try. \n\nThe bridge thread is often traversed and given layers to give it extra strength and ultimately said bridge thread is the weight bearing thread of the entire web. "
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uicuw | what is the evolutionary benefit of enjoying music or art (or why do we enjoy it at all)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uicuw/what_is_the_evolutionary_benefit_of_enjoying/ | {
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"I don't think there is any significant evolutionary benefit to either.\n\nLiking art and music is just a side-effect. Human beings have developed senses to help them survive. Certain things are pleasing to those senses. Usually those pleasant things are things that help us survive - the taste of fruit, the feeling of sun on our skin, etc.\n\nBut the same neural pathways in the brain that sense those things can also respond to other stimuli. Even though these other stimuli don't help us survive, they manage to create a similar response in the brain as things that do. When that happens, we say that such stimuli are \"aesthetically pleasing\". We enjoy them, even though there's no evolutionary reason we should.\n\nOne may ask, why don't these \"side effects\" go away? Why doesn't evolution select them out? The answer is that although they don't help us, they don't hurt us either. And consequently there's no evolutionary pressure to get rid of them."
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||
3s764j | the situation going on at mizzou | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s764j/eli5_the_situation_going_on_at_mizzou/ | {
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"I second this question. I've heard the stories on NPR, and done cursory web searching, but I'm not seeing what the deal is.\n\n1) Somebody allegedly yells racist comments. \n2) Swastica in feces in a bathroom \n3) ???? \n4) President forced to resign\n\nI mean, it sounds like there's gotta be something else going on. Some vague incidents by a 3rd party don't usually bring about mob ire on the top management unless something really big triggers it.\n\nSome of the reports suggest that the leader of the hunger strike group had previous beefs with the administration that had nothing to do with safe areas and racism, but still confused how the 'movement' could actually culminate in forcing the president to leave unless there's actually fire there, or he just said 'f-this, i don't need this noise'"
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36b0n6 | why do drug commercials always have fine print that says "see our printed ad in 'obscure magazine'? (examples within) | Examples:
[Lunesta](_URL_1_)
[Celebrex](_URL_2_)
[Lipitor](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36b0n6/eli5_why_do_drug_commercials_always_have_fine/ | {
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"text": [
"It's an FDA requirement. The full details of side effects, conflicts with other drugs, results of certain clinical trials, etc. have to be published and it is impossible to attach that stuff to a radio or TV ad so the FDA allows companies to just tell you where you can go read it.\n\nThey'd much rather (I am certain) tell you to just visit a website but the FDA isn't down with the interwebz yet and fears that some people won't know how to use a website."
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"https://youtu.be/ogyC9rEjxDM?t=32s",
"https://youtu.be/vu0rXFhsM8w?t=42s",
"https://youtu.be/7GvYI4VdVEI?t=22s"
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b12sfs | how are today’s complex video games like red dead redemption 2 or battlefield v programmed to account for an almost infinite amount of variables and to have realistic physics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b12sfs/eli5_how_are_todays_complex_video_games_like_red/ | {
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"One method which is widely used is object-oriented programming. This allows you to abstract things away by encasing them in an object or class which is responsible for its own behavior.\n\nFor instance, let's consider a shooter game. We create an object called a \"bullet.\" Bullets might differ - big ones do more damage, some might travel at different speeds - but they all behave more or less the same, traveling along a straight line until they hit something. Our bullet object tracks trajectory, current position, damage, speed, maybe visual model or sound.\n\nNext, we make a gun object. Does the gun have to worry about how its bullets will fly? No! We already have a bullet object which has all that figured out. Our gun object just has to create new bullets every time the trigger is pressed.\n\nNext, we can make other things you find in the world - health packs and hats, for instance. They all behave differently, so they are all their own type of object. But wait! Guns, health packs and hats all have something in common - they are things which the player can find and pick up. They have a visual model, and a location in the world.\n\nSo we create a container object, called a Goody. Anything the player can pick up is a Goody; each Goody has a sub-type, which can be a gun, health pack or hat. \"What happens when the player walks over this item\" is coded differently for each sub-type, but the Goody object has things like a location and a visual model, which are common to all Goodies.\n\nThus, when the player is walking around the world, all the game engine has to do is say \"Check our list of Goodies - is any of them underneath the player? If so, tell that Goody that the player just picked it up.\" The game engine doesn't have to worry about tracking what every single type of Goody is and how it behaves, the Goodies do that themselves.\n",
"Video games run on engines that are essentially physics simulations. These engines calculate the movement of rigid bodies, particles, light, and texture effects. Adding too many of these calculations can make gameplay slow so video cards employ fancy tricks to make the calculations easier without effecting the overall experience. Some of these effects can be seen if looked for closely. Try moving quickly and look at a fixed image on the screen like a HUD or health bar. You'll see the resolution around the fixed graphic is noticably reduced and possibly artifacts (fuzzyness) around the graphic."
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8m3iat | what decides the maximum altitude a plane can fly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8m3iat/eli5_what_decides_the_maximum_altitude_a_plane/ | {
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"It is a combination of lift (there needs to be enough air density to keep the aircraft up), speed (moving faster through less dense air can provide more lift), and structural limits of the engine. Moving very fast in order to provide sufficient lift from the wings and enough air for the engine to function means the air must be compressed very much in order to feed the engine. That compression heats the air which only gets hotter during combustion of the fuel, potentially melting the engine components.\n\nSo the limit for a particular aircraft might be defined by any of several factors. For example an aircraft might lack wing surface or speed depending on how you look at it, as more of either would allow it to go higher.",
"Depends on the plane.\n\nIf the cabin is unpressurized, you can't effectively fly higher than ~40,000' before your pilot is guaranteed unconscious.\n\nAlso, as the air gets thinner, the stall speed (the speed at which the wings no longer provide lift) gets higher. At the same time, the reduced oxygen means the maximum thrust the engines can develop drops. Roughly, maximum altitude is where those two curves intersect.\n\nWhere that altitude is depends entirely on the specific plane in question: body size and shape, wing geometry, engine layout, gross weight, etc.",
"A few limiting factors, depending on the aircraft.\n\nThis big one is the ability to convert thrust into lift. An airplane works by deflecting air downwards to generate lift, the faster it moves, the more air it deflects and the more lift. As altitude increases, there is less air to deflect, and the same amount of thrust generates less lift. Eventually, the airplane gets to the point where the engine has a full thrust just to maintain altitude.\n\nOther factors include the engine getting enough oxygen to operate properly, and for unpressurized planes, the same goes for the pilot.\n"
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85zvs8 | why has it been so difficult for austin pd to find the person/people responsible for these bombings? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85zvs8/eli5_why_has_it_been_so_difficult_for_austin_pd/ | {
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"text": [
"Finding someone who has mailed or left something is way harder then TV or Films make it seem. "
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8cogoy | what is the cause of a whistling "s" for some as they get older? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8cogoy/eli5_what_is_the_cause_of_a_whistling_s_for_some/ | {
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"Most likely explanation - dentures. Natural changes in the gums and jaw over time can be a factor. Gums change, and over time bone underneath the gum can shrink. The change is progressive, so seniors don't notice it. But their dentures no longer fit properly."
]
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||
e3sqff | how do we know precisely the locations of the geographic poles? and how did we know our location relative to them before gps? | Basically, how can we measure the Earth's rotational axis accurately enough to be able to erect a physical [pole](_URL_0_) that goes through it? And how did expeditions in the early 20th century know when they successfully reached the poles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e3sqff/eli5_how_do_we_know_precisely_the_locations_of/ | {
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"From the best I can find it is a mixture of using nautical and aerial charts and a sextant to accurately measure the Latitude and Longitude using celestial observation. The navigation was verified later by looking at the recorded sextant data and checking it with charts. The first verified successful attempt for the north pole was in 1926 by aircraft."
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"https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fantarctic-logistics.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Fdestination-south-pole-1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1"
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1l0jvt | how do "producer", "produced by:", "executive producer(s)" and "co-executive producer" differ from one another in the opening sequence of a movie or series? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l0jvt/eli5_how_do_producer_produced_by_executive/ | {
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"The producer was responsible for all non artistic aspects of the film. and executive producer is typically a major backer of the project with a high degree of control over the final product",
"Producer: They are the CEO of the movie. They helm the ship from idea to distribution\n\n\nExecutive producer: They are the CFO of the movie. They manage the accounting and finance for a production company, independent financier, or contribute the money themselves. \n\n\nLine Producer: They are the managers of the movie. They are in charge of the day to day details. \n\nAny title that has Co- in front of it means there are more than one who share in the responsibility of the title. ",
"I'll try to explain like you're five, as is the point of this sub.\n\nLet's say you tell your friends you want to have a water balloon fight at tommys house and play on his trampoline then swim in his pool. You know your other friend has water balloons leftover from another party you can use, and another friend has some water guns he can bring. Another friend says she has some floatie things for the pool and you say yeah, bring those as well. You get everyone to agree and show up on time and its a lot of fun. \n\nYou are the producer, you had the idea and put pieces together to create the party. \n\nYou're just a kid though, without money, and you know you guys are going to need snacks. You ask tommys mom and your mom if they can make some sandwiches and bring some drinks ans chips and stuff .. they also paid for everything you're going to use. They are the executive producers. \n\nWell your mom and tommys mom say \"hech, these kids can eat. We need some help making the food.\". So they call some other moms to help out doing little things. The other moms would be the co-executive producer. \n\nThen since everyone is giving you credit for putting together such a swell shindig tommy and the kid with the water guns and the girl with the floaties are getting jealous so you tell everyone they helped. They become co-producers. \n\n",
"Producer: The \"Contractor\" for the movie, who goes about hiring, and orgainzing the \"subcontractors\" for a movie... gets the director, the dp, the editor, the casting director, the locations, the b crew etc... the producer should be one of the busiest guys on a movie set.\n\nExecutive Producer: They just write the checks, baby.\n\nCo-Executive Produer: Multiple folks writing checks... almost like a \"board room\" for a fortune 500 company.",
"Ug, a great deal of correction is needed as so far nobody here is correct.\n\nFirst of all every single title there means a different thing depending on whether or not you're discussing television or a feature film. In no instance do they actually do the same thing.\n\nLet's talk movies first. \n\nExecutive Producers are typically people with money or enough clout to get the movie made. Sometimes they partially funded the movie themselves, sometimes they are people who own the idea or production company that bought the idea that the movie is based on. They have not necessarily put up a bunch of money, but they usually have claim to a significant amount of cash related to the making of the movie. In some cases they may be taking this credit in lieu of some money that they don't believe they'd get during negotiations. They usually are in charge of distribution and the biggest financial decisions that the movie needs made.\n\nProducers are usually more involved with the actual making of the movie, but this depends on the budget. In today's film industry, on a big budget movie, Producers rarely deal with anything below the line (the physical production of the movie). Instead they've negotiated deals, gotten talent or rights etc. Usually the actual physical production logistics of a high budget movie or done by a Line Producer or Unit Production Manager. This is not always the case. In the case of Tropic Thunder, for instance, Stuart Cornfeld, a Producer, did involve himself in the day to day workings of the film. This is more in line with how movies used to be made. \n\nOn low budget movies, however, Producers still usually have to manage the day to day running of a set. Budgets are too tight to be paying for extra people in a management capacity that shouldn't necessarily be needed.\n\nAlso it is important to note that A-list actors tend to receive Producer credits. This is almost always true in cases when the movie would not have been made without the actor's involvement. If you really need Brad Pitt for a role, for instance, you're probably going to be willing to give him this extra credit or his agent might demand it.\n\nAssociate Producers are usually people who someone important has decided they like. In some cases really low level people who have done such an amazing job that they've distinguished themselves get bumped to this credit. Matt Eppedio from Tropic Thunder would be a good example. He worked as Stuart Cornfeld's assistant for years and did a good enough job that he got a promotion and a better title. \n\nNow we're going to turn to TV. The important thing to realize is that all of these credits mean something entirely different in the world of television.\n\nExecutive Producers are also known as Show Runners. They have contributed no money to the project. Instead they are the head of the TV series and they interact on a daily basis with the studio as well as oversee the writer's room. They can be a successful writer who has sold multiple ideas and this is their show or they can be a writer who is not doing as much writing and instead are in charge of the overarching show. They do tend to make day to day decisions, even with regards to production, but fewer production decisions than you might think. In TV, almost everything below the line is handled by a UPM or Line Producer.\n\nHead Writer's are the people who usually came up with the show (but only if a member of the WGA and also the person who wrote the pilot script). They lead the writer's room with the EP. If the show is a success they will be promoted to Co-Executive Producer. If they sell another show they will most likely be able to negotiate to be the EP.\n\nSenior Producers, Producers, Associate Producers, Story Editors and Staff Writers are all the same thing in television. They are all writers. None of them deal with production or any production or casting decisions whatsoever. They write, nothing else. If the show does well and they do well, then they get promoted and move on up the food chain (Senior Producer being the top here and Staff Writer being the bottom). \n\nHopefully that was helpful."
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2cbsea | does companies pay a website less if people are using adblock? how do they know? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cbsea/eli5_does_companies_pay_a_website_less_if_people/ | {
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"it depends on the type of ad. basically you can categorize it in 3 groups:\n\n1. ads payed by views. so if your browser/site thinks that ad is viewed it's paid. but in many cases it's based on statitics for the site.\n\n2. ads payed by clicks. so it's paid when someone clicks it. you don't see ad - it's hard to click it.\n\n3. ref links/ref ads. it's paid if you buy something/use (register) on the site.",
"Domain owner here, Adblock is generally viewed with mixed feelings. While it does cut down on any income from 3rd party ad services (based a lot on /u/mirozi 's explanation), it's more complicated than that. So the answer is both yes an no.. I'll try and spell this out as best I can. \n \n \n\nThe first criteria to find out if Adblock cuts down on ad revenue is \"How is the ad being served\". Here are a few of the most common methods. \n \n**1. 3rd Party Dynamic Ad Service (such as Google Adsense)** - This is where a domain owner takes a pre-set code from an ad-serving company to dynamically generate ads (the advertiser and website where the ad displays are never in contact). Adblock prevents most of these ads from serving, and does in fact cut revenue for the owner. These are called dynamic ads because the ad that is served changes based on a few different criteria. \n \n* The domain owner can specify generic categories to show or hide ads from (eg: housing, technology, video games. *Interesting note - certain categories often pay more than others, technology is one of the highest paying)* \n* Adsense will detect if you have any stored cookies in your browser, which it will use to serve ads for that specific website's product. Notice If you start google searching \"Battlefield 3\" and visiting websites about it, you will suddenly start seeing advertisements for it on the sites you visit. It's not coincidence! \n \n**2. Text Link Ads** - In this advertising method, one website contacts another directly and requests a basic text link to be placed on a certain page (generally the home page). This form of \"advertising\" will not be stopped by adblock, and in turn does not cut revenue. The only kicker is that *most* text link advertisements are paid up front rather than whether or not a user clicks on it, so even if Adblock somehow found a way to prevent them, it wouldn't cut revenue. *Note: A lot of text link ads are purchased for SEO rather than actually linking visitors to a site (basically they're buying higher google rankings)* \n \n**3. Static Advertisements** - Adblock will block certain types of static advertisements and will not block others. With static ads, a company contacts a website directly and gives them a code to place on the webpage. Most commonly these will appear in the sidebar (some blocked, some not), as pop-ups (blocked), or even taking up the entire background page of an image (not blocked). These advertisements are generally only seen on larger websites. \n \nNow even though Adblock prevents an advertisement from showing, the website still benefits from you visiting it. It costs more to advertise on a website with more traffic. By visiting that website you increase it's traffic, and in turn you're making the website more desirable for higher paying ads! \n \nPersonally, I love Adblock because it can help a user enjoy a website more. That means more return visits, lower bounce rate (when you immediately leave a website after viewing), and a better website in general. Even though I'm not necessarily making revenue from your visit, I'm still benefiting from it. \n \n**TL:DR - Adblock will prevent 70-90% of a website's ad revenue, but your visit still has a positive effect on it's financials**"
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4b6u9q | how do excessive compulsive disorders work in the brain? | It feels like such a hassle and I can't stop. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4b6u9q/eli5how_do_excessive_compulsive_disorders_work_in/ | {
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"Basically a part of the brain is overstimulated, that part of the brain then sends a message saying something is wrong with the environment, brain then concludes that something is dirty and must be cleaned to fix the problem (or whatever the OCD is). Cleaning is finished but brain is still over stimulated and sends the message that something is wrong and cycle repeats. ",
"It comes from anxiety, when you get right down to it. People feel anxious about a certain problem (Did I close the door? Did I break a superstition? Am I preventing illness?) and take a solution to solve it (check the door, don't violate the superstition, wash their hands.) When you have OCD or the like, you don't feel calm after doing this. You have to keep doing the thing more and more to calm yourself down, and become dependent on the behavior to prevent anxiety. In the hand washing example, washing your hands once might not make you feel all the germs are gone, so you start doing it again, and again, until you feel like the problem is gone, and then you're comfortable. This keeps happening due to an underlying anxiety (fear of germs, in this case), and eventually turns into a ritual, where you just don't feel comfortable unless you've washed your hands 5 times after you've touched a dirty thing. "
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1ku4r1 | how the hell do i use the various toilets of the world? there was just a hole in the floor and a water tap in saudi arabia. and a bidet? wtf. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ku4r1/how_the_hell_do_i_use_the_various_toilets_of_the/ | {
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"I live in the Middle East and sometimes you end up seeing one of those holes in the floor toilets. Takes some getting used too, but its easy. Urination should be obvious, but your second 'duty' is not hard at all.\n\nJust squat over the hole and go for it. THey normally have like a hose next to the toilet you use to squirt away the excess and then paper to wipe!\n\nHope that helps haha.",
"Pretty common in India. Yup, you take off your clothes to avoid any accidents. Use the hose, we never had any tissues. Dry with a towel.\n\nRecent studies show that method does a better job of getting rid of bodily waste compared to the thrones we have on the west side."
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fnir5y | what exactly are buy backs and why are people against it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fnir5y/eli5_what_exactly_are_buy_backs_and_why_are/ | {
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"Buyback is a mechanic used in many RPG's to buyback mistakenly sold items. Most people are against it because a) the sold items is usually of an earlier level 2) many times you have to pay more ducats than what you received for selling said item and III) many times you have to travel far and wide to buyback said item.",
"pretend Microsoft has hasn 1million shares outstanding and they cost $100 each.\n\na buy back is Microsoft buying their own shares from the market.\n\nthis causes their stock price to rise, which means executives who usually have lots of stock get the most benefit.\n\nthe big issue is it wastes money. you don't earn more by buying stock. and people are really pissed that trumps tax cuts went to stock buybacks and now those same companies want a bailout because of the corona recession"
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8hipfh | why does blood pressure raise abnormally when getting angry or stressed out? | I’m not chronically hypertensive but I have hypertension episodes, particularly when angry or stressed. Why does this happen? Why does it not happen to a common person? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8hipfh/eli5_why_does_blood_pressure_raise_abnormally/ | {
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"When you get stressed your body released more of a hormone called cortisol from your adrenal glands. This hormone among other things increases blood pressure. The point of a stress hormone like cortisol is to help when you're distress \\(like sick, or fighting/running from a saber toothed tiger\\). The problem is the benefits of cortisol are short term, but long term exposure can lead to chronic hypertension which leads to a number of other bad health outcomes.",
"It's part of your fight or flight response.\n\nBasically, when you get angry or stressed out, your body prepares itself to fight or to run away. You breathe heavier, your heart rate speeds up and you get a rush of adrenaline. Basically your body is giving you a burst of energy, making sure you're alert and getting as much oxygen to your muscles as possible.\n\nThe problem is that in the modern world, when we're stressed or angry, we're usually not about to have to fight or run for our lives. It's a response we evolved for short term problems like physically defending ourselves or running away from predators. \n\nWhen you have a stressful job and spend most of the day feeling stressed out...well, it's a bit like running your engine in your car as fast as it will go in neutral. In short bursts it's fine, but long term it leads to health problems."
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111xhm | is the susan g. komen foundation reliable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/111xhm/eli5_is_the_susan_g_komen_foundation_reliable/ | {
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"It's consistent, and reliable. Just not in a positive way. 15% of their revenue goes to breast cancer research and a lot of their time and money goes into suing other organizations which they feel impede on their intellectual property. "
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32m869 | is the number of open gays increasing or is the ratio because of the change in times? | Not sure | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32m869/eli5is_the_number_of_open_gays_increasing_or_is/ | {
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"Both. Population increase and the fact that people are not as afraid to come out and say they are because ridicule is less than it once was.",
"Very hard to say. Homophobia means we can't have very good stats because not everyone could tell the truth."
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208p9h | what changes are made to a male's vocal cords during puberty ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/208p9h/eli5_what_changes_are_made_to_a_males_vocal_cords/ | {
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"The larynx expands outward (back to front), which lengthens the vocal cords and expands the volume of space where the voice can resonate.\n\nThe sinuses also expand as a person's skull grows (and there are changes in the shape of skulls of both men and women as well that come with hormones), which also expands the hollow spaces where a person's voice resonates.\n\nLonger cords + more space for resonance = deeper voice."
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1o5oou | how a star floating around space, not orbiting a star, is formed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o5oou/eli5_how_a_star_floating_around_space_not/ | {
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" > How a star floating around space, not orbiting a star, is formed?\n\nI'm assuming that the first \"star\" in that sentence is suppose to be \"planet\", and you're referring to [this](_URL_0_). So:\n\nThe same way a normal star, and accompanying planets, are formed. Gas in a nebula collapses due to gravity. The only difference is that this is what happens when there's not enough gas to form an actual star."
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8382r0 | why are the males weaker than the females in the insect world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8382r0/eli5_why_are_the_males_weaker_than_the_females_in/ | {
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"In the insect kingdom there is advantages to being small and fast vs bulky. Its thought that males devote their time and energy into producing a great reproductive system and this gives them a better chance of mating in the future. ",
"The females have more to do! They have to make sure they get the best sperm (though there are lots of ways to do this), they have to lay the eggs, and often they have to carry/protect/provide for the young. \n\nThis isn’t always the case, though. In American Burying Beetles, the male and the female both care for the young. In many dragonflies and damselflies, the male has to catch and subdue the female. In giant water bugs, the female lays her eggs on the male’s back, and he has to take care of them! \n\nGenerally, when you see big females and small males, it’s a sign that the female is the one who needs to do the most work to make sure their offspring have a good chance of becoming adults. ",
"Dont they part ways? making the male completely useless in the safekeeping and raising of spawn? I honestly have no idea except there are no co parents in the insect world that i know of",
"It is not always a weaker vs stronger argument but more a what is required by that individual and species.\n\nFor many colony insects the male comes from an unfertilized egg/embryo which would mean that it only carries one copy of the genetic material. The main purpose for these male insects is to introduce randomization of genetic material to a different colony. That is not a big role. In this instance male is used because they produce sperm. Many 'females' in the colony are sterile and because they have a complement set of chromosomes, like the queen, are considered as female.\n\nFor many other animals it has to do with the role of nuturing the next generation. In most instances this role is given to the female to take care of and so is larger, to provide nutrients during the initial development and some form of protection. Even if the species does not take care of the young it would still need to provide the initial nutrients for egg and embryo development.\n\nFor other organisms that share parenting roles in some way the size differences are less noticeable unless specifically one gender provides more to the group for protection and can be more aggressive. \n\nThe last point is to state that sexual dimorphism and physical competition in some species will exaggerate certain traits based on what is desirable by their mate or helps them to sire offspring. Large horns, large size, colourful markings, etc. This can cause greater differences in male and females within a species.",
"It's not just insects - among pretty much all animals other than mammals and birds, females are typically larger than males.\n\nPart of this has to do with the amount of energy necessary to develop their reproductive organs.\n\nWhen there's a big size difference between males and females, one of two things must be happening. Either they mature at the same rate but one grows faster than the other, or they mature at different rates and the small one becomes sexually mature quickly while the other takes longer and gets bigger before they're sexually mature.\n\nWhen insects mature at the same rate but to different sizes, that means the large one is putting energy towards size, while the other is putting that energy elsewhere.\n\nIn insects that mature at the same rate, male insect reproductive organs are much larger and elaborate than those of female insects, and relative to body size are much larger than those of mammals. So while the male is putting lots of energy into growing his fancy genitals, the female has energy to spare and puts it towards getting big.\n\nAnd there doesn't seem to be as much advantage to getting large for many male insects, as there is for many mammals. Being large means an individual male can more effectively compete for mates. But if this is a hive insect, where breeding males are born into the hive where they will live, reproduce, and die, competition with other males might not really be a factor. And the breeding males aren't the ones fighting - that would be drones. They basically need just enough of a body to keep their gonads alive.\n\nOr if they're solitary insects that very rarely encounter other members of their species, competition among males for breeding might be reduced or nonexistent. Then their biggest hurdle to reproduction is just finding a female. \n\nThat's where the \"males become tiny but sexually mature very quickly\" strategy is effective. They don't need to fight, they just need to start breeding ASAP. The small male develops faster, and then needs less food once it reaches maturity. This can lead to the most extreme sexual dimorphism, with males reduced to tiny dwarfs. In some cases, the tiny males mature so early they convert the yolk from their egg directly into sperm - they never have an adult morphology at all.\n\nAnd the female also has to have a body capable of accommodating thousands of eggs. The larger she is, the more she can lay.",
"It can also be asked: why are male mammals usually larger/stronger? There are exceptions of course, like the Spotted Hyena. I suppose it depends on the environmental pressures that can lead to weak or strong sexual dimorphism. Birds still have strong dimorphism but usually only for courtship, otherwise things are a bit more equal between the sexes (you'll also see many birds that are monogamous, something less common with mammals). \n\nWhereas male birds compete by appearance, song, and other courtship rituals, male mammals seem to generally fight (or avoid fighting by just being the biggest) - this is extremely evident with elephant seal \"beach bullies\", where the biggest asshole basically keeps a harem (though it turns out, females are still secretly mating with smaller males - who also won't crush them to death like the beach bully can). \n\nThere are some exceptions with insects too, like certain beetles that have large males (who need to be large to fight other males). The best examples of what you are talking about are seen with eusocial insects like ants, bees, and termites. In those cases, males merely have the responsibility of providing sperm and in most cases, either go off to die after or just hang out and die of age (the queens living much longer), though IIRC termites have a \"king\" - a male that stays with and continues to mate with the queen. There is one eusocial species of mammals, the naked mole rat, and they are utterly bizarre in so many ways (but like with eusocial insects, the \"queen\" is larger than the males; there are other females still but only one is dominate at a time, I *think*... ).\n\nProbably the craziest example of this is with angler fish, which is some serious body horror. The tiny males latch on to a female and become absorbed by her, causing everything to atrophy but the testicles, which the female can now access to reproduce.\n\nWith arachnids, its about the survival of females being more important in order to propagate the species. In some cases, the smaller male willingly allows itself to be consumed after mating, the nutrition he provides allowing her a greater chance at laying and protecting her eggs. Its a lot more common with arachnids than mantises. ",
"You've already gotten some good answers, but I just want to point out that while sexual dimorphism is the result of various different pressures on males and females, there are few hard and fast rules about which sex will be bigger or smaller or stronger or weaker in a taxonomic group as big as \"the insects\". Even if the females are all in charge of making the eggs and sometimes raising the young, and the males are basically just flying sperm delivery units, the males might wind up being stronger. For example: \n\nI study honey bee behavior, and in my bees the males are much larger than females, they're much faster fliers, they take more time to develop, they eat more, their eyes are bigger, etc. They're terrible at doing almost everything. Their smaller, slower, quicker-to-develop sisters the workers are in charge of doing absolutely everything in the hive. The males can't even clean themselves. Why are these big beefy males not using all that strength to work? Because they've evolved to be amazingly good at spotting flying virgin queen bees with their huge eyes, flying to catch them with their huge flight muscles, and mating with them in mid-air. Like other male insects that have been discussed in this thread, they've evolved to be little more than sperm delivery mechanisms, but male honey bees are nonetheless the larger of the two sexes of bee even though they do less \"work\". ",
"TLDR: It depends on the needs of the individual species, some have males that are larger, some have females that are larger to compete for resources and are better at surviving to reproductive age.\n\nIt depends on the species really, but generally a species can survive as long as there are females to mate with and pass on genes so the females being stronger to avoid predation better is a fairly common adaptation in the animal kingdom. It's also very important for the females to survive because many species will die shortly after laying a clutch of eggs. Large females also can manage the energy cost of laying a large amount of eggs better than a smaller female, and in social insects the queen is the only reproducing member of the colony and needs to lay thousands of eggs so is usually carrying specialized organs to do that. \n\nThat said this is more commonly found in arachnids not insects and varies a lot between species. In mantids the female is a lot larger than the male and will often eat him for the energy to lay eggs, but if you look at the order diptera (flies) the male is usually larger, this is pretty apparent in mosquitoes where the female needs to be smaller to avoid detection while the male lives off of nectar and doesn't need to be small. There is also not a considerable size difference in the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) because they grow based on the available resources when they are larvae. ",
"Biologist here:\n\nIt's generally about the selective pressure on males vs females. Various pressures may push males or females to get bigger and bigger, and whichever sex has more of those pressures tends to be bigger. In insects (and many fish, and some other things) the female produces a lot of eggs. Female fitness depends on the number of eggs produced. The number of eggs produced depends on the size of the female. Therefore, selection favors females that get as big as possible so they can produce as many eggs as possible. Contrast in mammals, females produce only a few offspring and have to give them extensive care. Getting bigger doesn't really let them increase the number of offspring they produce (eg, a big female deer can't just pop out a bunch more fauns at a time).\n\nIn species where males are large (as you see in some mammals, some fish, etc) usually the males are competing with each other for reproductive success. Maybe they are competing for female attention, maybe one is running all other males away from the herd, maybe they are just competing for spawning sites. Bigger males win the competition and have more babies and higher fitness, so you see more bigger males. ",
"If insects had more technology, the females would just lock us males underground and milk us for our semen and jokes. No real need for us besides that. ",
"They aren't.... Differences between the sexes were fabricated by the oppressive insect matriarchy. ",
"Whether males or females are inherently stronger in a species depends largely on the roles that each sex has in its lifetime, for instance in most mammals, the males will hunt and the women will protect the offspring, hence males in most species of mammals are stronger.\n\nI imagine in the insect world it is due to the same factors only the female has more labouring tasks that make it the stronger sex. ",
"I'm not sure exactly what you mean by weaker, but the size difference can be explained by Rensch's rule.\nRensch's rule is the tendency for males to be larger than females in larger species and females to be larger than males in smaller species. Reproduction takes a lot more energy on the female's side, so it makes sense for them to be bigger so that they can store more energy for reproduction. In large species, however, each individual needs a large amount of resources and there is increased competition between males for access to mates. Larger males win conflicts more often, so large males breed more, so you end up with larger males than females. \nInsects are all on the small end of the size scale, so females are typically larger.",
"just picked up dyslexia I guess, and I misread the subject as \"Why are the males weaker than the females in the incest world\", and I sat and tried to understand it for a minute, but couldn't",
"By the rules of biology, if you can reproduce, you win.\n\nFemales have to select a mate, have sex, and have the babies.\n\nMales need to have sex. Females do the rest of the job biologically.\n\nFemales therefore need to last longer and be more durable. This is also why some male insects risk getting eaten by their mate after sex; if they can provide nutrition to sustain their mate through laying eggs, it’s a win-win."
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baag91 | why does opening a warm soda seem to increase the chance of a fizz explosion more so than a cold soda? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/baag91/eli5_why_does_opening_a_warm_soda_seem_to/ | {
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"Warm soda isn't as good at holding in fizz as cold soda is, and combined with the change in pressure from opening the container that makes the fizz explode out.",
"At warmer temperatures, the carbon dioxide gas molecules have more energy, so more of them escape from the liquid they are dissolved in. This means there is more pressure inside the can, and when you open it that pressure and gas has to go somewhere.\n\nIt's similar to what we are seeing with the oceans at the moment. The oceans have a huge amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in them. As the global temperatures rise, more of this CO2 escapes, which in turn acts as a greenhouse gas and increases the planets temperature even more. It's a vicious circle.",
"This is a basic principle of science: The colder water is, the more gas it can hold. Think of it like the reverse of dissolving sugar in water, where the hotter it is the more sugar it can hold. As the soda temperature rises, the amount of gas that the soda can hold decreases, so gas has to escape."
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5z1a07 | if honeybees didn’t exist in the new world until europeans arrived, as an invasive species why are they so critical to the ecosystem in north america? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5z1a07/eli5_if_honeybees_didnt_exist_in_the_new_world/ | {
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"Because we need them for agriculture. Crops become less available if there are no honeybees. Also a lot of native American bees went extinct or became less common as a result of the honeybee so they're definitely essential to the environment now.",
"1) There are other species of bees which are native to the New World (like mason bees). Problems that affect honeybees also affect these native bees.\n\n2) Many industrial orchards do not support their own bee colonies. They rely on traveling beekeepers who move their hives from field to field following the flowering of different tree species. If these hives collapse, there will be no bees to take to the orchards.",
"Because we created vast areas of land where the bees that were there can't live (in any significant number), then expect stuff to get pollinated in those areas.\n\nHoneybees aren't critical to the *native* ecosystem, but to the *commercial* ecosystem. There's been a lot of media scare tactics used, a lot of 'oh no, we're doomed'. It's not *that* bleak, we're not standing on the brink of a 2 year long precipice from which there is no return. Is it concerning? Yes. Is it anything which can be significantly explained by one factor? No.\n\nThere is evidence that native bees can replace the need for honeybees, if the landscape isn't just crop field after crop field. This could mean a lot of work for farmers to change their practices, and it's hard to put a number to the benefit. Without this information, it's hard to convince the fully commercial growers to change practices.",
"There are dozens, if not hundreds of species of bees that are native to the Americas. Some of which do produce reasonable amounts of honey. But the honey that most of us eat are made by domesticated European Honey Bees which were brought over by immigrants. These same domesticated hives are used to pollinate crops that we grow, in particular fruit trees, and so the hives collapsing means we will stop being able to grow some of those crops. ",
"Are honeybees considered an invasive species in North America? Because there is a difference between invasive species and non-native species. ",
"1. European bees are not critical to natural/wild ecosystems. They are critical to some kinds of agriculture.\n2. Lots of our agriculture isn't native to North America either.\n3. European bees aren't the only pollinators."
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7rqgu0 | why do microscopic organisms (bacteria etc.) look like they're cgi under a microscope. | To elaborate [this](_URL_1_) and [this](_URL_0_) just doesn't look real to me, like they look so smooth without any details on their skin. Is this because at such a small scale there aren't any imperfections or cracks etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rqgu0/eli5_why_do_microscopic_organisms_bacteria_etc/ | {
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"AFAIK, electron microscope doesn’t pick up color, so all you get is shape (light), basically a B/W image which is then coloured digitally (Photoshop) for representation purposes.",
"A lot of people are making good points, but I have a great deal of experience in microscopy and would like to sum things up. \n\nThe electron microscope (EM) does not produce a photograph at all. Rather it produces a topography, or a bump map. If you've seen a map of the ocean floor, with deeper areas colored darker, this is the same thing. \n\nThis happens because the microscope actually fires a beam of electrons at a small section of your sample, back and forth very quickly like how the image on old TV's is displayed. Depending on several factors, such as the angle at which the beam connects and the different elements present within your sample, the computer connected to your EM produces a black and white topography. \n\nAt this stage you are able to use software to make calculations about the size of different features, and even determine a breakdown of which elements are present. Images like the ones you linked are often artificially colored to be more attractive for media releases. \n\nThe reason that the surface of these organisms appear so smooth (good eye by the way!) Is that the electron microscope is only capable of producing topographies of conductive materials, such as metals. In order to study organic (non conductive) samples, we *literally use a plating machine to coat bugs with literal gold* so that we can determine their features. The coating is extremely thin and the actual amount of gold used is so small that it is not expensive, but we are unfortunately unable to discern many of the surface details of non conductive samples using electron microscopy. \n\nI have used this machine a lot and can assure you that the images are very real. I have also used much more powerful microscopic methods, and if you think tiny organisms are surreal, the lattice structure of atoms would blow your mind.",
"I was just about to ask a similar question, hope you don't mind if I jump on your bandwagon.\n\nWhy are microscopic pictures of things we can see with the naked eye shown up close in grayscale and often looks like they are computer generated? Here is a post I saw moments ago _URL_0_. I figure if we can already see these objects with the naked eye, why do we need to use an electron microscope to enhance?",
"Do microorganisms have hearts and other organs?",
"Because they are. Data from the scanning electron microscope is feed into a computer and rendered into a 3D image.",
"Can anyone give the name of the 2nd microorganism OP linked? I must know...for science of course!",
"Simply put: electron microscopy images actually a show you more of a \"cast\" of the subject, This is often false colored making it even less realistic.",
"In case anyone else was curious: the second linked image is the head of a maggot.\n\n...not, as it first appears, a walrus that's *seen some shit*.",
"They look CGI because they are CGI. You arent looking at a photo. You are looking at the microscope interpretation of what it measured. Light waves cant get a good resolution on things that small, so the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM for short) bounces electron off the object and draws a picture based off how they bounce back. Like a blind man making a sculpture of your face by feeling your face and trying to recreate it in clay so he could show me what you look like without my meeting you.",
"Well it technically is CGI so that might be part of it! Most people have covered the basics and describe that while a normal microscope uses lenses to enhance normal vision/magnification, the electron microscopes use specialized detectors to get information about the sample. A program then takes this data and produces an image representation of the data, so everything you actually see on the screen is being created by a program interpretting electron data",
"Lots of really good explanations here already, but another - sort of trivial, but still true - reason why a lot of these pictures look so good but kind of \"fake\" is that when scientists pick images for public consumption, they often spend a considerable amount of time picking the \"prettiest\" looking ones. And will sometimes do a fair amount of post-processing to make it look even better.\n\nThe ones where the sample got cracked, or a mold spore or a fiber looking like an alien life form got stuck to it, or some other weird artifact got introduced, usually don't make it into the figures / illustrations / pics submitted to popular science mags.\n\nSo there's a huge amount of bias in favor of stuff that looks good. \n\nThis is much less the case when just gathering data - in that case, it doesn't always need to be pretty, it just needs to contain the information you need without noise.",
"Is it possible to make a microscope lens so powerful that you can see atoms? Why not?",
"These are not photographs. They are 3D renderings based on spatial patterns of electron density measured by electron microscopy.\n\nMicroscopy using optical lenses and visible light hits the diffraction limit when the object you're trying to see is much smaller than the wavelength of light used to see it.\n\nElectron microscopy is different. You apply an electron dense label such as gold the structures in your sample you want to visualize, and the microscope detects the electron dense label in space. You can create a visualization of the structure using the collected EM data. "
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7i8ozt | how come fast food taste so much more intense and better than „regular“ food? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7i8ozt/eli5_how_come_fast_food_taste_so_much_more/ | {
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"I would assume it would be the magical mark-up of anywhere from 50-500 calories they have versus attempting to make the same thing yourself",
"Salt, sugar, and fat content. Higher amounts than what is present in something you cook at home. Look at the calorie content of food at restaurants. It's almost always double or more than the \"normal\" version of that food."
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5pextl | why aren't alcohol and tobacco (nicotine) considered class schedules drugs while marijuana is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pextl/eli5_why_arent_alcohol_and_tobacco_nicotine/ | {
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"Alcohol because prohibition was a huge disaster, and nicotine because so many people are addicted it would create a black market. Plus the tobacco and beer lobbies in the country.\n\nExtra line",
"They tried that with Alcohol. It was a complete disaster that cost the government millions in tax revenue, billions in enforcement money, and strengthened organized crime. "
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4371j1 | is there a limited amount of bandwidth? | I was wondering if the internet is like a supply and demand problem, or does it have almost infinite supply? Does this justify the data caps and prices, or should data cost almost nothing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4371j1/eli5_is_there_a_limited_amount_of_bandwidth/ | {
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"It costs money to build out more bandwidth. High speed routers and firewalls, fiber runs, etc. That being said most in the US are being way overcharged. To answer the actual question it is limited only by telecommunications technology which continues to grow in capabilities at a fairly rapid pace. There is not unlimited bandwidth; it is limited to what the the telecom companies can and are willing to build.\n\nEDIT: Oh and data centers/network operation centers cost a lot of money to run as well, so no bandwidth is not free.",
"Running the infrastructure is very expensive. Some switches now cost tens of thousands of dollars just to buy, if not hundreds. \n\nThat said, the commercial rate for bandwidth from a data center or say Amazon is maybe ten cents per GB I think? Mobile is a totally different scenario though. ",
"If you are asking if there is a shortage of bandwidth and ISP's need to have data caps, then the answer is no. There is zero justification for you ISP to hold you to a 100GB monthly limit or any other number. The only reason they have imposed data caps is to make more money. ISP's charge what they do not because of what it costs, but what people will pay. \n\nIs there a cost to implementing bandwidth, sure there is but the cost translates to pennies, if that. "
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5h0lin | why are exit signs only illuminated in red and green? | Wandering around a building and this thought popped up. I'm guessing this might only be the fact in the US but if another country has exit signs, are they red and green too? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5h0lin/eli5_why_are_exit_signs_only_illuminated_in_red/ | {
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"In the United States, it has to do with states or cities enacting building codes which specify the sign color. It's usually attributed to red having a negative connotation and green having a positive connotation. Just as well, red is considered to be bold and attention-calling, so having an exit sign in red would catch the attention of everyone in the event of an emergency.\n\nIn accordance to UL 924 regulations for example, signs must be illuminated because their sole purpose is to guide the path to safety, especially in a fire or blackout/brownout situation.",
"Most local jurisdictions have codes that specify what color an exit sign needs to be, so builders just follow the building codes in their areas. Most building codes require either red exit signs or green exit signs or they give the builder the option to choose.\n\nRed and green have become the most popular choices because those colors tend to stand out in most buildings and they are also more visible through smoke, etc. than other colors.\n\nRed is chosen in a lot of places in the US on the theory that red is an emergency color (and easier to see than most other colors). However, some people criticize red because it's also the color for \"Stop\" and \"Do Not Enter\" which could confuse non-English speakers.\n\nGreen is chosen a lot elsewhere in the world because, like red, it's easy to see in hazardous conditions compared to other colors. It's chosen over red because it can't be confused with flames or fire (being green), green typically means \"go\", and it supposedly has a better psychological effect on people in general.\n\nThe National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is an organization that recommends fire safety regulations for local governments in the US and some other countries. They don't take a stance on a particular color and instead just say it should be \"distinctive\"\n\nThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recommends a pictograph sign in green with a man running through a door, like [this](_URL_0_)."
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5icg3s | the rationale behind the strange alcohol laws in some states? | Examples are (but not limited to): Wine & Spirit stores are only to be owned by the state, alcohol cannot be sold at gas stations or grocery stores, to sell beer you must be a "beer distributor" and in some instances you cannot sell 6 packs, No alcohol can be purchased on Sundays, finite amount of liquor licenses available to restaurants, alcohol cannot be shipped via mail (no wine-of-the-month club in some states hence the inspiration for this post as I tried to buy that for my wife for xmas but PA does not allow alcohol to be delivered).
I bet there are a lot of Redditors who have no idea that some states are so strict with alcohol laws. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5icg3s/eli5_the_rationale_behind_the_strange_alcohol/ | {
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"Depends a lot on the specific thing, but a lot of it is driven by religion, many religions object to alcohol for various reasons, and the people sided with their religion and thought up of various methods to ban it (no sales at 5am, no sales on sunday, limited liquor store count, etc). Alcohol is very much one of those things people consider bad but allow, and they think up of all sorts of ways to limit the amount of bad stuff. Also, since liquor is stronger than beer many states tie sales to alcohol content in some manner (regulating where and when each can be sold), with tighter regulation on the stronger stuff.\n\nMany of the other laws are some stuff from the post-prohibition laws. Mainly, there is a law that says nobody can own production, distribution, and retail for alcohol. That means states had to make laws to check that, some simply make all three types get permits that document ownership so the state can check, some states just say that the state must own all retail or distribution places. ",
"When Prohibition ended in the US, there was still a strong pro-temperance movement in the country, even though the majority of Americans were for the repeal. Because states could still ban or restrict alcohol, many of them decided they didn't want to just leave alcohol unregulated, so they set up a number of different regulatory schemes, including a number of states that continued to ban alcohol entirely. These schemes weren't coordinated with each other, so many of them ended up with weird quirks that some lawmaker proposed, and many of those quirks have persisted, either because nobody can convince the legislature to get rid of them or because they've become entrenched for other reasons. Pennsylvania, for instance, makes a lot of money by being the sold distributor of alcohol in the state, so it has a strong reason to continue doing so."
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22ro5b | how is heat from sunlight magnified through a magnifying glass? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22ro5b/eli5_how_is_heat_from_sunlight_magnified_through/ | {
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"The light passing through the large area of the glass is concentrated on the one tiny spot.",
"It is not magnified, it is merely concentrated into a focal point. Imagine if 1 cm^2 produces 1 J of energy (heat). If you have a lens of 1 m^2, aka 100x100 = 10000 cm^2. Assuming their energy is additive and focusing onto a single focal point of 1 cm^2. That focal point of 1 cm^2 will receive the energy (heat) of all 10000 cm^2! In other words, that 1 cm^2 will receive 10000 J.\n\n(in practice it is not exactly additive but for explaining what happens, it's good enough; ELI5 :) )"
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767hp3 | when taking multiple medications at once, how does your body sort them out & send them off to do their individual tasks after being broken down simultaneously in your stomach? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/767hp3/eli5_when_taking_multiple_medications_at_once_how/ | {
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"That's not what happens. Your body dumps them all into your bloodstream, and they float around everywhere until they find the right shape of molecules to stick to.",
"As said before they are all \"dumped\" into the bloodstream.\n\nLet me give you an example, you take medications A and B. Medication A can only bind to adrenergic receptors (these are the ones that adrenaline uses) and medication B inhibits muscarinic receptors (acetylcholine uses these). Those 2 medications will be all over your body and will only interact with things they actually CAN interact with."
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205ggf | what happens if i don't sign up for obamacare before the deadline two weeks from now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/205ggf/eli5_what_happens_if_i_dont_sign_up_for_obamacare/ | {
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"You'll get the fine//tax for the 2014's tax season in 2015.",
"1% of your yearly household income. (Only the amount of income above the tax filing threshold, $10,150 for an individual, is used to calculate the penalty.) The maximum penalty is the national average yearly premium for a bronze plan.\n\n$95 per person for the year ($47.50 per child under 18). The maximum penalty per family using this method is $285.\n\n[Source](_URL_0_)",
"You don't have to sign up for Obamacare if you already have a plan that qualifies under their guidelines.",
"I'm already with blue cross blue shield in North Carolina and I haven't been asked to sign up for anything new and I noticed a small increase in my premium. Do I need to do anything?",
"Some of the answers here are good, but they only tell part of the story not the whole story.\n\nThe numbers $95 per person and the max of $285 for a household are thrown around a lot, but they, unfortunately, only tell part of the story.\n\nThe $285 maximum only applies to people who, as an entire household, make less than $19,650 a year (if they are an individual) or $48,800 (if married). In the exact same way the $95 is only applicable if you are an individual who makes less than $19,650 or a married family making less than $48,800.\n\nThe actual penalty is 1% of your yearly household income which, for some people, can be significantly more than $95 or $285. That's where knowing the max comes in handy. The maximum penalty is not $285 it's the national average premium for a bronze-level health policy for your family’s size, which is usually more than $285. We don't yet know exactly how much that is, but we do know that it is projected by the CBO to be $4,500 to $5,000 for an individual plan in 2016.\n\nAlso a big part of the story being left out is the increase in amount over the coming years. Next year the increase is $975 maximum for individuals and families making under $26,400 and $69,050 respectively. But if you make over that amount it will be 2% of your income. This goes up again in 2016 and could potentially rise beyond that as well.\n\nAll in all, if tends to be significantly cheaper, and easier, to find and get health insurance through the marketplace due to the vast number of subsidies for low income individuals and the expansion of medicaid where available.\n\nSource: [1] (_URL_0_), [2] (_URL_1_)",
"i have no insurance and i have 0 income. do i have to signup too? i have no way to pay it also.",
"You don't need to \"sign up for Obamacare,\" you need to obtain health insurance.",
"Just signed up my folks for this yesterday. late 50's with a small business of 4 employees. they were paying 700 bucks a month for shitty insurance that barely covered anything. Now starting april 1st, they pay 260 bucks for both of them. Over $5K in annual savings.\n\nThanks OBAMA.",
"I live in Oklahoma, have insurance through my employer, where I make approximately $55K a year. My problem is, I take care of both my parents who are 60, have no jobs, insurance, disability, or social security. They receive $175 a month in food stamps (we eat different foods). When I \"signed up\" for Obamacare, the cheapest plan (one that was very close to worthless) was $165 a month, per person. That is including the Federal stipend for low enough income. $330 a month is too expensive for us, as we are already barely getting by on my income. I'm not sure what else to do, or if I'm missing something vital. Any suggestions Reddit?\n(thought it would be more polite to post here than my own ELI5)",
"There are a lot of people here asking: \"Help! What do *I* do?\"\n\nThe best place to ask that question is at the office of a local \"navigator.\" These are people who are trained to walk you through the process. This help is free. Many churches, hospitals, and community centers have navigators. Just go and sit down with somebody who really knows what they're doing, it'll make the whole thing a lot easier:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"Sorry to jump in here but I'm curious too.\n\nIf I don't sign up in the next 2 weeks I'll be getting fined $95 for the year OR a percentage of my income for the year?\n\nAnd if I don't sign up in 2 weeks will I not be able to sign up in 2014?",
"As long as everybody else is asking for their specific case, I'm going to jump in too.\n\nSo I'm unemployed, uninsured, and living with my parents. Last year they were able to claim me as a dependent relative for a $1000 credit. If they do that this year, do they then have to pay 1% of their income due to my uninsuredness?"
]
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5fk842 | how are mobile numbers recycled? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fk842/eli5_how_are_mobile_numbers_recycled/ | {
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" > how disconnected ones are used again as many websites recognise the same number\n\nWhich site does this? If a website detects that a mobile number was already in use, it should really just text that number to figure out who the current owner is. There would really not be a good way for a website to know if a number switched owners or not "
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6ki4yh | how come the use of african-american, asian-american etc is viewed as politically correct? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ki4yh/eli5_how_come_the_use_of_africanamerican/ | {
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"In general, as much as those communities present a unified voice, it is what they prefer to be called. "
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1lzmai | from a psychological standpoint why does something like karma mean so much to me(and others)? [serious] | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lzmai/from_a_psychological_standpoint_why_does/ | {
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"It seems to me that it's simply a case of wanting to feel validated. Those upvotes for what you say send the message that what you have to say is interesting and worthwhile. It's the equivalent of a pat on the back.",
"Humans are social beings. We are dependent on being in a group to survive. If the group like who we are (and what we do and say) we are accepted in the group which is important for our survival. Getting upvotes is a digital version of being accepted. It's also important to stay accepted in a group.\n\nThis is why people also follow norms in a society and why we get a feeling of embarrassment when we make a fool of ourselves (or a bad feeling when getting downvoted).\n\nI'm not sure where I've read this, but I learned it while studying sociology.",
"Socially induced dopamine, my friend. Dopamine."
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] |
||
4a2ora | how does popcorn time get away with it? | Most people who are too cheap to rent movies have a go to service: popcorn time. My question is how do they not get taken down (at least in countries with strict copyright laws like the U.S)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a2ora/eli5_how_does_popcorn_time_get_away_with_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0wx4ty"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It is likely hosted outside of the US in a country that doesn't care much about video piracy.\n\nUsers may still be prosecuted/sued in their home countries."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1jaf1k | being from outside the us i just can't understand your educational system. what is the order on your education and what do you learn on each step? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jaf1k/eli5being_from_outside_the_us_i_just_cant/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbcoxwe"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Primary education - Kindergarden (4-5 years old), then 1st grade through 6th grade (10-11). Some areas only go up to 5th grade. This is often called \"Elementary school\"\n\nMiddle school - 7th and 8th grade (some areas do 6th through 9th here)\n\nSecondary education - Normally called \"high school\". 9th grade is referred to as a \"Freshman\", 10th grade is \"Sophomore\", 11th grade is \"Junior\", and 12th grade is \"Senior\" years. Most graduates turned 18 that year, or are about to turn 18.\n\nWhat we learn at each step varies depending on the student and the quality of your school, so I don't know how good of an answer we could give at that point.\n\nThere is a lot of variety in education in the US."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
jzqnc | why is it bad to drive on dry, paved roads with my 4x4/4wd engaged? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jzqnc/eli5_why_is_it_bad_to_drive_on_dry_paved_roads/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2gfyaw",
"c2gfyaw"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The engine has to endure the torque of powering two axels and a drive shaft generally the transfer casing connects to the drive shaft with a ujoint and same for the rear axle. Sometimes these components are not designed for long use.\n\nExperience: Dropped a drive shaft doing 65 and hammered in a new ujoint in the rain.",
"The engine has to endure the torque of powering two axels and a drive shaft generally the transfer casing connects to the drive shaft with a ujoint and same for the rear axle. Sometimes these components are not designed for long use.\n\nExperience: Dropped a drive shaft doing 65 and hammered in a new ujoint in the rain."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
61vyyl | how does sweeping the ice in front of a curling stone work? | [Example](_URL_1_)
The Wikipedia page says ["the brooms... alter the state of the ice in front of the stone"](_URL_0_) but doesn't say how. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61vyyl/eli5_how_does_sweeping_the_ice_in_front_of_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfhpobh",
"dfhqbof",
"dfj0a2z"
],
"score": [
10,
94,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm on mobile so I can't link it, but the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day has a great video on this. ",
"u/Ender37 is wrong. The surface of a curling rink is not smooth, but is pebbled. This effect is achieved by spraying drops of water onto the ice that freeze into little bumps. The pebbled surface actually decreases friction for the stone because there is a smaller area of contact between the stone and the ice. The sweeping comes into play as the stone is traveling down the ice. Sweeping the ice in front to the stone briefly and slightly raises the temperature of the ice, which further lowers the friction. More sweeping means the the stone will travel further and curl less.",
"IIRC from the last winter olympics they move back and forth very quickly creating friction and thus heat which melts the ice. Then the curling stones skim faster over the thin layer of water on top of the ice thus created."
]
} | [] | [
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling",
"http://m.imgur.com/gallery/Y6scXSK"
] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
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