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31tn13 | why do commercial ads usually offer products at $19.99 and offer a second product with it for free? | In my area, commercial ads about products always have the products at $19.99. I have never seen it higher. Also in the commercial they also offer you the same product for free if you buy it! Like buy 1 get 1. Plus, the commercial is on the air for a few weeks and you never hear of the product again. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31tn13/eli5_why_do_commercial_ads_usually_offer_products/ | {
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"Because it fools people into thinking they're getting a great bargain. People *should* see $19.99 as 20 dollars but a surprisingly high number of people will see it as 19 dollars, rounding down 99 cents instead of rounding up by a penny. That's the first trick. The second is the 2-for-1 aspect. Obviously the company is not losing money by \"giving away\" a second item, but again there are people who will believe that they are getting something for free. \n\n\n\nSometimes they go even further by proclaiming the deal to be a \"$50 value!\" or whatever other number they decide seems believable to the gullible.",
"It's an enticement gimmick designed to make the viewer feel like they are getting an incredible deal, instead of objectively assessing the value of the offer.\n\nIf you go into a store and Item A is $9, B is $2, C is $3, D is $3, and E is $2... What are the chances that you're going to buy them all for $19?\n\nOn the other hand, if item A is advertised for $19.99, but you get items B, C, D, and E for \"free\" if you buy A, it sounds a lot more enticing... Plus, you're paying an extra 99 cents -- practically $1 more. It's an effective gimmick, which is why it's still used.",
"I think you also get the \"free\" product but have to pay another $10 or so for separate shipping and handling. "
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7sh62l | why are humans so resistant to change while being so curious and exploring? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sh62l/eli5_why_are_humans_so_resistant_to_change_while/ | {
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"Because exploring is finding something new. Change is having to make yourself do something different, something you don’t want to do, something unknown... change is like a bath for the kid that loves to play in mud and would rather by coated in it than washing it away in the bath.",
"There's a personality trait called [openness to experience] (_URL_0_). Individuals may have high or low openness (or somewhere in the middle). But society as a whole tends to be led and administrated by law-and-order types who have traits that negatively correlate somewhat with openness."
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6gpjjx | why are there two letters in english, c and k, that make exactly the same sound? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gpjjx/eli5_why_are_there_two_letters_in_english_c_and_k/ | {
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"Here's a couple posts that could help answer your question:\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_0_",
"The Romans, originally, used C to represent the /k/ sound, but several hundred years later, their pronunciation shifted. After the shift, words that had a /k/ followed by either an I or an E, were pronounced with an /s/, instead. (In some times and places, it may have been a /ch/, instead.) But in writing, they kept the old spelling, and it wasn't a problem: everybody just learned that the letter C sounds like /s/ if it follows an I or an E, and like /k/ otherwise, and there simply *were* no Latin words with a /k/ sound followed by an I or an E.\n\nBut eventually, people in western Europe started wanting to write down languages other than Latin, some of which *did* have /k/'s followed by I's and E's, so they reintroduced the letter K (from the Greek alphabet) to serve in cases where a C would be read as having an /s/ sound."
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1ufn7z | how does the current self-driving cars know to do the more 'complicated' things like starting up at a green light or yielding at a 2 way stop. | Perhaps they don't and they can only go on highways now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ufn7z/eli5_how_does_the_current_selfdriving_cars_know/ | {
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"Those things aren't much more complicated than staying inside the lane by not drifting over the white/yellow lines. \n\nWhen the camera detects a stop sign it should also identify the start of the intersection and hold the car stationary there for a second or so before decided to advance or wait on another vehicle. Car on the road to the right? Wait until it has passed. \n\nWhen a street light is seen hanging over an intersection advance through only if the green light is active. If it's not pull to halt before the start of the intersection and wait until it is. \n\nThese are fairly simple ideas to program, the real difficulty is writing the software that lets you identify stop signs, traffic lights and the like from your camera feeds.",
"They use various types of cameras/sensors to determine what's going on around them. The camera sees a green light, so the car knows that it's supposed to go. It sees a red light, so it stops and waits. They can even read stop signs and other types of road signs.\n\nUsing a computer inside the car to process all of the information the cameras/sensors gather, the car determines what's happening around it, and then determines how to act appropriately (break soft, break hard, accelerate, decelerate, turn, etc.).\n\nIn some ways it's similar to how XBox's Kinect watches your movements in your living room. It 'sees' how you're moving, and the game's code reacts based on a set of conditions. So if you jump at the right time, you avoid the obstacle, or if you fist-pump on-beat with the music, you get more points. The only difference is that the car is a lot more complicated, so it needs more cameras and sensors, and the code that figures how what's happening and how to react is a lot more complex. \n\nGoogle is currently testing self-driving cars in California, and it's not just highway driving. They can drive on regular roads and highways, and are currently safer than human-driven vehicles (500,000+ miles driven with no accidents, whereas an average person has an accident about every 300,000 miles).",
"Could a self driving car be tricked or fooled? What if I stop my car in front of it, would it sit there forever?",
"The most complicated scenarios are driving in snow where you can't see the lines and when a traffic light is out and a cop is directing traffic and each cop's signals are different. Because of these situations automatic driving cars will always need a human to take over in some scenarios. ",
"Following basic traffic rules is not hard to program. The real trick is programming the light is green, I am cleared to go but the idiot that has the red light is about to run it, best apply the breaks. ",
"I would like to know if road construction would fuck it up, perhaps the temporary roads may confuse the AI?",
"The same way you do: Look for cues and respond accordingly. ",
"What about the case when there's a power outage? (Intersection lights out, intersection becomes a 4 way stop)",
"4 self-driving cars pull up at the same time to a 4-way stop. Now who has right-of-way? Normally it's up to someone to go first or someone to wave someone else through, even then it's a cautious start."
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73g3lz | how can photochromic glasses change colour with the sunlight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73g3lz/eli5_how_can_photochromic_glasses_change_colour/ | {
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"from wikipedia:\n > In one sort of technology, molecules of silver chloride or another silver halide are embedded in photochromatic lenses. They are transparent to visible light without significant ultraviolet component, which is normal for artificial lighting. In another sort of technology, organic photochromic molecules, when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) rays as in direct sunlight, undergo a chemical process that causes them to change shape and absorb a significant percentage of the visible light, i.e., they darken. These processes are reversible; once the lens is removed from strong sources of UV rays the photochromic compounds return to their transparent state\n\n_URL_0_"
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7j78i5 | when a woman has a hysterectomy what is put in his place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7j78i5/eli5_when_a_woman_has_a_hysterectomy_what_is_put/ | {
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"Nothing. It is left a void and her other organs will shift to take advantage of the space. ",
"It can be kind of hard to tell from diagrams, but the uterus is actually pretty small. It's [about the size of a small pear](_URL_0_). Removing it doesn't leave an enormous void or anything. "
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4si5v0 | why does the inside of my ear hurt when using over the ear headphones but not ear buds? | Whenever I use over the ear headphones for around 2 hours I get pain inside my ear. However, I can use in ear buds for as long as I want and get no pain inside my ear. Is there a reason for this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4si5v0/eli5_why_does_the_inside_of_my_ear_hurt_when/ | {
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"They are folding your ears a little bit for an extended time. It hurts so much more than it should. ",
"Weird, because I'm the opposite. Ear buds drive me crazy, but over-the-ear headphones are fantastic.",
"I have the exact opposite problem. Headphones do nothing to irritate the insides of my ears, but earbuds cause me a lot of discomfort after a short time. Likely it comes down to your personal skin and soft tissue sensitivity. Everyone's different.",
"You probably have \"Closed Back\" headphones that attempt to block out ambient noise physically and can create a bit of a suction. Try \"Open Back\" headphones to elevate the pressure. They allow more ambient noise to leak in, but are much more comfortable."
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9v9p8w | how does a induction cooker work / not get warm? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9v9p8w/eli5_how_does_a_induction_cooker_work_not_get_warm/ | {
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"Traditional heating elements use electrical resistance to generate heat. As high voltage electricity is forced through a relatively unconductive material, the electrons bump into the atoms, losing some of their energy as heat.\n\nInduction cookers use electricity to heat metal in a less direct way. By using AC current, the induction cooker actually creates a magnetic field that switches back and forth very rapidly. This has a heating effect on metal, as the atoms are continually excited by the magnetic field jerking them around. However, the glass that the heating element is placed under, as well as your hand, is made of nonmetals, so the magnetic field has nowhere near the same magnitude of effect on them, which keeps it cool to the touch.\n\nI hope I helped!",
"A normal cooker works by passing electricity through a wire called a heating coil. As you pass electricity through the wire the energy will be converted to heat. You then place a pan on top of this heating coil and the heat will be transferred through the bottom of the pan into the pan. As you are doing this the air will also get heated so some of the heat is lost. An induction cooker works slightly differently. It is based on the concept of conductivity transferring electricity. This is the same technology used in electrical transformers and wireless charging. By using a high frequency signal in the coil of wire it will form a varying magnetic field. You can then place another loop of wire on top and it will start conduct electricity. So instead of having the heating coil in the cooking top you have the heating coil in the pan. You do not technically have to shape the wire as a coil either but most sheet of metal will work. This is why you can take your grandmothers old frying pan and use it on a modern induction cooker. By moving the heating element to the pan, closer to where you want the heat to go, you are not loosing as much heat in the transfer. However the electronics required to change the mains power to high frequency power for use in the induction coil does waste some energy and these elements needs to be cooled. So the induction cooker still gets hot but not as hot as a traditional cooking top and the heat is usually produced in the back in the power supply.",
"In an attempt to simplify the accurate explanations that were already given to the level of a five year old:\n\nA traditional heating element uses electricity to make itself warm, like a hot lightbulb. The pan then becomes warm because you put it on top of something warm.\n\nAn induction cooker instead uses an electromagnet to make the pan warm directly.",
"Induction cookers work by taking advantage of Farday's and Lenz's Laws\n\nFarday's law states that an emf, a voltage but no current, is induced in a conductor when it is passed through a magnetic field \n\nLenz's law states that the emf induced is in the opposite direction that caused it. If you push the wire down in the magnetic field, the emf would be induced and cause the wire to be pulled up.\n\nIn an induction cooker there is a coil of wire that has an alternating current passing through it and due to Flemming's Law an alyernating magnetic field is generated in the coil. When a pan is place on the coil the magnetic field and the pan interact causing an alternating emf to be induced in the pan as per Faraday's law. \n\nDue to the alternating nature of the induced emf, the induced change causes eddy currents in the pan as per Lenz's Law. These eddy currents cause resistance in the pan and transfer energy to the atoms of the pan causing them to heat up.\n\nThe cooker itself doesn't feel hot because your hand isn't a conductor and an emf cannot be induced in it.\n\nEdit. It is extremely hard to ELI5 due to the nature of the physics. I took an a level in physics and still barely understand this concept my self.",
"moving electrons through a mediumly conductive metal makes heat. traditional electric stoves put current though mediumly conductive coils to heat them up, these coils touch the pan and transfer the heat into it. \n\nmoving electrons (alternativly) through highly conductive metals makes magnetic fields but not a lot of heat. these rapidly changing magnetic fields can make electrons move in other metals. Induction stoves use highly conductive coils and AC current to create strong alternating magnetic fields above the pad. these rapidly changing magnetic field causes electrons to move in the pan. the pan is made of mediumly conductive metal, so these moving electrons cause the pan to heat up. ",
"**The short answer**: The cooker makes your pan into one coil of a transformer, inducing a large electric current inside the the pan. Some cool physics confines that current to a very thin layer of the pan, which means the pan has a lot of electrical resistance. That makes the pan heat up the same way the element of an old-style electric stove does -- but without a direct wired connection to the wall.\n\n**A longer answer**:\n\nInduction cookers work by inducing electric currents in the pan. Under the glass stovetop is a large coil of very fine copper wire. The cooker sends alternating current electricity into the large coil. That makes a rapidly vibrating magnetic field right over the coil. It vibrates something like 20,000 to 50,000 times per second -- right above the highest pitches you can hear.\n\nWhen you put a pan over that vibrating magnetic field, it induces an electric current in the pan. That's why the cooker is called an \"induction stove\". The *changing* magnetic field induces an electric current in the pan. That effect is the same physics used by the power station to make the electricity you use: changing the magnetic field near a wire pushes electricity through the wire.\n\nThe electric current in the pan is over 1,000 times stronger than the current in the copper coil, because there are over 1,000 loops of wire in the copper coil, and just one loop of \"wire\" in the pan. That's because current grows until the magnetic field from the one loop of current in the pan bottom cancels out the magnetic field from the 1,000 (or more) loops of wire in the stove. \n\nThe current through the pan can be immense: thousands of amperes, compared to the *one* ampere that a typical 100W old-style light bulb uses. Pushing that much current through the pan makes the pan heat up.\n\n**Why does the pan get hot and the stove doesn't?**\n\nWhen you pass an electric current through a piece metal (like a wire), the metal heats up. The amount of heat depends on the strength of the current, and also on the \"resistance\" of the metal. The resistance depends on how thick the wire is (it gets less for thicker wires) and also on how long the wire is (it gets more for longer wires). \n\nThere's a really neat effect that happens when you induce an electric current into iron, in particular. Remember, magnetic fields \"like\" to be inside iron (that's why magnets stick to iron). A side effect of that fact is that, if you induce an electric current in iron (by changing the magnetic field around it), it takes a fraction of a second for the electric current to spread through the iron. At first, the current exists only on the surface of the iron. \n\nThe reason the induction stove reverses its magnetic field so fast is to keep the immense induced current in a thin layer on the surface of the pan. That raises the effective resistance of the pan -- it conducts like a thin layer of iron foil, instead of like a thick block of metal. The current has to flow through a layer that is about 10 microns thick (about the size of a cell in your body) instead of the full 5 millimeters or so of the pan body. That increases resistance by a factor of about 500. \n\nThe stove doesn't get hot because the \"skin effect\" in copper is much less, and because the copper coils use braided wire that is made of very thin strands, so that it's all \"skin\". So the resistance of the wire is a lot less than the resistance in the pan, and all the heat gets dumped in the pan.\n\n**Why do you need special pans for an induction stove?**\n\nIncidentally, that skin effect is also why aluminum and copper pans don't work on an induction stove. Aluminum and copper aren't magnetic, so they don't have nearly as strong a \"skin effect\" as iron or steel does. So the induced current can conduct through the whole body of the aluminum pan, which keeps the pan's electrical resistance low.\n\nThat's also why you should never put aluminum foil near the surface of an induction stove. Aluminum foil is very thin, so no skin effect is needed -- it's so thin that currents induced in the foil can make it hot or melt it. You can test that by placing a single sheet of aluminum foil in a flat glass dish, filling the dish with water, and placing *that* on the induction stove. The aluminum foil will get hot, and (depending on your stove) may even be able to boil the water in the flat dish.\n\n",
"**Normal stove:** Metal (and everything else) will get hotter when its touching something hot. Put a pan on top of something hot and the pan gets hot. This is *conduction.*\n\n**Induction stove:** Metal (and everything else) with lots of electrons moving around inside of it gets hot. This is because there is some resistance to the electrons moving, sort of like friction, and this creates heat. We can make the electrons in the pan move around by putting the pan next to a copper coil that also has the electrons moving around. When the electrons in the coil move back and forth (because we use AC current) they create a magnetic field. That magnetic field causes the electrons in the pan to start moving around, which causes it to get hot. This is *magnetic induction.*",
"Clarification on the title, induction cookers/stove tops can get warm and even hot. \n\nA bare induction cook top with no pan on it can get slightly warm to the touch. Barely noticeable, but it does heat up slightly.\n\nWith a pan on it, it will heat up thru conduction of the pans heat. So you can’t cook something and then sit on the stove top.",
"Ha! Finally something I love talking about.\n\nI’ve thought about this subjects lots.\nBackground: father runs a company that makes specialised commercial grade cooking equipment .\n\nIt does but just not directly. With traditional electric cooker tops, the heating element for the cooker top gets hot which then heat to the pan or pot so that it can fry, boil, sauté, etc. Typically, pots and pans are good conductors so these pots and pans heat up very quickly. \n\nWith induction tops, the heating element is the pan or pot itself, therefore when the cooker top gets hot it is because the pan or pot is transferring some of the heat to the cooker top. Also since induction tops are typically made from tempered glass, which is a poor heat conductor, they do hot heat up as much as you would expect a pot or pan would with a traditional heating element.",
"Ahhh I did this for HSC a week ago.\n\nFaraday's law: a change in magnetic flux (amount of magnetism in an area) will induce a current.\n\nLenz's Law: the induced current will oppose the change in magnetic flux that created it.\n\nWhen a current flows through a wire there is a magnetic field induced around it. To show this point your RIGHT HAND thumb in the direction of the conventional current and curl your finger over. This is the way in which the field forms.\n\nOverall, in an induction cooktop, there is an AC coil in the cooktop. When you switch it on, a current is induced through the cooktop due to a potential difference (voltage), this creates a magnetic field that flips at the same frequency that the AC changes polarity.\n\nNow if we remember the first two laws, a change in flux will create a current that opposes the original change in flux. In Australia AC changes at a rate of 50Hz, this mean polarity in the coil changes 50 times a second.\n\nUnlike a regular cooktop, this heat is induced directly in the base of the pot as opposed on the stovetop. That is why special pots are used with induction cooktops.\n\nTLDR: changing magnetic field will create a current. This current is created in pot base as opposed to stove top, this current circulates around and knocks electrons/positive ion lattice. And transfers kinetic energy thus creating heat\n\nI'm a bit late so this will never reach light of day\n\n\n",
"Not an answer to the question (there are already good answers) but a warning to all 5 year olds. Whilst the induction plate doesn't get hot in order to heat the pan, that hot pan will conduct heat back to the induction plate and it will indeed get hot. Don't touch. ",
"Some plate makes some electric field things called Eddy's. This little circles of magnet cannot be contained by no 'plate' or anyone so they leave.. Then they end up in the pan where they get caught and they really pissed that they caught so they start trying to morph into heat and fly away. Then wen they heat they get caught in yo food. \nIt's tough out there for an eddy ",
"ELI5:\n\nNormal Heating plates get hot by... well getting hot and since you are 5 you have probably noticed that by putting your hand on it. \n\nInduction stoves however dont get hot themselves but create some good magic waves which travel trough the air. Since you are a good boy, those good waves dont affect you but some bad types of metals. So the magic waces want to take the bad metals with them, but the metals however dont want to go along and thus get angry and hot. ",
"Iduction is like wifi heat. In the same way wifi is only picked and usable by some devices with wifi antennas, induction is only picked by metalic things, because it is a magnetic effect.",
"For am accurate explanation, there's already plenty.\n\nSo I'll just pitch in a super ELI5 one.\n\nElectricity moves through the cooktop, makes electricity move through metal that comes near it.\n\nElectricity that moves through metal makes heat.\n\nSo only metal that comes near the cooktop gets hot, nothing else",
"Are we allowed to ELI5 the difference between \"a\" and \"an\"? You use \"an\" if the next word starts with a vowel. You use \"a\" if the next word starts with a consonant.\n\nAn elephant. An apple. An induction cooker. A car. A house. You wouldn't say \"a apple\", or \"an house\".\n\nSending the kindest of regards,\n\nYour friendly neighbourhood Nazi. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nP.S. I love you",
"Basically by inducing current (by expanding and collapsing magnetic fields) electrons excite the metal in the secondary. Simply put, it makes the pan vibrate until it's hot.",
"There are different methods of heat transfer.\n\n**Conduction** is when you have a hot surface in direct contact with a relatively colder surface. Due to the temperature difference, heat is transferred from the hot surface to the cold surface.\n\n**Convection** occurs when you have a temperature difference between a surface and a moving fluid. For example, hot air moving over a cold hand.\n\n**Radiation** occurs when electromagnetic waves transfer heat (for example the sun hitting your body).\n\nA regular old electric cooktop uses conduction. There's a surface with a coil underneath. Electricity is pumped thru the coil with high resistance, which causes the surface to heat up. The hot surface transfers heat to your pot, which is in direct contact with it.\n\nInduction is a bit different. There's still a coil sitting underneath a surface, but the coil isn't designed to heat up when electricity is applied. Rather, the coil is designed to induce a current in a ferromagnetic material that's in it's vicinity. When electricity is applied to the coil, it creates a magnetic field, which in turn *induces* a current in the metal pot, which causes it to heat up. The pot itself effectively has electricity running thru it, which causes it to get hot! The surface between the coil and the pot only gets hot as a result of the pot itself getting hot."
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2kepaq | what exactly is "bass" in speakers | Like what is it, what makes it, how is it made, etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kepaq/eli5_what_exactly_is_bass_in_speakers/ | {
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"All sound is made of vibrations that travel through the air, are picked up by our ears, and are interpreted by our brains. High pitches are from high frequency vibrations (the sound waves are closer together) and low pitches, i.e. bass, are from low frequency vibrations (usually around 50-200Hz). Speakers make sounds (including bass sounds) by creating vibrations that travel through the air and into your ears. "
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3mrujk | how do phones charge? like, how do you charge battery acid? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mrujk/eli5_how_do_phones_charge_like_how_do_you_charge/ | {
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"To have these electrical appliances working, you need a source of current. The current is from flowing charged particles, and for simplicity I'll refer them to electrons flowing. The battery is a source of these electrons; spontaneous reactions (called reduction oxidation reactions) occur, creating a flow of electrons from anode to cathode. Once the electrons flow from anode to cathode, they become \"depleted\" in the sense that the same reaction can no longer take place due to not having any more reactants. The reverse process is a nonspontaneous reaction, meaning that the reaction cannot occur unless energy is put into the system. This is where your charger comes in; you plug your device into a socket, providing electrons to go into the circuit in the opposite direction, allowing for the reactants to form again. "
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7i8ahv | how do parasites, like tapeworms, manage to survive the gastric juices of the stomach and get to the rest of the digestive tract? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7i8ahv/eli5_how_do_parasites_like_tapeworms_manage_to/ | {
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"There are life forms that live in all kinds of hostile environments on earth. In this case the eggs of tapeworms have adapted to survive the acidic nature of the stomach then hatch once in the intestine.",
"Threadworms or pinworms actually use the stomach acid to trigger hatching. The eggs are ingested and the stomach acid strips away the sacrificial outer layer causing them to hatch later when they have passed through to the lower intestines. The adult worms irritate the sphincter to aid the dispersal of the eggs by scratching so that they are not simply passed into the stools of the host but are instead lodged beneath the fingernails etc.",
"Some parasites can enter through the skin, and then eventually make their way to the intestines.\n\nFor others that enter through food, they can get into the intestines in a few ways.\n\n* a parasite egg can hide inside a chunk of food. If that chunk of food is large enough, the acid can't penetrate the chunk of food, and the egg won't be hurt by acid. It later hatches in the intestines.\n* stomach acid can be very weak in some people. Older age is correlated with less stomach acid, so parasite eggs can survive it.\n* some parasites like cryptosporidum eggs can't hatch unless their outer shells are dissolved by strong stomach acid.",
"There are also some parasites that suppress the immune system. There are people that purposefully ingest them to help with allergies.\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is a good story on it.",
"My specific question is how do they breathe? Is there sufficient oxygen moving through our intestines?",
"I'm only a junior in college pursuing a Biochem degree BUTTTTT, if I remember correctly from Micro, there are certain bacteria, possibly ALSO parasites that are called acidophiles; break down the word, well you know what acid is, and \"phile\", means loving. These organisms are acid lovers and could function most efficiently at their optimum temperature, depending on the surroundings. In this case, maybeeeee our gastro system is cozy for them! :)",
"On a sidenote, autoimmune diseases are rare in areas of the world where parasites of various kinds still are not totally uncommon. IBS is on trial for treatment with intestinal worms. The theory is that the immune system has evolved alongside gutworms over along time, and when we don't have any, it can run amok. So not only shitty diet, but lack of parasites is a double whammy. :P",
"are there any foods that inhibit their growth more than others?",
"Some parasites or bacteria are acidophil, meaning that they can survive pH-levels down to 1.\n\n“Helicobacter pylori“ for example enters the “skin“ of the stomach (sorry I don't know what it's called in english) to get a bit of distance from the acid. It then formes a small bubble around itself where it's reducing ammoniac to ammonium I think to increase the pH-level around it.\nPlus it's also acidophil.",
"Some parasites actually don't survive and you're actually getting sick because their dead bodies are contaminating your intestines. This happens with the stomach worms that are found in some fish. They can't survive in a human intestinal tract, but they still burrow into the intestinal walls prior to dying, and that's what's making you sick. You'll eventually get over it but it'll suck for a while.",
"They have a tough cuticle that allows them to withstand the acidic environment. The digestive system is just a bunch of holes. They literally just move to the part of digestive system they require to optimally survive.\n\nAs a fun fact, the cuticle protects the worm but in a way it also protects you. It allows the worm to evade an immune response. Conversely if the cuticle is punctured and you're exposed to a truck load of worm antigen, you'll elicit a very strong and sometimes deadly immune response. Similar to an allergic reaction. Antiparasitic cells called basophils are also activated by Th2 cells in response to allergens if you are allergic. ",
"How do you survive having all that gastric juice inside of you?? Parasites do the same thing basically, but on the outside.",
"How do you know that you have a parasite? What are the effects?"
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241810 | why is it so important that we study and understand the origin of the universe? | I mean, even if we do ever find out, I fail to understand on how it would impact present-day society? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/241810/eli5_why_is_it_so_important_that_we_study_and/ | {
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"The main goal of physics is to understand the rules that govern the universe. This approach has a long history of paying big dividends, since the vast majority of modern technology is based on the physics developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Right now, we have a pretty good understanding of the laws that govern most of what happens here on earth, but we know that there must be deeper laws underlying these, and we'd like to understand those as well.\n\nInvestigating the origins of the universe is very helpful for this goal, because the universe was behaving very oddly near the beginning of its life. For example, we're pretty sure that the universe was [growing very quickly](_URL_0_) for just an instant after the big bang, in ways that aren't really consistent with the laws of physics that we already know. This is vital clue for helping us to figure out what's really going on -- whatever the ultimate laws of physics are, they will have to explain how the universe was able to do this.\n\nActually, understanding the laws of physics is one of the main reasons in general to study the wider universe. Discoveries about outer space can give us a better picture of what's going on here on earth. For example, based on the laws of gravity that we have, most of the matter in outer space seems to very different from the matter here on earth. Physicists have named this mysterious substance [dark matter](_URL_1_), but the truth is that we don't really know what it is -- we know only that it responds to light very differently than anything we have here on earth. If we could figure out what it is, it might turn out to be something really useful, which we could manufacture and use for our technology."
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92j4jj | why cant we feel our organs rubbing against each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92j4jj/eli5_why_cant_we_feel_our_organs_rubbing_against/ | {
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"So this will not be completely correct... Anyways you feel because some form of stimulus (heat, pressure, etc) activates a nerve ending which sends a signal to your brain. However only certain nerves can detect certain stimuli. So in essence, if there are no touch (pressure) sensing nerves in your organs then you would not feel them rubbing. ",
"You feel physical stimuli through ~~pain receptors, called [nociceptors](_URL_1_).~~ nerves called exteroceptors. These come in various types, including thermal (allow you to feel heat/cold), mechanical (allow you to feel stretching/compression/deformation), and chemical (allow you to feel chemical burns, etc). \n\nExteroceptors are not uniformly distributed throughout your body. Your skin (especially hands) has the most. Internally, according to [this](_URL_0_), the intestines, bladder, and uterus contain the most. The brain contains none at all, which is why the only painkillers needed during brain surgery are for the scalp. \n\nSo one answer here is that certain organs simply don't have many (or any) nerves that would allow you to feel it. \n\nThe second answer is that your brain is attuned to look for a change in stimuli. If I squeeze your hand, you'll notice. But if I keep squeezing it, after 5 or 10 minutes, your perception of that squeezing will substantially diminish (in fact, the action potentials generated will likewise diminish). This is because your body is keyed to detect changes in input, not inputs themselves. Your organs rubbing against each other is something that happens all the time, so your brain pretty much tunes it out. \n\nEDIT: Changed noiceptors (pain receptors) to exteroceptors per the comments below. ",
"You sure as shit can when you have a kidney infection, such an eerie fucking feeling. Like bouncing water balloons with nerves attached that send shooting pain when you move...never again do I want to feel my organs.",
"The \"feel\" you are familiar with on your fingers and skin is an extremely specialized combination of senses that we interpret a certain way. It was and still is an important evolutionary outcome that allows for dexterity and varying levels of pain.\n\nFriction, like two internal organs rubbing together, is a particular aspect of feel that is fairly exclusive to our skin. Organs, while they do have some useful ability to feel (eg pressure and pain), don't have the ability to sense and send a friction like signal for our brain to interpret. Not saying that it wouldn't be possible but there is no apparent evolutionary value to it and would be a waste of resources.\n\nAlso, I am probably about as high as you so sorry if this doesn't make sense.",
"Aside from a lack of nerve endings inside your abdomen (compared to pretty much any area of skin), some of your internal tissues do a very good job of keeping organs, muscles, and bones effortlessly sliding past each other, or held in place so they don't rub.\n\nIf you happen to find any connected joints at your grocer's meat department, you'll find they slide as easily as teflon. Compare to anyone who suffers from arthritis, where the bone tissues rub painfully against each other.\n\nAll of the tissue holding your intestines and other organs in place is a single organ called the mesentery. It works kind of like plastic pallet wrap, but also carries blood vessels and stores fat.",
"The short answer is that you basically do, but you are so used to feeling it that you don't notice that you feel it. But it's also of note that there's less rubbing going on than you think. Your organs are kind of suspended in position and cushioned so that they don't rub against each other that much.",
"I just want to point out that people can get adhesions between their organs, and that hurts and you can feel your organs moving relative to each other. Adhesions are internal scar tissue and tend to be caused by having surgery. Then a rope of scar tissue can form between several organs and when you move in a certain way, perhaps your intestines will go one way and your uterus a different way and the rope of scar tissue will be pulled taut and it hurts.",
"When you're heavily pregnant you can totally feel how things have moved around inside, and you can feel e.g. pressure on your cervix - a body part you're not usually aware of IME. And baby pokes/kicks in various places can really hurt, quite surprisingly so. Bladders are a favourite target, and womb-on-bladder movement can be very unpleasant. \n\nThe uterus is an organ that really does make its presence known, especially with adhesions. ",
"Okay this makes me wonder, could somebody ELI5 a stomach ache?",
"Bullshit. You can. Try waking up on a recliner and feeling an internal organ come back from being \"asleep\". I think it was my liver, but I'm not totally sure. Regardless, just like an arm or leg going to sleep, I once felt my insides do exactly the same thing. Scared the pure hell out of me.",
"Hmmm, I'd talk it out with a doctor, but it might be psychological. Either way, don't let it ruin your marriage.",
"had a friend who got bit by a black widow, said he could feel his internal organs rubbing together for a few days...",
"Tons of excellent answers here about receptors. I just want to add that your organs are each basically in thier own sack. That sack has a slippery fluid in it to stop friction rub. Then there is additional fluid within each cavity that keeps these sacks from sticking to eachother. The cavities keep the organs from having your whole trunk to slide around in.\n\nFor example, your lungs have a sack called the pleura around it with slippery fluid between the layer against the lung tissue, and the inner layer of the sack (the pleural space). When there is not enough fluid you can have a condition called pleurisy, which is incredibly painful (see all those comments? It sucks). \n\nYour heart and lungs (in separate sacks) are kept up in the thoracic cavity. Negative pressure keeps the lungs inflated (Air in here is bad, and can cause partial or total collapse of a lung and medical intervention is necessary). Ribs protect them. Your stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, bladder, (and uterus and ovaries for ladies) and intestines are in the abdominal cavity. Your intestines (both) are anchored to the mesentery in a sack. There are all kinds of ligaments holding organs in place in the abdomen. Still, everything has slippery fluid to freely slide against eachother. Air in this cavity can lead to referred pain due to the extra pressure on certain nerve. You can treat pain if necessary but your body will eventually get rid of the air on it's own.\n\nTLDR: Your guts are in sacks and there's slippery goo inside and outside them to keep them from sticking together. Heart and lungs in upper cavity, digestion and excreting below."
]
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47ygmq | how does a tree root generate enough force/pressure to crack a pipe? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ygmq/eli5_how_does_a_tree_root_generate_enough/ | {
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"By applying the pressure over a long stretch of time. The root keeps growing, expanding, and gaining more and more mass. The damage the root takes by pressing against the pipe is healed and becomes stronger. The pipe on the other hand just slowly wears out over the years."
]
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7powiv | how do artillery gunners shoot things they can't see? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7powiv/eli5_how_do_artillery_gunners_shoot_things_they/ | {
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"They can't. Which is why they employ the use of spotters and observers who will relay the necessary information back to the gunners so they can aim their guns appropriately.",
"They have a spotter or modern day drones tell them where the target is. They then use geometric angles to move the gun to the position that would take into consideration the curvature of the earth, speed of the munitions et all."
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castyx | how can a tiny $399 go pro with small battery shoot in 4k 60fps where as the large and bulky $2000 prosumer camcorders that also eat up power bricks of energy from companies like sony only do 4k 30fps? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/castyx/eli5_how_can_a_tiny_399_go_pro_with_small_battery/ | {
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"4k describes the number of pixels the camera is capturing but there are other factors like color depth that describe how many shades of color the camera is capturing.\n\nThe Hero 7 can record a bitrate of up to 78 Mb/s. Prosumer cameras can record up to 400 Mb/s. \n\nSo the GoPro is sacrificing color and quality of the image to get a higher frame rate.\n\nI'll also add that Prosumer cameras can do 4k at 60fps these days, at a higher bitrate than the GoPro."
]
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eg7490 | bpa is bad for you, but what alternative is there that isn’t? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eg7490/eli5_bpa_is_bad_for_you_but_what_alternative_is/ | {
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"This is subjective, but, I think that glass is a fairly viable alternative in MOST cases.\n\nBut I believe that the reason that most things are \"just as bad\" as BPA is that, well, the processes to make plastics do all the amazing things we do are usually accomplished with chemicals that are just not good for humans to consume. And water is just really good at leeching those chemicals out of the plastic. So, we are in this weird situation where we now know that something is dangerous but there is no suitable alternative--and people are finding that more difficult than anticipated."
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2lnm85 | why aren't politions election promises considered a verbal contract? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lnm85/eli5_why_arent_politions_election_promises/ | {
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"Because sometimes it isn't their fault if they can't carry out the promises that they make. Many of Obama's ideas have been blocked by congress, so it's not something you can sue him for.",
"Because lying when you aren't under oath isn't a crime, it's just disingenuous",
"In addition to what others have said, sometimes new information can change things.\n\nFor instance, a candidate might make a campaign promise to never interrogate people. When he gets into office, he finds out that 10 terrorist attacks in the last year were stopped because of information found while interrogating terrorists (which was a classified fact in this scenario). All of the sudden, he would rather interrogate 10 terrorists then let hundreds of citizens die, but he can't say why.\n\nObviously this is an extreme example, but I imagine several promises are flipped because the promise was made when the candidate had incomplete information, that they learn later on.",
"It's really hard to prove how much a politician actually tried to do the things they promised to do. So they may get none of it done but rightly say \"it wasn't my fault, the bills died in committee and the majority was against me.\" But sometimes, the politicians purposely didn't push as hard as they could have to get things done. ",
"There's also the simple fact that every election is a contract renegotiation, and recall laws exist. If you feel a politician has breached their agreement with you, and enough other people feel the same way....",
"Contracts require consideration. If I promise to give you something that is not a contract unless you promise to give me something in return. And given the politician can't sue you for voting the wrong way, you can't sue them for not keeping their promises.\n\nContracts also require the \"intention to create legal relations.\" If you made a deal with your husband that you take turns mowing the lawn, you probably can't sue them because a court would hold that you didn't act in a way that normally implies the intention to create a legal contract. An election promise is a similar kind of promise."
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c58ymo | how the moon have protected us from hundreds of asteroid but its like a 1/10th of the size of the earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c58ymo/eli5_how_the_moon_have_protected_us_from_hundreds/ | {
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"It might be _comparitively_ small compared to Earth (remember, size is relative), but it's still pretty big and exerts a significant gravitational presence. It's the fifth biggest moon in the solar system, and given that it's constantly in orbit of us its gravitational field is enough to draw in stray asteroids that might pass a bit too close. \n\nIt's also worth pointing out that it's quite far out (you could fit every planet in the solar system end to end in the the space between Earth and the Moon), so asteroids are more likely going to be drawn towards the Moon than our bigger gravity well, provided the conditions are right.",
"Asteroids don't usually come from \"above\" or \"below\" in space. Like most everything in the solar systen, they orbit on the same plane as the planets and come in from the side.\n\nThat means that to hit Earth they must first cross the moon's orbit. If they're not screaming in on some bizarre oblong orbit they may have to cross the moon's orbit multiple times before they finally spiral into Earth.\n\nThis gives the Moon a lot of opportunities to disrupt the orbits of these Earth-crossing asteroids, either by flinging them away at new odd angles or impacting them.\n\nAs the Dinosaurs will attest though, it's not always there to intercept every possible impactor."
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fc09j9 | how do muscles change strength to pick up objects of different weights? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fc09j9/eli5_how_do_muscles_change_strength_to_pick_up/ | {
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"Muscles are divided into functional units, called motor units. Each unit is made up of many muscle fibers and the neuron that innervates them. Motor units come in different sizes meaning they have different numbers of muscle fibers, and the fibers themselves vary in size and therefore force. Your brain recruits different motor units and a different amount of them depending on the required force.",
"Your muscles are divided into little bundles of muscle cells that are controlled by different neurons. Your brain can control how many bundles will be told to contract, allowing it to contract more or less intensely depending on your guess of how much strength you will need"
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1igyrp | how does a gastric bypass work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1igyrp/eli5_how_does_a_gastric_bypass_work/ | {
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"In a Roux en Y gastric bypass, the stomach is closed off and a portion of the intestine becomes where digestion takes place. Nutrients are absorbed directly into the blood stream, and the pouch is very small. So the patient loses weight because they eat less and have to avoid certain types of high calorie foods (such as sugar and alcohol)."
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blubg5 | why people with poor relative pitch, can sing quite correctly in mind but do it way off when trying out loud? | Well... Including me | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/blubg5/eli5_why_people_with_poor_relative_pitch_can_sing/ | {
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"Muscle controll and strength for the most part. The same reason why some can do handstands and walk around with no problems. This is also why you can get better at singing by practice. Take ed sheeran as an example. \n\nMuscle controll is also why you might have the right pitch in your head, but unable to output it correctly.",
"Just as you can imagine balancing a staff or something. Control is hard."
]
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1q6fpl | why does an air raid siren from ww2 make people feel uneasy and sometimes some slight panic just by hearing it? | example : _URL_0_
Even people that have never associated with a war or been somewhere that would need to use it says the sound makes them feel uneasy. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q6fpl/eli5why_does_an_air_raid_siren_from_ww2_make/ | {
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"I think the Air Raid Post -1945 has very different meaning to most of us because we now associate it with a Nuclear attack. ",
"Their sounds were designed to be hard to ignore and unsettling."
]
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37b1y5 | anti-poaching and poacher hunters | I see lots of pictures of and articles about people going around the world and arming themselves to fight poaching with force. Are they just allowed to go around shooting poachers or what? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37b1y5/eli5_antipoaching_and_poacher_hunters/ | {
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"No. I know the internet has collectively lost its shit over the big gun toting, tattoo covered \"girl who hunts poachers,\" but that's not how it works. Any organization, like Veterans Empowered To Protect African Wildlife that she's advertising, gets permission from the government and works directly with the park rangers. They are in an advisory role, training rangers in more effective strategies to help curb poaching.\n\nVETPAW is shooting a show with Animal Planet right now and the release of these pictures is probably part of the pre- release publicity. [Here] ( _URL_0_) is an interesting article that gives a little context to the actual role of Kinessa Johnson and VETPAW.\n\nSo, short answer is, no you don't sling your big ass rifle over your awesomely tattooed shoulder and hop a plane to Africa to start shooting poachers."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/05/07/reports-nonprofit-vetpaw-kicked-out-of-tanzania/70963970/"
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|
3rgmje | honestly what's the difference between brand name mouth wash (listerine, scope, etc.) and no named or lesser brand names? (rexall, life etc) | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rgmje/eli5_honestly_whats_the_difference_between_brand/ | {
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"text": [
"Typically nothing. They are required to have drug facts on the bottle showing the active ingredients, and if you look at them, usually the generic brand ones have the exact same ingredients that Listerine does. (Usually mouthwashes are either sodium flouride or a mix of eucalyptol, menthol, and methyl salicylate.)"
]
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9sc3om | what happens when a servers upload speed is faster than my download speed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9sc3om/eli5_what_happens_when_a_servers_upload_speed_is/ | {
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"You ask server for tiny portions of the whole thing. Server goes \"Okay, will do\", and sends them. You then check if you received what you were asking for, and if you do, you say \"okay, send moar\". These tiny packages are basically just that, packages, with mail address on them, so every server along the way passes them along in the correct direction, until your ISP gets them, and then your ISP will use whatever bandwidth limitations on how fast it will send you those packages.\n\nIf at any point there are too many things coming at you, either on ISP end or any server along the way, the current handler of those packages might just decide to drop some of those packages because it's got too many packages to deal with. In that case, you end up waiting for a bit, and then asking the server to resend those things.",
"The uploader will only send a few packets at a time, then wait for the downloader to \"acknowledge,\" or tell the uploader how many / which packets it successfully received. (Every packet has a \"sequence number\" that more-or-less uniquely identifies it.)\n\nIf all the packets were received successfully, the uploader will send more packets -- in fact it will increase the number of packets it uploads at a time. So if it sends 4 at first, it might send 8 after the first 4 are successfully received. Then when the next 8 are received, it would send 12, then 16, then 20. Each time there's a report of \"all packets successfully received,\" it increases the number of packets allowed to be \"in flight.\"\n\nEventually, at some device along the network path between the uploader and the downloader, packets will try to flow faster than some physical piece of hardware can handle, or faster than some software configuration allows data to flow. This is called a \"bottleneck,\" it's the slowest connection between the uploader and the downloader.\n\nThe device at the bottleneck will simply start dropping some packets. When that happens, the downloader will tell the uploader that certain packets weren't received. This causes the uploader to immediately decrease its rate of sending (and additionally re-send the dropped packets).\n\nOnce the uploader's slowed its rate of sending so that everything's getting through, after a short time it will start trying to increase its rate of sending again.\n\nOver time the system balances out, so that upload/download speeds are near the network's actual capacity to deliver traffic between the two points. The available capacity might change over time, for example it depends on how much other traffic is going through the bottleneck device (and other devices, as the bottleneck might occur at a different point when the situation changes). But the continual \"self balancing\" process usually works well, regardless.\n\nIt's easy to build a network that works like this for a couple reasons:\n\n- Each device makes decisions based only on \"local\" conditions (do I have too much traffic?)\n- Un-reliability is assumed (if you're designing the software that runs on the uploader / downloader, the network specs tell you up-front \"yeah sometimes packets are dropped, you just have to Deal With It\")\n"
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7vebzr | what are people actually dying from when they "die from the flu"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7vebzr/eli5_what_are_people_actually_dying_from_when/ | {
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"Generally speaking, people don't just randomly die from \"the flu\".\n\nPre-existing conditions (Ex: Diabetes), consumption of medication which could make it tougher for the body to effectively defend itself, or something as simple as age (Children/Elderly) have many vulnerabilities that adults do not have. \"The flu\" is a virus and viral infections are significantly more taxing on the human body than a bacterial infection , of course each infection is different but generally speaking a viral infection will cause the human body to go haywire in several ways (Ex: high temperature/fever is actually the body choosing to \"burn itself\" rather than let any foreign agent survive within).\n\nAnswer:\n\nPre-existing conditions, medical complications and age-related vulnerabilities are what lead to death because of \"the flu\". Viral infections in general are very taxing on the human body.",
"Get flu \n\nLay around weak. \n\nWeak cough. \n\nMucus in lungs collects from being too weak to cough out. \n\nMucus grows germs leads to pneumonia. \n\nGerms get into bloodstream. \n\nSepsis occurs. \n\nMulti organ involvement. \n \nBody shuts down and unable to recover. \n\nDeath \n \nEdit: to correct format. I hope. \n\n",
"There are a few different ways the flu can kill you. \n\nI think the most common/direct way the flu can kill you is something called a cytokine storm, you basically kill yourself with your immune system. \n\nSecondary things like pneumonia are more common causes of death, but I place them secondary because it's generally the secondary infection that gets you. The cytokine storms are scarier for certain variations of influenza, such as the 1918 spanish flu that targeted young people due to their immune system being strong. \n\nI haven't been paying attention to the epidemiology of this strain, I think I heard it's H2N1, and I've heard of a few healthy individual deaths, so be wary. ",
"They can die from a variety of things. It is a common misconception that the flu alone cannot kill you if you are young and healthy but this is not true. The 5 year old answer is that the flu can make you stop breathing and you can die. The more detailed response is that even in healthy people the bodies own response to the virus can lead to a condition called ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome). The lungs are damaged by the immune response to the virus and are flooded with immune cells and cells that make scar tissue. Many young healthy people die from this way from the flu and even sometimes other cold viruses such as coronavirus and RSV.\n\nIt is also true that the flu also kills in other people by triggering heart attacks, asthma attacks, heart failure, and other problems in those already suffering from pre-existing conditions.",
"I've read through the top answers and haven't seen dehydration, is that not a motor concern as well?",
"A lot of things. Most commonly I think are secondary infections like pneumonia. The influenza virus itself can do a lot of damage on its own. In both cases, people with weaker immune systems are in the most danger - very old, very young, and immunocompromised in some way.\n\nBut another way is called a \"cytokine storm,\" which is kind of the opposite. Instead of a too weak immune response, it's an immune overreaction that can do severe damage to the lungs. So rather than tending to be a problem in people with weak immune systems, this is more common in young, healthy people with strong immune systems. ",
"One thing that needs to be understood at about most illnesses, is it is not the virus/bacteria that is making you feel bad, it is your bodies immune response to it. The whole thing about Ebola is if you can survive the symptoms, your body will kill Ebola on its own. Its just unlikely you will get that far without round the clock medical care. \n\nThe flu can kill for a variety of reasons. One example is if a high fever is left untreated you can literally cook yourself to death. It’s unlikely, but it happens more often than you would think.",
"Something else which I haven't seen mentioned is dehydration as a result of vomiting or diarrhea. This isn't really a concern at all in first world countries, as we have copious access to clean drinking water, and IV's in hospitals if we can't keep the liquid down in our digestive tract. In third world countries however, dehydration kills hundreds of people per day. So for us it's not a big deal, but if you've heard of people \"dying from the flu\" in small countries with poor conditions, this is a very likely cause. \n\nThis was also one of the leading causes of death during the middle ages in Europe and the middle east. ",
"As someone who has suffered from childhood asthma, the flu and pnuemonia. \n\nComing from a \"survivor\" of the conditions, with no \"in depth\" medical understanding. \n\nYou first start by feeling incredibly tired, then breathing becomes heavier, then you want to lie down and sleep. The longer you rest, the harder it becomes to do anything, to the point where breathing feels labored. The short walk to the bathroom felt like running a marathon, your body temps begin to fluctuate wildly, you start to get very loose bowel movement and you'll completely lose your appetite. \n\nShortness of breath, tiredness, muscle aches, dehydration, fever all take their toll. \n\nThen you begin to cough up flem, taking deep breaths makes you exhale liquids, and you choke on them. Laughing makes you choke, coughing makes you choke, yawning makes you choke, sneezing makes you choke, breathing becomes a game of how not to choke.\n\nI had to have my lungs drained of their fluids to be able to breathe without choking. \n\nAfter that, I guess it turned around. Whatever medication/steroid/antibiotic/antiviral was doing its thing and symptoms started going away. If not, I fear, it would have been a matter of time before things started to shut down. \n\nI was at the hospital for most of this. My mom took zero chances when she noticed my \"cold\" was significantly worse than my siblings. I was 8/9 years old, and my siblings didn't have half the respiratory challenges I did, so I was affected the worst.\n\nTL;DR\n\nIt starts out feeling like a common cold, then your body begins to ache and you'll go burrito mode for about a week. Every day of that week is harder and harder to complete because the world gets heavier by the minute. Next thing you know, you're coughing up fluids and can barely breathe because of it. Luckily for me, it ended there, I don't think I'd be writing this if it didn't.\n\n",
"Adding that there's quite a big difference between \"catching a cold\"(runny nose, sore throat, muscle aches, fever maybe) and \"having the flu\" (same symptoms, much higher intensity).\n\n\nBoth can make you vulnerable to bacterial infections or destabilize other chronic diseases, but the flu can also kill you alone through all the ways already described by others.",
"I don’t know if it’s true of all flu but for the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 one of the biggest killers was the persons own immune system.\n\nThe virus basically made their immune system go full nuclear on it, leading to huge collateral damage to organs; leading to them failing and death.\n\nIirc it was one of the few flu strains that killed more healthy people than vulnerable people. Vulnerable people’s immune systems weren’t strong enough to cause the devastation a healthy persons could.",
"The flu is a particularly nasty virus that can cause a lot of complications, even in young healthy people. It can lead to bacterial infections like [pneumonia](_URL_2_) when you hurt too much to take deep breaths or you have junk collect in your lungs from congestion. As stated by many other posters, you can also get ARDS ([acute respiratory distress syndrome](_URL_3_)) from your body's immune response to the virus damaging your lungs.\n\n It can also cause dehydration from fever and not taking in enough fluids. [High fevers](_URL_1_) for long periods of time can also be very damaging. This year, my hospital has also seen a few cases of [influenza related cardiomyopathy](_URL_0_). This is where the virus causes your heart muscle to not work properly. \n\nAny and/or all of these can be potentially fatal if not treated (and sometimes even with treatment). The flu vaccine is the best way to prevent getting the flu. Even if you still contract the virus after the vaccine (which has been happening frequently this year), the course seems to be more mild than without it. \n\n\n\n\n[stealth edits for sources]",
"It's entirely possible I'm missing some very basic foundations of biology, but, is the underlying phenomenon leading to the various scenarios below the accumulation of the virus in sufficient quantity in the body to trigger each of the possible paths to death? \n\nFor example, if flu virus presence in the lungs is enough to develop into pneumonia (which is by definition a symptom, not a cause, right?), then that can be fatal. \n\nSepsis happens when there is enough flu virus that the immune system overcompensates and can damage the body? \n\nThe underlying event is the flu virus reproducing to some quantity, right? The \"quantity of import\" may be different for different people, but the principle is the same. \n\nWhat would happen if there were no immune response at all? Would the virus continue on using healthy cells as hosts, until there were so many viruses in the body and/or so few healthy cells that normal cellular function would cease? ",
"So flu shots, yeah or nay. I heard they totally missed the strain this year. How much does that matter? I have taken one flu shot and still got it really bad.",
"Flu leads to other complications, pneumonia, septic etc. Not usually just the flu. Bacteria acculamates in lungs when you are sick.",
"Doctors who study the body’s immune response say that when people die from the flu, there are three main reasons: \n\n* Co-infection with another germ, usually bacteria such as strep\n* Aggravation of existing conditions such as heart disease and asthma.\n* A cytokine storm, marked by an overwhelming immune system response to infection.\n\nMore info can be found in this [article](_URL_0_).",
"1) Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: This is a vague term, because ANY inflammatory signal that leads to prolonged pulmonary vasodilation leads to excess fluid and protein (largely fibrin) leakage into the lungs. This creates a set of conditions that impairs lung function, causes permanent damage in adults, and can end up compromising systemic oxygenation to the point of organ failure and death.\n\nThe earlier you get to a hospital with severe flu symptoms the less likely this is to kill you, but ARDS still has a pretty high mortality rate: 35-46 percent depending on severity and underlying conditions.\n\n2) Bacterial Pneumonia: Viral infections shift your immune system towards fighting THEM, which ends up making you a bit more vulnerable to bacterial infections. This is extremely common.\n\n3) Exacerbation of other underlying medical conditions like COPD, Asthma, and CHF.\n\n4) Dehydration: You lose a ton of water when you're sick, and really young kids who don't get treated can easily die from complications stemming from insufficient fluid intake. That can happen to adults, too.\n\nThere is no rule that only one of these things can happen at once, and we often see bacterial pneumonia set in on top of ARDS and/or a CHF/COPD exacerbation... sometimes the other way around, each patient is somewhat unique.\n\nThis is by no means an exhaustive list, it's just mean to help frame things in a fairly accurate ELI-5 friendly context.",
"I’m an ER doctor in the northeast US. I have literally seen hundreds of people with the flu this season. The flu syndrome itself is mostly cough, runny nose, sneezing, cough, fever, and muscle aches. \n\nHere are some reasons I have seen people get very sick, even critically sick, from the flu.\n\nWhen you have a viral respiratory syndrome like the flu, your body mounts a widespread inflammatory response to fight it, which basically manifests as a fever. Sometimes, the rate at which your temperature rises, or even extremely high temperatures can cause mental status changes, muscle breakdown, and a disruption of normal bodily functions. But usually the fever is just a normal part of the anti-inflammatory process. For the majority of times you have the fever, its safe and normal, but it will make you feel like crap.\n\nA big reason people are dying is from the mucus production caused when you have a respiratory illness. From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies generate mucus in our nose and throat to “block off” any further exposure to the viral/bacterial/fungal exposure. The mucus itself is also a byproduct of the body fighting an illness. Think of it like the waste left over from a big battle.\n\nNow the mucus itself is what causes you to have the runny nose and sore throat and cough. But babies and old people may not be able to tolerate this. They might not be able to sniff and hack and cough out this gross stuff. They can very literally choke to death on all this mucus in their nasopharynx.\n\nMore severely, when the mucus is aspirated into the lungs, it gets caught in the lungs and can progress to bronchitis (inflammation of the lung airways from heavy coughing and irritation) and pneumonia (when the mucus caught in the lungs sit there and turn into a growing bacterial entity).\n\nWhen you get to this stage, the flu itself isn’t the problem. That super-imposed pneumonia is a bacterial infection, created from the sitting mucus in the lungs. This is actually separate from the influenza virus. And thus, this is only real way to intervene as a doctor to make any difference. The flu will do its usual thing, regardless of what you do (Tamiflu helps very little), but if you can identify a super-imposed pneumonia, it will make a huge difference to get them started on antibiotics, especially with babies and old people.\n\nOne last thing is pulmonary edema. This is when fluid gets pulled into the lung airways when the inflammation from the respiratory symptoms overwhelm the lung tissue. This is basically only seen in people over 65 or people with chronic lung disease. All the cough and mucus just causes the lungs to be so inflammed and boggy, that fluid starts rushing into the airways, and people very litterally drown in fluid. \n\n",
"I'm an RN in a Medicine/Pulmonary ICU. Flu patients normally die of ARDS,Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This causes their alveolar sacs to fill with fluid. Its also a nasty way to _URL_0_ word of advice, if you get to sick always go to your provider, these deaths are mostly preventable with early treatment. ",
"Main reason is *cytokine cascade*, where white blood cells rush to the site of infection, which is usually the lungs.\n\nWhite blood cells fight and die in battle. Infected lung cells explode from inside by the virus and die. While more white blood cells are still coming from other places of the body. You can imagine the picture of a field filled with dead body lying around...\n\nThis situation causes something like a traffic jam in the lungs and which ultimately blocks the tiny blood capillaries that are responsible for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide (between the blood and the air in the lungs).\n\nWhen the blood has low oxygen, the brain starts to stutter, then shuts down and faints. If the condition keeps getting worse, the brain cells die with lack of oxygen. If they don't, some other major organ is bound to fail due to that and cause death ultimately.\n"
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26b6oa | what is it that makes me see myself one way in the mirror but from another perspective (photo or video) i see myself differently. | Not sure if this makes any sense but I personally find that there is a drastic change from how I view myself in a mirror to how I look in pictures. What is it that my brain does here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26b6oa/eli5_what_is_it_that_makes_me_see_myself_one_way/ | {
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"when you look at yourself in the mirror, you're always looking at yourself from the same viewpoint and angle, so that's what becomes normal to you. when you see yourself in videos and pictures, it may be taken from different angles and viewpoints. it's only slightly different, but it makes a dramatic difference for you.",
"You are very accustomed to seeing yourself in a mirror. All the little details that make you...you, are in certain positions when you look at yourself in a mirror. When you see yourself in a photo or video, however, all those little details are now \"incorrect\", compared to the image in your mind. That makes you feel a certain distaste for how you look in those photos. You think you know what you look like in real life, but you really know what you look like reversed, in a mirror.\n\nI've taken plenty of photos of myself in a mirror, thought \"Oh this a good picture\", then flipped it around and suddenly hated it. That's why. It doesn't look \"right\" anymore. My hair part, my freckles, my teeth, etc... are all on the wrong side of where I'm accustomed to seeing them, and it's very uncomfortable to see."
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rz2rm | what was up with usa and nicaragua | All I know is that "Olly North" song in "American Dad"
Help me out please? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rz2rm/eli5_what_was_up_with_usa_and_nicaragua/ | {
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"Oliver North was a National Security Council staff member involved in the covert sale of weapons to Iran during the Iranian hostage crisis. He is famous for deciding to use the proceeds of these sales to further fund the Contras in Nicaragua, a political action which was banned by Congress but carried out by clandestine CIA operations anyways. The Contras were counter-revolutionaries that opposed the popular uprising and, eventually, the democratically elected government of Nicaragua. They eventually bankrupted and terrorised the country's populace so much that they had no choice but to vote in a U.S. friendly government.\n\nTL;DR the U.S. government used money from arms sales to Iran to illegally fund terrorists that eventually forced a democratically elected people's party in Nicaragua to cede power to U.S. friendly interests."
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eaip6t | why do americans need to get the flu shot every flu season? i'm on eastern europe and we never had flu shots over here, just some regular mandatory ones for tetanus and stuff like that | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eaip6t/eli5_why_do_americans_need_to_get_the_flu_shot/ | {
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"flu apparently mutates quite fast and is usually at least a little bit immune to the antibodies of last year",
"You need it just as much, you just don't get it.\n\nIn 1918 flu killed millions around the world. Every year flu kills hundreds of thousands, including people in eastern Europe.\n\nThere are many different types of flu: swine flu, bird flu and so on (humans catch these despite the name.) Also, flu mutates and changes year to year, and different types of flu are more common some years, so the health organizations try to predict what flu will be most common and give vaccines against that type each year. It saves a lot of lives and prevents the flu spreading so much.",
"Because for a very low cost it prevents or limits widespread influenza, which kills people.\n\nBecause not everybody can have the immunisation, it helps if everyone who can have it does, as it prevents people passing it on, the idea is what we call 'herd immunity' where we protect vulnerable individuals by ensuring the virus doesn't become endemic in a population.\n\nIt is not perfect - there are many strains of influenza, and a best estimate has to be made about which strains are likely to spread over flu season. The flu jab will not guarantee that you won't get flu, but it massively reduces the likelihood, which is good for you, and great for grandma who your flu could have killed after you visit her for Christmas day.",
"Many strains of the flu virus undergo two processes which cause their antigenic (disease causing) potential to change. Antigenic Drift, and Antigenic Shift.\n\nAntigenic Drift is responsible for year to year variations of the flu virus. Basically, the DNA replication process for the Influenza A and B viruses is fraught with errors leading to multiple small mutations throughout the year until such time as the previous years vaccine, which caused the immune response to build antibodies to certain proteins made by the virus, is no longer effective. This is because all those errors and mutations lead to building proteins by the virus that look different than the previous year’s proteins that were recognized by the immune system.\n\nAntigenic Shift is responsible for major flu outbreaks such as the flu outbreak of 1918, and the more recent swine flu epidemic in the late 2000s. Essentially what happens here is that two different strains of flu viruses meet and rearrange their genes amongst each other, thereby creating an entirely new strain with greater virulent potential. This most often happens in a third party host, and the most common example is that a flu virus from a bird infects a pig at the same time that a human flu virus infects that same pig. The two strains create a new strain and that new strain infects the human.\n\nThe flu virus changes so often that the CDC actually meets twice a year to determine which flu strains are causing the most illnesses during the northern hemisphere flu season and Southern Hemisphere flu season, and using that data they create a recommendation for 3-4 virus strains that should be included in the vaccine. From there it is up to each country which strains they would like to include in their vaccine. \n\nYou may not get the vaccine because of government regulations, not because flu isn’t as prevalent in your country. Don’t know this for sure, just guessing.",
"The flu is not one virus but it is usually between three and five different types of viruses at any time in the world. A flu shot is only effective for one flu season as there will be completely different viruses around for next season. However vaccines against other things will last for much longer. So while a flu shot is recommended it is much more important to get the other vaccines. This is also why most governments will not completely cover the costs of flu shots for the population as it would be quite expensive. In the US the government does not cover any vaccines at all. So people have to manage their own vaccination programs and will often opt in for the flu shot every year. In other parts of the world people will not care about vaccines and just follow the governments paid vaccines.",
"Americans don't get paid sick leave and many jobs don't get any paid time off at all. Therefore, if you get sick and can't work, you lose your wages for that day. \n\nTherefore, it's a small investment to get a flu shot so that you don't end up needing a day or more off work if you get the flu later in the season.",
"It isn’t mandatory and many people in the US don’t get one. I do because my office has someone come in and give them for free each year. Why NOT protect yourself if given the choice? The flu isn’t fatal for most healthy adults, but it’s not very fun. It can cause serious problems for babies and the elderly and immune compromised people, so why put them at unnecessary risk as well? If I don’t get the flu, I can’t pass the flu to anyone.",
"It’s a privilege you aren’t afforded which is unfortunate. In Canada they are free at any pharmacy. Maybe you should raise a stink about sub-standard public health in your country?"
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dapg23 | why are some companies called "limited", "enterprises" or "industries"? what's the difference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dapg23/eli5_why_are_some_companies_called_limited/ | {
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"Using the word enterprise and industries is purely a naming choice. It has no legal meaning. \n\nLimited though has a specific meaning. In some (most?) countries, if a company is registered as a limited liability corporation then it MUST have in it's name the term limited or LLC etc. (or LLP if it is a limited liability partnership). To explain this, there needs to be a simple understanding of a company.\n\nA sole proprietorship is the simplest form of a company or corporation. In essence, the name is mostly \"cosmetic\" or for branding purposes. All the profits and losses accrue to the owner. It is a simple form of doing business but it also means that the owner cannot shield their personal property from their business activities. If a company incurs a big loss, any creditors can claim the personal assets of the owner. Tax-wise too, the company does not report separate taxes - since all profit and losses accrue to the owner, the owner is liable tax wise.\n\nA limited liability (private) corporation is the next most simple form of business. The name of the company is registered (usually a government register) and it has a separate tax and business identity. This also means that the company must keep propert accounts and send in tax returns etc as though it was a separate entity. The benefit is that it shields the owner in that the losses of the company are, in theory, shielded from the owner/operator. So if someone invested $100,000 dollars in an LLC, their losses are limited to the amount invested. Even if the company loses $1,000,000 dollars and goes bankrupt, the owner is not obligated to top up money to repay the debt. \\[In practice, not too many other corporations will offer large credit or loans to an LLC because of that limited liability unless someone guarantees the credit/loan - typically the owner\\]"
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1who3l | is everest growing or getting smaller? | My science book says that Everest it´s growing 0.5 centimeter (0,19 inch) per year. But at the same time thousands of people are climbing it (and the metalic spike shoes doesn´t help). So, Could we actually scraping the everest faster than its natural grow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1who3l/eli5_is_everest_growing_or_getting_smaller/ | {
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"Mount Everest is subject to erosion, such as wind... BUT the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates are still colliding, pushing the Himalayas upwards. The latter is more significant than the former, so Mount Everast is actually increasing size/height."
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2brzqw | why do girls shave their eyebrows and draw them on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2brzqw/eli5_why_do_girls_shave_their_eyebrows_and_draw/ | {
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"This may be one of the most profound questions ever asked by a man.",
"I'm not an expert on the matter, actually I know very little. Now lets follow logic here... First I don't thing they *shave* eyebrows they waxed them or something. \n\nA person with thicker eyebrows might want them styled in a different way, so they get them done. For example: Cristiano Ronaldo does this.\n\nNow imagine someone with light hair, blondish or red, their eyebrows will be lighter too, so if you paint them with some sort of eye shadow, you'll get a more expressive look. For example: Adele does this.\n\nFor more info visit the makeup sub.",
"Everybody likes coloring.",
"My wife's best friend does this. She's blonde, has extremely thin eyebrows, and you can barely see them. For her, removing them and then drawing them on does a better job of making her look like she has eyebrows than anything else she can think of. ",
"As for me, my eyebrows are of a good width and length, but they have no shape. So I bought this little razor called \"Tinkle Rose\" (I kid you not - on mobile, can't link) and it lets you shape your brows better. Then I fill in the parts with less hair so it looks uniform. I have very dark hair. \n\nThe razor thin eyebrow look is falling out of favor thanks to models like Cara Delevigne.",
"Ok, they're not *shaving* their eyebrows. At least not in most cases. Eyebrows don't really grow back the same way as other hair, so if they've been over-plucked or waxed too much, they're not going to have their original shape, and sometimes they can basically disappear. But you look really weird without eyebrows so they draw some on. "
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g23nc7 | how is poker considered a skill game rather than a chance game? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g23nc7/eli5_how_is_poker_considered_a_skill_game_rather/ | {
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"Short term - mostly based on luck. You can play a pro for 100 hands and win.\n\n\nLong term - If you play 10000 hands with the pro, he will win due to better strategy. Bet sizing, reads, adjustments, which cards to play are all skill.",
"To quote Bond \"In poker you never play your hand. You play the man across from you.\"\n\nPoker is not a game of random chance, it's a game of understanding human behaviour. Goading people into a sense of false security so they'll bet too much, figuring out when people are bluffing etc.\n\nYes it ultimately comes down to what you have in your hand, but the best hands are the ones where you make money and never have to show your cards."
]
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f034f4 | why do bourbons that have been aged for less time have a higher proof than those aged for longer? | I understand this isn’t always the case, but I see bottles of 10 year 107 proof for example and a 20 year 95 proof right next to it. What makes this difference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f034f4/eli5_why_do_bourbons_that_have_been_aged_for_less/ | {
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"Alcohol evaporates over time, and is also absorbed into the wood of the barrels. This is referred to as the angel's and devil's share respectively.",
"Because alcohol evaporates; the more time in a porous barrel, the more alcohol evaporated out",
"Unless it is marked barrel proof, all distilleries add water to get the proof where they want it. Barrel proof is straight of a barrel.",
"All this plus it's typically watered down to a specified proof to make it a standard amount of alcohol, otherwise it will vary because the angels aren't reliable.",
"Didn’t expect it to be so long but here it goes:\n\nBourbon drinker here. When it comes to proof, it comes down to distiller’s preference or recipe. Most bourbon as stated previously is watered down to the desired strength. However, if bottled with little to no added water, it’s normally labeled cask strength or barrel proof. \n\nAdditionally, there is a legal term in the manufacturing of bourbon known as “bottled in bond”. For any bourbon to carry that label, it must be over 100 proof (50% ABV). And be aged a minimum of 4 years. This has to do with the marketing of bourbon from late in the 19th century due to a lack of the quality of bourbon at the time. \n\nWhile the “angels share” has to do with a small portion of the bourbon that gets absorbed into the staves, the overall proof will be determined by the amount of water it is mixed with. Also, when bourbon is bottled, unless otherwise stated, they mix multiple barrels together to make that particular batch. \n\nTL;dr Bourbon whiskey’s proof has to do with the distiller’s preference on how much to water it down. Also, alcohol evaporates."
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3686iu | what is a "cult film" and what qualifies a movie to have that title? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3686iu/eli5_what_is_a_cult_film_and_what_qualifies_a/ | {
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"When a group of people really like a film. A \"strong\" cult following just means fans \"strongly\" appreciate a film. Usually a cult film receives \"cult like\" status long after its initial release. It goes under appreciated by the majority of people, but then finds an audience that actually appreciates it.\n\nEDIT: Movies that have achieved strong cult status\nRocky Horror Picture Show, \nClerks, \nEraserhead, \nCry Baby, \nForbidden Zone, \nNatural Born Killers, ",
"A cult film is usually a movie that flopped at the box office or got poor reviews, but then went on to develop a large and super-enthusiastic fanbase. This might happen because the movie appealed to a niche audience but didn't appeal to a mass audience, or it might be one of those movies that are \"so bad it's good\" where a low budget, bad acting, and silly dialogue and premise make the movie so bad that people enjoy it because it's unique. An example of this would be \"The Room\" or \"Sharknado.\""
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1k7zdp | what are the effects of today's policy changes on marijuana? | Not too interested in the technicalities of the policy change, but rather the end-game ways it may effect: A: medical users, B: recreational users, C: Someone shipping/receiving marijuana across the country | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k7zdp/eli5_what_are_the_effects_of_todays_policy/ | {
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"The changes today apply only to mandatory minimums. Going forward only those caught under certain circumstances will have mandatory minimums applied to them. These laws typically involve hard drugs more often than marijuana so it won't have much effect on the marijuana trade. Large scale growers and shippers of marijuana could possibly benefit as judges may be able to utilize discretion in their sentencing, however given most people at the top of the scale will be deemed to be participating in a criminal organization they may successful argue the mandatory minimums still apply. "
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jb8p0 | frequent flier miles, points, and rewards cards - eli5 | Someone please explain how frequent flier miles work, multiple reward cards, transferring points, multiple frequent flier clubs, etc. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jb8p0/frequent_flier_miles_points_and_rewards_cards_eli5/ | {
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"**Frequent Flier Miles**\n\nEvery mile you fly, you get a point, so a round trip from NY to LA is worth about 5,000 points. You can trade points in for free flights, usually starting at around 25,000 points.\n\nThe programs are free, but they really are worth much unless you fly a *lot*, and some one else is paying for it, like a business traveler. 5 rounds trips from NY to LA will cost you around $3000, and earns you a single free flight.\n\nIf you earn a certain number of points within a year, you improve your *status* (think silver, gold, platinum). Flyers with status get perks, like boarding first, free bags, first class upgrades, and priority when flights get cancelled or overbooked.\n\n**Reward cards**\n\nReward cards work the same way, except you earn points for each dollar you spend, typically 1 for 1. Some cards are part of the airline's frequent flier program, so all the points go in the same bucket. Others have their own program, so their points count separately from the ones you earn from flying.\n\n**Transferring Points**\n\nMost programs make it difficult to transfer points from one person to another. You can use your points on someone else, but if you want to transfer points, it usually costs way more than it is worth, and only makes sense if you are like 5 points short of a free trip.\n\nYou can almost never transfer points between different programs.\n\n**Multiple Programs**\n\nAs I mentioned, it is difficult to transfer points, so you want to fly the same airline as much as possible. However, a lot of airlines have agreements where they will honor each others points. For example, you can fly Alaskan Airlines and earn points on your Delta account, or Air Canada with United.\n\n----\n\nWhen trying to understand all these programs, remember they are about one thing and one thing alone...earning the loyalty of frequent business travelers. If they have a choice between a $400 flight out of their program, and a $700 in program, they will try to get the $700 flight every time. Earning and maintaining higher status is the holy grail of the business traveler, and airlines know it. Since they earn more from them than a family going to Disneyland, they do everything to keep business travelers happy. ",
"**Frequent Flier Miles**\n\nEvery mile you fly, you get a point, so a round trip from NY to LA is worth about 5,000 points. You can trade points in for free flights, usually starting at around 25,000 points.\n\nThe programs are free, but they really are worth much unless you fly a *lot*, and some one else is paying for it, like a business traveler. 5 rounds trips from NY to LA will cost you around $3000, and earns you a single free flight.\n\nIf you earn a certain number of points within a year, you improve your *status* (think silver, gold, platinum). Flyers with status get perks, like boarding first, free bags, first class upgrades, and priority when flights get cancelled or overbooked.\n\n**Reward cards**\n\nReward cards work the same way, except you earn points for each dollar you spend, typically 1 for 1. Some cards are part of the airline's frequent flier program, so all the points go in the same bucket. Others have their own program, so their points count separately from the ones you earn from flying.\n\n**Transferring Points**\n\nMost programs make it difficult to transfer points from one person to another. You can use your points on someone else, but if you want to transfer points, it usually costs way more than it is worth, and only makes sense if you are like 5 points short of a free trip.\n\nYou can almost never transfer points between different programs.\n\n**Multiple Programs**\n\nAs I mentioned, it is difficult to transfer points, so you want to fly the same airline as much as possible. However, a lot of airlines have agreements where they will honor each others points. For example, you can fly Alaskan Airlines and earn points on your Delta account, or Air Canada with United.\n\n----\n\nWhen trying to understand all these programs, remember they are about one thing and one thing alone...earning the loyalty of frequent business travelers. If they have a choice between a $400 flight out of their program, and a $700 in program, they will try to get the $700 flight every time. Earning and maintaining higher status is the holy grail of the business traveler, and airlines know it. Since they earn more from them than a family going to Disneyland, they do everything to keep business travelers happy. "
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1o5h9w | how can congress continue to draw a salary? bonus question: how come we can't fire them? | Let me explain first. I am the rarest of political creatures: one who really and truly does not identify with any party. I can genuinely see both sides of almost any argument. **I really *really really* don't want a serious political discussion/debate.** This is simple.
If my husband doesn't go to work. He will not get paid. If he *continues* to not go to work, he will be fired. I mean, it's not hard to understand.
If we elected these people, we chose them to do the jobs they are doing. Why can't we decide to just....well...fire them? And neither party can say anything, really, 'cause it's not like the Republicans are still working and Democrats walked out, or vice versa. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o5h9w/eli5_how_can_congress_continue_to_draw_a_salary/ | {
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"The idea is that they should get paid because they **should** be actively trying to find a agreeable solution between both parties. They're still 'working', albeit in crisis control instead of their usual stuff. \n\nYou want them gone? Don't vote for them in the next election. That's the easiest way to do it, but as you'll find out, it probably won't happen that way",
" > How can Congress continue to draw a salary?\n\nthe Constitution doesn't allow their salary to change during their term. So they must be given a salary.\n\n > How come we can't fire them?\n\nWe can, it's called an election, we hired them a year ago, and we can replace many of them in another year. Outside of that there is no general means of removing them according to the Constitution. That being said, most of them are doing exactly what they said they would do, so they wouldn't be removed anyway by elections.",
"You can fire them. It's called an election. It's roughly a year away. \n\nHowever, there is no reason to believe the results of the election will be very different than what exists today. The country is quite split on what direction we should go in. It shouldn't be surprising that this results in a Congress that is also quite split. "
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9e1ox6 | why is pluto considered a planet to some groups and not a planet to other groups? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9e1ox6/eli5_why_is_pluto_considered_a_planet_to_some/ | {
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"AFAIK the 2 views (dumbed down like hell here) are; \"It's a rock orbiting the sun so it's a planet\" and \"Bro do you realise just HOW small that thing is? It's like 1200km in diameter. Flying to Vietnam from Australia is ~5000km...\"",
"It’s a matter of definition. \n\nIf I said a sandwich is any food wrapped in bread, it would include hot dogs in buns, burgers, grilled cheese, burritos, three slices of bread, etc. \n\nIf I said a sandwich is a non-bread food item contained within a piece or two pieces of leavened bread, not including sausages and ground meat, then fewer things would qualify. \n\nPeople generally think of planets as big, roundish chunks of matter that orbit the sun. Pluto fits the bill for that, as do a number of other large objects in the Kuiper Belt. \n\nThe newer definition of a planet included criteria that Pluto doesn’t meet, such as clearing its orbit of most smaller objects. ",
"Traditionally, astronomers found and identified nine space rocks as \"planets\" before anybody had developed a really solid definition for that word. People got used to the idea that there were nine planets, and Pluto was the smallest one. That was fine and dandy as far as most people were concerned.\n\nThe problem with that is that there are plenty of other space rocks that aren't traditionally called \"planets\", but are about the same size as Pluto, or sometimes even bigger than Pluto. Over time, we've actually identified more than 200 space rocks that are very similar to Pluto. They're big, they have stable orbits around the sun, and so on. So... do we agree that all of those things are planets, too, or do we maybe reconsider what we think of as a planet?\n\nAside from tradition and sentiment, there's no logical reason to think of Pluto as a planet if we're not going to think of all those other things as planets, too.\n\nIn 2006, the International Astronomical Union, which is the premiere international association of astronomers, published a revised categorization of objects that orbit the Sun.\n\nNo doubt there are some people who still think of Pluto as a planet, either seriously or jokingly. Those people are welcome to their opinion, but the IAU represents the consensus of pretty much all relevant experts on this topic."
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2w293m | what wil happen after all the stars in the universe have died? | There will be a moment when stars will stop forming, so what wil happen after the last one dies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w293m/eli5_what_wil_happen_after_all_the_stars_in_the/ | {
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"comy8ld"
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"text": [
"All the energy gets distributed uniformly. The entire universe will have the same equal temperature. \n\nThis is called the heat death of the universe."
]
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6w2pmd | why aren't audiobooks and ebooks unlimited? | Recently, I started using Overdrive to listen to audiobooks. Popular titles are always already checked out, so I need to place a hold and wait for my turn to check out the audio book.
Unlike physical books, digital files can be reproduced, so why can't audiobooks and ebook files be checked out unlimited times by unlimited people? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w2pmd/eli5_why_arent_audiobooks_and_ebooks_unlimited/ | {
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"Not a technology issue. It's money. The publishers want money for electronic material in the same way they get for physical materials. They use technology to limit it in the way you see. The libraries pay for each digital copy, typically as part of some larger subscription type contract. The details of how many copies of what are in the contract with the library. Give the library more money and they'll be able to buy more!",
"That's a function of the license and the digital rights management technology they use for the audiobooks. \n\nIn some cases, including your audiobook service, they have paid for a certain number of \"licenses\" to have on hand to rent out. Even though it's digital, the legal license prevents them from duplicating the content. \n\nDigital rights management, known commonly as DRM, consists of the technology to enable the service to allow you to play digital content on your own hardware while they still have control of the right to play it. The DRM license technology is built into the player software as well as the audiobook content itself. The player acquired the audiobook content along with DRM information including how long you're allowed to play the book. If you tried to copy the audiobook content yourself, you'd find that it's encrypted and the DRM technology will make sure its you playing the book and that you're still allowed to play the book each time it's attempted, making duplication technologically very very difficult. \n\nFor the book publisher and your audiobook service to allow duplication would require that the content not have DRM, which would make it easy for you to copy it and keep it forever, share it with your friends. So they don't do that. "
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t1nla | how journalists fom news of the world were technically able to 'hack' into cell phones. | How did they do it? Was it actual hacking, cooperation with cell phone companies, or something else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/t1nla/eli5_how_journalists_fom_news_of_the_world_were/ | {
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"Mostly they were able to guess voicemail passwords. A lot of cell phone carriers don't restrict the number of retries. \n \nIf I remember correctly, some voicemail breakins were also done by \"social engineering\"...calling the phone carrier and impersonating the victim to get the password reset.",
"I think what afcagroo said is one way, also...\n\nFor some cell phones, if you call your voicemail from the phone itself, it doesn't prompt you for a password. So by spoofing the victim's cell number (make the \"calling from\" number different than what it actually is), they could get access to voicemail with no password whatsoever."
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3l16rb | why do all the japanese students at my college (i'm in england) wear traditional japanese school uniform even though my college has no dress code? | Me and my friend were wondering this and all I could think of is maybe it's tradition or they just want to look smart? It's been bugging me for a while now so I decided to ask here, thanks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l16rb/eli5_why_do_all_the_japanese_students_at_my/ | {
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"text": [
"By \"college\" in England do you mean secondary school? Americans use \"college\" for University. \n\nIf they're visitors or new immigrants, probably that's the way that they are used to. Possibly ask one of them.",
"I have not seen that in England myself but it wouldn't surprise me, in Japan you can see them wearing school uniform on weekends and holidays, it's practically a style.",
"Is there a reason you couldn't just ask them yourself? ",
"It's probably a culture/upbringing thing. It may also be they recognize dressing a bit more formally puts a person into a more serious mindset and is therefore more likely to pay attention and do better. My parents never let me wear jeans/T-shirt to school through high school because of this attitude. Whereas that was the attire of my classmates, my attire was a collared shirt (polo-type or dress shirt) and usually corduroy or slacks.\n\nDidn't bother me. But just . . . Please don't look at my transcripts . . ."
]
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97jc8a | can defense lawyers ask a client if they're guilty before taking a case? | Like the moment you see sometimes on tv where they ask, "Ok you have to tell me everything, did you do it?" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97jc8a/eli5_can_defense_lawyers_ask_a_client_if_theyre/ | {
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"Yes - a good defense would require the lawyer to know everything that the client knows. That doesn't mean that they won't take the case; even guilty people get defenses.",
"Typically yes, but they shouldn't be asking that question unless they're willing to defend the person in court regardless of what the answer is.",
"Yes, even if they are guilty the lawyer can help ensure they get a fair trial, help get across any extenuating circumstances, etc. to reduce sentences, determine the level of security they are imprisoned in, or even just help get them incarcerated someplace more convenient for family to visit",
"It's potentially a very bad idea because it severely limits their options. The ethical rules require [Candor Toward the Tribunal](_URL_0_). Notably, \n\n > A lawyer shall not knowingly: (1) make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer; or [...] (3) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer, the lawyer’s client, or a witness called by the lawyer, has offered material evidence and the lawyer comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal. A lawyer may refuse to offer evidence, other than the testimony of a defendant in a criminal matter, that the lawyer reasonably believes is false.\n\nIf your lawyer knows that you're guilty of a murder, then they can't, for example, let your friend testify that you were in the next town over during the murder.",
"It’s an ethical violation for a lawyer to put a client on the stand knowing he will lie under oath. So if a client tells you that he did it you have two options: ask for permission to withdraw from the case, or conduct a defense without putting the client on the stand. You can not disclose the fact that the client admitted his guilt. But if the client insists on testifying falsely you can move to withdraw “ to prevent an ethical violation”. The judge will read between the lines.",
"Private defense lawyers probably can ask a prospective client about the crimes they're accused of before taking a case and can refuse to represent people who've committed (or are accused of) particularly heinous crimes, yes. Public defenders just get assigned to defendants without taking that into consideration.\n\nThat said, everyone deserves a vigorous defense whether they actually committed a crime or not. I'm speaking of the U.S., where the Constitution grants a right to representation (bc I have no experience with other country's laws and thus have no business talking about them). The idea is to protect citizens from being thrown in jail or executed without the opportunity to present a proper defense--and to do that you really need a lawyer, who is trained to argue on your behalf.\n\nAlso, plenty of people are technically guilty of crimes BUT need and deserve defense lawyers because the police or the prosecutor's office have committed some kind of misconduct or constitutional/statutory violation. The American legal system is meant (emphasis on 'meant,' not saying it always actually works out this way) to be centered on a balance between punishing crimes and protecting the rights of citizens against a too-powerful enforcement organization. For example, a defense lawyer can argue that a person's confession shouldn't be presented to the jury at trial, because the police beat it out of him. It doesn't matter that the person really did commit robbery--that confession cannot be used against him because we do not want our law enforcement to behave that way. And then, without the confession as evidence, the person might be acquitted despite his guilt. \nIf a client tells their attorney their story and they really are guilty, the attorney can still make those kinds of procedural arguments without 'lying' or being unethical. \n\nThe attorney can also argue that, for example, while a client did kill someone, they did it in self-defense, or that it wasn't murder but a lesser degree of homicide, to lessen the client's sentence later (or get them acquitted completely, if the prosecution fails to charge lesser included offenses). There are lots of defenses that involve admitting you did an action but arguing that it was justified or not as bad as the charges suggest. Further, if a guilty client insists on testifying and perjuring herself by fabricating an alibi or otherwise claiming complete innocence, her attorney can also distance himself from her perjury and avoid an ethical violation by simply asking open-ended questions: 'In your own words, can you tell us what happened that day?' The attorney would be violating the attorney-client privilege if he suddenly tells the judge and/or jury 'no, what you told ME was that you're guilty,' but could be violating other ethics rules by actively participating in presenting the client's lies. Simply giving the client the opportunity to speak freely on the stand is one way to walk that fine line between the two.\n\nThere are plenty of ways an attorney can ethically (and indeed morally) defend a guilty client. If the right to an attorney could be taken away simply because a person is guilty, the whole constitutional premise would fall apart.\n\nSource: Attorney for 10 years, work for state's appellate court, constantly advising the court on criminal appeals, have seen MANY cases where defendant was guilty but attorney ethically and legally presented strongest defense possible under circumstances"
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ct65yv | how come the whole ocean doesn't get electrifyed whenever electricity comes into contact with the ocean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ct65yv/eli5_how_come_the_whole_ocean_doesnt_get/ | {
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"Resistance and electricity wanting to find a ground.\n\nWater conducts electricity, just not very well compared to other things. Heck, even copper which is one of the better conductors of electricity out there has a level of resistance to it that causes the power of the electricity to reduce over long distances. \n\nIt also wants to find the ground as quick as possible. So instead of reaching out over the entire ocean, it goes straight down to the ground as quick as it can.",
"Considering that it is such a large body there is a huge area for it to dissipate over. We ground many appliances and the ocean can act in a similar way dude to its ability to donate and receive electrons. Basically its really big and lightning relatively isn't."
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22dk6n | how do they get childhood/family pictures of characters in movies? | When you see a photo of a character in a movie, do they use the actors personal pictures? Do they have special background photos shoot days where they just create props? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22dk6n/eli5_how_do_they_get_childhoodfamily_pictures_of/ | {
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"text": [
"I would guess either stock photos from some company that has those on file, or they do a quick casting call for people who look close enough to the actors to simulate a younger actor and then take a picture.",
"Often times it's a mix of both. If it's something that can be done easily with wigs and clothes, they'll go that route. But many times they will take personal photos from the actors' childhoods and Photoshop them together with other cast members as needed.\n\n"
]
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[],
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|
6bh8s0 | why did wrapping the xbox 360 in a towel and leaving it on temporary fix the red ring of death? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bh8s0/eli5_why_did_wrapping_the_xbox_360_in_a_towel_and/ | {
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"text": [
"One common cause of the red ring of death was cracking and degradation of the solder joints on the CPU and GPU. By wrapping the Xbox it would cause it to heat to the point that those joints could be melted again and reformed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
fos76j | does the action of flying in birds tire them out the same way that running tires us out? | Is there a function in humans analogous to flying in birds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fos76j/eli5_does_the_action_of_flying_in_birds_tire_them/ | {
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"It does. However, unlike a human running, a bird doesn't have to constantly flap its wings to fly.\n\nAlthough the usual way people think of birds flying is constantly flapping their wings, that's really not the case. Over very short distances, especially if trying to get to a higher spot, birds will flap their wings furiously, creating the image that they must do that all the time. However, when it comes to going a long distance, nearly all birds \"coast\" a great deal of the time. The pattern varies from species to species, but it generally involves a few wingbeats, then the bird tucks its wings in against its body and flies without flapping, much like a thrown football. For a human, it would be like running four or five paces, then sailing over the next several meters. Birds can get away with this because their physiology is all geared toward making them lighter - hollow bones, lower density tissues - making them more football-like than human-like.\n\nReally long-distance flying birds use a process called soaring. These birds have larger wingspans, enabling them to glide long distances. In order to save energy, soaring birds catch a ride on thermal updrafts that naturally occur during the day. These updrafts, which are really nothing more than rising warm air, carry the birds higher into the sky so they can gain altitude and keep gliding even longer without having to flap their wings once.\n\nThe exception is hummingbirds. Hummingbirds only stay in the air because their wings are beating constantly, and beating fast. Hummingbirds flap their wings an average of 10-15 times per second, allowing them to hover and be extremely agile. Don't they get tired? You bet they do, which is why unless they're feeding or moving to a new feeding ground, they're usually perched. All birds tend to conserve energy, but hummingbirds have more of a need than the average."
]
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[]
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|
3k4q6e | daddy issues, mommy issues. is this a real psychological phenomenon, or just pop-psychology? | - What does it mean when they say someone has daddy/mommy issues?
- If it's real, how would typical behaviour manifest itself?
- Can it be cured?
- Why is cross-gender issues more common than same gender? Girl with daddy issues, guy with mommy issues.
- Is this seen only in Western cultures?
- Was this phenomenon historically recognized in other/older civilizations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3k4q6e/eli5_daddy_issues_mommy_issues_is_this_a_real/ | {
"a_id": [
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"1. Can be a number of things. One of the most common is attachment. Parents either showing you too much or too little affection, praising or shaming or whatever combination. Basically while you are developing you are being influenced and more likely than not some parental figure is a guiding force in that development. Depending on how that went for you you can develop certain issues. They are way too broad to attempt to summary in ELI5\n2. It is most definitely real. The easiest way to see it is through dating behaviors. For example, daughter never gets attention from Father or Father is away for a time. Girl dates guys who give her attention and usually freaks out if the attachment/attention waivers. This is just an example it happens across both genders.\n3. I used to know this from a psychology standpoint, but I graduated far too long ago to remember the details. Basically if I remember correctly opposites attract at a young and impressionable age. Daughters want Daddy's attention, Boys want Mom's attention. Usually you see the gender issues more when it does actually come to dating. \n4. Nope across the entire human race. We are very impressionable and it doesn't have to be a Father or a Mother. It can really be any person who has been in your life for a long time who may have influenced you.\n5. Yup. Ancient Greeks/mythology have a lot of hidden notes about it. Generally this is a human issue and it is across all borders. ",
"/u/kpeesy was very clear, but as I am a psychology student, I also wanna give it a go: \n\n* **What does it mean when they say someone has daddy/mommy issues?** \n\nThe parents had some level of deficit in the relationship with the offspring that deeply influenced the way that kid treats the gender. \n\n* **If it's real, how would typical behaviour manifest itself?** \n\nGuys scared of women (*because of an emotional abusive mother*), girls who date older men (*to get the approval of a father figure*), girls who date \"bad boys\" (*to get the parents attention*), guys who date overcaring women (*because of the excessive need of motherly affection*). \n\n* **Can it be cured?** \n\nYes and no. Any issue is a scar from the past. The scar can heal but it is always there. \n\n* **Why is cross-gender issues more common than same gender? Girl with daddy issues, guy with mommy issues**. \n\nBecause you relate to the parent of your gender. I could give you a 10-paragraph psychoanalitical explanation, but from most psychology standpoints this is the reason. You replicate the older model... but trust me: someone with daddy issues also has mommy issues. You can't have a sick perspective of your mother and a perfectly healthy one of your father. If something is wrong, everything is affected. \n\n* **Is this seen only in Western cultures?** \n\nBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No. \nJust take a peek at Japan. The Oedipus complex comes from the Greek mythos, who is part of that culture. \nWestern, eastern... this is everywhere, but in east is a little more part of the culture (but is still sick). \n\n* **Was this phenomenon historically recognized in other/older civilizations?** \n\nIt existed, yes. But the psychology was born on the late XX century. Schizophrenia was called being possesed in the Dark Ages, and called Oracles in the Ancient Ages. \nThe Oedipus myth is older than Jesus... the idea of histeria is from the times of Hippocrates. \nIt existed but it wasn't recognized."
]
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[],
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40qbur | if obama doesn't have the authority to close guantanamo bay, who does? | And if he does, why doesn't he just do it instead of bringing it up every state of the union speech? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40qbur/eli5_if_obama_doesnt_have_the_authority_to_close/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyw9k5k"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"He has plenty of authority. He doesn't have a workable approach. He can't just turn the people loose, they are \"threats to America\". He can't just kill them, they haven't even had a trial. He can't get anyone to agree to a plan to try them, so the situation isn't changing.\n\nHe's bringing it up in hopes the Congress will accept some plan, any plan, to try these people so they can be convicted and executed. Very few think that's going to happen."
]
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[]
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2g09cj | what does u2 get out of releasing it's new album for free on itunes? | It doesn't make sense that they would release the album for free for the half a billion iTunes users. It seems like apple is the only one benefitting. Would apple be paying them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g09cj/eli5what_does_u2_get_out_of_releasing_its_new/ | {
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"A new generation of people listening to their music. Said people may consider buying their other albums which are not free.",
"They get publicity and probably a nice spike in sales of their old albums.",
"They get a big amount of money from Apple for doing so.\n\n*edit: spoke American with 'paycheck' and I'm English.",
"Don't think there isn't something in it for U2. For one, Apple could have paid U2 a big chunk of $$ to do this - it attracts more people to iTunes just as there is a rise in alternative non-iTunes \"legal\" music download sites. Apple will still make some bank on the renewed interest and download of U2's back catalog.\n\nAnd for U2, it throws them back into the limelight in front of a new generation of potential fans. \n\nRemember, tours can make waaaay more than album sales. U2's [360 tour grossed $736M.](_URL_0_). Meanwhile, the corresponding album, \"No Line on the Horizon\" only [sold 5M copies (so what.. $50M?)](_URL_0_) \n\nedit: plus, U2 members are already godly wealthy, so they maybe they're just really really nice?",
"I have not bought a U2 album in 15 years, and I am not alone in that. I may download and listen to this, because why not? It's free. U2's getting a lot of exposure. Why would U2 need exposure? I have not bought a U2 album in 15 years, and I am not alone in that.",
"1. a fat check from apple.\n2. promotion of upcoming tour and a shit-ton of other commercial products that will undoubtedly be associated with the album and the brand.\n3. update in sales of prior albums.\n4. new fans",
"A shred of relevance?",
"U2 and Apple. One moves out Ireland to avoid paying tax, the other moves here to avoid paying tax. "
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours#2010s"
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2ep9ku | how did we get to the point that we have to be in debt for years and years to own a house? | I'm just curious as to what changed and at what point in history we got to where we are at today when it seems we have to work for years and years to finally truly own our homes. People hundreds of years ago never had to have a 30 year mortgage to own a home did they? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ep9ku/eli5_how_did_we_get_to_the_point_that_we_have_to/ | {
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"1) They frequently built their own homes. So less labor costs. \n2) Permits weren't frequently, much less ubiquitously required. This means less costs for permits and inspections, less specialized labor - since they didn't have to memorize code specifications. \n3) Owning homes and apartments to rent out as your major means of income wasn't as widespread as it is now. In conjunction with #1 this means it was more of a buyer's market in the past, while now it is more of a seller's market overall - what we call a buyer's market today is still far more a seller's market than what in the past was the balance point. People use homes as a lot more than a place to live: they consider them investments and financial tools such as collateral. \n4) Realtors' income is based on the price of the home: they get paid an average of 6% of the sale price of the house. So of course they will do everything they can to increase the sale price of the home, because it increases their income. If they sell 15-17 homes in a year, that's enough money for them to buy a home themselves. \n5) As Dr. Lector said, people covet what they see. With the advent of mass media, we get to see a lot more stuff than we used to - so people want that stuff and will do all they can to accumulate more stuff.",
"There are many other factors at play, but one of the major reasons is because the cost of land has really gone up in the last several decades. Much of the value of your home is not the actual house, but the land it sits on. Fifty years ago, when there were billions fewer people on the planet, there would have been less competition for the land. It's simple economics. Supply and demand. There's a finite amount of land in the world, and as more and more people are looking to buy some, the price goes up.\n\nAlso consider that there has been an influx of population into major urban centers, as opposed to previous centuries when population was more balanced between urban and rural living. So houses in the city now are becoming even more sought after as more and more people want to live there."
]
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57ihbo | how do weird coincidences happen? is it just a concept that we invented? | So I am in the shower this morning and for some unknown reason I think of the song "I'm a little tea pot" which immediately makes me think of the miniseries "Storm of the Century" by Stephen King. I had not thought of that miniseries in at least 10 years. I remembered it because it scare me so bad and that scene at the end of the kid singing that song with the devil (or whatever he was) always stuck with me. So I get dressed and drive to work. On the way I run in a grocery store to grab something to eat for lunch that day. Standing in line there is a rack of DVDs and what do I see? Yes, Storm of the Century. That is just way too weird a coincidence to the point it creeped me out some. Why do I perceive it that way?
TLDR: Thought of a movie this morning I hadn't thought of in 10 years. Couple of hours later I see the DVD for that movie at the grocery store. It creeped me out. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57ihbo/eli5_how_do_weird_coincidences_happen_is_it_just/ | {
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"text": [
"People are programmed to look for connections. There are a huge amount random events that happen everyday. We're constantly looking for the link between two events and dont notice the insignificance of the others. Relation is not causation.\n\n\nYou'll have tons of thoughts everyday. Youll wont notice these nearly as much if you didnt have a recent thought. \n\n\nHeres somethin that talks about it more\n\n_URL_0_",
"Weird coincidences are a mathematical certainty. Anything that happens to 1 in a million people today will happen to over 7 thousand people today. But to each of them, it will feel like a 1 in a million chance.",
"Carl Jung did a lot of research in that area. He created the term \"synchronicity\". He basically states that life is full of patterns (like your DNA, finger print etc), and coincidences are part of a greater pattern we don't quite understand. ",
"Coincidence.\n\n\"Co\" \"incidence\".\n\nA disconnected series of events that _seem_ connected because of similarity of time, actors, or circumstance.\n\nBecause of some natural laws, like \"the shortest distance between two points is a straight line\" or \"people who learn the same things form the same sources will make the same mistakes\" and so on... many things that happen \"in concert\" are actually happening for wholly separate reasons that are easy to mistake for concerted outcome.\n\nIn short, if it's an actual coincidence then it is, by definition, two or more events who's connection is purely independent.\n\nSo that said, can you honestly say you _haven't_ thought about Storm of the Century or \"I'm a little teapot\" in ten years? Or can you only say you don't remember thinking of it?\n\nSo think it backwards. Maybe you saw the movie sitting there a week ago, and your brain was trying to nudge you into remembering to go to the grocery store... maybe because you were running out of toilet paper or something... so your sub-conscious did an inventory of \"grocery store things\" while you were in the shower. That included the movie. That inclusion caused you to sing the song.\n\nSee, the cause and effect relationship may exist, or may not exist, or may be backwards of what you consciously presumed.\n\nFor the most part, if any part of your brain says \"that's a coincidence\" then whatever you _think_ happened probably isn't the truth of the events. That's _why_ it was coincidental.\n\nSo don't be freaked out. Your brain is a zen grand-master at hooking up events and ideas that seem unrelated. It's literally how it works in terms of memory and recollection and ideation.\n\nRevel in it. Lower order life forms don't have that blessed sense of connectivity acting so strongly in their minds.\n\n(This sort of thing, IMHO, is a core facility of self awareness.)",
"For every coincidence that happens, there's an insanely larger pool of coincidences that could hypothetically have happened, but didn't. You will notice the former, and it will seem strange because you'll think \"What are the odds?\" It's true that the odds of any individual coincidence happening may be very low, but when there are many unlikely events that are possible, the likelihood that a few of them will happen now and then approaches 100%. Which is why we're all familiar with the concept of a coincidence."
]
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[
"http://www.wired.co.uk/article/david-j-hand"
],
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2pxu4q | sometimes when i blink, one eye will lose focus and things become blurry for a few seconds, but when i blink again, my eye regains focus. what's going on when that happens? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pxu4q/eli5_sometimes_when_i_blink_one_eye_will_lose/ | {
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"You are probably referring to an excess of tear fluid being spread over your eye.\n\nThink about it: does your camera get blurry if the lens is wet? The light is being refracted more than usual which is probably why it is so blurry."
]
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[]
] |
||
2rwlbl | can people who want to do illicit things on the internet just use someone's unprotected wifi to do it without being caught? | If someone wanted to steal credit card info, release The Fappening photos, etc. could they not just go somewhere with free Wifi or park outside someone's house with unprotected Internet and do it? How would they be caught? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rwlbl/eli5_can_people_who_want_to_do_illicit_things_on/ | {
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"There will be some traces, especially logs on the router, with their MAC address. There is a remote chance they can be tracked down, but it would be very difficult. ",
"It even has a name: [Wardriving](_URL_0_). But beware your computer identifying itself to the ever present listeners.",
"Yes. You will need:\n- Laptop (remove hard drive)\n- USB stick with the operating system TAILS installed on it (Kali would also do, but if you can use Kali you do not need ELI5)\n- To be somewhere without traffic or CCTV cameras, as stated by CanisImperium\n- Knowledge of how to spoof a MAC address and IP address, which can be gained by a brief Google search\n\nBe nondescript. Coffee shops are good, because you can stay for the duration of a cup of coffee and not look suspicious regardless of when you leave. Boot up from the USB stick. Load whatever files or software you need from a second USB stick (this one needs to be cheap, because you'll be smashing it to pieces and setting fire to it when you're done - remember, the black square bit needs to be destroyed, the casing isn't important). Do whatever you came to do, being quick but not looking hurried. People remember hurried. Finish, remove USB sticks, pack up and go."
]
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[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving"
],
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4wen08 | why do all male and female voices respectively sound the same in old movie and television? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wen08/eli5_why_do_all_male_and_female_voices/ | {
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"Actors commonly spoke with what is called a \"Mid-Atlantic Accent\" - a cross between well spoken American and the \"posh\" British Received Pronounciation.\n\nSee - _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent"
]
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||
2xlkut | how do fossil fuels actually exist without being disturbed, are new amounts always slowly being made? | also when someone finds a fossil, how was it not disturbed for so long | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xlkut/eli5_how_do_fossil_fuels_actually_exist_without/ | {
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"Well who would disturb them? Fossil fuels and fossils are more often than not pretty deep in the ground where nobody but humans and our technology can get at them.\n\nIf you're referring to geological events disturbing them, they certainly do. There are deep sea fossils on the tops of mountains because they were disturbed by geological activity.",
"New fossil fuels are constantly being made. \n\nIt also depends on what you call a fossil fuel. I can heat wood past it's ignition point without oxygen(no burning), and get a gas that's very much like gasoline. But since it's not millions of years old it isn't a fossil fuel. Where do you put the arbitrary line?",
"Most fossil fuels (like natural gas) constantly are being made and escape to the atmosphere, only a very small percentage remain underground, usually captured in an underground dome of impentrable rock.",
"Oil and gas are continually escaping through fault lines and \"chimneys\" (basically cracks built when pressure in the reservoirs become too high).\n\nMany are noted in history:\n- Moses and the burning bush (natural gas chimney)\n- the Arab use of petrol bombs in the crusades (oil seepage in Mosul, Iraq)\n- the Persians using naphtha bombs against the Greeks (oil fields in Iran)\n- Marco Polo wrote of perennial smoky fires in Baku (now the major oil fields in Azerbaijan)\netc\n"
]
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1nvpj6 | how to start investing | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nvpj6/eli5_how_to_start_investing/ | {
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"You'll want to read a book called The Wealthy Barber. Three friends get easy to understand financial advice from a millionaire barber each time they go to get their hair cut.\n\nTo summarize the first few chapters...\n\nPay yourself first. Set up an automated checking account transaction that takes a percentage of your pay check (whatever you can afford but at least 10%) the moment it is deposited and moves it into savings. By taking it out first it is much easier to budget the rest.\n\nThis alone (even if you are just putting it into a relatively low interest savings account) is enough to be well on your way to financial security thanks to compound interest.\n\nIn The Wealthy Barber it is recommended your \"safe\" investment is a mutual fund where you can expect 15% return. Unfortunately it was written in different economic times. Nowadays you'll probably want it to be an index fund instead and you can expect 5%-10% interest in the long run.\n\n*A mutual fund is where you lump your money together with a bunch of other people and give it to some wise investors who spread it out in different stocks as they see fit (if they guess right you make more money but if they guess wrong you make less - also you have to pay them a cut).*\n\n*An index fund is where you lump your money together with a bunch of other people and buy shares divided as set out in one of the big stock indexes.*\n\nAlthough an index fund is basically the most conservative way to invest in the stock market, by making regular equal contributions you are actually playing the market. When the market drops you are technically losing money, but since you are still investing your dollar goes farther and when it eventually grows again you'll end up making more than if you haphazardly invest when you believe it will rise/fall.\n\nAnd that's basically it. You'll want to read the book to discuss insurance (insure your assets not your liabilities), investing in property, RRSPs, loans, buying on credit, and other more in depth topics. It's important to note as well that what I'm describing now is your basic long term savings plan. This is the money you aren't touching until retirement. Saving up for a vacation or new TV is a separate issue.\n\nFinally start now. Compound interest benefits from time much more than initial principal.\n\nTo illustrate...\n\nTake two brothers. One makes a one time investment of $15,000 at the age of 20. At 10% interest compounded monthly, by the age of 40 this will have turned into $110,000. His brother however waits until the age of 25 before investing (again at 10%). He would have to invest $15,000 and an additional $1,000 per year just to break $100k by age 40."
]
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[]
] |
||
a606bt | what does the slave law that was just passed in hungary actually mean for the country and the workers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a606bt/eli5_what_does_the_slave_law_that_was_just_passed/ | {
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"They're not optional. They raised that cap for overtime that employers can demand from employees to a level where 9 hour days can be expected.\n\nThe second bit is super weird to me - they also extended the time an employer can take to pay you for your overtime from 1 year to 3 years, so you could put in an extra 400 hours per year and not see an extra cent in your paycheck for 3 years, or they could get it pushed back even further in the next two years, and then further again, and you never see it.\n\nEurope has some pretty strict labor laws that favor employees, this one only favors employers."
]
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[]
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||
1u217l | if humans are considered so intelligent, why does it take them so long to walk(even crawl) compared to other animals? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u217l/eli5_if_humans_are_considered_so_intelligent_why/ | {
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"From memory something to do with evolution. I think because we are so smart our brains have had to grow therefore our heads are bigger than they used to be. And that's why babies necks are so unstable. \n\nOr maybe I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. ",
"We are born 'prematurely.' Our brain and head grow so big that we wouldn't fit through the woman's birthing canal if we were allowed to develop further. So we are birthed with a smaller head and then develop further outside the womb. This comes at the disadvantage of needing to be cared for and being essentially useless as an infant, but it seems to have served our species well. ",
"Prey animals need to be able to get on their feet rather quickly. Humans are predators, and do not need that ability so early in life. Plus, humans have the ability to carry their young, also eliminating the need to walk during infancy.",
"The trade off for great inteligence is a slow growing brain. A womans birth canal could nevr pass a head with an adult size brain so we are born with incomplete brains. With the exceptions of preditors most animals are born knowing almost everything they need to know and theire brain need little further growth. If you look at chimps, our closest reletives you would notice that it takes their young much longer to mature than other animals also.",
"One of the theories is that the human brain is actually born underdeveloped; a fully developed human brain would be too big to pass through the birth canal.\n\nSee: _URL_0_",
"Not an expert and not a complete answer: We humans have large brains, so large that we were at risk of cracking the pelvis during childbirth. To compensate for this, nature decided to have us born earlier so that our heads were smaller (the reason for our soft spot too, allows for the skull to expand after birth) but this also means that our mothers must care for us longer than other mammals until we can fend for ourselves."
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||
75y739 | why is it so difficult to locate "planet nine" even though it's right in our backyard? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75y739/eli5_why_is_it_so_difficult_to_locate_planet_nine/ | {
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"Because it is tiny, and space is huge.\n\nIt also doesn't help that our main way of finding planets (by seeing the sunlight they reflect off of themselves) doesn't work because the planet is too far away from the sun for any light to reflect off of it.\n\nTrying to find planet 9 is like trying to find a penny on the floor of a huge warehouse when the only light you have is a single candle in the middle of the building. ",
"Because it's definitely not right in our backyard. It's \"close\" compared to stuff like other solar systems or galaxies, but it's still 111,550,000,000 miles away. \n\nIt's like saying \"I can't find that dang single cell of bacteria, but I KNOW he's in my house somewhere!\"",
"You're on an indoor stadium. All the lights are turned off, except one 100W light bulb in the middle of the stadium. You're standing 10 ft from the light bulb.\n\nYour job is to find out if there is a housefly that's flying around the stadium.",
"When you are looking through a telescope, it is like looking through a straw, you are only seeing a tiny, tiny portion of the sky. It would take the Hubble's wide field camera about 800 separate pictures to survey just 1 square degree, and there are about 40,000 square degrees in the sky.\n\nAlso, this kind of planetary object will look just like a star, and there are a whole lot of stars in the sky. [This](_URL_1_) is one of the photos Clyde Tombaugh uses them he discovered Pluto. Can you find it? The only effective way is to compare two pictures over time and hope to see movement, like [this](_URL_0_). The proposed planet is dimmer than Pluto, so fewer telescopes can join in the search. And its orbital period could be as much as 100 times that of Pluto, you will have to wait a lot longer between shots. That makes the search much harder.\n\nFinally, it is a lot easier to take photos than it is to analyze them. There are billions of images sitting in file cabinets and hard drives no one has ever even looked at, much less analyzed. When a new object is discovered, there is a process called recovery, where you look for the object in already existing images. It is typical to find it photos that predate the discovery by years, even decades."
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467pfk | why are live streams that say they are hd not really hd quality? | Providers like NBC Live Extra (they're not the only ones who do this) claim their online streams are HD, but even on my computer aren't as clear as a live HD channel on the TV. And then when i connect my computer to the TV its like SD quality at best.
I know my internet speed isn't the issue...so why is this?
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/467pfk/eli5_why_are_live_streams_that_say_they_are_hd/ | {
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"They are HD, they are just heavily compressed. Full HD means it has 1920x1080 pixels in the video file. However, due to compression, not all of these pixels are individual. When you compress a video file you group pixels and assign a single color to them, this is okay when done to say a blue sky, but not okay when done with complex scenes. \n \nIf you have a high-quality tv service like FiOS, your video signal is likely in the neighborhood of 10-15Mbps. If I had to guess as to what NBC Live Extra streams at, I'd say no more than 5Mbps, which would still be better than YouTube (generally ~3.5Mbps for 1080p 30fps).",
"Also keep in mind that there's no specific definition of \"HD\". Most people assume they mean 1080p when the term HD is used, but it's legally acceptable to call 720p HD."
]
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4cles8 | how does adding salt to a dish while cooking it differ from adding salt while eating it? | Wouldn't it be far easier and less complicated for everyone to add their own amount of salt to a saltless dish? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cles8/eli5_how_does_adding_salt_to_a_dish_while_cooking/ | {
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"text": [
"Salt does more than just flavor food.\n\nThere are some chemical reactions that are desirable during the preparation of food (application of heat and/or passage of time) that utilize the chemical properties of the salt. "
]
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[]
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|
809h9l | if there isn't such thing as a sugar high, then what causes you to act hyper after eating candy or drinking a can of coke? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/809h9l/eli5_if_there_isnt_such_thing_as_a_sugar_high/ | {
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"[Peer pressure and placebo, mostly.](_URL_0_) Similar experiment involving non-alcoholic beer produced \"tipsy\" people even though the drinks contained absolutely no alcohol.\n\n\n\nLook at people who drink vitamin water/fruit juices which contain almost as much sugar yet don't act hyper since they believe they aren't drinking sugar. ",
"Well sugar being a simple carbohydrate provides energy in the short term and it doesn't take much sugar to have an effect on a child. But the hyperactivity outside of that is just a myth"
]
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"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3035442.stm"
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||
6g4213 | what stops telephone companies from being able to identify and block robocallers (including ones who use caller id scrambling)? | With all the other things computers are capable of doing these days, this would seem to be a feature that could be developed and implemented by Verizon or TMobile or whomever. That said, I'm definitely not an expert on this kind of technology, to the point where I'm not even sure I'm phrasing the question properly. But I'd be interested in, say, if a rising exec at TMobile wanted to introduce a service or feature like this, would it even be technologically possible? Or is that simply not the way the phone networks work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g4213/eli5_what_stops_telephone_companies_from_being/ | {
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"I would imagine it's against their self-interest of earning money through any source possible.",
"The technology may be present, but if carriers start doing things like that then they lose what's called \"common carrier status\". Common carrier status grants them immunity from being implicated as an accomplice if a crime is committed or planned over their infrastructure or if someone wants to sue the carrier over something someone else transmitted. \n\nBasically, if the carrier starts filtering calls on their own then they open themselves up to the possibility of someone suing them because they didn't filter something or did filter something that someone did/didn't want. Imagine being able to sue Verizon because someone robocalled you with an obscene heavy breathing call. ",
"I test a corporate phone system as my job.\n\nThey can't stop robo-callers because:\n\n1) Content and intent are not included in the routing information.\n\n2) Legitimate businesses use Automated systems for valid purposes, let letting customers know special order or packages have arrived for pickup.\n\n3) It's super easy to spoof the origin in routing information.\n\n4) They'd risk a lawsuit for blocking legal communication service they are being paid to provide if they try to block a specific outgoing physical line."
]
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60ihxt | if the current fbi investigation indicates the results of the us election were tampered with by a foreign nation, what happens? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60ihxt/eli5_if_the_current_fbi_investigation_indicates/ | {
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"Regarding impeachment.\n\nImpeachment is a political process. If the members of congress which to begin impeachment proceedings (and wish to remove someone from office) it is **entirely** at their discretion. They can't be compelled to impeach, or not impeach. The process if it happened would happen the normal way.\n\nOtherwise there isn't really a precedent. The constitution says congress has the authority to validate election results, which they've done, so there's no obvious (or even not-so-obvious) justification for invalidating anything.\n\nIf the president shouldn't be president the only real option for that to happen is congress removing him through impeachment.",
"OK, first of all, let's be clear. There is no evidence or suspicion that the voters did not decide this election. The election apparatus of the US is very complex and every state has it's own. A foreign power would literally need to hack 50 elections to hack the American system. \n\nHowever, you can hack an election without hacking an election. What happened in the recent US election is that a foreign power used illegal hacking to obtain information critical of one side, they made that information public and the voters punished that side because of it. There is no indication that the proper votes were not counted, rather people think that the public was unduly influenced by prejudicial information. \n\nAnd there's nothing illegal with influencing the public! The public is allowed to consider whatever they want. The Russians obtained information and used that information to influence the American electorate, but ti was still the electorate that decided the election!\n\nThere is some question if the Russians did this influencing and hacking at the behest of the Trump campaign. That would be incredibly difficult to prove. And it's never happened before so we have no idea what would happen.\n\nWhat is supposed to happen is that Congress would impeach Trump, the Senate would try him and convict him of some kind of electoral misconduct and that would result in him no longer being president. \n\nThere would be no new election. The US system has no provision for voiding an election and calling a new one like that. Pence would become president until the next election date. If Pence were also impeached it would go down the line of succession to Paul Ryan. All hail President Ryan!!\n\n\nFuck. "
]
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||
axr2yz | why does turning the volume down on my phone and up on my car give a cleaner signal at the same volume? | This is kind of a weird one but if I put the volume on my phone to full blast, I get static through my aux to tape. However, if I turn it down a couple notches on my phone and turn it up in my car, I can go even louder than before while still getting no static. What causes this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axr2yz/eli5_why_does_turning_the_volume_down_on_my_phone/ | {
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"text": [
"You are overdriving the output of the phone OR the aux-to-tape converted (the latter most likely), essentially pushing the circuitry beyond its limits. When you lower the output you put the circuit back into operating range and you can then cleanly amplify the signal using the car stereo."
]
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1w6wbz | what is the appeal of the simpsons? | I used to enjoy watching The Simpsons when I was a little kid but I can't hardly stand the new episodes, and I'm trying to explain to people who've never been fans of the series what the appeal was in semi-concrete terms.
So my question is twofold:
1. Why did the series become so popular with near-universal appeal? (I'm struggling to get out some sort of understandable and meaningful analysis as to why it was so popular)
2. Why did the show decline in quality so much over the past 10 years or so? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w6wbz/eli5_what_is_the_appeal_of_the_simpsons/ | {
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"First well done adult cartoon sitcom since the flintstones",
"1. Classic Family, perfect archetypes, really good stories, so many characters, being a cartoon it never ages, Bart first captured you as a kid, and now Homer is in the driver seat as you age.\n\n2. It didn't, its more polished, humour is sharper and it now makes extensive meta jokes on its own formula...you remember old episodes nostalgically. Reality is if you want season 1 through 5 now, they're actually kind of trash with a few exceptions. \nThere's a mechanism in the mind that will taken the single episode you just saw, and compare it to the BEST episodes you saw before...you'll ignore the bad ones from before. \nThere's 500+ episodes...but you'll remember like the 10 best and compare the new episode to those. \n\n",
"1) In the early 90s it was a cartoon that appealed to a wide demographic (pre teens, teenagers, and young adults). The storylines about the misadventures and slapstick of a dysfunctional but loving nuclear family were simple enough for young audiences to follow but the wit, satire, pop culture references and long list of memorable supporting characters gave it a depth and appeal that older audiences could appreciate. Add to that the infinitely quotable scenarios and one-liners due to extremely good writing in the first 7-8 seasons (this is debatable and I'm generalzing) plus a huge marketing blitiz (tshirts, tie-ins, toys, advertising) and it proved to be a rampaging pop culture success.\n\n2) This answer is far more debatable and much more subjective. IMO it was a combination of struggling to keep the tropes and characters of the show fresh without them ever really changing (the characters don't age, things in the show are largely static), which often resulted in creating more outlandish storylines and zany scenarios for the characters to get into/out of while occasionally recycling past storylines. What we were left with is later seasons flooded with celebrity cameos, the satire/parodies becoming more hit or miss, and stunts such as killing off minor characters (Maude Flanders, for example) to get people to tune in and keep the show relevant. ",
"1. The writing. The writers took full advantage of working outside the constraints of the [at-the-time-ubiquitous] sitcom format, and also the ability to be more subversive given the fledgling status of FOX. \n\n2. The writing. While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when/why the Simpsons lost its heart (although personally I think Homer going from lovable buffoon who's ultimately dedicated to his family to a selfish boor is a major factor), it was obvious for the first 7 seasons or so that the creators were, simply put, really having a lot of fun. Inside jokes abound. Myriad running gags. Intelligent parody. Odes to great literature and film. Fun.\n\n",
"1) Remember, it was *very* innovative at the time. It appealed to everyone, and the whole semi-disfunctional family thing was new to sitcoms at the time.\n\n2) Lots of reasons. It's really hard to keep a show 'fresh' that long in general. A really obvious reason is the writers - during the generally agreed upon prime of the show, they had a rather all star cast that included writers like Conan O'Brien... and eventually some of them left to do their own thing.\n\nThere's also the rise of other comedies like Family Guy & South Park popping up at the same time as some turnover in writing in the Simpsons. The comparison of a couple so-so seasons of the Simpsons to the best seasons of those two is a lot of it, if you ask me.\n\nThere's pure nostalgia too. Some of the classic Simpsons episodes are just so firmly cemented as classics that it sets a pretty impossible bar for the new episodes. Honestly, I thought there were a few pretty shitty Simpsons seasons in there in the mid/late teens... but some of the newer episodes have been genuinely funny."
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1e90fy | what is going on with obama, the irs, and benghazi? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e90fy/eli5_what_is_going_on_with_obama_the_irs_and/ | {
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"For Benghazi, there was an attack on an American consulate in that city. The attack was planned by a militant organization. However, the White House spent days afterward suggesting that the attack was a spontaneous riot sparked by an offensive Youtube video. Another criticism is that there should have been better security at the consulate to protect the Americans there. Some Republicans are emphasizing the second criticism and trying to place the blame on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, possibly because she could be a candidate in the next presidential election. Several hearings have been held on these controversies, including one last week. \n\nThe IRS is the organization that deals with taxation for the government. There appears to be strong evidence that they treated conservative groups, such as the Tea Party, unfairly by investigating them more closely than other organizations. Needless to say, it's never acceptable for a neutral organization to treat people differently because of their political beliefs.\n\nAs for Obama, he's the President. In the Benghazi scandal, the criticism is really focused more on how his administration handled it than anything Obama did personally. In the IRS scandal, I don't believe there was any indication that he was involved at all. That being said, Presidents usually take the credit and the blame for stuff that happens while they're in office, even when they weren't responsible. ",
"Disclaimer: I'm a registered independent who voted third party in 2012.\n\nBenghazi: the 9/11 attack on Benghazi is under heavy criticism, particularly by right-wing groups, Republicans, and Fox News. Despite calling it an \"act of terror\", right-wing groups have criticized the administration for not calling it a terrorist attack. Despite the closest help being hours away (and thus not able to assist the embassy), right-wing groups have criticized the administration for not having sent help immediately. Despite the fact that House Republicans (by their own admission) cut embassy funding since gaining majority in 2010, right-wing groups have criticized the administration for not increasing security in Benghazi. Initially, intelligence led the administration to believe the attack was spontaneous and done by protestors over a video, when the attack was instead planned by militants. An investigation by the State Department has said that there was a failure to adequately beef up security in embassies, especially in Benghazi, but nothing that indicts the President. In short, it was a tragedy that was mismanaged by cut security spending and poor decision-making in the State Department, but most likely could not have been prevented. Hindsight is 20/20.\n\nIRS: After 2010, there was a surge in groups applying for tax-exempt status in the IRS, including a massive increase in groups affiliated with politics. Several higher-ups in the IRS specifically told workers that groups with applications including \"tea party\" or \"patriot\" or ones that were focused on government spending would need to be given extra investigation or require a more thorough process. Obviously, this is a terrible thing to do, and the IRS has come under extreme criticism from both right-wing and left-wing politicians, including President Obama, who called it outrageous and said that the IRS would be held accountable.\n\nNote: there is a charge, mainly perpetuated by liberals, that Fox News and other conservative politicians are focusing on Benghazi in an attempt to embarrass Hilary Clinton in case she runs for President in 2016. This may or may not be true, but it should be noted anyway because it's a recurring talking point."
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1z7ryt | how does aerobraking work? | Title says it all.
Edit: This question refers to the spaceflight maneuver. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z7ryt/eli5_how_does_aerobraking_work/ | {
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"So, first we need some terminology.\n\n**Drag** is the friction force that air exerts on your spacecraft\n\n**Terminal Velocity** is the speed at which a falling body's acceleration due to gravity is equal to the drag exerted by the atmosphere.\n\nSo, things in orbit are moving *really fast*. Typically we're talking in the range of Mach 5 or 6, or several kilometers per *second*; the terminal velocity for a falling body at sea level is something along the lines of 150 meters per second (I don't know the exact figure but it's around that speed); So what is happening is that the friction of drag is being applied to the vehicle, much as a brake pad to a wheel, and slowing the momentum of the craft.\n\nNow, for a slightly lower level of explanation of \"why does air create friction?\" you have to remember that while we don't perceive air around us very much, it is filled with gaseous substances. These gasses are made up of molecules that are vibrating around at several hundred meters per second. Moving at normal human speeds, they move out of our way so fast that we don't experience them. Moving at very fast speeds, though, they can't move fast enough and get compressed in front of our velocity vector."
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ejjgt9 | why do the longest and shortest days of the year not coincide with the yearly average hottest and coldest days? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ejjgt9/eli5_why_do_the_longest_and_shortest_days_of_the/ | {
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"Because it takes time to heat up and time to cool down. It's the same reason the hottest part of the day is usually a few hours after noon, and why everything doesn't immediately freeze after sunset.\n\nThink of it this way. If the days were all the same, the temperature would not change, right? It would be in equilibrium. But then if you suddenly made the days longer, it would get hotter. BUT it wouldn't get hotter instantly, it would get hotter and hotter as more and more heat is dumped into the Earth, until it reached a *new* equilibrium. Now in real life, the days are *always* changing. So the Earth never \"catches up\" and you get a graph of temperature that is just a time delayed graph of sunlight."
]
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||
25i24l | the recent australian budget review | The latest Budget Review in Australia has been released for 2014.
All I'm hearing from people in bitching and moaning about how they are going to be royally fucked from it.
I highly doubt they are going to be royally fucked, but I'd like to know what kind of losses they are going to incur and what the government is doing with that money ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25i24l/eli5_the_recent_australian_budget_review/ | {
"a_id": [
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"[This](_URL_0_) gives a clear understanding of who the winners and losers are.\n\nIn my opinion, it's a good thing. We're getting ourselves out of debt, building better infrastructure which will increase out GDP, and we're funding medical research so that Australia may potentially become leaders in medical breakthroughs and knowledge.\n\nPeople are just bitching and moaning because they have to pay a little more here and there. Boo fucking hoo. It's all justified and the money we're putting in is being put to good use. \n\nThere are a few things I'm not too thrilled about, but at my age and position (24, employed full time), I'm pretty comfortable with it. Plus it'll leave Australia in better shape for future generations."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-13/budget-winners-and-losers/5433178"
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|
1j0q5c | why are "infomercial drugs" so obtainable, yet have such severe side affects, while groundbreaking, life changing drugs have such a hard time getting past the testing phase? | I may have worded this badly, so allow me to explain...
We all know "infomercial drugs". The "Miracle Cures" for depression , anxiety, erectile dysfunction, etc. etc..that we see on TV.
Why are these drugs so well marketed while groundbreaking drugs that may change our existence as we know it are held back for years and years of rigorous testing?
Do they not follow the same testing guidelines?
Do they cost so much less?
Why?? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j0q5c/eli5_why_are_infomercial_drugs_so_obtainable_yet/ | {
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"Part of the confusion you are experiencing can be cleared up by two pieces of information:\n\n1. If you'll pay close attention to the commercials, they never call their products a \"drug\". Drugs are regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. If you aren't claiming that you are marketing a drug, then you aren't subject to those regulations of safety testing, efficacy claims, side effect monitoring, etc.\n\n2. Mostly, they are marketed as \"dietary supplements\" or \"herbal supplements\". Dietary supplements are regulated as \"food\" and comes under far less scrutiny, and herbal supplements aren't regulated at all. Almost any claim can be made.",
"as far as those long lists of side effects go, any drug which undergoes testing must list every unusual thing that happens as a side effect, even if the cause for the person who was tested wasn't related to the drug\n\nas an example, if a person was testing a \"quit smoking\" drug and they got a cold, the drug company might have to list the symptoms of the cold as side effects of the drug simply because they occurred at the same time"
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wvb5w | what's the difference between a real image and a virtual image? and why does it matter? | This is something that I just could not understand at school, no matter how many people tried to explain it to me or how they explained it. It didn't exactly seem "too difficult" to understand, it just didn't seem to be logically coherent, i.e. it didn't make sense. 25 years later, can anyone put an end to my mental torment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wvb5w/whats_the_difference_between_a_real_image_and_a/ | {
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"text": [
"It depends on whether the image is in front of or behind the lens. [I made a shitty MS Paint diagram to illustrate the point.](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://imgur.com/ouBas"
]
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|
2gjgy4 | how is crime handled in international waters? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gjgy4/eli5_how_is_crime_handled_in_international_waters/ | {
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"Law on a cruise ship (or any other ship) starts with the flag the ship is flying under. A ship flies the flag of the country where it's registered, and, in general, the laws onboard a ship are the laws of that country. However, when figuring out which laws apply on a sea vessel, territory also must be taken into consideration. Legal jurisdiction on the sea goes something like this [source: Justia]:\n\nA country's internal waters -- areas like bays and ports -- are a part of that country. So when a ship is docked at the Port of Miami, all U.S. (and Florida) laws apply to the ship, its passengers and its crew.\n\nAlmost all of a nation's laws also apply in its territorial waters which extend up to 12 miles from its coastline (we'll look at an exception on the next page). A ship departing from a U.S. port cannot open gambling activities until it's 12 miles out, since gambling is illegal in most parts of the United States.\n\nA nation has limited jurisdiction in its contiguous zone -- the area 12 miles to 24 miles from its coast. A country has certain rights within that zone, such as patrolling its borders. For instance, within 24 miles of the U.S. coast, the U.S. Coast Guard is allowed to board any ship suspected of drug smuggling, regardless of which flag it's flying under.\n\nOnce a ship is 24 miles from any coastline, it's on the high seas (or international waters). With the exception of certain rights within the contiguous zone, the law of that ship is the law of the country whose flag it's flying. So, a Liberia-registered cruise ship that's 25 miles off the coast of California isn't subject to U.S. law; it's subject to Liberian law.\n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"What if you're on the high seas and:\n\na.) your ship is not registered to any country. You built it yourself. \nand \nb.) you have legally renounced your citizenship. You're a man without a country.\n\nWould you be autonomous and untouchable? Somehow I doubt it..\n",
"Interpol would get involved if the crime was serious enough. They can be requested by a member country to investigate a international crime.\n\nFor example Viktor Bout, who the movie Lord of War was based, was investigated by Interpol.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
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||
2arf70 | when someone dies (e.g. in a car accident), how do the police know who to contact if the person isn't carrying any contact information? | Or if it makes more sense - how do they know who to call (spouse, family member, etc) if the person is not carrying something that says "in case of death, please contact xxx" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2arf70/eli5_when_someone_dies_eg_in_a_car_accident_how/ | {
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"They become a \"John Doe\" and are transported to a morgue. After a certain amount of time being unclaimed by relatives, they may be buried as a John Doe, depends on local laws.",
"I believe the most common way is to contact the address that the car is registered to, if it is a car accident.\n\nI suppose another way that would work is if they have a bank card or anything with their name on of some sort on them, which most adults carry. They could then contact the employer/bank/whatever and get details from them. \n\nI guess another way would be to look at cctv and see where the person was just before they were murdered. They might be a regular of the shop they were in 5 minutes before being attacked or better still, were somewhere where they had an appointment or worked, in which case the place is more likely to have their details. And if it was a murder case, the police would probably look at cctv of the area anyway. ",
"If that person was important to anyone, they'll file a missing persons report. Who was she, what did she look like, what kind of car was she driving, etc. That goes through some databases, and they realize they have a body that matches that description that was pulled out of that kind of car, and they take the family for positive ID.\n\nIf nobody misses them, then they get buried as a john/jane doe."
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4ij8rs | mercury passing in front of the sun | So, today Mercury is passing in between the sun and the earth. However, a year on Mercury is 88 earth days. Does that not mean that this event should happen 4 times an Earth year? Also, are all the planets in a plain (as in aligned) due to the force of the sun and all planets? Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question, my physics knowledge is very limited. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ij8rs/eli5_mercury_passing_in_front_of_the_sun/ | {
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"As explained [here](_URL_0_), it's because the planets are not actually in a plane; Mercury's orbit is tilted.\n\n > Mercury transits occur just 13 times per century, on average. They're so rare because the innermost planet's orbit is inclined by about 7 degrees compared to that of Earth, so Mercury, the sun and our home planet just don't line up all that often. ",
" > Also, are all the planets in a plain (as in aligned) due to the force of the sun and all planets? Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question, my physics knowledge is very limited.\n\nThe planets are all roughly in the same plane because all the planets were created from the same accretion disk. The long-and-short is that everything in our solar system (including the sun), were formed from the remnants of a previous generation of star that went nova.\n\nThis explosion formed a planetary nebula of heavy elements. Eventually gravity slowed down the expansion caused by this explosion, pulling that material back in. As the matter is pulled back in, the nebula as a whole spins. Spinning creates centrifugal* force, which would \"flatten out\" an otherwise spherical shape (for the same reasons the Earth \"bulges out\" at the equator).\n\nSince this disk is mostly flat, and since all the planets and other celestial objects came from this disk, they are all on the same plane. This plane, basically, is what is left from this disk.\n\nBut this disk wasn't perfectly flat, so the planets aren't all on exactly the same plane. Using the Earth-Sun plane as a point of reference, we can measure a planet's deviation from this plane (which we call its inclination to the ecliptic). This can range from very small (Uranus is only 0.77 degrees off this plane) to somewhat larger (Mercury is 7 degrees). Mercury is somewhat of a rather extreme outlier, with all of the other planets being less than 4 degrees off.\n\nThese deviations are rather small, but large enough to prevent us from seeing transits like this frequently. It's also why we don't have a solar eclipse every month (the Moon deviates 5 degrees).\n\n^(* - centrifugal/centripetal, whatever, don't want to argue this point, it's ELI5.)",
"The sun only takes up about half of a degree in our sky.\n\nThat means even the smallest difference between the earth's orbital plane and that of the inner planets means that planet will fail to cross directly in front of the sun."
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1ep06g | the difference between software engineer(ing) and software developer(ment), if there is one. | Just wondering what the difference is, if there is one. It seems that people that I know in software engineering tend to have slightly different roles than other friends who are software developers. I can't put my finger on the difference though, so I thought I'd ask.
Many thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ep06g/eli5_the_difference_between_software_engineering/ | {
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"The terms/titles are almost synonymous/interchangeable - any specific differences vary from company to company according to how they want to dole out roles and responsibilities and what they want to call particular people in such roles.",
"In general the two terms are fairly interchangeable, and the work done by a \"software developer\" at one company might be identical to the work done by a \"software engineer\" at another.\n\nIf there is a difference it's that Software Engineering might try to put a greater emphasis on trying to adhere to industry best-practice guidelines. So an insistence on whatever are the current in-favour development methodologies, at the moment that would include Agile techniques such as Behaviour-Driven Development, Test-Driven Development, probably Scrum or Kanban or similar.\n\nHowever it's perfectly possible for someone to have a \"software engineer\" job title and not adhere to those methodologies.",
"At my job, we don't distinguish between \"software engineering\" and \"software development\". We'd just be thrilled to find enough people who are competent coders to fill our growing list of openings.\n\n*sigh*",
"They're pretty much interchangeable. If you want to make a distinction, you could say that a software engineer is one who can go very low (I mean programming as \"close to the metal\" as possible), can optimise his algorithms, really knows his shit, has an engineering degree and is generally a badass motherfucker.\n\nBut perhaps I'm just tooting my own horn. I'm a software engineer. A humble one, as you can see.",
"There's a difference in Canada. The term [Profession Engineer is licensed](_URL_0_) so random people can't call themselves an Engineer.\n\nHowever, for Canada it still only means they went to a university that was accredited for Software Engineering (instead of just Computer Sci). It's still not a guaranteed metric for quality by any stretch, but luckily the field can easily test competency."
]
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2d9cho | if all life is constantly evolving, why are all species so distinct? | For example, why do we have chimpanzees and people but no half-evolved chimp-people? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d9cho/eli5_if_all_life_is_constantly_evolving_why_are/ | {
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"what is a half-evolved chimp person? I don't know what you mean by that.\n\nchimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor. ",
" > ...why are all species so distinct?\n\nMany species aren't particularly distinct. Certain species of rabbit and certain species of cat, for example, are aesthetically similar. Various species of bird are similar to one another, as are various species of fish, plants, etc.\n\n > ...why do we have chimpanzees and people but no half-evolved chimp-people?\n\nWell, humans didn't evolve from chimpanzees. That's *one* reason."
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4440ef | if the information age has made more information freely accessible than ever before, so why are textbook prices going up? shouldn't it be the other way around? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4440ef/eli5_if_the_information_age_has_made_more/ | {
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"pearson education is the largest educational company in the world and produces the vast majority of textbooks for school. like any huge corporation that has been around forever, they can bully their way to ensure their archaic way of doing business never stops because profit"
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||
3ch9ee | why are maestros necessary if the musicians are practiced and have their written music in front of them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ch9ee/eli5_why_are_maestros_necessary_if_the_musicians/ | {
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"Because no human can keep an exactly perfect beat count. If you are playing with just a few other musicians, you can all keep the same beat because you can hear each other playing. But in a huge orchestra, the sound from the instruments in other sections are drowned out by those playing around you, and so without a conductor to keep a global beat, things will drift out of sync. In the same way, they can hear the orchestra playing in a similar way the audience can, so they can tell if a section is playing too loudly or too softly and adjust it. Since the people actually playing in that section can't accurately hear the entire orchestra, they can't really tell such things on their own no matter how skilled they are."
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3usmu4 | what are the dangers of using razor blades for too long of a time? | I've heard that you should change your razor blade every week or so, but why? Are there any health dangers when it comes to using razors for too long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3usmu4/eli5_what_are_the_dangers_of_using_razor_blades/ | {
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"Dull blades will pull your hairs instead of cutting them. Some razors come with a lubricant on it that can wear away adding to irritation. ",
"Cutting yourself. \n\nWhich happens because each shave wears down the blade. Once the blade is uneven it catches and can cut you. Depending on how often you shave and the quality of the blade, that'd happen once a week."
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a9yt79 | your brain is one of the most energy consuming organs in the body, but why is it that it's energy consumption is not considered in calculating fat burn? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9yt79/eli5_your_brain_is_one_of_the_most_energy/ | {
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"Your brain only uses sugars for fuel. Brain cells are like the Ferraris of human cells so they only want a certain type of fuel. Other cells can run off of other types of molecules. So if you’re counting tissue types that would use fat as fuel you wouldn’t include brain cells. ",
"The energy consumption of your brain is more or less constant, so it's meaningless to include it in most calculations. Thinking harder does not appreciably change the amount of energy your brain uses, but running harder dramatically increases the amount of energy your muscles are using.",
"Energy used by the brain is calculated in your basal metabolic rate (the amount of energy used by your body to just stay alive)",
"Note that \"most energy consuming\" is relative to when you're not doing anything. \n\nThe brain runs on something like 20W of power. In comparison, I'm not in good shape by any measure and I can crank out an average of 150W for a full hour on a bike (plus probably a good margin of extra energy because there's no way I'm 100% efficient at converting food to forward motion), over 7x what my brain uses. Olympic sprint cyclists will do more like 1500W for a few minutes, almost 100x the brain's consumption. \n\n20W means it's using 20 Joules of energy per second, or ~~1200~~ *72,000* per hour. That's ~~less than 0.3~~ *just over 17* Cal per hour, ~~not even 7~~ *about 400* Cal per day. That will burn an extra pound of fat every ~~500~~ *9* days. ~~Is that really worth including in weight loss calculations?~~ \n\n*Edit:* as /u/Vanniv_iv pointed out, I missed a factor of 60. It now represents a significant energy expenditure in terms of losing weight, but it's still not huge. Additionally, it doesn't really scale based on physical activity. [This paper talks about energy expenditure in the brain](_URL_0_). It looks like there are some mechanisms that limit overall activity in the brain, from a quick skim they appear to be related to transporting energy to all the different cells.\n\nThe important quote:\n\n > The brain's energy consumption does not change with normal variations in mental activity, though it is reduced by sleep and various pathological states\n\nAnd physical activity would be classified as a normal variation in mental activity. **TL;DR** increased physical activity (motion, force) are the result of increased mental activity. But the increase in spike rate of the neurons responsible for the physical activity is balanced by a corresponding decrease from baseline activity in neurons that are not currently in use. The brain has fundamental limitations to its overall energy consumption",
"Energy consumption by the brain is factored into your caloric needs, as part of your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). If you laid in bed all day doing absolutely nothing, an average sized person burns about 1300 calories. You can calculate your actual RMR using a formula that takes height, bodyweight, and gender into account. The calories your brain burns are included in that number, and amounts to approximately 300 calories. If you are up and active during the day, moving around and using your muscles, you burn a few hundred additional calories. Vigorous exercise will burn more calories. So if you are counting calories, you will add up your RMR plus any additional exercises you did. For an average person, this should be close to 2000 calories per day.\n\nSo, why doesn't the brain burn more calories when we think harder, just like when you work your muscles harder? Well it does, it's just not a lot. Our brains are highly efficient--normally your brain burns 0.2 calories per minute. If you are thinking really, really hard (imagine doing a really difficult puzzle or a hard math problem), your brain can burn up to 1 calorie per minute. However, most of us don't spend that much time every day thinking as hard as we can. We get mental fatigue-- ever feel like you were in a daze after taking a hard test? Our brains are lazy. Even for people with challenging jobs and schoolwork, over time your brain gets used to the effort of thinking hard and doesnt need to use as much energy to accomplish the same tasks (just like if your muscles get stronger and it's easier to lift a weight up). \n\nSo if you were to spend an hour thinking as hard as you can and challenging your brain, you would only burn 60 extra calories, or 3% more calories than normal (based on a daily consumption of 2000 calories). Running and other intense exercise can burn up to 10 calories per minute, so you could burn the same number of calories in 6 minutes of vigorous exercise.",
"Is there something I can think about that will burn more calories?",
"Then what causes mental fatigue after a day spent in heavy thought (studying, teaching, playing a tactical game like chess, ect)."
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5eycfv | how were such tiny nations, like england and portugal, able to colonize so much of the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5eycfv/eli5_how_were_such_tiny_nations_like_england_and/ | {
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"Technological superiority. Generally, when major European powers began expanding into South America, Asia, and Africa they were facing indigenous peoples who had nothing comparable to firearms. Britain in particular used their extremely powerful navy to enforce their will abroad simply because there was nothing the native peoples could do against something like a cannon or rifle.",
"In Europe the Dutch, the English, and the Portuguese figured out boat technology faster than everyone else... they are all countries that were near the edges of the map, when people in the area thought of the world as the Mediterranean Ocean surrounded by land, rather than as continents surrounded by oceans. When most people were using simple boats that hugged their shores, those countries figured out how to cross bigger distances with more people and more stuff. In the north they figured out how to use central rudders for steering, rather than the 'steer-board' oar on the right side (from which the term 'starboard' came; when such ships docked they would refrain from wrecking the steer-board between the ship and the dock, so the left side became known as the 'port' side). They also figured out how to make shallow-draft boats that could sail in ridiculously shallow water. They were quick to adopt the use of small lateen ('Latin') sails to sail against the wind. The Portuguese made huge ships that had tall sides (so they couldn't be boarded by smaller ships) and high decks from which rifle and cannon would have the advantage of height and distance. The English modified this to have the cannon inside a middle deck, poking through portholes... thus nullifying the advantage the Portuguese ships had, with their weapons on the open deck, and lowering their own center of balance, allowing them to use more/larger cannon without tipping the ship over.\n\nThe technological advances just ping-ponged back and forth like that, with each new good idea giving someone the technological superiority for a while. After that it was just the usual cultures-in-conflict, superior tech meeting inferior tech.\n\nThe Chinese came up with a lot of tech first, and used it throughout Asia, India, Arabia, and north-eastern Africa. But the European powers were on the other side of land masses, and people hadn't figured out how to get around the southern tip of Africa or through Arabia yet, so their exploration and technological history largely runs in parallel with European exploration history."
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3hqlbh | how come game controllers don't have to be pointed at consoles but t.v remotes do. why not use the same tech for both? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hqlbh/eli5_how_come_game_controllers_dont_have_to_be/ | {
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"Game controllers send out a radio signal in all directions. TV remotes send out an infrared (IR) signal in a certain direction. IR emitters are super cheap and they are basically little lights. These little lights are very bright in one direction and so they tend to only work of they are pointed directly at a reciever.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nGame controllers need to be more reliable and wont always be pointed at the console, so they use a more expensive wireless technology. "
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2liqhy | how is photography evaluated as art? | What makes one photo a masterpiece of art and the other not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2liqhy/eli5_how_is_photography_evaluated_as_art/ | {
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"First there's the technical skill involved. Photography doesn't perfectly capture an image exactly as it looks in real life. If you think it does take a picture of a person standing in front of a sunset and notice that they're just a black silhouette in your picture. \n\nYou've got to use your lighting, frame your subjects, compose your shot, choose the right shutter speed and aperture in order to manipulate the light to highlight the things you want to emphasize. Pick the right lens, focus on the right thing... it goes on and on. \n\nThen there's the artistic quality of the photo itself. Art is supposed to make you think and feel. What did they take a picture of? How does it make you feel? What message was the photographer trying to send? Did they do it well?\n\nIt's basically exactly the same as painting as far as coming up with a subject that conveys a message, but has a completely different medium for capturing that subject."
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43r8o9 | why are genetically modified "designer babies" viewed as such a negative thing? | I sort of understand that it would probably greater separate the super wealthy from the poor and middle class by creating elite humans but other than that, why is it viewed as so horrible, enough to create laws against it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43r8o9/eli5_why_are_genetically_modified_designer_babies/ | {
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"I mean the first reason is the main reason. Other than that there isn't much. I mean theres a bit of an idea that at some point we are messing too much with the natural course of nature but I dont think thats why people tend to view it as bad.\n\nThe super wealthy would eventually become their own species this way. Perhaps leading to the lower species even going extinct.",
"I think your \"other than that\" is taking out a serious objection that perhaps you're discounting for reasons others would not accept. Imagine that literally ever aspect of humanity that you value were purchasable - greater happiness, better looks, ability to generate wealth, better at sports...whatever it is you value...were accessible to those who could afford it? It's not just about stratifying class, it's about stratifying [put whatever thing you value here].",
"People are afraid that the powerful who can afford and will inevitably have greater access to the new technology would be able to create a better offspring leading to a major stratification of society. Already society has a rich elite that govern or influence decisions so a new biological divide of the rich superhuman vs poor and sick would be a real possibility. \nThe other thing is accidentally creating a vulnerability that if everyone in the future has in their genome, could make humans more likely to be whipped out by a plague or some such."
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3e6jwd | why does my scale lie to me? | I like weighing myself for no reason. Like many mature adults I like to measure how much I pee or poop. My scale does not like telling me tho.
Today I weighed in at 150.0 then went pee. I weighed in again at 150.0 which could not be true. I then grabbed some stuff to hold on to, weighed again at 151.6. I put the stuff down and weighed 149.2 (.8 lbs of pee, incredible)
Why would my scale tell me 150.0 when it was 149.2?? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e6jwd/eli5_why_does_my_scale_lie_to_me/ | {
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"Because scales are not terribly accurate, and an error in the range of a little over 0.5% does not sound too bad to me.",
"You simply aren't going to get a very accurate reading off of a scale that is meant for weighing humans. Most likely, the scale was manufactured with the assumption that an acceptable margin of error is within around half a pound. Unless you use a scale that is more accurate you won't get the results you're looking for. You probably also neither urinate nor defecate nearly as much as you think you do."
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cxgziv | do all sunsets look the same across a country (or large area), or does the color depend on something in the atmosphere/air/etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cxgziv/eli5_do_all_sunsets_look_the_same_across_a/ | {
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"The colour of the sunset is due to sunlight taking longer to travel through the atmosphere, giving more time for the different wavelengths of light to scatter. During midday, light has to travel through less of the atmosphere as it is more or less coming straight down, leaving time for only the shorter wavelengths to scatter, turning the sky its characteristic blue colour. During sunrise and sunset, the longer wavelengths start to be scattered more, and then the sky looks orange-red. I hope this answers your question.",
"I’ve thought about this myself. The sunset/sunrise light is unique to some countries from personal observations. There probably are variations in the atmosphere at different parts of the globe that effect it.",
"Sunsets do not look the same everywhere; lots of things in the air, and even near the ground, can affect their colour.\n\nThere are a whole lot of different effects that are quite regional in nature. Some are manmade, like industrial smog or jet contrails in the upper atmosphere that spread out to form a thin haze. Some are natural, like the reflections of light off a large body of very calm water between you and the sunset location, or the mist over a cooling forest area as the temperature starts to drop. And when the sun starts hitting the underside of clouds, the texture of those clouds can really change the colour in the sky.\n\nEach can effectively change a sunset's primary colours at the same time if you drive even just a few miles or climb a hill versus viewing the sunset from a valley. The sun might be behind smoke and appear quite reddish at one location, but ten miles away it's in the clear and bouncing off some low-lying clouds to form a very yellowish colour."
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1sdn4y | why is it that plasma tvs are regarded as having the best picture quality (excluding oled), yet manufacturers have either stopped or are stopping production? | Example: The Panasonic ZT/VT/ST60 is said everywhere to be the best picture quality ever (with the Samsung F8500, also a Plasma, being a close second), yet Panasonic has ceased production of Plasma TVs ending this month.
When LEDs first arrived they were much thinner and brighter than Plasmas, but that's no longer the case. Plasma does suffer from occasional glare issues, but is it really that one con deterring sales in the millions? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sdn4y/eli5_why_is_it_that_plasma_tvs_are_regarded_as/ | {
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"One of the reasons is because they're energy inefficient compared to LED TV's. They also cost a lot more to manufacture which means higher overheads and lower profit margins.",
"Businesses don't sell things because they're better, they sell them because they're profitable.\n\nPanasonic plasmas are awesome, but they're expensive, and apparently too few people cared about picture quality enough to pay extra for them rather than just getting a cheaper LCD."
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2w2825 | how come there's always spam comments on sites like youtube and yahoo but not on reddit. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w2825/eli5_how_come_theres_always_spam_comments_on/ | {
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"Because reddit has a spam filter, and mods clean up what gets through. You also need to pass a captcha to even make an account, and if something is downvoted a lot with no upvotes its automatically deleted too if i remember correctly. ",
"Also spam in a youtube comment is seen for a long time by a lot of people (if the video is popular). Reddit posts go stale very quickly. Most popular reddit subs have so many new posts every hour, that a spam comment quickly gets buried with new legitimate posts."
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6c34o2 | what makes certain people "awkward"? is this trait found in species other than humans? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c34o2/eli5_what_makes_certain_people_awkward_is_this/ | {
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"Not having experience in social situations, not learning from them, or having a mental condition makes people socially awkward. Being sociable is a skill, and like all skills some people enjoy it and practice is as a matter of course, others dislike it and practice it out of necessity, or don't practice and remain awkward. Mental conditions are exempt from this system. ",
"There are definitely dogs that come to a nearby dog park that are really bad at taking social cues from other dogs. \n\nYou can find lots of advice about socializing dogs as puppies, both around humans and other dogs, in order for them to learn proper dog manners. ",
"As an awkward person, I feel I'm competent to answer this question.\n\nFirst of all, \"awkward\" has different nuances. \n\nOne aspect might be that you will feel ashamed watching someone because you feel they make a fool out of themselves, their behavior seems **\"cringeworthy\"**. Shame is a feeling that arises from the awareness of your own self (self-awareness) plus the realization that other people can have a perception different from your own and judge you \"from the outside\" (theory of mind). \n\nIn the animal kingdom, there are relatively few species that have self-awareness (such as wildcats) and even less that also have theory of mind (elephants, dolphins, capuchin monkeys). So the latter ones might be able to feel shame and/or percieve other individuals' behavior as \"cringeworthy\". \n\nAnother aspect of \"awkwardness\" might be **socially incompetent behavior**, e. g. behavior that doesn't lead to the desired social outcome or creates more problems than benefits. This one is pretty easy to answer. There are lots of examples of socially incompetent behavior in social animals. When animals are raised by men and therefore miss out on critical phases of social learning with individuals of their own species, they often end up socially incompetent and unable to interact with their own kind. E. g. dogs that are adopted at about two months old may develop unflexible dominating behavior in contact with other dogs or feel scared or insecure around other dogs if they do not have enough opportunity to interact with individuals of their own species. This may lead to anxious aggression towards other dogs, thus creating the kind of negative interactions a \"socially incompetent\" dog might fear. My grannie used to have a Caucasian x German Shepherd Dog mix who would invariably flee whenever she saw another dog.\n\nOkay so the last facet of \"awkward\" that I can think of is **odd, peculiar behavior**. I think the answer in regards of weirdness is somewhat similar to that of social incompetence in animals. Lacking exposure to individuals of the same species as well as behavioral issues (which often result from isolation) can result in behavior that is peculiar for a specific species of animal.\n\nAt the end of course, this question is hard to answer completely objectively though. Socially awkward is a pretty unscientific way of judging behavior. I also wonder if it's about the human's or the animal's perception: Do other capuchin monkeys have to percieve their mate as awkward or do we as humans have to? "
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1y6pou | how does twitch plays pokemon work? | Like how are they grabbing the chat and then converting it to movement in-game? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1y6pou/eli5_how_does_twitch_plays_pokemon_work/ | {
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"Okay, so this isn't an \"official explanation\", but it's my educated guess as to how it's done. If it helps, I'm a Computer Science major.\n\nThe first component is the emulator playing Pokémon. An emulator is a program that tries to \"mimic\" how a games console works. This is different to a simulator, which tries to *replicate* how the hardware works. Emulators often have shortcuts that make them run faster at the cost of accuracy, but this is barely noticeable.\n\nMost emulators today have some kind of way to script them, usually using a simple language like Lua. This way, you can simply call a function to press a button.\n\nThe second component is the chat.\n\nSo, the Twitch chat is based on Internet Relay Chat, a simple chat system that works in plain text.\n\nWhat the guy has done is build a small \"bot\", which is a program that sits in the chat room. The bot reads all the chat messages one by one, and when it finds a message that is simply a button press (like \"up\", or \"a\"), it puts that message in a queue. It then sends those messages to the emulator one by one.\n\nThe script on the emulator side is probably very simple, something like `if input is \"a\" then do a(), if input is \"b\" then do b()`, et cetera. All it does is listen to its standard input channel, and when a message comes though it runs through its series of if-statements until it finds one that matches, then it does what the then-clause says.\n\nThere are some subtleties to this that, if implemented the wrong way, would become problematic with the massive amount of traffic that the channel is currently experiencing, but they're a bit more difficult to explain and you don't really need them to understand the basic concept."
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eadhm1 | why is a 4g connection almost useless now when a few years ago it was perfectly fine for streaming audio and video? | Whenever my phone shows an LTE connection, I have really fast speeds and can stream anything. If I drop to a 4g connection, and can barely load text. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eadhm1/eli5_why_is_a_4g_connection_almost_useless_now/ | {
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"When 4G was \"cool\" there were very few users. Now there are lots, far too many, and LTE seeks to move traffic out of 4G except for edge areas with poor access. Alas, when you're there, everybody in the area is 4G and data users are much, much more common. So, yes, it is un-excellent.",
"LTE is older than 4G. What is just called LTE in the late part of the 3G standards? 4G standards include LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro.\n\nMobile phone companies often do not use the name of the standard. So they called late 3G stand for 4G like they today call LTE Advanced Pro for 5G. AT & T 5G e is the 4G LTE Advanced Pro standard\n\nSo the name on your phone show can mislead. I would suspect that when you phone say that it 4G is is the, in reality, 3G LTE and LET is, in fact, 4G LTE Advanced\n\nBut the name confusion is not the explanation of your experience. What happens is that the oldest standards, in general, use lower frequency and/or less complex signal encoding. So today you only jump back to the older standard when there is bad reception and the newer standard does not work.\n\nSo you can the past you had god reception and used \"4G\" because that was the latest your phone and/or the network supported. Today you have \"LTE\" when you have a good connection and only jump back to \"4G\" when the connection is bad. \n\nSo \"4G\" on your phone work bad today because it is only used when the connection to the towers is so bad so \"LTE\" does not work. So it is not a fair comparison. You should compare to how your phone was in the past when it jumped back from \"4G\" to \"3G\" or what it was called because of a bad connection. So if you used \"4G\" in the past with the same bad connection it would have worked as bad back then as it does today.\n\nSo the situation when you used \"4G\" today and in the past is not comparable. On Android, you can in the networks setting force old standard and I suspect that you have a 4G or 3G alternative that is not the latest. The test is and you will find that it works a lot better if used with good reception. 3G will likely work better than it did in the past because most phones will used the 4G/LTE networks so you are quite alone on the 3G network."
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5exxtu | why do unsolved math problems still exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5exxtu/eli5_why_do_unsolved_math_problems_still_exist/ | {
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"Well, there are a couple of main reasons. (1) Some problems are really, really hard. (2) Some mathematics problems are not solvable at all. \n \nTo make matters worse, it can be difficult to know the difference between (1) and (2) sometimes. ",
"To add a little to this, you may be conflating mathematics and arithmetic. Unsolved math problems are not \"find the solution to this equation\" types of problems. Here's an example of an unsolved math problem:\n\nConsider a math game where you start with a number. If it's even, divide it by two. If it's odd, multiply it by three and add one. Either way, take the resulting number and apply the same rule to it. Etc.\n\nSo, for instance:\n\n* 1 - > 4 - > 2 - > 1\n* 2 - > 1\n* 3 - > 10 - > 5 - > 16 - > 8 - > 4 - > 2 - > 1\n* 4 - > 2 - > 1 \n* 5 - > 16 - > 8 - > 4 - > 2 - > 1\n\nNotice that those examples all eventually reach 1? Well let me ask you this. Does *every* number *always* end at 1? Can you prove it?\n\nThis is known as the [Collatz conjecture](_URL_0_), and while many mathematicians suspect that every number ends up at 1 (and every one computed so far has) no one has been able to **prove** that is the case for all possible numbers. And you can't just try every number, because there are infinite numbers. So this problem remains unsolved.",
"Some problems have been proven to be unsolveable. For example In algebra, the Abel–Ruffini theorem states that there is no algebraic solution—that is, solution in radicals—to the general polynomial equations of degree five or higher with arbitrary coefficients. \n \nAlso there are problems that are only solvable numerically with computers but we don't have enough computing power. For example it would be very interesting to be able to simulate the movement of air and the combustion of fuel as it goes through a jet engine, especially if such an analysis included the effect of heat on the stiffness of the materials and the deflection created thereby. And we are pretty close to being able to do that but it takes enormous computing power. \n \nAs computing power increases, more and more of the engineering problems that are solved numerically that were deemed too demanding will be able to be solved. \n \nEventually wind tunnels will be a thing of the past. \n \nEven very complex problems like the behavior of the plasma inside a Tokamak reactor could become solveable at a very specific level and if we were able to monitor and predict it's behavior in real time that would go a long way towards creating control systems to keep it steady.",
"I think you're confusing two senses of the phrase \"math problem\".\n\nOne, like the problems you're used to doing from math class in school, is solving some particular instance of a problem. If you've got some equation (eg: 14 = 3x^2 + 2) and then \"solve for x\", that's this sort of problem.\n\nThe *other* sort of problem is where you solve more abstract problems (eg - find x for all values of A,B & C when A\\*x^2 + B\\*x _ C = 0). Some of these problems are *very* difficult to solve, even if the problem **seems** simple. For example, Fermat's Last Theorem states:\n\n > no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation a^n + b^n = c^n for any integer value of n greater than two\n\n...which took over 350 years to find a solution for. In the end, they had to basically invent a whole new branch of math to do it. The problem with providing a universal solution is that you can't just show that it works for n=2 through n=1000000, you have to actually prove, logically, that it works for all possible values of n which can be quite tricky.",
"Because math can lie, and can make self-reference.\n\nNot only does this cause us to have unsolv**ed** math problems, it causes us to have unsolv**able** math problems.\n\nThe story: Back in the 1930's, there was a guy, who was good friends with Albert Einstein. **That** Albert Einstein.\n\nGuy's name is Kurt Gödel.\n\nOne of the things he was really interested in was paradoxes. Like —\n\n\"The following sentence is a lie. The preceding sentence is true\".\n\nWell, that seems to be a paradox.\n\nHe translated those statements into math, and then proceeded to show that they were *undecidable* — that they formed a very real paradox, and that because of this, it was impossible to use logic to either prove or disprove them. \n\nHe showed that the kinds of systems in which those kinds of paradoxical statements could be made, were either complete, or were consistent, but could not be both.\n\nSo that's the ELI5: because math is complex enough to have unsolvable problems.\n\nNow, there's a lot more to it than that. If you want more about that, you can google Gödel's Indecidability Theorem, Gödel numbering (which allowed him to turn the statements into math), the Halting State problem, and the Axiom of Choice. There's also an excellent narrative about this in the book *Gödel, Escher, Bach (an Eternal Golden Braid)* by Douglas Hofstadter.",
"Current top answer describes how Collatz conjecture works. It's an example of an open question in mathematics. You can check thousands of numbers whether they all come back to cycle 4 - 2 - 1 eventually, but just finding that every number we've tested does come back to this cycle, doesn't prove they all will.\n\nMath generally is about ideas. Each theorem is about how different ideas relate to each other. Fields of math are characterized by ideas they describe and utilize. For example, in measure theory you start from the idea of **sets** having something that resembles our idea of length. This \"something like length\" is then called **measure**. Turns out in a way, area of two-dimensional thing is similar to length of one-dimensional object. Both of these can be thought of this measure. Having this idea of \"measure\", after carefully defining it, now has implications. Like, does every set have a measure? We started just by trying to assert some sets have that kind of thing(like, stick having a length), but where does this definition really take us? That's where theorems come in. You can make proofs about which sets have a measure and which don't. But you notice that this is not really much about numbers, but rather about ideas interacting.\n\nSo if I ask you, are there infinite amount of twin primes(primes that are 2 apart, like 3 and 5, or 11 and 13), where do you find a fruitful way of thinking about this problem?\n\nAnd the individual problems themselves may seem artificial. There are no practical applications for Collatz conjecture, for example. But these are more like spring boards that help us view shortcomings in our understanding of ideas themselves. So while solving that problem one way or another may not have impact, what we're really interested in seeing is, what logical tools allowed solving it. How do you go from that problem statement to knowing the solution? Could those tools be used to solve other problems as well, problems that actually are useful?\n\nThat's why the problem statements themselves are kinda dry. They're meant to be as helpful for mathematicians trying to tackle them, but their use is not usually found in solving them, but rather in whatever tools that you end up generating in the process of solving them.",
"\"Math\" is a highly defined system of logic built on \"axioms,\" which is a fancy word for statements that are self-evident. The idea being that they do not need to be proved. As a result, there are many branches of mathematics built off various axioms. It is from this we get things like calculus, trigonometry, geometry, and topology, to name a few. \n\nBut the way in which we describe the rules of this system is basically like using a language. And all languages have limits and self-limiting problems. \n\nFor instance, consider this thought experiment:\n\nIn the town, there is a barber that shaves all men who do not shave themselves. Does the barber shave himself? \n\nThere is no satisfactory answer to this problem. If he does not shave himself, then he is not a barber that shaves all men that do not shave themselves. But if he does shave himself, then he is also not a barber who shaves all men that do not shave himself. \n\nThis experiment is designed to show that logic is limited to how it's presented. When using common language, it's pretty easy to see how we can twist a problem into something that is unsolvable, a contradiction. \n\nThe language used in math is no different. It's just that because the language and systems are so precise, the reasons for a given statement's (imagine very complex equations or mathematical statements using so many Greek variables) unsolvability is rooted in the intricacy of its axioms. \n\n",
"Here is another example that a lot of our computer security relies on:\n\nLets say you have a very, very large number:\n\n > 18476997032117414743068356202001644030185493386634101714717857749106516967111612498593376843054357445856160615445717940522297177325246609606469460712496237204420222697567566873784275623895087646784409332851574965788434150897802934916155811881049844908319545009848393775227257052578591944993870073695755688436933812779613089230392569695253261620823676490316036551371447913932347169566988069\n\nYou know that it is the result of two prime numbers (numbers only divisible by 1 and itself) multiplied together. How do you find which numbers were multiplied together to get the larger number?\n\nAs of right now it is impossible to do so without brute-forcing. In fact, a common encryption format called RSA relies on this problem. In theory it isn't impossible to break, but currently the only method to solve such a problem is to try every single number starting at 1 which is incredibly inefficient and takes a really, really long time to break.\n\nEdit: Updated with a better number. Good luck factoring this one, it previously had a $150,000 bounty if you can find it's factors.",
"Here's an unsolved problem to consider:\n\nSuppose you have an L-shaped hallway. What shape is the largest sofa that you can move through the hallway?\n\nNow, how would you even *start* on a problem like that? Just try every single shape? There are infinitely many...\n\n_URL_0_",
"In 1928, mathematician David Hilbert asked a related question (known as the [Entscheidungsproblem](_URL_0_)) which asks if there is an algorithm that can determine whether any given mathematical statement is true or not. With such an algorithm, we could theoretically just ask a computer to resolve unsolved problems like the Collatz conjecture. However, Alonzo Church and Alan Turing showed that such an algorithm is impossible. The argument goes something like this:\n\nSuppose that M is an algorithm that tells us whether a mathematical statement is true or not. Any algorithm can be described mathematically. This makes it possible to write a mathematical statement that means \"algorithm M says that this statement is false\". Now if we run the algorithm M on that statement, it would be wrong if it says that it is true (since the statement says that M would say it is false) and it would be wrong if it says that it is false (since in that case the statement is true)! So that means our assumption that such an algorithm exists is wrong.\n\nThe upshot of this is that, not only do unsolved problems still exist, but they always will, because we can never have a systematic way (an algorithm) that can solve every problem.",
"I give you my wording was wrong in the divisible by three. I was writing my thinking and while I worded it wrong, that error is irrelevant to my larger point which that lead to, which is the multiplication of 3+1 always results in a positive number which negates a loop because you can never have the same numbers.your other points show you do nut understand, or just want to disagree, with my theory that there are only ones and 10's digits at play. Everything higher than 10 is really not important to the pattern. The pattern has a cycle which is why if you do 25 random numbers (1, 234, 2456798, 13, 765439, etc. you wind up at the same pattern ending. So the equation cycles any starting number until the eventuality occurs of that ending pattern. Start doing it and you'll see the patterns in the ones and 10's emerging. That's why i gave the table, because that table is fixed results and is why any number will work",
"I got to this question last night from a philosophical perspective. A big THANK YOU to those who answered!"
]
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[],
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[],
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],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entscheidungsproblem"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
3kwa8z | how does the macbook charger led turn red or green in relation with the fullness of the battery? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kwa8z/eli5how_does_the_macbook_charger_led_turn_red_or/ | {
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"Firstly, there are multiple versions you could be speaking of. Luckily the principal is the same.\n\nOutside the head of the power cord you have 5 connectors. Ground, power, \"adapter sense\", power, ground. These symmetrical pins allow the connector to be plugged in either way. These connect to a PCB located inside the head, The MagSafe adapter sense is a data pin using the 1-Wire protocol. The computer uses this pin to change the LED’s colour (multiple LED's) and retrieve the serial number and wattage of the power supply. This is worked out by the chip located on this board which measures the difference in voltage."
]
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[]
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||
aut26r | how did early humans know to breed without the concept of language? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aut26r/eli5_how_did_early_humans_know_to_breed_without/ | {
"a_id": [
"ehadjw5"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"I'm not sure I understand the question. How are those two things related? The urge to have sex is very deep in every animal and is independent of their ability to speak."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
34u8g2 | how can one coding language be more "powerful" than another on the same computer? | i've been hearing people at work talk about this lately, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me (non computer language expert) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34u8g2/eli5how_can_one_coding_language_be_more_powerful/ | {
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"A lot of it is how close to the hardware the code is. \n\nSome languages (like C) are close to the hardware, let you micromanage what the computer is doing (sometimes they require you to do so). This means that it takes more effort to code in these languages, since sometimes you literally need to tell the computer to do every little thing; but it also means you can get the computer to do more because you are micromanaging everything.\n\nOther languages (like Java) are farther away from the hardware, and do a lot for you. In these languages, you can skip over a lot of steps because the language handles things for you. This often results in code that runs slower, and can't do as much; but is a lot easier to write, read, and edit.\n\nOther languages fall elsewhere on the continuum: C++ is between Java and C; Ruby is farther out (less powerful) than Java is; and so on.\n\n\nThink of it like moving. Using machine language (the most powerful language possible: speaking directly to the computer) is personally moving everything by hand from your old place to your new one. C is getting a truck to move it all. C++ is working with a moving company; Java is hiring a moving company; and Ruby is telling someone else to take care of hiring a moving company. The closer you are to the job, the more control you have over everything, but the more work it takes from you; the farther out you are, the less it takes from you, but you also have less control over everything.\n\n\"Powerful\" languages are the ones with more control.",
"Some languages are like power windows in your car. Its easier for the user, but in the background is complex and uses more energy. While others are like the manual window crank, which is harder to use but vastly more simple and efficient. In this analogy the user is the person writing code."
]
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562gwj | why is the sound of heart beats so unsettling? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/562gwj/eli5_why_is_the_sound_of_heart_beats_so_unsettling/ | {
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"There's such a thing as too quiet, when you expect to hear something but all that's left is the sound of your own isolation. ",
"In horror movies, when you hear the heart beat there's an implication that the beat is going to stop soon. That creates suspense.",
"The sound of a heartbeat can also be meant as an indication of the fight-or-flight response, where your heart begins pumping harder as a means to get your body ready for a spurt of action (like being chased by a lion, or needing to fight off an attacker) when your body surges with norepinephrine. Because we often hear our own heart thumping during this sympathetic nervous system response, some people may have a Pavlovian reaction to hearing it pounding through speakers. In other words, since our brain often hears our heart pounding when we're in trouble, it associates the two things and the sound can make you feel like you're in danger."
]
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[],
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