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5oism1
|
is there a reason why so many tech companies, game developers, and startups are based in california, compared to other regions?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oism1/eli5_is_there_a_reason_why_so_many_tech_companies/
|
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"Many of the companies (going back to 60's) were founded by Stanford professors and students, who hired other Stanford students. The concentration of technology skills fueled new ideas, some of which became new companies. Other companies sought out the area because of the concentration of skilled workers to hire. So it became a virtuous cycle of like-minded engineers, programmers, etc. flocking to the area to work for the tech companies, some of those people starting more tech companies, hiring more people, etc. Along side this, the financial community developed, too, with numerous venture capital firms popping up to finance these new tech companies.",
"California has some of the best technology schools in the country, and they have the talent pool and the infrastructure to support technology well. They also have a lot of space.\n\nIf you are a small company looking for a location with both quality employees and potential business partners and investors nearby, California is your spot.\n\nIf you are a big company wanting to set up a huge tech campus within driving distance of a lot of qualified engineers, there are just not a lot of places on the East Coast you can do that.\n\n"
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
a0rcl4
|
if the body can heal from small wounds ( burns, cuts, breaks), why can't it come together to fix bigger wounds (dismeberment)?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0rcl4/eli5_if_the_body_can_heal_from_small_wounds_burns/
|
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"For cuts/burns/breaks the cells from the neighbouring undamaged area will heal over to the injured side. When you chop off an entire arm, the neighbouring site (like your armpit) doesn't have the cells/info to code for growing an entire arm. Same reason why 3rd degree burns can't heal on their own, need skin graft (cos too much of cells damaged for it to heal over).",
"Tissue needs blood flow to bring in platelets, and other blood factors that are necessary for tissue repair. Also in larger wounds you can hemorrhage for damage to several small and large arteries and vessels."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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||
67w19k
|
intuition of electric flux
|
Are there any analogies to electric flux, like there is with water and electricity? The math is fine, but I can't really visualize any of it.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67w19k/eli5_intuition_of_electric_flux/
|
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"Think of electric lines as paths of water coming from a fountain except the top is a ball and sprays water in every direction rather than just up. When you increase the pressure of the water, more water comes out from the fountain per second. So the charge is an analogy for charge and the speed of water flow is equal to the electric field strength. \n\nNow suppose you make a square out of sticks or something and hold it up to the fountain so water flows through the middle of it. The total amount of water going through the square is an analog of flux. You can increase it by two different ways: increasing surface area, or increasing the electric field (rate of water flow).\n\nNow suppose you surround the entire fountain with these squares so all the water goes through these squares. The total flux is going to be the same no matter how big you make the net of squares or what shape it is. The only way to increase the rate of water going through it is to increase the rate of water flow, which comes from increasing water pressure. That's Gauss' Law: total flux is proportional to the charge inside the surface through which the flux is being measured through.\n\nHope this helped, I'd love to clarify if I was unclear on something. "
]
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[] |
[] |
[
[]
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|
qg1c9
|
the safety of flying/airplanes
|
Hi all, I am hoping someone on here can help me with one of my biggest fears, flight. I have been on multiple multiple planes since I was a child but my fear of them has grown exponentially as I get older for no apparent reason. This fear has gotten so bad that last time I was on a longish flight (5 hours) we went through a bit of rough turbulence and I (at 26) am in silent tears and in a panic while everyone around me is still sleeping.
My husband is always telling me about how planes are much safer then cars but that does not really help much as he doesn't really have any proof. We are going on vacation in a week and have a 3 hour flight there and back so I am trying to find a way to overcome this fear and thought maybe being more informed of the dangers/safety of flying would help?
The worst part for me is take off, that feeling of lifting up and the slight incline just terrifies me so that I break out in a sweat and almost bruise my husband hand from gripping, I know this isn't rational but why? Turbulence is almost as bad.
So if someone could patiently explain to my like I am five how it is that thousand and thousand of people go up everyday and the vast majority are perfectly fine I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you =)
Edited to add: Ok well I have gotten some really good advice on the safety of flying, any words on how lift-off works to calm my fears of that since that really is the worst of it most of the time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qg1c9/eli5_the_safety_of_flyingairplanes/
|
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"Following an approach used by several writers,[3][4] one can compare the likelihood of a fatal accident while driving and while flying with a scheduled airline. This is most meaningful for trips in which either mode of transportation is a reasonable alternative. For the U.S., a typical trip of this sort is from the Boston, MA, area to the Washington, DC, area, about 6 hours door-to-door by air travel and 7 hours door-to-door by automobile. To compare typical risks, one can use the **U.S. average fatal automobile accident rate of 1.5 per 100 million** vehicle-miles for 2000[1] and the **U.S. average fatal scheduled airline accident rate of 0.18 per million** flight segments for 1995-2005:[5]\n\n_URL_0_\n\nthe largest part of the risk of flying is the risk incurred driving to and from airports (0.6 while driving to/from the airport vs. 0.2 for the flight itself).",
"Statistically, you're much much less likely to be involved in some sort of accident in a plane than in a car. So you're question is why?\n\nBasically, the airline industry has a lot of monitoring and regulation to ensure that planes, pilots, and the system are organized to limit risk and danger. \n\nThere aren't really any such standard for driving a car. Any idiot can drive around drunk in a piece of shit car. ",
"**[This thread](_URL_0_)** should pretty much take care of it all for you.\n\nAlso, it's not \"the vast majority\" of people who fly safely, it's more like \"999,999 out of a million\"."
]
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|
4ixt1r
|
why does urine spiral? is my urethra rifled like a gun?
|
Title
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ixt1r/eli5_why_does_urine_spiral_is_my_urethra_rifled/
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"It's a result of being forced through a slit-like opening, and it's an advantage because it keeps the stream together further away from you ",
"I ... I can't believe I know this.\n\nIt's fluid dynamics.\n\nAs the urine travels down your urethra it is under almost equal pressure from all sides. As the liquid escapes it loses contact with the vessel.\n\nThrough a process called adhesion the water in your product will experience a drag effect as the contact with the waste channel is extinguished. This drag is greatest in areas that contain the most perturbation.\n\nThe shape of the orifice that produces the stream produces the vast majority of the perturbative influence.\n\nIn this case the opening is a slit which produces semi-toroidal flows in the medium at the polar vertices.\n\nCombine these forces (The sudden loss of pressure, the semi-toroidal flows, and adhesion) and the net effect is a torsion force on the stream.\n\nThe torsion force impels the fluid to twist and cohesion (water molecules are kind of like tiny magnets and really want to stick together) keeps the stream together.\n\nThere you have it. Why your urine spirals instead of just flowing out like a garden hose.\n\nEDIT: changed adhesion to cohesion in the last bit, my mistake(I typed this at work and didn't take the time to proof-read). Also; to those pointing out the navicular fossa you are correct in the biological sense. I was going for a my physics based approach, I apologize for not being more clear.\n\nLastly; thanks for the gold you wonderful redditors, you guys rock!",
"I read that this only occurred in males and that the spiral action helps to keep the urethra clean. Hence an additional reason why women are more likely to get uti's, they lack that helpful cleaning action.",
"Yes, this is actually quite a fun fact fact that little people know of. Male penises have twists at the urethra, so yes, they do have rifling. Females do not however.\n\nEdit: Why the downvotes?",
" > rifled like a gun\n\nNot exactly, but the design of the male urinary meatus (\"opening\") does indeed impart a spin on the urine stream, making it aimable.",
"Wait, seriously? It spirals??? I am female but have potty-trained many boys ( I teach special-needs preschool) and I've never noticed this. This is.... Weird. Are you sure?",
"Does it spiral the other way in the southern hemisphere? ",
"So how does it come to pass that at times I piss in two streams?",
"Real question: how did you figure out your urine spirals?",
"The pee does not actually spiral it just looks like it. \nWhat you see is the slit making a flat stream which is fastest on the outside. Water tension holds the stream together and air pressure helps a little too. This gives the effect of top and bottom fins early in the stream. When the stream joins back up it ripples in the other direction and so on until the energy is gone..",
"ELI5: why does OP take an answer from a previous post on female / male anatomical differences and pose it as a question? For karma, that's why. Still interesting.",
"There is a kind of rifling on the interior surface of your urethra, but it is flexible, like a hosepipe, so any deformation (like maybe lying on it over night) may distort the stream. Combine that with distortion of the external meatus (or opening) and you can end up with a stream that bifurcates(splits) when you start urinating.",
"Does it spin the other direction below the equator ?",
"This was actually an /r/todayilearned post a few months ago\n\n_URL_0_",
"The flow has so much energy in it that small perturbations can grow until they're too big and break the stream.\n\nTurbulence is the word. The fluid sticks to the walls and itself. At the wall, this force keeps the boundary layer almost still. Above it, the next layer flows faster, and so on. Between each layer there is a viscous force. In slow viscous flow, this force is small enough to be within the ideal or \"simple\" regime, meaning that the force and deformation are directly related, i.e. viscosity is single number not dependent on anything. So this is like a crowd walking slowly and not elbowing each other. But when the \"strength\" of the fluid is exceeded, the momentum of the fluid elements is too large for them to behave well; they crash into each other, faster elements elbowing their way through impolitely. This is called \"turbulent flow\".\n\nThis has an implication for flow stability. In viscous flow, instabilities are damped, because the force against them is proportional. In turbulent flow, an impolite fast element can simply bash through the nice layers flowing at different speeds. This creates not just linear motions but rotations (see the video [here](_URL_1_)). Because the fast-flowing elements have a lot of stored energy, once formed, the rotational instability doesn't stop but grows exponentially, because it feeds from the excess energy contained in the flow.\n\nAside from the giggle factor, analysis of flow instabilities is important in engineering applications. Extrusion of plastics into fibers such as nylon filaments is an example. Explosions of rocket engines are an example of how destructive flow instabilities can be if allowed to grow unchecked. For example, early prototypes of [Rocketdyne F-1](_URL_0_) (the first stage engine in the moon rocket Saturn V) had an annoying tendency to suddenly blow up, which had to fixed before they could be used.",
"Yours spirals? Mine comes out as a mist.",
"Never knew about this because vagina. My pee stream is too stealth. I learned something new today thank you!",
"/u/DrLeah: \n\nGuys have a bulge of the urethra at the tip of the penis, called the navicular fossa, that causes the urine to spin and make a straight stream while girls don't and end up with a less organized stream of pee.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Why do I always read the title as \"Why does spine urinal?\" ",
"Your urine spirals? What the fuck.",
"TIL people take facts they learned two weeks ago, from Reddit, and ask them again for Karma...",
"Spiral? In the mornings my shit is spraying 5 different directions.",
"The real question is does it spin in reverse in Australians?",
"I don't think mine does! Is there something wrong with me!?",
"I have an embarrassing edition to this. \nI am a 41 year old white male...in case that matters. I grew up in a small southern town. We really did not have the greatest selection of doctors. When I was 4, I began complaining about my penis burning all off the time. It happened mainly after I had a bath. My mom carried me to a pediatrician--several actually--and the general conclusion was that my pee hole was to small for the amount of urine and the force of my bladder muscles. They decided to extended my pee hole slightly by making an incision. And, yes, this hurt like fuck!\n\nFlash forward to adult years...My pee barely even spirals. I have to be careful not to splash. I subsequently found out that I have a severe allergy to many soaps and shampoos; if I use certain ones today, I still burn the same. Basically, I was misdiagnosed.\n\nThe extra wide opening has left me with a scatter gun instead of rifle trajectory. Kind of neat for some things, and horrible for others.",
"The urine stream *appears* like it is swirling, but in reality it is not swirling, **it is oscillating**, that is, the stream's cross-section becomes thicker and narrower as it travels down the air. \nAn easy way to visualize this is to think of a single drop. If the drop is not perfectly spherical, the surface tension tries to reduce its surface energy and make it spherical. However, because urine (mostly water) is not very viscous, the surface tension overshoots and makes the droplet flat. This cycle will repeat until the magnitude of the viscous and surface tension forces is equal.\n",
"Okay, lots of answers that are unnecessarily complicated. Am soon-to-be PhD in fluid dynamics, so here goes my attempted ELI5 answer. If anything is too much, I'd be glad to edit!\n\nThe pee isn't actually spinning (that much), it just looks like it. The more important thing is, as we've already talked about, the pee-hole isn't a circle.\n\nImagine a rubber circle. Now pull on two sides to stretch it to an oval. When you let go, it doesn't just go right back to a circle. Instead it crashes inward, pushing the top and bottom out and making an oval the other way (where the skinny part is between your hands and the long part is up and down).\n\nYour pee wants to be in a circle, but your peehole is an oval. So, the pee tries to go back toward an circle and goes past it to an oval the other way. It's actually going back and forth between the two oval shapes as it flows.\n\nFor a bit more science, the stretchiness is due to surface tension. Water molecules like other molecules, so they pull them close. The ones in the middle of the water have friends all around and are pulled equally in every direction. The water molecules on the outside only have friends around half of them. This means that they are pulled more toward the water than to the air around them. When a bunch of water on the outside is pulling toward the water, it's like a circle of people holding hands around a bunch of friends inside. Surface tension is what allows bugs to walk on the ceiling and walls and it's also why rain drops stick together.",
"it, spirals?.....ill be right back, need to check something...",
"I feel like I may not be paying attention...my pee looks like a solid stream not a spiral. Do I need to go to the doctor?"
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin%E2%80%93Helmholtz_instability"
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7ftabx
|
why is it as kids, we could eat candy/sweets all day long, but as an adult, i'm done after a single cookie?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ftabx/eli5_why_is_it_as_kids_we_could_eat_candysweets/
|
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"Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Why is it when we are younger we like sweeter food and can eat large quantities of them. But as adults we tend to like more fuller and bitter flavors, and sweeter foods can sometimes be \"too rich\"? ](_URL_2_)\n1. [ELI5: Why do kids love sugar? ](_URL_4_)\n1. [ELI5: Why do young children seem to be natural born sugar fiends? ](_URL_3_)\n1. [ELI5: Why do kids like sugar so much compared to adults? ](_URL_0_)\n1. [ELI5: Why as a kid do we prefer sweet foods, but as an adult we dont as much? ](_URL_1_)\n",
"Humans in general are programmed to like sweets because they are high in calories. Back in the caveman days, we had to hunt and forage for food, and there was no way to really store much for long. We no doubt went hungry often, and gorged ourselves when we could.\n\nNow, on top of that, our kids need extra calories because they're building so much extra body mass. They have to be able to stuff themselves more than an adult in order to survive the occasional period without food as well as continue to grow. Kids can eat more of everything, relative to their size. When's the last time you could eat an entire pizza by yourself? Not a problem when you were a kid."
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ngsnl/eli5_why_is_it_when_we_are_younger_we_like/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32a6zq/eli5_why_do_young_children_seem_to_be_natural/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/224fwp/eli5_why_do_kids_love_sugar/"
],
[]
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||
uvnmm
|
quasars
|
What are they?
What is significant about them?
Are they like Black Holes?
What is the nearest quasar to Earth? What does it mean for Earth?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uvnmm/eli5_quasars/
|
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"Quasars are currently assumed to be the extremely energetic centers of very very distant galaxies, probably caused by a black hole at the center of each. \n\nI do not know offhand what the closest one is, but since they are very far away, they are also very far in the past. Our own galaxy might have been a quasar billions of years ago. \n\nThey are significant because 1) they offer a glimpse into the very early state of the universe, and 2) since they can be seen billions of light years away, the must have been BRIGHT AS HELL. \n\nEdit: spelling"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
5oj8mj
|
how do cells know when to stop growing on the macroscopic level?
|
i get how cells replicate etc but what always confuses me is how they know when to stop growing on the macroscopic level. as in, how do they form the 'human' shape on the macroscopic level.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oj8mj/eli5_how_do_cells_know_when_to_stop_growing_on/
|
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"The processes involved are incredibly complicated, but I'll do my best. \n\nWe start off as just a single fertilised egg. This egg contains different chemicals which are distributed differently in different parts of the egg. As this cell divides and becomes more cells, the cells that are created have different amounts of each of these chemicals. [See this image.](_URL_1_)\n\nThese chemicals are the first way in which cells know they are different to other cells. These localised factors mostly determine polarity, e.g. which cells will become the front and which the back.\n\nFollowing this, cells communicate with each other to determine their ultimate fates. For example, one group of cells that know they are in a certain part of the growing organism because they have a certain cocktail of chemicals will release a certain chemical. Nearby cells that receive lots of the chemical will know to become a certain thing, those slightly further away will know to become a different thing, etc. Furthermore, a different group of cells may release something different and cells that receive a lot of chemical A and a little of chemical B will become one thing, while the cells that receive lots of chemical B and a little of chemical A will become another. \n\nFor example, in the developing spinal cord, there is a roof and a floor. The roof cells release a chemical called BMP, and the floor releases a chemical called SHH - [see here](_URL_0_). The cells in the spinal cord that receive lots of BMP and a little SHH become sensory nerves that will eventually travel to the skin. The cells that receive lots of SHH and a little BMP become motor nerves that will eventually travel to the muscle. \n\nI cannot impress on you enough how simplified this explanation is.\n\n"
]
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[] |
[] |
[
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"http://i.imgur.com/BlSnGaN.png",
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|
3hr4iw
|
how does immigration boost an economy?
|
I know it does (or at least thats what I've been lead to believe) but I never quite understood economics and how it worked.
EDIT: thanks for all the responses!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hr4iw/eli5_how_does_immigration_boost_an_economy/
|
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"more people, more workers, more labor, more production.\n\ntypically you don't immigrate retirees or orphans.\n\nIn the case of the US, latino immigrants and their offspring are the only thing growing our population, which is important as the world is accustomed to a certain ratio of workers to dependents.\n\nJapan on the other hand has issues because their population is declining and the working class is shrinking as the elderly are ballooning.",
"An economy comes from production, and having more people means you can produce more stuff. People say immigrants are going to \"take their jobs\" but the reality is that immigrants are also consumers, if you have more people consuming, you have more people to sell to, if a business has more people to sell too, they can make more of a product. And to make more of a product, guess what, you need more people! It creates a positive feedback loop",
"Labor is a resource that the economy uses to create output. More labor=more output. Immigration is good for an economy for the same reason a large population is: more hands to do more work."
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[] |
[] |
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[],
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4otw6s
|
why do most dogs move and make noise in their sleep, but most humans don't?
|
My dog will have vivid dreams multiple times a night - and when he has them, he will make little woofing noises and jerk around. I've seen plenty of dogs do this, but it's pretty rare for a person to do this, unless they have a sleeping disorder or something. Why do dogs not seem to have sleep paralysis as strongly as humans do?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4otw6s/eli5_why_do_most_dogs_move_and_make_noise_in/
|
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"All dogs are different, just like people. My dog looks dead when he sleeps. Sometimes I feel like a jack ass cuz I wake him up to make sure. ",
"According to my other half all I do when I'm asleep is move and make noise. It would explain why I wake up tired sometimes.\n\nJust how many people have you observed sleeping to come to your conclusion? ",
"I remember in High School (in the mid-70's, fuck I'm old...) being told that predatory pack animals display this behaviour to keep in touch with the pack during sleep and can afford to make noises because they are not threatened in their sleep by other predators on the prowl",
"I think that dogs usually have dreams of chasing something (animal, person), running with their owner or most likely protecting their owners. So you'll see them barking or running in their sleep. "
]
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[],
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ba81tg
|
why does fruit never have a consistent taste, but yet fruit juice always does?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ba81tg/eli5_why_does_fruit_never_have_a_consistent_taste/
|
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"eka6hm2"
],
"score": [
25,
3,
90,
23,
6,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The ingredients are never ‘just oranges’. They always have a preset amount of flavours and sugars they add to make it taste the same.",
"Because you get a different grow everytime you buy. A juice makers gonna be buying an entire crop, hence the uniformity.\n\nI think.",
"After processing, pasteurization, and storage, orange juice loses of its flavor and aroma so they add \"flavor packs\" (made of orange product such as oil and pulp) to reflavor it so it always has a consistent taste. There are different breeds of oranges which contribute to different tastes along with picking and eating them whether they are ripe enough or not.",
"It's statistics. The same reason all garbage trucks in your town smell the same.\n\nThe Law of Large Numbers means that the more times you do something, the closer you'll get to it's statistical probability. If you flip a coin you have a 50/50 chance of getting heads, but it's really not all that uncommon to get 3 or even 5 heads in a row. As you flip the coin more and more times the distribution of heads and tails over the course of all of your flips gets closer and closer to 50/50. Fruit juicers juice so many fruits that the large batch juice all tastes like the statistical average of each of the individual fruits. Just like the garbage truck.",
"From what I understand, they have something that's kind of like the equivalent of an OJ sommelier that tastes and alters the OJ (w/ other OJs) to make sure it tastes consistent",
"The orange juice you buy from the store doesn't even taste much like actual orange juice.\n\nWhen it says it is not from concentrate, it does not mean that the OJ is fresh squeeze in to a bottle. It is stored in oxygen free vats. Components of the OJ are separated and then later re-added to the liquid to make what they call \"OJ\"\n\nThe combination of pasteurization, the amount of time the juice is stored for, and the way the flavors are reintroduced results in the flavor being what it is.\n\nMany of the flavors in fresh squeezed OJ go away after a short time. Store bought OJ is still missing a lot of them.\n\nDifferent brands tend to have different characteristic flavors, but none are close to fresh squeezed. They're all pretty similar.",
"Homogenization. It helps to inactivate the pectin in the fruit which makes it more stable for a longer shelf life, improves the viscosity and texture and improves the flavor and sweetness as well. Between that and the large batches of juice averaging out the flavor from individual fruits you get a consistent, longer lasting and sweeter tasting product."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
4c5pz2
|
snapchat and pics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4c5pz2/eli5snapchat_and_pics/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d1f8rbm",
"d1f8ucc",
"d1f9lqj"
],
"score": [
6,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"As long as there is no nudity, you are fine. Try to keep it that way, as some < 18 kids (mostly male unfortunately) have been sued for possession and distribution of child porn. ",
"Technically you could still get in trouble as you could be \"Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor\". It really depends if people want to fuck with you. You have a legal right to some degree of privacy as long as you both use locks of some type on your phone and do not give the codes out, unlock them for anyone, or hand them to anyone unlocked. You might just set some of that stuff to auto-delete. You don't want to keep those pics when you are older.",
"I can't remember where I saw it and to be honest don't really want to end up on some FBI watch list looking for it but I think I remember hearing something that if both parties are underage and consent there is a law either active or in the works that would decriminalize this. Try googling it (again I would but not really trying to have that in my search history)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
51bgw2
|
if i were to shine only a red light at an object that only reflects blue light, would the object appear black?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51bgw2/eli5_if_i_were_to_shine_only_a_red_light_at_an/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d7aoe88",
"d7aomr5"
],
"score": [
3,
4
],
"text": [
"Assuming you find an object which absorbs all light but blue perfectly, then yes the object will appear black initially.\n\nHowever, as the object heats up due to the light it absorbs, it will start emitting radiation.\n",
"Absolutely!\n\nFor example: Old-school photographic darkrooms for black-and-white printing were lit by red lights only (because black-and-white photo paper isn't sensitive to red) - and everything you'd see in them would look either red, or black, or something in between. [Like this.](_URL_0_)\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.photofusion.org/_/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/darkrooms_BG_002.jpg"
]
] |
||
2my2k5
|
how do people come up with huge complicated equations?!
|
So I've been thinking about equations in math and stuff, and I was wondering: How in the world do people come up with stuff like that?!
I'm kinda assuming it's noticing a pattern, like with the Pythagorean theorem, I guess it would be a bit easy to notice a pattern that the sides of a triangle are in relation to the 3rd in a certain way. Yet, how would this work with an equation with tons of variables and such. Where would they even start?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2my2k5/eli5_how_do_people_come_up_with_huge_complicated/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cm8mzwq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"So you have to have an idea that there is a relation, like you say. Then you go take a bunch of measurements of the relative factors. In triangles this is \"easy\", in case of mass deficits (e=mc^2) etc this is much harder. But you take your data and find the association. \n\nFor a simple one, you could plot a scatter graph, hopefully they line up with little to no spread around the line (low R^2 value). If the line is just straight, then its a simple mx+c equation. If it's curved then you may have to transform the data, say by squaring one factor, or taking the log value etc. basically you do this and fuck around until you get the straight line.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1o31k2
|
why did the fur on our bodies dissapear if some humans moved to colder climates?
|
Did it have something to do with our temperature control system when we were running in our hunter gatherer past?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o31k2/eli5_why_did_the_fur_on_our_bodies_dissapear_if/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccocyli",
"ccod75a",
"ccodorf",
"ccodvkm",
"ccogioz",
"ccol7pg"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
47,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"mine hasn't dissapeared...",
"it probably had something to do with the release of heat from our bodies when we were doing a lot of running on the plains of africa. Those with less body hair were able to cool easier... just my guess, I am not an evolutionary paleontologist.\n\nOther than the hairs on our head/face, scientists havent found a compelling reason for any body hair on humans",
"Evolution takes a very long time. Even if evolutionary pressures pushed us to become more hairy, it would take a long time. Like millions of years.\n\nBut that's not necessarily the real reason why. The real reason is clothes. You see, evolution isn't some invisible force that makes cold animals grow hair, it is the result of many generations of breeding, and death. If man kind did not have clothes, then the skinny hairless humans would be more likely to die, and the hairy ones would live long enough to reproduce. Over time this COULD result in hairy humans in the north, and hairless in the south.\n\nHowever, since we wore the skins of animals to keep us warm in cold climates, hairless humans are able to reproduce just as much as hairy humans. Since neither one is better or worse than the other at reproducing, there is no selective pressure to make us evolve into hairy creatures.\n\nThere are also a lot of reasons why we became hairless. Having less hair, and sweating a lot, makes humans particularly good at long distance running (compared to other mammals). We don't overheat as quickly as other animals, which means we can run for a really long time. There was a good youtube video posted about this just the other day.\n\nTL;DR - We wear clothes, and therefore there isn't any selective pressure to become hairy.\n\n**EDIT**: Ok fine, it could have been possible for us to become furry again. I get it. That still does not refute my real point which is that since we wore animal skins to keep warm, we didn't need to become furry. No selection pressure means no evolution.",
"Humans originated in the hot savannah of Africa. The leading theory on how people back then hunted was running down animals for many miles. This was reliant on tiring the animal out from constantly running to where the human could get close and kill it. Because of the heat generated by running in the 100+ degree savanah, humans evolved to dump heat as efficiently as possible. This meant that we lost a lot of fur (except for some around the head and other places to shield from UV exposure)\n\n[Here's a video of modern African tribesman hunting using the techniques described above.](_URL_0_)\n\nFast forward couple hundred thousand years and people moved north. By this time people were intelligent and instead of waiting for evolution to take place which would have happened over thousands of years. The people realized they can take the fur of other animals and use it for themselves. This caused body heat preserving fur to no longer be an evolutionary variable. In essence, someone who was furrier than another wouldn't necessarily be more suited to survive and pass on their genes than someone who was hairless because both a furry person and a non furry person would both survive because of fur coats. ",
"The fur on our bodies was gone forever. Then we went north. We killed animals and stole their fur. Then we made big fire. Fire is warm. We live in north now.",
"I would bet sexual selection is a big part of it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
58mes2
|
how are original soundtracks for movies done?
|
Is the soundtrack done before the filming, is it done after or what? Often I'd watch an action scene in a movie and the music just fits perfectly - I understand that they cut and edit the already existing tracks, but the track itself often very much fits the tone and tempo of the action scene.
How does a composer know beforehand just from the script alone, how the tone of the music should be? What the melody should be? Or do they just look at the movie without the music and then determine, what would fit?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/58mes2/eli5how_are_original_soundtracks_for_movies_done/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d91xxpe"
],
"score": [
4
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"text": [
"There are a few ways that it's done.\nThe \"Best\" way for the composer is to be given the script, storyboards, be involved in the production, be able to bounce ideas off of the director, etc. Maybe also during filming the composer can bring in demo tracks and play them over the raw footage, and they can workshop the pieces that way. Then once the movie is edited to a point where the timing is relatively set in stone, the composer could then go through and solidly write the music to fit.\nAfter that, they'll do the thing you've probably seen footage of, where the composer and an orchestra have the movie playing on big screens while they play along to it. The orchestra members all have individual mics, and there are some room mics, and then it all gets mixed. Then the audio person takes the individual pieces and slots them in at the right time-code and bam, music to the movie!\n\nThe problem with this model is that it's pretty obviously extremely costly in time, and it's extremely costly in, well, cost. And while it might get some incredible music that goes incredibly well with the film, it's also a bit of overkill for something that generally the audience won't notice the vast majority of.\n\nSo where do we cut costs? Well, for starters, does the composer really need to be a part of the creative team during the filming? Maybe the director can find existing songs, and will choreograph things to those songs. Then they can hand of those songs to a composer and say \"Give me something like this\". A great example of this in action is the original Star Wars score - Lucas imagined Gustav Holst's \"The Planets\" while creating the film, and Williams then gave music that sounds generally like \"The Planets\"(Listen to Mars and The Imperial March right next to each other). Maybe the director has a feeling that they have in mind, and can just sort of say \"Hey I want this feeling\"(A lot of films work like this. Generally speaking, this is a composers favourite thing to get in a situation like this also.)\nAlso, maybe the director during the shooting knows pretty closely what the timing will be for a segment, and can give the composer a time like \"5 minutes of longing sadness, and then a quick cut to action\", and the composer writes about 90 bars of music at a tempo of 72 beats per minute, and then has an accellerando(getting faster) or rit(getting slower) to fudge the time, and then a sudden drum riff for the action. The composer can always go back later with the real film editing and change a bit, maybe take out or add a beat or a measure here or there, and make the music fit.\n\nThis also brings us to one of the secret weapons of composers: Math. Music tempo is measured in \"beats per minute\", and generally speaking there are 4 beats per measure(Though, yes, there are exceptions, but for the 5 in the ELI, let's just say there are 4 beats per measure). So at a tempo of 60, each measure is 4 seconds long. Most standard tempi have fairly easily broken down relationships with time. If you want 2 minutes of a march(standard tempo of 120), then I write 60 measures of music, and it will be exactly 2 minutes long.\n\nSo where else can we cut costs and time? Well, does the composer need to write all the parts for all the orchestra, or can they just give a few staves of music to an orchestrator, and the orchestrator turns what I'll call the \"raw music\" into parts and a full orchestra score? That way the composer can focus on the musical pitches and timings, and the orchestrator can focus on the sounds.\nAlso, if you have a big name composer, do they really need to be writing 90 minutes of music, or can they write the central themes, the big moments, and then have someone who isn't the big, expensive name, who can make the background music, that's in the same style, for the remaining time? That way you can also have the composer focus entirely on making great themes, and not have to worry about the grunt work of fitting it to a score. This is super common, where you'll have a \"composer\", but the composer is actually a staff of composers and orchestrators.\n\nNow the final cost saving method, do we need an orchestra, or can we do most of the score with, say, a Piano Quartet and then some instruments brought in for stinger moments, like a trumpet or a percussionist? And for that matter, if one of our instrumentalists plays a bunch of percussionists, can't we just record them playing all the parts, rather than having to hire like 8 percussionists for a recording session? For that matter, do we need real instruments at all? Most of Inception's soundtrack was the Edith Piaf song run through an FFT algorithm and slowed down by like 1000%. I've done a score that used a different algorithm(Granular Synthesis) to slow down pop tunes from the period that the piece was from. So even though I was a \"composer\", I didn't write a single note of original music.\n\n\nAfter all that stuff is done, it then also goes to the audio guy, who uses programs to mix, master, and fine-tune the timing so it matches even more perfectly with the film. In super-independent films, sometimes the audio guy is also the composer."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
9s1p8u
|
why does most processed meat cost less than cheeses? (specifically in european countries)
|
Isn't it much more difficult to raise an animal and then turn it into processed meat than laying a wheel of cheese into a cave?
Edit: Thank you everyone for the answers! I had no idea that there were that many cheese experts among us.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9s1p8u/eli5_why_does_most_processed_meat_cost_less_than/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e8ldnqj"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"Most processed meats are made with portions of an animal that likely would be just thrown away. It also has cheap fillers thrown into there which makes them even less expensive.\n\nCheese on the other hand is made with milk, which is not a throw away product. It also takes time to turn into cheese in most cases, it has to he aged to actually become cheese. I'm not referring to \"American Cheese\" which is basically just processed garbage."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2w03d8
|
what is the purpose of /r/ and why that letter?
|
Why does every subreddit adress use /r/ is there any subreddits that don't? Why the letter R is there any other letter in use?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w03d8/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_of_r_and_why_that_letter/
|
{
"a_id": [
"comebxi"
],
"score": [
18
],
"text": [
"Reddit *could* have used **_URL_1_ without the **/r/**, but if they did so, there could be a name clash. Imagine if I created a subreddit called \"submit\", then the address would be [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) - but this is obviously bad because such page is already reserved for a reddit feature.\n\nHence, Reddit chose to make a box. A box where you can put all subreddits in without fearing that their names can interfere with other important links. Such box is a folder called \"r\".\n\nWhy the letter \"r\"? Well, there is no need for it to be \"r\". It could have been \"s\" or any other name. \"r\" is logical because, obviously, it is a small R (hence, **sub**reddit).\n\nThe same is true for users. We use /u/. It's a nice box containing all users."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/submit",
"www.reddit.com/name**"
]
] |
|
17rok0
|
what is the significance of lagrange point ( l4/l5)
|
After reading definitions of Lagrange points, I still can't grasp its significance. What happens at those points exactly?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17rok0/what_is_the_significance_of_lagrange_point_l4l5/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c888hhx",
"c889874",
"c88itlh"
],
"score": [
4,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"An object at the Lagrange point will be stationary relative to the two objects with which it was defined.",
"You can park satelites in and around all lagrange points and they will need much less fuel to keep in place/orbit. \n\nSince lagrange points are always the same distance from a massive planet/moon they are good places for an observatory to get a nice 3d image to measure depth and distance with a wide paralax.",
"Let's say you have two big things in space, for example the Sun and the Earth. Both of them have a gravitational pull.\n\nIf you have a satellite and it's too close to the Sun, gravity will pull the satellite towards the SUn and it'll end up either crashing into the Sun, or going into an orbit around it.\n\nAlternatively if your satellite is too close to the Earth it will crash back down into our atmosphere, or go into orbit around the planet.\n\nIt turns out that just about anywhere you choose to put your satellite, the gravity means that it will be too close to either the Sun or the Earth.\n\nThe Lagrange points are places in space where the gravity of the two things (in this case Sun and Earth) effectively cancel each other out, so your satellite will stay exactly where you put it.\n\nIf you do the calculations it turns out that for any system with two gravitational bodies there are 5 Lagrange points, which mathematicians call L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5.\n\nAgain, the math works out so that L1, L2, and L3 are \"unstable\". This means you'd have to be really, really, REALLY careful when putting your satellite at one of those positions, because if you're out by even a small amount the gravity won't balance and eventually your satellite will move away. Think of it as trying to balance a marble at the top of an upturned bowl -- you can do it, but tap the table even lightly and your marble rolls off.\n\nL4 and L5 are \"stable\" which means that even if your satellite isn't perfectly placed the gravity will kind of push it into the ideal position so that it stays there forever. This time your marble is at the bottom of a right-way-up bowl, so even if it's not perfectly centered it'll roll to the correct position."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5wmhp6
|
flinging rocks from the moon to the earth
|
_URL_0_
Brianna Wu's original tweet about this was helpfully screencapped by Dan O'Sullivan and, while it sounds absurd on its face, I honestly want to know whether there's any possible truth to this assertion. Can you fling rocks from the Moon to the earth as though they were weapons of mass destruction?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5wmhp6/eli5_flinging_rocks_from_the_moon_to_the_earth/
|
{
"a_id": [
"deb999j",
"deb99e6"
],
"score": [
2,
11
],
"text": [
"Sort of. What she's talking about is essentially a meteor - if you toss a big enough rock from above the earth (or the moon for that matter) toward the earth and it doesn't disintegrate, it will cause a huge impact. It doesn't have to be a rock tho, it can be any object. \n\nIf you're looking to cause mass destruction, A better and much more likely scenario is huge metal rods being dropped from satellites. These can be aimed at specific parts of the earth and are less susceptible to losing mass upon entering the earth's atmosphere. \n\nAlso, shooting objects from the moon (much less rocks) is absolutely a stupid way to cause destruction. Whoever was talking about that doesn't have a clue. ",
"No, no, and no. Escape velocity for the moon is 2.4km/s. This is many times faster than a rifle bullet. Any rock or rock-like object capable of making it through the Earth's atmosphere and still be able to cause significant damage would have to be massive. The meteor that exploded over Russia in in 2013 was about 20 meters across and weighed about 13,000 tons and it still exploded 97,000 feet above the ground. Small iron meteors could make it to the surface, but again, to do enough damage to make it worth the trouble, it would have to be massive or moving incredibly fast. The iron object that created the impact crater in Northern Arizona was around 50 meters across and impacted the Earth at around 20 Kilometers per second. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://twitter.com/Bro_Pair/status/836454561409814529"
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1a8lk8
|
how were the first video games programmed?
|
Like on the atari and NES? Were they coded or what?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1a8lk8/eli5_how_were_the_first_video_games_programmed/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c8v2arn",
"c8v32u2",
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],
"score": [
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"\"Programmed\" and \"coded\" mean the same thing.\n\nOlder video games were written in assembly code, which is only one step above machine code (raw numbers that the CPU can understand).",
"I think both earlier answers are not really ELI5, so i'll try:\n\nComputers work using 0's and 1's and they save a few of those numbers in *registers* (slots in the memory). By putting a few 0's and 1's in one 'slot', you can represent a number like 23 or something. One can say 'use that register and add the value stored in there to a value stored another register. Put the result in another register'. So now, you can add, subtract, basically do simple math. But that's not the trick in programming.\n\nThe trick to programming is 'asking' if certain things are true of not. A programmer can say \"is this register bigger than the other? if that's true, the program has to continue doing this. if not, than the program must do another thing\". Things you can ask are like 'are they equal', 'are they higer/lower than a certain number' etc.\n\nDoing this a lot of times will eventually result in a program that can do quite a lot. Fun fact: Even rollercoaster tycoon was initaly build using this type of programming (heck of a job!)",
"Some very early video games (like Pong) were not just programmed, but actually physically designed as hardware. Allan Alcorn put together the electical circuits himself, and the result was the [Pong arcade cabinet](_URL_0_). Pong was not only a program, Pong was the entire machine.\n\n[Pong on Wikipedia](_URL_1_), good read."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Atari_Pong_arcade_game_cabinet.jpg",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong"
]
] |
|
erh9qa
|
- what does it feel like to have really severe hypothermia?
|
I understand the basics of what happens to the human body during hypothermia, but I'm curious as to what it actually feels like to have really bad hypothermia. Working on a scene for my book and I'd like to make sure I get it right.
Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/erh9qa/eli5_what_does_it_feel_like_to_have_really_severe/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ff3nlg0",
"ff3t26s"
],
"score": [
5,
16
],
"text": [
"I’ve heard from multiple sources that you get EXTREMELY warm when your body gets to a dangerous temperature.\n\nEdit: 100% serious. I heard it from SYSK podcast",
"I have not had extreme hypothermia but I have had hypothermia and it is horrible.\n\nYou get cold, obviously. Then cold to the point of irritation. Shortly after is the pain side of things. This is a really deep pain, like a radiation burn from a live antenna. \nThat's a grit your teeth bit, until it becomes crippling. You slow your movements, you sort of curl up I think to preserve heat. Your breath stops coming out your mouth as big hot puffs you can see on a cold day. After the really violent shivering, almost like breakdancing. You eventually stop shivering. \nThere's a slight nausea to your stomach and you eventually get dizzy. But the really weird part is when the pain just stops. \n\nIt's so pronounced, like turning off a light switch. All the horrible pain just. Pop. Gone. \n\nYou still can't move properly at this point. This is where you start doing stupid shit. You become disoriented almost like being drunk but not as sluggish. I caught myself removing my fleece as the sleet started falling. That's when I knew I was going to die probably if I continued on. After that realisation, I got into shelter and dried up. \n\nAs you warm though, that pain comes back with a vengeance! Almost made me want to go back to the cold to numb myself again!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3h85am
|
how do you teach a homing pigeon to fly where you want it to go?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h85am/eli5_how_do_you_teach_a_homing_pigeon_to_fly/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cu533e0"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Homing pigeons know where they live, so you take a pigeon from that area and transport it somewhere else. Tie something to it and let it go, the pigeon will go back to where you got it originally."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
6j2dwo
|
why do a lot of videos from the early 2000s have a yellow tint to them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6j2dwo/eli5_why_do_a_lot_of_videos_from_the_early_2000s/
|
{
"a_id": [
"djaxve3"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"I assume you're referring to home videos. The state of camcorders at the time, while serviceable, was not very good outside of ideal conditions, particularly they had problems in dark rooms. Many people filmed indoors and during the evening at that with the lighting being just normal household bulbs."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2kwie8
|
why do malls start putting up christmas decorations in october even though everybody hates it and it pisses off customers?
|
Everybody I have ever met hates pre-thanksgiving Christmas decorations.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kwie8/eli5_why_do_malls_start_putting_up_christmas/
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Because customers don't actually hate it enough to not shop at those stores because of it. If the stores didn't think they made any money from putting out displays earlier and earlier they wouldn't do it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
6c5e97
|
how were isp's able to "pocket" the $200 billion grant that was supposed to be dedicated toward fiber cable infrastructure?
|
I've seen this thread in multiple places across Reddit:
_URL_1_
_URL_2_
I'm usually skeptical of such dramatic claims, but I've only found one contradictory source online, and it's a little dramatic itself: _URL_0_
So my question is: how were ISP's able to receive so much money with zero accountability? Did the government really set up a handshake agreement over $200 billion?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c5e97/eli5_how_were_isps_able_to_pocket_the_200_billion/
|
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"Because the agreement had no teeth, probably because it didn't define the problem in actual terms that could be acted upon in the case of failure.\n\nReally, how would you want the contract written to require broadband for everyone? You can't require 100% coverage because my grandmother doesn't want it. You can't require everyone that wants it gets it because there is that guy in Alaska that lives 500 miles from his closest neighbor. You can try to say 80% of people who ask can get it, but what happens for those that can't get it? They can't get it because they are not in XYZ's coverage area. But they are asking because they are in nobody's coverage area, so what company puts them down as a no when none applies, who do you blame for not expanding? That metric doesn't work either.\n\nThe problem is the only concrete stuff you can do is tell them where to spend it, if that's on ”installing fiber\" then that's what they'll spend it on. But ISPs are constantly installing fiber, in fact that may be spending billions a year just to replace existing fiber, if you tell them you'll pay for it they'll just stop paying for installing fiber and let you pay, the money saved can be given out to shareholders. That of course is equivalent to just giving the money away, but there wasn't anything that said they can't do that.\n\nSo really it's a very hard problem to define, there can be some requirements on it, but they can't be tough, and that makes it just about equal to giving it away. If the government wanted their money spent on expanding access to specific markets they would of been required to tell the ISPs exactly what they want built and then maintained ownership of it, the way the power company where I live works. But that's government run ISPs, and everyone seems to hate that idea.",
"Part of the problem that I've come to understand, is that they didn't quite 'pocket' the 200 billion like everyone loves to harp on about. Maybe they didn't quite spend it as effectively as they could have.\n\nIt's that the 200 billion to lay that infrastructure, was a *drop in the bucket of the money needed to do more.*\n\nThey'd need trillions to get every American wired up with fiber, fiber itself is not cheap, and very much not cheap to lay. I'm not trying to shill for our horrible oligopolistic cable overlords, there was a very, very detailed post a user made on this subject not too long ago. I'll try to dig up the link if I can, if anyone else can help that would be great.\n\nIt detailed the absolute astronomical cost of laying fiber, and how much they did, starting with large businesses and moving down towards residential, we generally take a lower stake in priority when laying new infrastructure.",
"As with most things, there's no simple answer, and many factors in play. \n\nGoogle attempted to both push the ISP markets to rollout faster speeds, and possibly elbow into a few regions, but as others have mentioned, high costs are only one problem. One estimate put there are a lot of [costs](_URL_5_) to build out fiber, and the [total](_URL_4_) cost for fiber in the US has been pegged at $140 billion, but this estimate is a lowball. \n\nGoogle has run into its share of difficulties in the fiber rollout, from [legal](_URL_0_) challenges, to other [headaches](_URL_1_). There are two sides to everything, and although in many instances existing ISP's clearly are manipulating the system to their advantage, Google should not necessarily be given a pass for how it has [responded](_URL_3_). Unsurprisingly, Google has [announced](_URL_2_) that they are halting any future efforts.\n\nAll of this is intended to point out that there are numerous problems, such as existing bureaucracy/infrastructure, logistics, and costs, and although some of these problems are self-perpetuating--[see ISP's using legal challenges to stifle competition](_URL_6_)--it does not change the fact that placing fiber for the US is not a simple matter, and as others have pointed out, even something as basic as \"Here is some money, go lay down fiber\" is surprisingly complicated.",
"A lot of them actually did lay the fiber lines, but also made it so that no one but them could use it, then went on to not use it at all. ",
"They did lots of feasibility studies. Great studies, the best. Unfortunately, all of them said we need to keep the $200M and not build out our infrastructure. ",
"It also helps to start in the 1980s with the history of how we got our current ISPs.\n\nThe TLDR version is:\n\n[AT & T had a monopoly](_URL_0_). They built a lot of their infrastructure via [eminent domain](_URL_1_) law and taxpayer money, for the \"greater good.\" As a business, using other people's money to grow is a good move. The issue currently is ISPs don't want the government telling them what to do with the infrastructure.\n\nSee, in the 1980s all these other people wanted to get into the same business AT & T had, but they didn't want to invest in building infrastructure when AT & T already did, using eminent domain and tax money. These other businesses argued that AT & T having sole control over the lines was unfair, since taxes paid for some of it. The government stepped in and said, \"sorry, Ma Bell, but you have to share.\" Because of this we got a lot of ISPs that sprang up in a short amount of time, and until a few years ago all those ISPs were fighting for their own chunks of business.\n\nNow we're stuck with a few large ISPs that control everything, just enough to the point of legally being able to say it's not a \"monopoly\" when for the most part people have no choice in their city for an ISP.\n\nAmerica has been sick of having no choice, and poor internet speeds, so the government has once again tried to encourage growth by using tax money as an incentive to expand. \n\nThe problem is the ISPs are deathly afraid of expanding while the Net Neutrality laws exist because they don't want other small ISP startups coming along and using the infrastructure they're making.\n\nWhat I mean to say is, the big ISPs don't want to expand with better fiber service anywhere unless they can control it, but they also won't pass up free tax money. They take any free tax money they get from the government and then exploit loopholes from shoddy contracts to avoid actually expanding. They invent excuses to avoid actually expanding.\n\nBasically the ISPs have been holding internet infrastructure expansion hostage until the FCC rebrands them, because they don't want to be held accountable to governmental oversight. They want to monopolize the new fiber system before they actually build it, and recently the FCC caved in to their demands. \n\nI'm not just regurgitating stuff I've read on the internet here. I used to work for MCI, a company that wouldn't have existed if the FCC didn't break up Ma Bell in the 80s.\n\n(*edit:* clarity)\n\n(*edit:* Thanks for the Gold! It's my very first one! I'm deeply Humbled!)",
"Honest answer, because we the people don't give enough pushback for them to get worried or scared. We are too comfortable so all we do is grumble and move on. The populace actually has the power to force this, government or no, but they don't care enough to put forth the collective commitment it would take.\n\nWithout our pushback the Government and ISPs really have no good reason to do anything with that money other than abuse the wordings to pocket it. Government gave the money as a token gesture that appeased the people, likely knowing what would happen. The ISPs correctly guessed nobody would be pissed enough to punish them for their actions. The cycle of business continues as normal.\n\nThey can just ignore the temporary uproar and go right back to taking the money we are giving them. Sometimes you'll even hear folks say that they have no choice. But we always have a choice, it's just a question of what you are willing to sacrifice.",
"There should be public dark fiber that is rentable by whatever business wants to use it, deliverable to every home.",
"This is the ORIGINAL SOURCE of the $200B number, the method used to get there is deeply flawed.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nread page 222 it spells out the 200 billion number, spoiler alert, its a pretty dumb way to count dollars.\n\nedit: its mostly things like \"hey if they were regulated like a monopoly they would have collectively had about 100B less revenue between 1992 and today! lets count that as a government handout.\"\n\nNot to say that ISP's aren't doing shady shit, but calling it a \"grant\" is ridiculous.",
"These figures seem to all be laid out by Bruce Kushnick, chairman of Teletruth and Director of the New Networks Institute, who also wrote the \"The Book of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal and Free the Net\". In his previous 2006 book named \"$200 Billion Broadband Scandal\", which can be found at _URL_0_ as it seems to have been given in its entirety as a public comment, and as the ycombinator commenters point out, the author seems to arrive at the ~$200 billion figure based mainly on overcharging that the author figures should have been better regulated by the government.\n\n\nI think where the confusion stems is from the line in blog for the new book which says: \"*America will have been charged about $400 billion*\", which may have gotten confused as being entirely some form of subsidy or handout from the government while the author probably means the overcharging of each individual American customer plus the tax write-offs as per his 2006 book. Without seeing the book we can't be certain but given the author's very similar claims from his 2006 I would say it's a safe assumption.\n\n\nAs for why all this overcharging happened: it was not just the ISPs which were doing it. Computer technology in the home and office seriously exploded from around the 1980s and on at a pace that made it ripe for exploit as it was all so very new without nearly as many expectations and understanding as we have today. Part of that exploitation was monopolies that probably shouldn't have happened, including Microsoft which lost an important anti-trust case in 1998. The main argument seems to be that Internet, which is even replacing phone service in some parts and will do so even more then true 4G is fully rolled out, should be a well-regulated utility like phone service currently is in the US. Based on this notion we have the idea of the US government \"letting\" the companies have all this money from the American people.\n\n\nEdit: Typos.",
"I remember paying a lot of monthly 'nuisance' fees in the 1990s - both on my landline phone bill, and also on my ISP bill. I think these fees, along with government subsidies, went to pay for the high speed fiber network in the U.S. As usual, privatization of profits, socialization of costs, all the while big telcos whining about not being able to control every aspect of the network. They sue municipalities when they want to create a town or county-wide public internet option, citing \"government interference\" with the free market, while putting in regional monopolies wherever they can.",
"There should really be a explain like I'm average, not a child subreddit. That way we don't sound silly asking complex questions with explain like I'm 5 tagged on there. ELIAv why no one has come up with this subreddit yet",
"At least part of the issue is that people misunderstand the $200 billion number constantly. The government *did not* pay out that much money. Most of that number is made up of cases where the government allowed ISPs to increase rates in exchange for building infrastructure meeting certain standards in certain areas (e.g.: at least 10Mb/s, in some rural area, or whatever), with the possibility of those rate increases making the ISPs an extra $200 billion. In a lot of cases, the ISPs didn't take the government up on the offer: they built no new infrastructure, and left rates the same, because they didn't think they could make money. In other cases, they exploited vague requirements to complete the bare minimum and then raise rates.",
"I live in a rural area (30 miles east of Sacramento, so not that rural) where only AT & T serves via the slowest posssible 768kb DSL known to human kind. AT & T has flat out stated that they will never upgrade the lines. There is no competition, so there is no need for investment on their part. Fuck #ATT",
"How does anybody pocket anything? You give me $200 billion to do something.\n\n1. Well that something requires a plan. So I pay myself $500 million to explore and investigate that plan. \n\n2. After I finish the investigation of that plan to do something, I pay myself another $500 million to work out the logistics of implementing the plan and creating the jobs necessary to complete the plan. \n\n3. We start doing that something, but only a little, and way over budget. I pay myself the leftover $1 billion doing very little of that something.\n\n4. We're way past deadline, way over budget, and I've moved all the money from the fund to my own pocket. So I stop doing that something and wait for you to give me more free money. \n\n5. You're not getting your money back suckers. *What u gonna do about it? Cash me outside. How ba da?*\n\nThe mistake was our politicians giving corporations large sums of money to do something without effective enforcement mechanisms. The politicians were either corrupt or egregiously naive to think a corporation would act in society's interest rather than shareholder's interest. ",
"Because ISP's are evil and the government is corrupt. Hopefully one day they'll get French revolution'd.",
"Mainly due to the fact we dont hold our elected officials responsible for things. \n\n Why should they care when we just keep reelecting them, oh why are they getting reelected so easily? payoffs and donations?. We as a people continually elect and reelect people who only work for you and I partially, who work for business moreso and work for themselves fully. ",
"I could use some of that money here in New Mexico... My internet is absolutely horrid being that it is Broadband wireless. The company in my area has a monopoly basically and they charge outrageous ammounts per month for me to even be able to access the damn internet. Considering my job is online i can't just cancel it either. Fucking hell...",
"why cant the ISPs rebranded as a public utility by law? we all get cheap, clean and plentiful water and electricity so why cant we have the same thing with internet? ie cheap and fast?",
"Maybe you should go to the source: I've written 3 books about this starting in 1998 -- and all of these appear to be related to the same threads -- over 2 decades. \n\nHere's a free copy of the latest book, \"The Book of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal & Free the Net\", which we put up a few weeks ago because few, if anyone actually bothered to read how the calculations were done. They were based on the telco's annual reports, state filings, etc.-- and the data is based on 20 years of documentation-- Bruce Kushnick\n_URL_0_\n\nI've been tracking the telco deployments of fiber optics since 1991 when they were announced as something called the Information Superhighway. The plan was to have America be the first fiber optic country -- and each phone company went to their state commissions and legislatures and got tax breaks and rate increases to fund these 'utility' network upgrades that were supposed to replace the existing copper wires with fiber optics -- starting in 1992. And it was all a con. As a former senior telecom analyst (and the telcos my clients) i realized that they had submitted fraudulent cost models, and fabricated the deployment plans. The first book, 1998, laid out some of the history \"The Unauthorized Bio\" with foreword by Dr. Bob Metcalfe (co-inventor of Ethernet networking). I then released \"$200 Billion Broadband Scandal\" in 2005, which gave the details as by then more than 1/2 of America should have been completed -- but wasn't. And the mergers to make the companies larger were also supposed to bring broadband-- but didn't.\nI updated the book in 2015 \"The Book of Broken Promises $400 Billion broadband Scandal and Free the Net\", but realized that there were other scams along side this -- like manipulating the accounting. \n\nWe paid about 9 times for upgrades to fiber for home or schools and we got nothing to show for it -- about $4000-7000 per household (though it varies by state and telco). By 2017 it's over 1/2 trillion. \n\nFinally, I note. These are not \"ISPs\"; they are state utility telecommunications companies that were able to take over the other businesses (like ISPs) thanks to the FCC under Mike Powell, now the head of the cable association. They got away with it because they could create a fake history that reporters and politicians kept repeating. No state has ever done a full audit of the monies collected in the name of broadband; no state ever went back and reduced rates or held the companies accountable. And no company ever 'outed' the other companies-- i.e., Verizon NJ never said that AT & T California didn't do the upgrades. --that's because they all did it, more or less. I do note that Verizon at least rolled out some fiber. AT & T pulled a bait and switch and deployed U-Verse over the aging copper wires (with a 'fiber node' within 1/2 mile from the location). \n\nIt's time to take them to court. period. We should go after the financial manipulations (cross-subsidies) where instead of doing the upgrades to fiber, they took the money and spent it everywhere else, like buying AOL or Time Warner (or overseas investments), etc. We should hold them accountable before this new FCC erases all of the laws and obligations.\n",
"Come to Russia where I spend a month of my life yearly... the internet is utter garbage (5mbps is considered god level) and all the money is getting stolen, not 50% but literally ALL THE MONEY. ISPs here have promised glass fibre cables for the past 10 years and then realized that they wont be able to do it and just put phone lines all over the place....\n\nnot talking about Moscow because the government doesn't even give a fuck about anything past the Moscow inner circle...",
"If it's anything like the bank bailouts that happened in the UK, the company lied and the government didn't care.\n\nGovernment: \"We'll give you millions of pounds so you can loan the money to people to get the economy going.\"\n\nBanks: \"OK. Thanks.\"\n\nGovernment gives money.\n\nBanks: \"Yeah, we're actually going to use that money to give our investment bankers millions of pounds in bonuses. Hope that's ok.\"\n\nGovernment: \"Well we did say it was for lending to people to rescue our economy... but ok.\"",
"They were able to pocket the money, because that was the intention all along. It was a way for the US government to pay the ISP for doing something else, they didn't want made public. It was a ruse.",
"In every government they do this.\n\nGovernment gives 1 billion of public money to ISPs to build infrastructure. ISP builds 500million infrastructure and makes obscene profits, pays back government 250 million, 10 years later as part of a loan agreement. \n\nAmerica is so big that corrupt nature of these agreements affects far more people ",
"The basic problem is that it didn't exactly work that way.\n\nThe government didn't just say telcos take 200 billion and fix it. Not least because it's not even close to enough money to do that.\n\nWhat happened is that the federal government took 200 billion and gave it as grants to the states for specific projects. This process ate up a chunk of that 200 billion. Then the states then went to tender for their projects. This ate up even more money. Then of course the projects ate up a lot of money in overages and scope changes and all the usual problems. Then some of the projects failed or were the wrong projects, so the results of what was left by this point were mixed.",
"Taxpayer funds going to corporations who then increase pricing to their customers (i.e. Taxpayers who provided funding.) to pay for \"better service\". Issues like this affect every person and family in the US. So frustrating....",
"The new FCC director is a complete and total idiot and let a small company, spectrum buy Bright House, and Time Warner Cable. Meanwhile Verizon is focusing on their cellular network, not their cable network. If Fiber isn't in your area, odds are it never will be.",
"Why is there no lawsuit for this?",
"Serious answer: corporate corruption. They'll do what they want, and if someone tries to call them out on it, they'll pay a fine much less then $200 billion. So if I give you $200 billion to specifically do a task, and you don't do it, the public calls for action. If that action is you get a 5 million dollar fine, that sounds like a lot to the general public. \"Yeah! They got what was coming to them!\" \n\nMeanwhile the task is still not done, and the company has pocketed 90% of that money. ",
"In short, the answer we are looking for is: America is broken, and this is another wonderful example of it."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709556",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ulw67/til_the_usa_paid_200_billion_dollars_to_cable/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/64y534/us_taxpayers_gave_400_billion_dollars_to_cable/"
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/20/google-fiber-commits-attorneys-nashville-fight-possible-t-lawsuit/90732006/",
"http://www.zdnet.com/article/at-t-to-google-fiber-suck-it-up-broadband-is-tough-and-get-ready-to-eat-our-dust/",
"https://fiber.googleblog.com/2016/10/advancing-our-amazing-bet.html",
"http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/08/15/metro-councilman-seek-delay-google-fiber-vote/88758642/",
"http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-it-would-cost-google-to-build-a-cable-network-2012-12",
"http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cost-of-building-google-fiber-2013-4",
"https://arstechnica.com/business/2014/04/one-big-reason-we-lack-internet-competition-starting-an-isp-is-really-hard/"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Corporation#Monopoly",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/broadbandgrants/comments/61BF.pdf"
],
[
"https://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/broadbandgrants/comments/61BF.pdf"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://irregulators.org/bookofbrokenpromises/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
97fgpf
|
how is gerrymandering possible when voting is anonymous?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97fgpf/eli5_how_is_gerrymandering_possible_when_voting/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e47tj9g"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Voting is anonymous, but voter registration and other demographics are not. You can pull census stats and correlate them with voter rolls and determine that “straight old white people who live in one particular area of town are registered republican, so you draw your gerrymandered lines around that neighborhood. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5arw9e
|
how are minor league teams affiliated with major league teams?
|
I always hear about a minor league team lets just say the Mud hens for example one year are associated with the Twins, next year the phillies, and two years later the Cubs. I have always thus been confused how minor league teams affiliations can change from year to year.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5arw9e/eli5_how_are_minor_league_teams_affiliated_with/
|
{
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"text": [
"Many minor league baseball teams are owned by people unaffiliated with the major league baseball teams. These are generally teams like the Mudhens who have been around forever with the same name. Major league teams sign contracts with these teams (most are 2 or 4-year deals) to use them as their minor league teams. The regular changes in affiliations can be up to either the major league team or the minor league owners.\n\nEdit: Some major league teams own their minor league affiliates. For instance, the Dodgers own their Triple-A team in Oklahoma City. So they won't be changing any time soon."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
ngzfh
|
how does healthcare work in england?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ngzfh/how_does_healthcare_work_in_england/
|
{
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"text": [
"The government pays for all of it, for everyone, out of the money it raises from taxes.",
"The government takes some money off people who can afford it and, using that money, makes sure everybody can go to a hospital when they are sick. They also pay people to tell you [over the phone](_URL_0_) what might be wrong with you. Because they can't see you over the phone this doesn't work that often. \n \nThe money they collect from people to pay the doctors is called national insurance, but national insurance also pays for a lot of other things. The national insurance most people pay is between £67 and £392 a month, depending on how much money you make. Richer people will pay more than that and people with no jobs don't have to pay anything.",
"Should be noted that people can have private treatment (at their own expense) but they still have to contribute to the health service through their taxes.",
"Long story short, everyone has healthcare and it's paid for from the general taxation of those who work...\n\nHistorically healthcare was funded from 'National Insurance' contributions - these are presently about 11% of your salary for the employee and 12% or so of it for your employer. These contributions also paid for social security benefits such as unemployment benefit, help with paying rent, keeping a basic income level if low paid etc.\n\nThese days these NI contributions just go into a big pot of money along with your 'normal' income tax. All the taxes collected go into a black box and healthcare is funded from this pot just as education etc is. \n\nThe NI contributions have increased in recent years as it is a good way to increase overall tax revenue whilst being able to promise 'we won't put up income tax'. Usual spin...\n\nThere's some simplification in this (tax bands apply, self-employed people have different contributions) but it's mainly true. If you're 5.\n\nTo completely answer your question, NI rates are [here](_URL_1_), the normal income tax rates are [here](_URL_0_) (this also goes into the pot that pays for helathcare). The UK has a complicated tax system though - there are lots of allowances and clawbacks you can claim which diminish your effective rate taxation if you know what you're doing.\n\nIf you're not working you are still eligible to healthcare, your NI (or stamp) is paid for you along with your unemployment benefit. ",
"Most health care is paid for through general taxation, namely national insurance which pays for NHS services and state pensions. NI is paid on all earnings (including those not liable to income tax), job seeker's allowance and may be paid on savings and private pensions. \n\nThere are surcharges for certain items, prescription charges (around 15 US dollars flat fee per prescription - charges vary depending on circumstances and what part of the UK you're in and it's often free - for example, if you're pregnant or unemployed.) Glasses and dental work are usually purchased privately but again can be free under the NHS if you qualify for exemption. \n\nThere are private firms involved in the NHS. These attract a lot of controversy as they are often viewed as using NHS buildings, staff and equipment and contributing nothing other than skimming profits off the top. ",
"The government pays for all of it, for everyone, out of the money it raises from taxes.",
"The government takes some money off people who can afford it and, using that money, makes sure everybody can go to a hospital when they are sick. They also pay people to tell you [over the phone](_URL_0_) what might be wrong with you. Because they can't see you over the phone this doesn't work that often. \n \nThe money they collect from people to pay the doctors is called national insurance, but national insurance also pays for a lot of other things. The national insurance most people pay is between £67 and £392 a month, depending on how much money you make. Richer people will pay more than that and people with no jobs don't have to pay anything.",
"Should be noted that people can have private treatment (at their own expense) but they still have to contribute to the health service through their taxes.",
"Long story short, everyone has healthcare and it's paid for from the general taxation of those who work...\n\nHistorically healthcare was funded from 'National Insurance' contributions - these are presently about 11% of your salary for the employee and 12% or so of it for your employer. These contributions also paid for social security benefits such as unemployment benefit, help with paying rent, keeping a basic income level if low paid etc.\n\nThese days these NI contributions just go into a big pot of money along with your 'normal' income tax. All the taxes collected go into a black box and healthcare is funded from this pot just as education etc is. \n\nThe NI contributions have increased in recent years as it is a good way to increase overall tax revenue whilst being able to promise 'we won't put up income tax'. Usual spin...\n\nThere's some simplification in this (tax bands apply, self-employed people have different contributions) but it's mainly true. If you're 5.\n\nTo completely answer your question, NI rates are [here](_URL_1_), the normal income tax rates are [here](_URL_0_) (this also goes into the pot that pays for helathcare). The UK has a complicated tax system though - there are lots of allowances and clawbacks you can claim which diminish your effective rate taxation if you know what you're doing.\n\nIf you're not working you are still eligible to healthcare, your NI (or stamp) is paid for you along with your unemployment benefit. ",
"Most health care is paid for through general taxation, namely national insurance which pays for NHS services and state pensions. NI is paid on all earnings (including those not liable to income tax), job seeker's allowance and may be paid on savings and private pensions. \n\nThere are surcharges for certain items, prescription charges (around 15 US dollars flat fee per prescription - charges vary depending on circumstances and what part of the UK you're in and it's often free - for example, if you're pregnant or unemployed.) Glasses and dental work are usually purchased privately but again can be free under the NHS if you qualify for exemption. \n\nThere are private firms involved in the NHS. These attract a lot of controversy as they are often viewed as using NHS buildings, staff and equipment and contributing nothing other than skimming profits off the top. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Direct"
],
[],
[
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm",
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Direct"
],
[],
[
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm",
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm"
],
[]
] |
||
a10kbd
|
can someone explain projection?
|
Psychological projection
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a10kbd/eli5_can_someone_explain_projection/
|
{
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"ealvqli"
],
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"text": [
"I’m not entirely clear what kind of projection you’re asking about, but I’m guessing you mean psychological projection. Psychological projection is the act of interpreting the words or actions of another person in a (usually) negative way that they did not intend, revealing some part of your own character that you are self-conscious about. For instance, I ask a woman on a date and she declines by saying she doesn’t have time in her life for dating right now. But I tell my friends that she would have gone out with me if she didn’t think I was ugly. This is an act of projection—since she said nothing to indicate she found me unattractive, the story I tell my friends probably just shows that I think I am ugly, and has nothing to do with what she actually thinks. So I am “projecting” my own feelings onto her. That’s psychological projection. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
34x4vh
|
lebanon history from first israel invasion to today.
|
My dad is Lebanese but i do not speak his language or anything of the like. He fled to sweden and met my mother, so i am more swedish then Lebanese by all means. But! I wanted to know more about the history of lebanon, i've been there a few times but the history is so confusing. There is invasions and occupations intervening and it's just very complicated. I would be very happy to have a simple explanation.
EDIT: Mother not mothers
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34x4vh/eli5_lebanon_history_from_first_israel_invasion/
|
{
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"text": [
"Lebanon in under the Othman was a refuge for minorities:\n- Sunni (sect of islam)\n- Durz (sect of islam)\n- Shiet (sect of islam) \n- Alwet (sect of islam) \n- Christians (Catholic - Maron - Orthodox) not mentioning the differet churches\n- many other minorities that don't make much difference \n\nas for nationalities beside the natives:\n- Palestinians (who don't have a citizenship and they have almost no rights even after 40 years of their refuge)\n- Syrians\n- Kurds\n- Arminians ( migrated after the Othmani massacres a century )\n\nthis diverse population and the absent of economic resources and the corruption of the government transformed Lebanon to what you can call the Colosseum of the middle where all the powers in the middle east clash and settle their fights, and what happened in the past decades in ELI5 way is:\n\n- Palestinian fled the war to refugee camps in Lebanon\n- Over time the camps turned into cities\n- Arabs armed the Palestinians\n- Palestinians with arms was a threat for Christians domination\n- Palestinians attacked Israel from Lebanon\n- Israel with the help of a group of Christians attacked the Palestinians refugee camps.\n- Syria didn't want Israel to have influence in Lebanon.\n- They deployed forces.\n- Christians and Israel Alliance intensified the Muslims Christians conflict\n- Arab countries started funding and arming sides based on their interests.\n- Iran entered the battle backing up HizbuAllah (the Shiet which is the dominant religion sect in Iran)\n- Syria and Iran Alliance got the Syrians and Hizbullah to total domination on Lebanon they almost fight all other parties.\n- Peace came for almost ten years.\n- then Rafik al Hariri was killed.\n- Syrian army kicked out of Lebanon.\n- war between Israel and Hizbullah (backed by Iran and Syria)\n- the Arab spring came to disrupt the whole region.\n- now Lebanon is a ticking bomb with no government no president and a divided army, and weapons, so much weapons in the hand of the people.\n\nPS this is not a precise history you should read wikipedia for the detailed and correct information this is just a sum up from my perspective.\n",
"Also, water.\n\nMuch of the Middle East and most of Israel is desert, Lebanon is not. Most of the surface water in northern Israel originates in the beautiful Lebanon mountains, and flows down through famous rivers such as the Jordan. It used to flow into the Dead Sea but now none of this water does, it's all redirected and pumped out for farms and cities. Lebanon, Syria and Jordan divert some, Israel diverts a lot of water from the Jordan river and there is huge concern in Israel over the long term sustainability of the water source especially as that water source flows through lands occupied by groups that shoot rockets at them and offers to kill them all.",
"Not trying to be rude but this is a subject that can't easily be explained. I am also half Lebanese and a book that helped me understand better was \"Beware of Small States\" by David Hirst. I thoroughly recommend reading it. ",
"I'm a full blown Lebanese guy and I can't even tell you the whole story in a text, not even in a live discussion with beers. That's how far and complex it is, especially in modern day Lebanon with the threatening divide between Christians and not Muslim/Christian divide. \n\n\n\nIf you're interested you can try and buy (or torrent, I doubt you'll find it) a documentary about Lebanon made by Al Jazeera. It's very detailed and starts from the independence (1943) up until the mid 90's. As I recall, it was subtitled in English and was fairly impartial, it featured a lot of input from various political factions. Warning though, it's veeeeeeeeery long! \n\n\n\nThe said link (I think it's this one) _URL_0_\n\n\n\nEnjoy! "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://kickass.to/lebanon-s-civil-war-arabic-term-nator-t10339329.html"
]
] |
|
4fqhzd
|
what are the conditions of a large company merger?
|
Just saw an internal email discussing a merger between our company and another, and it seems like no one person nor a small group of individuals can just make this happen by their own power. So who is responsible for approving a merger?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4fqhzd/eli5_what_are_the_conditions_of_a_large_company/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d2b43qq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"whatever the two parties, the seller and buyer come up with as terms. attornies representing both parties negotiate the terms. then the responsible parties on both sides approve it. who the responsible party is on each side depends on the company's incorporation and what that company says is the approving party, whether that be the CEO, majority of board of directors, shareholder majority, or whatever the terms are."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3cv642
|
why can we think in different accents but struggle to speak in them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cv642/eli5_why_can_we_think_in_different_accents_but/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csza1hv",
"cszbwk7"
],
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4,
2
],
"text": [
"Because thought's capabilities are pretty much infinite, whereas our bodily abilities are limited. If you have heard an accent, you can generate it in your head through memory alone. But to speak in it your vocal cords and tongue and lips, pretty much your entire upper respiratory system needs to know the way to resonate sound to produce that accent.",
"For the same reason you can imagine an old croaky man yelling at those meddling kids just perfectly, but that ain't you, you can't make those croaky Ass sounds, imagination is infinite :) that excludes all the kids growing up today with an ipad at the age of 1 and 3/4, they're gonna be unimaginative weirdies"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
azhb8t
|
why is paper used to substitute plastic (such as paper bags, paper cups, paper straws etc.) if it costs our trees? is it more eco friendly?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/azhb8t/eli5_why_is_paper_used_to_substitute_plastic_such/
|
{
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"ei7q7m0",
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"text": [
"Trees are renewable and can be harvested sustainably. Plastic comes mostly from oil products and is limited. Paper will degrade pretty rapidly in the environment where plastic does hardly at all. The last point is important, as paper will eventually give us more soil whereas plastic needs to be stuck in a hole for an eternity.",
"It's considered better for the environment because paper biodegrades very quickly. Plastic trash bags, straws, etc. take a very very long time to decompose. ",
"Trees are a renewable resource. New ones can be planted and grown to replace the ones harvested for human use. Additionally paper is biodegradable and does not poison the environment when it decays the way that plastic does. \n\nSo yes, it is eco-friendly. ",
"It's technically more eco-friendly in the fact that it can more readily be decomposed. Paper in a landfill will eventually break down into the Earth. Plastics will not.\n\nIronically, the plastics are easier to reuse than paper products, with plastic cups and silverware being almost as reusable as metal or glass. Even the plastic bags at the grocery store are commonly reused as small trash can liners or cheap totes, which you just can't do with paper.",
"Those things are usually recycled from old paper products, so it rarely costs our trees, or at least use less trees (often they say they are made from X% of recycled paper).\n\nThe production of wood- and paper-based products have a much lower economic impact than oil-based products, and the perhaps less arguable reason being that wood is a relatively limitless source, as we can grow more trees, whereas once we're out of oil, we can't make more, so that would be no more plastic, rubber, etc.",
"The paper products came before. Plastic came in because it was more durable and we were on a save the trees kick back then. ",
"Like others have said, trees can be replaced. Plastic is made from oil which can't. Also, paper can be made from other plants, such as bamboo and hemp, which grow much faster than trees meaning they are even more renewable & sustainable.",
"Contrary to popular belief, when farmed in an ethical way trees are our most dependable renewable resource. If you do some research on modern lumber farming practices it may make you feel a lot better about using wood in general. When properly farmed and managed, ie. not over farmed with random clear cutting, wood can be a nearly infinite resource. Because of this, and because the paper degrades very quickly, wood is a great alternative to plastic when it comes to things that are meant to be temporary. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
6eeyf9
|
is it possible for the human body to recover naturally from cancer?
|
And I don't mean like by some new age medicine, alternative therapy energy stone stuff. I just mean, is there anyway for the body to fight it off by itself? Does this happen, ever?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eeyf9/eli5_is_it_possible_for_the_human_body_to_recover/
|
{
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"text": [
"Yes and it happens all the time. You don't notice because the cancer cells are so few in number. It's when the body can't keep up that most cancers develop into a tumor.",
"Most damaged cells will self-destruct or get attacked by the immune system, so technically you're constantly wiping out pre-cancerous cells.\n\nThe cells that do develop into a tumor have managed to disable/evade those mechanisms, and by then the odds of spontaneous recovery are extremely slim.\n\nThere are cases of developed tumors randomly triggering an agressive immune response or accidentaly severing their blood supply, but that's exceedingly rare. Usually by the time you're having symptoms it's much too late for your body's defenses to do anything.",
"I was diagnosed with lymphoma, stage 2, about 5 years ago. After about 2 years, my oncologist told me there is no point in coming back, since I had never reported any symptoms. That was 2 years ago.",
"The human bodies fights off cancer-like cells all the time. However, it is only when it cannot keep up that we call it cancer."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
26xal0
|
why is it whenever i'm being scolded, yelled at, etc, i feel the intense urge to smile?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26xal0/eli5_why_is_it_whenever_im_being_scolded_yelled/
|
{
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"text": [
"I do this to its because you're nervous, most likely. ",
"The situation is minor to the point where you feel silly about being yelled at. Rest assured, if your boss was asking why your product just broke in the middle of operation there would be no smile.",
"It's a nervous tendency, not smugness, yes? You are grinning, but you are not happy. I am the same way. I especially smile or grin when I am being confronted and accused of something I have not done. This turns out badly for me because the quickest way to convince a person they're right is to grin, as though you are admitting to whatever it is they are trying to provoke you into confessing.\n\nI never feel like I am smiling to \"disarm\" a person's aggression, rather it's involuntary and my thoughts are completely scattered when it is happening, like my mind can't grasp for any holds, can't defend my position on the matter. I think it IS \"evolutionary\" somehow, like a last resort when the mind needs to react to a potentially violent situation, but has lost all its wit.\n\nSo then, it might also be psychological, and not as involuntary as we think, if we could learn to control ourselves while under duress.",
"You are a psychopath and that smile scares the snot out of, or disarms, the other person.\n\n\nSource: my son does this\n\nBut I smile too, and I make his food, so he's scared of me."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
21y3uf
|
what causes skin cancer and why has it become more common?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21y3uf/eli5_what_causes_skin_cancer_and_why_has_it/
|
{
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"text": [
"Prolonged exposure to UV rays may damage skin cells. Damaged cells are more likely than healthy cells to become cancerous. As for why it's become more common, I'm guessing the popularity of tanning beds and suntanning in general might have something to do with it.",
"The short answer: radiation from the sun (or tanning beds) damages skin cells' DNA and their ability to reproduce normally. This increases the chance that tumors will appear. Skin cancer is becoming more common as people go tanning (naturally or artificially) more often and live longer, increasing their exposure to the harmful radiation. \n\nSource: Wikipedia and biology 101",
"Solar radiation and tanning booths, radiation from any source can knock chunks out of a cells DNA, the instructions that tell that cell what to do and how to do it, the missing DNA may be the switch that tells a cell to shut off when it is time.\nSo the cell keeps running and growing and making copies of itself and becomes a tumor, so in answer to your question too much sun is dangerous and the explosion of tanning salons has just made it easier to get too much sun.",
"UV radiation from the Sun, or artificially from UV lights such as tanning beds, can damage your skin. Thankfully this type of radiation doesn't penetrate very far b/c its not that strong, so the only risk is to your skin and UV can be blocked easily with a layer like a t-shirt or sunscreen. Which is also why we have greater incidence rates of skin cancer today than 50yrs ago, b/c the ozone layer of the atmosphere has been damaged by pollution. Ozone filters out some of the UV, so less Ozone means more UV making it to people sitting on the beach.\n\nThe way UV damages your skin cells is by a single photon (can think of it as the smallest piece of light) to collide with an atom (single particle of matter) in your DNA. Since DNA is basically the instructions on how to build and operate a cell, having an error in the code can have all sorts of consequences. But remember that your DNA is millions of characters long, and the UV photon is damaging just one of them. So the vast majority of errors have no effect, either b/c the cell fixes the error, b/c the error doesn't manifest itself in a meaningful way (a lot of DNA has no purpose or has limited importance) or b/c results in just that one cell dying (irrelevant to your health). Its like changing one letter in an extensive book of instructions, odds are that you can tell the error b/c it makes no sense, but occasionally it could lead to catastrophic error. Bad example, but if looking at instructions for escalator and had changed from \"stop immediately\" to \"step immediately\", you can see the problem with one random character change in the right place (whereas changing any other character would likely have no impact).\n\nSo what is cancer? If the photon creates an error in the right place, it can cause a cell to go haywire and replicate itself in an uncontrolled manner. This leads to a tumor (mass of cells growing uncontrollably) and eventually spreads and destroys the body. This happens because cells shed from the tumor and get circulated to other places in the body, which then create new tumors elsewhere.\n\nSo how do so many people get cancer if its so unlikely for a photon to hit in just the right place in your DNA? The answer is the law of large numbers, the average day on a beach would have trillions upon trillions of UV photons bombarding down on trillions of skin cells -- just a probability function for the right collision to happen, and whamo. So the risk for cancer goes up with exposure in relatively linear way. This means that you can go your entire life in the Sun and not have get skin cancer, or you can spend one minute in the Sun and get skin cancer -- all depends on your luck, but the probability tells us that more time unprotected in the sun means more likely to get skin cancer. \n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
4ki8gf
|
what information is exchanged by using the new credit card chip compared to the old 'swipe' method?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ki8gf/eli5what_information_is_exchanged_by_using_the/
|
{
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"d3f3hnc"
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"text": [
"The magnetic strip contained the credit card number, name and expiry date. Everybody with a magnetic reader could read that and use that data over and over.\n\nWhen the credit card machine talks to the chip, it doesn't ask for the details as such, it will give the chip the total and some identification data which the chip uses to generate a hash over the credit card details, the data given by the machine and some secret details on the chip. That hash is send with the data to the credit card company and if their version of the credit card details and the data and the hash matches they will approve it. Because there is sequential data in it, the hash calculated cannot be used over and over again. Because the method of the hash calculation is done by on the chip with secret data not known by the machine, the machine cannot recalculate the hash. As such it's more secure.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
zim5d
|
why did osama bin laden's body get put into the ocean?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zim5d/eli5_why_did_osama_bin_ladens_body_get_put_into/
|
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"text": [
"The official reason is they didn't want any particular location to become a shrine or monument to him for other terrorists.\n\nBut if you are into conspiracy theories, they are all kinds of other reasons, mostly centered on the idea he isn't actually dead.",
"Immunization. \n\nIf we dilute enough dead terrorists into the water supply eventually everyone will be immunized against terrorism, much like we use dead Poliovirus to protect you against Polio.",
"It keeps his location secret, and it's an acceptable Muslim burial (though I have to believe they just kicked his corpse out of a helicopter and flew off).",
"In addition to preventing the burial area from becoming a shrine, there were also concerns that no country would accept his remains on their land.",
"Islam requires bodies to be buried within 24 hours. Burial at sea is acceptable. This gave them a way to respect Islamic beliefs while not creating a location that could become a focal point for his followers.",
"It's a Damned if You Do, Damned If You Don't scenario.\n\nIslamic beliefs require a body to be lain to rest as quickly as possible after death, within 24 hours. As the US Military had taken his body for positive identification, it was up to them to follow those beliefs....or not.\n\nThey had a number of choices. They could return the body to Bin Laden's family, but that would put the body outside of the 24 hour timeframe. They could hang on to it and parade it around, maybe, and piss off people even further, possibly radicalizing even more people. or they could bury him at sea under Islamic funeral rites, which is perfectly acceptable to the Islamic faith.\n\nSo they chose the latter. At the cost of not pissing Muslims off, they pissed off a bunch of Americans who..... I'm not really sure what the end goal was there. Stuff and mount his body in the Congressional Gift Shop, maybe? ",
"Our very own state created Emmanuel Goldstein. Don't worry, another will be created soon enough.\n\nOceania has always been at war with Eurasia, silly.",
"I thought it was like in the *Transformers* movie when they got rid of Megatron's body in the ocean. That way he could never be resurrected and the pressure would crush him. You can never be too careful with Decepticons or Terrorists.",
"BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T REALLY KILL HIM\n\n\nEDIT: guys I was joking, sorry about the long debate that I caused below. ",
"The real question I think is why didn't they just take him alive and put him on trial?",
"No idea. I mean, i think it was really stupid of them. He's now going to be able to rally all the fishes to plot against us. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
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[],
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[],
[],
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[]
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||
2dqpzi
|
how does the "ice bucket challenge" actually raise money for charity?
|
if the options are: give money to charity, or dump ice water on your head, and the viral videos are of people pouring ice water on their heads, then doesn't that mean people are NOT giving money to charity?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dqpzi/eli5_how_does_the_ice_bucket_challenge_actually/
|
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"text": [
"spreads the word to people who may pay",
"No, the options are, you give $100 to ALS research.\n\nOr you dump a bucket of Ice Water on your head and only donate $10\n\nYou then challenge 3 more people to do it also.\n\nThere is no option to not give money, only to give less money.",
"it's to create awareness and you're proof it's working",
"It basically taps into the narcissistic celebrity culture of social media addicts to grant them further opportunities for egotism for the low price of ten bucks."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4qc3zs
|
why do adults and teens have differently shaped knee caps?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qc3zs/eli5_why_do_adults_and_teens_have_differently/
|
{
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"d4rtf5f",
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6,
2
],
"text": [
"Hi, there. I thought maybe I could chime in here, as I know a thing or two about the subject. Knee caps do not change shape with age.\n\nSource: I am an adult and I know how bones work.",
"They don't. \n\nKneecaps do not change shape as you age (apart from damage). Individuals may have different shapes, but they do not have differences based on being a teen or not being a teen. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
75gsxn
|
why are novel adaptations of movies so uncommon?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75gsxn/eli5_why_are_novel_adaptations_of_movies_so/
|
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],
"text": [
"In the old days before VCR's were common the only way to re-experience a movie that was no longer in the cinemas was to watch it on TV once a year, or, for a more regular experience, read the novelization (or sometimes the comic adaptation).\n\nFor example, when I was a kid I read the Raiders of the Lost Ark novel over and over again because that's the only way I could \"rewatch\" it.",
"Are they? I feel like novel adaptions of movies are at last as common as film adaptations of novels are. Especially for big movies.",
"Honestly? They're not. A good number of the big-name blockbusters of the past few years have had novelisations: [*Suicide Squad*](_URL_3_), [*The Force Awakens*](_URL_0_), [*Pacific Rim*](_URL_5_), [*Crimson Peak*](_URL_2_), [*Warcraft*](_URL_1_), [*The Cabin in the Woods*](_URL_4_), [*Godzilla*](_URL_7_) [and more...](_URL_6_)\n\nSo why do they *seem* so uncommon? I'd say it comes down to a couple of things:\n\n1) Visibility. Novels generally don't have the marketing budget that movies have, and they tend to be aimed at fans of the franchise who'll buy them anyway. Any money that the studio has is going to go on advertising the movie, not the novelisation.\n\n2) Adaptation. A good chunk of movies today are, as people have noted, adaptations of existing books. The 'movie tie-in' edition is the equivalent version, and is a big moneyspinner for authors, but you can't really novelise a movie that was previously a novel. (This also holds true for things like *Logan*, which aren't direct adaptations but pull heavily from the *Old Man Logan* arc.)\n\n3) As other people have said, the home video market has made it so that rewatching is much easier. Unless you're a *really* dedicated fan, you'll probably just watch the movie rather than dedicate hours to reading the novel, especially because the movie novelisation has lost a lot of the prestige it once had.",
"How Do I put this It's most of the time seen as a cheap cash in by 2nd-3rd rate author who are never gonna get a best seller and as such they often don't sell well these day and are less and less common except for Scifi films and franchises however some writers have taken this and run with it and made much better novels out of o.k. or bad films \n\nNormally by deepening them or expanding on them.\n\nFor example The Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization was written by Matthew Stover and is way better than the film or it as a tie in has any right to be. It add more to the depth of characterization and the dueling ideas behind the heroes. \n\nBuckaroo Banzai by Earl Mac Rauch for example adds a ton of parts that never were able to be filmed for time and cost giving a wider and stranger world.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25387202-star-wars---the-force-awakens",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27038914-warcraft-official-movie-novelization?from_search=true",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25241995-crimson-peak?from_search=true",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29358261-suicide-squad",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7980210-the-cabin-in-the-woods?from_search=true",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17162161-pacific-rim?from_search=true",
"https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=movie+novelization",
"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18594685-godzilla---the-official-movie-novelization?from_search=true"
],
[]
] |
|
492b4i
|
standard deviations.
|
I hear about this a lot but never really understand what it means. Specifically a thread in cringeanarchy was saying an IQ of 130 is two standard deviations from average. Being that IQs are a bell distribution centered on 100 this may be an easy dealie to use as an example.
Edit: lots on good answers. I will have to think about all this. Thanks everyone and feel free to continue contributing. I've bookmarked so I can re-reread at home and think a bit more.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/492b4i/eli5_standard_deviations/
|
{
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"text": [
"It is a way to tell someone the range of a distribution. If something has a big standard deviation, that means the range is wide, and if it has a narrow standard deviation, that means the range is narrow. For example, if your sample has an average of 5 and a standard deviation of 1, that means that 68% of the data falls between 4 and 6. If it has a standard deviation of 5, that means that 68% of the data falls between 1 and 9.\n\nTo answer your IQ question, assuming it's the Stanford-Binet IQ test, the standard deviation for the Stanford-Binet is 15 points, and the average is 100. 130 (your given score) minus 100 (the average) = 30. 30/15 (the standard deviation for that distribution) = 2. So 130 is 2 standard deviations from the average.\n\n2 standard deviations from the average contain 95% of the data. That leaves 5% of people whose scores fall outside 2 standard deviations from the average. 2.5% of people fall below the standard deviation of 2, and 2.5% of people fall above the standard deviation of 2.\n\nIf you have a score of 130, that means that only 2.5% of the people who take the test scored higher than you.",
"Standard deviations add context to data. Is 20 a lot more than 10?\n\nIf it's how fast your car is going right now, not at all. \n\nIf it's how much you spent on lunch today, maybe. \n\nIf it's how many times you peed yesterday, then, ya know, it might be time to see a doctor. \n\nStandard Deviations are what allow you to transform these into comparable situations - eg, Speed= +0.2 SD, Lunch= +1.1 SD, Bathroom= +3.8 SD.\n\n(There are good technical explanations on this thread already so I won't add one) ",
"The standard deviation is the square root of the variance in a data set.\n\nThe variance is the average total of all the value's distance from the mean (average) for that particular set of data.\n\nIt tells you how spread out the data is.",
"Think of a set of numbers. Take the average of those numbers. That average us probably somewhere in the middle. Now for each number in the number set, record the difference between that and the average number. Then for all of the \"differences\" you just recorded, take the average of those differences. That average of differences is standard deviation. Once you understand exactly what it is and how to calculate it, the name makes more sense. Its basically on average how far each number in the number set is from the average of the number set, which gives you an idea of how much of a spread or how scattered the data is.",
"There's a lot of great answers involving square roots and variance, but I think the simplest explanation is that it tells you how tightly grouped your data is.\n\nFor example, if I have five numbers: 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12:\n\n* The average is 10.\n\nAnother five numbers: 2, 6, 10, 14, 18:\n\n* The average again is 10.\n\nHowever, these clearly aren't the same. The numbers are grouped much more closely around the average in the first example. As a result, the standard deviation will be smaller in the first example and larger in the second. The standard deviation honestly probably isn't very useful in such a small sample, but with a larger data set numbers, it can help provide good info how tightly grouped the numbers are.\n\nAnother cool thing about standard deviations is that you can use them to quickly determine how many of your data points fall within a certain range. By definition, 68.2% of your data falls within +/- one standard deviation of the average. So, if I told you that a certain data set had an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 5, you'd know right away that approximately 2/3 of the data points are between 95 and 105.\n\nEdit: as /u/MartiniD mentioned, yes the last paragraph only applies if the data set is bell-shaped. I thought about mentioning that in my original comment, but didn't because I was trying to keep it simple.",
"It is a mathematical artefact that comes from the derivation of the normal distribution. Physically, it is the distance between the middle of the Gaussian/normal distribution and the point of inflection, where the curve stops decreasing faster and starts decreasing slower. \n\nIt is the average of the square root of the squared differences between each observation and the average of the observations. The differences are squared so they are all positive, so you can add them up without them cancelling each other out.\n\nTry not to think it has too much meaning or can be understood intuitively. It is just a convenient thing we use a lot. It is actually very hard to make judgements in because of the non linearity. Percentiles, values at risk, mean absolute deviance, expected shortfall, are all useful too.",
"Imagine you're at a shooting range and you shoot 10 times at a target. The deviation is how spread out your shots are from each other.\n\nThe standard deviation is just the deviation for 2/3rds of your shots (technically more like 68% but let's just round to 2/3rds for now). Lets say overall, your accuracy was good, and the spread of all your shots is centered right on the center of the bullseye. If that standard deviation is, say 2\", then you can say 2/3rds of your shots are within 2\" from the target. The larger your standard deviation, the further your shots are spread out, the worse your grouping, and the worse your precision."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
b63ixg
|
why only plants photosynthesize?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b63ixg/eli5_why_only_plants_photosynthesize/
|
{
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"text": [
"Plants, algae and cynobacteria can do photosynthesis.\n\nThere are also some weird cases like [this sea slug](_URL_0_) which eats algae and captures the part of the algae cells responsible for photosynthesis, the chloroplast, to use itself. It looks like leaf, but is an animal.\n\nIt is thought that this is how plants got the photosynthesis ability too. That the chloroplast originally was its own lifefrom, but got co-opted by the ancestors of modern plants and became part of them.\n\nSo the answer to your question is perhaps that, photosynthesis is a trick that nature only stumbled across once (or a small number of times) and all current lifeforms capable of photosynthesis either are descendant from the ones who stumbled across it originally or stole the trick from them by eating them and making them part of themselves.\n\nFor most animals it wouldn't be terrible advantageous either, so any animal randomly evolving the beginning of that particular skill wouldn't get much out of it and not be in a position to better pass it on to its descendants. You usually get more energy by eating other lifeforms.\n",
"Lots of other things photosynthesize. To do so requires a number of specific structures, which are found in cyanobacteria, plants, red algae, green algae (both of which are closely related to plants), and also some less closely related things like golden algae, brown algae, euglenazoans, diatoms, some rhizarians, and even some animals. \n\nThe key thing is that all of these have something that captures light energy and converts it to chemical energy, and then the ability to use that energy to do carbon fixation, which means taking CO2 out of the atmosphere and converting it into sugar. \n\nCyanobacteria were the first group to be able to do this. Later, larger cells ate cyanobacteria, and the cyanobacteria became a part of those cells, called an organelle. These organelles, called chloroplasts, do photosynthesis, and all of the other things that do photosynthesis use chloroplasts (or structures derived from chloroplasts). \n\nSo the reason why some groups can and some groups can't photosynthesize is based on which groups ate and incorporated other things that could photosynthesize.",
"Plant biologist here, u/SirButcher lays out good points regarding the trade offs required for efficient photosynthesis.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nHowever, another key point is that once an organism has photosynthesis evolution will push it toward a more sedentary plant-like lifestyle. An organism that acquires energy from sunlight has no need to chase or eat other organisms. Natural selection will push it toward the efficient traits Sir Butcher described.",
"Randall Munroe of [xkcd](_URL_0_) wrote an article that addresses this indirectly. In summary, he was doing some back of the envelope calculations about how much energy a cow could get if it could photosynthesize. He found that under ideal conditions, they might be able to get around 4% of their energy needs from the sun, which isn't nothing, but also isn't much. Photosynthesis is not very efficient - it captures only a small percent of the sun's energy. If you're a plant that doesn't have a lot of energy costs, this is okay, because you only need a small amount of energy. But if you're an animal with energy-intensive things like muscles and a brain (and especially if you're warm-blooded) photosynthesis just doesn't give you enough to get by - you'd still have to eat almost the same amount as before. To quote the article: \n\n > A field of grass sits there all day soaking up energy from the sun and storing it chemically. A grazing animal can then come along and absorb weeks of accumulated energy in a matter of minutes",
"First there were very simple single-cell creates such as bacteria and the like.\n\nPlants evolved from these and via photosynthesis suddenly could capture a lot of energy from the Sun. They even poisoned the planet with oxygen which killed off most of their brothers and sisters who could not photosynthesize.\n\nAnimals came after and were able to EAT plants and avoid a lot of trouble and effort: why buy the cow/be a plant when you can buy the milk/eat the plants. It's the easier way and evolution always favors easy that gives an advantage.\n",
"Plants and other photosynthesizers have way less energy demanding metabolisms than other organisms. Photosynthesis is a very slow drip of energy that only adequately meets the energy needs of something that operates on a very long time scale. High energy organisms like mammals and medium energy organisms like lizards need large amounts of energy in too short of a time frame for photosynthesis to make anything but a negligible impact."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysia_chlorotica"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
3q43o8
|
why does it feel like your heart is in your throat when you're nervous/anxious?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q43o8/eli5_why_does_it_feel_like_your_heart_is_in_your/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cwbwpll"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You have major veins and arteries with blood pumping to and from the heart in your neck. What you're feeling is the increased blood pressure from an increase of blood flowing through those veins and arteries in your neck."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
e4wjcq
|
spectral lines in an emission spectrum
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e4wjcq/eli5_spectral_lines_in_an_emission_spectrum/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f9fnotg",
"f9fpjh0"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"You excite an atom. Electrons jump to a higher energy state. When they relax, they go to a lower state releasing a photon of energy equivalent to the difference between the states. This shows up as a line of a particular frequency on the emission spectrum.",
"In an atom, you'll find a positively charged nucleus, and negatively charged electrons. The electrons are sometimes described as orbiting the nucleus much like planets orbit a star (thus, it's called the planetary model of the atom) but this explanation is slightly wrong. Instead, electrons are located in \"electron oribitals\" (not orbits!) or \"clouds\". Every atom has slightly different orbitals or clouds from one another, due to the different number of protons and electrons in that particular substance.\n\nEach of these clouds can hold a certain number of electrons. However, due to quantum mechanics (i.e. the weird nature of our universe), the electrons in these clouds are only allowed to have certain energy levels. Simply put - you can't fit an electron with too much or too little energy in there. It has to be the exact amount of energy.\n\nIf you want to move an electron from one orbital to another one, you need to put in the difference in energy between those two orbitals to do so. You can compare this to lifting a heavy object - if you wanna move a heavy book from the bottom shelf of your book case to another one, you need to put in energy to overcome the pull of gravity. This extra energy is stored in the book as potential energy. Electrons can be moved from a lower energy level to a higher one in the same way.\n\nHowever, electrons always strive towards the state of lowest energy possible. This is also a feature of our weird universe. In order for the electron to go from a higher energy level to a lower one, it has to give of energy in some way. Technically speaking, it can do so in a few different waves, but the most common one is by sending out a photon - a light particle. When the electron goes from a higher to the lower energy level, it takes that difference in energy and puts it into the photon it emits.\n\nEven though atoms all have a lot of different orbitals and thus lots of different energy levels, they're always the same in a certain kind of atom. Think of atoms as pieces of LEGO - you've got lots of different pieces, but many of them are identical. A two by four red LEGO brick is always the same as every other 2 by 4 red LEGO brick. In the same sense, a helium atom is always identical to every other helium atom, and a sodium atom is always identical to every other sodium atom, and so on. (Isotopes aside, that's a different story).\n\nNow, since every atom has its own, unique orbitals with its unique energy levels, the photons given of when electrons in a certain atom fall from one energy level to another always have the same unique energy. Since the energy of a photon corresponds to its wavelength, this means an atom always give of certain wavelengths of light. Therefore, by looking at what wavelengths a certain atom gives of, we can figure out what atom it is. It's sort of like a fingerprint for atoms!\n\nThis is how scientist have figured out what distant stars, planets, nebulae, and other celestial objects are composed of, even if they're billions of light years away. It's really neat, when you think about it!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
25jkoh
|
how can big name companies place advertisements on websites that illegally stream content?
|
I was just streaming The Dark Knight Returns on _URL_0_ and every ten minutes an advertisement for hhgregg would pop up. Why would hhgregg sponsor this website or am I missing something really obvious?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25jkoh/eli5_how_can_big_name_companies_place/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chhs990"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"Companies buy ad space from other companies, which in turn purchase space on websites. A company with an ad likely has no idea exactly where that ad is being displayed."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"animeflavor.com"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
2e1wzz
|
why does restarting a program make it work?
|
Say I start Excel and it messes up, so I just try it again and it works. What changes between the first and second try?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e1wzz/eli5_why_does_restarting_a_program_make_it_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjv9v0k"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Programs store information in memory(usually RAM). Sometimes this information becomes corrupted or conflicts with normal operation due to an error.\n\nWhen you close the program, this memory is made available again for other programs. And also when you open the program, most of the information is \"initialized\" (set at default values), fixing many errors."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2l22wq
|
historically, how were major changes made to the english language such as new letters or punctuation? who decided them and how did they become "official"?
|
Additionally, how would a change like this be made in modern times?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l22wq/eli5_historically_how_were_major_changes_made_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"clqq240"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Publishers drove the changes. If other publishers adopted them, then they stayed and became universal. Spelling only became consistent when the first dictionaries were written - before that, people spelled words however they felt at the time. Famously, William Shakespeare didn't even sign his own name the same way twice in any surviving document we have - he changed it every time.\n\nLater, when a publisher with enough clout adopted the spelling defined by a given dictionary, others would follow.\n\nLikewise for punctuation. This was purely done for easy readability at first (introducing spaces between words was probably the biggest single change). While we have some generally agreed rules, they are by no means universally followed. For example, there are different styles for using apostrophes (some people write James' and others write James's but neither is agreed by everyone as being correct). Similarly, the [Oxford Comma](_URL_0_) is used by Oxford University press but isn't universal.\n\nThat's why, even today, universities and some other large organisations publish a \"Style Guide\" which tells you which punctuation rules they follow, so that their publications are consistent within the organisation. Here are a [bunch of such guides](_URL_1_).\n\n**TL;DR** publishers drove the changes, but there is no \"official\" punctuation style."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma",
"http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/writing/forms/Style%20Guides.pdf"
]
] |
|
2iguqd
|
how does (american) football work on kid level?
|
When playing sports (soccer) in Norway, every kid on the team is worth the same and, even though they aren't, treated as if they're all equally good. This is pretty easy to accomodate in game because even though some positions are more important than others, everyone plays an equal part and has the same basic responsibilities (kick the ball...)
So how does this work in America where I've come to understand things are a little more performance based, even at younger ages? (I have a trophy from literally every tournament my team entered as a kid, although we didn't win anything... ever. I guess things aren't the same over there?)
My questions basically are:
- How do you choose a quarterback among a bunch of 10 year-olds and how does that kid cope with the pressure of being the undisputedly most important player of the team?
- Doesn't everyone want to be the QB? Are the other kids told they'll get a chance eventually as the season progresses?
- Don't the other kids get jealous of the kid that gets to be the QB?
- Also, how are the other kids encouraged to stay on the team if there is only a couple quarterbacks?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iguqd/eli5how_does_american_football_work_on_kid_level/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cl21sl3",
"cl22ikl"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Gotta speak for Canada here, US might be different.\n\nA lot of it depends on how forceful the parents are and how popular the sport is, but there's usually a point at which a kid makes a choice to either play the sport casually or live it. And if they are exhibiting the right level of talent even at a young age, they'll get the chance to play the key positions on their chosen sports teams in junior high and beyond more often than their not-so-good friends.\n\nIt's usually like this: schools have athletic programs of a casual gym-type variety for the first few elementary years (grades 1-5) so the kids get exposed to sports through TV at home and by playing casually at school. On top of this, some parents are really into sports and want their kid to excel at a selected one, so they enrol their kid in \"peewee hockey\" or \"midget football\" or \"tiny tater tot baseball sponsored by McCains, where taters are greater\" so the child is exposed at an early age. Those parents do crazy things like set the alarm for 5AM so they can score some ice time for little Billy. \n\nWhen the kid gets into junior high school and when team sports are more policed and performance starts to come into play, the parent that invested in their kid usually has an advantage, that kid plays better, and the other kids don't get the roles like quarterback or hockey centre because winning is more fun than losing in school representative events. There are often informal events like \"free swims\" or \"badminton night\" for the less ably competitive, but the big structured sports often concentrate on getting the best and brightest on board at the junior high school level (grades 6-8).\n\nThis continues through high school (grades 9-12) with the naturally talented and formally trained continuing to develop their capabilities both outside of competitive events and as they are tapped to play more often in the games with active competition, because they increase the chance of the school winning which is something the local community usually loves. If the kid is really good, being a recognized quarterback or forward can then translate into athletic scholarships or, for the truly elite, professional sports careers. ",
"Warning: I'm not really a fan of \"American\" football.\n\nI have watched a few years worth of an independent football/cheerleading program for the last several years. (My wife is the cheerleading coach.) \n\nIt seems to me the QB isn't really that important at that level. There isn't really a passing game at that level and it's more of a running game. There is usually one kid who is a little older, little taller, and a little faster so the game becomes \"get it to that guy.\" Once in a while they run a passing play, but that usually results in a turnover. \n\nThere seem to be three kinda important positions between QB, running back, and receiver. Then there are big kids who aren't really fast that just want to play with their friends and be on a team, they turn into blockers. \n\nOverall, things seem to work themselves out naturally and the coaches try and see talent and give a little push in one direction or anoher."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
e6bqr4
|
why don’t ears repair themselves?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e6bqr4/eli5_why_dont_ears_repair_themselves/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f9p27q9",
"f9p7fra"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Cartilage: blood-borne oxygen is necessary for healing, and cartilage doesn’t have any blood vessels. \n\nSource: I needed a chondrocyte implantation in my knee to replace a hole in my cartilage. Also, I pierced my septum 16 years ago, and can still fit jewelry in (despite having the ring out for 15.5 years). \n\nNo idea re: the eardrums.",
"OP if you're starting to develop cauliflower ears go to a doctor and have them drain it for you. You can do it at home on your own but it's really not recommended. If you drain it before it hardens you should avoid any possible issues. Although cauliflower ears usually develop much quicker than two years."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
876a4u
|
why do surfaces (e.g. painted walls) change colour when wet - even with a clear substance such as water?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/876a4u/eli5_why_do_surfaces_eg_painted_walls_change/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dwajz9l"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"It all has to do with how light is reflected. Our eyes take in light that bounces off surfaces, like you catching a ball your friend threw at the wall. When a surface is wet, there’s a liquid layer on it. Light bends when it’s in a liquid. Ever notice how your straw looks like it’s cut in 1/2 in a glass of water? It’s because of how the water bends the light as it passes through. So when light hits a surface with let’s say water on it, it bends the light slightly more than the dry surface so when it reflects it’s a little bit different than the light around it, making it look different. (Please note I say bend as a general term to keep the explication more simplistic) "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
3vlvxi
|
are the recent acts of terrorism outside of war zones new, or are they simply getting more coverage now?
|
There was a shooting in Paris, a shooting in San Bernadino, CA, apparently an attack in London today: all allegedly attached to radical groups. Are incidents like these increasing in number, or is this just a result of bias in what the media is choosing to cover?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vlvxi/eli5_are_the_recent_acts_of_terrorism_outside_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cxoo98a"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Well... a little bit of both, I guess. On one hand, there certainly are more things happening in the last few months, on the other hand, pretty much *everything* that has some kind of relation to IS sympathizers is called a terrorist attack. For instance, the London attack you mentioned was a guy that wounded three people with a knife. Nothing to play down, but not what you would normally consider a terror attack either - but with things being how they are, \"terror attack in London\" draws more people onto news sites than \"man stabs 3\". \n\nThere have also been plenty attacks in the past though - just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head. Germany had its fair share of both left- and right-wing extremist terror. RAF attacking American army bases in Germany, neo-nazis bombing the Oktoberfest in '80. Housing centers for refugees burning in the early 90s. \nThe whole period during The Troubles in Ireland/UK is a giant series of bombings, shootings, \netc. \nThink back to the Oklahoma bombing, several attacks and bombings by anti-abortion radicals in the 90s (Army of God), etc. \nBreivik shooting 60-something children only a few years ago. \n\nSo... those things aren't exactly new, but they are getting way more coverage. It's also easier to string them together as a series of events, because many/most incidents nowadays are linked to radical Islam, instead of having completely different and unrelated motives. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2l2ye7
|
why does splashing cold water on your face feel so refreshing & invigorating, especially when you're tired?
|
Since quitting caffeine this has become one of my go to pick-me-ups late in the workday, and have found it actually works and feels great!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l2ye7/eli5_why_does_splashing_cold_water_on_your_face/
|
{
"a_id": [
"clqzn2b",
"clr76m2"
],
"score": [
3,
13
],
"text": [
"Cold water stimulates blood circulation through the system and also cleanses the face. Cold showers also work the same way.",
"Mammalian Dive Reflex is activated when water no warmer than 21 °C (70 °F) touches the face of a mammal. The reflex optimizes respiration so that the animal can stay submerged for longer. That's why your breathing changes when you jump into a chilly pool or run into the cold water when you flip the shower on. \n\n\nChildren exhibit this reflex more strongly than adults due to their large surface area to volume ratio.\n\n Pulled from wiki: \" In a 2012 case, a 21 month old child inhaled cold water and was immersed for approximately 25 minutes, being pulled from the water with no breathing or heartbeat, and was revived in hospital after approximately 50 minutes without a heartbeat. He was warmed up slowly and brought out of a therapeutic coma after two days, making a full recovery\".\n\nSources: I am a nationally certified EMT-B, with experience in water rescue. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
18fgvv
|
the american school math system
|
Reading on Reddit and other places I've seen phrases floated around like Algebra, Algebra II, Pre-Calc, etc. I live in Canada and have never heard these phrases. In my district (and I believe in my whole province) we have grade 9 math (or Principles of Mathematics, mainly covering Linear Systems), grade 10 math (still called PoM, introduces quadratics and the like), Functions (taken in grade 11, begin trig, cubic functions, etc.), Advanced Functions (deeper trig stuff, start using radians, rates of change, rational/exponential/log equations), and finally Calculus and Vectors (limits, derivatives, etc.). How does this compare to the American naming scheme?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18fgvv/eli5_the_american_school_math_system/
|
{
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"c8ece1x",
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10,
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"text": [
"The math sequence I took was (starting in Grade 6 through Grade 12)\n\n1. Pre-Algebra (equation handling)\n2. Algebra I (quadratic functions, formulas, binomials)\n3. Geometry (this was mostly proof-based)\n4. Algebra II (set theory, functions, etc)\n5. Pre-Calculus (more on functions, conic sections)\n6. Trigonometry (...trig)\n7. Calculus I (limits, derivatives, integrals)\n8. Calculus II (special cases of integrals, sequences and series, non-rectilinear coordinates)\n\nAnd then onto other maths (Linear algebra, differential equations, PDE, Complex numbers, vector calculus, signal representation). ",
"I'll take a stab at this. \n\nThis is generally the layout that an fairly decent math student will take in the United States: Pre-Algebra(7th and 8th), Algebra(9th, start of High School), Geometry(10th), Algebra II(11th), and Pre-Calculus(12th.)\n\nIt sounds like your Principle of Mathematics is fairly equivalent to our Algebra. Generally we have geometry following Algebra which is just basic things like Pythagorean theorem and other such simple theorems on triangles and circles.\n\nOnce you get into systems of equations, quadratics, etc.. Then your in what we consider Algebra II. Alg II also includes matrices, functions, and basic log. Pre-Calculus is entirely optional (Alg II in some places maybe as well) and it covers review of Algebra II, trigonometry, polynomial functions, etc...\n\nMind you most of these classes overlap and we spent probably 1/3 of the next class reviewing the previous. \n\nIf you need anything clarified let me know. I also might be able to provide the equivalents conversion to college classes if needed."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
5so70e
|
what stops anyone (terrorists) from cutting the internet wires in the ocean and what would be the consequences?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5so70e/eli5what_stops_anyone_terrorists_from_cutting_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ddgk4kq",
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5,
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"text": [
"Nothing really. You could just cut the lines that lie on the ocean floor between continents. One obstacle is that they are hard to get to. Another is that it would take more than just a knife or cable cutter to sever them. As for what would happen, quite possibly nothing. The construction of physical plant is not like a string A-B-C, etc. but like an actual web. If the traffic is cut from one source, it just goes around the loop the other direction and you may not even notice. IN the early days, when someone would cut a fiber it could take a whole city down. Today you barely hear a click unless you are in some secluded place. So this doesn't happen because it would cost a fortune and come at significant risk and if you accomplished your mission it is possible that no one would notice.",
"Not only is the ocean deep, but the cable is trenched closer to shore and would require under sea digging. Further, these cables are the diameter of a dinner plate! They're composed of many different cables for power and data, and fibers and steel cable for strength and are load bearing. So it's not trivial to just boat up to one and cut it with a hacksaw. Even with an adequate ship and diving equipment or a dredge, they'll likely get caught while organizing - coast guards would likely take an interest in the assembly of such an operation and commercial class vessel.\n\nCan it be done? Yes. Likely? No.\n\nConsequences: They would be caught and arrested, and the cable would be repaired. Down in the deep, these cables are just lying on the ground, and are subject to pressure, currents, and rock, grinding away at the side. These cables are constantly being damaged and there are ships out there whose job it is to drag damaged sections up and repair them. A full cut might take a few more days than normal."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
5nr9bl
|
why are cane fields burned after a harvest?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nr9bl/eli5_why_are_cane_fields_burned_after_a_harvest/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dcdoo44",
"dcdsmwj"
],
"score": [
5,
6
],
"text": [
"Sugar cane is burned to remove the outer leaves around the stalks before harvesting. when i was a pre-teen my family took a trip to Mexico and we attended a festival of lanterns. the ultimate goal was to have your lantern land (while still burning) in cane field. you would not believe the ashes raining from the dark grey sky for days after that.",
"Plant ash is also an incredible, fast-acting fertilizer as it's been broken down and ready for reabsorption."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3ntcl0
|
how do fountains (big, swimming pool types) continue to run in the rain without overflowing?
|
Was walking past my huge campus fountain today and this question popped into my head.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ntcl0/eli5_how_do_fountains_big_swimming_pool_types/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cvr2g9h"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They have overflows - you just can't see them any more than you can see the overflow in your toilet cistern without taking it apart.\n\nUsually the pump room has some form of level control, but don't forget the actual amount of rain is rarely more than a few millimetres an hour."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3v16s8
|
do buildings sink?
|
Objects sink, it's what they do. Buildings thousands of years old are found deep underground. But modern buildings don't seem to actually sink. Our house is 60 years old and seems fine. A rock in our landscaping is half buried after two years. I seen cars go under in less than a decade. I know I asked a similar question before but never got an actual answer if houses do sink. And if they don't what keeps them from doing so. If they do, at what rate?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v16s8/eli5do_buildings_sink/
|
{
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"cxjenuf",
"cxjenye",
"cxjesks",
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"text": [
"Objects aren't the same as houses. Modern foundations are pea gravel and concrete and the ground has to be grated away from the home to allow for drainage. This helps in keeping your foundation solid.\n\nA car parked on grass will have the grass adapt and grow around it.",
"They will if you aren't careful.\n\nReally big buildings, or buildings built on unstable soil often have pilings driven all the way down into bedrock to hold them up. A normal house doesn't weigh much compared to its area, so doesn't exert much ground pressure. On stable ground a house will fall down before it sinks if it's built correctly.\n\nBuilding correctly includes packing the dirt around the foundation and making a good solid footing for the house. If you don't do this and just slap a house down on unprepared ground it will start to sink almost immediately. It won't take long before you start noticing cracks in the walls and everything going all uneven as the house settles.",
"Depends on what they're built on. A mall in my area was built half on solid rock and half on marsh. The marshy half started to sink and cracked the foundation and walls of the mall. It took a ton of money to shore it up and repair the damage.\n\nProbably the most famous example of a sinking building is the [Leaning Tower of Pisa](_URL_0_), which had a similarly-uneven foundation and began to tip as a result. The structure has since been stabilized.",
"There are two similar but unrelated things going on here, Yes buildings sink although it is generally called subsiding rather than sinking. but when archaeologists find buildings underground it is not (usually) because they sank it is because they where buried over time. Plants will grow up over anything left untouched long enough, and then die and decompose down to dirt on which more plants grow. Also the wind will blow dirt around slowly covering things. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa"
],
[]
] |
|
4aojvi
|
why did old school tvs have a "layer" of static that sat on the screen? you could even "wipe it off" and it would be gone for a while then come back.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aojvi/eli5_why_did_old_school_tvs_have_a_layer_of/
|
{
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"d12qo1u",
"d12vha3",
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2591,
72,
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"text": [
"Old cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions have an [electron gun](_URL_0_) which fires electrons at the back of the screen. And the screen is coated with ~~phosphorus~~ *phosphors* which emit light whenever struck by an electron. The side-effect of this process is that each electron increases the static charge of the screen, and over time as the image on the TV changes it increases the charge. Meanwhile, rubbing your hand, which has a slight negative charge, across the screen will remove some of this built-up static.\n\nEdit: Confused phosphorus with phosphors",
"Why has no one brought up the horrible surprise you got as a kid during Xmas when you first discovered a strand of tinsel was attracted to the screen?",
"Also related to these TVs, why when you turn them on and for a few seconds afterwards you can hear this weird noise. It's a sharp noise when you hit the power button and then it fades out. It almost sounds like the PS2 startup sound.",
"Kids these days will never get to enjoy the excitement of breaking a CRT. So much danger. Plus, if you didn't wait for the high voltage to discharge (which could take anywhere from hours to weeks) you could electrocute yourself in the process.\n\nYou kids and your \"safety.\" Heck, I bet you've never even enjoyed the thrill of touching mercury with your fingers and watching it vanish into thin air. \n\nIf you need me, I'll be gently twitching in the corner suffering from all the horrible shit I did to my body over the years.",
"I have a follow up question, why do the old TV screens always have that Erie glow when you look at them in a pitch black room. When I WS younger I always thought it was left over \"energy\" because I had just turned it off. But the other night I saw it on a TV that wasn't even plugged in",
"Who remembers the funny color effects when holding a magnet to an old-school CRT ?",
"I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet but the smell is something I'm wondering about. When I was little and ran my hand on an old CRT THERE WAS DEFINITELY A SMELL TO IT. ",
"Anyone remember the smell when you shoved your nose up against the screen?",
"Can anyone please help me remember the science experiment I use to do as a kid with the static on these old tv's. \n\nIF I remember correctly, you would place two can next to each other and span a pen across the two tops. Dangle a string from the pen with the top of a pop can hanging from it. \n\nTape wire to 1 can and run that wire to the tv to where you tape that end to a piece of foil stuck to the tv screen. You either leave the other can alone or you ground it. \n\nWhen you turn on the tv, the pop tab would swing violently between the two cans and smack around. Is there a name for this experiment or do you know of a video showing how its done. Can it be replicated on anything around the house in 2016?\n",
"The old tvs work by shooting electricity at the screen to make it light up in certain places, but sometimes the electricity doesn't all go into lighting up the TV, and it gets trapped on the glass until something conductive, like your hand, comes close to it...",
"Holy shit all I'm seeing are a lot of terrible explanations or non-explanations. So I'll give it a go.\n\nThe type of TV that the OP is referring had in it what is known as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). The \"tube\" was a large, hollow piece of glass, part of which was the screen you actually looked at. The tube was under vacuum (no air inside). On the inside of the glass, forming the viewing screen, was a layer of phosphorescent material, laid out in a grid, of individual elements that would light up red, green, or blue (much the same as pixels on an LCD are actually made up of red, green and blue portions). At the other end of the tube was the source of what actually made the color cells light up: an electron beam source. This was literally a special piece of metal that would heat up to get red hot when electric current passed through it. When it got hot enough, it would throw off electrons (pretty much all materials do this, just some materials shed electrons more easily than others). The phosphorescent material I mentioned earlier would then have a very high positive charge applied to it, and because electrons naturally have a negative charge, they'd be pulled very rapidly toward the screen. Around the outside of the neck of the tube were electromagnetic coils. As the electrons are attracted toward the screen, a magnetic field is setup in different shapes by these coils to \"steer\" this beam of electrons toward a very specific spot on the screen. The electrons striking that spot would cause one of the phosphor color cells to light up. The magnetic field from the electromagnets would get energized in different ways to cause the electron beam to move back and forth, up and down, across the screen lighting different spots to form the picture (this process is called \"scanning\" the screen, and is where the term \"scan lines\" comes from, which make up the image).\n\nThe reason for the phenomenon the OP mentioned is because of what I said about the high positive charge on the back of the screen (which pulled the electrons toward it). The voltage potential between the back of the screen and the electron source was often 10s of thousands of volts. Because of the high charge on the back of the screen, together with the insulative property of the glass, negative ions from the air near the front of the TV would also be drawn to the screen, just as the electrons are that generate the image. When you touch the screen, you cause the area of the glass that you touch to discharge those ions off the glass through your body to ground. This is exactly the same effect as building a charge by scuffing your feet on carpet and then touching a metal door knob. Except in the latter case your body is the charge source and the door knob is the ground path, and in the case of the TV screen, the glass is the charge source and your body is the ground path. The reason you could \"wipe\" the screen to remove the static charge was because the pull of the high voltage potential behind the glass was enough to hold most of those free ions against the glass and only ions very close to where you touch could get pulled off the screen and through your body. Naturally, as long as the TV was turned on, more free ions from the air would get attracted to the screen and eventually the screen would have a complete layer of \"static\" again.\n\n\nTL;DR: TVs had a layer of static because of the very high voltage potential on the other side of the glass.",
"I remember at my school there was a button that would get rid of the static and make a funny noise and look cool.",
"The inside surface had a charge from having high energy elections flung at it. The electric field from that charge reaches through the screen and puts an opposite charge on the finger or hand you use touch the screen. Your new life as part of a capacitor.",
"The thick layer of glass that is the front of the screen acts like a capacitor due to the high voltage used inside, storing a slight charge.\n\nCool note* you can see this static at night, turn off the TV then turn the light off, you can see a faint glow on the screen. Running your hand over it causes it to spark and fade where you interfered with the charge."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question694.htm"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3aazzs
|
what does the cpu do and what does the gpu do when playing a game ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3aazzs/eli5_what_does_the_cpu_do_and_what_does_the_gpu/
|
{
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"csawg9l",
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],
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"text": [
"The CPU is your computer's main processing center and handles the majority of the work involved with running the game. Things like running the game engine, responding to input, loading the next level are all done by the CPU. However, it offloads the significant task of graphical processing to the GPU, a specialized piece of hardware designed to take virtual geometry and translate it into pixels to display on the screen. So when you tell your character to move in your game, the movement is handled by the CPU, it tells the GPU what to draw, and the GPU calculates how to draw it to the screen.",
"If you need to do the same calculations a bazillion times (how does this light impact pixel 1, how does this light impact pixel 2, how does this light impact pixel 3), it goes on the GPU. If you only need to do it a handful of times each frame (which direction should the enemy on screen move, did that bullet hit kill the enemy), it's done on the CPU."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
7t34sa
|
if tupac is dead, who receives the royalties when someone listens to his music? and same for other deceased artists
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7t34sa/eli5_if_tupac_is_dead_who_receives_the_royalties/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dt9mvns"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Tupac's estate was managed by his mother until she died a few years ago. Control of the estate then passed on to a a trustee that his mother appointed before her death. His mother and now the trustee was the beneficiary of all financial gains from his estate as well as empowered to make legal decisions regarding copyrights, release of previously unreleased music...etc.\n\nMost artists have similar situations in place. Many artists and musicians continue to make millions of dollars a year even decades after their deaths, and they usually have wills that provided instructions for how to manage their estates. For those who die with no will, a court usually grants control of the estate to the next-of-kin, or may divide it up between close relatives if there's a dispute, although disputes can drag on for years.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
176bqr
|
a coma
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/176bqr/a_coma/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c82tv89"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Coma is indeed a prolonged state of deep unconsciousness. Coma typically lasts a maximum of 4 to 6 weeks, after that people die or go into a vegetative state. (or they have already gone to a more conscious state)\n\nIn a vegetative state patients will open their eyes and breathe spontaneously, however there is no possible way of contact because they are not really aware of what's going on. \n\nTo determine whether somebody is in a coma we use the [Glasgow Coma Scale](_URL_0_) which tests eye, verbal and motor response.\nWhen a patient has a score lower then 8 (E1-M5-V2)* they are in a coma. \n\nI am not sure why people go in a coma but I do know people are kept in coma if their body needs more oxygen. (because a comatose brain/body uses less oxygen)\n\n**(E1 means the patient doesn't open their eyes, M5 means he can find a place where they are being hurt but he can't follow commands, V2 means they make noises but utter no words)*\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Coma_Scale"
]
] |
||
2270jt
|
how can enough oxygen remain in crowded cities where there are very few plants to photosynthesize the co2?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2270jt/eli5_how_can_enough_oxygen_remain_in_crowded/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgjy6ge",
"cgjzt48"
],
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2,
2
],
"text": [
"there are no impregnable barriers separating urban air space and surrounding air space, so air can move freely back and forth. as such, not only can wind (credit to ernie) bring in oxygen, it can also remove CO2 and other components that make up \"air\".",
"If cities were incased in air tight glass bubbles that might be a problem, but their not."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
emun9w
|
how do elo ranking systems work in modern games?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/emun9w/eli5_how_do_elo_ranking_systems_work_in_modern/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fdr7kih"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Every player starts with the same score. In the original formulation it’s 1600. And there’s also a constant K, which will depend on the game, but the usual value is 32. This constant determines how much elo is gained/lost.\n\nSo players with the same elo will win/lose 16 points after a match, or half of the constant K.\n\nThe constant K limits how many points one player can win/lose during a match. So if a really bad player wins against a really great player, the bad player will get 32 points (or something close to it like 30 or 31) and the good player will lose the same amount. If the great player wins, he’ll get very little elo (0-2 points), and the bad player will lose the same amount.\n\nThe constant K is usually very high in a player’s first few games, so that he’s put in a elo that matches his skill faster\n\nModern games probably modify their elo system based on their needs, but that’s the base of it. Some games assign a rank (like silver, gold) to certain elos, and will promote players ranks based on their hidden elo scores. \n\nIf you’re interested in the math behind it, check the wikipedia page on elo rating \n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system"
]
] |
||
2ciu4i
|
how do jets create electrical power?
|
You can't really strap a alternator and belt to a jet engine - so how do jet engined planes have enough power to fly for several hours?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ciu4i/eli5_how_do_jets_create_electrical_power/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjfw2r0"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They use what's called [\"auxiliary power unit\"](_URL_0_). \n\n[Here's](_URL_1_) the APU on a Boeing 737."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_power_unit",
"http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/electronics/power/b737-apu.jpg"
]
] |
|
18vtn2
|
why doesn't my car have an oil gauge?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18vtn2/eli5_why_doesnt_my_car_have_an_oil_gauge/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c8ifh9w"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"If you mean an oil quantity gauge, the oil gets pumped all around the engine, it doesn't just sit in a tank till it's needed like fuel does. This makes it difficult to measure the oil quantity when the engine is running.\n\nIt is possible to fit oil temperature and pressure gauges to cars, and many enthusiasts do, especially if they intend to race their cars and want advance warning that something might be broken.\n\nBut for most purposes, the single light on your dashboard that warns of low oil pressure is considered to be sufficient, combined with checking the oil level with the dipstick regularly."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5yzkhi
|
how do roses that last for years work?
|
I was browsing the Internet when I saw an article about a company that made roses and claimed they would live for years (3 to be exact, under a dome) . The hype for these Roses apparently came from the recent beauty and the beast movie and each rose sells for a few hundred dollars. Can anyone explain how they get these Roses to last for such a long time? Is it possible to replicate the results?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yzkhi/eli5_how_do_roses_that_last_for_years_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"deu4me7"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Not sure how those exact roses are preserved, but one way of creating eternal roses it is to take a recently cut rose, submerge it in a mixture of glycerine and water, the rose will gradually replace its sap with the liquid and after a couple of days you have a flower that will last forever (or at least a couple of years..)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
bio1zt
|
why can't helicopters exceed a certain altitude when carryin a heavy load?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bio1zt/eli5_why_cant_helicopters_exceed_a_certain/
|
{
"a_id": [
"em1stsw",
"em1svtl"
],
"score": [
12,
4
],
"text": [
"Helicopters use their rotars and blades to create lift. The more mass it has to carry, the more lift needs to be generated to keep it in the air. As you go higher and higher in the atmosphere, it begins to thin. It eventually reaches a point where the amount of lift the blades can generate in the thinner atmosphere isn't enough to equal the extra mass it's carrying.",
"Helicopter downforce requires thick air to generate it as it is basically a screw that is screwing itself upwards. \n\nAs you go higher, the air gets thinner so the rotors would need to work harder to screw enough air downwards to keep the choppi level or climb higher. But more effort is required exponentially as the atmospher thins. Like diminishing returns.\n\nNow add weight to this and the upper ceiling of downforce drops substantially."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
z5e3m
|
how did god come to be known as a guy with a beard who wears long robes.
|
Why/how was that image assigned to him as opposed to just considering God to be some type of formless entity?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z5e3m/eli5_how_did_god_come_to_be_known_as_a_guy_with_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c61r3wf",
"c61re30",
"c61l39v",
"c61llwu",
"c61mmgk",
"c61n3gy"
],
"score": [
4,
6,
11,
11,
3,
49
],
"text": [
"Last I remembered, he wore a [white suit](_URL_0_)",
"It's called [anthropomorphism](_URL_0_) - when humans create gods, they tend to make them like humans. In modern terms, it is a father, or perhaps grandfather figure. I think the idea is to denote wisdom. The bible calls God the \"Father\" (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). \n\nIt's worth mentioning that in the book of Daniel, God (presumably Yahweh, or the \"Father\") is displayed as being a guy with a long white hair and he sits on a throne. (Daniel ch.7)\n\nJesus is also portrayed similarly in Revelation. Interestingly, though, the Holy Spirit is never given form, and seems to take the formless entity characteristic you mentioned in the OP.",
"Renaissance art maybe?",
"I haven't studied much on the topic, but I've always assumed it was because old age and the related growth are signs of wisdom. Like a wise hermit. ",
"Old men were typically in charge of things. So, God is the ultimate old man. ",
"I am in no way an expert, *but* it seems like he looks a lot like depictions of [Zeus](_URL_0_) or [Odin.](_URL_1_) Chief deities were usually older guys with beards. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://blog.twpbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/morgan-freeman-god1.jpg"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_Smyrna_Louvre_Ma13.jpg",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Odhin_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpg"
]
] |
|
1rxyk2
|
how self-timed christmas lights work
|
^ like the title says. For example, my parents has set our lights to turn on at 6:00 p.m. every night. How do the lights do this?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rxyk2/eli5_how_selftimed_christmas_lights_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cds11iz",
"cds1xaz"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"They have a microcontroller. Usually this is a timer plugged into the wall with the lights plugged into it. Either that or Elves....",
"I have a good question in the same realm, How do the non-timed ones blink if you change just one bulb?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1rxbzv
|
how long does it take for vitamin supplements do make a positive effect on your health after you take them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rxbzv/how_long_does_it_take_for_vitamin_supplements_do/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdru636",
"cdru6hp"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Depends on the vitamin. If you have scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) and start taking vitamin C, it can make you substantially better in as little as 8-16 hours. If you have a Vitamin D deficiency, and start taking vitamin D, it might not have a noticeable affect for more than a week.",
"Many people taking vitamin supplements are wasting their time and some could even be harming themselves. It is often just marketing that makes you think it will have a positive effect\n\n_URL_0_ "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24563590"
]
] |
||
1ksrmt
|
why do the butts or genital parts of two dogs stick to each other after a mating session?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ksrmt/eli5_why_do_the_butts_or_genital_parts_of_two/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbs8c31"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"A dog's penis has a bulbous structure at the base when erect. The penis isn't fully erect when penetration occurs, but expands when inside the female. The muscles of the female contract during sex, and the bulb at the base of the penis is locked inside. \n\nThe tied together part of dog sex isn't after, it's part of the sex act. Ejaculation goes on during this time."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
8qrpq1
|
if hiv can be spread through body fluids, why can't it be spread through saliva?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8qrpq1/eli5_if_hiv_can_be_spread_through_body_fluids_why/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e0lg6dg",
"e0lg8zy",
"e0lg9nc",
"e0lgd08",
"e0lh0vg",
"e0lyjli",
"e0m285j",
"e0m2ciz"
],
"score": [
338,
50,
3,
8,
19,
10,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"Saliva has very little “bodily” material for the HIV to reside in. Its mostly just water and salt. And as always dose makes the poison, so technically you could get HIV from saliva, but you would need to drink liters of it to even have a chance.",
"It technically can be, but because you're producing so much of it, and it doesn't really contain much in the way of living cells for the virus to infect, little to none are transfered. If, however, you have a cut or ulcer, or other thing that is shedding blood and other live cells into the saliva, it's much more likely to spread that way.",
"As I understand it... saliva is designed to start breaking down food as soon as it is in your mouth... so makes for quite a hostile environment... too hostile for HIV to survive. ",
"The human immune defense system has multiple layers, and saliva is one of these. It contains a cocktail of antiviral proteins, and assuming you don't have any sores in your mouth or throat saliva has to pass through the stomach, filled with hydrochloric acid, to reach the blood through the intestinal wall. \n\nWhile some viruses have evolved adaptations that lets them survive all of this and infect a human, HIV isn't one of them. ",
"HIV infects and invades particular types of white blood cells. Transmission of HIV usually requires contact with bodily fluids containing these infected cells, although free-floating virions could do the job as well (but probably require a larger dose to actually cause infection). Saliva typically doesn't contain these cells unless there are open sores in the mouth or you have recently had dental work done or something. ",
"HIV is a bloodborn virus. It needs certain white blood cells to replicate and spread. Unless you have a sore or scratch, the HIV in the blood has no way of crossing over to the saliva in the mouth. At least not in a quantity that poses a risk of infection. ",
"My buddy has the hiv. He told me it's takes gallons of saliva for the disease to be communicable and even then it would need a direct ROA. It always bumms me out when people who share cigarettes or drinks with him.",
"There is an imbalance of salt within HIV virions and infected cells compared to the outside environment, which is saliva. This salt imbalance causes water to rush into infected cells and virions and make them explode.\n\nA second factor is proteins in the saliva that eat the outside of virions. One of these enzymes is called lysozyme, and it eats the sugars that cover the virion. Without these sugars, the virion cannot infect new cells.\n\nHIV is actually a pretty fragile virus, and there are a lot of things that destroy it. Even with high-risk sexual behaviors, HIV is only transmitted maybe 1-2% of the time. With additional barriers in place in the form of saliva, this low chance becomes so low that it's never been reported to happen. Of course, there's always a chance, as with most things in biology."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
yoed6
|
if the u.s. has the industrial military complex, why are we in debt from the wars in the middle east?
|
I thought the industrial military complex meant that the U.S. profited from war, so why are we in debt?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yoed6/eli5_if_the_us_has_the_industrial_military/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c5xdnpx",
"c5xe4sq"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"It means that *industry* and the *military* profit from war. The government as a whole doesn't.",
"I think you (and most people) are confused about national debt. US national debt is NOT money we (US citizens) owe to foreign countries / governments. Some US debt is external, but ~90% of it is money the US Federal Government owes to other US citizens (like you and me). So the US Federal Government will borrow (with interest) money from its citizens to buy weapons from the complex to use in those wars.\n\nAnd it may be unpopular to say, but US defense contractors are an overall benefit to the US economy as a whole. They sell weapons to other (friendly) countries whose governments go into debt to pay for them. So the whole complex, as a result, ends up with money flowing into the US."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
48e4pq
|
why is it such a big deal that justice clarence asked a question during oral arguments for the first time in 10 years?
|
I've seen a few posts on /r/all about it but I don't get why it's created such a fuss?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48e4pq/eli5why_is_it_such_a_big_deal_that_justice/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d0iwpb9"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"10 years is a long time for any judge to go without asking a question. Even more so considering the particular Court.\n\nPeople who watch the Supreme Court closely will often take the questions and dialogue from Justices into consideration when trying to interpret how judges will rule on a case and what their positions are. They have to rely on these because the only other insight they have into the Court's thought processes are its rulings and commentaries that are naturally more polished and less 'raw' than a back-and-forth dialogue.\n\nAlso, there is an element of symbolism to someone who is famously not very talkative but nonetheless who holds tremendous power choosing to speak. It breaks the expectation caused by his silence up until this point and makes people take notice because of the novelty."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
eqc4l0
|
why don’t (most) trees grow symmetrically?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eqc4l0/eli5_why_dont_most_trees_grow_symmetrically/
|
{
"a_id": [
"feplple",
"fepn9vi"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Sunlight influences mainly. Trees tend to lean toward the sun, and try to grow over obstructions to the sun. Sometimes soil conditions, like roots against a foundation or even a large rock can cause trees to grow awkward branch patterns. But mainly sunlight.",
"It's kind of hard to Eli5, but plants grow algorithmically. There is a book called The Algorithmmic Beauty of Plants that explains the details."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
7zzhwg
|
when and why did musical composers start giving their compositions 'poetic' names instead of descriptive names?
|
For example, Beethoven's symphonies are called "Symphony No. 1," or "Symphony No. 3," but Aaron Copeland can write something called "Fanfare for the Common Man."
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zzhwg/eli5_when_and_why_did_musical_composers_start/
|
{
"a_id": [
"duruyzy",
"dury80t",
"dus3adg"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Compositions numbered and named like Beethoven's were not named by the composer. They were named by musicologists and other people studying the music as their collections were categorized. Sometimes the composer named their pieces such as Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 being named \"Tempest\", but often Composers of that era did not name works. ",
"The incidence of named works throughout history is pretty random, but stretches back through all of recorded history... \"Greensleeves\" for instance, has a name... but we're not actually certain who wrote it. The harder and harder you look, the more examples you'll find. Beethoven actually named a bunch of his stuff, but not all of it. The same is true of many composers.\n\nAs for why they even do it at all... I expect it's just because artistic expression doesn't always limit itself to the medium in which you excel. You see the same sort of thing in painting. There are a lot of really important works out there... Some of them like \"The Scream\" have names that seem appropriate to the painting. Others have really dry, clinical, or stupid names.",
"You are getting this backwards. Folk music in some form or another has existed for almost as long as we have used speech and I assure you they've had what you call a descriptive name. The oldest ones I can think of are Hebrew prayers that are traditionally sung such as the song of songs. \n \n \nI the first poster had it right; almost all forms of music have a descriptive name but later people categorize them; you don't think the dude who wrote psalm 13 called it psalm 13?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
8eogjg
|
how does lactate acid cause pain in muscles ?
|
Just finished listening to the JRE podcast with Peter Attia and he talked about this. Can someone shed a light on that please ? Thanks
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8eogjg/eli5_how_does_lactate_acid_cause_pain_in_muscles/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dxwv5ec"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"Lactate causes a bit of pain during exercise but isn’t why you feel sore afterwards. \n\nYou start producing lactate as part of an aerobic response to overexertion. Basically, your muscle cells have run out of oxygen so your muscles have to break down pyruvate for a fast and easy solution to the energy requirement of your exercise. The product of this is lactic acid (lactate). Lactic acid is acidic (duh) so it messes with your muscle cells a bit, slowing down certain biochemical process and other energy expenditures until basically it becomes too difficult to contract muscles. Thats the pain (somewhat anyways) that you feel when you start to go into muscle fatigue like when you’re arms start to hurt and shake when you’ve been holding something heavy for too long. \n\nAs your body responds to anything that messes with it, this process (and the muscle “damage” that comes with hypertophy/ making new muscle tissue as a result of exercise) stimulates an immune response. So the inflammatory agents, increased circulation = swelling and redness of the area which is ultimately why you feel sore after exercise. \n\nSource: bachelors in science degree, honours candidate, focus in animal physiology / physics :) "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
a60qdh
|
why are there no giant masses of bacteria colonies?
|
I mean if bacteria were capable of growing in several environment, i imagine that bacteria could be a living mass of a colony. Heck, it could even be a self-sustaining army ready to be deployed by some mad genius.
But why are there no colossal masses of bacteria that exist since we have been living for so long?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a60qdh/eli5_why_are_there_no_giant_masses_of_bacteria/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ebqri8a",
"ebqzdsa",
"ebr07f5"
],
"score": [
9,
5,
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],
"text": [
"Well, bacteria live on pretty much every surface. It's extremely difficult to get rid of all bacteria - it's a major problem for, say, the Mars rovers.\n\nAs for a giant colony of a single species of bacteria, this happens sometimes. Ever get \"pink slime\" in your shower? That's a giant mass of bacteria.\n\nIt's possible to grow a giant bacteria colony, and many exist in laboratories throughout the world. There are factories devoted to producing huge populations of bacteria.\n\nIn the wild, you rarely see giant bacteria colonies because such huge populations are fragile. Dryness, predators like bacteria-eating viruses, antibiotic chemicals (which exist naturally and are produced by plants and animals), and general dispersal prevent giant colonies from forming.",
"A great place to see large colonies of bacteria, and a close relative the archaea, are hot springs. Particular the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAs was said in another post, you typically don’t see large colonies because of the huge number of things that will readily eat or otherwise disturb the bacterial mats, but the extreme temperatures of hot springs eliminates most predators and competitors. \n\nTLDR the beautiful colors of the Yellowstone hot springs are the colonies you’re seeking.",
"Before there was lots of other stuff around to eat the giant colonies of bacteria, there used to be [giant colonies of bacteria](_URL_0_). And they still exist in places like caves, hot springs, hypersaline lakes, and my tonsils."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/thermophilic-bacteria.htm"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite"
]
] |
|
4knknb
|
if cancer is just cells randomly mutating, why do we hear a lot about lung or breast cancer, but not so much about leg or hand cancer?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4knknb/eli5_if_cancer_is_just_cells_randomly_mutating/
|
{
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"d3g9i0j",
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"text": [
"Leg and hand cancer would fall under a broader term like bone or skin cancer depending on what's actually cancerous. ",
"Cancer is a lot more than cells randomly mutating. A lot more. And, as the other person said, you sure can get hand cancer or foot cancer -- as bone cancer or skin cancer or blood cancer.\n\nIs the foot a very likely place for a primary tumor? No. There are more likely places. Places and organs where the cells go through a lot of regeneration cycles, leading to greater likelihood of a bad copy being made.\n\nAs a site of distant metastasis, sure, why not the hand or foot? Still not especially likely, but it could happen. \n\n",
"As mentioned already, you probably have heard of them, just under their tissue names. Also, cancer is more of an issue in some tissues and organs than others. It depends on things like the rate of cell division and exposure to carcinogens.",
"Muscular cancer is extremely rare. The reason for that is being extensively studied by several research groups and might actually lead to great breakthroughs in modern medicine.",
"Your lungs also come into contact with more chemicals and particles that could cause mutations. Just an thought I'm not an expert.\n\nCancer seems to also hate things that I love. Like titties and my mom.",
"In addition to what others have said, sometimes when you get a small cancer lesion in your skin/soft tissue, it's significantly easier to deal with than a more internal cancer like lung cancer. If you're lucky, you can basically just cut it off and be on your merry way (with frequent followups to check for recurrence!). Plenty of people have \"had cancer\" but if they didn't go through chemo and radiation they might not have made a big deal about it.",
"The reason is that cancers are classified by the specific type of tissue they are affecting, not the body part. Lung cancer grows in lung tissue, breast cancer in breast tissue, etc. You could have a cancer of the leg, but it wouldn't be called that. It would be classified as a bone cancer located in the bone of the leg, or a skin cancer on the skin of the leg, for example. \n\n",
"Cell biologist here. Cancer is over 100 different diseases that get lumped in the same category because the end result looks kinda the same. Cancer is essentially when the checkpoints that keep your cell from going out of control fail (There are a bunch of different ones). Cells which divide often (like skin) or are exposed to carcinogens (like lungs) are the ones that most often become cancerous. Carcinogens are things that can mutate DNA and/or interefere with the checking process. Certain crappy genes can often lead to specific types of cancer like *BRCA2* gene in breast cancer or *RB* gene for retinoblastoma. Thats why some cancers have higher incidences than others. Finally, you do actually get hand and leg cancers but theyre not normally called that. They get names like sarcoma or osteosarcoma instead. you do get head and neck cancer though.",
"A hand, leg, and foot are made up of different building blocks like skin, muscle, blood vessels, and connective tissue. Your whole limb (leg, hand, etc) cannot \"get cancer\" rather one of your building blocks has cancer. It is certainly possible for that said cancer to either become metastatic or invasive to move to another tissue. Either way it is still the original cancer and not a new one because it is made up of the same cells. \n\nWe say lung cancer just to say the tissue that has become cancerous is in the lung, not because the whole lung is cancer ridden.",
"We usually refer to types of cancer by the organ or types of tissue they affect - \"hand\" or \"leg\" isn't really a type of cancer. If someone had cancer in their hand or leg, it would most likely be skin cancer or bone cancer and it would be referred to as that rather than \"hand cancer.\"",
"You have a bit of an understanding of how cancer works here. Cancer is when a mutated or damaged cell starts to reproduce uncontrollably. \n\nThe reason you don't really see things like foot cancer or hand cancer is because those things would show up as skin, blood, or bone cancer because your hand doesn't make hand cells, it makes skin and bone cells.\n\nOrgans like the lungs and the liver make cells specifically for them, so they can become cancerous if the DNA is damaged or mutated. \n\nTl;DR: Your hand doesn't produce hand cells, so there can be no hand cancer, only skin cancer on the hand, bone cancer in the hand, or blood cancer in the hand."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
97ujfv
|
why does metal get hot when in the sun even though it's so reflective?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97ujfv/eli5_why_does_metal_get_hot_when_in_the_sun_even/
|
{
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"e4b0v5v",
"e4b13lw",
"e4b1i5j",
"e4b23gz"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
14,
3
],
"text": [
"Sunlight is made up of [many colors](_URL_0_) of light. As you can see from [this image](_URL_1_), only a small portion is visible light in the ROYGBIV colors.\n\nEach color of light \"contains\" energy, including all the ones you can't see - the non ROYGBIV \"colors\" like Infrared (Right of red on the image) and Ultraviolet (left of Violet on the image) also \"contain\" energy.\n\nWhile the majority of the energy in the visible light is reflected by the shiny surface, the others are not.\n\nSo, in short, lots of energy, and only part of it gets reflected away.",
"Pound for pound, metal takes less energy to heat up and is better at transmitting heat than most other materials.\n\nAlso, while metal reflects some light, it does reflect all of it, especially light outside of the visual range.",
"It's also worth noting that metal tends to have a low specific heat. Specific heat is basically how much energy is needed to raise the temperature of a material. So yes, even though a lot of light is reflected off the surface, that remaining light is going to raise its temperature fairly efficiently. This is part of the reason, in fact, that metal feels so especially hot to the touch and can leave very nasty burns very quickly. The lower the specific heat, the more quickly it will actually lose that heat. A 100 degree F piece of metal will feel hotter than a 100 degree F block of wood because that heat is going to rush into your skin A LOT more rapidly.",
"In short, what you sense as \"heat\" is really the transfer of energy from an external material to your skin. Conductors transfer energy efficiently by definition, and metals are some of the best conductors.\n\nSo both metals and non-metals get hot when in the sun, but metals have the ability to quickly dump that heat energy back into your skin should you contact it, making your skin surface feel hot to you."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://catalyticcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Color_Energy_sun_spectrum.gif",
"http://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/images/sunlight_wavelength.png"
],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
4cr0v1
|
what is a collateralized debt obligation and the tranches involved with it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cr0v1/eli5_what_is_a_collateralized_debt_obligation_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d1ko8xw"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Imagine a giant pile of mortgages. \n\nWe're going to take this pile of mortgages and sort them by \"risk factor\" with higher grades (A, AA, AAA) being for low risk and lower grades (B, BB, BBB) for riskier ones.\n\n\nNow we're going to take this sorted pile and sell off the rights to chunks to someone else. That means that somebody else gets the payments when the mortgage bill is paid, but it means they pay us up front. Each chunk sold is made up of a combination of the high risk and low risk mortgages, attempting to give a relatively low risk total investment.\n\nEach chunk is a tranche, the thing they are buying is called a CDO.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
b7jmlu
|
why do windshield wipers leave water streaks in the middle when swiping up, but leaves no streaks wiping back down?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b7jmlu/eli5_why_do_windshield_wipers_leave_water_streaks/
|
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"That could happen as a result of the angle the blade. Try putting some sand on a surface and using a broom to sweep it both with a pushing motion and a pulling motion. Pulling will probably be more effective.\n\nIf you're getting a lot of streaks, you might consider replacement."
]
}
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[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
qc1l0
|
how do balls curve when thrown or struck?
|
How are pitchers and tennis players and other various examples of things that use balls, able to make the ball alter it's normal parabolic trajectory?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qc1l0/eli5_how_do_balls_curve_when_thrown_or_struck/
|
{
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"text": [
"To curve a hit ball, you hit it off-center, which makes it start spinning. The spin causes the drag to be different along the edges of the ball, which makes it curve.\n\nTo throw a curve ball, you have to throw it so that it spins in a certain way. Way trickier than hitting."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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1dapo2
|
how does the co-operative business model work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dapo2/eli5how_does_the_cooperative_business_model_work/
|
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"text": [
"There are several different types of cooperative, but in general they exist when there is a group of people that has a need and they elect to work together to meet the need rather than rely on a previously existing business. In the spirit of Eli5, I'll use lemonade to describe them.\n\nConsumer cooperatives: There is a group of five people who want lemonade. This could be because there is no lemonade available in their area or because all of the sources of lemonade charge to high of a price. These five people each contribute enough money to pay for ingredients and the necessary equipment to make lemonade. They have the choice of doing the work of making the actual lemonade themselves, or to hire someone to make the lemonade. They also have the choice of selling lemonade to only themselves or to sell lemonade to anybody who wants to purchase lemonade. Generally, a consumer cooperative would welcome anyone who would like to buy a share of the business to also become a member/owner. If this business generates a profit, then the profits will go to the member/owners, or back into the business in order to make the lemonade cheaper. Examples of real life non-lemonade consumer co-ops are: most food co-ops, REI, and credit unions.\n\nWorker Cooperative: A group of five people sees that there is a market for lemonade. They decide to pool their resources to start a business that sells lemonade. If the business grows and they need to hire other people, generally these workers will also become owners, but some worker cooperatives do hire workers who are not owners. Essentially, a worker cooperative is like a partnership where every partner is also a worker. Worker co-ops aren't very common in the US, and are generally smaller businesses. Examples are Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, Left Bank Books in Seattle, and Red and Black coffee in Portland. Worker co-ops in the US are often aligned with left leaning political movements, although there is a movement towards more main stream cooperative modeled after the Mondragon coop in spain. The Evergreen Cooperative in northern Ohio is an example of this that's worth looking up.\n\nProducer cooperatives: Say there are five people who all own lemon farms. In order to make money off of the lemons, there needs to be a lemonade stand. They could sell their lemons to a third party business who operates a lemonade stand, but they elect instead to pool their resources to start their own lemonade stand. This is cheaper than each of them starting their own lemonade stand and allows all of the profits from the lemonade business to go to the farmers. Producer cooperatives are probably the most common type of co-op and are particularly common in the agricultural sector. Examples in the US are Ocean Spray, Darigold, Land'O'Lakes and Organic Valley.\n\nRetailing Co-ops: There are five people that each own and operate their own lemonade stands. They decide to band together and buy all of their lemons together, because you save money by purchasing in larger quantities. Also, they have the option of all operating their lemonade stands under the same name, because many lemonade customers are more likely to purchase lemonade from a name that they are familiar with. Examples of retailing co-ops in the US are IGA, True Value Hardware, and Best Western hotels.\n\nI think it's important to note that the Cooperative Business Model is an ownership structure, not a management structure. Many co-ops do adopt alternative management structures such as consensus decision making and collective management, but most adopt relatively traditional management structures."
]
}
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[
[]
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3kdj2u
|
why can't microsoft sue apple for copying the microsoft surface?
|
Is it because there is no copyright? If so, why can't Microsoft copyright it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kdj2u/eli5_why_cant_microsoft_sue_apple_for_copying_the/
|
{
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"cuwl66y"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Copyright is for expressions, not things. You can copyright a book, movie or play but you can't copyright a tablet computer, you'd have to patent that."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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f2tydm
|
. how did people treat acid reflux and heartburn prior to modern medicine?
|
I deal with acid reflux frequently and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have access to things like Prilosec or Alka-Seltzer. I keep thinking of the Vikings trying to be a "man" about it and just accepting it as part of getting older. Must have been horrible.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f2tydm/eli5_how_did_people_treat_acid_reflux_and/
|
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"text": [
"There are quite a few herbs out there that will help with heartburn. I know Ginger is one of them, my mom keeps a jar of candied ginger instead of tums or anything like that for heartburn, and it sounds weird but works great.",
"Turnip gruel doesn't cause heartburn.\n\nPeople generally had a very consistent, bland diet their bodies became used to. They were also far less likely to overeat on a consistent basis. \n\nAside from that, there were some herbs that helped a little, but for the most part, as you say, they had to \"man\" up. And is wasn't that bad because everything was horrible. If you were already dealing with a rotting tooth, torn rotator cuff, arthritic knees, and bone spurs, a tummyache isn't making things that much worse.",
"Changing diet away from the things causing the heartburn, taking things like ginger and some herbs such as mint. There is also a type of clay that contains bismuth which is the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol that settles stomachs that has been eaten by humans for centuries to treat stomach ailments."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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[],
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46cr9i
|
difference between usb 3.0 and usb 3.1 gen 1
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46cr9i/eli5difference_between_usb_30_and_usb_31_gen_1/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d0438of"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"USB 3.0 has been retroactively named USB 3.1 Gen 1.\n\nUSB 3.1 Gen 2 will be eventually released and the difference is that Gen 1 has 5Gbps speed, and Gen 2 has 10Gbps speed. There are no other difference you need to worry about, and physically the devices appear identical\n\n"
]
}
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[] |
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[
[]
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1pox1l
|
why was a show listed as "sold out" but there are still tickets available online at ticketmaster?
|
I was browsing Ed Sheeran's page and it lists one of his shows as "SOLD OUT" [Ed's Website Screenshot](_URL_0_) However, when you go to Ticketmaster, there are still some tickets left. [TicketMaster Screenshot](_URL_1_) At what point is a show sold out? How does ticket scalping, and resale ticket sites (e.g., StubHub) come into play?
Edit: For the Nov. 1 show
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pox1l/eli5_why_was_a_show_listed_as_sold_out_but_there/
|
{
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"text": [
"I assume that Ticketaster purchases those tickets from the artist or venue and then resells them. When the original source of the tickets then runs out of tickets the show is Sold Out. But you can still purchase tickets from a third party vendor (Ticketmaster, StubHub, etc). Ticket scalping is another thing all together. These people buy tickets with no intention fo actually attending the show or event, and then create an artificially inflated market value for the tickets. Because they have a supply of tickets that you want, they can jack the prices up way above face value to the upper limit of what you or anyone else is willing to pay for them.",
"Ticketmaster offers ticket insurance (for an additional fee). If you buy the insurance and can't make the show, they will resell your ticket. There are also situations where someone's payment method may get declined or reversed, also resulting in tickets being put back up for purchase."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://i.imgur.com/81kKdNy.png",
"http://i.imgur.com/Z6ZuiWC.png"
] |
[
[],
[]
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|
9s91b1
|
how do the things that lower to stop traffic when a train is coming know when to lower and raise back up?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9s91b1/eli5_how_do_the_things_that_lower_to_stop_traffic/
|
{
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"text": [
"As I’ve understood it there are mechanical switches along the tracks before and after the station so as the train rolls in it triggers the gates and all going down and as it leaves the opposite will happen. Don’t know exactly where they are or more technical details maybe someone else does ",
"There are sensors next to the tracks and on the trains that communicate with each other to make that stuff happen. I actually work at a facility that makes those systems but I'm just a guard and dont know enough to get more detailed than that. I'll ask next time I work and if this is still here I will give a better answer."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
cvu26k
|
if inflammation and fevers are the body's way of fighting of infection, why is the goal of medicine and icing to stop inflammation and reduce fevers? doesn't that increase healing time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cvu26k/eli5_if_inflammation_and_fevers_are_the_bodys_way/
|
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7,
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"text": [
"Those things do delay the healing process (or, they could potentially do so, each case is different.) but generally not by very much. The medicines make you less uncomfortable, so it's a bit of trade-off really. In general it seems people prefer slightly longer healing time for reduced discomfort.\n\nBut unless you have an actual underlying health problem, there really is no good reason for you to take medicines that reduce fevers and inflammation. At the same time, using those medicines for the worst symptoms won't really delay healing by very long. So making the trade off or not is entirely up to you.",
"Sometimes your body can go a little overboard with the inflammation and fever and do more harm to you than you whatever infection it is fighting or whatever injury it is trying to heal. \n\nFor instance, your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) don't repair themselves very well. Part of the reason for this is that in the event of an injury, certain cells respond with a bunch of inflammatory juice/molecules that basically block the way from other healer/helper cells from making it to the scene to help clean up and repair the injured tissue.",
"Inflammation hurts, and most people don't want to feel pain. Fevers also suck and reducing a nasty one feels better. A trained medical professional (this is very different from someone selling you ibuprofen) will have a lot of training and techniques at their disposal to find out if their is a need to medically intervene when something is swollen or a fever is rising.\n\nThose are most often cases where the bodies response is unnecessary or overkill. A fever can help get rid of harmful pathogens, sure, but it can also cause brain damage and/or outright kill you. So if your baby has a high fever don't assume that mother nature is infallible keep an eye on the kids temp and get them to a hospital if needed. Likewise inflammation can provide a whole lot of meaningful benefits to wounded tissue but it also increases pressure to surrounding tissues, like meningitis a swelling in your throat that can crush your brain.\n\nOutside of catastrophic failures we treat symptoms of problems because they cause pain and discomfort. Fevers and painful swelling hurt and reducing a fever or icing a sore shoulder might slow down the recovery but most people find that tolerable as the recovery will still happen and they won't be feeling as shitty during it.",
"Fever is your body's way of using a flamethrower to kill a spider in the house. Tylenol is just the fire extinguisher.",
"When someone breaks the law you want the cops to show up\n\nHowever you dont want the cops to stay there for hours upon hours for what is essentially a small crime. You also dont want them to keep calling back up and keep the lights and sirens on because its messing with everyone in the neighborhood",
"Fever kills the inflammation, but also kills your body cells. Medicine has the goal of keeping you alive. While your immune systems might decide that 42°C is the best way of making sure all the bacteria are dead, the doctors know that your body is currently killing itself in the process. Thats when they give you drugs to lower fewer, sometimes the benefits are not worth the tradeoff."
]
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3930k1
|
when apps update, do the mbs of the update add to the already existing size of the app?
|
When I update apps on my phone, the average update is 20-30 MB. Does this add onto the already existing size of the app, or is old data deleted/remove to make room for this update? If it's simply added on, would deleting the app and reinstalling it do anything in regards to saving space on my phone?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3930k1/eli5_when_apps_update_do_the_mbs_of_the_update/
|
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"text": [
"Generally the new files replace the old files. So, it's not added on to the existing size of the app.\n\nNow, it's possible that the new files are larger than the old versions, so the app takes up a little more space, but it doesn't just straight up add to the space the app takes up.",
"Depends. Usually the files in the update are replacing old files, but they also might differ in size from the old files.\n\nWhen updates add features that usually requires additional files, so yes it will add to the existing size.",
"When you update an app it has to download the latest version, then it replaces the old version with the new version. What's important with an update is the net size change of the app.\n\nUpdates usually include an increase of code or data the app uses(images, 3D models, etc). So if they added a new image to the app, and code to make sure the image comes up at the right spot, then the app will require more space. For example, let's say that one of your apps is 20.6MB big. The developers push an update to the app and it now is 20.8MB big. Your phone will download the 20.8MB app, then replace the older version. That app is now using 0.2MB more space on your phone, not 41.4MB, which would be the case if it was added on. So your answer is no, application updates do not add to the already existing size, rather they increase/decrease in size based on the what code/data was added or removed.\n"
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
45rlru
|
what would it take for some of 'us' to be declared a new species in the human genus?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45rlru/eli5_what_would_it_take_for_some_of_us_to_be/
|
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"text": [
"It wouldn't quite be possible, at the moment at least. The parent and offspring are always the same species. If through some isolating event two or more lineages began to diverge significantly, they would still all be considered homo sapiens, but they *may* get a subspecies designation. Emphasis on may.",
"A species is seperate once it can no longer mate to produce a viable and fertile offspring with the other species, either because of behavioral, temporal, genetic, physical, or geograhpical causes, etc. across the species as a whole. For example, if there was an animal that couldn't get it on with another animal because of the shape of their genitals, they're a different species. If they can get it on but their baby can't make babies, it's a different species. That's why mules aren't considered a species (they can't have offspring), and why donkeys and horses are different species (their offspring can't have offspring). \n\nEven if they could do all these things, if one set of these animals is only awake at day, and one only at night; or if one only mates in the spring, and the other in the fall; they're no longer the same species because they can't (or won't) ever mate, and their genes will drift apart and become more different over time.\n\nNow, for humans, our species as a whole can go anywhere other humans live, and mate any time, with anyone. But If everyone was lumped in to two groups of sexual preferences, or no longer could mate with eachother, we could make two different species. \n\nFor example, let's say half of the USA decides to live on the moon because they like space pictures on the internet. Since they'd be separated from all other humans, they'd become a different species. Over time, their gene pool would start looking quite different from ours, and would eventually reach the point where even if they did mate with us, our offspring would either die before they can mate, or not be able to mate, or maybe we just couldn't mate in the first place.\n\nHope it helps, feel free to ask for clarifications if I muddled something.",
"The therm \"species\" is kind of a muddy one, as are many concepts in biology. Different scientists will often differ in their application of the term, sometimes because of different fields of study, sometimes because of the way they were \"brought up\" in the scientific community.\n\nThe reasons that humans are not divided into subspecies is largely political, other animals are divided because of much, much smaller differences.\nThis is a touchy subject, and nobel prize winners had their carreers ruined because they applied good science to human populations.\nMy genetics professor explicitly warned us NOT to discuss genetic differences in human populations with laymen, or indeed within earshot of them, because even an overheard snippet of a conversation that was scientifically necessary (e.g. medicine for a specific population of humans) could cost you everything you worked for.\n\nIf a human population experienced a fusion of two chromosomes, like we did when we seperated from the big apes, then a classification as a different species would be in order, but it would not be done because of societal impact. Biologists would simply work around that issue."
]
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|
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[],
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||
2bjhed
|
how did science advance?
|
How did alchemists and doctors of Ye Olde Times lay down a successful foundation for science to improve on in the space of a few centuries? To me (as well as most people alive today), Old Science seems so ridiculous and far fetched, and it baffles me as to how anyone could possibly make enough sense of it to actually turn it into a valid biological theory.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bjhed/eli5_how_did_science_advance/
|
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"It's not about purposefully advancing science by \"doing good science\". It's about gathering data and putting pieces of the puzzle together by just doing ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, even if your initial concept was completely off base. If you simply put 500 people in a room and told them to just go crazy doing \"science\", they will have no idea what they are doing, and whatever they THINK they are doing is probably ridiculous, however...and it's a big however...just by trying something, even if it's ridiculous, they will gather data and notice trends and start to put 2+2 together.\n\nThey didn't mean to get that 2, or the other 2, or even add them together, but once they stumble into that accidentally gathered data it becomes obvious and apparent what's happening and everyone from that point forward takes it for granted.\n\nScience moves in small steps that are often the random wanderings of a lost drunkard, but steps they are nonetheless, and eventually we figure out what city we are stumbling around in.",
"Reverse Engineering of Alien artifacts."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
33z8wb
|
what's keeping us from having full dive virtual reality games?
|
I want to create full dive gaming (think of Log Horizon or Sword Art Online), however I understand there's a lot missing from the puzzle before it can be done. I have a slight idea as to what's keeping us away from it, but I think a more in depth look would help me out a lot and point me in the right direction.
I want to develop full dive gaming so that it can not only be used for entertainment purposes, but also with mental disorders and those who are paralyzed, blind, or stuck in hospital beds.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33z8wb/eli5_whats_keeping_us_from_having_full_dive/
|
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"While some people want it, the fact is that most people... don't. I love video games as much as anyone my age, and while the idea of VR sounds interesting, I dont' actually want to play it. It seems kinda... isolating, you know?\n\nAnd being so disconnected from reality could cause issues. Safety issues, accidentally hurting yourself or the like. Maybe even a sort of addiction if you could suddenly do anything you wanted to.\n\nBut the biggest reason, is cost. Such a system would be incredibly expensive. If you had them in arcade places, or maybe in hospitals like you said, that could work out very well and we'll probably see those things happen.\n\nBut as a personal entertainment device? It's made difficult by a lot of reasons. Augmented Reality, however, is very close and is much more accessible to people. If true VR ever does come into being common, it will have to start with AR."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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|
47ijuv
|
explain why this kid's $14 "electromagnetic harvester" doesn't create free energy. _url_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/
|
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"It's energy being transferred. Nothing is being created, just moved (free electromagnetic waves to current and electricity (which still has wave property... but that's a different question)). We only see it as being created because the second form is just more readily used by us. The idea isn't really new and the technology has been around for some time now.\n\n\n\nAnd I'm sorry... I just can't bite my tongue... I need to rant... Things like this kid being interviewed annoy the crap out of me. A lot. This kid has some brains and can do somethings, but don't give him the stuff he has. Don't give him a lab coat. Don't give him a place to be called a lab. Because he doesn't need a lab coat. He doesn't need a lab. Right now he has an interest in the science, foster that interest. *DON'T FOSTER THE INTEREST IN THE IDEA OF SCIENCE.* It's one thing to give a kid a play chemistry set and watch them pour the vinegar on the baking soda to see the carbon dioxide form and learn why it does; it's a whole different thing to give them the set so that they can just pour the vinegar on the baking soda and feel like the same thing has been done. I guess I'm saying that going through the movement is not enough in science. This kid has a deep passion and interest, I'd just hate to see it not fully blossom because he was always praised for playing science instead of getting in and *doing* science. ",
"It doesn't create energy, the video explicitly says that it converts energy from one form (electromagnetic waves) to another (electricity). It uses the same concept as a radio receiver, which also picks up electromagnetic waves from the air and converts them into electrical signals. The difference is that a radio also uses electricity to amplify the signal and transform it into sound, while this device simply keeps the electrical signal as-is.",
"It's well-known that electromagnetic fields can induce currents in metals. Think of induction cooking, for example--you use an electromagnet to induce current in a pot to heat it up. If it works as claimed, this is simply the reverse--capturing currents from stray fields. Note that the demonstration uses LEDs, which don't require very much power.\n\nThe energy is not free, in the same way that wind energy isn't free--it's always there (from earth's magnetic field, radio waves, etc.), but until you collect it and convert it to a useful form it may not be apparent. You can get energy from all sorts of unlikely places; early telegraph station stuck rods into the soil and used the slightly different charge to basically harvest (small amounts of) electricity from the ground.\n\nIt's novel technology in any sense, but it's a pretty neat thing to put together on your own.",
"Its \"free\" energy like solar or wind is \"free\" (ie. it doesn't cost you because you're harvesting energy that is already out there).\n\n",
"First off this machine doesn't \"create\" energy. It simply transfers it to another form. \"Radio waves, thermal and static energy\" are all forms of energy and he simply built a machine that can transfer these things into electricity. \n\nSecond, it's not exactly \"free\". Well, it is free in the sense that he didn't have to pay for it, but I mean on a grand perspective. All the energy that the machine gives off is, at best, equal to the amount of energy that we already have. All of the energy that goes into the device (\"radio waves, thermal, and static energy\") Were created somewhere. When they were created somewhere, it took energy, so there is no net gain in energy. Actually, because it is impossible for these kinds of machines to be 100% efficent, we are probably losing energy on a grand scale. (hope I explained this well. If you have any questions, fire away)\n\nThird, at the end of the video, the narrator seems to imply that a larger machine (20x the size!) could be used to give power to the world. As I already described, this would be really inefficient because we already had all the energy it created. Even if you argue that the machine was just reusing the radio waves that we weren't using anymore (we do waste a lot of these), it still pales in comparison to other forms of energy, like nuclear power. ",
"\"Energy cannot be created or destroyed\" Its a sure (as sure can be) fact that cannot be broken. That's ultimately why that and every other free energy device cannot and will not ever be built. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nWhen I was looking at Universities for Physics. The lecturer was on about all the jobs you can do with a Physics degree. He mentioned the patent office, he said you sometimes need Physicists to see if something is possible and he said you start the day by finding all the patents for free energy machines and throw them straight in the bin because as you know they aren't even worth looking at.",
"I think people don't understand the question. & nbsp;\n\nYes, it doesn't \"create\" energy - that's just what the reporter and technoboywonder said, the kid himself only used words like convert. & nbsp;\n\nAnyway, the reason why this isn't used to harvest power, is that it most likely doesn't have a large output. Think of it as harvesting water by putting a tin can outside in rainy weather. You'll get some water, but it won't be enough to take a bath. & nbsp;\n\nYou'll need one very large harvester to generate the power a household needs. ",
"Radio waves are a form of light. Much like the rays from the sun, only different size.\n\nThe device acts like a radio wave solar panel. It collects the radio wave \"light\" and turns it into electricity.\n\nThe reason it isn't free is something needs to *generate* such light. The energy comes from the source of the radio waves.\n\nSo much like the sun, using nuclear fusion to create light, which travels to a solar panel and is converted to electricity. Some source (Radios, electromagnetic fields, etc.) generate radio waves, which travel to this device, and are converted into electricity.\n\nThe initial energy had to come from somewhere. This device just takes a non visible form of light & turns it into electricity.",
"It appears to be a [transducer](_URL_4_) simply converting one form of energy to another.\n\nIt doesn't create free energy because [the universe works in a way](_URL_1_) that makes this impossible at the level of everyday physics. \n\nSome devices can concentrate energy into a more useful form, which may require an input of energy. E.g. a magnifying glass and heat pump are examples of this. This may be an example of this.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nThere are several good answers to this question [here](_URL_2_), [here](_URL_3_), [here](_URL_0_), [here](_URL_6_), [here](_URL_5_).\n\nYou must also consider the energy used in making this device before deciding if you have free energy. This matters particularly when considering renewable and nuclear power sources.\n\n*How much energy must be generated before they have paid back the financial and energy costs of building the generator and the infrastructure to deliver the energy to the point of use?*",
"He's definitely a smart kid. What he's built here is a device used for harvesting electromagnetic energy in the air. This energy is inherently AC, so he put a rectifier on it. Very cool for a 13 year old.\n\n\nHowever, he has not built anything groundbreaking. The laws governing this type of physical phenomenon were understood over 150 years ago. All he is doing is collecting electromagnetic energy that is already in the air. The real catch is, that energy was transmitted from some other human, at a much much higher power (I'm talking about 5 to 10 orders of magnitude). So no, he is not generating free energy. He's just recouping a small amount of the energy that would have otherwise been wasted.\n\n\nHonestly I'm not entirely sure how he lit up those LED's. If you went into your back yard and built the same thing he built, you would probably not even light up one LED. It was probably a finely controlled experiment and the reporter didn't know any better."
]
}
|
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Yh3nXKuGU"
] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy"
],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/d0d5x4j",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/d0d7sgu",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/d0d6y69",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transducer",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/d0d5lz2",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ijuv/eli5_explain_why_this_kids_14_electromagnetic/d0d5m9j"
],
[]
] |
||
97ledh
|
why do roads in the horizon reflect the sky?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97ledh/eli5_why_do_roads_in_the_horizon_reflect_the_sky/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e4928xn"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's not the road surface, but the junction between hot and cold air, because the road surface heats air nearby it. Light *refracts* or bends as it travels between objects which slow it by different amounts. This is easiest to see with water, light gets very distorted while passing from the air, through a glass of water, and back out again. Well, this happens to a lesser extent with hot and cold air. \n\nEventually you experience \"total internal reflection\" where the bending is so much that light doesn't transition at all, and is bounced back into the original object: _URL_0_ An example is if you are underwater, and look up, the surface might act like a mirror that stops you from seeing into the air. \n\nIn an extreme case like light traveling between water and air, this happens at many angles. In the mild case of light traveling between cold and hot air (or hot and hotter air), the angle needs to be very shallow, so you only see this when you're looking parallel to the ground at long distances. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection"
]
] |
||
akg9bw
|
why is carbonated/seltzer water made with carbon dioxide and not oxygen?
|
Also how come people don't water plants with carbonated water?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/akg9bw/eli5_why_is_carbonatedseltzer_water_made_with/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ef4ky0a",
"ef4m0ba",
"ef4m703",
"ef4xrrl"
],
"score": [
9,
6,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"1. Oxygen is far less soluble in water than CO2, costs more to produce and is harder to transport. Its not a good gas for making drinks fizzy, at all. \n \n2. Carbonated water is acidic. If you watered a plant with carbonated water you would increase the acidity of the soil. The plants probably wouldn't like that. Also, 'regular' water is cheaper. ",
"CO2 breaks down in water and forms carbonic acid. It takes quite a bit of CO2 to saturate the water to the point where it cannot hold any more CO2; the same does not happen with oxygen and water. Plants inhale CO2 through their leaves not their roots. It's like asking why can't you just shove a ham and cheese sandwich into your shoes and not be hungry.",
"Oxygen causes things to spoil. CO2 does not.\nOxygen gas is flammable. CO2 is not\nFor the same pressure not much oxygen can be dissolved than CO2.\n\nI don't think anyone has offered oxygenated water commercially. I have heard of nitrogen being used for beer. \n\nAs for watering plants I don't think it would hurt, but I don't think it would help much since CO2 is processed through the leaves and not the roots. \n\nMore reading:\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"If you're wondering how this trend to carbonate the water started, it came out of the ground as [mineral water](_URL_0_) and people liked it, then discovered they can mass-produce it cheaper by pumping CO2 into water."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-is-carbon-dioxide-mixed-in-cold-drinks-and-beverages.html"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_water"
]
] |
|
32ybrd
|
why are the functions of the immune system so unpleasant?
|
Like getting the flu, or a stomach bug. What causes the symptoms to be so unpleasant? Isn't that unpleasantness kind of unnecessary?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32ybrd/eli5_why_are_the_functions_of_the_immune_system/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cqfsbwe"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Fevers are literally designed to cook the invading illness alive, so it's gonna be a bit unpleasant for you. Vomiting, etc. is forcibly expelling the enemy from your system - can't really think of a way to make that pleasant."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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