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2y7drn | can there be two humans that are exactly the same? | I understand that DNA is a lot of combinations of chemicals and how there are genes, but if there is enough people in the universe, is there a chance that there are two people who are exactly alike in appearance? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y7drn/eli5_can_there_be_two_humans_that_are_exactly_the/ | {
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"theoretically, there's nothing preventing it. Just don't count on it happening ever for the rest of time.",
"The answer is yes, but because of the amount of people that can be possibly \"made\", the chances of actually having two exactly identical people created independent (as in, not identical twins) of each other is extremely low, statistically speaking. But it is definitely possible."
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6nabkk | why can't babies drink water until they are six months old? | I have read that babies shouldn't drink water until they are six months old. So what changes in babies from infancy and six months later? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nabkk/eli5_why_cant_babies_drink_water_until_they_are/ | {
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"My understanding is they need a dense highly nutritious intake, almost constantly, during their first months of life to help them grow. If they had water, it would fill them up but provide no nutritional value.",
"Newborns receive all their nutrition from breast milk or formula. They also have very small stomachs, and if you fill the stomach with water, they won't be hungry for milk or formula and thus might not receive adequate nutrition. As they grow, their stomachs become larger and their digestive system better equipped to handle mushy foods and water in addition to breast milk or formula.",
" From what my kids pediatrician said it's that due to they're nutritional needs if you give them straight water it can \"poison\" them by throwing off their electrolytes. ",
"Babies are expected to double or triple their weight in the first 6 months. It takes a lot of calories and nutrients to do that healthily. As mentioned by other posters, water fills the baby up and makes them full, but without any nutrition.\n\nThat's only around 180 days. That's a relatively small number of meals. So each meal that gets replaced by water represents a fairly significant percentage of the food this child has ingested over its entire life till that point.\n\nIt's all about making sure that the baby's body has everything it needs and isn't running out of gas, so to speak. ",
"To add to the interference with babies nutritional information already provided above.\n\n\"In rare cases, a baby who drinks too much water can develop a condition known as water intoxication, which can cause seizures and even a coma. Water intoxication happens when too much water dilutes the concentration of sodium in the body, upsetting the electrolyte balance and causing tissues to swell.\"\n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"Maybe the confusion is about drinking only water. Because breast milk and formula contain 80%+ of water. ",
"No, it causes hyponatremia and seizures, and can kill your baby. My first peds patient in med school was a baby where the dad had given 2-3 oz of water a few times that morning. Babies have stupid kidneys that aren't good at concentrating urine."
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2hnatd | why does the united states react so quickly to terrorist activity in the middle east, as a humanitarian effort, but has ignored numerous genocides? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hnatd/eli5_why_does_the_united_states_react_so_quickly/ | {
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"This almost seems like a violation of Rule 7...\n\n\"Loaded questions are not allowed. A loaded question presumes a controversial opinion is fact, usually to provoke an argument. \"ELI5: Why is Obama the president when he wasn't born in the US?\" is loaded. \"ELI5: The controversy about where Obama was born\" is a non loaded way to ask about the same topic.\"",
"To put it simply, to protect our interests. Let's take ISIS as an example. If the US thinks that ISIS has the potential to harm our allies or cause economic instability that would negatively effect the country, then the conflict becomes a matter of national security. \n\nI can't answer your question about ignoring genocides, except by saying that we have stepped in and fought against genocide in the past. ",
"Those genocides were constrained to their own borders. ISIS is an expanding threat.",
"You need to understand the goals here. It's not to prevent terrorism or genocides. If they can do these things then great, but rather prevent terrorism against the usa AND project their power. \n\nTake the iraq war for example. Regardless of reasons and results. What it did do was destabilize the dictatorships and governments in the area. Which enabled the [arab spring](_URL_0_) ",
"Genocides are often perpetuated by the nations government as opposed to a terrorist group on the fringe. If you try to stop the nation, it will fight back at a much larger scale then small conflicts between terrorists and troops, and this will cause very large diplomatic ripples"
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3cp0w6 | how did warfare work in the 1500-1700s? | The classic image of blocks of soldiers marching in a straight line toward each other, slowly firing and reloading their muskets comes to mind. How was this used to determine conflicts? Did a battle end when a certain number of enemies were killed? Other than previously agreed-upon rules, what was stopping anyone from using guerrilla tactics etc?
Stories of generals cease-firing to have tea with each other circulate as well. This whole "civilized warfare" concept is difficult to grasp in the 21st century, so I'm hoping someone can shed some light on it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cp0w6/eli5_how_did_warfare_work_in_the_15001700s/ | {
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"I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that you would get your army into formation (infantry up front, artillery behind, cavalry on the flanks usually) and one force would attack. That would involve getting close enough to shoot and then charge the enemy. \n\nAs for infantry specifically, they formed close lines so they could defend against cavalry charges, communicate more easily as a unit over all the smoke and noise from the gun shots, and generally act cohesively. Bayonet charges were also incredibly important in this period. Most armies would have infantry advance and fire once or twice then charge. A charge works better when you're in a line of troops that can support each other rather than spread out in a skirmish pattern. \n\nAs with most battles, the winner was usually the one that didn't rout first. It takes a lot of discipline to get shot at and charged at by guys on horses and not run. And once one person starts running, other people do too.\n\nSo a battle might start with nicely formed lines and leaders certainly sought to keep them that way, but they would break down upon charging or being charged until one side perceived it was losing and routed.\n\nGuerrilla warfare wasn't as important because guns didn't have great range or accuracy so it wasn't really that easy to skirmish. You also need highly trained troops with competent officers who can manage on their own on the battlefield. Three or four dudes who don't know where to go or who to target will just run at worst and not inflict any damage at best. It was much more important to have troops lined up to act cohesively and charge in a unified effort.\n\n[Here's](_URL_0_) a great thread from /r/askhistorians that goes into more detail.\n\nAs for the tea time cease fires, I can't say much that wouldn't be pure speculation.",
"Army size increased by a lot, because having a huge infantry became much more useful in volleys and such. And logistics wasn't quite there yet, so these huge armies would essentially raze the surrounding countryside for food and supplies. That pushes out the civilian population and makes guerilla warfare less practical, since you can't hide among nearby civilian populations in between attacks.\n\nGood infrastructure (roads, canals, bridges, etc) didn't really exist, and what did wasn't meant for groups of this size. You could basically march around for months and months on end without ever coming into contact with the enemy army or getting very far.\n\nAll this basically means that if you were the invading force, it made the most sense to head towards fixed points: forts, towns, cities, etc. So sieges were the most common tactic for basically all of that time period in Europe.\n\nSo, to answer your question directly, battles ended when one of the groups gave up, just like it did in earlier time periods. This could be because of lack of food during a seige, number of deaths, people getting scared, etc.\n\nLack of mobility/infrastructure would also be part of why commanders met during cease fires. If you want to negotiate at all quickly, it has to be face-to-face, and you can't exactly bring in someone of higher rank/importance if it'll take weeks or months to get there and back. ",
"Well the reason seemingly out of date tactics remained in use, fighting in the open, using fighting lines, fighting for forts/towns etc was because even though weaponry had out grown these tactics the rest of the world's technology had not. This actually remained true up to world War one and even somewhat in ww2 particularly on the eastern front. Small unit tactics began evolving during the 1700's but again the infrastructure to base a campaign on these tactics simply didn't exsist. The shift in military doctrine to something we would consider relatively modern really only came about because new communication technology as well as the evolution of modern transportation. ",
"War in the 1500-1700s is a big topic, but I'll try my best to keep it brief.\n\nThe 1500s to 1700s is part of what we call the early modern period, and it is--in many ways--a time of transition. Warfare changed dramatically over this period, and I'm not sure I can do the change justice in ELI5. However, the image you describe--lines of infantry marching towards each other--is a bit of a later thing. These 'linear tactics' were developed throughout the 17th century and the 30 Years War as a way to maximise the amount of firepower you could lay against your enemies, and really dominated in the 18th century. As such, I'm going to focus on that time period, rather than the earlier eras. \n\nIt's not right to say that these were 'rules' that people had to follow. The generals and soldiers of the 18th century weren't suicidal, nor were they stupid. The blocks of infantry were simply the most effective ways to use soldiers to win a battle, for several reasons. However, before I get into that, I'll try and answer how a battle was 'won'. In military history, it's important to remember that battles are not usually fought solely for the purpose of killing the enemy. There's a goal to be achieved, and the enemy is in the way of that goal. As such, the enemy is defeated when they are no longer blocking your progress to your goal. This could be breaking the siege of a friendly fort, marching on a major city, or even simply driving the enemy from the area and forcing them to regroup elsewhere. In general, one side would begin to lose morale for one reason or another. Their troops would waver and begin to retreat, and they would leave the field to the victor. The victor would then either pursue to attempt to completely destroy the enemy army, or they would have something else to do, and let them retreat. \n\nNow, the question of course is, why would they use these seemingly silly formations? There's a lot of reasons for that, many of which pile together:\n\n1) Accuracy. I'm sure you've heard this lots, but muskets are inaccurate. It's difficult to pick off targets one at a time, and the best way of making the enemy begin to waver and start thinking that retreating is a better idea is to fire en masse, so that a large number of their fellows fall at similar times. In some situations (the Swedes come to mind) they would deliberately hold their fire to the last minute so that their first salvo would be the most disruptive. \n\n2) Mass. This can be split up further, but mass is one of the most important ones. Let's say that we both of have 100 men. You spread your men out so they can move freely, whereas I keep mine in a tight block. What happens, of course, is that while your men don't present a target for my massed fire, my block is only ever engaging a few of your men at a time. As such, I take losses, but the block keep moving. Furthermore, one of the most important weapons of this time was the bayonet, which turns ones musket into a short spear. A mass of 100 men charging with bayonets fixed into a much looser formation will most likely see the looser formation defeated. \n\n2a) Cavalry. Related to mass is the cavalry. Cavalry, while a long way from the dominant role they played in medieval warfare, were still a major part of battles. Let's replay that scene, but instead of your 100 men fighting mine, we're both facing a unit of enemy cavalry. A tight block of 100 men can deliver a severe shock to a cavalry charge, and no horse is going to charge a line of bayonets. However, spread out, you are much more vulnerable to a cavalry charge, much like with the bayonet example above.\n\n3) Discipline & Control. Warfare at this time is the era of the professional soldier. Moving and fighting in this block requires co-ordination and a lot of discipline, lest the formation begin to collapse and become vulnerable to the enemy. Staying close together means that you're more likely to be able to hear and react to your officers commands. Not to mention, being surrounded by your fellow soldiers is a great way to keep morale high in the chaos of battle. This technique of keeping troops in contact with one another to keep morale high is still practiced today (although, much differently due to the change in technology). \n\nNow, while this has been all about how great blocks of men are, I do want to point out that widely spread troops did have their uses. Indeed, by the Napoleonic Wars, 'light infantry' were in use by all sides, and were considered quite useful. As you can see, it is less about being 'gentlemanly', and more about what works. Linear tactics were used because they worked well, and as times changed, the tactics changed with them. \n\nNow, onto civilized warfare. I can't think of any examples of generals stopping to have tea with the enemy's commanders off the top of my head, so I might dismiss that as apocryphal, but I can't be certain. However, I think I can make a few more points here.\n\nWar in the 18th century was not fought the way it is today. Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries were horrible, perhaps as bad as some of the wars we've seen today. The 30 Years War (1618-48) saw over a quarter of the population of Germany die. As such, after those wars there was a strong desire to avoid the same kind of bloodshed. Furthermore, as I noted, these soldiers are professionals. A lot has been invested in their training, and it'd be expensive to raise a new army. Field battles were still massive gambles, as defeat in a field battle could mean the loss of a very expensive army, and thus being in a much worse position at the negotiating table. The term often used to describe this style of war is 'kabinettskriege'. The armies would maneuver, and sieges would be fought while the diplomats moved back and forth attempting to negotiate an end to the war. Each side would want to be in a position where they could negotiate from a stronger position than their enemy. \n\nFurthermore, war was not the 'total war' we see today, where it's a whole nation at war with another. It was--essentially--one prince, king, or emperor at war with another ruler. People would identify with their monarch, but there was not the same kind of nationalist spirit of fighting for one's nation as their is today. Today's foe was tomorrow's friend. \n\nI might have gotten a bit carried away for ELI5, but hopefully this answers your questions. Feel free to ask any questions. \n"
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2mb5kh | why, when i'm sick (e.g. cold, flu etc..), do i taste sick? | Every time I get a cold or something of the sort, my phlegm tastes weird (sweet, and disgusting). It's usually how I can tell that I'm getting sick in the first place and not just mucus-y. Am I tasting antibodies or bacteria or something?
Bonus question: Can the taste give me any information about what I'm sick with, or maybe how sick? Are there maladies that have a distinct taste? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mb5kh/eli5_why_when_im_sick_eg_cold_flu_etc_do_i_taste/ | {
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"And more importantly... can others taste it?... ",
"I've always assumed bacteria and that it works similar to \"morning breath\".",
"Your sputum changes in composition when you're sick; it becomes purulent (presence of pus, which mostly contais immune cells and bacterial debris.), so this is probably what cause the change in taste.",
"I know when my husband is getting sick. His breath has a sweet smell. "
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1jdtg9 | the relationship between electrical engineering and computer science. | In my head, I imagine electrical engineers build the computers and the computer science guys design the programs to run on said computers. I also imagine it's probably a little more complicated than that. I have taken computer classes and electrical engineering classes in college, so don't be afraid to get technical. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jdtg9/eli5the_relationship_between_electrical/ | {
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"For an ELI5 topic you've summed it up pretty well! Machines build computer parts now (cheaper, much much more precise and accurate, etc) but electrical engineers design the parts! You can differentiate between the two roles by thinking of computers as hardware and software - hardware refers to physical parts of the computer (the processor, RAM, etc) while software refers to programs and applications (ranging from the operating system to your internet browser to the anti-virus scanner you have)!",
"There's actually a whole spectrum of skills, and to make it all work together well you need people throughout the spectrum. Some people just need to understand programming, and some need to just understand hardware. But a lot of people need to understand some of both to make a technical ecosystem that works well. It is rare to find a great programmer who knows nothing of how the hardware works, and similarly rare to find a great hardware engineer who knows nothing of how the programs work. \n \nYou also need some specialists, though. We need computer scientists to come up with new and great algorithms, operating system improvements, etc. And great hardware engineers to do things like 100Gb Ethernet and 4 TB HDDs. ",
"computer science deals with things like traversal algorithms, pattern recognition, memory mapping, compression. basically \"ideas\" computer science deals very little the actual physical computer devices. \n\nelectrical engineering is a big field that covers much more than computers. a better comparison is computer engineering, which deals with things like design and manufacturing of computer chips, memory, etc etc. \n\nwasn't this already asked a couple days ago?"
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fkshvx | how can a regular chest x-ray (not ct) determine if a lung infection is bacterial or viral? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fkshvx/eli5_how_can_a_regular_chest_xray_not_ct/ | {
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"It does not work like that.. the fact is specific virus and bacteria produce specific lesions in your lung which are manifested as signs on x ray. We interpret an x ray film for those signs. If one is identified we assign the most common or probable etiology to it after co relating with the clinical presentation of the patient.\nOn gross terms.. no just by looking at an x ray you can't tell if its bacterial or viral if both are known to prouduce a similar lesion or manifestation on x ray",
"It can't, really. Generally, when we suggest a diagnosis in medicine, we talk in terms of probability—while a given chest x-ray might *more likely* represent a bacterial pneumonia and *less likely* a viral one, looking at the image alone is not enough. Certain patters on CXR are more typical of bacterial vs. viral infections, but we always look to other clinical features to support one diagnosis over another. An x-ray (and even a CT) is just a piece of the puzzle along with other investigations, history, and our physical exam."
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1x6pnb | why do we hear a humming sound when we're in a really quite environment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1x6pnb/eli5_why_do_we_hear_a_humming_sound_when_were_in/ | {
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"Depends. Even in a very quiet environment there is still a lot of noise from machinery, traffic, nature, everything really. You don't normally hear it because other noise drowns it out. There are rooms called 'anechoic chambers' which are specially designed to be as quiet as possible, and no one can sit in them for more than 45 minutes, because the sound of their own body working becomes intolerable. If you cup you hands over your ears you can hear your blood pumping, imagine that being the loudest thing you hear incessantly, and not being able to escape.",
"Tinnitus is usually a ringing, or hitch pitched frequency that we hear, not a humming. I have rather severe Tinnitus in both ears, and yet when I was out in the middle of the desert once, experiencing a complete absence of sound, I heard the humming sound also. It was actually very annoying, especially in addition to the Tinnitus. \n\nI don't have an answer for you OP, but it's there. "
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1sqnd4 | the dunning-kreuger effect and why it occurs | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sqnd4/eli5_the_dunningkreuger_effect_and_why_it_occurs/ | {
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"If someone has little understanding of a subject, it becomes hard for them to tell when others (including their own views) are accurate with regard to the subject. While those who have at least some understanding realize that there's a whole lot more of the subject they may not fully understand. \n\nAs an simple example, if we were talking about a movie I have not seen, it becomes very hard for you to argue that something I incorrectly remember seeing in the movie (I haven't seen) is incorrect (unless we both sit down to watch the movie). \n\n",
"Sometimes people are so stupid that they don't know they are stupid. "
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1f1981 | how do cheap drinks benefit bars, and why do bars not extend happy hours and cheap drinks to attract customers? | Bar, club and pub workers: I'm trying to work out why bars don't use slightly cheaper drinks more often to draw customers, as we're looking at developing a city-wide students' deal. Surely the benefit of having more paying customers would outweigh the reduced prices? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f1981/eli5_how_do_cheap_drinks_benefit_bars_and_why_do/ | {
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"Alcohol at bars usually has a very large markup, from 50% to over 1000% above wholesale. Its how they make money. Cheap drinks, for example at happy hour, still make a fair amount of profit, theyre just cheaper to bring in more customers at times when they normally wouldn't come in otherwise. And if the bar is full and the drinks are moving fast, more money for the buisness is always better. ",
"There are a lot of microeconomics going on here:\n\n* demand changes greatly with day of the week\n* competition with other bars changes with time of day and day of week\n* loss leader - some bar patrons stay for hours, so a cheap drink at 6pm might translate to them buying full price drinks at 9pm\n* empty bars lack atmosphere, so attracting customers during happy hour will bring more in later\n* students spread \"buzz\" better than older customers\n\nThe bottom line is, the economics of the situation change throughout the week, so the optimal pricing strategy isn't always going to be the same.\n\n"
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281zye | would there be more four leaf clovers if people stopped plucking the ones they find? | A friend posted a photo of finding a four leaf clover. She plucked it out of the ground and posted it to facebook, which made me wonder; if people stopped destroying a rarity, would there be more of it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/281zye/eli5would_there_be_more_four_leaf_clovers_if/ | {
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"First of all, you never really find a four leafed clover . What is called a four leafed clover is actually \"one leaf of a clover plant with four leaflets\" . The clover plant has compound leaves, usu with leaflets in sets of three. But from here on out I'll ignore that...\n\nFour leaf clovers are easy for me to see, and pretty common later in the summer. There are two reason you see a four ( or 5,6, or a world record 18) leafed white clover. ( some clover have four leaves naturally, wild white clover is traditionally lucky)\n\nOne is a genetic mutation , the other is environmental factors( lots of sunlight) .\n\nIn the case of genetic mutation just one leaf is mutated so picking that does not change the plants genetic makeup. \n\nIn the second, and more common case, the plant is reacting to extra sun with extra growth( which is why four leafed clovers are more common later in summer). \n\nEither way picking them does not hinder their propagation... Heck they're only lucky if ya eat them!\n\nSource: I love plants."
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1n318p | why do restaurants charge so much more for a bottle of wine than liquor stores charge for the same bottle? | I understand the markup on the food, there is a lot of labour and expertise that goes into preparing the food. I don't get why wine is marked up so much.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n318p/eli5_why_do_restaurants_charge_so_much_more_for_a/ | {
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"Well they aren't going to let you bring your own wine in, so at that moment while you're dining in their restaurant they have a monopoly on wine. \r\rEdit: Apparently you can bring your own wine. I was incorrect.",
"Well the restaurant has to make some money on it too. Its just a simple markup to make wine profitable for that restaurant. ",
"Also, a liquor license is very expensive. ",
"Because the liquor store is not going to bring the bottle over to you at a table with glasses and open it up in front of you for you, pour it for you, and clean up after your mess. so there's that.. ",
"The usual answer to \"Why do business charge X\" applies here.... because they can. People will pay it, so they charge it.\n\n",
"Because they can",
"beer is much worse at a bar. I went to a bar\\restaurant and wanted a domestic beer for lunch. $3.00. I could get a 12 pack for $8.00."
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91z4oj | why is it that poison ivy can be spread by scratching but you don't get it on your finger tips? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/91z4oj/eli5_why_is_it_that_poison_ivy_can_be_spread_by/ | {
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"Tolerance, thickness, etc.\n\nYour hands are really sensetive, it helps us use them better, but they're also very tough, because we use them so much.\n\nSo you can get poison ivy on your fingertips, but the poison isn't strong enough to damage you through the strong skin on your fingers, but then you spread it to other, more sensetive and weaker areas of your skin",
"Pimch your arm, and then pinch your finger tips. You'll find your arm's skin is much thinner which means it's also much more sensitive. Due to us using our hands so much, we have developed more resilient skin in that area.",
"As someone who recently dealt with poison ivy... the oil that's responsible (urushiol) isn't instantly absorbed into your skin. \n\nEven if you are exposed to it - you can avoid or negate a bad rash by scrubbing it off with a soap designed to break up oils. It's once that urushiol is absorbed is when you have a problem. \n\nOther factor to think about - a person is far more likely to go about their day and wash their hands several several times, vs say getting it on your legs and not showering for 6-8 hours later. \n\nThe plant oil itself is pretty damn resilient in that if you get it on something, it will sit there and remain \"active\" for something like 1 to 5 years. So it's very easy to spread without knowing. "
]
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[],
[],
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||
lhlnk | what the hell bank of america is doing with merrill lynch derivatives and why the fdic doesn't like it. | I really tried this time to read the whole article (below), but I don't know what the hell anyone is talking about!
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lhlnk/eli5_what_the_hell_bank_of_america_is_doing_with/ | {
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"If you're a bank, a bank account is a liability. It represents money you owe to someone else, someone called a depositor.\n\nIf you're a financial institution that deals in derivatives contracts, those also represent liabilities. If the conditions of one of those contracts is met, the other party in the contract — called the counterpartner — will come to you for some money. (The other side of that coin is that if another condition is met, *you* will go to the counterpartner for money, but that's not important right now.)\n\nIf you're an institution that has both deposits and derivatives, you have *two* different kinds of liabilities.\n\nWhich is not a problem! It's entirely okay and uncontroversial for an institution to deal both in deposits and in derivatives. JP Morgan Chase does both, and keeps them both on the same balance sheet. So that's no big deal.\n\nThe part where it becomes a big deal is what happens if — God forbid — your institution *fails.*\n\nIf that happens, you end up owing money to *two* sets of people: your depositors, and also your derivatives counterpartners. They are both owed money by you, and both of them are going to want to carve off a piece of your business's steaming corpse.\n\nUnder the law, deposits are guaranteed by a company called the FDIC. If you have a bank that only has deposits — a depository bank, it's called — and your bank fails, your assets may be carved up and used to reimburse your depositors. Whatever deposits are left over after this is done are reimbursed by the FDIC.\n\nBut also under the law, if your institution has *both* deposits *and* derivatives as liabilities, then when and if you fail — again, God forbid — the *derivatives counterpartners get first pick.* Why? Simple: Because the depositors are going to get reimbursed no matter what. Their deposits are guaranteed. But the derivatives counterpartners aren't guaranteed to get their money by anybody; they have to just pick over your corpse and take what they can get.\n\nSo when Bank of America moved derivatives contracts from its Merrill Lynch subsidiary to its Bank of America NA subsidiary, it effectively *increased* significantly the amount the FDIC will have to pay out *in the event* that Bank of America NA ends up failing. Why? Because the derivatives counterpartners are going to get first crack at Bank of America NA's assets, instead of those assets being liquidated and used to reimburse depositors. So instead of the FDIC just having to pay whatever's left over, the FDIC will have to pay whatever's left over *after* the derivatives counterpartners get their piece. So more, in other words.\n\nBut wait, let's go back. Didn't we just say a few paragraphs ago that it's *entirely normal and okay* for institutions like this to keep derivatives and deposits on the same balance sheet? Yup, we sure did. So what's weird about this recent move? What's weird about this recent move is that Bank of America — the parent company of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America NA — *didn't* move Merrill's derivative contracts over to Bank of America NA's balance sheet in 2009, when Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch. Instead, it just left them right where they were until recently. Why did Bank of America move them recently? Because its derivatives counterpartners asked it to. Why did the counterpartners ask it to? Because Moody's downgraded Bank of America's credit rating, raising the spectre of possible insolvency in the future.\n\nIn other words, the counterpartners asked Bank of America to move their derivatives contracts from Merrill to Bank of America NA in order to *maximize their chances* of not *taking a huge loss* if Bank of America should declare bankruptcy. And how does this maximize their chances of not taking a huge loss? By pushing more of the potential burden of reimbursing depositors' funds onto the FDIC … which in turn is backed by the United States Treasury.\n\nNow, this is not against any kind of law. Nor is it obviously a bad thing. But it is something worth talking about. *Should we* call it a bad thing? *Should we* make it against the law? It's not clear. Very smart people have different opinions on that. I'm *not* a very smart person, so I'm going to have to think about it some more before I decide how I feel about it. At this point, I can't really predict where I'm going to come down.",
"If you're a bank, a bank account is a liability. It represents money you owe to someone else, someone called a depositor.\n\nIf you're a financial institution that deals in derivatives contracts, those also represent liabilities. If the conditions of one of those contracts is met, the other party in the contract — called the counterpartner — will come to you for some money. (The other side of that coin is that if another condition is met, *you* will go to the counterpartner for money, but that's not important right now.)\n\nIf you're an institution that has both deposits and derivatives, you have *two* different kinds of liabilities.\n\nWhich is not a problem! It's entirely okay and uncontroversial for an institution to deal both in deposits and in derivatives. JP Morgan Chase does both, and keeps them both on the same balance sheet. So that's no big deal.\n\nThe part where it becomes a big deal is what happens if — God forbid — your institution *fails.*\n\nIf that happens, you end up owing money to *two* sets of people: your depositors, and also your derivatives counterpartners. They are both owed money by you, and both of them are going to want to carve off a piece of your business's steaming corpse.\n\nUnder the law, deposits are guaranteed by a company called the FDIC. If you have a bank that only has deposits — a depository bank, it's called — and your bank fails, your assets may be carved up and used to reimburse your depositors. Whatever deposits are left over after this is done are reimbursed by the FDIC.\n\nBut also under the law, if your institution has *both* deposits *and* derivatives as liabilities, then when and if you fail — again, God forbid — the *derivatives counterpartners get first pick.* Why? Simple: Because the depositors are going to get reimbursed no matter what. Their deposits are guaranteed. But the derivatives counterpartners aren't guaranteed to get their money by anybody; they have to just pick over your corpse and take what they can get.\n\nSo when Bank of America moved derivatives contracts from its Merrill Lynch subsidiary to its Bank of America NA subsidiary, it effectively *increased* significantly the amount the FDIC will have to pay out *in the event* that Bank of America NA ends up failing. Why? Because the derivatives counterpartners are going to get first crack at Bank of America NA's assets, instead of those assets being liquidated and used to reimburse depositors. So instead of the FDIC just having to pay whatever's left over, the FDIC will have to pay whatever's left over *after* the derivatives counterpartners get their piece. So more, in other words.\n\nBut wait, let's go back. Didn't we just say a few paragraphs ago that it's *entirely normal and okay* for institutions like this to keep derivatives and deposits on the same balance sheet? Yup, we sure did. So what's weird about this recent move? What's weird about this recent move is that Bank of America — the parent company of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America NA — *didn't* move Merrill's derivative contracts over to Bank of America NA's balance sheet in 2009, when Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch. Instead, it just left them right where they were until recently. Why did Bank of America move them recently? Because its derivatives counterpartners asked it to. Why did the counterpartners ask it to? Because Moody's downgraded Bank of America's credit rating, raising the spectre of possible insolvency in the future.\n\nIn other words, the counterpartners asked Bank of America to move their derivatives contracts from Merrill to Bank of America NA in order to *maximize their chances* of not *taking a huge loss* if Bank of America should declare bankruptcy. And how does this maximize their chances of not taking a huge loss? By pushing more of the potential burden of reimbursing depositors' funds onto the FDIC … which in turn is backed by the United States Treasury.\n\nNow, this is not against any kind of law. Nor is it obviously a bad thing. But it is something worth talking about. *Should we* call it a bad thing? *Should we* make it against the law? It's not clear. Very smart people have different opinions on that. I'm *not* a very smart person, so I'm going to have to think about it some more before I decide how I feel about it. At this point, I can't really predict where I'm going to come down."
]
} | [] | [
"http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/10/bank-of-america-moves-merrill-lynch.html"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
d8qb5v | why does every video from space seem to be filmed with a fisheye camera lens? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d8qb5v/eli5_why_does_every_video_from_space_seem_to_be/ | {
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"A lot of the video taken in space is intended for engineers to examine. So they are set up to cover all the action in the frame even with bad camera work. So they have intentionally gone with a wide angle lens. Astronauts are currently using GoPro cameras mounted on their visor when they are conducting EVA.",
"Because \"backing up to get a less distorted view\" is super hard. The ISS is 250 miles above the Earth's surface, which is 8000 miles wide. That's the same ratio as being a foot away from a 32 foot long school bus. Without a wide angle lens, you can't get much into the shot.",
"Because they are filmed with a fisheye lens.\n\nIf you are going to go through the trouble to send a camera up in space, you want to see as much space as you can, and are willing to put up with some distortion."
]
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24klcz | why do animals feed other animals of a different species? | Why do certain animals feed other animals? Like this post: _URL_0_
It's a duck feeding fish. What motivates this behavior? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24klcz/eli5_why_do_animals_feed_other_animals_of_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch8224a"
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"The duck in that gif is probably not feeding the fish on purpose.\n\nBut it's a good question. It's not uncommon to see animals of different species interacting as if they were the same species.\n\nHow can a [lion, a tiger, and a bear become best friends](_URL_1_) when their species typically don't associate with each other? The answer is probably that they all poses mutually compatible social instincts. Just like [mother dogs and baby kittens](_URL_0_) posses mutually compatible instincts related to nursing and cuddling. "
]
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/24jkmp/one_for_you_and_one_for_you_and_another_one_for/"
] | [
[
"https://www.google.com/#q=dog+raising+kittens",
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/lion-tiger-bear-negligence_n_4374091.html"
]
] |
|
3e02mq | how come listening to music makes time fly by? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e02mq/eli5_how_come_listening_to_music_makes_time_fly_by/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"\"Time is Relative\" can also mean that it also depends on how you look at a situation. If you're relaxed and not focused on the passage of time, or clock-watching, time seems to fly by. But if you're performing menial work or something that causes you to constantly check the time or count the seconds or minutes, time feels like it's drawing on because you're constantly aware of it, hence \"A watched pot never boils.\"\n\nThe less you pay attention to it, the less you notice its passage and the quicker time SEEMS to pass."
]
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[]
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||
2w948c | why would 30g of fiber per day help someone lose weight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w948c/eli5_why_would_30g_of_fiber_per_day_help_someone/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Fiber makes you feel fuller for longer so you're less likely to overeat and/or gorge yourself on junk food. Most junk food/snacks don't contain dietary fiber therefore you eat more of it to fill up and not long after you want more because you're not full anymore."
]
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[]
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||
xqirp | sikhism | Wikipedia was my first stop and it made Sikhism sound really cool, but going to Wikipedia for religious information can be like like asking a crackhead outside the bar for directions to a bank... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xqirp/eli5_sikhism/ | {
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"Sikhism is a monotheistic religion originating from the Punjab region of India. It first appeared around 500-600 years ago following a spiritual revelation by the religion's founder, Guru Nanak. Nanak was a Hindu who lived in a Muslim-dominated region, and follwing his revelation, declared that \"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim.\" Today, there are over 26 million Sikhs around the world, mostly concentrated in Punjab state in Northern India.\n\nSikhism is defined by religious plurality, egalitarianism, community, history, and tradition. Sikhism borrows much from Islam and Hinduism, and Sikhs are generally tolerant of all other religious traditions. Sikhism also emphasizes the history of it's culture, which faced outside discrimination, persecution, and oppression under Muslim Sultans, especially in the 16th century. Many identifying traits of Sikhism come from this era (Including the 'Five Ks', things that Sikhs do to make their outward appearance distinctly Sikh, such as growing their hair out, wearing a turban, a kirpan, etc).\n\nSikh traditions generally revolve around the community. Probably the most iconic and well known Sikh tradition is the langar, a shared meal in which all people sit on the same level, man next to woman, poor next to wealthy, Sikh next to other religious people, and share a meal in solidarity with one another. It resembles many of the central tenets of Sikhism well, and Punjabi food is delicious.\n\nOf course, it's important to remember that with all religions, Sikhism is often mixed and counters local culture: just because Sikhism espouses religious tolerance and the equality of genders does not always mean that these ideas are practiced in all instances.\n\nJust by skimming through, [this website](_URL_0_) seems to have a fair bit of information on it about practices, beliefs, and history.",
"Quick and good explanation by another redditor [here](_URL_0_)."
]
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"http://www.sikhism101.com/"
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/xpvsj/reports_of_8_to_20_people_injured_in_shooting_at/c5ok7sw"
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3mbi2w | how does a symphony composer test out their composition while writing it? | Do they just hire an orchestra to play their incomplete piece? Do they just write it to the finish and hope that it sounds as good in real life as it does in their head? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mbi2w/eli5_how_does_a_symphony_composer_test_out_their/ | {
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"In modernity, they will use the computer program to play it back to them during the early stages and they will have local orchestras play through them for final revisions. \n\nHistorically most composers either hired orchestras temporarily, or were permanently attached to orchestras and had them play things as they worked on them. "
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65ibkb | why was it so easy to find employment in the late 20th century? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65ibkb/eli5_why_was_it_so_easy_to_find_employment_in_the/ | {
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"Which period of the late 20th Century in which country, 1980's for instance in many countries it was very difficult.",
" A big part of it was the 3rd industrial revolution (automatization, micro controllers, PLCs) as well as globalization, resulting in huge economy growth rates and thus in new jobs. I can't explain it more thoroughly as I'm on the cellphone, perhaps I'll come back to it.",
"I'm not a historian by any measure, but I do know much of the *technological* history of the 20th century, so that's my primary perspective.\n\nThere were dozens of new ideas either being incubated, or exploding in success during that time. You had the rise of the personal computer which formed the backbone of so many industries - hobbyist programming, game development, telecommuting jobs, University research, and of course the technicians to operate and maintain it all. \nAs computers grew more powerful, so too did automation, which meant that engineers dedicated to that field would benefit, and older companies lacking in automation would find new employees. \n\nFurthermore, it permitted an influx of entrepreneurs forming new companies, and existing companies building new departments primarily based around these new technologies. \n\nOf course this is generally a United States social relative. "
]
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6qy1ew | why is there no way to unsubscribe from real mail, while email unsubscription links are required by law? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6qy1ew/eli5_why_is_there_no_way_to_unsubscribe_from_real/ | {
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"There's little incentive for the government to provide this, as they get paid to deliver junk mail and the postal service pretty much funds itself. Imagine if your ISP got paid a penny for every piece of junk mail going through their servers. And if your ISP was the one that made the laws. Do you think they'd make it law that you can unsubscribe then?",
"There is, you can do an internet search and fill out a form and call someone to get off the list. In reality it's probably this hard because junk mail basically keeps the USPS afloat. In order to provide mail to everyone they subsidize the cost with junk mail.",
"You actually can.\n\nThere's a _URL_0_ you can register on (which didn't seem to help me though)\n\nAnd every single flyer you receive has an email or phone number and you can unsubscribe there. \nThis one has actually helped me. I went to three separate websites, to remove my address and have had less spam in the following three weeks.",
"Snail mail has a postage cost which is a limiting factor. Email has almost no limiting factor, so one had to be put into place."
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1yl1b0 | why is it that i can consciously move some muscles, but not others? | I don't mean why can't I move my heart, I mean why can I raise my right eyebrow, but not my left, I can snarl the right side of my lip but not the left? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yl1b0/why_is_it_that_i_can_consciously_move_some/ | {
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"text": [
"Youve unconsciously strengthened those muscles. Both eyes are fully capable of raising physiologically speaking.... You just favored one, likely unconsciously, and over time it got stronger. ",
"You are talking about two separate things here. \n\n1. Heart muscle is different to skeletal muscle. It beats due to an involuntary electrical system which is always running. Skeletal muscle is voluntary and we can send conscious signals through nerves to move them.\n\n2. When it comes to moving your left eye brow but not you right ect... You are talking about skeletal muscle. With practise you should be able to improve movement in the other. It comes down what you are use to doing and have done before "
]
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[],
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6b6h64 | how much of a connection is there between being good at basic math and mastering algebra, calculus? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b6h64/eli5_how_much_of_a_connection_is_there_between/ | {
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"Engineer here.\n\nIt's still a large gap from High School maths to Math analysis / Calculus. College Algebra is more accessible (the initial parts, then it gets hard as the rest).\n\nFrom my experience. To pass with good grades you need to study a bit BUT solving A LOT of exercises. Maths in college are a mix between understanding and remembering what you should do.\n\n*You have to know what to do immediately:* That a major difference between College math and HS. You don't have a lot of time to think about how are you going to solve that problem or pre-testing on how you will solve that. You need to have that type of exercises burnt into your head. That requires a lot of exercise solving, even if you don't understand all the steps.\n\nOf course you can try to understand it all. But most of the cases you have other things to study for / projects to deliver, etc.\n\nI don't think it's a bad thing. You will forget about those exercises in the next semester but the essential part will still remain. Also forcing to solving exercises separates the Lazy students from the hard-working ones.\n\nCollege is about hard-working. The intelligence parts it's not as relevant as it was in during HS.\n\n > How much of a connection is there between being good at basic math and mastering algebra, calculus?\n\nKeep in mind after you \"Master\" something you still need to train everyday."
]
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||
5tjp47 | - since the earth's moon has little to no atmosphere: then the imprints from the moon landings in the 1960s should be intact! would it be possible to take a picture of the moon large enough it could be seen? | Kind of like this:
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tjp47/eli5_since_the_earths_moon_has_little_to_no/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddn0ql3"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"from earth? I think not. the atmosphere would obscure too much for such a picture.\n\nfrom orbit? its theoretically possible but implausible. we have pictures of the landing sites from a moon orbiter, but the resolution is probably a bit worse than what we see in google earth, you can see their tracks, but definitely not individual footprints."
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU"
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[]
] |
|
vv7p0 | music file formats, kbps, and why certain ones are better than the others. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vv7p0/eli5_music_file_formats_kbps_and_why_certain_ones/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"I too am curious about this one!",
"Hopefully this will answer your questions -- A five year old wouldn't ask about file formats so I'll try to just explain it in terms that a person who knows nothing about audio can understand.\n\nThere are a few different kinds of Music File Formats. They are split in to two groups, lossy and lossless. \n\n* **Lossless**: The lossless audio types are the sort of files that are just as good as the source, but compressed. They can be converted to another lossless audio format without losing any quality. Lossless audio file formats are FLAC, WAV, and ALAC. The highest quality audio is achieved through these file formats. Kbps doesn't really apply here, except for the fact that they exist in lossless formats. Most of my music is in FLAC, but it's really only worth it if you have nice headphones (I'm talking some decent brand, not some overpriced Beats or whatever you kids use these days)\n\n* **Lossy**: Lossy audio types are usually, and should only be created, from a lossless audio source. Some people create them from other lossy audio types. The file types are types like MP3, AAC, and WMA. I'm only really going to talk about MP3s here as they are the most used sort of lossy files. These audio types are compressed as well, and are usually measure in terms of bit rates. The bit rates for these sorts of formats are split in to two different types: constant bit rate and variable bit rate. Contant bit rate files have a contant rate of data over each frame of the audio track, causing predictable file sizes based on length of the track. Variable bit rate should almost always be used for encoding MP3s, in my research VBR files are almost always better than CBR files. The higher the bit rate the closer to lossless quality you get. However, after you cross a certain point there is a file size to quality ratio that just doesn't make sense any more. [Here][mp3] is some more info about CBR vs VBR and quality.\n\nAsk questions and I'll provide you with more answers. I'm working on expanding this more but I figured I'd at least hit submit for now.\n\n[mp3]: _URL_0_ \"MP3 Bitrate Experiment\""
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/concluding-the-great-mp3-bitrate-experiment.html"
]
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||
8iu83j | how do lofi hip hop channels on youtube stream 24/7? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8iu83j/eli5_how_do_lofi_hip_hop_channels_on_youtube/ | {
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"text": [
"They have a large list of songs in a playlist and they are usually played in random order. Being one of their frequent listeners (rip studying girl from Wolf Children), I’ll can confirm that the songs will be repeated eventually. You can also check the description for the link to the song list on Spotify.",
"**Please read this entire message**\n\n---\n\nYour submission has been removed for the following reason(s):\n\nELI5 is not meant for any question that you may have. It is meant for simplifying complex concepts.\n\n\n\n---\nIf you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](_URL_0_) first. If you still feel the removal should be reviewed, please [message the moderators.](_URL_1_?)"
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules",
"http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Can%20you%20review%20my%20thread"
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||
3zjhqh | how do balloons half float? | I understand you know, helium is lighter than air, so if the balloon weighs less than the air around it it floats, but what I don't quite understand is how can it stay suspended in mid-air after losing some helium.
Shouldn't it just fall to the ground? How is there an inbetween state between floating up and falling to the ground. If it's light enough to hover in mid-air why doesn't it go all the way up if it's still lighter than air?
[Half floating while not attached to the ground](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zjhqh/eli5_how_do_balloons_half_float/ | {
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"text": [
"Obviously there is a midpoint between rising and falling. What you see is the midpoint. Maybe it is on a string which is resting on something. The balloon rises picking up the string until the weight of the string is too much and it rises no more.",
"**TL;DR**: *It's the string. The more it bends or sits on the ground as the balloon sinks, the less it weighs so the less lifting the balloon has to do.*\n\nBalloons float upward when the overall weight of the entire balloon, including string and latex and air within, is less than the overall weight of the air around it. It gets that lower weight because the helium inside it weighs much less than standard air does. But helium is a gas made out of very small atoms that over time have a tendency to leak through the balloon's surface or knot. \n\nAs the helium slowly leaks away, at a slower and slower speed as the balloon contracts, it puts less pressure on the outside of the balloon and so leaks away at a slower and slower speed. So the balloon still leaks and shrinks but at a much slower rate. \n\nIt's leaking REALLY slowly when just enough helium has leaked out that it's essentially the exact same weight as the air it displaces, but it should fall or rise, right, even if very very slowly? \n\nThis is where the string comes in. The string actually weighs a fair amount compared to the balloon itself, and it BENDS when the balloon starts losing its buoyancy, or it rests on something. For every bit that bends or rests, the balloon sinks a little tiny bit more and is taking a little tiny bit of weight off of the overall balloon because now part of that string's weight is being partially supported now by what it's tied to or sitting on. \n\nSo when the balloon falls far enough so the string is a perfect \"J\" between the tie-off point and the balloon's neck, it's only holding up three-quarters of the string. A little later, at the string being a perfect \"U\", only half the weight is being supported by the balloon. Same thing if a quarter or half of the string is resting on the ground.\n\nThis \"give in the system\" caused by the changing weight of the string allows the balloon to hover instead of falling all the way to the floor.",
"It's the string as explained before, but aI think it has also to do with the difference in temperature between the floor and the ceiling. When you have a window open or the heater on, the difference can be a few degrees. That's enough for the balloon to float on the colder, lower and denser air.",
"If balloon is lighter than air it rises. If it is heavier than air it sinks. What if it exactly equal to air? It floats."
]
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"http://imgur.com/6n8sKQT.jpg"
] | [
[],
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aiv9u1 | what are pressure altitude and density altitude in relation to aviation? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aiv9u1/eli5_what_are_pressure_altitude_and_density/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Pressure altitude is compensated for non standard pressure. (Above or below average)\n\nDensity altitude is PRESSURE altitude adjusted for non standard temperature. \n\nYou cannot calculate density altitude without pressure altitude. \n\nHigh altitude is low pressure altitude. Low altitude is high pressure altitude. \n\nLow temperature is high density altitude. High temperature is low density altitude. \n\nLow temp and high alt can = high temp and low alt when it comes to air density. They are somewhat interchangeable. "
]
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[]
] |
|
1w47nq | why do women wear high heels? | What's the appeal/benefit of high heels? When did they start to be used? Is their use only in Western societies? They look uncomfortable and a danger to walking safely.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w47nq/why_do_women_wear_high_heels/ | {
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"Personally\nA) to be taller\nB)makes calf muscles look better\nC) makes me feel feminine\n",
"They were actually first used by men for riding. The heels helped secure the footing in the stirrups. \n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"It makes the legs look better. If you bend your foot like it's in a high-heeled shoe, you'll see that it flexes your calf muscle, which makes your legs look more defined. It also forces you to stand in a way that works the thighs and glutes more, so those get accentuated as well (though not as much).\n\nIt also forces a more \"feminine\" walk (that kind of sashaying motion), though I think that we probably associate that kind of walk with femininity because of high heels and not the other way around.\n\nFinally, it's just embedded in our culture, so that's how it is. High heels are attractive because high heels are attractive; societal norms aren't necessarily logical. Think of something like painting nails: it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever but it's still pretty much the norm.",
"A man's perspective: \nI don't care about the height difference they make but when sensibly chosen they accentuate the shape of a woman's legs, force a pose which also makes a woman's bum look better and also create the illusion that a woman's whole body tapers from shapely hips to a point at her feet. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/06/high-heels-were-popular-among-men-before-women/"
],
[],
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|
2pxpip | why are gas cans so expensive? | This seems to be more recent. I recall them being like $5 at a hardware stores for the plastic ones. Now they are $20 and up.
You know the red ones that are:
-1 gallon
-2 gallon
-5 gallon
Tried searching online and yet to find an answer. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pxpip/eli5why_are_gas_cans_so_expensive/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn0xzyx",
"cn0yb4o"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Long story short, it seems to be caused by different types of plastic being used due to government regulations. \n \n_URL_1_ \n_URL_0_",
"A few years ago I unexpectedly ran out of gas...I had to walk about a mile and a half to the nearest station for gas and a gas can....at that point I didn't care how much the can costs because I was desperate for one. I feel like most people aren't going to go store to store shopping for a can because they are in need of one right now, thus making the buyer less price sensitive. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.lawnsite.com/archive/index.php/t-97513.html",
"http://lfb.org/how-government-wrecked-the-gas-can/"
],
[]
] |
|
28gena | what is the difference between mold, bacteria, and yeast? | What exactly is the difference between the three? They're all considered microbial correct? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28gena/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_mold_bacteria/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Bacteria is it's own class whereas mold and yeast are both fungus.\n\nHere's a quick over view of some differences between bacteria and mold.\n1. Fungi are eukaryotes while bacteria are prokaryotes.\n2. Bacteria are single celled whereas most fungi are multicellular except for yeast.\n3. The compositions within their cell walls are different.\n4. Fungi are heterotrophs while Bacteria can be autotrophs or heterotrophs.\n5. Bacteria have 3 distinct shapes while fungi have various shapes.\n6. Bacteria reproduce sexually via binary fision whereas fungi are capable of reproducing both sexually or asexually.\n\n[source](_URL_0_)",
"Here's a very basic way: Bacteria is a bacteria (oblviously)\nYeast and mould are fungus. (Like mushrooms)\nYeast is unicellular, meaning it's only 1 cell.\nMoulds are multicellular, meaning they're made of lots of cells . "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/difference-between-fungi-and-bacteria/"
],
[]
] |
|
3ahr2b | why are beauty pageants for little girls even legal and accepted by society? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ahr2b/eli5_why_are_beauty_pageants_for_little_girls/ | {
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"Paedophile here:\n\nThose pageants creep me, and every other paedophile I've spoken with, right the fuck out.\n\nI don't know about others but I don't think making up average kids as trashy adults is really the act of someone attracted to children.\n\nMaybe look at the people attracted to adults, money or drama.",
"Ostensibly, these beauty pageants don't judge these girls in a sexual context. Of course, the reality of it may suggest that's not true. But that's how it is legal and accepted in society. It's sold as a gloirified talent show.",
"I honestly think the only answer that would provide insight would have to come from someone who actually believes pageants are acceptable. The TLC show Toddlers & Tiaras shows how much commitment and money parents sink into those pageants so they obviously believe they're getting something beneficial out of them. They do teach the children involved some form of discipline (they have to practice practice practice) and persistence (we'll win next time)."
]
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[],
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||
5ypd9f | why when someone get sun burns the pain is experienced the day after and not inmediately? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ypd9f/eli5_why_when_someone_get_sun_burns_the_pain_is/ | {
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"text": [
"The pain is due to skin cells dying and exposing bare skin and nerve endings. What happens with a sun burn is that the thin layer of cells that is between the skin surface and the deeper layer of skin dies. At first, since there's still water and remains of those dead cells holding between the deep layer that contains nerve endings and the surface, so you don't exactly feel much. But as the water and remains drain away your nerve endings come into direct contact to skin surface or air, which is very fucking stimulating also known as pain",
"u/Warlords0602 is wrong about a few points. Your nerve endings never come into direct contact with the skin surface or air. Yes, skin cells are dying, but that's basically the only part that they got right. Dying cells trigger the release of inflammatory signals which increase the sensitivity of the heat sensing receptors in your nerves to a point where normal body temperature will set them off. This is why cold things can reduce the pain from the sunburn by lowering the temperature of the surrounding hot, inflamed tissue to below the threshold for the heat receptors. There are also inflammatory signals produced that may directly stimulate the nerves to send pain signals."
]
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[],
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||
3k6vsu | what is conservatism exactly? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3k6vsu/eli5_what_is_conservatism_exactly/ | {
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"Broadly speaking, it's the belief that keeping things as they are or returning to older social orders/governments/etc. is the best choice of action. ",
"Conservatism much like liberalism is a spectrum of beliefs. Edmund Burke is the man who best summed up the idea. Why for example should we give up good things in life to try something different? Why if we have a system that works should we try and improve it and risk breaking it?\n\nBurke looked at the French and American revolutions and saw something different. From the French he saw the murder of kings, the destruction of institutions and French citizens becoming peasants and French peasants becoming homeless beggars. He saw a total destruction of the French world. But with the American revolution he saw nation building from something that already existed. He saw people who were not looking to change with England and sought to create their own identity locked in time.\n\nBecause there are a lot of things that work there are a lot of different types of conservatives. One expression is often if you are a liberal in your youth you will be a conservative in old age. That is to say, what you once thought was radical and new in your youth will become the working legislation that people will be fighting you to repeal.",
"From another of your posts here:\n\n > Where as most political ideologies are pretty consistent within them selves and have clear goals and a concise outline to achieve those goals.\n\nThis is a great sentence to define conservatism against. The trick of \"conservatism\" in its broadest form is an attack on the value of that exact approach to solving problems. It is saying that sentence is the wrong way to think about governing at the biggest scale.\n\nSure, you can be a conservative and believe that change is needed somewhere or that X should be the policy instead of Y, but your starting point is not with those end goals. It is with the idea that society has developed the way it has developed at least in part because the current system more or less works. If there's some inconsistency, or a lack of conciseness, that's alright---humans and human society are messy, and the point is not to make it \"perfect\" (which can never happen), but to avoid making things worse. \n"
]
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|
225ql1 | how can scientists know one of saturn's moons has water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/225ql1/eli5_how_can_scientists_know_one_of_saturns_moons/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgjlyj5"
],
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"text": [
"There is a probe out among Saturn's moons we sent out about 17 years ago. While we already knew there was ice on the moon (it is all over the surface, kilometers thick) we didn't know that any was liquid. The moon was thought to be geologically inactive.\n\nHowever the probe was precisely measuring the gravity around the southern pole and detected an anomaly; there was slightly more mass than could be accounted for by ice. This combined with the discovery of massive plumes of water being ejected from some cracks in the surface of the ice allowed the deduction that the unexplained density variation was due to liquid water (which is more dense than ice). By measuring the gravitational anomaly they could even determine the rough size of this subsurface ocean."
]
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[]
] |
||
nwq2q | what is marketing? and how is different from advertising? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nwq2q/eli5_what_is_marketing_and_how_is_different_from/ | {
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"text": [
"Marketing is the whole shebang. Advertising is but one small piece of marketing. In marketing we (and I say we because I am in marketing) decide what to make, how to make it, how to position it, how to get it to market, how to sell it, how much it should cost and when to retire it. This is an endless cycle for a marketer. Generally in a company marketing managers have a \"franchise\" within the organization. That is to say responsibility for a particular product line.",
"Marketing is literally anything to do with the product. Who it's aimed for, what size it is. Advertising is the communication to the public, providing information about the product.",
"Marketing is the whole shebang. Advertising is but one small piece of marketing. In marketing we (and I say we because I am in marketing) decide what to make, how to make it, how to position it, how to get it to market, how to sell it, how much it should cost and when to retire it. This is an endless cycle for a marketer. Generally in a company marketing managers have a \"franchise\" within the organization. That is to say responsibility for a particular product line.",
"Marketing is literally anything to do with the product. Who it's aimed for, what size it is. Advertising is the communication to the public, providing information about the product."
]
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[],
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||
bcs4g1 | what happens to aspirated solids and liquids? | So aspiration is, of course, when a solid/liquid goes down your trachea and it gets into your lungs. But what happens after that? Do they stay there forever or are they broken down, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bcs4g1/eli5_what_happens_to_aspirated_solids_and_liquids/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Depends on what it is. You can cough most things up. Smaller particulates and liquids are carried out by the mucociliary escalator. Basically you have a sludge like mucous being produced in your lungs and your lung lining is microscopic fibers that slowly push it out and dump it down your esophagus. Things get caught in that sludge and are carried out and swallowed.\n\nIf this mechanism is damaged, however, in situations like chronic tobacco use, you lose the ability to take things out of your lungs. Then it gets stuck and you can have aspiration pneumonia when bacteria build up, or conditions like sarcoidosis where your immune cells try and fail to kill it, and instead produce microscopic scars in your lungs that result in diminished lung activity over time."
]
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[]
] |
|
1nwppz | why are suits with ties considered formal wear? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nwppz/eli5why_are_suits_with_ties_considered_formal_wear/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccmqh16"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Because everyone agrees that they are formal wear. The modern suit and tie used to be *casual* wear for rich people; there's nothing inherent about the clothes that make them formal."
]
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[]
] |
||
68ri7j | how did the credit system in the us work before fico scores and the 3 major credit bureaus? | How did the credit system in the US work before FICO scores and the 3 major credit bureaus? How would a bank assess a borrowers creditworthiness? Could a person have just skipped town and started a new life in another state if they were burried in debt? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68ri7j/eli5_how_did_the_credit_system_in_the_us_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"dh0qp31",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It was much harder to get credit. You had to go to the bank in person and show them why you should be considered creditworthy. They would want to know your employment history, what you owned, what savings you had (preferably at their bank), what you planned to do with the loan, etc. An average college student, for example, absolutely could not buy a TV on credit.\n\nCredit was often limited to large durable things that could be repossessed if you didn't pay, like houses, cars, and furniture.",
"The scoring system was started in 1956. Before that you generally did not get major loans often. To get a loan you either had to have a personal relationship with a wealthy person, or have a good reputation with your local bank going back years of doing business with them. Most people's credit was in the form of tabs at bars or grocery stores, but you rarely got loans for cars or banks and college was still a privilege of the rich and those that earned scholarships. "
]
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[],
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27brm6 | how can you extract roms from video games? | Like, do you need to plug the cartridge into a computer? How is it done? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27brm6/eli5_how_can_you_extract_roms_from_video_games/ | {
"a_id": [
"chzdn3a"
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"text": [
"There are devices you can buy, called 'cart dumpers' that let you do exactly that - connect a cartridge to a computer. You would then need to run a program to pull the data off of it, depending on cartridge type.\n\nA bit of searching and I found these: \n\n* _URL_1_ - a community for the (now discontinued) Retrode cart dumper, which lets you plug in any Sega/SNES cartridge and pull the ROM data out of it as if it were a flash drive\n* _URL_0_ - a NeoGAF thread showing the process I described above.\n\nedit: formatting."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=72806661",
"http://www.retrode.org/"
]
] |
|
1xo8hc | why don't americans like football/soccer? | I'm American, and I think it's just as good as any of the sports we already like (football, basketballl, baseball, nascar, hockey) ... So why is soccer treated like a second-class sport? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xo8hc/eli5_why_dont_americans_like_footballsoccer/ | {
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"Soccer isn't treated as a second class sport in any city where there is a professional soccer team. ",
"we have a bad habit of thinking anything that isnt just american isnt worth our time. we do the same thing with auto racing.. the whole world is apart of F1 racing and has been for years and we just don't care, even though it is better then nascar in my opinion. If the rest of the world likes it we put our nose up and say ours is better it may not be intentional but its how it appears to me and maybe the rest of the world.\n.......side note to any other viewers I am aware that F1 now has a race again in the U.S.",
"For me:\n\n1) I did not play it growing up, my school did not have a team of it, so I do not have an attachment to it. \n\n2) It is very very long periods of low action that is mostly jogging back and forth followed by a few moments of medium intensity action resulting in a goal or a missed shot that the crowd responds disproportionately to. \n\n3) It is low scoring. \n\n4) Faking injuries. \n\n5) It does not format well for television broadcast so it is not shown on standard television. This is becoming less of an issue as having cable or satellite is becoming the standard but for those of us who grew up with antennas this is a factor. \n\n6) It can tie. ",
"Watching people run around for 90 minutes and then it ends in a tie, or 1-0, or 0-0. It is not entertaining, very little strategy, and flopping is the norm.",
"Americans have a wealth of sports entertainment to select from. American sports are equipment intensive - hoops and fields and parks, etc. We are a wealthy society and we can afford those sports even for public use in parks and schools. Soccer has to compete for attention against that background; it has to offer a compelling entertainment value that other options don't. For most Americans, it doesn't.\n\n[Part of that value is branding and history. Consuming a sport as a spectator is as much about feeling like a part of a tribe or a community as it is an intellectual experience in enjoying the play on the field. Football, basketball, baseball and hockey have deep and resonant brands and history, whereas soccer, in most American regions, doesn't.]\n\nSoccer is a worldwide sport because you can play it almost anywhere, with almost no gear. Worst case you can kick a coconut or a sack stuffed with leaves. You need little more than a flat pitch and a couple of rocks to designate a goal. So it builds branding and history all over, in both rich and poor countries.\n\nAmericans are pretty inward-directed. We don't pay much attention to what is happening outside our borders. Europeans, Africans, Asians and South Americans seem to be more aware of what other countries are doing - not surprising, since most of the people in those places live in countries that are not much bigger than one State in the US. Since those other places are often mixtures of rich & poor countries, and the poor countries are likely to love soccer because its available, a brand and tradition and history grew up around soccer that is very powerful.\n\nYou could even argue that it is so powerful that it is pushing its way into the US just as a factor of people moving to the US and bringing their love of soccer with them. When I was a child 30 years ago, I doubt anyone I knew could speak about the World Cup with any authority. But today I think most sports fans are pretty aware of it and may even know something about how it works and who the good teams are likely to be. That's pretty amazing, considering how much money, time and effort is spent marketing basketball, football, baseball and hockey to US audiences.",
"My theory has been we would like it if we were exposed to it but were not. People watch the shit out of golf over here for Christ's sake. The thing is 90 mins of programming needs at least 20 mins of commercials to get on air. No commercials, no air time. No air time, no interest. ",
"I grew up playing hockey, I can't stand the diving and fake injuries."
]
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1pqng3 | why do isps seem to slow down internet to almost comedic speeds late at night? | A few friends of mine just mentioned that their internets all crap out at 2 AM, and don't become good again until early morning. I feel like, if anything, the internet should be *faster* at that time, as less people are requesting access to the servers... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pqng3/eli5_why_do_isps_seem_to_slow_down_internet_to/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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2
],
"text": [
"Mine speeds up in the wee hours of the night, but I get snail connection in the day",
"Because everyone starts their torrents when they go to bed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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|
5qeqmy | why isn't the romanization of other alphabets always spelled phonetically? (ex. "q" or "x" in chinese translations) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qeqmy/eli5_why_isnt_the_romanization_of_other_alphabets/ | {
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"text": [
"A few things:\n\nFirst of all, phonetical transcriptions of a language aren't fully possible, since most languages have sounds that don't exist in English. Chinese is an excellent example: they have both /ʂ/ and /ɕ/, sounds that both sound like /sh/ to the untrained English ear, but differ from /sh/ as well as from each other. There's no way to accurately represent these sounds using the English alphabet.\n\nFurthermore, when languages are romanized, English isn't the only language taken into account; some sounds are assigned letters that might have similar sounds in other European languages.",
"I'd posit that Pinyin, which is what OP is asking about, actually is phonetically spelled, albeit not necessarily for English purposes. \n\nThat said, creating a transliteration system requires a number of trade-offs, including:\n\n* Target language: Is it meant to match English spelling and pronunciation as close as possible or be amenable to a wider-range of languages that use the Roman alphabet?\n\n* Correspondance: Some languages are well known for a high degree of phonological processes such as assimilation (Russian), while others have preserved older spellings that no longer correspond to contemporary pronunciation (Tibetan). The creator of a romanisation scheme must therefore decide to what degree they're willing to trade off spelling correspondence for pronunciation accuracy.\n\n* Determination of representing sounds not typically found in the Roman alphabet: I'll go through this in the below, but it's the main reason that Pinyin confuses English speakers.\n\nPinyin is the primary romanisation system for Mandarin. It is *not* meant to try and approximate Chinese pronunciation through English spelling norms, but rather create a consistent way to write characters in the Roman alphabet. Mandarin is difficult to do this with because it contains numerous sounds that don't exist in English and most Indo-European languages, which are the primary users of the Roman alphabet. Additionally, Chinese differentiates pairs based on aspiration, a concept that isn't present in the Roman alphabet.\n\nLet's look at the former first. Below are the letters in Pinyin that represent sounds not found in English in IPA:\n\n* **c**: [tsʰ]\n\n* **ch**: [ʈʂʰ]\n\n* **h**: [x] *(Scottish English sometimes has this sound.)*\n\n* **j**: [tɕ]\n\n* **q**: [tɕʰ]\n\n* **r**: [ʐ]\n\n* **sh**: [ʂ]\n\n* **x**: [ɕ]\n\n* **z**: [ts]\n\n* **zh**: [ʈʂ]\n\nPer the second point, Pinyin denotes aspirated the following aspirated pairs: b/p, d/t, g/k, j/q, z/c, zh/ch.\n\n\ntl;dr Pinyin as well as pretty much all romanisation schemes are usually highly phonetic and consistent, but a combination of trade-offs that have to be made may result in a system that isn't necessarily intuitive.",
"As the others posted about Chinese, Japanese is the same. There is no R, F, or L sound in Japanese, however the characters, ふ, ら, り, れ, る, and ろ are usually romanticized with fu, ra, ri, re, ru, and ro respectively. In reality the fu (This is the \"fu\" in Typhoon, or Taifu in Japanese) sounds like a cross between hu and fu. And the sound represented by \"R\" is like a cross between R and L. In fact, in some words, the sound is represented as \"L\" in English, but it is less common. \n\n\n\nThe long vowel sound also is romanticized incorrectly, but this is due to a quirk of Japanese spelling. The character \"u\"（う） when following a \"o\"（お）vowel means to extend the \"o\" for an extra syllable, and the character \"i\"（い） when following an \"e\"（え） vowel means to extend the \"e\" sound for an extra syllable. So the word 専攻（せんこう）is romanticized Senkou because it is spelled that way in Japanese. However, it is pronounced Se-n-ko-o. Whereas for words like 綺麗（きれい), the romanticized word usually includes the long vowel \"i\", spelled: Kirei and pronounced Ki-re-e. A special case is Tokyo. 東京 （とうきょう）, would be literally romanticized by writing Toukyou, but this extra character was dropped in English. ",
"Pinyin wasn't made using the English alphabet and its pronunciations. It was made using the Latin alphabet. Just as other Latin based languages do not share the same pronunciation using the same base Latin letters, there would be no requirement for Pinyin to.\n\nin Polish \"Lukasz\" is pronounced 'wookash' Spanish Juan is 'wan' the Mexican town of Oaxaca is 'wahaca' I'm sure there's other examples. "
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3vc5uz | why are only radical islamist attacks considered terrorism? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vc5uz/eli5_why_are_only_radical_islamist_attacks/ | {
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"They're not. The Ft Hood shooting was labeled an act of workplace violence despite Nadal Hasan's known radicalization and terrorist ties."
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6uejdk | the difference between torrents and streams | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uejdk/eli5the_difference_between_torrents_and_streams/ | {
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"A stream is designed to be watched live (and generally once). \n\nFor example youtube. You can watch it, but you must go back to the website to watch it again, you are not downloading it. A stream is also hosted on a server. So a site like google or HBO invests in large servers to be able to handle all the streams.\n\nA torrent is a download. Once you have it saved on your computer, you can watch it forever. A torrent is also peer to peer. When you download a torrent, you are downloading from dozens or hundreds of different people. Each person is giving you a small part. And once you have downloaded a small part, you can even start uploading to other people, even if you do not yet have all, or even most of the file you are downloading.",
"Streaming breaks small chunks of a larger file up sequentially and the client downloads and request chunks as it goes. This reduces server load for early dropouts, and allows people to only load what they need, especially if they skip a portion of the video or audio content. Streams are sequential chunks, loaded one after the other.\n\nA torrent however, is also broken up into chunks, but is instead downloaded with much higher parallelism and does not care about sequence, so long as they land in the right place. This means that a server hosting a torrent file can hand out parts of the file at a time to many clients at once very efficiently with parallel network transmission, a client can also download chunks from many servers asking for different parts of the file at a time, this solves one of the largest problems in network transmissions - latency. For these reasons, torrents are typically useless unless if the entire contents of the file are downloaded, as they do not form a complete stream of bytes."
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38dwrp | how laptop processors work | For example I have a macbook pro 2012 with a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7.
The new macbook pro (2015) has a 2.7 GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5.
Shouldnt my 3 year old laptop be faster? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38dwrp/eli5_how_laptop_processors_work/ | {
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"The issue is less about number of hz, and more about how smart your processor is. \nA basic analogy I like to use is that of the farmer. \n\nThe farmer has 4 workers (4 GHz) who can each plow 10 meters an hour. New methods come out that allow each worker to plow 15 meters of field an hour. You can now plow more field with 3 workers (3ghz) than your older method could with 4. \n\nTldr: a new processor will work more efficiently than an older one that has the same speed because it is *smarter* and can put what its got to better use."
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f5dkpo | how do internal combustion engines (ice) get their characteristic sound, if it's only just a bunch of explosions? | I know how engines work, what makes them work etc. but this question has been on my mind for a while. How can a bunch of controlled explosions create the sound characteristic for a specific engine type? For example, a V6 engine sounds distinctly different than a V8 or I4, but how do they get their sound & why can't the sound be different, for example an I4 engine with the sound of a V12? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f5dkpo/eli5_how_do_internal_combustion_engines_ice_get/ | {
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"think of your exhaust the same as a brass musical instrument. When playing a trumpet or a tuba, the sound is generated the same, however, the output is totally different.\n\n\nan exhaust system is the same way. Its 'tuned' for performance and sound based on length of the expansion chamber, the diameter of the pipe, the baffles etc....",
"Because the explosions are happening in very, very, very, extremely fast succession. The sound blurs together creating the sound. Why do different types of engine sound different? Because they operate slightly different and thus sound slightly different. You asking why a v6 doesn’t sound like an I4 or whatever is like asking why a piano doesn’t sound like a guitar. Because they’re different things.",
"It's important to keep in mind that ICE engines do not (unless there is something severely wrong!) create explosions. Think of it as a controlled burn.\n\nAs such, the sound you hear is a combination of sound waves interacting with each other as they leave the header and interfere. The number of cylinders, header design, and exhaust design all contribute to how this interference occurs.\n\nThe firing order of an engine can also determine its sound.\n\nI.e. the v8 engines in german cars usually use cross plane crank shafts and have an even firing order allowing exhaust waves to flow smoothly one after another. Some american brands have uneven firing order and cause exhaust waves to collide and create either constructive or destructive interference. This results in the loud gurgling sound you hear from a classic v8.\n\nThe valve lift, cam profile, etc. can all also have an impact on engine sound.\n\nThe frequency harmonic differences between i4s, v8s, and v12s are due to the fact that as the engines increase cylinder count, there are (typically) more combustion cycles per rotation of the engine. So 3000rpm in an i4 engine has a lower harmonic than 3000rpm in a v12 (since there are 3 times the number of combustion cycles occuring per revolution).",
"1) If you think of a car engine and car exhaust as being akin to an instrument, then you can see that the tone, timbre, and harmonics of a car's engine noise will change depending on the precise geometry and materials of the exhaust side of the engine.\n\n2) There's actually an interesting thing going on with respect to human perception which is fundamentally why you hear a continual \"buzzing\" tone from your car's exhaust despite the fact that combustion is actually a large number of discretized combustion events.\n\nIn music theory, there's a thing called the \"inter-onset interval,\" which is basically the time between discrete notes, measured in milliseconds. The fastest reliable inter-onset interval is generally held to be around 100 ms, and something weird happens as you push beyond it to 50 ms; instead of hearing the discretized notes, you begin to perceive the notes as singular constant tone. This is because and inter-onset interval of 50 ms corresponds with a signal at 20 Hz, and *20 Hz is the lower limit of human hearing*. 20 Hz also corresponds with an engine operating at 1200 RPM, which is basically a high-idle engine speed. As a result, despite the fact that you're hearing individual combustion and exhaust events coming down the exhaust pipes, because these individual sounds are coming at you at such a high rate of speed and high frequency, your brain interprets them the same way it would a continual soundwave. This is also why engine sounds change pitch linearly with RPM; RPM converts linearly to exhaust event frequency, which corresponds directly to a \"tone\" coming from your cars exhaust.",
"There’s a lot of info here but I feel like no one is talking about how crankshaft geometry affects the sound."
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9drefc | for options trading | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9drefc/eli5_for_options_trading/ | {
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"As a super novice stock buyer I am also curious. Most specifically how is it different from buying a stock? ",
"An option gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell an instrument at a future time, at an agreed upon price. If you believe TSLA is going to increase in value within the next 3 months, you can purchase a buy option at or near the current price. In 3 months time, we assume that the share has increased 12% and you act on your option, buying the shares at less than the market price (although with a fee). If the shares haven’t increased in value, or even decreased, you simply disregard the option and only lose out on a minor fee (premium), or the cost of the option.\n\nThere are some different validity modifiers (American vs European options) and lot sizes but this is the basics."
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169766 | what makes norway so special when it comes to environmentalism? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/169766/eli5_what_makes_norway_so_special_when_it_comes/ | {
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"I think the main reasons Norway is viewed in such a positive light when it comes to environmentalism is the fact that nearly all of its energy is generated from renewable sources, more specifically hydroelectric power plants (basically power generated from waterfalls). \n\nI do think people who are not from Norway are a bit too idealistic about this though, as this model is hardly possible to replicate in other countries, since it's Norway's unique geography and its small population that makes this possible. "
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1nj60k | why a video game developer wouldn't make a game that consumers want (i.e. half life 3, final fantasy vii 2) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nj60k/eli5_why_a_video_game_developer_wouldnt_make_a/ | {
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"Depends on the dev. Valve doesn't need game sales, they operate entirely on Steam revenue so they are free to do whatever they want.\n\nAs for Square Enix and Final Fantasy, they just don't project that game selling enough to justify making it. ",
"There are multiple factors playing into this. \n\nFirst of all, \"Players\" is a veeeeery lose term. Often, they are very few, very dedicated fans, which push series and make it appear way bigger than it actually is.\n\nAdditionally, it's about the money. Somewhat resulting from the first point, you want to make more profit from it than you will make from any other game that you could be producing in the meantime, I'm not an expert but games like DotA2 are way more profitable than Half Life 3 or any \"blockbuster\" game in the long run. Half Life 3 will chew up a lot of money just to produce it in a way that wont result in an uproar from the whole fanbase, it has to cash in giant amounts just to compare to smaller titles like Portal 2.\n\nAlso, the developer has set a very high expectation, thats why you want these games in the first place, they know that they are millions of people who want to play these games, you cant let them down without ruining your image. You have to reach goals not only set by the community, but also set by yourself, what did HL2 did better than HL? Thats as much improvement as you would need to make HL3 the game the series deservers, just multiplied by all the years of hype that pushed the expectations even further.",
"A remake of FF7 would require a vast amount of money. SE has shifted it's focus from the vast worlds and pre rendered backgrounds of their old games to higher quality graphics at the expense of scope. Remaking FF7 to their current standards would require animating all the interactions, recording all the dialogue, and recreating the sets.\nAlso, doing a remake of a hugely popular fan favorite video game is extremely risky. Any changes you make might piss off purists but not changing it enough might make it seem like they're trying to cash in on selling us a game we've already bought multiple times. ",
"I think for both of your examples, a large part of it has to do with brand image. Half Life 3 is such a hugely anticipated game at this point that if it's not the best FPS ever made, it'll be considered a failure. I wouldn't be surprised if Valve has scrapped whatever progress they've made developing Half Life 3 multiple times to start from scratch in an effort to make it perfect.\n\nFor FF7-2, I think there's a little bit of this also. It's such a beloved game that if they made a sequel, it better live up to the original's standards. There's some other things at play, too. First of all, FF7 was one of the first games released for the original playstation, and it hasn't been re-released in any form until very recently. There are a lot of younger gamers, and the number is constantly growing, who have never played it. While they'd buy FF15, they might pass on FF7-2 since they've haven't played the first one. Maybe the recent re-release was paving the way for a sequel, who knows, although since it's a PC only release that seems kind of odd. Also, Square-Enix is based in Japan, and while FF7 is very popular over there, I don't think it's considered the best of the series as predominately as it is in America."
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baibn6 | how does cooking meat actually work? where does all the blood go? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/baibn6/eli5_how_does_cooking_meat_actually_work_where/ | {
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"First and most important, unless your butcher screwed up in a big way, the red juice that comes out of cut and prepared meat isn't blood. Removing blood from the animal is a critical step in the process, and failure to do so can be very unsafe. What you're seeing there is myoglobin, a juice found in the meat itself, and as you cook it loses most of that color.\n\nAs far as the process itself, you ate transferring heat into the meat, which causes chemical changes in the material. While it does this, it can also cause still living organisms inside the meat (especially bacteria) to die. This is why a lot of cooking instructions put a high emphasis on internal temperature; there's a certain documented temperature at which harmful bacteria can't survive, so if the inner part of the meat is at that temperature, you're golden. This guideline tem varies by meat (chicken calls for a higher base temp than beef, due to what sort of bacteria can be found inside) and cut (ground beef needs to be cooked hotter than a steak, since any contamination on the former could be mixed into the entire mass during grinding, while contamination on a steak is more likely to be surface level).",
"The juice that comes out of meat when you cook it isn't blood, that's a misnomer.\n\nThe meat that you buy at the supermarket has very little blood in it if any at all. Draining the blood from the animal is an important step in the butchering process. The red coloring and juice that comes out of the meat is myoglobin a compound in the meat itself.\n\nMeat turns brown when you cook it because of something called the Maillard reaction. This is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and sugars that is triggered by heat. The resulting caramelization of the sugars is what gives meat that distinctive cooked flavor.\n\nConversely meat turns brown as it ages for a completely different reason. As meat ages the iron compounds oxidize, kindof of like rusting metal."
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3lry38 | what is the difference between different college degrees? | What is a:
Undergraduate, Graduate, Associate, Bachelor, Master, Doctoral degree | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lry38/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_different/ | {
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"An associate's degree is typically a two year course of study, a bachelor's four years, a master's six years, and a doctoral degree is usually eight or more years of study.\n\nA bachelor's degree is an undergraduate degree, a master's is a graduate degree, and a doctoral degree is a postgraduate degree."
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3q4xq0 | iraq's military was seemingly defeated within days of us and uk troops arriving. how was saddam able to rule for so long with such a depleted military capability? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q4xq0/eli5_iraqs_military_was_seemingly_defeated_within/ | {
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"Saddam Hussein's Iraq had a large and powerful military, compared to Iraq's neighbors, and certainly compared to what local militias that might oppose his rule could come up with.\n\nOn the other hand, he was fighting the most powerful military in the world, that of United States, plus allies. We're talking about a completely different order of magnitude. For example, America's B-2 stealth bomber was able to strike at critical infrastructure in Baghdad, like its power supply, without Iraqi anti-air capability being able to do anything about it whatsoever.\n\nIn short, there is big difference between looking at military capabilities needed to support a dictatorship versus those needed to stand up to First World military powers."
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46or6o | why do companies pay people to stand on the side of the road waving the signs around for their business? does a person standing there holding a sign or dressing up as a slice of pizza bring in enough extra cash to make it worth it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46or6o/eli5why_do_companies_pay_people_to_stand_on_the/ | {
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"They pay those people minimum wage, so if they pull in 1-2 customers per hour, it will pay for itself. Meanwhile their target audience is the tired and hungry people heading home from a long day at work, wondering what they're going to feed the kids. \n\nI would wager that those dancing sign people more than earn their keep. ",
"A lot of towns and cities have local ordinances about where stationary advertisements can be placed. So by paying a person to be the advertisement, they can skirt all of those laws on the cheap.",
"It turns out, yes. It's more effective advertising than a stationary sign, even if they could use one. ",
"Google Fu says businesses have greater foot traffic with human directionals. One study cited an 8% rate of return on their sign twirlers, so yes the twirlers are worth it."
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62e5gh | why do we as a population, all get ill at the same time? | What I mean by this is usually when someone at work gets ill... Everyone in the community starts feeling ill.
You get people saying such phrases as "there is a bug going round".
Well why is this? And by this I mean what does it say about humans as an organism? I mean if you look at the bigger picture.
Of course the answer for this would be "because we live so closely as a culture, when one person gets ill, they usually pass it on to friends and co-workers, then we get immune to it and everyone gets better"...
But its almost as if sickness comes in waves? I sort of feel like we are an organism inside a massive science container, like bacteria under a microscope.
Does anyone understand what I mean by this? The fact bugs come in waves and we all get it just seems very.... peculiar. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62e5gh/eli5_why_do_we_as_a_population_all_get_ill_at_the/ | {
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"I mean that's basicslly how disease works. The pathogen enters the community, sweeps across the population and then the population either fights it off or dies.\n\nIt works like that for essentially every organism. A well connected and close knit population is the perfect breeding ground for disease.",
"So most diseases have a period when they are capable of transmission in humans, but are not showing symptoms yet. This is the most opportune time for diseases to spread as people are not actively trying to prevent the spreading. If Bob catches a disease and spreads it to 10 people before he starts showing symptoms, and those 10 spread it to 10 more, etc. Then it does not take long before the entire population has been infected at some amount. "
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3lxzc6 | how can entrepreneurs buy old drug patent / manufacturing lines when the drugs should be eligible for generic? | Are they trying to leverage the market until another manufacturer brings a generic form to market to drive the price down by supply/demand or do they have an exclusive right to manufacture the drugs that will remain for a certain number of years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lxzc6/eli5_how_can_entrepreneurs_buy_old_drug_patent/ | {
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"When the patent on a drug expires, anybody is **allowed** to make it. But that doesn't mean that they have a factory in place to actually do it. So if there is a valuable generic drug, and only one factory that can make it, then you can buy that factory and crank up the price.\n\nSomebody else *could* make a factory to try to compete with you, but that's a risky gamble because all you have to do is lower your price back down to what it was, and then they wasted all that money building their new factory.",
"In the US market, generics still need to be approved by the FDA. It's cheaper than getting a new drug on the market, but it still takes time and money to prove that the new formulation is just as effective as the original (things in the pill or injection other than the active ingredient can still impact effectiveness). So if a certain company were to buy the rights to all the currently approved generics on the market (which may only be one), it would take a couple years before any competitor could enter the market.",
"They're trying to leverage the market until another manufacturer introduces a generic. There's a few ways they can do this - they can pay off generic manufacturers to stay away, they can raise the price to get consumers to switch to a drug that *does* have a patent, or they can raise the price to make a profit and drop down when the generic emerges.\n\nIf the average price was $10 and is jacked up to $700 for, say, five years, that's $3450 in profit - aka, 345 years worth of money.",
"In this case the manufacturing lines are tightly controlled and would-be generic manufactures are unable to get a sufficient amount to actually copy the drug. \n\nIt's not altogether different from reverse engineering any other product but in this case it's difficult to get a hold of that product to duplicate it. "
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57k61h | how the color purple doesn't exist. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57k61h/eli5_how_the_color_purple_doesnt_exist/ | {
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"[There is no pink (magenta, purple) light.](_URL_0_) It only exists as a perception of simultaneously stimulating both our red and our blue light receptors in our eyes.\n\nIt would be as if there were some temperature we felt when exposed to both something extremely hot and something extremely cold at the same time that felt completely different from both (and also felt different from room temperature)."
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5xb75b | airplane takeoffs | Recently just went on vacation and flew 4 total flights over the trip, despite having massive anxiety with flying. The last flight home the take off seemed abnormal, whereas the airplane used most of the runway to take off and seemingly flew only maybe 1,000 or so feet above the ground for 2-3 minutes before climbing like regular. Is this normal and just ATC's flight plan perhaps, or was there a cause for concern? I'm interested to know as a passenger, when are the only times in flight should I start being concerned? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xb75b/eli5airplane_takeoffs/ | {
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"There are several reasons why this might have been, and without knowing a lot more detail it's not possible to speculate which one (or perhaps more than one) apply. But, in no particular order:\n\n- We don't like to use more power than we need, because it decreases engine life and make more noise for the residents. Aircraft manufacturers provide pilots with ways of calculating the exact amount of power needed to get off of a runway safely, taking into account not just the runway length, but also the weight of the aircraft, the weather, etc.\n\n- Heavier aircraft will climb more slowly than lighter aircraft. The biggest factor in determining whether an aircraft is heavy is the amount of fuel it's carrying - so if you were going a long distance, or if fuel is expensive at your destination, you may have been in a heavy aircraft\n\n- At some airports, the way traffic going in and out of that airport, and also other nearby airports, interacts with each other can be complex. Lots of airports have standard departures which involve staying low because standard arrivals for either this airport or another airport are just above your departure route\n\n- At smaller airports, the procedures are less well defined, and it may be that another aircraft was directly above you - not because it's a standard route, but simply because the pilot wanted to be there and the air traffic controller gave him permission. In this case, the air traffic controller would keep you down low until he can see on his radar that you're clear of the other aircraft\n\nIt's extremely unlikely that what you saw would be caused by a technical fault. However, what I can say with certainty is that, in the extremely unlikely event that it *was* a technical fault, you'd have been heading straight back to the airport for an emergency landing - no pilot is going to fly a whole route with problems that make the aircraft in any way less safe than it could be if there's an airport directly behind him! So that completely rules out technical issues in your case."
]
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[]
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|
9u3h2h | what keeps our nails attached to our fingers, and how is this not broken as they grow outwards, despite our skin not moving with them? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9u3h2h/eli5_what_keeps_our_nails_attached_to_our_fingers/ | {
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"And how does the skin on the nail bed not move if it's attached to the nail?",
"From what I understand (from my equine science degree) you have lamella on the under side of the fingernail and the outside of your finger closest to your nail. Imagine these are like Velcro and stick together to hold on place by interlocking. They are much stronger than what you would expect of Velcro and very sensitive so it if possible to rip them apart and also very painful. Any people reading this with long nails will appreciate the pain of accidentally pulling the nail backwards. Because the nail is not ‘fixed’ to the finger, as the nail grows slowly, the lamella almost reform to keep the attachment but allow for growth"
]
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2ubdhe | why are the super bowl adverts such a big deal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ubdhe/eli5_why_are_the_super_bowl_adverts_such_a_big/ | {
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"The Super Bowl is one of the most watched television programs, so the ad space is very expensive. A 30 second ad during the Super Bowl costs 4 million dollars. Companies don't want to spend millions of dollars on an ad no one will remember, so they make them funny or otherwise memorable.\n\n_URL_0_",
"The Super Bowl is basically an unofficial American holiday now, even non-football fans participate. Over the years, the commercials have become an odd tradition like how most other holidays have spun traditions that had little to with it originally. It's the most watched event in the States every year and the ad space is very expensive. Big companies invest a lot of money into making the best commercials they can to stand out. It's pretty much a competition to see who makes the best commercial each year."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_advertising"
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||
7g1ul4 | how are buildings and infrastructure (i.e. bridges and tunnels) continuously checked for structural integrity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7g1ul4/eli5_how_are_buildings_and_infrastructure_ie/ | {
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"They are not. Most bridges get a thorough inspection only once every 5 to 15 years, and most buildings *never* get a thorough inspection for structural integrity, as the beams and pillars are buried deep within.\n\nThis is part of why it's critical to design and build them correctly."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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||
1x5wnw | why do companies like comcast fail to provide their advertised services so frequently? is there a technical explanation for why providing broadband internet is apparently so difficult? | Is there something inherently difficult about providing internet services over cable/fios? How is it that a company can advertise a 50Mbps connection and only provide .25Mbps and not get in trouble? Is there a technical explanation for why their service can be so awful?
Nothing subjective about it:
[Comcast has terrible customer satisfaction ratings... FACT](_URL_3_)
[Another example from reddit](_URL_1_)
[wikipedia about how much they suck](_URL_0_)
[Customer Service Scoreboard shows over 10x as many negative reviews as positive](_URL_2_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1x5wnw/eli5_why_do_companies_like_comcast_fail_to/ | {
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"Usually, they're the only game in town, so they have no incentive to have great service. \n\n\"Oh, your cable internet went out, and you're mad? Are you mad enough to switch to satellite internet?\"",
"Because fuck you.\n\nI don't know if videos are acceptable, but this pretty much sums it up.\n\n_URL_0_",
"most services side step that by saying \"speeds up to\".. \n\nthere are different factors as to why you might not be actually getting those speeds.. line quality in your area, wiring in your home, hardware.. Comcast used to throttle speeds by area as well, but I have not noticed this happening recently (perhaps this might change again with net neutrality going away).. \n\nI'm quoted 50Mbps with Xfinity and consistently get speeds over that in my area.. previous neighborhood I was getting slightly slower speeds, but still close. "
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Comcast#Low_customer_satisfaction_levels",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ba0ds/",
"http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Comcast",
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/worst-customer-service_n_2434067.html"
] | [
[],
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"http://youtu.be/0ilMx7k7mso"
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4arzcu | what is planet x, and is it real? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4arzcu/eli5_what_is_planet_x_and_is_it_real/ | {
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"Planet X is a hypothesized Neptune-like planet that is claimed to be orbiting the Sun in a really crazy orbit (takes about 20 000 years to complete an orbit). \n\nDoes it exist?\nWell, we can't say for sure. There is no real evidence to suggest that it definitely exists but it has been hypothesized and certainly is possible. So as it is right now, there is no reason to believe it exists, but there is a decent chance that it could.",
"To add, the reasons for why there might be a Planet X aren't too different from the reasons we were fairly sure Pluto and it's moon Charon existed: an observation of odd behaviour of other planetary bodies (in those cases, the orbit of Neptune has anomalies that lead to discovering Pluto and the orbit of Pluto has anomalies that lead to discovering Charon). So, similar observations have lead to us knowing where to look for other planetary bodies, which means that there may in fact be a Planet X. We won't know for certain until we *see* it though."
]
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[],
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1mfi12 | why can't we make ps3/xbox 360 emulators? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mfi12/eli5_why_cant_we_make_ps3xbox_360_emulators/ | {
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"the technology in the Xbox 360 and PS3 are not 1:1 comparable to PC's. The code games are built on is programmed and created on PC and then optimized to run on the console specifically for that one piece of hardware. Backwards engineering that is, I'd imagine, next to impossible for amateur emulator programmers. For example, the PS3's IBM cell processor runs 100 threads semi-slowly. A modern Intel/AMD PC CPU typically runs 4 threads very very fast. These don't translate. \n\nOld consoles are easy because technology has advanced so much that even if the game is 100% broken in terms of it's coding, modern CPU/GPU/RAM can run games at like 150% their FPS. There are actual features in emulators to slow games down because modern computers have gotten too fast and the games are now unplayable because they run at, like, 200 FPS. ",
"It's not that you can't, just that it's very difficult to emulate the hardware so it will take quite some time. Currently there are both in-progress PS3 and Xbox360 emulators ([RPCS3](_URL_1_) and [Xenia](_URL_0_)) although they're not very far into development. \n\nThat said, [RPCS3](_URL_1_)(the PS3 emulator) is further into development than [Xenia](_URL_0_) but it can only run homebrew at the moment.",
"We can and do. But the average desktop PC wouldn't be able to run a commercial game in real time the archetecture of consoles deviates alot from typical general purpose pcs.",
"As other redditors have pointed out the architecture is not entirely compatible with PC architecture. But a bigger problem is that in order to create a working emulator that runs at normal speed you have to run it on hardware that is much much higher quality, more powerful, faster than the hardware you are emulating, and the average PC, especially average laptop, cannot hope to meet these hardware requirements just yet",
"After reading a few of the comments I think the part that people are not explaining is how emulation works.\n\nIt works by basically simulating the hardware of the console and tricking the game or rom (think if it as an OS for your gaming system) to run on top of the emulated environment.\n\nHere is the trick, to simulate or emulate typically is not efficient and there is loss trying to emulate the CPU, memory, registers (the whole architecture) of a gaming system. Additionally, the newer gaming systems actually have built in protection, security into the games/ROM itself making it harder to emulate.\n\nSo while a computer can easily emulate an original Nintendo 8-bit CPU and limited memory with ease, it has a harder time emulating a Nintendo Wii.\n\nEmulators are getting more and more powerful and are taking advantage of specialized CPU's in video cards and special features of general CPU's so speed improves as does the speed of the computers themselves. This means eventually, you'll likely have an Xbox 360 emulator but by then, the 720 and 1440 will already be out and you'll be playing it for nostalgic reasons like an NES emulator today."
]
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35psvz | why people on eli5 threads post the same answer over and over instead of upvoting the existing correct one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35psvz/eli5_why_people_on_eli5_threads_post_the_same/ | {
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"Explainlikeimfive is for both the people asking and for the people answering. Many times the answers are not *exactly* the same but are substantially similar; sometimes there is the same information being presented but in different styles, some of which may be more (or less) accessible to any given reader. Sometimes the answers *seem* to agree but differ on particular points — this can be important in order to affirm a common conclusion but to describe why the common reasoning behind the conclusion is incorrect.\n\nPeople learn to reason and to perform critical thinking by *doing*. This subreddit is like a student-led classroom.\n\nAt any rate, I fear I must decline your invitation to read the Paul Blart/Super Troopers thread, because while I find Super Troopers hilarious and want Broken Lizard to get more work, I find Kevin James (or whatever his name is) absolutely unappealing and wish to ponder neither him, nor his cinematic work product — not even if I were paid to do so.\n\nThanks!",
"Sometimes different people come up with different metaphors to explain the same concept. Sometimes they think and existing explanation is poorly written so they write one up with better sentence structure.\n\nSometimes they do it for karma."
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6gctpz | what are the main differences between blues and cool jazz? | I'm new to the world of jazz and find it hard to tell the difference - I've always thought blues was more downbeat, but that isn't always the case. As well as that, where did the two styles come from? Are they both from America, 1940s? Thanks so much! :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gctpz/eli5_what_are_the_main_differences_between_blues/ | {
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"Blues is based on a I IV V chord progression, and jazz is not. A common chord pattern in jazz is IV V I. This is oversimplified for jazz, but a lot lot of blues follows that I IV V progression. ",
"Jazz comes from a merging of French/European classical and chamber music, and street music with African and Caribbean roots. \n\nBlues music comes from Gospel and also African roots. \n\nThe key thing with The Blues is the 12 bar turn around. It's a note progression that every person has heard but might not have known what it was. It was one of the basic blues progressions and was borrowed by rock and roll as well which was blues mixed with country and blue grass music. \n\n[Little Richards \"Tutti Fruti\"](_URL_0_) is a great example of a 12 bar progression. Notice what the piano and horns are doing. They play a set of notes, go up for the next set, then back down for the next, etc. This is done in the 12 bar pattern and is very easy for other musicians to sync up with and jam to because they know all the chord changes in advance. It can start on any note but the relationship between the notes doesn't change. For instance \"Blues in G minor\"\n\nJazz on the other hand is more improvisational with individual artists playing in harmony through the use of many different scales. Where as blues tends to stick with Pentatonic Blues scale with diminished fifth. \n\nTo coin an analogy, Jazz is like having several artist paint a picture together where there is a common theme to the colors they choose but the individual artists can choose any color they want, as long as it compliments the other colors. Where as the blues is more like those same artists choosing instead to follow a common pattern in the painting vs being able to pick any color they want. "
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cysq1q | how does living an active lifestyle generally reduce (barring genetic disorders) the most negative aspects of aging? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cysq1q/eli5_how_does_living_an_active_lifestyle/ | {
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"When you exercise, it causes some damage to the tissue used in the exercise, which triggers a response in the body to repair, maintain, and adapt these tissues. \n\nIf you don't exercise, the muscles will eventually degenerate in a process called [sarcopenia](_URL_0_). In losing this muscle, the body becomes frail and less able to recover from injury or illness. When you get weak enough, pretty much any ailment can get you stuck in a cycle of less physical activity, leading to more muscle loss and weakness, leading to even less physically activity, and so on. \n\nOne possible way of avoiding the muscle degeneration of sarcopenia, other than just exercise, is to eat plenty of protein everyday, so your body can more easily maintain its muscle. **But of course eating plenty of protein will be most effective in combination with regular exercise.**",
"There is not *one* cause to this. It's a gigantic tangled web of potential causes that feed back on one another, amplifying and suppressing, all pointing to the outcome of interest, longer lifespan.\n\n* People who are able to exercise more regularly are likely to have higher income, which is related to ability to access medical care. Higher income may also translate to lower chronic stress and/or stress reduction related to exercise, or having outlets to reduce stress. Individuals with higher income may also have higher-quality diets. So you can trace exercise as being linked to a psychological health and dietary factors, all of which have multiple inputs.\n* Regular exercise lowers resting blood pressure and heart rate, which reduces risk for heart disease and a slew of other chronic diseases (diabetes, kidney disease, dementia).\n* Regular exercise may help maintain weight which reduces risk for some of those aforementioned diseases as well, in addition to other obesity-associated diseases including some cancers.\n* Regular exercise in the elderly is associated with lower risk for falls and/or need for nursing care, which also affects potential lifespan as the elder is able to maintain independence for a longer period and not need institutionalization. They are also more likely to be surrounded by a community which relates, again, to psychological health.\n* Regular exercise increases oxygen turnover in the body, which increases oxidative stress, but the body also ramps up the body's ability to handle this increased oxidative stress. In theory, this might reduce the risk for chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress (see the diseases above - cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.).\n\nThere is no exercise \"pill.\" If you look at the \"system\" that links physical activity to increased healthy lifespan there are many moving pieces and relationships. There is no one \"pill\" that can replicate this type of complexity - except for physical activity itself...and other factors need to be in place for the exercise to have an effect."
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byvo9f | what is unionising ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/byvo9f/eli5_what_is_unionising/ | {
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"Imagine if you walk up to your boss and say \"I want to be paid more, or I'll stop working\". The end result here is that your boss probably fires you.\n\nNow imagine you get all your coworkers, every single one, to go up as one group and say \"We want to be paid more, or we'll stop working\". Your boss can't just fire his entire staff, so he'll have to negotiate.\n\nThat's the purpose of a union, to gather enough employees together that simply firing them and hiring new ones aren't worth it, thus giving power to employees.",
"Unionizing is the act of establishing a union at a workplace. A group of workers may be unhappy with their pay, working conditions, etc. so they may reach out to a union to help them set up a local chapter in their office, store, plant. There is a process to inform workers of the attempt to set up a union, and get them to vote whether to unionize. Management often tries to dissuade workers from doing so, and even once they do decide to (companies can't forbid it), then they still have to either negotiate a union contract or go to an arbitration to settle one.\n\nA union gives the workers more power by negotiating on behalf of all workers/members with management, vs. each individual worker having very limited leverage against management. They typically work to set things like pay rates, benefits, working hours/conditions, path for seniority/promotion."
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d6dvov | the federal reserve just 'injected' 80 billion into the economy over the last week. how? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d6dvov/eli5_the_federal_reserve_just_injected_80_billion/ | {
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"Banks have recently experienced an increase in the demand for money. (Realize that money is just a very small part of the set of valuable assets. If someone wants to turn stocks/bonds/real estate, etc. into money, this increases the demand for money.) Greater demand for money means a higher \"price\" for money, which is expressed by the \"federal fund rate\", essentially the interest rate for taking out a short term loan. Without any outside intervention, a greater demand for money would raise the funds rate until the market reaches a new equilibrium at a higher funds rate. \n\nThe Fed prefers to intervene. Its main policy is a target federal funds rate. If it looks like the rate is going to rise above that target, the Fed starts to offer a lot of money at its target price instead, keeping the funds rate from going above the target. The Fed has had to do this more than usual lately, which is newsworthy because it means a higher demand for money, but it's not as newsworthy as when the Fed decides what the target rate should actually be. The latter is actually making policy; the former is just carrying it out. \n\nImportantly, the money isn't just being handed out for free. Banks still have to buy it from the Fed. Think about it as a market for apples. The demand for apples is going up, so the price is going up too. I, Johnny Appleseed, want the price of apples to remain low, so I release a bunch of apples from my personal stash. I don't have to give these apples away to keep the price of apples low, I just have to sell them at my target price. This is still a market intervention, and it benefits the people who like apples and buy a lot of them, but it's not the same thing as just walking around and handing out apples."
]
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3tjbse | how do american schools get away with searching students without a parents consent/search warrant? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tjbse/eli5_how_do_american_schools_get_away_with/ | {
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"Schools in america (and lots of other countries where common law is used, so its really not all that strange or particularly american) act in the eyes of the law \"in loco parentis\" which is just a latin term meaning they take on some of the responsibilities of a parent. ",
"They have the consent of the Parent by being enrolled in the school. It is part of the paperwork you fill out and sign each school year. \n\nAnd the schools do not have to have a warrant because they have the authority of a parent while the student is on their property or under their supervision. This is a concept called \"In Loco Parentis\". ",
"Schools act [in loco parentis](_URL_0_), which means \"in the place of a parent\". Legally, the school has many (but not all) of the rights of a parent, because they are responsible for protecting the children in their parents' absence. Part of that means that, like a parent, they can search the students. Unlike a parent, they do need some level of reasonable suspicion, but they do not need the parent's permission or a warrant, just like your dad doesn't need your mother's permission or a warrant to search you.",
"Not only the in loco parentis thing but also the parents sign certain documents allowing it when they are registered for school. ",
"Despite, what everyone is saying about in Loco parentis, there are limits to how the school can search you. There is an expectation of privacy for individuals when it comes to their body, and possesions. At school this this expectation still exists but is somewhat reduced. For example, any school property cam be searched such as a locker or desk without reason . However, in order to search a student's bag, purse, or body, there needs to be a reasonable suspicion. Then when the search is conducted, the school must stay in reason. For instance if you are caused of having an aspirin, they can have you empty your pockets, but not take of your clothes. So there are limits to what the school can do.",
"From someone who has been searched NUMEROUS times in school (also to no avail every time) & is now essentially targeted by Campus PD for no reason;\nWe sign away our rights in our college Housing Agreements and shit like that. At some point you sign away your rights.",
"Short answer: because the supreme court said public schools don't need a warrant in order to search its students. They need only show that they had \"reasonable grounds\" for conducting the search.\n\nSlightly longer answer: The 4th amendment gives individuals the right to be free from unreasonable governmental searches and seizures, and generally requires that the government acquire a warrant supported by \"probable cause\" before conducting a search. However, there are dozens of exceptions to this fairly straight-forward rule and in a great many cases the government doesn't need a warrant at all. Public schools are one of them. \n\nThe supreme court has ruled that schoolchildren, too, have 4th amendment rights like anyone else, but it also recognized that public school officials have a legitimate need to maintain a safe environment in which learning can take place and that getting a warrant before every search just isn't practical. \n\nIn order to strike a happy medium, the court decided that a school has reasonable grounds to search its students if 3 things are true: (1) the search offers a good chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing, (2) the way the school carries out the search is reasonably related to the purpose of the search and (3) that the search is not \"excessively intrusive\" in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction. \n\n",
"It's conditioning those future adults that their rights can and will be trampled upon with little repercussion. Schools do not particularly follow due process ",
"They get away with it due to a supreme court ruleing says that a principle who has reasonable belief to search when regarding study safety is able to search a student. This is a major problem but it still happens."
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dylld7 | why does regular milk take only a week or two to expire, while my iced coffee containing milk doesn't expire for months? | I'm specifically drinking Dunkin Donuts bottled iced coffee. It says it contains skim milk in the ingredients list. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dylld7/eli5_why_does_regular_milk_take_only_a_week_or/ | {
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"Because the coffee product has been [UHT pasteurized](_URL_0_) which super-duper kills off anything that could be alive in there that would cause it to go bad. Normal milk isn't UHT pasteurized because it changes the flavor of the milk for the worse, but you don't usually notice this when it's been mixed in to coffee.",
"Although I'm not familiar with the brand ingredients, it's entirely possible that the milk in your iced coffee has gone through the ultra-high temperature (UHT) process to increase the longevity of the product.\n\nThis process sterilises liquid by heating to 275F, killing bacteria endospores which otherwise would spoil the milk sooner. Milk treated in this way will have a shelf life of 6-9 months and can be left unrefrigerated.",
"Things are often more than the sum of their parts.\n\nWhen you have a bottle of fresh milk, it contains just that: Milk.\n\nMilk has a spoilage time/expiration date because of the properties of milk.\n\nWhen you have a pre-packaged bottled iced coffee product like the one you mention it's got some milk in it, but if you look at the ingredients there are a host of other things in there. Not only the fact that the milk is in solution with the rest of it, was likely UHT pasteurized (pasteurized at ultra high temperatures which normally affects the taste, but since it's mixed in the drink doesn't matter), and that also some of those ingredients themselves are preservatives, all lend to the ability for that product as a whole to last much longer before expiration.\n\nIn this case:\n_URL_0_\n\nThe Potassium Phosphate is specifically added to extend shelf life of the product.\n_URL_1_"
]
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3dz6ee | if access to clean and safe drinking water is basic human right, why are water companies allowed to charge? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dz6ee/eli5if_access_to_clean_and_safe_drinking_water_is/ | {
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"Why can a newspaper charge me to put an ad in if I have a right to free speech? Why can a bus company charge me for transport if I have a right to mobility?\n\nBecause the rights a government grants tend to be instituted as something the government accepts it can never deny you, not as something the government must provide you. Any international agreements, like the UN's charter, isn't even instituted as law in any country it's simply some pretty words.",
"In the US it's not a basic right. In fact, there are complex laws that govern how water is shared between and among states, and within states. These vary all over the place. Many of these laws go back 100 plus years, especially in the west, before it was heavily populated.",
" > If access to clean and safe drinking water is basic human right\n\nThere is no real common definition of what a \"human right\" even is, and no mechanism for enforcing \"human rights\" other than things like economic sanctions from other countries.\n\n > why are water companies allowed to charge?\n\nBecause transporting clean water to the entire population costs money. The water has to be filtered and cleaned, and physical pipes have to be built and maintained.\n\nIf they couldn't charge, then there would be no way to pay for any of that, and they'd just shut down their company. At that point, you'd be stuck relying on catching your own rain water, digging your own well, or hauling buckets down to the river (whichever is most convenient for you).",
"They charge for water pumped to your house. Water is a basic human right but it's not a basic human right to have it delivered to you in the most convenient way possible via a pump in your house. There are public places to get water for free if you want.",
"Housing, clothing, food are basic human rights, too, and people still have to pay for those...",
"Is this a troll question? ... someone should find, purify, and deliver a scarce resource to you for free?"
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dgqkaz | - if eyewitness testimony is so fallible, why is it so heavily relied upon? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dgqkaz/eli5_if_eyewitness_testimony_is_so_fallible_why/ | {
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"It can be very compelling to a jury. There are some times when there is little or no forensic evidence. Depending on the area there may be video but often times there is blind spots, equipment failure or just poor quality.",
"Honestly in most situations, what else do you have? Robery/B & E/ Driving accidents/some assault the best you are going to get to start is to get what people \"saw\" and work from there."
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8tii2b | why does it take a full minute for a modem/router to re-establish an internet connection after being unplugged? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tii2b/eli5_why_does_it_take_a_full_minute_for_a/ | {
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"It has to figure out the best frequency with the closest exchange point (the box down the road usually), if you're not on fibre, it needs to measure the speed of the packets (data) and the amount of packets it can send at that speed through your cable. It will be competing against your neighbours demand, and the distance you are comparable to your neighbour. Plus routers provided by internet service providers are usually pretty limp when it comes to processing power.\n\nEdit: there's also options it needs to compare and decide, whether you will have adsl (asynchronous subscriber line, or dsl, none asynchronous sending and receiving. There are many factors it needs to calculate. Firewall options, dns options, etc. Sorry I can't explain any simpler. It's a complex system and has many factors.",
"A router is a computer with a specialized role.\n\nJust like your laptop, desktop, tablet or smartphone takes time to (re)boot so does a router."
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53kr1i | why does it take so long to get paid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53kr1i/eli5_why_does_it_take_so_long_to_get_paid/ | {
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"Employee payments are typically processed in batches, with the funds being approved and released to a large number of people at once. Letting everybody set up their own payment plan would put unnecessary stress on accounting, and payments every ~2 weeks have been working for long enough that there's not a huge incentive to reform it.",
"Paying you every day is 10-times more work than paying you every other week, literally. Since the folks in payroll get a salary, just like you, making them do 10 times more work means at least 5 times more of them, and that costs money.",
"That would take a lot of back end work, be it on the accountants or a computer. It's a responsibility as an adult to budget your money. What's waiting 2 weeks or a month, in the long run its the same amount of money."
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34ippg | why is it that people who aren't very physically active cough after strenuous exercise? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34ippg/eli5_why_is_it_that_people_who_arent_very/ | {
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"When you do strenuous exercise, your body needs more oxygen. For people who are physically fit, their heart and lungs have been \"trained\" to be more efficient in bringing in oxygen, i.e. they get more oxygen per breath. For the less fit, they get less oxygen per breath.\n\nSince an unfit person gets less usable oxygen per breath, they need more breaths, faster. And the faster way to breathe is through your mouth rather than your nose. This means that a lot of (relatively) cold, dry air is being sucked in over the person's throat, and that dries it out. The dry throat leads to coughing.\n\nTL;DR: Unfit person needs more breaths, which dry out his throat."
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4z69o7 | if you lose one of your five senses, do the others actually grow stronger, and if they do how is that possible? | If it is possible, could a human who has not lost one of their senses train a sense to be stronger? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4z69o7/eli5_if_you_lose_one_of_your_five_senses_do_the/ | {
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"Because for most people the limit on their senses is the brain's massive filtering of sensory input (optical illusions are good examples of things designed to expose the brain's filtering). When a person loses one sense, the brain pays more attention to the remaining sense and usually has some excess capacity in the areas that would otherwise be processing the lost sense. ",
"Because in your brain there is a lot of diffrent compartments that using energy. 5 senses use incredible amount of energy. So when 1 of them shuts down others can use its energy",
"Imagine you have two arms with hands. You use both of them throughout the day to pick things up, type, drive eat, and stuff. Now you lose an arm. All of the tasks that the lost arm did now have to be done with your other arm. So you remaining arm gets used more and gets more exercise and grows stronger. \n\nIt's the same with your senses. You use them all to interact with and notice things about the world. If one goes away, you're still going to want to know what's going on around you, so you're going to start to use the others in place of the lost sense.",
"It's not that the senses get stronger in an absolute sense. Someone who is blind doesn't gain the ability to hear sounds that would be too soft for a sighted person. It's a matter of attention and processing in the brain. A blind person may notice the soft sound that a sighted person would ignore because of how soft it is, not because their sense of hearing is stronger, but because more of their brain is focused on processing the information being gathered by their sense of hearing.",
"As others have said, your brain basically compartmentalizes your senses in their own areas. There's a part dedicated to smell (which is decidedly larger in animals such as dogs), sight, hearing, and so forth.\n\nIf you were to go blind for a reason that didn't involve traumatic brain injury, you still have healthy brain matter that was once dedicated to your sense of sight. Eventually some of it may be utilized by the neighboring pathways that are dedicated to another sense.\n\nThat's not to say you will get daredevil superpowers. It's more that you have less distraction and the potential for a little more processing power. The inputs remain the same, but because you are not distracted by sight and that part of your brain is still working, you may process sounds more intricately than someone who is not blind.",
"The other replies said that this \"growing stronger\" is due to being able to process more information or in a better way with the other senses. That seems to be true.\n\nI would like to add to this that the reason why this helps is that anything you sense (hear, see, feel etc) you have to decode in some way in the brain. This means that your eyesight isn't just your eyes visually seeing something, but there is also the element of decoding the image and understanding what is in it. This indicates that processing of information in the brain is a rather important step in using a sense. If a sense doesn't work then the brain repurposes the areas for other things."
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6j9wfc | why would any country start a nuclear war if it means the world as we know it would be over? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6j9wfc/eli5_why_would_any_country_start_a_nuclear_war_if/ | {
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"That is exactly the idea behind Mutually Assured Destruction, nobody would want to start that war. They might if they thought they could win and survive afterwards though."
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6jynpv | what is gst bill? | ELI5 what is GST bill? How will it affect the citizens of India? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jynpv/eli5_what_is_gst_bill/ | {
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"In general, a GST ( a Goods and Sales Tax ) or VAT ( Value Added Tax ) is a tax which should apply during the entire value chain. A company is buying goods with GST, increase value of e.g. raw material and sells the product also with GST. The difference will be transferred to the Tax Bureau. The last in the value chain is the Enduser, the individual, which is consuming the goods. For the Enduser, a GST is an additionally cost. "
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3863v8 | why does the u.s. military use exciting action commercials and other fanfare for recruiting rather than just telling us what the threat is? | "this guy named Hitler is killing all these people and invading places" is pretty solid for example... wouldn't people be willing to fight if we knew of an actual threat to our homes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3863v8/eli5_why_does_the_us_military_use_exciting_action/ | {
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"Why does Bud Light have commercials of a guy playing ping-pong with Arnold Schwarzenegger instead of advertising its price and alcoholic content? Like any other advertiser, the Army spends millions trying to find the best way to sell themselves. The simplest answer is likely the exciting action commercials are the result of a group of very intelligent people studying data and crafting a pitch they think will attract the largest group of people. As with any commercial reaching millions, the results tend to be generic and inoffensive.\n\nThere are many reasons I think they'd avoid a \"Hitler is killing all these people\" commercial:\n\n* It's a complex situation. We're talking about a fifteen second commercial designed to grab your attention, not a WWII newsreel.\n\n* A commercial focusing on the enemy subconsciously reinforces the danger of serving in the armed forces. The single biggest downside to joining the military is that you could end up dead, and they obviously want to avoid anything that could reinforce that idea.\n\n* Hot-headed assholes yelling \"Let's go kill us some ISIS!\" is NOT what the military wants. The keywords they use instead (bravery, commitment, service, etc.) are the more important indicators of military success that they're looking for.\n\n* Our enemy isn't exactly the most... politically correct. The White House [refuses to even use the term \"radical Islam\"](_URL_0_) when referring to people like the Charlie Hebdo murders, for fear of alienating American Muslims and Muslim allies. The armed forces are likewise strongly recruiting Arabic-speakers and Muslim-Americans, and angry faces with turbans on your commercials won't help."
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40sran | why can't tv remotes have a sensor where the signal is transmitted, for example like the one in a wireless xbox controller, so we can point it in any direction and it will work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40sran/eli5why_cant_tv_remotes_have_a_sensor_where_the/ | {
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"Some remotes have that, especially for Satellite, where the remote isn't always being used in the same room as the receiver box. They are just RF remotes instead of IR. They will still have IR, so you can use it to control the TV or AUX.",
"They can. It's just more expensive and mostly unnecessary so they don't bother. \n\nIf you're interested, look for RF remotes.",
"There isn't any technical reason why it couldn't be set up for, say, a bluetooth connection or another technology. However, it's a chicken-and-egg problem right now. If TV manufacturers keep using IR sensors, then there's no reason for remote manufacturers to use any other technology; however, if all the remote companies are only making IR remote, then there's no incentive for TV manufacturers to adopt another technology.\n\nThe new remote control for the PS4 uses both a bluetooth connection (to control the Playstation) and an IR sensor (to control the TV). I suspect we'll see more hybrids as we go along until the transition to newer technologies is complete.",
"The Xbox remote uses RF (radio frequency) transmitters so it doesn't matter where it's pointed. The TV remote uses IR (infrared) so you need to point it at the TV.\n\nWhy don't we use RF for the TV remotes? Because it uses a LOT more power. Think about how often the batteries last in your XBox remote -- For moderate to heavy gaming, just a few days. The batteries in your TV remote last for months.\n\nMost people would find replacing the batteries twice a week far more annoying than having to point the remote at the TV.\n\nEDIT: typo"
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nwcev | why is there good/bad taste in music/films/etc? | If taste in music, films, etc. is subjective, why do some people like to talk about good/bad taste like its something objective? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nwcev/eli5_why_is_there_goodbad_taste_in_musicfilmsetc/ | {
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"because thats their opinion? they have ranked the movies in their head according to their subjective criteria, then are sharing their \"objective\" opinion. Its human nature to compare things",
"This [xkcd comic](_URL_0_).\n\nPerson A likes band A and hates band B. Person B likes both bands.\nPerson A listened to songs from band B and didn't like them, he didn't like the sounds, didn't like the music for some reason he finds hard to explain. It is just not pleasing to him. When person B says he likes the music band B produces, person A is confused, because person A is not sure why person B likes the music.\n\nBut person A can't explain why he doesn't like the music. It's too loud? Quiet? It's too jumpy? Soft? There are many factors in music and we tend to be drawn towards one or the other. It takes a lot more musical education to be able to correctly identify the underlying differences between pieces of music. This is true for a lot of fields. So all person A can think of is that person B has bad taste in music. \n\nThis is especially true if person A has the popular vote. If person A has a lot of people behind him then his voice feels more important, more correct. ",
"You're right, it is completely subjective -- but people are like monkeys. When we aren't flinging metaphorical poop at one another we are forming little monkey-people tribes. These monkey-people tribes can be families, groups of \"cool kids\" at school, and even professions like doctors or construction workers! People like to belong in these little monkey tribes because it makes them feel safe and secure. \n\nMonkey-people within these tribes like to do things to remind one another that they are in the same tribe. And we crazy monkey-people think of all kinds of different ways to do this! Within a single tribe we like to talk the same, dress similarly, and yes, even watch the same kinds of movies and listen to the same kinds of music. For example, here in the Reddit monkey-people tribe we like to claim all sorts of things like, perhaps *Republicans are _____* or *_URL_0_ is _____* etc. Other examples exist for music: a member of the Hipster monkey tribe might tell you *Lady Gaga is trash because _____* or *Ratatat used to be cool, but now isn't because _____* ...and they say these things, in a very real sense, because they are indicating which monkey-tribe they are a member of and the way you respond will indicate to them if you are in the same monkey-tribe or not and their personal understanding of the social world around them will seem a little clearer to their monkey-brain.\n\nWe all have opinions about all sorts of things and we form groups with people who share the same opinions or we change our opinions in order to fit in better with a certain group. Pretty much all humans who function normally do this, and the expression/judgement of opinions over movies/films/music etc. is one way among many that humans use to organize themselves into social groups. ",
"I think Irish comedian Dara O'Briain says it best: _URL_0_",
"because thats their opinion? they have ranked the movies in their head according to their subjective criteria, then are sharing their \"objective\" opinion. Its human nature to compare things",
"This [xkcd comic](_URL_0_).\n\nPerson A likes band A and hates band B. Person B likes both bands.\nPerson A listened to songs from band B and didn't like them, he didn't like the sounds, didn't like the music for some reason he finds hard to explain. It is just not pleasing to him. When person B says he likes the music band B produces, person A is confused, because person A is not sure why person B likes the music.\n\nBut person A can't explain why he doesn't like the music. It's too loud? Quiet? It's too jumpy? Soft? There are many factors in music and we tend to be drawn towards one or the other. It takes a lot more musical education to be able to correctly identify the underlying differences between pieces of music. This is true for a lot of fields. So all person A can think of is that person B has bad taste in music. \n\nThis is especially true if person A has the popular vote. If person A has a lot of people behind him then his voice feels more important, more correct. ",
"You're right, it is completely subjective -- but people are like monkeys. When we aren't flinging metaphorical poop at one another we are forming little monkey-people tribes. These monkey-people tribes can be families, groups of \"cool kids\" at school, and even professions like doctors or construction workers! People like to belong in these little monkey tribes because it makes them feel safe and secure. \n\nMonkey-people within these tribes like to do things to remind one another that they are in the same tribe. And we crazy monkey-people think of all kinds of different ways to do this! Within a single tribe we like to talk the same, dress similarly, and yes, even watch the same kinds of movies and listen to the same kinds of music. For example, here in the Reddit monkey-people tribe we like to claim all sorts of things like, perhaps *Republicans are _____* or *_URL_0_ is _____* etc. Other examples exist for music: a member of the Hipster monkey tribe might tell you *Lady Gaga is trash because _____* or *Ratatat used to be cool, but now isn't because _____* ...and they say these things, in a very real sense, because they are indicating which monkey-tribe they are a member of and the way you respond will indicate to them if you are in the same monkey-tribe or not and their personal understanding of the social world around them will seem a little clearer to their monkey-brain.\n\nWe all have opinions about all sorts of things and we form groups with people who share the same opinions or we change our opinions in order to fit in better with a certain group. Pretty much all humans who function normally do this, and the expression/judgement of opinions over movies/films/music etc. is one way among many that humans use to organize themselves into social groups. ",
"I think Irish comedian Dara O'Briain says it best: _URL_0_"
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7q2pek | how does this crazy text work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7q2pek/eli5_how_does_this_crazy_text_work/ | {
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"It uses Unicode modifiers to add all these crazy accent marks and stuff to normal characters. In other words it's actual text."
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3obsev | how are series viewership numbers calculated? do they take into account netlix, multiple people watching from one screen, or even illegal downloads into consideration? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3obsev/eli5_how_are_series_viewership_numbers_calculated/ | {
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"Most viewership numbers come from Nielsen, the gold standard for TV viewing. It's most commonly called the \"Nielsen Rating.\"\n\nHistorically, they have used viewer logs: (largely) random participants would write down what they watched each day, and then sent them in. Once it became technologically feasable, they would send out small devices that would automatically track what people watched on a TV. All this info was sent back to the company, who would do statistical sampling and demographic computations to come up with viewer habits.\n\nThe thing is, is that this info is gathered largely for the purpose of advertising. Because of this, if the show is being watched in some form that is useless to advertising (say, on a TiVO where people skip ads, illegal downloads, Netflix after the show has already aired) it really isn't tracked. \n\nNote that many companies have their own internal tracking information, especially things like Hulu, Netflix, and HBO, where advertising may not be the biggest priority, or if they want more sophisticated demographic data.\n\nSO for your question, it's important to ask: what use is viewership? Advertisers want to know how many people they are reaching, and content creators want to know the financials of it (say, for HBO or Netflix, which don't use ads but still want to know who is going to pay to watch their programming). They wouldn't bother with illegal downloads because that isn't helping them in either case. "
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vlype | why are some fast food restaurants so cold? | Why are some fast food restaurants so cold? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vlype/eli5_why_are_some_fast_food_restaurants_so_cold/ | {
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"I would guess that it's because they set their thermostat to a temperature that is colder than you personally find comfortable. You're probably in the minority with these feelings. Protip: wear a sweater.",
"Basically you don't really have to worry about warming a building with lots of people in it. Humans release excess heat all the time and even in Canada you'll have malls for instance running air conditioner in the middle of the Christmas shopping season. You do on the other hand have a problem with keeping people cold. It's difficult to drop the temperature of a building quickly in comparison to heating it so many business prefer to cover compensate during non peak hours so when there is a rush of customers their bodies won't make the place unbearably hot. ",
"Because most fast food restaurants have open kitchens. They can't zone their AC very effectively. (Only send cold air to one part of the structure, the kitchen, and not the others, the dining room.) They have huge fryers full of 375 degree oil, ovens, grills, dishwashers and salamanders that are running practically constantly dumping waste heat into the whole place. You're further from this heat in the dining room, so don't notice it as much as the guy slaving away over the grill.\n\nSlightly more upscale joints tend to have closed kitchens and are therefore more comfortable for the diners. ",
"I've heard its because they want you to come in, eat, and finish in as little time as possible so other customers can come in afterwards, which generates more money. ",
"People do things faster when they're cold. So when a mover is in your house you should crank the A/C up so they work faster. It's what restaurant people do sometimes too."
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19jpyy | why can you secure the rights to remake movies, or cover songs, but can't rewrite a novel? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19jpyy/eli5_why_can_you_secure_the_rights_to_remake/ | {
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"Movies and songs can altered in ways that makes them very different from the original. \n\nMany cover songs have become much more successful or memorable than the original. The song [\"Knockin' on Heaven's Door\" by Bob Dylan](_URL_1_) is a slow acoustic song. The [version by Guns N' Roses](_URL_0_) is a hard rock song that fit perfectly with the music scene during the late 80's/early 90's.\n\nMovies can be remade with different actors and technologies, like CGI. Using newer actors helps introduce a a classic movie to a whole new generation. The actors are much more familiar to the current audience (examples include *Alfie*, *3:10 to Yuma*, etc.). \n\nOftentimes, foreign films are remade for an audience in another country. *Infernal Affairs* was a 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller. It was remade for American audiences as *The Departed*. They took a foreign story and put it in the context of the Irish mob in Boston, something American are much more familiar with.\n\nA book can't be altered that easily. Imagine I took Harry Potter and changed the characters' names, some minor details, and a few other plot lines. It would still be a very familiar story about a boy who goes to wizard schools, makes friends, and has crazy adventures. It would be a crappy version of a story we already know.\n\nAs for securing the rights, I don't think an author would consent to someone writing a crappier version of their book.\n",
"Hell, the concept for books are redone all the time. H.P. Lovecraft actively encouraged people to add to his Cthulhu Mythos story series. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett were copied by most hard-boiled fiction writers. An even more recent example is that Hunger Games is no more of a retelling of The Long Walk by Stephen King. \n\nYou say that those are only based on the story, and not a retelling of the story, I have another example for you. Look at the science fiction classic Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. Robert Silverburg re-wrote the entire thing almost verbatim and added a couple scenes to make a novel out of it. Another example would be, The Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Washington Irving wrote the original novel, but almost every hack has taken a shot at re-writing the story. \n\nSo while the titles may have changed, a lot of stories are retold and stay true to the original author. ",
"You can. For example, the Nancy Drew books have been rewritten--sometimes only having bits updated so they sound more modern, while other times the entire book was changed, leaving only the title. See, movies and such typically have a large number of people that work on it, and the copyright is held by a corporation, which wants to make money.if they sense they can make more money by selling the rights to remake something, they will often do so. But when creators are motivated chiefly by art rather than money, they show reluctance in allowing anyone to tamper with their work--they believe others can't do it as well as themselves. Since books are almost always written by a sole individual artist, who hoods the copyright, they'll usually recuse rewrites--but they may do some rewriting themselves, which is why there are multiple editions of the same book. When copyrights are held by corporations, such as in the Nancy Drew example above, rewrites are standard.fYI: the Nancy Drew books have as author \"Carolyn Keene.\" but no such person exists. Books were assigned to individual people to write, and the authors were sworn to secrecy, names not revealed. The copyright was owned by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Other examples are comic books. They're always updating and changing their stories, having new authors retell the same characters' tales again and again."
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3ne5gf | confidence. why do some people have it and others don't? | Preferably a more neurological explanation. Plenty of people who shouldn't be confident are, while other folks who should be aren't. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ne5gf/eli5_confidence_why_do_some_people_have_it_and/ | {
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"It's behavioral. When you win a lot in childhood, frequently get your way, and are given strong opportunities you become confident. When you are frequently punished or told off, get into trouble, or get picked on, you become unconfident.\n\nIn ages past, the nobility set up childhood for their kids to ensure that they grew up confident. Similarly, servants and peasants were taught to obey, and to be constrained so they might be better workers.\n\nMost of our child-raising traditions go back to this time. We are still attempting to determine how best to raise a child to grow up to be confident and strong-willed but still submissive enough to do the shit jobs at work.\n\nAs an adult, your confidence level may fluctuate, but generally is set based on your childhood. To increase your confidence, focus on activities you're good at and increase your general fitness, and try to avoid spending time with people who are in a higher social position than you, like your boss. It's really lame that we're a shallow species that way, but we are.",
"Well what is confidence? To me, confidence in any situation is either due to: a) knowing you can handle said situation well and/or b) not being overly concerned with the result of it going a particular way. Both heavily influenced by who you are and how you were raised to think/what you want to believe. \n\nI don't know the \"neurological\" reason for this. And I would guess that a neurologist wouldn't know either (but might pretend to). May I ask why you are interested in that type of explanation?\n\nEdit: actually thinking on it, confidence or the illusion thereof could decently described to calmness under pressure. So ones ability to keep their parasympathetic (calm) nervous system in balance with their sympathetic (stress) nervous system would be the key here. By simply doing something like steadying the rythym of your breathing you can be more confident. Often times when I get nervous or stressed I realize that I'm holding my breath/breathing erraticly and by focusing I can start the process of balancing out"
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1417r1 | why do humans get addicted to trans fat? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1417r1/why_do_humans_get_addicted_to_trans_fat/ | {
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"Fat in general. Fat has more calories, until recent times humans wanted and needed to eat as much fat as possible to survive because food wasn't an every day thing, the brain rewards us for that."
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1rdcew | getting a credit card for the first time. what kind of card do i get, what should i use it for, and what else should i know? | I just graduated college so maybe I'm a little late, but I'd appreciate anything you can tell me about getting my first credit card. What's best in general for someone getting one for the first time? What should I use it for? Thanks a lot in advance! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rdcew/eli5_getting_a_credit_card_for_the_first_time/ | {
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"Just finished my undergrad and got my first credit card. Its a discover. Make sure you pay in full and on time for a year to build your credit. My credit limit is $750. I was told not to go over $500 because it will put you at high risk. ",
"Use it to pay your utility bills. This allows you to consolidate your billing and build a great credit history for paying them. Whereas if you pay for your utilities from a checking account those payments won't reflect on your credit rating. Don't use it to buy things you want like TVs or furniture. Use it for only what you need. Vehicle maintenance, gas, and anything that will help you advance your career. Like a few good suits and shoes etc..Never use it for entertainment purposes like movies and dining out.",
"You should probably read some suggestions on /r/personalfinance. In general, as a first card, your options are limited. You are going to end up with a high-interest, low-limit card. Ideally, your first credit card is one that you will use every month, and will pay off entirely every month, to build credit. You don't want to incur the interest fees, so you need to pay the bill in full (this also keeps you from spending beyond your means). Also, if there is an annual fee on the card, you don't want it.\n\nYou may want to talk to your bank about a secured credit card to get you started. In this scenario, you give the bank a deposit (the security) for the card and after while they'll give it back. \n\nStore credit cards are often not hard to get, but are limited to the store. For example, my first card was a Victorias Secret card with a $700 limit, which I chose because at the time I shopped there at least once every few months.\n\nRewards/cash back cards are my personal favorite, but may be tougher to get. These cards reward you for using them, and if you pay the card off each month, this is just free money. There are plenty of websites discussing the pros and cons of various cards. You want to choose a card that works with your spending. I chose an AmEx Blue Cash card because it pays a decent return on grocery/gas, so I use it for that. My bf who was just starting out went with a Chase Freedom card.\n\nThere are some perks to using a credit card: most credit cards will cover the accident insurance on a rental car if you use the card to pay for the rental. Also, a lot of them offer extended returns/accidental damage policies, so look into that (and this means, use the card to buy your electronics and breakables).\n\nLike others have said, treat it as a debit card and don't spend more than you can pay. You have to choose the right card for your spending habits in order to get the most out of it. ",
"Use it for whatever you want, but pay it off. I use mine fairly regularly, but also try to keep the balance low or at $0 because of interest rates. \n\nWhen you're looking for a credit card to get, look for something with no interest for the first year. That way you're not paying interest in your first year and can get used to having the card and understanding how credit works. It's NOT free money. Don't let yourself look at it like that. You have to pay for it all eventually, and it will destroy your credit if you don't. Don't just pay the minimum every month, either. Especially once the interest kicks in. Then you're just paying the interest, will never get the balance down, and you're ultimately digging yourself into a hole. Occasionally, sure. Some months suck and you can only afford the minimum. But always do your best to go higher if you leave a balance. Trust me. I ruined my amazing credit because I was poor and relied on credit cards, but then I couldn't always afford to pay them.\n\nDon't pay an annual fee for a card. There are PLENTY of free ones out there. I've had both Chase Freedom and Chase Slate cards which are free and were interest free for the first year. I got rid of my Slate card when I paid it off, but still have the Freedom card. It accumulates points that I can redeem for tons of stuff, depending on the point balance. Personally, I like that.\n\nIt really depends on what you want. The Freedom card is great for just a credit card. You get the card plus the point system. Some cards offer different rewards, whether it's for flights or trips or what have you. I recommend going with a really basic one for your very first card, but it's up to you and what you like/need. You can often find comparison sites that'll tell you interest rates, any rewards, annual fees, etc. _URL_1_ has a comparison tool, so does _URL_0_, and countless others. Or pick a company (Chase, Capital One, etc) and you can often look at what all of their cards offer.\n\nThe big thing is paying it on time and keeping the balance low. I learned that the hard way, and you probably will too. Once you have to pay interest, that balance will go up fast. Miss a payment? The missed payment fee can be ugly.",
"It is amazing how small purchases quickly add up on the card. Be careful about charging things like lunch. You'll get the bill at the end of the month and wonder what the hell happened. Also, make sure you can access your account online to keep tabs on your balance. ",
"Pay it in full every month. Spend less than you earn",
"I guess there are two things you want to think about. The type of card and your limit. \n\n**Type of Card**\nThe standard is a Cash Rewards card. You should probably go with one that has no Annual fee. I graduated in May and got a Cash Rewards card from my bank with 1% back on all purchases. I've never heard of less than that %-age, but you can do better. I got a Costco membership and the American Express that they have gives me 3% on Gas, 2% on Restaurants, and 1% on everything else.\n\n**Limit**\nI started out with a limit of $500, but once I started getting paychecks, this was way too low. You don't want to max out your credit card, so try to get a limit that is higher than what you earn in a month, maybe twice what you earn. It's actually better for your score to use a lower percentage of your available credit, so you should probably go as high as you can. If your bank won't let you go higher, you can try to get another card.\n\nOnce you have a card, you can start putting whatever you need to on it. Keep track of your balances, make sure you don't overspend, and pay the bills every month. It's simple.\n\n**Other tips**\nI manage all of my accounts with _URL_1_. It's a lot easier to log in one place and see how I'm doing financially. It also tells me when my bills are due, so it's much easier to keep track. Never miss a payment.\n\n**References**\n\n[How many cards should you have?](_URL_2_)\n\n[NerdWallet's best credit cards](_URL_0_) \n\nUse this to know what kinds of rewards cards are available. You might not be able to get any of them yet.\n",
"Fraud Prevention Coordinator for a major CC company here, 1) use your credit responsibly and build it over time, if you can use it to buy stocks, bonds, money markets, precious metals, real estate and other things that will improve your wealth over time. you can pay it off slowly, just don't buy what you can't afford. 2) use it to pay off debts, if they go to collections they effect your credit score. 3) pay it off on time even if you're only making the minimum payments. 4) protect your identity as much as possible, use a prepaid debit card like netspend for online/mail order/phone purchases, place a victim statement with transunion exuifax and experian stating to call you at your personal phone number before approving any application for credit. contact your credit card company and ask to place a password on your account only you know to make any changes to the account such as address or phone number. don't ever use your credit card on a machine that makes a carbon copy, pay close attention at point of sale locations such as gas stations and atm's to make sure someone isn't standing behind you with a cell phone, or worse has placed some sort of skimming device on the point of sale (ie it looks tampered with)"
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"http://www.mint.com/blog/credit/how-many-credit-cards-should-you-have-052012/"
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1ege7x | the contra war in nicaragua in the 1980's | What exactly started this and how controversial was the USA's role in this war? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ege7x/eli5_the_contra_war_in_nicaragua_in_the_1980s/ | {
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"In 1979, guerrilla revolutionaries attempted to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. This revolution lasted into the 1980s.\n\nReagan took office as President of the US in 1981. The next year, he sent money and CIA advisers to help the revolutionaries. Other government leaders don't like it when the US tries to help revolutionaries overthrow their leaders. Especially when it's done in secret. Reagan had the approval of congress but it was still a secret operation.\n\nThis money helped the revolutionaries in Nicaragua but they were unable to overthrow the regime. This continued until 1985, when the American people finally expressed enough unhappiness over this sneaky shit that Congress discontinued funding to the revolutionaries in Nicaragua.\n\nEnd of story? Nope! The Reagan administration then began selling weapons internationally to raise the money to send to the revolutionaries. This is completely against US law, but he did it anyway. What's even worse is that he was selling the weapons to Iran, which later came back to bite the US in the ass. We routed the money through Panama and Manuel Noreiga, who took a cut of the money and was also involved in drug trafficking to the US, so Reagan was illegally funding revolutionaries AND the skyrocketing drug industry in the US. (On the other hand, his wife Nancy did attempt to cure the drug problem in the US by asking people to please not do drugs.)\n\nSo, the US had a pretty controversial role.\n\n\n "
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1rzifr | does the equation e=mc2 require specific units of measurement to be accurate? | Even though the speed of light is 'fixed' it can be expressed in meters/second, feet/sec and many other ways which have different numerical values.. Same with mass (kilograms, pounds, grams, etc).
E = 9 (pounds) * 186,000^2 (miles persecond)
yields a different result from
E = 4.08 (kilos) *299,792,458^2 (meters/second)
How can one accurately solve for E when there are dozens of combinations of M and C2 -- and what unit of measure is E when one does find a solution? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rzifr/eli5_does_the_equation_emc2_require_specific/ | {
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"The main point is that the units have to be consistent. You need MC^2 to work out to units of energy.\n\nIf you use one type of unit for M, you need to use that notation for C as well or it will become inconsistent.",
"In physics, we use SI units for common measurements.\n\nDistance is measured in metres, time is measured in seconds, speed is measured in metres/second, acceleration in metres/second^2 etc.\n\nTo yeild an accurate answer in joules (the SI unit for energy), SI units must be used."
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7unvki | why, during world war two, were injured soldiers given only one shot (syrette) of morphine and then marked with an m on their forehead? did they only get one shot of it forevermore, or was this merely to avoid an overdose? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7unvki/eli5_why_during_world_war_two_were_injured/ | {
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"Merely to avoid an overdose and addiction.\n\nMorphine is SUPER powerful, and the difference between relieving pain and making pain go away *forever* (death) is not that big. Marking someone with an M (or just leaving the syrette stuck through their lapel) was a way to tell the medics that he had morphine.",
"It was to avoid overdose (they were giving large doses by modern standards anyway) and to help rationing the drug as it was often in low supply at a field clinic. Things get hectic in a field hospital and charts are hard to keep and check. So systems like tying a ribbon, drawing a mark, etc that denotes those who have been checked and given their medications is important. ",
"This seemed like a good question so I went on a quick internet journey to find a vet talking, on a forum, about the procedure. \n \ntldr version of what he said; Morphine suppresses the respiratory system. So only a minimal dosage is given in the field. Larger doses may follow in a controlled environment where vitals are monitored - and the patient has hopefully been stabilised.\n\n\n"
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7u7c5n | how can the moon's gravity cause tides 250k miles away but can barely keep a human on it's surface | I know the moon's gravity is strong enough to keep people from floating away but considering how little gravity there is on the surface of the moon, how can it have such an effect on our oceans | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7u7c5n/eli5_how_can_the_moons_gravity_cause_tides_250k/ | {
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"Tides are not that dramatic, all things considered. An ocean 3000 miles across and 3 miles deep moves 50 feet up the beach.",
"Because it doesn't cause the tides by physically pulling up the water numerous feet towards the sky! Otherwise lakes would experience tides, and they don't (unless they're huge)\n\nImagine the moon to one side of a simplified earth that is all ocean.\n\nThe water at the top and bottom are being pulled *sideways* by the moon's presence - not by a lot, but by a little bit.\n\nSo that water pushes against the water next to it, which is also being pulled by the moon, and so on. All of this adds up.\n\nSo it isn't that the water is being pulled upwards by the moon - it is being *squeezed* upwards by all the *other* water that is being pulled slightly to the side.",
"For the record, people on the moon aren't even close to \"floating away\". They feel much lighter (1/6 of their weight on Earth), but they still need a propulsion system to escape the moon's gravity."
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3go84a | why, although culturally similar, the united states and canada don't seem to have similar social problems? | In all respects. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3go84a/eli5_why_although_culturally_similar_the_united/ | {
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"In a word: slavery. Canada did not have the need nor the desire for the mass scale of slavery. This and the fact that it's too damn cold, led to a more homogeneous citizenry until more modern times. _URL_0_",
"Most US social problems relate back to slavery, or the US being extremely religious. \n\nCanada wasn't founded by people who thought European Lutherans were too liberal with their penny weddings. Or by slave holders. Sadly US has both. ",
"I mean one similarity they share is the blatant mistreatment and continued igoring of Native peoples. Both Canadian and American natives were exiled, abused, murdered, etc. by settlers.\n\n\nSee, we're not all that different.",
"1. Canada is not a global military power engaged in various violent conflicts around the world. Canada has not historically meddled in the affairs of foreign peoples (except the indigenous people of Canada, of course).\n\n2. Canada has more expansive social welfare programs. Canada has free universal healthcare and provides cash welfare to more of its poor than the US does. The effects of this are hotly debated but many would argue this more effectively ameliorates the negative effects of extreme and concentrated poverty.\n\n3. Canada doesn't have quite the same history of violent race relations as the US. Of course, like in the US, there were massacres and dispossession of the native population, and to this day the indigenous population are disadvantaged, but Canada didn't have the history of mass slavery and structural white supremacy as the US does. Racism is a problem in Canada, especially against the First Nations (who represent a greater percentage of the total population in Canada than Native Americans do in the US), but there isn't the same massive class of racially oppressed people suffering from a history of exploitation and poverty like there is in the US. ",
"A number of differences, as seen through US eyes:\n\nThe US fought and won its independence from the UK, Canada was granted autonomy. \n\nOthers have noted lack of slavery and less religious extremism in Canada.\n\nCanada's economic and geographic expansion tended to be slower and less feverish than the US's.\n\nTo some extent Canada hasn't stressed cultural and linguistic assimilation as much as the US, partly because of a much smaller and more dispersed population, partly because of a large non-Anglo enclave in Quebec.\n\nLess warfare on Canadian soil than on US. After the (US) War of 1812 the last major fighting in Canada was the Louis Riel rebellion. The US had:\n\nNumerous wars with the Native Americans.\n\nThe War of 1812\n\nThe Texas War for Independence (from Mexico)\n\nThe Mexican-American War (US seized about half of Mexico's territory)\n\nThe Civil War and the economic and social disruptions that followed it."
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77f9xt | how did old cartoons record music if they couldn't record voices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77f9xt/eli5_how_did_old_cartoons_record_music_if_they/ | {
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"They didn’t. Early silent movies were accompanied by actual piano players, present in real life at the theater. \n\n > During silent films, a pianist, theater organist, or, in large cities, even a small orchestra would often play music to accompany the films. \n\n[Wiki link](_URL_1_)\n\nEdit: Steamboat Willie, in 1928, was the first cartoon to feature [synchronized sound](_URL_0_)"
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie?wprov=sfti1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie?wprov=sfti1",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film?wprov=sfti1https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film?wprov=sfti1"
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37dsb3 | "pregnant" bird carrying eggs; what is it like? | After almost two hours of searching from google and looking from this subreddit I had to give up and come to you clever people with this (pretty silly) question.
Today I started to think about "pregnant" (in lack of a better word for it) birds. Now, I know that most birds (if not all) lay them on the nest and take care of them until they hatch, but what I want to know is how such fragile things stay intact while inside the bird? Especially if a bird is carrying more than one egg, wouldn't they bump into each other and possibly cause cracks in the egg's shell? And how does it even look like inside the bird during it's "pregnancy"?
I'd appreciate all kinds of information regarding this matter, I'm extremely curious about this but google has failed me this time. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37dsb3/eli5_pregnant_bird_carrying_eggs_what_is_it_like/ | {
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"[Pregnant bird](_URL_0_). I imagine the eggs are soft and pliable, much like an alligator's, until they're ready to be laid. Then they harden up and create the shell you're used to seeing."
]
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bu5npe | how can we feel dizzy just by looking at something spinning if the fluids in our ears don't move? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bu5npe/eli5_how_can_we_feel_dizzy_just_by_looking_at/ | {
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"When you're drunk, and feel dizzy from it, that doesn't mean your inner ear fluids are suddenly moving, right? It's based on sensory information; the same way that seeing videos from up high can also make one dizzy, even though they are not actually up high"
]
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3g59ug | why do things like "computers" lower in price after some time? | By "computers" I mean things like PCs, Laptops, Smartphones, but also CPUs GPUs and so on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g59ug/eli5_why_do_things_like_computers_lower_in_price/ | {
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"Because the products get more outdated and also the efficiency of creating computers increases over times. It's much cheaper to make computers today than say 5 years ago. ",
"historically it was because of competition, increased efficiency in manufacturing, but now the market is extremely saturated and prices probably won't move much, at least for computers. cellphones still have a lot of way to go. ",
"Once you have developed the design of a chip or device and built the assembly equipment needed, the cost of building them drops off very rapidly. At the same time, everything you learned from designing a chip with a certain number of transistors, makes it a lot less effort to design one with more, which drives down the value and price of your previous design.",
"People generally want the latest, and greatest in technology.\n\nSo as newer models roll out, there is significantly less demand for the older technology.\n\nWhich causes companies to lower their prices in order to get rid of them.",
"People want the latest and greatest. Electronics , snowboards, and lawnmowers . The only thing that is holding any value in todays economy are guns gold and jewlery . -source I am a pawnbroker",
"\"Moore's Law\" is the observation that processing power tends to double every two years. Computer components have large up front \"fixed\" costs, but not a lot of cost per unit \"variable cost.\" As the technology improves at such a fast rate, the cost stays the same. So two years from now, a computer with double the processing power will be available for the same cost. As the processing power increases, software is created to use that technology, so much of the software that will come out for the next generation of computers will not be able to operate on the previous generation. Ultimately, your computer might be worth a thousand dollars today, but if, in two years, someone can buy a computer twice as good for a thousand dollars, and the hottest new software won't even run on yours, what will people be willing to pay for it?",
"Modern dies are created on silicon wafers, these dies are very small and inside the grey or black computer chips you'll see on printed circuit boards. As the size of transistors decrease, the total area of a die can decrease as well. Let's say you used to be able to make 10 dies on a single wafer, but you decrease the size of transistors so you can now make 20 dies on a single wafer. You doubled your output on a single wafer, which could hypothetically halve the cost of the die if you added no new features or capabilities to the die and only made it smaller.\n\nAs you make transistors smaller you can also give new capabilities to the chip without making it larger. For example, let's say you have a computer board called the Blueberry Pie that can use wi-fi, play 3D games, talk to memory, and get input via a touch screen. Your first model has all of these capabilities on separate chips, which means your board needs to be large enough to hold them and you may need to go to other manufactures to get the chips. After a few transistor size shrinks, you determine that you can now include all those features on a single chip. You can shrink the size of the board and you can make everything yourself rather than going through other manufacturers, and instead of needing material to make 5 different chips, you only need material to make a single chip. Your computer board designers love you because they don't need to put in work to get 5 different chips talking to each other. \n\nThanks to modern computer technology, the Raspberry Pi is a $30 computer. A $9 computer called CHIP is being made by another company. Unlike past super cheap computers, these are not missing important features, they are full fledged computers. The Raspberry Pi can even emulate the original Playstation.\n\nThere are other things that go into the price of a computer chip though. People need to invent a way to make smaller transistors, people need to design the new chip even if they only made it smaller, factories have to make the computer chips, computer chips need to be moved from where they are made to where they can be sold, etc. This is why a brand new processor could be $500, yet a few years later it's down to $100. A lot of the true cost of the chip has already been made back by previous sales, so they can reduce the price of the chip without losing money on it.",
"Technology in the past 10 to 15 years has grow at an almost exponential curve, meaning that as soon as you buy the latest hardware whether it be anything from a computer to a TV more efficient and reliable hardware is either being created or is soon to be released. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1ilxuc | spanish fascism and picasso's take on it | Picasso's paintings regarding the topic are some of my favorite. What was the civil war/revolution like? What were some of Picasso's experiences? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ilxuc/eli5_spanish_fascism_and_picassos_take_on_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"cb5t1in"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I don't know anything about Picasso, but I'd suggest reading George Orwell's book, \"Homage to Catalonia\". The book is a record of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. You can read the book online here: [link](_URL_0_)\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/0.html"
]
] |
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