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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
22sbvp | how does a qr / bar-code work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22sbvp/eli5_how_does_a_qr_barcode_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgpwdnh",
"cgpwgn7",
"cgpwjro",
"cgpxv9l",
"cgpy2vq",
"cgpz3ys",
"cgpzea4",
"cgq0sry"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
45,
6,
2,
3,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"The bar code is scanned, and the light is reflected into the scanner which takes the light and turns it into a voltage. Each bar on a bar code is a certain thickness, which represents a certain number. When all of the numbers are put together, they form one long unique number that is in a database on the shops computer which tells the computer what thing it is that you are buying. The computer then displays what the item is and the price from the database.\n\nQR codes are actually pretty interesting. They are two dimensional barcodes generated by your device that mean a specific thing, they are used because you can put almost any information you like in a QR code far more than a conventional barcode, such as a picture or more usually a link to a website or whatever. The scanner apps you get on your phone etcetera does the job of the scanner, translating the QR code into useable information.",
"For anyone looking for some further reading, [99% invisible](_URL_0_) have a great article on this subject.",
"this is actually two different questions. bar codes work much different from QR codes.\n\nbar code: \n\nconsider the number 12345, we represent each of those numbers \"1\" \"2\" \"3\" etc using arabic numerals, which work fine for us but confuse computers. so we made a representation that can be easily understood by a computer, a series of alternating black and white lines. each number has a set of black and white lines that make it up. that's it, really just another way to represent the numbers you see written below it (the UPC)\n\na QR code is a bit more complicated as it represents arbitrary data.\n\nso imagine the letters \"QR\" in binary (using utf8) this would look like 0011001100110100\n\ntake each of those 1's and make them a black box and each 0 as a white box. that's the basic principal behind a QR. now you may think (but QR codes are so much more complicated than that) it's true. just putting those on the page would be very error prone, what if it's upside down, what if it's at an angle, what if there is an odd light, what if one of the boxes is damaged. so we need to be able to account for these things.\n\nwhat QR does is it places boxes in the corner so the reader can get a sense of the scale and orientation, it places an alternating set of black and white boxes between them to get an idea of the size of the boxes and adjust for odd lighting, it creates redundant copies of the data in the data field to recover from scratches or other damage to the QR and a checksum to check that the data is correct.\n\nmost of the complexities of QR and of barcodes come from error checking and allowing for scanning at odd angles.",
"There's also [this really great lil podcast](_URL_0_) about the history of bar- and QR-codes (plus how they work!) by 99 percent invisible.",
"This may be silly questions but,\n1) How many possible combinations can you have for bar codes and qr codes?\n2) Are all bar codes and qr codes unique? If I went to Portugal or China or South Africa with a bar or qr code scanner would I be able to tell what each thing is or how much it costs? ",
"Bar Codes are 1's and 0's in a line:\n\n | || | | | || | | | | || |\n\nOriginally a laser beam on the bar code reader would sweep back and forth and figure out what all the 1's and 0's mean. Nowadays with supercomputers in your pocket (normal smartphone), the phone doesn't use a laser, but uses a camera and computer vision software to figure out where are the 1's and 0's.\n\nQR-Codes are like version 2.0 of Bar Codes. Instead of \"just a line\", it now assumes the code will be read by a cheap black and white camera and it puts the information in a box/square.\n\nWorking with with 2D (box/grid) instead of 1D (line/bar) is more complicated so the QR code (box/grid) has 3 major components.\n\n * Tracking squares `[ . ]` in the corners (usually 3 big, one small)\n * Timing lines between the squares \"`X0X0X0X0X0X0`\"\n * The actual \"data\" spread around the rest of it\n\nYou can fit a lot more information into the square QR code than you can in the line of a standard bar code. With QR Codes there are two major factors which control the amount of information you can store. [The Size of the Square and the Level of Error Corection](_URL_1_).\n\nWith \"low\" error correction you can store ~150 characters (a tweet) into a 37x37 square QR code (version 5, low error correction). With \"high\" error correction, you need to get to version 9, \"high\" error correction, which is 53x53 and stores 143 characters.\n\nThe error correction is helpful because it means you can have [marks or damage to the QR code but still be able to read it fine](_URL_0_). This is better than the can of beans at the grocery store that won't scan because the bar code is torn a little bit.\n\nA lot of times marketing people will use a \"high\" error correction QR code and put a picture of something in the middle, kindof \"intentionally damaging\" the QR code, but it's still readable because there's extra copies of the part they erased / covered up scattered around in other places.\n\nI'm pretty sure that's as clear as I can make it.\n\n--Robert",
"/u/tuseroni has a great explanation. But I wanted to go into a bit more detail.\n\nPeople in here are slightly underestimating the complexity of barcodes, and vastly underestimating the complexity of qr codes.\n\nThere are several ways to encode data into a barcode. [Here's](_URL_0_) a cool comparison between many ^^possibly ^^all types of barcodes.\n\nAt my work (software developer) we use Interleaved 2of5 or code 128 depending on the situation. \n\nIn both of them you don't just convert the number/word to binary then do black bar for 1 white space for 0. In code 128 each character is 6 bars of varying width. [Code 128's wikipedia article](_URL_1_) has the lookup chart. \n\nInterleaved 2of5 takes two numbers. Each number 0-9 corresponds to a pattern of narrow and wide bars. 2 of the 5 will be wide (hence 2 of 5). so 1 is WnnnW and 2 is nWnnW if you were encoding 12 you would interleave them, so the 1's bars will be black, the 2s bars will be white. lets say n is a white narrow bar and N is a black narrow bar. w-white wide W - black wide\n\n1 is all black wnnnw and 2 is all white NWNNW if you interleave them you get \n\nwNnWnNnNwW\n\nthrow on a nNnN at the front and a wNn at the end so your barcode reader knows what it's looking at.\n\nThere's an checksum you can put at the end, but it's optional.\n\n---\n\nPeople have explained the very basics of qr codes, but did a horrid job explaining how complex they are. I did my senior project in college on qr codes. They're complicated enough that a team of 4 was able to make rewriting a qr library in lisp their capstone project.\n\nFirst there are different versions of qr codes for the different sizes you might need.\n\nYou convert your message to binary, split it into chucks. Run chunks through a reed-soloman error correction algorithm (you can use low medium quartile or high levels of error correction, you put which one you used into a certain section of the finished code). That allows you to remove 7% to 30% of the final message and still get the entire original message back. You put your new message into the qr code format. It's not a straightforward left to right top to bottom pattern. The qr code wikipedia doesn't bring it up much, but after you do your error correcting algorithm, you apply a 'mask' to the entire qr code. The mask just flips some of the pixels so the end result looks better and is easier for computers to read. It avoids certain patterns that might trip up the decoding. So you apply a mask, if the output isn't great you start over. The original message needs to have the version of the mask you're using. So if your first mask doesn't work you need to re encode to try the mask. \n\nTo read the qr code you have to scan an image. See if you identify the squares in the corners. Once you think you're looking at a qr code you start in the top right corner and scan sideways until you can determine the size of each pixel (pixel of the qr code, not pixel of the original image). Once you have that you can turn each pixel into a 1 or 0. Once you find the total size of the qr code (via the version number which is stored as part of the qr code) then the mask you're using. Apply the reverse of the mask to get the unmasked qr code. With the unmasked code you can turn the entire 2d image into a 1d list of 1s and 0s. Find the error correction level used and reverse the error correction algorithm to get back the original message. ",
"The \"inventor\" of the bar code system is a Purdue University alumnus that was working for IBM at the time he invented the system. He gave a lecture I attended on the methods and madness of the invention process at a yearly event Purdue called Old Masters, for distinguished alumni. It was incredibly dull, as are many of the answers here. \n\nThe one thing that stuck out from the lecture was a story he told about setting up a \"race\" as a sales presentation for supermarket chain bigwigs. The race was between two tellers checking out customers with identical carts, one with items tagged with bar codes and one with items tagged with price stickers. Man versus machine stuff. He talked about side bets and cheering and crowds. I could tell it was his proudest moment. I guess we should be thankful the machine won.\n\nVery \"Legend of John Henry's Hammer\" apparently.\n\nedit: This is the guy _URL_0_ "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/barcodes/"
],
[],
[
"http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/barcodes/"
],
[],
[
"http://datagenetics.com/blog/november12013/index.html",
"http://blog.qr4.nl/page/QR-Code-Data-Capacity.aspx"
],
[
"http://www.makebarcode.com/specs/barcodechart.html",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_128"
],
[
"https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE/People/Alumni/OECE/2001/mcenroe.whtml"
]
]
|
||
6t2sdq | how are webcams easily hacked on different devices and what to do to prevent this across all internet connected devices? | My grandparents are using me as "tech support" as they're getting more familiar with technology. They heard about hacking cameras and microphones (and other cyber security risks), and i'm not familiar with how this is accomplished, nor how easily it can be done.
I'm sure a lot of people could benefit from being more aware of the risks and how to prevent it from happening on our internet connected devices.
Also, if a preventative approach doesn't aid a user on an already compromised device, how could it be identified and what would need to be done to secure the device.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t2sdq/eli5_how_are_webcams_easily_hacked_on_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlhh8d0"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"Person with an IT security background here!\n\nSo, one thing out the gate, they're NOT easily hacked. Well, not any easier to get at then the rest of the device, like stored documents etc.\n\nIn order to access the cameras or microphone of a gadget, you need to have it run some code to do so, and then that code has to also pack up what it sees/hears and send it to a remote server. This is basically malware, so any software or good practice that'll stop viruses will also keep people away from your webcam. \n\n***And, more importantly..... they're not commonly targeted.*** It's mostly horror stories. Why's everybody talking about it? Because it's creepy and makes for good news articles that people click on. Why does Mark Zuckerberg tape his camera? Because he's Mark Zuckerberg, if you're an average joe you're not interesting. What do hackers actually want? **YOUR MONEY.**\n\nAlmost all computer-related crime is related to either getting someone's money, or getting the information needed to get to their money (aka identity theft). And usually these scams are designed to hit MILLIONS of people (spam goes out in bulk, viruses spread rapidly)...but sitting and listening to someone's mic or webcam is a lot of work for a low chance of something juicy. So unless you're famous, nobody does it.\n\nSpend your time and effort securing their banking deets and encrypting their important stuff."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
4yoiqk | what type of math is usually going on when (in movies and tv shows at least) they take up multiple, massive chalkboards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yoiqk/eli5_what_type_of_math_is_usually_going_on_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6p9kg6",
"d6p9v00"
],
"score": [
2,
7
],
"text": [
"Most is gibberish but a few shows have physics, calculus and statistics. Most shows that do have actual math normally have it in long hand form to make it look complicated.",
"Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, and specific case-related Physics stuff. The Uncertainty Principle, and Relativity are popular ones as far as physics goes in movies. Other times it's different forms of Newton's Laws and Maxwell's Equations. This applies when the movie/show in question cared about context. \n\nOther times, it's all sorts of stuff mixed in. Often times, the math is just supposed to be there to make it seem like people are doing smart/advanced stuff. For this reason, anything which looks unfamiliar to people with elementary mathematics knowledge will be used such as integral signs, summation sigmas, different symbols for uncommon operators, logic syntax and mathematical notations. I remember seeing a Venn Diagram randomly in the middle of some Partial Differential Equations and Double Integrals. I can't remember where I saw it, but it stuck with me because of the senseless placement. \n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3366v3 | what is the legal procedure that is implemented when a boat full of illegal immigrants washes up in european shores? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3366v3/eli5_what_is_the_legal_procedure_that_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqhwjfw",
"cqizbws"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"put them in detention centers. then process them as normal illegal immigrants would be processed.",
"if they are fleeing a warzone like middle east then they aren't classified as \"illegal\" even if they arrived without permission. They are classified as \"asylum seekers\". After being processed, they get to stay in the Country. Some of the are sent to the detention center though. This is part of the UN treaty australia signed. This is Australian regulation, I don't know about Europe. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
ftu795 | what is drop shipping? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ftu795/eli5_what_is_drop_shipping/ | {
"a_id": [
"fm92xe2",
"fm95mcm"
],
"score": [
2,
4
],
"text": [
"Business A makes product. \n\nYou sell the product without actually purchasing from business A. \n\nOnce the product is purchased by a customer \nfrom your website, you order the product from business A directly to the customer. \n\nYou sell products you don’t actually have.",
"It's also used between the manufacturer and the distributor. Let's say I design and manufacture things but the actual manufacturing plant is in another location. I could manufacture a large quantity of parts, have them shipped to my warehouse and then ship them to the distributor's warehouse...*or* I manufacture them and have them shipped straight to the distributor's warehouse in order to save time and money (that would be otherwise spent on duties and redundant transport fees."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
19itw4 | how did "bitch", which started out as a term of female dog, ends up as being a curse word? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19itw4/how_did_bitch_which_started_out_as_a_term_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8ofqc0",
"c8om417",
"c8om4it"
],
"score": [
30,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Actually a completely different source.\n\n**Bicched** is a Middle English word used to describe the state of rotten or spoiled food, in the 1400s it became a verb, **Bicchy**, meaning to go bad, and in the very early 1600s we see the first written entries for **Bitchy**, used to describe the act of complaining.\n\nAround the mid 1700s the word **Bitch** was the first record of the word used to describe someone who complains a lot, and from there we get the modern derogatory definition.",
"Isn't this a better question for something like /r/answers ?\n\nIt's not really something that needs to be broken down into five year old talk.",
"I'd imagine women don't like being referred to as dogs."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
69z1ju | why do we classify venus fly traps as plants? | Fly traps and other plants like is use photosynthesis but they also digest like an animal would. I had been taught that a plant is primarily a plant because of their place in the food chain but when plants start eating animals that place changes. The same question can be asked for naked mole rats who can metabolize fructose when deprived of oxygen. When it comes down to it, are we only organizing based off cell structure? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69z1ju/eli5_why_do_we_classify_venus_fly_traps_as_plants/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhaem9b",
"dhaj5t6",
"dhajibz"
],
"score": [
6,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Yes...plants vs animals vs fungi vs bacteria are all classified as such due to their cell structure",
" > a plant is primarily a plant because of their place in the food chain \n\nAfraid that's wrong on very many different levels. It's at the very least an extremely gross oversimplification. It's true that plants, as they are capable of producing their own energy, usually are the first step of the food pyramid but that's mostly a byproduct of being a plant, not a cause. \n\nWe classify lifeforms by their properties and cell structure: More or less how they are related to each other. Plants are often classified as such:\n\n > any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that *typically* (but not always) produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose.\n\n\nVenus fly traps actually can and do photosynthesize for energy reasons. They eat flies mainly to get some vital nutrients that are rare in their boggy habitat. They eat flies for the same reason you might eat vitamin supplements. they are a very typical example of a plant with their rigid plant-like cell structure, their inability to relocate, and their multi-celled bodies. ",
"The classification is based on cell structure, yes.\n\nIt's also interesting to note that carnivorous plants don't eat animals for an energy supply, but for nutrients for protein synthesis, mostly nitrogen. So even by the simplified definition of plants, to get energy from light, carnivorous plants still belong.\n\nAs for the naked mole rats that are able to metabolize fructose without oxygen, so can you. All life is capable of metabolizing carbohydrates (like fructose) without oxygen through glycolysis, animals just usually need to use a lot more of metabolizing with oxygen, because it yields much more energy."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5ko02g | what keeps the bacteria within our intestinal tracts isolated to the tracts? what stops it from moving throughout the rest of the body? | Also, how come some bacteria like E-Coli lives within us and is not harmful in our intestines, but outside of our bodies is possible life threatening? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ko02g/eli5_what_keeps_the_bacteria_within_our/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbpg75k",
"dbpinsi",
"dbpiz6r",
"dbpl5vx",
"dbpqchm"
],
"score": [
15,
6,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"OK, this is a bit complicated. Cells in the body connect and adhere to each other a wide range of different ways, using a wide range of proteins. \n\nCells in the intestinal lining are connected to each other with a network of small protein anchors. There are known as [\"Tight Junctions\"](_URL_0_) This forms a sort of belt around each cell, connecting each cell securely with each other. This prevents all but very small molecules from passing through the spaces between cells. Basically, anything larger than an amino acid has to be admitted through the cell itself before it passes into the bloodstream.\n\nThis is known as the intestinal-blood barrier. \n\nIncidentally, some kinds of bacteria have evolved pretty elaborate ways of tricking cells in the intestines into engulfing them and then passing them into the bloodstream. *Salmonella* for example. \n",
"To add to WOMBAT's description, it's important mention the role of the immune system, specifically neutrophils (white blood cells) in their defense against E-coli. \n\nIf you look at a cross section of the intestine under a microscope, you would see hundreds of bacteria on one side of the wall and hundreds if neutrophils on the other side. The odds of E.coli getting to the blood stream are close to zero.\n\nTheir importance becomes quickly apparent when there are no neutrophils. High doses of chemotherapy can do this, and it is common to find e-coli in the bloodstream of patients at or near a neutrophil count of zero.\n",
"To address your second question, there are multiple strains of certain bacteria like E coli. Some are harmful, some are not. ",
"Also, the differences in pH keeps the bacteria from traveling to other places of your gut.\n\nBacteria are usually harmful because they are either 1.) metabolising resources/parts vital to your body or 2.) producing a by-product that is harmful to you and you can't metabolize it in an efficient manner. Gut bacteria aren't necessarily killers because they metabolize things that you can't metabolize and produce products that you can digest. Couple that with the fact that they are kept in one area.",
"We've got all sorts of bacteria which are normal in one place -- indeed often essential, as gut microbiota are-- and pathological in another place. You're quite likely to have staph bacteria on your skin, but when they enter your body through a break in the skin, now you've got a staph infection.\n\nWhat keeps things where they're supposed to be? \n\n1) physical barriers -- eg skin in the staph example\n2) immunology -- recognizes bacteria when they show up in the wrong place and kills them.\n3) bacteria's own evolved preferences -- many of these bacteria are variants that have preferred temperatures, pH's and so on, they've co-evolved with us to find it nice in one part of your body, but not so much elsewhere. \n\nSo you're filled with and covered with bacteria that have evolved to \"play nice\" with you, the total of all these critters is your \"microbiome\", which is likely somewhere around 30 Trillion bacterial cells, vs some 10 trillion cells of \"you\""
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Cellular_tight_junction-en.svg/250px-Cellular_tight_junction-en.svg.png"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
8mkvwb | why indigenous ancestry is a source of pride in the us, but a source of shame in latin america? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8mkvwb/eli5_why_indigenous_ancestry_is_a_source_of_pride/ | {
"a_id": [
"dzod9sg",
"dzodwzg",
"dzofosx",
"dzofqda",
"dzog25e",
"dzog5l2",
"dzogev1"
],
"score": [
9,
14,
22,
8,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Umm people with dark skin are looked down upon in the USA too.... All around the world light skin is favored and in places like SE Asia it is blatantly favored. Google whitening cream. In much of Mexico and South America there are plenty of plenty of people proud of their heritage. Racism exists in all countries.",
"The reason people claim it in the United States is because of the legacy of affirmative action. Being of Native American heritage helps one claim all kinds of benefits from college scholarships to workplace positions all for the sake of diversity. In general white skin is favored worldwide, but in the United States, you get benefits for being Native American, meaning more people will come forward",
"I can't speak for America but in Canada it was always a source of shame. Something people hid.\n\nEducation would be the major change. The country started teach about their part in our history it was celebrated more and more.\n\nNow people are proud of the rich shared history.",
"So nobody knows the actual answer? ",
"Like Tom Selleck's mustache and Member's Only jackets, if you wait long enough, everything becomes cool again.",
"Brazilian here, and nobody here uses ancestry as a source of pride or shame. If anything, it's a plus because of how awesome we view indigenous as.",
"ELI5: Americans play with everyone at recess while at the Latin American playground, the cool rich kids hang out by themselves.\n\nElaborated:\nAmerica has much more of a melting pot culture than Latin America. Through history, it was much more common for Americans (of Irish, German, British, etc.) descent to have kids with people of Native American descent. This is what makes the cultural identity of an \"American.\"\n\nIn Latin America, Europeans showed up and exploited the shit out of the native population (don't get me wrong, so did the Americans); it wasn't acceptable for the Europeans to have kids with those of native descent unless they had managed to be of the lucky few who become wealthy & powerful.\n\nSource: Mom was born in Guatemala to two Spanish Doctors. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2gyf5g | how do poor people *legally* immigrate to the united states? | Question sounds crass, but I ask it humbly.
You hear a lot of talk about visa sponsorships for skilled labor jobs, tech jobs, medicine, etc. and even then it's pretty difficult to immigrate. Then there's the porous border for getting in otherwise.
So, how does a person from say Haiti come to the US with little money and no skilled labor? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gyf5g/eli5_how_do_poor_people_legally_immigrate_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cknmq7e",
"cknncx9",
"cknnicw",
"cknoiuy"
],
"score": [
11,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"[This image goes into some detail about it](_URL_0_)\n\nEssentially if you don't have family here, and you're not skilled it's essentially impossible to become a citizen, barring something like being granted refugee status.",
"If you don't have any skills that are in demand you would have to either marry or come as a student, once you are inside it's a lot easier to stay.",
"There are many refugees here who were dirt poor. I've heard some countries hold a lottery for US immigration.",
"Well I heard that if they give birth in the US; entire families can immigrate.\n\nHow that works is a mystery to me but I heard that on reddit before."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://reason.com/assets/db/07cf533ddb1d06350cf1ddb5942ef5ad.jpg"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
17y0t6 | what is the difference between a leopard and a cheetah? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17y0t6/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_leopard_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"c89us89"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I can tell you a leopard does not have spots but \"open rosettes\". "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
10pp0x | the mormon religion | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10pp0x/eli5_the_mormon_religion/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6fsiky",
"c6fjsl3",
"c6fk8le",
"c6fkl6e",
"c6fkx0s"
],
"score": [
2,
32,
26,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"_URL_1_\n\nand for lulz: _URL_0_",
"[Just watch this.](_URL_0_)\n",
"Basically, the Mormon (or LDS faith) believes that God is our Heavenly Father and he sent us to earth to receive physical bodies and gain experiences. Throughout history, God has sent prophets to his children to teach them his will (people like Abraham, Moses, and Noah) and that sometimes people are willfully disobedient and God will take his prophets from the earth. But that God will always restore his gospel to the earth, even after times of apostasy, when no one has God's authority to speak for him. \n\nMormons believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, sent to earth to perform the atonement and save mankind from their sins. Christ organized his church while on the earth by calling twelve apostles and making Peter the new prophet after Christ died. After Christ's death, Peter and the apostles continued to spread Christ's teachings, but once again, God took his prophet from the earth and although Christianity flourished, it lacked God's true authority, which was never passed down from Peter.\n\nAnd then in upstate New York in the 1800s, a young boy named Joseph Smith was confused about all of the different christian churches that existed, wondering which was the correct or \"true\" church. This lead him to pray to God, and he claimed that God and Jesus appeared to him in a vision. Joseph Smith went on (through the inspiration of God) to find and translate an ancient record, the translation is known as the Book of Mormon and covers the history of ancient Israelites that sailed to the Americas and founded nations here. \n\nJoseph Smith was called by God to be his new prophet and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dubbed the Mormons, because of the Book of Mormon. After Joseph Smith was killed, a new prophet was called, and a line of \"legitimate\" prophets continues today with the current LDS prophet Thomas S. Monson.\n\nBecause the LDS church has always been headed by a living prophet, the LDS church claims legitimacy as God's \"true\" church, claiming authority to receive revelations from God and act in his name. \n\nThere's obviously a lot more to it, but this is ELI5. You can find out a lot more from the LDS point of view at _URL_0_ and I'm sure that there'll be some more negative (though no less valid) views posted shortly. \n\nBut I tried my best to give you an ELI5 explanation as described from the viewpoint of the Mormons. Seriously, this is the sort of thing that a 5-year-old would be taught. \n\n*edited for clarity.",
"is there any truth to the crazy things people say Mormons believe in? i only ask because when they come to my door and i ask about the weird stuff they play dumb. ",
"Convicted con man and Magic glasses to translate golden tablets with hieroglyphs in the 1820s. A cult masquerading as an offshoot of Christianity and a major religion... that pretty much sums it up."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PXaJxzuDE",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6brMrFw0E"
],
[
"http://vimeo.com/36645417"
],
[
"www.mormon.org"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1pe4d9 | why is infra-red radiation considered as heat transfering radiation? | IR radiation has way less energy than radiation in the visible spectrum, x-rays, gamma rays and UV. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pe4d9/eli5_why_is_infrared_radiation_considered_as_heat/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd1dvtl",
"cd1dx6b"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Anything that isn't at absolute zero emits thermal radiation. The atoms and molecules are jiggling around (that's what temperature means), and when they bump into each other and stuff, photons get emitted. We call those photons \"thermal radiation.\" The hotter the substance is, the higher energy photons it will emit.\n\nSo, for example, a lightbulb works by running electricity through a filament. The filament gets really hot, so it emits lots of thermal radiation. It's hot enough that the photons have enough energy to be in the visible light spectrum, which is why it makes visible light.\n\nMost objects at regular Earth temperatures are much cooler than a lightbulb. At those temperatures, the bulk of the thermal radiation emitted is infrared.\n\nYou can think about it this way: when you get something really hot, it starts glowing red. Before it reaches that temperature, though, it's emitting radiation with less energy than red light, ie infrared.",
"Any wavelength in the Electromagnetic spectrum can transfer heat. If you radiate more heat, you get higher frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. IR radiation is just what's common to the temperatures around what we're used to."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
382jw7 | why do muslims have such a hard time assimilating, even into successive generations, whereas individuals from other cultures/religions/races are essentially totally assimilated by the 2nd generation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/382jw7/eli5_why_do_muslims_have_such_a_hard_time/ | {
"a_id": [
"crrqx7n",
"crrriah",
"crrryy0",
"crrs053",
"crrvh2y"
],
"score": [
14,
3,
75,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Because religion provides a framework for community support that perpetuates certain cultural aspects. Also certain religions have cultural aspects that make those differences more visible. \nFinally NONE of the cultures/religions/races have been totally assimilated. The Jewish people have not been assimilated completely, there's still Kosher delis all over the place, many concepts of Jewish culture remain noticeable in the overall cultural consciousness. The Irish Catholics retain many differences. Hell the Protestants of all kinds have not assimilated, I don't see many adherents to Native American Religion.",
"Don't know where your ad but they have done a really good job in the states specifically Ohio. They have jobs businesses college graduate and low crime rate in Columbus. Where no different to the other buckeyes here. Guess it depends on the immigrant group and how they are received. Read a ethnography called In Search of Respect. And you'll see Every imminent population gets the short end of the stick for a long time.",
"Your question is flawed because it's based on a false assumption. A massively false assumption. There are enormous Jewish communities all over the world that still live like its 16th century Poland, in large insular communities right in the middle of major cities like London and NYC. Mexican immigrants often import their language and culture with them so successfully that entire parts of the American Southwest resemble Mexico lite. There are parts of the upper Midwest that are still basically Swedish towns that happen to speak English. That's after over a hundred years! Meanwhile, you look at Los Angeles and its surrounding areas and Muslim immigrants have done a phenomenal job of assimilating - the area is filled with wealthy, liberal, fashionable teenagers going to the same schools as everyone else, listening to the same music, going to the same clubs. You'll see the same in Michigan, New Jersey, Staten Island, Ohio, etc. \n\nThe people who have assimilated, you won't notice because they assimilated. You may notice that they wear distinguishing clothing and from that assume they haven't assimilated - even if most of their values and traditions are now mostly American. A single piece of clothing becomes your own measure of assimilation.\n\nI suggest you pose a less leading question in a more knowledgeable place. Maybe go to /r/asksocialscience and ask, \"how successfully have recent Muslim immigrants assimilated into American society, compared to other recent immigrant groups?\" You'll probably get some good information.",
"First of all, I don't think you mean assimilation. The word you are looking for is integration. Assimilation means losing your own identity, while integration means you accept a society's values without losing yours. \n\nThe problem with Islam is that it is ant-integration. To maintain a strict Muslim lifestyle you cannot integrate. Anyone who tells you differently is either not a strict Muslim or has a notion of Islam that sets him as an outcast from that society. \n\nBy the way, the same is true of other religions as well.",
"As others have said the premise of your question is flawed.\n\nAn obvious example of your assumptions being false would be Chinatowns. \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_the_United_States"
]
]
|
||
217f3u | what exactly does an astrophysicist do and how long does it take to become one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/217f3u/eli5_what_exactly_does_an_astrophysicist_do_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgacoir"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"To build on /u/onyourkneestexaspete's comment and get just a little more specific - they study things like what's happening inside a star or a supernova, etc, trying to build models that describe all these phenomena. So it's really about physics. In the case of studying the inner workings of a star you're talking high energy plasma physics. That means studying lots of calculus/differential equations so you can talk about magnetic fields and fluid dynamics and the like. So yes, you will usually have a PhD to study this field professionally, which in the US means 4 yrs undergrad + 5-7 yrs of a PhD."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
23pbtf | how are we able to use a telescope to see up to millions of light years away, but still can't see if there is a planet in the alpha centauri system, ~4 light years away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23pbtf/eli5_how_are_we_able_to_use_a_telescope_to_see_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgz8e5b",
"cgz8kxd",
"cgz9cgy",
"cgz9mbi",
"cgzcg9z",
"cgzck18"
],
"score": [
86,
5,
5,
10,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Stars give off light, and they're big. Planets don't, and they're not. On a dark, clear night you can see a flashlight 100 feet away, but not a marble 5 feet away.",
"[This Ted talk](_URL_0_) explains it pretty well and the guy also gives a solution to the problem.",
"The stars that we see are much much brighter than planets. \n\nWith large enough telescopes, it should be possible to image planets around nearby stars, but we haven't built any big enough yet. Making giant telescopes is a complicated and expensive process.",
"There are four ways of observing extrasolar planets:\n\nRadial Velocity: using perturbations in the rotation period of the parent star to infer the presence of a planet.\n\nTransit: looking for dips in the observed brightness of the star, to infer the presence of a planet.\n\nGravitational microlensing: looking for light from galaxies behind the extrasolar system being bent in irregular ways by the motion of the planet, to infer the planet's presence.\n\nDirect Imaging: Using telescopes to directly see the planet.\n\nYou may have noticed that the first three techniques only INFER the presence of a planet. They do not actually produce an image of the planet. However, these are the most successful ways of discovering new planets because their detection criteria are much less stringent (except in the case of microlensing) than those for direct imaging. Direct imaging only works in a very small number of situations. This is because:\n\na) it must work (mostly) in the infra-red: it is very difficult to find an extrasolar planet in the optical part of the spectrum because, whereas stars emit mostly in the optical, planets emit mostly in the infrared, so working in the optical doesn't get you very far.\n\nb) planet must be far from its star: in order to be more easily differentiated.\n\nc) planet must be very young and bright.\n\nUltimately, it boils down to the fact that planets just aren't all that bright. Whereas, a galaxy many lightyears away still has around 10^10 stars in it, so it is still extremely bright, even at such a range. \n\nHowever, there is a new telescope, the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope-not a very imaginative name, but whatever), being built in Chile that is 39m in diameter and should be able to directly image some extrasolar planets in the optical. So, things are moving forward. \n\nHope this helped.",
"Stuff that we can see that is millions of light years away is usually very bright, and on a vast scale, as well. Objects millions of light years away that we can see are substantially larger than the sun, larger than the whole solar system. \n\nPlanets are - compared to stars - tiny and dark, and very difficult to see at all. Efforts to find planets aren't done by finding them in photographs, but in finding their *shadows* on photographs of stars (amongst other techniques!) ",
"Largest telescope being built in Chile will allow scientist to view planets in other solar systems\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_kasdin_the_flower_shaped_starshade_that_might_help_us_detect_earth_like_planets"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6687/20140421/worlds-largest-telescope-will-sit-atop-chilean-mountain.htm"
]
]
|
||
3ez1dr | why are punishments so severe for drug-related offenses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ez1dr/eli5_why_are_punishments_so_severe_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctjqg5w",
"ctk1hcv",
"ctkija4"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Crime was out of control in the 80's and early 90's. As a reaction to that increase in crime many politicians pushed the idea of mandatory minimums for drug related offenses. Mandatory minimums remove a judge's discretion to sentence an offender based on the particulars of the case, and instead puts in place a floor. For instance, a sentence for possession of crack cocaine may be a minimum of 10 years in prison.\n\nIt was thought that the stiff mandatory minimums would deter criminals and drug addicts from committing illegal activity. Most people today consider it an enormous failure. In recent years there have been pushes to reduce or remove mandatory minimum sentences. A week ago President Obama commuted the sentences of scores of federal prisoners who committed non-violent drug related offenses.",
"I'll just add that it was mostly pushed by conservative politicians playing into the fears of the middle class. The concept of being tough on crime was big in the 80's and 90's and policians seeming weak in this regard lost popularity.\n\nThis was exacerbated in America a population that is overly emotion and not used to looking to evidence and data to come to a decision. \n\nThe laws turned out to be extremely racist. The punishments overly impacted minorities in the country and in particular black men. It led to the US having by far the highest per capita incarceration rate.",
"Because of the Glorious War on Drugs. Back in the 70s-80s, conservative politicians jacked up the penalties for drug use because they figured that putting a lot of people in jail for a long time would TOTALLY solve the drug problem.\n\nNow mind you, that's putting *poor* people in jail longer. The rich Wall Street guys who live on cocaine have lawyers, and go to rehab if they're punished at all. Now CRACK cocaine--which poor people use--THAT's another story.\n\nCongress had been whipped into a frenzy of reaction by the drug-related death of basketball star Len Bias. It was widely reported that Bias died from a crack overdose (he WAS black, after all, and you know how \"those people\" like their crack). But Bias had actually died from regular cocaine, not crack (he WAS rich, after all, and you know how \"those people\" like their cocaine). However, a string of bogus, self-appointed experts testified to Congress that crack was actually 100 times worse than coke, and Congress believed them.\n\nThat resulted in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which contained a 100:1 disparity for sentencing in crack vs coke, and it's widely seen as the first major push in the disastrous War on Drugs. It marks the start of when our prison population began its meteoric climb to becoming the highest in the world.\n\n\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
7hociw | how does depleted uranium help penetrate armored vehicles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7hociw/eli5_how_does_depleted_uranium_help_penetrate/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqsjra4",
"dqskemh",
"dqtags2"
],
"score": [
36,
5,
5
],
"text": [
"Same way lead does. It's just heavy. As a result, it has more momentum once you get it going, making it harder to stop.\n\nIts relation to radiation has nothing to do with it. Uranium is simply heavy, even heavier than lead.",
"The force or the kenetic energy or momentum of the bullet all depends on the mass. Uranium is very heavy, which means that it has a high mass (and greater density). So a lead bullet and a uranium bullet of the same size will have the same wind resistance characteristics, but the uranium bullet will pack a bigger wallop. Which is important if you're trying to penetrate two inches of steel. ",
"I actually quoted this earlier:\n\n > To understand why depleted uranium (DU) makes a good anti-tank weapon you have to enter the Alice In Wonderland world of high-energy collisions. When metal meets metal at five times the speed of sound, hardened steel shatters like glass. Metal flows like putty, or simply vaporises. A faster shell does not necessarily go through more armour, but, like a pebble thrown into a pond, it makes a bigger splash.\n\n > Armour penetration is increased by concentrating the force of a shell into as small an area as possible, so the projectiles tend to look like giant darts. The denser the projectile, the harder the impact for a given size. DU is almost twice as dense as lead, making it highly suitable. The other metal used for anti-tank rounds is tungsten, which is also very hard and dense. When a tungsten rod strikes armour, it deforms and mushrooms, making it progressively blunter. Uranium is \"pyrophoric\": at the point of impact it burns away into vapour, so the projectile stays sharp. When it breaks through, the burning DU turns the inside of a vehicle into an inferno of white-hot gas and sparks.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
3ojeoy | why aren't there any yellow laser pointers? | Or light sabers, for that matter. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ojeoy/eli5_why_arent_there_any_yellow_laser_pointers/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvxrbtc",
"cvxrfvh",
"cvxrh9y",
"cvxrl10"
],
"score": [
16,
2,
3,
8
],
"text": [
"There are yellow light sabers in the Star Wars universe. I'm not a big enough nerd to remember who used them, but I know they're there.\n\nThere isn't any reason that a yellow laser pointer couldn't exist (it would just be a regular laser pointer with a 570 nm wavelength) but it would be functionally useless since it would be hard to see. Our eyes happen to see green and red quite well, which is what makes those colors better for laser pointers.",
"There are yellow laser pointers.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nApparently, the yellow laser diode is expensive, making this type of pointer prohibitively expensive. This would explain the relative obscurity of the yellow laser pointer.\n\nEDIT: Check out the first link MechanicalHorse put in his own reply. I think this is the same model. Looks pretty decent to me.",
"Yellow lasers are currently unstable and inefficient.\nPlease read the \"colors\" section in this Wikipedia article:\n_URL_0_",
"[There](_URL_0_) [certainly](_URL_1_) [are](_URL_2_).\n\nHowever it is my understanding it is very difficult/expensive to make a pure yellow laser pointer."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.dragonlasers.com/Yellow-Laser-Pointers.html/"
],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_pointer"
],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fqayC1RbjY",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46fhmA52HVQ",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw9DFnR26u0"
]
]
|
|
exw9f0 | why do crocs make your feet sweat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/exw9f0/eli5_why_do_crocs_make_your_feet_sweat/ | {
"a_id": [
"fgdfdwt"
],
"score": [
17
],
"text": [
"It’s not that they make your feet sweat more than usual. They are made of non-porous material so when your feet sweat, the sweat can’t escape, and so it feels wet. Normal socks and shoes absorb moisture from your feet and allow it to evaporate."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
8bbjrl | why does older music often play at a lower volume? | Back when I used CDs, I noticed I often needed to turn the volume up to hear older CDs at the same level as recent CDs. The same seems to be true for streaming. I may have to turn up a track from the '80s, but current tracks always sound loud as hell.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bbjrl/eli5_why_does_older_music_often_play_at_a_lower/ | {
"a_id": [
"dx5eslw",
"dx5fc6q"
],
"score": [
3,
52
],
"text": [
"The encoding formula allows the producer to decide what percentage of \"maximum loudness\" each passage should be. It used to be that they'd aim for medium, with max reserved for the loudest moments. But the style has changed, since this changing-loudness format is tricky to listen to in noisy environments.",
"TL;DR because music company executives are dicks who care more about scrounging money than sound reproduction.\n\n\nEarly CDs and mixing engineers were propely doing their job in order to maintain the maximum amount of dynamic range (the difference between the quietest and the loudest sound in a recording). However as time went on, market forces caused a sort of arms race in loudness in the recorded media so that songs played would make more of an impression on the listener. This is referred to as [the loudness war](_URL_0_)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war"
]
]
|
|
7lns9u | why are some countries considered to be “developing” when they have a higher gdp per capita than “developed” countries. for example, malaysia has a higher gdp per capita than greece but is considered to be a developing country and greece is considered to be a developed country? | This question came to me as I was reading the Wikipedia article below
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lns9u/eli5_why_are_some_countries_considered_to_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"drnm1dz",
"drnqv6m",
"dro3dsn",
"drouc89"
],
"score": [
38,
13,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"GDP per capita is one indicator of how developed a country is, but it's not the sole indicator. Other factors play in strongly (like the Human Development Index, which accounts for life expectancy, education; freedom indexes). \n\nThe terminology itself is based off of concepts from the late 19th/early 20th century and is a bit Western-centric (based on Western standards); because of that, it's not necessarily a perfect or comprehensive measure of a country's successes or economic standing.",
"In addition to the other answers here, the article you linked is about Purchasing Power Parity GDP, (PPP GDP), not the traditional measurement of GDP.\n\nNormal GDP is calculated by simply calculating a country’s GDP in its own currency and then converting that currency to dollars/euros/whatever currency you’re using as the standard. \n\nSo lets say that Mexico’s GDP is 500 pesos and the exchange rate is 12 pesos per dollar. Their GDP is therefore 500/12 = $41.67.\n\nPPP is different. PPP attempts to compare countries better by factoring in the different costs of goods in 2 different countries. For example, many goods and services will be cheaper in Mexico compared to the US, but GDP doesn’t account for that when comparing them.\n\nSo, since less-developed countries tend to have cheaper food/services/land/etc. their GDP (PPP) is usually better-looking than normal GDP.",
"Greece is not a good example to use. Due to the extraordinary nature of their economic crisis, their GDP is about half of what it was 10 years ago. Greece is in danger of becoming an undeveloping country, as its standard of living continues to erode.\n\nEven so, GDP is not the sole indicator of development, that money has to be invested in infrastructure, physical, institutional, and technological. Wealth disparity also plays a role. Many countries that rely on oil production have *dual economies*, those who work in the oil industry and reap its benefits, and a majority who do not, and have the same sort of standard of living they did before oil. ",
"This may be out of place but any country that did not have a huge deployment in ww2 was considered a \"3rd world\" or \"undeveloped\" country. After the formation of the U.N. this became more prevalent in almost every case. This stigma has never left, regardless of providence or accoplishments. "
]
} | []
| [
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita"
]
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
4ktqsy | if you put your ear close to a plugged-in power cord, you can hear a slight buzzing. what causes that noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ktqsy/eli5_if_you_put_your_ear_close_to_a_pluggedin/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3hoas8",
"d3hzaz8"
],
"score": [
15,
10
],
"text": [
"It has to do with how electricity is used in wall power. \n\nTwo main types of elecrtical current: AC and DC\n\nDC: Direct Current, think water flowing through plumbing.\n\nAC: Alternating current, think waves going up and down.\n\nWall power is an AC power source, and the frequency of the voltage (waves) is around 50-60 Hz. This is a frequency we can hear as a low pitched buzzing when the power interacts with things (sound from waves hitting a dock or shore).\n\n\nThis is how the noise is getting powered. Though I don't have the experience to ELI5 how magnetic induction might be affecting the vibrations that we hear.",
"AC electricity cycles at 50-60Hz depending on what country you are in. That is, the polarity and current flow is reversing in direction each cycle. When current flows it makes a magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of the current flow.\n\nIf the magnetic field intersects with things like the magnetic fields of other wires or nearby metal, it makes a small force. This force is pushing the wire 50-60 times per second, making it vibrate. The human range of hearing starts at about 20Hz, so that 50-60Hz vibration is in the range of your hearing.\n\nIt takes a lot of current to make a strong magnetic field in something like a power cord, so I expect you'd only hear noise from something like an electric stove, kettle, or iron.\n\nIf you've ever turned on an old appliance like a tube-television and heard a high pitched whine - its the same thing but at a higher frequency."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
7hegc5 | how does the police force work in the uk? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7hegc5/eli5_how_does_the_police_force_work_in_the_uk/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqqdjz7",
"dqqefsp",
"dqqjoz4"
],
"score": [
11,
6,
4
],
"text": [
"The armed branches of the police are specialised units. The average police officer in the UK does not need guns as the criminals for the most part do not have guns nor do the public. Every police force has way more armed officers than most people would think, and many of them are plain clothes officers in supercharged but normal looking cars. If an unarmed police officer suspects that an armed officer is needed they will let their superiors know and armed officers will be quietly moved nearby.",
"Most beat/patrol cops do not carry firearms; they usually carry a baton, handcuffs, and a canister of CS spray (sort of like pepper spray). Incidents which require a better-armed force will have [armed response vehicles](_URL_0_) called in, which can carry anything from pistols to carbines, along with other specialized equipment (one of the pictures on that page shows an ARV with riot gear in the trunk). ARVs are usually staffed by 2-3 firearms-trained officers. This varies from police force to police force.\n\nThis \"works\" because the population is similarly \"disarmed\". The most common armed threat to a patrolman is a knife, leading to [stab (proof) vests](_URL_1_) becoming standard issue.",
"In addition to the other comments, the Police have got reasonably good at predicting where armed units are likely to be needed and keeping response times quite low. In a small village where the major crime problem is an excess of crusty jugglers, the nearest armed unit will be a long long way away, and probably asleep, whereas London has a number of armed response units permanently available and patrolling. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_response_vehicle",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab_vest"
],
[]
]
|
||
15n57u | why do olympic runners have pretty big and muscular arms too? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15n57u/why_do_olympic_runners_have_pretty_big_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7nylye"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Running is full-body exercise, so there's that.\n\nAlso, the arm swing is actually a very important part of running - it is a counterbalance for the leg movements, so their arms not only have to keep up with their legs, they also have to move very consistently, which is easiest to achieve with endurance-trained arms."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
fhevyp | how do people sleep with their eyes open? are their eyes still sending visual stimuli to the brain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fhevyp/eli5_how_do_people_sleep_with_their_eyes_open_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"fkb4ow7",
"fkb51tj",
"fkc6b3o"
],
"score": [
6,
28,
7
],
"text": [
"I sleep with my eyes open, well slightly cracked and one of them is half way open. It can be for a few reasons in which mostly all of them have to do with your facial muscles being weak. Sometimes it’s cause by facial nerve issues.\n\nEdit: but I’m assuming that they don’t send visual stimuli to the brain unless you’re in a light sleep phase in which the brain is still slightly active. Like phase 1 when you can be easily woken but don’t remember waking.",
"the eyes send visual stimuli even when they're closed, your ears send stimuli all night as well (as do most senses). your alarm wouldn't wake you if they didn't. the brain just tunes out minor stimuli",
"I remember watching a documentary about Navy SEALS training and apparently it wasn't uncommon for the guys to develop the ability to sleep sitting up with their eyes partially open. Something to do with constantly being woken up, getting to sleep for 15-30 minutes in a 24 hour period, high stress environment. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nSounds kind of badass but also fucking miserable."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
3a0s2r | how can a country become a tax heaven?/ why are there no more countries that are tax heavens? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a0s2r/eli5_how_can_a_country_become_a_tax_heaven_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs877zh",
"cs87vq7"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"It's a \"Tax Haven\", not a \"Tax Heaven\".\n\nMost countries have international agreements that mean that countries cannot for example offer advantageous tax rates to specific companies. Those that do often suffer the disadvantage that they are not safe politically or are not well connected in the financial network. Countries that do try to become some sort of Tax Haven e.g. Luxembourg are increasingly subject to fines and therefore no longer find it economic to continue these activities.",
"Take a place like Nauru (former tax haven). It has fuck all to offer anyone in terms of land (it's tiny), resources (it's been stripped bare, quite literally) or anything else like tourism (say).\n\nA place like that then sets itself up such that no taxes are charged to internationa businesses and clients and generally includes a refusal to divulge records to foreign tax auditors.\n\nThis way, it can gain revenue by doing very little and having no resources, either financial or natural.\n\nBut a place that does this is almost certain to be the victim of international sanctions and embargoes, withheld trade/aid opportunities and whatever else the countries it is pissing off can legally do to them.\n\nIn the end, you get a situation where 'respectable' banks will simply refuse to do business in or with such places for fear of government reprisals, exposure or worse.\n\nI used Nauru as an example. I'm quite certain that as an Australian citizen, NO bank here would conduct transactions on my behalf with any bank in Nauru unless I could prove I wasn't doing something dodgy.\n\nFor me to prove that (I was legit) would be financially not worthwhile and so you see that Nauru has been curtailed in their tax-evading ways, just by not doing business with them at all. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
760m2q | how do stars make gold? | How do stars make gold? And does mankind have a shot of making it whether it's cost effective or not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/760m2q/eli5_how_do_stars_make_gold/ | {
"a_id": [
"doadc31",
"doadxgx"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Since gold is an extremely heavy element, it doesn't come directly from fusion inside the stars. The gold in the universe was created during some massive stellar cataclysm, like a massive supernova or a a collision between two massive stars. ",
"Stars produce gold through fusion, literally fusing two or more atoms into a bigger one. For example if I take 2 hydrogen atoms (1 proton orbiting the nucleus) and shove them together hard enough I can make a single helium atom (2 protons orbiting the nucleus) with some extra energy left over in the form of intense light, heat and various types of radiation. The actual process is a obviously bit more complicated with more rules but that's the basics.\n\nDuring their normal burn stars only have enough 'power' to fuse lighter elements. As they progress through their lifespan some stars may begin 'burning' heavier elements in this fusion process and in the event of a super nova the star will momentarly become so powerful that some of its remaining mass gets fused into heavy elements like gold. \n\nOur own sun is expected to one day in a few billion years from now become a red giant as it's supply of hydrogen is depleted. It will then likely experience a helium flash - a rapid cascade where a large amount of the helium (produced from earlier hydrogen fusion) that was left in the sun's core will rapidly fuse into carbon."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
37q7js | what is the riemann hypothesis and why is it important? | I hear about it all the time in different book/show references but Wikipedia wasn't helpful. Why is this problem so famous/important? Also if there is an explanation for the Riemann zeta function that would be great as well. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37q7js/eli5_what_is_the_riemann_hypothesis_and_why_is_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"crozmsl",
"crp1nd2",
"crp43ca",
"crp4bs4",
"crp4w8o"
],
"score": [
88,
31,
2,
6,
10
],
"text": [
"The Riemann Hypothesis is basically that there is some link between the prime numbers. As far as we know currently, the sequence of primes is totally arbitrary, but if we can find out what truly links them, then that gives immense power in mathematics. A lot of systems are based around primes, so knowing more about them could give us the key to these systems.",
"I have been working with the Zeta function for about a year now and I ask myself the same question... Riemann was a brilliant man who studied under Gauss who you might have heard about (Gaussian Elimination). Anyway, during the process of Riemann's \"doctoral dissertation\" to become a what we call an associate professor in like the 1850's, he proposed the Zeta function.\n\n\nThe Zeta function has many freaky properties. For example with the help of some fancy mathematics called \"analytic continuation\", you can use the Zeta function to show that if you add up all the numbers from 1 to infinity, you get -1/12. The function also takes place in two domains, the Reals and the Complex planes so it's not your average function...\n\n\nAsking an explanation of the Zeta function is somewhat broad. So instead I'll tell you why it's so important, this in return will also answer your question on why the Riemann Hypothesis is important as well.\n\n\nI brought up the mathematician Gauss is because he the founder of the Prime Number Theorem (PNT). What the PNT is saying is that the distribution of prime numbers less then a given number N can be approximated by N/*ln*(N) where *ln* is the natural log. So say you wanted to know the amount of prime numbers between 0 and 1,000,000,000 you would simply plug and chug into the approximation, that is:\n\n\n\n(1,000,000,000)/*ln*(1,000,000,000) which is roughly 48,254,942. When in reality there are exactly 50,847,534. In the long run it's a close approximation...\n\n\nWhere dose the Zeta function come into play? Well the Zeta function, after understanding the topics of Complex analysis, Real analysis, and number theory, provides a proof of the Prime Number Theorem. It would be pointless to explain the Proof to a five year old because Im only a Junior in College and I don't even know how it works! \n\n\nLastly Riemann's Hypothesis was stated in 1850-something in which Riemann said all non-trivial zeros of the Zeta functions have a real part of 1/2. A trivial zero would be all the negative even numbers so Z(-2)=0, Z(-4)=0 etc. This means, non-trivial zeros having a real part of 1/2 implies that the rest of the zeros are complex numbers I.e. .5+14.134725**i** where **i**=√(-1). The reason why his hypothesis is so famous is because, we have found trillions of zeros on what we call the critical strip (the vertical line through the real part 1/2), yet NO ONE has proved this to be true. Let me remind you that it has been at least 165 years since this statement was published. This question is so hard it was put into a group of math problems call the Millennium problems. Set up by the Clay Mathematical Institute, if you prove Riemann's Hypothesis, you will earn $1,000,000.\n\n\nHere are some videos that might help you understand more of the mathematical content:\n\n* [The Riemann Hypothesis](_URL_1_)\n* [Prime Number Theorem](_URL_0_)\n\nSO TL;DR= The Zeta function Proves the PNT. The Riemann Hypothesis is an unsolved math problem. You solve, you'll be rich.\n\n",
"I've no business in this thread but if anybody could link me to somewhere I could learn more about it I'd be great full.",
"I want to point out that giving a proof or disproof of it would require a lot more of understanding of mathematics that we have now. All around history mathematicians always liked to have challenges to drive them to do more math. Solving the Riemman Hypothesis is very important because managing to solve it means a lot of development in math.\n\nThe [Fermat's last theorem](_URL_0_) is a notable example of what I'm trying to say.",
"You don't need to talk about the zeta function to understand the significance of the Riemann hypothesis. And you can be more precise than saying \"it talks about links between the primes\".\n\nLet π(x) denote the number of primes less than or equal to x. Recall that the [Prime number theorem](_URL_1_) says that π(x) ~ Li(x), where Li(x) is the integral of 1/ln(x). The \"~\" means that these two quantities are approximately equal in the sense that their ratio goes to 1 as x goes to infinity. This amounts to saying that the \"density\" of the primes near a number x is roughly 1/ln(x).\n\nThe Riemann hypothesis is about how precise this estimate is. It says that |π(x) - Li(x)| < C √x ln(x) for some constant C (which [according to wikipedia](_URL_0_) can be taken to be 1/8π). So it gives a precise bound on how much the density of the primes can vary from the \"expected\" density given by the Prime Number Theorem.\n\nSomebody who has actually studied this stuff could tell you about how this is consistent with the primes looking like a suitably \"random\" set.\n\nEDIT: Oh crap, this is ELI5, not askscience. Well, anyway I explained like you're a numerically literate person who doesn't know any fancy math."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ezziaEeNE",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6c6uIyieoo"
],
[],
[
"http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FermatsLastTheorem.html"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem#Prime-counting_function_in_terms_of_the_logarithmic_integral",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem"
]
]
|
|
j6xmr | explain art. | Why are the works of Jackson Pollack, Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline considered great art? And I just can't understand why Jeff Koons is so popular. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j6xmr/eli5_explain_art/ | {
"a_id": [
"c29nay8",
"c29o99z",
"c29o9n1",
"c29p2x1",
"c29pc6z",
"c29pddk",
"c29qfdw",
"c29r6qk",
"c29zycl",
"c29nay8",
"c29o99z",
"c29o9n1",
"c29p2x1",
"c29pc6z",
"c29pddk",
"c29qfdw",
"c29r6qk",
"c29zycl"
],
"score": [
18,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
18,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Art is meant to entertain. Because life has no definite purpose, art is created in order to help give life purpose, or at least take our minds off of life's lack of purpose. Almost anything can be considered an art.\n\nPaintings that depicts realistic looking scenes like landscapes and portraits do this in a very closed-ended way. That is, if it's a painting of a tree, there's really only one way to interpret that painting.\n\nHowever, abstract art like that of Pollack and all of the other artists you've mentioned, fill the void of existance in a more open-ended way. Their paintings are meant to inspire feelings just like any other painting, but the viewer has more of a choice in what feelings are being inspired because they have more choice in what they are seeing.",
"Art is sometimes thought of as a way of saying something without explicitly stating it. Because of this, it requires an active participation on behalf of the viewer/reader/listener, which is why the appreciation of art is often highly subjective. A single work of art can mean many things for many people; however, if there is a single objective value that good art is judged by, it is the ability for a work of art to mentally and emotionally engage many different people in a complex way. This is different from, say, entertainment, which is designed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible by making it overly accessible. This often creates a dynamic where people who are used to the accessibility of entertainment find less accessible art forbidding and view it as \"pretentious\" (though in some cases this sentiment is perfectly valid).\n",
"Like the others have said, art is a form of expression. But, for people like Pollock, Mondrian, and Rothko, the thing that made them so famous is that what they came up with was so unique for their time. Many of those famous artists made art that most people thought was hideous or wouldn't catch on, yet they still carried on expressing themselves in their own way. And, after awhile, their art became so popular that it impacted others' work in a huge way.",
"I'm no expert but ill throw in my 2 cents. Jackson Pollack, Piet Mondian, Mark Rothko, and Franz Kline have been deemed abstract expressionists which indeed does deal to a degree with self-expression. But abstract expressionism is a subcategory of Modernism, a movement whose motivation was to extend beyond the limitations of realism in art. All art is essentially a giant conversation and modernism was a period of reflection on the question What is essential to art? This was the main impetus of Piet Mondrian especially. \nThe thing is their is still no qualified definition of what art is and is not. Many aesthetic philosophers have attempted with expressionist theories, art is defined by the expression and transmission of pure emotion (Leo Tolstoy, R. G. Collingwood), formalist theories, art is defined by the quality and beauty of its formal aspects (Clive Bell), but not one theory has either sufficed. THey have either been too limiting or too expansive and there are always new exceptions to a previous theory. Kandinsky, one of the first abstract expressionist said it best in Concerning the Spiritual in art, \"Theory is the lampshade which sheds light on the petrified ideas of yesterday and of the more distant past.\" Their is one philosopher that believes to even have a definition of art is impossible and destroys creativity. \nSo the value of art now days i would think takes into account the history of art, and the context of the art and tries to determine a meaning. what was the purpose for this creation? This meaning is either valuable or pointless and this is what determines whether an artwork is regarded as special or not. \nHaving said that, I have no idea why Jeff Koons is so popular.\n\ntl;dr:there is no good definition to determine what is art and what is not. One must determine meaning given the history and context of the art and judge if that is valuable or not.\n",
"Back in the day, we didn't understand much. Our artists were like magicians. they could make the bison we hunted appear on the wall. They told us that if we threw our spears at that, we would be able to do it in real life. How great is that?\n\nThen later on, we built cities. We didn't need the hunt, and we had intellegent people help us understand the world better. We had mythical beings in the heavens that helped us do almost everything. With the same history of the cavemen, who painted to ensure a good hunt, we started to paint, sculpt, and build houses in order to bring us that much closer to those gods. Eventually, philosophers invented mathmatics, and we realized the world works according to math. Our art (painting, sculpture and architechture) began to look at symmetry. They also began to be a permanent way of telling stories. In that sense, art became, not only the search for divinity, but a way to explain the human condition.\n\nMove ahead a thousand more years. Artists had been honing their trade for so long, it was a trade skill, same as masonry or cobbling. But it was different, and so much better. What you see now as a painting with a picture of Mary in a garden, or of Jesus with dirty feet, had symbolism. People who had trained their whole lives, and had schools, full of artists training to be as good as them, would spend years, making a painting that not only looked as good as real life, but had all the hidden stories we were used to seeing. Still, that base instinct of having the bison on the wall was present. Jesus with dirty feet was a way of showing divinity as common. Mary in a room with a closed door symbolized immaculate conception etc.\n\nSkip ahead now to the enlightenment. Philosophers had made discoveries of thought that we didn't know what to do with. How could we prove who we are? how do we know what we see is reality etc. Artists followed in these footsteps. Some, called impressionalists, sacraficed the ability to paint something that looked real, in order to show a snapshot of something, or to put it in a specific frame of time. Others thought that since painting isn't real, it doesn't need to be real. The depth of a painting was reduced, so it looked more like theatre. Some, called expressionalists, wanted to get the emotional content out of a scene. Instead of painting the picture as realistic, they painted it as what the emotion of the scene was. Angry things were jagged and bold. Sad things were emotive and droppy.\n\nThen someone invented the camera, and art went crazy. Now one could make something look exactly what it looked like, instantly and often. What was thousands of years making it with a brush was just told it had no meaning anymore. Now what is art? The last hundred years, put simply, were an explosion of experementation, trying to rediscover what art is.\n\nSome went to the past. Cubism was representative of african and assyrian styles, where you would take something two dimentional, and paint all sides of it as once, as if you were looking around something without having to move. Maybe it was the idea that you were putting paint on a canvas was art, so the abstract expressionalists would paint, emphasising that. Others thought that the idea of making the picture plane flatter and flatter (like theatre) was a process going towards pure art. Piet mondrian and others played with abstract geometric shapes, until one day, someone ended that movment by painting a canvas white and putting it on the wall. It was the 'flattest' picture plane available.\n\nPop artists made art accessable and common. Having threads to caravaggio and the jesus with dirty feet. Some treated it as novelty, painting the same landscapes the northern europeans had done in the 17th century, with it's appeal being a skill that people don't have, but can appreciate. Some decided that art was dead, and reflected that in their art. they were around the second world war, and the idea that mankind would annihilate itself was real, and the art reflected that. They were dadaists. They eventually turned into surrealists, painting the same realistic scenes that were done before, but turning what we think of as reality on it's head.\n\nSo what is art? The honest answer is, we don't know, but so long as we call it art, it is art. Life was much simpler a hundred years ago, when we had art, and it always had this one magic idea; we can show you the world you see around you. Now it's a journey of discovery, taking the ideas from every human endeavour, and attempting to put it on a canvas, into clay, onto a piece of welded metal, or even in the shape and size of a building.",
"Ok. Art. Like you're 5. \n\n\nArt is what happens inside you when you look at something. \n\nOften this is about the push or pull between your feelings and your mind. Sometimes they both like things, sometimes your mind likes something but your feelings don't. Sometimes it's the other way round. It's confusing and that's what it's supposed to be. \n\nPollack, Mondrian, and Rothko, I think they slow down your mind and make it think slower, because instead of your mind saying, \"It's a house!\", your mind has to think about what you're looking at for a much longer time. Also, they make you think about colour as an alive thing. Rothko worked very hard choosing his colours and the size of his pictures so that the colour would make you feel, and feel a lot. \n\nJeff Koons' art is taking stuff you think is normal or boring and making it weird and unusual. I think he's trying to make your brain say, \"Hey, I know what that is, sort of, but it's all different and I don't really understand it now.\"",
"Art is using something (like paints, or sounds, or words) to share emotions.",
"We know what art is! It's paintings of horses!",
"I think what's universal in all art is that it's trying to make you feel something.",
"Art is meant to entertain. Because life has no definite purpose, art is created in order to help give life purpose, or at least take our minds off of life's lack of purpose. Almost anything can be considered an art.\n\nPaintings that depicts realistic looking scenes like landscapes and portraits do this in a very closed-ended way. That is, if it's a painting of a tree, there's really only one way to interpret that painting.\n\nHowever, abstract art like that of Pollack and all of the other artists you've mentioned, fill the void of existance in a more open-ended way. Their paintings are meant to inspire feelings just like any other painting, but the viewer has more of a choice in what feelings are being inspired because they have more choice in what they are seeing.",
"Art is sometimes thought of as a way of saying something without explicitly stating it. Because of this, it requires an active participation on behalf of the viewer/reader/listener, which is why the appreciation of art is often highly subjective. A single work of art can mean many things for many people; however, if there is a single objective value that good art is judged by, it is the ability for a work of art to mentally and emotionally engage many different people in a complex way. This is different from, say, entertainment, which is designed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible by making it overly accessible. This often creates a dynamic where people who are used to the accessibility of entertainment find less accessible art forbidding and view it as \"pretentious\" (though in some cases this sentiment is perfectly valid).\n",
"Like the others have said, art is a form of expression. But, for people like Pollock, Mondrian, and Rothko, the thing that made them so famous is that what they came up with was so unique for their time. Many of those famous artists made art that most people thought was hideous or wouldn't catch on, yet they still carried on expressing themselves in their own way. And, after awhile, their art became so popular that it impacted others' work in a huge way.",
"I'm no expert but ill throw in my 2 cents. Jackson Pollack, Piet Mondian, Mark Rothko, and Franz Kline have been deemed abstract expressionists which indeed does deal to a degree with self-expression. But abstract expressionism is a subcategory of Modernism, a movement whose motivation was to extend beyond the limitations of realism in art. All art is essentially a giant conversation and modernism was a period of reflection on the question What is essential to art? This was the main impetus of Piet Mondrian especially. \nThe thing is their is still no qualified definition of what art is and is not. Many aesthetic philosophers have attempted with expressionist theories, art is defined by the expression and transmission of pure emotion (Leo Tolstoy, R. G. Collingwood), formalist theories, art is defined by the quality and beauty of its formal aspects (Clive Bell), but not one theory has either sufficed. THey have either been too limiting or too expansive and there are always new exceptions to a previous theory. Kandinsky, one of the first abstract expressionist said it best in Concerning the Spiritual in art, \"Theory is the lampshade which sheds light on the petrified ideas of yesterday and of the more distant past.\" Their is one philosopher that believes to even have a definition of art is impossible and destroys creativity. \nSo the value of art now days i would think takes into account the history of art, and the context of the art and tries to determine a meaning. what was the purpose for this creation? This meaning is either valuable or pointless and this is what determines whether an artwork is regarded as special or not. \nHaving said that, I have no idea why Jeff Koons is so popular.\n\ntl;dr:there is no good definition to determine what is art and what is not. One must determine meaning given the history and context of the art and judge if that is valuable or not.\n",
"Back in the day, we didn't understand much. Our artists were like magicians. they could make the bison we hunted appear on the wall. They told us that if we threw our spears at that, we would be able to do it in real life. How great is that?\n\nThen later on, we built cities. We didn't need the hunt, and we had intellegent people help us understand the world better. We had mythical beings in the heavens that helped us do almost everything. With the same history of the cavemen, who painted to ensure a good hunt, we started to paint, sculpt, and build houses in order to bring us that much closer to those gods. Eventually, philosophers invented mathmatics, and we realized the world works according to math. Our art (painting, sculpture and architechture) began to look at symmetry. They also began to be a permanent way of telling stories. In that sense, art became, not only the search for divinity, but a way to explain the human condition.\n\nMove ahead a thousand more years. Artists had been honing their trade for so long, it was a trade skill, same as masonry or cobbling. But it was different, and so much better. What you see now as a painting with a picture of Mary in a garden, or of Jesus with dirty feet, had symbolism. People who had trained their whole lives, and had schools, full of artists training to be as good as them, would spend years, making a painting that not only looked as good as real life, but had all the hidden stories we were used to seeing. Still, that base instinct of having the bison on the wall was present. Jesus with dirty feet was a way of showing divinity as common. Mary in a room with a closed door symbolized immaculate conception etc.\n\nSkip ahead now to the enlightenment. Philosophers had made discoveries of thought that we didn't know what to do with. How could we prove who we are? how do we know what we see is reality etc. Artists followed in these footsteps. Some, called impressionalists, sacraficed the ability to paint something that looked real, in order to show a snapshot of something, or to put it in a specific frame of time. Others thought that since painting isn't real, it doesn't need to be real. The depth of a painting was reduced, so it looked more like theatre. Some, called expressionalists, wanted to get the emotional content out of a scene. Instead of painting the picture as realistic, they painted it as what the emotion of the scene was. Angry things were jagged and bold. Sad things were emotive and droppy.\n\nThen someone invented the camera, and art went crazy. Now one could make something look exactly what it looked like, instantly and often. What was thousands of years making it with a brush was just told it had no meaning anymore. Now what is art? The last hundred years, put simply, were an explosion of experementation, trying to rediscover what art is.\n\nSome went to the past. Cubism was representative of african and assyrian styles, where you would take something two dimentional, and paint all sides of it as once, as if you were looking around something without having to move. Maybe it was the idea that you were putting paint on a canvas was art, so the abstract expressionalists would paint, emphasising that. Others thought that the idea of making the picture plane flatter and flatter (like theatre) was a process going towards pure art. Piet mondrian and others played with abstract geometric shapes, until one day, someone ended that movment by painting a canvas white and putting it on the wall. It was the 'flattest' picture plane available.\n\nPop artists made art accessable and common. Having threads to caravaggio and the jesus with dirty feet. Some treated it as novelty, painting the same landscapes the northern europeans had done in the 17th century, with it's appeal being a skill that people don't have, but can appreciate. Some decided that art was dead, and reflected that in their art. they were around the second world war, and the idea that mankind would annihilate itself was real, and the art reflected that. They were dadaists. They eventually turned into surrealists, painting the same realistic scenes that were done before, but turning what we think of as reality on it's head.\n\nSo what is art? The honest answer is, we don't know, but so long as we call it art, it is art. Life was much simpler a hundred years ago, when we had art, and it always had this one magic idea; we can show you the world you see around you. Now it's a journey of discovery, taking the ideas from every human endeavour, and attempting to put it on a canvas, into clay, onto a piece of welded metal, or even in the shape and size of a building.",
"Ok. Art. Like you're 5. \n\n\nArt is what happens inside you when you look at something. \n\nOften this is about the push or pull between your feelings and your mind. Sometimes they both like things, sometimes your mind likes something but your feelings don't. Sometimes it's the other way round. It's confusing and that's what it's supposed to be. \n\nPollack, Mondrian, and Rothko, I think they slow down your mind and make it think slower, because instead of your mind saying, \"It's a house!\", your mind has to think about what you're looking at for a much longer time. Also, they make you think about colour as an alive thing. Rothko worked very hard choosing his colours and the size of his pictures so that the colour would make you feel, and feel a lot. \n\nJeff Koons' art is taking stuff you think is normal or boring and making it weird and unusual. I think he's trying to make your brain say, \"Hey, I know what that is, sort of, but it's all different and I don't really understand it now.\"",
"Art is using something (like paints, or sounds, or words) to share emotions.",
"We know what art is! It's paintings of horses!",
"I think what's universal in all art is that it's trying to make you feel something."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
38hcwi | why do most people have such negative feelings towards tickling? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38hcwi/eli5_why_do_most_people_have_such_negative/ | {
"a_id": [
"crv1o7o",
"crv29wg",
"crv3xx2"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"I can't speak for everyone but whenever someone tickles me, I completely shut down, I am super sensitive whenever somebody touches me and tickling is what makes me scream bloody murder. It's extremely uncomfortable and I laugh so hard it hurts and its just not a pleasurable experience at all. ",
"You might as well be asking why you, personally, enjoy being tickled. The psychology/physiology behind it is pretty much the same either way. Some people don't like others encroaching upon their personal space. Others enjoy and employ physical contact as often as possible. The former generally hates tickling, the latter generally loves it. ",
"Evolution. You are ticklish on the most important parts of your body. Your sides are where many of your organs live. Your feet are used for transportation. It's built into you to guard these areas so the feeling you feel is a form of panic."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
a8af7i | how probabilities work when there are multiple instances. | For example, if I have a 15% chance of something happening 5 times, what are my overall chances of it happening even once? How is this calculated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a8af7i/eli5_how_probabilities_work_when_there_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"ec92x8a"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"For this sort of \"at least once\" question, it's easiest to work out the probability that it never happens, and whatever is left will be the answer we want.\n\nThere's an 85% chance of it not happening each time, and we can multiply the probabilities for each time to find the probability of it not happening five times in a row. That gives about a 44.4% probability of it not happening, so there must be a 55.6% probability of it happening at least once.\n\n(This assumes that each instance is independent of the others - that there'll always be a 15% chance the second time, whether or not it happened the first time. That's true for something like rolling dice, but not for something like drawing multiple cards from a deck.)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2381zn | the idea of intelligent design and how it determines the existence of a creator. | Was involved in a conversation regarding it today but a lot was going over my head, could someone please explain it like i'm 5!
Thanks in advance | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2381zn/eli5_the_idea_of_intelligent_design_and_how_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgucknh",
"cgucyp5",
"cgug10m",
"cguhu0x"
],
"score": [
7,
15,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"The idea, essentially, is that the universe was designed by a higher power. In the contexts you're hearing it, it's essentially a stand-in for Protestant Christianity-but-totally-not-saying-that-you-guys for the purposes of getting around prohibitions against religious instruction in public schools.",
"The idea is that our universe was intentionally created by some unnamed (wink, wink) intelligence with massive or even infinite power. For evidence they point to things like the distance from the Earth to the Sun being good for life, the fact that the moon perfectly covers the sun during an eclipse, the fact that cells work, and many other things. \n\nTo them, these observations are only explainable by this higher power. They often make statements such as \"It takes a clock maker to make a clock\".\n\nIt's not difficult to see the flaws in their logic, but that doesn't really matter to them. Most of the people who put forth these views are also people for whom faith is important. You don't need evidence for something that you have already decided must be true. ",
"Intelligent design is really just creationism dressed up to look like a real scientific theory. In [Kitzmiller v. Dover](_URL_1_), looking at revisions of an Intelligent Design textbook revealed that the writers of the book essentially just did a search/replace of creation for intelligent design throughout drafts of the book.\n\nThe closest thing to a scientific argument it has is the idea of [Irreducible Complexity](_URL_0_). Which states that some biological systems are too complex, so could not be viable without all their components and thus could not have evolved, but must have been created fully formed.\n\nThe analogy used by proponents was the mousetrap. A mousetrap doesn't work with if any 1 piece is removed or broken.\n\nCritics pointed out however, that while a mousetrap missing a piece might not work for catching mice. A spring, lever, and base could still be used for some other different purpose.\n\nJust about every other argument I've read in Intelligent Design is more trying to poke holes in evolution then prop up their own theory. But science isn't a boxing match, even if you disprove the other guys theory yours doesn't win by default.\n\nNow intelligent design isn't bad as a religious, or philosophical argument. But even if it were true it isn't reached using the scientific method, and so really doesn't belong in science class.\n\nEDIT: accidentally a word",
"I think some of the responses here have missed part of the question. Without getting lost in the semantics of the words:\n\nConsider a person. Skin on the outside, organs on the inside. Two eyes, for seeing color and depth. Able to speak a collection of noises that is understood by other people in a meaningful way. On a giant space rock filled with breathable air, drinkable water, and animals and plants that are good for food. The coincidences go on for miles.\n\nNow imagine this is a jigsaw puzzle. We are looking at our ordered and intricate existence as a picture, made of many different parts. By our understanding, it would be completely implausible that the puzzle could make itself if we were to just shake the box (even if we shook it for millions of years). It only makes sense if there was some greater intelligence purposefully arranging the pieces to complete the puzzle that is our reality. Everything, from the construction of our bodies, to the distance of Earth from the sun, to the food chain of the planet's ecologies, had to have been measured, calculated, and designed on purpose. That's just too much chance to leave to chance."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District"
],
[]
]
|
|
4fvbln | even though the fox network and fxx have some pretty decent shows (like simpsons, it's always sunny.., ahs, new girl, family guy etc) watched mainly by a younger, slightly liberal demographic... why is the fox news channel a complete opposite in terms of viewer demographic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4fvbln/eli5_even_though_the_fox_network_and_fxx_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2c9tk7"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"They are television channels that exist to make a profit, and this is how they do it.\n\nYes, Rupert Murdoch is conservative, but if he could make more money running a liberal news station, that's what Fox would be."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
27k1lt | why now that pennies don't "exist" in canada, do stores still use prices like $19.99 as opposed to making everything a multiple of 5 cents like $19.95? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27k1lt/eli5_why_now_that_pennies_dont_exist_in_canada_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"ci1jjsl",
"ci1jsgp"
],
"score": [
2,
9
],
"text": [
"Yes. The majority of transactions are digital, and tax will change the price anyways. ",
"The price is only rounded after the total (after tax, don't forget that tax increases the total) is taken, and only if you are paying in cash. If my total comes to $1.97 and I pay cash, I pay $1.95. If the total comes to $1.98 and I pay cash, I pay $2.00. Non-cash purchases (such as debit and credit) are not affected, and you will always pay the exact amount of the total. So if the total is $1.97 and I pay using debit, I pay $1.97."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
1px47x | if a person was floating in the air why wouldn't they travel due to the rotation of the earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1px47x/eli5_if_a_person_was_floating_in_the_air_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd6y60c"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"In a nutshell, because you are moving just as (or nearly) fast as the earth is spinning regardless if you are on the ground or in the air. In order to travel you would need to exert force to propel or decelerate yourself in relation to the momentum of the earth.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1733rg | why are there insurance commercials on nickelodeon? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1733rg/eli5_why_are_there_insurance_commercials_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"c81r1si"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"Parents watch the shows with their kids. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7qko5x | how is it possible certain animals, lions for example, maintain their strength and muscle mass when they are inactive for the majority of their lives? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7qko5x/eli5_how_is_it_possible_certain_animals_lions_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"dspwh70"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Cats rest for 18 hours a day.. not actual \"sleep\" but you are right, they are mostly inactive for 18 hours. \n\nWhen lions are young they are super playful, just like domestic kittens. Even as adults when they are active/awake they are pretty physical. What they eat is pure protein. Cats are obligate carnivores they need to eat meat (unlike dogs), this meat helps build muscle mass, which they do exercise when awake because when they are awake they are hunting, fighting, or playing.. all of which help them to maintain their muscle mass."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4nmlq0 | why did some nations, like turkey, brazil, and canada, change their capital to a relatively minor city compared to the previous capital? | Turkey, historically, has their capital in Istanbul, a major, world stage, city since roman times, but their capital is Ankara, which is in the middle of Turkey and less populous than Istanbul. It currently has 5 million inhabitants, but when it was first made the capital it had less than 100,000 inhabitants. Why was this, at the time, minor city made into a national capital? Similarly, the biggest Brazilian cities have been Rio de Januero, and Sao Paulo historically. Yet their capital was moved from Rio to a deep inland city, which was basically invented to be a capital, rather than a pre-existing good candidate city. Furthermore, Canada's biggest cities are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Ottawa has less than 20% of Vancouver's population, yet is the national capital. Australia's capital is Canberra, while there are 7 more populous cities in Australia than Canberra. Sidney has 12 times more people than Canberra.
There are many more countries I know whose capital is not the most important city in the country. Not historically, not in population, no reason other than the government making it so. Why is there a relatively consistent theme of countries making minor cities national capitals? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4nmlq0/eli5_why_did_some_nations_like_turkey_brazil_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d454vhj",
"d455l8t",
"d455n00",
"d45ibrt",
"d45miqf",
"d45o4id",
"d45sqr8"
],
"score": [
4,
14,
9,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"To my understanding, in the case of Turkey ( can't speak to the other two ), Ankara was chosen as it was centrally located and better represented Turkey than Istanbul which was a part of mainland Europe and at the very western edge of the country.",
"Ottawa was chosen as the capital of Canada for its location. It was almost equally close to Montreal and Toronto, the two major cities and was close to the center of the country at the time. It was also far enough away from the U.S. border to be safe from attack.\n\nMost major commercial cities will be near a body of water to make shipping and trade easier. You didn't want your capital city to be that accessible to outsiders in case of an attack though.",
"The trend was started a little before the French Revolution by King Louis, who moved his court from Paris to the nearby small town of Versailles.\n\nA capital city needs to provide a place for governors to live, adequate restaurants for them to host each other, and nothing else. Larger cities do not provide any advantages to a capital - quite the opposite, the added traffic, higher land costs, and larger potential protester populations can be detrimental.\n\nFew nations keep their capitals in their largest cities for these reasons. Your capital will simply be better at being a capital if there's no one living in it who isn't a member of government. Those that do keep their capitals in their largest cities do so out of a sense of tradition - it would be very hard to move the capital of Great Britain to Ipswitch or Cambridge, even though it might make it easier to actually govern.",
"The capital city of Pakistan was changed from Karachi to a purpose built city Islamabad because the rulers realized that Karachi was indefensible in the event of an Indian ground invasion. Islamabad is surrounded by hills so it is in a more defensible location. So that's one example for you.\n\nOf course these days both sides have nuclear missiles so perhaps it wasn't such a great idea after all.",
"Hey! I'm a brazilian, and I can answer at least in regard to Rio!\n\nThere is a lot more to it than that, but basically, rio was very vulnerable to being attacked. If any country wanted to invade Brazil, rio being right on the beach made it much easier for them. So they wanted a capital that was inland. There are a lot of other factors that led to this change, but this was one of the most important.",
"Istanbul is located on the seaside, vulnerable to sea invasions. Ankara is in the middle of the country, it's safer and more difficult to access from the sea. Turkey's strength has traditionally been land warfare, not sea warfare.\n\nRio de Janiero and Sao Paolo are located on the seaside, vulnerable to sea invasion. Brasilia is in the middle of the country, it's safer and more difficult to access from the sea. Brasil has been traditionally invaded and conquered by the seafaring Portuguese, so it's aversion to rivals such as British Empire's navy has forced it to move deeper inland.\n\nMyanmar (Burma) specifically built a brand new capital (Naypyidaw) in the middle of the country (surrounded by jungles) because it feared US/UK naval invasion at Rangoon (largest city, former capital) which was on the seaside/coast.\n\nCanada's capital, probably desired equi-distant to major cities on both Pacific/Atlantic coast, and didn't want to be vulnerable to naval invasion by foreigners like British navy if they ever wanted to restore glory again.",
"First of all, it pays to remember that the United States also belongs to this category. Washington DC is _not_ the country's largest and is certainly not its most important from a cultural (and arguably emotional) standpoint. That title, although likely contested, is probably best claimed by New York.\n\nHence the idea that the capital _has_ to be the largest and most populous city is a flawed one to begin with. For one thing, the capital may _not_ be representative of the country as a whole - but of a particular ethnic group.\n\nTake for instance the case of the Philippines. The capital is the largest city - Manila - which is dominated by the Tagalog ethnic group. This has resulted in other ethnic groups - particularly the Visayans who are now the majority population-wise - to dub the capital as \"Imperial Manila\" trying to impose wrong-headed programs on them. Some groups, particularly the Moro Muslims, have essentially _never_ accepted Manila rule which is why their regions are still in the midst of insurgency. Indeed, all this discontent was what helped propel a non-Manila politician (Duterte) to win the recent elections by a substantial plurality, and the said winner is planning to spend much of his time in the other provinces in part to redress these historic grievances. \n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2e6f2a | why are non-independent 'nations', like wales and scotland able to compete in the football world cup? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e6f2a/eli5_why_are_nonindependent_nations_like_wales/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjwhf1t"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"The World Cup is a competition between *football associations*, not *states*. Wales, Scotland and England all have separate football associations, even though they are all part of the single state of the United Kingdom. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2q6yob | if self posts don't get you karma, then how come starting a post with "upvote if..." is against intergalactic law? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q6yob/eli5_if_self_posts_dont_get_you_karma_then_how/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn3f832"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The main issue is that it's begging for upvotes in a title, which is obnoxious and tries to get past the whole \"upvotes are for good content\" thing. If it works, we get a bunch of stuff with people asking for upvotes rather than content worthy of upvoting.\n\nAlso, OP still gets karma by posting comments and OP comments usually get upvoted more than other comments. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3luoux | invest in yourself | I've been advised by my counselor that I need to invest in myself. Only I have no idea what that means or ways to go about it. I'm a walking country song at the moment and she suggested that it might help if I invested in myself, so I'm asking for advice! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3luoux/eli5_invest_in_yourself/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv9fj10",
"cv9gnsh"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It means that you spend your energy, and maybe a little money, on building your own skills, experiences, and character. This can include taking a class, learning a new technical skill, volunteering for a leadership experience, etc.",
"I think what they are getting at is that no matter how bad things get in your life, you need to spend some time bettering yourself. That can be through any number of things. It can be through learning a new skill (language, dance, photoshop, anything you have an interest in), a new activity (joining a kickball league, a yoga class, a softball team, etc.) or even through travel (taking a trip abroad, going to visit family, taking a weekend trip with your friends somewhere close but cool). \n\nGood luck!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3mgzp5 | why don't cars have a dedicated battery just for starting? | It seems totally insane to me that you can get stuck somewhere due to an empty battery because you left your headlights on or spent too long listening to radio. Why does all this non critical crap share the same resource required to start the car? Why don't cars have one battery just for all that, and another small battery exclusively used to start the car? If I understand correctly you just need to create a spark. It shouldn't take too much power, right?
If not that, why is there not some kind of limiter that wouldn't allow you to use the battery below a certain point unless the engine is on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mgzp5/eli5_why_dont_cars_have_a_dedicated_battery_just/ | {
"a_id": [
"cveuaot",
"cveuk9t",
"cveuutt",
"cvevd4c",
"cvf1yrd",
"cvf6t65",
"cvfb0k8",
"cvfczge"
],
"score": [
54,
6,
13,
6,
3,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
" > If I understand correctly you just need to create a spark. It shouldn't take too much power, right?\n\nNo, the starter gives the engine an initial rotation so it can start working on its own. Car engines can't start on their own, they need an external motor to spin them up first, which usually draws a lot of current.",
"The battery is actually there *purely* to start the car. Once running, your lights, radio, etc, are operating off of the alternator which turns the rotation of the engine into electric. ",
"It's common for boats to have a separate battery for the starter motor and another to run lights and whatever else you need. They go to the extra effort and cost because they tend to be bigger and have more space to store another battery, and the consequences of being in the middle of the sea and unable to start the engine tend to be worse than being at the side of the road and unable to start your car.",
"Two reasons: weight and cost. If you have two batteries you'll have to maintain and eventually replace two batteries. It will also add weigh to the cars which means higher fuel consumption. It's just not justified for a civilian vehicle especially small or mid size car to have it. However, many commercial and industrial vehicles have two or more batteries, because of their needs, cost and reliability. ",
"There are actually some interesting projects on youtube where you can use cheap capacitors in place of a cranking battery and use a deep cycle battery in place of all the room created by removing the cranking battery. I saw a kick starter project with this design. I dont have the links ..sorry.",
"I didn't see it posted, so just as an aside, several models from Mercedes Benz have a separate battery isolated just for the starter.",
"As lithium batteries get cheaper and consumers demand more from their car, it is becoming feasible to build a lithium battery pack into high end cars. One lead acid battery to crank the starter and one small, lightweight lithium battery tucked away somewhere safe to power all the creature comforts. There could be a button on your key fob that turns on the heater/AC so your car is nice and comfy before you step outside. I think OP has a good idea for the high end market.",
"Late to the party, but here's my 2 cents: Buy a [jump pack](_URL_0_), learn how to use it, keep it in your trunk/back seat, and KEEP IT CHARGED. The one I linked is $80 (you can find cheaper at you local hardware/big box/automotive store) and includes a light and an air compressor for low tires. There are newer, smaller, lighter versions out now with compact lithium ion batteries and phone chargers too. Just make sure the pack supplies enough amps to start you car.\n\nBonus Points: You can now be the hero for other people when they need a boost.\n\nExtra Bonus Points: Keep some basic tools and a plug kit (and learn how to use it). Now you can plug basic tire punctures and fill your tires back up with the air compressor you keep in the trunk. And help other stranded motorists ;)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002X6VXL4"
]
]
|
|
55a3r4 | what are the point of peanuts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55a3r4/eli5_what_are_the_point_of_peanuts/ | {
"a_id": [
"d890sru",
"d8933kl"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Most nuts are the seeds of trees. Peanuts are legumes, but essentially the same thing, a seed for a plant.\n\nThe seed is how the plant reproduces. Wild peanuts are probably fairly small, centuries of selective breeding have made them the large food we eat today.",
"They are just large seeds, the big starchy part we eat is food for the developing seedling. A large seed allows it to grow quickly as a seedling and in the dark (such as survive being planted very deep)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
aklc4q | if current through a wire creates an electromagnetic field doesnt that mean the human body would create one too since the nervous system is essentially just electrons going through thr nervous system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aklc4q/eli5_if_current_through_a_wire_creates_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"ef5s1sf",
"ef5s35j",
"ef5y8tu"
],
"score": [
9,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"There are no free-floating electrons - the nervous system uses charged ions (calcium, sodium, and a few others).\n\nThese charged particles do not travel lengthwise through the axon - the direction of currents is through the axon membrane, perpendicular to the direction of the signal's travel. An action potential (nerve signal) is not a current travelling down the axon, but a chain reaction of tiny currents which each trigger an adjacent one - it is this chain reaction that carries neural signals, not the current itself.\n\nThis means that these electromagnetic fields are extremely tiny and short-lived, and they will not look at all like the magnetic field you are used to seeing from an electrical wire.\n\nEDIT: [This](_URL_0_) was the best ELI5 video I could find - it doesn't go too far into technical detail on how the charge imbalance is maintained, but accurately describes how an action potential travels. This video doesn't even use the word \"current\" - it calls the process of charged particles moving \"diffusion\", which is partly accurate - the charged particles diffuse very rapidly because they are driven by electrical repulsion.",
"Well the body does create all kinds of magnetic fields, they are just really weak. Brain waves are an example. Second, nerves are much more complex than just being electrical circuits. ",
"What has thus far gone unmentioned is that the currents in the human body are not *aligned*.\n\nIn almost all practical applications of magnetic field generation from electrical current you're not only using much higher power levels than are used in the human body, but you're multiplying that effect by setting up the current path such that it reinforces itself. That's why you see 'windings' on motors and electromagnets - it's to take the same current and use it many times over, each time building up a greater magnetic field.\n\nTo understand the importance of aligning magnetic fields, consider a standard power cable you plug into a wall socket. Your wall socket is producing more than enough power to create a nice magnetic field. But the magnetic field produced by the power cable isn't really noticeable because it doesn't have the right geometry to be very effective on the surroundings.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCvlOyjY8E"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
9rw4ch | what did the regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9rw4ch/eli5_what_did_the_regulations_put_in_place_after/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8k4tvu",
"e8kmqux"
],
"score": [
9,
2
],
"text": [
"It basically meant the government was more carefully watching large financial companies so it would be harder for them to engage in the financial fuckery that resulted in the housing crash. The current administration recently walked it back significantly though.",
"It did a lot - far more than can be discussed in an ELI5. \n\nBut the three major things that it did were to restrict banks from being able to participate in the debt insurance market, to restrict banks from being able to participate in the swap market, and to increase the amount of disclosures that banks have to make.\n\n---------------------\n\nThe debt insurance market: Nearly every debt that exists is insured so that whoever wrote the debt still gets paid in the event that the debtor goes bankrupt. \n\nSo lets say that you have a car loan with BigBank. BigBank will go to FatBank and buy an insurance policy on your car loan. This way if you go bankrupt and can't pay BigBank back, BigBank also doesn't go bankrupt. Instead, it goes to FatBank and FatBank pays it. \n\nThe reason that banks do this is that there are legal restrictions on how much risk they are allowed to take on. But, if a loan is insured then it counts as being less risky than it actually is, so banks are legally allowed to take on more risk than they would if the loan was uninsured.\n\nThe problem with this arises if FatBank starts doing the same for BigBank - ie, all of the loans that FatBank makes gets insured by BigBank. \n\nThis situation is the same as if you and your neighbor make an agreement to help each other out in the event of a hurricane. But your agreement will only work if the hurricane only destroys one of your houses. If it destroys both of your houses then neither of you can help the other.\n\nThe problem with such an agreement is that you are both equally exposed to the hurricane - its very likely that if a hurricane comes its going to wipe out both of your houses, and neither of you will be able to help the other.\n\nThe same is true when banks are insuring each other against certain types of loans going bad. The factors that would cause one bank's loans to go bad are likely to cause every banks' loans to go bad at the same time. \n\nSo if BigBank and FatBank are both making the same amount of loans the fact that they are insuring each other doesn't help them. If both banks have $1 million of loans go bad, then they both owe the other $1 million dollars and both still suffer $1 million in loss - which is the exact same position that they would be in if neither was insuring the other's loans in the first place.\n\nThe post 2008 banking regulations severely restricted how banks are allowed to insure their debt so as to prevent this situation from occurring.\n\n------------------------------------\n\nSwap Market: The swap market is similar to the debt insurance market, with some \"swaps\" being identical to debt insurance. However, to insure a debt you have to actually own that debt - you can't get insurance on something you don't own. Swaps don't require you to own anything to \"insure\" it, which means that you can use swaps to gamble on debt.\n\nBut the even bigger issue with swaps is how they used to be treated when banks were doing their accounting. I said earlier that the amount of risks that banks are allowed to take is very heavily regulated. The problem with swaps was that they were not counted as a risky asset under the banking regulations that existed pre-2008.\n\nThis meant that banks could heavily invest in swaps which posed a significant amount of risk to the bank without having that risk counted against them.\n\nThe 2008 regulations both restricted banks' ability to invest in swaps, and changed the accounting requirements that banks are subject to so that swaps were included as a risky asset.\n\n----------------------------------\n\nThe final \"big\" thing that changed was that banks were required to substantially increase the amount of disclosure that they gave to investors who were buying risky assets from them (like swaps).\n\nThe big complaint about this was that it required the bank to provide the disclosures in a lengthy telephone conversation for many transactions which were previously done electronically. \n\n---------------------------------\n\nContrary to what you read on the internet the 2008 regulations have not been repealed. Rather, the regulations only ever applied to banks above a certain size. Originally this minimum size meant that the regulations applied to national and regional banks. Banks that only had a presence in a major city as well as banks in small regions were exempt from many of these regulations.\n\nWhat occurred is that the minimum size requirements were increased so that regional banks are now exempted from many of the restrictions and disclosure requirements. \n\nAny bank that you would recognize as a having a national presence is still likely covered. But banks that only have a presence in a smaller state or region of the country are now likely excepted from these regulations (ie, a bank that only serves a huge state like California is probably still covered; a bank that only serves the small Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska region likely is not). The change to how swaps are treated for accounting purposes still affects all banks, however."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3f7dlm | why doesn't gatorade taste salty with so much salt in it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f7dlm/eli5_why_doesnt_gatorade_taste_salty_with_so_much/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctlyz7u",
"ctlz1xn"
],
"score": [
2,
10
],
"text": [
"It doesn't really have all that much salt in it. Something like seawater has many times the salt concentration of a drink like Gatorade. Additionally, gatorade has lots of sugar that covers up any salt you might taste.",
"Gatorade contains salts, but not *a ton* of table salt. \nA salt is just a bonded pair of ions. NaCl is table salt. \nGatorade has some of that, but it also has a bunch of various other salts like sodium citrate and monopotassium phosphate; neither of which would taste salty *per se*. \n \nThen Gatorade covers up whatever salty flavor there might be by adding about one metric shit-load of sugar. \n \n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
263z66 | so if chinese written language is picture characters, how do they write complicated words like "methyl hydroxy acetate"? | Surely they don't have words for every possible complicated scientific word?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/263z66/eli5_so_if_chinese_written_language_is_picture/ | {
"a_id": [
"chnepgm",
"chnevmg",
"chnf1si",
"chnf4xf",
"chnfa6i",
"chnfhel",
"chnmz0u",
"chnovu6",
"chnp6ku",
"chnr2by",
"chnvdwh",
"chnwmj6",
"chnxqfk",
"chnxuha",
"chnz8cz"
],
"score": [
45,
924,
28,
19,
3,
2,
11,
10,
3,
7,
6,
2,
5,
3,
5
],
"text": [
"\"Methyl hydroxy acetate\" is also not a single word, but put together (\"methylene\", \"hydrogen\", \"acid\" or something). The Chinese do pretty much the same, but for all words. Eg \"helicopter\" is zhishengji (直升机), translating to \"straight lift device\", with three characters: straight, lift, and device.",
"Chinese relies on a lot of compound words, where single-character words are put together to build up specific meaning. For example, telephone is 电话/dian4hua4, which literally means \"electric talk\", bicycle is 自行车/zi4xing2che1 which literally means \"self-going vehicle\" i.e. a vehicle which you cause to move yourself.\n\nIt works the same way with complicated chemical names too, they build up meaning until the entire concept has been established. For example, while it's not as complicated as your own example, potassium carbonate in Chinese is 碳酸钾/tan4suan1jia3, where the first character means \"carbon\", the second character meaning \"acid\" and the third meaning \"potassium\".\n\nChinese has its names and characters for every element on the periodic table too: some, like carbon, are built up natively - The character for carbon is built up of the stone, mountain and fire radicals (\"building blocks\" of a character). Potassium is built by combining the radical for metal with a phonetic character (jia) which gives it its pronunciation, which in this example came from **Ka**lium, latin for potassium.\n\nEDIT: Extra information! Provided every character is in the same script (traditional Chinese or simplified, which is the one I use) you can also immediately know (with exactly two possible exceptions, but even they do follow the rule irregularly) what state the element is simply by looking at its character, and also whether it's a metal or not. E.g. 锇 is a metal as to the left of the character there is the radical for metal, 氯 is a gas as to the top and right is the gas radical and 溴 is a liquid as to the left is the water radical. 硅 is a non-metal solid as the left has a stone radical.\n\nFinally, to provide a non-chemical example of an extremely complex term, 大型强子对撞机 is Large Hadron Collider in Chinese. Literal meaning is \"large-scale hadron colliding machine\" which can further be broken down into \"large type strong [small hard thing] opposing collision machine.\" It's all about taking very simple ideas until they build up into something complex.",
"Very few Chinese characters are actually pictures. They're just sets of symbols(called radicals) that fit together in various ways to represent ideas. \n\nPicture characters:馬 horse 龜 turtle. \n\nSimilar looking characters with completely different meanings: 青，请，清，情，静，精，倩。 the repeating part of the characters is 青 which can mean green,blue, black, or young.\n Complex ideas are broken down into compounds just like in English. Hippopotamus is from Greek. It means river horse. It Chinese it is 河馬. Literally \"river horse\". Endothermic is 吸热的. Which means \"absorbs-heat-adjective\". Which is very similar to the English and perhaps even simpler because it doesn't rely on another language to form the word.\n\nI don't know what methyl hydroxy acetate is in Chinese but Id guess it's 甲基羟基乙酸. Not one character.\n\nBonus edit: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is 火山矽肺病[huoshan,xi,feibing] in Chinese. Or literally\" fire-mountain(volcano)-silicon-lung-disease\"",
"They only seem complicated because most of them are unfamiliar Greek and/or Latin words. But in those languages they're often very primitive words from which we form the scientific compound words. For example the word \"acid\" is simply a Latin derivative of the word \"sour\" (think lemons). So the difference is that in English we use a lot of borrowed words to form scientific compound words whereas in Chinese they are more likely to use more native terms.",
"They shorten it to methyl glycolate. Much easier :)\n\nBut jokes aside, would be interesting to have an idea how Chinese compose some really long and weird organic molecule names.",
"Sometimes, we use just write/type it in English.",
"It's not pictures. Some of the most literal words are pictures, like 日, meaning day or sun. Some are more abstract. For example, I'm not sure if 寺 was ever supposed to look like a temple or not, but it certainly doesn't have any usefulness as a picture today. The real genius of the system, though, is the radicals. Most characters consist of multiple radicals. The one on the left or top indicates the semantic domain, in other words, it gives you a clue about what the word is about. The one on the right or bottom gives you a clue as to the pronunciation. For example, if we combine 日 and 寺 we get 時, which means time or hour. The first radical tells us it's something to do with the sun or the day, and the second radical is included just to tell us that it happens to rhyme with the word for temple.\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is a wonderful article about using this system to write English words!",
"Chinese is not really pictographic. Only about 5% of characters are pictographs.",
"For those interested in how the organic compounds are named in Chinese, see _URL_0_",
"Chinese is not picture characters, they're concept/idea characters.\n\nMore complex ideas are made by combining the component concepts.\n\nThis is why a lot of the characters look nothing like their meanings and many look like a whole lot of confusing.",
"I went for something close that has a Wikipedia article for reference, [methyl acetate](_URL_2_). The Chinese Wikipedia article is [乙酸甲酯](_URL_1_).\n\n乙酸甲酯 is a compound of 乙酸 *yǐsuān* \"acetic acid\", 甲 *jǐa* \"first\", and 酯 *zhǐ* \"ester\". Chinese names for complex things are often descriptive compounds like this. Interestingly, in the [article about Chinglish](_URL_0_), reference is made to a small experiment that found that literal translations of the Chinese names for mathematical concepts were more readily understandable than the English names: \"median\", for example, is 中位数 *zhōngwèishù* \"center position number\".",
"Most of the time, for scientific stuff like methyl hydroxy acetate, they write it out in the same notation we use, like (CH3COOH for acetic, etc). or they just list out the names of the chemicals in order, like 2-oxygen carbon (for CO2). \n\nThey dont use a single word for each complex scientific word, but you can piece the elemental names together, just like how in english we piece together methyl, hydroxy, and acetate to form that word. ",
"Chinese written language is not all picture images. The very basics are images, but highly stylized. The Chinese view the characters as letters, not images.",
"Chinese guy here. Just like our names are made up of words of pictures that make pronouns, we can just do that with any new word! magical!",
"Anything complicated like that they just use some characters that SOUND like the English variant. (i.e. McDonalds = mai dang lao)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi.htm"
],
[],
[
"http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E7%83%83"
],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish#History",
"https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%99%E9%85%B8%E7%94%B2%E9%85%AF",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_acetate"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
o978u | what's the difference between kids who are up for adoption, and foster children? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o978u/whats_the_difference_between_kids_who_are_up_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3fea74"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"foster children are generally those taken from their families for one reason or another (by social services/child protective services) could be for neglect, abuse, the parent is mentally unstable; a whole slew of reasons. I believe generally, the parent would still have visitation rights to see the child, and could potentially regain legal custody at some point in the future.\n\nChildren up for adoption - could be that a child was born and the mother immediately gave it up for adoption; parents died and no family member can or will take it; basically where the parents can't or won't take the child, then someone can adopt the child from the rightful parents. It's weird though, because I've heard numerous stories of foster children that get adopted by various peoples.\n\nI know I'm not giving info on the whole story here, but it's how I understand the differences. Hopefully someone else can add to or correct me and give a full understanding."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7e24kw | if the presumption of innocence is a legal right then why are people arrested and why are some people kept in jail for years before their trial? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7e24kw/eli5_if_the_presumption_of_innocence_is_a_legal/ | {
"a_id": [
"dq1v9zf",
"dq1vld9",
"dq1xgre",
"dq1zc0w"
],
"score": [
6,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"If you’re talking about the US, that isn’t supposed to happen. The Constitution guarantees the right to a speedy trial.\n\nIt does still happen because people’s constitutional rights are violated all the time.",
"The presumption of innocence has to be balanced with the safety of the general public, and the pursuit of justice. If someone has been accused of something really, *really* bad, there's a very real chance that they'll just flee the country if you don't hold them in a cell until the trial.\n\nThe way that we normally balance this is by using bail. Bail is money that you give to the court for them to hold. They then let you out of jail until your trial. When your trial is complete (and you showed up for all of it), you get your money back.\n\nThe greater the crime, and the more likely someone is to flee to escape trial, the higher the bail amount is. And if the potential flight threat is too high, the person might not be offered bail.\n\nBut people are generally not held in a cell for years before trial. The US constitution mandates a \"right to a speedy trial\", and someone will generally not be held for more than a few months before a trial *must* commence (unless the state has a very compelling reason to delay the trial, in which case the accused can file a petition with the court to start the trial earlier if he/she has been held for an inordinate amount of time).",
"You have a right to a speedy trial, but you have to assert that right. When trials are delayed years it's the defense's doing, as it's advantageous for them for the trial to occur later. Memories fade, and witnesses disappear. Having a trial soon after the alleged crime is great for the prosecution.",
"Being kept in jail pending trial isn't punishment, it is an assurance that you won't run away. Most defendants are released on bond awaiting trial, only those who can't afford it, present a clear danger to society, or are a flight risk remain confined.\n\nMost countries have guarantees of a speedy trial, but the exact meaning of that can be subjective. Also, defense attorneys will often waive that right if it is in the interest of their defendant. This happens a lot when it is clear the defendant will be going to prison, the only question is how long. In such cases, credit for the time served before the trial is often given."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
238tcs | what's happening when someone lifts heavy weights and then promptly passed out after setting them down | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/238tcs/eli5_whats_happening_when_someone_lifts_heavy/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgul7mj"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It's called vasovagal syncope. Basically your blood pressure drops from you bearing down to lift the weights. This makes the blood rush away from the brain which causes you to pass out."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
q39qr | the difference between religion and spirituality. | Is it possible to be one without the other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q39qr/eli5_the_difference_between_religion_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3udfa2"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Religion = ritual\n\nSpirituality has different meanings for different people or different groups of people. For myself and my group, it is focusing on the spiritual side of things and not getting caught up in the ritual. It means thinking about the \"why.\" When people are doing the same things over and over again, it's easy to forget why they are doing them."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1mvvxt | faster than light travel | In this thread :[ELI5: How can the universe already be infinite if its still expanding](_URL_0_) it was stated a few times that objects at the edge of the known universe are moving away at a speed faster than that of light. How? Isn't light supposed to be the supposed "universal speed limit" that nothing can travel faster than? What is going on here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mvvxt/eli5faster_than_light_travel/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccd3c8g"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"the speed of light is the universal speed limit for objects moving THROUGH space. the expansion of the universe is the expansion of space itself and has no known speed limit. galaxies are like dots drawn on the surface of a balloon that is being blown up. they move apart as the balloon expands."
]
} | []
| [
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mv2fu/eli5_how_can_the_universe_already_be_infinite_if/"
]
| [
[]
]
|
|
cwl6mg | what does it mean for the uk government to ask the queen to suspend parliament? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cwl6mg/eli5what_does_it_mean_for_the_uk_government_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"eycgdkg"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"In Commonwealth countries, the Queen or her representatives (Governors General) are technically the head of state. This gives them fairly broad powers including to open and close the legislative assembly. These powers are generally exercised only at the request of the currently governing party or less commonly at the request of the legislature as a whole (this is by unspoken convention as the position of head of state in these countries is largely symbolic today).\n\nWhat Boris is doing is trying to close down the parliament to help run down the clock to the end of October. The only mechanism available to topple a government in these legislatures is for them to lose a vote of confidence or on a matter of confidence like a budget. By suspending parliament until mid-October, he can avoid that situation until it would be too late for that move to stop hard Brexit.\n\nI guess a shorter ELI5 would be he's like a kid who thinks he might lose at a board game, so he wants Mom to pack it up until closer to bed time so that when he plays again, his opponents won't have the time to beat him before they need to go to bed."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
dcmala | why do prison sentences vary so drastically for the same crime in the us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dcmala/eli5_why_do_prison_sentences_vary_so_drastically/ | {
"a_id": [
"f293e2q",
"f294tvh",
"f299tjp",
"f29aajh"
],
"score": [
6,
41,
23,
5
],
"text": [
"A number of factors, consisting of the circumstances and general key points of said crime.\n\nAlso it depends on crime history, like have you done this before, or something else before.",
"1. Judges have some discretion in deciding the sentence and do so by weighing the specific factors involved. \n2. Many crimes are prosecuted at the State level not the Federal level. The individual States have their own guidelines and there is no requirement that they completely align.",
"Because there is no such thing as \"the same crime\". Each crime is unique, we just group them into convenient categories.\n\nWithin a category, crimes can have different degrees of severity, consequence, and malicious intent, judges and juries example each case to determine what punishments are appropriate.",
"Imagine your 5 year old self taking a candy from a store. Now imagine your current self taking candy from a store. There are lots of factors that go into sentencing, and since every individual is unique in this world, no two crimes are the same. That’s why there can be such a difference."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
6nhvyf | how does gravity sort work? | I've recently become addicted to watching sorting algorithm videos, and I understand most of them. However, one confuses me: Gravity Sort. How does it work? I checked Wikipedia, but I'm not smart enough to understand any of it. Can somebody please explain it to me? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nhvyf/eli5_how_does_gravity_sort_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"dk9orl1"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Ok, so I will tackle this sorting method. The idea is to do the same sort of thing which gravity would do with an abacus if you represented a series of numbers vertically by counting beads in a number of horizontal columns.\n\nFor example if you had a series of numbers: \"1, 5, 2, 8, 6\" you would need 8 columns in total. The first row would have one bead in the first and the rest empty, the second row would have a bead in the first five columns and the rest empty, etc.\n\nNow imagine you turned this arrangement vertically and allowed all the beads to slide down to the bottom of the abacus unless stopped by another bead. Your list would be sorted with the largest number on the bottom and the smallest on the top, right?\n\nThe programming implementation of this idea is to make a one-dimensional array and to iterate an element of the array according to the number input. So for example if you input the \"1\" you would only iterate the first element, when you input the \"5\" you would need to expand the array so you could iterate the first five elements by one, etc.\n\nFor our above example of inputting \"1, 5, 2, 8, 6\" you would be left with an array of \"5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1\". In essence we have compressed the values of our input into the second array but destroyed information about the order. To sort the values we need merely reconstruct the list by iterating each element of the array down, pulling one from each of them provided they are above zero.\n\nSo we would start with the \"5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1\" and pull one from each element to yield an \"8\", leaving us with an array of \"4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 0, 0\".\n\nWe do it again and get a \"6\" and the array \"3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0\".\n\nWe do it again and get a \"5\" and the array \"2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0\".\n\nWe do it again and get a \"2\" and the array \"1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0\".\n\nWe do it again and get a \"1\" and the array \"0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0\".\n\nWe are left with the sequence \"8, 6, 5, 2, 1\" which is our desired sorted list in reverse order!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1udzpz | why does it feel more comfortable when i cross my one leg over the other while sleeping? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1udzpz/eli5_why_does_it_feel_more_comfortable_when_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceh3pvm"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Your reasons for feeling more comfortable in a certain position (such as with one leg crossed over the other) could range from better circulation and rest for a muscle that works hard in your day to day life to simple optimum sensory stimulation (pressure, friction). Everybody has different preferences for how much sensory input they like, and at what times. For some people, crossing a leg or sleeping with a comforter no matter what the temperature is what they like best. Think of people with autism who can't stand tags versus kids with ADD who improve significantly when they wear compression shirts. Different people have different thresholds. \n\nPersonally, I twist to get comfortable when going to sleep and also prefer to cross one leg over the other and tuck my arms in. I look like twisted mummy. \n\nTL;DR It feels better because it's in your ideal range for touch. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1strs5 | why do most us schools have children get up before the crack of dawn to go to school? | Seems like a simple question. I know people that get up as early as 4-ish to get to school. Isn't this unhealthy? Doesn't it make more sense for school to be from like 9 to 5 instead of 7 to 2 (at least where I'm from)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1strs5/eli5_why_do_most_us_schools_have_children_get_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"ce15ahj",
"ce15ba5",
"ce1677a",
"ce18k1t",
"ce1999n",
"ce19bay",
"ce1at3f",
"ce1bnbx"
],
"score": [
39,
48,
11,
3,
8,
30,
3,
8
],
"text": [
"Couple reasons. One, they re-use bus fleets, so they can't have all the levels of school (elementary/middle/high) start at the same time. Two, most parents have to be at work by 9, and therefore need to have their kids off to school well before then.",
"The American workday is typically 9-5, and parents need to get their children fed/clothed/etc and on the bus or dropped off and still able to get to work on time.",
"When I was a kid, school started at 8, which is hardly \"the crack of dawn,\" though I would have loved a noon-ish start time. ",
"What parts of America are you referring to here?\n\nI'm not sure, but if there is a long distance between home and school, then they may get up earlier to allow for travel time. Or, they may have other duties/chores to do before leaving in the morning. I think those raised on farms in the bread basket [Indiana or there abouts] would had to have done something for the animals/crops before leaving for school\n\nThis is mostly speculation, but it might explain some of the reasons",
"I got up at 6:45 in high school. Not that bad",
"Because schools are not designed to maximize learning, they are designed as a baby sitting convenience so that both parents can work.",
"No kid gets up at 4 to go to school. Put the crack pipe down. ",
"From what I've learned, the American education system works like when America was still a farming nation.\n\nSchool starts at the crack of dawn because that's when the day started for farmers, and they'd get out around 1-3 so they could get home and help on said farm."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2rmuic | why should you not watch tv/be on a computer etc before going to sleep, and why are those worse than doing other activities before sleeping? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rmuic/eli5_why_should_you_not_watch_tvbe_on_a_computer/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnhcz8y"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"A hormone called melatonin regulates your internal clock. This hormone's production is inhibited by light received by your eyes in the blue spectrum. The sun produces all of the visible color spectrum, resulting in white light. Thus the blue light from the sun inhibits melatonin production during the day and you don't feel sleepy.\n\nOnce the sun goes down, there is a lack of blue light and melatonin starts being produced and you begin to feel like it's time for bed. White lightbulbs, TVs, and computer/phone screens all produce blue light thus inhibiting your natural melatonin production and possibly keeping you up later than normal.\n\nThis means than warm colored lightbulbs are better for night time. There are also applications for computers and phones to make their displays a warmer color to help prevent the reduction in melatonin levels."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
57cxaq | how exactly do our vocal cords work and what it is in how they're formed that makes us all sound different? how does our voice become our voice? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57cxaq/eli5_how_exactly_do_our_vocal_cords_work_and_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8r7itk",
"d8rc8g0"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Our vocal cords are two flaps in our lower throat that we can vibrate against each other by passing varying strengths and amounts of air through. We can either tense or relax them to help us form a variety of sounds. They act like two flaps of paper held together when you blow air between them.\n\nOur voice is a musical instrument. The shape and size of our vocal cords, throat, mouth, nose, etc. all effect our voices. On top of that, people can consciously and unconsciously choose to alter what their voices sounds like. And then of course speakers tend to reflect the people they're surrounded by for a period of time.",
"Vocal cords, or folds, are folds of mucous lined tissue that abduct and adduct rapidly, or vibrate when air rushes through the larynx. This change from air pressure to sound wave travels through the vocal tract (pharynx, oral/nasal cavity) and creates your voice. On their own, vocal folds only create a buzzing sound. But when the air travels through it resonates and creates the sound of our voice. \n\nWhat makes our voices unique is the size of the vocal folds and our articulators (tongue, palate, lips, teeth etc). Typically, women have shorter vocal folds and smaller articulators which cause their voices to be higher than a mans. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
755d01 | entropy of space | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/755d01/eli5_entropy_of_space/ | {
"a_id": [
"do3nntz",
"do3v23q"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"If you have a glass of water at 60F, in a room that is 70F, energy from the room will exchange with the water, and eventually you will have water and room at the same temperature (slightly less than 70F, given a completely closed system).\n\n\nSpace is the same. Imagine that all of space consists of one star. Space is 0 degrees K and the star is 6000 degrees K. Eventually the star will burn up all of its fuel, and die. Over billions of years the heat energy of the star will dissipate into space, and the space will be a uniform temperature again.",
"Excited atoms produce heat.\n\nHeat, by its very nature, flows from hot to cold.\n\nOver time, these \"warmer\" atoms will transfer the heat to the \"colder\" atoms to balance out.\n\nEntropy is the change in heat over time of a system. The \"system,\" in this case, is the universe.\n\nSo, if the Universe is your living room, with you, your oven, your air conditioner, and your freezer in it, over a long enough time period everything will become room temperature."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2u78ud | why are escalators so narrow? | I never see wide escalators, similar to wide staircases where multiple people can move at different speed. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u78ud/eli5_why_are_escalators_so_narrow/ | {
"a_id": [
"co5r3iy"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"London: _URL_0_\n\n\nThey are not wider, but people are good at \"STAND ON THE RIGHT, WALK ON THE LEFT\"."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://imgur.com/qfGEazR"
]
]
|
|
61jrih | why isn't there technology to mimic voices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61jrih/eli5_why_isnt_there_technology_to_mimic_voices/ | {
"a_id": [
"dff1dwb",
"dff4l3e"
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text": [
"Actually we do.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe reason its so complicated is because we have so many dialects, accents, and speaking mannerisms. The program itself needs (I believe) a minute of speech from the subject before mimicing the speech.",
"Hoverboards are easy; you counter the force of gravity by pushing a predictable amount of air down with a predictable speed.\n\nSimulating faces or voices, with complete photo- and audio- realism, however, is difficult, because our brains pay special attention to faces and voices, and can detect even the smallest defect.\n\nYou should look up [Uncanny Valley](_URL_0_); as simulations become closer and closer to the real thing, there's a point where they suddenly get creepy, because the simulations are good enough to look or sound real, but there's something wrong about the movement or the tone, and our brains detect it immediately.\n\nThere's no such issue with gravity: you need more lift, you just put in more power. You need finer control, you just need finer control over the power and angle of the propellers."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/adobe-voco-photoshop-for-audio-speech-editing/"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley"
]
]
|
||
d0togf | how do bus routes and time schedule got planned and designed by the government in big cities? | I believe there should be an algorithm or using statistics of some kinds to plan the route for the buses as well as determining the frequencies of the buses. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d0togf/eli5_how_do_bus_routes_and_time_schedule_got/ | {
"a_id": [
"ezd8pw1",
"ezd99x3"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"The CTA here in Chicago realllllllly needs to ask themselves that question. Their schedules are so unpredictable and bizarre. It’s almost like they said “fuck it, this is a busy neighborhood, let’s just throw out 4 buses an hour and hopefully all goes well!”",
"You ever ride a bus and see the driver jotting notes? That was the old way, marking times to stops and passenger numbers. Now it's automated, but like all traffic controls they compute passenger demand with drive times and coordinate those city wide to create a schedule."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
62ql4s | why was the game go so much harder for computers to beat than other games like chess? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62ql4s/eli5_why_was_the_game_go_so_much_harder_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfoozhu"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because the board size at 19x19 tiles is much larger that most other games, and you can place stones almost everywhere as a legal move. So there are far more possible moves - and in the early game (which is crucial), there are no simple restrictions on which moves can be good. Grandmasters often spend half a day doing the first 10 moves.\n\nThis means that a \"brute force\" approach of computing all possible moves several moves ahead and seeing which ones give better results is completely futile, even if you try to restrict it to moves that make sense - because so many moves potentially make sense. \n\nSo in order to beat human masters, computers actually had to learn the strategy of the game, which is very complex and hard to put into rigid rules. This was possible using specific kinds of neural networks, which were fully developed only recently, because they also require a large amount of computing power, but they use it much smarter than the brute force approach mentioned above."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
9lvpms | why do archeologists normally dig to find stuff? how did they get buried in the first place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9lvpms/eli5_why_do_archeologists_normally_dig_to_find/ | {
"a_id": [
"e79rfy5",
"e79rg0y",
"e79ribn",
"e79sqxa"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"As time passes by in a remote area, dust, dirt, ash, debris, and other particles fall from the air to cover the site.\n\nAssuming the site is abandoned, there will be no one to remove these layers of sediment and the area gets covered up.\n\nThis can take anywhere from 1 to thousands of years, based on the climate and makeup of the area. Sandy deserts can reclaim an area very quickly, for example.\n\nSites can also be buried by human activity, like building a new city on the ruins of an older one.",
"Let say you have a stash of toys. You played it all a lot but then you misplaced some of them. Maybe behind the drawer. And you forget to search for it (because it is no longer your fav toy). \n\nAnd then one day, maybe when you're 7 years old when your mom nagging you to clean up your room and you found out your toy. What is the condition? Covered in dust right? \n\nSame thing for stuff digged by archaeologist. The dust in this case is dirt, sands and shit cause by wind blowing over them, changing climate and stuff. And the process took thousands of years of neglecting and forgotten by human being.",
"Wind, dirt, and time. Wind will naturally blow dirt snd cover things over thousands of years. Humans as a species also have a tendency to just build over old things. Some key cities like istanbul for example are several layers deep. Where its prime real estate so people just cover then build on top of the old stuff.\n\nAlso humans/animals are pretty good scavengers. If it isn’t buried someone probably grabbed and sold it.\n\nAo archeologists have to dig to find a lot of the stuff they want.",
"The reson that dig is that it is in the ground that most stuff that have been preserved is. Most old stuff did not get covered but a lot less of that survived on the surface but there are exceptions. So you have to look where stuff exist.\n\nA large part of the item that are found is from garbage piles, foundation of buildings, deliberately buried. other stuff that become a part of the ground or surface.\n\nOther part is stuff that was abandoned and the plants, particle that wind move, floods or other stuff can cover it."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
qqoqs | the difference between confucianism and taoism | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qqoqs/eli5_the_difference_between_confucianism_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3zpbaa",
"c3zxx50"
],
"score": [
11,
2
],
"text": [
"Confucianism and Taoism (pronounced Daoism) were competing philosophies in ancient China. Confucian philosophers thought that human nature was essentially unrefined, and that we needed ordered relationships to better ourselves. Confucians codified 5 or 6 different relationships (parent to child, lover to lover, friend to friend, master to servant, sibling to sibling) and emphasized them in their rule. When Confucians were in power they had a system based on subjective decisions made by judges.\n\nTaoists are similar to Buddhists. They believe that the goal for one's life is just live in harmony with oneself and immediate surroundings, and try to bring peace and balance to your life and family. No matter what happened to you-- good or bad, you should be able to smile and think \"ahh, I'm glad to be living life\".\n\nPolitically, the Taoists were connected to the Strategist and Legalist schools of thought. The Legalists believe that there should be common law that could be applied equally to everyone. Since the Confucian judges gave individualized decisions based on Confucian thought, the Legalists accused them of being effected by favoritism and bribes. The Strategists were connected to the Taoists because of their shared love for reflective thought. The ancient board game Go was favored by the Taoists & their allies, because one had to accept balance against one's opponent, and because of the zen frame of mind it creates in a player.\n\nA great painting comparing Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is the Vinegar Tasters. _URL_0_\n\nFrom wikipedia:\n\n > The three men are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively. Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of his religion: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state.",
"*Compiled from page 10 of Burton Watson's Introduction to his translation of the Zhuangzi: Basic Writings*\n\nIn Han times, they were not viewed as rival philosophies, but rather as two complementary doctrines. Confucianism, with its emphasis upon moral guidance of the people, is an ethical and political system for the conduct of public and family life. Taoism, being basically apolitical, is a mystical philosophy for the spiritual nourishment of the individual.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_tasters"
],
[]
]
|
||
a1qzdv | vitamins and suppliments | If I take vitamins or others suppliments (not protein) such as anti-flu, immune boosting on an empty stomach, dont they or a part of them get converted to energy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1qzdv/eli5_vitamins_and_suppliments/ | {
"a_id": [
"eas0p43",
"eas16cx"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"There are virtually zero calories in most vitamins and other supplements you mentioned. The body can only use certain substances (mainly those containing carbon and hydrogen) for fuel ",
"Just remember, unless you have a significant medical issue (which includes trying to get pregnant/being pregnant) you do not need to take any extra vitamins or supplements if you have a balanced diet."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2appcp | how do the mental processes of people with down syndrome differ from people without it? | (serious) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2appcp/eli5_how_do_the_mental_processes_of_people_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"cixq4aq",
"cixrai6"
],
"score": [
18,
4
],
"text": [
"People process their environment using their I.Q. and their emotional intelligence. Language skills are particularly important. If someoneone doesn't have a word for something, they can neither process nor remember it. (This is why you cannot recall your infancy. You did not yet have an active vocabulary to categorize and process the things you were seeing and experiencing.)\nTypically, a person with Down Syndrome has an I.Q. aproximating that of a child 8 years of age or younger. This means that they also have the vocabulary and reasoning ability of a very young child. Also, much like young children, Down Syndrome people may not have a clear division between the two hemispheres of the brain (as a normal adult does). This inhibits their ability to distinguish between fantasy an reality, between the truth and a lie. The creative side of their brain and the logic center do not correctly categorize information. Also, the transference of learned information from the short term memory to long term memory is compromised in Down Syndrome people. This is why they have difficulty learning new information and skills, and may not recall things like family vacations or certain birthdays unless something unusual happened that would act as a \"place marker\" to assist in categorizing the memory.",
"Aside from the obvious physical problems, people with Down's are usually not exposed to the same kinds of harsh realities as people who function normally.\n\nFor instance, it's rare to see someone with Down's worried about how they're going to pay their bills, whether or not their job is fulfilling, whether or not they have any real friends, etc.\n\nPeople generally are friendly when interacting with people who have Down's, so they're usually surrounded by a more cheerful atmosphere.\n\nSo not only do they usually have cognitive deficits, but they don't usually pick up on sarcasm or nuance, or any attempts at complex interaction. \n\n\nSource: home care worker for DD adults for about 3 years."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
92levf | what makes a stomach a "weak stomach" or a "strong stomach"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92levf/eli5_what_makes_a_stomach_a_weak_stomach_or_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"e36lhz7",
"e37f67s"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"In terms of a person’s character, someone with a weak stomach usually means they can’t handle the sight of gross things. Blood, vomit, injuries, etc. Someone with a strong stomach can. My father and I are both unfazed by injuries and gruesome things often examine each other’s injuries. My mother gags at the sight of blood from a paper cut.\n\nPhysiologically, someone with a weak stomach can’t handle certain foods and knows they are sensitive to some ingredients. Some people with so called “strong stomachs” can eat like 15 rotten eggs and be perfectly fine. The human body is a weird, fragile thing.",
"Just to add to what others have said, exposure is part of it. If you are exposed to stimuli people might consider grisly often enough, you will stop being significantly affected by it. The people who're raised as hunters and so are familiar with eviscerating a large animal are less likely to be grossed out by injuries or etc. than someone who has seen, at worst, a small cut or scrape. People who are learning to be doctors, nurses, or medics will sometimes start with issues of fainting/gagging, but will with exposure overcome these issues. They will transition from a \"weak stomach\" to a \"strong stomach\"."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
28j94e | why can't we just irrigate deserts with canals? | After reading about how much of present day Iran, Iraw and Afghanistan were extensively irrigated with canals before the Mongol invasion, I can't understand why we can't just repeat what the ancients did?
What's stopping us from making the Sahara and inland Australia arable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28j94e/eli5_why_cant_we_just_irrigate_deserts_with_canals/ | {
"a_id": [
"cibgnqw",
"cibgr9c",
"cibltjv"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Because it's a complete waste of a natural (and necessary) resource? ",
"- The water would evaporate if the canals weren't covered. \n\n- It's difficult and expensive to get that much water to move that far, and we would need to have spare water in the first place, which we often don't.\n\n- The soil in those areas is often nutrient-scarce from centuries with no water in it, and would be difficult to grow things in.\n\n- Extensive irrigation can lead to extensive soil degradation, and the land would cease being arable within a few short generations, and then we'd need to build new canals all over again.\n\n- While those areas are not suitable for agriculture, they are often home to unique species and ecosystems of non-human organisms, which have been minding their own business and living there for a long time.\n",
"It takes a lot of water. Like, *a lot*. /u/dirtytoes makes several valid points, but they can all be overcome if someone is really dead-set on irrigating something that has no business being irrigated. \n\nThat's how you get the [Aral Sea](_URL_0_), one of the worst environmental disasters in human history. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea"
]
]
|
|
ecz4w9 | why is the bread crust healthier and why do people tell others to eat it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ecz4w9/eli5_why_is_the_bread_crust_healthier_and_why_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"fbelrja"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It isn't healthier. It's a small fib told to children so they eat all of their sandwich/toast. Stops them wasting the food and fills then up a little more."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1s2cza | how do master keys, 'bump' keys and lockpicking work? | Been playing a lot of Skyrim, and this came in mind.
I know how regular locks and keys work; the key pushes the tumblers in the right way so that it can turn, thus releasing the lock latch.
^^I'm ^^not ^^a ^^shady ^^person ^^I ^^swear. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s2cza/how_do_master_keys_bump_keys_and_lockpicking_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdt8f0o"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"A master key system is more about the locks than the keys. The locks pins have two breaks in the tumbler pins. One break lines up with the room key is used, and the other lines up when the master key is used.\n\nA bump key is a blank key with most of the key removed, leaving only small lumps left. When the key is inserted and bumped, the bumps on the key knock the pins upward. The part of the pin above the break acts like a _newton's cradle_ (search for that, you'll know the desk toy when you see it). This leaves a big space between at the break in the pins, allowing the tumbler to spin."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
7x5003 | why does the consumption of certain food causes our excretory substances (e.g. urine) to smell? | Such as the bitter bean or Petai (Parkia speciosa) in the South-east Asian region. I ate that for dinner, and my urine smelt of the exact same odour the day after. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7x5003/eli5_why_does_the_consumption_of_certain_food/ | {
"a_id": [
"du5o4n7"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because the human body failed to digest the aromatic/ester that gave off the smell, hence when that chemical is excreted your urine smells of it (you may notice your sweat smelling like it as well)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
4gqxcj | why do we eat certain foods at points in the day? (i.e cereal for breakfast not lunch) is there any nutritional reason or something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gqxcj/eli5_why_do_we_eat_certain_foods_at_points_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2jxdqd",
"d2jxerm"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"There is no scientific or nutritional reasoning behind it. It varies from culture to culture. ",
"Nope, it's entirely cultural. There's no compelling evidence that time of eating significantly effects the body. The only two factors I can think of that *do* have some evidence behind them are 1) protein in the morning (eg. boiled egg) tends to effect satiety levels better up until mid-day and 2) in certain individuals, eating before bedtime may cause sleep disturbance."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
b4vrt6 | what’s the physical difference between a low end budget speaker and a high end pro one? | More specifically I’m wondering about the speaker cone itself. Is it anything to do with speaker cone materials, shape, design, testing, etc, or is the biggest difference found in the drivers? (I realise brand and to a lesser extent quality of electronics makes a difference to price.)
Bonus question: is it possible to get some indication just by visually inspecting the cone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b4vrt6/eli5_whats_the_physical_difference_between_a_low/ | {
"a_id": [
"ej9inrj",
"ej9ir5m",
"ej9jecl",
"ej9lc01",
"eja1k3i"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
11,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"I am no expert in this, but since nobody has answered yet i will give it a try\n\nOne point is the mass of the cone, a heavier cone needs more energy to be accelerated/cant accelerate as quickly as a lighter cone and therefore can not display the higher frequencies as well\n\nAlso the material can be \"hard\" which shows itself in spikes where a certain frequency ist played too loud \n\nHope anyone with more detailed knowlegde can expand on this\n\nEdit: i am sure the geometry has an influence, so the research which goes into developing has to be considered as well",
"I really don't know all the details but i know high quality speakers have better diaphragm and stronger too. Since it vibrates often wear and tear causes damage fast.\nAlso higher quality speakers have either higher frequency ranges or made to be used for specific frequencies such as bass so quality designs and engineering makes a difference too.",
"First, high-end and professional speakers are not the same. What you hear during concert will never work well at home.\nSecond, speakers and speaker cones are very important, but it's just part of what makes a high-quality speaker.\nBudget speaker cones are made basically from paper with flimsy suspensions and tiny coils.\nThe quality drivers are heavy, with very stiff and light cones, often made from composites and exotic materials.\nGenerally, speakers to be high quality have to be very stiff - and usually heavy. Plastic is one of the worst materials for speakers.\n\nI don't think there is a way to judge the driver visually only, there is much more to it.",
"This thread doesn’t seem to recognise that a speaker may contain multiple drivers that way not all be cones, piezo, domes and electrostatic are all things. ",
"There is more to a high end speaker than just the speaker itself. \n\nSpeaker construction can vary in a few ways. Cone materials can range from cheap materials such as paper or bamboo. Metal cones are also available with aluminum and titanium or even more exotic stuff like beryllium. Then there are plastics or composites like kevlar and carbon fiber. The costs can vary but higher doesn't always mean better. People will comment that paper cones sound the most natural and it's one of the cheapest and easiest to produce. Metal cones can be harsh. Plastic cones can be dull. Everyone has their opinions and some of them are generalizations. Don't write off a speaker just because of a cone material. Let your ears guide you. \n\nA large part of a speakers cost can actually come from the crossover (the part that separates frequencies, such as highs and lows, and directs them to the proper woofer/tweeter). Crossovers can be rather simple (containing a few components) or very complex (20 or more). Crossover components can often be had in a good/better/best where cost increases dramatically. I've seen speakers where the crossover was more than 50% of the cost. \n\nThen you factor in design and material finish. A nice piano black cabinet is much more costly than a veneered MDF cabinet. \n\nBut the big take away is that cost vs enjoyment is subjective. I was not blessed with golden ears. I have trouble telling a $300 speaker from a $1000 speaker. So I can enjoy my comfortable ignorance knowing that my current setup sounds great without having to drop 10k on the ultimate best of the best speaker. \n\nI can go on and on. There's lots of resources on how to build speakers that will help you appreciate what is involved. \nHere's a link I saved that might get you started\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Diy_Loudspeaker_Projects.htm"
]
]
|
|
3r92nm | why do construction workers essentially ruin the road before they pave it? | The road near me was fine, but they torn it apart and made it bumpy and unpaved and terrible so that they can pave it again.
I don't understand that. Why do they have to tear the whole thing apart? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3r92nm/eli5why_do_construction_workers_essentially_ruin/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwly9on",
"cwlydsz",
"cwlyuqq",
"cwm164g",
"cwm1ckn",
"cwm3ve6"
],
"score": [
27,
7,
10,
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The more points of contact they create, the better the pavement will stick. It makes it last much longer.",
"Because the road would be three of four feet high if they just paved over the current surface.\n\nWhen they pave a road they have to leave a thick layer of asphalt, at least an inch or two. So if they kept paving on top of that, it would quickly build up to the point where you'd need ramps just to get on and off the road. So they tear up the top layer to give room to build back up to.",
"The \"bumpy\" part is done by milling, old road is removed in grooves so that a rough surface is created for the new surface to stick to. Milling is also done because recycling the material is less expensive than buying entirely new material.",
"Same reason most things are done that way. Might as well do it right the first time rather then have problems in the near future. When your doing shingles your not gonna lay the new ones on top of the old ones, if you do your just gonna have to redo it in 5 years. If you are redoing a room and putting up new drywall you not gonna stick it on the existing drywall or laff and plaster.",
"Asphalt is 99% reusable. Asphalt is 99% reused. They break up the old stuff that is busted and worn revealing a nice solid concrete layer with grooves on top. These grooves help the newly laid asphalt adhere better to the concrete layer.",
"One thing everyone else has missed is, asphalt is not good at sticking to smooth surfaces (except car paint , of course) - If they did not tear it up, the new stuff would just basically flake off and make pot holes"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3n1e3m | why can musicians rip off the instrumentals of older songs, change the lyrics, and release it as a new song without being sued? | I'm thinking of songs like "Kid Rock - All Summer Long" and "Zac Brown Band - Toes".
Did these artists purchase the rights to the instrumentals of "Lynard Skynard - Sweet Home Alabama" and "Rupert Holmes - Escape" or was there some sort of legal loophole they were able to utilize? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n1e3m/eli5_why_can_musicians_rip_off_the_instrumentals/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvjzitt",
"cvk19g5"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Sampling is a grey area legally. What constitutes 'fair use' or what rights holders will let artists get away with generally boils down to a question of whether or not it'd be cost-effective to pursue legal action to demand royalties, or a compensatory pay-out, or both. If a small sample is used in a relatively unsuccessful song, there's little point in the original artist chasing the sampling artist for anything. If a bigger sample is used in a more successful song though, that's when lawyers start talking.\n\nAll Summer Long is the latter type, and is credited to Kid Rock, as well as the members of Lynard Skynard, so the original artist gets royalties from the track. This was probably arranged before the track was released. Same goes for Toes.",
"They simply obtain a sampling license. Most of the agencies offer these, and you can even do it yourself for stuff like YouTube videos through the Harry Fox Agency, BMI, etc. For things on the scale of a national or international release of a track, the licensing goes through different channels than you would for a YouTube channel, but at that level, the artist's label will have someone on staff to take care of things like that.\n\nLicensing throug HFA and the others for small distribution uses might be practical for a small band (there s also licensing for covers), but the cost is hard to justify for something like YouTube. $50 is reasonable for your garage band, but not a home video you share with the inlaws."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
973oqr | what is the practical help to use of having a map of the human genome if everyon's dna is different? | I know there's a ton of overlap between people, but if everyone is truly unique in their DNA then how can using a genome help us figure anything out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/973oqr/eli5_what_is_the_practical_help_to_use_of_having/ | {
"a_id": [
"e458yzc",
"e4595fk",
"e45c02e",
"e45eg38",
"e45ndmr"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
7,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The building blocks are the same, they are just arranged slightly differently. By studying the human (and animal) genomes in general we can determine which building blocks are responsible for which traits, and how the presence or absence of a specific block can affect other ones. ",
"Jesus Christ that title came out full shitbox, I'm sorry guys.",
"Think of a subdivision of cookie cutter houses. Some people have a white fridge and some people have black fridge, but the fridge is almost always next to the stove. Not next to the toilet; or on top of the chimney.",
"I think you're underestimating just how much our DNA is the same. 2 total strangers are still over 99% identical. Plus, the genes we have and where they're located on which chromosomes is the same (with the exception of genetic abnormalities). ",
"Your eye color gene might be different than someone else's but both of your eye color genes are in the same place. Think of it like a big row of switches and dials. They might all be set to different things for different people, but knowing the genome tells us what those switches do, regardless of what they're set to. Whether your eye color switch is set to blue or brown isn't the important part, it's that we now know which switch controls eye color in the first place. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
6x3ak8 | the difference between steroids and nsaids. | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6x3ak8/eli5the_difference_between_steroids_and_nsaids/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmcz550"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"A steroid is a hormone that your body produces, or something that emulates a hormone that your body produces. An NSAID is an anti-inflammatory pain killer. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
klzbx | the concept of rhetoric. | I hear the word so much and I try to understand it, but it is over my head, I guess. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/klzbx/eli5_the_concept_of_rhetoric/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2lcqd8",
"c2leg3k",
"c2lek8v",
"c2lcqd8",
"c2leg3k",
"c2lek8v"
],
"score": [
6,
3,
4,
6,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"Imagine you are 5 years old and you wanted a toy really badly. You begged and begged your mother to buy it for you, but she constantly kept telling you no. Eventually, you give up because you know that all you are going to hear is your mother saying \"no\" when you ask for the toy.\n\nIn essence, the concept of rhetoric is basically the use of language to persuade an audience. In this case, the audience is you as a five year old boy. Your mother was able to persuade you to not ask for the toy through the constant repetition of her saying \"no,\" thus using language as a means to persuade you.",
"Rhetoric is communication as an art, with words being the medium.\nA deftly crafted message can move an audience as powerfully as an artistic masterpiece. Where as debate is persuasion through argument rhetoric is persuasion through artistry. It's not what you say, but how you say it.\n\nInstead of:\n\"All must pitch in to make a better America.\"\n\nKennedy said: \n\"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.\"\n",
"When you ask your teacher \"Can I go play outside?\", rhetoric is the difference between your teacher simply saying \"No, it's wet.\" and your teacher saying \"I'm sorry, Timmy, but you can't play outside because it's been raining and the playground is far too slippery and you might get hurt.\"\n\nBasically, rhetoric is using language to convey the same ideas (in this case, \"no, the play ground is wet so you can't play outside\") in a way that is more appealing or convincing to an audience. As an aside, rhetoric can be used to convince people of something by appealing to their emotion instead of to logic or reason. ",
"Imagine you are 5 years old and you wanted a toy really badly. You begged and begged your mother to buy it for you, but she constantly kept telling you no. Eventually, you give up because you know that all you are going to hear is your mother saying \"no\" when you ask for the toy.\n\nIn essence, the concept of rhetoric is basically the use of language to persuade an audience. In this case, the audience is you as a five year old boy. Your mother was able to persuade you to not ask for the toy through the constant repetition of her saying \"no,\" thus using language as a means to persuade you.",
"Rhetoric is communication as an art, with words being the medium.\nA deftly crafted message can move an audience as powerfully as an artistic masterpiece. Where as debate is persuasion through argument rhetoric is persuasion through artistry. It's not what you say, but how you say it.\n\nInstead of:\n\"All must pitch in to make a better America.\"\n\nKennedy said: \n\"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.\"\n",
"When you ask your teacher \"Can I go play outside?\", rhetoric is the difference between your teacher simply saying \"No, it's wet.\" and your teacher saying \"I'm sorry, Timmy, but you can't play outside because it's been raining and the playground is far too slippery and you might get hurt.\"\n\nBasically, rhetoric is using language to convey the same ideas (in this case, \"no, the play ground is wet so you can't play outside\") in a way that is more appealing or convincing to an audience. As an aside, rhetoric can be used to convince people of something by appealing to their emotion instead of to logic or reason. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
4r806w | why does it seem like an incredibly disproportionate amount of "classical music" is german or russian? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4r806w/eli5_why_does_it_seem_like_an_incredibly/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4yxspk",
"d4z2o5d",
"d4z404k",
"d4z7tdl",
"d4z86b7",
"d4zbafq"
],
"score": [
188,
4,
4,
43,
10,
9
],
"text": [
"\"Classical Music\" actually refers to music produced between 1750 and 1820. Russia and Europe were the cultural centers in these days, and thus they produced most of the memorable popular music for the time period. \n\nSort of like asking \"Why does it seem like most of the big musical hits from the 50's were American?\". ",
"The popular musicians of the time were generally commissioned by the ruling parties, or worked for them altogether. So countries that spent more on their musicians got more music and attracted more talent. More talent attracts aspiring musicians and the cycle continued.",
"It's not, really. French, Italian and English composers, as well as those from other countries have had arguably just as much influence on classical music.",
"Firstly, do you mean classical music in the broad or narrow sense? The classical period (1750 to 1820) has plenty of composers, but most of the ones who are still popular today had a connection to Vienna. This is why it is sometimes called the Wiener Klassik. That is not to say that there weren't other composers, who btw might also have borrowed from the Vienna crowd/style. They were good and popular at the time, they simply weren't included in the standard canon of 'Classical Musicians'. There were for example relatively many female composers, but their compositions rarely get performed today. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Antonio Salieri, and Ludwig van Beethoven all worked at some time in Vienna, and Franz Schubert has a connection to Vienna too. \n\nAt the same time in Russia something completely different was going on; the ruler at the time was bringing Western music in vogue for the first time. They were borrowing from among others Italian opera traditions (and they were hosting a lot of Italian composers) to tell Russian stories and make secular music, like for example Scheherazade. They were developing their own style, and the music was good, but the ones that are mainstream canon now come later. (Come to think of it, the Vienna crowd used Italian opera/music heavily as a source too, but they were obviously already familiar with western music/tonality).\n\nBut what you're probably thinking of when you talk about Russian classical music was later; the big ones coming to mind might be Shostakovic, Igor Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff. Those wrote mostly after 1850 in Russia's second or third wave of classical composers. \n\nWhen you look at one recording of the 50 most popular classical songs (_URL_0_) you will find that most of them aren't strictly classical, and have plenty of French, Italian and British composers. Does a composer like Vivaldi have less of a cult status than Rachmaninoff? I don't think so. Don't discount Britten, Massenet, Chopin, Grieg, Holst, etc etc. Very popular composers, but only very few of them reach the level of Beethoven or Mozart.\n\nAlso, I would like to tell you about Bach and Telemann; although Bach is now remembered more, and is way more popular, he actually was the second choice for a job that was first offered to his friend, because Telemann was more popular and judged to be better at the time. What is remembered/is focused on over time isn't always how the people of that time experienced it.\n\nIn short; what you might hear on a classical radio station today isn't always strictly 'classical', and there were good composers from the strict 'classical' period who weren't German/Austrian. There are plenty of popular and good composers in general who never gained the canon (and cult) status that those Germans/Russians you keep encountering have attained. \n\nI would say that from what I've heard on the radio, Italian and French classical music is as popular and good as German or Russian music. And British, French, Italian (and Spanish) early classical music is fantastic, way better than Russian early music in my opinion. \n\nSorry about my rambling, I hope I've made at least some sense. Final note: do you perhaps play the piano? The Russians do seem disproportionately influential in piano solo music. ",
"Because you are using a narrow conception of \"Classical Music.\" \n\nThe \"classical era\" of music is at best a gerrymandered kind of concept. Music in the \"galant style\" was being composed during J.S. Bach's lifetime, for example, and music was being composed after Beethoven's death that still sounded like Haydn. But because Bach, the last great Baroque master, died in 1750, and Beethoven, a \"classical composer\" who was a proto-Romantic, died in 1821, you often get those dates as bookends of the era. \n\nBUT. Although the most celebrated composers of that short era were active in Austria (Vienna, really) and Germany, you have to understand that this era is also the first part of the \"Common Practice\" era, meaning that a single dominant \"style\" was found throughout Western Europe, whereas earlier there had been significant differences among French music, Italian music, German music, etc. \n\nALSO BUT. Even within the Classical era or the broader \"Common Practice period,\" the music you seem to associate with \"classical music\" is predominantly orchestral music, maybe with some chamber music mixed in. But Italians were composing operas all throughout this era, as were the French; sacred music was being composed throughout the West (including the American colonies -- William Billings was a near-exact contemporary of Mozart); and music for for dance, or for solo instruments, likewise had a wide geographical spread. \n\nALSO ALSO BUT. If that answers your question vis-à-vis Germany and Austria, it still leaves open the question of Russia. There was *not* any music being composed in Russia in the late eighteenth century that is still well-known today. The development of a Western-influenced Russian style was a nineteenth-century development... *and* it was largely spurred, initially, by the importation of operas (principally Italian) to St. Petersburg. \n\nTLDR: Your question boils down to \"Why are the most famous composers working in Western Europe between ca. 1750 and 1820 either German or Austrian?\" A) This isn't really that weird, and B) The answer is actually \"Rossini was the most famous composer of that time.\"",
"When people say \"classical music\", they're really referring to what classically trained musicians would call \"Western art music.\" This includes multiple styles, concentrated between the years 1600-present, including Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Atonal, Impressionistic, 12-tone, Neo-Classical, etc. As /u/alek_hiddel mentioned, real classical music was composed between 1750 and 1820, and was mostly Germanic (think Haydn and Mozart).\n\n\nJust to help get it in your ear, here's specifically [classical music](_URL_4_) vs other music such as [this weird thing](_URL_3_) and [this Verdi song](_URL_6_), which would both be considered Western art music (modern aleatoric and Italian Romantic opera specifically).\n\n\nNow as to why most well-known \"classical\" pieces are German or Russian, that really has more to do with the early media's use of classical music and how it became standard to the modern ear. Back when TV was taking off (and right before that in the days of silent films and radio), the main canon of classical music (that is, the most respected and most often played/recorded pieces) were Germanic. There's a lot of snobbery that came along with this, and in some ways has to do with how nationalistic Germany was becoming in the early 20th century (think development of the Nazi party almost). Germany produced Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, all widely popular and published musicians, all great innovators of their eras, and they wanted everyone to know about it.\n\n\nNow why Russia you ask? From a music history perspective, Russia was stuck in the Romantic era of music for the entire Soviet era. Stalin didn't allow people to experiment with new-age harmonies and composition techniques, so a lot of the music that came out of there was frankly behind the times as far as originality was concerned. Consequently, hey produced a large body of music with heavy classical roots.\n\n\nI would argue that 80% of the classical music used in media today that the public is most aware of is either Mozart or Tchaikovsky, like in this [very classical sounding car commercial](_URL_2_) or [this theme in every commercial at Christmas time](_URL_0_). There are some other pieces that get a lot of mileage in the public ear (Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Vivaldi's Four Seasons come to mind), and to be perfectly honest with you, the reason any of these pieces are chosen and why they have any staying power is simply because **they are catchy as fuck**.\n\n\nBut I will be perfectly honest when saying that the average listener wouldn't know French Western art music vs German or Italian or Czech or what have you. Maybe you think that most of the \"classical\" music is German and Russian, but that's simply not true. For instance, this [_URL_1_ commercial](_URL_5_) uses the very classical-sounding Ravel String Quartet, but that music is French. Go listen to Dvorak Symphony no. 9 4th movement, or Rossini's La Gazza Ladra overture; this music is \"classical\" but is also not German or Russian.\n\nSource: hopefully not-too-snobby classical musician with a masters in performance \n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_50_Greatest_Pieces_of_Classical_Music"
],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rapf3g_XvCc",
"Ancestry.com",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXNXJ76ECiM",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3BlFZWJNA",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJf4ZffkoI",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAVXyx53fr0",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3zetSuYRg"
]
]
|
||
5ekbt8 | can you explain "insecure attachment" theory? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ekbt8/eli5_can_you_explain_insecure_attachment_theory/ | {
"a_id": [
"dad44si",
"dad4i39"
],
"score": [
2,
6
],
"text": [
"This concept is mainly a part of the psychodynamic theory which included the idea that early life relationships/ bonds, specifically with the primary care giver has a great impact on future relationships of the individual. Sygmund Freud believed that this first attachment is the key to future relationships. In later studies it was also found that prolonged separation from the primary care giver correlates with (maybe causes) emotional and mental problems in later life as well as making it harder for the individual to have healthy relationships. Now insecure attachment can occur when the child is slightly neglected in the early stages of their lives as they have not always been able to rely on the mother (or primary caregiver) and so their behaviour may become difficult or somewhat cold towards them. For example they may feel distressed and cry when the mother leaves the room, but her return might not comfort them as they still continue to cry as the mother is trying to calm them down. In a secure attachment this child would be relieved to be back with the mother and not continue to show signs of distress. \n\nI don't know if this is what you meant exactly, I'm studying the subject now and think the theories are truly fascinating. ",
"Insecure attachment theory is the theory that your relationship with your parent (or whoever raised you) dictates how you deal with close relationships later in life.\n\nBabies have good attachment when they feel loved by their parent and believe that they are values, they won't be abandoned, their parent/s can provide the necessities of life. \n\nIf you have this sort of secure attachment when you're young, it's theorized that you will feel comfortable and secure in relationships as an adult. You are comfortable that your needs will be met, you can ask for the things you need, and you can work as a team.\n\nIf you didn't have good attachment, it's theorized that you could have the following problems forming relationships:\n\n- Ultra independence, to the point where you reject relationships. \"I can take care of myself, why would I need anyone else?\" or \"I take care of myself because no one else is looking out for me.\" The lone wolf, basically.\n- Anxiety related to relationships, like fearing that you'll be rejected or something bad will happen, even though you also want the relationship. In adult relationships, the theory says that this contributes to things like \"clingy-ness,\" seeking constant reassurance that everything is okay, feeling jealous or possessive. \n- Fear about relationships, to the point that you avoid relationships. Kind of like the anxiety one, except that you use fear of something happening as a reason to not form relationships. You want a relationship, but use fear to pull away. In adults, the theory says that this results in turbulent relationships, with lots of ups and downs."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
1rimmo | how come undercover police operations (particularly those where police pretend to be sex workers) don't count as entrapment? | I guess the title is fairly self-explanatory? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rimmo/eli5_how_come_undercover_police_operations/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdnm4qv",
"cdnm7e2",
"cdnm81p",
"cdnpaim",
"cdnpio5",
"cdnrekq",
"cdnsj9k",
"cdnt074",
"cdnt920",
"cdnuerz",
"cdnv031",
"cdnv3rx",
"cdnv6h3",
"cdnvcr5",
"cdnvfj9",
"cdnvgwt",
"cdnvs0f",
"cdnw07t",
"cdnw2q1",
"cdnwcbt",
"cdnwf9i",
"cdnwi3h",
"cdnx4hc",
"cdny82t",
"cdnyk1q",
"cdnz7ss",
"cdnzx8g",
"cdo041s",
"cdo0mao",
"cdo0r8u",
"cdo13l6",
"cdo2ksz",
"cdo357m",
"cdo361j",
"cdo3899",
"cdo3xk1",
"cdo69ss",
"cdo7myg",
"cdo89ws"
],
"score": [
898,
18,
371,
3,
3,
5,
44,
21,
3,
14,
3,
4,
2,
2,
2,
9,
2,
9,
2,
9,
2,
2,
3,
2,
3,
2,
2,
3,
3,
17,
2,
4,
2,
2,
2,
2,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I believe that for entrapment there has to be a scenario in which the person who committed the crime would not have done so without the police intervention (e.g. a cop pressuring someone into buying drugs, and then busting them).\n\nWith an undercover operation, the criminal organization/operation would happen *regardless* of the police presence. They aren't being *entrapped* or somehow tricked into performing the criminal act - they are going to do it anyways.\n\nEdit: \n/u/avfc41 posted a link [here](_URL_0_) that is absolutely brilliant, and the [author](_URL_2_) of the comic in question responded. Great visual aid to understand the concept more thoroughly.\n\nEdit Edit: A few people have commented on various scenarios, but when it comes down to it, its only going to be entrapment if the Officer(s) involved create a situation in which the person *has no choice but to commit the act*, with degrees of variance depending on context.\n\n/u/CornellBigRed posted [here](_URL_3_) that [this court case](_URL_1_), which shows that there is a line that is drawn - but it will likely be drawn in court where more evidence can be presented\n\nChances are that if you are arrested and want to bring up entrapment, its going to be very situation specific, taking into account a lot of context and investigation to figure out if the police/agents involved in the arrest provided too much pressure, to the point where the intent was more strongly influenced by the government, rather than the accused's actual predisposition to commit the crime.\n\nEdit Edit Edit: Lots of scenarios - guys, look, when it comes down to it, if you are arrested by an undercover cop, its going be centered around how you defend yourself in trial. You have to prove that you simply would not have done it if it were not for the pressure on you, and it has to be believable. You have to convince the judge, or the jury, or both, that you were coerced. Whatever scenario, tip, trick that you have, when it comes down to it, if you're arrested, then its all up to how you defend yourself and how much proof you can bring to the table. I do not believe you saying that you were coerced is going to be enough - you want enough proof to make it such that the prosecution cannot mount a good argument for why you did it willingly. A good defense attorney is going to be important in cases like this.",
"Entrapment only occurs when the suspect would not have committed the crime or a similar crime if not for the pressures of the police. \n\nIn the typical sting the suspect seeks out the illegal service be it drugs or prostitutes and thus the court can make a good case that the perp would have done it even without it being a sting. \n\nThese stings are typically a lot less pushy then an actual prostitute or drug dealer would be. ",
"[This is a good, ELI5-level description on entrapment](_URL_0_).",
"Entrapment is when the police cause someone to commit a crime they otherwise would not have so they can arrest some one. A sting operation is where the police already know that an illegal activity will happen and simply wait for it to happen to be able to arrest the individual(s). ",
"Entrapment is when they trick you into doing something you were not already going to do anyways. \nIf you go up to a hooker and ask for sex and she says sure for $$$ -and she's a cop- That's not entrapment. You were already going to commit that crime anyway. \n\nIf a hooker/cop follows you home, comes knocks on your door, then offers sex for money, that's entrapment. You were not going to do that before she went out of her way to make it happen. \n\n\nThe key is: were you already going to do it anyway? And that's up to a jury to decide. ",
"The law of entrapment is pretty narrow. In order to use the defense of entrapment, the defendant must prove that the alleged actions were not of the defendant's devising (he was induced to act). \n\nSo, to answer your question: because the police know the law and work very hard to get the defendant to initiate the conduct (on a recording). ",
"There was an AMA from a police officer who worked undercover as a young girl online to root out pedophiles. He naturally got a lot of questions about how his work relates to entrapment laws, and as such he made it *very* clear that in his work he is absolutely not allowed to \"bait\" the other party at any time. All he can legally do is innocuously reply and wait for the other person to make the first move, as he put it.\n\nSomeone in that thread likened it to a poker game. Portraying the little girl, the officer is never ever allowed to \"raise\" the bet. Only the other party can do so. Once the bet has been raised, though, the officer is allowed to \"call\" and wait for the other party to \"raise\" again. He can't send any pictures until he's asked, he can't say anything about meeting up until he's propositioned. Once it's mentioned by the other party, however, it's fair game. As long as the other party always makes the first move, it can't be called entrapment in court.",
"Criminology undergrad here. Successful sting operations occur when law enforcement provides the ***means*** to commit a crime to a criminal who is predisposed to committing crime. It becomes entrapment when the police also provide ***motivation*** to commit the crime.\n\nFor example, in Jacobson v. United States the government repeatedly sent the defendant child porn in the mail. Jacobson initially refused to purchase the porn, but eventually gave in and bought it. The repeated mailing of child porn became the motivation for for him to purchase the porn. His case was overturned on grounds of entrapment. \n\nIn regards to prostitution, the police can pretend to be prostitutes but they cannot repeatedly ask a person to pay for sex, that would be providing motivation.",
"thats sounds like playing with fire though. why should the police be encouraging crimes in order to prosecute?\n\ni like fast cars and i used to street race a lil bit here and there. the police would go impound a teenagers wrx, black the windows out, and go around trying to convince you to race them on the highway. then the 5 or 6 cars sitting back a 1/4 mile would jump in on them and arrest them.\n\nwe had a local forum, so people would warn each other what cars were a part of the dragnet taskforce and only the stupids would get caught(what wrx would try to race my car on the highway).\n\nmy point is, when did this become the way law enforcement works? why are the police encouraging me to street race to arrest me for street racing? is our justice system that broken?",
"Best way to tell if a hooker is a cop is to ask her if she would be willing to take nude pictures for money. ",
"Anecdote: A family member in the 90s was a user. An undercover eventually befriended them and for 2 years this officer did everything my family member did.\n\n- Shot up heroine\n- Lines and lines and lines of coke\n- Often drove drunk\n- Backed him up in fights\n- Speed...the whole gamut.\n\nAll the while my family member (x from now on) had asked 3 or 4 times if he was an undercover. the reply was a dismissive \"Naww i'm not\".\n\nThey thought x was dealing, but really they were just buying a huge amount in bulk to use with friends. Generous person!\n\nSo one day they bust down the door, x's new best friend actually is the one who arrests x. cuffs x himself.\n\n \n\n\n**The court case** -- \n\nThe lawyer for x had a ton of evidence of the under cover engaging in countless illegal activities, all trying to earn the trust of x to move up to the dealers identity. This put a lot of holds on basically 90% of the \"evidence\" gathered over the years and in the end the verdict was\n\n*# years good behaviour* or something like that. x is still on it today and if x is caught in a house with drugs xs old charges will become re-looked at and the sentence will be worse than the new charges.\n\nReally great person, never addicted to the drugs, just alcohol. Alcohol is currently ruining their life and health unfortunately :(",
"Nobody cares about \"Entrapment\"... the cops just lie to the judge about what happened. What's the judge, just another cop in a robe, his paychecks come from the same place. Who's he gonna believe?",
"In the UK the important phrase is \"you must present no more than an unexceptional opportunity to commit crime\".\n\nWe don't really have entrapment laws as such, but crimes in which the defendant was clearly co-erced or encouraged by police officers will not be brought to court (and the officers may well ace discipline for acting unethically, and wasting time and money).\n\nAlso, please note the important distinction between \"undercover\" officers and \"covert Policing\". If a police officer poses briefly as something they're not, or hides the fact they are a police officer, they are engaged in Covert Policing. That is not Undercover work.",
"If you buy blow of a cop, its on you. If a cop sidles up, a-twirling his villain stache, and asks if you'd like to purchase some grade a Bolivian nose candy, then its entrapment.\n\nEssentially, if you wouldn't have done it without cops interfering, its entrapment.",
"I don't know. What I do know is that prostitution is one of the oldest professions. Make it legal and tax that shit...XD",
"The real question is, what the fuck is the police department doing wasting my tax dollars to arrest non-violent consenting adults?",
"^Question^\nCan cops post pretending to sell drugs on Craigslist and is that not entrapment? ",
"Here's an example of entrapment: Father is walking home from work. Normally, he takes the long way around, but he's running late, and the babysitter has to leave soon, so he cuts through the bad part of town. Along the way, a cop asks him to help him with a bust. He tells the man to go to the dealer around the corner and buy some meth. Father does so, and the dealer happens to be a cop as well. Father is arrested.\n\nThis is entrapment, because had the police officers not set up this scenario, Father never would have made the purchase. As well, the officers lied and they used a random civilian.\n\nHere's an example of a sting: Father had a hard day at work. He also came home to find the babysitter left earlier than she was supposed to, and that Mother's maxed out the credit cards for the fifth month in a row. Father needs to unwind, and goes into town to find a dealer so he can buy some pot. However, the dealer he finds happens to be an undercover cop, and he is arrested.\n\nThis is not entrapment, because Father sought out a dealer on his own, without being coerced by someone that he knew was an authority figure.",
"It's only entrapment if the police actively conspired to make him commit the crime. If he walked by and said wow that hooker Ok maybe just once, then he himself made the decision which meant he was predisposed to the idea, not the police. \n\nPassive participation is not entrapment. ",
"I'm surprised this doesn't seem to be referenced in any of the main replies: [Jacobson v. United States](_URL_0_) is the modern touchstone case for entrapment. In short, a 5-4 majority held that the primary (and really only) consideration is the accused's **predisposition** to commit the alleged crime. There's no 2 out of 3 test as some describe or really any other accurate discussion of entrapment that without the use of the term predisposition. \n\nTo answer the original question, in a realistic sense, there are probably very few situations in which police officers would trick you into buying sex, cocaine, etc. Entrapment is not a common effective defense and requires a high bar to be met.",
"I saw an episode of some cops show where they had an undercover cop posing as a hooker on the side of the road arresting people for prostitution. \n\nThis really old man drove by and thought she needed a ride, she declined but said she could keep him company for money. He started driving off, but she chased him, said she would give him a discount. He said he'd never done it before, but his wife of 60 years had just passed away and he could use the company. He was still reluctant, but he agreed to pay her and they arrested him. I don't understand how that's not entrapment and how he deserved to go to jail for something like that. Poor old man just wanted some company",
"off topic a bit, but I was thinking about prostitution the other day. I live in Mass, am in my late 20s, and don't have much luck with women. \n\nI say this with bitterness, sarcasm, and a healthy dose of dark humor. I like the idea that I could be locked up for the crime of being lonely, giving up, and just paying a woman to be with me for a little while. ",
"Pro-tip: To see if he/she is a cop, ask her is she wants to do some nude modelling for the same price. Unless you are single handedly funding the protitution ring of your city, the cop isn't going to take you up on it.\n\n\nBecause a)Naked photos aren't illegal b) I'm fairly certain retty sure a cop wouldn't want that kind of blackmail material out there.",
"The person they're investigating was already planning on committing a crime. The police can not force someone to commit a crime but they can show that they were going to commit the crime. The one time someone brings up something related to criminal justice and I'm late to answer it!!",
"Entrapment is ticking the criminal into a crime that they would not have otherwise committed.",
"My dad tells me the only girl he had any luck hitting on at a bar turned out to be a cop. She asked him if he was going to pay her. Sounds like entrapment to me.",
"I think in all The arguing we are forgetting that \"we aren't here to protect The laws, The laws are here to protect us\" \nUndercover operations do help in some cases. However once you start making sting operations to bust The average Joe, who just wants to smoke a bowl after work, it's not so much about protecting The public. It's about making money. \nThey arrest you. put you in jail. Charge you a shit ton in fees. If you get jail time not only do they make money from the private companies that own the jails, the prisoner is supported by the public (through taxes). So the law enforcement agencies make all the profit and were the ones paying, through fines and through taxes. ",
"This thread is so old that this will probably be buried, but I'll have a go anyway.\n\nAs an Australian, I've always been a but nonplussed by the American obsession with criminalising sex between consenting adults for money. I'm sure European Redditors would agree. But it's not just the illegality, it's the fervour with which it is pursued by the cops. Unbelievable. With all the REAL crime that goes on, this is what they spend their time on. Drugs are no different. But it always seems to be the victimless crimes that are pursued the hardest.\nIt's probably the puritanical heritage thing. Nobody is allowed to have any pleasure.\n\nI'm also a big fan of This American Life, and I'd love to know how this isn't entrapment: _URL_0_ (scroll down to Act Two: 21 Chump St).\n",
"An example of entrapment: the undercover officer comes up to you, puts a gun to your head, and says rob that store or I'll shoot you. Then charges you for robbery. That's entrapment because really you had no other choice because of the situation the law officer put you in",
"Edit: I've decided I only hate 70% of you because there's a fair number of people properly answering the question in this thread.\n\nI'm going to explain this like you're all 5, so please hold onto your hats folks. \n\n**What is entrapment?**\n\nEntrapment is an illegal act by authority figures to MAKE people do bad things (Illegal). An example of this would be: An undercover Police Officer begging a person (Not a drug dealer in this case, just for example's sake) to sell them drugs. This person, who actually just so happens to have drugs, repeatedly refuses the Officer's requests, until he finally gives in just to shut him up. The Police Officer then arrests the person for drug trafficking, takes the \"offender\" to court, and then has to duck as a Judge throws his little mallet at him for entrapping some poor person. \n\n**Entrapment is the act of reasonably forcing a person to commit a criminal act they would not have otherwise done.**\n\nUnderstand that so far? Good. Now. What the general problem is, people don't have a basic grasp of what entrapment isn't. Entrapment IS NOT:\n\n- Being an undercover hooker.\n\n- Operating a child porn website\n\n- Being a drug dealer. \n\n\"But why, internet anon? Surely, the Police are luring these poor, innocent people to their doom!\" LOL. No. See. Get this: People suck, and actively seek these things out. And when they do, it's no longer entrapment. That John looking to get his dick wet with undercover Suzie? He willingly tried to solicit her. Yes, she could have asked, and all he had to do is say no and go on his merry way, and he wouldn't be handcuffed. Uncle Robert getting his door knocked down in the middle of the night by the FBI? No one FORCED him to watch little kids get fucked on the internet, he was looking for it. Your dumbass friend Marley who asked the wrong guy for drugs? He shouldn't have been asking ANYONE for drugs. Nor should he have accepted any offers.\n\n**ENTRAPMENT IS: LAW ENFORCEMENT FORCING SOMEONE TO COMMIT AN ILLEGAL ACT, OR PRESSURING THEM INTO AN ILLEGAL ACT THEY WOULD NOT HAVE OTHERWISE COMMITTED.**\n\n**ENTRAPMENT IS NOT: PLAYING UNDERCOVER HOOKER ARRESTING EVERY JOHN, DICK, AND JOE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE FOR POON. IF PEOPLE ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO COMMIT CRIMES AND THEY STUMBLE ACROSS AN UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER, THEY'RE SHIT OUT OF LUCK**.\n\nAdditional fun fact: Undercover officers can do nearly anything to keep their cover, just short of killing someone (Presumably, they might actually). No, they don't have to admit they're cops just because you asked. Yes, they will deal drugs and kick you in the face. With undercover agencies, the ends justify the means.\n\nSource: 2nd year Law Enforcement Student. \n\n**[Tl;Dr Stop watching CSI. It's such a shit show, and quite frankly, Police prosper from the general ignorance of people who watch these shows because they actually believe the bullshit they watch.](_URL_0_)**",
"You have to prove that they only stole it because it was a special car somehow in order to claim entrapment. Can you prove that a random Corolla is any more or less desirable than another? Can you prove that the bait car was somehow so desirable that it made an otherwise law abiding citizen go \"Well shit I'd be stupid not to steal it\". \n\nYou can't, therefore it's or entrapment. If you think a bait car is unfair or something then that's a separate discussion regarding police powers but has nothing to do with entrapment. ",
"i guess you are strictly interested in american law but after i read a few explanations here i want to add that in germany the laws for entrapment are very different. the police can't trap people. \n\ni saw something about an open car with the keys in it and cameras. then when somebody took it they were arrested. this wouldn't be possible here because it would be entrapment. \n\nwe even had cases where under cover cops in criminal organizations ended up being too involved in the criminal activities so that the actual criminals couldn't be prosecuted because you couldn't clearly tell what would have happened without the cop.\n\nthere is enough crime without tricking people to commit more crime. i think if your police needs to trick people like this, they are more interested in easy arrests for statistics than in actually solve crimes.",
"as long as prostitutes pay taxes it's legal, isn't it? no wait I'm in Germany. HaHa! (N. Month) ",
"COP = Constable on Patrol\n\n:)",
"I was thinking this same thing about \"to catch a predator\" how can they be charged with a crime involving a child when there were never any children?",
"A lawyer once told me that you never argue entrapment because part of arguing entrapment is admitting you committed the crime and that most of the time it is better to go about the case another way. I figure I'd share that since the OP's question was already answered.",
"Because the government's rules don't apply to the government. If a policeman shoots and kills you, it's not murder. If an IRS agent shows up at your door with a gun and demands money, it's not robbery. If the goverment develops a pyramid scheme and calls it *social security*, it's not fraud. The list is endless.\n\nTheir rules apply to everyone... except them.",
"because they don't go door to door approaching people to solicit sex. They bust people who are actively looking for prostitutes.",
"I think the explination of entrapment has pretty much been covered. I just want to add what some escorts post in their online ads. They think this will cover the entrapment issue;\n\n*Money exchanged in legal adult personal services is simply for the time expended in the delivery of lawful entertainment and companionship. Anything else that may or may not occur is a matter of personal preferences between two or more consenting adults of legal age and are not contracted for, nor is it requested to be contracted for in any manner. This is not an offer or insinuation of prostitution. Fees charged are for time spent only.*\n\nSome other version of this will say that money spent is for modeling.\n\nThis disclaimer probably doesn't help the escort at all if she gets caught. I think it would be easy to prove the true motive of the session."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rimmo/eli5_how_come_undercover_police_operations/cdnm81p",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._United_States#Majority",
"http://www.reddit.com/user/the_criminal_lawyer",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rimmo/eli5_how_come_undercover_police_operations/cdnv6qx"
],
[],
[
"http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-was-entrapped"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/503/540/case.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/486/transcript"
],
[],
[
"http://www.moronail.net/img/2018_csi_keep_zooming_in_and_enhancing"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
g0t14p | why is it that when it comes down to the final minute on a dryer there like 5 mins long? | I've sat and timed my new dryer when it reached 1 minute for it to end it took 5 mins why do they even bother saying theres one minute left when it's more like five every dryer I've had does this and I'm so confused. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0t14p/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_it_comes_down_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"fnbkuhl"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"Modern appliances are no longer based on timers for their programs like they used to. In order to save energy they have all changed to using the input from sensors to determine their program. However this means that they can no longer give an accurate time for when they are done as this depends on how the load behaves during the different cycles. In the case of a dryer it is fairly simple with two sensors, one humidity sensor and one temperature sensor. The dryer will dry your clothes at the temperature you set until the air coming from the clothes is as dry as you set. The timer is just a guess for how long it would take. There is some difference in what they do to display a more accurate time. The simple thing is to just display the time used in tests for that model for a typical load and then count down. If it reaches the end of the count down before the load is dry it will just sit at 1 min until it is done. However some dryers might adjust the time based on the last runs to account for how you use the dryer. They might also use more advanced techniques to calculate from the sensor data to an estimated time remaining. But a common thing that they tend to do is to not account for the time used for the air in the dryer to cool down after it is done. This is done so you do not get scolded with hot humid air from the dryer if you open it when it is done. So it will wait a bit at the end for the temperatures to go down before it is done. And if the timer is not accounting for it or estimates that it takes shorter then it actually is then it will sit there at 1 min remaining for some time."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
96dw54 | how does imagining conditioned stimulus create a conditioned response? | Experiencing conditioned stimulus (CS) causes a conditioned response (CR).
*Imagining* a CS also causes a CR.
How does this happen biologically?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96dw54/eli5_how_does_imagining_conditioned_stimulus/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3zw2dk"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"I'm glad this is ELI5 because this is pretty complicated!\n\nLets take Pavlov's experiment with dogs, which is where a lot of these ideas come from. \n\n* bell rings \\* food appears \\* dog salivates \\*\n* Repeat loads of times, and eventually:\n* bell rings \\* dog salivates\n\nThat's your conditioned response. What's happened is that the parts of the brain that deal with identifying a ringing bell form a strong bilateral connection with the parts that identify food, which also has a strong connection to salivation. Because the connection is so strong, its easy for a signal starting at either the bell or the food region to reach the salivation region.\n\nBut conditioning is a powerful process - it doesn't just affect the earliest stages of processing. It also affects the parts of the brain that deal with knowing what a bell is, knowing what food is, and anticipating future events (areas of cognitive control). These also form strong connections to the earlier areas, and to the salivation area. So just imagining a bell is also enough to trigger the entire circuit.\n\nTLDR: Connections between different parts of the brain get strengthened in conditioning, so triggering any one area triggers the whole loop."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3g07ms | why do so many politicians in the us want to reject the deal with iran? | The deal was negotiated and reached by 6 countries, so I have a few questions:
* When they say they want a better deal, what is their solution to get Russia, China, the UK and Germany back to negotiating table?
* What grounds do they have to go to war with Iran when the other countries seem to be fine with the deal?
* How can the US enforce sanctions when the other countries won't?
* Do they realize that Russia, China and the UK also have veto power in the security council, meaning the no resolution will be passed either way? Are they counting on this to keep the sanctions in place?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g07ms/eli5_why_do_so_many_politicians_in_the_us_want_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cttkb2l",
"cttkean",
"cttkq41",
"cttkv5f",
"cttm6b8",
"cttol7o",
"cttp171",
"cttq38y",
"cttrpe2",
"ctttk85",
"cttvfc5",
"cttvpdx",
"ctu6qbl",
"ctufvwr"
],
"score": [
5,
46,
9,
5,
154,
28,
4,
6,
8,
23,
2,
2,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Because we are obsessed with military action. So many of our people in congress are in the hands of the defense contractors and defense industry that the military options is constantly pushed. What we do know is that nothing we have done to Iran has worked in the last decade. What people don't realize or do not want to admit is that we do have a common enemy in ISIS now. Extending an olive branch may set the ground work for further friendship down the road. We have failed multiple times at establishing democracy in the middle east and Iran would be no exception. The military option will always be on the table, however if our leaders do not use diplomacy first in any negotiation. They don't deserve to be leaders.",
"Because the republicans are trying to make Obama fail. This isn't speculation, they literally got together and decided to oppose literally everything he did, before he even took office. its really petty and childish, but they have completely changed positions on subjects just because Obama agreed with them.",
"To answer your question, it is highly unlikely they would get anyone back to the negotiating table now that everyone else has accepted and Iran has begun making moves to hold their end of the bargain up. \n\nThe u.s. could hold some of their sanctions but they'd need a global community to support them, so at first glance it appears that it's not plausible to hold up meaningful sanctions.\n\nThe Republicans are not suggesting that military action is a smart option (they realize Americans wouldn't support any unprovoked military invasion again), and last night Obama painted this silly picture suggesting those were the only two options (not true), rather, they are asking for a better deal which, maybe there is one, is also very unlikely to be found. Congress would ideally want to keep sanctions on Iran until they prove they've done what they said they would, but since the deal is accepted by the global community it is unlikely.\n\nThe deal is a good one, the right in Congress are just butthurt that their hands are tied",
"Two things:\n\n- The Republicans hate Obama, and will oppose him at every possible turn, particularly when giving \"concessions\" to a nation that a Republican president called part of the \"axis of evil.\"\n\n- Israel, and their very conservative government, doesn't like the deal, because they think it threatens their security. Some members of Congress are very pro-Israel (and the GOP more so than ever, since more and more religious conservatives believe that Israel as a state must exist for Jesus's second coming to happen) so anything that Israel doesn't like they don't like.",
" > Why do so many politicians in the US want to reject the deal with Iran?\n\nBecause they don't believe that Iran will live up to its side of the deal and once it becomes a nuclear power, it becomes impossible to confront them militarily without significant potential for casualties.\n\n > When they say they want a better deal, what is their solution to get Russia, China, the UK and Germany back to negotiating table? \n\nNo solution to get the other countries back. The US would just refuse to ratify the treaty and keep their own sanctions in place.\n\n > How can the US enforce sanctions when the other countries won't?\n\nBy refusing American countries to do business with Iran. So no IPhones, no Windows 10, no McDonald's, etc. which pisses off the general public & no commercial/industrial businesses which hurts the Iranian economy.\n\n > Do they realize that Russia, China and the UK also have veto power in the security council, meaning the no resolution will be passed either way? Are they counting on this to keep the sanctions in place?\n\nThe US doesn't need the approval or the vote of the UN to impose its own embargo/sanctions.\n",
" > What grounds do they have to go to war with Iran when the other countries seem to be fine with the deal?\n\nNobody who opposes the Iran deal thinks that the only other option with Iran is \"war\". This is a talking point among those who favor the deal.\n\nThere are already sanctions in place, and they were not going anywhere without a deal. So a bad deal with Iran is particularly harmful, as it removes the sanctions while doing little to prevent their nuclear ambitions.",
"IRAN has not started a war of conquest in the last 300 years. The reason this is being so ridiculed by our US puppet congressman and women is because ISREAL. They are commiting genocide on a mass scale and have been for the last 30 years on the palastines and want nothing more then to wipe all of Palastine and IRAN off the map. Dont feed into this crazy BS and make sure you contact your local official and tell them you are not a whore for ISREAL. No one can serve two masters and right now we need our leaders and politicians to focus on what is best for the US especially in these times of need and NOT what is best for another nation that is commiting war crimes and has the same nuclear weapons and capibilities that they are trying to shame IRAN for also did you know ISREAL did not sign the nuclear preferation treaty and they are the only county to not declear their borders so they can go on stealing other peoples land. \nBTW just because AMERICA refused this deal that still leaves 12 of the worlds biggest countries that are for it and are already in IRAN sigining deals and contracts. If we blow this the US will be left behind and we will ust have another desert war to appise our ISREAL leaders ",
"Just like everything in politics they do it because someone paid them to. It's that simple. It's not about it being a good deal or bad deal, it's not about the American interests or what the American people do or do not want. No this is what you get when you let campaign finance become a legal way for people all around the world to bribe our politicians. Get money out of politics and we won't see this kind of shit show where the richest people on one side of an issue hire as many congressmen and senators to fight with the congressmen and senators the richest people on the other side of the issue hired. \n\nThere is nothing wrong with this deal. The arguments against it are basically nit picking and there doesn't seem to be any viable alternative that would lead to a more desirable outcome for most of the world. The only countries that are oppose to this deal are Israel and Saudi Arabia and if I had to place a bet on who is paying our politicians to oppose this deal it would be the rich and powerful in these counties. In fact they don't even really hide that they are doing this why do you think all the freshman congressman have suddenly been summoned to Israel just before this vote? ",
"I'm a progressive American, and have several reservations with regards to the deal, or at least my perception of the deal. \n\n1) I don't think we got the best deal. \n\n2) while military option is off the table, either way, I actually am for the status quo. The status quo is, sanctions, *plus* covert military operations. Those operations included killing scientists and stuxtnet etc etc. Highly effective, even if you disagree with the them. \n\n3) with above, the deal actually requires the US not to interfere, and requires the US to compel third parties (ie Israel) from interfering with the nuclear capabilities\n\n4) as for the way it was sold is kind of ipso facto, like Obama saying yesterday \" if congress shoots down the deal, then it would prove to the Iranians that we are untrustworthy \" well that's kind of cart horse situation, where (let's assume everyone agreed it was a bad deal), it prevents congress from saying its a bad deal because if you say its a bad deal, then no deal, leaving no possibility for a better deal (see what I mean) \n\nOr in other words, like you said, we don't have a solution to bring stakeholders back to the table, and thats why congress is mad, specifically because once you step away from the negotiating table and start moves towards the deal, you can't undo it. So it effectively ties congress' hands. \n\n5) I work in the regulation (non-nuclear) industry, and when things are not up to spec, you don't immediately destroy the place. You kind of go \"come on you know better, let's let this one slide, but I have got my eyes on you, and we both don't want to have to report you...\"\n\nAnd while that has good intentions, I'm not comfortable with that when dealing with nukes. \n\nSnap-back sanctions mean nothing. There is no such thing. Remember the \"red line\" in Syria. Because when sanctions will need to be \"snapped back\" we know that it's not so straight forward. And in my opinion, won't happen. \n\n(Just look at TPP and Malaysia's human trafficking where politics trump facts on the ground: _URL_0_ )\n\nLastly: the deal leaves NO recourse to pressuring Iran with regards to international terrorism and weapons, such as Hezbollah. What are you going to do? Put sanctions on them? If you do that, then Iran has nothing to lose by breaking the nuke treaty. There is NO recourse for preventing Iran (beyond trying to intercept, which is sysyphian at best). \n\nSo, I know I disagree with many redditors on some of these issues at hand (such as most redditors are appalled by assassinations of nuclear scientists), and some of them may downvote me, but perhaps this can give you a picture of what people don't like about the deal. \n\nCould there have been a better deal,? I don't know, I want at the table, but I personally would prefer no deal to this deal. ",
"A lot of answers in this thread discuss the role of Israel and general distrust of Iran without going into the specifics of the deal. While its true that some US and Israeli politicians wouldn't trust any deal with the current Iranian administration and believe that only regime change can stop Iran from getting the bomb, most who oppose this deal do so not because they think any deal with Iran is pointless, but because they think that the current agreement is a bad deal.\n\nThe Obama administration and the Iranian government agreed on the following:\n\n* **The US and EU will immediately lift all sanctions on the Iranian oil and financial sectors. If Iran lives up to its end of the bargain, conventional arms can be shipped to Iran in 5 years, and the sanctions on missile parts could be lifted in 8 years**. Opponents of this deal are afraid that repealing economic sanctions will give the regime more legitimacy, since it would almost immediately drag Iran out of the economic rut it's been trapped in for the past few years. They are also afraid that lifting the military sanctions will allow Iran to arm its allies in the region, including Syria's Assad and Shi'a militant groups like Hezbollah. Additionally, if the ballistic missile sanctions are removed, Iran could easily buy some missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload to Israel and immediately renege on the deal.\n\n* **Iran will reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent and significantly limit, but not eliminate, its capacity to enrich more uranium. Additionally, the Arak reactor, which had been designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, will be rendered inoperable, though the reactor itself will stay in the country** Some politicians see the fact that Iran will still have access to the centrifuges that enrich uranium and can continue to research enrichment techniques as a sign that Iran can restart enrichment at any time.\n\n* **To ensure that the deal is being followed, international investigators can inspect suspected sites unannounced, although the Iranian government can also prevent inspections at military sites that have previously been unrelated to nuclear development. Any uranium destined for Iranian centrifuges is tracked by the investigating team from the time it is mined until it is removed from the centrifuge and disposed of. Other investigators are also to be allowed to keep tabs on Iranian nuclear scientists.** The alleged problem here is that investigators don't have the ability to inspect any site at any time. In theory, Iran could simply move its enrichment operations to another military site where inspectors aren't allowed. Monitoring of the imported uranium and Iranian nuclear scientists is intended to prevent this from happening, but some believe that Iran will find a way around these restrictions to continue nuclear development.\n\nOf course, with Iran can back out of any deal at any time, so the real goal is to buy the US and Israel enough time between the moment that we know that Iran is continuing to try to get nuclear weapons and the moment that Iran has a viable bomb. Most analysts believe that the current deal will give the US and Israel one year to come up with and implement a contingency plan to stop or slow development (assassinations, another Stuxnet, even bombing runs). Some analysts question whether this is enough time. My friend who works as a consultant for the IDF believes that Israel needs at least a 18 months to stop Iran from getting nukes. As a result, he believes that the Iranian deal is a bad deal and that the US should drag Iran back to the negotiating table to buy Israel and the US another 6 months.\n\n**TL;DR: They think the deal won't work, that it could boost Iran's economy and let Iran arm itself and its militant allies faster, and that it could prevent a better deal from being had.**",
"I don't know much about the other stuff mentioned here, but-\n\nThe deal frees up millions of dollars, some of which will go to fund some pretty bad people and people aligned firmly against the US/its interests. The deal does very little to prevent Iranian nuclear proliferation in the long term, so some believe Iran is getting an ass-ton of cake and are eating it too.",
"A lot of politicians (both sides) view Israel like its the 51st state in the union, if Israel takes issue with something then US politicians are likely to follow. This is because of popular support for Israel, a large population of Jews in the US, and also the Israel lobbyists give tons of money to said politicians. And some just want to stick it to Obama.",
"If it has been mentioned before then disregard. This will give Iran nearly a months notice prior to any inspections of nuclear facilities. Many other valid points have been made in this thread but I think most persons would admit that telling a drug dealer for instance that you are coming to inspect his properties for evidence of wrongdoing but you will give him a month to prepare will not work out well for anyone other than the drug dealer. Now lets take that same logic and apply it to a country who has repeatedly stated that one of their top priorities is to wipe the nation of Israel and all of its people off the face of the earth and has stated that they wish the same fate to the United States. Does this sound like a trustworthy entity to give this kind of leeway to? Do I want Iran to obtain nuclear arms? No. Do I think this deal will stop them from obtaining nuclear arms if they wish to? Of coarse not. Do I think we have much say about it with every member of our federal government leadership having their ears duct taped to the highest bidders bull horn? Sadly no. We are destined for all the future conflicts that we have already been set on a coarse towards and I pray we all pull through.",
"There's the real concerns like if it'll work, if iran will follow through, etc.\n\nThen there's that Obama approves of it. And that's 100% guaranteed to immediately make some people disapprove because it's a knee-jerk reaction."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/27/426760738/malaysia-cuba-taken-off-u-s-human-trafficking-blacklist"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5x5n4z | how can nascar say they use "stock cars" when the cars used are far from being "stock"? | As far as I can tell, they only way they resemble a stock car is in the shape of he body (vaguely) and possibly the frame. Everything else seems to be modified or changed in some way. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5x5n4z/elif_how_can_nascar_say_they_use_stock_cars_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"deff56g",
"defobme"
],
"score": [
13,
3
],
"text": [
"And not even the frame - NASCARs have tube frames, nothing like their street namesakes.\n\nIts an anachronism. Originally stock car racing began as a way for moonshiners to race their bootlegging cars, which were only somehwat modified street cars. The term was coined to indicate these were modified street cars, not custom built race cars like formula 1 cars or dragstrip funny cars.\n\nNowadways NASCAR and related series \"stock cars\" are, you're right, not anything close to the street car brands they supposedly represent. The original intent was to prevent special race cars to give any one driver an unfair advantage. In today's cars this is done through specific regulations that dictate how big the engine can be, how heavy/light the car is, the exact shape/profile of the body even is checked. Again, the intent is to keep a technological even playing field between drivers. ",
"Former NASCAR team member checking in.\n\nThe term goes back to the early days of the sport, when you could literally go down to your local Dodge, Ford or Chevy dealer and buy a completely stock production car, make just a few modifications for safety, (do whatever you wanted to the engine too) and take it to the race track. \n\nThink Lee Petty, Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, Ned Jarrett, etc. back in the fifties. By the late '60s, they had become more purpose built, but still had completely stock bodies. Now, of course, the cars are purpose built by hand from the frame up, and they only loosely resemble the factory cars that bear their names.\n\nTL;DR:\n\nLong ago, in the beginningof NASCAR they were actual stock cars, but mostly because of safety and the desire to keep anyone from having a big advantage, they've evolved into custom built machines."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
5izf8t | how do we get food poisoning from the bacteria toxins in food that's been out for 5 hours, but not from any bacteria that's been in our own mouths for that long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5izf8t/eli5_how_do_we_get_food_poisoning_from_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbc576b",
"dbc7g2p",
"dbc90e9"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"In short, different bacteria.\n\nOur bodies naturally deal with bacteria and toxins all the time. We get ill when there is more of it than our immune system can deal with at once. This could happen either because our immune system is low or compromised, or because there's a lot of the bacteria/virus/toxin.\n\nSo after 5 hours in our mouth, bacteria have a limited opportunity to multiply (save for the kind which have adapted to live on our teeth), get swallowed and otherwise attacked by our immune system. But after 5 hours on some food out at room temperature, they have lots of time, food and warmth to multiply almost optimally - meaning that every bacteria present at the start of the 5 hours could have become over 32,000 bacteria by the end of the 5 hours.",
"Bacteria have many different types, some are harmful, and some are not. Bacteria that gives you food poisoning usually aggressively attack your cells or produce toxins, while bacteria in your mouth and gut usually just feed on your excess food but don't harm your body in any way.\n\nActually, I don't think the immune system is involved in this situation. If your immune system is well adapted to attacking the bacteria in your mouth but not those that cause poisoning, your mouth bacteria would be eliminated from your body instead of staying there.",
"Some bacteria chill in your body full time, these are the normal flora. Some of them help around, and some of them just benefit without helping you in anyway. These are usually only harmful if you have reduced immunity. \n\nNow, disease causing bacteria are 'pathogenic', and are not regularly found in our bodies. Some of these produce toxins to elicit disease, some directly invade tissues and cells. In food that's been out for some time, these bacteria usually produce harmful toxins, and repeating food over and over again, especially when not heated well, can lead to toxins accumulating in the food. \n\nTL;DR: Some bacteria are harmless under normal circumstances. Others are harmful. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
ad2fnd | the sahara desert and other large deserts around 30 degrees north are said to be caused by the persistent high pressure in the horse latitudes. however, some extremely fertile areas like the american south, india, etc. are also near the same latitude. how is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ad2fnd/eli5_the_sahara_desert_and_other_large_deserts/ | {
"a_id": [
"edd1y9n"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I believe it has alot to do with winds, and the minerals blown from the deserts into these fertile lands "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7ugsp3 | why aren’t all currencies valued at the same rate? wouldn’t it be easier if they were all valued the same? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ugsp3/eli5_why_arent_all_currencies_valued_at_the_same/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtk77j0",
"dtkv38x"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"What would prevent another country from printing more currency if it all stays the same? ",
"If all currencies were “valued the same” it wouldn’t reflect their actual value. \n\nFor most of the history of paper money, it’s value was backed by gold. This is called the gold standard. Under this system, different currencies were valued the same, based on gold, but they were denominated differently. So, for instance, even as the price of gold fluctuated, $1 would always buy 2£.\n\nEveryone moved off the gold standard after world war 2, when the US dollar became the world’s reserve currency. Basically, this means international trade is conducted with dollars to simplify things. \n\nNow that everyone is off the gold standard, which was called commodity money because it was backed by a physical, valuable commodity, gold, everyone uses fiat currency. Fiat currency is not backed by anything physical, like gold. Instead, it is valuable because the government issuing it says that it is. Basically, all the dollars floating around the world represent the value of the US economy. If we print more money without creating more value, you have more dollars representing the same amount of stuff, so each dollar becomes less valuable. This is called inflation. \n\nA good example of why inflation can be bad is Zimbabwe. Several years ago, they attempted to ease their economic troubles by printing more money. This quickly led to hyper-inflation. Essentially, they printed too much new money without generating any new value in their economy, so their money became worthless. There are images of people taking wheel barrows full of cash to buy a single loaf of bread. They eventually had to issue a $1,000,000,000,000 note (yes, that a trillion dollar bill). Keep in mind, just because they call there currency dollars doesn’t mean it’s the same as our dollars. Lots of countries call there money dollars. \n\nI’m not sure if they are still doing it, but for many years, China was “pegging” their currency, the yuan, to the US dollar. This meant that it’s value rose and fell as the dollar did, meaning that 1 yuan would always buy 1 dollar and vice versa. Most economists agree that doing so damages the global economy by preventing the yuan from being accurately valued. \n\nThe reason they pegged their currency to ours was to simplify trade, of which there is a great deal between the US and China. The value of most currencies is determined by currency markets. These function like a stock exchange, with people buying and selling amounts of money, trying to take advantage of price changes to make a profit. Like the stock market, even though speculation effects the price, the value is determined mostly be the strength of the nations economy relative to other countries. This can get complicated with some currencies, especially the euro, because it’s the currency for multiple countries, some with strong economies like Germany, and others with weak economies like Greece or Spain. \n\nTLDR: currencies can’t be worth the same because that value wouldn’t represent the currency’s actual value, which is constantly changing relative to other currencies. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
7sjzx3 | is this experiment real or fake? | If real can you ELI5 how is this possible?
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sjzx3/eli5_is_this_experiment_real_or_fake/ | {
"a_id": [
"dt5char",
"dt5cl5u",
"dt5cm9u"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"The battery generates electricity when it is connected back on itself via the copper wire touching the magnets. Electric current in loops creates a magnetic field - this is how an electromagnet is made. The magnetic field is only where the electricity is flowing, so only under the battery. This electromagnet repels the magnets on the battery, propelling it forward.",
"Electricity causes magnetism. This is how electromagnets work, it's also how simple motors work (it's how you take electricity from a wall outlet and turn it into a motor which blends your food or vacuums the floor). \n\nSo, when you put the battery on the wire, it completes a circuit, which in turn creates a mini magnet both in the battery and in the wire. This magnet can be used to propel the \"train.\"",
"You have a battery and two magnets attached to it.\n\nThose magnets will keep the 'train' attached to the 'track'.\n\nWhen you place the 'train' on the 'track', it completes a circuit through the coils of the 'track'. That current creates a magnetic field which is essentially parallel to the center line of the coils and which pushes against the magnets on the 'train', causing the 'train' to move down the 'track'.\n"
]
} | []
| [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1MDOerruDU&feature=youtu.be"
]
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
72crl6 | why is it that during the last eclipse i could see the moon moving across the sun but on a normal night i can't see the shadow of the earth move across the moon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/72crl6/eli5why_is_it_that_during_the_last_eclipse_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"dnhizif",
"dnhj1d5",
"dnhx7mh"
],
"score": [
12,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You can see the shadow of the Earth move across the moon during a [lunar eclipse](_URL_1_). Lunar eclipses only happen about twice a year.\n\nKeep in mind that the [phases of the moon](_URL_0_) are not caused by Earth's shadow. [This diagram](_URL_0_#/media/File:Moon_phases_en.jpg) helps explain why the moon has phases.",
"The Earth, Moon, and Sun, are only infrequently aligned in a perfectly straight line where the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon. ",
"What you are describing is called a Luna eclipse and it is rare for pretty much the same reason that solar eclipses are rare.\n\nIn theory the moon is between the sun and earth ever new moon and that could create a solar eclipse if they line up perfectly. By the same token if the moon is on the far side of the earth from the sun, you have a full moon and you should get a lunar eclipse if they line up perfectly.\n\nWe don't actually get a lunar eclipse every full moon and a solar eclipse every new moon, because they do not line up perfectly.\n\nThe moon does not orbit the earth in the same plane as the earth orbits the sun. There is an angle there. In practice this causes the moon to move above or below the apparent path of the sun in the sky.\n\nOnly when the moon crosses the suns path at the same time as there is a new/full moon can we have an eclipse.\n\nLunar eclipses are somewhat more common because the shadow of the earth is a bit bigger than than the shadow of the moon and there is more margin for error."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase#/media/File:Moon_phases_en.jpg"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
6xqknq | why do some commercials/ads name drop their competition/competitors while some ads use a generic saying like "those other guys"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xqknq/eli5_why_do_some_commercialsads_name_drop_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmhr0s9",
"dmhsd0r"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"When you mention a company or person by name, you're legally restricted in what you can say in an advertisement. You can't slander or commit libel against them. \n\nIf you just say \"those other guys\", you can more-or-less say what you want, because \"those other guys\" aren't people or companies.",
"Did you know? In other countries mentioning a competitor is strictly forbidden."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
nw447 | why muhammad is such a popular muslim name, even though its the name of their prophet (i'm 5 years old) | Edit: Is it also Common for people of Hindu faith to name their child after one of their many gods? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nw447/why_muhammad_is_such_a_popular_muslim_name_even/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3d7m4n",
"c3ceh8l",
"c3cenvo",
"c3cesfb",
"c3cevv7",
"c3ceh8l",
"c3cenvo",
"c3cesfb",
"c3cevv7"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
5,
3,
20,
3,
5,
3,
20
],
"text": [
"It's interesting that in Chinese culture, it is disrespectful to name a child after another person, while in other cultures it is considered a sign of respect.",
"It's because they actually like their profet. Christians would really hate for their kids to turn out like the Jesus. ",
"Because it's the name of their prophet...\n\nWhat more reason would they need?",
"It is actually because it is common for Muslims to call their first born son Muhammad",
"Muslims have great admiration for all the prophets, so they name their children after them\n\nMuhammad is the most common, but there are a lot more\n\nIbrahim (Abraham) is very common\nMusa (Moses) is also common\nIsa (Jesus) less common, no particular reason\n\nAnd girls are also given names of honorable woman\n\nMaryam (Mary) is very common\nAisha and Khadija are also common",
"It's because they actually like their profet. Christians would really hate for their kids to turn out like the Jesus. ",
"Because it's the name of their prophet...\n\nWhat more reason would they need?",
"It is actually because it is common for Muslims to call their first born son Muhammad",
"Muslims have great admiration for all the prophets, so they name their children after them\n\nMuhammad is the most common, but there are a lot more\n\nIbrahim (Abraham) is very common\nMusa (Moses) is also common\nIsa (Jesus) less common, no particular reason\n\nAnd girls are also given names of honorable woman\n\nMaryam (Mary) is very common\nAisha and Khadija are also common"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3lw3vy | - how is there no generic for daraprim? | Now that the price of Daraprim has been raised from $13.50 / pill to over $700, I am wondering how a drug that has been around for over 50 years does not have a generic version available. I have generics for meds that are WAAAY newer than that. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lw3vy/eli5_how_is_there_no_generic_for_daraprim/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv9u3qq",
"cva2kwk"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Sometimes, it's about complexity or scarcity. It's entirely possible that the molecule(s) are difficult enough to make or the raw materials for the drug are rare enough that there's a natural barrier to entry that's just not worth it to most generic producers to make the investment.\n\nThat's not the case here, but it's still about the money. Up until 2010, Daraprim was sold for $1/pill by GSK. Little to no upside for a pharmaceutical company. $13.50/pill is better financially, but there are still a lot of R & D and production costs involved, even for a generic. At over $700 a pop, we'll see some generics pop up, but that might not happen soon enough for some patients. ",
"There is a generic. It is manufactured in India by Luprin. It's just not available in the US as the market is small and presumably not worth it for Lupin to apply to the FDA for approval."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2757r9 | why rain doesn't hurt when it hits you. | It's falling from such a great height and if gravity is 9m/s^2^2 then why is it not going fast enough to hurt but when you are driving fast and stick your hand out the window, the rain stings. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2757r9/eli5_why_rain_doesnt_hurt_when_it_hits_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"chxhutm",
"chxhv3z"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Terminal acceleration. \n\nAs you move faster and faster in the air, the air resistance increases (see things re-entering earths atmosphere kinda). At a certain point, air resistance start to counter act gravitation acceleration and things just fall at a constant speed, not get faster and faster. ",
"Because of something called Terminal Velocity. As things accelerate downwards due to gravity, air resistance increases. Eventually, the force of gravity and the air resistance balance out, so the falling object stops picking up speed.\n\nRain is not super dense, so it's terminal velocity is relatively low - low enough, anyway, that it does not usually hurt when it hits you."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2ef5l7 | how do companies and colleges search people's facebooks? | From what I've heard, privacy settings aren't an obstacle, and even if you delete it they can still find stuff.
Edit: I'm not asking how to be invisible, I have nothing to hide, I'm just confused how they can view it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ef5l7/eli5_how_do_companies_and_colleges_search_peoples/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjyvp1e"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Google my good man, Google! Just because you have it hidden doesn't mean everyone else does and that it hasn't already made it somewhere else.\n\nAlso many will have someone from the company friend request you... you are required to accept that request. Suddenly your privacy setting means nothing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
57bqyo | why does some food become diarrhea? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57bqyo/eli5_why_does_some_food_become_diarrhea/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8qm0kq"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Food doesn't really \"Become\" diarrhea, something you eat or some internal process *triggers* diarrhea. It's your body's other way (vomiting being the first line of defense) against holding something toxic or irritating in your GI tract for any longer than it has to. Basically, it's your bowels hitting the alarm and initiating a purge of all system. \n\nNormally your intestines act a lot like a towel, absorbing water and nutrients. Diarrhea throws the *reverse* switch, and in the immortal imagery of Mel Brooks... _URL_0_ Water floods out of the cells in the bowel and turns your internal bits into a log flume for whatever is there.\n\nNow, this doesn't have to be a matter of what you ate, but when it is often you've eaten too much sugar or salt, or anything which drastically alters the osmotic balance of your gut. Infections can also trigger a similar event, but through different mechanisms."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgdzo-7HYQI"
]
]
|
||
4ok3pl | how can the shingles virus still be in us even decades after having chicken pox? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ok3pl/eli5_how_can_the_shingles_virus_still_be_in_us/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4d7x8h",
"d4d7yo4"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It hides in the nerve cells. Viruses have an active infection period and then retreat into a dormant state (not sure if all viruses do this or not - some may just leave antigens behind but I can't remember)\n\nAnyway, the chicken pox virus is a herpes family virus and after the initial infection, it continues to live on in the nerve cells of the human body never quite going away. (All the herpes family of viruses do this)\n\nYou can also get a viral encephalitis from the same virus which can be deadly.",
"Chickenpox virus is a class of Herpes virus called the Varicella-Zoster virus. This virus, like all herpes viruses, is very good at living in neurons. The virus infects the neurons during the initial chickenpox infection, and a small number of them just sit there. Viruses don't need any metabolism, they just wait, and since neurons don't die and the normal immune system doesn't have access to them, they basically live until you die. The virus for some reason or another has a specificity for neurons in the [dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord](_URL_1_). Then, for one reason or another, the virus is activated again. The virus travels down the nerve and to a [dermatome](_URL_0_) (an area of skin serviced by one nerves. This is why shingles only infects small areas of the body."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://tlccrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Dermatome.jpg",
"http://www.daviddarling.info/images2/nerve_roots.jpg"
]
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.