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ck9uf6 | why does a 40 celsius weather kill scores in europe and japan, but the people of the middle east have no problem living in weather even hotter than that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ck9uf6/eli5_why_does_a_40_celsius_weather_kill_scores_in/ | {
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"It’s not as humid. They are used to it and wear clothes suited for the weather. Buildings that aren’t air conditioned allow a flow of air through that cools but it’s still hot. The temp, especially in the desert drops down almost to freezing so the morning temp has to work harder to get up to speed.",
"Aside from people in those regions being acclimated to the heat, people die over there to heat exposure all the time too. But it's a regular occurrence so it doesn't make national or international news.\n\nSomeone died in my town in a highway auto accident, you didn't hear about it. \n\nA heat wave where it regularly doesn't get hot is unusual, so the deaths from it are also unusual.",
"There are both natural environmental factors and built environmental factors. Humid heat is much more dangerous/hot feeling than the dry desert heat of the Middle East. And more importantly, the Middle East is built to deal with the heat... extensive air conditioning, shade, etc. are part of the built environment... they only spend limited amounts of time outside and they can control the inside temps. But in Europe, very little is air conditioned, so there is nowhere to go to escape the heat. It's hot outside and it's also hot inside.",
"We measure temperature using a so-called *dry bulb*, that is, a thermometer that is dry.\n\nWhat is more relevant for human survival is *wet bulb temperature*, which is measured by wrapping a wet cloth around the bulb of the thermometers.\n\nWhen the wet bulb temperature reaches 35°C or 95°F people begin to become unable to use their natural evaporative cooling system, sweating, and our core body temperatures rise rapidly, so rapidly that even consuming cold drinks may not be effective.\n\nThe hundreds of thousands of metabolic processes that keep us alive are based largely of molecules that are sensitive to heat. If a person is either too hot or too cold, then these proteins slow down and eventually stop.",
"Just because you don't read it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Do you read Arabic news? Nearly all Middle Eastern countries are not democratic countries with free press. Authoritarian regimes are unlikely to allow report of any news that paints them in bad light.",
"I used to live in Dubai, but am currently experiencing a Dutch summer that is worse than anything I ever felt there, the diffence is air conditioning.\n\nLiterally every business, home and bus stop has AC in the middle east and during the summer you never go outside for more than a few minutes at a time. In Europe you sit, and you sweat because it's only for ~2 weeks.\n\nFor reference I'm Irish so I find anything over 25C unpleasant.",
"* people can become physically acclimated to heat\n* people can become culturally acclimated to heat, structuring their day so they don't work when it is hottest\n* in much of Europe and Japan, it usually doesn't get hot enough to justify air conditioning\n* similarly, their buildings are designed for cold weather, not hot\n* all the people susceptible to heat are already dead in countries where it is often very hot, rather than dying in newsworthy clusters\n* hot countries are often less developed, have less precise record-keeping, and more accidental deaths...\"8 succumb to heat\" doesn't make headlines over \"30 die in building fire\" or \"200 die from ebola\"\n* those hot, less developed countries often have authoritarian regimes and government-controlled media, that often are not interesting in printing bad domestic news\n* in developed countries, there is a bias toward news from other developing countries",
"I just got back from volunteering in New Delhi, India which can reach up to 43c or 110F every day. What I notice is they have to adapt their lives to dealing with the heat. \n\nYou don't go out from 12-3pm because it's too hot. Kids stay up late playing outside than sleep in to avoid the heat. Everyone wears paper-thin clothes which means your pants rip like crazy. The women wear either head scarfs to protect themselves from the sun or carry umbrellas. Men carry rags just for whipping the sweat off themselves. I literally could not wear makeup because you're always sweating.",
"40 celcius in Texas in nothing. They are all used to it and prepared for it. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nBut imagine NOT being prepared. Either no AC or lack of strong enough AC to keep temps down. Pair that with people not drinking enough and not dressing appropriately, and you got a recipe for disaster. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nLike one day in Downtown Toronto was so fucking hot that I drank around 4 liters of water in like 2 hours. Yet I was always thristy and never had to piss, it all came out in sweat. If all I had was a 500ml bottle (which is normally enough for a few hours), I would have been highly dehydrated. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nIf I was very old and very dehydrated, then I would be in a really bad spot",
"If you add in all the insightful observations below, where Northern European people are not culturally acclimated to warm weather (3 piece wool suits are not appropriate warm weather attire), water consumption, limit activity in the heat, and combine this with elderly shut-in people who are not able to open a window, turn on a fan, or get out of a tall building when the power fails on a hot day. Then you get tens of thousands of deaths.\n\n* a friend who was a bus driver in Yosemite told me of European tourists who were wearing wool suits on bus tours from Las Vegas, Death Valley, and Yosemite in summer.",
"In Canada, whenever there is a heat wave of 30+ C the majority of us will insert an ice cube in to the rectum, it works like a charm. Give that a try...works every time.",
"I'd point mostly to infrastructure. Buildings in Dubai are built differently to handle the heat. Similar reasoning to why a quarter inch of snow will shut down one city where another will keep rocking along with several feet coming down.",
"In a lot of Bedouin cultures, most outdoor activity takes place at night. So really not very many people are outside until later in the afternoon once it has begun to cool off.",
"Vernacular architecture.\n\nHouses in England and northern France are built for rain and to keep in the heat and keep out the cold. They’re literal ovens. Because that’s main issue (winter is longer and colder)\n\nWhen I lived in Andalusia the winter was coldddd because my apt was all marble floors and stone walls. But in summer it was 90°F and my apt was freakishly cool for how hot it was outside.\n\nTl;dr - warm areas better are heat and cold areas better at cold.",
"People who live in hotter environments have infrastructure to support that. For example: people in Middle East would have heavy duty industrial air conditioners in every single indoor area. Plus commuting via walking or cycling as opposed to via cars would be unpopular. \n\nCompare this to many houses in European countries which don’t even have air conditioners as they’ve never needed them before.",
"I live in Europe (Austria) and I'm from Singapore (tropical, near the equator). I can tell you that most of Europeans are not equipped to handle such drastic heat wave.\nThe idea of air conditioning isn't well established, heater is. Most homes only have fans and having air conditioning is a luxury because it would only be useful for about three months. And usually 35 is already considered very hot. Meaning, it's usually survivable if you stay in shade with a bit of wind. So most don't even bother installing something so expensive. Whereas in Singapore virtually all public transport and shops have cooling system built in. Like even some roads have ceilings there to provide shade.",
"Where I'm from in Saudi Arabia people go from their air conditioned houses to their air conditioned cars to get to air conditioned malls or stores ."
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a8av2x | how did christmas become x-mas? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a8av2x/eli5_how_did_christmas_become_xmas/ | {
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"IIRC the x is actually a Greek chi, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ .",
"It was likely around the same time that Christmas became a Christian holiday in the first place. \n\nThe X is actually the Greek letter Chi, which was used in the very early days of the Christian church in order to represent Christ. They would use the Chi (X) letter instead of the word Christ as a way of keeping their faith a secret during a time in which they were persecuted. \n\nAlthough there aren't any formal records of the first use of X-mas (Christ + Mass), it stands to reason it would have happened very early on in the life of the church, before it became it an accepted religion and religious practice. We do have a record from around 1100 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that uses the term, though, and a whole bunch of records from the time the printing press was invented all the way up to today."
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5y0eck | if exercise is so good for us, why do we not feel motivated before we commit to doing it? | I've been having trouble finding motivation to go to the gym lately, and I know it's great for physical and mental health, but I feel like shit when I think about even going. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5y0eck/eli5_if_exercise_is_so_good_for_us_why_do_we_not/ | {
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"In your evolutionary past, you didn't have a choice. Your daily life was exercise. Therefore, it made more sense for evolution to say \"rest and conserve your energy when you can, so you'll have more energy to tackle necessary activity. Because you don't know when you will get your next meal.\"\n\nNow you *do* have a choice. Lots of people can get through life just fine being lazy when it comes to physical activity. But no selective pressures have served to erase that whole 'conserve your strength' impulse.",
"You ever wonder what Willy-Coyote would do the day after he catches Road Runner?\n\nHe has spent decades, his whole existence, building elaborate traps and now the reason for doing it is gone. You think he might build traps (or design them) for old times sake?\n\nThat is you. We won the evolution game. For our whole existence food was scarce, physical exertion was common and burned precious calories (and was to be avoided wherever possible). Our evolutionary success came from using our brains to figure out how to be lazy and build a pipeline to a river instead of carrying buckets of water back and forth all day.\n\nAnd now, we have caught and eaten the road runner. We can eat anything we want whenever we want. We can spend days laying on the couch watching tv. We are masters of our world...\n\nAnd so we do... But it turns out it isn't good for us. We weren't supposed to win we were supposed to always keep struggling for the unattainable. ",
"One explanation is basically the flip side of why we tend to eat rich foods that aren't healthy in the long run. For nearly all of our evolutionary history, the overwhelming goal was to consume and store enough food energy to survive long enough to reproduce and raise children. Expending energy for no reason was a waste of hard-earned calories. And who needs extra motivation to get moving when you've got hunger?\n\nBesides, many of the disadvantages of not exercising are chronic and don't really flare up until long after we're capable of reproduction, making them less relevant to natural selection. ",
"Humans of old had exercise built into their everyday activities - from hunting/gathering, building, etc. Now that humans have learned to manipulate our ecosystem via machinery/processes/etc, these physical activities aren't needed by large swaths of humans. \n\nExercise that used to happen due to necessity doesn't happen anymore. Survival is one hell-of-a-motivator. Your day-to-day survival is not in question (I assume) due to health reasons. But, ever notice someone who got a \"health scare\" like a heart diagnosis? They may be a lot more motivated to go exercise. \n\nWe must also realize that food used to be extremely scarce and difficult to get. Who knows when'd you eat. In some countries, still, famine is a regular occurrence. In this case it makes sense to conserve energy. So not only is setting out to exercise at a gym seen as a disadvantage, the mind may see it as downright detrimental! Adding more fuel to the fire...\n\nIn my personal experience, consistent exercise only became possible when I truly understood the logical benefits of a physically fit body. In addition, sexual attraction is one heck of a motivator! This may be why many couples tend to gain weight - attracting a mate may have been their main goal in exercising. ",
"Once you make it a habit, skipping a day of exercise can feel uncomfortable. Also, the problem may be how you exercise. You can possibly find something to do that is more enjoyable. Possibly working out at home, away from the gym environment, could be more motivating.",
"Find something you love to do, don't force yourself to go to the gym. I was the same, dreaded going to gym, then I started serious badminton coaching, I love it, I love playing I love the drills, it's not a chore to go.. I burn more calories in an hour compared to the gym and I get more skilled at a sport I love ",
"How much are you sleeping? Are you getting 8 hours a night, consistently? Because I have noticed a direct correlation between not getting enough sleep and not wanting to work out. Something to think about.",
"Because aside from a slightly better optimized prefrontal cortex, you are biologically the same as a hunter on the savannah 50,000 years ago. And that hunter needs to conserve energy to survive, so his body tells him it wants carb- and fat-rich foods and to limit physical activity (because he gets exercise anyway). Our species has existed for 200,000 and the sedentary lifestyle has been a problem for, what, barely 50 years? Your body hadn't had time to evolve to fit your new environment.",
"This isn't an absolute truth. Many look forward to exercise, and for me honestly it's the highlight of my day. The issue isn't exercise itself per se, but in your experience of it. As usually sane beings we are hard wired to dislike and want to avoid unpleasantness, and if exercise is an unpleasant experience for you that isn't somehow tempered by satisfactory reward you are going to struggle your entire life with it. Recognizing this is a critical first step to successful lifestyle change. Make the activity actually enjoyable to whatever extent you can, especially at first, is really important. If that means pleasantly fast walking instead of jogging or lifting only at 50% instead of 90% max do it. Even if that means substituting one sport for another, or some outdoor activity instead of gym time, do it. The satisfaction you derive from the experience will drive you to repeat it, you will actually look forward to going, and once it becomes a habit (2-3 months) you can start cranking up the difficulty slowly without causing you to dread exercise. Whether it's for weight loss, strength, or another goal you don't have to get there all at once. Take your time and enjoy the journey",
"Get addicted, joint a gym you can be proud of. Understand you can change your body. I go to bed every night giddy about my morning workout. Getting stronger, faster, bigger is so rewarding. ",
"This is not true. lots of people are motivated to exercise and feel off when they dont. your body actually releases endorphins and makes you feel good after you exercise so it is somewhat addicting once you start. Its the initial exertion and the pain of fatiguing muscles you never use that drives most people away. most people would rather be comfortable sitting on the couch than go do something difficult and potentially painful. if you keep exercising, eventually the pain lessens, you get better at it, and the rewards start to outweight the discomfort ",
"I am going with the simplest explanation.\n\nObjects in motion want to stay in motion. Objects at rest want to stay at rest.\n\nIn my experience, getting my ass off the sofa and GOING TO the gym is much harder than exercising when I'm already at the gym. So I am following my trainer's advice: JUST SHOW UP. If you still don't feel like doing it, you can always stop halfway through and go back home.\n\nHow is that working out for me? Well, I have JUST SHOWN UP (despite really, really not wanting to) many times. I have quit halfway through to go back home zero of those times.\n\n(And similarly, building a habit is harder than maintaining a habit.)",
"You feel like shit when you think about going because you know you're going in order to receive the benefits of it, not because exercise is in and of itself something that you want to do. You feel like shit because you're thinking about why you want to go to the gym - not because it's something you enjoy, but because you dislike yourself physically/mentally when you don't go. It reminds you that you dislike yourself.\n\nWhen has something being good for us ever been enough to motivate us not just to do it, but to look forward to doing it? It's okay. People go through motivational slumps.\n\nPersonally, I don't hate myself when I think about doing exercise. I hate myself when I am resisting doing exercise. But my self-hatred doesn't compel me to do something about it, it just means that I have a bad day because I start out with self-loathing.\n\nSomething I HAVE found motivational is telling myself I don't need to make a big commitment. Often when I start with a smaller goal, I feel encouraged enough to keep at it and complete my original goal anyway. For example, I might tell myself that instead of running for 5km on a treadmill, I'll take a book and I'll walk and read for half an hour or something. I love that. But when I get walking, I end up getting restless after ten minutes and want to run. So I transition into that.\n\nSomething being good for you isn't going to 100% motivate you to do it. A small sense of achievement might motivate you to complete more, though."
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4dpza6 | why are the primary cannons on the challenger 1 and 2 tanks rifled, when most other modern tanks have smoothbore cannons? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4dpza6/eli5_why_are_the_primary_cannons_on_the/ | {
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"They are designed to better accommodate certain types of ammunition. \nFor example the [High-Explosive Squash Head\\(HESH\\)](_URL_0_) round benefits from the rifle spin for accuracy and increasing the amount of contact. It's much better for destroying buildings and bunkers.",
"more or less historical reasons.\n\nin ww2 rifled guns were standard for all tanks, soviet engineers started to use smoothbore guns in the early '60s (first mass production vehicle: t-62). western tank designs of the time on the other hand prefered the rifled 105mm l7 gun that was first used in the british centurion tank. the british themselves however developed a 120mm rifled gun for their chieftain tank, mostly because they assumed longer engagement distances for future tank battles than other western nations did and wanted to have more firepower.\n\nin the mid-70s new soviet tanks with much superior armor appeared and the 105mm equipped generation of western tanks began to show its age, and after quite a bit of experimenting, the germans decided to equip their new leopard 2 tanks with 120mm smoothbore cannons. all other western nations as well as korea and japan follwed the german example in the subsequent years and if they didn't directly buy or produce the leopard 2 under a license (sweden, spain, canada, netherlands), they either equiped their tanks with license productions of the german gun (usa, korea, japan) or with their own, yet very similar designs (france, italy).\n\nhowever, as the british were introducing their new tank generation in the mid-80s (the challenger 1), they decided that their 120mm rifled gun, the one that they already used on the chieftain for nearly 20 years, was still sufficient because they found it to be as powerful as the german design: the rifling may reduce the velocity of the shell a bit, but the gun is also a bit longer which more or less evens the firepower disadvantages of the rifled design out. on the other hand the rifled gun is more accurate on longer ranges.\n\nso they kept using it with the then new challenger 1 tank. today the challenger 2 still uses the same basic gun design with a few minor improvements.\n\nthe british planned to switch to an improved version of the 120mm smoothbore gun around 2006, partially because the design offered some firepower improvements, partially because the british factory for 120mm rifled gun ammunition closed a few years before and they were slowly, yet steadily running out of ammunition stocks. they shelfed the project a few years later due to cost cutting during the financial crisis and since they found a new factory for their ammunition. the newest improvement plans for the challenger 2 stick with the 120mm rifled gun."
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29zqep | why do things feel wet through latex, even though your skin stays dry? | Like through gloves, condoms and stuff like that. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29zqep/eli5_why_do_things_feel_wet_through_latex_even/ | {
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"When you feel \"wet\" what you are actually feeling is a very localized change in temperature. This is transmitted through gloves/latex. Touch a cold water pipe with water running through it and you'll think the pipe is leaking.\n",
"Your brain is wired to interpret the combination of a change in temperature and pressure on your skin as \"wet\". Since you can still feel both the pressure and the temperature change through latex (or any other thin, impermeable membrane) it will feel wet-like.\n\nEdit for clarity"
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2dx7cp | uk people - why can't we/what would happen if we renationalised the railways, energy companies etc? | Obviously I know the Tories aren't keen on nationalisation to say the least, but aside from that it's not as simple as just renationalising. What would the process to renationalise be, and what would happen if we did? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dx7cp/eli5_uk_people_why_cant_wewhat_would_happen_if_we/ | {
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"Why would the gov want to? they'd risk loosing money they can make by just charging companies abusing their people. Someone's got to pay for the second home, car and holidays around the world.",
"One reason renationalising those things is bad is because nationalised companies are WAYY more likely to be ineffecient and dont have an incentive to improve their service/railways. Which means it'd most likely be more expensive for us guys as well as getting a worse service! (I think this is partly what you were asking..? Sorry if it wasn't!)"
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8s0ek1 | why does it not hurt when you open your eyes under salt water, but hurt's when you get salt water in the eye when you are up on the surface? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8s0ek1/eli5_why_does_it_not_hurt_when_you_open_your_eyes/ | {
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"Man I don't know what you're on about, opening my eyes in salt water hurts them just as much as getting splashed"
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5lvcs4 | does religious tithing create any legal obligation for the church to the contributor? | When I pay insurance, I gain legal rights to reimbursement. When I buy membership in a club or organization, I also get certain benefits that can be legally defended.
Do formal regular church tithe contributions entitle a person to any legal rights? For example, partial ownership of church assets, access to facilities, welfare support when requested, counselling, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lvcs4/eli5_does_religious_tithing_create_any_legal/ | {
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"Legal rights, no. However, the church may sometimes have some political pulling power and some donors may use their tithes almost like a lobbyist would",
"No. Tithing is a gift, and therefore it does not impose any obligations on the recipient.\n\nHowever, some religious establishments have a yearly *membership fee* or similar. That's not purely a tithe, and it entitles the payer to whatever the establishment has said its membership includes.",
"Not unless they are made legally explicit by some contract.\n\nLegally speaking, a tithe is a voluntary charitable contribution to a non-profit organization. Many churches claim they are required by the bible, and some even track them and deny you church services if you don't pay. But like any other charitable contributions, tithing does not grant legal rights.",
"Tithes are legally donations and thus there's no legal responsibility held by the religious organization to you.\n\nThey can use the money only for the church if they don't want to be taxed on it. These laws likely vary but they have to do with a religious organization's responsibility to the government, not to its members (donating ones or otherwise)"
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ogua2 | why are people afraid? why are some people
fearless? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ogua2/eli5_why_are_people_afraid_why_are_some_people/ | {
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"Unless you wanna hear anecdotes from people that will say that they aren't afraid of anything, I think the best place for this question would be [/r/askscience](_URL_0_).",
"People are afraid because those who weren't afraid didn't live long enough to have children.",
"We are born with two fears: fear of falling and fear of loud noises. All other fears are learned. People become afraid of certain things because they have learnt to associate them with a bad event. For example, if a baby hears a dog barking loudly it will trigger the fear in loud noises and will make that person scared of dogs, as they associate loud noises with dogs. Fearless people have either learnt to overcome their fears or weren't introduced to anything that would make those fears develop.",
"Survival, natural selection. Have you ever noticed that you're able to remember fearful situations far easier than non-fearful situations? Your brain is designed that way to allow you to avoid dangerous situations. \n\nGoogle \"amygdala\" if you want to know more about the neuroanatomy. Sociopaths (fearless people) tend to have very small regions, and research has shown that damaging the amygdala in lab animals leads to an inability to form memories about fearful stimuli.",
"We're all scared. It's the human condition. Why do you thinks I put on this tough guy façade?"
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3l9lh7 | r ratings. why do studios push so hard for pg 13 now, and won't bank on r rated films, when back in the 80s they seemed to do ok? | Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember as a kid in the 80s that all the cool films used to get R ratings but were still madly popular (*Terminator, Robocop, Total Recall, Lethal Weapon, Aliens, Predator*, etc etc) and they seemed to do OK?
Or am I misremembering? What changed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l9lh7/eli5_r_ratings_why_do_studios_push_so_hard_for_pg/ | {
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"PG-13 didn't exist until 1984, that's why. \n\nIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has a guy get his heart ripped out on screen and it was rated PG. Just as a reference. ",
"PG-13 movies can sell more tickets. Groups of high schoolers can see them without a guardian present and parents are more likely to take their kids. I'm willing to bet that, correctly or not, studios probably also feel that women are more likely to see PG-13 movies vs. R.",
" > [The following are the 10 top-grossing films of the decade:](_URL_0_)\n\n > E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), $435 million\n\n > Return of the Jedi (1983), $309 million\n\n > The Empire Strikes Back (1980), $290 million\n\n > Batman (1989), $251 million\n\n > Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), $245 million\n\n > Ghostbusters (1984), $238 million\n\n > Beverly Hills Cop (1984), $234 million\n\n > Back to the Future (1985), $210 million\n\n > Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), $197 million\n\n > Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), $179 million\n\nThe top 10 highest grossing films of the 1980s were all PG movies aimed at the family demographic. The movies you mentioned were all awesome, but they weren't as profitable as other films.\n\nLike anything else, the film industry is a business. If they can invest $50 million to try to make a new movie and they know that the highest grossing films are all suitable for a family audience, they'll try to make all of their movies for a family audience. \n\nGood R rated films like Alien, Riddick, and Mad Max: Fury Road are still made. But, as it has been since we started tracking, family movies are the money movies, so they will continue to be the big, expensive, highly promoted blockbusters.",
"Movie studios don't like to take risks, that's also why you see so many damn sequels. They know that \"family\" movies have the largest potential audience to pull from, and thus are more likely to make a lot of money. If you look at the highest grossing movies of the 80s,\n\n- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), $435 million.\n- Return of the Jedi (1983), $309 million.\n- The Empire Strikes Back (1980), $290 million.\n- Batman (1989), $251 million.\n- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), $245 million.\n- Ghostbusters (1984), $238 million.\n\nYou'll see that they're all movies very few parents would think twice about showing their kids. Also, PG-13 didn't exist then, it was just PG and R, but that is more a result of this trend than a cause for it. So, basically, the movie industry has gradually learned over time what makes the most money, and have focused on that.",
"It's all about the $$$$. Because psychologically there's and enormous difference between 99.99 and 100.00... Producers want people to be able have parents take their kids to movies (even questionable ones), and a PG-13 rating gives parents the peace of mind. It's all about volume. You slap an R rating on something and you just lost 1/2 of your audience and the potential revenue that would be generated therein.",
"Anyone ever see the original Bad News Bears circa 1976?\n\nThat was rated PG.",
"Not sure if you felt like any of the answers have helped give you what you're looking for but here's the simple answer:\n\nPG-13 can get the film more money. When *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom* and *Gremlins* came out, they were extremely violent for the time (melting faces, exploding heads). Because of these extremely graphic images, the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) created the ~~R (Restricted)~~ PG-13 (Parental Guidance of 13 and Under) rating.\n\n\nBecause R movies needed you to be 18+, it means kids with spending money cannot get into the movie and cutting out a large portion of profits. Children and teens have much more free time and spare money than adults so it's easier to get them into a movie theater.\n\n\nThis is why Disney and other animated films do so well. As others have posted with box-office grossing, these films do not restrict any movie-goers. You can watch Wreck-It Ralph in a birthday party for 9 year olds, or you can even make it a date movie.\n\nBut you can't have a children's birthday party to go see Deadpool, so there goes the profits of like, eight kids and four adults.\n\n[](/sp)\n\nDeadpool is looking to shape up as a great movie but it won't gross nearly as much as Jurassic World or Inside Out. Why? It's not a family film and it's more of a niche audience. Unless you're into comic books you won't really know or care about Deadpool. But everyone loves dinosaurs so a PG-13 rating allows them to put in some violence while appealing to the largest audience.\n\n____\n\nEdited for accuracy.",
"It also used to be socially acceptable to [market hard \"R\" movies to children] (_URL_0_)."
]
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2ognkz | why is it that my bloody laptop crawls like a bitch when i don't restart it for 5 days, whereas my android phone runs smooth for the same use? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ognkz/eli5_why_is_it_that_my_bloody_laptop_crawls_like/ | {
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"Ideally that shouldn't be the case. Most likely a piece of software running on your computer is bad at cleaning up after itself and you're running low on memory (there's other possibilities, but without debugging your computer, it's impossible to know for sure). Memory is a like a giant file cabinet full of numbered folders where programs can store pieces of information. Whenever a program needs to remember some data for a short period of time, it asks your operating system to give it the address of some new folders from the file cabinet and stores stuff there.\n\nUsually, when the program is done with the memory, it will tell the operating system that it is done with the folders and they will become \"free\" again for other programs to use. Certain types of bugs will cause the program to never tell the operating system that it is done with the memory, and more and more of the folders will be marked as in use until the entire cabinet is full.\n\nAt this point, the operating system will have to start swapping out blocks of memory to the hard disk. In this analogy, it would be equivalent to taking all the folders out of one drawer of the file cabinet, driving to a storage unit, and getting a bunch of empty folders to replace them (aka, really slow in comparison). If a program asks for a folder number from the original set, it has to do the process in reverse and go get them from the hard disk / storage unit again. This is called swapping, and is quite painful when you try and use the computer at the same time.\n\nIdeally, memory leaks shouldn't be a problem, but most software is far from perfect. Most of the software on your Android phone uses garbage collection, which means every once in a while it pauses to look through the folders for any marked as in use that it doesn't currently remember having written down the address for and has no way of getting to from notes in the other folders, and freeing them. This takes a performance penalty for the occasional pauses, but makes it much harder for the programmer to mess up. Many of the programs on your laptop likely are written in languages where the programmer is more in charge of having to make sure that all memory that was allocated eventually gets freed, which is more efficient when done right but easier to mess up. (Mobile applications are far from immune from this problem, though!)\n\nIf a program is leaking memory, you should be able to see the memory usage in the task manager slowly and constantly rising while the program is running. (I'm not a windows user, so I can't give details here.) The quickest short term solution is to close the program and open it again, which will free all the memory it had allocated. This may be impossible if the program in question is part of your operating system or a hardware driver which must always be running.\n\nIn any case, one of the best and cheapest ways to improve the performance of a computer is to buy more RAM. Even if programs aren't leaking memory, this allows many more things to run at the same time without having to slowly swap things out to the hard disk.\n\nObviously I'm glossing over a lot of details and this is only one possible explanation, but I hope you found it interesting!",
"Thats some weird phrasing you got there. Your phone has less to start up than your computer."
]
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[],
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2p91bz | why do people instinctively truncate numbers rather than round them? | I noticed that a lot of people don't round up without stopping and thinking, for example, it's December 2014 but many will look at something from January 2013 as being from one year ago, although it was two years ago (or technically, VERY close to it) and are often a bit surprised when you point it out to them. And there's the common marketing gimmick of $19.99 instead of $20, even though one should see $19.99 and register it as $20, but people just see the 19. Or for temperature, 79 elicits a different response from people than 80, even though 79 is not 70 but feels almost exactly the same as 80. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p91bz/eli5_why_do_people_instinctively_truncate_numbers/ | {
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"cmuggra"
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"text": [
"This isn't so much truncation as it is floor-function rounding. \n\nAlso, I disagree with your comments regarding 19.99 and 79/80 degrees. I think most people register 19.99 as being $20 and 79 and 80 degrees being about the same. "
]
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[]
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635cn2 | in the u.k. at least, why are suspects in police interviews allowed to answer, "no comment?" surely it defeats the object of questioning if they can evade questions | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/635cn2/eli5_in_the_uk_at_least_why_are_suspects_in/ | {
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"They're allowed to remain silent because they have a right to. You don't have to answer questions during a police interrogation, nor should you since it cannot help you in any way, shape or form, it can only gather evidence AGAINST you. You are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, what the police is trying to do is to get a confession out of you that can later be used against you in court.",
"I can't believe everyone is giving US-based answers.\n\nIn the UK, if you are arrested, you are told \"you have the right to remain silent but **it may harm your defence if you do not mention now anything which you later rely on in court.**\n\nThat's very different from the US situation. And since OP specifically asked about the UK, the answer to the question is that evading questions might harm your defence."
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c3gog1 | how can light have energy? | This has been nagging at my mind for years now, so I hope you lot can help me understand. I’ve read into this plenty on the google machine, but I can’t find an answer that is actually comprehensible to the mind of a layman.
I’m under the impression that e=mc^2 means energy is equal to mass, multiplied twice by the speed of light. As such, where m > 0, e will be a positive number. But if m=0, shouldn’t e remain at 0 as well? The inverse operation would additionally indicate (again, to this layman’s mind) that energy and mass are also interchangeable, though of course measured differently.
But if photons are massless (as they must be, in order to travel at the “cosmic speed limit”), then how can it possibly have energy? Or, if the photons do indeed have energy, how do they remain massless? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c3gog1/eli5_how_can_light_have_energy/ | {
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"e = mc2 is not the full equation\n\n E²=(mc²)²+(pc)²\n\nIs the full one. Essentially, with m=0, you can remove that part of the equation, and end up with\n\nE= pc (with p being momentum, and light, since it cannot be at rest, has momentum)\n\nThis would apply to anything \"mass less\" such as a photon, as the mc2 part is zero, so you're left with the pc part only.",
"The full equation is E^2 =m_0^2 c^4 + p^2 c^2. Where p is momentum and m_0 is the rest mass. For a photon, the rest mass is zero as you said, so E = pc.\n\nSo light has momentum, but no rest mass. The m in the famous equation you gave is the relativistic mass, which is related to energy by m = E/c^2 = p/c Photons do have a relativistic mass that comes from their momentum.\n\nI find that thinking of the Mass - Energy equivalence in relativity as \"mass is just stored energy\" can be helpful. From this point of view, energy is the property that all matter (and photons etc.) has, and mass is just a by-product."
]
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4bi7sa | why does the show "the young and the restless" look so much more different than any other show? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bi7sa/eli5_why_does_the_show_the_young_and_the_restless/ | {
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"It is a soap opera, almost all soap operas look like that. The camera setup and filming is different, conversations are shot with whole bodies in frame instead of just tight shots on their faces (or even a single cam setup with both people in frame), cameras usually zoom in while people talk (almost never done in regular tv for normal conversation), etc. Also, the lighting is much different. \n \nA huge factor is color grading, a show like NCIS has a much more movie-like color grade than a soap opera. [Example of color grading.](_URL_2_) \n \n**EDIT:** To anyone saying it's because it's 60fps, no. The show is 1080i 60fps, making it almost the same as 1080p 30fps. \n \n[Jimmy Kimmel: True 60fps, (Watch the hands, and crushed blacks)](_URL_0_) \n[OP's show: De-interlaced to 30fps (**What your tv/cable box always does**)](_URL_1_) This is **not motion interpolation**, which is what some smart tv's do by default, which should always be turned off. \n[John Oliver: Raw interlaced 60fps (Watch the hands)](_URL_3_)",
"Soap Operas are shot with a temporal resolution of 60hz. It has been this way for decades, and it's what gives them that \"feel\". \n\nWithout getting too complicated; basically, unlike the majority of TV shows, which are recorded using a full frame once every 1/24th or 1/30th of a second (24p or 30p), a TYaTR is recorded using 1/2 of a frame (it's actually every other line on the TV, called a field) every 1/60th of a second (60i). So while this *technically* means that it is shot at 30fps, this is a bit misleading, because each field comes from a unique point in time, giving it a temporal resolution of 60hz, which basically means that you are seeing 60 individual points of motion every second. \n\nNow just to clarify; these days, everything is shot progressively, so TYaTR is shot at a full 60fps. But since it is broadcast in 1080i60, it still applies. They are only transmitting a field every 1/60th of a second instead of a full frame (just like the show was recorded and broadcast before HDTV).\n\nFortunately, digital TV's handle interlaced content differently than SDTV's did. In the case of a 60i broadcast that originally came from a 60p recording, your TV will essentially \"make up\" the missing field in each frame, by analyzing the current field, as well as a field or 2 in before/after. There is enough information to work with that the TV actually does a pretty good job, and it will essentially be unnoticeable unless there is a lot of panning/motion, where sometimes you can see artifacts (though compression artifacting is actually much more noticable).\n\nIn case anyone is curious, 24fps content that is broadcast as 60i, is actually de-interlaced into it's full progressive frames. One of the more common misconceptions I see on Reddit is that a 720p broadcast is better than 1080i because one is interlaced and the other is not. In the majority of cases, this is simply not true. The vast majority of television content is shot at 24p or 30p originally, which means that when it is broadcast as a 60i signal, can be deinterlaced back into the original 24 or 30p image at the full 1080 resolution. On top of that, the majority of cable channels are 1080i anyway. If you set your cable box to output 720p, you are not suddenly getting a 720p signal, you are just telling your cable box to deinterlace, and downsample any 1080i signal, before sending it to your TV. Basically, the only instances you would ever want your cable box outputting 720p, would be if you were watching sports on a station that was broadcasting in 720p60, otherwise, you're not going to get an optimal picture. ",
"It's because it uses 60 fps. Normally when you see a show or movie the standard is 24 fps so when you see The Young And The Restless it looks different.",
"It's mostly the lighting. The soap opera look is easy to achieve. Just hit actors more directly without diffusion on light sources and bump saturation heavily in post.",
"Sigh... \n\nAnother question with comments that are way overcomplicated and filled with people trying to explain something they clearly don't know anything about.",
"Get an HDTV that has a motion interpolation feature and everything you watch will look like a soap opera. It could be that I am just not used to this, or associate it with bad, day-time soaps, but when I notice people have their TVs setup like this it drives me crazy. "
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA8pQMJrcNY",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gAVKfcL-gs",
"http://www.iamag.co/features/itsart/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/color-grading-davinci-resolve.jpg",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YkLPxQp_y0"
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71be3t | how is google able to provide better search results for a site than that site's own search feature? | Google has to index the entire web, while a site's search engine only has to index it's own material. Why haven't web developers been able to create a standard search tool that works at least as well within their own site as Google? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71be3t/eli5_how_is_google_able_to_provide_better_search/ | {
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"dn9fjbh"
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"text": [
"The problem isn't how much data there is to index. The problem is creating an algorithm that shows you the most relevant data for your search terms. Google has thousands of engineers who have been working on their search algorithm for about 20 years now. They are really good at it and they keep their specific methods secret.\n\nThere's just no way that your company's IT guy is going to be able to develop a search algorithm that's anywhere nearly as good as Google's.\n\nFun fact, Google lets you integrate their search engine into your own site for searching your own data."
]
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| [
[]
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|
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3l4i0m | what actually kills you when exposed to the vacuum of space (and is it total rubbish when some movies show people 'holding their breath' to survive short periods)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l4i0m/eli5_what_actually_kills_you_when_exposed_to_the/ | {
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"Lots of things in space will kill you, but the first thing is suffocation. No matter how good you are at holding your breath, the lack of air pressure will force all the air from your lungs pretty much instantly. Then after about ten seconds you'll lose consciousness and then die from lack of oxygen.\n\nAssuming somehow that doesn't kill you, you'll die from radiation exposure.",
"Depends where in space you were.\n\nSay just in orbit around the Earth? Lack of oxygen. Your lungs would actually work in reverse and would remove oxygen from your blood. So just going to hold your breath? Now your lungs have ruptured and you're bleeding into your chest cavity. Without holding your breath you could survive for around 90 seconds before you wouldn't be able to be revived. \n\nIf you were in direct sunlight and naked you could possibly burn to death depending how far from the Sun you were.\n\n",
"Asphyxiation (Lack of O2 in the brain). And yes, holding your breath is pointless because your own body's internal pressures will force all the air out of your lungs (vacuums don't actually suck - air pushes).\n\nYou have about 15 seconds before you pass out (how long it takes your body to run out of good blood). You will die shortly thereafter. In the meantime, you will feel your body bloating up and all your tears/spit/mucous boiling from the lack of atmospheric pressure.",
"It's suffocation, unless you hold your breath... which, do to the difference in pressure between your lungs and space, would pulverize your lungs. Ether way, you would pass out in 10 seconds and be dead in 90",
"[This](_URL_0_) is a pretty good discussion. The main issues are:\n\nYou have no oxygen. And if you try to hold your breath the air pressure will damage your lungs (the same problem exists when surfacing while scuba diving and it can kill you by rupturing your lungs).\n\nYou blood won't boil. It is true that water will boil above ~19,000m [the Armstrong limit](_URL_1_), but the skin and blood pressure provides enough pressure to stop that from happening.\n\nThere will be swelling, loss of circulation and pain.\n\nYou won't really be cold or hot. Vacuum doesn't conduct heat, and radiation is fairly slow.\n\nDeath by radiation would take days, at least anywhere near Earth, even on a very bad day with lost of solar flares. \n\nIn short, you'd pass out from lack of air in ~15s, and then die from lack of oxygen after a few minutes."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_limit"
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||
1z11ts | why do some websites not work on certain browsers? | Sometimes for older websites/software, I have to open them up in IE or Firefox to get them to work, but they REFUSE to work in Chrome. Why is that? What is so inherently different about the sites that make them incompatible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z11ts/eli5_why_do_some_websites_not_work_on_certain/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfpja4x"
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"text": [
"It's got to do with the rendering engine the browser uses.\n\nFor example, Chrome/Safari use webkit; if a website has webkit-only functions, it will most likely not work in Firefox or IE, because they don't use webkit.\n\nHope this helps."
]
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| [
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21jyyx | how does a country buy something from another country? | If a country wanted to buy land or a good from another country, how does the currency work there? Would that country get the original countries currency? Would they get goods that amounted in that amount of money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21jyyx/eli5_how_does_a_country_buy_something_from/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Suppose I'm from the USA, and I want to buy a banana from Thailand. This banana costs 100 Thai baht. To purchase this banana, I need to exchange my USD to Thai baht at the current exchange rate, which I can do at major banks or other currency dealers. I then use these Thai baht to buy the banana."
]
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3y52b6 | what's that feeling called when you experience a motion for awhile and later on it comes back as some sort of tactile hallucination? | I was on a seesaw today with a friend, we were there for 5-10 minutes. (When you come to Montreal in the winter you should try Lumiotherapy)
Later that afternoon we came to do it again for the same amount of time.
And just now I feel like I'm on a seesaw again and it's distracting me from my computer work haha.
I've also gotten that feeling after getting out of the pool, ballpit or the swing.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y52b6/eli5whats_that_feeling_called_when_you_experience/ | {
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"text": [
"I usually get it when I've been on a boat all day and then come back on land. Get wobbly legs for a while. Wikipedia calls it \"Illusions of self-motion\" _URL_0_\n\nNot a very exciting name."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_of_self-motion"
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41chfw | why are young men disproportionately (over)represented among the refugees fleeing to europe? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41chfw/eli5_why_are_young_men_disproportionately/ | {
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Historically, that will be a pattern you see in many mass migrations throughout history. The men go first in order to get set up, find work, and make enough money as to ensure a safe trip and transition for their families."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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cpe7ea | if sand is eroded rock caused by water then how are deserts made entirely of sand, but still some of the driest places on earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cpe7ea/eli5_if_sand_is_eroded_rock_caused_by_water_then/ | {
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"Most if not all deserts were at one time under water.",
"1. They used to be at the ocean, but the land has risen up over time due to earthquakes and such.\n2. Wind can also cause this kind of erosion, though it's less forceful.",
"Sand also causes erosion of rock, wind picking up sand can erode rocks into more sand, in addition water evaporates lakes dry out and sea levels rise and fall.",
"Deserts were once oceans. Over time, they dried up, turning to deserts. If you've been to the beach, you probably noticed that beach sand is exactly like desert sand. If you go deeper underwater, you'll find sand underwater is much the same.",
"Deserts might be dry but they also have big storms that cause flash floods and massive erosion in a short period of time. Just look at Death Valley for good examples. Still, most of Death Valley is covered by rocks, gravel, and salt deposits.\n\nNot all deserts are made of sand. Nevada is mostly desert and has just a few areas of sand dunes. That sand comes mainly from one source: floods from the Sierra Nevada range and other granite mountain ranges. \n\nThe Sierras are made from granite and while water and freezing do cause some of the granite to break down into sand, most of the weathering of granite is due to temperature fluctuations. As the rock heats and cools, the different minerals expand and shrink and different rates, causing them to break apart. The quartz minerals become sand.\n\nThe rivers that come down from the Sierras carry weathered granite sand and during floods the rivers deposit the sand in wide valleys and lakes. Those flood deposits dry out and the soil blows with the wind, sometimes blowing all the way over ranges of hills. \n\nOne of the biggest sand dunes in the state, Sand Mountain, exists because the mountains there are too tall for the wind to carry the sand over the top so the sand collects against the windward face of the mountain. The smaller particles of soil (silt and clay) are small enough to be carried even further, leaving just the sand behind.\n\nLarge sand deposits exist in other places like New Jersey and Florida, but there is enough rain for plants to grow on the sand, covering it up. So some deserts have sand, some deserts don't have sand, and some sandy areas aren't deserts.",
"1. Deserts frequently used to be wet, dirt has long since blown away. \n2. Wind also erodes rock, as does thermal expansion and contraction. \n3. Deserts are a lot less sandier than people think. [The Sahara is only 15% sand as an example.](_URL_0_)"
]
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||
ctj74p | why does everything outside seem clearer after it rains? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctj74p/eli5_why_does_everything_outside_seem_clearer/ | {
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"text": [
"Normally there is a lot of particles suspended in air, dirt, smog, etc. rain washes out the air, it removes those particles."
]
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[]
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|
||
64qr3j | what is "a computer", what on an electronic level makes electronics into a "computer" can anyone build a computer? could someone build a computer without using prefabricated components in 2017? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64qr3j/eli5_what_is_a_computer_what_on_an_electronic/ | {
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"First, let's establish something a lot of people get wrong: in electric circuits, negative flows to positive. Electrons are negatively charged, and the negative side has an excess of electrons, the positive side has a deficit of electrons. The reason everyone gets this wrong was that the early pioneers of electricity got it wrong, and they wrote it down as such. Modern electrical diagram symbols come from an era of this mistake and it's never been corrected because we're so entrenched in the established conventions. The arrows on these diagrams are the opposite of which way the electrons physically flow.\n\nLet's talk electric components...\n\nThere are metals whose properties can be described as P type and N type. I believe this basically means they have a deficit of electrons or an excess of electrons in their outer most electron orbits.\n\nIf you take one metal of each type and bond them together, you have yourself a PN junction, or by another name we call it a \"diode\". You've heard of these before; for example, who hasn't heard of an LED? A Light Emitting DIODE. This component has a very interesting property - electrons will flow from the N side to the P side, but not the other way around! It's a one way electronic valve.\n\nNow, if you make a PNP or an NPN junction, you have a transistor! I'm a bit fumbly about how these things work, but the idea is current wants to flow from one side to the other, but it gets stuck unable to cross the middle. So by putting a small current on the middle, you can allow current to flow across the ends. There are clear explanations as to how bias and whatever make this possible, but you can google it.\n\nThe amount of current that flows across the ends is proportional to the amount of current put on the middle. So if you have a large current on one side, and a tiny current in the middle, you can get a relatively large representation of the little current. You have an amplifier! So the large current comes from the wall outlet, probably stepped up through a transformer, and then your little current comes from a microphone, or a guitar pickup, or something. And this was the original driving motivation to invent the transistor for use in radio. It replaced the vacuum tube, which performs the same function but operates on completely different principles.\n\nYou can do neat things with diodes and transistors, depending on the metals used, alloys in the middle, geometry, etc... A zener diode is one where electricity won't flow in reverse until it reaches a threshold - then the doors open, as it were. Noisy diodes are designed to flicker, whether they conduct in the forward direction or not, and we use these to generate noise or we sample them like digital audio and it acts as a random number generator. Transistors, too, are made for CPUs to have a fast and sharp switching on and off behavior, instead of the typical analog amplifier behavior.\n\nTransistors are organized into groups called \"gates,\" or \"logic gates.\" You can look these up if you want, but we can abstract the notion of an electric circuit to that of boolean algebraic logic. Instead of current or no current, we say 1 or 0. The behaviors of these circuits form their own boolean algebra - instead of plus or minus and the lie, you instead have AND, OR, NOT, and XOR. Just as you say \"1 + 1 = 2\", you can say \"0 AND 1 = 0\". You can look up truth tables to see how these boolean operations work. There are fancier gates like the NAND, which you may have heard of regarding flash memory or SSD's, this is just an AND and a NOT gate in sequence, so the as the above would be \"0 AND 1 = NOT 0 = 1\".\n\nThese simple building blocks can be assembled to build more complex behavior. If you look at the Wikipedia article for the Half Adder, you can see how addition is physically constructed in your CPU, because you can translate the logic gate symbols to circuits.\n\nA computer is capable of computing any computable number. Say that 10x fast... A computable number is a real number that is countable (most real numbers are uncountable). There are other properties of what a computable number is, but it gets mathy and over my head. 7 is a computable number, Pi isn't, as it can't be represented exactly by a computer - the best we can do is represent an approximation rounded to some decimal and call it good enough."
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5f2b7t | why do we get a weird choking-hiccup feeling sometimes when eating spongy?pastries? | I've wondered for quite sometime why I get this choking-hiccup feeling when I eat pastries that have air pockets in them (ex: pound cake, sponge cake, cake, etc.) The feeling is quite uncomfortable and some of my friends agree that they have encountered this feeling as well. The feeling goes away after its washed down with some sort of liquid. Can someone explain what this feeling is and why it happens? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5f2b7t/eli5_why_do_we_get_a_weird_chokinghiccup_feeling/ | {
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"I call them hic-burps. I was plagued by them before I was diagnosed as a coeliac (I counted them over a thousand on most days) and they had the most comical array of sounds, coupled with sometimes excruciating discomfort \n\nI suspect it's caused by the trapped wind trying to escape your stomach. Somewhere in the exit is narrower than needed for the air to pass and so it squeaks. \n\n(Not an expert. Nobody was able to explain them to me when I was suffering, but personal observation found forcing a burp reduced it. Also, water helps settle stuff well too. Exersize helps it pass better too. Diagnosis and treatment as a coeliac almost completely cured me of them though. Its worth booking in with your doctor if theyre persistent and uncomfortable )"
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[]
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4zmf4v | how come we are able to remove parts of someone's brain and they're still alive, but when someone is shot in the head with a gun, that person ends up dying instantly? are there parts of the brain that we don't necessarily need to live? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zmf4v/eli5_how_come_we_are_able_to_remove_parts_of/ | {
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"Brain surgery is incredibly precise and preformed in a monitored, controlled, and sterile environment.\n\nHeadshots are none of those things.\n\nThere are bits of your brain you can live without, and people do occasionally survive massive head trauma like gunshot wounds.",
"Well it's two different things. The level of trauma from a bullet hitting a head is much different than a surgeon cutting on a piece of the brain. A bullet causes hydraulic pressure that can move and tear tissue. That and pieces of bullet and skull fragments are blown through different parts of the head cavity.",
"Well, that's a complicated answer. And I'm sure someone with a background in medicine can explain it better, but I'l give what I can anyways. \nSo, the short answer is yes- there are parts of the brain we don't need to live. Several parts govern personality, memory, coordination- processes that are extremely helpful, but not necessary for maintaining autonomous life-granting functions. \nThe slightly more complicated answer is that bullet wounds to the head are often much more traumatic than other brain injuries. Extremely high calibers don't just penetrate, they rip through, causing high collateral damage. What's often worse, though, is lower caliber rounds that can penetrate the skull going in, but can't doso going out. These shots end up ricocheting around inside the skull, and then remain there once their path of destruction is complete. That will cause massive trauma to a variety of sections of the brain, not to mention leaving a metal chunk resting inside it, with an open hole exposing the damaged brain to open air. \nI'm sure you can see why that would cause more extensive damage than some other forms of brain injury. \nEspecially compared with surgery, where a person is in a controlled environment, a sterilized environment, with an education professional with expertise in brain surgery, only damaging the part they intend to while minimizing damage to any other part- well, it's intentionally keeping damage minimal and localized, while a bullet has no such concerns. \n \nThough, people do, on occasion, survive shots to the head. Particularly in suicide attempts. The front of the brain largely controls personality, and people survive damage to that portion fairly often. Some suicide attempts hold the firearm too vertically, only damaging this part. \nStill quite often fatal, but people do survive it, on occasion."
]
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5sxy9o | why the image of black and white television was so much sharper than the first several years of color television. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5sxy9o/eli5_why_the_image_of_black_and_white_television/ | {
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"text": [
"Cathode ray tube TVs worked by having an electron gun draw each line of the image, one by one, around 30 times a second. The beam form the gun would strike a phosphor (think pixel), the strong the beam, the more brightly the phosphor glow. By adjusting the power of the beam at just the right times, a moving image was created.\n\nColor TVs use three electron guns, and each \"pixel\" consists of three phosphors. That made the pixels larger, and less sharp to begin with. Also, it could be difficult to keep the electron guns in adjustment. With a B & W TV, the whole image would shift over a pixel, you wouldn't notice that much. But with a color TV, two guns could be hitting adjacent (or worse) pixels when they should be aimed at the same one, which would also contribute to a less sharp picture."
]
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[]
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3zjgrw | how does this picture in a tweet change once i open it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zjgrw/eli5_how_does_this_picture_in_a_tweet_change_once/ | {
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"text": [
"It's changing the transparent layer- actually the white figures are present in the original image, they're just blending in with the background.\n\nIn the first image there is both *white* parts and *transparent* parts, that also look white, but in the second the background colour is different, *revealing* the white that was always there.",
"Does anyone have more examples of this? I've never seen this before.",
"Why was the twitter link removed?"
]
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[],
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3kgj3v | if the nsa can see all domestic electronic communication, particularly online then how is the dark net not shut down? | I know a bit about the dark web and DNM's and I know a bit about the NSA and domestic spying programs but don't know much about the 'onion' and the specifics of how the dark net operates, but if the NSA 'sees' all electronic communication then how are the dark net markets still operating? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kgj3v/eli5if_the_nsa_can_see_all_domestic_electronic/ | {
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"All communication on the darknet is encrypted and uses a browser called TOR, which basically hides where the information came from and where it is going to. Unless the NSA has breached RSA encryption (which should be impossible with current technology), they can't tell what is being said on the darknet or by whom.\n\nIn addition, the NSA can't actually process *all* communication, even if they have collected it. The sheer amount of information they have means that most of it will likely never be read by a human, and some percentage of it will only have a simple keyword search run against it before it is put in some forgotten corner somewhere and forgotten.",
"Who do you think started the Darknet in the first place?",
"Because they are using the dark web to catch the \"big fish.\" Only an idiot would think that the dark net is actually anonymous. Throw around all the terms you want like encryption or VPN... trust me, THEY know. "
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22ej2c | how can a poisonous chemical be considered more poisonous than another if they both can kill you just the same? | In other words, if you already can die from both, how is one considered more poisonous than the other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22ej2c/eli5_how_can_a_poisonous_chemical_be_considered/ | {
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"Lethal dosage and ability to be absorbed are the differences. A chemical that will kill you in amounts as small as 1 drop will be considered more poisonous than chemicals that will kill you in amounts of 10 drops. Chemicals that absorb through the skin or lungs will be considered more poisonous than those that have to be ingested.",
"A measure known as LD50 is used, which is the dose (say, milligrams per kilogram of body weight) required to kill exactly half of a test population. This is a more accurate measure than say, the dose required to kill all of a test population, for a variety of reasons. It's also important to note that the method of administration can change things a lot. Some things might be harmless if you eat/drink them even in huge quantities, but deadly if they're injected or inhaled. A certain type of snake venom, for example, can be completely harmless if ingested (so long as you've got no issues at all with your digestive tract that would allow it to get into your blood stream before being broken down), but deadly if injected (like say, during a snake bite).\n\nA chemical that is more lethal than another has a lower LD50. Let's say a dose of 1g/kg is the LD50 for chemical X, but 100g/kg is the LD50 for chemical Y. Y is 100 times less poisonous than X, or to say it another way X is 100 times more poisonous that Y.\n\nIt should be noted that the dose makes the poison. Absolutely everything will kill you in great enough amounts. Drink WAY too much water? You can die from that. Eat too much sugar (and by this, I mean *obscene amounts of sugar*)? You can die from that too. But, we drink water and eat things containing sugar all the time, because we're no where near the lethal dose of either. Understanding this is why for some toxins (like say in drinking water), there is a safe limit. That safe limit is basically something so far below the LD50 that there isn't any detectable harm at all from consuming it. In all the water you drink in a year, it won't really harm you at all if there's a single atom of mercury in there, for example. Drinking mercury, though, is a seriously bad idea."
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bggcx2 | do astronauts get sick in space, and if so, how do the bacterial get there to begin with? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bggcx2/eli5_do_astronauts_get_sick_in_space_and_if_so/ | {
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"While space is pretty sterile, spaceships are not. Astronauts bring the bacteria with them wherever they go. Your skin, gut, fingernails, teeth, etc are filled with trillions of bacteria. All their equipment, food, clothes, etc are also covered with some amount of dust and bacteria.\n\nThe environment in space actually weakens the immune system, so astronauts are more likely to get sick than if they were on earth. Usually only very strong and fit people are sent into space for this reason, to avoid the problems of becoming sick in space. But it still happens, astronauts like Wally Schirra have fallen sick in space and spread the illness to the entire Mission crew.\n\nThe usual response is to take standard medicines and hope it gets better. The loss of productivity can costs millions, and the crew are stuck for weeks/months until another resupply craft comes."
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507r2d | what are the benefits of big companies occupying a relatively small space in a large city? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/507r2d/eli5_what_are_the_benefits_of_big_companies/ | {
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"As the population density goes up (in most cases) so does the value of square footage for a business. \n\nI wouldn't rent 10,000 square feet to a business for $5,000/month if I can turn it into ten separate 1,000 square foot apartments rentable at $2,500 per month. That'd be taking $5,000/month instead of $25,000/month. \n\nIt's all about the income. \n\nNotable exceptions: Kowloon Walled City. Nobody knows what anything cost per sq ft in there and it had the highest population density per sq ft on the planet when it was around. ",
"Big cities have more people so it's easier to find skilled workers. Cheap rent is meaningless if you can't find people to use the space.\n\nBig cities have a bunch of other businesses so it's easy to find customers and business partners. Cheap rent is meaningless if you can't make business deals.",
"Not totally sure what you're asking, but I think what you're wondering is why a large manufacturing company, or something like that, may rent a seemingly small place in a major city.\n\nOne reason is attracting talent. Gone are the days where people spend 20-30 years at one company, and employers are well aware of this. Top talent is not only going to be concerned with the company they have a job with now, but also building a potential network and simply the joy of living in a big, major city. Your talent pool grows exponentially if you're in a major city because more people want to be there.\n\nA second reason is to impress potential investors and/or clients. The truth is people do judge a book by its cover. When someone has an office the overlooks a beautiful skyline, it leaves an impression. When it's in an industrial park with a view that overlooks a parking lot, that leaves a different impression. You would think that highly educated investors and upper level executives would be shrewd enough to see past such a ruse, but you would be wrong.\n\nA third reason is if the location is a central hub for that particular industry. Silicon Valley is where many of the new tech companies are, so if you want to start a firm that does financing for these companies, you're not going to base it out of Montana. One, you'll have a tougher time being taken seriously, and it means you're going to have to jump on a plane for almost every potential deal, trade show, conference, etc.\n\nBut, today, they're only going to keep the necessary functions in that expensive space and other functions are going to be moved to much cheaper locations. Investment bank Goldman Sachs moved a lot of their operations functions, like compliance and accounting, to offices in places like Jersey City, NJ, and Park City, Utah, while many of their core functions remain in Manhattan. Boeing builds its planes in Seattle, but its headquarters is in Chicago. The internet is serving as a major driver of this kind of trend in companies. "
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24r7sd | how do geosynchronous orbits occur without falling to earth? | My knowledge of an orbit is an object continually falling toward earth but going fast enough to cancel out earth's curvature. So, how can geosynchronous orbits exist without the satellite falling to earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24r7sd/eli5_how_do_geosynchronous_orbits_occur_without/ | {
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"text": [
"Geosynchronous orbits are much further out than normal orbits like those of ISS or most satellites. Objects there don't need to move as fast to stay in orbit, the force of gravity is less.",
"All you need is an orbital period of 24 hours. That's it. If I understand [this](_URL_0_) correctly, if you have a circular orbit at a height of 13,100 mi. (well above the atmosphere) you will have a geosynchronous orbit.",
"In simple terms - whenever something is moving in a circle, it has centripetal force. This force is perpendicular to the center of the circle.\n\n(Example: think about spinning around while holding onto a shopping bag at arm's length. When you let go of that bag, it will travel in a straight line away from you - perpendicular to your core, the center of its spinny circle.)\n\nIn space, when something is above the earth, there is gravity pulling it back down towards earth.\n\nSo what happens when the centripetal force is equal to gravity? \n\nThe answer is geosynchronous orbit! The object is falling in towards the earth at the same rate that it's trying to shoot off perpendicular to the earth. The result is that it follows a curved path that keeps it at the same height, as the two forces cancel!\n\nFun note 1: one big benefit of geosynchronous orbits is that they're also geostationary - this means that a satellite is in the same place all the time in relation to the earth, so it's easy to figure out where to point satellite dishes.\n\nFun note 2: over time, geosynchronous orbits slowly decay, so eventually those satellites will come crashing back down to earth... cover your heads!",
"The satellite is not aware that the earth is spinning, it's just aware that there is a gravitational force at the center of the earth. It's moving fast enough to be in orbit, it's just coincidentally moving at the same speed as the rotation of the earth. It works no differently then any other orbit - the force that moves it forward keeps it from ever being fully captured by gravity. ",
"Geostationary satellites aren't stationary, they are moving at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, it just so happens that they are moving at the same angular velocity of the earth so they appear to always be in the same place in the sky. They can get away with this because they are [much, much further out than regular satellites](_URL_0_). \n\nWhen you jump, at the peak of your jump you are moving at about 1670 km/hr relative to the surface of the earth. That is much too slow for an orbit, so you fall back down. If you wanted to jump up and be in orbit, you would have to push yourself sideways so that you're going about 35,000 km/hr relative to the ground. \n\nThink of it like a ball on a string. If you have a foot long string, and you turn in a slow circle, the ball isn't going to pull the string taut, it will just fall down. That ball is you, on the surface, not going any faster than the earth. Now, if you take that same ball, and hold it above your head, whipping it in a circle as you turn around, it'll keep the string taut and keep going in a circle until air resistance slows it down. That's like you moving at 35,000km/h across the surface of the earth, or the ISS in low earth orbit moving not quite as fast. \n\nIn order to model a geosynchronous satellite with the ball-and-string, you would need a really long string, maybe 10 feet or so, depending on how fast you're turning. When you get to a point where the string is taut, and the ball is always in front of you, you have successfully modeled a geosynchronous satellite. The ball is still moving quite fast, but it's speed is high enough that it doesn't move towards you, just in a circle. ",
"Really tldr/eli5: they are going around the earth in the same direction that the earth is spinning and are lines up to match speed. Like even if the earth was going the other way or even standing still the satalite would still be able to orbit the earth because the mass and velocity of the satalite vs M/V of earth would be the same. In the case of geosynchronous orbit they just have the satalites matched to the rotation of the earth."
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15ca29 | why does my torrent program show i'm downloading 2.4kb/s when i'm only seeding? | I'm uploading a torrent to a tracker and I noticed the down speed is still going at a very small rate. Can someone explain what kind of data is being downloaded, like I'm 5? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15ca29/why_does_my_torrent_program_show_im_downloading/ | {
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"text": [
"When you are seeding you are both sending packets and still receiving packets."
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2pg3xe | why do vessels returning from space use multiple parachutes in their descent when other applications only use one? | I've noticed that sometimes certain applications of parachutes use more than one chute to descend to the ground. I hypothesize that it's so you can start slowing your descent in multiple stages or so that you can protect a little against the failure of one of the chutes but are there any other benefits to having multiple parachutes vs. having one big one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pg3xe/eli5_why_do_vessels_returning_from_space_use/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmwd5au"
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"IANAAE, but nope.\n\n- redundancy - always a good thing\n- multi-stage deployment - slow down in stages, always a good thing\n\nGot me thinking as to uses of parachutes.\n\n- Shuttle has a drogue chute. If that/they failed, worst case is the orbiter overshoots the runway (already well beyond spec) and its in a swamp. Annoying, but not catastrophic.\n\n- Drag cars have drogue chutes. If they failed, worst case the car overshoots the drag strip and into the gravel overrun. Annoying, but not catastrophic.\n\nSpace capsules have 3 chutes. Could there be some aerodynamic reason why 3 instead of one big one and one big backup?\n\nTo withstand the decleration forces when the parachute snaps open, in a single chute scenario, the cables will have to be 3x - or more - stronger. The chute and its reinforcing eyelettes (where the cables attach) would have to be 3x - or more - stronger. Weight is everything in spaceflight. I assume the rationale for 3x chutes would be each chute would be designed to be 1/2 the safety factor of the craft. So if one failed, two could safely land the capsule. As opposed to 2x, 3x chute which would be really heavy."
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25u99l | why are there so few, if any, female professional gamers? | I would consider myself a fan of Esports, but I wouldn't say I'm an avid viewer. I often watch big time, world championship type events and occasionally a stream or two. In the time that I've watched professional Esports, I have *never* seen a professional female gamer. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25u99l/eli5_why_are_there_so_few_if_any_female/ | {
"a_id": [
"chks264"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"There are some. [Frag Dolls](_URL_0_) as an example.\n\nBut think about it. The number of professional gamers is pretty low to start with and they are barely socially accepted anyway. Gaming is still a bit of a boy's club, at least the games that are E-Sports playable are, so we are pulling from an even smaller pool of girls.\n\nThere are plenty of streamers who are women, and plenty of exceptional girl gamers. Scarlett from Team Acer is a strong StarCraft II player."
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[
"http://fragdolls.com/"
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1mf2fp | at what point is someone an addict | Alcohol, drugs, games, etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mf2fp/eli5_at_what_point_is_someone_an_addict/ | {
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"When it starts to seriously affect your ability to live the rest of your life. When it is no longer a choice, but an unstoppable compulsion.\n\nNot an expert.",
"Also (if you're looking for a more scientific definition), they can be considered addicted when they receive even the slightest withdrawal symptoms upon stopping usage of the substance",
"This is a default sub so you're going to get a lot of answers from 19 year-old armchair scientists. You should ask r/askscience or a similar sub. "
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1kp1sw | why was world of warcraft so successful, how come no one can come close to that success? | Pretty much this, WoW came out at the time EQ2 came out. Why did everyone go to WoW and not EQ, and how come no one can come close to recreating that enjoyment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kp1sw/eli5_why_was_world_of_warcraft_so_successful_how/ | {
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"WoW did a lot of things early on that made people like it. They made it very accessible to new players. The art was on the cartoony side which mean it looked good and played well on a medium to older PC, this allowed a lot of non-gamers to try it out. EQ2 was very gritty and \"real\" looking which turned a lot of casual gamers off. WoW was done by Blizzard who had a large fan base of non-MMO players who loved their other games so they were willing to give it a go.\n\nWoW made things easy compared to other games of the era. The death penalty was very light, finding your quests was pretty easy, there was decent travel between hubs making the game less annoying, and it had an OK story if you cared about such things. WoW also had a pretty decent launch as MMO's go. Sure there were problems but compared to other MMO's... yikes, those things were hot messes.\n\nOnce you get people into the game then they tend to stay there. If everyone you know and your guild is already playing WoW then why play EQ2 and pay another $50 and $15/m?\n\nEveryone is now in a post-WoW world. They either have to make something different for the sake of being different, whether it is good or not, or just make another \"WoW clone\" in which case why not just play WoW?"
]
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29or1n | why a vhs player will rewind slowly, stop, then go really fast. | Why the momentary stop? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29or1n/eli5_why_a_vhs_player_will_rewind_slowly_stop/ | {
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"I think the stop is for gearing, and the slow portion is to take up slack and tightly wind the roll before going fast."
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1ywbvn | why do religious zealots protest gay marriage laws when nobody is protesting divorce, also against the bible and already legal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ywbvn/eli5_why_do_religious_zealots_protest_gay/ | {
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"Because it is interpreted to meet their needs. Much like the same passage says something along the lines of not allowing body modification. But it's instantly okay because they want it to be.\n",
"The fact that Christians have been historically on the wrong side of most social issues doesn't mean they won't keep trying. Since Pope Francis stated that perhaps gay people should not be abused and debased, many Catholics have started to say \"Well, sure, that's what we believed all along\"."
]
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7at3ua | if we have pores in our skin, how does liquid collect underneath it, like in blisters? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7at3ua/eli5_if_we_have_pores_in_our_skin_how_does_liquid/ | {
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"A couple of ways.\n\n1) Some blisters form *under* the part of the skin with the pores. Some form between the pores.\n\n2) Blisters that form in the dermal sheath contain a lot of activated clotting factors which causes the pores to be clogged up with scar tissue, which allows the body to pump fluids into it without leaking."
]
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1lurzy | how are my unripe bananas (or any fruit that has been cut off the tree/bush already) less sweet and tastier than my ripe bananas? | If it is no longer getting water and nutrients from the actual plant, how does it continue to get sweeter and tastier by just sitting on my counter? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lurzy/eli5_how_are_my_unripe_bananas_or_any_fruit_that/ | {
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"A particular hormone called ethylene it causes a chain reaction that breaks complex carbs down into simple sugars, which makes fruits sweeter. Basically, the pre-existing material is just breaking into sugar.",
"A chemical called ethylene is produced by ripe fruits. It causes the breakdown of many complex sugars, which are not registered by the human senses as 'sweet', into simple sugars, which are sweet. This happens only when the fruit is ripe because the plant is 'attempting' to sync up the maturity of the fruit with the maturity of its seeds. If a fruit is eaten before the seeds are mature, the plant A) doesn't get offspring from those seeds and B) just wasted all the resources that went into making the fruit. Therefore plants 'desire' to be appealing to the animals that eat them only when their seeds are ready to be dispersed by those animals."
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2vxt2r | what's happening in my body when i take energy shots like 5-hour energy? | I've been taking them for so long and have always wondered the long term effects. It always feels like a weird form of undeath. Where I can't close my eyes but I know I'm still tired. Am I borrowing time from future me to power current me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vxt2r/eli5whats_happening_in_my_body_when_i_take_energy/ | {
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"Caffeine is classified by drug scientists as a \"Adenosine Receptor Antagonist\". In your brain, the neurons release waste products as they work, and one of these waste products is Adenosine. Your brain has Adenosine Receptors that gauge the level of Adenosine in your brain fluids, and when the level of these waste products gets too high, you brain gets sleepy--as most of the waste cleaning action occurs when you sleep.\n\nCaffeine is a molecule that resembles Adenosine and thus can fit on to the Adenosine receptors and turns it off (receptor antagonism). Without the receptors active, your brain is unable to get to sleep--so your body may be tired, but your brain is unable go to sleep.\n\nAs for the rest of the stuff in energy drinks (e.g. taurine, gensing) testing do not show that they have any effect on alertness.\n\nAfter drinking so much caffeine, you have reached a state of tolerance toward the caffeine, where your brain has essentially adapted to the constant level of caffeine in your system. So for you, normal = caffeine, abnormal = no caffeine. Caffeine also affects other systems in the brain, such as the GABAnergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic systems, and upsetting those systems leads to the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal (i.e. the twitching, anxiety, etc).",
"I'm an avid Five Hour Energy customer, and also a heavy alcohol drinker. I've always wondered if there's any correlation between heavy caffeine consumption and alcohol abuse, because many of the ex-drinkers I know compulsively drink coffee and soda like there's no tomorrow. me, personally, I take the Five Hour to extend my hours of drinking, but I too wonder about the long term effects. I have to imagine they affect the same parts of the brain",
"Some of these shots have little caffeine but smth like 10k times the vitamin B12. What does that do?"
]
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2lallm | why popular american fast food and snack brands are found nearly all over the world but we never see any popular foreign fast food and snack brands here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lallm/eli5why_popular_american_fast_food_and_snack/ | {
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"Tolberone. But no to answer your question it's because of cultural hegemony.",
"You may not be aware that some snack brands are foreign because you grew up with them. For instance, Nestle' is a Swiss company that licenses the Kit Kat bar, invented in England, to the Hershey company.\n\nProbably the largest foreign fast food place in the U.S. is Tim Horton's which is a Canadian doughnut restaurant with 800 stores in the U.S."
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5ieom3 | why does milk have much more carbs than cream? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ieom3/eli5_why_does_milk_have_much_more_carbs_than_cream/ | {
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"In milk that isn't homogenized, the cream is the stuff that floats to the top. It's lighter because it's actually higher in fat. Fat floats. Sugar sinks. Heavy cream actually has almost no lactose.",
"Cream, by definition, is the part of the milk that's made of fat. Fat doesn't have carbs such as lactose."
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4gqs64 | why is space x obsessed with landing on the ocean? | I feel landing 1st stage on land is easier and convenient. They've landed on both land and water. So why do they keep aiming for barge landings?
Edit: Thanks for the answers. It seems safety and fuel conservation is. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gqs64/eli5_why_is_space_x_obsessed_with_landing_on_the/ | {
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"because getting the rocket back to land requires more fuel which means more weight, and could be done when sending rockets to low earth orbit, when sending rockets to higher orbit the rocket won't have enough fuel to get back to land. ",
"Because the trajectory of the first stage after it's jettisoned takes it out over the Atlantic where it would normally fall into the ocean. Getting it back to land requires a significant engine burn to get it heading back towards Florida, so it makes much more sense to use a lot less propellant and just try to land it gently on a platform without altering it's trajectory that much."
]
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1l3hlf | why don't we use antifreeze to remove snow from driveway. | Instead of shoveling snow, why not pour a bunch of antifreeze on the driveway?
Edit: Thank you guys for answering my question. I hope someone discovers an easy way to remove snow. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l3hlf/eli5_why_dont_we_use_antifreeze_to_remove_snow/ | {
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"Antifreeze doesn't melt ice. It just prevents water from becoming ice when it gets cold. The antifreeze molecules — which are usually ethylene glycol — get in between the water molecules and prevent crystals from forming, so the water stays liquid below the freezing point. But once the crystals have formed, antifreeze won't magically melt them. That takes heat."
]
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50x253 | why can sea mammals drink from the ocean but we can't? | What's is their body doing that ours isn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/50x253/eli5_why_can_sea_mammals_drink_from_the_ocean_but/ | {
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"The reason humans and other land based animals shouldn't drink salt water is because our kidneys can't make our urine saltier than the salt water. This leads to dehydration and eventually death. Whales have larger kidneys that can make saltier urine, so they absorb water from the salt water.",
"It's directly related to human's urine maximum osmolarity. Since ours is way lower than the ocean's our kidnsye actually have to spend water in order to eliminate the extra salt you absorb when drinking sea water."
]
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9ewse5 | how does money comes in and out of the economy? | I get that whenever you have more money on the economy, prices goes up (inflation) and vice-versa, but how does money "enters" circulation and how is it "removed"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ewse5/eli5_how_does_money_comes_in_and_out_of_the/ | {
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"Not sure of the answer, when I spend all my money on beer both the beer and the money circulates.\n\nIf it's german beer, some of the money circulates over to germany. \n\nIf it's australian beer, some of the money circulates over to japan, as they own a few australian brands.\n\nIf I'm buying on a credit card, and the money didn't exist until the card agreement allowed me to create it to buy beer, well, I have beer, and I just created that money :) No complaints.\n\nIf I choose not to buy beer because I'm all beered out, and I burn the cash notes I held for my beer, or pay back the debt on the credit card I use for beer and cancel it, then I suppose I have no beer money. It's all out and removed from the economy.\n\nDo you have a beer?",
"Money is created and enters/exits the world one of two ways:\n\n1. Banks loan money into existence. The money exits the economy when the loan is repaid. The interest represents a change in hands of existing money. They expect human activity to Do A Thing that results in having enough money to pay it back with interest. \n2. Governments spend money into existence. It taxes it out of existence. Both cash and bonds are money. The spending is cash first. Then they make new bonds equal to the new cash minus the old cash taxed in, and sell those bonds for the cash. This keeps cash levels of printed money stable and gives central banks direct power over interest rates.\n\nBonus for fun: you can think of bank money as leveraged money and government money as unleveraged money, but only if that government taxes, spends, and does its national investments in its own currency.",
"Not previously said i believe, lets say the state gets 1 million from the Federal Reserve, this money however they use it will end up in a bank account somewhere. Well the bank now has 1 million they can loan out 900,000 of that and keep 10% as security. well those 900,000 might end up in a different bank account so the bank can loan out 810,000 and keep 10% in safety. Now you have 1million in one bank account + 900,000 in another and 810,000 in another. So when you add 1 million to the amount of money out there you actually get 10million. This was how the economic collapse happened as well, as people and companies started to empty their bank accounts a lot of the money on the market just vanished. Because 90% of all the money is actually just loans. For every 1 million dollars taken out of a bank and not put into another bank account you remove 10 million from the amount of money out there."
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6u0khh | why people call cities in different countries by different names e.g. london - > londres | Surely it's just London? Or Roma? Or Lisboa?
Why the different names? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6u0khh/eli5_why_people_call_cities_in_different/ | {
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"Firstly, the names go back so far that they have evolved in both languages since first usage. London used to be Londinium or Lundinium, and was commonly called Lundin or Londin prior to becoming London.\n\nThe first usage of place names was often by mariners, who would convey the name verbally. Londres in French sounds similar to how the English said Lundin. That's the main theory.\n\nOther places you get different spellings to accommodate the common phonetic spelling in various languages. Consider Den Haag / The Hague / La Haya.\n\nAlso, sometimes we alter a place name to make it conform more with our respective languages. Lisbon / Lisboa or Milan / Milano.",
"1) Misheard/remembered: While today we can livechat someone in London standing next to a sign saying London, this was not always the case. Someone who traveled there from far away and told locals the name they might hear something slightly different, especially if there sound doesn't have the same sounds. Then these people, who might not have a written language yet, might slowly change the pronunciation from generation to generation until one writes it down and a spelling becomes standard \n\n2) Grammatical: most nouns in languages decline (follow certain patterns) in predictable and set ways, so the city names will be changed to fit in this pattern.\n\n3) Historical name/protest: Some places had original names in that language before they became territory of another place that changed the name, so some keep the original name either because they're used to it, or they are protesting the other country having that territory (see Enclaves and Exclaves) this was especially common in places that changed hands after the World Wars. \n\n\n4) Transliteration: Some places have or had a different alphabet, so they couldn't use the same letters to spell out places, and then when transliterated back to the original alphabet there will be changes. ",
"Names evolve and change and are impacted by things like different languages and different alphabets and even different pronunciations of the same alphabet in different languages. \n\nTo give one example, I live in Dublin, in Ireland. The origins of the name are interesting. Dublin has city status since 988AD, so for 1029 years now. What became Dublin originally started out as a settlement near a water source. The original name was in the Irish language and was Dubh Linn, meaning black pool, a reference to that water source. To look at it as an English speaker Dubh Linn and Dublin have obvious similarities. The Irish version is actually pronounced like Dove Ling. When the British took over Ireland and started to anglicise names, it became Dublin. \n\n\nAll around Ireland there are placenames that changed to English. Some are mispronunciations, some are translations of the Irish name and in some cases the name is completely new. Interestingly enough, the name in the Irish language now used for Dublin is not Dubh Linn, but Baile Átha Cliath, pronounced Bol ya awha clee-a. That was the name of another settlement close to Dubh Linn. Its name translated roughly to the place at the crossing of the hurdle ford. The two settlements grew, merged and eventually became what is now modern Dublin, while retaining both names.\n\nLike in Baile Átha Cliath, the word \"Baile\" appears in many Irish placenames. It means town or place and in the Irish language is pronounced like Bol-ya. When names were anglicised, Baile became Bally, which again to an English speaker is a reasonable change. So if you see a place starting with Bally in Ireland, it means the town of... or the place of... somewhere. Other prefixes are common, like Kil or Kill, coming from Cill meaning church; Dun coming from Dún, meaning fort; Knock coming from Cnoc, meaning hill. There are many other similar examples. So that shows you in just one country how names can change. Outside of Ireland the name Dublin or something similar is used. Italians tend to have vowels at the end of their words, so for them it is Dublino for example.",
"In addition to other good answers, occasionally there are cases where the native pronunciation changes while the \"foreign\" name remains the same. The best-known case of this is Moscow, which used to be pronounced as Mos-kou or Mos-kov in various languages. It is just that the Russian language drifted away until it started being called Moskva, omitting the second \"o\" vowel.\n\nNot in English, but Seoul is another interesting case. It was called Hancheng in Chinese until recently because Han-Seong (the same Chinese characters pronounced in Korean) used to be Seoul's official name until 1910.\n\nYou can actually see transitions like this in this age as well. More and more New Zealanders are referring to their country as \"Aotearoa\" instead of New Zealand. Maybe a century later, \"New Zealand\" may become as archaic a name as \"New Amsterdam\" is to New York now."
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4qyto3 | what motivates animals to "play"? is it instinct or do they have some sense of imagination? | I would suppose even dogs are too simple-minded to pretend a toy is a smaller animal. But something still makes it fun for them..is it just instinct or can they sort of imagine things? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qyto3/eli5_what_motivates_animals_to_play_is_it/ | {
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"[Play](_URL_1_) is actually a really interesting field of study. Its actually very hard to define play in animals - basically its a set of behaviours that are governed by their own unique set of rules that everyone more of less understands and follows. You know it when you see it. Play behaviours often but not always mimic adult behaviours but are accompanied by a unique set of traits that indicate the individuals are \"pretending\" or \"playing\". For example, when animals play fight there is often no noise, but when really fighting occurs between adults (say for access to new territory or mates) it is often accompanied by vocalizations like growling or screeching. From wikipedia: \"Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means.\"\n\nPlay can serve many different functions even within a single species...\n\n\n1. It provides a means for an individual to strengthen their cognitive abilities...like problem solving, tool use, and development of spatial awareness.\n\n2. It provides a means for individuals of similar age cohorts to develop their own social ranks. It also may be a means for individuals to establish and maintain social alliances at an early age. Through play animals learn to recognize different emotional and behavioural cues that let them know about the internal state of another animal. These social cues are very important for an individual of a social species, being able to get a long with your social group is the difference between life and death.\n\n3. It provides a means for individuals to practice skills like hunting and killing in a safe manner. In the same thread it allows individuals to become familiar with their bodies and their limitations in a physical sense. In this way play can be seen as \"preparation\" for adulthood when these skills will be needed for survival.\n\n4. Play in itself is improvised behaviour and can help animals prepare for the unexpected, it allows for flexibility of cognitive abilities and problem solving. In this way play moves beyond \"instinct\" and fixed action patterns into a realm of creativity. New rules can be established and broken, new behaviours integrated, new skills learned...its not just an innate set of behaviours established at birth. Its a complex integration of what is already known (innate) and what is learned through interactions with other members of the group be their peers of a similar age or older individuals like adults.\n\n5. Finally, animals play because its fun. In this context, play has no adaptive function or purpose. It simply exists because its fun. \n\nAs I said, animals may play for any of the reasons listed above or in combination. Play behaviour is really broad and vague which is what makes studying it so interesting and so fun. \n\n[More on \"Why do animals like to play?\"](_URL_0_)",
"Play is instinct, it serves an evolutionary advantage. Most play is teaching the young to hunt; I am no expert but I am struggling to think of a single predatory mammal where this isn't the case. This instinct is then built upon with encouragement - parents do not tend to stop their offspring play fighting etc as its all good practice. It ends up being a combination of nature and nurture. \n\nAs for if animals are imagining things (eg does my puppy think the yellow ball is actually a mouse), I think that this is highly subjective and there inst a definitive answer one way or the other as best I understand. \n\n",
"How do you know animals are simple minded?\n\nIt's also possible they possess a rich inner life and we see them as \"just dogs\" (or cats or lambs or pigs or cows) because of a lack of ability to communicate.\n"
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2izcaa | why don't people buy tons of stocks when the market crashes, since it always rights itself eventually? | Isn't this when stocks are cheapest? What are the risks most people are scared of? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2izcaa/eli5_why_dont_people_buy_tons_of_stocks_when_the/ | {
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"Most of the people who would take the risk just lost a bunch of money when the market crashed.",
"Well, that's if they stay in business I guess. Buying circuit city stocks would of been a bad call.",
"A lot of people do. But not all stocks come back up. Knowing which ones will is the tricky part. But that's part of the reason that the stock market recovers so quickly compared to other things like unemployment or spending.",
"A couple things.\n\n1. It doesn't always right itself eventually. In the U.S. it's always been okay eventually, but that doesn't mean it always will.\n\n2. The stock market is usually not the best place to make lots of money off your money in the first place unless you're extremely attentive to what's happening, and rarely is anything a guarantee.\n\n3. It requires an initial sum of money which can be used for countless other things and often needs to be used for other things when the economy goes South. People's first move in a crash is rarely to make money off of stocks, it's to feed themselves, keep their house, car, and keep their family fed.\n\n4. The time frame in which the market comes back around is unknown, and most people would rather have their slightly smaller sum of money now than a larger sum 10 years in the future, regardless of how good of an idea it is to save. It's just how people are.",
"To quote the prominant economist John Maynard Keynes, \"The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.\" \n\nSure, the market, or US market at least, can probably be counted on the correct itself, but actually calling the bottom is difficult. If you cannot accurately call the bottom, your money could be tied up and going nowhere for years."
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3xdm6x | how do key fobs work? | My key fob can unlock my car from probably 20ft away, how to these not unlock everyone else's cars? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xdm6x/eli5_how_do_key_fobs_work/ | {
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"It has a \"unique\" code that matches your car. When you push the button, it mashes the the special code that matches your car together with the code for the function you want to perform (unlock the door). All cars in the vicinity will receive the signal but only yours will understand it because it also has the special code. \n \nInterestingly, the codes are not necessarily all unique. My friend's father used to work at a Hyundai plant and said he could push the unlock button and have a good number of cars in the plant unlock their doors at the same time. Different brands and models of cars also use different frequencies to communicate on as well. So a key fob from a Toyota could use the same code as one from a Kia but they still wouldn't be able to be interchanged because the other brand car wouldn't actually \"hear\" the signal. \n \nGarage door openers work close to the same way.",
"Ever park next to a car and hit lock and it lit up your car and the car next to you? Well I have recently at my university. I sat there and pressed it unlock and lock like five times, confirmed it was me doing it. So, I hit lock and went to class. Now I'm worried if I park in that area again, if whoever owns that car unlocks their car, unknowingly unlocking mine and then driving off, and then some unsavory character steals my honey roasted peanuts and car charger. Oh well, I really don't worry about it too much.",
"When you press the button onnyour key fob, it sends out 2 codes. The first matches the one hour car is currently holding, and unlocks your car. The second is saved by the car, and will be the \"first\" code your key fob sends next time you click it. "
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2h0y3u | why can i pick up my little brother, who weighs around 100 lbs with no issues, but i struggle just trying to get a 50 lb weight off the ground? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h0y3u/eli5_why_can_i_pick_up_my_little_brother_who/ | {
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"Because when you're picking something up off the ground, you have a larger range of motion and a larger mechanical disadvantage.",
"The range of motion is way smaller with your brother.",
"I assume you are grabbing your brother differently than you are grabbing the weight. Even the angle of you arms, etc. matters and different muscles are involved. Look-up a pic of all our muscles on our skeleton and you will see the hundreds of muscles we have to allow for exerting effort in many different ways at many different angles.",
"Your brother isn't dead weight. Meaning, he assists you in picking him up. ",
"A big thing to remember is that when you pick people up, they are actually helping you. When picked up, people uncounsciously shift around to get their center of balance just right so they wont fall, and it helps out the lifter.\n\nIf you tried picking up an unconscious or asleep (or dead) person for example, you would have a veeerry hard time because they are no longer helping you and their center of balance shifts wildly.",
"From a physics point of view: Range of motion and people assisting you lifting them up are definitely contributing factors, and another thing to consider is weight distribution.\nLets say you pick your brother up in a hug like manner, you semi squat, wrap your arms around his torso under his arms, and stand up. the weight of your brother is distributed across your arms, chest and abdomen. His centre of gravity and your centre of gravity are close, so there is little torque on your joints and to be able to balance, you lean back a little, placing the combined centre of gravity of you both somewhere above your hips. But mainly his weight acts upon your WHOLE abdomen (very little \"pressure\" (P=Force x area force is applied)\n\nJuxtaposition this with the plateweight: you pick it up with lets even say two hands from the floor with it in between your legs (I assume you are lifting with correct technique, as you would a deadlift)\nThe weight of the plate acts upon the comparatively TINY area of your fingers and palms (compared to your whole abdomen), the PRESSURE exerted on your fingers is immensely more than that of your brother on your chest. The factor that the weight acts away from your C.O.G. is also contributing, you have to use more stabilizing muscles in your shoulders and ankles.\n\nIn summary, think of a large force applied to a golf ball and small force applied to a needle when both of these are sitting on your skin. One is going to leave a cool imprint on your skin, the other is going to hurt like hell. It's all about surface area.",
"Weight distribution is your answer. \n\nAs a soldier I would carry 50-80 pounds of gear, from body armour, ammo, rifle, pistol, food and water for sometimes 10s of hours at a time. The weight was distributed around my center of mass.\n\nIf I tried to pick up 50 pounds with just say my right arm I would be able to hold it for minutes at best.\n\nDistribution of weight around your center of mass is why a 300 pound person can walk. There important stuff like skeleton, organs, head all weigh the same s yours give or take. Every time they stand up they are lifting literally hundreds of pounds.\n\nI always imagine that underneath a fat person is some pretty epic muscles that us skinny people would be envious of. Even a skinny person cannot lift 200 pounds of anything without having the muscles to do it.\n\n\n",
"Ooo! Ooo! Mythbusters did one almost exactly like this - it was just 200lbs though and they ran it through an obstacle course.\n\nApparently it's weight differential - it's easier to carry 200lbs when it's distributed out evenly versus when it's all in one basketball sized lump.",
"His center of gravity is higher so you're not actually lifting as much in distance. Also, you begin at a more comfortable and stronger position.",
"This question is a little too vague to answer biomechanically unless you describe how you are picking up your brother and how you are picking up the weight, the size of the weight, ect. 50 pound box that's 4x4? 50 pound stone? It makes a huge difference.\n\nHowever, the most likely answer is that you have much better leverages and mechanical advantages when it comes to picking up a person.",
"The center of gravity is pretty far off the ground. That surely helps.",
"Another thing to keep in mind is that when you pick up a person, you tend to have lots of contact points, meaning muscles from various parts of the body can help. Whereas with a weight you are limited to a few muscles "
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5x7fi3 | why do we "forget" being sick when powering through a work day? | I called out sick yesterday and decided to go in today at 8AM in spite of the doctor's recommendation because things are completely insane at the workplace lately and I play a pivotal part in it.
I was busy from 8AM to 6PM, felt like shit until about noon, only moderately pacified by DayQuil shots, but from noon until 6 I was fine. A cough, a wheeze, but fine.
Two hours after getting home? Can't get out of bed again.
My co-workers agreed that they've experienced this "oh, I feel great for some reason. I know I'm still sick" phenomenon.
What is it that causes humans to "forget" their ailments? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5x7fi3/eli5_why_do_we_forget_being_sick_when_powering/ | {
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"To put it in an adaptive perspective:\n\nWhen you're at home (or anywhere where you're safe and free) it's totally advantageous to feel your achiness, nausea, sore throat and the like in full, because they will motivate you to rest, stay warm, drink water etc., which help your immune system work at maximum.\n\nBut in a situation with other major concerns, like work, it is a net gain to get your responsibilities finished, even if it exacerbates your sickness somewhat. Throughout most of evolution, this would have had to do with hunting or gathering your day's food and the like; now it's about pleasing your boss.\n\nDefeating the sickness is a very major item on your body's list of goals, but at times, other basics can rise up above it in importance, so chemical and neurological reactions have evolved in us to numb the pain temporarily.\n\nSomebody else here might be able to help you with a more proximal answer, i.e. one about the actual psychological and neurological mechanisms that numb pain and increase motivation."
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1d7aid | why do we raise our hands when we get excited; and for that matter, why do we clap? is this the result of some kind of evolutionary process? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d7aid/eli5_why_do_we_raise_our_hands_when_we_get/ | {
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"There was a Ted talk about this.I can't access right now but I believe the speaker was Amy Cuddy",
"Clapping isn't a reflex -- it's something you are taught to do. Likely, the same goes for this hand raising thing.\n\nWhy does it happen? Probably because people like to do what is expected of them. (Or, what they expect is expected of them.)",
"Clapping is cultural. For example, until recently, clapping had a negative connotation in Tibet. It's only in recent years that it's been used for applause and still isn't used for excitement.",
"Pardon my english. \n\nClapping was actually used to make bad comedians flee the stage in antique greece. Public would clap their hands as loud as possible, preventing them from going on playing. \n\nIt was slowely used to congratulate when the play was outstanding by doing it once the play was over."
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1ehqtk | why are the two codes of football so different between europe and america? why do both sides consider the other to be boring? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ehqtk/eli5_why_are_the_two_codes_of_football_so/ | {
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"Two codes of football? American football (Gridiron football) and soccer (Association football) are two completely different sports. Before I get hate for using the word soccer, keep in mind that the word \"football\" is applicable to both American football and Association football. The term \"football\" refers to a sport not played on horseback. It has nothing to do with kicking a ball with your foot. Rugby is officially called \"Rugby football\". Also, the term soccer comes from the word \"AsSOCiation football\" and was coined by a Brit.\n\nNow, on to the actual question. American sports and European sports have different sorts of ideas. American sports are based a lot around of tactics and statistics. European sport fans may criticize American football because there is \"only around 10 minutes of actual play time in a football game\" and how its not a \"real sport\". Keep in mind that Gridiron football is VERY tactical and those 10 minutes can be taken up with some really genius plays. European sport is more about constant flowing action. Association football has two 45 minute nonstop halves, but in professional games its not uncommon for both teams to have a very small amount of points (Generally around 2 points). \n\nAmericans find European sports boring because there is often a lack of exciting action (from the perspective of someone who isn't well educated in the game). Europeans find American sports boring because of the lack of playtime and the obsession we have over statistics. One exception to this is basketball, which has a significant overseas following. Basketball is much more popular overseas (as opposed to football and baseball) because it strongly resembles soccer. \n\nThere's another aspect to this as well. Sports around the globe have become very commercialized, especially in the US. In American football, since there are so many breaks, networks can cram as many ads in there as possible. In soccer, there's only 1 opportunity during the game to cram commercials. Thats why you see soccer players wearing advertising logos on their kits and around the stadium. There usually are no ads on US sports jerseys.\n",
"A better comparison is American Football to either Rugby Union or League as they are similar games.\nI think American football seems to fit with the American mindset of bigger, stronger and overwhelming force in a set piece battle. \nLeague and union require are more fluid with shorter stops and starts.\nI can see the appeal in both sports though I grew up with League so that is my preference.\n\nClarification: In Australia \"Football\" is called Soccer like in the US. Football refers to Rugby league, Rugby union and Australian rules football."
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2b2mdn | why some older british shows have a smeared "glow" effect. | Like how some scenes [in](_URL_2_) [Spaced](_URL_3_) and [Doctor](_URL_0_) [Who](_URL_1_) (and other shows) seem to blend the lighting effects together. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b2mdn/eli5_why_some_older_british_shows_have_a_smeared/ | {
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"I'm not sure what you're referring to, but if you're talking about BBC shows from the 60s and 70s, it might be that they weren't that way originally, but the BBC wasn't the greatest on storing the originals so what we see now in a lot of cases are shows that were reproduced from second or later generation video duplicates, rather than from the original video or film negative. As the quality of the source degrades, you can get a halo effect on lights in the copies made from it.\n\nAlso, video technology back at that time was pretty low resolution compared to what we have now, and things were done cheaply, quickly and, generally, brightly lit. When you throw all the light on something and then shoot it, it tends to look flat and cheap. This is the soap opera/telenovela look that KushKreature refers to elsewhere."
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"http://www.podcastfilmreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Spaced1.png",
"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4o85VqhQqmc/TPUViwEpGTI/AAAAAAAABRs/C2cGqXok-Ec/s1600/Spaced+12.jpg"
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1h7713 | how i make money if i sell my house before i have paid off a mortgage. | I hear of people buying houses, taking out mortgages, and then selling said house in a couple of years. How do they not lose money, and how is this financially viable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h7713/eli5_how_i_make_money_if_i_sell_my_house_before_i/ | {
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"You get a house for $300,000. You pay your mortgage and now have 150,000 left. When you sell the house, you sell it for $300,000. The bank takes what you still owe from when you bought it ($150,000) and you get the rest, essentially. In this case it will even out. Now say you bought in a buyer's market: $200,000, paid 150,000 off. Then real estate does well, and you sell for 300,000. Here you would profit, as you sold for 100,00 mroe than you bought it for. This can reverse, and you might only be able to sell it for 200,000 when you bought it for 300,000. \n\nThis doesn't really cover all the fees, but that's how people \"turn\" houses. Sometimes they buy ones that are falling apart for really cheap, fix them up and sell them for more than the original price+repairs and make a profit (house-flipping). \n\nYou can also buy one and rent it out. The rent can pay for it, then you get profit from renting after the mortgage is paid. It's risky though.",
"House costs $100k, I take out a mortgage of $80k and use $20k in cash as a down payment to pay for it.\n\n2 years later house is valued at $150k, I have so far paid $7k in interest for the mortgage so if I sell it today and repay the $80k mortgage then I am left with $63k on an initial investment of $20k.",
"A mortgage is a loan. When you buy a house using a mortgage you own the whole house, but you also owe a lot of money to the bank. \n\nThis is exactly like owing any other money. Your friend has a Reece's Candy bar. You want it so you tell him that you will pay him 1 dollar tomorrow for the Candy. 1 dollar is a pretty good price for a candy bar so your friend says, 'sure', and gives it to you. You now own a candy bar and You owe him a dollar. \n\nNow I come down the hall and I love Reece's more than any other candy (true story). I would pay $2 for the Reece's so now that I am here the candy bar is worth more. Maybe you are also really good at explaining how tasty it is to make me want it more or maybe you even spread some extra peanut butter on it. I pay you the $2 and I get and quickly eat the Reece's. You still have to pay your friend the $1 but you get to keep one. \n\nIt's the same way it works with buying a house, making it better and then selling it for more. You own the whole house so you get to keep all the extra. ",
"Lets say you buy a house for $500K, and you have $50K as a downpayment. That mean's you're borrowing $450K from the bank to pay for the house.\n\nLets say 2 years goes by and you're paying off your mortgage in monthly payments. Because of those monthly payments now only owe the bank $425K. In other words, you've paid off $25K of your mortgage loan in two years.\n\nThen, you sell you house. Usually, houses increase in value over time, let's say you were able to sell it for $550K.\n\nSo, you owe the bank $425K to pay off the remaining mortgage. You now have $125K left over. You've earned your downpayment back, and have earned another $75K due to amount of the mortgage loan you paid off, plus the increased value of your home, over the period you owned it.\n\nYou walked in with $50K cash as a downpayment. Now you have $125K in cash. Keep in mind these are under ideal circumstances, and in reality, it doesn't always play out that way. But these are the assumptions people are making if they plan on making money by owning real estate.\n\n\nEdit: the maths."
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z946n | dedicated video ram | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z946n/eli5_dedicated_video_ram/ | {
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"Dedicated Video RAM/graphics is just video memory that does not require RAM from the computer and just has its own RAM to run the video. The ones that don't have it will simply take some RAM from the computer and use it.\n\nThe ones that don't have dedicated video RAM are called \"integrated video card or integrated graphics card.\"\n\nFor example: Your system has 3GB RAM. Your dedicated graphics card is 1GB. It won't take any RAM from your 3GB RAM system because it has its own.\n",
"Imagine you're working in a factory that requires you to build a lot of things from upstream components by hand, frequently. These upstream components are pretty far away from you. What would happen if they shipped only the components needed for one unit of a product, and you had to ask them to ship them again every time you finished a unit (bearing in mind that takes you very little time and you do it frequently)? It'd be ridiculously slow and inefficient. So instead they ship enough components for loads of units. \n\nNow let's say there are 6 stages to building a product. Between these 6 stages, you're storing a lot of stuff temporarily, but you'll melt it down or it'll become part of the final product. It wouldn't make sense to use your upstream provider's storage space, would it? You'd use your own. \n\nIn this analogy, the upstream provider is the CPU, the components are things such as textures for games, your factory is the graphics card, your storage space is dedicated video RAM and the stages are the various copies of, for example, a 3D scene rendering that are used to create the final image. Textures and models are uploaded to the graphics card just once so it can use them quickly, instead of asking for them again every frame. "
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279ydn | why so many people on reddit hold negative views towards china? | I am not new to Reddit but it's the first time to submit a post.
(I'm from Zhejiang, China.)
I have read some posts today about the JUNE 4th affair and I'm very curious about why people hate on China so much?
PS:Forgive me if I make any grammar mistake. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/279ydn/eli5_why_so_many_people_on_reddit_hold_negative/ | {
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"Because everyone living in a democratic country is brainwashed into thinking that democracy is the only way for a country to be.",
"Maybe because reddit is more us-centric / most users are from the United States. *edit: prove* me wrong, but thats my impression. (im German)",
"I must admit I must have missed that. I love China, my only problem with it is that it's so far away, and that's obviously not something you guys can control. Granted I live in Texas, so I don't exactly meet Chinese people every day, but all of the Chinese people I have met have been wonderful people. I love China. I have no idea what everyone else's problem is.",
"Russia and China are often seen as the principal authoritarian enemies to the democratic West. It's a legacy of the Cold War. Do understand that when people talk about Russia and China that way, they're generally referring to their governments rather than the people.",
"I'm vehemently anti-Communist so, despite their increased liberalization, I have a natural distrust of their government. As for the country itself and its people........well, I don't. My roommate in college was Chinese (well Taiwanese but ethnically Chinese of course), and he's one of the finest guys I know.",
"The honest truth? America is mostly Americans (AFIK) and Americans don't generally know much about modern China; they know all about \"Communist-Controlled China\".\n\nPeople tend to hate things they don't know much about, or have been taught to hate them by other people uneducated on the subject.\n\nEdit: A word. Or maybe more than one.",
"There is the pollution.\n\nThere are the jobs that left the US and went over there because labor is cheap and environmental laws are lax.\n\nThe companies there tend to copy our stuff and undercut the prices of locally made products.\n\nThere is the way they treat Tibet.\n\nThey prop up North Korea and don't do anything obvious to help the North Koreans.\n\n\n\n",
"For me its the fact that the people there follow a bunch of made up science which is responsible for countless species becoming endangered. Why do the Chinese care so little about the enviroment and its protection. For example they use Rhino and Elephant horns as medicine, which has put incredible stress on the their African populations. Also they believe that eating sharks will make you immune to cancer. Even the most unintelligent people in the west would question ideas like that.",
"Our leaders play on our fears to maintain their power. Actually, I love China. I'm heading there in August to spend a year.\n",
"Several possible reasons.\n\n1) China's pollution is a problem to its populace, which would not be a problem for most redditors if it couldn't cause future problems for the rest of earth too.\n\n2) China is seen as the new bully on the scene trying to intimidate and muscle out its neighbors while stealing wealth out of countries in Africa. \n\n3) China's government is a very oppressive and alienating oligarchy, and an inefficient and indecisive one at that. \n\n4) Many jobs are outsourced to China due to cheaper wages.\n\n5) China has infamously poor factory conditions and pays people shit money for ridiculous amounts of work.\n\n6) China's banner is that of the red flag, while the nation may no longer respect that symbol through its deeds, many Americans still dislike that it's in their history and name regardless.\n\n7) China is a rising power, and an un democratic and non western one at that. Same with Russia, Americans fear a new axis is on the horizon. \n\n\nI'm not saying I agree with any of these views, I'm just stating several different reasons why those who dislike China dislike it so. \n",
"I am rather surprised no one mentioned this yet, but the Chinese government doesn't respect civil liberties in any shape form or fashion. There is no real rule of law with guaranteed rights, both property rights and civil rights are all at the government's discretion, unlike in Western Democracies. Torture is routinely used against political prisoners (Falun Gong), uses prisoners to make products, which is slave labor and many of the products wind up on shelves in Wal-Mart. Also, as others have stated, They censor the Internet in an Orwellian fashion so their citizens can only see the \"truth\" the party wishes them to believe. Related to this, and even more insidious is how the Chinese government even manipulates foreign media, for example Fox Media backed off a report criticizing China over China's threat to expel their media exports from the Chinese markets. Other news sources have experienced similar pressures, such as the BBC, NY Times, etc.\n\nThe government of China is wickedly corrupt, and there are no means for the people to remove the worst leaders. This leads to exploitation of the people, land being seized by politically connected companies, and profits going to the politically connected. This is network capitalism, rather than free market capitalism where connections to political power dictate winners and losers rather than value to the consumer and competitive advantage.\n\nSources: \nPolitical Prisoner/Falun Gong Torture\n_URL_1_)\n\nUse of Prison/Slave Labor:\n_URL_3_\n\nChinese Internet Censorship:\n_URL_2_\n\nChinese Censorship of Foreign media:\n_URL_0_",
"I was in China about 3 years ago, and I plan to never go back. You say that the government has changed, but I watched a woman who was just sitting on a sidewalk in Beijing wearing a sign of some sort (in protest, I assume) get beaten to a pulp by 6 troops. They proceeded to throw her in a truck and she was taken away. \n\nI could go on about various authoritarian practices of the government, but other people in this thread already have. I strongly value my rights, and from what I've read on the subject, they would be greatly infringed upon if I lived in modern China. \n\n\nEdit: see comment by /u/Needapi ",
"While I probably fit the mold for a globally ignorant American, seeing the levels of smog and pollution in pictures of Chinese pictures gives me the impression that the Chinese could really care less about the environment. However, I am basing this solely on pictures and stories of this pollution crossing all the way to California, and for all i know the Chinese people could be just as angry about it and are trying to change it."
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Falun_Gong",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China",
"http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/walmart-china-sustainability-shadow-factories-greenwash?page=2"
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1ilia1 | why do people and other animals sometimes get separated into two different categories? | I'd see it in children's media: they say it's "all about animals", but they usually exclude people. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ilia1/eli5_why_do_people_and_other_animals_sometimes/ | {
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"Because the world animals has two distinct meanings. In biology it means all members of kingdom \"animalia\". In common parlance it means non-cognizant beings of the same category.",
"Human conceit.\n\nOf course, it sort of makes sense - we're the only group of \"animals\" on the planet that have built on a large scale, do art, science, etc.\n\nAt the same time, I'm sure that at least part of it is because nobody would want to accept that their ultimate goal in life/reason for being is still just to fuck and make babies. ;p"
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3osbfk | why, with enough food and resources on this planet for all of us, are people starving and dying of thirst? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3osbfk/eli5_why_with_enough_food_and_resources_on_this/ | {
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"because there are always going to be people that will be looking out for #1 (aka themselves). distribution is also a big challenge. like aid was sent to africa, it was all taken by the local warlords. short of sending an army platoon to protect and distribute the food, it will be taken by whoever is \"in power\" in the local region.",
"Because most of the people who own most of the stuff are dicks. And when they decide to not be dicks and give out some free food or medicine, other dicks come and take it all.",
"Location and logistics. Too many people are starving, and transporting all the food required to feed them would be very expensive. It just is not practical. We need to uplift them, help them build their own infrastructure and agricultural sectors. It's difficult because many of these places have weak property rights and lots of theft, so few want to invest in their own land to do so. "
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beg6hr | "plasma" is just ionized gas, yet it is regarded as a "different state of matter"...why aren't ionized liquids or solids considered different states of matter? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/beg6hr/eli5_plasma_is_just_ionized_gas_yet_it_is/ | {
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"Because plasma has unique properties whereas ionized liquids and solids aren't that different from their neutral types.",
"Plasmas are gasses where some of the electrons have been pulled completely away from the nucleus of the individual atoms, whereas an ionized gas is one where the atoms have metely gained or lost an electron. The free flowing electrons in a plasma give it electrical and magnetic properties that simply ionized gasses won't have. You can use a magnetic field to move or contain a plasma but it will have no effect on an ionized gas. Plasma can also conduct electricity and generate magnetic fields, ionized gas can't.\n\nPlasmas also generate light when excited by electricity, neon and florescent bulbs use this property and it is why we can see the track of lightning.",
"In a plasma almost all of the atoms are ionized, whereas in an ionized liquid or solid only a minuscule fraction are. It would be more correct to say that the liquid or solid contains ions, rather than is ionized itself. Being fully ionized is a very energetic state and it's not possible for something to be completely ionized and still be liquid or solid."
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3rjzcu | how do storm systems develop over inland areas with minimal or no water below? | I was always under the impression that the clouds are a result of water evaporation from the oceans and other large bodies of water. And yet, there seems to be a pretty big storm system developing right now over states like Wyoming and Montana, seemingly out of nowhere. How do these storms manage to get bigger when there doesn't seem to be any appreciable bodies of water to get the precipitation from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rjzcu/eli5_how_do_storm_systems_develop_over_inland/ | {
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"The water gets into the air from bodies of water, but heavy rainclouds form when warm fronts and cool fronts bump into each other. Other kinds of clouds are formed at warm/cool layers in the atmosphere. That warm humid air can come from far away."
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9mfay4 | what don't we send radioactive waste in deep space? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9mfay4/eli5_what_dont_we_send_radioactive_waste_in_deep/ | {
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"We'd go broke. Shooting anything into space is astronomically (heh) expensive right now. Nuclear power generation would become unprofitable if that cost were added to it.",
"Mostly just cost. Getting stuff out to space let alone out of Low Earth Orbit is really expensive. ",
"I’ve always been told it’s because we’d have to rocket said waste up there. If the rocket were to malfunction or explode before it exited the atmosphere all that radioactive waste would effectively turn into a dirty bomb. ",
"shooting things into space is really expensive.\n\npermanently destroying a (rather small, to be fair) region of our earth is cheaper.\n\nyou're asking the same question as any pollution related question, \"it's to expensive\".\n\nthats really the main reason, money. same reason why we allow forests to be destroyed, have massive garbage dumps, use plastics for everything.\n\nmoney."
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5g5900 | reaction speed and why everyone's is different. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5g5900/eli5_reaction_speed_and_why_everyones_is_different/ | {
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"What exactly about reaction time are you looking for?\n\nIn a broad sense, reaction time is the ability for your brain to process stimuli (visual, audio, touch, etc.) and then respond to that input.\n\nMoreover, it also depends on the context. Are you trying to hit a baseball thrown by a Major League Baseball pitcher? Then your reaction time might be measured on being able to visually identify the ball and pitch type thrown, and how quickly it is done, and reacting to it by swinging or not swinging the bat in the appropriate direction.\n\n1. Input - visually acquiring the ball\n2. Brain power - identifying it as a slower curveball over the plate\n3. Reaction - swinging the bat a hair later for the slower pitch, focused on the ball over the center of the plate\n\nThus one might measure reaction time based on that.\n\nWhy is everyone different? A big part of it is training.\n\nAs a pilot in the Navy who happens to fly jets, people always remark about how my reaction time must be great or whatever. But I can look back at my training in flight school and tell you that training is a big reason for developing our response times.\n\nFor instance, early in flight school, going from a Cessna 172 to the T-6B Texan II, a 1100 horsepower turboprop, it felt like I was very far \"behind\" the aircraft. I was constantly reacting to things and just getting the landing gear up on takeoff before over-speeding it seemed difficult.\n\nAs I got familiar with the plane, however, I started getting \"ahead\" of the plane and could anticipate next steps and was thus spring loaded ready.\n\nThen I got sent to fly the T-45 Goshawk jet trainer, and flying a single turbofan jet that can climb a magnitude faster than the T-6B suddenly felt like I was a new pilot again. By the time I got my wings over 150 flight hours later, I was well ahead of the T-45 and now the T-6 to say nothing of a Cessna feels incredibly slow.\n\nOf course, then once you go for a MAX Afterburner takeoff in the Super Hornet, everything feels super fast again - but then it quickly becomes second nature."
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58imro | what are the arguments against gun registration? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/58imro/eli5_what_are_the_arguments_against_gun/ | {
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"any sort of \"list\" or \"directory\" makes some people nervous, eventually Nazis get mentioned. \n\nAtleast a few gun proponents are the type with a few boxes of MRE's and a dream of retiring into the wilderness. Govt registration just doesn't sit well with them, remember, in their mind, the 2nd amendment exists as a check to the govt's power. \n\nrealistically, it could make homes targets for theft (guns are valuable and if you know there are many guns in a home, its a score)\n\nIt could also become the map used to round up the guns when/if they become outlawed.\n\nfinally, if you give an inch, they'll take a mile, so there is resistance to *any* legislation.",
"What would the purpose of such a registration be? To target and harass gun owners, make it more onerous to own one and serve as a basis with which to eventually take them away. It would have little to no impact on gun crime--but controlling gun crime is not the purpose of registration.\n\nAt times, newspapers have published the addresses of gun owners and permit holders. This inevitably leads to threats against them, harassment and targets them for theft. It also targets people who don't own guns for theft (why don't we just publish lists of people who have expensive jewelry or people who don't have security alarms?)\n\nAfter Hurricane Katrina, the government went door to door confiscating people's guns. Having a registration list would make this far easier. Of course, all this did was simply confiscate the legal guns. As New Orleans descended into looting and lawlessness, it deprived law abiding citizens of their means to protect themselves. \nSure, Hillary and other dems deny wanting to take your guns away, but that is exactly what they want in the future. Today, they're asking you to register so they know who you are. Tomorrow is when they will demand them or will ask for more and more regulations in an incremental fashion until they have taken them away.\n\nGun regulations which don't improve safety simply make it more difficult to legally own a gun. Did you not renew your registration this year? Did you not renew it right after moving? Did you not fill out the forms correctly? These sorts of oversights could get people charged with serious crimes and well-meaning and otherwise law abiding citizens fall afoul of these laws all the time, which in some cases means prison.\n\n"
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8cv5ym | how and why did caskets get their hexagonal shape? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8cv5ym/eli5how_and_why_did_caskets_get_their_hexagonal/ | {
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"I would assume that it is to conserve the amount of wood being used to create the coffin. ",
"I think technically a casket is when it isn't that hexagonal shape you are thinking of, but rectangular or pill shaped.\nWhen it is that classic wide at the shoulders hexagonal shape it is called a coffin, and as previously stated it was to save on wood.",
"This shape allowed enough room for shoulders, and used less wood than a box the same width as the shoulders for the entire length.",
"**Coffins** got their hexagonal shape because tapering at the shoulders and feet reduced the cost of the coffin (less wood to produce). **Caskets** are rectangular.\n\n[Source and brief history](_URL_0_)",
"I'm having a hard time believing the shape was to conserve materials. Angles can often create a lot of waste if not bulk producing a product. Coffins also hide wood, too, in those angles for the shoulder.\n\nThe amount of wood saved has to be nominal at best and not worth the joint work.\n\nI would guess it's more to do with style and fashion but that's just a guess.",
"This is an awesome question. I've never thought about this, but I'm going to suggest that it's important for many people to be burried the correct way, it might be that this shape is used to show which way to bury the body. It is a very odly specific shape. \nEdit- just asked an engineer friend who thinks - the shape is much stronger and could hold 6ft of dirt, the volume of the void is less so there won't be as much of a collapse into the hole in the future. Also tradition. Plus it is lighter to carry. ",
"Just a quick correction: technically what you described is a coffin. A casket is rectangular in shape. No big deal, but now you know!",
"I want to know why coffins aren't inserted standing up in order to save space and add more plots.",
"This is going to get buried, but 'saving materials' doesn't seem right. \n\nIt seems like there might be a connection to the shape of the exterior coffins of Egyptian mummies. They have the typical hexagonal shape to accommodate the folded arm position. A simplification still evokes the human shape, with a recognizable head vs. feet. It's disorienting to approach a rectangular casket, because you can't easily tell where the deceased's head is.\n\nMaintaining a tradition like this for thousands of years across time and geography is a bit of a stretch though, I wouldn't be surprised if it became trendy when Eqyptomania became a thing a few hundred years ago.\n\nKarma to the redditor who can find backup for this!",
"Ask a Mortician is an awesome YouTube channel that covers his subject and more\n[coffins versus caskets](_URL_0_) \nLove her ❤️",
"Also, as a Coffin maker, most coffins are actually just chipboard with veneer on them. Some are solid oak or mahogany but the rest chipboard ",
"Why don’t they bury people vertically? It would certainly reduce the area requirements."
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309346 | what is the likelihood of amanda knox being extradited? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/309346/eli5_what_is_the_likelihood_of_amanda_knox_being/ | {
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"The impact to our relations with Italy through refusing to extradite would be weighed against the outrage that would occur in the U.S. should she be extradited.Extraditing her would mean she would face double jeopardy (being retried for a crime she was already found not guilty of in a court of law). Although this is permitted in Italy, it is not in the United States, so I really doubt the extradition request would be granted. ",
"I'm not ok with sending her back. I have no idea what really happened (and apparently Italy doesn't either), but we shouldn't allow one of our citizens to be tried over and over until they are found guilty. \"Guilty, no innocent, oh wait, guilty...\" in the meanwhile spending four years in prison. ",
"Slim to none. In the US, we have a principle called double jeopardy. Once you have been tried for a crime once, you cannot be tried again. Lawyers would argue at her extradition hearing that trying her again would violate her rights under the US constitution - and they'll win. Same way countries who have abolished the death penalty will not extradite people to the US if they are to be charged with a capital crime.\n\nEDIT: No idea why this is getting downvoted. Butt hurt Europeans I guess.\n\nEDIT 2: Sorry for the first edit.",
"I don't see her going back to Italy-not without a massive international fight.\n\nI'm from Aberdeen-yes, the city I deem the bastard child of WA state. I'm ready for this story to die. JUST FRICKING DIE. Please. Italy needs to get their shit together and either: Come get her or accept the fact they lost this one and let it go.",
"the whole trial from the start was a mess. The lead prosecutor, the evidence....it was all a huge fucktwad mess. The only thing that hasn't changed is Amanda Knox's version of events. Because of the fricking mess Italy made of the case from the get go, we'll never know the truth. Regardless of the truth, it's not fair to her or the victims family to keep saying \"guilty, overturned, innocent, guilty...no hang on a sec....where were we again??\""
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j6fke | endowments | What does a college do with it's endowment money? Who decides how much an endowment is? Why is tuition still 50k per year with a 4 billion dollar endowment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j6fke/eli5_endowments/ | {
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"An endowment is a fund used to provide ongoing income to an college or university.\n\nThe idea is for the endowment to remain the same size, or grow, while only the interest on the endowment gets spent.\n\nIn addition, part of an endowment can have conditions. Someone might leave give money to the school that can only be used for the music department, or to provide scholarships to the blind. It is common for a specific professor's job (called a chair) to be tied to an endowment. A school doesn't always have complete control on how the money is spent.\n\nIn your example, a school with a $4 billion endowment might earn $200 million a year from it. That might seem like a lot, but a major university can have operating costs over $1 billion. So that endowment makes it possible to have $50K tuition instead of $60K.\n\nAlso, bare in mind that most endowments are invested, so they can lose money in a bad economy. During the recent recession in the US, many university endowments have shrunk by as much as 30%. ",
"An endowment is a fund used to provide ongoing income to an college or university.\n\nThe idea is for the endowment to remain the same size, or grow, while only the interest on the endowment gets spent.\n\nIn addition, part of an endowment can have conditions. Someone might leave give money to the school that can only be used for the music department, or to provide scholarships to the blind. It is common for a specific professor's job (called a chair) to be tied to an endowment. A school doesn't always have complete control on how the money is spent.\n\nIn your example, a school with a $4 billion endowment might earn $200 million a year from it. That might seem like a lot, but a major university can have operating costs over $1 billion. So that endowment makes it possible to have $50K tuition instead of $60K.\n\nAlso, bare in mind that most endowments are invested, so they can lose money in a bad economy. During the recent recession in the US, many university endowments have shrunk by as much as 30%. "
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8fqwod | how does mimicry happen amongst lower organisms? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fqwod/eli5_how_does_mimicry_happen_amongst_lower/ | {
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"Pretty much the same way evolution does.\n\nThere is species a and species b. Species b is poisonous.\n\nSpecies c hunts down both species. When it eats species b it dies. Species c notices that b is harmful.\n\nWhen species a is born, it can have different looks, for simplicity's sake let's assume there are 2: similar to species b and dissimilar. When species c sees the former it is afraid of eating those, because it resembles harmful species b, so 80% of those similar to species b survive, while those dissimilar commonly get hunted down.\n\nSurvivors pass on their genes, resulting in the whole species being similar to another. Which we call kimicry."
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29w38p | why do we get sick in response to bad news? | Why does the body get physically sick (like nauseous) when we hear bad news (ie the death of a loved one, being broken up with, etc) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29w38p/eli5_why_do_we_get_sick_in_response_to_bad_news/ | {
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"Biological reactions like this obviously developed a very long time ago technology wise. Therefore communication and such was very closely knit and families and loved ones traveled and lived together (in packs). \n\nTherefore upon learning that someone close to you has perished, it would be most beneficial to receive a huge dose of adrenaline that would flush out the stomach. It is most likely (evolutionary) that this response would be prone to enducing vomiting either because of the likelihood that the deceased has ingested poisonous food (you would be eating the same food and therefore should vomit)/ or maybe even to flush your body of weight and reroute all energy (that would otherwise be used for digestion) to the task of avoiding the predator or danger that led to the death of the person close to you.\n\nIn other kinds of bad news - adrenal reactions help someone physically and mentally perform the best in bad situations."
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jht04 | the sects of different religions | How are the sects of different religions different from each other. For example, what is the difference between Protestant and Mormon, or Orthodox and Reformed. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jht04/eli5_the_sects_of_different_religions/ | {
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"[Answered here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_)",
"Broadest question I've ever seen.",
"There are people who think god is the sun in the morning. They don't play with people who think god is the moon at night. ",
"Not for all different religions but for the religions of Abraham it is best explained [here](_URL_0_):\n\n > Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, and the New Testament the sequel. Then the Qu’ran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. There’s still Jesus, but he’s not the main character anymore, and the messiah hasn’t shown up yet.\n > \n > Jews like the first movie but ignored the sequels. Christians think you need to watch the first two, but the third movie doesn’t count. The Moslems think the third one was the best, and Mormons liked the second one so much, they started writing fanfiction that doesn’t fit with ANY of the series canon.",
"[Answered here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_)",
"Broadest question I've ever seen.",
"There are people who think god is the sun in the morning. They don't play with people who think god is the moon at night. ",
"Not for all different religions but for the religions of Abraham it is best explained [here](_URL_0_):\n\n > Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, and the New Testament the sequel. Then the Qu’ran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. There’s still Jesus, but he’s not the main character anymore, and the messiah hasn’t shown up yet.\n > \n > Jews like the first movie but ignored the sequels. Christians think you need to watch the first two, but the third movie doesn’t count. The Moslems think the third one was the best, and Mormons liked the second one so much, they started writing fanfiction that doesn’t fit with ANY of the series canon."
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jf6an/eli5_mormonism/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jei97/so_whats_the_difference_of_orthodox_anglican/"
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[],
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jei97/so_whats_the_difference_of_orthodox_anglican/"
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7wivmq | why do certain non countries compete as countries in the olympics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wivmq/eli5_why_do_certain_non_countries_compete_as/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the IOC is more interested in a group’s conception of national identity then their status as independent states. "
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2f4vw1 | why can't a nuclear missile be shot down/intercepted like conventional ballistic missiles? | After watching videos showcasing missile defense systems like the Israeli Iron Dome, I've been wondering why these can't prevent nuclear strikes in major cities. Anyone know why this is?
Edit: Thanks for the answers guys, I didn't realize how much faster long-range missiles were than short-range and the internet has worked well to convince me Iron Dome was a flawless defense system. Question answered :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f4vw1/eli5why_cant_a_nuclear_missile_be_shot/ | {
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"Iron Dome works against small, crude, slow, short-range missiles. It is not entirely clear how well it actually works (e.g. how many it misses — the success rate is probably not 100%; the IDF only puts its successes on YouTube). Long-range ballistic missiles, which are the same kind that would have nuclear warheads, travel much faster (much faster than the speed of sound in their descent phase), and missing even one would be a catastrophic problem. The US government has been researching missile defense for a very long time; reports are mixed as to the program's success but nobody wants to bet on it working. ",
"It can. The issue is that there are *so many* nuclear warheads. The scale is completely different. Russia and America each have thousands of warheads. These missiles move much faster than the old rpg rounds Hamas is shooting at Israel, and they can be launched from land based silos, submarines, and airplanes. \n\nThe conflict in Israel is a few dozen rockets being fired at a place the size of New Jersy over the course of a few weeks. A nuclear war would see ten thousand nuclear missiles being launched from all directions targeting every major city on entire continents. \n\nEdit: In addition, the scale of destruction is also much different. If one rocket gets through the Iron Dome, it's not that big of a deal. A luck shot might blow up a building and kill a dozen people. It probably won't wind up hurting anyone at all. A single nuke which gets through the system might kill a hundred thousand people, and then completely compromise the missile defense system. "
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3e5crd | is it possible that company would hoard so much money that the government would deem that it's damaging the economy and would take it away from them? looking at apple financial report today. and if so how would they go about doing it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e5crd/eli5_is_it_possible_that_company_would_hoard_so/ | {
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"It would be a HUGE change in government policy, the US government has always been more pro-business on that. Actually it's so beyond reasonable policy that its tough to even approach \"how\" they would do it.\n\nOf course, we'd also have to remember that, at the scale the US operates on, a few hundred billion is not really that significant. Apple's cash reserves may be significant to their investors... but to the US Government its really not that big of a deal."
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2r5ys8 | with the majority of payroll being electronic now, why does it still take a month to get my w2? | All of my payroll is online, my W2 is online, why does it still take a month for them to post it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r5ys8/eli5_with_the_majority_of_payroll_being/ | {
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"uh-oh. Should we have gotten it by now?",
"cause businesses don't sit around waiting on 12/31 11:59:59pm to hit the \"send\" button. \n\nit'll take HR/payroll a couple of days to week to close the books, reconcile/rollover/correct any paid time off, end of year bonuses, etc etc. then they'll get started auditing the W2's to make sure they're correct before posting them. \n\nif you have a deadline, why rush to get it done sooner? it's not like payroll person is just sitting there in their office with nothing to do. they're BUSY"
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28t9vy | how do speakers of tonal languages convey different degrees of emotion? | Is it purely through word choice and context? If someone is breaking down in tears while trying to communicate in a tonal language, how do they maintain coherence? What about more subtle undertones, like sarcasm or mild frustration? Do these themes exist in tonal languages? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28t9vy/eli5_how_do_speakers_of_tonal_languages_convey/ | {
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"From experience (speaking Mandarin).\nBefore we start, let me try to explain a small bit about how the language works, since it's quite different from English. What most people call words in Mandarin, those single syllabic things with tones, apart from some very commonly used ones, are almost never used alone. They are almost used as part of a short \"phrase\", which work a lot more similarly to words in English. And because of this, those \"phrases\" are about as well known for a Mandarin speaker, as words are for an English speaker.\n\nSo you have a lot more freedom regarding emphasis and tone than you would imagine. There are only 4 tones in Mandarin (5 if you count no tone), flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling. These only apply to those single syllabic words and are quite distinct from each other, differentiating between them isn't too hard (usually).\n\nA phrase as a whole may have a variety of \"tones\" itself, rising or falling within itself. If this is hard to imagine, picture a piece of music that has an overall rising melody, it may have small parts of it that rise or fall. And this combined with emphasis on words, stresses, etc can convey just as many nuances as English.\n\nAnd as far as someone breaking down in tears, that's pretty hard to understand in any language.\n"
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4cg8jo | there's an aweful lot of craters on the moon, would having a moon base up there be safe? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cg8jo/eli5_theres_an_aweful_lot_of_craters_on_the_moon/ | {
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"It wouldn't be much worse than any other base in space which doesn't have the protection of an atmosphere, such as the ISS. There are lots of craters on the moon, but they've been collecting over the course of a few billion years. Without wind and rain on the moon, craters don't wear away over time.",
"The moon has no atmosphere or running water, so there's no erosion. The craters on the moon today are the result of basically every single impact over its entire history. Impacts are still comparatively rare.",
"Craters have accumulated over millions of years and do not erode due to minimalistic erosion conditions. The moon does not benefit from same amount of atmospheric shielding as we do on earth, so there are occasionally meteroites/fast moving pebbles. \n\nA moon base, if ever constructed, would most likely ultilise one of the many/large old volcanic tunnel veins. The moon has various large tunnels systems left over from old lava flows, that would be highly suitable for inhabitants to build a fairly large moon base community around. Large amount of free space underground would be easily secured, hospitable, and safe from random high velocity space debris. It would also serve as a good base for geological survey and research of the moons crust/ possible volcanic activity."
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c6pc8j | what level of understanding can a 5 year old understand and why it’s the gold standard for simplification. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c6pc8j/eli5_what_level_of_understanding_can_a_5_year_old/ | {
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"There are concrete ideas and there are abstract ideas. I believe that 5 year olds are typically at the age where they can only truly wrap their heads around concrete ideas. These are things that are tangible, and have a clear meaning in life. They understand what taste is, what smell is, what vision is, what the sky looks like, what they look like, etc. They think kinesthetically, even if it's in their head. Put simply, it's easier to explain to a 5yr old that 5 + 5 is just the same as putting 5 apples in front of them, \"plus\" another 5. If they cannot think about it in terms of their tangible experiences, then it's difficult to explain and for them to understand. Even in Calculus, kids are taught to think intuitively first (\"think of this car's instantaneous velocity\" allows them to recall looking at the speedometer, and defines the derivative at a point of a position function). The difference is that 5 year olds only manage to understand concrete things, because at that age, that's all that's really in their crystallized intelligence.\n\nI would argue it's because both crystallized and fluid intelligence develop as a person gets older.\n\nCrystallized intelligence has to do with \"intelligence\" stored in memory. By the time you're in your teens, you have a lot more stored in memory than before, allowing you to apply prior knowledge to grasp new concepts. If you did not even know what an apple was (i.e. you didn't have that crystallized intelligence to apply that to this situation ) then how would you understand that 5 + 5 explanation? If you do not know what function is, how would you do calculus? So, I would argue that, the more crystallized intelligence a person has, the more advanced topics they can understand.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSecondly, there's fluid intelligence. These are simply problem solving and thinking skills, in novel situations. This also improves as the person gets older, and at 5, there certainly isn't a lot of it.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n5 year old is a pretty arbitrary number I think, although I imagine we choose that number (as opposed to something like 4, 6, or 5.5, etc.) for the same reason why so many cultures use base 10 counting: we have 10 fingers, 5 on each hand. 5 and 10 seem to come naturally since they are seen on both our hand(s) and feet. This is why 5 just \"sounds better\" than 6 or 4 or some other number. If we had a different base system, such as Oksapmin base-27 body part counting, then another number would just \"sound better.\" This is just my theory though."
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1ugm1c | freudian psychology and jungian psychology | Can someone explain them to me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ugm1c/eli5_freudian_psychology_and_jungian_psychology/ | {
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"Freud's largest overarching theme was about these archetypes, or \"complexes\" that are present in every human. The three forms of the human \"psyche\" are the *id*, which is the primal instinct of humans and the *superego* is the societal norms we must follow. The *ego* is how we balance the two when they are in direct contrast. So the id is wanting to fuck every woman you see and the superego is conducting yourself properly in public, and so the ego is what happens.\n\nThen Freud talked about natural complexes such as the Oedipus complex, which states that every man wants to kill his father and have sex with his mother deep down, and that our urges are driven by that. He also speculated on \"penis envy\" which states every woman feels inferior because of her lack of a penis. Much of these theories are generally discredited by the psychoanalytical community, and as a matter of fact Freud was flat-out *wrong* most of the time. One other thing that he was \"correct\" about was his theory that 1) dreams stem from reality, and similarly 2) that our subconscious is very revealing.\n\nJung thought about the \"collective unconscious,\" which he believed was a shared human experience embedded into our existence. This expanded on Freudian \"archetypes\" and explained why pretty much all people have these subconscious tendencies in their id.",
"like this question alot. Hope this one gets a bunch of answers :-)",
"Freud's psychology gets a bad rap, mostly because of his work with sex, but remember that Freud started out as a neurologist, i.e., a medical doctor. Some proportion of his patients came in with symptoms that were not obviously organic in nature. He was one of the first people in modern medicine to ascribe biological symptoms to psychological trauma. He went overboard on numerous occasions, but he is one of the first people to recommend talking therapy as a way to work through problems.\n\n/u/anonymous123421 has slightly simplified the subconscious or the unconscious. The unconscious is the technically unknowable part of our minds that is responsible for both our desires and fears. The unconscious can only be accessed indirectly by dreams, projective testing (Rorshach, for example), free association, etc. Freud in fact referred to dreams as the *via regia* to the unconscious. Freud wouldn't sit there and ask you direct questions or work on a plan. Instead, he'd help you use these techniques to figure out for yourself what you actually wanted and actually needed. Psychodynamic therapy, FYI, was supposed to take years.\n\nFreud recognized a number of things that we all generally accept to be true:\n\n*People tend to self-sabotage or otherwise act out their fears in ways that they are not aware even if they're trying to keep from doing so.\n\n*People attempt to find socially acceptable ways or indirect ways, called defense mechanisms, of dealing with their fears and insecurities. Example: a man is thinking about having an affair or is otherwise being unfaithful, so he begins accusing his wife being a whore or accusing her of cheating. (projection).\n\n*Our relationship with our parents determines some of our future relationships, especially our sexual relationships. It's not all about wanting to fuck your mom.\n\n*The sexual awareness of children. Anyone who has interacted with small children is aware that they are curious about why boys have a penis and girls do not. There is also a fear by young boys that the girl lost her penis because she did something wrong. \n\n*Mental basises for biological symptoms. Somatization, i.e., I have a stomachache because I am being bullied at school, is a thing that exists.\n\nSource: I do this for a living."
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bqydua | what is “international law” and who enforced it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bqydua/eli5_what_is_international_law_and_who_enforced_it/ | {
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"\"International law\" is the set of treaties, compacts, and conventions to which various nations have all agreed. It is enforced through lawsuits and through international regulatory agencies, such as the World Trade Commission, the International Criminal Court, or the like. Sometimes, the suits can be filed in a country's domestic courts, as well as the courts of the other nation, as well.",
"International laws are laws that multiple countries agree to, and can be enforced by the courts of those countries.\n\nFor example, the Patent Cooperation Treaty is a treaty between 152 countries, and if a country's patent office violates a term of the treaty, that patent office can be sued in the country of that patent office.\n\nHowever, not all treaties create enforceable rights. Some just contain memorandums of understanding and state an idealized goal. Others may create enforceable rights, but courts in those countries may make it difficult or impossible to enforce those rights due to procedural requirements. As is the case in almost all aspects of law, the devil is in the details.",
"The involvement of UN forces during the breakup of Yugoslavia is noted as being one of the first times the international criminal court was enacted, a large number of NATO countries led military strikes against slobidan melosavic (iirc the action came from the UN but the Russian block supported the Serbs who were winning and weren't keen on disrupting that, meaning NATO Nations did much of the actual enforcement).",
"It's a concept decided upon by people with large armies and economies so they don't have to constantly fight each other to settle their disagreements, and to keep smaller countries in line. It's enforced (erratically) by countries with large armies and economies through economic penalties and the threat of military force. \n\nDon't believe this \"enforced by the courts\" stuff- no court is capable of enforcing a decision against a Great Power if that power didn't feel like complying. Notice that China and the US frequently ignore their theoretical treaty obligations and no enforcement occurs other than someone going \"Tut tut\" about it.",
"There are many ways of looking at international law and who enforces it. I will offer you the traditional view that many lawyers are taught but also mix in a bit of the more modern view in the end. \n\nSo, international law is best understood when compared to national law. In a national legal order, you have one institution in charge of making laws and one in charge of enforcing them, right?\n\nWell in international law, who makes the laws? Generally speaking, because states are sovereign, only the states themselves make the laws. How? By either signing a treaty or creating customary rules. Treaties are created when two or more states basically sign a contract. Treaties can be as big as the UN Charter or as small as a fishing rights treaty between two neighboring states. Customary laws are created when a majority of states act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way and do so believing they are adhering to a legal rule. For example, the right to self defense was long a customary norm before it was codified in the UN Charter. \n\nSo, who enforces these laws? Well, this is the core issue of international law. Because countries, unlike citizens in a national legal order, are sovereign, there is no police and no one else to enforce the law but the countries themselves. So if a country violates the law, other countries enforce it. This can be done either through unilateral action or collective action. Collective action can many times go through the UN Security Council. To get the Council to act however, you need to have the most powerful countries in the world unite under a course of action. This has proven to be very hard. Often times then, enforcement takes the form of economic sanctions or sometimes even military force. Other times, enforcement simply never happens. \n\nSo to summarize, international law is made up of rules that states have agreed to follow. States themselves enforce these rules. Why? Because states are sovereign entities. You can immediately see the problem here. It is easy for the US to enforce the law on a country like Estonia, but a lot harder for Estonia to enforce it on the US. The most powerful countries can make more laws and the most powerful countries have to follow less laws, and vice versa. \n\nHowever, just because laws are unjustly enforced doesn’t mean they don’t exist or aren’t followed! Countries generally follow international law and will provide a legal basis for their actions. Why? What stops the US to break every treaty it has whenever it wants out of nothing but it’s own self interest? Well, in this day and age, countries are pressured to conform with legal norms by demands from their own populations, by the country’s own interest in wanting respect and prestige from the world community, etc. So while international law does have many flaws in terms of enforcement, it still very much affects countries and how they behave."
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2wlt2w | when, exactly, can a us military order be overridden? | Consider a lowly Private told to guard a room where Top Secret crypto gear is in the open and cannot be properly secured because the lock has failed. He is ordered by his Sargent to only allow persons A, B, and C to enter.
10 minutes later, the following person arrives and orders the Private to stand aside. What does the Private do according to US Military rules?
A) A higher ranking Sargent
B) Base commander
c) POTUS | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wlt2w/eli5_when_exactly_can_a_us_military_order_be/ | {
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"He obeys his original orders. This specific instance is covered in our three general orders. Summed up these say that when we are given a post to guard, we guard it to the best of our ability in exactly the way we were told.\n\nA crypto safe always has a list of specific people who are allowed access to it, so that would be the standard the guard will follow.\n\n\nTo answer youe larger question, an order can be disobeyed if it violates human rights, or basic military values. Basically if an officer tells me to do something morally wrong like rape or shoot a baby, I can and will refuse it. On murkier issues if you refuse an order, you will have to present a case before court marshall and they will judge whether it was moral or not."
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9tle6x | why does money fluctuate so much? | My question is why one day one dollar costs x price and the next day it costs y. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9tle6x/eli5_why_does_money_fluctuate_so_much/ | {
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"Because both the supply of, and demand for, dollars to facilitate transactions fluctuates from day to day.\n\nBorrowing and saving influences the supply of dollars available and peoples preferences and activities dictates the transactions for which dollars are needed to facilitate exchange.",
"The relative value of money, e.g. the price if a us dollar in British pounds, is a separate question from inflation and is determined by the currency markets. They're basically the money changers you find at an airport, but stock exchange size. The current 'price' of a dollar (in pounds, because this happens for every currency) is determined by the best deal you can find on this big market. Whoever is willing to take the fewest pounds per dollar will sell fastest because all three dollar buyers will go to them first. As soon as they run out of dollars they want to sell though, everyone has to go to the person with the next best price, so the 'cost' if a dollar (again only in pounds) goes up because of high demand. "
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9pyq66 | why are certain cancers more aggressive than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9pyq66/eli5_why_are_certain_cancers_more_aggressive_than/ | {
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"Scientists don't have a definitive answer yet on why one cancer is more aggressive or metastasizes. There are a lot of factors, from what gene(s) is mutated, how close the tumor is to blood supply, if the cancer cells are a part of a transport organ system (lymphs or blood) or the thickness of neighboring tissue. \n\nHope this helped!"
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2xq2wn | do we lose calories and/or build up muscles if we only flex/contract them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xq2wn/eli5_do_we_lose_calories_andor_build_up_muscles/ | {
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"Moving the muscles requires energy. Which means our body draws upon fat reserves for energy. \n\nMoving the muscle also tears it microscopically. and encourages the body to grow new muscle to protect and heal the torn bits of it. This in turn burns energy as the body heals after a workout. \n\nIn your case, you would be burning a couple calories an hour probably and would get some definition, but if you're not really working those muscles out then you'll not see much change. The old phrase of \"No Pain no gain\" is not perfect, and is dangerous if taken too seriously, but is somewhat accurate. ",
"Yes. This is basically all that a situp is but it is using some of your bodyweight to make it harder.\n\nAlthough simply flexing may not be the best thing to sit there and do to lose calories. It all depends on what you want to happen."
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miiaw | . . a lot of the planets further away from the sun have high amounts methane ice.. if you lit a match there would the planet turn into a fireball? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/miiaw/eli5_a_lot_of_the_planets_further_away_from_the/ | {
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"Methane can't burn without oxygen, so no.",
"Hydrocarbons, like methane, in the solid phase are usually above their flashpoint. Even with oxygen present they would not ignite from external flame becuase they are too cold.",
"Methane can't burn without oxygen, so no.",
"Hydrocarbons, like methane, in the solid phase are usually above their flashpoint. Even with oxygen present they would not ignite from external flame becuase they are too cold."
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14y3vy | why is it important to stay hydrated with 5+ cups of water a day? | I drink at the most two cups of water a day, and those are usually when I have a meal. I just don't feel thirsty otherwise and have no desire to force myself to keep drinking.
What are the benefits to drinking the necessary intake of water, and what are the ill side effects of not doing so? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14y3vy/why_is_it_important_to_stay_hydrated_with_5_cups/ | {
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"[You don't.](_URL_0_)\n\nThe original claim of drinking so many glasses of water per day was based on a simple subtraction.\n\nA common belief developed, possibly spurred on by articles about studies based on IVs in hospitals, that the average human body loses 10 cups of water per day, but takes in 4 cups of water from food. (These numbers often vary, depending on who is telling you the advice.)\n\n10 - 4 = 6, so the conclusion was that the average person must need to drink 6 cups of water per day.\n\nPeople also often say that it needs to specifically be water, as fluids in other drinks are different somehow, but it's never quite stated how.\n\nIt turns out your body has a wonderful mechanism for telling you when it needs water. It's called *thirst*.",
"First of all, it should be clarified that it's really cups of fluid rather than water. They just say water since it's easier to remember and doesn't encourage people to drink anything specific. Secondly, the suggestion isn't that you drink them all at once.\n\nEven mild dehydration (which wouldn't make you feel thirsty, necessarily) can cause you to feel more fatigued than you would normally. Two cups might be enough to keep you from getting dehydrated but it isn't enough to make you urinate enough. Peeing is how your body removes a lot of it's pollutants and if you don't drink enough water, your body won't have enough excess water to urinate.\n\nLastly, just because you don't feel thirsty, it doesn't mean you aren't low on water. The feelings of hunger and thirst are as much habits as they are your body telling you it needs something. If you eat every day at noon, you'll feel hungry at about noon since that's when your body expects to get food. The same can be true with getting thirsty.",
"It's what plants crave."
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u0a69 | how come boobs and penises aren't proportional to a body like hands and feet? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/u0a69/eli5_how_come_boobs_and_penises_arent/ | {
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"Hands and feet aren't really very strictly proportional either, though."
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45r04n | can a black hole be big enough to 'suck out' light from another black hole? | So, I've just read the ELI5 about the speed of light being too slow for light to escape from a black hole. The answer was that the black hole's gravity is stronger than the speed of light, so the light cannot escape.
Now, I've asked myself if a black hole can be big enough and close enough to another black hole to suck out light and other stuff? Is this possible or would the black holes just merge together in a big boom? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45r04n/eli5_can_a_black_hole_be_big_enough_to_suck_out/ | {
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"text": [
"The black holes would most likely merge, since you are implying that the black holes are of differing mass, their gravitational energy would be converted to gravitational radiation, shrinking their orbits until they merge"
]
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3nfxf8 | what are spectrum auctions, how do they work ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nfxf8/eli5_what_are_spectrum_auctions_how_do_they_work/ | {
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"If two transmitters attempt to use the same \"spectrum\" at the same time they will jam each other. This is why the government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit over certain bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The actual auctioning system works differently in different countries, but deciding who the spectrum is assigned to is often based on who bids the highest and who will \"make the most out of\" that spectrum.\n\nFor example, in America the FCC conducts these auctions. The FCC however, conducts competitive auctions rather than assignment a spectrum through comparative hearings, under which the specific merits of each applicant is assessed, or through lotteries. \n\n\nWhat country are you from? Then I explain how it works where you live."
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27jkgd | how come high schools are always clamoring for smaller class sizes (i.e. less than 30) if the standard size of a university lecture is 150+ students? | There seems to be a movement to reduce class sizes in grade school from 30-40 students to 25 students or fewer. How come, then, is there so little resistance against lectures in colleges which, on average, have upwards of 150 students? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27jkgd/eli5_how_come_high_schools_are_always_clamoring/ | {
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"Because, in high school, teachers are expected to teach.\n\nIn Universities, students are expected to learn.",
"Lectures tend to be just that, lectures.\n\nMost courses have time slots for students to visit the lecturer by themselves or in small groups about any problems they are having understanding the issue, or have exercise based classes where they are split into smaller groups or have a number of teaching assistants on hand.",
"Only half of my first year lectures had 100-200 students. The rest had 30-60 of us ...",
"It's a misleading comparison. In college, professors get teaching assistants to help provide detailed feedback on assignments. Many lectures break out into smaller groups periodically for activities or review. Professors and TAs hold office hours. And professors don't usually have the same level of problems with motivation and behavior--students select their classes from many options in lots of cases, and in large lectures can usually skip class without penalty. A room full of adults (or almost adults) who want to learn is a lot different from 30 kids who are forced to be there.\n\nAlso, studies have shown that straight lecturing DOESN'T work very well. Small activities and interactions and participation dramatically increase students' learning even at the collegiate level. In fact, a novice professor using a variety of techniques will help students learn better than even a beloved and experienced lecturer with high faculty ratings who only lectures.",
"Highscool is for children, that lack the attention to learn things they need. University is for adults that have the attention to learn things they want. \n \n**TL;DR: One is NEED, another is WANT.**",
"I could teach high school with 150 students in my class-- some would be very successful. But I'd have no ability to offer extra help or deal with misbehaviour. So lots of kids would just be left behind. Kids who don't know yet how to focus, who can't behave, who need to be learn in a different way than lectures would be left behind. We could do it, but at the cost of having high failure rates.\n\nAlso, teenagers are still kids and I have a legal obligation to keep track of them-- I need to know where they are while in my care, I need to call their parents when they are in need, I need to call Children's Aid if I find out they are in danger. I can't do any of that in a lecture theater."
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1tqlk6 | how and why does fever cause dehydration? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tqlk6/eli5how_and_why_does_fever_cause_dehydration/ | {
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"Technically a fever is a symptom unto its own. However, having a fever can cause sweating (makes sense: higher temps=sweating) and therefore insensible water loss via excessive sweating. Hope this helps.",
"A fever is a consequence of the body fighting an invader. Many pathogens can thrive at normal body temperature, but they break down and die at slightly higher temperatures.\n\nMuch like when exercising, the energy used increases body temperature which causes sweating and water vapor to be exhaled from the lungs.\n\nMany fever inducing diseases cause diarrhea and increased mucus production also, which releases water from the body. All that has to be replenished.\n\n(not an actual doctor)"
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a9t7ub | how come most asian houses have wall outlets with an on/off switch next to them but european or american houses don't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9t7ub/eli5_how_come_most_asian_houses_have_wall_outlets/ | {
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"A similar question have been asked before.you might find this useful. _URL_0_",
"No one (including the previous thread) has explained the real reason. This scheme originated in England, where in order to save copper, frequently all the outlets in the whole house were attached to one very high capacity circuit. Unfortunately this huge capacity meant that even if a device was defective and terribly overloaded, the giant main fuse (or breaker) likely would not turn off.\n\nTherefore two safety precautions were introduced. (1) Each device has to have a fuse or breaker in its plug. Hence the oversized British plugs. (2) Each outlet is recommended to have an on/off switch, to reduce the risk of his huge power capacity being unleashed by accident.",
"AFAIK switched outlets originated in the UK, probably because they used a system of wiring called [ring circuit ](_URL_0_). That’s also the reason British appliances need to have fused plugs, as the fuse for the ring is of a much higher rating than any individual socket."
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71cj0b | arabic last names | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71cj0b/eli5_arabic_last_names/ | {
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"text": [
"Bin is like \"from\" and is the fathers ( or sometimes other ancestors) name \n\nAl is like \"the\"\n\nSo Muhammad bin khalifa al azani would be Muhammad son of khalifa the proud\n\nEdit: also wanted to point out that bin is masculine and can be feminized to bint ",
"The word \"Bin\" is \"Son of\" or \"Descendant of \" it is the equivalent of the Celtic \"Mc-\", \"Mac-\", and \"O'-\" prefixes or the English/Norse \"-son\" suffix. \n\n\"Al\" is the definite article \"the\". Many names in that region are modifications of what we would call nicknames in the west. Some are given to the person, most were given to an ancestor and morphed into their family name. All of the trade names in English (Smith, Fletcher, Wright, Thatcher, etc) at one time had the article \"the\" in front of them as well but it fell out of use over time. This was because the trade names indicated a person in that specific trade. So you John Smith was a guy named John who was the Smith. ",
"To add to the post from /u/281fishing Bin becomes like \"-son\" in western names, like Johnson, Jackson, anderson, Robinson, Thompson, etc...\n\nThere's no similar article use in names in the West, but it's not unusual for a last name to be a profession or an adjective, so just like you might have \"the proud\" as a last name in Arabic, in the West you might have \"Smith,\" or \"brown.\"",
"\"Bin\" or \"ibn\" means \"son of\" and is usually followed by the father's name. \"Al-\" means \"the\" and is usually used before the names of cities or places where the family comes from.\n\nSo a name like Mohammed bin Asim al-Baghdadi could be sort of translated as \"Mohammed, son of Asim, of Baghdad.\"\n\nIt's similar to how lots of Western names originated as well - Johnson would have originally been \"son of John,\" O'Connell meant descendant/family of Connell, Martinez meant \"son of Martin,\" etc."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
cqgye5 | why are we seeing massive protests in hk against the chinese government but otherwise quiet in macau? both were colonies (britain/portugal) that were occupied, governed, and returned back to china in the late 1990s? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cqgye5/eli5_why_are_we_seeing_massive_protests_in_hk/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"One difference is that Portugal has a long history of censorship and limitations on expression. People aren't going to be protesting losing rights they didn't really have or expect.",
"Macau is a gambling zone run by Triad Mafia, and they don't rock the boat. \n\nBad for business.",
"The protests have been sparked by the LegCo (Hong Kongs Parliament) introducing a Bill to allow extradition, a HK man killed his gf in Tiwan. He can't be tried for it in HK, he can't be extradited to Tiwan. The LegCo introduced a law to allow extradition, which would allow extradition to PRoChina which is a bit shit on good legal practice.",
"Portugal gave Macau nationals Portuguese citizenship. Hence, the people of Macau don't need to fight for their rights in Macau, they have an escape plan if things turn ugly. The result is that they readily accepted the restrictions that China desired to be implemented in Macau.\n\nThe British government didn't go that far. They only gave a British nationality to people based on a scheme that wasn't popular due to a variety of reasons. A lot of people with foreign nationality are actually against the protest, because by doing so it rocks the boat for everybody. Those that support the protests are more likely to have nowhere to escape to.",
"Macau and Hong Kong are very different cities.\n\nFor one, Macau has been controlled by the communist party since 1966. Yes, it was still nominally under the control of Portugal until 1999, but Portugal had very little to do with the city after 1966 and the formal transfer of sovereignty to China was just that - a formal recognition of a situation that had existed for the prior 33 years.\n\nThe next thing to understand about Macau is that there was never a promise of democracy or rule of law. What happened in 1966 was that the city underwent an open revolution against the Portuguese *in favor of being placed under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.* That's what the city wanted and that's exactly what it got. \n\nFinally, Macau is a small, wealthy city with a robust social welfare program. Being an actual citizen of Macau is somewhat similar to being a citizen of a country like Kuwait. You may not be wealthy, but you're guaranteed a decent job and a number of high quality social services.\n\nSo what you have in Macau is a city that is culturally aligned with the Chinese Communist Party in which nearly everyone is well off enough to limit social dissent.\n\nHong Kong is in many ways a polar opposite of Macau. It too underwent a communist revolution in 1967 but the English crushed it. Part of the political rationale behind the English crushing that revolution was that they were preparing the city for an eventual transition to western style democracy. Over the next few decades the English put a significant amount of effort into building an open, western style court system and generally instilled western values into the city.\n\nWhile Hong Kong is a wealthy city like Macau, unlike Macau it has a gigantic income disparity. The wealthy in Hong Kong are among the richest people in the world. The poor in Hong Kong [live in small cages](_URL_1_). \n\nRather than address the social problems in Hong Kong, the Communist Party has doubled down on maintaining the economic status quo. It doesn't help that anyone who is wealthy in Hong Kong is a prominent supporter of the Communist Party, which has further entrenched it as being the party of the rich. [Jackie Chan is perhaps the most visible of these people in the west](_URL_0_).\n\nSo what you have in Hong Kong is a city with a firm democratic culture and a powder keg of unresolved social issues in which an autocratic party, that is viewed as being hostile to the city's culture and opposed to resolving its social issues, is trying to conduct a formal takeover of the city's government."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kevintang/jackie-chan-offends-chinese-netizen",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7IA8DWt0ZY"
]
]
|
||
5rq8z6 | how can they know what a black-white picture looks like in color? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rq8z6/eli5_how_can_they_know_what_a_blackwhite_picture/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd99r0e"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They just guess what colors should be there. For example we know what color the grass, sky, or skin color would be. Things such as a shirt, wall paper, or a book would just be our best judgement."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5la04c | why is it so hard to see snow features in low light? | E.g. Moguls on a ski slope after the sun has gone behind the mountain. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5la04c/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_see_snow_features_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbu3f2r"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's a matter of contrast. In low light, your eyes aren't as good as distinguishing/seeing different colours. \n(Try for yourself, at night or in the dark, you only see black and white.)\nSo, because your ability to see different colours is 'worse', it means that the difference in shade of the flat snow and any features on it are too similar to be told apart, and so your brain assumes they must be the same colour. It reasons that if they're the same colour, they must be the same surface, and so you can't make out the bumps and such.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2vt2ki | why is the u.s.a called the "land of the free" | It doesn't seem more free than any other first world country, so why is it called this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vt2ki/eli5_why_is_the_usa_called_the_land_of_the_free/ | {
"a_id": [
"cokogmy",
"cokolln",
"cokpl5s"
],
"score": [
13,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"The government of the US was formed around the time of the enlightenment, a philosophical movement that among other things, taught that people had natural, inherent rights. It was the first major modern government formed on these principles, and a lot of other developed countries followed suit.",
"Because \"land of the free\" is an excerpt from the poem that became our national anthem, *The Star-Spangled Banner*. In 1814, when the poem was written, the position of the USA as a particularly free country was much more secure than it is today.",
"We actually do have more freedoms (in theory), though the ones we have compared to other countries are minor, redundant and often times disputable. \n\nMostly it's just tradition, because we were the first to have a government based off freedom for its people. It's not nearly as relevant today. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
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