q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
list | selftext_urls
list | answers_urls
list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
171kbj | manti te'o's fake girlfriend | I don't follow sports at all, and people keep talking about this football player's dead girlfriend that turned out to be a hoax. Apparently that's a big deal. Can someone fill me in? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/171kbj/eli5_manti_teos_fake_girlfriend/ | {
"a_id": [
"c81cckn"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Try the search engine. This question has been asked dozens of times."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
64zrsq | why does popping a knuckle/joint feel so good? | My coworker has a tendency to flick his wrist back to relieve pressure after using his computer mouse for so long. Before going to sleep at night, I put a little pressure on the inside of my knee and pop the knee-cap knuckle/joint. What causes that pressure buildup, what causes the pop sound, and why does it feel so good? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64zrsq/eli5_why_does_popping_a_knucklejoint_feel_so_good/ | {
"a_id": [
"dg691i6"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"I'm not a doctor, but I believe it's air that gets trapped in the joints, and when you \"crack\" your knuckles it releases that air. \n\nI crack my knuckles multiple times a day and people have told me, my whole life, that it's bad for me, but I don't really care."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
9xm42b | why is it that when it is really cold outside, you can see steam coming from a vehicle's exhaust for several minutes, but then it becomes much less visible after the vehicle "warms up"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9xm42b/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_it_is_really_cold/ | {
"a_id": [
"e9tc1jq",
"e9tc5th",
"e9tdh8s",
"e9te9bd",
"e9tf1ld",
"e9ti3kd",
"e9trb1o",
"e9tueob",
"e9u0qw6",
"e9u8r1z",
"e9ufjke",
"e9ujbay",
"e9unzcb",
"e9vebja"
],
"score": [
18,
4285,
183,
119,
4,
31,
7,
2,
6,
4,
2,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"So when you start your car when it’s cold outside, there is typically small amounts of water in the exhaust. That vapor you’re seeing is water is heating up and turning into to steam. Which then condenses into little droplets of water and ice. It’s similar to how you can see your breath when it’s cold outside. ",
"One of the main components of exhaust is water. As the exhaust cools the water vapor becomes visible. For the first bit of driving the exhaust system is cold and this point happens inside the exhaust. After the vehicle warms up this point happens outside of the car and the effect is minimized.\n\nIn addition water usually accumulates in the exhaust and it takes a while to \"dry out\" the muffler and tailpipe. ",
"Just to add another answer besides water car engines are combustion based meaning they work far better when they are hot. In the winter when you start your car it is at the lowest possible efficiency it will ever operate at and as such you are burning more fuel and releasing more fumes per second compared to a few minutes later when the engine has warmed up a bit.\n\nThis is the reason why the UK government spent a lot of money on PSAs asking people to not use their cars for short trips in the winter as you're basically generating a seriously unnecessary amount of pollution in the first few minutes of each journey.\n\nEDIT: First paper I found showing I'm right, can't be bothered to spend any more time on this but there are more recent news reports saying the same thing so I'm safe. Feel free to spend more time researching it if you so want.\n\n_URL_0_",
"This condensation, or lack of it, is why my first brand new car never had its exhaust changed for the whole 450,000 odd kilometres that it ran for. As I travelled by far mostly country kilometres, the exhaust system was hot for the most of the time. I never really understood this till an engineer friend was amazed the exhaust was the original the car came with. So yeah, if you want your exhaust to last as long as possible, make sure it gets heated all the way up and that will dry the water out, reducing the chance of rust. ",
"I really would have thought that this is due to the fuel-air mixture when the car is cold. The cars fuel system adds more fuel to the ratio when the car is cold. The added fuel makes more smoke when burned... but I guess I’m wrong based on the other comments",
"This is hard to ELI5 because it is fairly complicated - the explanation involves steam tables, saturation temperatures and stochiometric combustion. That said, I'll still try to explain it as simply as I can. Like others have mentioned, water is a byproduct of burning gas and air. The water is in vapor form (steam) in the exhaust gases that leave the motor, travel through the exhaust system (headers, mufflers and associated piping) and leave through the tailpipe.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIf the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) is high enough, the water vapor will remain a vapor. When the car starts from cold, the engine block and the exhaust system is at ambient temperatures (cold). Even if you assume that the EGT is more or less the same temperature leaving the combustion cylinder after a short time, the cold exhaust system will continue to cool the exhaust gases as they travel from the motor to the tailpipe. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe water vapor you see is the result of exhaust gases being cooled below their dew point. That is, below a certain temperature (the dew point) the entrained water vapor will start to condense to liquid form on the surfaces of the cold exhaust system forming water. The remaining water vapor in the air in and around the dew point temperature will be saturated - essentially the air will be holding as much water vapor as possible but the vapor is at the point of condensation so it is visible. Once the exhaust system is brought up to operating temperatures, the exhaust gasses won't be cooled to their dew point in the exhaust system which means the water vapor won't condense out to be visible any longer.",
"So is exhaust a good indicator of when my car is warmed up enough to drive?\n (I drive a 2000 Yukon so I really need to baby it as much as possible.)",
"water vapour is actually invisible. on cold days, it starts to condensate to microscopic water droplets as soon as it leaves the exhaust and before it has a chance to disperse. that's when you can see it. if it leaves the exhaust at a much higher temperature, it will not condensate immediately and by the time it does it would have dispersed. ",
"Water is a byproduct of combustion. Typically, as a water vapor. \n\nThat water gets exhausted with other gases and is forced down the exhaust system by the velocity of the engine’s piston. \n\nSometimes, you see the water exiting the exhaust in liquid form (you can see it dripping from the tail pipe). When this happens, the conditions are just right that the water vapor condenses on the cool exhaust pipe. \n\nAs the vehicle warms up, the temperature of the exhaust system also heats up. When the temperature of the exhaust goes above the dew point temperature, that water vapor no longer condenses in the exhaust pipe. Instead, it continues out and condenses with the cool outside air. This vapor condensation is the steam that you see coming from the exhaust (some think it’s smoke, but it likely is not on well maintained vehicles). \n\nTemperature conditions keep rising, and the discharged vapor gets even hotter. At this point, it’s too hot to immediately condense with the cool air. Instead, it exits the exhaust and quickly disperses into the outside air. It’s so hot that the air rises and expands much more quickly. It eventually condenses with the air, but you don’t see it because it’s not happening as rapidly. \n\n\n\n",
"I'm seeing a lot of misleading answers here focusing on the engine/exhaust gases. A big factor is that the catalytic converter contains a material with a huge surface area that soaks up water when cold, then that water boils off when it's heated up.",
"Your car has a component in the exhaust called a catalytic converter, it’s job is to remove toxins made during the combustion process of the engine, one of the byproducts of this process is water which turns to steam in the hot exhaust. \n\nWhat you are seeing out the exhaust is not steam but water vapour similar to your breath when it’s cold out. The ‘air’ coming out the exhaust cools below the dew point of that ‘air’ which causes it to condense and you get water vapour. ",
"Actually, the question is simple, and so is the answer. Vapor is visible because of tiny drops of water. It's hot, but not so hot that all of the water is actually gas. But as the exhaust gets hotter, the vapor disappears because it's nearly completely gas.\n\nThat, and the vapor comes from condensate from when your car was colder than the dewpoint. Once that's all burned off, no more visible vapor.",
"I actually worked for a company that designed exhaust systems and the answer is simply that the muffler is full of water and the hot exhaust air is picking some up in the form of either atomized liquid or water vapor and shooting it out the back, exactly like a human exhaling. After a short while, all the water is dried up.\n\nThe reason the muffler is filled with water is that water vapor enters the air intake of the car and some of the byproducts of combustion and the exhaust catalyzer are water (which would be in vapor form). That hot water vapor is just sitting in the long exhaust system when you turn off your car and it cools down and condenses. The muffler is the lowest point in the system and tends to get a puddle formed in it. **SOME** car manufacturers put a drain hole in the muffler for this reason (this used to be the all \"American\" cars). **SOME** car manufacturers specify not having a drain hole so cars don't make puddles on the ground in your garage (used to be all the \"foreign\" cars). Now with so many American car companies importing cars from China and Mexico and so many foreign car companies making cars in the US, it's a toss-up as to what mufflers have drain holes.\n\nAll exhaust systems are stainless steel and should be very corrosion resistant, so the water isn't hurting anything. If someone has an OEM muffler that rusted through from a car made in the last 20 years, I would be pretty surprised. A lot of cheap aftermarket mufflers to make your civic sound like a tractor are made of crap steel and will rust out. Another thing cheap mufflers have a problem with is using fiberglass to make them quieter instead of properly tuned baffles inside (yes, mufflers work though tuning destructive interference of the sound waves, like fancy noise canceling headphones). You sometimes see mufflers shooting fiberglass out the tailpipe, which is not dangerous, just funny in a sad way.\n\nEDIT: clarification as to why it stops.",
"Can farts be seen too? Asking for a friend."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1966.10468502"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
75by2v | what makes up the vapor of electronic cigarettes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75by2v/eli5_what_makes_up_the_vapor_of_electronic/ | {
"a_id": [
"do50uvd"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Electronic cigaretes contain a heating element, when this element gets hot, it makes the water inside the liquid boil and forms bubbles, the same way bubbles are formed when you blow in soapy water through a straw. When these bubbles burst, the liquid on their surface does not disappear, [it turns into tiny droplets](_URL_0_), this is what you breathe in. These droplets are actually pretty far apart from each other, this is why a small amount of liquid can turn into what looks like a large amount of vapor.\n\nNow for the condensation part, the chemicals (PG and VG) contained in the vapor are very good at attracting and mixing with water. The fact that your lungs are warm and very humid combined with the fact that the droplets have a lot of surface area means that a little quantity of juice will mix with a large quantity of water inside your lungs. This means that the condensate that is left on something you blow on contains a small amount of the juice mixed with a good amount of water.\n\nP.S.: 5 year olds shouldn't be vaping"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://youtu.be/lM9nvNOFqKU"
]
]
|
||
17e20t | why did most soviet citizens not realize the terror occurring around them in the times before its collapse? | I've been learning about the U.S.S.R in English and geography this year and I know that Stalin used very strong propaganda, but how did they not realize, especially after his death? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17e20t/eli5_why_did_most_soviet_citizens_not_realize_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"c84n1z9",
"c84pkqj"
],
"score": [
9,
5
],
"text": [
"They did notice. They just assumed that all countries were like that, and kinda ignored it when they could.\n\nWhich seems weird and unrelatable. Until you remember that the United States of America sometimes tortures people who haven't been charged with a crime.",
"Silence through fear of also 'disappearing,' a national psyche that everything that was happening was 'necessary for russia,' and also, there were great lengths taken to hide these crimes.\n\nIf you're really interested, Sater's \"It was a long time ago, and it never happened anyway\" takes a deep dive into your question."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
30lxu7 | in youtube, why do i see a difference between the 720p setting and the 1440p setting even though i have a 720p monitor? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30lxu7/eli5_in_youtube_why_do_i_see_a_difference_between/ | {
"a_id": [
"cptmyvq",
"cptpbgy",
"cptpz2x",
"cptqntm",
"cptrdck",
"cpttxuu"
],
"score": [
44,
6,
4,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Because youtube videos are heavily compressed, so the higher bitrate of the 1440p stream effectively leaves you with a *better* 720p stream once it's resized to 720p. You'd get pretty much the same benefit if it were actually possible to get a 720p youtube stream with the bitrate of a 1440p stream.\n\n(One note, this depends on the source material being relatively high quality. The original recording from, say, a cell phone likely isn't to contain enough information to really benefit from a higher bitrate stream)",
"ELI5 answer: 1080p doesn't only have higher resolution, it also has higher bitrate. You don't see the extra resolution, but you do see the extra bitrate.",
"It has a higher bitrate=it's less compressed. That's because you need higher bitrate at higher resolution. ",
"Because there is this thing called compression, that can make a video's file size smaller, but only look slightly worse. YouTube compresses things to the point that 4k almost looks like slightly compressed 1080p.",
"As people are saying a 1440p stream does carry more information, thus reducing the impact of compression artifacts and aliasing.\n\nBut there's another reason too: the resize algorithm. When you watch a 1440p stream on a 720p screen, it's probably doing the simplest possible resize operation: averaging each 2x2 pixel block into one. When somebody uploads a 1440p video and youtube automatically creates a lower resolution version, it's likely to be using a more complex one that takes more time but produces a smoother result.\n\nThe more I think about it, the less willing I am to bet on their relative impacts though.",
"The main reason would be bandwidth, a 1440p video will get around 3x the bandwidth as 720p.\n\nA little bit more technical than ELI5 but:\n\nAs part of the compression for videos, a single frame is chopped up into macroblocks- multiple pixels are grouped into 1 (IE 8x8, 16x16, depends on the specification). If there's low distinction between the pixel colors in a macroblock, the encoder can make the block a single color to increase the compression ratio (reducing needed bandwidth). Downsampling a 1440p video to 720p will decrease the apparent macroblock sizes and increase quality (IE 8x8 - > 4x4).\n\nAlso, youtube videos are encoded with yuv420p encoding, or chroma quartering: 4 greyscale pixels share color information. This reduces the required bandwidth, but also results in solid red, green, or blue colors on the video getting [boxing artifacts](_URL_0_). When the video gets resized, this effect gets largely cancelled.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:420-progressive-still.png"
]
]
|
||
aqe4oj | why is pizza so heavily marketed towards children in the usa? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aqe4oj/eli5_why_is_pizza_so_heavily_marketed_towards/ | {
"a_id": [
"egfct9j"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"If children develop the taste for pizza, it is most likely that they're going to eat it their entire life, either if their parents bought it, either if they purchase it as they grown up; all resulting in great profit for the companies for an endless period of time because the cicle repeats when today's children have kids of their own."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
45chrx | why does light pass through some thin solids? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45chrx/eli5_why_does_light_pass_through_some_thin_solids/ | {
"a_id": [
"czwttah"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Light passes through some thick solids, like glass.\n\nThe arrangement of atoms makes a substance opaque or transparent. Each type of atom or molecule absorbs some frequencies and not others. The wood in your house absorbs light (you can't see through it) but not most radio frequencies (so your radio still works inside).\n\nThick or thin is only an issue with a substance that absorbs light only a little. Add enough material in a stack and you can make it opaque."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6excdk | why would a temperature shift of +2º c be so catastrophic? | I don't doubt the catastrophic effects of climate change, and I trust the scientific consensus, but personally I don't understand why a shift of 2 more degrees would result in the massive melting/flooding that scientists predict. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6excdk/eli5_why_would_a_temperature_shift_of_2º_c_be_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"didsq4r",
"didvg6w",
"didx0ti",
"die3qg7",
"die5vxg",
"die9far",
"diedvbi",
"diee2v6"
],
"score": [
42,
13,
10,
3,
9,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"It tips the balance between spring melt and snow pack at the poles. The ice ends up melting more than can be replaced by snow/ice in the winter.\n\nEventually, the water currently locked up at the poles in the form of ice would run into the oceans. Because the amount we're talking about, this would raise ocean levels world wide.\n\nAlong with the availability of more waterfront property thanks to the rising oceans, the melt would also release the carbon dioxide currently trapped in the ice pack, further accelerating global warming.\n\nThe cherry is that our weather is created by the energy found in warm ocean currents. More warm ocean currents (more water/warmer water) and the weather, specifically wind, get's a nice little nitro boost.",
"The 2 degrees is the average for the whole globe. The best way to visualize it is the amount of heat. What is the amount of additional heat (energy) you would neet to increase the average temperature of the whole globe.\n\nLet just do a very basic and very incomplete calculation. The heat capcity of air is about 1 kj/kg-K and the mass of the atmosphere is about 5x10^18 kg. So if the global temperature increase by 2 degrees that mean that the earth would have 5x10^18 Kj. That's the equivalent of more than 23 thousands Tsar Bomba (the biggest nuclear bomb ever made). And the real answer will actually much bigger because to maintain 2 degree increase a least a portion of the ocean and land will increase in temperature and those have a lot more mass and heat capacity. This start to be more complicated to estimate for me but we end up talking about the equivalent of several millions of Tsa Bomba in energy.\n\nThat's a lot of energy to melt Ice Sheet. 18 Thousands years ago, the global average temperature on earth was about 4 degree less than today and glaciers reached up to New York at that time.",
"Problem isn't just the absolute temperature. It's what happens because of it.\n\nPolar ice caps warm up by a few degrees, which causes ice to melt. That has two effects. One is that the sea level rises. The other is that the sea temperature goes down. This then causes air temperature above the sea to also go down. One of the things that governs how the wind works is the relative position between cold air and warm air, so when the air above the oceans goes colder, you also change the winds. The winds are crazy important. Amongst other things, they're responsible for moving nutrients from the Sahara desert to the Amazon rain forest. If those winds get messed up... oh boy. Even if _those_ specific winds don't get messed up, though, you're still changing how wind erosion behaves.",
"A majority of earthlings have colonized locations near sea level, specifically coastal areas; e.g. SE Asia, Florida, ect. If temperatures rise it could effect the equilibrium of the ice caps and glaciers. We are already seeing one of the largest ice sheets in Antarctica break off. So the effects could be loss of coastal cities. ",
"Besides other ideas described here about the problems from the 2-degree increase itself, the +2 degree has also been identified as the approx threshold where further changes are irreversible because of positive feedback. Basically, this means that this much warming will cause new things that cause even more warming, in a runaway cycle. \nFor one example, the [clathrate gun hypothesis](_URL_0_) describes what could happen to a bunch of methane that's currently frozen in solid deposits at the bottom of the world's oceans. If the ocean warms up very much (the exact amount is debated), the methane will be released as gas into the atmosphere in large amounts. Methane itself if a very strong greenhouse gas (like 100x more per amount than carbon dioxide), and models predict the methane release from clathrates would cause a *further* +6 degree C rise within 80 years. That's HUGE for a single effect, and would be in addition to other positive feedback mechanisms and other effects brought on by the warming along the way.",
"Large parts of frozen parts of the Earth are within two degrees from freezing point. Even if the Earth warms evenly, ice in these areas will melt.\n\nAlso, if you heat metals, you will notice it expanding. The same happens with water. Since the Ocean has massive amount of water, 2'C rise will cause enough expansion to cause sea level rise.\n\nr/askscience currently has a climate change megathread, so you could ask a question there for a more detailed answer from a better qualified user.",
"The largest problem isn't the actual 2° mean temperature increase and the direct effects but that we believe this is the threshold were global warming starts a run away feed back loop. Since water vapor itself is a greenhouse gas and all the co2 currently locked in permafrost would get released.",
"For perspective, +7C within 1000 years would set up such big atmospheric feedback loops that Earth would have a runaway greenhouse effect turning it into 'Venus'. Completely uninhabitable by humans, we'd die on the surface."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
f81v8q | what exactly is an accrual ? what are contra asset accounts | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f81v8q/eli5_what_exactly_is_an_accrual_what_are_contra/ | {
"a_id": [
"fiicepx",
"fiiz12t"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Accurals are when you are acknowledging the liability without actually making a payment. (Salaries Accrued).\n\nContra Asset are used to for reductions of assets so that net amount can be reported. (Accumulated depreciation).",
"CPA here, first I want to mention the other method, cash basis. Every time you pay something or get money, you recognize it then. Most people are on cash basis, especially when it comes to taxes. If you get your paycheck for the last 2 weeks of December on Jan 3rd, that's on next years taxes.\n\nThe difference in accrual basis is you book an entry, the accrual, to recognize something happened even if cash hasn't been exchanged. Think of an electric bill for example; you use electricity all the time, but say the meter guy comes by on the 2nd day of the month to read it. Now it takes a couple of days for the bill to get printed and another couple for it to come in the mail, then the due date is like 20 days after that. Basically the example is for the power you used from Jan 1 to 31 you pay for on maybe Feb 25. \n\nThe accrual comes into play because if you had say production of 5 million whatever you makes. When you present your statement for January you wouldn't say we spent $0 on electricity to make 5 million items. Unless you run on magic, that doesn't make sense. That is why you accrue the electric bill, either an estimate or if you have the bill by that time, the exact amount. \n\nAccruals apply to expenses and revenue. If a repair tech comes on the 28th, but you pay the bill the next week in a following month, you would accrue the expense in the prior period and have a payable. The tech's company on the other hand would accrue revenue based on when the work happened, and have a receivable. \n\nFor Conta asset accounts, think of it as a credit being paired with an asset but not it's not a liability. If you buy a machine, you have to depreciate it because it loses value. Instead of booking the depreciation to the machine account, you booked the credit to accumulated depreciation. Even though it is a credit balance, it is not a liability and stays on the asset side of the balance sheet, hence why it's called a contra asset."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
sedsr | public sector pension reform **no politics please** | I'm wanting to move forward with understanding the stakes of pensions in the public sectors, and reforms that are being brought up to improve them. Are they, if so how come? If not, why not?
EDIT: No Politics Means no bashing each others opinions. Be cordial. Please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/sedsr/public_sector_pension_reform_no_politics_please/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4ddjsq",
"c4deksg"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You aren't going to get an explanation without politics, because politics are inextricably bound with this issue.\n\nPublic unions negotiate contracts with the government that provide for salary, benefits, and pensions. Since there are a lot of public employees, these expenses can represent a very large, untouchable segment of a state's budget.\n\nNow comes the politics.\n\nPublic unions also donate a *lot* of money to politicians, particularly Democratic politicians. Those same politicians negotiate the union's deal, so there can be a conflict of interest. Unions will sometimes go so far as to pressure politicians to raise taxes to fund their deals. Unions often get pretty good deals...even in bad economic times when private sector workers are losing their jobs.\n\nRepublicans, conversely, don't like taxes, don't like gov't spending, and for the most part don't like unions. When it comes time to balance budgets, they are very quick to point out how much money is tied up in union pensions. There also feel that weakening unions will hurt Democrats and further Republican political goals.\n\nSo now you have states like California, with huge budget shortfalls and lots of money tied up in pensions, much better than their private sector equivalents, for a massive body of public workers. A lot of people feel that \"reforming\" (actually reducing) these pension has to be part of any budget solution.",
"I see kouhoutek gave a good reply, I'll give an alternate perspective.\n\nPensions are \"defined benefit plans\". This means that they are a promise of a certain amount of money. Retire at age 60, you get this much, no more, no less. The reason they are so widespread, is that this looks like a wonderful arrangement for everyone. Public workers like it, because it gives a great sense of security. No worrying about the stock market, or about saving from your paycheck - when you turn 60 and leave, you get a clear amount of money. And taxpayers like it, too, because you get to pay your public workers less (since they know their retirement is taken care of). Win-win, right?\n\nNot so. As we have seen, there are problems with this approach.\n\n* The economy could fall into a hole, making tomorrow's taxpayers unable to pay for the pensions of today's workers.\n\n* The pension fund could be mismanaged, or political deals could result in less contribution than needed to adequately fund it.\n\n* The pension fund could lose value because of risky investments.\n\nAll of these scenarios result in a community stuck paying pensions that it can't afford. Bad for everybody. \n\nOne solution is turning pensions into what are called \"defined contribution plans\". Unlike defined *benefit* plans, a defined *contribution* plan doesn't make any guarantees as to what your payout will be, but it does guarantee that a certain amount is put into the account for you (the contribution). The result of the contributions are then turned into a pension, come retirement.\n\nThe obvious benefit here is that today's taxpayers are paying for today's public workers, instead of foisting the burden onto tomorrow's taxpayers. The obvious downside is that public workers will likely demand more pay, because their pension becomes riskier (it's no longer guaranteed). \n\nWARNING, POLITICS AHEAD\n\nAs you can probably tell from my tone, I'm in favor of defined-contribution plans. I think it's ridiculous to set up a scheme where the people of tomorrow pay for retired workers (I emphatically dislike social security for this same reason). "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
65iaps | why was indigo dropped from the rainbow representation in recent years? growing up, i always learned it as roy g biv. | Not to mention the 7 colors of the DC Lantern Corps. :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65iaps/eli5_why_was_indigo_dropped_from_the_rainbow/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgaij8l",
"dgasymv",
"dgb1w6m"
],
"score": [
7,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"Indigo was invented to make up the number of colours to seven because Isaac Newton was very keen on its mystical power. Although indigo is a real colour, it has a very narrow frequency range and it would be as valid to include something like lime green or cyan.",
"Short answer: because the color we perceive today as \"indigo\" doesn't match any color that is actually in the rainbow, and people have given up describing the rainbow with a color they don't see there.\n\nLoooong answer: It's important to know the rainbow doesn't contain every color. It contains every wavelength of light, but wavelength is not exactly the same as color. Most of the light we see from any object or light source doesn't have just one wavelength in it. Instead, it has a combination of wavelengths that would come from separate parts of the rainbow. \"Color\" is something our brains perceive, that is ultimately a description of the combination we are seeing, not of individual wavelengths, except for the rare situations where we are actually seeing one wavelength. The most common example of this is \"purple\", which is the color we perceive when there are wavelengths from opposite ends of the spectrum, what we perceive as \"red\" and \"blue\", coming together from the same place. \"Purple\" happens in nature, but it doesn't happen in the rainbow. \"White\" is a color too, but it's what you get when you smush all the wavelengths together.\n\nWe use words to describe the colors we perceive, but the relation between those colors and our words can shift over time. For example, suppose you and I get into our wayback machine and go to England, say, 700 years ago. We make friends with a nice couple named Alfred and Sarah. Exhausted and hungry from sorting out the modern-English to middle-English issue, I pull some oranges out of my backpack to share. You and I have seen oranges before, but Alfred and Sarah never have. I hold up two oranges, and ask, \"Are these the same color\"? You and Sarah and Alfred all agree, yes, they are the same color. Then I ask, \"what color are they?\" You and I answer \"orange\", but Alfred and Sarah say, \"yellow-red\". Later, when oranges become more well known in England, we all started using \"orange\" to describe the color of oranges, and it became its own separate color. It's just a coincidence that the color we call \"orange\" is also a narrow band of wavelengths on the light spectrum.\n\nFinally, my answer to your question. I'm sure the people in Newton's time had lots of words for colors. Newton assigned just 7 of those words to describe the colors he saw in the light spectrum from one end to the other. He chose those words for at least two reasons. One was he loved the number 7 for mystical reasons, so he divided it 7 ways and used the closest words he had. The other was, maybe, that those colors matched the color words he used then, but the words have drifted in meaning. Maybe what he called \"blue\" we would call \"teal\", and what he called \"indigo\" we would call \"dark blue\".\n\nSomeone today knowing nothing of Newton and ROY G BIV, doing the same work as Newton, and who loved the number 8, might call the colors of the rainbow Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Sky, Blue, and Violet. For us, ROYGBV, without the I, lines up pretty well with the color words we use today.\n\nThe truth is, we just don't use the word \"indigo\" to describe things very often, and when we do, it doesn't describe a color we see in the light spectrum. There was a great online experiment done by Randall Munroe of XKCD, where several hundred thousand people were shown random colors, and then had a field where they could type in any word they wanted to describe that color. After he sorted it all out, there were about 950 colors that had words most people agreed on. Here are the results: _URL_0_. Yes, there is a color for \"puke\", and to me it's the right word - it looks pretty pukey. Search for \"Indigo\" and you'll find a dark purple - dark blue with a little red mixed in. It's a color with a name, but it isn't a color in the rainbow.",
"[Serious] Wait! What! The 'colours if the rainbow have been changed? As in they've removed indigo? \n\nSo is it now, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet?\n\nFirst Pluto now Indigo, what is the world coming to?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://xkcd.com/color/rgb/"
],
[]
]
|
|
25s7h8 | how accurate are expiry dates? | How do they Determine expiry dates? How accurate are they? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25s7h8/eli5how_accurate_are_expiry_dates/ | {
"a_id": [
"chk87fm",
"chk8ux3",
"chkakal",
"chkg6sy"
],
"score": [
8,
5,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Unless a product has been stored in extremes of temperature, pretty much everything is good to eat until the expiration date.\n\nKeep in mind that many fresh products (like meat and dairy) may be labeled with sell by dates, not expiration dates.",
"I used to work for a major food manufacturer and for most non perishable packaged food the date is just a guide. In most cases if the food was stored correctly the only problem you will encounter is that it may not taste as fresh and may have an off texture. When asked, the company I worked for, would simply recommend not to eat the product because its taste and texture couldn't be guaranteed. ",
"Probably could have been worded as \"Do food expiration dates have a buffer, and if so, how long after the stated expire date is food technically still safe to eat?\" Because that's what I'd like to know. (Kind of like when you tell your friend who is always late that dinner is at 5, knowing she'll be there at 6.)",
"AHHAHAHAHHahahaahaaaaaaa I used to work in food microbiology. Eat your greens and your meats before they start to smell, pretty much. But if you're reading expiry dates on biologically inert items which have been properly stored, well, they're totally BS"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
7mozub | why does music "motivate" people sometimes, but not always? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mozub/eli5_why_does_music_motivate_people_sometimes_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"drvjttr"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Rhythm like a basic beat can give you a goal of trying to keep up with it \n\nYou start to notice that your steps are out of sync, and you internally say \"this wont do\" and try and match pace. \n\nStill takes will power but a good tune can help a lot "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
eza3sy | the different units of radioactivity | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eza3sy/eli5_the_different_units_of_radioactivity/ | {
"a_id": [
"fglysu8"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They all measure different but intercontected things. You use different ones depending on what exactly you want to know. \n\n\\* means non-SI units.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n* Becquerels measure the rate of decay. 1 Becquerel is 1 nuclei decaying per second. \n* Curies\\* measures the same thing as becquerels but it's outdated and no longer used. 1 Curie = 3.7 × 10\\^10 becquerels\n* Coulombs per kilogram (C/kg) measure total radiation exposure through the electric charge freed by the radiation in a given amount of air\n* Roentgens\\* measures the same thing as C/kg. 1 Roentgen = 2.58 × 10\\^-4 C/kg\n* Rads\\* measure the amount of absorbed energy deposited in tissue.\n* Grays are the SI unit of absorbed radiation in joules/kg of tissue. 1 Gray = 100 rad\n* Rems\\* (roentgen equivalent man) measure equivalent absorbed dose of radiation which takes into account the relative biological effectiveness of different forms of ionizing radiation, or the varying ways in which they transfer their energy to human tissue, because different types of radiation effect different types of tissue differently\n* Sieverts measure the same thing as Rems. 1 sievert equals 100 rem."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5rhvyb | what are vitamins b6 and b12 and what should they succeed in doing? | I see both of these vitamins in many energy supplements. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rhvyb/eli5_what_are_vitamins_b6_and_b12_and_what_should/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd7jvb3",
"dd7mn8j"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Many reactions take place in the body to give you energy and to make new body parts. If you remember chemistry, frequently reactions require a lot of heat to get started. The reason they can happen in your 98.6 degree body, is because you make enzymes which hold the reacting molecules in such a way that they react without heating up. Many enzymes require cofactors, small molecules not used in the reaction to speed things along. Vitamins are cofactors. Each reaction requires its own enzyme which requires its own cofactors. Some cofactors are used in multiple different enzymes. You get energy from carbohydrates. The enzymes which break down carbohydrates use vitamins b6 and 12 as cofactors. They can do this faster if there is more available. This gives you more energy.",
"B12 is a water soluble vitamin naturally present in some foods and added to others. It's also in supplements and as a prescription medication. It exists in several forms, and contains the mineral cobalt, so compounds with vitamin b12 are collectivelyc alled cobamalamins. Methylcobalamin and 5-deoxyadenosylcobalamin are the forms of b12 that are active in human metabolism. It is required for proper red blood cell formation, utilizing and absorption of iron, neurological function, and DNA synthesis. It is bound to protein in food, released by the activity of the stomach acid. It then combines with intrinsic factor, a glycoprotein secreted by the stomach, and the resulting complex undergoes absorption within the distal ileum. Pernicious anemia (which I have) is an autoimmune disease that affects the gastric mucosa, which leads to the destruction of parietal cells, and a failure to produce intrinsic factor, resulting in the inability to absorb ingested b12. The B12 deficiency leads to megaloblastic anemia and eventually can lead to neurological disorders even if you are ingesting an adequate amount of b12, because you cannot absorb it. B12 deficiency puts you at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and events, dementia, loss of cognitive function, and more. \n\nB6 is also water soluble and found in many foods and added to others, as well as being available in a supplement form. It is the generic name for 6 compounds with B6 activity. It is involved in gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis, immune function, and hemoglobin formation. It plays a role in cognitive development through the biosynthesis of neurotransmitters and in maintaining normal levels of homocysteine, which is an amino acid in blood. B6 can be deficient in people with malabsorption syndromes like celiac, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis, and in people with alcohol dependence as well as pregnant women or especially obese people. Deficiencies are associated with microcytic anemia, encephalographic abnormalities, dermititis, cheilosis (scaling on the lips) and glossitis (swollen tongue), as well as depression, confusion, weakened immune function, and (in infants) can cause abnormally acute hearing and convulsive seizures. It also increases risk for heart disease, some forms of cancer, cognitive function issues, PMS, hyperemisis in pregnant women, and muscle cramping (particularly in the arch of the foot or palm of the hand). "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
9jlka0 | how can you pull up an anchor? | If an anchor attached to the bottom of the sea is strong enough to keep the boat in place, how can the boat pull up the anchor without pulling itself down into the water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9jlka0/eli5_how_can_you_pull_up_an_anchor/ | {
"a_id": [
"e6sdbsw",
"e6sdvxk",
"e6semfh",
"e6sla4o",
"e6slgru",
"e6smel1",
"e6sxneb",
"e6t2bn3",
"e6t4hvw",
"e6tb25n",
"e6tjqnk",
"e6tk0ei"
],
"score": [
237,
3,
30,
34,
8,
6,
3,
2,
3,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"The anchor stops horizontal movement by dragging along the seabed, lifting it vertically has little drag.",
"As others have mentioned, the anchor isn't really attached to the bottom. To answer the second part of your question, there is a bit of a bob when you pull the anchor up (if the boat is small enough).",
"Something else not mentioned is its not just the anchor that is anchoring them in place but the weight of the chain attached to it. That in itself is far heavier than the anchor.",
"I'm consolidating a couple of points others have made:\n\n1) the anchor isn't always needed to keep a large ship in place. The chain is so large that the weight of the chain, when stretched out across the water between the the ship's hawse pipe (the opening on the bow the anchor chain passes through to the water) and the anchor creates a heavy center of mass between those two points for gravity to work on it. Even on a smooth hard bottom the force of gravity pulls that chain down and quite literally pins down the ship in most conditions. A section of chain near the anchor actually does rest flat on the floor of the ocean when this happens. *edit*\n\n2) If an anchor properly digs into a muddy or sandy bottom, it did so by a horizontal tension. This is created by letting out more anchor chain than would be needed to drop the anchor straight down beneath the ship, and doing so is standard procedure even though getting the anchor to \"dig\" isn't always necessary as explained above. When ready to weigh anchor, the ship's crew starts winding up the anchor, slowly pulling the ship towards the spot where the anchor rests directly below it again. Once the chain tends vertically again, the anchor will literally have tilted back to vertical as well, essentially digging itself back out. Think of the way a fish hook might be taken out of something by turning it to a different angle. Then the anchor can be pulled all the way up. \n\nRocky bottoms are generally avoided if possible to avoid doing damage to reefs and to avoid lodging an expensive anchor into a rock and not being able to retrieve it. \nAdditionally, large ships never anchor in water deeper than their anchor chain allows them; it's much easier to just drift if you must stop actively moving around and the water is too deep for anchoring. \n\nEdit: previously misstated that *no* anchor chain rests in the bottom; this is false, generally there is a section of chain that sits on the seabed with the anchor. ",
"Speaking of small boat experience. \n\nChain is not to weigh the boat down from moving. An anchor needs to lay flat on the bottom. Most anchors are shaped like a hoe for plowing. The more you pull on it , horizontally, the more the anchor goes into the ground. Making it harder and harder to move. If you don’t use chain then the rope will float and begin pulling up the anchor.\n\nI have no idea how big anchors on cruise ships work. As their shape is completely different than inland anchors. \n\nAlso. There are different anchors for each application. \nRock - uses kinda like a grappling hook looking thing that has bendy hooks. That way when it hooks a rock, they can still release it. \nMud/sand - several different styles. The hoe I was talking about. There’s also a bell looking one. \nPoles - some people will just shove a pole in the ground and tie a loop to it. Obviously shallow water. \n\nSource - I’ve been boating longer than I could drive a car. Family owned a marina growing up. Been around more boats than most sailors. ",
"I’m going to skip sea anchors/drogues altogether, which are used to keep vessels pointing into weather while at sea. \n\nFor smaller vessels:\n\nWhen you drop an anchor and its rode (chain/rope/cable or combinations of them), it’ll hit the bottom and settle. You want to let out enough, so as the vessel is pulled back, the angle of the rode vs the bottom is small enough that the forces are as horizontal as possible, so the anchor digs into the seabed. \n\nWhen the rode is chain, it will help keep this angle, because it’s heavy and it wants to lay on the bottom. This will keep the anchor dug in as much as possible, but heavy weather can cause the anchor to drag along the bottom, so you’re basically plowing the seabed. \n\nFor weighing anchor, as you pick up the rode you are increasing the angle of the rode to the point to where it’s pretty much vertical to the seabed. Pulling further will break the drag between the bottom and the anchor, and voilà... anchor’s loose. Note: try not to snag your anchor on rock, etc. You might have to dive for it. \n\nFor larger vessels:\n\nProcess is the same, but anchors on large (read tankers, container ships, Navy, etc.) ships are extremely heavy, and the anchor MIGHT NOT dig in, even if designed to. Basically the vessel in this case will be held in place by a heavy hunk of iron laying on the bottom, and the forces of the vessel pulling on the combo of anchor/chain aren’t enough to move the anchor, so the vessel stays in place. ",
"Just to add to the information. On the large supertanker I was on, one anchor weighed 34500 and the other 36000lbs. Same size but different weight because of impurities in the casting. \nEach link of chain weighs 350lbs. 55 links in a shot for 12 shots of chain on each anchor. Each shot has painted links to track how much you are paying out. \nA shot of anchor chain is measured either in fathoms or feet. Each shot is 15 fathoms or 90 feet long\n\n\n\n\n",
"It depends on the anchor. A popular sailboat anchor is called “danforth”.\n\nThese anchors are designed to dig into the mud and hold in the direction their pulled.\n\nIf you pull them the other direction it pulls them out of the mud.\n\nDanforths make this work because the chain is attached is on a hinged rod that flips sides as you go to pull it out.",
"So, what I used to do (without a winch).\n\nAs the bow of the boat goes up and down, pull in anchor line as it goes down, and hold as it rises. Use the movement of the boat to haul it in.\n\nAnchors hold horizontally, but not vertically. Once you pull in enough line to stand the anchor up, it will lose its grip on the bottom. Sometimes it can get stuck in a crevice. If so, just motor the boat slowly forward so you are tugging in the opposite direction from when sitting at anchor.",
"It's not really attached to the bottom of the sea. Usually, it's the weight of the anchor and its chain that keeps the boat in place and not the fact that it's stuck behind a huge rock like in a Popeye cartoon.",
"On large ships, the anchor chain is as much or more important for holding the ship in place as the anchor is, due to the physics of the chains weight, length and how it interacts with the ship and anchor. I wish I could remember the exact details, but in lieau of hard facts enjoy this video from YouTube of a ship losing an anchor and several fathoms of expensive chain.... it's terrifying seeing something that heavy moving at that speed, but interesting to me. Probably skip to about halfway through for them to start dropping it\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"Anchors are like scotch tape. Very strong holding power along horizontally along their axis, but are easily remove when you pull up against that axis. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/b7pRfix_sNg"
],
[]
]
|
|
464mvm | macros and micros (nutrition-wise) | I am just wondering about importance of them individually and what some examples are can one exist without the other or is it paramount they are consumed in unison? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/464mvm/eli5_macros_and_micros_nutritionwise/ | {
"a_id": [
"d02fjnb"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"**MACROS**: Extremely important.\n\n* Protein: The basic building block of all of your body's enzymes, and a major structural component of all cells. Protein is vitally important. For example, if a very obese person stops eating, they will most likely die of protein malnutrition before they lose all of their body fat.\n\n* Fats: Fats are used to create various chemical signaling molecules and are also the key ingredient of cell membranes. The body stores fat as a reserve energy source when carbohydrates are not available.\n\n* Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are your body's fuel source. Complex carbohydrates are broken down into simple ones, and your body then uses those to make ATP, a chemical fuel source your cells can use to do stuff.\n\n**MICROS**: Micros are also extremely important, and are necessary for your body to function. These are all of the vitamins and minerals you see on nutrition labels. However, as long as you are regularly eating a range of whole fruits and vegetables, you generally don't need to worry about these. Fiber, however, is very important to be mindful of. More fiber = feeling more full and a more efficient bowel system.\n\n\nIn general, though, you need to have all macros in your diet. The relative amount of each depends on your dietary goals. For instance, an even balance of proteins and carbohydrates with a little bit of fat (40% - 40% - 20% respectively) is a good starting point, especially if they are coming from whole, unprocessed foods. Think salmon, brown rice, and broccoli for dinner; that combo will give you protein/fat from the salmon, and the brown rice and broccoli will provide you with the carbs, as well as fiber, iron, and other micros.\n\nAs far as being consumed in unison, I don't think it matters too much. That being said, if you're getting all your macros and micros from whole, unprocessed food sources (fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains) then you'll be consuming them all together. If you're exercising, you should probably eat some simple carbs and protein right after your workout so that your muscles can replenish and repair themselves.\n\n**tl/dr**: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
dvuobt | how is life expectancy figured when someone is diagnosed with a condition or disease? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dvuobt/eli5_how_is_life_expectancy_figured_when_someone/ | {
"a_id": [
"f7esd6z",
"f7esfes"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It's based on general life expectancy from previous cases of that condition or disease combined with how far along and how severe that individuals case is. It's also part of why people sometimes outlive the predicted life expectancy, they may be healthier than another or the condition/disease progresses more slowly than normal, causing them to live longer.",
"Statistics of how long prior patients have lived when diagnosed in similar condition. It's not precise, because biologic processes are not really precise to start with, but it gives a good planning number."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
1kafqe | why certain acids can burn through a body but do not burn through the plastic jug they are contained in. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kafqe/eli5_why_certain_acids_can_burn_through_a_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbmy81c",
"cbn000k"
],
"score": [
6,
7
],
"text": [
"Acids work by transferring protons from themselves to other molecules. Containers for acids are made from materials that do not have any \"room\" for extra protons to latch onto.",
"Nice try Pinkman... "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
9izjrk | why can we survive longer without food than without water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9izjrk/eli5_why_can_we_survive_longer_without_food_than/ | {
"a_id": [
"e6nlpx4",
"e6nlr55"
],
"score": [
10,
2
],
"text": [
"In a nutshell, your body without food will begin to eat it’s own fat and then muscle. So there’s time there before your body has nothing left to digest. Water though, like gasoline, makes everything run including the digestive system that is eating your fat and muscles. So without water your body can’t run.",
"Your body burns off any body fat existing and anything extra. Your body is mostly water and is used more which is why humans can only go a few days without water vs a handful of weeks "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
6ariz1 | why does anesthesia make you nauseous? | When people have surgery and are put under using anesthesia, why when they wake up are they nauseous and have to be monitored afterwards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ariz1/eli5_why_does_anesthesia_make_you_nauseous/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhgwjv9"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"We're actually not 100% sure. The current model suggests that there isn't just one part of the brain responsible for nausea and vomiting - instead, there are a bunch of different areas spread throughout. \n\nThere's one zone in particular called the chemoreceptor trigger zone that's outside the blood-brain barrier. Because it's outside that barrier, it's very sensitive to reactions to various drugs. Anesthesia is one of the drugs it reacts to.\n\nYou can get an anti-nausea patch put on before or during your surgery to help, but the patch only helps a certain percentage of people.\n\nThe reason you have to be monitored is because if you actually throw up, it could be bad. Depending on what kind of surgery you had, the physical act of vomiting could do damage to the affected area. Also, you're at a higher risk of aspirating (essentially, breathing in the vomit and choking) if the surgery was in an area around your throat or if your jaw has to be wired shut."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2cjvw8 | why do some large, powerful nations squabble over their tiny neighbors or worthless disputed territories? | For example, why does Russia, arguably one of the most powerful and respected (if not exceptionally well-liked) nations in the world give two bits about Georgia? Why do India and Pakistan maintain costly troop presences at Siachen? For that matter, why does China care about what is essentially uninhabited mountains on their border?
This isn't to say that anyone's land is "meaningless", and I'm not asking for point-by-point deconstruction of the particular conflicts I mentioned (if it helps your explanation, feel free though). I'm just curious what the cost-benefit is to say, heavily militarizing a region seeking autonomy? In a cultural sense, why is it okay to let your children leave home at 18 but not a country (does that make any sense)? What is the motivation or psychology behind this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cjvw8/eli5_why_do_some_large_powerful_nations_squabble/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjg71cd"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Because if you give up on one worthless chunk of land, then it makes you look weak and gives an excuse for other countries to come in and dispute over regions that *you actually want to keep*. \n\nAlthough generally, fighting over actually worthless pieces of land is quite rare, countries generally fight over disputed lands where there are significant ethnic populations who agitate for unification with one side or an other (and so giving up on them would be politically unpopular) or have significant mineral/oil reserves (many of the fights over speck of rocks and coral in the middle of the ocean are generally done so that a country can extend it's Exclusive Economic Zone and gain exclusive access to undersea oil deposits nearby). Usually, the fights over good-for-nothing islands are generally done to gain leverage over other more important diplomatic fights (i.e. I'll hand over this hunk of rock and the resulting good publicity---if you do xyz for me), For example, there is a fight between Egypt and Sudan over Bir Tawil where both sides are trying desperately to make the other guy take it. This is because both sides think that if it can get rid of the Bir Tawil then it has a better chance of gaining control of the nearby Halabib Triangle, an area with actual economic interest.\n\nAlso maintaining national integrity is one of the basic functions of a nation state, if your government can't even do that right, then what is it good for?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2rz2ud | what's the significance of having an unrated movie? | I've seen a few advertisements for unrated movies. They always make a big deal of the fact that "ZOMG they are unrated!!" Is there any advantages or disadvantages to having a movie be unrated? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rz2ud/eli5whats_the_significance_of_having_an_unrated/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnklgck",
"cnko86y"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"The MPAA is an independent ratings board run by the movie industry, they rate all the movies that go to theaters in the US. An unrated version of a movie released in theaters typically contains scenes they had to cut to get the rating they wanted. For example, (the only one I have off-hand) Anchorman got a PG-13 rating. They're allowed to say the word \"Fuck\" once, in passing, in a PG-13 movie (with some restrictions on how it's used I assume). The one fuck in that movie was when he said \"Go fuck yourself, San Diego\". The unrated version, though, has a scene where they say the word \"fuck\" repeatedly, like 12 times or so. That had to be cut or they would have gotten an R rating. They couldn't do it unrated in theaters, since theaters never show unrated movies (maybe a documentary or art film here and there, but not big blockbusters).\n\nSo, for the DVD, they added those scenes, called it \"Unrated\" since they didn't resubmit it to the MPAA, and they can get on all that juicy \"unrated\" marketing to sell more copies and get people who have already seen it in theaters to buy it. ",
"Movies are submitted to an agency to be rated for content. Often, a movie will scale back sexual or violent content to get a certain rating, especially to go from NC-17 to R. These rating are voluntary, but very few movie theaters will show a movie that hasn't been rated.\n\nSo unrated usually means two things:\n\n* the movie with the original content intact\n* a direct to video movie where they didn't even bother to get a rating\n\nPractically speaking, it means it is a raunchy teen sex movie or a hardcore slasher flick, and they are marketing a harder than R version. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
f38wkz | why is there a huge difference from 240p to 360p in the youtube video quality but then not really much of a difference from 360p to 720p? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f38wkz/eli5_why_is_there_a_huge_difference_from_240p_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhh6fps",
"fhh8i03",
"fhhc7rs",
"fhif91k"
],
"score": [
7,
3,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"It really depends on what you're looking at and how much definition it needs.\n\nIf an object cannot be distinguished with the little resolution available at 240p, but can at 360p, it looks so much better. If it gets sharper going from 360 to 720, it still looks better, but it's not as drastic as making it visible.",
"Your eye notices more difference between a 5 pixel image and a 10 pixel image than between a 900 000 pixel image and a 1 million pixel image.\n\nHere are the real values for a 16:9 monitor (most common aspect ratio nowadays):\n\n2160p: 3840x2160.\n\n1440p: 2560x1440.\n\n1080p: 1920x1080.\n\n720p: 1280x720 = 921 600 pixels.\n\n480p: 854x480 = 409 920 pixels.\n\n360p: 640x360 = 236 160 pixels.\n\n240p: 426x240 = 102 240 pixels.",
"It’s a matter of hitting “diminishing returns” in terms of your brains ability to do object recognition. At 240p, a lot of things are a lot more difficult to recognize than at higher resolutions. At 360p and 480p, you can pretty well recognize all of the important parts of a picture, and your brain will make it seem like there is a massive jump in quality. \n\nHigher resolutions add additional clarity to the image, but generally not to the extent that it’s bringing into focus key elements of the picture. The higher the resolution, the better you can see the minor details.",
"Part of it that no one has touched on is that bitrate is just as important as the pixel count. A high bitrate 720p video without a doubt looks crisper than a 1080p video of that same bitrate. \n\nAnd a lot of videos you see at 720p have actually been \"upscaled,\" meaning they weren't actually recorded at 720p. \n\nThe other thing to consider is the heavy compression that YouTube adds. This lowers quality on most videos. If you were to have the original 720p video file, it would look much better."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
dgoi6q | how does electrical "grounding" work? how is it there are different intensities of being grounded(grounding rods more strong? | Is it the gauge of wire, the number of power cords used? How is it done in apartments? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dgoi6q/eli5_how_does_electrical_grounding_work_how_is_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"f3dtati"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Electricity seeks the path of least resistance. If it is able to return to ground, it will; if not, it will attempt to energize anything it can reach. In the case of appliances, if it can’t use the grounding prong, it may try to go through the metal you touch and out through your feet.\n\nThings normally work from “hot to neutral” and the grounding conductor is not used. If something goes wrong, the grounding prong allows things to short out “safely”. The point is to trip the circuit breaker in the panel, so that no one gets hurt and nothing catches fire.\n\nThere aren’t “intensities” of grounding; there is simply grounded or not grounded. We could discuss impedance to ground, but that’s not ELI5. A house uses a rod and small wire; bigger installations use bigger wire to handle the POTENTIAL damages, but they’re still equally “grounded”."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2olz1f | why blackberry went from a leader in the cell phone market, to almost non existent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2olz1f/eli5_why_blackberry_went_from_a_leader_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmodx9x",
"cmoe8pl",
"cmoelye",
"cmoezw1",
"cmofb95",
"cmofcv0",
"cmofqqa",
"cmofqw7",
"cmofsuu",
"cmog0ir",
"cmog9kv",
"cmogczn",
"cmogivn",
"cmogv6i",
"cmohl1z",
"cmoi6d7",
"cmoja87",
"cmoksp2",
"cmomk9x",
"cmomqh2",
"cmomtmc",
"cmons9c",
"cmoo1wq",
"cmookhm",
"cmop9mg",
"cmopquu",
"cmopwht",
"cmormy6",
"cmos6wc",
"cmosm6p",
"cmosnrl",
"cmosrcu",
"cmoth6r",
"cmotuuk",
"cmou60x",
"cmoutcu",
"cmov66l",
"cmovqr2",
"cmovw0v",
"cmoxh3q",
"cmoxio8",
"cmoy3rb",
"cmp0du8",
"cmp2b9v",
"cmp48gw",
"cmp4hhr"
],
"score": [
939,
2,
9,
90,
5,
4,
28,
3,
25,
2,
2,
71,
2,
5,
2,
9,
5,
2,
3,
2,
2,
4,
2,
3,
4,
3,
3,
3,
14,
2,
5,
14,
2,
2,
3,
3,
3,
2,
4,
6,
2,
2,
2,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"BB refused to keep up with consumer demands, like large touch screens and a more open OS. ",
"Because BB was never market leader. It was symbian. See the stats. Now symbian went out of market for two major reasons which are same for BB as well :\n\n1. Nokia held proprietorship of Symbian. It couldn't be used effectively for any other model other than Nokia's. Then came Google whose Android was like open source OS which could be used and modified by anyone from cheapest mobile to most expensive. It had to rule the market.\n\n2. Nokia's symbian and BB OS stopped innovating. Last few updates of Symbian were almost same other than their version number.",
"BlackBerry messenger also had a huge lead over other systems when it came to corporate acceptance and security. They didn't innovate to match iPhone or Android features, and the users abandoned their old, clunky, boring devices.",
"I had a blackberry back when they were at the top of their game. I've always felt the lack of a decent web browser is what did them in. Their devices were amazing for email, particularly secure corporate email, but as people started to use the web on mobile devices they didn't adapt fast enough. At first they likely thought it was a consumer fad and they'd hold the corporate market with their security but eventually corporate execs began demanding cool devices that allowed them to use the Internet and then apps. As browsing on a mobile device became more and more useful it became impossible for corporate IT to deny. Plus devices like the iPhone became cool and execs wanted them. \n\ntl,dr: mobile browsing, apps, the 'cool factor'",
"Because in 2007 2 huge gorillas(Apple and Google) suddenly entered the phone market which was entirely new to them at the time, and simply trampled and massacred everybody there. You cannot win against a company who can drop 5 billion on their phone.",
"They treated their users poorly, alienated the developers who make or break their product and competition.\n\nI'd say more but no links in this subreddit. ",
"There was a massive public report done by a newspaper on this very topic last year. It's still online here.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSaid simply, RIM's problems were poor direction and vision from the boardroom and executives, all unable to figure out how to counter Apple and Google. \n\nBy some estimates, RIM had 55% or more of the smartphone market in 2006. They had no answer to the iPhone introduced in 2007, and they had no answer to Android phones introduced in 2008. By 2012, they were so far behind the technology curve it became impossible to catch up.",
"Its a rather lengthy read, but this article explains why they failed quite well. Sorry for the formatting, I'm on mobile. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"*\"I love Blackberry Enterprise Server\"* said no SysAdmin ever.\n\nThere was more that brought the downfall and this was a contributing factor. BES stopped working more often than Exchange and Windows combined. Fuck that.",
"Former Motorolan here. Back in the day there were only 2 smartphones people used, Blackberry and Palm. Blackberry was the goto device for most business consumers because it had the awesome ability to send and receive email right from your phone!\n\nWhat people would do is have their Exchange or other on premise email server setup, and then install a BES server to \"push\" emails to their phones on the go. You would buy your Exchange CAL (per user or device) add another BES license on top of that and then pay for RIM email service capabilities through your cell phone provider and you were on your way.\n\nWell our friends at Microsoft got wise to this and figured why pay a middle man? Activesync was their response to this. Once Microsoft figured out how to push email functionality without the need for SMS Messaging (circa Exchange Server 2003 SP2) and combined with all the newer non RIM devices that could incorporate Activesync natively without additional license fees, the writing was on the wall for RIM.\n\nOh also RIM has made some poor decisions over the last 15 years or so and that hasn't really helped them either. Hope that answers your question!",
"BlackBerry failed to innovate in response to things like iPhone and Android. They stuck to their guns (incorrectly) assuming what they offered was superior. They didn't learn their lesson fast enough because it wasn't until last year that they began offering a phone similar to what we consider a modern day smartphone.\n\nThe phones they are pumping out currently are actually quite decent and the OS has come quite a long way in a very short time. The new operating system called BlackBerry 10 emphasizes productivity and communication. \n\nHaving used android and ios I can speak from personal experience that the way BlackBerry 10 organizes email accounts, fb, twitter,etc makes it a much better machine to be \"productive\". A universal inbox is always to the left of the homepage and can be accessed anytime. It's hard going back to iPhone and having to jump from text to whatsapp to email in different applications when BlackBerry offers the ability to let you respond to all messages and emails from several accounts from one unified \"hub\". \n\nCurrently the company has a new CEO that has been busy cutting fat from the company. The company is closing in on a profitable quarter that may or may not come (they did have a quarter showing GAAP profitability recently). The issue now is that because BlackBerry is so late to the game many apps aren't available on the OS. There are ways around this but this is usually not something the average consumer is interested in. For this reason you will likely see the company struggle to sell phones for at least another year or so, however the company did increase its market share (which isn't much) in a recent quarter for the first time in many years. \n\nIf you're interested to see how they did this quarter you can chime into the earnings report scheduled in roughly one week. ",
"Overview: 2007 is what did it for them. They used to be a top innovator in the smartphone/pager/messagery industry. Then came the iphone and android. They forced blackberry to either adapt, or to make it clear they are sticking to their niche business market. The problem was, they didn't do either. They tried to compete with the iphone by releasing the storm, which was a clunky, brick attempting to be a touchscreen. It was not very useful. Thus, faster then expected, they started losing market share in north america. They still didn't adapt for a while and didn't seem to care about the changes all that much since they were still growing in other parts of the world. By the time BB os7 came out with the Bold 9900, the company was in a very dangerous position. The current Java based OS reputed for it's battery pulls and non-intuitive functions was less and less popular and didn't have the potential to rival with iphones and androids. The name blackberry started to have a stigma attached to it. Once almighty, it was now \"Ew, why do you still have a blackberry\" . They proved their uncapability to change fast with the half-baked Playbook that had potential but ended up accelerating the building of the grave.\n\nNew Operating system: Blackberry 10, their new QNX based operating system, was the solution to their problem. It is a reliable, fast, efficient, useful and in all a very powerful operating system. However, it was postponed and re-postponed and they even switched CEO's. He delayed the launch as well. In january 2013, it finally got launched, but it was too late. They were already considered a dead company. The new phones were very good (z10 and q10) but due to a vicious app circle, it didn't get all the apps they needed in the middle of the \"app-hype of Apple vs. Android's quantity). Basically, since they didn't have enough custumers, they didn't get the app support from developpers, which in turn didn't help get more users...\n\n\nMarketing: Their only option was to heavily market the product. Their fans got excited as they announced a Super Bowl Commercial. However, it was another disappointment. It was weird. People didn't know about the launch all that much and the one chance they had to raise awareness was a flub ( _URL_1_ ). Even on TV, they didn't really have catchy commercials. I never understood why they released this one, but never used it: _URL_0_\n\n**TL;DR first part**: First CEO's didn't establish themselves as only business oriented and we're in between, losing market share from all sides. Missed on many good comeback opportunities. \n\nLastly, I'll fast forward to today. They got rid of Thorsten Heins as CEO. He was good at reducing costs for the company by laying off people, but he didn't really find and change the true problem. They hired John Chen, and this is when there started to be light at the end of the tunnel. He changed a lot of the high-end VP's and managers. He succesfully released **ON TIME** the passport, the only truly innovative phone on the market for a long time. He looks like he knows what he's doing and there's hope of a comeback.\n\n\nInteresting fact, Blackberry was never in dept. They always had a couple billion in reserve, even after their worst financial sessions.\n\nSource: I know it's long, some of it is biased and based on opinions. I gladly accept feedback. I am however a happy Q10 owner following a Samsung Galaxy s3 Android phone (so I know both sides). I follow tech news and am a shareholder.",
"There was a shift in consumers' demand, as how I see it. \n\nBack in BlackBerry's prime time, normal consumers use cell phones as a communication tool. as long as they can text and call, it's perfectly fine for them. \n\nSmartphones - those with capacitive touchscreen and a stylus that runs on windows 5.0, BlackBerry OS or Symbian, are geared towards work. BlackBerry was famous because their phones are sturdily built, have excellent corporate functionalities like emails and calendar, and BlackBerry Messenger for texting their colleagues. \n\nHowever, when the iPhone (and subsequently, Android) came out, there was a shift in consumer's needs. Smartphones became much more accessible, and much more geared towards allowing the normal consumers a fun and friendly experience. Everything BlackBerry does is about productivity and corporate works, while iOS and Android offer much more than that - an entertaining experience. \n\nKeep in mind that the market for usual consumer is much bigger than that of the corporate world. Slowly, the demand for a these consumer-oriented OS increases, while BB is stuck in their corporate market. \n\nSoon, you started seeing people who use bb explicitly for work, while still have an iPhone or an Android for their daily use. \n\nIn a sense, corporate world created BlackBerry, and corporate world killed BlackBerry. They simply doesn't know how to adapt to a world that needs more than what they can offer, and they also fail to create their niche market. ",
"Something that noone has said here, BlackBerry lead the charge in smart phone development, meaning that they didn't get to see the weak points of their design until after it was created. Apple and Android devices were able to look at what BlackBerry did, correct the large issues, and make smartphones to their full potential. ",
"There are two cellphone markets. When smartish phones were expensive and flip phones cheap, the expensive phones were all bought by businesses for their employees. Blackberry owned that market.\n\nThen smart phones (iphone) became popular with a mass audience - and so popular that people started to use their phones for business. Most companies switched from providing phones to allowing employees to use their own phone.\n\nSo Blackberry's market share plummeted both because the market expanded into non-business phones and business phones got replaced by non-business phones.",
"MSFT's ActiveSync Killed BB\n\nLets be clear, none of us liked BB devices, but it was the only way we could get our email and whatnot. As a couple people have mentioned, the market changed and BB didn't adapt. They thought they had the market cornered as the only way a business could get email synced to a mobile device. For 10 years the \"only\" way a business could get email on mobile devices was to install a BES server alongside their exchange server and the BES would push the email out to the RIM mobile devices - this was costly.\n\nMSFT came out with ActiveSync - smart mobile devices can natively sync directly to Exchange - no middleman. Samsung, Apple and others innovated the endpoints allowing open development and simple applications to be loaded on their hardware and OS that manages the sync, BB still thought they had the market cornered and they could come out with sub par mobile devices and people would still have to be reliant on a BES server + BB/RIM devices for some reason... nope\n\n**TLDR;** BB charged a lot to sync - MSFT let us do it for free - BB didn't come out with competitive devices and STILL demanded customers buy BES servers.",
"simplest reason: people started using phones as more than just phones. The competition recognized this and made app friendly user experiences while BB did not. By the time BB tried to make up for their blunder it was too late and users had already mass adopted iOS and Android.\n\nA bit more complicated: BB fell into the typical 'Innovator's Dilemma' trap. They designed their phones initially for business people. This led them to doing user exploration on them to try and understand where the market was going and allocated their RnD in that direction. Apple came along, saw a group that was starting to use smart phones (the general populace), but without a product that fit their actual needs. Apple created a product to do that and then boom - the market segment exploded. Apple further highlighted the customer's value of apps which the industry related to the computer OS wars (people valued the OS based on the amount of apps available and other poeple using the OS). The problem is, Apple was locked in with AT & T due to an exclusive contract which limited its growth. \n\nGoogle then came out with Android which took advantage of that and aggressively grew an open OS. This drew a lot of attraction from app developers and phone manufacturers which created another boom in the smart phone market. At this time BB decided to play catch up from now being essentially being 3rd in this 'new' market. However, it lacked the app environment for people to want to use it. They invested heavily into trying to counter-act this (with BB10) and failed. BB pretty much gambled its existence on BB10's success and lost the bet.",
"I was on the ground at Blackberry corporate and a few things came to light during the 6 months I was there. The co-founders reserved first right of refusal for all designs which allowed many innovations to slip away. Management was made up of friends of friends and most of them were not qualified for their roles and lastly they did not have proper supply chain processes and controls in place, instead relying on poorly suited software like Excel for their material inventory. The entire operation was a disaster waiting to happen. This is evident in many businesses who get a massive cash influx with out proper controls and far more arrogance than capability. ",
"It's a quite familiar pattern. Company makes ground-breaking product, gets ridiculously rich, gets fat and complacent, misses shift in the market, competitors eat its lunch. The IT industry is full of cases like that.\n\nEdit: spelling",
"I think another factor was that bbm became less popular with teenagers as iPhone came around I saw my bbm list reduce every Christmas! their curves and bolds were both great messaging phones but once apps like facebook and twitter started getting woefully underdeveloped it wasnt hard to see why people switched away. \nI miss my blackberry, yes it crashed lots but its physical keyboard was so nice, I cant wait to try the passport and see if its worth changing to.",
"BB rested on its laurels for long.\nDid not expect Apple or Android to catch on.\nCould not develop a better OS.\n\nBecame Boring - the death knell for any consumer product.",
"Look up \"Technological Leapfrogging\". Blackberry made a name for itself by making email mobile. Apple came along and made the internet mobile. Blackberry could have caught up but (speculation) either poor management, the arcitecture of their os, lack of vision or some combination slowed their adoption until they became irrelevant.\n\nEven if you buy a brand new bb today the browser is slow and painful.",
"I honestly believe it was a conspiracy by the worlds security services because they cant access calls etc. They were used extensivly during the rioys in the uk. The police had a mardy because bb wouldn't share.",
"the device was a means to an end. RIM's product was the BES and their network.\n\nalso, their leadership became too big and too accustomed to not having an innovative competitor.",
"I used to be a graphic designer for BlackBerry. They excelled at first because they were the first to give people the power to check their email, send and receive calls and texts, and had good security for businesses. \nBut then Apple did it, and better. Then Android. BlackBerry didn't keep up with the newer technology. The only thing that has kept them going for so long is their level of security, which is great for business. When I worked there (about a year and a half ago) it was a total scramble to make the new BB10 phones accessible to the average consumer, which didn't take off because 7 years ago the iPhone did just that. \n\nTL;DR: They were unique. Then they waited 7 years after the iPhone's release to make a competitive product.\n ",
"The issue really came down to their focus on creating a \"business\" product, rather than targeting every day users like Apple did.\n\nYou could also add in ergonomics, and an odd refusal to update their designs to what people wanted, but at the end of the day they simply miscalculated on how much home users would want to use their device of preference everywhere else.",
"I used to work there. Back when the iPhone came out, word came down from on-high that RIM didn't consider the consumer market worth pursuing. More money in the enterprise side of the market.\n\nAnd while, from a bottom line point of view, that's accurate.... The absolute short sightedness from the company leaders really nailed that coffin closed.\n\nIt was at this point that I started looking for a new job. When the leaders of a company can't even see the potential in their product, it's time to go.",
"I think the real reason is that success breaks you. Once you have a product, and are successful with it, and have a customer base, it's incredibly difficult to break away from that product. Do you risk losing your existing customer base? And, in a big company, too many hands in the cookie jar keeps decisions from being made and quickly. A case could be made that apple is in the same boat. Granted they have a lot more money to keep that boat afloat. But, the same concept applies.\n\nKeep in mind that BlackBerry still has a strong and loyal, albeit small, user base. In terms of market share, they have less than 1%. But that is in a huge market. They don't need 30% market share to be sustainable and healthy. Look at all the different car manufacturers out there.\n\nAlso keep in mind that when it comes to large, security sensitive organizations, they are still #1. Nobody comes close. No one else makes both the device and the management software. Samsung tried with Knox, but that didn't work out so well. And who did samsung turn to to support Knox? BlackBerry.\n\nThere is a lot of bad press around BlackBerry. Things that just aren't true. They have made huge mistakes, and it's nobody's fault but their own. But things aren't as bad as so many like to say that they are.\n\nI typed this out a Q10. If you haven't tried BlackBerry 10, I'd recommend giving it a shot. It's not for everyone. But, it has a lot of great features and is very stable and fast.",
"**Former RIM/BB employee here** \nFrom an insider's perspective RIM's failure came down to two things: \n1. RIM only wanted to build/sell premium products. At the time that the iPhone and Android phones were first launched BlackBerry battery life was measured in **days** while others were measured in **hours**. The way iPhone/Android devices were using the network was very inefficient. BlackBerry used 10X **less** data than the others which was important in the days of anemic data plans. What Mike/Jim didn't count on was the \"good enough\" factor. Consumers did not seem to care about these technical issues in the face of everything else the iPnone/Android devices could do VERY well! For a long time RIM continued to build Lamborghinis while consumers were satisfied with Toyotas. \n2. RIM's legal department was crippling! I met Jason Eckert, who was interviewed for [this article by The Verge.](_URL_0_) He hit the nail on the head when he said \"...lawyers came to dominate the culture.\" \n ",
"My old man was a blackberry fan boy for years. Then one day he needed to test some new hardware which required an app for work. The app wasnt offered on bb. He now has both a bb and an s5...but at some point i imagine hell drop the bb entirely.",
"IT depts HATE the Blackberry server software. Every It person was looking to dump Blackberry any chance they got. Seriously fuck BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server)",
"\"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.\" -- Bill Gates \n\nI believe BB were not nimble/flexible enough to meet the changing landscape (like many other rivals in that space)\n",
"When I used to sell them, they would often be returned for malfunctions or hardware failure. ",
"Blackberry devices are just awful but they were the best on the market. Then when the iPhone was released then Android, Blackberry struggled to keep up",
"Consumer: \"we want this\"\nBlackberry: \"well we're still gonna try to sell you this other thing\"",
"Was BlackBerry ever a leader in the phone business? I think they were mostly an american thing.",
"It's funny no one has mentioned this. Blackberrys back up systems went down for I believe almost a week in Europe and a couple days in North America about 5 years ago (not sure about other countries), but basically lost a lot of credibility when this happened and really damaged their reputation. ",
"I'll tell ya why. I love blackberries--I always have. About 2 years ago, I went in to the Verizon store for the 15th time to have my blackberry replaced b/c it was broken, again. They felt SO bad for me they gave me an iPhone for free. 1 year later--I hated the iPhone so much, I wanted my blackberry back. So, this year, I got a new blackberry. \n\nI love it because of the keyboard and the simplicity. However, there are literally zero apps. I mean, not even Instagram or Waze...or Uber! Nada. So the only reason I am able to keep the blackberry and be happy is because my work phone is an iPhone and if I need to use Uber or Waze, I still can. It's a shame, because I will miss the bb when it's gone!",
"Former professional BB app developer here, I transitioned to Android development in 2011 and have exclusively been doing that since then.\n\nFirst of all, BB was really developer unfriendly. If we had some code that didn't work because of some bug in the OS we were pretty much out of luck. New releases were on an 18 month release cycle so that didn't help either. Their SDK was also really sparse. Many things that were built into Android SDK you had to write the code from scratch for on BB SDK. This made building apps much more work.\n\nSecondly, their attempt at playing catch up with the BB Storm was a big fail. It was the first sign of them putting out garbage hardware when most of their devices before were of decent quality beforehand. When the put out the Torch the hardware was OK, but the OS updates were not good and very buggy. \n\nIn my view the big part of their downfall is being too late to migrate to the BB10 OS. This took years and when they were finally ready to release it was years too late. They would've been wiser to have just focused on being a hardware company and used Android as their core OS.",
"Why do I feel like this ELI5 is us writing a paper for finals week?",
"The iPhone came and tore shit up. The OS was cleaner, had a nifty multi-touchscreen, and wasn't ugly as sin. ",
"I used to have a couple BlackBerrys ever since the BlackBerry Pearl 1st came out.\n\nI used iphone and android devices since, but I missed the keyboard too much.\n\nI went back and I've been happy ever since.\n\nDo I wish more apps incorporated into the OS? Yeah, but with the recent revelations of the NSA, I like the security that BlackBerry has always provided.\n\nTo each their own.",
"A couple of years ago, I was listening to a talk radio interview of the then CEO of Blackberry. The interviewer asked him what he thought of those \"iPhones\". The CEO responded that he had never even held one in his hand. Once I heard that I thought, oh jeebus, it's only a matter of time now...",
"It's sort of like the dinosaurs. For a long time, dinosaurs were extremely well-suited for their environment and thrived; until one day an asteroid hit and the climate changed over night. The dinosaurs that weren't suited for the new environment went extinct.\n\nBlackberry were the dinosaurs who made the smartphones that *dominated* enterprise settings, long before consumer-level smart phones were a thing. Then one day the asteroid 'iPhone' crashed into the scene and suddenly everyone had to have one. Once consumers had them, they wanted to bring them to work, and use them like BlackBerries. BB simply never made anything the public at large wanted like an iPhone, so they went under.",
"On top of them not innovating anymore, focusing on business instead of the consumer, even when focusing on business they didn't give business what they wanted, and here is the kicker. THEY MADE SHITTY PRODUCTS.\nHow many blackberry storms had awful touch screens? Also that \"button touch screen\" was a horrible gimmick. It wasn't functional at all.\nThen lets jump to the att side of things. Att got that HORRIBLE blackberry torch that was RIFE with manufacturing issues. Front plates would fall off, the the slide mechanism would just stop even after gentle use, keys would tear off, touch screen was innaccurate and shitty. It was just a horrible horrible device. Then you have to take into account blackberry was at least two years behind on all hardware...processors, amount of ram...shittiest cameras to date. \n\nNow all that being said I absolutely loved texting on my Blackberry bold 9900. It had a solid feel, solid looking screen, no trackball, and amazing keyboard. The battery lasted a good few days. \n\nBut then blackberry didn't have apps. Nobody wanted to develop for it. It would be a lost cause because business users don't spend money on apps...no way. CONSUMERS spent money on apps and chances are if they had a blackberry it was more than likely a company phone.\n\nBlackberry killed themselves.\n\nThis goes all the way up to the top. There are numerous accounts of employees saying they were afraid to raise their voices in opposition of bad choices the company was making...they made it sound like the company itself wasn't very conducive to harboring new ideas. It was a very \"we are the senior members of blackberry and we don't have to listen to anyone else in the company blah blah blah\".\n\nBlackberry tore itself apart from the inside out.",
"RIM believed they were in the business of making Blackberries. Once it was too late they learned they were in the communications business."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/coming-saturday-the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/"
],
[
"http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?service=mobile"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGW76JB90Ro",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPbhzmIq9uU"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/1/3187639/rim-waterloo-blackberry-company-town"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
ao38r6 | how to tell the difference between different genres of ‘dance’ music. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ao38r6/eli5_how_to_tell_the_difference_between_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"efxut7u"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I’ll try my best to explain it simply.\n\nMany times genres blend into one another but there are some things that make it more one genre than the other.\n\nHouse music is more upbeat, usually has piano in it with more natural sounding drums and hi hats. But there are many sub genres under house, they all have the most upbeat happy feel to it.\n\n[this has strong house qualities ](_URL_0_) \n\n[A classic House track by a founding father of techno to confuse things more ](_URL_3_) \n\nTechno has more electronic sounding drums and hi hats. Techno sounds a bit darker and colder than house.\n[Green Velvet is a good example of techno ](_URL_1_)\n\n\nTechno and house also blend to make tech house so that further confuses it but we can get into that more a bit later.\n\n\nDrum and Bass is all about the break beat loop. Like “Boom cha chika chika Boom cha” and usually much faster than house and techno.\n[Goldie is a classic d n b artist](_URL_2_) anything goes for drum n bass but the break beat is what makes it stand out.\n\n\nEdit: [A drum and bass playlist that is very different from the Goldie song.](_URL_4_) "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://youtu.be/tN6FIac7Wwc",
"https://youtu.be/HhmwXpeledY",
"https://youtu.be/anQgfwdZUkE",
"https://youtu.be/rFQZndywOR4",
"https://youtu.be/Vmwx8pHB2Fw"
]
]
|
||
6gggs8 | difference between personality traits and psychological disorders | Things like ADD, autism, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gggs8/eli5_difference_between_personality_traits_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"diq35ol",
"diq4did",
"diq5fw8",
"diqi2jr"
],
"score": [
3,
36,
12,
3
],
"text": [
"I don't think there is a hard line. Basically a group of people who study these types of things decide on what is a psychological disorder and what the characteristics of it are. Then they publish the DSM book. Something things that were previously psychological disorders are now not.",
"Something is considered a psychological disorder when it has a significant negative impact on the person's life. Feeling sad sometimes is normal, feeling so sad and empty that you can't get out of bed for days is a psychological disorder. \n\nThis is why we need specially trained people to determine whether someone has a psychological disorder or not on an individual basis. \n\n**EDIT:** I apologise if this is being taken the wrong way. I don't at all mean to say \"you're different to me, therefore you're mentally ill\". I thought being *unable* to get out of bed for days was pretty obviously pathological and not a personality trait. ",
"A personality trait is just a category in something like the Big 5 of HEXACO. These are things like openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, or extraversion. You can have a low score in any one of these, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have a psychological disorder. Psych disorders are usually centered around behavior that's abnormal in either its severity or it causes problems in the person's life. Extraversion is a personality trait, but if you score low in extraversion, and you're an introvert, it doesn't become a problem unless it starts negatively affecting other parts of your life, which is the case in disorders like agoraphobia or Avoidant personality disorder. ",
"There are five big personality traits recognized by psychology, typically just referred to as the [big five](_URL_0_).\n\nRoughly speaking, they are \"openness to experience\", \"conscientiousness\", \"Extraversion\", \"Agreeableness\" and \"Neuroticism.\"\n\nThese traits are all [normally distributed](_URL_1_) meaning that people that had too much or too little of each trait didn't do very well and had less offspring compared to people who were close to what today is the average.\n\nScoring way too much or way too little in either personality trait can become a disorder if it impedes your life. But there's the line between a typical presentation of a personality trait and an extreme version of that trait is a fuzzy line and there's some amount of subjective judgment on behalf of the psychologist when he or she diagnoses a disorder.\n\nIf you want to learn more about personalities in general check out Jordan Petersons free lectures on youtube. You can start [here](_URL_2_)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits",
"http://www.statisticshowto.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/normal-distribution-probability.jpg",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYYJlNbV1OM"
]
]
|
|
2qz4o9 | when really stuffed up, how swapping what side im laying on will free up one of my nostrils easily, but yet im unable to clear it completely when i blow my nose? and when i am somehow able to clear it, how is it possible for it to come back so fast? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qz4o9/eli5_when_really_stuffed_up_how_swapping_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnawis4",
"cnb07f3"
],
"score": [
5,
11
],
"text": [
"Hi. ENT here. We have bones covered with mucosa (membranes) in our nose called turbinates that are basically similar to erectile tissue. They swell and engorge themselves in response to allergies, infection, or in some cases gravity (like when you are laying on your side). \n\nIt's natural for your nasal breathing to alternate sides every few hours as the turbinates swell and shrink (the nasal cycle) but in some cases due to deviated septums etc this can be more pronounced. Docs have to look up your nose when you have this complaint to rule out other problems like nasal polyps or masses that can block nasal breathing.\n\nTreatment ranges from nose sprays, allergy pills, allergy shots, and sometimes surgery if someone is really suffering.",
"You guys are all welcome.\n > Here's an easier, quicker, and cheaper remedy to relieve sinus pressure: Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you'll feel your sinuses start to drain."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
4xopn2 | how brussels have so high muslim population? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xopn2/eli5how_brussels_have_so_high_muslim_population/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6h91ql"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"\"Moroccan and Turkish immigrants began coming in large numbers to Belgium starting in the 1960s as guest workers. Though the guest-worker program was abolished in 1974, many immigrants stayed and brought their families using family reunification laws. Today the Muslim community continues to grow through marriage migration. More than 60% of Moroccan and Turkish youth marry partners from their home countries.\" -[Wiki](_URL_0_)\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Belgium"
]
]
|
||
8ohway | why is there so much controversy in what you call the republic of macedonia/fyrom? | Please can someone explain why there is so much tension in what you call it and how it came to this?
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ohway/eli5_why_is_there_so_much_controversy_in_what_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"e03fdmp",
"e03fg7c",
"e03fzec",
"e03nk5k",
"e03pywk",
"e03reyr"
],
"score": [
4,
12,
5,
3,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Very basically Greece has provinces with the name of Macedonia and Greece doesn’t like that FYROM uses the name of Macedonia as it may be a possible threat to Greece and that Macedonia is stealing Greek history ",
"It comes down to who \"owns\" the history of Alexander the Great and the cultural legacy and identity that comes with it. With it comes the question of WHO were the Macedonians? Were they Greeks? Were they \"barbarians\" who adopted enough of Ancient Greek culture to pass as Greek? There are also broader questions of culture and history and country: can X culture exist outside of X country? Do the people of Modern X Country have a monopoly on Ancient X culture despite thousands of years of history changing the region? How linked together are culture and history? How are our understandings of ancient cultures shaped by the bias of sources from back then?\n\nGreece views Alexander's Kingdom/Empire of Macedonia and its subsequent successor states as part of the cultural heritage of Ancient Greece and therefore their history. They claim that the people who live in the Republic of Macedonia/FYROM now are not the same people who lived there in Alexander's time and are not culturally Greek and so don't have any claim to that heritage. It's not an inaccurate view: in the 5th/6th century, there were a wave of migrations of Slavic tribes into the area resulting in a country that has a Slavic (not Greek) culture and speaks a Slavic language. They point to the fact that the majority of historical records that describe Macedonians describe them as Greek. Modern Macedonians often refute that a lot of these records come from external sources (ex, the Romans) who tended to lump cultural groups together under one name and were not aware of/interested in the differences that the people in that group saw amongst themselves. \n\nModern Macedonians from the Republic/FYROM claim that the Ancient Macedonians differed culturally and ethnically enough from the Ancient Greeks that Modern Greeks don't have a monopoly on Macedonian identity. One theory posits, for example, that they were a tribe from the north of Greece proper that underwent Hellenization and adopted elements Greek culture while preserving some of their own. Another argues that they were an example of a more \"archaic\" Greek society and the differences were as a result of cultural practices that the Ancient Greeks of the southern city-states had lost. Either way, modern Macedonians from the Republic/FYROM believe that this gives them just as much a right to claim Alexander's heritage as the Modern Greeks. They point to some historical records that demonstrate that the Ancient Greeks themselves considered Macedonians \"separate\" from them, but Modern Greeks argue that that was just as a result of political rivalry between Macedonia and the southern city-states. Modern Macedonians also point to instances of Macedonian Slavic culture that echo ancient Macedonian culture as evidence that the Slavic tribes who migrated in melded with the existing culture rather than invaded/exterminated it.\n\nAdding confusion is the fact that there's a region within Greece that's called Macedon (also part of the ancient kingdom) and that there are ethnic Greeks in Greece who identify as Macedonian. \n\nBasically, the region of Ancient Macedon and, more broadly speaking, the idea of cultures don't fit neatly within modern national borders. Thousands of years of history and war and migration and bias of primary sources that describe the Macedonians complicate things. Doubly so when there's certainly an emotional investment in the debate on the part of all involved. ",
"Macedonia is also a Greek province. \n\nThe old kingdom of Macedonia was primary in what today is Greece that is primary know today because Alexander the Great what the king of Macedonia. So Greece consider that Macedonia is a part of the Greek legacy and something Greece is proud of and does not accept they FYROM used it.\n\nBecause they are neighbors and Greek is a EU and NATO member they could do a lot of damage to FYROM like closing the border and trying to stop and block cooperation with from international organisation.\n\nThe result was the compromise that we live in today.\n",
"Because it is a region that was conquered by Alexander the Great as he attempted to take over the world as he knew it. It is not the historic region of the city State of Macedon which is a region in Greece and the capital/origin point of Alexander's Empire. They are claiming historic significance and heritage that belongs to Greece not to them. ",
"Imagine if Ringo Starr got a band together and started touring as the Beatles.\n\nLegal issues aside, Paul McCartney would probably be a little upset about that. The Beatles ended their run decades ago, and if there is anyone who could claim to be the heir to the Beatles tradition, it is certainly not Ringo.\n\nGreece feels the same about the current Macedonia. Greece feels the historic Macedonia, particularly how it relates to Alexander the Great, is a part of Greek tradition, and they are the sole heirs to that tradition. The current Macedonia is only tangentially associated with the historic one because that land used to be a part of a Greek empire.\n\nFor its part, Macedonia thinks Greece needs to get over itself. Modern Greece has only existed for about 200 years, after centuries of being a part of the Ottoman Empire. Their link to the legendary Greeks of old isn't as strong as they would like everyone to believe it is.\n\n",
"The Ancient Macedonians were a people on the periphery of Ancient Greece. They seem to have counted themselves as Greek and various sources say the same. Others distinguish them from Greeks. Their language was either a divergent Greek dialect or a separate language under the same Hellenic branch. They obviously had common origins with the other Greeks as reflected not only in language but their belief in the Greek gods.\n\nBy Roman times, the Macedonians were fully accepted as Greeks and Ancient Macedonian like all ancient varieties of Greek went extinct as it was replaced by Koine Greek. The Romans also extended the geographical boundaries of Macedonia to include today's FYROM. In Alexander's time, FYROM was known as Paeonia and not part of Macedonia. He even calls the Paeonians \"Foreign Troops\" in Arrian.\n\nThe Slavs would later settle in Macedonia, largely in today's FYROM though some made it as far as the Ancient Kingdom. By Ottoman Times, these Slavs living in Macedonia were known as BULGARIANS. You will notice that the language of FYROM is almost identical to Bulgarian, that's because they were the same people up until 1900 or so.\n\nRead these historical newspapers from 19th century and you'll see that Greeks and Bulgarians (today's fyromians) were the largest groups in Ottoman Macedonia. There were no ethnic Macedonians and as one would expect, the Greeks considered themselves and were considered to be the heirs of Alexander and the Ancient Macedonians:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nGo and read the Miladinov brothers who say that they call their country West Bulgaria and not Macedonia as Macedonia is associated with being Greek.\n\nWhy did these Bulgarians suddenly change their identity and start trying to steal the inheritance of the Greek Macedonians? For territorial expansion and nation building. Go and read Allen Upward who wrote in 1908 that the Bulgarians had created a fake \"Macedonian\" identity to annex the entire Macedonian region and gain access to the sea. Clearly this worked as even today FYROMians pose with maps claiming Greek Macedonia and the port city of Thessaloniki,\n\nWhy then is it controversial to call FYROM Macedonia? Because it's not really Macedonia. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://imgur.com/a/lBoeLN9"
]
]
|
|
75by5b | - how does castration (removal of testicals) increase the pitch of your voice? | Ive heard of musicians who do this to increase the pitch of their voice, but i have no idea if it is true. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75by5b/eli5_how_does_castration_removal_of_testicals/ | {
"a_id": [
"do4yijg",
"do4ykmi",
"do4ymrx",
"do4yo60"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
6,
15
],
"text": [
"Old church would snip young boys in choir to keep angelic highpitch sounds. \n\nThe reason is testicles release testosterone which is a horomone in development through puberty that will give males their sex characteristics, hair, deep voice, etc.\n\nBut snip snip the voice will never drop.",
"castrato. Its about keeping your voice from dropping during puberty, not increasing the pitch. It just keeps it as high as it was when you were a child, which is higher than adults can normally speak/sing.\n\nBut yes it was absolutely a thing",
"The testicles produce testosterone. If you dont have balls, you have less testosterone, one of the things that testosterone does in men is lower their voice. If you clip a boy as hes still growing, he'll be sexually stunted development wise, and one of the side effects of that is a much more feminine voice. ",
"It doesn't increase the pitch - what it does is prevent a boy's voice from dropping in puberty.\n\nSo you start with a young boy with a naturally high voice. You castrate him, and without testosterone messing with things, he doesn't lose that high voice when he hits his teenage years. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5nepwx | what is the advantage/point of having a fancy bank card (eg. centurion card)? | How is it any different to my regular bank card? I've read that a Centurion Card costs $10k to acquire and I just don't understand. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nepwx/eli5_what_is_the_advantagepoint_of_having_a_fancy/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcaw7o2",
"dcaybth"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"A Centurion card isn't a bank card. It's a charge card. The money is not automatically withdrawn from your bank account, it's billed to you every month. It doesn't make that much of a difference since you have to pay that card off every month anyway, but it does mean that if you contest a charge, AmEx has more reason to fight the merchant than your bank does (since it's their money on the line, not yours). Credit cards allow you to carry a balance from month-to-month if you can't pay it all off, but the interest rates on those are high enough that you should avoid doing that if possible.\n\n Fancy cards like the Centiurion also include benefits like:\n\n* reimbursement of checked bag fees on plane trips \n* access to airport lounges\n* access to a concierge service, 24/7, to help you book travel and events.\n* frequent flier status on a number of airlines, which makes you eligible for free upgrades to business or first class if there's room available\n\nand other things of that nature. The Centurion Card itself probably isn't worth the $2k more per year than cards like the AmEx Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve, but that's why people pay for cards like that rather than just using the free cards through their bank.",
"Most credit cards give perks, points, purchase protections, rental insurance, etc.\n\nHigh-end cards give a lot of perks, first class lounges at airports, upgraded hotel rooms, things like that.\n\nThe biggest thing these cards provide is a concierge service. If it is is 3 am and you want to rent a jetski, you call them and they figure it out for you. It will cost a buttload of money, but they will make it happen."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
1lz0sm | weird phone calls | sdfsdfsdfds | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lz0sm/eli5_weird_phone_calls/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc45wb2",
"cc45zui",
"cc4gx2f"
],
"score": [
2,
18,
2
],
"text": [
"Some company/call center/creditor is data mining when you are available. It costs money to have a person wait 45 seconds for your answering machine. It costs nothing to have a computer do it then hang up on you.",
"It's probably an autodialer. There can be a few things its trying to do, this is by no means an exclusive list.\n\n * It could be connected to speech recognition software and trying random numbers. If it detects a voice, it hangs up. It may be trying to connect to a fax or modem (people still use those).\n * It could also be wardialing to find out if the number is valid an an actual person is on the other line. The operator on the other end could be trying to find out what numbers have people on the other end and could presumably sell that list to telemarketers. Though, I'm not sure if the money they make is more than what it costs to \"harvest\" those numbers.\n * Mass outgoing call-centers (telemarketers and bill collectors) typically have an autodialer which runs through a long list of numbers. Sometimes it will dial more people in the list than they have operators on staff. It will then call, detect a voice and mark it down to call back later.\n * It could be a misconfigured autodialer. There may be a message that's supposed to play but you can't hear it.\n",
"Followup question everyone. I also get these strange phone calls. They have come from several different numbers. Since I don't speak Spanish, what are they and how do I get them to stop? "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5ie2sl | why are people so hateful on social media outlets and online video games? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ie2sl/eli5_why_are_people_so_hateful_on_social_media/ | {
"a_id": [
"db7g40v",
"db7g7xb",
"db7gf4o"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
7
],
"text": [
"Kind of answered your own question there. If someone expresses their opinion IRL then they are far more likely to be embarrassed if someone disagrees with them. It's akin to 13 year old kids on Xbox live calling the one black dude in the game the n word. In real life they would NEVER do that because said dude could just beat them up but they can't over XBL. The same thing applies to online comments and social media. \n\nIn real life you can't just delete what you have said but online, to a certain extent, you can.",
"It really comes down in my opinion that theres no true consequences. No one too puch there face helps. Typically they just don't understand the true power of there words. But mostly not getting hit. There cowards that wont do it to your face but the minute they jump on log in whenever you kids are doing now in days there 10 feet tall masters of insert something witty. Its funny till its not as well i reckon",
"You said it yourself. Anonymity. Most people get some sort of unfriendly, mean, hostile thoughts. Depending on the person, they usually shut it down out of fear of the consequences. If you tell your boss he's a jackass, you'll get fired. If you overhear a conversation and an opinion that you think is stupid, telling them causes other people to judge you, friends and associates to look down on you, and so on. However, with anonymity there are no consequences. You can be as mean, as condescending as you want and no one is able to punish you for it. So people are less restrained as a result. The underlying reason I suppose you can say is that people tend to be hostile and parochial as a rule, we've just trained ourselves to be somewhat restrained because the benefits of being hostile are outweighed by the costs.\n\nYes, diet can cause irritability especially if it causes regular digestive issues like nausea or bowel pain. Your ego can inflate in a relationship but it is not a given, it depends on the exact nature of the relationship and how the people in said relationship treat each other. Lots of positive affirmation from peers, superiors, lovers etc. will probably boost your ego while negative feedback might reduce your ego."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5ze9d5 | why are heavier elements found together in the same location? | I understand that the heavier elements (in particular the metals like Lead, Silver, Gold, Copper, etc.) are created in a supernova via neutron capture. But why are they frequently found together in clustered and clumps on earth? Is it the same everywhere on rockier planets like earth?
For clarification, I understand how they are created. Why I don't understand is how all the little copper atoms clump together with all the other copper atoms to form a "vein" of copper or gold a vein of gold, etc.
I'm imagining a single supernova does not create one particular type of heavier element. So if there are two iron atoms that were "next to" one another during a supernova, one might become a gold atom through neutron capture while another next to it may become uranium. So how do all the little gold atoms get with the other gold atoms and copper with the copper to make the repetitively homogeneous pockets we know and love?
And as a bonus question (and I suspect this may be part of the answer, I just can't get all the pieces to fit together right) when the earth was created and was molten, why didn't we end up with a homogeneous mixture of elements uniformly dispersed over the surface of the earth?
Seems the was way too much chaos in all of this to allow for little pockets of elements to be lumped together.
Please help....it's making my head hurt. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ze9d5/eli5why_are_heavier_elements_found_together_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhi1jmg",
"dexexv2"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Answering a two month old question because the answers so far are a bit incomplete. The ELI5 is just this - why aren't things distributed evenly in the crust? Because geology happens! Yes, elements can be sorted by density, but this mainly just accounts for the overall structure of the Earth: crust, mantle, outer core, inner core. Yet we find denser materials grouped together here and there in the crust (shouldn't they be nearer the core?) - because Earth is covered in segregation processes. Geological processes often act to separate something from something else in some way, and redeposit it elsewhere. Not just based on physical properties like density, these processes also occur due to chemical properties - how compatible certain elements are at fitting in with the different minerals that occur on (and in) the Earth dictates how mobile they are and where they might get concentrated on a local level. \n\n\nTo give more detail we have to go over some chemistry, I'll try not to get too bogged down in it. On the large scale, elements can be categorised according to their atomic size and the strength of their charge as one of four types: \n\n\nlithophile (rock-loving)\n\n\nsiderophile (iron-loving)\n\n\nchalcophile (ore-loving)\n\n\natmophile (liquid or gaseous at surface conditions, also known as volatiles). \n\n\nThe lithophile elements form minerals that make up the rocks found in the Earth's crust. These are mostly based around a basic silicon and oxygen structure - they thus form silicate minerals. \n\n\nSiderophile elements are the high-density transition metals which tend to sink into the core because they dissolve readily in iron either as solid solutions or in the molten state. The siderophile elements include: gold, cobalt, iron, nickel, platinum, iridium, silver and tungsten, among others. \n\n\nMost siderophile elements have practically no affinity whatsoever for oxygen, a major component of the crust at the surface of the Earth. Siderophile elements are latterly bound with iron in the dense layer of the Earth's core - because they are so concentrated there, siderophile elements are known for their rarity in the Earth's crust. Most of them have always been known as precious metals because of this. Mineable deposits of precious metals can form as a result of the erosion of rocks originally formed straight from the primitive mantle, but these are not highly concentrated even compared to their low crustal abundances. More local processes can concentrate small pockets of them here and there in the crust. \n\n\nThe chalcophile elements include: silver, bismuth, cadmium, copper, mercury, sulphur, lead, selenium, tin, zinc and plenty others. Now, we can see that a few dense metals and heavier non-metals are in there, but chalcophile elements remain on or close to the surface because they combine readily with sulphur (a very light element) and/or some other chalcogen. **Chalcophiles form compounds which do not sink into the core, regardless of their own densities.**\n\n\nBecause the sulfides that chalcophiles form are denser than the silicate minerals formed by lithophile elements, chalcophile elements **did separate to below the lithophiles** at the time of the first crystallisation of the Earth's crust. However, the minerals they form are nonmetallic, and so this depletion has not reached the levels found with siderophile elements. The bulk of commercially important metals are in fact chalcophile, as enriched chalcophile areas can become accessible due to regional tectonic uplift. This is seen in the Tibetan Plateau where collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates has been taking place for the last 50 million years. This tectonic convergence causes crustal rocks to become deformed, fractured and uplifted near the surface, exposing deposits of chalcophiles from the deeper crust. Thanks to this, China is rich in mineral and ore resources, it has often been a leading producer of many economic metals. \n\n\nOP mentioned veins, which are a more local phenomenon. They are a product of fluid movement; the crust has lots of fluids in it, and many of those fluids are hot. As they pass through rock as groundwater they will dissolve things into them, and certain minerals and chemicals dissolve more easily than others. As voids allow fluids to cool and collect those solutes can be deposited, resulting in mineralised veins. Now, most veins are filled with uninteresting stuff like quartz or calcite, but in the right environments they can be enriched in all sorts of other minerals. Ancient hydrothermal veins yield many mineral and ore deposits of economic interest.\n\n\nAnother local process in the crust is when a magma chamber is slowly cooling and crystallizing deep within the crust, the dynamics change near the very end. When the chamber is almost done solidifying, the last bit of liquid left over is enriched in all the incompatible elements - the ones that don't fit into the normal mineral structures. As a result, all sorts of wierd uncommon minerals can form at the very end, and these minerals are often enriched in just the sort of rare elements that can make a mine profitable.\n\n\nFinally, life can play a role in creating economically useful geologic formations. Coal is formed from the carbon in the compressed remains of peat bogs. The best iron deposits generally come from banded iron formations (BIFS); these are deposits of iron that occured when the oceans first became oxygenated by photosynthesis, causing the iron dissolved in the oceans to change from Fe2+ (soluble) to Fe3+ (insoluble) and precipitate out.\n\n\nI'm just learning about economic geology at the moment, so feel free to ask any more questions if any of that needs clarifying. ",
"When the Earth was much hotter, and everything was much more liquid, things could flow a lot easier. Just like putting oil in water, these molten metals and minerals will tend to separate out due to their different densities. They then cool and solidify, and billions of years later humans find them in clusters. Elements/compounds with similar densities may be found close together for this reason. \n\nOther compounds might also be characteristically found together because one is a reaction product of the other, or they are both products of the same reaction, which occur naturally in nature. An example would be oil and natural gas. \n\nGeology and planetary science isn't my speciality though, so there are likely more complex factors at play than just these. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
1c0w5c | why does "platonic" mean an unromantic relationship? what does it have to do with plato? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1c0w5c/eli5_why_does_platonic_mean_an_unromantic/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9bxp2u",
"c9c6kwg"
],
"score": [
14,
3
],
"text": [
"It came from Plato's writings in *Symposium* about the interest Socrates took in young men. From that we derived \"platonic love\", or, love without sensual desire.",
"One night Socrates and some of his friends were having dinner and starting talking about love. Alcibiades, the most beautiful man in all of Athens, told Socrates he loved him and wanted to...well...try to make baby philosophers. Sort of, it's a little complicated given the circumstances. But regardless, Socrates just wanted to talk about virtue and knowledge. Plato thought this was funny and wrote about it, so we call love where you don't want to...well, when you want to just talk."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
20mi9q | how instinctive knowledge and behaviour is passed through genes, as opposed to learnt behaviour. eg. a kitten is put into isolation from day one, yet still scuffs at the floor when pooping. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20mi9q/eli5_how_instinctive_knowledge_and_behaviour_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg4pq5r",
"cg4qy3h",
"cg4r87p",
"cg4rzc1",
"cg4sqxa",
"cg4u446",
"cg4v6bc",
"cg4wn2u",
"cg5il0a"
],
"score": [
11,
100,
6,
7,
4,
2,
2,
34,
2
],
"text": [
"Genes are split into two distinct types - encoding and regulatory. Encoding genes are the ones most of us know - they are read off as instructions for how to make proteins.\n\nHowever, this coding DNA comprises of only 2% of our genome. The rest is made up of DNA that regulates when that coding occurs.\n\nI don't know the exact mechanism, but just as an example, a/some regulatory gene(s) might be passed on which triggers adrenaline production caused by a fight-or-flight response.\n\nIf you want to read more about this type of thing, I'd suggest looking at the term [Fixed Action Pattern](_URL_0_).",
"Brains develop, much like all organs, from the control of genes. During development, neurons use various methods of signalling to \"make\" certain parts of the brain essesntially \"hard-wired\" for a behavioural tendency, which in turn can ~~illicit~~ elicit *(too much crime reading haha, thank you!)* a physiological response, eg. sexual arousal, wincing at a bright light, scuffing at the floor if you're a cat or a weird human. \nThere is a high degree of genetic regulation in neural development, it'd be wild if many behaviours weren't hereditary.",
"We actually aren't that sure yet. Presumption remains that it would be encoded in our DNA, but we don't know where. Also, we still struggle with the difference between what behaviours of ours and others are nature versus nurture.",
"If we can figure this out and determine exactly where it comes from, can't we \"turn off\" some of those traits or behavior that are undesirable genetically before a person/animal is born? ",
"Our behavior cannot change genes directly. We can control some aspects by choosing to mate with someone who has traits we like. But thus too is a hit or miss proposition. \n\nIt's genes that's with on or off and how their expressed in the progeny. And over time, the change occurs. ",
"The layout of your brain and the initial synapses that form between neurons are genetically determined, and influence how your brain develops and changes from birth to death; however, during that time, your life experiences are the input that your cognitive system uses to convert into beliefs, behavior, and other higher cognitive functions. I would think of the genetically-determined layout of your cognitive system as the 'gears' that turn your experiences into memories, beliefs, etc. Although those gears themselves are always undergoing changes based on how your experiences alter the way you perceive things.",
"The field is called epigenetics.\nIt's a pretty new field.\n",
"There are a lot of upvoted responses here that simply ignore your question and just address the genes/development side. Funny enough, the most accurate, yet downvoted response thus far comes from user *IshallReadtoYou*: \n > \"Random chance and luck folks. The cat pawing descends from cats that did that trait.\"\n\n\nI'll try to respond to your ELI5 the best I can, but first I'll address a few things about your example. 'Scuff' can be interpreted in two ways, and kittens don't typically scuff at the floor *when* pooping. Can you even imagine? (a) Your kitten dragging its little kitten-butt across the floor, leaving a nice stroke of brown. Or green. Or yellow. (b) Your kitten pawing at the floor while trying to poop. Both might seem a little entertaining until realizing you have to clean it up...\n\n\nAnyway, scuffing commonly occurs in one of two ways:\n\n* **(1) Scuffing at a surface with their paws before and/or after pooping.** This occurs because they're trying to dig a hole for their poop, and then cover it up.\n\n* (2) Scuffing on a surface with their butt to try to poop. A newborn kitten needs a little help to poop. When isolated, a newborn kitten might scuffle across the floor to stimulate their anal glands to allow for pooping. When not separated, the mother would otherwise groom, among other areas, the kitten-butt to stimulate the anal glands. If the anal glands aren't stimulated, the kitten would become constipated and die. This would make for a very sad, cat-less internet.\n\n\n**To answer your ELI5, I'll use (1) as the example here. How do cats instinctively know to bury their poop?** To begin thinking about the answer, move away from your stated \"instinctive knowledge\" and focus on \"instinctive behavior\".\n\n\nAs far as we can tell, cats, among all other life forms, don't come into this existence just knowing things. Instead, they have a set of behaviors which are hard-wired into their genes. These behaviors can be as simple as breathing or blinking, and as complex as crying for attention or burying poop. \n\n\nAn entire behavior is a little complicated to be ascribed to a gene. Patterns--the things we find in the unreachable depths of the cosmos all the way down to the unfathomable minutiae of DNA--on the other hand, provide a better avenue for explanation.\n\n\nOkay, so, where do these instinctive patterns in a cat's genome come from?\n\n\nWell, as *IshallReadtoYou* responded, \"random chance and luck folks.\"\n\n\nThis, by itself, isn't the best answer to this ELI5, but it is paramount to the concept of genetics and evolution.\n\n\nThe prime directive for all life as we know it is to survive and reproduce. This is what we know as fitness or being fit (this is not the same as being a gym rat). Fitness is impacted by the availability of resources, mates, and the threat of being eaten or killed for your resources and mates (aka predation). Only the fit will survive.\n\n\n**Note: An example based on evolutionary pressure**\n\n\n* So think about several millions of years ago... All of these old school cats (not the ones we know today) are trying to survive. A mutation occurs in a population of cats. The cats with this specific mutation have a weird penchant for pooping in corners far from their hangout. Wolves (insert predator here) might, for example, find some cats by the smell of their feces. Now the weird far-away poopers are more prolific producers. The predators numbers are culled to a minimum since they are now having trouble finding the far-away poopers.\n\n\n* Now, take a look at the new population of wolves. They all seem to have a better sense of smell than the one who died around and before them. We can think of these wolves as the weird poop-trail-fetish-smelling wolves. Alas, these wolves grow in numbers because they can find the far-away pooping cats.\n\n\n* For the cats, pooping so far away becomes energetically unfavorable. A new mutation occurs in the cat population where there's a penchant to poop in areas lower than the ground which are covered easily by nature or even the cats.\n\n\n* This oversimplified game occurs for millions of year. Simple patterns or mutations build on each other forming more and more complicated sets of behaviors. And voila! You have cats instinctively burying poop. And now, some are even pooping in your face to exert dominance.\n\n\nAs far as cats are concerned 4-6 million years of random chance mutation and luck (benefiting their fitness) are responsible for certain intrinsic behaviors.\n\n\nOf course, my example is severely simple. Try to imagine the complexity of a dynamic ecology influencing the evolution of life and highlighting the benefit of small, but additive random chance mutations which are adept at handling the selective pressure of the time.\n\n\nIt's mind boggling.\n\n\nThis is, as simply as possible, how instinctive behavior is passed through genes. And, more or less, why your cat likes to bury his or her poop.\n\n\nOf course, this random chance has had the time opportunity of 4-6 million years of evolution.",
"Ctrl+F \"Assassins Creed\" Nothing \n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_action_pattern"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
5wpwnc | the purpose of the scrotum is to keep sperm at a lower temperature. but then sperm are expected to live up to a week inside a body with an elevated temperature during ovulation. what gives? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5wpwnc/eli5_the_purpose_of_the_scrotum_is_to_keep_sperm/ | {
"a_id": [
"dec1cck",
"dec1w6d"
],
"score": [
3,
11
],
"text": [
"Lower temps are optimal for sperm cell production, not absolutely needed for grown sperm lifecycle.",
"The *production* and ongoing survival of sperm are different biological processes. The testes are outside the body to keep temperature lower to assist with the *production* of sperm.\n\nAlso, a lower temperature may offer an improvement in sperm survival, but this does not mean no sperm can possibly survive at the higher temperature inside the body. Meanwhile 5 days survival in the female body is less *typical* and more cautionary, that is to say it is a set of circumstances that *could* cause pregnancy. Not that there is an especially high portion of sperm still active or likely to cause pregnancy after that time period. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
5eowip | how do stomach acids & enzymes break down foods exactly enough to be useful nutrients and amino acids, but not enough to break *those* down into unusable molecules and elements? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5eowip/eli5_how_do_stomach_acids_enzymes_break_down/ | {
"a_id": [
"dae1ecm",
"dae1j8j"
],
"score": [
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Because they can't realistically get any smaller than their useful variations. The stuff we use is basically the base building block of every biological organism or material. For example: We use iron in its smallest form, a single atom of Fe, in our red blood cells. We use amino acids in their base form, in proteins. We use fatty acids in their base form, in... fat. Most of the other materials are just their base atoms or ions, such as Na, K, Ca, etc. \nThe digestive enzymes are highly specific and only break down the molecules they're designed to break down, such as proteins and fatty acids. The acid in our stomach doesn't really damage our food, it just makes it a bit more susceptible to digestion and kills some organisms that happen to come down with it.",
"Because although acid is necessary for the reactions to take place efficiently, food digestion is actually driven by enzymes, catalysts that facilitate specific reactions and not others. Digestive enzymes facilitate the breakdown of proteins to amino acids and complex carbohydrates to sugars, but they do not facilitate the further breakdown of those \"building blocks\".\n\nBreaking down the building blocks requires very different reactions than breaking apart the large molecules, and would require very different enzymes to happen."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
4kwsw2 | why aren't more smaller endangered species allowed to be bred and raised in captivity as pets? | California Desert Tortoises seem to be doing well... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kwsw2/eli5_why_arent_more_smaller_endangered_species/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3ietvn",
"d3ifucg",
"d3ipzqt"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm pretty sure it is allowed - at least in America.\n\nPet axolotls are popular, even though they are very endangered. In fact, the pet trade and their value in laboratory use is pretty much the only reason they aren't extinct. ",
"Many animals are kept illegal to breed to protect the ones in the wild from being caught and sold as \"totally captive bred and not wild caught you guys.\" As others have pointed out, many of those animals do not breed readily in captivity, and if it's cheaper and easier to catch them and claim they're not wild caught, someone is going to do exactly that.\n\nAs well, many of the animals simply are not suitable as pets. Often the reason they're going endangered is that they don't adapt well to changing conditions, which means while they might do ok in a facility dedicated to caring for them, they probably won't do well as a pet at home. \n\nAs someone who's worked with pets and fish for a number of years now, it doesn't matter how ridiculously easy it is to care for an animal, people will still screw it up and kill them. So if it's any kind of finicky, you're just creating a market for poached animals to be sold to careless owners and die. \n\nWhy some animals on the endangered list are allowed, I don't know. I imagine the powers that be evaluated the data and determined that it couldn't possibly get any worse, or more likely it's an animal that can be easily monitored and regulated to make sure they're coming from registered breeders and not poached.",
"Domesticating an animal takes a lot of breeding to make them easier to care for. And they're likely to start with easy-to-care-for animals in the first place. Raising a wild animal as a pet is much more difficult. It's not that you can't raise them because they're endangered. You just can't raise them because they're wild."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3cd3lf | why do people put batteries in the refrigerator? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cd3lf/eli5_why_do_people_put_batteries_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"csuecjz",
"csuejrp"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Batteries are cells that store chemical energy. They require a chemical reaction to move electrons around and power devices. \n \nAny chemical reaction will be slowed by colder temperatures. So keeping batteries in the refrigerator would theoretically increase its life. But I'm not sure there's any proof that that works. ",
"Your thread has been removed because it's a regularly addressed topic on this subreddit. Don't worry, that doesn't mean it's bad. If anything, that means it's a great topic that's already been addressed. \n\nPlease do a search for keywords based on your topic, limited to this subreddit, and if you haven't found your explanation feel free to resubmit your post with a link to the search and an explanation to why you didn't understand. \n\nThanks, and good luck! "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2ryw3u | why are the french the butt of so many jokes? | I guess they lost a couple of wars or something...? I'm lost here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ryw3u/eli5_why_are_the_french_the_butt_of_so_many_jokes/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnkjicf"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It boils down to the fact that France and Britain used to be rivals that constantly fought to be the dominant power of Europe. Nowadays we can think of it as a kind of \"best friend\" relationship where they can jab at each other In good spirit. Other western countries make fun of the French because much of it is largely influenced by British traditions."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
yv95v | things that glow in the dark | How do they glow? And why is it green when it glows? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yv95v/eli5_things_that_glow_in_the_dark/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5z5tuo"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"First, let's think of [Newton's cradle](_URL_0_), consisting entirely of two balls. One ball falls, transfer that energy to a second ball, which rises. It eventually falls too, and transfer that energy back to the first ball. The key concept here is that energy is conserved.\n\nWhat happens when you shine light on a material? There is a phenomenon called [fluorescence](_URL_1_). Basically, a photon (i.e. a \"ball\" in the Newton's cradle) hits an electron (i.e., the other \"ball\"), and transfers all that energy to that electron. This electron is now excited - when it eventually relaxes (i.e. the \"ball\" falls), it will emit a photon. So basically light comes, excites electron, electron relaxes, light is emitted.\n\nThere is a related phenomenon called [phosphorescence](_URL_2_). It's almost the same as fluorescence - however, the electron stays excited for a _long_ time. In our Newton's cradle analogy, it's like when someone catches the second ball after it has received that energy, and holds it there. So we wait, say, 30 minutes, before we release that ball, and the energy transfer continues as described before. This is what happens with glow in the dark materials - light comes in, excites an electron, but the electron gets trapped in the excited state. It takes them a long time - over minutes or hours - before they relax and emit light. This is why, when you turn off the light, the glow in the dark material glows. It's also the reason the glow fades over time unless you \"recharge\" it.\n\nThere are actually many different colours of glow in the dark material, and it depends on the type of \"activator\" used. Copper is used for the green colour, and it's most common because it's long lasting.\n\nEdit: Formatting."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_cradle",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescence",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorescence"
]
]
|
|
386hyz | how can stress change your physical appearance so drastically? | People with stress free lives always look so much younger than people with stressful lives, so does stress make you "age" faster or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/386hyz/eli5_how_can_stress_change_your_physical/ | {
"a_id": [
"crsp0fa"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Stress can cause a lack of sleep which in turn gives you bags under your eyes. This is best treated by drinking copious amounts of water.\n\n "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
yf1k6 | why we have megabits and megabytes and why they haven't/can't be consolidated | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yf1k6/eli5_why_we_have_megabits_and_megabytes_and_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5uyapt",
"c5uycbv",
"c5v0gwd"
],
"score": [
9,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Because different things are important in different places.\n\nNetworks don't care about bytes. You could invent a completely new type of computer that had 10 bits to a byte, and your network would (mostly) be fine with it. All the network cares about is how many ones and zeros go by, so it is much more meaningful to talk about megabits.\n\nComputers, on the other hand, don't care about bits, or at least not very much. They only access data in byte sized chunks, or larger. For them, megabytes make more sense.\n\n",
"A megabyte is just 8x a megabit. They are completely interchangeable. They use of megabyte versus megabit for certain types of data (bandwidth in Mb, RAM in MB) is mostly because of historical tradition (based on the style of data stored/transferred), but we could standardize on one or the other if we chose to.",
"Basically computers are just binary data and we measure the size with different terms. First we need to clear two major points for someone to understand. \n\nFirst:\nWe use the decimal system (deca being base 10). So each digit in a number has 10 different numbers it can be. So a 0, or a 1, or a 2 and all the way up to 9. Included in a decimal set are as follows, \n{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}. \n\nBinary is the same way (bi being base 2). So a binary digit can only be 0 or a 1. \n{0,1} \nThere are other systems such as hexadecimal which is base 16 which starts at 0 and goes up to 9 and continues on into letters. So A=10, B=11,C=12, D=13, E=14,F=15.\n{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F}\n\nIt is easy to mix that in with bits/bytes and everything else. However this is not important to understand bits/bytes. Many people are throwing info about binary out there and I just wanted to clear it up so people realize this is not really related to bits/bytes.\n\nSecond:\nAs some have stated a byte is equal to 8 bits. So imagine a pie cut into 8 pieces. A bit would be just a single slice of the pie. It is the same as a digit in a number the only difference is its a measurement for a binary digit and not a decimal. Now similar to the metric system most measurements from here on up are 1000x the previous mean of measurement. \n\nIf you are using bits for your main means of measurement. The basic idea without confusing everyone is this\n\n* 1000 bits = 1 kilobit (Kb)\n* 1000 kilobits = 1 megabit(Mb)\n* 1000 megabits = 1 gigabit(Gb)\n* 1000 gigabits = 1 terabit(Tb)\n\nActual numbers should be 1024 bits = 1 kilobit because of the base 2 binary system but I used 1000's to make it easier to understand. \n\nYou can apply the same thing to bytes but since a byte = 8 bits.. Once again these numbers are slightly skewed because binary does not do increments of 1000's the next closet increment is 1024.\n\n* 8000 bits = 1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte(KB) = 8 kiloabits (Kb)\n* 8000 kilobits(Kb) = 1000 kilobytes(KB) = 1 megabyte(MB) = 8 megabits (Mb)\n* 8000 megabits(Mb) = 1000 megabytes(MB) = 1 gigabyte(GB) = 8 gigabits (Gb)\n* 8000 gigabits (Gb) = 1000 gigabyte(GB) = 1 terabyte(TB) = 8 terabits(TB)\n\nImportant to notice when talking about bytes both letters signalling size are capitalized (KB, MB, GB, TB) and when talking about bits it is usually just the first letter or none of the letters (Kb, Mb, Gb, Tb).\n\nNow the question. Why? It is simply a method we choose to group digits in binary. Just like in the decimal system we sometimes group numbers in groups of 3, i.e. 1,000,000,000 this is the same thing for binary but instead of 3 we use 8. \n\nMany companies are not clear about this especially when they are trying to sell bandwidth for our Internet Service Providers (ISP) and they will sell bandwidth in bits. So You can download things at 3 Mb per second. They don't clear this up because the confusion makes many people believe they are getting faster speeds then they really are. It helps with sales. It may be deceitful however it is just one of those confusing systems we use. Just like how there are 12 inches in a foot. and 3 feet to a yard."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1kii6k | with the approach for public/private key encryption, why do you need both public and private key? | I know you need both for that particular encryption approach to work but how did they come up with the idea to use both public and private key? Why not just create a system where you only have the private key?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kii6k/eli5_with_the_approach_for_publicprivate_key/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbp9rr1",
"cbpch2x"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"They do have that system, it's just normal encryption. It requires transmitting the private key to others in some way, though, and that's a huge vulnerability or just a big hassle.\n\nWith the asymmetric system you can send out the public key willy nilly and it doesn't matter who gets it.",
"The public key \"locks\" the message. It doesn't matter who has it, because having it doesn't make messages less secure. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3gf12r | why is it louder when you drive over a concrete highway compared to driving over an asphalt one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gf12r/eli5_why_is_it_louder_when_you_drive_over_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctxj9s5",
"ctxrt0v",
"ctxs4ll",
"ctxu8os"
],
"score": [
17,
2,
4,
6
],
"text": [
"Concrete is a harder surface than asphalt. Asphalt is slightly bouncy and absorbs energy and muffles the sound. ",
"Looks like you have your answer already but just to add on; The reason asphalt is 'softer' is because it has Tar in it which can stretch when moved slowly but shatter from blunt force. This is so that roads can survive the movement of the Earth's crust.",
"To add to what the others have said, I think concrete is usually a much rougher surface too. It tends to have grooves in it to help with water runoff. ",
"On of the main reasons is not the hardness of the surface but actually the grooving in the road, most concrete roads tend to have groves made in them for water drainage, traction and surface durability reasons. these groves are interacting with your tire making the increased noise.\n\nWhen you get on flat concrete such as some side and local roads you are not going fast enough to really generate the noise, but if you did you would notice the reduced road noise. take in mind that the hardness of your tires also plays into all of the noise as well. harder tires will not flex as easy and will pass on more of the sound created during the tire/road interaction.\n\nNow, asphalt roads or (black topped) roads will not create this type of sounds because they are smoothed out and have none of the groves, a good comparison of this is chipseal roads. cheapseal is basically a combination of small rocks on-top of tar/asphalt, drive down any of these roads that are poorly done and you will have more noise then on a concrete freeway.. \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal"
]
]
|
||
7z6qft | nowadays we need to use toothpaste but what was past's toothpaste? and why animals don't need it | (Sorry for my English haha)
So now we need to brush our teeths constanlty but how did people do in the past? Did people use some kind of toothpaste in the past?
Like in 1500,1300,1200 and what about hominid?
And also, we need to wash our teeth but why animals don't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7z6qft/eli5nowadays_we_need_to_use_toothpaste_but_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"dulpiw0",
"dulr3bk",
"duls5c5",
"dulsigy"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"First, pets need dental hygiene. You *should* be brushing your cat and dogs' teeth! \n\nWhen it comes to wild animals, well. Many don't *have* teeth. Many have different strategies than us humans - many rodents have teeth that are always growing, sharks are constantly growing new teeth, etc. Dogs have teeth that self-seal as they wear down.\n\nPlus most animals don't live as long as humans, so teeth not lasting as long isn't a big deal.\n\nSecond, remember that for *most* of the time humanity existed, we didn't eat a lot of refined sugar and other stuff that's *really* bad for our teeth, so that kind of dental issues wasn't as big a problem.\n\nAlso, losing a few teeth isn't a huge survival disadvantage for an early human. ",
"Today there are still cultures who don't brush their teeth, such as various African tribes, yet they do not suffer from tooth decay because they are eating nothing processed, no candy, no fast food. No sodas. \n\nI've worked in Africa for many years and lived around many different tribes and villages who do not practice oral hygiene yet have good teeth.",
"People chewed on sticks from [Toothbrush Trees](_URL_0_)! It could be a stick from any regional tree or plant with adequate fibrous shafts. By chewing on the soft fibers it polishes the teeth, helping to keep them clean.\n\nThe only thing analogous to toothpaste that I know of is urine. Yes, gargling piss will absolutely whiten your teeth, and several of our founding fathers did it, and people contemporaries called them piss drinkers for it. Their teeth later rotted hardcore after the uric acid corroded all their enamel.",
"A lot of people in the old days were just missing lots of teeth. When you watch TV shows and movies set in medieval times the fact that everyone has a full smile is as unrealistic as the fact that they're all clean and look like Hollywood models.\n\nAs for animals, there are a few factors at play:\n\n* Wild animals eat less sugar or acidic foods than humans.\n* Most animals don't live nearly as long as humans so their teeth don't have as much time to decay.\n* There's some survivor bias. Animals whose tooth do decay don't live long."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadora_persica"
],
[]
]
|
|
3covc3 | if the apples you buy at the store were picked an average of 14 months ago, why does fruit spoil so fast after you buy it? | I just heard from the podcast stuff you should know that the apples you buy at the store have been off the tree for an average of 14 months. If that is true, why does fruit (of all kinds) go bad so quickly after you buy it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3covc3/eli5if_the_apples_you_buy_at_the_store_were/ | {
"a_id": [
"csxl7i7",
"csxphyt",
"csxrzzo",
"csxs8n4",
"csxte7q",
"csxtw6h",
"csxvt0h",
"csxwhty",
"csxwxts",
"csxzetd",
"csxzweq",
"csy1bbq",
"csy1iv2",
"csy38xe",
"csy3y2s",
"csy9lst",
"csyi8ne",
"csyl3af"
],
"score": [
3614,
466,
9,
113,
24,
661,
5,
19,
5,
5,
13,
13,
3,
3,
76,
6,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"When it is kept in cold storage it has been treated with 1-MCP (methylcyclopropene), sprayed with wax and kept in a high CO2, low O2 environment. This keeps the apples from maturing. Before it gets to the grocery stores, the wax is removed and once it sits on the shelf, the atmosphere is back to normal breathable conditions and the fruit only has at most three weeks before it spoils. \n\nEdit: a lot of people keep mentioning Nitrogen. The process to lower O2 is by backfilling nitrogen to get the Oxygen concentration down. ",
"where do you buy apples older than12 months?I can understand a 10 month old apple that gets sold shortly before season but having apples sold with an **average** age of 14 months (so some 2 months and some 26 months old) is economically unviable. It costs to store it, the storage should be empty by the time the next harvest is ripe.\n\ndid the podcast maybe say *up to 14 months old*?",
"The conditions of the storage facilities are very strictly controlled. The humidity, O2, temperature, etc... are kept at the best conditions for the apples. Your home/grocery store do not have the same precision as the distributors do.",
"Apples will keep in standard cold storage (think: a cellar) for 3-5 months in \"edible\" condition, with regular maintenance (removal of any that go bad etc.) \"Edible\" does not mean \"pristine\". \n\nSuppliers artificially extend that window with climate control and chemistry. By the time the apple reaches your grocery, it's well into its afterlife. That's why you can't buy a bushel of apples (or onions, or potatos, or really any winter staple) at the store and keep them all season.",
"Here is a [article](_URL_0_) not sure how much it will answer for you...\n\n\"Cold storage Cold storage, also known as regular atmosphere (RA) storage, is used to store fruit for short periods of time once it’s picked. Bins of picked fruit come in from the orchard and are put straight into the cool room to maintain fruit temperature at approximately 1˚C, and humidity around 85 per cent. \n\nControlled atmosphere storage Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage uses the same temperature and humidity systems as cold storage. It also adjusts the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the room to slow the fruit ripening process. Fruit can be stored in controlled atmosphere facilities for a short, medium or long-term period of up to 12 months. \n\nSmartfresh™ Smartfresh is a product that fruit growers put inside cool rooms to maintain the ideal conditions to control ripening. Smartfresh contains 1-MCP which is similar in structure to ethylene – a natural compound that is involved in fruit ripening. When Smartfresh is applied in the cool rooms, it pauses the production of ethylene and the fruit goes into ‘hibernation’ until it is taken out of cold storage. Once the fruit is removed from the cold storage, regular ripening continues. Smartfresh biodegrades naturally and there is no residue left on the fruit.\"",
"I think the more important question is WHY THE FUCK do people eat red delicious apples? WHY THE FUCK are there more of those at the grocery store than any other variety? Seriously, who's buying these? Do people actually like them? I don't normally go in for foodie hyperbole, but they don't have a discernible flavor to me. They're just - matter. I mean, if there was nothing else I guess they'd do but there are always several other tasty varieties right next to these pain grenades. I just don't get it.",
"You need to provide proof to the claim that they are on average 14 months old. That does not seem at all likely. \n\nI do know that they use refrigeration, CO2 storage, and edible waxes to keep them from over ripening and rotting but that generally only extends the life of fruit by a few days to a few weeks, not by a year. ",
"I work in the trucking industry and the apples are not stored for 14 months. With some being the exception. The majority of apples are picked, packaged and shipped off in 2 weeks max. ",
"Wait what? Thanks for ruining apples for me OP.\n",
"Also apples keep for a very long time. When have you ever gotten an apple from the store that spoiled shortly thereafter? I've had apples last months in my fridge",
"Have you ever seen Forever Young with Mel Gibson? It's like that but with apples. ",
"A buddy of mine works in a grocery store distribution center. He was telling me that bananas get shipped, by ocean freighter, in sealed/low O2 containers so they stay green for the long trip. Once the seal is broken on a container you can watch the bananas change from green to yellow. It reminds me of some state of suspended animation. Another butcher friend was telling me that meat gets shipped to the grocer vacuum sealed and as long as it stays sealed it can be kept for months and months. Once the seal is broken/package opened, they have about a week to get it out the door. Apparently we are very clever when it comes to transporting and storing food. ",
"What podcast are you referring to? 14 months is to long and not cost efficient. 14 days would seem logical ",
"**Ethylene**. Ethylene is an airborne ripening hormone that is produced by ripening fruits, and causes further ripening in the fruit. The fruit starts to ripen a little, so it releases a little ethylene, causing it to ripen even more and so on. Read about ethylene [here](_URL_1_). You can use ethylene blockers (such as [this](_URL_0_) one) to delay ripening, which is how large companies are able to store fruit, but when the fruit is sent to the store, Ethylene reception is no longer inhibited.",
"It is timed to be 'ripe' shortly after you buy it.\n\nI put 'ripe' in quotes because I spent a season picking pineapples... we'd pick perfectly ripe pineapples, which would be canned within an hour of being picked (and then the labels from one company or another would be added, some of which had claims that their product was better than that of some other company we also canned for); -1 day ripe, which would be sent via airplane to locations all over the world; and 2 week pineapples that were just slightly yellowing but mostly still green.\n\nThose last ones, 2 weeks shy of ripeness, would be sent to grocery stores everywhere in the world. People buy them and set them on counters or window sills to \"ripen\". But once a fruit has been picked it no longer ripens; it just rots. The mechanisms are completely different, a fruit ripened on the plant develops complex sugars, while fruit that 'ripens' off the plant breaks down into simple sugars in the exact same way all other living matter does. (EDIT: ryanlam003 pointed out that the fruit's ripening mechanism *does* continue after picking; it's the loss of nutrient and water pathways from the parent plant that opens the door for decay.) The difference is so strong that I haven't been able to eat pineapples bought from stores - they smell rotten, because they are.",
"*Activated charcoal* helps fruits and veggies last longer in the fridge. Just place it in a cheese cloth bag inside the veggie drawer. This is what is manufactured within those expensive plastic storage bags.\n\nYou can find *activated charcoal* in the fish section of a pet store. It is very different from cooking charcoal. It can be *reactivated* a couple of times by placing it in the oven and heating up.\n\n",
"I can help you out here, work in a cold storage facility that right now has over 10,000 pallets of fresh imported apples. Ethylene is the main consideration. Apples have one of the highest outputs of Ethylene for any fruit. While in a storage cooler with temperature integrity at 32 degrees with multiple air exchanges per hour we can mitigate Ethylene and keep a high quality of fruit. Our apples are not treated with 1-MCP or waxed.. that is for domestic apples I believe. \nWe store our apples for up to a year before we distribute to DC's. Our customers use us as a fulfillment center for when stock cycles are low. Remember, these are imported South American apples. They are not treated upon arrival and are for the largest grocery company in America.\nCO2 systems and low O2 / Oxide facilities are fading out.\n\nEDIT: You guys should taste some of these apples. Whenever I have meetings I always bring a few in.. so fresh & juicy it would change your opinion on the entire fruit. It's a shame the average customer gets the same fruit 10 months later.\n",
"Former produce manager here. Apples are very slow breathers so they have a very long shelf life. They are also stored at an optimal location in an optimal temperature for the duration of time it's in storage. When they put the apples out at the store it's being handled at a minimum of 4 times from that point. That's not even counting how long it's out at the warehouse or the abuse it takes on the journey from the warehouse to the store via truck. Also, throughout this time it's not always in refrigeration. Our coolers are really tiny so when we get our trucks in we have to break down other pallets before we can get to the apple pallet. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://apal.org.au/resources-media/fact-sheets/storing-apples/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Methylcyclopropene",
"http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/PC2000F"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
ypidk | where does the money valued in stocks "come from"? | From what I understand, I can go to a stock broker and buy/sell shares of company according to the market price. What actually happens when I buy a share of Apple stock and sell it after it gains market value. Have I just generated a net profit out of thin air? Where does this "extra" money come from? Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ypidk/eli5_where_does_the_money_valued_in_stocks_come/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5xo29n"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"In order to buy stock, someone must have sold it to you. And in order to sell stock, you have to have a buyer. That's where the money comes from.\n\nLet's assume you buy a share of stock from X for $10. You hand $10 to X. Then, a year later, you sell that share of stock to Y for $20. Y hands $20 to you.\n\nX is now down one share of stock, and up $10 in cash.\n\nYou are up $10 in cash.\n\nY is up one share of stock, and down $20 in cash.\n\nThe math adds up.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1mijpl | why is the sahara desert so large? how has the rain shadow from the atlas mountains affected such a huge area of land? | How have the Atlas Mountains affected such a huge area of land? They are not known to be as formidable as other mountain chains, yet seem to have created the third largest desert in the world. What geographical and meteorological factors are coming in to play here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mijpl/eli5_why_is_the_sahara_desert_so_large_how_has/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc9oiiu",
"cc9rmoo"
],
"score": [
30,
3
],
"text": [
"The Sahara isn't a matter of rainshadow effect, it's caused by [Hadley Cells](_URL_0_), which are large scale atmospheric circulation loops that take moisture from places along the longitude of the Sahara and American Southwest and drops it along the equator in the Congo and Amazon. Same thing happens on the other side of the equator with the Australian Outback losing moisture to Indonesia.",
"ITT: nothing that explains the Sahara like I'm 5."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_cell"
],
[]
]
|
|
1mlqjw | why do i randomly look at the clock at the exact same time(s) nearly every day? | Did some searches, didn't see anything similar.
For as long as I can remember, the time 11:11 (am or pm) has haunted me constantly. It's not something I'm thinking about during the day but I'll just happen to look at a clock and BAM, 11:11.
Is it like a biological rhythm thing? Does this happen to a lot of people or am I just completely weird? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mlqjw/eli5_why_do_i_randomly_look_at_the_clock_at_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccaej6u",
"ccakotx",
"ccam7de"
],
"score": [
18,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Confirmation bias. You look at the watch and it's 11:05 and you think nothing of it and forget it. You look at the watch and it's 11:11 and you suddenly attach meaning to that, so you remember it. ",
"11:11 happens to me a lot as well. It's kind if freaky. But I think it's biological rhythm. ",
"It definitely does happen to a lot of people. You only need to [google \"11:11\"](_URL_0_) to see that other people have had the same experience. See also the Something Corporate song, 'Konstantine' - \"I always catch the clock, it's 11:11...\" The_Serious_Account is correct in saying that it's confirmation bias - 11:11 is a memorable number, which is why you notice it but forget about all the times it wasn't 11:11. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://lmgtfy.com/?q=11%3A11"
]
]
|
|
28bxgy | why are most sink faucets in public bathrooms designed in such a way that it is impossible to wash your hands without your hands hitting the back of the sink? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28bxgy/eli5_why_are_most_sink_faucets_in_public/ | {
"a_id": [
"ci9feyb",
"ci9g2h3",
"ci9g6o1",
"ci9nr98",
"ci9qw6w",
"ci9r6vw",
"ci9wv6j"
],
"score": [
9,
21,
79,
17,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Public restrooms are often built/remodeled by the lowest bidder. Stupid little unusable faucets are apparently the cheapest available.",
"Or the insanely small amount of water allotted for rinsing. Its almost like it gets harder to get the sensor to turn the water back on to finish.",
"Because public restroom designers have to design not just *for* a regular patron, but also *against* undesirables. One of the undesirables is the \"sink bather\", and by preventing that sink bather from cupping his hands adequately to scoop water up to his body for a rinse, that's one step towards making his sink bathing less convenient, which is one step towards convincing that guy to give himself a whore's bath somewhere else. It's the same reason all those water-saving automatically-timed knobs turn off after an inadequate amount of time - it makes sink bathing less convenient. Sure, they initially designed them for the careless customer, but the timing intervals get lower and lower the closer to a \"bad\" part of town you get. ",
"Vandalism and torque.\n\nThe longer the faucet, the easier it is to pry askew and create open water flow in an unsupervised area.\n\nHandicapable sinks, which have long arching faucets, typically have separate water controls as well. Wrenching off the faucet doesn't necessarily create a leak.\n\nSource: I'm a redditor who enjoys creating plausible answers to topics I know nothing about.",
"Also, why are there fucking gaps in the stall doors and why do some doors not close properly? ",
"Because public projects have public budgets. ",
"On the same note, why do so many toilet stalls have low hanging toilet paper dispensers?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1gv1sc | what did snowden do exactly, and what are the arguments for and against why he should be tried as a traitor? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gv1sc/what_did_snowden_do_exactly_and_what_are_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cao40s4",
"cao42ue",
"cao5py2"
],
"score": [
2,
70,
11
],
"text": [
"He revealed secret information in the same way a foreign spy might. The laws about aiding the enemy aren't very lenient, considering he had other ways to bring his concerns to the attention of people who could change things without endangering national security.",
"It's generally accepted that Snowden knowingly released classified information about top-secret government programs to media sources. The information related to programs through which the US government (particularly the National Security Agency) would collect information about citizens, purportedly for national security purposes. \n\nWhy should Snowden face legal charges? Because by his own admission, he did things that are against the law. If you break the law, you should go to court. You don't need to be a lawyer to figure out that there are laws that prohibit people from publicizing information that's deemed classified or top secret. In some cases, revealing secret information can lead to enemies of the US taking advantage of this information to attack the country. Needless to say, the government needs to make it clear that such leaks are unacceptable.\n\nWhy shouldn't Snowden be punished? He's a whistleblower who acted in the interest of the American people. Though they're officially legal, a lot of aspects of the government surveillance programs seem suspicious and against the values of the Constitution. Specifically, the government seems to have violated the people's right to privacy. It doesn't seem right to punish Snowden when he acted to expose bad government behavior. If anyone was the bad guy here, it's the NSA. Snowden looked out for his fellow Americans and should be treated as a good guy. \n\nTL;DR: Snowden revealed secret government information. In doing so, he broke the law, but his goal was to help Americans. ",
"His goal was to help Americans but in doing so he revealed these secrets not only to us, but to every other country who is listening. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
3dhcl3 | do people who are born blind have a concept of what they look like? do their minds have images like ours do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dhcl3/eli5_do_people_who_are_born_blind_have_a_concept/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct583aj",
"ct586o3"
],
"score": [
7,
23
],
"text": [
"The best way to imagine what it's like to have never have seen is to imagine waking up in a parrallel universe one day, one in which humans have an extra sense, imagine that this sense allows humans to communicate \"images\" to each other however these images are also feelings and a bit of something that doesn't have a word tied to it. Someone can try to describe this extra sense to you, but you will never get a true sense nor will your brain be able to comprehend it. That is what it is like to be born blind. Thankfuly it is quite easy to describe sight to someone without it, we can say \"you feel that object, well sight basically means we can \"feel\" that objects size, shape and distance from afar. Color might be a little more difficult to describe.",
"I used to work with the blind making braille, there was a lady I worked with who was blind from birth (she was the proofreader) \n\nHer and I had many discussions about this topic. The way she \"see's\" and identifies people is by their voices, if she wanted an \"image\" of someone she would touch their face and that would provide her with the shape of your face. I never talked with her about what she thought she looked like or how she perceived herself. She knew what fashion was, she knew how to match clothing because she was told what looks good with what and which outfit combinations worked (she was a musician aswell and performed quite often so she had a good fashion sense, albeit from other people telling her) \n\nHer mind does not have images, it has shapes. Everything she told me about how things feel and what things look like was all based on shapes and touch. When she dreams she dreams of feelings, smells, sounds, but no images. \n\nFrom all of the conversations I had with her, what someone looks like was irrelevant to her because she had no way to use that information. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
7gjckf | how do wholesale power companies know at what time you use electricity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gjckf/eli5_how_do_wholesale_power_companies_know_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqjivci",
"dqjjh3s",
"dqjltfm",
"dqjsrk4"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Why would they care? Only your meter, and the company that bills you, needs to know this.",
"Older electricity meters can't tell - but they've all been replaced, in most cases by wi-fi or cellular meters that keep a full log of times and amounts used.\n\nIf you ever see a guy driving a truck or car slowly through your neighborhood (or your neighborhood HOA freaks out about one) there's a good chance he's from the electric company and is driving around wirelessly collecting everyone's monthly bill info.\n\nSo the answer is that it's trivial to keep a time log in any electric meter installed in the last 30 years.",
"Ask your power company, or local utilities regulatory agency what features are enabled in the \"smart\" meter and if you have one installed at your residence. ",
"They use a mathematical model.\n\nThey have a table which divides a month up into half hourly segments and the table says how much of the monthly meter reading should go into each slot. \n\nSo, if you used 1000kWh on a month the table might say 0.1 kWh for 00:00-00:30 on Saturday 1st and 2.0 kWh for 18:00-18:30 on Monday 3rd.\n\nWhere time of use services are provided to customers the meter may be equipped with some form of time recording. For example a peak/off-peak tariff would have a meter with two \"registers\". One register counts up during peak times, the other during off peak times. The power company bills each register separately, and then uses the mathematical model approach to break each reading up into half hour slots for the wholesaler. \n\nMore complex metering schemes use smart meters which actually record each half hourly consumption figure and transmit it back. Large industrial customers have had smart meters for years, because it's very difficult to model industrial electricity consumption because it varies so much (a data center uses electricity in a completely different pattern to a steel mill) and because the amounts of electricity are so large it leads to unacceptable accounting errors. \n\nAs smart meter technology has become cheaper it is starting to move into the domestic segment. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1rr4bl | if you have a bunch of speakers all playing at the same volume, is the collective sound louder or the same volume as one of the speakers on its own? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rr4bl/eli5_if_you_have_a_bunch_of_speakers_all_playing/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdq0kq7"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"sound is waves and waves add up, but if multiple speakers play the same sound, at certain spots waves can cancel each other, but mostly it will be louder."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
20bpih | how does russia occupying crimea or other parts of ukraine affect the us? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20bpih/eli5how_does_russia_occupying_crimea_or_other/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg1njx6"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"in several ways. some tangible, some not so much. in the tangible ways, there are various resources and factory areas in crimea that would be a good addition to russia infrastructure while being a loss to ukraine, who traditionally sides with the US against russia. in addition, there is an expansion of the russian military umbrella, allowing their forces in crimea naturally rather than by treaty. this affects troop makeup, mission, and equippage as well as numbers.\n\nless tangibly it affects the entire political arean in eastern europe. former soviet satellite states see russias aggression against crimea as a possible starting point for russia to attempt to reclaim many of the soviet break away states. poland, amongst others, has already openly stated this fear. NATO is a political alliance which was developed to facedown russia during the cold war. it was just beginning to deepen its ties with post USSR russia, and now that is all on hold/undone as NATO feels russia can still not be trusted. in addition there is a certain fearful similarity in the russian movement to how hitler first annexed austria. this may be more of a fear than a reality but in politics, perception is reality. \n\nbecause of US ties to former soviet states, like ukraine and poland, as well as the key position america holds in NATO, the US is almost forced to regard russias move negatively, and bound to defend the sovereignty of states fearful of a resurgance of the USSR. that puts at risk all russia-US relationships, be it over trade and economics, joint military excersizes, or humanitarian endeavors. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
35uaqp | why do humans need to use toilet paper but animals like dogs don't? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35uaqp/eli5_why_do_humans_need_to_use_toilet_paper_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"cr7v4fd",
"cr7w3h6",
"cr7wedl",
"cr7wek0",
"cr7yc54",
"cr7yykd",
"cr80ozv"
],
"score": [
40,
3,
4,
95,
3,
19,
3
],
"text": [
"I would have to assume it's the butt cheeks. Most animals have anuses that are uncovered, whereas humans have anuses between butt cheeks where the fecal matter tends to touch when passed. ",
"Because we can't reach our asshole with our tongue. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(@)",
"It's because of the way we sit when we poop. Prior to toilets, humans squatted to poop and there was no need for toilet paper. The sitting position puts the ass-cheeks too close together. The need to deal with residual poop is the cost of the comfort of toilets.\n\nNext time you take a shit, try squatting with your feet on the toilet seat. It'll be a no-wiper, I guarantee it.\n\nEdit: So apparently squatting on a toilet is an incredibly bad idea. Instead, place a wooden block on either side of the toilet and squat on those. If you're going to do this you should probably put the seat up as well.",
"Because they prolapse their anuses then they put them back to normal. I'm not a vet but my dad is and that's kind of what he told me.",
"They prolapse more. No Need to wipe (they can't, obviously). simply that. nothing else needs to be said. ",
"Okay, so this is when random facts that reddit has taught me comes in handy! When we take a shit, our asscheeks are a contributing factor in needing to wipe afterwords, but that's not the *only* reason why. When dogs poop, their anuses prolapse a little bit, so as they poop, it's still technically the \"inside\" of the asshole that's now outside, so it doesn't get anything stuck in its fur or on its legs. Unless it rolls in it afterwards. Human anuses do not prolapse when we poop, so that's another reason why we have to wipe afterwards. \n\nIt's all really just the lack of a prolapsing anus when we take a shit, and the fact that our cheeks are usually too close together, that contributes to having to wipe. ",
"Humans don't need toilet paper if we sh*t in the correct position... ass to grass squat will leave your bunghole clear and free to release those freedom fighters with collateral damage!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
5s4mp6 | how do nuclear defense systems work? wouldn't shooting down an icbm expel massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5s4mp6/eli5_how_do_nuclear_defense_systems_work_wouldnt/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddcb43z",
"ddcb71p",
"ddcbhpc",
"ddcbs9o"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Not necessarily.\n\nHitting an incoming warhead with a kinetic kill vehicle would obliterate it pretty thoroughly. Spreading a few kilos of plutonium out at 70,000' AGL is a much smaller problem than having a nuclear weapon go off near the ground.\n\nNuclear weapons contain a relatively small amount of nuclear material, which is almost all fully consumed in the blast when they detonate. The nasty stuff that kills people later is fallout. Dirt and ash irradiated by the blast and thrown into the sky.",
"Yes but that's better than millions of people being turned to vapor.\n\nAlso, the ICBM would not necessarily detonate, it is actually a challenge to detonate a nuclear warhead, and if the conditions aren't right, the nuclear element of the warhead may not release all that much energy.\n\nAlso also, you wouldn't be expelling radiation into the atmosphere, you'd be expelling radioactive material, which produces radiation. If this radioactive material finds its way into the food supply, there would be serious health risks, but that's still preferable to the nuclear weapon detonating in the center of a populated area.",
"Nuclear bombs work by causing a nuclear chain reaction.\nBasicly a high explosive charge compresses nuclear material in such a way that parts \"fuse\" together and causing an enormous burst of energy.\n\nIf the first detonation isnt perfectly in balance the chain reaction doesnt build up and there is no nuclear reaction.\n\n\nThe parts left over after a failed explosion/ interception will be relatively large chucks which will have limited amounts of radiation.\n\n\nSo shooting down an incoming icbm will drasticly reduce the damage. There will not be a nuclear explosion and the fallout will be very limmited.\n",
"No, because 1) the ICBM is destroyed while still in space where other radiation already exists & safely away from humans. AND. \n2) Unlike a conventional bomb made w TNT the parts of a nuclear bomb are not inherently unstable. It took years to figure out how to make it explode. Thus unless the precise firing sequence occurs to produce the explosion, the fragments would fall as a \"dirty bomb\" but would mostly burn up in the atmosphere without ever reaching the ground. Nuclear weapons are usually calculated to denotate between 2-25 miles above the surface for various calculated damages from physical, radiation & EMP fallout."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
l9o3t | how a compass always points north. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/l9o3t/eli5_how_a_compass_always_points_north/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2qwnu3",
"c2qwnu3"
],
"score": [
11,
11
],
"text": [
"I'm assuming you're talking about a basic magnetic compass.\n\nThe Earth has a intrinsic magnetic field that is generated by the motion of molten iron in its core. This magnetic field changes orientation slowly over time, but at the moment it is effectively a bar magnet (that is the length of the earth's diameter) that is off-aligned by something like 10 degrees from the Earth's axis of rotation.\n\nSo, any bar magnet that is allowed to freely pivot about an axis of rotation through its center (lengthwise) will naturally align with the earth's magnetic field if there is no stronger field present (in general this is the case when you're walking around in the wilderness with your compass). This is in essence what a compass is: a bar magnet attached to some circular display card that will pivot freely. Of course, this will not show you \"true\" north/south but rather \"magnetic\" north/south due to the previously stated misalignment of the earth's magnetic field.\n\nThere are other types of compasses that rely on the rapid spinning of a gyroscope interacting with the rotation of the earth to display the relative location of the earth's axis of rotation, which defines \"true\" north.\n\nHopefully that helps.",
"I'm assuming you're talking about a basic magnetic compass.\n\nThe Earth has a intrinsic magnetic field that is generated by the motion of molten iron in its core. This magnetic field changes orientation slowly over time, but at the moment it is effectively a bar magnet (that is the length of the earth's diameter) that is off-aligned by something like 10 degrees from the Earth's axis of rotation.\n\nSo, any bar magnet that is allowed to freely pivot about an axis of rotation through its center (lengthwise) will naturally align with the earth's magnetic field if there is no stronger field present (in general this is the case when you're walking around in the wilderness with your compass). This is in essence what a compass is: a bar magnet attached to some circular display card that will pivot freely. Of course, this will not show you \"true\" north/south but rather \"magnetic\" north/south due to the previously stated misalignment of the earth's magnetic field.\n\nThere are other types of compasses that rely on the rapid spinning of a gyroscope interacting with the rotation of the earth to display the relative location of the earth's axis of rotation, which defines \"true\" north.\n\nHopefully that helps."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
5xkyte | how did the 27th amendment become an amendment? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xkyte/eli5_how_did_the_27th_amendment_become_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"deivlth",
"deivuxp"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The 27th Amendment prevents Congress from voting for an increase to their own salaries. If there was just a normal law for that, then Congress could simply vote to repeal that law then vote to increase their salaries! Making it a Constitutional Amendment gives it real effect.",
"The American Constitution is not about listing rights, it is about limiting the power of the Federal government. Sometimes that is done by setting aside specific rights and protecting them, sometimes it is done by stating a specific limit on the actions of Congress/the government. \n\nWhat the 27th Amendment does is prevent our representatives from directly giving themselves raises. Instead it delays any pay increase until after their seat has gone through an election season that they may or may not win again. This is a limiting factor to help fight corruption and is something that we have worried about since nearly the beginning of our country. That specific amendment started to be made in 1789, it however took till 1992 to be fully passed and ratified. \n\nYou do not want things that limit Congress to be passed as normal law because that means it can 1) Be vetoed by the President. 2) Easily undone by a later Congress. 3) Overturned by the Supreme Court. If it gets through the process of becoming an amendment then the only thing that can undo it is a later amendment. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3hoxbr | why do we aglommerate three seperate words into one word like "nonetheless" and "nevertheless"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hoxbr/eli5_why_do_we_aglommerate_three_seperate_words/ | {
"a_id": [
"cu99cr2"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Compound words are a leftover of English's Germanic roots. In German, words are often combined to convey completely different meanings. \n\nFor example, one of the longest words across most languages is *\" Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz\"*, which is \"the law for the delegation of monitoring beef labeling\". \n\nMay seem strange at first, but the more you look for it, the more you see just how often we use it. \n\n[Here's an article](_URL_0_)\n\nEdit: formatting."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://mentalfloss.com/article/54048/heres-how-crazy-long-german-words-are-made"
]
]
|
||
1lec72 | what's the difference between hashish and marijuana? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lec72/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_hashish_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbyd8gd",
"cbydxoi"
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text": [
"Marijuana is the flowering bud, dried and smoked. On that bud is trichromes. This contains the intoxicating chemical called THC. Hash is a concentrate either pressed from the trichs, or extracted using a high volume of the plant (usually trimmings) or flower itself. Hash can come in many consistencies, and can be made using a few different methods. \n\nEDIT: not pollen, trichromes are used to catch pollen, they aren't pollen themselves. Thank you for corrections.",
"I have no experience with any of this. I'm just curious, what's the price difference between a gram of each one?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
7j0zbv | why there no five star general rank in the united states military any more? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7j0zbv/eli5_why_there_no_five_star_general_rank_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dr2ugde"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The US has generally been very conservative about creating high-ranking military positions, so a lot of it is tradition.\n\nGeorge Washington's final rank in the US army was lieutenant general. The army didn't like the idea of someone outranking George Washington and so the effective highest rank was major general uil the Civil War. The five star positions were created in World War II because other allied militaries had field marshals, who outranked generals, and it seemed strange to have American commanders giving orders to officers who technically outranked them. After the war, there was no need to continue the position.\n\nSimilarly, the senior rank in the US Navy was captain until the Civil War (though officers in command of a squadron could receive the title of \"commodore\"). Admirals were appointed partially because the navy was becoming too large for this to be workable, and partially to allow American officers to enjoy status similar to their foreign counterparts."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
axs7n7 | what are hydraulic presses made of that they don’t break under the pressure they put onto other objects? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axs7n7/eli5_what_are_hydraulic_presses_made_of_that_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"ehvu7ay"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"The dies are usually some sort of tool steel, which is pretty hard when compared to most things you'd put in a press "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5lrtar | we're told not to trust major news outlets because they're manipulated by money, as with facebook news and even reddit news, so where do people get "real" news? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lrtar/eli5_were_told_not_to_trust_major_news_outlets/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbxxlb0",
"dbxz3x0"
],
"score": [
13,
5
],
"text": [
"From my experience it is about retrieving information from a range of sources. Reading and listening widely can vastly improve your understanding of a particular topic or event and broaden your whole approach. News outlets such as [The International New York Times](_URL_0_) are a great place to start but also match that with outlets from across the world such as [RT](_URL_1_). Even subreddits on this very site such as r/syriancivilwar can give you perspectives that no outlet can give you. Comments on forums from people living on the ground can also give you insight.\n\nIt is not necessarily about 'good' versus 'bad' news outlets because every article or opinion piece is essentially a product. Even blatant propaganda can be incredibly useful in understanding how a particular government or organisation *wants* people to think.\n\nTL;DR: Read widely. Think. Listen. Debate. Keep your mind open.\n\nEdit: Fixed sub name",
"Well, neither Facebook nor Reddit are primary news sources. They are aggregators, and you should be careful about trusting them because the companies behind them don't accept responsibility for the news. There are machine algorithms that determine which news submissions are shown to the largest number of people, and these can be manipulated by people with an agenda. (Such as Reddit upvotes; for Facebook it's more complicated, but also doable.) \n\nThe manipulators might be motivated by money, or they might be motivated by ideology. Not really important. What's important is that neither the Reddit name nor the Facebook name makes anything trustworthy - the companies refuse to make any choices because they want to be seen as neutral platforms, pure technology.\n\nFor \"real\" news, the first step is to go to a reputable media outlet. On the American-political right wing, this might be the Wall Street Journal, on the left wing it might be something like the Guardian (UK-based, but with a very strong team covering America). The Economist is another good British source - it's actually right-wing by European standards, just not radically so. The New York Times tries to be neutral. The Washington Post is a good one - because it's owned by a billionaire (Jeff Bezos, the guy who started Amazon) and he's made it a public principle that he will give the newspaper money to do its work, even if the revenue from subscriptions and advertisements gets too small. The Washington Post has been doing some really good reporting since that happened.\n\nThere are also some good \"new media\" sources, purely online ones. I like _URL_1_ for example.\n\nNow, as to how you tell what's a \"real\" news outlet:\n\n* It has to take responsibility for what it's saying. If it's a famous long-established media outlet, that's a good start, because if it makes a journalistic mistake, it risks the reputation it's built up, and that reputation is a very specific financial value in terms of being able to charge its advertisers higher prices.\n\n* This also applies to bylines. The Economist is the exception - they have a policy of not putting a journalist's name on a story because the entire magazine is responsible for each article. (Even their columnists work under pseudonyms that stay with the column when the author changes.) If you can search the name of the article's author and see that they have been reporting the news for a while previously, it's a good indication that they are a responsible source. It also allows you to check what they've written before and get a good idea of how objective and thorough they are.\n\n* It has to attribute things clearly. What is the source of what they're reporting? Is the source anonymous or clearly named? Are there several independent sources? Did they go and ask the other side for a comment, and are they mentioning how the other side defended itself?\n\n* Does the writing give you an impression that the author allows for the possibility of being wrong? [This is an important principle in the philosophy of science.](_URL_0_) Is the author's narrative based on concrete facts and assumptions in such a way that if the facts changed, the author would admit to being wrong? Or is the author starting from an ideological conclusion and selecting only the facts and interpretations that support it? \n\nFor example, the conclusion is \"the planet is not getting warmer\", based on NASA releasing a satellite image of Arctic sea ice that is larger than it was this time last year. If NASA then releases more images showing this is surface ice, and the previous deep icebergs have melted and are not reforming this winter, then the author will ignore their previous argument about year-on-year comparisons and say that Arctic sea ice is not a relevant measurement of temperature anyway.\n\nSo you have to be able to assess not just the author's argument, but their way of thinking. Are they thinking in such a way that they could be shown objective evidence of being wrong, and would then admit to being wrong? If so, you should take them seriously, even if you think they are currently wrong.\n\nThis is a difficult skill to have, which is why people usually go to university to learn it. :) But in modern times, regular people need to have this skill too."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/index.html",
"https://www.rt.com/"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability",
"Vox.com"
]
]
|
||
3czq8i | why doesn't a fan forced oven need to be turned up as high as a conventional oven? | Recipes often say 200 degrees, 180 fan forced.
Surely if food needs to be cooked for an hour at 200 degrees, then 200 degrees is 200 degrees? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3czq8i/eli5_why_doesnt_a_fan_forced_oven_need_to_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct0gx28"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Cooking food is an endothermic reaction. The food takes in heat energy to cook.\n\nThe fan causes better circulation.\n\nThat means heat passes to the surface of the chicken much more efficiently, so it can absorb more units on energy per second.\n\nThat means it's going to cook faster at the same temperature.\n\nSome foods could be cooked faster, but some are best cooked slower and lower.\nThe lower the heat, the lower the rate of energy tranfer between the air and the food surface.\n\nThe food probably starts cooking at a much lower temperature. the higher temperature just cooks it in a more timely manner.\n\nYou can fry eggs on hot rocks left in the summer sun, but it's faster when you use a pan heated on a much hotter hob."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
9q9xzi | why do trees’ leaves move towards the red end of the spectrum why not the violet end? | Obviously this answer will have something to do with the original colour, green, which is interestingly in the middle of the light spectrum. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9q9xzi/eli5_why_do_trees_leaves_move_towards_the_red_end/ | {
"a_id": [
"e87vfqj",
"e87vruj",
"e896ppp"
],
"score": [
41,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Chlorophyll is the green pigment that you see in leaves and it comes in two varieties: chlorophyll alpha and chlorophyll beta. Chlorophyll alpha absorbs more red light whereas chlorophyll beta absorbs more of the blue light (and a bit of red), but they both reflect green light giving you the green color of the leaf. However, during the fall when trees no longer produce chlorophyll, you see carotenoids, which are another group of pigments that absorb blue and purple light, but reflect green to red light. Depending on the the type of tree and its leaves, it'll leave you colors between and including: green, yellow, and red that you see so often during the fall.",
"Leaves have several different pigments in them which give them the color they have. The dominant pigment is chlorophyll, which is green. But there are also red and yellow pigments in the leaves. When autumn arrives and the leaves have a harder time making food from the light, the chlorophyll starts to break down and fade, leaving the yellows and reds of the other pigments.",
"Trees and plants in general only absorb visible light, which is reds and blues. The reason they let off green colors is because they are reflecting that which they didn't absorb. When trees begin changing color, the chlorophyll in the trees pushes outwards, letting off all color absorbed. Most of the colors are just reds or yellows from the red light absorbed and the green they're reflecting."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
f4uvw9 | what is so difficult about curing the common cold and other recurring diseases? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f4uvw9/eli5_what_is_so_difficult_about_curing_the_common/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhtul4f",
"fhtw81h"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Most colds are viruses, and (iirc) there are no cures for viruses, only treatments or vaccinations",
"The “common cold” is a group of many different viruses which have similar symptoms, but are different enough that a vaccine for one of them would not work against the others. There are six major groups of cold virus with many different species within each of those major groups. Add to this that these viruses are constantly and rapidly evolving, and it becomes clear why a vaccine against the common cold is impractical. And since the symptoms of the cold are merely an inconvenience rather than life threatening it’s just not worth it to develop six vaccines every year to prevent colds."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
5q01g0 | why do the almonds in hershey's w/ almonds, taste unlike any other almonds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q01g0/eli5_why_do_the_almonds_in_hersheys_w_almonds/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcv6peb"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"They are toasted at 73 degrees fro 1.4 hours. Then processed through an acid like substance that dissolves much of the inner protection of the cell walls. Then sent through another heating process and coated with another layer of \"skin\" made from natural leafs found in Mexico called minibus pioculous and agian coated with a wax material. I work in a factory."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
80zomv | would there have been a possibility to save those who jumped off the wtc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80zomv/eli5_would_there_have_been_a_possibility_to_save/ | {
"a_id": [
"duzcrjs",
"duzct49",
"duzhonk"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"In principle it is possible to stop someone falling at terminal velocity in a large net that slows their descent. The big issue in most disasters is that the equipment and expertise wasn't in place at the time, and it would have been unreasonable for such things to have been prepared.\n\nFor example huge numbers of people die from heart attacks all over the country. In theory they could have been saved if they were in an operating theater with a trained cardiology team standing by waiting on the problem. But of course that would be rather silly and impractical for everyone who might have a heart attack to be prepared in such a way.",
"I suppose it would work in theory. The bigger issue would be the lack of availability of those systems during the emergency. You'd also have no way of communicating with those needing to be saved.",
"Not in those circumstances. Yes, there are special bags that have been used by highly trained people with careful planning and preparation and when they’re in top health. But in an emergency situation like this, when people started falling/jumping out within minutes of the plane hitting the tower, there’s no way such procedures could have been implemented."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
4triln | why do the fire departments perform as paramedics in the u.s? | So this one has always confused me, originally I thought it was only in California but after seeing more and more photos, videos, etc from the U.S I've noticed that the fire departments act as paramedics.
Here in Australia paramedics and the fire brigade(s) are separate (however that could be somewhat altered in my state of Victoria (the Country Fire Authority is trialing a program where they respond to medical emergencies, provide first aid until the paramedics arrive, this is due to during a trial the fire brigade would arrive up to 8 minutes faster then the paramedics)) so its a bit confusing. Is it budget related, resource related or something else? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4triln/eli5why_do_the_fire_departments_perform_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5jlzd5",
"d5jm3qx",
"d5jmeu0",
"d5jrdqx"
],
"score": [
9,
2,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Firefighters must be available 24/7 and have all the equipment and preparation ready to get to a location as fast as possible. These abilities are important for not just fires, but also medical emergencies. Many fire departments, especially those in rural areas, might fight an actual fire only every few months. But they still need to be ready 100% of the time so they also get training as first responders. Otherwise, kind of a waste, right?",
"In most large cities in America, there are way more firemen than there are actual fires to be fought on a regular basis but you need the firemen around in case there is an actual fire. So over time, their role has morphed into something else - ambulance, fire, and rescue - allowing the cities to use already available resources (firemen) to achieve other goals. \n",
"You answered your own question.\n\n > the fire brigade would arrive up to 8 minutes faster then the paramedics\n\nIf there's an emergency and I'm about to die if I don't get immediate medical attention, I'd personally rather not wait 8 minutes if I could get help now.",
"It may just be a matter of terminology or language difference, but in the US the fire departments don't *perform* or *act* as paramedics. Paramedics are paramedics with their own education and certification and requirements. In some cases the paramedics work out of and are dispatched from/with the fire department alongside the fire fighters. Where I live, they work out of and are dispatched from/with the ambulance service alongside the EMTs -- Emergency Medical Technicians."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
52ps4z | why do some animals close their eyes when being pet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52ps4z/eli5_why_do_some_animals_close_their_eyes_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7m7qd5",
"d7m7sty",
"d7mdamg"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
17
],
"text": [
"Maybe the same way we close our eyes when being massaged?",
"How are they closing their eyes? I have a dog and she alone will close her eyes while being patted for two different reasons.\n\n1. You hit the sweet spot and she's enjoying so much, as she'll close her eyes and lean in for full enjoyment.\n\n2. You are a stranger touching her, she's scared and closes her eyes so she doesn't have to see you.\n\nOther animals I'm sure will have similar reason, some many have different reason, but you have to read more of their body language than just closed eyes to know whats going on.",
"Attention sharing. You can consider we have a limited amount of attention that we can share between various senses (view, touch, hearing, etc). \nFocusing strongly on one sense tends to lower our sensitivity to the others. This means if the pet wants to fully focus on the feeling your hand, he has less attention left for visual input. Closing eyes kind of help focusing on other senses.\n\nIt works for humans too. It is not uncommon to close our eyes to better enjoy music, for example."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
89fus1 | what's the difference between gram + and gram - bacteria? and why are ones + and other -? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/89fus1/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_gram_and_gram/ | {
"a_id": [
"dwqmudh",
"dwqmvkr"
],
"score": [
3,
9
],
"text": [
"Developed by a Hans Christian Gram a Danish bacteriologist a Crystal Violet Stain can be applied to bacteria. Those that retain the stain are Gram positive those that do not are Gram negative. It's used as a first step in identifying bacteria types",
"The Gram characteristic refers to a staining methodology developed by... Gram.\n\nBacteria that stain with the technique are (+), those that do not are (-). (Although there are Gram + bacteria that do not stain). \n\nThe biological difference is in the cell wall. In general:\n\nGram + have thicker cell walls, and no outer membrane. They can survive higher salt, but tend to be more sensitive to antibiotics. \n\nGram - have thinner cell walls, but have the chemically important outer membrane. They are more sensitive to salt, but tend to resist more antibiotics. \n\nThere's plenty of exceptions to those rules, but the general patterns are informative. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
10hccr | the csx ad claims its trains can move a ton of freight 500 miles on one gallon of fuel - 500 mpg. can this be true? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10hccr/the_csx_ad_claims_its_trains_can_move_a_ton_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6dh2uj",
"c6dhv5b",
"c6di0ea",
"c6dml9v"
],
"score": [
9,
7,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"There's a bit of trickery involved in that, the train itself does not get 500 MPG but the one ton of freight does. When you have a single locomotive that pulls dozens or even upwards of a hundred freight cars, the train may be using many gallons of fuel for a single mile but it's carrying vast amounts of cargo. They average their miles per gallon vs total freight capacity to give you that number. ",
"Sure, you can do a similar calculation with automobiles using passengers as freight. Let's say you have 1 guy in a Prius getting 50mpg. That's pretty good. The math works out to 1 passenger * 50mpg, for 50 passenger miles per gallon.\n\nNow take a 15 passenger van that gets 10mpg. The math works out to 15 passengers * 10mpg, for 150 passenger miles per gallon! Increasing the amount of freight carried usually results in efficiencies of scale. That's what the train companies are so proud of.",
"Inertia. Once a train is moving it is an unstoppable juggernaut.\n\nTrains get horrible mileage getting up to speed from a full stop, but great fuel economy at cruising speed. Once it gets to cruise speed, it does not have to stop for many miles. Also, aerodynamic drag (which kills fuel economy in cars, trucks, and airplanes) is minimal since the thing is so long and heavy. Friction on the wheels is more significant, but again, trains are just so heavy that the relative effects of friction vs inertia favors the inertia.\n\nEdit: The 500mpg/ton figure is probably calculated as moving 5,000 tons of freight 1,000 miles. That is where trains excel. If you calculated the mpg for moving 1 ton for 1 mile it would be much lower because of the low mpg in the first few miles of a journey and the low marginal cost of freight. Marginal cost basically means that fuel economy is barely affected by adding 1 extra ton to a 4,999 ton train. Actually, the effect of an extra 1,00 tons is surprisingly small, too. Here are some ELI25 [charts](_URL_0_) for you.",
"It's not 500 miles per gallon, it's 500 miles per gallon per ton. If it's carrying 10 tons it will only 50 mpg, which is still much better than a truck would get. Of course if it were carrying that little it would not be so efficient, but you get the point.\n\nTrains are the most efficient way to move large amounts of goods over land. It doesn't compare to over water, but over land nothing comes close. Only two or three train engines can carry hundreds of cars, where as a truck engine can only carry at most one or two. This means a smaller percentage of non-cargo needs to be transported. Steel wheels lose less energy to friction than rubber wheels do. Trains are always at gentle grades, meaning they never have to \"push\" extra hard to make it up a steep hill. There is also less starting and stopping in a train, (meaning less energy is lost to re-acceleration) which trucks have to do at every stop light. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037722170701048X"
],
[]
]
|
||
20v9vh | america's turning over control of the internet to an international authority | Republicans say that this could cause more authoritarian governments to exercise control over the internet. I tend to think it will make the internet more free. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20v9vh/eli5_americas_turning_over_control_of_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg73ff6"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Ignoring some of the recent threats to net neutrality, the US has the strongest freedom of speech laws in the world. If we handed the power to an international authority, they will be influenced by many countries, not just the US. This means that they will inevitably be influenced by countries who are less committed to free speech than the US."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
9nk67d | government interest rates | I’ve been reading a lot in the news about Interest Rates, and their role in combating inflation. Any explanation I’ve found regarding interest rates doesn’t seem to go into full detail about what they are applying interest on exactly, and how it actually functions. I get the idea of how an interest rate works with regards to, say, credit cards, but in terms of government fiscal policy, who or what is incurring the interest and how does it function to ease inflation exactly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9nk67d/eli5_government_interest_rates/ | {
"a_id": [
"e7mup7i",
"e7mus6d",
"e7mvj66"
],
"score": [
2,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"There are generally two rates people talk about. One is the federal funds rate. This is the rate the Federal Reserve sets for member banks who want to borrow money from each other (for example, so the member banks can make sure they have enough cash on hand to meet their requirements). If a bank has to pay X% to borrow they will charge people who borrow from them some amount over X, so this interest rate indirectly controls how many loans are made, since higher interest means fewer people will want to borrow money. Removing circulating money from the economy in this way helps fight inflation.\n\nThe other is actually a family of rates. To finance its operations, the federal government sells bonds. They promise to pay the bondholder back in (3 months or 6 months or 1 year...or 30 years) in return for money now. They generally have to offer interest on those bonds in order to entice people to buy them, and people use those rates as a benchmark for other assets because the risk associated with buying a US bond is seen as the lowest possible risk investment.",
"In short...it’s banks that borrow from the central bank (the Federal Reserve) at the main policy rate. If the main policy rate goes up, the banks pay more in interest to the government. So to make sure they still make a profit, they raise the interest rates they charge their customers on, for example, loans, lines of credit and mortgages. So the govt charges the banks more who in turn charge you and me more. \n\nHow does this combat inflation? One of the major déterminants if inflation is demand for products like cars and couches and houses and gas and food etc. Much of what we buy is bought using borrowed funds from credit cards and lines of credit and such. But if all of a sudden my interest rate in my line of credit goes up because the bank raised it (because of the above) then I’m less likely to use that Line of credit to buy a car or a whatever since my cost just went up. \n\nSo in general demand decreases (or increases at a slower rate) as interest rates rise because it becomes more expensive to borrow money to buy things. With less demand, the inflation rate slows. \n\nI could answer more questions or go into more detail...",
"Inflation is a measure of how quickly prices are going up. The theory is:\n\nlow unemployment = higher wages = more consumer spending = more businesses expand = more inflation\n\n & #x200B;\n\n\\-Raising interest rates makes borrowing money more expensive\n\n\\-Consumers depend on borrowing to buy stuff (credit cards, mortgages, auto loans)\n\n\\-Businesses depend on borrowing to finance expansions\n\n\\-Raising interest rates slows both of those things down, and hopefully slows down inflation as well."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1u9wr3 | why would the nfl blackout playoff games if the game isn't sold out? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u9wr3/eli5_why_would_the_nfl_blackout_playoff_games_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"cefx7zq",
"cefy9n5",
"cefzrj4"
],
"score": [
9,
19,
2
],
"text": [
"The idea behind a blackout is to make sure that people still buy tickets for the game. The logic is that people might not buy tickets if they know it will be on TV so they won't let it be shown on TV if the tickets don't get sold.",
"It's an archaic rule. When the NFL first went on TV, every game was blacked out in the local area to make sure local fans went to the game instead of staying home. However, in 1972 the cellar-dweller Redskins made the playoffs, but President Nixon and other DC politicians couldn't watch the games. The next year Congress passed a law banning local blackouts if the game was sold out 72 hours in advance. Since then it hasn't really been changed. \n\nThat being said, criticism of the rule has been growing recently. NFL teams keep on nickel-and-diming fans while TV technology keeps improving. [The FCC is proposing banning blackouts now.](_URL_0_) ",
"it's to protect the owners and make sure stadiums are full. usually a corporation or sponsor or somebody will \"buy\" the remaining tickets so that the game will be on tv locally, because the cost of tickets is less than what they would lose in a 50+ market share game not featuring their advertisements.\n\nblackouts are really quite rare now."
]
} | []
| [
"http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10232840/2013-nfl-playoffs-cincinnati-bengals-green-bay-packers-indianapolis-colts-receive-ticket-sale-deadline-extensions"
]
| [
[],
[
"http://www.sbnation.com/2013/12/18/5224796/fcc-tv-blackout-rules"
],
[]
]
|
|
84g9ac | why is that when a country has a disagreement with other country and wants to sanction it, one of the first moves is to expel its diplomats? wouldn't diplomats be more important than ever in these situations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84g9ac/eli5_why_is_that_when_a_country_has_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dvpa3yw",
"dvpbpgm",
"dvpd3wq",
"dvphs0v"
],
"score": [
13,
4,
11,
2
],
"text": [
"They usually don't throw out the diplomat diplomats, like the ambassador. They throw out the administrator diplomats and marketing diplomats in hopes of throwing out some spy diplomats and to make the ambassador less well cared for.",
"It's a move that shows that they have gotten to the point where serious ideological differences are not being addressed in the discussions where they should be addressed. If two countries get to the point where they are sanctioning each other, then those diplomats have reached an impasse. Often after a short period the countries will send new diplomats to present credentials and start the process over again. ",
"Most of the \"diplomats\" they throw out are [intelligence agents with official cover](_URL_0_), i.e. spies. These are basically sham jobs that allow the spies to live and work in the target country. \n\nThis is done (by a lot of countries) to afford the spies diplomatic protections should they get caught doing spy stuff. \n",
"You're referring to the UK expelling Russian diplomats.\n\nIt's not a \"disagreement\" -- it's not like there's a simple difference of opinion over whether or not Russia was right to annexe the Crimea. It's a lot more serious than that.\n\nThe British government suspects that the Russian government ordered the assassination of a former Russian double agent (and his daughter) currently living in the UK. These people were attacked with a rare military-grade nerve agent so powerful that not only were the intended targets hospitalized (and are not expected to recover), but so were three police officers investigating the incident, and a number of locals also had to be treated. It's pretty nasty stuff, and at least one strain of the nerve agent has no known antidote.\n\nIf this was indeed ordered by the Kremlin, then the chemicals used to make the poison must have been brought into the UK in diplomatic baggage and prepared in the embassy, taking advantage of a principle called \"diplomatic immunity\".\n\nDiplomatic immunity works like this: If country A has an embassy in country B, it's important that country B's diplomatic staff be allowed to do their work without interference from country A. There is therefore an agreement in place that country A's law enforcement officers and even the emergency services do not enter the embassy without the permission of country B's government. And when country B's diplomats enter country A, their baggage is not searched.\n\nContrary to popular belief, a breach of diplomatic immunity is not *illegal*, but it would cause a major diplomatic incident. That's why, for example, the British police won't go into the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Julian Assange: not because there's a law against it, but because it would almost certainly prompt Ecuador to completely sever diplomatic ties with the UK.\n\nSo here's the problem for the UK government: they say they have evidence that Russian agents are abusing the principle of diplomatic immunity in order to smuggle chemical weapons into the country and deploy them (apparently without regard to the risk of collateral damage), but they can't do anything about it without breaking off diplomatic relations.\n\nAnd so the UK government is expelling a number of Russian diplomatic staff (although some will remain -- including the ambassador). The serves two purposes: first, as a punishment; and second, this will include at least some of those responsible for the attack, making another attack impossible or at least more difficult."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/09/how_deep_is_cia_cover.html"
],
[]
]
|
||
5n5o8e | if espresso is essentially concentrated coffee why is it less acidic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5n5o8e/eli5_if_espresso_is_essentially_concentrated/ | {
"a_id": [
"dc8vcs4"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"The resulting liquid has much less time to absorb any acidity from the grounds. Since you are sending pressurized steam through the grounds instead of just letting hot water drip through them, it results in a less acidic brew"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
m51b9 | why my cheerios work like magnets when i'm down to the last few in the bowl? | For starters, they are all the same polarity as my spoon apparently...this I assume is in relation to me moving the milk with my spoon's motion.
But why do they stick to each other in groups like magnets? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m51b9/eli5_why_my_cheerios_work_like_magnets_when_im/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2y596e",
"c2y59d2",
"c2y6pdj",
"c2y596e",
"c2y59d2",
"c2y6pdj"
],
"score": [
89,
7,
15,
89,
7,
15
],
"text": [
"This is, awesomely, called the [Cheerios Effect](_URL_0_)! \n",
"Any wave that you make with your spoon will push the Cheerio away, but any Cheerio directly behind it won't be affected as much by the wave, because some of the energy has already been spent.\n\nThe same happens when the wave is reflected off the edge of your bowl.\n\nBecause of this the Cheerios will always be pushed towards each other, relative to whatever makes the waves.\n\nYou can test this with a bowl of water that's absolutely still, and pieces of cork. Carefully distribute the pieces of cork, and then make waves at any point that you decide, and see how they move towards each other.\n\nOnce they're right up close against each other, there's another effect that keeps them \"fused\". It has to do with water tension, and I'm sure someone else will explain that.",
"Thank you for asking this question.",
"This is, awesomely, called the [Cheerios Effect](_URL_0_)! \n",
"Any wave that you make with your spoon will push the Cheerio away, but any Cheerio directly behind it won't be affected as much by the wave, because some of the energy has already been spent.\n\nThe same happens when the wave is reflected off the edge of your bowl.\n\nBecause of this the Cheerios will always be pushed towards each other, relative to whatever makes the waves.\n\nYou can test this with a bowl of water that's absolutely still, and pieces of cork. Carefully distribute the pieces of cork, and then make waves at any point that you decide, and see how they move towards each other.\n\nOnce they're right up close against each other, there's another effect that keeps them \"fused\". It has to do with water tension, and I'm sure someone else will explain that.",
"Thank you for asking this question."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios_effect"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios_effect"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2x9d5u | why vitamins have expiration dates. do vitamins and minerals degrade? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2x9d5u/eli5_why_vitamins_have_expiration_dates_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"coy27ju",
"coy291q",
"coyantm"
],
"score": [
14,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Many chemicals oxidize and lose their intended properties, just like food (which incidentally is made of chemicals :P). This means that free radicals (oxygen ions) attach to different parts of the vitamins/rip off a few atoms.\n\nSo the vitamins could either become inert and useless, or potentially poisonous.\n\n---\n\nMore ELI5:\n\nOur air will over time cause the vitamins to change their chemical structure. This makes vitamin A no longer vitamin A - but some deviant variation.",
"Almost all organic compounds will break down over a fairly short time. Conditions like moisture, light, and temperature all effect the rate that the commons degrade. The expiration date is typically calculated using the time it would take for 10% of the compound to degrade under normal conditions. If you look on the bottle it will specify certain conditions to keep them at to reduce degradation.",
"I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry, but spent most of my time in the medical device industry. I've been very familiar with stability related studies throughout my career. \n\nThere are a number of driving factors for the shelf life of a drug:\n\n(1) Most companies will be aware of foreign bacteria that often grows in their drug. They also know approximately how fast they will grow and at what point that harmful bacteria can potentially harm the patient or the drug no longer functions as intended. Usually the drug makers will determine how much bad stuff grew in their drug by using the Arrhenius equation for accelerated testing or real time aging and a chemical analysis can figure out concentrations. \n\n(2) Sometimes the active ingredient undergoes a reaction, but very slowly. If too much of the reaction occurs, then the drug no longer does what its supposed to do. This is also tied to every drug bottle which states what temperature you can store it in. If you store it in a hot location past the recommended temperature, this reaction accelerates and your shelf life is no longer valid. Using kinetics to predict the rate of the reaction, this can be modeled as well.\n\nEdit: Formatting"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
415esu | how exactly do electrons "behave like waves"? | My professors always say this in chemistry or physics but never really explain it. My impression is they move around in a wave like manner, but I suspect that's not really what they mean. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/415esu/eli5_how_exactly_do_electrons_behave_like_waves/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyzqwvx"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"We are in the weird part of physics now - quantum mechanics. It's not a \"physical weave\" we are accustomed with \n\nLook up [The Electron: Crash Course Chemistry#5](_URL_0_) or [Quantum Mechanics for Dummies](_URL_1_) (from around 3min) they explain it in a down to earth manner with cool animations"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcKilE9CdaA",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9KP-fwFhk"
]
]
|
|
45jy50 | if water is better at conducting electricity than air, why do static electricity shocks happen more often in dry air? | Every winter I get zapped with shocks by static electricity whenever I touch something metal, or another being. Why does this seem to only happen in the dry winter months and not in the humid summer months? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45jy50/eli5_if_water_is_better_at_conducting_electricity/ | {
"a_id": [
"czye0c9",
"czyf8lt",
"czyfvl1",
"czykhsz",
"czymb1i",
"czymf9s",
"czyo1ji"
],
"score": [
34,
139,
3,
8,
2,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Static electricity generally involves one item being at a higher electric charge than another (often one of the items is you). When the two items come in contact the charge balances out (the zap you feel). The higher charge \"discharging\" into the object with a lower charge.\n\nMoisture and damp surfaces form a conductive path. Its not a good conductive path, but its enough to allow the electricity to leak back to earth. This means that many objects will be kept at the same electrical level as the earth. \n\nYou can think of the effect as a small hole draining water out of a bucket. You can still fill the bucket with water, but it will eventually become empty again. Similarly you can still charge an item with static electricity, but that charge will be lost quicker when the air is moist.",
" You have almost answered your own question. You get static shocks when the air fails to connect you electrically with the things around you, so when you finally touch them, any electrical difference is resolved very suddenly. Ouch. When the air is moist, you have a constant though very weak electrical connection with the things around you, so the electric difference does not build up. ",
"Because air is a poor conductor it allows a static charge to build (static = stationary). When you goto touch something you effective bring a static charge next to something where that charge can flow and it is attracted to it. at a certin distance the air brakes down and becomes conductive releasing all the energy very quicly. Giving you the spark\n\nWater is a conductor so a static charge cannot build up as it has somewhere to flow.",
"Might this also have something to do with pure water being a poor conductor? IIRC water is only conductive because of dissolved conductive solids. Water vapor by nature has no dissolved solids. \n\nTake a glass of distilled water and use it as a conductor to light a bulb. The bulb will not light. With the same setup toss a pinch of salt in the water, boom light turns on. ",
"Because water is a better conductor. Dry air is not as good as a conductor as moist air, so a build up of charge is easier to develop. A static shock happens when you pile up too many electrons someplace and then discharge them suddenly. It is similar to landslides. Water flows much more easily than dirt, in general. But sudden landslides are more common that sudden waterfalls because you can more easily make a pile of dirt that can then fall down than you can make a pile of water. (This is just an analogy. Clearly wind can make waves, which are piles of water, and waves can break.) ",
"Because water is better conductor that air, it will be much easier to neutralise any charge imbalance, because the flow of current has a lot lower resistance to go through.",
"also water (h2o) does not conduct because the electrons are to tightly attracted to the molecule(protons/neutrons), it conducts because there are salts dissolved in it, the forces of the 3 (salts are 2 ) molecules cancel out and give the electrons more freedom to chain bumb elctrons from one place to another given enough potential (difference in to much / to little electrons) and so on create current, the movement of the electrons creates \"friction\" which we can use and feel. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
a9c0vj | non-profit organizational | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9c0vj/eli5_nonprofit_organizational/ | {
"a_id": [
"eci42ny",
"eci4aez",
"eci4h7c",
"eci6ogv"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Non-profit means that the organization does not make a profit from donations or whatever it sells, but that doesn’t mean that the owner, employees, etc. aren’t paid. They have salaried positions within the organization, they are being paid to run the non-profit. What makes a non-profit a non-profit is that all the extra money they make goes right back into the organization. Paying salaries counts as part of the organization, so money the non-profit makes can go to that. ",
"\nFrom _URL_0_:\n\n\nState law (which governs the nonprofit incorporation) and the IRS (which regulates the tax-exempt status) allow a nonprofit to pay reasonable salaries to officers, employees, or agents for services rendered to further the nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt purposes.\n\nIndeed, most nonprofits have staff. Some have thousands of employees, while others employ a couple of key people and then rely on volunteers for most of the essential work. \n\nFor example, an equine therapy nonprofit pays an Executive Director, an accountant, a fundraiser, a volunteer coordinator, and a therapist. Volunteers take care of the grounds and attend to horses at the nonprofit's sprawling ranch. They even provide some of the therapy to the physically challenged children, who come to ride the horses. This small organization makes a good example of a combined staff and volunteer effort.\n\nEach nonprofit organization must assess and decide when it is time to hire employees, how many, and for what jobs.",
"Not going to claim to be a expert in nonprofits but I have volunteered at one and worked at another so I do have some experience. \nFor the one I volunteered at we asked for donations for our services, got grants from our state government and things like that. So the salary’s of all the employees came from that( we had 3 paid employees and the rest where volunteers) and the rent was also paid from that money. Any extra money that we got went back into providing the free/discount services. \n\nThe one I work at we charge a entrance rate and sell coffee and snacks and that’s where all of our funding comes from at the moment. It’s pretty new and we just got the 501c3 status so we will start reaching out for other funding soon. \n\nBoth get a good portion from Amazon Smile and the Kroger Community Rewards programs, they donate a small amount of their profits to the charity of your choosing every time you shop with your membership. ",
"Other comments seem to answer the gist of your question. I just wanted to add that non-profits aren’t created equally, meaning a dollar donated isn’t necessarily a dollar put to use for the cause. Non-profits have discretion where their money is spent so certain organizations can deploy 50 cents for every dollar donated and put the remainder in multi-million dollar compensation packages for executives "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.thebalancesmb.com/can-nonprofits-pay-staff-2501893"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
33sokk | why is it best to keep an injured limb elevated? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33sokk/eli5why_is_it_best_to_keep_an_injured_limb/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqo1crx"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It prevents blood pooling, and consequently swelling and pain. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4tes8h | why do we percieve certain colours as bright? | I don't know if I worded this well, but why do 'bright' things hurt our eyes if they are just colours? What is brightness? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tes8h/eli5_why_do_we_percieve_certain_colours_as_bright/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5gplmj"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"If something is bright, that just means that a lot of photons bounce off of it instead of being absorbed by it. If too many photons go into your eye, the pain is your body realizing that all that light is too much for the receptors (rods, in this case) and that you should close your eyes to prevent damage."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
au6h8x | the obsession and huge popularity of youtube personalities and twitch steamers. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/au6h8x/eli5_the_obsession_and_huge_popularity_of_youtube/ | {
"a_id": [
"eh5xor7"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"This is hard to simplify.\n\nHumans are social creatures, and the average person enjoys being in good social standing (i.e. popular).\n\nPeople who are popular are people who are in some way genuinely interesting to the average person. Maybe they're just rich and living a life we wish we could have (i.e. celebrities), or they say things we agree with (i.e. vloggers), or they have a skillset that we enjoy watching them use (i.e. video game streamers).\n\nPeople who aren't popular try and take cues from this, because they want to be popular. To them, it pays to do what famous people do, because famous people wouldn't be famous if they didn't do whatever they did to become famous. Sometimes people are famous because they're part of a rich or prestigious family, but people like that because they like to fantasize about that person's life.\n\nYouTube personalities and twitch streamers are just celebrities of the digital era, and celebrities have been obsessed over since the beginning of time. Whether you like Pewdiepie or Kim Kardashian, you like them because of some combination of admiration of that person's abilities or beliefs, envy of that person's life situation, or desire to be that kind of person."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
51hdxb | why did the apa took homosexuality out from the mental disorders? did they run a research? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51hdxb/eli5why_did_the_apa_took_homosexuality_out_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7bygen",
"d7bymiu",
"d7bypqq",
"d7byr1c"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
5,
15
],
"text": [
"Yes, it is based on a lot of research, most notably Lisa Diamond's studies on lesbianism and female bisexuality.\n",
"The idea of mental disorders, and illness in general, requires a definition of normal. If a mental attribute prevents someone living a normal life we consider it a mental illness.\n\nHomosexuals don't want to do the *normal* thing of being in a heterosexual relationship and for a long time this was thus considered as a mental illness. However, in the last few decades it has been decided that homosexuality is simply a *difference* rather than an illness just like how a blonde person isn't a broken version of a brunette.\n\n",
"I believe it came down to research done in 1972 by a Psychologist, a Sociologist and a Psychiatrist who combined the research of the last 100 years of sexuality into a single book _URL_0_\n\nA year after the release of this book, came the APA officially taking Homosexuality off of the \"Mental Disorder\" list and putting it onto a sexual preference one. \n\nThere are something like 260 studies researched and compiled into that book, so if you're looking for research on the topic, that is the place to start. I don't have a copy of it anymore, but I am looking to pick up another one when I get a chance. ",
"The APA classifies things as mental disorders only if they are a. abnormal, b. cause functional impairment (make it hard to live life normally), and c. can be treated using psychology and psychiatry. They used to think that this was true of homosexuality, but in the '60's and early '70s, they realized that homosexuality was much more common than they had thought before, that it doesn't stop people from having normal lives unless they are in a homophobic setting, and that you can't make people stop being gay using psychological treatment. \n\nThere's no such thing as a study that can show whether something is a disease or not, because the category and definition of \"disease\" is something that doctors come up with."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality:_An_Annotated_Bibliography"
],
[]
]
|
||
r5zyw | primary delegates | Romney just won 54 out of the 69 available Illinois delegates. Why are only 54 offered? How come some states split the delegates between the winners and others don't? What is the history of the delegate? How are the remaining delegates distributed? Is a delegate a person? If so, how does one become a delegate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/r5zyw/primary_delegates/ | {
"a_id": [
"c436q9m",
"c438y4g"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
" > How come some states split the delegates between the winners and others don't?\n\nWhile primaries are overseen by the government, the government does not set their rules. The states' parties set the rules. It goes back to an era when primaries were much less democratic, and the delegate selection was more about parties maximizing, and rewarding, influence and power.\n\n > How are the remaining delegates distributed?\n\nThere are three ways that delegates can be selected: popular vote (either proportional or winner-take-all), caucus, and super delegates. Some states do both a popular vote and a caucus, which means that the extra delegates are determined by the second method. Super delegates are VIP's of the party that get to be delegates sans any obligation to vote for a candidate based on the primary results. That's why you heard about them a lot in 2008, because there was a high likelihood that they would decide if Obama or Hillary would get the nod.\n\n > If so, how does one become a delegate? \n\nWhen you vote in a primary, you don't just vote for a candidate; you also vote for delegates, who are aligned with a candidate. This was Santorum's problem in Ohio. Even though the race was close, the delegate count was inevitably going to go to Romney because the Santorum campaigning didn't have any delegates on the ballot in several Ohio counties. It's also a big part of Ron Paul's strategy, emphasizing delegate placement and involvement in the process as to end up with more delegates at the convention than anyone suspects (not that he'll have +50%).",
"in my state, we didn't have primaries, we used delegates.\n\n* people are delegates\n\n* they're first voted by neighborhoods(at a caucus)\n * then the neighborhood delegates are voted at a city level, then county level\n\nyou end up having a number of delegates per county, related to the population of each county. Then those delegates vote to elect the republican candidate in their state. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
bc5ixe | what is the process by which rust can be removed and what is the most effective chemical(s) for doing so ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bc5ixe/eli5_what_is_the_process_by_which_rust_can_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"eknzwt4"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Rust is iron oxide. The metal has chemically converted form a pure form of the metal to an oxide.\n\nIf you want to remove the rust, you're looking at sanding, grinding or sand blasting.\n\nIf you want to kill the rust, you can use [covert the rust](_URL_0_) from iron oxide to something else. A common example is phosphoric acid, which additionally converts some iron oxide into an inert layer of ferric phosphate. Once converted, the area can be painted over without the rust coming back. Some sanding first will make it smooth.\n\nAuto parts stores sell sandpaper and rust converter."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_converter"
]
]
|
||
4ysglq | cold welding. two pieces of metal touch in a vacuum, why do they stick together? how strong is this weld? | Edit: Can't flair from mobile | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ysglq/eli5_cold_welding_two_pieces_of_metal_touch_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6q44go",
"d6q4eop"
],
"score": [
3,
4
],
"text": [
"The idea is to take away ALL interferences (impurities). This way, you are left with say 2 pieces of silver. Since there is nothing except silver, when you press the 2 silver plates together, the atoms between the 2 objects can interact in the same way ss atoms within an object, making the 2 object 1.",
"Well assuming the surface was perfect without any layer of anything getting in the way like oxide layers, or any other grit, they just stick together because how are the atoms in the metal supposed to know which one piece of metal they belong to? \n\nThe atoms inside a metal \"want\", that is it reduces the energy, to be surrounded on all sides by other metal atoms. Having an exposed surface is unfavorable, they just can't do anything about it usually, but if you give them more metal atoms, they'll readily bond together. \n\nAs to how strong it is, in an absolutely ideal state, one in which both pieces of metal were single crystals (almost all metal is polycrystalline meaning the structure of the crystal is the same, but oriented a bit differently from one region to the next) and you were able to align the two pieces of metal so that the crystals were aligned, and then stick them together, then the weld should be as strong as the metal itself. \n\nHowever most likely that's not the case. Depending on how flat the metal really is and how much pressure you apply will depend on how much area is actually bonding, and then you'd need to know about the microstructure of the material. In principle it should be possible to calculate the strength of the weld with some reasonable assumptions. I can't give an answer in the abstract really."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
5hx6du | what is the difference between cold sweats and normal sweating, if any? and what causes them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hx6du/eli5what_is_the_difference_between_cold_sweats/ | {
"a_id": [
"db3ocd6",
"db3qevz",
"db3zrmn",
"db4ai7k"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"When you sweat normally its to cool down your body through evaporatiom of sweat. Cold sweat would be when your body reacts to an external chemical, as in case of an allergy or drugs, which causes your blood pressure to go up without your body heating up, hence the term cold sweat.",
"What about when you wake up in a cold sweat after a nightmare or something? Is that just a responce to high heart rate?",
"I was in the hospital a few years back and a chemo patient checked in. He was having cold sweats in reaction to a treatment. The chemicals were sweating out of him, and he was freezing and in incredible pain. He was panicking and running in and out of the room holding his IV, and I called the nurses several times because he was in such misery.\n\nThis [cancer research center (UK) article goes into it some more, and apparently those in chemotherapy can have cold sweats triggered in a number of ways](_URL_0_).\n\nIn the morning, the guy had returned to normal and I talked with him about it. It happens to him periodically. What a hell that guy lived with.",
"When you sweat normally, its an attempt for your body to cool you down by having water evaporate off your skin\n\nHowever when you have cold sweats, its part of your bodys fight or flight response caused by a large surge of adrenaline.\n\nThis is why you often get it after a nightmare or when your scared as you think the dream is real and the fof response starts\n\nThe purpose of cold sweats is to cool your body down so if you fight or run you start off at a lower body temp so you can run or fight for longer without overheating"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/coping-with-cancer/coping-physically/skin/managing/dealing-with-sweating"
],
[]
]
|
||
7avzt0 | why does lacing our fingers the other way feel weird? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7avzt0/eli5_why_does_lacing_our_fingers_the_other_way/ | {
"a_id": [
"dpda8vp",
"dpdasur",
"dpdfjpi",
"dpdiao8",
"dpdifoq",
"dpdj9c8"
],
"score": [
4,
33,
2,
2,
9,
6
],
"text": [
"I have yet to meet one who writes with their right hand and crosses their hands with the right thumb on top of the left. I don't believe it's 50/50 as I have met most people who are right-handers. \n\n\"Does it depend on the way we happened to do it first?\"\nUnlikely. Maybe when you start writing and crossing your hands does dominance come into play.",
"These are probably things that have no definitive answer yet. I would imagine it is almost entirely psychological. Our mind tends to try to do things the most efficient way possible, and an action that requires minimal cerebral processing would be preferred, using muscle memory. So doing something the requires thinking, that otherwise would be almost instinctive, would feel a bit odd. Another reason could be based on the fact that touch receptors (also psychological) have become accustomed to \"feel\" a certain way when an action occurs. Like if you have ever cut your long hair and felt differently when you did an action like rub your head. So crossing your fingers differently has altered the otherwise predictable sensation.",
"I actually have a problem like this. My backpack I always pick up with my right hand (I'm left handed). Eventually I noticed my right hand was stronger than my left in some workouts, such as the bench press. I'd expect my left arm to do most of the work but now it's affected my right arm in the way that my right arm will actually take the brunt of the weight and push it up for my left hand. (This may be because my backpack is 25-30 pounds.. and that when you lift that much for years it makes a difference..)\n\nNow, consciously I try to pick it up by my left hand (which is harder, since it's different and also weaker in that sense), but I think it's just habit. I started the habit when I was in 5-6th grade when I would start putting only one strap on (since it's easier to take off..)",
"That’s like holding hands whilst walking with a girl (am guy) if my hand is on the back side it just feels awkward and weird",
"Sadly, I don't know. But I do know, everyone who read this put down their phones and tried it.",
"So what you're talking about here is your \"dominant\" limbs. Although genetics play a role in determining your dominant limb, the environment has a much larger impact on it. For instance, if you live in a third-world country and have to do physical labor for work at a young age, limitations of the workspace that for an individual to use a certain limb will become the \"norm\" for that person and will most likely have those used limbs become dominant. \n\nNow why using your non-dominant limbs feels weird. A good analogy is to think of solving a rubix cube. If you learn how to do it quiet fast with one algorithm, you get the hang of it and it becomes easy for you. Whenever you pick up that rubric cube, your brain shifts gears and starts getting that algorithm into work. If you were forced to use a different algorithm though, which in this analogy would be the same as using the non-dominant limb, it becomes difficult for you. Although you are still solving the same cube; you can still learn the new algorithm; you can still use techniques in handling the cube; your brain still really wants to use that first algorithm that you know so well and can finish the cube easily with. That learning process in the cube is the part where you feel weird doing something differently from what you usually do.\n\n**TL;DR:** Your brain wants to use the dominant limbs because it knows how to use them well, and using non-dominant limbs creates a learning curve that feels \"weird\" to be on."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
yzcwr | how exactly does open-source software work? | How are bugs/intentional griefing sorted out? How does the code submit process work? How do open-source programs like Chromium integrated into closed source programs like Chrome? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yzcwr/eli5_how_exactly_does_opensource_software_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6080ld",
"c6085h7"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"In general, the more eyes you have looking at the code, the faster you're going to be able to find and fix bugs. There are a lot of smart people out there who, when they find a problem with a program, will be able to look at the code and find what's wrong. If the program is closed source all they can do is report the problem and hope the company can find what's wrong.\n\nWhen changes are submitted they are usually not immediately accepted into the code base. Generally there are one or more people who maintain the project and will accept or reject submissions. This is how you prevent intentional griefing.\n\nYou can take an open source project like Chromium, add more bits to it and compile it as a closed-source executable like Chrome. Google adds things like user-metric tracking and built-in Flash and PDF support.",
" > How are bugs/intentional griefing sorted out?\n\nIn general, there is one person, or a small group of people who control the official release of an open source project. For example, Cassandra is a database maintained by the Apache Foundation. It is open source, meaning anyone can go and look at the source code, but there is a person who has final say of what does and does not go in to the version of Cassandra that can be downloaded from the Apache website.\n\nIf you create a feature that you think is really spiffy, but Apache doesn't want it in the official release, there's nothing stopping you from putting the foxh8er version of Cassandra up on your own website with your feature included.\n\n > How does the code submit process work?\n\nThe specifics are going to differ from one project to another. In general, you look for instructions on the official website of the project and follow them. Usually it's something along the lines of emailing your code to the right place, and someone will decide whether your code goes in or not.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
80tnk5 | why does gigantism in ancient insects exist? | I understand that historically, oxygen percentage levels were higher + temperatures were hotter, but I don't understand why that would encourage larger sizes insects. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80tnk5/eli5_why_does_gigantism_in_ancient_insects_exist/ | {
"a_id": [
"duy5a6i",
"duy5f21",
"duy6qev"
],
"score": [
3,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Because they could. \n\nTo deal with lower oxygen and a big body, you need lungs or some other active breathing system. Insects do not have that.\n\nSo with higher oxygen, larger body insects could survive, and also were more successful because of their bigger body - more things that were viable prey (smaller), and less fear from predators.\n\nOnce the oxygen levels dropped, they suffocated, unable to distribute oxygen to their blood fast enough for their entire body.",
"insects don't have lungs or blood; they breathe by drawing air into their exoskeletons and allowing the air to directly transfer gasses through tissues in contact with the air. With no blood it's hard for tissue that's far away from the air to get the oxygen it needs so they can only get so big before the suffocate. With a larger concentration of oxygen in the air more oxygen can be exchanged in relation to a given surface area.",
"I heard it described as the square-cube law. I know this is a bit more than a 5 y/o could get, but bear with me. \n \nWhen something gets twice as tall, it also gets twice as wide, and twice as thick. But it gets way more than twice as heavy. \n \nBut we were talking about insects. Like others said, they can't breathe when they get too big. That's because of the square-cube law. When you double dimensions, the surface area only goes up like a square. But the volume goes up like a cube. \n \nI did a shit job of explaining that. I'm sorry. \n \n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law"
]
]
|
|
kj5eq | why celebrities such as snoop dogg can openly smoke weed, but the police do nothing. | Why do random people get busted for having weed, but these celebrities will have pictures and videos of them smoking a lot of it but the police don't search them. If it is a crime, shouldn't it be enforced? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kj5eq/eli5_why_celebrities_such_as_snoop_dogg_can/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2knubd",
"c2knv77",
"c2knwk3",
"c2ko351",
"c2ko3hr",
"c2kosjx",
"c2kp9uz",
"c2kpbtf",
"c2kpcqu",
"c2kpkqo",
"c2kpm2g",
"c2kpn5f",
"c2kpnfe",
"c2kprcz",
"c2krfm0",
"c2kry0w",
"c2ks1dh",
"c2knubd",
"c2knv77",
"c2knwk3",
"c2ko351",
"c2ko3hr",
"c2kosjx",
"c2kp9uz",
"c2kpbtf",
"c2kpcqu",
"c2kpkqo",
"c2kpm2g",
"c2kpn5f",
"c2kpnfe",
"c2kprcz",
"c2krfm0",
"c2kry0w",
"c2ks1dh"
],
"score": [
143,
19,
7,
48,
11,
108,
16,
6,
3,
3,
5,
4,
5,
10,
2,
2,
3,
143,
19,
7,
48,
11,
108,
16,
6,
3,
3,
5,
4,
5,
10,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Many times they do get caught, there are many drug/celebrity stories.\n\nThe thing about weed however, is that it's so low-key it's not even really an issue. It's also state-dependant in America: In many states (such as New York off the top of my head) cannabis is decriminlized, meaning that you can carry a small amount around with you without getting arrested.\n\nThere's also an element of privacy and indiscretion; these people are committing a small crime by possessing the illegal drug, but at the same time that doesn't constitute grounds for a search/arrest warrant. These celebrities could claim it was a legal herb they were smoking such as tobacco.\n\nAlso, as nightspy said: Money. Even if they did arrest these celebrities, they have enough money that any lawyer they hire would be able to dig them out straight away.\n\nIn short: It's not worth going after celebrities who openly get high off that sticky icky icky, financially and otherwise.",
"If I am correct, I might be wrong, it is not illegal to smoke weed. It is illegal to posses weed. And unless they actually catch you with it in real life, there isn't a way of telling who was in possession of said weed before it was smoked.\n\nAgain I could be wrong, but that is how I have interpreted it.\n\nTo expand on what YoungSerious said, it is a more of a state issue. If someone in New York (where it is decriminalized) is on video smoking weed, the FBI isn't going to bust in his door and arrest them.",
"Pictures/videos of you smoking pot isn't illegal. That could be tobacco in that bong for all the pigs know.",
"They plead the *Fif*.",
"Snoop Dogg has been to prison for drug charges (before he was famous), it's a matter of context, if he tried to bring an ounce through an airport, he'd be arrested (or one of his posse would take the rap), if he was caught smoking a joint on a street corner, he'd probably be let off. Same as anyone else, for example, i was arrested for pot (got off) but also smoked a joint in front of a cop at a festival and he did nothing. Context.",
"He probably has a medical card bro",
"I can say I smoke weed all day. I can have pictures of me smoking weed. I can have pictures of bud in my hands.\n\n* I could be lying\n* It could be tobacco\n* It could be fake\n\nYou can't prove it. And the only way to go to jail over something is to be able to prove it 100%",
"Snoop Dogg has been arrested multiple times and was charged with murder. He was represented by Johnny Cochran and was acquitted. He's since been arrested like 6 times with a gun and weed. He's even been banned from multiple countries, but consequently unbanned to continue touring. \n\nPretty impressive/disturbing if you ask me.",
"And why doesn't Steve Jobs have a license plate?",
"Why would you need the answer to this explained to you like youre 5? ",
"Cause he has his friends buy and hold onto the drugs for him. If he doesn't get caught with it in his pocket he is fine. When you have that much money you have lots of friends. ",
"That only *appeared* to be marijuana. ",
"Snoop Dogg lives in California, marijuana is decriminalized in CA; getting caught with an ounce of less of 'weed' results in a fine, not an arrest.",
"Steve Jobs thinks license plates make a car ugly, so his Benz doesn't have a plate on it. Everytime he gets pulled over for it, he just says he's sorry and takes the ticket. When he gets home, he pays the 200 bucks or whatever, and leaves the rest of his millions of dollars alone.\n\nPretty sure it's the same principle at work here.",
"The music and music videos are considered entertainment. When Snoop Dogg raps about smoking weed, it's the same as Cheech and Chong smoking weed in one of their movies. \n\nAs for Snoop Dogg actually smoking weed, there are a few reasons he \"gets away\" with it. First, it is considered part of his persona. Second, he has a medical marijuana card. Third, I'm sure he as a bitching lawyer on retainer, that would lead to: Fourth, if he were arrested for weed, it would become a big fucking deal for a relatively small offense. ",
"I openly smoke weed and the police do nothing",
"He gets busted all the time. But he can't be busted for *talking* about smoking weed. He can only get busted for actually smoking it in front of cops. He's burnt the fuck out, but he's not retarded.",
"Many times they do get caught, there are many drug/celebrity stories.\n\nThe thing about weed however, is that it's so low-key it's not even really an issue. It's also state-dependant in America: In many states (such as New York off the top of my head) cannabis is decriminlized, meaning that you can carry a small amount around with you without getting arrested.\n\nThere's also an element of privacy and indiscretion; these people are committing a small crime by possessing the illegal drug, but at the same time that doesn't constitute grounds for a search/arrest warrant. These celebrities could claim it was a legal herb they were smoking such as tobacco.\n\nAlso, as nightspy said: Money. Even if they did arrest these celebrities, they have enough money that any lawyer they hire would be able to dig them out straight away.\n\nIn short: It's not worth going after celebrities who openly get high off that sticky icky icky, financially and otherwise.",
"If I am correct, I might be wrong, it is not illegal to smoke weed. It is illegal to posses weed. And unless they actually catch you with it in real life, there isn't a way of telling who was in possession of said weed before it was smoked.\n\nAgain I could be wrong, but that is how I have interpreted it.\n\nTo expand on what YoungSerious said, it is a more of a state issue. If someone in New York (where it is decriminalized) is on video smoking weed, the FBI isn't going to bust in his door and arrest them.",
"Pictures/videos of you smoking pot isn't illegal. That could be tobacco in that bong for all the pigs know.",
"They plead the *Fif*.",
"Snoop Dogg has been to prison for drug charges (before he was famous), it's a matter of context, if he tried to bring an ounce through an airport, he'd be arrested (or one of his posse would take the rap), if he was caught smoking a joint on a street corner, he'd probably be let off. Same as anyone else, for example, i was arrested for pot (got off) but also smoked a joint in front of a cop at a festival and he did nothing. Context.",
"He probably has a medical card bro",
"I can say I smoke weed all day. I can have pictures of me smoking weed. I can have pictures of bud in my hands.\n\n* I could be lying\n* It could be tobacco\n* It could be fake\n\nYou can't prove it. And the only way to go to jail over something is to be able to prove it 100%",
"Snoop Dogg has been arrested multiple times and was charged with murder. He was represented by Johnny Cochran and was acquitted. He's since been arrested like 6 times with a gun and weed. He's even been banned from multiple countries, but consequently unbanned to continue touring. \n\nPretty impressive/disturbing if you ask me.",
"And why doesn't Steve Jobs have a license plate?",
"Why would you need the answer to this explained to you like youre 5? ",
"Cause he has his friends buy and hold onto the drugs for him. If he doesn't get caught with it in his pocket he is fine. When you have that much money you have lots of friends. ",
"That only *appeared* to be marijuana. ",
"Snoop Dogg lives in California, marijuana is decriminalized in CA; getting caught with an ounce of less of 'weed' results in a fine, not an arrest.",
"Steve Jobs thinks license plates make a car ugly, so his Benz doesn't have a plate on it. Everytime he gets pulled over for it, he just says he's sorry and takes the ticket. When he gets home, he pays the 200 bucks or whatever, and leaves the rest of his millions of dollars alone.\n\nPretty sure it's the same principle at work here.",
"The music and music videos are considered entertainment. When Snoop Dogg raps about smoking weed, it's the same as Cheech and Chong smoking weed in one of their movies. \n\nAs for Snoop Dogg actually smoking weed, there are a few reasons he \"gets away\" with it. First, it is considered part of his persona. Second, he has a medical marijuana card. Third, I'm sure he as a bitching lawyer on retainer, that would lead to: Fourth, if he were arrested for weed, it would become a big fucking deal for a relatively small offense. ",
"I openly smoke weed and the police do nothing",
"He gets busted all the time. But he can't be busted for *talking* about smoking weed. He can only get busted for actually smoking it in front of cops. He's burnt the fuck out, but he's not retarded."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.