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3oayoc | why is bill cosby's deposition sealed and kept secret for now? | Why couldn't the public know what he actually confessed to so this trial wouldn't have to linger on for so long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3oayoc/eli5_why_is_bill_cosbys_deposition_sealed_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Because what the public knows or thinks has NOTHING to do with a trial. That's not how the legal system works, and the more the public is biased for or against him, the harder it will be to have a fair trial."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6w5gdg | if my body wakes up naturally after only a few hours of sleep, is it still bad for me? | Lately I've been waking up after about 5 or 6 hours of sleep (usually I try to sleep for 8)
If my body is naturally waking up after a short period of sleep, is it being negatively affected as if I'm forcing myself to wake up after a similar amount of time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w5gdg/eli5_if_my_body_wakes_up_naturally_after_only_a/ | {
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"From what I've heard, you need less sleep as you get older. Teens need more sleep than adults (_URL_0_). \nDepression and other mental illnesses can also affect how long you sleep and how tired you feel. Sometimes they can cause oversleeping that is not restful, or mania that provides energy even with little/no sleep.\nThere are many other factors that can affect your sleeping habits too. If you begin to feel negative effects from less sleep consider talking to your doctor. IMO don't worry about it.",
"It is neither good, nor bad. Assuming you had no schedule or time constraints, sleeping whenever you need to has shown to be just as effective as sleeping a consistent 8 hours a night. The 8-hour-a-night schedule is socially created. If everyone decided to randomly take an 8 hour nap whenever they wanted, it would be much more difficult to coordinate schedules, work, appointments, etc. Imagine sleeping from 12-8pm then trying to get your car repaired at 10pm, which would be similar to someone else's 10am.\n\nWithout delving into this part as well, REM sleep is only achieved after a certain amount of sleep, roughly 2 hours. This means if took enough 2 hour naps throughout the day to feel well rested, it would be similar in effect to 4 2 hour naps in an 8 hour period.",
"Are you feeling fully rested after you wake up? If so, nothing really to worry about \n\nIf not, then maybe consider seeing your doctor. \n\nHistorically speaking, 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is a relatively new social construct. \n\n(_URL_0_)\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://sleepcenter.ucla.edu/sleep-and-teens"
],
[],
[
"https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201403/nightly-8-hour-sleep-isnt-rule-its-myth"
]
] |
|
3xapxm | what function do the ridges on the palm of your hand serve? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xapxm/eli5_what_function_do_the_ridges_on_the_palm_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"cy2zxrq"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"They serve to increase surface area of your hands and improve traction and friction when gripping. If your hands were completely smooth, things would slip through your fingers like they were coated in butter. The ridges provide points on your fingers, almost microscopic that double or even triple the surface area of the exposed skin.\n\nTo demonstrate this, press your fingers together firmly and slide them back and forth. See how they don't slide easily but they catch repeatedly if you press hard enough? That's the ridges rubbing against each other and creating traction.\n\nNow take your finger and pressing firmly rub it up the inside of your arm, or on your leg. No matter how hard you press, you can still slide your finger quite easily. This is because the smoothness of your leg reduces friction and allows your ridged finger or hand to slide more freely than if two ridged surfaces came together.\n\nIn our world, aside from man made imrpovements and Ice, most everything we encounter in our daily lives is rigid and organic. They don't slide out your hand easily and this traction only imrpoes on your gripping ability. Only in manmade objects of metal and glass does this really become a problem. \n\nYour hands were evolved to hold and move things like wood and stone, and they have been well equipped to work with them well.\n\nTL;DR - Evolution, that's why."
]
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[]
] |
|
6leo7s | why do helicopters need to slowly discharge when touching power lines, but birds can land right on them? | I've long been told that the reason birds can land on power lines is because they're not connected to ground.
By contrast, I saw a youtube video showing high voltage power line maintenance techniques (_URL_1_), and in it, a line worker holds out a long metal rod to synchronize the helicopter's electrical potential with the line, presumably due to capacitance between the helicopter and the ground below.
Birds obviously don't hold out a metal rod when landing on power lines (to my knowledge), and yet they don't seem to get zapped. Is the difference that birds are not made of metal / full of electronics? Or is it that the power lines from the video shown are much higher voltage and that birds would actually get fried just trying to land on a single wire?
I tried googling, and found this piece written by someone at MIT that seems to indicate what the line worker was doing was unnecessary:
"Another technique [to avoid being electrocuted] is to hang beneath a helicopter. Since neither the worker nor the helicopter is connected to the ground (like a bird), the worker just has to make sure he only touches one wire at a time."
_URL_0_
This MIT piece is particularly puzzling, since it seems to say that the rod and faraday suit are unnecessary, and that simply by being above the ground, you're safe.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6leo7s/eli5why_do_helicopters_need_to_slowly_discharge/ | {
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"text": [
"As an aside, this MIT article is surprisingly bad:\n\n\"The electrons are essentially being pulled from the ground by the power station. They move through the power lines, through your TV, and eventually they make their way back into the ground from where they came. This creates a closed loop, which is required for electricity to flow.\"\n\nThis is just not correct. Electrons are not meaningfully pulled from the ground nor returned by them. They are circulated through the distribution system.",
"Line workers are very safety conscious, they work with very dangerous levels of electricity. The fear isn't always for electrocuting the worker, it's also for upsetting the helicopter's electronics. A glitch could bump the helicopter into the wire, and that would be a huge problem.",
"[This article](_URL_0_) describes the fact that there is capacitance.\n\nThe helicopter was originally grounded before it took off - it was (and still is) at the same potential as the ground. Whereas the power line is not at the same potential as the ground. Because of that, there is capacitance between the two, so when they originally connect with each other, there is a small amount of discharge. Although small, because of the high voltages involved it can still be dangerous. The synchronisation brings them both to the same potential so that there is no discharge of this capacitance.\n\nAs for why birds don't need to do this - they are not made out of a few tons of metal, so any capacitance will be negligible.\n\n(The common answer to why birds aren't electrocuted - about not being in contact with the ground, is absolutely correct when it comes to a sustained electrical current. But this discharge of capacitance is not sustained, it's only momentary, hence why not being in contact with the ground doesn't alleviate it.)",
"The suits are worn for safety purposes. You don't want extremely strong magnetic fields pulsing through your body for extended periods of time and, of course, you don't want to be a current pathway if something goes wrong.\n\nIn terms of the rod, the bird is able to land safely because they're at the same potential as the free space around the wire so they don't present any better of a pathway than any other direction.\n\nIn contrast, the rapidly rotating blades of the helicopter create a huge static charge on the helicopter. Ordinarily this charge has no place to go because the helicopter is surrounded by free space. But when you connect the helicopter to the high voltage line through a decent conductor, that charge flows down through the conductor to the high voltage line. If you happen to be the conductor, you're in deep trouble.\n\nNote that this is a problem with any helicopter altitude work. Power lines are just more dangerous because the voltage difference between the helicopter and the power line is significantly greater than the helicopter and the ground."
]
} | [] | [
"https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/how-do-birds-sit-on-high-voltage-power-lines-without-getting-electrocuted/",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2amZGto_Hc&t=1m1s"
] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/108128/why-does-arcing-occur-on-helicopter-power-line-repair"
],
[]
] |
|
1x20o0 | why do ballpoint pens become unusable even though their see-through cartridges are shown with full ink? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1x20o0/eli5_why_do_ballpoint_pens_become_unusable_even/ | {
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"text": [
"If the ink can't flow, it doesn't matter how much there is. Ball point pens can become damaged, or clogged with crap far before they run out of ink.",
"The ink may be there but just that one part you don't see is not covered with ink so nothing flows the ball needs to roll in the ink.\n ",
"Because that is probably just a thin lining of ink on the inside part of the cartridge, making it look full when really it's pretty much empty.",
"A lot of times the ink dries up in the tip causing it to clog up. \nIf this ever happens to you, take a lighter and heat up the tip for a couple seconds. \nUsually that'll be enough to get the ink flowing again. \nBut even if that fixes it. It's likely that cartridge is damaged or faulty so you'll likely get the ink to clog the tip again"
]
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w4oy7 | why england is always rainy | it has been raining for 40 straight days. I know england is usually rainy, but WHY and what whether phenomenon is happening to cause such excessive rain this summer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/w4oy7/why_england_is_always_rainy/ | {
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"text": [
"If it didn't rain all the time, there is a risk that English people might start being cheerful.",
"its not always raining here its just the face that we will talk about the last lot of rain until the next lot comes along which makes us think its always raining",
"This has possibly felt like the rainiest summer we've had in many years. But actually - depending where you are it's not always that rainy.\nLondon for example receives [less rain than Rome](_URL_0_) or [New York, with a very similar number of precipitation days](_URL_1_)\n",
"There are two big factors coming into play here. England's lattitude (how far north of the Equator it lies) and it's position in the Atlantic Ocean. Oceans currents and winds are very big influences on what kind of weather you experience and England is perfectly positioned to get more rain than it's neighbors to the South.\n\nIf you picture the Atlantic ocean in the Northern hemisphere as a clock's face, England would be at about 2:00, Spain and Portugal (known for their more temperate climates) would be about 3:00.\n\nNow do the same clock thingy in the Northern Hemisphere's part of the Pacific Ocean. 2:00 would put you around BC and Seattle, both known for being really rainy. 3:00 would put you around Southern CA, known for being very temperate.\n\nI realize this doesn't answer your question about why it's happening this Summer, but whatevs."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London#Climate",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City#Climate"
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|
6ln26q | why does touching the contacts on a 9-volt battery not shock you, but something like putting your finger in an electrical outlet will? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ln26q/eli5_why_does_touching_the_contacts_on_a_9volt/ | {
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"If I remember correctly, it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-20 volts of electrical potential to pass the poorly conductive barrier of dry skin. If you wet your finger you will feel it. Try connecting 4 of those batteries in parallel and close the loop with your dry finger. \n\nIf you really want to science, take some 1.5 volt batteries (AA or AAA) and use combinations of 9 and 1.5V to find the approximate number where electrical potential (voltage) will cross your skin and shock you",
"here ya' go:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nWhile potential (in this case volts) is 9v, the current is very low. The batteries ability to shock is negligible. As is 120v given low current. However most home circuits are breakered to 15 or 20 amps. More than enough to kill a person who sticks a fork or tongue in an outlet.\n\nAs for the difference in voltage vs current, that is described in ohms law. So where a 120vac circuit can provide (let's say) 20 amps, a 240 volt circuit only need to provide 10 amps for the same power. (watts)\n\nThat's why may appliances use 240vac. The current necessary to carry is half.\n\nA Van de Graph generator can produce 10's of thousands of volts. The current is negligible. Go ahead touch it. \n_URL_1_\n\nHere is a good study on volts x amps\n\n_URL_2_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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"https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html",
"http://www.sci-supply.com/Van-De-Graaff-p/lc2910-hc.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQjwv_fKBRCGARIsAL6R6ejwDUWGHcFou_oFVZBVI66_8LlEIg_LRp6-NU5tFiXvlAitGbegW-caAuKYEALw_wcB",
"http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2002-03/1015513767.Eg.r.html"
]
] |
||
es787g | how do large companies like microsoft & sony keep their projects secret for so many years? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/es787g/eli5_how_do_large_companies_like_microsoft_sony/ | {
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"They force their employees to sign(Non-disclosure agreements) NDA. Basically if you break that contract, you will be found out and prosecuted, you will also be used and a bunch of other crap. They have ways of figuring out whom is the one who blew the whistle."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2ckk3e | why would vast methane plumes escaping from arctic seafloor be bad for us? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ckk3e/eli5why_would_vast_methane_plumes_escaping_from/ | {
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"the methane would exacerbate global warming",
"Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, many many times more potent than gases like CO2 (though the life of methane in our atmosphere is much shorter than other, less potent gases). Scientists are concerned that this could become a trend, something we certainly would not want to happen. ",
"Everyone talks about carbon this and carbon that, but there it's a whole cocktail of potential climate change inducing compounds. Methane is one of them. This shouldn't make top answer, but it would definitely help to familiarize yourself with the [concept](_URL_0_) of substances measured by the equivalent effect of certain amounts of carbon dioxide",
"methane is a greenhouse gas."
]
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[],
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"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_equivalent"
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2vaps9 | why can't i use the stuff (drugs?) transgender men use to grow boobs instead of getting breast enhancement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vaps9/eli5_why_cant_i_use_the_stuff_drugs_transgender/ | {
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"text": [
"Hormone therapy only works if you lack the hormone in the first place. \n\nYour modest development is most likely due to other reasons than a lack of female hormones. \n\nRejoice in your individuality, if you can. It would be a damn shame if everybody was identical. ",
"Transgender men are people who were born assigned female and transition to men, you're thinking of transgender women, who transition from male to female.\n\nThe \"drug\" we take is just estrogen. If you are taking birth control pills you are mostly already taking estrogen. (not in the same dosage)\n\nSince your body already produce it, the effect of taking more would be pretty negligible and potentially harmful. Trans woman develops breast because suddenly having a certain level of estrogen in your body activates the secondary sex characteristic related to that hormone. Even then, in some case the growth is somewhat limited and a significant number of trans women ends up having breast surgery."
]
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[],
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3y4b5q | how can people be allergic to synthetic substances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y4b5q/eli5_how_can_people_be_allergic_to_synthetic/ | {
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"There's no reason one couldn't. Allergy is just an unnecessarily extreme reaction to something harmless. Doesn't matter if it's a medicine or an animal.",
"Allergies are hypersensitivity of the immune system to something that doesn't bother most people. If someone's immune system detects chemicals in the synthetic substance as a threat an allergic reaction can result. There are different levels of allergies like mild and severe reactions."
]
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[],
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6ye15w | why are ancient buildings (e.g. pyramids) build with such large stones? wouldn't it be way easier to use many small? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ye15w/eli5_why_are_ancient_buildings_eg_pyramids_build/ | {
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"When these ancient civilizations were building megastructures, they didn't have anything in the way of mortar or glue. This meant they designed and built these amazing, massive structures to press into themselves, so the sheer weight of the objects would keep them together. \n\nWhen they used smaller stones for detail work, they had to use a form of mortar/glue/cement in order to keep them from slipping. The products they had available just weren't heavy duty enough to hold 150,000+ pound stones in place. Hell, we don't even really have good enough glue for that today. \n\nThe first post here; _URL_0_ describes other kinds of supermassive stone structures and how/why they might have been created by ancient civilizations.",
"Not exactly answering your question but you can check if you find \n_URL_0_\nin english.",
"Because stones have to be quarried and shaped.\n\nIt was easier to cut the giant rocks out of the ground, work to make them roughly square and then send them down the river for construction. \n\nConversely small rocks have so much more surface area that needs to be shaped for the same volume.\n\nAny bigger I guess the reduction in surface area would be outweighed by the extra difficulty in transporting the blocks. ",
"when you have crap tools to cut stone, you want to cut stone as little as possible. the bigger the rock, the less cutting. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.quora.com/Why-did-ancient-builders-so-often-incorporate-supermassive-masonry-when-building-with-ordinary-sized-stone-blocks-would-have-been-so-much-easier-and-faster"
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DytatZpwIsg"
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[],
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||
4butms | what exactly are they doing when a city's water department is just letting a fire hydrant run for no apparent reason? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4butms/eli5_what_exactly_are_they_doing_when_a_citys/ | {
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"Usually it is flushing the water line. All water carries a bit of sediment through the water mains. At the ends of the lines, the water flows slower or not at all, depending on the configuration, and the sediment accumulates. To get rid of the sediment, they open the last hydrant on the line and let it run. ",
"What /u/tahonte said, but they are also exercising the valve that opens and closes the hydrant. Basically making sure it's not rusted/\"frozen\" shut. ",
"Aside from the aforementioned sediment flushing, there's also a need to maintain a decent water flow and pressure for when it's actually needed - typically as a test.",
" > no apparent reason\n\nThere's a reason, just not one you're going to see when watching them spray the street down.\n\nWas water coming straight out of the hydrant, or was there a little device on the end? If the latter, they were measuring flow rate, and it has to be measured over the course of an hour (or more, depending on local regulations). It's preferable to do this when it's not cold, but state/city laws require annual inspections. If the new hydrant was installed in March because someone got drunk and took it out with their car, it's got to be inspected in March of the next year; even if it's well below freezing. They've only got about a weeks worth of play to delay the work.\n\nHere's another option, in your town, does the fire main have cross-connections with the water main? (Perhaps even the same system?) If there was a water main break (or even just a drop in pressure), there's a chance that contaminated ground water got into the city water. That water HAS to be flushed out. (An advantage in pressurizing the main is that any leaks/cracks result in watering the soil, rather than water getting into drinking water).",
"The why of this is pretty well covered, but in addition we often get complaints of brown water from the spigot after we use a hydrant. \n\nIf you see a hydrant being used, whether free flowing or being used by a municipal vehicle, and your tap water is suddenly brown, they're related. \n\nThe hydrant opening shakes up sediment in the pipes and can mix with the water in your house. \n\nMost of the time, you can run the water for a few minutes and it'll come clear. In worst case scenarios (You live on the low end of your grid, or something) wait a few hours, and it'll all settle back down, and be clear again."
]
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a1mbsu | can we change the language of the voice in our head? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1mbsu/eli5_can_we_change_the_language_of_the_voice_in/ | {
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"When I was learning a second language I would sometimes catch my self thinking in the second language. It was usually when I was more immersed in that second language and wasn’t using my native tongue much. Since then I can usually deliberately change the language of the voice in my head. ",
"My mom is bilingual and sometimes catches herself thinking or talking to herself in her 2nd language. It's usually when she's recently been around people speaking it or reading it, but it happens other times too. Her first and primary language is English, though, and she only rarely uses the second so she normally thinks in English. But when she was in Spain a few years ago and exclusively speaking Spanish, she called me and immediately started speaking Spanish before I had to stop her and remind her that yo no habló español, madre.\n\nI've seen several people say that the moment you know you're really learning a language is when you read or hear it and understand it instead of translating.",
"Yes, I would say it happens when you learn a language to the point where you understand a word's meaning as opposed to translating it to the closest word in your native language and then understanding it that way."
]
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240ept | liver cirrhosis | Need an explanation of what a liver cirrhosis is, one that is NOT caused by alcohol. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/240ept/eli5_liver_cirrhosis/ | {
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"Cirrhosis is pretty simple, the liver cells get damaged and are replaced by scar tissue. The scar tissue doesn't function as normal liver cells do, and so the liver function degrades. The damage to liver cells can be caused by alcohol, viruses, or a whole other range of issues. It's irreversible, but if the source of the damage can be identified, it can often be controlled."
]
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3j3xgw | why are over easy eggs safe to eat if the yolk is still uncooked? wouldn't bacteria still live in it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3j3xgw/eli5_why_are_over_easy_eggs_safe_to_eat_if_the/ | {
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"While some people are mentioning the egg white getting cooked and the like, it should be mentioned that some people simply risk it. The likelihood you get salmonella from an egg properly stored and handled is not high even if you eat the whole thing raw, and if you are a healthy adult the effects of salmonella will most likely not be life threatening.\n\nMany Americans eat raw foods including things like eggs, meat, fish, etc. They all carry a risk of bacterial infection from handling, storage, processing, etc. Yet it's not something guaranteed to make you sick. Many people are more than willing to take a slight risk in order to eat something they enjoy. \n\nIf you want to be super safe, yeah, don't eat anything uncooked. Yet eating something raw is not guarantee you will get sick especially if you are careful not to let it sit out at room temperature for long periods of time. You can also mitigate some of the issues by getting things like pasteurized eggs.\n\nBTW...it should be noted the CDC recommends cooking eggs until the whites and yolks are firm, and if you want to use raw eggs use pasteurized eggs. So technically the CDC has not declared raw yolks safe. People simply choose to eat them that way despite the CDC recommendations. ",
"There are warnings on most menus that talk about eggs served undereasy and medium rare steaks , there is still risk. ",
"This makes me wonder about homemade eggnog, which is traditionally made from raw eggs. Would washing the shells reduce the risk? Would buying farm fresh untreated eggs work. I've always wondered.",
"The general answer that you've been given that the egg isn't \"safe\" by FDA standards is correct. I'd like to explain why though. \n\nThe FDA recommends cooking eggs to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This ensures it is safe to eat, even if it has not been handled properly or stored under the correct conditions. The **vast** majority of eggs would be safe to eat raw but cooking them to 160 degrees ensures that they are.\n\nBut if you ask most chefs, this just isn't something they are willing to do because it is severely limiting in terms of usage of the egg. Eggs are remarkably versatile but you lose so much of that versatility if you have to heat them to the \"safe\" temperature. You get a hard boiled or over-hard egg every time. \n\nThe versatility of the egg is a result of the several kinds of proteins in the whites and in the yolk. Each of the proteins solidifies at a different temperature. This is what allows you to get a solid white and a liquid yolk, for instance (the white solidfies at a lower temp). At 143 degrees the white is basically solid and the yolk is runny. [This chart shows you what eggs look like as each of the protein phase changes are hit.](_URL_0_)\n\nIf you are eating runny yolks, you are, by the standards of food safety experts, eating an \"unsafe\" egg. But unsafe in that terminology simply means that it hasn't been cooked to the \"safe\" temp and *may* cause illness. Many, many people are willing to take that chance. ",
"I didn't see anyone mention that an egg is a womb and they are inherently resistant to bacteria passing the membrane under the shell. A naturally laid egg will be close to sterile inside (unless there is a chick in there). Industrial egg farms are pretty gross, so they do have instances where the chicken's actual ovaries are infected or dietary problems produce poor quality shells/membranes, but this is rare and the human body can easily defeat the disease content of a crappy factory egg.\n\nYou run into problems when the egg has a punctured membrane and is just riddled with germs. An egg like this would likely go rancid pretty quickly. You also have issues if the shell has a lot disease microbes on it and it contaminates the egg when cracked. You can rinse your eggs before cracking them if you plan on consuming them raw or lightly cooked.\n\nIt's basically no different from a fruit. I don't see anyone cooking every banana they ever eat, but you do see unwashed melons making people sick.",
"The main risk is salmonella, which can get into the egg through the hen's intestinal tract, ovaries, etc. Most eggs, however, are sterilized before shipping. If they aren't they are labeled as so, but even eggs that haven't been sterilized are pretty rarely contaminated. For instance, you're more likely to get sick from the flour in raw cookie dough than the raw eggs. ",
"The typical bacteria to worry about with raw eggs is salmonella. It typically lives on the shell, infecting the egg whites once the shell is cracked open. The yolk is typically protected from infection by the egg whites. So by cooking the whites and thus killing any possible bacteria in them, the egg should still be safe to eat, even if the yolk is still runny.",
"Also: Bacteria will die (if you cook long enough) at a lower temperature than yolk solidifies: So when the yolk is solid, that is a pretty good hint that any bacteria are dead. But if you cook an egg at something like 60°C / 140°F (if I remember correctly) for long enough, most of the bacteria will die, while even the egg white stays liquid. This is also called pasteurization.",
"Over easy eggs are not safe if you're truly 5 years old, unless you're in the UK and perhaps other EU countries. (More like 0-2 years is the truly dangerous age, but 5 is still young.) \n\nIt's not true that salmonella is only on the outside of the egg. It's internal as well because ~~many~~ chickens in the US can carry salmonella as vaccination isn't as prevalent in the US as in the UK. And the practice of pooling eggs in restaurants—cracking dozens into a bowl for use throughout the day—means one bad one can contaminate many. So the risk at many restaurants, while still low, is higher than at home.\n\nAlthough the risk is low or even very low, restaurants shouldn't serve eggs this style unless they're using pasteurized eggs. But just like they shouldn't server burgers medium rare, many restaurants take a large (imo) liability risk and do it. The federal guidelines that I've seen are pretty clear--restaurants have to have a written warning on the menu and the waitstaff must verbally warn you to eliminate their liability. (No matter local ordinances absolving liability, as a business owner you don't want even a perception of vulnerability to lawsuit; simply having to fight any suit can ruin a small business.) If you're fixing them for yourself at home and you're not old, young or sickly you'll likely be alright. \n\n~~[This study](_URL_1_) found 24% of chickens having a strain in their overaries, with 1 in 214 eggs affected. Do note, though, that this is a 2010 study and more US chickens are now vaccinated. But even if the prevalence is much lower than that,~~ Edit: thanks to /u/enzlow for catching that this study was done on a population of chickens in Uruguay, and is therefore not very useful here.\n\nEdit: Here's a nice NPR article on safety and the history of egg handling in various countries: _URL_0_",
"This thread made we Google what the hell an over easy egg is.\n\nTurns out it's a regular fried egg in the UK."
]
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[],
[],
[],
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"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2897505/"
],
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3lp9px | do astronauts on the iss just not fap? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lp9px/eli5_do_astronauts_on_the_iss_just_not_fap/ | {
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"Why would you think that? They're up their for awhile, if they're not having sex with eachother, masturbation seems like an obvious thing that would happen",
"_URL_0_ \n \n#SPACETURBATION CONFIRMED"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/r62jp/iama_nasa_astronaut_that_recently_returned_to/c437nfi"
]
] |
||
33bf57 | why do they need multiple medications for the same disorders? | Like, what makes certain medications not work even if they're for the exact same thing.?
Like Adderall is for ADHD, when then do they need Concerta and Ritalin, among others? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33bf57/eli5_why_do_they_need_multiple_medications_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqjba3u"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Brain chemistry is not as simple as a bacterial infection, where a few pills can fight several different types of infections. \n\nA mood stabilizer that works for one person, may not work for another, so a different type of drug will need to be tried. There are drug classes with pros and cons, such as timing of release or concentration of certain key elements in the drugs. Also, the body builds up immunities to these drugs over time. After ten years or so, the dosage of lithium required for some mentally ill patients because too much for other parts of their body to handle, like their kidneys, pancreas, heart, and kidneys. So it is important to have another drug that a patient could shift to, in order to mollify effects the drugs would have on other body parts. "
]
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[]
] |
|
22obd8 | how come all of our electricity is produced by turbines? | Even nuclear plants just heat water to make steam turn a turbine. Why do we make electricity like this? Couldn't there be a better way? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22obd8/eli5_how_come_all_of_our_electricity_is_produced/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgos321",
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"text": [
"its a very efficient way of turning heat into mechanical energy, to drive the generator",
"You're going to need to explain your self. What makes a turbine bad? In what way could another process be better? The only method of producing power not using a turbine is from solar panels and it take vast amounts of space and a huge number of panels to generate enough power to be piratical for mass production."
]
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[],
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] |
|
3s1kj3 | why as are professional sports teams such as the nfl and nba owned by private individuals and not by the city they represent? | Why are professional teams such as the NFL and NBA non profit organizations and why are they not owned by the city? Why are the profits of the teams not going to the cities they represent yet the cities have to build and pay for the stadiums, complexes, etc.. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s1kj3/eli5_why_as_are_professional_sports_teams_such_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwt7h83",
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"text": [
"They don't represent a city. Sports teams start out as private entities, many of which incorporated and tried to make a profit. There's no requirement that they have any financial ties to a city.\n\nHowever, cities try to entice a team to come there because they hope the team being there will have economic benefits. So they offer to pay for a stadium with a municipal bond, for example--this means the team gets to loan the money cheaply. It's not usual for cities to just hand teams lots of money, though they do often get special tax breaks. So the cities *voluntarily* pay money, hoping that they'll make it back in the end.\n\nIf a city wanted to actually purchase a team, it could do that, I suppose. But most city budgets don't have enough room for that, they'd rather pay for some incentives to \"host\" the team, and reap the profits indirectly.",
"_URL_0_\n\nIIRC, the Packer's staff are some of the highest paid government employees.\n\nAs it says in the article, some leagues have policies against too many owners( for better control over who sells and who buys the shares)\n\nAlso, these teams cost a fortune to run. No way any mayor would want to explain handing out 30 more millions stretched over the next 3 years for players that can be injured at anytime and cripple the franchise. \n\nAlso the pension fund if some of these players would be ridiculous.\n"
]
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[],
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"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fan_Owned_Teams"
]
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|
7yi4xb | how are mice cloned? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7yi4xb/eli5_how_are_mice_cloned/ | {
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"There are two theoretical categories of cloned animals: cellular clone and genetic clone (not technical terms). A 'cellular' clone would be taking some cells from an animal and growing a new one from it. No one knows how to do that (stem cells seem like a good start), although we've been doing it with plants for centuries, even millenia. The way animals are actually cloned is by making a child animal with both the mother and father being the same creature. You take an egg cell from some member of the species (it could be from the cloned animal but it doesn't matter). You the take some cells from the animal you're cloning and remove the nucleus (this has the instructions for making the animal inside). The nucleus in the doner egg is also removed. The nucleus of the cloned animal's cell is then inserted into the egg and the egg is put back into the doner's womb (or an artificial one). If everything goes well the egg, now with a full genome inside it (by default eggs only have half of the instructions needed to make a creature, and the other half come from sperm. The nucleus from the cloned animals cells have a whole set of instructions) will start dividing into an embryo and before you know it you have a fully grown potentially healthy genetic clone of the original animal."
]
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[]
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||
20dfmc | why don't we "miss" text messages when our phones are off? | Does the sending phone keep on sending the message until it knows it got delivered or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20dfmc/eli5_why_dont_we_miss_text_messages_when_our/ | {
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"text": [
"Cell phones do not generally communicate directly with each other.\n\nIn the case of SMS, the sending phone sends the message to the network once, and normally the network will send it to the recipient immediately. If the network does not know where to find the recipient, it will store the message and send it when it does see the recipient, or discard the message after some time period.\n\nThe network knows when the message has been received successfully because the handset will acknowledge that it has received the message and then the network can flag the message as delivered and presumably delete it.",
"The phone sends the message to your telco. The telco then sends it to the other phone (through themselves or another telco). So...the telco simply doesn't delete it until they know the recipient has it. Similarly..your phone knows to try again if it's been unsuccessful in handing it off to your telco."
]
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[],
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|
bdt961 | why was it so hard to extinguish the notre dame fire? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bdt961/eli5_why_was_it_so_hard_to_extinguish_the_notre/ | {
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"text": [
"Due to older building techniques, the roof was full of tar, which when ablaze, science refers to as a \"big nope\"",
"From this article _URL_0_\n\n\n > Vincent Dunn, a fire consultant and former New York City fire chief, said that fire hose streams could not reach the top of such a cathedral, and that reaching the top on foot was often an arduous climb over winding steps.\n\n > “These cathedrals and houses of worship are built to burn,” he said. “If they weren’t houses of worship, they’d be condemned.”"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/world/europe/notre-dame-fire.amp.html"
]
] |
||
1a3hcn | the difference between an illness and a disease. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1a3hcn/eli5_the_difference_between_an_illness_and_a/ | {
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"An illness is when you feel bad. You have pain, soreness, dizziness, you might feel tired, etc. You are not sure why you fell bad, you just do. Basically, illnesses are feelings, a list of complaints.\n\nA disease is when there is something actually wrong with you physically or mentally, whether you feel it or not. Things like cancer, diabetes, and depression are diseases.\n\nIn many cases, illness is caused by the disease. For example, diabetes (disease) can make you feel weak and disorientated (illnesses). Sometimes, a disease might not cause any illnesses. A person with cancer may not feel a thing for a long time. Also, sometimes illnesses occur without a disease. You might have a headache, but there nothing serious that is causing it, just stress.\n\n"
]
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||
5myazk | how does induced hypothermia extend the window of treatment for stroke and cardiac arrest? | Could I help a stroke victim immediately by liberally applying ice to the cranium until help arrives? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5myazk/eli5how_does_induced_hypothermia_extend_the/ | {
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"All of the processes that a cell does require energy and that energy comes from oxygen. After you've had a cardiac arrest blood is no longer flowing around your body. And blood is what carries oxygen. So no oxygen means no energy.\n\nCells at lower temperatures use energy more slowly. So by cooling down the body, you increase the amount of time cells can survive before they need more oxygen delivered to them. \n\nI don't think putting ice on someone would necessarily be harmful, but in general the initial cooling is done by injecting somebody with cool saline. After the body temperature has been brought down by cooling the blood directly, then other methods like ice packs or cooling blankets can be used to keep the temperature low. I'm not aware of any studies that have been done regarding immediate application of ice post-stroke, so I can't be sure if it would have any effect, but if I had to guess I'd say it wouldn't help. ",
"I can't comment on the exact science of it, however the 2015 AHA guidelines have increased the target hypothermic range from 32 - 34 degree Celsius (89.6 to 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit) to 32 - 36 degrees Celsius (89.6 to 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit) the reasoning is further explained here _URL_0_\nBasically it is still being studied and is not fully understood. My understanding is the theory that the oxygen demand of cells at lower temperatures is less than those at higher temperatures due to the fact reactions occur at a slower rate in a cold environment allowing more time for surgical intervention without lasting defects. This is the assumed reasoning, the science at this point does not support the claim however and as such it is still being studied. There is actually talks of getting rid of induced hypothermia post cardiac arrest. It has already been taken out of our EMS protocol due to it being ineffective in the prehospital environment."
]
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[],
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"https://eccguidelines.heart.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-AHA-Guidelines-Highlights-English.pdf"
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4zp9m0 | if i'm travelling at, say, 70% of light speed (0.7c) in one direction, and you're travelling at the same speed in the opposite direction, would the relative speed between us be 1.4c? how does this work relativistically? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zp9m0/eli5_if_im_travelling_at_say_70_of_light_speed/ | {
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"text": [
"A neutral observer would see one person traveling 0.7c in one direction and another person traveling 0.7c in the other direction, so in that reference frame the relative velocity between them would appear to be greater than c. This is fine, though, because the observer doesn't actually see either of them as moving faster than c and so no FTL travel is observed. In the reference frame of each traveler, we have to take into account that velocities don't add linearly; instead, each sees the other approaching at\n\n(0.7c + 0.7c)/(1 + 0.7\\*0.7) = 0.94c\n\nSo again there is no FTL motion observed in those reference frames. Velocity never adds linearly, but it seems like it does because in ordinary circumstances the scaling factor is too slight to be noticeable. If both travelers were only moving at 300,000 meters per second (0.001c), they would see each other moving at\n\n(0.001c + 0.001c)/(1 + 0.001\\*0.001) = (0.002c)/(1.002)\n\nwhich is only a tiny amount below 600,000 m/s."
]
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||
dl1rw3 | how do people measure statistics of things like what state has the most human trafficking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dl1rw3/eli5_how_do_people_measure_statistics_of_things/ | {
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"text": [
"Very hard. In general, data on this and similar issues comes from multiple sources, some of which include official crime statistics countries report to various international organizations such as Europol, Interpol, UNOCD etc. Depending on the editor/user of data, some will be evaluated and supplemented by other sources - for example drug exports from and drug imports into etc/arrest statistics/cross border data for immigration offenses and others.",
"Statistics like the ones you named are almost always “estimated” and not precisely measured. This is the study of statistical sampling.\n\nThe more “hidden” your number may be (as is often the case in crime), the more advanced your sampling methods become - it’s no longer enough to take a mean or median of a convenient sample.\n\nMy favorite examples from my undergrad statistics courses involved using number of visits and unique identities of rehab patient check-ins to estimate the true frequency of drug abusers in a population using capture-recapture principles (given that most never check in, but some check in more than once). This same sampling method is used in ecology to estimate species population sizes."
]
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24i9kl | how can i run a speed test and get 70+mbps down, but can't even stream 360p videos on youtube without constantly buffering? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24i9kl/eli5_how_can_i_run_a_speed_test_and_get_70mbps/ | {
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"So essentially there can be different reasons (or a combination of them) for this:\n\n-A stream of video is a large block of data and possibly you can have multiple streams coming in at once for a long time, while when performing a speed test you only download a small portion of a data for a short time, due to various network properties ( less packet drop, less link clogging essentially, etc.) you see higher speeds in the latter.\n\n-When performing speed test using websites such as _URL_1_, you have access to many servers around the world which allows the website to choose the closest ( geographically and in terms of network path ) server you, in case of Youtube in spite of Google owning massive pool of server, this may not happen\n\n-Some of the Internet Providers purposely limit the bandwidth to websites such as Youtube to lower their traffic, and push companies such as Google and Netflix to pay them royalty. There are ways to somewhat overcome this , Youtube by default uses a method of streaming called DASH, by disabling that you can buffer videos faster ( _URL_0_)",
"Some ISP's actually give preferential treatment to activities to/from speed test websites to give the result that their service is running at the maximum bandwidth possible (given what you pay for).\n\nSource: conspiracy",
"There are some great answers here, but I'd like add one more that no one mentioned: just because you have a lot of bandwidth doesn't mean the Internet resource you're downloading from can deliver content to you at that speed.\n\nThis isn't true of large sites like YouTube or Facebook because they have massive server farms covering many acres of land. But smaller sites may appear to run slow because they only have a few servers hosting their content.\n\nI dunno how large Imgur is, but rather than crawling during high-volume traffic, they'll post a splash screen saying they're over capacity. This gets people off the site for a few seconds so their servers can catch up and continue hosting content at acceptable speeds.",
"Interconnect Peering.\n\nThe internet is actually a load of different networks all connected to each other.\n\nYour ISP has it's own network, google has their own, and so on. These networks are connected to each other through each other.\n\nEach network has peering point where it connects to a few others, who themselves connect to a few others. At each peering, the parties decide on the bandwitdh of the exchange (usually in the 1Gbps to 10Gbps range).\n\nFor google, they need huge peers to get youtube through, but are in the middle of a world wide debate on who should pay for bandwidth and then it gets complicated.\n\nEssentially, you're getting 70Mbps to your ISPs infrastructure, but not to googles network.",
"Others provided great answers but two factors are important :\n* All traffic is throttled.\n* ISPs make sure that connection to speedtest website is optimized. This is what sells to subscribers.",
"I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet : youtube likes to do some very silly buffering tricks to only buffer as much as they think you need to (It uses a specific protocol to do this I don't recall the name of)\n\nTry enabling the html5 player: _URL_0_ (works better in chrome than Firefox of course.. but does work in firefox) - if that helps, you're probably seeing the issues related to their buffering code that tries to detect how much pre-buffering you actually need. While that might identify an issue, it's not exactly a solution, since there could be any number of things causing that. The standard 'update flash, clear cookies, etc' might apply, but it could even be as complex as your home router applying QOS to youtube for some reason.",
"I have 6-8Mbps in France and I can use Youtube in 1080p with no buffering (exept sometimes during rush hours, or for videos with very low view count that are probably not stored in Europe).\n\nYour ISP is limiting the speed."
]
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"Speedtest.net"
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"http://www.youtube.com/html5"
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||
1ra4z5 | why is coffee described as a drug? | Yesterday in class a student called my teacher a drug addict, because she was drinking coffee every morning. She declined saying its not a drug, and that its just small amounts of caffeine that classifies it to become one.
I did some research on my own, looking up on wikipedia and such. I did find info that convinced me that it can actually be classified as a drug, but i still have a problom grasping it. Could somebody who knows explain this to me simply, and understandably, because i think there is a lot of stuff i might have missed. Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ra4z5/eli5_why_is_coffee_described_as_a_drug/ | {
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"It's a drug because it causes an effect in the body. The active ingredient in coffee is caffeine which has a stimulant effect on the central nervous system. \n\nCoffee is the most widely consumed drug on the planet. ",
"The first line of the wikipedia page is a good start \n > A drug is a substance which may have medicinal, intoxicating, performance enhancing or other effects when taken or put into a human body or the body of another animal and is not considered a food or exclusively a food.\n\nThe term drug is used extremely broadly in most contexts, and since coffee it used for its stimulant properties, it becomes a drug in most classical senses. Our culture has somewhat confused the definition of the word drug with that of recreational drugs, consumed for purpose of intoxication. "
]
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[],
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eo6vux | how do peolpe go missing when ending up in a sinkhole? | There have been many stories in the past of sinkholes opening up around the world, and in some occasions they include a count of missing person(s). How do these people typically go missing? It seems like the sinkholes that open up would not be that deep, and the person would be on top of any rubble rather than underneath like in an earthquake or landslide. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eo6vux/eli5_how_do_peolpe_go_missing_when_ending_up_in_a/ | {
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"Some sinkholes are hundreds of feet deep and were formed when an underground cave collapsed or by the action of water underground carrying away supporting soil\nIt’s flowing water that removes the bodies so people are not found",
"Just to give you an idea of how deep sinkholes can be, during the 20th century a large American bank (can’t remember if it was Goldmann Sachs or another) was hit by a large earthquake, and the seismic activity made a sinkhole open under the bank. The large building on the surface was fine, but their massive underground *gold bank vault* had been completely swallowed by the sink hole, to the point it was not recoverable",
"[This video](_URL_0_) should be explanation enough. Sinkholes can be huge! As they expand, more rubble can fall down burying anyone in there.",
"First of, sinkholes can be very deep. Check this out: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nEarth must collapse in order to form a sinkhole; the soil is not vaporized. A person falling in will be falling along with all the collapsing soil. It's sort of like an avalanche. They will likely be covered by the soil that fell in with them. Let's say the sinkhole is 10 feet in diameter. pi\\*r\\^2 = 78.5 square feet (approximately). 78.5 square feet \\* 10 feet of depth = 785 cubic feet. Mud (sinkholes often occur because of water washing soil away) weighs about 108 pounds per cubic foot. 785 cubic feet \\* 108 pounds per cubic foot = 84,780 lbs of mud. This is not easy to remove to look for a body. Even if it's dry dirt, it would still be about 60000 pounds of soil."
]
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[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nszesv5A38"
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"https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/giant-sinkholes/"
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6c502b | why do sugar puffs make your urine smell so strongly of sugar puffs when other cereals/food do not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c502b/eli5_why_do_sugar_puffs_make_your_urine_smell_so/ | {
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"I've never heard of this being the case, but as an FYI if your urine is smelling sweet sugary that's a sign of diabetes. ",
"No one seems to know why but it's accepted as normal. It's not actually been tested but it is speculated that it could be because of the puffed wheat itself or due to the absurd amounts of sugar in the cereal.",
"What are these magnificent \"sugar puffs\" and where does one conjure them?",
"Asparagus is the fastest food known to man. Ate half a piece recently and urine smelled of it 10 minutes later!"
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70g0vf | why exactly do we need differential calculus? | I have just started learning calculus, and I get the gist of differentiation and integration and stuff, but why exactly do we need to use it ? I mean, for example, velocity/time is already acceleration, so why can't we just use that in place of dv/dt? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70g0vf/eli5why_exactly_do_we_need_differential_calculus/ | {
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"It is no exaggeration to say that anything university level that requires mathematics will need calculus. In fact it is probably the basics of what you need. Things only get more complicated from there.\n\nDifferentiation is basically calculating a rate of change. Turn that around and you get integration, which basically allows you to find out different things given a function, i.e. a graph. It is easy to calculate the area under a graph if it is a straight line. Once it becomes more complicated, like a curve, then it becomes more difficult. So you use integration.\n\nMany topics in advanced education begin to use mathematical models to define things. Even things you wouldn't expect. And often these mathematical models will involve the use of calculus. For example, in psychology you are often required to take statistics, which uses calculus. Even in a management class you can be given a formula which may model a market or effect of change in prices on demand. **These will use calculus to find an optimal solution to something.**\n\nHow would that work? well we know differentiation is finding the function that defines the rate of change. How would you find the optimal solution to a function; say the profitability of a product is defined by a curved function; it goes up, then starts slowing down (i.e. curving) before going down, due to the idea of diminishing returns. \n\nWhat would be the optimal solution? how do you find the \"peak\"? well that is simple. You find the precise point where the rate of change is 0; it is the precise point from when it increases to decreases. The peak of the curve. \n\nWhat happens if you differentiate that profit function? you are finding the marginal profit; how much more profit you get per unit of production.\n\nWhat happens if you integrate that function? you get the total amount of profit. You can even use it to define the amount of profit you get at different points of the curve.",
"If you want to measure how fast something is going, you need to either 1) measure how long it takes to travel a known distance, or 2) measure the distance it covers in a known time. So you can never really measure its speed at a 'point' in time. You can only measure its speed over the course of a period of time. (That period could be as brief as your equipment allows you to measure accurately, but never a point in time.) \n\nAnd if the speed isn't constant during that period, you're only really measuring its average speed over the period you're measuring. \n\nSo how will you work out how the speed is changing (ie accelerating)? \n\nThat's going to be even harder: you're going to need two measurements of speed (which each are an approximation) and compare them to approximate the acceleration.\n\nAnd if the acceleration is changing?\n\nYou can see how it gets messy. If you can model your scenario with a function, calculus will let you work out all of the velocity/acceleration/etc at any given instant.\n\n(The applications are much wider than this, but I'm using the example provided.)",
"To address your example, you can't actually say that acceleration is velocity/time. **average** acceleration is given by velocity/time. Actual acceleration can only be calculated by the formula dv/dt.\n\nNow, sometimes average acceleration may be good enough. But other times not so much. For example, a human launched into space and returning to the atmosphere will die if they are exposed to an acceleration somewhere between 50g - 80g for even a brief moment. It's no good checking the average acceleration of the whole takeoff, you need to know the instant by instant acceleration to make sure it stays below the limit. And the only way to calculate instant by instant acceleration is with the formula dv/dt.\n\nGoing beyond your example, there's tons of instances when someone might want to calculate the instant by instant change of a variable. And that's what differentiation does. It calculates the instant by instant change of value of a variable. ",
"Newton used differential calculus to calculate the gravitational forces of the solar system simply by observing the positions of the planets. Essentially it's a useful tool to study a dimension of a system which is hard to measure by measuring the change of something easy to measure. My guess is you'd be doing something similar"
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3f7lye | what does the term 'stoner' actually come from? | Always just wondered why this was a word used for pot smokers.
Explain the history of the word to me like I'm 5! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f7lye/eli5_what_does_the_term_stoner_actually_come_from/ | {
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" \"stoned\" used to describe someone under the influence. Stoned was first used in the 50s to describe someone drunk or high. In the late 70s, stoner came into being as a noun. Instead of saying he was stoned. one would call someone a stoner, implying that the person may or may not be stoned.",
"It's a play off the word stoned. The origin for using stoned as intoxicated goes back to the 30's. There's two possible origins for it - one is that it is similar to other slang words for being intoxicated, such as hammered, blitzed, trashed, and was being used in the sense of someone having rocks thrown at them, which is known as a stoning. The other origin is that it is from the terms \"stone blind\" \"stone deaf\" etc., because of the wasted way a person acts."
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549pel | why does it feel more mentally exhausting to read educational materials (e.g. lecture notes) as compared to comics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/549pel/eli5_why_does_it_feel_more_mentally_exhausting_to/ | {
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"Because it literally is more exhausting for your brain, linguistically speaking. It's an issue of amount of words and type of words: educational materials in school generally have a lot more words in them that comic books do, page by page; educational materials generally have more varied words than comic books, and are more likely to have more uncommon words that stand in for complicated/unfamiliar concepts. And that's not getting into things like uncommon word order, etc.\n\nAcademic/educational materials generally have more language information that requires more effort to process than most comics do, and so our brains have to do more work."
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6j5258 | why does breaking a nail hurt so badly but cutting your nails is essentially painless? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6j5258/eli5_why_does_breaking_a_nail_hurt_so_badly_but/ | {
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"Nails don't have nerves so they don't feel pain. When you break a nail the impact that broke it transfers to your nail bed which is very very sensitive under the nail. "
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8jnp5n | why do schools buy macs but install windows on them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jnp5n/eli5_why_do_schools_buy_macs_but_install_windows/ | {
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"I genuinely have never experienced this, but probably because windows is a more familiar platform for the general public, and all the school programs are probably windows formatted. Something along those lines, i’m explaining like you’re 10 and not 5, sorry.",
"I remember reading somewhere that the warranty and service plan was excellent on Macs for institutions. In regards to why windows, in my experience I came across a lot of tecs for school districts that only wanted to support one platform and as most users are entry level, windows makes sense. "
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2mpoww | does anyone know what a dietary antigen is? | I'm annotating a research paper for my AP Bio class, and one of the terms I don't understand is "dietary antigen." I've looked it up everywhere, yet I still don't know what it is... None of the definitions make sense to me, or actually explain it... Thanks in advance for helping me :') | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mpoww/eli5_does_anyone_know_what_a_dietary_antigen_is/ | {
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"Just take it at face value. It basically means an antigen that is in the food you eat.\n\nWhatever antigen causes a peanut allergy would be an example. Technically, it's just a molecule that causes an immune response (an antigen) but you classify it as dietary because of the method in which it interacts with your body.\n\nSame with \"environmental antigens\" or \"airborne antigens\", they are just antigens that come from the general environment or air.\n\nPeople tend to use he term \"allergens\" interchangeably with antigens. Allergens refers to the substance (pollen), while antigen refers to the specific molecule (whatever protein or carbohydrate is on the pollen surface). You've probably heard allergens more often, but antigens is more correct if you're talking about the specific molecule causing the immune response."
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31zjeo | what are those strings and things we see inside our eyes that move as we look around | [Like this](_URL_0_) , what is this? how do they form and why. Is there any way of getting rid of them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31zjeo/eli5_what_are_those_strings_and_things_we_see/ | {
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"I'd also be interested in finding out. \n\nI always thought that they were bits of dust that settled on my eyeballs ",
"See the inside of the eye as a sort of ball filled with clear jelly. Over time (mostly when you get older) this jelly will get \"contaminated\" with debris or air pockets. \n\nLight passes through this clear jelly onto the nerve ending at the back of your eyes, which creates vision. When the light passes through a piece of debris, this will cast a shadow or deform a part of your vision because it breaks the light from going to your nerve. Your brain sees this as a \"piece of cotton\" in your vision.\n\nThe reason why they are floating like they are is because they are in a liquid. Look at it as a glass of water with a fly or something floating in it. When you move the glass to one side (move your eyes), the fly will move to the same side, albeit very slowly. Thats why the specs drift out of your vision when you try to focus on them.\n\nThere are treatments, which involve lasering the eyes, but mostly the specs are just a minior nuicance, so no treatment is needed.",
"The 'strings' are actually eye floaters, which are essentially small strands of loose protein in the eye's vitreous humor (gel-like substance located in the back of the eye).\n\nIt is not unusual to see floaters, particularly as you get older, whereby the fibres tend to shrink more, increasing the number of floaters. The floaters may appear in a number of forms, such as lines or small black dots.\n\nWhen a floater develops, it is impossible to get rid of it, although your brain will eventually learn to ignore it. Floaters are generally harmless, however, if many suddenly appear, you should consult an opthalmologist as this could be a sign of an eye problem such as retinal detachment.\n\nTL;DR: floaters are shrunken fibres in the eye. Many people develop them as they get old, and they are usually harmless.\n\n",
"Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid.\nI see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision.\nBut when I try to look at you, you scurry away.\nAre you shy, squiggly line?\nWhy only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye?\nOh, squiggly line,\nit's alright, you are forgiven."
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2vowtg | why does rent continue to rise even when there is an abundance of empty space? | Specifically I'm speaking of commercial real estate. For example: A really good sandwich shop in town had to close because they couldn't afford the new rent. That was six months ago, and nothing new has moved into the space. There are plenty of empty spaces around it too. How is it in the best interest of the landlord to raise rent to the point that their renters have to leave? If there was a shortage of space, I'd understand. If there were plenty of renters looking for that space, I'd understand. But in this case it seems like the landlord is worse off than they were before, and the sandwich shop owner and all of his employees are worse off too.
In my own office building, half of the floors are unrented and have been for almost two years. The entire building next door is empty, and has been for about a year. My company has asked about expanding, but the rent quoted to us by the landlord is unreasonably high. Rather than accept our offer, the landlord would rather it be empty for another year.
Why aren't the laws of supply & demand equalizing things out? Is there some benefit that the landlord has to having un-rented space? Is it some kind of tax write-off? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vowtg/eli5why_does_rent_continue_to_rise_even_when/ | {
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" > How is it in the best interest of the landlord\n\nStop.\n\nThe landlord is an hourly or salaried employee of the property owner. Also, much of the commercial space in the world is owned by major companies who only deal in commercial properties.\n\nSo, knowing that, they can decide to keep rent high so that only the types of businesses they want will move in, thus raising property values, thus improving the value of other assets in the area. They could also want high vacancy rates as a leverage item to have local laws changed. They could also be allowing vacancies in order to adjust their income statements, and by extension their income tax. Or they could be taking advantage of the low debt prices and they simply bought up a building to use as collateral that gets them a loan, so they can buy a more expensive building somewhere else that's bringing in a whole lot more money, so much more, that they don't care about where you are and renting out the places cheaper would hurt their credit that they used for the property they care about.\n\n > Why aren't the laws of supply & demand equalizing things out?\n\nSame reason people don't fall towards each other's gravity. Much bigger forces at play."
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4d7092 | why do schools always assign dystopian novels as required reading for english classes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4d7092/eli5_why_do_schools_always_assign_dystopian/ | {
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"Why not? It's a fairly expansive genre, and books like *1984*, *Brave New World*, and *Atlas Shrugged* are some of the most widely referenced works in today's culture. Not only that, but they are fairly encompassing when it comes to human nature and society. There are fairly grand statements being made by most dystopian novels that cover a wide variety of theories related to the human condition. And let's not forget that some of those books are simply good reads."
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3b95rq | why do fast-food chains in america (particularly mcdonald's) taste different to fast-food chains in australia? | I went to America a couple of years ago and noticed that the fast-food at McDonald's tasted significantly different than the product that was being served here in Australia. I don't understand why the taste would be so different, is it a matter of how they feed the cows or something to do with quality standards? I'm pretty uneducated on this so any help would be appreciated. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b95rq/eli5_why_do_fastfood_chains_in_america/ | {
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"The joke answer is because in America you aren't concerned that your McD's is a lure attached to some kind of massive meat-eating kangaroo.\n\nThe serious answer is that they adapt their food to each location. Sometimes that's small things, like changing the spices used, or maybe the portion sizes, and sometimes it's completely changing their food. There's a classic example of how KFC in Japan had to drastically alter the size of their meals because Americans eat a lot more at their meals than the Japanese do. I'm pretty sure McD's in Norway has pizza with reindeer on it."
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6h2xh2 | why does losing water pressure make your water susceptible to bacteria/viruses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6h2xh2/eli5_why_does_losing_water_pressure_make_your/ | {
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"It's the threat of water going backwards, especially from dirty things to the drinking water. The big one is water mains, they are generally underground, and frequently submerged in mud and water. Thus they are always in nasty water, full of stuff that's no good for you. And always at a slight pressure. If these pipes leak there is a chance that the nasty water will get into the pipe which could make you sick. Fortunately, if you can make the pipe always pressurized, then you can guarantee that any leak will have clean water flowing out, and thus can't possibly have nasty water flowing in.\n\nLoss of water pressure means that all leaks in the water lines may have made nasty water come in, so it's probably not safe to drink.",
"Positive pressure means, if there's a leak in the system, water will flow *out* through the leak so all the water in the pipe is still clean. Negative pressure, however, means that, if there's a leak, things from outside the pipe flow *in*, potentially contaminating your water source. Works with air too; sterile environments (operating rooms, clean rooms, etc) are deliberately positively pressurized to prevent anything outside from getting in. "
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68o0p0 | how does off-brand products not get horribly sued? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68o0p0/eli5_how_does_offbrand_products_not_get_horribly/ | {
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"You can't copyright a recipe for food and usually can't patent a food product. The specific form in which a recipe is presented can be copyrighted (the words and formatting), but as long as someone changes up the words they can use the same ingredients, measurements, and steps. Similarly, you can protect branding and food packaging, but not a food product. If someone figures out how to make a Twinkie and sells it with different packaging and branding, they're allowed to.\n\nMalt-O-Meal and others can get away with off-brand cereal because their packaging and branding is different. For example, they don't use Lucky the Leprechaun with their Marshmallow Mateys cereal (similar to Lucky Charms); they use a kangaroo instead. Also, I don't even think the recipe is exactly the same because their cereals definitely taste a little different.\n\nIn some cases you can patent food products, but they have to be non-obvious and novel. Most food products are obvious variations on old recipes (like with cereal). Egg yolk substitutes are an example of a patented food product.\n\nThe big difference with movies is that you can copyright a script and characters but you can't normally patent a food. As a result, you can't recreate and sell a movie even if you have the ability to. You can still change a few things to avoid confusion with the original film and probably be okay, though. Or make a parody. The main thing is you can't cause confusion between your film and the original (i.e., you can't make it so that filmgoers would think your film is the original when at the box office buying tickets or that the original film approved or endorsed your film).",
"There is not a patent on sugary ring-shaped cereal with assorted colors. If this was the case, you'd have only one brand of hot dog, milk, spaghetti, etc etc etc - it'd make for an extremely bland and monopoly-heavy world.",
"There are three basic protections to keep in mind:\n\nCopyright = media, like books, movies, and such. Things that can be literally copied.\n\nTrademarks = logos, characters, brand recognition\n\nPatent = inventions, processes for doing things/making things.\n\n\nYou can't copyright or trademark food. You can patent a food, but only if it's pretty unique. Cereal isn't - most of it is all variations on a similar thing.\n\nSo there's nothing wrong with Fruit Spins looking or tasting like Froot Loops.\n\nBrands and packaging can be protected. The font and logo of Froot Loops, for example, are probably trademarked. The bird-guy they use, too. So as long as Fruit Spins doesn't copy the font, logo, or bird-guy on their branding or boxes, they're not violating a trademark.\n\nThe Avengers, on the other hand, is likely copyrighted (for the actual content of the movies/comics) and trademarked (for the characters). \n\nSo if your Dahvengers movie had the same plot as an Avengers movie, just with different names or small details changed, you'd be violating copyright. If the characters were the same, or slightly changed (The Incredible Bulk, Titanium Dude, etc), you'd be violating trademark.\n\n",
"As others have mentioned, you can't patent recipes, etc. But in many cases, some generic and store brand products are literally the same product. The same factory produces both, just with different labels.\n\nSometimes even two brand name products are the same. There are canneries in Samoa, for instance, that package tuna for both Sunkist and Chicken of the Sea. It's like alternate days different labels.\n\nedit: of course I meant starkist\n\n",
"Supermarket off-brands are frequently produced by the brand name companies. It's a win-win for the food company: either you buy their product at a markup or you buy their product for a little bit less. ",
"What no one has mentioned yet is that many off-brands are just reject name-brand. They get made in the same factory with the same machines, but the name-brand will have a higher standard of quality so all the rejects become the off-brands.",
"The legal standard is whether the so-called \"knock-off\" brand is likely to cause confusion to the consumer or to cause them to mistake the knock-off brand to be sourced from the original. The law is more directed toward protecting the consumer and seems to permit copying a competitor's product.\n\n\"[T]he plaintiff has the right not to lose his customers through false representations that those are his wares which in fact are not, but he may not monopolize any design or pattern, however trifling. The defendant, on the other hand, may copy plaintiff's goods slavishly down to the minutest detail: but he may not represent himself as the plaintiff in their sale\n\n-Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., 489 US 141\n\nKellogg was permitted to use the term \"Shredded Wheat\" even though it was used by the National Biscuit Company\n-Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., 305 US 111 (1938)",
"When I got my training for the grocery store I worked for, they told me that the store brand stuff was made by the name brand factories (the example they used was Kraft Mac n cheese. Kraft made the store brand)",
"I used to be an analyst at a manufacturing company - can't say this applies to all, but we used to produce \"off brand\" items, like store brand. It's literally the same thing except different packaging. No worse quality or anything like that... couldn't do that if we wanted to haha. \n\nIt's basically the store wanting to go a certain direction and us filling their needs, because they would go somewhere else if not",
"Another aspect to keep in mind is that launching a suit can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Some violators are able to just dodge getting a subpoena deliver and delay using other tactics, or hope that the original company or property never bothers. Also, if you launch the offending product as an LLC or other corporation, the company filing suit can't go after the offending product's personal assets. They offending product company may have little to no assets or be willing to take the risk.",
"Did you ever eat off-brand Ritz crackers or Cheezits? Nobody is getting sued off that flavor. ",
"pretty cool how a free market works. i mean, if you are interested in how people can actually use the system to make money.\n\nFood is more about marketing and branding than anything else.\n\nCosts associated with manufacturing can give you a competitive advantage in the market. In some instances, you can trap some of the market available by having a less expensive product, with less branding.\n\nIn this case, its probably just the same parent company selling inferior (that doesnt mean \"bad\") product at lower prices using a different brand.\n\nThis allows them to sell the inferior material and not have a lose of product, and allows the consumer to choose between the better brand or the less expensive product. \n\nThats called a Win-Win.\n\nModern day versions of this actually include the \"Organic\" branding, which allows the \"Organic\" materials to be sold at higher prices to College students, and people who took to many Liberal Arts Classes. They usually shop with Man-Buns, scrolling on the iPhone and drinking star bucks while complaining about the woes of Capitalism.\n\nIts a crazy world out there.",
"Some are literally the same product, made in the same factory, sold under a different name. \n\nThis can be for quality control reasons: i.e. if you produce pies maybe some of the pies come out misshapen or underfilled - to preserve your brand quality but recoup costs you can sell these pies under a generic brand label.\n\n",
"Are you going to make that movie? I'd totally watch something like that."
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18ef69 | why does light not travel at its maximum speed when it goes through a medium like air? | is it because it interacts on the way - what happens to the light - are they photons? where is the friction? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18ef69/why_does_light_not_travel_at_its_maximum_speed/ | {
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"One common explanation is a peloton of soldiers marching. Suddenly, they encounter a patch of muddy territory. That slows them down.\n\nNow, that is clearly due to friction.\n\nElectromagnetic (EM) radiation, of which visible light is a sub species, is a bit more complicated than a peloton of soldiers marching.\n\nYou are right in noting that light can be both considered to be a particle (photon) and a wave (EM radiation).\n\nFor refraction (as it is known), it is the radiation view that is most important. The general idea is that a wave propagates (carries forth) from any point on the wave front by sending energy from that point on in every direction at the same time with the same strength.\n\nAnalogy: pack a concert with people. Instruct them to start shouting at the top of their lungs whenever they hear someone else shouting. Throw a rock at someones head, somewhere in the crowd. She'll probably go \"ouch\" and the call will be picked up by the people around her. Like throwing a stone into a pond and watching concentric ripples.\n\nNow, the thing about EM radiation is that it is different from people screaming.\n\nEM radiation has an effect where when two adjacent points emit radiation, the effect is strengthened at some distinct other points, and weakened at some distinct other points. This phenomenon is known as *extinction*.\n\nThe overall effect is that the wave front travels in a straight line from the original point of impact, just like a pebble in a pond.\n\nBut ... and this is the payload: the way (and speed) that one point in space is able to excite an adjacent point depends on a property of that space, called the *dielectric constant*.\n\nIt turns out that the value of this property is influenced by the presence of matter. Molecules, organized in a crystal roster, or free ranging in a fluid, change the dielectric constant, thereby influencing the speed at which the electromagnetic excitement can proceed from point to point.",
"Light is really complicated. Although we've got a pretty good handle on it, we still don't completely understand it even now.\n\nHere's what you need to know: Light is a *phenomenon* that *propagates* through the *electric field.*\n\nRelax, I'm gonna explain all that.\n\nA field is a thing which fills all of space. The electric field is one particular type of field. Everything that has electric charge interacts with and through the electric field.\n\nLight *can be thought of* — this is just a metaphor, and not a very useful one — as a sort of \"ripple\" in the electric field. The way dropping a stone in a pond causes ripples on the surface to propagate outward, light propagates through the electric field. Which is why it can propagate through empty space; because the electric field fills all of space, and it's that field through which light propagates.\n\nOkay, so we've established that light is a phenomenon of the electric field and that it can propagate through empty space, but how does it interact with matter? Why is light something we can *see?*\n\nThe answer goes back to the nature of the electric field. Like we said before, *everything that has electric charge interacts with and through the electric field.* Matter has electric charge. (Not all of it; there are types of matter that don't have electric charge. But because only matter with electric charge participates in *chemistry,* all the stuff that people tend to be interested in is made of electrically charged matter.)\n\nSo here's basically how it works — again, speaking purely in metaphor. Light is kind of like a \"ripple\" in the electric field. It propagates through space along the electric field … until it gets to some electrically charged particle. When light interacts with a charged particle, some energy moves from the electric field into the particle. Depending on the details of the specific circumstance, this can have a number of different effects. The energy that the particle gains from the electric field can manifest itself as kinetic energy, causing the charged particle to oscillate. This is *heat,* and it's why sunbeams are warm. Or the energy the particle gains from the electric field can cause the particle to move in a particular way; this is how photovoltaic cells — solar cells, on other words — generate electricity.\n\nOr something else can happen: The particle can gain energy from the field, hang on to that energy for a little while, then *emit that energy back into the electric field again.* Kind of like playing catch: Somebody throws you the ball, you catch it and hang on to it for a moment, then you throw it back.\n\nThis is how the *transmission of light through a medium* works. Light propagates along the electric field until it encounters a charged particle, then it gives up its energy to that particle. That particle just sits there, having excess energy … then the particle spontaneously releases that excess energy back into the electric field again, and the light continues on its way.\n\nThat's how windows work. Light interacts with the particles in the glass, giving them excess energy; they hang on to that energy briefly, then give it back to the field again. This process repeats until the light has made it all the way through the glass.\n\nIt's also how *mirrors* work, incidentally. The only difference is that transparent materials absorb the light then re-emit it in close to the same direction it was originally propagating, while reflective materials re-emit it in a different direction.\n\nSo that's where the idea that \"light slows down\" comes from. Light *never* slows down; it always propagates through the electric field at a constant rate, equal to one light-second per second. But when it interacts with charged particles, those particles absorb the light, then *wait,* then re-emit the light. So if you look at that happening from a distance, you see light over here, then you see it over there, but it takes longer to get from here to there than it would if nothing were in the way. So it *looks like* the light \"slows down,\" but in fact it's just been delayed a bunch of times along the way.\n\nNo. Here's the tricky part: Everything I just told you, all that stuff about particles absorbing and re-emitting light, is actually *wrong.* So why did I tell it to you? Because it's *close enough* to the truth of how light really works to get the basic idea across, and it's far simpler than what's actually true. What's *actually true* is that charged particles don't absorb and re-emit light, but rather the fact that charged particles couple to the electric field changes the probability distribution of light quanta along a radiant column. Even that's just an approximation of the truth; the real truth of it can only be expressed with math. But the point here is that the answer I gave you above is *correct* without being strictly *truthful.*\n\nThat's really how most of physics works. It was once believed that the universe behaved very simply, that at the smallest scales everything followed clear, concise, easily comprehended rules. That isn't how it really is, though. At the smallest scales, the universe turns out to be *really weird.* It's still comprehensible; it's just we need to learn new ways of thinking about things in order to comprehend it. Like not thinking of light as little balls that bounce off atoms, but rather thinking in terms of the probability of finding the electric field in a particular state at a particular place and time."
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2lzu46 | how do american phone contracts work? | When I'm reading an article about phones, I come across something like "If you’re willing to sign a contract, the prices are the same ($199) on AT & T and Verizon Wireless"
So if the phones are priced differently without a contract and the down payment is the same, shouldn't the price of the contract be different?
If they are different then what is the point of referring to the contract down payment price?
I'm from the UK so this is a foreign concept to me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lzu46/eli5how_do_american_phone_contracts_work/ | {
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"I used to pay $200 for an iPhone with AT & T, then I would be stuck with AT & T for 2 years. If I wanted a new phone, or wanted to cancel my plan and go with someone else, I'd have to pay an early termination fee. Usually it was like $450, and it got lower the longer I waited. \n\nThey did this because they wanted to rope you in with a cheap phone, then make the money back from you on your monthly bill. You'd think that once the two years was up, if you kept the phone, they would charge you less on your contract, but they never did, and it was infuriating. \n\nNow most of the mobile companies have wised up. My wife's phone is more than 2 years old, so we save $25 a month on her bill. She can buy a new phone for $650 and own it free & clear, or she can get one for $200, and pay $25 more each month. $25x48=$400.",
"I worked for Sprint (one of the major US carriers) for period of time. You're asking several questions here, but I'll do my best to keep this simple.\n\nSprint, AT & T and Verizon work on what is called a 'post-pay' system. You do not actually pay for the service they provide until the end of the month. In other words, you use the service and then they bill you. Because of this, a credit check will be run when you are a new customer entering into a contract. \n\nIf you walk into a retail store looking for service and if you have decent credit, you will not make any down payment nor will you pay anything for the service on that day. You will, however, have to pay for a (subsidized) handset. \n\nIn my time working at Sprint, it was not possible for a new customer to walk in off the street -- even if they already own a compatible phone -- and NOT sign a contract. \n\nIn other words, every new customer must initially agree to at least a 1-year, but more often a 2-year contract. If you break the contract, you will pay an early termination fee. When I worked for Sprint, it was a hard-and-fast $200, even if you were 23 months into your 24 month contract. I believe now most providers pro-rate the termination fee.\n\nOnce your contract expires, your services and your bill remain the same. You are simply free to leave at any point and either A- choose another provider B- stay with your current provider AND current phone with no contract or C- sign a new contract with your current provider and take a subsidy for a newer model phone.\n\nTo answer your question, yes. Once you have completed your contract, you can simply buy a phone outright, take no subsidy and stay out of a contract. You may also buy a phone used or from some outside source and activate it with your current, no contract plan.\n\nIt gets confusing. I did my best. \n\nEDIT: I would like to add that there are also many pre-paid options out there, too. But they won't be with a major provider. The benefits to using a major provider are better coverage, better plans, better service and, of course, phone subsides. But you need good credit to use a major carrier, otherwise you will be making a substantial down payment that you won't see returned for a year.\n"
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8v1vfu | – why is sex such a big deal in marriage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8v1vfu/eli5_why_is_sex_such_a_big_deal_in_marriage/ | {
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"With some exceptions sex is a healthy and integral part of any relationship. It’s kinda the whole point of seeking a mate, biologically speaking. ",
"It keeps people happy. it connects people. Without sex, you'd be roommates who probably just annoy each other with no other stress relief.\nProcreation purposes as well...\nSemen has been found to be a natural antidepressant.\nKeeps both men and women healthy. \n",
"Why is marriage such a big deal in sex?",
"Sex is one of the key defining features of a romantic relationship. \"Would I have sex with them?\" is what differentiates a good friend from a romantic interest for *most* people.\n\nMarriage is what civilisation has settled on as the standard way of \"formalising\" a romantic relationship.\n\nHence... the two sort-of go together.\n\nOh, also, a lot of religions consider sex outside of marriage to be a sin. So people who follow those religions literally only get to have sex if they are married. Adds to it."
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46wdpt | if you need yogurt to make yogurt, how was the first ever yogurt made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46wdpt/eli5if_you_need_yogurt_to_make_yogurt_how_was_the/ | {
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"You don't actually need yogurt to make yogurt. The acidophilus bacteria needed to make it occur in the stomach linings of most young mammals. Cheese and yogurt could be made by accident if you carry milk in a bag made from a lamb, calf, or kid stomach and bump it around in the hot sun. Please don't try though!",
"yogurt is a fermented product. Fermented products are made by adding a bacteria or fungus to some fresh food. other good examples are alcohol and risen bread. It isn't known why or how food was first fermented, but two guesses are desperation (your supply of grapes fermented and you are now without food for the rest of the winter unless you try and eat them) or experimentation with eating deliberately or accidentally spoiled foods (e.g. you have enough food for the winter but try the rotten grapes anyway).\n\nIt is a theory that we went from hunter/gatherers to farmers because of a love for beer or bread (fermented grain products)"
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j3tnh | why we are in a "war" right now? | I understand that it's not considered technically a "war," but why are our troops in the Middle East (and ect.)?
I was pretty young when 9/11 happened, and I really feel clueless. I'm actually pretty embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of it all. (Almost made a throwaway and all) Can anyone explain to me why our troops are in Iraq and such? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j3tnh/eli5_why_we_are_in_a_war_right_now/ | {
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"The invasion of Afghanistan occurred as a direct response to 9/11. The goal was to go after the terrorist organizations that planned the attacks and find the people responsible. \n\nIraq is a bit harder to explain. Basically, the American people were told that the dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (he didn't). We invaded that country and that's pretty much that. \n\nTroop withdrawal is a very slow process, but we're already starting to see it unfold. After years of fighting, Afghanistan has been mostly cleared of the terrorists and Iraq has been ousted of their dictator. The reason the troops are still there is because it would be pointless to withdraw them immediately...by going slow, we can ensure a smooth transition for the country to go back to being on their own. Plus, in both Iraq and Afghanistan our military is training soldiers from those areas to serve and defend their country once we leave. ",
"After the 9/11 attacks, it was determined that Al Qaeda was to blame. They were believed to be based out of Afghanistan. So we invaded them. After that, we invaded Iraq because it was believed they had WMDs and posed a threat to American interests. So we invaded them and kept fighting until we captured Saddam Hussein. \n\nNow we find ourselves in a position where we have destabilized two countries by removing their previous system of government and replaced them with A new group. This borders on speculation, but there is too much risk that leaving now will leave the door open for anti-american parties to seize power. ",
"If you were truly five, I would explain it like this:\n\nSome people believe that America is a bad place that is taking over the world. \n\nA few of these people want to take matters into their own hands and \"stop america.\" \n\nA few of these types of people met up and formed a group based on hate and decided to attack the United States by hijacking a plane and crashing it into a building, killing many people. This particular group is known as Al Queda, though other similar groups exist.\n\nThe American people were very angry about this, and the current president (Bush) declared a war on terrorism, so it was a war against the people above, not a war against a specific country.\n\nWe went into the countries looking for leaders of Al Qaeda and nuclear weapons that would be seen as a threat to the United States.\n\nBecause of this, we were seen as \"invading\" their homeland, encouraging more people to join the anti-america group. This meant that we needed to send more troops to protect our old ones and the citizens of that country, whether they wanted the protection or not.\n\nSo basically one country got a parasite, and another country tried to get rid of that parasite by sending its own medicine, but it didn't really work well against the parasites. \n\nAnything else? ",
"If some neighbor kid came over to your yard and built a fort in your tree and didn't let you in it, and then started shooting you with arrows every once in a while, you probably wouldn't like it. You might ask him to leave. You might even decide to throw some rocks at the tree fort until your mean neighbor gives up and goes home. He might start throwing rocks back at you and shooting you with his BB gun and urinating on you.\n\nWell, the United States is the neighbor kid. We built some tree forts in some other yards because we liked to eat the apples on their trees. After a while, the kids who lived there started telling us to leave, so we started shooting them with arrows and missiles and whatnot. Eventually they ran some airliners into our treehouse, and our treehouse fell down. We started shooting people and wrecking their bikes and throwing their marbles in the sewer. Then we burned down the garage next door because it seemed like a good idea.",
"The US would like you to think we are there to help combat terrorism, but anyone with half a brain knows that terrorism is a tactic not an enemy, that being said the real reason we are there is to assert military dominance over the region, control oil reserves, and flex our military muscles so to speak, its nothing more than US imperialism at its fines,t controlling resources in the area, and showing the world theres not a damn thing they can do about it. ",
"The policies and actions abroad are not new, nor are they directly the result of 9/11, in my personal opinion. In recent decades, The West (and the US in particular) has rejected traditional imperialism, where they colonize other lands to build a vast physical empire, with economic imperialism (of course, they don't call it that themselves), where various pressures are put on developing nations to allow free reign for US corporate and military interests in their countries. To explain, let's look at why the Middle East is important. Sometime in the early 20th century, it was discovered that the region has some of the biggest oil reserves in the world at a time when oil was becoming one of the world's most important resources. It's not simply, as many people think, that the US just wants to take the oil for their own energy needs. It's more complex than that. To retain its role as the world superpower, controlling the flow of this resource and the markets they trade in, is crucial. \n\nSo how does this work? The United States identifies countries of strategic importance, such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq. They begin to develop diplomatic relationships with those countries where they say, \"If you let our companies come in and control the oil production, we'll support your government, diplomatically, financially, maybe even militarily.\" If the other government agrees, they become a strong ally of the United States. However, such agreements are often unpopular to the masses of those countries. Intellectuals and political dissidents point out that if they had control over their own resources, they could prosper much more quickly than with the foreign corporations taking their share. The governments then have a choice between suppressing dissidents or changing their agreements with the US. When they do change their agreements, this affects our economy, and we will generally respond in a number of ways. We may send military support for the government against the dissidents, attempt to work with the rebels and keep them on our side so that we can negotiate with them after the revolution, or we send our own troops in to fight.\n\nLet's look at some examples. Saddam was a major US ally for a long time. We were arming Iraq in the 80's when they fought a war against Iran. During that time and after, the opposed Kurdish community attempted to rebel against Saddam's rule, which his regime crushed with approval and support of the US. Some time later, Saddam started to not listen to US orders. He invaded neighboring Kuwait, which has its own oil supplies, leading to the first Gulf War, but still served as an ally after. \n\nThere is a belief in international relations that those nations who have nuclear weapons gain negotiating power. They can't be as easily bullied around by the world's military powers because they have a kind of deterrence ability. It is most likely for these reasons that Iraq may have been considering a nuclear program and removing the UN weapons inspectors, although we can never know for sure how serious that was or what the intended use might have been. Regardless, we do now know that plans were made as soon as Bush got into office to attempt regime change in Iraq, even before 9/11. \n\nSo what did 9/11 have to do with anything? It was known that Bin Laden and Saddam were not allies. Ideologically, they are polar opposites, as Saddam supported a strong, secularist state similar to the Soviet Union. The Bush administration was careful to never say that Saddam was involved in 9/11 because they probably knew he wasn't, but statements did help put the idea in people's heads. When that became impossible to prove, the war became about the search for nuclear weapons, we never found and may not have ever existed. They then put a spin on the war to make it about humanitarian intervention, citing the crimes against the Kurds, the same crimes that the US had previously supported, to try and execute Saddam.\n\nI suspect the reason why the Iraq invasion happened after 9/11 is mostly public opinion. Since Vietnam, it had become increasingly difficult to convince Americans that these kinds of ground wars are necessary or morally justifiable. 9/11 saw Bush's approval rating hit unprecedented levels, outpourings of international support, and very little resistance from the media. Some people might remember that on February 15, 2003, a month before the invasion, the largest worldwide protest in history took place against the war. Incredibly, it was largely ignored by the media and Bush continued to believe his mandate for invasion. \n\nEDIT: I know this was all about Iraq. There are different details for why we are/were in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya, but I figured this post was long enough with one war. "
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khkl9 | travelling salesman problem | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/khkl9/eli5_travelling_salesman_problem/ | {
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"The idea is that you want to travel to a number of cities in the shortest route possible.\n\nYou're in city A and you want to travel to city B, the distance is 10 miles. There's only one route, so A- > B is optimal.\n\nThere's a third city C which is 20 miles from A and 15 miles from B. A- > B- > C is 25 miles. A- > C- > B is 35 miles. There's two different possible routes with two different possible distances with A- > B- > C being the optimal route.\n\nWith a fourth city there would be six possible routes. With five, there are 24 routes - each with a different total distance. Each additional step adds even greater complexity.",
"**ELI5**:\n\nThis is what we call an \"optimization\" problem. The concept of optimization sounds really complex and confusing at first, but really it is just a concise way of saying, \"I want this **goal** (travel the least amount of miles) with the given **constraint** (that I have to travel to a certain number of cities).\" If you only have one city to travel to, this problem is really easy since there is only one way to go (Home - > City A - > Home). Almost as easy is when you have two cities to go to, where you could either go (Home - > City A - > City B - > Home) or (Home - > City B - > City A - > Home). These two cases are equally \"optimal\" since they both are the same distance traveled. Envision this like moving around a triangle: if you travel around one way, then it will be the same distance if you travel around the other way. \n\nIt gets more complicated with more than two cities. Let's say we have 3 cities. In this case there are 6 different ways to travel between Home and Cities A, B, and C. To convince yourself of this, write down Home, A, B, and C on a piece of paper. Starting from Home you can draw multiple (6) different paths that will satisfy the constraint (I have to go to every city); however, there will exist an \"optimal\" route where the goal is met (I want to travel the shortest distance). \n \n**ELI10**:\n\nThe number of possible routes increases exponentially as you add more and more cities. In addition, this problem refers to the simplest \"optimization\" problem, and it could be referred to as a \"minimization\" problem since you only have one goal, but it gets more complex when you add constraints (eg: I have to visit these cities on Monday, and these cities on Tuesday) or goals to the situation (eg: I also want to maximize highway driving vs. city driving). \n\n**ELI15**:\n\nI would suggest looking at the [khan academy](_URL_0_) for some excellent info on how to solve optimization problems (requires more than a five-year-olds level of education). \n\n**ELI21**:\n\nThere are complex mathematical concepts that can be used to solve optimization problems in the shortest amount of time. I am not an expert, but I do know that this involves [Linear Programming](_URL_1_). My suggestion, take an optimization class or design class in your college engineering curriculum.",
"As a side note since the answers provided are pretty solid. This is a common thought problem for programming classes (and algorithm design). this is because we as humans can pretty easily look at 3 points on a map and decide the best route. However to take a step back and look at the individual processes needed to figure out the fastest path (measure the distances between points, measure alternates, comparing those measurements) and then explain to a computer (in a programming language) on how to do it.\n\nWhen my advanced programming prof told my class to figure it out we collectively shat bricks",
"The idea is that you want to travel to a number of cities in the shortest route possible.\n\nYou're in city A and you want to travel to city B, the distance is 10 miles. There's only one route, so A- > B is optimal.\n\nThere's a third city C which is 20 miles from A and 15 miles from B. A- > B- > C is 25 miles. A- > C- > B is 35 miles. There's two different possible routes with two different possible distances with A- > B- > C being the optimal route.\n\nWith a fourth city there would be six possible routes. With five, there are 24 routes - each with a different total distance. Each additional step adds even greater complexity.",
"**ELI5**:\n\nThis is what we call an \"optimization\" problem. The concept of optimization sounds really complex and confusing at first, but really it is just a concise way of saying, \"I want this **goal** (travel the least amount of miles) with the given **constraint** (that I have to travel to a certain number of cities).\" If you only have one city to travel to, this problem is really easy since there is only one way to go (Home - > City A - > Home). Almost as easy is when you have two cities to go to, where you could either go (Home - > City A - > City B - > Home) or (Home - > City B - > City A - > Home). These two cases are equally \"optimal\" since they both are the same distance traveled. Envision this like moving around a triangle: if you travel around one way, then it will be the same distance if you travel around the other way. \n\nIt gets more complicated with more than two cities. Let's say we have 3 cities. In this case there are 6 different ways to travel between Home and Cities A, B, and C. To convince yourself of this, write down Home, A, B, and C on a piece of paper. Starting from Home you can draw multiple (6) different paths that will satisfy the constraint (I have to go to every city); however, there will exist an \"optimal\" route where the goal is met (I want to travel the shortest distance). \n \n**ELI10**:\n\nThe number of possible routes increases exponentially as you add more and more cities. In addition, this problem refers to the simplest \"optimization\" problem, and it could be referred to as a \"minimization\" problem since you only have one goal, but it gets more complex when you add constraints (eg: I have to visit these cities on Monday, and these cities on Tuesday) or goals to the situation (eg: I also want to maximize highway driving vs. city driving). \n\n**ELI15**:\n\nI would suggest looking at the [khan academy](_URL_0_) for some excellent info on how to solve optimization problems (requires more than a five-year-olds level of education). \n\n**ELI21**:\n\nThere are complex mathematical concepts that can be used to solve optimization problems in the shortest amount of time. I am not an expert, but I do know that this involves [Linear Programming](_URL_1_). My suggestion, take an optimization class or design class in your college engineering curriculum.",
"As a side note since the answers provided are pretty solid. This is a common thought problem for programming classes (and algorithm design). this is because we as humans can pretty easily look at 3 points on a map and decide the best route. However to take a step back and look at the individual processes needed to figure out the fastest path (measure the distances between points, measure alternates, comparing those measurements) and then explain to a computer (in a programming language) on how to do it.\n\nWhen my advanced programming prof told my class to figure it out we collectively shat bricks"
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2r9h45 | whats with the meme/retarded/stereotype-comments on youtube videos that end up on /r/videos? | So I've come across these for months now, these stupid comments on YouTube videos that get posted on /r/videos (the 'feminist', the 'redditor', the 'alphamale', the 'gamer')
They aren't funny and it's always the same kind of replies and more important, it's always the same amount of upvotes (on YouTube) which leads me to believe that they are also spam accounts.
So what is up with this? What joy do they get out of this to keep this cherade up for so long? And where did it come from?
(I get the trolling part, as they have me making this thread now)
(If you have no clue what I'm talking about then go over to /r/videos and click a YouTube link. It should be a topcomment -on the YouTube video-)
Thx! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9h45/eli5_whats_with_the/ | {
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"The comments get on the videos AFTER they are posted on Reddit. A bunch of trolls surf the subreddits for videos and post stupid comments once they find them. They have their own subreddit /r/RedditArmie and I guess they just haven't nothing better to do.\n\nThere is some extension that you can download (I think) that blocks their comments but I don't have it. I'm sure somebody will reply with it. "
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7dga0c | why do we "feed" bad emotions? | For example why do we listen to sad songs when we're feeling like shit? Feeding that emotion and becoming even sader.
Wouldn't it be more logical if your brain did everything it could to fight off conscious decisions that fucks with it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7dga0c/eli5_why_do_we_feed_bad_emotions/ | {
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"To be honest, it's really hard to say from a scientific perspective\n\nThere are a few theories, depending on how you tend to associate yourself in psychology.\n\nSome theorize that it's a catharsis effect, similar to Greek tragedy. You sit through the music for example, in all its sadness, and at the end, when the song is over, it helps make you feel like your sadness is also gone\n\nOthers believe it's more akin to shadenfruede, the feeling of pleasure you get when someone else faces misfortune. So you hear a song and knowing that someone else is sad makes you just a little happier\n\nThere are other theories too, and some explanations that touch more on the biological aspect of things, but we really don't know very well "
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32fs3w | why do my dogs take a few steps forward and strut the dirt backwards after they do a #2? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32fs3w/eli5_why_do_my_dogs_take_a_few_steps_forward_and/ | {
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"I think it depends on both breed and age. Some breeds will try to kick dirt over their.... waste, to try to bury it so their scent and presence is disguised. In the right breeds, this happens more frequently when they're weak, old, or aware of a more dominate dog's presence. However, some breeds don't have this instinct at all.\n\n\nAt least, that's my understanding of the whole thing. I could easily be 100% wrong. I looked into it once and I think that was the answer."
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1v81m1 | why is steel colder than plastic when touched in freezing temperatures? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v81m1/eli5_why_is_steel_colder_than_plastic_when/ | {
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"We don't feel temperature. We feel the rate of heat transfer. Metal is a good conductor of heat, and thus \"sucks heat away\" from our hands faster than plastic at the same temperature. Thus is feels colder.",
"It is not actually colder, it is a better conductor of heat than the plastic.",
"There's a brilliant Veritasium video on [this topic](_URL_0_) that explains that the reason some surfaces seem colder than others at room temperature is because it takes longer to transfer your body heat to the surface of metal/steel than it does with plastic. "
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1szw82 | why does sometimes we feel that the light flickered off for just a moment? | This pic describes it the best: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1szw82/eli5_why_does_sometimes_we_feel_that_the_light/ | {
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"maybe it did",
"It probably did.. especially in some older homes with modern electronclics. someones using the big screen, someone else is using a hair dryer, then someone turns on a vacuum cleaner and BAM! Minor surge of power.",
"_URL_0_ Think this one explains it pretty well."
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2cqyzq | why are office buildings so cold? | Isn't it a waste of energy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cqyzq/eli5_why_are_office_buildings_so_cold/ | {
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"Workers can't fall asleep if it's freezing! More energy = more productivity!",
"Part of it is a productivity thing, if it gets too warm you might get sleepy. \n\nPart of it might be that you were in an older building, a lot of times when AC ducts are built into an already existing building they are not laid out very efficiently, so to keep all areas at least comfortable, some of them are going to be freezing. \n\nA big part of it is just to make people in suits more comfortable, it gets pretty toasty under all that wool in the summertime. I don't mind dressing nice if I know that once I get to my office I'll be more comfortable. ",
"To ensure the fire of your soul remains extinguished"
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48ypex | how come you cannot carrier unlock a mobile phone without paying for a "code", even with custom firmware and root access? | Basically where do these codes come from and how do you (or the people that run websites that sell them) obtain them and why is there no way to get around using them to unlock your phone from a certain carrier? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48ypex/eli5_how_come_you_cannot_carrier_unlock_a_mobile/ | {
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"The cellular radio is controlled by a separate processor (often called a baseband processor) with completely separate firmware.\n\nIn order to bypass the lock, you either need to get that CPU to release the lock by giving it the code it wants, or you need to somehow hack into it. \n\nThe problem is that even if you can install custom firmware on the phone, that doesn't help. You still need somehow hack the baseband, and get it to release the lock. \n\nSome early versions of the iPhone could be unlocked. If you installed a custom firmware on the phone, it was possible to run an app which would take advantage of a bug in the baseband firmware, and cause it to unlock until the next reboot. However, these were often very unstable, because the app was basically trying to glitch the baseband CPU and make it malfunction. Apple rapidly fixed this by pushing out new firmware for the baseband.\n\nThe difficulty with trying to root the baseband is that it runs a much simpler OS. Complex OSs like iOS, windows and android have a lot of code, so could have lots of bugs - you just need to find a bug that gives you root. The baseband runs a very stripped down OS, because all it needs to do is handle the calls and data. This means that there are fewer possible bugs, and bugs which might allow root access or cause a malfunction are super rare (assuming that they haven't all been fixed). ",
"It's down to the Baseband Processor. \n_URL_0_\n\nThis is the processor that handles all the cell radio traffic and communication with a sim or other subscriber identity. This professor has its own firmware. \n\nEven if you have root access on your phones main OS the OS that talks to the network is still secured. And have there own update security chain. If you look at the iPhone 6/6s they have their main iOS, Secure enclave (where things like your \"hash\" of your fingerprint and keys for Apple Pay are stored and the Baseband all of which run there own firmware and have there own update chain (breaking one doesn't mean that the others are also broken) and talk to each other to get their jobs done.\n\nBecause you have full access to one part doesn't mean you have access to everything. Think of it like this. You own an apartment in some fancy high rise. You may have the keys to your apartments door, but you still have to get past the attendant in the lobby. \n\nAs for your question about where do unlock codes come from? \nThere are serval sources. The manufacturers gives the carriers the algorithms to generate the unlock codes from the imei of the device. The algorithms are often the same or very similar between carriers. Leaks do happen (I will always remember the nagravision key leak :-)).\n\n Also people like taking things apart and reversing so the algorithms get devired from the devices themselves, these methods are normally sold between phone crackers and put in \"black boxes\" and sold to local phone shops/market stores which will create the unlock codes (pass the right bytes to the phone directly). Interestingly with the rise of the Internet these black boxes now come locked down and the people they are sold too often have to buy credits to use them. \n\nAnd you have the good old fashion supply and demand. The carriers often subsidise the phone to be able to provide with a lower upfront payment and then recoup the cost over the term of the contract. The carriers want to make sure the device they sold for cheap can only be used on there network until they get that cost back. So the locks gets more and more difficult to break (compare breaking the locks on say the Nokia 5110 to an iPhone 6s).",
"AT & T unlocks phones for free. All you have to do is fill out the form on their site. The eBay people charge a few bucks to do that for you. ",
"the carriers have in france by law the obligation for free to unlock your phone if you ask (i think the only condition is you have to wait 3 months after the beginning of you contract).\n\nedit : added \"for free\" "
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1j8bd0 | why are the bodies left on mt. everest and are not returned to the families? | I've read in a lot of articles that some of the bodies are used as landmarks? Why don't they return the bodies to the families?
It's something I always was curious about and never found an answer online. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j8bd0/eli5_why_are_the_bodies_left_on_mt_everest_and/ | {
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"Summiting Everest requires a great deal of money, and it's quite treacherous.\n\nEvery corpse you see on Everest is someone who died on the way to the summit or on the way back. It's hard enough to do it carrying all of the gear (oxygen bottles, tent gear, clothing, food, climbing gear, so on) that they have to carry.\n\nTo attempt the same feat carrying a dead body along the way?\n\nMost people aren't willing to risk joining the person they'd be trying to bring back.\n\nThere are occasional expeditions to cover bodies and/or move them out of the main thoroughfares.",
"It's cold as fuck up there, brah. You go get them. "
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27afwh | why do asian people (primarily women) cover their faces/mouths when smiling/laughing? | This is something I've seen pop up in various Asian media, where women would cover the lower part of their faces when they are smiling or laughing.
Why do they do this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27afwh/eli5_why_do_asian_people_primarily_women_cover/ | {
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"In Japanese culture it's impolite to show bone (your teeth)",
"It shows weakness to lose composure so to appease a sense of politeness they symbolically hide the body part that betrays their emotions. I.e. they cover their eyes when crying, their mouth when laughing...\n\nThese gestures themselves have come to denote emotion by now. No one is fooled and thinks \"can't see her mouth, guess, she isn't laughing.. good.\"\nIt's just a thing that's supposed to look polite."
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2fmyx4 | how does digital radio work? why is there still occasional signal interference with digital? | Thanks for all your explanations; I think I just about grasp how radio works now! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fmyx4/eli5_how_does_digital_radio_work_why_is_there/ | {
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"Well, let's start with how radio works without interference. This example uses a simplified version of radio -- the reality is a little different, but the basic ideas are here.\n\nIn both analog and digital radio, the transmitter is always transmitting at a specific frequency -- let's say 680 KHz. In order to convey information, the transmitter varies the *power* of the signal.\n\nAn analog radio transmitter uses a very simple method to transmit sounds. For example, if it wants to send a sound wave of 256 Hz, it will turn the power smoothly up and down 256 times per second.\n\nTo receive this message, your analog radio listens carefully to 680 Hz. It tries to pick out what the power of the transmitter is at any given time, and moves the loudspeaker accordingly. For example, if the power is at 100%, it pushes the loudspeaker cone all the way out, and if the power is at 0%, it pulls the loudspeaker cone all the way in. If the power is in the middle, it puts the loudspeaker in the middle. So, because the power is going smoothly up and down 256 times per second, it pushes the loudspeaker cone smoothly in and out 256 times per second, and you hear a 256 Hz tone.\n\nDigital radio sends that tone of 256 Hz in a different way. Instead of turning the power up and down 256 times per second, the computer at the station writes down a coded message that says \"Play a tone of 256 Hz for 1 second.\" This coded message is translated into binary, so that it looks like 01001010011110110001011010000011011111. Then the radio transmitter sends that binary number by transmitting at 100% power for a 1 and 0% power for a 0. (This is not necessarily how a real radio station sends a binary number, but it's the basic idea.)\n\nYour receiver listens carefully to 680 KHz and transcribes whatever binary message it hears. In this case, it hears 01001010011110110001011010000011011111. The computer in your receiver then decodes that as meaning \"Play a tone of 256 Hz for 1 second,\" so that's what it does.\n\n\nOK, now let's add interference. If there is interference in your analog radio broadcast, it will change the amount of power your receiver hears, which directly affects the position of the loudspeaker. So when you hear static on analog radio, you are directly hearing the noise that exists at the 680 KHz frequency. (Also, you are hearing some of the noise on nearby frequencies, because your receiver isn't perfectly tuned.) For example, if the transmitter wanted your loudspeaker to be 58% of the way out, it would transmit at 58% power. If, because of noise, you heard 52% power instead of 58%, your transmitter would put the loudspeaker 52% of the way out instead of 58%. The overall effect of noise in analog radio sounds like \"static\" -- it's basically a small, random movement of your loudspeaker. Even a small amount of noise can be heard as static, though it's quiet. When there is a lot of noise, you have loud static. Eventually the static gets so loud that you can't hear the original broadcast.\n\nIf there is interference in your digital radio, something much more interesting happens. Your digital receiver is expecting a binary message -- 0s and 1s. If it hears something in between 0 and 1, like an 0.2 or an 0.75, it will assume that it was supposed to be a 0 (if it was less than 1/2) or a 1 (if it was more than 1/2). The amount of noise might be enough to turn a 0 into an 0.2, but the digital radio just doesn't care, because 0.2 still counts as 0. (On the other hand, your analog radio would happily put your loudspeaker at position 0.2 instead of position 0, and this would change the sound you hear.) Because of this, digital radio is resistant to interference. If there is only a small amount of noise, your computer will erase it and you won't hear it at all.\n\nNow, if the noise is enough to push some of those binary digits over the boundary, you start to get interference even with digital radio. For example, if a 0 is heard as a 0.6, then it will be interpreted as a 1. This screws up the coded message! Remember, 01001010011110110001011010000011011111 means to play a 256 Hz tone for 1 second. But 01001010111110110001011010000011011111, a message which differs by only 1 bit, might mean something completely different!\n\nIn reality, the code used is carefully designed so that changing just 1 digit doesn't change the coded message. In other words, the computer in your radio is able to correct a small number of errors, just lyke you can correct the errors in tihs sentence. But if there are too many errors, the computer will no longer know what the coded message is. It will either play the wrong thing (which sounds like garbage) or just play nothing at all. This is what you experience when you have interference in digital radio.",
"If AM radio waves were visible, you'd see each channel (frequency) as a specific color of varying intensity.\n\nFor FM, you'd see a fixed intensity but the color would vary around a specific one.\n\nInterference would look as other sources of colored light that mix up or overpower your radio station.\n\nFor digital, sounds are mesured thousands of times per second and turned into a stream of numbers (quantization). Then, some more numbers are added to the stream to help recover missing parts of the stream.\n\nThis is transmitted in various ways, involving a lot of math. Sometimes the stream is spread into a wide band of frequencies, so noise has trouble blanking all of it. Some vary the phase (cycle of the wave) in different ways to transmit the stream of bits. If that were to be visible, you'd see a pretty fascinating light show of pulsing lights of different colors and intensities.\n\nInterference damages the stream of numbers. As long as there is enough numbers coming through, special math will recover missing parts. Over a certain limit, it becomes impossible. The radio becomes totally silent. Between the two, you may sometimes hear distorted sound as the radio tries to make something out of what it can receive.",
"[uh-okay-I-guess] (_URL_0_) has a great and mostly technically correct explanation. Let me explain like you're five.\n\nI'm going to assume you have a basic understanding of how a speaker produces sound and music.\n\nImagine the broadcaster - like a radio station - as your friend holding a flashlight. Your friend has control of both the brightness *and the color* of the flashlight, just like the dimmer knobs in a house, where you can turn the brightness anywhere from 'barely on' to 'ow, my eyes'.\n\nYou are the radio receiver, and you work by watching your buddy with the flashlight.\n\nAM (amplitude modulation) radio works like this: your buddy turns the brightness of the flashlight up and down, really really fast. If you don't see much light, you pull the speaker cone all the way back. If you see a lot of light, you push the speaker cone all the way out. As you see these changes in brightness, you move the speakers cones back and forth to mimic the changes in the flashlight brightness.\n\nFM (frequency modulation) radio works in a similar way. But, instead of your buddy changing the *brightness* really fast, he changes the *color*. So, instead of low light meaning 'speaker in', now blue light means 'speaker in', and red light means 'speaker out'.\n\nInterference would be if you put a bush between you and your friend. Not a big, healthy bush, but kind of a sickly one, where you can sort of see through the branches and leaves. Depending on how many bushes there are (how much interference) determines how well you can see your friend. For AM radio, this causes big problems because the brightness changes *a lot* when there's stuff between you and your buddy. FM radio is a little easier because it isn't the brightness you care about. Instead, you need to be able to see between blue and red. But that isn't even perfect, because you still need to be able to tell between sky blue and baby blue. This is where digital comes in.\n\nDigital is where, instead of going anywhere in the spectrum between red and blue, your buddy sets the light to RED, or BLUE, with nothing in-between. There can be a *lot* of interference before you can't tell between red and blue anymore. The problem is, your speakers can't mimic these two extremes and still sound like music. So, you and your buddy come up with a system beforehand, like Morse Code. (This is binary in the real system) You agree that Red-Red-Blue is a certain speaker pattern, and Red-Blue-Red is another. You both have to know beforehand that there is a code, and what it is. The advantage of this is that since your buddy is no longer sending raw information (speaker position) and sending data instead, he can send that information much much faster than it can actually be played. This means he can give you more detailed instructions (which means better quality).\n\nLike I said before, there can be a lot of interference before you can't tell between red and blue anymore. The problem is your buddy decided he is going to send as much information as fast as possible, since the signal is so good. So, if you are walking around, and a tree blocks your view of your friend completely for a second, you may have missed 30 seconds' worth of information.\n\n----------------------\n\nObviously, this is all metaphorical, but not far off of how radio actually works."
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60xrm1 | how could disappear over 4 trilion usd during the financial crisis from 2007? | I mean how can money get lost, so no one has it anymore? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60xrm1/eli5_how_could_disappear_over_4_trilion_usd/ | {
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"Don't think of it necessarily is money lost but wealth lost.\n\nFor example, if a company has a share price of $50 and is valued at $1B and the share price falls to $25 $500 million was just erased from that company's evaluation and so is worth that much less.\n\nIf you go to the grocery store and buy milk for $3 a gallon and next week it's $6 a gallon your wealth as it pertains to your ability to buy milk was just cut in half even though no money disappeared.",
"It wasn't actual money, it was the value people attached to things. \n\nLet's say you buy a house for $200k. A real estate bubble bursts and now your house will only fetch $150k. That doesn't mean that $50k went missing or was transferred somewhere... it just means that people are now only willing to pay $50k less for something.",
"Here's a way to think about it. \n\nYou own a painting. You think that the painting is an original by Da Vinci, worth $10 million. You have the value of that painting as part of your net worth, not cause you have the actual cash on hand, but because the painting has worth and adds value. \n\nHowever, something horrible happens. On an examination, it turns out the painting isn't an original Da Vinci, but rather a clever forgery some art student made in the 60s, and it's only worth $100,000. \n\nYou've effectively lost $9.9 million. You didn't actually lose any money, but something you owned that you thought was worth $10 million, is worth only a tiny fraction of that. \n\nIn reality, the painting was stocks, this happened on a massive scale. ",
"Say you buy a car from me. You paid $10,000 for it two years ago, and now it's worth $7K. Where did the money go?\n\nWell, the **money** didn't go anyplace -- it's still in my desk drawer, all $10,000 of it. But what you ***bought*** with it **lost value**.\n\nNow just scale that up to everybody in the northern hemisphere :-)"
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9zu8gs | before midi, how did musicians time the beats exactly right? | When I listen to something old like Thriller, I notice that the beats of the drums seem to be timed exactly right with the rhythm, with the same amount of time between each beat. Or so it seems. Because now, with MIDI, you can have the instruments timed to be exactly right with the rhythm, but Thriller was made before MIDI, and now I'm wondering how the drummers and musicians played their instruments exactly on beat and to the rhythm.
There's a website called Got Rhythm where it tests to see if you can maintain the tempo/rhythm of a drum beat even after it fades away, and it would always tell me that most of my beats were slightly off tempo. Now I'm wondering how musicians timed things to be exactly on tempo before MIDI. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9zu8gs/eli5_before_midi_how_did_musicians_time_the_beats/ | {
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"The traditional method, for musicians lacking a natural great sense of timing, was to use a metronome. That's a swinging pendulum, or electronic device, that automatically generates a regular beat.",
"Practice by drummers. The main function of drums is to keep rhythm so any drummer worth their salt practices countless hours with a metronome to hone this skill. \n\nIt’s also not uncommon for musicians(drummers too) to record with a click track to keep them on tempo. \n\n\nAlso, the 70s is when programmable drum machines started to get really big, so even though it wasn’t MIDI, it’s programmed to land precisely on the beat. ",
"Don't forget, Michael Jackson had the ability to pull the best studio musicians possible. Some are better than others, and since he could afford the best, he had the best. And the best have a great internal sense of time. ",
"The drummer is often listening to a click track on their headphones while they are being recorded. The click track keeps them in time.",
"You train a lot and the people who you learn from have trained even more than you ever have and they teach you too. Time with metronomes is key. My marching band director also drilled it into us by keeping time with a woodblock. The rhythmic *thock* of a drumstick on a woodblock is seared into my soul. \n\nEdit: word"
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4jwe1v | how are pets that spend all year inside in a temperature controlled house able to synchronize their shedding cycles with the seasons? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jwe1v/eli5_how_are_pets_that_spend_all_year_inside_in_a/ | {
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"I'm pretty sure that stuff is regulated by amount of uv radiation and color temperature, not room temperature",
"A groomer once told me that dogs and cats shed more year round because we keep them inside climate controlled houses. They'll have a big seasonal shed, but also continue to shed more than an outside dog would. ",
"The question, really, is what environmental cues trigger the genetically programmed shedding. As you point out, it doesn't seem to be a response to temperature.\n\nMany seasonal changes in animals are triggered by light levels. [This article](_URL_0_) suggests that's what's at work here, though they don't provide references. \n\nSunlight is much more intense than the electric lights we use in our homes, so as long as your pet lives in a space with windows, artificial light might not be enough to throw off patterns dictated by day length. ",
"I believe light is the biggest factor. I also think its more amazing, personally, that bulbs in my closet for a year started sprouting in the spring. I read some stuff about how plants can store very simplified data about the length of night and day to represent seasonal change which even underground still works because of different types of light that penetrate. ..and if a plant can do that its not that hard to believe an animal could use similar techniques. This planet and its seasons are a huge deal, much of the life is based on changing seasons.",
"I'm not an expert but I am a parrot owner and volunteer at a large sanctuary so I have a decent amount of experience with parrots. Each year or so they'll go through a molt and replace their feathers naturally. Honestly, it gets messed up in captivity often. Some do molt about once a year, some don't molt enough to even look scraggly, some molt at odd times. Their internal clock is mostly messed up especially if you handle them the way I handle my bird and adjust the light he receives to mimic winter all year to prevent spring hormone rage."
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637dcn | why do many people enjoy messing with others to a certain extent? | Could be a harmless prank, burning someone online, or even a kick in the nuts, and this is particularly noticable during early adolescence when kids love calling each other names and playing pranks on each other.
So why is that? Are we just messed up by nature? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/637dcn/eli5_why_do_many_people_enjoy_messing_with_others/ | {
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"There's a psychological term called schadenfreude. Defined as taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune. It's basically the opposite of empathy/sympathy. Instead of feeling what they feel, you are glad that you do not feel what they feel. Our psyche is composed of many systems that often work in opposite ways, ideally providing a healthy balance. ",
"If you mess with somebody (a little bit) and they take it well it can be both funny and endearing. It's funny, because it's audacious, and it goes beyond your everyday platitudes.\n\nIt's endearing in the sense that if they take it well you know they have a sense of humor, and that they don't take life as seriously as possible. Throwing a mild insult at someone is a good way to figure out if you're talking to a kindred spirit, or someone that already kind of hates you. Kids do this more because they're trying to establish relationships and understand how to develop them in the future. It's also not possible to understand social boundaries unless you've tested them a bit, which is an important thing to learn as you get older.\n\nThat said... obviously some people just mess with others because they're dicks. :)"
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3xdyu8 | why do my lips get so dry in the winter? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xdyu8/eli5_why_do_my_lips_get_so_dry_in_the_winter/ | {
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"Cold air holds less moisture than warm air - and if you take in cold air and warm it up, its relative humidity drops. So the air really can be dryer in the winter, which affects your lips and other parts (eyes, skin). "
]
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5vccwp | if the constitution clearly states we have the right to bear arms why is it illegal to have unregistered weapons or to carry weapons without a permit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vccwp/eli5_if_the_constitution_clearly_states_we_have/ | {
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"There are at least two responses to that. The first is that nearly all Constitutional text has to be interpreted for modern times. Justices like Scalia and Gorsuch try to stick to the original intent more than other justices, but even they agree that you can't interpret everything literally since technology, language, and politics have changed so much since the late 18th century. Scalia, who wrote the most recent big opinion on the Second Amendment, interpreted the amendment to mean that people could keep a version of a weapon appropriate for legal uses. So you can have a rifle for hunting and a pistol for self-defense, but not a fully automatic rifle since it's not designed for lawful use for citizens.\n\nThe second response is that the text isn't so clear. It states:\n\n > A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.\n\nA lot of people have argued that the language about a militia means the weapons are only allowed in that context. It also doesn't say when and where people can bear their arms. You don't think it's unconstitutional to ban firearms in crowded bars and nightclubs, do you? If it's not, then you have to acknowledge there could be other legal restrictions on them."
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abr6jr | why can the human body heal stuff like flesh but not hearing or vision? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/abr6jr/eli5_why_can_the_human_body_heal_stuff_like_flesh/ | {
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"So the actual sound sensing cells in your ear are called \"hair cells\". In mammals, they don't regenerate - so any damage is permanent - but in birds and fish, they do. The culprit appears to be a protein called \"Retinoblastoma\". This is a tumor-suppressing protein that regulates cell reproduction. Rb prevents hair cells from reproducing at all... but it's also apparently critical for them developing to maturity in mammals. We're working on gene therapy to temporarily turn off Rb production in the ear canal to allow hair cells to regenerate.\n\nHealing vision is a much more structural problem. Your cells can't see, and they can't really determine the shape of the body. When your body is growing, your genes are less like blueprints and more like a long list of instructions based on timers and chemical concentrations. Like... say somebody taught you how to assemble a car blindfolded. You might learn how to do that really well, but if somebody asked you to *fix* one of those cars, you don't know how it actually works or how it's supposed to look. A lot of eye problems are due to your eye being the wrong shape - since it's job is to bend light just right, the shape is really important. But since your body has no way to determine the shape of your eye, you're stuck with what you've got.",
"Hearing and vision are super high-level evolutionary functions. Late stage, very precise with lots of moving parts. Skin and flesh are much more primitive.\n\nThe primitive parts of you have way less constraints on them to perform their function. You say \"heal\" but in reality the word is \"scar\". The scar is a simple solution but does its job sufficiently, whereas getting a scar anywhere on/in/near your eye can easily screw its performance or render it totally useless - cataracts, glaucoma, etc. \n\nWhen you look at animals that can regenerate limbs, for example, it sounds amazing but on inspection the limb is definitely not what it once was. Deformed, crooked, smaller, etc. That's okay for those things but for your eye and ear to work properly it doesn't fly at all. \n\nEvolution has decided that literally the easiest way to fix those higher-level things is to produce offspring and start from scratch."
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3su9lk | why is it that the french and americans have such a bond? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3su9lk/eli5_why_is_it_that_the_french_and_americans_have/ | {
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"France is our oldest ally. They helped tremendously during our fight for independence. We may not always see eye to eye, but we have each others backs.",
"France helped our country form. They supported us during our revolution. They were our allies during both world wars as well. ",
"Ideologically, the American Revolution and the French Revolution were both based on the same principles, and the French helped America (to hurt Britain), and then America helped France, although in a sort of pitiful way because we were so weak at the time. For most of recent history up through WWII, the US and France were the only large, stable republics amidst a sea of monarchies, empires, and republics. On top of that, Anglophone culture and Francophone culture are sort of like tempestuous lovers... they squabble but always end up coming back to each other. American and French poets, novelists, intellectuals, painters, filmmakers, and musicians influence each other reciprocally. Until recently, French was the most common second language Americans learned in school.",
"In reality, it's because both countries bonded over their mutual loathing of Great Britain. "
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2yflu7 | difference between un and nato | Why was NATO set up in 1949 when in 1945 there was already the UN? seems like both org are for peacekeeping purposes. Are they both necessary organizations or are they somewhat of an overlap? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yflu7/eli5_difference_between_un_and_nato/ | {
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"NATO is not for peacekeeping, it's a military alliance made initially in order to defend Europe against the USSR and its allies.",
"United nations is virtually al of the worlds countries which cooperate and discus a wide range of topics. NATO is a smaller group of countries which have pledged to defend each other if one of their members is attacked.",
"The United Nations is an international intergovernmental organization, that was originally designed to prevent another large-scale war like World War Two.\n\nNATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is a military alliance made up of several European and North American nations, that was originally designed to be a united force against the rapidly rising threat of the Soviet Union.\n\nMost countries that are in the UN are not in NATO, but all NATO nations are also in the UN."
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9fpwba | what are balanced and unbalanced connections in audio? | I heard there are no balanced cables, just balanced connections which just means it all depends on the electronic equipment and not cables.
& #x200B;
In other words, I can use any cables XLR, RCA, 1/4 inch, and they still can function as "balanced" if the equipments allow them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9fpwba/eli5_what_are_balanced_and_unbalanced_connections/ | {
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"I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5 Balanced vs. unbalanced audio signals ](_URL_4_) ^(_5 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: What's the difference between a \"balanced\" and \"unbalanced\" XLR cable? ](_URL_3_) ^(_7 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: what does low/high impedence, and balanced/unbalanced mean for an electric audio signal? ](_URL_0_) ^(_17 comments_)\n1. [ELI5 : what is the difference between balanced and unbalanced audio output? ](_URL_2_) ^(_2 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: line level audio, balanced vs unbalanced audio, phantom power and other audio basics. ](_URL_1_) ^(_1 comment_)\n"
]
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[
"https://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9e7ajb/eli5_what_does_lowhigh_impedence_and/",
"https://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34ww7d/eli5_line_level_audio_balanced_vs_unbalanced/",
"https://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6l0k4y/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_balanced_and/",
"https://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1abiek/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_a_balanced_and/",
"https://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1izy68/eli5_balanced_vs_unbalanced_audio_signals/"
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2mqqpu | how was the middle east before the us first got involved? and why did they get involved there? | I read the other post about Germany and became interested in the US role in the Middle East. How is the area so unstable now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mqqpu/eli5_how_was_the_middle_east_before_the_us_first/ | {
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"The better question to ask is 'how was it before Europe got involved?'. Before the Europeans started picking away at the region (roughly early 19th century) there was the Ottoman Empire. Things were pretty stable and it was a very advanced civilization. Religious sects remained in their desired regions thus keeping relative peace. Fast forward to after World War 1 and the European forces divided the Ottoman Empire into the countries it is now. These lines were not drawn based on cultures or ethnicities, rather based on who got what oil fields. This smashed ethnicities together who never liked eachother from the begining causing a lot of turmoil that we see today. At this point however a lot of the middle east looked on America with high regard. We still represented the underdog. It wasnt until the establishment of israel heavily backed by the US that they started to hate us. But by this time the region was already under dictators and chaotic regimes which have only gotten worse partucularly after the right wing revolution of Iran in the 70's and the Soviets invading Afghanistan in the 80's.",
"In the 1950's Iran actually had a parliamentary style democratically elected government. At the time the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP) had exclusive rights to prospect for oil and paid the Shah a very large amount of money for those rights. They hired locals to do the work and kept them in work camps. The conditions of the camps were horrible and the locals were paid next to nothing. The government asked the company to treat the people better and threatened to nationalise the company if they didn't. They company refused and reported to President Truman that the Iranian government was communist and they petitioned the president to help them. Since it was the 50's and communists were the boogie men Truman directed the CIA to overthrow the government. The CIA captured the Prime Minister and overthrew the government, they then put the Shah in as dictator (so much for the US encouraging democracy in the world). The Shah continued to get a lot of money from the US and UK, but did not use any of it for his people. As a result the country became poor which lead to the overthrow of the government by the Iyatolla Khomani and Iran became an Islamic state. That's Iran. Should we get into Palestine?",
"This [picture](_URL_0_) pretty much sums it up. This is Kabul, capitol of Afganistan."
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1clrme | why are some japanese games aren't localized in the us, even when there is a large demand? | My friend and I recently had a conversation about how it took a long time for Xenoblade Chronicles to come out in the US, despite it having been made available in the UK. It seems to me that if a game is already translated, it would be smartest to release a game in the US where there is a larger audience and surely more profit.
Similarly, fans of Earthbound/the Mother series have been begging for Mother 3 to have an official US release for years. There was an incredible amount of hype yesterday when Earthbound, a game that already saw a release in the US over a decade ago, was announced to come to virtual console on the Wii U. Wouldn't the cost of localization be trumped by the profit the game would make? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1clrme/eli5_why_are_some_japanese_games_arent_localized/ | {
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"Because Japanese companies do market research just like any other company. If the cost of translating, marketing and distributing the game outweighs the return they predict they'll get, then they won't bring the game to the west. \n\nKeep in mind that not every gamer reads gaming news or reviews. Many game buyers are still parents picking something up for their kids birthday or people who buy games based solely on boxart. They don't know what makes this game special. A highly vocal minority can easily exist within the gaming community and the Mother 3 crowd is a very good example. "
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2pw1ix | how does a star (such as sol) work? | They are just floating balls of energy, how do they just not explode or collapse on themselves?
please go to into detail | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pw1ix/eli5how_does_a_star_such_as_sol_work/ | {
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"The energy flowing outward from their core pushes the outer layers out with the same force that gravity tries to compress them in. It's an equilibrium.",
"A star is an immense ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. The gravitational pull draws the gasses towards the center of the star. This creates incredible pressure. The pressure causes nuclear fusion, which fuses hydrogen atoms into helium, releasing a lot of energy in the process. This energy pushes outwards, working against the gravitational pull and preventing the star from collapsing inwards.",
"They are not balls of energy. They are balls of matter. Gravity is related to mass. The more stuff there is, the more gravity, so the harder it falls inward.\n\nThe thing is the atoms get so close that they eventually merge into one thing, like the pink and blue play-doh that will never come back apart. \n\nWhen this happens, energy is released, in a powerful explosion. It's just that the gravity is so strong, only a teeny tiny bit actually gets out of the star. "
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3vb4gy | how come we seem to stare at someone as they walk by? what really gets our attention | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vb4gy/eli5_how_come_we_seem_to_stare_at_someone_as_they/ | {
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"Not really an answer for your question but I had a similar thing happen recently, it was bizarre.\n\nI was sitting in my car waiting for someone and just kinda spaced out.\n\nA car is passing by and out of no where I lock eyes with the passenger of this car and they just stare back at me.\n\nAs you say in your post, usually I break eye contact but for some reason I didn't, so here we are just staring at each other for what felt like an eternity, it was like 2-3 seconds max. \n\nA couple of minutes later I'm spaced out again not really paying attention, then I notice the same car is coming by again and the same thing happens. \n\nAs they get closer I actively look at them this time and what do I see, the same passenger is staring right at me again and we lock eyes again for the few seconds they drive past.\n\n",
"I've always thought it was done in order to distract yourself from waiting, e.g. standing in line and looking at what others are wearing, what they're doing, etc...absorbing your environment makes the wait less dreadful I guess? I never really find myself staring at somebody when I'm focused on something else (work, computer/phone, talking to a friend). Otherwise I don't really have a well-developed idea...\n\nOf course everyone stares for different reasons: envy, curiosity, proving authority, interest, or creeping some guy out for the hell of it",
"I would assume it's a survival tactic we've inherited from our ancestors. We pay attention and acknowledged other strangers to assess if they are a threat."
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6001tm | what are the dangers and warning signs of mob mentality? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6001tm/eli5_what_are_the_dangers_and_warning_signs_of/ | {
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"Dangers: civil logical people become less so as tensions build causing people to do things they never normally would if on their own. The perpetuation of emotional response overshadows logical reason and herd mentality forced people to follow before fully evaluating the situation.\n\nWarning signs: there's a mob.\n\nBut seriously, anytime there is a large group of people together you have the chance of mob mentality taking over; the less organized and more emotionally charged the reason for gathering the more likely that the situation devolved into a mob. Signs of aggression within the group whether it be changing of general attitude from calm and defiant to rowdy and angry are a good first indicator that things are likely to get worse. Fighting within the group either against themselves or those not in the group, generally starting with words and yelling is a huge second indicator that you probably should find the exit. Tear gas is a good indicator that things went too far somewhere along the way.",
"Dangers: Death, destruction of property, injuries.\n\nWarning signs: People start acting like they're in a mob. People start calling for someone's death and someone else mentions that they have rope/a gun. A large crowd of people starts getting really upset.",
"Just make a rational comment on a post like the one about the puppy that has been shot at a NZ airport to experience it first hand."
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2fltp2 | does wind or particle movement drag light with it? | For example, if the wind is blowing quickly towards my right, does a light source far away appear slightly farther to the right than it's actual location? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fltp2/eli5_does_wind_or_particle_movement_drag_light/ | {
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"Nope. The light you see from the object just travelled in a straight line (minus any gravitational effects which will be absolutely negligible). Depending on the air clarity and distance to the object, a certain amount of the light it emits/reflects will be absorbed by molecules in the air then re-emitted, however this will occur in a random direction resulting in a tiny amount of diffuse background light. Wouldn't be visible to you and also wouldn't be coherent enough to form an actual image of the object.\n\nTl;dr: no."
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2cdx4k | if you get disemboweled, and someone touches your organs outside of your body, do you feel it inside of you or wherever your organ is? | My friends and I wondered this back in high school, when a little girl from our area got stuck on a pool drain that didn't have a cover while the pool was draining. A large amount of her intestines came out, which is absolutely terrible. Good news, she lived. But it had our curiosity going, and I still wonder about that randomly to this day. Anyone a medical professional who could answer this question so I don't have to wonder about it anymore? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cdx4k/eli5if_you_get_disemboweled_and_someone_touches/ | {
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"Not a medical professional, but the words \"unconscious\" and \"in shock\" and \"dead' come to mind. \n\nRead about a girl that sounds like might be this one -- guts being sucked out her anus; cannot eat normally; huge legal settlement. Sad -- suspect she'd rather have her 'normal' health back than the money. Was this the lawsuit John Edwards was Plaintiff's attorney?",
"Im pretty sure most visceral organs dont have sensory neurons for anything other than pain. So you wouldnt feel touch or pressure, only pain. The skin is the only organ that senses touch and pressure. This is why most feeling in the anterior cavities is some form of pain and never \" I feel like my kidney is being tickled\" or \"my hearts having an orgasm\". Even then, with a heart attack, ppls arm, chest, jaw, neck hurt not their heart.",
"Huh. Like Guts by Chuck Palahniuk.",
"Many years ago my grandfather had stomach surgery. The only general anesthetic available was ether which causes vomiting would could have pulled the stomach stitches out. Instead he had the surgery using a local anesthetic. Rather than trying to ignore what was going on my grandfather made them bring in a mirror so he could watch and to touch his different organs so he could learn what they felt like. Most medical texts claim that internal organs have no sensory nerves, but my grandfather disagreed with that theory and insisted that he could tell what which organ felt wrong -- the fact that he correctly identified his own inflamed spleen gave some weight to the claim. He said that the sensation didn't feel like it was in a particular place either inside or outside his body, just that it was noticeable.\n\nWith broken limbs and when a flap of skin is cut loose, touch feels like it's where the limb or skin should be, not where it is.",
"Here's an experiment. Cross your fingers. Then close your eyes and touch the ends. One at a time, as well as simultaneously. ",
"I can't speak to viscera specifically, but in instances of skin, bone, and other body parts you would generally feel it as if the things were where they belonged. back in ww2 I believe, there were a number of animal experiments that figured this out.\n\nthe field of prosthetics has tried exploiting this. by moving motor neurons away from unimportant muscles and the placement of sensors, they create an interface between the user and the prosthetic. the important part is that the locations the nerves are moved to still feel like where they came from, rather than where they are."
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5o3p78 | why is horse racing such a tossup? | I'm wondering what it is about horse racing that makes it so consistently ideal for gambling.
To clarify, I'm not asking why people use horse racing for gambling, that answer is evident (because its never a sure thing). More I'm curious about why it's never a sure thing to begin with. Why is there so much variance to a horse running a short distance in a controlled environment? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5o3p78/eli5_why_is_horse_racing_such_a_tossup/ | {
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"They are set up that way. Track stewards assign weights to horses to even out the odds. A very good horse must carry more weight. The less weight the faster the horse runs. More weight also means more injuries. The horse's trainer weighs all of these factors when choosing what races to enter. The goal is to win every race. So showing off how fast a horse is at the beginning of the season will result in more weight being added early and reduce the chance of winning later. It will also increase the chance of injury. Even a strain will slow a horse.",
"It's the same as if people would bet on other sports. \n\nHorse racing isn't as simple as it sounds though. There are variable distances (usually between 7 furlongs and 2 miles), different track surfaces (grass, dirt, and synthetic), and racing conditions (temperature, humidity, weather, etc) that play into it. Different horses have different running styles and preferences. Some like short muddy dirt tracks, some like long wet turf tracks, some need to be at the front the whole time and some like to hang out in the back and make a mad dash at the end.\n\nThen you have jockeys that have to know the horse well enough to let it perform its best. He has to know what makes it uncomfortable and what makes it excited. He has to have a strategy for how he will navigate the race, and he has to know about the styles of the other horses and jockeys to do that.\n\nBefore the horse even steps on the track, there's a trainer trying to bring it to its highest level of performance. Trainers need to push the horse's limits without injuring the horse. Trainers need to decide which races are ideal for the horse's style.\n\nThe biggest factor is probably luck. A million things need to go right to win a race. You have to draw a good starting position, you don't want to bump into the other horses (which can be difficult when a lot of horses are running), the horse can't stumble or hesitate coming out of the gate, the list just keeps going. There are a huge number of variables when it comes to determining the winner in a race. If you're really into horse racing and keep track of all sorts of statistics, your chances of having success at the betting booths is higher, but not certain."
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212wmg | - if helium is one of the most common elements in the universe, how are we "running out of helium" on earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/212wmg/eli5_if_helium_is_one_of_the_most_common_elements/ | {
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"It's not because something is common in the universe (24%, i think) that something is common on earth. Helium only accounts for 0.00052% of the Earth’s atmosphere.\n[Here](_URL_0_)'s a fun article about it",
"Helium is not evenly distributed in the universe. What we have on earth is mostly produced by radioactive decay in earth's crust, which we can get out in gas wells. It's produced at a fixed and low rate that way exceeds how fast we use it.\n\nHelium is so light that, when it's released it tends to drift away and escape pretty easily so we don't currently do a good job reclaiming what we have. ",
"The overwhelming majority (like, 99.999999%) of the matter in the universe is in stars, not planets. Of the planets, the vast majority are made of gas. Those stars and planets are where almost all of that helium is, and it's not like they're sharing it with us.\n\nYou might be thinking \"well, everything in the universe is made up of exploded star remnants, so we should still have plenty of helium.\" That's true, but what happens when a new solar system forms is that something called a [protoplanetary disk](_URL_0_) forms up around the new star, and then the planets accrete out of the dust and gases in the disk.\n\nThe gases are lighter, so they get flung farther out to the disk's edge, while rocky elements like iron stay closer to the middle. So, planets farther from the sun are gaseous, and the closer ones are rocky. That's why we have so little gas on Earth in general compared to the other planets, even the \"abundant\" ones like nitrogen (which is much less than 1% of the Earth even including the atmosphere).",
"Helium mixes with regular atmosphere and then very slowly Helium atoms float to the top of the mesophere. There they're heated and rise into the more energetic portions of the thermosphere. That portion of the atmosphere is subject to getting peeled off by the solar wind and tidal effects.",
"Universe BIG!!!! Earth small.... ... ... ",
"We are not running out of helium, America stock piled it in underground wells in texas when we though the future was all blimps. Since the blimp isn't the car of the future now America is no longer going to keep it's huge reserves. That means silly things like helium filled balloons will be really expensive, and expensive things like ct scans and processor manufacturing will be more expensive. Helium is collected from natural gas underground so there will always be more as long as there is natural gas. As natural gas gets rarer helium on this planet will get rarer.",
"It's a common reddit trope that we are running out of Helium. However, in reality it has been estimated we have many hundreds of years of helium left.\n\nThe problem is that the US government stockpiled a huge amount of it in the past, and now wants to get rid of it really fast. So it started selling its supply for cheap bargain prices. Because of this huge supply, the price of helium is now so low that nobody wants to invest in \"mining\" Helium because they would not make a profit.\n\nThe day the US' supply runs out, prices will return to what they were before, and it will be profitable again to \"mine\" helium. Helium is extracted from natural gas reserves, so as long as we have natural gas reserves we'll have helium, and it has been estimated we have natural gas left for 250 years.",
"Rice is one of the most common foods on earth, how am I running out of it in my house!?",
"The same way intelligent life is common in the universe but we are running out of it on earth.",
"Insufficient data for meaningful answer",
"As soon as helium encounters a normal earth temperature range (-40C to +40C) it achieves *escape* velocity. Meaning it can immediately escape earths atmosphere.\n\nThis is because temperature of an object or space is actually defined using the velocity of the matter that fills that matter or space.",
" > one of the most common elements in the universe\n\n≠\none of the most common elements on earth ",
" > If water makes up 70% of the surface of the Earth, how are we \"running out of water\" in the middle of the Sahara Desert?",
"A lot of the Helium in the universe is in the middle of stars. This makes it rather difficult to get to, as you can imagine.",
"Too many kids having birthday parties."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.universetoday.com/75719/where-is-helium-found/"
],
[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoplanetary_disk"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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[],
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[],
[],
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||
5qygcp | about industrial engineering... | Hi guys! I'm currently taking Industrial Engineering course, I'm at my 2nd semester in 1st year. But lately, I've been worried about it, 'coz, I'm not really good at Math, I'm not exactly bad at it, I mean I can actually understand some parts if I take it seriously. But even so, once I take a break for let's say a month or so, I'll forget about the formula and method how to solve a problem. So what I'm asking is, will I be able to hold myself even if I'm not that good in Math? Or should I change career?
And what kind of job will I get if I graduated as an Industrial Engineer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qygcp/eli5_about_industrial_engineering/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd32n4o"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"engineering generally is highly reliant on math. forgetting the formulas is not an issue, that can be fixed and most of them are only used in very narrow circumstances. however forgetting the methods and approaches is a much bigger issue, as those will carry forward into your job.\n\nDoes your faculty have some sort of guidance/advisory service or maybe some sort of students union you could talk to?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
79qgll | how would our lives be different if gravity was halved or doubled tomorrow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/79qgll/eli5_how_would_our_lives_be_different_if_gravity/ | {
"a_id": [
"dp4006u",
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"score": [
2,
2
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"text": [
"To be clear, are you asking if the fundamental force of gravity was different, or just that wherever you happen to be is is experiencing a local change in the *sensation* of gravity?",
"If gravity were doubled I doubt our muscles and bones could handle it. Our bodies are built to pretty specific standards and having more gravity would increase the strain on our frame enormously. I think the most immediate pressing matter would be breathing, since suddenly the muscles in our chest would have to cope with significantly more weight. Essentially like having a heavy weight on our chests all the time. Assuming enough people survived the breathing issue, over successive generations you'd probably see humans becoming shorter and squatter, with harder bones, probably some sort of increased lung capacity, more efficient hearts since pumping blood would be more difficult, and a restructured muscular system.\n\nFor lower gravity the effect wouldn't be as immediately lethal. People can survive long periods with minimal gravity. The biggest immediate problem would be bone loss. Our bones are constantly being slightly damaged and stressed through everyday activities and then immediately repaired, which keeps the bones healthy. This repair process shuts down under low gravity conditions because the bones don't receive the same kind of stress, and the body starts recycling bones at a greater rate than it fixes them. This would lead to a weaker skeletal structure. Over time, you'd see people growing larger and probably having fewer, weaker muscles due to reduced weight and stress. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
e4ulqm | why can we not clearly see/look at ultraviolet lights? what makes them seem blurry? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e4ulqm/eli5_why_can_we_not_clearly_seelook_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"f9ff8oz",
"f9gtxqd"
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16,
3
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"text": [
"UV lights generate a small level of top end blue/violet light, and that's what you can see. \n\nUV light by definition is light that falls beyond the upper limit of our visual spectrum. If the light gave out nothing but UV it would not appear to be lit at all. \n\nAs for why pure blue/violet lights are something we can't focus on, that's down to a quirk with our visual systems. \n\nMost of what you see in the natural world falls within the red/green band of vision. Earth, rocks, animals, trees, pretty much most terrestrial features. \n\nOur ability to detect blue light is really mostly there to enable us to distinguish more colours, it's not there for the purposes of resolution - or seeing detail. \n\nLinked into that, the focussing system in our eyes is optimized for red/green light, and disregarding the blue. When your eye and brain thinks you're focussed on a point, it will be assuming that point is lit with red/green light. Blue would require a different focus because blue light bends differently to red and green in our eyes.",
"We evolved to not see UV light. Our eyes only have cones and rods that can only make out RGB, and brightness.\n\nIf I were to take a wild guess, I’d say it has something to do with the giant ball of UV rays above you."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
jjxkd | why are macbooks so popular when there are pcs with much better specs and are cheaper? | ITT: How do I justify spending over $1200 on my Macbook in 2008? I haven't had any problems with it since purchasing it, so that's a plus. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjxkd/eli5_why_are_macbooks_so_popular_when_there_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2cq7j8",
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"score": [
5,
3,
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"text": [
"Because... They're shinier.",
"Good company image, brand loyalty, and people seem to like the operating system. They are also good for technical stuff, but that's not why they're popular now.",
"The lack of things like viruses and malware is a large plus, as well as reliability and great customer service. It's hard to justify spending *that* much on a computer, but you're getting a machine that doesn't fuck up as much. When it comes down to it, that's what matters the most to me (love my Mac). \n\nBut if you're a gamer, then fuck Mac. Get a bitchin' PC and go ultra high on quality.\n\nEDIT: forgot this was ELI5. I just want you all to know that I wouldn't use such language in front of a five year old...but I'm too lazy to edit this anymore than I already am doing... ",
"Because... They're shinier.",
"Good company image, brand loyalty, and people seem to like the operating system. They are also good for technical stuff, but that's not why they're popular now.",
"The lack of things like viruses and malware is a large plus, as well as reliability and great customer service. It's hard to justify spending *that* much on a computer, but you're getting a machine that doesn't fuck up as much. When it comes down to it, that's what matters the most to me (love my Mac). \n\nBut if you're a gamer, then fuck Mac. Get a bitchin' PC and go ultra high on quality.\n\nEDIT: forgot this was ELI5. I just want you all to know that I wouldn't use such language in front of a five year old...but I'm too lazy to edit this anymore than I already am doing... "
]
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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|
2ltmea | what are dog tags for ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ltmea/eli5_what_are_dog_tags_for/ | {
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"text": [
"For easy identification of a person and their blood type in battle. A dog tag will always be around their neck or one laced in their boots.",
"So the dead from conflict can be quickly identified, or less morbidly, pertinent medical information if they can still be saved. Allergies, blood type, that stuff.",
"To help identify a soldier after he/she has been killed and mangled beyond recognition.",
"'Dog tags' or more technically known as identification tags serve many purposes. There are two types of ID tags. The standard ones which identify the service member by NAME, RANK, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, BLOOD TYPE (if a transfusion is needed), and RELIGION (for purposes of proper handling of a body). There are also RED ID tags. The red ID tags let a medic/medical professional know that a service member is allergic to a particular drug.\n\n\nService members carry two ID tags with them which make a set. When a service member dies in combat, typically one of the tags is taken and the other is left with the fallen service member. The tag on the service member allows the fallen service member to be properly identified. The other tag is taken to confirm the service member has fallen. This is especially useful in condition where the body cannot be removed from the battlefield.\n\n\nCommanders may also use to tags to identify service members for accountability purposes. In the modern age it is not as common because identification cards exist.\n\n\nEDIT: Forgot to add blood type.",
"In addition, when I was in Iraq, we all carried \"kill cards\" which basically had our info printed on a laminated card. \nMore disturbing, all of us carried our own toe tags as well, although I forgot what they called them."
]
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[],
[],
[],
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[]
] |
||
bjy4t2 | sas / sata / scsi? | I just don’t get it. Are they drives or cables? Some websites mention they’re cables and others mention drives and one of them said SCSI is a protocol? Please help. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bjy4t2/eli5_sas_sata_scsi/ | {
"a_id": [
"emc633h",
"emc9qyi"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"They are all communication standards for connecting devices together. There are cables and drives which comply with the standards so they are referred to with the standards.",
"Is is a bit of everything you mention.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSCSI start back in 1986 with a 8 bit wide buss where you can connect 8 devices to a cable. So it is a standard for how to build a cable and the physical interface to connect to the drive. The data rate is 5 megabyte/s. It evolve to Ultra-640 SCSI releade in 2003 with a 16 bit wide interface that can connect 16 devises to a cable ant at a speed of 640 megabyte/s. This is today retroactively called Parallel SCSI\n\nBut there is alos another part of SCSI and that is the command you send over the bus to communicate with the disk like to read some data. That is the protocol.\n\nSCSI was used for more then hard drives and you controlled tape drives, CD and even scanner user that.\n\nSo SCSI is both a interface with cable standard and electronics that talk to each other and the command that is send of the protocol. So it is a bit like both Ethernet and IP for computer networks in the same standard.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAt the same time you have ATA for had driver that is a less complex system that personal computer uses and you could have a maximum of 2 drives per cables. So SCSI was the high preformance sever system that could do mor and ATA was the lower cost consumer varians. This is today retroactively called Parallel ATA\n\nThe ATA interface in later varians start to add the ability to shend SCSI command on the ATA buss that is expecially usfull for stuff that is not a hard rives and you get CR-Rom, tape drives, large floppy dives lie Zip drives. So the standard stat to mix togherer\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBecause of how technology evolved it changed to a serial interface that was faster and had fewer wires and you in 2005 get Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). So you hade fewer wires and the cables was only from to one drive and not shared. You could have expanders so one SAS connect to the computer is from the expander connected to multiple drives. The protocol you talk to the drive is still the same SCSI that the parallell version.\n\nThere ara a lot of different connector for SAS dives and expander and other part like you can see on [_URL_1_](_URL_0_) one is SFF-8482 that look like a SATA driver connector. You can use it to connec a SATA drive to a SAS controller but you cant connect a SAS drive to a SATA controller.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nATA also changes to a serial inter face and you get Serial ATA or SATA where a 40 wire serial interface changes to a 7 pin serial interface that is faster.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo today SCSI is the protocol with the instruction you use to talk to the hard dives.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSATA is the standard of the interface to the hard drive consumer computer uses and you seldom have more the one dist per controller in the computer but it can be done with port expander.\n\nSAS is for use in server or disk array settings and it uses more expensive drives and have good support for connecting more disk to a single controller on the computer. The physical interface is the same for SATA and SAS so the start to overlap. SATA drives can be used in SAS system but not the other way around. \n\nIt is primary the other part of te SAS standard where you can connect multiple dives to a single back plane a other stuff that you like to create large disk array that in the SAS standard but not the same way in the SATA.\n\nSo the overlap a lot today but in SATA is for a desktop and SAS for a large disk system for servers but the middle area with smaller server with a few disk in the both can be used.\n\nSAS drives are more expensive but at the same time the have higher quality part so the failure rate is less"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI#Connectors",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial\\_Attached\\_SCSI#Connectors"
]
] |
|
23d3ze | surrogacies...if donor a fertilizes donor b's egg, and it's implanted in donor c, does the baby have any of donor c's genetic characteristics as a result of the incubation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23d3ze/eli5_surrogaciesif_donor_a_fertilizes_donor_bs/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgvsvrr",
"cgvt8ds"
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"score": [
2,
2
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"text": [
"The fertilized egg will have A and B's chromosomes. Because all cells are then produced from this egg, all the baby's cells will have A and B's characteristics. C has nothing to do with the baby genetically.",
"Genetic characteristics? No, not as such. The surrogate does not contribute any genetic information to the zygote.\n\nBut does the surrogate not matter at all? I think that might be too much to claim. If nothing else, the womb environment in a surrogate mother will be at least ever-so-slightly different from that in the womb of the woman who supplied the egg to be fertilized. \n\nThis is important. DNA isn't computer code, i.e., the same genetic sequence will not always produce the same physical expression the way you always get the same result if you execute the same section of machine code. External stimuli contribute to the way that cells implement genetic instructions, either by the introduction of errors or simply because the code doesn't spell out the result with exactitude and leaves some portion of the final product to chance. \n\nFor instance, even identical twins are usually at least a *little* different in appearance, and that difference is attributable to environmental differences that the twins experience because they are not numerically the same person. Given that, it seems reasonable to think that an embryo that gestates in Donor B's womb would have at least a *slightly* different outcome than one in a surrogate's womb, even if the resulting baby doesn't actually have any of the surrogate's genetic information on board."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
||
5thmnf | is the universe losing mass and gaining energy? | I think I understand the conversion of mass to energy in natural settings, like burning of firewood, or fusion in the sun. But does that mean every day, the universe is losing mass, and on an infinite timeline there will be no mass, and the universe will be converted to total energy? Or is it more complicated than that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5thmnf/eli5_is_the_universe_losing_mass_and_gaining/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddmk1m3"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Broadly speaking, yes, although we could also be losing energy to whatever form mass-energy takes within black holes.\n\n > I think I understand the conversion of mass to energy in natural settings, **like burning of firewood,** or fusion in the sun.\n\nWhile you're technically correct, what precisely do you mean here? Because there's a level of depth of knowledge here that the layman typically doesn't have, and I don't want to confuse you."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
9rzydm | why does watching rooftop parkour videos give me butterflies, even though i'm viewing from the safety of my home with no chance of falling to my death? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9rzydm/eli5_why_does_watching_rooftop_parkour_videos/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8kytge",
"e8kytxw"
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"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Humans have the ability to put themselves in the positions of others, to put it simply, part of your brain believes the person you are watching is you, this is why we can feel the pain of others or feel fearful when watching someone in a horror movie. The higher parts of your brain allow you to understand you're not actually in the situation, but more primitive parts of the brain still initiate the stress response and fight flight freeze response.",
"Humans have the ability to put themselves in the positions of others, to put it simply, part of your brain believes the person you are watching is you, this is why we can feel the pain of others or feel fearful when watching someone in a horror movie. The higher parts of your brain allow you to understand you're not actually in the situation, but more primitive parts of the brain still initiate the stress response and fight flight freeze response."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
z57f1 | why is a single currency causing the eurozone so much trouble while the dollar is much more stable over a larger zone? | Basically, why is Greece threatening to tank the Euro while California isn't destroying the value of the dollar? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z57f1/why_is_a_single_currency_causing_the_eurozone_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"c61k6a8"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Greece is allowed to hold ridiculously large national debt, while also not being in control of the euro. California is not allowed to hold significant debt, and the federal government that *is* allowed to has complete control over the dollar."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2vu0p0 | do domesticated animals (cats in this situation) recognize the difference between adults and kids? | My cat can be nice sometimes, if he is in my room. But when he is just wandering around the house (Desert Lynx doesn't hide under a bed all day) he doesn't want anyone touching him. He will swat and bite after you second or third pet. But my 5 year old nephew can pinch his cheeks, rub is head, hold him down and the cat does nothing. Granted, the cat looks horrified while hes doing he and tries to escape but he has never tried to scratch him. Is there something behind that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vu0p0/eli5_do_domesticated_animals_cats_in_this/ | {
"a_id": [
"cokxc94",
"cokxknh"
],
"score": [
9,
4
],
"text": [
"So animals, regardless of species, are very in tune with the age of another animal (humans in this case). They understand that the little ones are probably harmless and should be treated as such.\n\nThere are stories of where little kids/babies fall into animal enclosures at zoos, and the animals will protect the kid/baby from the care takers.",
"Virtually all animals very easily recognize the difference between adults and children. This is why you will often see small children able to do things to pets that adults would be bit or scratched for doing. They get the same level of tolerance that the animal gives their own young when it comes to play. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
46jhru | why does venezuela post 3 official usd/vef exchange rates (plus some black market ones?) | With Venezuela's currency devaluation in the news, how does their currency work in the first place? Why can the government post 6.3-1, 13.5-1, and 200-1 exchange rates, plus black market rates at 1000-1?
What the heck are these 4+ concurrent exchange rates, and how do the economics/finance work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46jhru/eli5_why_does_venezuela_post_3_official_usdvef/ | {
"a_id": [
"d05n7bf"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The two lower rates are gov't subsidized rates used to prop up companies who import critical goods. The gov't sells dollars to these companies, they they in theory import food and medicine and machine parts. In practice, a lot of those dollars go right back to the black market, turning 6 bolivars into 200.\n\nThe third (173:1) is sort of a legal black market rate, hoping people will take a discount on the black market rate (~200:1) to keep things legal."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
aigvig | why are people who have 1 white parent and 1 black parent (e.g. obama) always classified as black? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aigvig/eli5_why_are_people_who_have_1_white_parent_and_1/ | {
"a_id": [
"eenlvqv",
"eenmw1o",
"eennar6"
],
"score": [
6,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"When you say “always classified” what classification system are you referring to?",
"Depends who is making the comment.\nMy nephew has English and Gambian heritage and when he's here in England people consider in more 'black' whereas when he visits Gambia he is regarded as more 'white' ",
"When you are of mixed ethnicity you belong fully to both cultures, but what you are racially is what you look like. Which physical phenotypes are dominant in your appearance, primarily your skin tone and hair type as they are the most obvious racial features. Since most people who are mixed with blacks dominantly display dark skin and hair types of blacks they are considered black. If they favor the white side it is possible for them to be considered white, or to be mistaken for being Hispanic, Native American, Indian, or Middle Eastern, but that is less common. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
2jt36u | two part question 1. why is there so much weird shit that comes out of japan (even excluding the crazy tentacle hentai, theres a lot of pissing, shitting, and vomiting on)? 2. with all their weird shit why do they censor their naughty bits? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jt36u/eli5eli5_two_part_question_1_why_is_there_so_much/ | {
"a_id": [
"cleuglc",
"cleupig"
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6,
2
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"text": [
" Japan's modern depiction of pornography stems from the turmoil in Japan's 20th century conflicts between modernity and classicism. \n\nFor most of Japan's history sex and sexuality was quite open. During the shogunate High Art was often pornographic and depicted imagery that went beyond most other countries social norms such as anal sex, beastiality, and gay sex. Only With the rise of Imperialism and Facism in the 20th century was there a moral rejection of these images. After Japan was defeated, the US occupied Japan and crafted their new constitution. American sensibilities regarding porn were forced on the Japanese. Censorship and obscenity laws were highly influenced by American Moralists who saw Japanese sexuality as one of the reasons they went so wrong. This was a highly racist idea, but racism towards Japan was state sanctioned within the US at this time and was very common across the world. \n\nThis era for post ww2 Japan was fraught with difficulty as they saw the rise of Communism in China as a direct threat and at the same time faced harsh rule from American interests. The US offered protection so japan slowly assimilated to the new social norms of Americans and obscenity laws were further enacted and became the new norm. \n\nBut these norms are still foreign and still are in conflict with traditional cultural norms. So while genitals might be against the law tentacles are not technically genitals and so they can depict them to skirt the written law. Scat and urine also are ways to get around showing genitals. The laws were written for American sensability we and by Japanese clerks. Neither could expect the loopholes that would allow pornagrphers to avoid these laws.\n\nIn short this seeming paradox between Japanese censorship with strange fetishes stems from: \n \n1. Because historically japan has accepted these fetishes\n2. They are a way to get around American created obscenity laws\n3. They are a show of disobedience towards the Conservative Japanese government which some feel sold Japan's independence for security and to become a US puppet. \n\nPlease remeber that strange is a subjective idea. What may seem strange to one person is normal to another. ",
"1) Confirmation bias. You're only seeing the weirdest shit, so you think that they produce a ton of it. They don't. Imagine if a Japanese person had no exposure to American culture at all except for The Human Centipede, Team America World Police, _URL_0_ (NSFW), and Toddlers & Tiaras- they'd think we're weird too. You don't see Japanese news reports. You don't see Japanese sitcoms. The shit that's totally normal (which accounts for 99.9% of their output) is never going to be exceptional enough for it to be randomly seen by you.\n\n2) Censorship in Japan has a strange and long history, but basically, some of the weird stuff that does (rarely) come up in Japanese porn was a way to bypass those censorship laws. For a long time you couldn't legally show a penis, for example, but you COULD show a tentacle. So some people decided to make porn with tentacles. "
]
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[],
[
"Cakefarter.com"
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||
2erupm | how come anyone can't just get their own internet tower and connect to the internet without the use of a carrier? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2erupm/eli5_how_come_anyone_cant_just_get_their_own/ | {
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"Well, there's no such thing as an \"Internet tower.\" But in theory, you could become your own carrier. It would cost you far more to do so than to pay your ISP $34.99 a month or whatever.",
"Because all the internet is nothing more than all the carriers paying each other to dump traffic to each other. Verizon pays ATT and ATT pays Verizon and so on. There isn't somewhere this thing that is the internet that ATT connects you to. ATT _is the internet_ when seen in combination with all the other carriers.\n\n",
"The internet isn't \"one thing\" that you connect to, it's a collection of computer networks that has decided to work together. So, in a sense, ISPs are what the internet is made of.\n\nWhen I send this message from Sweden to reddits servers in the US it first goes to my local ISP but they only deal with, well, fairly local stuff.\n\nMy local ISP hands it over to a large nordic telecommunications company but they don't operate any transatlantic communications cables and can only take it as far as Denmark or perhaps Germany.\n\nSo they in their turn hand it over to [Level 3 Communications](_URL_0_) that has capacity to take it to the US through a transatlantic communications cable.\n\nAnd after a few more jumps through some other networks this message arrives to reddit.\n\nAll these networks have business agreements with eachother and when a new ISP is formed it has to get some agrement with one or more other ISPs. These agreements can be anything from \"I need you as much as you need me so let's just swap traffic back and forth without charging eachother\" to \"If you want a connection, you have to pay for it.\"\n\nAnd the big players aren't interested in dealing with single individuals so we as regular people, like you and me, we have to get our internet from companies that do.",
"There is no such thing as \"connecting to the internet\". There is a bunch of different companies that each have different size networks. All those networks connected together form the internet.\n\nNone of those companies are going to let you plug in your computer in their network for free."
]
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lgtva | the military system under the articles of confederation | Did each state have their own army? Was there any central army? Could each state tax their citizens to support the state army? I'm really confused. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lgtva/eli5_the_military_system_under_the_articles_of/ | {
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"The Continental Army was formed during the Revolutionary War, and was made up of troops from all the colonies. After the Treaty of Paris, the Continental Army was drastically downsized, but remained in a much reduced rump form with a few permanent posts, most notably West Point.\n\nThe Congress of the Confederation came into a sort of barely-official being in the late 1770s, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 cemented it as the highest legislative body in the new United States. In 1784, the Congress of the Confederation disbanded the Continental Army and then immediately formed the US Army out of it.\n\nBut the Confederation only lasted five years. In 1789, that political entity ceased to exist, and the United States in its permanent form took over all its assets, including the US Army.\n\nSo in point of fact, the United States Army is older than the republic it defends. Just an amusing piece of historical trivia.",
"This was one of the main problems with the articles, the federal government had *very* little power, and thus had troubles raising an army. AFAIK, each state would have their own militia, but not a formal standing army like a country would normally have.\n\nShame to hear you have a crappy history teacher, History can either be incredibly interesting and fun, or very drab and boring, depending on the teacher.\n\ngood luck on your test.",
"The Continental Army was formed during the Revolutionary War, and was made up of troops from all the colonies. After the Treaty of Paris, the Continental Army was drastically downsized, but remained in a much reduced rump form with a few permanent posts, most notably West Point.\n\nThe Congress of the Confederation came into a sort of barely-official being in the late 1770s, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 cemented it as the highest legislative body in the new United States. In 1784, the Congress of the Confederation disbanded the Continental Army and then immediately formed the US Army out of it.\n\nBut the Confederation only lasted five years. In 1789, that political entity ceased to exist, and the United States in its permanent form took over all its assets, including the US Army.\n\nSo in point of fact, the United States Army is older than the republic it defends. Just an amusing piece of historical trivia.",
"This was one of the main problems with the articles, the federal government had *very* little power, and thus had troubles raising an army. AFAIK, each state would have their own militia, but not a formal standing army like a country would normally have.\n\nShame to hear you have a crappy history teacher, History can either be incredibly interesting and fun, or very drab and boring, depending on the teacher.\n\ngood luck on your test."
]
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q924b | in song lyrics, why is "baby" often referred to as a woman? | A lot of song lyrics use "baby", meaning a woman or a partner. Why is that referred to as "baby"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q924b/eli5_in_song_lyrics_why_is_baby_often_referred_to/ | {
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"It's a term of endearment. Babies are generally cherished and everyone loves them, especially women. The word in our society has a \"warm, fuzzy, cuddly, loving\" tone and feeling to it.\n\nPlus it's a different word than \"woman\", so you can rhyme more words with it.\n\nWomen use it all the time in their relationships when talking to their partners (males) and probably females as well.",
"fascinating how in a thread like this an agenda of downvotes becomes really apparent. You have three similar answers from different people and one that doesn't address the historical meaning of the word... and yet people are downvoting the ones talking about how women were things to be pandered to for ages until very recently. Equality is about truth, not about leveling the playing field as per someone's opinion. \n\nIt's difficult to provide a source for this, because it's such general knowledge and few people have bothered to examine it aside from women, whose opinions, *ironically,* are probably not going to be relevant enough to the downvoters to be a creditable source in this situation, so I won't bother. There are dozens of essays and examinations of pet names for women that have been re-appropriated."
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|
70a1jz | what exactly happens to the human body when a "regular american eater" becomes vegan? | This is kind of a follow up to one of my other posts about something I asked earlier. I find a bunch of information about this on Google, but it's hard to tell bias from fact. What would happen if I, an average American, switch to a vegan diet? What does my body go through and why?
Other post: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70a1jz/eli5_what_exactly_happens_to_the_human_body_when/ | {
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"you would likely lose a lot of weight, but if you balanced your nutrition properly then nothing major. You would get all the nutrients you need, without as much excess fat/grease that meat contains. Vegan meals tend to be more utilitarian (for better or worse) and your body will be 'cleaner' as a result.",
"Almost instantaneously, your mouth will begin to open, and words will just just come out \"Well, as vegan, I think...\" Once you identify as a vegan, the power of it is overwhelming. You will also begin to fell superior to others, and feel that you are required to tell them how much better you are, due to the vegan diet. \n\n\nIt is truly transforming. ",
"you would likely lose a lot of weight, but if you balanced your nutrition properly then nothing major. You would get all the nutrients you need, without as much excess fat/grease that meat contains. Vegan meals tend to be more utilitarian (for better or worse) and your body will be 'cleaner' as a result."
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/709wrl/eli5_a_good_chunk_of_people_are_vegetarian_but/"
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5qutol | where did our modern standard of beauty (tall, fit/thin, strong facial structure, etc) come from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qutol/eli5_where_did_our_modern_standard_of_beauty_tall/ | {
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"The modern preference for thin people comes from the current economics of food. In poor times, being fat was a sign of wealth: one could afford plenty of food. Today, being fat in a rich country is a sign of being poor. Fattening food is cheap and and poor people eat junk food or don't care about their health or don't know any better. Whereas being thin and fit shows that you have enough money and spare time to go to the gym. "
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||
1mx6k8 | how do subcellular molecules move and know what to do? | watch this: _URL_0_
like where does that rotary thing (mRNA?) get its energy from? how does it know when to stop rotating? how does that motor protein walk? etc.
i mean they're proteins and molecules but they already can do very complex tasks. how the fuck?! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mx6k8/eli5_how_do_subcellular_molecules_move_and_know/ | {
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"(Ap bio student, so take this comment for what its worth)\nBasically, its just chemistry. The interaction of the atoms and compounds make the mRNA move. Its like when you combine, say, baking soda and vinegar, the reaction occurs not because of consciousness, but sue to the chemical properties and reactivity.\nThey don't \"know\" what to do in the way we do, they \"know\" how to move because their chemical properties dictate that.\nThis also brings up some really interesting questions about consciousness and human autonomy. If we are composed of a bunch of chemical reactions, how does it seem to be that we have free will? Do we have free will? "
]
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zD3NxSsD8"
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2a60t6 | what does handwriting say about people? | Is it a matter of one's organizational skills? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a60t6/eli5_what_does_handwriting_say_about_people/ | {
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"It's a lot like trying to analyze someone by the clothes they wear, or the car they drive. Anything you think you've uncovered MIGHT be accurate, but there are a thousand confounding factors that play into it, so it's as much of a guessing game as it is a science.\n\nWhy do I write like I do? It could be because of my anxiety, or my parents, or my teachers, or my diet causing tremors in my hands, or my being in a rush, or my mimicking of a certain hero of mine...\n\nIt could be any of those things, or none of those things. It's not a very solid science, by any stretch. There's just not enough information.",
"How well they paid attention in hand-writing class?",
"Handwriting analysis is known as *graphology,* and it's considered to be pseudoscience. Nobody's ever conclusively linked handwriting technique to a particular aspect of character, so the answer is, apparently, \"nothing.\"\nSee [here.](_URL_0_)",
"Skeptoid did an episode on this \n\n_URL_0_ \n\nIn summary - 'graphonomy' or 'graphology' is a pseudo-science, it works the same way that any cold-reading works. They take things they already know, or can guess about the person and apply it to the 'analysis'. E.g if a man in a smart suit comes to have his handwriting analysed they'll say 'your neat vowels show you are organised' or if it's a woman in hippy clothes they'll say 'your looopy g's and y's show you're a free spirit!' It's all moonshine.\n\nThe classic graphology trope is the analysis of the ransom note 'the kidnapper has a criminal mindset' well no shit sherlock. \n\nBUT - you can tell a few actual things from handwriting \n\n- When and where the person learned to write, people tend to ape the styles of their parents, teachers, classmates etc. \n\n- If they have trouble with hand eye co-ordination or trouble with their hand movements - especially if the handwriting changes over time. This is used by neurologists to diagnose things like dementia. \n\nAnd that's about it. \n\n\n"
]
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|
6i66yz | i've heard that recent neuroscience has debunked the "left brain-right brain" idea. what do we know about the two halves of the brain? | I started reading "Drawing on the right side of the brain" from the 90s, and it spoke with great conviction of the split brain. However, I've heard from some neuroscientists (directly) that this has been debunked in modern science. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6i66yz/eli5_ive_heard_that_recent_neuroscience_has/ | {
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"The idea that the two sides of the brain handled specific functions was put forth during the time when lobotomies were regularly performed, which wasn't all that long ago. During a lobotomy, a portion of the brain is removed, and the psychologist who performed the surgery would then test his patient with various tasks to see what the effect was. This way, they could see which parts of the brain controlled which functions... sort of.\n\nLater, the corpus callosotomy was figured out, which takes away the corpus callosum, which is the bridge between the two hemispheres of the brain that allows the two sides to communicate. While a very effective treatment for seizures, psychologists also observed some very interesting effects on a person's ability to recognize words and images. One such famous test is here _URL_0_ , in which a computer monitor is set up and a word or image flashes on one side of the screen or the other. If it flashes on the right, Joe can understand what is being shown. If it flashes on the left, he can't read the text or understand the image, but he is able to draw it. This furthered the idea that each side of the brain functioned in specific ways.\n\nWith more advanced imaging and testing equipment, we now know that the entire brain is brought to bear on every task that it handles. A person without a left or right hemisphere can do all of the things a person with a full, healthy brain can do (although much slower and with less acumen). The corpus callosum was discovered to just allow for information to be shared between sides of the brain.\n\nWe do know that there are certain areas of the brain that are more active during certain activities, but the entire brain is still active at all times. It functions as a whole, and any damage to any part of the brain can impair all brain function. \n\nWe've also discovered no significant physical difference between the brains of top performers. A very talented pianist, for example, does not have more growth or development on one side of the brain, nor is his brain significantly different to a very talented physicist. These tests put to rest the idea that one side of the brain controlled any one given task.",
"There is known quite a lot about the different sides of the brain. Creativity and rational thinking are in both sides. But there's done quite some research on split-brain patients and people who don't have the connection between them (a damaged or a cut Corpus callosum) show some interesting effects. If you put them in front of a screen and make both eyes look at their own side only and show a picture of an object on the left side, their right brain (the brain is crosswired) will know what the object is, the person can even draw it with their left hand. But they won't be able to name it because there's some brain areas relevant to speaking in the left brain that are not found it the right brain.\n\nIf you show a picture on the right side they will be able to name it just fine but they won't be able to draw it with their right hand. Both hemispheres have some other small differences, for example with music, one side focuses on rhythm and the other on pitch. There's more subtle differences, but most functions have some brain parts on both sides, sometimes it's bigger on one side though, but if an area is damaged on one side often the other side can take it over (although less good and it might need some practice).\n\nIt's also interesting that some people have their brain hemispheres on the opposite (around 5-25% of the people). Scientists doing research with an MRI scan often only want people from the \"normal\" group and would like to know it in advance. People with switched hemispheres are often left handed (but not always) and this also explains why most people are right handed.\n\n\n\nBut newer research shows that even people without the connection between the hemispheres have only one consciousness",
"Awesome video from an expert in the field. \n\n[The Master and His Emissary](_URL_0_)",
"They don't really know too much about the brain, tbh. I had a brain injury in August,2000, & have every test & procedure done at least twice, as due to the head & neck trauma I received I have extreme migraines all the time- no obvious cause(s) found. I get all of the side effects that come with migraines as well- sensitivity to light, smells & noise. I actually had to move from a city with a population of approx.500,000 to a city with less than 300 so I don't have to hear \"normal\" sounds like traffic, sirens, trains, etc. And forget ever going to a movie or concert. I also have basically no appetite at all because i have a nauseous feeling a lot. I get hungry but then when I look at food I'm just like,\"ugh.\"\nI keep up on any & all research in hopes that there will be some kind of breakthrough that I'll be able to participate in before I die at least to help others that come after me with this type of injury. The only thing the doctors can do is control the pain with medication, which sucks for the rest of my body. Before this injury I hardly ever took an aspirin - & now I have to take medication just to function like a human being.",
"Well, here's a bit. We know that for about 90% of right handed individuals, the more active language centers rest in the left side of the brain. Psycholinguistics spends a lot of time studying the data to support such a claim. With left handed individuals, the percentage drops a bit, with more individuals showing more activity on the right side.\n\n(These are the main language centers, brocas, wernickes, and a few other areas of interest)\n\nWe tend to make \"claims\" about right/left brained individuals, specifically regarding creativity, language, math, music, kinesthetics and balance, spatial reasoning, etc... but the reality is that these things really seem to match up more with fields of sensual focus (sight, sound, touch), which in general are kitty corner (left field, right side of brain).\n\nThere's some great neuroscience labs studying unique stuff regarding these questions that you could check out if you're interesting in learning more. Lmk if you are and I can link a few for you.",
"We don't know a damned thing about the brain. We know certain chemicals act on certain neurotransmitters, how bits bind with other bits, but anything further than that is purely speculation. We don't *know* any more about the brain than the guys who measured skulls back in the victorian times to gauge criminality and other naughty things people might have gotten up to. \n\nIt's a mystery yet to be truly explored because almost any testing relies on subjective experience and not objective fact. We can do double blind experiments and the like, where the subject is told they may or may not go through the experiment on that particular date, but the results always come down to personal experience.",
"The brain has many functions that overlap in sections of the brain. The only part of your brain that would have separate information is from your eyes at the optic chiasm, even then it's transferred to the occipital lobe where both sets of information are processed ",
"As I have got older I have come to the sad conviction that almost everything you hear is garbage - one way or another. \"Debunking\" the left brain right brain MAY be technically true - I don't know. Nor do I care. But I'll tell you something interesting.\n\nIt is a model of how the mind works. Now I am \"right brain dominant\" as per the model and I used to work tutoring \"right brain dominant\" kids. Whatever, that might mean in reality, the model is powerful.How powerful? I was able to develop a 4 hour intervention that would take any motivated kid who was right brain dominant and get him to go from the bottom of his class (where they usually were because school is \"left brain dominant\" and get them to the top.\n\nSome of you may believe me, some of you may not. I really don't care. But if you understood the subject well enough you could do the same thing too. So was it their right brain, their left brain, the upper brain their inside brain? Who knows and who cares. The model works. Perhaps we could call it \"A dominant\" and \"B dominant\".\n\nSo they may have \"debunked\" the model technically but did they remember to say \"but it's a really, really useful concept because applied it can transform people's lives for the better.\n",
"The split brain is really a thing. [CGP Grey has a good video on it.](_URL_0_) and from there you can link on to videos where actual experiments have been performed.\n\nThere are very much defined areas of the human brain that carry out specific types of tasks. Many of the sensory regions are mirrored on both sides, both hemispheres, of the brain. But *processing* those inputs into higher thinking events is very much split between the two hemispheres.\n\ne.g. the speech center and language centers are in the left hemisphere. Certain types of spatial and visual analysis are on the right.\n\nBetween the two hemispheres sits the corpus callosum, the router that connects the two halves. Disrupt its function and you see some pretty bizarre behavior as noted in the link.\n\nNow, what you *may* be referring to (and without hearing from them directly I can't really say) is that while the brain does have hemisphere-dependent functionality, when there is damage areas of the brain that don't typically carry out a given task type may reshape themselves so they can. With an otherwise intact corpus callosum, if there is damage to the left hemisphere's speech center it could very well be that an area in the right hemisphere remaps itself to handle some speech-related tasks.\n\nThis is literal re-wiring of the brain. New neural connections are growing and integrating with the rest of the brain. As such functionality typically thought of as being centered on one hemisphere may pop up on the other. But this is not something that spontaneously happens and is the result of some sort of trauma or disease."
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