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66510f | why does body temperature rise after a meal? | For example after eating a lot of carbs. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66510f/eli5_why_does_body_temperature_rise_after_a_meal/ | {
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"It is because your metabolic rate is increasing to digest the food. Think of it like an engine. When it's on, it is warm however when you give it gas (food) it revs up and the engine heats up. Same thing happens with the body. "
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9ka9c5 | what is modernism and other movements? | I always suffer when someone mentions any of them
Modernism, Post modernism, surrealism, romanticism, expressionism, neoclassicism, realism?
Can you please break them down to me? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ka9c5/eli5_what_is_modernism_and_other_movements/ | {
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"I can answer most of the -isms that deal with architecture:\n\n**Modernism** with a capital 'M' is the idea that \"less is more\". This movement was a response to the first world war to answer the calamity that society suffered in Europe. This movement would travel to America and be dubbed \"International Style\" to the chagrin of its European founders, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Le Corbusier. The Modernists sought to strike down historical context and tradition in favor of new technology (concrete, glass, steel) and rid the building of \"unnecessary ornament\". \n\n**Post-Modernism** is the counter-movement to Modernism that began in the late 60s during the many counter-culture movements that were happening. See Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. There was no distinct \"style\" associated with Po-Mo architecture like Modernism. \n\n**Neoclassicism** is the movement that takes roots in Classical theory. It's typically depicted by ancient Greek and Roman styles of Classicism with particular attention to proportion and geometric principles to define solid and void.",
"They're styles of things: thought, philosophy, literature, movies, art, etc. They tend to represent different - but related - things across all these forms (eg, Modernist buildings and Modernist literature both tend to be free of \"unnecessary\" ornamentation). \n\nI can answer a few of these in the context of literature and art:\n\nRomanticism: largely came about as a response to the industrial revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. The romantics believed that emotion and experience (as opposed to more clinical science and industry) were a key part of writing and sought to write things that captured emotional experiences (largely, but not limited to, stuff like fear and apprehension and dread). A lot of modern horror can trace its lineage back to this period (*Frankenstein* was a Romantic novel). *The Sorrows of Young Werther* is one of the earliest Romantic novels and features a protagonist who leads an emotional and passionate life and the novel spares little detail in exploring the suffering he felt as a result of the story. Romantics tended to celebrate and embrace nature - especially in America - where Emerson and Thoreau celebrated it and wrote often about the power and attraction and mystery it held for them. Romantics sought to explain the \"unquantifiable\" emotional parts of what it meant to be human. In film and art, romanticism tends to be expressed in the form of dreamy (often fantastical) landscapes and \"idealized\" scenes - Oz in the Wizard of Oz is portrayed this way: rolling green hills that seem to stretch of forever, cities made of emerald, etc. They tended to borrow heavily from mythology and history and in France in particular, romanticism became connected with the French Revolution as both celebrated passion and individuality and so a lot of French romantic art has nationalistic or patriotic themes. Modern fantasy and science fiction, too, owe much to romanticism. \n\nExpressionism rejects the idea that there's a universal \"reality\" that we all share and argues that we more experience and see the world shaped by our own thoughts and desires and experiences and expressionistic writing tries to capture that. Expressionist novels tend to eschew traditional novel structures (beginning, end, plot progression) and focus more on the internal thought and emotional processes of the characters and how they shape the world that is presented to the readers. The emphasis is on subjective emotion rather than fact. Kafka's *The Metamorphosis* is an expressionist novel. You see expressionism in film a *lot*, even without even realising it as film was just getting going as an artform during the height of expressionism in Germany. *The Cabinet of Dr Caligari* is a great example of an expressionist film: it's a story of an insane hypnotist who uses a sleepwalker to commit crimes and the film is presented with heavily contrasted lighting, sharp-edges and weird angles, buildings misshapen, etc to represent the mental strife of the character. Here's a link to a trailer that shows some of it off: _URL_0_. Note how angles are off, things don't look quite right, etc. \n \nOn the other hand, realism is a rejection of expressionism (or rather, expressionism was a rejection of realism). They sought to capture everyday experiences and reality in as close to a matter-of-fact way as they could with as little ornamentation or deviation from what they saw as the true reality as they could. *The Grapes of Wrath* is a Realist novel and recounts the hardship that the Joads experienced as they travelled to find somewhere to work. Realists attempt to \"spare no detail\" in showing what they perceive to be the truth of experience, without letting it be warped by subjectivity or emotion. Realist artwork tends to focus on the down-to-earth experiences of regular people rather than painting things relating to the upper classes or from mythology. Farmers, workers, laborers, etc tended to be the subject matter, and it tried to present them as close-to-life as possible in terms of proportions and shape. In film, realism tends to eschew angles and positioning that portray a scene in a way that looks too weird. For example, not capturing a scene from above or below or from too far away and instead putting the camera where a person's eyes would be in the conversation. \n\nNeoclassical is a movement that had more to do with architecture and the arts rather than literature specifically, but generally refers to a desire to \"return\" to what is perceived to be a better time. The government buildings in Washington, D.C. are a perfect example of neoclassical architecture as the designers of the city were intentionally trying to mimic the look of Ancient Rome (the classical in neoclassical) as they believed that Rome was an ideal society to mimic and recreate. Neoclassical literature attempts to borrow from classical literary forms in the same way, to borrow their sense of austerity and senatorial respect. Milton's *Paradise Lost* is a neoclassical work of writing that borrows from the Roman poets like Ovid and Virgil. Neoclassical art does the same: lots of classical themes, lots of paintings of events from Roman and Greek mythology or history, and lots of pastorals (paintings of idealized \"classical\" man working the land). "
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28ap1q | when a big corp buys a company, does the company get a lump sum? and does the big corp get financing through a bank? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28ap1q/eli5_when_a_big_corp_buys_a_company_does_the/ | {
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"yes, the company gets a lump sum. the buying company may get a loan through a bank for cash. or pay all stock (buying company's stock), or cash/stock. ",
"It varies based on the terms of the deal. \n\n1. you can buy a company by swapping stock, and absolutely no cash would exchange hands.\n\n2. you can buy a company with cash, and it could be paid out over time, all at once etc. These things are negotiable, especially if it's a private company (if it's public, it can also be negotiated so long as the shareholders find it in their interest...but..more typically it would be through acquisition of stock at an agreed to rate). If bought with cash, that cash can come from wherever the buyer can get it - investors, banks, reserves etc.\n"
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64ibzg | how related is high school algebra to knowing how to code and do web development? | A lot of math and physics major go into programming and I was never great at algebra. I thought of going back to review concepts like factoring, quadratic equations, and practice drawing parabolas. Would having a more solid understanding of algebra be helpful to prepare me for programming? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64ibzg/eli5_how_related_is_high_school_algebra_to/ | {
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"For coding, you need a very logical mind.\n\nFor high school algebra, you also need a very logical mind. For that reason, if you're good at one, there's a high chance you'll be good at the other, and vice versa.\n\nHowever, you won't actually need algebra skills to be able to code in most business environments (although there are certainly some specialist types of coding that *do* use these skills).",
"So, You'll have to use some basic algebra, at least enough to be able to work with variables: quantities of unknown sizes. But beyond that you'll need a logical, Explain-everything kind of thinking. A computer is extremely dumb, but it's dumb extremely fast. It won't do anything you don't tell it to do, and will do everything you tell it to do to the last letter. You have to be able to think very logically, one action at a time in sequence. \n\nMost of web development shouldn't require too much of actual high-school algebra. I am employed currently as a front-end web developer and in general I require very little \"pure\" algebra, you can get fairly far just by knowing the order of operations and your sums and factors if you aren't doing something very technical. Being a good and creative problem solver in a very logical and to-the-letter world is more what you should be aiming for. Don't be afraid of doing something differently, in programming there often isn't a one size fits all solution, improvising is a key skill. \n\nAlso google. Google is a great skill for a programmer. "
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1zrd5l | how are services like uber or lyft cheaper than a typical taxi service and more profitable for the driver? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zrd5l/eli5how_are_services_like_uber_or_lyft_cheaper/ | {
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"Lack of regulation.\n\nTaxi driver have to be licensed by the local municipalities, who set caps and charge a whole lot (a NYC taxi medallion can auction for over $1 million).\n\nUber and Lyft drivers are technically limos, which aren't nearly as restricted. And since there is no validation and Uber and Lyft are just matching services, it is easy for people without any sort of special (or even any) license to participate."
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b1yrrb | how does self-confidence work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b1yrrb/eli5_how_does_selfconfidence_work/ | {
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"Knowing when you've done enough. There is a reason why they say you can deceive everyone else but not yourself. If you did enough you'll know. If you didn't, your reptile part of your brain will let you know. That fucker is never wrong. You can bet on it. Just think of it as 250 million years old sage who has seen it all and made it through to you in the current day. Listen to that and you'll be golden"
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1nokh2 | why hasn't aviation moved beyond jet technology yet? | Are there other technologies theoretically available? We went from gliders to jets in 50 years in the first half of the 20th century, yet from the 50's until now aviation broadly seems to have plateaued with jet/rocket based technology. Are there good reasons for this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nokh2/eli5_why_hasnt_aviation_moved_beyond_jet/ | {
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"You may be surprised to hear that in some ways we have regressed to an older sort of technology for airplane propulsion. Most passenger jet airplanes use something called a turbo-fan, which is effectively a giant propeller which is spun by a jet engine which provides very little thrust of its own.\n\nReally, there are only so many ways to produce thrust for a flying machine. One way is to run a giant fan which pushes air backward and the other is to create a sustained explosion or series of explosions and ride that out. It turns out that explosions are better for going high and fast and fans are better for fuel efficiency. Jets are generally good designs because they don't need to carry their own oxygen source since they can operate on breathing in air from the environment, even at high speed. Aviation propulsion has not had any fundamental changes in a while, but today's jets and rockets are much better than they were twenty years ago. The thing which gets aviation geeks excited these days are scramjets, jets which operate at super-sonic speeds and which might power high-altitude sub-orbital passenger flight.",
"There was a recent question about why aircraft haven't got any faster over the last few decades, and I explained in that thread that the sound barrier is a huge problem, which simply isn't worth trying to break, from a financial point of view - passengers are not interested in paying enough extra to cover the cost of breaking the sound barrier.\n\nSo we have a situation where aircraft can't go faster than they currently - and the current engine technology gets them there perfectly adequately. Why would we need something new?\n\nThe invention of the jet engine enabled aircraft to fly faster and higher than propellers would allow. It was being higher and faster that meant that jets became the norm. But without any possibility of faster, I can't see any reason why jets would be replaced now in the way that propellers were replaced by the jet.\n\nHowever, there have been huge advances in engine technology. Engines are massively more fuel-efficient and quieter than ever before. Just about every new jet aircraft has FADEC which has reduced the number of crew required to fly an aircraft, made the aircraft safer than ever, and easier to operate than ever. Engineers are making advances all the time... but the jet engine still rules.",
"We progressed a lot in terms of jet/rocket tech in the past 50 years. Engines are way more powerful and efficient than they were in the 60's. New high tech materials, flight and guidance computers, UAVs, stealth technology, ramjet and scramjet tech, hall effect thrusters, ion engines, fly-by-wire, solid fueled ICBMs and VTOL are just some examples I can name of the top of my head. But a jet technologie still is the best form of aircraft propulsion for speeds under mach 3 and below 10.000m. We just perfected the tech in the same way we perfected the combustion engine, it's the same principle except better faster and stronger than 50 years ago. ",
"\"Jet technology\" is a pretty broad subject, and while many of the underlying principles are the same, jet engines being designed today are very different from jet engines built back in the 50's. \n\nA similar question would be why haven't cars moved beyond internal combustion engines yet? Because they work well, and there's not really any technology that works so much better that it's worth overhauling the huge infrastructure created around them. Although cars might slowly be moving towards being powered by electricity, but that too is just an updated version of an old concept (electric motors).\n\nWhat's the realistic alternative to jet technology? Rockets are nowhere near cost effective as a replacement for most purposes. Unless someone figures out some awesome anti-gravity technology, it's not clear where else there is to go besides better jet engines. ",
"There are only so many ways to accelerate mass out of the back of a vehicle, and until someone comes up with a gravity wave drive, that's the only method of propulsion there is for people wanting to move through a medium.\n\nThe next generation of air travel is going to be sub-orbital. Sydney to London in an hour, but that probably won't be in our lifetimes, at least not at a cost within reach of the common person.",
"A jet engine from 1963 and a jet engine from 2013 are very very different.\n\nFor the 1963 example, I'm using a Boeing 727-100. It used three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-1 with 14,000 lbf (62 kN) thrust each\n\nFor the 2013 example, I'm using a Boeing 737 Next Generation 800 (737-800) it uses two CFM56-7B27 with 27,300 lbf (121 kN) thrust each\n\nThe 727 could haul 150 people 2,300 nmi (4,300 km), the 737 can haul 189 people 3,060 nmi (5,665 km)\n\nMore people, more range, fewer engines.\n\nThe next generation of engines that are out and coming in the next 5-7 years are even more powerful and more efficient.\n\nThe 737 MAX 8 is going to have a range of 3,620 nmi (6,704 km) with engines in the 24,500–32,900 lbf (109–146 kN) class, or 15% more fuel efficient.",
"They have check out the tr-3b. ",
"Can't believe nobody has said it, but very very ridiculously simply put in a blunt nutshell, because of $$$$$$. \n\nThis isn't entirely wrong either: _URL_0_\n\nThe airlines only care about making a profit, and as anybody in the industry will tell you, aviation has extremely narrow profit margins due to extremely high operating costs among other things. Compounded by the fact that the public only cares about the cheapest way to go from A to B. So it's not that's there's been a stagnation in technology, it's just that it's been focused more on efficiency and economics and even \"green washing\" of current technology. Just go to any major aircraft manufacturer's website, and their latest and greatest models always use the word \"most efficient\" all too often.",
"Texas A & M University Aerospace Engineering student here. This thread is rather old but maybe I can shed some light on the issue. From your proposed question of basically why we still use jets and not some other technology that has or has not been thought up is quite simple. Many people have been talking about the cost effectiveness of flying supersonically and how it is much more expensive. \n- First, think of it economically. Why do we need further technology to decrease travel times? 200 years ago it took literally months to sail across the oceans to get to other continents. Now you are worried about saving a few hours. Seems a bit selfish huh? Just kidding, kind of. There is simply no current sizeable demand for faster travel. Jet fight is cheap. Stupid cheap. You can fly across the U.S. for a few hundred bucks, which is around what you could pay for gas, but it saves the miles on your car and the time it would take. Not to mention food ect. So one main reason is that there isn't a demand to do it.\n- Second, thermodynamic limits. As far as jet technology goes, we can only progress so much. Using this technology will have a limit of cost effectiveness determined by the efficiencies and aerodynamics of the planes. Even if the efficiencies were 100%, we can calculate how much it would cost per ticket and it would barely change. This is true for all jet engines. \n- Consider not flying in the atmosphere for transportation and let us decide what we would do. We could fly to space, orbit and reenter the atmosphere and coast down to our destination in very little time, but that would require, basically the space shuttle for the reentry speeds cause an awful lot of heat and you would need the heat shielding. This is a viable method, maybe with mass drivers (`40 mile long magnetic strips to accelerate the vehicle to space) but is far down the road and not probable for mass transit. Then think about transportation on the ground, not flying. There are designs being created for a 'hyperloop' which is essentially a train that travels in a tube from coast to coast in a few hours going ~mach 6. It would actually be really cheap, like $50 a ticket or somewhere around there. This is possible because you reduce the air friction to basically negligible. You can't do that when you rely on the atmosphere to fly. \n- If there was an alternate plane propulsion technique, how would it effect cost? Well, if you could do something nuclear, and it was weight viable including radiation protection and anti nuclear explosion crashing.... it still wouldn't effect flight much. The main concern is that drag caused by air resistance dramatically increases with speed, jumping quite a bit once you break the sound barrier. \n\n- If you were to give me say a distance and time frame of what you think we should be able to travel by now or soon, ask me about it and I can tell you how feasible it would be at a basic level. Like g forces for one. Our bodies can only take so much. If you wanted to travel 12000 km (other side of the world, basically the maximum flight distance) and you accelerated constantly until you were half way and then decelerated constantly the other half at say, 1 g, it would take about 37 minutes. doesnt seem bad if we had the propulsion capabilities does it? That and an aircraft that could do that. If it were 3 g's it would be about 21 minutes. But that is hurting, experiencing 3 g's of force for 21 minutes would not be comfortable at all. Accelerating that fast and getting to those obscene speeds in the atmosphere seems just silly and.... well just silly. So take 20 minutes to be the limit of how fast in the atmosphere we could travel across the world. Thats just from a biological stand point, but that is around what the limit would be. Anything faster would be pushing our bodies, especially children and old frail people. \n\nFuture mass transit at higher speeds and lower times will most likely not take place using aerospace vehicles in our atmosphere. Hyperloop, MAYBE, but if it breaks anywhere in that huge track, its broken. That would suck. It will be LEO travel (lower earth orbit) and that is just IF we wanted to travel that fast and had a means to do so. But seriously, its like less than a day of travel compared to months or even years way back when. Be grateful. =) ",
"Short answer is temperature. We are at the operational limits for even the highest temperature materials inside jet engines. Flying faster means more temperature.\n\nIt may not seem that simple, but in reality, it just gets too hot. The quick scientific answer is that there is a quantifiable value called the stagnation temperature which is essentially the temperature plus the kinetic energy converted to heat (when you slow air down it heats up). Going faster increases this as a function of the mach number squared. Also, burning fuel increases this temperature.\n\nSo when you have a supersonic jet, you start with the stagnation temperature for a given mach number, add in heat from combustion, and you are left with a temperature entering the turbine (the hottest part of the engine). This temperature cannot exceed the operational limit of the engine. Too fast and this temp goes up. Too much fuel and this goes up (jets run very lean, actually they bypass most of the air from the combustion burners).\n\nActive cooling, advanced high temp blades... you can do alot to get the max temperature up, but they already did most of that in the 60s. At some point, you reach a limit of the material.\n\nMost major breakthroughs in engineering are based on materials: Iron, bronze, steel, aluminum, titanium, ceramics, composites, .... what is the next big breakthrough?\n\nSource: Aerospace Engineer",
"Area 51 is keeping the good stuff for themselves. This way we can use the good stuff against the bad guys who still use jet technology. They don't call it the Skunk Works for nothing. Look up [pulse detonation engines](_URL_1_) in the mean time. [Donuts on a rope.](_URL_0_)",
"Bombardier just made a whisper quiet jetliner... that's pretty cool. ",
"High speed jet engines barely work at lower speeds or lower heights. They get too inefficient or too hot.\n\nAir friction and optimal engine pressure become an issue together with extra fuel use to a point where rocket engines in multiple (re-usable) stages are just the better choice than a plane with 2 different engines.\n\nSome Planes have 2 different flight modes by having rotatable engines or extendable wings. That makes them specialized for some things.",
"A big part of it is, people don't want it to. For example, it's been proven and tested that forward swept wings are more stable than conventional wings...but the general population would never get on a plane with the wings swept forward. \n\nThe rest is cost. Jet technology has progressed but current jets are still the cheapest. So the new technology is more used on missiles. (Google ram jet engine)"
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3l2jth | if eye contact is considered a challenge in the animal kingdom, why do we have to make eye contact with each other to be polite? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l2jth/eli5if_eye_contact_is_considered_a_challenge_in/ | {
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"Eye contact is not universally a challenge in the animal kingdom, and for that matter it's not universally polite in human societies. We often use it as an important form of nonverbal communication, along with other gestures that are sometimes quite different in animals. For instance, smiling is often a threatening gesture for some apes and monkeys. Conversely, in some bird species eye contact can be a part of positive interaction."
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8ignfp | were famine and water scarcity always such huge problems in africa? how has it come to such conditions? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ignfp/eli5_were_famine_and_water_scarcity_always_such/ | {
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"In some regions yes and in others no, one early major civilisation Egypt had the Nile as its major water source and produced surplus food.",
"Not always. In some places, colonists brought non-native plants and agricultural methods that were not sustainable to the area, and cut down large areas of jungle and forest. This damaged the ecosystem and made it hard to grow sustainable crops. Wangari Maathai’s memoir “Unbowed” talks more about this. ",
"Famine and water scarcity are primarily related to resource mismanagement. In pre-colonial days, you had a different political structure and less complex infrastructure.\n\nDuring the colonial days, the colonial governments were imported from elsewhere and generally kept a lid on most of the violence and disruption - at least enough of a lid that it didn't disturb the infrastructure.\n\nIn the post-colonial days, famine is primarily used as a weapon of war against other groups. The infrastructure is willfully disrupted to create havoc amongst one's political enemies."
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d9mo11 | how do tl;dr bots work? | There are bots, I believe on r/politics and r/news, that take articles and summarize them. How does the algorithm work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d9mo11/eli5_how_do_tldr_bots_work/ | {
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"There are [a bunch of ways this can work](_URL_0_), but I'm going to explain one of the simpler ones.\n\nYou know how Google originally got their great search results? They had a clever algorithm called PageRank that looked at which web pages link to each other. Web sites that got linked to a lot by sites that had high PageRank scores were given higher PageRank scores, and vice versa. Like, if everybody was linking to Wikipedia pages, Google figured that Wikipedia was probably a big deal. They could figure this out just by looking at what links to what.\n\nImagine that each distinct word or short phrase in a news article got its own \"web page\", and it links to every word that appears close to it. If you ran PageRank on this imaginary collection of web pages, it would notice some words and phrases that seemed to be really central and important. If there's a news article talking about a dog who ate Brexit, or whatever, then \"dog\" and \"ate\" and \"Brexit\" would stand out as really key parts of the article. \n\nOnce you've figured out which bits of the article matter the most, you can try picking out the top 10 most important sentences and, boom, suddenly you've got a ten-sentence excerpt. It works better than you'd expect!\n\n(And maybe add on a boost for sentences early in the article, or words in the title of the article, or phrases that are really uncommon. There are a bunch of tricks you can use to make this work a little better.)"
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4vkkme | the invasion of afghanistan and iraq | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vkkme/eli5_the_invasion_of_afghanistan_and_iraq/ | {
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"Soviet comrades invade Afghanistan. \nWe invade to fight Soviets.\nAfghans are like wtf.jpeg\nTaliban fights Soviets too; funded by us.\nTaliban decide they don't like us there either.\nWe overstay our welcome.\nThen Bush did 9/11. (Obviously)\nWe invade Iraq because wmd's. \nSurprise surprise no wmd's. \nMfw Vietnam flashbacks start.\nWe increase presence in Afghanistan too.\nAnd now attempt to win an unwinnable war against an enemy whose identity can change at the drop of a shell casing.",
"The Afghanistan invasion in 2001 was retaliation for 9/11. The Taliban, the government in Afghanistan supported and his Al Qaeda who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. That made their government responsible for said attacks, and said attacks were acts of war. The US and our allies invaded, overthrew that government, hunted down as much of Al Qaeda as we could, and then set up structures to try and help them rebuild the country in a democratic way. \n\nIraq is a bit more complicated. There were some ties to Al Qaeda, but not enough to merit invasion. There were also reports that we got of weapons of mass destruction (primarily chemical warfare) that were channeled to us via the UK spy networks. These turned out to be false, but they were at the time enough to justify invasion so we once again overthrew their government and then set things up to try and help them rebuild. Now there is a lot of ground to argue that even though that report of chemical weapons was not accurate that Saddam had enough human rights violations stacked up that the UN should have invaded years ago so the war is still justifiable. \n\nBoth regions have warlord groups, extremist groups, and various other factions fighting to try and establish independent nations or to take over the nation currently so they are basically in several civil wars. ISIS is one of these groups. "
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5qplai | how do "sanctuary cities" benefit from hosting illegal immigrants? | Today Chicago recently said they'd remain a sanctuary city and recently Miami decided to stop that status. I'm trying to get a grasp on what exactly is the advantage of it and why a city would want to support it.
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qplai/eli5_how_do_sanctuary_cities_benefit_from_hosting/ | {
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"One reason is that some police departments believe that they can't enforce public safety as well if major segments of the population want nothing to do with police. This has been demonstrated in non-immigrant communities as well.\n\nBut the bigger reason is that lots of people see deportations of non-criminal people as generally cruel, and don't want their local tax dollars being spent assisting in that.",
"The politicians that represent those cities have a lot of legal constituents who vote and have relatives or friends or community members who are illegal. ",
"In a lot of cases, \"not being a sanctuary city\" means any interaction between police and potential immigrants has to involve a citizenship check. This is to happen whether the interaction is with a perpetrator or a victim.\n\nAs-is, even in sanctuary cities, if a person is arrested or a crime their citizenship is checked. If it turns out they're not a citizen, what happens to them depends on whatever the law says, I'm not an expert on that. No one's working to keep felons on the streets.\n\nThe problems arise in the interactions with victims. If someone is raped, they should be able to call the police. If someone is murdered, their family should be able to ask for justice. If calling the police *always* involves a citizenship check, they won't call the police. That creates a very large population vulnerable to crime. Some people say \"Good, then they won't move here.\" Now imagine how that applies to human trafficking.\n\nFurther: ICE is asking that cities and counties spend their tax funding on these checks because the federal agency doesn't have a large enough budget to manage the entire country. This is, in effect, funding ICE with local dollars. Many, MANY parts of the country are vehemently opposed to the federal government controlling what state and local agencies do. This is a big factor in why many cities choose to be sanctuary cities: they don't believe their city taxes, city jails, and city officials should be doing the work that ICE is supposedly using federal funds to do.\n\nIt turns out it's expensive and complicated to deport someone. They have to sit in jail while lots of paperwork and negotiation happens. That means feeding them, housing them, paying guards for them, etc. Many jails are already crowded, and many local police forces are already overtaxed. And ICE sure isn't offering funds to build bigger ones.\n\nPeople who support sanctuary cities believe:\n\n* The Constitution protects all individuals in the country no matter what, and no fundamental rights can be revoked.\n* There is no strong evidence showing immigrants commit more violent crimes than any other citizen group.\n* Proposed regulations create opportunities for organized crime to flourish by creating victims who can't be protected.\n* It is not good for the federal government to dictate the activities of state or local law enforcement to this degree.\n* Maybe we should ask why we're paying for ICE at all if it needs city governments to do the job for it."
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9nycyd | why do boys and girls sound different? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9nycyd/eli5_why_do_boys_and_girls_sound_different/ | {
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"Physiologically, boys and girls have different types of throats. Testosterone will cause the angle of your thyroid cartilage to become sharper, the cartilage thickens and enlargens and the vocal cords thicken as well. This gives boys a deeper and a 'darker' timbre (flavour) of their voice. In contrast, girls have a shallower thyroid cartilage angle, it's not as large and their vocal cords aren't as thick. So they have a higher and brighter timbre of their voice.\n\nEvery person develops a little differently so these are generalisations. Apart from this, which is called resonance and pitch, boys and girls are socialised differently. Even from a young age, boys are taught to act like other boys and girls are taught to act like other girls. As such, they learn speaking patterns from men and women respectively, and from other boys and girls respectively. These speaking patterns are intonation, inflection and expression. Like boys will be louder when they want to emphasise a point, while girls tend to raise their pitch.\n\nOf these two types of things that contribute to voice, neither of them are set in stone. A boy can sound like a girl and a girl can sound like a boy. Whether it's by changing intonation, inflection and expression, or manipulating their throat positions to change their pitch and resonance, these factors only contribute to how a person 'naturally' sounds at a neutral state. ",
"The surplus amounts of testosterone released in males during puberty effects the larynx (the voicebox), lengthening it and making male voices deeper.\n\nThis is why male and female children often have very similar voices, and voices don’t change until puberty "
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1yqzc1 | why roman soldiers wore open toed footwear? | And also why samurais wore foot wrappings with exposed footwear. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yqzc1/eli5_why_roman_soldiers_wore_open_toed_footwear/ | {
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"Roman Caligae weren't really \"open toed,\" the toes were covered more or less. They'd also add socks for colder climates.\n\nOpen shoes keep the feet dry (boots hold moisture) during long marches so they don't get trench foot.",
"Japan is humid; Italy is warm. Neither Romans nor samurai had armor that fully covered everything. In unmounted melee combat, strikes to the feet are more easily avoided while leaving the striker open in more vital areas.",
"As others mentioned, closed boots cause trench foot. \n\nFurther, realistically, the protection from footwear would be negligible.\n\nI'm a fencer, epeeist, so I know when to make a toe hit. Roman weapons were either short swords or occasionally spears. Short swords would be almost impossible to hit the foot with, as you'd have to lean over almost entirely to hit the ground with the 1-2 foot gladius. This would be unfeasible compared to the quick chop or stab at the knee that would be much safer to perform in the same position. As for the spear, while the range makes a foot hit plausible, it is not really useful as it would not be immediately disabling, and a miss would allow the swordsman to step into range, or step onto the spear, breaking it.\n\nAs for the samurai, it is the same for the spears - no really useful. For swords, the samurai weapons are generally cutting weapons. Imagine the ridiculous move it would take to cut someone's foot. The swing would start at body height, and move down across the opponents whole body - giving them time to parry or counter the whole time, to hit on the foot. Worse, it could hit the rock, and the overworked steel of the katana would chip. Ohhh dear.\n\nNope. Just not a useful technique."
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1l21n0 | how serious is our national debt (u.s.)? are other countries so far in the hole? is it even possible to get out of debt? who do we owe and why haven't they broken our kneecaps?! | I always hear about our looming national debt and how awful it is but how serious is it actually. It's a cartoonish number that is gaining a comical amount of interest every second. Do we intend to pay it back, if it is even possible?
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l21n0/eli5_how_serious_is_our_national_debt_us_are/ | {
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"Well, household debt isn't the same as sovereign debt, and this issue get's a lot of people confused, for a better explanation read this DepthHub posted explanation :\n_URL_0_",
"The US debt to GDP ratio is pretty high, [but not the highest](_URL_0_) among the world's advanced economies. It's worrisome, but I wouldn't listen to the people who are screaming about how the sky is going to fall quite yet. It has been higher than this [in the past](_URL_1_), under FDR, and the country managed to not only survive but prosper. \n\nThe question isn't really \"how can the US get out of debt?\", because that's actually the easy part. Doing absolutely nothing will eventually get rid of the current debt, or at least decrease the amount owed significantly. This is why governments like to have a bit of inflation, actually - it makes debt disappear over time, assuming interest rates don't get too high. And right now, it costs almost nothing to borrow money. That will change eventually, of course. Anyway, the hard part is figuring out how to get the congress to stop increasing spending and cutting taxes in order to make short term gains among the voters.",
"You should also look at the the percentage break down of where this money is owe'd. \n\nA pretty high percentage is actually owned by the American People (and businesses and what not). So if all debts were called in tomorrow, we'd end up paying ourselves a lot of money.\n\nAdditionally, I'm pretty sure the USA is owe'd something in the neighborhood of $.75 for every dollar of our national debt. What this means is that if someone was to call in all the debts at once we'd only need to pay off $.25 of every dollar of debt with our own economy. Other countries will pay off the rest for us.\n\nThat being said, this will never happen. Its economic suicide for the entire world. So don't worry about it. \n\n",
" > How serious is our national debt (U.S.)?\n\nBad, but not terrible. It's higher than most people would like, but not so high that we're going to have serious problems because of it. \n\n > Is it even possible to get out of debt?\n\nYes, but not desirable. Bill Clinton ran a study on what would happen if we paid off the debt (it was a possibility if the budget had stayed how it was under him), and the conclusion was that the US shouldn't go out of debt. The US debt interest rate is the way that interest rates all over the world are measured. It's considered the safest investment in the world.\n\nWhat most economists talk about isn't paying the debt back but lowering how big it is in proportion to the GDP. The best way to do that is to grow the GDP, which is why that ratio is actually falling right now. \n\n > Who do we owe and why haven't they broken our kneecaps?\n\nWhat happens is the treasury auctions off the debt when they need more money. People bid by offering to take a lower interest rate. After a specific amount of time, the treasury pays what was owed. The people who buy the debt can't just call the loan due, and they generally buy the debt because it's very safe. \n\n > It's a cartoonish number that is gaining a comical amount of interest every second.\n\nYou could say that about everything about the US economy. However, the debt is growing more slowly than the economy as a whole, so the debt to GDP ratio is actually getting better.",
"It is not out of line with the debt/income ratio of other countries, and is smaller than many.\n\nAlso, stable countries with developed economies can tolerate a higher debt/income ratio than less developed countries, so the fact the US's is hard than say, Albania's, is not an indication Albania is doing something better. ",
"There's an important misconception here that nobody's corrected. We don't owe *anyone* in the sense that you're talking about. The US always fulfills its debt agreements, and then sells more Treasury bonds after paying off the ones it has. There's nobody angrily tapping their feet waiting for the US to give them their money back; that's just fundamentally not how government debt works.",
"All the hoopala is pretty much bullshit. It is mostly right wing propaganda because they do not want contracts and money awarded unless they are in power. Which looks like will be never again. All this shit that we will become the next Greece is garbage - Greece's economy is miniscule compared to USA's and no one uses the Drachma's as security. I will share with you an analogy I heard from a sane economist and this is when we were at a much worse of point - he said \"if the pacific ocean is trouble, we are in Wyoming and moving slowly\". That was around a year ago and the economy has gotten much stronger. \n\nHere in California, all the numbers are being adjusted as the economy is recovering faster than anticipated. Remember all the bullshit about Tesla being a failure? They are building one of the best car's in the world and cannot keep up with demand. We do need more jobs however but the rethuglicans will make sure that doesn't happen. They are petulant do-nothing knuckle-dragging, dead-enders. Just like the kids on the playground that would chuck the ball over the fence cuz they suck.\n\nWe need more debt and the money should be spent for infrastructure - we are fast becoming no better than the 3rd world in many aspects. Just because you do not have the money to go to college should you not go into debt for a student loan? The same rule applies to investing in our economy / infrastructure. Elon Musk's new hyperloop is just the leapfrog technology America should lead.\n\nThe illegal wars and the wall street bailout cost us taxpayers TRILLIONS!! This is at the heart of our troubles. Not poor people with brown skin.\n\nLastly, this is not say it isn't a house of cards as it is. Take the illicit drug trade cash and is collapses. That is why we will see full legalization in 5 years. The ground work is being laid. "
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7o8pyr | why do colors disappear when you zoom in with a microscope? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7o8pyr/eli5why_do_colors_disappear_when_you_zoom_in_with/ | {
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"Most colors do not disappear until ye reach the scale o' an atom or so. At that size (which no normal microscope can see), objects are as small as a light wave, so color doesn't work right.\n\n\n\nWhat ye *may* be thinkin' of is why electron microscope images are not in color. Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Why don't images from an electron microscope have color? ](_URL_1_) ^(_6 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: Why is there no color on magnified images. (i.e. images of bacteria) ](_URL_2_) ^(_9 comments_)\n1. [ELI5 : Why are microscopic images not able to be captured in colour? ](_URL_3_) ^(_7 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: At what scale are things so small that color doesn't apply? ](_URL_0_) ^(_33 comments_)\n",
"In order to see something with a light microscope, you need to have a very, very thin cross-section. It has to be thin enough for light to be able to pass through it (for the most part). Otherwise, the image under the microscope would appear opaque or black. \n\nBut a small cross section means that there's not really that much material and/or pigment to add color to the light.\n\nLook at a drop of water or a very shallow puddle of water on a white background. Not very much color is there? But look at the ocean from space. All that water is a rich, deep blue. \n\nIt's the same with a microscope. A carrot may look deep orange with the naked eye, but when you slice a thin enough piece off to see it under a microscope, it's a very pale orange if any color can be [seen at all](_URL_0_).\n\nIf you're talking about images from an electron microscope, then an EM doesn't really see color. An EM uses electron beams and their reflection off of things for a computer to render a 3D image of what something looks like. It's like a blind person examining an object with his hands. Sure he can tell you precisely what shape and texture the object is, but he has no clue what color it is. An EM is the same way.",
"Think of a blind person reading braille. She is limited by the density of nerves in her fingertips to make out individual letters and resolve them correctly.\n\nAs they get smaller and smaller, she can feel “something”, but the dots are too close together relative to the nerves in her fingertips: it’s impossible to resolve the fine differences between letters.\n\nThat can be solved by increasing the scale of the letters and having her feel them when magnified, which is why light microscopes are useful But…\n\n…suppose the letters are so fine that the *actual structure of the paper* is too coarse to hold the individual bumps and shapes in the first place. Each letter will be a rough blob, with some hint at its proper shape. Increase the scale of this, and you get big blobs.\n\nOur blind Braille reader might get a rough idea of what she’s feeling, but at some scale the individual letters will be blotted out and it just becomes “bumpy” or “not bumpy”.\n\nThat translates to “dark” and “light” in this analogy, where the identity of individual letters are the colors. They are lost at high magnification because the apparent distance of a light wave (~500nm) of the object is blown up to 500,000nm in the eyepiece — that’s half a millimeter, which is small but visible with the naked eye.\n\nBut, you won’t be able to distinguish fine differences of color, because, much like the physical properties of the paper, at this scale these differences are hard to resolve by visible light alone.\n\nSorry if that was a bit rambling — like I said, it’s a hard ELI5 (which means I probably don’t understand the subject as well as I should). Take it for what it’s worth :3",
"If you're asking about a light microscope then the answer is that the colours don't disappear when you zoom in. If you search google images for \"chloroplast\" (that's the part of plant cells which makes leaves green) you'll find lots of images down microscopes of plant cells with little green blobs in.\n\nThe name \"**chrom**osome\" is called that because they were made visible by staining the cell with a dye which primarily gave colour to the DNA, not other parts of the cell - staining is an important technique in microscopy.\n\nBut a lot of colourful stuff is not as colourful as you think - suppose a substance absorbs 1% of light per millimetre as it passes through, but 2% of blue light. If you have a one millimetre-thick slice it will look almost completely transparent, right? 1 or 2% is nothing. But if you have a centimetre of the substance it will be passing 13% of blue light and 37% of other light, making it appear decidedly yellowish.\n\nThere are a couple of things going on as well. Light microscopes can operate using *phase contrast*. Normally you just let light pass through or bounce off whatever you're sampling, this technique uses how much the light has slowed down on its path to the eye or camera - this is used on very transparent objects and doesn't give you colour information.\n\nOthers have pointed out that electron microscopes don't show colour - they see with electrons not photons, and electrons don't have colour.",
"When things are really small they are smaller than the wavelengths of light. We can see them by bouncing electrons off of them but we don't know what color they are or if they even have color. ",
"If you're talking about scanning electron microscopes that make those extremely high magnification images of things that make them look like alien landscapes, that's because those microscopes work by shining a beam of electrons back and forth (scanning) around a tiny area, and then seeing how much of the electrons reflected back. The sensors don't sense color, just brightness; and the electron beam doesn't change based on the color of the object scanned anyway."
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mkhb7/eli5_why_is_there_no_color_on_magnified_images_ie/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kz3ax/eli5_why_are_microscopic_images_not_able_to_be/"
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7d984o | what is the easiest way to accrue credit with a credit card? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7d984o/eli5_what_is_the_easiest_way_to_accrue_credit/ | {
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"The successful way to build credit using a card is to use it for everything. I use my awards earning cards that have no annual fee to purchase everything. I utilize it to pay bills that do not charge a surcharge for using a CC, groceries, gas, clothing, etc. At the end of the month when the CC bill is due I remit the total amount due. In this manner I earn, on average, $35 a month in cash rewards and accrue no interest. The rewards are paid out annually. So once a year I am sent a check averaging anywhere between $400 and $500 and build my credit. I’ve done this for about 15 years and my credit score hovers around 750. ",
"Your goal with a credit card is to have a low utilization ratio.\n\nThis means the credit you could borrow (your limit) versus the credit you have borrowed (your balance).\n\nE.g. if the limit is 5000 but you have a balance of 1000, your utilization is 20%.\n\nThe best way to raise your score is to get a higher limit, and use less of it. Around 30% utilization is usually quoted as reasonable."
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3f6d8q | united states primary canidates | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f6d8q/eli5_united_states_primary_canidates/ | {
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"not a US citizen and have some very big political biases so don't know how valuable my word will be but whatever.\n\nI'll give you what I know about 2 big Democrat candidates that reddit don't shut up about.\n\nHilary Clinton you've hopefully heard of. She's a woman if you didn't notice, so she tries to play the feminist appeal and hopes she can get support from feminist groups, however she hasn't really done much for female empowerment and represents privileged elitism which kind of contradicts the whole thing, as you may have noticed I'm a bit anti-Clinton. She was a former secretary of state and people have differing opinions on how good she was. Her main legacy while holding office was supporting Israel during a time the middle east was deteriorating, making extremism and terrorism more anti-US than it already was. Other than being a woman, Clinton really isn't that different from any other candidate, she has strong liberal values and supports ideas like government spending on things like social security and other typical Democrat stuff.\n\nBernie Sanders is interesting. Let me be clear on this, Bernie Sanders is not a socialist, he is not a marxist, he is not a communist. Sanders is what you would call a welfare capitalist or a social democrat. He does not support a prolateriat revolution, he does not support the dismantling of capitalism and he does not support the workers should have control over the means of production, so he is not a socialist. He does have many left leaning ideas. He believes strongly in workers rights, that the US government is corrupt and that the free market has a lot of problems. He is one of the most left leaning candidates since...well probably before the Cold War. But despite what people will say, he is not a socialist, a lot of America does not understand what that means. No US president will ever be a socialist.\n\nThe Republicans I can't talk about in any detail, all I know is Trump is an idiot and he thinks Mexicans are out to get his rug he wears to keep his head warm."
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8e3ix3 | why are there random super cold spots when you are swimming in a lake or river? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8e3ix3/eli5_why_are_there_random_super_cold_spots_when/ | {
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"Sometimes there are convection currents that keep water in one spot and bring water up from the bottom. Because the sun can only heat the top, those areas tend to be colder. If you feel the current in these cold spots, there is usually a flow of water going up from the floor\n",
"In a river, it has to do with currents and the sun. Based on the characteristics of the bottom and any rocks or boulders as well as the flow of the river, you can have swirls in the water similar to those found in the ocean(Eddys). These can trap warm or cool “chunks” of water and hold it in place to where you have mixing of the outer edges but not the center. \n\nTo get warm and cool temperature variants, you have water near the top that is heated by the sun, and water at the bottom that is not. Combine those two as discussed above, and you can have a swirling chunk of cool water amidst a warm area, or a swirling chunk of warm water in a cool area. \n\nSometimes these warm and cool core eddys are barely swirling enough to be noticeable, but still do their thing! ",
"It can also be springs. My parents have a boat dock on a lake in North Central Arkansas. There are two natural springs at the back of the cove (about 15-20 feet of water) and we always float over the top of them in late summer because it's so refreshing."
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2ads9f | in ice hockey, why can't i just plug the goal with the fattest guy i can find. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ads9f/eli5_in_ice_hockey_why_cant_i_just_plug_the_goal/ | {
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"The pads are limited in size.\n\nA normal fat guy is much too slow to be a goalie and will get beat badly (as we all learned in high school). Typically the goalie is the fastest guy on the ice, you just rarely see it.\n\nAn astonishingly obese man might physically obstruct most of the goal, but a lot of his body will not be protected by pads. A few NHL slapshots later and your backup goalie is in while the fat guy is getting stitches.",
"they did a sports science about this. Pro ice hockey players are really accurate shots, and even the biggest guys dont occupy the whole net. Reacting, reflexes and recovering make the goalie, not the size.",
"This explains it pretty well: _URL_0_"
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6p7cig | how do those bank tokens work? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6p7cig/eli5_how_do_those_bank_tokens_work/ | {
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"That's *Two Factor Authentication*.\n\nThe idea is that there's a *huge secret number* that both the bank and the token know **and** they both know they time. By doing some tricky math, the token can generate a smaller number that proves it knows the secret number *without* giving away the whole number. The bank can then do the same math & check the results.\n\nJust to come up with a trivial example, let's say you've got a 10 digit secret number with the following digits in order:\n\n1. 4\n2. 3\n3. 8\n4. 5\n5. 2\n6. 6 \n7. 7\n8. 9 \n9. 7 \n10. 2\n\nIf somebody tries to authenticate at 2:45pm (14:45 in 24 hour time), you just take the 1st, 4th, 4th and 5th digits and add them together and then give the digit in the result's 1s place, giving 4+8+8+2 = 22 and send the \"2\" back.\n\nThis allows you to quickly see if they know the right number but if a hacker is listening in on the conversation, they *won't* know the number & can't use the same verification code in the future (like they could with a stolen password).\n\nObviously, real-world implementations use bigger numbers and more specific times (ie - date + time) and more complex functions but the idea is the same."
]
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[]
] |
|
2s86ms | why aren't video games that have a glitch considered defective? | If there's something broken in the video game, why doesn't it warrant a full refund? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s86ms/eli5_why_arent_video_games_that_have_a_glitch/ | {
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"Today you learn:\n\nLiterally every single bit of software not made by NASA has hundreds, thousands of bugs! Most of them aren't found, occur in obscure cases or really aren't that bad.\n\nIt's simply not economical to fix them all.",
"Because they are generally so minor they don't keep you from playing the game. Also a lot of glitches are hard to reproduce so how are you going to prove that it even happened?",
"As someone who's played video games for a very long time, I can't remember a video game that didn't have bugs/glitches. \n\nAny piece of software is going to have some bugs, most of which won't ever be found because what the bug does is so insignificant / doesn't effect the proper function of a piece of code that it doesn't matter.\n\nI code as a hobby, and I'm sure that my code is littered with bugs, but I rarely find one that causes any major crashing, memory leaks etc., mainly because those kinds of \"code breaking\" or \"game-breaking\" bugs can be caught before they're ever run by simply reading the code. Most programmers I know can \"visualize\" how their code will function.\n\nI do however find it unacceptable when a game like DayZ standalone is released with the amount of bugs it had. I understand it was released as an \"early access\" title, but any decent programmer should've spotted some of the bugs they were having by simply reading their own code! It shouldn't have taken a community rife with exploiters/cheaters to get some of these things fixed. Now-a-days that game struggles with terrible loot tables, hackers finding ways to execute scripts on servers w/o admin permissions, and the slowest/buggiest implementation of vehicles into any video game ever. In a situation like this, I do believe it warrants a refund. However, I reckon that's not a widespread belief, and even if the studio that produced/published that game agreed with me, they can't issue refunds because they sold the game through Steam. Steam makes it very clear that they do not give refunds unless there was unauthorized use of financial credentials. i.e. someone steals your credit card, or hacks an acc w/ a credit card attached to it and goes on a spending spree."
]
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1ujigu | the political philosophy of ayn rand? what exactly is objectivism? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ujigu/eli5the_political_philosophy_of_ayn_rand_what/ | {
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"It's premised on the assumption that if everyone looked after their own self interest we would all be better off.\n\nIt is not taken seriously as an idea and rarely is it considered sophisticated enough to be a complete philosophical system.",
"It is best summed up by the character Gordon Gecko, in the film *Wall Street*: \"Greed is good.\"",
"Less political, more centered on human nature... objective morality of \"rational self-interest.\" Political implications, though. Posits notion that humans shouldn't sacrifice happiness of selves for each other; should actively seek out what makes them happy, bettering themselves and furthering society in process. Similar to free-market capitalism or libertarians: want freedom to pursue own interests and accumulate self-described success... disdain for forced shared wealth, limits on freedom, governmental interference. \n\nRand emigrated from Russia, disgusted with failed Communism. Idealized American notions of freedom and individual pursuits. Criticized by fellow contemporaries in era where moral subjectivity and social collectivism reigned. Ideology sensible in a world where humans can be trusted not to harm one another when left unattended... when implemented in reality, implications disturbing. "
]
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||
3hvs1x | why do curiosity and other 'space cameras' take photos in individual rgb layers? | As shown in [this] (_URL_1_) image.
[This] (_URL_0_) recent image shows how due to the Moon moving, it was in a different place for each layer, leaving a green streak
EDIT: just to be clear, I know why pictures in general have 3 RGB layers, but most cameras capture all 3 layers at once. These cameras take 3 pictures with a red, green and blue filter then merge them. Why is this the case? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hvs1x/eli5_why_do_curiosity_and_other_space_cameras/ | {
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"Cameras you're used to using are designed to be able to capture a full image quickly. This means that things don't have to stand still all that long (or may even be moving if you have a fast enough shutter speed).\n\nCameras in space are optimized to have the smallest possible camera while providing the most capability, and their subjects are seldom moving. This means that instead of having 1 set of red pixels, 1 set of green, and 1 set of blue, you can have just one set of pixels that is three times as dense for the same size and power requirement. Then you can put a wheel with, say, 8 different filters and suddenly you can capture true color images as well as images that are in other areas of the spectrum. You get the capability of 8 cameras that are each 3 times the resolution, all in one.",
"Because to take all three colors at once you usually give up a 1/2 to 3/4 of your resoultion in each color. This allows the highest resolution for the final image. And since planets and galaxies dont have nearly the same likelihood of unexpected angular motion that people do the tradeoffs are pretty small.\n\nAlso, many space images include data captured beyond the visible spectrum which would mean further reductions in useful receptors if they total were split among larger groups of filters. A sensor designed capture IR, visible, and UV would only be able to devote a tiny fraction of it's sites to blue or red while a temporary filter in sequence can allow the whole sensor to be used for all images."
]
} | [] | [
"http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1508/globe_epc_2015198_lrg.jpg",
"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/largesize/PIA16799_hires.jpg"
] | [
[],
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|
49or5s | why can radio/satellite tv broadcasts reach over several miles but my wifi drops off before even reaching the front door? | Obviously the wifi signal is much more complex and therefore has a lower tolerance or errors, but the coverage is orders of magnitude less than these other signals, even though they're based on older technology. Cell phone signals, bluetooth and 3G/4G are also much more reliable than wifi... why does it seem to be the worst of all wireless protocols? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49or5s/eli5why_can_radiosatellite_tv_broadcasts_reach/ | {
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"Output power on a wireless router is capped at 1 watt by the FCC. Cell tower transmitters are normally 10+ watts.",
"TV/Radio/Sattelites are operating with a lot more power than your average wifi router. A tv broadcasting station might operate with 10 kW to 50 kW a day, while a wifi router operates with about 1 W. \n\nAlso Radio and TV have lower frequencies. As a rule of thumb the lower the frequency they more it can penetrate an obstacle. \n \nEDIT: Originally said 6 watts, that's what the entire router consumes, not just the transmitter.",
"If I whisper \"come here\" to my wife when she's on the other side of the house, she won't hear me. If I shout it, she will.\n\nWhy? Because the latter has far more power than the former. Both are speech, but the shout is delivered with orders of magnitude more energy, and therefore has orders of magnitude more range.\n\nRadio transmissions are no different."
]
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9dxfhz | how come there are things common to almost every culture? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9dxfhz/eli5_how_come_there_are_things_common_to_almost/ | {
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"Mother and father are pretty much Universal using different words. Some commonality occurs because of conquest and sub groups disappear. There were 100s of cultures in North America before Europeans arrived but through conquest we pretty much have a North American Culture\n\nI’ve seen matriarchal societies where your closest male relative is not your father, it’s your mothers brother. If your father dies, his nieces and nephews inherent what he has, not his own children\n\nThe world is awesome ",
"That birthday thing is a learned norm. Most cultures had gifts as a rite of passage i.e marriage, childhood-teenhood, farming seasons etc not every year since calendars weren't as pervasive. \n\nAnd for the exact parental names such as ma and pa are mainly because babies find it easier to pronounce the sequence. For other language cues, they pretty much stick within similar linguistical backgrounds.\n\nBut otherwise humans as a whole have a similar social hierachical structure that pretty much puts the mother and father at the core of any simple social structure. That means a child's importance peaks on those two then grows out later to the rest of the society.\n"
]
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47vrpq | how is the galaxy s7 ip68 waterproof rated? even when it has open ports like the usb and headphone jack | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47vrpq/eli5how_is_the_galaxy_s7_ip68_waterproof_rated/ | {
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"It's possible to waterproof the ports. I have a waterproof flashlight with a USB charging port that doesn't need to be covered.",
"The ports aren't open to the rest of the internals. Liquid and gunk can still get in the ports, but that's as far as it goes.",
"I just bought a galaxy S5 Sport. It claims to be water and dust resistant. I don't know if the S7 is made the same way. But mine has a little plug that goes in the USB port. It's a little annoying when plugging it in, in the dark. But it reminds me to push the plug back in when I take the charger out. "
]
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1foawu | why can't i stop eating and just hook up an iv periodically to get my nutrients? | Wouldn't this be easier or a preferred way of dieting? What is it about food and liquid that makes it so special? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1foawu/eli5_why_cant_i_stop_eating_and_just_hook_up_an/ | {
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"text": [
"You could, if you wanted to. It would just be very time consuming and expensive. This is how people in comas are fed. \n",
"An IV creates another opening in your body, which is a vector of infection. It would be a bad idea to wander around with something like that without it being a medical necessity. Generally speaking, people with feeding tubes and the like aren't wandering around, climbing rocks, caving and so on. If they aren't in a hospital their activities are often limited.\n\nNow, if you want to forget the whole Food thing, [this guy is apparently doing that](_URL_0_). Drink this thing, you're set for the day.",
"You can, and [certain people have](_URL_0_).",
"**[Stop Eating Food: The Soylent Experiment](_URL_0_)**",
"It would be far safer to get a feeding tube surgically implanted. IV nutrition is generally only used in extreme circumstances when most or all of someone GI tract is not working. IV nutrition, called TPN, is VERY hard on the liver (there is a new drug that shows promise for that, but it is very hard to get and not yet widely used) and is ideally only used short term. Also, its a big hassle. I needed to be hooked up all but 1 hour a day to get the nutrition i needed, plus fats (lipids) are given separately and not only look really gross going in, but because the TPN and lipids cant be mixed, it increases your \"hooked up\" time. Also, currently there is a shortage on some of the ingredients in TPN so it causes even more problems for people who need TPN to maintain life. Finally, TPN requires central access and hugely increases how bad an infection could be, so every time you get a fever it is an emergency and you have to go straight to the hospital because it could be sepsis (infection in the blood) which is very deadly. Plus the care of your access point, normally in your chest, is a whole other issue. I am allergic to most adhesives and changing the coverings always sucked because my skin was so raw, not to mention dressing changes are sterile procedures which mean gloves, gown, and mask, for you and whom ever helps with the dressing change.\nSorry for the wall of text. I am not an expert, this is just my personal experience.\nTLDR: IV substance is in no way easier then eating 3x a day"
]
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[],
[
"http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298"
],
[
"http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WpksPED_Q"
],
[]
] |
|
430lwf | why does banging a jar's lid on your counter loosen the jar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/430lwf/eli5_why_does_banging_a_jars_lid_on_your_counter/ | {
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"text": [
"Banging is noise. Noise is sound. Sound is repeated vibrations. Vibrations loosen things. People driving their vehicles down the road with the bass booming are loosening their cars so there will be rattles and it will fall apart but not soon enough.",
"It slightly deforms the lid, loosening the seal.",
"The lid remains closed because the lid's threads and the jars threads are stuck together. When a lid is really stuck it is because friction between threads is stronger than the force applied by you trying to twist it open. The shock of banging the lid provides more force and also can deform the lid causing less contact between the threads and thus less friction making it easier to open. The vibration explanation was cute, but I would bet imprecise if not flat out wrong.",
"I've seen the lid tap, but I've always gone with striking the bottom of the jar with my free palm. Don't know where I learned that. To me striking a glass jar against my soft palm would put less stress than a solid counter, and still give the vibrations. Really don't want to strike the counter too hard and shatter the jar.\n\nEdit: Mine would be the Water hammer method 2. _URL_0_",
"The jar is pressurized during the sealing process. This makes it more difficult to open the first time as you have to generate enough force to overcome both the friction of the lid against the jar and the negative pressure in the jar. By banging the lid, you deform the lid and thus its seal. This allows air to enter the jar and bring it closer to atmospheric pressure. Hence the small popping sound. Then when you try to open it, you have to generate enough force for the friction and less negative pressure. "
]
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[],
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"http://m.wikihow.com/Open-a-Difficult-Jar"
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2s8ofj | when someone feels satisfied with their life and are comfortable with dying, why do we deny them the means to do so with dignity? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s8ofj/eli5_when_someone_feels_satisfied_with_their_life/ | {
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"I really think the only answer here is because it's the law. And I personally disagree with that law. ",
"The concept that makes it illegal is that no one in their right mind would want to die, as our most basic instinct is survival. By this logic, for someone to choose death they would not be in a healthy state of mind. ",
"The government has a significant interest in protecting its citizens (even against themselves) even though it would probably be more economical to allow a person to kill themselves when they wanted instead of prolonging their life. Also society tends to be against the unnatural killing of a human being (with some exceptions). Insurance fraud doesn't really make sense because most insurance policies still payout for suicides so if a person wants to kill themselves so their family can collect, they can do so already."
]
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bsp2oy | how exactly does a planned demolition of a building work? how do they pick where to put the bombs? | I've always been curious. How do they know all these things because the buildings always fall down nearly perfectly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bsp2oy/eli5_how_exactly_does_a_planned_demolition_of_a/ | {
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"They've studied structural engineering and demolition for many many years in order to know where the load bearing beams are and how a building is constructed (based on the blueprints), so they know where to place the explosives and in which order to detonate them so that the building collapses in on itself."
]
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[]
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|
25onif | why is it that when you're inside in a bright room, you can see screen brightness- but if you're outside, with the same amount of light, you can barely see the screen brightness at all? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25onif/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_youre_inside_in_a_bright/ | {
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"What *seems* like the same amount of light is actually nowhere close. \n\nThe sun puts out more than 1300 watts per square meter. It's just that your eyes quickly adjust and there's not much we can detect with our eyes beyond \"it's bright in here\". \n\nI'm not positive on the numbers, but roughly... You'd need a 70,000 watt bulb to provide the same level of illumination if you were a meter away from it (a desk lamp for example), or 7 megawatts if you were 10 meters away (an overhead light in a very large room)."
]
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||
82p0da | is there a difference between things that "glow" and things that only show up under uv light? what is the mechanism for each? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82p0da/eli5_is_there_a_difference_between_things_that/ | {
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"Things that glow in the dark emit light themselves. Some things emit light under UV radiation. The UV Ray's are very powerful/ have a lot of energy to them. That can make electrons switch to higher orbitals within the at (gain energy) and when they drop to their former energy level, they emit energy in the form of light. ",
"That depends on what you mean by \"glow\". Do you mean the difference between something that is visible under normal light and glowing under UV, and something that is invisible under normal light and glowing under UV?\n\nThe mechanism is the same. Glowing under UV happens because of fluorescence. Fluorescent materials absorb frequencies of light and re-emit that energy as lower-frequency light. A lot of materials do this at a lot of wavelengths. What makes UV fluorescent things look so *cool* is that UV is invisible to us. If you shine a normal light on most things, you get a lot of light reflected back in a lot of the visible spectrum. If it's absorbing some of, say, the green light and emitting that energy as red light, you probably wouldn't notice much because there would still be a lot of green and red light either way.\n\nIt's like picking out a few extra red tulips out of a field of tulips - yeah if you look closely enough you might find it, but probably not.\n\nOn the other hand, if when you shine a UV light on something, you can't see the UV at all. The only light you *do* see is the lower frequencies being emitted. For shiny glowy things, they stand out because everything else around them appears to be dark, or at least, the normal level of brightness. They appear to have extra energy coming out of them when the reality is that they're just reflecting more energy.\n\n\"Invisible\" things are just invisible *to visible wavelengths* and to human eyes detecting those wavelengths. Nothing is \"invisible\" - everything reflects EM radiation or emits EM radiation at *some* frequencies. The only \"invisible\" things are black holes. So when you shine UV on something that you can't see, like dried body fluids, it's fluorescing and turning the invisible UV light into visible light. This is especially useful when you're doing something like looking for dried blood on a red cloth. In visible light, they're both red. In UV, the blood fluoresces. It fluoresces *all the time* but there's not enough extra light usually to notice, until you dim the visible light and crank up the UV.\n\nThe cloth will continue reflecting visible light, but not the UV, and there's less visible light. The blood will reflect the visible light *and* fluoresce so the UV turns into extra visible light, making the blood stand out.",
"Glow in the dark = Phosphorescence\n\nShow up under UV = Fluorescence\n\nFrom Wiki \"The most striking example of fluorescence occurs when the absorbed radiation is in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum, and thus invisible to the human eye, while the emitted light is in the visible region, which gives the fluorescent substance a distinct color that can only be seen when exposed to UV light.\"\n\nSo whats the mechanism? When the molecule absorbs the photon (light) it takes that light energy and gives it to an electron. The molecule then releases the energy by emitting a new photon. There is some energy loss through vibration relaxation so the 'new light' is longer in wavelength. \n\nFluorescence happens faster than you can blink, like in real time. Phosphorescence can take hours to for the molecule to emit the new photon. This is because in Phosphorescence the electron goes into what is called a 'forbidden state'. See this [wiki] page(_URL_0_)\n",
"The process is similar for both items you described. \n\nAn electron is in an excited state and when it returns to a lower state, or relaxes, a photon is emitted. For us to view it the energy level must be in the visible range.\n\nWhat causes the excited state may be different. Under a UV light it would be the UV photons which excites the electron. For most organic luminescence it is a chemical reaction generates energy that may excite the electron.\n"
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jablonski_diagram"
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||
b2iujz | what is the role of aedes mosquitos in the ecosystem? | My country is releasing male mosquitos carrying Wolbachia to mate with female aedes mosquitos. This will render the eggs to not hatch. Won’t this cause a reduction in species? Are there even any benefits of aedes mosquitos for the environment? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2iujz/eli5_what_is_the_role_of_aedes_mosquitos_in_the/ | {
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"text": [
"The Aedes species of mosquitoes are known to spread certain viruses such as dengue and chikungunya that are known to cause disease in humans.\n\nDengue, in particular, can be fatal if it causes a dengue haemorrhagic fever\n\nReleasing these genetically modified male mosquitoes will eventually lead to a reduction in the Aedes population and hopefully a reduction in the above disease. It is unlikely that the Aedes species has a particular function in the ecosystem and as such, other mosquito species will simply take their place in the ecosystem eventually. It is unfortunate that the numbers of the species will decrease, but the detriments of that do not outweigh the issues caused by the diseases this mosquito species spreads",
"To be a bean farmer?"
]
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5vuzsu | why does the max volume on my device vary so much based on what it is playing? | For instance between one youtube video and another, the max volume can be very quiet or decently loud. Why can't the quiet video sound just as loud? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vuzsu/eli5_why_does_the_max_volume_on_my_device_vary_so/ | {
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"text": [
"Its not your device at that point, its the source of sound. Why does a video of someone whispering sound more quiet than a video of someone screaming?",
"It is entirely dependent on the volume level used when mastering the video/song/etc. Some use a standard 'volume'. This is why all songs on iTunes are almost identical volume when they play at the same level on your phone. However, YouTube doesn't require this and as such some videos published retain the low 'master' volume used originally in the editing software. \n\nA good example of someone abusing this principle is the obnoxious vines that master the volume of a vine initially low so you turn your device up - then increase the master volume to make it seem extremely loud all the sudden on the device. "
]
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1k17yl | kw vs kwh | As it relates to power production on a turbine/generator, please explain kw, or capacity of a generator Vs. kWh. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k17yl/kw_vs_kwh/ | {
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"Kilowatt is a measure of power, or how much energy the generator can produce every second; where as kWh or joules is the total amount of energy that the generator produced if you ran it for a certain amount of time.\n\nSo if a 1 kW generator runs for 1 second, it has produced 1kilo joule of energy; this can also be written as 1 kilo watt-second. \n\nA watt is joule per second, so watt-second is equivalent to joule. \n\nSimilarly, when a 1 kW generator runs for an hour, it has cumulatively produced 1kWh ([which is equal to 3600 kilo joules](_URL_0_)) "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.google.com/search?q=1kwh+in+joules&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a"
]
] |
|
8rovkt | how can soap be moisturizing if it’s removing oil from you skin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8rovkt/eli5_how_can_soap_be_moisturizing_if_its_removing/ | {
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"text": [
"You are correct on how soaps is to generally clean and remove oils but moisturizing soaps cleanse the oils and includes replenishing elements like aloe or shea and includes formulas to help absorb the simplest form of moisture, water. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
273h1o | why is xbox in competition with pcs? if most gaming pcs run on microsoft windows what do they gain by releasing a "console only" game? | Couldn't Microsoft release all the "console only" on Games for Windows – Live? Or does Microsoft not get as big a cut on PC sales as it does for Xbox games. Is it to force gamers to buy an Xbox One; do the minority of PC gamers who buy a console for an exclusive game outweigh the game sales lost among multiple people?
What makes it stranger is games advertised as "console only" yet *are* released on Windows e.g. *Gears of War*.
How does competition between products developed by the same completion benifit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/273h1o/eli5_why_is_xbox_in_competition_with_pcs_if_most/ | {
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"Delving into this is going to take awhile.\n\nHistorically, (i.e the past two console generations) game consoles used pretty different API's to PC's - the current batch is standardised so that it's incredibly easy to port games from one console to the PC. The attraction of game consoles was with ease of running and made use of the often expensive setup for television and audio already present, whereas PC's were their own thing in offices - not usually set up with standard televisions. The switch with televisions to a digital audio setup has made using a TV for a computer monitor or a computer monitor for a TV pretty easy if not necessarily built for purpose.\n\nNowadays, where PC gaming has shifted largely to steam as a DRM format over copy protected discs, steam can work with developers to ensure the games work for a wide erray of systems - necessary when you have on-demand purchases that are delivered immediately to the consumer. As a result, games a much less hassle to get running on PC these days and so PC gaming as a whole, is only a matter of initial purchase in terms of ease of use. This is compounded by the fact that consoles often have hard drives, take time to install, and in some cases take time to download as well. The advantage of a PC is you can do other things with it as well while installs happen, while things download. I suspect this is why consoles have begun trying to switch to media entertainment platforms rather than just straight gaming machines - see Xbox one's capacity to stream TV etc. Sony's playstation network which is more of a social network than XBlive is. In recent years the shift from dedicated gaming platforms to machines that can multitask, as evidenced by the large amount of indie games for mobile operating systems, has begun taking over and I suspect the consoles themselves are driving this shift in an effort to maintain relevancy.\n\nWhat does this have to do with competition with PC's? Essentially, the xbox line started out with a different market as PC, now the market is very similar - almost identical, as the cost of PC hardware has dropped and so has the cost of PC games. The reason for console exclusives now, is to try and encourage console adopters to use their console over the competitors, but they're both becoming more and more like a PC is. The only real difference at this point is standardised hardware, developers can guarantee that the hardware in a console is able to run the game marketed for the platform, and the fact that the PC is still far and away the best all-in-one platform. \n\nI'd make the argument that current batch of consoles are slipping further and further into irrelevancy, that's not to say they can't recover and define a market niche for themselves, but this generation doesn't do itself any favours. I don't know many PC gamers who buy a single console, if they can afford a PC and a games console, as well as games for both, they can usually afford a third or fourth console too. Historically PC games used to have their own niche market over console games, but not so much anymore and exclusives are really only used to try and grab sales from the competitor, though I'd wager with the explosion in popularity gaming has seen, even that is un-necessary."
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x022u | [meta] loaded questions | There are a ton of loaded questions that I've seen recently. Sometimes they get downvoted, but occasionally I see them high up.
These are usually "why" questions, such as, "Why is Nickelback so terrible?" or "why is X a bad idea?"
If a post has an opinion that isn't respected by virtually everyone, then it is biased and a loaded question. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/x022u/meta_loaded_questions/ | {
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"I think people should ask themselves \"do I really need a simple explanation, or do I just want a venue to argue my point?\" before they ask a question here. ",
"This subreddit has already been ruined by people who use it as a substitute for Google or Wikipedia. The loaded questions are welcomed change from the idiots that are too lazy to search and read and think.",
"Sometimes people will ask simple or \"loaded\" questions because they want a conversation around a certain topic. Such conversations often result in wildly varying viewpoints (some of which may not be well known). This wide degree of variability is valuable for those that truly want to understand a topic. \n\nTo truly understand a topic, one needs to understand every view of it. Once one knows every view (e.g. gun rights, abortion) then they are truly free to come up with their own opinion. While one only knows one view of a certain topic, they can never truly come up with their own view.\n\nHaving said this, I think there are some truly loaded questions that have come up that deserve to be downvoted. Please keep in mind, however, that controvertial subjects need to be allowed in this forum (e.g. \"Why is abortion legal?\" \"Why shouldn't all drugs be kept illegal?\"). \n\n*Once we start censoring, the entire value of this subreddit dies. Censorship should be kept to a minimum.*",
"I thought the questions were more \"what are the reasons a certain widely outspoken opinion was formed?\"\n\nThis subreddit isn't all that great, mostly due to lack of strict moderation. The rules are setup to create a very helpful place for basic explanations, but they aren't enforced so it doesn't matter. "
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1f703x | what is the mathematical explanation for honeycombs being the shape they are? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f703x/what_is_the_mathematical_explanation_for/ | {
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"Maximum internal volume with minimum length of wall.\n\nEDIT:\n \nFor example: If honeycombe was made up of lots of little square wells, the bee's would require more wax walls to hold the same volume as hexagonal honeycombe. The same is true for all other interlocking geometric shapes.\n\nHexagonal honeycombes achieve optimum honey-well volume to wax wall length ratio.."
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9lxl07 | how does a credit card machine work during flight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9lxl07/eli5_how_does_a_credit_card_machine_work_during/ | {
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"It doesn't, it connects when the plane has landed and all the payments are processed then. This also means you can use a card with no balance and it will be approved. A lot of budget airlines only accept credit cards now for this reason.",
"Airplanes connect to the internet using satellites and ground towers, and transmit the data for the credit cards the same way any other Point of Sale would.\n\nGenerally, in flight, it will connect via satellite, as it is too high to connect via cellular network."
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88op6b | how does the show “planet earth” get their shots without scaring the animals | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/88op6b/eli5_how_does_the_show_planet_earth_get_their/ | {
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"The telescoping lenses they use are INSANE\n\nbasically, a large part of it is zooming in really really really close from really really really far away. other parts of it is remote infrared sensing cameras that record when something near it moves (after they are left on a tree or something). finally they can use drones to get some shots, possibly combined with the crazy zooms.",
"The end of each episode details the effort that went into one particular sequence in that episode. If this is edited out in favour of commercials where you are, I highly recommend obtaining the original, unmolested, BBC version narrated by Sir David Attenborough. \n\nEDIT: E.g. _URL_0_"
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20o77f | every year the asphalt roads get torn up, then patched/re-paved. hasn't road tech/asphalt tech improved to the point where this doesn't need to happen year after year? | I mean is it just that the companies that get hired to fix the road just use low quality asphalt, which will keep them in a job so they can fix it next year?
It just seems that it is a never ending battle budget-wise, and physically between the roads and nature.
I live in the northeastern U.S. where the roads are quite poor this time of year. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20o77f/eli5_every_year_the_asphalt_roads_get_torn_up/ | {
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"They can build roads to a standard right now that will last much longer, but it would cost a lot more per mile and the job goes to the lowest bidder. They build roads to much higher standards in most of Europe and they last a lot longer.",
"Road *technology* has improved, but the incentives haven't. In parts of northern Europe, governments award paving contracts with the understanding that the contractor will be responsible for upkeep, usually for 20-30 years, in addition to construction, getting paid only once. Cutting corners comes out of the contractor's bottom line.\n\nIn almost all of the US, road construction contracts are awarded (to the lowest bidder) for the construction job only, with repairs or maintenance bidded out separately or handled by state employees, leaving the direct incentive for the original contractor to cut corners intact. "
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1kanw5 | why are some forms of damage to oneself (ie binge drinking, etc) more acceptable than something like cutting? | I use binge drinking as an example because though it can be hazardous, the consumption of large quantities of alcohol is a fairly normal event and enjoyable for some. I know of self harmers who do enjoy the sensation of cutting, burning, etc, but admitting to self harm as a method of stress relief is definitely looked upon negatively. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kanw5/eli5_why_are_some_forms_of_damage_to_oneself_ie/ | {
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"Because something like binge-drinking is an offshoot or extreme of a socially acceptable, common activity. \nWhile binge drinking is harmful, that is not readily apparent (unless it develops into a dependency). \nSelf-harm, however, is an immediate, and often permanent (scarring) activity. ",
"Because people are still ignorant of the dangers of binge drinking. It seems like it takes longer for people to realize that, hey, Johnny here is getting hardcore drunk several nights a week, that's probably not good. \n\nBut cutting, burning? I mean, you know what that pain feels like. You know what being cut feels like and to think that someone is doing that intentionally is very, very scary for people. \n\nFrom an outsider's perspective, Johnny is just getting drunk, but Jane is making herself bleed on purpose. I figure most people are more likely to respond to Jane's cutting instead of Johnny's potential drinking problem."
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20w797 | do people with 'crazy' or 'lazy' eyes see more, less or differently to other people? or exactly the same? [serious] | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20w797/eli5_do_people_with_crazy_or_lazy_eyes_see_more/ | {
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"my SO has(d) a lazy eye as a kid. The straightness issue was corrected, but she told me her brain just can't process the signal correctly so it only will \"see\" out of one eye or the other at one time, even though her eyes are straight. She has a dominant eye she sees out of most of the time.",
"I have this, so I feel I can provide an answer.\n\nMy right eye is at an outward angle, and this causes me to have double vision. \n\nView [this implified sketch](_URL_0_) as a guide. \nMy right eye is off by an angle (a). This causes me to see one clear object straight ahead with my left eye (vertical orange line leading to IMAGE(L) ), and one fuzzy object *in the other direction, and at the same angle as my eye veers off* with my right eye (diagonal line leading to IMAGE(R) ). \nThose with normal vision would see both objects at the IMAGE(L) position.\nNot shown in the image is the Z-axis rotation that causes IMAGE(R) to also be slightly tilted.\n\nI find it very interesting that the angles are exactly the same, as this lets my mind work it's internal trigonometry to allow me to 'see' depth. \nWhile those who have eyes both facing forward see depth as the minute difference in position between looking at something with the left eye only, then the right only, I get mine as the ratio between my distance to the object, and the length between IMAGE(L) and IMAGE(R).\n\nTL;DR: Seeing 'more' or 'less' is relative to the strength of your eyes, but lazy eyes see two non-overlapping images.",
"My right eye tends to wander off; I had eye surgery as a baby, but didn't get the proper physiotherapy during the crucial phase of neural development, so my brain never learned to integrate the vision from it properly. \n\nI can *see* with the eye, and the edges are as sharp as from the good eye... I just can't do a hell of a lot *with* it. \n\nQuick and easy demo: keep your gaze fixed on **this** word, and try to read a few words on either side of it. \n\nYou can *see* the letters, they're not fuzzy or obscured, and if you know what they say you can confirm they probably haven't changed - but there's no way you could actually read them from scratch. \n\nThat's pretty much what the entire visual field from my right eye is like, all the time. \n\nMy brain mostly just treats it as extended peripheral vision. \n\nAs for the rest - I lack stereoscopic 3D, so I have to get my depth cues from motion parallax and other tricks instead. ",
"I have strabismus, which causes my right eye to be drifted towards my nose when I have my eyes focused. When I'm not focusing my eyes, they are both straight, so I can do this thing where I only move one eye by focusing and unfocusing my vision.\n\nEveryone seems to assume that I can see out of both eyes and that I'm seeing 2 different things, but since I've had it since birth I can't even notice it if I try. To me, my right eye acts entirely as peripheral vision, it is very weak compared to my left eye, I can't do any reading out of it and the sun hurts it a lot so I typically I'm squinting my right eye whenever I'm outside.\n\nI used to have to wear glasses, and probably should again, but when the eye doctors examined me there results were weird because my left eye somehow learned to compensate so that I have pretty damn clear vision out of it. They told me because of that, I didn't really have to wear glasses. Now I just walk rand with my damn right eye looking in another direction. It's been years since I've been to an eye doctor, but I should probly go soon to see if I can get glasses, just to see what my vision wod be like with them. I read just fine, but sometimes my eyes hurt from strain so I think I need them, atleast some times.\n\nSo really, I can see about the same as other people, just imagine it with only 1 eye. Oh yeah, and I can't see 3d movies or anything like that, I'm not even sure how well I can perceive depth. I seem to have a hard time when things aren't on the ground to judge depth/distance",
"This is my super power.\n\nI use one eye primarly for computer and reading and one for driving and moving around in the world. \n\nRight now I'm looking at the screen **and** at my Sonic Plasma ball that's about two feet behind and to the left of my monitor. Imagine looking at a photo and keeping your eye still on the center of it. While doing that you can 'change your attenton' to notice something over to the left while your eye rests on the center of the photo. This is how my two Chameleon Vision eyes work for me. My attention determines which eye I'm using, but 'naturally' they are divergent in focus.\n\nIf I concentrate I can 'cross my eyes' to make them both rest on a single item, but it's stressful (think of crossing your eyes) and since my eyes have different 'strengths' I can't really keep that thing in focus. I do this when I'm being photographed or when I can tell someone is uncomfortable with my lazy eye."
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92fhus | why is it easier to balance on those small scooters (with those small wheels) when moving compared to when you're not moving? | Sorry for the bad English. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92fhus/eli5_why_is_it_easier_to_balance_on_those_small/ | {
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"Scooters (or bikes or motorcycles or anything with 2 wheels for that matter) are designed in a way that makes them want to stay upright while moving forward. I'll use a bike for this example because all the parts are bigger and easier to visualize but all the same physics applies. Imagine you are standing holding a bike by the seat and not touching the handlebars. Now learn the bike to the right like you are leaning into a right handed turn. The handlebars of the bike and the front wheel \"fall\" a little and point to the right. This is known as \"caster\" and is something cars have as well (but they don't fall over on their own) The bike is stationary right now and would gal over if you let go. If we imagine this same scenario while the bike is moving forward what will happen is the bike will steer in the direction it is leaning. Since it begins to turn to the right as it leans right the momentum of the rest of the bike wants to carry on forward. This stands the bike back up straight. As long as the bike has enough forward momentum it will naturally want to correct its own balance. (In cars this \"caster\" effect is why the car returns to moving in a straight line when you let go of the steering wheel). This is why yo can ride a bike without touched the handle bars, and why if you push a bike down a hill and let go it will stay upright. \n\nSmall wheels on a scooter or big wheel on a bike have no effect on their desire to self-right at speed as long as they have this type of caster design. What they do influence is how tightly they thing wants to turn and how stable they will be at high speed. The scooter will no doubt be able to turn in tighter circles than a bicycles while the bike will be stable at high speed and the scooter would eventually become uncontrollable. Imagine bombing down a hill on your scooter. If you've ever done this you probably noticed a speed wobble start to occur. This is happening because the scooter wants to self right, but it self rights with so much force that it pushes itself over the top and leans to the other side. It oscillates back and forth until you slow down or crash..."
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8wpcmj | why do different people have different "resting faces"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8wpcmj/eli5_why_do_different_people_have_different/ | {
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"People have different faces, therefore their \"resting face\" is different. Some people just have a resting face that looks like they are angry, for example (low thick eyebrows would dool this)."
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wgulp | bitcoins. what are they, why are they sketchy, how do you get them, and why are they better then runescape-currency? | I have read the wiki page on them, but I found that there were some terms, both economically and computational, that I didnt quite understand.
When I compare them to runescape-currency I am actually asking what makes them more 'reliable' or better than any other kind of online currency, be it in-game or not. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wgulp/eli5_bitcoins_what_are_they_why_are_they_sketchy/ | {
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"Bitcoins is the currency of the internet.\n\nIt's sketchy because bitcoins are used to transact on the blackmarket.\n\nGetting bitcoins is like putting your computer on a parttime job. I don't remember the specifics but it's something along the lines of doing number crunching. \n\nYou can't buy drugs and guns with Runescape money.",
"Bitcoins are de-centralized form (virtual) currency. It's no different if I were to go out and print off some money and assign some value to it. A very few some online [vendors](_URL_2_) accept payments in bitcoins, and they can be [traded](_URL_0_) for other forms of money. Think of it like chips at a casino, which are for all intents and purposes a form of currency. The system is de-centralized so there is not central body directly responsible for issuing them and the protocol contains safeguards for counterfeiting and other such things.\n\nThey're \"sketchy\" because of their de-centralization. Or more specifically, there is somewhat legitimate) concern that because no one person or organization is held accountable for the system that it could be easily exploited for illegitimate purposes (such as money laundering, or selling of illegal goods). Companies that issue virtual currency must follow strict rules for exchange, and that's partly why many companies do not allow you to return the currency for cash. If you offer exchange back to cash, such as a casino, there are extremely strict [rules and regulations](_URL_1_) that the issuer must follow as well.\n",
"So let's pretend that the bitcoins are acorns and there is a high society of intelligent squirrels that do what we do. Imagine, if you will, that there is a specific type of tree that produces special blue acorns at an impossibly slow rate and getting acorns from them is inconsistent. Because of this, there's a capacity of value that these blue acorns have because the pool of currency is expanding at an unknown rate - the only thing that the squirrels know is that it's expanding.\n\nSo we've set the stage for how this stuff works. Our super-squirrels are very contented at the fact that they have their acorns, but Bob-squirrel across the street has a slice of cake that looks mighty tempting. Because all the squirrels find an inherent value in their acorns and know that everyone else does, there is a consensus that they are equally valuable to another squirrel.\n\nBob-squirrel, knowing that his cake is valuable, can ask for a certain amount of blue acorns that are equal in value to his cake. Bob-squirrel also knows that there's no possible way that he can be scammed because blue acorns don't bounce like normal acorns do, guaranteeing an equal value trade. Other squirrels can trade with each other just as easily, but they can also barter - fluctuating the value of our blue-acorns across the board.\n\nBut, as we know, squirrels are devious and conniving, super-squirrels even more-so. The super-squirrels down the street want to do some bad things to the Johnsons' yard because they took down the bird feeder. The super-squirrels down the street start doing some shifty business with some city-squirrels, buying bad things with their blue-acorn currency - effectively making them dirty.\n\nAs for the Runescape currency business: I can guess that because there is an infinite amount of money being injected into the system by quests and NPCs, a single denomination of currency is so worthless that the prices of items are outrageous. Bitcoins can be spent on tangible items and are worth a certain value, a bitcoin surely having a larger inherent value than a single denomination of Runescape currency.",
"_URL_0_\n\nUse the search function! \n\nI'd imagine the answers they got a few months ago are still pretty good!",
"Think of it as this generation's Flooz bucks. What's Flooz? Guess you had to be there, but basically it was a debit/cheque card but without a centralized bank behind it.",
"This is a great article on bitcoins.\n\n[Wired Magazine](_URL_0_)",
"Well, those questions aren't loaded, now are they?\n\nIt's very hard to explain what Bitcoin is, but the [We Use Coins](_URL_4_) does a very good job. You should also check the [official Bitcoin wiki](_URL_3_). If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.\n\nThey aren't very sketchy at all, but the exchange rates are very volatile, so you have to be careful about when you exchange. It should also be noted that because Bitcoin is somewhat anonymous, it can be used to pay for things of questionable legality.\n\nYou can buy Bitcoin at an exchange like [Mt.Gox](_URL_1_) or [Intersango](_URL_0_), you can [mine](_URL_2_) them, or you can barter with others for them.\n\nThey are better than runescape currency because they are not controlled by anyone, there is a finite supply, and people are more than willing to trade items of tangible value for them. They have all the properties needed to be considered money, but very few of the down sides of fiat currency.",
"You read the page on the _URL_0_ wiki or you read the Wikipedia page? \n\nRegardless, to address your primary question: They're more trustworthy than \"Runescape currency\" because they are not, in any way, controlled by a central authority. The company than runs Runescape cannot decide tomorrow to give me 1,000,000 BTC, thereby lowering the values of your Bitcoins; nor can it unilaterally decide to confiscate or otherwise freeze your Bitcoin savings. Obviously, neither of these is true for \"Runescape currency.\" \n\nWhy are they reliable? They're not; note that the very thing that makes them trustworthy – that nobody controls them – means that nobody can really come to the rescue if things go bad. As with any other commodity, they could crash at any time. But at least if they crash, or you somehow lose your coins, it won't be because someone or some company decide to blackball you and confiscate your Bitcoins, or because someone decided to start printing unlimited quantities of coins to cash in on the currency's popularity. \n\nBitcoin is, as close as I've ever seen, actually, finally, a \"consensual hallucination:\" Because the rules by which Bitcoins operate are fair, fixed, and enforceable, we all can see that Bitcoins are limited in quantity; that, for the most part, no human entity can intentionally tamper with their value; and that some people are willing to trade things we want (e.g. VPN services, physical items, \"normal\" currencies) in exchange for them. Because all these things are true, Bitcoins have value. \n",
"Not even going to try to explain like you're 5.\n\nWhat makes them more reliable than other online currencies is that they are *distributed.* As long as you have enough people actually using Bitcoins, it is significantly harder for *any one entity* -- any one person, organization, anything -- to forge them.\n\nThey're inherently deflationary. Assuming the technology is sound, they are designed to be functionally like gold -- there is a fixed amount total, it takes a certain amount of real-world resources to unearth more (Bitcoins are \"mined\" by using a ton of computational power).\n\nNow, I don't know how Runescape's currency works, but I would guess that one malicious employee at Runescape could, with the flip of a switch, print money for themselves or steal yours. With Bitcoin, the only way to \"print money\" is to contribute computational resources to the network, and the only way to steal it is to break into your computer.\n\nThere are a number of disadvantages.\n\nFirst, I'm no economist, but my father has tried to explain to me on several occasions why inflation is important to a functioning economy. Bitcoins fundamentally do not inflate. I suppose there's at least one important result I can understand -- in the real world, because of inflation, the total value of the money you have in the bank goes down, unless you're collecting a ton of interest. With Bitcoins, the total value of the Bitcoins you're hoarding will always go up, so you have less incentive to spend money, which means a less healthy economy overall.\n\nSecond, all of this assumes the technology is rock-solid. Because it's so new, relatively speaking, there's a good chance there's a fundamental way to break it. At the same time, there's more than enough money in the system to make it worthwhile to break.\n\nEven without breaking the whole system, there are already some problems:\n\n* You can be robbed by having your computer broken into. In the real world, even if this happens, usually a financial institution (like a bank or credit card company) will eat the loss as fraud.\n* Running a Bitcoin node isn't necessarily easy, even if you don't want to mine.\n* You can certainly mitigate the above two problems by putting your coins into some sort of \"bank\", but that gives said bank a lot of power, which makes it a central point of failure, which is one of the things Bitcoin is trying to avoid.\n* Mining bitcoins might still be profitable, but it takes a massive investment in something relatively unproven.\n* Because mining bitcoins is based on computational resources, there is an incentive to steal these from others. Either break into a miner node (by running one, you're a target), or set up a website so that visitors compute these things via JavaScript. Even if done legitimately, it's a lot of electricity and hardware, and it's only going to go up.\n\nAll of this ignores the PR problem that people sometimes do bad things with a supposedly anonymous currency. Bitcoins are only *somewhat* anonymous; their real power is that they can't be controlled as easily. Even if you somehow hit transaction fees, it's still much cheaper to send coins than to use PayPal, for example. But these properties, and the fact that they're *sort of* anonymous, makes them much more attractive for, say, drug deals. I really don't buy this angle, but it is a problem with any disruptive tech -- it's easy to spin it as evil.\n\n(Example: Freenet is a network that is designed to be impossible to censor partially, or even find out what anyone is posting or reading, you'd have to block the whole thing. As a result, it gets used for things like child porn, and that's what people associate with it, even though it'd also be awesome for things like Wikileaks.)\n\nThere are a few sites out there that will explain the technical details better. It's actually a really cool concept. I'm just not sure how likely it is to continue being viable."
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2kji4e | if i eat (and drink) the exact same thing at the same time every day, will my bowel movements be identical in color, size, and consistency (and come at the same times), or are there other factors involved? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kji4e/eli5_if_i_eat_and_drink_the_exact_same_thing_at/ | {
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"Amount if physical activity also plays a role. So if you do literally the exact same amount of physical activity then yes",
"...try it and let us know. C'mon OP, we know you can, uh, \"deliver\" ",
"There are definitely other factors. The biggest is probably the bacteria in your gut. Scientists have only recently begun studying it, but it's very clear that bacteria play major roles in all parts of digestion. This is why antibiotics often cause GI problems, as they kill some of those bacteria. So if your immune system is fluctuating in strength(over or underactive) because of something you were exposed to, it could cause a noticeable chance in your digestive tract as it could fail to kill harmful bacteria or kill too many good ones."
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616ss0 | how does the u.s. senate get away with passing a vote for something that basically no reasonable and knowledgeable citizen would want passed? for example, the most recent vote allowing isps to sell your personal data. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/616ss0/eli5_how_does_the_us_senate_get_away_with_passing/ | {
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"The counter measure is to vote them out of office in favor of someone who will repeal the bad laws.\n\nUnfortunately, voters have been far too apathetic for far too long, and the system is corrupt beyond hope of repair. Vote out one crook, another takes his place. And a lot of the crooks can't be got rid of anyway.",
"Free speech includes volume and corporations can speak much louder than we can because they have more money to speak with than the rest of us. \n\nThus, since they can speak louder, they can be heard more easily than we can and so our voices get drowned out by the powerful verbiage of monied special interest groups, corporate lobbyists and their shills.\n\nNot to mention the lucrative contracts awaiting these politicians once they leave office. So even if we could just \"vote them out\" it is still a win/win for them and a lose/lose for us, so long as money is considered free speech and is inseparable from politics.",
"Companies buy senators. They own them like a portfolio of assets. They instruct senators how to vote and they actually write our laws and hand them to senators to promote on the floor. Both Republicans and Democrats are mostly influenced by capitalism (money), rather than democracy (people). And Santa Claus doesn't exist. "
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96ublu | how did black boxes for descrambling cable channels in the 90s work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96ublu/eli5_how_did_black_boxes_for_descrambling_cable/ | {
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"Back then the way scrambling worked was they just didn't send the sync pulse (the mark for the start of the frame). The cable box then had a circuit that when authorized made a sync pulse and inserted it back in. The descramblers were boxes that just added in sync pulse to make it watchable."
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2cncdo | when movies are shown on most tv channels, the end credits are shrunk, squeezed, and/or sped up until they're unreadable. why are they shown at all? | This is how it works in the US, anyway. Is there a legal obligation, is it just tradition to run them, or what? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cncdo/eli5_when_movies_are_shown_on_most_tv_channels/ | {
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"Yes, they must show the credits, it is a part of the agreement to air the film in its' entirety including credits.\n\nBut the language didn't preclude shrinking of the credits. Major loophole.",
"It is legal obligation to protect those that made and acted in the program. ",
"It is a contractual obligation to the various unions and guilds that made the movie.\n\nBeing credited is a big deal in Hollywood, and can be a aid in finding your next job. Having the general public read your name really isn't that important. Having someone in the industry who is specifically looking for who did what read your name is the thing that really benefits you. "
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2415sm | why doesn't everyone use the same language? | Wouldn't things (like worldwide trade) be a lot easier if everyone on Earth spoke the same language? I understand that the languages have slowly branched and evolved into what they are today, but would we ever make an effort to have everyone know the same language, as impractical as it may seem? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2415sm/eli5_why_doesnt_everyone_use_the_same_language/ | {
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" > Wouldn't things (like worldwide trade) be a lot easier if everyone on Earth spoke the same language? \n\nFor worldwide trade most the individuals involved speak English. The majority of the world that doesn't speak English isn't involved in international trade, so it's not a big deal for them.\n\nSwitching to one language would be a huge mess in the efforts to properly train people on that language, translate all the various documents within a country to that new language, etc.\n\nPlus, the way we are going, software like Google translate will soon be able to do most of the work for us.",
"The word for a language that is used for things like international trade and diplomatic relations is \"lingua franca\". That's actually Latin for \"the French language\", because in former times it was French.\n\nGenerally speaking, English is now the lingua franca for the world as a whole. When a Czech businessman meets his Japanese counterpart, they'll probably speak English. But there can be other lingua francas as well: for example, I once knew a Kenyan who was fluent not only in her local language and in English, but also in Swahili, the lingua franca for many countries in southeastern Africa.\n\nThis seems to be quite a natural state of affairs: people all over the world use one language for speaking to their family and friends, and a different language for international trade.\n\nThis has been the case for thousands of years: in New Testament times, for example, the lingua franca was Greek (even in the Roman Empire -- not Latin as many people assume). There's a reference to this in Acts 21:37-22:2. The situation is this: Paul has arrived in Jerusalem and started preaching, but some rabble-rousers stirred up a near-riot, attracting the attention of some Roman soldiers who immediately arrested Paul.\n\n > As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, \"May I say something to you?\"\n\n > \"Do you speak Greek?\" he replied. \"Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists into the desert a little while ago?\"\n\n > Paul answered, \"I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cicilia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.\"\n\n > Having received the commander's permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic: \"Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defence.\" When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.\n\nBasically, this system has worked very well in the past, and it still works very well today. It's only in English-speaking countries where the idea of a separate lingua franca is unusual, and that's simply because English *is* the lingua franca.",
"Oh great, why don't you pick which language everyone should speak? \r\rThat's the problem, even if we agree that we need an international language, nobody wants to give up their mother tongue, learn an alien language from an alien culture, possibly hostile to their own language and culture.\r\rIt's a problem even inside countries. When India tried to make Hindi an official language, there were riots in southern states, especially Tamil Nadu.\r\rThe closest thing we have to an international language is English, spoken by former empire countries as well as others. In that case, countries do seem to be teaching English as it seems to be the international political and business language.",
"Even if we did that. Dialects would form. And slowly evolve again."
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bb6fic | how does a stainless steel soap remove the fish or garlic scent from your hands? | UPDATE: Wow guys..Honestly I wasn't expecting all this commotion when I asked this question. Thanks for all the replies and my first GOLD!! It a pity that the post has been locked. See ya around ;) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bb6fic/eli5_how_does_a_stainless_steel_soap_remove_the/ | {
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"There is no scientific evidence that steel soaps does remove scents from your hands. [source](_URL_0_)",
"It doesn't.\n\nAll evidence points out that it's a simple scam. There is no such thing as ions attracting or whatnot complete and utter nonsense that other guy said. \n\nIt's as good as a freaking rock that you use to scrub. \n\nIt's a scam. It doesn't work. Stop misleading people.",
"What the hell is a stainless steel soap?",
"I've seen videos of chefs actually testing this, and it doesn't work at all.\n\nIf you want to get to rid of bad smells, use soap and water, and scrub really well. If that still doesn't get rid of them all, you can rub some lemon juice or vinegar on your hands. Otherwise, you just have to wait a day or 2 for the smell to go away.",
"The most scientific explaination I could find is that it the stainless steel chemically reacts with sulfur from garlic(though I'm not sure about fish oils). I'd be interested to know if there are any chemists who could confirm that stainless steel does in fact react with sulfur in such a way or if this is just pseudosciencey jargon, because there's definitely controversy over the efficacy of stainless steel soap. Personally, I'm remaining skeptical.",
"No one has yet to prove conclusively that it does or does not actually work, so unfortunately there is no definite mechanism known other than hearsay."
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1s9e45 | if white is the presence of all colors and black is the absence of them, why does our hair turn white when we age? | Instead of staying black, for example. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s9e45/eli5if_white_is_the_presence_of_all_colors_and/ | {
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"Your hair color, like most other colors, is based on pigmentation.\n\nWith pigmentation, as light hits it, the pigmentation will absorb most of the light, and reflect specific wavelengths. Depending on what wavelengths are reflected, you get different colors. So with black hair, the base pigment is absorbing everything, so it just looks black.\n\nWith white hair, there is actually no pigmentation - the light just gets reflected back, revealing a grey or white looking hair based on how much light is being reflected. ",
"Something with coloured pigment reflects the colour of the pigment, then absorbs all the other light that strikes it.\n\nAs it gets older, the pigment goes out of hair so it stops reflecting light based on its colour. Instead the hair becomes sort-of transparent, and reflects all of the light back in equal quantities. Like when you look at finely ground glass it appears white, even though it's transparent."
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cufyu1 | i've been really sore so my wife bought me some epsom salt. i think it actually helped somewhat, but i don't get how sitting in a pool of magnesium sulfate makes my muscles feel better? so how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cufyu1/eli5_ive_been_really_sore_so_my_wife_bought_me/ | {
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"There's actually little evidence that the magnesium is absorbed, much less that it does anything to help if it is absorbed in significant quantities.",
"Epsom salts may help to increase your buoyancy in the water, but mostly they're just a placebo. \n\nSide note--go on Amazon, buy some scent oils and water-soluble lake colorants (the type of colorant is called a \"lake\", it's not a colorant for lakes), and mix them into the salts. Instant spa, and they can be stored in a jar for a long time.",
"You lay down and relaxed thinking the salts wee doing some magic, your muscles relaxed and recovered as normal. I don't think there is any real medicinal benefit but it persuades you to relax the muscles and not focus on the pain so is of some use if only as a placebo / psuedo psych trick",
"People underestimate the power of the placebo effect.\n\nI can't find the article right now but the effect is so strong that it's measurable even if you tell people you're giving them a placebo.",
"Warm water has a tendency to relax muscles. Relaxing in a warm bath would probably do you just as well.",
"Heat probably does as much as anything. It relaxes muscles, and works as a counter irritant.",
"You probably just actually relaxed for a while and that plus warmth and your wife caring for you that way helped.\n\nOr did your wife give you the order to take the bath because you will be better? Might also be it. j/k",
"Probably 99.9% of the effect is the warm water itself increasing blood flow to the sore muscles.",
"was water hot? hot water already relieves soreness. Add your mentality of relaxing actually allowing muscles to cease being tense. It all helps towards the same objective. The magnesium sulfate was probably just improving the natural response to the already relaxing experience.",
"If you have preeclampsia or are experiencing labor contractions too early in pregnancy, then giving magnesium sulfate intravenously will prevent seizures and stop labor, respectively.\n\nProbably doesn’t do jack shit topically, though.\n\nIt hurts like a bitch going into your veins, though.",
"The salt in the water for the most part helps by keeping the water at the right hardness to not draw moisture and nutrients from your skin. The heat is doing most of the work, but hot water can pull/dissolve parts of your dermis without this balancing factor. This allows you to stay in the heated water longer without discomfort. Other than that, it is mostly psychosomatic",
"I think it just softens the water by binding with the stuff that makes water hard.\n\nSo the water feels sort of silky & the soap is soapier. Its just more relaxing.",
"On that note, why do top tier athletes go for ice-baths?",
"I know that Magnesium Sulphate has no qualities across the skin and its most definitely the warm water but placebo studies have shown tremendous effects, including placebo surgeries. I would like to point out that as a drying agent, Epsom salt baths on infections like an ingrown toe-nail on the regular are amazing at reducing swelling ( not a cure though)",
" magnesium is used by little pumps in your muscles which suck the transmitters from the receptors, which causes the muscles to relax. if you move alot, these pumps consume energy and magnesium, so taking magnesium while doing sports etc prevents cramps and hurting muscles the next day. i dont know how much magnesium is absorbed while bathing it, drinking it would be easier and probably would work better. not the epsom salt, the magnesium.",
"Magnesium is easily absorbed through the skin, people need between 310 to 420 mg in an ordinary western diet to remain healthy. RDA recommendations vary based on your age and heath. It is crucial for many functions in your body, including energy metabolism and protein synthesis. It contributes to proper brain function, bones, heart and muscle activity. \n \nSecondarily, the act of soaking in warm water by itself actually feels pretty good to most people, and the heat may provide a bit of a placebo effect (even without magnesium.) \n\nThere is controversy about effectiveness of magnesium for soaking, and depending on type of magnesium, some may claim it doesn't work or provides less than optimal absorption. Others claim it should be used in conjunction with calcium to promote absorption while soaking. \n\nThe oral use is uncontroversial & proven. This mineral is also given by IV for cardiac patients for improving blood pressure due to its' known effects on cardiac muscles. Physicians will run a blood test to check blood magnesium level and if low may order IV magnesium sulfate (such as helping for Eclampsia of pregnancy and asthma attacks.) \n \n(The downside is magnesium actually binds and diminishes other carefully balanced cardiac medications and can have aside effects such as diarrhea, so it's use needs to be medically monitored in susceptible patients.) \n\nMagnesium comes in multiple forms: each form affects the actual usefulness to humans by how it's picked up in the body; Magnesium Gluconate may have the highest pick up in humans, and the Glycinate form may have the least laxative effect: it is even available in a Chilated form. The main forms are Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Citrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Magnesium Chloride, and Magnesium Aspartate. It comes in powder or flakes for soaking, oral and liquid for oral intake, and medial grade liquids for IV's.\n \nThere are many types of magnesium supplement. It’s important to consider the absorption rate before using, and all medical history and how other medications are being taken.\n\nBackground: retired nurse who actually uses this mineral for cardiac supplements. I take one #100 mg tablet four times a day (total of 400 mg) due to low blood levels as a senior.",
"Other than my college football playing grandson swore by ES because of his coaches, I personally found better results from horse liniment ... not kidding. I couldn't find any reputable study to confirm Epsom Salts had a scientifically proven benefit.\n\nI used to barrel race (in another lifetime) and noticed when I rubbed liniment on my horse's legs my hands and arm muscles felt better. After stacking a truckload of baled hay it was especially soothing. There is a \"human\" product (Absorbine Jr.) but I always used the horse product. :-) It works.",
"I wonder if the increased density of the water (with the salt dissolved in the water increases the aqueous solutions density), since that will make you more buoyant in the water also contributes to the relaxing nature of the soak -not that soaking in hot water is hard work, but that increased buoyancy may lead to your body relaxing more as it may feel more comfortable floating more.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAnyone have thoughts on this?",
"My best guess that since our muscles require high amounts of salt to contract and operate effectively, salt gets used very quickly within the body. After physical activity, our salt content is depleted. Sitting in a warm bathtub dilates our pores, and increases bloodflow, and the Epsom salt turns the tub into a hyperionic salt solution. The salt probably absorbs through the skin, and into the blood stream, bypassing our digestive system. This would restore our body's electrolytes without consuming them.\n\n\nJust my best guess. I have no idea if it's accurate or not",
"Friday night reading about Epsom salt...woo...leads to vast research in to Epsom salts. Turns out it's witchcraft 😭"
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1fj0yl | tennis scoring | It seems a bit random to me haha! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fj0yl/eli5_tennis_scoring/ | {
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"Each game is won by being the first to score 4 points, although you must win by two clear points.\n\nThe first point is called 15. The second is 30. The third is 40. And the fourth is Game.\n\n40-40 is called \"Deuce\". From here, a player has to score two points in a row to win the game, in order to win by two clear points. The first point is called \"Advantage\", and the second point is Game. After Advantage, if the player with Advantage loses the next point, it goes back to Deuce again.\n\nA set is the first to 6 games. But you must normally win by two clear games. If it reaches 5-5, then a player can win two more games to win the set 7-5. If it reaches 6-6 then a tie-break takes place. This is won by being the first to 7 points (the points just go 1, 2, 3, etc), but you must win by two clear points.\n\nThe exception is the final set, where there is no tiebreaker - the set continues until a player has a lead of two clear games.\n\nA match is the best of either 3 or 5 sets, depending which competition it is, and whether it's men or women: 5 Sets is a Men's Grand Slam (Singles or Doubles), 3 Sets in everything else\n\nEdit: incorporated ultrachronic's clarifications, and some clarification about Advantage and Deuce."
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1nyd64 | what would happen to me if i decided to conquer a small piece of land and create my own country? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nyd64/eli5_what_would_happen_to_me_if_i_decided_to/ | {
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"Well that land belongs to someone, and when they request the government's assistance (police) in getting you out of their yard, they will arrive. If you're unwilling to move they'll forcefully remove you and possibly arrest you for trespassing.",
"If you weren't breaking Swedish law they would likely leave you alone and consider you a crazy person. If you were harassing other citizens or breaking Swedish law the police would kick down your door and you would be fucked unless you somehow amassed enough weapons and fighters to successfully defend a few square meters of land surrounded on all sides against the entire police force. \n\nThe only \"successful\" place where this happened is a place called Sealand off the British coast. That pretty much only survives because its in the middle of the ocean and really just isn't worth the trouble to end. "
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3qblxh | why are my muscles feeling sore after a poor night's sleep? | Whenever I have a poor night's sleep, my muscles feel sore. I feel like I need to stretch and my body feels like it's aching for a massage. Can you explain what's happening? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qblxh/eli5_why_are_my_muscles_feeling_sore_after_a_poor/ | {
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"I can think of a few things that cause this.\n\nMost importantly, your body makes a large chunk of repairs to your muscles during sleep. If your muscles are damaged (which just happens when you use them), then not sleeping well will mean your body isn't able to repair as much as it otherwise would have. Especially if you're done an intensive workout, this means you're likely going to be feeling the soreness of your muscles longer as they can't be fixed as easily.\n\nWhen you sleep, your body releases chemicals to do things like relax your muscles and stop you from being able to move your muscles in your sleep (sleep paralysis). If you're woken up before these chemicals have a chance to clear out, you're likely going to not be as coordinated and can potentially feel sore from it until you \"wake up\".\n\nA \"bad nights sleep\" may be the result of something that also causes you to be sore -- so it may not be the lack of sleep itself. Not sleeping in a good position can tense and strain your muscles. This can make you repeatedly wake up in the middle of the night, possibly making you toss and turn into worse positions. Things like dehydration can also keep you from having a good nights sleep, and dehydration itself will make you feel very sore. While you normally will get water if you're awake, you might not do that quickly enough while sleeping."
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40f0dn | why are most songs in the music industry between 3:00 and 4:00, and who set that standard? | idk why this is interesting to me but it is lol | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40f0dn/eli5_why_are_most_songs_in_the_music_industry/ | {
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"That depends on the time frame and genre. If you look at music from before the radio, a lot of it is longer. Back then the only way to listen to music was live. Shorter songs means more break time in between, you're not getting your money's worth! But since the radio, the majority of listening has been through the radio. Radio stations wouldn't play long songs because they wanted the most variety in between commercial breaks. That caused a shift in songwriting from long form classical music to short form pop music, along with the great depression destroying large ensembles. Our tastes evolved with those changes, songwriters learned their craft from old songwriters and music evolved to where it is today. \n\nA more objective argument is that the human attention span is around a minute so your song sections need to be there, max. On top of composition declining towards catchy, simple melody and harmony (makes sense, you only have 4 minutes on the radio to say what you want so make it count!), you get a perfect storm where songs get shorter, the sections have to be simpler so they in turn have to be shorter to keep the listener from being bored.... so you get a positive feedback loop of songs getting much shorter. ",
"It's been answered before, but it mainly has to do with the limitations of recordings when radio started. You basically had about 3 minutes, which resulted in jazz tunes that were 10 or more minutes live being presented in a much more truncated form. From there, radio stations set up a formula of x number songs, y number commercials and z minutes of DJ chatter per hour. Songs that didn't fit neatly into this arrangement didn't get played, so to get played you made a 3 minute song. After a while people got used to it so much that even those making new music unconsciously made songs about that long, as it was the length they were used to songs being. Apparently that's how The Who's concept albums came about- it was suggested they make the 20 minute songs some bands were experimenting with. Pete Townsend balked, until the alternate suggestion of writing ten 2 minute songs with a continuing narrative came up"
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4bws1a | why do common people not get any money from class action suits? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bws1a/eli5_why_do_common_people_not_get_any_money_from/ | {
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"Members of the class do get money from a class action law suit -- just not a lot of money, because there are generally a lot of members of the class.\n\n > Can the people stop the lawyers looking to pocket some extra cash by opposing the suit?\n\nWhat people? The only people who can make a motion to dismiss the lawsuit are the parties involved in the lawsuit. ",
"You can opt out of a class action suit if you care to sue the defendant yourself, but it is costly to do so and you may not prevail if a class action settlement is reached. No, you cannot stop the lawyers from collecting money for their work, but their fees have to be approved by the judge as one of the settlement payments. ",
"What? They do get money. I've gotten money from a settlement against Bank of America. It's not a lot (it was about $40), but it was part of the settlement.",
"In most cases, it's because the individual plaintiff's claims are not worth pursuing on its own, so they lump together a group of these plaintiffs (the class) and go after the defendant as a collective. The lawyers are taking a % of the overall award, and the remaining reward is divided among the class equally. \n\nPretend you're in school and your teacher does something bad that affected everyone in the classroom. Each student can individually approach the teacher and point out that they were wrong and seek something in return, or the entire class can go approach the teacher and point out that the teacher did something wrong. If the kids approached individually, the teacher might only apologize, but not change their behavior going forward. The teacher is much more likely to change from being confronted by the entire class than from one individual student. \n\nEach individual plaintiff's damages in a class action may be minor (let's say for example a few thousand dollars). To many defendants, that's nothing, and certainly not enough for them to change their wrongdoing. Now, take that few thousand dollars and multiply it by another thousand (1000 plaintiffs, each getting $3000), and you can see how that can quickly put a dent into the pocket books of many defendants and get them to change. \n\nIt wouldn't make sense for the individual to go after these defendants for $3k as it will surely cost them triple that in legal fees. "
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6rxh9j | why 0db is the loudest sound that can go in a system without distortion? why zero and why quieter sounds are negative db? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6rxh9j/eli5_why_0db_is_the_loudest_sound_that_can_go_in/ | {
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"That 0 dB is relative to your DAW or equipment. You'd measure its actual loudness or volume in dBfs or LUFS.\n\nI'm pretty sure it's a hangover from analog equipment when you'd have to be careful exceeding the piece of equipment's maximum output, which you'd get close to at 0. ",
"Decibels are *relative* measurements, not *absolute* ones. To be more precise, a decibel is a way to measure the ratio of two values. One value is a reference value, the other is the one you're comparing it to. And these can be values of anything you like.\n\nWhen talking about sound pressure level, the reference value is the quietest sound that can be detected by an average human -- about 20 micropascals of pressure, which is called 0 dB. A sound one trillion times louder than that can cause permanent damage; because decibels are on a logarithmic scale, it's convenient to take the base 10 logarithm of one trillion, which is 12, to represent that sound -- that's 12 bels, and a decibel is one-tenth of a bel, so that makes 120 dB.\n\nBut decibels can be used in whatever way you want. It's not, remember, a unit of measurement exactly, but a way of saying how much more or less something is from whatever you say is \"the norm\". And that's the clue: 0 dB means \"the norm, however you define it\", and then negative values mean \"less than whatever you said the norm was\" and positive values mean \"more than whatever you said the norm was\".\n\nIn professional audio, 0 dB is the root mean square voltage which delivers 1 milliwatt of power across a 600-ohm resistor (because in early telephone systems, the impedance of a standard telephone circuit was 600 ohms) -- this is more accurately referred to as \"dBu\". But 0 dB can be anything you want it to be.",
"This comes from the way an analog mixer works and I think understanding this helps understand a good mix too. \n\nEach channel on an analog desk has an input, be it a mic (typically) or something else. These feed into the desk, there is no amplification at this point, just the microphone signals going straight in. The only thing a desk can do is reduce the signal from those sources. So it says 0db because I haven't reduced the signal, if I need that particular guitar to be quieter I can pull it down to - 6db so it works with everything else. So if I have a band setup, a mix that has the full signal of every instrument is going to sound bad, so I reduce the signal (negative dB) for instruments until they sound balanced. Once you have everything balanced it goes out to amplifiers and speakers (be it live or studio).",
"What /u/rewboss said. In digital audio, [dBFS](_URL_1_) or dB relative to full scale is a common measurement. So then 0 dB(FS) represents the full scale where digital [clipping](_URL_0_) starts by definition."
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1o4npm | who owns the federal reserve bank? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o4npm/eli5_who_owns_the_federal_reserve_bank/ | {
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"TL;DR: The Federal Reserve system is a group of entities that are a mix of publicly controlled and privately owned. It is controlled by the government from the top down, and owned privately at the very bottom, and they meet somewhere in the middle. Ultimately, since the Board of Governors has the most power, and the Board of Governors is ultimately accountable to the United States Federal Government, and the Federal Government is established for and accountable to the people of the United States of America, the people of the United States of America ultimately \"own\" the Federal Reserve. \n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nYou're going to get a LOT of misinformation in this thread. Remember, my little five year old who asks way too advanced questions for the age you're at, that adults don't know what they're talking about some times, and other times their heads are filled with guano. You'll hear a not-so-nice version of that expression when you're older. \n\nAnyway, we have to first alter your question, as your question assumes that there is just one \"bank\" that can be owned like any other. The actual structure is much more complicated than any one bank. We need to talk about the set up of the system before we can talk about owner ship.\n\nAt the tippy top is the Federal Reserve Board of Directors. They oversee the entire system. The next step down consists of 12 Federal Reserve Regional Banks. Below that are member banks. All national banks *must* be members. Non-national banks (state banks) can join if they meet certain requirements. Now that we've explained the structure, let's talk about ownership. It's the easiest to explain from the bottom up. \n\nThe ownership of the member banks should be obvious. They are the banks that you and most other people do business with. They are privately owned (here \"private\" means \"not government\"), usually by a small group, or they'll be owned by a large group of shareholders (this applies to large, national banks like Bank of America). So, these banks are privately held businesses, but they're part of the Federal Reserve system. \n\nMoving on, let's talk about the 12 Federal Reserve regional banks. Each regional bank is technically partially owned by its member banks because they are required to own stock in it, but it is not like owning stock in a normal company. The amount of stock they must buy is established by law, and they are not allowed to sell it or buy more of it. Also, unlike regular stock, each member bank only gets ***ONE*** vote, regardless of how much stock they own in the regional bank. I'll explain why this is important later. I'm sure it is beginning to become apparent that the Fed isn't like a normal bank.\n\nFinally, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Who owns them? Well...no one. They're people. The Board of Governors is not a bank, but rather a group of 12 people who have authority vested in them. Here's where you'll get kooky people saying that they're not part of the government, there's no oversight, yadda yadda yadda. They don't know what they're talking about. The Board of Directors is more or less a government agency, though they're not a part of any particular branch. Each branch of the government has a modicum of control over them, but not much, otherwise they can't do their job. \n\nHere's where we need to come from the direction of top down, where we talk about who controls what. The members of the Board of Governors are nominated by the president, and confirmed by the Senate. The president has the power to dismiss them with cause (i.e. the president can't do it without a reason). Congress could potentially pass laws which influence what they can and can't do, and the Courts can ensure that they stay within those boundaries. The Board of Governors has only a small number of powers, but they powerfully influence the entire system, and have more or less direct control of the Federal Reserve Regional Banks. The regional banks have influence with the member banks, but in a very different way than the Board of Directors have with the Regional Banks. They more so are the middlemen who make the system go round. The member banks are essentially allowed to operate independently in accordance with the wishes of their share holders and the law.\n\nLet's talk about the Board of Directors for the 12 Regional Banks, as this is where the voting comes in. There are 9 directors, and there are 3 classes of them: A, B, and C. Each class has 3 directors in it. Class A consists of 3 directors who represent the private interests of the member banks. The first director is selected by \"Large\" classification banks, the second by \"medium\" classification banks, and the third is selected by the \"small\" classification banks. Class B directors are also selected by member banks, and are meant to represent the public. They cannot be an employee of any bank. Class C directors are meant to represent the public, and are selected by the higher ups: the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.\n\nSo, you see, it's hard to say who \"owns\" the Federal Reserve Bank, because there isn't just one bank. It's an entire system, with different statuses of ownership for each part.\n\nAs for profits, the member banks get paid for owning stock in the regional banks. The rest of the profits the regional banks make gets sent to the Treasury of the United States, after deducting operating expenses. They transferred a cool $88.9 billion to the treasury in 2012. \n\n\n"
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46y2y7 | why do humans have different taste buds from each other and why do animals have different taste buds? | So it was recently just brought to my attention that human taste buds vary. Although I'm a vegetarian for a few reasons, it's mainly because I don't like the taste of meat. I was told by a doctor that I might have hyper-sensitive taste buds. I've heard of people not being able to taste much at all, which I'm guessing is the opposite of my extreme. Does this mean that there's a spectrum of what people are able to taste? How much can one person's taste buds vary from another's? Is it a variation in what we are able to taste or what it _tastes_ _like_?
Also, how are animals' taste buds different?
Is there the same amount of variation with smells? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46y2y7/eli5_why_do_humans_have_different_taste_buds_from/ | {
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"Your sense of taste is just like your other senses. I.e: \"Older\" people can't hear higher pitched sounds, where younger people can (especially those annoying high pitched ringtones people annoyed me in school with > . < ) It will depend on a few things such as age, diet, your environment, and of course genetics. \n\nIn short, your taste (just like any other sense) can be degraded, stronger, or weaker--which varies from person to person. \n\nIt's weird that you bring up smell. I swear my mom is like Daredevil because she can't see better than me, so it's like her other senses heightened lol... But seriously, she can smell better than me and it's actually scary. I.e: I won't smell anything at all, and she just picks up on everything.\n\n\nWe're all animals, so the principals more or less still apply :]"
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38ve1b | why do streamed videos sometimes lose their audio to video synchronization? | I'm sure it doesn't help when I keep pausing or skipping ahead, but what's going on behind the scenes? No pun intended... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38ve1b/eli5_why_do_streamed_videos_sometimes_lose_their/ | {
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"ELI 5 answer: because audio and video are two different streams and like two dancers working together. Sometimes they're a championship cheerleading team, a symphony of synchronicity, and sometimes they're two drunk guys at a bar trying too hard to impress, all flailing and stumbling. \n\nLonger answer: For editing purposes audio and video are disconnected. When someone edits together a video they may be overlaying sounds and video from a variety of sources (overdub, narrator, sound and visual effects etc.), sometimes they can screw up.\n\nAdditionally, depending on how the video was encoded and how it was uploaded (which very often requires a re-encode) errors can be induced. Sometimes a video will play slightly faster or slower causing the sound to 'drift' out of sync. Most modern CODECS have some error correction built into it so that at certain points (like every 300 frames) it checks what the sound and audio should be, and if they're out of sync, corrects them. That's when you get some stutter or popping sound.\n\nThis article gives you a sense of the difficulties an encoder can face: \n\n_URL_0_\n"
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fz1v23 | why are there more dangerous animals (and insects and fish) in hot countries? |
Dangerous to humans I mean.
Or does it just seem like that because I live in a temperate climate and most of my knowledge of hot climates comes from media? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fz1v23/eli5_why_are_there_more_dangerous_animals_and/ | {
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"With regards animals, most Northern European countries got rid of their wolves and bears many years ago, there’s still bears and wolves in Eastern European forests. \n \n\nAs to the others I’m not sure.",
"There's more resources to compete for in sunny places, and so there's effectively an evolution arms race to become strong enough to compete for them. Less resources in colder places means less competition, so natural selection leans in different directions based on the local environment",
"It's a different kind of danger and because it's not what your used to it seems more dangerous. Example, I had a conversation when living overseas with an Australian friend (I am Canadian) and I joked about him living somewhere where everything can kill you. This lead to us talking about how he dosent find Australian wildlife/bugs dangerous he would be terrified where I am from because he would never know what to do with a bear or cougar but he knows what to do if he encounters a crocodile."
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3hrdux | how effective are political endorsements? | When someone endorses a political candidate, has that been shown to affect outcome? Sway voters? Does it make a difference between organizational endorsements (like the NRA) vs. celebrity endorsements? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hrdux/eli5_how_effective_are_political_endorsements/ | {
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"According to the guys at 538, [very important](_URL_0_), at least when those endorsements come from major political officials. Here is a quote from the above linked article\n\n > In the book “The Party Decides” (2008), the most comprehensive study of the invisible primary, the political scientists Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel and John Zaller evaluated data on endorsements made in presidential nomination contests between 1980 and 2004 and found that “early endorsements in the invisible primary are the most important cause of candidate success in the state primaries and caucuses.”\n\n > These endorsements can serve several purposes. In some cases, they directly influence voters who trust the judgment of governors and members of Congress from their party. In other cases, endorsements serve as a signal to other party elites. “It tells others who is acceptable and who is unacceptable,” Cohen, an associate professor of political science at James Madison University, said in an e-mail to FiveThirtyEight. “This is the coordination process that we believe goes on during the invisible primary and by way of public endorsements that was formerly and more formally undertaken at the convention.”"
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3siddf | why do gyms change the direction of their running track every day? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3siddf/eli5_why_do_gyms_change_the_direction_of_their/ | {
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"If you run a circular track regulary only in one direction you will over develop one side of your body's muscles. Kind of like those memes about missing leg day....only for the left or right side of your body. At least thats what my friends mom told me ages ago when I asked about her hardcore running."
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42io43 | apps that ask for permission to my "location." could the person running the app tell when i'm not home? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42io43/eli5_apps_that_ask_for_permission_to_my_location/ | {
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"Technically that's probably possible, but to what end? That information is typically used to just feed you relevant ads for nearby businesses assuming there isn't an obvious location function like showing you a map or finding nearby showtimes or something."
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17ltjl | why aren't all screwheads philips? | Or Robertson, why not just pick one and make it universal instead of all these millions of variations of screwheads? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17ltjl/why_arent_all_screwheads_philips/ | {
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"Philips were designed to only torque up to a certain pressure.\nRobertson is a Canadian design. Great for high torque and driving.",
"They all have different uses and benefits. Flathead is good for when you need to make sure that you don't apply too much force. For example, a wall plate uses flathead screws because if you used a phillips with a power driver you could crack it. Phillips are good because you can use one screwdriver for multiple sizes of screws. Other bits like torx are better for automated tooling because they tend not to slip out. Etc, etc.",
"Robertson are the best. No question.",
"Some are tamper resistant. Like the ones that hold bathroom stalls together in public schools, etc etc. You have to have harder to find or more expensive tool to work them. ",
" > No blatant speculation. It's okay not to be the world's foremost expert on a subject, but if you have little knowledge on the question at hand, don't guess.\n\nA lot of people are guessing incorrectly what the various uses for screws are. The short answer to OP's question is that different screw heads are designed for different tasks. The long answer can be found with the absolute simlplest of google searches.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Every so often, someone comes out with a new standard that will revolutionize screwing from that day on. The problem is, there's another screw with another standard that will always need another screwdriver/drill bit to function. That screw driver is made, and a demand exists for that type of screw. But the new screw standard's also taking hold, but someone's collecting royalties on it so the cheaper screw still keeps a following. The new screw is actually much better for certain jobs, so it still builds up popularity. \n\nThen a new screw type comes out that's really good for a lot of jobs and will revolutionize screwing for years to come.",
"Car companies gave power drills to their workers (before this was automated) to help screw parts together. However, the only bits they had were flat heads, and it is very easy to over torque a bit with a power drill, so what ended up happening a lot of the time is that when they over torqued the bit it would just snap. To fix this they invented the phillips head, so that when it was over torqued, instead of snapping, it pops out of the screw.\n\n",
"When speaking with Chinese colleagues they like to call them Positive and Negative, it took me a while to get that",
"Robertson (The Canadian): High levels of torque. Doesn't Cam out. Speeds up production. Cheap. Designer was a crazy tinfoil fuckhead that didn't let anyone else but him make them. Not wide spread except Canada.\n\nPhillips (The Cross): Cams out when too much pressure is applied. Only 5 different drivers. Literally designed to destroy the driver before the screw if the correct one is used.\n\nSlot (The Flathead): Simple as fuck to make. Discourages power tool use. Annoying as fuck.\n\nCross (The Double Flat): Slot x 2. When you fuck one up, there's one more to bail the screw out.\n\nPozidriv (Phillips Mk2): Phillips on torque steroids. Incompatible with phillips.\n\nHex (Mr. Allen): generally same benefits of Square. Wrenching commonly available. \n\nHexalobular (The Torq): Loltorque.\n\nPhillips/Square (The Compromise): Best of both worlds. Select based on needs.\n\nEvery-Single-\"Tamper-Resistant\"-Screw (The lol): Grind a slot, use flathead. Problem = No Problem.",
"Small DYK: \n\nRobertson screws are designed in part that you can keep the screwdriver in place and the head will actually keep the entire driver suspended, so when you return from you coffee break the screwdriver is right in the screw where you left it.",
"On top of what everyone else has said about why flat head screws still exist, flat head screws are less expensive to manufacture. \n\nAlso, in an environment where the screw head might get clogged with dirt or paint, a flat head is easier to clean out. ",
"Like Mike12344321 says, slot head are easy to make, and that was what they did back in the day. Also, they look nice. Robertson screws were the next step, invented by P.L. Robertson when, while trying to drive a flathead screw with a \"yankee screwdriver\", put the tool through his hand. Robertson screws are almost perfect, unless you strip it. Then you're fucked. Henry Ford wanted to use Robertson screws on his assembly lines, but Ford being a bit of a dick,didn't want to buy the scews from Robertson. He wanted the patent. P.L. Didn't want that, so the deal never happened. Ford then got his engineers to design an admitted copy of the Robertson scew. Philips was the name of the guy who did it. \nI think Robertsons are popular in the states, but usually only in the electrical field, as you you can put the screw in with only one hand, making the possibility of shock less. \nP.L. Was a crazy fuck though, and it is reported he sometimes got business advice from his cat. ",
"This was discussed not too long ago somewhere on Reddit. The most upvoted answer from that thread basically said that, while handy, you don't want philips screws on things like light sockets where you wouldn't want people using power tools. Over-tightening a screw on a light socket could result in a fire, or leprechauns or some shit. ",
"A phillips gets stripped easier when you apply tightening pressure, so when tightening pressure is *demanded* on a part (say, a bicycle) it's better to have a flathead.\n\nSource: I'm a bicycle mechanic who hates phillips screw heads now.",
"In the US, I've seen robertson screws referred to and used as deck screws. I guess it makes a lot of sense to use them for decks as you have a high volume of screws to put in in a short amount of time and will eventually need to remove them in an even shorter amount of time. Wish I saw them other places though.",
"[All right](_URL_1_), you primitive [screwheads](_URL_0_)!",
"Screw phillips. (no pun intended)\n\nRobertson is better because when you put the screw on the screwdriver, it stays there. Quite useful, unless you like screws falling off the tip of your screwdriver.\n\nMy personal preference is torx. I had a Volvo and it was a dream to work on, partially because all the screws were torx. Saab also uses them unless I'm wrong.",
"It all depends where — and when — you live.\n\n[A long time ago](_URL_0_), the Fluted Socket heads sold really well.",
"The better question is \"Why aren't all screws square drive?\"",
"I'm not sure why nobody has mentioned the obvious advantage to slotted screws. They're for aesthetics. Some people just like the way a slotted screw looks when exposed on something like an outlet or light switch.",
"Torx. I wish torx was the standard. Best thing I've EVER used. ",
"I sell fasteners with all these different drive heads. Not only do I have to answer this question everyday but I also have to get into finer details of the fastener i.e. material, finish, thread pitches....the list goes on and on. Then I realize I sell nuts and bolts and screws for a living and realize that, along the line of life, I most often made poor life choices. Anyways, my favorite are simple flat head countersunk phillips machine screws."
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46z10x | how do circuit boards work to run software and create images? | How do different combos of metals and stuff make computers work?? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46z10x/eli5_how_do_circuit_boards_work_to_run_software/ | {
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"Circuit boards don't do any of that, they are merely a support for the \"wiring\" between the electronic components that do the work.\n\nIn the old days, you'd hook electronic components together with actual pieces of wire. Today, the number and complexity of connections on something like a computer makes that infeasible, so the \"wires\" are now just conductive paths laid down on a plastic board that join the parts.\n\nIt's the electronics components--the integrated circuits and so forth--that do the work.\n"
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28yciv | what does the schrödinger's cat experiment consist of? | I knew about this experiment when watching a recommendable movie called Coherence. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28yciv/eli5_what_does_the_schrödingers_cat_experiment/ | {
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"The first thing to understand about it is that it is a *thought* experiment. This means you don't actually do anything; rather, it's a method of thinking through a problem (often to reveal a paradox or faulty premise).",
"Schrödinger's Cat is a thought experiment in applying the idea of quantum entanglement to non-quantum objects. There's not an actual experiment.",
"The theory of Quantum Mechanics[QM] (a mathematical construct) allows a physical system to be in two, classically opposite, states at the same time (dead AND alive).\nThe question was if this is a result of an incomplete theory, a false interpretation or really the true nature of physics.\nSchrödinger wanted to point out how ridiculous it would be, if this theory was true and invented his thought experiment of a cat in a box being dead and alive at the same time.\n\nToday we know that it is true and QM itself tells us, why we don't see it in our every day life.\nIf a system is in such a superposition (dead AND alive) and you \"measure\" it (open the box), it is forced to choose one of the possibilities (dead OR alive).\nBut even if you do not open the box, there is a chance, that the environment will measure the system by itself.\nThis chance is higher in larger systems (lot of particles) than in small (some particles).\nIn very large systems (cat) the state (dead OR alive) is even measured before every particle can be put in the superposition (dead AND alive).\n\nThere have been experiments with \"photonic cats\".\nOne puts a number of photons (cat) into an optical cavity (box) and sets them into a classically forbidden superposition (dead AND alive).\nOne can measure the time the photons (cat) stay in the superposition (dead AND alive) and finds out that it decreases with higher numbers of photons."
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6tht1i | how does a company like facebook buy another like snapchat | Is it by buying a large number of stocks or does Facebook make Instagram an offer?
Edit: i meant Instagram | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tht1i/eli5_how_does_a_company_like_facebook_buy_another/ | {
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"They buy the stocks from the existing owners, usually with the consent of the people running the acquired company.\n\nYer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: What do you actually get when you buy a company? ](_URL_5_)\n1. [ELI5: How are companies bought out by other companies/ multi-millionaires? Are all companies for sale? Can't the CEO or Founder just say No? ](_URL_4_)\n1. [ELI5:How do larger companies buy smaller companies? If the net worth is larger, can the company buy the other company? ](_URL_1_)\n1. [ELI5: What process does a company go through to purchase another company? I.E. When Facebook bought Instagram ](_URL_0_)\n1. [ELI5: When a company buys another company, where does the money go? ](_URL_6_)\n1. [ELI5: When one company buys another, where does that money go? ](_URL_3_)\n1. [ELI5: what happens when 1 company buy another company ](_URL_2_)\n",
"If the company being bought is public, they approach the Board of Directors and negotiate a buyout. This could be in the form of a dollar amount per share like what happened when Amazon bought Whole Foods, or this could be an exchange of shares, where two shares in the company being bought is now worth 1 share in the company doing the buying. If it's a private company you contact the proprietor, proprietors, or their Board of Directors if they have won and start a similar negotiation."
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6o59bk/eli5_what_process_does_a_company_go_through_to/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kzhoe/eli5how_do_larger_companies_buy_smaller_companies/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52q4py/eli5_what_happens_when_1_company_buy_another/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lqd4l/eli5_when_one_company_buys_another_where_does/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mj2qw/eli5_how_are_companies_bought_out_by_other/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bmyix/eli5_what_do_you_actually_get_when_you_buy_a/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qa9yn/eli5_when_a_company_buys_another_company_where/"
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1px7zf | why it's not fair for soldiers in the military to be charged for the same crimes as civilians. | My friend was explaining to me using all this law jargon and It's confusing. Yes, soldiers have experienced different things from normal people, but i'm looking for more legal reasons. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1px7zf/eli5_why_its_not_fair_for_soldiers_in_the/ | {
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"Can you give an example?\n\nI was in the Navy and we had a stricter set of rules that we had to go by."
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4yral5 | culturally, why are celebrities generally entertainers and not scientists? aren't they more important? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yral5/eli5_culturally_why_are_celebrities_generally/ | {
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"Because scientist aren't usually the ones you see on the TV everyday. Not everyone follows science, but mostly everyone watches some form of entertainment. Entertainers are only successful because they are famous. The whole point of being an Entertainer is to entertain people, and people watch things that are entertaining. Scientists' jobs aren't to be in the public eye. Their job is to research new things.",
"Celebrities also display features that are relevant to our base desires (ex. physical attractiveness, sociability, emotional depth, athleticism, etc.), and we subconsciously hone in on these things. That's why they can become so popular.",
"Science is complex. Your average bloke probably doesn't recognize the name \"Maxwell\" immediately even though he revolutionized physics. The field is just so complex that without fundamental knowledge about it the breakthroughs and formulae don't tell you much.\n\nCompare to musicians. Practically everyone can appreciate beautiful music or art with next to no knowledge required.\n\nOf course, there are exceptions. Some geniuses like Einstein and Hawking have risen to fame due to their outstanding contributions.",
"Well, just think about it. There are tons of important scientific papers, but do you read any of them? Probably not. What you DO do, is watch movies and Netflix, where you'll see entertainers. Because science, while fantastic and interesting, isn't something most people use for entertainment and relaxation since it takes effort to wrap your head around and the details of it go over the head of anyone without the proper education for it.",
"First of all, TV programmes exist to make money.\n\nScience is complex and for someone to understand it well you need to build up your knowledge. For example, quantum mechanics would be taught to you in college or at degree level, but to understand it you needed years of education.\n\nEntertainment on the other hand is simple. Here are 4 options choose the correct one and you win money. Here is a guy falling down. Here are 10 people, the person who crosses the finish line first wins. All of these are different but they are very easy to pick up even a child could get it in 5 minutes.\n\nNow if you want to make money which is more cost effective?\n\nSpending months or years on researching planning and experimenting.\n\nOr\n\nSpend a few weeks or months designing sets and making it look pretty.\n\nProbably the latter right?\n\nNow all you need is a host with a good personality and you can make something far simpler and far cheaper."
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chm2s6 | meteorologically speaking, why is it suddenly so extremely warm in western europe? | Some parts of central France are even hotter than places in Northern Africa. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/chm2s6/eli5_meteorologically_speaking_why_is_it_suddenly/ | {
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"It really should be called **runaway global warming**, to tell the truth. But to answer your question - \n\nApprox 20 years ago the weather was like a fair dice (1.2.3.4.5.6) So there was always an equal chance of any temperature, rainfall, humidity, snowfall etc etc ; and approx 1 in 3 chance of an extreme weather event \n\nBut Climatologists agree that the dice has become loaded within these 20 years (1.1.3.4.6.6) . The chances of throwing extreme events has doubled (approx) so in any calendar year you should expect at least one fucked up weather event in your location\n\nThis is difficult for climate deniers to understand but global warming can cause instability which can cause extreme cold (eg USA/Canada last winter)"
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5dcscl | would you have to breathe if you had a very constant supply of liquid oxygen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dcscl/eli5_would_you_have_to_breathe_if_you_had_a_very/ | {
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"Liquid oxygen would kill you, since oxygen needs to be at bout -180c/-300f to be liquid. \n\nHowever, it *is* possible to breathe heavily oxygenated liquid, which I think is what you mean. You can read about it [here](_URL_0_).",
"If your talking about just getting O2 into your bloodstream somehow without breathing, than no that wouldn't be enough to keep you alive.\n\nThe other important part of breathing is expelling co2. If you fail to that you will die. "
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2l12s9 | since https is secure why don't all sites use it? why isn't it the default? why even have http? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l12s9/eli5_since_https_is_secure_why_dont_all_sites_use/ | {
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"price - you gotta buy a https certification.\n\nlatency - it's slower cos more shit needs to be done\n\nbandwidth increase - cos you gotta send more shit for encryption\n\ncpu load - gotta use cycles for encryption/decryption. \n\nbackwards comparability - not all browsers across all os's/devices/whatever can support it. \n\ntype of website - the majority of websites do not require encryption and it's just wasted if it's used. ",
"Http started as a very primitive protocol to transfer mainly research papers and journals etc, no one really considered security at that point. As time went on, everyone started using http (we're still in the early days of computers here) and it became the standard, since everyone wanted to be able to talk to each other.\n\nThe reason not everyone uses it now is that:\n\n1) It's extra effort and if you aren't transmitting anything sensitive, there's no need, the costs aren't worth it (see point 3)\n\n2) There are other methods of encryption that aren't just bolted on security measures to an insecure protocol, and some people prefer that to https.\n\n3) The extra steps involved can really slow things down, which is a big problem if you have a lot of information going in an out of your server. [This website has some more details](_URL_0_), but basically it's less efficient.",
"Encryption is very valuable for some things, but a waste for others. It limits the ability to use things like load balancers, and makes it harder to detect some types of network problems.\n\nIt's probably a good thing for sites to at least offer it to users who want it, but using it by default does have some limitations.\n\n"
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4qwyaz | how does a float in fuel gauge accurately read fuel level if the car is moving and the fuel is sloshing around all the time? | So here's how it a fuel gauge works:
_URL_0_
How is this any accurate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qwyaz/eli5_how_does_a_float_in_fuel_gauge_accurately/ | {
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"The're not accurate! It's a fairly simple, old technology and it's really a rough estimate. Also note that a bobber can't tell the difference between a full tank and a *mostly* full tank.",
"There are baffles in the tank that keep the fuel from sloshing around too much. If you go to drain a tank through the fill neck, it can take a lot of shaking to get all the fuel around all the [baffles](_URL_0_).",
"First of all, most fuel tanks nowadays are baffled, this is to stop the fuel sloshing about. The reason for this is that modern fuel injection cars must have a constant supply of fuel, if the fuel sloshed about and the pick up pipe is exposed and sucks in some air the engine will (at best) cough, potentially it could even stop completely, which isnt good..\n\nMost of the time the fuel sender is placed somewhere near the middle of the tank, so that any effects are minimised.\n\nNowadays the sender isn't directly connected to the gauge, the sender connects to an ECU (typically the body module), this processes the signal from the sender and puts it on the canbus network from where it is picked up by the dash gauges. This does allow for a little processing of the data to go on. I would suggest the ECU probably smooths the signal to remove big spikes, thus giving a more reliable reading.\n\nRegardless of all of this in most cars ascending or descending a hill does usually cause the fuel gauge to give false readings. They aren't a very accurate indicator - just a rough guide, but thats good enough.",
"- The fuel float is placed in the center of the tank, so it is mostly unaffected by sloshing. \n\n- The float signal is heavily filtered, or averaged out. It takes 3-4 hours to drain a fuel tank, so they program the body controller to be very slow at subtracting.\n\n- I don't think tanks are actually baffled as much as others say. Tanks I've seen use two pumps, with one pump filling a soda can shaped holding area to separate out air, and the other pump pulling from this slosh-resistant holding area. Some tanks are split by the driveshaft, and use a venturi to suck fuel out of the opposite side. ",
" > accurate\n\nIt isnt, and hadnt been in any car I've ever owned. But it does a pretty good job of showing the general amount left",
"Pilot here..\n \nMy aircraft measures fuel by its relative capacitance. \n\nI have no idea if this is done with any cars, but it does get around the problem of odd shaped tanks and fuel sloshing. \n\nIt also counts how much has passed through the fuel valve into the engine so that you can cross check (starting value-fuel used=remaining), just in case you suspect a fuel leak. \n\nEdit: autocorrect...",
"Your question is literally answered on page 4 of the article you linked to...\n\n > If the needle were to respond quickly to all of these changes, it would be bouncing all over the place. Instead, software calculates a moving average of the last several readings of the float position. This means that changes in needle position occur more slowly. You may have noticed this when filling up your car -- you'll finish filling the tank long before the needle reaches full.",
"In newer cars a assumed it was a delay, to give you give you a average over time. \n\nExample: 2010 altima. My drive way is inclined. If it's not full, after a night being parked it will show 1/4 tank lower then it is. \nThis will take 10-20 minutes after pulling out to get a correct reading. It doesn't just bounce back up after I pull out. \n\nBut in the flip side, I had a 85 ford a long time ago, and just taking a curve I could watch the gauge move up and down as the gas sloshed around"
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cc5gcn | price elasticity | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cc5gcn/eli5_price_elasticity/ | {
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"The \"Price elasticity of Good X with respect to Y\" is the percentage change in Y induced by a 1% increase in the price of Good X.\n\nTo make a more concrete example, suppose that X is hamburgers and Y is demand for hamburgers. The current price of hamburgers is $1, and 1,000 people are willing to buy a hamburger at that price. Imagine raising the price to $1.01. This higher price may drive away buyers, specifically people who were willing to buy at $1 but not at $1.01. But how big will the response be? That's what elasticity is for.\n\nSuppose the new demand for hamburgers is 995 people. Then the price elasticity of demand for hamburgers is 0.5. Economists would say that this is an \"inelastic\" response. In percentage terms, the demand for hamburgers fell LESS than the increase in the price. Money spent on hamburgers went up (from $1,000 to 1,004.95). \n\nWe could instead observe that the new demand for hamburgers is 985 people. Then the price elasticity of demand for hamburgers is 1.5. Economists would say that this is an \"elastic\" response. In percentage terms, the demand for hamburgers fell MORE than the increase in the price. Money spent on hamburgers went down (from $1,000 to $994.85)."
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2p02ty | what makes the show 'friends' so watchable. why do so many people seem to be able to watch re-runs all the time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p02ty/eli5_what_makes_the_show_friends_so_watchable_why/ | {
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"Most of the episodes are self contained, have multiple subplots going at once, and those subplots are interesting but not interesting enough to be super memorable.\n\nSo when you see an episode, it isn't going to be the one where Rachel gets a bad perm, and you remember everything else about it. It's the one where she gets a bad perm, where Chandler gets stood up, and where Joey gets a demeaning part time job. It is likely you don't remember all the elements, or that they are all in the same episode, so it still holds some enjoyment for your on subsequent viewings. It also had a 10 year run, so there are a lot of episodes to remember.\n\n*Seinfeld* and *MASH* had a similar quality that has helped them succeed in syndication. "
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67nxwk | the different levels of partner at a law firm | Been watching the good wife and iv herd named and equity partner thrown around alot. Is there a regular partner status? How does this differ from an associate level position. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67nxwk/eli5_the_different_levels_of_partner_at_a_law_firm/ | {
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"At a very simple level (it gets more complicated the larger the firm is, and the more personalities they're trying to wrangle), you get a basic breakdown of 'lawyers':\n\n* Associate: a line-level legal person at the firm. Has passed the bar, but is still learning the trade (or works under a Partner)\n\n* Senior Associate: someone who has the basics under their belt and is beginning to build their own practice. They likely have a specialty or two, and are doing similar quality work to a Partner. They get paid based on their work, like an associate.\n\n* Partner: Someone who has a stake in the firm. They're expected to bring in business or contribute a lot to the firm. They get paid based on what the firm makes in the year instead of a fixed salary (though there may be a base salary too). \n\n* Equity/managing Partner: Someone who has 'bought into' the firm or is at a high level. At smaller firms, these are the people with their name on the building/firm. They likely put in money to get everything started, or 'own' a portion of the business. If not, they are above most of the other partners and/or bring in a giant amount of business. They get paid based on what the firm makes, with a bigger cut of the pie than a base Partner.\n\nDepending on the firm, these levels can be broken up into multiple pieces, but it's a decent high-level overview.",
"This is gonna be an overly detailed answer because I'm a lawyer at a big NYC law firm and currently want any excuse not to do my work. \n\nFirst, it's important to note that in the United States law firms are a special type of business known as a partnership. This is in contrast to the business type known as a corporation. There are lots of technical and legal distinctions between the two involving how they are owned the liabilities that people who own them accrue but that's not particularly important to the answer. Corporations are owned by shareholders and run by an executive. Technically speaking, none of those people are liable for the corporations debts only the corporation itself is. Partnerships are owned and usually run by, the same people. Furthermore, the partners are on the hook for the obligations of any of the other partners. There are lots of arguments for and against why people think this is the better way to organize lawyers but I'll save that rant for another post.\n\nIn short, an equity partner just means a regular partner. They are the people who own a portion of the firm. Technically an equity partner is an equal partner to any other equity partner in a firm and all decisions about the firm (i.e. the partnership) has to go through the partners. In practice, the exact power of any individual partner can vary because of a contract but that's generally what an equity partner is. So in sum, they are the owners of the business and they get the profits. \n\nThere can be junior equity partners who have significantly reduced rights or profits from a partnership. Sometimes these people may have such intensely reduced rights they may be partners in a very limited sense. These are usually what's called junior partners. Usually they will share in the profit structure but to a much reduced degree. \n\nSome law firms call \"junior partners\" people who are just higher than associates but not actually partners. This has become more common in big law firms as a way to give people more power/money/position over associates but without bringing them truly into the partnership structure. My firm has this status but calls them something else. This is also what is known as a non-equity partner. They don't share in the profit and are instead just paid a set salary. \n\nAssociates are lawyers who don't have an equity stake (ownership) in a firm but are supposedly on the track to becoming a partner at the firm. I say supposedly because at big law firms like on the good wife, 95% of associates will not make partner. In a big law firm associate-ship follows a class model where you start as a first year and move up every year (assuming there aren't outside circumstances). Each increase in year usually corresponds with a raise and a greater amount of responsibility. Some firms have people who have forever associates. \n\nLastly, there are staff attorneys. Staff attorneys usually have similar responsibility levels to low and mid-level associates but there is no pretensions about ever making them a partner. \n\nThis is of course somewhat limited to the big firm structure. Smaller firms may do things slightly differently (they have much less regimented rules for what it means to be an associate for example). \n\nHope that helps! I'm happy to answer any more questions if it keeps me from my work! :) ",
"Equity partner means you've been asked to become an owner of the firm. You buy equity in the firm, and get a portion of firm profits in addition to base salary. You also get some say in how the firm is run/managed.\n\nManaging partner(s) is/are the partner(s) who is/are chosen to run the firm, effectively the CEO or board of the firm.\n\nName partner is be whose name is literally part of the law firm, like Diane Lockhart and Will Gardner of Lockhart Gardner. It's typically very rare to add named partners... names are typically founders, even long after they've retired/died. What's more common is to add names when two firms merge, combining named partners of each firm (but sometimes some get dropped off)."
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6b1igy | what is the economic rationale for the u.s.'s 10 biggest tax breaks? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b1igy/eli5_what_is_the_economic_rationale_for_the_uss/ | {
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"I'll take a crack.\n\nDisclaimer: You're asking for rationale. I will attempt to provide. Whether it's a good rationale is up to you.\n\n > Employer paid health insurance\n\n2 reasons. One, it's compensation. Generally compensation isn't taxable from the employer end. Employers usually don't pay income taxes on what they pay you. You do, though. The other is health insurance is expensive, and allowing both employers and employees to deduct from their income what health benefits they give you can help someone get better (or some) coverage that they might not otherwise be able to afford\n\n > Dividends and long term cap gains\nPresumably, this money has been already taxed through income taxes or other taxes done when someone receives money. Preferential treatment for dividends equalizes that a bit, plus it encourages investment in the first place. Same with long term cap gains. The government encourages longer term holding of securities. Essentially it subsidizes non-career security traders. Joe and Jane who shift the portfolio once a year aren't going to be hit with the same taxes as someone who daytrades for a living.\n\n > Active foreign corporation deferrals\n\nThis isn't so much a tax break as it is what the title says, a deferral. The US is one of the only countries in the world that has a global tax scheme. Corporate income earned by US corporations gets taxed the same way worldwide. Most countries have a territorial scheme, where taxation happens in the country it is earned, and they call it good. US corporations get taxed in the nation it's earned in and in the US. So they set up foreign corporations that the parent in the US controls. Money is earned in that foreign corporation and, because it's foreign, subject to that country's corporate tax. The US only gets its share when the money is repatriated to the parent company. If we decided to double tax all monies earned by US subsidiaries in foreign countries regardless of repatriation, US companies would be at a significant disadvantage compared to those organized in another. In part, this disadvantage is what causes corporate inversions. Essentially, parent companies otherwise based in the US fleeing to Europe and setting up US subsidiaries to take advantage of a better corporate tax scheme. \n\n > Retirement plans\n\nRetirement saving makes people not as poor when they retire. It also eases pressure on social programs. The government wants to encourage people saving for retirement. By offering tax advantaged retirement plans, it gives people an economic reason to save for retirement now rather than at 55 when they're 10 years from retirement. \n\n > Mortgage interest deduction\n\nPeople owning homes is good. It builds wealth. Wealth is good for the economy. Making it slightly less expensive to buy and maintain a home is good. \n\n > Earned income tax credit\n\nPoor people don't make a lot of money. Earned Income Tax Credit essentially functions as a wage subsidy. If a person makes a certain amount of money, they get a certain amount of money from the government. The distribution functions as a bell curve. Practically, the EITC does 2 things, 1) It encourages labor participation by subsidizing wage and self employed work. 2) It puts money directly into the hands of poorer people, who tend to spend it rather than save it, which stimulates the economy to a degree.\n\n > Tax deduction for taxes\nThe government doesn't want you to pay taxes on the money you use to pay taxes. To them, it doesn't make any sense. It would be a very real case of double taxation. Instead, it would rather you spend the money to stimulate the economy. \n\n > defined benefit contribution plans\n\nThis is more a deferral than a tax break. Eventually I'm going to be taxed on that money that my employer takes from my paycheck to fund my pension program. Either way, same rationale as with the defined contribution program. Retirement savings is good because poverty is bad for the economy. \n\n > Child Tax Credit\n\nChildren are messy, loud, and expensive. The government can't help with them being messy and loud, but they can help with the expense. By helping make children less expensive, they do 2 things. 1) put more money into peoples pockets, which stimulates the economy when they spend it, and 2) encourages having children. Long term, children are good for the economy, because they will work and make money and pay taxes while older people do not work, pay fewer taxes, and absorb more government money through Social Security and Medicare programs. Young people are good for the economy, so the government encourages the production of young people. \n\n > Subsidies through Health Exchanges\n\nI think they're talking about the ACA health insurance exchanges (_URL_0_). Similar rationale to the employer health insurance deduction. By directly providing a subsidy for poorer people, the government makes health care less expensive for the direct purchaser. Making it less expensive enables people to purchase healthcare better than what they could afford without subsidy, or lets people purchase it at all. Long term, people that have a healthcare plan tend to use preventative services and non-emergency hospital care more, lowering overall costs. ",
" > What is the economic rationale for the U.S.'s 10 biggest tax breaks?\n\nThey're usually not economic rationale, but a mix of political, and stuff we want people to do.\n\nYMMV on whether you agree, but i'll give a brief idea of what they're aiming for.\n\n1) Employer healthcare -incentivizes employers to offer healthcare. Also allows employers to save a bit of money by offering healthcare vs the equivalent extra pay raise.\n\n2) lower tax on dividends- encourages more investment\n\n3) deferral- not totally sure on this one, but i think they're referring to the fact that you don't pay taxes until you bring the income home. This one is kind of an accident, although it allows them to reinvest into foreign operations to stay competitive globally.\n\n4) retirement plans- encourages people to save for retirement\n\n5) mortgage deduction- encourages homeownership, part of the \"american dream\"\n\n6) EITC- basically a wage subsidy for low income workers\n\n7) deductibility of state taxes- basically so you don't \"pay twice\"\n\n8)pensions- again, encourages retirement savings\n\n9) childcare credit- encourages/helps with having kids. we all benefit from the next generation but all the input is from parents.\n\n10) subsidies for health insurance through exchange- requirement for the ACA to work and provide the pre-existing conditions ban. (kind of long,so just google \"three legged stool ACA\")"
]
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"http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/06/the-biggest-u-s-tax-breaks/"
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54wr8m | how does a country rebuild after a total destructing war? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54wr8m/eli5how_does_a_country_rebuild_after_a_total/ | {
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"After a war or natural disaster there might be a lot of people without work, home or food. You start making those people farming, gathering resources and building homes. Just start with the basics. When people have the basics there will be enough people left over to start industries to make life easier. You just start with the building blocks and work your way up.",
"Depends on the type of war. Good examples of complete recovery (minus the emotional scarring) come from Japan and West Germany post-WWII. The United States and other western countries pumped large amounts of capital and resources into those countries to rebuild them as quickly as possible so that they could defend against a possible Soviet invasion.\n\nCountries like Iraq and Afganistan have far more trouble when they're forced to rely mostly on their own resources. The U.S. was able to make some investments in those countries, but weren't able to create the critical mass of infrastructure and monetary supply needed to make the country completely functional again.\n\nShort answer is that the country can't do it on it's own, and needs outside help.",
"Usually by taking out loans. Here is the most famous case: _URL_0_\n\nEven in a country where infrastructure and the industrial base is completely destroyed, people grow and buy food, firewood, etc., import and export things, and the government can tax all that."
]
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28v0z7 | why is it impossible for a megalodon to still exist? | I always hear this question brought up and the answer is always, " we have only explored this much of the ocean " and blah blah, but could any one explain why such a animal could not survive today? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28v0z7/eli5_why_is_it_impossible_for_a_megalodon_to/ | {
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"not the \"original\" megalodon, but a similar animal could survive, even though only in small numbers and on specific places - different to megalodon, science assumes that they were found all other the prehistoric oceans.\nsuch highly specialized predators need a lot of potential prey. megalodon hunted large whales. large whales are very rare nowadays (thanks to the bloody human race) and there are other predators like killer whales who compete with megalodon (in fact, one of the theories why megalodon extincted is the upcoming of killer whales and other large whale hunters). \n\nand why only a similar animal? well, then megalodon hunted more than 2 million years ago, the whales were different animals too. as far as we know, the whales were much slower at this time. they developed greater fins and stronger muscles, making them too fast for the original megalodon.",
"I'm shitting my pants afraid that someone says \"well, actually it is still very possible as data from a research published yesterday reveals that blablablabla and scientists are now able to confirm that shit is indeed going down.\""
]
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[],
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1o1e8g | why can't humans get suitable nutrition from vitamins and fiber capsules | Why can't I live off of vitamins and fiber supplements, with no solid food? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o1e8g/eli5why_cant_humans_get_suitable_nutrition_from/ | {
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"You need energy to live, and we get that energy from the calories we eat. Generally, carbohydrates and protein have about 4 calories per gram, and fat has about 9 calories per gram. \n\nWe can also get energy from our stored fat. That is why most people can live a few weeks without eating before starving to death. There have been a few studies of morbidly obese people going long periods (a year) without eating and only taking vitamins and drinking water. That is extremely risky, and some have died. Still, in theory, it's possible! \n\nWhat it comes down to, though, is that you need energy, and it's got to come from somewhere: your fat stores or the food you eat.",
"Vitamins are catalysts and not actually in of themselves nutrition. You still need nutrition for the vitamins to work with. ",
"Without proteins and fats, you're gonna have a bad time trying to digest those vitamins and a worse time keeping your brain from falling apart. A lot of the important cells in your body are made up of fats, and while your body can burn your stored fat for energy, it isn't a good idea to rely on stored fat alone for the brain's energy needs; you'll start getting aggressive, cranky, weepy, and non-functional long before you actually \"run out\" and die. IIRC the importance isn't that it's SOLID food, but that you're getting the various required amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and so on... that can usually only be obtained by eating real food. Plus, fiber is kind of worthless if you don't have stuff to push through your body; we eat fiber TO push solids out of the bowel. If you get too much fiber and not enough protein or fat, there will likely be inflammation and your poops will be awful. I'm cutting this off here otherwise it's going to be three more paragraphs of me talking about poop, which is important, but also completely repulsive."
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32h7kc | why does the us have to have buttons for crosswalks? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32h7kc/eli5_why_does_the_us_have_to_have_buttons_for/ | {
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"In a lot of cases, because it makes people feel better to be pushing the button, especially when they're impatient. \n\n_URL_0_",
"Usually there is a sensor in the road that allows the light to gauge the number of cars. It will turn green for one car, but not for long enough to walk across safely. If there are many cars, it stays green longer. If a person walks up and just waits, without pressing the button, they can be short-tripped by the green and left in the intersection. Most lights that do this DON'T give the walk signal unless they are planning to be green long enough for the walk time. [Chapter 5](_URL_0_ ) of the federal highway administration manual for traffic signal timing {yes, there is a manual} details the rules and standard times."
]
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"http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/02/10/placebo-buttons/"
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"http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop08024/chapter5.htm"
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||
34ousp | why do the majority of people want manny pacquiao to win this fight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34ousp/eli5why_do_the_majority_of_people_want_manny/ | {
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"I don't really follow boxing, but the thing I'm seeing is that Pacquaio is the nice guy and Mayweather is a douche. We all just want to see the bad guy taken down",
"He has a history of battering women. On top of that, he basically gave himself the moniker \"Money\" to prove how wealthy he is. He's cocky and arrogant (although his in-ring record gives him the right to be, I guess)."
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2im56v | how do computers calculate how long a second is if differences in temperature would create a subtle change in the time it takes for a process to complete? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2im56v/eli5_how_do_computers_calculate_how_long_a_second/ | {
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"Because the cycles in a computer are crystal regulated like a clock. It does not matter how long a process takes. ",
"Most newer computers will constantly reference their internal clock to an international standard through an internet connection. Computers also keep time internally with piezoelectric clocks, which are fairly invulnerable to reasonable shifts in temperature.",
"It uses a [crystal oscillator](_URL_0_).\n\nQuartz generates an electrical charge when it's compressed -- this is how piezoelectric lighters work. Because of this a quartz crystal can also be given an electric shock and it will expand. The crystal will then vibrate and generate little pulses of electricity. Depending on the shape of the crystal and the direction of vibration, it will vibrate at different frequencies. In digital watches where they only want to count seconds, the crystal is shaped like a tuning fork. In a computer where you want to measure millionths of a second the crystal is more like a cube. \n\nThe problem is that quartz vibrates at different frequencies depending on the temperature. Fortunately, the crystal can vibrate in two different directions at the same time, and the temperature changes the frequency in the different directions differently. As a result of this you can calculate the temperature (of the quartz crystal) from the ratio of the different vibration frequencies, which means you can then correct for the temperature change and get a precise time.\n\nHaving said all of that there are generally at least two clocks in a computer -- one high speed clock in the CPU to keep track of CPU cycles, and low speed clock on the motherboard for tracking the time of day. The high speed clock is easier to read, but is less accurate over long times. The low speed clock is more accurate over long times. This is partly because a 1% error in the CPU speed doesn't hurt much, but that would be an error of about 15 minutes a day. But it's also because CPU speeds change to save power, or if it's getting too hot (using the clock as a thermometer), so a simple CPU cycle counter doesn't make a very good clock. As a result if you want an accurate time you generally need to use both -- using the high speed clock you make a guess as to when the low speed clock will \"tick\", so you read the low speed clock once just before the tick and once just after to make sure you guessed right.\n\nFinally, when correcting for the effects of temperatures, designers usually make assumptions about the operating temperature since when they calculate the temperature-frequency function they can be more accurate if they only worry about a small range. In general \"military spec\" hardware is supposed to have a wider range of operating temperatures, which means that they almost always have worse temperature correction, so they are less accurate in most cases. More accurate clocks sit in a box that keeps the temperature constant.\n\nOh, and then there are computers with very accurate clocks on the Internet, and on GPS satellites, so computers and smart phones can use those to tell what time it is. The GPS time is very accurate. The Internet time depends a on how good your Internet connection is. This doesn't work second to second, but it can be used every few minutes or hours to correct the drift that happens over time."
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an2i4z | why can we hear things on the other side of a wall better if we press our ear to the wall? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/an2i4z/eli5_why_can_we_hear_things_on_the_other_side_of/ | {
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"Sound is just vibration through a medium , typically that medium is air, so when you press your ear to the wall your eardrum has an easier time ‘decoding’ the vibrations coming from the other side.",
"Because airwaves impact directly on the wall, and as you press your ear on it, it gets the airwaves almost directly, as opposed to air behind the wall-wall-air on your side of the wall",
"Sound is just something shaking really fast*. The sound source shakes the air, the air shakes the wall and the wall shakes the air in the next room. \nPutting your head to the wall lets the wall shake your eardrum more directly (by transmitting the shakes to your skull) than if there were several feet of air in between.\n\n(* More specifically: Sound is how we perceive the shaking of our eardrums.)",
"When waves of any kind (sound waves, light waves, concussion waves) transition from one medium to another, there is loss. By pressing your ear to the door you eliminate one of the mediums (the air between the door, and your ear drum) and allow the sound waves to transfer more directly, experiencing less loss, and therefore you perceive a clearer louder sound."
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8i0oot | why are electric bills billed in kilowatt-hours, and not simply kilowatts? | My mind is having a hard time wrapping around the seeming negation of the calculation of time,
`(Kilowatts × Hours) / Month`
Why not:
`Kilowatts / Month`
Imagining a computer. Idling, it might use 120 watts. Under intense load, it might generate 600 watts. So, lets say after doing some idling and some full-load processing, it generates a total of 400 watts.
Why/how do we take that, and convert it to watt-hours, and *then* get the amount of KWH *per month*? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8i0oot/eli5_why_are_electric_bills_billed_in/ | {
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"Wait wait wait son. Kilowatt is how much it uses NOW! So it’s a sort of speed. By taking hours on the end it’s a physical measurement of energy. Meaning how much we’ve used total.\n\nSo my computer takes 400 kilowatts, but how much is that? If it stands online for an hour, a day or even 2 minutes it’s still using only 400 kilowatts!\n\nSo how much energy have we consumed? Well take hours. 400 kilowatt hours is equal to a computer taking 400 kilowatts for an hour. Or a 800 kilowatt engine, driving around for 30 minutes. And so on.\n\nKilowatt and kilowatt hours are two different measurements.\n\nWhat you’re saying here is basically that we should measure water consumption in the speed of which the water exits the faucet instead of how much water is actually used.\n\n",
"One kWh *is* just a number. It's the amount of energy used by a 1 kW object running for 1 hour.\n\nKilowatt (Power) is different from Kilowatt Hours (Energy), and the Energy company measures how much you need to pay based on your Energy consumption, not your Power consumption.\n\nUsing kWh is not different from using Joules, which we *should* use, but then the numbers would be way too big for the average person.",
"Watts is a rate, it's like how fast your car is going.\n\nYou can say your car is going 60 mph *right now*. But you wouldn't say that after an hour your car drove 60 mph.\n\n1 watt is the same as 1 Joule/second. So in reality the electric company is billing you for the total number of joules you've used in a month. But everyone is familiar with watts so instead of saying \"joules\" on your bill it says \"watt-hours\".\n\nIt's the same as saying that after an hour of driving your car drove 60 mph-hours. (which is the same as 60 miles). "
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3onizu | this exchange between a muslim college student and jewish professor. | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3onizu/eli5this_exchange_between_a_muslim_college/ | {
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"He said that the Muslim Student Association was affiliated with a terrorist group. She said that wasn't true because they never received support from said group. He said that, if they aren't affiliated, then does she condemn their actions. She refused. He continued pressing that point, eventually stating one of the group's beliefs, that the Jews should be rounded up and exterminated, which she said that she agreed with."
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cpttou | the hong kong v china conflict | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cpttou/eli5_the_hong_kong_v_china_conflict/ | {
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"Britain and China went to war 100 years ago. Long story short, Britain got to rule Hong Kong [until 1997](_URL_0_), when it reverted to Chinese control. \n\nThat means a good deal of people living in Hong Kong were used to western-style freedoms, and were essentially raised as British Citizens. \n\nAt first China let Hong Kong do it's own thing and be largely independent. However, now the Chinese government has enough support on the island that they're trying to assert more control. Namely, extradition. \n\nBasically, if you break a Chinese federal law (like saying bad things about the government), you can be arrested and sent to mainland China. This means everyone in Hong Kong must now follow all of the Chinese rules. \n\nThe residents of Hong Kong don't agree with the rules and would likely rather prefer to be their own nation. Unfortunately, there is little international support, and anyone of significance helping Hong Kong would effectively be starting WWIII."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handover_of_Hong_Kong"
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5q060t | what determines a professional's salary? | why are doctors, engineers etc. paid so much in there fields compared to other professional jobs like business, or graphic design? what makes those occupations worth more compared to other occupations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q060t/eli5what_determines_a_professionals_salary/ | {
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"Supply and demand.\n\nIt is hard to become a doctor or an engineer, especially the highly specialized kind. Those specialized skills can mean life or death, or millions of dollars. If you want someone who can give you those sorts of results, you are in competition with a lot of other people, so you have to pay top dollar.\n\nThat is especially true in IT. There are a *lot* of specialties, and a rock star can easily be 10x as productive as an average engineer. Finding and keep top talent is hard, and they know it, so that drives the salaries up. "
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1oruf0 | zeno's paradox | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oruf0/eli5_zenos_paradox/ | {
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"In order to get from point A to point B you must first reach the point between A and B. Let's call that point 1.\n\nTo reach point 1 you must first reach the point between point A and point 1. Let's call that point 2.\n\nTo reach point 2 you must reach point 3 - the point between point A and point 3.\n\nGetting to 3 requires passing 4.\n\nGetting to 4 requires passing 5.\n\nThere is an infinite progression of half-way points you must cross, and getting from one point to another takes a non-zero amount of time, therefore motion is impossible for it requires traversing an infinite set of distinct points.\n\nBut clearly in the real world things move all the time, hence the paradox.",
"Some people have already explained the paradox before me, so I will explain the solution as to why we actually can move.\n\nAs the units of distance get smaller and smaller, the amount of time it takes you to cross the distance gets smaller proportionally. If the distance is infinitely small, so is the time it takes to travel over it. Even though you can split up the distance into infinite pieces, you can do the same with time, and this is what allows you to move.\n\nThere is also an important distinction between quantities with infinite divisibility, that is, that can be split up into smaller and smaller pieces, and quantities with infinite extension. 1-2 on a number line is infinitely divisible, but 1-infinity is infinitely extended. Obviously distances like 2 meters are not extended forever, therefore you can travel over them.\n\nHope this helps!",
"Zeno's Paradox - Numberphile\n_URL_0_"
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35q0jv | why amount of transgender people is increasing so much | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35q0jv/eli5_why_amount_of_transgender_people_is/ | {
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"There likely aren't many more in terms of a percentage of the population, you're just hearing more about them now because it's more socially acceptable and so they feel safer being open about it. \n\nEither way, the overall numbers could be increasing just due to population size. The world population has more than tripled from 100 years ago. There's a bunch more of just about every kind of person.",
" > How come 100+ years ago there were next to no trans people. \n\nBecause they were all murdered, or stayed closeted forever out of fear. Acceptance of LGBT people is a *very* recent phenonemon in much of the world, and there is still a long way to go, as there is still a death penalty for LGBT people in places like Uganda, or imprisonment in Russia, or increased rates of sexual assault and violence in the US.",
"Sampling bias. It's not that there are more trans people, it's that trans people are being open about their status because of much greater acceptance. You can see this in maps of how many people say they're gay or bisexual - the frequency in accepting states (~10%) is roughly double what it is in the Bible Belt (~5%).\n\n > In 30 years time are these people going to regret their actions? \n\nBest data suggests not - transition regrets are very low.\n\n > How come 100+ years ago there were next to no trans people. \n\nThere were! The [Chevalier d'eon](_URL_0_) managed to transition publicly in the 1700s. But that wasn't an option for most people, both because of very regressive social attitudes and because modern treatments didn't exist.\n\n > And if they could live that way back then, why not now?\n\nNot all of them could. But if someone committed suicide due to dysphoria in 1709, we wouldn't likely know about it.\n\n > I've seen people describe it as they either transition or kill themselves\n\nFor some people the distress is that extreme, yes.\n\n > seems a bit drastic. You could just be a feminine guy for example. \n\nTransition is not (only) about being masculine or feminine. I wasn't at all feminine pre-transition - actually I would've been best described by the word \"neckbeard\". I'm somewhat more feminine now, but still significantly more tomboyish than your average girl. Transition is about a body, hormones, and social interactions that don't work for you, not about subscribing to particular stereotypes.",
"I'm going to imagine you're a guy. What if you woke up this morning and your junk wasn't there? You have a vagina, but in your brain, you're still the same guy you've always been. You know you should have guy-parts, but you don't. This is what transgender people go through for their whole lives until they get gender reassignment.\n\nYou seem to be of the opinion that getting that treatment is kind of like getting a bad tattoo. Something they'll regret. It's not. It's a relief. And before they can get the treatment, they go through a lot of therapy to make sure it's in their best interests.\n\nThe reason they are more visible now is that even though it still happens, people are murdered for being transgender/transsexual. Or they're severely abused. You don't come out as trans because of fear, and then the icing on that cake is that most people can't relate to what you're going through.\n\nMost guys who are feminine still are guys in their head. They don't want to be women. Your genitals don't dictate your mannerisms. ",
"First of all, not a fad.\nThe rate at which people regret transition is very low.\n\nThe reason it seems there are more trans people now is due to spread of information and networking (the internet and ease of travel) so information about trans is more accessible, and stories of trans folk are more often heard, vs 100 years ago where you were prosecuted simply for being gay. Society is slowly becoming more safe for trans folk to come out: hence the seeming increase in numbers.\n\nI imagine the suicide rates of trans folk 100 years ago is the same as it is today. You don't know that they just 'got on' with life.\n\nThe pain, anger and hatred I experienced was unlike anything I've felt before. I had been suicidal from the age of 12. I didn't understand why I was so miserable. I was and felt wrong.\n\nI truly believe if I hadn't started transition, I most likely wouldn't be alive today. I'm only 20.\n\nAnd lastly, no, there is a huge difference between being male, and being a masculine female.\nWhat is stopping you from being the other gender? Usually the answer is 'because I'm not'.\nYou feel it. You know. You know your assigned gender isn't who you are.\nThere's science to back up that often trans and intersex individuals have brains that are matching to the gender they identify as- it's just their physical form that doesn't match.\n\nIf you'd like to learn more, google gender centres and check out their FAQ section.\n\nTl;dr: It isn't a fad. Trans pain and gender dysphoria is no joke, l\nLook at the suicide rates. It isn't about being a girly guy or a tomboy girl. There is science behind it."
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9x60nj | how can agencies approve airline companies to overbook flights? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9x60nj/eli5_how_can_agencies_approve_airline_companies/ | {
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"Oh, it’s nothing to do with agencies. \n\nThe airlines release a certain number of tickets for each flight. They can be purchased directly from the airline or through a travel agent like Expedia. \n\nThe agent has no control over how many tickets an airline says are available. ",
"Overbooking is a well known practice and accepted practice in a range of industries.\n\nThe airline will lose money for every empty seat they have on an aircraft and, obviously, they don't want this.\n\nIt is also pretty common that not everyone who has booked a seat/flight actually shows up (medical emergency, mixed up dates, etc.), so by overbooking, airlines can be relatively certain that all of the seats on their aircraft will be full.\n\nIt sound silly, but an empty seat may result in a loss of $20 in concessions. In 2014, there were an estimated 102,000 flights every single day, and 102,000 x $20 suddenly adds up to a significant amount of money.\n\nOverbooking will be the de-facto behavior of airlines, cruise lines, etc., until it is no longer profitable to do so - particularly since there is minimal risk to the overbooking airline (they can just bump you to the next flight and it's take it or leave it).",
"It's even worse when they don't overbook. An airline that flies out of my city schedules six flights a day on pretty much every route they fly. Most of the routes have nothing like this level of demand, but it means that potential passengers will always see a flight with available seats at nearly the exact time they want to fly. Sounds great. \n\nBut, on the morning of the flights, they count how many seats they've sold and merge some flights so that they wind up flying only four or five flights on each route. And that's not my accident. They actually don't own enough planes to fly all the services on all the routes they are selling without canceling.\n\nEnd of the day, airlines do what they can to attract the most number of passengers and avoid having any seats empty. Maybe that's overselling a flight. Maybe it's offering flights in the full knowledge that you will cancel them rather than fly them. Either way it's a stiff deal ",
"None of these is really answering the OP's question. OP is not asking why they overbook. OP is asking how they're allowed to sell you a ticket for a flight, then turn around and bump you.\n\nAnd OP has a point. If I want to fly from A to B at a particular time and date, and I buy a ticket for that, then that's what I'm paying for: a flight from A to B at a particular time and date. If the airline is allowed to change the time and date of my flight, why isn't the airline allowed to change the destination, for that matter? Why not say \"Sorry, I know you booked from New York to LA, but it's more convenient to us to fly you from New York to Minneapolis, sorry!\""
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dowtf4 | why does the cleanliness of your environment (your room for example) affect your mental state so much? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dowtf4/eli5_why_does_the_cleanliness_of_your_environment/ | {
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"Humans spent the last 25000 years trying to control their direct environment.\n\nBe part of that proud heritage, clear your room, this is what being human is all about.\n\nAlso, tend your garden and build stuff with your hands",
"It's weird since I've heard the same thing but reversed. I.e your room is a product of your mental health and that made sense to me as it's hard to clean up or do anything in general if you're depressed. Versus it being easy if you're in a happier one.",
"I have read, and tend to believe, that the mind keeps track of material possessions at many scales, and the act of physically ordering and letting go of items is like mentality reducing complexity.\n\nJust think about the difference between doing one of two things:\n\n1. Putting your keys on your desk, your shoes at your door and your purse at your bedside\n\n2. Putting your daily carries at the front door\n\nNow, imagine any given day, how often 1 vs 2 would add to mental cognition.\n\nNow multiply by all your possessions and it should be obvious need number 1 would require more cognitive assertion than 2.\n\nObviously, different personalities and perspectives come into the difference between the two.",
"I call them “little miseries.” \n\nIf there are a bunch of soda bottles and wrappers on your desk it makes it harder to find space to study or write, and you have to spend an extra five minutes pushing stuff around and thinking about how messy it is. Clean desk, you get straight to work and don’t have to think about anything. \n\nHaving a bunch of dishes in the sink stinks, especially when you first get home from work, and you have the guilt of letting them pile up on your conscience and the anxiety of how gross and annoying it’s going to be when you finally get to them. If you do your dishes every day or every other day, they never stink and you don’t worry about it. \n\nIt feels amazing to go to bed in a clean, made bed every night. It’s minorly annoying to have to move your blankets and pillows around when you’re already exhausted, or you can go to bed in a messy bed and be just a little bit uncomfortable all night. \n\nNone of these is a huge deal, but when your entire day has been full of extra tiny annoyances and grossness, it wears on you. If you have depression or anxiety on top of that it can be easy to let things build up and get unmanageable."
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1doib1 | what it means to die from "exposure" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1doib1/eli5_what_it_means_to_die_from_exposure/ | {
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"Exposure is a physical condition resulting from being outside in severe weather without adequate protection. ",
"It's more of a blanket term to describe exposure to the weather, whatever that weather may be. Freezing or dying of heatstroke could be classified as types of death by exposure.",
"Exposure is simply when you're in a situation where your body can interact with something else (usually environmental), like water or air. We're subject to exposure every day with a common example being radiation (light and heat). Actually, at every single point in time, you're being exposed to something. \n\nDeath by exposure relates to how different types of exposure affect how your body regulates itself. Your body is constantly balancing different things, from core temperature to water content. If an exposing factor can affect this balancing act, then you're at risk if you're overly exposed (and sometimes under-exposed). \n\nYour body is extremely versatile, and can survive and adapt to different conditions/different rates of exposure. If you're too hot, you'll sweat, if you're too cold, you'll shiver. But after some point, your body will get too hot, or too cold and give up. Death by exposure usually relates to temperature; e.g. freezing to death or being burned. Factors like dehydration frequently stem from temperature too."
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3ezz1w | if you're killed in war, what happens to your weapon? refurbished? recycled? destroyed? hand-me-down? | First off, utmost respect for the men and women of the armed forces. But I always wondered what happens to the issued weapons when the 'operator' (I probably can't say 'owner' because it's probably the property of the army) has been killed in war; and if they're just recycled/refurbished or just cleaned up and reused? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ezz1w/eli5_if_youre_killed_in_war_what_happens_to_your/ | {
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"If the weapon is recovered it is supposed to go back to the armory to see if it is still serviceable, repaired and cleaned. If the weapon is damaged it is stripped for parts. If it is still in good shape it is stored for reissue.",
"I can only guess-timate from when I was in the US military. They would be reused. Each weapon has a serial number and is assigned to a unit. Each unit is accountable for their weapon, by serial number. Simply saying we have 10 M4's won't suffice. It has to be \"We have 10 M4's serial number xx01, xx02, xx03, and so on.\n\nNow when someone is injured or killed they are Medevac'd out of the area (for example, in Iraq/Afghanistan they typically went to Europe or West-Asia), but the weapon would stay in storage at with the unit so they could maintain accountability of that serial number."
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