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3p1uwd | what happens if the frontrunner for a party loses his seat but the party secures a win overall | For instance, the conservative party wins the federal election in Canada but Stephen Harper(the PM candidate) loses in his constituency.
What happens then? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p1uwd/eli5_what_happens_if_the_frontrunner_for_a_party/ | {
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"in parliamentary democracies the party would then nominate a new leader. In the end, it is the party that elects the prime minister - not the electorate.\n\nDifferent in places like the U.S., where the executive branch is elected separately to the congress...."
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5px15l | why do women's breasts get bigger before they have their period? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5px15l/eli5why_do_womens_breasts_get_bigger_before_they/ | {
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"About a week before a woman's period, her progesterone levels increase which causes the milk ducts to swell. This can also cause benign breast lumps. Women are also more prone to water retention which can cause body-wide swelling and bloating."
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4u0jay | why was the 1st iraq war so successful? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u0jay/eli5_why_was_the_1st_iraq_war_so_successful/ | {
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"It had a clearly defined goal and limited scope - get Iraq out of Kuwait. Kuwait already had a legitimate government that could step back in power. We didn't blow up their entire infrastructure. ",
"The objective was a lot easier, and that objective was also much more in the US Military's wheel house.\n\nBasically, the First Gulf War was a war of \"kick Iraq's army out of Kuwait, and make sure they know that this sort of shit won't be tolerated\"... the US is very very good at kicking the shit out of people.\n\nRound 2 was more like \"crush all resistance (which we did), then construct a democratically elected government, in a population that doesn't like us, where democracy is a foreign concept, and the whole region is just a powder keg\"... much harder.",
"Assuming you mean \"relative to the second one\": The first war had very limited objectives. All the US did was push the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. The US, possessing by far the most powerful military force in the world, could do this quickly and easily.\n\nThe second war involved two stages. The first, taking control of Baghdad and removing Saddam Hussein, which was likewise very easy. Once again, this objective played to the US's overwhelming military strength. \n\nBut the second objective was far more complicated: creating a functional democracy in a country with three major ethno-religious groups (none of which get along very well), a history of intercommunal violence, a high prevalence of religious extremism, and a populace with a profound lack of experience with maintaining democratic institutions. Having the most powerful military in the world doesn't really resolve any of these challenges because the objective is to get the country to a point where the US military can permenantly leave."
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60crc1 | what stops someone who wants to get into the us illegally (from mexico for example) from simply saying they are going on vacation to the us but never leaving? | Edit- [answered] thanks for all the helpful replies! I had no idea this was already one of the most common ways of illegal entrance, especially since it's never discussed in reference to immigration. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60crc1/eli5what_stops_someone_who_wants_to_get_into_the/ | {
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"Nothing.\n\nOverstaying the visa is a very common way (the most common way?) of staying in a country. That's why the wall makes no sense, people don't walk across a vast, dangerous desert if they can just land at LAX and grab a taxi. ",
"The vast majority of illegal immigrants overstayed a legal visa: \n_URL_0_",
"Nothing at all. Many people enter the country illegally under a premise just like this. Also over staying work visas is also very common. ",
"Mexican are not allowed to enter the US on a tourist visa as far as I know. \nThey can be issued work visas under very limited circumstances and they need a lot of paperwork and a lot of people to vouch for them. \n\nI don't even think they would be allowed to board the plane in Mexico without the appropriate paperwork.",
"If you're from the US, Canada or one of the other rich Western nations, getting a visa is super easy - they might not even be needed if you're taking a short trip to another country. It's a *super* beneficial position to have in the world.\n\nIf you're from a poorer country like Mexico, getting permission is *not* easy. It can take months of applications & paperwork requiring you to show concrete plans to return home & prove that you've got enough money/family/business back home to make sure you've got a good reason to *not* overstay. Even then, many people are still denied entry.\n\n"
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77oiqd | why does throwing a football with a spin, or shooting a projectile through a rifled bore, make it more accurate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77oiqd/eli5_why_does_throwing_a_football_with_a_spin_or/ | {
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"As something flies through the air imperfections in the surface or uneven weight distribution will tend to pull it away from a straight path. Making a perfect projectile is next to impossible, so the next best option is spinning it so the forces pulling it get evened out and it flies straight.",
"Let's say your projectile has some irregularties in its trajectory. Whether it be from a small fault in the item, or from small issues from throwing/firing. If tje projectile isn't spinning, this problem will persist on the same side, meaning that it will have some force excerted on it, and it will go in another direction than straight ahead.\n\nBut if you make the item rotate fast enough, it'll have this impurity on each side the same amount of time. So the resulting force is going to be a force along the axis of the movement, since you'll always have two opposing forces, cancelling each other out. And as a result, you'll have a more stable trajectory.",
"Gyroscopic stability.\n\nThink about spinning a basketball on your finger, or a spinning top. If an object is spinning around one axis, it becomes much more difficult to rotate around any other axis.\n\nA bullet fired from an un-rifled musket is at the mercy of the wind. It can be knocked off course by an air current, or if it collides with a fly or something, or if it has an imperfection on it that catches the air and sends it tumbling in an odd direction. This is why bullets from smoothbore muskets were spherical balls - because it wouldn't matter much if they spun in a weird direction. If you tried to use a modern bullet without a rifled bore, the slightest turn would cause it to tumble and tear itself apart in mid-air. Not ideal. \n\nBy using a rifle, though, you add spin stability - it will resist being turned by unexpected factors, and will therefore be more accurate."
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shd7y | "twice as hot and half as cold" in regards to physics | Can someone explain this question better and explain the answer? specifically the part about twice as hot.
A piece of iron has a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius.
A second piece of iron is twice as hot.
What is the temperature of the second piece of iron? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/shd7y/eli5_twice_as_hot_and_half_as_cold_in_regards_to/ | {
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"This question is probably meant to get you to think about absolute temperature.\n\nSo, celsius is a measurement of temperature, where 0 C is the freezing temperature of water. However, 0 C is not the lowest temperature possible. A cold winter can easily go to -15 C. \n\nSo, if something is 10 C, what temperature is something which is twice as hot? The easy answer is 20 C, but this isn't right. Think of it like a tall building, where floor 0 is somewhere in the middle, several stories above the ground. In this case, it should be clear that floor 20 is not really twice as far off the ground as floor 10.\n\nSo, if 0 C is not the lowest possible temperature (the real ground floor), then what is? It took a long time to figure out, but we now have a pretty good idea of what the lowest possible temperature is. We call it \"absolute zero\". \n\nWhereas Celsius has its zero on the freezing temperature of water, a new measurement, Kelvin, has its zero at absolute zero (the ground floor). This means that 0 K is a lot colder than 0 Celsius. However, Kelvin and Celsius are the same \"size\"(each are one story on the building). That means, a one degree Celsius rise in temperature is the same increase as a one degree Kelvin increase. \n\nAbsolute zero is 0 Kelvins. In Celsius, absolute zero is -273.15 \n\nSo, what temperature is your piece of iron in Kelvins? What is double that temperature?\n\nI hope that makes sense."
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33jxed | does reading from a computer screen really affect your eyes more than reading from paper? | You always hear that looking at a screen all day can 'damage' your eyes, but I'm wondering why screens are apparently worse for your eyes as opposed to reading from paper. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33jxed/eli5_does_reading_from_a_computer_screen_really/ | {
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"I imagine one problem is that your typical screen is backlit. When you're looking at a webpage with a bright background you are basically staring at a bright lightbulb with text on it. Different to paper that is only reflecting a certain percentage of light from another source. I wonder if holding a bright flashlight behind a page of a book while reading would produce the same effect however."
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7nqy2x | why do styrofoam leach out their contents when it's super cold | For those that don't know what I'm talking about [this](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7nqy2x/eli5_why_do_styrofoam_leach_out_their_contents/ | {
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"It's not just when it's cold. Styrofoam is a bunch of little pellets squished together, the seal between pellets isn't perfect and will very slowly leak"
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6bbew9 | how would earths ecology be different today if dinosaurs were still alive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bbew9/eli5_how_would_earths_ecology_be_different_today/ | {
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"Scavengers would go crazy because their would be a whole bunch of dead dinosaurs around. Dinosaurs as they existed millions of years ago could most likely not survive in today's Earth ecosystem. The atmosphere has a very different composition so there is not enough vegetation to support the massive herbivores. Without the massive herbivores the carnivores would go hungry and start threatening people for food and go the way of every other animal that has been a treat to people. Near to complete extinction."
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9btzql | alemnic (swiss) german language vs regular german - what's the difference? can they understand each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9btzql/eli5_alemnic_swiss_german_language_vs_regular/ | {
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"It can be quite hard sometimes as a regular German speaker but definitely possible. There are some words that are used a little differently but overall it’s still the same language. If you go far in the south west of Germany the local dialect there is quite similar to Swiss-German. Most differences are in the pronunciations as Swiss people seem to always accentuate the first syllable of any word and tend to make heavy use of diminutives.",
"From what I understand, Swiss people can generally understand german people whereas German people have a harder time understanding swiss people.\n\nIts not so much that words are different, but the way they say the words. It would be like someone who's only heard how americans speak, and then you try to understand someone with a very heavy australian accent. Youre not speaking different languages *per se*, but the way youre speaking the language causes some difficulties.",
"Grammatically Swiss German and Standard German are very similar. There's no simple past tense in Swiss German, that's about the biggest difference. \nThe biggest difference is the pronunciation. The 11th and 12th century saw the forming of what is called today New High German, which saw a shift in the pronunciation of a set of longer vowels. The alemannic dialects in the southwest largely stuck to the old pronunciation, what makes them sound different to Standard German today. \nAn example would be \"My new house\" (I tried to add a phonetic translation to english in brackets, though I'm not sure how good they are):\n\nSwiss German:\nMis neue Huus (Mis noy-e hoos) \nStandard German:\nMein neues Haus (Mine noy-es how's)\n\n\nAnd this is what makes Swiss German nearly unintelligible to most Standard German speaking people in the beginning. Though it only takes them a short amount of time to learn to understand Swiss German.\n\nIn short, alemannic dialects are in pronunciation closer to the old Middle High German, which makes it hard for Standard German speaker to understand initially, despite having very similar words and grammar."
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2y3rc2 | why does it take android oems so long to get new versions of android to their phones? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y3rc2/eli5_why_does_it_take_android_oems_so_long_to_get/ | {
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"One of the biggest parts of it is that every phone has a slightly different kernel (the core of the OS). Yes, it's all Android, but the specifics are tailored to that specific phone's hardware. If you took the version of Android running on your Galaxy S5 and tried to run it on my Nexus 4, for example, it wouldn't work. That's why every device on the [factory image download page](_URL_0_) has a separate link.\n\nThus, carriers have to make sure that the new version of Android is running well enough on their specific devices to warrant a release. Top that with the fact that release testing is hard. I was a software quality assurance intern for a company and I release tested apps, which was tedious enough. I couldn't imagine testing the entire operating system :("
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3zlgdl | why is it that when we're in pain, we tend to "run" or "jump" it off? what effect does that have? | For example, if I were to stub my toe, my initial reaction would be to hop around a couple times. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zlgdl/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_were_in_pain_we_tend_to/ | {
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"I think it's to mitigate the pain or sense of feeling to other parts of the body. It's a strange psychological effect, but it seems to work or calm us.",
"Running or moving increases heart rate and thus increases blood flow across your entire body. Blood flow is the key in making healing happen, if your hurt body part had restricted blood flow for whatever reason, start of healing would be delayed which could be bad."
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5uivht | the pizza-theories or the pizzagate. what are they? just read some article using the phrase. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uivht/eli5_the_pizzatheories_or_the_pizzagate_what_are/ | {
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"There's a pizza restaurant that alot of high end business men and politicians visit. The conspiracy theory is that it's a location catering to pedophiles and the menu for pizza is really a menu for ordering young boys and girls for pedophiles. "
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3gtp09 | why does every shutter door have ridges? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gtp09/eli5_why_does_every_shutter_door_have_ridges/ | {
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"When the door is open its rolled up into the case at the top. The ridges are there to give the door enough flexibility to roll up, yet provide enough stability that it is not trivially broken. \n\nEDIT: [here's a good image](_URL_0_)"
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3ngywv | what's the point of the different political parties if everyone just hates and ignores the other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ngywv/eli5_whats_the_point_of_the_different_political/ | {
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"Not everyone from either side hates and ignores the other. We just saw several of the Republican candidates basically say \"I didn't vote for gay marriage, but since it's the law, it absolutely must be upheld.\"\n\nThe biggest issue it causes is the weird binary/ black and white perception of issues. Very few things are that cut and dry, and the best way to legally implement the decision on those things even less so. \n\nIt is better to have overly heated debate than no debate though.",
"It's mostly the fact that American Congressional politics is extremely dysfunctional right now. You have some Republicans flat out refusing to do business with some or all Democrats (and vice versa); supermajorities being required almost as a matter of course in the Senate (originally, requiring a 2/3 supermajority was only ever meant to be used in very extreme and rare situations); some special interest groups ~~literally~~ figuratively shovelling money into the pockets of certain legislators in order to push their agenda which is clearly against the interests of the average American; and a significant proportion of Republicans who have no problem with the idea of shuttering the federal government if they do not get 100% of their extreme demands using Congress' \"power of the purse\".\n\nIt wasn't meant to be like this. The Founding Fathers never envisaged Congress meeting so often for so long, and certainly not sitting for most of the year as they do now.\n\nShort of Congress being fully controlled by one side or the other with filibuster-proof majorities, this shows no indication of changing anytime soon."
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2232p8 | with windows xp support ending, will i actually be at any security risk using it, if so, why? | Assuming I continue to use microsoft security essentials and my common sense, am I actually at an increased security risk like they say, or do they just want me to upgrade?
If I am at risk, why? Will security essentials just stop updating/keeping up with new threats? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2232p8/eli5_with_windows_xp_support_ending_will_i/ | {
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"Yes, security essentials will stop being updated with new threats.\n\nBut I don't really know if security is the main problem you'll encounter when staying with XP after the support ends; IMO the bigger problem is that the MS framework libraries (.NET, DirectX, etc) will not get updated and patched. That means that the bugs they contain will stay forever, and if programs use new features from an update, you won't be able to use those.\n\nIt will gradually become more and more of a gamble than it already is whether you get stuff to work or not.",
"The risk you are taking is that if new security exploits are found in Windows XP, they will not be patched/fixed by microsoft in an update. Your system will be vulnerable. While XP is a very solid and secure OS, new exploits are still found on occasion.\n\nWill security essentials take care of this? Yes and no, while some issues will be caught by this, others will not.\n\nSo should you worry? You should be cautious, but not too worried--at least for now. If too many security exploits are found, and if they are easy to use against a system, you would probably be wise to upgrade to a modern OS and just play it safe, your data and security is probably important to you, so you should keep it locked up. It's OK to stay with XP for now though unless the shit hits the fan.",
"It's not a matter of IF you will get attacked, it's when. Hackers have been saving up all of their exploits for a while now. It will likely be a flood of attacks. ",
"first off you pc will get more and more vulnerable as new security holes are discovered or made public (I suspect there are numerous exploits not currently patched). Microsoft will no longer patch your pc for you.\n\nmicrosoft security essentials will still run on your pc if you have it installed prior to the final day of support, after that time you will be unable to install it on xp. It won't however keep you 100% safe, whilst it will be updated to protect against new malware and virus' that affect other version of windows, xp specific security flaws will not be fixed my MSE.\n\nYou have 3 good options\n\n1) Buy a new laptop, be it windows, mac, chromebook or linux\n\n2) install a free Linux based operating system on your current pc [more info](_URL_0_)\n\n3) upgrade to a newer version of windows, though if your hardware is old that may not run well. It's worth noting that the system requirements for windows 8 is lower than windows 7 but windows 7 will be much more what you are used to.\n\nI don't recommend sticking with xp.",
"It is very possible, but then I ran 98 for years after support ended...and never had an issue.",
"You certainly could be and you may want to consider upgrading or using Linux but if you don't, there are certain things to mitigate it. \n1) Keep everything else updated (browser (and for the love of God don't use IE), Java/Flash(and only have them if you need and use them), any other software you regularly use). \n2) With that said, you may consider using an open-source alternative to Office. \n3) Create an admin account and change yours to a simple user account. I believe it was 100% (or right around there) of the patched exploits for Windows could have been avoided if the user was NOT running an administrator account. \n4) Use a trusted anti-virus and keep it updated as well. \n5) Use ad-block and no script in your browser. \n6) Use common sense with everything else. \n\nIf you're smart about it, and know what you're doing, you should be able to still be safe even after the patches stop. \n\nMight consider checking out Security Now by Steve Gibson and/or his Web site _URL_0_ as well. ",
"Very very overly simplistic, but here goes\n\nYour computer with XP is your bed with one of these mosquito nets [here](_URL_0_) \n\nYour antivirus MSE is your fly swatter in case something gets through. As with any OS, your net will have holes in it that need to get patched, so Microsoft sends a team to your room to sew up the holes. Keep in mind, this net is so proprietary that you can't possibly patch the holes on your own. Over time, new holes come up and old ones get bigger\n\nAfter April 8th, they no longer send the team to patch the holes, and all you are left with is a fly swatter. What if something gets through that you cant fend off?",
"Computer tech here. I deal with this question daily, and the answer I give to computer illiterate customers is always yes upgrade immediately. However the correct and more practical answer is mostly no with some exception. A big misconception seems to be that magical zero day exploits otherwise known as exploits that rely on a previously undiscovered method of attack can somehow grant magical access to all of your personal data and allow a remote attacker to set your computer on fire. The more realistic expectation is that it will be inherently less secure, and a lot easier to become infected if you use certain software often. \n\nHowever, a reliable antivirus will likely include definition updates and some immunization for new infections as well as some kind of fix or workaround for an exploit that gets any major exposure.\n\nBusinesses and commercial software vendors have less to worry about until 2016 when Microsoft will stop patching Windows XP entirely even for versions of XP that atms and a lot of point of sale machines have and still run. \n\nThat being said, I frequently see customers who manage to get infected frequently anyway, while being immunized en masse with programs like Spybot S & D and real time antivirus scanners with heuristic scanning running the latest versions of Windows 7 and 8.1. Also, the number of times I have worked on business client machines that are running ten year old versions of outlook and quickbooks is amazing and anyone still doing that should start auditing security there instead of just at the operating system level. \n\ntldr being security conscious and having good security software is what matters the most and xp will be fine for many years for generic end users. "
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5rcl8e | if all animals are brutally killed and eaten, why are zoos considered inhumane? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rcl8e/eli5if_all_animals_are_brutally_killed_and_eaten/ | {
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"Because the treatment of the animals can be pretty awful, particularly when they're kept in small enclosures and if they're forced to perform.\n\n'Inhumane' doesn't mean 'worse than in nature', it just means that we should be better than that. We can afford to treat them better and should have some empathy.",
" > Assuming all of the animals needs are met: Food, exercise, mating, socializing, etc.\n\nwell, that's the trick. For a long time, the wellbeing of the animal was secondary to the exhibition of the animal (or, at the least, not well understood enough to be effectively provided for). People who oppose zoos on moral grounds believe that the reduced chance of death for the animal does not cancel out the limitation on their ability to live a \"natural\" life, especially since animals by definition can't really consent to living in a zoo. \n",
"Because usually not all their needs are met, through no fault of well intentioned people. The fact is, that while we can come close to replicating it, nothing beats the wild natural places these animals lived in. In addition depending on a person's point of view, captivity is seldom the goal, freedom, no matter how brutal it may seem, is an irreplaceable quality of life. I for one value freedom quite highly, and would not trade my freedom for a cage no matter how wonderfully setup it was.",
"Also worth noting:\nAnimals intended for slaughter to be eaten aren't \"brutally killed.\"\nThere are, in most modern countries, very strict laws and procedures about the humane treatment of animals during lairage and pre-slaughter.\n\nThe animal can be incapacitated in several ways. Having a bolt-gun drive a small bolt through the forehead, which renders them unconscious immediately is common for larger livestock like cattle. Electricity can also be used to cause cardiac arrest to render medium sized livestock like hogs unconscious. Finally, the use of CO2 chambers to render smaller animals unconscious as well. \n\nSlaughter is done by shackling the ankle of the animal to a hoist, and then securing the animal in a holding gate. A slaughterer takes a very sharp knife and quickly severs the carotid artery and the jugular vein, which quickly begins dumping the blood as the animal is hoisted by the ankle over a drain to catch the drained blood for further processing. Nearly all of the blood that will be drained from the animal in this step is drained in less than 2 minutes. The animal stops receiving blood to their brain and passes away in under a minute.\n\nSome religions like Islam have dietary restrictions known as halal which forbid eating meat from an animal whose heart had stopped beating before being slaughtered, which means that the animal is not incapacitated before slaughter. This causes some controversy, but religious slaughterers use particularly sharp knives, even more so than regular slaughterers, in hopes to reduce the pain delivered to the animal."
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3448ny | how did pc become common in average folks' home? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3448ny/eli5_how_did_pc_become_common_in_average_folks/ | {
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"Apple in the early 80s aggressively pursued the education market, making great deals with high schools. So a whole generation of kids grew up learning ProDOS and Apple Basic. \n\nThose kids went home and said \"I want a computer like the one we have at school.\" Ostensibly to do schoolwork, but everyone used them for games. \n\nThe 90s roll around and PCs start to dominate and there's a second wave of parents who buy PCs because CD-ROM technology was new and the killer app for it was Encarta. Prior to this, middle-class parents who wanted to show people (including themselves) that they were serious about their kids' education, bought the Encyclopedia Brittanica in print. That was an expensive set of books that ended up being displayed as furniture. \n\nA PC cost about as much and also showed \"we're serious about our kids' education\" and Encarta was actually easy to use compared to a couple of huge tomes. \n\n_URL_0_"
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aw5scw | how quickly do the poles 'flip' and what risks both ecological and societal does this pose? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aw5scw/eli5_how_quickly_do_the_poles_flip_and_what_risks/ | {
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"Ecologically speaking, it's a non-issue. \n\nIn the past five million years the poles have reversed many times ([link to timeline](_URL_0_)). Any species at least a million years old has been through two flips already. Magnetic reversals are common and have no visible impact on the fossil record (aside from making it easier to date stuff).\n\nYou might want to take this over to askscience, btw. You might get some good answers about the speed at which it happens.",
"Right now the poles are shifting and going to extents we’ve never seen in recorded measure of them. Some theorize this is the first stages of it switching, however others suggest that it will be very abrupt and without any real warning. \n\nIt’s also not known what effects this will have. I’ve read many articles and theories suggesting that it could have Y2K-esque consequences basically shutting down our computer systems, communications, gps, etc. Basically anything with a compass or reliance on magnetism could hypothetically be damaged or become obsolete in essence. Or the opposite could happen and it might happen and no one will even realize as it might not affect anything. \n\nI’ve also heard it could confuse certain animal species for example pigeons that rely on magnetic fields. They likely won’t die off, but it could be confusing to them and cause some distress. \n\nReally no one knows what, when or how any of it will or could happen. I believe it’s also contested whether the magnetic bands we find in rock structures could be something else altogether and the poles might not ever flip. There’s really only one way we’ll find out and I hope to be alive when and if it does happen "
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4etcst | depression is a mental illness that makes us chronically sad, how come there isn't a mental "illness" that makes us chronically happy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4etcst/eli5_depression_is_a_mental_illness_that_makes_us/ | {
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"There is. the opposite of being depressive is being manic. Sometimes they combine (like when someone is bi-polar) but a person can be manic without being depressive. ",
"Also there are diseases of the mind that can manifest in the individual becoming perpetually happy. The brain damage caused by syphilis can do this in some cases. ",
"Your brain isn't designed to be happy for significant periods of time. You can be varying degrees of miserable, but as soon as you reach anything beyond contentedness your brain begins to downregulate endorphin receptors and you drift from \"bliss\" back to \"just content\"\n\nIirc, cases where a person's neurology was damaged to the point where they were always \"very happy\" have had interesting complications. \n\nNeurosyphilitics allowing themselves to die of thirst, people with endorphin producing tumors dying of exposure or \"apparent suicide\" ",
"Depression is not about being chronically sad. It is about a lack of emotion, motivation, and connection. Many depressed people will not identify as \"sad\", but rather as \"blank\"; they do not even have the capacity to feel sad.",
"also please note, that beeing chronically sad isnt the only way, a depression manifests itself. there are many people with depression, which arent sad but got other syptoms. like depersonalisation/derealisation, anxiety, panic attacks, hyperchondria or others. since i myself suffer from depression, i hate it when people tell me \"man you are alright, you dont seem sad\".",
"There kind of is. Mania is \"sort of like\" being too happy or unnaturally happy, but it's not that simple. Mania can be more dangerous than depression because it often results in impulsivity, self-aggrandizement, etc. Also, as someone who has been manic I can say from experience that it doesn't quite feel like \"happy.\" More like intense agitation?",
"I would add that depression is not just being chronically sad. That's an oversimplification that leads to a false dichotomy, a false either-or split. Depression also involves other factors like: lack of interest/enjoyment, irritability, feelings of guilt/worthlessness, sleep/weight changes, lack of concentration. These cause dysfunction in life. Being happy is not an illness, it's something you want.\n\nEdit: Also didn't mean to imply that \"sadness\" is necessary to diagnose depression. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual... kinda like the Psych bible) describes it as \"depressed mood\" which would include feelings of emptiness or apathy. Also, depression is diagnosed by having at least 5 of 9 potential symptoms (10 if you include anxiety). So adding to what I said above, symptoms could include fatigue, change in activity, and suicidal thoughts. \n\nIt manifests differently in everybody. Also people's perception/awareness/semantics (word choice/understanding) affects how they describe it.",
"Hypomanic, this is the state that those with bipolar are afraid of never feeling again when they decide to go off their meds. Manic is not always pleasant or happy. Think Jessie on that episode of saved by the bell when she gets on those pills. It's scary sometimes. ",
"Up until a few years ago, I would probably have been described as unusually (and genuinely) happy (and pathologically agreeable). It took me years to realize the reason I liked gray, rainy days and sad songs so much is because they sort of brought me down to a normal level of happiness. ",
"I was watching Parks and Recreation and Chris is the guy that was chronically happy lol. Good point from other users!",
"I now an elementary ed teacher who was chronically happy for 10-15 years. Compared to regular folks, she was very very happy. I think they exist, but not as much. This is anecdotal, of course.",
"I have a friend who identifies as bi polar, but he's manic all the time. He gets so manic sometimes that he becomes psychotic. I think he qualifies. The reason why you don't hear about it is because people who are \"up\" don't complain, and don't need or want sympathy generally.",
"It's not only a mental disorder, but [Angelman syndrome](_URL_0_) is a genetic condition that, among other things, seems to result in chronic happiness.",
"And for a non-DSM related answer: Pollyanna syndrome. It's where someone is obnoxiously and perpetually unrealistically and positive. I've worked with a couple of hose, their heads are always in the clouds and it's like they just... Don't get it. ",
"I consider myself chronically happy. (Not manic, just generally happy even when things could be better) \n\nI don't consider it a disorder, so I've never gone to a doctor about it, and I think that's the answer to your question :)\n\nI just see it as winning the brain-chemistry lottery, count my blessings, and go about my business.",
"If someone felt happy (truly happy, not manic or any super extreme variation of happiness) all of the time, they probably would not view it as a \"problem\" and would not seek help from doctors or psychologists, etc.. So if a \"mental illness\" exists that causes chronic happiness, it is probably mostly unknown and unstudied. There are probably millions of undiagnosed people who just live their lives feeling happy all the time! ",
"It absolutely can happen. And not just in a manic cycle.\n\nHave you never met people who get extremely stuck or screw themselves over thinking the best of others and doing way, way too much. Obsessive working? Endless forgiveness? Even in the face of danger, damage and terrible, repeated outcomes?\n\nAs a person without any mental illness (usually) I had an interesting episode after an extremely tiring and hot weekend festival. I woke up the morning after returning to the city and everything felt different. It all looked new. Except this was my home town, a suburb I knew very well, and my girlfriend's place.\n\nIt was an awesome experience. If you're an inquisitive person and you've ever travelled to a new country, recognising how everything becomes fascinating... every alley, every sign, every person, etc... you wonder about the story behind everything and want to go chat, explore and get to know all the intricacies of the place.\n\nWell this is what happened. In a place that before the weekend had been essentially boring and well-known to me. \n\nI enjoyed the experience, there was no negative effect at all, and it persisted strongly for about 5 days. On the 4th day I went to get a blood test (in case I was low in something and wigging out from that).. but it all came back perfectly fine.\n\nChatting to the doc we came to the conclusion that the stress, heat and fatigue over the festival had probably set me a bit off-balance, and that it seemed like a psychotic episode (where my base assumptions and outlook shifted considerably)- albeit a positive and enjoyable one.\n\nApologies for longpost.\n\n"
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1flcki | interaction of materials with light [eli12] | Why is it that some materials allow light through them, while others simply reflect it? Why do they absorb light, and how do glow in the dark toys work?
EDIT: spelling | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1flcki/interaction_of_materials_with_light_eli12/ | {
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"I'm not sure how well I can answer all parts of you question, but I might be able to help with some of them.\n\n > How do glow in the dark toys work?\n\nGlow in the dark toys work by a phenomenon known as phosphorescence. When you were in school you might have learned about the structure of atoms and how they have electrons which whizz around a much larger nucleus. It's actually more complicated than that, but all you need to know for this explanation is that the electrons are only allowed to have specific energies (they have energies at certain levels, but not the spaces in between). When light shines on some substances, the energy from the light is absorbed by the electrons, bumping them up to the next level. This energy is then released, again in the form of light. With some materials this release of energy happens gradually over time, so you can \"charge up\" a glow-in-the-dark toy during the day by exposing it to sunlight and let it glow at night.\n\n > Why do they absorb light?\n\nLight is absorbed by some materials in a similar way, the electrons in atoms absorb the light's energy, but this time instead of being re-released it goes towards vibrational energy of the atoms/the bonds between molecules, increasing the temperature of the substance. You can test this by painting a board black and leaving it next to a plain white board in direct sunlight. After a while, the black board will have warmed up much more due to it absorbing more light and transferring its energy to thermal energy.\n\nAs to why some materials reflect light and others let it through, I'm afraid I'm not too sure, but hopefully someone else can give you a satisfying answer.",
"Not a complete answer, but remember that light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio waves and light are the same thing. Just how it is hard for a cell phone's radio signal to make it through a wall of brick, light too is able to fully, partially, or not at all go through different materials.",
"The glow-in-the-dark and absorption questions have been answered, so I'll tell you why some materials allow light through them.\n\nEvery material has a special atomic **composition**. Think of atoms like really, really small Lego blocks - everything in our world is made of them. If you hold a piece of glass, a piece of steel and a piece of wood next to each other, they're essentially made from the same thing - their Lego pieces are just arranged differently!\n\nNow, why do some things allow light to pass through them (this property is referred to as 'transparency')? It all boils down to what are referred to as 'wavelengths'. Light is **electromagnetic radiation** of a specific wavelength. What exactly are wavelengths? Think of being at the beach and watching the waves come to the shore. If you could measure where one wave started and finished, you'd have a wavelength. Electromagnetic radiation behaves in much the same way, except that these waves are tiny! Visible light, which is what you and I can see, is between the range of 400-700 nanometers (a nanometer, written as 'nm', is 1.0 x 10^-9 meters - that's one billionth of a meter!). That means that every colour we can see falls in that range - this is called the **visible spectrum**.\n\nStill with me? Great! So, then, we've got the visible spectrum, but what about wavelengths smaller than 400 nm? What if they're bigger than 700nm? These exist too. There are really tiny ones, like gamma rays (around one trillionth of a meter, or 10^-12), X rays (around .1 to 10 nm), and ultraviolet rays (10 to 400 nm). Then, there are big ones like infrared and micro waves and really big ones like radio waves, which have a wavelength ranging from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers - to put that in perspective, at 100 kilometers, that's roughly 100 billion times larger than an X-ray.\n\nWhat do these wavelengths mean to us, then? Let's go back to our piece of glass, steel and wood. The piece of glass is see-through to our eyes - it lets through visible light. The wood and steel don't. However, if we were able to see in infrared, we wouldn't be able to see through any of the pieces (glass doesn't transmit infrared very well) - if we saw in X rays, we'd be able to see through the wood and the glass but not the steel - the steel reflects X-rays!\n\nSo how does **reflection** work? All objects will reflect some wavelengths - in the visible spectrum, we can see things because they reflect visible light (and other radiation). Most objects, like glass, will transmit some wavelengths (in the case of glass, visible wavelengths) but will reflect others (in the case of glass, infrared wavelengths). The reason radiation is reflected is because some of it hits the atoms that make up objects and bounces in a different direction; smaller wavelengths of radiation have an easier time penetrating objects since they are able to fit through the gaps in the atoms more easily. Conversely, larger wavelengths, like radio waves, are more-easily reflected since they are so large. If you have a very thick object, like a concrete wall, it will be able to stop more radiation than a thin one, simply because the radiation will lose energy as it bounces off of the atoms in the wall. \n\nSo, ultimately, an object's atomic composition is what determines what types of energy can pass through it. Very few things are impervious to all radiation - this is why we're facing difficulties with our missions to Mars, since current technology can't stop the astronauts from being bathed in lethal high-energy (gamma) radiation from the sun. \n\n**Disclaimer**: I've tried to keep this as simple as possible. There are other things like refraction and coherence that come into play, but I figure they're a bit much for this subreddit."
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685x30 | what is the h1-b visa program and what impact has it had on the us and indian economy? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/685x30/eli5what_is_the_h1b_visa_program_and_what_impact/ | {
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"The United States only wants to take in so many workers from other countries. We do this because we want to encourage American companies to hire American workers where possible. But quite often, usually in the tech industry, there is a need for specialities outside of what we have the best talent pool for in the United States. There are many highly skilled Indians with these talents who want to come to the US to work for American companies.\n\nSo they can apply to the H1-B Visa program like any other foreigner to see if they are selected as part of the limited number of people we allow to come in annually under this program. The economic impact is that American companies fill high skilled positions with high skilled labor and help them compete against other global companies. This benefits the economy. The downfall is that an American did not get that position and can be likely that the Indian will get paid less than if they gave an American the job (often due to the costs associated with the H1-B Visa, relocating services and potential non-permanence of the role being filled)."
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bshm20 | how have olympic gymnasts improved so much from back in the day. | I was watching old gymnast clips on YouTube and the routines look extremely simple compared to the level of acrobatics that go on in modern day gymnastics. Why does it seem like now gymnasts are able to do incredible feats that people didn't do before.
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bshm20/eli5_how_have_olympic_gymnasts_improved_so_much/ | {
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"Back then people still needed jobs, now they dont and can practice harder for longer. And science helps by showing then methods on improving motions. You cam find cool videos on youtube",
"Training techniques have improved. The technology accessible to help athletes have improved. Those old gymnasts are coaches now, so they are able to teach the new ones their old routines and improve on them. The cycle then repeats.\n\nHope this helps.",
"Like most modern professional sports, I think a lot of it has to do with the training and dedication to it. It's not just a hobby anymore, per say. The athletes dedicate their whole lives, starting in early childhood, trying to make it. Gymnasts from decades ago, at least from what I know of the women's side, were actually women in their mid 20s and early 30s but now, that's the age of retirement from actual competition. Now they're barely early college aged because they are still 'limber and nimble.'"
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bwz2ol | how come when permanent teeth grow in, they have bumpy edges, and how do they go away? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bwz2ol/eli5_how_come_when_permanent_teeth_grow_in_they/ | {
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"I had that on my two front teeth. When I got my braces off my orthodontist sanded off the bottom and smoothed them out. As far as I know it's just how they formed around my baby teeth but it used to bug me as a kid",
"They're mamelons used to penetrate though gums. They disappear from attrition, chewing the tips of the teeth little by little.\nA tooth is formed by fusing lobs of dentin so each bump you see is one lobe."
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1pgc6v | why will my migraine only go away if i lay in the dark? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pgc6v/eli5_why_will_my_migraine_only_go_away_if_i_lay/ | {
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"I have the same problem, and sadly I don't know why that works. But, as a suggestion, try taking Excedrin. It's a Migraine pill, and it helps a lot.",
"People who get migraines easily are often photosensitive. When a migraine is about to come on, bright lights make the migraine worse and more intense.\n\nCarry sunglasses and headache meds with you. Do not ask or listen to people on reddit about medicine - ask your medical doctor. He or she can prescribe stronger meds than over the counter anyway.\n\nMake sure you have a regular sleep pattern and reduce your alcohol and other party favor consumption for 3 months. Change your diet to reduce junk food. Invest in a good eye mask for sleeping.\n\nThis combo should help reduce the frequency of your migraines.\n ",
"Lots of people have lots of 'cures'. I used to take my prescribed meds, grab my ice pack & disappear into my very dark room for several hours. Later, it had eased, but I still felt crappy. Came across a method that's working for me every time. \n\nFirst: recognize it's a migraine-- for me, I know if I feel like I need ice to the bridge of my nose & neck-- > migraine. \nSecond: 2 extra strength Tylenol (2x500mg) & 2 Aleve (naproxen).\nThird: 1/2 cup of espresso or double strength hot (really hot) black coffee. \nLast: 1/2 cup chocolate chips or a couple squares dark chocolate.\nVery occasionally I will duck out to sit alone for a few min (like15 min) if I'm somewhere crowded, loud, or exceptionally bright. Otherwise, within a half hour or so-- a whole new me. **key concept** Get on it early! Good luck!"
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7ij4ww | free market | The concept of what ‘free market’ is confuses me. What is it? Why is it good/bad? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ij4ww/eli5_free_market/ | {
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"My basic understanding is that it lets people or groups of them exchange any goods and services for whatever price they choose . However it can only be free up to a point when it conflicts with the freedom and well-being of others which is also a market on its own. An extreme example would be someone offering a service to kill people for a fee. Well that can't happen because the law limits that market to only a few people or under specific circumstances. The reason this example is limited by law, or regulated, is because a majority of people with relatively good ethics don't want to be killed. They value their lives and the ones they love so they would not give it up at any price they also value their time and don't want to spend their lives barricaded and armed to the teeth to defend themselves. So they choose people to represent their values and give them powers and money to try to prevent this from happening with discouragements like jail time and other punishments. I think that in that case our society with its laws is still a free market. You can still offer that killing service, the price and risk is just much higher, because a contract has been made by a majority of people to prevent it.",
"A free market is a market that allows private citizens to use it without government interference and allow for competition to flourish. The upside is that it enables upwards mobility for entrepreneurs and self regulates to an extent. If your smart and have a good idea, you can sell it and make alot of money. You also cant sell your item for a ludicrous price, because someone will modify your idea and sell it cheaper. The downside is that a free market doesn't solve a lot of problems, and without government interference wont remain free for very long. Things like monopolies start to pop up and shut down competition basically ruining any self regulations. You will also get things like factories dumping waste into the river, because its cheaper. Free markets are good, but ironically need government interference to actually work. ",
"Imagine you want to work, you need money to pay bills. I offer to employ you to flip burgers, for $5 an hour. If you were hoping for $10, you'd offer to work for $10 or turn down the offer. If you turn it down, I find another person who is willing and qualified for the position who will want to work for a lower wage. If I can't find anybody who wants to work for that price, it indicates that the wage is too low, and its not worth people's time and energy, as they can find better paying jobs. So I need to raise the price. And I, being a profit seeking business owner who wants to reduce costs, only wants to pay the bare minimum I need to (economics has this assumption that individuals,though law-abiding, are rational and selfish, to put it bluntly). So I was keep raising the price until I can employ somebody.\n\nIf you want that $10, either it means you are worth more, for example maybe you are a chef or can make better burgers than whatever joint I own and so can get more from other restaurants, or you have too high expectations. If you do have high expectations, you won't find a job and will be forced by desperation to accept a lower wage position. You can negotiate, even right now in the real world, that you offer such a value to the business that you should deserve that $10, and if convincing, I would employ you for it. But I would only if you can show that your abilities bring in more money or reduce costs to the business than I have to pay you.\n\nThis is supply and demand. I need workers, but I can't employ them if it costs too much, as I'd end up losing money and there'd be no point in running the business. So I will employ people for up to the value they provide to the business. Workers need jobs to earn money, and they want to maximise their wages, so they will try to find the best paying jobs they are qualified to work for. And when both parties come to an agreement, when we both settle on a price I'm willing to pay you and that you are willing to work for, thats when you get employed. That is the free market.\n\n**BUT** unfortunately, that is not the society we live in. A free market merely allows this transaction to take place without regulation, and an arms length transaction (both parties acting willingly and of their own volition without law breaking). This would mean, however, that many entry level jobs, such as burger flipping, would pay for $5, or less. And those who aren't qualified to do anything else can't do anything else and are forced to take these jobs despite them paying too little to reasonably survive. \n\nSo, we have a regulation in place, that all workers must be paid a minimum wage no matter what. So that increases labour costs for employers. They still need workers, but the workers have to be paid a certain wage so they are forced to pay them at a higher wage than the market determines. This means that employers are likely to only employ the bare minimum needed to function, and give those who are employed, more tasks. This means that those who are employed become stressed with higher workload, but are paid more, and other people don't get employed. Whereas in the free and open market, the government does not intervene and more people get employed and have fewer tasks so less stress, but they get paid less. \n\nWhich is better? Well thats for you to decide. Should we employ more people but have them paid less? Or employ less but pay them more? Lower class people would likely prefer a minimum wage, upper class people would likely prefer a free market where they can have the labour they want at the price they want. One consideration that needs to be factored in here is that having a minimum wage can increase prices. Without burger flippers, my business cannot run at all, so I'm going to need at least one, and I'm going to need to set my prices to pay for them. The more they cost, the higher the prices. So having a free market, with no minimum wage can reduce prices and make the cost of living cheaper, which offsets the impact of lower wages. \n\nSo a free market, which can exist in other areas other than in labour and employment, is when two parties can come to an agreement as to the scope of goods and services provided, and for what price they will be paid for, with no government regulation. Its all what each party deems the worth of the goods or services and when they come to an agreement, they sign a contract and the transaction goes ahead. It can however disadvantage poorer and uneducated/unskilled people who simply cannot pay market rates for essential services (eg education) or survive off market wages. Government regulation helps these people by ensuring they have a way to pay for a basic form of these services and can get paid a modest but reasonable wage. ",
"Say you live in Los Angeles, and you would like very much to fly to New York City to spend Christmas with your relatives. But the plane ticket costs $15,000, and since there is only one airline by government decree, you have no choice. You may claim that $15,000 is an unfairly high price, but how would you prove it? Only by freeing up the system and allowing other airline companies to form and to compete for your business can we find a more fair price. This is the benefit of a free market system.\n\nThe downside of the \"free market\" is that it is an ideal that cannot exist in its purest form in the real world. In fact, government participation in our economic system is nearly everywhere, and its activities are strongly skewed to favor powerful interests. For example, during the collapse of the real estate bubble in 2008, powerful financial corporations received bailout assistance from the federal government, while individual homeowners received no such help, forcing them to sell their homes at a loss. \n\n",
"Let’s say I live in a small village, where we build all of our structures out of wood. This means everybody needs wood. \n\nI’m the only person in the village who has an axe, which makes me the only person who can cut down trees to get more wood. Without me, nobody can have wood. \n\nI sell each block of wood for $5. Over time, I realize how valuable I am to the village, so I slowly raise my price. Nobody has any control over what I charge, but if my price is too expensive, nobody can afford my wood, and I don’t make any money. As a result, I set my price to $10 per block, because I feel I’m getting paid fairly for my skill, but I still have many customers. \n\nNow let’s say somebody else moves into the village, and his axe is better than mine, so he can chop trees down much faster. He can supply much more wood than me, so he doesn’t mind selling it cheaper. \n\nEven though I’ve been set at $10 per block of wood, he sets his price to $7 per block. Now nobody buys from me, so obviously I need to match his price, or beat it. Remember, nobody controls what we charge - there’s total freedom in the market place. He could choose to give his wood away for free, and I would have no business. Or, he could choose to seek his wood for $1000 per block, and I would have all the business. Nobody will pay that much for his wood. \n\nAt the end of the day, it’s the price people are willing to pay which sets how much we can charge. Imagine our village grows to be millions of people, with thousands of people like me selling wood. \n\nNobody can charge a super high price for their wood, because they won’t have any customers. On the other hand, nobody can charge a super low price, because they want to earn as much as they can. Why would I charge $3 for a block of wood when everybody else is charging $5? Even if I have the lowest price, my competitors will lower their prices to make sure they don’t miss out on any sales. They want to compete with me. \n\nThis is a very basic view of a free market. Nobody controls the price, but it’s the people who spend their hard earned money who have all the power. Everything remains in balance because people want the best price possible, and a company wanting to sell their product is competing with hundreds of others and is essentially “kept honest” in their pricing because of this. "
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9ewgof | the nike ad controversy | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ewgof/eli5_the_nike_ad_controversy/ | {
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"Football player takes a knee during National Anthem to protest black inequality/suffering/injustice. Starts a trend. Football player can no longer find a job in football. \n\nTurns out Nike had been paying him for most of his unemployed time. They start a campaign with him centered around \"sacrificing everything\". Doesn't matter if they're talking about black people or a football career.\n\nPeople who think kneeling for the anthem/flag is unpatriotic are now pissed that a rich football player is the face of \"sacrificing everything\" when service members have died in service to our country.\n\nThe guy who kneels during the anthem (traitor/non-patriot/whatever) is suddenly the symbol for sacrifice, not a military member.\n\nAdditionally, corporation is getting rich(er) off social or national patriotic injustice.\n\n",
"Colin Kaepernick chose to take a knee during the national anthem, to draw attention and support to the black lives matter movement. \n\nHis actions drew a lot of controversy and eventually, he dropped out of the NFL and became an activist. \n\nTypically corporate advertisement only chooses spokesmen that are socially friendly. This is why Michael Phelps lost his sponsorship after he was seen smoking 'devil's cabbage.' Nike and Colin Kaepernick's situation is unique because it was started AFTER the controversy. Implying Nike taking a social stance and supporting Colin Kaepernick's movement. \n\nP.S. I tried to keep this answer as agnostic as possible. Please do some actual research on the subject before forming an opinion",
"Nike is giving the appearance of taking a bold stance on a controversial subject by siding with those who buy Nike products at the expense of upsetting/outraging those who don’t buy their product. The outrage and “protests” create media buzz for Nike, Nike sells more shoes. ",
"Thanks everyone for their great answers, I understand now! As a Southamerican I just didn't get what the deal was",
"I think in my culture taking the knee is seen as more respectful than standing hand to heart.",
"Burn some $160 air max’s or stfu. Burning $50 dollars nike’s Ain’t hurting nothing.\n\nHell their sales are up 35% since the launch.\n\nNike knows who to really market to, and kap is really popular with Millennials and minorities.\n\n "
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2el7nz | what does 'innocent until proven guilty' really mean | My understanding is that a person is innocent until a jury or judge finds them guilty... Is this true? If so, why are people in prison until a trial? It all makes no sense? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2el7nz/eli5what_does_innocent_until_proven_guilty_really/ | {
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"They are held until a trial because if they are guilty, they could try to escape or even flee the country. Usually they are allowed to post bail as insurance that they won't flee. ",
"True. A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, which means that the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove the defendant guilty, not on the defense to prove him innocent.\n\nTypically when a person is arrested and charged with a crime, they are either held in jail or allowed bail, basically handing over a bunch of money to be returned when you face trial. In the US, suspects have the right to a speedy trial, so they may, instead of sitting in jail waiting for their trial, have it right away if they so choose. However, it's generally not a good legal strategy to do so, since the prosecution usually already has a case against you, and it takes time to build a defense.",
"you're in jail until the trial because you're at risk to the community or flight of not showing up to trial.\n\nyou're in prison AFTER the trial because you were found guilty.",
"As for the first question, \"innocent until proven guilty\" means that the government has to prove you committed the crime. They cannot make you prove you didn't do it. In other words, you don't have to do anything at all...they have to do the work. \n\nFor the second, when convicted, you are conclusively proven to be guilty. Prior to that, you can be detained (like in jail) if the gov't jumps through the right hoops. In the US you have a right to reasonable bail, but if you are a danger to others or a flight risk, you can be denied bail. Whether you are a danger to others is determined at a hearing."
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108l4u | what is the difference between a locomotive and a train? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/108l4u/what_is_the_difference_between_a_locomotive_and_a/ | {
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"The [locomotive](_URL_1_) pulls (or pushes) the [train](_URL_2_), the train is the sum of the locomotive and [cars](_URL_0_). "
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2t24jq | how does the game 20 questions guess the correct answer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t24jq/eli5_how_does_the_game_20_questions_guess_the/ | {
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"Are you asking how the game is played? Or for strategies to get the right answer?",
"Anything can be guessed within 20 questions if you know how to structure your questions properly. 17 questions if you're smart about it (and have access to a dictionary).\n\nWell structured questions will divide the possible answers into equal halves (or close to it). For instance \"Does the answer begin with a letter in the first half of the alphabet\" is an excellent question because it INSTANTLY rules out half of everything in the english language. Asking \"Does it start with a vowel\" is not a good question because that leaves a good portion of the alphabet as a possibility (assuming the answer is No).\n\nThis is actually how a binary search works in computer science. Simply comparing your input (the unknown) to two groups of things and ruling out whichever group it does not fit into.\n\nUsing this logic, you can easily breeze through a huge portion of the possibilities with relatively few questions. Imagine that there are 128,000 possibilities, right? If you structure your questions properly, you can turn that into 64,000 in one guess, 32,000 in 2 guesses, 16,000 in 3 guesses, 8,000 in 4 guesses, etc. In 10 guesses you are down to 125 possible answers! At this point, you can pretty much just take stabs at it until you hit it on the money.\n\nYou also have to take psychology into play. Most people are going to pick things that they are relatively familiar with. I like computers so I might pick something computer oriented. You like cooking, so you might pick something food based. With that in mind, you can eliminate (or focus on) certain categories of answers without even asking a question about it.\n\nLastly, you can occasionally gamble. Remember the question about vowels? Well if they respond Yes to that, you've instantly eliminated WAY more than half of the possible answers! You may have turned 128,000 into 10,000 in a single guess.\n\nEdit: The dictionary trick is pretty easy. If you have a dictionary, just open the thing up to the halfway point (you can sorta guess where halfway is) find a random word on that page and say \"Alphabetically, does your word come before or after _____\". They'll say either before or after. If they say before, do the same thing with the first half of the dictionary (or the second half if they say \"after\"). Continue narrowing down your selections this way. I believe that there are about 1 million words in the english language (about 250k of them if you weed out tenses and plurals). That works out to about 17.8 guesses needed (log base 2 of 250k)",
"20 questions where each question eliminates half the options allows 1 thing to be guessed from 1,048,576. Usually the first 3-4 questions can eliminate far more than half the potential answers. ",
"Hey, I can answer this!\n\nSo here's how it works: internally, the game has each question and answer stored in some kind of [tree structure](_URL_0_). Question nodes have children, answer nodes do not. That's why the game starts off with really generic questions, and gets more specific as the game goes on. The game just comes with a very big knowledge bank, and when given an answer it doesn't know, creates a new node and connects it to the path it took to get there. "
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408i59 | why cars can't be bought online or in a depot with many brands? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/408i59/eli5_why_cars_cant_be_bought_online_or_in_a_depot/ | {
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"The money isn't in the sales. The money is in the service. The only reason to sell cars is to encourage you to come back there for service.\n\nService requires extensive training and familiarity with the intricacies of the particular brand and occasionally the model of car. Plus their parts department keeps a stock of frequently needed replacements for speedy repair.\n\nSelling a car? Not so much. Mostly the ability to plug the numbers into a spreadsheet or on-line form to calculate what your monthly payment will be. Plus having the right color of the model you want on hand. Yes, color is an important consideration in convincing someone to buy a car. See: _URL_0_",
"Basically there is a legal monopoly on who can sell cars directly to consumers. Dealerships hold this monopoly and spend a lot of money on lobbying to maintain it, Elon Musk as well as many new owners of car companies are currently trying to change this. It's estimated that cars would cost $1,800 less if we could buy them directly.\nHere's a great video on the subject: _URL_0_",
"Please note that this does not apply for.. Well, most places outside USA.\nHere I can buy a Mercedes, Citroën or Nissan from the same dealer. Or just go next door and choose between Volvo, Renault or Dacia.\n\nGreetings from Sweden :)",
"Isn't that exactly what eBay Motors, Beepi and CarMax do? \n\nMaybe I'm not understanding your question. ",
"This is actually a big shift that the auto industry is going through right now, and your options for buying a car online are increasing dramatically all the time.\n\nFull disclosure: I work for a company that's doing this right now, [Beepi](_URL_1_) , one of the companies DrestonF1 mentions.\n\nNew cars are one thing - there are lots of laws that protect the dealer's special rights. That's why you don't see BMW or Ford selling directly to consumers. Instead, you see manufacturers basically selling cars to dealers, who them sell to you. Make no mistake, a BMW dealership is IS NOT the same thing as BMW the auto manufacturer. Tesla is trying to totally avoid working with dealers. They own all their show floors, which is illegal in some states. That's a big reason why you can't buy a Tesla in some states, like New Jersey and Texas. Another interesting company in that field is [Cartelligent](_URL_0_)\n\nUsed cars have fewer legal restrictions, so companies like Beepi and Vroom are making big strides there.\n\nThere's still a lot of hurdles though. First, many of the processes surrounding buying a car, like registering with the DMV or applying for financing, are hideously intertwined with the dealer ecosystem. For example, it's illegal in most states to get a dealer license (which is necessary to sell cars at any serious scale) without a physical dealer address that meets a bunch of requirements, like posting stickers with consumer protection info in the windows and posting hours of operation. This does nothing to help online shoppers who won't ever visit the dealership location, but it's still a hurdle that the DMV expects anyone who wants to deal in cars to meet.\n\nSecond, many buyers still aren't ready for a real online car-buying experience. Many people are VERY touchy about needing a test drive. Now, for obvious reasons, a test drive isn't feasible if you're buying a Florida Car from California, but folks are accustomed to test drives and get suspicious when they're not available. That makes online shopping a hard sell outside of tech-heavy urban centers.\n\nNow, a lot of companies are trying unique systems to make people more comfortable with the idea of buying without a test drive. Most offer a free warranty. Others (like Beepi and Carvana) use a multi-day money back guarantee which basically acts like an at-home test drive. If people don't like the car, they just call the company and request a pickup. \n\nLong story short, online car-buying is already happening, but a combination of regulatory inertia and people still warming up to the idea of buying a car without the traditional dealer experience is slowing the growth of online car sellers/buyers.\n\nI'll close with a note that I'm clearly a biased source, but if anyone has any questions for an industry insider, I'd be happy to answer."
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45lct1 | why are we able to go so long without blinking when staring at something? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45lct1/eli5_why_are_we_able_to_go_so_long_without/ | {
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"Because you're thinking about it and suppressing the reflex. When you're casually looking at something your eyelid is free to do its thing unfettered and clear dust and moisturize whenever. ",
"It doesn't happen to me when I \"stare\" at something, just when I'm really concentrated on something like a fast video game where I really need to see everything as fast as I can, like osu! for example. \nWhen I play for a long time, my eyes feel very dry afterwards, because I barely blink. \nI like to wear some type of glasses while playing for long periods, even though I don't wear glasses normally. This reduces the ammount of liquid evaporating from my eye, because with glasses on there is less air movement around my eye. \n"
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8ifg5c | the general rules of soccer | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ifg5c/eli5_the_general_rules_of_soccer/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\nThat should start you off nicely! I'd also say try and watch a couple of games online, either the English Premier league or the Bundesliga (German) is where I'd recommend starting. Pretty simple to pick up. Have fun coaching!",
"A Foul is if you knock someone over/make the fall WITHOUT kicking the ball in the process. \n\nYou are not allowed to pass thr ball to another teammate who is behind the last player of the enemy team towards their side of the field. However if you pass the ball whilst your teammate is still in front the other player he is allowed to run past them to recieve the ball.\n\nyou are forbidden to touch the ball with your arms and hands (unless youre the goalkeeper) shoulders, chest, head etc arw fine.\n\nIf a player commits a foul inside the white rectangle around the enemy goal. It wilm become a free kick from 11m away right in front of the goal. \n\nIf the ball passes the lines marking the edge of the entire team the team that has NOT touched the ball last gets to throw it back into the field. Similar rules apply when the ball passes a line marking the edge of the field on the short sides of the field (where the goal is) If the ball got last touched by a member of the time who's side of the field it is. The enemy team gets a free kick from the corner (marked by the flags in each corner). If a member of the opposite team kicks it out, the goalkeeper gets a freekick from around the goal.",
"Whole topic overviews are probably going to get removed but main things:\n\n1. 11 players on the field including a goalie, whatever combinations you want but its usually better to stack your defense\n\n2. only the goalie can use their hands, and no one else can\n\n3. an offside is when an attacking player is passed a ball while standing further down field of the last defender, if the ball is already past the last defender then the attacker can go for it (the ball or last defender determines offside, whichever is further back, and goalie doesnt count.\n\n4. If the ball goes out on the side it is a throw in (both feet have to stay on the ground and the ball has to go over the head) for whichever team didn't touch it last. If it goes out on the ends then its either a corner (kick from the corner if the defending team put it out), or a goal kick (kick by the goalie) if the attacking team hit it out.\n\n5. ball starts in the middle and first pass is free (though you usually do it really quickly, the opposing team can't enter the center circle, but can after the first touch).\n\n6. Tackling rules may depend on your league but if slide tackling is allowed then it is not allowed from behind (you get kicked out of the game).\n\n7. for tackling basically if you hit the ball before the player then anything goes so long as you don't raise your arms. You can body check someone so long as you don't raise your arms and you hit the ball first (you will just likely lose control of the ball). If you miss the ball then its a foul.\n\n8. free kicks can be taken from anywhere a foul or handball happens, if it happens within the penalty box then it is a penalty (unobstructed free kick from the middle of the penalty box).\n\n\nThere are a lot of rules, maybe just watch a bunch of games, and have kids practice passing while running.",
"Nobody is allowed to use their hands except the keeper. But the keeper can only hold the ball within his penalty area. If your on offense, you cannot pass the ball to a teammate that is between the keeper and the last defender (offside). Fouls will result to free kicks. Fouls inside penalty box will be penalty kick (1on1 against keeper). An excessive foul may be given a yellow card. 2 yellow cards or an extremely excessive foul will be given a red card. You get thrown out of the game with a red card. If a player gets thrown out nobody is allowed to come in as his substitute making your team a player short. If the ball goes out on the long side of the pitch it gets thrown back in (using both hands and feet not leaving the ground). If the ball goes out on the short side of the pitch and the offense retains possesion, the ball gets kicked from the corner closest to where it came out of. Otherwise the keeper kicks it back in play from anywhere within his penalty box. Every goal is 1 point. Match time and substitutions are tournament specific. I think thats about it. How old are the kids you're coaching by the way?"
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b5krpi | why in the english language we exclusively order our adjectives as (opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose)and then noun, and if we disorganize this order it sounds insane to native english speakers. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b5krpi/eli5_why_in_the_english_language_we_exclusively/ | {
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"According to my syntax professor, it has to do with subjectivity. When you say “beautiful red flowers”, people would agree that the flowers are red, but whether the flowers are beautiful is up for debate. Therefore, the adjective which people would agree most on (in this case “red”), should be closest to the noun. ",
"You might want to r/asklinguistics about this, since we here can't really give you a good answer."
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38ucu0 | what are the various cups, leagues, divisions, tournaments that are most important to know about in fútbol (soccer)? and how do they relate the the "treble"? | I live in America so I don't follow international soccer all that much but enjoy watching quality matches when they are on TV. After the recent Barcelona win, and first heard the term treble, I realized there are so many leagues, cups, touraments, etc. going on (seems like there's always a cup or tournament taking place) and don't know where to start to understand the whole picture. Maybe it's just because I'm American and no one I know can explain it all but I find it all very confusing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38ucu0/eli5_what_are_the_various_cups_leagues_divisions/ | {
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"In that particular case it would refer to La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup. La Liga is the Spanish national league, the Copa del Rey is a tournament (it's conventional for tournaments to be called cups). and the UEFA Cup is a European tournament (with a group stage) that is between clubs that qualify through performing well in their respective national competitions. \n\nMost countries will have a national league and a main cup tournament, for instance in England we have the Premier League and the FA cup which is possibly why it seems to you that there are a lot of leagues and cups, the whole World plays it and each country has it's own competitions and region competitions. \n\nThis is all club football, National teams have other competitions at various levels for example the European Championship, the Copa America or The World Cup."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
26mhlq | is there evidence to support the idea that media coverage of mass murders influences others to commit violent crimes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26mhlq/eli5_is_there_evidence_to_support_the_idea_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"chsjuqh"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"That's not /r/ELI5, that's /r/AskReddit..."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3c6mhk | why is it when someone eats a piece of sharp cheddar cheese, they get the sensation like their forehead and cheeks are sweating? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c6mhk/eli5_why_is_it_when_someone_eats_a_piece_of_sharp/ | {
"a_id": [
"csspm3b",
"cssprkx"
],
"score": [
9,
6
],
"text": [
"I have never encountered this and I eat sharp cheddar often, some weeks daily. I have also never heard of anyone encountering this. \n\nIf you get a flushed or sweating sensation when eating a food and it is not overly spicy then you are likely having some kind of allergic reaction or intolerance reaction and you need to get that checked out and possibly avoid that food. You can also get those reactions from being allergic to spicy foods but it is harder to tell because those reactions are normal to spicy foods even when you are not allergic. ",
"Wtf are you talking about?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3jsexe | why do crunchy, packaged food tends to go soft when left outside the package after a period of time. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jsexe/eli5_why_do_crunchy_packaged_food_tends_to_go/ | {
"a_id": [
"curvqat"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"they absorb water from the air. They are often packed in nitrogen or another inert, low humidity gas to keep them fresh. When you open them normal air gets in and....floop. They go all soggy.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
dxsvx5 | how the creationist idea of irreducible complexity was debunked | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dxsvx5/eli5_how_the_creationist_idea_of_irreducible/ | {
"a_id": [
"f7vrsff",
"f7vz96r"
],
"score": [
5,
12
],
"text": [
"Not that it needed to be but one good example is the legendary David Attenborough talking about the evolution of the eye. \n\n_URL_0_ \n\nEssentially, it can be shown that each stage in the development of something can be useful on its own and that a complex thing doesn't have to have appeared fully-formed.",
"Basically something as complex as an eye can't evolve all at once and any intermediate stage of an eye wouldn't be useful enough to serve any useful function, therefore you have to have the whole eye or none and since the whole eye can't evolve it must have been created by a being. However there are numerous cases in nature of early stages of eyes in a large number of creatures proving that you can have a useful intermediate stage of an eye."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.wimp.com/david-attenborough-the-evolution-of-the-eye/"
],
[]
] |
|
3545rm | why do i wake up with glop in my eyes? | You know, the crusty stuff. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3545rm/eli5why_do_i_wake_up_with_glop_in_my_eyes/ | {
"a_id": [
"cr0vkne"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"Oddly enough, it's because your body temperature drops when you sleep.\n\nYour eyes need moisture to work correctly. But you don't want a constant stream of liquid running out of your eyes and down your face either. You would dehydrate pretty quickly if that was the case.\n\nSo, to keep your eyes moist but not leak water everywhere your eyes are covered with a waxy coating. This coating also acts like a lubricant and you spread it around when you blink. So, that's part of the reason why you have to blink so often.\n\nBack to this waxy stuff. It works great at keeping your eyes moist. The thing is that it is really sensitive to temperature. At normal body temperature it is a fluid. But, drop the temperature of it just a little bit and it starts to solidify.\n\nWhile you are sleeping your body temperature drops a few degrees normally. It's not a huge change but it is enough to allow this waxy seal to start to turn into a solid. \n\nNeat, huh?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2d1lnp | how do penny auction sites like beezid make a profit? how can they afford to give macbooks or other brand name electronics so cheaply? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d1lnp/eli5_how_do_penny_auction_sites_like_beezid_make/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjl6axg",
"cjl6boe",
"cjl6dw2",
"cjl6ijb",
"cjl6s0s"
],
"score": [
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3,
16,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"You buy your bids,",
"They make a gigantic profit, because it's a gambling system, and they are the house.\n\nAnyone paying money to \"bid\" is a chump and loses money.\n\nFake bidders \"win\", and no one ever gets the \"prize\".",
"You pay to place a bid. The other guy also pays to place his bid. Then you pay to top his bid. And round and round, until the final bid is reached. The very act of bidding costs money, whether you win the auction or not. Then you pay for the item. Sure you paid $30 or whatever for your Macbook, but all of the bidders together paid much, much more to place bids than the item is actually worth.",
"How it works is that you pay to place bids. For example, that means that you would pay $20 for 100 bids and you get to bid 100 times and each penny bid counts as one bid and one item alone can hit hundreds and maybe even thousands of bids. ",
"Note that I don't think it's a scam, exactly. It's just financial idiocy for 99.9% of the people who use it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
9z8yho | all romaine is being pulled for e. coli contamination, but doesn't it come from a variety of farms? what is the common denominator? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9z8yho/eli5_all_romaine_is_being_pulled_for_e_coli/ | {
"a_id": [
"ea783t8",
"ea788od",
"ea788vr"
],
"score": [
9,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"They pulled all of it because they don't yet know any specific cause/source of the E.coli, so they don't want anyone eating it until they get to the bottom of the problem.\n\nOnce they identify something about the supply chain causing the problem, the ban will be lifted.",
"AFAIK romaine mostly comes from one individual farm in arizona during the winter months in america. so all the romaine is suspect because it almost all came from that farm, which had an e. coli outbreak",
"It's not all romaine, but they don't know what romaine is the source, so until we know, they are going with everything as that's the safe option."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1zstus | why the biggest chocolate companies like milka, cadbury, purdys, choose the colour purple? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zstus/eli5why_the_biggest_chocolate_companies_like/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfwmrt2"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I hear purple is a 'royal' colour so I guess it was to create a feeling of luxury?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
9dcuru | what’s all this stuff about ddr4, gddr5 stuff on graphics cards? is there a compatibility thing with them and motherboards or something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9dcuru/eli5_whats_all_this_stuff_about_ddr4_gddr5_stuff/ | {
"a_id": [
"e5guvku",
"e5gvlt0"
],
"score": [
3,
7
],
"text": [
"First note, gddr4, ddr4, and gddr5 are all different standards, all incompatible with each other.",
"DDR4 is regular RAM. You find it in consumer desktops/laptops.\n\nGDDR4 and GDDR5 are special high-performance RAM only used for graphics cards. They are soldered directly to the circuit board and cannot be replaced or upgraded.\n\nIgnore the similarity in name. They share some technical details but are basically two totally different things as far as a consumer is concerned."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
1mrdjx | what's in cat/dog treats that makes them better than cat/dog food? | My cats currently and my dog back as a kid would always go crazy whenever i show them a treat. yet i never quite understood what made them go so crazy about them. was it that they thought they were special? could i reverse it by feeding them dog/cat treats for dinner and give them pieces of dog/cat food as treats to have the same effect? or is there something special in them that makes them that specifically makes them crave for them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mrdjx/whats_in_catdog_treats_that_makes_them_better/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccbx51q",
"ccbx6ye",
"ccbyjxs"
],
"score": [
5,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"The treats are much less healthy - they're snack foods, like you're feeding your pets an equivalent of chips or cookies. Definitely don't let your pet's main diet consist of treats.",
"Treats are full of fat. So they taste fantastic to them.",
"Cat and dog treats are often saturated with fats that smell and taste great to your pet. Like greasy fries. Would dry baked potato taste good to you? Nope. Like tasteless nothing. Now soak it in fried grease...yay! Much the same with tasty pet treats."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
564xbz | would we be able to digest dinosaur meat? or any food from that era? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/564xbz/eli5_would_we_be_able_to_digest_dinosaur_meat_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8gbzs2",
"d8ge580"
],
"score": [
7,
8
],
"text": [
"Like plants? Yes, we could eat plants, but not poisonous ones.\n\nThere is no real evidence for the taste of dino meat, even cooked it might be horrible. Dino DNA has a large overlap with birds and reptiles, both of which humans can eat. Many snakes and birds are tasty.\n\nHumans and dinosaurs were never on Earth at the same time, so from that prospect the answer would be \"no\". Questions that start with \"If I had a time machine...\" are almost always asking for the sort of speculation that's discouraged here at ELI5.",
"The first question is not realy answerable (coming to that). The second is a clear yes!\n\nSo what about dinosaur meat? It could be like the meat from living birds since they are the direct descendants. But it could also be inedible. For example there are perfectly edible squids swimming in the ocean and there are squids with so much ammonia in their bodys that you would not eat one bite. Also the flesh of most land living carnivorous animals nowadays is not very tasty due to high levels of adrenaline one can only assume that most dinosaurs (at least the carnivorous ones) were likely not so tasty.\n\nBut noone will ever know since the last one (exept for the birds) died many million years ago. \n\nSorry for any spelling mistakes, not a native."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
47f1lz | how can animated shows, like the simpsons, be cranked out episode after episode so fast? | Like dont they need voice actors to record and then draft the actual episode with the audio and match it up? It seems like it would take much longer than it does. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47f1lz/eli5_how_can_animated_shows_like_the_simpsons_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0cg8n0",
"d0cj2nt"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"They're all being worked on simultaneously. This way, every episode is in the same stage of production at the same time which greatly cuts down the amount of chaos and time spent in total. How do you think shows that are Netflix originals can release all the episodes at once? It's kind of the same thing but on TV, they spread the episodes out weekly. I understand why they use to do it but now I feel like a week is too long to wait inbetween episodes. I guess that's why traditional TV is failing....",
"Animated shows are a bit easier in a lot of ways. Many of the stages and sets are pre-built and re-used episode to episode. In the days of old cel animation, like Snow White, each and every frame was hand drawn. Now, drawings are done on a computer and assets that are created can be reused episode to episode. Even characters like Homer have walk cycles (a collection of images that make a full stride of two steps that can be repeated over and over again) done at certain angles that can be enlarged or reduced to fit a scene.\n\nAlso, the Simpsons puts out 20 something shows a year, has a season finale, and that's it. So, the show runs for basically half the year. BUT, the show is being worked on the ENTIRE year. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
38px44 | why california is flooding their fields for rice during a major drought when it exports 50% of the crop? | Proof: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38px44/eli5_why_california_is_flooding_their_fields_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"crwvy0x"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Because the price the farmers pay for water doesn't really reflect the total cost incurred from using that water.\n\nHowever, even if farmer's were paying the \"social cost\" of the water, they would still grow some rice for export. In a global marketplace, even with some inputs (water) being expensive, others (technology and transport) are so cheap in california that it's still cheaper to grow there than elsewhere on earth."
]
} | [] | [
"http://imgur.com/njZo78g"
] | [
[]
] |
|
a8gi41 | how does one’s nose get blocked up? | Also, why does it happen, and is one’s body intentionally doing this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a8gi41/eli5_how_does_ones_nose_get_blocked_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"ecaibrx"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The [inside of your nose](_URL_1_) has hairs and folds of tissue that have quite a few blood vessels passing through, are also covered in mucus. The idea is to trap dust and bacteria and whatever else is in the air you breathe, sort of like trapping flies in honey or glue.\n\nSo yes, your body does keep your nose moist (with mucus), and if you're sick, your immune system will over-produce this mucus. The nose is typically where bacteria \"come in\", and thus may be a \"primary front\" in the war against it, from the point of view of the immune system.\n\nMucus is typically clear / transparent; if it contains immune system cells fighting a war against bacteria, it may turn [white or green](_URL_0_)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.healthline.com/health/snot-color",
"https://previews.123rf.com/images/stockshoppe/stockshoppe1403/stockshoppe140300249/26566152-vector-illustration-of-diagram-of-human-nose-anatomy.jpg"
]
] |
|
1qm0oq | how to solve this math puzzle ? | A conman has a fake 100 dollar bill
He bought a $10 magazine from a store
The store owner did not have change, and went to ask the nearby cafe for one (cafe owner gave him $100 change and took the fake note)
He returned $90 to the conman
The cafe's owner came back demanding $100
The store owner gave him $100
How much did the store owner lose in total ?
Please explain why because I think I'm missing something here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qm0oq/eli5how_to_solve_this_math_puzzle/ | {
"a_id": [
"cde4nee",
"cde4uvm",
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6,
4,
2
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"text": [
"The store owner lost $90 and the magazine for a total of $100. He kept $10 dollar for the magazine but had to give that tenner and $90 to the cafe owner. So the answer is $90.\n\nThe cafe owner didn't lose anything as he gave the store owner $100 and got $100 back later.\n\nThe conman gained $90 and a magazine.",
" > The store owner did not have change, and went to ask the nearby cafe for one (cafe owner gave him $100 change and took the fake note)\n\nAt this point, the store owner has X + $100 in real money (where X is how much was in the cash register before the transaction), and the cafe owner has Y-$100 real money and \"$100\" in counterfeit money.\n\n > He returned $90 to the conman\n\nNow the conman has $90 in real money, and a $10 magazine. The store owner has X + $10 in real money, and the cafe owner is still sitting at Y-$100 real money and \"$100\" in counterfeit money.\n\n > The cafe's owner came back demanding $100 \n > The store owner gave him $100\n\nAt this point, the store owner has (X + $10) - $100 [the value from the previous step, less the $100], the cafe owner has Y again, and the conman has $90 in real money, and a magazine worth $10.\n\nSo the store owner lost $90 in cash to the conman, plus a $10 magazine. In a sense, the magazine was \"converted into cash\", so the total lost is $100, but that $100 was in money + goods, and not only in money.",
"I think the confusing part is that when the storeowner is giving the 90$ change to the conman, that is not *his* money being lost, it's the cafe owner's. In this part of the problem, the store owner has gained 10$ and the cafe owner has lost 100$.\n\nBut, since the cafe owner realizes the note is fake, he asks for $100 back from the store owner to make it even.\n\nWhen you consider the total gains and losses, the store owner gained 10$ and lost 100$ total, so he nets at a 90$ loss. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
85o224 | if the temperature of a place is determined mostly by the amount of sunlight it receives, how come different places have such varying temperatures at night? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85o224/eli5_if_the_temperature_of_a_place_is_determined/ | {
"a_id": [
"dvytgtp",
"dvyukgw"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"temperature is not determined by sunlight alone. altitude, latitude and weather conditions also have to be considered.",
" > If the temperature of a place is determined mostly by the amount of sunlight it receives, how come different places have such varying temperatures at night?\n\nIts not which is your problem\n\nEver notice its warmer when its cloudy in the winter? Clouds trap the heat and keep it from radiating back out to space\n\nEver notice that coastal locations have smaller temperature swings than deserts? Water is great at holding heat and will create a more constant temperature from day to night and overtime in general; while super dry deserts experience extremely hot days and extremely cold nights because nothing is holding the heat\n\nTemperatures are also determined by weather patterns which come into your area but are not determined by your area. If the jet stream moves south it brings cold air from the north with it, if it moves north it brings warm air from the south. This is completely unrelated to the amount of sunlight at the place you're measuring"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2vhc3u | my pet spider | I've watched a spider climb up into a top corner of my room and stay in the same spot for months. I was about to do an ELI5 for why it's staying there, before it mysteriously vanished. I'm in Australia now so it's pretty warm. Can someone please explain why it stayed in the same spot for months and why it suddenly decided to leave now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vhc3u/eli5_my_pet_spider/ | {
"a_id": [
"cohmswk"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Do you know what type of spider it was? Most likely it was just a good spot for catching food, as to why it left, I don't know, might be mating season, or something changed in the room."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
7jm7fj | what does benchmark interest rate mean? why did the feds raise it again and what implications does it have moving forward? | I overheard some people talking about how the feds raised the interest rate again by .25% today. Its expected to affect things ranging from your mortgage to school loans, to credit cards and auto loans. I am trying to get an understanding of what the trickle-down effect is and what the benefits of raising the rate are. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7jm7fj/eli5_what_does_benchmark_interest_rate_mean_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"dr7g9cz"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Many business loan contracts have variable interest rates defined as \"fed rate + 3%\" or the like. Since this changes the interest banks can get from their best customers, it shifts their time value of money and eventually leads to them asking for higher rates from all customers.\n\nThe advantage of raising rates is that it serves as a brake on speculation. Nobody wants to see the DJIA on a path like Bitcoin's been on this year, because a lot of folks lose money in the ensuing crash. If you can get higher returns on less risky investments, fewer investors push money into stocks and bitcoins. By keeping growth in the 2-3% range, the economy avoids bubbles, crashes, and inflation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6yb611 | how did the eagle creek fire in oregon jump all the way across the wide columbia river and start burning in washington state? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6yb611/eli5_how_did_the_eagle_creek_fire_in_oregon_jump/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmm0t2s",
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"score": [
3,
7
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"text": [
"One way it *could* have happened is some freak tree collapse that launched embers into the dried forest across the river in cartoonish fashion. \n\nWhat's more likely is that the excessive heat simply started a combustion reaction. You can test this at home by putting your sister's favorite book in the oven and turning it up all the way. It should be hot enough in there to cause the pages to ignite. \n\nYou don't need direct flame to start a fire. All you need is oxygen, fuel, and the appropriate amount of heat to start the reaction. Touching a match to it only ensures there's enough heat to get things going. ",
"It was most likely a spot fire. Dry conditions and large gusts of wind can cause embers to leap and travel through the air hundreds to thousands of feet. I was a wild land firefighter for two seasons, and spot fires are something we are taught to be very wary and cautious of."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
afdgdt | why can't spam emails be completely identified and then simply prevented from reaching a user, instead of being routed to a junk folder? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afdgdt/eli5_why_cant_spam_emails_be_completely/ | {
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"text": [
"There's nothing that clearly identifies something as spam. It's mostly a guessing game based on the origin of the email and another details about the email itself.\n\nThey send potential spam to a junk folder so you will have some recourse if there are false positives and they identify something as spam you were actually expecting. If you've ever had a service that you sign up for say something like \"check your junk mail if you do not receive an email from us,\" that's why. Your mail service may think it's spam if they are sending emails to a large number of recipients.",
"Any test will have a certain number of false positives, meaning you incorrectly identify it as spam when it's legitimate. And some false negatives, meaning some spam gets missed. \n\n\nCould you just delete anything identified as junk? Sure, some email services let you do that. If they delete a legitimate email like a job offer for being spam you might be upset. Going in a junk folder lets you visually double check.\n",
"For the record what reaches your junk folder is a tiny percentage of the email that would otherwise be outright blocked by your SPAM filter.\n\nThe Junkmail folder is the stuff that the filter identifies as 'maybe it could be legit? but not sure'\n\nAs an email admin I can tell you that > 85% of the email that comes to my organization is SPAM and it just gets rejected by the SPAM filter software.\n\nIdentifying SPAM is a lot harder than it sounds. If you filter by word you can block legit messages. If you filter by source, then you have to identify all the sources of SPAM and they change constantly.\n\nSPAMmers are really good at knowing how to get around SPAM filters, that's a requirement of what they do.",
"They can, but what if the system thinks that a legitimate email is junk? It would be gone forever and how would you find it again?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5f3ozx | why is communism a bad thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5f3ozx/eli5_why_is_communism_a_bad_thing/ | {
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"score": [
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5,
195,
9,
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6,
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"text": [
"Because once people that bust their ass working hard realise that they receive the same share as all the lazy shits, there is no longer any incentive to work at all, other than merely subsisting.",
"In theory it IS a good thing. Everyone gets an equal share of wealth (money, food, etc.) on all socio-economic levels. The problem arises when people realize they need to work to get their share, then more people realize this and there is not enough resources created to go around. ",
"Why do you assume communism is bad? A lot of real world examples of communism have failed because of one person grabbing power. Many, more knowledgeable then me, argue this is not true communism.",
"Because communism always inevitably results in the government running every aspect of people's lives to ensure one of the main ideas which is equality of wealth and with total equality there is no motivation to do your job well. If you had to do an extremely labor intensive job and you were paid the same amount as everyone else, even people doing extremely easy work, how motivated would you be? It also usually results in those in the government and in high positions of power keeping most of or all of the wealth and the rest of the people live in poverty. It simply fails because of greed. It's a good idea but it never works out quite the way it looks on paper. ",
"Top-down governance and economic management. \n\nLet's say you want sneakers, in a communist system, the factory has a quota, say 20,000 red sneakers. So when you go to buy sneakers, you can only buy red sneakers. Combined with a quota system, you constantly switch from huge shortages (not enough sneakers), to massive oversupply ( nobody wants sneakers, they want boots).\n\nYou can really see this in the soviet auto industry. The cars were god awful, with special models for really obscure things. A model for people missing their left hand, a model with a hole in the bottom for ice fishing. ",
"The two main criticisms are:\n\n* people less directly benefit from their own efforts, so they are less motivated to make those efforts\n* the level of government control to enforce communism restricts freedom and naturally leads to corruption and totalitarianism",
"Venezuela. North Korea. Both fine examples of Communism in practice. The people are least free. Malnourished and fighting for scraps. The fighting is the work. And the scraps are proof the work was worth it. In capitalism the scraps are called private property because possession is 9 10th of the law. Holding scraps is ownership. So even in Communism the point is to get stuff. Except the most stuff you can expect to accumulate is scraps. And that's pretty crappy. You can do way better for your effort in capitalism. Ohyeah and if your scraps is not enough the keep you fed and you go a fighting to get some more...you could get shot dead raiding the centrally controlled food center. No due process under the law. In Communism zero lives matter for those who step out of line. Remember the Holodomore.",
"By communism I am going to presume that you are referring broadly to Maoism, Marxist-Leninism, and similar communist ideologies which took root during the 20th century and have since largely died out. Also, I am going to refer to \"capitalism\" here in the broadest sense of the term (a market economy). \n\nThere are two aspects to this answer: political and economic. I suspect your question is directed more towards the economic side, so here you go:\n\nCommunism rejects the concept of private property and profit making. Essentially, nobody is allowed to make a profit and everything (factories, etc) belongs to the government. If you have a great business idea in a capitalist democracy, you can start a business and try to use that idea to make yourself wealthy. This is not allowed in communist societies. There is also no competition because there are no privately owned businesses competing against one another- everything is the government. The net effect is that there is no innovation because there is no profit incentive to innovate. There is no incentive for people under communism to make things more efficient, to develop new ideas, to create better products. Every form of capitalism (even the forms which some call \"socialist\" nowadays) is based on profit incentives. People develop ideas like Uber, make computers less expensive, or invent Netflix because they stand to make a lot of money if their ideas are successful. Everyone wants to raise their quality of life so the prospect of making money leads people to develop new or better products and services. Communism completely removes this and assumes that government bureaus can do this just as well as free citizens in a free economy. Also, when business ideas succeed in a capitalist system, this means more people are hired by those businesses, which means more money for those workers, who then have money to buy more goods and services, which makes other businesses grow...essentially, everyone benefits. Again, communism rejects this by insisting that profit is evil and the government knows best how to provide goods and services. This is why the Soviet Union collapsed...the whole country was basically an American DMV. Everything was slow, shitty, and in short supply because there was no incentive for anyone to make it any better. \n\n",
"Communism is at the very far left of the left/right political spectrum. Laissez faire capitalism is its opposite at the far right. Communism is a form of utopia, a perfect human society. However true communism is doomed to fail 100% of the time due to human nature. If society was populated by robots then communism would function perfectly.\n\n\nTrue communism calls for all property and the means of production to be owned by the state. All citizens are treated equally. The flaw that will always destroy communism happens when people realise that video game testers, dog walkers, supermodel masseurs, and food critics get the same compensation as ditch diggers, sewage truck workers, hot tar roofers, and morticians. Since society only needs very few video game testers and a large amount of garbage men and ditch diggers, how do you convince anyone to do the less desirable jobs? In communism you are unable to use compensation as an incentive to balance the job market. You can only rely on altruism or lack of self-interest. A society relying on a lack of self-interest from the vast majority of citizens in order to function is doomed to failure. The further you move left the less power compensation has and the more that society must rely on altruism and lack of self-interest.\n\n\nCapitalism uses supply and demand to balance the job market with the available labour pool. The balance provided by supply and demand can be manipulated towards the left with certain tools such as unions, minimum wage and labour laws. However, without the balance provided by those socialist tools, monopolies will inevitably form and laissez faire capitalism will fail. Monopolies are as certain to doom laissez faire capitalism as self-interest is to doom communism. \n\n\nAs in most things the answer to a healthy society lies somewhere in the middle. Just how far left or right of centre your perfect society lies depends on your view of your fellow man. If you believe man to be fundamentally good then you are more likely to be on the right side. The right side generally calls for less government, less state ownership and more control of goods in the hands of the public. You trust that your fellow man will use part of those goods to benefit society. If you have a less trusting view of your fellow man you are likely to the left somewhere. You prefer the government to be larger and have more control of goods in order for those goods to be redistributed by the government to benefit society. \n\n\nThe weakness of the right side is that it is very difficult to coordinate capital undertakings without a central authority to organise and adjudicate. The weakness of the left is that a portion of the goods that are to be used to benefit society are lost through the government's administration of those goods before they can be used for society's needs.\n\n\nSide note: U.S. politics is a little different because the right side of the political spectrum has a large bloc of religious voters. Meaning that the right in the U.S. paradoxically calls for more government in many cases because their social agenda requires a government that is able to control behavioural choice even though they want a smaller government that cannot control financial choice. The opposite is also true, in that the left wants less government control over behavioural choices and more control over financial choices This is an example of why the simple left/right model of politics should only be used to make general points.\n\n\nThere are varying shades of communism and capitalism but that is my general take on it.",
"Mainly because you grew up in the West. It's become a dirty word from it's association with the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Cue 40 years of propaganda about Communism being bad and propaganda about X western country being good. Those combined mean it's ingrained for a lot of people. \n\n",
"_URL_0_\n\nCommunism is a worldwide stateless society where money and markets have been abolished and production is collectively planned by all. It is the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, where the segmentation of human beings into classes, nationalities, races and genders has been transcended. Rather than mere worker ownership of factories or state-control of resources, communist society is one within which “value” as we know it has been abolished and social planning of the production of goods has replaced markets and rationing. Also abolished is the mental/manual division of labor, where permanent attachment to menial work-task specialization is replaced by a great reduction of the social working day and fluidity between different forms of socially necessary labor. \n \n \nNotable Communist authors include: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Gilles Dauve, Antoine Pannekoek, and Amadeo Bordiga.\n \n \n-----Basic Outline-----\n \n \nAll Communists, regardless of tendency, aim for the same end goal: A Stateless, classesless, currencyless society where the means of producing goods are socially owned and the production of said goods are socially planned.\nA state as defined by Marxian analysis: An organ of class rule where one class imposes it's will over another through the use of force.\nThe Means of Production(MoP) are the resources, tools, and equipment required to produce a good or service. Examples include a large swath of farm land that must be tended by multiple individuals, a piece of machinery in a factory who's only purpose is to take resources and turn it into a good, etc. We aim to allow all laborers in society the access to these resources on the basis of a new mode of production aimed at producing goods(supply) based on the needs of society(demand), as opposed to the accumulation of capital and profit. We aim to do this by maximizing socially valuable labor, while abolishing wages, commodity production, and the need for abstract labor.\n \n \n-----Tendencies-----\n \n \nWhat follows is a list of major communist ideologies, and a basic descriptor. For descriptions of specific terms, see TERMS\n \n \n Reformist Socialism(Utopian Socialism) – A method of achieving Socialism through the use of democratic elections, as opposed to revolutionary means.\n \nMarxism – A method of political and social analysis which utilizes a materialist view of history and a dialectical view of social transformation, it follows the works of Marx and Engels and a few other Post-Marxist writers on a case by case basis.\n \nLeft Communism - A reaction to Bolshevism and Social Democracy, and the ideology of “Leninism”. There are two main currents of “Left Communism” stemming from the third international: “Council Communists” who criticized the elitist practices of the Bolshevik Party, and increasingly emphasized the autonomous organizations of the working class . And Italian left communists who reject compromise with the institutions of bourgeois society, participation (or the idea of taking over the trade unions), the dictatorship over the proletariat, against various fronts with bourgeois parties and both are against national-liberation struggles and all forms of nationalism, the bolshevisation of the third international parties and eventually they both agree on the state-capitalist and counter-revolutionary nature of the Russian state by about the early 1920s.\n \nLeninism – Leninism is the theory of party, class, and state developed by the Bolsheviks and implored by the Bolshevik government that a workers' state is composed of officials from the working class holding power inside the party and thus representing the control of the working class over the the state apparatus.\nMarxist-Leninist-Maoism - An ideology following the works of Mao Zedong, applying Mao's third world revolutionary theory onto Lenin's political and Marx's economic theories. Promotes concepts such as The Mass Line, Protracted People's War, and the concept of a “New Democracy”.\n \nTrotskyism- An ideology following the works of Leon Trotsky, which revised and expanded Lenin's writings and contributions to Orthodox Marxism. Includes concepts such as Permanent Revolution, the transitional program, and a rejection of Stalinist interpretations of Lenin's work.\n \n \n -----Points Of Unity-----\n 1. Communism can only be achieved through the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, a class whose self-emancipation is the emancipation of all humanity. The proletariat are those without reserves who must sell their labor power to survive, compelled by these conditions to engage in the economic and political battle against capitalism. There is no other “revolutionary subject” that can lead the struggle for communism nor any kind of substitute for the class struggle. In order to triumph in the class struggle the proletariat must organize into a world-wide political party around a programme that expresses its exclusive class interests. Cops and strike-breakers are not part of the proletariat and are class enemies in all circumstances.\n \n2. We are internationalists. We oppose all forms of imperialism and refuse to side with our own nation-states in worldwide conflicts. In situations of imperialist war the only sensible position to take is revolutionary defeatism: to pursue transforming imperialist war into a revolutionary civil war against world capitalism. We also reject all forms of nationalism as an obstacle to revolution and reject political alliances with nationalists of all stripes. It is unprincipled to maintain anything other than strict organizational independence in relation to those who uphold the nation-state as a positive political force, whether it be those espousing patriotism for our own countries or “national self-determination” for oppressed groups. This includes rejecting “socialism in one country” or any other national road to socialism. Communist revolution must be international in scope or nothing. In logical continuity with our internationalist principles is also our conviction in the importance of upholding a pro-immigrant stance. This means support for the abolition of borders and maintaining an uncompromising position against all forms of xenophobia and national chauvinism. Anything less would mean departure from the basic ethic of working class solidarity.\n \n3. We categorically reject that the USSR and its various offshoots such as the People’s Republic of China and Cuba are examples of socialist societies or functioning proletarian dictatorships which serve as models for us to use. While no functioning communist society has existed, we point to the Paris Commune, the early days of the Russian Revolution, the German revolution, the Shanghai Commune and aspects of the Spanish Civil War as historical moments where the working class grappled with the task of forming a new society.\n \n \n4. We deny political support for all bourgeois parties, including those belonging to the left-wing of capital. Throughout history various factions of the left have served not to advance the class struggle towards communism but to stifle it. This entails recognizing that our enemies aren’t limited to outright reactionaries but also those who defend capitalism under a veneer of anti-bourgeois radicalism. Strategies of Popular Frontism or “mass line” politics can only open the door to opportunism. While strategic work with the rank-and-file of certain organizations may be necessary and beneficial, actual political alliances with reformist or reactionary groups can only mean sacrificing our political independence.\n \n \n5. While we do not discourage workers from joining unions to defend their basic economic needs, we recognize that the class struggle must extend beyond the limitations of unionism. Unions are organs of mediation between workers and capital and are thereby structurally compelled to develop bureaucratic and conservative tendencies that will push against revolutionary class struggle. Repeatedly throughout history, the union bureaucracy has proven itself to be a conservative force that stifles the development of the workers’ struggle and act as a roadblock in the fight for communism. Therefore we reject a strategy of union entryism that seeks to recuperate the existing unions and employ them towards revolutionary ends, instead advancing the autonomy of the working class from capital and the existing union bureaucracy.\n \n \n \n \n.\n \n \n-----TERMS-----\n \n \nThe following is a list of terms commonly used by Communists, and their typical meanings.\n \n \nDemSoc - Democratic Socialist\nSocDem - Social Democrat\nML - Marxist-Leninist\nMLM - Marxist-Leninist-Maoist\nLeftcom - Left Communist\nTWism - Third Worldism\nTankie - A derogatory term used for a communist who is considered to blindly support former \"Socialist\" states with disregard to history. \"Stalin didn't do anything wrong, it's just Imperialist propaganda!\"\nLiberal – All Ideologies to the left/right of capital. This includes all which uphold and support capitalism as the dominant mode of production, and the social aspects of early and classical liberal movements.\nReform - Seeking Socialism through reform of the capitalist system.\nRevolution - Seeking Socialism through forceful seizure of the state and capital.\nDemocratic Centralism - A concept proposed by Karl Kautsky which promotes \"Diversity in Discussion, Unity in Action\". Promotes intense ideological debate over any decisions prior to a vote, with detractors agreeing to uphold whatever the end vote may be.\nVanguard Party – Wing of the proletariat which may have more theoretical knowledge and thus will assume leadership roles in times of revolutionary action. These individuals will not necessarily assume political power, but will “guide” the direction of the revolution towards the abolition of staple asp CONTINUED IN LINK",
"If your society has no formal structure then Communism is a great place to start. Every job can be important. But as time moves forward you will find which aspects are more valuable/desirable. As those things are identified compensation of those things should go up to incentivize people into going into those fields. \n\nWhen you have nothing communism sounds great because you have a sense of things becoming an equal playing field. When you already have and do not need communism sounds terrible because the playing field has been leveled and your advantages are gone. \n\nNow people confuse communism and social programs a lot because they are on the same end of the spectrum. \n\nSocial programs are not something I will call evil as I feel that some things should be considered basic rights we should have as participants of society and that there are those who cannot fend for themselves. \n\nBasic health coverage, education, fire service, police service. Those are things I think should be included in taxes. We all should pay because we all need it. \n\nThe problem is that because people are so diverse we can't actually agree on what basic health coverage or a proper standard of education are. \n\nEdit: social programs, not socialism. ",
"In the simplest terms and most dealbreaking reason?\n\nBecause somewhere along the way to creating the communist utopia a group of people will inevitably get apocalyptically screwed over for one reason or another. When the \"kind and benevolent leader\" trying to \"guide the people in the right direction\" gets wind of this group of people protesting and making potentially sensible arguments against him... Well, that can't be tolerated. \n\nPeople always, *always*, gets murdered and tossed in jail over nothing in communist countries. We can debate the lack of incentives for work and so on, but that part isn't the actual problem, the mass killing and incarceration that *must* happen ends the idea before any other factors really. People will never be safe or happy under communism.",
"While others have addressed the many practical failings of communism, I'll address a moral one as well. The assumption of communism is that by the nature of your existence, you are both owed something by society and also owe society. You're not an individual, you're just part of a greater whole. This idea is corrosive to the idea of fundamental individual rights and liberties that are the basis of western civilization. Communism is not just impractical and impossible to correctly implement, it's also immoral to even attempt to do so as it requires each individual to subvert their own rights, interests, desires, ambitions, property, and even life in favor of the \"collective good\"(determined by someone else of course). This is an inherently immoral and to be blunt, evil, mindset. \n\nIn fact, the practical failings of Communism are actually a symptom of this fact. The natural human spirit rebels against being subverted. When such a system is introduced to any population, it collapses. Not only because of the numerous inadequacies of a centrally planned economy, or the massive inefficiencies of such a top-down control scheme, but also because on an individual basis, communism strips individual human beings of their essential liberties and rights, degrades them into nothing more than cogs in the machine, and requires them to deny their own right to self-determination.\n\nCommunism doesn't just not work, it's actually *wrong*.",
"Because everything is equal. It sounds good in theory but when actually practiced it fails because why would a neurosurgeon keep on doing his job when the guy who delivers his mail is making the same amount of money as him.",
"Because communism, like capitalism, centralizes power. It centralizes power into the hands of the government instead of corporations. This is incredibly vulnerable to corruption.\n\n\nThe real solution is to distribute power and the means of production as widely as possible. Allowing everyone the opportunity to make something of themselves. \"3 acres and a cow\" as the saying goes. Easier said than done though.",
"All of these answers are pretty awful. From misunderstandung moneyless economies, to trying to refute communism with \"human nature\" these explanations are wrong, misinformed yet unsurprising. First, communism is a stateless, moneyless economy. Which sounds utopian. But to dismiss is as such is wrong for every economic/social ideal is utopian, even capitalism. The problem is that this world, the way it is, is capitalism's utopia. Fascism is a utopian vision. So let's not assume a system of thought is better because it isn't utopian, they all are to varying degrees. There are less idealistic, more realistic varieties of communism, like ML, or Maoism. Now as to why you ask why communism is bad, you've been taught that communism is bad all your life. Every capitalist country has a vested interest in rooting out communism, as communism threatens to end their exploitation of the people. You might hear of people fleeing communist countries, and these people were often rich white capitslists who suddenly lost their privilege. It seems unfair to them, so they cry and whine, but the processes they complain about were better for most everyone else. You may hear of famines, but those famines were often caused naturally, and exacerbated by economic pressure exerted by capitalist countries and accidental mismanagement. You may hear of death tolls from \"communism\" but those numbers are often inflated. Or simply wrong. Also none of those graphs and such measure the deaths caused by capitalism, from the Native American genocide, to the Armenian genocide, to the Rwandan genocide, to the people in first- and third-world countries starving to death, to the American suicide epidemic, these are all deaths caused by capaitalism. Some may say imperialism, but imperialism is the highest form of capitalism. An example of a fantastic communist country is Cuba. Cuba's economy was severly hampered by the American embargo, but they, the people of Cuba, were able to achieve an infant mortality rate lower than the USA, a literacy rate of 99%, give free medical schooling to anyone (not just citizens), and much more. All in the face of harsh economic blocks imposed on it by capitalist countries. No communist country really collapsed under it's own weight. America did not win the Cold War by submission, America engineered the purposeful downfall of the USSR. For further reading, I suggest the communism101 subreddit. I don't know how to auto-link, but that is such a beautiful and informative community. Thanks for asking!",
"To start, a lot of people in this thread are simply misinformed about communism. Communism is a theoretical stateless, classless, moneyless society that is the end goal of many forms of socialism. In true communism, resources/work are taken from each person according to their ability and given to each person according to their need. Some states are debatably communist in the sense that they strive towards communism, but true communism has never been achieved on a large scale AFAIK.\n\nPersonally, I think communism is a good thing. Whether or not it would work, I'm not sure since attempts at communism have usually been ruined by internal corruption or direct action from capitalist states to break them up. Most people think that communism wouldn't work because people are lazy/evil, but I don't think that's a good reason to write communism off. At the very least, I think it's an ideal we should strive to bring our society as close to as possible.\n\nIf you want to learn more about communism, there are a wide variety of subreddits dedicated to such informative discussion, and the Wikipedia page on communism is also helpful.",
"Every one of these answers is terrible, so let's define some terms and a bit about how economic systems work.\n\nWhat the West has historically used is referred to as social democracy, meaning relatively high taxation on corporate profits in order to redistribute value to provide social services like healthcare, education, social security, etc. within a capitalist economy.\n\nA capitalist economy is one with private ownership (a single owner or board of directors) of the means of production (factory building, equipment, raw materials), exchange of goods and services for profit in a market economy, and wage labor. Think of it in terms of employers and employees. No matter the value of the things produced by the employees, the employer can pay the workers as little as they like and keep the difference for themselves.\n\nSocialism is worker control of the means of production, including what to produce, how to produce, where to produce, and democratically deciding how profits are distributed rather than by wages. Having set wages would mean that the employer (capitalist) takes the rest as profit, so socialism wants to remove the class divide between people who own and people who do the work (current employees). So wealth is distributed based on labor from the start, preventing a need for redistribution. Communism is an economic stage even beyond that and is stateless (but not government-less), classless, and moneyless.\n\nThese are very rough definitions, but I hope this helps!",
"Something to note about practical communism. Marx wrote with the idea of capitalist and industrialized societies as his example of people transferring into communism. States like the UK, France, Germany, and the USA. Communism took route in Russia which transitioned from a absolute monarchy to communism and China which was messy to say the least. Neither met the prerequisites for the Marxist communist society which was a democratic history with large scale industrialization. Instead of the proletariat (workers) in Russia and China there were serfs which is very different.",
"These replies hurt me. Communism is not about dictatorships and state ownership of everythibg, socialism is not even really about welfare. Communism and socialism are about workers controlling the means of production. Not CEOs, and definitely not the state. Of course theres 101 different flavors of communism and theories on means of organization and economy, but the essential characteristics of communism is the abolition of the state and private property, and the handing over or taking of the economy by the workers.",
"Communism is \"bad\" because most countries are greedy capitolist is nations and they loose the ability to profit off of communist countries. ",
"Most of the explanations here seem really biased against communism and a lot of them don't even have a good understanding of what communism actually is. There are a couple of misconceptions I'd like to clear up.\n\nFirst of all, there is no state in actual communism. There is also no class and no money. Many states that were trying to achieve communism had these things. Marxism, a particular type of communism, says that a transitional state would be needed in order to create the conditions necessary for communism. When a state controls the entire economy like it probably would in said transitional state, it's called state capitalism. And not all communists believe that this sort of transitional state should take place.\n\nThe USSR was not technically communist, but state capitalist. And after Stalin rose to power, I don't think he ever wanted to achieve actual communism, to be honest. I think he just wanted power. He only used the idea of a communist utopia as propaganda. China is also state capitalist. And so on.\n\nSecond of all, there are more types of communists than just marxist-leninists or stalinists. Enough types that this question is kind of hard to answer with all types of communists in mind.\n\nAsk me more specific questions about communism if you'd like. I am a communist myself, after all.",
"Right now, there are a few people with a lot of power who don't need to work to live. Communism is a different system, and it's bad for those people because they would have less power and would need to work. Those people have a lot of control, and most of the information you're given says that Communism is a bad thing.",
"If you see people relying on Hobbesian interpretations of 'human nature' as the backbone of their criticism, then take it with a grain of salt... ",
"**Read [THIS](_URL_2_), [THIS](_URL_0_), and [THIS](_URL_1_) and form your own opinions instead of asking and reading the shitty answers to loaded-ass questions.**"
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"http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism"
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v7imj | i smoke a well known brand of light cigarette. why do i get really sick whenever i switch brands for a night? | I've been trying out different brands recently to try and save some money but every time I do, I seem to get really sick. I woke up the other morning and it felt like I inhaled a house fire. Can someone explain this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v7imj/i_smoke_a_well_known_brand_of_light_cigarette_why/ | {
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"Your body is telling you to quit smoking. Listen to it.",
"More expensive brands have smoother blends (tobacco + chemicals) which will not hurt your wind pipe as much as the cheaper brands. The filters tend to be much better as well.\n\nThis is why difference between Benson's and 305's is night and day. ",
"Different companies have different blends of tobacco that they use, with varying amount of additives. The cheaper cigarettes you're buying probably have higher levels of these additives you aren't used to, and possibly lower-quality tobacco.\n\nI know that feel, though, bro. I started out smoking Marlboro Reds, then switched around and settled on American Spirits. Whenever I try to smoke Reds now, it's like a kick in the lungs."
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20kvrk | creutzfeldt- jakob disease | How is it caused? What are are prions and what happens to them that causes the disease? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20kvrk/eli5_creutzfeldt_jakob_disease/ | {
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"Prions are some of the building blocks of life and they help our bodies function.\n\nIn the case of CJ's disease there's a protein that we use to transmit neural impulses between our cells. The prions that cause CJ's disease are the same proteins but folded diffrently impeding their normal function.\n\nAnd the annoying part is that, when a healthy protein encounters a CJ protein its stimulated to reorient itself into a diseased state as well."
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1jbmrf | why do oranges sometimes taste terrible | I bought a package of cuties(small oranges) about two weeks ago, Every single one of them tasted amazing. I'm not exaggerating they tasted like the nectar of the gods. Next time I went to the store I bought a package of regular sized oranges because I was eating 4 or 5 cuties at a time. These oranges tasted like shit. Every single one of them. They were watery and gross and didn't taste like the orange nectar of the gods that I had experienced with the package of cuties. I went back thinking maybe cuties were just better. I bought another package of cuties and guess what? They all taste like shit. What gives? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jbmrf/eli5why_do_oranges_sometimes_taste_terrible/ | {
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"Were you eating them after brushing your teeth? That tastes awful!",
"Things that are grown from the earth always vary in taste. It depends who grew it and how they grew it."
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6fbl3j | why do battery powered items (such as phones and portable chargers) frequently arrive about half charged? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fbl3j/eli5_why_do_battery_powered_items_such_as_phones/ | {
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"Keeping a battery at about half charge is good for long term storage, leading to less deterioration than 100% or very low percentage. LiPo batteries are also more susceptible to fires during transit if at full charge. \n\nBatteries can also drain over time, depending on what kind of circuitry they have hooked to them. Charging and under voltage protection is a common drain. "
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elqkvn | if salt water is salty because of dissolved minerals from the earth, then how does fresh water stay fresh? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/elqkvn/eli5_if_salt_water_is_salty_because_of_dissolved/ | {
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"Fresh water has fallen straight from the sky. When salt water evaporates it leaves the salt in the ocean and rises as fresh water. This falls and becomes a freshwater stream then river, lake, loch, groundwater until it either;\n - evaporates and starts the cycle again\n - gets drunk/ trapped in a reservoir\n- reaches the salty ocean again \n\nFreshwater doesn’t have time to collect enough minerals and ions from the surrounding rocks to become salty when it’s travelling. The small amounts it might pick up are either too heavy and are dropped as substrate or get transported to the ocean where it can’t return back to the water cycle (evaporate > rainfall > travel > ocean > repeat)."
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9a1oej | . why isn't cannabis dispensed from regular pharmacies? what has to happen for this to occur? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9a1oej/eli5_why_isnt_cannabis_dispensed_from_regular/ | {
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"It has to be made legal at the federal level before it will ever be dispensed from regular pharmacies. Even in states that have allowed marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, it is still banned by federal law. Since federal law supersedes state law 100% of the time, marijuana use and possession is still illegal everywhere in the United States. At this time the federal government is not cracking down on it, especially in states that have legalized it, but that doesn't mean it's legal and can be sold from pharmacies, which are heavily regulated by federal law.",
"Right now, all cannabis purchases are cash-only. You can't use electronic payment. Also, I believe Pharmacies are regulated by the Food and Drug administration, which is a federal agency (and cannabis is illegal federally).",
"It’s still illegal federally which could produce problems when the pharmacy is federally regulated and even audited at times. There would have to be a federal legalization for them to be allowed to dispense it and it would probably have to be regulated by the FDA in some way as well I suspect as the other prescriptions we get from the pharmacy are.",
"It should never be sold at pharmacies anymore than alcohol should be. Once that happens, we'll lose our choice of what we smoke and we'll have to smoke whatever shit they want us to along with whatever other bullshit they decide to put in it."
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20lfdy | those stupid 2 way zippers on jackets. why are they there? do people actually unzip the bottom half of the jacket? | I absolutely hate the things because they always seem to stick or are just out of alignment. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20lfdy/eli5_those_stupid_2_way_zippers_on_jackets_why/ | {
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ab28ce | what does it mean when it says music is "remastered"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ab28ce/eli5_what_does_it_mean_when_it_says_music_is/ | {
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"Mastering in music is where the different elements of the mix are brought together and balanced. Remastered means that they have redone this process. Usually it's with older analog (tape) recordings and they have taken out the hissing and popping that is sometimes present. ",
"Its a \"fixed\" version that is suppose to be objectivly better. cleaner samples ans vocals etc ",
"TLDR: Processing an original audio recording to make it sound better.\n\nA master is the original recording used for an album, usually on Analog tape.\n\nArmed with the knowledge that the technology and techniques used in the audio industry have improved over time it's often obvious how to improve a recording.\n\nRemastering an album involves cleaning up the audio of the original. Digitizing the analog tape and then applying filters, removing hiss and popping noises from the recording, changing the volumes of the various tracks in the mix and audio channels. You can even fix mistakes in the editing and instrument playing in the recording, although sometimes this is considered taboo when messing with older recordings.\n\nTracks are recorded and mixed to optimize the qualify on formats of the day like Vinyl or Tapes. Remastering a recording can help make it sound better in modern formats like Digital, CD's etc, and through headphones instead of speakers. Modern recordings also tend to be a lot louder sounding than older ones.\n\nIt really depends on what the studio is trying to accomplish.",
"Why is this marked NSFW?",
"Remastered also means baaaad. At least in some cases.\nPls. see _URL_0_"
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4tpudz | why are us domestic cars still using red turn signals? | Edit: There is some discussion below as to the benefit of amber rear turn signals. A 2009 study by the NHTSA found a "statistically significant" accident-reduction for cars using amber rear indicators, pdf here: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tpudz/eli5_why_are_us_domestic_cars_still_using_red/ | {
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"They aren't? Almost all of the ones I have seen are orange. ",
"It depends on the make and model. They are not required to be red, but they are prohibited from being white. "
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adsijo | what is jetlag? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/adsijo/eli5_what_is_jetlag/ | {
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"Our body has an 'internal clock' - it knows roughly where it is in a 24 hour cycle, based on sunlight and various other factors. This governs things like hormone release for hunger, sleep and so on.\n\nWhen we take a long flight to a place in a significantly different time zone, we put our body clock out of sync with the local time. Our body might be expecting to go to sleep, but instead it's dinner time. So you tend to get tired because as far as your body's concerned, you're staying up very late. Your eating schedule also gets thrown out of whack which has an effect on energy levels.",
"Your body experiencing this thing call Circadian Rhythm. \nBasically the body likes to start some internal processes at certain times of day, as a result you feel more active or tired. \nThing is, by changing your time zone drastically and quickly, your body's idea of what time of day it is no longer matches what time of day it actually is. \nSo you start feeling sleepy in the afternoon and wakeful at night. \nOver time the body adjusts back though.",
"It's a temporary disorder of the circadian rhythm where your body's normal sense of time doesn't match with the actual time. It's caused by crossing multiple time zones quickly. Our physiological processes regulate themselves on a roughly 24 hour cycle. Everything from sleep to hunger to mood is controlled by hormones and other chemicals that our bodies control every day. When we cross time zones, it takes longer for our bodies to catch up. For example, darkness triggers the release of the sleep hormone melatonin. When you're at home, this happens at the roughly the same time every day: every 24 hours. If you travel halfway across the world, your body still thinks it's time for bed even though it's the middle of the day where you are. It usually takes about 1 day per time zone crossed for your body to adjust."
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an07w1 | how does a player cheat in football besides the obvious like paying off the refs? | So I am not from America originally. It took me a while to learn the rules of football, and even then I know the basics.
One of the criticism's I always see of Tom Brady is that he is a cheater. Now I know the coach has been in trouble for filming opposing team during practice, but I want to focus on the player.
I'm not asking whether it's true or not but rather IF Tom brady (and other professional fotball players) cheats, what sort of things can they do that is considered cheating (besides taking enhancing drugs)? The only thing I heard was the deflated football but that was a while ago and I haven't heard anything like that in a while. I am having a hard time thinking what sort of things a player can do with all those ref and cameras watching them.
Thank you and have a good day! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/an07w1/eli5_how_does_a_player_cheat_in_football_besides/ | {
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"I played offensive line in HS. One of the things we were taught was to get \"inside\" control with our arms (if you were a guard or center blocking a defensive lineman) because then you can grab onto the other players chest plate and hold (which is against the rules), and it would be hard for the ref to see, so that's one thing. A lot of teams use a thing called the \"Hug\" technique, which is basically just legalized holding. \n\n\nSuperbowl MVP Julian Edelman was caught using Performance Enhancing Drugs a while back. [Source](_URL_0_). And I don't think anyone would be surprised if it were the only time. ",
"A large area for discussion is how you tackle and intentionally hitting in ways to cause more pain. Lot rule bending in there.",
"Tom Brady was accused of under-inflating the footballs,which changes the characteristics of them. Also, the Patriots were accused of using illegally acquired films of opponents to steal their coaches' signals."
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3e0i7c | when you apply for a patent how do they check there isn't already a conflicting one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e0i7c/eli5_when_you_apply_for_a_patent_how_do_they/ | {
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"Patents are indexed by subject matter and words they contain, but basically the patent office still does it the hard way, by looking at all the related patents they can find. Computer searching speeds things up a lot, but someone still has to read the patents and understand what they are about, in order to decide whether a new idea is new and different enough to deserve a patent. ",
"Patent examiner here:\n\nOur job is to figure out not only if an invention isn't patentable because someone else patented a similar or identical idea, but to also make sure that of the known body of *all published work*, that what is being sought as a patent is more than just a trivial modification of existing work in the field."
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5w327g | how was germany able to take on the rest of the whole world, twice in 25 years, and even almost win | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5w327g/eli5how_was_germany_able_to_take_on_the_rest_of/ | {
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"The economic strength of the entente and the central powers or the axis and the allies prior to the us entering each war were fairly even. \n\nBasically they weren't alone, weren't fighting anywhere close to the whole world, and, when you consider what it would have taken for them to force a favorable peace once the us entered either war, never really got all that close to winning.",
"Premise is false. Germany did not \"almost win\" anything, and they weren't taking on the whole world. It took a while to beat them sure, but that's just because of the drastic measures they went through to desperately try to win even though it would have been impossible for them.",
"In the first world war, it was basically Germany vs France with Britain helping France. Austria sort of helped Germany while other nations sort of helped various sides. In the end though, it ran down to a stalemate between Germany and France with USA coming in at the last minute to break it. Germany surrendered then.\n\nIn the second world war, Germany crushed France, Czech republic, Poland and various other European states due to their advanced tactics and mechanised assault doctrine. They lost because they invaded Russia and lost 3/4 of their men and materiel to Russian winter and Hitler's idiotic strategies.\n\nIn nether case did Germany take on \"the rest of the world\" and in neither case did the \"rest of the world\" combine to defeat Germany.",
"The two \"World Wars\" are badly named: they weren't really single conflicts that spanned the globe, but several different conflicts that happened to be connected. For example, in WW2, the war in Europe was quite different from the war in the Pacific, and Nazi Germany only supported Japan because Japan was fighting against the US.\n\nThe First World War wasn't at all a case of Germany taking on the rest of the world, or even the rest of Europe. Basically, at the time, [Europe had divided itself into two blocs](_URL_0_), the idea being that if a country attacked another country, then that country's allies would retaliate -- and so, in theory, peace was assured because no country would be foolish enough to start a war. Unfortunately, political tensions were high in parts of Europe, and when a Serbian terrorist assassinated an Austrian aristocrat, this gave Austro-Hungary the excuse to issue an ultimatum to Serbia that Serbia couldn't possibly accept, and this set in motion a kind of domino effect: Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, so Russia mobilised its troops, so Germany mobilised *its* troops and invaded Belgium, so Britain declared war on Germany. Basically, the various European countries declared war on each other until the whole lot of them were slugging it out in the trenches.\n\nThe Second World War was primarily caused by German aggression, although Germany wasn't alone: Italy, too, was on Germany's side. Hitler secured a pact with Stalin so he could concentrate on the western front. Germany had made huge advances in military technology and had been gearing up for war for a time, and also employed, very successfully, the tactic of \"blitzkrieg\": a sudden, powerful, early strike against the enemy to overwhelm them before they could properly respond. The Allies, still recovering from the First World War, had attempted to appease Hitler; when Hitler came to power, they had persuaded themselves that he was a jumped-up lunatic who was all bark and no bite, and would never be able to actually do anything. As a result, they didn't really expect a war and so hadn't prepared for it.",
"German unification in 1871 was a HUGE deal. It united a hundred different states in the strategic heart of Europe into one nation-state with the biggest population and economy on the continent (apart from Russian Empire, which some historians don't consider a proper *Westphalian* country). Here's the population and economy of major European powers in 1914:\n\nCountry|Population (millions)|GDP (billions US dollar)|\n:--|:--|:--|\nUK (including Ireland)|45|40|\nFrance|40|26|\nRussian Empire|125|42|\nGermany|68|46|\n\n\nHere they are at 1938:\n\n\nCountry|Population (millions)|GDP (billions US dollar)|\n:--|:--|:--|\nUK|47|56|\nFrance|42|39|\nUSSR|150-170|71|\nGermany|62|75|\n\n\n\nA country's military power is based on its population and economy. Germany was the most powerful states in Europe. And it took 2 world wars, American intervention, and 46 years of dividing it into 4 and then 2 countries that finally made it into a status-quo power. This may not hold for long though. Many analysts believe that if NATO fails to protect Germany (against Russia?), they would develop their own nuclear arsenal and huge-ass army which, as alerted by experience, isn't going to end well.",
"Nazi Germany did not 'almost win' by any means. They certainly occupied France, yet had no naval power compared to the Brits or plans to invade the UK or North America. The war would have dragged on a little longer without American intervention but the war would have resulted in an allied win regardless as soon as Germany turned on the USSR."
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6n004v | why is it that foreign languages sound much faster to me than my own? | I overhear a lot of conversations in other languages at work. I usually try to listen in a bit because I'm interested, but they always move too fast for me, even though they might be talking at "regular speed". But, if I'm listening to a conversation in English, they have to be talking exceptionally fast for me to regard it as such. Why is that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6n004v/eli5_why_is_it_that_foreign_languages_sound_much/ | {
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"There's probably a couple things at work.\n\n1. When listening, we often don't fully hear every word but, using context, we can make good assumptions about what the word we didn't hear was. Like if someone says \"I went to the grocery store and bought eggs\" and you didn't hear 'grocery', but maybe only heard a word that ended in y, you can make a good guess that the word was grocery, because what other store do you go to buy eggs right? Sometimes you guess wrong, and that can lead to confusion, you thought someone said something different than what they actually said. But *usually* your guess is correct. But with a foreign language, this doesn't work, you have no idea what *any* of the words are, so you don't even know when a word begins or ends, and you have no context available to tease out meaning. \n\n2. Kinda related. In conversation, using context, you can often predict the next words people are about to say before they say them. We speak in pretty repetitive ways in everyday conversation, and we use common phrases that you can finish in your head before they fully say the whole thing. You know what words to expect, so you know what to listen for. Someone says \"The devil went down--\" and you immediately think \"--to Georgia\" before they've even said it, because we can usually think faster than we can talk. For example, have you noticed you can read a page in a book much faster than you could recite the page out loud? Thinking is faster than speaking. But with a foreign language, you have no idea what to expect. You don't know any of the words, every new sound coming at you is basically a surprise, you can't recognize any of the patterns and common phrases that you're so familiar with in your native tongue.\n\n3. Some languages really do speak faster than others. I don't know which ones, and you might feel like foreign-language speakers are speaking faster than you would when really they're not. But some languages really are spoken faster or slower than other languages. Most languages have really subtle rhythms to them, like people have said much of English is spoken in [iambic pentameter](_URL_0_). ",
" It's not because they are taking faster, usually. Sometimes they are, my high school Spanish teacher told me that Puerto Ricans speak very fast relative to the rest of the Spanish speaking world. But the true reason lies in the fact that you are not accustomed to recognizing natural breaks in the spoken language. Words will blend together or seem to chop up as you're unable to determine where one word ends and another begins. And that's where the speed confusion comes into play. \n\nA couple examples: the Italian phrase \"In bocca al lupo\" may sound like \"Inbo cal upo\" to a non-speaker. Likewise the Swahili word \"Tunachohitaji\" may sound like \"Tuna cho hit aji\" so while they've only said one word, it sounds like multiple words fired off in rapid succession. \n\nEdit: a word",
"The other answers here are true, however, they are missing the main factor. Information density.\n\nEnglish is a very information dense language. That means that to express a complete thought, you have to use fewer words/syllables. Spanish on the other hand (the language I think sounds the fastest in general) is only about 70% as dense as English.\n\nThe speed of speech is not dictated by the number of syllables, but instead how quickly we think.\n\nTherefore if it takes more syllables to express the same thought, we will just naturally pack more syllables into the same time frame.\n\n**ETA:** Paper on the subject: _URL_0_",
"Billy is a high school student sitting for his physics exam. His exam has questions from two topics : electricity and the other is thermodynamics Billy knows all about thermodynamics but knows almost nothing about electricity\nHe solves all thermodynamics problems in 2 minutes each but when he reads the electricity problen it takes him forever to understand the problem but actually all the sums can easily be solved taking 3 minutes each.\n\nThis is exactly what happens with your brain\n\nBasically when a familiar/known language is spoken your brain is able to process each word making it feel like normal speed however when an unknown language is spoken the brain can't process each word since you don't know what it means and your brain is trying to make sense of it making it feel like they are going fast!",
"If you look at an audio spectrum of someone talking, the pauses between words and sentences don't exist to nearly the degree that you think they do. Talking is a fairly continuous sound, but your brain has learned how to break it up into words and insert much longer feeling pauses than actually exists. When you don't really know how to segment the language, because you're just learning it, your brain has a much harder time splitting up the sounds into word boundaries, so you get a much more blurred together feel to the sounds.\n",
"Information density and lack of natural recognition are both good points, but there is also a reason in regards perception.\n\nSome languages seem to (and are) spoken faster because the way that certain words are pronounced allow them to elide and be 'strung together'. For us English speakers, we would thus hear sentences of romantic languages such as French and Italian being bridged together to sound like one word, because the pronunciation allows it. For example, 'comment allez-vous?' in French elides together to sound like a smooth phrase, whereas 'how are you?' requires the speaker to close their mouth to form the 'w' and then reopen to form the 'a' vowel sound.\n\nThis contributes to the speeds of some languages perceived relative to English, as a Germanic language vs. a romance language. Even when learning these languages, it takes more effort and time to understand and break up sentences, because it can be harder to tell where words finish and end.",
"I have a follow up question to this question.\n\nI speak English and only English. I can hear just fine, as far as volume goes.\n\nBut I have a really hard time separating words when someone is speaking. They seem to run together. It doesn't matter the accent. All of the words jumble together, the way I hear them.\n\nIt has really became a problem in the past few years. I am only 31 and I find myself just agreeing with people half the time or saying \"yeah!\" or whatever because I have no idea what they just said.\n\nAnyone ever heard of this?\n\nedit: I'm going to go to the doctor for this, see what happens. I have lived my entire life without health insurance, and only got health insurance a few months ago. I'm just not used to being able to go see a doctor, for anything.\n\nIf I was having a heart attack, I would drive myself to the hospital for fear that the bill would bankrupt my family.",
"English is a fairly efficient language, meaning few syllables are needed to express a thought. We have the luxury of speaking slowly and with lots of quiet spaces.\n\nMany other languages require more syllables so they speak faster in order to get the thought out in a reasonable time.",
"Some languages do indeed have a higher rate of syllables per second, and that will be perceived as being faster.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nInterestingly, a few people here have mentioned Chinese as being faster, when it is in fact ~15% slower than English.",
"surpised nobodies mentioned timing yet - english is a stress timed language, whilst most romance languages are a syllable timed language - this means english sounds a bit like a morse code message (dot dot DASH dot DASH etc), whilst romance syllable timed languages give each syllable the same time duration - they sound more like machine gun fire than morse code - brr brr brr brr etc. We perceive languages with different timing systems to our own to be faster.\n\nA good example by the way of what english (or to be precise american) sounds like to a non english speaker is this \n_URL_0_\n",
"In English, you are used to the ways words run into one another. \n\nTake the phrase \"there are too many\"\n\nSpoken aloud, the words actually flow into one another, with no clear ending and beginning.\n\nAlso, depending on your dialect, the word \"there\" might not end in an r sound, but \"there are\" still has an r sound in the middle.\n\nIn a foreign language you don't know all the little quirks of the language, a couple of which in English I outlined above.\n\nYou might not be able to tell when one word has ended, and the next begun. If you suddenly realise you are hearing a new word, without realising you finished the old one, it could feel like you missed something. Or you might hear extra sounds connecting words like the invisible r in \"there are\" and assume there are more words being spoken than there actually are.",
"Went to sleep with about 6 upvotes and like five answers or so. Woke up to a boom of answers. I'm at work right now, so I don't have the time to thank everyone individually that gave an answer. But, thank you to all that have answered my inquiry. I have gained valuable insight as well as more appreciation for this sub. Thank you so much. I will now apply this knowledge in my life."
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1xbksd | why is it i feel the need to buy things that i know i don't really need? | I find myself on amazon, ebay, or guitar sites constantly buying things. I'm not in debt and I have enough disposable income to justify my purchases. I sometimes think that ordering this thing or that thing will actually make me happier. I've identified my little problem and have slowed down to a reasonable pace. I just want to know why I think buying something will bring happiness. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xbksd/eli5why_is_it_i_feel_the_need_to_buy_things_that/ | {
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"The acquisition of anything coveted produces a rush of dopamine. That particular brain chemical is thought to be behind most forms of addiction since it produces a very warm and deep sort of happiness and contentment. But only very briefly. You can get into a cycle of depending on that rush and continually seeking it out."
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3v2oii | how can televised "prank shows" such as just for laughs impersonate police officers and stop motorists without being charged for impersonating an officer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v2oii/eli5_how_can_televised_prank_shows_such_as_just/ | {
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"You can get around the law pretty easily:\n\n* Tell the police what you are doing before you do it\n\n* Do not wear any emblems of any government body\n\n* Do not actually say that you are acting in any capacity as a police officer or other peace officer or otherwise an officer of the government.\n\n[Sos.](_URL_0_) Sans interperetation.\n\nOn the set, they wear a fake uniform and boss people around but don't really claim to be police officers. They just let people wrongly believe it.",
"Lots of people got some strange answers here. \n\nWhen you film in a city, you need to apply for a permit. With this application form you need to state all relevant data. Once approved and paid for, the film crew can go about their business. \n\nIf they are stopped by any authorities, the simply present the permit and all is good as rain. \n\nAuthorities in the area will usually be notified although this isn't always the case. \n\nSource: I work in the events industry. ",
"You just have to come running out yelling \"ITS A PRANK BRO!! ITS A PRANK!!!!\" As long as you yell that after, I'm pretty sure you can do whatever the hell you want. ",
"To those calling it fake, my dad was pranked and I've seen two of my teachers on TV. Maybe some of the skits are fake but the majority are real.",
"In the US you can no longer even broadcast real prank phone calls, with a couple exceptions. So if the Howard Stern Show did a prank call to an individual or a company they would have to start by saying this is being recorded and may be aired. It has been years since it was legal to just call back afterwards and ask for permission to air it. That basically makes airing real prank calls impossible. I think radio shows can get away with it if they prank call a show that is already being broadcasted and is asking for callers. Filming people in public is not illegal, so they may actually have more freedom doing TV pranks, but it is also legal to record a phone call in most US states. JFL is Canadian though.\n\nEdit: I guess my main point is that radio stations across the country still do prank calls, even though it would be illegal for them to, they are 100% fake. You shouldn't be surprised if the TV shows are fake as well.",
"just for laughs is mostly shot in montreal, and it's very very well-known there. i've seen them in actual police vehicles, meaning they probably have a great relationship. other stuff, i don't know. maybe also in canada.",
"Has any of those YouTube pranksters been sued yet? I don't see how YouTube allows some of those videos (namely the gun pranks) to stay up, as they have no disclaimer warning and seemingly no communication with law enforcement (videos of guys getting arrested/confronted by police). It comes off as a breeding ground for copycats to attempt those \"guy with a gun\" or \"lets screw around with the gangbangers\" pranks. ",
"I used to work with one of the actors from the uk version. They ask permission and if you look closely it's not a real cop uniform. It's just a generic police uniform. No badges or marking that a real one would have ",
" > It's just a prank bro\n\nSo it's k?",
"My buddies and I did this. _URL_1_\n\nAll we did was pick a small town, figure out a road out of the way, call the Local police department if it was okay, and put up a “Filming in progress” sign. No permit. Just let people know so they don’t freak out.\n\nAnd this _URL_0_\nThis one was in the city. For interior locations we asked permission. For exterior shots we kind of just filmed quickly then… ran. Guerrilla filming!\n",
"I live in Montreal and the Just for Laughs production crew will ask random people in the streets if they will be part of their sketch before they start filming. It happened to me while I was hanging out in a park, I declined the offer. So the people are aware that something is going to happen, but they don't necessarily know what. Keeps the element of surprise, but prevents random people from freaking out.",
"Everyone involved is an actor. \"Reality\" shows are plotted and scripted. They can get away with it for the same reason a Hollywood movie about police doesn't get charged with impersonating Police officers.",
"explain how televised spies like jack bower can shoot people and not get in trouble?",
"To answer your non myth buster related question, they film those scenes in cooperation with the local police department which looks like to have also provided the uniforms and the cruisers. \nThey also, most likely have an off duty police officer with the production crew in case real cops show up, nobody gets hurt, or any of their uniforms or equipment goes missing or gets damaged, and they most likely getting paid for providing all the equipment and services.",
"Canadian here...\n\nOne thing that nobody has mentioned is that Just For Laughs is shot in Quebec. They are their own entity pretty much.... their laws differ even from the rest of Canada. I don't think they'd be able to get away with the fake police stuff anywhere else.",
"I know a lawyer who worked on an MTV hidden camera show and asked him this question once. He said that they would hire off duty police officers. ",
"Telling police what you are going to do beforehand will let you get a way with a lot.\n\nOur fraternity house would have the pledges go out and cut down a massive Christmas tree every year (would be as tall as fraternity house). We always call the cops ahead of time that a pick-up truck (or however they figured out how to do it) would driving very slow speeds and be dragging a massive tree through some back streets ~ 1 am. We have been doing it for like 50 years, so they never have a problem with it.\n\nOf course, the pledges don't know, and the cops will occasionally fuck with them ( drive down into the woods flashing their lights, etc). Then they would put the tree up, add massive strands of Christmas lights, none the wiser that the cops knew the entire time.",
"Because it's all scripted. They film a lot in a small mall near where I live (in Quebec). \n\n",
"Where do they get all that mischievous tuba music from?"
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHeX3eD--4",
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wvbo9 | if mitt romney is so rich, why does he ask for donations? | I've heard he's worth hundred of millions of dollars so why can't he fund his campaign by himself? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wvbo9/if_mitt_romney_is_so_rich_why_does_he_ask_for/ | {
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"Most of his money is in investments, businesses, and property. He doesn't just have 100 million sitting in his checking account",
"Romney is not rich enough to run for President on his own.",
"Mitt Romney's current net worth is estimated to be $190–250 million.\n\nPresident Obama raised $670 million for his 2008 campaign (reference below). In order for Mitt Romney to compete with President Obama in the 2012 presidential election, he will need to raise comparable amounts for his campaign. \n\nReference\n\n_URL_0_",
"Great explanations all around, however let me offer a more simplistic reason among all the other valid liquidity ones: Why spend your own money when you can spend other people's money with little risk to yourself? It's just a general rule of thumb notion. Or the classic \"Never do for free what you could get paid for.\"",
"You don't get rich by spending all of your money",
"Bloom: How much-? How much do we put in?\n\nMax: Bloom...\n...the two cardinal rules of being a Broadway producer...\n...are one, never put your own money in the show.\n\nBloom: And two?\n\nMax: Never put your own money in the show!\n\n[Scene](_URL_0_)"
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_presidential_campaign,_2008"
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"http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-6sxl27Ytmhbbbu/the_producers_2005_empty_safe/"
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2qn7xe | how does a toaster "know" that it's plugged in? why will the bread only stay down if it has electricity? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qn7xe/eli5_how_does_a_toaster_know_that_its_plugged_in/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the part the toaster that controls how long it is on and holds the bread down has electromagnets, and those don't work without power."
]
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[]
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||
7evd4q | why are americans able to vote on the privatization of the world wide web? how will this affect the rest of the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7evd4q/eli5_why_are_americans_able_to_vote_on_the/ | {
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"The internet is not a public institution - ever since the US government stopped being a Tier 1 network in 1995, all Tier 1 networks have been privately owned, and the entirety of the internet backbone is privatized. Privatization has little to do with the net neutrality discussion at hand, and the only 'vote' happening is between two people and three morons at the FCC.\n\nAs for why the US has a dominant role on the internet, that's because all major internet governance institutions were US founded and US based (ICANN, IETF, etc), and all standards and specifications were built in the United States.",
"1. The internet is already significantly privatized, but by multiple companies. \n\n2. Traditionally those companies have run things in an equitable manner, charging flat rates for use of their networks, or entering into agreements where they can use each others networks as an even trade. For the most part, these companies aren't at issue.\n\n3. Other more consumer-oriented companies, at the next level down, hook into those networks in order to get onto the Internet. Those companies are the ones that most regular Internet users deal with -- mostly phone companies, cable companies, wireless companies. \n\n4. Those companies decided that they ought to be able to charge *other* companies, like Google or Facebook or Tommy's Home Page extra for the right to get data from the Internet backbone, into *their* network, and on to *their* customers. \n\n5. After a few attempts, which were unpopular, the US government agency in charge of communication technology laws (FCC), when Barack Obama was president, made a rule that those second-level Internet companies couldn't charge extra to those content providers -- instead, those second-level companies need to be \"common carriers\" and treat all the data they get the same, not charge selectively. (This is how, for example, the telephone companies work. They can't charge, say, Geico extra to be able to call their customers. They just have to pass the call along like any other.)\n\n6. Under Donald Trump's presidency, the head of the FCC was replaced with a new guy, who thinks the same way the second-level companies do: they should be able to charge other companies more for different Internet activity based on where it comes from.\n\n7. This guy has announced that the FCC plans to decide, next month, to undo the rule made during Barack Obama that says the second-level companies can't charge extra -- and make it so that they *can* charge extra.\n\n8. Suffice to say that the idea that the second-level companies can charge extra for other companies sending data to customers on their network would disrupt the traditionally free and open nature of the Internet, make it harder for some sites to get information out there to people, and really do nothing except put more money in the pockets of the second-level companies, who are already generally unpopular due to what is perceived to be anti-customer policies and overcharging.\n\n9. The extra charge that the second-level companies would likely charge the websites would probably end up being paid by the users, with those sites saying that they need those users to pay extra to cover the costs they're being charged by the company that they get internet from.\n\n10. The American people don't get to vote on this -- well, at least, the only vote they got was last November, when Donald Trump was elected, as well as a Republican majority in both houses of Congress (which is also in favor of letting those companies charge extra).\n\n10. It would only legally affect networks based in the U.S. But the U.S. is a significant portion of Internet usage as well as Internet content, so the impact could likely be felt well beyond the U.S.",
"The internet is already private. You need to pay a private company to connect to it usually. But luckily there's a law (in the US and in all the other countries) that imposes internet providers to treat all the content equally. In the US an ex Verizon lawyer and few other bribed guys are trying to change this law. If they succed this will directly affect US users only (but businesses all over the world can be damaged too). Also every other country will be indirectly affected, and every national telecom company will try hard to get what Comcast, Verizon, ecc. just got in America. There's too much money on the table for them to not try...",
"Expanding on the question, how is it that the FCC can single handedly repeal net neutrality?\n\nAs a federal body surely they are subjected to some manner of oversight?\n\nI'm not very well versed in the american judicial system but surely this is something that can be fought in court? Especially in view of the overwhelming opposition to it.",
"Americans are not voting on privatization. There is a push for us to contact our elected officials to urge them to maintain net neutrality on our behalf, but this is not a referendum. "
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8xgnnm | how much lower can a person comsume from 1200 calories a day and still be healthy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8xgnnm/eli5_how_much_lower_can_a_person_comsume_from/ | {
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"1200 is like bare minimum for short, sedentary women - it is not recommended to go below that. So you can’t. You can consume less and still survive but you will not be healthy, you will eventually run into health issues. ",
"If you have adequate fat stores, water and take a multivitamin, zero kcal. People talking about starving are wrong; if you have fat on you, it will be used instead. You're starving when this is almost all gone.\n\nA lack of food is called hunger."
]
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2glqs9 | why are you only given 21 days to pay a speeding/parking ticket, while 30 days is considered standard with most other bills? | I get that a ticket isn't technically a bill, but with 30 days being the norm for things like this, 21 days has always seemed rather arbitrary. Is there a legitimate reason that ticket payment should have a shorter window, or is this just a clever way to get people to miss payments and incur penalties? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2glqs9/eli5_why_are_you_only_given_21_days_to_pay_a/ | {
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"A bill and a ticket are completely different things. A bill is a recurring service that is charged to you at regular intervals, and monthly is typical because it is that nice spot between not requiring a ton of labor sending out the bill while also not extending the customer too much credit.\n\nA ticket is a guilty plea to a petty misdemeanor. By paying the ticket, you are admitting you committed the crime. This is not the state saying \"you used the roads, so pay us our normal rate.\" This is the state accusing you of breaking the law. They give you 21 days because they likely have to according to statute. If they could force you to pay sooner, they would."
]
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a4c488 | why does pregnancy and birth defects get riskier as women get older? do their eggs expire, what about the sperm? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a4c488/eli5_why_does_pregnancy_and_birth_defects_get/ | {
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"Eggs exist in a woman before she is even born. So the genetic material making up the egg gets older and more frail as time goes on, leading to higher risk of genetic malfunction, like downs syndrome. A dude produces sperm every 72 hours or so. It's fresh genetic material. But as he gets older he produces less so his chances of impregnating are lower. The risk of poor genetic material doesn't super increase though, like it does in an egg",
"Most issues with birth defects and pregnancy have more to do with the health of woman which degrades as we get older.",
"Being younger than twenty can also pose increased risks for certain birth defects. Some of the reasons that both younger and older maternal ages could cause increased birth defects are that they are both less likely to be having planned children and be taking appropriate prenatal care, or they have sex less frequently and the sperm that ends up fertilizing the egg has been in the uterus for longer, as they can live up to five days in the uterus. "
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1yrx42 | why did george lucas release the films as 4-6, 1-3 instead of 1-6? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yrx42/why_did_george_lucas_release_the_films_as_46_13/ | {
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"text": [
"Lucas is actually following the classic literary rule of epic tales. There are 10 main components to follow and the first point is to start the tale in, \"medias res\". This means to start at the midpoint rather than the beginning. "
]
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[]
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||
8aye0d | if i drink alot of tea through out the day instead of water is it the same thing?why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8aye0d/eli5_if_i_drink_alot_of_tea_through_out_the_day/ | {
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"text": [
"Tea is 99% water.\n\nTea however contains caffeine, which is a diuretic, which means it makes you pee more. It won't dehydrate you, but you will need to drink more to compensate. Also, consuming too much caffeine has adverse effects such as irritability, elevated heartbeat and trouble sleeping."
]
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[]
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||
2jipt3 | are there any countries without debt? is it possible to not have a deficit in a global economy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jipt3/eli5_are_there_any_countries_without_debt_is_it/ | {
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"text": [
"The USA had a budget surplus in the Clinton Administration. Note there is a difference between deficit and debt"
]
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||
32nxsz | why isn't fidel castro making any public statements and is staying quiet during obama's historic meeting with raul? | Fidel is still alive and the more influential brother. Why wouldn't he make any public statements about Cuba's new relationship with America? I read about Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution in history class and he has political clout and charisma so what are his views on Obama meeting Raul and taking Cuba off the terror list? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32nxsz/eli5_why_isnt_fidel_castro_making_any_public/ | {
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"Yes I know that guessing is actually prohibited but I can't do anything else and I'm just trying to give an answer.\n\nSo my thought is that he is just too ill to do it. He has been ill before and by now he is almost 90 years old. Some people stay fit others don't and it is quite possible that he simply isn't in a position anymore to either be capable of or feel a want of talking to the public.",
"He did make an official statement that he still distrust the US. Beyond that there has not been much. \n\nHe is old and retired now. Also his brother is the leader. It is one thing for an ex president to criticize a sitting president from another party. It is a whole other thing to criticize your brother. ",
"It's generally considered bad politics for a retired leader to comment on the actions of the current leader. Even in business, former CEOs are very reluctant to comment the current CEO. \n\nI'm sure since he and Raul are brothers, they probably have privately discussed it. Don't expect to see too many public comments from Fidel. "
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b2jp78 | how do we measure earth’s atmosphere? how do we measure venus’ atmosphere? (like how do we know ours is 78% nitrogen etc., how do we know venus is 96.5% co2?) | I’ve heard spectroscopy, but I’m not sure what exactly that is and if that encompasses the whole process. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2jp78/eli5_how_do_we_measure_earths_atmosphere_how_do/ | {
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"Like you said, spectroscopy is a big part of it. Basically, the electrons in atoms are arranged in slightly different ways depending on the element. If you heat up an atom, its electrons shift their arrangement by a certain amount (because they gain energy), then shift back to their initial arrangement. When they shift back, they emit light based on how far they had to shift in order to get back to their initial arrangement. Because we know which arrangements are possible for each element, and what each element's initial arrangement is, we can work out exactly what kind of light should be produced. So if we heat up an unknown substance and look at the light it emits, we can figure out what element it is. This is spectroscopy (simplified of course).\n\nThere are various things that happen on Venus that heat up its atmosphere, causing it to release light. We look at this light using telescopes and see how much of each kind of light is emitted by the atmosphere. \"If it is mostly X kind of light, then the atmosphere is probably mostly made up of Y element\" and so on.\n\nThere is also fractional distillation, which works on earth, but I'm not sure if it is used on other planets since it would require quite a lot of equipment to be transported to the planet. Basically if you cool down air to the point that it is liquid (well below -200°c) and let it slowly warm up, different elements will turn back into gas at different temperatures. So you have a known volume of liquid and half of it evaporates at -150°c, then you know that 50% of your air is made up of whatever gas evaporates at that temperature."
]
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1d6ni7 | why women wear shirts that let you see the top of their boobs but get annoyed if you look | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d6ni7/eli5_why_women_wear_shirts_that_let_you_see_the/ | {
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"text": [
"The same reason you use your fancy phone in public but get upset when homeless people stare at your phone for too long. ",
"Women don't exclusively dress for men; they'll dress to say to other women 'Look what I have here, I'm skinner/have bigger boobs/have bigger lips/have a better but/ have better abs than you do. ENVY ME\"",
"I don't think looking is what annoys them. Staring does.",
"I think they mostly care when you stare for too long. They usually don't want people to be interested in them just for their boobs, but they do want to feel attractive.",
"If you are rich,handsome and rich look all you want but if you are poor and plain looking then you are a loser and a pervert."
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5km2xr | how can different sd cards with same physical dimensions offer several different read/write speeds? are they somehow wired differently or efficiently? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5km2xr/eli5_how_can_different_sd_cards_with_same/ | {
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"I believe that SD card data transfer speeds are mostly limited by the memory controller speeds, and as that technology develops and becomes faster, so too will the SD cards.\n\nI couldn't find anything about an actual interface max speed anywhere, so I imagine we haven't been able to saturate it yet.",
"They do have a different wiring(schematics) and newer chips. Imagine a 1Gb sd card as a single chip. You have to write each byte after previous byte. You can't write two bytes at the same quantum of time.\n\nNow, the easiest way to increase speed is to have two 500Mb chips combined through a controller that allows writing/reading from two chips at the same time. Having that setup you double your speed as now you can process two bytes at the same time. \n\nYou can get a four chips setup and get even more speed. Real life is a bit more complicated but that's the idea"
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3hpq7t | why hasn't something like the sas been sent to north korea to solve the problem? | Seriously, it doesn't seem like it would be hard to take out the entire North Korean government if necessary.
On top of that, nobody would miss North Korea. As far as I'm aware, they're literally a pain in the ass for the whole world.
Who would defend them? Who would be up in arms? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hpq7t/eli5_why_hasnt_something_like_the_sas_been_sent/ | {
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"A few things:\n\n1) China is protective of North Korea (China stepped in and fought the US during the Korean war). China is a military superpower with nukes.\n\n2) While it may be possible to kill Kim Jung Un you cannot kill the whole leadership in one, swift go. The next bad guy would just step in to the vacuum left by Kim Jung Un.\n\n3) North Korea has nukes and such a strike may prompt them to lash out. They can't quite attack the US but can certainly attack important US allies such as South Korea and Japan.\n\n4) Even if they do not throw nukes around North Korea has a massive amount of artillery all within striking range of South Korea's capital Seoul. This artillery is enough to be nearly equivalent to a nuke with a few minutes firing on Seoul. Seoul is a city of about 10 million people. It would be disastrous.\n\nBasically NK defends itself with their version of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). While they can't threaten the world they can threaten enough to be left alone.",
"Seoul would be destroyed within the same night. S.Korea's economy is of greater importance than all of the North's citizens well being. ",
"Have you never heard of the Korean War?",
"Well, aside from the fact that invading a country because you don't like them is illegal, there's the small matter that it would start a major war. Back in the 50s, with China fighting with them the Korean War was a bloodbath. Today, I suspect even China has gotten a little sick of Kim's shit, and might look the other way in the name of capitalism, but the notion that we could send in a squad of guys--or even an entire army--and take the place overnight is bogus.\n\nPeople who buy a little too much into that \"liberty and democracy\" schtick always seem to think that if our Awesome Freedom Troops march into an oppressed country, the entire population except for a tiny handful of government goons will \"greet us as liberators.\"\n\nNow where have I heard THAT phrase recently? Oh. Right. Iraq. The LAST place we were \"greeted as liberators.\" Remind me again how THAT worked out...?\n\nBut there's really more reason than that that nobody is liberating NK: no government actually *gives a flaming rat's ass* about NK, except maybe South Korea, and they're too busy making money to start a war that would probably get tens or hundreds of thousands killed. NK doesn't have any oil or significant resources, so why should we care?\n\nOh, because their vile, oppressive government has enslaved the people and the oppressed masses cry out for freedom? Well, if you're waiting for the Awesome Freedom Peace Democracy Troops from the US to redress that, don't hold yer breath. The US is quite happy to not only ignore, but even create and support murderous dictatorships when it suits them. And that's pretty much the same for any other world power.\n"
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bywypc | how film photography and film development works? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bywypc/eli5_how_film_photography_and_film_development/ | {
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"text": [
"Photographic film consists of microscopic crystals of silver halide salts. Usually a mixture of silver chloride and silver bromide. These are coated into a plastic backing that forms the \"film\".\n\nExposed to light in a camera, individual points on the crystals are \"sensitized\" by a photon of light damaging the crystal. In the darkroom, the film is put into a bath of a chemical reducing agent that turns the silver halide salts to metallic silver. The sensitized crystals are reduced more quickly than others so the development is carried out under controlled conditions of time and temperature so the most sensitized crystals type almost black while the unsubsidized ones are hardly affected. In that way you get a negative image with a full range of tones. The remaining, undeveloped, silver halide is dissolved away with a \"fixing\" chemical so further changes can't happen.\n\nThe same process is repeated when the film negative is enlarged onto photographic paper to give a positive print.\n\nColour photography processes are a bit more complicated. The basic film and paper consist of different layers sensitive to different colours of light. When they are processed, dyes are linked to the developed silver grains and the latter are then dissolved away leaving the image consisting of just the dyes matching the colours of the scane."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
c43xac | how do people pass away from natural causes at such an early age? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c43xac/eli5_how_do_people_pass_away_from_natural_causes/ | {
"a_id": [
"erurqg9",
"erusr7z"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Could you clarify what you mean by natural causes?",
"If somebody dies of \"natural causes\" at a young age, it generally means that they were born with some sort of defect, like a bad heart, and their body just gave out on them. It's called \"natural causes\" because it wasn't a disease, drugs or an accident involved."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2rym6i | what causes you to be dreaming silently and then all of a sudden speak a few words out loud? | My boyfriend will sometimes utter random phrases or words when sleeping, but other than that he's quiet. Why do these words get said out loud and the rest of his dream is silent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rym6i/eli5_what_causes_you_to_be_dreaming_silently_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnkkply"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"I'm no expert, maybe not even a layman, but here it goes (I might be wrong).\n\nWhen dreaming, the brain shuts down most voluntary movement. Otherwise people would physically act out their dreams. Speaking in your sleep is a temporary lapse of that mechanism. This is taken to a further extreme for people who sleepwalk. \n\nConversely, sleep paralysis is when the brain has shutdown movement but the mind is still awake/conscious. You're lying in bed, unable to move. You are aware of your surroundings, you may even be able to open your eyes. Sometimes terrifying hallucinations can occur in this state. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
ctiq70 | how do they acquire the graphics for google street view, and how are they able to take those images and adjust them with the distance per street? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctiq70/eli5_how_do_they_acquire_the_graphics_for_google/ | {
"a_id": [
"exl0h1p"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Google has a fleet of cars with a 360 camera setup on top and GPS. All they do all year long is drive around taking photos.\n\nBack when street view was coming out they were much more active. It wouldn't be unexpected to see one once or twice."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
65l1mo | how the web of a nephila clavipes spider can be stronger than steel | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65l1mo/eli5_how_the_web_of_a_nephila_clavipes_spider_can/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgb3dww"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Yes, a strand of steel the width of less than a hair will be enormously weaker than a spider web.\n\nWhen you get metals that thin, almost any of them can be broken with your fingers. And, of course, the spider web can be broken similarly, but it gives a surprising amount of resistance."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5rnon1 | how do doctors actually know someone has a chemical imbalance like depression? | Just curious, according to the mayo clinic, doctors will give a physical and psychological evaluation but do not, or rarely, perform a physical test to get actual definitive proof that one's brain is chemically imbalanced.
If they don't actually physical prove individual's chemical imbalance, is it reasonable to assume most cases are misdiagnosed or not substantiated by scientific evidence, only the eye test.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rnon1/eli5how_do_doctors_actually_know_someone_has_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd8nkgd"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They don't. There really isn't a good way to actually drill a hole in someone's head and check out their serotonin levels. Instead, they look at the symptoms, compare it to other cases, and then make a prescription. If the medicine works, great! If it doesn't, they discontinue that script and try something else.\n\nIt is not reasonable to assume that \"most\" cases are misdiagnosed. The \"scientific evidence\" they have is in matching the patient's symptoms against other cases. This is how most medicine works. If you walk into a clinic and say, \"Doctor, my knee hurts,\" he won't just cut your knee open to see if the bone is broken unless he has some reason to do so. Psychology and psychiatry are admittedly ambiguous and highly dependent on the patient's self-reported symptoms. That does not mean it is quackery.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
bg6osv | how can carbon exist both as a coal and diamond? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bg6osv/eli5_how_can_carbon_exist_both_as_a_coal_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"elirf7s",
"elj4juj"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The electrons in carbon atoms can rearrange so it can join with other carbon atoms in different ways, it's called hybridization. It can have four equivalent bonds arranged so they point towards the corners of a 3D tetrahedron giving the hard structure of diamond. Alternatively it can have three equivalent bonds pointing towards the corners of a 2D triangle, forming sheets of atoms, with a fourth, weaker, bond joining the sheets together in stacks and forming graphite.",
"Good question! They’re made out of the same stuff, but look and act differently because of how they’re arranged. Think of sand: it can be rearranged to make glass."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
23v12o | why magnets don't affect the sound of an electric guitar when near the pickups | I think i have a pretty good understanding of how pickups work, but i don't understand why the sound is not changed by magnets. I've made a single coil pick up before and when i would wave a magnet over it, it would make weird sounds. I'm wondering why this doesn't happen with real pickups. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23v12o/eli5_why_magnets_dont_affect_the_sound_of_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch10yxs"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"As I'm sure you know, pickups work because your guitar strings induce an electric current in them, kinda like a super weak generator. The key here though is that the strings are in motion: They're rapidly vibrating back and forth right above the pickups, and it's that motion that causes the magnetic field to oscillate and induce a current. \n\nWhen you wave a magnet over the pickups it's relatively slow - not the rapid several-passes-per-second that your guitar strings do. Because of this there's not that much current being produced. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3hxpjv | what are the likely effects of heavy drinking on a person's overall mental and physical health over the course of a few years? and what makes someone an "alcoholic" versus a "heavy drinker"? | Say, for example, someone was drinking a little more than a gallon of cheap-o vodka every week (goes through about 4.75 liters a week) for a year or more... What kind of effects will that likely have on said person? If that person suddenly stopped drinking cold-turkey for three weeks for financial reasons and did not have any withdrawal issues, does that mean he or she is probably okay physically?
And would that amount make someone an alcoholic automatically, or are there other factors that make someone an alcoholic versus a heavy drinker?
I am concerned about a loved one's drinking habits and am not sure I need to be because aside from being a little groggy in the morning and a little cranky until the day gets going, the amount of alcohol doesn't seem to be doing much negative impact to him. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hxpjv/eli5_what_are_the_likely_effects_of_heavy/ | {
"a_id": [
"cubjl7q",
"cubjopj",
"cubm2xj",
"cubmqk0",
"cuboob6"
],
"score": [
14,
15,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I can explain this from experience.\n\nI used to be able to drink two pints, get a nice buzz then need to lie down.... aka lightweight....\n\nForward to 1999... bird leaves me, i'm paralysed with hurt, start hanging out with my dad who was an alcaholic. (It's worth pointing out at this point that I thought he was a dick for needing a drink every day and I believed alcohol was not addictive)\n\nNumbed the loss daily by getting pissed.... started stealing a few £ here and there from my mother to buy twice weekly bottle of scotch.\n\nTwo things I encountered murdering a bottle.... the blackout (you're still active, but essentially blacked out...) and drinking alone, purely for the effect.\n\nMet new bird on internets, went to the U.S. (Baltimore).\n\nThat didn't work, so I headed east.... Russia... Kazakhstan to be honest.... At this point I was almost certainly alcohol dependent... I didn't realise this... I just liked a drink and in Russian culture, if you don't drink you're obviously gay..... I'm probably alcoholic by now, but apart from some huge fuck ups and hangovers... no real issues.\n\nFour years on, i'm back in the U.K.... drinking 16 units minimum daily, mixing it with coke. This goes on for a couple of years, my intake reaches the point where I start drinking as soon as the pub opens until I fall asleep at night.\n\nI caught a cold so stopped drinking, I shook so bad I looked like I had Parkinsons, I had the delerium tremens but didn't know... I lay in bed shaking for three days thinking it was flu..... I begged a mate to fetch me some super strongl lager and it stopped.... For two months I would start the shakes by noon.... I couldnt goto the local store because I was caught trying to steal a wine box, so i'd either get a mate (who were becomming thin on the ground) to buy me some or id walk two miles...... 9 units would stop the shakes.... another 30 would get me to sleep.\n\nEventually the doc put me on librium... it allowed me to get my shit together.....\n\nIts taken me 4 years and 5 hospital stays to break away... I still fail and have a few days boozing, but I cant drink to the level , even for 8ne n7ght... 4 days moderate drinking will hqve me in W.D.\n\nIt sucks, dont ever go there...",
"First off you need to tell whatever person that quitting \"cold turkey\" could kill them...to go from almost a 5th(750ml) a day to nothing could lead to brain imbalances which would kill you. He needs to taper off or, preferably, see a specialist who will give him drugs while he sobers up.\n\nSecondly, regarding the effects of someone who drinks that much- just google \"encephalopathy\". What now is just \"waking up cranky\" will eventually turn into essentially a mentally handicapped person. Encephalopathy is irreversible, btw.\n\n\nBest thing you can do in the meantime is get the alky to take B1(thiamine) vitamins every day, that will help a lot as alcohol(ethanol) disrupts the thiamine distribution in the brain.\n\nBottom line: Almost any college age kid alky handle that amount of booze, but once you enter the \"dirty 30's\" and beyond- don't plan on living much past 50-60yo if you keep imbibing at that pace.",
"You don't want symptoms of dementia to crop up in your early 40s. High alcohol intake will do that to you. I know because I'm a nurse and I see it all the time. What's almost as bad is cirrhosis which gives people massive pregnant bellies filled with fluid (irreversible). The bellies can get so distended they need harnesses to help them walk.",
"\"Alcoholic\" is a term so vague as to be more or less meaningless. Some people equate it with addiction to alcohol. For others, eg some AA members, it's something bordering on the mystical that encompasses a whole range of spiritual weaknesses as well.\n\nAlcohol is a drug to which someone can become addicted both habitually and chemically. Once you reach chemical addiction then you are regarded as alcohol dependent; you get genuinely and possibly dangerously unwell if you don't get it regularly enough. \n\nIt seems very likely that alcohol can affect different people in different ways. This is not unusual - lots of drugs, both medicinal and recreational, affect different people differently. So some people may be more susceptible to becoming addicted than others. But environment also seems to play a part as does societal views of alcohol consumption. ",
"4.75l vodka every week is far beyond heavy drinker imo. When I hear that I'm thinking someone who drinks about half that (if so much).\n\nAlso, the difference isnt that meaningful here. He is doing serious damage to his body, constantly. So even if you cant see it, it's stil very harmful"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
256swi | how can some splashes of paint be considered as extraordinary, and be sold for such high prices? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/256swi/eli5_how_can_some_splashes_of_paint_be_considered/ | {
"a_id": [
"chebf1u"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"If you mean jackson pollock, who I can't stand on a personal level, it's because it was a type of art that came about in the 1950s which was a very rigid and traditional time. His splotches had no borders and he was at the whim of gravity. \n\nThis put American art on the map after 1945. When the Germans were painting Lillies and the Russians were painting farmers, Americans started producing this whacky unconventional art. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1k321u | how can i get fruit flies on an old banana i have laying out, if there haven't been fruit flies for weeks, and they only have a lifespan of a day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k321u/eli5_how_can_i_get_fruit_flies_on_an_old_banana_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbkv0pl"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I read an article a few years ago that answered that: Most fruit that we buy in the grocery store already has fruit fly eggs on it. After a day or so, they hatch- in our kitchen. You can prevent this by always washing fruit-even bananas- when you bring it home."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
9hf3ad | why aren't more books written on thin paper, such as that used in bibles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9hf3ad/eli5_why_arent_more_books_written_on_thin_paper/ | {
"a_id": [
"e6bch5s",
"e6bchuq",
"e6bdacr"
],
"score": [
8,
11,
5
],
"text": [
"It is extremely expensive. To use the artificial vellum that bibles use would double to quadruple the cost of making your standard book, and if they use actual vellum which is made from animal hide you are looking at 10-20 times the expense if not more. There is simply very little need for the book to be that small and so the costs are not justifiable to manufacturers, though you can sometimes find specialty editions of things that use it. ",
"Mainly cost. Making lightweight offset paper involves an expensive chemical process to extract lignin and replace it with a different pigment to keep the resulting paper opaque. \n\nBesides that, people that buy physical books typically do so at least partly for \"the feel of the book\" which isn't the same with thinner pages. ",
"Cost. The paper is made from 25% cotton and linen rags or flax for the strength.\n\nBeaus it is thin and more flexible then other paper it is hard to handle and easy to damages so production is more expensive.\n\nSo to use it you need a product where weight or the thickness of the book is important so it is common in bibles as they have many pages. They are also more commonly read and used for a long time and you might what to take them with you so the extra cost is not a problem.\n\nMost books is either cheap paperback where you like to minimize production cost and is in most cased read once or more expensive hardcover where you what it to be thick and heavy so it feel expensive and look good on a books shelf."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1cod9v | how come we use the word "they" when talking about a single person? | For instance when we are saying to someone "What are they doing?" rather than saying "What is he doing?", why do we use the they as it is a singular person? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cod9v/eli5_how_come_we_use_the_word_they_when_talking/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9ifz4u"
],
"score": [
16
],
"text": [
"English does not have a way to refer to one person who is either male or female. For example, if you want to describe how a person would buy a stick of gum, you can't say, \"It would pay for the gum\" because the word \"it\" isn't used when talking about people. But you can't use \"he\" or \"she\" because the person might be either gender. So English users have resorted to using \"they\" in situations like this, even though \"they\" is intended to mean more than one person."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
29424i | how do we know that what one person see's as red , isn't what another see's as blue and just called red? | For example I look at a blue sky with white clouds. What if what you saw was a red sky with blue clouds, and you've just associated those colors with the names of those colors your whole life? What if Homer Simpson was actually green to you but yellow to me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29424i/eli5how_do_we_know_that_what_one_person_sees_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"cih7vmo",
"cih7y69"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"This question gets asked a lot. Please use the search function. [Here](_URL_0_) is a similar question, found the result after searching \"color\".\n\nIn the side bar you will see:\n\n > Search before submitting with keywords from your topic. The search box is in the upper right corner of the subreddit.",
"This video does a good job of explaining it:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nTL;DR we don't know for sure"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20iw7d/eli5is_it_possible_for_people_to_see_the_same/"
],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08"
]
] |
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