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bh3d2t | when steam forms on a mirror from a hot shower in the bathroom, why do lights above the mirror cause the steam to not form around the lights? | The mirror is covered in steam from the shower but the part of the mirror that is near the lightbulbs always doesn’t have steam on it. It’s consistent. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bh3d2t/eli5_when_steam_forms_on_a_mirror_from_a_hot/ | {
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"Good question. \n\nThe fog on mirrors is not steam. It's condensation. Condensation occurs when humid air touches a cold surface. Some of the water in the air loses heat to the cold surface, and this causes it to turn back into a liquid. But if the light keeps the glass warm, then water won't condense on it anymore."
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225j4l | why can't we shoot a missile into a hurricane/tornado to dissipate the winds? | I realize it could be redirected, but there are kill switches. On a larger scale, is it possible? To use the explosive force to change the wind's direction? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/225j4l/eli5_why_cant_we_shoot_a_missile_into_a/ | {
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" > On a larger scale, is it possible?\n\nIn theory you could disrupt it, but it wouldn't be helpful.\n\nThink about sitting in your bathtub and pulling the drain plug. The water starts to spiral down the hole and can form a whirlpool, right? This whirlpool can be disrupted by swiping your hand through it, but it comes back pretty soon. Why is that?\n\nIt is because your hand motion doesn't change the fact that the water still needs to go down the drain. The same concept is true of storm systems, except it is warm air close to the ground that is trying to change positions with more dense cold air which is higher. It is an issue of gravity, and the air masses are still going to need to change places somehow. Even if you disrupt a particular storm system it doesn't solve the root issue.\n\nThe other aspect of this is that explosives generally just use the very quick expansion of the explosion to cause a shock wave, which is just a compression wave within the air. A compression wave doesn't necessarily translate to very much air movement that stays moved; it goes one way but then rebounds right back. The result is that explosives aren't really a very good method of moving air between locations, so an explosion large enough to actually disrupt a large storm would need to be absolutely immense. Even a relatively small storm is likely beyond the capacity of anything other than nuclear weapons, and their use is likely worse than what the storm would have done in the first place. This is even without considering that it would just come back again, for the reasons we already covered.",
"A normal missile would have about the same effect as farting in the general direction of the storm. \nA missile strong enough to disrupt a storm, if such a thing existed, would wreak more havoc than the storm itself."
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6mdfjt | what is this house spider doing? | Currently pulling an all nighter for work, and this spider bro is just crawling around the same area. It's been going on for like 30 minutes now, just crawling around the same 5 foot diameter area on my wall, is he exploring the paintings I have hung up? What's this lil dude doing? Also what can I feed him, he looks a lil hungry. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6mdfjt/eli5_what_is_this_house_spider_doing/ | {
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"Has it built a web? Is it building a web?I dont think spiders are like puppies, so you can't feed it and depending on the size and species, you may not want to approach it. ",
"We used to feed our 'pet' spiders flies and other small insects. We'd throw them into their web or leave dead ones nearby for them to drain. I don't know what the spider is doing, perhaps marking territory? Do spiders do that? ",
"it could be nesting behavior, it could have a disease or parasite, it might just be too simple minded to cope with the human-made environment it's found itself in. \n\nunless you live in australia or particular parts of africa, your spider bro probably eats smaller insects. house flies, crickets, etc. though, if you really want to take care of this thing, your best bet is most likely to move him outside, preferably to a bush or shrub. "
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c0bb7v | how do rats’ eyes work? | Their eyes don’t have visible pupils and stick out of their face so much compared to human eyes. How do rats’ (and other rodents’) eyes work, and what do they see?
For reference, [here is a photo of a rat and their buggy eyes. ](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0bb7v/eli5_how_do_rats_eyes_work/ | {
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"The work surprisingly like other mammal eyes [(sample paper)](_URL_0_ ). They stick out because of how they are mounted, the eye itself is still spherical. They are ultra wide angle, which is more common in prey species than the narrow field stereo vision in a predator (like cats or humans).",
"They don't see as well because their dominant sense is their whiskers - a large portion of their cortex is devoted to their whiskers."
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ak68dp | how does boston dynamics make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ak68dp/eli5_how_does_boston_dynamics_make_money/ | {
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"text": [
"[Well they have been awarded over 150 million in defense contracts](_URL_0_) "
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3d2vu6 | how come some people have to hold their nose when they go under water while some people do not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d2vu6/eli5_how_come_some_people_have_to_hold_their_nose/ | {
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"It's a comfort thing. Most people who have not taken proper swim lessons hold their nose when going under water out of fear of getting water up their nose. Those who have had proper swim lessons or are just naturally comfortable in the water learn how to control the air output from their nose and don't rely on physically holding it shut to keep water out of it. When it comes down to it though, it's all about what they feel is safe and what makes them comfortable in the water.\n\nSource: I was a lifeguard and swim lesson instructor for a few years",
"Because even when I blow air out I still get water up my damn nose. So I gave up and just plug my nose for security. "
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mvdv7 | if we were to find a cure for all forms of cancer, wouldn't the world quickly suffer massive over-population? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mvdv7/eli5_if_we_were_to_find_a_cure_for_all_forms_of/ | {
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"The reason cancer is prevalent today is because other diseases that commonly caused mortality have been eradicated or treatments are effective to the point that patients can live for a long time with a certain disease.\n\ntl;dr If cancer is cured then another disease will become prevalent in its place and people will ask the same question you just asked about a different disease.",
"The reason cancer is prevalent today is because other diseases that commonly caused mortality have been eradicated or treatments are effective to the point that patients can live for a long time with a certain disease.\n\ntl;dr If cancer is cured then another disease will become prevalent in its place and people will ask the same question you just asked about a different disease."
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d76uqb | how do insurance companies determine who is at fault in vehicle collisions/accidents? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d76uqb/eli5_how_do_insurance_companies_determine_who_is/ | {
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"I actually worked as an auto adjuster for a while. Believe it or not, most of the time, both (all) parties actually tell the same stories. \n\nFor other times, we use photos of the damage, police reports, witness statements, and the drivers’ statements. I’ve had to get multiple statements from the same person, bcs their story didn’t quite make sense. \n\nThe part that was a bit tough for some adjusters to grasp was that, we didn’t base our decision on strict legality of everything — just the actions that contributed to the accident. For example, if they were driving in the HOV lane with no passengers, that didn’t matter to us. \n\nUltimately, it comes down to:\n- what was the proximate cause of the accident (the action/event that began the chain of events)?\n- who caused that?\n- what duties did each driver have to prevent the accident?",
"When an insurance claim is made, you have to fill in a report detailing what happened - so the insurance company will read your description of what happened to see if there was someone clearly at fault, and compare this information with that given in the other parties report, plus reports from the police or other official bodies, information from photographs of the scene and any other information available.\n\nFor example, you can note which vehicle hit the other, which vehicle had right of way, how the drivers reacted, whether one party was speeding or driving recklessly and a lorry of other factors.\n\nThis is why you should always document any incidents - if there is a minor bump in a car park, no police report, no photos and no other proof other than each drivers word, it is not always obvious who is at fault (which is when the insurance companies will argue between themselves, or possibly just accept the costs). In a more notable accident where those involved took photos of the scene as a record, and the police attended at took notes, then it should hopefully be pretty obvious who is at fault.",
"In the UK Civil Law, we rely on the [\"reasonable person\"](_URL_0_) to determine liability. It boils down to this, \"Liability is the doing of something that the reasonable person would not do, or the not doing of something which the reasonable person would do.\"\n\nFor example, not leaving enough emergency braking distance between you in the car in front means that you would be liable if they had to stop and your car hit the back of their's. It's not something a reasonable person would do and you could reasonably be expected to foresee the risk of travelling so close behind another vehicle.\n\nOr not wearing your seat-belt. Again, something the reasonable person would do, and so you'd usually be (at least) partially liable for your injuries if you were hurt in an accident. \n\nThere are plenty of cases that insurers etc rely upon too, called Case Law, which show how liability has been decided in accidents in the past. \n\nFinally, if both parties are telling completely different stories, insurers will often just split the difference and go 50-50 to save time, trouble and cost."
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1d41vt | why do we need to write "eli5" in front of every post when obviously that's the topic if it's in this subreddit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d41vt/eli5_why_do_we_need_to_write_eli5_in_front_of/ | {
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"Likely for those either on the front page or on /all/ who may think it's AskReddit, and then downvote them for having a bad question.",
"If you browse [/new](_URL_0_) or [/r/all/new](/r/all/new) on a regular basis, it's nice to be able to easily see which subreddit each post belongs to.",
"2 reasons:\n\n1. Any post can land on the front page of reddit. Having it tagged gives people an easy way to tell its origin.\n\n2. There are *other* tags like [META], indicating that your post isn't a question, but rather a discussion about the sub itself. ",
"It's to differentiate ELI5 posts on the front page and /r/all so that people know what kind of question it is and what kind of response is expected.\n",
"I made a reply post to a food question in AskScience thinking it was AskCulinary and got downvoted to hell (I don't care, except for impeding on their rules). It makes it easier if you know what sub you are posting to, especially when you have AskReddit, Answers, ELI5, etc."
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ddh43w | why does chewing gum pop your ear drums? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ddh43w/eli5_why_does_chewing_gum_pop_your_ear_drums/ | {
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"It's not actually the gum. It's the process of moving your jaw and swallowing. On flights I usually don't chew gum, I just open my jaw and usually it does the same thing."
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5qv2uc | why is the skin on buttholes darker than the rest of your skin after a certain age? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qv2uc/eli5_why_is_the_skin_on_buttholes_darker_than_the/ | {
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"The deluge of human effluence constantly being expressed like so much chocolate soft serve ice cream is the culprit! It stains your backside with rust of the demons. ",
"The same hormones that cause that area to develop during puberty also cause the skin to overproduce melanin (dark pigment). It's leftover evolution from when people didn't wear clothes and getting sunburned down there wouldn't feel great. "
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2cl03e | how do humans run out of money when we print it ourselves? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cl03e/eli5_how_do_humans_run_out_of_money_when_we_print/ | {
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"This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed.\n\n_URL_0_"
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2bsn2d | outside of tidal waves, what would be the effects of an asteroid impact in the middle of the ocean? | Most everything I read describes debris flying into the atmosphere, wouldn't that only be an issue with a land impact? Wouldn't the force of impact be greatly reduced by having to travel through miles of water and then when it reached the ocean bottom wouldn't any sediment kicked up then have to travel back up through the water? Climate change due to dust blocking out the sun seems to be cited as what killed the dinosaurs but would this be the case with a deep ocean impact? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bsn2d/eli5_outside_of_tidal_waves_what_would_be_the/ | {
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"It depends on how large the asteroid is. Generally, though, the *immense* energy of the asteroid instantly boils away the ocean water in the immediate vicinity of the impact, and so it still technically will hit the crust, causing sediment to get kicked up and rise into the atmosphere.\n\nThe ocean impact is marginally better than a land impact (for us at least), as a significant chunk of the total impact energy would go into heating and moving the water."
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2sb8sa | if fallen leaves need to be raked off of grass or else the grass will die, then how come grass can survive buried under several feet of snow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sb8sa/eli5_if_fallen_leaves_need_to_be_raked_off_of/ | {
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"Grass can survive just fine with leaves on it. Might not look very nice as a lawn. But how do you think grass survives in the wild where there are not people with rakes around? :P",
"Grass is dormant in the winter. Same principle that causes leaves to fall off of trees in fall. The grass literally is sleeping, like a bear in hibernation, and once the climate warms back up again, the snow melts, the soil warms up, then the grass wakes up again.\n\nResearch Annual and Perennial plants."
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8tq8r2 | how do mdisc's manufacturer know it can last 1,000 years without actually testing for 1,000 years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tq8r2/eli5_how_do_mdiscs_manufacturer_know_it_can_last/ | {
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"Essentially they estimate how much radiation an MDISC would be exposed to in a year and then rapidly expose it to greater amounts to determine how long it takes for the data to deteriorate to the point of unusability.",
"By having a great advertising agency.\n\nAs stated in the previous posts, it is often inferred that higher temperatures speed up degradation/corrosion/fatigue processes. This is true (and described by the Arrhenius-equation _URL_0_ ), as long as the failure mechanism doesn't change.\n\nA lovely example on when this does not work is the \"egg example\". If you were to take an egg, store it under a bird for a few weeks at 35°C (or whatever birds produce) you'll end up with a cute little chick. If you apply Arrhenius and increase the temperature to 85°C in a pan, you'll get an entirely different result. \n\nIn theory, manufacturers know about this. In your example they just increased the test conditions to 85°C/85% relative humidity, had the MDisc not fail and declared it a millenial product. \n\nRealistically speaking, the anorganic layer will more probably behave like a glass. Many church windows are still fine, many centuries old, it'll last a long while. A thousand years still sounds mostly like a marketing ploy, however."
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9y2jx6 | what is thanksgiving? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9y2jx6/eli5_what_is_thanksgiving/ | {
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"It's a holiday celebrated mainly in the US and Canada. It celebrates the harvest and the blessing of the preceding year, and is traditionally celebrated by coming together with family for a meal (Traditionally a large meal of turkey, ham, and autumn produce like squash and nuts). In the US it is celebrated on the 3rd Thursday in November.",
"The very basic version is that it started with the pilgrims sharing a meal with the native Americans in the earliest days of the colonies in North America (16th/17th centuries). \n\nA slightly more advanced version is that each community back then had its own harvest festival or celebration in the Autumn. There was no exact day for the celebration. President Abraham Lincoln, in the mid-19th century, wrote a decree that the country would celebrate a day of Thanksgiving on the fourth Friday of that November, and since then it's become a federal holiday celebrated on the fourth Friday of November. \n\nUsually it's just a time for families to get together and express what they are thankful for. Traditional foods include turkey (and/or ham) with stuffing, green been casserole, sweet potatoes (yams), mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, corn, cranberry sauce, and the best part - pumpkin pie. ",
"Thanksgiving is a tradition in the United States. The story goes that the first time when the pilgrims (white people who came from England to the U.S.) had a good harvest (plenty of food grown that year) from the help of the Native Americans, they all sat down, had a feast, and gave thanks. So all the native Americans and the pilgrims sat down together and gave thanks and said prayers for all the food and they all became friends. \n\n\nNowadays, in large, it is celebrated by family coming together, roasting a turkey, eating thanksgiving foods (pie, turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing) and it’s an entire day just to talk about all the things everyone is thankful for. ",
"I don’t know much about thanksgiving in other countries. I live in the US and here it’s the 4th Thursday in November. We’re taught in elementary school that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims and Native Americans when they put their differences aside and came together for a great feast. This probably didn’t actually happen but it’s what they teach us when we’re young and why you see pilgrim stuff all over the place. We traditionally serve turkey and lots of other foods which differ depending on the region you live in and then eat a huge meal with your family and friends. We have the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade that’s in New York City every Thanksgiving morning. Most people watch this and then turn on American football when it’s over. Then the evening has been turned into shopping for a lot of people as we celebrate what’s called Black Friday where almost every store has huge sales the Friday after Thanksgiving but stores have competed so much to be the first store open they now open Thursday evening and a lot are open all night or only close for a few hours during the night. Then the following Monday is now Cyber Monday where all the online stores have sales. And that is the basics of a US Thanksgiving lol"
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w6uq8 | buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/w6uq8/eli5_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo/ | {
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"Well kid, you remember the difference between nouns, verbs and adjectives, right? And sometimes you can put \"that\" or \"also\" in a sentence or take it out and it doesn't change the meaning? Well, put those together and you have this sentence. \n\nLet's take something with the same structure. \"Dallas chickens that Dallas chickens fight also fight Dallas chickens\". It's a pretty meaningless sentence, but at least it's understandable. You can remove the \"that\" and the \"also\" and you get a sentence with the same meaning. \"Dallas chickens Dallas chickens fight fight Dallas chickens.\" Still with me? \n\n\"Buffalo\" has three meanings in this sentence. \n\n1. \"Buffalo\", the town\n\n2. \"buffalo\", the animal\n\n3. \"buffalo\", the verb, meaning to bully\n\nReplace \"Dallas\" with \"Buffalo\", \"chicken\" with \"buffalo\", and \"fight\" with \"buffalo\", and you get \"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo\".\n\nGo wash your hands. ",
"Texas cats that Florida dogs chase, eat NY mice.\n \nTexas cats Florida dogs chase eat NY mice. \n\nTexas cats Florida dogs chase chase NY mice.\n \nTexas buffalo Florida buffalo chase chase NY buffalo. \n\nBuffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo chase chase Buffalo buffalo. \n\nBuffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. \n\n",
"Best ELI5 in a long time.",
"_URL_0_\n\nYou're Welcome.",
"New York bison New York bison bully bully New York bison. ",
"If you think English is tough, you should try a similar problem in chinese:\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"I have no idea whats going on in here",
"Well I can't really help you about the grammatical structure of it (since everybody else seems to have covered that) but I can at least help with the explanation of WTF is being said. \n\nIt's a fascinating social commentary on the cycle of bullying using a cleverly constructed grammatical sentence that only uses one word. Pretty much we're hearing about this group of bison who come from the city of Buffalo, located in New York. These bisons are victims of bullying from their fellow bison from the same community. That's not very cool. Now because they get bullied by their own kind, they get frustrated and upset and then need some kind of outlet to express their anger. Instead of doing more peaceful methods like chilling out and standing up for themselves against the bullies that they encounter, they in turn then decide to take out their anger on other bisons in the community, thus they bully other bisons. \n\nSo in other words whose who are bullied sometimes can become bullies themselves. ",
"Buffalo (city) buffalo (animal) Buffalo (city) buffalo (animal) buffalo (bully) buffalo (bully) Buffalo (city) buffalo (animal)",
"New York bison that are outwitted by other New York bison also outwit other New York Bison.",
"buffalo from Buffalo, that other buffalo from Buffalo buffalo (bully), buffalo (bully) buffalo from BUffalo",
"the Wikipedia page on this topic:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit:removed an extraneous comment.",
"My english teachers translaiton was rather helpful\n\nNew York Bison annoy/bully New York bison (that) New York Bison annoy/bully",
"Some sentences about English composition:\n\nTom, where Bill has had \"Had\", had had \"Had had\". \"Had had\" had had the teachers approval.",
"Bison from New York (that) bison from New York bully (also) bully bison from New York. ",
"Now try this one:\n\n\"James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher\"\n\nThat's a legitimate sentence too :-)",
"sounds like you kids need to draw some syntactic trees.",
"I clicked on this because I thought the OP was having a breakdown. I had never seen or heard of this sentence before. Am I living a sheltered life?",
"You see Jimmy? Words have more than one meaning.",
"In order:\n\nBuffalo - from the city Buffalo, e.g. Buffalo storms always seem louder.\n\nbuffalo - noun, ox-esque, e.g. The buffalo are wild.\n\n[that] - implied\n\nBuffalo - from the city\n\nbuffalo - noun\n\nbuffalo -verb, to beat up/be rough, e.g. The cats buffalo their toys.\n\nbuffalo - verb for the first noun\n\nBuffalo - location\n\nbuffalo - noun\n\nOther sentence with same parts of speech:\n\nMen from New York, that women from New Jersey flirt with, have high self esteems.\n\nReworded:\n\nOxen from Buffalo, that other oxen from Buffalo beat up, beat up oxen from Buffalo.\n\nBuffalo(adj) buffalo(S1) [that] Buffalo(adj) buffalo(n2) buffalo(v2) buffalo(v1) Buffalo(adj) buffalo(n3).\n\nWhere S1 is subject and the # in V# denotes which noun it belongs to.",
"Buffalo is a world wide drinking game, you need to know a buffalo to get in and you never leave Buffalo. Rule 1 don't talk about Buffalo club "
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo"
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16ybcx | how are multicellular organisms intrinsically able to move appendages/muscles? | I was kind of wondering how different it is for spiders with their 8 legs and us with 4 (including the arms) and stuff. If we grafted a perfectly functional extra appendage (nerves and all) would be be able to move it and would it feel any different? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16ybcx/how_are_multicellular_organisms_intrinsically/ | {
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"Short answer: depends on the graft, but we don't have that kind of technology yet. Here's why: \n \nThere's different parts of your brain that correspond to different bodily movements. You sound like you're older than 5, so I'm gonna use some bigger words - please ask me to clarify whatever you want. \n \nThe motor cortex is an area on the surface of your brain that we've determined is the origin of movements. When you want to move your right arm, there's a very specific location on the left side of your brain (right brain controls left side; left controls right). It sends a signal in the form of electric impulses (think of it like Morse Code, but instead of dots and dashes, it's dots and pauses -- the frequency of pulses will affect the intensity of the signal/movement. More dots with fewer/shorter pauses will be more intense than the same amount of dots but with more gaps). This signal goes to a part of your brain called the cerebellum, which is responsible for smoothing out and coordinating that signal before it leaves the brain. To simplify things, it then heads out down the spinal cord and out to the muscles that control your right arm. Based on the nerve impulse it received, your arm is going to move in the way you wanted it to. \n \nBecause we know how, say, the hand works and how it's wired with nerves (and which muscles those nerves go to.... ), doctors can do amazing things like [hand transplants](_URL_0_) (which are extremely complicated and very modern). After some physical therapy and getting used to your new hands, your brain essentially sends the same signal (e.g. \"Make a fist!\"), and your new hands can make a fist. The issues here are the same with any transplant -- your body recognizes that it doesn't belong to you on the cellular level, and thinks it's an invader and tries to attack it. That's why people who receive organ transplants need to go on immune suppressive therapy (prescription drugs that weaken their immune system), to make sure their body doesn't reject the new transplant.\n\nAnyway, remember how your brain tells your limbs what to do by sending a series of dots and pauses? It's sort of like a biological computer language. If you measure the activity of a certain area of the brain that you know sends controls to the arms, and then you have someone move their arms, you can figure out what pulses correspond to what movements. The people at the [BrainGate](_URL_1_) program have done that. They decoded certain impulses of the brain that mean \"Move my arm right. Move it left! Close that fist!\" and turned it into computer code. By putting a small implant on the brain of someone who's paralyzed, they can have them control a robotic arm! Cool!"
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrainGate"
]
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|
|
1mwddw | why do people purchase expensive water? | i.e those spring water that costs a few dollars per bottle | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mwddw/eli5_why_do_people_purchase_expensive_water/ | {
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"You're not paying for the water; you're paying for the convenience of the water being bottled for you.",
"This is a basic economics/psychology experiment. The water itself is not anything special.The bottle it is contained in does nothing special. The cold air that chills it has not special effect either.\n\nOne of the primary reasons that a person will buy it is because of a few reasons. First is the convenience of it. Cold water at a check out is there to drive sales because after an hour of walking you are mildly dehydrated and so it is easy to sell.\n\nSecondly is the perceived quality and value of the water. Some people through advertisements and other venues may feel that a bottled water has more nutritional value or is 'cleaner' or more pure.\n\nThe third is based on the second. There is a certain level of 'status' that somebody may feel they gain by having expensive water, much in the same sense that someone purchasing each generation of iPhone even though their current phone is still perfectly in tact. The same concept applies to companies who operate off of planned obsolescence... They generate hype and create a feeling of need for their product.",
"I buy bottled water, (12 X 500ml for £2) because I don't like the taste of my tap water and I keep it in the fridge so it's cold when I need it unlike tap water, nothing against tap water though if the stuff in my flat tasted like the stuff at my mothers house I'd just keep a jug of it in the fridge. ",
" Because they have too much money... ",
"because people are stupid"
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5iym1b | why are race relations better in britain and canada as opposed to the u.s. | It always seems to me that Race is always at the forefront of American Culture. I feel like in Britain and Canada they care less about race and more about assimilation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5iym1b/eli5why_are_race_relations_better_in_britain_and/ | {
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"They are not. The US simply talks about their race relations in the open. The other countries you name have just as many issues if not more but they do not talk about them. \n\nAlso you talk about assimilation. Those countries expect you to abandon most of your native culture and take on their culture when you immigrate. The US does not do that. We expect for you to adopt some specific aspect of US culture, but you are to add your native culture to the mix (melting pot and all that) rather than abandoning your native culture. This makes the racial and ethnic differences more stark and apparent and are why we talk about them to try and work them out rather than let them fester. ",
"The United States had slavery until the 1860s, and very strict laws about races interacting until 1968. There were still senators who fought to maintain segregation in office in the 2000s. There are still lots of people feeling the effects of that and people who want to return to the 'good old days' that are still remembered. Slave work and the racial divide formed a huge part of the American economy and culture, in a way that didn't happen in Britain, Canada, or Australia. Not only did Britain abolish slavery earlier, but slaves were never quite so crucial to British society in the same way, and didn't exist on the mainland in the same way. Canada had a pretty minor role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, so it doesn't feel the effects as sharply either. And Australia has a unique history -- not only is it a very young country in comparison (it only became a nation unto itself in 1901), but it was founded as a penal colony where the convicts and ex-convicts naturally fell into the role of low-grade labour often expected of racial minorities and slaves.\n\nJust to illustrate how recent some of these things are: when President Obama was born, his parents weren't legally allowed to marry, because they were of different races. \n\nOf course, you shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that race relations are totally fine in the other English-speaking countries. Australia had some very racist policies up through the 1970s, with a \"doors open for whites, but everyone else, ehhhh...\" immigration policy and the horrible confiscation of native-Australian children from their families to be 'civilised' under white schools and homes (native Australians are black-skinned but occupy a role like native Americans in America). There's still plenty of hostility towards aboriginals in Canada and Australia and quite a lot of Britons who have racist attitudes towards Asians. It's just that, without the same harsh and explicit recent history of slavery and segregation, and the lack of a civil rights movement coming from that, it's less visible and concrete. \n\nAnd it takes on a very different flavour. America forcibly imported its slaves and most black people in America descend from that. The dominant racial conflict in America is between black and white and is mostly dominated by the idea that black people are inherently this or that; conflict about immigrants, especially Hispanic these days (Asian before that), is a secondary bonus conflict. In Britain, most non-whites are immigrants or descended from immigrants, so racial conflict and anti-immigration conflict are much more of the same thing. And in Australia it's a third flavour, since the biggest racial conflict is between whites usually coming from British/European settlers and aboriginals who lived here ~40,000 years. All 3 situations are very different.\n\n(I'm Australian, if that influences my perspective.)",
"Up until recently Canada and Britain had far less non white people than the U.S. did. Prior to the arrival of a large number of Asian/Hispanic immigrants, the U.S. had about a 75/20 percent split between White and Black people. Add in the slavery and Jim Crow issues, and you got 1 out of 5 American citizens being seriously discriminated against on an ongoing basis. For Britain and Canada the number of people potentially effected percentage wise was far less, and the issues were more mild as well.",
"It's often just that America explicitly talks about racism. Ask the Dutch about [Zwarte Piet](_URL_2_) (\"That's not racist, it's tradition!\"), the British about [Golliwogs](_URL_4_) (\"That's not racist, it's just an ugly doll! It's supposed to teach compassion!\", or basically anybody in Eurasia about the [Romani](_URL_5_) (\"That's not racist, they're really all thieving, kidnapping sorcerers!\").\n\nThat's entirely ignoring nationalist stereotyping.\n\nThis year, an Australian newspaper published [this comic about aborigines](_URL_1_), sparking a debate about *whether or not* it was racist. Australia also runs [detention camps](_URL_3_) for 'boat people' from the Middle East (they even published a [comic book](_URL_6_) about how the camps were worse than staying in your war-torn country). That's all in the past, though - [now it's illegal to report human rights abuses at the camps](_URL_0_).\n\nAmerica's track record on racism is terrible, but the reason you hear more about it is simply that it's discussed more."
]
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[],
[],
[],
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"http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/asia/australia-border-force-act/",
"http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-04/cartoon-an-'attack'-on-aboriginal-people,-indigenous-leader-says/7689248",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet",
"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1518602.stm",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwog",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people",
"http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/13/refugees-angered-governments-graphic-novel-campaign"
]
]
|
|
5xqyeo | how does property income work ? | How do you make money with property, exactly? Can you buy a property you cannot afford, and then rent it out? What does "getting someone else to fund your assets" mean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xqyeo/eli5how_does_property_income_work/ | {
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"The idea is to purchase a property and then rent it for a high enough price that it covers your mortgage, taxes, and depreciation on the property.",
"- You buy a house for $100k, putting down a 20% down payment, or $20k.\n\n- your mortgage payment is about $500/mo. You also pay money into an account each month that your mortgage company uses to pay your annual home owners insurance and property taxes, so let's say the total monthly payment is $750/mo.\n\n- You rent out the house for $1000/mo., which covers the $750/mo.\n\n- You'll also have other expenses, for things like repairs/replacement of stuff in the house. You'll also want to have a reserve of cash for the times when a tenant moves out and you haven't yet rented the place out again. So say you're break even at the $1000 a month.\n\n- but over time you can start raising the rent, so you can start pulling some of that out as income.\n\n- also, you are building equity in the house, both by making the mortgage payments and any appreciation in value.\n\n- so 5 years later, maybe the house is worth $120k and you've grown your equity from the initial $20k to a total of $50k from the mortgage payments, plus the additional $20k in value means you sell and walk away with $70k from your initial $20k investment, and that $50k gain came all from the tenants' rent payments."
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4989hv | why does smoke from the tip of a cigarette taste so foul? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4989hv/eli5_why_does_smoke_from_the_tip_of_a_cigarette/ | {
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"Because it hasn't been filtered yet. The smoke picks up some flavor from the rest of the tobacco that it it passes through and the little cloth (?) filter smooths it out further. ",
"The end of the cigarette is being burned. Tobacco gets a lot of its flavor from being heated, it doesnt have to be completely burned to smoke it. (Hookahs for example only heat the tabacco, you're doing it wrong if its burning.)\n\nThe flavor from a cigarette comes from the heat warming up the rest of the tobacco, not just from the burning portion. In addition to this, the filters also reduce the burning flavor and often have flavors added of their own."
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32aqqs | what are the freshness packets in beef jerky? how do they work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32aqqs/eli5_what_are_the_freshness_packets_in_beef_jerky/ | {
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"text": [
"Not silica gel but [oxygen absorbers](_URL_0_) most of the time. I too thought that they were silica gel packs until I started making my own beef jerky for friends and family.\n"
]
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| []
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[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_scavenger"
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|
||
wi7xj | why do some genetic deficiencies/diseases/disorders "skip a generation"? | I have a friend who found out that she has a hearing issue that her doctor said "skips a generation." How does this happen? Does it have to do with our genes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wi7xj/eli5_why_do_some_genetic/ | {
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"Traits 'skip' generations precisely because most traits are not accounted for by a single gene, but by their combination with other genes. There is no brown hair gene, or blue eye gene. These traits may be controlled by recessive genes, so they seem to skip a generation from grandparent to you. \n\nFor example, if a trait is produced by a recessive gene, one of your parents may be a carrier but not possess the trait (because she inherited a dominant gene that overrode the recessive one). However, when her genes were recombined to produce the ovum from which you grew, and when that combined with your father's DNA, the trait may resurface."
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2bowki | why is the aurora movie theater shooting case taking so long? | I understand everyone needs to get due process for our justice system to operate, but why do clear cut cases like these where 0 doubt exists in anyone's mind already sometimes seem to drag on so long? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bowki/eli5_why_is_the_aurora_movie_theater_shooting/ | {
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"Almost all crimes require both a physical act (actus reus) and a mental state (mens rea). \n\nHolmes is acknowledging he did the physical act, but arguing that he was insane, and therefore didn't have the required mental state. He's entitled to a trial and a jury decision on whether he had the required mental state.",
"There's lot more that goes into it than just \"Someone committed a crime.\"\nFirst someone has to file formal charges. Then you have preliminary hearings to decide if there is enough evidence to require a trial. Lawyers will often spend as much time as possible gathering information and assessing the case before they enter a plea. In this case, Holmes' lawyers claimed that he was mentally unstable and that they needed time to asses his mental condition. There are often many court hearings as new information comes up. For Holmes, many of his appearances were postponed because he apparently injured himself attempting suicide. \n\nSo basically as new evidence is found, they have a hearing and the judge tells them if they can use the evidence at the trial or not. The judge finally called for the trial in January 2013 and the hearing at which he would finally enter a plea was scheduled for March. Before the plea, the defense and prosecutions negotiate pleas/sentences. In Holmes case, the defense offered a guilty plea in exchange for the prosecution's avoidance of the death penalty, a bargain they did not accept. In June 2013, finally Holmes pleaded not guilty due to insanity. The trial was originally set for February 2014 but more time is needed for a possible psychiatric evaluation. Currently the trial is set for December of this year.\n\nBut it's not \"clear cut\". There is a long process of finding out what evidence can/can't be used in court, negotiations about sentencing and pleas, and in this case issues over the mental stability of the suspect.\n\n(source: recollection and wikipedia to verify dates)"
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578meo | how do doctors diagnose a narcissist/psychopath when they're very good at deceiving others? | To better explain: when diagnosing a narcissist, can't the patient say what the doctor wants to hear instead of telling the truth to avoid being labeled a narcissist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/578meo/eli5_how_do_doctors_diagnose_a/ | {
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"There used to be a 40-question test psychologists used to identify narcissists. Over the years, it has been discovered that [a single question yields the same accuracy: \"Are you a narcissist?\"](_URL_0_)",
"Narcissistic personality is completely different from ASPD. psychopathy is also different from ASPD.\n\nIt is an odd thing when you consider diagnosis of this condition. Most psychopaths know what they are pretty early on in life and become very good at hiding in. It is a pretty popular opinion that most people with this condition are just the \"unsuccessful\" psychopaths, and that there are many many more out there who hide their true nature. \n\nI'm convinced that most people in high positions of government are psychopaths, just for the cutthroat nature of the beast.",
"Diagnosing psychopathy/sociopathy is more about observation and behavioral history than asking the (possible) psychopath questions directly, I believe, in order to avoid allowing them to manipulate the diagnosis.\n\nThe Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is used to diagnose psychopathy/sociopathy. _URL_0_ ",
"Well, as noted below, NPD and ASPD/psychopathy/Sociopathy are very, very different things. Also, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy might be different. Or might not. Or could sometimes be different. Or not. There's not a lot of clarity on the subject. \n\nWhats more- they don't look anything like the popular conception of them. \n\nTo start off- no one you know has either one of these. Probably. True psychopathy and true narcissism are nothing like the \"you're a psychopath\" or \"you're a narcissist\" we toss around as insults.\n\nNor is it likely that the government is run by them. CEOs have a rate of psychopathy THREE HUNDRED PERCENT higher than most people- which takes them from a 1% occurrence to a 4% occurrence. \n\nThe thing is, psychopathy is not that common. If it was some magical way to gain power, we'd all be psychopaths, because it'd have an evolutionary advantage. \n\nSecond- these are, in some very crucial ways, opposites. \n\nIn a very crude, ELI5 sort of way:\n\n**Clinical Psycopaths are incapable of giving a shit\nClinical Narcissists give way to many shits**\n\nAnd this where you run into Psychology 101 disorder.\n\nBecause the ICD definition of a psychopath is:\n\n*Characterized by at least 3 of the following:\n\nCallous unconcern for the feelings of others;\n\nGross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations;\n\nIncapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them;\n\nVery low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence;\n\nIncapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment;\n\nMarked readiness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society.*\n\nAnd the DSM has for NPD:\n\n*Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from others\n\nFixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.\n\nSelf-perception of being unique, superior and associated with high-status people and institutions\n\nNeeding constant admiration from others\n\nSense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others\n\nExploitative of others to achieve personal gain\n\nUnwilling to empathize with others' feelings, wishes, or needs\n\nIntensely envious of others and the belief that others are equally envious of them\n\nPompous and arrogant demeanor*\n\nThat breeze you just felt was people all over the internet sucking wind to scream \"JUST LIKE (POLITICAL/PERSONAL/CELEBRITY/BUSINESS OBJECT OF MY DISDAIN)!!!\"\n\nNo. \n\nFor context: Here's a WND article claiming Obama is a CLASSIC psychopath:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAnd a HuffPo (WND for people with priuses) article claiming trump is a Narcissist:\n\n_URL_2_\n\n(ProTip: Any \"psychologist\" who diagnoses anyone with anything without at least a few sessions, and is willing to talk about the diagnosis publicly? Not a good psychologist.)\n\nThis where you get into the \"Psych 101\" problem or the \"Asperger's syndrome\" syndrome as I like to call it (I'm a teenager who feels awkward and socially inept, clearly I'm **on the spectrum.**)\n\nObama may be a bit cold blooded (you probably have to be, to run for president) and Trump is probably pretty full of himself (you probably have to be, to run for president.)\n\nBut we're talking **clinical disorders.** Clinical, as in uncontrollable \n\nThe way you diagnose a psychopath isn't by carefully weaving through his web of lies. You notice that he beats the shit out of random strangers for \"looking at me funny!\".\n\nPsychopaths don't have the part of their brains that give a shit. \n\n\"Well, if I didn't give a shit, I'd be willing to sabotage Jeff in marketing to get that promotion, and ruthlessly achieve ultimate power and/or an office with a window!\"\n\nSure. But you wouldn't give a shit about that. \n\nIf you want to know what a psychopath really looks like- when was the last time you wanted to punch someone? Condescending customer, friend being a dick, boss wouldn't get off your ass....\n\nYou almost certainly didn't. A clinical psychopath would. They tend to be pretty marginal people, if not actively in prison. \n\nFurther, this stems from a lack of empathy. Empathy is a fascinating thing, because we essentially create a little model of someone else's brain in our brain and think about how we would feel.\n\nSo you see, say, a sad old man sitting on a bench by himself, and you think about how YOU would feel being a sad old man on a bench, and feel sad for him. \n\nEmpathy gets a bad rap, because lots of very stoned people with dreadlocks talk about how, like, if we all though about how bad war was, we could bring about the age of Aquarius. (And they always bogart the joint while they're rambling and hey, how about a little empathy for my desire to get stoned to make your goddamned ramblings tolerable.) \n\nIn truth, empathy is a brutal social weapon that allows you to cut your way to the top. You're, again, modeling someone else's brain inside your own. Want to give a good speech? You have to be able to understand not only what your audience wants to hear- but how they'd like to hear it, and to do that, you need to be able to understand how they think. \n\nPsychopaths can't. \n\nNarcissism disorder (NPD), is in some ways the opposite. Someone with NPD has to be the center of attention, has to be above criticism, has to be utterly perfect and adored. To the degree that they can't stand for you to be happy. \n\nConsider, say, that you went out for a picnic, and it's a nice day, and then you see some other people having a picnic as well! \n\nFor most people, this would have no effect- it might even enhance your experience a little- \"how nice to see those people having a good day as well, I'm glad for them.\"\n\nA narcissist would H. A. T. E. that. Hate it. It'd eat away at them. They aren't the center of attention- and they aren't in control of those people's emotional states. They might pick a fight with the other picnickers, they might start an argument and storm off, they may, if they have any control, just force everyone to get up and move. \n\nThey have to be the *center*. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad. I've encountered a few people I'm pretty sure were true narcissists. They'd do things like be in the middle of a nice get together and suddenly say \"By the way, do you know (shitstirring piece of social gossip)?\" Or they'd suddenly freak out over a meaningless thing, and threaten to leave. And the real tell between someone with NPD and an asshole- the person with NPD gets happier. \n\nTake, oh- vegans. (no one likes vegans). A vegan will pitch a fit over you eating a burger, but it doesn't make them happy. They're upset and stressed about it. A narcissist will throw a fit because you don't have their favorite beer, and be relaxed by the argument. You're feeding the need for attention. \n\n(Anecdotally, I've heard from some people that knew, or claimed to know people with NPD, that the best/worst thing to do is give them a completely flat affect- poker face. Not reacting to them drives them around the bend.)\n\nAgain, this makes them very marginal people. They don't really hang onto friends, or jobs, or positions that well. Not only can they not handle the mildest criticism, they'll pitch an epic fit if you don't notice the tie they're wearing. \n\nIt's difficult to treat, because \"going to a shrink to get treatment\" is the the exact opposite of everything a person with NPD feels. Everyone else is awful, evil, and not giving them enough attention. \n\nBut diagnosing them is not particularly hard. These are uncontrollable, heavily patterned behaviors, that in both psychopaths and clinical narcissists, are easily triggered. \n\nIf Obama was a psycopath, he'd have punched the first Senator to challenge him. If Trump was a narcissist, the first anti-Trump article would have sent him into a spiraling freakout. \n\nEdited to add a good review of the literature on psychopathy:\n_URL_1_\n\nSorry that got long, but this is a fascinating subject to study.",
"To throw in another answer. I'm not sure about a narcissist but for a psychopath, there's actually a brain scan that can be done as it seems like psychopaths tend to have a smaller/deformed amygdala. You could make a better confirmation this way. \n\n_URL_1_\n\n > Another brain study, published in the September 2009 Archives of General Psychiatry, compared 27 psychopaths — people with severe antisocial personality disorder — to 32 non-psychopaths. In the psychopaths, the researchers observed deformations in another part of the brain called the amygdala, with the psychopaths showing a thinning of the outer layer of that region called the cortex and, on average, an 18-percent volume reduction in this part of brain.\n\n_URL_0_",
"This isn't exactly related to narcissism or psychopathy, but because I think this answer is in line with the spirit of your question, I wanted to add: Psych patients absolutely can and do trick therapists. This is why it is usually advised not to take abusive spouses to marriage counseling - abusers can often get the therapist to take their side. \"Why Does He Do That?\" by Lundy Bancroft contains stories from many therapists that have heard their patients and their patients' wives tell very different stories. \n\nAs others have said below, this is why when determining a diagnosis for personality disorders, psychologists will look at the patient's behavior over what they say. But that takes time. Let's say Jane's husband John is emotionally abusive. As a last straw she insists John attend therapy. This therapist may or may not be a trained psychologist, and very likely will find nothing wrong with John, except for maybe thinking he has an abusive wife... because being skilled at emotional manipulation, John will certainly find a way to turn the marital problems back on his wife. \n\nMaybe if John sticks around in therapy long enough his therapist will be able to work out the real story, but more than likely, after a handful of sessions he will go home to Jane and either declare himself \"cured\", or use the things his therapist has said to convince Jane that *she* is the problem. (Which she will likely take to heart, because, emotional abuse)",
"They don't, generally. People with Cluster B Personality Disorders for the most part never get officially diagnosed or treated, they run amok and wreak havoc, and damage people around them. It's a huge problem, and one that most people know little about. \n\nIt's difficult to diagnose because they don't seek treatment in the first place, they lack empathy and remorse for their actions, and they can be on their best behavior when it's in their interest too. The higher-functioning ones are notoriously good at passing psychological assessments, and professing to \"repent and change their ways\" when caught being naughty. \n\nThe only truly effective mitigating strategy that works for dealing with them is 100% No Contact: recognize and expose them for what they are, then cut them out of your life and don't let them back in - because their entire existence is about manipulation, deceit, and exploitation.\n",
"I'm a resource coordinator for a mental health organization and have worked in direct service as well. With personality disorders, the key is observation of behavior and keeping professional boundaries. When you establish boundaries, and are outside of a client's personal life, you will, over time, get a more clear picture of how that person's mental illness or personality disorder presents. What happens is that clients will tell me what *they think* I want to hear, but really I don't *want* to hear anything in particular. It starts to become obvious when clients are attempting to be manipulative. Eventually, a pattern of behavior will emerge, and that's how diagnoses are determined. It can take quite some time, though, to really identify those patterns of behavior.",
"Narcissists aren't narcissists because they are good at manipulating people. They surround themselves with people who will enable them and vilify those who don't which reflects their self centered world view. They naturally learn to be more charming and even to manipulate because that gets them the adoration they seek. But they aren't good at hiding who they are, it's abundantly clear when you get to know them."
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6f229j | what is the point of esperanto? | From what I know, it was created as an artificial language to make communication easier but why? English seems like a more logical option as there are plenty of native speakers in the world already, and the basics are easy to learn for everyone else (forget correct grammar, you only need to know enough to get your point across). Whereas with Esperanto, everyone would need to first learn it as their second language and only then it could be really used. Also it sounds more difficult than English. So what was the idea behind it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f229j/eli5_what_is_the_point_of_esperanto/ | {
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"The idea was for it to serve as a common language that would be on equal footing with everyone else.\n\nEnglish seems like a good option... currently, and to English speakers. 100 years ago French would have been the better option, as it was already established as a *lingua franca* at the time. Why not Chinese??? In sheer numbers, less people would have to learn another language overall.\n\nBy using a separate common language like Esperanto, the hope is that no one would feel like they were being preferred or put at a disadvantage by having to learn someone else's language.\n\n > Also it sounds more difficult than English\n\nHow so? Because you don't know it? Because you speak English already? I don't think anyone is in a position to say another language is more difficult or not than their native one, because obviously your native language will come more naturally. It affects the way you think (i.e. English sentence structure affects how your brain actually classifies and looks at the world). \n\nIt didn't catch on because there really wasn't a pressing need for it. Those of us that speak the more common languages don't feel a need to learn it, and those that speak the more rare ones are already used to translating into some other language when needed. ",
"At the time Esperanto was created English were not a universal language. At some point it would even be easier to travel the world knowing French rather then English. It is only in the last couple of decades that you could expect English speaking people all over the world. English were a very illogical choice for a universal language. Very few people knew it as Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Hindu and Mandarin was extremely common. And English does not have much in common with any of these languages so it is very hard to learn. English in itself is perhaps one of the hardest languages to learn because of all the strange rules and sounds. The only reason so many speak it today is because it is taught as a second language in schools at a very young age and because there is so much culture in English.\n\nEsperanto is designed to be a mix of all other languages to make it easy to learn and have no cultural ties. It does not take that long to learn the grammatical rules and most of the vocabulary is made by combining existing words. For example they use the same word for forest as for tree, byte is just a combination of eight and bit. And a great part of the vocabulary is already present in your mother language. So Esperanto would have been a much better option for a universal language.",
"Esperanto speaker here.\n\nZamenhof made it to be a language that everyone would learn alongside their native language. \n\nThe reasons it's more practical than English are as follows:\n\n1. It's phonetic. Every letter has the same sound every time. There are diphthongs ( Ej, aj, oj etc.) But it's easy to learn.\n\n2. It's 100% regular. \n\n3. Its grammar and syntax are simple. All nouns end in o, all adjectives in a, and all adverbs in e. So on and so forth. There's only 3 tenses. (Past: is, present: as, future os. For example: Estis, estas, estos) The endings of a word explain the purpose. There's actually only 16 rules in total.\n\n4. The vocabulary is borrowed from the most common language families, namely from Europe. \n\nExamples:\n\n- Šati - \"To like\" from German \"Schätzen\"\n- Esperi \"To hope\" from Spanish \"Esperar\"\n- Manği \"To eat\" from French \"Mange\"\n\n\nFeel free to ask any questions. I love talking about Esperanto. Havu bonan tagon, amiko!\n\n\n"
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c6se1b | how come phones (iphones) in particular lose charge at odd rates? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c6se1b/eli5_how_come_phones_iphones_in_particular_lose/ | {
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"Charge memory. It is very much not an exclusivly iPhone issue. It is a lithium-ion battery issue. Li-on is the best to date battery for the way smart phones are used, but hardly anyone takes care of the battery in a healthy way. Anyway, if you always plug in your phone to charge at 30% life remaining, eventually it just assumes its only ever going to need to deplete up to that 30% mark. So after a while it just starts to give up and die at weird levels like 30. As it ages this can increase. Bad batteries also show leaps and bounds in battery depletion as apposed to a healthy battery which would deplete in a smooth curve. Li-on batteries ideally need to be drained till the device shuts of at least once a week, plugged in to charge at no more than 15% life, and never left plugged in to a charger after it has come back to 100%. This unfortunately is very far from being convenient to most people, so the batteries shit out in 2 years, but can last longer.",
"I think this a very interesting read about lithium ion batteries and how Apple is addressing this very issue in IOS 13.\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)"
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yn170 | how does my body know when it should wake up when i'm on the bus/train? | Granted I have never fallen asleep on an unfamiliar bus/train, so routine probably has a lot to do with it | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yn170/eli5_how_does_my_body_know_when_it_should_wake_up/ | {
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"Most times it doesn't. I've seen people sleep through the regular stops heaps of times.",
"Your body is very good at detecting a change in your environment. Thus, when you are on a train for a long time, you get used to the constant speed you are traveling at. When the train slows down to stop, your body recognizes the change and wakes you up. On the other hand, on a bus which stops often, habit is probably more of a factor."
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25380t | if lasik eye surgery is proven to correct eyesight, why hasn't it caught on and put the glasses/contact industry out of business? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25380t/eli5_if_lasik_eye_surgery_is_proven_to_correct/ | {
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"1. it is far more expensive than glasses \n2. children are rarely good candidates and lots of them need glasses \n3. they slice your eye open with a scalpel. \n4. then they shoot lasers into your eyes. \n5. some people like wearing glasses (even if they dont really need them) \n6. it cannot correct all vison problems \n7. while it improves sight in general many patients have undesirable side effects ie night halos. \n",
"**To sum up everyone's answers, it seems...**\n\n-it is very expensive\n\n-not everyone can have it done\n\n-theres no guarantee it will always work and it can have bad side effects\n\n*Thanks everyone*"
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1mea1h | why are furniture stores always going out of business? is it an actual business strategy to open a store, shortly have a closing sale and then move locations? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mea1h/eli5_why_are_furniture_stores_always_going_out_of/ | {
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"I don't know if this is an answer as much as an opinion but here goes - furniture is expensive, and it surprises people as many of them are used to going to ikea or other \"discount\" locations like the Brick. (I can only think of Quebec ones at the moment, sorry.) It's hard for most people to justify spending $2000 on a bed frame, or $1500+ on a couch, and so they go to ikea where a bed frame is $200 and a couch is $400. Going out of business isn't a marketing strategy, it's a just a repercussion of the pricing difference. Also - furniture sales are great the same way any other sale is great - you rush into buying it because you don't want to miss out and you think you're getting a great deal, even though during closing sales, prices are usually marked up to make the discount look better, and during most sales it's usually a 'Final Sale'. - I've been the buyer for a furniture store for the past 4 years - so again, this is just based on what I've seen. ",
"Lived in Georgia for two and a half years. During that time there was a furniture store that had 'going out business' signs all over the windows the whole time I was there. I never needed to buy furniture for the giant 'CLEARANCE SALE' signs caught my attention. I guess some use it for advertisement and aren't really failing companies. ",
"Well I'm not sure about before, but recently this is common place because of the way the market is. I work in an antique store and we used to sell tons of large furniture pieces back in the 90's, bed frames, dressers (especially), dining table/chairs, etc. But ever since early 2000's (9/11 really) there hasn't been a lot of demand for it. This phenomenon wasn't helped by the housing market crash. Now people are much more thrifty with their furniture buying things from thrift shops, garage sales, and ikea. Opening a furniture store might seem like a good idea to someone thinking about opening one, but in reality it's not a stable business model at the moment. Perhaps in another 20-30 years or so once we get our shit together there will be more demand for it. ",
"My old boss called them going out FOR business sales... Honest description.",
"It depends. There are some furniture stores which move into empty/unleased space, throw up a sign, and then are kicked out when a better tenant comes along or they just rent it for a few months. \n\nThe property owner gets rent, and it doesn't take much to move in and out. Furniture is a high margin (ie profit) but slow moving industry. \n\nIf it is a traditional 'nice' furniture store they likely couldn't keep financing available to handle their inventory. ",
"It really depends on the laws in your area. Some merchants have a business model that establish themselves as a consignment or discount store. Their inventory is often bought from defunct stores and then can be advertised as a \"going-out-of-business\" sale or \"inventory liquidation\". \n\nOn the other hand, some states have laws that explicitly prohibit long term going-out-of-business sales. In my area businesses conducting sales must register the sale with the Attorney General's Office at least 10 days before it begins. Inventory may not be added after the sale begins. Going-out-of-business sales should last no more than 60 days. If a sale must exceed that length, an extension affidavit must be filed. \n\nAnother model can be created if a single merchant has many different area locations and decides to close them all. Merchandise is usually consolidated into a single warehouse and one store will be the designated liquidation center. If there is a large amount of inventory from many different locations, that one \"going-out of business\" store could be open for years. ",
"* Reason 1\n\nPretty simple strategy, let me explain with some fictitious numbers. Lets say a couch costs $1000 wholesale. The furniture store charges $1700 regularly but gives you a $500 discount. When they \"go out of business\" the first thing they do is then put all prices back to full retail value ($1700) and then place a clearance tag on it for $1500. \n\nYou think, \"Clearance means cheap! Therefore $1500 must be a bargain!\" They can only really get away with those scams under \"unusual circumstances\" so the customers don't ask questions and just pay the scam price. \n\n----\n\n* Reason 2\n\nIf they're going out of business, you're not going to expect / ask for any warranty. \n\n----\n\n* Reason 3\n\nThe other side of the equation: How frequently does the average person purchase furniture? Once every 5 years? 10 years? Let us just say, very infrequently. \n\nSo, on day 1 you go to a furniture store and buy a couch; the store is going out of business and you think you got a good deal (in reality you got ripped off) but you don't need to replace that couch for 5 years (let's say). Therefore, when you go back to the store in 5 years, you think wow, they must have struggled through and survived! But they're going out of business again; well! I should get a good deal again! \n\n-----\n\nTL;DR: It's all a scam. ",
"It's a sales tactic. Just a way to drive business to a store. \n\nSome states actually have laws that punish stores that have one if these sales and remain open, here's [Washington State's](_URL_0_) law. Some stores run this campaign (\"it's our fourth annual going out of business sale!\") despite the law. Apparently the fine is just another cost of the ad campaign, it's still profitable. ",
"The store selling the furniture isn't going out of business. They're selling furniture of other businesses that are going out of business!\r\rAt least, that's what one store told me when I asked what was going on.",
"Yes. A friend of mine's uncle did this exact thing. He started out with his first furniture store, but after a few years, he just wasn't able to make ends meet, and begrudgingly decided to sell the place and leave the furniture business. However, to his surprise, during his 'Going out of Business' sale, he ended up making a big sum -- the way he tells it, it was almost as much profit as he had made in the entire previous year. \n \nSo he lived off the savings for a while, then opened a new furniture store. When things got tight, he did it again. Same result. And then he did it again, and again. I think in his 30s he must have done this nearly a dozen times -- and I know he was making money, or he wouln't have gone through the trouble. \n \nIncidentally, but strangely appropriately, this guy has been married six times. Go figure. "
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3u4exu | why are doctors offices and diagnostic clinics constantly behind schedule? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u4exu/eli5_why_are_doctors_offices_and_diagnostic/ | {
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"More often than not, this is because they have back to back appointments throughout the day. If one person is late by a few minutes, or if a complication arises, then every appointment after is delayed. It snowballs from there. \n\nNow, you may ask why they don't buffer in down time between appointments. Well, the doctors are of very high demand and attempt to see as many patients each day as possible. \n \nThe only way to prevent this is to have more doctors on staff, or take less patients. ",
"To put it bluntly, a doctor's idle time is more costly than yours.\n\nIn general, doctor's offices will slightly overbook. The know that there will always be people who, for whatever reason, don't make it to their appointment, but a doctor's services are in such high demand that is is basically a waste to let them sit around doing nothing. So slight overbooking occurs to account for the percentage of people that no-show.\n\nThen there is the fact that for a doctor, it can be very hard to know beforehand how much time to reserve for a particular appointment. Someone can call with the worst sounding symptoms and it turns out it is nothing and they are out the door in two minutes again. On the other hand, someone can call with very innocent, vague symptoms, and it turns out to be really really bad once they get there. So there is always going to be some appointments that run longer than expected that add extra pressure to a doctor's schedule.\n\nThen finally, there is always emergencies. Sometimes people do need to be slotted in immediately and they can't wait until the end of the day or tomorrow or whatever. Sometimes, if your doctor is one of those that still makes housecalls, they get called out for an emergency that is a bit more medically pressing than whatever you are there for.\n\nYes, it sucks. But it is something to put up with.",
"My wife is a family practice doc. There are a few reasons things run behind. \n\n* Some docs like to chat and can simply just spend more time with the patient than they are booked for\n* Some patients show up late\n* Some patients wait until the last minute to bring up additional concerns that may need to be addressed. \n* Some patients can't take 'no' for answer and require additional convincing that the appointment is over. Your virus doesn't need antibiotics and your stubbed toe doesn't need oxycodone. \n* They may be called away for a procedure. example: if the doc also does OB/GYN they may be called away for a delivery",
"Speaking from a physician's point of view, the biggest issue is insurance limitations and patient demand. The insurance companies only pay for certain amount of time (say 15 min) and the patient demands more because any less and they feel like the doctor isn't attentive enough. Medicine has become more about patient/costumer satisfaction rather than actual medicine. While most doctors try to be as attentive and caring as possible, in the end, time is money. We don't get paid by how much time we spend addressing patient concerns, we get paid by how many patients we see. So we end up overbooking in order to make the quota, however, that also ends up delaying appointments because we end up spending more time than expected with each patient. If we got paid like lawyers, billing by the hour, then we wouldn't see these issues. You'd be surprised at how much control insurance companies have on the amount of time we spend with patients in the office. They also control how much time they think a patient should stay in the hospital for a specific disease/condition, as well as how long a certain surgery will take. The limitations they put make it harder to adequately spend time with patients and thus make us rush. This leads to unhappy patients and poor patient care. At the end of the day, you end up with a full wait room of angry patients because you spent an extra five min than expected with the first few patients.\n ",
"Doctor here. \n\nI can tell you in a nutshell...the reason is because at the end of a consultation people often say \"by the way...\". This is very irritating to doctors but sometimes the matters must be addressed. If a patient says they have been experiencing on and off chest pain, that's 1/2 hr lost immediately. Or if they say that they've been suicidal...etc etc. You get the picture. \n",
"Appointments can take longer or shorter than expected, but a doctor can never get ahead, only behind. They can't get ahead if they finish early, because the patients are on a schedule and won't show up until it's appointment time. Additionally, you have people who get very angry when their doctor can't \"just squeeze them in.\" These are the same people who get angry when their doctor is running an hour behind. ",
"I work for a chiropractor for one job and my other job is a tattoo apprentice where I schedule all of my teacher's clients. At both jobs, I take it upon myself to call clients/patients if things are running behind. It's awkward to tell them, but it's even more awkward to sit in the waiting area with them... Front desk should always call when things are late, in my opinion.",
"Because if they get ahead of schedule are are sitting around idle, they aren't making any money, but if they get behind and you are sitting around idle, it doesn't cost them anything.",
"My mum works as a receptionist for a GP's place. It's pretty small, only one doctor. She often comes home ranting about late patients and how pushy they can be. There's always one person in a day that comes way after their appointment time and demand to be scheduled in even though they've missed they time and the slots are all booked. Some patients (especially parents) will chat with the doctor forever and just need to be reassured. This also pushes back times.\n\nAlso many eldery or foreign patients just don't understand the booking system. They want to see a doctor now. \"What do you mean there's no slot available? I'm really sick here!\"",
"Person A, B and C all need an appointment.\n\nPerson A gets his appointment at 10:30, just needing his prescriptions refilled and is out by 10:40, which is Person B's appointment time.\n\nPerson B is a known no-show to the vast majority of appointments. So, since Person B had missed her last 15 appointments, they figure she won't show up again, so they schedule her appointment from 10:40 to 10:45. Only this time, she actually shows up and spends 20 minutes at her appointment. This delays Person C's and everyone else who comes after Person C by an extra 15 minutes.",
"Hi. I actually work in a doctors office. I'm American, so I can't attest to anywhere else. My doctors have a set amount of time per patient to preform a procedure. It's my job to make sure the patient is all set to go by the time they finish with the previous one. The procedure we do most is slotted 30. This is a reasonable amount of time to preform it, and still make a profit off our reimbursement from insurance. Once the doc starts, they need to finish. Several complications can arise. They may have technical difficulties, or have to deliver a bad diagnosis. These things take more time. Sorry, but you wouldn't want your doc to walk out on you halfway through because the time is up. Conversely, patients show up late. We can't help that. In the event this happens, staff doubles up to fly through things, but there is only so much we can do once things are behind. Contrary to what I have read, we do not overlap patients...and I can't say I've ever heard of that being practiced",
"The doctor I work for tends to overbook a bit for whatever reason. Then there are the many patients who think they're the most important patient in the whole world. Then there are patients that show up late. Then there are the patients that get added on late because he says we do same day appointments. Then the scheduling people are idiots and don't understand how much time procedures take. Then there are occasional drug reps and whatnot that take up his time. Then he has to do human things like pee or eat. \n\nSo lots of reasons. Don't be too hard on him unless he's a dick when he's actually seeing you.",
"Part of the problem is that some patients take a long time to fill out paperwork. The doctors that I work with think that the patient's time is just as valuable as theirs but once one patient is late or they take 30 minutes instead of the normally given 15\n mimutes to fill out their paperwork the whole schedule is thrown off . Plus we have severe injuries that walk through the door that we have to take care of first. ",
"I know an attorney that threatened a MD because they had to wait 4 hours. Believe it or not good attorneys idle time is more valuable. \nOn another note I always try to get first appointments. Dr's Kay show up late but it's less bad t g an waiting for all their other patients plus showing up late. ",
"Late patients. I work in a small office and people who show up late will fuck the schedule up. \nFor those who tend to be chronically late for appointments please know the staff hate you for adding unneeded stress into their days. \n",
"Life Pro Tip: Book your appointment when the office first opens or right after their lunch and you will have much shorter wait times.",
"I work at a medical office the truth is patients come in late and demand to be seen, there are more difficult patients than you can imagine who dont listen to instructions or want to give you information that isnt important. There is also the issue of some patients cant fill out charts quickly for different reasons. Another is not evey case is simple there are patients with serious problems who believe it or not are a priority because their lives depend on it. Theres also patients who have sometimes ambiguous insurance coverage that takes forever to process. nothing to do but wait. Now if your waiting a long time and people who walked in after you get seen before you thats a problem, unless you're a walk in and they had appointments in which case you have to wait too. Theres a lot that goes on behind the scenes, cleaning procedures vary as well from patient to patient",
"In addition to these great answers people rarely have their ?!%# together in a concise and informative way when visiting the office as well. You KNOW you're going to be weighed, height, blood pressure checked and possibly prodded a bit. Dress and prepare accordingly. Be descriptive but not exaggerative, show up early.",
"Also the hypochondriacs, people obsessed with their health issues and old people that want to discuss their health and medications for hours. I'm not implying that people who prioritize their health and wellness are somehow in the wrong, I'm saying there are people who monopolize your time inappropriately. \n\nImagine an annoying conversation you've had at a party or on a plane that you couldn't get a word in and couldn't get away from. At least 25% of appointments are like that. ",
"Because of 'want to.' The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville sees thousands of patients and is run like a Swiss watch. I was able to see 8 specialists a day there in a 6-7 hour window. ",
"\nTIPS:\n1. Book the first appointment of the morning, or the first appointment of the afternoon.\n\n2. If your appointment is for 4:30, show up at 4:15, make sure you get check in on time, we cannot check you in at 4:29 and have you in the room at 4:30.\n\n3. Be honest about what you want to be seen for.\n \n4. Write down your family health history, cancer, endocrine, lung, cardiac, autoimmune. \n\n- Students or residents don't take you ANY longer, the doctor was doing other stuff that he/she would have been doing while the resident or student was seeing you. ",
"A few of the main issues I haven't seen mentioned:\n\nPatients show up late pushing every single visit after them late. Do this for the first 2 patients a day and the doctor can't catch up.\n\nPatients lying about the real reason for the visit. You get billed based on what the doctor did for the visit after the visit is over and the doctor does the paperwork. Telling the scheduler that it is a quick visit then laying out a 3 or 4 page list of issues will not have it 'be cheaper' it will be the same price as if you just told the real reason in the first place, plus the doctor could set aside more time to see you rather than needing to rush you out the door to keep up with the rest of the patients.\n\n'Extra' patients. If you are a parent, you can not have a doctor 'see your kid too, since you are here'. Book 2 appointments back to back.\n\n",
" > A day in the life of Dr. Tardy\n\n > Dr. Tardy is a great doctor. She cares about her patients, she tries to do the right thing for them, tries to take the time to listen without making them feel rushed. She doesn’t like to take any shortcuts when it comes to patient care. That means that she tends to run late.\n\n > Here’s a typical schedule in the life of Dr. Tardy, a primary care physician who works in a large group outpatient setting. It consists of 11 patients, scheduled in 20-minute time slots:\n\n > 8:30 Mr. Never-Goes-to-the-Doctor\n\n > 8:50 Ms. UTI\n\n > 9:10 Ms. New-Stroke\n\n > 9:30 Ms. High-Copay\n\n > 9:50 Little-Junior-1\n\n > 10:10 Little-Junior-2\n\n > 10:30 Ms. Diabetes\n\n > 10:50 Mr. Needs-a-Navigation-System\n\n > 11:10 Ms. Sadness\n\n > 11:30 Mr. Follow-Up-Blood Pressures\n\n > 11:50 Mr. Acid Reflux\n\n > First patient: Mr. Never-Goes-to-the-Doctor \n\n > The first patient on the schedule is brand new to the practice. Forgetting that he needs to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to his appointment to complete paperwork and processing, he arrives at 8:30 a.m. He doesn’t come to the doctor’s office very often, and he scheduled this appointment over six weeks ago – do we blame him for forgetting this small detail?\n\n > Thankfully, the swift-working front desk staff do their magic to rush his processing…but it’s now 8:40.\n\n > The medical assistant calls his name and takes him to measure his vital signs, and places him in the exam room. By now it’s 8:45.\n\n > Most doctors are now using electronic medical records and a progress note for the patient visit cannot be opened until the patient is actually processed and roomed. Once that happens, Dr. Tardy comes in to see the patient. It’s now 8:50.\n\n > She’s already running 20 minutes behind schedule, and it’s only the first patient of the day. Not good.\n\n > Back to the doctor’s desk\n\n > Thankfully, the patient is pretty healthy, so the visit takes only 15 minutes to complete.\n\n > Dr. Tardy heads back to her desk to start the same process for the next patient. Her flow is interrupted, however, as one of the nurses seeks her out to show her an abnormal electrocardiogram (EKG) she performed in the nurse clinic. The doctor has never met this patient, who belongs to the patient panel of another doctor who is out on vacation. Dr. Tardy needs to search the patient in the electronic medical records, study the medical history, and compare the current EKG with her previous one in order to determine the next step of action.\n\n > This is an urgent issue; she cannot simply ignore this EKG. The process takes her at least 5 minutes. She is now running 25 minutes behind.\n\n > Next patient: Ms. UTI\n\n > Thankfully, the next patient is also healthy. She has some urinary symptoms, and it’s pretty straightforward. Dr. Tardy orders the appropriate tests and provides her the proper treatment. This one took only 10 minutes to treat and 5 minutes to document. Woo hoo! We now can subtract 5 minutes and are only 20 minutes behind.\n\n > Next patient: Ms. Stroke\n\n > The next patient is a hospital follow-up. An 87-year-old woman who suffered a stroke since Dr. Tardy last saw her. She is now unable to speak clearly and requires a family member’s presence to help facilitate the visit. The doctor also needs to request the records to be transferred over from the hospitalization in order to get the medical details.\n\n > Thankfully, the wonderful medical assistant did that prior to her visit … phew!\n\n > How long will it take to peruse the packet of hospital notes from her 10-day stay? After reading the novel-length paperwork, here’s what Dr. Tardy determines will need to be accomplished during this visit:\n\n > The patient requires referrals for multiple specialists: physical therapy, speech therapy, neurology. Each one of these referrals takes time to submit.\n\n > The family is frustrated because they cannot care for her at home and multiple psychosocial aspects of a stroke need to be addressed. The patient is depressed, and the family is understandably shaken up. They look to Dr. Tardy to ease the pain and provide support and guidance, not to mention help in coordinating her living placement. Dr. Tardy listens to her patients.\n\n > The patient is also diabetic, and her blood sugar levels are out of control. Dr. Tardy needs to address that urgently. After all, diabetes is a contributing factor to the stroke in the first place.\nAll of this needs to happen in a 20-minute patient slot. Not possible. Dr. Tardy tries really hard, and this visit miraculously takes only 30 minutes to complete and another 5 minutes to document. Now the doctor is 35 minutes behind.\n\n > Back at the doctor’s desk\n\n > Dr. Tardy gets interrupted again in between patients because of a critical lab value on one of her patients. The patient must go to the ER, and Dr. Tardy needs to call her to explain to her exactly why it’s imperative that she be seen ASAP. The patient doesn’t want to go because of a high hospital copay. Dr. Tardy must convince her to go anyway. This takes another 5 minutes to achieve, and Dr. Tardy is now 40 minutes behind.\n\n\n > Next patient: Ms. High-Copay\n\n\n > The next patient is a 45-year-old who complains that she needs all 4 of her medical issues addressed today because she has a $60 copay and it’s a financial hardship for her to come for more frequent visits. She wants to discuss:\n\n\n > her high blood pressure\n\n > her low back pain\n\n > her depression symptoms\n\n > and she wants her pap smear done\n\n\n > Dr. Tardy explains that unfortunately time does not allow her to handle all these things in one visit. She suggests that they can complete the pap smear at a future visit since there are no copays for preventative screenings due to Obamacare.\n\n > Ms. High-Copay is not thrilled to have to return, but reluctantly agrees. Dr. Tardy cannot help but feel slightly uncomfortable with the reaction she receives. After all, Dr.Tardy is human and she cares about her patients. This visit still takes Dr. Tardy 30 minutes to complete and by now she’s 50 minutes behind.\n\n > Next two patients: Little-Juniors-1 and 2\n\n > Mom brings in her two kids – they have been struck with the same bug and are coughing and sniffling every which way. Dr. Tardy does save some time, however, because she can address both kids’ conditions to one parent.\n\n > Great! She saves 15 minutes here, placing her at 35 minutes late. How lucky.\n\nContinued on link below:\n\n\n_URL_0_",
"As a doctor and an economist the real answer to this question is not that various patients unexpectedly take longer for good reasons. Rather, it is that the way our insurance system has developed has completely changed the way the free market normally functions. \n\nIf everyone paid cash out of pocket for medical services, doctors would compete for patients based on quality, price, and service.\n\nIf your doctor was continually making you wait other doctors would advertise themselves to you (the consumer) and brag about their lower wait times.\n\nIn the U.S., patients are not the customers. Rather, they are the \"users\" of the services that are paid for by the insurance companies, who negotiate the service levels that the doctors must provide. This is really important to understand. When you go to the doctor, you are not the customer. The insurance company that pays your doctor hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (or more) is the customer. The doctor's job is to keep the insurance company happy and the insurance company cares more about keeping costs down than respecting your time.\n\nIn addition, because insurance companies negotiate fixed prices for seeing patients, doctors have a strong incentive to increase the number of patients that they see each day, even if the level of service (wait times) they provide to those patients is highly uneven.\n\nIn other words, in a normal free market we would expect to see prices rise and fall from practice to practice based on average, median, and mode wait times as well as the standard deviation (outliers). Some doctors would charge more and guarantee a wait time of 10 minutes or less. Others would offer discounts to those willing to deal with longer waits. This is not possible with insurance companies because they pay the same flat rate regardless of wait times.",
"The AMA is a cartel that artificially limits the supply of doctors. _URL_0_\n\nThere is no such cartel for dentists, which is why you don't have to wait for one.",
"Doctor here; \n\n* Patients are late for their appointments. If you show up 15 minutes late, and the doctor sees you, the person after you has to wait 15 minutes more for their appointment. This happens four times. The doctor is now an hour behind (this is why I don't see late patients and it's why I'm *always* on time). \n\n* A patient comes in with a serious and complicated medical issue. Maybe it turns out their heartburn is really angina. Maybe today is the day they finally break down and tell the doctor that they were raped as a teenager and this is the first time they've ever told anyone about it. The doctor needs to take more time to see these patients than someone with a simple cold. \n\n* Plain finances. Some doctors double book. A doctor's time is valuable and if they are not seeing a patient they are not making any money. I don't double book, and while this allows me to always be on time, it also means that if someone doesn't show up I don't make any money from that visit and I'm also not seeing a patient when I could be helping somebody. Before the \"Oh, I feel *soooo* so bad for them rich doctors,\" crowd start typing furiously, keep in mind I spent over ten years training in school, the better part of my twenties, going deep into debt and not making one red cent. I have bills to pay too, and one third of my income goes to to government and another third goes towards keeping the clinic running. I gotta pay my bills and live on the rest. **Errybody got bills.** Tangent over. \n\n* Sometimes you just have an off day. Maybe you're sick and working through it. Maybe you slept poorly last night on call. Maybe your heart just isn't in it that day but you still gotta make that effort anyhow to do your best for your patients. Whether you work at a Starbucks or in the OR, everybody has these kinds of days. \n \n\nHope that provides some insight. Sorry we keep you waiting sometimes folks, most of us hate it as much as you do.",
"Short answer? greed is why they are behind schedule. Doctors offices overbook, the doctor rushes in and out of the examining room giving you a few minutes of their time, so that they can make as much money as possible. Some doctors are ethical but far too many are concerned with making money than helping people"
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122ffk | why does my voice feel really powerful sometimes, and really weak other times? | Sometimes I feel like my voice is just powerful and booming, and others my vocal cords just feel weak and I can't project my voice much. Is it because I might be feeling timid at the time, or is there a scientific explanation like I'm tired or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/122ffk/eli5_why_does_my_voice_feel_really_powerful/ | {
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"Couple of reasons I know of have to do with how relaxed your vocal cords are. Vocal cords basically work like any other string instrument, but the vibration is created by the two cords pressing closed and then you push air through them, causing them to open and close rapidly - basically vibrating like a guitar string.\n\nWhen the cords are swollen (from sickness, smoking, irritation) or extremely tight (from nervousness) they don't vibrate as well, so the sound is either softer or the tone \"cracks\". Water (steam is best) is the best way to reduce irritation, which is why singing in the shower works so well, and why tea is great for singers who have irritated cords."
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5pehjd | why is consensual incest considered illegal and is socially unacceptable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pehjd/eli5_why_is_consensual_incest_considered_illegal/ | {
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"Because when people who are too closely related like a brother and sister or cousins have a child together that child can be very sick. We make it illegal so that we aren't producing sick children.",
"It's a potential threat to the gene pool. No birth control method is 100% effective aside from abstinence, so we forbid people who are closely related from hooking up to minimize the number of accidents resulting in incest babies.",
"Incest is a taboo universally across cultures. While there are many popular instances of this taboo being broken those subsets are very small historically. It's been this way culturally going as far we have record, and we also see this in the animal kingdom. Searching and working towards genetic diversity appears to be inherent, but there are exceptions. \n\nGenetic defects are rare for first generation incestuous offspring, but the chances of issues grow exponentially every subsequent generation. It would be biologically instinctual to avoid this type of genetic negative consequence. \n\nI don't know that there is a legitimate reason beyond we know it can lead to genetic issues, and it's considered morally wrong by virtually all cultures throughout history. As another commenter posted, the dynamics of these relationships also make it very difficult to be truly consensual and healthy. \n\nI am sure someone can provide a much more research and scientific answer together. ",
"Genetic arguments are stupid. They're why we instinctively short-circuit attraction to people we grow up too close to, but there aren't any laws against disabled people getting married, or those with genetic conditions. You are ***A LOT*** more likely to have a child with a debilitating genetic condition if your partner already has it than you are having sex with a close relative without, and as has been pointed out people don't always have sex to have children.\n\nThe major problem is that it is very difficult to unravel consent and power dynamics in incestuous relationships, and escaping from an abusive one is even more difficult than a regular abusive relationship.",
"Simple explanation, the same reason homosexuality used to be considered illegal and socially unacceptable. \n\nPeople think it's icky.\n\nYou can talk about birth defects all you want, but the fact is that people feel the same way even if they aren't aware of the health risks to potential children."
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8e18eb | why are loaves of bread shaped the way they are? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8e18eb/eli5_why_are_loaves_of_bread_shaped_the_way_they/ | {
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"Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [Why is bread in its distinctive shape? ](_URL_0_) ^(_3 comments_)\n1. [ELI5:Why do loaves of bread have somewhat muffin top as opposed to being a solid rectangular prism? ](_URL_1_) ^(_3 comments_)\n"
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2jhfue | does this guys attempt to "disprove einstein" make any sense? | I don't know nearly enough about relativity or physics to tell if this is bull shit or not:
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jhfue/eli5does_this_guys_attempt_to_disprove_einstein/ | {
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"None whatsoever. He appears to have attempted to use classical mechanics (which relativity replaced) to prove relativity wrong. That's like building a new computer weather simulation, and saying that because it disagrees with your old one, it's less accurate. One model superseded the other because it has received more supporting evidence and is generally a better fit for the way the world works; you can't use the fact that the new model disagrees with the old one as a reason not to believe the new one. That's the whole point of improving a model.\n\nYou can't disprove the theory of relativity (the basis for a modern understanding of the macroscopic physical universe) using high school kinematics and algebra.",
"Credible scientists get papers published in journals & have experimental data to back up their claims. Cranks publish a bunch of formulas with no context on Imgur & then make grandiose claims about the importance of their \"discovery\".\n"
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2jzszm | why is it hard to like new (to me) music as i age? | I am 33 and find it exceedingly difficult to enjoy and absorb new music. I am not referring to brand new music but new to me. For instance, I love punk music, today I tried to listen to a Bad Religion album I haven't heard and after two songs switched to a Social Distortion album I have listened to hundreds of times. It isn't the genre either, I was seeking out new blues/rock and can't really get into the Stevie Ray Vaughn album, but it isn't difficult to throw on my Allman Brothers album. At most it seems I might take in 2-3 new albums a year, this year the new National album and Black Keys album have been incorporated into my listening cycle, but I have probably purchased 8 or so other albums since January that haven't made the rotation. Each year that passes it seems harder and harder to latch on to new music, is this particular to me or is it a part of aging? Lord knows my mom hasn't stopped playing the same damn Rod Stewart albums for twenty five years!
Edit: I thought it was clear, but I will reiterate, when I use the term new it has nothing to do with when the music was composed, recorded, or released. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jzszm/eli5_why_is_it_hard_to_like_new_to_me_music_as_i/ | {
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"You tend to associate music with fond memories from the past. You don't have those associations to make with new music all the time. ",
"It's because when you're younger, you're new to music. Everything seems fresh. But once you've been listening to a genre for 20 years, you consciously or unconsciously realize that what you're hearing is stale. ",
"Others have already mentioned about the connection between music and memory. Even if you don't associate a song with a particular memory, you may associate it with a period of time. It doesn't even have to be a good time in your life, but a time which was meaningful for you. Another example of connecting music with emotions is that I often don't care for a song when I first hear it, but I will come to love it if I see it later in the background of an emotional moment in a TV show. \n\nThis isn't impossible to overcome. I think that many of us get more picky as we get older. As someone else also said, once all things were new and now they just aren't. Spotify is my saving grace there. Easy to flip through new music indiscriminately and find things I like. Subreddits like /r/listentothis is also a great way to listen to things outside your normal preferences. "
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d9aq61 | who creates those video games we often see actors playing in movies or tv shows? | Im watching 13 Reasons Why on Netflix right now, and there are a couple parts in certain episodes where the actors are playing this shooting game on what looks like an Xbox 360. It obviously looks fake, but Ive seen different types of them in other movies and tv shows. How are those made and who makes them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d9aq61/eli5_who_creates_those_video_games_we_often_see/ | {
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"A graphics artist is just making a video. They aren't making real games, they aren't actually playing. It's the same as any other cgi, they just have a excuse for it to be obviously fake and look bad."
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5cpsbm | why do muscles start to twitch for no apparent reason? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cpsbm/eli5_why_do_muscles_start_to_twitch_for_no/ | {
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"Possibly an imbalance of sodium or potassium which are both needed for a muscle contraction",
"Probably a misfire within a nerve bundle that triggers a motor unit in a muscle.\n\nMuscles aren't controlled the way you probably think they are. Your muscles are roughly divided into sections called motor units, each fed by a nerve (nerves are all or nothing, either completely on or completely off, so they can't be used in isolation for gradients, making parallelism the only viable strategy for precise motor control). \n\nWhenever your brain wants to send a command to your muscles, it goes through a process called recruitment, where it gathers up the required number of motor units to carry out whatever activity it's doing (more units in a line means larger motion, more in parallel means more force), and then sends the signal to all of the motor units in whatever pattern is needed (maybe series contraction first, then more in parallel, sort of a soft start). \n\nRecruitment is carried out mainly by the cerebellum in activities you have practiced, because it is more efficient, but less adaptable on the fly. When you are learning a new task, your cortex takes on recruitment, which is why it's clumsier, less precise, and slower, because it can do basically anything, but not very well. This is also why it is harder to do anything other than the new task at first, because your cortex is already in use. Device not ready bro. If your brain misfires slightly, then recruits and fires a single unit, that one little muscle spot twitches.\n\nIt has been postulated that we aren't as strong as similarly sized mammals because our muscles are divided up more finely, requiring more brainpower and time to recruit. This allows us to carry out extremely precise actions (flint knapping, for instance), but makes it more difficult to use our entire muscle at once (there just aren't enough connections and they can't be recruited fast enough).\n\nWorking out and doing complex physical tasks helps strengthen the recruitment mechanism, which is thought to be the main driving force behind \"beginner gains\" in bodybuilding. Your brain just learns how to use your muscles better.\n\nEdit: Gold?!? Noice. Thanks kind internet stranger!\n\nEdit: Initial statement for clarity.",
"I read once when your not doing anything active it's your brains way to check your not dead ",
"We don't know what the exact cause is. Dire_Platypus posted a nice thing on what a fasciculation is but not why it happens. We also don't know exactly what causes a muscle \"knot\". ",
"You're the pilot of a super cool giant robot. While you're inside it, you have all these buttons and levers, each for all the body parts. \n\nSuddenly, you sneeze violently and accidentally press a button. The robot's arm starts spazzing like mad. \n\nYour brain sneezes sometimes, especially when it's learning new things. Even the muscles can go weird because of the way it's wired. \n\nBut 99.9999% of the time, it's fine. \n\nSource: this thread. ",
"When I'm bored or lethargic for a while my right eyelid twitches like crazy. I once saw this girl who sat across from me laughing and I was like what's so funny. She told me she's thought I was doing it on purpose & started to making fun of me. 10 minutes later I called her fat. ",
"As above, we don't fully understand the physiology of fasciculations. However, in some disease states such as ALS we have some underlying understanding, especially as it pertains to fibrillations.\n\nALS causes death of motor neurons, and subsequent denervation of motor units. At each neuromuscular junction we have endplates that are folded invaginations of muscles with high densities of receptors. Normally, the nerve overlies this area and synaptic transmission more easily occurs with the high density of receptors below. When that nerve transmission is lost, over time the muscular junction area spreads out and all of the receptors spread over the surface. When this happens, the solitary unit will fire sporadically. This causes a single motor fiber to \"twitch\" which is a fibrillation. We can't normally see these except in the tongue where we don't have subcutaneous fat. However, we pick this up on our EMG machines when we place needles into muscle to essentially listen for these.",
"I am epileptic. When epileptics have a seizure their muscles can switch and have have distortions. The electrical impulses in our brains begin to miss fire and it sends signals throughout the body depending on what section of the brain is experiencing the miss fire. Different forms of epilepsy have different types of seizures. From simply staring off with a blank face to facial ticks to grand mal seizures where the patient is lying on the floor convulsing uncontrollably. The brain is very sensitive to small variations in its electrical impulses. ",
"Right, a lot has been said, many misunderstandings and many (FALSE) ELINeurophysiologist explanations.\n\n**Definition**\n\nThe twitch is called a \"fasciculation\", it is a spontaneous muscle activity (not controlled by you). Benign fasciculations are very common and not associated with a nervous system disorder (unlike ALS, cramp-fasciculation syndrome ect).\n\n**Causes**\n\nSome of the causes are some medications, especialy anti-ADD ones, low Magnesium (eg during pregnancy), stimulants (both caffeine and \"recreational\" ones), fatigue or there can be no cause at all.\n\n**How it is done**\n\nThe mechanism of it goes as such: A single nerve cell in your spinal cord (called lower motor neuron - name not important) depolarizes (\"fires a signal\") by itself, without you giving an order. This cell has a long nerve fiber that ends on a few muscle fibers lets say in your arm. When they receive this rogue signal they contract (\"activate\") spontaneously, producing the twitch.\n\n**Point 1**\n\nThis is ELI5, provide answers in a simple manner, not with pompous terminology\n\n**Point 2**\n\nThe cerebral cortex and the brain which is mentioned by the top comment has **FUCK ALL** to do with fasciculations or any benign spontaneous muscle activity for that matter. They are caused by Lower Motor Neurons ONLY (Cells in the anterior (front) horns of the spinal cord). If a cortical neuron missfires we have an epileptic phenomenon, NOT fasciculations. If one of my residents gave me this explanation for fasciculations, I'd send him back to med school.\n\nSource: Neurologist, MSc, Stroke Specialist.\n\nEDIT: Other spontaneous muscle activities include cramps (part of a muscle stays contracted for a long time), myoclonus (a brief twitching of a whole muscle or a group of muscles, but it is rarely benign if persistent - this originates from the brain and can even take the form of a generalized myoclonic seizure), myokymia (also a symptom of neurologic disorders, too rare, nvm about it), myotonia (you close your fist but even after you try to open it, the muscles relax waaaay too slow - not actual spontaneous activity, more of an inability of a contracted muscle to relax immediately, but meh)\n\nEDIT 2:\n\n[Myotonia](_URL_2_)\n\n[Fasciculations](_URL_4_)\n\n[Tongue Fasciculations](_URL_5_) (ALS)\n\n[Myokymia](_URL_1_) (myo=muscle kyma=wave)\n\n[Myoclonus](_URL_3_)\n\n[Cramp](_URL_0_)\n\n[Facial Hemispasm](_URL_6_)",
"Just to give the most likely cause of why you may be experiencing your muscles twitching: Excessive caffeine. I've had this happen to me before. Turns out, multiple energy drinks in less than 2 hours can do some weird stuff to your body. Lack of sleep can cause muscle twitching as well.",
"I would say the primary cause is signal to noise ratio. There is a bunch of noise in your nervous system, and sometimes the noise is loud enough to cause a misfire.\n\nComputers have a large signal to noise ratio, making them accurate but inefficient.\n\nThe human nervous system has a low signal to noise ratio. This makes the nervous system efficient at the cost of misfires.\n\nThis is why a computer with the raw computing power of one brain would take up a city block and require around 1 MW of power. Whereas your brain fits in your skull and uses around\n20 W.\n\nThe fact that we can function at all, with such a low signal to noise ratio, with just the occasional brain fart or muscle twitch, is impressive . How the human nervous system operates in spite of misfires is not well understood.",
"Your body uses magnesium to do stuff like move muscles. If you get some magnesium supplements, preferably one like magnesium chloride, it'll probably go away super fast. ",
"Having watched House recently I can assure you that it is in fact... \n \nLUPUS. \n \nor cancer. \n \nBut probably lupus. "
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ah6pug | given the sugar-free options, why haven’t they made candy with aspartame, splenda or stevia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ah6pug/eli5_given_the_sugarfree_options_why_havent_they/ | {
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"They do. Only diabetics usually by it, but that is exactly what diabetic candy is. It just doesn't sell very well is all.",
"Candy, especially hard and chewy, is hard to make and can rely on the natural physical and chemical properties of sugar in the candy making process. This would be hard to recreate and possibly use at the same cost.",
"I highly recommend reading the reviews in Hariboo sugar free gummy bears \n\n_URL_0_",
"The sugar free candies everyone is mentioning are also made with sugar alcohols. The reason those candies aren't very popular is because sugar alcohols pass through the system mostly undigested, which leads to cramping, diarrhea, and other intestinal upset, but for the purposes of the actual structure of the candy, sugar alcohols closely mimic real sugar. The reason that sugar free candies made solely from aspartame, splenda, or stevia aren't really made is because, aside from taste, the appealing part of candy is the various textures of it, and those sweeteners can't even come close to replicating it. \n\n\nHowever, they do make [these](_URL_0_), but I've never actually tried them.",
"We did a side-by-side taste test of Werther's Original regular and sugar-free candies, and the latter was surprisingly good, almost as good as the full-calorie version. But you wouldn't want to eat many at one time. You will get a tummy ache from the sugar alcohol, and some people are much more sensitive to this than others.",
"They have. Since at least WWII. The issue is that these sweeteners change the texture of candies, often have odd aftertastes, and in the concentrations needed for candies often cause stomach and digestion issues. ",
"The thing is that diabetics often eat regular candy because sometimes their blood sugar can get very low. They might eat a glucose tablet or some hard candy. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nThere are things like stevia which are used in some chocolates. There as others have said the sugar alcohol candies. ",
"What they need to do is try to make candy with erythritol or xylitol which are pretty close in sweetness to sugar and don't have anywhere close to the glycemic index that other \"fake sugars\" have (raising blood sugar). These are natural sweeteners and they actually taste good. I think erythritol is like 80% as sweet as sugar.",
"Lots of people mentioning that sugar free candies exist, but many are forgetting the most important reason: **Sugar has both form and flavor.** Sweeteners only have flavor. Some candies simply cannot exist without sugar because the form that caramelized sugar takes is extremely unique to sugar itself. \n\nGummy bears? Totally function with artificial sweetener because the basic form of the candy is made of gelatin.\n\nCakes, pies, cookies, etc? The melted sugar forms one of the primary ingredients that holds the bread together and causes it to retain its form, so you have to find some non-sugar way to support the flour. (Yes, I know how eggs work. Bake a cake without sugar and cut a slice.)\n\nHard and/or chewy candies? You can simulate a similar texture with things like hardened honey, but the way it breaks down in your saliva is going to be completely different depending on what you use.\n\nChocolate? You can do sugar-free chocolate, but unless you're eating damn near pure chocolate (very bitter), you have to use an emulsifier and another base to reduce the bitterness. [Meringue](_URL_0_) is an example of a \"sweet\" you can make without sugar.",
"I know they sell a Stevia-sweetened brand of chocolate at my local markets. I've not tried it personally, though.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"For those who recommend sugar free chocolate, check the ingredient list! If the sugar replacement is maltitol, your getting close to the glycemic index of regular sugar. This can be bad for both diabetics and those on Keto.\n\nFor reference, sugar has a GI of 60, maltitol syrup is 52, and maltitol powder is 35. Not all sugar alcohol is created equal.",
"There's a alot of sugarfree options in every grocery store here in sweden atleast, like 4-5 brands with several flavors for each brand in sugarfree icecream aswell. There's alooot of options and some of them are really good.",
"I’m uniquely qualified to answer this. \n\nIn short they are available but there is more to it. \n\nSo while sugar and artificial sweeteners (high intensity sweeteners) both offer the needed sweetness sugar actually provides bulk it is a part of the structure / volume of candy and when it comes to hard candies it is what composes most of the candy. If you take out the sugar and replace it with something like Sucralose (Splenda) which is 600 X sweeter than sugar you need to put something else in to make up for the bulk. You can use sugar alcohols like maltitol, sorbitol, xylitol, or soluble fibers like polydextrose as they do not provide the sweetness but may serve as a bulking agent. The problem with these replacements is that they may do not have the same physical or chemical properties and often require special processing or adjuncts in the formulation to make suitable products, the other problem is digestibility thresholds, your aren’t going to be able to eat these by the first full with out consequence like most conventional candy. \n\nFeel free to ask me any questions you may have. \n\nSource- I am a food scientist with about a decade in the confections industry. ",
"Sugar-free candies, for the most part, are mad with maltitol. That stuff is super bad for you and still registers on the glycemic index. I don't understand how/why these are considered options, especially for diabetics. Many people have learned the hard way how rough this stuff is on your digestive system.\n\nThanks to low-carb diets and their rise in popularity, we are actually seeing more sugar-free treats that have good sugar alcohols - erythritol mostly. \n\nFrom candy and protein bars to ice creams and even drinks, we're seeing this become more popular, especially in the last 5 years. I'm sure that will continue, and other sugar alcohols that are even better for our bodies will become more widely used. \n\nWorth checking out are Halo Top, Atkins Shakes, Quest Bars and Lilly's candy.",
"They do, but sugar-free sweeteners are more expensive to produce than regular sugar or corn syrup, and mass production favors cheaper/more widely available materials.\n\nIf there were giant, centuries-old monk fruit plantations all around the tropics we'd be putting monk fruit sweetener in everything. Sometimes it's just that simple/stupid."
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5pcz09 | when did we start using a calendar with months in? (jan, feb etc) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pcz09/eli5_when_did_we_start_using_a_calendar_with/ | {
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"People have been using months and calenders for millennia. Every society and civilisation had their own variety. Some used lunar calanders and other solar ones. They were incredibly useful for the development of agriculture (ie know exactly when to plant and harvest etc). \n\n\nIf you're referring to the calender we have now, its a Roman Calender so shortly before the fall of Rome would be my educated guess. Each month has a name derived either loosely or directly from something in Roman lore or history e.g. August=Augustus Caesar, July=Julius Caesar, January=Janus the two faced Roman Goddess etc. "
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1llia5 | why are multi-billion dollar companies able to file for bankrupcy and why does the government bail them out? | Why doesn't the government let them fail so competitors have a chance to step up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1llia5/eli5_why_are_multibillion_dollar_companies_able/ | {
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"If you can't pay your bills you can't pay your bills, bankruptcy offers a business a chance to recover and become profitable again. Every profitable business out there makes the American economy much better.\n\nGovernment bails out companies because it believes they can come back and turn a profit again, saving lots of American jobs and allowing for future tax revenue. ",
"Some companies (e.g. banks, car manufacturers etc.) may be considered 'too big to fail' because so many hundreds of thousands of people (e.g. employees) fully depend on these companies operating that it would arguably do more harm than good to the greater society to let the company fail as opposed to provide bail-outs to get them back on track. In other words, letting some of these companies fail may be seen as more disastrous and disruptive to the economy than the expense of providing financial assistance to prevent the company from failing.",
"Often these companies are bailed out to avoid the spread of a financial contagion throughout the economic landscape. To understand this, think of a company (Company A) worth in total $100Bn. Now unless Company A was extremely conservative in its borrowing, and had been over the vast majority of its life, a large part of this $100bn would likely be made up of debt, i.e. money it has borrowed from various sources like banks, hedge funds, other companies and so on; the remainder of the companies value would be, by definition, made up of equity financing, i.e. money raised by the sale of shares/reinvestment of retained profit. Let us now assume that the ratio of debt to equity of 2:1 - for every $1 of equity they have $2 of debt. \n\nNow, what this means is that company A owes approx. $66bn to various sources. To these 'sources', this $66bn represents an asset - they will eventually receive this money back, and will earn interest on it in the interim. These expected cash flows from this repayment will subsequently be incorporated into the value of these 'sources'. Let us assume for simplicities sake that Company A has borrowed all of this debt from only 3 companies (B, C, & D) in equal amounts of $22Bn, meaning each of B < C, & D have an expected futurescash flow of $22Bn from Company A\n\nNow, If Company A was therefore allowed to collapse and default on these debts, this will mean that B, C, & D have seen a $22bn cash flow completely written off as bad debt, essentially meaning they will no longer receive any of it. Now B, C, & D will no doubt have debts of their own, some of which they may have been planning to pay off using the $22Bn they expected to receive from Company A. However, now that they are suddenly not receiving this Company A, they may find themselves unable to pay their debts, which may in turn lead the companies they borrowed from being unable to repay their debts for the same reasons, causing a spill on effect of sorts through the economy, i.e. a financial contagion.\n\nThis is why banks are bailed out - their collapse would have enormous spill on effects due to the size of the positions they have in financial markets, both equity and debt. \n\nTL;DR - Huge multi Billion dollar companies are bailed out by the government due to the enormous impact on global financial markets them defaulting on their debts."
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6agjbn | why does social isolation screw humans up so badly? | Every week it seems like there's more studies released showing just how screwed up a person gets when they don't get adequate social interaction. Why would the brain essentially betray the person simply because there's nobody around? Why would everything break down simply because the person has nobody? And if social interaction is such an essential part of human survival, then why does it get harder to re socialize after long periods of isolation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6agjbn/eli5_why_does_social_isolation_screw_humans_up_so/ | {
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"Humans are a social species. Without the strength of social groups, we would not be alive today. Since we almost always live in social groups, our brain has not evolved in a manner suited to living alone. Just as we are not great at living in a pond or in Antarctic conditions or going a month without water, these are just situations that are outside our normal operating parameters.",
"On another note, most human behavior is learned. I remember a study of a young girl who had been living in a small room isolated her entire childhood and basically wasn't able to do anything beyond what a young toddler could do. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what we need from each other but we are definitely a social species for a reason. ",
"Have you ever heard the phrase \"none of your thoughts are original\" or some variation on that? Isolated humans are really stupid. It is by interacting with others that we gain the knowledge accumulated over the course of history. Basic language, the concept of love, every complex thought you have had you gained through interactions with others. It could be direct, or through books, movies, and TV, but you didn't know the concept of forgiveness without interacting with others. The impact we have on others is endless.",
"A couple of things: lack of social interaction doesn't strictly imply you are only not speaking to people. It inherently implies something about your lifestyle. It would be hard to avoid interaction with people if you were involved in a diverse amount of engaging activities. If someone isolates themselves, stays in their room all day and plays video games, their environment will be so under-stimulating that proper neural functioning will start to degrade in a sense. \n\nTo address when you ask if socializing is inherent in our survival, then why do we lose the ability to do so effectively after not socializing for a significant period of time: That's because our neurons are on a use it or lose it basis. Lack of stimulation to the neurons involved in communication will lead to weakening of those synapses and ultimately cell death. This concept is really sensitive to a persons stage of development. A young child who does not have the means to develop socially will either have a very difficult time learning later on, or in more severe cases, never be able to develop those social skills because the neurons dedicated to it died off. Programmed cell death is like the brain conserving energy, why waste energy on cells not being utilized. ",
"All systems improve by being challenged. Easiest way to do it for a human are other humans.\n\nThe other side of the mirror is that if you socialize too much, you inadvertently conform, which is also a way backward. So, people also need alone time to filter and process that socialization into something useful.\n\nTl;dr: Moderation is key."
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7uvfvb | cell phones connect with each other via wireless signals but how does a cell phone connect with a land line | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uvfvb/eli5_cell_phones_connect_with_each_other_via/ | {
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"Cell phones actually connect with cell towers via wireless signals. Cell towers are tied into the land line infrastructure. For two cell phones to communicate, the call has to be routed over the land line to the nearest tower and then transmitted back to the other phone.\n\nWith land lines, there's no transition back to wireless; it just gets connected directly.",
" > Cell phones connect with each other via wireless signals\n\nNot exactly. They aren't like walkie-talkies, connecting directly with each other. Cell phones connect through microwave transmissions to cellular towers which are connected to a ground-based network. This means if you call someone on a cell phone across the country your call will go a couple miles to a cell tower then go through cables on or under the ground to the closest tower and then across a few miles to their cell phone.\n\nCalling a land line then is just a simple as having that call routed to a ground line rather than another cell tower."
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243rds | you are given a drug to counteract anesthesia after an operation to wake you up. why can't we create something to take to counter act the effects of alcohol and sober you up just as fast as you got drunk. | Does a product like this exist? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/243rds/eli5you_are_given_a_drug_to_counteract_anesthesia/ | {
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"I wanna know this too. I found two studies, ([here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_)) that tried to use amantadine and bromocriptine and then TRH and ORG 2766 hexapeptide to counter the inebriation, but both failed. From what I can gather, they tried to improve performance (reaction time, cognitive etc.) with the drugs, instead of neutralizing the alcohol in the system. This means that basically you can't get rid of the effects, but rather, cover them up or just improve \"performance\" so the effects aren't noticeable. The issue with this is that the effects from alcohol are numerous and not really \"centralized\".\n\nOn the other hand, I know that if I bump a line of some sort of amphetamine or coke while drunk, I'll sober up. Or at least, subjectively, my \"performance\" will improve.",
"You mean cocaine? Right...?",
"No antidote yet, but future me will drink without abandon. Here's a recent study on getting thus done in mice:\n_URL_0_",
"Alcohol enhances function of GABA-A receptors on glutamate neurons. GABA receptors are inhibitory and basically turn down the volume on the signals from glutamate neurons. \n\n\nGlutamate neurons are the main communicating neurons. Over stimulation of them also leads to their death, something which could happen once inhibition is removed. Basically sedating a bunch of neurons isn't as dangerous as over exciting a bunch. There are GABA-A antagonists which block the effects GABA, but these are also dangerous as the are known to cause convulsions and seizures (ie too much of a signal leads to unintended messages). \n\nBasically it difficult to find something has the same mechanism as alcohol, but works in a perfectly opposite way.\n\nEdit: Damn thought this was askscience for some reason. The net effect similar to when you turn the volume knob on a radio and you get the noise in the background. Except in this case you have something normally limiting the excess volume and noise that is removed. Waking up from anesthesia is more like getting a fire started, in the sense that it needs a level of stimulation to start a functional level of activity in the brain"
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2jgrto | is stephen hawking really one of the smartest people in the world; or has he just been given a ton of opportunities and publicity because of his intelligence despite his condition? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jgrto/eli5_is_stephen_hawking_really_one_of_the/ | {
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"Both.\n\nIf Stephen Hawking with his condition was living in an era where everybody needed to work 7 days a week to survive, he would have been a goner.\n\nIf Stephen Hawking was living in an era where the richer people employed scienceologists (yes I made up that word) to do research for them and he wouldn't have been in this condition, he would have done great (most likely).\n\nHowever, with todays technology we have the ability to keep his intellect available for us by helping him survive. Do we do this for everybody? Sorry, nope. Could we do this for everybody? If we were willing to pay the costs for it, sure. Is he a lucky guy considering his condition? Absolutely.",
"Intelligence in general is a very complicated field. While he is extremely intelligent, I'd be hesitant to claim he's one of the smartest people in the world. There are high-IQ societies like Mensa and others that are open to only people with IQs in the top 1% or top .01% of the population, I'm sure there's plenty of members in these groups with IQs higher than Hawking's. Plus there's probably plenty of extremely intelligent people who live in rural areas or grew up poor without access to education and never got to go to university and become well-known for their intelligence. The noted biologist Stephen Gould once said: \"I'm somehow less concerned with the exact dimensions and particularities of Einstein's brain [which was dissected after his death] than I am with the certainty that men and women of equal or greater intelligence spent their whole lives slaving away on paddies and plantations.\"\n\nAll of that being said, Hawking is an extremely ACCOMPLISHED person. He practically revolutionized astrophysics, being the first to discover the implications of the cosmic background radiation, as well as hypothesizing the existence of black holes. His work has been tremendously important, and he even wrote a popular book on the subject that's accessible to laymen called \"A Brief History of Time.\" All of this is made slightly more impressive by the fact that not only is he almost totally paralyzed from head to toe by his condition, but also because he's survived with it for decades when he was initially told by doctors it would kill him within 5 years. ALS is incurable and usually kills people within a couple years. He was diagnosed in his twenties and here he is today, still alive and working at the age of 72. ",
"He is an accomplished scientist, but there are probably dozens in the world just like him.\n\nHis condition captured the public's attention, and made him a celebrity. He is pretty similar to Einstein in this regard.",
"Stephen Hawking will be remembered in history for his contributions to modern physics his ALS will be nothing more than trivia like how Einstein worked in a patient office ",
" > ELI5 Is Stephen Hawking really one of the smartest people in the world; Or has he just been given a ton of opportunities and publicity because of his ~~intelligence despite his~~ condition?\n\nFTFY?",
"Perhaps the question be better stated as \"is Prof Hawking one of best living theoretical physicists?\" And the answer is a definite \"maybe.\" He is certainly one of the most well-known physicists. His current lack of a Nobel prize is a bit telling on the other hand. Is he perhaps \"overrated\" because of the adversity he's faced with his health condition? Or is he perhaps \"overrated\" because he wrote a famous book and television series that sought to explain complex science for a popular audience? Again the answer is \"maybe.\". Regardless, his ability to continue working over the past forty plus years at a very high level is so incredibly remarkable.",
" He made it to Oxford, and was pioneering discoveries before is disease took effect. Watch the documentary on him.",
"I like Hawking but in my opinion, he is not one of the smartest in the world. Michio Kaku, Brian Greene (although I like him) and Degrasse (or however you spell it) are all quite overrated. They communicate rather well so it adds to popularity. Shing tung yao, Edward Witten, Higgs, and Weinberg are all massively underrated.\n\nEinstein was brilliant but they register his IQ at 160... plenty of people register higher but cant put the pieces together like Einstein. Currie family were all geniuses and don't really get a lot of mainstream attention. Intelligence, intellectualism, creativity, etc. all come into play. \n\n\nJust like in high school... someone in the group gets the credit without the work. \n\nDISCLAIMER: Everyone mentioned is extremely \"Intelligent\". All opinion based. ",
"What if he died years ago and his chair has become self aware. (´･_･`)",
"When 'A Brief History of Time' was published, I had already read much of its content by other writer/physicist/cosmologists. He's a popular science pundit and expert. Yes he's a clever guy, but I don't think he's an especially unique thinker within his field.",
"He was already recognised as gifted at university before his motor neuron disease diagnosis, and he won many awards before he became a popular celebrity on release of his 1988 book \"A Brief History of Time\".\n\nThe awards are: Adams Prize (1966), FRS (1974), Eddington Medal (1975), Heineman Prize (1976), Hughes Medal (1976), Albert Einstein Award (1978), CBE (1982), RAS Gold Medal (1985), Dirac Medal (1987)"
]
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cc28f9 | how does an anti-thef system knows if an item's bar code was scanned or not, which makes it goes off(if the thing wasn't scanned)? i feel like there is something more than scanning some lines and *poof* no alarm | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cc28f9/eli5_how_does_an_antithef_system_knows_if_an/ | {
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"From what I know the thing that triggers the alarm gets destroyed by a strong magnetic field that is built into the cash desk.",
"Very few items in a store have a thing in them to set off the alarm. Things like razor blades (very commonly stolen from stores) have a security device that is deactivated by the magnetic bar next to the scanner as they are passed by.",
"Scanning them does nothing. A device at the register is used to deactivate them. \n\n\n \"Security labels house a small receiver within an adhesive sticker that can easily be affixed to products.\n\nThis receiver remains in constant communication with an EAS antenna, and when that label comes too close, an alarm sounds, alerting staff that an item is passing through the entryway.\n\nLabels are deactivated by breaking the circuit in the receiver, so they no longer communicate with the antenna. They can then pass an antenna without sounding an alarm.\"\n\n [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"Most of the grocery items don't trigger the alarm. The ones that do -the most expensive ones- have some sort of big buttons on them which are removed by the cashier when paid for in order to not trigger the alarm",
"You mean an RFID tag. There are plenty videos how they work. Iirc they have an on and off state. Until they are deactivated trough a magnetic field by swiping them over the counter they are on and the pillars on the entrance and exits emit an ultra high frequency which resonates with the active RFID chips and sets off the alarm."
]
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| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.securitytags.com/the-different-types-of-security-labels/"
],
[],
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|
||
1j2l9l | how does code/data translate into imagery and how does a computer monitor display the code? in other words, how does mixed up numbers equal image on screen, and how does the image get on the screen in the first place? | I am (and have always been) baffled at the way computers work. Myself, growing up in the computer age, never really questioned how images appear on screens or how small chips in a computer translate into code which translates into imagery and data. I never really tried to understand it until now, and I am extremely confused by it. I searched it on google, but of course, the results didn't help me comprehend the subject at all. So, nerds of ELI5, help me get how this works. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j2l9l/eli5_how_does_codedata_translate_into_imagery_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbagq4a"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"There's about ten billion layers of complexity, here.\n\nBasically, the software that you're running tells the operating system \"here's a bunch of data, please make it show up on the user's screen correctly.\" The operating system, in most cases, says \"hey, video card driver, Chrome just sent me a bunch of data, and this sounds like your job,\" and the data is thus the responsibility of the video card. At various points along the way, the data is translated into a form that each system level will understand. The client understands \"g.fillRect(args),\" but the video card driver sure as hell doesn't; it gets sent through a number of processes on the way so that the driver will understand.\n\nThe video card has RAM, processors, everything, it's almost like a second computer inside your computer. Its driver passes data to the physical components, which are designed for the express purpose of processing that data and translating it into an image, which then gets sent to the monitor."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1hqs4d | the variety of coffee brands and their kinds. which one should i get to get the most out of it? most caffeinated? instant coffee or make your own espresso? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hqs4d/eli5_the_variety_of_coffee_brands_and_their_kinds/ | {
"a_id": [
"cax0hpz"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The variety of coffee types would require a full essay to explain, but it pretty much comes down to local variations in soil and other environmental conditions, plus a large dose of marketing. There are two types of beans: Arabica, which is almost all the coffee you drink, and Robusta, which is a lot less common. \n\nThere are a lot of ways to make your coffee, but I'd recommend getting a French press. They are pretty easy to use (pour hot water into it, let it sit, and then pour your coffee out), and produce a better coffee than a drip machine would. Your mileage may vary, of course.\n\nAs for most caffeine, that's one place where most people get it wrong. All else being equal, the stronger tasting, darker roasts will actually have *less* caffeine than a lighter roast of the same beans will. However, if you want to go for loads of caffeine, try to find Robusta beans. They have about twice as much as the Arabica beans do. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2aq41j | so how do i get rid of bed bugs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2aq41j/eli5_so_how_do_i_get_rid_of_bed_bugs/ | {
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"If you live in an apartment you need to contact your landlord and have the whole building treated. If the whole building isn't treated and just your apartment then the bed bugs will travel to an untreated apartment and eventually make their way back to yours.\n\nIf you live in a house the most cost effective method is diatomaceous earth. However, your best bet is to have them treated professionally. They make a bed bug spray where you can spray your matress and furniture but that's a temporary treatment until you fully treat where you live. They also make bedbug covers that are pretty useful.",
"do like the hotels do. plastic wrap your mattress, send it to the incinerator. go buy a new mattress. ",
"Put all your linens in large garbage bags and keep them in your car trunk for a few days..they can't live in the heat and without much air. This is how we treat them with our home care patients. However, you really do need some type of professional treatment, those bugs are some nasty mothereffers!",
"I used to do pest control. Bed bugs are hard as shit to get rid of. \n\nIf its a full on infestation that has been there for months, you have to treat the entire house professionally. In a large bed bug infestation I have seen them hiding behind picture frames on the wall. Call a company and get quotes. Make sure you get a guarantee because it will most likely require more than one treatment. ",
"[Cyfluthrin and Imidacloprid](_URL_0_) and [Chlorfenapyr](_URL_1_) the three together. Get a neonicotinoid, a pyrethroid, and a \"other\". Heat treatment may be your best bet though. I personally am curious what levels of ozone beg bugs can tolerate...",
"The cheap method: You have to be very serious about it. \n\nPut everything that is a fabric and you're not absolutely in need of in plastic bag. If you can't afford a new mattress wrap the one you have in plastic and seal it with tape. If you have rugs cover them with plastic and seal to the edges of your room. Wash all of the clothes you didn't seal in plastic - that should be few- seal those in plastic. Buy something that attracts the bugs so you can monitor if they're around. Seal the floorboards with goop of some type so nothing else gets in. Toss out your couch and wrap all the chairs with plastic wrap. \n\nAfter that's all done maybe look at some bug killer or whatever. There is simply no hope of getting rid of bedbugs without first stopping them from coming back. Mostly they are in the seams of your beds and in multiple stages of their life. Its not simple to eradicate them."
]
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| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/Backed-by-BAYER-Temprid-Insecticide/dp/B003OS2QSY",
"http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Termiticide-Insecticide-oz-717229/dp/B004FEIHMK/ref=pd_sim_lg_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GK1DZSW5DZ0FWCS2K7S#productDescription"
],
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|
||
1nmg9c | why doesn't your body erase a tattoo? | It seems like your body would wash away the ink or heal the tattoo away??? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nmg9c/why_doesnt_your_body_erase_a_tattoo/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccjylh2"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Tattoos work by needles driving ink under your top layer of skin and down onto a lower layer. This layer when filled with ink is still visible (the top layer is very thin) but doesn't really shed skin cells the way our outer skin does. \nThe body doesn't see the ink as a threat (usually) so after the initial irritation from the needling goes away, the body just ignores it."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
39qwux | how did 12fl oz become the quantity that most standard drinks contain (i.e. soda or beer cans?) | Seems sort of arbitrary when I stop and think about it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39qwux/eli5_how_did_12fl_oz_become_the_quantity_that/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The rest of the world calls that 1/3 of a litre. Or almost. Probably a bit off so it's exactly 12fl oz. In any case: normal soda cans have 330ml (or 0.33 litres) in them.\n\nThere are also a lot of 0.5l beer cans. Everything above that is usually in plastic bottles.",
"it is interesting to think about if there's a particular logic to it. like, is it the most efficient in terms of profit versus cost to produce? or was it observed to be the most standard number of ounces that consumers typically desire? surely it's not purely arbitrary.",
"Colas started out as elixirs and were sold in drug stores. Cocacola made with Coca leaves, same thing cocaine is made from, added a bit of a boost to one's energy level, for instance. Another one popular in the US state of Texas was Dr. Pepper. These elixirs were sold in small 6 ounce bottles. About the size of a small bottle of medicine. Now according to my dad who was born in 1937, Pepsi, which was considered the cheaper generic brand, offered \"twice as much for your money to, Pepsi Cola is the drink for you\", and the 12 ounce bottle was born. This turned out to be highly successful campaign and Coke and other beverages soon adopted the 12 ounce serving."
]
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[],
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|
f1tipo | since the judgements on *judge judy* are paid by the show, what incentive do defendants have to fight so hard to win their cases? do they lose any money if they lose the case? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f1tipo/eli5_since_the_judgements_on_judge_judy_are_paid/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"At most you get paid $500, plus $35 an airing. Usually it is a lot less than that. So you can easily lose more money if you are found guilty and have to pay.",
"If they make their case interesting, through outrageous behavior or whatever, they get to be on TV. The producers who chose the cases know this, too, so they're looking for cases where someone is being unreasonable and audiences will enjoy seeing them get lectured at.",
"They get more money.\n\nThe way it works is that there is a pool of money allocated to the particular case - say $5,000. The judgements come out of this pool of money, and the remainder is split between the two parties. If JJ awards the plaintiff $3000 in damages, then they get $4000 total (the $3,000 judgement + half of the remaining $2,000) and the defendant gets $1,000 (half of the remaining $2,000). If JJ awards nothing, then they both get $2,500."
]
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||
1z4s7z | what is the history behind the mutual hatred between china and japan? does the hatred go back further than world war 1? | I understand that the Japanese committed terrible atrocities against the Chinese during WW2, but does Japanese/Chinese rivalry go back further, or did the Japanese just decide to do this during the invasion of China during WW2? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z4s7z/eli5_what_is_the_history_behind_the_mutual_hatred/ | {
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"text": [
"The history of animosity stretched back to Yuan /Ming Dynasty.\n\nYuan China was under the Mongol rule. The Mongols attempted to invade Japan twice, failing both times.\n\nSome theorized that the Southern Chinese may have been partially responsible for the sinking of many of Mongol ships. The Mongols pressed the Southern Chinese hard to work in slavery conditions to built the invasion fleet for the Mongols. The Southern Chinese may have sabotaged the ship constructions, making the ships more prone to breaking in rough sea (just barely strong enough to leave the ports).\n\nPerhaps in some ways, the Japanese feared China after that. Or they envied China's wealth.\n\nOnce Ming Dynasty took over China, the Dutch Japanese pirates known as \"Wako\" began to raid coastal communities in China and Korea.\n\nThe word \"Wako\" is a generally stereotypical ethnic slur used against the Japanese, ever since then, even though Japanese government also fought against the Wako pirates.\n\nUndoubtedly, the destruction caused by the Wako was significant, enough that the Ming Emperors had to dispatch small armies and built up significant number of ships to deal with them.\n\nThe next bad turn came, when Japanese Shogun decided to invade Korea, and the Japanese army drove the Korean Royal family all the way to Yalu River on the border with Ming China.\n\nJapan's ultimate purpose was to attempt a land conquest of Ming China.\n\nMing China had no choice but to aid their Korean client state, and sent a medium sized force (main Chinese imperial army was actually occupied in Southern China trying to put down a rebellion).\n\nThat bloody war lasted 6 years, ended with a stalemate. But Japan was forced to retreat in haste, due to the death of the Shogun, and resulting in significant loss of forces with the withdrawal.\n\n"
]
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[]
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|
6oahcu | why isn't html considered programming? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6oahcu/eli5_why_isnt_html_considered_programming/ | {
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"text": [
"Because HTML doesn't allow you to change behavior. It only allows you to mark the content with a tag, depending on the browser to whatever preprogrammed behavior for that specific tag or set of tags.\n\nProgramming is cooking with ingredients. Markup is ordering food food menu item #5 ",
"Because HTML doesn't do the things that that programming languages do.\n\nIt can't make decisions and it can't loop. You can't give it a list of numbers and have it sort them or find the average, something all programming languages can do. HTML is about displaying text and images and creating hyperlinks. That's why it is a markup language and not a programming language.\n\nThat said, it is possible to embed a programming language like javascript into HTML, and once you do that, you start to incorporate programming tasks into your web pages.",
"For the same reason that word processing isn't considered programming.\n\nAll you are doing is writing text, and controlling how it appears.",
"Remember, your reddit comments are done in *markdown,* which is, like HTML, a mark**up** language. You can't exactly consider commenting on reddit \"programming,\" can you?"
]
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65yxer | why do some people like playing the victim? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65yxer/eli5_why_do_some_people_like_playing_the_victim/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Attention, mostly. Another factor is when you convince yourself that you're constantly being victimized, being shitty and selfish is justifiable. Yknow, if you think everyone is out to get you, stealing or treating people like garbage(or whatever else) doesn't seem too bad. \n\nA few people in my extended circle are insufferable when they get together, especially if they start drinking. It turns into a big ol' Pain Contest, with them all one-upping each other about how oppressed they've been and all the trauma they've been through. ",
"Because people like to help each other out, if you are a victim you get free help. So if you can get people to think you're a victim, you benefit. (Downsides: your self-esteem is hurt, and people don't think you are as strong/reliable, and worst case, you may be found out as a manipulator or liar.)"
]
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| []
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[],
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|
||
3qq5sh | why does the software i download always try and change my browser preferences to yahoo? | Is this an actual strategy of Yahoo's? It feels like most of time I download a third party app, they're trying to sneak in yahoo as my homepage or search function. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qq5sh/eli5_why_does_the_software_i_download_always_try/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwhcav9"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Capitalism.\n\nYahoo pays that software installer company money to add \"_URL_0_ Homepage\" as an installer feature. Yes, we all know you don't really need it. But for little companies who are likely to not make a dollar off you downloading their Freeware, it's a way for them to make a few bucks on the side."
]
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| []
| [
[
"Yahoo.com"
]
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|
|
2r3frz | why isn't google earth frequently updated? | When you look at somewhere near you on google earth, you'll see it is from X years ago. Why isn't this updated more often. Also, how expensive is it to take these pictures or whatever they are? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r3frz/eli5_why_isnt_google_earth_frequently_updated/ | {
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"text": [
"The pictures are taken from satellites, and they are very expensive. If you are willing to pay, you can certainly get much more up to date satellite imagery, but if you just want directions or to wander the earth, you'll have to make do with stuff that's a few years out.",
"It is regularly updated. However I doubt you're watching the right areas to see the updates happen. Remember that most of the earth is covered, so that when they do update you wont see it. Then once in a while they will update your area, and you'll see the difference. ",
"At the company where I used to work, we subscribed to Google Earth Pro (~$300 a year per workstation). Beside the better tools (such as area polygons), the imagery was much newer. Google is out to make money. The best tools are not free -- they make a bunch of money from commercial users. Also, I believe the super-high def photos you see are aerial photos, not satellite photos."
]
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[],
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|
25uar9 | why is it so hard to clean up radioactive waste like chernobyl? why hasn't it disappeared on it's own after such a long time? | Follow up question why can cockoroaches survive nuclear radiation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25uar9/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_clean_up_radioactive/ | {
"a_id": [
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4,
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"text": [
"The radioactive material used to fuel reactors decays at a half life rate that is close to 20,000 years. So after 20k years half of the material that was there will be left, but the entire time, it will be emitting radiation into the surrounding areas.",
"Cockroaches can withstand higher levels of radiation because they lack soft tissues, which are the most vulnerable to radiation poisoning.",
"Maybe someday it will be possible with radioactive feeding fungi."
]
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[],
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8pyjdj | how do life expectancy statistics work in the real world? what percentage of people will reach the life expectancy? what percent chance does an individual have of reaching that age? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8pyjdj/eli5_how_do_life_expectancy_statistics_work_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"e0f2pqr"
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"text": [
"Life expectancy is the 50% point. Half of all people are expected to die before then, half are expected to die after. The life expectancy is the *median* life expectancy(not mean, that's a bad metric!)\n\n[Wolfram plots out the full probability by age for a new born male in the US. There is a 50% chance he will live beyond 76.37 years](_URL_1_), but if he makes it to [60 he'll probably live to 81.6 years old](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+of+60+year+old+us+male",
"https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+of+us+male"
]
]
|
||
eh2c4e | why do some species have more 'colourful/attractive' males and 'plain' females, while others have the opposite? | I just watched a video about a blanket octopus, and how the female can be up to 6 feet long while the male is about the size of a walnut. Similarly, I've heard of Angler fish and how the females are large and the males are very tiny and only serve the purpose of fertilizing the eggs. But we see the opposite in other species like peacocks and lions, where the males are more decorated, and have vibrant colours, while the females are less so.
Does this have something to do with the difference between land and the deep sea? Is this about how easy it is to find a mate?
I'm just really curious and I'd appreciate any clarity you guys can offer! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eh2c4e/eli5_why_do_some_species_have_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"fccjp6y",
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7
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"text": [
"I think it has to do with intrasexual competition!\nIn terms of your question though, I think it all boils down to random mutations going on within the genome, and sometimes those mutations give an edge for a male organism compared to others of its same sex, and/or sometimes it can also occur in females. Those \"colorful\" phenotypes (traits) give some sort of fitness advantage relative to other individuals of the same sex eg. Having a bright color attracts more of the opposite gender, causing higher reproductive success. Basically intrasexual competition can occur in BOTH males and females, and the reason is due to sexual selection, however the origin of these phenotypes are mutations! (Random)",
"What you're describing is called sexual dimorphism, meaning the physical differences in size and appearance between males and females of the same species. There is no one-size-fits-all explanation why certain species have large/more colorful males and other have large/more colorful females.\n\nSome dimorphism is as a result of one sex directing the evolution of the other sex through sexual selection. Some other dimorphisms are a result of individuals within one sex competing with each other for access to mates. Sometimes it is merely due to the environment and situation, perhaps involving the climate or other species.\n\nThere are many strategies to mating that evolution has discovered, all equally valid. Some species are polygamous, some are strictly monogamous, and some in between. Some species have a shotgun approach to offspring, putting little energy into making lots of offspring and hoping some will survive, while others have just a few offspring and devote a great deal of time and energy to rearing them. Some species mate only at certain times of years, others are fertile all year round. Some only mate once and then die, others can mate many times during their adult phase. Some animals live in densely populated groups where mates are plentiful, others live in more solitary environments where meeting a mate is a rare event. All these different strategies will necessitate different approaches and solutions to the problem of finding, accessing, selecting, and attracting a mate. Males and females have different roles and strategies in mating and rearing offspring, so they need different tools."
]
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| []
| [
[],
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|
|
3btwzd | why are moths (an insect built to fly) so terrible at flying? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3btwzd/eli5_why_are_moths_an_insect_built_to_fly_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"cspikpo"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They are not bad at flying, you are too judgemental. Moths live for a week or so, could you learn to fly well within a week? You don't even have wings.\n\nSource: relatives are moths."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6tsz7n | when a strong beam of light is pointed upwards into the sky, does the light travel on forever into the universe? | Like forever? Or does it lose "energy" along the way and stops at a certain point in space? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tsz7n/eli5_when_a_strong_beam_of_light_is_pointed/ | {
"a_id": [
"dln9bz7"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Each photon will keep going until it's absorbed by something. Since we haven't had torches for very long, chances are a fair bit of artificial light is still travelling away from us."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2qcqjf | why does a white cop shooting a black person get world wide coverage but when a white cop shoots a white person it doesn't make it outside of usa news coverage. | Not interested in the cop circle jerk that reddit loves **so** much... I live in Australia and I only ever hear about riots/protests and things when white cops shoot black people in the USA but I never hear about white cops (or black cops) shooting white people let alone protests and riots? Is just the media playing to the people or does it run deeper (due to the oppression of black people during American history or something)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qcqjf/eli5_why_does_a_white_cop_shooting_a_black_person/ | {
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6,
6,
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2,
2
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"text": [
"Because of the racial connotations that go with it. ",
"My take on the question is just that it's easier for media companies to make money and gain attention by bringing race issues into the situation. It's always been the news anchorman to be the first one to say \"black youth\" or \"white cop\" and everyone loses their shit. Remember: Controversy = Good for News stories",
"The news only shows events that are not common so that people will watch. They care less and less about informing people and more about sensationalism and money. That is why there is so much commentary these days and very little fact.",
"Media outfits are businesses, they get their cash from viewer ratings and things like that. So if they can racially charge the big bad police force and the seemingly innocent black kid. People start wondering what the hell is happening. Even if it is a simple as self defence. It's like a magic trick, amazing to watch but the truth is depressing in its simplicity.",
"I can't believe the shear amount of over simplification on this thread. Context is everything and this isn't a situation of news outlets just trying to boost ratings. \n\nThis issue has gotten a lot of coverage recently because its become a bit of a powder keg. If a white kid and a black kid commit the same crime in the US, statistically, the black kid is more likely to face prosecution/jail time. The uproar has been sparked in under privileged black communities lately because a number of white police officers have seemingly escaped prosecution for dubious killings of black males.\n\nIt comes down to two main issues IMO, one of which has been polarizing the country from a political stand point. \n1. Race is still an issue in our country, particularly with how law enforcers handle situations.\n2. Prosecutors will not indict cops, even in obvious situations. This stems from the politics between cops and courts. State/federal lawyers won't prosecute cops because this will cause issues with police departments cooperating with courts.",
"The same reason you hear about Israeli cops/soldiers shooting a Palestinian (or whatever label you prefer) but not a Jewish Israeli - because there is a sense that there is systemic oppression and targeting by the establishment of an identifiable minority.\n\nOf course this can be (and is) debated in both scenarios, but enough people among the citizens and media (and possibly in other countries) believe this oppression exists to make such events newsworthy."
]
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2a02g2 | why does america helps others but not themselves? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a02g2/eli5_why_does_america_helps_others_but_not/ | {
"a_id": [
"ciq69vc"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
" > Don't post just to express an opinion or argue a point of view.\n"
]
} | []
| []
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[]
]
|
||
5afvdj | what is the difference between turning my computer on then off again versus restarting it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5afvdj/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_turning_my/ | {
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"text": [
"The main difference is actually cutting power to all the chips. When you restart it really just turns off and back on, but power is still applied. Where a power off cuts power. Sometimes this matters because RAM and various registers on different hardware devices may persists across a reboot. If there is a bug somewhere it's possible that a device driver may be unable to properly startup with a particular stored value in memory where if it was powered off completely that value would have been cleared out.\n\nAnyways, by design the only difference should be that stuff like fans never stop spinning, in practice it's not always the case.",
"Imagine if you're working out a complex puzzle in your mind that takes several steps. The phone rings and you have to talk to your kid's principal about your child hiding in the coat closet and sobbing inconsolably about nuclear war. When you come back to the puzzle, you find that you've lost your train of thought and need to start from the beginning. \n\nIf instead you know you have a BDSM meetup to go to at 3:00, you can stop trying to solve the problem at 2:15, reflect on what you've learned, and maybe write some important points down so you have somewhere to pick it up after you get back home.\n\nThis is similar to what happens when you switch off a computer. Everything it has stored in memory gets instantly wiped away, it's not able to save any short term data to the hard drive, and your operating system can even be corrupted if behind the scenes processes are writing things to your hard drive and are unable to read the partially written data when the OS starts again. ",
"Windows 8 and above have a fast boot setting turned on by default so you are still using the same prefetch files. When you choose restart new files are generated for processes. \n\n\nYou how when you open a program the first time it takes longer to open and the next time it pops right open. Same deal. ",
"I think your question should be: 'What is the difference between turning my computer off and then on again versus restarting it?\n\nBy turning the computer off if you mean shutting it down properly, then there is no difference to a restart, expect that you do not have to push the power button to turn it on again"
]
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[],
[],
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4vj2o1 | why does spinning ball balance better on finger than ball that does not spin. | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vj2o1/eli5why_does_spinning_ball_balance_better_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5ys2go"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Conservation of momentum. If something moves, it wants to keep moving in the same direction. By spinning the ball it wants to keep rotating in that direction and it won't tilt that easily. Momentum depends on mass and speed, so a heavy ball spinning faster will spin best. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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83o9a6 | why does hand sanitizer do a better job at removing temporary tattoos than soap and water? | Source: I washed my hands last night with soap and water to get rid of a tattoo, even when I was scratching it off, there still were portions that were not taken off. This morning I used hand sanitizer, and it almost magically came off with no problem. Why tho?? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/83o9a6/eli5_why_does_hand_sanitizer_do_a_better_job_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"dvjalc9"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Because it contains mostly alcohol, which is a solvent that dissolves the thin base material that temporary tattoos are made of.\n\nSoap and water just scrapes it off, that's why it always balls up on hairs if you only use soap."
]
} | []
| []
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[]
]
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2e30me | what's going on with argentina's debt? | I've been seeing this in the news for the last few weeks now and don't understand all that's going on here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e30me/eli5_whats_going_on_with_argentinas_debt/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjvlvc7"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Basically, Argentina borrowed a bunch of money, its economy soured, and when a big payment came due, they missed a payment (defaulted) on that debt. There has also been some accusations from large debt holders (mostly large U.S. banks who settled during the 2005 Argentinian debt crisis) that the Argentinian government did not negotiate in good faith to compromise (in other words make an agreement to settle for cents on the dollar).\n\nThis is the second time this has happened in 10 years, with something similar occurring in 2005.\n\nThe consequences are that Argentina is likely to be blacklisted in debt markets (they won't be able to borrow money) for a long time; their currency is likely to be greatly devalued (worth less), thereby driving inflation (one Argentinian peso will buy less things). This could create a very bad situation for the Argentinian economy as imports will become more expensive, inflation will rise domestically, and the government will have to offer fewer services."
]
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| []
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[]
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d12gdu | why do people in jail wear orange? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d12gdu/eli5_why_do_people_in_jail_wear_orange/ | {
"a_id": [
"ezgb6r0"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"I think it’s because of the high contrast which makes them easy to see. Easy to see = easy to keep track of."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
1zbwyg | how come both both high carb diets and low carb diets work? | Both sides vegan and keto disagree over carbs. There is the 80/20/20 which cuts fat and reduces protein which seems to work and then the high fat low carb, which completely reduces carbs and increases protein and fat.
Both sides fundamentally disagree with each other, but I want to know unbiasedly which is healthier and which one works better. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zbwyg/eli5_how_come_both_both_high_carb_diets_and_low/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfsatk1",
"cfsaufp"
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"score": [
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"text": [
" > but I want to know unbiasedly which is healthier and which one works better. \n\nSorry buddy, there isn't any one right answer. Not all of our bodies are the same. Not all of us get the same exercise. Not all of us are the same age or have the same fitness goals. ",
"Depends on whether fat or carbs is your (individual) problem."
]
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[],
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2xnrxo | would i feel hungry if i got the necessary nutrients from a small amount of food? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xnrxo/eli5_would_i_feel_hungry_if_i_got_the_necessary/ | {
"a_id": [
"cp1qe0f",
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"text": [
"Yes. Hunger is mostly affected by bulk.....water will help you feel full. A \"magic pill\" will get you the nutrients you need and over time you will get used to eating less(though things like fiber are still necessary to your diet) but you can meet your most basic nutritional needs with a pill. This is separate and distinct from hunger. ",
"The two top comments state different \"facts\".\n\n\nI'VE NO CLUE WHAT TO BELIEVE"
]
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[],
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||
2ier78 | if in the summer the sun never sets very far up north, how does the temperature not get extremely hot? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ier78/eli5_if_in_the_summer_the_sun_never_sets_very_far/ | {
"a_id": [
"cl1jkc9",
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"text": [
"The sun remains at a low angle in the sky, which means it has a lot more atmosphere to shine through and most the energy gets dispersed before it reaches the polar surface.",
"This is a little complicated so I'll try to boil it down. At higher latitudes (nearest the north and south poles) the angle that the sun's rays hit the earth is much greater than the angles nearest the equator. Because more oblique (wider) angles cover more area with the same amount of light and heat energy, the energy in any one place isn't very strong. Less energy hitting an area means it can't heat up as much. There are other factors but this is mostly why.\nTo test this, shine a narrow beam flashlight (not a lamp) on a round ball. If you shine the light straight at the ball you will see the light hits only a small spot or area. If you hold the ball still and move the light so it's hitting near the top part you'll see the same amount of light is spread out over a larger area. That's the same thing that's happening when the sun's energy hits our planet. \nThe term is \"[insolation](_URL_0_)\" in case you would like to read more. "
]
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[],
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"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insolation"
]
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3dweob | why is china able to build entire cities in the time it takes most western nations to build one skyscraper? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dweob/eli5_why_is_china_able_to_build_entire_cities_in/ | {
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"A big part of this is what what the Party says, goes. There's no \"due process\", which is time consuming.\n\nYou saw this when they built the Three Gorges Dam, for instance. In order to make room for the rising water behind the dam, 1.3 *million* people had to be displaced. If each of those people could file a lawsuit against the government, they'd still be in court when the sun went out. Instead, the government pretty much said \"Here's a little money for your land, and if you cooperate, we'll help you move, but the decision is already made - take it or leave it.\"\n\nThis also goes for things like environmental impact statements (again, that dam is a big example). Any large project in most places, such as the US, has a whole process leading up to actually breaking ground, including environmental impact statements, plans for various contingencies/disasters, evacuation plans, etc. If the Chinese government needs these things done quickly, they can simply throw as many people as they need at the project, without worrying about the budget, the way a private corporation might. They can also grant waivers, so some of that stuff might not need to be done at all, or might be postponed until later. \n\nShort version: The upside of not being a Democracy is that you can just order people to get things done.",
"There are two questions here. The first is why does China build an entire city instead of just a skyscraper and then why can they do it so quickly.\n\nLet's say that the value of a city is $100 if it is fully utilized. China decided to build that city even though it isn't going to utilize it yet, with the hopes that it will someday. So early on it increases the value of China by $100 and investors flock to invest in China. Years pass by and the city is still empty. Now it has been revalued at $0 and investors start dropping China. This is essentially a bubble, which China is experiencing right now and is predicted to have it burst any time now. \n\nWhy they can do it so quickly is because they have a extremely large population and created a lot of jobs to focus on building these cities. The downside is that all of these jobs are going to go away along with the bubble so they will also experience an extreme jump in their unemployment.\n\nWestern countries have done the same thing before. The New Deal made the US government the biggest provider of jobs in order to reduce unemployment and get the US out of the depression. It is questionable if it works because that bubble never really got to burst thanks in part to World War 2.",
"Property rights are the rock that western style economies are built upon. This is not the case in China. \n\nWhat that means is that when a western nation wants to engage in large scale construction project there are a huge number of regulatory considerations which all stem from the fundamental principle that people affected by the construction need to give consent, and be compensated according to their own measure (not to an extent dictated by the government). Landowners both inside and in the vicinity of the project need to be considered. How will traffic patterns be affected? Will there be noise at night? How will the local economy be changed? What environmental factors are at play? What about the rights of the workers involved in the construction (safety, comfort of living conditions etc.)?\n\nIn China, people can own property, but can only lease land (it's all technically owned by the state). Combine that with massive cash reserves, an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor, little regard for public safety or the environment, and a collective will to \"grow grow grow\", then large scale construction \"just happens\" once mandated from above.\n",
"In America, for instance, you need to go through the whole kit and kabootle to get your construction done. In China the government gives absolutely no fucks about what affected people have to say, and thus, they do not have to go through any kit or kabootle to get construction done!",
"In addition to government not allowing any dissent, some other reasons:\n\n1. Government officials often evaluated on GDP growth. One easy way to boost GDP is to build infrastructure, whether needed or not. This is why entire sections are build up but buildings remain empty for a long time.\n2. Same local officials often approve permits and contracts, which is huge opportunity for corruption. This is why lots of government officials live in luxury while making tiny salaries. Head of Ministry of Railways (Liu Zhijun) supposedly took $250M in bribes.\n3. Building codes are either lax or not enforced due to bribes. Can build much faster if you don't have to adhere to any safety standards. Seen this happen several times in person. Reason why 5 year old buildings look in worse shape (and probably are) than 30 year old buildings in the US.\n\ntl;dr - Lots of incentives for local government officials to build; no accountability to prevent corruption and enforce safety codes.",
"The use of mudularization. They prebuild floors of buildings which are all cookie cutter buildings in advance then transport them out and assemble. This is why they can erect a 30 story building in 2-3 weeks."
]
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26krp6 | when i'm drunk and i close my eyes, why do i feel like i'm being lifted into the air? | Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find it in a search. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26krp6/eli5_when_im_drunk_and_i_close_my_eyes_why_do_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"chryq19"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It has to do with alcohol getting into the part of your ear that tells your brain info on your orientation and bearings. The build up of fluid causes you to start sending extra conflicting signals. It didn't effect you when your eyes are open because your brain can SEE that you are balanced and where you are oriented. But when you close your eyes, you're relying soley on your inner ear.\n\nSide note, passing out and vomiting is your body's way of protecting itself and attempting to get rid of the toxins you drank."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3mtla7 | why do we feel physically tired when we get sad? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mtla7/eli5why_do_we_feel_physically_tired_when_we_get/ | {
"a_id": [
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"Your bodies \"happy\" hormones such as dopamine are connected with alertness and how awake you feel, so your body works more effectively during its biological functions, you feel more motivated and thus less drowsy. And this means you also feel like you have more energy, that's why when you're extremely happy you feel like you could run a marathon or do something incredible.\n\nHowever when you're sad, you have reduced amount of these hormones in your body, this makes you feel like you have less energy as your body is actually less active, your metabolism slows down, you feel more tired and weak, sluggish and like as others have mentioned you just want to sleep and eat to restore your energy.\n\nThere are other ways to make yourself wake up when you feel sad, exercising is great because it forces your body into fight or flight mode and causes your brain to release a short heavy burst of dopamine and adrenaline to get you going again which then carries on for a long period of time. Other methods are drugs or food that stimulate you but if you use them a lot your brain becomes reliant on these so it supplies less dopamine to your body when you aren't using them. Things like caffeine are slightly different though, they make you feel like you have energy even when you don't because they inhibit the part of your body that tells you that you're low on energy and you should sleep. \n\nTl;Dr - Your brain releases chemicals when you're happy that make your body more alert and responsive, which are the symptoms of happiness. Sadness is associated with the opposite hence why you're more tired when sad.",
"Because that's the definition of sad. If you feel bad but are very energetic about it then people would call you \"angry\" instead."
]
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9tz257 | why are food products that require cooking recalled when they are found to be contaminated with salmonella or other bacteria? | When we buy frozen chicken strips, for example, we would cook it according to the instructions on the package. Wouldn't that kill off any bacteria in the product anyway? Don't we assume they are contaminated with bacteria to begin with and that's why we have to cook it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9tz257/eli5_why_are_food_products_that_require_cooking/ | {
"a_id": [
"e906mco"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Cooking is a process that kills bacteria. Other (industrial) processes are using ovens or (steam) autoclaves to kill bacteria with heat, using radiation, or using filters to remove the bacteria from liquids. Chemical processes include applying rubbing alcohol, lysol sprays, or other industrial-strength chemicals to kill bacteria and sanitize surfaces.\n\n**All of these methods, including cooking, are NOT 100%.** Even the filters, they are only guaranteed to reduce the number of bacteria, by an order of 10^-9 or 10^-12 but not 100%. \n\nIf you look at the instructions for lysol, it guarantees it will reduce bacteria by an order of 10^-3 (99.9%) in 10 minutes. It's not instant, and it's not 100%, you still have 0.1% bacteria left. So if you start with the typical 100 or so per square inch that you find in the kitchen, and you reduce by a factor of 1000, you end up with 0. But if you start with a contaminated area that has 100 million per square inch, and you apply lysol for 10 minutes, you end up with 100 thousand still alive. And as soon as they can, they start multiplying again.\n\nIt's the same with cooking. If the meat is fresh and has been handled with care, it won't have much bacteria in it. A few, here and there, so your cooking for 1 hour or so will kill it. But if it has a complete outbreak of trillions of bacteria, cooking for an hour won't kill all of them. Cooking for 10 hours may not kill all of them. You'll still get infected and sick.\n\nThat's why they recall."
]
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[]
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1cg8qs | why does everybody hate cable providers, and what are my other options for tv/internet? | I wanna explain to my mom that cable is bad, and there are better/cheaper options, but I'm not entirely sure what they are. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cg8qs/eli5_why_does_everybody_hate_cable_providers_and/ | {
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"The easiest way to get around using a cable provider for TV is to get a Roku and sub to subsrrib to some the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. A couple of networks will also let watch recent episodes for free on their website.\n\nAlso check out /r/cordcutters .",
"I have a regular PC plugged into my television. My PC has an HDMI port on the video card, so the TV just thinks that it is a DVD player or other HDMI device. I used this PC to watch Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube videos. I also listen to Pandora radio with it.\n\nI dropped my satellite service five years ago and have saved a lot of money.\n\nI also have an over-the-air (OTA) antenna plugged into my television, so I can watch NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC and about five other stations in HD on my TV.\n\nThere is a strong cord-cutter (the term used for those that \"cut the cord\" and drop satellite or cable television) community over at /r/cordcutters that can help you out.",
"For me, Dish and Directv have great DVR boxes, with fast UI's. As far as I know, cable dvr boxes are still slow and the UI is pretty lack luster. As far as internet, I am pretty happy with my 50/5mbs from my cable company, DSL just recently put in new fiber, so I could go that route also....as long as it's consistent (and mine is), it doesn't really matter to me about how I get my internet.\n\nSaying all that, I did get my super fast internet connection so I could cut the \"chord/cable\". I have a HTPC running Media center with a HDHomerun tuner (HD OTA), Netflix, Amazon prime, Xbox, PS3, and I download anything shows I can't get from those via newsgroups/Sick Beard. So far, pretty sweet."
]
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5g8mow | america is a secular state yet has -a national prayer breakfast,oath-swearing before taking office,thanksgiving,the mention of a creator in the constitution and bigamy as a crime. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5g8mow/eli5america_is_a_secular_state_yet_has_a_national/ | {
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" > National Prayer Breakfast\n\nNot any sort of official government function, just something the president traditionally attends.\n\n > oath-swearing before taking office\n\nAn oath to the Constitution, yes. If you're referring to the \"so help me God\" traditionally attached to the end of the presidential oath-swearing, that's also just unofficial tradition.\n\n > Thanksgiving\n\nNot really a religious holiday.\n\n > the mention of a creator in the Constitution\n\nNot to my knowledge. A quick Ctrl-F on the text of the Constitution reveals 0 uses of the terms \"God\" or \"Creator\".\n\n > bigamy as a crime\n\nNot a purely religious issue.",
"the USA is officially secular, but it's home to many religious people, including politicians and their voter-base. it's impossible to prevent them from bringing their beliefs into their policies",
"The religious reference is in the US Declaration of Indepedence, which was a statement without legal confirmation: \n\n > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "
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5my3hx | what is hdr on a camera? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5my3hx/eli5what_is_hdr_on_a_camera/ | {
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"text": [
"It stands for High Dynamic range and basically takes a photo on a series of exposure settings then patches the best parts together to create a final outcome which tends to have improved shadowing and highlights",
"HDR - high dynamic range, which technically should make your pictures look better. It takes multiple photos, usually three, all on different exposure. On phones, the merging of images is done automatically and you should end up with something that looks similar to what your eye sees. it does take a little longer though since the camera is taking more pictures.\nThough like with everything, there's a time and place for HDR. Use HDR for landscapes, low-light conditions, portraits outside etc.\n\nHDR is not so great for photos with movement and vivid colors ",
"Camera sensors currently have a narrower range of sensitivity to light than the human eye. \n\nThus, when you look at a scene with the naked eye that has a wide dynamic range, with interesting features in the dark shadows and also with interesting details in bright light (say a woman in a lace white wedding dress in an old church) you have to decide which part of the light range to set the camera to capture. Do you want to see the shadow details and have a completely blown out capture of the highlights, or the other way around, or go for something in the middle?\n\nUsing HDR techniques, multiple photos are taken at different settings of light sensitivity (but no other changes) and these are combined into one photo that has a wider dynamic range. \n\nDisplays that can show a wide dynamic range are very rare and very expensive, but improving all the time. There are competing standards for HDR televisions (although still nowhere near as wide as the eye can appreciate).\n\nHDR images have to be compressed (remapped) into a narrower dynamic range for display/printing on most devices. \n\nAs multiple images need to be captured to provide the information required for a large dynamic range, it is currently impractical to capture HDR images of fast moving subjects. \n\nThere are already some high end still and some high end video cameras available that have a wide range capability. Some films have been shot using such capabilities, such as The Hobbit. \n\nIt is expected that the dynamic range of sensors will greatly improve and get closer to the capabilities of the eye over the next few years, as will display technology. "
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l97re | why "cogito ergo sum" (i think, therefore i am) is nontrivial reasoning | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/l97re/eli5_why_cogito_ergo_sum_i_think_therefore_i_am/ | {
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"It's just misused. It has to do with the idea that science can't make assumptions it shouldn't be making. One of those assumptions is \"we exist.\" Now, how do we know that we actually exist?\n\nThe reasoning is that if we didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to contemplate the veracity of our existence... Think Matrix. \n\nSince we *can* contemplate our existence, then we must exist.\n\nI think, therefore I am.\n\n\nEDIT: The reason it's nontrivial is because science, philosophy, thought, and knowledge all need to be built upon solid foundation - the first foundational thing we need to know for a fact is that we even exist. Descartes proved this by the reasoning above.",
"Descartes embarked on a radical thought experiment. He thought \"What happens if I doubt everything?\"\n\nAnd so he did. Your next-door neighbor? He could be a figment of your imagination. Since your brain is in charge of what you see, hear, etc., you have no way of knowing whether what you observe is real. It could be a carefully constructed illusion.\n\nBut, Descartes concluded, he could doubt the whole world. he could doubt his friends, his enemies, his houseplants, even his body. But there was one thing he could not doubt.\n\nI am thinking right now, and therefore, in some form, I must exist. This is the absolute truth that Descartes discovered beneath all that we usually take for granted. And that is why it is nontrivial.",
"Everything can be doubted except the fact that you are doubting.",
"Progression of the philosophy major:\n\n* Cogito ergo sum - brilliant!\n* Cogito ergo sum - blatantly circular!\n* Cogito ergo sum - brilliant!",
"Because when he says he exists, he's not saying that he necessarily has a body, free will, or is the same person from one moment to the next, just that insofar as he can think, even if he's a merely the projection of someone else's consciousness, a simulation, or some other non-human entity, he exists.",
"You should just go to class.",
"cogito cogito ergo cogito sum",
"It's only nontrivial in the context of the philosophy of the time. What tick tock clock wrote is correct. In 1600. \n\nModern philosophy (in many cases) rejects this. (It's built on this, descartes was brilliant, but most modern schools of thought reject the entire notion). The most important philosopher of the 1900-2000 period was [Ludwig Wittgenstein](_URL_0_). \n\nHe would have said \"Cogito ergo sum\" is completely trivial reasoning. \nHe wrote about his concepts in a book called \"tractatus\" . It's **extremely** difficult reading, in fact you need a solid base in all of classical philosophy and logic to even attempt to get it, but it can sort of be summarized as: \n\n1. **The world is all that is the case. **(aka , thought experiments aren't real, a fact is a fact. Your thought about the chair in front of you isn't the chair, it's a symbol to represent the chair)\n\n2. **What is the case—a fact—is the existence of states of affairs.**(there is only a certain reality in which facts can exist in, i.e. There are 'possible' facts. He's really defining the world, or reality here, and also defining things in general)\n\n3. ** A logical picture of facts is a thought.** (your thoughts are representations of real things- facts. Those thoughts are 'true' whenever they accurately represent the facts/ real things )\n\n4. ** A thought is a proposition with a sense.** (Your thoughts [symbolic representations of real things] don't make any sense without a context. The thought \"I lost my keys\" doesn't make any sense if you are a caveman in 400 BC)\n\n5. **A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions.** (all these thoughts have contexts, and also must be decoded by each person based on their rules for understanding language, etc. The symbol that gets conveyed by language is a sum of all these previous things)\n\n6. ** The general form of a truth-function is:[\\bar p,\\bar\\xi, N(\\bar\\xi)]. This is the general form of a proposition.** (he's using what he's just gone over, plus some (complex) logical if then statements and mathematics here to PROVE that any attempt to give content (truth) to a purely logical proposition is bullshit. i.e. We are 'bewitched' by language. )\n\n7. **What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.**\n(This is where he drops the bomb. He's previously proven now that any value or meaning to anything must exist OUTSIDE the world, and not in it. Even if there were, we can't talk about it. [Our speech being inside the world.] )\n\n Thus:\n\n**Any philosophy that deals with things like ethics, metaphysics, aethetics, is quite literally gibberish. **\n\nThis is the end of it. He's just wrecked everyone (aristotle, socrates, descartes, everyone) . Following with his own conclusion, he ends the book without further discussion, and never published again, true to his own philosophy.\n\n(Some of his notes later in life were published posthumously, and some argue that he abandoned the ideas in the tractatus, but being that he never published those notes, I disagree.) \n\nThere are some seriously groundbreaking things you can draw from all this, aside from the fact that all the thought experiments are crap. But you could literally study for years and not grasp all that this book did. \n\n(I spent more than a full year of college on the subject, for my minor. I still only grasp like 60% of it all). \n\nTYL that possibly the greatest philosopher ever lived recently, and laid a beat down on many who came before him in a single book. \n\n\n\n\n",
"It's just misused. It has to do with the idea that science can't make assumptions it shouldn't be making. One of those assumptions is \"we exist.\" Now, how do we know that we actually exist?\n\nThe reasoning is that if we didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to contemplate the veracity of our existence... Think Matrix. \n\nSince we *can* contemplate our existence, then we must exist.\n\nI think, therefore I am.\n\n\nEDIT: The reason it's nontrivial is because science, philosophy, thought, and knowledge all need to be built upon solid foundation - the first foundational thing we need to know for a fact is that we even exist. Descartes proved this by the reasoning above.",
"Descartes embarked on a radical thought experiment. He thought \"What happens if I doubt everything?\"\n\nAnd so he did. Your next-door neighbor? He could be a figment of your imagination. Since your brain is in charge of what you see, hear, etc., you have no way of knowing whether what you observe is real. It could be a carefully constructed illusion.\n\nBut, Descartes concluded, he could doubt the whole world. he could doubt his friends, his enemies, his houseplants, even his body. But there was one thing he could not doubt.\n\nI am thinking right now, and therefore, in some form, I must exist. This is the absolute truth that Descartes discovered beneath all that we usually take for granted. And that is why it is nontrivial.",
"Everything can be doubted except the fact that you are doubting.",
"Progression of the philosophy major:\n\n* Cogito ergo sum - brilliant!\n* Cogito ergo sum - blatantly circular!\n* Cogito ergo sum - brilliant!",
"Because when he says he exists, he's not saying that he necessarily has a body, free will, or is the same person from one moment to the next, just that insofar as he can think, even if he's a merely the projection of someone else's consciousness, a simulation, or some other non-human entity, he exists.",
"You should just go to class.",
"cogito cogito ergo cogito sum",
"It's only nontrivial in the context of the philosophy of the time. What tick tock clock wrote is correct. In 1600. \n\nModern philosophy (in many cases) rejects this. (It's built on this, descartes was brilliant, but most modern schools of thought reject the entire notion). The most important philosopher of the 1900-2000 period was [Ludwig Wittgenstein](_URL_0_). \n\nHe would have said \"Cogito ergo sum\" is completely trivial reasoning. \nHe wrote about his concepts in a book called \"tractatus\" . It's **extremely** difficult reading, in fact you need a solid base in all of classical philosophy and logic to even attempt to get it, but it can sort of be summarized as: \n\n1. **The world is all that is the case. **(aka , thought experiments aren't real, a fact is a fact. Your thought about the chair in front of you isn't the chair, it's a symbol to represent the chair)\n\n2. **What is the case—a fact—is the existence of states of affairs.**(there is only a certain reality in which facts can exist in, i.e. There are 'possible' facts. He's really defining the world, or reality here, and also defining things in general)\n\n3. ** A logical picture of facts is a thought.** (your thoughts are representations of real things- facts. Those thoughts are 'true' whenever they accurately represent the facts/ real things )\n\n4. ** A thought is a proposition with a sense.** (Your thoughts [symbolic representations of real things] don't make any sense without a context. The thought \"I lost my keys\" doesn't make any sense if you are a caveman in 400 BC)\n\n5. **A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions.** (all these thoughts have contexts, and also must be decoded by each person based on their rules for understanding language, etc. The symbol that gets conveyed by language is a sum of all these previous things)\n\n6. ** The general form of a truth-function is:[\\bar p,\\bar\\xi, N(\\bar\\xi)]. This is the general form of a proposition.** (he's using what he's just gone over, plus some (complex) logical if then statements and mathematics here to PROVE that any attempt to give content (truth) to a purely logical proposition is bullshit. i.e. We are 'bewitched' by language. )\n\n7. **What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.**\n(This is where he drops the bomb. He's previously proven now that any value or meaning to anything must exist OUTSIDE the world, and not in it. Even if there were, we can't talk about it. [Our speech being inside the world.] )\n\n Thus:\n\n**Any philosophy that deals with things like ethics, metaphysics, aethetics, is quite literally gibberish. **\n\nThis is the end of it. He's just wrecked everyone (aristotle, socrates, descartes, everyone) . Following with his own conclusion, he ends the book without further discussion, and never published again, true to his own philosophy.\n\n(Some of his notes later in life were published posthumously, and some argue that he abandoned the ideas in the tractatus, but being that he never published those notes, I disagree.) \n\nThere are some seriously groundbreaking things you can draw from all this, aside from the fact that all the thought experiments are crap. But you could literally study for years and not grasp all that this book did. \n\n(I spent more than a full year of college on the subject, for my minor. I still only grasp like 60% of it all). \n\nTYL that possibly the greatest philosopher ever lived recently, and laid a beat down on many who came before him in a single book. \n\n\n\n\n"
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1esz8m | how does tor provide anonymity? if you try hard enough, is it possible to trace a connection to it's source? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1esz8m/eli5_how_does_tor_provide_anonymity_if_you_try/ | {
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"See here for a quick guide on how tor works - _URL_0_",
"Suppose Alice wants to send a message to Bob without Eve knowing that Alice sent it. Now the easiest way to do this is by passing it along through a common link of friends of Alice to friends of Bob. So Alice passes the message to Dave who passes it to Joe who passes it to Carol who finally passes it to Bob. Now Eve only sees the messages coming to Bob, so she sees that Carol passed a message to Bob. This doesn't seem unusual so she ignores it. \n\nNow suppose Alice does not trust the friends to not look at the message or to see the list of friends the message has passed through. So she has a secret code for each of the friends. She first encodes the message to Bob then encodes that with Carol's secret and the name of Bob. Then she encodes that message and Carol's name with Joe's secret. She does the same for Dave. Now she sends the message to Dave who decodes it with his secret. But all he gets is a still encoded message and the name of the person to give to next. This repeats until it reaches Bob who decodes it with his secret and sees the real message. So even if Eve is passed the message, all she can see is the person she got it from and the person to send it to. She can't confirm that the person who gave it to her wrote the message and she can't see where the message will end up or what the message is.\n\nHopefully this helps."
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3iotb9 | why do news anchors sometimes change which camera they look into during a broadcast? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3iotb9/eli5_why_do_news_anchors_sometimes_change_which/ | {
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"To make them seem more interested in the viewer. If it's all shot with one camera, they come across as stiff because they never move. Shifting to another camera gives you a different perspective and makes them seem more animated or engaged.",
"Tangental information: how do they know which camera to look into?\n\n\nIn a proper broadcast TV studio, each camera will have a light on the top of it, called the tally light (usually red). This tally light is linked to the console where the programme is being mixed, and the active camera's tally will always be on, showing the presenter which camera to look into at all times.\n\n\nIf you've ever seen a programme where the presenter looks into the wrong camera, it's possibly a low budget setup with no tally system. Or they just screwed up.",
"a few different reasons...\n\n1- Like someone already said, a visual queue that they are moving on to the next story.\n\n2- Graphic position. Some stories have OTS (Over the Shoulder) graphic and another camera has ideal positioning for this graphic.\n\n3- Switching cameras may free up the other camera to re-position a shot to get the other on-air person framed.\n\n*edited... weird formatting."
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8u3tdb | how exactly do companies like amazon and ups ship anywhere in the us in a day? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8u3tdb/eli5_how_exactly_do_companies_like_amazon_and_ups/ | {
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"They use giant airport hubs, giant distribution centers from which 100 planes leave during the night, to get things to every part of the country. From there, trucks spread out.",
"I think it's 2 day shipping no? Amazon has a network of warehouses and they only offer 2 day shipping on inventory they have. It's just a matter of overnighting a package from the warehouse with the stock closest to you.",
"Lots of stuff sits in a warehouse. Lots of trucks and planes bring things from warehouse to warehouse. Statistical analyses are used to determine which warehouses need what stuff. Trucks bring things from warehouses to residences.",
"Like everything having to do with logistics and airplanes, there’s a beautiful Wendover Productions [video](_URL_0_) about it. It’s lovely. ",
"They don't try to ship things cross country. They bulkify common products to tactically located warehouses near major urban areas. When order comes in, it's not out of region delivery, its local delivery from within 50 miles.",
"think of it this way. you can get a person anywhere in the world in 24hrs or less. so you can do the same thing for packages. you just have to optimize your distribution network.\n\nbasically works like this. \n\n1. person drops off package at a ups retail store or dropbox.\n2. truck takes package to distribution center or large airport hub\n3. flight from hub/distribution center to nearest destination distribution center or hub (they can also use cargo in commercial flights too if they aren't running their own flights)\n4. truck from hub or destination distribution center to receivers door. ",
"They only do so on commonly sold items where they can have inventory of those in multiple parts of the country.",
"When your mom orders pizza for your birthday party from dominos pizza, the speed in which you get the pizza is completely dependent on how far away you are from the closest dominoes pizza, and whether or not that specific location has what you want. \nMaybe your friend Jimmy insists that he gets anchovies on his pizza, and because your mom thinks Jimmy is a nice kid and because hes your only friend, she's willing to get him what he wants. Anchovies is kind of uncommon and isn't always a topping option. Maybe this location has them, maybe that one doesnt, etc. \n\nYou see, when same day delivery IS an option, it can probably be implied that the closest amazon warehouse location has the thing(anchovies) in stock.\n\nSo when your mom calls the closest dominoes, the one 5 minutes away, and orders anchovies, they'll either tell her that they don't currently have anchovies at that specific location, and that they'll have to forward the order to another location that has anchovies if she insists on them, or they'll have anchovies and will complete the order without a second thought. When they do have anchovies, you're probably going to get that pizza fast. Like, next day delivery fast. When the location does not have anchovies, they may pass the order on to the closest dominoes that does have anchovies (maybe 30 minutes away) and it may take a bit longer for you to get your order. \n\nSo basically a lot of what it comes down to is whether they have what you want in stock close enough to where you are in order to get it to you the next day. Not everything is next day delivery and that's the why. They're very efficient with their transportation too which certainly helps! "
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5lr22y | why is it that when we think about our breathing we can forget how to automatically breath normally? or when to blink? has anyone ever died because they 'forgot' to breath? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lr22y/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_we_think_about_our/ | {
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"Your breathing, blinking etc is all controlled by your autonomous nervous system. It's like a brain within your brain that just keeps all this stuff ticking over.\n\nHowever, you can consciously choose to 'override' it and hold your breath, for example... but as bucketdweller points out, there will come a point where you would pass out and lapse into unconsciousness. \n\nAt that point, your autonomous nervous system kicks back in and you start breathing. \n\nUnless you're David Beckham. He has to be reminded by his wife. "
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4bcudk | everybody has a subject they're not good at, but why do so many people have trouble with math? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bcudk/eli5_everybody_has_a_subject_theyre_not_good_at/ | {
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"As someone with a lifetime of having difficulties with Math, I probably can't give the best answer. But for me personally, I think the problem comes with not being able to see what I'm doing. Math is done through abstract concepts. So while simple math is not so bad, it becomes increasingly difficult to work more complex problems. Addition is a bit like blindly navigating a straight hallway while advanced calculus is more like blindly navigating a maze. \n\nSomewhere along the way I lost sight of what I was supposed to be picturing in my head when working a math problem. With no 'navigational tools' it can be extremely difficult to find my way to the solution.\n\nThat's how I feel about it anyway.",
"Long time math tutor here. Problem is the way math is taught.\n\nMany people absolutely loved math until the moment they get ONE bad teacher that causes them to get behind on math. An entire year being behind on math makes it harder to understand the next year, which makes it even harder to catch up, let alone keep up. Thus, many kids are turned off from math from a SINGLE poor math teacher.\n\nThe other reason is also with the way math is taught. Math is creative problem solving. It's establishing rules and seeing how you can play with those rules to find neat little things. It's playing around with *ideas*. Imagine a \"literature\" class where all you ever study is grammar and spelling. You're taught how literature is supposed to be structured but you never actually *read* a book. That'd make pretty much anyone hate what they are taught as being literature without really having seen a single example of literature. This is what's happening with math. People hate math because they don't ever really *do* math at school. Following instructions isn't doing math. Until high level maths, people will only ever learn that you should memorize solutions and recognize when to apply those solutions in problems that show up. Paint-by-numbers, really. And yet, people are so surprised when I tell them that when I'm given a problem sometimes I have **never** seen a problem like it, so I try and fail **multiple** times to solve. Basically, they're used to solving it on the first try, not trying different approaches until you get a stroke of genius and solve via a very unconventional approach. That eureka moment you get is *so* satisfying but is lost on most people.\n\nI'm kinda upset at how math is taught if you haven't caught on yet :P",
"Also, children are often told that maths is difficult, and therefore they have a preconceived idea that they are bad at it. ",
"Just a guess but I think it could be two things, one, it builds on itself in a more complete way than say, English. If you only learn 70 percent of algebra and then 70 percent of geometry and then 70 percent of trigonometry, calculus will be hard because you missed a lot of information even though you passed the classes. Now if you get a 70% on your vocab test, you can disguise this in your writing by using words from the 70 percent you learned and people won't realize that you are missing the other 30 percent. Also math is objective, you know if your answers are right or wrong. However, writing and reading are more subjective. Many people assert that they are good writers when, in reality, they are below average.",
"As someone who is pretty good at math, and also teaches math, I may have a theory at least as to why so many students struggle with math compared to other subjects. History is straight up memorization for most students, learn it for the test and forget it. Science, as it's taught in K-12 in the US, is also kind of similar, for the most part. Also, it's fairly easy to see science in action in the classroom as well through experiments, which means kids remember it better and pay more attention to science. Most English classes revolve around teaching children to write properly, and it isn't until about high school (at least for me) where learning to write better became a factor. But, based on hearing people talk all day, we have a general sense of what \"proper\" English is versus \"improper\" English, so it's not that much of a struggle to learn a little bit extra. \nFinally, we get to math. Math starts out pretty easy to conceptualize. We start with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. While students may not be able to get questions like these right, they can at least understand the applications of these concepts to life. The students who struggle at this age tend to be students who just don't put any effort in to memorizing these. However, once students reach levels of algebra, trig, and calculus, most students either fail to see the practical use of these concepts, meaning they are less likely to study them or try to learn them, or try to simply pass the test by memorizing how to do certain problems. The ones who just memorize how to do problems are the ones who struggle later on when a new concept builds on that old concept, which they didn't understand to begin with, leading to more confusion. \nIf we want to improve math scores in this country, it's going to have to start at about a middle school level ensuring that students get a DEEP understanding of math, not just learning how to pass a test. Understanding the concepts early and showing lots of real-world applications of math will help students in the long-term.\n\nTL;DR: Many students treat math like history by memorizing for a test then dumping it from their memory. By showing students real-world applications earlier, we can help more students learn.",
"Most people don't have a problem with basic math or arithmetic. It's when you get into the non-intuitive stuff that people have problems. \n\nBut the same can be said for any subject. Most people have no difficulty with English... as long as you just mean picking up the language. But get into grammar rules, exceptions, even correct spelling and you'll find more people having issues. And go into poetry and prose and see how many people do well. \n\nThe difference is that if you spel somthing incorectly peple kan stil reed it. If incorrect grammar you use, like yoda you sound but understand you people still can. \n\nHowever, you make one tiny mistake in math and wham, the whole thing is off. \n\nMath is just a lot less forgiving than a lot of other things, plus we use it a lot less in day-to-day lives. \n\n...and we have a lot of people *telling* us it's hard. ",
"It's possible that you just **hear** more from people who struggle with math. \n\nNot all subjects are equally important as you go through life. History doesn't come up much if you don't like talking about history. Nobody is going to ask you to explain Calvin Coolidge's presidency, forcing you to reply \"I'm sorry, I can't, I'm just not good at history!\" \n\nNobody is going to force you to write essays or expect you to have read every book, so as long as you can read well enough to get by, you'll never have to say that you're bad at Literature. \n\nUnless you work in a scientific field, no one's going to ask you to explain biology...and on and on. You get the idea. \n\nBut math is fundamental to everyone's life. Math is involved in buying and selling things, which we all have to do to some extent. So you're going to end up in situations like...someone asking you to calculate a tip at a restaurant...or the discount at a sale...or how much money is left in your bank account after writing a check...\n\nIf you can't do these calculations, your only out is to say \"I'm sorry, I'm just not good at math!\" \n\nSo the people who struggle with math are forced to admit to more often because everyone uses math frequently. \n\nEDIT: I just realized another facet of it -- Math is a discipline where you're 100% right or 100% wrong. You either did the math correctly or you didn't. So it's more obvious when you make a mistake. If someone asks you what you thought of a book or a movie, you might have a different opinion but it's harder to be \"wrong\" and labeled \"bad\" at reading books or watching movies. If you're bad at Math, it's obvious. If you're bad at other stuff...well first off it's hard to define bad, and secondly you might not even realize it.",
"Do you have any evidence to support that there is a greater proportion of people who are bad at math?\n\nMaybe it is just because I am a STEM major, but it doesn't seem to me that there are more people bad at math than things like writing.",
"It's because standards in other subjects are not as rigorous. \n\nLiterature, history, philosophy, etc, can be challenging subjects, but they're usually not taught to the same level of rigor as math. I would guess that this is because math is more difficult to water down. ",
"It's a mixture of continuity being important and it being way more \"acceptable\" to say \"I'm just bad at math\".\n\nIf a kid comes home and says \"I'm having trouble reading\" the parents try their hardest to fix it because being illiterate is a death sentence. If a kid comes home and says \"I'm bad at math\" you have parents going \"that's okay I'm bad at it too\" and here we are.",
"The big thing is that math builds on itself.\n\nThis means that if you dont understand or only sorta understand something you learned in class, when you get to a more advanced class you will have a hard time.\n\nThe result is that as you take more and more math classes you fall further and further behind. Sometimes a person will understand one concept in a day...other times it takes a week, but when your course only gives you 2 days per concept....",
"Most subjects go something like: \"Tell the teacher your opinion\" or \"memorize this fact\"\n\nMath is very different, because you are required to work out difficult formulas and figure out how to solve complex problems. It's very different from other subjects and is objectively more complex.",
"As someone who struggled through higher level calculus I attribute it to three things: \n\n* Bad teachers in early school years\n* Reliance on memorization rather than problem solving skills\n* Math is a skill. Like any skill memorization won't cut it - you have to practice a LOT\n",
"My feeling is that some people aren't wired for math. Not a problem of one or two bad teachers, or of somebody's expectations. I'm a musician; playing instruments by ear comes naturally to me, and I have relative pitch. I don't, however, go around saying that all children could be taught these things if only Mr. Smith in high school hadn't been such a jerk, etc. Post-Sputnik-style STEM panic allows math types to get away with bizarre claims. "
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2mgy2d | why light travels at that precise speed in vaccuum (and not higher)? | Is there something pulling it back? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mgy2d/eli5_why_light_travels_at_that_precise_speed_in/ | {
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"_URL_0_ \n\nCheck out the top comment. Doesn't exactly answer your question ( I don't think anyone has an explanation for why the speed of light is exactly what it is ) but should help wrap your mind around why that speed is significant.",
"Typically the speed of light is thought of as simply THE maximum speed. We then use this fundemental speed to define other properties.\n\nHowever, we could chose to define some other properties as \"fundemental\" and use those to calculate the speed of light. An interesting historical note is that it was discovered that electricity and magnetism were related and there should be an elecro-magnetic wave that could travel through free space. The speed at which this wave should travel was a function of the elecrical permitivity of free space and the magnetic permeability of free space. The speed was calculated and found to be very close to the speed of light. Only then was it realized that light WAS an elecromagnetic wave. "
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1vzgd3 | why are dogs so possesive over bones? | My dog will start crying if she can't find a place to hide her bone, and when she does, she goes back to check on it constantly | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vzgd3/eli5why_are_dogs_so_possesive_over_bones/ | {
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"Evolutionary remnant. It represents food for her, a catch. In order to not have other dogs run off with it, her instincts tell her to hide it.",
"The bone is important to her. Don't you want to keep track of the things that are important to you? ",
"Then you get the dogs like mine, who's natural impulse is to put the bone in a human lap in hopes of a game of fetch or tug o war. What human could resist such an enticing toy. \n\nActually had to teach my dog NOT to bring her bones to me. She is a dog who values play (prey response) over food.\n\nPrey drive like my dog's, and food drive like your dogs are two of the behaviours that humans use to teach dogs the working behaviours we want. \n\nYou will find that, for example police and miltary and dog sport enthusiasts value dogs with high prey drive. They breed dogs for this. The dog's overwhelming desire for a prey reward means the dog will perform any behaviour the human wants to teach him. Usually in these instances tug of war or fetch will be the reward. Sheep herding is a form of prey drive too, the act of rounding up the sheep is rewarding to the dog.\n\nIn other cases, prey reward is not suitable, so dogs are bred for food drive. Eg a working guide dog - needs to be a calm dog, the prey drive compulsion to chase and grab is innappropriate, so the dogs are trained with food. The more food driven the dog, the keener he is to earn reward, the better trained he becomes. So we breed for that trait, that food drive that makes a dog easy to train. \n\nA dog is, historically a working animal, we have bred to emphasise their most useful traits, food drive and prey drive are amongst these because they make a dog keen to do the work we want him to do."
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nkkje | how to safely use the pirate bay | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nkkje/eli5_how_to_safely_use_the_pirate_bay/ | {
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"seedbox or vpn",
"What are you using it for? Where are you located?",
"Move to a country where government isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of Hollywood\n\nOr\n\nGet a no contract mobile data device or phone paid by cash\n\nOr\n\nLeech a neighbors wifi, until they are kidnapped and sent to gitmo",
"There is no way to safely do it, only ways to reduce the risk.\n\nPrivate trackers are usually regarded as safer. But a vast majority require you to upload about as much as you download, to keep torrents healthy and to stop people from leeching without giving back.\n\nDoing it from a country that doesn't give a damn about anything the US may say about how you're pirating their stuff also helps, since the most downloaded content tends to be American in origin (excluding JAVs).\n\nUse something like *PeerBlock*. It's a program that references lists of IP addresses known to be used by places that try to track pirates, and it stops you from establishing connections with them. Obviously it doesn't have all said IP addresses, but it has many and would help reduce your visibility to those types of companies and organisations.\n\nAlso, don't download games that've just been released, or movies that've *just* come out (where all you can get are crappy screeners). I think those tend to get the most attention by those anti-pirating mobs.",
"seedbox or vpn",
"What are you using it for? Where are you located?",
"Move to a country where government isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of Hollywood\n\nOr\n\nGet a no contract mobile data device or phone paid by cash\n\nOr\n\nLeech a neighbors wifi, until they are kidnapped and sent to gitmo",
"There is no way to safely do it, only ways to reduce the risk.\n\nPrivate trackers are usually regarded as safer. But a vast majority require you to upload about as much as you download, to keep torrents healthy and to stop people from leeching without giving back.\n\nDoing it from a country that doesn't give a damn about anything the US may say about how you're pirating their stuff also helps, since the most downloaded content tends to be American in origin (excluding JAVs).\n\nUse something like *PeerBlock*. It's a program that references lists of IP addresses known to be used by places that try to track pirates, and it stops you from establishing connections with them. Obviously it doesn't have all said IP addresses, but it has many and would help reduce your visibility to those types of companies and organisations.\n\nAlso, don't download games that've just been released, or movies that've *just* come out (where all you can get are crappy screeners). I think those tend to get the most attention by those anti-pirating mobs."
]
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1polkw | i don't understand this "patent war" at all. please help | The [article](_URL_0_) on the front page is very complicated and confusing. What I can fathom is that microsoft and apple basically trying to kill off android? I have no idea if I am correct however. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1polkw/eli5i_dont_understand_this_patent_war_at_all/ | {
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"\"This American life\" did a two part story on this specifically which spells it out quite well but essentially; \n-patents can be broad and unspecified, or rather all encompassing \n-major tech companies buy up patents in a cold war nuclear deterrent manner \n-there is a town (vaguely described in the article) whose court does little else than try these cases \n-most companies settle because the cost of litigation is too great \n-programmers and developers agree it is a hinderance to innovation \nSo let's say a company owbs the patent to that windows update thing where your OS downloads and installs critical information, well they can sue if any company creates software that updates their OS in a similar manner, even if it doesn't use any of the same code at all. So a developer can fight it in court or settle and pay a licensing fee. Which just means that developer is now under the protection of the people the pay the license to so if someone else sues them, the company receiving the license fee will counter-sue. Hence the reference to the cold war.",
"The answers so far about a bit more than ELI5 in my opinion. Let's take a step back.\n\n**What is a patent?**\n\nA patent describes a (new) way to do something. Even if it is something that can already be done. There already exists, for example, a car that has an engine to get you from Point A to Point B. \n\nI invent a new type of engine. I apply for a patent on this new engine. What the patent does is say that the invention is mine and that nobody can copy this engine design without my permission.\n\n**Why is this important?**\n\nBecause big companies have a lot of money. I am just a guy in my garage. I made this really cool engine, but I only made one. A massive company like Ford could see my new engine type, and then decide to copy it. Because they are a big company, they can figure out how to make these faster and cheaper than I can, and force me out of business.\n\nThe patent says that they can't do this. They are not allowed to use my design without my permission.\n\n**So what's the problem?**\n\nIn my case I invented an entirely new engine. This is what patents are *supposed* to be used for. The problem is that patents are becoming more and more vague. The patents in the telecom battles read like this: \"I invented a device that turns a fuel source into energy which can be used to propel a car in a direction.\" That's pretty vague, right? That essentially describes how all engines work. This is what the Patents in the telecom war are like.\n\nThe patents in question say things like \"A patent for a method for a user to exchange data over a network with another entity.\" Well this is how a smartphone works, right? Two people talk to each other, Skype with each other, or send high score data to the Angry Birds servers. So even though to me and you this sounds stupid, how can you patent the definition of an object?, legally this is allowed.\n\n**So how does this shut down Android?**\n\nApple, Microsoft, and others are saying they own this type of patent, and that nobody can make a device that sends and receives data unless they grant permission. Well, Android (Google) never asked permission. So these companies are saying that because Google never asked permission, they should be forced to stop making phones.\n\nAnd this isn't just one patent. There are literally thousands of patents that say these sorts of things.\n\n**That still sounds dumb.**\n\nYes it does, and that is why these court cases are so important. A judge has to rule if the patent is valid or not. If the judge says \"yeah, that's dumb.\" then the patent essentially becomes void and everyone can use that method freely. If the judge says \"that patent is valid\" then Google (in this case) would have to either stop making smartphones that use this very general method, or reach an agreement where they pay Microsoft/Apple/et al. for the rights to use that patent similarly to how TV shows have to get permission to use songs. \n\nThis becomes an even bigger problem because even if an agreement is reached, we are most likely talking about billions of dollars in contracts and whatnot.\n\n\n**But Google can Afford that, so it won't shut Android down, right?**\n\nMaybe not, but this is a problem because it goes against the reason patents existed in the first place. If these patents are upheld it means that nobody can make a phone that uses this method. So if you are a new company making phones, chances are you cannot afford to make a deal with MS/Apple/etc. So good luck trying to ever get into the phone making business.\n\n**This sounds familiar**\n\nBecause it is. Back in the 1890s one company owned the patent rights to a car. Nobody else was able to make cars because they had a lot of money and sued anyone who tried to make a car, and nobody else could fight them in court because it was too expensive.\n\nThen came Henry Ford (and company). He decided to ignore that and build and sell his new Model T anyway. He got sued. He (and some backers) [decided to fight this lawsuit](_URL_0_) and in the end, the patent of the car was nullified, and Ford opened the door for anybody to design and build their own versions of the car.\n"
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47y9kf | what is a web scraper and what can they be used for? | A guy I know said they are writing web scrapers with Python. What does that mean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47y9kf/eli5_what_is_a_web_scraper_and_what_can_they_be/ | {
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"A web scraper is a piece of software that goes to a website, grabs pages & then parses out the interesting/useful data. Let's say you want to follow the price of items at Amazon - your web scraper would request the page, find the item name & price and return that to you in a clean, easy to work with format. Some of them get more complicated because you have to handle form submissions or horrible HTML but the idea's still the same - an automated tool to extract information from a web page.\n\nThese days, most sites that *want* you to have their data have some sort of public API for getting just the info out (eg - [here's the Reddit API](_URL_0_)). Scrapers are still needed when you're trying to get information that people don't really want to hand out or they're just too cheap/lazy to provide a clean view of the data."
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49hzmr | why do some people freeze in an emergency, and others jump into to tackle whatever it is, head on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49hzmr/eli5_why_do_some_people_freeze_in_an_emergency/ | {
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"Cognition works in loops. For example; \n\"I am hungry\" - > true - > is there food? - > true - > eat food - > \"I am hungry\" - > false. \nAt which point, the loop closes. It's surprisingly logical and straight forward how people think. If there is no food, the loop continues until food is found, and the loop closes. How you navigate the loop depends on the information available. You have memories of the procedure for eating when you're hungry that are accessed at every stage of the loop. \n\nNow take an emergency situation. Most people react apathetically to disasters, some people even ignore the disaster and continue their daily activities. This is due to a large amount of information with no memory attachment being introduced into your thought process. Information gets confused because the average person has no tools to use for this loop. So their loop would look something like\nDanger? - > true - > source: fire - > solution not found - > danger?\n\nThe way to prevent this is training and exposure. Give the same person a course on fire safety procedures and suddenly they have a functional loop, then poof, no more freezing.\n",
"I work in an emergency clinic and I can tell you first hand that some people are just \"built\" so to say, for this line of work. Some people can keep their cool and rationally run through the steps that needs to be done, and with that there is a fair amount of training that needs to be done, but it all starts with that base of being able to compose yourself. We have some people here who just can't quite handle it. They get nervous, start to fumble or forget that the next logical or first logical step should be. Even with all the training, I think it has a lot to do with personality too. "
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edyifc | what is the relationship between lumens, watts, energy source, and environment when designing a lighting device? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/edyifc/eli5_what_is_the_relationship_between_lumens/ | {
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"text": [
"Lumens are used to evaluate light intensity, watts are the energy used by the bulb/emitter, energy source is where you get the energy, wether it be a battery (dc) or mains (ac), environment is where you put the light emitting device, outdoor lights can be way too powerful for indoor use and indoor light emitters may be susceptible to water ingress amongst other factors."
]
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| []
| [
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|
||
6i236w | why do stiffer, less soft grapes taste much better and sweeter than squishy grapes from the same vine? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6i236w/eli5_why_do_stiffer_less_soft_grapes_taste_much/ | {
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"text": [
"squishy fruits were because they are rotting, fermented, past their prime, while those firmer ones are more functional and thus the contents were at better quality. Just because they cam from the same vine, they can grow individually at diferent times.",
"Sugar content. As fruits ripen their sugars are gradually consumed by cellular processes and converted into other products through fermentation. The end result is typically an alcohol or an acid, neither of which tastes very sweet (or very good). The softer fruits have gone farther in the ripening process and contain more of these fermentative byproducts. The firmer ones have retained more of their sugar. If you waited a few days, those nice firm ones will become soft and less tasty as well. The other commenter is correct. Some fruits, even from the same plant, ripen (and appear) at different rates."
]
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c5kyov | why do camera lenses have so many elements? | What's wrong with one piece of glass like a magnifying glass or a pair of glasses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c5kyov/eli5_why_do_camera_lenses_have_so_many_elements/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The have all of those lenses and wheel and what not so you can have different useful functions in your camera.\n\nZoom for example is achieved by changing the distance between certain lenses. To make your camera focus on this zoom level, you need extra lenses that move freely or are mechanically connected to another lens. These would then be moved with or against each other, giving you the ability to focus on something or not."
]
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2bdbzr | what is it that makes anaerobic bacteria much more dangerous for humans than aerobic bacteria? | Is it due to the bacteria able to survive in areas of the body which have deprived levels of oxygen and thus are able to divide much more efficiently than an aerobic bacteria in the same environment? Or is it to do with the bacteria being able to survive better outside of the body? Or is it something completely different? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bdbzr/eli5_what_is_it_that_makes_anaerobic_bacteria/ | {
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"Actually, this isn't completely correct. I believe what you are referring to are the bacteria that belong to the Clostridium species, of which C. Botulinum, which causes botulism, C. Tetani, which causes Tetanus, and C. Perfringens, which causes Gas Gangrene belong to. These bacteria are some of the most horrifying bacteria, and their toxins are some of the most potent and dangerous on the planet (botulism toxin is the most toxic substance on the planet), however, these are actually not the most dangerous bacteria. The most dangerous bacteria that we are currently facing at the moment is Staphylococcus Aureus, which is a Gram (+) facultative anaerobic bacteria (that means it can survive in both aerobic and anaerobic environments, but prefers aerobic environments). The reason Staph Aureaus is so dangerous is because of its ability to gain resistance to antibiotics. MRSA, or methicillin resistant Staph Aureus, is an increasing problem and Vancomycin resistant strains are evolving as well. The two most common bacterial infections in humans are Streptococcus Pyogenes and Staphylococcus Aureus, and if untreated, will cause some sever problems, ranging from necrotizing fascitis to toxic shock. While Clostridium may have more sever toxins, they are very rare, and they have a much more difficult time colonizing your body due to the presence of oxygen. I hope this helps to answer your question. Let me know if you are still unclear. "
]
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4ifdmf | why is being anti-immigration considered racism | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ifdmf/eli5_why_is_being_antiimmigration_considered/ | {
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"Being anti-immigration, in and of itself, is not racist. \n\nHowever... there tends to be overlap. You don't hear a lot of people saying \"We should limit immigration because our infrastructure can't handle it,\" for example... but you get a lot of \"Those People are coming over to take our jobs\" and \"Those People are all criminals\" and \"Those People will ruin AMERICA!\" and it is statements like those that cross the line into racism.\n\nIn general, it seems to be racism that's pushing anti-immigration, not the other way around. ",
"It's usually considered racist because that's usually people's intent. \"We don't want *them* to come to our country.\" Usually, as in the United States, people will be fervently against immigration from the Mexican border. Yet, any immigration from Europe gets no attention. The only real difference between these people is their skin color. Furthermore, being against immigration is quite backwards. Immigrants and Illegal Immigrants actually add a lot of money to the economy. Some of the best inventions came about from immigration, most notably Apple. Steve Job's dad came from Syria seeking asylum. ",
"Because in this case it's exclusively being targeted at brown people. I live in the northeast and there's tons of illegal Polish and Irish immigrants, but no one ever talks about them. Also because Donald Trump said Mexico is sending rapists and drug dealers, which is bigoted. Also for all the concern about 'taking our jobs', most white Americans would not be willing to work in the fields. It's just xenophobia. ",
"Just a couple of decades ago, immigration in the US and a lot of places were based on race. \n\nAlso, there's just a lot of overlap between racists and anti-immigration people. \n\nOn reddit, and in real life, you'll hear people talking about how we shouldn't take in immigrants because of a bad economy, but very few mainstream economists would support them on that. Literally everything in mainstream economics and political science says that immigrants are a good thing (if selected properly). You point this out to people on reddit, and you'll get flamed. ",
"It's a tactic used by certain groups to try and discredit what others are saying. \n\nThe canary in the coal mine is Sweden. They are so PC that they aren't allowed to report the nationality/religion of their criminals or produce statistics on same. \n\nIn fact police have been barred from issuing descriptions of perpetrators at large because that would be racist. \n\nThe truth is shitty countries tend to be shitty because of the culture there. \n\nIt doesn't necessarily mean the people are bad on a biological level, it just means that Muslims are 20 times more likely to rape than Scandinavians for whatever reason. \n\nHowever I will be called racist for bringing these facts to the table guaranteed. ",
"Because people who are benefitting from illegal immigration LOVE to accuse everyone against their agenda as being racist. While I am fine with legal immigration, I am 100% against any country engaging in illegal immigration into the US. I find it odd that the country that bitches the most about our current and future immigration policies have taken very extreme and sometimes violent measures to secure their very own southern border. By the way before you use the race card on me, I'm of Mexican descent. I also happen to be a proud American first.\n\nEdit: Love it!! Being down voted for telling the truth. Proves my point:)",
"In short, it's because throwing out \"you're a racist\" is a last ditch effort by someone backed into a corner and with no other intelligent defenses.",
"Corporations control the media and the United States, even reddit. Corporations exist solely to make as much cash as possible and would cease to exist if they were losing money.\n\nWho benefits most from illegal immigration? The corporations. They get cheap labor. They can fire people for no reason at all because they are working under the table. They can make them work 20 hour days, they can make them work 7 days a week, they can make them work when they are sick and they can make them work in unsafe environments, because there will be 50 people who will be happy to take their place. Why would a company hire a citizen with rights at a higher rate for less hours when they can do whatever they want to an illegal immigrant?\n\nWhy is this important? Corporations basically dictate media. Meaning everything you see in the media has to be approved by advertisers. No advertisers? No tv shows, no movies and no newspapers. I was in the media and you wouldn't be able to say certain things because it would go against an advertiser. Corporations also control most politicians as they fund their campaigns in exchange for passing laws and helping them. It's incredibly expensive to run in politics and most people will need funding to do it. So Corporations are controlling the voice/minds of the people and the people who can make things happen.\n\nCorporations can't outright say they support hiring illegal immigrants because it would make them look bad. So what they do is they make it seem like the person being against illegal immigration is the bad guy. They use buzzwords like racism and discrimination to describe people against illegal immigration. The average person doesn't know what the corporations are really doing because they aren't going to research it, so they can get away with it.\n\nThe trick to stopping illegal immigration is simple - go after the companies. If companies are fined $100,000 per illegal immigrant, you will see the amount of illegal immigrants go way down. Illegal immigrants will not be able to stay here if they can't work.\n\n"
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70weai | why when referring to time in years bc won? for example why is it referred to 6000 bc instead of just 8000 years ago? why are we in the year 2017 instead of year whatever thousand 17? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70weai/eli5_why_when_referring_to_time_in_years_bc_won/ | {
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"We still have all kinds of years being used, but the one used worldwide was really because of the popularity of Christianity. It became worldwide, we now went above that by taking out the religious context ",
"It's to do with the fact the calendars we use are originated from the Roman Catholic religion and their popes. Currently we use the acronyms CE and BCE which stand for Christ era and before Christ era respectively. You and many others may be more familiar with bc and ad which simply translate to before Christ and after death in the last 30 years or so we decided to soften it up a bit to CE and BCE.",
"That's a very long and complicated answer. But the short version is that around 1,400 AD (AD was actually used way before BC, confusing though that may sound, but that's a whole different subject) it became popular to use BC to refer to years before Christ was born.\n\nWith that as a template, christ's birth woudl be year 1. so everything before that had to have a lower number. Due to the aggressive and expansionist nature of Christianity at the time, this popular terminology grew and was incorporated into the newest calendar systems as they were being developed.\n\nAnd then people just kept using it, even when it was clearly no longer the most logical way to handle a calendar, because people do that sort of thing. (See: the metric system.) Especially since at this point, changing it would end up with ridiculous numbers.\n\nIf we take the start of the universe as the basis of a calendar, since that's really the only logical starting point, the year would be something like 13,800,000,000.\n"
]
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||
2crcyo | why does the streaming quality of my movie go down when i put it in full screen? | I was watching HBOGo and as soon as I hit full screen it started lagging beyond belief. Why does this occur? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2crcyo/eli5_why_does_the_streaming_quality_of_my_movie/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjiasle"
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"text": [
"When you increase the size of the video on the screen, if you don't also increase the resolution the picture quality will go down. Because of this, when you switch to full screen a lot of services will automatically switch to a higher resolution, if your internet connection can't supply the new video fast enough you'll have buffering/lag."
]
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| [
[]
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|
7lzdex | why skin sticks to very cold metal | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lzdex/eli5_why_skin_sticks_to_very_cold_metal/ | {
"a_id": [
"drq7nez"
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"text": [
"it freezes to the metal, worse if the skin is wet (think tongue on a cold metal pole). but there is moisture in any skin, so if the metal is cold enough, it can freeze your skin to the surface."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
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