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4g11ma | why does root beer fizz so much compared to other sodas? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4g11ma/eli5_why_does_root_beer_fizz_so_much_compared_to/ | {
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"It has more carbon dioxide.\n\n\nI can't submit a lower word count post so I'm padding it a little with this extra sentence."
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27ogzj | how does one "fall out of love" with someone? | I've always been curious as to how this happens, but my interest was piqued after reading a AskReddit post about "What's something you want to tell your SO, but can't?". | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27ogzj/eli5_how_does_one_fall_out_of_love_with_someone/ | {
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"People grow in different directions and change in unforeseeable ways. The person you \"love\" can mature into a completely different person over time. ",
"For me a major betrayal or any type of physical, emotional or psychological abuse causes me to fall out of love. ",
"Relationships go through phases. When you first meet someone it's awkward. You put your best foot forward because you want to impress them and you get embarrassed over the smallest things. You obsess about what you are going to have for dinner so that you don't get gas or feel bloated. You dress in your best clothes because you want their attention. Everything is exciting and new.\n\nDuring this phase couples often can't get enough of each other. They communicate constantly. They find it hard to have an appetite or to enjoy the company of friends and family because they're thinking about and missing their significant other. It's almost as if time seems to stop when they're together.\n\nAs the relationship grows you get more comfortable with each other. You fart and burp in front of each other and it's not a big deal. Before you might have put on your best clothes you're now wearing sweat pants. The amount of lingerie you wear starts becoming less as you start to prefer pajamas instead.\n\nYou introduce more things into your life that become obligations. Maybe you get a house or you have a baby or both. Now when you come home after a full day's work all you see is dirty dishes and the 500 things your significant other has left out. Maybe they help you and maybe they don't. If they don't help you then now you're too tired for sex because you've just spent the last two hours doing chores and not focusing on your partner and damnit I'm tired. You also have obligations like cooking food so you can stay alive and if you have a baby you need to focus on their needs.\n\nYour significant other takes for granted all the little things you do and in turn you do the same. There are little things you used to do for each other that you don't think about doing anymore because other obligations have gotten in the way. Maybe your significant other used to light candles at dinner and put on romantic music. Now that's a distant memory.\n\nAs your relationship evolves so do your feelings for them. Things that you thought were the cutest thing in the world when you first started dating are the things you can't stand about your significant other. You also see them for all their glory. Their weight may fluctuate, their looks may change, and you see personality flaws for what they are. You wake up and smell their morning breath as they're still asleep and breathing into your face as you wake up. You see them walk around in their skid marked underwear. You see them when they have the flu and have just vomited all over the bathroom you just spent a half an hour cleaning not more than an hour before. You see them drink and say things that are hurtful. You get into fights and they say things that may hurt your feelings. Perhaps you don't feel supported by your partner when you've had a bad day and all they want to do is watch sports on tv instead of talk to you.\n\nRelationships are like cars or houses and they require routine maintenance. You get what you put into them and it can't be all one sided. You have to make an effort to do little things for your partner to show you care. You have to make sure to listen to them and validate their feelings. You have to be able to communicate your wants and needs and in turn have those wants and needs met. You have to have the same from your partner. If you don't the love dies and you find yourself waking up one day unhappy wondering who this stranger is you're laying next to because that's not the person I started dating. If you're lucky you wake up wondering how you got so lucky to have ever found the person of your dreams.\n"
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myxo5 | the whole illuminati controversy with the musical artists | I don't really understand what the illuminati stuff is about. I heard that Jay-Z/Kanye West/Lady Gaga are all somehow associated with it meaning they are associated with evil. Can anybody clear this up for me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/myxo5/eli5_the_whole_illuminati_controversy_with_the/ | {
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"LY5 is too hard. LY8:\n\nThe illuminati are associated with the freemasons, which I explain [here](_URL_1_). There is a fascination with the illuminati as an enlightenment age secret society. Secret societies are like modern versions of Classical [mystery cults](_URL_2_). They are fraternal organizations with mystic rituals and beliefs.\n\nThere are actual groups called the illuminati, but most people are referring to a group of people who supposedly are able to influence most major world events in order to build a so-called New World Order. A lot of this hysteria and hype has been created by conspiracy theorists and authors (see: [Illuminatus! trilogy](_URL_0_)).\n\nBecause the Illuminati are a secret society, they rely on mystical symbolic language. Music also heavily relies on symbols and metaphor. Musicians like Kanye have made references in their lyrics to such organizations. Beyond that, there is no real connection.\n\nThe illuminati themselves are associated with 'evil' because some people believe they are a group of small people who profit enormously from manipulating wars, resources, land and in the future will attempt to force social engineering, eugenics, and constant surveillance resulting in some sort of Orwellian dystopia.\n\nSome people just want to believe that all the horrible stuff in the world can't be explained w/o a puppeteer figure of some kind, whether that figure is a deity or a council of overlords like the Illuminati. But people are just dumb, prejudiced, tribal brutes. The general fear of secret societies is essentially a 'scapegoat' for the subconscious human dislike of change and events that are outside of their control.",
"LY5 is too hard. LY8:\n\nThe illuminati are associated with the freemasons, which I explain [here](_URL_1_). There is a fascination with the illuminati as an enlightenment age secret society. Secret societies are like modern versions of Classical [mystery cults](_URL_2_). They are fraternal organizations with mystic rituals and beliefs.\n\nThere are actual groups called the illuminati, but most people are referring to a group of people who supposedly are able to influence most major world events in order to build a so-called New World Order. A lot of this hysteria and hype has been created by conspiracy theorists and authors (see: [Illuminatus! trilogy](_URL_0_)).\n\nBecause the Illuminati are a secret society, they rely on mystical symbolic language. Music also heavily relies on symbols and metaphor. Musicians like Kanye have made references in their lyrics to such organizations. Beyond that, there is no real connection.\n\nThe illuminati themselves are associated with 'evil' because some people believe they are a group of small people who profit enormously from manipulating wars, resources, land and in the future will attempt to force social engineering, eugenics, and constant surveillance resulting in some sort of Orwellian dystopia.\n\nSome people just want to believe that all the horrible stuff in the world can't be explained w/o a puppeteer figure of some kind, whether that figure is a deity or a council of overlords like the Illuminati. But people are just dumb, prejudiced, tribal brutes. The general fear of secret societies is essentially a 'scapegoat' for the subconscious human dislike of change and events that are outside of their control."
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mye96/eli5_free_masons/",
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7t97mc | how psoriasis affects the skin | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7t97mc/eli5_how_psoriasis_affects_the_skin/ | {
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"Skin cells regenerate too quickly and so they build up making dry, itchy and flaky patches of skin",
"It is an autoimmune response. Like the other responder said the skin cells are overproduced. This is the skin's response to the autoimmune condition. The same process happens in different parts of the body but manifests in different ways. Rheumatoid arthritis is inflammation in joints, is caused by an overreacting immune system, and can be cosymptomatic with psoriasis."
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21elzv | how is electricity generated in generators? | I know the basic mechanics. From wikipedia: electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet. Electricity is a movement or flow of electrically charged particles. Where do exactly these charged particles come from, when two different materials are moving in vicinity? How come it is infinite? How come these particles come from nowhere? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21elzv/eli5_how_is_electricity_generated_in_generators/ | {
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"The electrons are already there in the metal wire. The relative motion between the magnetic field and the wire pushes the electrons according to [Lenz's Law](_URL_0_) but to be useful, they have to be in a circuit, so they have a path back to the beginning of the wire. \n\nWith a constant magnetic field, rotating the wire changes the angle of the wire to the field, which the electrons in the wire would \"see\" as moving from increasing and decreasing from positive to zero to negative to zero to positive and so on. "
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3g4sv1 | how 128bit encryption or aes works | Is it still just character substitution but on a massive scale or is something more complex happening? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g4sv1/eli5_how_128bit_encryption_or_aes_works/ | {
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"AES is a block cipher. It takes a block of 128 bits and encrypts or decrypts it using the key. By the way, the name \"128 bit encryption\" comes from the length of the key, not the size of the block. There's also AES-192 and AES-256. In order to decrypt more than 128 bits, you divide the plaintext into 128-bit blocks and encrypt each separately (almost).\n\n[Here's a description of the encryption function](_URL_0_). Broadly speaking, the algorithm first divides the block into 16 bytes (each byte is 8 bits) and places them in a 4x4 table. Then it starts doing manipulations on this table - substituting each byte value with another value (using a predefined substitution table), moving the rows and mixing the columns, and adding a round key, which is 128 bits that are derived from the encryption key using a separate algorithm (called the \"key schedule\"). This is repeated several times (depending on the size of the key), with a different round key for every round.\n\nDecryption is done the same way, in reverse (every operation I described is reversible)."
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5jnwtk | how are movies pirated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jnwtk/eli5_how_are_movies_pirated/ | {
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"Small midgets with cameras following the movies film crew recording a low resolution version of the movie. Usually dressed as pirates \n",
"theres several methods depending on the stage the movie is in.\n\n- prerelease leaks : someone in the production company leaks a copy, thats why prints are usualy watermarked to signal out the origin of the copy, this also happens during oscar season where many academy members are sent DVD quality copies of movies and they usualy end up in the hands of underpaid interns, a famous leak was the Wolverine origins leak which was a editing copy without special effects. \n\n- Cinema cam copies : People go and use a digital camara or a action camara and record the cinema screen, while at the same time higher quality copiers also use a separate audio recording device to record the audio and then syncronize both feeds to create a \"higher quality\" cam rip. Then some release groups use tools like Adobe premiere to clean up the image and sound to improve quality a bit. \n\n- Telecine : These are each time becoming less and less common since movies are no longer released on reels, the idea is that theres a device called a telecine which is a digital scanner designed to scan 35mm film reels and convert them to digital video, they usualy produce a decent quality rip but sometimes the white balance and the color quality is lacking. Today movies are delivered to cinemas in cartriges which basicaly contain a digital copy of the movie on a mechanical hard drive that is locked with an high end encryption, the cinema must have a internet connection and the movie us unlocked remotely by the production company 24 to 48 hours before the first screening and then the cartrige is relocked and returned to the distribution company, Its not only hard to get your hands on a movie but its also hard to get your hands on the cartriges to try to decrypt them. \n\n- VoD rip : many movies are avaiable on Video on demand before they go on sale on Blueray or DVD, sometimes even shortly after the cinema premiere, using screen capture or HDMI decryption they can copy the video and dump it to a digital rip. \n\n- DVD/BR rip : you just buy or rent the disc and rip the video off it. the copy protection on both blueray and DVD has long been cracked, they do upgrade the copy protection on newer revisions of the format but its usualy cracked again in a few months. \n\nI hope that clears up some doubts. "
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q0jl3 | breaking the sound barrier | just watched this from the front page : _URL_0_
can somebody explain exactly what happened? i understand that it's just a matter of going extremely fast, but why is there a burst, and the cool cone of smoke, and why is that you can go so fast, sound explodes | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q0jl3/eli5_breaking_the_sound_barrier/ | {
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"I will give this a go, I have done 2 papers in aerodynamics.\nIt isn't smoke but water vapour (cloud). The general idea is that very small mach waves/shock waves are formed at airspeeds just below supersonic and these shoot off the aircraft surface behind the aircraft as sheets of disturbed air but are very small and you cant see them. As you approach the speed of sound these mach waves move forward to the area on the aircraft where the air pressure is the least, on a jet fighter this is the center of the wing. As the mach waves move forward they stack up on top of each other creating larger and larger shock waves. At the speed of sound the mach waves are all stacked up on top of each other and have a very high air pressure. The high air pressure causes the water vapour which is always present in air to condense out into cloud. The cone shape is the visible shape of the mach waves. This is close enough to the whole story, but that would take too long.\nAs to why sound explodes? It is because of a similar reason, when the aircraft reaches the speed of sound all the sound waves which radiate out in front (at the speed of sound) of it are all on top of each other. The aircraft is traveling at the speed of sound so they are generated on top of each other. The sound waves all add together in strength so create a massive boom which is equivalent to all the sound energy that was produced in front of the aircraft.\n\nuhh hope that helped, it's not short.",
"Not an expert, but I think I can help. \n\nAs you likely know, sound is waves which move through the air. The waves work a lot like waves on water, they go up and down. However, the air doesn't really go 'up and down', rather the wave is a wave of higher and lower air pressure. The pressure is what goes up and down.\n\nThese pressure waves move through air at a certain speed, about 760 miles per hour.\n\nThe sonic boom is due to something called [the doppler effect](_URL_0_). The doppler effect is also the reason that motorcycles sound different coming towards you than going away from you. \n\n[This animation](_URL_1_) will probably explain the following two paragraphs better than I can.\n\nHere is an analogy. Lets say you and I are standing on opposite sides of a room, and I am throwing a ping pong ball (sound wave) at you every second. This ping pong ball flies at, say, twenty feet per second (analogy to speed of sound). So, normally a ping pong ball will reach you every second. Now, lets say I start walking towards you, at say ten feet per second. When I throw a ping pong ball at you, it still moves toward you at only twenty feet per second (happens for sound waves) but now because I am walking forward as well, the next ball I throw doesn't have to go as far. So now, the ping pong balls are hitting you faster than once a second.\n\nNow, consider what would happen if I was walking the same speed that the ping pong balls fly. Rather than a ball hitting you once a second, or faster, instead all of the balls I throw while coming at you will hit you all at once.\n\nThis is basically what is happening when a plan is flying at the speed of sound. The sound waves it is making stack up on each-other, and get super load. This causes some other weird stuff like make that cloud shape around the plane.\n\nEDIT: Spelling",
"Imagine your childhood bully. He's standing about 50 metres away, and you're *really* pissed.\n\nYou're armed with a sack full of dachshunds. You've spent your time wisely and they've been trained to attack your bully on sight.\n\nNow, start dropping a dachshund every couple of seconds. As we all know trained attack dachshunds also run at 2.5 metres a second, so about twenty seconds after you drop the first one it'll latch onto the bully's ankles and unleash furry vengeance. Then another dachshund arrives and attacks, then another, then another...\n\nOkay? Okay.\n\nNow, time to step up your attack. You keep dropping dachshunds, but you also start running at dachshund speed - 2.5 metres a second.\nThis means that every attack dachshund you drop starts running next to you, towards your bully. \n\nTwenty seconds after you started running, *boom*, he gets hit with one big collected mess of angry wiener dogs.\n\nThis is *basically* the principal of the sonic boom, but you'd be in an F-18, and instead of dogs that run at a couple of metres a second your jets engines are making sound waves that travel at, duh, the speed of sound - 1,200kph.\n\nIf your jet wizzes past your bully at 1,200kph he'll hear all of the noise you've been making as you've approached him all at the same time.\n\nAlso, the force of the sound waves and the jet compresses the air in front of the jet. The moisture in the compressed air turns into water vapour (steam), which is what looks like that cone of smoke.",
"Sound moves at a certain speed in air as pressure waves.\n\nIt's literally air that is more and less dense (higher and lower pressure) than the average air, and when you slam something into something else (or make noise in other ways), the air is pushed away and you have a spherical \"wall\" of dense air moving away.\n\nThe speed of sound is pretty static assuming that the air pressure and temperature is stable.\n\nSo what happens is that you catch up with your sound waves. It's very much like a boat in water that makes waves as it goes and speeds up until it passes it's waves in front of it.\n\nYou will be building up denser and denser air in front of you, just like a boat that keeps generating waves while it's catching up with them will end up creating higher and higher waves just in front of it.\n\nAnd you end up with a \"bang\" when you do this, because you slam into a pretty big \"wave\"."
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fkosq2 | current in a wire flows opposite to the direction of flow of electrons, what exactly is current then, if there is nothing actually flowing? | I know that flow of electrons is not current, it is opposite to the direction of flow of electrons, is it just a convention? why such a convention was chosen if it is one. . Please correct me if you think i have very wrong assumptions. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fkosq2/eli5_current_in_a_wire_flows_opposite_to_the/ | {
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"* Back when Benjamin Franklin studied electricity, he discovered that current flowed but wasn't sure which way was positive and which way was negative....\n* So he guessed.\n* Later they found out he had it backwards.\n* But they had used his conventions for so long that they kept it.\n* So \"current\" and flowing electrons are the same thing just the signs make it seem otherwise.",
"Because Benjamin franklin just guessed which way it went and nobody was bothered to change it when they found out he was wrong.",
"At least in german education you are usually taught about the concepts of technical and physical current flow. \n\nTechnical current flow is form positive to negative where as the real phyiscal current flow is the movement of electrons from negative to positive.",
"It is a convention that was chosen at random, because it was known that there were two \"kinds\" of electricity that canceled each other out. This was before electrons were known about. However, that doesn't make it \"wrong.\"\n\n*Usually* what is physically happening when we talk about current is flowing electrons, however that is not necessarily true. Current is the net flow of charge, not the flow of electrons. **Current is (flow of positive charges) - (flow of negative charges)**. In a normal copper electrical wire, it's only electrons that are moving, and they are negative. But in a battery, both positive and negative ions are moving, in opposite directions. In a semiconductor, positive \"holes\" and negative electrons both move. In the solar wind, electrons and protons both move. etc.",
"It's a flow of \"holes\". Imagine a traffic jam where you all shuffle forward a bit when there's a space, that space seems to ripple backwards as the cars come to fill the gap. Same with holes - electrons come to fill a hole, so the hole appears to flow in the other direction.",
"We guessed that current flows positive to negative before learning about electrons. But all the calculations, theories, and core concepts still remain valid. To this day we use this as conventional current, and the actual movement of electrons from negative to positive as electron flow"
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bc49jh | if i increase $1 by 25% it is $1.25 but $1 is only 80% of $1.25 and not 75% of it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bc49jh/eli5_if_i_increase_1_by_25_it_is_125_but_1_is/ | {
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"Think of percentages as decimal points. \n\n+25% is asking you to multiply by 1.25\n\nUndoing that means to *divide* by 1.25, and 1/1.25 = 0.80\n\nThis is a different operation than *removing* 25% from the new number, which is the same as multiplying *your new value* by 0.75.",
"Because when you increase 25% you are add a part to the total. So first you determine that 25% of 1 is .25. Then you are adding the part to the total so 1 + .25 = 1.25. Now if you compare 1 and 1.25 you are dividing so 1 divided by 1.25 (1/1.25=80%). What you are comparing it is to 1.25/1 which is 125%. You are comparing two different numbers 1.25/1 is not the same as 1/1.25."
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4a7q3r | why are tennis balls sold canned? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a7q3r/eli5_why_are_tennis_balls_sold_canned/ | {
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"Proper tennis balls are pressurized to improve their bouncing characteristics. Once the can is opened, the balls will slowly leak and lose that pressure, which means they'll become less bouncy."
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1uz5en | why is the population in the united states significantly less west of the mississippi river? | Any maps that I have seen of density/population/cell service appear to drop off severly except for the West coast. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uz5en/eli5why_is_the_population_in_the_united_states/ | {
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"In general, civilizations thrive near water (largely because it's use in transporting things as opposed to drinking-water). When you get west of the Mississippi, there are a few smaller rivers but nothing particularly large enough to support a city the size of, say, NYC. If you can't support a large city of that magnitude, you're going to see more of a community that is more reliant on farming which requires tons of open land, and thus a lower population.\n\nThis is why the Midwest is so scarcely populated in comparison to the coasts (Eastern, Western, and Southern). ",
"- The US and the predating British colonies didn't expand past the Mississippi River until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. There were some French cities and towns, but France's American colonial strategy revolved around the fur trade. The French had a few small trade outposts, but many trappers and traders would integrate themselves with the Indian tribes for trade; while the British offered mass migration to America to build up its cities, which meant British colonies had a stronger population density. \n\n- There is a lot of good farmland in the Great Plains, which means a lower population density.\n\n- Much of the land in the Rockies and to the West is rather inhospitable, difficult to navigate, and/or difficult to develop.\n\n- Less water sources once you get past the Mississippi river system. "
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41lbp7 | why was the fbi investigating mlk before he was assassinated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41lbp7/eli5_why_was_the_fbi_investigating_mlk_before_he/ | {
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"Because talking about equality, and stirring up protest from the \"lower classes\" is pretty close to communist talk. \n\nYou're talking about a country that investigated Lucille Ball because her Red hair might have been an indication of communist sympathies. Communism is all about getting the oppressed lower classes to rise up and overthrow the ruling class. Honestly, throwing some money at the civil rights movement would not have been a terrible idea for the Soviets if they were looking to stir up some trouble for the capitalist U.S. government. ",
"They were investigating him because they thought he was a Communist.\n\nThese days he's famous for his civil rights work: he's synonymous with the Voting Rights Act, and the end of segregation. But that wasn't all he fought for. King was also a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, and a proponent of economic justice. \"Economic justice\" meant unionization, better treatment and better pay for poor workers, and a number of other positions that tended pretty far to the political left. Anti-war statements and leftist politics convinced many hardliners (especially J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI) that he was a Communist, possibly planted by the USSR to destabilize the country.\n\nThat's not to say that he *was* one, just that they thought he was. That also doesn't excuse their actions towards him.",
"Didn't J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, make a point of getting 'sensitive information' about prominent people, which in the case of politicians he could use to his advantage?",
"MLK had close personal ties to Stanley Levison, who was involved in fundraising for the movement and acted as King's literary agent.\n\nLevison had also been a leader in the Communist Party in the US in the 1950s. He may have left the party but that's not a position you could just walk away from, so the FBI had him under surveillance. \n\nFBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, did not consider King to be a communist, but did consider the possibility that Levison might use or manipulate King to stimulate political unrest within the United States. \n\nThe FBI conducted surveillance on a lot of suspected communists and people who might unwittingly come under the influence of communists - MLK was far from singled out, in fact congressmen, political aides and a Supreme Court Justice were all targetted by the same programme of surveillance."
]
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ah5q6p | how did the creation of dynamite lead up to the creation of fertilizers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ah5q6p/eli5_how_did_the_creation_of_dynamite_lead_up_to/ | {
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"Basically the answer is nitrogen. It's important in your explosives, and its crucially important in your fertilizer. Do some work with nitrogen relating to explosives, learn more about nitrogen, ?????, learn how to produce/utilize nitrogen in your fertilizers effectively to increase crop yield.\n\nThe ????? there represents years and years of nitrogen research on a vast array of topics."
]
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||
7zw30i | how can the same size and type of rechargeable battery have different capacities? | You can buy NiMH batteries in different capacities (E.g. 1700 mAh, 2000 mAh, 2500 mAh) but all in the same size battery (e.g. AA). If the battery is the same size, and contains the same chemicals, how do they have different capacities? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zw30i/eli5_how_can_the_same_size_and_type_of/ | {
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"You can pack more active chemicals in the battery, if you use more expensive, thinner films, more expensive pastes that contain more active ingredients, and wind it all much tighter to pack more in.\n\nSome really cheap cells contain only a little bit of stuff wound rather loosely, or even packed out with sand. ",
"A couple of reasons;\n\nThe chemistry may not be completely identical - even starting with the same type of battery they may use slightly different combinations of chemicals or different purities, which can all have an effect.\n\nThey may also be built slightly differently - to fit more of the chemistry inside, one battery type may use slightly thinner versions of different componentry to get slightly different results - one comparison I remember seeing was that a higher capacity battery fitted in more chemistry to allow for a larger capacity, which meant that because other pieces were slimmed down there was more leakage so you get a higher capacity battery at the expense of a shorter storage time, or you could use the standard battery that held less power, but would hold it for longer.\n\nCombine these two and you can have a wide range of battery capacities, dependant on the other properties the manufacturer has chosen to have, alongside the level of technology (and cost) that is available.",
"Next time you buy something that comes with batteries compare the weight of the included batteries to name brand batteries from the store. You'll find that the cheap included batteries with less capacity will generally weigh less than batteries of the same type with higher capacities."
]
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5h09e8 | why could the ohio heartbeat legislation forbidding abortion be ruled unconstitutional? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5h09e8/eli5_why_could_the_ohio_heartbeat_legislation/ | {
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"The US Supreme Court ruled in the 70's that abortion is legal because you have a constitutional right to privacy, that extends to your medical treatments. Any bill seen as flat out outlawing abortion has been thrown out since. They have allowed some restrictions on it though, like late term abortions."
]
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||
92lx20 | what is head, chest and falsetto voice and how to use it effectively? | People say that head voice is when the sound resonates is your head, but whenever I sing I feel resonance only in my throat, no matter how I sing. Am I singing the wrong way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92lx20/eli5_what_is_head_chest_and_falsetto_voice_and/ | {
"a_id": [
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"Long answer... it has to do with vocal chords and echoes. Your chest voice is where the deeper sounds in your vocal register are produced. It uses the lower part of your vocal chords and the sound echoes about in the lower part of your throat (which is actually located in the very top of your chest. Where you neck and chest meet. Your neck pit? I digress.) Basically in that soft area right at the base of your throat. It is created there and bounces around a bit before leaving your mouth. If you put a hand over the very top of your chest and sing the lowest note you can comfortably hit at average volume you can probably feel the vibrations there. \n\n\nHead voice is a higher sound but where the sound is still produced by a large part of your vocal chords, but the thinner portion (which is located higher in the throat) and tends to bounce around your sinuses a smidge before leaving your head. You tend to feel the resonance or buzzing sensation near or in that sinus cavity, and sometimes in the back of your mouth. \n\n\nFalsetto is a falsely high part o the register where only the top little smidgen of your vocal chords is used. It tends to sound very tinny because of that. Imagine a guitar string where you are pressing down on the string way way down on the neck. That sound is being made right at the tippy top of your vocal chords and tends to come straight out your mouth. \n\n\n \nShort answer: Yeah you are probably just doing it wrong. IT has to do with breathing more than anything and how you breath. Try breathing differently. Singing advice online is hard. You might also try a vocal coach."
]
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[]
] |
|
2i5w2m | how do people spray paint graffiti on top of a overpass? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2i5w2m/eli5_how_do_people_spray_paint_graffiti_on_top_of/ | {
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"Living right beside a (relatively high) overpass, I've seen it done multiple ways. Most people lean over the side to do it, but I've seen several people sneak late at night with ladders (the overpass goes over a railroad so there's room on both sides, they probably couldn't do this on a vehicle overpass) and I've even seen one guy hang off the side while he spray painted his name on it.",
"Last time I was in Seattle I wondered the same thing. I don't recall the highway but it was crazy busy and graffiti was everywhere. Hard to imagine even a minute of work before 100 people would see you doing it.",
"_URL_0_\nThis video will give you an idea.\n So basically the part they are painting is side of a tall I beam. Usually you will only have enough space for the front of your feet to stand on while you hold on to the top part. Graffiti writers generally are great climbers, have good balance, and little fear.",
"I have a close friend who does this type of graffiti (major overpasses, interstate billboards, abandoned buildings, freight cars, you get the idea). From what I've learned, the people who write on these high-risk, high-profile places seem to enjoy simply being someplace they are not allowed or that is not accessible to the general public. \n\nIn short, they are adept urban explorers who can run, climb, jump, slip, sidle or shimmy past whatever is in their way. At the point of writing on a hugely visible location, they are usually experienced and quick enough to\ngo undetected in the process.\n\nOh, and they also happen to carry backpacks with spray paint cans. The irony here is that more often than not, the average person cannot read the name they even wrote... It's more of a point of pride than art. \n\nEDIT: Some verbs. \n\n",
"You climb and hold on for your life while you do whatever you're doing, tagging or bombing.\nThese places are called heaven spots.",
"We used to either just climb up however we could and hold on tight. After some time, my friends and I stated to use ropes and some climbing gear of the spot was deemed too dangerous to just climb and hold. \n\nSome times we used spray paint tied to or ziplocked to really long poles and do it way overhead that way, but it was often sloppy and we liked our work to look decent. \n\nYou really have to get creative in how you'll get to some spots. ",
"Thanks for all the answers everybody, am I wrong by saying that there is many different techniques on getting to these \"heaven spots\"?\n"
]
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4ov2ql | why does it take so.long for athletes to recover from.one game? | Like when a Soccar player plays in the euros over a short period of time, why do they get tired over time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ov2ql/eli5_why_does_it_take_solong_for_athletes_to/ | {
"a_id": [
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"Sports are incredibly taxing on the body. For instance, in basketball, you run up and down a court for 30 minutes, while alternating between jogging, sprinting, cutting, jumping, and breaking down to defend your opponent. \n\nAll of this is not only exhausting, but destructive too. You're bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage tend to either tear or wear out (in very tiny amounts) over the course of all of this action. In the long term, this causes your body to heal back stronger (ignoring injury), but in the short term it causes pain and general fatigue.\n\nGo play pickup soccer with some people who take it seriously for an hour or so and you'll see what I mean. At the end of the game you might notice the tired feeling and maybe a little soreness, but the next day you'll really feel it."
]
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17fe52 | where and how do companies obtain "public information" about you for account verification purposes? and if it's publicly available how is that a secure way to verify an account? | I just called eBay to get an increase on my selling limit. They proceeded to ask a number of questions from "publicly available information" and covered things such as:
* Which of the following colleges did you attend?
* Which of the following addresses have you been associated with?
* When did you purchase the home at XXXXX street?
* Which of these businesses do you or have you owned?
I've seen similar questions before when signing up for other online services (usually financially related). It's both very impressive and quite creepy that this much information is available. I'm wondering a few things about this data:
1. Where do they obtain this information? Are there companies that compile this data and sell it as a service or are eBay and other companies compiling it independently for their own use?
2. How do they link up so much relevant information from the seemingly limited details I provide when opening account? Without a SSN, things like address, telephone number, or e-mail seem to be pretty circumstantial (especially considering I have a father with the same name who would share some, but not all, of the same history as me).
3. If I answered a question correctly but their sources said it was wrong, where would one correct this info?
4. Finally, if this information is publicly available, how is it at all related to the security of an account? If I was really trying to mastermind something wouldn't I presumably be smart enough to know these databases/information exists? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17fe52/eli5_where_and_how_do_companies_obtain_public/ | {
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"this sort of information would be available from a credit report, as one example.\n\nThis company (ebay) would know credit card info, which would allow them to get to your SSN behind the scenes to match this info.\n\nYou can have your credit report fixed I believe if you contact one of the three credit reporting agencies (Experian , Equifax, TransUnion), never tried that though.\n\nThe last question I'm not sure about. It's likely that whoever has gotten your email and password probably hasn't stolen your identy so they probably don't have access to your credit report, which is where this information is found.\n\nI don't think it's really \"public\" like a phonebook, but public as in you've shared it with others before (like a credit card company, or the IRS).",
"As Mason11987 already pointed out - most of this information is just gleaned from your credit report. I'll just clarify one thing:\n\n > 3.If I answered a question correctly but their sources said it was wrong, where would one correct this info?\n\nIt's matching against your credit report. If you get a question like \"You lived in which of the following cities\" and answered it wrong though you know it was right - you need to review your credit report and make sure its accurate. If you never established credit at a particular address, for example, it may never show up on your credit report.\n\nLet's say you grew up in LA and moved to SF for college, but you never updated your address with your bank. Your statements and credit cards and every other \"official\" piece of mail you would have gotten while you were in college would still go to your parents house. As far as your credit report is concerned, you never lived in SF."
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62ld2q | why cant we fly fighter jets in space and travel far out quickly and back. | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62ld2q/eli5_why_cant_we_fly_fighter_jets_in_space_and/ | {
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"Fighter jets are air breathing. There is no air in space.\n\nFor the same reason, there's no sonic boom in space either.",
"No. Planes are dependent on the atmosphere to provide lift via air pressure as the wing moves through the air, and to supply the engines with a constant flow of oxygen to be able to burn their fuel.\n\nIn addition, the [absolute minimum altitude agreed on as \"space\" is 100 km](_URL_0_). By comparison, the highest that *any* jet aircraft has *ever* flown is [just under 26 kilometers](_URL_1_).",
" > space logic\n\nlol, I like that.\n\nJet engines require oxygen. Space lacks oxygen. The engine would actually cut out in the very upper atmosphere because there is very little air for it.\n\nThe plane also wouldn't be able to steer in space."
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Records"
],
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6g13ob | how do people have diet problems, like being lactose intolerant, vegan, gluten free, etc... when their ancestors survived off of these foods? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g13ob/eli5_how_do_people_have_diet_problems_like_being/ | {
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"text": [
"Well, for lactose in particular:\n\nWe didn't evolve to drink milk in adulthood. The idea of capturing and breeding other animals, in part, to harvest their milk is a pretty new thing in the human experience, evolutionarily speaking. In the bygone days prior to agriculture and domestication of animals, only small children nursing would have had milk. As such, human adults tend to stop producing lactase, the enzyme we need to break down lactose, in adulthood.\n\nAs for other dietary issues:\n\nPeople likely still had allergies, or autoimmune issues like Coeliac disease and just had to deal with it.",
"Being vegan isn't a diet \"problem\". It's a choice of diet. \n\nBut they either suffered through allergic reactions or died. If they had celiac disease, I doubt they lived a happy life given that what was an important staple for everyone.",
"Not everybody used those produce in the past. Even today, there is region like Asia where 90% of people are lactose intolerant. We are bias when it come to milk because european descent have a high chance of having the gene that allow us to drink milk in adulthood, but that's not common every where in the world. \n\nVegan isn't a diet problem, it's a choice. Most people couldn't afford that choice in the past because food was more scarce. \n\nWhen it come to gluten there is two possibility. Gluten intolerance doesn't cause permanent damage even if you eat gluten. You will have several in comfort, but that won't kill you. People in the past with that condition would still survive and be able to make kids.\n\nCeliac disease is a more serious gluten intolerance and it's rare. But even with that disease eating gluten will create long term problem and not immediate death, so people that suffered from that disease in the past lived a really bad life, but they could still live old enough to have babies. Keep in mind if these people could simply eat mostly vegetable from a garden or something. They could had to eat bread from time to time in difficult period, but that would take a long time to kill them.",
"For those who are lactose intolerant, their ancestors did not live off those foods. Being able to digest lactose after around age 5 is a relatively recent mutation in humans, and only exists in a few populations. Northern Europe, parts of central Africa, and parts of the Asian Steppe. \n\nVegans hold a philosophical belief that they should not eat meat or animal products. There is no real genetic need for this diet structure. \n\nGluten Free is needed for people with celiac disease, and for people with a gluten or wheat allergy. But those are genetic mutations, not general genetic trends. The reason Gluten Free has boomed is because it has become the fad diet for losing weight. It is like what adkins was, or the cabbage diet was. These fads come and go like waves on the ocean. ",
"No one has really answered the question, so I'll give it a go for you.\n\nHumans have a very wide variety of things that they can eat. Not being able to digest milk, or being allergic to peanuts or shrimp isn't a really big deal. We have so many other things to choose from that our diets aren't restricted by these problematic foods. \n\nThis means that people who were allergic to peanuts were able to reproduce with no real disadvantage compared to people who could eat peanuts. \n\nEvolution isn't a straight arrow that fixes problems. If something is genetically disadvantageous, it could thrive through generations merely because it doesn't prevent reproduction. The same can be said of genetically advantageous aspects. If something doesn't significantly inhibit or improve *the ability to reproduce*, it doesn't matter. "
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6wte3r | why can both heat and cold be used to treat pain? what are the differences between their effects? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wte3r/eli5_why_can_both_heat_and_cold_be_used_to_treat/ | {
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"The body reduces blood flow to extremities when cold to not lose core temperature, reducing blood flow reduces swelling and bleeding. Cold also numbs because the sensory cells become less active with less nutrients. ",
"Heat loosens muscle fibers and allows for the flexing of tense muscles to be released with less effort.",
"Cold causes blood vessels to constrict, so cold is usually used in immediate injuries to help prevent excessive swelling. Less swelling means less pressure on the area which can lessen pain. Cold can also have a numbing effect on nerves to dull the pain.\n\nHeat on the other hand causes blood vessels to expand, increasing blood flow. This is typically used in existing injuries to aid in the healing process by letting the extra blood flow to clear out the byproducts from the healing process more quickly, allowing the area to heal faster and reduce the pain caused by that injury more quickly. Heat can also help muscles to loosen up more easily to help relieve pain caused by tense muscles "
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9nn7da | why has american industry declined while europe's hasn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9nn7da/eli5_why_has_american_industry_declined_while/ | {
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"American industry has not really declined. We are still the #2 manufacturing *country* in the world, and that's only because China has grown so much.\n\n[Millions of cars are made each year in the USA](_URL_0_), but not mostly in Detroit, and not all for companies with American names."
]
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[
"https://www.automobilemag.com/news/the-15-top-producing-american-car-plants-151801/"
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||
2s7v1a | is it possible for every country be economically stable at once? | If there is only so much money in the world, then is it possible for every country to be economically stable/prosperous? i.e. in no country can there be extreme poverty/ austerity cuts etc. Basically, is there enough money to go around?
Edit: Any reply is appreciated! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s7v1a/eli5_is_it_possible_for_every_country_be/ | {
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"It would be like all of your extended family, all of your friends, and all of your coworkers all being perfectly healthy at the same time. There is no law of physics that prevents it from happening, it is just very unlikely for such a coincidence to come about.",
"It has nothing to do with money. It has to do with the supply of all the stuff money can buy.\n\nIf there are 10 billion people in the world, we can make 10 billion smart phones every five years (2 billion a year). Supply isn't a problem there.\n\nIf 10 billion people want to live in Hawaii near the beach, then we have a supply issue."
]
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1b26k1 | why, when i'm 'full', can i still eat certain types of food? | I know this may sound like an odd question, but, yesterday I was sat, treating myself to a pizza, chips and jalapeno cheese poppers. Eventually I had my fill, and couldn't touch another slice of pizza, or sour cream covered chip, yet when I realised I had a big tub of caramel, praline and chocolate ice cream in the freezer, I was quite happily able to polish the whole thing off?
Why is it you become 'sick' of one type of food, but are yet able to eat another? What governs that process? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b26k1/eli5_why_when_im_full_can_i_still_eat_certain/ | {
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"It could just be the fact that too much of one taste will get old after a while or in some cases the food is too rich, ect. (Try chugging eggnog)",
"Although I am not entirely sure on the specifics, I can assure you it is not about the available space and even, in most part, the contents currently in your stomach.\n\nThe feeling of being full or hungry result from a neurotransmitter in your brain called neuropeptide Y (NPY). When you have low blood sugar levels in your stomach, Ghrelin is released and increases NPY activity making you hungry. When you have high levels Leptin is released and does the opposite, makes you feel full. \n\n\n\nHere is the sort of answer to your question: The levels of Ghrelin released fluctuate naturally throughout the day. This is because your body adapts to your regular eating times so that Ghrelin could be higher at some points and lower at others. When you experience what you are asking about, it could be that this particular meal was at an odd time in accordance to your ghrelin pattern. It is possible that since you just ate a big meal, your leptin levels are high and your ghrelin levels are higher than they should be normally, so you feel like you can eat more starchy and sugar-y foods even though you are full. \n\nGranted there are tons of more factors that contribute to this idea like psychological influences. My guess would be that since these neurotransmitters and hormones are content sensitive, it could be that the leptin tells you you are full for one thing where that extra ghrelin you have lying around tells you you are hungry for another."
]
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4a7ne4 | people might call me stupid for this, but ive never understood the concept of daylight saving and how it works. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a7ne4/eli5people_might_call_me_stupid_for_this_but_ive/ | {
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"text": [
"Daylight saving is setting forward your clock one hour. This preserves evening sunlight at the expense of morning sunlight. It benefits evening activities that use sunlight such as sporting events and shopping.",
"Basically imagine the sun rises at a certain time and sets at a certain time, and that's an interval of time. Now push that interval an hour forward, and the sun sets an hour later.\n \nOn a side note, I agree with [this article](_URL_0_) that DST is hot garbage because it doesn't save electricity anymore, and it just ruins sleep schedules. We evolved to wake with the rising of the sun and sleep with the setting of the sun. It's why blue light is bad for sleep."
]
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[],
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"http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/12/11186842/daylight-saving-time-car-crashes-work-accidents-fatigue"
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||
1s4dip | what "canon" means in fiction (not the artillery) | When ever i see people discussing fiction i see the term "canon" used a lot. All the descriptions i find are either very vague or completely different from another source, so I decided i's ask real people for real people words | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s4dip/eli5_what_canon_means_in_fiction_not_the_artillery/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It essentially means its something part of the \"official\" story. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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|
5mbfsf | why do we say that looks aren't important when we actually get attracted more by looks than personality? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mbfsf/eli5_why_do_we_say_that_looks_arent_important/ | {
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"text": [
"We get initially attracted by looks, for sure, but they aren't enough on their own for most people. Neither is personality, of course. It is oversimplifying to say looks aren't important. But it is also oversimplifying to say we are more attracted by looks. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nThis TedEd explains this amazingly. My personal answer based on what I have learned is just that it is built in your DNA to go after those that look like they take care of themselves or make themselves notices. This would be a process of natural selection. However, after you get past the first \"stage\" of noticing that person then personality shines.\n\nEdit: I forgot the last part.",
"It's called \"lying\" and people do it to be polite.\n\nThose who have inadequate looks stay single for years or otherwise are settling for others who also are very unattractive.\n\nThat's how the honest truth really is."
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8bz1q4 | how do authors make money if their book is free with kindle unlimited on amazon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bz1q4/eli5_how_do_authors_make_money_if_their_book_is/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\nThey get paid royalties based on how many pages a person reads.\n\nIt's a pretty low amount, which is why you can opt out of being available in KU",
"Amazon pays them a fee to provide their book for the service. Same way that studios make money if their movie is on Netflix.",
"One I'm qualified for!\n\nAmazon's pricing stuctures are a little weird sometimes. (I'm going to stick to dollars for this, for simplicity's sake, but there's an equivalent -- but not necessarily equal -- structure in place for every currency.) First, let's talk sales. Basically, you get paid 70% for the sale of your book, *if* your book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99. If it's not, you get paid 35%. That means that for a book that's priced at $0.99 needs to sell six times as many copies as one that's priced at $2.99 to get the same amount of money in your account. This is basically a form of protective price fixing, both for Amazon the seller and the writers; it stops writers engaging in a sort of 'race for the bottom', where they're continuously trying to undercut each other.\n\nSo what about Kindle Unlimited? Well, as other people have said, we get paid based on how much reading is done. KU has a bigass pot attached to it. This month, for example, it's twenty million dollars. All of the books in the Kindle Unlimited program have their pages-read counted, and the pot is divided between them. This usually works out at a little less than half a cent per page. (By my loose calculation, a 'page' from Amazon's perspective is about 150 words.) This doesn't sound like a lot -- and it isn't -- but it can add up.\n\nHowever, this is Amazon's second swing at making a KDP system that worked; it used to have a different approach. What we call KDP 2.0 (the current system) works on a per-page basis. The old system, KDP 1.0, worked on a per-borrow system. If you downloaded a book and read more than 10% of it, the authors would get a fixed price -- usually around $1.35 -- *no matter the length of the book*. This was controversial among certain sections of the author community, because a 6,000 erotic short story would earn you the same amount as that 600,000 page fantasy novel that someone had worked for years on. (I was in the former group, so I wasn't exactly pleased when the new rules came in, but what can you do?) This had a big impact on the romance writing community in general, with a lot of us jumping ship from erotic shorts (which was where the money used to be; KU 1.0 made it very easy to make a living if you hit the right niche) to full-length romance novels.\n\nThe other important thing to remember is that signing up for the KU program grants Amazon exclusivity over your work -- you're not allowed to sell it elsewhere for a three month period, recurring as long as you stay in the program. You're not even allowed to give it away for free. That means that they don't have to worry about people getting your book elsewhere, so if you're popular, they're getting a bigger cut. Even if they take a bit of a loss on KU in general, it helps to keep them the dominant force in epublishing by squeezing other publishers out of the marketplace."
]
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"https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201541130"
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1fy1k8 | why does infrasound make people feel ill and uneasy? | It can lead to nausea, paranoia, feelings of being watched among other things. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fy1k8/eli5_why_does_infrasound_make_people_feel_ill_and/ | {
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"Infrasound is extremely low-pitch sound waves. Kind of like the waves you hear from a subwoofer, except they're too low-pitch for the human ear to detect.\n\nInfrasound waves JUST below the limit of human hearing can make people feel uneasy. This is because you can kind of \"feel\" the wave, like you would from a subwoofer, but you CAN'T hear it. It feels weird. It creates a sense of confusion. You feel like you should be hearing something but you're not. It's kind of eerie."
]
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|
201kmp | why can we see a surface, yet we can't see one single atom? doesn't an atom reflect light too? | I have thought about this before and there are two possibilities : either one single atom sends a different kind of light, or the light is too small for us to see one atom. Please enlighten me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/201kmp/eli5why_can_we_see_a_surface_yet_we_cant_see_one/ | {
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"No, in fact an individual atom to small to be able to reflect light, thus it is actually impossible to \"see\" a single atom with our eyes. No amount of magnification could ever make one visible, we need tools to test for them and abstract visualizations to give us concept. ",
"It takes a whole molecule to reflect light. In order to see an atom, we need very high energy light - X-rays- that are scattered as they pass through the material, or particles like electrons which are small enough to interact with individual atoms.",
"Short answer (but not ELI5 - I'll leave that to someone else): You can't see atoms because they are smaller than the wavelength of visible light."
]
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[],
[],
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|
8v4evx | with millions of bluetooth devices, how do they not get confused with each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8v4evx/eli5_with_millions_of_bluetooth_devices_how_do/ | {
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"Bluetooth waves have a very limited range, so the possibility of getting confused is small. But yeah sure if you put thousands of devices in a room it might happen",
"Bluetooth only has an effective range of a few feet. Get further away and the Bluetooth signal becomes background noise and cannot be detected "
]
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[],
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||
97nb8l | during starvation, how do bodies "eat themselves?" is muscle actually converted to energy? or just slowly atrophied | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97nb8l/eli5_during_starvation_how_do_bodies_eat/ | {
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"After PROLONGED fasting, your body will start to use the amino acids that make up your skeletal muscle tissue for energy. That’s not good.",
"Muscle atrophy and starvation effects are both similar effects that result in your body breaking down muscle, and in both cases basically your body pumps certain chemicals into your blood that eat muscles and break them down.\n\nThe big difference is that when your body “eats itself” it tends to be breaking everything down equally into food. When your muscles atrophy it tends to be more of a “use it or lose it” case, where the body breaks down the things you don’t need because they are just a waste of energy if you aren’t using them."
]
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[],
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||
11oqpd | how does the american foster care system work? | I'm terribly naive about all this except for what I've seen in movies. I guess most basically,
1. How are the kids placed with foster families?
2. Why are children sometimes shuttled between foster homes? Is it the foster family deciding that they can't take care of the child anymore? Is it the system itself forcibly relocating children? (And if so, why?)
3. What are the ways that someone who can't take in foster children (college students, early 20s-somethings, etc.) still help out?
**EDIT: Additional questions:**
4. How is a foster parent's contract about a foster child renewed? How does a foster parent go about keeping the same foster child after their contract expires? How frequently (or infrequently) does this occur? If both the foster parent and foster child report satisfaction with the relationship and the desire to continue it (AND the biological parents are still out of the picture), then why would a foster child be removed and placed in a new home? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11oqpd/how_does_the_american_foster_care_system_work/ | {
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"I'll give this a shot. I was in the California foster care system for about 13 years. Basically, it boils down to this. You are worth a certain amount of money to whomever fosters you. The children are basically placed with whomever is available and fits your \"tags\" i.e. runaway, fighter, suicidal, gifted, etc. When children are shuttled, it's almost always because the foster parent wishes for a change or that their contract has expired. Some foster parents can have a child indefinitely, some can't. As far as helping when you can't foster, that's a lot more difficult that it would seem to be. You have to be licensed and registered to interact with foster children, pass a LiveScan and complete a full background check. Pretty much the only way to interact would be through a 3rd party, i.e. after-school program, Boys and Girls Club, or something of that nature. The ratio of children to foster parent is unbelievable. I guess that it's the best they can do with limited resources though."
]
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[]
] |
|
fljonb | why are fan intensities typically arranged 0-3-2-1? | It seems like fans are always off-high-medium-low. Is there a reason for this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fljonb/eli5_why_are_fan_intensities_typically_arranged/ | {
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"One of my electrical engineering professors explained this to us. \n \nThe main reason is safety. A multi-speed fan is an electric motor with several windings. By using different windings, you get different torque and speed. \n \nAn electric motor winding is essentially an inductor, and inductors react in specific ways to changes in current and voltage. When you first apply a voltage to an inductor there's a current surge, almost like it was a short circuit. \n \nThe high speed windings have the lowest such start-up current surge. They are put first so that the surge and associated heating of the wires is minimized. \n \nI believe (but am not certain) that doing it this way is also a UL requirement.",
"Protects the motor. \nWhen I was a fairly young & newish car owner, I burned out a fan motor in the cabin air circulation because I'd consistently turn it on low (from off). \n\n\nThe mechanic who replaced it was kind enough to explain to me that he saw lots of this exact thing, for that exact reason, and recommended starting a fan by turning it to high first, then reducing to the desired speed. \n\n\nHave followed his advice ever since and never burned out another fan motor, whether in a car or home fan.",
"because you use the cheapest motor you can for the fan and at max power, it barely has enough torque to get the fans going from stop. once the fans are spinning, then you can reduce power/voltage and lower the fan speed."
]
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[],
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ammwsl | how do sports with weight classes determine those weight classes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ammwsl/eli5_how_do_sports_with_weight_classes_determine/ | {
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"text": [
"A governing body picks them out of a hat, then might revise them if they appear to be too wide or narrow in real world application."
]
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||
1v03cb | why can't both genders play sports together which don't require strength? | Why don't women and men both play sports such as darts/pool/snooker together, given that women don't appear to biologically be at a disadvantage here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v03cb/eli5_why_cant_both_genders_play_sports_together/ | {
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"text": [
"But they are. Men are naturally better are things which require throwing, aiming, calculating paths in their heads, etc. Probably comes from being the hunter in hunting and gathering. ",
"Is this question referring to allowing mixed gender sports teams in schools?",
"basically, men are better at hand-eye coordination, spacial reasoning, and other things that aren't about size/strength. So even a sport that doesn't involve strength and endurance will show better times/scores for men, generally speaking. \n\nOf course, women can play in those if they want, but generally speaking they're better served by competing against women because it's a level playing field. ",
"They do, Chess is one example. ",
"They aren't at *that* much of a disadvantage, actually. [Jean Balukas](_URL_1_) is an example of a women who competed on the same level as men in pool. Most darts, billiards and snooker events are technically open to women. The \"pub sports\" are stereotyped as being manly men drinking beer and smoking cigarettes in the pub while gambling and doing other unsavory activities, so naturally fewer women are attracted to the sports and fewer still play them on the professional level. \n\nFrom 1968 to 1980 Olympic shooting events (up to 1992 for shotgun) were open to men and women. Two women medalled during that time, most notably Zhang Shan who won gold in skeet shooting in 1992 but was unable to defend her title (the women's skeet wasn't added until 2000). \n\nMen and women have also competed together in equestrian events since the 1960s, which require quite a bit of strength on the riders' part, and the [list of Olympic medallists] (_URL_0_) shows that women have actually won the *majority* of the medals since they were allowed in."
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_equestrian",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Balukas"
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|
bsjm7n | what is the white stuff you see under a cut | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bsjm7n/eli5_what_is_the_white_stuff_you_see_under_a_cut/ | {
"a_id": [
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"That would be the third and bottom layer of the skin and it is called the subcutaneous layer. It is made mostly of fat and helps your body stay warm and absorb shocks, like if you bang into something or fall down. The subcutaneous layer also helps hold your skin to all the tissues underneath it. It's composed of fatty tissues.\n\nAs a side note I would like to add: if you are harming yourself please seek help from a friend or a therapist, especially if you are cutting deep enough to see this layer. If you don't have a friend to talk to, you can message me. I will listen~ Please stay safe."
]
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[]
] |
|
5pef3i | what is the womens march protesting? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pef3i/eli5_what_is_the_womens_march_protesting/ | {
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"\"We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.\" (That is from here: From here: _URL_0_ There's more at the bottom.)\n\n#justmy2cts\n\nThere is a great deal of (in many cases very reasonable) fear that has been generated over the last election cycle. \n\nVoters in our country elected an individual who, by his own words and actions, think women may be treated as property, think anyone not rich, or anyone who is not white (unless they are rich enough) is less deserving of fairness and opportunity than himself, has said he is planning to discriminate against others because of their religion or the color of their skin. \n\nBut \"We the people\" elected him. People we know voted for him. Whether it was what they meant to say or not, they approved of him. That can make it hard to look openly at your neighbors or the people next to you in a line, or on a train. Fear generates anger in most people. In some it also generates action. \n\n--------------------\nFrom the Women's March mission statement - \n\"The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us - immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault - and our communities are hurting and scared. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.\n\nIn the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.\"",
"Trump has expressed opposition to abortion services, and while he probably can't ban abortions outright he *is* in a position to make it very difficult for women in certain situations to have access to abortions, and possibly even birth control, especially if he repeals or heavily modifies the Affordable Care Act. This may result in a larger number of unwanted pregnancies, and unwanted children, which would directly affect women's lives and freedom. Obviously there are potential negative effects for men and society as a whole as well.\n\nFrom the [third 2016 Presidential Debate in Las Vegas](_URL_2_)\n\n > **Question:** Do you want the court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade, which includes -- in fact, states -- a woman's right to abortion?\n\n > **Trump:** Well, if that would happen, because I am pro-life, and I will be appointing pro-life judges, I would think that that will go back to the individual states. If we put another two or perhaps three justice on, that's really what's going to be. That'll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court. I will say this: It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination.\n\nFrom the [2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary](_URL_0_):\n\n > **Sen. Marco RUBIO [to Trump]:** Very recently, [Trump] was still defending Planned Parenthood.\n\n > **Trump:** As far as Planned Parenthood is concerned, I'm pro-life. I'm totally against abortion, having to do with Planned Parenthood. But millions and millions of women -- cervical cancer, breast cancer -- are helped by Planned Parenthood. So you can say whatever you want, but they have millions of women going through Planned Parenthood that are helped greatly. And I wouldn't fund it. I would defund it because of the abortion factor, which they say is 3 percent. I don't know what percentage it is. They say it's 3%. But I would defund it, because I'm pro-life. But millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood.\n\nMore Trump quotes and references on the subject can be found [here](_URL_1_)."
]
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"http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Donald_Trump_Abortion.htm",
"http://www.ontheissues.org/2016_Prez_3.htm"
]
] |
||
22q1dz | how come the government didn't arrest all the isp companies that took billions of dollars for upgrades they never did? | If my memory serves me right, (it never does) Back a few years ago... the government gave ISP companies billions of dollars to upgrade their systems.. and they never did upgrade. They just kept the money. Now 2014, and my Verizon DSL is worse than 3g Data!! Keeps crashing, and because I only have two terrible choices for internet in my area (Verizon or Time Warner) I have to just sit here and take it. How the hell is that legal?!?!?! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22q1dz/eli5_how_come_the_government_didnt_arrest_all_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgpaggn",
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"text": [
"Because: kickbacks . . .",
"Most of the upgrade money that came from federal grants was to expand the scope of broadband, not the speed.\n\nSee, it wasn't so that you could get faster Internet -- it was so that guy who lives 15 miles outside of town could actually get ANY broadband.\n\nThese grants are still available through the USDA, I believe."
]
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[],
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1vqu61 | biologically speaking, how related am i to the sperm that finished in second place, or even third for the matter? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vqu61/eli5_biologically_speaking_how_related_am_i_to/ | {
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"As related as you are to your father, since that sperm contained a random half of his DNA.",
"I would say as related you would be to a non-identical twin. ",
"It would be the same as your relation with your sibling \nThink of it like if they were a fraternal twin. One of the ways it happens (i believe) is that the woman drops two eggs instead of one and the first sperm gets one and the second sperm gets the other but in this case there is no second egg. Fraternal twins are essentially just normal siblings who happen to have been part of a shared pregnancy instead of individual ones. ",
"You're a bit comparing apples to oranges (or pollen to seeds if you will), because you have a complete genome (50% DNA from your father and 50% DNA from your mother), while the \"second sperm\" only had a half-genome with it. But keeping the game running, if you consider only the part of your DNA that comes from your father, each sperm carried half of your father's DNA with it. Since the split is roughly random, that second sperm could be anywhere from very much identical to the sperm that made you (if they carried about the same DNA), from very much different (if the other sperm carried a lot of the other 50% of your father's DNA). \nThe extreme case is the \"opposite sperm\" - when sperm cells are made, each genome is split in two and two sperm are made from it. So there was a second \"twin\" sperm that carried exactly all the other half of your father's genome. A nemesis maybe? Lol!"
]
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3082kv | archaeologists, how do you know that damage to bones was done prior to death? | For example, a skull in Egypt is found with an gash on its skull, so the cause of death is determined to be premature and possibly from an axe or blade. How do we know that the person did not die naturally, and maybe the skull damage was caused by a shovel when burying the body instead? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3082kv/eli5_archaeologists_how_do_you_know_that_damage/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"When a bone is injured, it heals, even if badly. Signs of that healing can be seen, The healing signs alter over time, thus a deduction can be made of how long before death that the injury occurred."
]
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|
9acvyj | why are cans more recyclable than plastic bottles? | Can’t you just sanitize, melt and remold the plastics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9acvyj/eli5_why_are_cans_more_recyclable_than_plastic/ | {
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"text": [
"Plastics are made of polymer chains that are tangled up. It's like a big mess of spaghetti.\n\nFor most plastics, when you recycle it you'll end up breaking down some of those chains. If you keep recycling it you'll get rice which behaves quite different from spaghetti, and finally couscous which is even weaker. Many plastics become a worse form of plastic when reprocessed which limits what you can do. You'd also need to perfectly sort them to get great recyclability\n\nAluminum and iron don't break down in the recycling process. You just heat them up until you've got pure aluminum or iron again and then add in the impurities that you need to make your alloy. When you're done, you can heat it again and make a different alloy.\n\nMetals are particles that form crystals with each other rather than long interlocking chains that break down",
"To add to/explain/confirm/put in other words what Bacon (mmmm) said;\n\nPlastic doesn't just _melt_, it's molecular structure gets altered. Have you ever sat with a lighter and tried to melt plastic? You'll notice that a lot happens to the plastic when melting. Also, don't do that, playing with fire is bad.\n\nThis is because, as Bacon said, the molecules in a polymer form chains, but these chains are formed when it is originally processed and formed into the plastic you use.\n\nWhen melted, you break these chains and they have to form new chains which are shorter and generally weaker. These chains also cause the plastic to _feel_ different; try feeling different types of home plastics and you can get a sense of what that means.\n\nSo recycled plastic is usually only used as a percentage of the final product, with the majority of the plastic being new. The products that they're used in are usually lower in grade. Generally they're not as high as food grade."
]
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ef4vmx | how does the voice in your head have "volume"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ef4vmx/eli5_how_does_the_voice_in_your_head_have_volume/ | {
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"Sound is just waves of pressure through air. Your ears basically turn these waves into electrical signals that your brain interprets as what we call sound.\n\nYour voice in your head is no different. The electrical impulses follow the same paths as they do when hearing. Its just generated completely internally. Which isn't an issue since your brain never directly interacts with sound.\n\nsince the volume of sound is exactly the same system as interpretnig sound on its own, it is equally able to be controlled internally.",
"To understand this you really need to understand the difference between how you \\*receive\\* sound and how you \\*perceive\\* sound.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n\"sound\" as a concept is somewhat complex, but the easiest way to explain it is, something happens, some force occurs, and that force causes the air to ripple. Imagine dropping a rock in the water and those ripples. like that, but through the air. And some of those ripples in the air enter your ear, and bounce off a complex system of tiny bones, fluids, and hairs. And that interaction causes a signal to be sent down a series of nerves to your brain. Where your brain interprets those signals as \"sound\".\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo when you \"hear something\" what you're really \\*hearing\\* is your brain's interpretation of nerve signals that were sent to it by the functions of your ear, reacting to vibrating air. Because that's really what sound is. vibrations in the air. You \\*receive\\* sound through air vibrations bouncing around your ear. You \\*perceive\\* sound through a complex mechanism that converts the effects of this vibration into a nerve signal to your brain. So \\*everything\\* you hear is really just your brain feeding you sensations of its interpretation of sounds. No actual sound waves ever hit your brain directly (we hope!) it's all just internal neurological interpretation of nerve signals.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo your brain already has a internal mechanism to interpret volume of \"real sound\". So it can do the same for \"imaginary sound\"",
"I am not sure what you mean. You have a voice in your head with volume? Does it have an accent at well? The \"voice\" in my head is thinking of words or ideas but I don't believe there is any sort of speaking going on.",
"The OP's question made me realize that I have no volume control over my internal voice. When I think in words, the words are at the same volume, kind of a normal conversational tone. When I saw this post I tried thinking \"louder\" and couldn't do it. Even thinking about something scary or exciting results in the same \"volume\" for my internal monologue.\n\n I wonder if this is normal or if I lack some ability that OP has and I never realized this before. Are most people able to \"yell\" using the voice in their head?"
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e26if7 | what causes audio feedback, and why does it make that particular sound? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e26if7/eli5_what_causes_audio_feedback_and_why_does_it/ | {
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"text": [
"The microphone is picking up its own signal from an amp. It takes that noise and puts it back through the amp, making it louder. It picks up this louder signal and puts it back through the amp, making it even louder. This process repeats forever until the mic is too far away to pick up its own signal anymore.",
"When a microphone, connected to a speaker, picks up the audio that that speaker is broadcasting. Causes a loop:\n\n > Microphone detects sound\n\n > Speaker amplifies sound\n\n > Microphone detects amplified sound\n\n > Speaker further amplifies sound\n\nRinse and repeat"
]
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[],
[]
] |
||
6pyhy7 | why does static electricity/static shocks ruin computer parts? | I have watched many videos about computer parts and every time the host says have a anti static strap on or do this on wood. What is so bad about static electricity/static shocks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pyhy7/eli5why_does_static_electricitystatic_shocks_ruin/ | {
"a_id": [
"dktcxnx"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Your processor is expecting to run on less than 1.5 volts these days, a good static shock is around 25,000 volts. This is high enough that it will blow through barricades in chips and create all new paths that weren't planned for which will make the chip misbehave or just kill it entirely\n\nMany components are sensitive to ESD(electrostatic discharge aka static shocks) of 100 volts or less so you can hurt the components without ever feeling it.\n\nThe worst part about static is that sometimes it can just cause the part to degrade faster so you won't know there's a problem until some point in the future"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
4wijgu | how and why did the body associate tears with sadness? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wijgu/eli5how_and_why_did_the_body_associate_tears_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"d67bx66"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Without getting too technical, the short version is: When you are sad, your body released hormones(ACTH and Leu-enkephalin) through tears that can help you feel better(reduce stress and painkillers)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
65m42f | why can't you suck water more than 10m vertically through a tube and why does it start to boil? | I gathered this information from [this](_URL_0_) video and would love it if someone could shed some insight | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65m42f/eli5_why_cant_you_suck_water_more_than_10m/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgbcg05",
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"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"As you go down into water, the pressure of the water increases. Similarly, as you go up through a tube of water, the pressure decreases. This is because the further down you are, the more water there is above you pressing down. Well when you stick you tube in the water, the pressure at the initial level of the water equals 1 atmosphere. As you suck the water up the tube, the pressure at the top decreases, until at 10 meters up, the pressure becomes 0 and you can no longer suck it any higher as you would need to create a negative pressure, which is impossible.",
"Water stays in a liquid state due to air pressure. Just as the carbonation, or gas, is dissolved in soda. When pressure decreases enough liquids turn to a gas spontaniously. Or with soda, it is released from a liquid. Why the limit is 10m I can't explain but it spontaniously \"boils\" or turns to gas, is due to not enough air pressing down against the water molecules to help it stay a liguid. So poof, it turns to vapor. "
]
} | [] | [
"https://youtu.be/BickMFHAZR0?t=22"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
6gq3h8 | why do we get an adrenaline rush instead of using it all the time? | It's like a power up, our thoughts move into instincts and we can get a bit stronger. But this only lasts for a small time before we come back into reality. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gq3h8/eli5_why_do_we_get_an_adrenaline_rush_instead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"dis849t",
"disonvy"
],
"score": [
16,
2
],
"text": [
"Adrenaline causes your body to turn down some important functions, like digestion, while putting some other functions on overdrive. If you're on adrenaline all the time, you will get ill.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Because adrenaline is like 'deverting power' from other systems that your body needs, but doesn't need 'right now'. It's purpose is to get you out of a bad situation quickly by triggering your fight or flight response. Too much adrenaline will cause issues with stress, panic attacks and even psycosis in extreme cases. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.promises.com/articles/research/over-production-of-adrenaline-linked-to-stress-related-illnesses-in-adults-and-children/"
],
[]
] |
|
6z1y90 | why are vacuum cleaners so loud? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6z1y90/eli5_why_are_vacuum_cleaners_so_loud/ | {
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"To work properly they need to move a large amount of air. This means their small motors must spin impellers at a very high speed to create suction (loud). Also any sort of muffler to reduce the sound would impair the air movement making them less effective at creating suction. So, no matter the style the noise (with present technology) just can't be helped.",
"Actually, while it used to be a necessity for them to be loud, the technology exists to make relatively quiet vacuums. However, the general public is moronic and thinks that a quieter vacuum is not as powerful as a loud one. Thus, manufacturers purposefully build loud units so people think they're getting power.",
"Would it be possible to use bigger, quieter fans and maintain suction or does it not work that way?",
"Vacuum cleaners displace a large amount of air to create a vacuum. That vacuum allows stuff to be sucked into it. Whenever a lot of air moves all at once, it creates a big sound kind of like a tornado. ",
"Mufflers reduce suction power, its a trade off. Mufflers are also more effective the larger they are, so size is another trade off. ",
"My in-laws had an huge unit in the basement and you could connect a hose to several sockets throughout the house. Not as loud (except in the basement ;)\nBut as someone pointed out you can only pick 2 and this was not a cheap system.",
"Doesn't Reddit have a resident vacuum expert? An /u/earthquakeguy of vacuum cleaners.\n\nI wish I remembered his username.",
"They use cheap universal motors which spin at high RPM because they're fairly small. Universal motors also have brushes internally which adds to the noise.",
"I refuse to let this ELI5 pass without referencing the Vacuum Repair guy AMA: _URL_0_",
"Fun fact. Vacuum cleaners over 80 dB are now banned in the EU, and anything over 900watts...",
"I remember reading a Batman comic where someone commented how quiet Batman's vehicle was. Batman then stated that 'noise was a byproduct of bad engineering'. I think he was referring to his bat plane or batmobile. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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[],
[],
[],
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[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5seq5t/i_ama_vacuum_repair_technician_and_its_spring/"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
b1dawz | why does it get harder for helicopters to climb the higher they get? | I am very intrigued by the physics of a helicopter.. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b1dawz/eli5_why_does_it_get_harder_for_helicopters_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"eikufny",
"eikugv5"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"The elicopters climb moving a certain amount of air downwards.\nAs you go up, the air become less dense, so to move the same volume of air they must do more work",
"In a nutshell because the air molecules get more spaced apart (thinner) due to less pressure at higher altitudes ,\n\nWhich means the blades can't produce as much thrust because there is less air to push against, so as it gets higher it struggles more and more until it cannot climb anymore it's called it's service ceiling"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
duolaj | how do structures with several stories support so much weight? (for example, parking garages, apartment buildings, empire state building.) it seems like the structures should crumble under that much weight without support beams every few feet. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/duolaj/eli5_how_do_structures_with_several_stories/ | {
"a_id": [
"f77gce6",
"f77i0i9",
"f77zsy7"
],
"score": [
6,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"The size of the columns gets larger or more closely spaced the further down you go.\n\nGravity loads are relatively straightforward to design; what gets crazy is seismic design, especially on high rises.",
"There are a few aspects to this, but one major one is this: Force is funneled into the vertical support beams, which run straight down and are immensely strong. Every floor only holds its own weight - the weight of the floor above goes into the vertical support beams which do not rest on the floor below. You can imagine it like branches on a pine tree - each branch is connected to the trunk, and not the branch below. The vertical support beams, meanwhile, are thick structural steel I-beams, and can bear a rather staggering amount of force.",
"Concrete becomes stronger when compressed, and steel is embedded in the concrete to increase it's compression to make stronger horizontal slabs. I'm sure there is a limit to how much weight concrete can support, but the combination of concrete and steel is very important to the construction of large modern structures."
]
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[],
[],
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||
b2x1no | during body mass reduction, "where" does the mass actually go? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2x1no/eli5_during_body_mass_reduction_where_does_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"eivizy1",
"eivjcwr"
],
"score": [
3,
7
],
"text": [
"This is rather simple chemistry. Fat is strings of CH2 groups. When you burn fat, either in a flame or in your body the chemical reaction is then 2CH2 + 3O2 - > 2CO2 + 2H2O + energy. So the fat you burn is combined with oxygen you inhale and is converted to carbon dioxide which you exhale and water which you exhale, perspirate and urinate. So this is where the body mass is going.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nYour base metabolism is the majority of metabolism in a day. If you are exercising you may be able to add a few hundred kcal of extra metabolism an hour which is very little compared to the base metabolism. In order to really increase your metabolism you need to exercise for majority of the day. For example by walking at about 60-70% heart rate for 8 hours.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt is not hard to lose or gain 2kg in a few hours. If you go pee you suddenly lost half a liter of water, and if you take a dump that can also be another half a kilogram. So just by visiting the restroom you have lost 1kg. Then there is the sweating and breathing which can also get you to lose a lot of weight. However the weight loss is usually followed up by eating and drinking. And if you think about it 1kg is not that much food in a day and 1liter is not an unreasonable amount of drink during the day. So your weight will fluctuate throughout the day. This is why it is important that when you weigh yourself you do so consistently at the same time every day and independent of any meals. It is common to weigh yourself after getting up before getting dressed and eating breakfast.",
"The most mass loss is breathed out. Defecation is only non digested food, perspiration and urination are only water.\n\nFood and stored fat are mostly hydrocarbon chains (long molecules made of carbon and hydrogen atoms). Your body produces energy by breaking them down and combining them with the oxygen you breath in. That reaction produces carbon dioxide (small molecule made of carbon+oxygen atoms) and water (small molecule made of hydrogen+oxygen) which are breathed out. \n\nYou actually breath more and heavier air out then you breath in.\n\n(a) I'm not sure, and I still know this is requires a very complex answer. Exercise requires burning calories so that day you would theoretically need to eat more (or would lose more mass). More importantly, exercice builds muscle and heightens your metabolism, which increase your BMR even when you don't exercise. Finally, depending on length and intensity of exercise, your body will dig into different resources.\n\n(b) the difference you measure are a lot, so there may be some measurement. But your body mass does depend on what you have in transit, which is why it is recommended to always weigh yourself at a given time of day. If you eat one pound of food and drink 50ml of water, you will weigh 2 pounds more. Differences in hydration can also cause some major weight variations. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3dkk9j | what exactly did goldman sachs do that they are suddenly getting blamed for the greece debacle? | In the last few weeks, the number of commenters claiming that Greece would be alright if it wasn't for those rats at Goldman Sachs have been astoundings. What, leaving aside hyperbole and conspiracy, did they have to do with Greece getting $300 billion plus in debt? I know there must be *some* basis to these comments. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dkk9j/eli5_what_exactly_did_goldman_sachs_do_that_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct61jkr",
"ct61x8n",
"ct625ms",
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"score": [
16,
5,
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"text": [
"Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide how bad their financial problems were to make them look like a safer investment than they actually were by hiding debt. They used some very complex financial transactions to obscure what the debt really was, which allowed Greece to go to the Eurozone and say that they were in compliance with EU rules about debt and could come onboard as part of the Euro currency zone. Because they were part of the Euro currency zone, the EU central bank loaned them money to even higher levels which they then couldn't afford to pay back when the economy imploded in 2008.",
"I have a business and it's not doing well. I hire goldman sachs to help improve my business but instead they just focus on trying to make my business \"look\" like it's doing well, they tell me I need to fake it till I make it.\n\nLater when my business tanks I learn that goldman took out insurance against my business going bad.",
"Greece didn't borrow money from Germany or the ECB. It borrowed money from private investors.\n\nGoldman Sachs repackaged their debt into a number of financial instruments and sold it to people. Their techniques disguised how much debt their really was by making a lot of it look like investment in state assets instead. After this fell apart, Germany bailed out Goldman Sachs' customers and took over Greece's debts, leading to the situation we're in today.",
"The financial rules for being in Europe back then didn't take into account these exotic financial \"swap\" contracts. This allowed Goldman to effectively lend Greece €2.8Bn disguised as a currency swap. This currency swap used a fictional fixed interest rate for the euro against the dollar. When things went bad after 11/09/2001, Greece's debt almost doubled to €5.1Bn, and Goldman Sachs made over €700M profit, in what is known in the industry as the sexiest deal ever made. \nGoldman and Greece then restructured the contract, locking in the debt of €5.1bn. \n\nYSK: The head of the team who put the deal together was Lloyd Blankfein, now CEO. The Head of International Business was Mario Draghi, he is now head of the Central Bank and a key player in the current negotiations. \n\nEdit: Goldman later helped to create a market for trading Greek debt. This enabled them to securitise Greek debt and short it, like they did with the Mortgage Backed-Securities, which started the original crisis in 2008. "
]
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[],
[],
[],
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|
3de2mw | isn't pluto ovular? why does the recent photo look so spherical? is its eccentricity just really low? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3de2mw/eli5_isnt_pluto_ovular_why_does_the_recent_photo/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct481xb"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
" > Isn't Pluto ovular?\n\nNo. It's near-spherical. Are you sure that you're not thinking of the eccentricity of its *orbit*, and not the shape of the planetoid itself?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
413tod | how is it that once outside our body fecal matter is harmful/infectious, but when it's still in our bowels it isn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/413tod/eli5_how_is_it_that_once_outside_our_body_fecal/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyzc1q9",
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],
"score": [
5,
13,
8
],
"text": [
"It still is harmful when it's inside of us, it's just in a self contained tube that prevents it from reaching other parts of the body.",
"Humans are donut shaped. The food inside our bowels is not exactly \"inside our body\". There are lots of bacteria like e.coli that break down food and are good for our intestines, but can cause serious illness if it gets elsewhere in our system.",
"Think of your bowels as a sewage system. Everything is lined and set up to keep the poop out of everything important. Now you have sewage piped from every toilet, in every building in a city, constantly. That sewage isn't much of a problem, but if it was sprayed over your computer, car, and house, you would probably think it was a much bigger problem."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
715y2x | why is it okay to look at the reflection of the sun but not the actual sun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/715y2x/eli5_why_is_it_okay_to_look_at_the_reflection_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"dn8clrb",
"dn8dpnd"
],
"score": [
10,
2
],
"text": [
"It's not.\n\nIt might be safe to look at an image of the sun projected onto a diffuse surface, but a mirror will not help you.",
"This depends on the quality of the reflection. Some scattered light off the side of a house near you may not reflect enough to harm you. A decent mirror though can screw you up."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3aqe3h | during manhunt for prison escapees, how do police ask residents whether escapees are hiding in their house - and know if they're getting a straight answer? | I've seen some photos of police going door-to-door in areas near where the recent NY prison escapees could be. The police appear to not be searching every home (understandable - it would take forever) and instead appear to be asking residents if they know anything.
Picture having the escapees in your home, holed up, having threatened your family's life. You lie, right?
How do the cops know they're getting a straight answer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3aqe3h/eli5during_manhunt_for_prison_escapees_how_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"cseymik"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I would imagine it depends on how the person responds and their movements. It's a lot easier to tell when a person is being forced to make an answer. They're jittery, nervous, probably sweating. Unless they're a family friend who is comfortable with the escapee hiding in their house, it'll probably be pretty obvious. Unless there's another reason they wouldn't want cops to be there.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
4c9t8x | why do cars seem to get more engine noise and road noise as they get older? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4c9t8x/eli5why_do_cars_seem_to_get_more_engine_noise_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1g82om"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"They're mechanical. Mechanical things wear out. Worn out things get noisy. Noisy things eventually break. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6lxze4 | how does humming stop you from choking? | If you put your finger deep in your throat while humming, you wouldn't start gagging or choking. I just tried this out right now and so I came here to know why.WHY? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6lxze4/eli5_how_does_humming_stop_you_from_choking/ | {
"a_id": [
"djxh4kk",
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"score": [
22,
9,
16,
9
],
"text": [
"How on earth did you discover this?",
"Did you make this up to convince people to shove their fingers in their mouth?",
"The reason that you stop gagging when you hum is two-fold.\n\n1) You take your mind off of the gagging feeling\n\n2) Humming keeps your airway open because you are forcing air out of your windpipe\n\nIf you are really choking (your airway is being blocked), humming is unlikely to help.",
"TIL many pornstars are able to deepthroats without gagging and chocking because of humming."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
cepvpx | why do you die almost instantly when the level of co2 in the air is above 10%? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cepvpx/eli5_why_do_you_die_almost_instantly_when_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"eu47spe"
],
"score": [
17
],
"text": [
"The red blood cells serve the purpose of transporting O2 from the lungs to where it's needed, and transporting waste CO2 from where it's produced to the lungs. The mechanism is simple: It'll grab hold of dissolved oxygen or CO2 if there is much of it, and release it when there's little. Since there's a lot of oxygen and little CO2 in the lungs, it will release bound CO2 and grab oxygen.\n\nNow if there's a lot of CO2 in the air, instead of picking up oxygen in the lungs, many red blood cells will pick up CO2. This will massively reduce the amount of O2 you can breathe, which by itself is already dangerous. On top of that, the dissolved CO2 will make the blood acidic, which is dangerous because many functions of the body rely on the pH of the blood to be slightly basic.\n\nOn top of all that, CO2 is usually not just added to the air, it's produced by burning oxygen. So the 10% CO2 air also has only 10% oxygen, half as much as air normally has.\n\nHowever, you're not going to die almost instantly. You will however quickly pass out and die if you keep breathing that air."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2xc01e | the science behind comfort food. | Why does a questionably edible lump of grease-slathered "food" make me feel like the world isn't going to prison shank me if I don't keep looking behind me while an apple would make me prison shank myself?
Da hell man? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xc01e/eli5_the_science_behind_comfort_food/ | {
"a_id": [
"coyrwov"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Historically, humanity had the opposite problem that we do now - currently we have too much food, too much fat, too much sugar, etc. But tens of thousands of years ago, starvation was a much bigger issue. So it made sense for humans to try to find the most energy-dense foods they could, which tend to be sugary, fatty, high in carbs, etc. So we evolved to like those things. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
agt5cd | how do gillette and youtube get away with deleting dislikes on gillettes latest video? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/agt5cd/eli5_how_do_gillette_and_youtube_get_away_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"ee8up4e",
"ee8vrs5"
],
"score": [
8,
4
],
"text": [
"Basically they can do whatever they want with their website. Gilette gives them money & says \"fix this\" n youtube does it",
" > This isn't anecdotal\n\nYou're using that word wrong. Telling people about a thing you experienced is anecdotal. An anecdote is a recounting of some event, often when we speak of humorous anecdotes that are told at a party or what not. Its just a telling a story of something that happened to you personally or that you witnessed. So it doesn't really make sense to say \"this isn't anecdotal\" when all you're doing is recounting your experience, because that's just literally what anecdotal means. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
1mna7c | how does one use "all but.." | As a non-native English speaker I am seriously baffled by the usage of "All but..." in media, books etc. I will show some examples from _URL_2_, a site I frequent:
"Cam Newton: I'm a Falcons fan all but two days a year"
_URL_0_
In this context, I understand the usage of "all but". He is a Falcons fan on all days of the year, except two (the days his Panthers play the Falcons).
"Report: Manningham's days with Giants all but done"
_URL_1_
In this context, I do NOT understand the usage of "all but". To me, reading this title, it would mean that he's the opposite of done, and I would assume the article would be about him getting a contract extension. But the article instead says he IS done, and is likely not getting a new contract.
Please help me understand :/ There's so many different uses and in different contexts, that it just confuses me. About 50% of the time it seems to be used straight forward, and about 50% of the time it seems to mean the complete opposite of what it is implying. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mna7c/eli5_how_does_one_use_all_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccasglh",
"ccashde"
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"score": [
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3
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"text": [
"In the second case, it means that it's effectively, but not officially, done.\n\nIn other words, there is no chance his days with the Giants will be extended, but officially he remains with the Giants until the end of his existing contract.\n\nedit: The trick to differentiating is if exceptions are listed. If exceptions are listed, the statement is true with those exceptions being the cases where it's not. If not exceptions are listed, \"all but\" means this is almost the case, even though the case isn't literally true.",
" > \"Report: Manningham's days with Giants all but done\" _URL_0_[2]\n\n > In this context, I do NOT understand the usage of \"all but\". \n\nIn this context, the meaning is that Manningham's days with Giants are pretty much guaranteed to be done, but that he has not yet been formally removed from the team. Or to explain it another way, his days with the team are done in \"all\" the ways that matter, \"but\" not in the technical sense.\n\nI'll give you another situation where you might use this phrase: \"I'm all but done with my homework.\" You might say that when you've finished all of your homework assignments, but you still want to double-check a couple of your answers, or clean up a rough draft to look more presentable. It implies that the only work left is trivial enough that you don't really consider it to be a meaningful part of the homework assignment, even though it *technically* is."
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000217816/article/cam-newton-im-a-falcons-fan-all-but-two-days-a-year",
"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d827376da/article/report-manninghams-days-with-giants-all-but-done",
"NFL.com"
] | [
[],
[
"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d827376da/article/report-manninghams-days-with-giants-all-but-done"
]
] |
|
8zxno9 | why can you tell the difference between stepping on salt and stepping on sugar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zxno9/eli5_why_can_you_tell_the_difference_between/ | {
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"Actually it’s just the texture. Salt tends to be more coarse and sugar tends to be smaller in size and less coarse. "
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9yggjn | how do [win x] competitions where the prize is a lifetime supply of the product manage to work? | I remember hearing about ice-cream free for life from McDonald's as the result of a contest once. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yggjn/eli5_how_do_win_x_competitions_where_the_prize_is/ | {
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"First of all, there are limits to how much is given for free. Usually \"one per visit\", \"one per day\" or \"one per week\". That keeps the costs from getting too prohibitive.\n\nThe winner could go into a McDonald's, get an ice cream, and had to come back later, and couldn't just sit in the lobby from open to close and demand a thousand ice cream cones.\n\nAs for why companies do this, it's great advertising. Even if the person takes advantage a little, the actual cost per cone is pretty cheap, and it would take years for the cost of him eating thousands upon thousands of ice creams to equal a single commercial spot. So, for the cost of two commercials (the one advertising the contest, plus the cost of the ice creams), they get thousands or millions of active participants in a contest, including names, addresses, phone numbers, etc., that they know, for sure, are interested in McDonald's."
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2dhe08 | how do you overcome depression and find happiness? | In light of recent events, I'm curious about how and where people find joy through the stress of everyday life. It seems to me that happiness is not inherited but something to be pursued. How do you perk up through tough times? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dhe08/eli5_how_do_you_overcome_depression_and_find/ | {
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"I practice bassoon for hours on end. There used to be days where I would lock myself in my room and get buried in practicing. It's the weekend? Oh, let's spend 10 hours practicing technique and college auditions. \n\nMusic, to me, is one of the greatest outlets for emotion. ",
" > How do you overcome depression\n\nAre we talking about actual, clinical depression here? Because clinical depression is a disease, and not simply \"being sad\". You overcome it with medication and/or therapy.",
"1. Help others, and contribute to your community.\n\n2. Develop skills you can be proud of. This can range from rock climbing to playing an instrument, and everything in between.\n\n3. Make a step-by-step plan for acheiving your (modest) goals, and stick to it.\n\n4. Do not give in to your selfishness, especially when it is inconsiderate toward others. Note that enjoying things for yourself isn't necessarily selfish.\n\n5. Refrain from self-medicating or taking recreational drugs (including alcohol).\n\n6. And if your problems are serious, or persistent, see a therapist.\n",
"Most people I work with for depression do better after giving time in volunteering. Our church runs a food bank, and we find that people who are depressed routinely notice 2 things with volunteering . . .\n\n1. There are so many who are worse off than me.\n2. People really appreciate the help we give them (and they feel better)\n",
"look here\n_URL_0_\n\nand here\n\n_URL_1_",
"Clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are diseases - not just something you can overcome quickly or by oneself. \n\nTherapy, lifestyle changes, and medications can all play a part in helping. Some of the lifestyle changes you can do on your own. I recently saw a TED talk about a computer game developed to help people make the changes necessary to recover. I'd highly recommend you watch it, and consider signing up for the (free) service. \n\n_URL_0_",
"There is no easy answer to this one. There is no cure all \"it worked for me so it has to work for you\"\n\nThat being said you would be amazed what simply talking to someone can do. Whether it be friends or better yet a therapist. For me I've also found that not focusing on myself is very helpful. Its very easy to be happy surrounded by other happy people. I struggle the most when I'm alone but I've found that music is very helpful for pumping good vibes into my brain. \n\nThe hardest and most helpful think I've found that works is being conscience of your own thoughts. Instead of accepting that your sad try and figure out why. Don't let your mood effect your actions and thoughts force as much as you can your intention of being happy onto your thoughts. Many times you'll find you can override the slump your in and turn your day around. \n\nOther than that realise that you have to take this day by day and tell people about it they will help. You will be surprised how many people deal with depression, and how open they will be if they know you do too."
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5kgp7q | why do our ears ring when we hear extremely loud sounds (i.e gunshots, explosions) ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kgp7q/eli5_why_do_our_ears_ring_when_we_hear_extremely/ | {
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"I've heard that your ears have sensors for each pitch, and when you hear a ringing, it's those sensors dying - which is also why young people can get those phone alerts that only they can hear. Don't remember where I heard it, so I have no idea how close to the mark I am.",
"The ringing you refer is known as Tinnitus. It's that high-pitched 'EEEE' sound or low-pitched 'HOOOOO' sound (sounds like being in an enclosed cave) we hear alot in war movies where they try to portray the battle more realistically. When it is heard after very loud sounds, it is typically due to (temporary) damage to the ears' hair cells from the very loud sounds. It's somewhat like how when you see a very bright object and then look away, there is a brief afterimage that stays on. In each case, they constitute damage to different sensory tissue, but are usually temporary and should go away fast.\n\n\nThis source is quite detailed:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nOh, and the famous Saving Private Ryan beach landing scene, where the low-pitched whooshing sound after an explosion can be heard:\n\n(sound is heard at 4:48)\n_URL_0_ "
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]
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||
ja2ie | could someone eli5 why fox news and other news media are considered "unbalanced"? | And why certain other outlets like NPR are not?
Edit: Why do people always seem to pick on Fox News more than other news outlets? Is there something that they do more than other programs?
Where does the bias come from? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ja2ie/could_someone_eli5_why_fox_news_and_other_news/ | {
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"They seem to very, very heavily weigh in on one side of the political spectrum on issues, and tend to not tell the whole truth, the whole story, or they give it their own twist.\n\nOther news media do it too, but not as blatant, or as often, as Fox.",
"Every news outlet has a bias... that's why its important to get your news from many sources if you want to be well informed. It's not only important to get the whole story, but also to see the different viewpoints from varied groups.\n\nFox News is singled out as 'biased' because of the numerous glaring omissions, misrepresentations, and outright fabrications of facts that tends to occur on their network. Other news outlets do this occasionally as well, but generally are not as brazen.\n\nMy point is that anything you read should be read critically and taken with a grain of salt. Be skeptical, and do your research. [Politifact](_URL_0_) is a great resource in that regard.",
"Every new outlet has bias.\n\nMost have an *organic* bias...journalism tends to attract people who are more liberal, just as banking attracts people who are more conservative. NPR attracts journalists who are more liberal still. This bias usually comes not in how a story is reported, but on which stories journalists choose to pursue. \n\nThe problem with Fox News (and MSNBC) is they have a *structural* bias. By design, they spin the news to fit the political conclusions they have already reached. Most of their airtime is filled with pundits giving opinions and very little with journalists reporting on events. \n\nThese networks are often caught making gross misrepresentations and playing childish games. During the elections, Fox was famous for accidentally calling Obama \"Osama\", and using his middle name \"Hussien\" as often as possible. They further compound their duplicity with the ironic \"Fair and Balanced\" slogan.",
"Consider Fox's slogan \"We report, you decide.\" Ideally, a news source should give you the facts and not tell you what to think about them. This used to be linked to something called Journalistic Integrity, which was the idea that journalists are the voice of Truth, and have a responsibility to the people to be a trusted source of information.\n\nAlthough that is the ideal, there are still ways for journalists to try and lead the audience to a conclusion, to use their authority as truthtellers to manipulate people into embracing ideas the editor likes and turning on the editor's enemies. The three common tactics are failing to report a story, using editorials as a soapbox, and writing deliberately one-sided stories.\n\nFailing to report a story is the hardest one to prove. For example, if three stories all compete for the same space, the editor has to choose which one runs - the boring one, the one that makes him look bad, or the one that is funny. Some editors would deliberately go for the embarrassing story to maintain journalistic integrity, but the smart and profitable choice is to go with the funny one.\n\nEditorials are intended to be the opinion of the author, and thus are exempt from journalistic neutrality. The darker issue arises when editorials are not clearly marked as such, and are passed off as real journalism. Many of today's news programs are guilty of this.\n\nMost journalists are careful to cover both sides of the story, without giving undue time to one side or the other. Having an opposing opinion in the story makes it stronger. However, it is easy to write a story making one side out to be heroes and the other out to be cowards, and a good writer can even make it subtle enough that you might not notice the story is biased.\n\nWhenever you see one of these three - buried stories, opinion passed off as fact, and stories with only one perspective - you're probably looking at a biased news source. Remember, they're supposed to give you the facts, not tell you what to think of them.",
"They seem to very, very heavily weigh in on one side of the political spectrum on issues, and tend to not tell the whole truth, the whole story, or they give it their own twist.\n\nOther news media do it too, but not as blatant, or as often, as Fox.",
"Every news outlet has a bias... that's why its important to get your news from many sources if you want to be well informed. It's not only important to get the whole story, but also to see the different viewpoints from varied groups.\n\nFox News is singled out as 'biased' because of the numerous glaring omissions, misrepresentations, and outright fabrications of facts that tends to occur on their network. Other news outlets do this occasionally as well, but generally are not as brazen.\n\nMy point is that anything you read should be read critically and taken with a grain of salt. Be skeptical, and do your research. [Politifact](_URL_0_) is a great resource in that regard.",
"Every new outlet has bias.\n\nMost have an *organic* bias...journalism tends to attract people who are more liberal, just as banking attracts people who are more conservative. NPR attracts journalists who are more liberal still. This bias usually comes not in how a story is reported, but on which stories journalists choose to pursue. \n\nThe problem with Fox News (and MSNBC) is they have a *structural* bias. By design, they spin the news to fit the political conclusions they have already reached. Most of their airtime is filled with pundits giving opinions and very little with journalists reporting on events. \n\nThese networks are often caught making gross misrepresentations and playing childish games. During the elections, Fox was famous for accidentally calling Obama \"Osama\", and using his middle name \"Hussien\" as often as possible. They further compound their duplicity with the ironic \"Fair and Balanced\" slogan.",
"Consider Fox's slogan \"We report, you decide.\" Ideally, a news source should give you the facts and not tell you what to think about them. This used to be linked to something called Journalistic Integrity, which was the idea that journalists are the voice of Truth, and have a responsibility to the people to be a trusted source of information.\n\nAlthough that is the ideal, there are still ways for journalists to try and lead the audience to a conclusion, to use their authority as truthtellers to manipulate people into embracing ideas the editor likes and turning on the editor's enemies. The three common tactics are failing to report a story, using editorials as a soapbox, and writing deliberately one-sided stories.\n\nFailing to report a story is the hardest one to prove. For example, if three stories all compete for the same space, the editor has to choose which one runs - the boring one, the one that makes him look bad, or the one that is funny. Some editors would deliberately go for the embarrassing story to maintain journalistic integrity, but the smart and profitable choice is to go with the funny one.\n\nEditorials are intended to be the opinion of the author, and thus are exempt from journalistic neutrality. The darker issue arises when editorials are not clearly marked as such, and are passed off as real journalism. Many of today's news programs are guilty of this.\n\nMost journalists are careful to cover both sides of the story, without giving undue time to one side or the other. Having an opposing opinion in the story makes it stronger. However, it is easy to write a story making one side out to be heroes and the other out to be cowards, and a good writer can even make it subtle enough that you might not notice the story is biased.\n\nWhenever you see one of these three - buried stories, opinion passed off as fact, and stories with only one perspective - you're probably looking at a biased news source. Remember, they're supposed to give you the facts, not tell you what to think of them."
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2bubtj | how does the us mortgage work? how is the monthly installment so low to buy a house?? | I'm really surprised by the housing market in the U.S, as I see almost any young dude or couple who barely moved out, has a job, buys a place. I MEAN HOW?
Why it's shocking to Me is because the place where I live, you pay 25% down payment, followed by montly installments for upto 25 yrs, for some 30yrs. And My question comes into effect, as even though you pay 25% down payment, your installment is still $2500-2800 on the lowest end. This being set for an example of 3BR/3BATH Home about 1500sqmt.
But in the U.S it's merely in few hundred $, is it really made that way so everyone can purchase a home?
Please ELI5. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bubtj/eli5_how_does_the_us_mortgage_work_how_is_the/ | {
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"That is largely dependent upon down payment, interest rate, and length of mortgage contract.\n\nThe USA has had low interest rates for many years now. Also, 30-year mortgages are common.\n\nA $150,000 house, with a $15,000 down payment (10%) would require about a $625 - $680 payment, every month for 30 years.\n\nDoes that seem like a low payment to you? It does to some people -- not so much to others.\n\nBut here's the kicker. If you get an interest rate of 4.575% for a 30-year loan, with a 10% down payment -- at the end of the loan, you will have paid the bank $235,440 for your $150,000 house. Although it did take 30 years, that's a pretty decent profit for the bank. Of course, your monthly payment will include more than just the principal and interest on the money loaned to purchase the home. There will be other fees that will increase the amount of your monthly payment. Most of them won't be a very large amount, but when your $654 monthly payment becomes about $685, the bank will be making an almost pure profit on that extra $31 per month.",
"The home that you describe would cost anywhere from $200,000 to $750,000 depending on where you are in the US. So let's say the house that you want to buy costs $250,000. You qualify for 7.5% interest rate from the bank because of your credit. You pay 5% - 10% down on the house, so a $12,500 - $25,000 down payment. Your monthly payments over a 30 year mortgage would be $1748.04. This wouldn't be an unrealistic home buying situation."
]
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6x9emr | would tides exist if the moon had never been created from molten earth? how would oceans work on a planet without a moon? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6x9emr/eli5_would_tides_exist_if_the_moon_had_never_been/ | {
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"We would have a smaller version of tides if we had no moon. It would come from the sun (which does influence our tides, but not as much as the moon does).\n\nThis applies to planets without moons as well (it depends on how gravity affects it). \n\nAnother example still would be Europa, one of Jupiter's moons that is believed to have liquid oceans below the surface. It is subjected to a lot of gravitational forces from Jupiter that it would likely have giant tides if we could see the oceans. As for right now, it's the gravity that is believed to keep the oceans liquid and not ice."
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5liel3 | what happens in the brain that makes a big fear no longer affect someone? | Used to be deathly afraid of flying and now there's literally no fear. What changed in my brain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5liel3/eli5_what_happens_in_the_brain_that_makes_a_big/ | {
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"It usually depends on the kind of fear. If you're Arachnophobic for example you tend to feel disstressed around spiders and in some cases are evend terrified of them. It usually takes the brain something like a \"wake-up signal\" to realize that a specific fear is not appropriate. That could be a positive experience with the subject of the matter leading the person to the thought of \"that wasn't as bad as i thought\". Those new reactions get anchored in the subconcious mind and in most cases stay there for there rest of the time.\n\nI hope this explanation is not too informal for the standards of eli5."
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2w0x4p | how does 'tagging' work? who understands the squiggly lines some local scamp spray-painted on a no parking sign, how do they know what it means and who would even care? | Who understands the squiggly lines some local scamp spray-painted on a No Parking sign, who would know what it says and why would anyone care? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w0x4p/eli5_how_does_tagging_work_who_understands_the/ | {
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"There are three kinds of tagging.\n\n1) Bored kids with spray paint trying to look cool for their friends. For them, proving that they were brave enough to do it is more important than legibility.\n\n2) Gang signs are used in cities to denote territory. As long as rival gangs get the message, the tag has served its purpose.\n\n3) Artistic tags are done to show off the artists talent or to make a political statement. Like all art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
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9a04rg | why is reading from a book considered a more worthy/constructive form of reading than browsing websites and articles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9a04rg/eli5_why_is_reading_from_a_book_considered_a_more/ | {
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"I've read (coincidentally, on my phone) that you retain less information for a shorter amount of time when you're reading from a screen compared to a page.",
"I’ve also heard that you read differently when it’s on a screen. I was listening to a podcast and they referenced a study, (I can’t remember the group who did it)about reading in print vs. a screen. They found that when you read on a screen you are more likely to skim the article for the information needed. In a printed format you are more than likely to read the information more closely and read more of the article. ",
"The most obvious answer is that reading a book takes a lot more commitment than browsing websites, and generally speaking, the more you put in to something, the more you get out of it."
]
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s05ie | the difference between radians and degrees | Degrees are easy enough to comprehend but I can't seem to wrap my head around radians and/or how they're used. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/s05ie/eli5_the_difference_between_radians_and_degrees/ | {
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"Radians are the same thing as degrees; there are just 2*pi of them in a complete circle instead of 360. (It's like inches and centimeters; the amount of radians and amount of degrees may not be the same, but they both measure angles in the same way.)\n\nMathematicians use radians because it turns out that radians make a lot of formulas simpler.",
"Radians are the more natural measure. To understand why, look at [this picture](_URL_0_). The angle between the two red lines is, in radians, *precisely* the length of the red arc. And this relationship holds for any angle you choose:\n\n1) Draw the angle inside the circle with the vertex centered at the origin.\n\n2) The radian measure of the angle is *precisely* the length of the arc you end up with between the two lines.\n\nIf you change the circle to have some bigger radius, then the radian measure becomes the ratio between the length of the arc and the radius. Since the full distance around a circle is 2π times the radius, the radian measure of a full circle is always 2π.",
"Suppose you wanted to find the length of part of a circle, [like this](_URL_0_). How would you do that? Well, we know the length around the whole circle is (2)(pi)(r). If we want only a quarter of the arc, the distance is (2)(pi)(r)/4 (for a quarter of the whole thing), and so on. Then our formula is arclength = (theta)(r). Simple. If we used degrees, it would be (theta*)(pi)/(180)(r), much uglier! And for that matter, why choose 360 degrees in a circle? Why not 270, or 120, or 10, or 60? The number of degrees in a circle are so arbitrary!\n\nSo math geeks said screw degrees. They're arbitrary and make things complicated. If we met up with aliens, chances are they would use radians, since they're intuitive and natural. We like intuitive and natural, not arbitrary and complicated."
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2pgj9p | why can't i grow a beard, yet i'm never short of pubic hair? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pgj9p/eli5_why_cant_i_grow_a_beard_yet_im_never_short/ | {
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"mens facial hair comes in kinda like womens boobs i think. it can grow at different speeds, but levels out at some point. Im 25 and i still cant grow a moustache, but i cant get pretty scruffy though one side grows more than the other. I asked my doctor(whos been in my family for a long time and new us when we were having a rough time) and he said it could be that my growth was stunted and this is an effect of it. I have fine blonde hair though.",
"Maybe it's a curse?\nOffended wizard: \"May your beard always grow on your balls!\"",
"You need to kill a bear first. Then you'll be a real man and able to grow a beard. Source: I've had a beard since I was 15."
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2mwl02 | why, when it's 63f outside and my car's a/c is set to 70f, does the air come out of the vents cold? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mwl02/eli5_why_when_its_63f_outside_and_my_cars_ac_is/ | {
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"The A/C system of your car, like all other A/C systems, only cools the air to a certain temperature just above freezing. The temperature of the air conditioned air coming out of the vents is not going to change temperature based off of what you set the \"thermostat\" to. What happens is that when the thermostat inside your car senses that the ambient air of the cabin hits 70 degrees, the compressor will shut off. When the ambient temperature of the cabin rises above 70 degrees, the compressor will turn back on to cool the air again.",
"It doesn't matter much what the temperature outside is, the significant number is the temperature inside the car. You are in the car, with a normal temperature of 98.6F, and have a stream of air coming at you at 70 degrees.\n\nIt will feel cold."
]
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38ymte | how do annual game franchises continue to sell so well every year? | We've come to expect a new Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, just about every EA sports franchise, and others to release a new game every November. Despite the fact that each game is essentially a reskin of the last but with small updates, they sell really well. Why is this? I feel like most gamers acknowledge the repetitiveness yet millions of copies sell annually. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38ymte/eli5_how_do_annual_game_franchises_continue_to/ | {
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"For Sports games, it's more about rookies and traded players.\nthe previous year game is missing many transactions. and some players have become Stars while others have become benchers.\n\nReajusting everything can take a very long time. Instead, we get a brand new game every season, with a new gimmic mostly for those who play so much that they need mor than Franchise Mode to stay in this game.\n\nAs for Call of Duty, they have 2 different studios running 2 different stories.( Black OPs vs the Warfare+Ghosts series) both series use 2 studios turning games every 2 year.\n\nAs to why C.O.D sell well, only 1 reason... Kids. You can see plenty of reviews where C.O.D gets blasted for a short campain, and multiplayer games that are too user friendly( turning near misses into kill shots)or unrealistic but Treyarch and Activision responds to this with DLCs you have to pay for to get even easier guns and New Maps with patern painted guns.\n\nAll that flashy stuff to get 2, 5, 20, and 50 more bucks out of a game we pay 70 bucks....\n \n"
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khrs0 | will someone explain in very basic terms the gold foil experiment? | The one that Rutherford did. I have read about it on wikipedia, but I just can't really picture what happened in my mind. An analogy would probably be very helpful. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/khrs0/eli5_will_someone_explain_in_very_basic_terms_the/ | {
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"In early times, smart men knew the existence of atoms. They knew that atoms contained funny things called electrons and protons, and they had a pretty good idea that these 'atoms' were tiny little spheres. The scientists all thought that the electrons and protons were floating randomly around inside the sphere.\n\nYou have probably seen mommy make pancakes right? What about chocolate chip pancakes? If you look at the pancake batter with chocolate chips in it, that's what scientists imagined the atom to be like, which the hard chocolate chips representing the protons inside the atom.\n\nNow, scientists can have theories all they want, but a great scientist will test this theory. The very smart scientists thought that if they had a very very thin sheet of metal, and then shot something at it, whatever they shot at it should go right through it. There are some 'hard' parts in the chocolate chip pancake batter, but not enough to stop something flying super fast through it right?\n\nSo imagine the scientists set up a big cannon and aimed it at a piece of tissue paper. When the scientists shot the cannon thousands of times they noticed that most of the cannonballs went right through as they thought would happen, but some of the cannon balls hit the tissue paper and bounced back!\n\nHow could this be if the atom is just a randomly assorted batter of goo?\n\nThe results of this experiments led smart smart men to think that the pancake batter with chocolate chips was wrong! Maybe, for some reason, in the batter all the chocolate chips clump together in the middle forming a very very small, but very dense sphere called the nucleus. The nucleus is so small that most of the cannonballs would miss it, so that most would go through uneffected, but a few would hit that hard center and bounce right back! \n\nThis discovery led the scientists to learn a lot about an atom! It must have a hard center, without those protons floating freely through the sphere!\n\nSo from doing something as simple as shooting a cannonball at a piece of paper the scientists learned many things about the atom!",
"So, the gold foil experiment was designed to try to find out what kind of structure gold has. The idea at the time was that matter (the stuff we see, touch, etc.), which has two kinds of stuff that make it (positive and negative charge), was all mixed together. They didn't know about the protons being stuck together in the nucleus; they thought that the positive charge was all distributed like \"plum pudding\" - blobs of positive stuff in the middle of the negative stuff.\n\nSo, what they did with the Rutherford experiment was to get a \"gun\" that shot positive particles, and look at how they bounced off the positive charges in the gold foil. Think of it like rolling a billiard ball at a bunch of BBs on a table; the billiard ball was their positive particle, and the BBs are the blobs of positive stuff in the gold foil. By measuring how much the billiard ball moved because of running into the BBs, they would be able to figure out where the BBs were and how \"big\" they were (how much charge they had).\n\nThey found something they didn't expect, though. The billiard ball (positive particle they shot) bounced off something much bigger than they expected.. like instead of bouncing off BBs, it bounced off another billiard ball. What this means is that instead of the positive charge being distributed like plum pudding, it had to be all put together in one big lump.\n\nMore sciency terminology: Positive charge was thought to be uniformly distributed in the gold foil; the Rutherford experiment measured the scattering of alpha particles off the positive charge in the gold and proved based on the scattering angle that the charge had to be bound together in one place. This was the first evidence of the atomic nucleus.",
"In early times, smart men knew the existence of atoms. They knew that atoms contained funny things called electrons and protons, and they had a pretty good idea that these 'atoms' were tiny little spheres. The scientists all thought that the electrons and protons were floating randomly around inside the sphere.\n\nYou have probably seen mommy make pancakes right? What about chocolate chip pancakes? If you look at the pancake batter with chocolate chips in it, that's what scientists imagined the atom to be like, which the hard chocolate chips representing the protons inside the atom.\n\nNow, scientists can have theories all they want, but a great scientist will test this theory. The very smart scientists thought that if they had a very very thin sheet of metal, and then shot something at it, whatever they shot at it should go right through it. There are some 'hard' parts in the chocolate chip pancake batter, but not enough to stop something flying super fast through it right?\n\nSo imagine the scientists set up a big cannon and aimed it at a piece of tissue paper. When the scientists shot the cannon thousands of times they noticed that most of the cannonballs went right through as they thought would happen, but some of the cannon balls hit the tissue paper and bounced back!\n\nHow could this be if the atom is just a randomly assorted batter of goo?\n\nThe results of this experiments led smart smart men to think that the pancake batter with chocolate chips was wrong! Maybe, for some reason, in the batter all the chocolate chips clump together in the middle forming a very very small, but very dense sphere called the nucleus. The nucleus is so small that most of the cannonballs would miss it, so that most would go through uneffected, but a few would hit that hard center and bounce right back! \n\nThis discovery led the scientists to learn a lot about an atom! It must have a hard center, without those protons floating freely through the sphere!\n\nSo from doing something as simple as shooting a cannonball at a piece of paper the scientists learned many things about the atom!",
"So, the gold foil experiment was designed to try to find out what kind of structure gold has. The idea at the time was that matter (the stuff we see, touch, etc.), which has two kinds of stuff that make it (positive and negative charge), was all mixed together. They didn't know about the protons being stuck together in the nucleus; they thought that the positive charge was all distributed like \"plum pudding\" - blobs of positive stuff in the middle of the negative stuff.\n\nSo, what they did with the Rutherford experiment was to get a \"gun\" that shot positive particles, and look at how they bounced off the positive charges in the gold foil. Think of it like rolling a billiard ball at a bunch of BBs on a table; the billiard ball was their positive particle, and the BBs are the blobs of positive stuff in the gold foil. By measuring how much the billiard ball moved because of running into the BBs, they would be able to figure out where the BBs were and how \"big\" they were (how much charge they had).\n\nThey found something they didn't expect, though. The billiard ball (positive particle they shot) bounced off something much bigger than they expected.. like instead of bouncing off BBs, it bounced off another billiard ball. What this means is that instead of the positive charge being distributed like plum pudding, it had to be all put together in one big lump.\n\nMore sciency terminology: Positive charge was thought to be uniformly distributed in the gold foil; the Rutherford experiment measured the scattering of alpha particles off the positive charge in the gold and proved based on the scattering angle that the charge had to be bound together in one place. This was the first evidence of the atomic nucleus."
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8tyypi | do (european) magpies feel grief? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tyypi/eli5_do_european_magpies_feel_grief/ | {
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"Is this possibly where the magpie rhymes come from? (One for sorrow, two for joy, 3 for a girl, 4 for a boy, 5 for silver, 6 for gold, etc etc) if it's true that may be where \"one for sorrow\" comes from, the old saying that to see a lone magpie is unlucky."
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274zwk | why can't electric cars charge themselves like combustion engines can charge it's own battery? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/274zwk/eli5_why_cant_electric_cars_charge_themselves/ | {
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"Because the combustion engine uses the combustion to charge the battery via a generator (alternator in a car). The electric car uses the battery to run the car. So using a battery to charge a battery is both pointless and will result in a net loss of energy due to heat.\n\nAlso, electric cars do charge themselves when you use the breaks or are coasting downhill in cruise control and it's slowing you down by applying a generator to the drive shaft (?) causing resistance while generating electricity",
"A combustion engine uses the energy from gasoline exploded in the combustion engine to drive the car, and a BIT is used to charge the battery. You'll notice that none of it creates fuel.\n\nAn electric car only has energy in a battery, that energy can't create more energy than it already has. It needs to drive the car and power the lights just like the combustion engine car.",
"It takes energy to make energy. Generally you cannot make more energy then your putting out so in my messed up head it's like trying to put a fan on the back of a sail boat.. The fan can blow and blow into the sail but the boat won't move.. The energy is just canceled out."
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1r8lpv | why don't you continue to get sick, after you have gotten better, when you brush your teeth with the same toothbrush you used when you were ill? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r8lpv/eli5_why_dont_you_continue_to_get_sick_after_you/ | {
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"Your body has made suffient antibodies to fight againts that particular virus, so when this virus tries again your antibody army will smash them straight away. \nEach time you get sick it's a slightly different version of the virus so new antibodies need te be created in order to fight them."
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8t0xp0 | what's the difference between a prostitute, an escort, and a sex worker? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8t0xp0/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_a_prostitute_an/ | {
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"All prostitutes are sex workers, but not all sex workers are prostitutes. Prostitutes perform sex acts with the general public in exchange for money, goods, or services. Sex workers just work in the sex industry generally, and can be cam girls, prostitutes, pornographic actresses, etc.\n\nEscorts are girls or guys whom you pay to “escort” you out on a date, to events, or just at home. Escorts may or may not be prostitutes as well.",
"A sex worker is anyone who works in the \"sex industry\" - prostitutes, escorts, strippers, porn stars & maybe even things like phone sex operators and the people working at shady massage parlours.\n\nA prostitute is somebody who has sex for money.\n\nAn escort is somebody who spends time entertaining clients for money.\n\nIn many cases, \"escort\" is just a euphemism for an upscale prostitute. In other cases, an \"escort service\" is just a quasi-legal front for prostitution."
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1uffyy | how do video games calculate the quickest possible route? | Of course taking in walls etc. into account.
Example: Clicking on the minimap and having the game create the fastest path for your character to follow.
EDIT: Thanks for the replies! Each comment was helpful in it's own way, some building on others. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uffyy/eli5_how_do_video_games_calculate_the_quickest/ | {
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"An algorithm converts the entire travelable area to a list of connected nodes/points. From the starting point, it then 'flood fills' out in all directions until the goal is reached; then backtracks, creating a path. This is called [Dijkstra's algorithm](_URL_0_). \n\nThere is another, more complex algorithm called [A*](_URL_1_), which tends to fill the parts of the graph closest to the target first. This is much more efficient than Djikstra's if the map has few obstacles.",
"Pathfinding is one of the most researched topics in programming today. There are a lot of ways to do it. Essentially, all paths in a game map are organized in a structure called a graph, which is a collection of nodes and links. A node is simply a point (an intersection in a map), and a link is a connection between two nodes. Each link has a weight, which represents how long it is. There are many algorithms that use links and their weights to find the shortest possible path between two nodes. You could find all possible paths (with no repeating links) and grab the path with the smallest total weight, but this is very slow, especially in large maps where there could be thousands or millions of possible paths. There are path tracing algorithms that can optimize this, but I don't know in detail how they work.",
"This is ELI5, and from a non-tech person, I understand nothing being said in this thread. You all need to lengthen, and more precisely explain your answers so that people without background knowledge on the subject can also understand. Hence the ELI5 subreddit name.",
"In ELI5 form:\n\nImagine the world is a checkerboard. The computer has an algorithm that simulates pouring sand in a pile at your start point. The imaginary sand pile grows higher and higher, pouring around barriers that can't be traversed. The first grain of sand that reaches the destination will have taken the shortest route.\n\n[In picture form.](_URL_0_)",
"Some games have invisible waypoints built into the level. These are hints built into the map.\n\nELI5 version of waypoints:\n\n* Go to the nearest waypoint:\n\nWall: # Waypoint: *\n\n ################# enemy\n # V\n * * you # * *\n # \n ###################### \n \n * * * *\n\n* The waypoints are sort of a highway system. The game has a special function that tells you how to get to any other waypoint from any starting waypoint.\n\n ################# \n # \n 5------6 you # * enemy\n | # |\n | ###################### |\n | |\n 4----------3-------2-------1\n \nThe enemy AI asks for the route to the waypoint nearest to you. The video game tells the AI to head to waypoint 1, then 2, then 3...all the way to waypoint 6, at which point you should be in range."
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2g8d2g | what would a vote in favor of scottish independence matter in terms of the united states? | Really curious in all aspects of this... Would it create trade barriers? Should we expect an independent scotland to be an ally? Would it cause problems with the UK meeting its military commitments? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g8d2g/eli5_what_would_a_vote_in_favor_of_scottish/ | {
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"The UK is a very close US ally, typically siding with the US instead of Europe.\n\nPart of the reason Scotland wants independence is they feel they have more in common with the social democracies of Europe than with the UK.\n\nSo an independent Scotland would probably have a closer relationship with Europe than with the US, resulting in a small decrease in US diplomatic influence.",
"One thing that would be of considerable interest to the US: the Scottish National Party (SNP) have repeatedly expressed a firm commitment to remove the UK's Trident Nuclear Submarine base from the country if they are successful in winning independence.\n\nIf Scotland actually did kick the nukes out, the UK might decide that it's not prepared to pay for the Trident program anymore. Even if they did decide to continue, the UK would have to build a new submarine base and the nukes would probably have to be returned to the US at least for the interim. "
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5hp5en | the difference between a polar vortex and wintertime weather? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hp5en/eli5_the_difference_between_a_polar_vortex_and/ | {
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"The polar vortex is not weather, its a persistent atmospheric state around both north and south poles. But if weather conditions get too weird too fast, they split into multiple weaker vortexes and the very cold weather confined to the poles spreads out"
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5sbxk7 | why did the football commissioner got booed while holding the super bowl cup? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5sbxk7/eli5_why_did_the_football_commissioner_got_booed/ | {
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"He pushed for the deflate-gate investigation and had Brady suspended for 4 games. He didn't really get along well with the Patriots owner to begin with.",
"He's not very popular right about now, especially in New England.\n\nTougher sanctions for allegedly deflating footballs than for players guilty of domestic violence, or simply trying to cripple opposing players on the field. ",
"He and the owner were good friends until it came out that Tom Brady was having footballs slightly deflated so he could grip them better. Owner got fined a million dollars and a draft pick to make it go away in an apparent handshake agreement but the commissioner kept pressing and eventually Tom Brady got suspended for four games. The owner (and the team) felt like they were betrayed.\n\nHe's also generally unpopular amongst the players and fans for being arbitrary in his punishments and not caring about issues (player safety, domestic violence, etc.) until they start to affect revenue. He's also basically the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to punishments unless there is a way to take the NFL to court (which happened in the Patriots case explained in the first paragraph)."
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4oiuvq | what is annihiliation in relation to physics and particles - is that how nukes work? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oiuvq/eli5what_is_annihiliation_in_relation_to_physics/ | {
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"A bomb that works on the principal that you're suggesting is called an antimatter bomb. We cannot yet produce antimatter on a scale large enough to be used in this matter. The bomb exists in theory only."
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4zgb1y | why has every month this year been "the hottest on record"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zgb1y/eli5why_has_every_month_this_year_been_the/ | {
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"It's because of global warming. Temperatures have been going up. And keep in mind that while we've only been keeping records for a few hundred years, the increase is statistically significant. And we have other methods of detecting temperature trends for thousands of years. This increase is unprecedented.",
"It is climate change, and a relatively short time of record keeping of weather (between 1 and 2 centuries at most). But it is important to realize that not everywhere has been the hottest on record. Texas has had the coolest and wettest summer in two decades this year. ",
"ELI5 shouldn't be \"give an answer like I'm 5\". To cite \"global warming\" as the catch-all explanation to a warm globe is trite and not well thought through. *That's obvious*. What needs to be explained is *why*. And the *why* is that we had a particularly long and hot El Nino. The heat of the El Nino we are now exiting rivals 1998 records, but from what I can see, it appears to have been longer (professional meteorologists feel free to elaborate, correct, etc.)\n\nSo, what is El Nino? \n\nBasically, at the bottom of the ocean is cold water (4 degrees C). At the top is warm water (heated by the sun). When the trade winds are blowing, the oceans are stirred up, and the surface temperature is moderate. When the trade winds are particularly weak, the sun gets to heat the ocean surface more, and this affects the global temperature, as well as weather patterns. The surface of the earth, is in fact, warmer, because the ocean isn't partying. Or more specifically, because the trade winds went out to get some Pringles.\n\nLa Nina is coming, and that's the opposite effect. Calls are for a bitter winter, coming in late this year due to that effect. When temperatures drop, also don't think of this as a sign that governments or social media are doing anything particularly *right*, because general patterns can't be looked at through a microscope."
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2kw7gv | what is a pyramid scheme and how do i recognize one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kw7gv/eli5_what_is_a_pyramid_scheme_and_how_do_i/ | {
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"If its a job that you have to pay money to the company to get, it's not a real job",
"It would generally involve you recruiting people to join the scheme. The more people you recruit, the more money you make. Then the people you recruit would have to recruit others to make money themselves.\n\nOne of the features of a pyramid scheme would be that they're not really selling or doing anything. They just tell you that you need to give them money and if that you can make even more money by recruiting even more people to join the scheme.\n\nAnother would be that it is billed as some type of special exclusive club or group.",
"So in order for it to be a pyramid scheme, the one who will join needs to pay to join? But what if its free to join and you still make money?",
"Easy. Watch this: Michael Scott's Pyramid Scheme: _URL_0_.\nNobody explains better a pyramid scheme than Steve Carrell",
"Watch out for a small MLM company called \"Evolv\". I'm pretty sure its legal but one of my \"friends\" tried to suck me into it. I went to their new members meeting because he dragged me to it and they wanted at LEAST $250 initially to buy their shitty product then try to MY friends to buy the same shitty stuff i bought, and they said i would be making over 10 grand a month. Don't let them trick you with their high class business men that go to these either, that's the thing that almost sucked me in. The first guy i talked to was looking pretty spiffy, and basically telling me how rich he was. He asked about myself and tried to make me fell really good about how i felt, i could definitely tell he knows what hes doing. I'm so glad i called their bluff. Once i talked one on one with one of the top members, i asked how this isn't a pyramid scheme and he explained how it wasn't i i still do believe its technically \"legal\" just how the pampered chef and Mary Kay are legal. After talking about it i said that i would NOT be joining them, they immediately changed their tone and seemed pretty pissed. I also noticed when looking around that everyone there seemed like a low life, most were in their 20's or 30's. I saw one guy that i went to high school with who was a complete failure, help run the meeting, I hadn't even started and it already seemed like a mess.\n\n\n**TL;DR:** I wouldn't recommend Multilevel marketing ",
"Once upon a time I interviewed for many \"jobs.\" These are the red flags I observed:\n\nBefore I list the subtler ones, the major sign is that you aren't paid a salary or an hourly wage, nor do you get equity in anything other than your own \"team\" and \"downstream\"'s results.\n\nThe subtler ones:\n\n1. Excessive superficial emphasis on appearing \"professional\". Often presented as something along the lines of \"Remember, this is a *super* businessy position, so remember to wear a suit and get a haircut and do all the things that trigger a feeling of being or doing something important.\" A real job wouldn't mention this it would just be expected or mentioned briefly, and you would be observed and qualified by your choice of ensemble rather than persuaded by it.\n\n2. Being trained for the position before you are hired. If you're interviewing for a job and they show promotional or training material, or worse, a product demonstration, then they are attempting to create a feeling of already having started the job. If you ask if you are being paid for this training you can just cut to discovering you aren't paid, period, and you can leave.\n\n3. If they ask you to recruit friends before the observe your performance. \n\n4. If you have to put money in for anything other than equity. You can't buy a job if you don't wind up owning it. There's a job selling knives that's famous. You have to buy X knives to sell and you keep what's left. If you are going to buy something and resell it at a mark up, just go into business for yourself.\n\n5. If when you seem like you're on to them and they pull you aside and tell you that you seem special and they want to consider you for a management position, and then reframe the same offer they already made. They are desperate to make any sale.\n\nRemember, if you're being pitched instead of scrutinized, you're being recruited instead of hired. \n\nAnd the most obvious is when they call it \"Multi-level Marketing.\" That's the term used for pyramid schemes, since they're technically illegal unless they exploit a certain loophole. \n\n",
"I've had a lot of run-ins with pyramid businesses unfortunately, because a lot of my old high school friends kept falling for this shit.\n\nAside from what's already stated, when they try to recruit people for this \"business opportunity,\" they're told not to tell you any details until you're actually in one of their meetings. I was once picked up by my friend's sister for a job deal. We got along and were joking a lot in the car until I asked where we were going. Complete silence. Later I found out that when you're recruiting someone, get them in your car first and when they ask where you're going, don't say anything.\n\nThe whole recruitment thing where you \"invest\" upfront. They tell you stories of how they're so successful making so much money and you gotta put some work into it.\n\nWhen I signed up for Usana at 18, I had no money and no credit card to invest and they urged me to get a credit card ASAP. I jumped ship when they took my friend's money early without his consent and didn't refund it back until he had to fight for it.",
"Someone I know kept trying to rope me (and other friends) into his pyramid scheme selling vitamins. I've done a lot of reading and have discussed the said vitamin company with other friends. Turns out that over 90% of their sales are to other members of the company (presumably to those that they're able to recruit). Anyway this guy pretty much forcing his parents and relatives to buy his vitamins too. I declined about 4 brunches with the dude before he got the idea (didn't have the heart to tell him what I thought of the business he was involved in). ",
"Any sales pitch where you don't make any money unless you bring someone else in under you. The guy above you had to recruit you to make money off of your sales. You (only) make money off of the people you recruited.\n \nLiterally if you draw the sales model and it looks like a pyramid/triangle... run the other way. Only the guy at the top of pyramid wins. \n \nExample - Amway",
"if you have to pay something to get involved, and if it seems too good to be true….those are the top two….you really should never need to worry about getting into one, cause the main way to tell is common sense",
"The most dangerous pyramid schemes, like the ones Bernie madoff went to prison for are nothing like what has been described in this thread. People are mainly describing MLM, which aren't even always pyramid schemes in that they do have real products, and real earning potential but are in almost every case over stated.. \n\nA pyramid scheme is one that relies on new entries to pay the profits of old entries, and to do so, new entries (money) must continually enter. Most commonly it's investment schemes where scammers say, I'll give you 20%(or other unreasonable interest rates) on your investment. You invest, they go get a new investor and pay you your 20%. Then get a new investor, and pay off the 2nd investor. This can technically run on as long as new investors can be convinced to join, often enough to cover the profit payouts of all existing members. \n\nInstead though, eventually new investors dry up, or the leaders of the scam blow through the money and everyone goes broke. If it's too good to be true, it is. ",
"Simple rule. If your success is determined by having to recruit others, who in turn have to recruit others, it's probably a scheme.\n\nThis is especially true if the people you recruit are your own competitors.",
"My best way to explain it would be...Hey i have an idea for a company will sell an entry fee and then a small subscription fee every month to join our company you can make money by getting more subscribers underneath you and you can keep 25% of your subscribers fee and 5% of their subscribers and 2% of their subscribers subscribers sound good?! Will just sell memberships to our company and when we make enough will give out small limited timeshares and if anyone ask we sell timeshares sound like a plan? So the idea is the money is generated from the subscriber fees and whoever lacks or stops finding more subscribers or paying subscription cause their end of the pyramid scheme to collapse. If this wasn't illegal i would do its a good way to make money. ",
"Does it sound too good to be true? Than it's a pyramid scheme. ",
"A pyramid scheme is a business/money making model that relies on recruiting people to be on the next layer of the pyramid. I'll say to them \"You can be on my money making scheme, and you only have to give me £50 to do it!\". I recruit six people for the second layer, and receive £300 for doing so.\n\nEach of these people then does the same thing - they recruit six people, each of whom gives them £50. Each person who's joined the scheme pays out £50, and receives £300 - a £250 profit.\n\nWe've now got one person (me) at level 1, six at level 2, 36 at level 3.\n\nIf I work this out for a few levels, the total number of people in the scheme is:\n\nL1: 1 \nL2: 7 \nL3: 43 \nL4: 259 \nL5: 1555 \nL6: 9331 \nL7: 55987 \nL8: 335923 \nL9: 2015539 \nL10: 12093235 \nL11: 72559411 \nL12: 435356467 \nL13: 2612138803 \n\nOnce we reach Level 14, we have more than the entire population of the planet in our scheme.\n\nThe problem here is that pyramid schemes are great if you're at the top. If you're at lower levels, then you've paid out your joining fee, and there's nobody left to recruit to give you money.\n\n",
"Here are a few things to get you started, I'll add some more as I think of them. I got into MLM when I was 14 (38 now). Lost 4K I saved from delivering papers. Best learning experience of my life.\n\n- upfront investment.\nThis is not always a sign of a pyramid scheme but all pyramid schemes do it. It is the main source of income, theoretically, not the product being sold. That is only a smoke screen for the scheme.\n\n- signing people up.\nUnless you get hired on for a salary or an hourly wage this will be a pyramid scheme. The more people you sign up the more money you make.\n\n- making a commission off of others work. \nUnless you are being offered a sales manager position in the company you already work for, then this will be a pyramid scheme. The \"pyramid\" parts starts when you make money off of your friends friends sales. It's called your downline, the people that make you money while you are on the beach doing nothing. It doesn't exist by the way.\n\n- setup meetings, parties, events.\nA lot of more professional pyramid schemes will teach you how to throw parties and annoy the hell out of your friends.\n\n- empty offices\nIf you walk in the door and there are a bunch of people around your age in chairs with clipboards, a plant on the floor, and a framed picture from target, leave.",
"If you pay someone money so that you can work, you're getting ripped off.",
"Pretty much whatever requires you to pay money to earn money by recruiting friends.",
"Great question:\n\n**A pyramid scheme is one where funds from new members are used to pay existing members.**\n\nThis isn't always easy to spot.\n\nIn a business, revenues come from paying customers. If you find a business where the revenues come from employees (e.g. multi-level marketing), you're likely looking at a pyramid scheme.\n\n",
"Lots of stuff already covered. Look out for these things as well:\n\n* Is it only sold directly? Why isn't it sold in retail stores?\n* Are you encouraged to sell to friends and family?\n* Do you have to pay an initial fee, training fee, certification fee, buy initial inventory for you to sell, subscription fee?\n* Did you get recruited by someone who does the same thing? Are you expected to recruit people to do the same thing?\n\nNo *real* (see: non-pyramid) jobs will make you do any of the above.",
"* They advertise without fully explaining what the job entails\n\n* They are extremely vague\n\n* They say \"you can earn **up to**...\n\n* **You have to buy the product you're going to be selling**\n\n* The invite you to a job seminar where they spend hours talking up the company before actually saying what it is they sell\n\n* They intimidate you to be part of their team but try to make it seem like you have to earn their respect",
"So you gotta buy all the stuff in this catalog, then I get points, then so do they get points, and you get points too so they can get that Gorgotron killed, and somehow, someone gets a Ferrari.",
"Vemma pyramid scheme recruitment meeting right here, watch and cringe\n_URL_0_",
"Everyone should keep in mind that network marketing isn't automatically a scam or scheme even if you can shape it into a pyramid or triangle.",
"I remember when a friend of ours gave everyone's number to amway. I pissed the recruiter off as much as possible and started hinting that it might be a pyramid scheme. He said it was more like a triangle with senior recruiters at the top and new recruiters at the bottom. I asked him if he was aware that a triangle was just a 2 dimensional pyramid and he absolutely lost it. Cussed me out about not caring about my future, being a pot smoking loser, etc. I let him continue until he just about winded himself and I say, \"well yeah but at least I'm not stupid enough to fall for a triangle scheme.\" ",
"The top answers don't really answer your question fully, so here goes:\n\nA pyramid scheme is a business scam where a single person or group (the tip of the pyramid) starts a \"business\" that generally involves \n\n1) signing up people into the business \n\n2) who each pay an upfront fee \n\n3) so they can enter the business (the body of the \"pyramid\") \n\n4) in which they will sign up more people for the business.\n\nThis is the central premise, and the rest is window dressing. Each person signs up for $2,000 or whatever, then once they're in they get other people to sign up, and then they get a small cut of each person they sign up's fee, with the rest going back up to the top. The business may pretend to sell insurance, or timeshares, or whatever, but the pyramid founder's true goal is to get as many people to pay the initial fee as possible-- and what better way to do it than to enlist unwitting people in the process? At a certain point it becomes clear that they don't really do anything of value, since the whole premise is getting other people to sign up, and eventually they run out of nearby suckers and the thing collapses and everyone who's paid in has just lost that money. The head of the pyramid now disappears with the money.\n\nIf someone offers you a too-good-to-be-true job that requires an upfront fee, run.",
"I'll tell you but only if you tell 15 others. ",
"Look up Penn and Teller's \"Bullshit!\" episode on Pyamid schemes. It's a good one and will answer all of your questions",
"Mysterious at the Museum did a piece on Ponzi. They described how a pyramid scheme is when the first group of investors doesn't get paid until the second group of investors makes their investment.\n\nIn a pyramid scheme, the focus isn't on moving product. It's on recruitment, because each person who gets recruited becomes an investor, and that investor doesn't get their payment until they recruit the next generation of investors.",
"A venture down the same line of questioning: can someone explain to me how Steeped Tea is not a pyramid scheme? I feel like Dragon's Den must have a little more integrity than to endorse in such a thing, but every single detail I see about the company seems to line up perfectly with what I've read here and previously learned about pyramid schemes.",
"_URL_0_\n\n^^ is the marketing video for a multi-level marketing scheme. Its called the \"Millionaires Ambassador Club\". Some guys I knew from high school are posting it relentlessly on facebook - trying to get people to join #MACattack. It is fucking pathetic. These guys are in their 20s pushing a ponzi scheme on facebook.",
"It's important for legal purposes to make a distinction between pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing: Both suck, neither will work, but pyramid schemes are flat out illegal. Everyone else has covered MLM's pretty well. \n\nThe classic pyramid scheme is something like, for instance, the airplane game. You have one pilot, two co-pilots, four flight attendants and eight passengers. They sit in folding chairs in the shape of an airplane. The passengers pay $1500 to the pilot, a total of $12000. Next week the pilot quits and each co-pilot becomes pilot of their own airplane, the flight attendants become co-pilots and you need 16 new passengers. Which the flight attendants are usually happy to provide, because that gets them one step closer to \"invest $1500, make $12000 .\" \n\nSome people involved in the airplane game sincerely believed that it was an \"Everyone wins\" situation. Pilots came back in as passengers and some people went through two or three times. \n\nEventually you run out of new passengers and then you can't take off. When this started happening, people started getting weird. They started thinking that they just needed to believe harder. They were sitting with the lights out and candles, chanting \"One ! One! One! One! Love! Love! Love! Love! One Love! One Love! One Love! One Love! God is money in action!\" ",
"These all make it over complicated. A pyramid Scheme is when you make money off selling others a product that they sell to others. The real point of a pyramid scheme to to make money off the people selling the product not the people who buy it. \n\nI become your supplier for all goods you sell so all people you sell to you need to buy from me. I make money from you and you make money from what they sell. The point is I always make money because no matter what happens you need to buy product from me. the higher up on the Pyramid the more money I make.\n\n The main problem with this scheme is that lets say I get 10 (Level 1) people to become sellers and I sell them $1,000 worth of good and they need to sell to make money (Note I already made money). They target everyone they know and sell there product and convert 10 more sellers each (level 2). Now the new sellers buy $10,000 worth of product from the supplier and the suppler pays me to buy more product (note I did no work to do this). Now they convert more and target friends and family and I keep making more money from doing nothing. The best part of this scam is that if the sellers can't sell their product it doesn't matter because I have already made a profit. These sellers become desperate to break even and try to convert more people so they can make back their investment. Note the guy on top already made money and if the down on his luck guy sells more he needs to resupply from the guy on top but if he can't sell his good the guy on top still make $1,000 off him. \n\nTL;DR The real people you are making money from and scamming are the sellers. You make money whether they can sell the product or not. ",
"if they call it a \"triangle shaped business plan\" it's probably a pyramid scheme. \nIf it looks like the social security system, it's probably a pyramid scheme.",
"I just signed in to thank you for writing this question. I hope this post will go out to as much people as possible especially young ones. I almost was going to be a victim for this shady idea. ",
"A couple of the key elements that frustrated me about MLMs that makes them really irritating to me. I was in one about 10 years ago.\n\n1) \"Upline\" people stealing my recruits. I'd introduce friends to the products & the guy would steal them away. I swear one of them is a millionaire now. I got nothing.\n2) You only got paid off your \"downline\" if you continued to make sales yourself. If you didn't hit your minimums, all bonuses went to your \"upline\". So there's no winning unless you make it your top priority over everything else.\n3) My dad has been in an MLM scam since the 90s and has never made money. He only breaks even by tax write offs. Most MLMs encourage you to spend a lot on your business and then write it off.\n4) You have to ascribe to their teachings, which usually involves faith and church. If you're not religious, you won't go far with most of them.",
"If a kid from your high school that had a baby at 19 messages you on Facebook about an \"easy way to make tons of money\", you've got yourself a pyramid scheme.",
"At first when I skimmed past this I read \"What is a pyramid scheme, and how do I Organize one?\" "
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53dt37 | how do cousins work? is my dad's uncle's child my first cousin once removed or my second cousin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53dt37/eli5_how_do_cousins_work_is_my_dads_uncles_child/ | {
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"Your father's uncle (your granduncle)'s child is your first cousin once removed.\n\nHere's an explanation: \"All cousins share a common ancestor. Your \"degree of cousinhood\" (second, third, fourth) depends on how many generations back that common ancestor is. Take your first cousins, who you know are your aunts' and uncles' children. You all have the same grandparents. Your second cousins share a set of great-grandparents with you, your third cousins have the same great-great grandparents, and so forth. So your granddaughter and your sister's grandson would be second cousins, for example—they have two generations between them and the common ancestor (your parents).\n\n\"Removes\" enter the picture when two relatives don't have the same number of generations between them and their most recent common ancestor. One generation difference equals one remove. Let's go back to the previous example—say your granddaughter has a son. He has three generations between him and the common ancestor (your parents), but your sister's grandson still has only two generations in-between. So they would be second cousins, but once removed. Likewise, your grandparents' cousins are your first cousins twice removed because of the two-generation difference from you to your grandparents. Your great-great-grandparents are still the common ancestor.\"\n\n-_URL_1_\n\nAnd helpful charts:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_2_",
"If you share a grandparent - first cousin. \n\nIf you share a great-grandparent - second cousin. \n\nAnd then, if you are from a different generation, once/twice/etc removed. \n\nSo in this instance, you share a great grandparent and the person is one generation from you - second cousin once removed. ",
"Your dad's uncle's child would be his cousin. Your parents' cousins are your first cousins once removed if I'm understanding [this explanation](_URL_0_) correctly. ",
"First cousin once removed. Generation gaps do not add to a degree of 'cousindry' but instead add a removal degree. So your grandfather's cousin would be your first cousin twice removed. And your father's second cousin would be your second cousin once removed.",
"The easiest way to think about it is based on your grandparents. \n\nFirst cousins share a set of grandparents. Second cousins share a set of great grandparents. Third cousins great great grandparents etc. \n\n\nWhen your first cousin has a kid the kid is your first cousin once removed. When your first cousin has a grandkid that's your first cousin twice removed. When your second cousin has a kid that's your second cousin once removed. Etc etc\n\nSo your dad's first cousins are your first cousins once removed. ",
"This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all.\n_URL_0_",
"The way I always try to explain it is: first, second, etc. cousins are always of the same generation. The number shows how many generations down you are from the grandparent you both share. (Well, minus one I guess.)\n\nThe \"removal\" part comes from an imbalance in the generations -- the number corresponding to how many generations separate you. \n\nSo, children of first cousins are second cousins, but first cousins once removed to their parents' cousins. ",
"No mention of double first cousins? That's what happens when cousins share both sets of grandparents, as in one pair of siblings reproduce with another pair of siblings."
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bpxcr1 | how do companies like visa or mastercard work? and how do they make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bpxcr1/eli5_how_do_companies_like_visa_or_mastercard/ | {
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"They charge enormous amounts of interest if you don’t pay the balance off every month. \nThey charge the vendor 2-4% of what you charge on the card. \nThey’re a bank that works with your bank to screw the most amount of money out of you so you can make impulse buys. \nThey charge you an annual fee in most cases so you can put down an impressive looking card in front of your friends.",
"They charge a swipe fee ( or Merchant fee) for each transaction using a Visa or Master card."
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1rkj7l | why can i eat four grilled sandwiches without feeling full, but only manage to eat two normal/ungrilled slices of bread? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rkj7l/eli5_why_can_i_eat_four_grilled_sandwiches/ | {
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"Un-toasted bread has a rather high water content, and is harder to smoosh it into your tummy. Do an experiment- tear up a piece of bread and toast a piece of bread in a toaster, and crumble it up. How much space does the toast take up compared to the torn up piece of raw bread? Much less.. The raw bread is also lower in sodium and fat, but we'll get to that...\n\nWhen you toast the bread, you are doing several things to increase the likelihood of successfully smashing multiple sammiches. First, you're evaporating the water in the bread, decreasing its density, mass and volume, but more importantly you're adding the \"love\" by adding salt and fat through the cheese/butter/oil.. Salt and fat increase the amount of saliva in your mouth, which aide in the first step in digestion, as well as encourages you to keep stuffing your face with cheesi-goodness!\n\n",
"Did you seriously eat 4 grilled cheese sandwiches in one sitting?",
"For a couple reasons, most of them are in the thread but not explained. \n\n\n1) Palatability- a regular slice of bread, unless phenomenal, is somewhat dry and bland. And cheese, while delicious, is even more tasty while melted. \n\n\n\n2) Satiety- foods that are high in sodium, sugar, and/or fat turn off your body's \"full\" signal. That's why there's always room for desert. \n\n\n3) Perception- it keeps making it yo the front page, but studies show that the size of your meal/plate influences the amount you eat. Grilled cheeses are small and smashed and wonderful...\n\n\nNow I need a grilled cheese. "
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8jks6b | why is the term caucasian used in the us to define european/light-skinned peoples? | I've never heard a non-american use this term and as far as my google research could tell me, it stems from an older theory that is now considered debunked | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jks6b/eli5_why_is_the_term_caucasian_used_in_the_us_to/ | {
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"Caucasian actually refers to the [Caucasus area of Europe/Asia ](_URL_0_) , so when people call every single white person they see caucasian, it’s technically inaccurate. I believe people just do it since it’s become a trend colloquially. ",
"Early anthropologists classified humans into three main groups based on their believed origin, Caucasians, Mongolians, and Negroes. While the theory that light-skinned European arose from the Caucasus region is no longer considered valid, the groups themselves are reasonable, if sometimes controversial, representations of human lineages. "
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am9zl4 | why is jeff bezos' divorce such a big deal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am9zl4/eli5_why_is_jeff_bezos_divorce_such_a_big_deal/ | {
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"He and his wife don’t have a prenup so he’ll still be the richest person in the world but he has SO MUCH MONEY that she is the SECOND richest person in the world. Also if they chose to split company shares he would no longer be the majority shareholder. "
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4f6iai | how does ezpass prevent theft? | If someone has an EZPass in their car and they're in a parking lot, can't someone just tag the EZPass to make some money?
Also, side question, how do they make money as a company if their tolls are less than the regular toll? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f6iai/eli5_how_does_ezpass_prevent_theft/ | {
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"Saying 'can't someone just tag it' simplifies it WAY more than it would actually be. Depending on what state you're in, you'd need hardware that could read either a barcode or a microchip. You'd need to know how to interpret what's ON the barcode/microchip into more than just a string of random numbers. You'd need access to the database that correlates that data to billing information you could use, and a means of decrypting it. You'd need a merchant account to then actually bill it and get any money from whatever credit card/bank account was tied to that particular pass. And you'd need to be smart enough to pull off every single one of these steps without doing something dumb and getting caught.\n\nSo saying 'can't you just tag it' is kinda like saying 'can't you just grab a bunch of money from that bank vault.' It's not nearly that simple.\n\nAs to how they make money - the more people who use the automated passes, the less toll takers have to be hired/paid/etc at each toll plaza. The long-term savings of needing less employees more than balances out the reduction in tolls for pass users.",
"I'm not sure what you mean by \"tag\" the EZPass? If you mean clone it, I'm sure that is possible but not worth the hassle. The thief isn't going to be able to go use it like they would a stolen credit card.\n\nThe company can make money charging less because they don't have to pay union wages and benefits to a human standing there taking your money. Cars who pay cash have to stop and interact with that worker. While they are stopped 20 cars just went through the EXPass lane. "
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1unb6x | what is the floating squiggly line that i see sometimes? | I've been wondering this for a while. Idk if other people see it too or if you even know what I'm talking about | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1unb6x/eli5_what_is_the_floating_squiggly_line_that_i/ | {
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"I think you are asking about [*floaters*](_URL_0_).",
"A [floater](_URL_0_). It's a tiny imperfection in your eye. Most people have them.",
"According to my optometrist, they are pieces of tissue that disconnected as your eye was curving as your eyes matured. I have rather large ones because I have astigmatism in effect making my eyes shaped more elongated than those without. You will have them more if you have vision problems or astigmatisms and less if you have 20/20 vision."
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1t8zm4 | muscle atrophy. or how muscle loss happens in general. | So I joined a gym recently, and they got me thinking about muscles and how just having more muscle mass means you need more calories and stuff.
Anyway, I was running all through the year, and even ran a half marathon this summer. I haven't really ran in about 3 months now, though.
So what is happening to my muscles? Are they slowly deteriorating? If so, why? Does my brain just recognize that I don't need that, so there is no reason to repair them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t8zm4/eli5_muscle_atrophy_or_how_muscle_loss_happens_in/ | {
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"Much of the body has a \"use it or lose it\" behavior. Muscles need vital energy, so if the muscles aren't being used, the body will prevent some losses of energy by not rebuilding muscles.\n\nWhereas, when you work out, the things like lactic acid that build up from muscle waste (the burn you feel, when you 'feel the burn'), also signal the body to rebuild muscle in greater amounts. So, since you did use it, you might need some more for next time.",
"Unless you're going through a severe disease process, you aren't actually losing any muscle cells. Maybe it's easier to think about how muscles get BIGGER when you exercise, and go backwards from there. \n\nAs you exercise, each cell grows bigger and stronger. It's debatable whether you get MORE cells, but most people think you keep, relatively, the same number of cells. When the muscle gets worked, they develop more mitochondria, the powerhouses that convert chemical energy (glucose, pyruvate, and NADH) into energy the cells can use (ATP).\n\nIf you do higher reps -- or run long distances, you build up the mitochondria, which can account for 20 to 30 percent of the increased size. I say \"higher reps\" because during this taxing process your muscles then become increasingly depleted of energy and need the mitochondria to help replace fuel (ATP).\n\nHeavy exercise increases the number of muscle fibers (myofibrils) in each cell. This increase of numbers can also account for 20 to 30 percent of muscle growth, with this effect coming from higher weights, less reps. This type of exercise also increases volume of the sarcoplasm fluid, the protein filled fluid that is found in each cell, another 20 to 30 percent. Working a muscle also increases the amount of glycogen (energy dense storage material) stored in the muscles and the amount of connective tissue. \n\nWhen you don't exercise, these things basically reverse -- you don't need as many mitochondria or myofibrils, since they take energy to maintain (as you mention, more muscle mass means you need to eat more Calories to maintain it). Therefore, your body gets rid of some of these things to a point where you have enough for your (now lower) activity level. "
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f79unr | supposedly going faster uses more fuel. but your getting to the place quicker. shouldn't you just be using the same amount of fuel as if you were driving slower and getting there later? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f79unr/eli5_supposedly_going_faster_uses_more_fuel_but/ | {
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"text": [
"No, because you have higher drag which means you need more power to go through the air which means you have to burn more fuel to get that power",
"Going faster does not alway mean using more fuel. There is an optimal speed at which a vehicle will have the most efficient fuel consumption. \n\nGoing super slow can be less efficient because the vehicle is always trying to overcome friction and other forces that keep the object stationary therefore requiring more energy...fuel. \n\nGoing too fast can be less efficient because forces like drag can start to cause more friction leading to increased energy consumption. \n\nFinally, this part I am not 100% certain on so I will leave it up to the community, but I believe vehicle engine/transmission can be altered to change fuel efficiency based off speed.",
"You ever stick your hand out a car window when going 60 or 80 mph? The wind is pushing your hand back pretty hard. When you're going that fast, your car has to fight that wind constantly, which uses fuel. Go slower, and there's much less wind to fight. (Technically it's not wind, it's you traveling through stationary air which feels like wind)",
"Things aren't always linearly proportional. \n\nExample from Wikipedia: _URL_0_\n\n > convective heating is proportional to the velocity cubed, while radiative heating is proportional to the velocity exponentiated to the eighth power\n\nSo if you go twice as fast, you don't just generate twice the heat. Instead, you'll generate 8 times as much convective heat and 256 times the radiative heat compared to if you just went your \"normal speed\". It's not always 1:1.",
"The faster a vehicle travels, the higher the air resistance and that resistance goes up much faster the faster you go. IE doubling your speed doesn't double the air resistance, it's more like quadrupling it. \n\nThe optimum speed for best range and efficiency will vary with a vehicle depending mostly on it's aerodynamics. Generally the more slippery it is through the air, the higher it's most efficient speed.",
"Here is an easier comparison if you will allow some leniency. What is easier for you? Running up a flight of stairs as fast as possible or casually walking up them? Both are the same distance but one requires more “fuel”\n\nAlso, you need to consider efficiency. Your vehicle may be more efficient in fuel economy at 45 miles per hour than it is at 90 miles per hour."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry"
],
[],
[]
] |
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