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3ag6y9 | why does the backslash key have a special position on the keyboard? | It doesn't see nearly as much use as Backspace and Enter, in my experience. Is there some interesting history I'm missing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ag6y9/eli5_why_does_the_backslash_key_have_a_special/ | {
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"Mostly for writing code. Even though it's used differently in various coding languages, it's used very often in most of them. (Such as in C an example would be \\n to start a new line)\n\nFor the same reason that the straight line (**|**) is right above it, and is used for things like || which means OR (as a Boolean expression)"
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42picr | how did stores work before barcodes and computers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42picr/eli5how_did_stores_work_before_barcodes_and/ | {
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"The grocer would literally tag every single item (and/or keep a ledger on a nearby desk) that would have the prices of everything for sale. When someone brought it up, the grocer would input the prices it into a till that would give the total.\n\nThe till was a giant, mechanical calculator that actually had a bell (\"ding!\") that would ring when the sound when the sum was calculated and the drawer popped out - it's why the mechanical tills nowadays sometimes still have the bell sound",
"Generally the same way they do now. Instead of scanning the barcode, the cashier would type in the price into an electronic or mechanical calculator. Before that people would just write down the prices and add them up on paper.\nBeing a shopkeeoer used to mean you knew your invintory and prices well enough to avoid price checks in the invintory book."
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5ad4uh | artificial rain or cloud seeding | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ad4uh/eli5_artificial_rain_or_cloud_seeding/ | {
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"Water needs a surface that isn't gas on which to condense. The technique of cloud seeding is to provide small particles to make this surface, to allow water vapor in the air to condense, which can result in suspended liquid water or ice particles. If these particles becomes heavy enough, they will fall as rain. \n\nThat being said, note that it is not putting water into the atmosphere, it uses water that is already there. It's giving it a reason to coalesce. "
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2alh38 | how does the digestion of whey protein differ from protein in various meat sources? | I've heard that continuous use of whey protein in forms such as protein shakes and bars can be bad for you versus meat isn't. How does they differ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2alh38/eli5_how_does_the_digestion_of_whey_protein/ | {
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"All of what follows is nonsense if you're talking about hydrolyzed or otherwise pre-digested whey protein. If you're digesting it on your own, one way they differ is allergenicity and ease of digestion:\n\nMeat is not meant to be given to any other organism and animals typically defend themselves physically, not chemically. That is, if you bite a bull, it will gore you - it's typically not poisonous or allergenic. There are some cases in which people can be allergic to meats (e.g. alphagal allergies after Lone Star tick bites), but animal muscle is typically like your muscle and it's usually not problematic. From the cow's point of view, its meat is never intended to end up in another organism.\n\nMilk proteins are more problematic. Milk is meant to convey a large number of species-specific proteins from cow to calf. As an example, cow milk contains beta-lactoglobulin, which is present in most mammals but not humans and is one of the main reasons people can be allergic to milk proteins. You've gotten rid of casein, but that's not the only problematic protein.\n\nThe human body expects to eat meat. It does not expect to eat anything but human milk. We don't have the same rennet as calves do, so we're not specialized to break down the proteins present in cow milk as efficiently as calves do. We do eventually digest these proteins, but while they're in there they're highly allergenic because they look foreign. They _are_ foreign.\n\nMilk also contains cow antibodies and albumins, which are meant to kick-start the calf's immune system, but humans don't necessarily need to be allergic to what cows are allergic to."
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8qrsri | how do you tell the difference between being depressed, unmotivated, and lazy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8qrsri/eli5_how_do_you_tell_the_difference_between_being/ | {
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"You don't. \n\nYou go to a professional and explain the situation, follow their instructions, and with a bit of luck they'll be able to determine which it is. "
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c0oxm9 | how can fizzy drinks go flat if shaken before opening despite having probably been shipped in from overseas and/or jostled around in the back of a truck for days?? | Or am I missing something here? I just had a thought as I was carrying a huge crate of pressurise soda cans to my car. The liquid was sloshing around back and forward inside and I was thinking about how if I opened one now it would probably explode everywhere, but I’m not sure whether shaking them in transit means that they will all be less carbonated or even completely flat by the time I open them at home?? Or once they are sealed/pressurised is it impossible for them to go flat until they are opened and the carbon dioxide is allowed to slowly escape? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0oxm9/eli5_how_can_fizzy_drinks_go_flat_if_shaken/ | {
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"Shaking doesn't make go flat unless you open them in the shaken state. It you let them sit, all the bubbles of pressurized gas consolidate into the top of the can, and the pressure forces a larger amount of CO2 into solution with the liquid (making it \"not flat\")."
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3fmhwy | there's always allegations about sportsmen 'doping' before an event. why not allow doping so everyone has the same advantage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fmhwy/eli5_theres_always_allegations_about_sportsmen/ | {
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"Because it isn't \"natural\", and players who do not want to be a part of the huge expenses of doping as well as side-effects will never agree to it. So basically, no player Union would allow this and it would be too confusing/much of a hassle to make sure every athlete has access to any advantage like that. Just look at the Tour De France, that shit is so chalk full of doping and they just keep finding more ridiculous ways of getting an unfair advantage. \n\nIf every player would dope in that race, they would all travel to some fucking Mountains, train, get blood drawn from their body, then get it ran back into their body during/before the race. Doesn't that sound fucking stupid?",
"Because sport is about trying to determine the best sportsperson based on their physical ability, not their physical ability after substance use. If they allowed doping, sport would lose all respect as a demonstration of physical accomplishment and be a competition of who can pump the most supplements into their body.",
"Well, the whole idea of a sport is \"how well can humans do a thing under an arbitrary set of rules.\" There's fundamentally nothing different from asking \"why not allow doping?\" and asking \"why not allow soccer players to use their hands?\" The answer to your question, on the face of things, is basically that we've decided the game is better with those rules than without them.\n\nAs for why we made that decision (at least for doping), it's likely because of our tendency to view sport as an area of human achievement through hard work and the outsize role professional athletes have in our society as role models. That's more my opinion than a fact though. ",
"(Horrible example up ahead) Imagine playing a computer game with your friends. Only, all of you play on CHEAT mode.\n\nOr better yet, let's say we do allow doping. In order to gain a better advantage someone is will end up taking a higher dose. This will, in turn prompt others to take even higher doses. Eventually it might get to the point where these people start dieing from these doses because they'll have too much.",
"As well as the ethical considerations surrounding fair play, organisers have a duty of care to participants to prevent athletes from harming themselves. Indeed, many anti-doping \"campaigns\" have focused on the health considerations. In sports where victory can come down to thousandths of a second, who knows what lengths athletes would go to without limits imposed upon them.\n\nAs well as this, it is important to note that allowing everyone to dope **would not** give everyone the same advantage. To take an example I'm familiar with, in road cycling in the 90s and early 2000s there was widespread doping with a drug known as EPO. EPO stimulates red blood cell production. More red blood cells - more oxygen carrying capabilities - greater performance. In the absence of a test for EPO the UCI (cycling's ruling body) implemented a \"50% rule\". This meant that the haematocrit level (percentage of red blood cells) could be no higher than 50% or riders would be suspended for two weeks. (This was phrased as a \"health check\" s no wrongdoing had been proven. Also, several deaths in the early 90s have been attributed to the blood thickening effects of doping with EPO. Cyclists would set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to exercise to ensure the thickened blood would still pump around the body.)\n\nNow, if you have a naturally low haematocrit level, say 40-42%, then the \"50% rule\" could be seen to give you a license to dope up to that level, giving you an 8-10 percentage point increase (or a 19-25% increase in red blood cell count). Compare this to someone who has a naturally high level, say 46-48%. Here the boost to your natural performance is only 2-4 percentage points.\n\nWhy is this important? Essentially a rider would be naturally acclimatised to their own natural level. If you had two athletes who had a performance level on a par without doping, the one with the lower natural haematocrit level would get a **bigger** boost from doping than the one with the higher natural level. Therefore there would not be a level playing field. To combat this, it is easier (and safer) to ban performance enhancing drugs.",
"Many of the doping chemicals have very bad health effects.\n\nA chemical popular with cyclists to increase blood cell production also increases the risk of stroke.\n\nAnabolic steroids, mostly associated with body builders affect the heart and cause heart failure. Synthetic testosterone use has also been linked to impotence.\n\nAmateur athletes follow what the professionals do. Professional athletes have access to doctors and specialists and are at the top of their physical fitness. Your average amateur does not and is figuring things on his own.\n\nIf we allow doping in professional athletes then it will become more common in the public at large resulting in death and injury due to the negative health effects of these substances.",
"One great argument to this is what to tell children aspiring to be professional athletes. Do you tell them that they will never be able to do that unless they take on the health risks of doping?",
"If doping is allowed, everyone will have to dope to be competitive. Since everyone would feel compelled to dope, allowing doping would be tacit approval and endorsement of doping.\n\nBecause of the potential side effects of doping, and the anti drug culture that we publicly adhere to, society does not want to approve of or endorse doping.\n\nAlso, it can be argued that doping is artificial, and the spirit of competition and sportsmanship is to test our bodies, and our ability to naturally train out bodies, against each other. If the spirit of the competition is to measure human achievement, then artificially extending the ability of the human body defeats the purpose. (This argument holds less water where professional athletes that compete for entertainment purposes come in to play- the game is played to entertain and make money for franchise owners- here the original appearances argument holds much more weight.)"
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an8vyz | why does champagne fizz up so much more when poured into an empty glass than when it's poured into a glass with champagne already in it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/an8vyz/eli5_why_does_champagne_fizz_up_so_much_more_when/ | {
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"The carbon dioxide, the bubbles, is a gas at RT. Pouring it into an empty glass means the liquid falls from a higher distance, when it hits the bottom of the glass the impact provides enough energy for the gas to escape. Not only does the liquid in there reduce the distance but also softens the impact.\nIf you were to tilt the glass on a 45 degree angle to compare, you'd see less fizz as the liquid is slowed by the side of the glass before reaching the bottom. "
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61yiaf | dictators and why people see to blindly believe in them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61yiaf/eli5dictators_and_why_people_see_to_blindly/ | {
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"The simple answer is that by the time someone can be called a dictator, they've taken over the media, silence dissidents, censored the internet, murdered/jailed the opposition party and control information to the point that an alternative to the narrative doesn't really exist. Especially when so many people are just busy and tired. If you work 2 stressful jobs and have a spouse and 3 kids to support/raise, you don't have the mental or physical energy to deeply research whatever's in the newspaper/tv/radio.",
"There is a movie called \"the wave\" (1981). Where a high school teacher shows how easy it is to become a dictator if you do not right. ",
"Have a look at Hayek's book *The Road To Serfdom*, which is summarised in cartoon form [here] (_URL_0_). Dictators (in the modern sense) don't start out as dictators: they start out as populists who appeal to the masses with the promise of \"getting things done\". "
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2c42aw | why did the us storm heavily defensed normandy why not somewhere else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2c42aw/eli5_why_did_the_us_storm_heavily_defensed/ | {
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"If you're thinking the USA did it alone need to have a talk with your history teacher. The UK and Canada were also there in force.",
"Well they invaded Italy before Normandy.",
"Normandy wasn't THAT heavily defended. The Omaha beach you see in movies like Saving Private Ryan was much tougher than other beaches, so it is not a good representation of how heavily defended the area was. Another thing that made it tougher than it should have been is that bombers missed their targets the day before because of cloud cover. Finally, other areas of coastal France were not necessarily any easier. The Atlantic wall that the Germans build stretched along the entire Atlantic coast of France. ",
"The Germans had no fucking idea we were doing it.\n\n\nSee, Germany foolishly assumed that we would invade an area with ports. Normandy is not a port, and the nearest port is quite a ways away. So they were like \"fuck it, we don't need to defend this area too much\".\n\n\nWhat they didn't count on was the Allies building massive temporary concrete ports and trudging right over them where they knew they were weak. "
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j5ip6 | explain to me, like i'm five, why some economists believe the current of chinese economic growth is dangerous and unsustainable | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j5ip6/explain_to_me_like_im_five_why_some_economists/ | {
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"The economic growth of China is made mainly through State. Right now, almost 50% of all the money china makes in one year (GDP) is for investments that the government makes to keep economy growing (it makes roads, high speed trains, a lot of houses, etc), that no one uses. \nThey keep on spending more and more because cheap exports, traditionally the strength of china, are decreasing (other countries right now import less; in China people are getting better payment so the product prices go up).\nThe problem is that they can't keep up the pace for too long and some economists (Roubini mainly) say that in a couple of years they will fall hard (the economy can't simply stop growing).",
"Follow up question: Whats the difference between the government injected economy in China, and other country's (other than the scale) that makes it 'dangerous'?",
"China has been following the Asian model of growth; Japan did it, Taiwan did it, and Korea did it. Now China's doing it. Basically what that model does is produce tons of goods cheaply. But because there's insufficient domestic demand to snap up all of those goods, they're shipped overseas to mature markets like the US and EU. A trade surplus is basically a certainty.\n\nThat ties into the prices and stability of our bonds (because, with a huge trade surplus of dollars, the safest place to sock it away would be US Treasury Bonds), but that's not the subject of this thread.\n\nChina's been growing its own domestic market, but still heavily relies on exports as the main driver of its economy. Because US and EU demand is soft, that increases pressure to promote domestic demand. To really stoke domestic demand, China would have to allow the RMB to appreciate. They've been hesitant to do so, because it would kill a lot of industries, so that's one very delicate balancing act, but still only one issue.\n\nSome articles from The Economist and other sources (along with China bears like Jim Chanos) also cite the proportion of their GDP that is based on construction -- it's a staggering 50% or more, depending on whose estimates you are viewing. Basically half or more of their GDP is based on building infrastructure that no one is using, and they are still increasing capacity. On top of that, anecdotal evidence in the Tier 1 cities show new luxury condominiums going up all the time, with mainly speculators snapping up all of the empty lots because real estate prices have been heating up like crazy. That's generally the surest sign of a bubble, but, like all market issues, it's impossible to pin down the exact moment when everything will turn over on itself.\n\nThe third issue is simply debt. China's central government recently had to write off a ton of debt from local governments. It has the bankroll to do so, but it's a bad sign for the economy as a whole. Local governments wield tremendous power in developing their respective areas, and until recently when the new guidance from Beijing for determining local governments' efficacy was changed, the only barometer of success was GDP growth. Those debts come from unneeded bloat like construction projects whose sole purpose was for the local official to skim parts of the funding off, and, when that was achieved, the building would be left in its half-finished state.\n\nFor all of the wonders of China, their central government is still staffed with people, and their government still has its own political concerns. They are not master planners, even if they're mostly engineers and not lawyers.\n\nRead: everything at _URL_0_",
"The economic growth of China is made mainly through State. Right now, almost 50% of all the money china makes in one year (GDP) is for investments that the government makes to keep economy growing (it makes roads, high speed trains, a lot of houses, etc), that no one uses. \nThey keep on spending more and more because cheap exports, traditionally the strength of china, are decreasing (other countries right now import less; in China people are getting better payment so the product prices go up).\nThe problem is that they can't keep up the pace for too long and some economists (Roubini mainly) say that in a couple of years they will fall hard (the economy can't simply stop growing).",
"Follow up question: Whats the difference between the government injected economy in China, and other country's (other than the scale) that makes it 'dangerous'?",
"China has been following the Asian model of growth; Japan did it, Taiwan did it, and Korea did it. Now China's doing it. Basically what that model does is produce tons of goods cheaply. But because there's insufficient domestic demand to snap up all of those goods, they're shipped overseas to mature markets like the US and EU. A trade surplus is basically a certainty.\n\nThat ties into the prices and stability of our bonds (because, with a huge trade surplus of dollars, the safest place to sock it away would be US Treasury Bonds), but that's not the subject of this thread.\n\nChina's been growing its own domestic market, but still heavily relies on exports as the main driver of its economy. Because US and EU demand is soft, that increases pressure to promote domestic demand. To really stoke domestic demand, China would have to allow the RMB to appreciate. They've been hesitant to do so, because it would kill a lot of industries, so that's one very delicate balancing act, but still only one issue.\n\nSome articles from The Economist and other sources (along with China bears like Jim Chanos) also cite the proportion of their GDP that is based on construction -- it's a staggering 50% or more, depending on whose estimates you are viewing. Basically half or more of their GDP is based on building infrastructure that no one is using, and they are still increasing capacity. On top of that, anecdotal evidence in the Tier 1 cities show new luxury condominiums going up all the time, with mainly speculators snapping up all of the empty lots because real estate prices have been heating up like crazy. That's generally the surest sign of a bubble, but, like all market issues, it's impossible to pin down the exact moment when everything will turn over on itself.\n\nThe third issue is simply debt. China's central government recently had to write off a ton of debt from local governments. It has the bankroll to do so, but it's a bad sign for the economy as a whole. Local governments wield tremendous power in developing their respective areas, and until recently when the new guidance from Beijing for determining local governments' efficacy was changed, the only barometer of success was GDP growth. Those debts come from unneeded bloat like construction projects whose sole purpose was for the local official to skim parts of the funding off, and, when that was achieved, the building would be left in its half-finished state.\n\nFor all of the wonders of China, their central government is still staffed with people, and their government still has its own political concerns. They are not master planners, even if they're mostly engineers and not lawyers.\n\nRead: everything at _URL_0_"
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3azbt0 | how does creating new money stop people from just creating fakes of the old ones | When money is updated, the old money doesn't lose any value; it can still be used. So what does updating the money do to stop people from illegally printing money when they can just print the old style? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3azbt0/eli5_how_does_creating_new_money_stop_people_from/ | {
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"It becomes much harder to get people to believe that your crisp, newly made dollar bills aren't counterfeit when there are no more being made in that style. ",
"Paper money has a relatively short life-span, and the idea is that in a few years the old style will fall out of circulation and we will only be left with the new, more secure style. "
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62h0c3 | how will the recent vote on isp's right to sell data affect the rest of the world's internet users? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62h0c3/eli5_how_will_the_recent_vote_on_isps_right_to/ | {
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"It will not change anything.\n\nHere is the thing no one is saying about this entire thing. What actually just happened was Congress prevented an FCC regulation from *going into* affect that would prevent ISP's from selling certain data.\n\nThe FCC made this regulation last year and it was about to go into affect. Which means at no point was there a law or regulation preventing ISB's from selling your data.\n\nAll this vote did was prevent a new regulation from coming into affect."
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2a2p08 | what are the point of tokens? | We put real money into a machine to receive fake money that is only usable at that establishment. We then put that fake money into another machine to play a game or something. Why not just use real money directly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a2p08/eli5_what_are_the_point_of_tokens/ | {
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"Because once you've bought the fake money you're more likely to spend it on an impulse (and if you don't they sold you a service you never used). ",
"Additionally: security.\n\nSince you can only use tokens at the establishment they don't have to worry nearly as much about the hundreds of dollars worth of credits sitting in the cash box of a dozen or more machines. They just need the one or two money changers to be extra secure."
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66iaed | how in the world can the flu make me feel so freezing cold? | Yesterday while driving home from work is when it finally started getting bad. I had the windows up in sunny, 70 degree weather and the heat on max and I only barely felt warm.
When I got home, I put on a winter coat and laid on the floor in my sun-baked living room under a doubled up, insulated wool blanket and shivered.
Of course, later that night I had an ice pack on my forehead for a high fever while I was drenching my bedsheets with sweat.
How?! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66iaed/eli5_how_in_the_world_can_the_flu_make_me_feel_so/ | {
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"infections/viruses thrive at our body temp, but are significantly weaker at slightly higher temperatures. a fever is your body adjusting its internal thermostat to fight infections by bringing up your internal temp. think if you were adjusting the thermostat at your house - your brain is cranking up the 'set-to' temp by a couple of degrees. you feel cold because your body is actually colder than this new desired temp. your muscles contract and relax to generate heat to bring you up to speed (thus, the shivers)."
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j7rui | can someone please explain how ratios work | Can someone explain to me like I'm five how ratios work | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j7rui/can_someone_please_explain_how_ratios_work/ | {
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"Let's take a single molecule of water for an example. That's two hydrogens and one oxygen. So you have a 2:1 ratio. Well if you have two molecules of water, you have a 4:2 ratio which can be reduced to a 2:1 ratio. No matter how many water molecules you have, you'll always have two hydrogens for one oxygen. \n\nEDIT: Poor grammar. ",
"Let's take a single molecule of water for an example. That's two hydrogens and one oxygen. So you have a 2:1 ratio. Well if you have two molecules of water, you have a 4:2 ratio which can be reduced to a 2:1 ratio. No matter how many water molecules you have, you'll always have two hydrogens for one oxygen. \n\nEDIT: Poor grammar. "
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aox5ot | why do online news articles have typos or grammatical mistakes, even from notable publications? | Physical newspapers and magazines have meticulous spelling and grammar. Over the past couple years, I've started to notice online news articles (even from the same companies that publish those physical publications) with glaringly obvious mistakes. Incidentally, it seems to always be exactly one mistake per article. Why is it so hard to proofread a 2-minute news piece? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aox5ot/eli5_why_do_online_news_articles_have_typos_or/ | {
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"Couple reasons. First, these mistakes still happened in print, but most people rarely read every word in a newspaper. That said, many times large publications have seperate online departments with different standards. Online news and advertising is driven by clicks and not subscriptions. As a result, the goal is to be constantly pumping out content to get people to click. The result is faster turnaround times and less time being edited. Which results on sometimes obvious mistakes making it through. ",
"Also- people rely too heavily on spell check. Often the mistakes are wrong form of a word, or a different word that is spelled correctly but is not the word intended by the author of the piece. \nBecause so many articles are posted without having an editor proof read them, these mistakes are missed. ",
"The answer is quite simple: they fired the copy editors while simultaneously demanding more output from their journalists. Copy editors don’t produce any content so they’re strictly a cost center. When revenues started falling, they got the axe. Online-only publications mostly never had them to start with. Even experienced journalists can’t be expected to turn it perfectly-edited articles all the time. ",
"People are frequently taught grammar badly, by teachers who themselves were taught it badly.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n\"It doesn't really matter, you know what I mean\".\n\n & #x200B;\n\nMind you, recently US$5 billion rested on the presence or absence of a comma in a contract.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nNot too many years ago, \"grocers' apostrophes were laughed at. Now they are everywhere. etc.etc."
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2xaxih | can someone please explain to me how best in show dog shows work. how does the judge pick the best? is there personal preference thrown in? | thats all | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xaxih/eli5can_someone_please_explain_to_me_how_best_in/ | {
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"It is essentially nothing but personal preference. Essentially there is an ideal perfect prototype of each bread of dog and each dog is judged based on how close it is to this \"prototype\". (Simplification)\n\nThe judge is doing nothing but making personal judgements on how good the dog represents the ideal state of his breed. "
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1w3hg1 | what makes a person sound old/ young? | It's usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a 6 year old and a 18, 40, 80, so on. What are we hearing that makes the difference? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w3hg1/eli5_what_makes_a_person_sound_old_young/ | {
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"I'm assuming you're referring to vocal elements which make age distinguishable.\n\n1. Pitch. It's one of the big ones, and it's the reason why millions of teenage boys across the world answer the phone and get called \"ma'am\" (or their culture's equivalent). Often, this is the only thing voice-based, and we make the rest of our guess based on other information.\n2. Roughness. This is most relevant to distinguishing older people from less-old people. That's why people with lung issues will sound \"old\". All that phlegm or throat-tearing mucking with the passage of air is perceived as originating from age in absence of other evidence.\n3. Word formation. Speech development in children is an ongoing process. While there's a wide range of pitch available to children (all of it high, of course), you can tell a bit about a child's age from how good they are at speaking. Sometime between the ages of 8 and 10, they reach sufficient proficiency in language that they at least pronounce words like an adult, although they certainly don't have the word choice of an adult.\n4. Accent. There are always mild changes in word pronunciation over the years. It's not terribly reliable, but sometimes a little word change will trip off an \"old person\" or \"young person\" sensor.\n\nAlso it turns out we're not too good at this. Working at a call center, a good portion of my work-mates are addressed as the incorrect gender or age, and we end up addressing people by the wrong thing too (I'm never a victim of this, since I have a deep-but-clear voice and modern dialect that pretty much screams \"mid-20s male\", but that's easy mode for voice-based demographic assessment). We're better than a computer, but our eyes are so much better at this sort of information than our ears."
]
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9fpjfh | why does pain, atleast in some cases, throb rather than being a consistent stream? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9fpjfh/eli5_why_does_pain_atleast_in_some_cases_throb/ | {
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"Pretty sure it throbs because it's your heartbeat. You're area where the damaged nerves are receives blood each throb, and sends that signal of pain even stronger to your brain.\n\nThis is just my guess."
]
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||
23ta14 | the reason behind reddits ui | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23ta14/eli5_the_reason_behind_reddits_ui/ | {
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"The idea of earning something is a trend right now. Without exp and character progression, modern FPS games just wouldn't be played by people. Not because they are bad games, but because it feels like there's no point in playing if you're not getting anything at all out of it. Karma works the same way. Knowing that you can get upvoted, reaching the front page, gaining popularity and raising your karma score motivates people to participate in discussions. Hell, why would I bother to answer you? You're a stranger, I won't be affected by your knowledge so why should I care? I should care because if I behave like this, people will be more likely to upvote me. ",
" > While I understand it, it just destroys any serious discussion that doesn't conform to the beliefs of a particular thread.\n\nFalse. Some topics in some subs might be like that, true. But subs are collections of people who are interested in the subject represented by the subreddit. /r/politics leans left, that's just a fact of life. If you post in /r/politics with right-wing talking points, you're going to get downvoted. It's not because everyone has a script of things they should be downvoting, but it's because everyone already disagrees with you. \n\nIt's a subtle distinction, but it's an important one. \n\nThere are plenty of subs that foster contrarian conversation. And in most cases, excessive downvoting is reserved for fringe nonsense and trolling. \n\nAt the end of the day, thumbs up/down has been around since time immemorial. The reason why reddit uses it is the same as every other system that uses it: tried and true. "
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3strh9 | to receive a subpoena, does the deliverer have to say, "you've been served"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3strh9/eli5_to_receive_a_subpoena_does_the_deliverer/ | {
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"States have differing standards for serving subpoenas. In New York, you have to say those magic words or have a witness. In Florida the county sheriff's office serves subpoenas so their word tends to be enough. In California they are reviewing the system after they found one process server was throwing the subpoenas out and lying about serving them. So it's really up to the state. "
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||
43doni | why hasn't the people's salary gone up? | I have been wondering why hasn't people's salary increase and yet price of goods and services has sharply increased the past 50 years?
My rational is, if the price of good and services goes up, the company makes more money. So when the company makes more money, why don't they increase the salary of their workers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43doni/eli5_why_hasnt_the_peoples_salary_gone_up/ | {
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"Because the people at the top take the money, and convince people that asking for a liveable wage will kill the business",
"There's two things a company does with the money it makes.\n\nFirst, it pays its expenses. These include the cost of the raw material that the company buys from other companies (or the cost to harvest those raw materials), buildings and other assets, advertising, corporate taxes... and people. This last bit is where the wages come in.\n\nThe rest is profit, and goes into the pockets of the people that own the company, whether they are privately owned and go to an individual's pocket, or publically owned and go to shareholders as dividends. \n\nThe more money that goes into the expenses first category, the less money that goes to the owners as profits. Since the owners tell the company what to do, they're not going to freely give away all of their share to the expenses side if they're in it for the money. So most will want to keep a higher proportion of money than what goes into increases to wages and salaries, and so those don't climb as fast as the economy changes."
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9humz6 | with the earth being about 70% oceans, and 97% off all water being saltwater, how does natural freshwater exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9humz6/eli5_with_the_earth_being_about_70_oceans_and_97/ | {
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"Salt does not evaporate. \n\nWater in the ocean evaporates turning into its gaseous form and going into the sky. There it cools and collects into clouds as it returns to its liquid form. Eventually the droplets get heavy enough to fall as rain. When this happens over land that water is fresh water. \n\nAs it flows over the land on its way to the sea it will dissolve extremely minute amounts of salts from the soil. This is not a high enough concentration of salt for the water to be considered salt water at this point, but over millions of years these minute amounts of salt will be concentrated in the ocean, and thus we have salt water. "
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8wqzyf | why can't the body restore it's nerve cells when a disembodied body part is reattached? it's the same genetic coding as it was before the dismemberment, so why can you be able to move it, but not feel/feel pain with it. | No clue, but this has been on my mind for the past day or so. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8wqzyf/eli5_why_cant_the_body_restore_its_nerve_cells/ | {
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"Neuronal damsge can occur in the central nervous system or peripheral nervous system. Cns-damage unfortunately is irreversible because we sinoly dont have stem-neuron-cells in the cns that could differeniate into entirely new neurons. The pns has some kind of regeneration option, but whether the nerve gets repaired or not, depends on to what point the degeneration of neuronal tissue occured, and if an actual nerval connection is build through reconnecting the fibers. I can tell you so much to the first aspect, thst once a nerve is cut into two pieces, the part that is still attached to the cell body (in our case the part that actually is attached to the human body) also receives retrograde degenerstivr damage. If that damage reaches the cell body, where the dna lies, rebuilding thst nerve is never possible. There might also be trouble in reinnervating the right spot making you loose your sensoric afferents. \nGonna add: there are in fact cases where after limb reattachment the pain part of the sensory nerves where retreived.",
"2 reasons:\nFirst, the central nervous system (brain and spine) doesn't have stem cells from which to grow new neurons.\n\nSecond, when limbs get severed what you get is axonal damage. Axons are a very fine very long bulging of the nerve cell going to where it needs to go (organs or muscles or sensory cells). So the nervous pathway isn't a lot of cells next to eachother like other organs, each axon is one cell in the spine stretched very long. And when an axon gets damaged it dissolves entirely up to the main cell body, almost as if retracting back into the nerve cell (which is located in the spine). One last feature you need to know about nervous pathways is that these axons are wrapped in an insulating layer of other types of cells.\nSo why is all that important? Once an axon has dissapeared, the main nerve cell in the spine will attempt to recreate it. This happens at a rate of 1 milimeter per day. And it \"knows\" where to go because it follows the pathway that is still in place grafted into the insulating layer. This is all fine and dandy until it reaches the part where the severing happened. Here the pathways are distorted because of the damage and scarring, not to mention the fact that even the most meticulously reattached nerve won't match each microscopic hole on both sides of the severing. So how intact these insulating pathways are after an accident determines to which extent nervous function can recuperate."
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2wtljy | what is the difference between a men's mid range price haircut and an expensive mens hair cut? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wtljy/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_mens_mid/ | {
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"How expensive are we talking?\n\nI have long and difficult hair. My local \"good\" place gives me a cut, scalp massage, and a beer for $35.",
"I consider $30-50 to be the range for a good middle of the road haircut. $10-20 is like the lowend haircut chains. $30-50 for a more personal experience with someone who actually knows hair. And celebrity guys pay like $200 per haircut... so that's my idea of expensive. ",
"When you buy a haircut, you're really buying time at a shop and a barber's time. \n\nA cheaper barber shop has basic barber chairs lined up in a row, minimal décor, and a barber who works at a lower pay rate.\n\nA higher end barber shop might have individual private stations, nice ambiance, a higher skilled/paid barber. ",
"Korean guy here with very thick/straight hair. If I go to a typical chain for a $10 haircut, the barbers just treat my hair like any other guy's hair. They usually don't have much experience with cutting and styling hair like mine (or they don't care because it's cheap), so it's usually just 'buzz-buzz-snip, ok you're done.' My haircut ends up looking very unprofessional, like my mom did it in the bathroom or something. Not cool.\n\nIf I go to a decent place for a more expensive haircut ($50 plus tip), they know how to cut my hair, the way my hair will fall naturally, how the volume needs to be handled, my constant battle with frizz, and so on. I go to a Korean-owned-and-operated barber shop and the younger guys there know exactly what I'm going for when I describe the look I want and how to achieve it. And they show me how to style it myself at home, what products I need, and stuff like that. Very helpful.\n\nI've never paid more than that for a haircut, so I don't know what the difference is between a $75 cut and a $200 cut. But I imagine more of the same idea, plus more amenities, high-end professional-quality products, and stuff like that.",
"Point cutting. When you get an expensive cut over 50 bucks versus a cheap or barber cut the main difference is the amount of time spent adding texture and layering your hair.",
"All that being said, if all you want is a basic haircut, paying a significant amount (ie, more than Supercuts) is money wasted. I get my haircut every 4 weeks or so. All I need is about an inch taken off all around and a little tidying with the clippers. A simple part, no product. Maybe I'd get a better cut if I paid more. Maybe the stylist would suggest a different style that might look better on me. Maybe.",
"£8 + £2 tip here in London for a decent cut from a proper, experienced barber, with free product if you so choose. I only go once or twice a year, because I'm cheap, but the only difference I've noticed between asking for a French crop and thinning out at a £8 barber, and a professional £50 salon, is the surroundings. \n\nLondon is like that. go to a small barber shop and you'll be looking at £10 from an established barber of 20+ years. Walk a few minutes up the road and you'll be paying £300 for the same haircut, from a hipster with tattoo sleeves, fake rimmed glasses and a beard modeled on Tsar Nicholas II."
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1t8eu0 | why people are so opposed to default internet porn filters | Frankly, I don't see what is so terrible about default internet porn filters. With time, it seems entirely plausible that they can be programmed to only weed out actual porn and permit helpful stuff like sex-ed.
You wouldn't leave a Maxim lying around the house for your 14 year old to find, so what's terrible about having a default porn filter? It kinda just seems like a lot of people grew up on internet porn, and are resentful to see others not have the same "experience," irregardless of whether that experience was truly positive or negative. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t8eu0/eli5_why_people_are_so_opposed_to_default/ | {
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"Masturbation is normal and healthy. ",
"Mainly because I dont trust the people running the filter.\n\nAt home, the library or school can all filter their own internet. And no, a filter will always block pages its not supposed to. ",
"Parents can easily turn on a filter. Why should I have to turn it off? \n\nI have stairs in my home. Should I have to put up a baby gate on my stairs even though I don't have kids? Why should I have to walk over a baby gate on my stairs even though I don't have kids? \n\nParents have options they can always watch their child near the stairs or they can put up a gate. Me not having a baby gate up at my house doesn't make your baby less safe.",
"Because parents can do their own fucking job rather than expecting the rest of us to do it for them. First it'll be just porn, then it'll be violet youtube vids, then it'll be something else. Each time you contact your ISP to unblock you you'll go on some deviant list just so Mr and Mrs Lazy Arseholes don't have to actually worry about parenting.",
"Blocking free speech can be a *very* slippery slope. Once you break the idea of free communication, it becomes very easy for more stuff (not just porn) to be added to the internet filters.\n\nInternet filters make sense for *an individual* to set, not a state. Your Maxim analogy is flawed. You might not leave an inappropriate magazine on your coffee table where your child would grab it, but you wouldn't lobby the state to ban the sale of those magazines - would you? \n\nEnabling parents / schools / companies / etc to easily control the content that they present to their children / customers / whatever through simpler technology makes perfect sense. But outright blocking it by default across the board? Not so good.",
"Im opposed to it because i shouldnt have filters of any kind on my internet because parents cant be arsed to keep an eye on what there kids do on the internet."
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20h3jy | how does backtracing a phonecall really work? | So there are many many movies in which the police backtraces a phonecall, so the hero can punch the bad guy in his face. The thing is almost every movie has its own backtracing. What I mean is, one movie says you need "exactly one minute" to trace the call, another movie shows a PC software with a visual map and then it zooms more and more in until the caller is tracked to one exact location. Iam aware that probably none of those hollywood cliches reflect the reality, so please tell me how it is in real life! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20h3jy/eli5_how_does_backtracing_a_phonecall_really_work/ | {
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"There are three ways.\n\nThe first way is not too far away from what you see in the movies. When calling certain numbers (such as 999), the phone companies have a legal obligation to send the phone number to the receiver - even if its set as blocked. If they need to get your address (for example, you dial 999 and then dont speak as the smoke of a fire has overcome you) the operator can request the phone company to instantly release the name and address of the account holder. They now have the address and can send out the emergency services to you. Therefore, if you call 999 as a joke or whatever, you can expect a knock on the door from a police officer.\n\nThe second way of doing it is much more boring and never features on the TV. This is the case for trying to find the location of someone calling some other random number (eg, kidnapper calling victims home from a mobile phone). The person being called needs to contact the police, therefore its after the event. The police then need to go to a judge to get a warrant to force the phone company to give up the logs of that call. They will then hand over to the police (often a week+ after the event) what the dialling number was, what cell phone tower it was connected from (giving an approximation of where it was made to a few miles accuracy) and what the billing information is for the account holder (which will be blank if its a pay as you go number). The police then have to backtrack and investigate that rough area. If they are lucky, the phone logs will show its connection strength to multiple cell towers - if so, they can use triangulation to home in from a few miles accuracy to tens of meters. It takes weeks or months in reality.\n\nThere is another take on this. Which is someone has been kidnapped for example and the police know that the criminal is calling the victims home phone. If they know in advance, they can get the warrant from the judge in advance to have it so that as soon as the person calls, the number is shown up on caller ID even if its blocked... the phone companies basically register the number the same way as they do 999. In this scenario, as soon as it rings, the police contact the phone company instantly and get the source info. But again, if its a pay as you go phone with no account holder, they can only narrow it down to a few miles unless the logs show signal strength to multiple towers and they can triangulate in more detail.\n\nThen we have the final way which is the illegal way but as Mr Snowdons leaks clearly told us, we know this is going on. This is more akin to James Bond / 24. They get the number in one of the above ways, and then use their spyware installed onto the phone to get the exact GPS co-ordinates and can then go back through their logs of all calls for that number to work out instantly who the phone is used to call and use that intelligence to pinpoint them. But that is totally illegal as it bypasses the judge and warrant stage. It would only be allowed (officially at least) in cases of extreme and immediate threats to national security. \n\n",
"Consequences will never be the same."
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3didmw | could a country legalize murder? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3didmw/eli5_could_a_country_legalize_murder/ | {
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"Yes, a country could independently make murder legal but collective international pressure would make it a terrible idea. All foreign aid, imports, exports, tourism, etc would probably stop immediately. ",
"There is no \"international body\" that can or can not prohibit certain things in any country. Countries are, by definition, sovereign which means they have full privilege to enact and enforce laws within their own borders.\n\nInternational bodies, like the UN, try to influence laws and polices through various means, be those trade, sanctions or even out right war when required. However, those are all influences of policy; they have no power to dictate what a country can and can not do.\n\nEdit: Spelling",
"You couldn't legalize murder in a pedantic sense, because murder is by definition an illegal act.\n\nBut you could \"legalize\" killing people, and most countries already do in some sense. It is legal to kill people in self defense or the defense of others. It's legal to kill people during war. It's legal to kill people as penalty or breaking the laws. \n\nSo the question is, can a country make the definition of legal killing so wide as to effectively make everything an excuse to kill someone... And the answer is yes."
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6drqpb | why drill instructor in the army never stop screaming at recruit in the army? | What's the point of screaming at people like that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6drqpb/eli5why_drill_instructor_in_the_army_never_stop/ | {
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"If you can't handle being yelled at how can you expect to handle being in a fire fight? It's a stress test. ",
"Armies thrive on the discipline of individual soldiers. One soldier not doing his/her job can be responsible for getting the entire unit killed in battle.\n\nHaving a drill sargeant yell at you to run faster or do more pushups is a lot less frightening than being shot at, but if you can't handle being yelled at then how can anybody trust you to have their back when you're in real danger?",
"A veteran I know said the point of basic training is to break a person so that they can be built up from scratch into a proper soldier/sailor/airman/marine.",
" > What's the point of screaming at people like that?\n\nIt is intended to rattle the recruits mentally, making them feel like they are incapable and useless. The idea is to break their self-esteem and then the group will be given tasks where the support of the entire unit is necessary to succeed. To drive the point home they will often employ collective punishment so every recruit has an interest in making sure their peers succeed.\n\nAll this has the goal of making the resulting soldiers psychologically dependent upon the military and their comrades. By creating this bond through surviving abuse it puts the soldiers in a better position to be confident in the support of their peers during combat, and for those peers to run into danger in the support of their comrades.\n\nSuch a technique makes great soldiers. It also arguably seriously messes people up when they get out of the military because in essence they have been psychologically abused to foster a bond with the military culture. Ex-military basically have a version of battered woman syndrome and need to relearn individuality and self-confidence outside of the military.",
"The entire training process (boot camp/basic training) is designed to put recruits through extreme stress. They scream at you, make you do push ups, deprive you of sleep, etc. The idea is that if recruits can not handle the stress of being yelled at all the time than they definitely can't handle being shot at while not having slept and other stresses of combat. Being in a war zone obviously puts lots of stress on your mind and body. The purpose of basic military training is to force recruits to adapt to extreme stress and weed out the ones who can't. ",
"Partly it is to develop the instinct of immediate obedience; when you're told to do something, you do it. On the battlefield, if you're hesitating or questioning an order rather than obey it, you are putting other people's lives at risk. \n\nPartly it is to simulate the stress and intensity of the battlefield. If you're becoming nervous and fumbly when someone is shouting at you, how will you handle it when bombs and bullets are going off in your face?\n\nPartly, especially early on, it is intended to disorient the recruits and break their civilian habits. \n\nPartly it is to impart a sort of \"us against them\" mentality, which helps develop the necessary teamwork and camaraderie that the army wants.\n\n",
"Bottom line up front: it weeds out recruits who can't handle stress by making the situation as stressful as possible without being in a war.\n\nThe military can't win wars with soldiers unable to handle stress."
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d34hi1 | how do brine pools form? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d34hi1/eli5_how_do_brine_pools_form/ | {
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"Brine pools and brine springs occur if ground water gets into contact with an underground rock salt deposit, and then surfaces somewhere else like a regular spring."
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6o4ay3 | how do governments determine the dollar amount of a fine? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6o4ay3/eli5_how_do_governments_determine_the_dollar/ | {
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"Most likely, your neighborhood set a schedule of fines years ago and increased them all by a set percentage to try and somewhat keep up with inflation.",
"It's completely arbritary. Some countries have hundred-thousand dollar fines for speeding based on income, some have fixed 20$ fines.\n\nGenerally they are set at an amount that seems reasonable for the time the law is passed and never or poorly updated. That's why poor people in America end up in a cycle of debtor's prison - the fines were reasonable when a factory job paid (inflation adjusted) 40$/hr, but they are not reasonable now, and so people suffer."
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5sss8k | why do livestreams always have a small delay but group calls (on skype for example) don't | We can show our screen to everyone who's on the call (on skype) and it doesn't have a delay, then why do livestreams of games, for example, have that delay. Isn't it almost the same thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5sss8k/eli5_why_do_livestreams_always_have_a_small_delay/ | {
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"Well, for starters, a video game stream is sending the data to sometimes *hundreds* of viewers (or more), whereas you're just sending data directly to your Skype contacts.\n\nIn addition, the Skype video is likely nowhere near as high quality as the video game stream.\n\nAlso, there often *is* a delay - a slight one - when you're using Skype. You just don't really notice it since it's maybe half a second tops.\n\nThere are streaming sites out there that do have a much shorter delay than many of the mainstream streaming sites, too.",
"One reason, for competitive games, is to mitigate \"stream sniping\", where someone can watch your stream and play at the same time, being able to tell where you are (csgo, lol), what's in your hand (hs) or any other advantage they'd gain\n\nEdit: that would be purposely created by the streamer",
"When you live stream, you're sending to a server, who then has to process the stream (as its usually output with multiple qualities) and then has to push it out to who ever is watching (or distribute it to other servers before thats done). So you're uploading once, and its going to many.\n\nOn Skype you're uploading directly to the people that are viewing your stream, as such you're taking out the extra jump as you're now the server, the downside of this is that where as on Twitch for instance you might be streaming at 3500 kb/s to 100s or thousands, to do the same on Skype you'd have to stream individually to each and every one of them, and even with 100Mbps upload thats only 28 people.\n\nThe reason why different sites have more or less innate delay is a combination of economy of scale and location. The larger your audience the more servers you want to spread it to as to even the load before the end viewer, and also the more processing you may want to do to the original stream in order to give a better quality viewing experience across all platforms."
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2hvcr2 | what's the deal with idaho's northern border / montana's western border? | So in my head, borders are usually divided because of Geographical terrain, otherwise they'd all be square, or at least straight.
States to the east have rivers or mountains that act as natural boundaries between geographical areas. I understand why a state like New Jeresey is drawn the way it is.
But why is Idaho/Montana so strange? It seems like a totally arbitrary scribble on the map. Is there some historical reason? Were Montanaians really into those forests? Maybe Idaho gets all it's Potatoes from the north? It doesn't make any sense to me. Any locals around to explain? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hvcr2/eli5_whats_the_deal_with_idahos_northern_border/ | {
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"According to the awesome book \"How the States Got Their Shapes\"\n > The separation between Idaho and Montana begins where the Continental Divide intersects the 111th meridian. It then follows the Continental Divide to the point where it intersects the Bitterroot Mountains. Here the crests of the Bitterroot Mountains becomes the boundary up to the Clark Fork River, where a straight line due north completes the border.\n\n",
"Those \"arbitrary squiggles\" on the map consistently follow topographic contour lines. This means the border (when possible) follows a ridge rather than randomly cutting through valleys and lakes and rivers. \n\nYou can see what I mean if you look at this topographic map of a tiny section of the Idaho/Montana border\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIf you want to know more about topographic maps and contour lines.\n\n_URL_1_",
"From the 38^th Congress, Session I, Chapter 95, 1864:\n\n > *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the limits, to wit: Commencing at a point formed by the intersection of the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington with the forty-fifth degree of north latitude **(lower-right corner of border)**; thence due west on said forty-fifth degree of latitude to a point formed by its intersection with the thirty-fourth degree of longitude west from Washington **(straight part of southern border, going east-west)**; thence due south along said thirty-fourth degree of longitude to its intersection with the forty-fourth degree and thirty minutes of north latitude **(small, straight part of southern border, going north-south)**; thence due west along said forty-fourth degree and thirty minutes of north latitude to a point formed by its intersection with the crest of the Rocky Mountains **(implies a straight line across the latitude, but actually the squiggly part along the southern border)**: thence following the crest of the Rocky Mountains northward till its intersection with the Bitter Root Mountains; thence northward along the crest of said Bitter Root Mountains to its intersection with the thirty-ninth degree of longitude west from Washington **(squiggly parts of western border)**; thence along said thirty-ninth degree of longitude northward to the boundary line of the British Possessions **(straight part of western border)**; thence eastward along said boundary line to the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington **(northern border)**; thence southward along said twenty-seventh degree of longitude to the place of beginning **(eastern border)**:\n\n(bold emphasis, mine)\n\nSo, as you say, borders are usually divided because of Geographical terrain, in this case the Rocky and Bitter Root mountains."
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1dchw6 | how is a red giant formed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dchw6/eli5_how_is_a_red_giant_formed/ | {
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"A star has two forces that always balance: the outward pressure from the fusion reactions in the core, which makes the star want to expand, and the force of gravity, which makes the star want to collapse. \n \nWhen a star gets old and has mostly run out of hydrogen fuel in its core, it goes through a process where it suddenly collapses (because the fuel ran out and gravity started to win), but that creates a *very* high temperature which ignites hydrogen fusion outside of the core. \n \nTo quote Wikipedia: \"The outer layers of the star then expand greatly, beginning the red-giant phase of the star's life. Due to the expansion of the outer layers of the star, the energy produced in the core of the star is spread over a much larger surface area, resulting in a lower surface temperature and a shift in the star's visible light output towards the red – hence red giant, even though the color usually is orange.\""
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es7ro0 | why do certain turns on the road have signs instructing how fast you should go while others do not? | I ask because certain turns seem a lot sharper and you might be going 60 mph around an easy turn and no sign is to be seen yet other times going 45 mph around a corner and their is a sign telling you to go 35 mph. Hope its not a dumb question. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/es7ro0/eli5_why_do_certain_turns_on_the_road_have_signs/ | {
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"The geometry of the road determines the speed you can travel on it. An old country dirt road that’s been paved is going to have sharper turns, and be more irregularly contoured than a newer road, that has contoured/banked turns and longer, smoother approaches into those turns. \n\nThe smoother, more engineered road can be driven at higher speeds than the irregular one. \n\nAnd in some cases those specified speed limits may be to help with a bad spot that wasn’t accounted for in the past. If the traffic engineers figured out that there are lots of incidents there, the lower speed limit may be to reduce incidents.",
"There is a speed limit on every road. If there is no sign stating a safe recommended speed, then the safe recommended speed is the speed limit. On the local roads I use, there are signs warning of turns with recommended speeds, and also signs warning of turns but there is no recommended speed sign attached. On those turns (and any others with no sign at all) the traffic engineers have determined that the speed limit is safe for all vehicles in most conditions. Snow and ice notwithstanding, you can go around those turns at the speed limit.",
"Try sprinting at your top speed and running in a semi circle. Then try running at 20% top speed and running in a semi circle. The circle is going to be larger when you’re moving faster. There’s a physical limit for yourself at how sharply you can turn when going at a given speed. Therefore there’s a relationship between speed and turning radius which looks like the faster you go the larger the radius of your turn is. \n\nNow think about this from a different perspective. If the turning radius is set and cannot be changed like it is on the roads, unlike when you’re running, then we must change how fast we are driving. Otherwise we will crash"
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1qe7mp | why is a moment of silence seen as a sign of respect? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qe7mp/eli5_why_is_a_moment_of_silence_seen_as_a_sign_of/ | {
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"The idea is you're taking a moment out of your day to stop and remember those who are no longer around, potentially the impact they have had on your day to day life, and sacrifices made. I assume this is in relation the armistice day or something but I know people who do this on the anniversary of family members passing.\n"
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5lerpw | how do google and gis products know the elevation of a certain point? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lerpw/eli5_how_do_google_and_gis_products_know_the/ | {
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"It's hard for me to explain it in English, I'll still give it a shot. When taking data with an aerial system (let's say airborne laser scanning), the sensor has a GNSS sensor which also gives you a height value (so it gets it from satellites). When recording the measurement, most systems can determine the distance of the measures object.\n\nWith aerial photogrammetry you need a bit of mathematics/physics to get a three dimensional point out of two slightly different pictures of the same object. If you have the coordinate of your aerial system or camera, you can determine the coordinates of the point you like to know."
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31esgu | how does plasma get under a blister? | Hi all,
Does anyone know what is the process that makes plasma separate from blood, and why aren't blisters always blood blisters?
P.S - English is not my main language, so apologies in advance for any errors on my grammar.
Edit 1 - On the title it should read "plasma/serum" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31esgu/eli5_how_does_plasma_get_under_a_blister/ | {
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"The fluid under the blister isn't plasma, but a fluid called serum. It leaks in from neighboring tissues as a reaction to injured skin. \n\n\nBlood blisters form when subdermal tissues and blood vessels are damaged without piercing the skin. "
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2xck0u | what does isis gain by destroying ancient statutes and burning ancient books? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xck0u/eli5_what_does_isis_gain_by_destroying_ancient/ | {
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"ISIS's main goal is to make the world turn into a Muslim vs Everyone else. By causing as much anger against this group they keep up the tensions they need to make this a Muslim vs World war. \n\nWhy do they want that?\n\nBecause they believe if the West declares war on Muslims (what a stupid idea anyway) they can band all Muslims together to fight and take over the world making it one massive Caliphate\n\nThat's the end game",
"ISIS, like many other Sunni Islamic terrorist groups (HAMAS, Taliban, Al Qaeda, etc...) subscribes to the Wahabbist school of Islam. They believe they are commanded to destroy idols, and will destroy anything they believe meets that criteria, even if it is an Islamic heritage site (such as ISIS's destruction of the Tomb of Jonah, who Muslims acknowledged as a prophet). Another example would be the Taliban's destruction of the [Buddhas of Bamiyan](_URL_2_). When the Wahhabists seized control of Mecca in the early 1800s, they even [attempted to destroy](_URL_1_) the tomb of Mohammed. If you want to really understand why ISIS does what it does, I can't recommend the Atlantic's \"[What ISIS Really Wants](_URL_0_)\" article enough.",
"Cultural genocide. They want a unified Caliphate under the old ideas of Islam. So they want to eliminate anything representing the history of a separate nation within that region, and any artifacts of other interpretations of Islam.",
"He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future.\n\nIf they can remove any other forms of free thought, actually eliminate the ability to think differently, then they will have effectively conquered their people.",
"They want to anger the world into a response that will bring more recruits to their cause.",
"Same rational that the Christians had when they burned ancient books (pre christ) claiming that there could be no moral teachings before jesus . \n\nWhen religion is involved, looking for a rational or logical reason for any of their actions is probably pointless (unless it's something like political power or greed; eg popes offering free tickets to heaven to anyone who took back the holy land , or indulgences )",
"If you remove anything that educates people or gives them reasons to ask a question then it makes the point of view you present less likely to be disputed. Destroying these statues and books in this case removes the evidence of Islam not always being there and therefor whatever isis says is less likely to be questioned. The current set of savages is not the first to do this or the last. What is hard to fathom is that in this period of time, with the ease at which we exchange ideas, these hate filled people are able to thrive. We are the most educated collection of humans to exist but we still are victims to barbarians.",
"Because it's easier to just dismiss someone as a liar than to account for all the facts. \"Holocaust? Didn't happen. Just people lying to further their agenda. Moon landing? Didn't happen, same reason. Dinosaurs? Didn't exist, same reason.\" Seems pretty convenient. Rather than account for all the facts, they just destroy everything that doesn't fit their worldview. It's only when we account for all the facts that we can truly understand the world around us.",
"Ideology is about ideas. My ideas versus your ideas. I like to squelch your ideas. Your ideas are all the ideas except my ideas. Logical then to destroy everything not part of my ideas. So, education, history, science, others religion and religious symbols, all are targets. It's like a garden. We kill what we call weeds. Tho some weeds, like dandelions, are very nutritious.",
"2: \"You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.\"",
"A point i haven't seen brought up is something i heared on the Democracy Now this morning. A Columbia University teacher pointed out that this isnt a new phenomeon and above all else what ISIS is trying to do is erase the history of the Iraqi people who lived her preivous. This is the beginning of their justifaction for taking over lands that don't belong to them. When people look back, ISIS will have destoryed most of the history that belong to the people who lived her previously, and in turn they can pronouce that nothing noone was here to begin with. Similar to what the crusadors did. Looking at the footage you can see that ISIS only destroeyd what looked like giagantic pieces of Artifacts ala pieces that would not be able to be moved and sold on the black market, making them unvaluable to the ISIS majority, meaning its more profitable to destroy them on a youtube video for millions of views. \n\nTDLR: ISIS wants to destroy the history of the people that lived here before them to justify taking away land. They also only destroyed articfacts that were to large to sell on the black market.",
"Its about destroying any history, ideas, or people that aren't their brand of islam. \n\nthey want nobody to ever know anything but their religion existed. ",
"It is control...same reason why Nazis burned books and did everything else they did...control over those they deem beneath them....but like other people said...they are just dicks",
"As conservative Muslims, they believe that *any* depiction of humans is idol worship - basically that a photograph of just a normal person is the same thing as worshipping that person, and the only thing that Muslims are supposed to worship is God",
"seriously right? I mean they are destroying their own culture and writings",
"[They normally sell ancient Iraqi artifacts in the black market](_URL_0_) to finance its military operations. The statues they were destroying in the recent video were all too large to smuggle.\n\n",
"I thought it was to wipe the history of the civilizations off the map like hitler during ww2 . taking away their culture.. like monuments men. ",
"I think they're trying to destroy anything from the past that doesn't fit with their ideology. To wipe the slate clean and start over with their ideology.",
"What do they gain?\n\nThe eternal disgust and enmity of the rest of the civilized world, and -- it is to be hoped -- our eventual collective foot up their ass.\n",
"Nothing.....some people just wanna watch the world burn",
"Radical religions, all of them, can not prosper in the presence of free thought and competition for attention. Destroy distractions.",
"It's about control. Destroy the history and it's believers and then you can set up a new religion easier by force. It's basically the same thing the Christians did to the Pagans back in the day. That's why all the \"occult\" things have so many symbols and metaphors. It's because the Pagans had to cover their asses from getting caught and killed by Christians. ",
"History tends to repeat itself.\n\nBut what if you can destroy history and rewrite it? You control the future duh!",
"\nDestroying statues and idols is a communal obligation in Islam. Once Islamic law established on a territory, they must be destroyed.\n\nEvidence:\n\nMuslim (969) narrated that Abu’l-Hayaaj al-Asadi said: \n\n > ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said to me: “Shall I not send you with the same instructions as the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) sent me? ‘Do not leave any image without defacing it or any built-up grave without leveling it.’” \n\nMuslim (832) narrated \n\n > from ‘Urwah ibn ‘Abasah that he said to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “With what were you sent?” He said, “I was sent to uphold the ties of kinship, to break the idols, and so that Allaah would be worshipped alone with no partner or associate.” \n\nal-Bukhaari (3020) and Muslim (2476) narrated that \n\n > Jareer ibn ‘Abd-Allaah al-Bajali said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to me: “O Jareer, will you not relieve me of Dhu’l-Khalsah?” That was a house (in Yemen) belonging to the (tribe of) Khath’am, which was called Ka’bat al-Yamaaniyyah. I set out with one hundred and fifty horsemen. I used not to sit firm on horses and I mentioned that to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He struck me on my chest with his hand and said, 'O Allaah! Make him firm and make him one who guides others and is guided on the right path.' \" So Jareer went and burned it with fire, then Jareer sent a man called Abu Artaat to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He said, “I did not come to you until we had left it like a scabby camel.” Then the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) blessed the horses of (the tribe of) Ahmas and their men five times. \n\nRead more about it here:\n\n_URL_0_",
"ISIS gains the same as any other civilisation to have burned the previous one's cultural history did throughout the last 3500 years. As a new ruler over recently conquered territory, you want to eliminate all connections to the previous one in order to make it feel like you are the only legitimate one. Also, Western culture is very preoccupied with middle eastern history, so it has the added bonus of antagonising us. \n\nIn fact, given the religious nature of ISIS as a group, this is basically exactly like the iconoclasts In the byzantine empire and during the reformation. ",
"It's a power play. They are trying to incite retaliation for their actions. Whether their enemies respond or not. It just shows that they can act with impunity. I don't know Islam, but this doesn't seem to be part of it. It is a way to gain power using religion as a false front. Eventually, the oil fields must be a really tempting goal. "
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55nhmw | why do we want to spend our day at home being lazy but then feel like we wasted the day or depressed about it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55nhmw/eli5_why_do_we_want_to_spend_our_day_at_home/ | {
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"Because there are others who are way more productive than you and then compare themselves to you making you feel bad.",
"I don't think this applies to everyone. I love lazy days where I do absolutely nothing but drink coffee and play Xbox. I feel very refreshed at the end of one and not have a single regret."
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2tq5ur | why do people delete highly successful posts and comments? | All the time I'm reading comments on a post and find a deleted comment with several thousand internet points, why delete it? And do you still get the karma, or does it go away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tq5ur/eli5_why_do_people_delete_highly_successful_posts/ | {
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"There isn't really a general explanation for when individuals delete their own posts. You'll probably want to survey /r/askreddit to find out from the people who do it.\n\nBut it's likely that highly upvoted posts that look deleted to you were actually removed by a moderator for breaking some rule. I'm a mod here (in ELI5) and it's not that uncommon to remove a highly upvoted post which broke the rules. This isn't as common in subs with more lax rules (like /r/askreddit, or /r/pics, or /r/funny).\n\nIn either case whether removed or actually deleted, the person who posted it still gets karma for it.",
"In addition to /u/Phage0070's points, sometimes people get lots of attention for stupid jokes or posts that they're not particularly proud of, so they delete them. Happened to me before, for a while my 2nd highest voted comment was a lame comment about some mildly NSFW link, and I decided that I wanted this reddit account to be somewhat professional, so I removed it. "
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1dwtjh | why do people say that not paying off a credit card in full is better? | I've read through the other posts about credit scores and credit cards, but they didn't really help. I was told that I want to spend like 70% towards my credit limit, then only pay like 75% of the 70% back. I've been told that I want to carry a balance. I'm also confused about when I should pay them back? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dwtjh/eli5_why_do_people_say_that_not_paying_off_a/ | {
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"you don't really want to carry a balance. You want to have a high credit limit which you want to use and pay it off regularly and completely. This demonstrates your need for the credit and your trustworthiness in paying off your debts. \n\nPaying interest on your debts isn't great, and largely a waste of money.\n\nWhat you absolutely do not want to do, is miss paying at least the minimum. That results in a negative tick saying you're 30 or 90 or 180 days or more past due. Being past due will hurt your scores.\n\nedit: solid advice on credit scores\n_URL_0_",
"First off, *it is absolutely better to pay your credit card off in full*. If you can, you need to do it; if you can't, you need to make some changes in your spending habits so that you can. Carrying a balance on your card is a Bad Thing.\n\nThe problem is that there's this thing called your \"credit score\". Having a high credit score makes a lot of things a lot easier, and having a low one makes them a lot harder. But your credit score is computed by three private companies, and they don't publicly explain *how* they come up with the score. So there's a lot of wild guessing about how they do it. Sometimes the guesses are stupid.",
"Definitely not true. Credit cards charge huge interest rates. Doing your day-to-day spending with a credit card *and then paying it off right away* is a good way to build a credit record, but you definitely don't want to carry a balance unless it's an emergency expense (like an unexpected necessary car repair or something).",
"Carrying a balance if you can afford not to is a suckers play; most credit cards have much higher interest rates than you could make investing or otherwise using the money. It may not always be practical to pay it back in full, but anyone who says NOT to pay it in full every month when possible just doesn't know what they are talking about. ",
"There are several different metrics for creating your credit score, like total age of the lines, your paying on time each month, total amount of lines... The easiest metric to change month to month is the total amount carried on cards. You get graded each month or every couple on the amount carried. it goes from 1.-19% 20-29% 30-49% and so on, with the more being carried, the worse the score- except... 1-19% is better than 0%. Now you can keep it at 0% or 99%, and in the few months before a loan approval or a big purchase, or opening new lines of credit you can quickly get it to that golden 1-19% utilization. Your score than swing 100 points that way if you had a high % of credit used and a high total amount of credit available. Sometimes its updated in a month, or several depending on the reporting agency. This isnt a plug, but try creditkarma look them up online, not a scam. You can keep track of your score, and all the different metrics there if this is important to you. They make their money by offering you credit cards that fit to your credit score(targeted ads) no subscription or selling of personal info."
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6vc932 | we can totally forget something and then remember it in an instant upon hearing a keyword/seeing something related to it. does this mean that we essentially have everythi̇ng stored in our brain, and we just cant pull it out without a reminder? | I will try to explain what i am asking a bit better. Now lets say we were given a 30-word list to memorize all. And one of those words is "sea". Sometimes we are not able to remember the word "sea" initially, but if someone said "maybe there was something about water", we might remember and say "yes, 'sea' was one of the words.
Does this mean our brain DOES memorize all 30 words but need a keyword ("water" in our example) to remember them? Or am i just talking nonsense? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6vc932/eli5_we_can_totally_forget_something_and_then/ | {
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"How exactly memory is stored in the brain is a fairly complex and vastly unknown process. There exists a hierarchy of information processing that will determine whether something is stored in short-memory, long-memory, working memory, that basically represents the amount of time you spend actively thinking about something and the quality of that thinking (contextualization). Contextualization can be conceptual (like the example you just gave water -- > sea) or emotional (emotions tip the scales towards never forgetting, like that time you got heart-broken or such (looking at you, Linzy)). \n\nHow this translates into the physical realm is still debated. It implies neuron changes in different places that are strengthed the more you try to memorize something. Basically, think of it as walking through a patch of grass. The more you walk through it, the less grass there will be, eventually forming a path. The clarity of the path is how much you will be able to remember something.\n\nNow, following this metaphor, memorizing a list is like walking through different patches of grass one or two times. It might not be clear at first what paths you just tried to create, but if someone says \"hey, don't these look like footprints?\", you might make a connection (through a contextualizing clue). \n\nDoes your brain remember all 30 words? It might, tenuously, for a limited period of time, until the grass grows over it again. \n\nI don't know if this helps. Also, I'm a bit rusty with my neurobiology, so if someone with a more modern understanding comes along, please be gentle. ",
"It would probably be incorrect to say that the brain remembers everything, but we do know beyond any reasonable doubt that the brain retains a significantly greater amount of information than most people are readily able to recall at a given moment. This has been proven through not only various types of memory regression studies, but also in studies relating to drugs that effect the memory, and among many other studies. \n\nThis is just my personal anecdote, but I was once part of a memory study where I was assisted into a meditative state, and I was able to recall every single word on a text book page that I had read two weeks prior. A page that was among many others I had read, that I was not instructed to specifically remember. In my normal waking state, I wouldn't have been able to tell you anything about what was on that page, or even what chapter it was, but the photographic image seemed to be stuck somewhere in my mind, and it was able to be accessed in an altered cognitive state. \n\n\nMy theory is that the brain retains a significant amount of the information that you **consciously process**, but I doubt it is able to retain something you only passively glance at, at least not to a great extent. There are some advocates that suggest it can, and that even this information can be accessed through various subconscious manipulation techniques, assuming you do so not long after the exposure.\n\n\nI also seem to recall a few stories of people going into comas and waking up speaking a foreign language which they never fluent in, but had studied. In some cases, they claim the individual never consciously studied it, but was only passively exposed to it.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIn this story above, the man claimed to study Mandarin in school but was never fluent in it. It seems that when he was in the Coma, his brain drastically amped up the Mandarin part of his brain to the point where he was able to be fluent with the information he did know. Fluency in a language however goes a step beyond simply being able to recall information, so this is more of an extreme example. \n\nIn the above story about the kid becoming fluent in Mandarin, there are also mentions of:\n > In 2010, a 13-year-old Croatian girl woke up had replaced her fluency in her native language with speaking German.\n\n > More recently, a U.S. navy veteran was found unconscious in a motel room and had no recollection of who he was and spoke fluent Swedish in July 2013.\n\n\n\nAs others have said... how the brain functions in many regards is still quite a mystery, and there is a significant amount of understanding about it to be had."
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9kfqn1 | how exactly does the us school system works? how is it possible that students are leaving school with huge debts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9kfqn1/eli5_how_exactly_does_the_us_school_system_works/ | {
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"High school students are told that they MUST get a four year degree in order to be successful. So they apply to colleges they can't afford and are then told \"hey its no big deal, you can get a student loan for the cost\" so they sign the papers and BAM. just like that they are in debt to their eyeballs before their life begins. ",
"Colleges are run like businesses. You pay to attend, for living, etc.\n\nThese costs add up to quite a lot, and bar scholarships this all has to be paid for by the student. Many take out loans, but the interest on these loans becomes quite troublesome.\n\nSince a college degree is not a guaranteed job, this puts some college graduates in a bit of a pickle.",
"Public schools are free for students until they graduate high school. To attend a college or university after that, however, you have to pay tuition. This can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars a semester at inexpensive community colleges to nearly $70,000 a year at some of the most expensive schools. There's often scholarships and grants available to students, but those have limited funds and only cover so much. Notably, the tuition listed just covers classes- housing and food plans are separate items.\n\nOne of the most popular options available, if you don't have enough aid to pay for the tuition and your family doesn't have the money to make up the difference, is to get student loans from the government's Department of Education. However, over four years, in a university setting, it's possible for these to add up to a sizable amount of money, and it gets worse if you want to pursue a career that requires post-graduate classes, like law or medicine. ",
"There is a certain amount of education that is required by law. That usually goes through high school or until a person reaches a certain age. Those schools are funded with tax dollars and do not charge tuition. Books and course materials are usually provided at no additional charge. \n\nAny education beyond that such as colleges and universities are optional and not required by law. Many of those schools are also funded with tax dollars but still charge students for fees and tuition. Books and course materials cost extra. \n\nThe costs being charged to the student can be a huge financial burden. It can easily cost $50,000 and potentially much more to get a degree from my local university. Students often borrow this money as loans then have to pay it back with high interest. ",
"I'll add a tidbit: going out of state can sometimes double your tuition expenses for a similar university. In order to get in state tuition, you have to live in a state for a year usually without going to school (or pay out of state for a year)\n\nSource: paid 30K for my master's degree instead of 15K because I didn't want to wait a year",
"Nobody is talking about how there are many fields that when one majors in them and gets a degree, there are no real jobs that are available for them. If the people who are taking loans for a degree majored in STEM fields then nobody would be having a discussion. But that doesn’t stop people from majoring in their passion that will not make them any money. "
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8gjazh | what is unique enough about eyes to make them work like fingerprints when using retinal scans? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gjazh/eli5_what_is_unique_enough_about_eyes_to_make/ | {
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"Its just the pattern in your retina. It is, however, a common misconception that these are unique to you. It's pretty likely that there are other people with the same fingerprint or retina. So to answer your question, there is nothing about either that is inherently unique, but there are so maby possible variations that *most* people have different patterns than one another "
]
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2t0p7w | why do we wake up with morning face? | Puffy eyes, fat face. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t0p7w/eli5_why_do_we_wake_up_with_morning_face/ | {
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"When you're up and about and walking around, your heart has to work against gravity to pump blood up into your face. But when you have been laying horizontal in a bed for 8 or so hours it gives blood the opportunity to \"pool\" or \"settle\" in your face, resulting in puffiness. You'll get a more extreme example of this if you hang upside down for an extended period of time. "
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6de3xl | the federalist party | My old friend from middle school popped up on my Facebook recently, and all of his posts have something to do with The Federalist Party. I googled it and best I can come up with was it was founded by Alexander Hamilton. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6de3xl/eli5_the_federalist_party/ | {
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"There was a new Federalist party founded after Donald Trump's election. It appears to be a paleoconservative party, which appears to exist ideologically between the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party. They haven't existed long enough to have a detailed set of policies, but here's a quote from their [web site](_URL_0_):\n\n > While the whole Constitution must be defended and used as our touchstone, we tend to put emphasis on the First [freedom of speech, assembly, religion], Second [right to keep & bear arms], and Tenth Amendments [powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states]. They are the three areas that are most often under attack from the big government overreach that plagues Washington DC.",
"Federalism supports a clear division of powers and duties between the Federal Government and the state governments. Of course, different Federalists have different ideas on what this division should be. \n\nFederalists generally support the the federal government's role as being for the enforcement of the Constitution and defense from both foreign and internal enemies while supporting the right of the states to govern themselves."
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3oypwm | why do throwing knives always land on the bladed side and never on the handle? | Well sure, it'd be pretty awkward after the event that the handle actually hit someone's forehead instead of the pointy end. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3oypwm/eli5_why_do_throwing_knives_always_land_on_the/ | {
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"They don't; you have to practice to be able to do that. \n\nThrowing knives are very well-balanced, which makes it *easier* to control them, but it's still a skill that has to be mastered. "
]
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3gcvag | how do the subway sub toasters work | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gcvag/eli5_how_do_the_subway_sub_toasters_work/ | {
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"Dry heat toasts the bread? It's just a giant toaster oven. ",
"They are convection/radiation ovens that hit with both a blast of superheated air and heat from radiant elements. 700 to 1000 degrees will toast the shit out of some bread. "
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439alw | the average bullet travels at 1700mph. so if you were to travel at 1700mph and simultaneously fire a bullet. what would happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/439alw/eli5_the_average_bullet_travels_at_1700mph_so_if/ | {
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"If you were to fire it forward, from the point of view of someone stood on the ground, the bullet would be now be travelling at 3400MPH. \n\nIf you were to fire it backwards, the speed would cancel out and to someone stationary the bullet would drop harmlessly to the ground like a stone. \n\n**EDIT** [Relevant Mythbusters experiment](_URL_0_) \n"
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4bfutj | what makes ricin such a potent poison, and what makes it untreatable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bfutj/eli5_what_makes_ricin_such_a_potent_poison_and/ | {
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"Ricin is a plant agent that gets into mammal cells and interferes with construction of some proteins. Alas, your cells need those proteins to work correctly, and the ricin causes the cells it gets into to die. Then it gets into the neighbor cells, etc. Too many cells die, and you die.\n\nThere is no antidote. Ricin has been known for a long time, and many folks have tried to find one. Alas, none have been found. The \"treatments\" mostly involve removing any ricin from the body that hasn't been absorbed and keeping the person alive as long as possible in hopes that the body's cleanup processes can clear the ricin out. If too much has been absorbed into cells over too large a part of the body, then the person ultimately dies."
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2e4uf1 | why does my music stop when i open my microwave? | My computer and speakers are close to my microwave. I am using a DAC. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e4uf1/eli5_why_does_my_music_stop_when_i_open_my/ | {
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"text": [
"The remaining microwave still resonating from the oven sends a weak pulse that sends the speakers into a sleep-like state to preserve their functionality. If they didn't turn off, they would stop working after repeated abuse."
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2cvf1h | why do countries import things they already have or can produce? | For example, Russia imports a lot of poultry from the USA. Wouldn't it be a lot more simple, efficient and cheaper to just raise and slaughter their own chickens? Or the US producing tons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and various other places, then exporting it to Asia, while importing from other places. Exporting beef to Japan, and then we also import some amounts of beef from Japan. WTF? Examples go on and on. Why do countries do this? Is it just out of friendly tit-for-tat economic stimulation of each other, or is their an actual no-nonsense reason that global business works like this | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cvf1h/eli5_why_do_countries_import_things_they_already/ | {
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"the imported goods are cheaper than the local ones (especially local food is often much more expensive than imported food, because a lot of countries pays subventions for food exports). sometimes your country is not able to produce enough of specific goods, e. g. dairy products in china. and, last but not least, sometimes the people don't trust the local products (dairy products or baby food in china).",
"Either it's cheaper, or they cannot produce enough on their own.",
"It's called comparative advantage. Let say a wealthy couple, one is a doctor and the other is a lawyer. They could clean their own house, mow their own lawn, cook every meal, etc. They hire a nanny instead. They choose to not do these things because they are busy working and their time will be better spent at work as they make far more money working than saving money from not hiring the nanny. The nanny on the other hand wouldn't be a good lawyer or a good doctor, but she's good at cleaning houses. By hiring the nanny the nanny would earn some money while the wealthy couple get to make more money, so everybody gets something they want. We import things because we have the technology to make more advanced things like airplanes or software and we let countries who can't make airplanes or software to make what they can make. "
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6zm6th | in the world of facebook, twitter, wikipedia, google and various new websites, what makes reddit ao successful. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zm6th/eli5_in_the_world_of_facebook_twitter_wikipedia/ | {
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"Unlike other websites, reddit have its own algorithm which makes it better and better everyday.\n\nFor example, reddit is maintained and controlled by users just like you. You can create your own community (subreddit) and make it viral by increasing the content in it. Make sure the content is good and relevant to what your subreddit is meant for. You are the one create rules for your community since you made it (make sure its good with reddit’s FAQ). Also, you can invite friends or active redditors, which you think good for your subreddit, to help you with moderating. They can also help you with adding content to the subreddit, check new section and remove spam links, design subreddit (CSS edit) etc.\n\nSpamming is not allowed and almost not possible. Active moderators in each subreddit check their subreddit new section every 5 minutes or hourly and that makes sure the spam gets in will get removed. Also, subreddit moderators now have bots that helps to prevent spammers and domains that get posted regular to their subreddit.\n\nThere are a lot more interesting things which makes reddit uniqu",
"Unlike other websites, reddit have its own algorithm which makes it better and better everyday.\n\nFor example, reddit is maintained and controlled by users just like you. You can create your own community (subreddit) and make it viral by increasing the content in it. Make sure the content is good and relevant to what your subreddit is meant for. You are the one create rules for your community since you made it (make sure its good with reddit’s FAQ). Also, you can invite friends or active redditors, which you think good for your subreddit, to help you with moderating. They can also help you with adding content to the subreddit, check new section and remove spam links, design subreddit (CSS edit) etc.\n\nSpamming is not allowed and almost not possible. Active moderators in each subreddit check their subreddit new section every 5 minutes or hourly and that makes sure the spam gets in will get removed. Also, subreddit moderators now have bots that helps to prevent spammers and domains that get posted regular to their subreddit.\n\nThere are a lot more interesting things which makes reddit uniqu"
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czmstf | what are features of the wc-130 as opposed to other planes that makes them better suited to fly directly through hurricanes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czmstf/eli5_what_are_features_of_the_wc130_as_opposed_to/ | {
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"It's not that it's better suited to fly though hurricanes, it,s just that it can sample the air and collect different data about weather. A C-130 could go through hurricanes juts like a WC-130, but without the sensors it would be useless.",
"C-130 are propeller planes that fly relatively slow compared to jet turbine planes. The plane also has redundant engines and can stay in the air when 2 of them fail(1 per wing).\n\nThe slowness also increases data gathering and tighter turns in comparison to jet turbine planes.",
"WC-130 are based on a military transport noted for durability and low-speed handling.\n\nThe large cargo area has room for sensors and work stations.\n\nSo for storm chasing planes, the US has the ten WC-130Js of 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, two Lockheed WP-3D Orion and a Gulfstream IV-SP that belong to NOAA\n\nI believe the US is the only national with dedicated military storm monitoring aircraft"
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19twt9 | the deep web, onion routing , and tor | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19twt9/eli5_the_deep_web_onion_routing_and_tor/ | {
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"I know this is late but thanks, since of the recent TOR post, now I understand more thanks :)",
"^(For the short version, skip to the section \"So in summation\")\n\nFirst of all, onion routing is the method that is used by Tor, which is a program. It's named that because it has *layers*. Like an onion. And an ogre.\n\nSo how does it work? Let's say I want to access the website that's located at this server. My computer connects to another computer in the Tor network, which connects to another, and so on. Eventually, one of them will connect to the server, which can send back information using this pattern. However, none of the computers in the Tor network know who is getting what. The computer that you connect to isn't the same as the one that connected to the server, so it's very anonymous.\n\nAnother key feature is that the path of nodes used differs each time. The first time I visit a site, it might connect to computer B, then computer A, then computer J before connecting to the server. The next time, it might connect to computer F, then computer B, then computer L before getting the server. As a result, not only do none of the computers know who is viewing what, but the computers used change from time to time (about every ten minutes).\n\nSo why use Tor and onion routing? Simply because it's very, very anonymous. All the connections are encrypted and it would be nearly impossible to trace a user. It is, however, much slower than regular browsing, since we have to connect to all these computers in series. More on how Tor works [here](_URL_6_).\n\nAs for the deep web, that's mostly unrelated. The deep web refers to sites that aren't accessible via search engines. Since you couldn't find it via, say, Google normally, the site is as good as hidden from the eyes of normal people. This could mean that it's simply not linked to. Search engines follow links. If nothing links to a site, it as good as doesn't exist. There's also sites that instruct search engines specifically to not index them. Search engines have to follow a text file called \"robots.txt\", which tells what can and can't be indexed.\n\nHowever, much of the deep web is perfectly safe. Things like your facebook page might be hidden from search engines if you're underage or specified you didn't want it indexed. Likewise, most websites have deep web sections that are meant for administration, and thus not accessible by regular users. The dangerous part of the deep web, particularly child pornography, makes up an extreme minority. The term sounds worse than it is. However, there is, of course, a very dangerous minority. Several examples are mentioned in [this article](_URL_3_). These sites use Tor as a [hidden service](_URL_8_), meaning they are a server connected to a Tor network, allowing them the same anonymity. Instead of hiding a user, the Tor network is now hiding a server.\n\n###So in summation\n\n* **Onion routing**: Using multiple computers to create a chain before accessing the desired server. As a result, no individual computer knows who you are and what you want. This makes it great for anonymity.\n* **Tor**: A project that created a network of computers for use as nodes in onion routing. Anyone can set up their computer to become a Tor node.\n* **Deep web**: The part of the web that can't be found by search engines. Mostly harmless, but there is a minority with sites ranging from contract hitmen to child pornography. The malicious sites sometimes use Tor networks to hide their server location.\n\n---\n\n###Using Tor\n\nI'd actually recommend everyone download the Tor browser. For the most part, the average person would rarely need the program, and you definitely don't want to browse with Tor normally. It's slow, slow, slow. However, if you *ever* need anonymity for some reason, the Tor browser is secure and easy to use. Just download this program and open the executable. That's it. There's nothing to configure. It's just a modified Firefox browser. You can download it for all the major operating systems [here](_URL_1_).\n\nSo what's different about the browser besides the fact it uses Tor? Well, there's three specific addons installed. NoScript (which allows you to disable JavaScript), TorButton (which just does some security improvements and makes it easy to change your identity), and HTTPS Everywhere (which makes the browser use secure connections when available and you should actually use this on every browser). They recommend you don't add any other addons, but I say go ahead and throw adblock into the mix, especially since ads slow you down on what is already a slow connection.\n\nAnyway, you should note that you shouldn't open files you download on Tor unless you're certain they're safe. This is because if the file makes a connection to the internet, it will do so through a regular connection, thus revealing your real IP. For most files, it's perfectly safe, such as opening a regular JPG file, but still tread cautiously.\n\nNeed even MORE security? In steps [Tails](_URL_7_). It's a Debian-based linux operating system that connects solely to the Tor network. You can run it entirely on a USB stick without installing anything. Keep it on a flash drive and boot that when using a computer you don't trust. Not only are you protected from things like keyloggers on the computer, but your internet browsing it unknown to others. Tails is specifically geared towards anonymity, so it doesn't even use the hard drives for temporary storage. It also encrypts the files that you may store on the flash drive, so no worries about someone else looking at your stuff.\n\nFinally, on the mobile front is [Orbot](_URL_4_), a Tor browser for Android. Unfortunately, iOS users don't have an alternative. They could use [TorVPN](_URL_2_) as just a standard VPN server, although it's not free, and let's be honest, you could just get a regular VPN server that would be much faster and usable for things like downloading torrents. There's the [Covert browser](_URL_5_), but it's also not free and seems poorly rated.\n\nI suppose, of course, it's worth a mention of VPN. VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a server that we connect to as an inbetween, like Tor nodes do. So we connect to that VPN in an encrypted connection and that VPN connects to the desired server. So it works like Tor, but isn't layered. They're still very secure, however you'd generally pay for it. It's easier to set up your connections to all use that VPN, however. One particular advantage of a VPN is that you could access content as though you were browsing from the location of the server. For example, I'm Canadian, so I can't normally get Hulu. If I use an American VPN, I can access Hulu because as far as Hulu can tell, I'm just a computer in the US.\n\nHowever, not all VPNs are anonymous. TorrentFreak made a nice [list](_URL_0_) of VPN providers that don't keep information on you.\n\nWhile you'd have to pay to use an anonymous VPN, it'd be faster than Tor, could be used to make it appear you're in a specific country, and can be applied to all connections. To elaborate on the last point, your connection would use the VPN when doing something like using uTorrent. You're not just limited to the Tor Browser. There's still a latency issue, since you have to connect to this inbetween, but it's much faster than Tor, since there's only one node between you and the desired server and the VPN usually has very fast speeds compared to Tor nodes.\n\n**So to sum that part up, Tor is great because it's free and easy, not to mention sites can use it to stay hidden. When you need more versatile anonymity, a VPN comes in handy.**\n\n^(Edit: Updated link to anonymous VPNs, courtesy of /u/dancing_sysadmin)",
"If you can't even figure out how to [search this subreddit,](_URL_0_) you should really stay away from things like the deep web.",
"Just because I didn't see it mentioned:\n\nTOR: The Onion Router. ",
"I swear, I was going to ask the exact same question today... did you get the idea when reading the /r/askreddit \"IT GUYS OF REDDIT\" question too?"
]
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"http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-that-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2013-edition-130302/",
"https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en",
"http://torvpn.com/information.html",
"http://www.businessinsider.com/tor-silk-road-deep-web-2013-3",
"https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/",
"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/covert-browser/id477438328?mt=8",
"https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en",
"https://tails.boum.org/",
"https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden-service.html.en"
],
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2mrngo | what the hell happened to mtv? | I'm a fairly young guy, and whenever the discussion of "What happened to MTV" comes about, I just shrug. The MTV we've seen nowadays is the only MTV I've ever known, so I have to ask you guys, what happened? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mrngo/eli5_what_the_hell_happened_to_mtv/ | {
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"Reality television is what people were wanting so the network did what any smart business does, they gave the consumer what they wanted. Business is all about the money, and there was just more money and viewers available through reality television and such instead of music videos.\n\nIf I want to watch a music video nowadays I will go to Youtube. However, I do remember when MTV was all about music videos, and I am sad that it has changed so drastically. The same is true for stations like The History Channel and Discovery Channel.",
"You're a business. You sell product X. People want product Y more.\n\nYou sell out and start selling product Y.",
"In its beginning, MTV showed music videos all day long. For us kids of the 80s, this was something that truly groundbreaking. Suburban kids learned about hip-hop for the first time on Yo! MTV raps, metal on headbangers ball, and the earlierst stretches of alternative and new music on 120 Minutes. MTV influenced fashion, social mores, and drove the consumer desires of teens and young adults - the demographic that advertisers want to get to the most.\n\nAnd there is the problem, and the answer to \"What happened to MTV\". You cant get the kind of advertising money selling a block of videos like you can selling an actual show. The first \"The Real World\" was actually not originally designed to be a reality show in the way we think of it today. It was designed to be a soap opera that MTV could sell to advertisers - but they didnt want to pay for known actors and writers so they used unknowns in a \"reality\" stye that was actually first done on TV by PBS in the 1970s.\n\nIt was a super hit financially for MTV and dollars rule the day. Videos captured the hearts and minds of the viewers, but the reality shows made it rich.",
"You may or may not know this, but MTV used to stand for \"Music Television,\" and true to its name, it showed nothing but music videos and concerts all day long. In the 80s and 90s (before the Internet gained widespread usage), MTV and FM radio were pretty much the only ways to hear new music.\n\nThen *The Real World* happened, as [EverydaySunshine](_URL_0_) explains. And then the Internet happened, and then YouTube happened, and suddenly everyone stopped going to MTV for music videos.",
"Go watch some Beavis and Butthead (especially the earlier episodes) and you'll get a glimpse of what *Music* Television was like. Back before Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, etc and really before the internet had taken off, watching music videos all day on TV was reasonable entertainment. Then in 1992 MTV came out with The Real World and basically spawned modern reality TV. People wanted to watch that stuff, so that's what was broadcast. Other channels like the History Channel with Pawn Stars or Discovery with Mythbusters have seen the same kind of success so they also changed their programming to show people what they wanted to see.",
"Id say youtube and the internet in general. MTV used to of course be about music but when you can go listen to download and watch anything you want at anytime and even anywhere with phones these days it makes it kind of hard to have a channel focused purely around music. People aren't gonna tune in anymore just to see music videos so reality tv was the only option for them really."
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46w79f | what is this "common core" thing in gaming everybody is suddenly talking about? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46w79f/eli5_what_is_this_common_core_thing_in_gaming/ | {
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"[Common Core](_URL_0_) is an education initiative (in the US) that makes math very hard to understand for old people. It is very different from the memorization and long hand techniques we were taught. However, it actually makes complex maths like algebra and calculus very easy to understand. \nSo if anyone uses Common core as an insult you can ignore the comment as curmudgeonly foolishness. \nWith respects to poorly designed and single solution puzzles, it doesn't really apply. Someone probably went \"Common core is confusing and they make you learn it a specific way, therefore these are common core puzzles\". ",
"Pretty sure it's a comparison to the whole common core math thing in schools, where you have to lay out all the steps of a math problem, half of which are counterintuitive and make no sense - and if you miss one of those steps you get the whole problem wrong even if you had the answer right."
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37i373 | are terms like republican/conservative/right-winger & democrat/liberal/left-winger interchangeable, or are there implied subtle differences in meaning? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37i373/eli5_are_terms_like/ | {
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"Republican/Democrat very specifically refers to a member of one of those political parties. Conservative and liberal are adjectives referring to a generalized set of political beliefs. Right/Left Wing is an enhancer used to suggest more extreme version of conservativism and liberalism (a right wing conservative is more conservative than a normal conservative). There's also a centrist, which means someone has very moderate political beliefs (a centrist liberal is more conservative than a normal liberal, much more conservative than a left-wing liberal). "
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278yig | what is the origin of the irrational number "e", and what significance does it have in the mathematical world? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/278yig/eli5_what_is_the_origin_of_the_irrational_number/ | {
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"Ooh! I know this one!\n\nI had to figure it out myself, because it seems that every math teacher either doesn't know it, or forgets to mention it. \n\ne is special, because it is the only number n such that every point on the graph of n^x has an equal value for slope and y coordinate. That is to say, if you have a function e^x, the rate of increase of that function equals the function itself. If e^a is 5, then the derivative of e^x at x=a is also 5. ",
"e is basically the pi of exponential functions. e is not only as important as pi, but some consider it more important. \n\ne shows up any time you start to deal with infinite series, repeating functions, nested recursive functions. Compounding interest, calculus, Asymptotics, and limits. ",
"\"e\" is Euler's number, but it was discovered in the 17th century by a mathematician named Bernaulli who was studying compound interest. Wikipedia has a good explanation of how it was found:\n\n > Jacob Bernoulli discovered this constant by studying a question about compound interest:[6]\nAn account starts with $1.00 and pays 100 percent interest per year. If the interest is credited once, at the end of the year, the value of the account at year-end will be $2.00. What happens if the interest is computed and credited more frequently during the year?\nIf the interest is credited twice in the year, the interest rate for each 6 months will be 50%, so the initial $1 is multiplied by 1.5 twice, yielding $1.00×1.52 = $2.25 at the end of the year. Compounding quarterly yields $1.00×1.254 = $2.4414..., and compounding monthly yields $1.00×(1+1/12)12 = $2.613035... If there are n compounding intervals, the interest for each interval will be 100%/n and the value at the end of the year will be $1.00×(1 + 1/n)n.\nBernoulli noticed that this sequence approaches a limit (the force of interest) with larger n and, thus, smaller compounding intervals. Compounding weekly (n = 52) yields $2.692597..., while compounding daily (n = 365) yields $2.714567..., just two cents more. The limit as n grows large is the number that came to be known as e; with continuous compounding, the account value will reach $2.7182818.... More generally, an account that starts at $1 and offers an annual interest rate of R will, after t years, yield eRt dollars with continuous compounding. (Here R is a fraction, so for 5% interest, R = 5/100 = 0.05)\n\nThe implications of this number are really interesting. If you want a function such that it's derivative (the slope of the function) is equal to that function, or f(x) = f'(x) using the definition of a derivative (which uses limits, like Bernoulli used in his calculation of the number), you find that the derivative of e^x = e^x . This is a big deal in mathematics and engineering. \n\nA bigger deal is that if you try and find the derivative of ln(x) (log base e, the natural log), you find it to be 1/x. In physics, this ties all directly inverse relationships to the number e, which is almost something bizarre. \n\nAnd finally, Euler's identity which is something really wacky and incredibly useful has the number e... \n\nRemember pi, and i, the imaginary number or square root of -1. Euler's identity states that e^i(pi) + 1 = 0. A derivation of this formula is another identity that cos(x) = (e^ix - e^-ix )/2 which is stupidly useful in analyzing any kind of harmonic motion be it sound, radio waves, light waves, quantum wavelets, electrical signals, springs, what have you. \n\nAnd I think finally the last cool thing about e is that it pops up all over the place. It comes up in everything from sound waves to semiconductor physics. It's as ubiquitous in mathematics as pi, and a really cool number. ",
"You know how compound interest is awesome. You put 100 dollars in at 10%, in the first year you get 10 bucks, then 11 in the next period, then 12.1 in the next and so on. \n\nWell what happens if you shorten the period you get interest but you also adjust the rate to compensate? For example say instead of 10% every year you get 5% every six months. Well it turns out doing it this way gets you a bit of extra money, since that first 5% is compounded once. \n\nSo that's cool, compounding 5% semiannually gives you more than 10% annually. What if we decrease it even further. What if we compound every day at 10%/365, or maybe every second at 10%/31,557,600, or hey how about every nanosecond at 10%/31,557,600,000,000,000? Would we get astronomical sums if we did this? \n\nTurns out you don't. Although, you always get a bit more by compounding on smaller periods, as your compounding period shortens your rate of interest approaches e^(10%). Feel free to try this yourself. The equation is (1 + x/n)^n, where x is your rate of annual interest and n is the number of compounding periods. If you just pick any x, and just increase your n's you'll see they approach e^x. \n\nThis is the origin of e. Basically some merchants in the 17th century noticed this phenomenon when they played around with interest rates they charged and they wondered exactly the above. Bernaulli proved that it eventually equals e if you make the periods infinitely small. Since this discovery though e has cropped up as useful in all sorts of places. \n\nEDIT: By the way thought I'd just point out a few places where e is used now-a-days, though this list certianly isn't exhaustive:\n* Obviously, finance relies on the number a lot, for the obvious reasons given the above. \n\n* Any time you have a growth or decay model e likely will show up. For example population growth, income growth, GDP growth, inflation, radioactive decay, etc.\n\n* I've been told lots of engineering problems run into it, though I'm not an engineer so I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell you exactly where and how\n\n* Lot's of statistical distributions have e as part of their formulas. For example the formula for the normal distribution incorporates e. And there's this awesome property called the law of large numbers that says if you take a bunch of numbers independently from any one crazy distribution, no matter how crazy the distribution is, and take the average of those numbers, then the distribution of the averages will approach normal. \n\n\nTL;DR; It came about as the result of wondering what happens if you use shorter compound periods for calculating interest for financial contracts. Used now all over engineering, science, statistics and math.",
"Richard Feynman as a teenager made the comment that the most beautiful equation in the world is e^i•pi = -1. ",
"The clearest explanation of *e* I've ever found: _URL_0_"
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15rik5 | why do ford and chevrolet have subsidary companies (lincoln and gmc) that produce pretty much the same vehicles? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15rik5/why_do_ford_and_chevrolet_have_subsidary/ | {
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"In the early days of the automotive industry, there were a great deal of competing manufacturers. Over time, some merged, some were bought out, and some bankrupted, until the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, GM) were all that were left. Lincoln was originally an independent marque (bought out in 1922), as was Dodge (1928)\n\nAt the same time, the manufacturers were using a different-brand strategy to segregate the market. The Ford Motor Company (FMC, to differentiate the company from the marque) created Mercury to have a line of mid-level cars between their Ford brand and Lincoln. This allowed FMC to tap into a market which wanted a more upscale car but couldn't afford top of the line. Chrysler did the same thing with their Plymouth brand.\n\nGeneral Motors started out as a holding company for car brands, first with Buick and Durant; Oldsmobile, Cadillac. Rapid (forerunner of the GM truck line) and Oakland (later Pontiac) were all independent automakers at one point. \n\nCar buyers didn't want the most basic, cheapest model of car. GM was the first to realize the market had room for variety. The differentiation of GM brands began in the early 1900s and was well underway by 1920; the FMC didn't buy Lincoln until 1922.\n\nFrom Wikipedia: \"At one time each of GM's automotive divisions in the United States was targeted to a specific market segment, and, despite some shared components, each distinguished itself from its stablemates with unique styling and technology. The shared components and common corporate management created substantial economies of scale, while the distinctions between the divisions created (in the words of GM President Sloan) a 'ladder of success.'\"\n\nIn short, sharing parts made it economical to keep a stable of several marques, each different enough to be aimed at a different segment of the market.\n\nPS: Chevrolet is a GM subsidiary; General Motors is the name of the company.",
"Part of the issue is the way the companies are seen by the people that buy their goods. Some company names are seen as a higher quality of product, even if their product isn't better (or is but isn't much better). \n\nIt's like owning a fast food place and a higher quality specialty burger place. They both make burgers, and they both probably use the same or similar ingredients, but people who want cheap fast food are going to go one place, and people who think themselves above fast food are going to go to the other place. \n\nIf I own them both though, I can get the business of everyone that wants a burger, even the people that turn their nose up at the fast food burger, and would rather eat something else than eat fast food.\n\nSo, while Ford owns the Lincoln Motor Company, Lincoln cars aren't often advertised as Ford vehicles, they're \"luxury vehicles\". It'd be like putting a Burger King Logo on your restaurant menu.",
"For the same reason Gap also owns Old Navy an Banana Republic, to capture market share at different price points with using their different branding strategy. \n\nCompanies rarely like using one brand to market to different segments (old, young, rich, middle-class, etc.), so they create separate brands to reflect the image they want. "
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2e8w7f | ancient dog breeds | I have been looking at ancient dog breeds and see that often times dogs like the Shar Pei and Basenji are listed as closer related to the wolf than dogs like the Malamute, which has a closer resemblance and a passdown history dating far back.
How do the determine whats "ancient"? DNA is entirely dependent on the individual, phenotype is subject to selective breeding. how can we know what dog closest resembles the dog we got from wolf?
*edited to add "the dog we got from"
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e8w7f/eli5_ancient_dog_breeds/ | {
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"Shiba Inu's are actually the breed that is closest genetically to wolves. In terms of how they determine what is \"ancient\", it is all down to known records of pedigree. Shiba Inu lines, for example, can be traced back nearly 2000 years. \n\nIf you consider the new \"Designer Breeds\" like the Labradoodle, mix of Labrador and Poodle, their records will only stretch a few years as we have only just recognized it as it's own breed. This is where the label \"ancient\" comes from. \n\nMost common dog breeds, Sheppard's, Malamute's etc have had their gene pool watered down by smaller, more manageable breeds to make them easier to train and own. A Malamute from 500 years ago would look, behave and react much differently than the Malamute's of today, and in some cases, may have a completely different name entirely. \n\nIf you are asking by what criteria they determine if a breed is ancient or not, I wouldn't know the exact figures. "
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1m9cws | where do christians and other religions believe god came from? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m9cws/where_do_christians_and_other_religions_believe/ | {
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"He didn't come from anywhere. He has ALWAYS existed. He had no beginning, He will have no end. He just is.",
"In Catholicism (and this feels like an atheism troll thread a.k.a. ELI5 \"Why do people think god exists huehuehue\") at the very least its refereed to as a mystery. Which is a fancier term for miracle. The belief is that God has always, and will always exist. Nothing created god, because nothing came before. He simply exists. ",
"Think of playing the Sims. You are the Sims' god. You created them, watch over them, guide them, and occasionally delete the ladder in the pool while they're swimming. *To them* you've always existed. There isn't a frame of reference in their worldview in which you were not present. It doesn't really matter what you were doing before time (for them) started.\n\nFrom the Christian world-view,for as long as \"time\" has existed, God has existed. He created \"time.\" ",
"It's different depending on what religion you mean. Many gods in many religions were born by humans or created somehow else.\nBut for Christians, and the other monotheists the usual idea is that \"God\" has always existed. He is not bound by time, he stands above the laws of logic (otherwise there would be issues), and he is the ultimate creator of everything.\n\n"
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1dbdvn | when you are nervous why your leg starts bouncing uncontrollably. | Pretty self explanatory really, but I would love to know, mine does it *all the time*. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dbdvn/eli5_when_you_are_nervous_why_your_leg_starts/ | {
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"When you get nervous, your body releases adrenaline. This provides a lot of extra energy. If you are just sitting there, bouncing your leg is an easy way to expel some of that energy.\nCould also just be something that is unique to you that attempts to take your mind off of whatever is making you nervous.",
"I do this for even when I'm not nervous. Why is that? ",
"If you keep your heels on the ground, your knee will not bounce. It feels involuntary, but the act of keeping your heel off the ground is voluntary, so you're voluntary starting an involuntary reaction.\n\nTo get a little more into it, if your leg is bouncing while sitting, it is often because you are posed in a position that causes that kind of reaction. When many people are nervous or anxious, they sit with their heel off the ground, with only the ball of their foot on the ground.\n\nSitting in this manner (heel off the ground) for many people, will cause their posture to change very slightly, which causes their weight distribution to change. As soon as the weight distribution changes, enough weight is distributed to the legs and suddenly your knee starts bouncing.",
"Fight or flight. The adrenaline helps you in putting up a fight or in running away if needed. ",
"Okay, sometimes when I sit for too long my leg feels like I need to shake/kick around with it. What's that?",
"ELI5: Why did 95% of us start bouncing our leg after we read this?"
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d0wzq9 | how does a spacecraft use thrusters to move through essentially nothing? if they blast, and there’s nothing (aka, atmosphere) around them to get traction, how does it propel itself forward? and how does it steer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d0wzq9/eli5_how_does_a_spacecraft_use_thrusters_to_move/ | {
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"Love the question... the logic makes sense... don’t have an answer, but curious to hear one...",
"No air is required. Newton's 3rd law of motion says that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. \n\nWhen a rocket shoots fuel out one end, this propels the rocket itself in the opposite direction. Atmosphere is not required for this to function.\n\nSteering is done thru thrusters on the sides of the spacecraft that can nudge the nose or tail in a specified direction.",
"Does not need Atmosphere to push against because the craft push it against the rocket exhaust that is created by burning in most cases an oxidizer and fuel. jet engines intake air for the oxidizer and aad fuel, compress the air and fuel then ignight it. The expansion of the gas inside the combustion chamber then exhausted out the back for propulsion.",
"So how does it brake, slow down. ?",
"Alright, the classic way to explain this is the astronaut and the baseball. Imagine an astronaut floating in space. He throws a baseball in one direction, and this action causes him to move in the other direction with the same amount of force. An equal and opposite force. This is a basic law of physics, and doesn't need an atmosphere to push off from.\n\nIf he had a bunch of baseballs, he could just keep throwing them behind him, slowly accelerating himself forward. This is essentially what a rocket does. It's throwing exhaust from the fuel backwards, pushing the rocket forward by the same principle. \n\nSteering a rocket is done in a few different ways, depending on what needs to be done. Some rocket engines have gimbal, meaning they can pivot a few degrees, pushing the rocket slightly in that direction when activated. \n\nFor bigger changes in direction, like spinning the craft to point in a new direction, small thrusters pointed out around the craft can be used to spin the craft, or onboard gyroscopic wheels can be tweaked to rotate the craft."
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c32zmh | we use redshifting to determine expansion rate of the universe, but how can we know expansion rate if we only have a snapshot of a "moment" (our 100 years of space observation)? | Lets say stars A and B are redshifted by value of 2 and value of 6. But we have only one "photo", not a set of photos over looong period of time. So we (due to knowing amount of RS over distance) that star B is 3 times farther away than star A. But how do we know if they started that far away or not? Also, how would we know, from a photo (eg. lets say of a Olympic race) when did the expansion slow down or speed up (when did the track shorten or lengthen)?
I guess we could insert age of the universe and figure it out... But how did we get the age?
We have to know either the age or size with certanty, for us to be able to know the other one.
Its all confusing... It seems like a guesswork that happens to work, with no clear evidence. For age we need distance, for distance we need age, but we cant objectively know either, can we? And wouldnt it be limited just to the observable universe?
Do we recieve all the light from the start (like an album) or just a "photo"? Wouldnt it be huge coincidence that backgroumd radiation happens to be seen now, exactly after 14bil years, which just happens to be age of universe? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c32zmh/we_use_redshifting_to_determine_expansion_rate_of/ | {
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"You can determine the distance to a galaxy by standard candles ir astronomical object with know luminosity.\n\nA Type Ia supernovae happen when a binary white dwarf start stat to accrete matter from the companion star ans when it have a mass of 1.4 time the sun it will explode in a Type Ia supernovae. So it always have the same mass and it releases the same amount of light. We can then calculate the distance by looking at how bright it is to us.\n\nYou can also determine the rate a star move relative to us from the red shift of the light. The result is that you can plot the speed of a galaxy versus the distance to it and you get a graph [like this](_URL_0_). So by knowing both the distance and the speed of the galaxy we can determine how fast universe expand\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBecause light take time to we have snapshots of galaxis that are a few million of years to many billion of year old. So we see what the looked in the past when the light was emitted. So we do not just have observe for 100 years but snapshots of galaxsis spread out over billion of years.",
"Ok, so, here's the deal:\n\nStarting in 1919, there was a guy working at Mount Wilson observatory in California named Edwin Hubble. You might recognize his name from a certain orbital telescope, but he has a list of discoveries to his credit about as long as my forearm. He's considered one of the most inportant astronomers in history.\n\nAnyway, in 1924, Hubble was looking at a faint, fuzzy patch of light in the constellation Andromeda that was then called the Andromeda Nebula , and another in Triangulum, when he noticed something interesting: some of the dots of light in these nebulae were chamgimg in brightness in exactly the same way as a type of stars called Cepheid Variables do.\n\nWhat was significant about this is that the way a Cepheid Variable changes in brigjtness is dorectly related to how much light it puts out: timr how long it takes to go from maximum to minimum and back to maximum, do a straightforward calculation, and BAM! you know how bright the star really is. Compare that to how bright it looks, and with an even simpler calculation that any high school algebra student can perform, you know how far away the star is.\n\nWell, Hubnle found out that the stars were unbelievably far away; the one in Andromeda, for instance, was two and a half million light years away, and the one in triangulum was even further out. He very quickly realized thst these fuzzy patches of light were whole galaxies in their own right, millions of light years away. He went on to calculate distances to 24 galaxies in total.\n\nOk, so, we have distances. What about redshift?\n\nWell, Hubble got that one, too. In 1929. hubble took these 24 galaxies and looked at their spectra. When he had another \"Huh, that's funny...\" moment: the further away a galaxy was, the more its light was shifted toward the red end of the spectrum, and in a simple linear relationship (except for the very closest one, Andromeda, which is blueshifted).\n\nOk, so, what does that mean? Well, it meand thst all those galaxies (except Andromeda) were moving aeay from Earth, and the farther away they are, the faster they're receeding (except Andromeda).\n\nThe implication is thst, when you look at long distances, the space between galaxies os expanding. The more space there is between galaxies, the faster that expansion makes them move.\n\nThe sole exception is Andromeda. It's actualky moving *toward* the Milky Way, because it's close enough that the mutual pull of the two galaxies moves them togethet faster than expanding space is trying to carry them apart."
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k1ybx | non-mendelian inheritance | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k1ybx/eli5_nonmendelian_inheritance/ | {
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"In Mendelian inheritance we are looking at the most simple version of genetics. You have yellow, green, wrinkled, or smooth seeds, tall and short plants, and little to no intermediates. This is how the units (alleles) of heredity were discovered.\n\nNow look at the height of a group of young men. You have about 30 of them. 2 will be around 5 foot 4 inches or shorter. 2 will be around 6 foot 5 inches or taller. The rest will be intermediates that generally form a shape called a bell curve (or a standard distribution). There will be more in the middle and fewer at the ends. This is an example of polygenic inheritance (inherited by more than one gene). Isn't it great that biology words are self explanatory sometimes! Let's just say there are 4 genes that control height A,B,C,D. The tallest man had ABCD, the shortest had abcd. The rest were a mix, for example AbCd or ABcd, so they will display a height somewhere between the tallest and shortest man. \n\nTwo more good examples of a non Mendelian inheritance would be incomplete dominance and codominance. Incomplete dominance is when two traits, lets say A and B are both expressed. So if A is red and B is white, you will have a pink flower. In codominance, both traits are expressed, so if you A is red and B is white, you would end up with a white and red spotted flower. Another good example of codominance is the ABO blood groups. You can express A, AB, B, or O. Since O is basically nonfunctional you cannot express AO or BO, it just shows about the same trait as A or B. \n\nIf you see a trait that displays a pattern that is not easily defined by a punnet square, it is likely polygenic. If it displays blending, it is incomplete dominance. If you both traits expressed, it is likely codominance. \n\n**Edit:** To clarify for anyone unfamiliar with punett squares and genetics, small letters generally represent mutated alleles that are non functional. For the example of the men above, the height represented by all small letters shows a man with mostly non functional genes for extreme height, whereas the tallest man has completely functional genes for height. For the ABO blood group, O is the nonfunctional antigen receptor, whereas A and B are functional, so only A and B can be expressed. ",
"In Mendelian inheritance we are looking at the most simple version of genetics. You have yellow, green, wrinkled, or smooth seeds, tall and short plants, and little to no intermediates. This is how the units (alleles) of heredity were discovered.\n\nNow look at the height of a group of young men. You have about 30 of them. 2 will be around 5 foot 4 inches or shorter. 2 will be around 6 foot 5 inches or taller. The rest will be intermediates that generally form a shape called a bell curve (or a standard distribution). There will be more in the middle and fewer at the ends. This is an example of polygenic inheritance (inherited by more than one gene). Isn't it great that biology words are self explanatory sometimes! Let's just say there are 4 genes that control height A,B,C,D. The tallest man had ABCD, the shortest had abcd. The rest were a mix, for example AbCd or ABcd, so they will display a height somewhere between the tallest and shortest man. \n\nTwo more good examples of a non Mendelian inheritance would be incomplete dominance and codominance. Incomplete dominance is when two traits, lets say A and B are both expressed. So if A is red and B is white, you will have a pink flower. In codominance, both traits are expressed, so if you A is red and B is white, you would end up with a white and red spotted flower. Another good example of codominance is the ABO blood groups. You can express A, AB, B, or O. Since O is basically nonfunctional you cannot express AO or BO, it just shows about the same trait as A or B. \n\nIf you see a trait that displays a pattern that is not easily defined by a punnet square, it is likely polygenic. If it displays blending, it is incomplete dominance. If you both traits expressed, it is likely codominance. \n\n**Edit:** To clarify for anyone unfamiliar with punett squares and genetics, small letters generally represent mutated alleles that are non functional. For the example of the men above, the height represented by all small letters shows a man with mostly non functional genes for extreme height, whereas the tallest man has completely functional genes for height. For the ABO blood group, O is the nonfunctional antigen receptor, whereas A and B are functional, so only A and B can be expressed. "
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1tls0n | stocks/shares of a company | I've always wondered how the basics of stocks worked. I understand that they're shares of a company that people buy/sell - what I don't understand is, if there's a designated amount of stocks/shares, where do the stocks people sell go before other people buy them, and how are there always stocks available for people to buy?
I feel like there's a really obvious answer I'm missing here.
For example: a company has 100 shares. I own 50, my friend (B) owns 25, and my other friend (C) owns 25.
I want to sell 10 of my shares. Where do these shares go?
My other friend (D) wants to buy 20 stocks, but all 100 of them are taken. Can they still buy 20 stocks?
Do these situations ever happen in the stock market, and if not, what prevents them from happening? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tls0n/eli5stocksshares_of_a_company/ | {
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"You cannot sell without a buyer and you can't buy without a seller; this is how the price is determined. Using your example, if you want to sell 10 of your shares, but you can't find a buyer, you'll keep lowering the price until someone buys them. Maybe no one was interested at $10 a share, but at $8.50 someone wanted to buy 5 of them and then at $7.75 someone else bought the remaining 5. \nNow the stock has a lower worth because it's valued at the last trade--which was $7.75 instead of the $10 it used to be worth. But someone thinks $7.75 is a great deal for this stock and wants to buy 20 shares! (This is your friend D.) But, someone already owns each of the shares, so he goes to the shareholders (really, uses the market) and puts in a bid for 20 shares at $7.75. No one wants to sell. He makes his bid higher, \"I'll buy 20 shares for $8!\" he says. To this, the guy who bought 5 for $7.75 says, \"I'll sell you 5 at $8!\" He sells his stock to D and now he made a profit. D can keep raising his bid until he has all 20 shares that he wants or one of the shareholders can sell at a loss.\nLiquidity is when a market moves a lot--share prices move up and down easily and frequently. When there are many traders, day traders for example, they help provide liquidity to the market. Because they don't care about the stock, they only care about turning quick profits, they are helpful to people who just want to sell or buy something and need people on the other end. I hope this was helpful! "
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tq20g | - how can a centrifuge create a vacuum? | I saw on a cooking show that you can use a centrifuge to separate the heavy components in a sauce from the water - that I get. What I didn't get was the host of the show was saying that the water was vacuumed off - and the machine itself was reading a net vacuum (14 mbar). How does this work?! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tq20g/eli5_how_can_a_centrifuge_create_a_vacuum/ | {
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"I could explain to you, how you can create underpressure in another container with a centrifuge, but that cook's explanation rather sounds like: Quick and half-wrong explanation that the audience will be satisfied with.\n\nWhat happens inside a centrifuge: You make the things inside so fast, that they are pressed to the inner surface of the rotating cylinder. The pressure to the surface is called centrifugal force. Since the parts of the sauce are liquid and can float around they start ordering themselves, so that the densest parts are closer to the cylinder's inner wall than the lighter parts. When every liquid is pressed to the wall, the air inside the centrifuge follows and is pressed against the surface of the liquids. In the middle of the centrifuge the pressure is lowered, because the air starts drifting aside.\n\nWhat confused me, when I first read your question is the following: The forces inside a centrifuge are those of heavier things pressing aside lighter things. Thus the water is kind of squeezed out of the heavier parts of the sauce. The \"vacuum\" in the middle (it's not really a vacuum, just a low pressure volume) does not actively affect the water.\n\nEdit: Reading it again I understood what you have written. Added the explanation.\n\nEdit 2: I should check grammar, before submitting my comments...",
"simpler explanation- when the centrifuge seperates everything because of the pull to the outside of the container, the air inside the container does the same. so if all the matter is pushed into the corners of the container, the middle is empty and thus creates a vacuum. this vacuum then allows the water to \"boil\" off (if the vacuum is maintained and strong) because the boiling point of water decreases in a vacuum."
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1vda8g | why has the recommended method for cpr been changed to compressions only? | When I first learned CPR, the method consisted of compressions mixed with breaths. The ratio of compressions to breaths changed sometimes over the years but you were always supposed to do both. As I understand it, compressions are to move the blood moving while breaths are supposed to keep it oxygenated. Now I've been seeing that Hands Only CPR is the recommended method. I don't understand this as what's the point of keeping blood moving if there's no oxygen in it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vda8g/eli5_why_has_the_recommended_method_for_cpr_been/ | {
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"Not many people know how to properly do CPR. Because of this, research has shown that people are more likely to help someone using CPR if it's hands-only. Hence Hands-only CPR is being recommended so that some help is actually given to the person in need of it.\n\nThey're not saying use hands-only instead of hands and breathing. They're saying if you know how to properly do CPR with hands and breathing, then do it. Otherwise stick to hands-only.",
"I believe that they discourage the average lay person from administering rescue breathing for a few reasons: 1. They probably don't have a face mask (to prevent the rescuer from getting any vomit in their mouth) 2. They probably don't know how to properly assess the patients airway to make sure it's open (and if it's not, how to properly open it) 3. Most people will try to empty *their* lungs into the patients lungs...That's a big no-no, you'll end up forcing air into the patients stomach and the patient WILL vomit. \n\nSource: I am a certified in Outdoor Emergency Care and CPR for Pro Rescuers. ",
"Hands-only CPR is a recommendation for people with very minimal training. The thought is that the most important thing to do is get that blood pumping. The compressions actually move some air in and out of the lungs anyway.\n\nThe confusion I'm seeing here is that \"Hands Only CPR is the recommended method.\" **It is not.** The best thing you can do is take a class on proper CPR and perform the compressions and the breaths.\n\nSource: CPR Instructor\n\nFun Fact: The song *Stayin' Alive* by the Bee Gees is about 104 beats per minute. The recommended cadence for giving chest compressions is 100 compressions per minute. Keep that song in your head and you've got the speed just about right."
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2z0lcp | why do we get more excited for food than water, when we would die much faster without the latter? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z0lcp/eli5_why_do_we_get_more_excited_for_food_than/ | {
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"I would expect you've never been *really* thirsty because of actual dehydration, because - trust me on this - a mud puddle next to an outhouse would taste like heaven then.\n\nUnder normal temperatures and activity levels, our bodies are crafted to become hungry well before we become thirsty, likely because high-quality food has traditionally been scarcer than water from our ancient ape days. \n\nAlso, we get a fair amount of moisture from the food we eat (don't believe that six-glasses-of-water-a-day crap!), so eating often solves both the hunger and thirst drivers at the same time."
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2aaavg | why do i feel depressed after waking up after sleeping in the middle of the day? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2aaavg/eli5_why_do_i_feel_depressed_after_waking_up/ | {
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"Loss of regimen can cause depressive thoughts. The again so can a 9 to 5 regimen. Fuck work.",
"I hate the feel of waking up at night. It might be 6pm or 3am, but nevertheless it makes me depressed",
"Hmm. And here I thought I was the only person to get depressed after sleeping long periods during the day.\n\n\nI guess Doob hit it right on the button.",
"Low blood sugar can also be a cause.",
"I know what you mean. On the occasions I wake up early, I feel relatively fresh and it's nice to see the morning and not miss it entirely. ",
"Just be lucky it only happens then..",
"Your body runs on a couple different rhythms. One the most important ones is your sleep cycle. By disrupting this cycle you'll have hormonal imbalances that will mess up your physiological state. Generally when this happens you feel groggy, depressed, inattentive etc. You can see the effects of endocrine changes in your appetite after when you have messed up your sleep cycle. "
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72j6qz | movie stars training routines | Why is it when you read about movie stars training for movies that they often have routines that start at 4am in the morning?
Is there a scientific reason for this? Is it because of higher testosterone levels in the morning? Or so they can get in two workouts per day? Or is it just a simple matter of having busy schedules?
Surley adequate sleep is required. 8 hours a night seems to be the concensus when building your body. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/72j6qz/eli5_movie_stars_training_routines/ | {
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"I can't speak to the physical benefits, but movie stars have to work out early because their shooting schedule is dictated by the sun. They have to do it before sunrise otherwise they might not get the chance. "
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2x6pfq | how does a popular website like _url_0_ get away with caller id spoofing and call recording when it is illegal in the united states? | So TIL that Caller ID spoofing is illegal in the United States [(Source)](_URL_0_) and I've known that call recording is illegal in a lot of states. I remembered theres a website called _URL_1_ which utilizes call recording and caller ID spoofing, so ELI5, how do they get away with this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2x6pfq/eli5_how_does_a_popular_website_like_prankdialcom/ | {
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"Because they are located outside of the US. Caller ID is a series of tones that are sent between the first and second ring. If you have an old analog phone, and you pick it up in the middle of the first ring, you can hear a slight hiss, that's the caller id data.\n\nSending your own caller ID data is trivial with VoIP, if you control the equipment.",
"A) Spoofing caller ID is only illegal if you're trying to use the false ID to commit fraud or do something else illegal (e.g. pretend you're some old lady's bank to try to get her to give you her password).\n\nB) In most places, it's only illegal to record a call between two people if neither of them are aware of it (e.g. you record a call between your wife and her suspected lover to see if she's cheating on you). If you record a call between yourself and someone else, that's fine."
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2vwpur | why do some eateries and gas stations have a "if you don't get a receipt at the time of your purchase, your food is free" policy? do people actually demand free goods upon not receiving a receipt? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vwpur/eli5_why_do_some_eateries_and_gas_stations_have_a/ | {
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"It forces the employees to generate a receipt which means it forces the employees to add something to the records about this purchase.\n\nAn absentee owner of some food place wants an assurance their employees don't hand over food, accept payment then claim the food was lost to spoilage while pocketing the money.",
"It is to force employees to generate records of sales. That way they have fewer opportunities to pocket the money. ",
"I take it you've never worked in retail. It blows the mind what people will do to get something free, even if it only amounts to a dollar or two.\n",
"LossPrev here ... The real reason is not the one most people presume. \n\nThe main reason is to keep the cashier from keeping the receipt, and using it to create a cash refund, and then pocketing the cash from the *refund*. ",
"[This woman](_URL_0_) certainly demanded her receipt."
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1s02uf | what are conservative critics actually implying about benghazi? | I've been wondering trying to figure this out for more than a year. What exactly are conservatives implying about Benghazi? It's never been clear. I'm not sure I understand. They seem to be implying...something. Maybe one of these things:
1. COVER-UP: Someone is covering up....something. What? We're never told. They just harp on a cover up of unspecified wrongdoing. Is the implication here that if the public knew the truth, Obama would have lost reelection? But what truth? That security was inadequate? Who is covering that up? Common sense tells us that if a facility is attacked, security is (by definition) inadequate. Has anyone ever claimed that security was adequate?
2. Obama sympathizes with the terrorists and sides with them (to some extent) against Americans. That's why he initially blamed the attack on the inflammatory video. The number of days in which he blamed the inflammatory video (before realizing it was a coordinated terrorist attack) is unsatisfactory. Congress must investigate this and understand the true number of days before he changed his mind!
3. Something could have been done to save the people in the compound, but wasn't, because Obama chose not to save them. But why would the President intentionally allow people to die? Is this the accusation?
Help me. I'm seriously interested. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s02uf/eli5_what_are_conservative_critics_actually/ | {
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"Blaming it on some youtube video was ridiculous. It happened because of targeted killings by JSOC. The truth is Obama has had more people killed under his command then Bush did. ",
"Mostly accusations that the administration either actively or passively developed a false media narrative that the attack was because of a video in order to deflect blame ahead of the election.\n\nTinfoil hat answer: There have been rumors that the mission was being used by a CIA operation to smuggle weapons out of Libya to Syrian rebels. The attack may not have been related to that, but it would explain why no one is really examining the motive and they seem to be pursuing the culprits on the DL (rather than identify them like suspects in other attacks in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, etc.)",
"I don't know that much about the situation, but since there are no answers yet I'll add a little feedback. I believe it's pretty well documented at this point that the Obama administration knew from day one that it was a terrorist attack and not a response to a video. Many Americans feel distrust towards him for \"lying\" or misleading Americans about an attack on US soil (embassy is considered US territory). It is also widely reported that there was a request by the compound for increased security that was either denied or ignored by the administration. This could have prevented American deaths. People feel this was Hillary's mistake but also blame Obama since he should be aware of what the people below him are doing. Lastly, people feel like he covered up the truth because they knew it would hurt him in the election. That is speculation but it does explanation potential motives. "
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xcxoy | why did hitler think blonde-haired blue-eyed people were genetically dominant when he had neither of those traits? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xcxoy/eli5_why_did_hitler_think_blondehaired_blueeyed/ | {
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"He thought *Aryans* were genetically dominant. The stereotypical Aryan was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, but that's just like the stereotypical Japanese person having straight jet-black hair; few people thought that you had to look like the stereotype to be Asian.\n\nIn general, the Nazi beliefs about race weren't nearly as extreme as people like to think. They *acted* on their beliefs in extreme ways, but the belief in white northern European supremacy was pretty widespread among white northern Europeans, and the Nazi version wasn't all that much different.",
"In the years leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire an historian called Tacitus wrote of the Roman encounter with the Germanic people.\n\nHe wrote of tall proud warriors, long blond hair, deep blue eyes, and pale skin. The greatest warriors Rome had ever seen, who struck fear into the hearts of the Romans soldiers merely by their sight.\n\nTacitus also wrote of how pure the Germanic peoples blood was, how they had isolated themselves from other peoples of the region.\n\nHitler was a fan of Tacitus' writings. Remember, Hitler was attempting to create the Third Reich, the third Holy Roman Empire.\n\nHitler did not believe that all Germans had these features, simply that those were the ideal example of beauty.\n\nEDIT: Source - Dan Carlin\n",
"Also Hitler actually had blue eyes.",
"Why are you arguing with everybody who took the time to answer this? You already have an answer in mind, so why are you picking fights instead?",
"OP is clearly drunk and/or English is not his/her first language.",
"From what I **heard**, during the Olympics in Germany, he pulled a random blonde-haired, blue-eyed man out of the stands and showed him off to the world as some sort of perfect specimen. I guess legend takes over from there.",
"What is your agenda? Your posts don't make sense.",
"I always assumed it was because we were beautiful people.",
"Successful troll is successful.",
"ELI5: How do you troll ELI5?",
"Science or stupidity? He probably just assumed.",
"I couldn't understand any of your comments. They just don't make sense.",
"OP is gonna love this thread in the morning.",
"ITT: Why I don't reddit while drunk.",
"So, cleverbot *does* have an account.",
"This is easily the most entertaining ELI5 post that I've ever read. Thank you for everything, OP!",
"ELI5: What is Hitler's Aryan? And Why were Aryan's the Superior race?",
"Because he was a psycho.",
"Damn. This is just one giant, horrific, catastrophically hilarious clusterfuck of OP saying people are wrong while adding barely coherent comments that just make people scratch their heads in confusion. A huge mess of oblivion and denying proof no matter how much it's in your face. Fuck. ",
"Damn good question sir.",
"Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did actually have blue eyes.",
"I don't get why people think this is a troll thread. Hitler didn't qualify for his blond-haired AND blue-eyed perfect person, so OP wants to know why he thought that way. ",
"Despite his flaws, He was no madman (though toward the end that may have changed) or monster, and was clearly not driven by ego...he was childless by choice despite being involved with a lovely younger woman whom he adored. Perhaps he was ashamed of his muddled (and partially jewish) ancestry, or of his health or appearance. (He may in fact have suffered from Parkinson's or syphilis! He never claimed to be an ideal German, despite being a decorated veteran.\n\nThough I expect an avalanche of downvotes, I do not think that Hitler was any worse than certain other historical figures such as Dick Cheney, Papa Doc, the Koch brothers, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, Rupert Murdoch...it goes on and on. Hitler was simply a product of his times and talents...perhaps the embodiment of the backlash of the crushing reparations demanded of Germany after WW1.\n\nOf course...none of this exonerates him of his crimes and sins. ",
"ITT: People who haven't gone through 8th grade history.",
"back in the roman day this cat named Tacitus(?) something like that, wrotr about his meetings with the germanic tribes, and really described them super romantically (kinda like how some have done with native american,eg: dances w/wolves) as being great huge men with blond hair and green eyes/blue eyes. And i think some of those writings were taken to heart by pro aryan cats back in the old germany days...somethin like that...",
"The supremacist attitude in Germany was the result of a few different things: \n\n* The idea that people's facial shapes determined, or proved, their personality. This idea started in France a while before Hitler was born. It was basically people misunderstanding Darwin.\n* The idea that a person's place of origin determined their personality. \"The German is at home near the woods, the brooks, the mountains. He's rich in imagination. The Jew is at home in the desert. He's emotionally barren.\" This sounds stupid to us now, but it was considered *science* by most of the population back then.\n* The fact that for centuries, Jews were not allowed to be part of guilds, since guilds were Christian. If you weren't part of a guild, you couldn't get a job. If you weren't willing to take Christian vows, you couldn't become a land owner of even (in many cases) work on someone else's land. The only jobs available for many Jews were therefore in money lending or simply within separate Jewish communities. This caused severe isolation, and as soon as the economy tanked, the Jewish moneylenders were blamed.\n* The fact that many Jewish communities promoted this isolation themselves (for many complicated reasons), and strongly opposed marriages between Christians and Jews. \n* The fact that casual racism was considered normal by everyone. On the one hand, this was people misunderstanding Darwin. On the other hand, it was just people being people of their time. The idea of seeing a Jew as a normal person was outlandish. \n* The fact that politicians needed a platform, and saying \"Oh, by the way, I'll get rid of some Jews!\" was just as normal back then as was saying \"I'll lower taxes!\". It wasn't a new idea that Hitler invented; it was a *mainstream, normal* way for politicians to gain popularity. A random empty election slogan. No one expected Hitler to really mean it, and no one expected that he meant murder.\n\nNow, add up all of the above, and add the fact that the economy was going down the drain. Hitler blamed the Jews, because it was simply the normal thing to do. And he built his propaganda on the image that's the opposite of the Jewish charicature: the German was pictured as blonde, blue-eyed, not Middle-Eastern in any way. It didn't matter that Hitler himself wasn't blonde. What mattered was that he evoked the German spirit, the woods, the brooks, the mountains, and the *difference* between Germans and Jews. The blonde hair wasn't meant to define the ideal person as an individual, it was meant as an icon for the difference between Germans and \"the enemy\". "
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2bil82 | why does a page that failed to load end up loading as soon as you hit the back button? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bil82/eli5_why_does_a_page_that_failed_to_load_end_up/ | {
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"The browser is waiting for all the data to finish transferring before it renders it. Hitting back stops the transfer and it renders the page. If you hit the stop button it would have the same effect. "
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3c7klo | why doesn't the un just bomb isis back to the stone age? | Excuse me for this naive question. But how come that the US, the arabic league etc. don't use all their force to annihilate these subhumans? Is it because they are hard to kill off completely? Or do they simply not care enough because it would be too expensive anyway? Or are they scared about people crying over collateral damage?
Just why? It makes me sick to my stomach. I know that there are 1000 other terrorist groups out there but maybe they should start with something... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c7klo/eli5_why_doesnt_the_un_just_bomb_isis_back_to_the/ | {
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"Well, problem 1 is that the UN doesn't actually have military forces to do the bombing. But we'll leave that aside.\n\nThe real issue is that, as we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, just bombing terrorists doesn't work. They hide amongst the regular civilians, and use innocent people as cover. Yes, we could hit their \"regular\" forces, but then they'd just dissolve and go back to being guerrillas. It doesn't fix the problem. You really need to have an overwhelming police force around to keep them in check. \n\nAs for why no one is willing to commit that amount of force, again, look at Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers sent, trillions of dollars spent, thousands of fatalities, and for what? We were able to keep \"order\", but it was still a failed state. It's the same with the territory taken by ISIS. It's a quagmire you'd be throwing money and men into, with no clear endgame. In many ways, the people doing the police actions might just be making things worse. After all, how many innocent people did the American military wind up killing? It's pretty much impossible to avoid collateral damage, and if you have to kill thousnads of innocent people to stop terrorists from killing innocent people, you're kind of just pissing in the wind. ",
"This has been asked here many times before. I'll just copypasta my last reply:\n\n > If geopolitics were so easy...\n\n > First off, as others have mentionned, there's the financial cost of such a operation. War is horrendously expensive, and I don't think many countries would be ready to foot the bill; they have other priorities, and understandably so.\n\n > Secondly, Islamist extremism is an idea, not a virus that spreads by contaminating people; you can't just bunch them all together and exterminate them. If anything, cold-bloodedly martyring them would only strengthen their cause. Heck, that's even how Christianity converted the entire Roman Empire!\n\n > Also as other people have mentionned, the West has done enough interventionism in the Middle East, since the last time it happened was a complete disaster.\n\n > But the real question is ... What next? Everybody in the region has an idea of how Syria should look like after the war, and most of these visions are incompatible with each other. Most Westerners seem to support an independent Kurdistan in the North, but Turkey already announced they would do anything in their power to prevent that from happening (and just look at what happened in Northern Cyprus). Iran, and by extension Russia, wants the Alawites to remain in power, yet everybody else doesn't - Assad was the reason the civil war started in the first place. The FSA is also popular in the West, but these guys don't seem to have their shit together; Syria would probably turn into a new Libya if they are put into power. And so on...",
"You can not drop bombs on a idea, concept, or system of belief.\n(See the 'war' on drugs.)\n\nPeople also annoyingly, when trying to bomb them, do not stand still. You bomb an area, not individuals. You shoot individuals, not an area.\n\nThe reason that we (whoever we is) do not bomb ISIS into the stone age is that we do not want to do it.\n\nWar is not an exact science, people that you do not want to kill will die and things that you want to stand will be destroyed. You are willing to win the war, or you are not. Currently there is not the will to win the 'war' against ISIS.\n\nThe number of United States troops that have died in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded 6,800 at the start of 2015. By definition this is acceptable, however bombing Mosques is not. You get the Gov't you deserve. \n\n"
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2y7irs | why, when i get a zit on my nasal septum, does it hurt so much? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y7irs/eli5_why_when_i_get_a_zit_on_my_nasal_septum_does/ | {
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"Because your pain receptors are highly concentrated there, since it's an important part of your body. More pain receptors = more pain. "
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6zkhdj | why do most stds spread via sexual intercourse and not through other actions like making out? | EDIT: Okay, I should clarify. I understand what STD stands for, I'm asking what exactly causes them to spread. Is the disease in the sexual fluids? If so, then do they spread if it's swallowed? Do they spread because the fluids get into the blood stream through genitalia acting as a semipermeable membrane and soaking up the fluids? Do they spread because they're being transferred directly into genitalia? Is it harder for males to get STDs because the fluids have to go through the urethra or is the urethra just as susceptible to intaking diseased fluids as a vagina? It would seem to me like the urethra is less susceptible because it's not a direct entry point into the body, even urinating afterward I feel like would cleanse it and dramatically reduce the chance of diseased fluids getting all the way "upstream" per se.
I'm curious, what it is about STDs that causes them to spread via sex and not other means (like making out). Is it mostly because of fluids that are excreted during orgasm? I feel like it would be harder for men to contract STDs as well since the fluids have a bit of a distance to go up the urethra if that's how it works. Can you contract STDs if no fluid excretion was involved, and again, how? Would it be from the skin absorbing the fluids? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zkhdj/eli5why_do_most_stds_spread_via_sexual/ | {
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"A bunch of STDs only spread through blood & sexual fluids, but not saliva. So most STDs won't be transferred through kissing unless your mouth or lips are bleeding somewhere. ",
" > Why do most STDs spread via sexual intercourse and not through other actions like making out?\n\nAn STD is by definition primarily transmitted via sexual contact. Diseases which are not mainly spread by sex are not STDs.\n\n > I'm curious, what it is about STDs that causes them to spread via sex and not other means (like making out).\n\nGenitalia have different kinds of mucus membranes from the mouth, so the vector is a bit different.",
"There's different answers for STDs, so I'll take you through each one. The major STDs are: Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Syphilis, Herpes, HPV (genital warts) and HIV. \n\n1. Gonorrhea: Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection caused by the microbe Neisseria Gonorrhoeae. This microbe has a predilection for infecting epithelial cells (such as those found in the urethra). It is actually able to both attach to the cell lining as well as to invade cells and live inside them. It is spread through sexual secretions (semen, vaginal secretions) when cells slough off into the secretions. It is completely possible to get gonorrhea in your throat, and is actually more common than you might think. It causes an infection that presents somewhat similar to strep throat. \n\n2. Chlamydia: Chlamydia is also a bacterial infection caused by the microbe Chlamydia Trachomatis. Just like Gonorrhea, it is able to invade cells, but chlamydia can only live inside cells (similar to a virus). It is spread the exact same way as gonorrhea, and can also infect the throat. However, Chlamydia tends to present with a cough as well as conjunctivitis (eye inflammation). \n\n3. Syphilis is another bacterial infection caused by the microbe Treponema Pallidum. It has a complex pathogenesis and life cycle and initial infection results in a chancre (a large painless ulcer, beware when googling images of this). It then enters the blood and lymphatics and disseminates throughout the body where it lies dormant for a while. Syphilis is spread by blood and bodily secretions (not saliva, due to unclear reasons, likely due to the presence of antibacterial substances). Syphilis can also be transmitted by oral sex, however it doesn't typically affect the throat. It tends to form a chancer on the lips or on the inside of the cheek. \n\n4. Herpes is a virus that is spread by direct contact. It can appear almost anywhere on the body, but is most common on the lips and genitals. \n\n5. HPV (human papilloma virus) is a virus that, like Herpes, is spread by direct contact. Only 6-10 strains (out of hundreds) actually cause symptoms-some strains cause warts, others are linked to cancer. The HPV vaccine protects against the strains most associated with warts and cancer. \n\n6. HIV is a virus that is spread in blood and bodily fluids (again, not saliva). It is only infectious if it is able to enter through and open wound and get into the blood. Anal sex inherently creates numerous microtears in the rectum, and thus increases the risk of HIV transmission (this is why homosexual practices are associated with higher levels of HIV transmission and thus why HIV was once considered a disease of gay men). It is theoretically possible to get HIV from oral sex, however I am not aware of any actual confirmed cases of this. HIV is destroyed by stomach acid, so it would have to infect its host prior to entering the stomach. \n\nThere are other STDs, but these are the most well known ones. "
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4zg9y2 | why do scientist focuses outer space discovery rather than exploring the sea bottom? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zg9y2/eli5why_do_scientist_focuses_outer_space/ | {
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"It is actually easier to explore space and mars than it is to explore the sea bottom. Water pressure is that big of a hinderance and a threat. ",
"There are scientist that study the oceans. Oceanography is the study of the ocean and there are different branches like chemical and biological. NASA even studies the oceans."
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26qqwh | amicus curiae briefs | I know they can benefit 3rd parties in court cases. But how do they do this and what are they in simple terms? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26qqwh/eli5_amicus_curiae_briefs/ | {
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"\"Are you not actually involved in the case at hand?\"\n\n\"Do you want to show off to your political partners that you have an active interest in how this country is run?\"\n\n\"Do you want to put those evil activist judges in their place?\"\n\n\"File an amicus curiae brief and don't worry about it being ignored!\"",
"Amicus curiae are \"friend of the court\" briefs. They allow third parties who may have an interest in a case to provide information to the court that can be considered while the judgment is being made. \n\nThis can benefit the third party in a variety of ways. One way is to provide a favorable precedent for a case between the third party and a fourth. Another is if the third party might be involved in a future similar suit with one of the two parties before the court, the third party may head off that other suit. "
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3602ih | where did the southern stereotype of a "hick" or "redneck" come from/start | It seems like historically white southerners were seen as very high class and posh, when did they begin to be considered "white trash"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3602ih/eli5_where_did_the_southern_stereotype_of_a_hick/ | {
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"I read somewhere (I believe it was a TIL) that the term 'Redneck' came from striking coal miners in Appalachian Mountains because they wore red bandanas around their necks as a sign of protest. "
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6f40r7 | why islam if often linked with acts of terrorism? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f40r7/eli5_why_islam_if_often_linked_with_acts_of/ | {
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"Their \"perfect words of God\" beliefs are incompatible with an evolving society.\n\nthe Quran orders muslims to spread and transform the world into a Caliphate.\n\nBecause most muslims are not terrorists, but most terrorists are muslims.",
"Al-Qaeda is an extreme Islamist militant organization.\n\nAnd there is ISIS (Islamist State of Iraq and Syria), another extreme Islamist regime. \n\nAnd there are many other Islamist terrorist groups in the world.\n\nSurely, there are peaceful Muslims, but when you realize most of the terrorists in the 21st century are extreme Islamists, you have to wonder what's wrong with their ideology.",
"Because of verses like \"And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing... but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah]\"\n\n\"Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you\"\n\n\"As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help.\"\n\n\"So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush\"\n\n\"Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people.\"\n\nYou can see more [here](_URL_0_) ",
"When was the last time you heard about a buddhist or jehova's witness committing a terrorist attack? Has anyone ever driven a truck into a crowd of people in the name of atheism? \n\nStereotypes exist for a reason."
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6kfabs | how do reddit bots like the "autotldr" bot work? how can it summarize a news article? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kfabs/eli5_how_do_reddit_bots_like_the_autotldr_bot/ | {
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"The bot's comments have a FAQ which should answer your question.\nIt rates the importance of sentences based on the frequency of words used."
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9zzwso | how all romaine lettuce could be contaminated and not just lettuce from one or two farms or producers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9zzwso/eli5_how_all_romaine_lettuce_could_be/ | {
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"The hard part is finding which sources were producing contaminated lettuce. The resulting disease is serious enough that it justifies proactively recalling all romaine lettuce until the issue is found.",
"The same E. coli strain found in sickened people across the country was also in Arizona’s canal water, which is used to irrigate crops.\n\nAmerica has poor regulation of water used on crops. Only very large farms, rather than all farms, are required to sample and test the water used to grow and clean produce. The E. coli tests the big farms use are ineffective. They don't measure for the specific types of E. coli that can make people sick.\n\nSix months ago, under orders from the President the FDA delayed implementation of better test requirements for 4 years. This will save growers ~$12 million dollars",
" > Yuma County is the winter lettuce capital of the world, supplying a whopping 90% of the nation’s leafy vegetables between November and March.\n > Up to 50,000 acres each of head lettuce and romaine are cultivated each year\n\nIt (almost) all comes from one place. Likely also goes through the same or related processing and distribution systems, for the sake of efficiency. So if any of it's contaminated, that could spread to or get mixed in with any of the rest.\n\n"
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8vdqmj | how is a 5000 pages long deal like the tpp constructed? | When a document contains that many pages, how many people work on it and organize it? Is there one poor person who has to read through the whole end product? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8vdqmj/eli5_how_is_a_5000_pages_long_deal_like_the_tpp/ | {
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"Hundreds of lawyers are collaborating to write up a deal like that. And yes, when they compose the end product, they will laboriously read through the entire thing and make sure it's all right. ",
"The negotiations of the TPP have [their own Wikipedia page](_URL_2_). It took seven years and nineteen rounds of negotiations lasting anywhere from four to eight days. The negotiations would be between teams of people from each country - in the United States, those teams would be helmed by the [US Trade Representative](_URL_1_). And of course there would be a lot of work outside of those formal negotiation rounds. \n\nIn just the first negotiation round, over [200 delegates met](_URL_0_), with over a dozen individual negotiating groups on various topics. In later negotiation rounds, in addition to the trade delegates, hundreds of stakeholders from interested parties also made presentations to the negotiators. It's basically a small convention. \n\nIn short, you're talking about hundreds at least and probably thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of man-hours in total across all countries. \n\nIt's unlikely that someone would have literally read through the entire thing - just like with legislation, the way this generally works is that individual people will have very specific and extensive knowledge about certain sections, and then they boil it down for higher-level people who are making high-level strategic decisions. Each country's team would have certainly read through the whole thing as a group and would have a very in-depth understanding of it - every word of this sort of thing has undergone extensive negotiation. "
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22kdo8 | how do we know that people with amnesia aren't faking it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22kdo8/eli5_how_do_we_know_that_people_with_amnesia/ | {
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"Very simply, we don't know for 100%. We can look at damage done, and brain scans, and see that there is a good chance that they have suffered from it, but we don't really have any concrete ways to verify. \n\nEdit: I suppose you could give them a lie detector test, and straight up ask them, but those things aren't very accurate and can easily be beat.",
"If someone commits to a lifetime of traumatic illness, who cares if they're faking it - I wouldn't even be mad. \n\nBut honestly. You can probably scan brains to point it out. Show them a picture of their mom and the brain lights up a certain way. \n\nAs a matter of fact, we figure out how the mind works by studying damage. So we are probably more suited to spot damage than knowing what normal is. ",
"Follow-up to this. How is someone with total amnesia still able to speak a certain language? Don't you have to remember all the letters and how words are formed and the meaning of all the words to be able to speak a language? ",
"Note to mods: I'm including an anecdote, but I have a real response as well.\n\n***\n\nAnecdote:\n\nThe year is 1995 and I'm in 5th grade PE playing flag football. I get hit in the back of the head by the ball. This causes me to be dizzy and I fall down several times, with the back of my head hitting the ground.\n\nI remember the football hitting me, I don't remember falling down (the teacher and other students told me about it), and I don't remember anything until class ended and I get back to my regular classroom.\n\nGet to classroom, and I don't know where my desk is. I decide to go desk by desk looking inside, thinking that if I see my stuff I'll know where I sit. Teacher is upset with me for not just going directly to my desk. I pass my desk, and now my teacher is really upset with me.\n\nI never said I had amnesia, but confessed that I didn't know where I sat and started crying. Still upset, she sends me to the nurse. Mom picks me up and takes me to the doctor.\n\nAlong the way we have to stop for a moose crossing the road. Its massive body is directly in front of us. While this was Upstate New York, it was still peculiar. The moose even made the local news (it was a small town).\n\nI have never had any memory of this moose.\n\nThat event happened almost 19 years ago. My memory would be faded and distorted even without a brain injury. To be honest, the main reason I believe I actually did have amnesia is I do not remember that fucking moose. I remember kids going on about it. I remember it being a news story. The fucker was not even 50 feet away from our car (according to my mom), and I have never had any recollection of seeing it. Not even a distorted one.\n\n***\n\nResponse:\n\nThe fact of the matter is that there is no testable way to prove amnesia. Various diagnostic equipment can detect head trauma, but not all trauma will show up ([Source](_URL_0_)).\n\nWhile you cannot prove amnesia, you may be disprove specific claims with their lying.",
"You mean, people with Changnesia?"
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24aq8m | when you hear "man accused of sex and drug trafficking found dead in jail cell", how do the inmates know what the guy was guilty of? couldn't he have easily lied to protect himself? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24aq8m/eli5_when_you_hear_man_accused_of_sex_and_drug/ | {
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"Yes, could have lied. But, the crime is public record."
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9ecq3k | how do we know that our calendar is accurate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ecq3k/eli5_how_do_we_know_that_our_calendar_is_accurate/ | {
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"The winter and summer solstices are easily known, so could be used to keep calendars on track. Besides, religious/mystic people even 2000 years ago would keep track. ",
"The calendar is based on the position of the sun relative to the other stars in the sky, as seen from earth. This is something that has been observed by humans since ancient times. \n\nSo even if every calendar-keeping device disappeared and every human forgot what day of the year it was, as long as we knew what position of the sun corresponded to what day on the calendar, we could figure out that today is September 9. There is then the issue of what year it is. The year number is of course arbitrary and varies among cultures, but human cultures are unlikely to lose track of years.",
"The current calendar year we use, counting from the birth of Jesus was invented in the year 525 and not popularised until around 800. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, changing the date by 10 days. \n\nIs it actually 2018 years since Jesus birth? Unlikely, but probably correct within 5 years. Prior to our current system of counting they would count the years the current king was in power. So if you use that plus astrological events, you can calculate what year things happened. "
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||
42ntsa | at what point, if any, are humans affected by electromagnetism? | Humans run via a series of (weak) electrical currents, I know this much. I'm curious to know if there's a point in which electromagnetism will affect the human muscle/nervous system, if at all. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42ntsa/eli5at_what_point_if_any_are_humans_affected_by/ | {
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"There are many different kinds of EM waves, distinguished by frequency (or wavelength, which is directly caused by frequency).\n\nHigh frequency waves like X-rays can give you cancer or kill you.\n\nSomewhat high frequency waves like ultraviolet can give you cancer or burn your skin.\n\nMedium frequency waves like microwaves can cook you, but only if you are exposed to a lot of them.\n\nLow frequency waves may or may not have any effect on you."
]
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|
1vd20j | how do cancer awareness walks or "walk for the cure" type of events actually help to cure people of cancer? | I'm constantly seeing these cancer walks, or other illness walks such as for juvenile diabetes. All of these people walk a bunch of miles and the organizations themselves promote these walks a ton.
How does getting a bunch of people to walk around together help to cure or treat someone's disease? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vd20j/how_do_cancer_awareness_walks_or_walk_for_the/ | {
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"Two ways it helps:\n\n* It raises awareness. A lot of cancer can be less dangerous if people take some efforts to get tested. Seeings these events makes people think about it, which definitely saves lives.\n* It raises money. Any medical research costs money, and this often goes to support that. It might also go to paying for cancer care for certain people/groups.",
"Its common knowledge that cancer settles into your feet when you sleep at night. By having a walkathon - you can actually crush the cancer that's in your body. but only if you catch the cancer early before the cancer is awake and redistributes itself throughout your body. That's why the walkathons always start in the morning. Hope this helps!"
]
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|
d2umrn | why does heat relax our muscles but makes meat tense up? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2umrn/eli5_why_does_heat_relax_our_muscles_but_makes/ | {
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"At that temperature your meat will also tense up lol. To answer your question. A little heat increases blood flow. Muscles become relaxed as a result. Intense heat dehydrates meat and makes it tougher",
"A hot tub is about 100F. An oven is going to be in the 300F to 450F range. You'll cook at that point as well."
]
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|
266ipn | why do advertisers(?) even bother posting ridiculous ads on the internet? | I just don't understand why someone would go through the trouble of spending money to make an advertisement that is something along the lines of "Doctors *hate* him" or "6 Simple Tricks to Increase the Size of your [genitals]"?
Isn't there a clear public consensus that no one should click on these ads? If it is as clear as I think, then why do firms continue to spend money on them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/266ipn/eli5_why_do_advertisers_even_bother_posting/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There is a sucker born every minute. ",
"These types of ads probably don't work on many of the people who see them, but the people they do work on can be a lucrative market.\n\nFor example, what if you could get $20 from every thousandth person who read this post?\n\nYou would get money from almost none of the people that read it, but you could probably turn a nice profit if you could get enough people to take a look. A million views would earn you $20,000, and only cost you about $3500 in advertising costs (based on average rates.) A net profit of $16,500 isn't bad.\n\n"
]
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|
3j60ba | why do vitamins taste so gross and are so large compared to other pills? | Seriously, I gag at least twice a week while trying to swallow my multi-vitamin. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3j60ba/eli5_why_do_vitamins_taste_so_gross_and_are_so/ | {
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"Because they contain 100 times more content than the average pill, all those vitamins put together start to add up. ",
"my tip for swallowing pills? Push your tongue against the back of your front teeth.\n\nOtherwise, your tongue will bunch up at the back of your mouth/throat.",
"I had this conversation with my primary care physician years ago when I had a laugh about how my multi-vitamin stank. If I remember correctly, he said it was mostly due to the B-vitamins (notably thiamine) and the yeast associated with B-vitamins."
]
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bpkuiu | why do hangovers get worse as we age? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bpkuiu/eli5_why_do_hangovers_get_worse_as_we_age/ | {
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"Source on this? Mine have actually gotten way more tolerable the older I get.",
"Well if you drink as much as I used to, you'd get one really bad hangover once every 3 months for a week. That's not healthy.",
"Your body just doesn’t work as well and is less efficient with age. I think it’s somewhere in your mid 20s when you physically peak, and afterwards you are in a perpetual slow decline.\n\nSpecifically your liver and kidneys don’t work as well.",
"As well as your body starting to decline generally, there is also a thing called \"kindling\". If you drink enough alcohol frequently, the \"withdrawals\" get worse, and part of a hangover is actually mild withdrawals. This doesn't count for everyone, but was definitely the case for me. This is why drinkers have a hair of the dog, it gets rid of that portion of the hangover. You're still dehydrated and lethargic, but you feel much better.\n\nN.B.: if you need a hair of the dog, you might wanna check your drinking habits.",
"Drink more water? Hydration is never a bad thing",
"I’m sure this has been said but your metabolism slows down with age meaning it’s a lot harder to metabolize alcohol as well as other fatty foods.",
"Your body breaks down alcohol into a somewhat more toxic chemical before you pee it out. As you get older and have more alcohol exposure, your body gets better at breaking alcohol into the more toxic chemical than the other one you pee out. This makes for a worse hangover.",
"You're dehydrated from drinking a gallon of coffee and a half a bottle of whiskey... Drink some water.",
"It’s not just hangovers. As you age you get less tolerant of any discomfort, like room too cold or too hot, too noisy, too anything. When my folks were in their 30s we didn’t have air conditioning. Nobody did. We never complained. It was a long time ago. As time and circumstances changed, and my folks were in their 80s, they would get all upset if the room temp was off by a degree or two. I’d remind them of the good ole days. When I was a teen we’d get plastered whenever we could and sleep all day the next day. Now, two Margaritas and I’m done. So, the hangovers don’t get worse, our tolerance of being miserable gets greater.",
"Seems like the overall answer is that they don’t. They’re more contingent on regularity of and/or habits around alcohol consumption than age.",
"I would also like to know why my hair is falling out, why I can't run as fast, and why I'm less attractive just because I'm 40 instead of 20. Why does getting old have to be like this?",
"Because you nearly destroyed your liver in your 20s?",
"getting drunk is, biologically speaking, a gentle form of poisoning yourself. In your prime, your body can generally deal with it well enough as long as you're not stupid about it, but as you age, your body's resilience declines in a lot of areas, including your liver and kidneys, which specifically have to work on metabolizing the alcohol out of your system.",
"25+ years of increasingly hard drinking here. Used to be I could drink 4-5 shots and be wasted. Now I can down a litre solo and still function. The hangover has more to do with preparation than the alcohol itself. Hydration is #1!!, drink a glass or 2 of water while you are partying. Helps tremendously with the morning after. The hangover \"headache\" is caused by your brain literally shrinking due to water loss in your body. Also, always start your night (or day) with something solid in your belly. Those 2 tips will get you on the fast track to Alcoholic with Cirrhosis.\n\n-I'm not just a member...",
"Protip: Just drink every night so you stop noticing the difference between a hungover morning and not",
"Older bodies take longer to recover from ingesting poison. Liver and kidneys not as effective, efficient as those in younger bodies.",
"I'm 37 and have actually quit drinking due to the intensity of the hangovers. When I was in my early twenties I could pop right out of bed and head out to work with no problems. Then the hangovers started lasting days in my mid thirties and I'd feel like utter death. I hated it. Quiting was the only option."
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1vyc5y | why can i become so cold so fast, but take so long to warm back up? | I left my toasty apartment to take out the trash in 6 degree (F) weather and my face and hands almost instantly froze. My face stayed tingly and my fingers stiff for a good 10 minutes after returning to my apartment. I was only outside for about 90 seconds! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vyc5y/eli5_why_can_i_become_so_cold_so_fast_but_take_so/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Because your body needs to burn a specific kind of fat called brown fat. It is called that because it has a lot of mitochondria, the energy factories of cells. Another factor is that your body mostly cares about keeping your core up to 98.6, your skin isn't as important. "
]
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[]
] |
|
2cf3qj | how did geese learn they can cross the road and cars will stop for them? | Every time I see a family of geese crossing the road, I fear that some one will get impatient and run them over. Yet the geese continue on waddling at their pace and cars wait until they've successfully crossed the road. Are geese dumb? Do they have no fear of cars? How did geese learn they can cross the road with confidence they will not get murdered by the large vehicles they are walking right in front of? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cf3qj/eli5_how_did_geese_learn_they_can_cross_the_road/ | {
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"text": [
"how did YOU learn it was OK to cross the road?\n\n\none goose takes the plunge......the other goose sees that cars stop for them.......that goose decided to walk across also, sees cars stop for him....so on until it becomes normal.\n\n",
"Geese don't give a fuck, they do what they want. ",
"I would say they didn't learn shit. They just walk on the path they choose and motorists decide to break for them. It would be frowned upon if someone in a car just plowed through a bunch of geese but nobody gives a shit about the racoons/squirrels/possums for some reason.",
" > Every time I see a family of geese crossing the road, I fear that no one will get impatient and run them over\n\nFTFY.\n\n",
"Unfortunately some people do run over them. Most people don't because they're a protected species (the Canada goose is, anyways).",
"You mean how did people learn to stop for geese? Geese are dicks, that's how.",
"Geese are fuckin jerks and you should run over their whole family.",
"I've watched crows try the same thing after seeing the geese. Doesn't work as we'll."
]
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