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5yyv2a | the differences between the types of welding and their uses. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yyv2a/eli5_the_differences_between_the_types_of_welding/ | {
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"This is not something easily answered here. The real answer would fill a book. There are many techniques depending on what and where you are welding and what the weld needs to accomplish. The most common techniques for metals are spot, stick and TIG and MIG wire feed. There are also weld techniques for other materials such as plastics. At its heart it is using melted material to bond solid material.",
"I'm no expert at welding but I do know a few things\n\n- Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), basically stick welding, is typically used by home-gamers to make repairs on equipment because of the ease and simplicity of use. It can be used to weld in windy weather since the rod is covered in a layer of flux, but it creates a lot of slag that has to be chipped off of the weld. Pipeline welders typically use an upscaled version of this setup. \n\n- Metal inert gas (MIG) is a type of wire welder that uses a gas, such as CO2 or argon, to shield the arc from the atmosphere. It makes pretty and clean welds with no slag, but it cannot be used where the gas can be blown away from the weld. Shop use only. \n\n- Torch welding is the oldest of all, it isn't typically used anymore because it's kind of difficult to use and very dangerous. You have to not only hold a torch and separate rod to fill with, but you also have to set up the acetylene and oxygen properly. It's mostly used to patch holes in liquid holding containers nowadays. \n\n- Tungsten inert gas (TIG) is like the second iteration of torch welding. It combines the principles of torch and MIG welding to create beautiful and structurally sound welds with no slag. But again it cannot be used where the gas can be blown away from the weld. \n\nThere are more ways to weld than just these but it can really fill a book. You can't exactly have a system that works in all situations so that necessitates having multiple methods. "
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4vr32n | what causes some people to have a sweet tooth, while others do not? | Is it biological, or is a sweet tooth a learned behavior? Is there any evidence to suggest that if a child is introduced to sugar at an earlier age, he or she may develop a sweet tooth?
Thank you. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vr32n/eli5what_causes_some_people_to_have_a_sweet_tooth/ | {
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"About the kids: I read about the research that kids, who are not restricted in sweets, do not treat them as something very good and do not overeat no binge on them, even later in life.\n\n\nAt the same time using sweets as a reward, creates connections in the brain, essentially associating sweets with positive behaviour. \n\n",
"Gut bacteria is thought to play a part in regulating which food you crave, I'm not well versed in the specifics but it's generally the bacteria like certain things and the more you feed them that the more they grow and want more. "
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66dr4e | if all the clocks that measure date and time would stop working, how would humanity find out what exact time it is again? | Right now we are at a point in society where we have a correct time to +/-50 miliseconds. If all clocks would fail for a while, how would we be able to find out what exact time it is to +/-50ms, since no one could just look at the wolrd and say that it's exactly 3pm and 17 minutes, 28 seconds and 431 miliseconds?
Would this require months of monitoring the movement of sun and moon, or is there another way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66dr4e/eli5_if_all_the_clocks_that_measure_date_and_time/ | {
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"The stars. Astronomers have calculated the precise angles relative to the spinning of the Earth to point their telescopes at specific stars. This would be enough data to work the process in reverse, calculating what time it is when a specific star is at a specific angle.",
"We have good definitions for the exact length of a second (and therefore minute, hour, day...) that do not rely on already knowing the time.\n\nWe'd just check against noon at a location where the exact local noon is known. We would have the date (if everyone forgot to count days, we can work that out from the positions of celestial bodies), and the exact local time, and could use that to get back on track."
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1k7piw | why haven't we evolved to breathe underwater or fly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k7piw/eli5why_havent_we_evolved_to_breathe_underwater/ | {
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"Evolution only comes about after millions of years, as a continuation of a random mutation that by chance happened to be advantageous against predators. As the predators kill off those wothout the mutation, eventually, only those with the mutation have escaped, and evolution is complete.\n\nWe can not simply grow gills or wings.",
"Because those have never been evolutionary advantages for humans.\n\nEvolution rewards traits that improve survival. Humans have done just fine without needing to fly or breathe underwater.\n\nAt this point in time, we're so far down the \"breathing oxygen\" and \"not needing to fly\" route that there's very little chance that humans would just evolve that. If nature snapped its fingers and conditions required we be able to breathe underwater to survive, we would all die out."
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3800hn | how can audiophiles tell the difference between an max quality mp3 and a flac file just by their ears? | When you use a computer to analyze the compression factor in a file it's very obvious that there are lots of frequencies lost. But, in real life can audiophile people really spot the difference just by their plain ears?
Edit: it seems I'm dyslexic. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3800hn/eli5_how_can_audiophiles_tell_the_difference/ | {
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"They can't is the short answer. But people like to convince themselves they can if they have bought a bunch of expensive audio equipment and spent time converting their audio to flac.\n\nSaying that hard drive space is so cheap you may as well use flac and transcode it if needed on your portable player.",
"On high quality listening equipment, There is often variance in the phase of mp3 audio; this is most evident in the sounds made by cymbals. if you're listening to 5 or 7 channel audio on a stereo setup, there just aren't enough speakers to reproduce the full spectrum of sounds in the recording. the harder a single speaker has to work to produce multiple layers and frequencies at the same time, the more muddled the sound is and the less likely you are to notice imperfections. honestly if you're not buying tons of expensive amps and speakers, you probably won't notice much difference between 320 mp3 and lossless. but if you've got 2000 watts running through 7.1, mp3 honestly doesn't cut it, even with Dolby PL. FLAC isn't any good on your portable listening device except to take up drive space, but on a $7000 home stereo system, or in a studio environment, the difference is noticeable. \r\n\r\nSource: Grew up in a recording studio surrounded by pro audio engineers.",
"A recent story comes to mind. Two men are sitting in a recording studio. The rich man tells the music producer that he loves music so much he bought a €30.000 home stereo system, because he considers himself an audiophile. The music producer starts laughing uncontrollably. The rich man clearly upset said it's worth the money to hear the different variations in the music that cannot be heard with ordinary equipment. The music producer turns around and hands the rich man a €10 cord and said, This is what is used to record the music.",
"We did a listening test in an audio engineering class once with different quality files. If I recall correctly, you could only hear a difference with 320 kbps mp3 if you had really good speakers, are in a room designed for listening, listened to a type of music that is more sensitive to compression (classical I think) and you knew what to listen for. I.e. it's virtually impossible.\n\nFeel free to correct me. I remember there were several studies on this subject and if someone bothers finding one, please do a better ELI5 summary.",
"One thing neither side mentions in the flac/mp3 battle is that if you have something encoded in flac and tools verify it's really lossless, you can sit assured that the source was something reasonably good. In case of an mp3 file, it's hard to tell if that mp3 was made by ripping the CD, or transcoding from WMA, or ripping it out of a 360p youtube video (that was made from a 128kbps AAC which was encoded with a badly configured and immature encoder many years ago, etc).\n\nWhen I transcode a track from flac to mp3 i can't really tell the difference, but the 320kbps mp3 I get from god knows who is often miserably bad.\n\nThat said, many people are just talking about placebo, yet claiming that no one can tell the difference is a strong generalization. I can't."
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24jdca | why do some people describe ukip as bigoted? | Here in the UK, there's a party called the UK Independence Party, or UKIP for short. Recently I've been seeing a lot of dislike directed at them, to the extent of mailing bricks to their freepost address in response to campaign leaflets.
In particular, I've seen them described as racist, sexist, homophobic, and bigoted, all of which are deeply disturbing if applicable.
Why do they provoke this sort of reaction, and what policies/attitudes/remarks of theirs are problematic? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24jdca/eli5_why_do_some_people_describe_ukip_as_bigoted/ | {
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"They released a leaflet claiming that all ordinary people believe that marriage is a one man, one woman kind of thing. The same leaflet said that gay marriage hurts \"real people\". This is just one of the homophobic things they have said. If you want to see this look at their candidates other than Farage, who has been giving a sanitized version of the party",
"Basic rundown of why people would claim them as bigoted:\n\n-They propose implementing a 5-year \"freeze\" on **permanent** immigration (i.e. not long term work residences, student visas, etc.). Generally speaking any anti-immigration position is labeled racist these days.\n\n-They've criticized the current proposals for implementing same-sex marriage under the context that it would potentially force certain religious denominations and churches to perform same-sex marriages within their properties even if it is against their doctrine. They maintain they are not against same sex marriage on principle but rather as it is currently looking to be enforced in the UK.\n\n-Any party that seeks to exit the EU (as the UKIP does) usually gets slapped with a \"racist\" label even if that \"racism\" is directed toward other EU countries. Seeking to exit the EU is very unpopular with Poles in particular for obvious reasons.\n\nSome other smaller things\n\n-They are strong proponents of both the Monarchy and somewhat strong proponents of keeping an established state Church in the UK (which oddly goes against supposed libertarian principles). Generally promoting pro-\"British\" institutions can be stretched to be shown as an example of being pro-British at the expense of other groups.\n\n-They want to increase defense/military spending as high as 40%, which is often interpreted as an act of aggression toward the middle-east in modern politics.\n\n-They want to leave the European Court of Human Rights (this is not explicitly true, but other things they support would require it, in the interest of brevity I won't expand here). At face value this sounds appalling but it is more so in line with their general position toward \"Independence\" and not being a part of numerous EU-based treaties or governing bodies.\n\nPersonal opinion as an IR PhD student:\n\nI'm not a fan of the UKIP at all. Their positions are hardly 'libertarian' despite labeling themselves as such. However, I think there position on same-sex marriage is reasonable within the framework of their supposed libertarian views and not driven explicitly by bigotry. This is however contradicted by their positions on the Monarchy and the Church in England. \n\nI don't think their immigration policy is particularly wise but I'm not sure \"racist\" is an appropriate label either. A large part of their \"anti-immigration\" stance is a natural effect of wanting to not be a part of the EU and it isn't remotely close to other groups who want to reduce immigration from areas outside of the EU (Golden Dawn, Jobbik, etc.)\n\nFrankly, Although I think the UKIP is a piss poor political party, I believe most of their \"bigot\" assessment is an unfortunate result of the current trend of labeling any group criticizing current immigration policy as being inherently bigoted. They also get quite a bit of negative press due to opposing the methods of which same-sex marriage would be implemented now despite it being mostly on logistical grounds rather than moral ones.\n\nI'm sure people will like to refute some of my assertions here, and I could certainly be wrong, but given what I know and my best attempts to analyze it objectively I am calling it as I see it as of now.",
"It is to do with the behaviour of not just their members, but their official representatives i.e. those who are elected officials or propective elected officials.\n\nRacism - \n\nApparently Lenny Henry (a British Comedian) should go back to a \"black country\". This has caused some confusion as he is actually from the [Black Country](_URL_1_), though one presumes this is not what was meant. To quote Lenny Henry himself on this very matter, from his act in the 70's - “Enoch Powell has offered me £1,000 to go home,which is great, because it’s only £10 on the train from here to Birmingham.” This and more (here)[_URL_0_]\n\nSexist - \n\nGodfrey Bloom, ex party treasurer, made a joke at the party conference about the place being full of sluts.\n\nA major backer - Demetri Marchessini - said that women should not wear trousers, and that there was no such thing as rape within a marriage.\n\nIf this isn't enough, I can carry on, but it's making me a bit nauseous sourcing this stuff!\n\n"
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1yw7y5 | paralegal v. lawyer: what are the differences? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yw7y5/eli5_paralegal_v_lawyer_what_are_the_differences/ | {
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"My understanding is that it's the difference, in the realm of legal jobs, equivalent to nurse vs. doctor in the medical profession.\n\nA doctor needs a license to practice medicine. A lawyer needs a license of sorts to practice law.\n\nHowever, there are people in either field who lack those licenses, yet still have a very helpful amount of knowledge, so are employed to do the secondary tasks that require extra hands, legwork, research, etc., while the doctor/lawyer does the stuff that *requires* a license. ",
"Law student here--basically a paralegal can carry out the tasks that a lawyer can do such as drafting motions that will be placed before the court, but only lawyers who are licensed to practice in that jurisdiction (by passing the bar and a few other things) are allowed to sign these motions, give legal advice, and appear in court. Being allowed to carry out these extra duties also subjects lawyers to malpractice suits, so the comparison to nurse and doctor is pretty good.",
"A lawyer is allowed to give legal advice, whereas a paralegal (legal assistant) is absolutely not. Paralegals assist Attorneys by drafting documents, getting in contact with clients and the opposing counsel, scheduling meetings, assisting the initial client intake, and by simply affirming that the Lawyer is up to speed on everything. Paralegals are extremely helpful!\n\nSource: Law Student [insert joke here]"
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nqu5x | why when you weigh in you suck in air to weigh less. | My step dad and friend are talking about how this worked for them to make weight for sports. They claimed you suck in to weigh less. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nqu5x/elif_why_when_you_weigh_in_you_suck_in_air_to/ | {
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"I've worked with athletes that need to weigh in, and each one of them has a certain routine or superstition that they claim absolutely, positively makes them weigh less when they step on the scale. Some of them like to weigh sitting down, some of them put their arms above their head, some of them suck in air.\n\nHonestly, I highly doubt any of these things ACTUALLY make them weigh less.\n\nI'm no expert on weights and measures by any means, but my best guess as to the times I have seen a weight difference between a person standing normally and those that do wacky poses is simply that they're carrying their weight differently. A scale is a mechanical object that only has to meet a certain margin of error to be \"official\" for the purpose of a weigh in, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they could be gamed in certain ways by applying the athlete's weight differently across the measuring surface. Even when I have seen a difference as a result of the person doing something special, the results are almost never noteworthy, maybe one or two tenths of a pound. Many scales probably have a greater margin of error than this in normal operation.\n\nThis is, of course, just an educated guess. If anyone has a definitive answer to this I'd love to hear it myself.",
"Because aesthetics mean more than logic.",
"I don't see how this would work. You're taking air **in** and adding to your weight. It's not like you're a balloon that would gain buoyancy by filling up with air.\n\nThis is besides the point that the average human only has a couple liters of volume available for holding this extra air (the total volume is higher) and filling it up with air would neither add nor subtract any substantial amount from their weight.\n\nDehydration would seem like a much better option to make those few extra ounces.\n\nAlso, unless you can seal the air in (pinching nose and keeping mouth closed - which the referee overseeing the weigh in would definitely not allow if this trick is supposed to work) the atmospheric pressure would stay the same and the volume of air inside you doesn't even matter. It's like you measure a 10 oz open bottle and then use heat to widen it (it now has more volume and thereby more air in it) and expect it to magically weigh more.\n\nTLDR; Bullshit. ",
"What? Who the fuck does this? Sucking *in* air means adding more weight to your body, if anything. Not enough to add any weight, but it certainly won't make you weigh *less.*\n\nMaybe if you were breathing in helium... Like, a lot of it. Enough to kill you. It might make you float. Maybe.",
"You don't, unless you're superstitious.\n\nThey're full of hot air. ",
"Technically speaking it would only decrease your total density because you are expanding the volume of your lungs. Though it would ultimately have no effect on your weight. Even though the density changes the only variable would be volume and not weight (Density=m/v)",
"I've worked with athletes that need to weigh in, and each one of them has a certain routine or superstition that they claim absolutely, positively makes them weigh less when they step on the scale. Some of them like to weigh sitting down, some of them put their arms above their head, some of them suck in air.\n\nHonestly, I highly doubt any of these things ACTUALLY make them weigh less.\n\nI'm no expert on weights and measures by any means, but my best guess as to the times I have seen a weight difference between a person standing normally and those that do wacky poses is simply that they're carrying their weight differently. A scale is a mechanical object that only has to meet a certain margin of error to be \"official\" for the purpose of a weigh in, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they could be gamed in certain ways by applying the athlete's weight differently across the measuring surface. Even when I have seen a difference as a result of the person doing something special, the results are almost never noteworthy, maybe one or two tenths of a pound. Many scales probably have a greater margin of error than this in normal operation.\n\nThis is, of course, just an educated guess. If anyone has a definitive answer to this I'd love to hear it myself.",
"Because aesthetics mean more than logic.",
"I don't see how this would work. You're taking air **in** and adding to your weight. It's not like you're a balloon that would gain buoyancy by filling up with air.\n\nThis is besides the point that the average human only has a couple liters of volume available for holding this extra air (the total volume is higher) and filling it up with air would neither add nor subtract any substantial amount from their weight.\n\nDehydration would seem like a much better option to make those few extra ounces.\n\nAlso, unless you can seal the air in (pinching nose and keeping mouth closed - which the referee overseeing the weigh in would definitely not allow if this trick is supposed to work) the atmospheric pressure would stay the same and the volume of air inside you doesn't even matter. It's like you measure a 10 oz open bottle and then use heat to widen it (it now has more volume and thereby more air in it) and expect it to magically weigh more.\n\nTLDR; Bullshit. ",
"What? Who the fuck does this? Sucking *in* air means adding more weight to your body, if anything. Not enough to add any weight, but it certainly won't make you weigh *less.*\n\nMaybe if you were breathing in helium... Like, a lot of it. Enough to kill you. It might make you float. Maybe.",
"You don't, unless you're superstitious.\n\nThey're full of hot air. ",
"Technically speaking it would only decrease your total density because you are expanding the volume of your lungs. Though it would ultimately have no effect on your weight. Even though the density changes the only variable would be volume and not weight (Density=m/v)"
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9uighq | if an ant crawled into my nose/ear, how far into my body could the ant get? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9uighq/eli5_if_an_ant_crawled_into_my_noseear_how_far/ | {
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"Your eardrum is not far into your external auditory meatus. Maybe an inch and a half? In your nose you would likely sneeze pr caught it up pretty quickly but hypothetically it could crawl into your lungs or stomach from there."
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3xjihm | how the "magic eye" eye puzzles are created. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xjihm/eli5_how_the_magic_eye_eye_puzzles_are_created/ | {
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"I assume by \"Magic eye puzzle\" you mean [Autostereograms](_URL_0_).\n\nThey're created by special software, which takes a depth map and an arbitrary texture or pattern to generate the final autostereogram image. The depth map is greyscale ([example](_URL_1_)) and indicates how far away each pixel is from the viewer; lighter pixels are closer than darker pixels (or vice versa). Using some math, the texture image is then \"distorted\" in the proper places to achieve the desired [effect](_URL_2_)."
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"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Stereogram_Tut_Shark_Depthmap.png",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Stereogram_Tut_Shark.png"
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5k62xs | why is/was google+ such a flop? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5k62xs/eli5_why_iswas_google_such_a_flop/ | {
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"Because it offered no real advantage over Facebook. So, people would have to transfer to using a new service and convince all their friends to also transfer. I also don't think Google could compare to Facebook's suggested friends/accounts."
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24pzkl | what does a mayor do in a county system? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24pzkl/eli5_what_does_a_mayor_do_in_a_county_system/ | {
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"In Toronto's case...crack and heroin"
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4u8yhy | how did "friends" do so well in terms of ratings compared to today's television? | Wikipedia shows that each season of Friends averaged more than 20 million viewers (remember, that's *season averages*, which include the premiere and finale which tend to be episodes with the most viewership). When comparing those numbers to other popular shows over the past few years that I can think of (though it should be noted that I don't watch that much TV), Friends absolutely destroys all of the other shows. For comparison, I'm looking at Breaking Bad, The Office, 24, The Big Bang Theory, and The Flash -- all shows that I believe have large fan bases.
For starters, the highest average that Friends pulled off was in the 2nd season with 52.9 million viewers. This is attributed to the fact that an episode premiered after the Super Bowl (much like another show if you continue reading). For arguments sake, lets ignore this season and look at the next highest average, which was season 3 with 24.9 million viewers. This number doesn't seem to be inflated by any sort of supplement like the Super Bowl. Within season 3, the least watched episode still brought in 22.6 million viewers.
The highest average Breaking Bad pulled off was in season 5 with 4.32 million viewers because of the finale which pulled in 10.28 million (which I can understand; I only watched the last few episodes of the show but was also a viewer of the finale as it was broadcast because of the constant talk of the show on social media).
The highest average The Office pulled off was season 5, though this can be attributed to the fact that NBC broadcasted the Super Bowl that year and The Office was on right after (just like Friends) which led to a total of 22.91 viewers.
The highest average 24 pulled off was season 5 (seems to be a trend, haha) with 13.78 million viewers. I can't seem to find any reason outside of the show being "that good" at this point (which I can't confirm or deny as I've never watched an episode). This was 2006, so outside of traditional advertising/marketing, I don't believe there was the added impact of social media.
The highest average The Big Bang Theory pulled off was the most recent season, season 9, with an average of 20.36 million viewers. My assessment is the same as 24 -- never watched it so perhaps the show is just "that good" (though I've been told otherwise) so it's been able to reel in that many viewers.
Though it's only done 2 seasons so far, the highest average The Flash has pulled off is 4.62 in its first season. This intrigued me a bit because I watched almost every episode of the 2nd season live and it by the end of every broadcast, "The Flash" was always the number 1 trend on Twitter, which led me to believe that perhaps social media today would play a bigger part in increasing viewership.
I know I didn't go in depth with all of these metrics and there's probably more to be explained, but from what I've shown it's clear that Friends outperformed these shows. Is there an explanation for this? Are we watching less TV now or is Friends actually that much better than most TV shows (I've been watching it on Netflix and I absolutely love it)? The only other show I could think of that was on par with Friends was American Idol (basically, it held up nicely -- occasionally doing better than Friends -- for the first 10 seasons and then began to fall off).
##TL;DR: *Friends* did really fucking well with its ratings. Why is that so? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u8yhy/eli5_how_did_friends_do_so_well_in_terms_of/ | {
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"In the time of Friends, being on air. Viewers content was limited basically to the cinema, for new release, home movies or renting at Blockbuster or Hollywood video ect.. and then of course the mainstream everyday stuff of cable TV.\n\nToday the population has such a wide array of available content to view.\n\nRedbox, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube...the list goes on for days of available media and then of course cable and satellite. There is a much broader list of contenders fighting to supply our entertainment needs and that means cable is loosing out. Plus no annoying commercials every 2 minutes.\n\n",
"Broad appeal and few competitors. Now there's so much competition for niche demographics that shows with broad appeal lose viewers. Why watch a show with a few tech jokes if you can watch The Big Bang Theory? There's a lot of shows like that which would steal Friends's viewers away in the modern tv space."
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6el6vc | with thousands of workers producing new iphones, how come not way more information about them is leaked? | And how do these huge factories prevent espionage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6el6vc/eli5_with_thousands_of_workers_producing_new/ | {
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"They guy who oversees the shoe sole making machine does not necessarily understand how the rest of the shoe is made. There are not a whole lot who actually understand the whole thing, and those who do are probably under a close eye and NDAs. ",
"They're scared of losing their job and will probably face harsh prison terms if caught. Most are poor and illiterate workers... So their livelihood is on the line. There's always leaks after the product is finalized and ready to go. "
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436tuw | the primary voting systems connection to federal polling places | What I don't get: the republicans and democrats are both technically individual groups, that, ideally, rally beside specific points and ideas in the hopes of pushing for candidates who match the ideals of the members. However, we use federal voting places to vote for the primaries, and use federal funds to pay for tallying the votes, volunteer compensation, etc. Why? The primaries are not directly tied to the federal gov, why do we pay for them? Hell, do we even? What you vote for in a primary is who will the party push as their main candidate, not who is actually taking position, so why is there any connection to the federal voting system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/436tuw/eli5_the_primary_voting_systems_connection_to/ | {
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"You have been misinformed. The USA does not provide federal polling places. Elections are conducted separately by each state, under the state budget."
]
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5yx08k | how come we never hear animals howling in pain when giving birth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yx08k/eli5_how_come_we_never_hear_animals_howling_in/ | {
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"The only animal I ever witnessed giving birth howled in pain.\n\nShe was my cat and I was twelve. It was so traumatic for both of us. She howled for HOURS.",
"Humans are somewhat unique in how badly the female pelvis performs during childbirth. It's a byproduct of walking upright.",
"Yes our bodies are terribly designed for child birth, but animals still do experience pain during labor, and may even make sounds. \n\nThe main reason animals are usually quiet is because giving birth makes the animal entirely vulnerable to predators, so being as quiet as possible is important to survival. So being quiet would be evolutionarily selected, because you have a higher chance of having successful progeny.\n\nAdditionally humans are social animals, and our cries of pain call to other humans to help and protect us. So it's in a human's best interest to be noisey. \n\nThis the same reason humans cry in pain but animals just hide quietly. "
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af2zxu | what is the difference between a civilian grade rifle and a military one? was watching a second amendment debate and i’m confused | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/af2zxu/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_civilian/ | {
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"Veteran here:\n\nReally nothing.\n\nMilitary rifles are select-fire which means they have burst or fully-automatic modes.\n\nCivilian rifles only have semi-automatic modes.\n\nOtherwise they are exactly the same.\n\n(Technically civilians can own automatic weapons, too, but they require extremely expensive tax stamps and background checks).\n\n\"Military grade\" is a meaningless term. \"Milspec\" is the correct term, but it really only refers to products that meet military standards. It doesn't imply better quality. In many cases civilian products are higher-quality.",
"Realistically, its nothing. It's a vague category designed to keep certain weapons out of civilian hands. It usually means fully automatic but I covers other weapons as well. \n\nThe reason the right has problems with gun control laws half the time is when the left uses either vague terminology like \"assault weapons\" or incorrectly uses terminology like calling an AR15 fully automatic (it's not, its a semi auto)\n\nAny thing else you want specified\n"
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44fmp0 | why is mormon so big in utah | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44fmp0/eli5_why_is_mormon_so_big_in_utah/ | {
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"The state of Utah was essentially founded by Mormons. The group felt persecuted on the east coast and began what they describe as a pilgrimage to the promised land, where they could live, grow, and worship in their own way. Their final point of rest was Salt Lake, Utah, a relatively nice place to do all of those things, far out of the way of major cultural and political movements."
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3o5izl | why do a lot of celebrities choose weird names for their kids? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3o5izl/eli5_why_do_a_lot_of_celebrities_choose_weird/ | {
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"I think a lot of it has to do with their chosen profession as well. Actors and musicians are performers and in a lot of ways, everything they do is an expression because of the creative nature of their profession. \n\nThat and drugs..... loooooooots of drugs",
"To become an entertainer and a celeb in the first place, you gotta be an attention seeker. So giving your kid some dopey name to show how crazy you are is kind of a given.\n\nAlso, celebs are surrounded by yes-men. They probably won't get all the funny looks and snide remarks real people would get if we named our kids \"Ebola Quinoa\", or \"Standard Lamp\", or \")%(\" or \"Cigarettes\" or \"Something Else Stupid\". \n\n(I kinda like \"Cigarettes\" though. But not for a boy, obviously.)"
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2bql76 | how do 3g/4g wireless networks work? | Why is it that some days my internet stays a solid 4g, and others is barely able to hold on to a bar in 3g? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bql76/eli5_how_do_3g4g_wireless_networks_work/ | {
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"A cell tower shoots radiation at your phone that carry's information packets (like with regular wire internet) which can only be read by your phone (A Sim card is basically like a decoder ring/homing beacon) Then your phone shoots radiation back saying what you want and it goes round and round in that circle. \n\nIt's identical to how cell phones themselves work only they use a difference frequency\n\nAnd they have different strengths because of what's blocking the signal. You wont get a signal in a concrete bunker like you would standing next to a cell tower in an open field. Terrain and sounds are the most important facts, it has more trouble being clear during thunder storms because its really noisy and there are lots of particles grinding against eachother being interfering."
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blzqsj | why are there so many different medications on the market right now for "moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/blzqsj/eli5_why_are_there_so_many_different_medications/ | {
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"Because that’s not all that it treats. A LOT of these drugs treat basically what are side effects of an overactive immune system. Rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease ulcerative Colitis, Ankylosing Spondylitis Etc. most are injections, so the few that are coming out are tablets or capsules because some of these people are unable to administer their own injections. A big problem is that they usually require further review and most insurance companies will not cover some of these meds"
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3ba4d2 | what happens to guitar strings over time and use which makes them sound dull and need to be changed? | I've cleaned the strings like a fool.
Yay. They're clean.
They are worn and done.
New strings sound great.
Why, Reddit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ba4d2/eli5_what_happens_to_guitar_strings_over_time_and/ | {
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"The strings begin to fade because of the dirt and oils on your fingers when you play. \n\nI may be wrong, but I would guess that since most strings are \"wound\", the dirt and oils get into places that you can't clean completely, affecting the vibration and tone of the strings, making you have to drop cash on more.\n",
"Not only does the dirt and sweat dull the string, millions of vibration cycles in the alloy break down the molecular structure in the metal. The vibrations become more erratic and less stable. Fresh strings feel so good because the surface is smooth and the springy even tension is predictable when bending. The smoother string slides over the fret better, as well as making more contact with the fret crown. The higher frequencies are clearer, and the harmonic nodes react more brilliantly. "
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21cc0d | do productions really crash expensive sports cars for a single shot in films? | I don't think anyone has the budget to buy and crash a Ferrari or blow up a Lamborghini like in MI3. Just wondering what they do for the effect, if anyone knows. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21cc0d/eli5do_productions_really_crash_expensive_sports/ | {
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"I doubt they buy full actual sports cars to crash. The most likely scenario is they build a replica model of the body and put it on a 'normal' car chassis.\n\nI know a few of the cars blown up in Skyfall were relatively cheap 3D printed replicas.",
"As /u/firstworldandarchist said they usually use replicas. Car crashes are pretty boring in the real world, even at fairly high speed. So they use stunt cars designed to crash in certain ways.\n\nNo sense in crashing a $200K car when you can make a replica up and have it crash/explode in a much more interesting way than a real car would.",
"Also, to further your understanding, check out the \"Making of Need for Speed\". There is a segment dedicated to the shop that replicated all the cars for the flick. ",
"When shooting dukes of hazards they went through so many chargers that they would send guys out to find and buy the cars off the streets"
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3vw6xj | why is it acceptable to form something like a women's only coding competition or club, but to do that with men would be considered sexist and backwards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vw6xj/eli5_why_is_it_acceptable_to_form_something_like/ | {
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"Making a women's-only coding competition or club does not prevent men from learning to code, develop professional contacts, accessing educational opportunities, get recognition for their talents, volunteer on projects, and parlay their skills into a market.\n\nIt helps women accomplish those things.\n\nWhen software coding is no longer overwhelmingly men, if it becomes overwhelmingly women, then women will have the power to shut men out of the profession — the way men in the discipline have shut women out of it.\n\n— retired Computer Scientist / programmer / sysadmin.",
"This is because those spaces are already considered male dominated, so woman-centric spaces attempt to offset that inequality. Men do not need those spaces because in a sense, they already have them.",
"Because its about empowering minority groups (race, gender, ethnicity), not creating groups for a majority or dominant faction (white males)\n\nIt would be acceptable to create a male housewives support groups because they are a minority\n\nEdit: I am a white guy",
"Complicated answer to a relatively simple question.\n\nThis and similiar movements are intended to create supportive and encouraging environments (That is not to say they are not competiive, even viciously so, but that it is free of institutionalised/traditional 'weight' ) rather than hostile. (As a white male in the IT industry, the amount of people that shit on the idea of a women working in it, even now, is utterly disgraceful.) Eventually, such a divide will not be required and will in fact become damaging, but I don't personally believe that time is here yet."
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12es1a | when a corporation makes a profit, where does that money go? | My understanding of "profit" is what income is left over after all expenses are accounted for including all operational costs, legal/service fees, and paying every single employee, so who gets the profit?
Also, if corporations are legally people, why don't people post profits as well? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12es1a/when_a_corporation_makes_a_profit_where_does_that/ | {
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" > who gets the profit?\n\nGenerally, it goes in the corporation's bank account. Then the CEO can choose to spend that money to expand the business, or can choose to give the money to shareholders in the form of a dividend, or can use that money to pay down some of its debt, or can choose to purchase some of the corporation's own stock in the open market.\n\n > Also, if corporations are legally people, why don't people post profits as well?\n\nCorporations aren't legally people. They have some of the same rights that people do (e.g. holding property), but they aren't people.",
" > Also, if corporations are legally people, why don't people post profits as well?\n\nIn addition to what everyone said about corporations \"being people\" and the common misconceptions about that, this also _logically_ doesn't follow. Just because one thing belongs to a group doesn't mean a group must adopt all characteristics of that thing.\n\nFor example: Does it make sense to ask \"if apples are red, why don't all red things taste sweet?\"",
"Retained Earnings. From there, could go in a bunch of different ways...stay in the compnay, dividends, expand, loans, etc etc",
"Say you spend $6 making product A. You then sell product A for $10. Now you have 4 dollars that you didn't have before. You can now spend that money by expanding your business, rewarding your employees in the form of a bonus, reward your shareholders in the form of a dividend, or stick it in the bank until a time arises that you need it. ",
"The key to understanding where the profit goes is understanding that companies have shares and these shares are owned by people. These are literally a bit of a company that you can buy and own. \n\nThink of it this way:\n\nA company is divided into 100 parts, each part is 1 share\nWhoever owns 51 or more shares get to dictate how the company is run (It's a little more complicated than that, but in general that's how it works).\n\nWhen there is profit at the end of the year the owner has three choices:\n\n1) Keep it in the company for a rainy day (retained earnings)\n2) Give it out to all the shareholder proportional to how many shares someone owns (i.e., if there is $200 profit and they dividend it out the man with 51 shares gets $102 dollars)\n3) Use it to buy things to make the company bigger (investment)\n\nThere's a lots of different ways to do this, for example companies like Campbell's Soup tend to pay dividends like clockwork. Companies like Apple would rather retain or invest.",
"Profit is not cash by the way. A corporation could make a ton of profit but be incredibly broke, it's how accounting works.\n\nSo where does profit go? Nowhere. It's an accounting concept.",
"Some profits may go into the bank (or investments), to be used later. \n\nSome profits may go into expanding the business over the next fiscal period (thus going to pay for future expenses).\n\nSome profits may go into repurchasing shares.\n\nSome profits may go directly to shareholders as dividends.",
"In many of the larger corporations that profit goes to the shareholders (fractional owners) who each get a very small amount per share. This may be the CEO/founder/some rich person who owns a bunch of shares, or it could be your grandpa who bought a few shares of coca-cola as part of his retirement plan. ",
" > Also, if corporations are legally people, why don't people post profits as well?\n\nPeople do *make* profit - in that you get paid, then you buy stuff, and whatever's left at the end is your profit/loss on the year.\n\nBut not every company has to post its financials - usually only corporations that outsiders are allowed to invest in. If you're on the stock market, you've got to post your figures so that I know what I'm buying into. If you're a bookshop employing two other people, you don't need to reveal anything to me.\n\nSo as a person, because nobody's investing in you, the only person who needs to know your financials is the tax man. Same as a corporation."
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4qgiss | racism vs prejudice | In the warped area that is the internet, it seems that many try to explain that both are somethng similar or completely unreleated/ So far I've been "taught" racism is are someone based on their background while prejudice is about their actions? Can I please get a simplified definition of both with an example. (ALSO, I'm on strong pain medication so I don't quite have complete thoughts.) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qgiss/eli5_racism_vs_prejudice/ | {
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"Prejudice simply refers to discriminating against someone based on whatever you choose -- age, gender, sexual orientation, race, height, weight, hair color, what music they like, what food they like, etc. It doesn't matter which characteristic you're choosing to focus on, it's all under the general umbrella of \"prejudice.\"\n\nRacism is the term that we use to define prejudice based on race. If you discriminate based on gender, then it's called \"sexism.\" If you discriminate based on sexual orientation, then \"homophobia.\" And so on.\n\nGet well soon!",
"These terms are not precisely used.\n\nThe two main differences: prejudice is an irrational bias that leads a person to judge someone or expect them to act in a certain way based on stereotype, not in actually observing that person.\n\nRacism is the act of allowing your race-based prejudice to affect how you treat or behave towards that person.\n\nSo prejudice is your innate feeling, and can be based in any characteristic. Racism is your blameworthy action that is driven by your prejudicial feelings, and applies strictly to issues of race or ethnicity.",
"Prejudice usually refers to the thoughts only, to prejudge someone/something. Whereas discrimation happens when you act on those thoughts. Racism refers to the discrimination against races, the definition may or may not encompass prejudicial aspect of it."
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4p5pun | a lot of gasoline producers claim that their gas is somehow better than that of other companies; is this ever a legitimate claim? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p5pun/eli5a_lot_of_gasoline_producers_claim_that_their/ | {
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"High quality gas has detergents in it that can improve performance and engine lifespan.\n\nLow quality gas has poorer quality control and can lead to poor performance.\n\nWhether advertiser's claims match up to these, that's anyone's guess. But it is not impossible for one brand of gasoline to be better than another.",
"By law, gasoline in the US is required to have a certain minimum of stabilizers and additives. However, it's not an exclusive limit, so refineries are free to add in other detergents as they see fit or as the customer wants.\n\nYou'd need to look for research in these extra additives and see what the numbers say about them. Any particular brand you're interested in?",
"I'll be as simple as possible here, normal, unleaded gas (regardless of the octane rating) has detergents, and additives in it (such as the summer blend vs winter blend, do NOT put summer blend into your snow mobile) this is regulated by quite a few governments, including the USA. when refining oil into gas they add these additives, everyone gets it, it helps keep valves clean, prevent buildup, stop NOx from forming (same with your catalytic converter) and a host of other things that generally is good for your motor. \n\nWhat shell, and other companies promote is those WITHOUT detergent this is what COULD happen, and most of the time it's a valve you see that has had an o-ring failure on the stem that causes that buildup, it is possible for unleaded, untreated gas to eat through certain kinds of rubber faster than treated gas but it requires specific rubber that's no longer used (same with ethanol in gasoline, it can eat through certain gaskets) refineries make gigantic batches of this, all regulated by governments, so yes, it's \"legitimate\" but no, their gas is no different than the mom and pops down the street",
"I don't know about their claims, but there's a difference in the gas from different companies. Anybody that I've ever heard talk about this who was in the know (worked in a related industry) has said to avoid Shell, as they have the worst quality gas. My buddy who works in a lab testing oil refuses to go to Shell stations."
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1yzx08 | why hasn't a vice president run for president against their own president. | An example would have been Biden running for President against Obama in the last election. After watching House of Cards and doing the research there hasn't been a VP that has ran against their running mate. All VPs has become president because the president died or ran later o. After the term of their running mate ended. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yzx08/why_hasnt_a_vice_president_run_for_president/ | {
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"Because the nature of the party system means they wouldn't win.\n\nIts very rare for a political party to swap candidates when the candidate still has 4 years left. In 2012, the Democrats were going to run Obama (barring any serious scandals) regardless of who tried to get the nomination. Obama was working so far, they may as well ride on the incumbency bandwagon (incumbents have a huge advantage and win %).\n\nSo if a VP wanted to be president, the best method would be to wait out the current guy's 2 terms and then try to ride his success saying \"I'll give you 8 more years because I was there the whole time and wasn't it great\".",
"A couple reasons:\n\n* No party backing. The democratic party is not going to back Biden running against Obama. This would divide the votes and most likely allow the republicans to steal the election. And no party backing, means no funding.\n\n* Why take a huge risk in hoping to become president and give up the guaranteed position of Vice President if Obama wins re-election which has a greater chance of happening and is much smaller risk.",
"Generally because they don't have a chance of winning.\n\nThe way the (functionally) two party system works they'd first have to convince members of their own party they they're better than the President (or at least have a better chance of being elected) and, if they failed at that, would have to convince the general public that they are.\n\nThere's very few, if any, things that a VP can do to set himself apart from a President in a meaningful way. If the President has done a good job in his first term, it's hard to sell yourself as so much better that you should replace him when historical precedent carries so much weight. If the President hasn't done a good job, it's hard to sell yourself as not part of the problem and somehow immune to his failings.\n\ntl;dr: If the Pres is doing a good job, it's hard to say you'll do better. If the Pres is doing a poor job, you're likely taking a good chunk of the blame by association.",
"In the US, the president and the vice president are almost always from the same party. And without the support of that party, neither of them could get elected.\n\nThat means if a VP wanted to run against the president, the party would have to choose which one support, and drop their support of the other, effectively ending their political career with that party. And since the president is more power and the stronger candidate, the party will always go that way.\n\nNote that in other countries, the VP isn't ways from the same party, and is often part of a compromise to earn support from the president. It is not uncommon for those VP to run against sitting presidents.",
"A sitting VP did run against the President, and defeated him. This was in 1800, before the changes to the electoral system (the 12th amendment) and the development of a proper party system, but it still happened... "
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1dd01w | cia and what do they do | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dd01w/eli5_cia_and_what_do_they_do/ | {
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"Every country basically has two different Intelligence Agencies, one for domestic work and the other for international work. For example, MI-6 is Britain's CIA (which is our International intelligence ring), and MI-5 is their domestic intelligence. The CIA does get into some very, VERY dark things-basically, if the U.S. thinks something needs to get done, but they don't want their handprints on it, CIA goes in. But this is very general.",
"The CIA is the modern US Intelligence agency. During World War II, President Roosevelt was getting his intelligence (information, essentially) from the British and Russians, and saw that he was not good at getting it himself, which makes the US look a bit weak. Sun Tsu wrote about the importance of intelligence, and a good espionage system and intelligence gathering is important. So, Roosevelt founded the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to get the US to gather their own intelligence during WWII.\n\nIn 1945, after the War ended, the OSS was disbanded by President Truman. Some people (officers in the OSS, politicians, etc.) thought that the US needed continuous ongoing intelligence. So they founded the CIA (or what would become the CIA). Yet there was some confusion as to its job--President Truman just wanted a daily intelligence report so he knew what was going on, while others thought that we needed more *direct action* abroad.\n\nOver time, the CIA began to do more and more operations. Currently, it's headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, but they are only chartered to operate overseas. Technically, the CIA is not allowed to do anything on US soil (excluding Langley). Their job is to gather intelligence and conduct clandestine operations in overseas nations. What that means is the CIA has members in various countries supplying information, people engaged in foreign politics and agents ready to carry out operations. In the Battle of Mogadishu (think Black Hawk Down), CIA clandestine operators were involved militarily (one guy was an informant, others were special forces soldiers). Then they run operations such as the one from the movie Argo. \n\nUltimately, they provide information to the cabinet and President, share info with domestic agencies (like FBI, only if necessary), operated secretly overseas, militarily, or releasing propaganda, etc.\n\nI know a great book on the CIA, if you're interested in it, too.",
"They tell our decision makers (POTUS, NSC) what other countries' decision makers are scheming. Then, if our decision makers want to do something about it - the CIA does something about it. and nobody tells."
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4aeeoe | wouldn't the carbon footprint of shipping used goods to be recycled largely offset the benefits of recycling? | What got me thinking about this is the K cups at work we have to ship out to be recycled. They're probably heavier going out than when they came in. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aeeoe/eli5wouldnt_the_carbon_footprint_of_shipping_used/ | {
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"It would probably depend on what the goal is. The benefit from recycling paper is you need to cut down fewer trees. The goal of recycling aluminum cans is to save on mining more aluminum. The other goal of both is also the main goal of recycling k-cups: keeping them out of landfills. \n\nCarbon footprints are a secondary consideration at best.",
"Its hit and miss, somethings have such an a massive energy requirement to initially create (e.g. aluminium _URL_1_ ) but recycling is comparatively much cheaper the shipping is worth it. \n\nOther wise some in house recycling might become bigger e.g. _URL_0_ While the price might be high its definitely alot more carbon friendly to recycle it in office than waste energy shipping it to the recycling plant and then packaging it and finally sending it to a shop to be resold"
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dl9oji | how do app's like earnin, which have no fees or interests (and rely on tips) actually make money? | If 100 people get $100 but only 1 person doesnt pay it back. You would then have to hope the other 99 actually decide to tip more then $100 total for it to profit you. Most people won't tip and those who do probably won't tip much.
Also, I havent really seen any advertisements in the app.
Am I just under estimating the generosity of people? Do more people tip bigger amounts then I am assuming? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dl9oji/eli5_how_do_apps_like_earnin_which_have_no_fees/ | {
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"It is a payday loan so they can link it to a specific person’s paycheck. They have a good claim on seizing it, so they either go after the employer for payment or sell it to a collections agency for nearly full price.\n\nThey are funded by venture capital which means they likely operate at a loss anyway.",
"Earnin has a few more requirements than they let on in the ads. First you set your employer. Name of the company, and address of employment. If your company isn't found by the automated search you then have to manually verify with an Earnin support member. After setting your place of work, you have to prove sufficient, current payroll by linking and opening your bank account to them. \n\nOnce you've linked your bank account the Earnin app has to see at least two paychecks from your employer. After setting your employer and bank you either have to upload proof of hours worked in the form of an electronic time sheet or by allowing the app to use your location. While the app sees you at the verified location, you earn an amount that you can withdraw from. \n\nEssentially you have to put a signficant amount of information forward before you can withdraw money. After you've withdrawn they ask for a tip and set one at approx. 10% by default. Once you've withdrawn money they will automatically deduct the balance + tip at your next payday. Since this is handled as an ACH transaction (and this is where those with more banking knowledge than I can correct me) it can bypass current balances and overdraft the account. \n\nSo if you borrow $100+10% tip, but only have $50 in your account at the time of pay back, they'll still withdraw the full payment from your account and leave you with a negative balance. I would also like to add that they will hold your banking information even if you attempt to delete your account if you have any outstanding balances. So it would be somewhat difficult to not pay back what you've borrowed from Earnin.\n \nApologies for block text/formatting I'm typing on mobile.\n\n(Edit: Grammar)"
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5spblh | how can baking soda be safe to consume if it's made from ammonia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5spblh/eli5how_can_baking_soda_be_safe_to_consume_if_its/ | {
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"How can salt be safe to consume when it's made from sodium and chloride? Go look up someone dropping sodium in water on youtube, surely THAT can't be safe to put inside your body, right?\n\nSee, thing is, **chemical compounds** are different from simple mixtures or ingredients. So when you say \"x is made from y\" does that mean they put a scoop of y in, or did y bond with something else in the process and create something new?\n\nWhen two (or more) different atoms are bonded together, the resulting molecule doesn't have to act like it's creators. In fact, it rarely does! Our dear friend H2O for example: oxygen and hydrogen are colorless reactive gases at room temperature, combine them into a molecule and they're refreshing.\n\nAmmonia is merely nitrogen and hydrogen. Two atoms who are building blocks in a **LOT** of different substances, ranging from deadly to delightful.\n\n",
"When compounds become other compounds, the way they react changes.\n\nSodium is a metal, and if you swallowed a good chunk of it, you'd probably die. Chlorine is a gas that if inhaled could kill you very easily.\n\nCombine them into Sodium Chloride (table salt), and we put it on EVERYTHING and eat it!\n\nThis is also an argument that anti-vaccination people use when they say there is Mercury in vaccinations. Thimerosol is Mercury Ethyl Sodium, not just Mercury.",
"Pretty much organic chemistry is about the very, very different effects of different combinations of the same basic blocks. Chemicals that are just a bit different will behave differently, especially in/on living organisms.\n\nBaking soda is \"made from\" ammonia only in the sense that it's chemical production involves ammonia, but the result does not contain any ammonia, all the ammonia is transformed into baking soda. This contrasts the other common \"made from\" usage where e.g. soda is made from water and sugar, and contains both.",
"Sodium bicarbonate is a salt composed of sodium ions and bicarbonate ions. Baking soda in today's age, doesn't contain ammonium. Old recipes might call for ammonium bicarbonate, which is like today's sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).\n\nI also want to add that ammonium and ammonia are different. Ammonium is made up of one nitrogen and 4 hydrogen, ammonia is made up of one nitrogen and 3 hydrogen. \n\nAmmonium is not harmful and is actually used in some water filtration. Ammonium is found in some salt compounds and hard to find in its pure form. Ammonium is toxic to plant life. Ammonia is easier to find in pure form and is toxic to consume. Ammonia is widely used in pesticides and cleaning agents. ",
"Thankyou everyone who is smarter than I. "
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3gxnug | if we could make giant ants, would they be just as strong as small ants? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gxnug/eli5_if_we_could_make_giant_ants_would_they_be/ | {
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"You can't just scale organisms up and down like that. Say that you made every dimension of an ant 1000 times bigger. That will make the surface area of the ant 1000^2 times bigger and its volume/weight 1000^3 times bigger. It's bodily systems probably wouldn't function.",
"Check out these [slides](_URL_0_). They explain that as something is scaled up, the weight of it rises at a much faster pace than it's strength. Therefore, the giant ant would not be able to support its own weight.",
"No, in fact they would quickly die. \nIn many engineering/biological topics there is something called the Square-Cube Law: If you grow/shrink something some properties vary by the square of the amount you are shrinking, others by the cube of the amount your shrinking. \nThe thing is weight is a property of volume, so that varies by cube.\nStrength on the other hand is a property of cross section(every cross section of something must bear the entire weight).\n \nSo say we have a 1inch cube of muscles: \n1x1x1 = 1 cubic inch of muscle weight \n1x1 = 1 square inch of muscle strenght \n \nLets double the size of the muscle to a 2 inch cube: \n2x2x2 = 8 cubic inches of muscle weight \n2x2 = 4 cubic inches of muscle strength \n \nBy doubling the size of the muscle we have halved it's strength to weight ratio. \nThis means that as we increase the size of a muscle we are getting less and less additional gains in lifting ability, eventually it stops being able to lift the muscle itself. \n \nGrowing an ant to that size would not only prevent it from standing up, the ant itself would collapse into a soup of ant bits, since an ant has no bones, it maintains it's structure through the strength of it's outer shell (which would thus vary by square). Also ant's breathe through their outer shell, and surface area is another vary by square thing. \n"
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3vexwm | when manufacturers make a toy, clock, etc. how do they decide which battery is needed assuming size is not an issue? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vexwm/eli5_when_manufacturers_make_a_toy_clock_etc_how/ | {
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"Size is a major issue, but also voltage.\n\nNormal batteries (AA's, C's, D's, etc) all have the same voltage, roughly 1.5V per cell. As they get bigger, they get more capacity, but as a rule you want to pack as much capacity into the space as possible while still providing the voltage you need.\n\nAs an example: a boombox needs 6 volts to operate. This means it needs 4 batteries in series (1.5v each, times 4, equals 6). It's too small for D's, but C's fit, as do AA and AAA. They'll likely go with C batteries as they'd have far more reserve than the AA or AAA options while providing the voltage needed and fitting in the case."
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5kljd6 | what types of meat are considered prime, choice, select, etc and is it just a marketing technique/scam? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kljd6/eli5_what_types_of_meat_are_considered_prime/ | {
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"These gradations are defined by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is based on the amount of \"marbling\" (fat within the muscle) of the meat and the age of the meat (older means less tender). There is a formula to determine what the meat can be labeled as. \n\nYou can find out a lot more information at [this website](_URL_0_). "
]
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soe39 | how a nuclear war would destroy the planet | Whenever the issue of nuclear war comes up in movies, books etc. it is mentioned that nuclear war would cause human extinction or destroy the planet entirely. I don't see how this could be the case - if, say, Russia and America were to go to war, how would a nation like Nigeria be affected? Is this true, or is it just exaggeration? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/soe39/eli5_how_a_nuclear_war_would_destroy_the_planet/ | {
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"It wouldn't destroy the planet. The planet has taken far worse in the past and survived. Human civilization would certainly be knocked back pretty far and even people on isolate islands would be affected, but it wouldn't snuff out all life.",
" JakeSteam's points are not entirely true.\n The reason why life could easily die on the surface of the earth after a nuclear war is twofold.\n\n The first is dust/ash. This is called 'nuclear Winter.' There is ample available evidence that even small volcanos, and the smoke and dust they kick up can cause freezing, and snowing effects on other continents. The exchange of a nuclear event would cause multiple times the amount of that dust and would exceed multiple times the ash that all of the volcanoes on earth could produce. \n The extent of the world snowing for ten years would cause almost all biological systems the world over to die. Some things, probably only things that don't exist connected to the surface, would survive. How the ecosystem could function after ten years of snow, if at all, is anyone's guess. Mass starvation is guaranteed, survival of the human race is not.\n\n The second problem is radioactive particles. Microscopic radioactive particles would be scattered worldwide. Ingesting even the smallest dust speck of plutonium or cobalt-60 in your lungs will cause internal burning at that location for the rest of your life, which won't be long, as you're getting an internal sunburn every day from that point forward. The radiation in your lungs will decay for thousands of years. Your body, once it ingests a heavy metal, cannot remove it, just like how mercury poisoning cannot be removed without extreme means with ketones and the like. Those won't be available en masse, and are uncertain with radioactives.\n In short, you breathe in radioactive dust, you burn on the inside for the rest of your life, however short that may be. We're talking weeks, maximum.\n\n We, as a species, spent endless, endless hours of resources making weaponized fissionable materials, grinding down with centrifuges the tiniest fractions of a percentage of amounts of materials, that are naturally occurring, literally distilling and spinning them 24/7 for years, and years, and years, until we get a weaponized product. It is an abomination against nature that we would do this, nobody should have ever thought that it was necessary, but here we are. We've spent endless hours, and then we expect to release it to the world, and this is what we get.\n\n We made the world's most deadly, perpetual, natural, and endless poison in plutonium and other weapons grade fissionable materials. A bomb of this like will do damage into generations beyond ours.\n This will go down as the stupidest mistake mankind ever made.",
"There are three items to consider with nuclear war:\n\n1.) Heat\n\n2.) Pressure\n\n3.) Radiation/Fallout\n\nObviously, all three of these are going to vary depending on the type of bomb and its destructive power, but the ultimate answer to your question lies with the third point.\n\nI invite you to play around with [this](_URL_3_) little Google map overlay that would give you a rough overview of the destructive force of various nuclear weapons by payload. This will give you an idea of just how little actual DESTRUCTION is done (on a global scale) by a nuclear weapon.\n\nHere are your basic destruction scenarios:\n\n*Nuclear Winter*\n\nThe problem is that in a drawn-out nuclear war between two superpowers, there could theoretically be enough [fallout](_URL_0_) thrown up into the atmosphere to cause a [Nuclear Winter](_URL_1_), in which debris and fallout thrown up into the atmosphere could theoretically block enough sunlight to illicit a protracted period of intense cold.\n\n*Nuclear Summer*\n\n[Nuclear Summer](_URL_2_) could occur in one of two ways:\n\n1.) In the aftermath of Nuclear Winter, the debris inserted into the atmosphere enriches the ozone layer to the point where it acts as a super-greenhouse, trapping heat that would usually escape harmlessly through the previously-thinner atmosphere. Think of the earth as an incredibly muggy, humid, awful place where the air was too thick to breath.\n\n2.) In the event that the heat of the nuclear weapons were enough to burn away the ozone, the earth would be unprotected from the full-force of solar radiation. It would slowly become a desert as all life under the harsh UV rays would be undergo a serious case of sunburn.\n\n\nAnd finally, (and my personal favorite) *The Radioactive Apocalypse*\n\nIn this scenario, enough radioactive fallout is generated to pollute not only surface life, but underwater aquifers and other water sources, thus infecting ecosystems with radiation poisoning. It's unlikely that we would have a race of mutants develop from this, like in the fallout series. It's more likely that we would all just die of radiation poisoning and the earth would be rendered and unlivable radioactive wasteland.\n\nAnd that, dear OP, is how we all could die.\n\n~Fin~",
"Interesting read after going through this reddit is _URL_0_ "
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout",
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"http://www.carloslabs.com/projects/200903A/index.html"
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d046ks | how opened water bottles “go bad” | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d046ks/eli5_how_opened_water_bottles_go_bad/ | {
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"What do you mean by \"opened water bottles 'go bad'\"? \n\nGenerically speaking, anything previously sealed has an increased chance of going bad after you break the seal because you introduce more contaminants than may have been in the item while it was sealed. \n\nTake chip bags for example, they sit on the shelf for awhile without going stale, once you break the seal and release the nitrogen (used because it doesn't cause chips to go stale) within them, the chips will begin going stale though this process takes some time. \n\nThat said, water doesn't typically \"go bad\" from just sitting around, it may taste different and not as good as it was fresh, but it's not going to kill you."
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2tkpkk | how is the reclassification of broadband internet is going to change the service that isps provide? | So they reclassified broadband internet to a min of 25 down and 3 up, how is that going to change anything at all? Can the ISPs just give the same shitty internet and just not call it broadband? From what I see ISPs have so much power and freedom that they do what they want anyway.
I use an ISP the uses many Wifi towers to disperse their internet over miles of rural land. I only get 5 mbps but i am very happy with the quality of service it get. On the negative side I am paying over 80 dollars a month just for the internet. How is this reclassification going to help people like me?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tkpkk/eli5_how_is_the_reclassification_of_broadband/ | {
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"Can't imagine it will do much of anything. If they can't use that specific name they'll call it something else. \n\n",
" > So they reclassified broadband internet to a min of 25 down and 3 up, how is that going to change anything at all? Can the ISPs just give the same shitty internet and just not call it broadband?\n\nISPs generally are concerned with reclassification of the term broadband because they do like to advertise their services as 'broadband' and there are many institutions (whether government-based or independently operated) that release public reports that analyze different ISPs and their respective rates of 'broadband penetration' (i.e. how effective they are at getting broadband service to customers, particularly in remote/rural areas). \n\nISPs generally don't want to be shamed in these reports, and furthermore these types of reports are sometimes used to determine whether or not the ISP should be entitled to future government funding/grants and/or may be used to asses whether existing funding/grants were effective at accomplishing their goal (greater broadband penetration). ISPs therefore don't want to risk losing these types of funds/grants."
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2hyxax | is there something in pumpkin nutritionally speaking that makes people crave it when it becomes widely available in the fall? | Stereotypes aside, people go nuts for the taste. Are we nutritionally deficient in something contained in pumpkin? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hyxax/eli5_is_there_something_in_pumpkin_nutritionally/ | {
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"Just so you know, most pumpkin flavored things just have nutmeg in them.",
"It's just become a matter of association.\n\nI, personally, crave raspberries in the spring. ",
"I think it's just the spice they're after. However, pumpkins (and ergo the use of pumpkin spice) are an autumn crop, available for a limited time each year. Cooling temperatures and pumpkin and pie spice just seem to go together for that short season.\n\nAs someone mentioned below, there is very little pumpkin in most of the goods. It's the spice - a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger - that is added to the drinks, etc., that make them stand out."
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dy44ei | why are whole-grain foods healthy for you but processed grains not as much? | What source of nutrition is significantly lost in the processing? Is the modification an industrial process or a genetic change in the way the grains are grown? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dy44ei/eli5_why_are_wholegrain_foods_healthy_for_you_but/ | {
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"\"Processing\" a grain means **removing the bran and the germ from a grain**. This is generally **done by an industrial process of grinding or selective sifting**. The **bran and the germ are where the vast majority of the nutrients of a grain are stored.**\n\nWe do this because **the germ and the bran spoil much, much faster** than the rest of the grain. The **processing of a grain means it has a much longer shelf life** without having to add additional preservatives. We're giving up some nutritional value **for the sake of lower prices** and convenience.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEdit: I'm testing font strategies to improve comprehension.",
"They are left with the cellulose and other fibrous material still attached to the big lump of starch\n\nAll that fiber helps allow passage of stool and likely also carries away some non-trivial amount of cholesterol at the same time\n\nRefined grains, like flour, are pure carbs. The whole grain has fiber and trace nutrients in addition to the carbs",
"To use [wheat](_URL_0_) as an example, a wheat kernel consists of the embryo (a baby plant), the endosperm (the embryo's food source) and the bran (a shell that protects the embryo and endosperm).\n\nThe endosperm's job is to provide the embryo with food until it can make its own through photosynthesis. It's mostly starch.\n\nWhen the kernel germinates, the endosperm converts starch into sugar, allowing the embryo to grow a root and a cotyledon (the first stem and leaf).\n\n > What source of nutrition is significantly lost in the processing?\n\nSo, the endosperm is primarily an ***energy*** source for the embryo, not really a nutrient source. The endosperm is what's used to make white flour, so it's great for giving energy, but not really for nutrients. \n\nBecause the whole seed is used to make whole grain flour, all the nutrients and fibre from the embryo and bran are added to the energy source. It's not a lot, but it means that you get the most nutrients/fibre per calorie. \n\n > Is the modification an industrial process or a genetic change in the way the grains are grown?\n\nThe basic process is [industrial](_URL_1_), where the endosperm, embryo (or germ) and bran are all separated from one another. However there are wheat varieties that have different nutrient profiles as well, which is where you get different kinds of flour depending on gluten content (cake, bread, pizza, pasta etc.).",
"Processing removes the outer coating of dietary fiber and protein from the grains, in exchange for a longer shelf life and sweeter taste.\n\nWhole grains therefore have a higher fiber and protein content. Protein helps build and maintain muscle mass. Fiber helps keep your digestive track regular and provides food for the helpful bacteria in your gut. Both also reduce the spike of blood sugar (called the glycemic index) when eating carbs, and make you feel fuller for longer."
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3bicwa | why should we even bother with adjusting for a leap second? | I've read that it will cause problems in the financial markets and elsewhere. I get the idea of the leap second but really who cares? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bicwa/eli5_why_should_we_even_bother_with_adjusting_for/ | {
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"automated financial markets trade kajillions of dollars in one second. If the clocks don't all sync up, one computer would have an advantage over another and bad stuff would happen in the stock market.\n\nIf you're investing money, or your parents are investing money, or you don't want earth to look like mad max, you should care about the leap second.",
"I've always assumed the idea is, without leap seconds we'd now be 37 seconds early compared to Earth actual rotation, which is more than half a minute. It will eventually pile up to minutes, then hours. And time being off of the Earth rotation for like 20 minutes, is quite noticeable and not very acceptable. So the adjustment is needed [i]sometime[/i]. There is just no ignoring it.\n\nI would have waited for a full minute though. It's much less frequent and would have made a whole \"Tonight is time adjustment of the hell night\" more acceptable. What do you mean the market is shut down? Well the market is shut down. For three whole minutes, yes.\n\nI've been wondering, though, if we plan for when the shift in rotation time builds up to hours, what does it mean for the year? which is 365 or 366 days, one day being 24 hours. If we have to compensate for full hours, doesn't that mean that we are in the order of 1/24 day out of sync with the \"around the Sun\" time? I'd wager leap days do not account for that."
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b7w701 | do modern fax machines make that screechy dial up noise out of necessity or is it something it is programmed to do for consistency/familiarity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b7w701/eli5_do_modern_fax_machines_make_that_screechy/ | {
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"No, they do it because it is still the protocol for talking over the telephone line to the other fax machine. The tones are actually what is being transmitted over the line and being able to hear them might help with diagnosing a problem with the fax.",
"They do still need to make the noise to communicate the call being answered. Most newer fax machines don't need to have the sound audible to the user, only to the other fax machine over the line. Source: was a Photocopier tech and repaired faxes too. Our main fax guy would usually have the sound so he could confirm that the machine was communicating properly on our end.",
"The person hearing the dial tone, the numbers being dialed and the connection sequence is only for user confirmation, you hear it being sent. There is usually an option to silent dial, but the people wouldn't be sure if it's being sent.\n\nKind of like a gun being racked or the hammer being cocked back before use in a movie, it let's the audience know it's a loaded gun.",
"It needs to make that noise, because that's the data transmission. That said, there is probably an option to turn it off so you won't have to hear it, but, then again, you won't hear if you dialled the wrong number and a human is answering, and risk the fax retrying several times, making said human downright irate.",
"The fax machine needs to send and receive that screech noise over the telephone line. It's the fax machine equivalent of saying \"hello, I'm a fax machine and I have some pages to send, am I speaking to another fax machine?\" and getting back \"yes, I'm a fax machine too, please send me the pages\".\n\nBut, if everything goes well, there's no need for the fax machine to play that sound out of it's speaker, so you don't need to hear it. And you can usually turn it off in the fax machine settings.\n\nHowever, if something goes wrong, it can be helpful to hear it. For example, if you hear your fax machine making the screech and then a human at the other end going \"hello is anyone there?\" then you know you've dialled a voice telephone number instead of a fax number, and you can either hang up or pick up the telephone on the fax machine (if there is one) and say \"sorry, can I have your fax number please\"."
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2jhmn1 | how can mobile service carriers (at & t, verizon, sprint) get away with charging fees for things you're not even buying from them? | My co-worker recently bought the new iPhone directly from Apple, paying full price, and never told his carrier. They somehow still found and and charged him $40 per line for an upgrade fee, which seems like it should be illegal (he hasn't even gotten the phone yet). He isn't technically buying anything new from the carrier and, as far as I know, isn't breaching his contract. How do these companies get away with charging these fees? It seems like it should be very illegal that they punish you for doing what you want with your own money, and I'm curious as to how they get away with this. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jhmn1/eli5_how_can_mobile_service_carriers_att_verizon/ | {
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"If you are going to be using the device on Verizon's network, then Verizon can charge you whatever whatever they want as long as you continue to buy their service. Presumably there is a clause in the contract stating that any change of phone will trigger a $40 upgrade fee.",
"Because the fees are written into the contract that he signed. ",
"I'm wondering if your co-worker is either full of shit, or the $40 fee is completely unrelated to the phone purchase. The first issue is how they could have found out- and the short answer is there shouldn't be any way for them to find out, and the second issue is that even if the carrier found out he'd purchased a phone, they have no way of knowing if the phone was purchased as a gift... so, thinking that this story is bogus, either intentionally or mistakenly.",
"There has to be information you or he are leaving out.\n\nWhat specifically was the charge for? Did he previously have a smartphone? Was he trying to use a smartphone on a non-smartphone plan? Was he on a grandfathered unlimited plan (which can't be moved to a new phone)?\n\netc etc etc",
"(Note: I'm a Verizon customer and I have no idea how SIM cards work.)\n\nIf he \"bought an iPhone ... and never told his carrier\", then he could not use the iPhone because he has no service. The same way you can't just buy a cable-internet-router and plug it into a coax cable lying on the basement floor.\n\nIf he wants to use his iPhone, then he needs to provide information about the iPhone to some phone company who will register it and allow it to use their network.\n\nWhen you subscribe to a company's service, you sign a contract that says you agree to pay any charge that the company says you owe them.\n\nSo I'm afraid I don't see what the problem is.",
"A couple of things, in response to you and the comments. \n\nComments:\n\n* Carriers can find out when you switch devices. Each device has an IMEI number that is sent to their systems and sometimes it will flag. \n\n* ATT is the only service he would be able to activate a new phone on his own, since you can just switch the SIM. With Verizon and Sprint, you have to tell them to get the service switched over.\n\nActual Answer: In this situation, they don't.\n\n* Carriers only charge upgrade fees if you're using your upgrade for a discounted phone. With ATT Next, for example, there isn't an upgrade fee since you're just making payments on the full price of the phone instead of taking advantage of a discounted phone price. \n\n* Are there other lines on his account? Typically this sort of thing happens when someone else uses the upgrade. It could also be the cost of adding a data package or some other feature required. \n\nSource: Worked in Cell Phone sales (but not for a carrier, so no bias)\n\nEdit: formatting"
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3o89u5 | why do we "need" fun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3o89u5/eli5_why_do_we_need_fun/ | {
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"“If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.” ",
"You don't \"need\" fun. You only think you do. \n\nDopamine and serotonin are the only two things you truly enjoy. \n\nThose are the drugs that activate your brain's pleasure center, your personal reward mechanism. \n\nThe things you do that you find fun cause those chemicals to be released in your brain, thus rewarding you for doing those things. \n\nThe results these chemicals cause is very addictive (it is, after all, pure pleasure), and that's why you **feel** like you \"need\" fun. ",
"Babies of many species play to learn valuable survival skills. Enjoying fun activities (like pretend attacks on your litter mates) makes you more likely to survive and reproduce. It is no coincidence that sexual activity can be a form of play for many."
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9yq11g | why does 36°c as our average internal temperature not feel as warm as an external 36°c? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yq11g/eli5_why_does_36c_as_our_average_internal/ | {
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"Because you feel temperature with your skin, which isn't 36°, the internal of your body is (blood, organs, etc)"
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4uesx3 | how are condoms "electronically tested"? (says so in the bag) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4uesx3/eli5_how_are_condoms_electronically_tested_says/ | {
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"They are filled with water and then dipped in water that has a charge going through it to ensure that electricity does not pass through the latex (which would indicate there is a hole)."
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1lftgl | why does the north star never move but all the other stars do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lftgl/eli5_why_does_the_north_star_never_move_but_all/ | {
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"The others appear to move because the earth is spinning on its axis. Directly above either of the poles of that axis, a star will appear to barely move at all, but other stars will trace circles around it through the night. \n\nYou can take some cool long exposure photographs by pointing your camera at celestial north and waiting. Stars will smear out into concentric circles around celestial north. ",
"Not for nothing, but the north star actually is \"moving,\" due to the precession of the Earth's axis. Right now, the Earth's axis points very near Polaris, but in 12,000 years it'll point toward Vega."
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7hff56 | why does 6’ seem so much taller to us than 5’9” when the 6’ man is less than 5% taller than the 5’9” man? | It seems with height, differences which are mathematically small seem disproportionately large to us. Why is that so? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7hff56/eli5_why_does_6_seem_so_much_taller_to_us_than_59/ | {
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"It's all perspective. If the person looking at you is 5'6 and you're 3 inches taller, that will look much shorter than someone a half foot taller. Angles of vision, yo.",
"Because there’s not a whole lot of variability in height relative to the total height, so even a small amount is noticeable. It may only be a 5% increase in total height, but you live up like 30% up the bell curve of adult males ",
"In the U.S., the average male height is 5'9\" with a standard deviation of 3\".\n\nLook at what a normal distribution (bell curve) looks like:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe middle, darkest blue, section, is one standard deviation.\n\nSomeone who's 6' tall is on the upper end of that. So approximately 84% of men are shorter than that!\n\nIn comparison, someone who's 5'9 is exactly average. 50% of men are shorter, 50% are taller.\n\nWhen you think of it that way, it makes sense why someone who's 6' seems quite tall. They're taller than most people.\n",
"Say there are 100 random American men. If you looked at someone who is 5'9'', then only 32 men are shorter than them. If you look at someone who is 6 feet tall, then only 14 men would be taller than them. So it's based on how common it is to see someone of that height. ",
"Men don't typically grow to be between 1 foot tall and 6 foot tall.\n\nThey grow to be usually around 5'5 to 6'5.\n\nSo those little percentages make a big difference because we don't exist on a scale of extreme differences. There are exceptions but they are few and far between."
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3c9izm | why do overseas flights arc towards the north pole instead of going in a straight line to their destination? | I'm just curious because I'll be on a flight from the US to Japan and they always go towards the north pole. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c9izm/eli5_why_do_overseas_flights_arc_towards_the/ | {
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"You are looking at the route on a flat map. You must think three dimensional (use a globe). You will see that the most direct route is over the arctic circle.",
"They are taking a straight path, the lines you see are straight. It's the map projection that makes them look curved. This is because the Earth is round while the map is flat, so it can't be represented in a perfect way."
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4dvmbh | why is it that only in australia that overnight gas jumps in price over 20% even though there are no fluctuations in the crude price nor the exchange rate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4dvmbh/eli5_why_is_it_that_only_in_australia_that/ | {
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"These jumps you describe are part of the price cycles, or Edgeworth cycles, (see [here](_URL_1_) for the current cycles in each major city). They are the result of the retailers attempting to undercutting one another until they can't go any lower, and then as soon as one major retailer takes the lead and raises their price, every other retailer follows.\n\nThey are not unique to Australia, and occur in most major cities to some degree. They are especially obvious in cities where there is competition between retailers with a large size difference: that is, the dominant retail chains each have many petrol/gas stations competing with many independent retailers with very few petrol/gas stations who must try to steal business away from the dominant retailers by undercutting prices.\n\n[Here's an economics paper about them in Australia](_URL_2_), and [another about them in Canada](_URL_0_).",
"Not just Australia as others have said. In my town in Germany the price jumpts to 1,35€/liter in the night and then falls over the next day. It makes sense if you think about cycles of when people normaly buy gas. In the morning when people drive to their jobs and are running low on gas, they have to pay the higher price since well what else could they do. The price then falls again over the day and rises a bit again towards afternoon when most people get back from work. In the evening it is the cheapest because people don't need to buy gas since the majority doesn't have to be somewhere and they look for the cheapest price.\n\nThe same cycle is going on for diffrent days of the week. Monday and tuesday evening are the cheapest and the weekend it costs the most. Because people fill up their tanks for weekend activities and the new working week so less people buy it on monday evening. But since people caught onto that plan they switched up the price a lot more."
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3dn2u5 | how milk becomes so many different types of cheese. | I.e. , mozzarella, swiss , cheddar. How does it work ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dn2u5/eli5_how_milk_becomes_so_many_different_types_of/ | {
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"I don't know the specifics, so hopefully someone will have more scientific insight, but percentage of fat in the milk, the temperature it's aged at, vessel it's aged in, any added flavors/salts/spices, and the duration of aging can all affect the flavor outcome of cheese. ",
"Virtually all cheesemaking follows the same basic process. First, you have to culture your milk, which means you have to bring it into conditions that promote the growth of bacteria that break down the lactose into lactic acid. Then, when you have enough bacteria/lactic acid, you add a coagulating agent, like rennet or lemon juice. That will curdle the milk, rendering part of it solid. Then, you drain watery \"whey\" off from the solid \"curds.\" Last, you take those curds and age (i.e., just let them sit, more or less), usually in a cool place with a specific humidity. \n\nThat's cheesemaking on the ~~meta~~ *abstract* level. In practice, it's much more nuanced—it's more like painting a picture than building a bridge. There's no real limit to the techniques you can use. Soft, wet cheeses (such as mozzerella) are not aged very long or at all. Some cheeses might be smoked before, during, or after they're aged. Frequently, salts, spices, wine, or bacterial cultures, herbs, etc. etc. are added to the curds before aging. Before curdling, additional bacteria cultures may be added to the milk. And on and on and on.\n\nSo there you have it. There's no one way to make a cheese. Hell, there's no one way to make a cheddar or a swiss. \n\nEdit: Some grammar.\n\nEdit 2: Meta - > abstract. I don't know what I was thinking.",
"To start off the process, it isn't just milk. It might be cow's milk, goat's milk, sheep's milk, or even something more exotic like for example yak's milk.\n\nTo finish the process, cheese is allowed to mature. A young cheese will have a milder flavour than one that has been left to develop through longer ageing.\n\nOf course there are also lots of variables throughout the manufacturing process too, such as the amount of salt added, how the water is removed, the temperature, and so on. There are some very well made videos on YouTube that demonstrate the specific process for certain types of cheese. To give a better idea, here are links to a few, which include [Somerset Cheddar](_URL_2_), [Blue Stilton](_URL_1_), [Parmesan](_URL_0_) and [Goat's Cheese](_URL_3_)",
"Think of it like beer. Beer ingredients are all pretty similar, but it is the yeast that makes all the different varieties (generally speaking) just like the cultures and bacteria are what make the varieties of cheese. ",
"This [Modern Marvels](_URL_0_) about cheese is worth watching, unfortunately wasn't able to find it on Youtube. ",
"Finally an interesting ELI5 question. Not some \"eli5 why am I not potato?\"",
"There are three main parts to this, the type of milk, the cheese making process, and bug poop.\n\nI will talk about milk and bugs. To learn about the different processes search for ‘cheesemaking’ in youtube.\n\nMilk is mostly water, tiny drops of fats, sugars, and little bits of other stuff. Depending of the animal the milk comes from, the amount and type of sugars, fats and other stuff is different, and this gives a different flavor to the milk.\n\nFor example, if you take a glass of cow milk and separate it, about 85% will be water and 15% will be solids. The solids are a mixture of a sugar called lactose, fat, proteins and minerals. The fats can be of different types with different aromas and tastes, and so can the minerals.\n\nCamel’s milk has more minerals than cow’s milk, so it tastes saltier. It also has vitamin C, so it can taste a little sour. Yak milk has a lot more sugar and fat that cow’s milk, so it tastes sweeter. You are 5 years old, if your mom was a new age hippy, you may still remember the taste of her milk. It feels ‘watery’ because it does not have many proteins, and tastes sweet because it has a lot of lactose. You may be surprised that Donkey’s milk is very similar to your mom’s milk.\n\nThis answers the first part, the milk you use to make cheese will affect the final flavor and aroma because of the mix of proteins, fats, minerals and sugars that it has.\n\nThe second part is bugs. A type of bug called bacteria. They are very very small, so small you need a microscope to see them. They are everywhere, always looking for something to eat. To make cheese the cheesemaker adds millions and millions of special bacteria to the milk to turn it into cheese. These bacteria LOVE to eat the sugars in the milk. Some of them like to eat the fats, and other the proteins.\n\nThese bacteria eat a lot, all the time, and very quickly. And you know what happens when you eat a lot. You POOP and you FART a lot. Bacteria poop is not like your poop. Bacteria can poop all kinds of substances that are good for people. Different bacteria poop different substances with different smells and tastes. If the cheesemaker adds bacteria with stinky poop, you get stinky cheese. If the cheesemaker adds bacteria that poop tangy poop, you get tangy cheese. People seem to like the flavor and aroma that a little bit of bacteria poop and farts give to cheese.\n\nI will give you some examples. There is a substance called Butyric Acid, the name does not matter, what is important is that it smells like puke. Some bacteria, when they eat sugar, poop and fart butyric acid. You can find species of these bacteria in grown up’s underarms, where they eat sweat and fat and sugars and poop butyric acid. That is why grown ups use deodorant, to hide the pukey smell. You can also find some of these bacteria in Parmesan cheese. If you close your eyes and smell some real Parmesan, not the one in the green shaker, the one they sell at the fancy supermarket, you will notice it smells like puke.\n\nThere is a type of bacteria called Brevibacterium linens, the name does not matter, that it likes to live in moist, warm and salty environments. Like between your toes when you don’t wash them very well. This bacteria poops and farts the substances that make stinky feet stink. Some cheesemakers wash the outside of their cheese with salty water over and over again to make sure this bacteria is happy and eating and pooping a lot. This is why Limburger cheese smells like stinky feet.\n\nThere are thousands and thousands of bacteria that like to eat sugars, fat and protein, and that produce interesting flavors and aromas. I could go on and on, but I have to get back to work. I will leave you with a funny one. Have you noticed that some dog’s feet smell like corn chips? It is because they have Proteus or Pseudomonas bacteria in their feet, and these bacteria poop and fart substances that are also found in Fritos. You can say that Fritos smell like bug farts.\n\nThere are so many types of cheese still to be discovered. Maybe you could discover the next great cheese if you pay attention in science class.",
"The most ELI5 I can go on this (technically this is how I explained it to my seven year old daughter):\n\nSo, think of bread. Bread is all basically made from flour, water, and yeast with \"minor\" additions using basically the same process. Think of how many different breads there are depending on how it's mixed, how it's allowed to ferment or culture (insert ELI5 explanation of fermentation that took about 20 min.... ok so I watched Magic Schoolbus with her), how it is cooked/aged.\n\nIn both cases you start with the same ingredients, but you may end up with sandwich bread or a baguette, cheddar or brie.",
"That's a very good question. Most cheeses are made with a very simple beginning stage. \n\nMilk\n\nLactic acid\n\nVegetable or animal rennet \n\nWhat you are left with is basically ricotta cheese. It's very mild, high in moisture content, and it's curds or little balls of milk protein coagulated together, iE not a solid mass. Sure ricotta is tasty but regardless of the type of milk you start out with, the end result is mostly consistent in flavor and firmness. \n\nSo how does cheese get it's different flavors? \n\nBacteria, fungus, salt, and technique. \n\nCheddar - Cheddaring is actually the process of taking a compressed block of curds and flipping it over every few hours so that the last bit of water can be squeezed out. That is the technique. The ingredient is salt. They take the soft curds and collect them in one end of the production vat and drain the whey, which is the liquid component of the milk. Then they pack the curds into wheel shaped molds and let the weight of the molds stacked on top of each other help press the rest of the whey out. They liberally salt the mixture before and after packing it. A press may be used to speed up the liquid extraction. The molds of cheese are rotated many times so they dry quickly and evenly. At a certain moisture level the cheese is released from it's mold and stacked to dry and age. Aging is the process of lactic acid and other processes breaking down the milk protein further into it's chemical precursors. This is where the flavor comes from. The partial digestion of the milk through chemical or microbial means, and the salt. \n\nBrie and Camembert - exclude the press and let the whey drain naturally via gravity. Form the cheese into wheels while it still has a high moisture content. Innoculate the outside of the cheese wheels with a tasty fungus. The fungus makes use of the water and milk protein in the cheese to grow forming a velvety white rind of mold. A good brie mould will have a buttery and nutty flavor and some cheese makers use a different innoculation which leads to a stinkier cheese. The mold breaks down and dries out the cheese and the byproducts of this digestion leads to flavor as does the mould itself. \n\nBlue or gorgonzola - Similar to brie except a different strain of mould is also injected into the wheels of cheese, leading to the characteristic blue veins running through it. The cheese has a much sharper flavor than brie because the mould grows all throughout the cheese, spreading the flavor and byproducts of digestion throughout the wheel, not just on the rinds. Also the mould itself adds flavor. \n\nParmesean - Similar to cheddar except presses are used heavily to extract every last bit of moisture and skim milk is used. Primary flavor is caused by the lactic acid and salt. The wheels are cured in a briny salt solution which pulls the moisture out of the cheese. The lactic acid breaks down the milk proteins which along with the low moisture content create a hard but crumbly cheese wheel. It is further dried and aged. \n\nMozerella - Not made at all like other cheeses. You can make this fresh at home without rennet. Simply take fresh whole milk, lactic acid, and salt. The lactic acid causes the milk to curdle. However the curds are then 'cooked' which homogenizes their consistency and results in a ooey gooey mass of milk protein which is stretched and pulled like taffy, over and over and folded back on itself until it you end up with smooth balls of cheese with stringy layers of protein and air, kind of like the cheese equivalent of filo dough. It's ready for consumption immediately, no aging required. \n\nThe other factors are how and where the cheese is cured or dried. Some cheeses require colder temperatures than others but ideally the temperature should be constant and cool. The cheese is routinely turned and flipped and great care must be taken not to allow foreign bacteria or fungus spoil the cheese so cleanliness is very important, which is funny when you think about where cheese gets it's flavor. ",
"if you watch the how its made videos about the different types of cheese, you'll get a pretty much good idea.. and god those videos are interesting.\n\n[Swiss Cheese](_URL_3_)\n\n[Parmesan Cheese](_URL_0_)\n\n[Mozzarella Cheese](_URL_1_)\n\n[Blue Cheese](_URL_2_)\n\n[Goat Cheese](_URL_4_)\n\nthat's it for now"
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4hzpi2 | how can 3000 extra calories equal a pound of fat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hzpi2/eli5_how_can_3000_extra_calories_equal_a_pound_of/ | {
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"When your body stores fat, it take up a lot of water for the body's cells and infrastructure, too. So, even though you can pack 3300 calories into 8 oz, your body doesn't store it as a block of pure human butter. It stores it as cells, with associated blood cells, fat cells, infrastructure.",
"Not so sure if you can find 4oz = 1500 calories. Even pure fat would be ~500 calories short of that.",
"**TL;DR: Your example is not possible.**\n\nLet's use pure bacon fat as your \"calorie dense food\" and pop a vitamin too so we don't die of scurvy. One cup of bacon fat, about as dense of an energy source that you can digest, contains 1800 calories and weighs about two-thirds of a pound or about eleven ounces. \n\nSo you're quite simply not going to find a 4 oz 1500 calorie food source. Your chemistry ain't working.\n\n(Also, your body's not perfectly efficient. Depending on what those calories are, and how fast and how many times you eat them, a lot of 'em are either going to get used up in the digestive process (especially if you're eating stuff like kale rather than refined flour) or just come out yer arse, and these numbers change according to your age, the health of your overall gut, and other factors. So it's not a perfect 'number' just an approximation.)",
"That's not an achievable density. So...that's not going to fly. However, do consider that you add water in significant proportion to the fat you also add.",
"It doesn't really \"equal\" a pound of fat...your body will turn 3,500 calories into fat if it already has 300-400 calories stored in the liver and full glycogen stores in the muscle cells. Of course that 3,500 number will vary based on someone's metabolism/muscle mass"
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2474o0 | how can hugely popular sites like craigslist, wikipedia, and reddit operate without sales or ads? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2474o0/eli5_how_can_hugely_popular_sites_like_craigslist/ | {
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"Reddit has ads. Craigslist charges for certain kinds of job postings. Wikipedia operates on donations.",
"They sell ads and/or take donations. \n\nCraigslist charges to put jobs on the job board, post your apartment for rent, etc.\n\nWikipedia takes donations as occasionally advertised on their banner ad when you visit their site. They'll have ads eventually (but I hope not).\n\nReddit has sponsored posts, they make money when people buy gold. I'm not sure what else."
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es3wx6 | how does one determine if an organism is self-aware? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/es3wx6/eli5_how_does_one_determine_if_an_organism_is/ | {
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"There is no way to tell if an organism is self-aware because there is no universally accepted definition of what being self-aware is.",
"We can't tell for sure really, but some ways we use are tests to see how they react to certain things. \n\nA common one is the mirror test. \n\nBasicly, you put a dot on the animal and show it a mirror so it can see itself with the dot. Many animals will look at the mirror as if it is another animal and react that way, but some will see the dot and touch its own dot. \n\nIn doing so, it is thought that they recognize themselves and are inspecting the strange dot on them. \n\nHuman babies pass this test this test around 18-24 months old. \n\nThis test still has problems though aand its difficult to understand exactly what is going on because the animals can't tell us. They may not understand the concept of a mirror or have other interests that distract from the test. \n\nAn interesting fact is that this has even been tried on ants. The ants scratched at the dots on them when they saw it in the mirror, but didn't when there was no mirror and they didn't scratch at the mirror, suggesting they may see themselves and understand.",
"I suspect that the reason why the question becomes relevant is that many of the old time reasons could also apply to modern AI.\n\nAs a result I think that ultimately the question will need to be decided by legal means. As in the highest court in the land legal means."
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w64pa | how is free will an illusion? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/w64pa/eli5_how_is_free_will_an_illusion/ | {
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"Free will may be considered an illusion in different contexts. One context is if you believe that the universe is determinist, that is: everything that happens is the only possible consequence of the initial situation. Nothing is random. For example, a die gives an unpredictable number but it isn't really random: it depends on the precise manner you throw the die, what obstacles it hits, each molecule of air in its path, etc. If you managed to recreate the exact same throw, down to the position of every elemental particle, you'd get the same result. That's the idea of a determinist universe.\n\nIf it's true that the universe is determinist, then your actions are similarly decided by the initial conditions. If everything you think is the result of chemical reactions in your brain, and those chemical reactions are determined by initial conditions, then none of your thoughts are actually under your control. You have an illusion of choices, but these choices, and the illusion itself, are only the result of chemical reactions that can only be that way, because the initial conditions were that way.\n\nIt's like considering that the universe is a movie: the movie is decided from the beginning, you can only play it but not change it. There's no branching from choices, because the choices themselves are the pre-determined result of the initial conditions.\n"
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1loav5 | are their medications for increasing dopaminein levels in your brain for extended periods of time? | And if so, what are the potential risks of being at a "100%"(I say that lightly) Dopamine level on a permanent basis? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1loav5/eli5_are_their_medications_for_increasing/ | {
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"Define 'extended'... and 'medication'.\n\nCocaine will work, but obviously not if addiction and all that entails are considered unacceptable. \n\nThere are plenty of more legitimate pharmaceuticals that prevent reuptake of dopamine but it's inherently very abusable and thus not a preferred way to treat anything.\n\nThe risks? The risk is that your body will adjust to the elevated levels by physically altering its receptor sites to not accept as many connections. In time it'll take more and more of the drug to keep the same level of stimulation.\n\nIf you stop your body will be nearly incapable of activating dopamine receptors without all the extra around from the drug and you'll enter into a whole new level of discomfort and depression."
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1p77l3 | what the difference is between the district of columbia and a regular state in the us. | Pretty much all in the title! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p77l3/eli5_what_the_difference_is_between_the_district/ | {
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"DC does not have representation in Congress- hence the license plates say \"taxation without representation\" as kind of a joke.\n\nTechically D.C. is administered by Congress, but generally they let the (elected) municipal government run things, so it's not much different from any other big city.",
"The District of Columbia is a federal district originally envisioned as a place without permanent residents (ie everyone there would be a resident of one of the states). If you've been here' basically what currently exists from the White House/Capital to the Potomac. Like most US structures when the nation was founded it's a product of comprimise between the North and South (that's why it's very close to the border between Northern and Southern states) and when selected the District was between two towns (Georgetown and Alexandria) on land that wasn't very good for farming. \n\nLegally, as it's not a state, the District doesn't elect Senators and their Representative in the House doesn't actually get to vote on bills. Congress funds a non-insignificant portion of the districts budget, and has some oversight authority over the city council's laws. ",
"In the United States there are levels of government. Federal Government, State Government, County (not important in some states), City/Town etc. Each state government has a lot of latitude in passing laws as they see fit, essentially free of Federal interference, as long as their laws abide by the Constitution and certain other laws. The people in states elect members of Congress who serve in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.\n\nDC lacks a state government, and the city government is subservient to the Federal Government. The Constitution provides for DC to be ruled directly by Congress and the Federal Government (Article I, Section 8). Various methods delegated the task in the past, including the appointed position of governor, and a Board of Commissioners. In recent decades, the elected office of Mayor was put in place and an elected City Council was created, which writes and votes on laws, but all laws they pass still require the OK of Congress to go into effect (This is known as Home Rule).\n\nThe residents of DC also do not have voting members of Congress. There are no Senators for DC. There is a member of the House of Representatives who is a non-voting member. Until recently, DC residents couldn't vote for President, but this was changed and DC now has electoral votes which equal what they would get *if* a state, but can't be more than the smallest state (This is from the 23rd Amendment).",
"Thanks for all the explanations! As an Irish guy with a minor understanding of my own country's politics the whole DC thing was rather confusing! \n\nCheers again!"
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4tm28r | can someone explain why the water is smoother in some parts but rougher in others? | Welp, here's the image
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tm28r/eli5_can_someone_explain_why_the_water_is/ | {
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"What is causing the ripples is most likely the wind, and the calmer spots are because either the wind is blocked our the gust of wind hasn't gotten there yet. \n\nYou can mimic this by filling a bowl with water and blowing across it... Then blow the same way with two fingers in front of your mouth. "
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g3bwr3 | why don’t we use atmospheric water generators to solve the water crisis literally everywhere in the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g3bwr3/eli5_why_dont_we_use_atmospheric_water_generators/ | {
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"Building such an infrastructure would be unfathomably expensive and take incredible amounts of energy in order to run it.",
"Cost of building, cost of transporting the water, cost of the power requirements... there is an endless list of reasons that would make it unfeasible.",
"Others have pointed out the great point of the strain on resources required to do this. I’ll also add that there’s diminishing returns of getting water to the next individual which exacerbates this strain.",
"The other concern here is that the places that need water the most are in very dry areas like deserts. Those places are dry because there is no moisture in the air to make rain. So, there would be no humidity in the air from which to reclaim water. The places that need it can't really make it, so then we would be talking about transporting water from places that could make it to places that need it, which we already have a problem with because of lots of considerations noted by other comments. \n\nThere's limited success with this tactic on the fringe areas of deserts, tho. The Atacama desert is one of the driest places on earth because the humid air from the Pacific has to drop all it's moisture as snow in the Andes before it can go inland - leaving no moisture for the desert. Chile is harvesting water from the air in an effort to provide water to the desert.",
"Cooling to condense water is very energy expensive, and in places which suffer from drought, lack of water and rainfall, don't have much to work with to begin with.\n\nEven if we were to ignore the cost in money, we cant ignore the cost of energy and resources. We can't cheat laws of physics.\n\nEven the most humid and warm tropical air only has around 4% water. So a cubic meter of air, ,which weights around 1300g only has like 50 grams of water in it. That's 0.05l liters. And human should consume 2 litres of water a day. (Doesn't mean just drinking, from any source, like food).\n\nSo getting water from air of in a dry place is a fruitless task. You get very little, consume lot of energy and have process lot of air."
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mbvfc | how the hell does a global economy/market work? | What stops one country just printing infinite money and buying everything from all the other countries? How are conversion ratios worked out and why do they fluctuate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mbvfc/eli5_how_the_hell_does_a_global_economymarket_work/ | {
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"I can answer your first question.\n\nIf a country tries to do that, their currency isn't backed by any (or enough) resources. In older times, a currency was valued at a gold standard. Nowadays, it has to do with more than just gold. The ratio of units of currency to resources becomes smaller. This is the **basic** idea of why printing more money does not work. I believe Zimbabwe tried to do this, and they're not doing so well, financially.",
"Let's say there's a bottle of French wine I want. Personally, I think the bottle of wine is worth 50 bucks. I'm willing to pay 50 bucks for the wine.\n\nI look at the price of the wine: 40 euros. If I can get an exchange rate of 1.25 dollars or less = 1 euro, I can get the wine for the price I'm willing to pay.\n\nSo I go to the \"currency market,\" and I post an annoucement: \"I'm willing to swap dollars for euros as long as the exchange rate is 1.25 or less.\"\n\nMeanwhile, there's some French guy who wants to buy a Chevy Volt, which is only made in America. He thinks the car is worth 30,000 euros.\n\nHe looks at the price: $40,000. If he can get an exchange rate of 1.33 dollars or more = 1 euro, he can get his car for the price he's willing to pay.\n\nSo he goes to the currency market, and posts an announcement: \"I'm willing to swap euros for dollars as long as the exchange rate is 1.33 or higher.\"\n\nA computer compares his announcement to my announcement, and it sees that he and I aren't in agreement: I want 1.25 or less, he demands 1.33 or more. So no deal.\n\nBut a few days later, I get tired of going without wine, and I decide I'm willing to pay $55 for the wine. I take down my old announcement, and post a new one: \"I'm willing to swap euros for dollars as long as the exchange rate is 1.37 or less.\"\n\nNow the computer sees that he wants 1.33 or more, and I want 1.37 or less, so we can agree on an exchange rate of around 1.35. He and I swap euros for dollars.\n\nThat's how exchange rates are set: by individuals figuring out how much they're willing to pay for foreign merchandise. If they can't agree, then no trade happens until somebody decides they *really* want what the other country has to offer, and they give in.\n\nNow: what if the US were to print money? Well, imagine if the president ordered Americans to do this: take every dollar bill in your wallet and use a pen to add another \"0\" to the number. Also, imagine that the president orders banks to add another 0 to every bank account, and he orders employers to add another zero to everyone's salary. Think about what would happen: basically, people would shrug and just live with the extra zero. Things that used to cost $19.35 would end up costing $193.50. People who made $23,122 would end up making $231,220. The numbers are bigger, but nothing has changed, really.\n\nPretty much, that's all that printing money does, in the long run. I know it's hard to see that, but really, when you print money, the extra money just ends up making the numbers on the bills larger. Aside from that, it has no \"real\" effect on the economy.\n\nNow, there is a *temporary* effect when you print money, because for a time, some of that money is in the hands of the guys who printed it - the government. That may be useful or harmful, depending on circumstances. But once the money goes back into circulation, then everything goes back to normal, with bigger numbers.\n\nIf the president were to print enough money to increase the money supply tenfold, then the Chevy Volt would end up being $400,000 instead of $40,000. The guy buying wine would have $500 instead of $50 per bottle. That would make the exchange rate $13.50 instead of $1.35. It would be a total wash.\n\n",
"I can answer your first question.\n\nIf a country tries to do that, their currency isn't backed by any (or enough) resources. In older times, a currency was valued at a gold standard. Nowadays, it has to do with more than just gold. The ratio of units of currency to resources becomes smaller. This is the **basic** idea of why printing more money does not work. I believe Zimbabwe tried to do this, and they're not doing so well, financially.",
"Let's say there's a bottle of French wine I want. Personally, I think the bottle of wine is worth 50 bucks. I'm willing to pay 50 bucks for the wine.\n\nI look at the price of the wine: 40 euros. If I can get an exchange rate of 1.25 dollars or less = 1 euro, I can get the wine for the price I'm willing to pay.\n\nSo I go to the \"currency market,\" and I post an annoucement: \"I'm willing to swap dollars for euros as long as the exchange rate is 1.25 or less.\"\n\nMeanwhile, there's some French guy who wants to buy a Chevy Volt, which is only made in America. He thinks the car is worth 30,000 euros.\n\nHe looks at the price: $40,000. If he can get an exchange rate of 1.33 dollars or more = 1 euro, he can get his car for the price he's willing to pay.\n\nSo he goes to the currency market, and posts an announcement: \"I'm willing to swap euros for dollars as long as the exchange rate is 1.33 or higher.\"\n\nA computer compares his announcement to my announcement, and it sees that he and I aren't in agreement: I want 1.25 or less, he demands 1.33 or more. So no deal.\n\nBut a few days later, I get tired of going without wine, and I decide I'm willing to pay $55 for the wine. I take down my old announcement, and post a new one: \"I'm willing to swap euros for dollars as long as the exchange rate is 1.37 or less.\"\n\nNow the computer sees that he wants 1.33 or more, and I want 1.37 or less, so we can agree on an exchange rate of around 1.35. He and I swap euros for dollars.\n\nThat's how exchange rates are set: by individuals figuring out how much they're willing to pay for foreign merchandise. If they can't agree, then no trade happens until somebody decides they *really* want what the other country has to offer, and they give in.\n\nNow: what if the US were to print money? Well, imagine if the president ordered Americans to do this: take every dollar bill in your wallet and use a pen to add another \"0\" to the number. Also, imagine that the president orders banks to add another 0 to every bank account, and he orders employers to add another zero to everyone's salary. Think about what would happen: basically, people would shrug and just live with the extra zero. Things that used to cost $19.35 would end up costing $193.50. People who made $23,122 would end up making $231,220. The numbers are bigger, but nothing has changed, really.\n\nPretty much, that's all that printing money does, in the long run. I know it's hard to see that, but really, when you print money, the extra money just ends up making the numbers on the bills larger. Aside from that, it has no \"real\" effect on the economy.\n\nNow, there is a *temporary* effect when you print money, because for a time, some of that money is in the hands of the guys who printed it - the government. That may be useful or harmful, depending on circumstances. But once the money goes back into circulation, then everything goes back to normal, with bigger numbers.\n\nIf the president were to print enough money to increase the money supply tenfold, then the Chevy Volt would end up being $400,000 instead of $40,000. The guy buying wine would have $500 instead of $50 per bottle. That would make the exchange rate $13.50 instead of $1.35. It would be a total wash.\n\n"
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4hk8nv | why is it so hard to bring manufacturing jobs back to the us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hk8nv/eli5why_is_it_so_hard_to_bring_manufacturing_jobs/ | {
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"That would be a solution... if we didn't export anything.\n\nSee, we do have some manufacturing jobs. We could levy a huge import tariff on China and other countries. But then, they cancel orders for things we *do* make. Like airplanes. Then Boeing has to lay off 50,000 people.\n\nAfter Canada and Mexico, we export more stuff to China than we do to any other country. That stuff is made by people in the US who would like to continue to be employed making it.\n\nWe live in a global economy. Protectionist tariffs can be good for an industry, but aren't good for a country.",
"There are lots of reasons for this. But essentially it comes down to \"why would < company_name > manufacture < product > in < country > when its cheaper to manufacture it in < other_country > .\".\n\nRight now, its super cheap to make things in China, that will change at some point when it becomes cheaper to manufacture things in another country. \n\nTrade agreements, availability of parts/raw materials play a lot into this as well.\nA great example of this is the steel industry in Australia, its much much cheaper for us to send the raw materials overseas to be processed and made into the things that we need rather than do it locally. ",
"Because kids in America do not want to grow up to work in a factory sewing a T-shirt for a wage that will allow the average consumer to be able to purchase this at a reasonable price. No company wants to manufacture outside of thier own country. It is a complete and total pain in the ass. The reason is out of necessity. First, consumer buying habits of searching for the lowest price, force companies to lower the price to stay in business. Second, china and other markets have set up a manufacturing base that is difficult to replicate. Basically everything you need to build a product in within 10 miles as opposed to sending it across the country. Last. Culture..as I stated earlier.. American kids will not work in these environments. In other countries they learn to follow and do what they are told... Not to think.... I've worked in and out of China in manufacturing since 2000... Let me know if you have any questions....I can go on.",
"Here is [an interest article](_URL_0_) on our attempt to do just that for one product: car tires.\n\nSummary: US tire companies convince Obama to place 35% tariff on Chinese tires.\n\nAmerican tire prices rise. The poor have trouble buying tires. Loan sharks start to sell high interest tire loans to poor people.\n\nChinese placed tariff on American beef and chicken parts (which they buy a lot of). US farmers mad at US tire organization.\n\nUS tire factories closed anyway. We buy most of our tires from South Korea."
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1ppref | why can´t we predict the chances of a collision with a meteor or asteroid more precisely? | It´s always 1:2000, 1:1.234.567. We discover planets that are light years away but can´t tell if a ball of ice in our backyard is going to hit us. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ppref/eli5why_cant_we_predict_the_chances_of_a/ | {
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"It's the \"ball of ice\" part that causes most of the problems. As they approach the sun, they start to boil off in places, causing jets that change their trajectory. And it isn't uniform, since they are usually \"dirty\" balls of ice. When they are very far away, these small, small changes can amount to big differences in the chances of hitting our relatively tiny planet. \n \nAdditionally, there's just the matter of precision of measurement. Even if we can tell pretty much where they are and pretty much how fast they are moving, small errors can result in large differences in outcome when things are very far away. As they objects get closer, we are usually able to give much more deterministic answers. ",
"Even if you can Perfectly measure the mass, velocity, and trajectory of an asteroid/comet as well as every other object in the universe (because uncertainties in the mass and velocity of the sun and any other large object in the solar system, will change our predicted orbit) it is still impossible to perfectly predict its orbit\n\nBecause an orbit of an object is influenced by the gravitational field of every object around them, it is actually influenced by *every other object in the universe*. Obviously in our solar system the sun is the main contributor, but when an object passes close to a large planet or moon, or even flies by other small objects (other meteors) it can skew the orbit. \n\nThere is currently **no** analytic solution to the \"three body problem\", that is, we cannot perfectly predict the paths that *three* gravitationally interacting bodies will take when left to their own devices, let alone the hundreds or thousands of large objects in the solar system and the countless objects in the universe (although their contribution is, obviously, very small), and we are forced to approximate it numerically, any time you approximate you introduce a statistical error. \n\nEDIT: as the other poster pointed out, that even if we did have a perfect n-body solution, and we knew the trajectory and velocity of every object perfectly, these are objects that slowly shed material when they orbit (comets melt, parts of asteroids can fall off), thus, the influence of gravity due to other objects is constantly changing, regardless of if an analytic solution for the static bodies. \n\nEDIT2: The statement \"*influenced by every other object in the universe*\", is only true if there is no significant source of negative mass in the universe, which would cause a shielding effect similar to how atoms are neutral despite being negative charges orbiting positive charges."
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1dzt3r | why does soap work? the two major components (i learned this from fight club) fat and lye seem like they'd just make you feel dirty. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dzt3r/eli5_why_does_soap_work_the_two_major_components/ | {
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"Soap is made from fat and lye, but saponification creates a new substance out of those two things that we call soap. Here's how soap works: \nFirst, remember that oil and water don't mix. So when you have grease and oils on your skin or your clothes, it is difficult to wash them off with just water. You could wash them off with other oils, but of course that just makes a bigger mess. Soap is made up tiny little balls which have an outside coating that mixes with water, and an oily inside that mixes with other oils. So when you rub it into your skin or clothes, the oils become trapped inside the balls, but the balls can still be washed away because of their outer shell that mixes with water.",
"Here's [Beakman](_URL_0_) explaining it for you"
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3x0xj2 | what is the physics behind hydroplaning while driving in the rain? | I recently hydroplaned in the left lane. Felt a drag in the back wheels, quickly lifted my foot off the pedal and steered towards the direction the car was aimed to regain control. I was fighting it purely from intuition, and had a pretty lucky save I guess. What is the physics of this phenomenon and how can it be prevented? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3x0xj2/eli5_what_is_the_physics_behind_hydroplaning/ | {
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"Water does not compress except under extreme force, and your car is not capable of making that much force. When you hit a puddle of water at very high speed, the puddle resists moving out of the way, so your tires are no longer touching pavement, they're touching water. At this point, what the tires are doing is basically irrelevant, they have no traction on the water itself. \n\nThis is why tires have treads on them, and the more treads you have the less likely you are to hydroplane. Instead of a solid object hitting the water, the water now has many little channels and reservoirs to be pushed into. The tire hitting the water forces the water into these grooves, and managed to connect with the pavement below. The more worn your tires are or the more slick they are, the more hydroplaning becomes an issue."
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3h3d91 | how is the equivalent weight of tnt calculated when an explosion happens? | Obviously the explosion in China is big news at the moment. Made me think how do they know the explosion was x amount of tonnes of TNT? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h3d91/eli5_how_is_the_equivalent_weight_of_tnt/ | {
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"One ton of TNT releases 4.2x10^9 joules of energy. They estimate the amount of energy released in the explosion and convert it into tons of TNT. The reason they do this is because people don't really have any idea what 10^x joules really means."
]
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[]
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|
3h6tbt | if counterfeiters continue to fake money and adapt to whatever imperfections they made, will they eventually make a perfect copy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h6tbt/eli5_if_counterfeiters_continue_to_fake_money_and/ | {
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"They don't have to make a perfect copy. They just have to make a good enough copy to fool the basic control machines. There are money in circulation that nobody knows they're fake. \n\nA story comes to mind some years ago about how they caught large sum of fake euros. They caught them only by infiltrating the group, otherwise the banknotes were so well made, the prediction was they wouldn't be found.",
"I think there is already cases where this is happening. I believe that North Korea put a lot of effort into counterfeiting american currency and as a result they have been able to make perfect copies. I suppose it just depends on how much time/ money you are willing to throw at it. I don't think any nation can make a currency that can withstand a full on government sanctioned counterfeiting ring.",
"A perfect forgery is practically impossible. While members of the public know of many anti forgery features, all major currencies have secret features which enable central banks to detect fakes. \n"
]
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9umx2m | why is it that each decade from the 20th century has its own very distinctive styles and looks but the 2000s and the 2010s look virtually the same? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9umx2m/eli5_why_is_it_that_each_decade_from_the_20th/ | {
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"The \"distinctive styles\" aren't true to history but rather a fashion shorthand developed after the fact. What you think of as the 'style' is an adaptation of what a small group of privileged young people wore at the time - because what people actually wore isn't useful for instantly marking a time period for the purposes of shooting a movie or television show.\n\nCertainly, there have been advances in technology and social patterns over the years. But they move a lot slower than the decade-by-decade breakdown you'd expect from popular entertainment.",
"The things we tend to remember as '60s fashion', '70s fashion', etc are mostly distinctive extremes. We remember them because they stood out so much as unusual, or because they appear in movies and music videos, which tend to be very stylized. Stuff like Happy Days and Back to the Future exaggerated the periods they were about for the sake of fun and nostalgia, because the viewers were remembering the most distinctive things about the period too. Lastly, notice that most of the stuff that embodies the decade-unique fashion is about or targeted at quite young people (15 - 25 or 30) who tend to be the most excited about new trends and cutting-edge fashions. If you go back and look at family photos from the 60s/70s/80s, you'll probably see a much more diluted form of the iconic/famous looks from those decades.\n\nIf you made a show about hip teenagers in 2002, it would look very different to a show about hip teenagers now. The hairstyles would be very very different -- frosted tips and spiky gel looks for guys and very straightened flat hair for girls compared to lots of half-shaving going on now. The jeans would be big and baggy compared to slim fits now. Virtually no guys would have full beards. Tramp stamps would be cool and thinner more wiry glasses, compared to bigger rounder glasses today. Crop tops and bellybutton rings everywhere, super low-rise jeans. The idea of cool/fashionable was pretty damn different. But it was only really teens and very young adults who fully embraced it -- most people rocked subtler looks even if they were inspired or shaped by that stuff.\n\nThe reason Better Call Saul doesn't seem so different is mostly because it's about a middle-aged dude and his lawyer pals. They weren't refreshing their styles every 3 years to keep up with Christina or going for fresh and attention-grabbing hairstyles. A lawyer in his forties is probably going to go for a safe, pretty traditional haircut that maybe leans towards what's fashionable right now but doesn't full-on embody it, and a suit that might be a little more form-fitting and trim today, a little bigger and more flowing tomorrow, things like that. It's subtler and slower to change. \n\nHappy Days was largely about teenagers. That's a different story.",
"The '60s were a watershed decade. The culture changed to a large degree, in a messy and rapid fashion, engendering very passionate responses from the populace. It's not just about the Summer of Love: the great economic expansion stopped in the '60s, and real wages have been falling ever since then.\n\nAlso, the '60s are not the only decade that stand out for changes to fashion and our visual palette. But for sheer complexity and magnitude of change, the '60s are singular in recent, modern history.\n\nThe decades arrange themselves around the tentpole that is the '60s, visually. drawing greatest contrasts among the set of decades starting with the '40s and ending with the '80s, and much of the palette of the last two decades in this set were a reaction to the '60s and then to the reaction, very distinctly.\n\nThe look of the '90s is exaggerated in our recollection, and is more continuous with the '80s than many people perceive. However, it is farther from the cascading reactions to the '60s, and that change did give it some distinct visual qualities.\n\nBy the time you get to the aughts and teens, we're well away from the previous, interrelated set, and change is slower. However, it usually takes some distance from a era to see it distinctly, so there may be more visually distinct elements in these decades that we can't see now, because they are all around us."
]
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2zf0i5 | why is that if i aim a laser pointer at mirror, as the dot approaches the reflection of the pointer in my hand, the laser approaches my eye? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zf0i5/eli5_why_is_that_if_i_aim_a_laser_pointer_at/ | {
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"When you look at your hand in a mirror, you're seeing light that came from your hand, went in a straight line toward that particular spot on the mirror, bounced and went in a straight line toward your eye.\n\nWhen you point a laser at that same spot, it bounces in the same direction, and thus ends up in the same place."
]
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||
99jnby | if water goes in a cycle, how are we running out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99jnby/eli5_if_water_goes_in_a_cycle_how_are_we_running/ | {
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"We're not running out of water, were running out of *fresh* water. The cycle that fills aquifers, lakes, snowpack, etc isn't keeping up with our use. There's plenty of water in the oceans; we just don't have the desalination capacity to use it to replace our fresh water sources.",
"Sam and Paul are walking through a desert.\n\nSam, holding out an empty plastic bottle. \"We are running out of water,\" he says, dropping the bottle to the dry sand.\n\nPaul replies, \"What do you mean we are running out? The water we drank is still water, and when we need to pee in a few hours it will still be water. Even the evaporated water we breath out is still water and will fall as rain somewhere, perhaps in the ocean hundreds of miles away from here. There is going to be the same amount of water on Earth regardless of what we do.\"\n\nSam stares at Paul incredulously. \"I mean we are running out of fresh, drinkable water *here and now* Paul. Water elsewhere in the world doesn't keep us alive. Piss isn't drinking water Paul!\"\n\nDon't be like Paul.",
"Suppose you have a bucket of water in the desert. Suppose I take a shit in it. You still have all of your original water. It just also happens to have human shit in it now, and is no longer drinkable.\n\nWe still have all the water. It's just that we are using up a lot of the water that can easily be used."
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6n34w6 | why is wood generally thought of as not conductive when trees are some of the most dangerous things to stand under during a lightning storm? | If it conducts lightning it can conduct elictricity right?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6n34w6/eli5why_is_wood_generally_thought_of_as_not/ | {
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"Conductivity is like a scale. Wood is not a good conductor of electricity but it does conduct better then air. So a lightning bolt will move though the tree better then it moves though air and therefore the lightning will more often hit trees then just bare ground. Humans are also not particularly good conductors of electricity but are way better then wood. So if you stand under a tree that gets hit by lightning then the bolt will probably go though you and not the base of the tree.",
"I believe it has to do with water content. Dry wood isn't very conductive, but wet living wood probably is a bit more so. Also, when they say wood isn't conductive - it's to say that it doesn't conduct electricity as well as another material like metal. If a metal poll was next to a similar sized tree - lightning would almost certainly strike the pole. However, lightning strikes have a lot of energy, and even a tree will make an easier path for lightning to reach the ground than the air. ",
"Conductivity isn't a binary \"yes\" or \"no\" state. It's a variable. Every material is at least a little bit conductive, but some materials are more conductive than others. The more conductive something is, the easier it is for electricity to flow through. The less conductive it is, the more the electricity has to force its way through, releasing light and heat in the process. With materials that aren't very conductive at all, you need *really* high voltages to force electricity through them.\n\nAir, for example, is generally considered an insulator - it is not very conductive at all. But lightning is just so dang powerful that it's able to punch through miles of insulator to reach the ground. The massive amount of energy released as light and heat by this is the flash and explosion that we call lightning & thunder.",
"Wood is non conductive compared to most things, but its more conductive than air. So lightning would rather strike a tree than straight through air, and would rather jump from the tree through you than continue through the tree. \n"
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5duqy2 | what part of a computer's cpu is 14nm, and why is it so important to keep going smaller? | As far as I know, a computer's microchip is a few cm large, but I hear that computer scientists talk about 14nm chips and 22nm chips and so on, which part of it is that small, and why is it so good that its small? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5duqy2/eli5_what_part_of_a_computers_cpu_is_14nm_and_why/ | {
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"CPUs are essentially just a massive collection of transistors all connected to each other through wires. These transistors are essentially electronic switches, you have an input, and output, and a gate, and only when the gate is powered, will electricity be allowed to flow from the input to the output.\n\nAs it turns out, wire a ton of these up correctly, and you can do math and other logical processes with them. And by a ton, I mean that modern CPUs have about 2 billion transistors. All within a package about 37.5 mm by 37.5 mm in size (note that for a CPU, the circuitry is mostly 2 dimensional currently due to manufacturing limitations).\n\nThose sizes refer to the size of a transistor. Now, you have to understand that 14 nanometers is really really tiny. That is 0.000000014 meters. At that size, the transistor only consists of a few hundred atoms.\n\nAs for why they should be so small, that is because electricity can only travel at a limited speed. To do calculation, electricity has to travel through the CPU, through all the transistors, the faster it reaches its end point, the better. The thing is though that electricity travels at a set speed, so if you are going at a set speed from point a to b, how do you make your travel time faster? You reduce the distance from point A to B. And you need to understand, that we are reachning limits here. The clock speed of a CPU, for example, 4 Ghz, it the speed at which it does the computation, that means that it is doing 4 billion computations per second, or one computation every 0.00000000025 seconds. At the speed of light, the fastest speed anything can go in our universe, you would only travel about 7.5 centimeters in that time frame. Now, of course, CPUs are smaller than 7.5 cm (Intel's newest are, once again, are squares with a length of 37.5 mm), but electricity travels slower than the speed of light. \n\nI personally find the fact that we can make something like this astounding, more than anything else humanity has ever built. "
]
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|
451kvv | how do you get a stable satellite in to orbit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/451kvv/eli5_how_do_you_get_a_stable_satellite_in_to_orbit/ | {
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"You just need to get it high enough to no longer be greatly effected by the atmosphere, while going fast enough. That's about it really there are specific heights and angles for different types of orbit and geocentric orbits, but besides from that it's all about speed."
]
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||
3leazm | why do scare pranks/terrible pranks in general make us laugh? | so i have been watching these [killer clown pranks](_URL_0_), which i think in my position would be the most traumatizing thing ever... but why do i laugh at them knowing in my position i would not find them funny? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3leazm/eli5why_do_scare_pranksterrible_pranks_in_general/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv5kzlb"
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"text": [
"Those can't be real. There's no way you could get away with that. Could you?"
]
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"https://youtu.be/DKqGEIfpeiw"
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[]
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4ksdax | what is a lagrange point, and what is its significance in space travel and astronomy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ksdax/eli5_what_is_a_lagrange_point_and_what_is_its/ | {
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"Lagrange points are special points found within what is called a three body system, where there are 3 different massive objects. These are points where if two of the objects are orbiting each other via a barycenter, the third, if placed at one of those points, will orbit the same period as the other two without entering into their orbital paths.\n\nSo how do they work? First, let us establish that the closer an object is to a massive object, the stronger the gravitational pull. The stronger the gravitational pull, the faster the orbital period\n\nThis is going to use the Sun and Earth as the objects, but really anything can be used.\n\nFirst of these points is L1. This is found slightly (1/100th of the distance between the Earth and Sun IIRC, if they are the other two objects) within the orbit of the Earth and is directly between the Earth and Sun. This ends up with the Sun pulling on the object, but the object also has a slight pull from Earth in the opposite direction, weakening the sun's grasp on it, boosting it's orbital period to that of the Earth.\n\nNext is L2. This is found on the opposite side of Earth than L1, but this time both the Sun and Earth are pulling in the same direction, boosting the pull, enough to lessen it to the point where it matches the orbital period of the Earth. So the goal here is to have the pull of the Sun, coupled with that of Earth, be the same as the pull of the Earth from the Sun.\n\nThen is L3. L3 is found on the opposite side of the Sun, slightly outside of Earth's orbit. Since they are aligned, both the Sun and Earth pull on it from the same direction, compensating for the more distance from Earth's orbit, to the point where it matches the Earth's orbital period\n\nThen come the interesting ones, L4 and L5. They are both found in such a way that the distance between all 3 objects is identical and makes an equilateral triangle. L4 is found ahead of the orbit of the Earth though slightly inside its orbit. This has the effect that the pull by the Sun should be more than that of the Earth, because if is found closer, thus the orbital period should be faster, but the Earth is found directly behind the direction of travel, which pulls the object back, slowing it, making the orbital period the same. L5 is the opposite, it is found behind but slightly outside the orbit of the Earth, slowing it, but it is sped up because the Earth is ahead of it, pulling it behind it slightly, boosting the orbital period.\n\nOnly L4 and L5 are stable (if something leaves it, it will pull back), the rest are unstable and require correctional maneuvers to compensate. The interesting thing about Lagrange points is that it is possible to orbit the actual points due to the fact that if an imbalance occurs perpendicular to the line they are on in L1 through L3, or somehow else in L4 and L5 (I forget how), it pulls it back to the Lagrange point, which can be used to make an orbit, an orbit around nothing, called a halo orbit.\n\nSignificance is that there are many satellites at various Lagrange points, mainly the Sun and Earth's Lagrange points, specifically their L1 and L2.",
"You can think of them as sort of orbital parking spots in space.\n\nIn space when you have an object orbiting around another one, like the earth around the sun or the moon around the earth, it can be difficult to place a third object like a satellite so that it stays put in relation to the other two.\n\nA Mathematician called Lagrange worked out the 5 points where gravity of the two big objects cancelled each other out so to create a stable spot to park something.\n\nThese five points can be used to place artificial satellites.\n\nThey are also a points where natural objects can gather.\n\nEspecially the sun-Jupiter system has a bunch of asteroids in the 4th and 5th point. Those asteroids are named after Trojans and Greeks from the Trojan war respectively.\n\nAs far as space travel is concerned they can be useful because of something the [Interplanetary Transport Network](_URL_0_), routes connecting different Lagrange points in the solar system that require very little energy to make the journey. They are slow and useless for transporting humans, but could theoretically be used to send non-time critical stuff cheaply around the solar system."
]
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||
4h62p8 | why does air cool down when it expands? | This is in reference to the adiabatic effect. I know that it is what it is but I can't seem to wrap my head around this. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4h62p8/eli5_why_does_air_cool_down_when_it_expands/ | {
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"Edit: i am somewhat wrong see comment below.\n\nTemperature is basically a measurement of the average speed of the particles in an area. When the area increases, but no energy is added to it, the average goes down.",
"When air expands (adiabatically), the air molecules transfer kinetic energy to their surroundings. Since they have less overall energy now, the air is colder."
]
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[],
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2fhhvf | why are cars safety tested at 30mph? | Why would they not increase this to highway speeds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fhhvf/eli5_why_are_cars_safety_tested_at_30mph/ | {
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"They are tested at a number of different speeds, including 30MPH and highway speeds.",
"Straight from NCAP, regarding frontal impact testing:\n\n > The test speed of 64km/h represents a car to car collision with each car travelling at around 55km/h. The difference in speed is due to the energy absorbed by the deformable face. **Accident research has shown that this impact speed covers a significant proportion of serious and fatal accidents.**\n\nYou also have to remember that in the end, it's comparative testing. I can't imagine any car being safer than another at 120km/h while being less safe at 60km/h.",
"Few collisions occur at highway speeds. Even open highway accidents typically involve some braking. \n\nThey do test for high speed collisions. While the safety record is good, it isn't exactly good enough to advertise. \"Probably won't kill you! Buy one today!\"\n\nTaking the reasonable position that most accidents occur at low speeds, focusing on favorable safety ratings at mid-range speeds is both statistically relevant and better for sales."
]
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6200hb | what is the deal with devin nunes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6200hb/eli5_what_is_the_deal_with_devin_nunes/ | {
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"He's the chair of the House Intelligence Committee.\n\nBasically, as he was receiving intelligence about connections between the Trump campaign/administration and Russia, instead of passing that information onto the democrats who are also on the House Intelligence Committee, he went directly to the White House to tell them."
]
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||
a0tcjm | what is gene expression? | I do not understand this concept (no, am not even close in the field of it) but I read about it in almost every pharmacy article. Genes express or dont, and when they do something happens or doesnt. Pls help me understand it.
Thank you in advance. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0tcjm/eli5_what_is_gene_expression/ | {
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"text": [
"A gene is a region of the DNA that by itself has the information to create a protein. That's the expression, it's when a gene is being read by the cell to create a protein. The gene is like a set of instructions to create that protein. It's through proteins that the cell produce different effects on itself or on its surroundings. Proteins can play a structural function, they can act as enzymes (molecules that help a chemical reaction to be produced faster), etc; proteins are the tools of the DNA.\n\nThere are genes that are expressed in particular cells and not others, although every cell should have the same copies of every gene (with some exceptions like lymphocytic cells which alter their own DNA a lot). For example, the groups of genes that as a whole contain the information to create melanin are expressed in the cells that create your hair, in some cells of your skin, and in the cells of your iris in your eyes (that's the color of your hair, eyes and skin); but those genes are not being expressed in the cells of your bones for example. That means, in your bones cells, that region of your DNA is not being read.\n\nSome other genes are expressed only in particular moments, for example the HOX genes are expressed in the embryo, but they're not expressed in adults. That's why changing the DNA of an adult to fix some embryologic problem wouldn't work for that person, because even if you change such genes, they're not active anymore, they were only active in the embyo... they're not being read anymore, they're not being expressed. And even if you try to \"wake up\" those genes, that still wouldn't work, because the proteins such HOX genes produce can't work in the framework of an adult body, they need the particular cellular and molecular context of the embryo in a particular moment of the embryologic development to work as they should, otherwise they're going to produce anything but the desired effect.\n\nWhy are some genes expressed in some cells and not in others, or in some moments of the life and not in others? That's called regulation of gene expression, and it happens because of the presence of some molecules that end up affecting that region of DNA in that particular cell. Some genes produce proteins whose function is to inhibit other genes so they are not expressed.\n\nSome drugs act on particular cells and produce a cascade effect inside that cell that produces the inhibition of a particular gene or group of genes. One says that such drug is blocking the expression of that particular gene or genes."
]
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[]
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|
6xufw2 | why do companies (google, apple, boeing etc.) not buy all their stock back and increase their treasury stock to reduce dividend payouts once they become a large and self-sustaining corporation? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xufw2/eli5_why_do_companies_google_apple_boeing_etc_not/ | {
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"text": [
"To buy shares back, you have to have people willing to sell them back. Why would the average citizen, who is making basically free money off of their shares, sell them back to a company that isn't going to pay them a lifetime value? ",
"Most large modern tech companies have done better than this -- they don't pay *any dividends at all* to most of their shareholders. They are not legally obliged to do so."
]
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[],
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|
6mvyjv | after transplant, do the ligaments and capsule that hold the liver in place grow back? | Another way to ask this is: What holds a transplanted organ in place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6mvyjv/eli5_after_transplant_do_the_ligaments_and/ | {
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"dk4xhus"
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"text": [
"It will scar into place. Surgery is 'organized trauma' and will result in scarring. Cells called fibroblasts are activated and will lay down collagen in a process called fibrosis (which is basically a fancy word for scarring).\n\nAs for the liver specifically the capsule is just the outermost layer of the liver so that comes on the transplant. I don't know the specifics of the surgery but the falciform ligament and all that isn't going to 'grow back' the way it was, rather you'll get analogous scar tissue."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
cn23lv | why do animals and birds know to flee to higher ground before a tsunami strikes? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cn23lv/eli5_why_do_animals_and_birds_know_to_flee_to/ | {
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"text": [
"Just to be 100% clear on this, there is no scientific concensus or studies with significant results as to why or even *if* this happens.\n\nThere are hundreds, if not more, of eyewitness reports. The most famous is from the 2004 Sumatra tsunami, during which, again, according to eyewitness, a group of elephants was seen fleeing.\n\nThere are records of animals acting strange right before earthquakes and tsunamis but there is no prooven explanation as to why this happens. The most common hypothesis is that most animals have a wider range of hearing (dogs are a good example) and can detect very high or very low frequency sounds or vibrations caused by the incoming earthquake or tsunami before there are any visual cues of it."
]
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72wf2f | why is it that when you hit snooze and go back to sleep you feel more tired when you wake up again? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/72wf2f/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_you_hit_snooze_and_go/ | {
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"I believe because you slowly start to drift into REM (deep sleep) again and are woken during the cycle. They say it's best to set your alarm at exactly the time you have to be up and then actually get up. Maybe go straight into the shower ?",
"Sleep has a few different stages. The part of sleep that makes us actually feel rejuvinated and the part that matters in REM sleep. It takes a decent amount of time to get to this point. As your body moves closer to it, things start shutting down more and more, and your body makes you more tired as a result. If you don't get to REM, or are woken up shortly before getting to REM, you'll feel horrible and groggy.\n\nAs a fun fact, you can train yourself to go off just 3 hours of sleep a day, by withholding sleep in a particular way and pattern, so that rather than sleeping 6-9 hours where you'll only get about 2 hours of REM, instead you stay awake and sleep 30 minutes to an hour every 4-6 hours. Doing this makes your body skip the other parts of sleep and almost instantly go to REM sleep.",
"How long is your snooze time? I heard that 10 minutes is too long, because you might already start entering a deeper sleep state at that point. That's why many devices use a 9 minute snooze times as default, you really shouldn't increase that.\n\nBut it's all personal, maybe 9 is also too much for you. If you feel more tired than before the snooze, you should decrease the snooze time."
]
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aods2v | why do countries even bother blocking websites if people can easily bypass and access them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aods2v/eli5_why_do_countries_even_bother_blocking/ | {
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"Probably because not everyone knows what a VPN is. Not everyone is tech savvy I guess?",
"Because :\n\n1. Most politicians don't have any idea about IT topics such as VPNs and proxies.\n\n2. Blocking websites does prevent average users, children and people who aren't technically savvy from accessing them\n\n3. It allows them to look like they are taking action and get political capital, votes from the conservative right etc. ",
"Because the vast majority of people in the world don't know how easy it is to bypass. Also, they block access to VPNs and other software that make it easy",
"Why do countries make murder illegal when I can take a knife from my kitchen and go out and randomly stab someone to death right now? \n\n\nMaking somethings illegal is not limited only to things the government can or will completely stop.",
"If you know a Web site befor he gets blocked you might still brose it. But how many people will Know about this web site after that ?\n\nYep a lot less.\n\nFor the same reason there is a wall around your house. I sure can climb the wall but multiples people will be wallking into your garden if the wall was not here.\n\nEdit: If trump ever read this it work with a house but that about it. Do NOT try this at much bigger scale XD."
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6w4cjw | why does the us go to war? | People often joke about oil being the reason, but the US has been involved in a lot of conflicts where oil played no role (Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Syria) and other times where oil did play a part but not an apparent one (Iraq 2003). And then there's the retaliation conflicts e.g Afghanistan, but then why is the US still there? So my question is... why does the US need to go into conflicts far abroad? What would happen if the US just ignored all of these countries? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w4cjw/eli5_why_does_the_us_go_to_war/ | {
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"Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Syria. It is very important to remember that these wars happened in different time periods and that there's is different reasons for them.\n\nI will try to do this chronologically. Keep in mind that the newer the wars are the less established facts are to be made.\n\nKorea: the Korea war happened shortly after ww2. South Korea was a US ally, recently liberated from Japanese occupation. North Korea wanted to unify the country. The US as well as other nato and UN forces engaged in a 3 year war. The main goal was to combat North Korean hegemony on the Korean peninsula and to assists an ally.\n\nVietnam: Vietnam was a colony of France, but the French retreated in face of Japanese advance. After ww2 the French returned to make it a colony. Initially successful they faced a massive insurgency, mainly in the north. The unifying force behind was mainly Viet kong - which was a communist rebel group. At this point the US had obtained a policy to stop the advance of communism. Since the Viet Cong were aided by mainly communists nations it was seen as thread to the whole of South East Asia if Vietnam were to fall. Hence the US tried to helped the French in a largely unsuccessful war that eventually let to a defeat. \n\nYugoslavia was not so much a war as an attempt to keep the warring parties away from each other. Yugoslavia was nation made up by what today is countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. The state was ruled by Tito. When he died Slovenia declared independence closely followed by Croatia. As the state of Yugoslavia disintegrated several militias were formed as well as the mainly Serbian led military didn't intervene with the militias. This led to widespread bloodspilling and ethnic cleansing. All Nato helped to try and stop the atrocities and in the end succeeded with it.\n\nSyria: faced an uprising. This was a part of the \"Arabic spring\" - the Muslim aspiration for democracy. Needless to say the dictator did not want to leave and as such led to civil war. In the wake of this and the weakening and war exhaustion of the parties involved the Isis took up part of the vacuum left behind. These fanatic goat fuckers must be fought, which is agreed upon by pretty much everyone. US as well as nato has therefore been conducting aerial raids on them to help rebel and government forces to take back territory from them.",
"The thing about being a hegemon is you want to keep the world under your version of the world order. You don't want competitors and you use your military and economic force to further and protect your interests. After all, its nice to be king.\n\nYou want to protect your allies. They do not need to share your narrative so long as they are sympathetic to you. If you think the US is all about freedom and democracy you should open a history book and see what happened in Central and South America. \n\nIt is always easier to justify a war; to send your young men to battle; if there is a greater call. You can't sell a war based on geopolitical strategy. You do it by simple emotive ideas. \n\nTo (unfortunately) quote Goering, *\"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.\"* You can raise \"omg he quoted a Nazi\", but look how things had turned out in history. How did Iraq Part II occur and how did that turn out? Did the US become any \"safer?\" Is it easier to sell a war to John Smith in Montana because \"terrorists\" or because of the complicated geopolitical reality... anywhere?\n\nThe practical reality is that the US fights wars to protect its interests. If you are an American, this should be the only answer you accept. An American leader's job, and the military's job, is to protect US interests. Greece, Rome, Spain, Ottomans, England, they had to maintain their hegemony by military force. Soldiers weren't fighting in Iraq or Vietnam to \"protect your freedoms\". They have to be there because they need to be there to maintain the regional status quo or to a position beneficial to America. Some goat farmer out in buttfuck Kandahar who thinks the range setting on the sights of his AK is to \"give it more power\" isn't going to do fuck to any Americans, let alone point to it on a map. I don't think I need to go into detail about the Saudis during that turbulent time. \n\nUsing your example, Korea and Vietnam had to be looked at in context of the Cold War. You had a rival who was communist and atheist. To be American you therefore had to be democratic and god-fearing. If they want up you want down, if they want left you want right. \n\nI won't go into the history of the Korean war but the strategy was that the US couldn't allow the Soviets to take over the entire Chosun peninsula. The US needed a presence there to buttress Japan and a foothold in Asia. One of the reasons why the atom bombs were dropped was to prevent the Soviets (who just declared war on Japan and started rolling into Manchuria) from overtaking Asia. \n\nVietnam was a similar situation. There was the 'domino effect' where the US feared *\"if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.\"* The French were getting thrown out by a French-educated upstart called Ho Chi-Minh and the US couldn't allow another country to be sympathetic to the Soviets. And so the Vietnam war that accomplished fuck all except for plenty of death.\n\nYugoslavia (i.e. the Kosovo war) was an interesting situation as the Cold War had ended. There were some pretty terrible atrocities being committed in the region and many had a positive view that NATO had to step in military force to stop this ethnic cleansing. There is always the argument that Clinton wanted NATO to assert its power and to remind everyone the US power there is still alive and well.\n\nSyria isn't about Arab Spring democracy or whatever. It was about telling Russia and Iran to piss off and reassert American power in the region. Of course it is easier to sell as \"ISIS\" but then there's present day Mosul...\n\nIf you think I am running an Anti-US narrative, I am not. I am recognizing the practical realities of being a superpower. They do what they do to remain top dog. \n\ntl;dr: Hergemon uses hyper-power military to shape world order to its interests.",
"Good question.\n\nI'm going to answer it with an analogy.\n\nImagine you run a big company with lots of Departments. Some work really well, others not so well, others are terrible. You tweak the system to try to fix the problems and improve the efficiency of the ones that work well, you learn and improve.\n\nImagine one of the terrible Departments decides that it doesn't like the way you manage them and start to do their own thing, which benefits them, but ultimately, damages the company and upsets other Departments. You have to fix it. You have to damage that bit, to save the others from further harm. Or imagine one of the good Departments is infiltrated by some bad dudes who wreck it and encourage others to join them. You have to nip that in the bud.\n\nIt's the same in geopolitics, whatever your system: Roman Empire, Ottoman Caliphate, British Empire, US Hegemony. You're always going to piss people off, whatever you do. The key is to have a strategy and to make sure all your actions align with it. Whatever bullshit corporate-speak you use to justify your actions, the actions must be beneficial to you.\n\nAs always, happy to discuss in a cordial fashion."
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3aejzg | when someone admits their guilt to a crime, why is the case "not over." | Now that Roof has admitted to killing the nine people in Charleston in hopes of a "race war," why is the case not considered "all over." I understand some will try insanity and any other loopholes to get a lesser sentence, but he is an admitted murderer? Would the sentence not almost certainly mean life in prison, at the least? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3aejzg/eli5_when_someone_admits_their_guilt_to_a_crime/ | {
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"There's a concept in the law called an affirmative defense. An affirmative defense is basically saying \"Yes, I did it, but I had a really good reason!\" Pleading insanity, self-defense, and entrapment are all examples of affirmative defenses which, if it meets the burden of proof, can result in a judicial decision in favor of the defendant.",
"You are guaranteed a free trial. If people could just give it away by admitting guilt, it would even more substantially incentivize improperly obtaining confessions, such as by putting the suspect under duress. This not only potentially deprives the innocent of their freedom, but potentially allows the guilty to go free.",
"And we have multiple examples of people confessing to crimes they didn't commit, for different reasons. Sometimes people just confess after the pressure of a standard police interrogation, even if they didn't do it. Also if you confess the sentence will be less hard (death vs life in prison) depending on the reasons you had for committing the crime",
" > I understand some will try insanity and any other loopholes to get a lesser sentence, but he is an admitted murderer?\n\nInsanity is not a loophole. All crimes have two components, a wrongful deed (actus reus) and a wrongful intent (mens rea). When you plead insanity, you're admitting to the wrongful deed, but denying the wrongful intent. There's a lot of different rules for how insanity pleas work and they vary from state to state, but the general idea is that because of your insanity it wasn't possible for you to form a criminal intent.\n\nInsanity aside, why else might the case not be closed? For starters, people do confess to crimes they didn't commit. The state has a very strong interest in making sure it only punishes actually guilty people. The bigger issue in Roof's case though will probably be sentencing. You still need a trial and a jury and everything to decide what the punishment will be.",
"Just for starters, we have to consider the possibility of a coerced or false confession.\n\nLaw enforcement agencies don't exactly have a sterling record when it comes to interrogation, and it isn't uncommon at all for suspects to be tricked or bullied into confessing to things they didn't really do.\n\nAnd then there are the false confessions: sometimes people will confess to a crime they had nothing to do with, simply because they have a screw loose in their head or something.\n\nBut even if the confession is genuine and the suspect wasn't denied any of his rights in the process, *everyone* is still entitled to a trial, that's kinda what our system of justice is based on. Even if the suspect enters a guilty plea at the arraignment, there's still the possibility the judge will order a trial to be sure the accused rights aren't being railroaded, and to be sure that the punishment is commensurate with the specific circumstances of the crime. \n\n",
"I think it is case closed for him. \n\nThey will still need to go through the procedural steps but there will be a real question of what the point of the trial is at this stage. I doubt he would want to go the insanity route.\n\nOther people here have pointed out the different ways a confession could be set aside, and one might imagine that his lawyer will try every one of them hoping for a life sentence plea deal.\n\nBut I think that is really what this case is about: life vs. death.",
"The case is for all intents and purposes over if he does not change his mind. If he pleads guilty then he will be sentenced, with no trial.",
"Aside from the issue of false confessions, even when someone makes a real confession you still need a trial to find out exactly what happened in detail. It is possible that the suspect is still withholding information, for example they may be protecting an accomplice that the police don't know about, or they may be confessing to a smaller crime so that the police don't find out about another worse crime. There are a load of other considerations such as what might be done to prevent the same crime being done in the same way again. What the exact punishment should be also depends on information that the suspect might not volunteer themselves.\n\nLook at what happened with JFK; his murderer confessed, only to be murdered himself shortly afterwards before standing trial. This has led to endless speculation on what he knew and who wanted him kept quiet.",
"Due process is not reserved, nor should it be, for those who wish to utilize it. Foundationally speaking, if our justice system wants to maintain integrity, it must abide by consistent protocols regardless of circumstances. \n\nAdditionally, admission or confession is not always indicative of guilt. Some law enforcement agencies will implement techniques to draw a confession from an innocent party (see the case of Damon Thibodeaux). This reinforces the need to go to trial for every case. ",
"What if he had conspirators, but it taking sole responsibility to protect them? What if he is a patsy? What if he is lying? What if someone paid him to do it?\n\nTaking his confession at face value could prevent us from finding out these sorts of things. Granted, I think they are pretty unlikely, but generally taking a confession at face value presents many problems. \n\nHenry Lee Lucas, for example, notoriously confessed to many murders that he did not commit. He was already going to die in prison - this was simply a way for him to screw with the system and amuse himself. This wasted lots of resources and presented false hope to families who thought they might get some sort of closure on the fate of their loved ones.",
"You still need to have a sentencing hearing. Here I believe the death penalty is on the table which means a long drawn out process.\n\nGenerally there is a range for potential sentences. You have the hearing to consider potential mitigating circumstances and ultimate determine the punishment."
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ai0y94 | flying hot air balloons | I know how hot air balloons fly, like the heat rises stuff and I guess that means I know how they go up and down but how do they steer? How does someone route plan for a hot air balloon? Is it just wind? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ai0y94/eli5_flying_hot_air_balloons/ | {
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"It’s just wind. Hot air balloons have no steering mechanism other than wind. They are able to move up/down to various altitudes where the wind is moving in different directions to control their movement.\n\nSource: went on a hot air balloon ride a few years ago.",
"If it is just wind, how do air traffic controllers confront your violations? F.e. there are zones in the air, which would cause fighter jets to make you leave that air space immediately. How do you deal with balloons getting in the way of air traffic or no fly zones?",
"I crew for a balloon team for a few years ago. First, the weather has to be nearly perfect. We don’t inflate if the ground airspeed is above 10mph, and we won’t fly if it’s over 8mph. We stay away from flight patterns for winged aircraft, and we have to check in with air traffic control for any airports within so many miles. As for controlling the craft, first we send up a helium balloon (like from a kids birthday). From watching its ascent, you can see what the wind is doing at different altitudes. This gives you a good guess as to where you want to launch so as to be able to predict the landing spot. Wind works in layers, so that while it may be blowing due south on the ground, it may be due north at 1000 feet. You find the layer and try to stay at that height. The burners control your altitude, and the envelope has vents to loose the excess heat. More heat goes up, less heat goes down. We keep a bottle of champagne in the basket for post flight celebration, but it’s traditionally used as a gift for the owner of the field you land in so that he will be less angry about the intrusion."
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ccrq7w | why do hotels have beauty bars, glycerine bars, moisturizing bars, lotion bars, etc but not soap. because it's all soap. | In the dozens of hotels and motels (in North America) I've stayed in, they never have little bars of 'soap'. It's always called some euphemism for soap. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ccrq7w/eli5_why_do_hotels_have_beauty_bars_glycerine/ | {
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"I can't explain it to you because most hotels I've been in do have soap products called soap. Sometimes called face soap or bath soap or just soap.",
"Soap is actually a specific substance manufactured by reacting a fat with a strong base. Ancient soap was made by mixing oil or rendered pig fat with lye made by soaking ashes in water.\n\nThe \"beauty bars\" and whatnot you're seeing are artificial detergents mixed with some sort of gel that gives them a texture similar to soap. (Detergents are chemicals that latch on to dirt/grease with one end of their molecule, and water with the other end, just like soap does, but they're made in a lab with a different process.) I would bet they aren't called soap because they don't meet some legal definition of the word."
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1ndfy1 | to the canadians and french-canadians of reddit, what's the difference between you guys? (besides the names obviously.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ndfy1/eli5_to_the_canadians_and_frenchcanadians_of/ | {
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"This is more of an /r/askreddit question\n\nOr /r/canada if askreddit doesn't work out. It's not really appropriate here though."
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7tnxr8 | why does cold water feel great in our mouths, even when we are cold, yet painful on our skin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7tnxr8/eli5_why_does_cold_water_feel_great_in_our_mouths/ | {
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"Your body tries to maintain a certain temperature for it to function properly. 37°C is the best for your basic respiratory (blood circulation, biochemical reaction) processes. So most of the mammalian bodies designed a specific way to make sure these temperatures stay stable, even if we are in the arctic and breathing -15°C air or even drinking ice water. \nIn case of the drinkning-water, you have to image your mouth as a water heater. Your body and blood exert a huge amount of heat, and if you (for example) take your fingers, put them in your mouth and feel the inner layer, you will feel that the blood vessels are very close to it and are radiating a lot of the 37°C your body is trying to maintain. So every time you sip cold water, your mouth tries to bring it to an preferable temperature in order to be able to swallow it und transport it into your stomach.\nIf you swallow a huge amount of very cold water, without pre-heating it , you can feel the cold water in your stomach. And for most people this feeling is not a prefered one.\n\nAnd why does cold water hurt on your skin?\nWe have special thermoreceptors, only on our skin, which tell us through pain that the Environment is not good for us.\nStill the same train of thought. The normal Ned has about 2,5 m^2 skin, very big area for our mass to loose heat. And if you do the same experiment you did above with your finger in your mouth and compare it to the temperature on your skin (everywhere despite arm- and kneepits) you will feel, that it is not THAT warm. That is because we have a natural \"fat\"-coat around as, that keeps our skin colder then our inner temperature in order to prevent heat loss.\nAnd if that skinlayer gets extreme cold (even colder water) our body tries to tell us, that it is not an desirable surrounding for maintaining the inner temperature - serious danger of hypothermia. So we have special thermoreceptors, only on our skin, which tell us through pain that the enviroment is not good for us.\n\n",
"It's really based on heat transfer rates, surface area, and volume of water. If you put your whole body in cold water you can transfer an enormous amount of heat away because surface area plays into both conduction and convection heat transfer. In fact if the water is cold enough, you can transfer enough to go into hypothermia rather quickly if your whole body is submerged, because in a lake or sea, the volume of water can be huge relative to the volume of your body that is generating heat.\n\nHowever, in your mouth, you only have a limited surface area exposed to water, and since you can only pour so much water into your mouth, that relatively small volume of water will reach close to body temperature rather quickly.\n\nTLDR, you can only transfer limited amounts of heat to water you drink because it has a limited amount of volume, and you can transfer massive amounts of heat if you submerge your body in a lake."
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crdnwf | what is far infrared radiation and what are its benefits? | My mom got me this FIR band as a gift and was swearing up and down about its “therapeutic” properties. I looked online and actually found a legit [paper](_URL_0_) on it.
Problem is, I need it eli5, please? :)
Hopefully the flair is correct, took an educated guess. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crdnwf/eli5_what_is_far_infrared_radiation_and_what_are/ | {
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"As a first point, just because you find a \"paper\" on something, doesn't mean that it's \"true\". Scientific research is organic, and there will always be papers claiming opposites, and they may be just as legit. That's just how humans operate. Thus the only way to gauge whether a paper is legit or not is to read it thoroughly, follow its references, and then form an opinion based on that. And forming an idea of the \"truth\" must be made by reading papers from *both* sides and looking at all angles objectively. This becomes even more crucial in this day of age where there are many journals out there who will publish *anything* as long as they get a cheque in the mail. \n\nNow having just skimmed through the article you linked, it seems that there is evidence for affecting cells *in vitro* using infrared radiation. If you didn't know, infrared radiation is just heat radiation, the same heat you feel from a fire. *In vitro* means that they have conducted the tests on cells in a petri dish. This is the usual first step when it comes to testing biologically oriented effects, because no living organism must be tested upon. *In vitro* evidence on itself does not stand though. It does not necessarily translate to actual effects on humans (which require *in vivo* experiments).\n\nBut with that all aside, the conclusion of the paper says:\n\n > \"If it can be proved that non-heating FIR has real and significant biological effects, then the possible future applications are wide ranging.\"\n\nThe paper is honest enough to say *\"If it can be proved...\"*, which should be interpreted as: there is no evidence for any biological effects on infrared radiation on humans. But again I just skimmed through the article. A thorough investigation of the subject requires following up the references, but that is very time consuming.\n\nIf you want my personal opinion (I'm PhD student in radiation physics), then it looks very sketchy and I would expect that a \"FIR band\" would *not* have any effects on your health whatsoever. Mostly because it seems to claim to be able to do things which are by no means proven."
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3n8qym | what's in it for the people who keep uploading movies and software to torrent sites | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n8qym/eli5_whats_in_it_for_the_people_who_keep/ | {
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"Sometime it's more about \"freedom\" than money, mah friend.\n\nI'd like to know if they make money, tho.",
"Let me re-phrase your question in order to answer your question:\n\n > It seems like there is a race to who ~~uploads~~ **comments** the fastest and the best quality and it's non stop, but what is in it for them? I don't see any ads in the ~~videos~~ **comments**. How do they make money?\n\nYou do it for fake internet points and knowing that you are helping the community as a whole.",
"I think for the most part \"street cred\". If a group is leading in releasing quality rips they build up their name and reputation in the piracy scene. There's lots of kidz who wanna be a part of a cool piracy groups, so it's status.",
"Because it feels good.\n\nAfter procrastinating, I finally bought a rather rare biographical film two months ago for two reasons.\n\n1: To watch for myself, at long last.\n\n2: To share because this particular 1988 movie has never been available on torrents. Until now. :)\n\nIt's not \"cool\" to be a fan of this performer so I won't mention his name, plus he's dead now and most of his fans are dying out as well, but I think he's one of the best performers the world has ever known, and I enjoy the feeling of giving back to the community.",
"Some people like to share material that they enjoyed. However, if they *only* shared it with their friends, it would seem cruel and greedy, when it's not hard at all to make it available for everyone.\n\nPlus with putting something out in the world and then seeing thousands use and appreciate it, it gives the person a sense of importance, like yeah, I did that. That is because of me. But it's mostly just wanting to share something you like.",
"There's a lot of reasons. There is something called \"The scene\" and it is comprised of release groups (and other entities). The release groups compete to be the first one to get their releases onto usenet, 0day sites, private torrent trackers. Being the first makes you the best and your group gets respect/notoriety in the scene. Another related reason is private torrent trackers themselves. On many private torrent sites you get bonus points or upload credit for uploading new content. This levels you up on the site and being a user in high standing makes it easy to get invites to other private sites.",
"It's glory days are behind it but there is a \"1337\" ('leet, for elite) subculture where having \"0-day\" warez and media earns you creds. Warez groups like CLASS, Fairlight, and Razor 1911 would compete to see who could get stuff out there faster and who could crack it faster. Often games would be available before they were in storms, or one group would claim they cracked it but it didn't work so another group released a \"crack fix\" dissing the group who screwed up the fax. Downloads would usually include a .nfo file with ASCII art and shout-outs and disses to other groups. This is a subculture that most people are completely unaware of.",
"I personally do it because i live in a country where the access to premium and quality content is not possible, censorship and money restrictions are a real deal, so whenever i get my hands in a good piece of data i share it through a torrent site so more people can enjoy it.(I live in Venezuela btw)",
"Altruism, plain and simple. Strange that it resides on the internet and not in our day-to-day dealings with people but there it is.",
"In some cases, mass uploaders do monetize their activities by hosting preview images or thumbnail panels on click/ad-gated sites.\n\nBy and large the community of uploaders is driven by the perceived recognition having the best/first/most-downloaded copy brings. Generally, just enthusiasts who make money in other ways - or don't... ",
"The New Yorker wrote an article about something similar, it's called [The Man Who Broke the Music Business](_URL_0_)\n\nIt's about the early days of MP3 sharing, but it still relates to your question. If you don't want to read a long New Yorker article, the first half basically says that they're in these 'release groups' (or whatever you want to call them) who go through enormous effort to get content ASAP, sometimes employing people from the inside to get stuff before release. Members who obtain top-level content are given a number of perks, such as priority access to other members' content, as well as acceptance and respect. And then there's a pride of inviting your friends over to play a video game that isn't even released or available on torrent sites yet.\n\nThere's also competition among release groups to launch stuff as early as possible, again as a matter of pride.\n\nThe second half of the article focuses on the eventual break up of the group and a court trial.\n\nI suggest reading the whole thing because the build-up to the last line is absolute gold, which I won't spoil here.",
"the thing about \"warez\" is that the people who make games/movie/software available for free (skidrow, YIFY, 3DM, jaybob) by removing the DRM from it, don't expect anything in return. they aren't in it for money (95% of them don't even provide a way for the community to donate money to them). it's all about the free sharing of information, but corporate merica doesn't take kindly to the free sharing of information, so that's why words like \"piracy\" and \"hacking\" is spouted by the media whenever the topic is brought up. What happens in Somalia is ACTUAL piracy; the free sharing of information isn't."
]
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[],
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[],
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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"http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business"
],
[]
] |
||
6kdr4h | i am very out of the loop apparently what does dank and meta mean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kdr4h/eli5i_am_very_out_of_the_loop_apparently_what/ | {
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"text": [
"Meta means self-referential. So there's a subreddit for the Hearthstone card game that is meant to talk about the game. But if I make a post in there talking about the subreddit, that would be meta.\n\nDank, which used to be a word you'd throw around to describe a swamp or a dungeon is also slang used to describe high quality marijuana. Because of that usage, which is a positive, dank gets thrown around for something like dank memes (which means high quality memes, even if they've been around the block awhile)",
"To my understanding:\n\nDank is a term describing a desirable texture of marijuana. It has been adopted to reference a desirable element of memes. I don't know exactly what it refers to in reference to memes but I get that they are typically the memes that have gained recognition and notoriety as a current trend. Which is very meta, considering that memes are basically just trends.\n\nMeta is a prefix that means something like \"information about\". But it can easily be taken to mean \"another deeper level\" to the thing it is referencing.\n\nMeta-data is data about data.\n\nMeta-physical is beyond physical.\n\nMeta-rinome is gibberish I just made up because it sounded like metronome in my head. And I'm tired so that amused me.\n\nSo by saying something is meta, you're saying that it has a layer of complexity that is notable and often ironic."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2p443h | if i set all my clocks in my house (and car) to the same time on daylight savings, why are they all a few minutes different from each other now? shouldn't digital clocks be unable to run slow if programmed correctly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p443h/eli5_if_i_set_all_my_clocks_in_my_house_and_car/ | {
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"text": [
"Quartz watches are sensitive to temperatures. At normal indoor temps, they can easily stay within 30s of drift per month. The one in your car, especially in winter, is subjected to more extreme temperatures and will likely drift considerably more.",
"Not all clocks are made equal. Electrical systems and timing components operate differently, and each is, ultimately, designed not to be perfect but functionally\" close-enough.\" \n\nThink of it as telling a bunch of people to each tie a weight to a segment of rope and then setting them all to swing as a metronome each. They won't be EXACTLY the same in length, and each time a length is tied, the amount left hanging will be a little different. Even if you swing all of them at exactly the same time, they'll go out-of-time with each other eventually.",
"My personal solution to this problem is to just have clocks that set themselves.. \n\n[Because I'm Lazy](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/radioclocks.cfm"
]
] |
||
4p6id4 | how is it possible that deserts exist right next to the ocean, when there is lots of water evaporating nearby? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p6id4/eli5_how_is_it_possible_that_deserts_exist_right/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4ielhf"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Deserts are categorised by the lack of rainfall. The evaporating water is moving elsewhere before falling back down."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1rnfck | what would the (unforeseen) implications be on the consumers and car manufacturers if tesla was allowed sell it's cars freely in the us? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rnfck/eli5_what_would_the_unforeseen_implications_be_on/ | {
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"text": [
"You're asking for others to predict **unforeseen** implications?",
"Dealers, the middlemen, get fucked. Like they should, because all they do is make the process tedious and horrible.",
"Why can't they freely sell cars in the US ",
"what do you think the word \"unforeseen\" means?",
"What kind of answers are you expecting? It would make it easier for Tesla to sell the cars. \n\nEdit: *Too easy.* Soon everyone spends all their money on Tesla cars, leading to mass starvation and the collapse of the US government. Elon Musk escapes to the moon.",
"Should EVs start taking up more market share there are a few knock-on effects not routinely considered. \n\nThe first is capacity of the energy infrastructure. While going electric makes an awful lot of sense financially in many respects (especially for urban dwellers, 2 car households etc) batteries still have to be charged. At the moment the US as a whole has [~63Gigawatts excess capacity in it's energy sector](_URL_0_), that is not evenly spread, and some areas already experiencing \"brown outs\" would certainly struggle under significant extra loads. To return to your original question; the knock on for consumers is affected energy delivery. \n\nTesla will, eventually, be allowed to sell their cars as they wish. Those who want a Tesla will simply order them across state lines, online... at some point state regulators will realise they're harming their economy more than they're helping it. \n\nOther car manufacturers are also looking at more direct selling. Fiat is trialling stores in shopping malls (with a range of cars available to test drive in the parking lot). Most manufacturers are offering direct sale, design online, services now. Some prefer knowing that \"Big Frank sold us the car, and he'll look after us if something breaks\" - but that's a decreasing market. \n "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=9671"
]
] |
||
b9cjr8 | what determines the shape and texture of human feces? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b9cjr8/eli5_what_determines_the_shape_and_texture_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"ek3kgng"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Mostly the amount of water content, along with fiber and other materials (mucus and fat content can have an impact, but their presence is usually an indicator of an issue). "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
msv0g | why is it that people are retiring later even though there are more people working? | If there are more people working and an increased number of jobs are becoming automated then why are people still working as much or more? I would have thought we would slowly phase out jobs as they became unneeded. Instead it seems that we are expected to work longer into our lives. Why is this? Or am I just perceiving the situation wrong? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/msv0g/eli5_why_is_it_that_people_are_retiring_later/ | {
"a_id": [
"c33l5ho",
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"score": [
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],
"text": [
"People are retiring later due to them living longer. A person who retired say 50 years ago had a much shorter after retirement life span. With our longer lifespans after retirement, we need more money when we retire.",
"Health Care is a very big issue. Robust policies that could bridge the time between retirement and Medicare were once very affordable. However, skyrocketing health care costs have greatly increased premiums and made getting coverage very expensive. As a result, being retired costs significantly more than it once did.\n\nThe recession was also a very large contributor. The value of peoples' homes, that make up a sizable portion of their net worth, plummeted. People saw their retirement accounts crash. Although it has likely regained some of it's value, the market is not yet back at 2007 levels and people are understandably skiddish about abandoning what is probably a very solid income.\n\nIt's a very serious issue though. I've heard many make the case that lack of retirements make up a large part of the current unemployment problem.",
"People are retiring later due to them living longer. A person who retired say 50 years ago had a much shorter after retirement life span. With our longer lifespans after retirement, we need more money when we retire.",
"Health Care is a very big issue. Robust policies that could bridge the time between retirement and Medicare were once very affordable. However, skyrocketing health care costs have greatly increased premiums and made getting coverage very expensive. As a result, being retired costs significantly more than it once did.\n\nThe recession was also a very large contributor. The value of peoples' homes, that make up a sizable portion of their net worth, plummeted. People saw their retirement accounts crash. Although it has likely regained some of it's value, the market is not yet back at 2007 levels and people are understandably skiddish about abandoning what is probably a very solid income.\n\nIt's a very serious issue though. I've heard many make the case that lack of retirements make up a large part of the current unemployment problem."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1ovqz1 | how is the chaplain of the us congress not a violation of the separation of church and state? | _URL_0_
The US congress has a chaplain. How is this constitutional? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ovqz1/eli5_how_is_the_chaplain_of_the_us_congress_not_a/ | {
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"text": [
"Nothing says that they must be separate. Just that a religion can't be forced on the people. I'm assuming the chaplain is there for those who want it, and ignored by the rest, just like chaplains at hospitals and the like.",
"The Freedom of Religion clause says this:\n\n > Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof\n\nSimplified:\n\n > Congress won't make any laws that establish a state religion or stop anyone from practicing their own religions.\n\nHaving a chaplain in Congress does not establish a state religion, nor does it prevent people from worshiping however they wish.",
"The role of the chaplain is not to support members of only 1 particular religion. As the link shows, there are upcoming events for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, along with some things not specific to a particular faith. Since nobody's forced to do anything religious and no particular religion is being singled out (either in a positive or negative way), these practices are acceptable. \n\nThe key thing to remember is that the government is not completely separated from religious ideas or forced to pretend that religion doesn't exist. The government just has to treat different religions equally and allow citizens to worship how they see fit. ",
"There is significant debate about the meaning of the Establishment Clause. As you see, some beleve it merely forbids \"picking favorites\" among religions. But others do believe it's about favoring religiousness itself. But the main reason there are such chaplains is that some people want them and most people don't really care enough about it to do anything one way or the other. And the current Supreme Court isn't going to do anything about it anyway."
]
} | [] | [
"http://chaplain.house.gov/"
] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6drwyi | why is getting tattooed becoming uncool? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6drwyi/eli5_why_is_getting_tattooed_becoming_uncool/ | {
"a_id": [
"di4x4oh"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I never realized it is. Obviously things go in cycles but I've never realized a huge dropoff"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
80oigu | why do some lights get brighter when you turn on other electronics instead of dimmer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80oigu/eli5_why_do_some_lights_get_brighter_when_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"dux4la2"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"You probably have a broken or loose neutral connection. A neutral connection in the house regulates the voltage on both 'legs' of a household split-phase electrical system, but a disconnected neutral will cause the per-leg voltage to vary based on load, so if you put a heavy load on one leg the other leg will see much higher voltage than normal."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
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