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53ae2s | i'm just a regular guy, not famous and nothing to hide. what could happen to someone like me not covering their webcam? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53ae2s/eli5im_just_a_regular_guy_not_famous_and_nothing/ | {
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"The absolute worst that could happen is that someone might be able to watch you go about your day. Of course, there are RATs (remote access trojan) that allow people to gain control of your entire computer, but covering your webcam won't deter that at all.\n\n",
"You should consider that the effort needed to cover your webcam is nearly zero, and that the potential risks are hard to quantify.\n\nFor example; If you do not live alone, the rest of your household can be spied on as well. Perhaps your wife changes clothes in your bedroom? Perhaps your nine year old watches youtube on your machine? \n\nThe world won't end if someone sees you scratching your balls over the webcam, or sneaks a peek at your wife naked, but why would you want to bother with the risk when its so easy to prevent? You have blinds on your windows right? \n\nJust get some tape, or better yet, get a webcam with a plastic cover.\n",
"As a security consultant, I've dealt with people who asked this question. The answer is blackmail. You have a life, and a determined individual could make it hell if it discovered personal information to use against you.",
"A good real world example happened a few years ago. A closeted gay guy was secretly filmed via webcam having gay sex by his roomate, who then disseminated the tape. The gay guy killed himself. I'm not sure if the roomate used a laptop or whatever, but the concept applies. There are certain things you don't want being filmed (sex, an argument, nudity), and an uncovered laptop can be used to film it. ",
"Unless your taking pictures of all your PII then more than likely nothing will happen. You may get caught fapping or something stupid but usually it's script kiddies going after vulnerable machines. ",
"Further to this question, what about cameras on phones? Is there no similar concern with those? "
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qijbt | that wierd camera effect often usen in music videos, where it looks slo-mo but the words still synch up. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qijbt/eli5_that_wierd_camera_effect_often_usen_in_music/ | {
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"The artists play the song at (for example) double the speed. During playback the speed is halved so it matches up with the song at normal speed, but all the movements (jumping up and down, for example) are halved as well.",
"[Here is a good example of Usher doing it to his music video of Moving Mountains.](_URL_0_)\n\n[And here is the finished product.](_URL_1_)",
"_URL_0_\n\njump to 2:40 to see it in action. i always wondered this too till i came across this one day. "
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478c9d | if hydrogen and oxygen are both gases, then how come when combined they form a liquid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/478c9d/eli5_if_hydrogen_and_oxygen_are_both_gases_then/ | {
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"Hydrogen and Oxygen arent both gasses, they are both elements.\n\nLiquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen both exist. When Oxygen and Hydrogen combine their boiling point is raised to above room temp making it a liquid at room temp instead of a gas.",
"kinda hard to explain in 5 year old speak.. but, here goes:\n\nwhen two hydrogen bind to an oxygen, you have sort of an elbow shaped molecule, with the oxygen at the angle of the elbow. The oxygen has electrons on it's outside, so that elbow joint has a negative charge.\n\nthe hydrogens have each lent their single electrons to the oxygen when the bonds were formed, so they have a positive charge. \n\nThis allows the water molecules to sort of stick together and allows water to be one of the densest non metallic substances there is. ",
"Chemical compounds aren't just mixtures of their component elements. The elements are bound together in ways that change their properties. In fact, the properties of compounds are often the *opposite* of those of their component elements: fluorine, for example, is very reactive but fluorine compounds like Teflon are very stable.\n\nThink of it like a super clingy person. Left alone, they'll quickly attach themselves to anyone who comes along. But once they find a friend, they'll stick to that person like glue and will totally ignore everyone else.",
"Water is unlike some other substances because there is an attraction between the molecules called the [Van der Waals force](_URL_1_) named after Dutch scientist called [Johannes Diderik van der Waals](_URL_3_).\n\n As /u/mlp-r34-clopper explains [here](_URL_2_) the water molecules are lop-sided with the Hydrogen (H) atoms over to one side and the Oxygen (O) atom other to the other side. Imagine a silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head where the two H are the ears and O is the face.\n\nThe lopsidedness doesn't stop with the arrangement of the atoms but because Oxygen has stolen electrons from the Hydrogen the whole molecule has more *positive* charge at the H*_2_* side and more *negative* charge at the O side. This is what /u/Rawrbear89 means [here](_URL_4_) when he says the molecules are *polar*.\n\nThe water molecules are now like those [Neodymium magnet toys](_URL_0_) that [cluster together](_URL_0_#/media/File:NeoCube_objects.jpg), unlike a bag of ordinary ball bearings that would scatter everywhere when dropped. The technical difference is that water molecules cluster together under an *electric* force and magnets, of course, cluster by a *magnetic* force.\n\nTL;DR The shape of water molecules make them like mini magnets so they stick together as a liquid instead of floating away from each other as a gas would.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nEdit: correction made to first paragraph at /u/Loke98 's direction. \nEdit: This [article is helpful and at ELI5 level.](_URL_6_)",
"It's like when Goten & Trunks can only reach Super Saiyan but when they fuse together into Gotenks they can get to Super Saiyan 3",
"Gasses act like acquaintances. You recognize the other person, wave, maybe say hello, but that's it. Not much of a bond between you two.\n\nLiquids are like your school friends. You spend more time together in closer proximities, so your bond is stronger than the one you share with an acquaintance.\n\nSolids are like your best friends. Pretty much inseparable. The bond is so strong that there isn't much that can get between you two.\n\nNow, a water molecule has a weird shape that makes it \"polar\", so that one half the molecule has a slight positive charge and the other half a slight negative. These slight charges enable other water molecules to interact more closely and more frequently. Much like a school friend vs. an acquaintance.",
"States of matter depend on how much the molecules move inside of it. In the case of a gas, the molecules are flying around in every direction. In a solid, the molecules are relatively motionless and ordered. Liquids are sort of an in-between of the two.\n\nThere are many factors that determine how much molecules that comprise a piece of matter move around. Simply put, it's a battle between how much the molecules are attracted to one another and how much they want to move around. When it comes to attractive forces, they're pretty much all electric in nature. Positive charge attracts negative charge, whereas like charges repel each other.\n\nWhen it comes to molecular hydrogen and oxygen, there isn't much attractive force between the molecules, because they're more or less electrically symmetric. As such, they're gases except at very low temperatures or high pressures.\n\nWater, on the other hand, is not electrically symmetric. Oxygen is a very greedy element when it comes to wanting electrons. As such, when it bonds with Hydrogen, it doesn't share the electrons in the bond with Hydrogen equally. Instead Oxygen sort of hogs them on its side. Since Hydrogen is just a positively-charged proton with a negatively-charged electron, having that electron hanging out with Oxygen so much leaves Hydrogen as just a bare proton. Another thing about Oxygen is that it has two pairs of naked electrons on it (I told you it was greedy). So when the hydrogen in water sees another water molecule, it goes straight for the electrons that Oxygen is hogging and actually forms a weak bond in a process known as hydrogen bonding.\n\nAs a result, water ends up being a network of hydrogen bonded molecules. On top of that, water molecules are very polar, which is to say one side of them is very positive (where the two hydrogens are) and the other very negative (where oxygen and all its electrons are). As a result, the positive sides of water molecules are drawn to the negative sides of other water molecules.\n\nAll of this causes water to be too organized to be a gas at room temperature, and as a result it's a liquid.",
"The water molecule looks like a wide \"V.\" At the center is the oxygen atom, at the tips the hydrogens. The bonds are made of electrons (2 electrons each), 1 electron is donated from each hydrogen, and 1 from oxygen. Oxygen has 4 additional electrons, which are around the corner of the V (that's what causes the \"V\" shape. These push away the hydrogen atoms). Oxygen REALLY like electrons, so the O-H binds aren't even at each end, as oxygen pulls the electrons of the bond towards itself. This causes a charge imbalance: The hydrogens are positive, and the oxygen is negative. These charges make water molecules \"stick\" to each other in ways the component gasses do not"
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Diderik_van_der_Waals",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/478c9d/eli5_if_hydrogen_and_oxygen_are_both_gases_then/d0ayj03",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet_toys#/media/File:NeoCube_objects.jpg",
"http://www.wiredchemist.com/chemistry/instructional/an-introduction-to-chemistry/matter-in-bulk/solids--liquids-and-gases"
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8v2isr | why are matrices useful? what do we want them for? | In high school I learned that they were a bunch of numbers between two parenthesis but I found them useless, arbitrary, like someone woke up one day and felt like putting numbers in boxes. Can someone tell me what are their applications? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8v2isr/eli5_why_are_matrices_useful_what_do_we_want_them/ | {
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"We use certain types of matrices (known as vectors) in physics all the time. For example, a matrix containing the x, y, and z coordinates of an object, or the x, y, and z velocities/accelerations of an object. \n\nThey're also used in quantum mechanics; you use operator matrices and eigenvectors to calculate probabilities of certain things happening, for example, that a particle will be spin-up or spin-down when measured.\n\nThere are also applications in solving systems of differential equations (or regular equations for that matter.)",
"Computers are heavily reliant on matrix like constructs called arrays and lists. Your computer screen is basically a matrix of pixels with color values and your graphics processor does translations and transformations on that matrix of values to change the picture. DNS or what we call 'the internet' is a giant list of IP addresses and where they go so you can access networks and servers all over the world, like Reddit.\n\nIt's also useful for scientific research, math and statistics. Want to model a realistic statistics problem? You're probably going to use a computer to store a matrix of values and process data using the specified model.",
"Apart from what the others said, matrices are a very important part of computer games, so if you want to get into game programming, you'll need good knowledge of matrices. You need to know operations on matrices if you want to for example move a camera and view the 3d model from a different angle ",
"Matrices are just a way of organizing linear systems of equations. A linear system of equation looks like this:\n\n2*x + 4*y + 10*z = 9\n\n3*x + 2*y + 3*z = 3\n\n2*x + 8*y + 7*7 = 4\n\nSystems like this come up a lot in math, physics, economics, computer science, and any other stem field, so it's useful to make solving them easy. You're probably used to solving two 2 equations with 2 unknowns, or 3 equations with 3 unknowns in class, but no more than that. With systems this small, it's super easy to re-arrange stuff and solve for the unknowns. However, it get's way more complicated to keep track of everything when you have 10 equations with 10 unknowns, or 100 equations with 100 unknowns.\n\nMatrices is just a simpler way of writing the large systems of equations. Plus, there are matrix solving algorithms out there. These algorithms give you a step-by-step set of instructions for solving matrices, regardless of whether it's 2x2, or 1000x1000. You can solve a huge equation system just by following some easy steps if you write it in matrix form (or even better, writing a computer code that executes those steps for you). ",
"Matrices are **really** useful for computational work, particularly in engineering. Basically everything solved on a computer in the fields of stress analysis and fluid dynamics is solved via matrix mathematics.\n\nWhat happens with most of these fields is that you end up with really really complicated equations that are hard (if not impossible, at times) to solve directly. So instead, we break the problem down into very very small chunks, both in terms of the physical pieces we're solving for being really really little, and in terms of pretty short amount of time we're solving for. When you do this, assuming the chunks are small enough, you can somewhat safely assume that each of those individual pieces simplifies itself to a linear (i.e. non-calculus) equation, which is really easy to solve. But now you have another problem; you have millions of separate equations, representing millions of separate pieces, that all need to be solved together (and at the same time), because the answer for each individual piece is dependent on the answers for all of the surrounding pieces.\n\nMatrices allows us to write them all together such that we can solve them simultaneously.",
"Among other things, they let you solve systems of linear equations. Basic algebra teaches you to solve problems with one equation and one unknown:\n\n 3x + 7 = 19\n\nYou probably also covered two equations and two unknowns:\n\n 3x + 7y = 19\n 7x - 4y = 17\n\nIn general, you have the same number of equations and unknowns, there will be a unique solution. Matrices allow you to generalize this, and apply the same techniques to find a solution. In matrix form, the above problem would be:\n\n | 3 7 | 19|\n | 7 4 | 17|\n\nThere are various techniques that can be used to solve this, and it is particularly useful to express this way when you need to solve them with a computer.\n",
"A couple examples not mentioned:\n\n1. Circuit analysis. You can use certain rules when looking at a circuit diagram to build a system of equations, which can then be turned into a matrix equation. Solving it gives you information about what the current is at any point in the circuit as well as voltage drop across the elements of the circuit.\n\n2. Linear programming. This is a technique for doing optimization problems. An example is something where you have a factory that makes 4 seperate products, and how much you make or the cost of making those products depends on how much of each you make. The problem is to figure out how many of each to produce to get maximum profit. This is solved with a matrix equation.\n\nMany of these problems can be solved using other methods, but matrices are a helpful tool for boiling down a problem to something concise so you can quickly apply the rules that give you a solution. Like pretty much everything in math, it's arbitrary, but useful.",
"People have covered various particular applications, so I want to come at this from a more mathematical side and talk about why they are very much not arbitrary.\n\nA lot of math is about building structures and seeing what they do. Linear algebra in particular is actually not about matrices - it is fundamentally about vectors. You may have learned about vectors as arrows or as lists of numbers, but in reality vectors are an incredibly broad class of objects. The only real requirements are that vectors can be added, or multiplied by a scalar (which itself is usually a real number, but can be anything that behaves relatively like a real number). There's details like vectors have to have an inverse, there has to be a zero vector, multiplication by scalars has to distribute over addition of vectors, but these should be relatively familiar.\n\nWhen you study these objects, one very fundamental thing you can do with them is apply functions to them. In particular, you can apply *linear* functions to them. Linear means that it preserves these fundamental operations. If you add two vectors and apply the function, that's the same as applying the function to the two vectors and adding the result. Similarly, if you multiply by a scalar and apply the function, it's equivalent to applying the function and then multiplying that result by a scalar.\n\nThis kind of analysis has two uses. One is that it's very, very general. It turns out that, though our world is fundamentally nonlinear, it frequently behaves very close to linear, or linear for a short period of time. In fact some fields like calculus are all about taking a nonlinear system and doing something to it to make it appear linear in a particular context (e.g. during a short time interval), giving you all the tools of linear algebra for analysis.\n\nThe second is that this analysis is very easy. Linear algebra is, in some sense, one of the simplest fields of math. You can characterize linear functions and their behavior completely with a relatively small amount of information, analysis of the composition of functions is trivial - if you can make something behave kind of linearly, you suddenly get a slew of information about that thing because of how rich the field is.\n\nSo, why are matrices useful? It turns out there is a deep relationship between linear functions and matrices. I would recommend doing an upper division linear algebra course at some point, even if it's on coursera or MIT open courseware. When you start fiddling with collections of vectors that obey all the rules, you end up showing that the rules require they exist in vector spaces, which you can intuitively think of as a normal Euclidian n-space (like 2D space, 3D space, etc.), and that functions going from one space to another can be fully represented by a relatively small collection of information about what the function does to individual vectors. The formatting of this information is arbitrary, but the amount of it is not, and the math does suggest a shape - matrices are fundamental descriptors of how vectors can be transformed.\n\nAll the other analysis fundamentally comes out of this. Tons of structures, like solutions to linear systems of equations, or systems of differential equations, or atomic orbitals, or velocities, or even more obscure mathematical structures, can be represented as vectors. Things happening in these systems can be represented as linear functions, and suddenly you can put the systems into a matrix, do a little bit of arithmetic that came from hundreds of years of results about linear systems, and you get a huge amount of information about this system. This information is mentioned by all the other commenters."
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7uokiq | how do dicemakers know which numbers to put on which sides of a dice? | Are dice required to have certain numbers across from eachother?
What about betting dice? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uokiq/eli5_how_do_dicemakers_know_which_numbers_to_put/ | {
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"Opposite faces of a dice equal 7. So the side with 6 will have a 1 on the other side. The side with 4 has 3 the side with 2 has 5 on the other side. \n\nI’m not sure what betting dice are but in a casino dice are balanced so they do not favor 1 side. ",
"Traditionally, opposite faces add up to the same number (7).\n\nOtherwise, as long as they are balanced and fair it doesn't really matter.\n\nFor higher face counts there are also what are known as \"spindowns\" which start at, for example, 20, and then count down by one as the faces are rotated, down to 1. This makes them easy to use as life counters in card games, since the next higher or lower numeral is always adjacent.",
"The standard six sided dice is traditionally labelled so that opposing sides add up to seven.\nSticking with this, you get left and right handed dice, which noted the way the numbers are laid out - looking at the corner shared by the 1, 2 and 3 faces, those numbers can be arrayed clockwise or anticlockwise (though this makes no difference to how the dice rolls).\n\nCasino dice (used for playing craps) are a specific design intended to be absolutely fair to use in a gambling situation (where a slight bias will influence a game), so unlike normal dice that are fairly generic and have fairly loose tolerances, casino dice are manufactured to much higher precision.\nI believe the standard casino dice is a 19mm cube, sized to a tolerance of around a thousandth of an inch to ensure they are perfectly sized and not weighted. The spot markings are drilled then refilled with a coloured version of exactly the same material to ensure the weight of the dice is exactly even (ie there is not more material drilled out to make the spots of the six face than there is drilled out for the one face). The dice are also clear or a frosted/translucent finish so you can see there are no imperfections inside that could throw off the balance. \nThe dice are also sharp edged (so you can more easily see wear, damage or attempted cheating) and must be thrown in a particular way - at a craps table they must bounce off the ground and far wall of the table to be counted (to make it harder to influence the result by throwing them in a particular fashion).\nA lot of effort to go to for a die, but when used in gambling where large sums of money can be at stake, it does become important."
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353yyp | why did the emergency broadcast system test noise go from a long, continuous tone to that weird dial-up modem-y sound? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/353yyp/eli5_why_did_the_emergency_broadcast_system_test/ | {
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"It's to be a sound unlike anything you would hear in day to day life. A sound that contrasts to other background noises. When you hear that sound, *you know* what it is. ",
"The modem sound is basically a modem transmission of the alert message. This allows certain equipment to receive a digital text version of the broadcast, check that it is authentic (there is a digital password sent that can be checked against a database to help check that it isn't a fake), and send it on automatically to other systems.\n\nThe old system simply consisted of a warning tone, and then an audio message. This would then have to be checked and relayed manually.\n\nThe digital system still usually includes the warning tone for public broadcasts."
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231cgp | why do famers leave patches of trees in their crops? whats the point? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/231cgp/eli5_why_do_famers_leave_patches_of_trees_in/ | {
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"lots of reasons, primarily as windbreaks to prevent soil erosion, but also because mixed crops tend to produce better quality results ('agroforestry')\n",
"Boom, college biology:\n\nLeaving islands, strips, hedges in and around monocultures, allows for predatory insects/arachnids etc safe harbor. \n\nThey live in the varied foliage, and hunt easily in the monoculture. ",
"I grew up surrounded by farm land, and asked this same question as a child. I was told by an old farmer \"that's where you get the lumber you need to build stuff, heat your home and new handles for your tools.\"",
"This is based upon farming in my region, the VA Piedmont. Others may have differing reasons and these are in no real order.\n\n1. There are often large formations of granite or other rock intruding into the field surface.\n\n2. In a natural drainage area, it slows and diverts rain water. If the land has a crease between two hills trees may be allowed to grow there to keep erosion to a minimum and help disperse water in the field.\n\n3. In a live stock field it provides shade and a small wind break.\n\n4. In fields primarily used for planting, treed segments along the borders form wind breaks which guard against wind erosion and help prevent crop damage in wind storms.\n\n5. The biology answer given by Jackatarian below.",
"Depends on the terrain but erosion can be an issue if trees are removed, especially around streams.",
"Windbreaks. Stops the wind from damaging crops that can be ruined by being knocked over (e.g. corn, tall grasses, etc.). Also provides protection during droughts if the plant life in the topsoil dies and dries out, it (the topsoil) will be less likely to blow away. Wind erosion is a serious problem during drought, remember the dust bowl?\n\nIt's a pretty common thing, here's what wikipedia has to say on [windbreaks](_URL_0_).\n\nExperience: Grew up on a family farm."
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6ivhl1 | why does the us hoard gold (ie fort knox) if our money isn't based on the gold standard? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ivhl1/eli5_why_does_the_us_hoard_gold_ie_fort_knox_if/ | {
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"Mostly for security. If anything crazy did happen to our currency, the government still would have a way to pay for things.",
"In part, because there's no specific reason to sell it off, and doing so could damage the market, since there's so much there. So you wouldn't have a great sense of how much money you could raise by selling it.\n\n",
"The world has decided that gold has value, and is a good way to transfer value in bulk.\n\nThe largest denomination of bank note in the U.S. is $100, so bank notes are a terrible means of exchange in the million/billion dollar range.\n\nAnd other financial instruments (bearer bonds, stocks, etc) are only as good as the institution backing them.\n\nAnd sometimes \"money\", meaning value, needs to pass between people not interested in each other's currency. Like if the U.S. and North Korea were to suddenly decide to do a deal, we wouldn't want to work in N.K. Won, and they wouldn't want to work in U.S. Dollars, as each are effectively useless in the other country's internal dealings.\n\nSo the gold itself, by weight, is it's own specific currency equivalent.\n\nYou and I can make a deal for $1million US Dollars worth of gold as of the gold price on a certain day and time. Or we can agree to a specific weight of gold.\n\nAnd really, currency is itself a commodity. The economic disaster of 2008 wasn't really about housing. The banks stopped lending money because they were afraid of (various reasons, this whole digression removed for brevity). So with insufficient actual or semantic U.S. Dollars in circulation there literally wasn't enough cash to go around. So I could owe you money, and you could owe Tim money, and Tim could owe me money; but with no actual cash none of us could pay our bills. If there's only two bucks in play, then I pay you two dollars, you pay Tim two dollars, Tim pays me two dollars, and we have to go round-and-round with that two dollars a thousand times to pay the $2k. And since we aren't just in the same room, the money has to go through banks and it could take _years_ for us to each get the $2k we are owed by just passing that $2 around.\n\nSo governments _**don't want**_ to ship their currency into foreign lands because that can strangle the domestic cash supply.\n\nIn short (I know, too late) every government wants to have a lot of other government's currency on hand, but they desperately do not want to ship their own currency overseas. The more of your currency I have, the greater my influence over your economy.\n\nSo various goods are better for trade. And gold is a durable good (it won't rot in the sun like food) non-consumable (we use a little gold in manufacturing, but not enough to really matter) that is outstanding for transferring value between very large entities _without_ the payer having to expose their delicate underbelly of cash to the economic predators.\n\nEDIT: P.S. The above is also part of the reason that the Gold and Silver standards (and indeed any commodity-backed currency) are such a bad idea. If you promise to freely exchange your currency for the commodity then people will hoard your currency because it's lighter and more convenient that hoarding the actual Gold or whatever. And so, again, your economy can be strangled by a lack of actual dollars to pass around."
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tgc9k | all the recent north carolina news. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tgc9k/eli5_all_the_recent_north_carolina_news/ | {
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"North Carolina voted on an amendment on Monday that reaffirms their stance that marriage is between a man and a women; effectively \"banning\" gay marriage in the state."
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8evaao | why do concerts generally start so late? | Okay - maybe I'm just getting old but I really don't understand why so many shows the headliner comes on at 10:15 and ends at 11:30 or later, even on weeknights. Who does this benefit?
I went to a show last night where the main act played from 8:15 to 9:30 and I thought that was so much better. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8evaao/eli5_why_do_concerts_generally_start_so_late/ | {
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"I would assume it's because a concert or show can take a long time to set up. There's a lot of gear to unload, unpack, and set up. On top of that the band may not have gotten there until the day of the show, and if they drove overnight they may not get into town until 10 or 11 am. Then after every thing is unloaded and unpacked you have to actually set everything up and depending on who your seeing this could be incredibly complicated. A full laser show, and for machines. A looping video of a volcano erupting on a 60 foot high screen. Sound checks, and trouble shooting any unforeseen issues. Every venue is unique too so you may have to change large portions of the show and adapt them. (Disclaimer: I have no fucking experience or special knowledge im just making educated assumptions) ",
" > headliner comes on at 10:15 and ends at 11:30 or later, even on weeknights. Who does this benefit?\n\nThe people that don't like screaming kids.",
"Liquor, liquor, liquor. The longer you wait the more booze you are likely to buy. This applies to all concessions, but the markup on booze is particularly fruitful.\n\nEdit: Spelling.",
"Long time lurker, rarely a caller, but I know the answer to this question. I’m a concert promoter and have done thousands of shows over many years in the business.\n\nAs with many questions that include the word “generally,” the answer is complicated and includes several “correct” answers and the answer isn’t always the same tour to tour, show to show, or city to city, but the below is my best explanation of why concerts are timed as they are “generally.”\n\nLots of people think that as soon they purchase a ticket that the promoter, venue, and artist are done trying to get money from them. This is far from the case. As soon as you walk in the venue, you will be inundated with opportunities to spend more money, which are each an ancillary revenue stream for one (or more) of the promoter/venue/artist. When you walk into a show (or even before you enter the venue) you should have the opportunity to buy: Alcohol (no surprise this is the biggest one by FAR), artist merch, venue merch, reserved seating, table service, meet and greets, special/valet parking, access to’VIP’ areas, lawn chairs, ponchos, food, tickets to upcoming shows, etc. Once you start seeing a concert in this perspective, you start seeing that the best way to have the most profitable show possible is to keep people in the venue as long as possible. Thus, you open doors as early as reasonably possible (after the working day is done so people can get there, and after production has had a chance to set everything up) and put on your headliner as late reasonably possible (add more support acts, lengthen changeovers, but have to do it within he bounds of local regulations and sound ordinances, as well as what you think “the market will bear”).\n\nThis is not to say the other answers are wrong. Setting up concerts does take a long time, and artists are “generally” night owls, but the core is making a profitable show, and we work around those constraints as best possible to make money.\n\nSorry to be crass. It’s called show business.\n\nTL;DR: to make money.",
"A lot of times the concert doesn't actually start later than they planned, but later than they advertised. If you ask the venue what time the show is scheduled to actually start and finish they will often tell you the real time (and be right!)\n\nEDIT: classical music concerts start later than advertised to minimize disruptions. People are generally poor at time management.",
"I work in a concert venue.\n\nWe try *very* hard to make sure shows start at their advertised time. We will typically hold a show 10-15 minutes if the majority of pre-sale tickets haven't come through the door.\n\nIf a show starts more than 20 minutes late then:\n\n* The artist is in their dressing room demanding a masseuse and more drugs (I have seen this happen)\n\n* The artist isn't finished drawing dicks on every available surface (I have seen this happen)\n\n* The artist doesn't feel obligated to start on time (I have seen this happen way too many times)\n\nTL:DR If the show starts more than 20 minutes after the advertised time - the artist is an asshole."
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awf1v8 | "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" | In physics, falling is movement caused by gravity, and sound are vibrations that travel through the air.
So, the answer is obviously yes? What else is the question trying to ask?
My brother has a Ph.D in the field and he has tried to explain it to me when I was younger but I never understood it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/awf1v8/eli5_if_a_tree_falls_in_the_woods_and_no_one_is/ | {
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"The question intends to point out that it only makes a sound if there is someone there to hear it.",
"Basically this is a question which references the concept of solipsism and the assumptions required to move beyond it.\n\nI am sure you have heard the saying \"I think, therefore I am.\" Cogito, ergo sum. What René Descartes is saying is that we cannot doubt we exist if we are doubting; by considering the question itself we have proven that we must exist. But everything beyond this step comes from our senses. What we see may be an illusion, what we hear, what we feel, all can be deceptions. I'm sure you are familiar with the movie The Matrix which proposes how someone's entire view of the world could be an elaborate illusion.\n\nSo someone who only knows they exist must make some assumptions, namely that our senses are in some way reliable indications of an outside world. Is there truly an objective reality, that which exists without anyone believing it to be true? This is where the question comes in: \"If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?\"\n\nConsider that even if we accept that our senses are reliable (an assumption) we can only know that which we observe. To assume that there is a universe beyond our perception is a leap of faith, an assumption we can in principle never verify. The question references that assumption.",
"It's designed to get you to think about whether reality exists independent of observation. Empirical observation has demonstrated that a falling tree would cause vibrations in the air. So it makes a sound, right? Well it seems an obvious yes initially, but there is a good case for no. There is one final element missing for there to have been a sound: something to detect the vibrations and represent them as a \"sound\" to an observer. So if there was no human ear drum, connected to a brain to detect the sound waves and manifest them there was no \"sound\"; there was just vibrations in the air.",
"\"if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?\"\n\nNow Prove it.",
"For this question I would say that a 'sound' is what us humans call our experience of a sound wave entering our ear and being translated into an sensation by our brain. The tree would definitely make sound waves but do they count as sound if there is no sound receptor ( ie a human) to hear it?",
"sound is just vibrations picked up by our ears (or animal). in order for a sound to be heard, there must be something on the other side to \"hear\" the vibrations. otherwise they just go into nothing. \"they\" being the vibrations the collision of the tree to earth makes en route and upon impact.\n\nso in a sense, it doesnt make a sound because we define sound as vibrations that can be heard when they reach the ear of a human/animal. if \"no one is around\" this would presumptuously include anything with auditory senses. which leads to no sound being made. because sound, again, is vibrations that can be *heard* when they reach the ear. nothing reaches the ear, therefore no sound is made.\n\nthe vibrations are sent out. there's just no radio to pick up the waves. our ears are the radio.\n\n---\n\nthink of the tree as a radio station tower. it falls over and the crash/fall creates the signal(sound) your radio(ears) should pick up. because theres no radio in the signal area(no ears) to pick it up, it must be determined that no signal(no sound) was made strictly due to how we define sound.\n\nmaybe if we change the definition of \"sound\" then we can answer yes to this question.\n"
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clinn5 | how is paper made from wood? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/clinn5/eli5_how_is_paper_made_from_wood/ | {
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"Paper Engineer here:\n\nThe type of wood is selected based on the quality of paper that is being produced. Hardwoods are generally selected for newspaper grades, and is pumped using a more mechanical process. The majority of paper that we use is made from softwood pulps though.\n\nThe wood is chopped into chips of a specific size that allows for the cooking liquor (a highly basic or acidic mixture) to evenly penetrate the wood.\n\nFrom there, the pulp/chemical mixture is cooked under elevated pressures and temperatures, breaking down lignin and liberating more fibers.\n\nMore chemical treatments are applied depending on the quality of the paper, the desired water penetration, etc. before it makes its way to the paper machine.\n\nFrom here, the pulp is discharged from a series of jets leaving the “headbox” onto the forming wire. Next, water is drained as the wire moves the pulp along, consolidating the fibers into a wet web. The sheet eventually becomes strong enough to be lifted from the wire by the pickup roll, after which it is pressed and sent through a series of steam driers before winding onto a giant reel at the end."
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a951v5 | what is depreciation of an asset and what are tax deductions on it? | I have heard people say that businesses can buy cars cheaper because they show it as an asset in their company and claim deductions on depreciation. What does this mean and does it really happen so frequently? What kind of savings do they make? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a951v5/eli5_what_is_depreciation_of_an_asset_and_what/ | {
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"Ok there are two important documents a business has to tell you how they are doing financially, an income statement and a balance sheet. The income statement tells you how profitable the company is and the balance sheet tells you the value of all the stuff the company owns. When a company buys something that can be used for a long time like a car it doesn't just subtract the full value of a car from their revenues that month and show a loss on the income statement. What they do is subtract cash from the balance sheet and add the car to the balance sheet so they end up neutral. This makes sense when you first buy the car since they gave up $xx,xxx to buy the car but now have a car that is worth $xx,xxx your company still in total has the same value of stuff. Over time though that car is worth less and less so the company will take some of the value out of the car from the balance sheet and move that to the income statement showing as a negative. So basically you are saying we lost $y,yyy of car value this month. That process is depreciating an asset. Slowly over time you will make the car worth less and less on your books and show the money you spent on the car as a loss on the P and L basically smoothing out the money you spent on the car over several years instead of taking that hit all at once. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nThis effects taxes because a company only pays taxes on their profits. So the depreciation amount from the car shows up as a negative on teh income statement and lowers thier profits. The fact its depreciated doesn't really effect this except for timing, it would have been the same effect if they took the hit all at once.",
"Depreciation is a way accountants try to take into account that a major asset (like a car) might get less valuable as time goes by. You buy the car for $40,000, in year 2 it’s worth $30,000, year 3 $20,000, etc. They decide depreciation based on a schedule, not on how much the thing is actually worth that year if you sold it. \n\nA tax deduction is where the government lets you pretend you didn’t earn a certain amount of money for tax purposes. One reason for businesses might (IANAL) be depreciation on assets. \n\nIf you get to pretend the income didn’t happen, then you don’t get taxed on it, and you get to keep more of it. Thus the asset being cheaper in the long run. \n\nThe reason a government does that is to encourage investment in assets to boost the economy."
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16jdka | why do some female creatures eat their mate after mating? | That doesn't make any evolutionary sense. It seems like natural selection would have wiped them out. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16jdka/eli5_why_do_some_female_creatures_eat_their_mate/ | {
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" > That doesn't make any evolutionary sense.\n\nOh, but it does. Evolution is one cold bitch.\n\nAfter mating, the females have gotten the genetic material they need from the male, and thus have no more use for them, except as a source of food, which helps ensure she has the nutrients necessary to develop successful eggs.\n\nAnd from an evolutionary perspective, the male has accomplished what he needs to at that point, as well, and is thus free to die, his genetic future assured.",
"Attorney fees can be incredible. Eating him can often just be more economical",
"Because they are hungry after sex"
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3gxrnh | when you erase the graphite off of something (eg: paper) what happens to it? | So I saw something on Tumblr and I started thinking...ya...where does it go? I feel really stupid asking this as if it's common sense, but I'm just goin for it. Thanks in advance! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gxrnh/eli5_when_you_erase_the_graphite_off_of_something/ | {
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"It sticks to the little rubber bits that come off the eraser and gets cleaned up or swept away however you usually deal with them."
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6agyl4 | how does a lifeguard know when people are drowning? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6agyl4/eli5_how_does_a_lifeguard_know_when_people_are/ | {
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"The reason people often don't notice others drowning nearby is that it didn't look like TV taught us to expect:\n[link](_URL_0_) \n\nLifeguards are trained to look out for the way drowning people actually look - which is very different from someone just playing about. \n",
"They are trained to recognise the signs. The seeming calmness of the instinctive drowning response makes it clearly different to people messing around, and also different to a distressed swimmer.",
"Ex lifeguard here, there are tell tail signs showing the difference between joking and drowning , for example if you see a group of 5 laughing and one kid is in the middle face down Deadman float you can probably assume the kids are dicking around tho if you see some one alone doing it you would moniter him/her to make sure they don't stay like that for very long with out moving. Other signs include but are not limited to: if we see you trying to climb and invisible ladder we are going to assume you can't swim, weak swimmers will try to climb said ladder to get there head above water when they panic, we are also watching your skin color and habits in the pool so if some one was just talking about how it's there first time trying to touch the bottom and we see them sitting g there its a problem. We are trained on a simaler lvl as paramedics when it comes to being a first responder so we are watching what your body is doing not just what you are. Quick story to kinda prove my point, I was on deck one morning watching a few older people swim it was a nice easy day suddenly I saw a guy doing laps start to breath more then what he was before (a breath every 1-2 strokes Insted of every 3) I met him at the side of the pool to talk about it, as it turned out he has angina and had forgotten to take his nitrate if gaurds we're just watching for what looks like drowning that would have been big trouble and def a dive into the pool for the guy luckily I caught him he took his meds and was fine. I hope that kind of answers your question :)",
"_URL_0_\n\nThat's my lifeguard channel from the waterpark I manage. I make all guards go through a video session with me to discuss what drowning looks like and dispel some of the myths surrounding it. \n\nIt isn't easy and it takes confidence and vigilance to be a good lifeguard.\n\nI do not let first year lifeguards guard our wavepool. "
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"http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/family/2013/06/rescuing_drowning_children_how_to_know_when_someone_is_in_trouble_in_the.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_wa_top"
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zatm6 | how are famous people supposed to find out that we want them to do amas? | Whenever I go to r/IAMA, there is always some request for a famous person to do an AMA. So how are those famous people even going to find out that we want to interviw them? Do we just hope that that celebrity has a friend who frequents Reddit, who will relay them the interview request? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zatm6/how_are_famous_people_supposed_to_find_out_that/ | {
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"Yes. Reddit is the 138th most visited site in the world, and 65th in the US; it's not really that unlikely that some friend or staffer of the celebrity will see the AMA request.",
"An agent or friend of the famous person sees the request. Sometimes someone informs the celebrity through twitter. Sometimes a celebrity finds out because one of their celebrity friends did it. For example, most of the main character of Community have done AMAs, because their co-stars have done one."
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85hs3f | why does concrete appear to be darker in colour when there is water on it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85hs3f/eli5_why_does_concrete_appear_to_be_darker_in/ | {
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"Something something visible wavelengths of water and light scattering throughout the liquid.",
"Bare concrete is textured and does a better job of diffusing light in a multitude of directions. Water creates an even surface over the concrete and only reflects light in a directional manner, like a mirror.\n\nThe Mythbusters did an experiment to see if they could get sunlight into a dark interior space using a series of mirrors, but they discovered that they got better results by diffusing the light off of Jaime's plain white shirt.\n\nA similar effect can occur with aircraft radars called 'arctic reversal'. Normally, a textured ground surface produces a stronger radar return than a body of water. But in the arctic, water freezes into jagged ice while snow collects and smooths out ground surfaces. The jagged sea produces a better radar return than the smooth snow, a *reversal* of the normal radar picture."
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1rd8lp | if the nintendo 64 was groundbreaking as a 64-bit system in 1996, why are modern operating systems only now catching up and becoming "64 bit"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rd8lp/eli5_if_the_nintendo_64_was_groundbreaking_as_a/ | {
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"Because an operating system has to support legacy software. with 32 bit processors you could easily emulate 16 bit processors, meaning you could support old legacy software. With 64 bit processors it is much more difficult to emulate the 16 processors, we have recently been able to create 64 bit chips that are powerful enough to emulate old architectures while maintaining performance. \n\nPlus, a 64 bit OS needs to support applications running 64-bit, 32-bit code, and 16-bit code, while a 32-bit OS only needs to support 32 and 16-bit software. This means that the vender of the OS needs to recompile and support all of these different architectures, meaning it takes longer to produce a 64-bit OS. ",
"The N64 Chip is a special one purpose chip. It was designed only for the N64 and to only run N64 code (language). Look at it this way, the New PS4 and XBONE don't support older consoles.\nSuch a drastic change cannot be achieved with PC-s, since people rely on software written for computers older than some of my friends. There needed to be a slow change over from 16 to 32 to 64 bit and compatibility had to be ensured during the change-over. \n64 Bit processors are older than you think, it's just the software that has taken a long time to manage the change and ensure compatibility."
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b3te70 | what's so vitally important about gut bacteria that makes it impact things like your mood and immune system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b3te70/eli5_whats_so_vitally_important_about_gut/ | {
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"Your gut bacteria basically regulate how effectively you can absorb certain nutrients. With a poor microbia, you don’t get as much nutrition from your food as you need, so some functions don’t work as well as they need to. A healthy gut means a healthy life.",
"In reality, nobody knows for certain the exact biological mechanisms by which your gut bacteria (which I'm going to call the *microbiome* from now on, for brevity) interact with higher order functions like mood, but we do know quite a bit (but not everything) about how the microbiome interacts with your immune system.\n\n**Mood:**\n\nWhat follows here is a very brief, superficial overview of what we *do* know. The [vagus nerve](_URL_1_) provides a direct connection between the nerves that control the smooth muscle of the intestines and the brain. There have been a number of studies that have indicated that there is [direct stimulation of the vagus nerve by bacterial products](_URL_2_), and this can have an affect on thing like [anxiety](_URL_4_) and depression. A lot of the earliest studies compared regular mice to germ-free mice (no bacteria) and found significant differences in a number of behaviors, like sociality, willingness to explore, stress/anxiety, and depression. It turned out, colonizing those germ-free mice with just a single bacterial species often reversed many of these differences, showing just how important the presence of *any* bacteria is to the functioning of the vertebrate nervous system. Furthermore, we know that bacteria can metabolize (either create or digest) certain molecules important to the human central nervous system. For example, tryptophan (an amino acid), can be converted by our bodies to [serotonin](_URL_0_). There is [some evidence](_URL_5_) that bacteria that digest tryptophan (thus making it unavailable to our bodies) can increase negative behavioral outcomes like anxiety. Bacteria can produce and/or digest other important amino acides like glutamate, leucine, tyrosine, and glutamine that can either be used directly or as precursors to neurotransmitters and neurostimulators. And lastly, we know that bacteria can contribute to intestinal issues from the minor (uncomfortable gassiness) to the major (ulcerative colitis), and I don't know about you, but I'm rarely in the best of moods whenever my guts are acting up.\n\nWhat we don't know is how all of these various parts come together to influence your exact mood. How much of your current happiness is from bacteria and how much is from just enjoying life right now? We can't say. Which exact species of bacteria are the most important for influencing mood? Again we can't say with much certainty. Could we ever relieve serious medical issues like clinical depression with bacteria-based therapy? No idea, and I'd guess it's unlikely. There is a ton more to learn about this very complex system.\n\n**Immune system:**\n\nAgain, this will be a brief, superficial synopsis. We know the immune system interacts with the gut microbiome in a number of ways. B cells that live your intestines pump out *tons* of the antibody class called IgA into your gut every day. These antibody coat the outside of the most of the bacteria in our gut, though there's [some evidence](_URL_8_) they preferentially target \"bad\" bacteria. There' s also some evidence that being coated by IgA actually affects the bacteria themselves, like causing them to [stop producing proteins](_URL_3_) (flagella) that allow them to move around as much. Furthermore, other immune cells, like [dendritic cells](_URL_6_) are constantly sampling the bacterial products in the intestine, and directing T and B cells to make receptors against them. Generally speaking, if bacteria stay in \"their zone\", which is in the intestinal lumen (the \"empty\" space where everything passes through) and not in direct contact with our own cells, our immune system doesn't try to destroy them (there are some exceptions to this rule I won't get into here). Bacteria that cause issues are generally ones that produce toxins (like Staphylococcus and Cholera) that directly harm our own cells, or ones that try to get out of the intestinal lumen and make direct contact with intestinal cells, or even try to breach the intestine an get into other parts of our body. Once bacteria start doing this, our immune system recognizes them as invaders and tries to destroy them. If bacteria continue to make constant contact with our intestinal cells, for example, this can lead to chronic inflammation in the intestine, which can then become some form of inflammatory bowel disease. The last thing to say, is that without *some* bacteria in our intestines, [our immune system does not develop properly](_URL_7_). In germ-free animals, those dendritic cells have nothing to sample, and therefore can't induce the B cells to make IgA. So, when the germ-free mice are introduced to a known pathogen, they are more likely to get sick and have worse outcomes from it, because their immune system hasn't been \"primed\" by a microbiome. \n\n\nP.S. I linked to a bunch of scientific papers that you may not have access to. If you'd like to read the paper and it's paywalled, PM me."
]
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[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve",
"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-0897-4_5",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312813003715?via%3Dihub",
"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2982.2011.01796.x",
"https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0166432814004768",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendritic_cell",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1521661615001990?via%3Dihub",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312814003047?via%3Dihub"
]
] |
||
3vj05s | if pitbulls are genetically more aggressive, and other breeds are generally smarter, why is the possibility of human races having varying degrees of those traits scoffed at? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vj05s/eli5_if_pitbulls_are_genetically_more_aggressive/ | {
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"Because humans have not been specifically bred for specific traits over hundreds of generations. We don't have the equivalents of the difference between a Chihuahua and a Great Dane either.",
"Because people can't tell the fucking difference between facts and implications. It is perfectly clear that different human races/subpopulations differ, on average, in their traits. Average Korean is short and average Dutch is tall. Average Asian is noticeably smarter than average White who is smarter than average Black person. Both of these statements are equally (non-)racist. They should be perfectly acceptable to mention in a civilized society. What is NOT acceptable is implying, for example, that some people are superior to others, or treating people differently just *because* of their ethnicity or shin color.",
"The truth is that it is almost impossible to measure.\n\nLet us say you want to measure the averange IQ of \"Black\" people and compare it to \"White\" you have to take education, culture, food intake, social standing, family life, economic standing, geography and so on and so forth into consideration. \n\nIn addition you have to actually decide what constitutes each Category, different human races are not an easily quantifiable thing!\n\nThere are simply to many factors that we cannot isolate easily any result would be hard to trust.\n\nI am not saying its not possible, but it would require a a lot of work and funding to get an actual useful answer. \n\nAnd even if we somehow managed to get one, then what?\n\nIt's not really useful as anything else but a racial supremacists wet dream, statisticians and insurance companies would probably like it, but they would whore their immortal soul out to the devil just to get a little more data they can use to figure out how likely you are to ram a tree at 80 km/h. \n\nIts a giant incredibly difficult can of worms to open, and there really isn't anything worthwhile inside. ",
"A serious impediment to your proposed research is defining \"race\" in the first place. \n\nI genuinely don't know how it could be done. I've never seen a description that doesn't boil down to the old \"you know it when you see it\" argument. ",
" > is not an explanation as to why people scoff at it like no differences would exist.\n\nThey don't want a difference to exist, and pretend it's really like that. It's really intellectually dishonest. It's one thing to reject studies as flawed, but an entirely different thing to draw your conclusions a priori. In general, people seem scared of the fact that their genes determine a lot about who they are, in the 1920's this gave rise to \"purist behaviourism\" which rejects any genetic component. The whole thing became ideologised and that nearly ruined the field, and still derails the whole thing today. Today, even though the nature vs nurture \"debate\" (you can't debate your way to facts, facts don't care what your arguments are, they just are) has been settled: it's usually both, in varying amounts depending on what attribute you look at. Laymen haven't gotten the message yet and continue to clasp onto an ideological off-shoot of Marxism as though believing it hard enough makes it so.\n\nTL;DR it got ideologised."
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84c1te | why do our faces looks different in different mirrors and different cameras and which image is the real one on people's eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84c1te/eli5_why_do_our_faces_looks_different_in/ | {
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"It's not so much that we look different in mirrors vs cameras, more that when we know we're seeing ourselves (in a mirror, or when taking a selfie with a front-facing camera) we subconsciously hold ourselves and our faces differently so we look \"better\".\n\nWhen someone takes a photo of us and we *can't* see ourselves during the process, we don't do that, we just hold ourselves somewhat more naturally.\n\nSpeaking of front-facing cameras, they're deceptive and if you're close enough to them (as you would be if taking a selfie) they can slightly warp the image depending on your angle, which again has an impact.\n\nIf you wanna know how you look to other people, have a friend video you from a moderate-but-reasonable distance, I'd say. That's gonna be your most natural bet."
]
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[]
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||
3lrifu | why is the captain supposed to go down with the ship? | edit: If there are people still on board. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lrifu/eli5_why_is_the_captain_supposed_to_go_down_with/ | {
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"The captain is responsible for the ship its crew and passengers therefore his primary duty is their safety. When a ship is sinking or in danger of sinking he should be the last one off in order to ensure that all the people are safe.",
"The captain is responsible for everyone on the ship. If the ship sinking it is his responsibility to get everyone to safety, That means he stays in command until either everyone is safe or there's no more ship to command.",
"It has to do with salvage rights. If the captain abandons the ship, then the cargo is therefore abandoned and the person that recovers it owns it. However if a ship sinks with it's captain, the ship was never abandoned and hence still belonged to the company or government owning the ship. Later that became a tradition based on how much courage a captain had. One didn't want to appear they were afraid to go down with their ship. But yeah, salvage rights is how it started.",
"Basically it forces the captain to give it their all to save the ship and/or everyone on board, instead of bailing on first opportunity and leaving the ship and those on board to drown (like that ferry asshole). ",
" The Captain is not under any circumstance supposed to go down with the ship! \n He has the following responsibility at all times until he is replaced, there is no more vessel or all passengers and crew are safe, exactly in the order listed: \n1. Safeguard human life ( including his own)\n2. Safeguard the vessel \n3. Safeguard the marine environment. \n\nELI5: You save everyone if you can, if people are not in danger you try to save the ship, if the ship is not in danger you try to save the marine environment ( try not to pollute). \n As an added note: The master retains command even while the ship is gone and people are in lifeboats.\n\nAlso you have to understand that on a ship there may be more than one \"captain\" but there is only ONE MASTER. \nIn this situation we are talking about the master. \nIn regards to this the Master can delegate some or all of his duties to the rest of the crew ( provided they are certified and competent for the duties assigned to them) but he can NEVER under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE delegate RESPONSIBILITY. Therefore even while on shore the master is still responsible for anything that happens on a ship.\n \n\nSource: Currently working as a ship's Watch Officer.\n There are a lot of online resources available that detail the extent of the Master's responsibility. \n\n\n"
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2v38q0 | how $2 automated car washes make money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v38q0/eli5_how_2_automated_car_washes_make_money/ | {
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"By using less than $2 worth of energy and materials.\n\nEither that or it doesn't make money at all, and it's actually being used as a loss-leader to pull you in. That way you buy something else while you're there (such as fuel for your car), where the extra profit is high enough to offset the loss on the carwash.",
"By having overhead and materials that cost less than $2 per wash.\n\nThe consumables for a car wash are pretty cheap, as it's mostly water.",
"They don't. All the ones near me have been $5-7 minimum for years.",
"You know what type of [people](_URL_0_) have car washes?\nNow you know how."
]
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73p55n | why do we like things we don't have but once we have them they start losing their worth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73p55n/eli5_why_do_we_like_things_we_dont_have_but_once/ | {
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"Typically, it comes down to your perception of the items value. What can it do for me? You convince yourself that it will benefit you to have it and it will, in some way, make life easier or more enjoyable. Once you have it you realize the item has fewer or less useful functions, it's functions are novel, or it's functions do not work as you believed. Expectation vs reality. I convinced myself I needed a smart watch once. The technology just isn't where it needs to be for a smart watch to be very useful, so I returned it since what I had in my head paled when compared with reality.",
"Not everything falls into this catagory. I have the vehicle i always wanted. I have has it for almost 2 years and i still enjoy every minute behind the wheel.",
"\nWe 'desire to possess' something 'we don't possess', \nWe acquire the thing 'we don't possess'.\nIt is no longer a thing 'we don't possess'.\nTherefore our 'desire to possess' disappears.\n"
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6l1wl0 | when you bite your nails too far, why does it sometimes start hurting minutes / hours later? | Why is the pain so delayed in this case, when every other kind of pain in the body seems to start immediately. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6l1wl0/eli5_when_you_bite_your_nails_too_far_why_does_it/ | {
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"There are a few reasons I can think of. \n\n1. You might be biting your nails while focussing on an important task/are not paying attention, so you may feel the pain at a later time when you are not busy and your brain says \"wait what is this feeling\".\n\n2. You bite your nails and expose skin and nerve endings that are usually covered under the nail. Then as you live life that are takes added stress and damage as the nail isn't there, so it begins to hurt as life takes a toll on it. \n\n3. Sometimes it has the potential to hurt immediately, but because not much of the nail has come off, you might only start feeling it when you press down some time in the future. Then, once you feel the pain, you become hyper aware of it until you get distracted again \n"
]
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99xonw | how do sites like 4chan figure out who an individual is based on vague photos/background imagery? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99xonw/eli5_how_do_sites_like_4chan_figure_out_who_an/ | {
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"Every photo you take has tags that can be extracted if not removed/hidden properly. It’s just a matter of taking the tags and searching the area the picture was taken from. (Largely dumbed down there’s more to this but I’m on my phone and typing one handed)"
]
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||
fpssoi | how is orchestral music written? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fpssoi/eli5_how_is_orchestral_music_written/ | {
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"Well this works pretty well if you know how to play the piano. You can write things on a piano and imagine how the parts are going to sound together (excluding percussion). With modern workstations though, this type of music can be created all from synthesizers and samples within a computer.",
"Beethoven wrote his 9th completely deaf so he went just by memory of sound. But usually they will work with musicians or even an entire orchestra to write their sheet music.",
"You do not actually have to be able to play an instrument in order to write music for it. You just have to know how it sounds and then imagine someone playing what you write down. Sometimes with the aid of a different instrument that the composer is more femilear with or just something he have at hand at that moment. This is similar to how you can get a song stuck in your head that uses instruments you do not know how to play. You may even hum along to the music even though your humming does not sound anything like any of the instruments. The only difference is that a composer does this without having heard the instruments play those notes together before. It also helps that most orchestrial instruments are just variants of each other and sound the same. Biggest difference is often just the range of tones they can play.\n\nOf course composers usually will get their music performed by a full orchestra before making the final changes. It used to be that composers worked with an orchestra when they were composing but today it is more common to make a digital version of the song using sampled or synthesized sounds from each instrument.",
"I haven't hung out with my composer friends in a few years, but they used a program called [finale](_URL_0_). It has music files built in that contain every note for every instrument so you can actually hear what you're composing as you go. \n\nTypically they'd start by writing a Melody. They'd write a significant portion of the song using a single instrument and the melody. Then they would add in the supporting instruments and see how it sounded. This would be a rough draft and they'd mess with it and try different instruments playing the melody and other variations to end up with a final piece. \n\nAll western instruments are tuned in a similar fashion and play the same 12 note scale so writing for multiple instruments is simple. Knowing what notes to pick is an art, but also dictated by [music theory](_URL_1_) which is basically the study of writing music.",
"As far orchestra music goes, composers do need to know how instruments they want to write for work generally, even if they don’t play the instrument themselves. They will need to know the range of pitches that the instrument can play, and the limitations and strengths of each instrument. It’s common for composers to have a background in piano, since it can cover so many “voices” at once in one instrument and play them at once, just like a symphony would. That makes it easier to sketch things out.\n\nSince each instrument has a unique sound quality or “voice” (called “timbre”), composers might also study or take classes in orchestration, which helps them know which combinations of instruments will give them the sounds and effects they want. Many composers in the past like Ravel or Stravinsky were known for being especially talented at orchestration.\n\nOther classes or subjects composers might practice in study will fall under what’s called music theory, where they can learn about harmony, the structure of songs and other music, and how to direct the different “voices” in their composition.\n\nYou can often tell when less experienced composers write for their musicians. They might not know how to write bowings for string instruments, to leave room to breathe for winds or brass instruments, or strange problems in harmony or structure. It’s definitely one of those things you often need to learn the rules, and that helps you know how to break those rules in really cool ways!",
"Sometimes composers just compose a piece and let an arranger arrange it for an orchestra, so it’s not always the composer who composes it for the orchestra. One of orchestras classic repertoire music, ‘rhapsody in blue’ wasn’t originally composed for an orchestra.\n\nHowever there is also the other extreme where the composer knows the people in the orchestra and what they can do and writes specifically with their capabilities in mind, and a lot of early orchestral music was created in that way where orchestras asked for compositions specifically for their orchestra and different orchestras might have virtuosos at different instruments.\n\nSo there’s a huge spectrum in how a composer composes a piece and an orchestra then playing it, but from a technical standpoint if you do want to compose a piece and aren’t experienced, you’d be doing yourself a favour if you check if your composition is feasible to be played by the specific instruments, but generally that just boils down to arranging a piece better, the music doesn’t change."
]
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"https://www.finalemusic.com/",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory"
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||
23oyo4 | why are shemales so common in thailand? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23oyo4/eli5_why_are_shemales_so_common_in_thailand/ | {
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"This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed. Try the searchbar!\n\nIt's okay to re-post questions, but please indicate that you did a search and that previous questions/answers didn't help you understand.\n"
]
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[]
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pos1n | how dog show judging works! | So I'm watching the Westminster dog show and see the different dogs run around in a circle, then the judge narrows it down and picks a winner. All the dogs look great, but how do you pick the best terrier/hound/sporting, etc. when they all look so different? Anything in particular that I can watch for? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pos1n/eli5_how_dog_show_judging_works/ | {
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"There's nothing really the home viewer can watch for, unless they are experts of a certain class of dog. \n \nBasically, each breed of dog were bred to perform a certain function which separates the different breeds into classes.(Herding dogs, toy, sporting, etc). Each judge looks for certain standards defined by the breed type or the class type. These can be very superficial (i.e. eye color and shape, to fur color etc) as well as the physical shape of the dog, including paw size, tail length, ear shape etc. \n\nThese standards are derived from the parent clubs of the breeds. \n\nEdit: So, for example, lets say we have the toy class. We're looking at a Shih Tzu and a Pomeranian. The Shih Tzu may win out over the Pom because the Tzu's ear shape was more inline with the standards for it's own breed than the Pom's ears with its standards. That's just one example. "
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evjk6l | how does excess weight/obesity, alone, affect health? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/evjk6l/eli5_how_does_excess_weightobesity_alone_affect/ | {
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"Being overweight places extra strain on your joints and your back. Your body's connective tissue gets overworked when trying to support a 300 pound frame rather than a 200 pound frame. This can over time cause pain and damage to your knees. \n\n\nBeing overweight also increases your blood pressure and other issues regarding your heart, as your heart has to provide blood to a lot more of you. Think of it as your heart has to work to support 300 pounds of flesh rather than 200 pounds of flesh, but unlike say your legs which build more strength to handle them, the heart is built of different types of muscle that can't adapt that way. \n\nThere's a lot of other minor issues that being overweight makes you more likely to suffer, but these are the main ones you'll want to be concerned with."
]
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[]
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||
680epk | why is it common for college basketball players to enter the nba draft after their freshman year, but college football players typically don't enter the nfl draft until their senior year? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/680epk/eli5_why_is_it_common_for_college_basketball/ | {
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"There is a minimum age to enter the NBA draft of 19 years old. This is a part of the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players.\n\nThe NFL requires that its incoming players either have a college diploma, or are five years removed from high school graduation. This is also part of the agreement between the NFL and its players association.",
"NFL requires players to be 3 years out of high school, so typically after their junior year of college (or redshirt sophomore). NBA allows players to enter if they are one year out of high school. These are rules that the leagues negotiate with their players unions."
]
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4k9w8s | what is the advantage of being young when it comes to gymnastics? | I was recently reading about how Olympic gold-medalist Aly Reisman, at age 21, is considered "over-the-hill" for a gymnast. I don't get this. As I understand it you can still, easily, be in your physical prime up to your mid-20s (not to count the added wisdom, knowledge and experience). So why is it that most gymnasts are only 16-18 years old?
And is there any actual data that suggests gymnasts' skills/scores diminishing as they enter their early 20s?
Honestly it sounds like a bunch of bullshit. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4k9w8s/eli5_what_is_the_advantage_of_being_young_when_it/ | {
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"Many gymnasts are even younger than that.\n\nWhen girls enter their teens their body starts to change. These changes include fat reserves in particular areas that can make some of the routines they do very difficult. ",
"Because the rules don't allow them to compete internationally below 16. Younger girls gymnasts can complete more difficult maneuvers than adults, performance peaks at 16 to 18 because 16 is the cut off. It's not bullshit, a large part of women's gymnastics events involves spinning the body (more spins=more difficulty=more points). \n\nDuring puberty, women grow and develop in ways that mean more of their mass is further from their center of gravity. That means the same push by a gymnast results in fewer rotations for an adult than a smaller, less developed teen, so they get a lower difficulty multiplier and a lower score. \n\nBut here's the words from [Daniela Silivas a Romanian Gymnast](_URL_0_):\n\n > You should know that I competed better at the age of 13 than at 17. I felt much better, physical and mentally. \n\nAnd [a gymnastics coach](_URL_1_):\n > When they're younger -- before they even hit 13 -- they hit their peak, especially top-level gymnasts"
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} | [] | [] | [
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"http://www.worldgymrank.com/IOC04.html",
"http://triblive.com//x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_583045.html"
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edbhql | how are game engines and text editors for them made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/edbhql/eli5how_are_game_engines_and_text_editors_for/ | {
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"text": [
"They're coded just like any other program. In the case of game engines and the like, usually with some flavour of C."
]
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[]
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y4de5 | how can ceo's and other executive buy and sell stock in their own company? | Everything they know is insider information. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/y4de5/how_can_ceos_and_other_executive_buy_and_sell/ | {
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"Insiders have to publicly announce their intentions to buy and sell stock well in advance (3 or 6 months?)."
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2qo4fs | how can someone be sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qo4fs/eli5_how_can_someone_be_sentenced_to_life_in/ | {
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"That person has likely been convicted of more than one crime - one carrying a life sentence, and another with a 20 year sentence.\n\nThat way, even if one conviction is overturned, the other stands and the convicted remains in prison.",
"Imagine someone gets sentenced for two crimes: they hold up a store (robbery) and they shoot and kill the clerk in the process (murder). The person gets life in prison (first-degree murder) plus twenty years (robbery) handed down by the judge. \n\nNow, the case works its way through the system and for some reason or another the murder life sentence gets overturned—but, it was life + 20, so the guy still has to serve his remaining years for the robbery charge.",
"I think you're asking \"why do prison sentences ever go past 'life' \" because the how is pretty easy. They commit enough crimes or bad enough crimes that their sentence time adds up to over a lifetime, or the guidelines say to sentence them for that long.\n\nThe why varies. A lot of times it just simply applying the \"x years for this, y years for that\". Sometimes it's tacked on to make sure even if they get time off somehow, like for good behavior or other measures, they're still in for life. Another reason is so even if one of the charges is overruled, they just dont get out, instead that particular penalty gets taken off but they still serve plenty of time for the rest of their crimes.",
"Because \"life\" doesn't actually mean \"until you die\".\n\nIn the US, I believe one becomes eligible for parole on a life sentence after about 15 years. Even if you are repeatedly turned down for parole, after 30 years, you *must* be released (on that charge). \nThen, you can serve your 20 year term. "
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5rkisb | why can negative emotions such as depression linger for years or a lifetimes but positive emotions (such as the honeymoon phase) seem to fade? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rkisb/eli5why_can_negative_emotions_such_as_depression/ | {
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"Can you remember all the times you were treated badly by your parents?\nCan you remember all the times they treated you well?\n\nGood things are kind of \"expected\" you don't go out and hope bad things happen to you. \n\nThe bad things that happen to you are unexpected and therefore much more impactful. You tend to remember the times your parents punished you over when they rewarded you. Same with depression and the constant rememberance of negatives with only a few memories of joy ",
"Depression isn't an emotion, it's a mental illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. It doesn't go away because it's not caused by you surroundings but by what's inside you.",
"There are mental illnesses that are opposites of depression. They are described as 'manic' disorders. Most well known is bipolar disorder or 'manic depression', but there are others which don't have the depressive phases. In extreme cases, they can lead to violent behaviour. ",
"Depression is an illness, not a \"standard\" state of being. One feels lingering sadness because they have depression. Please seek help if you need it--there are lots of different ways to treat it feel better :)\n\nMania is sort of the opposite of depression, but you wouldn't experience it every day of your life. It's episodic.",
"In an evolutionary sense, humans who were happy often and for long periods of time were less motivated to accomplish rewarding tasks. Those that had fleeting happiness were driven to do more and continuously do rewarding tasks to achieve happiness. That trait was far more successful than those that were lazy and happy.. Therefore it was passed down to the next generations until we arrive at the short lived positive emotions that we currently have. It's a sad state of affairs, but your brain is designed to make babies, not make you happy. ",
"This is extremely misleading, there are hypermanic people that live in a near constant state of euphoria, shit that's what mania is. The premise of your question is just wrong. \n\nTL/DR: all emotions are fleeting, mental illnesses last forever. \n\nSource: hypomanic depressive diagnosed 7 years ago, ask me questions if you want.",
"On a slightly related note - There is a disorder called Angelman Syndrome which isn't exactly chronic happiness, but having met somebody with the condition you could almost describe them as so. That isn't the only symptom though, it's sad and really interesting, worth checking out.",
"Since OP doesn't differentiate between clinical depression (a mental illness) and non-clinical depression (a mental state) I think we ought to treat this question as asking about non-clinical depression. Taken that way, this is a worthwhile question.",
"You remember the depression vividly so it won't happen again. The happiness fades quickly so you don't get too comfortable and move onto better times.",
"This is a well known phenomenon called [negativity bias](_URL_0_). Humans are practically hard-wired to remember/react to the bad things more than the good. ",
"This question's wording is flawed as has been pointed out, but there is an answer why people tend to focus on negativity over positive emotions.\n\nThe simple answer is that humans are hardwired to avoid change and conflict, and this translates to considering every possible negative outcome when presented with new or dangerous situations. From an evolutionary perspective this makes sense - if we take unnecessary risks we're less likely to survive and pass on our genes.\n\nThere's a well-established school of thought in behavioral economics regarding this called Prospect Theory. Studies have shown that people are proportionally more likely to make choices based on avoiding a negative experience rather than the reward. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but if I gave you a puzzle and you got to choose between an electric shock if you lost or a chocolate bar if you won which would you choose?\n\n--------------------------------\n\nI'd also add that our understanding of negative and positive emotions is incredibly biased and that if you want to go deeper you should dismiss these labels. A better way to explain the issue is risk versus reward - we'll take the easy way with little reward over the challenging with high reward because challenge traditionally represented credible threats to our ancestor's lives.",
"I'd say the premise of the question is legitimate, but maybe just not posed in the most fitting manner, such as the ends of the emotional spectrum being exaggerated for point making but resulted in a loss of relativity. \n\nSimplified, the question would read, \"Why does human memory tend to recall or focus on negative emotions over positive ones?\" This is not only a legitimate question, but an accurate assessment. \n\nWe are negative beings, by nature. Humans are fundamentally equipped with adaptation traits. This means constantly looking (even subconsciously) for ways to improve; never being truly and completely content. We always instinctively want to have more, go further, be better. In this, our brain finds ways to improve, which requires realizing and focusing on \"shortfalls\". That carries over to emotion. Negative events or circumstances tend to be recognized earlier and more vividly; they stand out for evaluation, often times getting cataloged as a warning, then we adapt our emotional behavior. When positive things happen, we accept them, but rarely do our minds flare up in a \"from now on let's do THAT\" sense. Positives do not excite our animalistic instincts. They do not cause our evolutionary core to pay attention to them. So, our brains will forever put a highlight on each bad experience, and it will remain more significant in our subconscious than many successes throughout our lives, affecting our emotions, moods, mental states, etc.",
"I think just like we don't celebrate another day of no war but freak out when war or violence becomes a reality, we don't really consider the positive unless negative happens (which references our orientation of positive)",
"My psychologist explained this. We need to remember danger/threat ( negatives) to survive. \nPositive emotions aren't necessarily necessary to survival. It takes time and practice to linger on the positives. \n\nWe're just hard wired that way in order for human beings to survive. ",
"There is. See [hyperthymic temperament](_URL_0_). It is similar to a constant state of hypomania as seen in bipolar disorder.",
"I have a difference in opinion, but it is perhaps because I am a counselor. The reason feelings such pain, suffering, and despair seem to persist for longer periods of time is because some people fail to develop healthy coping mechanisms and/or low resiliency. \n\nCoping mechanisms help people evaluate situations, accept them in a healthy manner, and allow them to move on. Maldeveloped or a lack of coping mechanisms, result in the creation of core pathologies (such as dissociation, withdrawal, even disdain) which prevent coping and prolong the suffering. Resiliency affects how you feel about and interpret the initial onset of the event, and how much it affects you. \n\n",
"Things like clinical depression or other mental illnesses are long-term solutions to short-term early childhood traumatizations. These solutions all have something to do with removing emotions. Depression is not so much a 'bad feeling' by itself but rather a progressing absence of feeling. So if you have the ability to feel happiness, even for a short amoun of time, then you have the ability to feel. While, if you have depression, you are enacting the solution you found as a child over the entirety of your life, which is why it lasts so long.",
"the question isn't flawed. we labeled depression as an illness because it was a sad/lonely emotion that didn't go away. if happiness never went away, we'd call it something else. we would cease to call it an emotion. \n\nI think people are focusing on labels and not the essence of the question. \n\nand manic isn't the opposite of depression. there's a difference between being happy and being manic. \n\nI believe there is a state of permanent happiness, but our egos are currently too strong to allow us to reach that state. ",
"You started a controversial post with almost zero helpful comments. I honestly don't know the answer but the number of people nitpicking your title wording shows that they don't either. So instead, they will critique you :) ",
"Because it is in our best interest to keep pursuing positive things -- if the good feelings didn't fade, we'd be satisfied and stop pursuing.\n\nLikewise it is in our best interest to avoid repeating pain at all costs, so remembering it vividly helps keep us from getting into similar trouble.\n\nNone of this helps with our mental state, particularly, but apparently it's better for survival to be this way.",
"it does... you just don't notice it.\n\nIf you marry someone you love, 5 years later you still glad you are with them.\n\nIf someone you love dies, 5 years later you are upset by it.\n\nUpset but not as upset like when you first heard of their death, just like you are happy 5 years later just not as excited as you were on the honeymoon.\n\nI believe humans have two states, happy and sad. If you are not sad then you are happy. Thats why when things get terrible you look back and think \"I was happy back then\"\n\nyou just don't know it, or appreciate it.",
"Focusing on the past is part of depression. Focusing on the future is part of anxiety. Focus on the present moment is where joy is experienced.\n\nPeople have a hard time staying in the present moment.",
"Because people around you has been conditioned to show their highlights and hide their sad moments. And so do you. So you wallow in your own pity while everyone else seems to be superhappy. And this is a self reinforcing circle so you focus on why your life is so shit. But it's not, you just compare your average life with everyone's highlights. ",
"People have been taught to believe that life is about chasing pleasures and 'being happy'\n\nwe have basically been taught or 'conditioned' to feel that life without obvious stimulation of the senses is 'bad'\n\ndepressed people hardly ever feel 100% bad during their episodes; i can remember laughing whilst watching a show about a depressed guy (nhk) whilst being depressed\n\n\nbut like some people who promote 'self help', depression can be a STATE OF MIND\n\nits easier to feel bad because lifeo obviously isnt fair and we were probably lied to when young\n\nbut its as easy to build a healthy perspective of life that mitigates bad feelings ( it doesnt mean you will feel ''happy'' all the time)",
"Have you heard about Mania? Mania isn't the same as \"happy\". The easiest way I can find to explain it is through comparison. Think about someone on stimulants (Meth or Ecstasy particularly). Upon ingestion, they get all this euphoria where they love it. They're drugs, they feel good. But once they start to wear off, each of the two take different paths. Meth is dangerous because the withdrawals are much less pleasant than X. You get violent, rash, loopy, and it keeps you up in that state much longer. X is kind of the opposite. You love everyone and everything, and you see the world for what it \"should\" be. \n\nBut both share a similarity. The user has this feeling like he can fix things. The problem with meth is that since it's an amphetamine, it propels you on the course to \"do things\". Like Adderall, it gets you moving. X when it wears off, not so much. But you are still in a type of mania with both. With X, you are lovey dovey and think \"wow, all I had to do was be nice\" and you think problems like relationships are fixed. Unfortunately, Meth makes one think \"all I had to do was rob my mom's house and sell her TV\", because the thing you're probably trying to fix is to get a fix in the first place. With X, that's rarely an issue as you don't tend to want more that same night. It happens, rarely. \n\nEither way, you are totally delusional in these manic states. Jim Jones comes to mind too. Thinking that would be the answer to so many problems, and even with the obvious results in front of your face, being happy with what you are doing. Mania isn't very \"happy\" when you back away from those people, and manic people have this weird tendency to be persuasive in a very negative and subtle manner, because if you have confidence and look happy, why would I think it's a bad idea right away? \n\nThe other thing is that I didn't really answer your question, because at the end, I have it too. Manic episodes can end in depression, and they typically do. When you realize all this happiness was unsubstantiated, and it was all a delusion, it's not a happy realization. It all crashes down. And then exactly what you're talking about happens. We remember the depression involved with the manic episode, and the after effects (fixing relationships because you were crazy, losing your job, etc.), but we don't remember the euphoria we felt in that mania. Just hard depression.\n\nMaybe it's part of our human nature to be survivors. To adapt, and fight. Whether it's the constant germs in our body we fight off even if we're not sick, the fact that success requires overcoming a problem, or failures of our past reminding us to keep up the hard work, it's difficult to explain. It's not a chicken and an egg theory, negativity comes first. We fight first, and THEN we win. There's no victory without a fight.",
"Mania is the psychiatric opposite to depression, it both can last for a long time *and* cause massive havoc in people's lives even faster than most depression would. Where depressed people get stuck in the thoughts about negative consequences, manic people don't see consequences at all. If it's fun, it's done. (strongly simplified, it varies a lot) \n\nShopping sprees are very common. No regard for how much debt is amassed. Often people in mania aren't suspicious either, they happily give things away to anyone, or try the weirdest suggestions without any regard for their safety. \n\nDuring a mania things are awesome, but like depressive episodes, they don't last for ever, and coming back to the smoking ruins of one's life is harsh.\n\nThat full throttle, unaware mania is relatively rare. Way more commonly people are aware that something is weird, but they have a hard time controlling themselves. Fighting to control urges to do things that will ultimately hurt someone is as hard as trying to get things done when the brain just doesn't want to cooperate at all. You know well what you *should* do, but the brain just won't let you.\n\n\nThat happy emotions don't last is a security measure, shared between many animals, not just humans. \n\nThe \"happy\" is just long enough to register as such, and then it's gone, motivating the critter to go and look for another thing that will cause the sensation.\n\nIf it lasted longer, life wouldn't work out very well. If the bliss lasted for ever, people would eat one bite of cake and then starve because there's no urge to repeat the experience. Critters would be easy prey if sex left them high for hours. \n\nPositive emotions create strong motivation. The memory of that tree with the delicious fruit last year will be a strong enough lure, to search for it again this year, see if the pleasant experience can be repeated. \n\nNegative emotions better be stronger and even more memorable because bad things can get critters killed. Better be *too* afraid of the world, than not enough. Missing out a crop of fruit, oh well, happens, there's other food. Missing the snake on the trail can be a mistake you only make once.",
"While many people here are right I don't think hey actually answear the question or maybe I am intepretating it wrong.\n\nWhile it is true we as humans are more prone to remember negative experiences, feelings or emotions that we feel are another thing enterily.\n\nThere is no straightforward answear for all emotions but for your example (depression, love) I will try.\n\nLove in the chemical or biological sense is a spike of an asortment of chemicals in your brain. Some for binding with other people, some for happiness, some for a rewarding feeling, some for making you excited and jittery and some for also making you horny (in some cases of love)\nThats a spike though, it is a abnormal, somewhat stressfull situation and all these hormons can be depleted some faster, some slower. The one that makes the happiness spike and gives you the jittery feeling associated with happiness takes quite some time to refill and can be depleted somewhat faster. So at some point you will leave this status of happiness because your brain does need to regroup and stock up again. Also some of these hormon spikes are somewhat countproductive for beeing a functional human beeing.\n\nDepression is very different. One possible cause, the one that we try to cure with medication, is a lower amount of different happiness hormones in the brain. But that doesn't mean the brain doesn't have these hormones, it just means it is banking them in a safe that no one has access too, kinda like starving while having a a full locked fridge. So the problem is not that we don't have food (happiness hormones) we just need someone to put them on the table. So if nobody is basically reteaching your body to put the food out. This state of starving has no time limit. There is nothing really \"restricting\" the continuing of this state. So it continues indefinetly.\n\nI study pharmakology so that is my take. I have very little knowledge of the psychological aspect. But explaining everything with evolution is somewhat far fetched.\n\nI could go on but we are already at more like ELI8",
"The thing is, chronic depression isn't the equivalent opposite of chronic happiness. Just like there isn't really such a thing as chronic sadness. \nDepression is different from sadness, its more like an emotional numbness where you don't enjoy anything and struggle to find any motivation to do anything. The reason it can persist is because it doesn't ever (or at least rarely) spikes into any extreme of emotion, rather just a feeling of emotional deadness. \nFor people who are reasonably mentally healthy, well adjusted and with a good life, their time is spent in a state of reasonable contentment, with the occasional spikes of joy/sadness in response to events and the feeling of desire moving us to achieve new things. \n\nMemories are strongest when they have strong emotional content, so very sad/happy/fearful/angry etc memories will make much more of a lasting impact, but general day to day memories (even those you consider happy) are more likely to fade. \n\nConsider this, if you were always on a chronic happiness high, how would you know? WHat would that even feel like? If you didn't really experience negative feelings, what comparison would you have to know that you were happy?",
"I would like to piggyback on the answer of /u/charliejwhiskey.\n\nI have suffered from anxiety and depression all my life. My first thoughts of suicide was at 8 years of old. I am 27 now...so basic math tells me that's 19 years. In the past year, I have finally begun to get a handle on my disease.\n\nI think that \"bad\" emotions simply...hits harder, if that's the right way to put it, than \"good\" emotions. A punch in the face will leave a lasting impression, while a gentle caress will be memorable, but the body and mind won't be on edge for the potential pain/injury of a punch to the face. I think that's the most important aspect of this difference. The impression emotions, or more specifically, events leave upon the brain of an individual. My mother screaming at me and beating me is terrifying as a child and, especially if it becomes a common occurrence, the mind *must* be aware of these potential danger else risk injury, or worse...Happy memories don't *force* our brains to prepare for future events in the same way. I think happy events create a sense of anticipation, but that's completely different than a sense of danger.\n\nNow, in the past year I've had some *reaaaally* high peaks and I'm beginning to see threads of similarity between my emotions of events of the past. By that I mean, I will look at at certain events and my heart will fill with joy as I remember how happy I was because of \"x, y, z\" in a similar way as I used to obsess about the traumas of my past. \n\nWith all this said, I do think there are conditions for \"chronic happiness.\" I think to obtain and maintain \"chronic happiness,\" one must remember that *SOMETIMES* life just fucking sucks and that's okay and that when things do suck and a person feels the worse kinda of things, the person keeps in mind that \"this too shall pass.\" Just as happy memories fade or drift in and out of our consciousness and active memory, so too *CAN* negative memories. It's just about how one looks at and handles these memories. It's not easy, nor is it really simple, but it's definitely do-able. Therapy helps. 12 step groups of any kind have helped me tremendously. But in the end my journey's been mine all the progress and all the setbacks have been mine and mine alone. But to go back to the point, I think both positive and negative emotions fade and linger based upon the conscious AND unconscious mind of an individual. \n\nHappiness and depression co-exist. One cannot *be* without the other. One just feels worse, so it creates the illusion of permanence compared to the other. ",
"Because evolutionary life's purpose is not happiness. Consciousness is just a tool that helps to adapt more to the environment. If tipping the scale towards more unhappiness will increase your survival, that's what happens with natural selection.",
"Human brains are structured and function im such a way that we are good at remembering and being influenced by or traumatic experiences and other bad memories. People who are good at remembering bad experiences avoid them in the future, and are more likely to survive. Thus via the process of natural selection that occurs over generations, that trait of bad memory retention becomes widespread. \n\n",
"It's because the feeling of happiness is basically a chemical reaction. We have to actively produce the chemicals which make us \"happy\" and when we're not producing them, we don't feel happy. It's not possible to keep producing these chemicals 100% of the time, they are usually produced in response to something, but it's perfectly possible to stop producing them. We feel unhappy when we stop producing them for too long (whether that's due to stress or clinical depression).\n\nThe four \"happiness chemicals\" are dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin. Off the top of my head - serotonin is your basic \"everyday\" happiness. (Having looked this up - I was slightly off - serotonin aims to keep your mood balanced, rather than making you happy as such, it just stops you from dipping too low into unhappiness, or soaring too high into mania.) Most antidepressants are SSRIs which mean they stop serotonin from being re-absorbed too quickly into the bloodstream and force it to do its job first. Endorphins are the ones you get from big rushes like adrenaline, doing something exciting, and also from certain foods and drugs. Chocolate releases endorphines, for example. Oxytocin is what they call the \"love drug\" because we seem to produce it in response to human connection and specifically in response to strong human connections like the birth of a baby and when we fall in love. We also produce this one in response to orgasm. I guess oxytocin must be one of the most long lasting, because you know that feeling of \"walking on air\" when you first fall in love with somebody. Dopamine is another kind of everyday happiness chemical but it's more in relation to motivation and keeping you on task, though it can be tricky - you can get dopamine \"hits\" in really nonproductive ways too like checking your social media again and again. I guess this is the positive reinforcement one. Dopamine production can also be impaired in people with depression which is why people with depression find self-care difficult - they don't get the sense of satisfaction from it that people who are not depressed do, so it becomes work for no gain. There's also some suggestion that people with ADHD suffer from a lack of self-production of dopamine which makes it hard to self-motivate, but are very receptive to external sources of dopamine - basically anything impulsive which gives you a quick, positive return.",
"Depression is an illness, and it is with all illnesses that they are bad for you, your body says \"i dont like that, i react now\". And of course this reaction has to be negative, else you wouldn't react. The body has no reason to react in a positive way cause of an unbalance or defect in the body. It is just a reaction of your body about the depression, the depression is not directly producing what is felt.",
"We have trained ourselves that way. Time to retrain our brains!\n\n_URL_0_",
" I had a traumatic event happen to me nearly 20 years ago that I am now finally dealing with. I have had severe depression in waves to cope with it. My therapist explained it to me like this:\nImagine a wedding. Or a high school graduation. Or riding a bike. You can picture those. You have even a basic expectation of what happens in each of those examples. The event happens. It fits within your rough expectations. You take that memory and it fits neatly in a box on a shelf in your mind. You can retrieve it on purpose if you need, but in general it stays on the shelf out of sight, out of... mind.\nNow, something major happens to you. In most cases -my speculation- that event is negative. That event now needs to be put on the shelf with the others, but it doesn't organize properly. It's a sphere on a slanted shelf. Occasionally and randomly, it falls off. You remember the event without trying to recall it. Quick! Put it away! Back on the shelf! Bury it! Shame! Guilt! Depression... It is an exhaustive cloud of burden that your mind holds on you to deal with that rogue memory over and over again. \nMy two pennies. I hope that helps. ",
"Depression is an inhibition of the ability to feel emotions, gain satisfaction, or care about things. The opposite would be mania, which certainly exists. (Mania is not \"chronic happiness\" - it's an organic dysfunction that produces a caricature of happiness - just like depression is an organic dysfunction that produces a caricature of unhappiness.)",
"Going to really water this down and summarize.\n\nSerotonin\n\nIt's the chemical that makes you feel good and happy.\n\nIt takes work for your brain to produce it, but positive things in your life can help boost it.\n\nOver time, you may not produce as much, as a result you don't feel as happy. \n\nThink of depression as default mode.",
"A simple answer: even the most positive and negative events only leave an effect on our mental health for a maximum of six months unless we continue to focus on it. Perhaps this is why depression can only be diagnosed after 6 months according to the DSM 5.\n\nFor somebody whose behaviors invite depression, ex. Sedentary lifestyle, excessive worrying, poor self image, and genetics, negative thinking can easily grow to be obsessive and out of control. It takes much less effort to feel extreme negative emotion through thinking for the average person than to feel equal but oppositely extreme positive emotion.",
"Presence vs absence of chemicals. Depression is a chemical imbalance where you lack the stuff that makes you happy. Happiness on the other requires a constant supply of it, which will eventually lead to your buddy becoming resistant over time. Much like with drug addiction, you would need more and more to get the same effect.\n"
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1je382 | what is putin's stance on all the ant-gay legislation happening in russia | I don't know very much about the man, but I wouldn't have necessarily guessed him to be a rabid homophobe. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1je382/eli5what_is_putins_stance_on_all_the_antgay/ | {
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"I know that it's a bit tough to imagine a man that loves to go on [these photoshoots](_URL_0_) as being a rabid homophobe, but it's the case. Putin himself is incredibly homophobic and has signed in all of these laws with no hesitation, and indeed supported them. In addition, whenever there were pro-gay rights protests, Putin (or, rather, the people working for him) was very violent in shutting them down. There are also numerous incidents of neo-Nazis attacking pro-gay parades and the Russian police doing nothing to help when they were in a position to offer assistance.\n\nMaking matters worse is the Russian Orthodox church. A very large percentage of the population is religious and the church has a huge influence in politics, and they've been partially responsible for a lot of the homophobic, xenophobic or nationalistic legislation lately."
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56gif1 | what actually happens when you try to evaluate something that is to the power of a non-integer? | something to the power of an integer is simple to understand: n^2 is n x n, n^3 is n x n x n and so on. but what happens to n^2.5, or n^3.4? without using a calculator or other computer, how would these be calculated? also, are negatives processed in the same way? how would n^-2 be calculated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56gif1/eli5_what_actually_happens_when_you_try_to/ | {
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"n^-x is simply 1/n^x , so that is very easy to do. \n \nAs for fractions, it's n^(x/y) = y^th root of n^x. \n \nn^2.5 is n^(5/2), so the square root of n^5 = > the sqrt (n^2 • n^2 • n) = > n^2 \n • (sqrt of ~~2~~ n). As an example, 3^(5/2) = 9 sqrt(3). \n \nFor n^3.2 , that's n^(16/5) , so the 5^th root of n^16 = > 5^th root of (n^5 • n^5 • n^5 • n^1 ) = > n^3 • 5^th root of n^1. So n^3.2 = n^3 • n^(1/5) (which is n^(3+1/5) = > n^16/5 , just checking to make sure). \n \nIf you have a decimal that can't be made into a fraction, then you are out of luck, all you can do is approximate if you don't have a calculator/computer.\n \nSorry if this is hard to read, let me know if you need some added explaining because the format is so shitty."
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979r44 | why are handshakes used in meet and greets or why are they a sign of friendship? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/979r44/eli5_why_are_handshakes_used_in_meet_and_greets/ | {
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"I believe they were originally used as a way to establish trust where both parties prove to each other that they are not concealing anything (like weapons) in their hands"
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757lxr | why does your ear pop sometimes and sound becomes insanely clear and nice much better than normal but then doesn't stay around for long? | Edited to hopefully not break rule #2
I can hear at least twice as good on those random "special pops"*.
*voted new technical term | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/757lxr/eli5_why_does_your_ear_pop_sometimes_and_sound/ | {
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"The pop is from a tube which runs from inside your ear to your nasal cavity. You hear a pop when blockage is cleared and air pressure which has built up from breathing gets relieved. It's called a eustachian tube. If you have constant mucus in there from sinus issues it can block the tube and everything will sound dull compared to normal hearing because the built up pressure prevents your ear drum from moving enough to transmit sounds. You can try to fix the sinus trouble or they make stints which hold this tube open if its a non-mucus related problem.",
"You can replicate that effect by tightening your nose with two fingers and slowly build up some air pressure in it.",
"An easy way to think of it is by imagining the ear drum as an actual drum. The pop in the ear is the pressure inside and outside the ear normalize and is equivalent to loosening a tightened or tightening a loosened drum diaphragm. A loose drum wouldn't be able to correctly reproduce the high frequency noise while the tight one wouldn't be able to reproduce lower ones. Fixing the pressure lets both extremes go back to normal. However, because your brain has been hearing suboptimal reproductions, it increases the sensitivity of what signals it gets. So when the ear goes back to normal everything is obviously very different and optimal making the crisp clear hearing. But then over time you get used to it, brain doesn't have to strain as much and it feels like it's back to normal \n\nEdit: [source] (_URL_0_) for u/Wootery similar effect except in this case the pressure differential is due to altitude",
"The nose,sinuses,and ears are all connected. Likely you have chronic sinus issues such a caused by cat, dust, pollen, or dairy allergy. The cheap way would be to get the nonprescription Flonase nasal spray and use it faithfully for a week or so. You will notice hearing, taste, and smell improve. Alternatively you could try a dairy free diet for three weeks. An ENT told me 50% of the kids he was sent to get \"tubes\" in their ears were cured instead by a dairy free diet. ",
"Audiologist in training here.\n\nFor you to hear, your eardrum needs to move in and out. If it's too far pushed in or out, it won't be able to move properly, so you can't hear so well.\n\nYour eardrum sits between your outer ear (connected to the outside world through your ear canal) and your middle ear (which exchanges air with the atmosphere through a tube that ends in your nasal cavity). That tube opens when you swallow, chew, blow your nose, etc.\n\nThe pop you hear is the tube opening and the eardrum being centred again. It does sound like your tube isn't working well, which is causing your middle ear to not equalise in pressure normally, which causes your eardrum to push one way or the other. It could be caused by infection, age, or just how your body is built.\n\nThis could indicate or cause problems, so if it is something that happened recently and hasn't gone away, I'd speak to a professional about it. I'd definitely speak to someone if I had a related sinus/nasal infection, pain in the ear, or persistent hearing loss.\n",
"all the comments about your ear drum not allowing enough movement are correct. This happens alot when riding in an airplane or driving up into the mountains. the difference in air pressure cause the effect you described. Most chew gum or something similar, the jaw workout can relieve the pressure buildup. \n\nIf you have trouble picturing this, imagine hitting a drum and the normal expected noise, then put your hand on the drum surface and press down on it some. If you strike it now the sound will be deadened. How much depends on the pressure you apply...",
"Deep down in the bottom of your ear is a little drumskin. \n\nOn the other side of that drumskin is a little room about the size of a lima bean. \n\nOn the floor of that room is a little tunnel that leads to the back of your throat. That little tunnel opens occasionally to let fresh air in and flush out any moisture to the back of your throat. \n\nSometimes, when you're sick, the little tunnel swells up or gets blocked. Air can't get into that little room so a little vacuum forms. That vacuum sucks in the drumskin making it tighter than normal. When the drumskin tightens, it doesn't work the same and it makes sounds seem dull. \n\nWhen something opens that tunnel, like when you get over your sickness or you pop your ears, air comes back to the room. The air can come back in slowly, so you barely notice, or it can rush in and make a \"pop\". \n\nThe returning air relieves the drumskin and makes it easier to hear. If the problem with the tunnel isn't quite fixed, the vacuum and the \"pop\" might happen over and over until everything is fixed. \n\n**Bonus ELI-an-adult-redditor:** The eustachian tube (ET), which ventilates the middle ear space, may fail to function for a multitude of reasons. Often it's congestion of some type that temporarily blocks it or causes inflammation which impairs its function. Some individuals simply have dysfunctioning ETs and have chronic trouble equalizing middle ear pressure. In normal conditions, the ET opens frequently throughout the day before any significant pressure can build in the middle ear space. For this reason you don't really notice a change occur. When pressure has been allowed to change over time (e.g. in cases of cold or congestion) or pressure has changed suddenly (e.g. upon take-off or landing in an aircraft), a sudden opening of the ET is much more apparent and you get the classic \"pop\". If your congestion is ongoing, you get these prolonged periods of negative middle ear pressure with only brief moments of relief. \n\nMiddle ear immittance is a story for a different day. The short end of it as it relates to this thread is that the negative middle ear pressure sucks in the tympanic membrane (TM; ear drum), changing its frequency response and reducing its ability to transduce acoustic energy (sound). As the ET opens, pressure within the middle ear approaches that of the surrounding atmosphere, which is typically ideal for normal transduction of sound. \n\nEDIT: **Source:** I'm a pediatric audiologist, so I've spelled this out a few times in the past. To everyone asking for one form of advice or another...If something is impacting your daily life, it may be worth your time to have a quick exam by an ENT. Might help, might not. But you will have checked off something. ",
"what is this \"ear pop\" thing? I have never experience such thing. Please ELI5.\n",
"So this is not normal - the pop is normal, but your hearing should be the same before and after. It sounds like something may be impeding the movement of your tympanic membrane or ossicles (hearing bones) most of the time and relived for a short time when you pop your ears. That could be wax outside the ear drum just touching it, or something deeper in the middle ear or maybe even something in your throat that is keeping your middle ear blocked (the Eustachian tube is what's responsible for equalising the pressure inside your middle ear and letting fluid drain out so that you can hear).\n\nA normal audiogram doesn't mean your hearing is perfect. You may be able to hear the full range of frequencies but that doesn't mean you can hear them clearly or perfectly, or all at the same volume.\n\nYou could try wax removal drops like Otex or Olive oil first to see if it helps, but it's probably best to go and get a doctor to have a look inside your ear (and even throat) and decide how further to look in to this for you. I would NOT start randomly using medications like Flonase if I were you.",
"Only way you can make it permanent would be with augmentation. The reality is, your brain is the reason it goes away. Just like you don't have to think about breathing your brain just takes care of it automatically, so too does your brain take care of your ears after the special pop and the super crisp clear sounding goes back to the regular kind. The brain automatically adjusts your perceived hearing.\n\nEven if you could recreate the special pops at will, they would just become regular pops because again your brain would just take over and make the adjustments.\n\nBring on augmentation, I wanna be a special pop hearing cyborg.",
"Even if you clean your ear canal out regularly, the fluid in your eustachian tubes is not a static system. The fluid moves around and gets thicker or thinner, and sometimes gets infected. Environmental conditions, the state of your sinuses, and even dehydration can play a part. To answer your question, it's because our inner ears change enough that it's not the same every second of the day. ",
"Not sure if someone else already mentioned this, but what you might be experiencing as something called tensor tympani myoclonus. Look it up. It's a condition in which a small muscle that's connected to the ossicular chain in your middle ear contracts, which it normally does in an unnoticeable way in order to act as a sound dampening mechanism when you are exposed to loud noises. What it does is it increases the stiffness of the ossicular chain. This also puts tension on the eardrum, leading to some subtle changes in hearing acuity. If you are actually hearing a pop, this could explain why. It's completely harmless and tends to go away without intervention"
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femzd0 | why blood donation clinics have a wait time due to anal sex with men, but not women. | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/femzd0/eli5_why_blood_donation_clinics_have_a_wait_time/ | {
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"Honestly, it is a remnant of the gay panic era. It is a way to exclude sexually active gay men, from donating blood. Admittedly, HIV was much more common in gay men. So it made sense back in the 80s and 90s. But it's just not as prevelant as it once was and the issue just hasn't been addressed again. \n\nWhich is unfortunate, because it prevents people, like myself, from donating blood. Even though I've been in a long term monogamous relationship and I've been tested multiple times. \n\nAlso, fun fact, being gay also marks any donated organs as \"high risk\". Again, due to the possibility of HIV. Even though that's a possibility for everyone.",
"It's a bad homophobic policy that dates back to the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Not to mention that ANYONE can have HIV and they screen the blood for it anyway.\n\nEdit to add PEREDAKS said it better than me.",
"It is essentially stemming from stigma against queer men (men who have sex with men) and the HIV pandemic of the 60-90s. This is despite the fact that all blood donations are screened for infections for specific viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C and E. Some donation centres also test for white blood cell levels in the blood as increased levels suggest that the donor was/ is fighting an infection and this usually signals this blood for further testing (depending in the centre)"
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8a432g | if you're enlisted in a military service, can you just walk out of boot camp? if not, what are the consequences? | I have to wonder if people have said, "y'know what, f this" and left. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8a432g/eli5_if_youre_enlisted_in_a_military_service_can/ | {
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"That's called desertion, and it's a crime. You can be tried, imprisoned, and then dishonorably discharged under the UCMJ for being AWOL or desertion.",
"It happens all the time, recruits run away from basic training all the time. Officially it’s called going a.w.o.l or absent without official leave. And your strictly and severely punished under the uniform code of military justice (the UCMJ has any number of punishments there is it can be anything from confinement to bread and water for a predetermined time frame, to forfeit of pay and rank). Which punishment can very but usually it ends with the recruit being basically given a ultimatum return to training or face jail time or even dishonorable discharge. And the later of which basically ruins the rest of your life. Most of not all places will not hire an individual that was discharged in that manner. ",
"People are able to do that, in the sense of putting one foot in front of the other and sneaking off base. But it is illegal.\n\nLess than 30 days and you are Absent WithOut Leave. In the US, the maximum punishment is one month confinement, forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank, and possible discharge. But a lot depends on the circumstances, having a minor AWOL will not prevent you from continuing your service. The military is often lenient, they don't want to lose people merely for carelessness.\n\nAfter 30 days, it is desertion, and they don't mess around with that. The maximum penalty for the use is 2 years confinement and can be up to the death penalty if it happens in a war zone. More importantly, you are almost guaranteed a dishonorable discharge, which is roughly equivalent to having a felony on your record.",
"The US Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, is a set of laws designed in addition to any local/state/federal laws that already apply to you. One of the items covered in UCMJ is desertion and/or being AWOL. Desertion is essentially what you are describing, in which case some guy says screw it, I'm not in the army anymore, and then takes off. AWOL is short for away without leave, meaning you stopped showing up for duty. Servicemembers are issued leave which are about the same as having vacation days or PTO. If you aren't on leave and you aren't showing up for duty as ordered, you are now AWOL and could possibly be assumed to be deserting. Both of these things are prohibited by the UCMJ and all members of the US military are legally obligated to obey the UCMJ and be punished for violating it.",
"I did actually have a change of heart after joining the army when I was a teenager and left without consequence. However, this was just prior to actually shipping to basic training. From what I read/heard from people I asked once you go to basic training you actually do sign a final contract, at which point the penalties for going AWOL become more severe.\n\nEdit: It looks like shortly after starting training you can usually get out as well. [Source](_URL_0_). After you've completed training it's different, though. Basic training actually costs a lot for each recruit, and once the army has invested time and money in training you they will be more reluctant to let you go."
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6ct495 | why is a signature the preferred method of confirmation? | when/why did writing your name become an acceptable form of confirming whatever you were signing too.
why not a thumbprint or a picture or some other easily reproduced method? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ct495/eli5_why_is_a_signature_the_preferred_method_of/ | {
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"Because everybody has a distinct writing style, and so a signature is something you practice and perfect so that its the same everytime. It was easy to do in non-technological times and easy to spot fraud. \"Hey, this guy's signature is completely different than last time...something is wrong here!\"",
"Because signatures are much older than thumbprints and photographs. They are quick to do and relatively unique to each person. They aren't terribly secure but signing a document still carries legal power ",
"It wasn't always a signature, signet rings had been in heavy use before as have seals, stamps, etc.\n\nHowever for most individuals, signatures are more convenient and do not require any technology or expansive materials.\n\nThumbprints, picture scanning, etc. are all reliant on relatively new technology and may well supersede signatures in the future, however we aren't there yet.\n\nAlso keep in mind that for many things a simple signature doesn't suffice, very often you need a government issued ID as well."
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mzkp0 | how does earth's atmosphere work? what keeps the gases on earth, and what prevents it from disappearing into space? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mzkp0/how_does_earths_atmosphere_work_what_keeps_the/ | {
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"You know how when you drop a ball it falls to the ground? Air and the atmosphere is made up of tiny, tiny balls. They're so small and light that you can move through it easily, like swimming through a ball-pit at Chuck-E-Cheese's. But when it comes down to it, the stuff that makes up air is subject to gravity just as much as a plastic bouncy ball is, and is constantly pulled towards the ground. ",
"You know how when you drop a ball it falls to the ground? Air and the atmosphere is made up of tiny, tiny balls. They're so small and light that you can move through it easily, like swimming through a ball-pit at Chuck-E-Cheese's. But when it comes down to it, the stuff that makes up air is subject to gravity just as much as a plastic bouncy ball is, and is constantly pulled towards the ground. "
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8mny05 | why did tsar nicholas get executed with his whole family? was it necessary? why didn’t other countries help? wasn’t he related to the german and british royal families? who was rasputin and how was he involved in all of this? why are there so many anastasia theories? | Watched countless documentaries and read many books and I’m still confused hence these questions. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8mny05/eli5_why_did_tsar_nicholas_get_executed_with_his/ | {
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" > Why did Tsar Nicholas get executed with his whole family? \n\nSo none of them could try to reclaim the throne.\n\n > Was it necessary? \n\nNecessary might be too strong word, but history is filled of examples supported rallying around the heirs of a murdered monarch, resulting in prolonged civil wars. Sometimes even young children.\n\n > Why didn’t other countries help? Wasn’t he related to the German and British royal families? \n\nGermany and the UK were busy fighting World War I at the time. \n\nAlso, pretty much all the royal families of Europe are related to each other, that doesn't mean they come running when they was trouble, they fought each other as much as they helped. \n\nFinally, the Russian monarchy was an old style monarchy with a lot of centralized power, the sort of dynastic monarchy that was falling out of favor in Europe. The British and German royal families did not exercise hat kind of power, nor were the civil authorities particularly interested in propping up a foreign monarchy simply for the sake of monarchy.\n\n > Who was Rasputin and how was he involved in all of this? \n\nHe was a colorful monk/mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who gained Tsar Nicholas's trust as a spiritual advisor and claimed to be able to heal his hemophiliac son. Many members of the royal court thought him a charlatan and wound up assassinating him. He was dead for over a year when the royal family was murdered, so he had no direct involvement. But his presence may have helped to discredit Nicholas and weaken the court, both of which could have contributed to his downfall. It is hard to know, as there is very little direct evidence of his life and his influence on Nicholas survived.\n\n > Why are there so many Anastasia theories?\n\nIt makes for a good story, the idea there was a Tsarina out there waiting to reclaim the throne. She was young enough to have lived through the 20th Century and for her appearance to change enough that pretenders should more easily claim to be her. Also, amidst the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, there was enough chaos and uncertainty that we could not rule out the possibility she somehow survived."
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1bxmfq | what's going on in your head when you look at the words and the spelling seems off or wrong. | For some reason today the spelling of Eighth looks weird. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bxmfq/eli5_whats_going_on_in_your_head_when_you_look_at/ | {
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"All of the spelling rules you were taught in school are no match for the bastardization that is the English Language. \n\nIt's borrowed words from every other language on the planet, and often has several words that mean almost the same thing, but don't, but people use them as if they do....\n\nanyhow that H is way too close to that other H, but Eight-th would look even worse... skip it. 8th.",
"While we learn to read from right to left, this is not the way your brain actually consumes the words. Your visual brain (V1) sees the entire word often whole sentences at the same time. It's your thinking (cognitive) brain that sounds out and pronounces the word. Because these parts of your brain can operate independently, you often know what you're reading before your cognitive brain sounds it out.\n\nTihs why is stneecnes and wdros can be of out odrer and you can sitll unadsnertd tehm."
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1ar5jy | what is obama doing with israel? | Some headlines state he offered the United States undying loyalty and now I'm seeing him championing a free Palestine as it's own country which is not what Israel wants afaiu? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ar5jy/eli5_what_is_obama_doing_with_israel/ | {
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"I'm not sure if he used the phrase \"undying loyalty\" but he did stress that we are allies.\n\nIsrael isn't opposed to a two state solution, they just are concerned with exactly how it would be done.",
"Obama is treating Israel like a foreign country. Because they are one.",
"Obama supports a two-state solution in the Israel/Palestine conflict. there are many Israelis who support this as well, though the current government of Israel does not support it. "
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62d23s | cancer treatment using gamma radiation. | How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62d23s/eli5_cancer_treatment_using_gamma_radiation/ | {
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"Gamma radiation is lethal for cells. All cells by that matter. You want to kill the cancerous cells with this radiation without destroying (to much) surrounding tissue. In the end it all comes down to the dosage of radiation. So you use a trick to give the cancer cells a higher dosage. You don't radiate only from one direction but from many. All these rays intersect where the cancerous cells are. The dosage there is thus the combination of all \"rays\" you use while the tissue surrounding it is only hit by a few or a single ray. Modern gamma knives are very accurate. Still other cells will die and you often don't kill off all tumor cells. ",
"Cell exposed to radiations get damaged, for low radiation dose this increase the risk of cancer 20 years later(that's why people working with radiations are careful). For high radiation dose it will kill the cell. \n\nA way to treat cancer is to remove it, either physically (per surgery usually) or to use radiation to kill the cells in the region with the cancer. The game is now about putting enough radiation on the cancer to but few enough to spare the healthy tissue (and keep an acceptable risk of secondary cancer). Usually it's done by irradiating from various direction, meaning that the letal dose is reachec only where the radiation beam intersects and by irradiating several time to let some time for healthy tissue to regenerate in between. I have no time for a longer comment but that's the general idea"
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59di8w | why does numbing solution make your mouth/tongue feel huge? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59di8w/eli5why_does_numbing_solution_make_your/ | {
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"Your tongue fits nicely into your mouth because you can feel it, and therefore arrange it nicely between your teeth. It happens without you thinking about it. Your tongue feels like it's in a spot where it's going to get bitten, so it shifts down and away. When you can't feel it, you can't get those \"warning touches\", and you can't arrange it nicely, and so it feels fat and large.\n\nThink of it like a kitchen pantry. When you have the light on, you can put a ton of cans and boxes in because you can play a game of Tetris and put everything in its exact perfect place. Try to do the same job with the light turned off and suddenly you're fitting a lot less into the space while knocking things over because without your senses to help you, you can't put things in a spot where they fit precisely. "
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6vmllp | when a phone vibrates on a flat surface, what determines the direction it moves? | This just popped up in my head and I wanted to know. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6vmllp/eli5_when_a_phone_vibrates_on_a_flat_surface_what/ | {
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"vibration is usually caused by a [motor like this](_URL_0_). it's weighted unevenly so spinning causes it to wiggle erratically. how its weighted, as well as its position in the phone and the phone's weight distribution, determines in which direction it will push more"
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23y49k | why raw files are so big compared to jpgs etc? | I get it they store more data but 5MB compared to 25MB is a lot of data. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23y49k/eli5_why_raw_files_are_so_big_compared_to_jpgs_etc/ | {
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"RAW is, as the name suggests, raw data from the camera's sensor. It needs further processing to be converted into a viewable image. You can imagine that a RAW file in digital photography has a role similar to a negative in analogue photography, and a JPEG could correspond to a printed photo.\n\nAdditionally, converting to JPEG does not only make the photo viewable, but it further alters it in ways that are more or less unnoticeable in order to reduce it's size. This process is called lossy compression, and it is what contributes most to the size difference between a RAW and a JPEG.",
"Imagine you have 5 pencils on a table in front of you; one red, one green, and three blue. It is faster to say \"most of these pencils are blue\" than it is to say \"One of these pencils is red, one of these pencils is green, and three of these pencils are blue\". The key here is the sentence is *smaller*, but less *accurate*.\n\nIf you can imagine this principle applied to a photo, made of many millions of bits of information, it becomes clear why a RAW file is so much larger than a JPG. JPG takes 'shortcuts' to describe tiny parts of the photo."
]
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[],
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] |
|
1vm0nu | in a boxing or mma match, if one fighter accidentally kills his opponent, is he charged with murder/manslaughter? if not, why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vm0nu/eli5_in_a_boxing_or_mma_match_if_one_fighter/ | {
"a_id": [
"cetkyvv"
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"text": [
"Depending on your jurisdiction, \"murder\" either requires an *intention* to cause harm or a foreseeable risk of very serious harm. Thus manslaughter is more likely to be appropriate, since this normally encompasses foresight of *some* harm.\n\nThat aside, injury waivers would operate between the sports operator and the victim's estate, but not in the eyes of the criminal law; you cannot consent to be killed (in any jurisdiction of which I'm aware in the US or UK). Therefore a prosecution for manslaughter may well be available.\n\nTwo aspects stand out. The first is the decision of the public prosecutor to pursue the case. The second is whether the elements of the offence are made out, including the foresight. Whether a competitor has stayed within the rules, that might not be obvious. However in the context of dangerous sports like boxing or MMA, some harm will be foreseen. However returning to the decision of the public prosecutor, whether the competitor has breached any applicable standards will carry a significant weight because of the question of deterrence. Cases have indeed be prosecuted for deaths during sports both sides of the Atlantic."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2bx39l | how will 4k video quality be implemented through cable or satellite tv? can hdmi cables handle 4k or will new cables be necessary? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bx39l/eli5_how_will_4k_video_quality_be_implemented/ | {
"a_id": [
"cj9rlqn"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"I'm not sure how it will be implemented but HDMI cables handle 4K. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
fjscxc | what is an economic circuit breaker and why have 3 been activated in the us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fjscxc/eli5_what_is_an_economic_circuit_breaker_and_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"fkoquig"
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"text": [
"To put it simply they're forced breaks in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. When stock prices, measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, drop rapidly it triggers sales in a lot of automated systems, which in turn causes the market to freefall. After the last time this happened \"circuit breakers\" were put in to stop trading for 15 minutes when the drop hits 5% in a single day and again when it hits 13% on that same day, and trading stops for the day if it hits 20%. \n\nThey're basically there so that humans can take a look at the sales before machines continue the downward spiral. Doesn't stop it if people really want to sell, but at least it stops them from being automatic if they are not really necessary."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
12yfhy | why ayn rand did not consider herself to be a libertarian. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12yfhy/eli5_why_ayn_rand_did_not_consider_herself_to_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6z7mj8"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The basic principle of libertarianism is that people should be free to do what they want, however they want.\n\nThe basic principle of Rand's Objectivism is that there is an objectively correct way that everyone should act.\n\nBoth libertarians and Objectivists *do* reach the conclusion that government should be limited, but they do it in entirely different ways."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6send4 | why are nonprofits generally not allowed to become llcs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6send4/eli5_why_are_nonprofits_generally_not_allowed_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlc5bm5"
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"text": [
"With a corporation, any earnings the corporation makes go to the corporation. To leave the corporation, the earnings have to be distributed to shareholders (or spent on the business). As a result, any money a nonprofit corporation makes is considered to go straight to the nonprofit where it will presumably be reinvested in the company since nonprofits can't make distributions to shareholders.\n\nWith an LLC, the profits and losses pass through the entity directly to the owners and are accounted for with the owners' personal finances. Because of this, it can be hard to make sure that the owners of a nonprofit LLC aren't actually getting the income from the LLC.\n\nThe IRS does allow nonprofit LLCs, but all of the owners have to be nonprofit entities themselves so that if the income does pass through, the IRS knows it's passing through to other nonprofits and won't go to individuals."
]
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[]
] |
||
5r8iuk | how does the attorney general work? | I have seen a million post recently about how the Attorney General was fired for "Not performing Job Duties". I have also seen a million post about how she was fired for "Not agreeing with the POTUS".
I do not understand what the AG job description is, and if she has to enforce what she is told, or if she has the room to disagree. I am just trying to understand the system we live under. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5r8iuk/eli5_how_does_the_attorney_general_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd580dg"
],
"score": [
31
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"text": [
" > \"Not performing Job Duties\"\n > \"Not agreeing with the POTUS\"\n\nThe US Attorney General is the head of the US department of justice. The DOJ contains several departments and agencies. First there's law enforcement, this includes the FBI, US marshals, ATF and DEA. Then there's there's federal prisons. Next is basically all federal prosecutors. Federal immigration enforcement is also folded into the DOJ (everything from enforcement, detainment to the legal structures). Lastly federal lawyers who are not prosecutors, such as people who defend the US against lawsuits. \n\nLike many high end government jobs the AG is said to \"serve at the pleasure of the president\". Basically, the job of president is so tremendously large and involves tens of thousands of day to day decisions that is's impossible for one person to perform. So the president, like the CEO of any large company, delegates job duties. \n\nThe people the president has delegated job duties to are generally known as secretaries (such as the security of state, or defense). All of these jobs are basically the same, it's to be the delegated right hand to the president for the department that you lead.\n\nWithin a normal company, the VP of marketing works for the CEO making marketing decisions. However, it's the CEO who is \"in charge\" of the situation. \n\nSooooo:\n > \"Not performing Job Duties\"\n > \"Not agreeing with the POTUS\"\n\nThese are the same thing. The job of the AG is to execute the will of the president that they serve. You are allowed to not agree with the president, but the moment you declare that you're not going to do as instructed you are failing at your job duties. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6bgpid | why cant regular ballpoint pens write on metal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bgpid/eli5_why_cant_regular_ballpoint_pens_write_on/ | {
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"dhmflz5",
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"text": [
"The surface you are writing on needs to be porous (have small holes) to absorb the ink, which is why it works on paper, card, clothing, skin etc. But not on surfaces such as metal and glass. It's also the reason the ball and internals of the pen are non-porous.",
"My guess is that it's also about the friction. Paper causes friction so that the ball will roll and he ink will flow out. If the surface is too smooth, there isn't enough friction and the ball won't spin. "
]
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[],
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||
4muksm | why does high blood glucose cause nerve damage? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4muksm/eli5_why_does_high_blood_glucose_cause_nerve/ | {
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"The endothelial cells lining the blood vessels take in more glucose than normal, forming more glycoproteins on their surface than usual. This causes the basement membrane (which separates the vessels from underlying tissue) to grow thicker and weaker. The walls of the vessels become thicker and weaker than normal, resulting in bleeding, leaking of protein, and slowing blood flow through the body.\n\nAnd of course when cells like nerves don't get enough blood flow they will die.",
"Here's an analogy that is imperfect, but I find it close enough to be useful...\n\nThink of your bodies circulatory system like a series of roads: you've got your main arteries and veins which are like huge six-lane freeways roaring with traffic, these branch off into smaller main roads, these in turn branch into single lane backroads, and these branch off into countless alleyways, and the alleyways branch off into paths and passages that can only take pedestrian traffic.\n\nMost of the things your blood carries around your body are like small cars. But glucose, by comparison, is kind of like an eighteen wheeler big-rig. It's a big molecule and if you try to force it down an alley or some other tight passage you're inevitably going to do damage to the sides of the alley.\n\nWhen your glucose is higher than normal, it's like you are trying to force *crowds* of these trucks down the alleyways. They're two by two and side-by-side, they're wrecking everything. ",
"I'm surprised by the answers offered so far, as these are dated. Most experts in the field agree oxidative stress plays the major role in the pathophysiology of diabetic nerve damage. While numerous acceptable factors including aldose reductase pathway, glycation, protein kinase C activity are true. . . . many of these pathways interact with one another pathways, producing reactive species production termed as oxidative stress. "
]
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[],
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17mxf3 | how do textures get mapped onto a 3d model? | Example: _URL_0_
How does the model know where to put the different parts of the texture? It obviously doesn't just wrap it directly. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17mxf3/eli5_how_do_textures_get_mapped_onto_a_3d_model/ | {
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"text": [
"You're right, direct wrapping would make a confused mess.\n\nThe model is made of polygons - triangles, usually. Each corner has a 'texture coordinate', which tell it where on the texture image to draw its texture from.\n\nIf you take the model's mesh and place each vertex according to its texture coordinates, you get [something like this](_URL_0_).",
"Textures are mapped by a process called UV Unwrapping. If the positions of each point (vertex) on a model are represented by XYZ values, texture faces are represented by UV values.\n\nBasically, you are taking all of the polygons of a 3D model and laying them out flat on a 2D surface. The computer has many ways of creating a clean UV unwrap automatically, but in order to create nice looking textures that use as much of the available texture space as possible, the 3D artist will generally layout the UV's by hand. The UV unwrapped polygon should be as absolutely close in shape to the actual XYZ polygon on the model also, otherwise the texture will look stretched and distorted on the model."
]
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"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CfljvfoKXS4/TGGqQRiYl5I/AAAAAAAAA1o/Vi8gFfMGPdg/s1600/Model_Texture_Moneyfish.jpg"
] | [
[
"http://www.eurecom.fr/~image/Clonage/texture-coord.jpg"
],
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|
dy70z0 | why, with today's very detailed and distinguishable animation, do animated characters rarely wear different clothes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dy70z0/eli5_why_with_todays_very_detailed_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"f7yvmr9",
"f80ages"
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"text": [
"It is cheaper, either through paint and trace or CGI changing clothes requires extra work and so extra cost, so unless a change of clothes is essential to the plot they stay the same. In addition the audience associates a character not only by the way they look but also the way they dress.",
"The clothing is part of the character design. Plenty of animated characters wear different clothes when it is relevant to the plot, but they usually have a default set of clothes that they wear otherwise.\n\nI’d guess this is largely because of historical precedent: we’re used to seeing cartoons work this way, so the animators are just meeting our expectations. Plus they only have to design new outfits for the characters when it is relevant to the story."
]
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[],
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||
fvyyn1 | why does heavy cream poured into freshly made coffee go to the bottom and disappear before swirling to the top, but heavy cream poured into old, reheated coffee just settles at the top? | Yes, I use real heavy whipping cream in my coffee. The coffee is made using a Bunn drip coffeemaker. I've noticed that if I am drinking a freshly made pot, the cream pours in, sinks to the bottom, and then floats back to the top with this glorious blooming effect. But, if I get up and warm up yesterday's slops in the microwave, when I add the cream, it just sits on top. I've experimented with different warming times/temperatures, but it doesn't seem to matter. What could be the cause of this mysterious coffee anomaly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fvyyn1/eli5_why_does_heavy_cream_poured_into_freshly/ | {
"a_id": [
"fmligpu"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Maybe your microwave isn’t heating up the coffee evenly throughout? It could be that there’s a pocket of colder, denser coffee below the surface that’s preventing the cream from sinking. You could try giving the coffee a stir before adding the cream and see if that changes anything?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
dfyo3b | why are nordic countries (such as iceland, scandinavia, finland, etc.) are widely considered to be the most egalitarian by mainstream social sciences? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dfyo3b/eli5_why_are_nordic_countries_such_as_iceland/ | {
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"text": [
"Because they actually are. They have very high taxes on the wealthy, which they use to virtually eliminate poverty. Also, most of their population are from the same ethnic and cultural background, which reduces the amount of racial tension and prejudice compared to places like England or the USA.",
"Because the numbers generally say they have no noticeable pay gap, low income inequality in general, and good representation for their people. Generally.",
"Because they don’t let their most wealthy people treat the rest of the population like a piggy bank.",
"This question deserves a proper treatment in r/askhistorians, but for Sweden the simplest answer is that it was a conscious decision by politicians back in the 70's. They knew economy was important. By providing a strong safety net, entrepreneurs should be more willing to take risks. It did not quite work out as well as they thought however, but arguably the other benefits (no need to worry about health care or feeding your family) is well worth a high average tax pressure."
]
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||
6uir1d | why usb 3.1 gen 2 ssds (like the new t5) only transfer at 540mb/s? | I'm about to buy an SSD to use for editing on my MacBook (Yes the one with the controversially low number and variety of ports). All of those ports (USB-C Thunderbolt 3) Support speeds of 10Gb/s, which according to [this](_URL_0_) website is 1250 MB/s.
As far as I can tell, the new T5 takes advantage of this tech and is supposedly "super fast", but has a max read/write speed of 540Mb/s. What is causing this limitation, or is there no limitation and I got something completely wrong?
Thanks for any and all responses
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uir1d/eli5why_usb_31_gen_2_ssds_like_the_new_t5_only/ | {
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"text": [
"One possible reason is that the external drive uses an adapter emulating a SATA 3 interface, which has a maximum potential data transfer rate in the neighborhood of 550mbps. Going this route would enable the use of a off-the-shelf consumer SSD, which could save costs over a faster interface.\n\n",
"Looks like you are limited to the speed of the nand. Depending on which SSD you have and what kind of data is being written to, will determine its peak speed. But for last gen SSD's, thats about normal for sequential read/write speed. In reality, that is fast as hell so dont be discouraged that the bus isn't running at its full capacity.",
"1. It could be the max read/write speed of the SSD itself is 540Mb/s causing the bottleneck. \n\n2. The external drive could just use a plain ol' SATA3 Drive (or at least the SATA 3 interface internally) to save on costs - easier and cheaper to build 2 million drives and throw 1 million of them in external enclosures than 1 million drives specifically for external use and 1 million drives for internal.\n\n3. Very unlikely, but there could be a bottleneck on the chipset limiting actual throughput on the USB3.1 interface due to other (internal) devices consuming bandwidth, likely a dedicated graphics card. ",
"USB 3.1 gen2 supports 10Gbps. A highway supports 500mph? So why can't all cars that use the highway go at 500mph and are limited to say 150mph? \n\nSame thing. Usb3.1g2 is simply an interface specification. Like a highway. It's up to the device to be able to reach the peak tpt the interface supports. Most devices can't come close. "
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.gbmb.org/gbps-to-mbs"
] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
7lei5u | why are comedy/sitcom shows often written by a team of writers, where novels and screenplays credit one or few writers. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lei5u/eli5_why_are_comedysitcom_shows_often_written_by/ | {
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"text": [
"A screenplay is 120 minutes of content, tops. With usually months or years to get it all nailed down.\n\nA sitcom is 20-40 minutes a week, every week the show is on. That's an impossible amount of content for one person to write.",
"a sitcom has to get a new script ready to shoot every week. A novel or screenplay can take years.\n\nHaving a team means you can assign one writer to work on Script X, with maybe one or two others assisting him with ideas or jokes as needed. The next week that writer is on set doing last minute edits while his script is filmed, and another writer is taking the lead on the ext Script. And the whole team has a head writer coordinating everything. ",
"There are also a series of writers in popular movies. Also story by credits.\n\nA writers room might have to produce 22 44 minute episodes in a nine month period. Sometimes they work together. ",
"To be honest I think it's for much the same reason that the writer typically isn't the director....a historical one. Back in the days when plays were the only form of visual entertainment, and often performed in multiple locations by multiple troups and companies, it was not possible for the writer to be in all of those places to direct it. Hollywood adheres to that tradition though it's uneccesary today. \n\nWriting skits has historically been a collaborative process and Hollywood sticks with it. I think most writers can spit out a sitcom script every week but maybe it's funnier when minds collide. Also, with multiple writers the studio has a backup if someone is unable to show up.\n\n"
]
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||
2fuywn | why don't companies (or their banks) delete credit card information once the payment goes through? | Why do they need to keep it? It seems like an unnecessary exposure for these companies. Why don't the authorizing banks issue a confirmation number or something to prove that the payment was good. Then the payment info could be safely deleted.
Edit: ANSWERED. I misunderstood the nature of the attack. The hackers intercepted or created a program to intercept the payment info in transit. It wasn't stored by Home Depot or their payment processor. Thank you for clearing it up, all you helpful types. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fuywn/eli5_why_dont_companies_or_their_banks_delete/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckcztod",
"ckczwl1"
],
"score": [
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2
],
"text": [
"I work at an insurance company; we keep customers' credit card information just long enough to confirm that the charge has gone through. Then it's promptly redacted from all permanent files, and the temporary paperwork with credit card information is shredded.\n\nBefore this job, I worked for a medical supply firm that had similar policies, so I assume this is the norm.",
"Most companies do. The problem is in that brief moment when the full credit card is being transmitted..it gets intercepted."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
208vge | when i dream, is content generated ahead of time, or as i experience it? | I'm a composer, and last night I had a dream that I was at an orchestra rehearsal. I was flipping through page after page of sheet music I had never seen before, and they were all filled with notes. Eventually, I picked one and started to play it. Now, I can't help but wonder if those other pages were filled with material, or if my brain was simply generating recognizable patterns of nonsense. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/208vge/eli5when_i_dream_is_content_generated_ahead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg0vv7b"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"If the brain is capable of creating unique works while awake, there's no reason it can't while dreaming. However, I am curious if you remembered the composition well enough to know it wasn't gibberous that your brain is essentially convincing itself isn't. There are times I wake from a dream thinking \"Damn, what I just dreamed was fricken *brilliant*!\" But then when I think it over, it's just flimsy nonsense. The brain, rather than going through the effort of coming up with something really unique (with no greater success rate than when awake), simply goes to the \"Wow-that's-cool\" part of the brain, and turns it on, so the bullshit *seems* cool."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1ks1ws | how do military aircraft war games work? | Obviously the pilots can't actually shoot each other down right?
How are fighter jet win/loss ratios figured out? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ks1ws/eli5_how_do_military_aircraft_war_games_work/ | {
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"text": [
"The same way as laser tag",
"Plane A has missile lock on another plane B, the computer on plane B senses a missile lock and registers a missile hit. Yea just like lasertag",
" [This is a great documentary I found about 3 years ago. ](_URL_0_)\n > Red Flag is the international training exercise for air forces of allied countries where many of the world’s best pilots meet for the most challenging flying of their careers. It is the final training for pilots and their aircrews before being sent into actual combat\n",
"During the war games they challenge different aircraft against each other along with having guys on the ground with equipment that can trigger the aircraft's ECM (electronic counter measures) when an aircraft gets a missile lock they track where the aircraft is, what missile system was used and the target aircrafts evasive maneuvers that it performed. All of this is then communicated to the pilot and they continue.\nOn the ground we sometimes fire foam rockets in unison with the equipment used to simulate missile lock to help the pilots (and crew chiefs on rotary aircraft) have a visual aid so that they can perform the correct type of GTR (ground threat reaction). One time while working smokey Sam (foam rockets) a crew chief started firing on us with his gau-17 mini gun. PTSD or something. Was scared shitless but we did get the next day off so kinda worth it.",
"Don't forget they also test the ground crews. Who can put the most planes in the air the safest and most efficient way possible often wins the war. Having the better ground crews also input into the final scores."
]
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"http://documentarystorm.com/fighter-pilot-operation-red-flag/"
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|
d0y8c3 | why is it that only propeller planes are used to fly into extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d0y8c3/eli5_why_is_it_that_only_propeller_planes_are/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the propellers(mostly turboprops WP-3 & C130 models ) cut hail and other debris in the clouds where as jet engines will ingest , which could damage the turbines and cause the engines to flameout",
"Also, the birds they fly into hurricanes (P-3 Orions, if ai remember correctly) are loaded down with instrumentation to study the storm. Flying slower allows more time to collect data on each pass through the storm.\n\nOn top of that, turboprop engines are more fuel efficient than turbofans or turbojets, making rhem cheaper to fly, and are more resistant to damage caused by ingesting hard objects like hailstones because the inlet path doean't have to be straight like it does on a turbofan or turbojet"
]
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[],
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||
3jdn30 | why is google search on a website so much worse than the regular google search engine? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jdn30/eli5_why_is_google_search_on_a_website_so_much/ | {
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"cuoif4z"
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"text": [
"Google indexes data using webcrawlers. It requires a site map and it crawls the metadata (ie. tag words) from the sitemap pages. Once results are indexed, it stores them in multiple servers and they are available to be searched in the google bar. It does this process constantly. Issues arise when the original site changes content or the sitemap or tag words aren't the latest. Google still has the old information, causing incorrect results. However, adding the site name creates the possibility of 'forcing' Google to index the content and refreshing the correct results. \n\ni didn't get into the fact Google receives $ from companies wanting to boost their results, and there are companies which provide this service as well. \n\nsource: search engine architect. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2rr1rk | why is it legal for att/tmobile/verizon to throttle my data after 5gb if i purchase 15gb per month? | It seems pointless to pay for a large data plan if they slow it down after a while. I know the FTC had a suit againt ATT about it but I believe they're still doing it, so how is this legal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rr1rk/eli5_why_is_it_legal_for_atttmobileverizon_to/ | {
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"You purchased 15GB, not \"unthrottled\" 15GB. It's legal because in the fine print they told you they were going to do it, and you agreed.",
"It's one of the reasons I dropped ATT and couldn't be happier! They throttle way too much, fuck ATT.",
"Because they donate to campaigns and you don't",
"This is a consumer protection issue that's still getting hashed out in the courts. Contrary to many of the opinions here, just because you agreed to terms hidden in the fine print of a contract does *not* mean it's legal or a fair contract, and you *do* have the right to be upset at being deceived.\n\nThe reason they're still able to throttle your connection is because this is an issue that's still being fought in court. All of the major ISP's are going to continue engaging in deceptive, unfair, and *profitable* business practices until they're forced to stop, because there often isn't any other internet option in your area for them to compete against, so there's no chance of them losing your business, and conventional market forces can't make them stop.",
"I'm 100% positive ATT and Verizon don't throttle on their tiered data plans. They only throttle on their obsolete unlimited plans. \n",
"AT & T does NOT throttle your 15 gb data plan after 5 gbs of use, they do however throttle your unlimited data after 5 gbs of use. I had the unlimited plan but now have the 15 gb data plan. Never been throttled on my current plan. ",
"I guess because they still can make more money that way, even if they lose customers. _URL_0_",
"TMO doesn't even offer a 15GB data package.....",
"I work for AT & T and can tell you that it only is going to be throttled after 5gb if you have the unlimited data plan. The new mobile share value plan does not get throttled",
"Phone companies don't like it when people use colossal amounts of data because it clogs up the system and slows everything down for everyone. That's why the major phone companies (minus Sprint) don't allow unlimited data because it slows everything down. The phone companies throttle your data because if there are too many people in one area with big data plans it would also clog up the system from everyone using all the data the possibility could."
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3h1phq | how clothing stores can make money with all the ridiculous amounts of overhead they seem to have. it doesn't all get sold, does it? if not, where does unsold merchandise go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h1phq/eli5_how_clothing_stores_can_make_money_with_all/ | {
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"The big thing to understand about clothing stores is how little the actual clothes cost to produce. They are often less than $3 per piece of clothing. \n\nYes there is a lot of overhead, yes there is a lot of unsold products that get sent back, but all of that is factored into the price you pay at the retail store. ",
"Not being able to sell every piece of merchandise is factored into the prices. That $30 shirt will cost them $3-$10 and the rest of that money is profit. \n\nWhat they do not sell is sometimes sent back to the factory, but it is sold to outlets stores more often. If the outlet store does not sell it they often sell it to companies that ship them to 3rd world countries. "
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aw94rg | how are films used for money laundering? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aw94rg/eli5_how_are_films_used_for_money_laundering/ | {
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"Another name for this is \"Hollywood Accounting,\" and I knew some film people who practiced it liberally. You see you start a production company, then you start a camera rental company, and a light rental company, and a makeup company, and a...\n\nAnd then you as a production company rent your cameras and lighting and all your other equipment, which you already own, from yourself, and you pay yourself from yourself to do all the work and hire yourself out. Then all these companies write off all sorts of expenses off as losses so that no one makes money and all the money funnels right back into your own pocket so you get rich anyway.\n\nAnd so when the movie goes to the box office and makes millions of dollars, all these companies get first cut to pay off their debts to themselves which means to yourself, but the debt is higher than the profits so it's all a loss, you're rich, and all these companies fold.\n\nIt also means that the wording in an actor's contract is tricky, because if you're supposed to get a cut of the profits, that's not the same thing as a cut of the revenue. And where you stand in line, who gets paid first, is also important. If worded correctly, a movie can make millions, see no profit, no one gets paid, not even the actors, and you walk away rich.\n\nThat's the gist. And frankly, it's terribly easy. It's easy as fuck. And you fold all these companies and their records disappear into the ether - you have on record you got paid by your employer, totally legit, but there's no business entity left around to question.",
"Movies are outrageously expensive. An early movie maker (Irving Thalberg maybe) said \"Cinema is the only art form where the artist can't hope to afford his materials.\"\n\nMoney laundering involves converting actual cash into bank deposits. Movies have lots and lots of people, like caterers and extras, who are more than willing to get paid in cash. Lots and lots of people and smallish transactions means that there are no big red flags to attract the FBI. \n\nExample: You have 500 people show up to be background in a shot and pay them $100 each. Now your books document you spent $50K of the \"producer's money\", and that could easily be illegal cash (aka drug money).\n\nThe movie sells tickets, and it's time to pay back the investors. You have a long list of itemized expenses (including the $50K for those extras). The returns are used pay back this \"investment\" and the \"producer\" (aka drug dealer) gets a nice, clean bank draft that includes that $50K. Their drug money is now \"laundered\" and legitimate business income that they can pay taxes on and keep forever. Who knows, the movie might even make a profit and pay them interest on their investment (but the other answer explained how unlikely this is in Hollywood Accounting)."
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3guph4 | how do they synchronize a fast paced multiplayer game? | If I shoot at a moving target, due to lag there will be different perceptions on whether I hit him. How is this determined? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3guph4/eli5_how_do_they_synchronize_a_fast_paced/ | {
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"The server has all the information about the players and NPCs. your local game tells the server what you are doing, and the server sees if that does anything, and if so it changes values accordingly, and then sends that information but to your local game. This process repeats until you disconnect or the game ends.",
"Former game dev here,\n\nThis is actually a really interesting problem to solve. The easiest way to do it is to have the server be the authority. The console is just the video terminal, displaying the state of the game as the server dictates it is. When you shoot, that happens on the server, and you simply display the results.\n\nMost games are some variation of this. Where things get interesting is that video games are rather predictive in their displays to account for lag. Ever get stuck running forward in WoW because of a dropped connection? Your inputs go to the server and you display the server response, with the connection dropped, that cycle is broken, and you only see the prediction animation until you get a new connection, then the world jaunts to the latest server state.\n\nAnd how do FPS games do this so fast? Most bullet physics are \"ray casts\". The game draws a straight line and checks to see if it collides with a target. It's an instant hit, it's cheap to compute, and fast. Games with bullet travel account for time and will draw an arch. It's more expensive and depends on some predictive modeling. Projectiles are actual physical models in the game and run normal collision routines as your avatar bumping into a wall...\n\n---\n\nOn this subject, physics and animation are HARD. You have an object with a velocity, and you have gaps in time because you need to render frames. What if a billiard ball is moving so fast toward a wall that it bumps off and moves in a different direction between frames? One moment you saw this thing moving toward the wall, the next moment it's moving away in a different direction; it magically transported!\n\nWhen performing the physics calculations, we have to conceptually draw the path of all the objects and ask who is colliding first, and is it visible to a player? If a billiard ball collides with the wall, you HAVE TO SHOW the collision. Your mind needs to register the billiard ball hit the wall and bounced off, or the world won't make any sense.\n\nYou may be trying to render frames at a regular 1/60 second interval, but this collision happened between frames, so your timing gets skewed! You end up rendering a frame that happened at 1/58 second! If this happens once or twice, no big deal, and you can compensate in the next frame by rendering 1/62 of a second later. But if this happens frequently, the passage of time and reality skews.\n\nThis is why billiard ball games are some of the hardest video games to make and among the most under appreciated.",
"To also add, some servers use a token system, which works well for \"contested\" events where two opponents shoot at one another at \"visually\" the same time. The token is simply a token that is attached to the data saying \"I hit you.\" In that token is either a timestamp or the server queues the tokens in a First in first out basis, as in, the first to send a token wins. If it has a timestamp, it is who has the earlier token wins, most likely this. So, even if it appears you shot first, maybe not. It could be that he shot first.",
"I was a game programmer and used to do most of our multiplayer code. There are different ways to handle things depending on the nature of the gameplay, but for a typical first person shooter nowadays the server buffers position updates to an extent to be able to get the true velocity for clients to interpolate without warping, plus the normal latency means each player is looking at where everyone else was some fraction of a second ago (maybe a half second or more). When you shoot someone, your client does the proper check for line-of-sight and sends the server a message (\"I shot player 3 at time 12345.12 in frame #456\") and here it depends on the nature of the gameplay. Typically the server goes back to the positions at that frame in its (past) buffer and verifies or rejects the hit, testing whether you legitimately shot the player *at that point in time, from your perspective,* even though the player you hit may have actually ducked behind an obstacle in the most recent update. Really the programmers wait to see if testers notice discrepancies like that and tweak it if needed (for example, checking the original shot and doing another check for the most recent update, which is computationally more expensive for the server but should catch last-second evasions like that). Usually players tend not to notice little things like that in a fast moving game. \n",
"In Team fortress 2, a variable called cl_interp controls lag compensation, which helps fix these issues for people with more than 50-100 millisecond ping. \n\nWith your cl_interp_ratio set to compensate 50ms (1/20 of a second), your bullets' hit detection looks at where everything was 50 ms ago instead of looking where the target is now (according to the server), because you fired at your target 50 ms ago, when the last ping was sent, and the server doesn't get the notification that you fired until now.\n\nWith your cl_interp_ration set to compensate 1000ms (a whole second), your bullets hit where the target was a whole second ago, leading to some frustrating scenarios where the target thinks he's behind cover.",
"The server is the referee on who gets hit and doesn't get hit. This is the only logical solution because if the referee was each player's computer there would be instances where there would be a disagreement. Sort of like children playing tag on a playground, kids will disagree with each other. \"I tagged you!\" \"no you didn't!\" \"Yes I did!\". But in game environment with lag, both children would be right and wrong at the same time as it is a matter of perspective. This is why a server makes the decisions and not individual players computers/consoles.\n\nNow you might be wondering. \"Can you please explain lag a bit more. Cause I just shot this guy and it didn't count and I jumped around the corner to dodge a rocket but I still got hit and blew up. What is happening!?\"\n\nOkay, so one of the earliest online realtime games was a first person shooter game called quake. This was one of the first games that allowed players to setup their own servers that allowed players to join a game at their own leisure. However there was thing called lag. And players experienced lag differently in the early days of quake. Players that pushed forward would have to wait for the server to notify them that they moved forward. This made the online experience feel strange as players always felt like they were slipping and sliding around. To counter this, id changed quakes online multiplaer code and called this incarnation of quake, Quakeworld is one of the earliest examples of lag prediction in a realtime online game. What is lag prediction? It is taking into account the players current movements to predict where they might be in the future. What this allowed for the player to move about freely without sliding across the floor. There is a catch though. Where the player thinks they are, they are not, the player's hitbox and where other players see him will always be lagging behind where the player thinks they exist on the server. This is why sometimes a player jumps behind a wall to dodge a rocket only to still die. It is because the server player was dragging behind. A better analogy for this would be that the player is always dragging their visual server representation around like an anchor. Where you think you were, is where you are now on the server.\n\nFinally there is the issue of sending packets of data across the internet either User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Transmission Control Protocol(TCP) . Most realtime action games use UDP.\n\nSo what is that stuff I just said and how does it relate to lag in video games. \n\nTCP is a means of sending data over the internet. It is like you sending a letter to your friend in another country and before you send another letter to your friend, you wait. You even call your friend on the phone asking him if he got your letter you sent to him in the mail. If he doesn't, you send that same letter again. And again until he does receive it. And when he tells you he did receive your letter. You send him a different letter. And the process repeats itself on and on.\n\nUDP is different. You are sending letters to your friend as fast as you can regardless whether he is receiving or reading the letters you are sending. You are wanting to tell your friend everything that is happening as soon as possible. You tell your friend. \"Hey read my most recent letters. If you didn't get the last letter I sent you. No big deal. Just read the newest letters.\" At the same time, your friend is also sending you letters, telling you, it \"it doesn't matter if you got the last letter I sent you\" read the most recent letter I sent to you now.\n\nFor both UDP and TCP methods the player still has to wait on the mailman to deliver the goods. If you live far from your friend and there are a bunch mail stations that your mail has to be sorted through. It will take longer for the letters to arrive at their destination. The amount of time it takes for your letters to arrive at their destination, we shall call it ping.\n\nRealtime online games typically use UDP. This keeps the action flowing and as up to date as to what is happening on the server. The problem however is that sometimes the packets (letters from your friend) get lost somehow. This can cause fluctuations in how players are moving on the server. Add this problem together with problems of high ping times and issues of lag prediction and you get what we generally call, lag.\n\nOne last thing. Some things are not synchronized because they don't need to be. Rag dolls that don't effect gameplay, will be calculated on the clients computer and not on the server. This is why sometimes you see a guy ducking at random after killing you. He is trying to teabag you, but your computer and his computer don't agree with where your corpse went."
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5xokvr | how have wolves impacted yellowstone? | How have they affected the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere? I'm in geography so i would like answers. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xokvr/eli5_how_have_wolves_impacted_yellowstone/ | {
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"This is just one example. \n\nMore grazing animals means less vegetation for other animals to use as a home or shelter from prey.\n\nThey also took vegetation away from the river banks causing more erosion. (The roots held the soil in place)\n\nThe reintroduction of wolves stopped that and kept the grazing animal population in check, allowing the vegetation to grow back.",
"There was a short video that came out a year or two ago on this very topic. You can see *[How wolves change rivers](_URL_1_)*, only four minutes long or so.\n\nEssentially, the absence of the large predator allowed large grazing animal populations to boom, and because the herds had to eat, they ended up stripping the area of most of the vegetation. This in turn impacted the number and variety of small animals, birds, and insects the area could support.\n\nThe loss of so much vegetation also increased soil runoff into creeks, which impacted the fish and aquatic insects. And of course, the loss of soil changes (again) the plants that can grow.\n\nThe wolves ate some deer, but more importantly they were able to influence behavior of the deer and force them to move from area to area, allowing areas to regenerate between seasons of being partially de-nuded. As different zones of the park were able to have a break from the constant pressure of the deer, the overall ecological health of each area improved :). Healthier plants, and a wider variety of plants supported a greater diversity of other animals and insects, and improved soil retention (reduced erosion). The reduced erosion meant waterways could support more life as they were no longer full of mud and dust. Good times all around.\n\nTourism may also have spiked, especially in the first few years after the re-introduction; and you will find very few people suggesting boosting the local economy of towns around the parks is a bad thing. As long as visits are not so numerous as to create over-trafficking problems to the area that cash-flow is a plus for the region :).\n\nThe idea is related to the [Keystone Species Theory](_URL_0_). Beavers and Prairie Dogs and humans among many other species fall into this category along with wolves."
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eaafop | why can't cpus merge cores? | So this is probably really stupid, but why, for a company such as AMD, cant they make a CPU similar to the 3970x but with 8 or so big cores with improved performance? I keep seeing insane core counts from them, but I don't quite get why they can't make really good single-core performance. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eaafop/eli5_why_cant_cpus_merge_cores/ | {
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"There's a whole host of reasons, heat production, physical limitation to addressing, bandwidth to each core, etc. \n\nBasically, if each core has its own addressing, it gets it's own data pipes, its own RAM, etc. One giant core would still be limited to what a single core could address, you'd also run into limits of thermodynamics. Power consumption would be off the scale, and there would be bottlenecks all over the place.",
"If one has a big house and multiple cabinets and kitchen appliances but only one person (thread) then that takes time to process serially in length versus a team of people (multiple threads).\n\nA small house and kitchen cannot fit many people walking about either, which goes to the physical traces of people routing to needed parts of the house.\n\nThen there is the agreed layout and remembered organization of tools and ingredient access (data storage and memory addressing). If there is any conflict of calls or needed slowdown to translate, this adds time to resolve for performance access of a timely manner.\n\nIn short, this is a balance of the intended output of a quick bachelor meal or a banquet for a large family gathering. Larger houses can process more at the cost of energy and heat with the space and usage.\n\nTo merge cores would require to decide what appliances and house layout to keep for optimal energy use with little uncomfortable heat for the people that walk about the area and this is given the output intended (a simple dedicated meal versus an excessive large buffet of varying side dishes).",
"We are at the point where a single CPU core can't really get significantly better without also producing so much heat as to basically vaporize itself - heat production being *very* nonlinear with performance - remember that for extreme overclocking to 6GHz and above people have to constantly dump liquid nitrogen on CPUs as it boils off. We need to invent new materials/technologies to step forward.\n\nOn the other hand getting a bunch of cores and dumping them on one chip is a lot easier and results in actual tangible performance improvement, with *much* less heat output increase than trying to get the same processing power into one core.",
"Bigger is not better for CPU cores. Think of a CPU core as an engine that will always output the same amount of power regardless of its size (More on this in a bit). But the bigger it is, the more heat it generates. To prevent it from melting itself, we need to cool it. You cool it by either sticking something on it to suck away the heat or by slowing it down. Smaller CPU produces less heat which means it can run faster for longer.\n\nNow on the (counter) intuitive nature of bigger does not equal more power. A CPU is a logic circuit. Which means when you send electricity in a certain pattern through it, it will send electricity out in a certain pattern. Power for a CPU is determined by how quickly it will send that pattern out. Suddenly doubling the number of transistors in the CPU core is not going to make it spit out that pattern any faster. It depends on how quickly electricity can get in and out of the core, not the number of transistors it goes trough to do it.\n\nSo why have we been shoving more cores into CPUs? Well, the chip is going to be a certain size. Transistors have been shrinking in size for as long as they have existed and they can fit more transistors onto the chip. We've long passed the time where we really need to add more transistors to the CPU core to make it faster. So the next best thing to do with all that extra chip space is to shove more cores in there (Technically cache space helps but that's another story).\n\nYou've mentioned stuff like TurboBoost that Intel has. Well, in that scenario Intel does a clever trick because their CPU is limited by heat. The CPU itself can actually go really fast (This applies to AMD as well), much faster than their quoted specs. But the problem is that running it at that speed will basically melt the CPU. So they shut down unneeded cores which now no longer produce heat. That means the one running core can now crank up its speed because it can produce more heat by itself before melting the whole CPU."
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98rewk | why is synthetic caffeine more harmful than natural caffeine? shouldn't the formula be exactly the same? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/98rewk/eli5_why_is_synthetic_caffeine_more_harmful_than/ | {
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"Source: college student who experimented with all forms of caffeine. \n\nThe issue with “synthetic caffeine” is dosing. A typical serving of caffeine is around 70-100mg. Back when amazon still allowed users to buy bags of caffeine, my friends and I got a 500g bag— the serving spoon for it was basically just a plastic stick with a microscopic bowl at the end of it. As a result, it was very easy to overdose. \n\nThis problem is mitigated by caffeine pills (which I also frequently used). Comparing coffee to caffeine pills is a lot like comparing beer to hard alcohol. Anecdotally, the pills will hit you faster and typical doses are 100 or 200mg. Novice caffeine users will feel uncomfortable from these, especially on an empty stomach. Additionally, heavy caffeine users will quickly build a tolerance and pills grant them the ability to ingest massive doses quickly, which becomes dangerous. \n\nFrom my research and experience, there is nothing inherently more dangerous about “synthetic” caffeine; however, it opens up lots of possibilities for user error, especially when most users neglect the dangers and risks of the drug. "
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3a0nsq | why do normal, rational adults always think that snoozing an alarm for 5 minutes will make any difference at all? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a0nsq/eli5_why_do_normal_rational_adults_always_think/ | {
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"It routinely does for me? ",
"That isn't particularly true because.. Sleep is comprised of 3 NREM stages and one REM stage. Every stage lasts approximately 5-15 minutes long and the NREM stages become shorter the longer you've been asleep while the REM cycle will last longer. When you interrupt a stage, either from the alarm clock or otherwise, you will fall back asleep and resume that stage. This explains why people will say they go back into nightmares once they have woken up and fallen back asleep again. Falling back asleep for 5 more minutes could easily complete a stage thus making them feel less tired.",
"Just because something isn't one way for you doesn't mean it isn't that way for others. Some people really like that extra bit of time. They feel like they wake up in stages of awareness, instead of abruptly. \n\n",
"But it does make a difference. I get 5 more minutes in a warm bed, as opposed to getting to work 5 minutes earlier.",
"I might not jump out of bed, so if I want to slowly wake up, I hit snooze for just in case I fall back to sleep.",
"Because it takes exactly five minutes to negotiate with yourself that staying put in the nice, warm cocoon of comfort that is your bed when you first wake up is not actually worth losing your job for. \n\nOn especially cold mornings it can take up to 12 minutes, with the aid of diagrams.",
"In addition to what other people have explained: \nWhen you're *just* waking up, you're not in your most rational state of mind. Especially if you were in a deep sleep. All you care about at that moment is getting more sleep.",
"I don't think the question is very clear. What difference do you think we're trying to make? ",
"I'd say because you aren't a normal, rational adult when you first wake up. The primal urge for sleep overpowers all else.",
"I cant say about rationality. But I do have a reason for my 5 minute snooze. Even before I came to know about rem cycles, my body always told me that waking up at a particular moment made me more cranky than waking up 5 min after that...experience u see. Also, it gives me time to reason myself out of sleeping and eventually give in to waking up.",
"I use two alarms about 20 minutes apart. My first one is a rather gentle sound to ease me awake. I'll take that time to lay in relative comfort and slowly get my mind working rather than shooting straight out of bed. Sometimes I'll just get up if I'm feeling particularly chipper or more often than not nature calls. Having a second alarm if I do end up nodding off while being comfy in bed is more of a conventional alarm. No more time to stay in bed. Seems to work for me. I'm not a morning person so having all that time to slowly join the world helps me by the time I'm in my car to drive. That's my rational for my activities. "
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1k54l6 | why do muslim women not think of themselves as 'oppressed?' | Most people seem to be interpreting my question differently than I had intended. I should have asked, What are the counter responses to the idea that Muslim women are oppressed/treated as a lesser? The argument being from a 'modern' feminist view---I'm looking for the counter. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k54l6/eli5_why_do_muslim_women_not_think_of_themselves/ | {
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"Plenty do. There are grassroots movements all over the Middle East and Africa.\n\n[Edit, since this is picking up steam.] Islam doesn't inherently oppress women. Some Islamic country's have imposed heavy limitations on women's rights, but most of this happened very recently. For example, the Taliban was only in power in Afghanistan from 1995-2001, so I would guess that there is less \"indoctrination\" and more silencing, but how would any of us know what silenced people from a foreign culture are thinking?",
"It isn't even just Muslim women though. It's the majority of women in third-world countries that are oppressed. Women are oppressed in most of the world and they also are still oppressed in the West, in comparison to white men. Globally, it's a problem and I think it's difficult to comprehend when it's every women you know is being oppressed in some way.\n\nPlus, oppression is subjective. Who is to say you aren't oppressed? Most of us are rented out by a company or individual and do as we are told most of the day in order for the owner to profit more without the question of oppression ever arising in our minds.\n",
"If I decide my religion, I'm not oppressed.\n\nIf someone else decides my religion, then I'm oppressed.\n\nSome women are free to choose their religion, and choose Islam. They are not oppressed. Some women *believe* they are free to choose their religion, and that they have chosen Islam. They do not believe that they are being oppressed. Some women do not believe they are free to choose, and have Islam thrust upon they. They believe they are oppressed.\n\nA woman who freely choose Islam and it's tenets is not oppressed, even if she participates in rituals or customs that seem oppressive. ",
"It's interesting how narrow a view of muslim people in this thread have. My ex is a muslim, we would drink, smoke weed and have sex. I can text her and ask her why she doesn't feel oppressed?\n\nEdit: Apparently this thread is filled with people who think people are not Muslims if they don't fit their narrow image of one. Do you apply such strict requirements to other religions? Are you going to go to north western nepal and tell them they're not really buddhists because they've mixed it with Hinduism? Are you telling gay people they can't be jews or Christians? ",
"I heard that some Muslim women actually feel sorry for western women and feel like they have it better - their fathers/brothers/husbands take care of them their whole lives; they don't have to worry about providing for the family or getting a job; they don't have to stress about finding a husband because their parents will arrange their marriage. I've also heard that it's a common perception over there that all western women are sluts.\n\nI used to work with a guy from Iran who moved here with his wife, and there really is a lot of propaganda about western society over there. When the secretary in our office asked him if his wife was going to get a job, he said that she wouldn't because \"women who work outside the home are whores\". He was very difficult to work with initially because of the way he treated all the women that worked there; but after a year or so he seemed to change his worldview. By the time I left that company, his wife had a good job in a bank and he was a lot easier to work with.",
"Many Muslim women (and men) do feel oppressed by the bigots around them. For example, my wife suffered both physical and verbal abuse from non-Muslims once she decided to wear a headscarf halfway through college, and that was at the \"liberal\" UCLA. Here in the eastern US it's even worse. We routinely have people on the street call us un-American (both of us are third generation Americans) and tell us how horrible we are. We're denied service in stores and often physically accosted. \"Ironically\", we're most at home with the LGBT community; my wife's worked as a counselor for youth that have been turned out by their [mostly Evangelical Christian] families and I'm involved in organizing and fundraising. The issue of my wife covering her hair hasn't come up in that environment and we're not treated like we're different/inferior. ",
"In the west, we have developed an understanding of gender equality that is mired in our communal history. A western feminism course will tell you about the gains in workplace equality after the first and second world wars, the suffragette movement, and so on. \n\nIn the middle east, this is entirely reversed. Given the move towards Islamic fundamentalism and regression in standards in equality over the last fifty years, to the Western eye the narrative of Islamic feminism is going backwards.\n\nThis causes contention between western and Islamic feminists. Many western feminists believe that Islamic women are 'brainwashed' into not recognising their oppression, with women reflexively representing their own repression as supportive. \n\nIslamic women active in eastern feminist dialogues contend that western feminism makes no space for motherhood, childbearing and the role of the 'wife', a conversation that we often encounter in the west too (think of all those articles about women 'trying to have it all).\n\nIslamic women therefore accept concepts that are 'repressive' to our westernized viewpoint, such as the hijab or their collective exclusion from many public spaces, and interpret it as a recognition of the fundamental biological (and, according to the Qur'an, god-given) differences between men and women.\n",
"Because whenever they want to think and discuss complicated issues like oppression someone comes along and makes massive ignorant generalizations about 1.2 billion people who live in all sorts of countries around the world with all sorts of cultures, histories, etc.",
"I think this question is based off muslim stereotypes...but I get what you're asking. But to be fair, the muslim religion itself is no more oppressive to women than the Christian religion. It's more the culture of these countries which cause the standards you're thinking of.\n\nAnyways, in my bible study we had a Muslim woman come in and talk about her head dress and why she wears it. She says that she feels more like herself when she wears it. She doesn't feel judged for her looks or her body, the only thing she's seen for is her mind and personality. When you see her you know she is muslim, something she is proud of. For her it's liberating to wear it.\n\nBut wearing a veil is a choice, you don't have to wear one.\n\n",
"Why not go to /r/islam and ask someone there.",
"I've heard it explained like this: in the same way we may feel oppressed by how our society requires us to hold a full time job or more, we also feel putting up with it to survive makes us strong. I'm not sure how accurate that is because I am not Muslim, and I'm sure the following isn't the case for everyone, but it was explained once to me by a Muslim that complying to all those rules is a test and symbol of strength.",
"I come from the largest Muslim country on Earth: Indonesia.\n\nIt is important to remember that Islam is not just a religion. It is a culture, geography, spirituality, and history which varies largely in part depending on the region. For example, although there are are certain consistencies worldwide, in large part Middle Eastern Muslims are very different from Indonesian Muslims, who are very different from many Muslims living in America, etc.\n\nBut back to the question, Indonesian Muslims do not think of themselves as oppressed because apart from a few conservative pockets - such as Aceh - Indonesia is a very progressive country. Women have been in important positions of power and leadership since the old empires of the Majapahit, till modern day. Women in majority of families have had the option to dress how they want and act how they want. In general, this largest Muslim-majority democracy on Earth treats women with respect, (apart from a few human rights issues here and there which is not unusual for any third world country Muslim or otherwise.)\n\n**tl;dr The question should be \"Why do Muslim women in certain parts of the world not feel oppressed\"** (There is no such thing as a worldwide Muslim beyond a few core concepts, a common and easy misconception to make)",
"The same reason Christian women don't think of themselves as 'oppressed' while being part of a male dominated, patriarchal, man worshiping religion that has, in its history, denied them power, status, human rights and made them property to males.\n\nGod is love. Not power. ",
"Because I find solace, strength, and a sense of community through my religion. What I find irritating is people telling me that i'm oppressed, I'm an adult woman and I have agency. Quit it.\n\nPeople use the figure of the oppressed Muslim woman for political reasons. Somehow \"oppressed\" Muslim women only exist and count outside of North America, as soon as we exist in the same spaces that you do (you being someone who imagine all Muslim women to be oppressed) our voices do not matter. ",
"Im a Muslim woman and i don't feel oppressed. Why should i ? Im not saying that there are no cases whereby women(not just Muslim) are being oppresed. But for as long as i have lived, i have never felt any well,opperession. (Aside from the general sexism,racism,hate that exists in this modern world)i live in a Muslim country, i go to school, work, hang out with my friends, shopping,travel,drive,vote etc. In short, i am quite free to do whatever i want like most women around the world.And i can say the same for the rest of my Muslims friends. \nBut i do have this to say though, cases of Muslim Women being oppressed occurs when the society that they are in failed to distinguish between their backward ass \"tradition\" and \"culture\" with Religion(Islam) Like removing women from the outside world, forcing them to just stay in the kitchen and make sandwiches for their husbands? Hell no. That is not Islam. ",
"They don't know any different. You can't see infrared but you didn't think of yourself as disabled or partially blind even though many creatures can see other light spectrums. \n\nIt's also easy if you're used to something to see it in a positive way. There's a video of a blind guy elegantly explaining how being blind is nice in that he is unable to judge people based on beauty among other things. \n\nWe have a habit of justifying unchangeable things in our lives to make ourselves feel better. The effect is even stronger if indoctrinated into a particular mode of thinking. ",
"I personally don't feel oppressed because, living in the United States and born to Egyptian parents, I was allowed to choose if and when I wore the hijab (and in fact, I chose to when I was 13 and my mom tried to convince me to wait to make sure I was ready for it). I agree that in some ways my freedom is limited, but that's not because I'm a Muslim, it's more because my parents are traditional, old-world, and somewhat strict; if they had been Jewish or Christian with their same personalities I'm sure I would have had a similar upbringing. To say that all Muslim women are oppressed is to put us all in a teeny little box; Wikipedia says that about 23.4% of the world's population is Muslim (1.6 billion in 2010), and if we figure that about half of that is women, that's over 500,000,000 people you're suggesting have no say in their lives, or feel victimized, which is not a generalization you can make. A lot of women in the world who aren't Muslim are oppressed, and a lot of women who are Muslim aren't oppressed. \n\nI understand that it does seem oppressive, but lots of religions have head coverings, and lots of societies have rules as to when and how women can be seen in public (even in the US we shame women who are out alone at night in skimpier clothes because \"they're asking to be raped\"). In that regard, oppression is really a feminist issue that has many forms, and isn't specific to any one group."
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6ckchy | why is/was there such a huge debate about the last two remaining sources of smallpox being destroyed? | I have done a little bit of research but a lot the information I am having trouble understanding. If the virus can be synthesized with DNA why is/was it an issue to get rid of the stored viruses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ckchy/eli5_why_iswas_there_such_a_huge_debate_about_the/ | {
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"And the expert consensus sides with you. Objections largely focused on the possibility that the actual samples might be more effective for furthering research and responses than our collected data on the virus, and the possibility that undocumented smallpox samples might still exist to cause an outbreak. The latter possibility, I think, is the more interesting one, and I suspect it carries more weight.\n\nSmallpox is *horrifying*, and the disease was eradicated almost 40 years ago. Half of the human population was never vaccinated against it because it didn't exist in the wild during their lifetime. Even for the vanishingly small fraction of persons born since that *have* been vaccinated (mostly soldiers and medical professionals who anticipated the possibility of its use as a bioweapon), *there is no way to test its effectiveness*. If there is some outbreak, whether by accidental discovery of undocumented samples or its use as a weapon, the results might be very, very bad.\n\nOr, maybe, the last samples really were eliminated. Or maybe our vaccines are perfectly effective, and we can ramp up production of them rapidly enough to meet any outbreak. Maybe eliminating those last samples really was the safest route forward.\n\nThe cost of being wrong on those counts, however, would be phenomenal. And for the custodians of those last samples, that risk was a heavy burden."
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cjcpfi | why is it advised to not give water to someone that's bleeding due to an accident? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cjcpfi/eli5_why_is_it_advised_to_not_give_water_to/ | {
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"There seems to be two major explanations for this. \n\nThe big one is it's a choking hazard. People who are severely injured tend to vomit or could have trouble swallowing. So there's a chance this could end up in the lungs and now you have more problems to deal with. \n\n~~A minor explanation is that when suffering trauma, shock is a big concern. Shock can cause your body temperature to drop. So giving water could sap heat from the casualty.~~ this appears to be bullshit. \n\nIf you are with an injured person and they request water it is advised to moisten their lips. Less than a mouthful of water. Just enough to wet their mouth and make them comfortable again.",
"So you know how people get surgeries right? They give them medicine to sleep. Unfortunately, this medicine can make you a little queasy. This can make you throw up. This throw up can block your Airway, and make it hard to breathe, or possibly even kill you. The person in your scenario I assume needs major surgery. They will need that medicine so their belly needs to be empty.\n\nNow given the same scenario before the doctors get involved bleeding a lot can also make you queasy and thursty. You could imagine how much more complicated the problem becomes when you're once only bleeding patient is now choking on his own vomit cause you just HAD to give them water.",
"Many others have already talked about the surgical aspect. I'd just like to add that adding water either via mouth or IV will lead to blood thinning (hemodilution) where you're increasing the amount of water in the blood compared to the amount of blood products. This can impair clotting and can even cause asphixiation because water doesn't carry oxygen nearly as well as red blood cells. \n\nAlso by giving them water you're increasing their blood volume/pressure (because you're adding water to the blood stream) which can blow out any clots that have formed.\n\nNow this is only a big deal if they've had a serious injury. If they just have some cuts and scrapes it's not going to harm them (unless they're bleeding internally).",
"My question then, how do you know if someone who was just knocked unconscious by an accident has eaten or drank anything within the last 6-8 hours? Not like you can ask them, and what if they need emergency surgery? Or do they work on an assumption that you were a normal human who ate breakfast and lunch before being sideswiped on the way back to the office? Pump your stomach first?",
"It is in anticipation of potential surgery. Anything recently added to the stomach can come up during intubation and go into the lungs. This can cause anything from pneumonia to acute respiratory distress syndrome. As a surgeon once told me, “nobody dies from missing a meal or a drink. People do die from aspirating.”\n\nAll the other answers about cooling the core, messing with blood pressure, and diluting the blood sound good, but have absolutely nothing to do with restricting a patient’s intake. Nothing they consume will have an appreciable effect on a really sick person. We give IV fluids in hypotensive trauma patients while waiting for blood and we can warm/cool patients more effectively with other methods than drinking water. \n\nSource: I’m an emergency doc",
"It’s assumed that anyone involved in an emergency/trauma coming in for surgery has a “full stomach”. There are different drugs utilized as a result in order to secure an airway or get that person ready to undergo surgery with general anesthesia. Every drug has a different risk/benefit ratio depending on the patients specific health issues and circumstances. \n\nIf the surgery can wait, we will wait bc it’s just not worth the risk of aspirating whatever is sitting in the stomach. If it is truly an emergency then we take the risk bc the patient would die anyways. \n\nLong story short, don’t give anyone food or water in a trauma situation bc it will increase any risk of aspirating those contents into the lungs resulting possible death later.",
"\nContentious. There are nearly no definitive answers in medicine. People here are jumping to intubation very quickly. Yes a patient can throw up, yes approximately a teaspoon of vomit hitting the carina can kill your patient but this is not a hard and fast rule. Factors not considered, is your patient able to maintain an airway? Transport time? Location of the wounds? Hell, even BP. Too many variables exist to state this is an inviolable rule.",
"Fluids by mouth are permissible to trauma patients provided they are conscious and alert. \n\nObviously, your first goal is to stop the bleed, but once that and other things have been accomplished, oral fluids are fine. Older medical practice was to avoid PO fluids, but new trauma guidelines allow for it, especially in austere environments when transport to a hospital is going to take some time. \n\nDon’t believe me? See here, page 6: _URL_0_",
"I didn't know this. Read some genuine explanation and keep this in mind next time against the general notion of giving water first",
"A few years ago, I was in an accident immediately after eating dinner and I had to have emergency surgery. The surgery took place a few hours after the accident, since it took awhile for them to get me out of the vehicle, but I still had food/liquids in my stomach so was I still at risk for aspirating? What do they do in that situation?",
"Actually learned a ton from this thread.. I just assumed it was because water thins your blood causing you to bleed more",
"It takes time for your body to absorb water. From what I’ve read it takes about a half hour to absorb half of whatever you drank and an hour to absorb it all so drinking fluids is fine if you donate blood, not up you are hemorrhaging. This is why intravenous or intraosseous infusion fluids are the preferred option. \n\nIV infusion is the most common common depending on the gauge of the needle and flow rate you can keep someone hydrated all day in the hospital or push fluids into someone who desperately needs them. It’s very simple to administer an IV, find a vein and stick it. \n\nIO infusion allows you to administer fluids and medications directly into bone marrow. It is more effective at delivering fluids and medications and allows you to treat a patient who cannot receive IV fluids like someone who is lost so much blood their veins have collapsed. The sternum is a common site for IO insertion.\n\nAs has been pointed out the last thing you want is to have your injured patient eating or drinking. IV and IO fluid schedule actually in the circulatory system bypass and stuff so there’s no concern that the patient will vomit and aspirate it during a surgical procedure. I no doc, just a former EMT.",
"If someone is bleeding, the best thing to do is to stop the bleeding. Read up on tourniquets",
"So we're clear on what ELI5 means --\n\n\nSo they don't vomit then aspirate if they have to have a surgery and go under anaesthesia",
"When the victim is not fully consious. The victim could have trouble swallowing thus adding the risk of getting water in the airways.\n\nWhen the victim is bleeding to death . These victims generally go in to a state called 'shock' (common symptom: thirst). In this state the body tries to get enough water to the vital organs. By giving the victim water the disgestive system is 'woken' which then draws blood away from the vital organs thus speeding up the process of dying. (Docters can bring in fluids in a safe way via IV)",
"The water might pour straight out of the hole they are bleeding from, so it's a waste of water."
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268e6m | why are administrators at b1g schools (ohio state, michigan, penn state) paid so much money? how does this effect the us education system? | I recently saw an article about this and how Ohio State was the most uneven in terms of how much they pay administrators.
Article: _URL_0_
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/268e6m/eli5_why_are_administrators_at_b1g_schools_ohio/ | {
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"This same complaint comes up when people complain about how much people who run charities are paid. The fact is that university administrators are all extremely well educated and experienced business people who run billion dollar organizations. OSU made had 5 billion dollars in income last year, employs over 40,000 people, and has over 60,000 students. If it were a for-profit company rather than a non-profit university, it would be listed in the Fortune 500.\n\nUniversities have to pay their administrators high salaries, or they would simply leave to get equivalent executive level positions at large companies. In fact, administrators are take a huge pay cut to work at a university rather than a large company. This same logic applies to CEOs of charities.\n\nIf a 500,000 dollar a year administrator cuts costs and saves the university 10 million dollars in a given year, it is a huge net positive for the school. It's possible that there are too many administrators these days and the whole system is screwed up, but that is the logic behind their salaries in the first place."
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23tw5v | why do neckties even exist? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23tw5v/eli5_why_do_neckties_even_exist/ | {
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"Croatian mercenaries wore them, and King Louis XIII really liked them, so he made them an accessory. They just kinda stuck around after that.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Because they really tie the outfit together."
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b71ob0 | what even are gpus? are they just floating point processors? | I'm gonna be honest, I know just a little because I write code that takes advantage of floating point stuff for calculations, but any explanation of how it works on the hardware level was always so hard for me to understand | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b71ob0/eli5_what_even_are_gpus_are_they_just_floating/ | {
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"Fundamentally, they're \"just\" processors, the same as a CPU. However, they're processors that are designed specifically for 3D graphics workloads, rather than general-purpose computing.\n\nSo what does this mean in practice?\n\nOne point is that 3D graphics are what's known as an \"[embarrassingly parallel](_URL_1_)\" problem — because each individual pixel in the resulting image can be computed in isolation from all other pixels, you can get a lot of benefits from investing in higher levels of parallelism (sort of, but not exactly, \"more cores\") instead of faster speeds. In practice, an nVidia RTX2070 has the same TDP (spends the same amount of electric power) as an Intel i9-9980XE, has over 5x as many transistors, but only 0.3x to 0.5x (depending on turbo boost, etc) the clock speed.\n\nIn much the same vein, reading data from memory is very important for all workloads, but it's extraordinarily important for 3D graphics (reading 3d meshes, reading textures, etc), so GPUs use extraordinarily high bandwidth memory — again, about 5x higher throughput for the RTX vs the i9.\n\nInversely, the sort of programs GPUs were designed to run are very straightforward, and have much fewer \"if this, then that\" decision points (\"branches\", in the jargon) than a general-purpose CPU will see. This means that GPUs can afford not to have branch prediction built in, which is one of the biggest components in modern CPUs (and at the core of last year's [Spectre/Meltdown](_URL_0_) attacks).\n\nFinally, the difference you were talking about — a very _very_ large portion of the work load for 3D graphics is linear algebra (matrix multiplications, essentially). This naturally means that GPUs are designed to be very very good at performing that sort of numerical task, above and beyond what regular CPUs do.",
"Mathematicians figured out that if you can represent coordinates or objects changing in 3D space (moving, rotating, scaling, etc.) with matrices and a bunch of matrix multiplications. If you see CGI with a lot of details, they're really just billions of tiny colored triangles. To move them on the screen, the computer needs to multiply all those coordinates with transformation matrix.\n\nGPU is pretty much a piece of hardware that specializes in matrix multiplication. So, the faster you can process floating points, the better the GPU (in a way) Floating points is basically software-way to say numbers with decimal points"
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74qdne | why your face and armpits begin sweating before other places like your arms and legs. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74qdne/eli5_why_your_face_and_armpits_begin_sweating/ | {
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"Because you have blood vessels close to the surface of your skin in those places. So when the evaporation of sweat starts to cool, it cools the blood which in turn helps cool the rest of your body! \n\nKangaroos have a similar solution when dealing with the heat of the outback! But, instead of sweating, they lick their forearms, coating them liberally with saliva. And, you guessed it, they have tons of big surface veins and arteries on their forearms, blood cools, kangaroo is cooled! "
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eevheh | why does every vehicle have a top speed? as in, if a car has a top speed of 250, what prevents it from achieving 251? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eevheh/eli5_why_does_every_vehicle_have_a_top_speed_as/ | {
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"In real life, a governor. It's a device that limits fuel and oxygen into your engine, capping its maximum speed well below your speedometer's max.\n\nIf you remove it, your engine can only create so much power by combining fuel, oxygen and fire. More cylinders can get you more power (so a v8 is faster than a d6 generally). A better air intake and exhaust system can get you more power (that's the rumble from a muscle car or race car). A more aerodynamic body makes the car move easier per unit of power (which is why race cars aren't shaped like school buses).\n\nSpeedometers are generally numbered according to the real top speed if you remove the governor.",
"There are three basic reasons cars have a top speed:\n1. Electronically limited: a car manufacturer sets a limit where the car’s computer won’t let it go faster (eg 155). This is done for safety reasons, because the car is technically capable of going faster than is safe because of tires, handling, or aerodynamics. \n\n2. Gear-limited: basically the car can hit the engine redline in top gear and cannot go any faster without another gear or exceeding the redline.\n\n3. Drag Limited: the car doesn’t have enough power to go any faster. Aerodynamic drag is exponential, so at high speeds it requires MUCH more power to continue to accelerate. \n\nAny one of these could prevent you from going faster- and there is a limit where even 1 mph can’t be obtained without some sort of assistance like a tailwind or downhill.",
"To continue off what previous reply-ers stated, basically at a certain speed the air resistance will equal the amount of force provided by the engine. Theoretically it could go 251 if the engine was more powerful (assuming that there is no governor and the only thing keeping it from going faster is drag). That is precisely what terminal velocity is... look it up it is quite interesting."
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3b3vc3 | what is the difference between watching a small television close to watching a big television at a distance? | Gaming wise.
Doesn't the screen cover the same area.
And especially if they're the same resolution - why pay extra for a bigger screen when you can sit closer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b3vc3/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_watching_a/ | {
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"There is a short explaination of a similar topic on youtube.\n_URL_0_",
"It's a different experience.\n\nEven if the perceived resolution is the same, and even if the viewing angle is the same, the eye is still focusing differently and the peripheral images are different. There's a psychological effect, because you're still aware of the other objects in the room, so the image on a larger screen feels bigger (because it is bigger) even if it's covering the same portion of your field of vision. "
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5qu8gj | why in old hand drawn cartoons items that are gonna be intervened with look lighter or different from the rest of the background? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qu8gj/eli5_why_in_old_hand_drawn_cartoons_items_that/ | {
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"Cartoons back then were animated using layers, similar to how you would on Photoshop.\n\nThe back layer holds the background, and is made to be set and forgotten about.\n\nIf a character is called on to interact with a background piece, that piece is pulled into the foreground layer.\n\nBecause of the methods they used, as the video ages, and video playback becomes more detailed, the contrast between the fore and background layers becomes more noticeably different, and you can see the transition more easily."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
c0uxci | what is stoicism and what is the difference between ancient stoicism and modern stoicism? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0uxci/eli5_what_is_stoicism_and_what_is_the_difference/ | {
"a_id": [
"er7t4t6"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"A stoic would suppress feelings, to the point of not overtly reacting to very difficult situations. I’m guessing an old school stoic just sets plans for the next adventure, a modern stoic finds the next brewery with better happy hour prices"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2d3hgf | when people get in the holy spirit and speak in tongues is it just an act? | I was just in a penticostal church today and people started speaking in tongues and spazzing out. A pastor/preacher prayed for me and prayed for it to happen but nothing really happened. I personally brleive it's a sorta mind over matter thing but if someone could explain it it would be good. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d3hgf/eli5when_people_get_in_the_holy_spirit_and_speak/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjlo90b",
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"score": [
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],
"text": [
"They believe so strongly that they experience the physiological reaction. It's like hysterical pregnancy. The brain believes so strongly that something should be a certain way that it acts as if it is that way, even if it's not.\n\nRemember, the human brain is in control of us, we are not in control of it as much as we might like to think otherwise. Those people (or some of them) 100% believe that it's not an act, and their brains are only doing what's expected of them. It's not that they are choosing to fake it, but rather their brains just do it.. like breathing. ",
"It isn't so much an act, rather when people get into a suggestive state of mind, they believe something to be true and their subconscious acts it out.\n\nNeedless to say, the holy spirit doesn't actually exist.",
"\"Speaking in tongues\" as in the bible was about people being able to communicate the words of the bible to others with whom they didn't share a language. I've no idea what was going on in that church, probably just the [placebo effect.](_URL_0_)",
"Went to church with my friend when I was younger. My friend was black and I'm a pale red head and he went to an all black church. So as we are sitting in church and people are getting hit in the head and passing out on stage the pastor yells out I see w.e have someone new at the church. Will they please come to the stage. I sat....and sat...and then was told to go up by my friends mom. So as I'm walking up the guys yelling and then I get to the stage. Two guys walk behind me as he continues yelling. I was tapped on my head and pushed backwards. I kept my composure and slowly turned around walked back to my seat stepping over all the people that were passed out. Everyone stared at me like I was the devil. So my belief is people pass out or yell in tongues to fit in. At the time I wished I had just played it out and laid down. ",
"I speak in tongues. I can't say anything as to the biology of it, but I can explain the doctrine/experience. \n\nFirst thing to say is that there is a difference between Pentecost and prayer language. Pentecost was a specific event recorded in Acts chapter 2; it was a supernatural allowing of people to hear the apostles speak in the listeners' native languages. Prayer language is not necessarily meant for human ears at all. \nPrayer language is not very agreed upon across denominations. Scripturally, Paul talked about preferring to \"pray in the spirit\" (another way to say speaking in tongues to God) as often as he could. It was taught as the Holy Spirit \"making intercession,\" or praying for the things you didn't know needed praying for. \n\nFor myself, the experience was just that. I was at a very low point and I didn't even know where to start with myself. I really felt like a broken person. This youth service we were praying and I found myself at a loss for words entirely, so I just bawled. My youth pastor (and incidentally one of my best friends; he is only a year or so older than myself) began praying for me. \nYou hear the phrase \"to pour one's heart out\" a lot. I think it describes prayer language perfectly. Everything I had been going through, all of my concerns, it felt like I was articulating all of that out perfectly even though I had no idea what the sounds I was making meant. I can assure you it wasn't a facade (though I don't have pics, so I guess it didn't happen according to internet rules). \n\nI feel like speaking in tongues (when it's genuine) is an act only in the sense that switching natural languages is an act. I have to chose to switch from English to Spanish or French or German, just like I have to chose to switch into prayer language. Many people do fake it, but there are people like myself who genuinely believe in it and practice it regularly. \n\ntl;dr: There are people who fake it, yes, but those of us who do it for realz use it to pray for those things you can't find words for."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6gzuKti1-I"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
31cokn | how do we choose to blow hot air or cold air? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31cokn/eli5_how_do_we_choose_to_blow_hot_air_or_cold_air/ | {
"a_id": [
"cq0dfp8"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"You can only breathe out a single temperature: warm.\nHowever, fast-moving air has the ability to pull surrounding environmental air into its flow (a process called \"entrainment\"). So when you purse your lips and blow, the air you're breathing out is mixing more with the cooler air around it, making the end product feel cooler.\n\nTo test this, get something like an empty toilet-paper tube, cover one end with your hand (lightly, so air can still escape), and blow through the other end. Without much surrounding air to pull in, you'll find that the air you blow is warm regardless of how quickly you blow."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6faf7d | how the akinator web genie is able to guess people so accurately. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6faf7d/eli5_how_the_akinator_web_genie_is_able_to_guess/ | {
"a_id": [
"dignrao",
"digxcjs"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"It's just an electronic version of 20 Questions.\n\nThree points are enough to determine a location in space. Determining a famous person only takes a few more pieces of information.\n\nPlus it incorporates the information from when it fails to identify someone. ",
"It uses an algorithm called a Naive Bayesian Classifier.\n\nIt looks like AI, but it's not, it's pure statistics with a large training dataset. It starts dumb and it learns from every interaction, gradually building the probability of n-grams (groups of 2, 3, 4, n words) resulting in a specific output.\n\nIt's actually a pretty simple algorithm, easy to implement by even beginner developers.\n\nThere is a pretty good explanation here if you're interested in the maths: _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://stackoverflow.com/a/20556654/690236"
]
] |
||
6dx7pg | why does our immunity go down as we age? wouldn't it make more sense for someone who has weathered many diseases to be able to reject any new ones later in life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dx7pg/eli5_why_does_our_immunity_go_down_as_we_age/ | {
"a_id": [
"di62vfm",
"di63m43"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Firstly, as a child, people generally are exposed to more pathogens simply because children put more dirty things in their mouths. This will result in memory T and B cells which can live for many years. Most of these cells will eventually die as you age so your immunity will be weaker, and you won't be replacing them as much since you hopefully don't put as many dirty things in your mouth.\n\n\nSecondly, and probably more importantly, as you age, most of your cellular functions decrease in functionality. This includes the function of T cells, B cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, and others which make up your innate and adaptive immune systems. Decreased cellular function will result in weaker, less effective immune responses, and therefore greater vulnerability to pathogens.",
"I'd like to know what prompts your question. I was sick a lot in my early years. Now I'm in my 60s, recovered from cancer, and I haven't been sick with anything else in years. What is your idea based on?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
5xqod0 | what caused the rapid decline of the once wildly popular professional heavy weight boxing about 15- 20 years ago? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xqod0/eli5_what_caused_the_rapid_decline_of_the_once/ | {
"a_id": [
"dekifr1"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Essentially there is a lack of famous fights. Guys like Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Tyson are gone. The Klitschkos reigned for most of the past 10-15 years and they refused to fight each other. With Two guys pretty much dominating and refusing to fight each other, no one else stood out. There is no division for them to move up like happened to Pacquiao or Mayweather. Those two just kind of stayed and beat everyone constantly so it wasn't exciting.\n\nSomething like Pacquaio can be great, but still excitement by moving up a weight class. It's a whole new level of top guys he hasn't faced, so everything is shiny and new to see how well he does.\n\nSo the answer is basically that the heavyweight scene stagnated and people shifted to lower weight classes. There are some good fighters going on now, but it is going to take a couple years for them to potentially match the hype from 20 or so years ago. Shit like Tyson Fury being suspended set things back again."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1gs0b8 | why are there different methods of validating my debit card when making a purchase? | Before anyone mentions this is a repost, I [did look this up but still don't quite understand it](_URL_0_).
When making a purchase at a store/restaurant, there are different methods after I have given my debit card to an employee. I'm in the United States(California), if that helps.
Fast food places, they usually just take my card, swipe the card, and give it back to me. I don't enter a pin, sign a receipt, or am asked for any identification saying that debit card belongs to me.
Typically at sit-down restaurants, I gave my card to a waiter and they return it with a receipt for me to sign. No pin for me to enter and usually not asked to give identification.
Some places like Gamestop just require me to enter my pin number and nothing else(maybe a signature for a different transaction at Gamestop's store) but never any identification(unless trading in a game)
If I were to go to the mall and buy a t-shirt, that's usually when I'm asked for a driver's license and a signature and/or pin number(sometimes neither).
Why does each type of store have a different transaction process when buying something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gs0b8/eli5_why_are_there_different_methods_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"can8nwh",
"can97yz"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"debit cards typically have a credit component as well (has a visa or master card logo). \n\nUsually when you use them you have the option to run it as credit or debit. If you run it as debit, you have to enter your pin. Most places prefer to run it as a debit because credit companies charge a fee to the store to process it.\n\nIf it has the Star, Pulse, or NYCE logo on it it can also be run as a pinless debit. When you use your debit card for online purchases this is most often how it is run.\n\nWhen using as a credit card having to sign is dependent on how much the total is. So if your total is under $20 (different amounts in different places) you may not have to sign at all. although some stores require you to sign for all credit transactions. \n\nWhen running a credit card, the cashier should be matching your signature with what's on the back of the card but most don't. If you don't sign your card, they are supposed to ask to see your ID. You can also write See ID or CID on the back so the cashier needs to check. Some may be checking if their suspicious or you have a very large purchase or for certain merchandise. \n",
"It's for protection against fraud. If someone grabs your debit card, they're not going to run a tab of hundreds of dollars at a McDonald's. Fast food places would rather eat the $10 loss in case this happens instead of increasing their turnaround times because of validations.\n\n\nA proper restaurant would charge your debit card as credit and just have you sign it rather than make customers stand in a queue just to punch in their pin codes. Again, theft does not happen enough to warrant inconveniencing customers.\n\nAsking for your pin code is standard procedure and will happen at gas stations/grocery stores/electronic stores etc. Basically places where you can spend cash fast and where profits are not enough to make up for occasional losses.\n\nI have never been asked to show an ID when using my debit card. Maybe you look young and cashiers think you're using the card without a parent's permission?"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18cxu2/why_does_a_debit_card_require_a_pin_when_using_it/c8dptki"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
2t0qhn | why are large tractor trailer trucks allowed to idle for hours when it makes more sense to shut down the engine to save fuel?s | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t0qhn/eli5_why_are_large_tractor_trailer_trucks_allowed/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnunh9z",
"cnunhvk",
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"cnuq1xh",
"cnuv0as"
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15,
5,
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"text": [
"either for Air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. ",
"The trucks may need to power refrigeration of their cargo, or are just running to prevent needing to warm up a diesel engine again.",
"It depends on a lot of factors. As has been mentioned, if the cargo is refrigerated, then the engine needs to stay running to power the refrigeration system.\n\nAlso, many (most?) truck drivers sleep in their cab (there's often a small sleeping area behind the seats), and if the weather is warm/cold, the driver's going to want to keep the AC/heater running while they sleep.",
"Is this actually a common thing? When we have trucks waiting to use one of our loading docks they always shut off the engine. The refer unit will kick on completely independent of the truck, if the trailer is equipped.",
"It's not too terribly bad. Google tells me the idle cost is about 1 gal/hr. \n\nAs said, it's used keep heat/ac on for sleeping, and run refrigeration, and to keep the engine warm (there's issues involved in restarting a cold engine). \n\nSome rigs have Auxiliary Power Units- APUs- that are more efficient at generating electricity for this. But, actually, the cost to idle for a night isn't too terribly bad to begin with.\n\nThey'd probably LIKE to have plug-in power instead. But that's a lot of power to try to run into a parking lot. \n\n",
"It used to be much more common for all trucks to sit an idle overnight. As others have mentioned, this was particularly for the comfort of the driver (heat, AC, electrical power for other items, etc). At 1 gal/hr, this wasn't so bad several years ago when diesel was only $1-2/gal. So, it might cost the driver $20 to idle for the night. Cheaper than most hotels, and they can get showers at the trucks stop. However, now with fuel at $4/gal, the cost of idling every night adds up quickly. Many drivers out there are paying for their own fuel.\n\n\nMany parts of the country are making it illegal to idle overnight due to noise/pollution concerns. But you still need a way to heat/cool, provide electricity (nearly all drives have computers and refergerators and such in their truck now), and keep the engine warm in cold temperatures. As others mentioned, it's very hard to start a truck if it's cold soaked for a long time. In extreme cases, the truck would have to be towed inside a building so that it can warm up enough to start. Desiel fuel turns to gel. There's no spark plugs. So, if the engine block is too cold, the air/fuel mixture won't get hot enough from compression to ignite. Also, batteries don't provide as much power either.\n\n\nAPU's are just small diesel powered generators attached to the truck somewhere. The tap into the main fuel lines of the truck and provide power for heat/AC and other electrical systems. But now, instead of burning 1 gal/hr, it's more like 1/gal for the entired night, because you're not using the big main engine which is intended to move the truck, no be used as a power source. Big cost savings. The APU do require their own maintanence, which used to problematic, but their becoming much more common and are standard on many trucks now instead of being an after market.\n\n\n\nThe refrigeration trailers are self contained. You can see the cooling unit mounted on the front of the trailer. If you look under the trailer frame, there is a 30 or so gallon desiel fuel take for running the cooling unit. Power for lights and air for brakes still come from the truck."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
n0ftw | what are self-posts and when/why should they be used? | (I've tried to find an FAQ on the subject, but none of them were very helpful. If there's an obvious link I've missed, apologies.)
I know that self posts don't give you karma, so they're a way of showing you're not karma-whoring -- why else are they used and how do you make them?
Bonus Points: Self posts apparently *used* to give karma. So what was their purpose back then? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n0ftw/eli5_what_are_selfposts_and_whenwhy_should_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"c35c6sc",
"c35c6sc"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You just made a self-post.\n\nThere are two types of submissions possible on Reddit: \"Links\" and \"Self-posts\". Self-posts are allowed to have some text associated with it, and links are not.",
"You just made a self-post.\n\nThere are two types of submissions possible on Reddit: \"Links\" and \"Self-posts\". Self-posts are allowed to have some text associated with it, and links are not."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
412ey6 | why are healthcare plans restricted to family members? and why do after a certain age even those family members are kicked off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/412ey6/eli5_why_are_healthcare_plans_restricted_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyz1g0c"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Because its based around who is dependent on you. \n\nIf you are a husband, you help take care of your wife and take care of your kids.\n\nYou don't take care of your best friend Jim or your grown son or your brother.\n\nExcept in special circumstances. Many plans use the term \"dependent\" instead of \"child\" and can be altered if that dependent is incapable of taking care of them self (such as in a child with cerebral palsy or an autistic person, etc)\n\nThe idea behind it is that your plan takes care of those that are dependent on you. Not grown people who are able to care for themselves."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5n3q2q | how it department turns on your pc even if it shutdown (without anyone physically pressing the on button) | Is this possible | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5n3q2q/eli5_how_it_department_turns_on_your_pc_even_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dc8g7yc",
"dc8gaf6",
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"score": [
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17,
2
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"text": [
"Yep\n\n\nWake-on-LAN (WoL) is an Ethernet or token ringcomputer networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on or woken up by a network message.\n\nThe message is usually sent to the target computer by a program executed on a device connected to the same local area network, such as a smartphone. It is also possible to initiate the message from another network by using subnet directed broadcasts or a WOL gateway service. Equivalent terms include wake on WAN, remote wake-up, power on by LAN, power up by LAN, resume by LAN, resume on LAN and wake up on LAN. If the computer being awakened is communicating via Wi-Fi, a supplementary standard called Wake on Wireless LAN (WoWLAN) must be employed.[1]\n\n",
"They are most likely using [Wake on LAN](_URL_0_).\n\n > Wake-on-LAN (\"WOL\") is implemented using a specially designed packet called a magic packet, which is sent to all computers in a network, among them the computer to be woken up. The magic packet contains the MAC address of the destination computer, an identifying number built into each network interface card (\"NIC\") or other ethernet device in a computer, that enables it to be uniquely recognized and addressed on a network. Powered-down or turned off computers capable of Wake-on-LAN will contain network devices able to \"listen\" to incoming packets in low-power mode while the system is powered down. If a magic packet is received that is directed to the device's MAC address, the NIC signals the computer's power supply or motherboard to initiate system wake-up, much in the same way as pressing the power button would do.\n\nELI5 version:\n\n > A computer that is off can have its network card run in lower power listening mode for a message that is used to trigger the computer's wake up procedure. Kinda like a TV on standby waiting for the power button on the remote to be pressed. ",
"As boredgamelad indicated, the computers on such a network are never really turned off completely. There has to be enough power running to keep some function running that the network can activate."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN"
],
[]
] |
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