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5p114k | why is the top of the wine cork smaller, thus easier to put its end first back into the bottle | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5p114k/eli5_why_is_the_top_of_the_wine_cork_smaller_thus/ | {
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"text": [
"Not an expert but I'd assume expansion of the cork through absorption of wine/liquid on the bottom end due to its contact and proximity to the liquid within the bottle. This environment also ensures the bottle stays sealed after bottling. \n\n(Edited for spelling)",
"/u/TheOtherPenguin has it right. The cork starts out as a cylinder when made and inserted into the neck of the bottle. "
]
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[],
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oecad | light years - light travel distance vs proper distance | Alright, so I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this one. From what I understand. The 'observable universe' is around 14 billion light years in any direction because that's as far as we can see. That information gives up the reason why we think its only 14 billion years old. But after some research I've found that it is actually around 46 billion light years in any direction. Now this confuses me. How can we know it's that big if we see based on how fast light moves? Is this because we found something farther than 14 billion light years away that moves faster than the speed of light? Because if the universe is 14 billion light years old. And we can see stuff farther out than 14 billion light years away. Wouldn't we be looking at stuff before the universe was created? I just really don't understand.
Pretty much wondering if there is an easier way to explain this to me. I know I'm missing something here and I just can't figure it out. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/oecad/eli5_light_years_light_travel_distance_vs_proper/ | {
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"That's not why the universe is 14 billion years old. That would make it seem like Earth is the center of the universe. The observable universe is 46 billion light years in any direction, 93 as the diameter. The reason we can see them is because everything used to be much closer together, but everything is moving away from each other.\n\n_URL_1_\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe"
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|
dp1wvc | how does a company actually go about planting 20 million trees? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dp1wvc/eli5_how_does_a_company_actually_go_about/ | {
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"You plant whips; these are 12 - 36 month olds bare stems with root buds usually about a foot long. You can literally just stick them in the ground. This is regularly done on quite large scales and there are suppliers who grow and prep these. My father in law and his brother planted ~ 50 acres of their farm with mixed deciduous 20 years ago, which used about 50,000 tree whips planted at ~6ft spacing."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
60hpsh | what "run as administrator" does to a software? | I've encountered many problems with software (not starting, freezing, crashing, poor performance etc.) that were fixed by simply running the program as administrator. What actually changes when doing it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60hpsh/eli5_what_run_as_administrator_does_to_a_software/ | {
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"Software runs on top of the operating system. Normally the software should not be altering the operating system that it's running on. Back in the 90s and early 2000s there were LOTS of problems with windows and viruses, mainly because Windows allowed any software to alter itself to whatever needs the software had. Virus makers took advantage of that. But also many legitimate programs did it because it was easy and it allowed them to do things not originally intended by the OS programmers. \n\nCome later versions of windows, Microsoft decided enough was enough and no longer allowed software to run as administrator by default. Not running as administrator forbids the software to make changes to the underlying structure of the operating system (I think this first happened in windows vista).\n\nSo now, software did not run with administrator privileges. This was all well and good. It took some time but most software makers updated their programs so that they did not require administrator privileges to run. \n\nSo what's happening to you is that the software you are trying to run has a legitimate reason to change the OS, or the programmers were lazy and never updated it from the older ways of doing business, or the software is infected with a virus. \n\nMy personal rule is that if software requires administrator privileges to run, it's likely a good idea to just not run that software. ",
"in a word, permissions.\n\nWhen you run a piece of software it does many things from writing new files, running commands, reading files, accessing peripherals, etc.\n\nImagine your computer is an office building where every door you need to use your key card to get past. If you are a new employee your key card isn't going to work on many doors and therefore what you have access to is limited. As you work your way up the food chain you gain access to more and more rooms.\n\nYour computer's operating system is similar in that it tries to compartmentalize as much as possible so applications only have access to what they need. \n\nRunning a program as administrator gives the application access to everything. So if before the computer was trying to read a file it didn't have permissions to, error. Now, no problem, it can read that file. \n\nGenerally you only want to run programs that need administrator rights as admin...not everything."
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fgy8xx | since we have invented the combined shampoo and conditioner in a bottle, why are we still persisting with one bottle for shampoo and one bottle for conditioner? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fgy8xx/eli5_since_we_have_invented_the_combined_shampoo/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The good stuff isn’t in a combination bottle. Also the ratio of shampoo to conditioner a person needs depends on that person.",
"Like most things that are two-in-one combined, it doesn't do a particularly good job at either. It's great to save time or if you don't care that much about hair care, but won't be as effective as using a decent quality shampoo and conditioner."
]
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[],
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||
e5qevh | how can doctors a see a babies organs like their kidneys with ultrasound? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e5qevh/eli5_how_can_doctors_a_see_a_babies_organs_like/ | {
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"text": [
"Sound waves go through soft substances and reflect of surfaces where the density changes. Baby kidneys are a different density than the rest of the baby-inards (not a medical term). That change in density causes a reflection that the ultrasound processor can use to produce a display image."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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||
6dmi6k | how is it that being able to pass a top secret security clearance test isn't part of the process of running for president? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dmi6k/eli5_how_is_it_that_being_able_to_pass_a_top/ | {
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"In the United States, the authority of the federal government to classify material, and to issue security clearances, is granted by statute, specifically [50 USC Subchapter III.](_URL_1_)\n\nBy law, the president of the US holds the ultimate authority to make determinations regarding the classification of information. \n\nThat's the *how* of security classifications, but you're asking the *why*. I'm not sure that I can give a good ELI5 answer to that, but I can offer an opinion: \n\nThere isn't any background check that's more rigorous, more arduous than a major party nominee's vetting during a presidential election. For a Top Secret security clearance the FBI performs something called a [single scope background check](_URL_0_), the major purpose of which is to determine that you are who you say you are. But the ability of a small team of agents to look into someone's background pales in comparison to the amount of information about a candidate that can (and will) be dug up by the media and by a candidate's opponent's investigators. \n\nThis is obviously a practical consideration of why a security clearance need not be issued to a US president, but there certainly are other political and legal considerations. A president has to be elected, and if elected has to be able to do his job, and no FBI investigators or congressmen or anyone else has the right to tell the American voters that they can't have the person they voted for take office because he failed the job interview. ",
" > I'm genuinely curious as to how this isn't part of the process. Is there any test at all?\n\nThis is a simple necessity of a democratic style of governance. If you create a process by which an entity must approve of a candidate before they can be elected, then that entity actually is in charge of who gets the position, not the people. This is especially true if those criteria are opaque to public scrutiny or subject to judgment calls; we might easily say that requiring presidential candidates to be 35 or older because everyone can tell if that is true or not, but identifying a security risk isn't something that the public may even be allowed to know the reasons behind."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Scope_Background_Investigation",
"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/chapter-45/subchapter-III"
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||
6a1wpp | what's happening when i'm overthinking about something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6a1wpp/eli5_whats_happening_when_im_overthinking_about/ | {
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"\nSo, your question is a little bit broad, but the easiest way to explain it is, overthinking something is usually brought on by a stressful or potentially stressful situation. \n\nWith that being said, you can overthink any topic if you tried, and here is why. \n\nThough \"overthinking\" is a slang term, we don't use that word in the medical field, well we do when we say it to each other, but it is not a diagnosis or anything. When facing the stressful situation or whatever the case may be, there are probably multiple aspects to the situation. Albeit emotional or decision-based. \n\nWhen the brain begins to focus on possible outcomes versus obvious or controllable outcomes this triggers the chemical response that causes stress, which leads to more thinking of all the variables in the situation. So you have this trifecta of things going on. \n\n1. Situation\n2. Variables / Emotional response vs. Behavioural\n3. Introduction of stress, leading to an overwhelming feeling. \n\nSo when this happens, and everyone does it, so its not something that you need not worry about. To stop it, turn your attention to something else and take a refresher, tv show, youtube browsing, just something distracting. Then re-visit the situation and even make a pros and cons list if that helps. Now of course sometimes these things pop up last minute with little time to respond, but again take a breather, then approach it again. \n\nQualifier: I am a Medical Doctor. \nDisclaimer: All information provided in posted comments are answers to posted questions. No comment is intended to diagnose, or treat any illness, disease, or disorder, however basic descriptions of posted questions may lead to the recommendation of consulting your primary care Physician. \n\n\n question posed however basic descrriptions of comments may all medical issues should be addressed by your primary care Physician. "
]
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||
6z9kby | why are we more sensitive to background noises when we have less sleep? wouldn't our senses be more dull without sleep causing us to hear less background noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6z9kby/eli5_why_are_we_more_sensitive_to_background/ | {
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"text": [
"With better sleep, our brains are able to function more efficiently, allowing us to focus on tasks better and not be distracted as easily, even if we can sense things more easily as well."
]
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||
2rhvf0 | why are some people's voices much louder or softer than others? | Is there an actual physical, anatomical difference between someone with a loud, projecting voice and someone with a quiet voice? In a loud, crowded place, for example, my voice isn't even audible if I just talk normally. I have to strain and practically yell to be heard, whereas most others can talk regularly without yelling and everyone hears them. Why is this? A difference in vocal cords? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rhvf0/eli5why_are_some_peoples_voices_much_louder_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"cng11dn"
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"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Vocal chords. Diaphragm. Breath control. Projecting. \n\nAnd that sprinkle of \"residual self-image.\" "
]
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|
30b9b0 | why does wine age in the bottle, beer goes skunky in the bottle, and whiskey doesn't change in the bottle? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30b9b0/eli5_why_does_wine_age_in_the_bottle_beer_goes/ | {
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"Beer goes skunky because there are certain flavor compounds from hops that break down when exposed to UV light, from sunlight or even in-store fluorescent lights. \n\nEven some beers age in the bottle. Sierra Nevada beers are often bottled early, and finish aging as they make their way from the brewery to distributor and eventually retailer. I assume some other brands do that as well.\n\nWhiskey's aging needs a barrel, because the flavor compounds come from the charred wood in the barrels. Once it's bottled, there are no flavor compounds in glass.",
"Beer is skunked by UV-light. It causes hop oils to break down and taste bad. If unaffected, age doesn't matter.\n\nMany beers of higher ABV that aren't hop heavy can age well for several years, just like wine. Also, not all wines benefit from aging either, or hit their peak very young.\n",
"Wine doesn't age well in bottles. You want something aged in a cask. If you age it in the bottle, there's a good chance it will 'cork', or go bad.",
"All 3 are based on fermentation, which requires bacteria or yeast to convert sugars or starches into alcohol. Spirits, such as whiskey, are distilled, so they have a very large amount of alcohol (40%+ most of the time). That's enough to kill off the bacteria needed for fermentation, so once they are sealed in a bottle they stop fermenting. Wine, on the other hand, tends to have much less alcohol (closer to 10-20%), which is low enough that fermentation can continue even after it's been placed in a bottle. This is called \"bottle aging\". \n\nBeer's skunkiness seems to be unrelated to this process though. Beer contains hops, and hops break down when exposed to light. So it's not the length of time you store the beer, but the amount of light that it's exposed to during that time, that causes it to go skunky. This is why beer is often sold in dark brown glass, which reduces the amount of light reaching the beer."
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c4fp32 | if digestion takes 6-8 hours how do people experience diarhea symptoms in hours? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c4fp32/eli5_if_digestion_takes_68_hours_how_do_people/ | {
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"Someone here will provide an answer soon. Just wanted to say, if you find this interesting you will probably love the book Gulp by Mary Roach. It goes into the entire digestive process in playful detail.",
"Diarrhea happens precisely because digestion *hasn't* happened yet. Yes, normally it takes hours for food to make its way through your stomach and intestines to slowly absorb water and nutrients, but diarrhea is bypassing all that. Your gut has a ton of nerves, and when it senses something is amiss for any reason, it triggers your brain to send signals to get whatever is causing the situation out as quickly as possible. That means there's little to no absorption of water or nutrients. In fact, the intestines can actually add water or mucus to get things flowing even faster.",
"You eat something that your body thinks you should not have eaten. Your body thinks this could be a threat, so the best course of action is to get rid of the food. \n\nThe reason you can experience symptoms almost immediately, is because you have food in other sections of the pipeline, so as soon as your body starts sending the signals that you need to get rid of that food, food that you ate hours ago is ready to come out."
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2muawt | why do some wwii-era propeller planes have a cable from near the cockpit to the tail/wings? | For instance [on this bf109](_URL_0_). It seems silly that they would be a control cable of sorts, and it's too loose to be structural reinforcement, so what could it be? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2muawt/eli5_why_do_some_wwiiera_propeller_planes_have_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cm7nhof"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"its the antenna\n\nif im right older radio used lower frequencies which worked well with super long antennas"
]
} | [] | [
"http://i.imgur.com/FzljiJb.jpg"
] | [
[]
] |
|
26eso3 | what exactly are complex numbers, how can someone just invent new numbers and expect other people to accept them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26eso3/eli5_what_exactly_are_complex_numbers_how_can/ | {
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"Complex numbers have a real and imaginary part. A real number is the kind of number we use all the time, like 1 or pi or 3457.\n\nAn imaginary number is a number that, if squared, gives you a negative (real) number. sqrt(-1) is an imaginary number, typically denoted as \"i.\"\n\nA complex number is a number that has a real and/or imaginary part. So, for example \"2+i\" is a complex number. 2 is real, i is imaginary, 2+i is complex.\n\nFor a long time complex numbers were thought to be totally useless, and everybody except mathematicians just dismissed them as nonsense that math nerds were fuddling about with for no reason.\n\nWe later figured out that there are a lot of uses for them in physics and engineering (and possibly other fields I'm not sure), so the efforts of the people that discovered and worked with them turned out to be very productive in the end.\n\nNow, when I say complex numbers are used, what I don't mean is that we'll ever measure something's mass and say \"oh, it's sqrt(-1).\" It's just that they can be used in the math as a shortcut to make problem solving easier, and in some cases using them is the only way we know of to get a solution.",
"People didn't think negative numbers were a thing either until someone invented/discovered them and convinced people. Imaginary numbers really aren't that different. If you look at some very basic equation you can see the need for both the arise.\r\r* x + 1 = 2\r\r* x + 1 = 0\r\r* x^2 = -1\r\r\rThe first one is easy. The second one is odd though. No counting number exists to solve it, nor does a fraction of a number. The only answer is some weird kind of opposite number. You define that as a -1 = 0 - 1 and you just came up with a whole bunch of new numbers, none of which are something you can count. In hindsight you may say we use them for banking, temperature, elevation, etc, and that is true, but nonetheless they were a weird concept at first. \r\rThe third equation runs into a similar same problem. The only way to solve it is to create a new set of numbers, and use 1j = sqrt(-1) as the answer. You can't count 1j objects, but neither can you count -1 objects. And in hind sight, imaginary numbers have lot of application that were not seen at the time. Electricity, quantum physics, differential equations. \r\r\rComplex number are simply the result of combining imaginary and real numbers. Just as x + y can never be simplified beyond that, a complex number can never be simplified beyond a similar form like 1 + j. While we may never be able to count 1 + j things, we also can't count -1 things either. Complex numbers serve the same role as negative numbers, they can be applied to situation and speed up the calculation of certain things or even allow us to calculate thing we never could before. ",
"Complex numbers provide a way to do calculations. \n\nIn electrical circuits an inductor tends to store current and return it later in an alternating current cycle. A capacitor stores charge and returns it. Resistors work in phase. \n\nYou can model the voltage and current of a circuit with capacitors and inductors in it with complex [numbers](_URL_0_). \"The voltage across the resistor is regarded as a real quantity, while the voltage across an inductor is regarded as a positive imaginary quantity, and across a capacitor we have a negative imaginary quantity.\".\n\nThat provides a way to find the phase angle between the current and voltage in a circuit treating the resistance as a complex number Z as a sum of the inphase resistance R and the out of phase -iJ (inductance) and +iC (Capacitance).\n\nSimilar things can be done with laminar flow streamlines and conformal [mapping](_URL_1_). The flow can be modelled as a half-hemisphere and then projected onto the real surface because similar to the case with capacitance the sideways flow is spread out due to the inline flow. This allows easy approximations to expected flowlines. That was popular before computers.\n\nThere are many uses. The word \"complex\" is regrettable. There might not be much that is simple with complex numbers, but straightforward applications like using them to determine forces from magnetism are not uncommon. They crop up in many forms. Sine and Cosine are aspects of complex numbers."
]
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"http://www.jimrolf.com/explorationsInComplexVariables/bookChapters8.31.11/Ch3.pdf"
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||
7axa8x | why does intermittent fasting lead to "longer living" and healthier aging? | In particular I am interested in this article and the first comment which was confusing to me regarding mitochondria.
Thank you!
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7axa8x/eli5_why_does_intermittent_fasting_lead_to_longer/ | {
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"It is my understanding that it causes the body to go into more of a survival mode, rid itself of dead cells that were kind of hanging around not doing any good, and jump start creation of new stem cells. But the mechanism of action for this is still being studied and is not fully understood at this time.",
"They are not sure it does. Fasting triggers changing in your body. They are currently researching what those changes mean. As of now some studies show some things. And some people interpret those as positive \n\nFasting can help you lose weight like anything else - reduced caloric intake. ",
"The study was done on worms, are you a worm?\n\nTo date I don’t believe we have enough solid data from human subjects wrt IF."
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/7aqa68/harvard_study_shows_how_intermittent_fasting_and/"
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sx19i | marijuana. | I have grown up all my life surrounded by massive propaganda campaigns against the use of marijuana, all of them asserting its dangerously harmful effects and how it's a detriment to society. As such, I always perceived marijuana-usage to be largely taboo, something only done in a civilization by the very lowest of the low.
Now that I am nearly done with high school, I've found that not only is it not taboo, it's actually very common and even (apparently) misinterpreted by the moralistic media and harshly oppressed by the law. What I want to know is simple: scientifically, if marijuana is as beneficial and safe as many of my peers claim it to be, then how did this massive war on pot come to be? I also want to know both the flaws of and the arguments for both sides of the cannabis-legalization debate. What are the potential effects, both good and bad, of the use of marijuana? A non-biased reply is preferable. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/sx19i/eli5_marijuana/ | {
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"Started out as good old racism/classism. Mexican immigrants brought the stuff across the border, and it's handy to have some convenient legal bludgeon with which to keep the darkies in their place. \n\nFrom there, mainly institutional inertia/ignorance. Nobody who wants any hope of being re-elected dares speak out against it, lest they be accused of being \"soft on crime.\" Also, the drug war is big business now. You're talking slave labor from the millions of prisoners. (As American citizens, we are now living in the most incarcerative society in recorded history). You're talking big, fat budgets for police departments. You're talking millions of dollars a year in seized assets tangentially related to drug crime. \n\nUpton Sinclair: \"It's hard to make somebody understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.\" ",
"- Medical effects: [Here](_URL_0_) is an ELI5-level video on what is known about the negative health effects of marijuana. If you want something beyond ELI5, the video also includes links to peer-reviewed articles. But, simply put, marijuana does cause some health problems. In terms of benefits, those still have yet to be determined conclusively. Because cannabis is illegal, there aren't a ton of studies about its potential use in treating disease. THC in pill form (marinol) is used to treat appetite loss legally, so it's probably safe to say that marijuana can treat appetite loss and possibly even some kinds of pain. However, smoking is not a medically advised method of delivery, in part due to its imprecise quantity of delivered medication, so joints probably aren't going to be FDA-approved anytime soon, even if legalization were to occur today. In terms of treating things like cancer, I won't say that it's impossible, but there's nowhere near enough evidence to refer to marijuana as a cancer cure.\n\n- Economic effects: This is a bit of an unknown figure, but marijuana legalization would either benefit or hurt the economy. Benefits include taxation from marijuana sales, decreased resources used to prosecute drug users, and fewer people utilizing government funds as prison inmates. In terms of negative effects, since marijuana is associated with some health issues, that would lead to people spending more on doctor bills and less efficient work, since users would either require more days off or be less sharp at work. Regardless of whether or not this will help or hurt the economy, the difference won't be huge. Anyone who say that legalization will completely eliminate America's deficit has no idea what they're talking about. \n\n- Drug usage: In a worst case scenario, legalized marijuana will cause more people to smoke and, through the gateway effect, move on to harder drugs. In a best case scenario, marijuana will lead to users getting cannabis from liquor store-like places, decreasing interactions with illegal drug dealers, decreasing the use of hard drugs without changing the number of marijuana smokers. \n\n- Political implications: On one hand, government should be protecting citizens from dangerous things. For example, cars without seatbelts and contaminated foods are all banned by the government for our protection. On the other hand, government should promote free choice and personal liberty to citizens, which would be promoted by enabling people to make their own choices regarding drug use. ",
"\"Marijuana\" is a special word for the common hemp plant, or cannabis — which is a plant that has been used for thousands of years for a lot of different things; such as rope, fabric, paper, oil, and drugs. The word \"marijuana\" or \"marihuana\" used to be a rare slang expression, but government people in the early 20th century started using it a lot in order to make hemp sound more foreign, and to make it sound scary to people who didn't like foreign things.\n\nWhen people smoke or eat the buds or resin of the hemp plant, it does a bunch of different things to them. The most obvious is that it usually makes people feel good. Depending on the kind of hemp and the person doing it, it can make people feel happy, excited, relaxed, and a bit dizzy. It can make music sound prettier, make colors seem brighter, and make silly things funnier.\n\nOn the other hand, it can also sometimes make people scared or overwhelmed and unhappy. And other people think it makes them lazy or boring. People are different, and while some people like the effects of cannabis a lot, others don't. That's normal — just as some people really like the taste of olives or broccoli or red wine or blue cheese, and others really dislike them.\n\nHemp does other things, too. One is that it usually makes people a little bit hungry — you might have heard of this as \"the munchies\". This same effect helps keep people from throwing up if they are sick. This is why many people with AIDS or cancer use cannabis — because the medicines they take for AIDS or cancer are very powerful and make them throw up, but the hemp helps stop that.\n\nWhy does cannabis make people feel relaxed and happy? It affects certain parts of the brain, which are involved in feeling emotions, pain, and other sensations. It does this in a way which — for some people — can cancel out depression and certain kinds of chronic pain. This is another reason people take cannabis as medicine.\n\nBut people also often use cannabis just because it is pleasant and fun — just as people play games, or watch TV, or do other hobbies, or use other drugs like beer or coffee, just because they like to do so. A lot of people believe that there is nothing wrong with doing things just for fun, so long as nobody else is getting hurt. (It wouldn't be okay for a parent to just play games *all day* and neglect their kids — but that doesn't mean it's bad to play games *once in a while*.)\n\nOn the other hand, sometimes people use cannabis too much. It's not very common — it's actually a lot *less* common than people drinking alcohol too much. But because smoking hemp is pleasant and relaxing, people can get used to doing it a lot. This can make it harder for them to do other things with their life. The fact that cannabis is against the law makes it even harder, though — because they have to hide what they are doing, which makes it harder to change.\n\nToday, cannabis is against the law almost everywhere. This means that when the police find out that someone is doing it, they come around and arrest people and take them away to jail. They often take away their car and house too. And if they have kids, those kids might have to grow up without their parent around to take care of them. This is really sad! Many people think that *even if* cannabis is bad for people, it's not as bad as what the government does to people who use it today. *Even if* you think that using cannabis is a bad idea, that it makes people goofy and silly and lazy, you might agree that this isn't as bad as dragging those people away to jail.",
"Boggles my mind that cigarette breaks and scotch o'clock are/were socially acceptable but marijuana is a gateway to satan.",
"[Superior Court Judge James P. Gray on why it should be legal](_URL_0_)",
"Follow up question. Why was is made illegal all around the world?",
"How cute are you asking those complicated questions. Marijuana is a green weed your older brother smoke with his friends so he can chillax. Daddy used to smoke a lot when he was on college. ",
"As someone who smokes weekly, here's basically my take on weed. It is not nearly as bad for you and does not make you feel as bad as alcohol (no hangover). The effects it has on your mind vary from person to person but generally you just get goofy and hungry and sleepy don't want to fight. Which is the opposite for me if I drink, because I usually become very belligerent. First time users just pass out pretty quick and you have some crazy dreams.\n\n The draw backs to weed are if you smoke too much, you'll start coughing and shit, if you share with friends it's easy to get sick from what ever they have, usually the next day you don't feel like doing anything and your mind becomes more sluggish, if you smoke kief or some really potent stuff you feel burned out afterwards sometimes for days. Personally I prefer to not get too high because for me after a certain point it's not really fun anymore, you start seeing shit and can feel even involuntary muscle contractions which can be pretty disturbing, but you can just sleep it off. \n\nWhen you smoke the type of high, how high you get, and how long it last depends on what you're smoking. Different strains and growers will change how much THC and CBD is in the weed (basically the stuff that gets you high). The part of the plant that you smoke is the bud, basically the flowering part of the plant, that is unfertilized so that the plant has a higher concentration of THC and other chemicals. Weed can cost any where from $10 a gram to $30 depending on how good it is. The cheaper stuff usually has sticks and seeds all through it. More expensive stuff is recognizable by the small white crystals covering it, smell and other attributes.\n\nKief is the product of grinding up weed and then sifting out the small glands of the plant that contain THC. It can be mixed into weed for a stronger high or compressed and heated to make hash (hashish). Hash is a much stronger version of weed basically. Like cocain vs coca leaves but less extreme.\n\nWell that's basically recreational use. I would say it's worth smoking a few times, as it can change you perception of things, but I wouldn't say it's healthy to constantly smoke, because you basically start to get the effects of depression \n",
"Marijuana researcher here, the ELI5 version: everything should be practiced in moderation. Some people can't smoke marijuana safely, others can (similar to alcohol), due to a number of genetic and psychological reasons. And just like a moderate amount of alcohol can be beneficial to your health, so can a moderate amount of marijuana. However, if you go too far there are a number of physical and mental problems that can develop. Also, the physical process of \"smoking\" is never good for your health.\n\nThere are some associations between marijuana use and specific negative effects. For example, there has been some data associating marijuana use with schizophrenia. But this isn't a straight linkage, we don't know if marijuana is *causing* this. For example, it's true that the average age schizophrenia symptoms emerge is also roughly the age that individuals start to use marijuana.\n\nYou cannot overdose on marijuana, although you probably may be able to on the new \"spice\"/\"synthetic\" marijuana products now available.\n\nThe government's view on marijuana is an extension of it's classification as a hallucinogen. Coincidentally, the classic hallucinogen, LSD, is one of the least toxic drugs out there. But this is a rather antiquated way to looking at things IMO. \n\nFun fact: Cannabis, or hemp, was a very important part of early European and American history. In fact the first settlers were hoping to find MJ in the New World. It was used to make the ropes that were the basis of the sailing industry for example. Europe for the most part was not aware of how the plant could be grown to promote THC production and used for medicinal or recreational purposes. ",
" > How did this massive war on pot come to be?\n\nGood question. Let's set the Wayback Machine to 1929, right at the height of the /last/ Prohibition, and meet Harry J. Anslinger. _URL_0_ Anslinger was a golden boy in the impossibly corrupt United States Bureau of Prohibition. His boss was the Secretary of the Treasury, and the richest man in America, Andrew Mellon. Yeah, THAT Mellon family. \n\nMellon appointed the zealous Anslinger as the head of the newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics on 14 June 1930. Anslinger waged a fairly racist campaign against free-wheeling jazz culture and that old standby of Mexican immigration--as reflected in old propaganda where cannabis is called by the needlessly Spanish \"marihuana.\"\n\nWilliam Randolph Hearst was all too happy to help the government wage this propaganda campaign in his many newspapers: he had a lot of timber in the Northwest to supply his media empire, and a 1916 report from the USDA severely overstated the threat hemp by-products posed to the established paper industry. Hearst and Mellon, who was heavily invested in nylon at DuPont, made sure that the issue of industrial hemp became inseparable from the demon weed marihuana.\n\nIt is my understanding that when the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was on the floor of the Senate, one of the medical experts perjured himself about the negative effects of cannabis. I can't find where I read that, hope you'll forgive me. It escalated into a War on Drugs under Nixon, and I think you know the rest.",
"No matter what anyone else tells you here, these are scientific facts:\n\n* No matter how much weed you smoke, you cannot O.D. Well, technically you can, but you would have to smoke more in 15 minutes than most of us ents do in their lifetime, and at that point, it might just be oxygen deprivation instead of an O.D.\n* You will test positive for it for a while after smoking it, even if you're not high.\n* As long as you keep it under control (and this is true for any drug), you can still live your life. I smoke everyday and I'm about to graduate from an Ivy League college with a double major and Honors in one of them.\n\n* The truth is, it's very hard for me to give a non-biased answer because I grew up with the same D.A.R.E. propaganda you did, but after I started smoking, I realized ~~a lot~~ everything I had been told about this particular drug was either flat out bullshit or grossly exaggerated. If you need advice on how to use responsibly, go to NORML.",
"I'll try give a laconic answer:\n\nShort term positive effects: relaxed; happy; giggly; talkative; enjoy music, art, humour and food more; friendly; ‘floaty’; ‘dreamy’; creative; sleepy; hungry; introspective; thoughtful; rush of memories and thoughts. In large doses: mild hallucination, feeling like nothing is real, losing a sense of who you are (while may sound frightening, some people enjoy that temporary release)\n\nShort term negative effects: anxiety/fear (in some users); dry mouth; red eyes; losing concentration/forgetting things (never operate a vehicle after using it!). Also, rarely, it can cause people to throw up.\n\nLong term effects: possibly bad for fertility, heavy use can lead to acute (which means short-lived) psychotic symptoms. Smoking is never good for one's lungs, either, so vaporising or baking it into food/tea is healthier.\n\nLinks have been suggested with chronic psychosis, but the current scientific consensus is that weed doesn't cause psychosis. More likely that weed causes *earlier onset* of a psychotic disorder that they would have got anyway, or that psychotic people are more likely to use weed. Findings like weed use going up 50% in the US in the last 40 years but psychosis levels going down support this.\n\nMedically, it can be used to relieve pain, help with insomnia, reduce nausea, reduce stress and anxiety, and helps sick patients hold food down without throwing up (especially useful for cancer patients). Good for arthritis too."
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3bdn6o | why does the word "smelly" carry a negative connotation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bdn6o/eli5_why_does_the_word_smelly_carry_a_negative/ | {
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"\"Smelly\", quite obviously, comes from the verb \"to smell\".\n\n\"Smell\" is an interesting word. The first recorded use of the word is from the late 12th century, when it appeared in Middle English (as smillen, smellen or smyllen). Some sources say there's no written record of it having been used in Old English before that, but others say it comes from Old English \"smylllan\" or \"smiellen\".\n\nInterestingly, those Old English words could mean \"to emit fumes\", and there are related words in Middle Dutch and Middle Low German which mean \"to smoulder\". Some of those still exist in one form or another in modern languages.\n\nSo it seems the word \"smelly\" always meant a bad smell, associated with emitting fumes or smouldering. Being related to a good smell (smelling of roses) seems to be a much later change to the meaning of the word. But although we can use \"smell\" to mean a good smell (but we must qualify it when we use it this way) it's much more rare to see \"smelly\" used in this way."
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5fnq1d | why are our heads propelled forwards rather than backwards when sneezing? | Since sneezing is when we expel air outwards from our nose/mouth, why do our heads naturally go forwards? Shouldn't they be propelled backwards due to the whole action/reaction deal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fnq1d/eli5_why_are_our_heads_propelled_forwards_rather/ | {
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"A sneeze is made by contracting the abdominal muscles to forcefully expel air from the lungs. This also has the side effect of bending the torso.",
"You mean you dont propell upwards? :/",
"It's easier to inhale with your head back. And the muscles used to force it are your stomach, abs and lungs. And your normally aiming for your hands ;) ",
"A sneeze is the autonomic equivalent of squeezing a near empty ketchup bottle. When you're trying to get ketchup out of the bottle, you rapidly thrust it at the food and bring it to a sharp stop while simultaneously squeezing the bottle. A sneeze is like that. The head is brought forward and then rapidly stopped while a blast of air helps to propel the now mobile snot out of the nasal cavity.",
"Could it possibly be your body's unconscious effort to counteract the effects a sneeze would have like propelling your head backward?\n\nEdit: After reading the top answer, while it's brilliant, I find that the majority of my sneezes involve more mouth propellant than nasal. For me nasal sneezes only occur when I have a cold and my nasal passages are blocked. Otherwise, when I randomly sneeze while healthy my sleeve or hand it covered in a spray of saliva. Am I sneezing wrong?"
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2u0k3m | mitochondrion. | I don't get it. What's the purpose of it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u0k3m/eli5_mitochondrion/ | {
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"Mitochondria are responsible for aerobic respiration, which is an extremely efficient process for getting useable chemical energy (in the form of ATP) from the breakdown of glucose. \nATP is a useable form of chemical energy that many processes in your body require to carry out your functions, including your muscles. No ATP = no body function = death. ATP can be thought of as as currency or fuel that runs everything. \nThe simplest form of glucose breakdown is called glycolysis, which doesn't rewuire mitochondria. One molecule of glucose can yield two molecules of ATP through this process. Aerobic respiration yields about 30 molecules of ATP per molecule of glucose. \nThis means that, without mitochondria, you would have to consume 15 times as much food to get the same amount of energy out of it. \n\nUnlike most other parts of your cells, mitochondria are actually a separate species from the rest of your body. They are a bacteria that is most closely related to Rickettsia, which is actually a parasite in Arthropods (insects and spiders etc). "
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1z8x10 | why is a sawed off shotgun more deadly than a regular one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z8x10/eli5why_is_a_sawed_off_shotgun_more_deadly_than_a/ | {
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"It's not any more deadly. The main issue is that they're much easier to conceal.",
"Sawed off shotguns are not more deadly, they're easier to conceal. They're generally illegal because they don't really have a purpose outside of surprising people & killing them.",
"1. Easier Concealment.\n\n2. Larger Spread of the shot."
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15oo7g | (or slightly older) - what is the relationship between the us dollar and middle eastern oil? | 1) Currently my understanding is that Oil is priced in US Dollar which gives the US a tremendous advantage, but what exactly is this advantage?
2) Did Iran recently decide to go off the US Dollar pricing, and if so, what was the effect? What would happen if several other countries decided to follow suit?
3) What would happen if another form of energy was discovered that reduced the world's reliance on oil quickly and significantly? Would the US dollar be affected? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15oo7g/eli5_or_slightly_older_what_is_the_relationship/ | {
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"I can answer 1 and 3. I don't know anything about 2.\n\n1) Other countries have to buy US dollars in order to buy oil. Depending on how favorable the exchange rate is for their home currency that day this could cost them more or less. The US doesn't have to go through the extra step of converting our currency before buying oil.\n\n3) There would be slightly less demand for US dollars and so the value would go down. But, the money spent to buy oil is a fairly small percentage of people buying US currency."
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2hu72f | if the illuminati is such a huge conspiracy and such a huge group, why do we have so little information about them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hu72f/eli5_if_the_illuminati_is_such_a_huge_conspiracy/ | {
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"text": [
"They don't actually exist.\n\nYou can't find concrete information about a phantom."
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6f58ay | how does walmart know what i've bought in store? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f58ay/eli5_how_does_walmart_know_what_ive_bought_in/ | {
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"If she used a credit card or a debit card your name is on those accounts and they know who you are. So if she bought with cash this is creepy, but all other payment methods has a link to her account in some manner. ",
"Did she use a credit card for those purchases? Is that card also linked to the online account?"
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b80rbb | why does asphalt on the highway sound different on different sections of road? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b80rbb/eli5_why_does_asphalt_on_the_highway_sound/ | {
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"Higher air voids in the asphalt mix make it quieter to ride on as the air is not forced through the tire thread. This is a function of the different aggregate sizes and % of those sizes in the mix \n\nIn contrast, concrete is pretty much solid and is very loud "
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by1h4p | why are we still using inflatable tires on our vehicles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/by1h4p/eli5_why_are_we_still_using_inflatable_tires_on/ | {
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"As compared to what alternative?\n\nAir filled tires are a relatively simple invention that lacks a more complex but better alternative.",
"Because they have the right combination of load bearing capacity, bump cushioning, decent life, low mass and reasonable cost. When someone invents a tire which is better, they'll get rich when we all start using them."
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fetq0k | what is the purpose of those "safe/supervised injection sites" and how are they better than just trying to stop drug use? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fetq0k/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_of_those_safesupervised/ | {
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"The theory is that some people are going to use no matter what, so you might as well give them clean needles and the like. I've never heard of a proponent of such sites saying we should stop trying to curb drug use; they just claim that drug use won't go away entirely.",
"Drug addiction is a disease and instead of criminalizing them for it, these give them safe places to use where they won't hurt others, won't spread diseases (from sharing needles), and are safer for themselves as well. Eventually, most people reach a point when they are ready to quit and do so, but until that point, these sites treat them like and let them feel like people instead of scum like America typically treats drug users.",
"The purpose is to keep them healthy and alive while they’re suffering from addiction so that they have an opportunity to get well and recover.",
"I've used these services when I had an active addiction. It makes all the difference in the world in terms of helping you eventually quit. \n\nThink of it as having periods of life-threatening lack of caring about yourself. \nUsing IV drugs, especially heroin, is like having the ability to feel bliss and oblivion at the press of a button. Everything goes away for a few hours, and the shittier your life is at the moment, the more desperate you become for that on-demand escape. So when the effects of your drug use comes knocking (i.e. getting thrown on the streets, testing positive for HIV, seeing a friend OD), your mind automatically thinks \"the solution to this feeling is more heroin\". There's no logic to it, other than 'the more bad feelings=greater desperation for heroin\". \n\nAt safe-injection sites, you have health care professionals that do the minimum amount of caring for your life for you. They will provide sterile equipment, test the random bag of drugs you've just gotten from a stranger, they'll advise you on which vein might be less damaging to use, they'll administer you a reversal agent if you overdose. \n\nThey keep you alive and somewhat in a better physical state, so you have more to live for. \n\nMost importantly for recovery, the time you've tried finding a vein for 45 minutes and throw your syringe across the room in utter defeat... they're there to ask \"is it today that we can look at getting you to a rehab?\". So because that you don't have an amputated arm and HIV, you're more likely to say yes because not *everything* is hopeless. \n\nThese are just the direct benefits to the user. The benefits to the society are also immense. No one wants people using in their apartment entrance, needles on the sidewalk, people OD'ing on the subway."
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1n0mtr | if you gave everyone in your country one billion dollars what would happen to the economy? | I know next to nothing about the subject and have just been wondering what would happen. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n0mtr/eli5_if_you_gave_everyone_in_your_country_one/ | {
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"In the spirit of ELI5, let's pretend that the country we're talking about has 100 people in it.\n\nLet's say that, right now, the total amount of currency that this country has is one million dollars.\n\nDivided by one hundred people, the average amount of wealth is $10,000 per person.\n\nIf you suddenly printed one hundred BILLION dollars, and gave each person a billion of it, there would now be one hundred thousand TIMES as much money as there was before the giveaway.\n\nWhen there is more money available, everyone can afford to pay more for stuff.\n\nOwners of stuff can then charge more for their stuff, since everyone has more to spend.\n\nThis is called inflation, and it doesn't help anyone actually get richer.\n\nIn our scenario, the candy bar at the store that cost $1, will soon cost $100,000. Since everyone has 100,000 times more money, spending $100,000 after the giveaway is about the same as spending $1 before the giveaway.\n\nIn the real world, inflation doesn't happen as fast (although hyperinflation has happened in some countries) , but that's the net effect when countries print more money.\n\nIn summary: printing more money does NOT equal more wealth, it just drives prices higher.\n\n\n\n\nEDIT: I assume printing money is what you meant by \"gave everyone in your country\" If there happened to be one person who really had so much money, that he could GIVE his own wealth away, at the rate of one billion dollars per citizen, and no new printing of dollars was required, then those people would really be wealthy, while the giver would be poor(er).\n\n\n"
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5ga863 | how is water from a well potable? | This might me have a simple answer but I still wanted to ask. Is water from a well potable or does it need to be treated? Was the only way to treat it prior to chemicals and filtration systems to boil it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ga863/eli5_how_is_water_from_a_well_potable/ | {
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"the way water flows down into ground reserves acts as a natural purification process. most often well water is naturally clean enough, but modern day wells is treated as a precaution, but prior to this, people regularly drank well water untreated. ",
"It's often fine as the ground acts as a filter in a sense. If you think about it, since we (as a species) grew up in nature we had to be able to survive drinking random water that is sometimes unsanitary. It's usually/often fine and when it's not it's often just going to make you sick, not necessarily be deadly.\n\nLike most things, the answer is: usually it works out fine, but sometimes it doesn't. Now that we have a higher standard of life we take additional precautious to minimize those other circumstances that can contaminate it. Being near chemical plants who dump stuff has created problems in the past for people with well water. I was in a rural town where there was a problem of animal waste from farms getting into well water. One home I lived in had a rupture in the septic system that we discovered because the well water started having a smell/taste to it. So wells can absolutely get contaminated. That's not including mineral imbalances that might be toxic over time. This is why they say to test your well water from time to time. This is also why you can get filters for between your well and the home plumbing."
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5cyuvn | where did the idea that classical music makes infants smarter come from, and has it been proven? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cyuvn/eli5where_did_the_idea_that_classical_music_makes/ | {
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"There was a study that showed pretty well that listening to music made adults temporarily better at doing a spatial reasoning paper folding task. \n\nThis sort of melted into \"classical music only specifically makes people smart\" to \"classical music makes babies smart\". It's some pretty big leaps from the original study. "
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1z2tn3 | marvel movie rights distribution | Who exactly owns the rights too what major characters? Because it's really starting to boggle my mind. Who own the rights to Spiderman, X-Men, The Avengers, Fantastic Four? Why are there 2 X-Men characters (Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch) in both series but no other characters?
I know quite a bit about comic books (from a Europeans perspective), but this is just too much to comprehend. Can somebody please make a clear view for me as to what studio owns what rights and if there are any loopholes involved? (Example: I heard that there has to be a new Fantastic Four movie before 2020 or else the rights will be dropped) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z2tn3/eli5marvel_movie_rights_distribution/ | {
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"[Infographic courtesy of The Geek Twins.](_URL_0_) \nI *think* the reason Marvel are OK with using Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver is that they're both X-Men characters and members of the Avengers, but I'm not sure.\n\nThe whole arrangement is because of Marvel trying to push out into TV and film from the 70's onwards and deciding the best way to do that was to offer other companies exclusive license to film a certain character/group and their major plotlines. This way they didn't have to put a lot of money on the line themselves, while still standing to gain from movies drawing in new fans of the characters. With the creation of Marvel Studios in 1996 they've moved to actively producing movies themselves, but many of those licenses are still around. They can't use those characters or tie them into the greater Marvel cinematic universe now without the permission of their licensees (who'd likely want *a lot* of money for it). As such their universe of characters has become a bit fragmented on screen.\n\nAs you say, many of these license agreements expire if the licensees don't produce a film with them for a long enough time. [Here](_URL_1_) is a quote about prospects for that in the future from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige:\n\n > The contracts are all very specific, and if there is ever a time for them to revert, they will. But right now they are safely at those studios.",
"Fox own the movie rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. Sony own the rights to Spider-Man, and Marvel own the rights to The Avengers, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Blade, and probably a few others.\n\nAs to why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are appearing in two different series, I'm not sure, but I do know that they're aren't allowed to make any mention of The Avengers in the X-Men movie, and they're aren't allowed to say they're mutants and that they're related to Magneto in The Avengers.\n\nEDIT: spelled some words wrong."
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1iaktu | what is a "startup" company and how do they work? what is the employee/department structure like? | I live in NYC and many of my acquaintances have told me that they work for a startup. I feel foolish asking for a detailed explanation.
Please and thanks :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1iaktu/eli5_what_is_a_startup_company_and_how_do_they/ | {
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"It totally depends on the startup, there are a huge variety of structures for startups. Here's a example of a 15-person tech startup:\n\n3 founders, who are the bosses of everyone. They own the majority of the company. The board of directors are the people who can make decisions for the company. Usually, each founder gets a board seat. And maybe an investor also gets a board seat.\n\n5 engineers, 2 designers, 2 biz dev/sales, 2 marketing, and 1 HR/admin who are employees working under the founders. The employees might be paired off into teams of two to three such that each team reports to one founder. Or there might be a \"head of engineering\" and a \"head of marketing\" that run the product/business side of things, and they each report to the all of the founders.\n\nThat's just an example.\n",
"I'd say [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) explains this quite nicely.\n\n > A startup is a company, a partnership or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets.\n\nAnd because they're pretty much by definition experimental, they tend to be quite small and the employee structure will be unique in each one.",
"- A startup could have been formed last week or 4 years ago. \n- They could be working in a garage out of a $1000 investment from a founder, or a 5 million venture capital they painstakingly raised over several rounds of financing after showing steady improvements and meeting the targets they promised they would.\n- They could have 2 people working 100 hours a week each and creating a web app, or 50 people working 100 hours a week each and creating the world's first commercial space shuttle.\n- Ideally the startup is \"flat\" and devoid of heirarchy. The CEO can regularly cleans out the sink and loads the dishwasher. The engineer also signs for Fedex deliveries and keeps the bathroom tissue stocked. The intern spends his day helping with market research and making databases of prior patents, competition etc. Come lunch, every one lunches together and discusses their weekend, the game next month, or the concert last week. \n- Dressing is usually casual - jeans, t-shirt, sneakers...sometimes even shorts.\n- Focus is on getting your product launched successfully or pleasing a customer, and little importance is given to exactly how many hours you logged in a week. In the same token, startups are more flexible when it comes to employees taking time off. With more freedom comes greater accountability.\n- There is a no set path, no formal document that guides you to a certain new process. You explore a lot and frequently have to create a document out of scratch so that future employees down the line may benefit from it.\n- Pay usually does not match a comparable job in a Fortune 500 company. However they do make it up by offering stocks. The earlier you join a startup, the more risk you take, therefore the larger chunk of the equity you could hope to bargain for.\n\nHope this helps. Ask any specific questions. Will be happy to help.",
"\"A start up is a business designed to grow rapidly\"",
"I start up begins with one person. It could be someone making jams out of their home. Start up just means a company in its very early stages, with plans for growth."
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3wv3k4 | how come even though imgur's servers are over capicated quite a few times a day, we are still able to view them on reddit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wv3k4/eli5_how_come_even_though_imgurs_servers_are_over/ | {
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"Rendering the PHP code and performing the SQL queries to dynamically render the Imgur site takes a lot of processing power. Their service provider will redirect to the Over Capacity page automatically if they are exceeding their allocated processor utilization. With a direct image URL, none of that needs to happen, it's just simply replying and transmitting some data."
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48ai9a | why hasn't the catholic church reported all of the priests with alleged child abuse charges to their local authorities? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48ai9a/eli5_why_hasnt_the_catholic_church_reported_all/ | {
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"Because it would have a negative impact on the image of the church so they prefer to just make sure everyone involved keeps their mouth shut",
"Also an arrogance on the part of the institution. They think that secular law is subordinate to church law, and don't think that offenders should be handed over to outside authorities",
" > \"complicated reason\"\n\nThey literally protect pedophiles within the church so people don't think the church has a problem with pedophiles.",
"Because ultimately they think the only person they should answer to is God and not the laws of the land\n\nI also think a lot of their ranks see it as a perk of the job and hide it accordingly.\n\nIt's a vile practice and I am sickened about how it continues and still the perpetrators go unpunished - simply moved to another parish.",
"Because men aren't exactly lining up in droves to become priests.\n\nSource: Was raised Catholic.",
"I'm gonna point out all the different reasons ITT why the church is doing this:\n\n- Image: They don't want people to think they have problems.\n\n- Arrogance: They have their own system and don't want to hand cases over to actual law.\n\n- Lack of priests.",
"Because the Catholic Church is the kind of organisation that thinks that an old man's career (and the church's reputation) is more important than kids not getting molested. ",
"They want to preserve the fast-deteriorating image by believers that it is the highest authority both religiously but morally. For years child abuse and greed has been synonymous with the Church and despite leaks and lawsuits, the Church will protect themselves. It is only the much older generation that value the churches views as the 'word of God'. It's only recently that their moral standpoint has been highlighted by mainstream media. In the past they could easily strike fear into those who questioned or dared to defy the church, happened with my own mom, and despite everything, its still engrained in Christian thought that the church is not to be questioned. ",
"The same reason why police officers aren't turned in for their crimes. They like to protect their own rather do the just thing, regardless of how it affects their constituents.",
"While there are some great secondary answers, the biggest answer is MONEY. \n \nYou're admitting fault? Lawsuit \nPotential cover up? Lawsuit \nParishioners leave because of scandal? Less collections. \n \nI should point out, not only are lawsuits expensive, but the catholic church is HUGE. They need a lot of assets to cover their liabilities, so this isn't just about weird recluses staying fat and happy, arguably the church already has an issue with its finances now, further interruption of that could literally be the beginning of the collapse of the catholic empire as more churches are forced to close, properties sold, and missions halted. \n ",
"Disclaimer: I am not Catholic so others more educated than I am may step in to correct me.\n\nThe Catholic Church is an ancient institution with roots in a time when ideas like religion, nationality, ethnicity, government, etc., were understood in a very different way than they are today, and furthermore these ideas were not entirely separable. As a result the organizational structure of the Church mirrors that of a government more than what we would expect of a nonprofit or religious institution in a Western secular democracy. Also, it is huge; organizationally speaking it is an enormous ship that takes forever to make the slightest turn. As a coherent whole, it does not and cannot react quickly to anything.\n\nThe Church sees a future in which it is essentially the governing body of Planet Earth. This ideal, again, predates the idea of the separation between church and state. Handling these kinds of things internally is consistent with the ancient self-identity of the Church as a sort of ruling body and not just a religious institution.\n\nThe Church has previously handled this \"governmental\" type of role very badly. Its militaristic history (the Crusades etc.) as well as its implementation of we would consider civil punishments for religious offenses (the Inquisition etc.) are universally regretted and condemned both within and outside of the organization.\n\nSo here is the dilemma as I see it. The Church cannot handle this internally (i.e. punish the priests involved) because its medieval attempts to enforce religious law are in retrospect viewed with contempt, and also because is against the law for it to take this sort of action in the civil jurisdictions in which it operates. On the other hand to turn the priests over to secular authorities is to tacitly abdicate the identity of the Church as an organization with not only religious but national/civil/governmental overtones.",
"So hopefully mine or someone else's level headed comment will get through the typical reddit bullshit.\n\nSo forget about the bad press. The bad press has already happened. They aren't saving an image as much as they straight up don't know what to do.\n\nWhat would you do? A massive chunk of your organization starts doing sick things to children and its all really coming to light within a matter of 100 years or so.\n\nI can't think of a similar instance in human history, where a group of people suddenly have something so crazy on their hands. I'd be dumbstruck.\n\n**Now here is another big part of it**\nThey are running out of priests. If you don't have a priest at the Parish, then who says Mass, who works in the community, who blesses the sacrament?! They already have Priests here in the states who are not only the \"head\" Pastor for their church but the head pastor for 3 or more! They have several hour long commutes throughout the week. \n\nPriest numbers keep going down, if they let this huge chunk of pedophiles go, then they see churches and the faithful go to. \n\nNobody has any real numbers on this stuff from the Vatican's point of view. There was never a book with a tally or a directory of the pedophiles. So there already fucked when it comes to fixing the problem. They have no way of knowing ALL of the pedophiles and rapists. \n\nSo I guess there are 3 reasons:\n**They don't have the resources or knowledge to combat such an epidemic**\n**They are hemorrhaging Priests, anything negative to being a priest (i.e. a good amount have been doing sick stuff) isn't exactly a good method of gaining more.**\n**Where do they even begin? There are so many different countries laws and different cases. This is so far beyond the scale of \"turn everyone in Pope!\" it is now more like \"Pope you have a real issue in the clergy, not only do we need action now but you have to cut this off at the source.\"** ",
"It comes down to attitude and protecting the sanctity and integrity of the holy church. The sad thing is even in a day with the internet and the flow of evidence, trials, and payouts everywhere; this church lacks the common decency to do WHAT IS RIGHT BY THE PEOPLE instead of the church. It is sad. Source: ExCatholic.",
"I'm not sure if anyone else points this out or not, but one reason is that an allegation is not a conviction. Innocent till proven guilty. That said, the Church should turn any such allegations over to authorities and stay the hell out of it. If convicted the priest should be defrocked by the church and put away in prison for life by the authorities (*or whatever*).",
"I'm not a priest, but I've worked in several parishes and been a religious ed instructor for years.\n\nFirst, it is worth noting that the bishops in each nation effectively run day to day control, so while some nations haven't moved much, some have. So to say \"the Catholic Church\" you need to focus on each nation's bishops and the laws in their respective nations.\n\nSecond, at least within the U.S. there's a distinction between 1950-(approx) 2002 and (approx) 2002-forward and the release of the the \"John Jay\" study [here](_URL_0_) that tried for the first time to document what happened from 1950- (approx) 2002 in a systematic way.\n\n* 1950-(approx) 2002: there was no priest-tracking and the abuse was treated as \"this is a case of mental illness we need to handle internally via treatment\". When there's been discoveries they have reached out to authorities, but bear in mind if the abuse occurred more than 10+ years ago criminal charges are impossible (statute of limitations, varies from state to state).\n\n* (approx) 2002-forward: the practice has very much changed and the U.S. Church where they have found evidence most certainly have contacted local authorities.\n\nEdit: Added (approx) because 2002 wasn't a bright line date; some dioceses had already moved by then, but certainly post-2002 all the dioceses in the US were moving to report more and release more of what they had.",
"I think it's mostly because it would unfairly target and expose the Galgamex Catholics. I don't know if you knew this, but The Galgamex vagina is 3 feet wide and filled with razor-sharp teeth! Do you really expect Galgamex priests to have sex with that? ",
"Jehovah's Witnesses are also having a huge problem with hiding molestation. They were covering up abuse for decades and it's all starting to come out. ",
"Think of it like corruption in a police force. It's so wide spread and been going on so long, that it's seen as normal practice within the ranks. Even the ones who are innocent of any wrong doing won't speak out against the others.",
"Same reason why college campuses try to downplay and hide rape cases and why school districts try to hide molestation charges and why the Army tries to hide sexual abuse and... well, I think you get the picture. It becomes a bigger deal when it's a group you don't like or are not affiliated with and can judge freely.",
"I think there's a wrong assumption being made in this thread. People assume based on your question that 'the Catholic Church' would have the knowledge which priests have had sexual contact with minors. There is no evidence to support the fact that any high ranking official in the church would know. I certainly bet that they (the child-molesting priests) would not like tell their superiors that they're molesting children, would they?\n\nIt would take a child molester to root out all the other child molesters, and nobody is going to sell out themselves, let's be honest here.\n\nBesides, any charges made against a priest would logically be filed at the local authorities. If your child was molested by a priest, you wouldn't go to the bishop, but to the police. The fact that they are charges (if you mean as in legal processes, not accusations) means that the local authorities already know.",
"Among the many relevant points made here, a critical one is missing. **Catholics practice the sacrament of Confession**. All members of the Church, even clergy, observe this sacrament. When someone makes a confession, there is absolute confidentiality between the confessor and the clergyman conducting the sacrament. Think of it like Doctor-Patient Confidentiality, but for religion. \n\n**When someone receives the sacrament, if they confess with genuine remorse for their sins, and they complete the penitence/acts of contrition prescribed to make amends, they are absolved of those sins in the eyes of the Church and in the eyes of God.** From this point of view, the Church already has its own self-sufficient system of dealing with the indiscretions of its members. \n\nThe most important part of this sacrament to keep in mind, is the confidentiality. It empowers the community to be honest about their sins, and actively make amends. It also promotes keeping the extent of corruption within the community wholly and completely behind closed doors. \n\nWhen the Sacrament of Confession was explained to me as a child, by a priest, he acknowledged that even if someone came to him and confessed to murder, he would not be able to tell the police because of the solemnity of keeping the sacrament confidential.",
"Bad PR... Bad PR means less parishioners... Less parishioners means lighter collection plates... It's ALL about money.",
"It's an old boy's club. Why would they rat each other out?",
"The Catholic Church needs to allow priests to marry.\n\nThe vow of celibacy looked at as some form of asceticism that proves a worthiness of being holy. But, in reality, much of the reason for priests taking a vow of celibacy was so that the church could gain wealth and lands. Priests typically came from wealthy families, having no offspring would mean any wealth they had would be left to the church. This is how the Catholic Church become the giant political and economic force that it became.\n\nAt the dawn of the Catholic Church priests were allowed to be married, and even women priests were allowed.\n\nIn the modern world, the super wealthy aren't sending their children to become priests. The vow of celibacy is mostly just a barrier that stops a lot of normal good hearted people from entering the priesthood.",
"I can only comment on the Church in the United States:\n\n Your question would be better framed, \"Before 2002, why didn't Catholic leaders automatically report all allegations of criminal sexual misconduct directed at clergy to the local authorities?\" There are lots of answers that give rough approximations already, admittedly with a good amount of anti-Catholic bias.\n\n Since you did not frame your question that way, I'm going to assume that you believe that this sort of abuse and ensuing coverups are continually happening within the Catholic Church. You would be mistaken in that regard.\n\n I have taken training from the church on how to deal with allegations of criminal sexual misconduct by a priest. There are signs up all over basically every parish I have been to with numbers, emails, and addresses for people to contact if there is an allegation. Any allegation of criminal sexual misconduct is automatically referred to the appropriate legal authorities. This policy is enacted by every bishop in the United States, and by them enforced upon their parishes.\n\nSo the answer to that question is that reporting to authorities is mandatory, and happens even without a shred of evidence other than the allegation itself.\n\nOut of roughly 40,000 presently serving priests, the total number of current allegations is very low. I cannot find a source, but the last number I heard was around 15 allegations in total in 2010, with more than half of them classified as unfounded upon investigation. You may see numbers of hundreds of allegations in 2015, but nearly all of those allegation involve sexual abuse that took place decades ago, and the alleged perpetrators are often deceased.\n\nNow, there is zero tolerance for it nowadays, much less trust of priests, much less opportunity for offenders, and swift action upon allegations. The American Catholic Church post 2002 is probably one of the safest in terms of the likelihood of being sexually abused by a cleric."
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1ozqmv | why is there a certain smell to really cold freezers? | I've worked in alot of food prep environments and no matter if it's ice cream or frozen meats the freezer has a very distinct smell to it, why is that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ozqmv/eli5why_is_there_a_certain_smell_to_really_cold/ | {
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"The refrigerant is odorless ( _URL_0_ ). You're most likely smelling something resulting from the accumulation of moisture, the food, packaging, etc."
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10wqoh | what determines the cc of an engine? what makes a bike 250cc vs. 500cc also why is a higher cc faster(typically)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10wqoh/eli5_what_determines_the_cc_of_an_engine_what/ | {
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"It's a measure of volume in **c**ubic **c**entimeters that the pistons in the engine can displace. Very simply put, bigger engines are more powerful. ",
"cc's are dependent on the stroke of a piston and the diameter of the cylinder multiplied by the number of cylinders. If either bore or stroke are larger, cc's will increase. More cc's means more combustion space, which tends to lead to more fuel/air mix combusted hence more energy released. There are many other factors that influence power output of an engine, though displacement is a major contributor."
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1nqhr5 | why is it that the nations of the commonwealth (canada, uk, australia, etc.) do not have the same traveling protocol as, say, the eu? why can't citizens of commonwealth nations travel into other commonwealth nations without showing passports, etc? | I just think it would be great if I, a Canadian, could go to England or Australia and not have to go through the complicated border stuff. Why can't we just show our Commonwealth membership and go about our day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nqhr5/eli5_why_is_it_that_the_nations_of_the/ | {
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"Simply because there is no agreement between the commonwealth countries that would allow that. Despite being linked by history and a queen, they are still different countries and a travel agreement would require lots of negotiating and back and forth and so on.",
"Also, the reason for the loosening of border controls in the EU was to make travel and trade easier throughout the continent, as everyone shares borders. Travelling between commonwealth countries is often more complicated than simply walking/driving across a border. ",
"The EU comprises some pretty swell nations. Unfortunately, not all countries in the Commonwealth are so swell, particularly the African nations with high crime rates, like Sierra Leone, Belize, and Uganda.",
"The Commonwealth is a looser, less economically oriented organization than the EU. It is more of a club for former British colonies than any sort of political organization.",
"**Disclaimer**: I am not a lawyer; there is no legal advice here.\n\nThere is no such agreement in place. Some politicians, such as Daniel Hannan, do support moving toward freer travel in the \"anglosphere\".\n\nNote that England/UK is part of the EU, since John Major's government signed the Maastricht treaty (and Britain originally joined the EEC in 1973), but still operates some level of border control with mainland Europe because the UK is not fully part of the Schengen \"passport union\".\n\nSome Commonwealth nationals have British parents but were born before the UK applied *jus sanguinis* based laws (this is a simplification) and so aren't British citizens; however, this group of persons has \"right of abode\" in the UK, unless the law on that has been changed recently that I'm not aware of. \"Right of abode\" in the UK means the normal immigration restrictions don't apply and you can live and even vote in the UK just as a British national. Obviously you'll still need to show your passport at immigration control on the way in, like anybody else. If you're already in the UK and have this eligibility, you can get the stamp from the immigration office in Croydon for a small fee. I once met a Canadian girl who wanted to live in the UK and didn't realize she was exempt from immigration control until I pointed it out! Some had given her false advice and told her she needed to marry an EU/EFTA national to be able to live in the UK but that was patently not the case.\n\nTL;DR: Commonwealth nationals with British parents are free to live in the UK, whether or not they hold UK citizenship themselves."
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6b93nr | why are 'geniuses' always good at math? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b93nr/eli5why_are_geniuses_always_good_at_math/ | {
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"It honestly depends how you view geniuses.\n\nIf like a lot of people you think geniuses dont simply have to be very smart and have a high IQ. For example if you think people can be lyrical geniuses or comedic geniuses etc. Than they likely wont be good at math.\n\nIf you are only talking about smart people they are likely good at math because its just numbers and formulaes etc. You can learn the basics from a young age and perfect it while your brain is still very fresh and open this is why high IQ is usually born instead of made. As well as this its a fundamental part of life, you will always need math in life but other school stuff is less important\n\n"
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5duixp | how do audio wires work? how does a unit send something through metal wires that comes out of a speaker as a song/voice/etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5duixp/eli5_how_do_audio_wires_work_how_does_a_unit_send/ | {
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"A wire used for audio applications is not fundamentally different than any other kind of wire made of a similar material. They can all transmit electrical signals. The difference is in the nature of the signal being transmitted, and what is on the receiving end of that signal. If you were to plug an audio cable into an oscilloscope and play a song through it, you would be able to see song represented as a very complex waveform on the 'scope's display, much more complex than the signal you would get from, say, mains power.\n\nIt is the *transducer* (a device that can convert an electrical signal into a real physical phenomenon, like sound, or sound into an electrical signal) that actually converts this waveform into sound. Most of these are called \"dynamic\" transducers and they work by sending the signal through a coil of wire with a strong permanent magnet in the center of it, which induces changes in the magnetic field, causing a cone attached to the coil to move, converting the electrical signal into pressure waves.\n\nThere are other types of speaker and headphone transducers with very different mechanisms, but the underlying principles are the same.",
"Ever shaken a large sheet of paper back and forth and listened to the wobbling sound it makes? It's from the air being pushed back and forth. In other words a very primitive speaker.\n\nNext, take 2 magnets, in one position, the attract each other, in a different position they repel each other. Now what if we can turn one of those magnets on and off? Such as sending current through an bit of coiled wire, and making an electromagnet. Now we can make the magnets repel or attract with out having to turn the magnet around. Now we've got a very primitive voice coil.\n\nIf we attach this primitive voice coil to a diaphragm, we can make the voice coil move back and forth, which moves the diaphragm back and forth several hundred - thousand times a second. That movement of the diaphragm moves the air, which transmits those vibrations to our ear, which we hear as sound. \n\nPut your fingers on your throat, and making a hummm sound, you'll feel those same vibrations. The more complex the range of vibrations, the more complex the sounds.\n",
"Sound is air vibrating back and forth. It's made by a speaker moving back and forth. The speaker is moved by a magnetic field that swaps back and forth. That field is made by electricity that swaps back and forth. That electricity is carried by the wires. It's just alternating current (AC) electricity that matches the frequency and magnitude of the sound waves. ",
"Electromagnetism has an interesting pair of properties. If you move a magnet thru coil of wire, it creates a current. Also, if you put a current through a coil of wire, it will move a magnet.\n\nAttach a membrane to both magnets, and you can either convert a sound to motion in a magnet or motion in a magnet to sound. \n\nAlexander Graham bell did just this, and invented the telephone. All it did was use a membrane to move a magnet through a coil... which created a variable current... which moved a magnet somewhere else... which created sound.\n\nAll you need is someone to find a way to record that signal, and you've created the recording business.\n\nBonus: Yes, earphones and microphobes use similar tech. Some earphones are actually capable of inputting sound as well as broadcasting."
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13em72 | i really don't want to sound racist, but why do so many indian people smell? | I guess you can argue that I only notice the ones who smell, but.. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13em72/i_really_dont_want_to_sound_racist_but_why_do_so/ | {
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"If you cook a lot with spices (rather than store bought jars) then it tends to get in your clothes and hair. Also I find I tend to sweat a curry smell when I've been eating a lot.",
"It's all relative.\nI'm white and from New Zealand, a similar culture and diet to Australia, UK, US etc. so I don't find people from these countries smell.\nI lived in South Korea. A completely different diet and was often told I smelt different by Koreans. Likewise I thought they smelt of garlic a lot (a strong part of their diet).\nSo Indian people, they have a different diet again and it's something you probably aren't used to, so you think they smell. One Indian smelling another probably wouldn't think they smell, but if they caught a whiff of you they would probably say you stink.",
"* diet plays a large role in how people smell, not just from the food you ingest, but the odors that get absorbed by food and hair while cooking\n* there are different cultural standards when it comes to fragrances people use, from cologne to deodorant to air fresheners/incense\n* there are different cultural standards for hygiene...bathing every day is a very first world thing, and is not necessary for good health ",
"I spent a while in South Korea recently and learned that apparently they think that westerners smell like dairy products due to our relatively high consumption of them."
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bz5v7q | if grapes become raisins when dried, why does mango when dried, remain as dried mango. | Same with plums to prunes etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bz5v7q/eli5_if_grapes_become_raisins_when_dried_why_does/ | {
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"Well with plums to prunes it’s even weirder!!\n\nGrapes dry into raisins. When juiced we say grape juice! No such thing as raisin juice!\n\nPlums dry into prunes. However, there is such a thing a prune juice! How does prune JUICE exist if it’s dry plums? How can you juice something that’s been dried??",
"Its just whether or not someone decided to name it something different. There isn’t anything special that happens to those with special names.",
"word origins.\n\nGrapes and plums both existed in English way before most tropical fruits. They also existed in their dried forms long before as well, so the language was incorporated.\n\nWhat's strange is that many other fruits that were grown way back in English suckling speaking areas *don't* have specific dried names. Or if they did, they didn't survive.",
"Aren't grapes always raisins in French?",
"Because prunes and raisins are the french words for plums and grapes. It's worth it to note that cooked food changes names quite often in English. For example, a cooked pig is pork (and a pig in French is \"porc\"), a cooked cow becomes beef (French : boeuf). Most of these foods were introduced to great Britain at a time where the rich and the aristocrats were French speakers, and that's why French words were used for it. Dried mango, on the other side, is a more recent product, and that's why its name is just plain English."
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7uo8bm | why do animals shed fur all their lives, but when you make a fur coat, it doesn't shed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uo8bm/eli5_why_do_animals_shed_fur_all_their_lives_but/ | {
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"Because fur on an animal works like hair on a person - it grows and sheadding is a built in way to keep it clean and maintained. Along with grooming habits like licking.\n\nA fur coats fur does not grow, as a fur coat is not alive. And the skin has been treated to retain the fur as much as possible.",
"Some animals shed a winter coat - a thicker layer of hair that grows during cold months and needs to be lost when warmer weather comes. Animals also *lose* hairs all the time just like you and I, but they aren't necessarily *shedding*. Fur coats will lose hair over time, so careful handling as well as proper storage and cleaning are important. Ya know, if you're the type to kill a bunch of animals to make yourself look rich. "
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2rrvdu | how do car doors freeze shut? | I never understood metal and freezing. Is it water left behind from our breath? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rrvdu/eli5how_do_car_doors_freeze_shut/ | {
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"There's one main thing that causes this and it is the rubber gasket that lines your entire door.\n\nOver time, that gasket gets moisture in it. Since it's a rubbery porous material, it holds onto it. When it starts to get cold, that moisture freezes and sticks to the door frame. The only reason it does this when you leave the car sitting is because normally any \"freezing\" (to the frame at least) is intercepted due to regular opening and closing of the door."
]
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[]
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56cup8 | why are so many resolutions considered 2k? | I've seen 2560x1080, 2560x1440, and 3440x1440 all described as "2K." Why are they all lumped together when some are higher resolutions than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56cup8/eli5_why_are_so_many_resolutions_considered_2k/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8i8kla"
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"text": [
"Because '2K' is a marketing term with no formal definition. Basically what the people selling the screens are trying to say is that the resolution is better than 1080p."
]
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[]
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|
26z0st | why is it that the word allegedly is used even though there is video evidence that the act was in fact committed? | I hear all the time in news storied about someone "allegedly" committing an act and then they shoy the video of the same party actually doing what they were to have "allegedly" done. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26z0st/eli5_why_is_it_that_the_word_allegedly_is_used/ | {
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"It's common practice for people who work with the law to use this terminology. It reminds everyone that no one is guilty until that guilt is decided by a court of law.",
"If there's a video of a person who looks almost exactly like, say, \"Mike Jones\" robbing a bank and then smashing a kitten, say, with a brick or something, and the news says, \"Mike Jones smashed a kitten with a brick after robbing a bank,\" and it turns out to be that one person in a million who looks like Mike Jones, then the actual Mike Jones can sue the pants off the news folks for defamation of character. \nIf a sleazy editor digitally alters a video of some unknown person biting the head off a rabbit into a perfect dupe of Mike Jones biting the head off a rabbit, and sells it to a news company, and the news company is all, \"Holy Crap! Look at this video of Mike Jones biting the head off a rabbit!\" again, Mike can sue them enough to buy his yacht, pay off his student loans, and maybe get a nice condo in Aspen and a jet to go with it. \n\"Allegedly\" saves the network from very costly lawsuits.\n\nEDIT: Once, when I was on an Alaskan cruise, I ran into a guy on the ship who looked just like me. We were both incredibly freaked out.\n",
"The law varies from place to place, but generally speaking it's unsafe to declare somebody guilty until a court of law has actually found them guilty. Under UK law, for example, this is called *sub judice*, and violating *sub judice* laws is considered contempt of court. Western society does not believe in trial by media.\n\nAlso, what you see in film may not give you the full story and may even give you a false impression. I remember seeing a demonstration of this: a scene filmed from three different angles, each giving a different meaning to the same events.\n\nIn the first version, you see a little old lady standing around, and a young muscular man running toward her.\n\nIn the second version, you see the man walking down the road. A car pulls up, the occupants shout and point, and the man turns and starts running away from the car.\n\nIn the third version, you can see that the little old lady is standing right underneath a pile of bricks that is being winched up, while the man is walking away from her; the load that's being winched starts to slip, the car pulls up, the occupants should and point at the little old lady who's in danger, the man turns, runs, and manages to push the little old lady out of the way just before the bricks rain down right where she'd been standing.\n\nObviously, that was staged; but the point is that the video you're watching may not have the full story."
]
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28jkq9 | why remove the downvote/upvote counter? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28jkq9/eli5why_remove_the_downvoteupvote_counter/ | {
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" > Why remove the downvote/upvote counter?\n\nBecause it's never been accurate in the first place. Their \"fuzzing\" algorithm adds fake votes to comments and submissions to prevent bot networks from being able to know if they're accurately able to game the voting system.",
"To avoid people complaining \"why am I being downvoted for this?\" Reddit fuzzes the votes anyway. Someone could be +1000 with 100% upvotes but Reddit would show 2000 upvotes and 1000 downvotes (66%) as a buffer to prevent people from bandwagon voting on either side. Now they decided it wasn't doing enough so they removed it altogether. \n\nSomeone else already posted the link so I won't to avoid redundancy "
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2y7vuf | breast implants | How do breast implants work? What is the procedure? How does it feel? I'm a guy but I'm curious | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y7vuf/eli5_breast_implants/ | {
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"text": [
"Silicone is placed in the required area. Procedure is similiar to plastic surgery. It feels good when you touch it."
]
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|
zcgi5 | broadband pricing tiers — business vs. home | These are the offers that Time Warner provided to my business.
Offer One: "8mb x 1mb $101 per month" = $12.60 per MB down
Offer Two: "10 X 2 $336 per month" = $36.60 per MB down
So, not only is the price more than what I pay for my cable modem at home—which is much faster at 22MB down—but **the price per MB down goes UP the more I buy.**
Time Warner Salesman: "I took this up the ladder and I was told that all carriers charge way more for business due to zoning costs.
That is what the difference in price is for." | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zcgi5/eli5_broadband_pricing_tiers_business_vs_home/ | {
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"One reason that business is more than home is because it usually comes with higher uptime guarantees, different (better) technical support and issue response times, and less restrictions (generally you're not supposed run a webserver on a home connection, although you can certainly do it from a technical standpoint)\n\nIn regards to the difference between 8x1 and 10x2 you're not just paying for increased download speed, you're also getting double the upload speed. If you're running a service at your office that people need to pull data from (you host your own webservice, or something similar) the increase upload speed can help. However I find it absurd that 10x2 would be 3.3 times as expensive as 8x1 for similar plans. I'm assuming the 10x2 includes something else thrown in there, either a higher tier of service, better SLA or similar."
]
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13bi3f | cardinality, what is it, and how does it work? | I'm currently researching Cantor's Diagonal Argument, and I understand how it shows that some infinities are larger than others, I understand that. My question is what is Cardinality and how is it found.
I don't need to be too technical or anything, I just need a basic overview, something that anyone could understand.
EDIT: Thanks for the explanations everyone! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13bi3f/elif_cardinality_what_is_it_and_how_does_it_work/ | {
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"\"Cardinality\" pretty much just means size. The cardinality of a set is its size.\n\nCommonly, instead of formalizing the cardinality of a set as a particular thing, we formalize the idea of one set being bigger than another, or two sets being the same size. So if A and B are sets and |A| and |B| are their cardinalities, |A| < = |B| means that the cardinality of A is less than or equal to the cardinality of B. This happens when there's an [injection](_URL_2_) from A to B. But |A| and |B| by themselves don't really have meaning here.\n\nThis way of thinking about cardinality is usually good enough, but, another way of formalizing cardinality is with [cardinal numbers](_URL_0_), where we assign |A| to a particular object (a carinal number). This method of defining cardinality is basically the same as the first way, except we just pick certain sets to be the \"standard\" ones that we always compare against.\n\nBlog post I wrote on cardinal numbers, if you care: _URL_1_",
"Cardinality is a notion of how many things there are in a group.\n\nImagine you don't know how to count, but you need to know whether there are more cheerios in a box or more trix. One way to do it is to line up the cereals, matching each cheerio with a single trix. Whichever one you run out of first has less (lower cardinality). If they run out at the same time, there's the same amount in each (same cardinality).\n\nFor finite groups of things, this matches other notions of how many. In fact, counting cheerios in a box can be seen as just a way of matching the members of one set (the cheerios) with the members of another (the whole numbers starting with 1 and going as far as you count). To really see the value of cardinality, we have to consider sets that can't be fully counted, infinite sets. [caveat: I'm not using \"counted\" in the technical sense of \"countable infinities\".] Since we can never fully count an infinite set, matching it perfectly to another set is about as close as we can come to saying how big the set is, how many members are in it. So we start with a well known infinite set, the set of counting numbers and compare it to other infinite sets. It turns out that we can pair the counting numbers and the even counting numbers without running out of either:\n\n1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., n, ...\n2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ..., 2n, ...\n\nSince it's *possible* to do this, the sets have the same cardinality. It turns out that you can also pair the counting numbers to the rational numbers. What Cantor's diagonal proof shows is that it is *impossible* to pair the counting numbers with the Real numbers - you'll always run out of counting numbers before you run out of Real numbers. Hence there are more Real numbers than counting numbers. More technically, the cardinality of the Reals is greater than the cardinality of the counting numbers.",
"Cardinality is found by a injective comparison to a set with known cardinality. If you use the power set version of the Cantor diagonalization then you can create a chain of ever increasing infinite cardinalities by taking the power set of an infinite set. \n\nThere is something called The Generalized Continuum Hypothesis which states that this process will generate the infinite cardinalities in order. In particular, since the real numbers is equivalent to the power set of the counting numbers, it says that there are no infinite cardinalities strictly between the counting numbers and it's power set (the real numbers). "
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1ws6r4 | how can stores sell things on sale while still making a profit? | Are stores essentially ripping us off if the item isn't on sale? I recently bought a bag of Chexmix on sale for 0.99 while the original price was 3.79. How could a store (walgreens) do something like that and still make a profit? Does this mean when the item isn't on sale the store makes a lot more money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ws6r4/eli5how_can_stores_sell_things_on_sale_while/ | {
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"It's called a loss leader. It's something to get you into the store where you'll probably see something else you want, maybe a drink, maybe get something for dinner too...",
"There are two things to consider:\n\n1. Stores have a larger markup on items than you might imagine. But they're not \"ripping you off\". They have to sell things at a high markup to be able to pay for the building, and pay their employees.\n\n2. Many sale items are called \"loss leaders\". They sell these items to you at a loss in order to get you into the store, because they know that, on average, customers will buy enough other stuff to make up for the loss.",
"In retail \"keystone\" pricing is 50% over wholesale. Usually if something is on sale above 50% a retailer can still make a little profit, and make up for the rest in additional sales, or in volume. Anything at 50% is essentially being sold at a loss, or if the merchandize is old enough, even an 80% markdown is profit (all products begin losing value the second they hit the shelf).\n\nedit: To clarify further, no, retailers are not ripping you off when they price items. Most people are smart enough to recognize value, and will not buy something outrageously priced (unless they have enough money to just not care). "
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3f7gci | how can cats cover themselves in saliva daily and not stink? | Because when I do it, I smell like shit. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f7gci/eli5_how_can_cats_cover_themselves_in_saliva/ | {
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"Cat saliva contains a natural antiseptic which keeps their fur clean. \nAccording to wiki \"Nitrates that are naturally found in saliva break down into nitric oxide on contact with skin, which inhibit bacterial growth\"."
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36h7y7 | how culturally and technologically advanced were natives of australia compared to native american civilizations? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36h7y7/eli5_how_culturally_and_technologically_advanced/ | {
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"Well, that rather depends how you define \"culturally advanced\", doesn't it? \n\nBut by the usual metrics of technological advancement, mesolithic.",
"Australia's a big place and there's a lot of diversity, so I'll just hit some highlights.\n\n* **Monumental Architecture**: There are many impressive architectural feats in Australia. My favorite is [Gabarnmung](_URL_6_), both for its age and its uniqueness. This is a truly ancient site, probably constructed more than 45,000 years ago, in the Top End. The ancestors who built Gabarnmung did so by hollowing out the rock formation until only the roof and the columns remained, then they [painted the interior](_URL_2_) extensively. There used to be similarly constructed archway crossing the valley leading up to Gabarnmung, but it has since collapsed.\n\n* **Villages and Houses**: While there are no Australian cities (that I know of at least) before Europeans arrive, there are plenty of villages. This goes back at least some 8000 years ago, when the ancestral Gunditjmara began constructing villages in western Victoria. Here's an [illustration](_URL_0_) of what the houses looked like. The Gunditjmara villages consisted of hundreds of those homes. These might seem a bit small, but not all Australian houses were like that. For example, here's a description of the villages near Brisbane in 1839: *\"... they have fixed habitations, dwelling in little villages of six or seven huts in a cluster. Some of them are of great length, extending upwards of eighty feet, and covering a considerable space of groun. One of theme was in the form of a passage, with two apartments at the end. The arches were beautifully turned, and executed with such a degree of skill which would have not disgraced an European architect.\"\n\n* **Land Management**: Grains like Barley Mitchell grass, native millet, and Australian wild rice were harvested extensively in many parts of Australia. In 1835, A.C. Gregory reported \"fields of 1000 acres\" being used to grow such crops. Use of grains goes *way* back in Australian history, with grinding stones show up by 15,000 years ago, around the same time as they do in the Middle East. However, there's some fragmentary evidence that points to grinding stones being used as early as 30,000 years ago in Australia. There's some debate over the exact processes used to create these harvests. These crops probably weren't managed as intensively as Eurasian crops, but through controlled burning and the occasional replanting, Australians kept their local ecosystems producing quality food for themselves, as well as making the land attractive to game animals that they hunt, a process known as firestick farming. In addition to such crops, the Gunditjmara villages mentioned earlier are famous for their extensive use of eel farms, which allowed them to harvest and manage migrating eel populations that passed their lands.\n\n* **Trade**: Australia had extensive trade routes crisscrossing the continent and extending beyond. Shells of species native to Cape York were traded all the way to the southern coast, while other shells arrived in the Bight from the west coast. Pituri, a native tobacco and another plant that saw significant management around Lake Eyre, was trade throughout the continent. From the mines at Parachilna in South Australia and Wilga Mia in Western Australia, ochre was also traded throughout the continent. Marketplaces / trading communities help facilitate this trade, whether as permanent locations like Openpelli in Arnhem Land or temporary but recurring ones, like the Noongar *mandura* (trade fairs) around Perth. Beyond Australia, trade (and occasionally war) linked northern Queensland with the Torres Strait and New Guinea. To the west, the people of Arnhem Land had trade contacts with the Bajua and Macassans of Indonesia, and would occasionally be hired on as sailors. There's some evidence for connections with the larger Indian Ocean trading sphere, as a 12th Century coin from Kilwa - one of the Swahili city-states on the east African coast, has turned up in Arnhem Land as well.\n\nThis post is already getting a bit long of an ELI5, so I'll stop here. If you want some additional reading though, I'd recommend the following:\n\n* [Aboriginal Dreaming Paths and Trading Routes](_URL_4_)\n\n* [The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia](_URL_5_)\n\n* [First Footprints: The Epic Story of the First Australians](_URL_1_) (also find the documentary if you can)\n\n* [Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia](_URL_3_)"
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7ohs01 | why aren't you supposed to pour boiling water on honey? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ohs01/eli5_why_arent_you_supposed_to_pour_boiling_water/ | {
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"Google is your friend mate. Turns out it is mostly a myth. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > The health benefits of honey are pretty negligible. That said, mixing it with hot water or even heating it directly will not make honey toxic.\n\n > The idea that it would be toxic is because heating foods that contain sugars creates a chemical known as 5-hydroxymethylfurfual or HMF.\n\n > Heating honey can increase its HMF content from about 25 parts per million to as much as 75 parts per million. (1) This is less than you will find in many foods, even something as common as toasted bread can contain over 2,000 ppm of HMF. (2)\n\n > (1) Studies on the physicochemical characteristics of heated honey, honey mixed with ghee and their food consumption pattern by rats\n\n > (2) Effect of toasting time on the browning of sliced bread\n\n > And all that said, there’s nothing even close to definitive that HMF is a significant carcinogen. Current studies suggest that it may be a cancer vector for mice, but is unlikely to affect humans to the same degree.\n\n > “Results obtained in short-term model studies for 5-HMF on the induction of neoplastic changes in the intestinal tract were negative or cannot be reliably interpreted as \"carcinogenic\". In the only long-term carcinogenicity study in rats and mice no tumours or their precursory stages were induced by 5-HMF aside from liver adenomas in female mice, the relevance of which must be viewed as doubtful. Hence, no relevance for humans concerning carcinogenic and genotoxic effects can be derived.”\n\n > Toxicology and risk assessment of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural in food.\n\n > “This finding indicated that HMF sulfo conjugation was most substantial in the liver of female mice, a target tissue for HMF-induced neoplastic effects, and that humans may be less sensitive regarding HMF sulfo conjugation compared with the rodent models.”",
"If you believe that honey has healing properties, boiling water supposedly breaks down the enzymes or whatever responsible for those attributes. Like a lot of \"natural medicine\", it's not really based on any science.\n\nIf you just like something sweet in your tea, it doesn't make a lick of difference."
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3306qq | why do cats sometimes kill smaller animals for no reason? | I have read in a post about introduced species that domestic cats will often hunt and kill birds, which is to be expected from carnivores and is understandable on the cat's part. But even well-fed, well nourished cats will do this, which is usually indicated by the fact that they just leave the kill there, and will not eat or bring it back with them.
Is there any reason for this behavior or is it just a random instinct that cats have? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3306qq/eli5_why_do_cats_sometimes_kill_smaller_animals/ | {
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"It's to maintain their predatory skills. They are hunters by nature. If they didn't have us for care they'd have to hunt for food. ",
"Think of the cat as a wild hunting machine that just so happens has been domesticated over hundreds, thousands of years, by man to be very good at doing one thing (that humans expected of it): kill things that eat our grain. If it is a small rodent, cat's got it. Bird? cat's got it. This behaviour is taught to kittens by the mother at an early stage: \"get the small things that scurry.\". Its just the way cats are.\n\nTheir eyesight is specialized towards tracking prey on a lateral axis (left-right; rodents don't \"jump\"), can see in low light (where rodents like to hang out.) have whiskers that tell the cat \"nope, can't fit in there\" (where rodents hang out).\n\nMy cat is an idiot. I love him, but he's dumb as toast. But even this idiot can kill the occaisional mouse. After its dead he kinda bats it around expecting it to get up and run away again (leaving dead mouse all over my linoleum), but his instinct kicked in, said \"I must kill this thing that my supernatural hearing allowed me to detect in my can-opener's kitchen; thank god the can opener did not have my claws removed\".",
"Like everyone has basically said, it's all instinct. However, all cat's see us, basically, as weird-looking, big, hairless and defenseless cats. They see us as cats incapable of hunting for ourselves. So, when they kill a bird/rodent/tiny animal in question and leave it where you can see it, they are leaving you food to eat/the best parts of the animal. This is also in their instinct as cats."
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rb6p4 | cancer. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rb6p4/eli5_cancer/ | {
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"A cancerous cell is a cell that has gone through uncontrolled division. It has the possibility of disrupting neighboring cells and causing them to not function as well. A group of cancerous cells in your body is called a tumor. There are two kinds of tumor: benign and malignant. The malignant ones are the ones you want to look out for. Although they are both bad, the malignant ones have a chance of spreading cells throughout different parts of the body. The growth of faulty cells can push out the good cells, and if left untreated, eventually destroy entire organs necessary to survive. \n\nTL;DR Get yourself checked out.",
"Cancer is essentially rampant cell growth. The cells in your body are constantly replicating in order to keep you alive and kicking.\n\nHow do they know when to start and stop this replication, though? There are a few genes (proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes) that pretty much function as a traffic light for cell division (mitosis). Proto-oncogenes are the green light, while tumor suppressor genes are the red light.\n\nCarcinogens (which I'm sure you've heard of) are things that can cause a mutation in the DNA of either one of these genes, meaning that they don't function properly. I'm not actually sure if only one, or both kinds of genes need to be malfunctioning for cancer to occur, someone else will have to clear that up for you.\n\nWhen the genes are mutated, the result is that the cells undergoing division are told \"Go go go!\" but they aren't being told to stop, as they usually would. They just keep dividing, forming a mass known as a tumor. Benign tumors, which don't do anything but hang out and divide aren't technically cancers, though they form in a similar fashion and can cause some pretty serious health problems in the long run if untreated. The real cancerous bad guys are malignant tumors, which can send little parts of themselves into your bloodstream (or lymphatic system) and establish another colony, so to speak, somewhere else in your body. That's the bad part. You may have heard it called metastasis.\n\nEventually the cancerous cells inhibit organ function by either hogging resources or blocking their pipes. The organs then shut down, which is why cancer kills people.\n\nTL;DR: You've got 1000 people living in a town where, for some reason, the human reproductive cycle takes a mere 24 hours. Two people decide they want to take over because the sun messed with their DNA and made them crazy. They churn out children who proliferate and populate the town. It got really serious when a couple of them hitchhiked a few suburbs over. The community can no longer support this new large family and the whole town dies from starvation.",
"This gets brought up pretty often. Here you go [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"Cancer is the broad name given to a collection of similar diseases characterized by the abnormal and disorganized over-division of cells. It can have slightly different effects, symptoms, and prognoses depending on what exactly caused the overgrowth, how the cells are growing and what kind of cells are doing the growing.\n\nHow and why does this overgrowth happen?\n\nWell, the cell cycle can be thought of as a multi-step \"growth cycle\" of a cell which prepares one cell to divide into two equivalent cells. Cells don't divide constantly (otherwise we'd be gigantic!) but generally have a certain \"schedule\" based on the type of cell they are, which tells them when to divide and when to stop. Some cells, once \"mature\" don't divide at all! Like all processes, this \"scheduling\" is controlled by genes. Your DNA is like a list of instructions that each cell has, made up of different genes. All cells have the same set of genes, but whether genes are turned on or off depends on the kind of cell and what it's doing. In other words, each cell has the same set of instructions but the cell ca only read instructions that are \"highlighted\" and each type of cell has different parts of these instructions that are \"highlighted.\"\n\nA lot of things have to go on to make cell division work and there are a lot of places where something could go wrong. Remember that everything in the cell has to double and expand before it can divide. The cycle is orderly and progresses through certain stages, including a stage where all the DNA is doubled (DNA synthesis), stages where essential proteins and cell parts are made, a stage where the cells actually split, and stages of \"rest\" where the mature cell just hangs out instead of trying to grow more. Because the process can get pretty tricky there are also \"checkpoints\" during and between these stages that make sure everything's going okay (any mismatching in the new DNA strand? any DNA breakage? didn't forget any cell components?) Once detected, any mistakes can be fixed or tell the cell to pause the division or even self-destruct (better to lose a cell than make a bad one that might mess stuff up).\n\nRemember the DNA has to be replicated before the cell divides, which is primetime for mistakes to be made. Maybe things don't line up, or a section is skipped when the cell machinery is reading the DNA code, or one section is read twice. While there are the checkpoints we mentioned, they don't always catch the errors (just like your computer's error-checking doesn't always work). Imagine a factory where you have to quickly retype this set of instructions based on a handwritten hard copy. Every so often, someone's going to read the original wrong, or make a typo, or break the keyboard. And while you have some editors who read over the stories afterwards, sometimes they miss the errors. These errors are known as mutations. Some chemical agents can get into your body and get in the way of this process and make mutations more common (imagine a cat sitting on your keyboard while you try to type- you'd probably have more errors). These chemicals are called carcinogens. In addition, some people have faulty checkpoint genes, which also lead to more mutations.\n\nMutations are not always bad. Maybe you just misspelled something minor and the words still make enough sense to the reader. But sometimes the mutations happen in important areas, like the genes that control the cell cycle and its \"scheduling\". There are different ways for this to happen, but they all lead to similarish results: thee cell gets confused; it doesn't know how to divide right since its instructions (the story you typed for it) are so messed up. It doesn't understand the rules- it might go crazy and start dividing without resting, piling new cells on top of each other (aka a tumor). This can be dangerous if it's pressing on something important (like compressing your brain or making it harder for your lungs to expand). But worse, sometimes these tumor cells don't remember to stay where they are and start breaking off into pieces and traveling around your body, which is called malignancy. It results in you having cancerous (wildly-growing) cells going in your blood stream, which can settle in new areas and \"colonize\" making the resident normal cells angry. Imagine the seed for a new, aggressive weed falls into your beautiful flower garden. When it starts growing in your garden, it can kill your flower bed by taking all the sunlight or crowding out the flowers.\n\nEDIT: clarification",
"Your body's cells have all this machinery so they can multiply. There is a system that keeps this machinery under control, so it doesn't go overboard. When the DNA blueprints for this system are damaged, hopefully the cell's emergency suicide system is still working. If not, the cell loses control and multiplies rapidly, overstepping its boundaries in the body. Organs become damaged by the encroaching rogue cells."
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5fewzf | how does "making yourself heavy" make you heavier to carry? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fewzf/eli5_how_does_making_yourself_heavy_make_you/ | {
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"When you \"make yourself heavy\", you go limp, meaning that whoever wants to carry you must support and maneuver your entire body weight. This makes you feel a lot heavier than if you were supporting yourself in small part using your legs or arms. Your instinct is to support your weight with your legs a bit where possible, so unless you are concentrating on staying limp, you're not as \"heavy\" As you could be."
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1swqft | why do countrys seprate into states? | Like why does the USA Or Canada need states and provinces can't it just be one nation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1swqft/eli5_why_do_countrys_seprate_into_states/ | {
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"They didn't separate into states. The individual states joined together to form countries. However, while they could agree to ally together for certain purposes (e.g. foreign policy, interstate commerce, etc.), they could not agree about everything (e.g. slavery, voting rights, etc.), so they kept self-rule over their own states. ",
"The US didn't separate into states. The states chose to unite (but still retain their existence as states)."
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4v35q2 | why do the facebook app and mobile site require you to download the messenger app, when opening a desktop version on my phone lets me use the messaging system just fine? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4v35q2/eli5_why_do_the_facebook_app_and_mobile_site/ | {
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"I know right? It's BS. My cell phone is paid for by my work and therefore I'm restricted on what apps I can have on it, so this is an especially annoying issue for me.\n\nIt boils down to a business decision. What the benefits to the business are of you using the app over the website version I can't say.",
"I don't know but I refused to download FB messanger because I didn't like all the access it was requesting. If you use Chrome - just check \"Request desktop site\" in the settings and you can access your messages through FB in the browser. ",
"They will get better/more metrics from the native app and deliver a much better experience to the end user. Stuff like connectivity issues/location services/video calling are all much easier to do in a native app.\n\nI do agree that they should have kept the messages view on their mobile site.",
"It *works*, but it's certainly not as well integrated as the actual messenger app. Most people care about it being a nicer mobile experience, which the desktop version of the site is not (also I dunno about you but the site runs like absolute shit these days).\n\nAs far as why facebook does it? They can track your data and statistics a hell of a lot better with an actual app.\n\nSo it's win-win. They get more data, which is the entire reason facebook pays so much money to give you a free service in the first place (and don't get it twisted, they are right to try to monetize), you get a better experience and integration. Push notifications and background software, the floating heads feature if you use it, the full keyboard integration and the calling features are all benefits you wouldn't get with the web version.",
"It has nothing to do with how well the product works but instead everything to do with showing a separate facebook product with unique users which will help them show growth and thus increase the share price of their stock. If you read their most recent earning reports you can clearly see this. It's working too, btw",
"Apps give more permissions than web applications confined to the sandbox that is the web browser.\n\nNot many peoole bat an eye at the kind of permissions given to apps when installed.\n\nGPS, mic, camera, identity, contacts. Notice how the messenger app says \"pretty please give us contacts access you can find your friends easier!\"\n\nThat's because it's valuable information. Information you can't get from a web browser.\n\nNotice that lots of companies do this. Visiting a lot of mobile sites insist that their mobile app is a better experience, because they want those valuable app permissions. Yelp and Glassdoor are a couple I can think of.\n\nIt isn't that these companies aren't perfectly capable of making a great experience on a web browser, not at all.",
"It's a strategy from Facebook to separate products. It allows them to build more specific products and independent infrastructure, allowing them to innovate at a higher speed and with separate teams. And as a bonus they take more of your \"screen space\".",
"The app will track your data more than the browser will. And that data can be sold to make profit."
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6b9mzd | how did worms get inside a mango seed if it didn't make any holes on the outside. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b9mzd/eli5_how_did_worms_get_inside_a_mango_seed_if_it/ | {
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"They burrow inside before the seed is fully matured.\n\n > The newly hatched larva is about 1 mm long and burrows through the pulp and into the seed where it will remain until it becomes an adult. Minimum time from hatching to seed penetration is one day. There are at least five larval instars in Hawaii. Larvae can penetrate the seed coat easier on younger fruit of all varieties, and apparently find entry impossible on mature seed of some varieties (e.g., Itamaraca). As the fruits mature, the tunnels are eliminated and it is not possible to distinguish between infested and non-infested seeds, unless they are cut open (Pertanian 2004).\n\nAssuming we're talking about mango seed weevil larvae."
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dhia19 | why do employers give new employees higher salaries, rather than rewarding loyalty and giving the better salary to employees already there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dhia19/eli5_why_do_employers_give_new_employees_higher/ | {
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"The question you have to ask yourself is why would they.\n\nYour coworker still works there. There is no incentive for your bosses to pay them any better than they currently do. Sure loyalty is virtuous and should be rewarded, but companies dont care about virtue. They care about making money, and every dollar that is given to a worker could go to profits for the owner or pay newer workers who might not work for as cheap. In this sense the only reason to give a worker a raise is to prevent them from quitting or unionizing.",
"\"Does loyalty make me money? Can I sell it? Will it help me get promoted? If no, then why would I ever pay for it?\"\n\nThat's how managers think in business, and it has been the dominant business ideology for several decades. Loyalty is stupidity to them, because they intend to jump ship the second it makes them a dollar, and would be perfectly happy to sell out everyone under them to do it."
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6hiwlf | why is the vision of spiders depicted as them seeing 8 of the same image as opposed to those 8 eyes merging the images together like human eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hiwlf/eli5_why_is_the_vision_of_spiders_depicted_as/ | {
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"Because that's literally how they work! It's called a compound eye, and it is comprised of many similarly shaped pieces that \"see\" independently from the others.\n\nAs a result, their vision looks like many repeats of the same image. It's actually incredibly useful because they see every tiny movement many, many times and so they can be quick to react. This is what makes it sometimes difficult to swat flies and such."
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8swsfu | what is that we see as happiness/love/desire/sadness/depression in someone else’s eyes? has then something physically changed in person’s eyeballs or how are those feelings manifested that make us to perceive them so effortlessly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8swsfu/eli5_what_is_that_we_see_as/ | {
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"It's the combination of eyelids, cheeks, and eyebrows. Those three areas of the face are all very close together, and very slight differences in angle and tension can communicate a wealth of information about what the person is thinking/feeling. Cycle through a few emotions and feel how your eyelids shift, how your cheeks lift or lower very slightly, how the angle of your eyebrows change very slightly. We learn to read those slight shifts throughout our lives, and when people are trying to control their expression they tend to focus mostly on what their mouth is doing, rather than their eyes."
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2m3cop | what would landing on a flying aircraft carrier be like from a physics standpoint? | Saw this... _URL_0_
Could a plane just match the speed and just slowly lower until it was sitting on the carrier? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m3cop/eli5what_would_landing_on_a_flying_aircraft/ | {
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"Pretty much. Seeing as how modern aircraft carriers already move in 3 dimensions (bobbing up and down on waves and such.) The physics of actually landing would be pretty much the same.\n\nThe only likely problem would be trying to land in the dirty air created by whatever the carrier was using to stay up. Like in the Avengers movies, those great big turbines would be causing huge crosswinds on the deck, making landing a real bitch."
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2hmk8v | why is it that when you hit a dimming/dying flashlight it becomes brighter and lasts for a little longer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hmk8v/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_you_hit_a_dimmingdying/ | {
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"I'm sure it has something to do with the battery connection.\n\nOn a lot of remote powered things, remote controls are a great example, if you take the batteries out and put them back in they work a little longer. Works if you just twirl the batteries.\n",
"There are two things that could be going on here.\n\nFirst, at the point where the power is moving from the end of the battery to the contact point in the flashlight you'll often have a thin layer of oxidized (basically rusted) metal build up from the electricity causing the metal to react to the air more quickly. When the batteries are strong they can easily overcome the resistance from that layer, but as the batteries get weaker they can't push the power through. Shaking the flashlight or just moving the batteries around can scrape some of that oxidization off or just move the contact point a little so it's somewhere with a cleaner connection again.\n\nSecond, batteries are basically an ongoing chemical reaction. Giving the batteries a jostle could temporarily speed up the reaction by bringing more of the reactive elements into contact with each other, but you're trading a brighter light temporarily for even less time with the dimmer light afterward."
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2hdq5o | why was there all this question about whether or not russia sent troops to ukraine in this day and age? is it really not that black and white when they claim thousands of troops and tanks? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hdq5o/eli5_why_was_there_all_this_question_about/ | {
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"A man breaks into your apartment in the middle of the night. A piece of uniform shirt is sticking out from under his jacket, so you think he's a cop. You call 911.\n\n\"Hello, 911, what is your emergency?\"\n\n\"There's a police officer in my house without a warrant.\"\n\n\"There are no police officers at that address.\"\n\nYou shoot and kill the intruder. Whoops, he *is* a cop! You're going to jail until a judge can throw out the charges now on your head.",
"Russia did not send their regular army in, and they didn't involve their air force or other branches of their regular army. \n\nWhat they did do was allow volunteers from all over Russia and Europe (even some from western countries like France) to pass through their border with Ukraine and join the rebels. Many of these volunteers were indeed people from the Russian military.\n\nSo were there Russian troops in Ukraine? Yes. Did the Russian army formally invade Ukraine? No. Hopefully you can see how both of these are true."
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5aikpe | why is the x86 architecture the only real force in the home computer market? | I understand ARM based computers exist in IOT capacities and ARM is popular in the Android world and apple has its class of Axx chips but I find it interesting that The home PC market is all x86, usually there is at least two competitors at the top but it seems that there isn't. It's amazing that he two biggest computer software manufacturers (Apple and Microsoft) both share the same hardware architecture.
Was this purely a cost reason or is the intel /x86 model simply the best bang for buck? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5aikpe/eli5_why_is_the_x86_architecture_the_only_real/ | {
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"To find the real reason, we need to go back to the early 1980s.\n\nIBM wanted to make a home computer. They had a choice of operating systems, and eventually decided to go with Microsoft (that's a story by itself, but we'll stick with the relevant stuff for now).\n\nDuring the negotiations, though, Microsoft won a key concession. IBM used Microsoft's operating system, called PC DOS, on their computers. But they won the right to also supply their own version of the software, called MS DOS. This meant that, unlike every other computer manufacturer, IBM were shipping a computer where they didn't own the sole rights to the operating system.\n\nAside from the operating system, most of the other components of the IBM PC were available off the shelf. The only exception was the BIOS, but this turned out to be relatively easy to reverse-engineer, find out how it worked, and build something similar enough to be compatible.\n\nAnd so the \"IBM PC Compatible\" computer was born - a computer which was not made by IBM, but which would run all the same software as IBM computers. This resulted in a huge surge of software for IBM PC Compatible computers, which resulted in more of those computers being sold, and so more software was written, etc - it developed into a self-sustaining growth.\n\nAnd to get back to your original question, those IBM computers used Intel chips. And so IBM PC Compatible computers also used Intel chips. And almost every PC ever sold since then has been based on the same technology, or evolutions of the same technology.",
"Originally, Windows, Windows was written for x86 and all their apps were written for x86, switching processors would require changes to practically every application. It's not impossible (Microsoft did make Windows NT for PPC), but it's a cost they don't want to do unless they have to.\n\nProbably more relevant though, the modern architecture of modern processors means the processor doesn't matter that much if you want speed. The newer x86 CPUs use the instruction set as a kind of byte code, they don't directly execute it, but instead treat them as RISC instructions that get compiled into CISC instructions at a hardware level during execution (essentially means the instructions are not executed the way you ask the processor to execute them, it reorders and combines them). When a processor does that, that step can include conversions between the x86 spec, and how the processor actually does things so the instruction set has only a minor effect on performance. Therefore switching architectures doesn't make a whole lot of a difference. Today everything uses x86 on desktop and server because it's the fastest processor with the best overall performance.\n\nAs for ARM, it's popular for a different reason, it's sold as an IP licenses core for use by anyone really. What that means is anyone can make an ARM processor, just have to pay the ARM people a royalty fee. The benefit is people building a SoC, like what's used on a cell phone that need minimum power usage. ARM can be modified to have appropriate specs (cache size, speed, usb enabled, etc) by editing a config file. Then the GPU manufacturer can stick the processor inside the GPU, and build it as one processor. They don't need to buy a physical chip from the ARM people."
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erci38 | how do banks hold electronic money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/erci38/eli5_how_do_banks_hold_electronic_money/ | {
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"All banks must have accounts with the Central Bank (at least for US) but it isn't for the reasons you mention. Banks can simply debit and credit each other electronically without need for Central Banks to keep a record since each Bank will definitely keep a record of it (it is their core business!) \n\nBanks must have an account with the Central Bank because they are required by law to maintain a reserve ratio the simplest explanation is that for every dollar they loan out, they must keep a certain fraction of the amount at the Central Bank."
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294rfh | why does methamphetamine use ruin your teeth? | I've been watching Orange is the New Black with my mom, and resident redneck Pensatucky's teeth made us both wonder why meth destroys your teeth so much. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/294rfh/eli5_why_does_methamphetamine_use_ruin_your_teeth/ | {
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"If I remember right when you do meth your mouth get's really dry for a long time it starts to rot, as you don't have saliva to wash away food particles, like sugar. ",
"Lack of hygiene. Dry mouth i believe does the most damage. Allowing your own acids created in your mouth to break down your teeth.",
"It causes your mouth to be very dry due to reducing the production of saliva. Saliva helps keep your mouth cleaner and flush away sugars, acids and food particles. Without it, decay can happen much more easily.\n\nAmphetamines can cause or worsen teeth grinding also, which may play a part. People on days long meth benders also tend to forget about insignificant matters like brushing their teeth and often favor lots of sugary and acidic drinks rather than actual food.\n\nIt's all a perfect storm for tooth decay.",
"long term dry mouth will mess your teeth up. end of story. whether its from drugs, disease, etc. Take your pick!",
"Drug-induced xerostomia (dry mouth) and bruxism (grinding of the teeth) are thought to be the two foremost contributing factors. Other frequently cited factors are poor nutrition, eating too much sugar, and lack of dental hygiene. These symptoms are generally most severe in users who inject the drug, rather than those who smoke, ingest or inhale it. There is little evidence to support theories that methamphetamine directly corrodes the teeth (thought to be due to the use of hydrochloric acid in the manufacturing process).",
"I met a guy who was telling his girlfriend how it wasn't meth that ruined your teeth, it was brushing your teeth on meth that caused cavities.\n\nso, brushing teeth is the problem, not meth :) \n\nwhat a fucking idiot",
"As someone who used meth, been clean for 14 years now, I can confirm what most people have said. Definitely causes dry mouth. Grinding your teeth is very common. Forgetting common oral hygiene while on a bender, yup. \n\nAs for eating, for me at least, was not something I commonly did while using. It worked as an appetite suppressant and I would have to force myself to eat, when I would have a moment of clarity that is. And when I would eat or drink something I definitely was something of the sugary unhealthy variety. ",
"1) Reduces saliva production - saliva remineralizes teeth\n\n2) Acidic effect of the drug (if smoked)\n\n3) Neglecting oral hygiene\n\n4) Craving for sugary foods and drinks",
"If you've taken Sudafed before, (the degongestant) you've probably noticed a dry mouth feeling as well as your sinuses expanding due to reduced blood flow. This helps prevent mucus creation, which makes you feel better when you have blocked up sinuses, but also cuts down your saliva production.\n\nMethamphetamine is basically just a slightly modified pseudoephedrine molecule which is the activate ingredient in Sudofed (pseu-do-efed) and also has some decongestant properties. It also causes you to feel high. The reduction in saliva production results in a dry mouth, which means you are more likely to suffer tooth decay if taken for long periods of time.",
"Just take MDMA and go swimming. Then get in a hot tub. Then think to yourself \"maybe I won't ever come down\". Then come down. Then hate your life and promise yourself you won't do it for a month. Then 2 days later you will feel better and do it all over again.",
"Watching Orange is the New Black with your mom?\n\nSounds awkward.",
"Dentist here, would like to say that meth can cause dry mouth (but so do a lot of other common meds that are used by large numbers of people without having the same dental issues as 'meth mouth'.)\n\nBut more than anything, meth can cause individuals to change their behaviors completely, including hygiene and diet preferences. I have spoken with individuals suffering from meth mouth, and they all have a strong preference for not sleeping, drinking Mountain Dew, and not doing anything that doesn't involve getting more meth (with brushing their teeth falling way below things like eating, showering, wearing clean clothes, not abusing their kids, etc.). \n\nInterestingly enough, I have spoken with individuals that have been placed on prescription drugs by their doctors for various reasons, and are then completely shocked when their teeth literally begin to crumble due to severe xerostomia (dry mouth) caused by the drugs. I'm not pointing fingers, but most physicians will neglect to warn their patients about possible dental side effects related to the drugs they prescribe. My mother's oncologist has never given her a single ounce of advice concerning her oral health, even though she has been on countless drugs and chemo therapies. I have been able to help her with many of her oral health issues, including severe xerostomia (there's that word again), excessive sloughing of the mucosa (imagine the inside of your mouth being sunburned and then painfully peeling non-stop), as well as fungal infections that arise due to a compromised immune system. \n\nUnfortunately, many individuals suffer from these same oral conditions, be they meth addicts, cancer patients, pain pill addicts, young children taking ADHD meds, or elderly individuals with a long list of health problems. Ideally, no matter the cause of the problem, these individuals would receive the guidance and care they deserve. \n\nPass it on.\n\nTL;DR Meth use causes dry mouth, bad hygiene, and poor diet choices leading to bad teeth. Other people can suffer from the same issues. Brush your teeth, don't do drugs (unless your doctor tells you to). ",
"1) Dry Mouth concentrates the acid at the sites of bacterial growth.\n2) Reallocation of calcium in the body away from teeth (Your teeth are calcium phosphate)\n3) Poor oral hygiene ",
"Why do kids love the taste of cinnamon taste crunch?\n\nNo one knows. \n\nOther people seem to know the answer to your question though, so maybe listen to them."
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1ofq1p | how do search dogs track scents? | I've seen movies and TV shows that show dogs following the trail of some escaped criminal or missing person, and I'm wondering just what the dogs are picking up on that allows them to continue following the trail.
Let's say I'm running from the cops and there are dogs after me. Do my shoes leave behind some trace of my scent? Is it skin cells coming off me that the dogs can detect? Does my breath leave a trail that dogs can follow?
I know dogs have incredibly sensitive noses, but I'm wondering just what I'm leaving behind that would allow them to follow me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ofq1p/eli5_how_do_search_dogs_track_scents/ | {
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"Let's say they have a piece of your clothing. The dog is trained to follow a scent that is given to it, so they let it smell your clothing, then using its extremely acute sense of of smell it is able to follow the scent of the clothing you have on you. A smart criminal abandons any clothing it knows can be used to be tracked down by dogs.",
"Long nose, more scent receptors. Plain and simple. Also, their noses are closer to the ground. That's why you don't see Chihuahua's as tracking dogs, but blood hounds are experts! You do leave a scent trail on things that you touch or brush up against."
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ldeyf | the driving force behind evolution. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ldeyf/eli5_the_driving_force_behind_evolution/ | {
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"Evolution is based on the idea of \"natural selection\". Let me explain what exactly happens with DNA first. \n\nEvery living thing has DNA, which has a lot of pieces arranged in a certain way. The DNA is like a map for how everything is built. A human and a dog have DNA that makes sure they have legs, but a human has DNA for only 2 legs and 2 arms, while a dog has DNA for 4 legs. \n\nTo be safe, your DNA comes in doubles. Every piece has a copy. The sets of copies are chromosomes. Humans have 23 sets, or 46 total. All living things have these in every single cell too, so humans have 23 sets of DNA in every cell in their body. \n\nWhen people have kids, they basically mash up their copies and put them back together together while the mom is pregnant. Some pieces come in from the dad's DNA, some from the mom's. If everything goes like it should, the baby then has 23 sets of a new combination of chromosomes. Some parts of the maps look like the mom's, and some look like the dad's, but they are rarely the same. \n\nThings don't always get copied properly, and the DNA can have spontaneous new codes in it. Thing can happen in a lot of ways (usually mistakes in copying, very strong chemicals, and so on), but it means the code is different because of something other than a mom and dad making a baby. That is called a mutation, regardless of whether it's good or bad. If you have enough mutations in the DNA, it can change something about the living thing it's in. For example, a mutation that grows fins. \n\nNatural selection is all about those mutations. Mutations are pretty common, and not all of them even do anything. Some mutations can cause things to die, but some can make their lives easier. Some ways mutations can help things can be either to make it easier to get food and water, or they can mean making babies is easier. \n\nNatural selection is exactly that effect. Any mutations that are bad aren't likely to go onto the babies, because they make it harder for the mom or dad to have babies. Some mutations that don't happen until old age can still get passed on, but any mutation that affects growing up or having babies can usually get weeded out. \n\nIt works the other way too. A mutation that makes it easier to have babies means that the things with it will probably have more babies. That means that later on, there's more moms and dads with that mutation that have more babies than people without. \n\nNatural selection is not a conscious thing. It's not like there's a person watching it happen and making sure things are going according to a plan. It's called natural because it happens without anyone forcing it too, and it's called selection because it's *like* someone is picking out the good and bad, not because someone actually is doing that. ",
"Random mutation during gene replication followed by natural selection of beneficial mutation from environmental pressures and possibly preferred sexual selection leading to passing the original beneficially mutated gene onto offspring.",
"Animals have babies that grow up into adult animals. Plants have seeds that sprout into new plants. This is called \"reproduction\". Each new generation is mostly a lot like the previous generation ... but slowly, changes happen. We know that the long-ago ancestors of today's birds were dinosaurs, for instance, because we can see fossils like *Archaeopteryx* that look kind of like birds and kind of like dinosaurs.\n\nBut there never was a dinosaur that laid an egg that hatched into a chicken or an ostrich. Evolution is slow; it takes many, many generations. Little changes that happen in each generation add up over time, so sometimes the great-great-(many greats)-grandchildren of a dinosaur end up looking like a bird.\n\nEvolution didn't *decide* to make a bird, though. Evolution has no brain and can't make plans. Rather, all that happened is that little changes sneak in every time animals or plants reproduce. These are called mutations. And many of those mutations don't work out very well: they make the new baby animal or plant get sick and die, or they make it sterile (unable to have more babies or seeds of its own), or the like. But some mutations turn out to make the creature more successful than others like it: ever so slightly better equipped to survive and have babies or seeds.\n\nOver time, the mutations that make the animal or plant more successful, tend to become more and more common. Why? Because those mutations mean that creature has more babies (and grandbabies, etc.) than others who don't have the mutation. Keep in mind this is comparing our dinosaur to other dinosaurs of the same species — a *Velociraptor* isn't competing with, say, a cycad plant, but with other *Velociraptors*.\n\nAnd, over several generations, the mutation may be \"driven to fixity\", which is the evolutionary biology way of saying that eventually all the creatures of that species have the mutation, because they all descend from the few great-great-(...)-grandparents that had it.\n\nThe fact that some mutations are more successful than others is called \"selection\". It's as if nature was picking favorites — but actually all that's happening is some animals or plants do a little bit better than others. We sometimes split selection into \"natural selection\", which is about whether a creature survives long enough to grow up, and \"sexual selection\" which is about whether it finds a mate and has babies.",
"Everyone is slightly different from each other because of their genes. Because of this, some people (or animals or plants or germs) are better at surviving than other people (or animals or plants or germs).\n\nPretend you have a bunch of yellow deer who move into an area where the only food available are the leaves on the tops of trees. Animals who have really short necks are going to find it hard to get the food, but animals with longer necks will have an easier time.\n\nMore short-necked animals than long-necked animals die, and more long-necked animals than short-necked animals have babies. And the babies of those deer will have, on average, longer necks than their parents. The number of long-neck genes in the population (the allele frequency, to use big people language) has gotten bigger, but there aren't as many copies of the short-neck gene around anymore.\n\nThis goes on for a long long time, and then they have *really* long necks, so long that it won't help them if they get any longer, and even the ones with short necks are tall enough to get food. If you looked at these new animals and compared them to the yellow deer they started out as, they'd look very different. They have now evolved into a totally new animal, giraffes.\n\nThis is called natural selection. There are other things at work (genetic drift, mutations, etc), but that's the kid-friendly version.\n\nNote: I do not know if this is how giraffes actually evolved, but it seemed like an easy to follow thought-experiment.",
"Evolution is based on the idea of \"natural selection\". Let me explain what exactly happens with DNA first. \n\nEvery living thing has DNA, which has a lot of pieces arranged in a certain way. The DNA is like a map for how everything is built. A human and a dog have DNA that makes sure they have legs, but a human has DNA for only 2 legs and 2 arms, while a dog has DNA for 4 legs. \n\nTo be safe, your DNA comes in doubles. Every piece has a copy. The sets of copies are chromosomes. Humans have 23 sets, or 46 total. All living things have these in every single cell too, so humans have 23 sets of DNA in every cell in their body. \n\nWhen people have kids, they basically mash up their copies and put them back together together while the mom is pregnant. Some pieces come in from the dad's DNA, some from the mom's. If everything goes like it should, the baby then has 23 sets of a new combination of chromosomes. Some parts of the maps look like the mom's, and some look like the dad's, but they are rarely the same. \n\nThings don't always get copied properly, and the DNA can have spontaneous new codes in it. Thing can happen in a lot of ways (usually mistakes in copying, very strong chemicals, and so on), but it means the code is different because of something other than a mom and dad making a baby. That is called a mutation, regardless of whether it's good or bad. If you have enough mutations in the DNA, it can change something about the living thing it's in. For example, a mutation that grows fins. \n\nNatural selection is all about those mutations. Mutations are pretty common, and not all of them even do anything. Some mutations can cause things to die, but some can make their lives easier. Some ways mutations can help things can be either to make it easier to get food and water, or they can mean making babies is easier. \n\nNatural selection is exactly that effect. Any mutations that are bad aren't likely to go onto the babies, because they make it harder for the mom or dad to have babies. Some mutations that don't happen until old age can still get passed on, but any mutation that affects growing up or having babies can usually get weeded out. \n\nIt works the other way too. A mutation that makes it easier to have babies means that the things with it will probably have more babies. That means that later on, there's more moms and dads with that mutation that have more babies than people without. \n\nNatural selection is not a conscious thing. It's not like there's a person watching it happen and making sure things are going according to a plan. It's called natural because it happens without anyone forcing it too, and it's called selection because it's *like* someone is picking out the good and bad, not because someone actually is doing that. ",
"Random mutation during gene replication followed by natural selection of beneficial mutation from environmental pressures and possibly preferred sexual selection leading to passing the original beneficially mutated gene onto offspring.",
"Animals have babies that grow up into adult animals. Plants have seeds that sprout into new plants. This is called \"reproduction\". Each new generation is mostly a lot like the previous generation ... but slowly, changes happen. We know that the long-ago ancestors of today's birds were dinosaurs, for instance, because we can see fossils like *Archaeopteryx* that look kind of like birds and kind of like dinosaurs.\n\nBut there never was a dinosaur that laid an egg that hatched into a chicken or an ostrich. Evolution is slow; it takes many, many generations. Little changes that happen in each generation add up over time, so sometimes the great-great-(many greats)-grandchildren of a dinosaur end up looking like a bird.\n\nEvolution didn't *decide* to make a bird, though. Evolution has no brain and can't make plans. Rather, all that happened is that little changes sneak in every time animals or plants reproduce. These are called mutations. And many of those mutations don't work out very well: they make the new baby animal or plant get sick and die, or they make it sterile (unable to have more babies or seeds of its own), or the like. But some mutations turn out to make the creature more successful than others like it: ever so slightly better equipped to survive and have babies or seeds.\n\nOver time, the mutations that make the animal or plant more successful, tend to become more and more common. Why? Because those mutations mean that creature has more babies (and grandbabies, etc.) than others who don't have the mutation. Keep in mind this is comparing our dinosaur to other dinosaurs of the same species — a *Velociraptor* isn't competing with, say, a cycad plant, but with other *Velociraptors*.\n\nAnd, over several generations, the mutation may be \"driven to fixity\", which is the evolutionary biology way of saying that eventually all the creatures of that species have the mutation, because they all descend from the few great-great-(...)-grandparents that had it.\n\nThe fact that some mutations are more successful than others is called \"selection\". It's as if nature was picking favorites — but actually all that's happening is some animals or plants do a little bit better than others. We sometimes split selection into \"natural selection\", which is about whether a creature survives long enough to grow up, and \"sexual selection\" which is about whether it finds a mate and has babies.",
"Everyone is slightly different from each other because of their genes. Because of this, some people (or animals or plants or germs) are better at surviving than other people (or animals or plants or germs).\n\nPretend you have a bunch of yellow deer who move into an area where the only food available are the leaves on the tops of trees. Animals who have really short necks are going to find it hard to get the food, but animals with longer necks will have an easier time.\n\nMore short-necked animals than long-necked animals die, and more long-necked animals than short-necked animals have babies. And the babies of those deer will have, on average, longer necks than their parents. The number of long-neck genes in the population (the allele frequency, to use big people language) has gotten bigger, but there aren't as many copies of the short-neck gene around anymore.\n\nThis goes on for a long long time, and then they have *really* long necks, so long that it won't help them if they get any longer, and even the ones with short necks are tall enough to get food. If you looked at these new animals and compared them to the yellow deer they started out as, they'd look very different. They have now evolved into a totally new animal, giraffes.\n\nThis is called natural selection. There are other things at work (genetic drift, mutations, etc), but that's the kid-friendly version.\n\nNote: I do not know if this is how giraffes actually evolved, but it seemed like an easy to follow thought-experiment."
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21jd8i | what is icann and why everyone is freaking out over the us ending their contract with them? | My father came home screaming, "OBAMA IS GIVING THE INTERNET TO THE RUSSIANS AND TERRORISTS!" And now I can't find a decent article to sum up what appears to be a fairly intricate system. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21jd8i/eli5_what_is_icann_and_why_everyone_is_freaking/ | {
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"In short (I'm over-simplifying here) the ICANN takes care of internet addresses. This has been in the US for years, but after the NSA spying scandal they decided it was time to make some changes. See also: _URL_0_\n\nIt was always the plan to be global, and not tied to one specific country's government. It was never going to stay in the US forever."
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7rm41g | 1) why is there gaps or spaces between galaxies? 2) what fills these gaps or spaces? 3) why aren’t galaxies connect like a web or something? | Something I read about earlier and it fascinating me | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rm41g/eli5_1_why_is_there_gaps_or_spaces_between/ | {
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"Gravity makes matter floating in space lump up. Any two nearby objects will tend to attract each other, and any long string will attract its ends toward the middle, making a tighter cluster.",
"If there was no such thing as gravity, then everything would be kinda evenly spread out yeah (that's one of the posssible end states of the universe). But due to gravity, almost all of this matter clumps up into clusters/galaxies. ",
"Galaxies *are* connected like a web or something [if you zoom out enough to see it](_URL_2_). It's important to note that the blobs of light in that image are *not* galaxies. They're *clusters* of galaxies, or superclusters, which can contain *thousands* of galaxies.\n\nConsider the organization of the solar system. Most of the matter that formed the solar system became the Sun, and the rest spread out over a [huge distance](_URL_0_). That matter is pretty concentrated in local spots, which are the planets. The space between planets is pretty empty, of course, but it still has a lot of stellar dust particles and comets and asteroids and a lot of *stuff*. But compared to the density of matter on Earth, interplanetary space is *really* empty.\n\nThen again, compare the density of matter within the solar system to the space between our solar system and the next one. The solar system has a ton of matter. Several planets' worth. But there's less between us and the Alpha Centauri system. It all seems random and empty until you zoom out and look at the galaxy and see the [spiral arms](_URL_1_) that show the organization of the local groups of solar systems. It doesn't look like there's a lot of stuff between us and Alpha Centauri, and there's not, but when you look at the bigger picture you see that, in fact, there's still a *lot* of stuff pretty close together. And there is a lot of dust and rocks and stuff out there, too.\n\nAnd you can zoom out again to see the nearby galactic local group. Then the Virgo Supercluster. Then, finally, the structure of the universe as far as we know it.\n\nIn the empty voids between galaxy superclusters, there's sparse traces of dust and gas, but that's it. The rest of the matter is concentrated in the superclusters. And within the superclusters, most of the mass is concentrated in the galaxies. And so on.",
"Randomness clumps and clumps coalesce.\n\nAny random phenomenon has some scale at which it is not distributed evenly, but with clumps here and there. \n\nSince gravity permeates all matter, in a random scattering of matter, which is what the universe is, the clumps that do exist will be more attracted to the the other clumps that exist than the less clumpy scattered matter. Then the resulting larger clump will more strongly attract the less clumpy matter. Things eventually coalesce.\n\nGalaxies are elements at one \"scale\" where they have coalesced as much as they can and there is no more stray matter; everything that was once between galaxies has been sucked up by them. Stars are at the next lower scale, and galactic clusters are at the next higher scale."
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qko06 | why dvd ripping is "not okay" and cd ripping is | Why can we rip CDs onto our computer right out of the box, but we need special software for DVDs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qko06/eli5_why_dvd_ripping_is_not_okay_and_cd_ripping_is/ | {
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"Because the DVD companies encrypt their content to prevent piracy and there are no repercussions from the market whereas when music companies attempted this there were repercussions. If you ever really want to know the reasons behind a decision follow the money trail.",
"The DVDs you have problems ripping are using [Content Scramble System](_URL_0_). This a system in which the video material is scrambled/encrypted, and the key to unscramble it is stored on a special part of the disc called the lead-in. When you put a commercial DVD in your player, it first finds the key, and then uses it to unscramble your video. \n\nDVD burners cannot write to this lead-in area, so when you try to make an exact copy of a DVD, it will not copy the keys across. And of course, without the key, your player cannot correctly play the video.\n\nThe 'special software' you need to make a copy is simply software that, rather than making an exact copy of your scrambled DVD, looks at the keys, unscrambles it, and makes a copy of the *unscrambled* DVD instead. \n\nCDs do not have restrictions like this, presumably either because their piracy was not anticipated, or because the processing power required by an encryption scheme was unreasonable to include in a 1985 stereo."
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1vedya | how it is not discrimination for offering race specific scholarships. | As an example, there are scholarships that only African or Hispanics are eligible for. I get that they are a minority, but they are also eligible for the same scholarships that Caucasians are eligible for. Why isn't this considered discrimination/racism against whites? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vedya/eli5how_it_is_not_discrimination_for_offering/ | {
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"It is discrimination -- it's publicly acceptable (and completely legal) discrimination.",
"I don't live in the states but even where I live there are scholarships for minorities/kids of army veterans etc and they're ALSO eligible for merit based type scholarships. Personally I don't think it's discrimination. I think they want to encourage minorities to get higher education since they're often from poorer areas (may not apply in the States though?). The scholarships that everyone is eligible for are to encourage them to do well in school, which everyone, not just whites are capable of, no? \n"
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6cpdp0 | why do water droplets reflect their surroundings upside down? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6cpdp0/eli5_why_do_water_droplets_reflect_their/ | {
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"The water droplets act like a converging lens. When you are close enough to a water droplet to see the reflection clearly, you are still outside the focal length, so the image appears upside down and stretched out. Were you able to get *very* close (and have there still be enough light to see), you would actually see the normal reflection - the right size and right side up."
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b0g84x | how red light therapy works | My friend just bought a light from joovv claiming it’s miraculous healing powers. Nothing about it makes sense to me. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b0g84x/eli5_how_red_light_therapy_works/ | {
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" > \tNothing about it makes sense to me. How does this work?\n\nIt is simple: Saps pay money for a red LED light and believe any pseudoscientific nonsense that is tossed their way. The scam artist makes a load of money off this fad.\n\nOf course it doesn't do anything, there is no evidence that the \"therapy\" works, but that doesn't stop them being really popular with those who don't have the ability to assess the truth value of health claims. You know, like people who go to chiropractors or take homeopathic remedies.",
"A well known and highly cited study on the matter. [_URL_3_](_URL_3_) \n\nIn a nutshell - \" Detailed analysis of the gene expression profiles in human fibroblasts revealed an influence of low-intensity red light with a 628-nm wavelength on 111 different genes that are involved in cellular functions, such as cell proliferation; apoptosis; stress response; protein, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism; mitochondrial energy metabolism; DNA synthesis and repair; antioxidant related functions; and cytoskeleton- and cell-cell interaction-related functions.[`21`](_URL_2_) A specific role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in increasing fibroblast proliferation and motility has recently been reported, suggesting that the elevation of ROS via photodynamic therapy can enhance the cellular functions of dermal fibroblasts through specific mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways *in vitro*.[`22`](_URL_1_) The light-induced free radical formation in human skin has been investigated in detail, demonstrating that red light with 620 and 670 nm wavelengths increases the concentration of ROS even without the influence of external photosensitizers.[`23`](_URL_0_) \"\n\nThere are thousands of studies on the effectiveness of this therapy for many different conditions. However, you don't need to buy a Joovv to get the benefits. Many fitness centers and tanning salons offer red light therapy for a nominal fee."
]
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[],
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"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926176/#B23",
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926176/#B22",
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926176/#B21",
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4126803/"
]
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|
arco0x | different types of exercises | **Would like some insight on exercises. As a reddit user I love my cheetos and armchair as much as the next guy but think it might be time to start doing some exercise. I'm a bit curious about exercises that require little to no movement (planking) vs those that do (sit-ups). What's the pro/cons/differences?**
& #x200B;
Also, how is flexing a muscle different then when you actually use the muscle (with the same flexing action)? I get that when we use the muscle, for example to lift weights it builds more strength by us basically flexing it right? Could we then actually condition the muscle just by flexing it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/arco0x/eli5_different_types_of_exercises/ | {
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"Different exercises help work different parts of all muscles. It's good to switch up the exercises to keep shocking and tearing up different parts of your muscles. "
]
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22iv4a | the bible | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22iv4a/eli5the_bible/ | {
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"Way too broad a question. Nobody can explain the complexities of the bible to a five year old. \n\nAt best you can say the old testament is for the Jews and the new testament is for the Christians. The same way the book of Mormon was for the Mormons or the Qur'an was for the Muslims. "
]
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[]
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||
2537xf | why does my automatic transmission car still have l, 2, and 3 on the gearshift, and when would i use them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2537xf/eli5_why_does_my_automatic_transmission_car_still/ | {
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"Going down a steep or not quite steep grade to use the engine for braking.",
"I use them when I'm driving in snow or ice. It's safer to have control of when you shift.",
"when towing a trailer, you're supposed to use 3, not D. when driving in hills at slow speed, use 2.\n\n",
"Sometimes when driving you go through traffic that would mean you are slowing down and speeding up (e.g. on a busy street with lots of traffic lights). This would cause your car to automatically switch between two gears over and over again. You don't want this to happen, so you can override the automatic changing and pick a suitable gear for the traffic conditions."
]
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65qxz1 | if the dna of an organism contains all the building plans for the body, how does a single cell know its location and needed function if all the first cells start the same? | Does the zygote act as a central construction manager? (Eli15) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65qxz1/eli5_if_the_dna_of_an_organism_contains_all_the/ | {
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"The answer to this quite simply can't be put in a understandable way to a five year old, but I'll have a stab at an analogy.\n\nJust like all people could do *most* jobs with the right training and upbringing, from an early age we are steered in a direction (vocation, education, family, etc.) which will determine our adult life. It's the same for a stem cell in your body starting out - from early on it is influenced with specific chemicals (cytokines) to influence what it will become later.\n\nThe complexity comes in asking how the body knows where to target certain cytokines and co-ordinate them; we still don't fully understand this yet.",
"I grew up on a farm so this might not make sense to you city folk, but on our property we had a house, a chicken house, and a small utility building for tools and tractors.\n\nThink of each cell as being a house, or building, or something. Inside each building is a circuit breaker panel (_URL_0_). This is the DNA and each building has the same circuit breaker panel with the same switches. The switches that power the lights and appliances are the genes. So, the circuit breakers are full of switches and DNA is full of genes.\n\nIn my house's circuit breaker panel, we only turned on the switches for things that the house needed. So for example, we turned on the switches that powered the kitchen, the laundry room, and the bed rooms. We didn't keep chickens in the house, so we turned off the switches for the chicken feeders and chicken water fountain.\n\nIn the chicken house, we turned on the switches for chicken feeders and water fountains, but since there's no bed room, kitchen, or laundry room in there we turned those switches off.\n\nSo far this only describes DNA and genes in the context of a building and it's circuit breaker panel. I ran out of time, so maybe someone else can add to this before I get back to it!\n\n",
"Cells all have the same \"building plans\", but the cell can detect where in the body it is. \"If I'm part of the lung, then I'll only pay attention to the lung plans. If I'm part of the heart, I'll only pay attention to the heart plans.\" The plans are the same, but which part of the plan the cells actually *use* is different, depending on the environment.\n\nThe tricky part is how the cell figures out where it is. This isn't fully understood, but one aspect of it is chemical \"gradients\" in the body. That is, certain chemicals will be strong in one area, and weak in another, and the cell can detect those chemicals to figure out where it is.\n\nImagine you are a builder in a house. You might say, \"Hey, it's dark here! My job must be to build the basement.\" Or maybe, \"Hey, I'm on a floor under open sky. My job must be to build a roof.\"\n\nOf course, the details are super-complicated, but this is ELI5.",
"The key here is to recognize that while almost all cells in the body contain the same set of genetic information, not all genes (the segments of DNA that codes for a specific protein) are expressed in all cells. **Regulation of gene expression** is at play here.\n\nCells can (and regularly do) receive signals that tell it which genes to express. Different cells receive different signals - > different cells express different genes - > different cells make different proteins. Having different sets of proteins allows one cell to function, look, behave, etc. differently from another.\n\nA cool example that I was taught was how our fingers develop. Early in a developing fetus, the limbs don't have fingers/toes (think stumps). At a certain point though, cells at the extremities get the signal to basically commit cell-suicide. The death of these cells leads to the space between our fingers and toes. A failure in this process is how some people have webbed fingers!",
"Think of the DNA code as an algorythym. It isn't just instructions for building proteins that are executed front to back like reading a book. There are different genes that are expressed or suppressed at different times during development. The order that the genes are expressed and repressed lead to the development of the different parts of the body. \n\nThere is no centralized control over the development at the zygote stage. Later when the brain begins to develop it can begin to control development through the use of hormones. In the beginning it's more akin to \"Do this for 30 cell divisions, then do this\" and meanwhile each of those 60 new cells have different instructions that describe their actions, and so on and so forth. It's a kind of coordinated dance the cells do based off the rules enforced by the genes being expressed in their common DNA. ",
"You know how a cookbook has recipes for everything, but you only look up the ones you need for tonight's meal? Cells are like that with their DNA. Sometimes they look up the recipe for turning into a liver cell or a skin cell, and turn into that. They even chat with each other to say \"OK, you be a liver cell and I'll be a spleen cell, and he'll be small intestines. Let's cook us up a digestive tract!\"",
"There are multiple ways you can make two identical cells start to develop differently. But all these are based on chemicals that are located either inside the cells or outside the cells that can change which genes are turned on and which are turned off. If its inside the cell then the method is usually that the concentration of the chemical is different on the two ends of the cell, making the cell polarized. Once the cell multiplies the two cells have different concentration of the chemical in them and so the chemical will effect the gene expression of the cells differently. Once you have two different cells you can have many different cells the same way. If the chemical is outside the cells then it usually has different concentration in one end of the environment than the other and that's why it effects the cells differently. There are more complicated methods as well, and the combination of these is what ends up making all the different tissue types during early development.",
"Gradients! The DNA codes information to make a gradient between two sides of the cell. There are molecules that respond and orient based on the gradient, and when they divide you have two cells with the same instruction manual, but different conditions. These conditions can generate new gradients, and so on. Eventually contact with other cells and external signals tell a cell what it is and what to do, and eventually cells start using only subsets of their instruction code. "
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1nr6pf | why do we sometimes feel tickled when the tickler is just pointing at our bellies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nr6pf/eli5_why_do_we_sometimes_feel_tickled_when_the/ | {
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"I think it is in anticipation, or our brains remember the tickling (for me it only happens if I have been tickled recently)",
"If it weren't for the nerves in your belly, you wouldn't feel anything when being tickled. When you're being pointed at your brain knows it's about to be tickled and starts to give the sensation before it happens as a form of anticipation. Same way you might feel pain on your body when you see pain inflicted on the same body part of someone else."
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||
63ngj4 | engine efficiency in the future and the internal combustion engine | Two part question here, information on either greatly appreciated.
Our modern engines are relatively efficient compared to the rest of human history. I'm wondering what scientists and engineers expect in the future or perhaps in advanced civilizations in terms of efficiency. Can our percentages be greatly improved or only on very small scales? Is the Carnot Engine ever possible if we can manipulate time around it? How does the efficiency of an ICE in a car compare to say an electric car?
In the Internal Combustion Engine, I understand that the mechanical energy produced usually comes from the high pressure gases pushing on a piston. How is the piston then put back into place before the next explosion? Does this take energy out of the produced mechanical work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63ngj4/eli5_engine_efficiency_in_the_future_and_the/ | {
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"You have a lot of things going on in this. A piston is Pushed down by the burning of the compressed Gas. That downward stroke is know as the \"power stroke\" while forcing it down and driving the car, it also pushes up the next piston.\n\nThere are lots of Engine designs out there that push the internal combustion engine into better efficiency numbers, but it comes at a cost, difficult to manufacture, and specialized Maintenance. So there is a lot of RD around making cars more efficient, just not as fast as you would think.\n\nTraveling by Bending Time and or space is a lot more complex and involves a lot of theory that will go way beyond a ELI5"
]
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[]
] |
|
83vry1 | light-based computing | Trying to get a better understanding of what Light-based computing is, how it works, and what its benefits are. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/83vry1/eli5_lightbased_computing/ | {
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"Instead of sending an electrical signal down a wire, which is received by a device sensitive to electricity, you'd shine light through optical fiber or across open space, and the receiving device is sensitive to light.\n\nComputers use TINY \"switches\" (transistors, in a normal electrical computer), they also run them VERY fast to move/manipulate information very quickly.\n\nThe problem with electricity is it can affect nearby circuits through capacitance (where voltage changes \"leak\" onto whatever is nearby) and inductance, where changes in current flow cause magnetic fields which affect electrical flow in whatever is nearby. Again, computers are small and the signals are very fast. We'd like to make them even smaller and the signals even faster. These electrical properties become limitations.\n\nLight doesn't exhibit those particular behaviors. It can also travel faster than electrical charge in some materials.\n\nThe problem is making devices respond to light more quickly and efficiently than our current electrical transistors. Even small delays, errors, or larger devices would prevent us from building a smaller/faster computer than what we use now... and again, that would be the whole point.\n\nSo there are theoretical benefits. Practical? Not yet, and I'm not sure we *know* whether this will ever work in the real world to the extent we'd like to see. "
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j2mbt | can someone explain the wars in afghanistan and iraq like i'm a five year old? | My knowledge of their reasons is rather limited. Could someone explain? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j2mbt/can_someone_explain_the_wars_in_afghanistan_and/ | {
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"As simply as i know, without theory. Afghanistan-We invaded Afghanistan to catch Osama Bin Laden and remove the Taliban government that was supporting him. Iraq-We invaded because according to intelligence, Sadam Huessien (sp?) Had access to weaopons of mass destruction (WMD's) that threatened the US's national security. Again that is as basic as i believe it to be. A lot of it after these years has become speculation and conspiracy, but those were the original official reasons.",
"Afghanistan started thanks to 9/11, we wanted to get Osama bin Laden and knew the Taliban regime was harboring him safely within Afghanistan. The war on Afghanistan was to eliminate OBL as well as remove Taliban control, ensuring an organization that supports terrorism was not in control (the latter being our primary focus as of now, since OBL is dead).\n\nIraq was based off of intelligence that Saddam Hussein was producing weapons of mass destruction (intelligence that later could never be proved to be factual). The effort, as of now, is primarily focused on \"we tore a lot of stuff up and we want you guys to get back on your feet\" as well as ensuring terrorist organization don't treat the country as the \"next Afghanistan\" and it turns into a safe harbor for their activities."
]
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922ew9 | what is the difference between toilets where you press a button and it flushes automatically, and toilets that draw water only as long as you keep the button pressed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/922ew9/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_toilets_where/ | {
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"Usually, the flapper has a void area that traps air so that it stays afloat by buoyancy until the weight of the incoming water used to fill the tank overcomes the buoyancy of the flapper.\n\n[_URL_1_](_URL_1_)\n\nUsually, the \"non-automatic\" flappers do not have this feature.\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_2_)"
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"https://www.vintagecampers.com/PartsImgUpload/Parts/2382/IMG\\_2816.JPG",
"https://www.plumbingsupply.com/images/kohler-flapper-52162.jpg",
"https://www.vintagecampers.com/PartsImgUpload/Parts/2382/IMG_2816.JPG"
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||
1k9an4 | how does a linear induction motor work? | I decided to read Elon Musk's explanation of the "Hyperloop" _URL_0_
I don't understand the proposed propulsion system. Could someone please explain what a linear induction motor is and how it works?
Thank you!!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k9an4/eli5_how_does_a_linear_induction_motor_work/ | {
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"Alright, the only word in there you gotta worry about is 'induction'. 'Motor' just means it moves stuff, and 'linear' just means it moves stuff in a straight line (or close to it). \nAs for 'induction': When you've got electricity moving, it can create a magnetic field (i.e. what magnets make). That magnetic field can move stuff like you could with a magnet if you work the electric current just right. How do you work it just right? Well you basically line up a row of electromagnets (i.e. magnets you can turn off and on, or those pink things in figure 23 in that pdf) ~~and turn them on/off as they move along the iron stator (basically a chunk of iron that's attracted to magnets) so that the magnets are always getting pulled forward.~~ \nThis kind of motor has two main advantages. One is that since nothing needs to be touching, you reduce friction, so things can go faster. The other is that the motor doesn't need much in the way of moving parts since it's all electricity, so things don't wear out as fast. \nDoes that help? \nEDIT: See later post. Read a few things wrong in my first read of the pdf.",
"Look at a row of movie marqee \"chase\" lights.\nIt is fundamentally the same thing, except instead of light bulbs it uses electro magnets, and the \"lit\" one draws the magnet to it, and as it \"chases\", the next one activates, drawing the magnet."
]
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1cb4ws | why is jackie robinson such a big deal in baseball, while we don't ever talk about the first black football, basketball , hockey, etc... players? | In light of the movie 42 now released in theater, it made me wonder why the first black player was such a big deal in baseball? I'm Canadian and don't really follow baseball, I also wasn't born at the time so there's probably some cultural and historical stuff going over my head. As far as I know the only other player in North American sport with a league wide retired number is Wayne Gretzky's 99. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cb4ws/eli5_why_is_jackie_robinson_such_a_big_deal_in/ | {
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"It's less that he played baseball, and more that he was the first black athlete to play in a white team period. \n\nHe's up there with Rosa Parks for \"firsts for African Americans\" in the civil rights movement.",
"I'm not really an expert on the subject, but my initial reaction was because professional baseball was a much bigger deal in 1947, and because Robinson was so good. MLB is still colloquially called \"America's National Pastime,\" but the NFL has definitely surpassed MLB by now. \n\nAnd while there were professional black athletes before Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, I don't think any of them really created a sensation like he did. He won the first Rookie of the Year award in 1947, and hit .311/.409/.478 for his career. \n\nHe would have been a Hall of Famer even if he wasn't the first black player in Major League Baseball, and I think that really helps his historical case. [Charles Follis](_URL_0_) was the first professional football player, and if Robinson had been an average player my gut says he would have about the same historical profile as someone like Follis. "
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k3ntw | why do we have telescopes that are able to see the far reaches of the galaxy, but we can't use this technology to zoom into the moon and see hq images of the apollo landing site? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k3ntw/eli5_why_do_we_have_telescopes_that_are_able_to/ | {
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"The hubble space telescope (which is one of the best) has a resolution of 70 yards (something like 65 meters), which is not enough to see the landing site (everything left on the moon is about 10 meters).\n\nIn the 2009 NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to study the moon surface, and of course, a mission to the apollo 11 landing site has been programmed ([this](_URL_1_) is one of the image LRO took: the Apollo 11 is the white dot with a very long shadow in the middle) (You can find [here](_URL_0_) all the other image of the landing sites). In the photo of the Apollo 14 you can even see the tracks made by the astronauts.\n\nSome times ago, 2002 I think, European astronomers said that the Very Large Telescope (VLT) could be used to get HD images of the landing site. The resolution of this telescope is very high: you could see the distance between the headlights of a car. However, these images have not been released yet.",
"Did you see this?\n\n_URL_0_",
"The hubble space telescope (which is one of the best) has a resolution of 70 yards (something like 65 meters), which is not enough to see the landing site (everything left on the moon is about 10 meters).\n\nIn the 2009 NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to study the moon surface, and of course, a mission to the apollo 11 landing site has been programmed ([this](_URL_1_) is one of the image LRO took: the Apollo 11 is the white dot with a very long shadow in the middle) (You can find [here](_URL_0_) all the other image of the landing sites). In the photo of the Apollo 14 you can even see the tracks made by the astronauts.\n\nSome times ago, 2002 I think, European astronomers said that the Very Large Telescope (VLT) could be used to get HD images of the landing site. The resolution of this telescope is very high: you could see the distance between the headlights of a car. However, these images have not been released yet.",
"Did you see this?\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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"http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369440main_lroc_apollo11_lrg.jpg"
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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813043"
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"http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369440main_lroc_apollo11_lrg.jpg"
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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813043"
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||
ab1ags | how was the iss assembled? and how are repairs and maintenance performed in the event of a collision with space debris? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ab1ags/eli5_how_was_the_iss_assembled_and_how_are/ | {
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"The ISS was assembled by flying it to space in pieces and assembling it later with robot arms. The solar Panels were just unfolded like a piece of paper by motors. Repairs are done by performing a spacewalk if necessary. Some maintenance can be done from the inside. In some cases the damage to parts is accounted for in beforehand so you only need maintenance very rarely."
]
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8ukzan | if uv light is outside the visible spectrum, how come we see the light emitted off a black light? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ukzan/eli5if_uv_light_is_outside_the_visible_spectrum/ | {
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"Blacklights work via a filter that specifically filters out visible light and allows UV radiation to pass through.\n\nBut they're not perfect, so some visible light gets through the filter and provides that purplish color you see (Because the filters are purple)",
"It overlaps into the spectrum that we can see. That light isn't UV. That's just when looking at the light source itself. If you're talking about objects reflecting it, like how white clothing glows purple under UV light, that light is also part of the visible spectrum.",
"A blacklight emits *mostly* UV light, but it also emits violet light which your eyes can see.",
"The light coming out of those lamps is actually 'near UV' (345 nanometers \\[nm\\] - 400 nm), not 'real' UV. It's visible because that small segment of the spectrum is *barely* within the visual perception range of the human eye. It's why Amazon can sell 'UV Flashlights' without getting sued... the light is not 'harmful' on exposure. (You probably shouldn't stare into it without eye protection, though.)\n\nThe amount of UV light transmitted will vary dependent on the glass manufacturing method and tinting, which is done for your protection. Technically, you could transmit ***all*** the UV light generated with one of those lamps through a bulb manufactred from specialized crystal glass, but it would result in serious, severe burns. Or cancer after extended exposure. Take your pick.\n\n\"Real\" UV ranges between 10nm and 345nm. UV-A is between 315-400nm. UV-B is 280-315nm, and is 'hazardous'. UV-C is 200-280nm, and is considered 'dangerous'. Below 200nm... well, let's just say you don't want to be exposed to that part of the spectrum.\n\nSource: I'm a UV photographer.\n\nTLDR: The lights on UV lamps isn't really UV."
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2pv37q | why do i transpose words while speaking? | Returning a missed call: "I got a number from this call."
Discussing a potential future road trip: "I don't want to spend 4 hours with a car in him."
And so forth... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pv37q/eli5_why_do_i_transpose_words_while_speaking/ | {
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"Language production is very complicated, and because the brain *evolved* rather than being designed by an engineer, there isn't a single \"language centre\" in the brain. Instead, different parts of the brain have to work together to produce speech, so one part might be retrieving the nouns you need, another part is taking care of adding other parts of speech and arranging them into sentences, and so on. Then all that information has to passed to all the different parts of the brain controlling the vocal cords, the tongue, the jaw, the lips, the epiglottis and the lungs, and the whole business timed to split-second accuracy.\n\nIt doesn't always work perfectly. All things considered, it's pretty amazing it works at all. You're just experiencing slight glitches in how your brain assembles sentences -- in the two examples you provide, the grammar is actually faultless, it just doesn't say what you mean it to say. Some people have a more serious problem, and can't effectively communicate at all: this is aphasia, and is often caused by brain damage. Depending on exactly where the problem is, there are different kinds of aphasia.\n\nYou may remember the case of Serene Branson, the [reporter who started talking gibberish](_URL_0_). That was actually a temporary form of aphasia caused by the onset of a migraine; although she knew what she wanted to say, and although all the sounds she was making were normal sounds in American English speech, the part of the brain that would normally have selected the correct sounds for the words she wanted to say wasn't working properly. Everything else, though, was: she knew what she wanted to say, and she could understand what people were saying to her.\n\nThat just illustrates how difficult and complex language production is. Just a change in the way blood flows through the brain can cause a person to lose the power of communication completely. You can be thankful that your problem is very mild, happens only occasionally and causes no more harm than some slight embarrassment."
]
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"http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/cbs-reporter-serene-branson-terrified-confused-suffering-complex/story?id=12946962"
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4tm9fo | how/why does a show like futurama with such an avid and wide fan base get [repeatedly] canceled? what is the logic behind it from a network standpoint? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tm9fo/eli5_howwhy_does_a_show_like_futurama_with_such/ | {
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"There's two categories of shows, to be broad.\n\n\nYou either have shows with broad appeal and a wide audience, or a show with niche appeal, and a *guaranteed* audience. Unless you run a small cable channel or a youtube channel, you're usually aiming for broad appeal even if it typically stems from shows that are dilute tripe.\n\n\nFuturama is a show with niche appeal, which means in general terms that it's audience is small. It's kind of weird, the characters aren't exactly accessible- a vulgar, alcoholic, smoking, gambling robot? Oh, that isn't going to sit well with parents- and the humor can fly over the average drooling idiot's head. So you're not going to grab every last possible viewer that wasn't already invested in show X.\n\n\nThis being relative to, say, The Simpsons, which featured humor that typically aimed a bit lower, more easily accessible characters, and didn't really have the weird factor once you accepted that everyone's head was shaped like a pill and yellow was a skin color. \n\n\n\nThis is also why it was Adult Swim that revived Futurama. Adult swim is the lifeblood for niche appeal animated productions, along with stoner fuel. ",
"It was extremely popular and had a massive viewer base... in a similar demographic to Reddit. In the rest of the country, it was not nearly as popular. It's viewership dwindled to about 2.9 million viewers an episode, while other Fox shows of the era, like the OC, was averaging 6-10 million depending on the season, or even other animated shows like King of the Hill with 5-6 million.\n\n",
"Truthfully I think there's an aspect of younger people simply not watching actual network television anymore. We're more tech savvy and can just pirate rather than wait for X time on Y day of the week. ",
"In addition to what others have said, I think in Futurama's case the fact that it's animated didn't help it's chances either. Animated shows tend to be slower to produce and more expensive (it took about a year to make an episode of Futurama, and each episode cost around $1 million.)\n\nThere's kind of a reason why all the big animated shows (Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, King Of The Hill etc.) have all more or less the same theme (Family who keeps it together in spite of an unusual/eccentric father figure), because that's a broad-appeal concept that just keeps working for whatever reason. A weird sci-fi show that deviates from that pattern on a major network AND is expensive and slow to make will probably have a bad time. I'm actually kind of impressed it lasted as long at it did. :)\n\nedit: I have no idea how Archer keeps going",
"A Network TV channel's business is not making good TV shows. Their business is selling advertising. So they just pick whatever has the best ratings. They will choose a shitty reality tv show that many people kind of like over an amazing show that some people really love. They just care that certain demographics are watching for the most part.\n\nThat's different on cable though, which is why so many good shows come from HBO, AMC, showtime, etc. ",
"That is simple. Most people liked the show, but didn't want to be tied to a specific time to watch it. Futurama hit at just the wrong time. People who watch the show also cut cable mostly. They aren't able to watch the show. If it were to get regular seasons on something like Netflix I think it could have worked, but it's over now.\n\nThey should get the same writers to do a completely different show. That could be interesting. The characters as they were have simply had their time.",
"There are also shows cancelled maliciously.\n\nFirefly was cancelled as the network felt with two back to back successful shows under his belt, Josh Whedon was getting too powerful and could start demanding more control over his shows.\n",
"The answer is that those fan bases aren't as wide as you think they are.\n\nTV execs don't care if there is a medium sized RABID audience. They don't even care if your show is even liked by its audience. All they care about is making something you find decent enough to not change the channel. \n\nOne person who lives and dies with his show is worth exactly as much as one person who leaves it on in the background while they fold laundry.\n\nBroad appeal, that's what really matters. And shows like Futurama don't have it. It may FEEL like it's widely adored because you hear about it all the time, but all that means is that the people who do enjoy it are quite vocal about it... when in reality nearly 8 times as many people were watching Two and a Half Men instead.",
"Extremely popular? Massive viewer base? Maybe with reddit. Don't confuse reddit with the real world like all the bernie supporters did."
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j4qu2 | can some please explain differentiation to me like
i'm 5? | I know how to do the questions but I just don't know what it's all about. Simple,dumbed down explanations are much appreciated! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j4qu2/can_some_please_explain_differentiation_to_me/ | {
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"So you have a ball and you throw it at a tree. You might notice that instead of flying in a straight line it goes up some and then goes down some before hitting the tree, flying in a curve instead of a straight line.\n\nNow if you slow it down a whole lot you can see that for part of it the ball is headed down and for part of it it is headed up, and the direction that the ball is pointed is changing very fast.\n\nIf you wanted to figure out exactly which way it was pointed at any moment before it hit the tree you could use a math thing called differentiation. That finds something called the derivative of the function of the curve. Big words, just call it the derivative. \n\nPretty much you're figuring out what it is doing in a very very short period of time. \n\nIf you draw the path that the ball went it will be a curve. You mark one point where you want to figure out what direction it is going and another one anywhere else along the curve. Then you draw a line between the two points you marked. You'll notice that the line cuts under the curve for the way the ball actually went. Move the second dot closer and closer to the first one along the curve until the line formed by the two doesn't touch the curve anywhere else. The closer you put the two points together the more accurate this will be but you can never use the exact same point twice. \n\nOn paper there is a method to figure out what it would be when you make these points infinitely close together without them ever being the same point, using techniques that a five year old shouldn't try to understand.\n\nBut for five year old level scientific research, you now have a line that is the derivative of the curve at that point.\n",
"The most simple way to put it- It is used to measure the rate of change of something (for example, how distance changes with time, which gives you speed; or how speed changes with time, which gives you acceleration). \n\nYou can keep going deeper into the subject and and use it to solve much more complex problems."
]
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6c8de2 | why did all the spices of the old world come from far away? were there not spices native to western europe? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c8de2/eli5_why_did_all_the_spices_of_the_old_world_come/ | {
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"There are plenty of native European seasonings; think of oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage, garlic, lavender, parsley, carroway, cumin, anise, bay laurel, dill, horseradish, juniper, mint, mustard, saffron, tarragon.\n\nAnyway, as to your plan, you can't make money selling something that anyone can grow in their garden. Exotic spices are profitable because they're scarce and hard to obtain."
]
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||
e90nlw | how does google photos recognize my baby pictures? | I just uploaded my baby pictures to google photos and it immediately put them into my face’s photo album. My friends can’t even recognize me as a baby so how did Google Photos?
It’s so cool! Would love to learn more about it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e90nlw/eli5_how_does_google_photos_recognize_my_baby/ | {
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"text": [
"The same way it can distinguish your friends from you. Or your dog from your baby. It scans the photo and compares it to a large large pool of already identified images and decided what its most likely to be. \n\nBig brother is watching and it’s very smart 👀",
"You uploaded them. That means they're tied to your account. \n\nIt's a face. Image recognition systems are good at detecting faces in human portrait shots.\n\nWhether Google knows it's you or some other baby in your family.....that's speculation.\n\nAnd combined with eye color, eye separation to nose to mouth to ears separation, that's some identifying markers that are used for adult biometric tracking."
]
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|
5p5ccj | what's the difference between neutron stars, pulsars, and quasars? | I've heard all 3 terms used pretty closely when reading about them, but I've never been sure what the actual difference is. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5p5ccj/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_neutron_stars/ | {
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"So a neutron star is what happens when a large star sheds it's outer layer and the internal collapses in on itself after going supernova. These emit a lot of radiation including fast moving neutrons hence the name. \n\nNow if these supernovae happen while rotating fast it gets faster and faster as it shrinks (think of an ice skater spinning and bringing their leg in) if these get fast enough the radiation is emitted only at the poles. This is called a pulsar. \n\nI believe quasars are a result of a large amount of mass falling into a rotating black hole near the centre of a galaxy. As it spins some of the energy of the mass getting ripped appart is kicked out in a similar manner to a pulsar throwing radiation out near the poles.",
"Neutron stars are older stars that have collapsed in on themselves, and now the only thing keeping them from turning into a black hole is the [pressure that neutrons exert](_URL_0_) because they don't like to be squashed into the same place.\n\nPulsars are a type of neutron star spinning very fast in which a beam of radiation is emitted from its magnetic poles. If the magnetic pole is off from the geographic pole (the axis of rotation) it will cause the star to appear to pulsate from certain angles (Imagine a giant laser coming from the north geomagnetic pole in Canada, it would appear to aliens far away that earth was emitting laser late at 24 hour intervals).\n\nA further subtype of pulsar are [magnetars](_URL_1_) which are likely very young pulsars, and are named for their ridiculously strong magnetic fields, strong enough to rip the iron from your blood at a million miles away.\n\nQuasars are a different creature altogether. They are supermassive black holes that existed in the early Universe. We can only see them now because some of them are so far away that their light has only just reached us. They tore through a literally unimaginable amount of material every second, so quickly and with such force that the gas and plasma around it glowed trillions of times brighter than our Sun."
]
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[],
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"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_matter#Concept",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar"
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|
333uod | why do cats ears twitch after being slightly touched? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/333uod/eli5_why_do_cats_ears_twitch_after_being_slightly/ | {
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"Dog's ears do this too, and I think it's a reflex meant to protect the ears. In nature, if something touches your ears, it means one of two things:\n\n1. It's harmless. It doesn't matter what you do.\n\n2. The thing that just touched your ear is about to rip it off your skull.\n\nSince losing the ear is a huge cost and the reflex has almost no cost at all, having the reflex makes perfect sense.",
"I think the ears twitch if there is something that feels annoying or uncomfortable to the cat's ears. I have brushed my cats ears before without them twitching at all, which is why I don't think the twitching is only a reflex. Or at least it's a reflex in response to annoyance, not just to a light touch."
]
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6kfip5 | life on earth has existed for millions of years, growing and adapting. so why do small amounts of exposure to the sun still harm its organisms? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kfip5/eli5_life_on_earth_has_existed_for_millions_of/ | {
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"Because for most of the world, while it's harmful, it doesn't kill you before you reproduce. So there's little evolutionary pressure that favors a mutation that has a characteristic that makes sun less harmful.\n\nUnless you live near equator like Africa...where your skin tone is ...dark. some say it could be even called black!",
"Your premise is false. Small amounts of exposure to the sun usually do *not* harm organisms. \n\nThe exceptions are organisms that have evolved to live in non-sunny locations."
]
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8z2z5m | why do capacitors in crt tvs from 50 years ago still work, but every lcd i've had blew a capacitor in less than 5 years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8z2z5m/eli5_why_do_capacitors_in_crt_tvs_from_50_years/ | {
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"Probably not the answer you're looking for but I'd guess it was them intentionally installing cheaper/lower quality ones they know will fail so you upgrade sooner. Planned obsolescence... But that's just my opinion... No facts or anything to back this up. Lol",
"Planned obsolescence. When the model T was invented, people would buy one and it would last a lifetime. Companies had to start making their cars intentionally shit so you'd pay more to maintain and replace them. ",
"people like to parrot *planned obsolescence* but there is a much simpler explanation that does not require the assumption of any malice on the part of manufacturers.\n\nit is just cheaper to make and more profitable to sell a product which works exactly as long as it is warrantied for and not much longer. the buyer is promised a certain expectation and the seller meets it. if the product exceeds the specified life, it is over engineered and the next round of cost cutting in the manufacturing process will identify and eliminate the expensive step (I.e. capacitors , or any other part for that matter, will be iterated down the quality hierarchy until the product fails minimum lifetime requirements). over years and decades of design and engineering the build quality settles to the minimum demanded by the market. in is an art that separates the small players from the industry juggernauts.\n\nthat's right. it takes two hands to clap. TVs don't last 20 years because no one is willing to pay for one that does. besides, they are going to upgrade in a few yrs time anyway and the old one is going to the landfill so it better be cheap. people want the latest tech bells and whistles which come along every 1-2 yrs (any electronic devices come to mind?) at an affordable price . incidentally, that's how long things tend to last. because neither buyer nor seller really needs it to last."
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b5v8tq | how do dogs always manage to shed when it's getting warmer? | Is it based on the seasons? The temperature?
Secondary question: will climate change affect shed times? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b5v8tq/eli5_how_do_dogs_always_manage_to_shed_when_its/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"They are responding to the change in the length of the day associated with the passing seasons. \n\nEDIT: Because climate change does not affect the length of the day, it will not affect this. "
]
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[]
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|
2o9pvt | just say.. we had the technology to lasso mars and bring it to same position earth is to the sun, would mars eventually be habitable like earth is today? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o9pvt/eli5_just_say_we_had_the_technology_to_lasso_mars/ | {
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"No. In fact, it probably would make Mars *less* habitable. The lower gravity of Mars, combined with its lack of a magnetosphere means that any atmosphere is doomed to be blown away by solar winds. Bringing Mars closer to the Sun would simply subject it to higher intensity winds, stripping away the atmosphere at an increased rate.\n\nThere is more to habitability than distance from the sun.",
"Mars is just barely outside the habitable zone in our solar system. But pulling it closer wouldn't necessarily make it habitable - what you really want is a large body of water and a decent atmosphere.",
"It would increase the surface temprature and possibly melt what little ice there is on the planet.\n\nHowever, Mars is small. Only 10% the size of Earth. This means it has cooled (small things lose heat quicker than big things) and is now just a lump of rock. In order to sustain an atmosphere properly it requires a magnetosphere. A magnetosphere is generated by a molten metal core spinning inside the planet, this deflects the harmful particles which are being fired from the Sun.\n\nSo without having a molten core, Mars would not be able to generate a magnetosphere and it's very thin atmosphere would be destroyed by particle erosion (as it would be closer to the sun).\n\nNot only that there would be next to no water, apart from some polar ice melt water.\n\nIt could possibly sustain microbial life (if the ingredients already exist on Mars) but not much more than that.",
"Probably not. Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, so we'd probably have to add in some extra atmosphere, and maybe some mass to keep it there. The atmosphere has a different composition from Earth's so, we'd have to fix that too. Plants and bacteria would need to be added in order, and gradually. Plants and bacteria perform many actions that make Earth habitable. Eventually though, yes, it would probably be possible to make Mars habitable.",
"Thanks for the feedback",
"I always thought about this. If we were able to master nuclear fusion, we could build a mini sun to orbit around mars feeding it energy.\n\nThen we would need to give Mars a magnetosphere. Our magnetosphere comes from our molten iron core. I doubt this could be replicated. \n\nSince mars is less dense, and not volcanically active we could theoretically build cities underneath the surface and avoid the radiation all together. Would it be warmer underneath mars? Idk...\n\nIt's cool to think about though."
]
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