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2h0fpl | why do people sometimes groan and mutter aloud while thinking of an embarrassing thing they said or did? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h0fpl/eli5_why_do_people_sometimes_groan_and_mutter/ | {
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"Because it helps to take your mind off of the embarrassing thought. I do that a lot when I'm hung over.",
"It's called rumination. It's pretty annoying, I feel like I do it more than most people. Here's a link, but I don't know how to do that thing where you embed into a word so the url doesn't show up...\n\n_URL_0_",
"I thought I was the only person who did this!",
"i have this habit. whenever I think of an embarassing cringeworthy moment of my past, I end up blurting out \"niggers.\" I wish I didnt do this.",
"Maybe it's to take the sting out of the memory. I condemn my inner voice with my actual voice. In a certain way I'm distancing myself from the memory, and thus also with the deed. The deed I'd like to believe isn't my doing. After all, I'm a different person now, or so I think.",
"Thank you for making me feel a bit more normal, reddit.",
"It's cognitive dissonance. It's because you're mind can't hold two ideas about yourself at once, you generally view yourself as the type of person who wouldn't do such an embarrassing thing, or you would ridicule people who would do a similar thing, so your mind rejects that instance which is essentially what happens when you blurt it out loud. I learned thing from my therapist… let's just say i had a very public mental breakdown so this happens to me a lot."
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drzm0o | why can't web browsers block lightbox-style popups? | Browsers killed popups and popunders years ago, but advertisers just moved to those popups-that-aren't-technically-popups. Adblockers and browsers seem unable to stop them unless you manually pick out the code. Why can't we just kill them off like we did with popups and autoplay videos? It seems like we could use AI to say "did something just appear that's blocking the main content of this page? If so, kill it". | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/drzm0o/eli5_why_cant_web_browsers_block_lightboxstyle/ | {
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"Popups, popunders, and autoplay videos are all very specific actions. The site's code has to ask the browser to make a new window or start playing the video, and the browser can easily respond to that.\n\nLightboxes are different, they're just another element on the page. The actions that create a lightbox are no different than creating a colored box or button. In addition, there are many different ways this can be done that end up creating the same effect. It's certainly possible to detect some or all of these cases, but it's nowhere near as straightforward as popups or videos.",
"The browser has no universal way of knowing what the \"main content of a page\" is. That's ultimately a human interface concept, not a technical one. It could try, but that would risk breaking some pages."
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mngjd | how an electric company can provide power to a city. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mngjd/eli5_how_an_electric_company_can_provide_power_to/ | {
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"The wires go to every building.\n\n*\"Well i know that paw paw, I want to know how a power company can get all the power to power all the buildings!\"*\n\nSo we have a national electric grid, and all of the power plants (or most of them, anyhow) feed electricty into this grid. Cities and businesses and strip malls and homes take electricity out of this grid. The power companies monitor the amount of electricty being used, called demand, and balance it according to the amount being made, called supply. When you balance demand with supply, you end up with a bunch of power plants putting into the grid exactly what is being taken out by cities. Of course, all of that power goes over the wires to each building.\n\n*\"But how do they know how much power is being used?\"*\n\nThey have monitoring devices all over the place, on transformers throughout the country.\n\n*\"What's a transformer?\"*\n\nWell Billy, I think our good friend the search bar might be able to help out with that one.",
"The wires go to every building.\n\n*\"Well i know that paw paw, I want to know how a power company can get all the power to power all the buildings!\"*\n\nSo we have a national electric grid, and all of the power plants (or most of them, anyhow) feed electricty into this grid. Cities and businesses and strip malls and homes take electricity out of this grid. The power companies monitor the amount of electricty being used, called demand, and balance it according to the amount being made, called supply. When you balance demand with supply, you end up with a bunch of power plants putting into the grid exactly what is being taken out by cities. Of course, all of that power goes over the wires to each building.\n\n*\"But how do they know how much power is being used?\"*\n\nThey have monitoring devices all over the place, on transformers throughout the country.\n\n*\"What's a transformer?\"*\n\nWell Billy, I think our good friend the search bar might be able to help out with that one."
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cq51iz | why does water taste so good at 3am, but not when i’ve haven’t had water for the whole night at 8am. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cq51iz/eli5_why_does_water_taste_so_good_at_3am_but_not/ | {
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"Do you typically drink something else in the morning? Coffee, tea, grapefruit juice. It's possible your just used to having a different flavor in the morning and water doesn't seem good because it isn't that.",
"My experience is different. I really have an urge to drink water when I wake up, but not when I finally get up (about 6 a. m.)",
"The water at three am is delicious because the liquor you drink all night till you pass out dehydrated you. \n\nOh wait? Not everyone hides themselves in a bourbon bottle?"
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5f65bc | why do tractor odometers measure in hours instead of miles like other vehicles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5f65bc/eli5_why_do_tractor_odometers_measure_in_hours/ | {
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"Machinery like that is not usually used for distance travel, but often used in place , like for the hydrostatic drive. Although tractors are driven , the main tenancy recommendations are also usually given in hours of operation",
"A lot of heavy plant and machinery etc will have running hours as they might not actually go very far or anywhere at all. So running hours give the best indication of its use and when to service etc.\n\nCars and trucks etc generally are on the move and at a higher speed any time they are turning over so miles/kilometer better suites the representation of wear for them. ",
"Farm equipment doesn't move very far. So a measure of miles doesn't show much. A measure of hours of use also isn't perfect but it's more useful for heavy machinery in general to have an engine that reports how many hours of use it's had rather than how many miles it's driven. ",
"Miles only account for a portion of a vehicles run- and wear-time. Take an excavator, for example. Most of the work performed by this machine is done in a stationary position; the actual machine does not move, so mileage would be useless. "
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kzcmy | what is camera exposure and why does it make picture look so good? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kzcmy/eli5_what_is_camera_exposure_and_why_does_it_make/ | {
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"The exposure is the amount of light that hits the picture-making part of the camera. Good exposure is important because cameras are not as good at seeing really bright things and really dark things at the same time as people are. Really bright things go totally white and dark things go totally black, like when you walk out of a dark room and into the sun. To allow you to see, your eye responds by closing down its iris to let less light in. A camera performs in a similar way by closing down a metal iris. The hole the iris allows is called the aperture and its size is measured in \"stops,\" which are a ratio of the size of the opening to the focal length (zoom-in-ed-ness) of the lens.\n",
"The exposure is the amount of light that hits the picture-making part of the camera. Good exposure is important because cameras are not as good at seeing really bright things and really dark things at the same time as people are. Really bright things go totally white and dark things go totally black, like when you walk out of a dark room and into the sun. To allow you to see, your eye responds by closing down its iris to let less light in. A camera performs in a similar way by closing down a metal iris. The hole the iris allows is called the aperture and its size is measured in \"stops,\" which are a ratio of the size of the opening to the focal length (zoom-in-ed-ness) of the lens.\n"
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dhmih0 | how does meat not go off in the time hunters kill in the wild to the time it reaches refrigeration? | I sometimes randomly watch bow hunting videos and it seems it can be a good day or so from the time they hang the meat to the time they're able to get it out of the mountains and into refrigeration. How doesn't it spoil when I'm questioning meat I accidentally leave on the counter for a few hours? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dhmih0/eli5_how_does_meat_not_go_off_in_the_time_hunters/ | {
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"A) it’s still fresh and warm for a few hours and\nB) your meat on the counter probably didn’t go bad just like the kill probably didn’t go bad, theres just no reason to risk it for processed meat",
"You have to consider that the meat you bring home from the store is already several days old.",
"When I hunt it's usually cold enough that there's no worry about spoiling. Sometimes in the early season it's a rush to get it packed up in ice though. As soon as I can I put bags of ice inside it where I've cut the guts out.",
"So long as the animal is left whole, there is little chance for bacteria to get at the meat, the inside of the animal is a sterile environment for the most part. So long as the shot didn’t puncture any bowels that is. Most of the meat around the shot is considered waste as it’s the most prone to any contamination and the force of the shot can damage the meat releasing enzymes that can make it go bad quickly. The biggest things are having a way to keep the meat clean once harvested and separating fur from meat it can and 90% of the time does carry fleas, ticks, dung etc.",
"Usually in hunting camps I've been to the meat was packed out in large portions (hindquarters, shoulders etc.) and covered with cloth to deter flies and then hung up in camp for a day or two. It's so cold up in the mountains here during hunting season that you don't have to worry about it spoiling. You just have to keep it clean and away from bears lmao. Otherwise you just have to hurry and process the kill and get it on ice.",
"The organs go off quiet quickly the bacteria in the gut will begin to work their way out of the gut into the muscles if left in the body. So the animals body is gutted as soon as possible and bled. the muscles are naturally sterile. and need to be left on the bone while the muscles undergo rigor mortise this is an important step in converting flesh.",
"* most hunting seasons take place in colder weather, and the best time to hunt is often early in the morning\n* while the animal is intact, only the outmost parts are exposed, most of the meat is safely in the interior of the animal\n* most of the bacteria-filled digestive tract is removed before the animal is transported\n* when the meat is butchered, anything that has gone bad is removed\n* most hunters hunt for sport, not meat, and while they feel obligated not to let the meat go to waste, preserving it is not their highest priority",
"The meat is still warm from the animal. Once it cools, then warms back up, that's the problem. If it's still warm, then you cool it, it's fine. The problem isn't the heat or the death, it's the temperature (or the time if you leave it too many days)."
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51lckp | will my macbook work in the vacuum of space as is? | Would this laptop (or any typical computer) work in space? Would a cell phone? Smart phone? Why or why not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51lckp/eli5_will_my_macbook_work_in_the_vacuum_of_space/ | {
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"You're probably going to run into problems with overheating. Computer cooling systems typically depend on fans and air cooling, and air is something a bit lacking in space. As such, the computer has very little to transfer the heat it generates to, and so continues to get hotter and hotter until failure. You'd have to rig up a special cooling system.",
"Well the microphone and speaker on a phone would have considerable problems working and you'd have trouble getting a signal. A non smart phone with its lower heat output would probably work okay at least for a bit. Though you couldn't do much with it. A smart phone would probably overheat too unless you stuck it to a large metal plate or something to let it cool down. They don't tend to use fans but they'll need some passive cooling as they can get pretty warm. ",
"One component that would have a problem with vacuum is a conventional hard disk. That is because the writing head has to hover above the magnetic disk with a very small distance, and it basically rides on a very thin cushion of air to maintain it. In a vacuum, the air would be sucked out, and the writing head would touch the magnetic disk - destroying it. So you would have to encase the hard disk in a pressure vessel, or use an SSD instead.\n\nElectrolytic capacitors used in many consumer electronics may also fail. They are filled with liquid, and since water starts evaporating under low pressure, they are going to be under pressure. Whether or not they survive in space depends on how much pressure their casing can hold before bursting. \n\nAnother problem is cooling. Electronic devices are usually air cooled, meaning that the heat given off by the electronics is transferred to the surrounding air. If there is no air, the heat can only be given off through radiation. Unless you equip the computer with a cooling system which works in space, it's probably going to overheat and shut down.\n\nThe biggest problem however would be solar radiation. When radioactive particles hit semiconductors, they can cause small amounts of damage. On the ground, radiation isn't strong enough for that to matter a whole lot, but in space, radiation is much stronger and harder - which means that semiconductors can degrade at a very rapid rate, causing calculation errors and crashes. For this reason, special radiation hardened computer chips are used. Alternatively, you would have to encase the computer in a radiation shield.",
"This was answered, sort of, in the book *The Martian*:\n > The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the \"L\" in \"LCD\" stands for \"Liquid\". I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. \"Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.\"\n\nNow, think about the phrase \"either froze or boiled off\". Mars is *really* cold, so the freezing part is pretty obvious, but how could liquid have boiled off? Because the atmospheric pressure on Mars is *really* low, and lowering the pressure also lowers the temperature at which a liquid boils (becomes a gas).\n\nThe atmospheric pressure in the vacuum of space is even lower than it is on Mars. :-) Like, practically zero (not exactly zero, if you're talking about Earth orbit, but close enough for most purposes). So any liquid is going to turn into a gas almost immediately when you expose it to a vacuum.\n\nTo make a long story short, even if the other components of your laptop could work in a vacuum, the screen wouldn't, so you wouldn't be able to do much of anything with the laptop."
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6jpuiq | why is the human lower back so prone to pain as we age? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jpuiq/eli5_why_is_the_human_lower_back_so_prone_to_pain/ | {
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"Because humans aren't fully designed to walk upright. On an evolutionary level, this is \"new\" to us as our ancestors used to walk on all 4 limbs. As such, through our evolutionary path, we still haven't adapted completely to walking upright and quite possibly never will.\n\nOther factors include that we don't follow proper lifting procedures or have bad posture when standing or sitting, putting improper strain on our lower backs and spines. When we are young, we might be able to recover from damage down there, but as time goes on, healing injuries and the compounded injuries take their toll, causing sometimes permanent damage."
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ehfoiw | how can we have high resolution pictures of deep space, but my satellite tv goes out when it rains? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ehfoiw/eli5_how_can_we_have_high_resolution_pictures_of/ | {
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"The signal has to travel all the way from the satellite to your dish, and if there is anything in its way on the way down, (a storm) it corrupts the signal. Observatories are usually high up, and it’s not video."
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1l635b | why don't professional basketball players backboard alley-oop to themselves in-game more? | Specifically in the half-court: _URL_0_
EDIT: Clarification | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l635b/eli5_why_dont_professional_basketball_players/ | {
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"It's a lot of wasted effort. Might as well just dunk/lay-up, and get the points.",
"There are a lot of factors that go into a successful self-alley oop that make it incredibly difficult to pull off:\n\n- you need to be at an angle where you can make the catch after it bounces off the backboard\n\n- you need to throw it with just enough power to place it so you can catch and dunk the ball\n\n- you need to be able to get around your defender to go catch your pass\n\n- you need to pray that none of the defenders decide to grab the rebound after it hits the backboard\n\n- you need to hope it doesn't hit the rim and shoot off god-knows-where\n\nBasically, you don't see it very often because it's tough as hell to pull off, and if you miss it, you look like a moron.",
"You have to be pretty much head on, otherwise the ball bounces away from you. A big man can't be in the way or he'll get the rebound. The guy guarding you can't get in your way or try to block you out from the rebound, otherwise you won't get to the ball.\n\nIf there's no big guy at the rim and you can easily get past your defender, why not just take it in for an easy layup?"
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crfetl | joysticks (gamepads) no longer need calibration | When I was young (like actually 5) whenever I would play a game on my computer with a joystick I would always have to calibrate it. There would be a calibration section on every game where you'd move the stick to one corner then to the other.
I can't remember the last time I've had to do this. It's been decades. Now controllers just work.
What changed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crfetl/eli5_joysticks_gamepads_no_longer_need_calibration/ | {
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"Standardization and driver advancement. It's the same with voice chat and dozens of other features.\n\nOperating systems now integrate video game support into their core functions which allows the games to call on those standardized drivers rather than having each game developer writing their own interfaces for nonstandard drivers. \n\nBut it's not just software. Now that the drivers have been standardized, gamepad and joystick manufacturers no longer create their own individual drivers, but build controllers to match that single standard."
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7rui24 | numbers stations | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rui24/eli5numbers_stations/ | {
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" > Numbers Stations\n\nNumbers stations are radio stations which will frequently read out a series of numbers in sequence, often by a robotic voice and at varying times.\n\nThe purpose of these stations is uncertain but generally considered to be a method of communicating to spies by encoding secret messages in the sequences of numbers. Which governments operate these stations can generally be inferred by the territory in which they reside, but the content of the messages is of course unknown.",
"Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: How do numbers stations broadcast and how are they able to do it for so long without breaking down? ](_URL_2_) ^(_2 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: Numbers Stations ](_URL_0_) ^(_1 comment_)\n1. [How can a numbers station function as a dead-man switch for nuclear weapons? ](_URL_1_) ^(_3 comments_)\n1. [ELI5:World War 1 / 2 Number Stations - What were they used for? ](_URL_3_) ^(_4 comments_)\n",
"* All numbers stations are operated by (it is believed) the intelligence agencies. \n\n* Almost all are short wave radio stations.\n_URL_0_\n\n\n* Most are on military bases or the compounds of said intel agencies.\n\n* Short wave radios can be imported past most restrictions and embargoes, low power to operate and can be small enough to be hidden.\n\n",
"It is often thought number stations transmit the identifying numbers for that days OTPs or One Time Pads, which is basically a pad which tells you what letters/symbols to switch for each other to encode a message. Being single use, even if the enemy were too eventually decrypt the message they would only be able to read that single message. Number stations crucially can be listened to on any standard radio, provided it has the accuracy and range to tune into the correct frequency. This means someone can recieve information without revealing their location, as the reciever is purely passive."
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2x1w7z/eli5_how_do_numbers_stations_broadcast_and_how/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38utxc/eli5world_war_1_2_number_stations_what_were_they/"
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6gsjba | what is the difference between a burka, niqab and hijab? and why do some women choose to wear one over the others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gsjba/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_burka_niqab/ | {
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"Burka = Head to toe cover, including mesh over eyes\n\nNiqab = Head to toe veil, eyes show\n\nHijab = Head cover, worn in addition to clothes.\n\n [see](_URL_0_ )\n\n",
"Burka covers your entire body except the hands and feet. Niqab coveres everything apart from your hands and feet and eyes. Hijab covers your hair, neck and chest. \n\nAll depends on how modest one wants to be primarily, what may be expected of them by family, or their degree of religious devotion sometimes. The Koran only really requires women to cover their chests ~~and heads (if I remember right)~~. In some countries, you're required one or the other when going outside of your home. \n\nEdit: fixed what each one covers - thanks for pointing out my mistake :) \n\nEdit: I didn't remember right. It's just chests in the Koran (or Quran, I've seen it spelt Koran more often personally.) Hadiths added veiling. Thanks for the clarification :) ",
"If I answer this like i see it I'll sound like a dick and I can speak for all Muslims.\nHere in Dubai (most of UAE) most of the women have no choice of who they marry, if they marry anyone other than and Emirati they lose their passport. I have been to a few local wedding, not something most westerners would be comfortable at.\nThe family decides who you marry and the government pays that family (husband's) a very nice payment for the first house. They will decide what you wear and you will do it.\nEdit: can't speak for all Muslims "
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5pb5zq | do vegetables, or meats take longer to digest, and why? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pb5zq/eli5_do_vegetables_or_meats_take_longer_to_digest/ | {
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"Digestion is the process of breaking up food into a form that can be absorbed by your body. There are 3 major groups that we distinguish in the type of the food we digest. Sugars, proteins and fats. Both meats and vegetables can contain all 3 of them and depending on the type of the meat or vegetable in different amounts. Sugars are the easy ones - you start breaking them up in your mouth with enzymes in your saliva. Try to chew a piece of bread crust for a few minutes, you should start to feel sweet taste because big and tasteless sugars are broken up to a sweeter and smaller - easier to digest mono-sugars. Proteins are also quite easy to digest, you digest them and sugars in your stomach. But it still takes a bit longer to digest proteins than sugars. The hardest thing to digest are fats because they are insoluble in water and they have to be emulgated first - broken up to drops so small that their surface area is big enough to be digested. \n\nEDIT:\nThere are vegetables that will take much longer to digest than almost fat free meat and there are vegetables that will be digested a few times quicker than a fatty steak so the answer is... it depends."
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5f7h1x | why do we get the feeling that we want to jump down when we stand next to a cliff? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5f7h1x/eli5why_do_we_get_the_feeling_that_we_want_to/ | {
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"Take up a extreme sport, abseiling/rockclimbing, hanggliding, jumpsuit, etc. Honestly can't say why you feel like jumping but maybe you can change it to a safer thrill seeking hobbit.",
"This feeling is called \"Call of the void\", I found this article useful: _URL_0_",
"I sometimes play with the ida of just walking over the edge, but im also so scared of doing it that i have to force the idea away because im scared that i might actually do it on auto pilot. ",
"If you want to be classy, that sensation is called l'appel du vide (the call of the void in english). I found this article _URL_0_ \n\nTL:DR there's a part of your brain that goes \"whoa shit, look out for < whatever > \" and another part that is running behind in the conversation that goes \" < whatever > oh yeah sure, totally!\"",
"Yeah not everyone gets this, I get the feeling like I want to get away from the edge of the cliff.",
"Just to provide a bit of extra insight into this - I take this idea from the book \"The man who could not stop\", a book about OCD.\n\nIn this book I read that several psychologists provide a basis for this in something called the cognitive idea generator. This being that the brain, in order to produce original ideas or to respond quickly has a sort of un-filtered idea generator.\n\n'To consider all possible solutions, it’s important for the mind to generate novel ideas and not immediately censor them. The cognitive idea generator does not have to anchor its responses to reality. Intrusive thoughts are what happens when the mind says ‘yes, and’ rather than ‘yes, but’.'\n\n'This might make sense, given the theory that a mental idea generator helps us to navigate through life. We may consider it uncivilized, but there are some situations where a natural and useful reaction when one sees a stranger would indeed be to beat them over the head. The smaller the stranger is than you, and so the lower the chance that they can hurt you, the more attractive that option becomes.\n\nAccording to the theory, sometimes an external cue – the rattle of a train or a dirty floor – can kick the idea generator into action, and make it churn out intrusive thoughts.'",
"Call of the void + intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are the reason you think \"it would be funny if I kiss this person right now\" and you actively fight against those thoughts.",
"Sometimes if I park near a drain I have to stop myself chucking my keys down there I have no idea why I have this compelling urge ",
"I don't know about anyone else, but I get the exact opposite feeling when I stand next to a cliff. ",
"Less drastic but I get the same feeling whenever I see those fire alarms. I definitely have the urge to pull it",
"Do a skydive or bungee jump. I used to get that feeling all the time. After my first dive, I never got the feeling again. \n\nOf course, now I'm fucking addicted to both activities and take every chance I get to jump out of a plane or off a bridge.",
"It's your brain reasoning. Your brain plays out the scenario of jumping off the cliff in your head in which you die or get injured. You then understand hey if I jump off I'll probably die. Basically your brain telling you that you'll fuck your shit up if you do that.",
"A philosophy professor once told me this was an example of existential anxiety. You're not scared you'll fall; you're scared you know you can jump. We are free to do whatever we want, our existential freedom, and this is something we often run away from or avoid. It's also a sense of existential anxiety in that it simply reminds us we will die one day, another life fact that we often try to avoid thinking about. Another example he gave me on this subject was how sometimes when you're driving, you realize that all it'll take to cause a giant car wreck that might kill you and other people is just a little slight turn to the other lane - and into the oncoming car. ",
"Michael over at Vsauce dives into this feeling in the [video](_URL_0_) about why things are creepy. The way I understand it is that the ambiguity of a situation confuses our brain. We become scared of falling from a large height and pull ourselves back, but under normal circumstances we don't usually just jump forward without warning. So why would we be pulling ourselves back if there isn't any danger of actually falling? This is what may possibly be tricking the brain into thinking that it does want to jump to justify why we need to hold ourselves back.",
"The consequences of death are dire, and key to our survival. It makes sense that such a primal concern floods your mind in any situation where it could be relevant. \n\nI don't think anyone has an absolute answer to what happens to each individual in this situation, but the fact that you didn't jump, and remained to post about your feelings on Reddit says something about how we as humans psychologically react when we've been in a situation that could - should things go wrong - result in our death. \n\nOur lives are filled with often arbitrary rules. It makes sense that the same \"why does this action really matter?\" triggers even when confronted with an actual life-and-death-situation. \n\nI should also point out that sometimes underlying psychological problems manifest in this way, even if the person in question treats it as a joke. \n\nI'm assuming that you're just entertaining yourself on a sunday with an idle question, but I feel it is important to stress to the wider audence of readers that this behavior - which could manifest in a need to find a \"grounded\" or \"certain\" reality by putting the body in harms way - gives cause for concern. \n\n\"To whom it might concern\". Cheers :) ",
"I have no idea, but I really like what Douglas Adams wrote about vertigo. When we're standing on something that's high up, we experience two competing instincts. One is from our monkey ancestors, who clung desperately to trees for fear of falling down. The other is from our more distant bird ancestors, who fearlessly leapt into the abyss. The collision of these two primordial instincts is what makes us so dizzy.\n\nHe's joking, but I enjoy thinking about the conflict whenever I feel that tug behind my bellybutton.",
"When you are in such places, your instinct immediately freaks out, like \"HOLY SHIT WE'RE IN DANGER!\" \nRight after that, the part of your brain that processes reason goes like \"No we're not, calm your tits dude\" because obviously, there is nothing pushing you towards the cliff or whatever it is that represents a danger. \nThese two reactions create dissonance, and human brains do not like it, so they create some kind of solution, even when the said solution is absurd. \nSo \"We're in immediate danger\" + \"Actually, there's not external threat\" gives out \"You want to jump\", as your brain needs to solve the contradiction. \n\nSource : A Vsauce video that I am too lazy to find\n",
"Is there any reason why I don't get this feeling? It seems very common, but I have never once in my life felt the urge to, or even wondered a bit about what it would be like, to jump. ",
"Intrusive thoughts are what you're taking about, they can happen not only related to cliffs. In university I would walk across a bridge to class everyday and without fail I would think, \n\n\"throw your phone in the river.\" \n\nLeading psychologists believe that suppressing these thoughts will only exacerbate them, and in my case it led to a minor bout with depression, with the type of thoughts elevating to the point of a suicidal nature. These same psychologists also explain that these thoughts have been part of the human condition for as long as we know, and that your statistical likelihood of acting on them is incredibly low. \n\nThe healthy way to deal with intrusive thoughts is to acknowledge that they do not represent who you are, IE, you are not evil for having an intrusive thought about pounding an old lady, or you're not suicidal for having the thought of jumping off that bridge/cliff/ledge.\n\nSource: many psychologists worked closely with me to help me come to that conclusion for myself. ",
"Uh... \"we\" have that urge? Don't recall ever having said urge.",
"So this sounds like intrusive thoughts to me, although a lot of other folks have said the call of the void. Either may be right, but nobody really provided a source for intrusive thoughts and I remembered listening to an Invisibilia podcast on it: _URL_1_.\n\nReally interesting story, but the ELI5 on intrusive thoughts is kind of the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on the phenomenon: \"An intrusive thought is an unwelcome involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate.\" I couldn't find a ton of research on WHY we have intrusive thoughts, but I found a LOT that suggests 1) they are common and 2) they may suggest an underlying condition such as OCD, depression, or even ADHD.\n\nSomebody with way more knowledge on cognitive behavioral disorders or psychology in general will certainly be able to provide a better explanation than I can, but I'll take a stab.\n\nThoughts like jumping from a cliff or stabbing a loved one simply because you can come into your head without your control and can become an obsession if you are often confronted by those same circumstances. Because we view these thoughts as abnormal, abhorrent, or contrary to our character, we push them away and possibly cause ourselves to consistently have those same thoughts (_URL_0_).\n\nThe podcast explains quite well how mental exercises (CBT) can be used to eliminate or mitigate intrusive thoughts that become an obsession, but the gist of it is this: confront your thoughts by thinking about them. So you jump off the cliff. What happens next? Play the scenario out and don't avoid thinking about it.\n\nFirst post here, so I might have screwed something up, but hopefully this contributes to the conversation.",
"A few months ago I flew from Reykjavik to Toronto and while walking around the plane a bit I hovered mear the back, where the emergency exits are. I just stood there thinking, \"I could just open the door right now.\" It took ten minutes for me to smap out of it and go \"wtf is wrong with me\" before quickly going back to my seat. I was so freaked out by myself. I didn't think that was as common as I do now that I've read the other comments. ",
"Is this a thing? I've never stood by a ledge wanting to jump.",
"I never get this feeling while standing at the edge of a cliff, however I do get it when I'm standing near the edge of a subway platform.",
"I have this feeling too. The French call it \"L'appel du vide\" or, the call of the void. I think I once read about described as your mind considers the possibility that jumping off of it could be a thing, but another part of your brain goes, no way man, that's totally insane, why would you think of doing this? Essentially when part of you recognized it as a possibility, another part took it to mean you wanted to jump. Hope that helps\n",
"Our minds do not like ambiguity. We don't like being between two possibilities. We want to be in one state or another. Standing over a cliff or long drop is a very precarious and ambiguous situation.\n\n[Vsauce](_URL_0_) did a great video about this.",
"This is a well-known thing and even has a fancy name: \"L'appel du vide\" (French for \"the call of the void\").\n\nWhile nobody is 100% sure why it happens, a group of psychologists at FSU found that about 30% of people experience it, and they proposed that it works this way: you see the edge and your brain has a fast instinctual response that says \"Danger! Step back!\", but a second slower rational process assesses the situation with something like \"I am not really at risk. It's OK.\" The l'appel du vide comes in as part of a higher level rational process where you try to figure out why one part of your brain is panicking and the other part says everything is alright -- it's the confusion between the two signals that you feel as the urge (contained) to jump to your death.",
"I've def experienced this before. Like knowing that u can literally end it all here just with a simple movement, and your whole life can end just like that. It's crazy to think about ",
"I don't know if anyone has mentioned it. But the phenomenon is called \"The Call of the Void\".",
" From Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams: \n\n > The dizzy sensation we experience when standing in high places is not simply a fear of falling. It's often the case that the only thing likely to make us fall is the actual dizziness itself, so it is, at best, an extremely irrational, even self-fulfilling fear. However, in the distant past of our evolutionary journey toward our current state, we lived in trees. We leapt from tree to tree. There are even those who speculate that we may have something birdlike in our ancestral line. In which case, there may be some part of our mind that, when confronted with a void, expects to be able to leap out into it and even urges us to do so. So what you end up with is a conflict between a primitive, atavistic part of your mind which is saying \"Jump!\" and the more modern, rational part of your mind which is saying, \"For Christ's sake, don't!\" ",
"I see a lot of answers explaining how its called, but I didnt see a single answer explaining how to deal with it. \n\nThe short and simple answer is to not care. If you try to get rid of your intrusive thought the moment one comes up, and you are successful, your brain will reward itself by releasing dopamine. \nSo in order to get rewarded again, the brain will have to have an intrusive thought again before it can get rid of it so the brain can get it \"hit\" again.\n\nSo only observing the intrusive thought, acknowledging that it's there seems to be the solution for them, loads of people have intrusive thoughts, so you shouldn't really be bothered by them. \n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"Its an evolutionary trait that has stuck with us nicknamed \"The Call of The Void\" that aids our survival. These thoughts dont mean we want to jump yet they give our minds the opportunity to run through the scenario and predict its outcome.",
"I'm pretty sure you're talking about the high place phenomenon. No sources I'm afraid but I remember reading/hearing from somewhere that the feeling is caused by height induced vertigo (The false perception that objects are moving when they are not.).\n\nThis vertigo is very common in humans with a fear or phobia of heights, you'll see it exaggerated in movies with the camera zooming in and out on the ground. The problem is that this vertigo fools your visual cortex into thinking your body is in motion when it's not (much as with motion sickness). \n\nThe result of this is that this potion of your brain concludes you must be moving (falling) forwards and seeks to right itself instinctively, causing you to recoil backwards. However, functions of balance are controlled from the cerebellum, separately from visual perception and your cerebellum is telling you you're just fine. The consequence of this is conflicting signals from different regions of the brain. One set tells you you're falling forwards and need to lean back and one set tells you you're fine and trys to right you leaning forwards. \n\nTypically the human knows on a rational level they're not falling so they stay where they are and don't sway in either direction but these mismatched signals can lead to the false perception you're being faintly pushed forwards. The same phenomenon is what causes people to lose balance for seemingly no reason and stumble backwards from ledges.",
"Was going to make a joke about how it's obviously because life is painful and you cant wait for the sweet release of death. Then I realized that I'm not in r/me_irl",
"In french we have a word for it \"l'appel du vide\" \nWhich can be translated to \"the call of the void\". \n",
"Working on a ship gives you this feeling a lot. You're standing on the lower open deck aft, it's 0200 hours and you're alone. Looking over the edge you see the hypnotic wash of sky blue and white rumble away into the darkness. If you jumped, or worse, if you fell; nobody would hear you over the engines, nobody would see you in the darkness. You would simply cease to be. \n",
"You are talking about the phenomenon \"The Call of the Void\", or *l'appel du vide*. It's the strange desire to jump from a high cliff (or similarly drive your car into oncoming traffic). It feels like a strong urge to those who experience it, but few act on it.\n\nIn 2011 a few [scientists](_URL_0_) took it upon themselves to explore the phenomenon further, and see if they could find a correlation to suicide ideation. Long story short; 30% of people experience The Call regardless of whether they are prone to suicide ideation. There is, however, a positive correlation between anxiety sensitivity and experience of The Call.\n\nSo why? There's some speculation that it's a miscommunication problem between a couple of our internal danger monitor systems. One says \"danger\" next to a cliff, but the other says \"we're still OK\", and this dissonance may cause us to get the feeling of wanting to jump (even though we don't want to, *really*).\n\nYou ask me, all that's bogus. The Call is the gentle whisper of home. A vague memory of something we used to know intimately. It's the desire to let go absolutely. To be truly free. To be alive.",
"I've been in 2 car \"accidents\" because of exactly this, I never want to hurt anyone else so once I just drove into the guard rail going 120km/h it was just like a really effective brake effect, other time I went down into a ditch because my mind told me I have to experience getting the airbag in my face, it was not pleasant at all and I have never told anyone of this because of how crazy it is.",
"Just read this in Last Change to See, by Douglas Adams: \n\n > I've heard an idea proposed, I've no idea how seriously, to account for the sensation of vertigo. It's an idea that I instinctively like and it goes like this.\n\n > The dizzy sensation we experience when standing in high places is not simply a fear of falling. It's often the case that the only thing likely to make us fall is the actual dizziness itself, so it is, at best, an extremely irrational, even self-fulfilling fear. However, in the distant past of our evolutionary journey toward our current state, we lived in trees. We leapt from tree to tree. There are even those who speculate that we may have something birdlike in our ancestral line. In which case, there may be some part of our mind that, when confronted with a void, expects to be able to leap out into it and even urges us to do so. So what you end up with is a conflict between a primitive, atavistic part of your mind which is saying, 'jump!' and the more modern, rational part of your mind which is saying, 'fr Christ's sake, don't!'",
"Wait, what? I have the exact opposite of these feelings.",
"The way I had it explained is that our brain doesn't understand negatives. The second you start thinking \"Don't do x, don't do x don't do x!\" Your brain is preparing your body to do x. \n\nThe context of this for me was learning certain gymnastics moves. If you do a backflip thinking about doing a backflip you're more likely to succeed than if you're thinking about not landing on your head. The sensation is usually amplified if it is something you're afraid of, like if heights scare you, and you don't want to fall, you're likely to think of not falling. Hence you'll feel that pull, while your mind reasons logically that jumping is dumb and you don't want to do it, your brain is still telling your body to prepare for the fall.",
"How is it the majority of people on reddit seem to have ocd?",
"I'm paraphrasing here but this is something that I heard from a redditer who is more qualified then I. It's a survival mechanism to put it bluntly. Say you are holding baby and a thought comes into your mind about dropping the baby because you wanted to move your arms. Instinctively (hopefully) you tighten your grip on the infant to make sure you don't drop it. It's the same when you are near a cliff. You envision your self jumping. So you take a step back to protect your self from death.\n\nEdit: a word",
"For standing on roofs at least, that feeling of dizziness and the desire to jump has a well-known medical explanation, and I can't believe no one has answered it yet. So here goes:\n\nWe have several systems to help us keep our balance. One of them is of course our balance organs in our inner ears, but sight is another one, and a third is our sense of posture (muscles and joints tell our brain how we're currently standing, which is coordinated by the cerebellum). When input from these different sources disagree with each other we get dizziness, also called vertigo with a more technical word. I don't think anyone knows why for sure, but one hypothesis for the evolutionary reason for this is that if your organs disagree with each other about the state of the world, it's probably because you have ingested a poison that impairs your brain. Alcohol being one obvious example. The idea is that when you're poisoned, you should throw up to get rid of it.\n\nWhen you stand on a roof's edge looking forward, or looking down, you see the side of the building as a smooth, vertical surface. When sight is processed in the brain, we are used to interpreting such large, flat surfaces as ground, so the interpretation of your visual input is that the vertical surface below you is in fact horizontal, and that you have tipped somehow. In order to right yourself you then get the urge to lean forward. All of this is done subconsciously, and it's all processed by the brain in a second or less.\n\nFortunately for us, we have more than one system going at the same time, as I said earlier. The very moment we begin to lean forward our inner ears notice that we're tipping, and they immediately send a signal to our brains shouting **\"Belay that order!\"** and we stop leaning forward. That's when we get dizzy, as our organs disagree, and it's possibly worsened by lightheadedness as we realise that we just had a close brush with death. It has been said that people who are afraid of heights aren't really afraid of falling, they are afraid of *wishing* to fall. Finally, the feeling generally gets worse with larger buildings, because the vertical surfaces are larger and flatter. Standing on a skyscraper with a lot of other skyscrapers nearby also makes it worse, because then you see even more vertical surfaces in your field of view, and the interpretation of them as horizontal is strengthened. Genetics also plays a large role, some people are very keenly affected and others don't mind. This coincides with the persons affected by carsickness, another situation when our sensory organs disagree.\n\nEDIT: Spelling.",
"_URL_0_\n\nEdgar Allen Poe wrote a story about this impulse. Above is a good article in Psychology Today about it. \n\n_URL_1_\n",
"I didn't have this fear for most of my life.\n\nThen when I was 20, I went exploring a construction site. I rounded a corner, saw an open elevator shaft, and just jumped right in, zero thought involved. \n\nI broke all the bones in my arm, a compound fracture through the shoulder, my hip always falls out of place now, and I got concussed.\n\nI also ruined my phone and a pack of smokes because there was water at the bottom...",
"Thank you so much for posting this. I thought I was the only one. Makes me feel better that other people have this issue and it's a (semi)common thing. ",
"I don't get the urge to go off the edge, but instead I feel that someone might push me off. Why is that?",
"Wow, I thought I was the only one who had such feelings to do such things. Back of my head I sometimes have the feeling to pull a fire alarm and do weird stuff like that which I would never actually do. ",
"I've heard it is for the same reason that sometimes we think \"I could stab that guy\" or like \"I could just drop this baby right now\"\n\nOur mind reminds us of the possibility that those things could happen so we are more aware of that risk ",
"L'appel du vide, literally \"the call of the void\" is a French phrase used to refer to intellectual suicidal thoughts, or the urge to engage in self-destructive (suicidal) behaviors during everyday life.",
"Wtf. I have never in my entire life gotten the urge to run under a truck or jump off a cliff.\n\nSeek help.",
"I can't remember where I heard it or even if it's true (it does make sense though) but I heard that we have 'intrusive thoughts' to make us think of the consequences of an action before we have the chance to carry it out. \n\nIt's supposed to be some sort of self-protection mechanism. ",
"It's called Lapelle du vide (spelling). It means The Call of the Void. I've experienced it many many times. Often wondered if there was something wrong with me.",
"It's basically that same feeling you get while driving. You know if you swerve into incoming traffic it won't end well. \n\nYour life is like a flame on a candle, in certain moments you have this godly power to blow it out. "
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2k6vs9 | why is even a partial solar eclipse enough to block a significant amount of the suns light from reaching earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k6vs9/eli5_why_is_even_a_partial_solar_eclipse_enough/ | {
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"Well, your finger is smaller than the Empire State building, right? Much, much smaller. \n\nBut if you're looking at the building, and put your finger in your your line of sight, then you should be able to block seeing the building all together. Same as an eclipse. \n\nThe moon is smaller, but much, much, much closer to Earth than the sun. "
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7n5nq2 | how does radar work? and why can you only pick up objects on radar if they are above a certain latitude? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7n5nq2/eli5_how_does_radar_work_and_why_can_you_only/ | {
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"Radar is just just radio waves that get sent out, bounce of an object, and return to the receiver. Radar can detect objects at any altitude as long as there's nothing in the way. So for example, radar can't detect something on the opposite side of a mountain, and can have trouble picking up planes at very low altitudes because of ground clutter (trees and hills and such that get in the way or create noise that hides the plane) but radar can be on the ground or the sea looking up or in the air or space looking down.",
"As a former 14E (PATRIOT radar and fire control) soldier:\n\n* Yes, as long as there is nothing between the object in the air and the emitter, it can see the object. This includes rain clouds.\n\n* You can't see below your wavelenght - the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. Most air traffic control radars are 1–2 GHz 15–30 cm wavelength.\n\n* The return (the radiation sent back to the emitter) suffers from the inverse square law: energy sent out is inversely proportional to the square of the distance . When the energy bounces off the object/target in the sky it is received inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Air search/fire control radars require a lot of power.\n\n* The radar \"gun\" used by police has a narrow beam and since the distances are smaller it can be made less complex than an air radar but they use the same frequencies as many air search radars.\n\n"
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3omkls | how do "smell particles" move? at what rate, and what can effect the rate? | I have an autospray air freshener, I always notice I hear it, and then 3 secs later I can smell it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3omkls/eli5_how_do_smell_particles_move_at_what_rate_and/ | {
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"They move via diffusion.\n\nThe only thing likely to increase the rate of diffusion in this situation is the temperature. When it is hotter, the particles will have more energy, and so will move faster.",
"This is called diffusion. The rate at which it moves varies based on the temperature of the gasses involved (hotter means faster) and the relative density and composition of the the \"smell particles\". Some smells are made of more dense molecules, and will diffuse slower...lighter ones will move quicker. The flow will be one of higher concentration to lower...such that overall, the smell will diffuse evenly in the room. ",
"'Smell particles' actually move through advection over large distances. Advection is known as bulk particle movement due to density differences. Advection would be density differences present causing air to be in constant motion even if you cant feel it. And the 'smell particles' move because the surrounding air is continuously moving. \n\nOnce your air spritzer sprays it the becomes associated with the surrounding air molecules which are in constant motion around your room because of different densities and any induced currents. \n\nDiffusions is important over an extremely short distances. Like the width of a cell membrane. It would take something like 7 years to smell an open perfume bottle on the other side of the room if only diffusion was occurring. \n\nSo both diffusion and advection do act in the movement but the majority of movement comes from advection. ",
"They spread via diffusion. The motion of molecules in a gas is essentially random, with molecules constantly bumping into each other and this motion causes sustances to spread out. The rate at which this diffusion takes place is proportional to the difference in concentation, so the smell will spread quickly near the source and slow down as it gets further out. [I have a simulation of this here](_URL_0_). The blue particles represent air molecules. Click to introduce some new particles (in red). They should gradually spread out until they are evenly mixed.\n\nAs /u/sticklemyback noted, substances in air also spread via advection. All that means is that when the air moves, the smell gets transported along with it, so air currents can move smells around as well. There will always be some movement of air due to temperature imbalances, even in a closed room. The combination of advection and diffusion is refered to as convection.\n\n"
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2ksggj | how is a global economy based on the requirement of constant, infinite growth sustainable in a world with limited, finite resources? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ksggj/eli5_how_is_a_global_economy_based_on_the/ | {
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"Well it depends on what you mean by finite. Technically the energy provided by the sun is finite as it'll burn out in however many billion years from now. \n\nThe truth is that the resources on earth, while finite, are still tremendous. There's far more of them than folks make out. \n\nNothing, not even habitation on this planet, can last indefinitely. When asking questions like this it is important to define what you mean by sustainable. For how long? If you literally mean \"Forever\" then no, it isn't. If you mean \"Until technology allows us to tap other resources\" then yes, it is. Because there's more of these finite resources (and even more alternatives to them) then you'd ever imagine.",
"Not all resources are fixed. We'll look at several resources used by the economy: labor, land, financial capital, and natural resources.\n\nLabor: as the number of people in the world rises, and efficiency is increased through automation, education, and logistics, the total output potential of humanity will increase.\n\nFinancial capital: sufficiently endlessly available for our purposes.\n\nLand: the total amount of land on earth is virtually fixed. While we can theoretically make more, its difficult and iffy at best. However, the efficient use of land is virtually limitless, as there are always better ways to house people, build buildings, grow food, etc... Because of this, there will always be space available for activities.\n\nNatural resources: Baring the eventual mining of asteroids, natural resources are finite. however, like land, they can always be improved, recycled, and repurposed as long as the labor and money enough to do it.",
"It's not. The whole thing is a house of cards and the \"extend and pretend\" policy is rapidly running out of effectiveness.",
"The word you are looking for is value add. Once upon a time, iron was useful for a few items like weapons and armor. Along comes the industrial revolution and you now have hundreds of uses and alloys like steel. As long as we can continue getting more and more value out of these limited resources, we can grow. Once we stop innovating, the system will collapse.",
"Because even though some resources are scarce, in general they are so abundant there is little difference from finite and infinite.\n\nFor example, the amount of energy from the sun that hits the earth is over 1000 times global consumption. \n\nAnd the earth only receives a tiny fraction of the sun's total energy. One second of all the energy from the sun could power the earth for a million years.\n\nSo it really isn't a question of running out, it is finding ways to make that energy available. ",
"Not really an explanation but a nice quote: There are only two kinds of people that think infinite growth is possible with finite resources: a crazy person and a economist\" ~ Can't remember who",
"Because technology increases resource efficiency and as a resource becomes scarce, it becomes more expensive, which incentivizes both increased efficiency and using alternatives that have become cheaper than the primary resource. This model lasts a very very long time to the point that by the time it actually could become a catastrophic issue on Earth, we should be embarrassed if we don't have an interstellar civilization to maintain the model. ",
"\"You tell me unlimited growth and consumption are good. Then your biologists tell me this is cancerous and lethal. To which hoquat should I listen?\"\n\n-Frank Herbert's Soul Catcher",
"I hope this doesn't get lost because [this book](_URL_0_ ) explains exactly why it will never work (growth for the sake of growth).\n\nVERY interesting read about the limits of our growing population and ever expanding needs of consummers...",
"Because the global economy itself is a relative construct, not an absolute one. Money is just a point system to represent the finite assets. When there's more money than equivalent finite assets, each unit of money just goes down (inflation). When there's not enough money in the system, each unit of money just goes up (deflation). Growth appears to be infinite simply because the unit used to measure the economy itself (money) is relative. The absolute growth of the finite assets themselves are quite internally consistent. "
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35qavk | what is a memory leak? | I've always wondered what a memory leak is - often when software is updated I see fixes on memory leaks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35qavk/eli5_what_is_a_memory_leak/ | {
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"A programs claims memory to do its tasks. When it no longer needs it, it should release that memory, so it can be reused (usually within the same application). If the program forgets to do so, the memory just sits there, occupying space. If that space keeps growing, it will finally run out of memory and crash.",
"Think of memory like books in a library. The librarian lends them out, and expects patrons to return them in a timely fashion.\n\nIf patrons don't return them, then those posts are unavailable to everyone else. And if patrons get in the habit of borrowing lots of books and never returning them, the library will soon run out.\n\nThat's pretty much what memory leak is, a program asks the operating system for memory, then forgets to let the OS know when it is finished with it. If that request for memory is inside a loop that runs several times each second, the program can wind up using much more memory than it requires, the OS will eventually run out of memory to give."
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60o5ql | why do country's with huge populations (india, china) not do very well in the fifa world cup? | You'd think that with such a large selection for it's squad they could rustle up some dominant players | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60o5ql/eli5_why_do_countrys_with_huge_populations_india/ | {
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"It's mostly about the culture and how much it is stressed. Look at Canada and hockey. They have a low population, but they're dominant at hockey because it's part of the culture. The US has nearly 350 million people but there's a big discrepancy between how successful the mens team and womens teams are when it comes to the rest of the world. ",
"There's so much more that goes into a good sports team (not just soccer, any sport) than just talent. You have to have a good coach (or in this case, manager), enough fans that companies consider it worth the money to invest in the organization, and good scouts to find that talent. You're right that, with such large populations, these countries should have great national teams, but if theirs not enough money, those players won't play, or the scouts might not be able to find them, or the manager/coach might not be good enough to utilize the talent.\n\nComparatively, Portugal and Brazil, countries known for having great national teams, sink a LOT of money into soccer. It's the national pastime for them, everyone plays it as a kid, and they have good enough organizations that they can find those great players and groom them from a young age. \n\nTldr: it's more about the money than volume of people ",
"Quantity is never better than quality. Those people don't have the same lifestyle and almost never talk about football, contrary to most countries in Europe, where most good players play / life / grow.\n\nI live in Portugal and we are always bombarded with FOOTBALL news all day. It's ridiculous. We have 3 daily sports journals just for football (in a country with 10M people), Football clubs every town. With so much \"pressure\" it's normal for kids to grow up playing professional football.\n\nThe thing with Sports is that your talent only helps you on the start. The rest is hard-work. If those countries don't have the infrastrutures to train players to the same level as the elites they will have little sucess in becoming good.",
"Culturally they are not very into Soccer. The population in general might be higher, but the population of pro-level soccer players will be far lower than a country where its ingrained into the culture (because you dont have little kids playing it, which means you dont have as many who then play it in school, then who play it in amateur leagues, and it keeps flowing up). Because there is a smaller pro-level population, the professional scene in that country just generally isnt as skilled as elsewhere, which means they get thrashed whenever they do play internationally.\n\neg; America could front up a cricket team but they would get absolutely destroyed by the UK or Australia, the US has a population of ~319m while the UK and Aus have ~64m and ~23m respectively. The difference, the average American has no idea what Cricket is while in Australia or the UK its near sacred.",
"Grew up in India.\n\nNot once did I see a football, let alone play football.\n\nOne kid had a volleyball and suggested we play football with it and everyone thought he was freaking weird. \n\nthe sports culture in India revolves around Cricket.\n\nIts cricket and thats it. The organizations, sponsorships, tournaments, leagues are all setup for cricket and have their huge following.\n\nFootball is just not a thing in India and will never gain any prominence because the Indian attention span for sports is very small and cricket dominates it completely. "
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2lklzo | - how is it that there have been a series of outrageously botched executions recently yet doctors in oregon have the ability to prescribe medicine that will allow someone to humanely end their life? | Is it a matter of location? Are Oklahoma and Arizona not able to get the drugs that Oregon and other places can get? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lklzo/eli5_how_is_it_that_there_have_been_a_series_of/ | {
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"While I'm no expert on the subject, my thought is that the state laws put in place regulating the methods and the drugs used for executions make the process much less flexible than someone's voluntary choice to end their own life. Unfortunately, stricter regulation does not mean a more humane method. You're pretty much stuck with the lethal injection method, and new drugs have to be selected, tested, and approved before they are used for executions, so it seems the same drugs that repeatedly cause issues with the process remain in use. Also, there is the simple fact that it is an execution. There are a lot of people who don't give two shits about the process being humane. (EDIT: Not trying to be one-sided... there have been plenty of people who have openly stated this.)\n\n",
"I don't think doctors are allowed to participate in executions.\n\nEven if the law prohibits repercussions to participating doctors, the medical community would more or less shun a doctor who helped.\n\nAs far as I understand, doctors can only participate in so far as treatment and minimizing suffering, but not to help execute the prisoner."
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7lgc6i | why do pilots sometimes ask you to turn off all electronic devices when there is poor ground visibility? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lgc6i/eli5_why_do_pilots_sometimes_ask_you_to_turn_off/ | {
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"The instruments that the pilots use, called the *Instrument Landing System*, is a sensitive device. The small interference from cell phones or other radio devices can disrupt the radio signals from the ground to the plane and vice versa.\n\nIn conditions where there is low ground visibility, pilots go for the safe route and ask that you turn the devices off to be sure that they receive accurate information that is crucial for landing and these devices can interfere with the readings given. In such poor conditions, there are a lot of things that can do wrong, so to be safe they ask you to turn them off."
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45k3bd | how can different studies have completely opposite results? | I've seen studies, as an example, that moderate drinking has health benefits and increases longevity. Other studies say any amount of drinking hurts the body and decreases longevity. How is this possible? Data is data, facts are facts, science is not based on opinion. These opposite result studies seem to happen more in nutrition sciences, but I've seen it virtually every area. What is going on? I don't understand how research can result in completely opposite results. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45k3bd/eli5_how_can_different_studies_have_completely/ | {
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"Data is data, but it is hard to go from data to facts. There is process of interpretation, procedure and other factors where the choice isn't always objective. Also think of the problem of probability: what if the people in your study sample just happen not to be representative of the greater population? Or what if there's some natural variability in the phenomenon and it all went one way in your study even though that's usually not the case?\n\nWith the amount of research that is done, it should not be surprising that studies come to different conclusions. That's why you shouldn't rely on a single study for your conclusions about what is factual--broad reviews of the literature are necessary, and sometimes you've got to conclude that scientists just don't agree.",
"These are not identical studies on the same subjects. \n\nStudies do show that a moderate consumption of alcohol decreases heart disease. But this might be different if you are studying longevity and the drinking is done at a bar and involves driving home afterward.\n\nYou will also have different results if you study different populations. The effect of moderate use of alcohol on a general populations does not increase with increased dosing. More drinking does not help. But if you study populations already defined as having heart disease there is no upper limit to the benefit of drinking. But mortality is increased because this population already has heart problems.\n\nIf you are looking for effects based on small studies then statistically you will get different answers sometimes. A statistician can predict this for you.\n\nIn fields with large amounts of studies it is best to rely on meta analysis by experts. They look at as many studies as possible. They analyze methodologies and can see where errors may creep in. They write articles based not on original research but on what seems to be shown by the research studies.",
"Another reason for this, that has not been named here yet, is flawed research design. Data is data, but if that data was collected through flawed means, it might not be useful. Or, at the very least, it cannot be used to explain the whole population (but might still be used to explain certain subsets of the whole population)\n\nTake alcohol, for example. How did they monitor how much people drank in this study? If they were relying on self-reporting, you quickly run into the problem that self-reporting is very unreliable. People often are very bad at honestly reporting how often they do a particular thing. Mix in certain social attitudes, like with alcohol, and you might have people reporting that they only drink a glass of wine per day, but in reality it is more like three and they are just too ashamed to admit it. Or they drink not at all most nights and then have one night where they go totally balls to the wall crazy with the drink but they still report it is 'oh I drink two glasses a night' rather than 'I don't drink anything six out of seven nights, but drink 14 glasses on the one night I do drink', because in their mind, it is the same, but for the body it might be a whole different ball game.\n\nAnother factor is that science *reporting* can be very flawed. It happens far too often that science articles headline with stuff like 'alcohol proven to increase health and longevity' while the actually study never came close to claiming that, and only claimed, of example, that a very moderate intake of a particular type of alcohol may have have positive benefits to the heart in a certain group of people. So if you are basing your conclusions on articles and not the actual studies, you might think there is a lot of conflicting information out there, whereas in reality, the studies are not actually conflicting, it is just the way how the studies get reported that makes it seem like that.",
"Journalists almost never phrase the research's findings properly. If you read the original papers (which can be very hard going, of course), they often seem more concordant than the media made out.\n\nHowever, sometimes even that won't help. So what's going on? Well, a lot of studies are of statistics. Even if all you wanted to know was something very simple, such as whether dimes are more likely to yield a heads result when tossed than nickels are, if this were studied several times random chance would occasionally give one result and occasionally another, and usually they'd say \"there's no statistically significant difference\". Unfortunately, the media is incredibly inconsistent regarding how they report that. Sometimes a statistically significant difference (which is probably just dumb luck) will be reported as a real difference, because the media doesn't understand how statistics works, or pretends it doesn't.\n\nOn the other hand, sometimes an effect is real but certain biased media refuse to admit it. For example, \"global warming stopped in 1998\". Uh, no it didn't. It might look like it did if you use just the right subset of the data and use statistical techniques that only work for unautocorrelated data, but any climatologist would tell you temperatures are autocorrelated and... well, I won't go into more detail.",
"Two main reasons: \n \n1. Studies show that studies show exactly what the sponsor pays them to show. \n \n2. Figures don't lie but liers sure can figure"
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8tgilo | why does a person become angry/moody when they're tired? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tgilo/eli5_why_does_a_person_become_angrymoody_when/ | {
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"As Ghostfreax pointed out already, when you’re tired, your dopamine levels drop and thus you’re “less happy”. Also - and that’s just a non-scientific wide guess by myself - people tend to appear friendly because they try to and push aside things that annoy and aggravate them. When you are tired, you mostly are not motivated to “put up with other people”. ",
"All of the chemicals in your brain (neurotransmitters) that normally make you feel happy are tied to your body's natural internal clock (circadian rhythm). Aside from your body producing less of those when you are tired/usually sleeping, this is also the time when your body repairs itself. \n\nIf you force yourself to stay awake for a long period, all of the \"unnecessary\" functions usually managed by a healthy, well-maintained brain not required for immediate survival are partitioned away or outright shut off. This sort of process occurs for almost every system of the body - digestive, energy production, brain chemistry, etc.\n\nYou becomes dull, your reaction time slows down, critical thinking goes out the window, emotional sensitivity disappears, and your body gradually starts to wear down faster. This is why people can - eventually - die from a lack of sleep. It impacts everything down to the folding of protean strands in your DNA and cellular water retention. \n\nI can ELI10 for more detailed stuff on stages of sleep and situation awareness if asked, but that's only tertiarily related to the main question. ",
"It's nature's natural regulator of people that will stay in your presence disturbing your rest.",
"You can thank your adenosine for that. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that builds up in your system throughout the day, more so if you are really active. As you get more adenosine built up, your body gets more exhausted and your brain responds to that by telling you to take care of yourself and go to sleep, getting increasingly insistent. \nAdditionally, caffeine looks like adenosine to your receptors, effectively blocking your uptake of adenosine and fighting off the message to get some rest. That's why coffee can give you what feels like a boost, however it is actually just a short reprieve. ",
"Related question! Why do people get more cranky with family members and other loved ones instead of other people? Well-informed responses only plz, tnx.",
"So you got your scientific explanations below, but I always find analogies more helpful for understanding the WHY of questions like this. Which comes down to evolution of course. In this case, the evolution of allocating resources and managing bodily processes. \n \nAs it turns out, nature figured out the same thing most businesses learn, which is that you have to account for your limits and focus your resources. Say you run a business. Doesn't matter what kind, but say it involves customers in your property and lots of equipment too. You may discovery that when customers are on your property, it's very difficult to do certain tasks, like moving lots of inventory around without running someone over, or making major repairs during business hours, or remodeling the building as needed, etc. So you establish business hours of course. \n \nYour business hours are scheduled to accommodate your customers. Customers are where your money comes from and money determines how many employees and work hours you get and how much you have to spend on equipment and expenses. You want to be open as much as possible when they would be shopping, while leaving enough off hours to get everything done that's necessary behind the scenes to keep the business working. If customers come in and you're out of stock, or your equipment doesn't work, or your building is falling apart, your entire business is at risk. Serving your customers during the day is vital, but so is keeping your business functional. \n \nAt night you also save resources by shutting off your phones, dimming the lights, and turning off much of the equipment. The employees who run that equipment go home, but others come in for stuff like repairs and stocking inventory.\n \nNow at start and the end of the work day your business is not at peak performance. In the morning you've got night crew cleaning up and putting their stuff away, and their workers still making their way out and getting in the way. Same goes for the day crew closing up shop impeding night functions. Peak performance is instead scheduled to coincide with peak business, i.e. when customer volume is highest or when all operations have ramped up and reach peak production. In fact, that's when the vast majority of business is done in a relatively small window. The rest of the time is prep and gearing up for the rush. Your peak hours depend on your business. Maybe it's noon, maybe it's dinner time, maybe there's multiple rushes.\n \nSo that's your body: it's designed to function best at evolutionary peak hours, when you need to go out and obtain food without messing up and dying. Waking up and falling asleep are your transition times, and nothing works right in these periods, including controlling your mood. Sometimes these transitions are automated (circadian rhythms/operations that automatically turn off) other times they are manually implemented (adrenaline from fear of a predator/overtime work to deal with special demand). But the transitions can be rocky periods where things don't function optimally. There's a lag between waking up and reaching peak performance, and between peak performance and readiness for sleep. \n \nThe WHY then, is because it's an efficient use of resources that works with the established bodily processes. It maximizes performance at peak hours but assigns off-hours for rest and repair. The transition between them is rough because of the limits of starting and stopping the bodily processes, and this affects many aspects of your biology including your mood. \n \nYou may ask, why not just start at full blast, with everything at peak performance right away? Firstly it's a waste of energy, because it simply isn't possible for all your processes to be ready at one precise moment. Instead it takes awhile to get some things going, so your body tries to start everything at its own pace and slowly work toward getting everything in sync at peak. In other words, if your workers come in amped up on Mountain Dew ready to go at 5am, but the equipment takes two hours to start, you've got workers worn out by the time everything is in place to start. OR you start the equipment early, but now you're spending more on electric and getting in the way of the other shift that needs things shut off. \n \nInstead, the body tries to manage a dynamic change-over where both day and night functions can operate during transition, but slowly you are working toward peak day or night function. You don't want the body sprinting toward sleep and you pass out while hunting prey or being chased by a predator, nor do you want to start straight up from sleep and expend all your energy before you've even left the cave.",
"For anyone interested, here is a link to a 2 hour interview with a top neuroscientist on just about every function of sleep. He has written a very interesting book on the subject which is linked in the video description.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Guys stop saying 'Dopamine increases or decreases' because it means shit. That's waaay to reductionistic (is that a word?) for the complexity of the brain."
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74fdul | nand and 3d nand | can someone explain how nand is used to store information and the difference between flash and DRAM | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74fdul/eli5nand_and_3d_nand/ | {
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"NAND stands for \"no and\", the reason for that name is not relevant for your question but basically to understand it, you can picture a box where you can store either a 1 or a 0. To change the state of that box you just have to send it a signal (another 1 or 0). By putting billions of this boxes in a hard drive you can store data (binary code) "
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3i5548 | why aren't state license plates readily available to be searched online as part of the open records act? | Just curious why you must go through the police to find out who owns a particular license plate? You can search who owns a parcel of land, an address on a house, etc etc...why not a license plate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3i5548/eli5_why_arent_state_license_plates_readily/ | {
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"There is a [specific law against this](_URL_0_) because evildoers were using this information to stalk people and even kill them.",
"Because there isn't a compelling public interest in finding out who owns a license plate. Most of the interests are legitimately accomplished through police or court actions, and there are significant problems with making it available.",
"See a nice Ferarri? Copy the plates, lookup the address, and go steal it!",
"Just to complete the thought from several others, the reason why you can search for parcels and addresses is that there are compelling public reasons that require that information to be available. \n\nThe whole purpose of addresses is to be able to identify and find a particular piece of property. Finding out the owner of a property is absolutely essential to the way that we buy and sell property. \n\nBeing able to match a license to a person/address, on the other hand, has no such purpose."
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29ifob | why don't people come in more colors? | Why, unlike certain animals, are people only one color? It seems that, evolutionarily speaking, animals use multi-coloration to blend in to their environments. Why aren't people more like this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29ifob/eli5_why_dont_people_come_in_more_colors/ | {
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"You're not going to get a good answer to this question because trying to figure out the reason for a specific evolutionary trait is just guesswork and not at all based in science. You can't observe evolution that has already happened.\n\nHumans have the colouration that we have because it helped our evolutionary anscestors pass their genetic information to the next generation. ",
"While in our prime we are the alpha predator. But as we age that ranking will wavier and we can become victim the next beta predator that catches our scent. \n\nLuckily homo sapiens evolved a system to counterbalance old age giving us the edge over homo sapiens neanderthalensis (the primary beta predator back in the day). As we age some secondary body systems (liver, joints, nervous, skin) give up resources to primary or direct body systems (circulatory, respiratory). One would think that this redistribution of resources would decrease the lifespan of a person, not so. \n\nAs these secondary systems reduce their intake of resources they work together synergistically to aid the body as a whole. In particular, as the liver is less able to detox the blood/digestive systems it purposefully sends controlled doses of certain toxin combinations known as hepatotoxicity (mainly rifampicin, carbamazepine, and phenobarbital) to the skin causing deep red brick/brown spots to form. \n\nHistorically these would have eventually covered an elderly persons skin in perfect earth toned camouflage. Due to modern diets and drugs these 'liver spots' are less likely to cover the entire body and often only appear in a few places as modern humans age. ",
"we're the top predators on earth.....the fuck do we need to hide from?",
"There are multiple ways to survive and hide. Human is pretty good in using different kind of clothing, hides and mud etc. to hide.\n\nThis method makes it also possible to adapt to different kinds of plantation. And human in general is the best at adapting to different environments."
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4u2dhi | steam's drm system | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u2dhi/eli5_steams_drm_system/ | {
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"While not every game on Steam requires DRM, Valve's own Steamworks DRM System is used for most games on the platform. It basically works by adding the requirement to launch/have Steam running when launching the executable of a game.\n\nUsually then Steam verifies that you have purchased the game (either through Steam directly or through the code used to activate the game on Steam). However, if no Internet Connection is available, you can still run games Installed locally if Steam is running (in \"Offline Mode\") for some time (currently two weeks i think) until a locally saved verification expires."
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8q2e48 | what is baking powder and how does it work? what did people use before it was invented and packaged? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8q2e48/eli5_what_is_baking_powder_and_how_does_it_work/ | {
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"It is Sodium Bicarbonate. It is a naturally occurring substance which can be found in some parts of the world making River Banks fizzle.\n\nBefore it was mass produced it was carefully mined from locations around the world. It was used in medicine and later baking for centuries.",
"Baking powder is a mixture of carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. It lightens baked goods by releasing carbon dioxide to form bubbles in the baked good.\n\nPrior to its invention people used yeast and dealt with the flavor it causes."
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30e2o4 | how come i can always quickly tell a soap opera is on tv from even a single frame? | Is it the lighting? The acting? The camera work? What actual things are they doing which make the genre so distinct? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30e2o4/eli5_how_come_i_can_always_quickly_tell_a_soap/ | {
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"Lighting and sets for one, but primarily what I think you're noticing is most daytime and sitcom television is shot using videotape derivative cameras (even though they're mostly digital Im sure nowadays). These shoot/record at 50-60 frames per second, closer to the speed (60) at which our eyeballs can't discern changes well (this is also why electricity is set to 60 Hz or cycles per second, so we don't see the flicker in our lights).\n\nFilm cameras record at 24-30 frames per second, giving that \"film\" look.",
"Lighting and camera work are two big indicators. Have you ever seen a sitcom doing one of those \"what if\" sequences? I saw an Everybody Loves Raymond that perfectly nailed the look of 3-4 soaps, except for having Ray and his wife in it.\n\nI saw it on two other shows but can't remember what they were. I just saw that ELR episode a couple weeks back on netflix.",
"The thing that makes Soap Operas stand out to me immediately is the frame rate. (Almost) all movies and fictional TV shows are 24 frames per second, where as Soap Operas and a lot of live events are 30 frames per second. If you're not super familiar with frame rates, remember that all movies, tv shows, etc. actually work on the same principal as flip books do. There are still pictures layered over each other to give the illusion of movement. The movies and shows your used to have 24 pictures per second, soap operas have 30, giving them the illusion of being more \"realistic,\" but still being a cheesy soap opera. "
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2vgsfx | in words like "prophet", why use "ph" instead of "f". profet | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vgsfx/eli5_in_words_like_prophet_why_use_ph_instead_of/ | {
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"Most words with a ph in English have Greek origin as the letter 'phi' (φ). In ancient Greek, phi was pronounced pretty much with how you'd imagine a ph would sound - a \"p\" with a strong outward breath, similar to the letter p at the beginning of \"**p**aint\". This was rendered in the Latin alphabet (which English uses) as \"ph\". But since that time, its usage in both Greek and Latin shifted to something similar to the modern \"f\", and it's that pronunciation that was picked up by English. But since we took the word from Latin, we kept the Latin spelling as 'ph'.\n\nTL;DR: Spelling changed more slowly than pronunciation did, as is typical in a society that has written language but not sound recordings."
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1hap7g | what gives police the right to confiscate cameras that recorded an incident involving the police? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hap7g/eli5what_gives_police_the_right_to_confiscate/ | {
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"The short answer is that, in the US, they can't. Police generally can't seize your personal property without a warrant (order) from a judge, unless there are special circumstances, such as someone being in danger if they aren't located, etc. \n\nThey CAN often hold you, or your phone, at the scene for a reasonable time in order to secure that warrant.\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you're asking why it has been done in many cases, the answer is that, as personal video became more popular and widespread, many police and police agencies interpreted rulings such as the one below (NOT ELI5 obviously) to apply to video evidence as well. This issue has since been clarified by recent court rulings.\n\n\nTerry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)\n\n“Where a crime may have been committed and a suspect or important witness is about to disappear, it seems irrational to deprive the officer of the opportunity to ‘freeze’ the situation for a short time, so that he may make inquiry and arrive at a considered judgment about further action to be taken.”\n\nThe strength of the need to detain a witness depends on four things: (1) the seriousness of the crime under investigation, (2) the nature of the information the witness can reasonably be expected to provide, (3) the level of proof that the witness can provide such information, and (4) whether there are any less intrusive methods of obtaining the same information.",
"Technically, the Police do not have \"rights,\" citizens do. Police have \"Authority.\" Big difference.\n\nIn any case, they CAN take your camera to \"preserve evidence,\" such as if you film a crime (usually only applies to major crimes). Should you refuse, they can legally detain you for a short time while they acquire a subpoena or a warrant to confiscate the camera. They still need a warrant regardless, but if the evidence is serious enough, it isnt too difficult to obtain one. \n\nOf course, if you are worried about police abuse, and them confiscating your camera to destroy evidence of their wrong doing, there are several apps and such for smart phones that can upload a video online or store it until you can retrieve it later. "
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a61f8i | how did houston know what conditions would be like for a human on the moon to prepare the space suits just right to protect the astronauts during apollo 11? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a61f8i/eli5_how_did_houston_know_what_conditions_would/ | {
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"Among things, animal testing. Not all the dogs came back in great condition, but by the time they sent a chimp, they had most of it figured out. \n\nA big piece of it for a while was underwater testing too. They got some practice in reduced gravity and got to check airtight conditions that they were already struggling with in airplanes. ",
"They’d made plenty of space flights prior to that with a ton of sensors testing everything possible about space prior to that. ",
"It's not as if we didn't know what it was going to be like. We'd been in space since 1958, and had a number of manned flights prior to the Apollo program, including t he spacewalks of Gemini. Then there's the lunar exploration which including robotic flybys, impactors, and landers, all of which occured prior to Apollo 11 and informed the design of the spacesuits. We knew more than enough about the lunar environment. You don't have to physically set foot somewhere to know what it's going to be like. \n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;",
"We knew the pressure was 0, we knew the temperature ranges from sending probes in the Surveyor program and from published Soviet data from their landers.\n\nWe knew how to make space suits from previous space flights and space walks\n\nEdit\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"Nasa was very woried about the suits during the first moon mission. The astronauts were instructed to stay close to the capsule in case of emergency. Plant a flag get some samples and get out. They also where not sure if th spacesuits could survive a fall from one of the astronauts, so they had to be carefull. \nWhen they examined the suits they saw minimal damage so for later missions they knew that the suits where good. So from later missions we have footage like this. _URL_0_",
"We had collected quite a lot of data about the Moon before we sent humans there.\n\nWe used **telescopes** to learn what the moon was (roughly) made of, that it had no atmosphere, and what its temperature was.\n\nWe used **orbiting and crash-landing space probes** to get very detailed photos of the surface. This was the [Ranger Program](_URL_0_)\n\nWe used **robotic landers** to get a ground-level view and learn in great detail what the texture and chemistry of the surface was. This was the [Surveyor Program](_URL_1_).\n\nThe Surveyor lander program in particular was crucial. The first astronauts were extra-careful just in case there was an unexpected problem, but it turned out the robots we sent first gave us all the info we needed. BTW, the Apollo 12 mission landed right next to one of the old Surveyor robots and brought pieces of it back to Earth for study!"
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76guhq | that unique smell from sneezing? | A smell one smells when they sneeze and sometimes they smell it when other people sneeze. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/76guhq/eli5that_unique_smell_from_sneezing/ | {
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"Saliva and mucus rushing out from your mouth and getting pushed to the back of your nose because your lungs are ejecting air out due to stimulation of your sinuses. It's kind of like when u puke and u get that gnarly taste from the puke but in nose form.",
"Weird.. I can never recall smelling someone's sneeze. From this moment I will consciously pursue this goal. \n\nEdit: pity the smell only exists for a\"finite\" amount of time. Else the atmosphere would be permanently permeated with this elusive miasma."
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2b08ej | why isn't edward snowden protected under the whistleblower protection programs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b08ej/eli5_why_isnt_edward_snowden_protected_under_the/ | {
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"Because the crime they want to charge him with is treason. Also the government says that he put lives at risk with his whistleblow",
"Classified information has a specific policy and way to whistleblow about data through the govt. He obviously did not follow those procedures and simply released somewhat random information. He agreed beforehand in lots and lots of documents to only do certain things with classified data, since he broke this part of the contract, he would not be entitled whistleblower protection.",
"* First, the government says, he did not expose the kinds of actions covered by whistle-blower protections — illegal conduct, fraud, waste or abuse. \n\n* Other officials have argued that the programs revealed by Snowden are illegal or unconstitutional. For now, they are presumptively legal, given the assent of members of Congress and the special court known as FISA that oversees intelligence operations.\n\nBut suppose Snowden’s supporters are right, and what he exposed was illegal conduct after all.\n\n* Then he would face a second problem: The Federal Whistle-blower Protection Act protects the public disclosure of “a violation of any law, rule, or regulation” only “if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law.” \n\nIn other words, Snowden could claim whistle-blower protection only if he took his concerns to the NSA’s inspector general or to a member of one of the congressional intelligence committees with the proper security clearances.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Because President Obama promised to run the most transparent administration in history, so we have no need for whistleblowers.",
"Two reasons. First, he has been charged under the Espionage Act, which does not have exemptions for whistleblowers. Second, he was working for a private contractor at the time. Private contractors are not covered under the Whistleblower Protection Program. Glenn Greenwald wrote an article exactly addressing this question, and explains it in far more detail.\n\n_URL_0_",
"If he didn't take state secrets and flee the country he would have been okay.\n\n[Mark Klein](_URL_0_) revealed much of what Snowden did in this 2007 interview and he hasn't been charged with anything or punished.",
"He didn't go through the actual steps of a whistleblower and is covered by a seperate part of the law because he was working for Intelligence Community not federal government. Also didn't take it to NSA secretary general which is required for him to do.\n\n* [\"Analysis: Why Edward Snowden Isn't a Whistleblower\"](_URL_0_)",
"No one has yet pointed this fact out: Snowden didn't reveal *illegal* activity...he revealed legal activity that people just don't like.",
"Basically, he pissed off the wrong people who have set up a legal pillow fort where it is illegal to tell on them. ",
"He chose to whistleblow as a contractor when he had chances to work as a federal employee and be protected. He also chose not to talk to a congressperson or senator. He also chose to release 1.9 million documents to China and his buddy Putin. Only about 10-20% of which actually had anything to do with stuff that a large portion of US taxpayers are legitimately upset with, even though the conduct doesn't appear to be grossly illegal.",
"The simplistic answer is that a) the espionage act doesn't allow whistleblowers to release classified documents, and 2) suppose there wasn't classified documents he still didn't go through \"proper channels\" such as inspector generals offices or intelligence congressional committees.\n\nAll the other answers seem to not understand there is a Intelligence Community Whistleblower Act, but it is fairly limited and clearly does not allow the public release of classified documents in any capacity.",
"There's a lot of people saying he didn't follow the \"official procedures\", but they are failing to mention that there were a few whistleblowers before Snowden who tried it and went nowhere, had their careers ruined and were \"forgotten\" by the media.\n\nSo when the \"official procedures\" don't work, what else is one supposed to do?",
"Snowden said there were no legal avenues he could follow, including the Whistleblower Act, due to his status as a contractor.\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is an investigative article which talks about this point and finds that it is ambiguous whether he would have received protection.\n\n[Here](_URL_1_) are the laws in question that may or may not cover him.",
"Many answers try to give an explanation in terms of the law, and that's a mistake. The answer is that the only law that applies to institutions like the NSA is pure power. The law doesn't frame explanations here. It is beside the point. Snowden doesn't get whistleblower protection because with the NSA and like institutions, the law does not matter. "
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dx2tcb | why do cars in the us typically have much larger engine displacement than cars in the eu? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dx2tcb/eli5_why_do_cars_in_the_us_typically_have_much/ | {
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"Because fuel is considerably cheaper in the US. Also they don’t tax based on engine displacement. Some other countries tax based on engine displacement so they try and keep it as low as possible.",
"Our fuel over here is almost twice the price of what it is in the U.S, for a start. [Gasoline price comparison](_URL_0_)\n\nAdd the fact our Road Tax (an almighty rip off) is based upon emissions (was once done on engine size), then it’s easy to see why our little 1.6l’s become the norm.\n\nA lot to be said for the size of our countries also. We would rarely have the need to take extremely long drives, where as the sheer scale of the U.S would likely make such road trips more likely.",
"They think nothing of driving 10 hours at highway speeds.\n\nBigger engines run at lower RPM at higher speeds. Lower RPM means less wear and better fuel efficiency over the excessive distances and higher speeds they regularly drive.\n\nIn large part, most EU driving is in town in traffic where smaller engines are more efficient.",
"Mostly vehicle size. European cars are smaller, because European roads are smaller, often following city plans which predate automobiles.",
"To continue on the wonderful points everyone is making from highway efficiency to city efficiency to size and use of the vehicle. Let's talk about fun, as another user once put it America is so large and for the most part well laid out that we have streight roads, in essence drag strips with stoplights. What's fun on a drag strip? A powerful car with plenty of traction. Like what everyone drives around here\n\nEdit; AMERICA FUCK YEAH",
"A lot of reasons why we have *some* bigger engines. However, most cars in the US are relatively small displacement 4cyl. Even pickups like the F150 have a 2.7L engine option. My pickup is a 1.8L diesel. Sports cars and Trucks/SUVs are the only ones you're going to really see with the big engines. Most other cars usually come with a 1.5-2.0L engine. \n\nFirst though, the US is massive and we drive long distances all the time (I've actually got a 900 mile drive to my inlaws for Thanksgiving week, and 900 miles back). Larger engines run at lower RPMs compared to smaller engines, so our larger engines have less wear and better fuel efficiency over those long distances while small displacement engines would wear out quicker. \n\nSecond, our gas is ridiculously cheap compared to Europe. The average is somewhere around $2.60 a gallon, but ranges from $2.21 in Texas to $3.99 in California. In Germany right now it is an average $5.79 per gallon (converted from Euro per liter). \n\nThird, we don't tax based on engine size.",
"The answer to this is a combination of a couple things. One item is that some European countries levied heavy taxes against engine displacement, which incentivized consumers to buy smaller displacement engines, which lead car makers to focus on small engines.\n\nIn the United States, many automakers made large trucks which used large engines to tow/haul heavy loads. To save money, automakers tried to share some of the components of the truck engines with car engines. These engines also tied in well with the muscle car scene in the USA. You still see some of this today, especially with the big 3 American automakers. \n\nOther factors include emissions regulations, cost of fuel between Europe and the United States, and differences in how the different populations used cars. The United States stretches over a huge area of land with lots of open space between with long sections of freeway. Many European cities are very old and we're constructed long before automobiles were even remotely close to being an idea in someone's head. These small narrow streets make it hard to fit the larger cars that tend to accompany larger engines.",
"Its literally just a culture thing and the way things have been done.\nIn Europe it has always been about making small cost effective vehicles that help you get around.\nDistances travelled are generally much smaller.\nAnd there has always been a big focus on efficiency.\n\nIn the US larger distances are travelled, there is the mentality bigger is better, bigger is more powerful, and space is not an issue.",
"In the U.S., you can drive at highway speeds for an hour and not have left town.\n\nIn the E.U., you could drive at U.S. highway speeds for an hour and have broken the speed limit in three separate countries.",
"Because distances. I would regularly take 1200 mile trips myself (one way) lots of people do that. Bigger engines get less wear/tear on long trips at highway speeds. In Europe everything is 10 minutes away. And people don't travel casually to other countries that often. You can drive for 24 hours in a straight line here in the US and never leave the country ...\n\nAlso - even in town, we put a lot more miles than they do in Europe. It's common here for people to work 20-25 miles away from their house , that makes 50 miles round trip= 80 km ... You would be in a different part of the country if you did that in Europe. In the states you just left the suburb to get to downtown",
"In addition, the new small engine cars with turbos and injection behave like bigger engines and are more efficient on mpg.",
"1. Cars in the US are generally larger because the roads are larger, parking spaces are larger etc. It’s hard to fit a 8l engine into a fiat 500. \n\n2. Fuel is much cheaper in the US. \n\n3. Regulations on things like CO2 emissions are tougher in Europe.",
"Space. Road size and travel distance. \nEuropeans largely want smaller cars to navigate the 300 year old narrow roads and dont have to travel as far as their American counterparts.",
"because Americans arent as good at engineering as Germans or that ferarri guy so we became obsessed with \"muscle\" . i need atleast a 3.2 V tech engine and thats basically a girls car .",
"The fact is, you do not need a large car to travel long distances. \n\nLook at Australia.\n\nAustralian's love their cars and we don't need or use huge gas guzzlers. You can comfortably drive From Sydney to Melbourne in a 1.8L Toyota Corolla from, which is a \\~9 hour journey. \n\nBut then Australia has some pretty hefty fuel Taxes, with the benefit of getting some rather decent roads as a result.",
"Because the general public in the US market doesn't care about technical details unlike in EU they care about two things:\n\n- does it look and sound cool and the business\n\n- cost has to be either super cheap or so expensive that it turns your neighbours green\n\neverything else comes as distant third and big, lound and semi-useless gas guzzling engine trumps everything along with the size of the car it self.\n\nIs it safe, is it economical. is it fuel efficient - > the fuck cares I wan't bling for my money!\n\nthat's the american car market in a nut shell.",
"First, engine sizes have absolutely NOTHING to do with the speed they turn at highway speeds. That's the transmission. My 1.4 liter VW Jetta turns at a lower speed with it's 5 speed manual than my old 5.9l Jeep with a 3 speed automatic, and that turned lower than my grandfather's old 2 speed chevy hydramatic.\n\nOne thing to know is that US tax laws favor larger, heavier vehicles. For example, if you have a vehicle that weighs more than 6,000 lbs (2,722 kg), you can deduct up to $25,000 on your taxes for business purposes. Mom's got a home based business? Better get that Suburban XL because it's now $25,000 cheaper! Your company could use a smaller vehicle but it's only a few thousand more for a larger vehicle AND you get to deduct $25,000 from your taxes. The incentive should be obvious.\n\nAnother point is that the US market is unregulated compared to the European market. There is no incentive to drive a smaller vehicle - no national toll roads that offer discounts to small vehicles, no extra taxes beyond a national, one time gas guzzler tax that's factored into the price of a vehicle. The penalties from driving an inefficient vehicle are minimal.\n\nA third issue is the ruralness of America. Yes, lots of city folk have big SUV's, but if you live in the country, they can be a necessity. My entire extended family lives on farms. It's a ten minute drive into ten and a 30 minute drive into a city of about 5,000, or an hour into a city of about 300k. That drive includes 10 minutes on gravel roads that see snow measured by the foot during the winter. Groceries are bought in bulk, 4wd is required, and that's for emergencies. All of them have day jobs but they also do farm work - hauling cattle, hay, doing fencing work - that requires having a vehicle that can haul a lot of weight. Even in places like California and New York, there are rural communities that can be cut off from the rest of the world due to weather.\n\nFinally, and this is critical, American engines are getting smaller and more efficient. I've had four vehicles in the US - three Jeeps that had a 5.9 and two 4.0 engines. The current Wrangler has a 3.6 engine. In 40 years, the Ford F-150 went from having (as it's largest offering) a 7.5 liter V-8 to a 5.0 liter today. The AVERAGE F-150 engine used to be a mid 5 liter V8 and now it's a mid 3 liter V6, but they're putting out more power per cc and more efficiency. While everyone likes to think about American muscle and high displacement engines, federal regulations, consumer demand, and competition from less expensive and more efficient Asian vehicles has forced American manufacturers to re-evaluate the power vs efficiency debate.",
"Lots of reasons why. One of the largest was world war 2. Post ww2 the US had the resources to waste as they didn’t need to build and our car manufacturers were already good at building big engines because of the war. so they stuffed big engines into big cars because “why not?”. It wasn’t until the oil crisis that smaller displacement engines were a staple in the market. Also independence is important as well.",
"I think the most answers here do not really get it right. I know some US branded cars and I am from Munich (home of BMW and near to the home of Audi), a lot of my friends are in the car industry.\nTypical US cars tend to be big and cheap. They have simple piston engines like European car manufacturers had them in the past (20 years ago). The bigger the engine, the more power you get. Nowadays this seems to change.\nOur engine trend towards downsizing does not come with less power in the output. Instead engines get increasingly more expensive and complicated. They add turbo chargers, run on 3 cylinders, add hybrid style electric engines and so on. This is done purely for better fuel efficency.\nBest examples are the luxury end Audis and BMWs. Engines got smaller but power stayed the same.\nYou can run on them the same speeds and get the same travel lengths. However, wear on a turbocharged engine could be higher.\n\nTdlr; It is only about fuel efficency.",
"It's honestly just a bullshit American thing about having big things. They just love it and other big things . Supersize everything and let's all have fucking guns . MURICA",
"Two reasons.\n\n1. Petrol is a lot more expensive\n2. Dick size is not measured by car size\n3. Public transport is better.\n\nWe have three reasons.",
"All the misinformation in this thread just makes me think of Dennis explaining homosexuals to a gay man at a titty bar. The smaller engine actually let's the bigger piston know how much force to apply",
"Cubic centimeters vs. cubic inches. 🙄\nAlso, Americans love low gained maximum torque values, as on trucks or buses, because of hauling especially.\nEuropeans have smaller and older roads, and love efficiency (Germans especially). Plus, we have various races from start, and famous 100hp per liter philosophy...",
"okay. so I have had a few beers so pardon my poor writing. \n\nI think one reason is in a cultural where bigger is safer when it comes to vehicle size. I'm not convinced of this but people feel safer. with a larger vehicle size comes weight, with more weight you need more power to accelerate. In America there is a cultural love for V8 engines they were kinda grandfathered into \"new America\" from the muscle car area. Another is gas prices being lower as well as manufactures dealing with US emissions laws dealing with car size and fuel efficiency that fevers larger cars.\n\nTo the people saying that higher volume sized engines use less gas at high speeds please look into transmissions. They are this magic thing that converts engine rpm into different wheel speeds. I'm sure my shitty 2.slow VW is still using less gas then a v8 at 100mph due to transmission gearing.",
"I'm pretty sure that at least in the past it was a balance between fuel economy and how often the car needed service.\n\nSo the US tended to favor naturally aspirated engines, while european makers favored forced induction engines which were more compact. Even before that the US favored designs that put less pressure on sparkplugs and other engine components, where in idling sound of US engines you can almost hear each cylinder igniting.",
"My two cents. \nAs mentioned by most of them, the choice of engine size is affected by the intended usage of the vehicle and also, by major part, is affected by the emission regulations/ tax benefits available in a country. For example in markets like Japan, Lower taxes are levied on Kei car category vehicles which are supposed to meet the requirements of specific width and engine size has to be lower than 600cc. Similar is the case with a market like India where small cars with smaller engines( less than 1.2L Gasoline and 1.5L diesel) attract lower taxes while the others are taxed almost 20% higher. \nSo actual usage and the kind of regulations in a country drive the choice of an engine to be implemented. Ultimately the customers (atleast most of them) aren’t going to buy a vehicle which is expensive just because they have to pay higher taxes. \nSource : Am an Automotive product planner"
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yy1ih | how do batters know when to swing and when to not swing? | I'm not inept at baseball, but I've not personally played it outside of gym class. I've always been more of a football (American) player.
But how do batters know when to swing? Some of the pitches are insane. Fastballs, curveballs, knuckle balls... it seems like it would be impossible to properly know when to swing and when to let it go. What kind of stuff do they take into account?
I couldn't think of a better way to word the question... I know it sounds stupid :-\ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yy1ih/eli5_how_do_batters_know_when_to_swing_and_when/ | {
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"First off, it takes a years of practice, starting from when you're 8 years old and first begin playing baseball. Your eyes begin to see the difference between a \"ball\" and a \"strike.\" Moving forward, you get introduced to the curveball. A curveball is thrown in such a way that the player can read the seems of the ball and see that it is a curveball - this does not work 100% of the time. For a knuckleball, it's pretty much a crap shoot. Basically the batter is guessing on the knuckleball not \"knuckling.\" Most important, batters take into account the \"count.\" Most guys aren't throwing a curveball when the count is 3-0 (3 balls, 0 strikes), but sometimes they do. \n\nThis is why GREAT hitters have career batting averages of .300, this means they successfully get on base 3 out of 10 times. ",
"I saw a video of Edgar Martinez in a batting cage once. The pitching machine was throwing tennis balls at 90 mph, and each ball had a number written on it in 6 places. Every pitch, he would try to read the numbers on the ball. \n\nBy training your eyes like this, you are able to see how a ball will be crossing the plate, alerting the batter whether they should swing or not. "
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2exu4p | how can north korea (dprk) be a republic if its a one party system with a "supreme leader" | Is there anything to it, have I missed something or is it basically .... just a name. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2exu4p/eli5_how_can_north_korea_dprk_be_a_republic_if/ | {
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"It isn't one. They just call themselves that.",
"technically, in a republic, you select a representative to represent you. in this case, they unanimously selected kim jong um. now, whether or not everyone was forced to vote for him or if he was the only person to vote for, is a whole different matter. ",
"They may as well call themselves 'The Totally a Democratic Republic, guys, trust us.'",
"The same way America can be the \"greatest, freest country in the history of the world:\" by just *saying* it is.\n\n\n",
"Good rule of thumb: If a state's name has the word Democratic, Republic, or People's, it's none of those things.",
"As pointed out in \"Yes, Minister\" \n\nSir Humphrey Appleby: East Yemen, isn't that a democracy?\n\nSir Richard Wharton: Its full name is the Peoples' Democratic Republic of East Yemen.\n\nSir Humphrey Appleby: Ah I see, so it's a communist dictatorship.\n\nAnd this was in 1986."
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cgpoia | if drums produce sounds that correspond to certain frequencies (e.g., c#, f), how is it that drums, when played, do not clash with the songs in different keys? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cgpoia/eli5_if_drums_produce_sounds_that_correspond_to/ | {
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"I don't know of a drummer that tunes their drum to a note. They all go for sound and punch.\n\nThe sound is too short for thetmre to be a note in them. This is why things like steel drums and tuned steel percussion are tuned with a special tuner, that repeats the sound in their circutry. \n\nBut you can end up getting clashing sounds if your drums have long echo. But generally you always tune and set membranes so you don't get the echo.",
"A two-dimensional surface like a drum skin doesn't give out a single note or series of simply related harmonics of a note (2 x frequency, 3x, 4x, etc) like a vibrating string or air column.\n\nThere are a much more complicated set of vibrations that give out a mishmash of frequencies simultaneously. It also depends where the stick hits the drum. Here is an article with some animations of the way the skin can oscillate, you can ignore the scientific language of you want.\n\n_URL_0_",
"They do, it's called frequency masking. Mix engineers put a lot of effort into dealing with it, both live and in recordings. Cymbals are a particular nuisance. \n\nThey don't necessarily clash harmonically however. That's because tuning the drums with a drum key is necessary, but only for the more tonal pieces of the kit (snare, tom, kick). Pieces of the kit that can't be tuned usually come in different keys/pitches, like triangles, claves, cowbells, etc. Not everyone uses the correct pitch for a piece, or tunes for every tune, but our ears are accustomed to listening to it (unless you're really anal retentive about it). \n\nA compounding factor here is that drums, even pitched ones, have much more complex modes of resonance than other instruments. Even if it's tuned, you can get enharmonic frequencies, and our brains don't really deal with that well so we just hear it as cool noise, especially when it decays fast, as in a drum. We have less time to latch on to the fact it isn't in key. \n\nThere's also the fact that when you get into physical acoustics (sound through solids) it gets weird. The speed of sound isn't constant in a solid for example, so internal reflections actually change the resonant modes as the system resonates. That and solids don't vibrate in nice ways like air in a woodwind, a string fixed at two points, or a membrane (same thing as a string, but the tension applied is in two dimensions). If you see a video of a bridge collapse due to resonance you can actually see the bridge twists, rather than moving just up/down and side to side. Same thing happens in say, a woodblock or some claves."
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290772 | is it just me, or are the ads on youtube becoming longer and "skip ad" less frequent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/290772/eli5_is_it_just_me_or_are_the_ads_on_youtube/ | {
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"Most of the time, these are a function of the people whose channel you're on.\n\nThe skip ad commercials give nothing to the channel owner if you hit skip ad. You have to watch the whole thing. If they're okay with that, you get Skip Ad. If they're trying to make some money off of your visit, it's the full ad."
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3l28tv | what's stopping matter in the universe from coming together into a single object? could that ever happen? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l28tv/eli5_whats_stopping_matter_in_the_universe_from/ | {
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"The universe is expanding, and it appears that its expansion is greater than the necessary speed for it as a generalized whole to achieve escape velocity, the speed at which no additional force is needed to escape a gravitational pull.\n\nWhich is to say, gravity will slow 'escaping' objects, but it will never slow them to the point that they reverse course. This is because the strength of the pull falls off rapidly with distance, and is falling off more rapidly than the 'needed continued pulling' is falling off. \n\nIf you were to imagine a universe with just two objects, the net effect would be that the objects would continue to move away from one another, at a rate approaching but never reaching zero.\n\nCurrent experimental evidence suggests even further however, that the universe is continuing to accelerate in its expansion, rather than slowing, and I don't believe the cause for this is fully ironed out yet. "
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1jwgm2 | why can we see inside shadows? | I've always heard that shadows appear in the absence of light, meaning where there is a shadow, there is no light. But if this is the case, shouldn't we not be able to see anything in a shadow? When you go into a shadow, stuff is just dimmer, not pitch black altogether. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jwgm2/eli5_why_can_we_see_inside_shadows/ | {
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"Shadows are less light than the surround area being reflected into your eyes. It says nothing about the amount of light going into your eyes from everywhere.\n\nYou could be inside a shadow and blinded by light. For example under and umbrella in the desert or in a pitch black room with a laser being shone in your eyes."
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3xk2qn | in american football, how come when the kicking team does an onside kick the receiving team tries to grab it and not let it go out of bounds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xk2qn/eli5_in_american_football_how_come_when_the/ | {
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"Its risky trying to push the ball out of bounds. The ball is kicked in such a way that the moment the ball hits the ground, it will bounce back in the direction it came from. Therefore, trying to secure the ball is much easier than trying to push it towards the boundary line. There may be a player that is there to stop the ball from reaching that line from the other team. An onside kick is characterized by an all-or-nothing chance to get the ball back (or if you're on the receiving end, secure the ball). Coaches do not feel comfortable adding extra risk with a strategy that may not pay off on such a play. ",
"An onside kick is a kickoff deliberately kicked short. In most kickoffs, the kicking team concedes possession of the ball and tries to kick it as far as possible from its own goal. In an onside kick, the kicking team kicks short in hopes of regaining possession of the ball before the receiving team can control it.\n\nThe onside kick is a low-percentage play, generally justified only late in a game when the kicking team is trailing in the score. However, its chances of success increase when the returning team does not expect it.\n\n*The kick must be a free kick (a kickoff, or free kick after a safety, but not the rare fair catch kick).\n\n*The kick must cross the receiving team's restraining line (normally 10 yards in front of the kicking team's line), unless the receiving team touches the ball before that line.\n\n*The kicking team may only recover and retain possession of the kicked ball, but not advance it.\n\n*The kicking team must not interfere with an attempt by a player of the receiving side to catch the ball on the fly.\n\nThe kicking team generally attempts to make the ball bounce early (to remove the possibility of being charged with interfering with a catch) and be available around 20 yards in front of the spot of the kick.\n\nAn onside kick is usually a desperation technique used when the kicking team trails in the score with little time left in the game, in order to regain the ball and score again. The trade-off is that, in the usual case that the receiving team does get possession of the ball, it will have better field position and will need to advance the ball fewer yards in order to score.\n\n_URL_0_",
"If you try to \"let it\" go out of bounds the other team can pick it up, so the kicker will try to kick it in a way so that it won't go out of bounds.\n\nIt does happen sometimes, Riley Cooper on the Eagles knocked the ball out of bounds at the end of the Eagles/Patriots game a few weeks ago because he was close enough to the sideline to do it.\n\nWhen someone tries to grab it, they do it because they think that they can secure it and that letting it go will give the other team a chance at recovery."
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49u0mo | can eating lots of fruit make you fat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49u0mo/eli5can_eating_lots_of_fruit_make_you_fat/ | {
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"The main thing for weight loss is calories in versus calories out. If you're eating more calories than you are burning then you will gain weight. You can get fat off anything if you eat enough of it.",
"Yes.\n\nEating too much anything will make you fat.\n\nWeight loss really boils down to very simply eating less food than you burn. Everything else can help but its so much noise compared to raw caloric intake Vs caloric burn. ",
"Weight gain and weight loss are caused by ONE thing:\n\nCalories In > Calories Burned = Weight Gain\n\nCalories Burned > Calories In = Weight Loss\n\nAnyone saying anything else is a fatty making excuses for their fatness."
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2hlfq9 | what really goes on in a newborns head? | What do they think of and how do they know? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hlfq9/eli5_what_really_goes_on_in_a_newborns_head/ | {
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"We really don't know, because they don't have any way to communicate with us. We can only imagine how confusing it must be, to be suddenly barraged with light and sound. It takes time for babies to figure out how to see, how to separate human speech from noise, how to use their limbs. They need to learn that objects aren't annihilated when they leave the child's field of view (object permanence). \n\nI think the most interesting thing that babies have to learn is that they are not alone. It takes until 18months-3 years months before children acquire the Theory of Mind: that is, they figure out that other people's minds are not the same as their own. There is a famous experiment that you can use to determine if a child has theory of mind yet, and it's pretty simple. My fiancee has performed it. \n\nYou set up a little \"mountain\" with several tiers that you can set toys on. Let's say on one side you put a bus and a rattle, and on the other is a dinosaur and a pot. You sit the child on the bus/rattle side, and you sit on the opposite side, and ask them what they see, the child replies \"a bus and a rattle\". You then switch places with the child, so that you are now on the bus/rattle side and the child is on the dinosaur/pot side, and you ask the child what they see, and of course, the child replies \"a dinosaur and a pot\". Then you ask, \"what do *I* see?\". If the child does not yet have Theory of Mind, they will reply, \"you see a dinosaur and a pot\", because at that age, they assume that every person's experience of the world is identical to their own. \n\nLittle things like this we adults take for granted can be very alien to a person who has just entered into the world. "
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4evcze | determinism and/versus free will | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4evcze/eli5_determinism_andversus_free_will/ | {
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"The other answers are about human nature, but I always considered determinism to be a bit different. I think of it like this. Free will means that the future is not set in stone. That is, any choice can be made different in the present moment which would affect the future. Determinism on the other hand, is the idea that the future is set in stone. The choices you make are the choices you would always make, and anything you do works towards the set future. "
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2haii8 | when you're cooking, does touching raw meat with your spatula matter in terms of food safety if you continue using the same utensil until the meat is cooked? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2haii8/eli5_when_youre_cooking_does_touching_raw_meat/ | {
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"Yes. If you handle raw meat with a tool then use the tool again to handle the cooked meat, you're reintroducing the bacteria onto the meat.",
"It matters if you're absolutely paranoid and or germaphobic but otherwise no. ",
"Yes, it matters. No, it probably doesn't matter much. It wouldn't hurt to give it a quick rinse.",
"If the cooking utensil becomes sufficiently hot to kill any pathogens before they re-contaminate the cooked meat then you're okay. \n\nOtherwise there's a small chance you'll become ill. ",
"Partially. To transfer the cooked meat to a clean plate, you should be using a clean spatula that has not touched the raw meat. When you are cooking, you can re-use the spatula from raw to almost done. The reason for this is because the amount of bacteria that will remain on the spatula is very small, and will cook very quickly as you continue to expose the meat to heat.\n\n_URL_0_",
"I am a former food safety certified restaurant manager in a state with some of the strictest food code requirements. YES IT IS DANGEROUS. Now I would like to address another thing the term used over and over in the requirements is: POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS. In short proper handling of foods commercially is to protect the weakest, most at risk and prevent outbreaks. So babies, elderly, people with suppressed immune systems (hiv, chemo) and chronic diseases (diabetes) are the people you should not cut corners with. If it's just you and some mates most likely won't matter, just heat up the tips of the tongs after the meat is cooked on the outside.",
"Raw meat is normally not dangerous but since we live in an era of mass production / consumption, slaughter houses have become extremely efficient in production.\n\nThis efficiency comes at the cost of cleanliness. The procedure of slaughtering involves the guts / shit being dragged along the procedure until it eventually reaches almost all meat. \n\nNow since the corporations are lazy, they simply lobbied for 'food handling procedures' instead of actually processing food correctly (which is why you will go to jail for filming in a slaughter house).\n\nSo, what was the question again?"
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1k7mhy | how can american airlines file for bankruptcy but continue to buy brand new planes? | In July 2011 they made a [large order!](_URL_0_) for several hundred planes, however aren't they filing for bankruptcy? ELI5 please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k7mhy/eli5_how_can_american_airlines_file_for/ | {
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"They're in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a Chapter 11, a business continues to operate as usual, it just goes through a judicial proceeding to create a \"plan\" to restructure its debt.\n\nThere are certain restrictions on what a business in Chapter 11 can or can't do, but for the most part it's business as usual."
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buduvd | how are there multiple electricity companies if the power comes from one line? | I don't understand how there can be multiple electricity companies if the power comes from the same power line.
What I mean is, how is the power I'm getting different from the power my neighbors are getting? It's the same power, so how can so many different
companies charge different amounts for it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/buduvd/eli5_how_are_there_multiple_electricity_companies/ | {
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"The companies selling the electricity either own the power lines, or are renting their usage from the company that does.\n\nThe company that supplies you your power adds power to the system from its energy producing machines such as turbines. This energy is measured, and then an amount of power up to that amount can be used by your supplier's customers, aka you. If they need more, they buy it from another supplier.",
"There are two kinds of companies: power generators and power distributors. Power distributors are the people with the wires that run to your house. This is a super-highly regulated monopoly, and so these companies make very small profits for very long periods of time.\n\nHowever, there is much more money to be made generating power. There are many possible fuels, and all sorts of environmental factors to price in. These companies produce the power and feed it into the network.\n\nThe distribution companies send control signals, called demand signals, to the power generators telling them how much to make. There is a lot of complexity here, as some power plants can change output quickly and others can't. \n\nYour money gets allocated to the company that made power corresponding to your usage. Of course those probably weren't the actual electrons you used, but if you take 100 out and your company put 100 in, that's good enough to say \"you paid for your power\".",
"I actually know this one, as I used to work for an energy contract broker.\n\nThe energy companies either own power plants and sell energy they produce direct to the customer by kWh (kilowatt hours), or they sell it to other companies who then sell it on to customers. \n\n\nThe energy produced by companies that own power plants all feeds into the same grid, so essentially, it all goes into one \"pool\" of available energy in a country's power grid and flows around waiting to be drawn off to power homes etc. Think of the energy grid as like a reservoir of electricity. Each power company owns a share of the power in that reservoir. When you take energy out, you aren't necessarily taking the precise energy that company produced or purchased themselves, it's all in one giant reservoir, so how do they figure out what you owe them? \n\n\nFrom the meter in your house. It measures how much energy you take from the grid. \n\nSay your contract is with me to supply you energy. I need to purchase a share of the available energy to sell to you. So say I purchase 10% of the energy produced by Gazprom, who produce, say 20% of the energy in the grid. That means that I now own 2% of the energy in the grid. I can then sell contracts to customers to buy up to 2% of the available kWh of energy in the grid from me. If I go over that amount in contracts sold, I need to buy more energy from a producer to cover it. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nIf we simplify it further and picture the energy in the grid as a glass of water. If I buy 2% of the water in that glass, I can sell it to customers. It doesn't matter which 2% of it I give them, but I can only sell 2% of it. If each of my customers buys 0.1% of the total amount of water available from me, then I can only have 20 customers before I have to buy a larger share of the water. \n\nSo why doesn't the glass run out? Because producers are constantly refilling it. However, the 2% I own is only valid for the current period (normally a few years). After that, I need to renegotiate with a supplier to buy some of their share of the glass to sell. Say I have a bad period, and I don't get enough customers. I might not be able to afford 2% to sell next period, so I may have to only buy 1.5%. Now I need to charge my customers more to turn a profit."
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37y0h4 | why don't men wax off their beard? | If one could stand the pain, why not do it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37y0h4/eli5_why_dont_men_wax_off_their_beard/ | {
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"Because shaving is mostly painless? Why would you do something painful when a less painful alternative exists?",
"Facial hair on men tends to be quite strongly rooted in the skin so it could be more painful than you are willing to tolerate, you will also have to replace the time spent shaving with a skin care routine (you will need to regularly exfoliate and moisturise.) you also run the risk of hairs in growing and creating tiny sores but that will depend purely on your skin and how diligent you are with your care routine, there is no real way to predict this. On the upside the hair will only need to be dealt with every few weeks to a month. This depend on speed of growth and how much stubble you are willing to tolerate. ( please note that you need at least a few millimeters of growth to properly remove the hair). \n\nThe longer you wax, the finer and weaker the hair will become, making it less painful, longer lasting and easier to maintain. You should simply try it and see if you can tolerate the discomfort and remember that the pain is fleeting, although the skin will be sensitive and a bit red for up to 12 hours, and you may experience slight bleeding from the pores that will stop almost immediately. I'd suggest you do it on the weekend. \n\nNo swimming, sunbathing or anything too dirty for the rest of the day. As an alternative you could look into lazer treatment which, while more expensive up front are more permanent although there is no guarantee it will get rid of every single hair so may still need to touch up.",
"because shaving is my morning ritual. It's something i love doing, it relaxes me, it feels good and it makes me feel like a man. \n\nWhy would anyone in their right mind replace something great like that with waxing? It would hurt me, make me scream and feel like a little girl and start my morning with red skin and pain... no thank you... ",
"I don't think waxing is a solution for everyone. \nIt is actually quite stressful for your skin and could cause irritation and breakouts even after longer practiced waxing routine. \nBtw: the Romans used to not only shave but also pluck their hair. Cesar had always a royal hair plucker with him to pluck his body hair.",
"Because it would be extremely painful and accomplish pretty much nothing, because shaving only takes a few minutes and is easy and painless\n\n"
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1u5sws | why do you see people advertise themselves as "pre-op transgender" in dating sites (and other dating mediums) but you never see "post-op transgender" written? | I guess they consider themselves to be fully male or female at this point in the transformation but is it unethical or immoral to not make potential partners aware of your history? This is a serious question guys and I am genuinely confused as to why you see "pre-op" but no "post-op". | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u5sws/eli5why_do_you_see_people_advertise_themselves_as/ | {
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"I think generally people who're fully done with transitioning are ready to set it behind them. The point isn't to be transgender, the point is to be male/female.\n\n > is it unethical or immoral to not make potential partners aware of your history?\n\nThis topic comes up from time to time. Even within the trans community it's a pretty highly debated topic. You can cross-post this over at /r/asktransgender if you want an entertaining flamewar."
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cxlsm7 | why do many raw tropical fruits (eg papaya, pineapple, kiwi) have high levels of enzymes that degrade proteins (cysteine proteases) but other fruits do not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cxlsm7/eli5_why_do_many_raw_tropical_fruits_eg_papaya/ | {
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"Cysteine proteases (we'll call them CPs) are a chemical that rips proteins apart. Many animals and plants have CPs inside the cells that make up the whole animal or plant. CPs do important things, like clean up dead cells, or respond to stress. Fruits like kiwi and papaya have a lot of their CPs outside the cell, though.\n\nSo the real question is, why do these fruits wear their CPs on the outside?\n\nThe answer is: because it doesn't hurt.\n\nNo, really. You, a human, have a nerve called the \"vagus\" nerve. It's one really long nerve that goes from your neck down through your diaphragm, all the way to your intestines, then comes back up the other side. Why do you have this one long nerve? Because at some point, one of our ancestors had this nerve, and it just grew longer as our bodies changed shape. It doesn't help us, but nothing has come up in the time since we first got it that works better, so it never got replaced.\n\nSo these fruits truly have CPs in the fruit because it doesn't hurt.\n\nDoes it help? Almost definitely! CPs can kill a lot of bacteria that would try to infect the fruit and eat it too early. CPs can literally shred the bacteria.\n\nBut it exists in the fruit in the first place because long ago a plant randomly started wearing it outside the cells, and those plants made more plants."
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5gj53s | understandably smoking is bad for your health and the health of people around you. but how is smoking marijuana not bad at all? obviously there isn't all the toxins but how is there 0 deaths related to something that can harm your lungs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5gj53s/eli5_understandably_smoking_is_bad_for_your/ | {
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"What do you mean? The same tars and toxins in tobacco are in marijuana. The difference? Pot smokers don't smoke 20 blunts a day, every day. Average cigarette smoker goes thru a pack of 20 in a day. Some of thru 40 or even 60 every day.",
"Any sort of smoke inhalation is bad for you. Marijuana smoking is not healthy for your lungs if that is what you're trying to understand.",
"There is evidence that smoking marijuana creates the exact same carcinogens as smoking any other kind of cigarette. Ironically, the War on Drugs and all the incredible misinformation it tried to create on how dangerous marijuana is has backfired tremendously, so that now many believe it -- just as incorrectly -- to be a completely 100% harmless substance. ",
"There are compounds in the burning of any organic matter that are potentially carcinogens. So marijuana will have those too. The burning of it also has tar which has health hazards as well.\n\nThere maybe be potentially safer ways of using marijuana such as consumables, and vaping but the research is not yet sufficient.",
"There's exactly one thing that your lungs are designed to breathe: **air**.\n\nEven a sizable imbalance in the major components of Earth's atmosphere, like too much oxygen or nitrogen, can be harmful. Smoke from a burning building or a cigarette or a blunt or even water vapor from an e-cigarette, they're all just different degrees of bad. "
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9yx98k | why do semi truck drivers attempt to pass when they obviously can’t and clog up the fast lane for miles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yx98k/eli5_why_do_semi_truck_drivers_attempt_to_pass/ | {
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"Many trucks have a speed limiter set to around 55. So if truck a is driving at 53 and truck b floors it. It takes a year and a half for the pass to complete. Also truckers think it’s fantastic to piss off all the little 4 wheelers that scramble about. "
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3zptyx | how does a computer learn? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zptyx/eli5_how_does_a_computer_learn/ | {
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"There is a lot of different algorithms for machine learning. Basically you use big data set to train a given model minimizing some kind of error function. \n\nOne simple example is [linear regression](_URL_0_). A lot of machine learning algorithms are based on the same principles. ",
"An analogy is finding your way to the bottom of a valley while blind.\n\nThe computer takes a guess as to how to use its inputs to spit out an output, then it gets told how wrong it is. The way you combine the inputs is the position on the ground you are; and if you start from a guess, that means you randomly pick a point on the map.\n\nThe wrongness is the height of the ground: less wrong means lower in a valley. Somewhere in the valley, there is the lowest point where you are as correct you can be. How do you get there as a computer if you can't see the whole scenery?\n\nYou need to take a step, and feel if you got higher or lower: that is if you were more wrong or less wrong. Taking this stepwise approach, a computer can walk in the direction that leads to lower ground until it gets the lowest point.\n\nAt this point, it has come upon the best way to combine its inputs to give an answer that is as correct as it can get.\n\nThis is how the computer learns.",
"Learning softwares often use artificials neural networks which are inspired by how neurons in the brain work.\n\nOne good starting point to artificials neural networks is [Karpathy's blog.](_URL_0_) (which is maybe a one hour read)\n\nKarpathy says that a neural network is like an electrical network: it has inputs, which are the data that we feed to the software. It produces an output, which is the answer to the problem. And it contains components connected inside the circuits, which are the (artificial) neurons. The way in which the components are connected changes how the input will travel in the circuit and thus changes the result. If the output produced is not correct, we have to connect our components in another way. We could do it randomly until we find a circuit which produces a better output or we can use calculus to determine how to do it. Once we find a good organisation in our network, i.e. a network producing the wanted output for each input, we have trained it ! "
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bmpp5c | why do you still feel a ring after you’ve taken it off? | you still feel the ghost ring.
i wore it for the day and took it off for a day and still feel the ghost ring. why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bmpp5c/eli5_why_do_you_still_feel_a_ring_after_youve/ | {
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"Residual nerve signals? \n\nIt also happens when you ride a swing and then you stand up bu tit still feels like your butt is sitting down"
]
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5y9lve | how are anaesthetics made? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5y9lve/eli5how_are_anaesthetics_made/ | {
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"Are you wondering literally how they're manufactured, or how they're discovered/designed?",
"There's a bunch of different, completely unrelated drugs used in anesthesia. Some are opiates, some are benzos, some are something completely different. Novocaine, a topical anesthetic, and its derivatives are based on cocaine.\n\nThe term doesn't describe a mechanism of action but rather is a term to describe the end result. You can't really generalize."
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axbx43 | why do college text books constantly get new editions? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axbx43/eli5_why_do_college_text_books_constantly_get_new/ | {
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"Simply, to keep students paying to get more money. They change one or two things in the book and suddenly it's a new edition and the previous versions are obsolete, meaning you can't buy used older editions or borrow them from somebody else",
"Cynical answer: so the publishers can squeeze money out of students without adding real value\n\nOfficial answer: errors are fixed, feedback is incorporated, updates with new information are included"
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8lu3pr | why do video game developers not release their console exclusive titles to pc knowing that it would make them bank? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8lu3pr/eli5_why_do_video_game_developers_not_release/ | {
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"Contractual obligations? That’s my best guess"
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1vafkh | the process for prosecuting police officers after a fatality | In light of the Kelly Thomas verdict, is it any different for officers versus the regular citizen?
Bonus question, does anyone know the "success" rate of actually getting a guilty verdict against officers? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vafkh/eli5_the_process_for_prosecuting_police_officers/ | {
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" > In light of the Kelly Thomas verdict, is it any different for officers versus the regular citizen?\n\nProcedurally it is pretty much the same, but officers are given much greater credence and leeway in situations they get into. For example, if a police officer runs up and puts you in a headlock then it can be assumed that the proper response is to go along with it and comply with their instructions to restrain you. Nobody else would be given such leeway, but officers are instructed to do that fairly often in their duties so it is to be expected.\n\nSimilarly officers are generally assumed to be properly trained and to be behaving acceptably. If it comes down to the word of a police officer vs a homeless schizophrenic of who was being belligerent, the officer will almost certainly come out on top. "
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4criui | how are bonsai trees made/cultivated? what makes normal sized trees become miniature? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4criui/eli5_how_are_bonsai_trees_madecultivated_what/ | {
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"Top post is not entirely accurate, you can certainly start with a seed, and many people prefer it for similar reasons to why some people buy puppies instead of adopting. Starting from an already established tree is actually an easy way to \"cheat\" (_URL_0_ I'm including this because people at /r/bonsai got really butthurt about the \"C\" word) at obtaining a larger trunk, an important goal for a mature bonsai, but still something many view as cheating.\n\nYou can \"bonsai\" any plant of any size, but typically it's a tree. They can be tropical or deciduous, the secret is providing the closest environment that you can to the trees natural habitat. The \"miniaturizing\" occurs because trees grow in proportion to the size of their root system. The root system is what supports the trees life, so by restricting the growth of the roots you thus restrict the size of the tree itself above ground, assuming proper nutrients are available. EDIT: Also the occasional branch trim, figured that was a given though\n\n\nBonus fact: the practice of bonsai originated from traveling ancient healers and chefs, who had the need to transport live fresh plants for their practices. The stunted sizes allowed them to travel with the ingredients they need from trees that are normally too large to transport.\n\n\nI'm an amateur bonsai artist that approaches the art from a research based biological perspective. I currently am only raising Tamarind bonsai, both 6+ years old, the thickest is a little under an inch and around 10 inches tall cultivated myself from a seed.\n\nEDITS: Format and a couple clarifications",
"I see a lot of people who have done some research but have never actually touched a bonsai, much less know what's actually going on so here goes:\n\nBonsai trees are exactly the same as any other tree, ideally you'd like to grow one from a seed and care for it through it's early stages, that will get you the best looking tree.\n\nBecause the soil nutrients in a bonsai pot are limited, you are forced to re-pot the bonsai regularly, some swear by doing it once every 6 months, others stretch it for 2 years but there are always several elements involved: The roots are trimmed (usually to about 2/3's of their original size), a fresh soil mixture is prepared and the bonsai is seated and tied down with wire.\n\nThe trimming of the roots, unlike common belief, is not to limit the trees nutrition (quite the opposite in fact, a bonsai tree is often kept at a much higher level of nutrition than found in nature), but to limit the clod's size, to allow the tree to remain seated in a relatively small pot over multiple re-potting sessions.\n\nWhat really keeps the tree small is the enormous care taken in trimming the tree down. Using several techniques to shape (think using iron wire to form the bendable branches; this is why you'd ideally grow a bonsai from seed/sapling) and trim the tree (think of removing unwanted branches and increasing or decreasing the girth of leave coverage), you form the tree to your liking. \n\nWith this continuous process of trimming, the primary factor in the tree's size will be it's diameter, which does increase!\n\nDue to this increasing diameter, a bonsai will eventually grow to be as large as any other, it'll have to during its aging process. A bonsai master will however spend much care in shaping the tree during it's growth and slowing the growth to allow for magnificent shapes.",
"There is a lot of incorrect information here. \nBonsai is any tree that's small that is cultivated to look like a big mature tree in miniature. It can be just about any kind, but ones that naturally have small leaves and twigs already look better.\nYou can make a redwood tree a bonsai. It doesn't have to do specifically with the size of the root mass, or pruning the roots. It's growing the tree with the minimal resources it requires to be healthy. They have to be healthy, but they can't grow too fast or you have to prune too often and it always looks shaggy. A lot of water, a lot of soil fertility, they grow *fast*. But if you keep it a little dryer and the soil less fertile the trees will grow slower, the leaves will naturally be smaller. You need to prune the top to make it branch more which makes it look like a proportionately larger tree with multiple forks of branches and branchlets and twigs. Other ways to make a smaller tree look like a big tree is a lower trunk that flares out and has roots that radiate in all directions, with a trunk that tapers as it grows up and branches. \nThe roots are pruned because they fill the pot over time and you have to refresh the soil with new soil for the health, it's all used up after a while. \n",
"Bonsias are normal trees. The key to making them miniature is the constant pruning of the branches leaves and roots (you only need to do the roots every couple of years or so, when the plant is root bound).\n\nI use sinkers to shape the branches now as I am lazy.\n\nThe biggest advice for someone who is new to Bonsai is that they need sunlight. You can bring them inside for a few days but then they will need to go back into the sun.",
"It's probably been covered at this point, but:\n\nAny tree can be a bonsai tree. Bonsai means simply \"tree in pot\". Theoretically you could dig up a great Sequoia if you had a pot big enough. \n\nIn reality, any type of tree can be trained to grown in a pot. The tree is a living thing - it needs what it needs to live, nutrients, sun, air. And some special things for trees. Roots need to continue to grow. Foliage needs to continue to grow. So, as it grows, you also have to trim it back. Trim the roots, trim the top growth. Most trees will adapt, but some grow fast and need bigger pots. \n\nAs an art, the goal of bonsai is to shape and grow a tree to be a miniature version of an old, aged tree. Things should be to scale. There are techniques to reduce leaf sizes, and some varieties of tree take better to this than others. The tree should be in proportion, look like an old tree does - branches sagging, trunk thick with taper and characteristic weathering. High degree of branching. But also negative space. Classic species of tree take well to this, and have their own quirks. Trees have life cycles dependent on seasons, and they need to continue to experience these seasons.\n\nThis process takes decades. The finest trees are 100+ years old. There are innumerable styles, and the pots in which they are contained are a significant part of the art. Style, balance, composition, texture and color.\n\nIt is always important to keep the trees happy. Unhappy trees die.",
"I've been watching a Japan documentary series lately and saw one on bonsai the other night. It's very well done, you might find it answers any questions you have (and more).\n\nBeginning Japanology: Bonsai\n_URL_0_",
"Bonsai is an international art form that grew out of keeping trees in pots for medicinal purposes. Although we associate bonsai with Japan, traditions of aesthetically shaping larger trees to look like smaller trees can be found in China, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia and today Europe, Africa and the Americas, each with their own emphasis. Bonsai are propagated in a number of ways: seeds, cuttings or air layering all can create a plant that can one day become a bonsai. The plant at this stage is very far away from becoming a true bonsai though. To develop the illusion of size, we try to have a tapering trunk - if you look at a tree outside, this makes sense - the branches at the top are much narrower than the trunk itself. To achieve this taper, trees are field grown in the ground to get very thick, then chopped back, then grown very thick again, etc., etc. After this, the tree is typically transported into a wooden pot where work begins on setting the branches in the proper place and developing movement. A straight branch is very boring, a gnarly, crooked old thing is interesting. Wire and or clip and grow techniques can be used to develop this. Years after this still, it may be finally ready to be put into a bonsai pot.\n\n\nA very special kind of bonsai that has become enormously popular of late are yamadori, or wild trees. These trees have suffered cataclysmic weather on mountainsides for hundreds of years, producing driftwood and movement in the trunks that is nearly (I would say completely) impossible to replicate. These trees are dug from the mountain side then allowed to recover for many years before work is performed on them. Even then, the risks you take and techniques you apply must be more hesitant than you do with field grown trees as these venerable beasts deserve respect and care.\n\nThe size of the bonsai is maintained through different techniques at different times of its life. Many will have started out as much larger trees. Pruning and repotting are integral to maintaining a bonsai, both for its health and for maintaining its size and aesthetic. Contrary to popular notion, with few exceptions bonsai are well fed and well watered. Primarily the roots removed are not the roots involved in feeding a tree, but the stabilizing roots that they no longer require due to being wired in to the pot.\n\nThere's a nice little subreddit called r/bonsai that honestly everyone should check out cause it's awesome. ",
"Wait bonsai trees aren't a natural type of tree? ",
"My girlfriends dad collects and curates bonzais he has about 30 trees some are incredible and taken him 10+ years to make and tweak. I have some photos of his collection that might interest some of you. I'll edit a link into this comment later when on my pc. It really is amazing never realised how much of an art is until he explained the process and how much they are worth.",
"I had a professor who had a tiny mouse head in his office. When I pointed it out he said, \"Oh that? Bagged that one in a Bonsai forest.\" \"Did you shoot it with a tiny gun?\" He sort of jumped and looked at me \"Holy shit, you're the first person to get that joke!\" Apparently most students just smiled and nodded.",
"Sidebar: Bonsai is a tradition in many other Asian countries. But don't call them \"bonsai\", for you will offend your hosts/friends in those countries by calling it by the Japanese name.",
"I have a 9 year old [Silk Floss Tree](_URL_0_) which I tried to make bonsai but kind of failed. \nAt the time I wanted to keep it in my apartment, so I did some research on how to make bonsai trees. \n\nI was taught you have to find the \"growth\" root, which is thicker than the regular nutrients roots, and cut 1/3 of it every spring. \n\nThe thing is, I got lazy. You have to dig it out carefully to expose the root you want and then replant it. I did it for the first 4 springs, and then I just left it to grow. Last spring I moved it to a bigger pot and I couldn't even find the growth root to cut. You can only tell *something* was done to it if you compare it to another 9 year old Silk Floss Tree. Mine is shorter and already has a thick trunk, kinda bottled shaped already, with prickles. A normal 9 year old Silk Floss Tree's trunk is lean, still green and has no prickles. Also it's twice as tall as mine is.\n\nEDIT: [When it was just a baby](_URL_2_), [This summer](_URL_3_), [What a successfull bonsai Silk Floss Tree should look like](_URL_1_)\n\nTL;DR I failed at bonsai and have a hybrid.",
"here you go.. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > Often times in nature bigger is considered better, more beautiful. The ocean, the stars, the redwoods of Yosemite. Likewise, smaller things can be considered cute, and fun. Puppies, kittens, even baby corn. The world of bonsai perfectly blends the two, taking what would be a full size majestic tree, and shrinking it down to pot size sensibility. Today we learn about having the best of both worlds with Bonsai.",
"Making a Bonsai tree requires carefully manipulating the tree over a long time as it grows. This involves careful and calculated pruning, using clamps to shape the trunk, and grafting bits of the tree together. ",
"In bonsai you trim the roots carefully which causes the tree to limit it's growth. Home gardeners of citrus trees often do this on a small scale to keep from needing bigger and bigger pots all the time, which is called \"root pruning\". \n\nHowever to maintain a bonsai for hundreds of years is another level of skill entirely, although it's the same basic idea . There is a bonsai white pine at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden that's 300 years old.",
"First, you gotta find a good tree in the starting shape and thickness you want. It's important to use an already grown tree, because you're going to ~~starve it a bit~~ put it on a diet and it needs to already be healthy. \n\nIf it's a branch in the shape you want, you can air-layer it and grow a new tree from that. Air-layering is when you [scrape some of the bark off a branch and wrap something moist around it.](_URL_2_) This makes the branch start to [grow roots in the air!](_URL_0_) When it grows enough roots, you cut the branch off the tree and plant it.\n\n~~When trees grow, they have one [big root and a lot of little roots.](_URL_1_) The big root is called the tap root, and it provides the most food and water to the tree. Since we want to keep the tree small, you have to snip off part of the taproot.~~\n\n~~The little roots will try to fuse together and become big hungry roots, so bonsai trees are usually planted in pebbles to keep them from touching. Every once-in-a-while the tree is taken out of its dirt and pebbles, the taproot is trimmed, and the tiny roots are combed and un-knotted.~~\n\nTo keep the tree small, you have to carefully prune the leaves and branches. The leaves and fruits will be smaller because the plant is not fed as much. \n\nIf you want to make a neat shape from your tree, you can influence its shape [with wires or string](_URL_3_) and by trimming new branches when they appear where you don't want them to grow. \n\nEdit: I might be wrong about why taproot is cut. Sources below say it's just trimmed to fit a shallow pot, and that porous pebbles or clay are to help the thin hairy roots get extra air to help collect nutrients and to improve water drainage. The tree is instead made smaller by trimming and pruning.\n",
"Basically you keep clipping them so they don't get to big. The shape and direction of growth is controlled with standard garden wire. \n\nIf you plant one in the ground it will grow to be a normal full sized tree.\n\nI know this because my dad grows them.\n\ntl;dr - Magic fairy dust!"
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13wda4 | how to describe reddit to someone? | its hard. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13wda4/eli5_how_to_describe_reddit_to_someone/ | {
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"It's a website where people link to articles or pictures on the internet and can comment on them.",
"Say you had a big building. This building has tons of rooms in it. Every room has a group of people in it, and they all talk about a certain thing. For example, there could be a room full of people talking about hockey, a room full of musicians, a room full of musicians who think the musicians in the other room are stupid, and many others. Every room has people in it who have a shared interest or who want to discuss a certain thing. So long as it isn't illegal to do so, you can talk about pretty much anything you want, all you have to do is go to the right room.\n\nSo say you want to go and talk about cars. Well you would go and find a room that is labelled \"cars,\" and enter it. Everyone in there would be discussing cars. The people who were having new discussions would be near the entrance, as would the people having really popular discussions. If you went to the back of the room you'd find older and less popular conversations. In this room, you are only allowed to talk about cars. If you try and talk about something else or act like a jerk, someone will stop you, and if you keep trying they won't let you talk to anyone else in the room anymore, although you might still be allowed listen.\n\nIf you want to talk about something else, you just go to a different room that is discussing whatever it is, say video games.\n\nIf you can't find a room that's talking about what you want to talk about, or you don't like the room that is talking about it, you can build your own. Anyone is allowed to do that. If someone wants to talk about whatever it is you've made your room for, they'll enter.\n\nIn the center of the building is a big area where all the absolute most popular conversations from the biggest rooms are shown off. If you decide to join the building instead of just visit, you can decide which rooms will be shown to you in the central area.\n\n",
"The bathroom wall of the internet."
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chbost | why have planes stopped getting bigger? | The biggest plane in service is an AN-225, built over 30 years ago. Why have we stopped making planes as big? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/chbost/eli5_why_have_planes_stopped_getting_bigger/ | {
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"Not enough problems can be solved better with a super large planes than a merely very large one. Bigger isn't better.",
"People want to fly directly to their destinations. In the past airlines focused on a \"hub and spoke\" system where small planes flew between small destinations and major hubs and huge planes could fly between the hubs. The development of long-range, fuel-efficient medium-sized planes enabled more \"point-to-point\" flights where people can skip the connection in a hub (or at the very least reduce two connections to one). These new planes also allow infrequent flights between distant hubs to be replaced by more frequent (meaning more convenient for passengers) flights. It used to be that if you wanted to fly *really* far you *needed* a 747 or A380, just because those were the only planes that could fly the distance, even if it wasn't the ideal size otherwise. Now you can, for example, replace the 747 on that route with a 787 and just fly more frequently.",
"There are few uses for very large planes. Even for passenger routes, the a380 is still struggling as the largest passenger jet because few airlines have routes that need such capacity (when airlines often prefer smaller jets flying frequent and direct flights when possible because that's more profitable).",
"The largest planes race was largely for military use. Since the Cold War changed focus in the 1980s, there has been far less of a need to rapidly carry tanks around the world and far *more* of a need for planes that can land on underdeveloped runways. Megahuge planes like the AN225 are not relevant any more, so budgets have gone in a different direction.",
"Because there's absolutely no need for larger aircraft. The AN-225 was built to transport the then-Soviet Buran (their version of the space shuttle) much like the American Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, which was a heavily modified 747, not out of any need for massive transport capacity. Only one was ever built. \n\nThere are many disadvantages to large aircraft. The first is that designing them creates ever-increasing engineering challenges. The second is that massive planes need huge runways to takeoff and and, which means fewer and fewer airports around the world are capable of supporting said aircraft. This is especially true for military transports, which often need to land on makeshift runways made of out of dirt somewhere in the desert or mountains. These airstrips are incapable of supporting massive planes.\n\nAs for commercial use, again, there's simply no benefit for huge planes and no demand for them. Cargo and passenger airlines would much rather have the flexibility of having more frequent flights using smaller planes. This is way more profitable for them. The Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane, was a commercial failure because there was simply not enough demand for planes with that capacity, even on the most popular routes. \n\nIn short, larger planes are harder and more expensive to build, there's no demand for them because they're not economical, they can't get to as many places as smaller planes, and there's nothing you can't do with more smaller planes instead of fewer giant ones."
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1wtkm9 | what purpose do submarine cables serve, and why are there so many of them? | Additionally, what would the consequences be if one of them were to be severed? How were they initially installed? So many questions.. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wtkm9/eli5_what_purpose_do_submarine_cables_serve_and/ | {
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"Submarine cables carry data from one side of the ocean to another. The first transatlantic cable was laid in 1858 using the technique that has been the standard since then--you carry a lot of wire on a ship and unspool it as you sail east/west. \n\nIf you sever one, well, it's like cutting a phone line--you lose communications and have to either try to dredge up the cable and reconnect it or drop a new one. ",
"Submarine cables are used to transfer electricity underwater to islands and other isolated areas. They also transmit information across continents. Basically, they allow to connect with people around the world through phone and internet. If a cable is severed, then you whatever service that cable provides until it is replaced or repaired. They are installed by [cable laying ships](_URL_0_).",
"Originally they made inter-continental telegraphing possible. Today they serve to make the internet and inter-continental phone calls possible. There's *a lot* of stuff to be sent around the world and that's what the cables do.\n\nThey were installed by dropping really long cables off the back of a boat while sailing from the origin to the destination for this wire. \n\nIf it breaks? You do your best to scoop it up with a hook, hoist it to the surface or near enough to dive and fix it, then let it plop back down. \n\nThere are so many because there's *a lot* of data being sent between, say, the Americas and Europe, and also because every little island and remote village needs one of these cables unless they're willing to pay an obscene amount of money for terrible internet service via satellite. "
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374qzn | why can't we just have coke and pepsi in the same restaurant? when will this blood feud end? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/374qzn/eli5_why_cant_we_just_have_coke_and_pepsi_in_the/ | {
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"They pay a lot to keep their competitor out of the restaurants. You can't really have two sponsors in the same industry.",
"My dad is actually a Territory Sales Manager for Pepsi, its his job to flip restaurants from Coke and keep the ones he has Pepsi. \n\nPepsi and coke give the restaurants a ton of services other than just the soda, they will install and maintain all of the equipment (bar guns, vending machines, coolers etc). Depending on the salesman they will also bend over backwards for their customers to keep them loyal, my dad will load up his own car with syrup and run it to his customers on a sunday if they need it. \n\nAnd there are perks. Promotional things like cups, umbrellas, signs and more, every once an a while even tickets to say a Red Sox game for key clients. All of these perks for the restaurant to only serve one brand. \n",
"There's a Chinese buffet near me that has both. Ever have Coke mixed with Pepsi? Me neither why would I waste a perfectly good Coke.",
"I used to work at a bar that used an independent beverage company to order our sodas from. We had Coke, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew in addition to Minute Maid lemonade. You could mix and match however you wanted. However, it being in Atlanta, Coke was king. And I don't blame them. Pepsi is icky. "
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2dnxxj | why do people destroy public restrooms? | Why do people treat public restrooms like an ugly prostitute? I've used my share of home restrooms and I've never come across feces on the mirror or a giant puddle of wee on the floor. What comes over a person that causes them to abandon civility the moment they enter that public restroom? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dnxxj/eli5_why_do_people_destroy_public_restrooms/ | {
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"Because they are assholes. have low expectations, and then shit is isn't surprising when you find out how many dumbasses are out there. ",
"Because they aren't responsible for them and the damage can't be attributed to them. \"No one washes a rental car.\" I imagine people don't act this way in home bathrooms because most people don't let strangers use their loo.",
"I was camping at a nice campground/RV park and when I walked into the bathroom, there was a fresh log of shit just sitting right in the sink.\n\nI went to the office to report it and the lady gets on the phone/radio to report that 'The Rouge Shitter' is at it again. \n\nAt another campground, I've heard of a few separate incidents when someone smeared shit all over the walls.\n\nI really don't know why anyone would do these things...except maybe that it's the most extreme (non violent) thing that they can think of, and their mental problems are causing them to want to seek attention and/or create havoc. ",
"People just don't respect other people or anything anymore.",
"Drunks, drug abusers and mentally ill people do awful things in public bathrooms along with garden variety sociopaths and people with poor ability to care for themselves. We had an intellectually disabled diabetic man who would come to clinic after eating a large amount of ice cream with explosive candida overgrowth diarrhoea. I pitied our custodial staff. They needed near Hazmat level suits to deal with it.",
"there is a phenomenon called \"the tragedy of the commons\". Basically if nobody you can identify with has ownership or a dedicated responsibility for it, nobody will care for it. That coupled with anonymity makes public restrooms the YouTube comments section of the world."
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7a6f3g | how do rechargeable batteries work if batteries are based on chemical reactions? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7a6f3g/eli5_how_do_rechargeable_batteries_work_if/ | {
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"They use the energy of the recharger to reverse the chemical process. Some chemical processes are reversible. "
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6iyint | human brain has a capacity about 2.5 petabytes. hypothetically speaking what would happen if they are filled? would we stop remembering new things or would we start erasing old memory to make room for new memory? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6iyint/eli5_human_brain_has_a_capacity_about_25/ | {
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"Here's my take given a psychology background: memories are created in the hippocampus, specifically in the dentate gyrus. This area creates new neurons that can hold information. Assuming this area is not longer able to stuff more neurons in then you'd lose the ability to form new memories. We already see this as it becomes harder to learn new skills as you age. Assuming it was completely full you'd probably suffer from complete anterograde amnesia. Meaning, every time your short term memory empties, you'd forget everything that happened. There's actually a case study on someone who had this known as H.M. He would be able to perfectly recall his wife and know exactly how they met and so forth but, he'd forget every few minutes what had just happened. He had a journal that he would repeatedly write \"I am now fully awake\" and other iterations of this constantly. But, that's assuming that there isn't a cleanup system for neurons.",
"You forget useless stuff. That's why i don't remember any poems i had to know by heart for school.",
"As far as I am aware, no physiological basis for a hard storage capacity of the human brain has been established - that 2.5PB may be an extrapolation of our current model of how we encode memories, but ultimately the brain stores many different kinds of vastly different data in a variety of ways that remain elusive to us. It's not a hard drive, and a huge amount of data storage and recall seems to happen through associative relations between systems of neurons, not state changes in individual neurons.\n\ntl;dr- nobody has ever \"filled up\" their brain. Old knowledge and skills atrophy and become harder to recall if they aren't used, but that's not the same thing as being absolutely unable to learn new information, or \"deleting\" old knowledge, without an external cause (such as dementia or TBI). ",
"Off-topic: with good compression, and counting about 16-17 active hours per day, you could store an HD video recording of every waking moment of an average life (in POV perspective) from birth to death in about 4 petabytes. Just a neat fact. \n\nOne thing that's been experimentally verified is that as pattern recognition becomes more attenuated over time, aspects of memories become both more solid and more vague. For instance, if you have a portrait on your wall in a hallway, and you pass it every day, your peripheral exposure to the picture solidifies bold elements like the frame and the face, but blurs elements like the facial features, simply because you *stop noticing it*. That's how you can navigate a well-traveled hall in the dark, but pranks like replacing the portrait with a similar, but different face can go unnoticed for so long. Experiential learning is good at environmental stuff, but bad at details for most people. \n\nIn addition, the more you access a memory, the more it degrades, and it can be modified or changed if repeatedly accessed. See the stories from people who were convinced they experienced child abuse in the 70s from Satanic cults. \n\nELI5: Memories are fickle, and 'data storage capacity' is not a good measure for human brain capability because the brain is always in flux. \n\nEdit: a word. ",
"Looking for the specific pieces of the brain that store memory is like looking for the specific pieces of a piano that store music.\n\nBrains don't really work like hard drives. In fact it looks like an essential part of learning is deleting irrelevant information. Which of course makes sense. You want to remember stuff that helps you out, like where to find a safe bed or where to find food, or what kinds of animals are dangerous. It's very difficult to figure out what's important if you keep everything that isn't important too.\n\nSo the answer to your question (as much as it can be answered) is that every part of you consciousness is dedicated to selecting which memories to keep and which to drop, and it starts the day you're born.",
"Our brain works kind of like a network: Every new neuron adds 1 bit of memory per other neuron. As a result, all the brain has to do to increase our memory substantially is just add another neuron. The main cost is in energy because our brains already consume a good chunk of our daily energy requirements and increasing that further makes survival difficult.\n\nSure there's an effective limit to how much memory one can have with the amount of space available, but that limit is so high that it's more concerning to deal with HOW the space is being used. Our brains are fairly inefficient when you consider how efficient they could be in principle.\n\nThis is why Neural Networks excite me. Having a network-based computer would allow us to finally remove the glaring weakness computing has: A lack of flexibility. With the ability to think a lot faster than any man could, but still in the way a man would, could lead to some amazing technological advances that would solve all of our problems even as they arise. Or it could kill us all."
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5orssu | how do television shows shot in front of a live audience preserve continuity so that the crowd laughs at running jokes throughout the show? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5orssu/eli5_how_do_television_shows_shot_in_front_of_a/ | {
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"I've been audience on a comedy show. The televised part lasted half an hour. The live show took a bit more than a full hour. Occasionally, when the comedy was tiring, the usher would stop the show and ask the audience to applaud. In the cut version, this applause could essentially be pasted over any discontinuity.",
"Those \"other locations\" are all either permanent sets that are just a few feet apart or temporary sets that are set up and torn down for a particular scene. An example of a temporary set would be, say, a scene in a car. A car shell is set up in front of a temporary blue screen (so the fake moving background can be added in post-production) for shooting. \n\nHere's a behind the scenes look at the sets for _The King of Queens_: _URL_1_. You can see that all the various different rooms/apartments are just lined up side by side on the soundstage. So the audience can see into any one of the \"rooms.\" \n\nAlso, here's an account of [being an audience member at Saturday Night Live](_URL_0_). It has a rudimentary 3D sketch of the studio that shows how most of the sets for the skits are side-by-side. \n\ntl;dr: all the sets are there in plain view of the audience even though the camera is only shooting on one set at a time. \n\nUPDATE: Just noticed that you said: \n\n > if a TV show takes place in an apartment, but several scenes take place in other locations, everything comes together at the end with humorous references to what took place in those other scenes.\n\nFirst, that's pretty uncommon. It's pretty much only sitcoms that are taped before a live audience, and most such sitcoms are shot entirely on the soundstage. There are occasionally exceptions, like some _Seinfeld_ episodes. Most of _Seinfeld_ was taped on the soundstage, but any scene where you saw Jerry and the others walking down a New York Street was shot outside on the studio backlot. For those scenes they used laugh tracks, of course. \n\n\n"
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cnh0ok | just saw a video of trimming and shoeing a horse. the process seems painful and the nails on the horseshoe are long and sharp! how is that it doesn't hurt the horse at all? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cnh0ok/eli5_just_saw_a_video_of_trimming_and_shoeing_a/ | {
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"No nerve endings there.",
"Hooves are made of keratin, the same stuff that our nails are made of. So they don't feel a thing.",
"It’s not painful, it’s like cutting your finger nails. The nails will never reach a nerve if set properly. It’s actually far more abusive and painful to not cut them. It causes joint issues if not cut.",
"I don’t know anything about horses, but I do know how animals typically react when faced with discomfort.\n\nA horse that’s uncomfortable can send pretty much any average human flying in any direction. It’s probably safe to assume that little to no discomfort becomes of these horses.",
"Think of the horses hoof as a fingernail, and just like a fingernail domestic horses need their hooves trimmed because unlike their wild counterparts they do not generally have the terrain and area to roam needed to naturally wear it down. \n\nJust like our fingernails, they do not feel any general discomfort from *correct* trimming. They will still feel pain like we do if you cut too much off or if some sort of foreign object gets underneath the \"wall\" (nail) of the hoof and cause infection. Shoeing of horses can help protect their feet from very rocky terrain and pavement (there are special shoes for pavement I believe).\n\nIt's actually in the best interests of owners to have a farrier (a person specially trained In large/midsized hooved animal footcare) regularly maintain an animals hooves. Without correct maintenance they are likely to run into a plethora of major health problems that can cost owners extreme amounts of money and could ultimately cost the life of the animal.",
"Also, hoves are similar to fingernails in that they have a part with no nerves. If you cut to deep, it isn't good, but as long as you mostly stay in the hoof wall it's more beneficial to the horse.",
"The most tramatic part would be the first shoeing. But that's more because the young animal might not understand what the man handlings for. Which is what training is for.\n\nFor sport and work horses it's crueler not to shoe them, as their work and heavy loads would wear their hooves till they bleed."
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ctkq4n | how can someone have debt that exceeds their wealth and yet still be 'rich' ? | I always see stuff about millionaires whom have millions worth of debt, yet still live like millionaires. I know the answer seems obvious but this is eli5 after all and I was wondering if there were multiple explanations. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctkq4n/eli5_how_can_someone_have_debt_that_exceeds_their/ | {
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"The amount of debt you can maintain is proportional to your income.\n\nIf the people have enough income to pay the payments on their debt, it doesn't matter how much debt they have.\n\nHow much stuff they currently have is only relevant if that stuff is collateral for a loan or purchasing it interferes with making their debt payments.",
"I am a theoretical millionaire debtor. I have $1 million in cash. I have $5 million in debt. Car loans, house loans, a couple of maxed credit cards. I only am responsible to pay $20,000 per month to my creditors. I can live like this for years before I run out of cash. My monthly income only has to exceed the cost of my payments. It's still a lot of money, but I have $1 million dollars with which to invest, and a 0.2% monthly return isn't hard for someone with any business savvy.\n\nEdit: Yeah, I did my math wrong. You got me. I typed that up in a bit of a hurry and didnt check myself.",
"It usually depends on cash flow... let's say I'm an NBA star who just signed a big contract, or a doctor who just finished medical school. I may not have much in the way of assets today, and I may take on debt to buy that baller condo in my new team's city or I might have $250k in med school debt and another $500k spent on a house. But my future income is stable and sufficient to pay off those debts in the time frame outlined by the lenders.\n\nIt can also be something like a tech startup founder who has wealth tied up in company shares... he can't sell them yet, because the company isn't public or he has a tie-up period before he can begin selling, so he may borrow against those shares as a way to get cash today to be paid back later when he can liquidate some of his company shares.\n\nAnother thing is whether it's personal or business debts. A big real estate developer has personal wealth, but still takes on business debt to finance a new real estate project... they borrow $200 million to build that new condo building, then hope to sell the condos for a total of $250 million, pay back the loans, and walk away with a profit.",
"It all very much depends on how you define \"Rich\". Are you going by lifestyle? Income? Net Worth? \n\nIf you take out a loan at 5% interest, you presumably think you can make at least 6% a year more with whatever you purchase using that money. You prove that by continuing to make the regular payments throughout the life of the loan. \n\nSo, let's say you're the son of a rich man. You own nothing yourself, and no significant income. At the age of 46 you still live in your father's house when someone like Forbes calls and asks how rich you are. Naturally, you say [\"I'm very rich, my dad gave me everything!\"](_URL_0_). Next thing you know, they put you on the Forbes 400 list. \n\nYou could then presumably use that publication to bullshit your way into a loan for $100million. With that cash you can buy something like a Casino and use the proceeds of that to pay for the loan. To keep up appearances you throw lavish parties and hang out with rich people. \n\nThat reputation gets you more investors and more debt to buy more businesses. \n\nIf you live within your means, or if your investments don't pan out, you stop being able to live that lifestyle, and don't have the access to high wealth individuals that have the power and wealth to continue investing.",
"Because debt is an instrument that makes it possible to receive your future money gains right now. You can think of it as just an advance on your income. \n\nMaybe you start earning 100k a month which is huge. But you still can’t buy a decent house right away. With debt you can, because you can borrow 1,2 million and pay it back in a year. And you can have the house right now. Everyone does this. Because if you can revive your future income right now for a bit of a commission why wouldn’t you ?\n\nMany of the biggest companies in the world actually hold a huge amount of debt. Many countries too.",
"When people say wealth, they often mean very different things. \n\nSometimes people mean income \"That guy is wealthy, he makes $250,000/year.\" \n\nSometimes people mean net worth. \"That guy has wealth; his net worth is $2 million.\" \n\nSometimes they mean gross assets. \"That guy has wealth; he owns an apartment building and a yacht.\"\n\nIn the first two cases, having way more debt than wealth is usually fine, because most of their debt is paired with assets that are worth more than the debt and provide a larger return than the debt payments. \n\nSomeone who earns even a low salary like $25,000/yr (perhaps they work part time at a non-profit) because they also own an asset worth $10 million and $6 million in debt, has way more debt than their income, or their net worth (the $4 million difference between the asset and the debt) but is financially fine so long as the asset's returns exceed the debt payments. \n\nThe asset might produce an income of $1 million while the annual debt payments might only be $400,000/yr leaving $600,000 in extra income. \n\nSo even though the debt is huge, it's small compared with the assets they also own. That person might live a lifestyle that costs $300,000/yr thanks to their assets. \n\nThe problems usually happen when the debt exceeds the asset value and the payments are larger than the returns on the asset.",
"In essence, it's all about them having/making investments that generate more money than expenses/debts.\n\nIf you knew a way to turn $1,000 into $2,000 in a day, but only had $100, then wouldn't you be willing to borrow $900 and promise the other person that you would pay them back $1,100? At the end of the day, you would end up with $900 instead of the $100 you started with.\n\nIt's the same for millionaires. Here's a hypothetical situation of how it could work:\n\nLet's say that someone had $1 million in cash. They use that $1 million and borrow $10 million at a flat 3% yearly interest rate to buy a $11 million apartment building. \n\nThen this person rents out the apartment building and makes $30,000 per month from rent. His monthly interest is $25,000 per month (10,000,000\\*.03= $300,000 interest per year/12 = $25,000 interest per month). \n\nThat leaves an extra $5,000 per month that this guy profits from (30,000 in rent - 25,000 in interest payments), which can be used to pay down the principle on the loan or etc.\n\nSo, even though this hypothetical guy had $10 million in debt and only $1,000,000 in cash, he ends up collecting $5,000 in profit per month. Imagine if he had a CEO position at some company as well. This extra $5,000 a month is just a side hustle/additional source of income.\n\nNow are these numbers realistic? That's a different story, but that's the basic concept of why people borrow money. They believe that they can make more money than they need to pay back through some sort of investment or business idea.",
"There is “good debt” and “bad debt”. Good debt is debt that is helping u make money. I.e I buy a building that cost 3 mill and pay 30,000 back every month. I rent it out netting 10k each month. I’m still in Debt but in some time...I own the building and get to keep all that 40k. Taking on that 3 mill debt helped me make money!\n\nBad debt. A car loan...cars typically only depreciate in value and don’t generally generate income.",
"It is also possible if - and I am speaking purely hypothetical here - you are a supposed New York real estate tycoon who, for reasons yet unknown, there is this one bank willing to give you shady loans you really don't qualify for, perhaps in the hope that you'll be president someday.. Preposterous, I know, but I thought I'd throw it out there...",
"There’s a lot of wrong/bad answers here from people that don’t understand money.\n\nThere’s different types of debt. Some debts have high interest rates. Things like credit cards that are used because you can’t afford to buy something with cash. Car loans with high interest rates. Payday loans. \n\nSome debts have low interest rates. Mortgages, 0-1% auto loans, credit cards used strictly for benefits that are paid off in full every period, credit lines, etc.\n\nHigh interest loans are used by poor people. They’re accessible to almost everyone. They’re profitable for lenders. They keep people poor while making lenders rich.\n\nLow interest loans can be like free money if you’re in a position to handle it. They’re harder to qualify for. Not everyone can access them.\n\nImagine you have a job that pays you enough to save $1000 a month (pretend numbers for simplicity). You save up for a year and have $12,000 in savings and want to buy a car with it. You can either buy a $12,000 used car with all the cash you saved up, or you can get a 0% interest loan on a brand new car that’s worth significantly more with a monthly payment of, say, $500.\n\nIf you buy the $12,000 car with cash, you’re giving up capital that is capable of earning interest, whether sitting in a savings account, or invested in something more profitable.\n\nIf you buy the new car with the 0% loan, you get to keep your $12,000 to invest in whatever (hopefully profitable) thing you want. All you’re committed to is making the $500 payment every month. It’s basically free money to play with if you do it responsibly. If you have enough capital to work with, you’ll be able to make enough money to pay your car payment every month. \n\nThe same strategy works with real estate as well as lines of credit for short term transactions.\n\nIt took me a long ass time to figure all this out. I’ve always been a high income earner but I was basically poor because I didn’t use credit. It’s impossible to become truly wealthy/rich without borrowing cheap money."
]
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"https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-lied-to-me-about-his-wealth-to-get-onto-the-forbes-400-here-are-the-tapes/2018/04/20/ac762b08-4287-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html"
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2d5vqu | how do most flamboyant gay guys sound so different then straight guys? do they train themselves to sound like that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d5vqu/eli5_how_do_most_flamboyant_gay_guys_sound_so/ | {
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"You know, I've never thought about this, but then... how do women who have that stereotypical \"girlie voice\" sound that way? I don't sound like that either. I reckon it's the same cultural factors, social environment, TV, etc that make everyone else sound the way they do. ",
"I've wondered about this, too. I wonder if it's a partly cultural thing, or if it might be influenced by hormones? Have there been any legitimate studies of this?",
"The current view that I'm aware of is that it is generally a learned trait in order to solidify their identity as a gay person, both internally and in terms of belonging to the greater group of gay people.\n\nThere's interesting reading [here](_URL_0_).",
"[This answer](_URL_0_) from /u/shinkouhyou explains it pretty well.\n\n > The \"gay accent\" or varies from person to person, but it's usually characterized by lisping, hypercorrection, and lilting, \"feminine\" pitch and vowel length. There are also vocabulary differences, so you can even think of it as a \"gay dialect\"... or, rather, a \"gay sociolect,\" since it's not tied to a geographical area. Most speakers are able to \"code switch\" - in essence, they can turn it on and off. It's a marker of identity. Lots of cultural groups have sociolects that they use to show membership in a group - think of BEV (Black English Vernacular aka Ebonics), or \"Valley Girl\" speech, or the l337speak used online.\n\n > As far as history, some linguists say that the gay accent was influenced by the California accent, since California was the heart of the early gay rights movement in the US. But a \"gay dialect\" actually goes back a lot farther than that! The British dialect of Polari[1] might go back to the 16th century. Polari actually sounds a bit like what we'd call a \"gay accent\" today, and it has its roots in a combination of Roma argot, Cockney rhymbing slang, and exaggerated, singsong theatrical speech (think the old Punch and Judy puppet shows). Polari almost completely died out in the 1960s and 70s, though, as it started to be seen as a negative stereotype. But quite a lot of Polari words are still in use (such as \"drag,\" which comes from the Romani word \"indraka,\" or \"skirt.\")",
"There are many theories about where the \"accent\" originated from and how it is acquired. To my understanding, and what I find is the most feasible, is that gay men develop this tone by being exposed to gay culture— along with a bevy of slang, behaviors, attitudes— and is used as a way to feel part of the community.\n\nConsider the way that many people interact with black people. They— especially men— often lower their voice, use slang and try to maintain an \"urban swagger\" to seem more relatable. I've also read several studies about people being able to identify someone from across a crowded room by, more or less, subconsciously detecting their accent. This is especially true for people that move to other countries. So like these two examples, the gay accent is something that is used to act as a marker confirming their homosexuality and calls on potential gay friends, lovers, and fruit-flies(they love that sweet sound). \n\nBut then you also have to question where this behavior is picked up when you have a very young boy who is decidedly flamboyant but has few gay men to introduce them to this behavior. \n\nsource: I'm a gay black man. ",
"Another thing to consider: you don't notice most gay guys who don't sound like that and so are probably counting them with the straight guys and confirming your idea of the two groups (which isn't a terrible crime on your part, just automatic brain stuff).\n\nAlso: If a straight guy had these speech patterns naturally, there would be pretty strong social pressure to \"fix\" it so he doesn't appear gay (because that's bad), whether consciously from, say, a dad or brother trying to instill traditional masculinity, or unconsciously from teasing male classmates, or subliminally through getting passed over by women he'd be interested in dating because they're either unattracted or think he's gay because that's what he's signalling with the speech patterns because everyone knows that's what flamboyant gay men sound like.",
"Culture culture culture. Think about how \"gangstas\" talk to each other, that's not a natural way to speak, it's learned as part of an identity they share with those closest to them. You'll probably find (though this is conjecture and I have absolutely no evidence for this) that these 'flamboyant' gay guys socialise with other gay men and that the way they talk is more of an 'in-group' thing than anything else. Other groups of gay men may forego the whole 'camp' thing altogether, and develop shared traits around a walk or a dance, or choice of drinks or music or sports. You can see what I mean in that regard by looking at sports players who, while they don't all speak the same way, engage in a shared boisterous, macho way of interacting.\n\nHave a think about what kind of behaviours you've picked up because of the group(s) you're part of. It may not be obvious, but it's probably there. It's more noticable with \"flamboyant gay men\" and such because it's more overt (and presented in popular culture) than a bowl in your walk or a weird wave goodbye.",
"Gay mannerisms and speech patterns are learned? Perhaps the specifics of idiom or cultural allusions but the general feminine lisp of more flamboyant gay men is definitely not consciously learned or even adopted in a conscious way, exaggerated maybe but the basic pattern is almost entirely unconscious and clearly more innate than anything else. The idea that it is a consciously adopted style in order to identify with the gay community simply does not reflect the actual experience of anyone I know gay or straight. Ultimately the best response to this nonsense is to simply ask why anyone would choose to speak or act in such a way that carried such negative consequences even today for most people? In small town Texas where I grew up in the 50's and 60's being gay meant being abused and bullied constantly as a student and then meant complete ostracism from friends and family not to mention being jailed for criminal activity and occasionally subjected to involuntary electroshock therapy at the state mental hospital for repeat offenders. There was definitely no gay community to identify with yet a couple of my class mates were easily identifiable despite their best efforts by their \"gay\" lisp and speech patterns and mannerisms. Where could they have possibly learned them in the first place and with so much negative consequence as a result of it why would they have continued doing it. I knew these guys from the age of about 5 or 6 and even then they were labeled as sissies for their speech and behavior. The idea that this is largely learned or conscious in nature is patent politically correct nonsense. It is like saying transgender people learn how to be the other sex instead of knowing innately that their actual sexuality doesn't match their anatomy. ",
"You may find [these videos](_URL_0_) interesting.",
"I am gay and have a slightly higher voice than the average guy and have had a slight lisp since I learned to speak. I've actually had to train myself to get rid of it and speak with a lower pitch. I don't identify at all with the gay community and hate that I can be identified as such so quickly. So no, it's not a learned trait in every case. Although I agree that some gay men obviously don't speak in an effeminate way naturally.",
"I think they play up stereotypically gay/sissy behavior to publicly demonstrate their gayness. Kind of like guys who behave in very exaggerated macho ways.",
"I'm gay and I've always wondered this too!\n\n\n*in the straightest voice possible*",
"It's not their normal voice from what I experienced. I spent a week in a cabin with a flamboyant gay and when he got grumpy and angry at night he'd yell everything he said and his gay accent went away.",
"San Franciscan gay here. \n\nI feel like my voice used to be more macho or butch when I was younger (16-18) than it is now (23). I used to be extremely self-conscious and honestly terrified of people knowing that I was gay. I lived in a conservative small town, and knew that people like me weren't accepted. I wouldn't express myself, verbally or emotionally for fear of prosecution/bodily harm.\n\nUpon moving to SF, I was able to let a lot of that go. I could finally be myself without being afraid. I could be dramatic and silly and say things like \"guillllltttyyyy!\" or \"fabulous\" and laugh it off and not worry about getting my ass kicked. It was liberating. \n\nI think most gay men who speak somewhat effeminately aren't trying to ACT gayer or let people instantly know that they're gay. They're just not worried about trying to hide their sexuality. ",
"I'm neither gay nor a man. I've met two kinds of \"flaming\" gay guys: men who were \"expressive\" from the time they were very little and everyone predicted they would be gay and men who seemed androgynous or even straight but who would become more dramatic if they felt safe and accepted in a particular setting. \n\nAnd then, as acknowledged, there are all the gay guys who aren't feminine, but rather macho, or something in between.",
"I'm gay. Was born gay. Never had a choice. I was born into an extremely religious and conservative family and for whatever reason, my voice is effeminate. I spent every night praying to god to make me normal and \"fix\" my voice. My voice betrayed me at every turn and my brothers used it as an excuse to whale on me every chance they got. Believe me -- I wasn't training my voice to sound the way it does. Even in the gay community this is looked down upon and masculinity and masculine sounding guys are the ideal. \nThis trait is innate - just like your eye color. Yes there are people who exaggerate and even highlight their feminine qualities but take it from me -- when you hear a guy with a voice that immediately betrays his sexuality, your first thought should be: \"damn, I bet this guy had a rough childhood\" not \"Gee I wonder how he trained his voice to sound like such a flamer\". \n",
"Elementary teaching assistant here. We had a young boy in grade 2 who was quite obviously gay. I promise I'm not making this up. Always played with girls at recess, showed a lot of interest in decorating and colouring things super neatly and he would do a dance-walk whenever he moved around the class. A kind of ballet. I know the decorating thing doesn't make him gay but it is stereotypical so I thought I'd mention it. \n\nBut the voice thing. He had that gay pitch and lisp. It was super obvious. My guess is that feeling feminine and non-agressive (less testosterone?) brings that out in people? As gay guys get older they will also learn to tweak these mannerisms to make them feel more gay/attractive/whatever. Same way that I do things or act in a certain way to feel like more of a man. And straight women, if it's their style, might do things to seem more girly. \n\nAnyways, the lisp is there early on for some. They're not born with the pitch and lisp but I do believe they are born feeling less testosteroney which might then lead to that. Trust me, I'm a doctor. ",
"I think both \"nature\" and \"nurture\" are involved, although usually it's a false dichotomy. Many gay and bisexual men certainly develop, whether consciously or not, a \"gay voice\" as an identifier, a fun way to \"camp out\" with friends and in relationships, and so forth.\n\nBut I think it's also important to keep in mind some of the examples other people have mentioned, namely those cases where a young boy develops certain mannerisms like the \"gay voice\" with little to no exposure to gay people or gay culture. (This lack of exposure is hopefully getting harder to come by with the advance of LGBT rights, but it's still possible.)\n\nWhat's confusing to some of the friends of gay men who naturally have a \"gay-sounding\" or more feminine voice is that often those friends have only ever heard them speak in a \"straight voice\"--lower pitch, not overtly expressive, etc, and their doing so is part of their being in the closet. So after they come out and are accepted by their friends (in the best scenario), they feel free to use their *actual* voice, rather than the affected \"straight guy voice.\"\n\nBut to their friends, it seems to be the reverse: The sudden appearance of the \"gay voice\" seems to be an affectation, and they wonder why their friend suddenly lost his \"normal\" voice.\n\nSource: [Dan Savage](_URL_0_) (I'm also a bi guy, but I tend to sound and act masculine.)",
"So how does this explain gay men who are insecure about their sexual identity, yet still have the high voice? For example, my whole family knows my uncle is gay because he has \"the voice\", is feminine, has never had a girlfriend, and came out to select members of his friend group whom I've met. He's very private about it though and seemingly ashamed. Never talks about it, never brings his boyfriend to family things. My grandparents still don't technically know. So why doesn't he \"shut off\" his voice around family? If it truly is a something you can control?",
"grew up in a co-op, there was a guy that watched us most of our life growing up. He had the voice since I could remember, I think it depends on the person. ",
"It's just part of the culture. I have a friend who moved to North Dakota-we live in Indiana- and he came back after a few years with a thick, thick country accent. It's a little different for the gay community, though. That's part of the identity and they slowly pick it up and it eventually becomes part of them. Sort of relevant: [I love this] (_URL_0_)",
"I've concluded that voices are primarily culture determined. I have heard Japanese women speaking in baby voices while hearing the old \"Valspeak\" from southern California girls. You know, that strange buzzing, rattling voice. Don't people listen to themselves?",
"Why do you sound the way you sound? Your voice is likely so distinctive that people who know you can recogize it without seeing you, did you train yourself to sound like that?\n\nLikely the same reason.",
"Okay, so as a straight guy who talks with a slightly feminine lisp, i can say it has a lot to do with hanging out with girls who simply talk like that all the time. Some people have been saying it's their way of trying to identify as gay, which makes sense too. But I spent about two years working at Forever 21. Nothing but female co-workers and female customers for two years. I started noticing that I was talking more like my co-workers and started getting a lisp or accent or whatever you want to call it. ",
"I've often wondered about this. I'm a gay 26 year old guy who generally does not have that \"gay voice\". Some things I say can give it away, but generally I sound like any other straight guy. At least this is what people tell me. Been at the same job for over 4 years and some people there still don't know. I don't bring it up because it's none of their business, but a good number of those who do seemed surprised when they found out.",
"It's conditioned, not strictly conscious, so you're partly right (maybe mostly right). But we *all* do this, don't kid yourself. We all adopt the habits of our predominant social groups, whether we're aware of it or not.\n",
"it's not learned. for me, it hit me between the 6th and 7th grade, along with the other items in the gay gift basket: confusion over why anyone would watch baseball, a desire to keep these loafers scuff-free, and an uncontrollable desire to recreate your parents house (Mom. Mom. Orange shag? No. Just no.)\n\ntruly the accent just seemed to appear one day and i did NOT want it. i was scared to death that someone would find out my horrible secret (this is the late 70's) so i worked hard to suppress it, along with my personality and the very essence of my being. ",
"Gay here. \n\nGrowing up I always had a more effeminate voice. Don't know how to describe it. Got called gay all the time growing up cause of it, so I guess it didn't surprise me. \n\nAfter puberty shit got weird. My voice became a bellowing low register, but I still had that \"gay\" twinge in my voice. Hormones a-blazin (flaming?), discovered I liked dudes. Made it a lot easier to be identified as gay so I count it as a plus. \n\nI'd say a little of it was learned. I have noticed that as I've aged I've gotten a bit \"gayer\" in my voice, and I think it's linked to a societal thing really. My friends give me shit for it all the time but I don't care, makes me that much more fabulous. ",
"They definitely train themselves to do it, I've heard doctors who say their accents fade completely once they start going under anesthesia. ",
"I read a post here once that their accent goes away when they are just coming to from anasthesia.",
"According to David Sedaris, having to go to speech therapy is a gay identifier. \n\nOf course, he was being ridiculous, totally his right as a comedic creative nonfiction writer. But it's interesting that society links lisping with being a gay guy. Why lisping? Why not...stuttering or any other speech struggle? ",
"[Dan Savage](_URL_0_) said in one of his podcasts that the reason some (not all) gay men seem to suddenly affect a gay voice soon after coming out is because that's actually their natural way of speaking, which they've concealed for most of their lives, and which they now finally feel free to use. ",
"I have a bit of an interesting perspective, as I'm a bisexual guy who has two groups of friends; straight and bi/gay friends.\n\nI definetely have the accent, but it comes and goes depending on who I'm talking to. When talking to girls I'm not trying to pursue, I tend to use it, as it seems to help them relate to me. They always warm up and relax, I guess because in their mind \"Hey this guy is gay, I know for sure he's not going to hit on me\".\n\nWith other gay guys/flamboyant bi guys I tend to use it a lot too. However, when I'm interested in the guy, I tend to slip into the accent less, and lean more towards the standard masculine accent from my area (Ontario Canada).\n\nWith my straight friends I never use the accent. One thing to keep in mind is that I don't consciously choose to use the accent or not; it's an automatic thing that I tend to only be partially aware of.\n\nI definitely believe the accent is something gay/bi people learn from \"the community\". I didn't really consider myself bisexual until my senior year of high school, and never had the accent whatsoever until then. It was only when I started associating with gay/bi guys that I picked it up.\n\nInterestingly, I've never noticed a \"lesbian accent\" from any of the many lesbian women I've met and been friends with. They typically just sound like ordinary women, and when they're making the moves on another girl, they just use the same voice I typically hear hetero women using on men. I think the reason the accent has evolved this way is the need amongst gay men to signal homosexuality to other gay men in an indirect way. At least in North America, men typically feel more threatened by attraction from other men than women do from other women. The majority of women seem to either not be particularly offended by another woman being attracted to them (aside from awkwardness if the woman in question doesn't get that they're not interested), to actually being flattered by it. Much less men traditionally and still share this sentiment. It probably has to do with it culturally being considered emasculating for a man to be desired by another man, whereas that same concept seems to not exist in regards to women.",
"Because you're not actually gay unless everyone knows it.",
"Gay man here. First, I need to state that I don't know the 100% scientifically accurate answer to this, but I will say this. For the most part, I speak without a lisp and in a low monotone voice. But... When I'm hanging with a group of (girl)friends, the \"gay voice\" suddenly creeps up on me (usually when I'm being sassy with them). This never happens when I'm just casually talking with both girls and boys but usually only when I feel kind of like a girl. I guess that in those situations I identify (even if I'm not aware of it) as a girl. Not sure if this answered anything but it's what happens to me. edit: Also, since there seems to be a lot of people saying that the gay voice is used to solidify a gay person's identity. I just wanted to say that the more I think about it, it makes sense.",
"For every flamboyant gay person, there are 2 dozen flamboyant straight people.",
"Its all an act. I have two gay cousins and they dont talk like that...not around me anyway. They probably do talk like that though. Straight people should use pirate voices.",
"Straight male here. I can \"do\" a \"gay voice\" perfectly. Even with accents. Yes, french gay. Yes, russian gay (THAT one is the killer!). Yes, german gay. \n\nIt's just fun to change your voice and I'm sure it is sort of like all other \"talents\", some can do it better, easier and faster than others. Others need to \"train\" a bit - and some are \"(un)fortunate\" and have to train a lot or just miss out on it.\n\nIt's not like all gays talk like that, or even have the ability to do so. It sort of became a \"trademark\" thing, I guess? A lot of the ones that do this voice (in public) probably only do it because it's part of their \"gay persona\"? I'm sure there are plenty of gay guys who do it subconciously, too.",
"Michael Jackson wasn't gay and he totally loved women. I heard his real voice was a baritone.",
"It's probably cultural, just like how the black community has it's own accent and cadences(which white people who grow up in black communities also have just like black people who grew up in white communities don't have it), the gay community adopted its own in an attempt to form a cultural identity. The preconception is that homosexual males tend to be more effeminate than their straight counterparts (whether or not this is actually true) so it just kind of became expected. What I want to know is what came first, the stereotype or the cadence?",
"I know this will only get buried, but there was a documentary on this exact topic. The trailer alone will answer your question.\n\n[**LINK:** Do I Sound Gay?](_URL_0_)",
"I can't speak to research, but I can say that I grew up very closely with my cousin from birth, and he has had a traditionally \"flamboyant\" high pitched voice since he started talking. He was also born into an incredibly masculine, critical family who rejected his stereotypically feminine traits and desires until he was like, 21 and officially out of the closet. It was really hard to see. But I knew from a toddler that he loved to put on makeup and wear high heals just like us girls, we just had to play when no adults were watching. He still talks the same, just seams more comfortable being himself. I imagine it is as much learned as any feminine characteristic. But he has always had a higher pitched voice as well. I always wondered if that has to do with maybe more or less testosterone/estrogen. ",
"I speak quite camply and am sometimes confused for a gay guy although I'm straight. It's really just the way I speak. It's not the stereotypical gay guy voice, but not for off. ",
"consider it is also broadcasting an availability of sorts",
"I'm gayer than all sin and I don't sound gay. I think its a learned thing.",
"I know my voice has never been very deep but the older I got and more accepting of myself as being gay I definitely have a habit of using a stereotypical gay accent.\n\nThe worst part is I can't make myself un-use it now :/\nBut i play around and make voices all the time so I guess it fits...right?",
"Most people are saying it's a social thing, but I dunno... I know a guy who is gay but also celibate for religious reasons. Basically the only thing about him that even suggests that he likes other dudes is his voice. ",
"Sometimes my voice will sound gay and sometimes it doesn't and can be very deep. There is no decision on my part about how I speak, I just talk and that's what comes out. Subconscious mimicry is my personal take on why I talk like that. I do not train myself to speak with the gay accent, that's just silly.",
"How about men who have somewhat effeminate voices and mannerisms that are totally straight?\n\n",
"Many of them have it as a learned trait, many of them don't. In some cases, they already have flamboyant voice tendencies or hang out with women and strengthen these tendencies.\n\nIt's both. However, the majority of gay people do not have the voice.\n\nSource: am gay (I don't have the flamboyant voice)",
"I see a lot of people saying it's learned...and I know this comment is going to get buried so I won't get an answer. But I know that women, when speaking to men they are attracted to talk differently than they normally do. (Higher pitched, softer tone) and obviously this is pleasing to the male ear. Could gays be doing the same thing to attract men?",
"Heard about this gay man who talked really feminine all the time, but not in his sleep. \n\nYou can learn things to your muscle memory, and it will become part of you pretty fast.",
"There's a lot of dumb shit in this thread.\n\nThe 'gay voice' does exist, and it's not an act or a persona or whatever. The 'learned' part comes from the fact that many of us (I had it fairly bad when I was young) got speech therapy and such to 'fix' it. It doesn't mean we learn how to use it, it means chances are if someone still has it by the time they're an adult they've chosen to not get therapy for it, which is completely fine and valid.\n\nIt's very much a natural thing, not some affectation.",
"I always thought it was like a mating call to other gays.\nI've heard straight friends deepen their voice when chatting with women (unsure of them being aware of doing it or not).",
"True story; guy named Joel pledged our house my senior year. Was just a normal dude until the day he became a brother. He came out, not a big deal, not sure why he hid it as we already had an openly gay brother, but Joel came out big time. \n\nHis voice changed overnight.\n\nThe make up and blouses and all the other flamboyant things we could all deal with, but there was something very unsettling about *that* \"VaUhOiceeee\".\n\nExtra emphasis on the Ss. \"Ssilly Ssailor\".\n\nFuck you Joel, I still love you, you flamboyant son-of-a-bitch.",
"I can't be sure of course but I do have a theory about this. Growing up the gay people we see in public we know are gay because they follow a certain stereotype. That doesn't mean all gay guys are like this these are just the ones we notice are gay. So when young gay men are trying to figure out where they \"fit in\" they just have the stereotypical people to look up to when it comes to media etc. ",
"I don't know, but that accent has been a thing in at least 3 languages I know of way before the internet came around... ",
"I wish I could find the source, but I'm on my phone. I read once (and I identify with this explanation a lot since I'm gay and have been called gay before I even knew it) that it is due to being friends with my girls than guys as a child. And since I was like that, I identify with that.\n\nThing is I don't have a higher pitched gay voice. My voice is incredibly deep, I sing Bass 2/3 in my college's male choir, it just kind of has a 'gay inflection' to it now. I actively try, when interviewing or giving a speech, to 'flatten out' my voice and try not to sound too gay, but when I'm comfortable/drunk/emotional it gets pretty campy. Eh.",
"I was young when I was first sent to the training camps. The speech therapy, punctuated by the sound of electric shock when one would accidently switch back to the \"Breeder Tongue,\" was the most memorable torment, penetrating my nightmares for years to come. They trained us well, by the time I left I could communicate with 16 year old girls from the san fernando valley, as well as our own kind, with ease. The revolution was coming, and my comrades and I trained well. Someday, all the breeders will see what else they taught us. IN THE CAMPS.\n\nI'm sorry, I mean no it just kind of happens lol don't know how. Stop asking questions. ",
"I've always wondered how come some straight people have that feminine accent, can anyone explain? ",
"Just like lesbians have butch and feminine types, gays have masculine gays that sound like normal guys and those that are feminine. It's the ones that have that feminine trait that have that style of voice.",
"Yeah that's definitely learned. ",
"So here's just my personal life experience. \n\nTwo individuals in high school. Who attended the same college I did, both came out and their voice magically changed. \n\nAlso a guy a new from my freshman year who everyone knew was gay, but he denied it came out and some how his voice magically changed. \n\nI have no idea, but it's not what they were born with ",
"The same reason guys/girls try to act cool/dress differently/flex/wear makeup: to impress or attract mates.\n",
"I believe it's a feminine accent.\n\nIf you listen to women and men talking, they definitely speak with different emphasis on certain sounds.",
"Do gay accents exist in other languages?",
"I've wondered if some things are hormonal. Like the hairline, not all gay men obviously but a lot of gay male lose their hair and/or have a receding hairline and it seems to usually have the same shape. Hairloss is usually tied to excess testosterone and you would think a higher voice would be excess estrogen so who knows. ",
"I am gay. I would describe myself and my husband both as \"straight acting\". We both find the stereotypical gay types with the high feminine voices irritating. But sometimes I think its a little hypocritical because whenever I greet him on the phone or after work sometimes I notice that my voice gets a little higher when I'm with him. At work or anywhere else my voice falls to \"normal\" range. But when he's around my voice gets softer and higher.... I don't know why.",
"As a non-gender discriminatory individual myself, I've always found it unattractive. \n\nTo each his or her own though, the guys I've dated are lacking in this trait completely, it's curious that some adopt it while others don't.",
"From the [Wikipedia page](_URL_0_), which also cites a lot of other interesting studies done on this topic, some of which I read a while ago.\n\n > Peter Renn's undergraduate study (which won a George H. Mitchell Undergraduate Award) demonstrated that gay-stereotyped speech more strongly correlates with childhood gender-nonconformity than with sexual orientation and proposed that gay-stereotyped speech is actually childhood-gender-nonconformity speech that has become associated with male homosexuality only by proxy.\n\nIn other words, while some people believe it is acquired, many studies believe that the lisp is directly related to hormones and genes. So, some males are born with the unknown genetic/hormonal factors contributing to \"the gay lisp\" and as a result of the same unknown genetic/hormonal factors they do not conform to society's gender norms. Mix this with people's confusion of \"homosexuality\" with other types of gender difference like transgender people or asexuals, and you've got people falsely equating the lisp with gay men.",
"My personal theory is that they adopt this trait as a signaling mechanism for the fact that they are gay. \n\nIf you think about it, women use signaling mechanisms: high heels, cleavage, tight clothing, cosmetics etc. Birds do it too: colorful plumage etc. Insects also: they release pheromones. My point is that all animals do this, including humans. \n\nBut the thing about being a gay male is there isn't necessarily anything inherently obvious about his being gay. You could argue that he might dress or behave a certain way but it's not overtly obvious, at least not in the same way that a straight person might catch a split-second glimpse of a person of the other sex and find her/him attractive. I think that most people would not be confident in identifying a male as gay/straight based on a momentary look at him.\n\nGay men have to compensate for this disadvantage and thus incorporate learned traits such as a manner of speech. That way, if somebody were to talk to him, he can provide an implicit, if not explicit sign that he is indeed gay.",
"I'm almost entirely sure this topic was discussed recently, and a linguist with relevant interests chimed in, noting a comparative analysis had been conducted on the vocal tones of homosexual and heterosexual males, and it found the homosexual males in the sample population had deeper voices on average than their heterosexual counterparts.",
"My cousin is gay and doesn't have the lisp, but I've hung out with him and his friends, and he seems to be one of the few people in his friend group who doesn't have the lisp. He also isn't obviously gay in any way. He doesn't purposefully hide it, he really isn't imbarrassed or anything. This is why I've thought that it is a thing that people put on either to stick out from most people, or to blend into their group. ",
"Idk I have three nieces, 18, 17, and 14. My 17 yo's best friend is a guy, also 17. He has that \"voice\" and lisp too but just recently we found old videos when they were all younger and he had it then too. It's like it comes natural. ",
"You just don't assume they are gay if their voice is what you consider normal.",
"The other day I met a man who had the most \"flamboyantly gay\" voice I had ever heard. It was actually rather jarring even though I have several friends with such voices, just because of how, well, gay-sounding it was and because his appearance didn't suggest his voice at all (he was about 6'2, burly and bearded).\n\nHe then talked about his wife and children for several minutes, so I was surprised once again.",
"I am gay myself and can't stand the stereotypical voice surrounding it.\n\nI have plenty of mates whose voices haven't changed at all after coming out, finding themselves etc, I just don't get it. ",
"As a gay man, I would say that my accent was profoundly affected by my close relationship and desire to mimic the women who raised me (mother, grandmothers, aunts). I valued their input the most, and inherited their phonology and inflection. Interesting, this is only in English. In French, I sound like a \"perfectly straight man\" (and have been told so). I've always attributed my accent to the people I valued most when learning the languages.",
"As a gay guy, I will say that when I initially came out there was this urge to fit in to the gay community due to already feeling isolated from the straight community in high school. I never had a full-blown flamboyant speech pattern however, I did feel my tone and the way I would emphasize my sentences change slightly to feel more \"accepted\". It's almost like moving to another country that speaks the same language but has a different accent. Over time you just find yourself slightly changing your speech style so that you feel at home in your community and aren't looked at like a visitor.\n\nNow, for older gay guys who are out of high school and college who are very flamboyant in their mannerisms and speech, I feel like those people are most just innately that way, it's not just a \"fit in\" type of thing. Because after school I just grew out of that phase of caring what other people think or who's box I fit into. I think most people grow out of that phase eventually and this scenario is no different.\n\nLastly, I'd just like to stress to everyone out there to try to give these people a break. Seriously! It's already hard enough to be gay and made fun of for that alone, let alone being made fun of for other traits on top of it. And not to mention the fact that there is internal community discrimination on top of it. You think feminine gay guys only get made fun of by straight guys? Nope. A lot of the masculine gay guys also make fun of the feminine gay guys as well which is very when it's coming from people who are supposed to be in their same support group.\n\nWe've come a long way in acceptance of gay people as a whole but there are definitely still some hurdles to clear, and that includes Americans getting over this huge misunderstanding and misconception about transgendered people. It's honestly really sad how people who don't truly understand what a transgendered person goes through just laugh and treat their genuinely difficult life like some complete joke. It's a very serious thing that they go through and I wish people would take the time to understand it. ",
"I'm straight and people including my family keep thinking that I'm gay because of my voice. I'm NOT gay and I DONT choose how I sound, I really wish people smartened the fuck up and learned not to judge people based off these sort of things. I always still feel like I have to somehow prove myself to my friends and family. \n\nIt's not nice to assume someone is gay based off of how they sound. If you do this then you're a dick. ",
"I read an article in Psychology Today (I believe it was) and it strongly suggested that the voice is absolutely a learned trait. It probably has something to do with identifying each other more easily and gives off a artsy tone of voice- although I can't remember if that is what the article suggested. THAT SAID, I believe the article also suggest women force a more feminine voice than they naturally have also as do men do their own thing with the voice too. The deeper you dig into the human being, the more you realized what an unbelievably brainwashed and fucked up animal it is. Consciousness and rationality should have never happened [and Cole said it well](_URL_0_)",
"There's a lot of research saying it's a combination of factors, but they tend to lean towards learned behavior.\n\nThat puts me in a weird place. I'm a gay guy, and while I don't sound extremely flamboyant, there's definitely a lilting quality, and I modify some of my vowels oddly. I don't know how I picked this up, though I suspect it must've been on a deeply unconscious level as I came to terms with my sexuality.\n\nI can't turn it off. I've tried. It fucking pisses me off (it doesn't jive with my perception of myself, and makes certain aspects of my career difficult), and I haven't found a way to fix it. I suppose I'll need to go to speech therapy or something.",
"uh, this is my first post on reddit but here goes:\nlet me first explain that i'm a rising 2nd year @ UCLA and I'm majoring in Linguistics & English, but I am by no means a linguist (or a cunning linguist at that) and am gay myself.\n\nI think what first needs to be explained is accents themselves: \nYou get your accent from when/where you learn to speak, among other factors. For example, a French person might say \"zis\" instead of \"this\" because French does not have a \"th\" ([Voiced dental fricative](_URL_0_) in case you were wondering) sound in the language.\nNow continuing on that idea, an American couple, for example, can raise their child to have a British accent if they simply speak in a British accent to their child whilst raising him/her. This is because we learn our speech from (to put it simply) our parents/guardians when we are growing up.\n\nNow, I watched a (trailer for a) documentary about the gay \"accent,\" and a lot made sense to me from what I've learned so far, so for the rest of my explanation, I'm taking the info from that trailer and supplanting it with my (brief) knowledge of linguistics. What I recall is that gay men grow up listening more/paying more attention to the way women speak rather than men, and in doing so, develop an \"accent\" which is more of just how a woman talks, rather than a \"gay\" accent.\n\ni.e. it only sounds gay because it's a man, whereas if it were a woman saying it exactly the same, she would just sound like a woman.\n\nLike /u/wsferbny said (how do you link to someone on reddit?) \n > the \"gay accent\" is actually more indicative of gender non-normativity than sexuality\n\nSpeaking on my own experiences, I personally don't think I sound that gay, but some friends think I do. I know I did not purposely choose to sound so, but I think it's a combination of what I said earlier, as well as how comfortable I am around the person, how I feel that day, how excited I am about a particular subject, etc. etc. (i.e. loads of things)\n\nedited: added the /u/ thing i just learned B)",
"I read a study that dealt with this exact question. The study was about the effects on gay men right after waking up from anesthesia. It seems that once they woke up they would talk without the accent until the anesthesia wore off all the way. I do believe it is a trait used to help them identify oneself.",
"I'm very late to this party. But, food for thought; I was an elementary school teacher for 6 years. During that time I noticed many boys talking with days accent. They turned out to be quite gay later on. \n\nTake from that what you will. ",
"I think there is definitely a flamboyant affectation that many gay men use to identify themselves, and simply because they spend a lot of time hearing other gay men talk the same way - it's the same as spending a few years in Tennessee and coming back with a slight drawl. \n\nWhat's important to note, though, is that there is also a 'straight accent.' Some men do this to a greater degree than others, artificially lowering their voices, etc. Picture an old biker dude or Todd from *Scrubs.* the female equivalent would be when girls use the \"valley girl\" accent, saying \"like\" too much and making their voices high and nasal. These aren't natural voices either, they're learned. Many of us don't like to think we sound this cartoonish, and most people don't, but there are definitely gender specific speech patterns that we subconsciously pick up over time. We learn that girls talk like this, and boys talk like that. That \"gay voice\" you're hearing is probably partly learned from other gay role models and peers, sometimes exaggerated as a tool of personal identity, but much of it is just dropping the slight \"macho\" accent that straight guys train themselves into. \n\nAt least, that's my theory. ",
"Grew up a surfer, with brothers who were surfers. I sometimes feel like they talk weird too. I never affected the surfer lingo (my brother is a dead ringer for Crush from Finding Nemo) and I feel like its the same thing. there is a subculture in all things, and they have a specific tonal adjustment to the language that indicates to others what you're into (in a genetic/primal/group animal kind of way...) maybe...",
"Perhaps this not an answer to the question, but I just had a conversation with a coworker regarding this exact issue yesterday. Often times people will tell me \"Well, you SOUND straight, I didn't even know you were gay until you mentioned it\" and then smile as though that's the nicest thing you could tell someone. At a (younger) point in my life I actually accepted it as a compliment, but I really began to ponder why it was so important to me to hear that. What was so wrong with people perceiving me as gay? I AM gay. I made no concerted effort to teach myself to speak any specific way, to fit into any specific group. The prejudices against archetypal flamboyant gay speech patterns inside and outside the gay community only serve to further the internalized homophobia many of us experience as a sort of PTSD from growing up in a society that, until recently, publicly rejected us. The next time you want to assure a gay friend that they don't SEEM gay, consider whether or not you want to promote such ignorance.",
"Male monozygotic (identical/single egg) twin here. My twin brother and I are the same height, weight, shoe size, and we share the same contact lens prescription. He is hetero and I am gay. We grew up in the same household and without any traumatic events, so should be a pretty good case study. We're both turning 29 this year.\n\nThe affect/dialect, along with the mannerisms, are both a nature and nurture development:\n-visual gender role modelling is a critical factor, if not the \"trigger\" factor\n-a chemical or biological change occurs pre-10 that strengthens/supplements the initial gender role modelling\n-there is most definitely a biological point of no return sometime pre-puberty\n\nThis would account for the difference in the pitch of my brother and my voice despite our diaphragms, chests, ribs, etc sharing the same measurements. \nNotes: \n-My brother role modeled our father, I did not\n-Neither of us exhibits a gay dialect, as this as unlearned/compensated for at a young age on my part, but I definitely noticed the beginnings of both a gay affect and manner in myself at around 13 \n\nA developed gay man does not adopt the affect or mannerisms for social reasons. Pre-10 gay male children are a great example of this, as they frequently exhibit the affect and mannerisms before learning social awareness.\n\nBut maybe the most important argument I can make here is that if you're a gay male who speaks and acts outwardly like a hetero male, a conscious effort is being made to reduce the manner/dialect. You can imagine it like drinking too much caffeine. That feeling of being \"wired\" is similar to the lack of control a gay male has over their affect or mannerisms. Any corrective behaviour is usually learned through visual role modelling of masculine figures, which is why it's not uncommon to see a gay male overcorrecting with hypermasculine voice and body language. After dating many gay men from both the Vancouver and Seattle areas, I can tell you that not one of them was without a slight gay affect in their most relaxed environment, and most of them claim initially to be straight acting - the only difference is self awareness.",
"I'm gay and I don't usually talk in a feminine way unless I'm talking to my female friends. (Even then I don't think it's overly flamboyant though...) For me, at least, it's a learned thing that I learned from being friends with a lot of girls. I also subconsciously turn it on and off depending on who I'm talking to. I suppose it helps me merge in with different groups of people easier.",
"It seems like a learned trait just like how any of us talk. It makes it easier to identify a gay man as well.",
"*I'll speak to this as someone who has two moms and found themselves raised in a medium sized gay community from a city in the southern United States.*\n\nThe gay 'accent' is not something you're born with, it's more like something you develop over time that identifies you as you. It's just like any accent. There was a really neat post about linguistics someone posted earlier that I'd refer you to for more of a scientific reason for why this happens, but I'll tell you what one of my mom's told me when I asked her why one of our family friends who was a bit like an 'uncle' to me, was different from some of the other men in our life. She had an interesting explanation.\n\nShe told me that gays in the south have always had a hard time staying 'hidden' but acting like a 100% heterosexual was just not going to happen - and why should it? So, a sort of code developed over time that let gay men 'signal' they were gay to other 'suspected' gay men. Because going up to a random heterosexual man in the deep south and asking, \"Hey, you're attractive and I'd like to spend some more time with you,\" is generally seen as socially inappropriate and not the subject of country music songs, the development of this code was a bit of a necessity. \n\nMOM THIS IS CRAZY THERE IS NO ONE DEVELOPING CODES IN SOME SECRET GAY BUNKER COME ON!\n\nWell, no, there isn't, but we take social codes all the time or social 'queues' as we commonly call them. While there is no gay form of \"Cotillion\" there are certain things you pick up - chief among them is verbal language and body language. Again, this all goes back to risking that 'embarrassing moment' where you as a gay man have put everything on the line to try and have a romantic relationship with another man who you *think* might be gay but are not absolutely sure. So, she explained that some men developed more feminine ways of talking to one another or saying certain things certain ways in order to clue someone in on the what's going on. \n\nAs a gay man in a larger community that really doesn't approve of your lifestyle there aren't many alternatives to figuring out who is who and what is what that can go down in a way that doesn't reveal your true identity. So you can either be a mouse and stay quiet or you can put it out there and be noticed.\n\nIf you take the mouse-route, you still have to take risks. Before you go on and make all kinds of assumptions and innuendo about what is happening let me tell you it's probably something very benign like **subtle** references to gay pop-culture or male attractiveness. Now, a problem with this is that you have to be talking to someone who is smart enough to pick up on the references, which can be a really big risk in outing you at the same time. So, the enters the speech style and more feminine rhythm and stereotype you hear today. It's just way easier to hit on someone who is showing you flamboyant signals than someone who is playing it 'straight.' Life is short, love is in the air, why waste it right? So, she concluded, some gay men speak more flamboyantly or more 'feminine-like' because they have developed this sort of 'gay accent' as part of a code to help gay men recognize who other gay men are.\n\nI think one thing that is interesting now about today's generation of LBGT is that with the more rapid acceptance of LBGT there is less of a need for this type of speech pattern. I'd be curious to know if people are consciously making an effort to emulate it, especially younger people, or, if they feel it is more natural. I certainly to feel some people are emulating but if they are happy and feel accepted - more power to them. Keep on keeping on.\n\n I hope I answered some of your question. I know I rambled on a bit.",
"I didn't get you wrong. And although some of the responses are OK, they seem to forget you are just five years old.\n\nThe answer is; of course it is learned. An accent is completely learned. This is true by definition, as accents normally are what we pick out, on the way people speak, where people are from! It is expected for an accent to vanish and a new one reappear several times in one life.\n\nBut that's no different from straight men. Our \"straight accents\" are a decidedly learned way of talking that contributes to a larger *image* that we try to show the world, of who we are, what we want, and a million other things.",
"Sexuality doesn't determine your accent. Come on reddit...",
"Have you ever met people who act like thugs? Guys you might have gone to school with as kids who had unremarkable accents and now that they are grown they speak like they are from Trinidad?\nI've met folks who spoke with a particular vernacular that changed with their inflection from the pub to the classroom.\n\nI wouldn't say this is in every case, some people just sound the way they do, other folks seem to take on people in their social strata. Your personality defines the way you speak to some extent. \n\n",
"[Nobody really seems to know](_URL_3_).\n\nAs a queer individual and someone who studies gender, orientation, and culture like crazy, if I were to venture a guess, it comes down to one or more of these things.\n\n1. The listener's bias. If you know that someone has homosexual interests, you may be more aware of the stereotypes they fall under and cherry pick those against other behaviors (confirmation bias).\n\n2. Selection bias. We often attribute feminine behavior and the gay lisp to homosexuality as a stereotype. However, unless you ask someone, you can't know their orientation. If you see a guy behaving effeminately, then you're more likely to assume that they are gay. However, in doing so, you confirm the stereotype whilst overlooking the many other gay people around you who don't behave in that way.\n\n3. Backlash to gender policing. There is a lot of scrutiny on normative male gender roles. Homosexual interests and behavior has, historically, been considered to be effeminate behavior. Once you accept your orientation, you also realize that you are perpetually in violation of normative male gender roles. After that, Pandora's box is open as far as how you express yourself. The restraints are off. You'll note there is no gay lisp equivalent for women (at least as far as I know of).\n\n4. Affirmation of queer identity. Same as #3, but focuses on accepting stereotypes and embellishing them as a social performance. That is to say, they're taking on a role based on stereotypes as an expression of their identity.\n\n5. As #4, but takes [Pascoe's Fag Discourse](_URL_0_) into account. To sum that up, due to the scrutiny placed on male gender performance (gender policing), boys/men often act out with effeminate and stereotypical \"gay\" behavior as a joke and then quickly return to their standard behavior showing they aren't really that way. It creates what Pascoe called the \"specter of the fag\"; the distorted embodiment of all behavior and identity that men can/will be shamed for.\n\n6. A cue to queer society. In heteronormative society (where straight is considered normal and, unless you indicate otherwise, you are assumed to be straight by default), the gay lisp can function as a kind of code similar to the [handkerchief code](_URL_1_). By embracing the stereotype, you indicate to others your queer identity without having to explain yourself to everyone you meet, which can be both tedious and awkward.\n\n7. Aftermath of childhood gender nonconformity. A [few studies](_URL_2_) linked gender nonconformity during childhood years and homosexual orientation. While that's hardly a cause for the lisp, it can be adopted as part of the child's nonconformist behavior and carry on into adulthood.",
"As a person not living in the US, it's worth noting that the \"gay accent\" is very rare among gays where i live (Sweden). It seems to be a cultural trait among american gay men.",
"I have a very gay voice, and have had since before I even thought about my sexuality. I also really dislike my voice, but I guess a lot of people have that.",
"I thought the voice came from their need to be feminine.",
"This is why identities are stupid. We have to create them to get out of childhood, but then we realize we have to destroy them to be free. \n\nGood luck with that.",
"Maybe it's similar to how male to female trangender people wear dresses. Transgender people feel they\"are in the wrong body\" so to speak and feel more comfortable as the opposite sex. well there isn't a \"sex\" trait for wearing a dress, or make up or the like. These are social conventions. As such feeling more womanly in them is purely psychological. Maybe this is similar to the voice thing. ",
"you've never met a kid like that? growing up, i met at least 3 guys who were like that already. that's just how they are born. ",
"Okay so when I was entering my teenage years my brother used to make fun of me from time to time when I'd pronounce a word in a girly manner. If he hadn't pointed that out I probably wouldn't have even noticed it. Then later on as I grew up I found myself fighting against that way of speaking in order to \"fit in\" or not to be called out but I myself noticed how I pronounced some.. sentences or words with more femininity than \"regular\" guys. And now that I'm 21 I've come to a conclusion that you can feel the femininity in every gay guy... It almost comes natural to us to talk girly/flamboyantly and it all comes down to how much one decides to fight himself and against themselves. I've met a bunch of gay guys and every single one, no matter how little, had a bit of that \"flamboyance\" in himself. So in the end if you grow up gay without restrictions, accepted by your loved ones and by yourself from the start you're most likely going to sound \"more gay\". ",
"Let me tell you something as a ex-flamboyant person it is trained. then it becomes normal, I was like it from 14-16 and I quickly snapped out of it and I grew up living in London being around people you dont really wana be a camp person. \n \n I got with somebody at 14, He was the complete oposite you know he wore the trousers in the relationship etc etc. I never had a proper-man figure in my life. So I looked up to him a lot and he made me the person I am today. Which I was trained to be once I was 16, Now I'm 20 this is completly normal to me. \ni've had bad things happen to me too so I think that kinda *\"Hardened\"* me up. \nIn which I mean not looking weak or insecure etc. \n \nHope this explains things to you because it is something I have kept very quiet about (me being camp when I was abit young & dumb etc). \nIt hasnt change who I am though. I am still a vegetarian and I still love baking cakes for my bro's ;p. \nEdit: Bit of formatting & spelt a lot the dumb way",
"A gay guy I knew at University wondered the same thing (as he did not have the lisp) and did his doctorate on this. His conclusion was that the bigger the trauma of coming out, the more likely you'd subconciously adopt gay signifiers like the lisp - his theory being that gay people who feel a trauma surrounding their coming out try to avoid \"coming-out\" situations in later life, by signalling their sexuality to their surroundings in advance. \n\nSome interesting findings were that the trauma didn't correllate with the acceptance of the family or friends of the person coming out, but with his (we're talking males here) expectations and fear of coming out before doing so. So the deciding factor was how hard it was for the person to take the final step to come out, not how society reacted.\n\nTake all this with a pinch of salt, of course, this was one doctorate based on a bunch of interviews in Northern England, not the final word or anything. But it was interesting.",
"Oh while this doesn't answer your question I have a funny story. Back when I was in the Navy gays were not allowed to serve, you know (DADT). Everyone knew who was gay, it was just no one gave a fuck. Any way we had 2 gay guys I'll call one Camacho and one Williams. Camacho was gay but he didn't act flamboyant mean while Williams made up for Camacho's lack of flamboyance 10 times over. So we were in Thailand waiting for a bus to drop us off and Williams was acting like super stereotype gay and I guess Camacho had enough of it and yell at him and said \"You act like such a faggot you make me look straight so just fucking stop\". The whole bus just started laughing. It was one of my favorite all time moments in the Navy. A gay guy telling another gay guy to stop acting so flamboyant because it was embarrassing for him. ",
"It's an act for the most part. Fairly silly though, as a lot of gay guys (like me) find it *very* unattractive."
]
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[],
[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_linguistics"
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1l35xu/what_is_the_origin_of_the_gay_accent/cbvcnxq"
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[],
[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/user/SeniorGuy07/search?query=deep+voice"
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8mtdUn_QU"
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[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTh9auIVVrA"
],
[],
[],
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_savage"
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4TUQ0X-ay0"
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[],
[],
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"http://youtu.be/A8x73UW8Hjk?t=1m36s"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dude,_You%27re_a_Fag#Fag_discourse",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handkerchief_code",
"http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy158H/PrevHonors/Z111/project.htm",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_lisp"
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2io09a | why do i have so much trouble staying awake in class yet the moment class is over i no longer feel sleepy? | So I'm sitting in lecture and it is sooo hard to keep my eyes open when the professor is talking yet as soon as class is over I instantly feel awake. Why is that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2io09a/eli5why_do_i_have_so_much_trouble_staying_awake/ | {
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"text": [
"Because sleep is directly tied with brain activity. When you are sitting in a class (especially one you are not interested in) your brain has very little to do. You have 60 minutes +/- to sit there and take in information from very little sensory input. Combined with almost no physical activity you can see how this starts to mimic sleep pattens. Get comfortable in a location, reduce/eliminate physical movement, shut down creative, problem solving, and decision making areas of the brain, add white noise via the teacher, and you have severely reduced brain activity.\n\nIn contrast once you are leaving, you have physical activity, social interaction, decision making, planning, and a host of others things kick back on line. ",
"I'm not here to answer your question, but to comment that keeping your attention is one of the signs of a good teacher. I've got a great teacher this semester that keeps his eyes peeled for our lapses in attention. If the class seems to zone out, he'll give us an interesting anecdote about his homeland. Then once we're engaged again he'll return to the lesson. "
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552uvr | earth's atmosphere was filled with co2, what happened to the co2? | I was wondering what happened to all the CO2 that filled early Earth atmosphere.
Edit: Fragment | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/552uvr/eli5_earths_atmosphere_was_filled_with_co2_what/ | {
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"It turned into plants, animals (including shells) , and algae, much of which turned into coal and oil or other buried, non-gaseous things",
"The earliest known life forms on earth, bacteria (or prokaryotes), developed photosynthesis and were able to survive the Carbon Dioxide atmosphere. They processed CO2 and H20, releasing Oxygen into the oceans and converting the Carbon into organic matter. When these life forms died, they and their carbon bodies sank and were buried in the earth, where high pressure converted them into coal or oil. Eventually, the oxygen buildup was enough to spread into our atmosphere. Once earth was oxygen-rich, nucleated cells (which require oxygen for metabolism) were able to evolve.",
"Just to add to what others have said, in particular very small shelled creatures called \"Diatoms\" emerged and used some of that carbon to make their shells. Then they died, and their \"skeletons\" were deposited layer upon sedimentary layer. \n\nOne of the concerns about the oceans rising acidity, is that it could potentially lead to the current batch of shelled creatures losing their shells (and liberating even more carbon in the process) and dying. "
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2h9el8 | why am i unstable on my bike when it's stationary but not when it's moving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h9el8/eli5_why_am_i_unstable_on_my_bike_when_its/ | {
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" > Bicycle (and motorcycle) dynamics are very complex. Physicists and mathematicians have been having trouble modeling exactly what makes two wheeled vehicles stable. [Here's](_URL_2_) one stab at it.\n\n > Some things are known to increase stability. The gyroscopic effect of the wheels plays a minor role. As [/u/bjujey](_URL_0_) pointed out below, experiments have shown that removing the gyroscopic effect still makes for a stable bike.\n\n > Trail also plays a role. Trail is the measurement of where the steering axis in relation to the contact of the wheel on the ground. [Here's](_URL_4_) a picture for illustration. This is also called the caster effect. Basically the further forward the steering axis is from wheel contact with the ground, the more stable the bike. Track bikes and cyclocross bikes have really short trail to make them more agile. Big stable cruisers have long trails.\n\n > Like gyroscopic effect, experiments have removed trail as a variable and these models are also stable. [Here](_URL_5_) is an interview with a scientist who removed both gyroscopic and caster/trail effects in a model bicycle, and it remained stable.\n\n > **tl;dr:** No one really knows what makes a moving bike stable.\n\n > Edit: I guess I should mention it is possible to be stabilize a non-moving bike in a technique called a trackstand. [Here's](_URL_1_) two track racers doing it on fixed gear bikes. Its a bit more complicated but still possible on bikes with a freewheel or freehub.\n\n_URL_3_",
"This question is asked fairly frequently, so I removed it. The rules require you to search before posting. After searching myself for \"balance bike moving\", I found multiple direct hits, and here is a link:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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[
"http://www.reddit.com/user/bjujey",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcEF2GyBR_Q",
"http://phys.org/news196870641.html",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1m13lx/eli5_why_is_it_easier_to_balance_on_a_moving/",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Bicycle_dimensions.svg/500px-Bicycle_dimensions.svg.png",
"http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/physics-of-a-riderless-bike"
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=balance+bike+moving&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
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1j72np | the difference between dsl, cable, and fiber. | I've been looking at solutions for my Internet needs, but I can't tell the difference between any of them. If it helps, I live in Toronto, Ontario. What should I be looking for when selecting an ISP? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j72np/eli5_the_difference_between_dsl_cable_and_fiber/ | {
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"cbbr3mm"
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"text": [
"The technologies you are referencing are what type of connection you have to the internet provider's backbone to the internet.\n\n* DSL internet uses phone lines\n* Cable internet uses TV lines\n* Fiber internet uses fiber optic lines (speed of light transfer, well... 2/3rds speed of light)\n\nGenerally, Fiber > Cable > DSL, but regardless which you pick you are usually connected to the same 'internet backbone' that the provider owns. And regardless of which you pick you are limited by that backbone, can be throttled and may suffer packet loss from the network.\n\nFor picking your ISP, not all technologies are available with all ISPs in all areas. Generally you need to decide what speed you want, how much you want to pay and come up with a plan that balances both. As I am not familiar with the Toronto ISPs, I suggest talking to people using each network to see if they actually get the speed advertised. _URL_0_ is a useful for checking that.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"Speedtest.net"
]
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9ibmii | acceleration = m/s^2. how can time be squared? (ps. i mean how can you square time, rather than how do you get s^2) | Thanks Everyone Who Answered! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ibmii/eli5_acceleration_ms2_how_can_time_be_squared_ps/ | {
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" > How can time be squared?\n\nIt means meters per second per second. For example you have an acceleration downward of 9.8 meters per second per second, so if you fall after the first meter you have moved 9.8 meters. But for the next second you are moving faster and cover 19.6 meters, etc.",
"The seconds squared is just because really it’s m/s/s and we can combine the bottom two into s^2\n\nTo explain why this is, speed is m/s because it is how many meters covered per second, while acceleration is (m/s)/s or m/s^2 as it is measuring speed gain per second (acceleration)",
"Velocity is the rate of change of distance in relation to time....meters per second....m/s\n\nAcceleration is the rate of change of velocity in relation to time.....(meters per second) per second.~(m/s)/s~ m/s^2\n",
"Speed is your change in distance with time, or distance/time. Acceleration is your change in speed over time, or speed/time. That's really just (distance/time)/time though. But it's not literally squaring time, it's just saying you're looking at how much something, which itself is based on a change over time, changes over time. \n\nThe same is true with jerk (m/s^3 ), snap (m/s^4 ), crackle (m/s^5 ), and pop (m/s^6 ). Yes, they're actually called snap, crackle, pop. They just look at each metric below them over plain old not squared time. ",
"Its really just a unit of measurement. Meters per second is a unit for speed. These could be called Gwiblabs. So acceleration is the change in speed, so the speed goes up one Gwiblab per second, which in the end would mean the equation you have. ",
"When I was in high school physics, our teacher actually banned us from ever saying \"seconds squared\" or \"square seconds\". We always *had* to say \"per second per second\" because he felt like we wouldn't intuitively understand it otherwise. I thought it was kind of a silly rule at the time, but I think it has some merit to it. As your post suggests, it's nonsense to say \"seconds squared\" (even if convenient). To have any understanding of it, you have to think of it as \"velocity increase per second\" at some level.",
"S is just a number, and you can square any number. \n\n m/s m m\n a = ------- = ------- = ------\n s s*s s^2\n\nIt's measuring how much faster you're getting. How many mps do you gain every second? "
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2z0hg5 | why is it recommended and very healthy to take a hot shower after being outside in cold rain, and probably connected to this is the question, why does the "cold" and especially the wet cold make us sick? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z0hg5/eli5_why_is_it_recommended_and_very_healthy_to/ | {
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"text": [
"I'm unsure as to the first half of your question, as I've never heard that advice before, however, I can answer the second half.\n\nBeing cold does not give you a cold. The common cold is caused primarily by the rhino virus, which is passed around by contact.\n\nDuring the colder months, we spend more time indoors, packed in with other people, leading to a rise in the rate of colds. This leads to the false conclusion that cold weather causes common colds.",
"Being cold and wet puts stress on your body and weakens your immune system, making you more vulnerable to diseases. "
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[],
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|
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1r1m2g | how has the united states acquired a secret court, and how is it constitutional? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r1m2g/eli5_how_has_the_united_states_acquired_a_secret/ | {
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"text": [
"It was formed to issue warrants from foreign intelligence agencies, i.e. FBI, NSA, CIA, and they approve the warrant.\n\nProbably not very constitutional, considering if we are spying on someone from another country they are not bound by the 4th amendment, so it's need does not matter. \n\nWhile I am a George W. Bush fan, I am not a fan of the Patriot Act, as Mr. Franklin said, \"Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither.\" I don't think it is necessarily constitutional. "
]
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| []
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|
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6m7gzd | if we all know about the de beers diamond marketing plan and the shadiness of their business, why we don't just boycott them and stop buying diamond rings for marriage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6m7gzd/eli5_if_we_all_know_about_the_de_beers_diamond/ | {
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"text": [
" > if we all know\n\nPlenty of people *don't* know. \n\nThen even if you do know logically, lots of people do not buy things based on logic. Marketing is all about trying to make us make irrational decisions (not that our brain really needs the help there). If you've build up diamonds to have a certain image of being 'THE one thing you get the person you love / you receive from the person you love', something that you see in every piece of media, people can still want a stone even if they might know (but again, many people don't) that they are overpaying. ",
"Think about the message you're sending if you tell your partner: \n\"Will you marry me? Oh yeah, I didn't get you a diamond ring because Diamond engagement rings are actually an invention of the De Beers company and their price is artificially inflated so they should be cheap as dirt and I'm not paying for that shit.\"\n\nLike it or loathe it, people often do like pointless expenditure to demonstrate how much they mean to somebody. Sure, it might ultimately just be a lump of carbon, but it's a lump of carbon you've got to work for. Not keeping with the invented tradition out of protest might be interpreted as merely an excuse cheaping out on your engagement, which might be taken as a sign of how much you value your partner.\n\nOn the other hand, presenting your wife-to-be with a diamond-less (but equally pretty) ring and the wad of cash you saved not buying a diamond is probably far less romantic than your partner would like, and makes it look like you're paying off your partner to marry you. Not the best message to send.\n\nPeople want you to demonstrate your love by spending too much money on them, but they don't want to *admit* that they want you to demonstrate your love by spending too much money on them.\n\nMaybe your wife-to-be feels the same way as you do about De Beers, in which case maybe you could discuss your feelings with her beforehand and ask her if she'd like a more unique engagement ring... but plenty of people like the idea of a surprise proposal, so that isn't always easy to bring up the subject without giving the game away, so people probably end up playing it safe."
]
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44y7p8 | the controversy over unemployment statistics | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44y7p8/eli5_the_controversy_over_unemployment_statistics/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"You're going to have to give a more specific question if you want a more specific answer. For example, what controversy are you referring to?\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is an article explaining how the unemployment rate is calculated. The government usually surveys about 60,000 eligible households per month. Then they use those numbers to calculate the figures for the whole country.\n\nThey come out with different unemployment rate figures. These are known as U-1, U-2, U-3, U-4, U-5, U-6. These are different because they're measuring different things.\n\n--------------\n\nYeah: \"unemployment\" isn't a simple thing to measure in a meaningful way :-p\n\n--------------\n\nFor example, if you want to know the employment situation then how do you measure:\n\n* A high school student working 10 hours a week at a family store?\n* A high school dropout, age 16, working 40 hours a week?\n* A college student working 0 hours per week?\n* Someone working 39 hours per week?\n* Someone working 80 hours per week?\n* Someone working 20 hours per week, but they want to work 40?\n* Someone working 20 hours per week because they choose to?\n* Seasonal workers?\n* Someone on a two week vacation?\n* Someone laid off for 12 weeks?\n* Someone laid off for 16 weeks?\n* A retired person?\n* Someone who has searched for work and found none for so long that they've basically given up?\n* A homeless person who has given up on seeking work?\n* Someone who has a giant inheritance and chooses to not seek work?\n* Etc\n\nDepending on how you count those people you can come up with wildly different answers. For example, if you want to say that unemployment under Obama is high then you could include the highest measure; if you wanted to say that it was low then you could use the lowest measure.\n\nThe usual unemployment rate that's reported is U-3. [Here](_URL_1_) are the current rates. It's generally agreed upon that the U-3 figure is a reasonable figure.\n\nWhen someone refers to the \"real unemployment rate\" they're just talking about a different U figure. They might be talking about U-6; they might be talking about U-2, or whatever figure. They're making the argument that the particular U figure they're referring to is more accurate than the \"official\" U-3 figure. The most accurate figure is a judgment call that only you can make for yourself.\n\nI hope that answers your question. But you didn't specify what controversy, so I may be totally off base here."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm",
"http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm"
]
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|
||
2klal6 | what really is a kidney stone and how is it created? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2klal6/eli5_what_really_is_a_kidney_stone_and_how_is_it/ | {
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"text": [
"They are hard deposits that form inside your kidneys. The stones are made of mineral and acid salts. Kidney stones have many causes and can affect any part of your urinary tract — from your kidneys to your bladder. Often, stones form when the urine becomes concentrated, allowing minerals to crystallize and stick together. The most common cause is being regularly under-hydrated. ",
"My physiotherapeutist suffers from kidney stones and his doctor told him to drink lots of beer. Possible?"
]
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| [
[],
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37ep2q | please tell me what the hell is going on in this video of a surgery. | _URL_0_ I saw this one Tosh, I think it is a knee surgery? What is going on? Why are they hammering so hard and so much?... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37ep2q/eli5_please_tell_me_what_the_hell_is_going_on_in/ | {
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"They are taking out a knee implant that is drilled into the tibia. Basically the only way to get it out (since it is so firmly in there) is to hammer it out like that. Orthopedic Surgeons are not very gentle."
]
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"http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f00_1430841363"
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8fx54i | different voltage / current but same power, what is the difference? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fx54i/eli5_different_voltage_current_but_same_power/ | {
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"5 volt is common because it's the USB/Thunderbolt voltage. The connection can be used for both power and data so it became popular for cell phones. Since the connection is common, many other electronics became powered by USB.\n\nSome electronic components require higher voltages. For example, light emitting diodes (LEDs) require a voltage level above a certain value to begin emitting light. Certain LED modules will stack 2 x 2 LEDs in series so they need 4 times the voltage of a single LED. This is why you often see LEDs powered by 12 volt or 20 volt power adapters. Other components like computer case fans won't start spinning unless you give it a high enough voltage to overcome the friction within the motor.\n\nFor components like laptops, it is easier (usually less electricly noisy) to lower the voltage than it is to increase it. Therefore, you would supply the largest voltage required for any component in the laptop first and convert it lower when necessary. This is why laptops can have power adapters in the 18-20~ volt range."
]
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5iqpjc | what is the difference between sun radiation, home appliance microwave radiation, and radiation used in cancer treatment? | I've always wondered this... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5iqpjc/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_sun_radiation/ | {
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"Sun radiation is UV light, ultra violet radiation which too much off can result in skin damage, hence sun burns.\n\n Microwave radiation has less energy than UV. \n\nThey use gamma rays for Cancer treatment. Gamma rays have the highest amount of energy, this energy can damage cell DNA, thats why it's dangerous.\n\n",
"They are all electromagnetic radiation of different wavelengths, which means they all have different energies. Higher energies are more damaging to living tissue. Of the three, microwaves are the lowest energy, then sun radiation (UV), then cancer treating radiation (gamma).\n\nCancer is also sometimes tested with particle beams, which are also called radiation, but are a different thing entirely. Radiation composed of high-energy particles is usually quite damaging to living things.",
"There are two broadly classed forms a radiation. \n\nOne is electromagnetic radiation which includes visible light and runs (in terms of wavelength/energy) from radio waves to gamma radiation. Gamma radiation is used in cancer treatment.\n\nThe other form of radiation is from radionuclides where particles are released from radioactive materials during radioactive decay. The particles can be either alpha particles (basically a helium atom), beta particles (electons) or a nuetron. I believe beta emitters are used in cancer treatment."
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eldp7g | how do they test projector and other led's that claim to last 30,000 or more hours? are they just taking educated guesses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eldp7g/eli5_how_do_they_test_projector_and_other_leds/ | {
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"Very well educated guesses, yes. \n \nOne way to do it is to take a large sample and run them, and measure how long they last. Of course, that would take years to accomplish, since there are 8760 hours in a year. \n \nSo instead the process is accelerated. You still take a significant sample and run them. But you make some of the conditions more extreme than the normal operating conditions. Typically, voltage and/or temperature are used to accelerate failure rates. \n \nIf you do this a few times at multiple voltages/temperatures, you can calculate how much acceleration you get by increasing them. Then you can apply these \"acceleration factors\" to your experiment, and run enough devices to failure in a few hundred or a few thousand hours to figure out the expected lifetime of a typical component. \n \nOf course, there are ways to screw this up. You can't use such extreme voltage/temperature that you introduce new failure modes that wouldn't normally occur. Your sample has to be reasonably large and reasonably random, so that it represents a \"typical\" part. You can't have manufacturing issues later that create new failure hazards. Etc. Etc. \n \nThis technique has been used for years on various electronics devices, and it seems to work pretty well when applied correctly. \n \n*Source*: I'm a former semiconductor reliability engineer."
]
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3smeye | why doesn't fire from gas powered devices (grills, lighters, etc.) spread to their fuel containers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3smeye/eli5_why_doesnt_fire_from_gas_powered_devices/ | {
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"Fire is a reaction with oxygen. Inside the container, there is little to no oxygen and the gas itself takes up the space. If you shot a propane can and it ignited, it wouldn't explode it would just have a flaming jet coming out the side as the gas only ignites once it leaves the container and meets oxygen."
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1acoia | what's going on in brooklyn, ny? | I read something about a frozen zone, and people being arrested for exercising constitutional rights. I can't seem to figure out what exactly happened or what's going on though.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1acoia/eli5_whats_going_on_in_brooklyn_ny/ | {
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"There was an incident in which a 16 year-old boy was shot and killed by police. Witnesses say that he had no weapon, but police say the opposite. There have been arrests at the wake for the boy, and three nights of protesting by the people in a part of Flatbush. The escalation of this protesting has lead to a serious increase in police presence and therefore an increased number of arrests. As for the 'frozen zone,' I'm not sure what that is. My understanding is that it allows the police to make arrests more easily and disallows media from gaining entrance to this area.\n\nEDIT: added a word",
"There has been a history of police shooting and killing unarmed suspects in Brooklyn. The police would say one thing happened while witnesses would say another. [example](_URL_0_) Most recently a 16 year old was shot and killed. Again the explanation by police of the events were disputed by local residents. Vigils were held for the boy. Reports came out that he was shot in the back, going against what the police said. People got angry. Police presence grew. Crowd got violent. Police shut down the area, so people couldn't gather or even cross the street effectively \"closing down the area\".",
"Some links:\n\n[New York Times--seems to side more with the police](_URL_2_)\n\n[CNN--seems to try to be fair to both sides]\n(_URL_1_)\n\nI can't find any references to any part of Brooklyn being a \"frozen zone\" in any news source I trust, and one site I trust [claiming that it's not true](_URL_0_).",
"Real life is never as simple as a 10 second news clip or a 3 sentence reddit post, but some important aspects of the case are that the victim 'allegedly' pointed a gun at the plainclothes officers. The gun was found on the scene, but there are some witnesses who say he didn't draw any weapon.\n\nSome of the people protesting have gone into bodegas and pharmacies and both smashed goods and attacked people in those stores.\n\nConstitutional rights don't extend to rioting and destroying property of your other community members.\n\ninb4 the clamoring: None of us knows if he pointed a gun or not at this point and my saying he's alleged to do so doesn't mean that I believe it or condone his being shot for it. ",
"A pair of plainclothes officers approached a group of young black men who were acting suspiciously. The black teenager who was killed had a loaded .38 which the police say he pointed at them, at which point they shot him several times. \n\nIt would be wise at this point to point out that the police are not always right or truthful, but a loaded gun matching the description was found at the scene and the individual who was killed had been arrested multiple times previously, and he was 16 in NY so there was no way that weapon was legally owned so there is a felony right there.\n\nAs is typical in these situations, the black community considers this incident to be one of police racism and murder, and so has arose in what they consider righteous outrage. After what has been called \"protests\" for the past several nights, which whatever their initial intentions eventually devolved into outright riots and criminal activity, leading to the injury of several officers and multiple arrests, the police have decided to try to close down the area so no more riots occur. Some people view this as the police trying to silence people, while the police view this as trying to prevent property damage and violent behavior.",
"Flatbush is pretty much a frozen zone for everyone except the hoodrats that live there. It's a shit neighborhood. There's no media coverage because media crews probably don't wanna risk getting their shit jacked. I wrote for ABC news here in NYC a while back and in some neighborhoods, murders wouldn't get reported unless there was a high enough death count. ",
"Treyvon 2: Electric Boogaloo",
"Just curious, is there concealed carry in NY? ",
"Nothing really im doing fine",
"I'm interested in the comparison of what's happening in Flatbush, Brooklyn to the London Riots.\n\nCan anyone share details or observations about other environmental factors that lead to the London Riots and that are present in Flatbush, Brooklyn?\n\n "
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"http://animalnewyork.com/2013/east-flatbush-actually-isnt-a-frozen-zone/",
"http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/justice/brooklyn-police-shooting/index.html",
"https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/nyregion/teenager-killed-by-new-york-police-was-shot-7-times.html?hpw&_r=0"
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6tkzr6 | why is it that every major religion originated from the middle east? | Ok, why is it that they are all from Asia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tkzr6/eli5_why_is_it_that_every_major_religion/ | {
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"Only every Abrahamic religion did. Hinduism is a major religion and it originated in the indus valley. ",
"By \"every major religion\", you mean two of them, right? Christianity and Islam. There are plenty of other major religions. They became major because they spread by conquering other people and by proselytization.",
"You're referring to the Judaic religions, I assume. Long story short, they're all Judaism with things added/removed. So they're from the same place since they are versions of the same root.\n\nAlso, they're not the only major ones. There's also Iranian religions (also from middle East), east Asian, Indian, and to a lesser extent, others like African.",
"That's where human Civilisation originated. Religions that started in those areas have had the longest time to spread around. \n\nAlso note that \"major\" doesn't mean \"only\". There are religions that are quite widespread that did *not* originate in the Middle East, and many other faiths still around, not to mention *old* religions that are not considered \"mere\" myths. ",
"I think your question goes in the wrong direction. It seems you are asking for some connection between a religion being very wide-spread and the fact that it originated somewhere in Asia. Apart from the fact that the middle east is culturally related to Asia, Africa and Europe, I don't think such a connection exists. Christianity is so wide spread because it was adopted by the Roman Empire and later by almost all Europe. This in turn led to its spread to the Americas and Asia during the Colonial Age. When it comes to Islam, it also was spread by a ruler, namely Mohammed himself. Which in later generations led to Islam being carried throughout North Africa as well as parts of Europe and Asia - as in the case of Christianity this all happened by conquest and military expansion. \n\nAdditionally, I would say, most major religions have developed ways of offering a service to their followers while at the same time becoming very stable institutions and use their power to influence political decision making. This is probably true for all major religions, no matter where they originated."
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7ysjdp | how come exercising in the morning can help wake you up, while exercising in the evening can help you fall asleep? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ysjdp/eli5_how_come_exercising_in_the_morning_can_help/ | {
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"In the morning both you and your body are waking up. When you start doing some sort of exercise your body goes \"oh shit it's go time\" and goes into hyperdrive. So you go from drowsy to your body working full time and flipping out. So it kind of wakes you up.\n\nBy the end of the day though, your body is shutting down and getting ready for rest. You've used your energy for the day and it's nap time. So when you go an exercise, you use even more energy, even though your body doesn't have as much and it's on a downslope to sleeping. So when you get done, you're more tired than usual.\n\nIt's like a valley. In the morning you're rolling down, building up some energy, which is easy since you have a lot of reserves or gravity at this point. Later in the day you have less energy, gravity is working against you, and it makes it harder to move or do anything.",
"It's not necessarily so. A lot of people find evening exercise stimulates them and makes it hard for them to get to sleep. Insomnia advice regularly includes avoiding late-evening exercise."
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30s3c6 | why are most documentaries not shown in movie theaters? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30s3c6/eli5_why_are_most_documentaries_not_shown_in/ | {
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"Many documentaries are made for TV, not for theatrical release.\n\nSome now are even made for straight-to-web release.",
"They tend to not get as much profit as movies. so broadcasting on tv or the web is usually enough. Same goes with collections of short films."
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7d5ym1 | why is breast cancer more common in females than males; aren't hormones susceptible to change? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7d5ym1/eli5_why_is_breast_cancer_more_common_in_females/ | {
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"text": [
"They have larger breasts and therefore more physical matter that can have a mutation that turns to cancer. The hormones that seem to aid in the growth of breast cancer are in higher concentrations in females than males, so while they are subject to change on average they are much higher in women than in men. "
]
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7zktts | how does groupme and other free services make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zktts/eli5_how_does_groupme_and_other_free_services/ | {
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"they either don't because they're funded by angel investors, or they sell the service user (you) data for advertising revenue. ",
"There’s in old adage: if you receive something for free, you are the product \n\nThey sell your info "
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lkrr4 | the three liars paradox | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lkrr4/eli5_the_three_liars_paradox/ | {
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"Can you better explain what you are asking about? My google searching doesn't exactly explain what \"The Three Liars Paradox\" is.",
"The only \"three liars\" puzzle I can think of is the following: \n \n* A says \"B is lying\". \n* B says \"C is lying\". \n* C says \"both A and B are lying\"\n\nWhich one of these people is telling the truth and who is lying?\n\n\nThis is more a logic puzzle than a paradox, though. It has to be B telling the truth, and the others lying. We can figure this out by brute force, assuming first that A is telling the truth:\n\n* A telling the truth means that B is lying, which means that C is telling the truth when he says A is lying. This goes against what we first chose to assume. \n\nNow lets assume C is telling the truth. \n\n* C telling the truth means that A and B are lying. But A can't be lying, because that means that B is telling the truth about C lying. This goes against what we first chose to assume\n\nFinally, B telling the truth. \n\n* B telling the truth means that C is lying, which is fine. Now we look at A. If B is telling the truth, then A must be lying about B being a liar. Therefore, B is the only one telling the truth. A and C are liars. \n \n \nHope this helps. Let me know if it's a different logic puzzle you're talking about or if something is confusing about this post. \n\nEDIT: changed up the explanation for \"C telling the truth\" to be clearer. ",
"there is no cake\n",
"Can you better explain what you are asking about? My google searching doesn't exactly explain what \"The Three Liars Paradox\" is.",
"The only \"three liars\" puzzle I can think of is the following: \n \n* A says \"B is lying\". \n* B says \"C is lying\". \n* C says \"both A and B are lying\"\n\nWhich one of these people is telling the truth and who is lying?\n\n\nThis is more a logic puzzle than a paradox, though. It has to be B telling the truth, and the others lying. We can figure this out by brute force, assuming first that A is telling the truth:\n\n* A telling the truth means that B is lying, which means that C is telling the truth when he says A is lying. This goes against what we first chose to assume. \n\nNow lets assume C is telling the truth. \n\n* C telling the truth means that A and B are lying. But A can't be lying, because that means that B is telling the truth about C lying. This goes against what we first chose to assume\n\nFinally, B telling the truth. \n\n* B telling the truth means that C is lying, which is fine. Now we look at A. If B is telling the truth, then A must be lying about B being a liar. Therefore, B is the only one telling the truth. A and C are liars. \n \n \nHope this helps. Let me know if it's a different logic puzzle you're talking about or if something is confusing about this post. \n\nEDIT: changed up the explanation for \"C telling the truth\" to be clearer. ",
"there is no cake\n"
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aak2ht | why is it that paying off all your credit debt can reflect badly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aak2ht/eli5_why_is_it_that_paying_off_all_your_credit/ | {
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"In the UK (you don't say where you are?) unless you're going to not use it at all for long enough for it to be considered dormant by the lender he's talking bollocks.",
"This is wrong. Credit scores are based on how often you pay your owed amount, how often you default, how much credit you have available, and how much you make. Leaving a little unpaid does nothing for you. ",
"He might be new and not fully understand the ins and outs, or he's just dim. If you have debt, paying it all off is a good thing and should help your score, especially if you're maxes out or close to maxed out.\n\nHowever, one thing that lenders like to see is your consistency in making payments on time. So, if you can carry a relatively low balance and make the payments every month this will reflect well on your score and stand out to lenders.\n\nIt's common for people to use their card for some monthly expenses, such as gas or food, then pay it off at the top of the month. If you have a card that gives you cash back for things like gas, dining, or awards air travel miles then you have a little incentive for yourself there. ",
"I don’t know how much debt some of these commenters have, but I have experienced first hand the impact of paying off all your cc debt. I have multiple installment accounts (car, secured loan, etc) but decided to pay off all my revolving credit and my score dipped almost 20 points. The reason: not enough revolving credit history. Mind you I have had some form of balance on one or another card for the last 7+ years. I started leaving about 2-300 a month on my card so I always owe something, and almost immediately my score rebounded. \n\nThe why I can’t tell you but sure it absolutely can affect your score. \n\nEdit: spelling",
"Fellow American here: I get what your lender is saying but I think it’s a little weird. You don’t have to leave debt on your card and therefore pay interest on it every month. Just use your credit card every month and pay it off every month. \nMy wife and I use our credit card(s) for everything and we pay off our balance every month so we never pay interest. Doing that has put our credit scores over 800. Plus you get the rewards from whatever credit card you have. "
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1lymct | why is paint thrown on canvas considered art? | I know this may offend some people but in my current design course, we LITERALLY fingerpaint... I mean cmon, I know art is all abstract and that but it's getting ridiculous. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lymct/eli5_why_is_paint_thrown_on_canvas_considered_art/ | {
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"Because you pretty much call anything art and you'd absolutely be correct. Doesn't matter if you like it or not. ",
"It doesn't have to be \"art\"... that is entirely up to you. However, most art critics and cultural savants would claim that any human expression created with the intention of being shared has artistic merit. \n\nThere are classical/traditional approaches to every medium, but with that comes an alternative: the \"avant-garde\". Art does not have to serve the purpose of presenting beauty. It is simply meant to evoke a strong emotional reaction. Societal tendencies have enforced the idea that the greatest of creations must be the ones that take the longest amount of time. But why must that be the case? \n\nThere is certainly beauty in recreating the physical world (such as is the case with a portrait). But is there not also beauty in the aleatoric (chance-based) process of creation of thrown paint (i.e. Jackson Pollock)? One could study the techniques and elements of Da Vinci and paint a near-identical replica of the Mona Lisa. But if one were to observe a Pollock work up-close, it would unveil extreme textures and a recognition that so many worldly elements were at play during the work's creation- especially the subtle motions of his body and physics in-action. It would be nearly impossible to recreate a work of that nature completely. \n\nSo what you are really asking is:\n\nIs there artistic merit in creating art with the purpose of questioning the purpose of the establishment of artistic traditions? ",
"This is why, when you get into college, you'll be forced to take art history classes. ",
"Most of the time it isn't. \n\nIn a sense, displaying art is a little bit like presenting scientific findings. Art work has to have a strong conceptual backing behind it for it to be \"art\", as opposed to craft or decoration, which is what most \"paint thrown against a wall\" actually is. Determining whether it has a strong conceptual backing is basically done by peer-review. Critics, curators and theorists, all of whom are experts in their field, will validate it by putting it into shows or mentioning it in journals. \n\nTo give an example, if someone threw some red paint against a gallery wall they wouldn't have produced art. In order for it to actually be \"art\" they would need to be able to defend my reasoning behind throwing the paint to the satisfaction of a whole range of people, just like when a scholar defends their thesis in a viva voce examination. That means giving a reason as to why they chose red? why that particular wall? why throw it that certain way? why do it at all? what does it mean? what's the context? It's a continuous process, which is done in press releases and artists statements, or by critical writing on their work in exhibitions or studio practice. Sometimes it's done by proxy as well, with critics or curators actively supporting artists that they think display genuine artistic merit.\n\nIn Jackson Pollack's case, the concept wasn't on a piece by piece basis, but across the whole body of his work. His work is about trying to translate gesture and action into images, which makes a lot of sense in the context of what his contemporaries were doing at the same time and what people were doing before him. When people just throw paint against walls because \"it feels right\" or some other equally meaningless statement, they aren't making real art in the same way that if a scientist picked a sample size of six because \"it felt right\" they wouldn't be doing real science.\n\nSadly a lot of people think that they are artists when they really have no idea what they are doing and these are the kind of people most of us will encounter in our daily lives, which makes it all seem ridiculous and meaningless.",
"What's the difference between a blob of red paint on a canvas and The Mona Lisa? Obviously one has more detail but a red blob can have various different connotations. For example blood. It's not the amount of effort put in but rather how the audience views it. Whatever ur original intention to create is has now become meaningless because viewers will use their own perspective to give it meaning. \nTl;dr: It doesn't matter what you make,be it fingerpainting.People will just come up with their own opinions.Some will like it some won't. That's art.",
"I'm pretty sure it's because people that suck at art decided the bar needed to be lowered",
"Answering this question requires a definition for the term \"art\".\n\nI suggest the one proposed by Objectivist philosophy."
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4jc8oo | how is currency/money in banks and other financial institutions safe-guarded from computer-based attacks? | Numbers on computers are just stored in memory, no? Couldn’t hackers just hack into banks or any agency that has any accounting elements and just edit the requisite numbers? Say, hack into a bank and just add five or six zeros to their own bank accounts, or a huge swath of people to conceal their identities?
Further still, couldn’t they hack into banks and mess with the way fractional-reserve banking works? Manipulating the reserve-base or the amount loaned out?
I ask because it seems this kind of attack would be not un-difficult for a nation-state at war – and it generally seems like it should be the most common scam. Shouldn’t inflation be rampant right now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jc8oo/eli5_how_is_currencymoney_in_banks_and_other/ | {
"a_id": [
"d35gb2c",
"d35qd4d"
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text": [
"Insane amounts of backups. The record keeping is highly regulated and by law the banks/financial institutions must follow the rules of having the information secured, AND backed up in a number of ways. Worst case scenario, they would have to stop all transactions and fix their databases. \n\nSource: I build these systems. ",
"The Clark-Wilson security model is like double-entry bookeeping. Money can't be put in your account without a matching debit somewhere else."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3b0de9 | what would happen if bill gates gave everyone in the u.s. 1 million dollars? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b0de9/eli5_what_would_happen_if_bill_gates_gave/ | {
"a_id": [
"cshnbo3"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I'm going to remove this as it doesn't make sense. Bill Gates doesn't have that much money, not even close, he could give about $250 per american."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
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