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8enpem | how do electrical instruments work? | Tempted to give my character an electrical voilin for a D & D campaign but i don't really know enough about how they work. how does it change sound, and would running a current through a voilin be enough? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8enpem/eli5_how_do_electrical_instruments_work/ | {
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"No. Electrical musical instruments work by having magnetic pickups which output a signal based on the frequency of the vibrating metal string. This output current is then amplified and converted into sound by the amplifier.",
"When you take a string, stretch it taut, and pluck it, the string vibrates and makes noise.\n\nIn a normal stringed instrument like a guitar or piano, the same thing is happening. The shape of the surrounding instrument is then used to amplify the volume of the vibrating strings.\n\nWith an electric instrument like an electric guitar, the vibrations in metal strings are too quiet to amplify in that way. Instead, a device called a pickup is used to convert the strings' vibrations into electrical signals. These electrical signals are sent to an amplifier, which converts the signals back into a sound loud enough to be heard.\n\n",
"So, electrical instruments rely on a few principles of physics:\n\n1) sound is vibrations traveling through a medium at a certain frequency.\n\n2) higher frequency wavelengths are higher pitched sounds.\n\n3) movement of ferrous materials in a magnetic field produces an electrical current at the same frequency of the movement\n\n4) a moving electrical current produces a magnetic field that changes polarity at the same frequency of the electrical current.\n\nSo you pluck a steel string to create a sound (1) at a certain wavelength (2), which vibrates above a pickup: a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet which creates a magnetic field for the steel string to vibrate in (3); the wire then travels down the length of the pickup wires, out through an output jack, into an amplifier, where the signal gets, well, amplified, and then the electrical current goes into the speaker; the speaker is made of a coil of wire (4) and a static magnet, such that when the magnetic field oscilates, the membrane of the speaker moves and pushes air.\n\nHowever, for a D & D campaign, there is a much simpler explanation for why your violin + electricity = electric violin sounds: \"A wizard did it.\" I had a bard with an electric guitar that had the same explanation."
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2vkhlq | am i legally allowed to build a spaceship and launch into space? | If I had the resources and the space to build and launch it. Will I be able to do so without getting in trouble with the government. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vkhlq/eli5_am_i_legally_allowed_to_build_a_spaceship/ | {
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"There are private companies that launch satellites on a fairly regular basis. But the FAA has some regulations you'd need to get around.",
"If you live in the US, then you would have to get a license from the FAA (since you don't want it to hit any flying aircraft/satellite and not appear as though you are building a surface-to-air missile).\n\nEdit: [Link](_URL_0_)",
"Space isn't owned by anyone, and once you're there you'd be free to do or go whatever or wherever you wanted. However, depending on where you're launching from, you have to go through some country's airspace to get there, and that airspace is likely heavily regulated. This means you'd have to get clearance from that country's government in order to launch. ",
"You need FAA approval for commercial and high altitude airspace.\n\nBut spacecraft can be just a weather balloon. If you mean a fueled rocket, you would need permits for building a rocked sized bomb and the fuel for that rocket sized bomb. Hazardous material permits for that quantity are very much red taped"
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2f5gps | what difference will it make if i use soap instead of shampoo for my hair? what if i just use conditioner everyday instead of shampoo, will it be better for my hair? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f5gps/eli5_what_difference_will_it_make_if_i_use_soap/ | {
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"Short answer: maybe nothing, or maybe your skin gets a little drier with soap. Nothing but conditioner will leave your scalp a little more oily but you'd adapt to that eventually.\n\nLonger answer: Shampoo is (typically, if somebody chimes in saying BUT WHAT ABOUT THHHIISSS BRAND, please go away) basically a *detergent*. The stuff that cleans your clothes and hair are usually (almost exactly) the same thing.\n\nA *detergent* is a synthetic *surfactant*. A surfactant is broadly something that makes water, well, wetter. It lets the water get into areas it couldn't reach because of tension, and makes water more *soluble*, which lets more things dissolve in it and get carried away. \n\nWhy does being synthetic matter? It doesn't necessarily matter, but it may mean the maker of the product has done a few things to make it a little more gentle than the soap maker has. Of course, for specific brands the exact opposite may be true. Some soaps are pretty darn gentle while some shampoos can be really rough. But, shampoos also often have thickening agents in them that let the makers dissolve less of the detergent in the mix. That makes it easier to get the cleaning product *just right* while also being able to spread all over your scalp. \n\nSoaps tend to be a bit more concentrated in that regard, because there is very little call for them not to be. \n\nSome folks do enjoy mixing their own shampoos by starting with Castile Soap, which comes in a big bottle that you can then mix to your hearts content. It is more 'natural' in the sense that the ingredients are more direct and less chemically derived in tanks from weird sources. Whether that is good or not is totally up to you.\n\n\nFootnote: Conditioner contains a small amount of soap/detergent along with other things. Some people use it exclusively for their hair cleaning.",
"I stopped buying shampoo in the 1980s, and I've washed my hair with a bar of soap ever since. No problems, no complaints, it's a *lot* cheaper, and I still have more hair than most old farts my age."
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4yc8ip | why is crawling on hands and knees so tiring for an adult but babies have no problem? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yc8ip/eli5_why_is_crawling_on_hands_and_knees_so_tiring/ | {
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"I think you are assuming that it's no problem for a baby to crawl around. Babies crawl because they want to start moving around but don't have the strength to stand on two legs yet. So they do what they can, which is crawl. You'll notice that babies crawl for a bit, then rest, on repeat. It's because it tires them out.\n\nFun fact if you want your baby to nap, get them to crawl around. Tires them out.",
"It is difficult for a baby to crawl around. It especially takes very strong core muscles, as well as arm and wrist strength. Babies crawl because they haven't yet learned the more efficient and easier mode of walking.\n\nIt's actually a problem when babies transition from crawling to walking too quickly, because many of their muscles won't get developed as well. Walking upright doesn't really exercise your arms or hands, so children that begin walking quickly can end up with worse fine motor control.\n\nFor adults, why is crawling particularly hard? It's partly lack of experience. We don't put a ton of weight on our arms, so we're not used to using them in that way. It's also partly that we're so much bigger. This puts a lot of weight on our knees/shins which can be very uncomfortable.",
"Yeah it is very intensive for babies when they're first learning to crawl... Takes alot of mental focus and learning to move limbs independently. I never thought it was hard until I had my own child and watched her learn to crawl and could see her increase her breathing and rest frequently. They just don't have the communication to complain basically.... Like man my knees hurt. \n\nSide note. I really believe that we have infantile amnesia simply because being a baby is super unpleasant and absolutely confusing mentally. Constant aches and pains. Trying to always understanding everything but not really getting it. It's frustrating when you cant do something as an adult and equally as frustrating to a baby. So I think we purposely forget it because it's almost like a traumatic experience so our bodies bury it like it's known to do. ",
"When you are born, you spine is basically an open C shape. The curvature develops as you learn to keep you head raise, crawl, stand and walk. A baby's spine is more suitable for crawling in a way an adults is not.\n\nA few other contributing factors:\n\n* babies are light, so there is a lot less pressure on their contact surfaces\n* babies are very flexible\n* babies have proportionately shorter limbs"
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48uksx | what's the explanation for physically recoiling when we see something really odd or disturbing? | Like, what's the reason behind people feeling really weird when they watch "Goddess Bunny" or something?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48uksx/eli5_whats_the_explanation_for_physically/ | {
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"We were once animals (less evolved) and animals do it. \n\nThe instinct to recoil is stronger than our cognitive ability. Recoiling probably had an evolutionary advantage. It's just today we are in a bubble of safety, but the instinct hasn't evolved out of us. ",
"Possibly not the answer you're looking for, but relevant: \n\nVSauce made a video touching on things that are creepy or disturbing, and why it makes us unsettled.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit: Upon rewatching this video, I almost want to tag this NSFL, because I get creeped out every goddamn time.",
"It's an instinct designed to increase the distance between you and anything that might be threatening, very quickly, before you even take the time to think about it."
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1rp5hk | why after running for a while do my lungs get that painful burning sensation? | Once I've been running for a while, eventually my legs will tire before my lungs. But starting out on my first few runs, my lungs "give out" before my legs and I get that painful burning sensation in them. Not asthma, just normal fatigue type feeling. What is that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rp5hk/eli5_why_after_running_for_a_while_do_my_lungs/ | {
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"If it happens in cold weather, it could be simply from the cold air, especially if you're breathing through your mouth. The cold dry air doesn't warm up through your mouth, but it does through your nose. So, when you breathe through your mouth in the cold weather, your lungs get cold dry air in them which can cause the burning sensation.",
"**EDIT: Totally misread your question but I already typed this all up, so I'll leave it for whoever is interested.**\n\n**I thought you were referring to a burning sensation in your legs before you tire. Oops.**\n\n\n\nI'm not an expert, but I think you're referring to the effects of the build up of lactic acid.\n\nAs I understand it, when your body can't deliver enough oxygen to your muscles, it temporarily forms \"lactate\" which helps break down glucose and give you energy. \n\nHowever, one of the downfalls of this process is that you'll eventually experience increased acidity levels in your muscle cells (hence, lactic acid). Now, the whole process doesn't work very well in acidic environments, so the whole process is hindered and this is where you'll tend to get that muscle fatigue feeling. This is all done as a natural mechanism to prevent muscle damage caused by over-exertion. \n\nOnce your body slows down, oxygen becomes more available and the whole system sort of reverses itself and everything is back to normal.\n\nTL;DR: When oxygen is limited, your body resorts to other means that provide a temporary fix, but this process naturally halts and reverses itself before the quick fix causes any permanent damage.\n ",
"can't really say why but i have the same problem.\n\neverytime i run, even if it is just one minute to catch the bus or something, my lungs burn really bad and i have the felling that my heart pounds directly in my throat.\nit takes a solid 10 minutes to get better.\n\ni have been in a great shape running, doing all kinds of sports.\nbut then i was in a hospital for a week after having a Pneumomediastinum.\n\nwhich is basically air leaking out of your lungs to places where they don't belong.\nin my case it was near my heart or something.\ni got an Intravenous therapy for a couple days until they released me from hospital.\n\nthey never found a cause for this in my case.\n\nbut since then my stamina is super low and i can't do sports really well.\nno martial arts anymore. no running. nothing where i jump or something.\nI feel like those bumps cause the burning.\ni can do some lifting or swimming. something that isn't from 0 to 90 or 100% physical effort.",
"In my experience, this was because I was living around cigarette smokers.\n\nIn my family, **everybody** but me smoked. (I was lucky enough to be tuned in to the late 60s propaganda against smoking that began to be disseminated in schools.) As I got to the age where exercise seemed a useful venture, I began running, and after any run I would feel a tired heaviness in my upper chest. To me it seemed a natural consequence after exercise, and it went away after a few consistent runs.\n\nAfter I moved out of the house, I continued running (more off than on, so there were many times I restarted the process). One year I went back to visit my family, and decided because I was on vacation that I could run in the nice winter Florida air. Lo, I felt the same heaviness, but I realized I hadn't felt that in the previous attempts I made away from the family home. \n\nI made the connection then: my mom's smoking habit was affecting my breathing. It shortened my run, at least the first few. I didn't do any double-blind experiments or anything to see the actual differences or how long it lasted, but for me it was a revelation that second-hand smoke was actually affecting me.",
"For me I noticed this lung burning happened when I did not properly warm up my lungs to the air intake required during running which is more than when standing still, sitting, or walking. A slow jog before running will raise your heart rate and breathing rate steadily rather than jumping right up to a running pace. This will allow for a more controlled and comfortable run letting your body reach it's maximum potential (the legs tiring in this instance). This is why warming up and cooling down is so crucial to a good work out or run.",
"I have a somewhat related question. Why after running for a while does the skin on my chest start to itch?\n",
"I get that feeling in my throat.. I suppose it is just the cold air that does it, but is there anything you can do to avoid it?",
"I'm surprised no one's given this answer yet, so here goes:\n\nCongratulations! You're using a lot more of your lungs than you used to. While you're running, you're building up an oxygen debt as your muscles start to use more and more oxygen than you've asked them to in the past, and your lungs are struggling to keep up. As a result, you start really expanding your chest muscles -- does this sound familiar? This can be where side stitches come from. \n\nHowever, your lungs are really only used to taking in so much oxygen. Chances are when you're just sitting around during the day, or walking places, you only take very shallow breaths. The alveoli at the bottom of your lungs don't see much action and they get lazy, but when you start taking deep, heaving breaths you start to use them -- and they don't like that very much. \n\nThis can happen regardless of whether it's cold or warm outside, and regardless of whether you're breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose or what have you (and for the record, I'm pretty sure you can breath through whichever orifices you choose [er, within reason] and breath out through whichever orifices you choose [again, choose wisely] as long as you're getting enough breath. Some people recommend breathing through both your nose and your mouth!)\n\nIn either case, it really just means that you're helping your lungs gain capacity. I would suggest looking up some breathing exercises online, being really conscious of how deeply you breathe during your day, and most importantly, keep running. :)\n\nNinja edited for punctuation and stuff.\n\nReal edit: Someone made a fair criticism that this did not give a very scientific/complete answer. This article from a fitness website seems to provide a reasonable scientific explanation of what's going on, but I can't find any actual primary scientific studies yet...\n\n_URL_0_",
"This has been covered by other people, but if this persists for more than a week without improvement, see a doctor. Otherwise your lungs are just insufficient and are getting an equal workout, except they improve much faster than muscles.\n\nThe first time I ran after 7 years I almost threw up it hurt so bad. A week later I was amazed how well I was improving."
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c3dli0 | on some websites it says that venus is hotter than mercury because it has an atmosphere, however where does that heat energy transfer to if space is a vacuum? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c3dli0/eli5_on_some_websites_it_says_that_venus_is/ | {
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"Planets can also emit excess heat through *radiation,* typically by emitting infrared light.",
"There are two sources for heat on Venus. The first is the planet's interior. When the rocky inner planets formed, they were giant spheres of molten rock, and have been cooling ever since. The second is the sun. Photons from the sun carry energy. These photons penetrate the vesuvian atmosphere, and as they strike things on the planet's surface, they're converted to heat. This heat is radiated back up into the atmosphere, but because it is filled with carbon dioxide, the heat is absorbed before it can make its way out of the atmosphere. This trapped heat stays within the atmosphere, building up and raising temperature on the planet. This is the greenhouse effect. Mercury lacks an atmosphere, or at least anything with any substantial amount of greenhouse gases, so heat energy is radiated away quickly."
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36k9wd | how and why did the levees in new orleans break during katrina? what should have been done before hand, if anything? | The American Society of Civil Engineers is now saying they give the U.S. a score of D+ for our infrastructure and that our roads, bridges, and levees should have been updated years ago. Does that play a role with what happened in Katrina? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36k9wd/eli5_how_and_why_did_the_levees_in_new_orleans/ | {
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"One of the major levees that failed was the 17th st Canal. Beginning in 1999 it had been refurbished. I remember walking my dog along it from my parents house during the refurbishing.\n\n\n > An upgrade of the canal levees, floodwalls, and bridges began in 1999. The canal was considered in good shape at the start of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"Most of the levees in NOLA failed because the height of the flood water exceeded the height of the levee. There are basically two types of levees in that area, the first type is used in most suburban areas and looks like a big, grass covered hill extending down the length of the waterfront (either the Mississippi River or Lake Ponchartrain). The second type is used in more congested urban locations and basically looks like a big cement wall. When the water level gets higher than the levee, water starts to spill over the top and down to the ground on the dry side (called overtopping). If the water level stays high enough to cause overtopping for a while, eventually the water will either erode the structure of the levee itself (as with the hill type levees) or the churning action of the water as it hits the ground will erode the ground underneath the levee, causing a collapse (as with the wall type levees). I think all of the levee breaches during Katrina were caused by overtopping, but there is one other way a levee can fail during a storm. Basically the hill type levees get kind of soggy after they've been holding back water for a while. A really soggy levee isn't necessarily doomed, but it is more vulnerable to being breached if it gets hit by something big, such as a stray barge. \n\nI haven't read the report you referred to, but I'm assuming the poor grade for levees mostly has to do with their height. Sea level has risen quite a bit in the last 50 years (this is an undisputed fact regardless of political opinions as to the cause) and show no signs of stopping. The federal height standards for most of the levees in the country just doesn't cut the mustard at the current rate of sea level rise. Also, very powerful storms of all kinds are becoming more frequent (this is also true regardless of anyone's personal beliefs about why it's happening). Therefore, a levee is more likely to encounter a flood it wasn't designed to handle now than it was to encounter such a flood 30 or 40 years ago. Also, I believe that not all levees are required to follow federal height guidelines so there are a lot of state, county (or parish), and city built levees that are even shorter than the federal ones. So, yeah. All the levees need to be taller than they are now if we want to stay dry in the coming years. \n\nAs for whether or not that played a role in what happened during and after Katrina, yes and no. Yes, the levees failed because they were too short. No because long before Katrina happened, people (including FEMA) knew that a storm like Katrina could hit New Orleans and they knew it would be an epic disaster if it did. I think the reason it happened anyway has a lot to do with human nature (and I say this as someone born and raised in NOLA). First, improving the levees in New Orleans cost billions of federal taxpayer dollars. Before Katrina happened, many Americans wouldn't have wanted to pay that much for levee improvements in a city they didn't live in. Also, people who don't live in areas that are affected by hurricanes often truly have no understanding of how powerful and dangerous these storms can be. Seriously, you have no idea the kinds of stupid s**t people say and do when encountering their first hurricane. Such people often tend to underestimate the need for protective infrastructure in hurricane prone areas. Finally, I think we the locals were also somewhat complicit in our lack of preparation. New Orleans hadn't been directly hit by a hurricane since the '60s and even then, the flooding was contained to one section of town. I think most locals figured that we'd continue dodging the bullet, and even if we didn't, I'm fairly certain that most of us never imagined the damage would be so widespread. To give some perspective, Katrina was forecast to be a monster storm but I know many people who didn't bother to take really important and highly portable objects like personal documents and photographs because they figured the storm would turn at the last minute or that it wouldn't be a big deal if it hit. Basically, I think nearly everyone was complacent because nothing like Katrina had happened in theirs or their parents lifetimes and they couldn't really grasp why they should be doing more. "
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1te4ka | how does spinning make thread longer than the fibers of the raw material without falling apart when pulled? | I understand (maybe) the process of spinning thread to twist several raw strands together but why doesn't it pull apart?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1te4ka/eli5_how_does_spinning_make_thread_longer_than/ | {
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"It's actually quite amazing, though on the scale you are speaking of it can be easily defunct by some finger work, it's actually all friction. The best way to explain it is to see it. Check out one of the best mythbuster episodes of all time to really understand what I'm talking about. Here's a clip from it -_URL_0_"
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9olfci | what causes a bullet/missile to spin after exiting the rifle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9olfci/eli5_what_causes_a_bulletmissile_to_spin_after/ | {
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"rivots in tbe barrel are there to give the projectile a spin and thus stabilising it when travelling. ",
"[That would be because of what is predictably called \"rifling\".](_URL_0_) There are ridges on the inside of the barrel that dig into the projectile, and they spiral down the length of the barrel which forces the projectile to rotate along with them. This is actually why they are called \"rifles\" as smooth-bored guns are referred to differently.",
"Rifles have grooving along the inside of the barrel called, conveniently, rifling, which creates spin on the bullet as it travels along the length of the tube and increases accuracy as a spinning object maintains a straighter trajectory for longer.\n\nMissiles, and arrows, have fins which are slightly angled and make them spin as they move through the air for the same reason.\n\nAlso footballs are thrown with a spin to achieve the same result."
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spm2p | the different data plans for mobile networks | I have an "unlimited" data plan with AT & T, yet Sprint claims in their commercials that they're the only network with "truly unlimited data." What do they mean? I've heard that some networks slow down the processing speeds if you use more and more data. Someone please explain this. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/spm2p/eli5_the_different_data_plans_for_mobile_networks/ | {
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"Neither AT & T nor Verizon will sell new accounts with unlimited data for smartphones; instead, you pay for a set amount (e.g. 2GB or 5GB), and you pay overages when you surpass that. T-Mobile also keeps track of how much data you have used in a month, but when you go over their limit (5GB, if I'm not mistaken), they slow your connections down, rather than charging you extra money.\n\nOlder AT & T accounts still have \"unlimited\" data on their accounts, but they have started doing the same thing T-Mobile does. I don't think old \"unlimited\" Verizon accounts have been changed yet, but I could be mistaken.\n\nOf the major four carriers, Sprint is the only one that will sell you a brand new account with truly unlimited service, with full speed no matter how much you use in a month. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, that \"full speed\" may still be terrible; there are lots of places where Sprint's 3G service is horribly limited and 4G service is nonexistent. I am fortunate enough to live in an area with excellent 4G coverage and 3G towers that work great. Your mileage may vary.\n\nWhat does this matter to you? Probably nothing. If you're a normal person, you'll never use more than 1-2GB of data in a month, and you won't hit any of these limitations. I consider myself a power-user: I stream Pandora pretty much every time I'm in my car, and I often download extremely large firmware updates over the cell network, and I think the most data I've managed to use was just over 3GB in one single month — I have ended up under 2GB every month but that one."
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z3xwq | . maybe a dumb question, but why didn't the vietnam war produce terrorists, like conflicts in the middle-east? | I mean, the war left the country devastated, and I'm sure there were a lot of people angry at the US. Why didn't anyone try to strike out at the US? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z3xwq/eli5_maybe_a_dumb_question_but_why_didnt_the/ | {
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"I would think that it didn't produce terrorists simply because Vietnam won the war. Once Vietnam had won, it had all it wanted, so there would be no benefit to it in attacking America further. They couldn't hope to spread communism to America via terrorism, and they had their country back, which meant that other than revenge there's nothing to cause them to attack.",
"Terrorism, particularly international terrorism, doesn't just \"happen\" and not liking a country is never enough motivation on its own to start. Al Qaeda and other extremest groups of that ilk really have a history of at minimum decades or (depending on where you say it \"starts\") centuries.\n\nAl Qaeda doesn't just hate the US, they have a vision of a grand pan-Islamic new caliphate. Their strategy has been to find an area with a Muslim population (but not an exclusively Muslim population), destabilize the region and in the chaos come to power using their dedicated and fanatical followers to create an extreme Muslim government. They did this in the former Yugoslavia, they did it in Somalia, they did it in Afghanistan during Soviet occupation, and they tried to do it in the Philippines with a series of attacks most of which we stopped (including the assassination of the pope). \"Terrorism\" is just a term we have applied to the kind of non-state militias, but they always have a purpose to their actions. It is for the glory of their interpretation of Islam and has the goal of creating a new Muslim caliphate. Al Qaeda litterally means \"the base\" and that is referencing that it is meant to be the first step in the foundation of a global and unified power.\n\nVietnam may hate the US, but there is no group like that in Vietnam. The whole war is seen very differently because of the Cold War, but the Vietnam War started the day after the Japanese surrendered in WWII as a war for national independence, not a war against the US. \n\nHo Chi Minh was not a communist at first but a nationalist. He went to Versailles to plead for independence from France as promised in Wilson's ideal of self-determination, no-one would take a meeting. So when WWII ended, he released a deceleration of independence, declaring Vietnam was no longer a colony but a sovereign nation, invoking Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Thomas Jefferson and the Deceleration of the Rights of Man. \n\nFrance was not willing to let its colony go and the US sided with it's ally France. Ho Chi Minh started getting aid from the Soviets, but only because the US would not help. Eventually France was defeated (surprise) and the country was divided in two. Ho Chi Minh wanted a unified nation, but the US was willing to defend the south. That's what the Vietnam War was about, we tried to keep Ho Chi Minh isolated to the North, but the Vietnamese people are not really divided north/south. To them it wasn't a defense against communism for the most part (though that did exist and why many Vietnamese immigrants came to the US in the 70s) but about the unification of the country. \n\nNow the country is unified, it's economy is improving rapidly, it is normalizing relations with the world. The US left scars for sure, but there is no reason for the Vietnamese to keep fighting us. The war is over and there is no reason why it should continue."
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1utj4t | why is that sometimes you go into a "stare"; where your eyes fix to a certain place and slowly go out of focus? | You know the feeling, you can be just talking away and suddenly you focus on something, then you just can't be drawn away from that particular spot, your eyes go out of focus and you are just staring. It feels quite comfortable to continue doing this, then you suddenly snap out of it.
I'm not the only one who has this right? Guys? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1utj4t/eli5_why_is_that_sometimes_you_go_into_a_stare/ | {
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"I don't know the answer to your question, but the term I've always heard for this is \"zoning out\". You might try asking or searching under that name.",
"Charles (\"Chuck\") in the movie [*The Man Without a Face*](_URL_0_) displayed an extreme case of this.\n\nI do this too, but to a much lesser extent.\n\nEdit: Comments on IMDB refer to it as \"blankout spells\", and also mention Attention Deficit Disorder and a mild form of epilepsy or a trance as possibilities. Hmm.",
"I do this all the time. I can only guess as to why this happens but I have thought about it a fair amount. There are certain moments when your brain focuses on a particular sense at the expense of others. For example, when you close your eyes to listen to something more intently. In these cases, it seems to me that the brain is letting go of certain functions to focus on another and when we daze off, I believe the brain is drowning out other stimuli and focusing on the visual. Like when you stare into a camp fire and find it easier to ignore your thoughts or what's around you for a moment. I imagine that it's like a form of unintentional meditation where you're blocking out a lot of mental stimuli like thoughts and environment and just focusing on a simple visual anchor relieving your brain from all of the stimuli it is usually forced to deal with. Again, just a layman's thoughts.",
"Our eyes work similar to a camera lens. Generally we can look at what is in front of us, and can see the whole picture. But, if you start to look at one specific point and focus there. What is happening is you are focusing on that specific point, so everything else goes out of focus. When it happens, we will start to notice it, and usually it will snap us out of it. We could say it is a minor trance state that naturally happens. When you notice it is happening you refocus your eyes and see the big picture.",
"It's because focusing your eyes is actually much like flexing two different muscles in sync. It doesn't seem like it because you've been doing it almost every waking moment of your life but a lot goes into focusing your eyes on a point in 3D space. \n\nSo when you zone out, you're letting those muscles go slack, for lack of a better term (I'm aware that they're not actually muscles in the strictest sense of the term), giving them a short rest before you go back to near constant exertion.",
"I believe OP's question is more about \"zoning out\" than the actual mechanics of how our eyes work. \n\nI have this happen from time to time. It usually happens under a few certain circumstances but most often when focusing on a concept. I believe what happens is the brain has the ability to automate and filter out unnecessary information in order to concentrate on other operations. When this happens, usually it takes something important to happen as an external stimuli to pull you back into a normal state.",
"This has to do with the muscles that keep your eyes pointed at a certain spot. If they get tired, you can rest a little bit by letting go. Your eyes will drift to a neutral position that is much farther away from you, and thus everything near will lose focus. You can try doing this on a large field outside: relax, lose focus, and then move your head towards something far away. You will see it is focused.",
"I know what you mean OP. I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine on that exact feeling, we were talking about being in the \"present\", before we identify/conceptualize with our brains. It used to happen to me as a kid, the feeling just felt so good. Anything that was happening prior to the \"Stare\" kind of gets muffled out til you snap out of it. I feel like that state is full awareness, not really zoned out because although you are not focused on certain stimuli you are still receiving information from your senses and maybe even more since less information filtering is is occurring. I think this could be the state of mind that we have as children, before we begin to analyze/conceptualize habitually as we get educated. This is my personal observation and attempt to make sense of that state of mind.",
"Okay this could be because I had eye surgery to straighten my eyes out when I was younger. Sometimes my eyes (usually just one at a time) will completely lose focus and be bleary for a few seconds and I have to \"force\" it focus. ELI5 whats happening here?",
"I try to extend that time as long as possible as I kinda think it's a way for me or parts of me to relax and recharge if only for an instant & maybe I need just that.",
"Thank you so much for posting this. I've been looking for an explanation for the longest time. My own rationalization was: \"a visual yawn\". Mine increase in frequency when I'm tired and usually happen accompanied with yawns. ",
"It's not that you're focusing on something, it's that you're not paying attention to what your eyes are seeing. Because your focus is on your thoughts.",
"It's like a yawn for your eyes.",
"I can make my eyes go out of focus. I've always thought that it was interesting and that there is no way to prove this. ",
"To add to the question, whenever my eyes do this and I snap back into attention, my eyes *hurt*. If our eyes had muscles, I'd say it'd feel like pulling/straining them. It burns a little but after awhile it gets back to normal and I forget about it. Is this some sort of condition?"
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atalsn | have we been able to find the center of the universe mathematically? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/atalsn/eli5_have_we_been_able_to_find_the_center_of_the/ | {
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"There is no center of the universe. You can pick any point arbitrarily and it would be just as valid.",
"We don't know if the universe has a center because we don't know if the universe has edges or if it goes on forever.\n\nWhat we do know is that the observable universe, which is the part of the universe that we can see, looks pretty much the same everywhere in the sense that it has much of the same things that behave in much of the same way.\n\nIf the universe is infinite, meaning it goes on forever in all directions, it would not have a center. If it has some type of shape, it might have a center but not necessarily.\n\nIf it has finite mass, which is a limit amount of mass, then it does have a center of mass and a center of gravity.\n\nIf it does have boundaries then we are tasked with the question of what the nature of those boundaries are. I imagine they might be imperceivable to us. In fact I personally think that might be the case.\n",
"The universe does not have a center. The big bang did happen in a \"place\". It happened everywhere at once, and everything is expanding in all directions. Think of the surface of a sphere (NOT implying that the universe is a sphere). The surface of a sphere has no center."
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8p4l4l | where does the term "in-law" come from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8p4l4l/eli5_where_does_the_term_inlaw_come_from/ | {
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"Marriage is a legal construct: when you are wed, you are bound to another person and their family legally. For a very long time, marriage was about the consolidation of wealth and property more than romantic notions of couplehood. So the family of your betrothed become your family, not in blood, but legally... your mother “in law” but not in blood, etc. ",
"It's literal. My sister in-law is not my sister by blood, but my sister by marriage. Marriage is a legal thing (or a religious thing if that's your shtick), so my sister by marriage is my sister by law. She's my sister in-law."
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26jmf3 | why doesnt the world appear 2d if i close one eye? | From my understanding, depth perception and 3D vision is achieved because we have two eyes that are slightly apart, giving us slightly different vantage points. Our brain then processes the two 2D images from each eye and gives us a 3D image.
My question is: if we need two eyes to create 3D, then why doesn't the world look 2D once one eye is closed? Wouldn't we lose one part of the picture and our brains would only process the 2D image from the open eye?
Bonus question: if a person is blind in one eye, do they have poor or no depth perception? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26jmf3/eli5_why_doesnt_the_world_appear_2d_if_i_close/ | {
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"It does appear in 2d. However your brain is good at recreating the 3rd dimension by calculating parallax as you change position, as well as monitoring and comparing changes in known sizes of things.",
"Binocular depth perception only works at fairly close range. Beyond about 10m it is pretty much useless, because the views in the two eyes do not differ by enough to process.\n\nSo we use a lot of other methods for depth perception, as well. Haze, hiding of one object behind another, and perceived size of familiar objects all help us process depth. All of these work just as well with one eye as with two.",
" > depth perception and 3D vision is achieved because we have two eyes that are slightly apart\n\nAs others have said, that's partly true, but we use other cues as well.\n\nThere is quite a significant proportion of the population -- I can't remember what that proportion is, but I remember it being much higher than I would have thought -- that doesn't use binocular depth percetion at all. They can still judge distances perfectly well, and some may even be unaware of their condition until they go to see a 3D movie -- because 3D movies rely *entirely* on binocular vision to give a sense of depth. These people find that 3D movies actually look *less* 3D than normal 2D movies.",
"Your eye's lens still has to adjust and focus so you can't maintain the sense of 2D.",
"It is in 2D. Just close one eye, spread your hands, and try to touch your fingers of each hand slowly. (i.e. touch your left finger with the right finger)\n\nYour brain is just used to think in 3D...",
"In the psychology field of sensation and perception there is the concept of \"monocular\" and \"binocular\" cues. A binocular cue is something you need two eyes for to notice depth. This is pretty much controlled by your brain calculating \"how crossed\" your eyes are. If they are moving towards each other, that means the object is close, otherwise, the object is far away. It's very, very sensitive.\n\n\"Monocular cues\" refer to everything else you can use to tell depth. One is objects appearing smaller. Another is objects blocking other objects. Another is objects appearing fuzzier. Parallax is a more complicated one, but it's essentially is the fact that when you move, objects closer to you appear to move *more* than objects far you. If you're driving at night, street signs whip past you quickly, houses pass by more slowly, and the moon doesn't appear to move at all.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Try catching a tennis ball with one eye closed\n\n\nAs a streoblind person, this explained why I sucked at PE ",
"It does, but your brain is clever fucker. He will make it so it seem 3D. Try to judge distance with 1 eye closed. Yeah it doesnt go that well."
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373mn0 | why is two-x chromosomes a default sub? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/373mn0/eli5_why_is_twox_chromosomes_a_default_sub/ | {
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"The default subs are based on popularity, which is based on how many members they have and how many people view them. They just happen to be the most popular subs, for whatever reason.",
"Whatever group of people that are responsible for choosing it considers it to be an important sub. It's likely that the sub is there for the sake of offsetting the stereotype that reddit is a male-driven, anti-feminist place and make reddit seem more inclusive for women. "
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bh61ri | how long could an umbilical cord stay attached and would it give any benefits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bh61ri/eli5_how_long_could_an_umbilical_cord_stay/ | {
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"The umbilical cord should fall off after about 1-3 weeks. If it doesn't, it could be a sign of infection or an immune system disorder. This is because the baby's body has a white blood cell called a neutrophil whose job is cut off the umbilical cord so it falls off. If there is an immune system problem, there are no neutrophils to cut off the umbilical cord. If there is an infection, the neutrophils are busy fighting the bacteria and don't have time to cut off the umbilical cord. \n\nThere are no benefits to the umbilical cord in a baby after birth. The whole point was to transfer food and oxygen from the mother to the baby while it was in the womb. Once it can eat food and breathe on its own, the umbilical cord doesn't do anything anymore."
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4u9eua | what are the dark bruises under a person's eyes that appears when they're tired? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u9eua/eli5_what_are_the_dark_bruises_under_a_persons/ | {
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"When you're tired, the body releases a hormone called cortisol to boost energy levels, cortisol increases blood flow in the body.\n\nThe skin around a persons eye is a lot thinner than the rest of the body, so all the dark patches are is the blood vessels showing underneath the skin. It is more noticeable when tired due to the extra blood flow (vessels expand)"
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605u59 | what does it mean to be "red pilled?" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/605u59/eli5what_does_it_mean_to_be_red_pilled/ | {
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"In the film *The Matrix*, the main character is offered a red pill that (indirectly) allows him to perceive the world as it really is for the first time (the alternative blue pill would have let him keep his illusions and never find out the truth).\n\nIn internet talk, people who have adopted controversial, non-mainstream beliefs use the analogy to imply that they have \"woken up\" to the real facts, and that everyone who doesn't agree with them is asleep. Most famously the term is used by Men's Rights Activists or MRAs who claim to have realised that, actually, men are more oppressed than women. The term tends to be associated with conspiracy theories and reactionary right wing causes."
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2hn0l2 | why can i drink flavored drinks until i'm stick, but i struggle to drink the equivalent of water. | I try to drink a gallon+ of water each day and its a struggle to do so, but if I add some flavoring to the water I can drink a gallon+ easy. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hn0l2/eli5why_can_i_drink_flavored_drinks_until_im/ | {
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"A gallon of water a day? That seems like a hell of a lot quite frankly and unless your doing some heavy work outs I doubt you need that much. Actually that's related to why you cant drink much. Water doesn't really have much of a taste But since it's not for the taste you drink it purely to quench your thirst and that doesn't take much honestly unless your sweating a ton which would only happen if it were really hot or of course exercise."
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2t9pmh | how come babies and young children can fall asleep so fast? are they chemically different than adults? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t9pmh/eli5_how_come_babies_and_young_children_can_fall/ | {
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"Na, they just have no worries like bills, exams, relationships etc. Ignorance is clearly bliss. ",
"I can fall asleep in 2 min sometimes. I say: \"Time to sleep, good night.\" *brushes teeth and gets to bed* and I am out",
"Babies' and childrens' brains are still developing, so they need more REM sleep than we do. It's not fully understood but sleep is part of the learning process. Here's an [article](_URL_0_) if you're interested."
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1q84n4 | what is laissez-faire economics? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q84n4/eli5what_is_laissezfaire_economics/ | {
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"When the economy is free, or mostly free, from government involvement. This means the transactions between private actors are not forced, nor the actors coerced.",
"Thnk of it as hands off economics. The government does as little as possible. Not just free market but the free-est market. The government wouldn't subsidize anything or create regulations or make standards. This is a economic theory that waxes and wanes but never is fully used by any major government. "
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5qoepv | drm and how it actually stops pirates instead of just making it more difficult for me to play my movies on my many devices, etc... | DRM has been around the block, and eventually removed from music in pretty much every market place, but only increased in invasiveness with movies. Despite this, pirates can circumvent enough DRM schemes that pirated movies are common. Are there quantifiable ways in which it's deceased movie piracy, or is the inconvenience just on me as a purchaser? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qoepv/eli5_drm_and_how_it_actually_stops_pirates/ | {
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"DRM on movies *is* dumb.\n\nWorst case, people can just record their screen while watching a movie legally.\n\nBest case, people just remove it.\n\nIt's only an inconvenience for the legal buyer. Same goes for games (aside from Denuvo, which hasn't been cracked yet and actually has stopped piracy, but it'll be cracked at some point, which even the Denuvo devs admit).\n\nEDIT: I'd like to add there was no big increase in legal sales for Denuvo games.",
"Usually, DRM is not added with the expectation that it will never be broken. It is more commonly used as deterrent to make people less likely to bother getting around it. It increases the level of effort required to get it illegally, and the idea is that it'll increase the effort enough for a significant percentage of potential customers to just buy it instead.\n\nIt is also intended to increase the time between the release of a work, and when it's available illegally. This is often the case for games. The developers know the protection will eventually be broken, but games are the most valuable when they're new, so the longer it takes until the DRM is broken, the more people will just give up waiting for a \"crack\" and buy it instead. Eventually, the price of the game decreases by a lot, and a significant portion of those who are willing to pay for games have already bought the game. At this point, it doesn't matter too much for the developer that the DRM has been broken, as the people pirating it at this point are often people who would never have bought the game anyway.\n\nSome developers have said that having a game that's not possible to pirate for just the first two weeks after release makes a very big difference. The DRM doesn't have to be very long lived for it to be worth the cost of licensing it. Game developers have a business to run, after all. If the cost of DRM leads to a net loss of money compared to not using it, I don't think they would bother."
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7zpetu | what is germany doing differently then america where america is trillions of dollars in debt while germany has a several billion dollar surplus? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zpetu/eli5_what_is_germany_doing_differently_then/ | {
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"In the EU, there is a rule that requires every country to either keep it's debt below 60% of gdp, or actively on decreasing it.\n\nNow, enforcement here has been generally lax, but it tightened up with the financial crisis. Since Germany is above the debt limit (a result of the reunification), they're working on reducing the deficit.\n\n_URL_0_",
"In the US, politicians seem to treat spending and revenue as unrelated concepts. They pass a tax bill, then they pass a spending bill without any real concern over the difference between them. ",
"Not buying bombs from itself at hugely marked up prices\n\nAlso not using those bombs so they have to buy more",
"I suggest you listen to freakonomics podcast. Details nicely why Germany has surplus when trading with china. I will post a link if I can later.",
"Germany paid of it'd ww2 debts. Also much more export. I believe if you take it per capita it is triple the US export. \n\nFewer military spending. \n\nBetter economic basis. As people are generally more safe in their job they don't save as much. Also monopolies are mostly prevented by law. \n\nGigantic export market in the EU that the US has access to but not as much as Germany. ",
"Having a surplus doesn't mean you don't have tons of debt. Comparing \"trillions of debt\" to \"a surplus\" is apples and oranges. Germany has tons of debt as well. ",
"Who does the world owe all this money to?",
"Germany benefits greatly from being in the Eurozone. This gets a little wonky, but if you care about economics continue reading. Eurozone growth is struggling quite a bit (Spain, Italy, France etc. are rather stagnant), but Germany's economy is doing quite well. In a nation with one currency (the US for example) the value of the dollar would increase as the economy expands. A higher valued dollar means it is more expensive to buy American goods, thus American exports would slow down. \n\nIn the case of Germany, the Euro is relatively sluggish and isn't expanding with the rise of the German economy. This means that it is still relatively inexpensive to buy German goods, even though there economy is doing exceptionally well. Meaning they can continue to export like crazy, with an economy that is already booming. This of course has the opposite effect for other Euro nations that aren't doing well, their exports slow with Germany pulling up the currency.\n\nEdit: Your essential point is wrong. They have a budget surplus, they are still in debt. ",
"This is a good podcast to listen to. :)\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"I believe you are confusing debt/surplus/etc. it’s not uncommon for organizations and even governments to hedge through use of debt. For example, let’s say you are building a new plant in x country which will cost 100M. You as a company has the 100M sitting in an account earning 5% interest. Do you use the 100M to build the complex or get a loan? Generally, if you can borrow the 100M for less than 5% interest than you borrow. If borrowing money will cost more than 5% than you’d most likely use the money sitting in an account or a combination of the two. \n\nLet’s not also forget that money sitting around as surplus may not actually be surplus. The government count have bonds maturing, debt obligations approaching or a wide assortment of other fiscal requirements. In short, it may actually not be extra money just sitting around at all and could be actually obligated. \n\nDespite this, you are correct Germany is doing many things right compared to US. Most citizens don’t get a loan for a home but rather generally save and pay cash or have smaller amounts on loans. They tend to save their money vs spending it on unreserved items. In addition they tend to be a much more transparent culture compared to US. Meaning they are more likely to say it as it is rather than avoiding a situation. This will often lead to a culture being more realistic, honest, and focused on financial aspects compared to US, where we often hide how much we owe on mortgages, credit cards, etc as we aspire to keep up with the Jones. In short, as a culture who is more about calling the kettle black should it be black, they can be more responsive to downturns in economic positions compared to nations who just want to believe all is well, when is not. ",
"Old joke from the 80's, when Japan had some of the role China has now, holding a lot of US debt, and with a trade imbalance:\n\nJapan: We are getting very concerned about your level of debt. Can you maintain it? What are you spending on that it keeps increasing so fast?\n\nUSA: Well, we bought hundreds of MX multi-warhead nuclear missiles, and...\n\nJapan: It's ok. We don't need the money right away.",
"A few others have answered, but having a hudget surplus really doesn't have anything to do with debt.\n\nYou can have a budget surplus this year by cutting some of your bills, but still have a huge amount of student debt. Remember, debt is only really an issue if it's not sustainable.",
"I might have gotten this wrong but I think Germany's national debt is 2 trillion dollars going off of [this](_URL_0_):\n\n1,771,735,100,000 euros which is:\n\n$2,177,940,806,377 \n\nDefinitely might have that wrong though. \n\nSo they're both in trillions of dollars of debt but Germany posted a surplus this/last year. ",
"Let's cut to the chase: Germany has higher taxes. Their citizens agree that it's worth paying more taxes to have shit like healthcare and budget surpluses that can be applied to the national debt. At the same time, they also have a healthy economy with successful industrial, agricultural, and tourism sectors. Big surprise (to conservatives): when you pay for shit, you have less debt.",
"Well we have been spending well north of 600 billion dollars (conservatively) every year on defense since I've been alive. ",
"Essentially America is building and maintaining a military capable of defending and protecting the rest of the world from acts of war, allowing many nations great freedom to put capital that might normally go into defense toward other areas of their economy.\n\nGermany in particular is a great example of this, having been barred during the Geneva Convention from ever building or maintaining a proper military in the future, which has caused their power and global influence to be almost entirely derived from maintaining a robust economy - mostly built upon producing high-end exports and making lucrative trade deals.\n\n(edit: can't type good)",
"They have many social programs to empower their citizens. Every corporate boardroom is required to have one Union representative. Things that America conservatives are brainwashed to fear.",
"Both countries have a sizeable national debt. What is different about Germany is that they have a tiny budget surplus this year whereas the U.S. have a massive budget deficit. This means that this year, Germany's debt shrank, but the U.S.'s debt grew. Those are the facts. It's important to distinguish three concepts:\n\n * national debt: how much money is currently owed (domestically or otherwise). This is not always the best metric, since many countries both issue debt and purchase debt.\n * budget surplus/debt: how much the national debt changes in a fiscal year.\n * trade surplus/debt: often mixed in with these other two concepts, but is mostly orthogonal. It is meaningful, but not in this context.\n\nWhy does Germany have a tiny budget surplus and the U.S. have a massive budget deficit? Politics. For whatever reason, German politicians have temporarily balanced their budgets (I don't expect this to continue). For a variety of reasons, U.S. politicians have done the opposite. I don't know much about German politics, but some of the relevant factors in America:\n\n * Trump recently cut taxes despite us already running a budget deficit. Two motivations presented without comment are to \"starve the beast\", i.e. government can't grow if it can't afford to. And the other is the belief that lower taxes will make the economy healthier, even with increased budget deficits. Again, I'm not going to comment on the wisdom of either of those reasons, it's not relevant here.\n\n * Obama raised spending during the Great Recession, hoping to prevent it from being any worse.\n\nBut ultimately, the cause is political: it's easier for politicians to lower taxes and increase spending than for them to do the reverse, so the system is biased towards those outcomes. This is the main reason I suspect the German situation to be temporary.",
"Not footing the bill for safety and security of the rest of the modern world militarily speaking. ",
"As others have said, you're misunderstanding national debt.\n\nThe US has ~$14.5 trillion in debt, equating to ~$44,900 per person - misleading, but gets the point across for the sake of comparison.\n\nGermany has $3.3 trillion in debt, equating to $40,000 per person.\n\nAs you can see, minimal difference. A lot goes into national debt, and it's fairly complicated (like others stated with things like inter-departmental debt). Keep in mind, too, things like infrastructure needs for a large, sprawling nation like the US compared to the relatively concentrated spread of EU nations, as well as military spending (though EU nations have higher social spending). Very difficult to compare, basically, as countries have different government structures/budgeting/spending priorities/etc.",
"Germany doesn’t pay trillions into their military while the USA is expected to be the worlds bodyguard.",
"The German Economy is an export and manufacturing driven economy, because their economy is organized around producing goods (think Siemens and BMW) and selling them to the Eurozone they run surpluses. The U.S. is a service economy organized around using services and imports to make sure that other countries need to hold on to dollars which makes the dollar the world reserve currency and giving the U.S. crazy amounts of political power. To make every country need the dollar and keep prices low we run deficits. This is a much bigger question than you may have realized, and the post following is about explaining the nature of debt and dispelling some illusions about economies, for example, debt isn't necessarily bad for a government.\n\n 1: Balance sheets. Every economy can be boiled down to three balance sheets: The private balance sheet (Savings minus Investments), The government balance sheet (Tax revenue minus Government spending), and the foriegn sector balance sheet, (Exports minus imports). When you add all these balance sheets together [they equal 0](_URL_1_). This means that if you want the private citizens to make money either foreign countries have to lose money, or the government has to lose money. This is an accounting identity, and this relationship between these three balance sheets is as certain as parallel lines not meeting. Economic organizing basically comes down to two questions, which sector/sectors do you want to run surpluses/deficits, and how do you seek to achieve that?\n\n 2: Government debt isn't necessarily bad. If you (not proverbial you, you the private citizen) run a debt, the problem isn't the debt itself, the worry is that someone will collect on that debt and punish you for failing to service it. With that in mind, we go forward. First, the U.S. owes all its debts in dollars. The U.S prints dollars, as many as it wants for that matter (debt ceiling notwithstanding, [but the debt ceiling is stupid](_URL_0_)). This means that as long as the U.S. debt is calculated in dollars, the U.S. can pay its entire debt to everyone instantly as soon as it wants to. So the problem of servicing a debt is now void, so on to the question of enforcement. Which brave country do you think wants to enforce violent collections on the most powerful army in the history of ever? Nobody, that's suicide, so debt isn't really what you think it is when you print your own money and can murder anyone who bitches about it.\n\n 3: What the U.S. should be scared of. First, the U.S. should be afraid of cutting government spending to resolve the debt. GDP (the size of our economy is calculated by GDP = C+I+G+(X-M). That G is government spending. If you cut government spending the economy shrinks, that's just accounting, that statement is by definition true, parallel lines. Our government debt is mostly composed of money paid out to its citizens. This means if government spending shrinks so does C and I. The U.S. raised government spending after the financial crisis, and it's GDP remained fairly stable. The Greeks and Spanish cut their government spending to appease the German masters, their economies are decimated, the U.S. would have to be run by idiots (it is) to make cutting government spending a priority. Second, the U.S. should fear a destabilized currency. If the dollar becomes unstable it stops being the world reserve currency. If it stops being the world reserve currency it can't pay for everything in dollars, if it can't pay for everything in dollars, debt suddenly matters. The debt ceiling could destabilize the U.S. currency, and the Democrats know the Republicans would kill their own children for political points, so they cave on all negotiations involving the debt ceiling to make sure that our currency never defaults. Runaway inflation could destabilize the currency, but inflation only really happens if labor has unlimited negotiation power (part Republican fear of Unions[if labor has too little negotiating power then people start dying of poverty, there is a balance and the U.S. has a bad habit of swinging to extremes]), or if you owe debt in a foreign currency, see Argentina or post WWI Germany. \n\n 4: How to use taxes to deal with a deficit/debt. If we want to improve our debt to GDP ratio we then we want to increase government revenue through taxes. We saw why we don't want to cut government spending with Greece and Spain. There is a way to figure out which taxes to raise too. Figure out which sector of the economy is least productive, then use high tax rates to force people to spend their money elsewhere. Right now the biggest drag on the U.S. economy [is finance/banking](_URL_2_). For every three dollars that get moved into finance we can expect our economy to slow by about one dollar (see graph one). Finance crashed the world in 2007, and right now companies like Pfizer are using more money on stock buybacks than research and development. Fracking is losing huge amounts of money, and is exclusively being held afloat by huge financial investments. Outsize finance isn't just dangerous in terms of, but its profitability in the short term is literally preventing the development of life saving drugs, green technology, and other innovative necessities from being developed. Raise capital gains tax and you kill fifty birds with one solar powered heat seeking stone."
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"http://freakonomics.com/podcast/secrets-german-economy-steal/"
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIbkoop4AYE",
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"https://www.bis.org/publ/work490.pdf"
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378ly5 | how is it possible that military aircraft like the b-52 are still in service? do they just replace all the computers? | Even if they're producing new B-52s, wouldn't they have to redesign them to fit modern radar/electronic warfare/whatever standards and equipment? I'm curious how this would work when the designs date back to the 1950s. Same with the F-16, though it's not quite as old. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/378ly5/eli5how_is_it_possible_that_military_aircraft/ | {
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"There are modernization programs to upgrade avionics, weaponry, etc. One of the most extreme examples is the mig-21 which has been flying for quite some time with occasional upgrades to the electronics. ",
"Yes, they upgrade the planes over time. The airframe still meets the needs of the military, so there's no need to go through the long expensive process of designing a new plane. Just retro fit the old ones and make some changes to the designs for new ones being built.\n\nEdited out a fact that was wrong.",
"If it is worth it to perform an upgrade, an upgrade program will be created, funded, designed and implemented. Usually the upgrades will be incremental, with the new equipment going into space that the old equipment occupied.\n\nFor most electronic equipment, this isn't a problem, but it can add some complexity and cost to the design, as you can't necessarily use off the shelf parts (what is known as commercial off the shelf or COTS in the industry). Weight and balance of the aircraft are important concerns, and while modern electronics are usually lighter, adding lots of new capabilities usually comes wtih additional weight.\n\nYou'll typically find that the upgrades (known as \"blocks\") are incremental. This means that aircraft aren't taken out of service for significant periods of time while the upgrades are performed. For more extensive upgrades, particularly upgrades that involve removing and replacing lots of aircraft wiring, they'll slowly rotate airframes out of the fleet to be upgraded during major service phases.\n\nCheck out the wikipedia article on the F-16 to see all the different blocks and variants out there: _URL_0_ \n",
"All of the B-52 airframes date back to 1962 at the youngest. There are revision projects to upgrade the airframes every so often (at the moment, the USAF is upgrading the computers and hardpoints to allow cruise missiles, and they may get an engine upgrade as well). The same applies to virtually all military aerospace projects.\n\nGranted, the B-52 is actually not up for full replacement until 2040, giving the aircraft 90 years in service, which is an *obscenely* long time for an aircraft, and so it is not the norm. The much younger F-15s, F-16s, and F-18s are all going to be phased out for F-22s and F-35s well before we stop flying the BUFFs."
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2k0esw | are all neutrinos majorana particles? | Hi Reddit
I've seen several physics seminars that suggest that neutrinos can behave like Majorana particles, in that they are essentially their own antiparticle, and the operator to create a neutrino can be the same as the operator to annihilate it.
Do all neutrinos behave in this way? If they do, then what does that imply for their lepton number? Is it zero? Does that mean that lepton number is not conserved in beta decay?
I have some knowledge of quantum mechanics, but very little formal education in this area.
Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k0esw/eli5_are_all_neutrinos_majorana_particles/ | {
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"We don't know yet if neutrinos are Majorana particles, but if they are, then all of them are, because they are excitations of the same field.\n\nIf neutrinos are Majorana, then the lepton number is not conserved. It is easy to see this if you consider a pair production of a neutrino and an antineutrino. Since neutrinos are leptons, they *must* by definition have a lepton number L of 1. But if antineutrinos are the same as neutrinos, they also must have a L of 1, so the total sum is L=2, where previously it was zero! That means that L is not conserved in this case."
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2xqv6a | would it be possible to change a planet's atmosphere, terrain, etc enough to make it capable of supporting life | For example if a few thousands years down the road we stumbled upon a planet that was exactly like earth except it had an atmosphere with a deadly amount of carbon dioxide in it could we simply plant some trees and make it livable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xqv6a/eli5would_it_be_possible_to_change_a_planets/ | {
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"Yes. There have been pretty detailed discussions of how to terraform Venus, Mars, and some of Jupiter's moons for Human life. The problem in most cases is the cost - they are almost always immensely complicated and long-term plans (on the order of centuries if not millenia). But it's certainly possible, and probably worth doing for our species.",
"The process that you are referring to is called Terra forming. Theoretically it would be possible, though at current times, we struggle just to manage maintaining little national parks. The process of changing another planets atmosphere without drastically changing it too much might be more than we could ever manage.",
"Others have answered the plausibility for other planets, but you might not know that this has actually happened on Earth already! The atmosphere of the early Earth did not have oxygen, and when it built up as a result of photosynthetic bacteria (similar to modern algae), it [killed a big chunk of the life on Earth](_URL_0_)."
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6xdyo1 | why are americans needing to crowdfund disaster relief efforts whenever they occur (katrina, sandy, harvey)? does the us really not have money aside for such things? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xdyo1/eli5_why_are_americans_needing_to_crowdfund/ | {
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"It is there, it's just not quite as large as it needs to be, and many times the fund is kind of a, here is food and water and shelter you're Good, they ask for money to rebuild their home and lives not just survive in a tent",
"America does have disaster relief funds. They cover life saving basics. But yeah, the US has a venomous hatred of social safety nets and lack a ton of services other countries have. \n\nIf you are hurt during a disaster you will get free treatment to stop you from bleeding and get you safe, but after that you pay your own. If you lose a house there is usually some disaster relief but the cost of it is mostly private insurance, if you lived in an apartment you are largely just on your own. etc. ",
"Yeah, it is ridiculous.\n\nIt also becomes a lot less efficient since the tasks are distributed across so many entities. We have oversupply of some aid, massive undersupply on other things, and huge gaps that aren't being addressed by anyone.\n\nAlso note that if you go to many charities, f.ex the Red Cross Harvey site, there is one heck of a lot of information about how you can donate or volunteer, but exceedingly little information (if any) about how you can get help. \n\nI don't know how much of the donated aid will actually come to those affected. The general consensus here in Houston seems to be:\n\n- Harris County / Mayor Turner have done an amazing job\n- Gov Abbott has done a super job of being clear and specific about what Texas needs\n- The biggest heroes are ordinary citizens who are mostly rolling up their sleeves, pushing out the boats, responding to requests for help in oh so many ways.\n- The schools, small churches, mosques have gone out of their way to help people (the mega-churches less so).\n- The small and local charities have really been amazing.",
"I have a feeling that much of that relief effort is based on reducing the feelings of impotence that those of us witnessing the events associated with Harvey from afar feel. I know that I sleep better knowing that the $50 I donated is helping those affected by the storm...even though it's clearly only a drop in the bucket. Additionally, while taxpayers usually end up paying for the majority this stuff via appropriation bills in the long run, there's little immediate response set up beyond the very basics to ensure survival - so the things that maintain the cultural standard of living that the victims are used to are often not immediately forthcoming short of crowdfunding sources."
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53qv7g | why do bathroom scales give incorrect readings when placed on carpet? | I've constantly scoffed at suggestions that bathroom scales will give an incorrect reading when placed on carpet, however I tried this for myself and found that carpet actually gave a reading a few Kg's higher than when the scales were on a hard surface. Surely the carpet is applying an equal and opposite force to feet of the scales, so why the error? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53qv7g/eli5_why_do_bathroom_scales_give_incorrect/ | {
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"bathroom scales us a spring if they're mechanical or a load cell that's basically a spring with a little electronic sensor on it if they're digital. the spring deflects when you stand on it, and the readout is a gauge that measures the deflection of a spring and displays it in units you can understand.\n\nif you place it on carpet, theres a chance that the bottom of the scale, rather than the feet of the scale which are connected to the springs (or which actually are the load cells if you're using digital), could contact the carpet and some of the weight will be distributed to the bottom of the scale rather than directly to the springs. if you're 200 pounds, and you place the scale on carpet, the actual floor of the scale instead of the feet could be soaking up some of the weight because it's resting on the carpet. if the floor of the scale takes 40 pounds, then the other 160 will be transfered through the feet into the springs/load cells and the scale will read out 160 instead of 200. ",
"When sitting on a carpet the scale tends to tilt. When you stand on the top plate the spring will flex forming a < shape, depending on which side the scale measures you may appear heavier or lighter than you really are. You can replicate this on a hard surface by standing on the edge on the scales and tilting the top plate instead."
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2k20s4 | when i want to type an apostrophe, i would hit the key next to the enter key on my keyboard and get this character ' but why does this alternate character ’ show up in text that i have copied off the web? are they meant to be used interchangeably? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k20s4/eli5_when_i_want_to_type_an_apostrophe_i_would/ | {
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"The prevailing wisdom is ' should be used for feet or minutes, while the curlier ’ should be used as a quote or apostrophe."
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1rckb4 | what happened at dunkirk, and why are the french held in unfavorable light in regards to it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rckb4/eli5_what_happened_at_dunkirk_and_why_are_the/ | {
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"The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was holding its own but the French forces to their south fell back. This put the BEF in danger of being surrounded and cut off so they had to fall back. They fell back to Dunkirk where over 300k British soldiers were rescued, minus their heavy equipment, by a flotilla of navy and civilian ships. The saving of so many troops enabled the UK to remain in the fight but the loss of so much heavy equipment meant that they were a bit more lightly armed than they wanted to be for a while. \n\nGoering, commander of the Luftwaffe (Air Force), stated that his aircraft could destroy the British at Dunkirk, so Hitler ordered the Heer (army) to hold. His Wehrmacht (military) commanders had been worried that the Heer was being overextended and was in danger of being cut off if the French or British launched a counter attack so Goering's boast provided a needed excuse to get the Heer to stop and regroup. The RAF (Royal Air Force) fought the Luftwaffe in the skies over Dunkirk and prevented them from destroying the BEF. However, a lot of the fighting took place in cloud cover and so the soldiers on the ground thought they were being mercilessly attacked by the Luftwaffe and believed that the RAF did nothing to help them. ",
"The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was forced to fall back after the German attack through the Ardennes reached the English Channel splitting the BEF, the Belgian Army and part of the French Army was trapped and cast asunder from the rest of the French army (which was south of the Somme iirc).\n\nThe push forced these Northern forces back and, in order to save the BEF it was ordered to fall back on the Channel ports and evacuate - of these Dunkirk was the only port open which the BEF, together with parts of the French army, fell back on. It was about this stage that non-combatants and non-essentials were evacuated.\n\nWhen this happened the Belgians (until their surrender) and the BEF held the right flank and the French most of the rest of the line. This then got smaller and the French army took over more of the line to hold it.\n\nThe evacuation took place mostly from a jetty on the port which was suitable for large warships to get into. Men also went on the beaches and even up to their necks in water - this leads to the famous little ships of Dunkirk which does what it says on the tin: small ships, crewed by civilians from all over the South coast of Britain including London picked up men off the beaches and sailed them either to waiting warships or back to England often under air attack. \n\nTowards the end of the evacuation French troops were also evacuated in part because most of the BEF had gone and also for political reasons. \n\nFor reasons unknown to this day Hitler halted his Panzers and left the job to Goering and the Luftwaffe. The RAF's home squadrons - which were desperately needed for the inevitable defence of Britain - fought to keep the German planes from the beaches but because of both cloud cover and the need to shoot the bombers down before the reached the beach (for obvious reasons) meant this battle went largely unseen by the troops leading to accusations of the RAF not helping. Of course some ships were sunk\n\nOn June 4th the remnants of Dunkirk surrendered, most of the troops captured were French but approximately 330,000 British and French troops made it safely to England to continue the fight.\n\nI am not sure why the French are held in an unfavourable light regarding the evacuation of Dunkirk, their troops fought very bravely and very well considering the situation their country was in and the defeatism that abounded. If it weren't for the French there would have been far fewer troops evacuated",
"To most historians the French get a fair amount of credit for Dunkirk (as other posters have said) popular culture just gives the French a lot of stick for falling so quickly given their relative military strength at the start of world war two. ",
"The French (first army if I am correct) holding action at Lilee made te evacuation at Dunkirk possible.\n\nat the time, many believed that tanks could not drive through Ardennes.\ntherefore, allies defense plan assumed a replay of WW1. That's why the French lost. \n\n",
"France has long suffered considerable slagging over the 1940 Battle of France as a whole, but I've never encountered any specifically related to Dunkirk. ",
"Are you British, or perhaps American? Where have you heard that the French \"are held in unfavorable light\" over Dunkirk? I'm French and just learned that the British went home at Dunkirk after the French lost the war."
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6i0g3k | how do companies perform background checks on prospective employees? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6i0g3k/eli5_how_do_companies_perform_background_checks/ | {
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"For most private companies, it is typically a check of your references, your past employers, your criminal convictions, a credit check, and/or a social media search.\n\nFor a government job, it can include a thorough criminal check, including criminal records beyond convictions that are not publically available. It can also include an investigator going around interviewing friends, neighbors, and coworkers."
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82blbf | why is tanning viewed as attractive when any kind of tanning is bad for you? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82blbf/eli5why_is_tanning_viewed_as_attractive_when_any/ | {
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"Pale skin used to be fashionable because tans were a sign of being someone who worked outdoors with manual labour, whereas paleness indicated a level of luxury.\n\nConversely, these days people are typically lumped into office/shop/inside jobs so having a tan implies a life of luxury like going on holiday and such.\n\nIt's socially attractive, not hard coded."
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8i06cv | what determined the age groups for ratings on media such as movies, games and tv shows? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8i06cv/eli5_what_determined_the_age_groups_for_ratings/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"This is not a perfect answer, but it paints a picture on how these standards are influenced by social norms, history, politics and so on _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://youtu.be/6cNZIGLPe1M"
]
] |
||
e6c8eg | why aren’t there drug dealers for insulin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e6c8eg/eli5_why_arent_there_drug_dealers_for_insulin/ | {
"a_id": [
"f9p5af8"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Insulin is harder to produce. If I remember right it is made with engineered yeast or bacteria."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3vthdu | 4d shapes | I recently had a lecture on how 4D shapes can have 3D shadows just like how 3D objects have 2D shadows.
I really cant get around visualising it
We know that a 4D cube has 32 edges and 16 corners, but how are they laid out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vthdu/eli5_4d_shapes/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxqi7yw",
"cxqig02"
],
"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"There is no reason you need to or should be able to visualize it.\n\n4D shapes are entirely a mathematical construct. Just understand what they are/what properties they have.",
"I don't really understand this concept well enough to thoroughly explain it, but I'll provide an example that helps me visualize it. Imagine a perfect 2D plane. A flat sheet like a piece of paper will work well enough. Now place your finger perpendicular to the plane. Move your finger down through the plane. At any moment in time, a 2D slice of your finger is present in this 2D plane. Now, try imagining a 4D sphere. It's a tough thing to do. I apply the same thinking as with the finger example. The 4D sphere is just outside of our 3D space. The 4D sphere enters our 3D space as an infinitely small 3D sphere. As the 4D sphere is pushed further into our space, the 3D sphere we see gets larger and larger, until the diameter of the 3D sphere equals some dimension of the 4D sphere. Then, as it continues through our space, the 3D sphere appears smaller and smaller until it pops out of existence in our realm. \n\nLike I said, I hardly understand this concept, so I apologize if all I did was confuse you further. But this helps me picture it. "
]
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[],
[]
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|
67e46x | why is it more difficult for a lefty batter to hit a lefty pitcher, then a right handed batter to hit a right handed pitcher | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67e46x/eli5why_is_it_more_difficult_for_a_lefty_batter/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgpqc15",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Practice. \n\nAt the end of the day there are far more right handed pitchers to practice against than left handed pitchers. \n\n",
"It's not. It's easier for either to hit the opposite, so easier for lefty to hit righty, and vice versa. The reason is that you get to see the ball closer to the center of your vision and for slightly longer than with a righty vs. a righty, or a lefty vs. a lefty. Say you're a righty, and you're facing a righty pitcher. When he releases the ball it's first going to appear in the upper left of your peripheral vision. When a lefty releases the ball it will first appear slightly up, but much closer to the middle of your vision, which is of course much more precise than your peripheral. It's only a fraction of a second, but considering the tiny amount of time a batter has to decide to swing or not, even that tiny bit can really make a difference. Edit: grammar"
]
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[],
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||
2eefn7 | why does ingesting grapefruit and grapefruit juice interfere with my anti-anxiety medication? | Hello all, just started taking buspirone and I noticed on the warning label that I should avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice. Why and how does that effect a medicine that works on my neurotransmitters? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eefn7/eli5_why_does_ingesting_grapefruit_and_grapefruit/ | {
"a_id": [
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"I've come to the conclusion that grapefruit is a drug. And has drug interactions.",
"It affects how effectively your body absorbs the medication.",
"Grapefruit, or more specifically an enzyme in grapefruit, makes it hard for your body to eliminate the drug from your body at a regular pace.\n\nThis makes the drug build up in your body to the point of being toxic.",
"I'm surprised I have not heard of people abusing grape fruits with their meds to increase their high somehow.",
"There are a group of enzymes known as CYP450, and are responsible for the breakdown (metabolism) of a lot drugs. \n\nOther drugs and food stuffs can interact with these enzymes, either speeding the metabolism up (by promoting the body to increase the number of a particular enzyme) or slowing down the breakdown / reducing the number enzymes that breakdown a particular drug\n\nThis happens because some drugs or food stuffs promote new enzymes to be made. Others damage the current enzyme population rendering them unable to metabolise by damaging the enzyme protein which is known as denaturing an enzyme. This requires your body to make more enzymes to replace the damaged ones which takes time.\n\nGrapefruit juice is an inhibitor of some of these CYP450 enzymes, and as such, less metabolism of drugs can occur. In extreme circumstances, this can lead to overdose as the body does not have the capability to remove drugs from itself. \n\nIn ELI5 style - Say the body has some miners within itself (enzymes) that fall ill and can't work if they are given grapefruit juice. These miners are responsible for taking out things the body is given, such as medicine. If there are less miners, less medicine can be removed and so more remains for the body to use. This can harm the body as drugs are developed to be active for only so long, so warning labels are placed on meds.\n\nTL;DR: Grapefruit juice stops the body from breaking down some drugs, potentially to the point of overdose or toxicity.",
"Enzymes in your liver break down a lot of different kinds of drugs. Grapefruit juice contains some compounds that inhibit the same enzymes. Drugs are designed to be broken down in a set amount of time so interfering with the enzymes can cause additional side effects.",
"I've always wondered the same thing about my immunosuppressant medication. So odd to see a \"no grapefruits\" warning on the bottle.",
"Side note: I believe the goal is less than a quart a day of grapefruit juice",
"If you drink some grapefruit juice in the morning before your coffee, you will notice the coffee's effects last longer.",
"Maybe because you've seen [this] (_URL_0_) video before?",
"Buspirone made my heart race like crazy and would make me severely dizzy for about 20 minutes once I took it. I hope you don't suffer from too many side effects.",
"The same goes for fexofenadine (Allegra.)"
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2PwriqOjc"
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3g86ds | how/why putin is not considered a dictator? (or at least the head of an authoritarian regime?) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g86ds/eli5_howwhy_putin_is_not_considered_a_dictator_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctvrn6i"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Putin is indeed considered a dictator in some political circles, and his policies and media utterances are looking a lot like fascism. However, there are diplomatic reasons why politicians use more moderate language. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2sih7a | why are there no full bulletproof body armours, or why are they not being used? | Often I see an officer with just chest armour, or a soldier with armour and a helmet. But I never see a full suit. It's pretty logical to shoot between the eyes in such cases, because that's the weak spot. Why not wear bulletproof suits so (almost) nothing can kill you? Yes it might be heavy and slow, but at least you don't die as quickly. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sih7a/eli5_why_are_there_no_full_bulletproof_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnpqkgg",
"cnpqrkx",
"cnpr17n"
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"score": [
3,
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"text": [
"You would more or less have to look like this:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAnd that's very very heavy, and very very cumbersome. Imagine wearing this suit hours and hours, every day, for years and years. It just can't be done. \n\nPlus, you'd be giving up a whole load of other safety measures, like being able to see properly, run away from a bad situation, pursue suspects through environment, drive properly...\n\nIn addition to this, this isn't what most police would want to look like. They want to be humans serving their community, not walled in behind armor which screams 'I am afraid of this neighborhood'.",
" > It's pretty logical to shoot between the eyes in such cases, because that's the weak spot\n\nGood luck making that shot though. If you don't aim centre mass, chances are you're going to miss completely. If you're aiming for a tiny zone on the face, you're generally shit out of luck.",
"If you're wearing armour to stop a pistol bullet, a rifle bullet will kill you. If you're wearing armor to stop a rifle bullet, a grenade or IED or mortar will still kill you. \n\nBullet resistant armor only prevents the bullet from killing you. There's a whole range of difference between comfortably walking around and dead. Getting shot with bullet resistant armor once will still be like getting punched by mike Tyson. And it can still crack ribs and it will definitely bruise. Each time armor is hit, its slightly compromised. Wearing armor won't save you if you're standing in front of a machine gun with 1000rounds, or even if you get shot 100 times. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100201053918/bioshock/images/e/ec/Bouncer_Rendered_Model.png"
],
[],
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|
2qbgbz | why do amazon's prices fluctuate so drastically? | Sometimes a product will be really cheap and then the next day it could be more expensive than other competitors. Sounds like supply/demand but the fluctuation seems too 'real time' for that to be the cause. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qbgbz/eli5_why_do_amazons_prices_fluctuate_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn4ksig",
"cn4rbtl"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Vendor with the cheap price sold out, and it automatically displays the next lowest price from the other vendors ",
"[Amazon adjusts prices 2.5+ million times daily using algorithms](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://qz.com/157828/amazon-changes-its-prices-more-than-2-5-million-times-a-day/"
]
] |
|
4x6ahd | why do almost all police cars have the same wheels/rims? | I noticed recently that a lot of police cars have wheels that look like [this] (_URL_0_), and then I realized that almost every police car I've seen has the same or very similar wheels. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4x6ahd/eli5_why_do_almost_all_police_cars_have_the_same/ | {
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"text": [
"Most US police forces buy cars specifically made for the police force or buy cars in fleets. This means police generally buy multiple cars of the same car model. \n\n",
"Often times it's because they're the lowest, base-model, steel rims available for that model car. They're the cheapest and most durable rims, and they can buy them in bulk for very little money. ",
"Compatibility. It doesn't make sense to buy say 50 squad cars and have say 4 different rim designs/tire sizes. If all your units have the same rims and same size tires now you can buy in bulk when they inevitably get smushed on a curb. Also black steel rims tend to be cheaper and more durable than alloys.",
"Because looks are far, far down the list of priorities for fleet vehicles. Cost effectiveness, durability, and maintenance friendliness are way, way out front.",
"The wheels used on police vehicles are meant for heavy duty use. What you see is missing is the wheel cover hub cap. Police vehicle wheels they are normally steel wheels for hard driving and obstructions where a alloy wheel would crack. \n\nThe other reason they don't have wheel covers and have many holes is for dissipating heat. In a police pursuit or racing to a call under heavy braking generates a massive amount of heat that creates brake fade and reduces the effectivness of the brakes and holes in the wheels and without wheel covers will allow heat to escape.\nOn later model Impala police vehicles the two holes on the lower front bumper where fogs lights would be is actually a pipe that forces moving air onto the brake rotor to cool it down . This also why performance brake rotors have holes drilled in them\n\n"
]
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"http://m.imgur.com/5Ct9Uui"
] | [
[],
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[],
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23vppo | what do scalpers do with unsold tickets? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23vppo/eli5_what_do_scalpers_do_with_unsold_tickets/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch10nl8"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"They generally don't have unsold tickets. After the event starts they will likely drop the price to get rid of them to any bargain shoppers still hanging around."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
azvlsq | how do researchers get schedule 1 substances for studies? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/azvlsq/eli5_how_do_researchers_get_schedule_1_substances/ | {
"a_id": [
"eiaelds"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"From regulated suppliers, for example \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.tocris.com/products/dl-mdma-hydrochloride_3027"
]
] |
|
1tch1o | if bank check security features have been developed after decades of check fraud how can we now take pictures of checks to deposit them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tch1o/eli5if_bank_check_security_features_have_been/ | {
"a_id": [
"ce6kh29",
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"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"Balance of risk of fraud vs attracting customers. And u can only deposit 1000 max with a photoed check",
"Even if some one gets a fake check into there account it will be caught eventually (usually within 2 days) and the money will be removed from said account. If the money is already spent, the bank will make sure you pay it latter. If you don't it will go to collections and ruin your credit rating.\n\nEdit: a word"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
||
26fx5d | what does full development/maturity of the human brain really mean? | I was told a persons brain is not fully developed/matured until the age of 25. If this is true, what exactly does full maturity imply? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26fx5d/eli5_what_does_full_developmentmaturity_of_the/ | {
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"text": [
"25 is the age for men. Women mature slightly earlier.\n\nThis refers specifically to frontal lobe development, which doesn't finish until the body is firmly done with puberty.",
"Generally it means that the person becomes less impulsive and weighs risks.",
"Development in the brain occurs by laying down connections between neurons. The frontal lobe is responsible for higher thinking such as planning, consequence consideration, and other abstract intellectual functions. To do these well, this area must be connected to every other area of the brain, which means all the neurons have to make axons (long finger-like strands) to touch nearly all the other neurons. \n\nOnce all connections have been made, the brain is \"fully matured\".\n\nEditted: a word",
"As others have mentioned, it has to do with making neural connections in the frontal lobe, specifically the anterior association area. This functional area in your brain relies on feedback from your daily experiences, social cues, good/bad responses to different situations, etc. A younger individual simply has experienced less, thus has given less feedback to this area of the brain. As a result, younger individuals may be less inhibited, make poorer choices/judgements in certain situations, and/or behave inappropriately in some circumstances. Their brain hasn't yet learned what to do, but it will!"
]
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56wol3 | why do most perishables expire in exactly 24 hours, one month, one year, etc? is this a coincidence or are they just rounding up/down, and if so then what validates expiration? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56wol3/eli5_why_do_most_perishables_expire_in_exactly_24/ | {
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"text": [
"They do no such thing. I have never had perishable expire in just 24 hours, and I rarely ever see any that expire in exactly a month. If they last more than 2 months they are not perishables so no perishable expires at a year. ",
"Expiration dates are an estimate, on the low side, for legal purposes rather than some kind of hard classification. You can legally sell something like bologna for seven days after the vacuum packing is removed. If you sold it after eight days it would probably still be fine though the taste might be off, and past that it's increasingly likely to be growing mold or bacteria or something. If I get sick off meat I bought that had just been opened by the retailer (who did due diligence checking for problems before they sold it) then it's the manufacturer's fault and they take the heat. If I get sick and it turns out the meat was expired, it's the retailer's ass in the fire. If it was under expiration but the retailer should've known it was bad then it might be their ass anyway.\n\nExpiration dates aren't meant to be scientifically accurate since perishing isn't super predictable, it's not like meat has a half life or something. They're meant to establish a safe maximum threshold past which the meat is too likely to be spoiled for it to be safely sold. Sometimes a loaf of bread will keep for weeks after the expiration no problem. Sometimes it'll have mold on it the day after you open it.",
"Expiration dates are determined by the FDA (or your national equivalent) and are often set earlier than they need to be by the manufacturer.\n\nTo \"validate\" if something's expired, use your eyes, nose and common sense. Be especially careful with eggs, meat or certain kinds of mushrooms, as those may become unsafe to eat without noticably changing taste or texture when stored improperly and/or for too long. Salt, on the other hand, doesn't go bad at all if stored properly, but still gets an expiration date under some jurisdictions.",
"Over here in Germany the expiration date does not necessarily tell you about the safety of the food but also about taste, form and feeling when you chew the food (\"haptics\"?). So it's an estimate to guarantee the \"freshness\" and not necessarily if it's safe to consume.",
"Experation dates does not mean that it goes bad at that date. It means that this product is guaranteed to not spoil by this date. \nNaturally the date is a lowball estimate and may last for much longer. Other stuff got a experation date by law like Eggs (Europe) but last much longer than the date stamped on them. Infact my granny will not bake anything unless the eggs are 5 weeks past experation and she make the best pancakes/cakes ever."
]
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1v6pc8 | difference between angel investors and venture capitalists | Is it to do with:
- stage of investment
- magnitude of investment
- type of advice given
Thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v6pc8/eli5_difference_between_angel_investors_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cep83me"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Angel Investors generally provide the capital to get a venture off the ground. Legal startup costs, proposals, grants applications and such. Venture capitalists provide the funds necessary to launch and sustain the venture until it can generate revenue by itself.\n\nAngels generally have more risk and get a larger share of the venture, but put up less money then the VC. Venture capitalists provide the lions share of the operating costs, and generally get a good percentage of the company. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
54nsec | if you killed someone on the four corners monument, which state's laws would you be prosecuted with? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54nsec/eli5if_you_killed_someone_on_the_four_corners/ | {
"a_id": [
"d83e6mn"
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"text": [
"[Slightly NSFW.](_URL_0_) \n \nSince it's a serious crime that is inter-state, the federal government will likely step in. \n \nAlso, it's a national monument and in Indian Reservation territory, even more reason for it to be the FBI. \n \nDouble also, simply searching Google about this (\"four corners jurisdiction\") brought up an ELI5 post about this as the top result."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://youtu.be/AY4FP7U88ds?t=1m4s"
]
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||
10urcp | the concept of qualia. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10urcp/eli5_the_concept_of_qualia/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6gvkzh"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Basically, it's the belief that every person perceives things differently. For example, when we're little, we're taught that a certain color is red. You and I both agree that that color is called red. When we see it at a traffic light, we both know when to stop because we both know that as red. But what if what I see as red and what you see as red are totally different? What if what I see as red is brown to you? [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) describes it as \"the way things seem to us,\" meaning that each of us may perceive red (or maroon in the case of your username) to be something very different. The basis for qualia, unfortunately, is uncertainty - we don't really know if what we perceive is the same or completely different."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia"
]
] |
||
3jacmg | what is the difference between "all of our servers are busy" and "we took too long to make this page" error pages on reddit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jacmg/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_all_of_our/ | {
"a_id": [
"cunlb9l"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"From our standpoint as users, nothing at all. From Reddit's standpoint, one of them means the backend computers told them \"sorry too busy\" and the other means that the backend didn't respond at all."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
19s76j | why don't dogs' paws get extremely cold in the snow? | My dog loves the snow, and the cold doesn't seem to bother him at all. How is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19s76j/eli5_why_dont_dogs_paws_get_extremely_cold_in_the/ | {
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"text": [
"I've heard that the pads of dogs and cats paws can get frost bitten and extremely dry. So they recommend putting booties on dogs if the temperature is incredibly low and lotion on their paws or something to keep them from getting too chapped",
"Their paws afford them similar protection to the shoes you wear. As opposed to the sole of a shoe, they have what is essentially heavily calloused skin on the pads of their feet. ",
"The thick skin, fur and claws help, as do the fat pads inside them (it freezes slower than bloodier tissue like muscles and adds some insulation), but the real answer is a special system of blood vessels. There are many, many blood vessels in dogs' feet and they are consequently very close to each other, so that when the blood in one gets cold, fresh, hot blood coming from the heart in a nearby one can warm it up, preventing the foot from ever getting too cold and preventing cold blood from going to any other areas of the body.\n\nIts not unlike the way that penguins keep their feet warm, and suggests that dog evolved from a species that lived in a cold climate.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n"
]
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[],
[],
[
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16426276"
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|
6c4xt8 | why do 3rd party travel sites often list rooms as available at hotels that claim they are fully booked? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c4xt8/eli5_why_do_3rd_party_travel_sites_often_list/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhrwqfm",
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"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"Because hotels often sell their vacant rooms to third part distributors for a discounted rate as to forgo the risk of not being able to fill them. \n\nIf I have 100 vacant rooms available for next weekend, I know I am unlikely to fill them all, so I sell them at a discount to a third party who will then make them available on popular travel booking sites. ",
"Some of the third parties contracts include an \"allotment\" of a certain number of rooms. Meaning that the hotel has to guarantee this allotment even if its fully booked. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
67k0p6 | why is there usually a little 9 next to the gas price? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67k0p6/eli5_why_is_there_usually_a_little_9_next_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgqzqas",
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"score": [
2,
2
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"text": [
"I'm no expert but I believe that it's a well known rhetoric in social economics that people are naturally attracted to X.99 prices as opposed to X.00 prices. ",
"The price at gas stations is almost always with 9/10 of a cent. So it's actually 3.499 per gallon. People ignore the 9/10th of a cent because it sounds inconsequential. For the gas station this can mean an extra few hundred bucks a week. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
mzek7 | why devices like ipods or zunes die quicker depending on how loud they output music | I know they have to work harder to output at louder volumes, but why/how exactly do they work harder? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mzek7/eli5_why_devices_like_ipods_or_zunes_die_quicker/ | {
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"The device needs to make a 'prominent' signal.\n\nBasically, it's converting electricity into sound energy. A louder sound energy needs more energy to produce.\n\nLouder sounds needing more energy is intuitive too. Making things move needs energy since you're affecting the world with physical motions. If you want to make it more faster than you need to affect the world more and so it costs more energy. Sound is the same, you are affecting the world so if you want more of an effect then you need more energy.\n\nImagine if you were using a trampoline to make squeaky noises. If you wanted a louder or more frequent squeaky noise, all other things equal, you need to either jump harder or jump faster.",
"The device needs to make a 'prominent' signal.\n\nBasically, it's converting electricity into sound energy. A louder sound energy needs more energy to produce.\n\nLouder sounds needing more energy is intuitive too. Making things move needs energy since you're affecting the world with physical motions. If you want to make it more faster than you need to affect the world more and so it costs more energy. Sound is the same, you are affecting the world so if you want more of an effect then you need more energy.\n\nImagine if you were using a trampoline to make squeaky noises. If you wanted a louder or more frequent squeaky noise, all other things equal, you need to either jump harder or jump faster."
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18yb1i | common forms of democratically electing officials. | I always here about how bad the first-past-the-post system is or how gerrymandering is corrupt but what other forms of elections are there and how do they work? Which one would be the best to represent the opinions of Americans? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18yb1i/eli5_common_forms_of_democratically_electing/ | {
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"The truth is that there's no *best* way to run an election. There's several different ways, but each of them has advantages and disadvantages and many will work for some countries better than they will for others. There's also an argument to be made that we don't always want the government to represent the wishes of the people because sometimes the people want what's bad for them. Some people would argue that instead we want a government that represents the best interests of the people.\n\nThe way the US currently uses is called a winner take all, single member district, first past the post system. What that means is that we divide each state up into smaller regions and each region votes on one person who they want to represent their region. (that's the winner take all, single member district part) The winner of the election is whoever gets the most votes at the end of the election. (the first past the post part)\n\nThis system has a lot of advantages. It's easy to understand, it's actually pretty easy to predict, and the way we have it set up in the US does a pretty good job of representing the really diverse regional interests the US has.\n\nWhat may or may not be a downside (depending on who you ask) is that the single member district, first past the post system is that it it's pretty well guaranteed that you'll end up with a two party system. Rather than explain why that happens, I'm going to link you to [a video](_URL_0_) that gives a really good explanation of the mechanics. (I will caution that while his explanation of the mechanics of why a two party system happens is really good, I don't necessarily agree with his conclusions, but that's another post entirely)\n\nThe other issue is that it does open up the potential for gerrymandering, which is generally accepted as a bad thing. In order to have districts someone has to decide where the district lines are drawn. In the US, that's up to the state legislatures which will have political agendas they will try to advance by drawing the districts in such a way that their party wins more elections. I would hesitate to call it corruption though, because as long as the districts meet certain requirements, the state legislatures are free to draw them however they want. One way to prevent gerrymandering is to appoint a non-partisan commission to draw district lines and have the legislature just rubber stamp that map. \n\nSince this is already a wall of text, I'll explain the next form of election in a reply to this post."
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2zld7s | what is the actual story behind the theory that the us invaded the middle east for oil? | Whenever discussing the middle east with any of my friends/acquaintances someone always brings up the fact that we only invaded the middle east for oil. Its become such commonplace, that people will say such a statement with literally no knowledge of what they're saying whatsoever. So what is the actual story behind this statement, and does it hold any truth. If it does, how big of a factor is oil in the war in the middle east? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zld7s/eli5_what_is_the_actual_story_behind_the_theory/ | {
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"There is no story.\n\nThe trade of oil is important to the economy. If it were to stop, there would be chaos. This is why the US has a massive oil storage (so that in the event of a temporary disruption, the economy won't come grinding to a halt).\n\nInstability in the middle east causes threat to the trade of oil. In some cases (I.e. Sadam Hussein lighting Kuwait's oil pumps on fire during the first Gulf War) the threat is pretty direct. In other cases (I.e. ISIS taking over areas of Iraq where oil is produced) the threat is less direct but still noteworthy.\n\nWhile it's important to realize that this is a factor, stating that this is the sole or primary factor for going to war is usually incorrect, or at least a conclusion drawn too easily. It is, as you said, a cliché, and most people who state this have nothing to back it up other than \"well Joe at my office said so, and he's really smart.\"\n\nThere are, after all, easier ways to acquiring and securing oil than going to war.",
"It was a stated goal of the administration that stability of the region is important. It does not take a genius to realize that means the flow of oil. \n\nAdditionally, the administration claimed the oil would \"pay for the war\". Which almost seems like thats what they meant. War. For. Oil.",
"Here's a theory I've heard (I don't claim to know this is true, but it is interesting):\n\nIn the mid '70s, the US negotiated with Saudi Arabia that in exchange for selling them specific types of arms and other considerations, they would sell the oil in dollars. Because of the sheer number and size of transactions, it made it so that the US could basically print money without restriction without hurting the economy, because there would always be a place for those dollars to go. When other oil producers saw that deal, they joined in. This became known as Petrodollars.\n\nFlash forward to 1990, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, then announces he is selling his oil in Dinar, not Dollars. The US invades, saying it is stopping the aggression, but really to stop Kuwaiti oil from being sold in something other than Dollars and radically limit Saddam's ability to sell in Dinar (through sanctions)\n\nFlash forward again to 2002. Because of the impact of debt crisis and the war in Afghanistan, the fed is starting to print money at a rate that potentially threatens the US economy. Iraq is still selling their oil outside of Dollars (now Euro) and because the sanctions have lessened, they are selling quite a bit of it. GWB invades (beacuse of all those \"weapons of mass destruction\") and topples the regime, and suddenly that oil is flowing, once again in Dollars."
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1oj944 | how are tv shows such as "bar rescue", or any of the home renovation/makeover shows able to afford these huge and i would assume expensive renovations? | I can't imagine that advertising revenue and companies giving them free products can support them 100%. Do the owners of these bars agree to pay for a portion of it once they become profitable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oj944/eli5_how_are_tv_shows_such_as_bar_rescue_or_any/ | {
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"I'm sure it's like extreme makeover where sure, you get it for free but then they get stuck with the taxes on everything. There's a lot of money made in commercials and endorsements though. Plenty enough to cover the part they pay",
"The short answer is that these places are built/renovated by set builders, not contractors. In other words, done cheaply to look good on TV, but not to last. From there, it's like any other show with a per episode set budget -- which is much cheaper than a per episode \"build a real building\" budget.",
"It costs $3 Million per episode to make Breaking Bad. These home makeover shows aren't going to have nearly the same audience size (although Extreme Makeover Home Edition did seem to have pretty large ratings), but doing a $50,000 renovation is nothing compared to the cost to produce popular drama shows.",
"Like game shows, they are actually pretty check to make.\n\nWhen you consider a top rated show like *How I Met Your Mother* or *NCIS* pays out millions per episode in actors salaries. You have a show with no actors, no writers, no sets, just a nobody for a host (sorry Jon) and a camera crew, a $100K remodel is pretty cheap."
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4ulyaw | what's with so many movies/tv shows using the same coffee cups? | [this](_URL_0_) is the one I'm talking about. so many tv shows use coffee cups with that design on them. off the top of my head Law and order, CSI, burn notice and Central Intelligence all use them. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ulyaw/eli5_whats_with_so_many_moviestv_shows_using_the/ | {
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"[Here's a brief history.](_URL_0_). The cup does have a name.\n\nSimply put, it's recognizable and simple. Movies often include the Wilhelm Scream as well, for no other reason than it's a tradition. Like games have Easter Eggs, so do movies. In fact, if you watch many famous directors' films, you'll find that they constantly fit stuff like this in.\n\nIn reality, it also makes it easier. Why design a cup for every different kind of shot? They can't use name brands, even for small chains, because those are trademarked. If a company tries to use a design, like the famous wave cups everyone remembers from the 90s, people make money off those too. It's simpler to stick with one design. Most likely, those shows are all funded by a similar parent company, if not one. It's easier to agree to one cup than multiple.\n\nEdit: It's a famous cup anyway, and practically timeless. If they used a cup from say, Starbucks, you'd be able to date it more easily."
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5hpyet | how does google maps know if there is "an accident on i-85 s is causing 30 min delays"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hpyet/eli5_how_does_google_maps_know_if_there_is_an/ | {
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"Google pays for access to official government traffic info, in addition to crowd sourced info like Waze. ",
"They have access to official Department of Transportation cameras and reporting\n\nThey have access to local news reporting\n\nAnd, due to the fact they now own Waze, they have crowd sourced reporting"
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dptmv8 | how do recruitment agencies, such as lucas group, work in terms of finding you a job? do you pay them from your future salary, or are they even legit? | I recently separated from the navy a couple weeks ago and I'm trying to find a job. On linkedin I keep getting messages from recruiters like Lucas group who I guess will find me a job I fit into. The problem is whenever I try to research about them I'm just bombarded with their ads. And reviews I find, even the critical ones just seem like bad personal experiences. Theres nothing to tell me how agencies like them work or make money. Is it a good idea to let them help me find a job? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dptmv8/eli5_how_do_recruitment_agencies_such_as_lucas/ | {
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"Agencies like this are paid a fee by the company they have been contracted by. They will help you prepare your resume, highlight your skills and send you for interviews they have set-up with the contracted companies. If they say that you have to pay them, or owe them a part of the wage then it’s not legit.",
" I have never worked with Lucas Group specifically but I have worked with other agencies like Adecco and Express. Basically, companies pay these places to act as a hiring department. They fill positions assigned to them by the employeer. The agency will take a percentage of your paychecks for a period of time. (It ended up being about 12 dollars a check for me.) Usually 6 months or 90 days or until you're hired.\n\n A lot of those agencies have a wide selection so you can pick to a degree, the kind of work you want. There are some perils though, some places never hire the temp work really is temp work and you end up moving jobs a lot. Some are temp- to hire. So you start out at a reduced salary with the idea that after the agencies payment period is up you become an actual employee. But this doesn't always happen. And sometimes the work is really tedious or hard labor.\n\n I have been with my current company for 5 years and I went through a temp agency. I have everything I wanted in a job and I love it. The trick is to be kinda picky. Its an agencies job to find you a GOOD job don't take the first thing they offer if you hate it. \n\nGood luck hope this helps!",
"I worked with the Lucas group when I separated. They placed some buddies of mine in jobs. I did not end up staying with them. They had some cult like hoops they want you to jump through, reading books and writing reports and going to group meetings and stuff. They say it’s to condition you to the civ job world way of doing things and verify your commitment. My buddies did it all and got the jobs and most of them hated it, so make sure you are getting a good fit. It is free, they send a lot of spam. There are some other mil recruiters around that act more normal.\n\nEdit: just searched r/veterans and there are some posts there from more than 90 days ago about Lucas. I can’t get a link on my phone to paste here"
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3so9jm | what is the difference between a sponsorship and an advertisement? | My local public radio always says that it is a "commercial free radio platform," and yet has several sponsorships that they introduce after every music block. I'm not complaining; I love my public radio. I'm just unclear on the difference. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3so9jm/eli5what_is_the_difference_between_a_sponsorship/ | {
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"What you're referring to is more frequently called underwriting. \"Underwriting\" and \"sponsoring\" can usually be used interchangeably (some organizations draw distinctions, though), but the FCC sets the rules for broadcasters and they call it underwriting. \n\nWhen you pay for an advertisement, you are paying for some amount of airtime and can have the station play pretty much anything you want that doesn't otherwise violate general broadcast rules.\n\nWhen you underwrite a program, you give money to the program to support it generally in exchange for recognition that you are an underwriter. There are much greater limitations on what qualifies as recognizing an underwriter. I don't have a list of all the rules on me, but generally you can't make any calls to action (that's why you always hear \"more information at _URL_0_\" instead of \"go to _URL_0_ to find out more\"), give price information, induce people to make specific purchases, or make qualitative claims about products. \n\nYou've probably noticed most sponsor recognition announcements on NPR state the company's slogan, something about how the company likes public radio, a positive bit about the company's history, and then tell you where to find out more information about the company. The reason they follow that formula is that it gives a good impression of the company without violating FCC rules on underwriting."
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42mbd9 | why is being on your tippy toes so important to ballet? | [/r/GetMotivated/42l1q1/!](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42mbd9/eli5_why_is_being_on_your_tippy_toes_so_important/ | {
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"Pointe technique (French: [pwɛ̃t tɛknik]) is the part of classical ballet technique that concerns pointe work, in which a ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet. A dancer is said to be en pointe when the dancer's body is supported in this manner, and a fully extended vertical foot is said to be en pointe when touching the floor, even when not bearing weight. Pointe work is performed while wearing pointe shoes, which employ structural reinforcing to distribute the dancer's weight load throughout the foot, thus reducing the load on the toes enough to enable the dancer to support all body weight on fully vertical feet.\n\n**Pointe technique resulted from a desire for female dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like**. Although both men and women are capable of pointe work, it is most often performed by women. Extensive training and practice are required to develop the strength and technique needed for pointe work."
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1lbwu4 | how you become eligible to be knighted and the process that follows | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lbwu4/eli5_how_you_become_eligible_to_be_knighted_and/ | {
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"I thought you had to be british, and have done something the queen recognized as worthwhile for the country (business, sport, celebrity, etc)",
"The most common Order of Chivalry is The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which has five \"ranks.\" From highest to lowest, these are:\n\n1. Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE), limited to 300\n1. Knight Commander or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE or DBE), limited to 845\n1. Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), limited to 8,960\n1. Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)\n1. Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE)\n\nGBE and KBE/DBE automatically make the recipient a knight (male) or a dame (female), which allows them to use the title \"Sir [Name]\" or \"Dame [Name].\" Note that these honorifics are used only before the first name, so you would, e.g., refer to Sir Patrick Stewart or Sir Patrick, but never Sir Stewart.\n\nAs part of the British honours system, membership in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a **means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories**. All members of the order are appointed by the current British monarch, who is Sovereign of the Order. Typically, they do this under the advice of the governments of Britain and the Commonwealth. No more than 858 Officers and 1,464 Members may be appointed per year.\n\nOther Orders of Chivalry include the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle. Some Orders of Merit also come with an honorary knighthood at their highest ranks. Men may also be knighted separately from membership in one of these orders, giving them the rank of Knight Bachelor (Kt).\n\nOnly citizens of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth can be full members of these orders. Foreigners are considered honorary members only, and while they may use the letters after their name, they do not take the title of \"Sir\" or \"Dame.\"",
"How to be knighted\n\nStep 1) Be from the UK\nStep 2) Be at the very top of your profession and contribute to charity. A lot of musicians, actors and businesspeople would not of got their knighthood solely because of their profession; you do need to give a lot of your time and money to charity.\nStep 3) A committee acting on behalf of the queen will select you for a knighthood. Often you will have another title beforehand such as an MBE. See it as an upgrade.\nStep 4) Congrats. You get to visit Buckingham palace and kneel before the queen as she taps your shoulders with a sword.\nStep 5) you are now known as Sir Insomniac-Olympics\nStep 6) Nothing changes apart from every conversation you will ever have starts with \"Do I call you Sir..\"\nStep 7) If you get into politics then you can become a Lord. So as Lord Insomniac-Olympics you will sit in the House of Lords and discuss politics with other Lords and Baronesses (Female equivalent). The only power you have as a Lord is to delay legislation passed by the House of Commons which is the British government.\n\nThat's my basic understanding as a Brit, hope that helps.",
"Most excellent? Is this a 90s frathouse?",
"How to qualify for British honours. \n\nStep 1: Exist. \n\nThat's pretty much it. \n\nTo actually be made a member you have to be nominated, and to be able to use \"Sir\" or \"Dame\" you need to be a commonwealth citizen. The more more influence you have, the more important your contribution to something the more likely you are to get a better offer. If you helped found the british nuclear weapons programme, you go to the top of the list, the Order of the Garter, and you get to hang out once a year with the Royalty who are in the Order of the Garter for being royalty, and other people who have done super awesome stuff. If you did something in Entertainment expect to be a Knight Bachelor, and not in a specific order. \n\nThe most conceptually straightforward path to a knighthood is to be in the senior leadership of the British armed forces, or a Judge in England or Wales, although senior leadership in the armed forces does not guarantee a knighthood.. \n\nThe life peerages, i.e. the Lords, (barons, viscount earls, marquees, Dukes), are significantly more confusing. It was, until relatively recently conceptually striaghtforward, you either inherited the title, or a title was created for you, and you got a seat in the house of lords, and the title was passed down (if it was hereditary, or not if it wasn't). \n\nNow... not so clear. \n\nThere were, are, and will be Lords from the Church of england, but only a small number of them. But everything else is pretty much up in the air, lords reform has been on the books for a century and is a creeping mess of complex wrangling. There are life peers, hereditary peers, peers who don't show up who are likely to to lose their seats but maybe not their titles, there are some who lost their seats but not titles etc. etc. etc. \n\n"
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3cblnr | why did different species of leaves evolve to be different? especially if they are from the same place, what's the point? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cblnr/eli5_why_did_different_species_of_leaves_evolve/ | {
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"Things don't evolve 'because of a point,' evolution is a random process that occurs generation to generation. Natural selection tends to favor beneficial outcomes, which makes it look 'after the fact' like things have evolved specifically to fit their circumstances. \n\nSince the species you are referencing aren't the *same* species, they don't share the mutations amongst themselves from generation to generation, which means unless there's a strong selective pressure against it, you can see divergence of form. Basically, there's not some sort of 'leaf shape cop' going around and eliminating the changes."
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8zz6c5 | what is the difference between movies and films? also directors and filmmakers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zz6c5/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_movies_and/ | {
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"I forgot who said it but .... “a movie , you see and forget about in a day or even an hour after leaving the cinema. While A film, is a movie that you see and you think about weeks , months or even years after seeing it and it’s meaning is still more relevant to you than ever.”\n\nA director is a certain specialization of a filmmaker. Like although all directors are considered filmmakers . Not all filmmakers direct. The term filmmakers is more broad while the term directors is specific. ",
"I'm pretty sure that a movie and a film for the most part are just two different words for the same thing. I guess if you really want to break it down you could say films can be of any length, like a short film, and a movie is generally thought of as a full length feature.\n\nAlso, the majority of mainstream movies are no longer shot on film like the used to be...\n\nBasically, unless you delving into it, most normal people just use them interchangeably.",
"Different people use these terms in different ways, and that doesn't necessarily mean that those uses are right or wrong. Personally, I use 'director' and 'filmmaker' completely interchangeably. My use of the other pair is more nuanced: To me, all movies are films and all films are movies, but if I'm talking about taking one seriously as a text and thinking about the most useful way to read it, I'm more likely to call it a film. Whereas if I'm just talking about watching one for mindless entertainment, I'm more likely to call it a movie. ",
"I always thought movie was American and film was British English. \n\nUltimately the same thing, but more common to say one thing in one country than the other.",
"\"Movie\" and \"film\" are just different words for the same thing. \n\nThough \"director\" and \"filmmaker\" can be used interchangeably, a filmmaker is understood to be anyone who is creatively responsible for the making of a film. Hence the plural \"the filmmakers\" when referring to the team behind the movie. An analogy here would be \"novelist\" and \"writer\"—one is a specific term, the other is a broader category.",
"I’m a professional film director and can answer your second question.\n\nAlmost everyone on a film set considers themselves filmmakers from the actors, camera operators, makeup artists, electrical crews, producers, even the accountants and catering crews. They are all equally important to making a film. If there was a job that could be sacrificed trust me the producers would have sacrificed it. Everyone is vitally important to making the film. \n\nA film director is a specific job. He’s usually like the captain of the ship. He or she steers the actors and crew through the journey of making a film. He usually has final say on set but he could be overruled by a producer. A producer is generally considered a directors boss and a producer could fire a director. They is why you’ll see directors often become producers as well so they have more control and are protected from firing. \n\nRegarding the difference between a movie and a film.. there isn’t really a difference in terms of contracts and the process of filming. There are some other terms we use that classify films on level for legal and money reasons but they wouldn’t make much sense to you. "
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5ywv4z | why were the the bodies of those who died of a fatal dose of radiation at the chernobyl disaster still considered toxic and buried in zinc lined coffins? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ywv4z/eli5_why_were_the_the_bodies_of_those_who_died_of/ | {
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"Radioactive fallout \n\nWhen Chernobyl exploded it not only sent out massive amounts of radiation but also massive amounts of radioactive material (fallout) which landed in the surrounding area rendering everything it touched (including human bodies) radioactive. ",
"Two things.\n\nFirst, they probably got radioactive material from the accident site all over themselves. It's not just radiation that's escaping, it's also actual physical radioactive material that can contaminate body and clothes. This what they mean by nuclear fallout. So it's not like a bullet-riddled body, but more like a gun-riddled body, and those guns still shoot occasionally.\n\nSecond, one specific kind of radiation, neutron radiation, can actually make materials it hits radioactive. Neutron radiation is produced in nuclear reactors, and although it's hard to say whether it'd be still produced after the meltdown, it depends, it's possible that they were exposed to it. Then it'd be more like bullet fragments inside a body growing into loaded guns.\n\nThose analogies were unexpectedly gross. ",
"1. Their skin was contaminated by fallout\n\n2. They may have inhaled radioactive material which will continue to decay\n\n3. Neutron bombardment can cause materials that were not previously radioactive to become radioactive."
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1s9fhf | the difference between client, server, and driver. | It seems like everytime you need electronics to talk to eachother one of these things must facilitate. What is the difference between the three? (or more if I missed one that is similar) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s9fhf/eli5_the_difference_between_client_server_and/ | {
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"Client and Server are related to each other. In the simplest terms, a client is an application that takes input, sends data to a Server to be processed, gets returned information, and presents the output.\n\nA driver, on the other hand, is something related to hardware. It basically contains a mapping/translation so that an operating system can communicate with hardware. To greatly oversimplify, if you have two printers and one expects data to be output as < page size > < colour layer > < black layer > , another expects < color layer > < black layer > < page size > , and a third wants < full image layer > < page size > , their appropriate drivers will translate the raw data before it leaves the operating system."
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1kgtrw | how do/did pirate radio stations get shut down? | When an unauthorized broadcast gets shut down or prosecuted, how did they locate the broadcaster? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kgtrw/how_dodid_pirate_radio_stations_get_shut_down/ | {
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"Probably using a dish antenna, like satellite TV uses, and triangulation. The antenna picks up signal strongest from where it is pointing at, so they take three readings from three different places and trace the lines back to the source. Assuming that the signal is all they have to go on, this might take several tries, as the method is inaccurate from a long way off. But if they have some other clues that they could use to guess the general location of the broadcaster, then the amount of tries drops to as few as one."
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9w8tc9 | why do some religions prohibit contraceptives? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9w8tc9/eli5_why_do_some_religions_prohibit_contraceptives/ | {
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"Answer. Math. More children = more faithful followers. Like learning a language children are going to be the most receptive and impressionable. ",
"I grew up Mormon. While I don't think it was prohibited, it was very frowned upon. The reasoning I heard was that Good commanded Adam and Eve to multiply. Contraceptives go against that because you aren't having kids. ",
"The official stance of LDS church on birth control...\n\n\"Decisions about birth control and the consequences of those decisions rest solely with each married couple.\"\n\n_URL_0_",
"Jehovah’s witness don’t condemn the use of contraceptive at all.\n\nCatholics, on the other hand...\nThey justify it by « only god is allowed to have a say on life », the same argument is used on topics such as euthanasia, suicide, abortion etc. ",
"I've heard it's more about how they believed babies were made, and what they thought of women. \n\nThey used to believe that every man's sperm was a child, ready to be born, and the wan was just a carrier for the man's child. \n\nSo if you spilled your seed in the ground, your killing a baby. \n\nThey've taken this of course, and used it as a point t of control over women's bodies, with the excuse that \"God said so\". "
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17j3lc | how do different waves travel long distances without any distortion? (ex:radio, wi-fi, cellphones, space transmissions) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17j3lc/eli5_how_do_different_waves_travel_long_distances/ | {
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"Layman's version: There is distortion. Engineers make sure devices use enough power to overcome distortion.\n\nAdvanced: Engineers make a link budget that adds transmitter power output and antenna gains. Losses are included such as free space loss, attenuation, atmospheric lens loss, radome (or other enclosure), and so on. Free space loss is a big factor and it depends on frequency and distance. The further away you are, the greater the loss of power.\n\nSo it just needs to be powerful enough for the receiving antenna to pick up the signal at a certain distance.",
"As aeroalex mentions, yes, there is always *some* distortion when a wave travels any distance in the real world, but there are two other useful points to make.\n\nFirst, we can't see through wood, but infrared goggles can just fine. A given material might be transparent at one frequency and opaque at another. Many materials which are opaque in the visible are transparent for radio waves.\n\nSecond, even if a radio wave comes across an object that is opaque for the radio wave, the object might be too small to cause much difficulty. As a general rule, for an object in the path of a wave to really disrupt / distort that wave, the object needs to have a size at least as large as the wavelength of the wave.\n\nFM radio has a wavelength around 10 meters, so to really disrupt it, you'd need a pretty large object that was also opaque to radio waves."
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2sc3ct | . will reclassification of internet as a utility have ramifications for personal privacy and government surveillance? | Specifically, if internet is classified under Title II, will it pave the way for more government interference, monitoring, and data mining?
Is there precedent under other telecommunications under Title II? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sc3ct/eli5_will_reclassification_of_internet_as_a/ | {
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"It doesn't seem like there'd be *more* government monitoring, since they are already monitoring it as deeply as technically feasible.\n\nThe classification would not make a difference in that regard. The government already has laws governing how and when it can monitor your traffic. ISPs do not stand in their way."
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1akcbu | what is this vault everyone is talking about? did i miss something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1akcbu/eli5_what_is_this_vault_everyone_is_talking_about/ | {
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"guy found a safe in his friends basement, that used to be owned by a drug gang, asked reddit for advice on how to find out what's inside.\n\nOP has yet to deliver.",
"Dude recently moved in a house previously owned by drug dealers. Finds safe/vault in basement. Asked reddit how to open. Spawned a huge subreddit.\n\n[/r/whatsinthisthing](_URL_0_)"
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2e8vqg | what causes people (recently highlighted young muslims) to become radicalized? | What is it that is so appealing that would cause them to leave what they grew up with and devote themselves to a life of such evil? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e8vqg/eli5what_causes_people_recently_highlighted_young/ | {
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"Well, to give you the ELI5 answer it would be education. There is a lack of education in the Middle East, which in turn affects the income of the average person. Eventually, when you're stuck in poverty and your government (Iraq), which is created by some other Western Democracy (The U.S.), does nothing, you tend to blame the U.S. because they created your government, so you create a group of like-minded individuals, such as the Muhajadeen, you fight off the government, and you choose to fight in the name of your God. \n\nThat's how I view it. ",
"I don't believe that it actually has much to do with religion when you look deep enough. These young men join these groups ultimately for the same reason poor young men here in the US join street gangs. Most of them (I realize there are exceptions) are quite poor and uneducated, with little to no prospects for a future. So they start to gravitate towards people who claim to offer something more. What is offered varies, but it's mostly a sense of belonging to a particular group. Human beings are tribal creatures and most of us seek to belong to one \"tribe\" or another. The only differences come from what \"tribes\" are readily available. If this is too simplistic or just plain wrong, I apologize. I'd love to hear from someone who has grown up beside young Muslims like this.\n\nAngry young men who are dissatisfied with the hand they've been dealt are easily manipulated.",
"[Once again, time to post this](_URL_0_)"
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2nk3ap | what is the difference between the european union and the european commission and the european community? | Can someone please explain what the difference is between the European Union and the European Commission and the European Community? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nk3ap/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_the_european/ | {
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"The European Union (EU) is a group of 25 countries that have signed various treaties giving them close political and economic ties.\n\nThe European Community is an older name for the same thing.\n\nThe European Commission is the executive governing body of the EU, it is responsible for proposing legislation that will affect each of the member countries.",
"As explained earlier, just a bit different.\n\nThe European Union is a group of (now) 28 countries which have agreed to enhanced economic, fiscal and political cooperation and integration. \n\nThe European Community is the older name for it.\n\nThe European Commission is the civil service of the European Union, and their job is to propose new laws, and monitor the general performance and adherence to EU law by EU member states. \n\nSource: I'm a civil servant in an EU member state that has attended meetings in Brussels."
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eveqy1 | when we look at stars in the sky that are light years away, are the stars there at the moment we look, or are we looking at a years-old after image? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eveqy1/eli5_when_we_look_at_stars_in_the_sky_that_are/ | {
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"Simply, yes - we're seeing stars after the light has travelled all the way to us. Ten light years isn't that far (space-wise) so some of the stars we see have already died. And there's lots of stars that exist that we can't see yet, because the light hasn't reached us.",
"You can think of it like smell. If someone wearing perfume walks by you, you'll smell it a few steps later, because that \"information\" takes time to reach you",
"Yes, the light you see from a star that’s 10 light years away has been traveling for 10 years. Most stars are way farther than that, so you’re correct in thinking that most of the stars we see are no longer there, if they even exist anymore lol",
"Actually the sun you see is about 8 minutes old, so if it were to magically disappear we would t know for 8 minutes... and then go careening off into the dark abyss of interstellar space",
"Yes, when you look at something, you are seeing the light that left it in the past. If that something is a distant star, then the light left years ago. If it's the Sun, it's about 8 minutes ago. \n \nAnd think about this. It's *always* true. If you are looking at an object a meter away, you are looking about 3 billionths of a second into the past (if I remember correctly). \n \nThat doesn't even count the time it takes your brain to process the input. Interestingly, sound travels much much slower than light, but it takes our brains longer to process visual input. So the images we see and the sounds we hear tend to synch up, even though we are hearing further into the past than we are seeing into the past.",
"We are looking into the past. If it is 10 light years away, then we are seeing 10 years ago. That goes for everything. Our sun is 8 minutes ago. Even the moon is 1.3 seconds ago.\n\nAnd, yes, everything in the universe is moving, so all stars are moving. So seeing that star 10 light years away, it has moved since then, though nothing we could notice without incredibly powerful telescopes.\n\n\nBut it's not just light. Everything in the universe is bound by the speed limit of casuality. Light, gravity, everything. Because of that, even though the light from a star 10 light years away is 10 years old, for us where we are viewing it, it is happening now."
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f283op | how are structures able to be built such as oil rigs or bridges where the foundations are hundreds of meters deep in water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f283op/eli5_how_are_structures_able_to_be_built_such_as/ | {
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"oops didn't realize oil rigs float",
"There are devices called caissons that they construct where the pilings need to go. They are hollow boxes/cylinders that extend from the bed to the surface and the water is pumped out, and workers go down and install the foundation. They then remove the caisson. \n\nThis is obviously not for water hundreds of meters deep, though I think they don't build foundations that deep.\n\n*edit*: further investigation shows that they can make concrete blocks that they bring down and simply rest on the sea floor. Probably other methods but I gotta get to work.",
"Simple. We make really long piles that are driven to the sea bed. Then the foundation is made on top of those. It sounds too simple to be true, but that how it is. But even the deepest bridge foundations aren't actually that deep. Some tens of meters, which is a lot when it comes to water. \n\nBut oil rigs can also just float if the the water is really deep. As in deep enough that making foundations isn't practical. There are numerous ways to anchor and stabilise the rig a floating rig, which can be moved and reused.",
"Most drilling rigs are actually floating on the surface. They are meant to be moved around frequently from job to job drilling wells for production platforms. They have complex ballast systems that let water in and out to account for the weight of the rig to keep her afloat.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n Production platforms, depending on the location, are more likely to be fixed to the seafloor. They would typically be built adjacent to land somewhere in a drydock and then floated out to the field and dropped into place.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"I was told that to build hydroelectric damns they would temporarily reroute the river, I assume they do it by dumping tons of material in the river to block it off and reroute it. They then build the damn in dry conditions and when it’s ready they destroy the initial barrage and let the river flow back to it’s original course, hitting the dam.\n\nNot your initial question but still related and interesting.",
"It’s really interesting. The will drive sheets of steel into the river/lake bed and make a water tight box around the area to be excavated. Massive pumps are used to keep ground water down. Then you’ve basically got an air pocket around the area you want to work. \n\nI’m not an engineer I’m just a labourer that works on these types of jobs. There is a lot more to it obviously but that’s the basics.",
"The tallest built in my area is the Troll platform, that's 472 meters. Way taller than empire state building and taller than Petronas tower. It was towed to sea and sunk and now produce gas with only the top above sea level.\n\nImagine towing something way larger than empire state some 100s of miles to sea, it was an amazing view.\n\nThey used concrete and built it from bottom and kept pouring the concrete.\n\nKatie Melua held a consert in one of the legs once.",
"Rigs float while platforms stand on the seabed. The Troll platform stands in water 303m (994 feet deep.) _URL_0_",
"Structures can be anchored to the sea floor via a variety of means. In shallower waters such as the North Sea structures tend to be secured directly to the sea bed via 3 ways, in order of depth\n\nPiled Jacket/Monopile: a support structure composed of steel beams is rested on the sea floor and piles driven in to the sea bed to anchor it down, similar to how you might nail something to the floor. Monopiles are where the whole support structure is driven into the sea floor and whatever platform is placed on top of it. These are generally used in shallow water and for smaller structures (e.g. wind turbines).\n\nGravity base: think of a garden umbrella with water in the base. This is generally concrete caissons that are filled with water and rest on the sea floor. The mass prevents any movement of the top side structure. Troll A is the largest gravity base structure in the world at 300m (_URL_0_)\n\nSuction base: similar to a gravity base but instead of using mass, the bottom is open and water is pumped out of the cavity to create a vacuum, holding the whole structure in place.\n\nFor deepwater applications, resting the production facility on the sea bed is not an option as sometimes the wellheads are kilometeres below the waves. A couple of different techniques are used:\n\nTension lag platforms have steel cable running from the base of a floating platform to the sea floor, tensioned to hold the platform in place against weather.\n\nSemisubmersible platforms operate like an iceberg, using inertia and a Dynamic Positioning system (thrusters linked to GPS) to keep position and prevent stress on the risers which are connected to the wellheads below. These tend to be used as drilling rigs as they can easily be moved from one field to another.\n\nFPSO (floating production storage and offloading) vessels are also used, which tend to be for existing fields. These are often converted oil tankers which production facilities placed on the top deck. The largest of these (Shell Prelude) has a liquefied natural gas processing plant on its top deck and is almost 500m in length, making it one of the largest floating structures in the world. \n\nSource: 5 years oil and gas Engineering followed by 3 in offshore wind.",
"I'm a civil engineer working on building cruise ship harbours. Imagine you're a giant and you want to build a bridge or Harbour. You grab a giant nail (around 50 meters long) and your giant hammer and start hammering it into the seabed. Once the nail stops going down, you're set. Drive down as many nails you need and then you put a structure on top of them.\n\nSome oil rigs have long legs that go up and down and you stabilize with the seabed. These rigs are obviously limited for shallowish water (50-80 meters). Others float but I have no experience with floating rigs."
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5rfk0v | why is it called "latin" america when spain/portugal are the biggest european influences to the region? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rfk0v/eli5_why_is_it_called_latin_america_when/ | {
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"Spain, Portugal, France and Italy(and a few other minor countries) make up Latin Europe. The all speak romance languages which evolved from Latin after the fall of the Roman Empire. Since as you mentioned Spain and Portugal had the biggest influence on them they are subsequently known as the Latin America similar to their European counterpart. ",
"The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages are the languages descended from Latin. Because of this they are called the Latinate, or Romance languages. \n\nSo to answer your question, it is specifically because Spain and Portugal were the large European Influences of the region that they are called Latin America. Hispanic is the term specifically for the subset influenced by Spain. ",
"Latin America is bits of the Americas that were influenced by Latin descended/Romance languages. Now don't confuse Latin America with South America because they are two very different things despite having people use them interchangeably. South America is South America, while Latin America is South America-Guyana and also includes Mexico, central American countries, some of the islands in the Caribbean, southern parts of the United States, and Quebec.",
"It was named by the French. And it includes the Caribbean. I imagine that might be a reason for the broad name. ",
"Napoleon wanted a better claim on the americas after Spain and Portugal had a firm grasp on their expansion. He started using the term 'Latin America' so that he too (French has Latin roots) could justify expanding into that territory",
"Here is [a good explanation from Wikipedia](_URL_0_):\n\n > The idea that a part of the Americas has a linguistic affinity with the Romance cultures as a whole can be traced back to the 1830s, in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas was inhabited by people of a \"Latin race\", and that it could, therefore, ally itself with \"Latin Europe\" in a struggle with \"Teutonic Europe\", \"Anglo-Saxon America\" and \"Slavic Europe\". A further investigation of the concept of Latin America is by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review.\n > \n > The idea was later taken up by Latin American intellectuals and political leaders of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, who no longer looked to Spain or Portugal as cultural models, but rather to France. The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao and the same year by the Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo in his poem \"Two Americas\".\n > \n > The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico as a way to include France among countries with influence in the Americas and to exclude Anglophone countries. It played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian of Habsburg as emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. This term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement."
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2tye40 | why do people rub their faces when they are tired? | It feels good, but why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tye40/eli5_why_do_people_rub_their_faces_when_they_are/ | {
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"Just a theory, but by rubbing your face, you are stimulating nerves (which in your face are closer to the epidermis). By stimulating nerves, you are sending signals to your brain, occupying it to delay sleep.\n\nEdit: if you meant *eyes* then you are opening up your tear ducts which have most likely closed, thus drying out your eyes",
"my own personal bullshit theory:\n\nto get all the sleep out of your eye. or to just stimulate your eyes so you can get proper waking blood flow again. plus it kinda makes your eyes water up if they're dry.",
"Well we often rub the bags under our eyes because blood has pooled there (due to slowed circulation during sleep), so it's an action to get the blood flowing again.",
"Do you mean [rubbing your face in general,](_URL_1_) or [rubbing around the eyes?](_URL_2_)\n\nThe second one is doing a multitude of things, such as clearing mucous from your eyes, moving the set mucous membranes, and very importantly, stimulating the [lacrimal gland](_URL_0_) to secrete its lubricant.\n\nFrom Junqueira's Basic Histology:\n\n > The lacrimal glands produce fluid continuously for the tear film that moistens and lubricates the cornea and conjunctiva and supplies O2 to the corneal epithelial cells. Tear fluid also contains various metabolites, electrolytes, and proteins of innate immunity such as lysozyme. The main lacrimal glands are located in the upper temporal portion of the orbit and have several lobes that drain through individual excretory ducts into the superior fornix, the conjunctiva-lined recess between the eyelids and the eye.\n\nIf you're just playing with your face, I don't really know what you're doing.\n\nJust realized which Subreddit I'm in, so ETA... **ELI5: You rub it to make it wet.**",
"I believe it's because when you're tired your eyes dry up. When you rub them the whatever you call it gland pumps out fluids to get em wet again. There's a \"that's what she said\" in there somewhere.\n\nEdit: [Lacrimal Gland](_URL_0_)\n\n\n\n",
"Rubbing your eyes stimulates nerves that play a part in orgasms = it releases dopamine = it feels good = people do it.",
"My dog always scrubs at her face with her front paws when I wake her up. Definitely see a similarity there.",
"changes to your senses stimulate your body and trigger a higher level of alertness",
"You're subconsciously massaging your facial muscles and encouraging blood flow to them.",
"Your face has a TON of nerve endings. It's super sensitive, so when you touch it, your brain gets a lot of information. Stimulating your brain can help keep you awake. \n\nIf you ever do it yourself, you'll notice it feels \"good\" when you're really tired. That's just your brain processing all of the info it's being sent when you rub your face.",
"What is the most scientifically-proven effective way of delaying fatigue? Excluding crack or meth or any chemicals etc.",
"Well... Try sleeping with someone touching your face, and you'll know soon enough :p",
"Above your nose at the inner ends of your eyebrows you can feel two little holes/dimples. This is where a bunch of nerves travel from your face into your skull. Rubbing those helps release endorphins I think. \n\n",
"I actually don't rub my face when I'm tired. I start scratching the top of my head instead. I didn't even realize I was doing it until my (now ex) wife would tell me to go to bed because when I was tired, I would do that.",
"Rubbing your eyes stimulates the [oculocaridac reflex](_URL_0_), which slows the heartbeat. This is also why you might rub your eyes when stressed.",
"I rub my face when I'm tired to help me realize that I'm conscious. I feel myself touching my face, like splashing water. I think \"yep, I'm here\".",
"Don't have an official answer for you but I think it's safe to say that stimulating your face increase stimuli to your brain, thereby waking you up a little. Think about splashing water on your face or if someone slaps your face... your reaction is far greater than if they say slapped your foot or poured water on your foot. \n\nThe body is designed to \"WAKE UP\" when something touches our face, because there's a lot of important stuff on our face that needs to be protected :)\n\n",
"You don't want dry eyes, do you? \n\nIt's same reason why you move (ie. inadvertently do face yoga) to wake up -- stimulate circulation of blood, lymph; stimulate gland secretions, after long moments of inactivity. You don't want any stale blood sitting there; Think of it this way: circulation brings about nutrients and oxygenated blood to area; carries away waste products and carbon monoxide. ",
"I do it so I can close my eyes for a minute without looking like a dumbass",
"Now I'm just sitting here rubbing my face like an asshole",
"My fiancée were wondering that because we both were rubbing our faces before bed. \n\nI said, \"Let me rub your face and see if it feels better. Kind of like when someone else scratches your back it feels so much better.\"\n\n\"Ok.\"\n\n**OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING**",
"Couple of reasons, there are thin layers of muscles on your forehead,temples and around your mouth that allow you to make all kinds of expressions. Rubbing them relieves tension and increases blood flow which feels good. You might also be closing your eyes in the process, so that to your brain feels like a tiny refreshing nap coupled with a face massage. Ahhh : ) ",
"Reading this made me want to rub my face alot.",
"Mostly people rub their faces when recently they have been through a good amount of emotional stress. The facial muscles have to constantly keep up with the mental state. We articulate a lot with our facial muscles. They get tensed and stressed over time and like any other muscle in the body starts having a buildup of waste materials in them. By using our hands we turn the muscles from the outside and help in more blood circulation which removes the waste products faster and we feel the tension from our faces going away. \n\nAlso we inadvertently while rubbing our faces get rid of the oil and other deposits on the skin and hair of our face. Facial skin being very sensitive feels a considerable pressure lifting when you rub your face and wipe away all the dirt and oil deposits get removed. \n\nThat is my experience. The accurate scientific reasons may be different.",
"I catch myself doing this quite often when I'm tired. The best I can figure is that it's soothing and relaxing. Sort of like a mini massage for the face. I feel as if for me it helps to ease tension and be better able to wind down in the evening. Otherwise, I have no idea.",
"Well the rubbing the eyes part can have to do with the oculocardiac connection. When rubbing your eyes you decrease your heart rate",
"Because it would be weird to rub other people's faces when you're mad. Some people might even get upset about it.",
"I do not know. But I do have a theory. Humans have something called a [sympathetic nervous system](_URL_0_), which is a bunch of nerves that fire that generally tell the body to go into fight or flight mode and for the heart to beat fast. These nerves have historically been useful for life-or-death situations: the classic example is our prehistoric ancestors running from a wild beast. We also have a [parasympathetic nervous system](_URL_3_) which is a bunch of nerves that cause the body to relax. In modern times, a lot of people have written that working and going to school and interacting with other people who are not friendly to you (in other words, most of your day) causes the sympathetic nervous system to be always running. This is probably part of why they say people who are always stressed or anxious have more high blood pressure (when your are running from a tiger, you would want your blood pressure to be high! But it is not good for your body for your blood pressure to always be high when you are just sitting around).\n\nNow here is the interesting thing. There are a bunch of physical maneuvers that cause the nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system to become more active! One of these is the [oculocardiac reflex](_URL_2_), which produces increased vagal tone. The vagus nerve is one of the main nerves in the parasymathetic system, and \"tone\" is the word we use to describe how active a nerve is. The oculocardiac reflex is triggered by stretching some of the muscles that are directly around the eye, as well as by pressing directly on the eye. So, it is possible that after a long day of being stressed, rubbing the face around the eye causes the body to relax a little bit and let go of some stress!\n\n(Please note: do not push on your eye to cause this reflex intentionally. It is bad for your eye. A easy way to feel what stimulating the parasympathetic nerves feels like is to put your head under the water in a bathtub for a few seconds, which stimulates the [mammalian diving reflex](_URL_1_).) ",
"Because they've already taken the stairs and drank ice water. ",
"According to this book \"Improve your social skills\" by Daniel Wendler, your face has a lot of nerve endings and rubbing your face causes you to feel good. This rubbing is sending stimulus to your brain which the brain interprets as good. i.e. People rub their faces and necks when they are stressed to comfort themselves. \n\n",
"Im doing this almost all day, partially because I'm tired, but mostly because it feels like a hair is brushing my face or I walked into a cobweb. All-fucking-day.\n\nIve realized the less or worse I sleep, the more it bothers me.",
"Maybe it stimulates the nerves in my face, making me feel more awake. Same thing with cold water or cold air in your face.",
"Because its considered impolite to rub other people's faces when you're tired.",
"My theory:\n\nEven when we're babies, we like to cozy up with someone to feel comfortable. Rubbing your face just gives you that same feeling of snuggling.",
"To disguise the cocaine they're shoving up their nose. ",
"I love this topic! \nMy 6month old does it all the time when tired, and now I have a better understanding as to why.\nThanks!",
"There's alot of 'to stay awake' related arguments but as a recent father, I'll tell you that a newborn does this all the time and its more a signal of 'I'm tired'. In fact, when you put something soft on their faces, they snuggle into it and fall asleep faster. I haven't answered the question but I'd guess its more of an instinctual snuggle into mother's shoulder type reaction just before a person falls asleep. This reaction carries over into adulthood. ",
"I don't know, but I've noticed that it's something babies do, so it must be a semi-instinctive or universal feeling, not something we're socially conditioned to do when we're tired. ",
"Oculocardiac reflex! So the compression of your eyeball and/or the associated muscles actually effect your parasympathetics and work to lower your heartrate allowing sleep to come easier. A prof mentioned it offhand in a patient assessment class and this is the first time it's been relevant. Cheers!\n\n_URL_0_",
"No one here seems to have the full story, so I'll just chip in my two cents as well. \n\nA big part of sleep is the regulation of fluid and oil within your body, when you haven't gotten enough sleep this fluid is improperly distributed and leads to thinner, saggier, clammy skin. This is why you have bags under your eyes when you haven't slept as well, the phenomena happening underneath your eyes is actually happening to your entire body, but you see it more predominantly underneath your eyes because that skin is exceptionally thin.\n\nSo what does this have to do with rubbing your face? Well I suppose it has something to do with readjusting nerve endings which are receiving additional pressure due to saggy skin. Relieving the additional pressure for a bit because there are a very large and excessive amount of nerve endings there. ",
"I've got a 6 month old and he learned to rub his eyes when he is tied before he was 3 months. At that point I don't think it could have been a learned behaviour. ",
"I only do it to let other people know that I am tired...",
"Finally- I've been waiting six months for this answer. Similar ELI5 that I saved hoping it would be answered- [here](_URL_0_)",
"Because your face has muscles and it takes energy to keep your eyes open. To be conscious even, over the day you make a multitude of expressions that exercise and tire those muscles. Tired facial muscles are the easiest to rub/massage when you're, tired. Probably rubbing out some lactic acid as well (from muscles).",
"I can't be the only one who rubbed their face while reading these comments",
"Late to the game here but I do this ALL THE TIME. I'm talking deep rub on my whole face, NOT just my eyes. It feels amazing when I'm tired.... I couldn't really explain why. I guess I'd agree with some responses in this thread in that it stimulates your brain and \"wakes it up.\" Honestly I do it because it feels good.",
"Ok why do I stretch when I'm tired?",
"We're wiping the tired away. Don't ruin this for me.",
"This is just a theory, consult an expert and that shit but it could be to get the blood flowing. Like slapping your cheeks or tickling your lips with a feather after keeping a horn to your face for a long time.",
"If you feel good when you rub your face you could be a dickhead?",
"Because the last point of coke made your face numb. ",
"Simply for massage and moving the blood flow. ",
"I've read somewhere that rubbing your forehead when you're tired stops you from yawning and it seems to work, so I take it has to do with enhancing fluid flow in your facial muscles. ",
"Why did I yawn when I read this?"
]
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"http://i.imgur.com/1Sob7Ht.jpg",
"http://i.imgur.com/z7LJtiJ.gif",
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_diving_reflex",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculocardiac_reflex",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasympathetic_nervous_system"
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2whm3l | why don't television shows and movies show male genetalia as much as they do female genetalia? [nsfw] | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2whm3l/eli5_why_dont_television_shows_and_movies_show/ | {
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"You don't see pussies, you don't see dick. \nYou'll see both topless, and the ass of both.",
"Men will tune in more if theres boobs involved. Women arent as quick to jump at the opportunity to see another pair of balls. ",
"You haven't watched Spartacus...",
"I dunno about you but I've never seen female genitalia in a (non-porno) movie once, I've seen penises at least 10 times. ",
"What type of television shows are you watching? I gotta troll Cinemax at 4am just to see a glimpse of bush.",
"But do they really show female genitalia? I mean, I agree we see bush, but I certainly can't remember actually seeing labia in a non-porn. I think it's just that it's easier to show a woman naked without really showing her genitalia than it is to show a man naked without really showing his genitalia."
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369unt | why don't women ever have "butt-chins"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/369unt/eli5_why_dont_women_ever_have_buttchins/ | {
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"Women do have chin clefts. I'm not sure why you think they don't. It happens.\n\n[Here is incredibly famous actress Sandra Bullock for one such example.](_URL_0_)\n\nYou can Google Image Search \"Woman Chin Cleft\" to see plenty more examples. It's usually not as prominent on women as it is on men, but it definitely exists."
]
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"http://media.celebrity-pictures.ca/Celebrities/Sandra-Bullock/Sandra-Bullock-53.JPG"
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||
67x0n1 | why did people use to pickle vegetables to preserve them? | Why did we do it? What are the processes that turn pickling a viable way of food preservation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67x0n1/eli5_why_did_people_use_to_pickle_vegetables_to/ | {
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"Because that was the only way they had to preserve vegetables. When growing your own vegetables, you have to pick the vegetables when they're ready, and vegetables go bad very quickly. If you have more vegetables than you can eat in a short time, you would want to preserve the rest until you could eat them later.\nPickling is a relatively simple process, so it's something that could be done in an afternoon. This means that after harvesting vegetables, a member of the family could pickle most or all of the vegetables in the same day. The equipment required for it is not particularly expensive either.",
"Pickling creates a low pH, low oxygen environment, which is hostile to lots of microbial life, the little jerks ruining our fruit and veggies. For the why, well it helps you extend the useful lifespan of harvested foods, and the availability of seasonal foods. Oh and they taste awesome.",
"Many kinds of bacteria and other pathogens have difficulty surviving in the acidic, oxygenless environment of the pickling process. In addition, some kinds of bacteria that *do* thrive in such conditions are harmless and in fact improve the taste via fermentation, while also shooing away other bacteria that could potentially survive in such conditions that could potentially be harmful.",
"Well back before refrigeration, you needed a way to keep food edible for long periods of time (winter). By taking perishable food and putting it in an air-tight container filled with vinegar and salt, bacteria and things that will turn the food inedible have a much harder time of forming, so the food can be eaten months later when it would spoil in days if left to the elements. ",
"Because if you remove the oxygen from something and drop the pH below 4 or so nothing dangerous can grow. Pickling is the process of growing specific bacteria that consume oxygen and lower the pH. Yes these bacteria can survive, but they are safe to consume. Other bacteria that are dangerous can survive, but they can't grow, and thus can't become dangerous if not already so.\n\nSo the benefit of pickling is you can take food, put it in a jar that you rinsed the dirt out of and put a top on it to keep the bugs out. You only need to do a moderate job at sealing it, and you have no requirements to sterilize it. The food will keep for years in this condition. Not even a fire is needed to prepare the food. No fancy canning equipment is required either."
]
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4kifbl | why can't helicopters deposit large oxygen bottles strategically on mt. everest or pick up people in trouble by harness? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kifbl/eli5_why_cant_helicopters_deposit_large_oxygen/ | {
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"The air pressure at the top of Mt Everest (29,000ft) is only about 1/3 as much as at sea level so your helicopter can only generate 1/3 of the lift. In addition it's cold so you risk ice forming on the rotors, fuel and hydraulics freezing and finally the weather isn't always very nice.",
"29,029' that's why.\n\nYou realize that helicopters fly by beating the air in to submission, right? If there's no air to beat into submission (let alone keep a human alive), they don't fly.\n\nThere is a video of a helicopter that made it to the top and actually hovered for a little while under the most ideal conditions. Go take a look at that. It's a turbine powered squirrel (high-performance version) that has been stripped of everything. Watch the pilot's control inputs. His wild correcting inputs are almost at full deflection just to keep the thing level and hovering... that's with a reasonable amount of transitional lift in the form of updraft over the summit.",
"They cannot fly that high. The air is too thin to support the helicopter. There are some ultralights that can go that high, but not one capable of carrying an airtank yet alone picking up passengers. ",
"Who exactly is going to pay for that? The (very poor) Nepalese government? People climb Mt. Everest knowing the risk. And who's going to rescue the helicopter pilots after the inevitable crash?",
"Seriously though, why don't they end this madness and build an escalator to the top already?"
]
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4b9c4i | gear mechanics? | Hi, without being an engineer I may not be able to understand how 2 gears fit together.
I've been playing in this "algodoo" physics software and I'm trying to understand basic mechanics of 2 gears.
The gears I have going at the moment, fit together for a few rotations but then start skipping a tooth and jam up..
I googled it and all of it is very... difficult.
Is there an incredibly simple way to explain this to me?
If not I understand, mechanics is incredibly complex.
Thank you | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4b9c4i/eli5_gear_mechanics/ | {
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"To ensure proper tooth mating, your \"diametral pitch\" on both gears has to match. Read [this](_URL_0_) for a technical brief if you want to know more.",
"_URL_0_\n\nHere is a link to a gif that I think will answer a lot of your questions. For two gears to mesh smoothly, the points where they contact have to all lie on the same line (the blue line in the GIF). Also, the two gears have to be in contact at at least one point at all times."
]
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"https://www.bostongear.com/pdf/gear_theory.pdf"
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2ffrof | why can a baby scream endlessly for hours on end while an adult loses their voice after a short period? | I have a 2 month old colicky baby.
Why is it that when I go to a concert and cheer/scream a bit for less than an hour I lose my voice, yet my child can scream until they make me deaf - FOR HOURS - and it's nothing to them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ffrof/eli5_why_can_a_baby_scream_endlessly_for_hours_on/ | {
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"It is because babys use the full potential of their lungs - kind of like opera singers. That way they don't Stress their vocal cords that much. We as adults don't do that anymore, our breathing is much more shallow, so we have to use our muscles as a compensation. And that is exhausting and you lose your voice.\nSource: i watched a documentary about it and thats what i remember...",
"A voice teacher of mine once mentioned this. She said it was because when we learn to speak, we are socialized to constrict our voices and hold back when we speak so we aren't too loud and don't overpower other people. It becomes so natural to us that we don't think about it. When you learn to sing correctly, so you can sing for a long time without tiring yourself out, you relearn what you did naturally when you were a baby. "
]
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[],
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|
57em5n | how does the lever, one of 6 simple machines, work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57em5n/eli5_how_does_the_lever_one_of_6_simple_machines/ | {
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"text": [
"A first class lever trades range of motion for force, second and third class levers the opposite."
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[]
] |
||
6p8x7m | why do some sound systems not hurt your ears at high volume levels? | [Specifically I'm talking about the large rigs used in club, rave and even gig environments - as opposed to home systems]
Basically I've noticed two types of experiences that you can have with sound on nights out, the second being much more delightful but at the same time harder to come across.
**1) Everyday, *Normie* System**
* Loud volume levels
* Sound can feel unbalanced i.e. very full bass or lots of high end
* Variably tactile experience of sound i.e. feeling bass in body etc
* Commonly experience ear fatigue after some period of time (have to take breaks from dance / trance / stage floor in order to lessen this)
* Difficult to hear and talk to people
* Can't stand near speakers for very long at all
* ^ The above can often lead to temporary ear ringing for the next day or so
**2) Superior but harder to find, *Patrician* System**
* Volume feels comparably the same loudness to a Normie System
* More balanced sound - can hear a full range of frequencies and pick out individual instruments / tracks quite easily. Feels like the music can *b r e a t h e* more
* Consistant and enjoyable tactile experience of sound i.e. feeling bass through body; possibly even feeling air movement from speakers etc
* No ear fatigue whatsoever
* Can hear and converse with people perfectly
* ^ This is true even when I'm close to the speakers, which doesn't seem to put the same excessive pressure on my ears
* Tinnitus is not something I have to worry about
I don't want to taint peoples answers too much but if I remember correctly, one of the Patrician systems that I definitely managed to identify was the much praised Funktion One rig..
How does this work guys? It interests me because it kind of breaks everyday wisdom (mostly imparted us by worried parents / aunts / deaf grannies..) that louder music is going to kill our ears or give us STDs or something equally as terrible. I'm not denying that volume levels are something that should be taken seriously, but I guess I kind of want to know what the real story behind the story is, if you get what i mean? ;) A bit like how all calories aren't made equally and things of that nature.
Many thanks guys!
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6p8x7m/eli5_why_do_some_sound_systems_not_hurt_your_ears/ | {
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"100% deaf here, and the loudest volumes possible do not hurt my ears but they hurt my eyes, and makes the hair inside my ears itchy.\n\nLike putting head next to speaker."
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[]
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|
35gav4 | if regular sun exposure increases your chance of skin cancer, why do people in warmer states generally have lower rates of skin cancer? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35gav4/eli5_if_regular_sun_exposure_increases_your/ | {
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"text": [
"Those statistics don't take into account racial distributions in the statistics. People with increased skin pigmentation have lower rates of skin cancer.\n\nBasically, the whiter the state, the higher the incidence of skin cancer. "
]
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"http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/statistics/state.htm"
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[]
] |
|
9w1fm5 | why do some analog watches contain quartz/rubies/other gems? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9w1fm5/eli5_why_do_some_analog_watches_contain/ | {
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"text": [
"Those jewels are used whenever you need a moving piece; as jewels are really hard, they present little or no wear over time.",
"Synthetic rubies are used to mate moving parts to prevent metal-on-metal contact and wear. The reduced friction created by the rubies' hardness increases the lifespan of the tiny metal parts.\n\nQuartz is used in most modern electronic movements as a way of keeping time because it vibrates at a very precise frequency when exposed to current.",
"The \"rubies\" are Jewel bearings. These are tiny sleeves and thimbles which support the rotating shafts of various parts. Note that they're more often clear synthetic sapphire, ruby is simply a red colored variety of sapphire.\n\nRuby is traditional in the clock industry, and may also be used for cosmetic reasons in watches with clear cases with the inner parts exposed. In terms of performance it's the same as clear sapphire.\n\nThe high hardness and rigidity of sapphire/ruby means it has low friction and reduces metal-on-metal sliding wear of parts. Rolling type bearings like balls wouldn't be practical for tiny watch parts. However it's not as hard as diamond, so diamond abrasives can be used to grind, drill and hone the parts into shape.\n\nQuartz is used for electronic watches, likely your smart phone has one too for various reasons.\n\nQuartz has the unusual property that if a voltage is applied to it, it resonates at a very regular frequency. This can be accurately tuned by carefully grinding the crystal in length. Smaller crystals oscillate faster. This doesn't vary based on temperature, a problem with mechanical clocks.\n\nAn electronic counter can then used to count the number of of vibrations, and this can be used to measure the length of one second very reliably. \n\nQuartz and sapphire front panels have also been used on expensive watches instead of glass, due to increased scratch resistance. "
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||
32wa96 | how does a python digest an alligator? | I saw a post about a massive python swallowing an entire alligator whole. How could the python's stomach break down the tough skin and armor of the alligator? Does the python have super strong stomach acid? Thanks for responding. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32wa96/eli5_how_does_a_python_digest_an_alligator/ | {
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"text": [
"Pythons swallow all of their food whole. Large pythons often over estimate their ability eat something. \n\n_URL_0_\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
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"http://www.livescience.com/16805-python-snake-swallows-deer.html"
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|
6pb2ar | why is it that spicy tastes considerably amplify when a person chokes on it and it gets into the throat, compared to swallowing normally? | Choked on peppercorn sauce, RIP | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pb2ar/eli5_why_is_it_that_spicy_tastes_considerably/ | {
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"text": [
"Your mouth is literally made to eat and experience taste, it's specially equipped to eat stuff!\n\nYour throat is made to transport all the goop you just chewed up into your stomach and the rest of your body, after your teeth break down the major chunks and your saliva gets in there and breaks it down even further.\n\nTherefore, your throat just isn't made for taking in things like spice. It's not equipped to do it! \n\nYour body sends you those painful feelings because it's freaking out, basically. It's saying, \"dude, what the hell is this stuff get it out!\" because your mouth is better equipped to deal with it and your throat is getting beat up by the spice. "
]
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9h0va7 | if our eyes have a large field of view why cameras with wide field lens distort images spherically and our eyes don’t? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9h0va7/eli5_if_our_eyes_have_a_large_field_of_view_why/ | {
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"Being that a camera shows that distortion is a very good indication that there is in fact a distortion with the field of view of our own eyes, the reason why you don't perceive the distortion from your eyes, whether or not it's there, is because your brain regularly makes up for distortions and makes corrections to our perception. A good example of our brains making such corrections are the illusions created from optical illusions, our brains can literally fill in the gaps, even if they don't nessisarily exist.",
" > why cameras with wide field lens distort images spherically and our eyes don’t?\n\nBecause our eyes are projecting our view onto a curved surface, our retina, rather than a flat surface such as with the camera. If for example a camera with a 170 degree field of view had its captured image projected onto a screen with a 170 degree inner curve then there would be no distortion (a flat image sensor would still mean some areas would lose resolution, but again a curved sensor would solve that issue).\n\nCompressing the wider view onto a flat plane is bound to introduce distortion but human vision is not based on a flat plane.",
"Point - Our eyes have narrow field of view, we are predators. \n\nNow a cow, antelope, they have a wide field of view.\n\nThe distortion is because they are cramming a view into less degrees than it actually takes up.\n\nAy Epcot they have a 360 degree theater. It projects a movie completely around you in evert direction. Showing 360 degrees in 360 degrees/ It's perfectly indistinguishable from really looking around.\n\nCramming 180 degrees into 80 so you can view it causes distortion.\n"
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279sgm | why do the numbers on dice have the orientation that they have? | It seems that most dice are made in such a way that each face and each number on each face follow a specific orientation.
For any two n-sided dice I pick up, I observe two things:
* Any specific number occupies a specific face relative to the other faces (Example: On a d20, the 20 side is surrounded by the 2, 8, and 14 sides)
* The numbers are all oriented in a specific way relative to the other faces (Example: On a d20, when viewing the 20 face with the "20" oriented in a readable way, the "8" on the 8 face is upside down)
Is there a reason for this specific orientation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/279sgm/eli5_why_do_the_numbers_on_dice_have_the/ | {
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"I don't know about larger sided dice, but the 6 sided dice is arranged such that the front and back of every orientation adds up to 7. If this is true with 20 sided dice, that would be part of the explanation. Otherwise, it is just a fluke with the 6 sided version.",
"All I know is that if you have a d6 (a six-sided dice), if you sum opposing sides, you'll get 7.\nIf the side 6 is showing up, the side 1 is facing the table.\nIf the side 5 is showing up, the side 2 is facing the table.\nAnd so on...",
"The most common type of dice is a six-sided cube with the numbers 1-6 placed on the faces. The value of the roll is indicated by the number of \"spots\" showing on the top. For the six-sided dice, opposite faces are arranged to always sum to seven. This gives two possible mirror image arrangements in which the numbers 1, 2, and 3 may be arranged in a clockwise or counterclockwise order about a corner. Commercial dice may, in fact, have either orientation. The illustrations above show 6-sided dice with counterclockwise and clockwise arrangements, respectively, when viewed from along the three-fold rotation axis towards the center of the dice."
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dg4lf8 | why does smoking kill slower than smoke inhalation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dg4lf8/eli5_why_does_smoking_kill_slower_than_smoke/ | {
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"You're not totally absent of oxygen when smoking. If you're inside a burning room, the oxygen is helping to keep the fire going and is being replaced by smoke.\n\nEdit: I should add that firefighters are increasingly looking to test their gear to see if they've been exposed to anything harmful. I kinda sorta helped on a project for just that. So that's a potential death closer to regular smoking than smoke inhalation.",
"Smoke inhalation means that the air you are breathing lacks oxygen (and might have other dangers). Smoking cigarettes and the like will slowly destroy your lungs ability to take in oxygen at all and have other effects (cancer)."
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2uhbcu | why are china and korea still litigating japan's ww2 behavior in the press, while the western ww2 countries have moved on? | If you follow news in the Pacific, stories about China and Korea demanding that Japan apologize for WW2 behavior pop up constantly. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uhbcu/eli5why_are_china_and_korea_still_litigating/ | {
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"Well Greece is just this past week bringing up Nazi looting and destruction to try to force Germany to restructure some of their debts, so I would say your premise that it is dead in Europe is false. ",
"Because Japan has been horribly negligent regarding their atrocious behavior during WW2. From ridiculous and furious denials after the war to a refusal to teach their younger generations about their transgressions. If the debate still rages it is because Japan has yet to fully make amends...if it had China and Korea would not be hounding her to do so like in the west\n\nIn the West Germany and Axis powers took the fall and the spotlight was placed on their atrocities but Japan really scraped the bottom of the morality barrel in order to pull off her exceedingly sadistic crimes",
"Germany has admitted most of the horrible things it did during the war, apologized for them, and payed a fair bit of reparations to the victims of their crimes. Japan continues to deny the horrible things it did, honor some of the people who did horrible things, and has refused to pay reparations to their victims. That is, almost certainly, a big part of the difference. ",
"Basically, Japan has apologized a number of times and has donated money however it hasn't \"been enough\" of an apology to China and Korea. They keep on moving the apology goal posts further and further. \n\nHere is a [Time](_URL_0_) article about it. It's does a better job than I can do.",
"Asians have a much different culture and ideas about things. Honor, ancestors and unity are very strong points to Asian cultures. They don't see it so much as it being different people who did certain things, that it is the countries themselves that did it. Europeans are much more individualistic and think that certain people did the atrocities, not the country as a whole. ",
"It's astounding how so many people here believe Japan just got away with the atrocities they did in WWII. They did pay reparations and apologize. \n_URL_0_ \n_URL_1_ \n \nI am Japanese and was taught about the Rape of Nanking and all that other nasty stuff the imperial Japan did in WWII. Although admittedly some Japanese politicians have been going revisionistic lately, their suggesions about revisions on textbooks never pass the standards set by the Ministry of Education of Japan (Monbu Kagaku Syo). So, it's not like Japanese kids are actually taught history using textbooks with whitewashed contents. \n \nThat being said, i have to admit the apologies made by Japanese politicians in the past are horribly ambiguous and people have no idea what they even apologized for. It's obvious that they were trying to avoid clarifying the responsibilities. i really wish there was someone like President Weizsäcker in our govenment who can just man up and clear the air. Also, I don't want all these politicians trying to whitewash history in our government. They are embarrasing our country by doing those things and more people all over the world are getting the wrong impressions about Japan because of their foolish actions.",
"/u/nasebanaru pointed out that there is a wiki article stating how often Japan has apologised in the past. \n\nHowever in that same article there is a section \"Controversy\" which pretty much explains why this is not jet settled. This sums it up nicely:\n\n > Criticisms regarding the degree and formality of apology, issued as a statement or delivered person-to-person to the country addressed, and the perception by some that some apologies are later retracted or contradicted by statements or actions of Japan, among others.\n\n[Article](_URL_0_)"
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2yr2gf | when you hear about pharmaceutical companies lobbying congress, what are they actually doing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yr2gf/eli5when_you_hear_about_pharmaceutical_companies/ | {
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"They're trying to prevent laws that might hurt them from being passed. This includes, but is not limited to, laws regarding the patents of medicines that are nearly identical to one that is public domain, regulation of the \"disease mongering\" ads where they take normal human behaviour and call it a disease (for example, calling natural testosterone decline due to age \"low T\"), and changes is FDA approval requiring medicines to be tested against more than a placebo.",
"Lobbying means they visit congressional offices, throw gala lunches, convince them to vote in the way that will be advantageous to the lobbyist. They see to it that large amounts of money are donated to reelection campaigns if they vote in a favorable manner. And they give them pre-written information--papers, reports--that support their viewpoint. They also create campaign ads to support the congressperson. They appear on TV and get favorable articles published in support of the politician."
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1z37er | why do webpages seem to lose all aesthetic features on a bad internet connection? | It may seem like a trivial question, but (from my very small understanding of HTML) shouldn't the webpages keep all of the attributes defined in their code?
Also, how do webpages decide what parts to display and what to remove when coping with a poor internet connection?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z37er/eli5why_do_webpages_seem_to_lose_all_aesthetic/ | {
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"The page's style is usually located in a separate file - the CSS file. This is done on purpose, in order to separate the page's contents from its appearance."
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|
4dlpfi | how does china justify censorship to its citizens? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4dlpfi/eli5how_does_china_justify_censorship_to_its/ | {
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"They are doing it to protect their people from the influence of the west. That influence corrupts and taints the cultural and familial heritage of the Chinese people. Corrupts their families and youth, so to protect their people from those tainted values they block the acces to then. The government is doing it for the sake of their people. \n \nBasically the same thing the American government is doing by removing the right of privacy from their people to protect then against the threat of terrorism.",
"Chinese here... \n\nOriginal answer got removed because it's too short. But in fact they don't admit censoring anything, so they don't need to justify it either.\n\nAlso sometimes here on Reddit, I see some people think censor equals to banning the use of this word altogether, which is not the case.",
"Your question assumes there is a need for the Chinese government to justify their censoring to its citizens...they don't. \n\nYou come to China, you play by China's rules; don't like it, then GTFO. This was pretty much the case with Google when they tried to challenge China's censorship rules.",
"For their protection. \n\nAll gov'ts have to balance the rights of the group with the rights of the individual. Even western democracies censor some forms of speech when the deem it too harmful.\n\nChina sets that balance far in the other direction, censoring things they feel are a threat to social order.",
"If you look at the formal laws, they talk about crimes like \"destroying social harmony.\" So, maintaining social harmony is used as a justification.",
"They don't justify it to citizens, as others have mentioned they don't actually admit that they're censoring as much material as they do.\n\nIt always kind of intrigued me how such a large country was capable of controlling what does and doesn't get released to the public. At first I thought it's purpose was solely for population control and keeping their own people in the dark for the government's benefit, which one could still argue is the case. In theory political scandals, opposition groups, foreign propaganda, disappearances, and demand for public policy change are all easier to suppress if there isn't a mass awareness of it.\n\nHowever my opinion on their motive has changed since reading first hand accounts and bearing witness to current national strife in the US.\n\nSo if I were to guess how China's Gov would justify it? For it's own people's happiness (ignorance is bliss). Imagine if you didn't realize how fucked up the world was, or if you knew significantly less about how fucked up it was? In the entire 'free' world, news is considerably more negative, so imagine if the news you saw on a day to day basis was feel-good stories? If that was all you have ever known to be true for your entire life up until this point, wouldn't you in theory feel better about the world and your life in it? \n\nI don't agree with the process, but it's easier to be happy when you don't know shit compared to knowing too much.",
"This is based on the assumption that the Chinese believe that they have an inherent right to individual free speech. This is a western, post enlightenment concept, in most cultures it is considered normal and necessary to stop people from spreading ideas that interfere with the social order.\n\nIn other words, they don't have to go out of their way to \"justify\" censorship, because it is just a modern version of what has always taken place. ",
"Chinese here. With a lot of relatives in early 20s I talk to in Guangzhou. \n\nThey don't know what they are being censored from. Even though they know the government IS censoring stuff (fb and Twitter is obvious as they make accounts when they come to the US for grad school).\n\nThe majority of Chinese is content with the direction of the government, as they care more about material gain over intangibles like freedom to _____. \n\nChinese middle class and the government FEARs instability. When shit goes down in the US, it will deal with whiney redditors, angry public demonstrations, but eventually it blows over. The West never has to worry about the backbone of its government being dismantled. Westerners in general take pride of its political system (democracy) so the worst they can do is impeach a president or replace some politicians. China is different as in discontent leads directly to the backbone of its government. In China's long history almost every national \"demonstration\" lead to revolution and bloodshed. For many Chinese, things like censorship is a small price to pay for general stability.\n\nAlso, Chinese admire Western freedom but they also know West wants it to collapse and in general has no good intentions towards the Chinese people. They believe the Chinese government cares about its people more than any Western countries would so they are skeptical whenever it receives criticism from West. Like \"US only wants democracy for China because they know it'll lead to unrest and unseat China from its current power. So hah! I'll support the Chinese govt. cus fk the west\" mentality ",
"Do they even need to \"justify\" or care enough to make an effort?",
"The way it was explained to me is that the Chinese have a deep, ingrained fear of *luan*, 乱 or chaos. Because throughout their history there have been so many horrific civil wars, fracturing off of kingdoms or warlord fiefdoms, invasions, and other calamities, there is a deep sense that it is OK for the government to exert strong control over individual lives as long as they maintain order. Censorship is necessary to maintain that order.\n\nJust look at this [list](_URL_0_). Five of the ten deadliest events in human history happened in China, and three of them were entirely domestic fighting. There are a lot more domestic wars that didn't make the list. In the 20th century alone just domestically China went from the Qing dynasty to the Warlord period, to rule by the Nationalist KMT, to rule by the Communist party, and every one of those transitions was bloody. At that point you might be willing to accept overbearing leaders so long as they stopped the fighting.\n\nImagine the US had a Civil War or major foreign invasion every 20-30 years for the past 200 years (instead of exactly once). You'd imagine we would also be comfortable with a strong government that held the country together.\n\nEdit: Also in response to other posters, China does make some attempt to justify the censorship to their citizens. Keeping order is the justification. At least in the major cities where I lived *everyone* with a college education knew that the government censored the internet. It's impossible not to notice that you can't access sites that you know exist like Facebook and Twitter.",
"All countries have censorship something; for example in the UK the government censors us from child porn and from extreme speech (people telling us to harm others).\n\nThey justify this because they say it protects the people.",
"Most people in China have no idea there is censoring at all. Or maybe they know about it but it really has no impact on their daily life. Like as someone living in America, do you really care or know about things happening in Beijing right now? or Japan, or Russia? Probably not... it's just not relevant to your daily life.",
"I imagine it's pretty much the same way Reddit does it. Convince people that wrong/harmful speech should be removed/censored for the good of everyone. Easy as that.",
"They are the government and they do what they want. In communism the leadership does not have to justify anything they choose to do. They have full control of things. ",
"Used to live in China. The great firewall hasn't always been there, I used to surf YouTube and use Gmail all the time. Now it's blocked, I'm sure some people noticed but most don't as they use other websites that do just the same such as Baidu instead of Google. Others choose to work their way around the wall by using VPNs and proxies.",
"Remember that not all people are the same, and that the way governments operate are usually a result of the culture of the common people, and what they expect from their government.\n\nWestern Civilization is culturally rooted in Judaeo-Christian religion, which teaches that there should be a single moral code that all people follow; Chinese culture does not have that, and for most of their history they operated with the idea that morality was based in respecting people above you in the social hierarchy. \n\nThe idea that a government would have to explain itself (as long as it was succeeding with its major responsibilities) is pretty new to China.\n\nLook up Confucianism and the Mandate of Heaven, those ideas dominated China for about 2000 years, and the Communists actually have followed them to a fair degree."
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b3pscp | what are the main technologic advancements that make it possible to store so much more data in increasingly smaller circuits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b3pscp/eli5_what_are_the_main_technologic_advancements/ | {
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"Our ability to make tiny transistors which is largely driven by the machines that build them. I wouldn't say there is on specific thing that allows it, chip companies put a lot of effort into developing the machines that make the chips, and it's many advancements that come together to make what it ultimately a smaller process that can pack more stuff into a smaller space.",
"Optics. We make chips by etching patterns onto little silicon (glass-like material) plates. The smaller we can make the patterns, the more chips we can pack in for cheaper. Data *storage* is a special type of chip make of specific elements but made the same way. \n\nThe way we make the patterns is by coating the plates with a waxy substance called *photoresist*. Then we take an oversized template called a *mask*, and hold it above the plate. The template is a black sheet with holes cut in it to represent where the patterns go. We use the shadow it creates on the plate to make a pattern. \n\nWe shine light through the mask and it cures the photoresist — hardening the wax in certain places. \n\nThen you pour off the uncured resist and wash it so only the cited pattern remains. Finally, you use an acid to etch away all the non-covered parts of the plate and wash off the resist. Now you have a patterned plate ready to make microcircuits. \n\nSo the part that makes chips smaller, is our ability to use lenses to project the shadow from the mask and shrink it down to a smaller pattern on the plate. The better the lenses we can make with less distortion, the smaller the patterns can be. \n\n"
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