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2t9kg8 | can somebody please explain what /r/galacticpeacekeepers and all the associated subreddits are? | I've been looking through this sub and some that are associated with it. I think I may have bleeding in my brain after reading some of those posts. Is there some story behind this or is it all nonsense? I'm so confused it hurts. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t9kg8/eli5_can_somebody_please_explain_what/ | {
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"/r/galacticpeacekeepers\n\nA link to help out. Since OP obviously doesn't care about you.",
"Red, Green, and Blue took over The Seventh World and enslaved its inhabitants. The Galactic Peacekeepers are trying to free them.",
"Your question may be more appropriate in /r/OutOfTheLoop ",
"My guess is that it's a Reddit-based attempt to do role-playing in the \"universe\" of /r/seventhworldproblems. "
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8ijx7a | what property in substances cause light to speed up or slow down | How can light slow down then suddenly speed up. For example, if i send a beam of light through glass, it defracts at a certain angle and light slows down. Once it pass through the glass it speeds up. How does this occur? Shouldn't energy just be lost and not be regained? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ijx7a/eli5_what_property_in_substances_cause_light_to/ | {
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"Light is an electromagnetic wave. The atoms in a substance act as barriers to the propagation of the wave. At each barrier, the wave bends and interferes with other parts of the wave. All-in-all the wave will interfere with itself in such a way as to bend AND slow down the resulting wave crests, even though each part of the wave propagates at *c* (300,000 km/s). It's similar to the \"bouncing around between atoms\" explanation, but fundamentally has to do with *wave propagation and interference* rather than particle behavior."
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40utmo | how cloud storage systems (email, google drive, onedrive) don't run out of storage | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40utmo/eli5how_cloud_storage_systems_email_google_drive/ | {
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"The very simple answer is that they can always add mode storage as usage grows. Same way you can add storage to your home system. ",
"Cloud providers run specialized storage software that allows for any amount of data to be served by clusters of many, many harddrives. The software automatically keeps several copies of the data spread across many of the harddrives so one HD failure is not catastrophic. The software automatically \"balances\" the data as needed allowing for HD replacement and addition.\n\n\nSome of the other replies here show you the vast amount of harddrives that are available. Drives are failing all the time and have to be replaced. Also, new drives are added frequently. Often, the new harddrives are much bigger in capacity than the older drives that they replace. \n\n\n"
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1qi7uf | the two dollar bill. | Why do they make them? Why do they seem so rare, but also not very rare at all? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qi7uf/eli5_the_two_dollar_bill/ | {
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"I'm going to assume you're from the US.\n\nTwo dollar bills make up a small amount of the notes in circulation, but they are still being produced so they aren't \"rare\" like old prints and other collectable currency.\n\nIf you consider the other denominations they seem like a sensible fit: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. They're obviously useful for buying small items or making up change, it means you can carry less $1 bills and have a low chance of needing note change (as opposed to the $5 and up).\n\nThere's no real practical reason why they don't print more to drive up circulation, but in general people are used to just using the one dollar bill. According to Wikipedia some people consider two dollar bills unlucky, and because some store owners don't actually know they're a real thing some people have had trouble trying to spend them.",
"They make them because Congress passed a law in 1862 authorizing them, and the law has never been repealed.\n\nThey seem rare because people don't spend them. When they get $2 bills, many people hoard them as a novelty. If you want $2 bills, it's literally as easy as going to the bank and asking for them. I routinely get $2 bills from the bank, typically $200 at a time, with the express purpose of circulating them, and probably 80% of the time they have at least a few in the drawer. I've never had a problem spending them. Some cashiers get confused and don't know where to put them in the till, and others have no visible reaction at all. I spend them as tips a lot. For the girl who cuts my hair I'm basically the Tooth Fairy's banker as she takes the $2s I give her and gives them to her kids.\n\nRecently I had the same idea about halves (aka the 50¢ piece). Those they actually don't make anymore other than for collectors; the last halves intended for circulation were minted in 2002. To get some I had to have the bank order them for me, and they only come in boxes of $500. (For more information see /r/crh, where people order halves looking for older ones that are made of silver.)"
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5lz4kl | why do american corporations have the same constitutional rights as citizens? isn't this the reason they are able to become so corrupt and able to get all their power and control? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lz4kl/eli5_why_do_american_corporations_have_the_same/ | {
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" > The basis for allowing corporations to assert protection under the U.S. Constitution is that they are organizations of people, and the people should not be deprived of their constitutional rights when they act collectively. In this view, treating corporations as \"persons\" is a convenient legal fiction which allows corporations to sue and to be sued, provides a single entity for easier taxation and regulation, simplifies complex transactions that would otherwise involve, in the case of large corporations, thousands of people, and protects the individual rights of the shareholders as well as the right of association.\n\nSource: Wikipedia\n\nFrom the same source, it is clear corporations do **NOT** get all the same Constitutional rights as individuals (such as the 5th Amendment). ",
"First, as pointed out below, corporations do not have the same rights as people, but they do have a certain legal personhood, which includes some rights.\n\nWhy? Well, it's sort of the point of a corporation. The while idea, since they first came into existence, was that the corporation existed as a distinct legal entity from the people that owned or ran it. \n\nAnd, in some ways, it's a benefit in the legal field. That a corporation is a person means it can be sued, that it can own and have responsibility for property, that it can be taxed, etc... \n\nThe controversies have less to do with the idea of corporations bring people than with the extention of particular legal rights to corporations, like free speech rights or religious rights, where there's less clearly a historical basis."
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2nepbc | why don't web pages refresh automatically after failing to load the first time? | When at work, a large hospital with shaky internet connection, and load a page, loading sometimes "stalls". A spinning icon indicates that the page is loading, but nothing comes up. At this point, even if I wait for say half a minut or more, nothing happens. But if I manually refresh the page at any point, it loads instanly. Just as if the browser just tries to load the page once, and then gives up. It happens too often for it to be my internet connectivity returning in the exact moment i press refresh.
Shouldn't modern browsers be more intelligent and recognise that the page hasn't loaded and just automatically reload after 5-10 seconds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nepbc/eli5_why_dont_web_pages_refresh_automatically/ | {
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"A browser doesn't necessarily know what's slowing down the network. All it knows is that the server has told it more data is coming, but has not yet been provided.\n\nA few reasons that the data isn't there yet:\n\n* It hasn't been generated yet\n* It is stuck on a slow transit (satellite)\n* The pre-routed network path has broken, and the network is \"repairing\" itself\n* Your firewall has stopped something\n* The server has crashed, but in a way that didn't pass on that information\n* Network packets have arrived out-of-order, so your computer is trying to figure it out.\n* The server thinks your connection is spam, and is deliberately giving you a slow connection.\n\nHow can the browser determine which of these is causing the slowdown?"
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2vbgpk | does being under anesthesia "count" as sleep to your body? | Just wondering.
Edit: Holy shit, this is the most commented thing I've ever posted! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vbgpk/eli5_does_being_under_anesthesia_count_as_sleep/ | {
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"What if you're put under anaesthesia whilst asleep?",
"No it does not. As I had it explained to me once after I inquired why I was so tired after being under, basically your body knows it's unnatural and is fighting it. ",
"People under anesthesia comment that it is literally like a piece of time being taken from you. There was a Radiolab podcast called \"Black Box\" that had a bit on anesthesia and how it works, and they talked about how one guy was on the operating table arguing with his surgeon about how the anesthesia wasn't working and then SNAP - he's in a room sitting there and the surgery is over and it's literally like someone just edited out the time he was under.\n\nSo I would imagine it's not like sleep.\n\nEDIT: Here is the Radiolab episode - the anesthesia story is at the very top: _URL_0_",
"There is a small amount of similarity in terms of electrical activity, but the two processes are chemically distinct.\n\nThe real difference however comes from the surgical procedure you are likely receiving, the stress, cortisol, sympathetic activation produce a vastly different physiological state to natural sleep.",
"I have sleep issues, at least for the last ten years. I've been put under twice (or three times if you count the time I woke up in the middle of a procedure).\n\nIMHO, it counts as sleep. I always wake up feeling way better than when I went in, even when you count the pain of the scar/procedure in there.",
"I asked that to an anesthesiologist, and she told me that after anesthesia people are usually very sleepy because of the stress the body endures during the surgery. \n\nBut I didn't thought about asking what would happen if no procedure is done to the body, if it is only anesthetized, how would affect sleepiness afterwards. After all, Michael Jackson's doctor had to anesthetize him with Propofol so he could sleep... and we know how that ended.",
"Am I the only person who feels like they just fell asleep every morning when they wake up? The way anesthesia is being described is exactly how I describe every night.",
"How anesthesia works isn't completely understood. \n\nObservations indicate that while anesthetized the hemispheres of your brain don't communicate with eachother. \n\nAll of the individual parts of your brain are still on and working, they just aren't communicating with eachother. This interrupts consciousness and the transmission of signals like pain.",
"No. You don't have normal dreaming or REM sleep. One reason Michael Jackson was acting so out of it in the months leading up to his death was that he didn't have any normal sleep because that doctor was giving him Propofol every night. He felt like he slept but his brain wasn't refreshing itself the way it's supposed to.",
"No, it doesn't. You don't get REM cycles and then your body literally needs to catch up on REM sleep. You might have more REM cycles than usual the next time you sleep or you might be way more tired than normal. Or both. ",
"No. Sleep is a complex state that is not simply just reduced activity. Parts involve complex processing by various areas of the brain, possibly enhancing memory storage and \"cleaning\" junk, other parts are periods of reduced activity.\n\nGeneral anesthesia globally suppresses brain function and so prevents the brain from actually taking advantage of the downtime. **However**, it should be noted that during minor procedures (i.e dental surgery, etc) you are not actually \"knocked out\". Usually you're put under what's called \"Twilight sedation\" in which you are mostly conscious and responsive, but your memory is suppressed. This enables you to be responsive and cooperative with the surgeon, such as moving or opening your mouth when needed. Generally you're not fully awake, but sort of sleepy/extremely relaxed. Pain kills are administered separately so you're not being tortured.",
"I went into surgery for 1 hour and the anesthesia was a weird experience because it was so immediate and alien:\n\n* I am worried about needles, so the nurse asked me to take a deep breath while she put the needle in my hand.\n* after the needle was in, I asked her if I was going to feel high, sleepy, and how long it was going to take.\n* She told me that I would get sleepy and then would go to sleep. They would take me to surgery and then bring me back to recovery where I would be a bit confused for a bit.\n* I was stressed over the pain and seeing the needle in my hand, so I closed my eyes to take a deep breath and to pay attention to getting high or tired. So I am paying attention to how I feel.\n* I asked her to tell me when she was going to inject the anesthesia and she replied \"You are done. The surgery is over.\"\n* I thought she was joking, but looked down at my leg and there was a drainage tube and the swelling (I had a huge hematoma from a bike accident) was gone.\n* The TL:DR version of this story is \"Someone turned an internal switch on and of for about 1.5 hours where I did not exist...\"\n\nVery, very peculiar as I wasn't groggy, high or sleepy. The pain in the hand from the anesthesia line was still there just as the pain from my original injury. Nothing felt different!\n\n",
"I had surgery last month. One moment I was in the operating room feeling scared as they put the mask on me, the next I'm waking up in the recovery room two hours later. It didn't feel like sleep. Like most people, over the course of the next day or two I \"detoxed\" from the anasthesia which is characterised by strong emotional reactions. A lot of people report getting bouts of sobbing. I would just suddenly get very angry. Again, not much like sleep. But it's hard to judge the recuperative effects, because after using it you're in the hospital and not generally on a normal sleep/wake/productive cycle.\n\nI can say that the pain medication definitely puts you to sleep, but it doesn't seem to \"count\" for the body. Going to work the morning after a night of percocet-induced sleep was a lot like going in on just a couple hours of sleep. I needed the sober rest in order to feel refreshed. ",
"Did some medical mission trips to Haiti with a surgeon and an anesthesiologist. The way he described it was getting the person under is easy, a certain amount of meds is applied to till the person slips into unconsciousness. The difficult part was keeping the person in the \"sweet spot\" so they don't wake up mid-surgery but aren't given too much of the meds where they actually never wake up again. Watching him work was akin to seeing a surfer shred beautiful waves. He was so fluid in adding/subtracting meds and just knowing exactly what to do and when to do it.",
"While anaesthesia is not sleep it does share a number of similar characteristics with it and patients that have been sleep deprived (usually because of their illness) before surgery report that they feel far more rested after surgery which does to some extent imply that being anaesthetised is similar to being in a sleep state.",
"I've had anesthesia several times for various procedures (broken jaw, broken wrist, and colonoscopies). I often wonder if dying is similar to anesthesia. In almost all my anesthesia experiences, it's like someone is closing the lights around you, you get tunnel hearing/vision and you can't stop it from happening. Everything starts to go dark and then bang - No thought, no nothing.",
"I've had both twilight and general anesthesia. Twilight for oral surgery is not at all the same as surgical general anesthesia. I actually dreamed I was Tom Sawyer while under for my wisdom teeth, for shoulder surgery I have time that I cannot account for and woke up in another room disoriented because as far as I was concerned I blinked and the room changed.\n\nThat said, the morphine afterwards was Ia really euphoric sensation, one moment I was in excruciating pain and two plungers into the IV later I was pain free outside of general stiffness in my arm and shoulder.\n\nThe real danger I saw for potential to create abuse were the pills. Taking the pills most efficiently will completely waste you, near minimal dosing schedule and split the dose by 30 minutes to prevent a drop in pain suppression. I woke up Monday morning, surgery was Friday, and could barely walk down the hall because I was so high. I stopped the pills at that point because up until then the pain was enough to \"balance\" it out.\n\nI feel sorry for people that get hooked on opiates, compared to the euphoria they induce regular life sucks.",
"Different or not, the two times ive been under have actually been amazing. Both were for surgeries but each time I woke feeling like I had just gotten the best sleep ever. The more amazing part was that I went right back to sleep afterwards.",
"They put me under during an endoscopy. All I remember was this thick fluid travelling up a tube connected to my arm. I had this idea of trying to challenge the effects and stay awake. As soon as the fluid entered my arm I was gone. There was no struggle, no time at all for my feeble attempt. The lights simply went out, except even that sensation wasn't actually experienced. I woke up in the recovery room with absolutely no concept of any time passing, or any recollection of anything. Very different from sleep. I imagine death is very similar, unless of course there is an afterlife or something. In hindsight it was blissful nothingness, and if being dead is the same way, then it would be a great way to experience it. I remember thinking if I died while under I would never have known it, and I can't think of a better way of going. As someone with a healthy fear of dying, the thought did cross my mind that it would have been good to die that day without any fear leading up to it, and without actually experiencing it.",
"I dunno. With the 2 most recent surgeries I've had under general anaesthesia the waking up experience is very similar to waking up from actual sleep - as I was coming round and was in a lighter sleep I had dreams. When I opened my eyes and regained conscious fully I knew that I had been dreaming but couldn't recall any details. \n\nAlso although I lost time, it didn't feel like I closed my eyes and opened them 2 seconds later. I felt like time had passed, and perhaps the light dreaming prior to waking up helped reinforce that. \n\nBut, YMMV. ",
"Training anaesthetist here. Sleep has a distinct structure made up of various phases through which the brain cycles repeatedly overnight. Each cycle takes 90min. Anaesthesia completely abolishes this architecture and is very different to sleep. Furthermore, sleep is a state that is easily reversible, distinct from anaesthesia.\n\nTo use a crude analogy. Imagine a scuba diver that is swimming under the water at different depths. At the start she is just under the surface which represents light sleep. She then descends slowly to her maximum depth and spends about half her time there. It's now a bit harder for her to get to the surface but still possible. After 45min swimming deeply, she slowly ascends to the surface. This is repeated for 7-9 hours.\n\nNow, anaesthesia is like a big ass diving bell that gets dropped straight to the bottom of the ocean and which is not coming back up until the dude operating the winch says it's time. \n\nMore detail about sleep (not ELI5):\n\nSleep is divided up into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) & amp; Non-REM sleep. we spend 80% of sleep in NREM & amp; 20% in REM. Different phases of sleep can be identified on electroencephalogram (EEG) which when awake displays high frequency, low amplitude beta & amp; gamma waves. \n\nREM sleep is characterised by a disorganised EEG similar to the waking state, rapid jerking eye movements, increased blood pressure & amp; heart rate, nonsensical dreams (\"I went down a water slide with Winston Churchill\") & amp; loss of muscle tone, presumably so we don't act out our dreams.\n\nNREM sleep has four phases. 1, Drowsy, 2, Established, 3, Transitionary, 4, Deep. EEG waves become progressively slower and larger (alpha, theta then delta waves). We spend 50% of sleep in phase 2 NREM. Phase 4 is characterised by difficult rousing and organised dreams (\"I have a meeting to get to tomorrow morning\"). Deep NREM sleep is also the phase associated with parasomnias (e.g. sleepwalking, sleep talking), night terrors and bed wetting in children. The EEG of anaesthesia varies depending on the agents used but most resembles the synchronised low frequency, high amplitude wave of phase 3/4 NREM. \n\n",
"Oh dear god I read this as \"Dogs being under anesthesia...\" and I questioned my whole life for a solid three seconds.",
"I have been put under a number of times and i can say from my personal experience it is nothing like sleep. It is what i imagine death to be like. No pain, no thought. It's not darkness, or a black void or white light or anything else. It's just nothing. You feel nothing while you are under, to the point where it feels like that time was stolen or has been erased from existence. You remember a point before being put under, and then there was nothing until the moment you awake. \n\nAnd when you finally emerge from the nothingness you get none of the benefits of sleep. You do not feel rested, you do not feel calmed, you do not feel any of the benefits of sleep. You are stiff, often \"fuzzy\" in a way that is unlike intoxication but more like you simply can't get your brain to work normally for a while, and you feel even more exhausted than when you went in. ",
"Nope. For me it was just a blackness which I semi-noticed was happening. It was a limbo, really hard to explain. Then I woke up to the nurses talking about how attractive I was. 10/10 would get put to sleep again. ",
"I actually went under general anasthetic yesterday and it really is like passing out and waking a second later. However waking up is a slow procedure. My eyes were shut for a while whilst I was waking up as I was trying to orientate myself to the noise.\n\nAnother thing that I realised is that because it feels like such a short time frame, I woke up thinking about the same thing I was thinking about as I fell to sleep. \nIn fact before I fell to sleep I felt like I was going to cry for personal reasons but I didnt as I was put under the anasthetic. When I woke up I could feel my eyes watering and few tears slipped down my face. I have no idea whether it was because I was nearly crying before or perhaps it was just an effect of the anasthetic.",
"Anaesthetist (in Australia) here.\n\nHaving a General Anaesthetic is nothing like normal sleep. It is a much much deeper level of unconsciousness. The brain is not a single homogeneous organ - it is made up of lots of bits, each with different blood supply, function, and level of activity. When you sleep, parts of the brain get decreased activity, but especially in REM sleep, parts of the brain actually have increased activity. Why we need sleep and why we awake refreshed and rested is a mystery.\n\nA GA sedates all parts of the brain. We have monitors that can detect brain activity and we can actually give enough anaesthetic that we can stop all electrical activity in the frontal lobes, (called an iso-electric EEG) and presumably other parts of the brain too. Its still amazes me that this is completely reversible. Its like shutting down a computer - nothing left in RAM, and no software running, but the hard drive is still undisturbed and the computer can re-boot.\n\nIf not carefully controlled, the level of unconsciousness in a GA is so deep that it can affect respiration so you could stop breathing. Systemic side effects of the drugs include a drop in blood pressure, that also can be life-threatening. I always explain to my patients that anyone can give a general anaesthetic, its the keeping people alive after that can be tricky.\n\nMost of my patients describe a very peaceful and rested feeling after a GA, some of that is due to narcotic drugs we use, but some may be from the rest in electrical activity in the brain. Of course, the pain from the surgery can negate those peaceful feelings.\n\nWhatever benefits true sleep gives us (and what those benefits are are a mystery at a physiologic level), I doubt that a GA replicates. If Michael Jackson used propofol to help his insomnia, I suspect it made his sleep problems worse in the long term, and obviously its unmonitored and inexpert use caused his death."
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37bxw8 | why is it so difficult to delete online accounts? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37bxw8/eli5why_is_it_so_difficult_to_delete_online/ | {
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"Firstly, it's because your data is the most valuable thing about you. Your accounts contain all sorts of information from the obvious (your email address) to the unusual (how often you go between log-ins). Companies need this data more than they need you as a user. They can either use it to work out how well they're performing (number of dormant accounts, how many accounts are reactivated after an advertising campaign), or sell it to another company for some serious money. \n\nSecondly, data is very small and very easy to store. Most developers don't waste time and energy purging their databases because even freeing up several hundred thousand entries would only save them about $20 per year in storage space. They'd rather roll out a new feature to gain users, or correct existing problems. \n\nThere is also an element of vanity - 1 million users looks so much better to your shareholders and on adverts than 100k users and 900k dead accounts. ",
"With some technical background I can say it is very hard to truly delete data, and I don't mean restoring something delete from a hard drive. Lots of information is stored in databases, these databases have different tables, in a reddit world there is likely a table with user names, one with upvotes and one with comments. All these tables are referencing each other (by your user id or something).\n\nNow, when you delete your account, what do you do? You could just change the name to \"deleted user\". What about all your upvotes, do we need to remove them and recalculate totals from years ago? Your comments, should they be deleted as well? Most of the time what happens is that the user gets marked as \"deleted\" and all references stay there, the comments might not be shown anymore, but they are still there hidden.\n\nThen there a backups, when you delete your account today, what about the backups from last week? Nobody has the resources to clean them up.\n\nWhere am I going here...? It is just such a nightmare to truly delete an account, and that's maybe the reason why there is no delete account function, or if there is it might be more like a \"hide my account\" feature. That's the reason why my \"website\" has no delete account feature... I just couldn't do it, and I don't feel like lying to you about it :)",
"To keep you on the website so you keep making money. If you just say \"fuck it\" and don't delete your account, you've kept your account. This avoids the \"need to make an account\" issue that might keep you away\n\nThey have no incentive to make it easy, so they don't. They make it annoying"
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141b19 | what a "non-member observer state" is? | All this with Palestine, I don't exactly understand what a non-member observer state means for Palestine and Israel?
^Without ^starting ^any ^huge ^debates ^please | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/141b19/eli5_what_a_nonmember_observer_state_is/ | {
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"State = The UN recognizes Palestine as a country\n\nObserver = Palestine can send a representative to listen to UN meetings\n\nNon-member = Palestine's representative can't vote on UN issues"
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1fioms | why do low-resolution videos viewed in full-screen look blurry and not pixelated? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fioms/eli5_why_do_lowresolution_videos_viewed_in/ | {
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"Because the program you're using decided that it would handle stretching videos by blending colors together instead of pixelating it.",
"Because most modern video players use a method of post-processing that takes chunks of pixels from one area and another chunk from another area and guessing at the transitions to fill in between them. This makes images look blurry. ",
"If these videos were actually pixelated when resized, they would look really yucky.\n\nThere's a whole bunch of [image scaling algorithms](_URL_0_) that basically figure out the best way to take an image and make it big."
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2mvb8e | what is group velocity and how can it be faster than the speed of light? | In [this article](_URL_0_) a physicist managed to make sound travel at a group velocity that is faster than the speed of light. I understand that nothing can move faster. Can someone explain what's the catch here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mvb8e/eli5_what_is_group_velocity_and_how_can_it_be/ | {
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"Physics Grad Student here.\n\nSo what is important is the assumption that \"nothing can move faster than light\". This is something you always hear which, however is not actually true. The speed of light as a maximum limit of speed is only restricted to the transmission of *information*. The correct phrasing would thus be:\n\n*Information cannot move faster than the speed of light.*\n\nAnd by information I also mean energy, matter etc.\nBut what does that mean?\n\nEXAMPLE:\n\nImagine a car is draggin a metal rod like [this](_URL_0_). Now the rod is dragged over a finish line (green). While the car moves forward, the intersection between rod and finish line (red) will move both along the rod and the finish line (to the left). If the angle between the rod and the finish line is really small and the car moves really fast, the red dot could move faster than the speed of light.\nHowever, by this no information would be transferred. \n\nThis is the same principle that is mentioned in your given article. It says \"However, special relativity is not violated in these experiments because they do not involve the transfer of information, matter or energy.\" at the end of the third paragraph. I don't really know *what* is moving faster than light but the important fact is that it is just the idea of something and not ctual information/energy/matter etc. \n\n\nEDIT: Information added."
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7ls2ik | why is salmon the only fish that is smoked? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ls2ik/eli5_why_is_salmon_the_only_fish_that_is_smoked/ | {
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"It's not. My favorite is smoked haddock aka finnan haddie. Smoked whitefish is a standard at Jewish delis. Smoked trout, smoked herring (kippers)...and of course smoked oysters.",
"It's not. You can smoke any fish. Other commonly smoked fishes are whitefish, cod, mackerel, herring, trout, halibut, sable, and eel. You might only commonly encounter smoked salmon, but that's more to do with the cuisine of where you're from than anything else. ",
"Smoked herring is popular, but is usually sold in a tin rather than in a pouch like salmon. I also get smoked clams and oysters packed that way. Fish like trout smokes nicely but it's too full of tiny bones to be really commercially viable in my opinion.",
"It’s not, mackerel, haddock and kippers are other fish I can think of off the top of my head that I can and have got from the supermarket. I’m sure there are others too, but when I get fish I tend to get unsmoked fish except for smoked haddock."
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yxpcs | why society shelters children from knowing about sexuality | I'm not saying they should teach it in schools or anything, but why shouldn't a parent feel comfortable telling their five-year-old where babies come from, if they ask?
Edit: I'm not only talking about parent-to-child conversations. We shelter our children from sexuality in movies and TV, and I'm sure there are lots of other examples that I'm missing right now. But why do we shelter them more from sex than from violence, which really *should* be far more controversial than sex IMO? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yxpcs/eli5_why_society_shelters_children_from_knowing/ | {
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"Because Jesus doesn't like it. And if you ask me again God's gonna punish you. Now go to your room.",
"I think mostly its a generational thing, their parents didn't tell them so they don't know 'how' or they feel awkward about it. throw back a couple generations and there are some serious religious taboos at the root of those.\n\nSo thats basically it, people don't like to/find it awkward because its a taboo, its a taboo because their parents didn't because their parents didn't because their parents didn't because religion didn't permit such discussions.",
"It varies from culture to culture. In America, the problem is religion. In the Netherlands they prefer to show bare breasts than people's brains getting blown out with firearms. Somehow, in the US, we prefer violence to sex.\n\nObviously, with sex comes health issues, and, in the past, getting pregnant young could literally be a death sentence. However, before child pornography was universally banned, it was a lot more commonplace than you'd think, all over the world. \n\nIn Ancient Egypt, children helping in sex acts are even depicted in ancient carved depictions. In Ancient Greece, it was commonplace for older men to have a young boy companion.\n\nThe bottom line is that these lines of sexuality have been fairly elastic from culture to culture. There are good reasons for protecting children from having sex, but the shaming and total sheltering has proved to cause more harm than good. Especially, considering that we have the ability to address the physical and mental health issues in a way that has never existed in the vast majority of human history.\n\nA lot of the issues about sex come down to ownership. Man made a lot of very specific rules so that it was clear who owned what woman and how. By and large, it is a complex subject you ask about. I recommend heading over to /r/Anthropology, and getting some of their opinions.",
"It's more of a western issue, but I don't think the issue is religion. That's what people like to blame, but I think it's really the uncomfortableness of it all. Nobody wants to explain that to kids. They don't want to think about kids having sex, which does actually get attempted sometimes after the explanation. There's levels you want to get to that go with the child's understanding."
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68wswd | how do the toasters at subway get a crispy toast so fast | Microwaves make bread soggy but a toaster oven isn't nearly as fast, what is this wizardry? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68wswd/eli5_how_do_the_toasters_at_subway_get_a_crispy/ | {
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"Used to work at Subway, those ovens are always around 500°. Like melt your glove to your hand hot. That's why we used a paddle to insert/remove subs."
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5796sn | why is the earth elliptical? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5796sn/eli5_why_is_the_earth_elliptical/ | {
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"The earth spins on its axis so it bulges in the middle. That's pretty much the whole story. Jupiter and Saturn are much larger and rotate even faster so you can see how oval they are in a telescope or in pictures. The earth is so nearly circular that the eye can't see the equatorial bulge.\n\nNo, the tidal forces due to the moon and the sun have virtually no effect. Most ocean tides are only a metre or two but the equatorial bulge is many kilometres.",
"When stuff is in space, there's nothing to keep it flat. If something is small, big things make them go nearer - it's like when you jump, you go back to the ground because it's so much bigger than you. When you get a lot of things together with nothing else around, they stay together. And the more things you have, the more it turns into a ball, because that's the shape things make when they're closest to all the other things. So that's why the Earth is mostly like a ball.\n\nBut the Earth isn't still. It's actually spinning round and round. You know how when you're on a roundabout, and it's going really really fast, it makes you feel like you're going to get thrown off? That's what happens to the Earth as well. Look at this ball here. When I spin it, the bits at the top and the bottom don't move much, do they? But the bit in the middle moves a lot. Because the Earth is moving so fast around the middle, it gets a bit bulgy there - not so much as you'd notice, but a bit.\n\nDoes that help?"
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4l4gn6 | why do some games have a problem with cheaters(cs:go) and some don't(rocket league)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4l4gn6/eli5_why_do_some_games_have_a_problem_with/ | {
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"For one, you need a good easy way to cheat. You can do this by either giving you an unfair advantage, (Like giving you more info than the opponent) or by letting the computer do stuff for you its very good at, that humans are bad at.\n\nSo in Counter Strike, you can have the computer give you an unfair advantage by giving you information in the form of maphacking. this doesn't work in Rocket League as there aren't any walls or other things that obscure information.\n\nThe other thing is letting computers do stuff that humans suck at, like aiming. In CS:Go this is really easy, just point the cursor at the enemy, and give the fire command. In rocket league, the computer would have to drive the entire car. and it isn't aiming at a point and click target, its aiming at a goal with goal keepers. \n\nSo to answer your question, in the case of your two examples, its because of the type of game they are. Not by virtue of better security or anything.",
"ELI5 answer:\nCSGO shares a lot of stuff with other similar FPS games (such as it's core engine, etc) and a lot of people know how this stuff works.\n\nStuff like making people appear through walls, or getting the cursor to point and the bad guys is a very common type of advantage, so there's quite a lot of knowledge on how to create this sort of cheat.\nCombine that with the knowledge on how the core stuff (engine) works, it's actually pretty easy to create a cheat and get it out there.\n\nWith Rocket League, it's effectively a game in it's own little niche - there's not a whole load of games that play in the same way. So whilst it does share its core engine with a lot of other games (Unreal engine btw), it uses it in a different way to games like CSGO.\n\nThis means there's not a lot of knowledge out there on how to create an unfair advantage for a player, as even though the core stuff (engine) is known about, the game isn't using it in a similar way as CSGO (for example, there's no walls to show the ball through, and aiming directly at the ball isn't going to give you an advantage).\n\nWhich is why you don't see many cheats for Rocket League.\n\nThis doesn't mean there ARENT any cheats for it however.\nIt'd be fairly straightforward, but not entirely simple, for someone who understands the engine to work out where the ball is going to go and what it will do when it hits the floor or walls, and then draw a line out of it, giving the player an exact idea of where to go to have a perfect interception, but this doesn't give a definitive \"win\" to the player.. (you could sort-of say it's an equivalent of a wallhack without an aimbot in CSGO).\n\nBasically, it comes down to the popularity of the game type and how long that game type's been around.\nThe more common, and longer it's been around, the easier it is to create cheats (as the information on how to do it is more widespread) and vice-versa - AND whether or not someone is likely to PAY for that type of cheat.\n\nNow, anti-cheat devices such as VAC and punkbuster are a whole different story, not really needed for this ELI5",
"More games should just have 'cheat servers'. They see that you are cheating, instead of being banned, you get dumped with the rest of them. One interesting aspect I would change is that the cheater doesn't really know that they been put on a cheat server. It's all subtle. At that point, cheaters vs cheaters, is nothing more than bot vs bot. What's the point in playing the game then?"
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1jmlxx | why isn't catherine, dutchess of cambridge called princess catherine? | I was going to ask why she isn't a princess, but on the new baby's birth registration, the father is HRH Prince William... But she is listed as Catherine Elizabeth, HRH Dutchess of Cambridge. No Princess. However, her occupation is listed as Princess of the UK. Why the difference in title? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jmlxx/why_isnt_catherine_dutchess_of_cambridge_called/ | {
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"I believe because she does not have royal blood - she married into royalty.",
"There are two kinds of princesses: female princes and the wives of princes. The second kind of princess is not *really* a princess, but we sometimes call them that to be polite.\n\nThe same is true for the word \"queen\". The current queen is a female king, but Catherine will only ever be a wife-of-the-king (and then later a mother-of-the-king) which is also called a queen but isn't really one.",
"Queen Elizabeth handed out the titles when they were married. She gave Catherine the title of Duchess, Baroness, and Countess but withheld the title princess. \n\nPrincess of Cambridge would actually be below Duchess of Cambridge and would be reserved for her daughter.",
"did anybody feel like playing crusader kings 2 while reading the post and the answers?",
"When the royal title comes first, it indicates that the person was born to the title. This is why Prince Charles is \"Prince Charles\", rather than \"Charles, Prince of...\" \nInversely, when a person marries into a title, the title is secondary. Thus it was Dianna, Primness of Whales, rather than \"Princess Dianna\".\n",
"Does anybody know why she's still referred to as \"Middleton\" and not Windsor or something?"
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44jczj | what makes dog years different from human years+ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44jczj/eli5_what_makes_dog_years_different_from_human/ | {
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"There's really no such thing as \"dog years\". It's just a way to give a rough estimate of how old a dog is compared to a human lifespan. Humans live roughly seven times a long as dogs (though it varies widely based on breed), so a dog that is 5 years old has lived roughly the same percentage of its expected lifespan as a human who is 35 years old. \n\nThat's all \"dog years\" really are.",
"Dog years don't exist. It's just a way to rationalize to children that dogs have shorter lifespans than humans.",
"It's a way to look at how far through its life a dog is, transposed onto a human scale. I believe the old less accurate version was a dog year = 7 years, so if a dog was 4 years old, 4x7 = 28, so your dog would be developed to a point equivalent to a human 28 years old. \n\nThe more accurate version though is the first 2 years of a dogs life put it to an equivalent stage to a 21 year old human, and after that it is 4 years for every year older your dog is. So a 4 year old dog would be equivalent to a 29 year old human.\n\nThe whole thing is that dogs get to puberty faster and also age and die faster than humans; at 2 years old your dog is already past puberty, while a human takes much longer to reach puberty; at 13 years old, your dog is an old feller, where as that's like the beginning area for puberty for a human."
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3ahmck | why cars don't have built in breathalyzers to prevent drunk driving. | It seems like it'll instantaneously fix the whole drunk driving problem, or at least fix it in a tremendous manner.
It also seems cost effective too since insurance companies will have to pay out less for accidents, so they can provide a discount to insurers.
EDIT: When i say built in, i'm referring to the car not starting unless you pass the breathalyzer test. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ahmck/eli5_why_cars_dont_have_built_in_breathalyzers_to/ | {
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"Because it'd be weirdly invasive to try and force people to buy cars with what amounts to a monitoring system and it wouldn't be effective; you can't police everybody full time and make sure nobody tampers with it to deactivate it or give false readings. ",
"They exist. They're called ignition interlocks and sine people (convicts) are required to have them. Here's the first one that showed up on Bing:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nYes, I use Bing.",
"They're expensive to install & require constant recalibration to be accurate. If you don't regularly check it, people would just disable them.\n\n...and since 99% of people *don't drink and drive* you'd be penalizing everyone for the mistakes of a few people.",
"This is one of those cases that the desired results don't outweigh the potential drawbacks. First, when we look at the percentage of individuals driving drunk for a trip in any given day vs. the number of total drivers doing the total number of trips during the day we find that there are only 300 thousand / day (according to the FBI). That sounds like a lot, until you realize that accounts for only about 0.02% of the daily 1.12 *billion* trips per day (2001, NHTS). In other words, it'd be an inconvenience 99.98% of the time. Not to mention it's very costly to implement, and has a habit of creating a point of failure that on occasion prevents cars from starting. Or suddenly switching off if you miss a blow. That has the potential of *creating* more deaths than it would save. The ends do NOT justify the means."
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7r0mk6 | why does radiation spike and roam | Places like Chernobyl and Fukushima are obviously closed off to the public for radiation. I understand that objects can absorb radiation and thus become radiated, but how is it that when walking around outside these places, radiation can spike? Or one second you can be fine, but the next you have to move because the radiation is changing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7r0mk6/eli5_why_does_radiation_spike_and_roam/ | {
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"What is radiating are tiny radioactive particles. Like dust, they can accumulate in certain places because of natural forces such as wind or rain. In your house or flat, dust usually accumulates in certain places, yes? That happens to radioactive particles too. Sometimes spikes emerge from such spots. What also causes spikes are bigger clumps of radioactive material (imagine a piece of the reactor shell that was blown away by an explosion). "
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fj3sno | why can your body stop the bleeding from a small cut over the course of a few minutes, but bruises can continue to develop and worsen over the course of a few days? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fj3sno/eli5_why_can_your_body_stop_the_bleeding_from_a/ | {
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"What you're seeing isn't the bruise getting worse but the blood spreading out. When you get a cut say on your finger, the blood leaves your body and the wound closes. A bruise is a localized, internal bleed, so even after the capillaries close off, there's nowhere for the blood that's already leaked out to go, so it spreads out in the surrounding tissue until your body clears it.",
"Well when you get a cut the blood rushes there to clot and stop the bleeding however a bruise is damaged tissue and takes more time to heal",
"A bruise is from thousands of capillaries in the area breaking and releasing a little bit of blood into the surrounding tissue. The breaks in the vessels will clot of just as fast, if not faster than those from a cut. The reason it changes color/intensity over time is that the blood will pool in areas that may be easier to see through your skin, and the hemoglobin breaks down into different molecules over time that have different colors"
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fb0g4z | why does covid-19 hurt the market? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fb0g4z/eli5_why_does_covid19_hurt_the_market/ | {
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"If China makes a product for the US and the factory shuts down Because of the virus then there are no products being made. Which means people lose money since they can't sell their product. With the stock market you are investing into companies and such. When the company you're investing into halts production their value goes down.\n\nEdit: so when their value goes down so does their stock price now causing you to lose money.",
"If people are cowering in their homes, afraid to go outside for fear of getting sick, that's bad:\n\n* if those people are workers in the Chinese factory that makes your product, or anything in your supply chain, because \"just-in-time\" optimizations in distribution mean that no company has stock on hand of anything.\n\n* if those people are the worldwide customers that buy your product, or workers in your customer's supply chain management system than arrange for your product to be bought.\n\nThat could hurt a lot of companies to a degree that they didn't presume. The Italian tourism industry is in free fall because of cases in the northern parts of the country. If conditions don't improve by the busy summer travel season, many companies will loose tons of money.",
"Uncertainty and fear it will paralyze businesses and reduce revenue forecasts.\n\nSome companies that produce a lot of stuff in China, for instance, are worried that they wont produce enough goods (since factories are closed) to meet demand and thus will have lower sales than projected.\n\nTrade slows down too. What if we have to quarantine every ship that brings cargo from infected countries? Same for planes delivering cargo overnight.\n\nAirlines are also canceling flights and people are afraid of traveling. So that hurts airlines and hospitality industries.\n\nSo it is a whole host of industries that could be affected that is causing the panic.",
"a lot of chinese companies got shut down. even container ships where stoped. \nas an example: the majority of raw plastic comes from china. now imagine producing anything without plastic. even is it is judt packaging"
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c2gklj | the difference between paraphilia and fetish | I've tried looking in a dictionary and wikipedia and the ICD-10, but I don't really get the difference. Is one a sub-category of the other, or are they separate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c2gklj/eli5_the_difference_between_paraphilia_and_fetish/ | {
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"A paraphilia is something that is harmful to oneself or others and is needed to achieve orgasm. Paraphilias and fetishes are similar, but not every fetish is harmful, and all paraphilias are in some way. These disorders can cause distress or impairment (and those are the only kind recognized in the DSM), and are harmful overall for the individual and/or society.\n\nSome paraphilias are criminal, such as pedophilia and necrophelia, while others are just weird. There isn't any known working treatment or cure. It's kind of a mystery how these things form."
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xj73x | why would a working class person want to vote for a candidate who favors tax breaks for the wealthy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xj73x/eli5_why_would_a_working_class_person_want_to/ | {
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"Because you dont vote for someone based on 1 opinion. Politics dont just boil down to one issue, you look at all of the issues and vote on whomever you agree with more. ",
"Well it matters. Some don't understand economic policies, and just hear tax cuts and think that must be the right idea. Others will vote with their bible. Some vote because they truly believe in trickle-down economics. But it all matters.\n\n(Trying to be as unbiased as I can, so I'm not saying that trickle-down works or not)",
"As John Steinbeck puts it: « Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. »",
"Because people soak up ideas proffered by available media, all of which is owned by people who do favour tax breaks.\n",
"You're asking a loaded question. \"Tax breaks for the wealthy\" is a talking point from the left. In reality, what Republicans put forward is *across the board* tax cuts, meaning tax cuts for everyone. The rationale being that in a down economy, tax cuts can stimulate growth in the business sector.",
"Please don't turn ELI5 into r/politics with leading questions like this.",
"jrsduck makes a good point about the loaded quality of this question, so I'm going to attempt to answer the more neutral question: Why do the working class consistently vote Republican, even though it may be counter to their best interests. \n\nThere was a very interesting article [here](_URL_0_) that sums it up pretty nicely. In reality, the Right has been far and away better and packaging and developing their politics in light of American values (Freedom, Personal Responsibility, Fiscal Responsibility, Religious values), while the Left has constantly appealed to people's best interests. \n\nImagine you are a farmer in, say, Kansas or Kentucky, you wake up every morning and bust your ass to provide food for your family. You take pride in this work ethic, and believe that this desire to work is what has made America great. Also, you live in a moderately secluded area, with your closest neighbor a mile or more away from your home. You have grown up in some semblance of isolation, and enjoy the freedom and sense of solidarity that this provides. About the only connection you have to your community is through your church, which you attend every Sunday as you had since a boy. You don't see many people of different ethnic minorities. hell, you don't see many people at all. \n\nNow, you see two politicians vying for your vote. Politician A says, \"I believe that we should get rid of the government as much as possible. We should cut taxes so that you have more of your money to do with what you think is best. It's not right that the government should take your money and give it to some welfare mom who just sits around all day making babies. Also, I believe that the key to ensuring our safety and global superiority is traditional family values.\" Politician B says, \"I want to make your life better. I think that the Rich should pay more because they have more, so we have services for the poor. Also, I believe that it's right that all people be treated the same, regardless of their race, sex or creed. If we do this, it will be better for the vast majority of Americans.\" \n\nNow of these two politicians, who is more in line with your personal values? Even if you were to get more personally out of politics (although this is iffy given that you are in a rural area that makes it very unlikely you will have access to services), it's still an affront to what you hold dear. \n\nThis, as best I can understand it, is why blue collar working class people tend to vote conservative. ",
"Quite the loaded question, but -\n\nIn general, the thought is that the tax breaks for the wealthy will create more wealth for them, with which they will use to invest more in the economy - making it better for the working class through a \"trickle-down\" effect.",
"The same reason a middle class white male might support affirmative action for women and minorities despite it possibly being against their economic self interest, or the same reason you probably don't manufacture meth despite it being very profitable: Sometimes moral and social issues take precedence over what's best for you.\n\nNow, I don't believe tax breaks for the wealthy are a moral issue myself, but I prefer that explanation to most of the usual fucking smug and arrogant responses given.",
"Ok since none of these replies seem to be in ELI5 form how about this.\n\nWe all want to believe we will be rich someday, and then we would have to pay that tax. Even if we don't have money right now.",
"Even 5 year olds know... What's mine is mine.",
"Because there are the President of the United States of America is not a single-issue position. \n\nIt's unlikely for somebody to agree 100% with either candidate and you have to cut your losses somewhere. ",
"How many jobs have you ever had working for a poor person? If my employer gets a tax break there is more room for jobs/pay raises.",
"Well, I'm now writing this for the FOURTH time. It's not very ELI5. I'm doing the best I can though. Fair warning, I am a fiscal conservative/social liberal, or as I like to say \"the government shouldn't take your money OR tell you who you can fuck\", but since I'm poor as shit, I guess I'm as equipped as anyone to answer this.\n\nSo, okay, here's the thing. When Reddit talks about government, I see people spend a lot of time talking about all the great things that our government could be/should be doing. Things like healthcare for everyone, or hiring a million more teachers, or whatever the amazing talking point of the week is. And the point we keep coming back to is, well, we just need more money!\n\nAnd of course, one way to get more money is to tax people. And there's a section of our population that could probably stand to be taxed a lot more than they are. The problem, to me, as a working class person, comes in two places.\n\nFirst, I think that people ultimately deserve to be free, and that money is a kind of freedom. Choosing what to spend your own money on is a meaningful and understated freedom - and people should be allowed as much freedom as possible. That is - we should make as few laws as possible that take freedom away from people. Thus, we should let people who want to get married, get married. We should let people who want to have crazy upside-down bondage sex do that, too. We should make laws that protect the people who want to do stuff like that - because we don't want anybody infringing on their freedom.\n\nIn much the same way, I think that taking money away from somebody is a big deal. Obviously, we need to do it - we all have things we want, that society needs to pay for me. We need to have roads, and police, and a public school system, and hopefully a decent fucking health care system one day, and so on. While we might argue over specifics, we all agree that the government needs to get money, and the best way to do that is from people. So taxes are necessary. But here, we get to a sticky point.\n\nRemember a little while back, when I said that I thought we should take away as few freedoms as possible? Well, when I think of the government, here's what I think of: The war in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan. No-knock police raids on the wrong fucking house, where they hold families at gunpoint for hours for no reason while they determine that a two year old doesn't have any drugs, before realizing, oh, ha ha, it's not apartment 206, it's apartment 209! Whooops. I think of the shitty state of copyright law.\n\nWe paid for those things. We, as a whole country, had less money last year because we bought those awful things with money the government got from us. We gave up some of our freedom - the freedom to buy what we wanted and spend our money how we chose - in exchange for that stuff.\n\nBarely ten years ago, the government got exactly what it says that it needs now - we ran surpluses. We had so much money that the government literally couldn't spend it fast enough. But we still had an awful public school system, and no health care for everybody. If taking more money away from people would solve our problem, then why did we have all the same problems back when the government was rolling in money?\n\nI'm a broke person with nothing to lose from higher taxes, and I don't think the government deserves any more of *anyone's* money. If they want to hire more teachers, then they can stop spending billions of dollars of our money on awful things. Bam! More teachers.\n\nThat's why I vote for the guy who says he'll lower taxes. Maybe if we get taxes low enough, the government won't be able to afford to fuck everything up quite so often.",
"You're assuming here that there is exactly one issue at stake in elections. "
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40ohik | why are possible gravitational waves at ligo significant? | What does this actually mean, and what are its implications for the average bear? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40ohik/eli5_why_are_possible_gravitational_waves_at_ligo/ | {
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"Stunning confirmation of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Not that other things haven't already been measured, but is another confirmation of a specific prediction, which helps confirm that his theory is correct. Its another stepping stone in the search for understanding gravity and the big bang. \n\nWhile nowhere near yet, it may lead to another way to observe the universe, in much the same way radio telescopes and what they discovered changed the understanding of space and the universe"
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3s86i3 | why aren't animals like gorillas who are very strong released back to the wild? | If I'm not correct, animals are not released because they cannot protect themselves or their young anymore but bigger animals like silver back gorillas can. So why are they not released? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s86i3/eli5why_arent_animals_like_gorillas_who_are_very/ | {
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"Even silverbacks need to belong to a \"tribe\" of sorts. Outside of the protected tribe, they will die from either predators or even social anxiety. Think its the same for pretty much all wildlife with some exceptions like wolverines or mink. Social interaction is almost mandatory for all species and the weak or inexperienced are culled from their groups to wander off and die for the overall protection of the group. Humans do the same.",
"That isn't why. \n\nSure, some of them might be half tame and too comfortable being around humans, making it easier to kill them or just make them a pest.\n\nBut they lack the upbringing thier parents would give them. They dont know how to act around their wild relatives. And they havent been passed down the knowledge of what is good to eat and when.. much less where it is.\n\nThere are those that try in various ways to ease animals into the wild. Partly by keeping them on an island first, where they have to get used to not being fed by humans and they can figure out how to fend for themselves.\n\nBut there is more culture involved than you might think.. And thats why it would be hard for some species to be integrated back into the wild.\n\nIm sure there are other considerations.. Im not a zooologist.\n\nAlso there is the matter of finding a place for them. Lack of habitat can be the biggest problem.",
"Really the same reason you couldn't release an 18 year old human from the suburbs into the jungle. Sure, he's as strong, resilient, and clever as he's going to be, but nothing in his life has prepared him to operate in that environment. He'd die because he doesn't know how to actively provide for himself."
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2d5b3q | why do we have to cook things with a low flame for a long time. why not a high flame for a short amount of time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d5b3q/eli5_why_do_we_have_to_cook_things_with_a_low/ | {
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"Large flame means high temperature. High temperature means the outer layer of food might burn before the inside has been heated up.\n\nLow temperature takes more time, but gives you much more even cooking.",
"So the heat disperses throughout the item. This makes it more evenly cooked and ensures all food reaches a safe temperature for consumption as well as preserving tenderness since charing makes the food stiffer. \n\nFor why short times with high energy aren't that great, think of a microwave burrito. Too hot to pick up immediately, but still cold in the center. "
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3qzyml | why does the mixing of alcoholic beverages seemingly get you drunker quicker/why is it seen as such a bad thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qzyml/eli5_why_does_the_mixing_of_alcoholic_beverages/ | {
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"Mixing alcoholic beverages doesn't get you drunk quicker. Drinking more alcohol gets you drunk quicker. People tend to drink quicker when they're drinking different things.\n\nGenerally, drinking with the intent of getting drunk is considered bad. ",
"Liquor is absorbed and gets you drunk faster. Beer is absorbed more slowly, but carries the same drunk effect eventually. So that's why the expression \"beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, have no fear\" holds mostly true, about hangovers. If you drink a bunch of beer, and start taking shots, the beer buzz has not fully kicked in yet, and you are accidently 'overdosing' on liqour. If you drink the liquor first, you are more likely to realize how drunk you already are, and will just 'coast' on your beer.\n\nSource: raging alcoholic ",
"I attended a presentation by a breathalyzer expert once. The concentration that gets you drunk the fastest is 20% or 40 proof.\n\n A higher concentration is less efficient. That is, with straight shots some alcohol is wasted. Lower concentrations take longer to get drunk, but the length of drunkeness is longer for the same amount of alcohol.\n\nI would guess that mixing shots and beer brings the alcohol concentration close to 20% on average.",
"It doesn't really, it's just easy to physically drink more when you are mixing it up. It seems weird to drink your 5th vodka but if you have drank a bunch of different stuff you don't notice you have drank so much. Food is the same way, People will notice they are eating a ton if there is just one food out, but if there is a selection they will eat one of each and not notice how much they have eaten. Like people will realize eating 5 hamburgers is excessive but if you go to a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs and steak and chicken and kebobs and stuff people will eat em all. ",
"So. There's this old staying \"liquor before beer, all clear; beer before liquor, never sicker.\"\n\nThis guidance, which, after years of rigorous personal testing I have found to be pretty accurate has not much to do with mixture, but rather how messed up the individual components are apt to get you. \n\nIf you drink enough liquor to get a good buzz going, then switch to beer, it's not likely that you could drink enough beer to really get you truly effed up, especially with how beer bloats you, makes you belch, and has an overall much lower abv than liquor. \n\nIf you get buzzing on beer, though, and then switch to liquor, your inhibitions are lowered, judgment already impaired (even if just a wee bit) and you're suddenly much more susceptible to the higher alcohol content liquor. You'll drink more liquor after drinking beer than you CAN drink beer after consuming enough liquor to start feeling its effects. \n"
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5kk12w | - why do public restrooms have automatic soap dispensers if you will wash your hands directly after applying the soap? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kk12w/eli5_why_do_public_restrooms_have_automatic_soap/ | {
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"Perceived convince and portion control. \n\n A huge problem for businesses is users who take way more of bathroom goods that they actually would need, wasting goods and leading to more frequent empty situations. \n\nAutomatic dispensers usually have some delay between dispensing portions of a product, making it more difficult to take a ridiculous amount of soap or towels. \n\nUsers may also percive automatic dispensers as cleaner even if it isn't necessarily true",
"I have some ideas about why somebody would install an automatic dispenser:\n\n1. They don't want the dispenser to get all germy. That's not good for anybody.\n\n2. If you have something visible like motor oil or mud on your hands, it would transfer to the dispenser, making it appear dirty.\n\n3. They don't want you pumping that thing ten times, taking way too much soap.\n\n4. Automatic dispensers are probably more accessible to people with certain injuries or disabilities.",
"Hygiene - 95% of people do not wash their hands correctly. To touch a soap dispenser or faucet or door handle is like touching the genitals of 95% of everyone who have used it. \n\nIf I can't wash, dry, and exit without touching a surface in a public restroom, I don't wash at all."
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ojqkq | why two unrelated movies, songs or books can have the same title but video game titles are vigorously protected? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ojqkq/eli5_why_two_unrelated_movies_songs_or_books_can/ | {
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"Because in most cases, a game's title is the strongest and most valuable part of its brand, which is often not true for books and especially music.\n\nIn books and music, it is the artist/author which is the stronger part of the brand. For example, the album name \"Midnight Love\" may not mean much to you, but \"Midnight Love *by Marvin Gaye*\" will definitely spark some recognition (if you were familiar with it). The album name is almost unimportant. And you'll notice that no-one can go around calling themselves \"Marvin Gaye\" without incurring huge legal problems.\n\nAnd even then, if a title of a book or album has a powerful-enough brand, the brand will be vigorously protected. Try releasing a book titled \"Harry Potter\" without permission. Or an album called \"Thriller\".\n\nWith movies and games, it depends a lot more on the power of the title's brand in isolation. Yeah, there are plenty of movies with similar or identical names, but that's because the name itself is not a valuable brand to anyone. In many cases, the movies brand has more to do with its genre and acting/directing talent. Or one movie has Hollywood promotion and budget, while the other one is a small indie-flick.\n\nFor games, the title is usually the strongest brand the game has, so game companies will zealously protect it.\n\nIt's all about the value of a brand."
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5o135n | why do so many books have two to three blank pages at the start? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5o135n/eli5_why_do_so_many_books_have_two_to_three_blank/ | {
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"Books are assembled in groups of pages called signatures. To make signatures even, or to fit a prescribed size, pages are sometimes added at front or back. ",
"Imagine I took a standard piece of paper. I could fold it into 4 pieces, then cut the top and bottom a bit, staple it, and have a small book.\n\nThis is called a signature. They can be as small as 4 pages, or much larger. A book is typically made up of several signatures.\n\nThe result is, I can take two 4 page signatures and make an 8 page book, but I have no way to make a 9 page book. If I add one page, I have no way to attach it. You can imagine if I stick the page in and just glue the end, it will easily fall out. I might be forced to make it fit in a 7 page book, or maybe print a 12 page book with some blank pages (some print methods can use 2 page signatures).\n\nThe short answer is that when making books its usually easiest to make them a certain way, and blank pages may be the result. A children's book might be 30 pages, but the publisher finds that one 32 page signature is the cheapest method of production. So they might add something to the pages, or maybe they leave them blank.",
"Publishers prefer to use 16-page signatures because it is the most cost effective. 8 will do in a pinch if necessary. Designers do their best to spread out the text, and the marketing department will sometimes place an ad or two in the back of books with a lot of extra pages. Sometimes you just see the word \"notes\" printed on them like they did it intentionally. ",
"Different reason depending upon if the book is machine or hand bound. I'll mention the handbound reason, which is the original reason for having these blank pages.\nThe opening blank pages are called fly leaves. The pages with writing/art is called the textblock. These pages, if loaded with art (illuminated) sometimes took days to create. The \"pages\" were vellum (calf skin) and as you can imagine were expensive to make. You want to protect this investment.\nWhen books were bound in leather, the tanned leathers would leak and damage the textblock, so the fly leaves were to protect the writing/art from damage. You would use the minimum amount to protect the text block because vellum was expensive to produce. With the advent of fiber paper, you could increase the number of fly leaves. Depending upon on the binding technique used there would a different number of these fly papers.\nAlso, fly leaves are constructed to add structural strength to the book. A book opens and closes and making the hinge strong and durable are important, especially when you consider a town would save up just to buy one book. So there are numerous different construction methods in hand binding that is reflected on the type and number of fly leaves.\n",
"Those used to be there, and often still are, because the book is printed by folding larger printed sheets into the book format, then glue that together at one side, then cut open the other side.\n\nIt used to be, that you needed to cut them yourself after buying the book.\n\nAlso, you would buy this folded paper parcel, and then go to a book binder, select a cover you wanted, and have it wrapped in that book cover. \nThe additional pages in the front and back where then a feature to protect the paper stack until a book cover is on it, e.g. on your way to the binder.",
"Basically, it's a very easy explanation:\n\nHardcover-books have at the beginning and at the end the so called Front-/Endpapers. They don't really belong to the content of the book, but you need them for the book binding. \n\nSo you have the book cover here. The book cover get's completely glued onto the first and onto the last page of the book. The problem now is, that you need for this a very stable paper. The Front-/Endpapers normally are around 120gsm paperweight, where the content paper of a normal textbook is between 60 - 90gsm. So if you glue it directly to the content paper it will not look nice, you will get wrinkles because of the humidity of the glue,...\n\nAnd that's where the Front-/Endpapers come in place. They get used as the first and last signature in the book and have a higher paperweight. This gives the book more stability. They are glued onto the book block as 4-page-signature to form a hinge to open up the book later. \n\nNow why are they empty? Because printing on them costs money. And when the publisher doesn't have something special to out there (like a map, or a registration code,...) they just don't do it to save money. ",
"It's probably here somewhere, but I can't find it:\n\nYes. Signatures in manufacturing are obviously the right answer, however in speaking to one of the reasons they leave them blank rather than putting something cool, consider they're leaving you room to sign it over to someone, or write some notes in it. Beyond the fact that it saves ink. ",
"They are called flyleafs. \n\nGood explanation of them : _URL_0_\n\nTldr: to protect the pages, the binder, write dedications/signatures. ",
"I've got a buddy who is an expert. Let me give them a call and see if they can come down here and we will see what it is worth. \n \n \nu/RebeccaRomney can you answer this in only the way you could? \n \n \n^^^I ^^^wish ^^^that ^^^wasn't ^^^a ^^^dead ^^^account",
"Just to add on: When designing a book and you know it will need an extra page or three to print on signatures, you have choices about where those pages will appear. Putting a couple in the beginning is a traditional way to \"open the curtain\" on the book's content, providing a sense of anticipation and signaling a transition from the outside world to the world within the pages."
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7uoc2c | how do tv commercials that mention “amazon alexa” prevent the activation of devices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uoc2c/eli5_how_do_tv_commercials_that_mention_amazon/ | {
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"I don't have an Alexa, but I literally JUST watched [this video](_URL_0_) before coming to this sub, which mentioned that Alexa doesn't differentiate between your voice and anyone else's. So it can be activated by your kid, someone on the TV, or even a pet parrot (there are youtube vids of parrots activating Alexas, and even some Alexas that have recorded \"shopping lists\" dictated to them by parrots). So, TV commercials most likely can indeed activate an Alexa. IIRC there was a fast food commercial (Burger King? I only saw it once, on youtube) that did this, although that might have been a different device."
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4i6qn4 | does the black hole at the center of the milky way have a diameter? | To expand:
I seriously thought black holes have a diameter but I was told they don't. So...
Do all black holes have no diameter?
Do they just start with no diameter and then grow in diameter at matter falls into it?
Does the black hole at the center of the Milky Way have a diameter? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4i6qn4/eli5_does_the_black_hole_at_the_center_of_the/ | {
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"It's the singularity that has no diameter. Yes, black holes have event horizons accretion disks which can be measured up to the singularity.",
"Black holes are typically described by the size of their event horizon, as their true size is so tied up in twisted space that it might be a singularity.\n\nSagittarius A*, the central black hole of our galaxy, has a diameter of about 44 million kilometers.",
"It's a tricky question with several possible answers.\n\nWe mostly *think* that a black hole is a singularity, which means that all it's mass sits in a single point, which means it has no diameter.\n\nWe don't know for sure because of the event horizon - nothing can pass that outward, so we can't see inside. The event horizon is an important concept for the black hole, and it most certainly does have a diameter, and many people consider that to be the diameter of the black hole, since it is the point of no return - inside the event horizon, you are irrevocably part of the black hole.\n\nSo, depending on how you look at it, the answers could be yes, no and maybe.",
"When you ask about the diameter of a black hole, you're gonna have to be more specific as to what you mean.\n\nThe reason black holes act as they do, in fact the reason any object gravitationally attracts other objects, is because they're actually bending spacetime. A common analogy is that the effects of an object with significant gravity can be compared to those things you see at zoos where you roll a coin down a slope and it rolls around a curved kinda-conic section for a while: see _URL_0_ for an illustration. An object gets caught in the bent spacetime and curves inward. This happens more precisely in three dimensions rather than two, but it's easier to picture with a two-dimensional analogy.\n\nIf I build a ring that is 100*pi light-years in circumference, you'd imagine that it would be 100 light-years in diameter, and you'd typically be right. But if we instead put this ring around a black hole, and you traveled from one side of the ring, through the black hole, (impossibly) escaping the other side and coming to the other end, you would travel a lot further than 100 light years in distance.\n\nAnd the best answer for how long you would actually travel is probably \"we don't know anyway\" because past a certain point no light, no matter, no information or anything gets out, and so we just don't really understand what happens beyond that point."
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je8r3 | what is fcc rules part 15, and why must my devices "accept all interference including interference that may cause undesired operation"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/je8r3/what_is_fcc_rules_part_15_and_why_must_my_devices/ | {
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"Moreover, what does it mean to accept or reject interference\n?",
"electricity is just magnetism seen from a different point of view, and magnetism travels through the air. So any electric device creates (induces) electric current in other nearby electric devices.\n\nThese FCC rules say that a product can't break because of other devices' electro-magnetic field (\"must accept...\") and shouldn't break other devices due to emitting a too-strong electro-magnetic field (\"may not cause harmful interference\").\n\nThe FCC is a government agency that regulates electronic devices, and the electro-magnetic spectrum.",
"Your device mustn't bother another device and should ignore any device that bothers it.\n",
"Moreover, what does it mean to accept or reject interference\n?",
"electricity is just magnetism seen from a different point of view, and magnetism travels through the air. So any electric device creates (induces) electric current in other nearby electric devices.\n\nThese FCC rules say that a product can't break because of other devices' electro-magnetic field (\"must accept...\") and shouldn't break other devices due to emitting a too-strong electro-magnetic field (\"may not cause harmful interference\").\n\nThe FCC is a government agency that regulates electronic devices, and the electro-magnetic spectrum.",
"Your device mustn't bother another device and should ignore any device that bothers it.\n"
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1dho4h | why can't we feel our bodies gaining weight, growing taller, etc.? | Is there any type of minor phenomenon we feel that is related to such things? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dho4h/eli5why_cant_we_feel_our_bodies_gaining_weight/ | {
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"It happens really slowly. REALLLLLY SLOWLY.",
"You mean like [growing pains?](_URL_0_) (Although it says right in the article that it probably isn't directly associated with growth)"
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9ckptr | how do people afford to live in venezuela if a monthly salary is 3$? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ckptr/eli5how_do_people_afford_to_live_in_venezuela_if/ | {
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"The first thing to go are any valuable items like jeweler, then electronics. They sell these, live off of the money as far as possible (not very long) and then resort to scavenging, stealing, eating the lowest quality food possible (its cheap or free). \n\nThey have literally no expenses that a normal person would. No cellphone contract, no broadband, no electricity or running water. They don't drive themselves anywhere because they either never had a car or sold theirs. So they don't really pay for transport, at least not directly.\n\nIt is possible, with much effort and sacrifice. ",
"It's worth pointing out that Venezuelans can*not* afford to live, if by \"live\" you mean \"afford to pay for food and necessities\". As of last year, [Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds and 93% said they did not have enough money to pay for food](_URL_0_). Unfortunately the situation has worsened since then. I can't find any hard statistics on the food situation, but it seems almost everyone is now living in poverty, child malnutrition is rampant, and eating 1 meal per day is common. This sometimes means cutting out other things that we might consider \"necessities\" such as electricity or clean water.\n\nIf by \"live\" you mean literally avoid death, the human body is pretty resilient. POWs have survived several months and sometimes even years of near-starvation. If you cut out almost everything else in your life, and don't care about the quality of your food, it is possible to avoid dying on very little money.",
"It's now common for entire families to be dependant on remittances to provide food for their family members. Someone working in Perú can send monthly at least US$200 to Venezuela and that is already enough to fed two families eating only cheap stuff like grains, rice, sardines. After I left Venezuela some months ago, I'm constatly sending money to my family because that is the only way they can afford food.\n\nThose who don't have any help from outside are already planing to leave or just selling their stuff and make the money last long enough until they can find another source of income which could sustain their necessities.\n\nNow you can read on facebook pages about people offering services in exchange of dollars, working for companies translating stuff from other languages into spanish and viceversa, others are working online filling surveys or solving captchas for pennies/day. At the end of the month you can make enough to buy yourself enough food to avoid starvation."
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1p82nz | how astronomers can find a galaxy 30 billion light-years away, twice as far as the universe is old. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p82nz/eli5_how_astronomers_can_find_a_galaxy_30_billion/ | {
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"Space is expanding. The galaxy in question was actually much closer when the photons we're now receiving left it.",
"The initial expansion of the universe (the Big Bang) caused space to expand at a rate that was initially faster than the speed of light*. Also, the universe continues to expand, so the galaxy that is currently 30 billion light years away will eventually be even farther from us.\n\n*Notice that I said that space expanded at a rate faster than light, not that matter was moving at a rate faster than light.",
"Two things are going on here: first, that's how far away the galaxy is currently, not when the light from it was emitted, otherwise it wouldn't have had the time to reach us. Second, the expansion of the universe is not things moving away from us, it's actual space expanding, which over long enough distances, can add up to make things recede from us faster than the speed of light.",
"Check out these two posts from the last two days:\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe short answer is that those galaxies were much closer when they emitted the light about 13 billion years ago, but it is now much further away due to expansion of the universe.\n\nIt is the same reason the edge of [observable universe](_URL_1_) - the furthest thing we can theoretically see - is about 46 billion light years away.",
"Think of a balloon that you drew a picture on... you mouth is the origin of the picture and you want it to reach the wall. Now put your face on the wall and blow the balloon up. the picture gets bigger but shittier, also your face is further from the wall than it was previously. So the picture \"if you've ever heard of red-shift\" is now so shitty because if the expansion it represents an OLD image. in regular scientific terms, The light that travels from a galaxy far away is still faster than the universe is expanding. yet while the universe is expanding the light stretches creating the red-shift because the light waves are now further apart than what they used to be. yet still traveling at the speed of light. so it does travel \"in light years\" 30 billion but in reality hasn't traveled all that far in comparison. at least I think?"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p2ncy/eli5_how_can_scientists_have_discovered_a_galaxy/"
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4jk7c1 | do photons age? | Also, do they expire, like die? If so, what happens to them when they die? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jk7c1/eli5_do_photons_age/ | {
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"Photons do not experience time, so they do not age as we understand it. They do 'die' whenever they are absorbed. Every photon emitted by your monitor 'dies' in your retina (converted to electrical impulses) so you can read this answer.",
"Photons don't experience time (or age) as to them they don't travel any distance. They come in and out of existence at the same time, because their speed makes their universe seem infinitely small.\n\nFor us, moving at a vastly slower pace (though not 0), light has a definitive speed and you could argue that a photon had to exist at point A at t0 (starting time), traveled to point B arriving at t1 (arrival time), from which you calculate its speed. \n\nSo the question if photons 'age' depends on which reference frame you're talking about. Another useful property of our reference frame is that a photon's energy can be lost over time (not because of itself but from other influences), making its frequency decline. In practice, this means that all visible photons will become red (the lowest frequency) before going invisible. This is called *redshifting* and can tell you how long ago a photon came into existence if you know the starting frequency or if the object the photon came from moved in any way. This is one of the pillars of astronomy as you can use light to determine distance, age and speed of other objects."
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83lexh | if gravity has a quantum manifestation of itself (gravitons), how does anti-matter relate to it? would there be some kind of anti-graviton particle? | I do have a fairly good knowledge of gravitational waves, and a good notion on subatomic particles, however nobody really likes to talk about gravitons and that puzzles my mind intensely.
I'm not expecting anti-gravity effects, but a logical explanation, they're always sound like a justification of why I shouldn't even be asking it. Some try to go on charges and tell they would make no difference at all but, when I try to look further on examples it goes more or less [like this](_URL_0_)
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/83lexh/eli5_if_gravity_has_a_quantum_manifestation_of/ | {
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"The expectation is that gravitons are their own antiparticle, similar to how photons are their own antiparticle. So no, there probably isn't another such particle unless we have things very wrong."
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1jt4qq | why do businesses build skyscrapers in cities when it would be much cheaper to build their offices further out where land is cheaper? | I understand that in some places, space really is a limitation, but where in live in Perth, Australia for instance, it makes no sense to me why all these giant buildings are grouped together when it would be much more cost efficient to build wider, shorter buildings in cheaper areas. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jt4qq/eli5_why_do_businesses_build_skyscrapers_in/ | {
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"There are a lot of advantages to having an office in a central downtown area like this.\n\n1) Free advertising \n2) Good public transit/ease of access for employees \n3) You can rent out unused floors and are likely to fill them as the space is in higher demand \n4) Skyscrapers can be more efficient/more compact than wider, shorter buildings \n5) It acts a \"status\" symbol for the company in a sort of industry dick measuring contest \n\nEDIT: Formatting",
"In the past, physical proximity was of larger importance. If your business was closer to your customers then your business would do better. Today, this is less true, due to a number of reasons including new technology. The other day, for example, a company based out of Pennsylvania put on a webinar for people in my organization in Texas. ",
"Location Location Location.",
"A important factor is it is easier to find attractive talent in larger populations! Aka more people to pick from to hire",
"Location is prestige, power.\n\nNoone wants Parisian Suburb Bread.",
"There's a lot of advantages to density, which is why cities are so popular and important. \n\nHaving a ton of people crammed into a smaller area makes a lot of businesses viable, which in turn makes the area more appealing to live in, which means that you have a bigger pool of employees to draw from.\n\nI can't find it at the moment, but I remember an article about how despite the fact that New York City generally has high rent costs, many other necessities and luxuries can be found cheaper there than almost anywhere else in the country. And that's because the population density allows for a lot of similar businesses to operate close to each other, and that competition pushes prices down. \n\nAlso, building up isn't necessarily that much more cost efficient than building across. \n\n",
"Real estate investment. Most companies only utilize a few floors of the 50 + floor buildings. The other floors are often subdivided into smaller offices for other tenants. Many times the floors are broken into small bedroom sized offices with Internet, phone, and a receptionist is provided so that individuals can utilize the space as their small personal office. This is great for attorneys or small businesses. It generates a lot of rent for the building owners as they could have over 50 of theses on each floor paying 500/month and up. ",
"Well, if you own the space in a downtown city, you're going to want to build something to make the most of that expensive land. If they wanted to build the same amount of office space with lower buildings, they'd need a lot more land to do so which would likely cost as much money.",
"Large companies need large numbers of workers to run their business. These large numbers of people require a large space to work in.\n\n\nThe reason that you see skyscrapers, is due to logistics.\n\n\n- Where do you find large numbers of people to fill out the ranks of a company?\n- In cities with large populations.\n\n\n- How do you convince people to work for you?\n- By offering good accessibility and benefits. Partially by locating in a city. If someone needs to travel 3 hours to get to a job, they are less likely to take that job.\n\n\n- Why do you group your business around other large businesses? \n- You will get a larger labor pool to hire from. It will also be cheaper to hire support services (IT, Legal, Finance) since those companies are also nearby.\n\n\n\nSo it may be cheaper to build a building in a \"cheap\" area, but your labor quality will go down and your support costs will go up. Over the course of a decade, this can have a huge impact on a company. \n\n\nThe new trend in corporate offices is to split their functions between cities. For highly skilled positions (management, engineering, finance, marketing, legal), they will have an office in downtown Chicago or NY. For low skill positions (data entry, customer service) they will have an office somewhere in the southeast US where the land and labor are cheap and quality doesn't really matter, only low cost.",
"Sometimes they do. Houston has a second \"downtown\" several miles west of actual downtown.",
"street cred and access to other businesses that are already there\n\nreally thats it",
"The reason companies build in Manhattan, even though it may cost them a lot more to do so, is to be close to huge pools of talent. Where else in the country can you have an office with so many smart talented people within driving distance?",
"people dont like to commute to \"where land is cheaper\" ",
"Businesses LEASE buildings for the most part, they do not directly own them unless they are prestige structures.",
"Very simple; building up saves land space. Imagine every floor of a skyscraper is a new building and you have a very congested country. \"But I see tons of land space that companies can use!\" That's because of the skyscrapers saving space. Furthermore renting a floor or two on a skyscraper is much cheaper than just having your own building somewhere else, even in a cheaper neighborhood. Better even, as you get more traffic in a big city which means better returns on your investment."
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3ci01f | how can you know when you've had enough sleep? if you can fall back asleep, are you not done? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ci01f/eli5_how_can_you_know_when_youve_had_enough_sleep/ | {
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"I can contribute to answer the second question.\n\nWhen you sleep, you have the hormone melatonin in you, that makes you sleepy. When you go to sleep, it can be difficult because there isn't enough melatonin yet and when you wake up, you still have much of it in you. That makes it hard to get up.\n\nLight and (I think) physical activity reduces melatonin. So you may be tired after the exact same sleep time, after the exact same physical activities if you wake up in a dark room or not if you immediately open the curtains and stretch (or something like that).\n\nThe need for rest might be also a factor but at least it's not the only one.",
"*Enough* sleep is different for everyone. The common number is 8 hours of sleep a night - however this is based on statistical data. Other studies show that many people can function on less sleep with no side effects. You can know when you've had enough sleep when you do not have general sleep deprivation symptioms such as lethargy, depression, decreases in short term memory, concentration, etc. ( however other factors such as caffeine, alcohol, drug use, and medication can affect this )",
"Apparently giving yourself 15 minutes to wake up is a good way of determining whether you got enough sleep.\n\nIf you still feel just as tired as you did when you initially woke up after 15 minutes, it wasn't enough.\n\nApparently 15 minutes of sleep results in 45 minutes of energy. Useful information if you go on a road trip and need a break from driving.",
"It should be mentioned that if you sleep for 10+ hours and you still wake up tired. There may be an underlying condition like Sleep Apnea preventing you from getting the sleep you need. \n\nI was diagnosed 2 years ago, and my doctor figured that for the better part of a decade I got around 2 hours of actual sleep a night. Getting a CPAP machine changed my life.",
"Another question. \nMost people say around 8 hours, but if sleep cycles are 90 minutes shouldn't it be 7.5 or 9 hours?\n\nEdit: got it, thanks guys ",
"Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to check if you've gotten the \"right\" amount of sleep on a given night. Immediate feelings like lethargy on waking up are indicative of acute sleep deprivation, but long-term it's harder to find some kind of indication. As in, just because you're not acutely sleep deprived doesn't mean you're getting a healthy amount of sleep.\n\nTrying to pinpoint other symptoms in your life as being caused by lack of sleep is difficult, also: things like depression, appetite change, loss of concentration, and mood swings are all associated with a wide range of causes, sleep only being one. Especially if you start to track or monitor the amount you sleep you're at risk of confirmation bias and a placebo effect.\n\nThe evidence on how much you should sleep, while not fantastic, is pretty solid on a couple points: you should be hitting probably more than seven hours a night, and you should be getting up and going to bed at consistent times. Saying anything more specific than that would really be overstepping the evidence, although it is worth noting that the phenomenon of people functioning well on 4-5 hours a night is generally a self-reported one. (And not a widely self-reported one, either.)"
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27n1v8 | why are crossfitters looked down upon by the bodybuilding community? | I hear sayings thrown around like "You'll lose all your gains." and "If your boyfriend does crossfit, you have a girlfriend.". Why does crossfit get a bad rap? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27n1v8/eli5_why_are_crossfitters_looked_down_upon_by_the/ | {
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"[Because of these kinds of things](_URL_0_)",
"Crossfit gets a bad rap because of a few different reasons\n\n1) Their teachers only require a weekend certification course, and as such oftentimes give their students subpar lessons on form. This leads to a high rate of injury, which increases exponentially with the WOD being such a variable, with often strange biomechanics. A strength coach for an olympic weightlifting athlete, a professional powerlifter, or a professional bodybuilder usually has either a long history of training champions, or at the very least degree in kinesiology, biomechanics or some other applicable degree. \n\n2) The workouts are timed and are often using ramping up weights. Most bodybuilders or powerlifters want to get strong. The reason that the crossfit workout scheme doesn't necessarily facilitate that wish is because in weightlifting high reps =/= more strength. [Rep Chart](_URL_0_) Here is a chart that shows the relationship between reps and strength. As you can see, 1-5 reps of heavy weight usually facilitates the greatest gains in strength or myofibilur hypertrophy, 5-10 reps of moderate weight increases muscle size, but not as much strength, called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and higher reps don't really increase mass or strength much, but instead work out our slow twitch muscle fibers, which are used for endurance training. \n\nWhen you work out with high reps and low weight, you can increase your endurance quite well. The problem is the hardcore mindset of a crossfitter, combined with weights that are too heavy with no rep scheme, and bad form. As you continue lifting, any lifter will tell you your form has the greatest chance of breaking down in the last reps. This becomes a problem when there is no predisposed last rep, so your form continually breaks down over time. This is a good way to cause an injury. \n\n3) The way crossfit people are portrayed, and the way bodybuilders and weightlifters act. Both are very testosterone fueled events, and as such this causes a lot of competition. One of the reasons the average crossfitter experiences negative feelings from a weightlifter is just the way that crossfit advertises itself. Phrases like 'My warm up is your workout' and the 'hardcore, most elite athletes' mentality really rustles peoples jimmies. That mentality, combined wth crossfits business dynamic which pumps out countless gyms, sweatshirts with logos made to look tough, and consistent facebook updates garners a lot of contempt over time. That isn't to say bodybuilders don't have their own set of personality defects, but there has been a much longer time for society to get used to the idea of the meathead than the idea of the crossfitter. \n\n\nat the end of it all though, as people tend to do, we stereotype every group into one idea. The truth is there is a spectrum of different people with different mindsets that participate in every kind of lifting sport. Some of them give their sport a bad rap, some of them are shining examples of doing it right. It all depends on how it was exposed to you, and how you feel about it. I'm sure this list could be miles long, but there could also be a long list of things that are bad about powerlifting, or bodybuilding, or gymnastics, or whatever sport you want to criticize. ",
"Crossfit is a community wherein the minority makes the majority look bad. I've seen plenty of great, efficient and safe crossfit type workouts and trainers. However.... There are crossfit gyms that do stuff like in this video and worse.\n\nAlso, it doesn't help that a lot of weightlifting circles are filled with purists who look down on those who don't workout \"like them.\" ",
"It is a little \"cult like\" and costs a lot. It is great for introducing lifting to the public but because of its focus on reps and it being times it can lead to bad form and injury.\n\n",
"In my opinion Crossfit is a fad that is masked as a lifestyle, a fad that makes you buy in to gyms and new workouts. Its a new way to make money out of fitness \n",
"They dont shut up about crossfit. ",
"Because they don't even lift.",
"1. Form\n2. Trainer certification process\n3. The program's popularity is not unlike many other past fitness trends. \n\nUltimately the goals of a bodybuilder are very different than that of a crossfitter so neither group should take the critiques of the other with much weight.",
"Its dangerous and ineffective.",
"Taking Olympic style lifts and speeding them up to the point that any idea of form or safety is defenestrated. That and the people who participate normally have no clue what they're doing, and are incredibly smug about their workout.\n\nHonestly they deserve to be hated solely for the \"Kipping pull-up\".",
"Different people look down on all types of weight lifting. Powerlifters notoriously do no cardio and most are super strong but are fat and look fat. That get that muscle gut where they look bloated all the time. All they do is bench, squat and dead lift, then repeat. Being strong is one thing but damn after all that work at least look good. I much rather be lean and look cut then be able to pick up a lot of metal plates for no reason. ",
"Well, I don't like Crossfit because of the cult mentality they seem to exhibit. The whole, \"My warm up is your workout\" attitude (pretty sure I've seen that phrase on a few t-shirts) is really off-putting, and the girl I know who does Crossfit won't shut the fuck up about it and has to go into an all out defensive blitz every time someone criticises it. In short, Crossfit seems to be really, really into itself. It seems more about the image than health. ",
"I'm a physician and would like to weigh in on crossfit:\n\nThe basics of crossfit is that it wants to trigger the biggest neuroendocrine response for functional strenth and endurance in all 9 areas of fitness (somewhat vaguely) defined as: strength, power, agility, balance, flexibility, muscle endurance, cardiovascular endurance, strength endurance, coordination.\n\nThe goal is that after a crossfit workout your body and nervous system should be stimulated as much as possible to build better strength (release of growth factor, testosterone) and have neuromuscular pathways strengthened. It tries to accomplish this by blasting participants with relatively heavy weight moved very fast. It tries to incorporate different domains (olympic lifts, some gymnastics etc) to touch on different areas fitness.\n\nIts philosophy is that conventional weightlifting of isolating a single muscle to stimulate hypertrophy isn't natural. Your body was designed for compound exercises where your body explodes from the larger muscle groups/core to the extremities. When you work the body the way it was designed to you'll see the biggest increase in fitness. You may not look the biggest, you may not be the strongest.. but you'll be the most balanced over all 9 areas of fitness. \n\nAs a physician, it makes a lot of sense...the problem is:\n\n-form is often not scrutinized and you can seriously injure yourself.\n\n-The weight recommendations are way too high for a novice. \n\n-If your goal is hypertrophy and having the biggest t-shirt muscles, you won't look like the biggest bro.\n\n-overtraining. Certain recommended WODs are overkill. And crossfit classes 5-7 days a week is asking for overuse injuries\n\n-Expect serious joint damage over the years if your moving heavy weight for high reps with less than perfect form.\n\n-The goal is neuroendocrine response; and I think it achieves this quite well. These work-outs can be no joke and under the social pressure of a group you rise to the occasion. Crossfit is very addictive..I'm sure the amount of endorphins released is tremendous. This is one of the reasons the crossfit community has a very cult like culture to it. You know what I'm talking about...some of these people need to focus on rest and moderation.\n \n\nOverall, I think crossfit needs to improve its design. But to say it's the most senseless form of exercise is also an uninformed position. It has a good rationale behind it I'm sure it will evolve, and even advance our understanding of exercise. It's a lot like opensource software, it gets reshaped by a community of users linked to a great degree over the internet. So versions may vary; proceed with caution. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nBecause this is how they do pull ups ",
"Great article about crossfit by Mark Rippetoe _URL_0_. And one of my favorite broscience episodes: What Is Crossfit?: _URL_1_",
"To be much more specific. There are two core problems. \n1) Those running crossfit are spreading outright lies to many people, making outrageous claims, and pretty much directly causing people to get injured. They deny the most basic science and research surrounding fitness, performance, and health. _URL_0_\n\n2) The workouts themselves ignore the basics of exercise science. It ignores the idea of periodization. Crossfit downplays energy, pain, and generally things that are dangerous and risky. Coaching non-athletes to perform highly technical movements like olympic lifting, at high volume, to failure results in lots of injuries.\n\nWhen someone actually did a study to identify the frequency and cause of these injuries, Crossfit sued. \n_URL_1_\n",
"Because you can't be around a Cross-fitter longer than 5 minutes without them saying \"You should try Crossfit\"... and less than 1 minute later \"You should try the Paleo Diet!\"... SHUT THE HELL UP!",
"_URL_0_\n\nThey're looked down upon in a lot of places. This is from r/military a couple days ago.\nEDIT: it's hard to memorize links",
"First rule of Crossfit: *Always* talk about Crossfit. \n\nSecond rule of Crossfit....",
"[Because of things like this](_URL_0_)",
"**Been body weight trainging for 5 years. Getting ready to move into full time body building. Here's my two bits**\n\n\n\n\n\nLet me start by saying this, exercising in general is falling behind in the public's life. If you're over weight get out there and do something, anything. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow. Almost all of the dislike by body builders, myself included, revolves around the lack of form. Pick up 'Education of a Body builder, or The Body Builders Encyclopedia and time after time you will see a call for perfect form during all workouts. \n\n\n\n\n\nGenerally anything less than perfect form is called a cheat set. There isn't anything wrong with swinging your arms a little bit, or taking a wider stance during a squat, but in your mind you know you didn't complete it they way it was supposed to be done. Arnold said it multiple times in Education of a Body Builder, \"Anything worth doing is worth doing right.\" \n\n\n\n\n\nCrossfit as far as I've seen is the best way to use imperfect form. This means more injuries, and the potential to damage your body irreversibly. The problem is that many crossfit trainers don't say. \"Lets start with this and move into a perfect form\". It's just rep after rep of hurting yourself. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe other side of it is that when using imperfect form you may not even be doing any beneficial outside of some cardiovascular work. My brother in law was a competitive body builder for 10 years and during one pull up workout he can do 150 straight arm pull ups. No kipping (the act of swinging your legs to provide upward momentum).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow does he do 150 in row? No. He does 10, 15 rep sets. Each one is smooth, up and down. When he does it without a shirt you see each and every single muscle involved move. Kipping robs you of the potential your body is capable of. \n\n\n\n\n\nTL;DR Crossfitters use imperfect form robbing the body of it's full potential and potentially damaging the body in the process. ",
"Because they post about every fucking session on social media like they're some sort of deity. No one cares.",
"Most people in a cultish fitness program can be pretty obnoxious. Listen to some yoga enthusiast talk about the evils of lifting weights, it can be unbearable at times. Or the I only use 10lbs because I don't want to bulk up... Whatever. So the nonstop fb post or random conversation interjection about crossfit/paleo just get tiredsome. \n\nSome of the crossfit WODs are a little overdone and gyms that just promote intensity above form is just silly. There is just no reason for anyone to try a 1 rep max dead lift without proper form and to be fair this happens at regular gyms too. How many times have people witnessed some dude talk about their bazillion lb squat yet they pretty much just put on a weight belt and unrack the weight. It's called squatting, not standing with weights. And listening to someone crossfitter speak about paleo and nutrition for 2 seconds makes me feel suicidal. And some people like mirrors in the gym so they can check their form. \n\nProbably the thing that annoyed me the most at participating at a crossfit gym was their inability to understand that some people don't really give a shit what their vertical leap is or that doing a muscle up isn't their #1 goal for the month. I remember a tough box jump workout where a guy next to me broke his hand falling off th box at the end of a WOD. It was like some people couldn't fathom that I'd rather not jump as high to avoid injury and losing income as I couldn't run my business properly. \n\n\nThere are some great aspects to take away IMO. Body weight exercises seemed to be a lost art at the gym, burpees are no joke and are terrific when stuck at a hotel with a broken treadmill and 30 year old recumbent bike. I still remember feeling like what kind of middle school school hell did I just participate in when attempting as many jumping jacks as possible in 10 minutes. Promoting varying exercise techniques from day to day can break up the monotony. It's fun to throw in the random kettlebells, rowing, jump ropes and medicine balls. \n\n",
"/r/explainlikeimfive \n\n* [ELI5: why is Crossfit badmouthed so much?](_URL_7_) \n\n* [ELI5:Crossfit](_URL_3_) \n\n* [ELI5: Why does Reddit dislike people who are vegetarian and do Crossfit? What is wrong with encouraging other people to eat healthy and exercise?](_URL_6_) \n\n* [ELI5 Why do people hate crossfitters?](_URL_8_) \n\n* [ELI5 Crossfit](_URL_0_) \n\n/r/Fitness/ \n\n* [Can someone clearly explain to me why CrossFit is bad?](_URL_5_) \n\n* [CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret](_URL_4_) \n\n* [So... is Crossfit the laughing stock of the whole lifting community or am I just confused](_URL_1_) \n\n* [Sometimes I want to like you Crossfit, but this is so fucking irresponsible.](_URL_2_) \n\nShould I keep going?",
"Because reebok couldn't sell to the oly lifting market because that is a small market with people that are set in their ways.\n\n They couldn't sell to the strongman market cuz those fuckers workout with rocks in their back yard... they don't need a gym.\n\nThey couldn't sell to body builders because they don't care about being functionally fit... and they couldn't fit into their gear. \n\nThey couldn't sell to high school/ college athletes because they have the coaching they need.\n\nAnd the powerlifters are too fucking crazy.\n\nInstead they created their own market to sell stuff to. Office monkeys that hit the gym and want to get fit but have no goals, dwindling motivation and no guidance or coaching. Crossfit started out with good intentions, having the average joe go to their local gym, meeting new people and trying some new workouts. Nothing wrong with that.\n\nThen Reebok figured they could make money by licensing gyms and they were right, now you needed to go through them to get to have those fun workouts and meet the hot babe that you see around. \n\nThen it exploded. Everyone saw these original people having so much fun, seeing results, meeting new people and they are even talking about competing next weekend. So tons of people jumped in trying to be part of this club, form went out the window because the trainer to athlete ratio is too high, more trainers were needed so reebok created a weekend long course to fill the demand. \n\nNow we are seeing theses people doing lifts and exercises that might hurt them because they don't know otherwise, we see these people posting progress pics on Facebook because maybe they don't have anything else to be proud of, we hear people talking about it all the time because a strong sense of community has been established and we see all these \"cross fit\" brand stuff popping up because Reebok wants to stay in business.\n\nCrossfit works well in small scale, but because of growing pains cross fit has seen recently it has been the subject or a lot of ridicule. No one is trying to hurt anyone, no one is trying to piss off anyone, no one is trying to annoy anyone, it's just a big miscommunication. ",
"Okay here is what pisses me off personally. I was a gymnast for five years, an Olympic weightlifter for three and have been powerlifting for another three. I have been a part of gym culture and the two sports that crossfit derives from for as long as I can remember. Not going to be as technical as some of the other explanations but it's totally first hand.\n\nThe first thing is the technique. Look at Lu Xiaojun's form, now look at the average crossfitter's. Lu Xiaojun's... crossfitters. One more time. There is zero comparison. Rich Froning is pretty good, I will admit, but 90% of the cleans I see in the ladder of the crossfit games just make me cringe in anticipation of a broken wrist. The same goes for pull ups. I had an old school woman from East Europe train me in gymnastics and she would probably chase me with a stick if she ever saw me kip like that in a pull up. I wasn't allowed to kip **at all**. I just don't see the benefit of such a technique. You won't get stronger and you won't have wide lats. Why.\n\nThe next is the training. I really wanted to be a competitive weightlifter, but I got a big string of injuries before I was supposed to go. I got up at 5:45 three days a week so I could walk thirty minutes to the gym and squat for over an hour before I went to school exhausted. I went home, ate, napped, and then went for my two hour lifting session in the afternoon out in the city. I had the afternoon session seven days a week. All of the crossfitters I know are bragging about their clean PRs and how many leg swings they can do while hanging from a bar and are working thirty minutes a day tops. I worked 18 hours a week, not bad for someone going to school during the day, and I was constantly sore, was half the size of these people and cleaned twice what they did but I never got to brag. I never got to say shit. Nobody I knew was a weightlifter but my coaches and they were too jacked to give a shit about my 235 PR. Crossfitters would walk in in their muscle shirts and sneakers while I have five different joints wrapped, $200 weightlifting shoes and a big grey sweater on so I wouldn't get caught up with how I looked while I was lifting. I almost couldn't believe they would even ask how many sets I had left. I dunno, like fifty get out ma grill.\n\nI realize now that I'm powerlifting that a short workout actually can be intense and I respect that they do what they want, but I'll never understand. It doesn't really make you fit, you can get rabdo. It doesn't make you swol and it doesn't make you strong. I don't understand it but I'm coming to terms with it anyways. Besides, if Klokov's doing it then it can't be that bad.",
"It's like a social media cult. If it's not on FB, it doesn't count. They're like Jehovas weight lifters.",
"In my honest opinion, I have always viewed the criticizing of Crossfit as originating from the idea that people like me, fat and weak, are encroaching on their territory. I do understand that some of the criticism is valid. I have former friends who live in a weight room and basically just made fun of all the 'normal, weak' people trying to lift like them. I'm not saying the same type of weight, but the same exercises. As a woman who was almost 250lbs and couldn't do a push up, my time with Crossfit was amazing. It pushed me to my limits and taught me that I can lift and be strong. So, I agree with everyone else who is posting about form and inexperienced trainers, but I still see it from my perspective that it was fun and got my ass off the couch. What is usually seen on the internet is the bad, I remember the good. ",
"Crossfitters love to let you know they do crossfit. This pisses me off the most. Trying to workout when some guy has claimed an entire section of the gym to his crossfit regiment is ridiculous. I'm trying to focus and your climbing on squat racks and throwing shit around. And they always have some new exercise they can't wait to demonstrate to the entire gym",
"My problem with it: people do it and get in better shape simply because they're doing exercise vs. sitting on their ass, which is fine, except then they attribute it to crossfit as if doing traditional weightlifting wouldnt have yielded the same (or greater) benefit, and act like they're part of some secret club.\n\nReal talk: someone out of shape could intentionally do bad form with every exercise and still make some gains just because they're doing something, that doesn't make it right.",
"Once, a crossfitter began his sentence with \"Sometimes you just have to sacrifice form.....\" So I stopped listening, you don't sacrifice form, that shit is not negotiable...unless you want to fuck yourself up. ",
"Because any type of physical exercise requires good form to target the relevant group of muscles. It takes about 500 repetitions for your brain to map out the necessary neurone connections to do that movement efficiently and burn it into memory. It takes about 5000 repetitions to unlearn bad technique. So you want to do it right the first time to save yourself time. You'll notice guys that have always focused on technique can stop exercising for years, come back later and get gains like they never stopped working out.",
"Crossfit is not training.\n\nCrossfit is excercise.\n",
"I love how some crossfitters say body builders feel threatened by them and their workout results. Let me fucking tell you something. Real body builders are dedicated as fuck. If something new comes along that produces results, they're going to do it. This whole idea that they are jealous of crossfit is a load of bullshit. It promotes dangerous technique that could seriously injure you. That's why they hate it. ",
"Because of this joke\n\nQ: how do you know someone does crossfit?\nA: don't worry, they'll fucking tell you.",
"Because it's dangerous and generally ineffective compared to most standard exercise, but crossfitters somehow still act like they're part of an elitist club. ",
"A lot of people are jealous that even though Crossfit isn't perfect, it's getting tons of people into gyms and coming back regularly and getting in good shape. They don't like that all these people couldn't stick to working out on their own at Gold's Gym or whatever, and that these same people didn't want to work out in a dingy powerlifting gym or Olympic lifting gym (if they could even find one), but they found in Crossfit a program they enjoy and that is getting them in fantastic shape, and where the participants treat you like part of a community instead of an idiot newbie who doesn't know jack.\n\nNo, it's not perfect, but if someone tells you their exercise discipline is perfect and has no problems, they are lying.\n\nFar, far more people in the U.S. know what a snatch and a clean and jerk are thanks to Crossfit. Olympic lifting people have come around for the most part.",
"I would love if for every criticism I read here, the poster would indicate how much actual experience they have with crossfit.",
"Since my first workout I was taught that gyrating or using momentum was considered cheating, and then I see crossfit idiots do that and fistbump eachother when cheating the Hugh reps.\n\nI literally saw a bunch of 30-40 crossfitters, running, with Kettlebells... Above their head or behind their necks.... Fucking crossfit man"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36TO5lpDTzg"
],
[
"http://imgur.com/jliXjCh"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UI3qDyV-zs"
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"http://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly",
"http://youtu.be/qnjYyfkcaNI"
],
[
"http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/Crossfit_White_Papers_--_Timeline.html",
"http://romanoroberts.com.mx/crossfit-hq-suing-national-strength-and-conditioning-association/"
],
[],
[
"http://i.imgur.com/hlxjgwy.gif"
],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ4NRtqRAqc"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n116r/eli5_crossfit/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/p7dg4/so_is_crossfit_the_laughing_stock_of_the_whole/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/qczs4/sometimes_i_want_to_like_you_crossfit_but_this_is/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hrb4l/eli5crossfit/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/1mykxw/crossfits_dirty_little_secret/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/259pvk/can_someone_clearly_explain_to_me_why_crossfit_is/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/227seg/eli5_why_does_reddit_dislike_people_who_are/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tlyv6/eli5_why_is_crossfit_badmouthed_so_much/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zqjxa/eli5_why_do_people_hate_crossfitters/"
],
[],
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[],
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|
2koauw | why do we ask for autographs when we meet famous people? | Why do we want someone's name on a piece of paper? With the popularization of the selfie, it's kind of died out, but why do we want people to sign stuff for us? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2koauw/eli5_why_do_we_ask_for_autographs_when_we_meet/ | {
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"To remember the encounter and to prove to people that we really met them. And to an extent, because the autograph might be worth something one day. ",
"It's just a memento, something to remind us and prove to others that you met that person. It's like a little piece of someone famous that you get to keep. \n\nAn autograph works great in this regard because it's quick/easy/free for a celebrity to give away. They don't have to carry a box of autographs around with them, they can just produce them on demand. ",
"* to help remember the encounter\n* to be able to prove to someone it actually happened\n* to sell the autograph\n* to have something unique most people to\n* to feel like you have a connection to the celebrity",
"\nI've been collecting autographs since high school.\n\nFor some, it's about re-selling/dealing. These guys are usually hired by a memorabilia shop to hunt down as many autographs as possible, or they work for themselves by selling online/eBay. A lot of times these guys are aggressive as hell and generally ruin autograph collecting for the rest of us.\n\nFor others, as mentioned, it's a keepsake and both proof of the encounter, but also something to say \"for these 3 seconds, [big name celeb] was thinking of me\". It's kind of neat too to have a signature on an album or ticket because it's a total reverse of the usual one-way celeb-fan relationship.",
"Signatures are considered unique to each person - that's why they're required on legal documents and the like. ",
"Autographs aren't as popular as they used to be. The thing to do these days it take a picture with the famous person you met. Much cooler than a signature."
]
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[],
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] |
|
320x01 | why was the concept of the month developed/accepted? why don't we count the date as "day 275" of the year, for example? | And if it's something to do with seasons, why not just have 4 months? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/320x01/eli5_why_was_the_concept_of_the_month/ | {
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"text": [
"The concept of the month was based on the cycles of the moon, which last about 29 days. The English word \"month\" comes from the word \"moon\".",
"I feel stupid as hell now, I knew that already"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
33abnl | if plants produce oxygen, then is breathing in a garden "easier" or better for you than breathing inside a building? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33abnl/eli5_if_plants_produce_oxygen_then_is_breathing/ | {
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"text": [
"You don't use a lot of the oxygen you inhale in either case. We generally inhale about 21% oxygen from the atmosphere. The air we exhale is about 16% oxygen. ",
"Not significantly. Oxygen diffuses through the atmosphere very quickly, and each individual plant produces oxygen very slowly."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
1ptjl0 | what exactly is a "double-blind" study? | Also, what other kind of studies are there? Single-blind? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ptjl0/eli5_what_exactly_is_a_doubleblind_study/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd5v75j",
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],
"text": [
"The tester and the subject are both 'blind'. If you're doing a cola taste test double blind then the person presenting the drinks and recording the data doesn't know which is Pepsi and which is Coke, and neither does the person being tested.",
"The people giving the drugs (nurses, assistants, etc.) don't know if they're giving a placebo or the experimental drug.\n\nThe people getting the drugs don't know if they're getting a placebo or the experimental drug.\n\nThus both ends are \"blind\" to what's actually going on removing potential bias."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
1br7u0 | why is it bad to stick a knife in a toaster? | Is it actually dangerous to stick metal knife or fork into a toaster? If so why?
I can touch the heating elements on my stove with metal things and nothing happens. Shouldn't it be the same deal for a toaster? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1br7u0/eli5_why_is_it_bad_to_stick_a_knife_in_a_toaster/ | {
"a_id": [
"c999ktx"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"The heating elements in the toaster are electrically insulated, but could easily be nicked by a knife, causing you to be electrocuted. Even if you have it off or unplugged, you could still knick the element, causing a short circuit or electrocution next time it's used."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
24m4gf | how do social media communities start when they have no users? | I don't understand how some of these communities that rely on having other users start, when it's not beneficial for the new users to use it. For example a dating site; i'm not going to join a site that has 30 members. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24m4gf/eli5how_do_social_media_communities_start_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch8gdjl",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"This is the reason most of them fail. The genius of Facebook was that it started with a small, elite community and expanded from there. You need a ton of capital because it takes a long time to get up to a critical mass that makes it usable for the general public.",
"Reddit started by using sock puppets to trick people into thinking there are users. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
cjnn8j | how do japanese internet users use so many different characters to make custom emoticons and why did no one else do the same? | How did Japanese internet users know the right symbols to use out of the thousands of Unicode symbols to make a particular face? Emoticons such as ლ( ◕ 益 ◕ ) ლ ԅ༼ ･ 〜 ･ ༽╯(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) use symbols from relatively obscure languages and typesets from all over the Unicode catalog that are sometimes otherwise almost never used. When and how did this start? Did Japanese people simply peruse through the entire Unicode looking for the symbols to make a face they already came up with in their heads? Do they have to memorize ALT+ codes to be able to type them? It seems so easy and everyday for them, so why did it never really catch on in other countries besides the ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) "Lenny" face? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cjnn8j/eli5_how_do_japanese_internet_users_use_so_many/ | {
"a_id": [
"evej9ow",
"evevnum"
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"score": [
2,
8
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"text": [
"As a non-japanese person with a basic understanding of the japanese language:\n\nBecause Japanese uses the chinese characters (of which there are many thousands) they just have a autocomplete-like feature where they enter a word in one of their syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and can choose from a list of possible characters based on their input.\n\nThe Japanese simply added those multi-character faces to the list of possibilities they can select from.",
"It started on [2channel](_URL_1_). The culture and large audience of this text-only site led its denizens to go looking for characters to make pictures from, first [the Shift JIS character set](_URL_0_), but then later the whole Unicode character set.\n\nJust like on Reddit, text that looks like a picture stands out and brings in praise, and the community want to one-up it or continue with pictures to make a story.\n\nWestern bulletin boards, message boards, USENET had already been doing the same since the 1980s with ASCII art and ANSI art.\n\n4chan copied what they saw on 2ch and brought their ideas to English-speaking sites. However, their Japanese origin might make them seem niche or undesirable (e.g. for weebs only)\n\nI suspect most people who repeat these little faces store them in a text file so they can copy-and-paste them on demand."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_JIS_art",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2channel"
]
] |
|
bbox3h | why won’t “old phone” be able to work in a 5g network? do we have to get new phones when 5g becomes a more prominent thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bbox3h/eli5_why_wont_old_phone_be_able_to_work_in_a_5g/ | {
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"The way I like to explain it:\n\nThink of network technologies like languages. \n\n5G speaks Arabic.\n\n4G speaks Chinese.\n\n3G speaks English.\n\nYour phone now only speaks Chinese and English. You will need a new one to understand Arabic. \n\nIt gets more complex than this, in a technical sense, but the concept is the same.",
"5G uses a different part of the EM spectrum than existing phones’ internal antennas as well. It’s like trying to have a conversation with a fax machine with your primitive human mouth.\n\nEDIT: A DSL modem would be a more accurate simile.",
"One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that existing 4G infrastructure isn't going away anytime soon so there's no rush to upgrade your phone unless you specifically want 5G",
"I wouldn't worry about getting a 5G phone in the nearest 5 years at least. you simply don't need this speed in places where it is going to be available. a solid LTE connectivity is fine.",
"to answer your Q, 5G requres a 5G modem which your current phone does not have. like blu-ray and DVD. they ar both disks, but they are not the same, and need specially created harware to make use of it.",
"3G and 4G coexisted long enough that almost all 3G phones were junk and out of service anyway. By the time 4G is ready to die you'll likely have a new 5G phone anyway."
]
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[],
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[],
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] |
||
7ot57z | can you define "time" without using a concept associated with it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ot57z/eli5_can_you_define_time_without_using_a_concept/ | {
"a_id": [
"dsc1j74"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"Science has already done this.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nNumber of vibrations of a certain atom. In the past things it's been defined by things such as revolution of the earth, lunar cycle, oscillations of a pendulum, how long it takes earth to orbit the sun, etc. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second"
]
] |
||
2hjxgp | when a top starts to slow down and begin to tip over, the spin reverses direction. why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hjxgp/eli5_when_a_top_starts_to_slow_down_and_begin_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cktcglc"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"That's an optical illusion created by it rotating slower."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3ghsh9 | why are republicans stereotyped as racist when lincoln (who emancipated the slaves) was republican, and democrats perpetuated and enforced jim crow era laws? | This question (in a more simplified form) was asked by my 12 year old daughter after she heard on the news a pundit say Republicans are racist. We're not a family that is really into politics (or history). Still, I want to giver her a decent answer, which I can't seem to find on Google.
Please keep in mind that I will be explaining this to a 12 year old, so I'd appreciate the least ideological/biased/partisan response possible.
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ghsh9/eli5_why_are_republicans_stereotyped_as_racist/ | {
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"The Republican and Democrat parties switched ideals and viewpoints over the years, as the States which they tried to keep aligned with their parties shifted in views and desires.",
"Well, the only reason any group stereotypes another is in order to devalue anything they say or do. It's a form of prejudice.\n\nBut the answer to why this particular stereotype is like this is simple: 150 years ago, the GOP was the liberal party, and the Democrats were conservative. The roles have since switched.",
"Abraham Lincoln was killed in 1865, and the Jim Crow laws ended in 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act.\n\nSo you're thinking about things that happened 150 years ago in the case of Lincoln, and 50 years ago in the case of LBJ ending the Jim Crow laws.\n\nThe modern Republican party is stereotyped as racists because of their present day policies, particularly on illegal immigration and the war on drugs. ",
"Basically, because neither party is anything like what they were 50 years ago, or 100 years ago. The Democrats of today have many differing positions and beliefs than the Democrats of just a few decades ago, and the same goes for the Republican party.\n\nThe reason that the Republicans are more often stereotyped as racist is a matter of current policy: many Republicans take strong positions about immigration (legal and illegal), many oppose government programs that favor minorities or those in poverty (low-income areas often have high minority population), many support voter ID laws that could disenfranchise minority voters, etc.\n\nI should also point out (to stay neutral here) that these are generalizations; not every Republican supports these measures, and most who support them probably aren't racists. But these are the reasons for the stereotype.",
"Because the Republican Party of today isn't the your great-grandmothers GOP no more. \n\nThe main thing why they are perceived as such are their [current attitudes and politicians](_URL_0_) but the biggest change was the [Southern strategy](_URL_1_). \n\n > From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that...but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats. -- Kevin Phillips (Back then strategist for Nixon)",
"Basically it all boils down to politics. I'm trying to remain as politically neutral as possible, but Republicans tend to believe that everybody has the same chance to make it. So they're against programs that gives extra help to people that can't make it. They view the problems as either things that individuals should face, or that at the very least government agencies shouldn't be involved in. Because the people most in need are minorities, stopping or curtailing programs that tend to effect those in need are viewed as racist...regardless of actual intent. Some Republicans would argue that keeping people beholden to those programs just perpetuates the cycle of poverty.\n\nDemocrats tend to believe that different people need more or less help to get out of their situation. They also tend to believe the best way to get people that help is to have government oversight. That way some subset of people is not left out because of differences in religious beliefs. Because these programs tend to reach out to minorities more than the majority, they are viewed as not racist.\n\nIt's almost impossible to have the discussion in a rational way with anybody that's extremely partisan one way or the other. ",
"OP, I'm sorry but unfortunately this question will only get partisan responses.\n\n- Liberals claim that at some point in the 60s, Democrats decided \"Hmm let's become the not-racist guys\" and Republicans said \"Hmm let's become racist\" and everyone suddenly changed sides.\n\n- Conservatives claim that the above is a lie, and Democrats still endorse policies that end up hurting black people - just in different ways. Whereas Conservative ideals have been misconstrued and twisted into alleged racism by the left.\n\nPersonally I consider the \"Southern Strategy\" narrative to be utter nonsense. But I suggest trying /r/AskHistorians for a somewhat better discussion.",
"The Republicans and Democrats of today are very different than the Republicans and Democrats from Lincoln's time. ",
"Political parties change over time. In the time of Lincoln, the Republican Party was more for the republic than anything else (and a severing of the republic into North and South was... um... objectionable). ",
"So a fact that really can't be disputed at all is that most black people in the post-Civil War era voted for Republicans and most contemporary black people vote for Democrats, and it's totally worth asking why. Black people in the 1860s voted for Republicans because the Democrats, particularly in the South, were racist, and not just racist in the sense that they didn't like sitting next to black people on the bus, but racist in the sense that they used violence systematically all over the place to maintain white political supremacy. The Republican party was basically extinguished in the South after Reconstruction collapsed. \n\nWhile segregation and white supremacy were being established in the South, black Southerners moved north and west, and during the middle of the twentieth century, northern Democrats were beginning to see black voters in their cities as a possible source of political support. During the 1960 election, Martin Luther King was arrested, and JFK called Coretta Scott King to offer his support. This was an important political gesture which persuaded enough black voters in the North that Kennedy supported civil rights, and black Northern support was very important to Kennedy's victory that year. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this placed the Democrats on the side of desegregation and federal support for civil rights for African-Americans -- although many Republicans also supported it, and many Democrats didn't. The same year, the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater for president, who did not support the Civil Rights Act. Now, it's not accurate to say that this means that the Republicans all decided to throw their lot in with Southern racists, because the nomination was highly contested and Goldwater wasn't the kind of white supremacist that someone like George Wallace was. But this was the moment that white Southerners started massively moving to the Republicans, and black people across the country started massively moving towards the Democrats, and the reason was civil rights."
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r0z2g | why is blackmail illegal? | I would imagine there is some historical context. Feel free to ELI12. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/r0z2g/eli5_why_is_blackmail_illegal/ | {
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"its coercion or extortion involving a threat of harm or slander.\n\nyoure basically demanding money under threat of harm. "
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2ji7zo | what does data actually cost the mobile operators? | Not what they charge the customers obviously but what does the data cost the operators. I assume the figure will cost what they paid for the bandwidth from the authorities and the costs of network hardware/improvement etc | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ji7zo/eli5_what_does_data_actually_cost_the_mobile/ | {
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"Your phone company is paying for bandwidth not data.\nIt's not about how much they download, it's how much can they download at ONCE.\n\n1gb a second, 500mbit, 5gb etc.\n\nBut what about things other than the cost of data?\nSomeone has to pay to put those mobile towers everywhere.\nSomeone has to pay to replace those 3g pieces with 4g pieces when you're looking for something faster.\n\nThe cost of data is there because it covers their operating costs for everyone to use the data across the whole month.\n\nThe actual data costs very little. But there is a lot going on behind the scenes to get the data to you. \n\nCheck out some details from a financial report for your phone provider. Look at how much money they made last year and how many customers they have. It's not a huge profit per head.",
"Three factors go into the cost of cell phone infrastructure:\n\n* fixed costs of buildings/hardware\n* variable costs maintenance of building/hardware\n* variable costs of electricity\n\nWhile you aren't paying for data directly, you're paying for the things necessary to provide data (electricity, hardware, and maintenance). It just so happens that data is a very useful approximation of how much you as a customer are using on those base costs, after all, AT & T wouldn't have built that next tower unless there were 1000 new people that wanted bandwidth (or the same 1000 people who want *more* bandwidth, e.g. 3G - > 4G).",
"Also, smaller operators have to buy bandwidth space on infrastructure and networks owned by other telcos, so they incorporate that rent into their prices and pass them on to the consumer in the data plan / rate,",
"There is no true 'cost' of data.\nThink of it like this. How much should you be charged for driving on the road? There is no real cost to drive... once the road is built. There is maintenance that must be done regardless. But there is no real cost for driving. There are 'issues' that people try to capture in terms of costs, but there is no such thing as a cost/km or whatever. They might want to insert a cost to pay for maintenance or to discourage congestion... but again it is not a cost/km.\n\nThis is the same for mobile operators. They spend a lot of money upfront to build out the network. Once built, it basically cost them the same no matter how much data flows through it. Then they try and get people to use the network and charge them. This pays for the investment and maintenance. They can charge a flat monthly fee or per gig or whatever. That's all just pricing schemes that they can play with.\n\n\nEvery company in the network basically prices data to pay for the building/maintenance of the network (and profit). As time goes on, the costs of hardware are paid for, and they can lower prices or have more profit or put it into reserves to pay for future investment in technology. It's actually a very difficult business as the upfront costs are huge, and you have to pay every few years to upgrade the technology/routers/radios...\n\n\nThe closest thing a mobile operator has is a cost for data is when the data of its customers has to go into another operators network. There is a charge for that. So for example if a Verizon customer tries to send data though the ATT network ATT will charge Verizon as it is 'carrying' that packet. Now most major network operators basically create what is called a 'peering' agreement. basically they assume they're each big enough that it is equally like they will be carrying each other's data, so they just agree to it and don't charge anything. But if there is a mismatch (small player trying to use a big players network), then the small player would probably have to pay. They need connectivity to the big network much more than the big network needs to connect to the small network.\n\n\n\n"
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3jotha | how come when you tilt your head sideways you can still read words and everything looks normal, but if you're upside down everything becomes upside down. why doesn't the world become sideways? | Plz | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jotha/eli5_how_come_when_you_tilt_your_head_sideways/ | {
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"Get real close to a mirror and look at your eyes. Continue gazing into your eyes as you tilt your head side to side. You will see your eyes rotate to compensate.",
"You can learn to read upside down. The easiest thing to do is read right-side up. A slight inclination doesn't take much compensation. Upside-down means you have to read right-to-left and the letters are completely reversed, so it's a little harder. ",
"(; ɟlǝsɹnoʎ ʇᴉ op oʇ ɯoɔ˙ʇxǝʇuʍopǝpᴉsdn˙ʍʍʍ ʇᴉsᴉΛ\n\n¡oƃ noʎ ǝɹǝɥ ˙˙˙ɟlǝsʇᴉ pǝʇɐʇuǝᴉɹo-ǝɹ ʇᴉ ⅋ ɹǝʌo ǝuoɥd ɹnoʎ pǝuɹnʇ 'uʍop ǝpᴉsdn pɐǝɹ ⅋ ʎɹʇ oʇ pǝʇuɐʍ oɥʍ noʎ ɟo ǝsoɥʇ ɹoℲ",
"You have muscles called the superior and inferior oblique that rotate your eyes slightly. Look up some pictures. They are pretty cool and the mechanism is pretty simple."
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48jchi | when watching poker on tv, how can the graphic calculate the chips bet so quickly? | Sometimes they just throw a handful of chips in to the pot, and before you can even see how many chips are in there, let alone the value of those chips, the graphic shows exactly how much they have bet. Even when they don't say how much they bet/raise or whatever | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48jchi/eli5_when_watching_poker_on_tv_how_can_the/ | {
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"The obvious answer is that you are not watching a live feed and the graphics were edited in afterwards."
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tw1oy | how are proteins formed? | I have my GCSE Biology exam tomorrow and this DNA stuff is just going over my head. Can somebody dumb it down for me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tw1oy/eli5_how_are_proteins_formed/ | {
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"Proteins are basically long long chains of molecules called *amino acids*. The particular sequence of amino acids in a protein determines the shape it will bend itself into, which determines what it will do. For example, some proteins are the perfect shape to grab two other molecules and smush them together so that they get combined (these proteins are called enzymes). Other proteins are the perfect shape to carry important molecules (like hemoglobin, which is a protein that carries oxygen around your blood).\n\nYour DNA is also a long chain of molecules, but these molecules are called *nucleotides*. There are four main nucleotides that make up the chain, and each is represented by a letter (A, C, T, and G). The sequence of \"letters\" in DNA contains all the information to make proteins in your body. Scientists represent DNA by writing out the sequence of \"letters,\" like ATCTGCCATCCCGT.\n\nNow here's the important bit: these letters are arranged in 3-letter words that \"mean\" an amino acid. For example, \"ATC\" in DNA corresponds with an amino acid called glutamine. A long chain of these three letter words will match perfectly the chain of amino acids in a protein. So if a protein has amino acids 1, 2, and 3, the DNA corresponding to that protein will have the 3-letter words that mean amino acids 1, 2, and 3 in order. A sequence of DNA that matches a protein is called a *gene*.\n\nWhen it's time to make a protein, your body unravels the DNA and makes a copy of the gene on a different, very similar molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA). This copying is called *transcription*--like you're transcribing your notes from your notebook to your computer. This mRNA flies out to a thing in your cells called a *ribosome*, which actually goes through and READS the RNA sequence and attaches amino acids in the right order. So it will go \"okay, these 3 letters mean this amino acid, the next 3 letters mean this amino acid, etc.\" and just attach all the amino acids in a row.* So you end up with a long long chain (hundreds, even thousands!) of amino acids in the exact sequence of the DNA letters that you had originally. This process of matching DNA \"words\" to amino acids is called *translation*--like you're translating from the \"language\" of DNA to the \"language\" of proteins/amino acids.\n\nThis long chain of amino acids then detaches itself from the ribosome, folds itself up, and voila! You have a protein! This is happening millions of times constantly all around your body as all your cells make all the proteins they need to function.\n\nNow in reality, it's actually a lot more complicated than that--the DNA isn't always in the right order, the protein can get \"cut\" and shaped by other things after it detaches, etc. But this is the basic process and is what you need to know!\n\n\nPS Here's a pretty cool animation of the whole process: _URL_0_\n\n\n*There are actually two other kinds of RNA that work in this process. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) makes up the structure of the ribosome. Transfer RNA (tRNA) holds the amino acids and attaches them in the right order. You might have to know that for your exam.\n\n\n\n",
"Alright, so you know that the DNA sequence is made up of 4 nucleotides (A,G,C,T). You know that A-T pair up, and C-G pair up. \n\nGetting from DNA to proteins happens via two processes known as transcription and translation. Transcription happens when a specific sequence of DNA is taken and *transcribed* to RNA. RNA is very similar to DNA. It's made up of 4 nucleotides (A,G,C,U). Notice that there are no T's in RNA...they're all replaced by Uracil (U). What happens is that the enzyme RNA polymerase \"selects\" the sequence it wants to transcribe. This part gets a little tricky to explain via text, but I'll have a go at it:\n\nIf you have a sequence of DNA, for example\n\n5' -- ATGTCTCGA -- 3' [Call it strand A]\n\n3' -- TACAGAGCT -- 5' [Call it strand B]\n\nYou notice that the two strands are complimentary. If I want to make a copy of strand A, then all I have to do is make a compliment of strand B. That is what RNA polymerase does. If it wants to take strand A and turn it into RNA (specifically, mRNA), then it goes along strand **B** and makes a compliment, except with U's instead of T's. The result is a single-stranded RNA molecule, with a sequence identical to strand A. \n\nThis \"pre-mRNA\" molecule is modified in some ways to protect it from digestion and for signalling purposes. Some sections of it are also removed completely. After all this is said and done, it moves out of the nucleus and into the cell cytoplasm where it can be **translated** into proteins. \n\nAt this point, we're introduced to the idea of \"codons\" and \"anticodons\". A codon is simply a triplet of nucleotides in the DNA sequence. So going back to strand A, the codons are: ATG, TCT, and CGA. An anticodon is simply the compliment to a codon. So, the anticodon to ATG is TAC. \n\nThe mechanism behind translation is that you have codons on your mRNA, and tRNA molecules with anticodons complimentary to the mRNA codons. tRNA molecules are also made up of RNA, they have specific sequenes, with specific anticodons, and bind to specific amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. \n\nTranslation is hard as fuck to explain without visualization for me, so I'll just simplify it as much as I can. Your mRNA goes into a ribosome, and each codon signals a tRNA molecule with the appropriate anticodon, carrying a specific amino acid to come and bind. You do this for each codon, as the mRNA goes through. As you're doing this, the amino acids are brought together, and so they're slowly forming a chain (polypeptide chain). This keeps happening until a stop codon is reached in the mRNA. A stop codon is one for which there is no tRNA molecule with the appropriate anticodon. Nothing can bind. The whole thing falls apart, the mRNA is released, the polypeptide is released, and all is dandy. \n\nThe polypeptide can then be folded by other specialized enzymes called chaperones and modified, added to metal complexes, whatever the fuck (the possibilities are endless), until it becomes a fully functional protein. \n\n",
"DNA unfolds -- > mRNA copies unfolded DNA -- > Ribosomes read DNA -- > tRNA adds amino acids to a growing chain which produces the protein. (Chaperone proteins regulate proper folding of protein) "
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1ljdu5 | what are the lines across some bodies of water on large satellite image maps? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ljdu5/eli5_what_are_the_lines_across_some_bodies_of/ | {
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"Those are where the satellite took a long series of photos as it passed overhead in lines, and the photos were later stitched together with imperfect colour correction, so you see the edges of the photo series.",
"Because your post isn't asking a simplified conceptual explanation, but rather for an answer, its been removed. \n\nYou should try /r/answers, /r/askreddit or even one of the more specialized answers subreddits like /r/askhistorians, /r/askscience or others too numerous and varied to mention. \n\nRest assured this doesn't make your question *bad*, it just makes it more appropriate for another subreddit. Good luck! "
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2025mm | is it possible that the human race could evolve to live without rest/sleep? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2025mm/eli5_is_it_possible_that_the_human_race_could/ | {
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"This is a great question! I have absolutely no scientific proof to back this up, but, given enough time (billions of years) I think ANYTHING is possible in regards to evolution. We evolved from single-cell creatures. No reason to think we can't evolve to not need rest.",
"I think it's unlikely. As far as we can tell all animals sleep, or at least exhibit some kind of state that is close to it. Some animals are able to sleep unihemispherically, which means one half of the brain can sleep while the other is awake. We still don't know why we sleep, many theories abound but there's always some exceptions to the rule that seem to throw a wrench in the hypotheses. It's still one of the greatest mysteries in science. Only one thing is fairly certain - since all animals, even insects, do it; and since humans spend at least a third of their lives doing it; and since sleep deprivation in many species leads to death, whatever purpose it serves MUST be *extremely* important. Probably secondary only to breathing and pumping blood. \n\nI think, given millions of years and some sort of reproductory advantage, humans could evolve different or dramatically reduced sleep patterns, but to cease sleep altogether seems an unlikely possibility. By the time an evolutionary step that enormous was complete, we'd probably not even be recognizable as humans anymore. "
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8604e2 | how does mdma make people feel happy and magical? was the happiness already inside the mind in the first place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8604e2/eli5_how_does_mdma_make_people_feel_happy_and/ | {
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" > Was the happiness already inside the mind in the first place?\n\nYes. MDMA releases all of your serotonin in your brain. That's what creates the feel good feeling.\n\nOf course, you can squeeze all that out at once at the cost of never feeling good about anything the next couple of days until your body can resupply. ",
"Your brain has a savings account of happiness (Serotonin). Normally you would just use a little bit for your daily needs, so that your savings account never gets empty. With MDMA you can empty it all at once. You then experience all this magical happiness, but you also have to live the next days with that empty savings account.",
"You basically borrow your future happiness at a shitty interest rate. The more you do it, the more profound the depletion and deeper the cycle."
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d82lme | how do massive companies like thomas cook airlines go bust? | Thomas cook airlines ceases trading today with almost 200,000 brits currently abroad and due to fly home with them.
Millions of people have upcoming bookings with them. They have thousands of staff as well. How can they go bust?
I’m not well read on economics or business but it seems to me that they should be raking in the money. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d82lme/eli5_how_do_massive_companies_like_thomas_cook/ | {
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"By having expenses that are even greater than the amount of money they bring in. For example an airline has to lease incredibly expensive planes, and pay for vast amounts of fuel and labor.",
"Earlier this year in May they issued a profit warning that dropped t share value, the profit loss was £1.5 billion for the FIRST half of 2019. They blamed Brexit and the heatwave we had, more people stayed at home to vacation because the pound was doing badly against the Euro. \n\nIn some places you get £1 to €1 when exchanging, this doesn’t help tourists from this country and they are less likely to travel abroad. \n\nThey also are about half owned by a giant Chinese company that will probably use this opportunity to snap up the rest."
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aw38e4 | what is an operating system kernal and what does it do exactly? | I am an aspiring computer engineer and I want to learn more in depth about operating systems.
Please do not hesitate to use tough computer systems jargon. I know a thing or two about linux, but not that quite well. I am currently using linux mint and kali just for the sake of it.
I know linux at first is just a kernal made by the one and only Linus Torvald. I know Windows uses the Windows NT kernal.
My only question is what is a kernal and what does it exactly do in an operating system?
Additional question: Could GNU be an operating system by itself or was the linux kernal essential?
thanks in advance | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aw38e4/eli5_what_is_an_operating_system_kernal_and_what/ | {
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"An operating system can be divided into two basic parts, a kernel and a shell. The kernel refers to all the aspects that directly interact with the system itself, and which humans can never really directly observe. Meanwhile the shell refers to the user interface. You have to have both the kernel and a shell of some kind in order to have a functional computer with input and output.",
"The kernel has 4 essential jobs in a system:\n\n- Divide memory over running programs and make sure they don't access each other's memory. This also includes things like swapping things out when too much memory is used.\n- Provide proper access to all the peripherals of the system.\n- Schedule the many threads that are running so that each get to run on the CPUs in a reasonable amount of time.\n- Handle the file system(s) again so that everything on that level happens nice and orderly.\n\nKernels are complex though. Way back when we had a 1 year 2-hour course on all of that when I studied IT.",
"The kernel is the most core part of the operating system that handles directly talking to hardware, managing processes and memory, security & whatever else the developers decided should be bard of the \"core\" (eg - file systems, networking, inter-process communication, etc).\n\nThe original plan of the GNU project *was* to be a standalone Unix replacement. They've been working on a kernel, [GNU Hurd](_URL_0_), for years but it never really took off. Linux came around, gave the community an open-source kernel that they could use & ended up taking over the world. Hurd is now functional but Linux is pretty much better in every way so everyone but the most extremely idealistic users run Linux.",
"The kernel basically talks with the hardware, handles how things like threads and memory is managed. It is also tasked with supporting the different kind of hardwares. Built on top of that is the shell and UI components that make up an OS, this is where GNU comes in. If a computer was a car then the engine would be the hardware, the things that connects the engine to the wheels and make them spin would be the kernel, the steering wheel would be the shell/UI\n\nThis is extremely simplified tho, but that's how I would explain it to a 5YO",
"Copy pasting an old reply of mine from a deleted thread. It goes fairly in depth in layman terms so I feel it fits.\n\nGoing to talk about the general motivation behind the core ideas of a kernel/operating system rather than the specific case of Linux. Specific cases are such as Linux don't really matter all too much, as the same is true for the core of windows and what not, just with a different design philosophy. Also going to go in depth, from your profile it seems you have a somewhat basic idea of how a computer works, at the very least that a computer uses memory and a CPU to do stuff. \n\n\nBack in the day when computers took up the size of rooms and code was run through tape or notecards. Programs would be written in the bytecode of the machine they were to be written on. The computer has a mechanism in which one could load the program on the tape or notecards into memory, and it would run until the machine stopped and printed out the ouput on a sheet of paper or in some other way. The people running the thing would then take a new program, load it in manually, then run the computer again, and repeat. The people managed the tasks the computer was to run.\n\nThis was a rather annoying method. As computers became faster, more memory became available, we realized we can load multiple programs into memory to execute them in sequence. \n\nNormally when a computer executes a program, it is oblivious to everything around it and only cares about executing said program. But we made computers have the ability to be interrupted, that is if something happened (say on modern computers, the user hit a keyboard key), the computer can pause what it is doing, take a look at what happened (essentially running a process that is to be run when a keyboard is pressed), then returns back to the program. It also turns out it is useful for multiprocess systems to have \"timer interrupts,\" that is every few milliseconds activate an interrupt which switches which process runs. As such, multiprocess systems were born, and the \"interrupt sequences\" each had was essentially a \"proto operating system.\" Other unexpected actions to a computer, say receiving an internet packet, or literally anything else a user can do to a computer, also triggers an interrupt. And if a program waits for something, say an internet connection or a keystroke, the operating system can pass that information along. \n\nNow with multi process systems you run into other issues. If you design and know what processes run on the system, everything is a ok, you can make them such that they don't interfere with each other, use each others memory, ect. But what if you don't. So we fix this problem by having the operating system allocate memory for each program as needed. That is, that process is assigned memory when it is started and can ask the operating system for more which runs into another task an operating system does, handling system calls (syscalls).\n\nA system call is a function call to an operating system function. Essentially it is a process asking the operating system to do something for it. Say for example, in theory if you design all the programs on the operating system to \"respect eachothers memory boundaries\" and have a system of communication such that they don't run into each others memory, a multiprocess computer would work fine. But in reality, it is better to make a function from the operating system which handles this for everyone, a system call. Syscalls allow for better program portability between systems, such that executable on one computer run just as well on another computer, since the difference in necessary functions can be made compatible by having each system have the system functions it needs for proper operation. For example, the read system call reads a file. In theory, if security was disabled, a program could have its own function to do this but this assumes the program knows the filesystem being used, the way the disk is laid out, ect. Instead you let the operating system take care of all that. Its essentially an API for the computer/OS.\n\nAnd now comes the topic of security. As computers have modernized, security has become more and more important. Generally speaking, a program can't do anything malicious to your system so long as everything it does stays within its own memory space. And in this sense, syscalls become quite a bit more important - it allows the operating system to control more the more \"risky\" things a program can do. Say for example, you have multiple users on a system and you don't want Bob's programs to be able to make edits to your files. Nowadays each file has certain permissions attached to it such that the read and write syscalls cannot modify a file it doesn't have permission to. Or you don't want it to see into another program's memory, as there may be secret keys and passwords there (this for example is what the Meltdown vulnerability everyone was talking about last year was able to do). \n\nModern CPUs allow for executing programs to have different \"privilege modes,\" and generally two are used. User mode where the process only has access to its memory and admin/kernel mode which can do everything on a computer system. And a syscall interface allows the process to do more than it can but only what the operating system (and by extension the user) allows it to do (syscalls and interrupts automatically run in admin mode). So Bob's programs can't read your files, your programs can't try to capture what your password is to your email, ect. And if a process really needs to be able to do things only kernel mode can, then there is a syscall which asks the user to give the process kernel mode. This is why [this prompt](_URL_0_) is so important and has so much code behind it. Syscalls allow for access to other hardware, say your graphics chip, allowing for windowed programs to appear. Or allow processes to startup new processes (which if you think about it, is what actually happens. You click on an icon, the process that is processing your mouseclicks is really what starts up the process, hence why in Linux every process is created by another process, all the way up to the first process to run on it, known as systemd or init depending on your OS).\n\nIn reality, this is largely it. At the heart of an operating system (the kernel) is what its syscalls and interrupts (and until recently, a syscall was an interrupt) do. Everything else is just built upon this. Some operating systems have more responsibilities, some less (for example in Windows IIRC the GUI is a part of the kernel, while in Linux, the GUI is simply managed by a program called X11 since the kernel just allows you to syscall to send something to a graphics chip). \n\nTL;DR: Kernels manage resources for a computer to execute multiple processes. "
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5lvlzr | how much power does the computer need to fully emulate human's brain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lvlzr/eli5_how_much_power_does_the_computer_need_to/ | {
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"since we don't have anywhere near enough knowledge of how the human brain works to be able to make a computer emulate one, the correct answer is:\n\nNo one has a clue. ",
"Deep blue, a super computer took 30 or so minutes to simulate 1 second of average human brain activity.",
"What is amazing is that the human brain is only powered by about 12 watts of electricity. About as much as a cfl light bulb.",
"We don't know, but using the deep thinking massive data processing is coming online to simulate a human mind to where, in just a few more years, we'll have computers like Alexa and Google Home that you won't be able to tell if you are talking to a human or not. Or maybe you will, but it won't matter as the device will have it's own place in your life, maybe we won't need it to be indistinguishable from a human. It could be, that we'll see these artificial minds as a really good friend. Just think of a friend who is always there for you, can answer any question rationally and without any type of malice or dishonesty. We already like being on the web more than just about any other activity, I think we'll have new best friends soon.",
"Some rough estimations and fun background.\n\n[The human brain has been estimated to have a processing power or roughly **38 petaflops and a memory of at least 3.6 petabytes**](_URL_2_). That's a lot. Our top supercomputer, the Chinese [**Sunway TaihuLight**](_URL_0_) has a processing power of about 93 petaflops, though it lacks a little memory sitting at 1.31 petabytes. It was just built too (June 2016). It cost over $270 million.\n\nThe previous top supercomputer - also Chinese, [Tianhe-2](_URL_1_) only had about 34 petaflops.\n\nTo give you some contrast, currently the top i7 processor only has about 120 gigaflops (peta = giga * million). The GTX Titan X has about 11 teraflops (tera = giga* thousand).\n\n**Can the Sunway TaihuLight emulate the human brain?** *Not really*. Emulation usually requires the emulator to have processing power orders of magnitude larger than the emulated hardware. As a rough example - look at game console emulators (a bit of an ancient example but eh), they require PCs at least 5-6 years youger than the consoles they're emulating.\n\n**How much processing power is actually needed to emulate the human brain?** *We likely won't know until we try.* We definitely won't know until we actually fully understand how the brain works. However, I would call it a safe bet to assume that it will take orders of magnitude more than 38 petaflops. Likely X or XX exaflops.\n\nMy personal, completely biased and unburdened with research or evidence opinion is that by the time we get together to actually write the software, the hardware won't be a problem."
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2mqfw8 | are there any differences between prison labor and slave labor and should we worry about the future of privately owned prisons? i know slavery is not entirely illegal according to the 13th amendment. so it's kinda scary to imagine what could happen, am i worrying for no reason? | Am I being too dystopian in my outlook or is it a real possibility? I find it hard to believe that we wouldn't have preventative measures to keep Slavery out of our country but the lines getting blurred... Have I caught a negative outlook or can someone explain what it all really means and implies?
Thirteenth Amendment:
* Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
* Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mqfw8/eli5_are_there_any_differences_between_prison/ | {
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" > ... should we worry about the future of privately owned prisons?\n\nI don't think you need to worry about the future, privately owned prisons are a concern **today**.\n\nInstead of working solely to rehabilitate inmates, the prison industrial complex is very involved in lobbying government to influence laws to the benefit of their profits, not the general population."
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625611 | why do we study limits in calculus? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/625611/eli5_why_do_we_study_limits_in_calculus/ | {
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"Limits are essential to proving that calculus works. Much of an intro calculus class involves proofs of how & why calculus works & exists.\n\nThe derivative is the limit of the slope of the line from from f(x-δ) to f(x+δ) as δ goes to zero. Integrals are similarly defined.",
"Calculus, both integral and differential calculus, is based upon limits. We don't actually reach our answers but we get infinitely close to it. You can't calculate instantaneous rate of change (the value of the derivative) without using two infinitely close points. Well, you *do*, but not without using limits to derive that ability. The rules of differentiation can be derived (no pun intended) by taking the limit as delta approaches zero blahblahblah you know the rest. Similarly, when calculating area, you're actually calculating the sum of an infinite number of rectangles. As you approach an infinite number of rectangles, you approach the actual area under a curve.",
"Precision.\n\nImagine you have a problem in the real world where you have to figure out *precisely* how far away from a starting point a gigantic traveling machine is going to stop. \n\nIt's an engineering problem and it's way way too expensive to build a full working model. \n\nBut you know that at the starting point the machine is going at 10 feet per second, and it loses exactly half of its speed every second it travels.\n\nYou can estimate it in stages, saying, \"after one second it's going at 5 feet per second, so in one second the average tells me it's gone about (10+5)/2 = 7.5 feet. Then in second number two it slows down to 2.5 feet per second and it goes another...\" bla bla \"...so by the time it's practically stopped moving, it's gone about X far.\"\n\nBut this is engineering and that's an *estimate*, and you need *precision* or people might get crushed if you're not exactly right. \n\nBy working the problem out using limits, you can figure out that, even if that giant machine never stops, it'll never ever exceed a certain precise distance even years later. \n\n"
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3erlqp | why is it that normal pencils will rub off with an eraser, but color pencils won't? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3erlqp/eli5_why_is_it_that_normal_pencils_will_rub_off/ | {
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"Color pencil pigment is carried by wax, which only smears around when it's written on something and then erased. You're essentially writing with a form of grease that carries a coloring agent, and like rubbing your finger across a greasy frying pan, doesn't remove it that well without some other form of chemical help (which would likely destroy the paper it's written on in the process).\n\nPencil leads are made largely from graphite, a naturally black carbon form that transfers very well to paper in a tacky powder of sorts. Because it doesn't require any sort of glue to stay in place, and because it doesn't need any sort of wax to carry a different pigment (which is composed of different molecules for different colours), you only really need pressed graphite in the lead. \n\nTacky rubber or plastic erasers remove graphite from paper very well because that substance sticks to graphite better than paper does, so it lifts it off and removes it in the little flakes that come away from your eraser as you use it up."
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p2xz0 | why i dont have to pay sales tax on most things i buy online | not that I'm complaining... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p2xz0/eli5_why_i_dont_have_to_pay_sales_tax_on_most/ | {
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"You do. You just have to pay it yourself come tax time. You can only be charged sales tax online if you live in the same state as the site you're buying from. If you don't, you're supposed to, as part of your state taxes, calculate how much you spent on online purchases, then pay the state sales tax on that. The amount and whether or not you even have to at all varies by state. At least in Michigan, this is how it works."
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22wtph | why after i take a photo of my computer monitor on my phone, if i open the photo and zoom in and out, the lines change almost like they're animated? | You can see this by simply taking a picture and messing/zooming in and out of it in your phones photo viewer.
(I'm not just asking why the lines appear as I assume that's to do with the refresh rate, but more so why they move when zooming in and out after the photo has been taken)
Edit: I guess its kind of hard to explain, but im less interested about the picture and the lines themselves, as I checked that out on google. More so, why does a still image of my screen with the lines change really weirdly when you zoom in and out? (Try it!) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22wtph/eli5_why_after_i_take_a_photo_of_my_computer/ | {
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"You mean the moire effect? It's because, unlike normal stuff you see in the world, displays make up an image with small, visible blocks called pixels. They are in a rectangular pattern and don't fill all space completely. When you zoom in and out, the zooming and image scaling brings out different features. Especially so because it's hard to take a photo where pixels line up in straight horizontal/vertical lines.",
"This is called *moiré*. It is caused by two grid-like patterns not quite lining up. Your screen has pixels with dark boundaries, and the phone screen also has pixels with dark boundaries. As these partially line up and the stop lining up as you zoom in and out, changing patterns happen.\n\nMoiré patterns are really interesting - there are plenty of YouTube videos showing what can be achieved. "
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3e7fyw | how come in america when a bill is passed through the senate, it can have its title and contents completely changed? | Hi,
I watched John Oliver's piece on Food Waste in America (link here: _URL_0_). Good piece but what really confused me was the following (not American btw so not familiar with the government):
At one point he mentions that the 'America Gives More Act 2015' (H.R. 644) once reaching the senate had its name changed to 'Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015' as well as its contents changed to something completely different to the original intention of the Act.
I was really confused and shocked as to how this is even possible which begs the question how is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e7fyw/eli5_how_come_in_america_when_a_bill_is_passed/ | {
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"So, in order for a bill to become law, it has to be passed by both houses. A bill will start in one house, they'll study it in committee, make changes, vote on it, make more changes, vote on the changes, etc, and then they will eventually reach a consensus. \n\nOnce the bill is passed by the first house, it goes to the other house. The other house is also free to study it in committee, make changes to it, vote on it, vote on the changes, etc. They are under no obligation whatsoever to pass bills in exactly the form that they were passed by the first house - otherwise, what would be the point of having two houses?\n\nIf the second house makes a bunch of changes to the bill, then the first house has to vote again to accept the bill. If not, the bill dies. If they vote to accept it, it goes to the White House for signature.\n\nIt's considered in a lot of legislatures that the upper house (the US Senate, Canadian Senate, UK House of Lords, etc) is to be a \"chamber of sober second thought,\" composed of more experienced legislators, who can shape and improve legislature from the lower house (the US House, Canadian and UK House of Commons, etc.)"
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5tmdzk | does the movie studio pay the movie theater to show their movie? or does the movie theater pay the movie studio to bring in customers by letting them show their movie? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tmdzk/eli5_does_the_movie_studio_pay_the_movie_theater/ | {
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"The movie studios and the theaters split the income depending on when people buy tickets to the movie, basically, each side gets a percent of ticket sales\n\nFor example:\n\nWeeks 1 & 2: 90% studio / 10% theater\n\nWeeks 3 & 4: 70% studio / 30% theater\n\nWeeks 5+: 50% / 50%\n\nThis can and will vary depending on specifics and the specific movie.\n\nAs you can see, since most people view movies when they first come out as well, the movie studio is making their money there.\n\nBut so where do theaters make their money? Popcorn, sodas, and hot dogs, sold at gigantic markups.\n",
"The movie theater pays the studio. The theater makes little to no money on the tickets; their profit comes from concessions and advertising.",
"So what happens then if a really poor movie gets pulled from the theatre say after a week? (I'm thinking gods of Egypt). It was in the cinema for a week then went. Theatre can't make any money at all if it's not showing. "
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20a9kt | what really happens when i stall my manual car? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20a9kt/eli5_what_really_happens_when_i_stall_my_manual/ | {
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"You stall because your car is heavy and takes energy to get it moving. Without enough fuel to burn to provide enough energy to move, your car is basically sitting still with the engine turning. This is literally impossible, and since it can't make the car move since it doesn't have enough fuel, the engine stops turning.\n\nImagine sitting on a bicycle with your a friend lifting the back wheel off the ground while you pedal slowly. Your friend is basically acting like a clutch. If your friend were to suddenly drop the bicycle to the ground (thus releasing the clutch) either the back wheel and pedals stop spinning or the bicycle moves forward. Now pretend you're doing this with the front brake locked, and how hard it would be to keep pedaling, and that's basically what happens when you stall.\n\nEdit: quick add on. There are other ways to stall, such as lack of air intake and a general combustion failure, but I'm guessing this is the one you're wondering about."
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6t8lbr | what are the practical uses of logarithms in real life ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t8lbr/eli5_what_are_the_practical_uses_of_logarithms_in/ | {
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"As one example, logs are used in a lot of finance, data, and statistical analysis... which then translate to real world stuff. Let's say you're walking down the street to get a coke at 7/11. The street lights may be placed and time based off this analysis. The 7/11 may have been placed in that spot due to it, the can of coke you pull out's aluminum was mined and manufactured based off analysis of a mountains materials, the line the coke was filled on was based off those. Then you pay with your credit card, the security and processing of that may be based on logs... and so on\n\nLogs are actually really important in the natural world as well, I hope someone can give a good ELI5 on that, but I tried to do a practical example above.",
"A logarithm is just the inverse of an exponent. Aside from solving equations with exponents in them ( like parabolic trajectories in ballistics for example) they show up in nature a lot). \n\nThe natural log, which is the inverse of e, I was able to use to model human vision. Ever try dimming your light bulbs (especially smart bulbs)? Go to 50% brightness. It sure doesn't look 50% as bright. Human light sensitivity is 5logN. If a product design engineer knew what I know and modeled the brightness of a bulb as a logarithmic function, he could make a lightbulb that dimmed by what a person would precieve as 50% halfway through a dimmer knob. \n\nHuman hearing is logarithmic too. This is why decibels are 10x higher each time you increase 1 decibel. Sound seems to be twice as loud when you actually 10x the pressure behind it. ",
"One cool feature of logarithm is that they can tell you how many digits are in a number. E.x. log base 10 of 6,453 is 3.80976166511, which rounded up is 4. If you use log base 2, you get the number of bits needed to store that number on a computer (because computer data is stored as numbers in a counting system with only two digits -- 0 and 1).",
"There are several measurement scales which are logarithmic in nature. The two most popular ones are the Richter scale and decibels.\n\nEach step in the Richter scale represents a 10x increase in power of the earthquake. So a 6.0 is ten times more powerful than a 5.0 which is ten times more powerful than a 4.0 (which means a 6.0 is one hundred times more powerful than a 4.0).\n\nDecibels are similar but the 10x happens every 10 steps. So 30 decibels is ten times more powerful than 20 which is ten times more powerful than 10.",
"They are used in the rf fields when dealing with watts and decibels dbm and dbw. Also wave propagation, signal to noise ratios and a few other measurements.",
"Lot's of examples related to growth and compounding. If the population of a country grows by a growth rate \"g\" every year, it will take ln(2)/g years for the population to double (ln being the natural logarithm here). If you have some money in the bank earning an interest rate \"r\" every year, it takes ln(2)/r for the money to double.\n\nLogs also turns multiplication into addition and division into subtraction, which can be useful sometimes. ln(a*b) = ln(a) + ln(b) and ln(a/b) = ln(a) - ln(b). \n\nIf your income last year was $44531 and is $45312 this year, your income has grown by approximately ln(45312)-ln(44531) percent.",
"I have always been extremely confident in my math skills, and I thought I knew everything about log until half way through my Ph.D., my Automatic System and Controls professor dropped this one on me:\n\n\"Logarithm is powerful, because it magnifies the small signals, and compresses the large signals!\"\n\nWhat it means is, if you have a set of data like: [1 , 2 , 1050, 5 , 0.3 , 1000 , 50], and you wish to view intuitively what you have on a plot. All you will see is a flat line, and the obvious 1050 signal and the 1000 signal. The 0.3 and the 50 maybe important but it will be unseeable compared to the 2 larger numbers.\n\nBut if you pass it by the logarithm, the larger signal will still be larger and the small signals will still be smaller, BUT you can actually see them all on the same plot. I have used this technique numerous time since I have learned it, whenever I have numbers that are in various scales but I still need to see them on the same range. The usage is not intuitive, but once you understand it, it is very practical. ",
"Logarithms are intimately related to a special kind of growth process. Imagine for example that algea are growing in a pond. Every day the number of algea grows by 10%. Mathematically we can capture that in the following equation:\n\nd[A]/dt = 0.1 * [A]\n\nwhere [A] is the number of algea per liter and t is the time in days. d[A]/dt is the so-called derivative of [A] w.r.t. to t, or in plain language, how quickly [A] is growing right now. However, using a bit of mathematical trickery which I don't have the time to prove right now, we can rewrite this as:\n\n1/[A] d[A]/dt = 0.1 \nd ln([A])/dt = 0.1\n\nAs you can see, the growth rate of the natural logarithm of [A] is constant. In other words, if we plot the logarithm of [A] vs. t, the result will be a straight line with a slope equal to 0.1\n\nThis is a general result. Any for system in which the growth rate of something is proportional to the amount you have right now, the logarithm of that something vs. time will be a straight line, and the slope tells you the growth rate. Systems where this rule applies to include chemical reactions, population growth, compound interest on a saving account, the current flowing through a diode and much, much more, and in all of them the growth or response rate can easily be found with the help of logarithms.",
"There are lots of \"uses\" for the logarithm. Eg, things like acidity are on a logarithmic scale. Entropy is how it is because it uses logarithms to turn multiplicative things into additive things. Logarithmic growth is used to understand the runtime of computer algorithms. \n\nBut there is a fatal flaw in trying to justify learning something in math through its applications. And that is that math is functions like a language and the things that you learn in high school, and even college, are like your basic vocabulary words. In order to communicate using English, you need to have enough basic vocabulary in order to understand and use sentences to communicate ideas. In math, you need to have enough of the basic vocabulary in order to understand and communicate ideas. Logarithms, algebraic equations, polynomials, factoring, fraction arithmetic, integrals, limits, graphs, etc, etc, etc are all part of the the most basic vocabulary list in math. Without them, you have no hope to actually communicate things.\n\nTrying to justify every single tiny mathematical idea with a concrete application is not the way to approach things. It would be like asking for there to be a short-story written that specifically uses every single tiny vocabulary word, so that you're sure that it can be used in an actual piece of literature. The stories would be crap and extremely contrived and kinda give you a bad sense of what a story is like, so that when people tell you that they're into literature, your gut reaction would be negative (and you'd tell them how much you hate literature). This happens with math. We're too busy trying to justify every single, tiny mathematical concept/vocabulary word with it's own application/story. These are generally contrived, don't represent how they're actually used in real life, and generally leave people with a bad taste in their mouth about math.\n\nIn order to see how the vocabulary is used, you need to be in a context to actually use it. Be it a pure math, proof-based course (which is a math \"literature course\"), or in a field that uses the language of math to do its stuff. But the issue with *really* seeing how, say, logarithms are used in Computer Science is that you need background in the concepts of Computer Science that are being understood through logarithms. This is great for a CS course, where all the students have the vocabulary of logarithms to fall back on, but it is terrible for a math course because you can't spend a week teaching the CS needed to understand why logarithms are so useful in understanding the problems in CS that use logarithms. So if people are trying to justify learning math through applications, the applications will be crap and not represent the actual, cool applications used throughout science and engineering.\n\nThe problem is that math courses are designed specifically as vocabulary courses (where you justify each vocabulary word with a contrived short story that doesn't represent how the word is actually used). Instead, math courses should be designed as literature courses, where you try to understand the mathematical analog of literature (proofs), where things are motivated from a mathematical/historical context (like in literature courses), and the vocabulary is then developed as reactions to help understand the literature better and to open up more math-stories. But, this isn't how it is, and everyone is stuck in these poorly constructed vocabulary courses that make them think that literature is boring and confusing and dumb.",
"It's not really relevant anymore but maybe an intersting historic fact:\n\nLogarithms were used a lot in the early modern times because they turn multiplication into addition and exponentials into multiplication.\n\nSince \n\nlog(a*b) = log(a) + log(b)\n\nyou can calculate a multiplication of two big numbers by adding their logs and then looking up to what number that new log corresponds.\nFor that reason mathematicians had books full with lookup tables for logarithms.\n\nSay you want to calculate 5,086,124 * 2,566,788 . You instead look up the log of the first number (approx. 15.44) and the log of the second number (approx 14.76). Then you add those two logs (which would be trivial even for big numbers) and you get approximately 30.2.\n\nNow you only need to use the lookup table in the other direction and find out to what number this log belongs to and you find\n\n 5,086,124 * 2,566,788 = 1.3053*10^13\n\nWhereas with a full calculation you'd get\n\n 5,086,124 * 2,566,788 = 1.3055*10^13\n\nAs you can see the error is quite small even if I approximate the logs of the individual numbers to the second decimal.\n\n\n\nNowadays we have Calculators so we don't need this anymore but for centuries this was the only way humans could actually handle numbers this big.",
"Logarithms are also directly related to acids and bases and their pH. The concentration of Hydrogen ions in an acid or base is equivalent to 10 to the power of the negative pH. \n\n[H+]= 10 to the negative pH\n\nAn acid's pH is also the negative log of its hydrogen ion concentration so\n\npH= -log[H+]",
"Logarithms (the octave) are useful in music.\n\nIn Base 10, multiplying and dividing by 10, calculating percents, etc. by shifting the decimal place left or right . This is actually adding or subtracting the log of 10 and keeping the mantissa the same.\n\nYour ability to see during day (when headlights are very dim) and at night (when they are blindingly bright) is due to a logarithmic adjustment of your eyes to brightness. Kiss selfies goodbye without a logarithmic representation of brightness by your camera.\n\n\n\n\n\n ",
"Multiplication is accomplished by adding the logarithms of numbers. LOG(A)+LOG(B)=LOG(AxB). So, if you take a stick and mark it with numbers spaced on a logarithmic scale, and take another stick, also marked with numbers on a logarithmic scale, you can multiply (and divide) numbers by measuring lengths with the sticks. This device is known as a [slide rule](_URL_0_). They were all the rage before the invention of the integrated circuit.\n\nSpeaking of which, not all computers are digital. There are analog computers which compute not in bits, but in voltages or hydraulic fluid pressures. These devices do multiplication, division, etc in a similar way, by adding logarithms. They are used, for example, on battleship gun controllers,bomber gunsights, guidance systems and the like."
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1pwrv5 | what are "logistics" companies i see in industrial areas? | I will always see many of them, clustered in buildings with docks for trucks, so I assume it's to do with trucking. They seem to need nothing more than an office to operate. What goes on at these places, anything shady?
Bonus if someone can tell me what's behind the tendency for them to be all Eastern-European owned and operated. (I'm in the Chicago area) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pwrv5/eli5_what_are_logistics_companies_i_see_in/ | {
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"They are typically for goods distribution. I'm guessing you see a lot of Eastern European companies that handle import/export work.",
"Logistics is basically transport and warehousing, but with the added service of making sure that the desired goods turn up in the right order, at the right time. \nExample: A car plant needs to have windscreens to built into their cars, but doesn't want to pay for storing them. Neither does the supplier. Solution: A logistics company works together with car plant and supplier and makes sure that the correct amount of windscreens, and the correct models, turn up at the plant right when they need them. This is called Just-In-Time logistics. \nDHL, UPS, FedEx are examples of logistics companies specializing in packages and mail. "
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3laxut | if weight gain/loss is just a matter of calories in and out, why is it so hard to keep weight off? | I keep hearing that when it comes to losing weight, the most important thing to remember is that calories in must be less than calories out. That makes sense.
I am overweight, but I'm also holding steady. I haven't significantly gained or lost weight in 5 years, so presumably my calories in equal my calories out. That makes sense.
I recently decided to get in better shape, so I spent a few months eating less (reduce calories in) and exercising more (increase calories out). It worked, and I lost weight. That makes sense.
But then I went back to the same diet and lifestyle I had before. Which was (presumably) equal calories in and out. But rather than staying steady, I gained the weigh back. That doesn't make sense.
So why can't I just lose a bunch of weight, then go back to my balanced calories in-out lifestyle to keep it off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3laxut/eli5_if_weight_gainloss_is_just_a_matter_of/ | {
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"Well a smaller body uses significantly less maintenance calories so you can't go back to eating the same after losing weight or you'll just gain it back.\n\nThe other (and more likely) thing is that unless you're rigorously counting every calorie you can't be sure you're npt actually eating more than you think.",
"When you lose weight, the amount of energy your body needs also decreases, as you have a smaller body. A person weighing 300lb/150kg needs more energy to maintain basic body functions than a person weighing 150lb/75kg. So you have to adjust your basic caloric intake to your smaller energy need.",
"When your body was bigger, it needed more energy to move around and keep everything running. Your \"holding steady\" diet when you are overweight is not the same holding steady diet when you weigh less.",
"To give you an idea of what the others are saying, a 6ft, 25 year old male would need ~2370 kcal a day if he currently weights 250lbs, but ~1900 kcal a day if he gets down to 175lbs.\n\nThat's a difference of a McDouble burger and a bit every day.",
"When you change your diet to lose weight, that change is *for life*... You ate less and you lost weight. That makes sense. You have to continue eating that many calories to maintain that reduced weight forever. But you went back to the calories you used to eat, you started eating more again, and so you went back to the weight that many calories maintained. That makes perfect sense.\n\nA diet change isn't some temporary thing. The notion of going *on* or *off* a diet is flawed and leads to this problem, think of it only as *changing* your diet.",
"As others have said, when you lose weight you have less mass and therefore need less energy to maintain it. This is the trickiest aspect of slimming down. \n\nHowever, there are some ways to get around this. I really recommend weight lifting to bulk up and add muscle mass. You will technically be gaining weight but in a way that makes you look good and healthy, and you can consume more calories to maintain those muscles. Essentially you replace your body fat with muscle mass. That's one way really fit people eat 3,000+ calories per day but are still athletic. That plus activity level. ",
"You gained because it wasn't balanced. Your body at 250 lbs needs more than your body at 150 lbs just because you're alive.\n\nIf you drop down to 150, you can't eat like you're 250 without losing all the additional calories. To put it short, you can eat as many calories as you want every day and stay the same weight as long as you shake them all. You'll only gain if you're eating more than your body is shaking.\n\nAlso, like that other person said, losing weight then going back to old diets is a great way to fuck yourself if you don't know what you're doing or don't have self control.",
"The heavier you are, the more calories you burn just sitting there. So for a given diet, there is an equilibrium point where you will hold steady.\n\nWhen you lose weight, your calorie burn decreases, so you have to adopt less intake or more exercise over the long term to maintain it.",
"This about it this way: It takes energy for a person to walk down the block carrying a 50 lb backpack. More so than it takes to walk down that block carrying nothing. \n\nWhen you lose weight, that weight is no longer getting carried around when you do things (like getting out of a chair, or walking to the toilet), so you're using less energy overall, and require fewer calories. "
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1eqqij | how come trix stopped making the shape cereal? why is it only circles??? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1eqqij/eli5_how_come_trix_stopped_making_the_shape/ | {
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"I would speculate that it is a cost issue. Or time.\n\nImagine you had to shape a bowl of Trix for yourself. To make all of those shapes with different colors would take a while, but if you only had to make the spheres, then you would be done in a third of the time, probably saving you some materials in the process.\n\nDo note that this is just my common sense and intuition, as I don't know the real reason for sure.",
"They still make them with shapes.\n\nSource: I''m eating them right now _URL_0_",
"Well, young 'un, back in the day, *way* back in the day, in the dark ages before the 1990s, Trix *were* round. So, really, what they are now is what they should look like, not your hippity hop fruit shapes. Now get off my damn lawn, you punk kids, or I'll turn the hose on ya ag'in.",
"I think it is a marketing ploy. When I was a kid they were circles. Then they started making the new fruit shapes. I wrote the company and asked them to please start making the circles again becuase they fit onto my spoon better.... they didnt. But now suddenly, when I walk down the cereal aisle Trix is advertising the 'new circles' shape. I think they will introduce the fruite shapes when this generation of kids grows up as a 'new thing'",
"From the [Wiki](_URL_1_):\n\nThey started out as spherical cereal pieces, but in 1991, they were changed to puffed fruit-shaped pieces. In 2006, they reverted to their original shape in the United States and several other places; in Mexico they have kept their fruit shape.\n\nThis is the best answer from a [Yahoo Answers](_URL_0_) thread:\n\nTrix are now in fact back to their original shape. The cereal was first sold in 1954 in what is now its infamous puffed ball shape. It wasn’t until 1992 that it became fruit “shaped”. Until I saw your question posted here I was unaware that they had become round once again. My curiosity bit me, and I started poking around. It seems that there is quite an upset in the whippersnapper community. They do not know that, just like the Coca Cola company, General Mills made a mistake and had to bring back the original favorite (in 1997). Now we have our Trix “classic”. There are actually people rejoicing over the return of the balls. There is also a petition on the web encouraging the return of the fruity shaped ones (too bad it only has seven signatures). I had no idea there was such a fervor. Anyway, I can’t answer the question - and apparently neither can anyone else (including responders to the other 4 people who have asked the same on Answers). The closest thing I could find was a suggestion that the new shapes, due to a different molding process, deemed the pieces less digestible (believe that if you want). Everybody else says that General Mills has clammed up and will not divulge the reason.\n\nMy personal guess would be that it was a way to save money. They produce Kix as well, and they are also round. Perhaps it was a way to save money by using the same machinery to create the cereal shapes."
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431ixo | the origin of college spring break? | Not why they all go to Mexico and get drunk (that's because college), but why do they even get a break in the middle of the semester to begin with? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/431ixo/eli5_the_origin_of_college_spring_break/ | {
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"Back when the US was more religious, Easter was a pretty big holiday & people would get time off to travel & see family.\n\nFor schools on a quarter system instead of a semester system, spring break is the period between winter & spring terms."
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1j0q2y | why has there been, seemingly all of a sudden, a big push to block pornography on the internet? | Is there some other reason besides 'think of the children' appeals to conservative voters, or is it just pandering?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j0q2y/eli5_why_has_there_been_seemingly_all_of_a_sudden/ | {
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"It's the thin end of the censorship wedge; once censorship of porn \"for the safety of children\" is accepted as the norm, it will be so much easier to bring in more censorship of other types of speech/expression that someone wants to suppress. \n\nPorn was chosen as a type of literiture that enough people disapprove of to get a groundswell of support - it's difficult to argue that children should be exposed to more porn, without people assuming you're a paedophile, but most people would be outraged if they thought that Cosmoplitan or The Sun's Page 3 was going to be banned. \n\nFast-forward a decade or so, and Cosmo and Page 3 (or things like them) could well be the next target.",
"The world governments feels threatened by wide-spread challenges on its authority in the areas of: pandering to the super-wealthy, using global military force to acquire geo-political power, and spying on citizens. An attack on porn will gain enough attention to whip the masses into a short lived fury, then we'll all go back to living our lives, forgetful of the mass infringements on our freedoms. Just a conspiracy theory, but a fun one. ",
"I can't answer without bias. At the moment I'm reading '1984' and this kind of censorship scares the crap out of me.",
"The UK porn ban has been brought on as a reaction to the killing of 5 year old April Jones by Mark Bridger, due to the stuff he had looked at hours before he kidnapped, raped and killed her.\n\nIt's obviously something that's been thought of long before then, but I'm guessing that they're using this case as a kick starter for pushing it forward.",
"\"Follow the money\" is the answer to this one. Politicians in particular. For example, when prohibition of alcohol ended in the USA, the politicians pushing for it moved on to cannabis which was legal up to that point. It's all political agenda appealing for votes of certain demographics if not direct money conversion. ",
"People have been trying to ban porn for a very long time, you wouldn't know, because you're only 5. How'd I do?"
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e1s7n8 | why is it safe to eat salmon raw as sushi but not safe to eat it rare when you eat a salmon filet? why is tuna different? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e1s7n8/eli5_why_is_it_safe_to_eat_salmon_raw_as_sushi/ | {
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"None of those statements are true. \n\nIt is safe to eat salmon raw as sushi and it is also safe to eat salmon rare .. in a trusted restaurant or setting. It is also safe to eat tuna rare for the same reason - most fish are not susceptible to botulism or salmonella the way other meats are. \n\nBut it all depends on the handling. It's no different from eating rare steak or soft cooked eggs. At your own risk."
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5viovo | how do islands float? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5viovo/eli5_how_do_islands_float/ | {
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"The thing in the video is basically a *boat*, not an island. Islands are connected to the ground under the water.",
"[Floating islands](_URL_0_) exist, but they are rare. Most islands are connected to land below the water line. Floating islands can happen naturally on lakes when trees, branches, and aquatic plants get tangled and float together. Sometimes they will get covered in soil material and float with the lake currents. Sometimes people will build floating islands like the one on the video. They build a raft, cover it with soil, and build on top of it. Then it is really a boat or a barge that looks like an island.\n"
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126emd | how does spotify work? | How does Spotify compensate artists with unlimited access to their music for free? And how did they convince bands to put their music on Spotify when they first started off? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/126emd/how_does_spotify_work/ | {
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" > with unlimited access to their music for free?\n\nFirstly, it's not free. Either you subscribe and straight up pay them money or you get ads which means the companies buying the ad space are paying spotify in the hope that you'll buy their product.\n\nAs far as convincing bands it's not about convincing bands, it's paying fees to labels which have a large number of bands. This is mainly the big 3 (UMG, Sony, and Warner) Other people can expand on this since this is as far as my knowledge goes.",
"The artists get paid a pittance: _URL_0_\n\nI suspect most bands (or their labels/distributors/whatever) do it for exposure. ",
"What I want to know is if it's sustainable. I find it hard to believe that the occasional 15 second ad, a good amount of which are just ads for Spotify itself, produce enough money to keep a massive library of nearly every song ever on demand."
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5xb991 | what is diarrhea? what causes it to happen? the cramps, the sounds, the smell, the result. | Just spent the morning on the toilet, so I had some time to wonder about why this thing happens to our bodies when we eat something that doesn't agree with us. Why does my body feel like it's eating itself? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xb991/eli5_what_is_diarrhea_what_causes_it_to_happen/ | {
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"The final stages of digestion happen in the large intestine. The last bits of nutrients are absorbed, but most importantly, the large intestine absorbs most of the water back out of the digestive waste. Food, as it's digested, is mixed with a whole lot of water and basically turns into a soupy mess. But you don't want to poop out all that water, or you'd dehydrate yourself. So the large intestine re-absorbs nearly all of it, leaving the semi-solid poop we're familiar with.\n\nIf your body feels that it has been poisoned, it has an \"oh shit\" button. It says screw re-absorbing the water, we need to clear this poison out of the body. So it expels everything out of the large intestine, water and all. That's diarrhea.",
"Diarrhea is poop with too much water in it, for any reason. The colon (large intestine) pulls water out of the slurry of digested food that comes out of your small intestine. The idea is to spend enough time in the colon to get most of the water back, but not so much time that pooping is difficult.\n\nVarious things can lead to diarrhea, but mostly it comes down to stimulating the colon to move stuff faster, or getting more water into the colon. There's a lot of nerve input which can speed things up, say if you've just eaten and need to make room, or for any number of other reasons. Some laxatives stimulate the colon, while others pull water in by osmosis. Disease can produce increased stimulation in an attempt to get rid of everything, or lead to inflammation that increases water loss across the bowel wall. Alternately, some infections directly act on the bowel wall to cause more secretion of water and salt; cholera is notorious for producing buckets full of watery stools that way."
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qap6z | - surrealism | What does it mean to be a surrealist? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qap6z/eli5_surrealism/ | {
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"Purple monkey dishwasher.",
"The doctors say I have insufficient mactelinium in my diet. But mactelinium is a fictitious substance and I've never seen a doctor in my life, and I am a doctor. What should the government do? It's important, because we can't have people like you running around and performing abortions on plants.\n"
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2p3swb | why do banana slices split so easily into thirds? | It's magical. I just would like to know why. And if there's a point behind it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p3swb/eli5_why_do_banana_slices_split_so_easily_into/ | {
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"Banana the fruit is made of 3 wedge shaped strips."
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1vahrq | why does the human body store extra food (energy) as fat, while allowing extra vitamins and minerals to be passed through your body within hours? | There has been a lot of talk about recent studies claiming vitamins and supplements in pill form are pointless. Why does the body store extra food (energy) as fat, while allowing extra vitamins and minerals required by the body to be passed through your system within hours? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vahrq/eli5_why_does_the_human_body_store_extra_food/ | {
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"Your brain needs a constant flow of glucose to survive. And to be sure your brain gets what it needs, even in rough times with no food (evolution), your body stores glucose. It has a little glucose storage in your liver, but the rest is stored as fat. When your body doesn't get enough energy to support your brain, it deconstruct muscle tissue and fat tissue to transform to glucose.\n\nMinerals and vitamins are also really important for the body, but a lot of these can be made from other stuff you eat, and it's okay to have a bit of shortage of minerals and vitamins for a short period of time.",
"It's not that your body requires them to pass through your system, it's just that some vitamins are fat soluble (which means they can be stored in your body tissues) and others are water soluble (your body absorbs what it can and the rest is urinated out).\n\nYour body stores energy because without a constant source of energy you'll die a lot faster than a vitamin deficiency will.\n\n\n\n",
"Some vitamins and mineral can also be stored in your body for later use. What is comes down to is whether or not what you are ingesting is fat or water soluble. Things that are water soluble can be pissed out rather quickly, where as fat soluble things take longer for your body to get rid of and can be stored."
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6oc6fz | why does it seem sometimes to require more physical and mental effort to stay still than to move/ jig/ sway? | E.g., when working at a desk or watching the T.V. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6oc6fz/eli5_why_does_it_seem_sometimes_to_require_more/ | {
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"text": [
"Making yourself sit still requires some form of mind/body focus, which can require immense amounts of mental energy. Also, evolutionarily speaking, human beings naturally aren't used to maintaining a still posture for hours on end. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1i0jhx | japanese-korean relations, and why korea is constantly asking for compensations and apologies when they were given. | Why is Korea asking for apologies when Europeans aren't asking Germany for apologies? Is it a cultural thing? Japan seems to be bombarded with these demands all the time. Isn't it time to move on?
What makes Korea so different in the approach? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1i0jhx/eli5_japanesekorean_relations_and_why_korea_is/ | {
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"text": [
"Germany invaded and occupied other European countries for about 2 3-year periods.\n\nJapan occupied Korea for 40 years straight.",
" > Why is Korea asking for apologies when Europeans aren't asking Germany for apologies?\n\nThey probably would be asking for apologies from Germany, if political and government officials there kept visiting a shrine to those executed after the Nuremberg trials every year and making statements to the effect that various atrocities either never happened or were played up for reasons of anti-German propaganda. However, the German government never does that sort of thing. Japanese officials do, and all the time.\n\nThe various Japanese apologies are often seen as insincere in Korea and China because they do just that, with annual visits by senior politicians to the Yasukuni shrine and repeated statements by officials that, say, the Nanking massacre never happened, or that there was nothing wrong with the use of the so-called \"comfort women\" (sex slaves kidnapped from Korea and China, mostly).",
"Culture, Politics, and the lay of history, are the reasons.\n\nAfter the war, the victors write history. China and Korea were at most tag-along victors, and their interpretation of history was written in such a way that japan is a clear evil, to blame for all that could possibly be wrong. The war was particularly brutal in this arena, and both countries were on the cusp of a communist revolution, it was good political capital to demonize japan.\n\n\nUK and France did not have major political changes after the war, not to mention that while there were atrocities and france, they were not quite as extreme. (the eastern front in russia was much more so) \n\nRussia might be a better contrast: perhaps the difference is that the bolshevik revolution was already over before the war vs germany, and stalin killed as many or more russians than hitler's germany.\n\n\nSo back to Korea and China: When you have a large base of people indoctrinated to externalize problems to a particular entity, its great political fodder to exploit. \n\nVietnam is another good contrast perhaps. They suffered under the war with the US, but there is virtually no remnant animosty, even though the war was much more recent than ww2. Honestly I'm at a loss to explain this one. Perhaps because it was one country vs the other, and vietnam won alone ?\n"
]
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[],
[],
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|
6j22pw | movies and film from past decades still look fairly decent. why do live sports from the same eras look so bad? even highlights from just 10 years ago look greatly inferior to nowadays. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6j22pw/eli5_movies_and_film_from_past_decades_still_look/ | {
"a_id": [
"djavdkt",
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"text": [
"Film is a really high resolution medium, and your current HDTV can show you an HD scan of film made decades ago at full resolution.\n\nTV, that was pretty bad 10+ years ago. 480 lines of resolution is 25% of the pixels your TV is showing you. Film highlights, like the ones from NFL Films, look great, but most sports coverage was TV. Recordings of that TV are not going to be up to current expectations, no matter what processing is applied to them.",
"The type of recording media being used.\n\nFilm looked (and still looks) awesome, but it's really expensive and time consuming to work with. It also takes extra steps to take something shot on film and broadcast it on TV. So for sports, it just wasn't an option.\n\nRecording to magnetic tape systems was much less expensive, and the signal that comes out of that kind of camera can pretty much go straight to broadcast, making live TV possible. But they didn't look as good, and duplicating a tape (which often had to happen for archival purposes) or amplifying the analog signal (necessary if you're broadcasting a national game to local affiliates) hurts the quality even further.\n\nModern broadcast systems are digital, and the reason for that is that digital format things do not degrade in quality when duplicated. Ten years ago the switchover process was still happening, analog TV was still a thing until 2009."
]
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[],
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||
e79yeb | why is it that we’re always told to stay away from power lines as they could kill us, but birds and squirrels have no issue running/sitting on them? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e79yeb/eli5_why_is_it_that_were_always_told_to_stay_away/ | {
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"f9wkkgt",
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"text": [
"Earthing. \nLots of birds and small animals do get killed by powerlines when they touch both the live wire and an earthing path.\nIf you only touch the one wire and nothing else, in theory, you'll be ok.",
"If you notice, those animals don't touch the ground. If you touched one of those lines (or any animal) while also completing the circuit. You'd be that guy from the green mile they didn't wet his head and pulled the switch.",
"The birds or animals sitting on the lines are not making a connection to ground so the high power has no where to go. Humans can touch the lines too if they solely hang or stand on them but we can't balance as gracefully. If you touch the line while standing on the pole then you'd be making a connection to ground and power would run from the wire you're touching to the pole which is grounded thus making a shorter route to ground and then you'd be dead. Electricity takes the shortest path to ground."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
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|
39f4v8 | how reddit makes money, please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39f4v8/eli5_how_reddit_makes_money_please/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs2u0x1",
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"text": [
"People buying gold,ads?? ",
"Just like any other sites pushing content, Reddit makes money off reddit gold(almost like subscription fees), ads, reddit store and reddit gifts. There's also redditTV and RedditRadio which they get paid for through a contract for linking. I would imagine imgur is financially linked with reddit as well."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
5hvl66 | what's a neocon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hvl66/eli5_whats_a_neocon/ | {
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"text": [
"So, starting in the 1960's a lot of democrats at the time rejected the leftward shift the party had started to take, and made a transition to the GOP.\n\nIn modern US politics, neoconservative is probably a fitting label for most \"mainstream\" U.S. Republicans -- Reagan, George Bush (Jr and Sr), Romney, and Paul Ryan for example.\n\nThere is variation, but if I had to describe what the general characteristics of a neoconservative are they would include:\n\n\\- Being socially moderate compared to the religious right, but usually still falling to the right of center. Neocons tend to be less occupied with traditional social conservatism beyond what is required to win an election.\n\n\\- Neocons aren't necessarily opposed to expanding the size and power of \"big government\", or increasing federal spending, provided that it suits their purposes. (Ex: The Patriot Act)\n\n\\- Neocons support interventionist foreign policy, which stems from the anti-communist sentiments from the Cold War era and is today motivated by a desire to maintain American hegemony. This point is a big one, and tends to be one of the first things associated with Neoconservatism.\n\n\\- Neocons support globalism and free trade. Partly because of corporatist influence, and partly because it allows the U.S. to project wide influence."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3s3edi | how come former british colonies do not have nobility? | I could see why America wouldn't have any nobility as they had the revolution but what about Canada, Australia, and others. How come there isn't a Count of Toronto, Earl of Melbourne, Marquee of Auckland, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s3edi/eli5how_come_former_british_colonies_do_not_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwtqjq4"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"The British Empire did not grant Lordships to those who ruled or owned land in their colonies and by the time those countries gained independence they had developed cultures without nobility. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
620nqa | why can a capacitor let through alternating current and not direct current? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/620nqa/eli5_why_can_a_capacitor_let_through_alternating/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfir9vk"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Electric current can be likened to a system of pipes full of water. The capacitor, in a water system, would be a rubber film blocking the flow of water. When you induce a flow in one direction, the water can stretch the rubber, but the elastic film will not let the water through. When the pump is turned off, the flow moves the opposite direction, as the rubber tries to return to its position at rest.\n\nThe flow alternates because it can't move directly through the capacitor."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6tzlf0 | what does kombucha do for the body exactly and what makes good bacteria different? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tzlf0/eli5_what_does_kombucha_do_for_the_body_exactly/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlos5sx",
"dlp1t7b"
],
"score": [
12,
3
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"text": [
"Nothing that any other fizzy sweet drink doesn't do.\n\nKombucha has no real health benefits. It's all hype.",
"My girlfriend makes kombucha at home. She drinks it because she found out she doesn't have IBS flare ups after drinking it for a while. She feeds her bacteria green tea and vinegar, so I guess whatever benefits it has is whatever the hellspawn of bacteria eats up and spits out. Can't link, but they're called \"Scoby\" and she has one in a jar about 15\" in diameter and almost 2\" thick. You can buy them on amazon and grow them. I hate looking at it. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
70ppt7 | i've always heard that lightning won't strike my car because the tires are rubber. so, 1) what about rubber repels electricity, and 2) how does lightning know my car has rubber tires? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70ppt7/eli5_ive_always_heard_that_lightning_wont_strike/ | {
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"text": [
"Lightning can absolutely strike your car. It happens from time to time, and it can fry the electronics. \n\nIf you're in the car, you'll probably be fine however. Not because of rubber tires, but because the current will travel the shortest path to ground around the exterior/frame and through the tires, or even arc from the air to the ground. ",
"I'm no scientist, but I think lightning can strike your car, it just won't affect anyone inside because it's effectively a farraday cage, grounded by the rubber tyres.",
"Lightning strikes cars all the time. Nothing about your tires or anything will prevent that. What people generally say is that tires prevent the electricity from traveling to the passenger compartment and killing you... That too is wrong. When lighting strikes a car the electricity takes the path of least resistance which is outside on the metallic and/or wet skin of the car. It's called the \"Skin Effect\", you can google this, and that's what prevents the electricity from traveling inside the passenger compartment. As long as you're not touching the outside of the car you're fine.",
"You've always heard wrong.\n\nLightning can make it all the way from the cloud to the ground (or ground to cloud) and folks think that it can't make the jump from your car's axle to the ground? It makes no sense.\n\nLightening can and will hit cars. When it does, the (metal) body of the car does offer some protection to the occupant as the charge will follow the path of least resistance to the ground, which is the car itself, and not you.\n\n",
"This fact is actually a myth, lightning will still strike your car. However, the lightning will travel through the metal on the outside of the car protecting you on the inside. This is why cars are safe in a lightning storm. \n\nThe answers to your questions:\n\n1) Rubber does not repel electricity. It does not conduct electricity. Electricity flows easily through materials like medal and poorly through rubber and other materials called insulators. \n\n2) The reason that lightning avoids rubber (and knows to avoid it) is because it finds the path of least resistance to the ground. This is which a high metal pole works as a lightning rod, the lighting will travel to the pole through air (which is difficult for electricity) and then finish its trip more raising through the metal. If it struck rubber, it would take a large amount of effort to flow, so it takes the easier path. This is similar to a river flowing through a shorter, easier path is a natural process. The river and the lightning don't \"think\" about the easiest path, they just take it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
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||
26zxud | why does google maps use computer-generated "imagery" instead of actual satellite imagery in the high arctic? | [Here's an example of what I mean.](_URL_1_) You can easily see where the actual imagery stops and the fake "imagery" begins.
edit: apparently [Bing Maps does the same thing too.](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26zxud/eli5_why_does_google_maps_use_computergenerated/ | {
"a_id": [
"chw2de2"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
" the satellites probably aren't able to get good images of the extreme poles because their orbit doesn't take them far enough north/south"
]
} | [] | [
"http://binged.it/1nRgM0m",
"https://maps.google.com/?ll=79.749932,-58.183594&spn=11.027788,107.138672&t=h&z=4"
] | [
[]
] |
|
tacwf | details & ramifications of the new socialist french presidency | What does the new French election mean for France? For the world? What kind of socialist is Hollande? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tacwf/eli5_details_ramifications_of_the_new_socialist/ | {
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17,
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2,
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"text": [
"Point of clarification: Hollande's not a \"socialist\", that's just the name of his party. He's more of a center-left social democrat. This gets confusing to Americans because we're sort of unique in the negativity we ascribe to the term.",
"Picture it like this... You and a few of your friends want to share lunch every day, and promise that you'll all share whatever you get for lunch each day.(The Euro Zone in a nutshell) However, several of your friends don't listen and begin to eat parts of their lunch before they come to the lunch table (The southern euro zone countries spending and borrowing out of their means). This causes problems for your agreement, and although you all have equal power, you and your friend Nicholas have the most sway over your group (You being Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicholas being Sarcosy of France). You agree that in order to solve this lunch problem, everyone has to agree to changes such as everyone bringing more lunch to the table and guaranteeing that everyone brings good lunches (The forced austerity). Assume that every couple of weeks, some of the friends are able to be changed out based on their friends whims, and this week is Nicholas' turn and because people are angry over the failure to fix the lunch problem choose someone else to take his place. (Election of Franscois, new french president). This person wants to tear up the agreement making everyone bring more lunch to the table and promising better lunches. Instead he wants to take a large cut of the really good lunches and share the food that way (His promise to increase taxes on the wealthy).\n\nThis could do one of two things in the lunchroom (economy as a whole): Either cause applause because there is a chance that this plan could stop the crisis (The plan would increase public sector spending like infrastructure) or could cause the crisis to get worse and affect the other tables from trading their lunches (the plan does not work and causes deficits to rise even more).",
"How much power does the french president have compared to the American President?",
"On foreign policy, I had several questions (as we know hollande is new to this)\n\n1. Israel\n\n2. War on terror (inc. Iran and Afghanistan)\n\n3. Obama \n\n4. Of course, eu (Germany, Greece, euro...)",
"Also - marriage equality"
]
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[],
[],
[],
[],
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|
36sxiv | how does a game on pc get poorly optimized? | Is it in the code? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36sxiv/eli5_how_does_a_game_on_pc_get_poorly_optimized/ | {
"a_id": [
"crgsnqi",
"crgst2d"
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"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"Yes, either game code being more complicated than it needs to be, wasting clock cycles and RAM. Or, on the driver side of things, which someone more knowledgeable can explain ",
"Depends on the game, actually. If it is made for Console, porting it to PC will raise some compatibility issues.\n\nAlso, PCs hardware are not uniform. Developers need to code around hardware differences and capabilities."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
aekasg | if you would go into space, and go out of space 12 hours later, would you be on the other side of the earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aekasg/eli5_if_you_would_go_into_space_and_go_out_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"edpvueu",
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"text": [
"Theoretically yes, but space travel is done by orbiting bodies with gravity. In earth's case, you'd be moving *faster* than the earth's rotation, so you'd actually end up on the other side of earth after a couple of hours. If you *could* go straight up and hover, then yes, you could come back down after twelve hours and be on the opposite side of the world.",
"No. Maybe. Depends.\n\nThis really depends on how you go about going to space. \n\nIf you just shoot up straight (more or less) that it takes 12 hours to come down again then yes you will approximately be on the opposite side but still on the same hemisphere (so not quite the opposite point). \n\nIf you add some north/south component to that ballistic trajectory you could hit the opposite point.\n\nBut if you actually go into orbit then it might not even be possible to hit the opposite side after exactly 12 hour as you might go around earth every 70 minutes to hours or only every few days (although an orbital period that long would also mean it would take quite a while to come down again, too) so the spot you will be at after 12 hours really depends on the orbit."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
4259az | how come you need to "re-login" websites, especially when both the username and password is remembered by the browser? | Is it really a security issue when all I (or any other person...) needs to do is hit the Log in button? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4259az/eli5_how_come_you_need_to_relogin_websites/ | {
"a_id": [
"cz7o0af",
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"score": [
2,
2,
4
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"text": [
"You need it because the password remembering thing is made by your browser and not the website. So it's the user's fault for not being secure enough. ",
"Well, in this case this is your problem, and eventual security breach will be your fault. The company has clean hands and you cannot sue them. ",
"In most cases, it's the website that determines whether you're \"logged in\". The browser is where your username/password are saved. The website doesn't know that you've saved your username/password.\n\nFor a more technical explanation - persistent logins to websites are usually done with 'cookies' - these little data files a website puts on your machine. The cookie tells the site \"This username has properly logged in from here before\". Once the cookie expires, the site doesn't know who is logged in from that browser.\n\nYour browser, separately, saves the usernames and passwords that you tell it to save. So it will fill those in for you whenever you get a login prompt on that site. But it won't actually send them to the site for login - you have to do that manually."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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