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2gg5pv | what is the sense of jeans with button fly | I really cant make any sense out of them.
- Dont make fashion sense unless you want people staring at your crotch.
- Are a pain when you need a quick leak :)
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gg5pv/eli5_what_is_the_sense_of_jeans_with_button_fly/ | {
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"On the upside, there is a zero percent chance of catching the flesh of the penis in a zipper.",
"You can undo them so much quicker than a fly. Just pull em apart! Useful in a handy situation. ^^^or ^^^something ^^^more",
"These days it is more rooted in history than of any real necessity. Original Levis 501 button flys were created about 20 years before the zipper became commonly known. The button fly on shrink-to-fit cotton jeans also is better as the buttons and eyelets will shrink similarly, where a zipper backing would not shrink with the jeans and end up all but useless.\n\n"
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3mvd6r | what actually happens when you set youtube to "4k" then play it full-screen on a 1080 display? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mvd6r/eli5what_actually_happens_when_you_set_youtube_to/ | {
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"It gets downscaled from 4K to 1080p. This doesn't mean that the video will look identical to the 1080p version though. It's still possible for the downscaled 4K version to appear better quality than the 1080p version (or vice versa). \n\nThat's because videos are encoded and heavily compressed before distribution online. It's possible the 1080p version may have a much lower bitrate in comparison to the 4K version. This means that although the effective resolution is the same in the end on your screen, the 1080p version may potentially have less visual detail/quality. \n\nIt could also be the other way around through. That is to say, if the 4K version is not of a sufficiently high bitrate, the amount of detail/quality that gets recorded in the encoded (and compressed) video may be worse than the 1080p version even though the 4K version has more lines of resolution. So the end result may be that the 4K version looks worse on your display.\n\nAnother factor to consider is that the process for scaling down from 4K to 1080p can also sometimes introduce quality loss or unwanted visual artifacts depending on the scaling algorithm that is used."
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5oaoun | countries and debts. is this even real? | USA, Germany,... all these countries are in debt. My questions:
1. To whom?
2. Why not cross out the mutual debts?
3. Some lender must be tremendous rich (on paper)?
Please help :D | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oaoun/eli5_countries_and_debts_is_this_even_real/ | {
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"Governments create debt by selling \"bonds.\" These can be bought by anybody, but it's usually businesses and banks and investment funds.\n\nThere's usually no such thing as mutual debut. If I borrow a tenner from you, and you borrow a tenner from me, then effectively I have paid you back. In practical terms, this sort of thing can happen, because debt is often done on a fixed term basis, and aside from anything else, the paperwork would be more hassle than it's actually worth. edit: imagine, if you have a savings account and a credit card from the same bank..... why don't you just pay the credit card with the savings?\n\nI don't know about \"tremendously\" rich, but yes, lending money to governments or anyone else is profitable (as long as it is paid back). That's why people lend money. But, in simple terms, if you've got £10000 lying around doing nothing, you are better of investing it (i.e. lending it to someone) and getting back £11000 a year from now, because if you just stick it under your mattress instead, it will actually lose value.",
"It's not as though the money is so simple as \"USA owes Germany 5,000 dollars, Germany owes the USA 4000 dollars, let's cross it off and say USA owes 1000\" or what not. Rather, every government is made of many many organizations. The different groups may owe money to one another, or may owe money to the citizens, or to programs like social security. \n\nJust as an example, the majority of USA debt is owed within the USA, not to other governments."
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d4udbb | why dont alchohol pills exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4udbb/eli5_why_dont_alchohol_pills_exist/ | {
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"Depending on where you are in the world alcohol is regulated differently. Some countries allow alcoholic popsicles and lollies, etc. A pill or gel form wouldn't be unheard of but the potential of misuse isn't something a company or supplier could afford the liability for.",
"Alcohol is ethanol. Ethanol is a liquid. It really can't be condensed anymore than Everclear. You would have to swallow 44 one mL gel caps to equal one shot of Everclear",
"The quantity of alcohol required is not insignificant. A \"standard drink\" contains 14 *grams* of alcohol, which is about 17.5 cubic centimeters in volume, which is about 1.5 cubic *inches* in size.\n\nSwallowing a pill that is bigger than your thumb doesn't sound very pleasant, and that's just for *one* serving. Having to take 2, 3, 4, or more, and as you get progressively more intoxicated, you'd be more likely to choke on such a large object. Though I suppose you could make them smaller. But taking 10 or more pills just for that?\n\nThen there's the cost of manufacturing them. And transportation. Currently, you have any container that is sealed that has whatever concentration of ethanol you want. But encapsulating it all in tiny bits? A bottle of vodka could literally be thousands of such \"little pills\".\n\nFrankly, it just seems incredibly inconvenient, since ethanol isn't a drug with significant intoxicating effects at tiny (read: a few hundred *milligrams*) doses. It requires LOTS. A few extra grams of alcohol here and there isn't significant.",
"They exist. Benzodiazepines work on the GABA/ glutamate balance in a similar manner. A Xanax buzz is just as likely to ruin your life, however, so please don't do it. Take a hot bath or listen to Enya or both and avoid hijacking your brain chemistry."
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5dadky | why is 1 meter is exactly this long, 1 gram is this much, 1 degree is this much of temperature (kelvin,celsius)? | Why this specific length is 1 meter why not a little bit more or less? same thing for 1 gram and 1 kelvin or Celsius degrees and any other basic unit. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dadky/eli5_why_is_1_meter_is_exactly_this_long_1_gram/ | {
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"These days a meter is so many wavelengths of something, and the gram (well, actually, the kilogram) is based on an artifact.\n\nBut originally, it was based on water. A gram was the weight of one cubic centimeter of water, and a meter was originally 1/10,000,000th of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator.\n\nA liter is one cubic decimeter.\n\nA degree in Celsius is pretty straightforward -- 1/100th of the temperature difference between the freezing and boiling points of water.",
"all of them are arbitrary, at some point you need a unit so you invent them. \n\nThe meter was the distance from the the north pole to the equator divided by 10 million.. because it seemed as good a starting point as any other. \n\nafter they established the meter (and it's metric counterparts, centimeters kilometers etc) they settled on the gram being one cubic centimeter of water. again, seems like a reasonable arbitrary-but-based-on-real-things measurement. \n\nCelsius follows the water convention. they took the freezing and boiling points and divided by 100 (nice round number). Kelvin is based off of the Celsius division but starts at absolute zero. \n\n\nIn the end all units are arbitrary but if you base them off of other things you can re-create those units. "
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2dcjkx | why do women have to go to the gynecologist, but men do not have to go to a 'penis doctor'? | I have been wondering why women, at least in the USA, are expected to regularly visit the gynecologist, while men do not have a similar counterpart. I mean my primary physician does the testicle cancer check, but that's about it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dcjkx/eli5_why_do_women_have_to_go_to_the_gynecologist/ | {
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"There is an equivalent, a urologist.",
"Generally it's less medically problematic.\n\nUrologists do generally do the 'penis doctor' routine, though.",
"Men, once they start getting older, are supposed to go to the proctologist regularly to have their prostate checked out.",
"Because we generally have fewer problems, but we do see urologists and are supposed to regularly see a proctologist later in lie.",
"well we have very low maintenance genitalia, just clean it up nicely and your done. ",
"I'd just like to add; a \"penis doctor\" is called a urologist.",
"The male reproductive organs are covered by other doctors, most notably the urologist (responsible for the urinary tract). But also others, like endocrinologists (responsible for the hormone system). Dermatology (skin) covers most external changes and and proctologists (colon and rectum) check the prostate.\nThe female reproductive tract is a lot more complicated and a lot different from everything else. Granted, male testicles don't have much to do with the urinary tract, but they are by far not as complicated as the ovaries."
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ohdzo | how does hezbollah relate to islam/islamism? | Genesis? Stances? Sunni? Shiite? Explain it all. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ohdzo/eli5_how_does_hezbollah_relate_to_islamislamism/ | {
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"I won't speak to their origins, as I'm not exactly sure how they got started.\n\nBut, they are a Shiite political party and they have a military wing. Literally, \"Hezbollah\" means party of God"
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2745dn | how does a bomb/missile/torpedo "know" to detonate upon impact? | By which I mean both nuclear and ordinary payloads.
I understand ones that just have timers like grenades. But bombs and such mostly seem to detonate upon impact. How? Why doesn't coming to a sudden stop just destroy the bomb and render it useless, like a car hitting a brick wall? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2745dn/eli5_how_does_a_bombmissiletorpedo_know_to/ | {
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"Let me dispel one myth first. Most bombs don't detonate upon impact. The reason being is that at impact usually isn't the time the bomb needs to detonate to have the desired effect. A great example of this is a nuclear weapon; it designed to detonate 1-5 miles (depending on the weapon yield) up in the atmosphere as to get the maximum amount of destruction in the greatest radius.\n\nBomb housing are very strong and designed to pierce. Many can survive penetrating into hardened concrete bunkers. Bombs also have fuzing mechanisms built into them that allow the user to control exactly when they want the bomb to explode; Impact, After Impact, and Proximity (some bombs can even be programmed to detonate hours after impact). These all work in various ways such as radar ranging, laser ranging, gps, mechanical/electric systems.\n\n",
"Because its nose goes squish, detonating a cap similar to that in bullets, which triggers a chain reaction leading to the detonation of the main payload.\n\nOf course, nowadays things are much more complicated.",
"I worked on nuclear missles for about four years in the Air Force, and during that spent a short time assembling/disassembling conventional bombs to support the war efforts. It has been about 10 years since I did any of this but I can almost guarantee that very little, if anything, has changed.\n\nTo answer the original question, the most basic conventional bomb design (something like a Mk82 or Mk84) use a contact fuze in the nose of the bomb. A piezo-electric contact fuze is a simple device that is the first to hit the ground. When it is crushed it generates a voltage that triggers the detonation of the bomb.\n\nThere are many more methods of fuzing bombs. As mentioned, there is also the air-burst. The most basic design of this looks like a propeller on the nose of the bomb. There is an adjustable setting based on the number of revolutions that will determine when it detonates. Think of it as setting the desired distance it has fallen from the plane, rather than the height above the ground.\n\nThere are also \"penetrating\" weapons, like the BLU-109. When I first learned to assemble them, I was a bit surprised to learn that the technology that makes it capable of penetrating 4-6 feet of concrete is nothing more than a pointed, cast-iron tip. Conventional bombs are not much more than a cast-iron container of Tritonal. So all it takes for that thing is a solid, pointed tip.\n\nThe process of fuzing a nuclear ordinance is not only much, much more complicated, but also highly classified. So in the interests of staying out of prison, I will not expound on that. I will say this, the process is complicated for the purpose of safety and security. It is pretty much impossible to deliberately detonate a nuclear weapon. ",
"To put it bluntly, there is a thing in the nose of the bomb that waits until it feels a hard smack on the front (like hitting the ground at high speed), then it tells its friend high explosives to go boom....thats as simple as i can put it"
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3d1pad | reconciling vilification of the nuremberg defense with the value of following orders in the military | To my understanding The Nuremberg Defense is widely criticized for attempting to let people off the hook for simply "following orders", yet as anyone in the military knows you are basically trained not to question orders because that gets people killed and overall it weakens the cohesive strength of your unit for the one in charge to constantly be second guessed. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d1pad/eli5_reconciling_vilification_of_the_nuremberg/ | {
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"I'm not a lawyer, nor a historian, so perhaps someone could give an answer that's better than mine--someone correct me if I'm wrong here.\n\nThe Nuremberg defense is crap because, although soldiers are trained to just follow orders without questioning them, the orders were so heinous that *any* reasonable person *should* have questioned them. Think of it this way: if you're a soldier, and you're ordered to put your gun in your mouth and kill yourself, is that an order that you should blindly follow or is that something that any reasonable person would question?",
"On the battlefield, following orders is usually a good idea if you don't want to be responsible for the deaths of many of your comrades and possibly a terrible defeat. An example of this might be the [Battle of Dettingen of 1743](_URL_0_): a carefully-laid trap completely unravelled and resulted in a very embarassing defeat, apparently (although this is disputed) because one officer disobeyed an order and led a charge before everyone else had got into position.\n\nBut when high-ranking officers are executing civilians on the basis of very flimsy charges and without due process, \"I was only following orders\" is not an acceptable defence. Notice that at Nuremberg it was the high-ranking officers who were on trial, not the ordinary soldiers who, after all, were fighting to protect their lives and those of their comrades and compatriots.\n\nLess seriously, and much more amusingly, is the story of the Captain of Köpenick. During the early years of the 20th century, a petty criminal called Wilhelm Voigt, who at the time was living in Berlin, was trying to give up his life of crime but was stuck in a terrible bureaucratic Catch-22 situation, as his criminal record meant he could neither get a job nor leave the country. So he hired a fancy dress costume, dressed up as an army captain, found a couple of soldiers with nothing to do, and ordered them to accompany him to what was then the nearby town of Köpenick. Despite the fact that Voigt's uniform was wrong (for instance, he was wearing a peaked cap instead of a helmet), they unquestioningly followed orders. They stormed the Köpenick Town Hall, Voigt confiscated all the money in the safe and made off with it, telling his men to guard the place until he got back. This really wasn't a battlefield life-or-death situation, and the soldiers were criticized for not questioning the bizarre orders they were being given.\\*\n\nBut even on the battlefield there are limits, as was demonstrated by the Charge of the Light Brigade of 1854, an infamous event during the Crimean War. The British cavalry sent its Light Brigade to chase off an already defeated Russian artillery battery, but due to a miscommunication, the Light Brigade was sent in the wrong direction and instead mounted a frontal attack on a completely different battery, an attack no Light Brigade should ever have attempted. Even though the orders that were issued were extremely vague, nobody along the entire chain of command questioned them or even requested clarification.\n\n--------\n \\* Voigt was eventually caught, and although the court did sympathize with his situation, he still received a prison sentence. However, he had also become a folk hero, as many ordinary people were as frustrated as he was with Prussian bureaucracy. The Kaiser himself found the story hilarious, and granted him a pardon. He was allowed to leave and move to Luxembourg, where he became a minor celebrity.",
"People who serve in the armed forces of the signatories to various treaties like the Geneva Conventions are bound by law to conform to certain types of behavior.\n\nIf an order is illegal - if following the order would break a law or treaty - the person receiving the order is required to refuse to carry that order out and to report the issue up the chain of command.\n\nTo help ensure that soldiers know what might constitute illegal orders most modern military forces provide training in the various obligations their forces must meet and the laws they will be operating under.\n\nHowever there is a catch-all concept of \"crimes against humanity\" which means there are some things that are so obviously wrong that nobody needs to sign a law, a treaty, or be told not to do them. By consensus humanity agrees that some things are Simply Not Ok.\n\nPrior to WWII there had never been meaningful prosecutions of the leadership of sovereign powers for committing crimes against humanity, and the whole idea was quite abstract. Historically after defeating a sovereign power the leadership was executed so nobody had really bothered with the concept of a trial and a verdict.\n\nWWII changed that. The victors put the losers in a courtroom and then proceeded to charge them and convict them of crimes against humanity before executing or imprisoning them. One outcome was that anyone who wanted to try and confuse the issue and claim that maybe the terrible acts which had been committed were not real and just propaganda would have to refute the public evidence and testimony presented in the war crimes trials. And the defendants were given good counsel and plenty of opportunity to plead their cases and introduce evidence that would show their innocence, so none of their heirs or friends could claim after the fact that they'd been framed or scapegoated.\n\nWithin that context, claiming that one was \"just following orders\" was rejected as a defense. In the case of Germany, the people convicted of war crimes were operating under the terms of the Geneva Convention as well as many other international treaties and agreements, so their acts of warmaking on Europe were violations of actual laws, not imputed \"moral requirements\". The holocaust was such a crime though, on top of the fact that individual acts within the system were also violations of actual laws (although the Germans had actually gone so far as to legalize some of the acts of the Holocaust).\n\nJapan was a slightly different case, because Japan never signed the Geneva Conventions, and its sovereign did not accept that Japan was bound to any laws other than its own. Japan's stance seems weird to us today but it was the norm until WWI. The prosecutions of war criminals in the Pacific theater proceeded from a much less stable foundation than in the European theater. Still, prosecutions were made and verdicts rendered and people were executed and imprisoned and with only a small number of exceptions there hasn't really been any lasting effort to claim the outcomes were not legitimate."
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1bd5za | what happened to occupy wall st.? | I live in New York and I don't even know. They seem to be reduced to a single table in Union Square where they play chess. What the hell happened?
Edit: If you're going to quote The Big Lebowski... don't. It's not helpful or funny. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bd5za/eli5_what_happened_to_occupy_wall_st/ | {
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"Changing society is hard work.",
"It died out, expectedly and rightfully so.\n\nThere was little organization to OWS. In DC, they occupied McPherson Square, and it's very much gone now. I was in Union Square just yesterday and it's also gone there too.\n\nThere was not only no organization, but no real objective. A bunch of people camped out without showering in public spaces blocking traffic and demanding that there be a \"change\" in government-- but with no real specifics or plan about how to fix it. If you asked 20 different people what the goal of OWS was, you would either hear 20 different responses or a few repetitions of sugarcoated bullshit: \"we want responsible government!\"\n\nThere was no plan of action, no leadership, and in general it was just a public disturbance. Many compared it to the Tea Party, as both were in their peak at the time. While I sympathize more (not too much) with OWS, I have more respect for the Tea Party *movement* (NOT the people or its goals/ideology) for being well structured with clearer goals and more defined leadership.\n\nIn cities such as New York (where they were in Zucchotti Park I believe), DC, and Oakland, the OWS protesters were either told to leave by the government or by the landowner of the property they were defiling. They went for a long time, but like most protests it eventually died out. Thank god.",
"Veteran of Occupy here:\n\nThere remains a lot of debate, but it was mostly a systemic issue with organization. Most Occupy's had as a fixed rule there would be no official leadership--meaning you had hundreds of people with differing priorities and no direction. You had anarchists, socialists, run-of-the-mill Obama liberals, and some people who just really hated banks. So while it did change the national conversation (not an easy accomplishment), it lacked any singular foundation on which to support itself.\n\nTL;DR Leadership makes things happen, and Occupy decided that wasn't true. ",
"When I visited New York last Christmas, I was waiting in line at a Starbucks behind a guy who was wearing a fur coat with \"Occupy Wall Street\" written in some kind of glitter glue on the back. The guy in front of him asked what he was trying to accomplish and how he was going to do it. His exact quote was, \"We, um, well we just want to show Wall Street that we aren't going away and we shouldn't be completely responsible for our debt.\" \n\nI'm still not sure if he actually thought that or just thought it would be a fun way to socialize with the other crazies, but he sure stuck it to the man with his Starbucks in hand.\n",
"This is an extremely difficult question to explain in simple terms.\n\nYou could say \"Winter\" and that would be true. You could say \"government crackdown\" and that would also be true. You could also say \"poor organization\", \"poor execution\", or even \"it was never meant to be permanent\" and **all** of those answers would have an element of truth.\n\nWhat distinguished OWS from other protests of the late 20th and early 21st century was the very verb chosen - to occupy. Protests like Seattle were bounded both temporally and spatially, once the event ended, people went home. Occupy was about - as much as it was about anything - making physically present a group of people and demands that are often swept under the rug by global capitalism. \n\nNow, there is a whole host of theory about how and why their refusal to have leaders or make universal demands was *actually* an asset (drawn from Zizek, Badiou, Lefebvre, Harvey, take your pick), and if you're interested I'm sure a host of redditors would point you in that direction. **However**, as a \"five year old,\" what you should take away is that OWS shifted the national debate - the idea of the 99% (which filters even to Romney's 47% comment), the idea of \"too big to fail\" (**edit**: By which I mean a conversation on income inequality and irresponsible lending/banking practices - see below) - these *don't happen* without Occupy.\n\nFurther, as the main movement fell apart, smaller ones taking on specific aspects have branched off, for example [Rolling Jubilee] (_URL_0_) crowd-funds the buying and liberating of debt.\n\nSo, Occupy is a mixed bag. Over the long run, its organizational form couldn't sustain itself against government and weather; however, it shifted public debate and led to a variety of spin-off movements that may result in something larger down the road.",
"Basically what others have said. In fact, here in West Palm Beach, their cause got a little ridiculous. They had signs protesting the government, but City Hall gave them keys to the public restrooms for after hour access, then moved them from the middle of the city park, to the fully functional old City Hall building. The city was helping them protest so much, their cause became hard to understand.",
"It got preoccupied. ",
"I just did a paper on OWS. Here is another take. OWS was different than most types of protest and it took place around the world. If you look at the personal accounts of the different movements, you see that it was as much about incubating new ideas within the group as it was about changing established idea's in society. In Occupy Slovenia, they spent a lot of time coming up with new ways of practicing direct democracy and decision making. Even in it's short comings, the LA and NY created a kind of foundation for future movements. \n\nThe Tea Party is basically about shrinking government. But OWS was a very diverse group of people: liberals, anarchists, marxists, minorities, the poor, ect. All these people came together and spent time with one another. They eventually went home, but they took back with them memories of the experience. The frustrations of disorganization or lack of vision went home with them as well as the excitement of coming together and capturing the world's attention. \n\nI recently had a group from the LA Occupy movement come to class and talk. I was left with the impression that this perhaps was the first part in a new form of protest. \n\nI personally believe that OWS was more about bringing together different types of people who are looking for new ideas and new ways of imagining the world. Anyone who has spent time working with groups and culture change knows that beginnings are extremely messy. But I don't believe the conventional ways of thinking that compare OWS to conventional movements. I think its something new.",
"Reminder: keep the bias to a minimum.",
"They absolutely proved that if you don't have a definable goal or appropriate steps for appeasement, you'll fail miserably. \nOWS always came off as whiners about problems (real & imaginary) but they never did anything with their exposure. Then of course the whole iPhone carrying hipster complaining about the establishment while sipping on Starbucks coffee dropped their small amount of credibility to barely perceptible levels.",
"TIL: Occupy Wall Street is still a thing. ",
"There were simply too many issues with the movement.\n\n1) They claim to represent the 99% but clearly only represented a small portion of them. Successful movements represent the people they claim to represent. When a drum circle starts yelling they are the 99% it's pretty easy for the 90% of the 99% to laugh them off as kooks.\n\n2) They decided in some cities to become anti-police and anti-government. Portland, Oregon is such a great example. City hall bent over backward to accomodate them. Then eventually the city had to say no to a request and suddenly the city leaders were the enemy. \n\n3) They were rude neighbors. They took over parks so others couldn't use them. They started moving into residential areas and be loud all night. They have the right to assemble but people also have the right to peace and quiet in their own homes.\n\n4) They never had real action steps. There was never any what next. \n\n5) They protested the wrong people. Democrats were in charge of government and government is where to enact change for what they want. Instead of protesting the Democrats controlling Congress and the White House they protested Wall Street and financial areas. They had no real influence over those areas so it was easy for them to be ignored. If they had gone to DC or state houses they could have prompted legislative change which is what they claimed to want. Occupy DC I think would have had some impact. But that would have meant protesting the same people most of the participants voted for.\n\n6) They thought they were the liberal version of the Tea Party. The Tea Party was also full of kooks but they focused on things they could actually influence: Politicians. Occupy Wall Street focused on the wrong things to protest. \n\n7) Hipsters and Hippies misunderstood how little people think of them. ",
"It's not gone. It's evolved. Obviously poeple can't just sit for years getting arrested and sabotoged and wait for things to magically change. The \"system\" was a huge festering zit, begging to be popped all over this great land. Occupy was the result. There are still thousands of active occupiers, using their unique talent to contribute in productive ways. They have come together with other groups that share core beliefs to accoplish things like new legislation for campaign reform, reversing citizens united, pushing for equal rights, etc. It's not that its not there, you just have to seek the information out and that requires wading through a lot of shit on the way. So, what happened to OWS? You stopped paying attention.",
"Saul Alinsky's #7 in his Rules for Radicals:\n\nA tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.",
"I suppose it depends on the city. In Montreal, the Occupy movement morphed into the student movement we have today.\n\nCan't speak for other branches.",
"the bums will always lose ",
"FYI the chess players in Union Square aren't OWS, they're just people who hang out... you can challenge them if you want, they're pretty good.",
"They didn't organize to get candidates elected. They could have raised a ton of money and made direct congressional change, but didn't want to get too \"political\" because it would seemingly corrupt their message. Well here we are and our politics are as bad and broken as before. If a significant segment of Occupy could be organized behind some single issue candidates, we might have seen the birth of a really influential party. Screw the public change in attitude. Sure it makes a difference in the establishment's rhetoric, but very little has politically changed. If you want direct change, MAKE it happen. Occupy should have collected funds to support State level politicians of their own, and put on an advertising campaign to attack politicians who support bank bailouts, or whatever the central issue was. \n\nProtesting is great, but collective money and elections is how real change happens. They should have taken it to the next level. If it ever comes back, I hope that's exactly what they'll do. Put campaign pressure on politicians and the country will be very different before you know it.",
"The bums lost, Mr. Lebowski.",
"A lack of a direction in which the movement was heading. Take for example the French Revolution; people knew the current system was screwing them over and try wanted a new direction, democracy, to prevail. OWS highlighted the problem, but didnt offer any solutions and so it lost momentum and rather than being a force for positive change, became a contributory factor in apathy and believing that the working classes cannot elicit change. ",
"They had their limelight and the full attention of the media but they couldn't ever come up with a call for action. They mostly looked like spoiled brats complaining about things they didn't like.",
"It got cold.",
"When you let people who take dumps on cars and scare little kids represent your movement, don't expect it to last very long.\n\nThey lost public support. Vague message, crime in the camps, etc. It alienated everyone, and without support, it's done,",
"People got realistic.",
"In Eugene, Oregon there's a free medical clinic for people every weekend. It's grown into a cost-efficient (run and stocked by volunteers) way to provide free preventative care to people who can get themselves there, and fill in gaps that have been left behind by other programs. ",
"It was a circlejerk. They never convinced anyone that didn't already agree with them.",
"Obama got elected so they did not need Plan B anymore",
"What happened? nothing. the exact same outcome as any other protest.",
"I thought Occupy Wall Street was gonna become a new tourist attraction in NYC. \n\n\n- \"Hey what'd you guys do today?\"\n\n\n- \"Well we went to the Statue of Liberty, walked around Central Park, got some pizza, and occupied Wall Street.\"",
"The people who are in the \"99%\" and who would support the movement have to go to work. They can't take time off from supporting their families to go protest. ",
"When it became an excuse to get high and vandalize property in public, OWS lost its credibility. That, and it had no real long-term solutions. Just *We're mad as hell, and we won't take it anymore!* rhetoric.",
"The hipsters all got hungry and went to starbucks.",
"BBC Newsnight did a report on the London occupy movement. _URL_0_"
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43c94p | what happens to pixels when an image gets stretched? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43c94p/eli5what_happens_to_pixels_when_an_image_gets/ | {
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"If you stretch an image that means you make it cover more pixels. So it remaps the original picture to a larger set of pixels. So a color value that was on a couple of pixels is now been moved to a larger set of pixels which makes it look stretched/smeared"
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bj17im | what’s the difference between nadh, fadh and atp? | I know ATP is energy but do Nadh and Fadh produce energy? Are they a different form of energy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bj17im/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_nadh_fadh_and/ | {
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"Not quite. All three provide energy but are not 'made of it' themselves. NADH and FADH are molecules that are easy to oxidise and reduce again, so 'carry' the H- a proton- to different areas of the chemical reactions in your cells to be used as drivers of the proton gradients that create ATP. ATP similiarly, is broken down from a small ion into ADP and a simple Phosphate ion- P, and this breaK down of bonds releases the energy contained within the bond, to be used in reactions as the bodies energy.",
"NAD and FAD are electron carriers. So yeah, they're sort of a different form of energy storage than ATP. Our body gets energy from food by redox reactions (reduction - adding electrons, oxidation - removing electrons). The electrons are carried to the electron transport chain by these carriers, where the flow of electrons is used to pump hydrogen across the mitochondrial membrane, and that gradient is used to create ATP.",
"ATP is not a form of energy it's a chemical compound cells use to accelerate/initiate other chemical reactions. This works because splitting a phosphate group (the 'P' in ATP) off releases energy. NADH AND FADH are different chemical compounds which cells mainly use in the process of adding that phosphate group to ADP to get ATP back (AMP, ADP, ATP are essentially the same compound just with different numbers of phosphate groups: M=mono=1 phosphate, D=di=2 phosphate, T=tri=3phosphate)."
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476hiz | can someone explain the humor behind the volkswagen lemon ad from the 1950's and what's so revolutionary about it? | Pulled from Wikipedia:
"Following the success of Think Small, the advertisement titled "Lemon" left a lasting legacy in America - use of the word "Lemon" to describe poor quality cars.[5] "Lemon" campaign introduced a famous tagline "We pluck the lemons, you get the plums." [6]"
_URL_0_
This ad right here | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/476hiz/eli5_can_someone_explain_the_humor_behind_the/ | {
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"Your Wikipedia quote explains it pretty clearly. The revolutionary aspect of the ad in question was that it coined the term \"lemon\" for a substandard car. The humor came from the fact that the car shown had only a minor cosmetic flaw. "
]
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"http://www.writingfordesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/volkswagen_lemon_hires1.jpg"
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fj93i5 | the government just put interest rates at zero or close to zero. what does that mean? does that mean someone can get a car loan at zero percent interest? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fj93i5/eli5_the_government_just_put_interest_rates_at/ | {
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"Here's a good article to put Federal Funds Rate, Prime Rate, and Mortgage Rates in context of each other....\n_URL_0_",
"I believe this is good for certain folks with a fixed mortgage, they can refinance their loan at a lower rate. Not sure if this impacts credit card interest or car loans.",
"It means banks can get loans from the federal treasury at near zero percent, which in turn means that banks will lower *their* interest rates on home loans, auto loans, business loans, personal credit, all sorts of things. This is one of the powers the government has to stimulate the economy and encourage people to buy homes and cars and other things that keep our system running. \n\n\nEdit: In effect, yes it means you'll be able to get car loans at cheaper rates now than you might have before, at least until it goes back up.",
"The federal reserve rate is what's been reduced to 0, which can be thought of as the rate that big banks have to pay to borrow money. For consumer lending, like in your example, we have to look at the \"prime interest rate\" as the lowest possible rate and it's always at least 3% higher than the federal reserve rate additionally the bank will need to calculate your risk, value of the asset over time, and ability to repay and may increase the interest rate to account for that.",
"It's the interest rate that banks use when loaning each other money. The fed interest rate is then used as a base to calculate most other types of loans' interest rates from.",
"It means the fed is issuing loans (to banks and other financial institutions) at near zero percent interest. The short answer is that does lower interest rates for consumer and business loans because that's one less cost the bank has to deal with but the fed's interest rates were already really low.",
"The bank's get a loan from the government at 0% interest rate. This means they will lower theirs, making now a really good time to get a fixed term mortgage",
"No the government interest rate is for banks looking to get extra capital to run their businesses.\n\nBasically the bank borrows the money from the government and then lends it to you for a profit.\n\nSo whatever interest rate the government sets, the bank needs to add to whatever interest rate they offer you. So if they want to ear 5% interest and the fed rate is 1% then they lend you the money for 6%.\n\nA 0% rate means you'll get a lower interest rate but it won't be 0 because the lender needs to make something.\n\nAs for cars, you can sometimes get a 0% interest rate but those are special promotions dealers put on and don't really have a lot to do with the federal interest rate.",
"There are a number of reasons to charge interest. \n\n* first to cover costs. There are admin costs, but the biggest charge is (usually) the interest the bank has to pay on the money it borrows from the government, before it can lend it to you. \n* second to cover risks. There is a risk you might nor be able to pay back the loan. These risks are lower on a secured loan (like a house mortgage where the bank can take ownership of your house if you don't keep up mortgage payments) but there's still a risk that that security won't cover the outstanding loan. \n* thirdly to make a profit. \n\nSo while the first cost might have reduced a bit, there are still the other costs to consider.",
"Time to get that HELOC?",
"Consumer loans are based off the Prime Rate, which in turn is based off the federal funds rate. In general prime rate is ffr rate +3%. So it'll be something like 3.25%, and then it depends on your credit worthiness from there.",
"TL;DR: No\n\nNo because the bank has to factor for the risk and also earn money.\n\nBanks are loan retailers, they loan money to central banks (the fed in USA) and sell the loans to you. \n\nSo now the banks can buy loans at 0% interest, but they have to sell them to you at a higher price or it's not profitable. \n\nAlso there is a chance you don't pay back, so to cover that they have to charge a bit more until the risk is statistically covered. Since we will possibly enter in a recession, lot of people could lose their job and risk of default increase. If the risk increases, the bank has to charge even more."
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2bnb5s | how can people have memories after they've been legally dead for minutes? | I get how the rest of the body could reboot and keep working like a machine but wouldn't that mean once the brain stops working the memories are still in it? It isn't like a computer game where if you don't hit save they get wiped? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bnb5s/eli5how_can_people_have_memories_after_theyve/ | {
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"Legally dead isn't necessarily the same as actually dead.\n\nNeurons don't go away when the brain is unconscious. Does the data on your hard drive disappear when the computer turns off?\n\nThe brain / computer parallel is tortured at best, anyway. Two fundamentally different machines. ",
"Depends how long you've been dead. I believe that in the timespan that a person is still able to be revived, his brain would still mostly be intact and not yet decayed from a lack of oxygen supply. Moreover, brain degeneration would have to occur specifically at areas that deal directly with memory (eg the hippocampus). The amount of brain decay occuring here wouldn't be significant in this amount of time. \n\nSo it's probably very unlikely that his memory would be affected. ",
"Computer RAM actually can retain data for a while (at least minutes) when the computer is turned off. The data doesn't magically disappear when the computer is off - but the computer is no longer using energy to keep it \"stabilized\", and eventually it fades away.\n\nNot that it matters, because brains aren't like RAM."
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czywi1 | can the global internet storage ever be capped? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czywi1/eli5_can_the_global_internet_storage_ever_be/ | {
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"It doesn't really work that way.\n\nThe Internet really is just a whole bunch of computers connected by switches and routers owned by all sorts of people/corporations. The big companies just have bigger, faster, and way more expensive hardware. As long as they can keep buying hard drives and servers to put them into and network switches to connect them with, they can keep adding more storage. Heck I have around 30 TB of storage in my office at home. All the internet sees is servers that response to queries.\n\nSo, as long as the earth has the resources to make hard drives and the electricity to run them, I don't think we'll see a limit in our lifetimes. Even then I imagine elon musk will build a datacenter on Mars or something."
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||
6ay5xw | why does the us allow someone with no prior political experience to run for president? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ay5xw/eli5_why_does_the_us_allow_someone_with_no_prior/ | {
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"Why should it be disallowed? The whole point is that anyone the people choose to represent them can represent there. There are some minimum qualifications, such as age and citizenship, but the people are the ones who decide, it allows anyone whom the people feel should lead them to do so."
]
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||
45pqz4 | what is the difference between bananas and plantains? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45pqz4/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_bananas_and/ | {
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"When people say \"banana\" and when people say \"plantain,\" they are talking about different things. \n\nThe sweet \"dessert bananas\" - that type which is commonly consumed in the US - is what a “banana” is for most of the people. All the rest that are different from the fruit referred to as \"plantains.” \n\n**Although there is no formal botanical distinction between bananas and plantains.**"
]
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|
65selx | why do toilets overflow when they're clogged? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65selx/eli5why_do_toilets_overflow_when_theyre_clogged/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the water that would normally go into the bowl from the tank/reservoir has nowhere to go. Same thing that would happen if you clogged your kitchen sink and turned on the faucet.\n"
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||
5xxif0 | why do tornado warnings sound so creepy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xxif0/eli5_why_do_tornado_warnings_sound_so_creepy/ | {
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"text": [
"I think it's to make sure the voice is clear and understandable.\n\nAlso, I think it's only creepy because we associate it with... well... severe weather."
]
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7fws3k | why do our brain get tired of eating certain foods after a few bites even though we enjoy what we're eating? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fws3k/eli5_why_do_our_brain_get_tired_of_eating_certain/ | {
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"Physiologist here, who has spent well over a decade of studying the neurophysiology of a sensory system (auditory). \n\nThink of it this way: Your senses have evolved to help you survive (detect food sources, see predators, etc). \n\nWe tend to think that our senses are there to continually provide us information about our surroundings. That's true, in a sense, but they are really there (and are biologically designed) to detect **changes** in our surroundings. \n\nContinuous sensory stimuli (like constant wind blowing through trees) is a distraction. What you want to be able to sense is, for example, the sound of a crack that might be a lion stepping on a stick as he is stalking you. \n\nAll sensory systems are designed to fatigue to continuous sensory stimuli. As a sound/sensation/taste/color/visual pattern/etc persists in time, it tends to fade into the background. The reason is that the circuitry in the brain that processes this information isn't designed to process the same information over and over - it's designed to find and cause your to react to **changes in this background information that represents a change in your environment**. \n\nTaste (gustation) is the same as all other sensory systems. The biggest effect you'll experience is when something new is introduced - that effect, though, wears off quickly as your sensory system acclimates to this stimulus and resets itself to be able to find/react to a new stimulus.\n\n"
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q59cs | how does youtube "partnership" work? | I understand they get money from the ads placed on their videos, but why? Couldn't YouTube just advertise without paying them anything? Is it an incentive? A legal issue? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q59cs/eli5_how_does_youtube_partnership_work/ | {
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"incentive for continued periodic creation of good original material",
"Basically YouTube had to have a partnership program. Content creators were starting to go to sites like Revver, which had partner-like deals of revenue sharing.\n\nOthers were hosting video on there own sites.",
"Imagine you have some great ideas, but no money to make a video about it. With the money content creators get from YT, they can buy a better camera.\n\nAlso editing a video takes a lot of time(especially non-vlogs). With the money Youtubers can pay someone else to edit their videos, while they film other stuff and come up with new ideas.\n\nIf the content is better (quality), more people will watch it and YT gets more traffic."
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74a49u | how are those "combined faces" posts made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74a49u/eli5_how_are_those_combined_faces_posts_made/ | {
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"Asked right here, TODAY.\n\n_URL_0_"
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8fxytr | how does vr (virtual reality) work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fxytr/eli5_how_does_vr_virtual_reality_work/ | {
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"That's a pretty broad question. Could you clarify?\n\nFrom the hardware point of view, VR requires a head mounted display (HMD) which is basically an oversized pair of ski goggles with specially made lenses and two screens or a screen divided into two halves. When the screens are big enough, the lenses are designed properly and the framerate and the resolution are high enough, this gives the impression of being in a virtual space. The movement of the headset is tracked using sensors so that you can move and orient yourself in the virtual space, and you usually have 2 controllers tracked with the same technology.\n\nThe software side is actually pretty simple - VR games typically use a normal game engine like everything else. Instead of showing the game in your monitor or TV the world is rendered from two slightly different directions for each eye, which gives a stereo effect. Your head moves the camera and the controllers work like any other game controller, except the game also knows their position."
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f4ubrm | why is printing from mobile devices so limited? | It's been a long time since my laptop could print to any printer, anywhere. Why are ios and Android so limited in their print capabilities? You need the right printer, or the right app... I feel like it's 1992 all over again. Is there some technical limitation I don't know about? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f4ubrm/eli5_why_is_printing_from_mobile_devices_so/ | {
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"Printers are the Satan of everyday IT infrastructure. Every manufacturer slips in some proprietary BS that only works with their specific driver, then that driver doesn't make it into Android or iOS versions because they can't afford to have half a gig of just printer drivers. Even on PC you usually have to install the driver from a CD/manufacturer website to properly use the printer, or if you're lucky the printer manufacturer sent the driver to Microsoft so Win10 can automatically download it.\n\nOn android you have to manually install the printer driver, which due to how mobile OSes work, is always done through an app.",
"The simple truth is that the world has yet to see two printer manufacturers that have been capable of even convincingly pretending that their shit work the same way as the other company's product.\n\nEvery single one of them reinvents the wheel. Again. And again. And again.\n\nThe only reason that your computer can easily handle nearly any printer you can find in your office is that Windows (for example) has a library of several thousand different printers that it can somewhat reliably identify and pick the right driver to communicate with.\n\nPrinters are a mess, and that's not even close to an exaggeration.\n\nApple has made an attempt to simplify that shit some and has made up a (read: their own) protocol for wireless printer capabilities from phones and tablets.\n\nGoogle has made attempts to simplify that shit some and has made up (read: their own) protocol for wireless printer capabilities from phones and tablets.\n\nWhich means that just like with car entertainment systems that have to support two entirely different phone standards to get phone-powered maps on the infotainment screen, printers too have to support two entirely different standards to allow printing form all types of phones. Awesome, isn't it?"
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4jbv33 | does psychopath understand he is different? | does a psychopath understand he is different? and does not tell anyone because if he did they would think he was a psychopath? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jbv33/eli5does_psychopath_understand_he_is_different/ | {
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"They can; you can watch interviews with psychopaths where they talk about the experience. Some have even written books. Often they are told they are different when they are too young to figure it out. \n\nMany prefer *not* to advertise because of the negative stigma associated with the term. ",
"Psychopaths act out without knowing it is wrong, sociopaths know it is wrong but do it anyways. ",
"There is not a single answer to this question because human beings are highly idiosyncratic and outliers tend to be even more so. What you are fundamentally asking about is if persons suffering from psychopathy have insight and also the ability to understand how others might be the same of different from themselves.\n\nIf you think about the people you know in your own life I'd guess that you would see that there is a wide variation in both insight (self-awareness) and empathy (understanding others) among all of them. I think we've all known people who truly believe they are amazing at something that they actually are quite terrible or mediocre at. We've probably also known people who seem completely incapable of understanding that just because they enjoy big parties doesn't mean that everyone else does... for example.\n\nEach of these abilities is actually determined by some complicated psychological factors in both psychopaths and the general public which means that there will be a large degree of variability in either case. So you will have a spectrum on either side for each quality and the how those qualities interact with each other will also affect how it works within them (as well as their history, environment...).\n\nPsychopathy is more formally considered to be a part of personality disorder. This is different from other types of diagnosis because instead of the pathology being like an illness-- something outside or in addition to the self (approximately)-- it is more like the psychopathy is a fundamental structure of who they are, a major part of their actual personality.\n\nI hope this helps answer your question :-)\n\nQualifications-- I am a therapist and sometimes work with people who have personality disorders.",
"There's a famous recent story about a neurologist named James Fallon who accidentally discovered that he was a psychopath.\n\nIf I recall the story correctly, he was looking through a bunch of brain scans and saw one that showed tell-tale signs of psychopathy. Psychopathy is a lack of empathy which shows distinctive patterns when you look at which regions of the brain are active. He was quite astonished to find that the psychopath scan was of his own brain, a scan he had taken just to test out the equipment. His brain was never intended to be part of the study.\n\nHe starts talking to friends and family, and no one seems particularly surprised, which itself surprised the hell out of him. He's not a murderer or any other kind of crook, he's a productive member of society, but he finds out he has a reputation for being a big jerk. He's dismissive and inconsiderate of everyone around him, and even for mercilessly taunting and teasing people. But because he's unaware of other people's emotions, he never noticed. \n\nI probably screwed up some details. Google him. Fascinating story."
]
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3bmtco | when a product says that it detoxes, what exactly is it detoxing you of? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bmtco/eli5when_a_product_says_that_it_detoxes_what/ | {
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"If a product just says that it detoxes, and doesn't list actual chemicals/substances, then the chances are that it's a scam (or as close to a scam that you can get while still remaining legal).",
"The only thing that detox products are removing from you is your hard earned money. What detoxes your body is your liver and your kidneys and the only thing you can do to help those things work is to drink the proper amount of water.",
"It's detoxing you of wallet weight. However, be advised that you are receiving a substantial retoxing of bullshit in the same transaction. "
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||
1menpk | how can companies blatantly rip off other companies, including their entire design and business model without getting into legal trouble? | I'm wondering how concepts like Bobs shoes from Skechers can blatantly copy something like Toms shoes, including the shoe design and even the concept of donating shoes to needy children (not that I'm against shoes for children that need them) without any copyright infringement? There are tons of other examples, but this one just comes to mind. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1menpk/eli5_how_can_companies_blatantly_rip_off_other/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc8hwob"
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"text": [
"Fashion is difficult to impossible to copyright. The labels are far easier to copyright/trademark then the fashion design and this is why most clothing companies choose to focus on their brand. Thus there is no legal problem with duplicating another companies style."
]
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[]
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|
5ez2xq | what is computer vision, and how does it work? | For example, how does computer work when tracking people in a video? How is it able to determine what is a person and what is the background? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ez2xq/eli5_what_is_computer_vision_and_how_does_it_work/ | {
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"If you think about a face there are some things that are broadly similar to each other. We generally have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Faces are generally kind of oblong, and all of those bits are in a similar ratio distance to each other. That is, the distance between your eyes is approximately proportionate to the width of your face as they are on my head. \n\nThat's basically what programs like OpenCV are doing. They take thousands of images of faces and thousands more of images without faces to try and learn the differences between images with faces and those without. It then looks for patterns in images that have been declared images with faces. ",
"To further elaborate on your specific question regarding background separation: The method used for this is called background subtraction, and works (in its most simple form) by looking at which pixels change between some frames in the video and those who don't. Stuff which doesn't change is likely to be the background, while changing stuff is likely to be the foreground (people)."
]
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[],
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5rh6zk | why did we construct our days the way we did? with sunlight starting at 5 or 6 am instead of making it so your day truly starts at 12am or 1? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5rh6zk/eli5_why_did_we_construct_our_days_the_way_we_did/ | {
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"text": [
"You don't want a date/time to be ambiguous. If the day changed at sunrise, then 6:23AM Tuesday might not be 24 hours before 6:23AM Wednesday as the time of sunrise varies through the year.\n\nNoon was the first time defined, because it has an unambiguous, accurate, definition that doesn't change with the season. The time for switching from Tuesday to Wednesday was picked as midnight, an equal hours before and after noon. After that it's all numbering and deciding how long an hour should be.",
"Because 1pm is 1 **p**ost **m**eridiem (after the sun is at its highest point, noon), and so we carried this through until 11pm and then midnight which was the 12th hour post meridiem after which point it made more sense to switch to \"ante meridiem\" (before midday) and it was more consistent to count up from there as well, even though 11am is actually only one hour before midday.\n\nJust weird holdovers, to be fully honest."
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||
ees47t | how is 2019 the end of the decade and not the end of the year 2020? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ees47t/eli5_how_is_2019_the_end_of_the_decade_and_not/ | {
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"If you include both 2010 and 2020 that is 11 years. The decade goes from the start of 2010 to the start of 2020, i.e. the end of 2019.\n\nIt could be argued that it should really go from 2011 to 2021, because there was no 0AD, it started from 1. So the first decade was 1AD to the start of 11AD. But really that start point is arbitrary, so we normally we count decades from years ending in 0.",
"The reason that your example doesn't work is because you've counted 11 years:\n\n1. 2010\n2. 2011\n3. 2012\n4. 2013\n5. 2014\n6. 2015\n7. 2016\n8. 2017\n9. 2018\n10. 2019\n11. 2020\n\nSo there's definitely 11 years there, rather than 10. Because years are ordinal numbers rather than cardinal. But actually, the decade is supposed to end at the end of 2020, but that's because the decade actually started in 2011, rather than 2010.\n\nThe decades are said to *technically* start with the years ending in a 1, because there wasn't a year 0 in our calendar. It's a bit of a convention since our modern Gregorian calendar wasn't formally adopted or numbered for centuries and centuries after the date, but the fact is that if you counted backwards, the year that came before 1 CE/AD was the year 1 BCE/BC.\n\nSo since there wasn't a year 0, the first \"decade\" of our system was from the year 1 to the end of the year 10. The next decade ran from 11 until 20, and 21-30, and so on to the current decade, which runs from 2011 until the last day of 2020."
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3xcrou | why is it acceptable to litter cigarette butts around the world? | Thank you to everyone for you thoughts. I now have more of an understanding of the logic behind the tossing of a cigarette butt. I hope we can all work together to eliminate the littering of butts completely. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xcrou/eli5_why_is_it_acceptable_to_litter_cigarette/ | {
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"Not sure about acceptance. I personally think its deplorable but I'd assume that in any given population where there are more smokers (the prime suspects) there would also be a greater percentage of acceptance for other smoker's bad habits. Solution: ban filtered cigarettes and allow only non-filtered smokes to be sold, they will biodegrade.",
"It depends where you live, many countries have made it illegal, but enforcement is poor.",
"It's not. Since getting everyone to stop pitching their butts is not feasible, the cigarette companies should have to bear the cost for their product. Really, biodegradable filters and zero harmful chemicals should be required by law. **edit:** before anyone says anything, I realize now that's impossible because you can't get tar out of a cigarette butt no matter what you do, and tar is toxic.",
"Some people are just slobs.\n\nSome of them flip their butts where ever it suits them.\n\nIt's not acceptable.\n\n(I smoked for years - but was not in the habit of tossing my garbage here and there.)\n\nLike so many things, it only takes one or two to give everyone else a black eye.\n\n\nOne (of many) of the things that moved me to quit smoking was the nastiness of how my pants pockets reeked from the butts that ended up there.\n\n\n",
"It is not acceptable. I think the major issue comes down to lack of available receptacles. I see people using those ashtrays outside of a bar and such, but if you are faced with throwing a potential fire hazard into a trash can, you're probably better off throwing it on the ground. ",
"They have ashtrays here in the UK on bins and just plotted around, but it depends where you are mostly. A friend of mine was stopped and given an on the spot fine for dropping a cigarette butt.\nHe got out of the fine because he argued the police watched him smoke it, and waited for him to throw it before they intervened, rather than warning him beforehand that he would get a fine if he dropped it wherever he liked. He got out of the fine because their mounted cameras supported his case. He also picked it up and threw it in the bin in front of the police too, which I think also helped.",
"It isn't in my city (Calgary, Canada). If you drop a butt while walking, it is a $500 fine. If you flick it out your window while driving, it is $1000.\n\nA big part of the reason the fines are so large is that they are the most common cause for grass/brush fires here.\n\n",
"It's acceptable, 'cause a few butts here and there is better than a fire. You'd be surprised how little heat it takes to start a fire in a trash can full of flammable materials. Even if you step on it, there could still be enough of an ember to start a fire. The street sweepers will pick them up in cities, and who gives a fuck if there's litter in the country.",
"Most of it probably comes down to social psychology. [This](_URL_0_) explains it quite well. Basicly, when the place is already littered with cigarette butts, it implies a social norm that littering in that place is okay, resulting in other people littering as well. \nAs to why the place got littered in the first place, it could be that the place was already littered in different ways (graffiti, old gum on the floor, trash lying around), or somebody just threw down their cigarette butt for whatever reason (indifference, lazyness, personal belief it is okay, being in a hurry, who knows) and started the cycle. "
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[],
[],
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"http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/missconduct/2008/08/the_psychology.html"
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7kn76r | how is burning wood different from rotting wood in terms of their carbon footprints? | I am fairly certain that the largest products of combustion are carbon dioxide, water, and thermal energy, but how is this different from rotting wood? Is combustion the same as natural decay, just faster? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7kn76r/eli5_how_is_burning_wood_different_from_rotting/ | {
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"I think the main difference between these processes is where the carbon ends up. In a rotting process the carbon is recycled back into the environment without going into the atmosphere. Some CO2 is released by the microorganisms into the air, but a lot of the carbon is converted into carbs, proteins, etc. \n\nIn combustion however, nearly all of the carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. ",
"When wood rots it releases both CO2 and methane. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas. When you burn wood you primarily get co2 as well as some particulates. ",
"It isn't that much different. There's a large difference to burning fossil fuels like coal or gas. \nA tree is part of the carbon cycle of the biosphere. It takes carbon out of the atmosphere to grow, and this carbon will be bound for the lifetime of the tree, after its demise it will be released. Either into the atmosphere, or into other organisms. Some of its carbon will end up in carbon traps, for example bogs or the deep ocean. \nIt doesn't matter that much whether you fell the tree and burn it, or let it rott. The point is there are other organisms that can use its carbon. The carbon dioxide levels of the atmosphere will raise only shortly, until the carbon is taken up again. \nCarbons from fossilized fuels on the other hand are inserted into the carbon cycle additionally, they where part of it millions of years ago and have been removed from the cycle for good - if it weren't for human interference. \nThese lead to problematic consequences, i.e. raising CO2 levels in the atmosphere or the oceans."
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34iaen | how many mosquitos would it take to drain the human body of the blood needed to live? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34iaen/eli5_how_many_mosquitos_would_it_take_to_drain/ | {
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"The human body contains about 5 liters of blood.\n\nA mosquito on average will suck five millionths (0.000005) of a liter of blood. So dividing, it would take 5/0.000005 = 1,000,000 mosquitos to drain all five liters from the human body. However, a loss of over 40% (about two liters), if untreated with a blood transfusion, will most likely result in death.",
"_URL_0_\n\n50 animals sucked dry on a farm ;-)"
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"https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19800922&id=t0UjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qKQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4439,304654&hl=en"
]
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||
3knclx | how can people on shows such as "extreme couponing" on tlc end up with a negative total price? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3knclx/eli5_how_can_people_on_shows_such_as_extreme/ | {
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"What I don't get is coupons usually carry I limit per household, yet these people use stacks of them. How?",
"Some stores allow one to use coupons to reduce the price of something below zero.\n\nHowever, this show is mostly fake, and not replicatable in real life. Stores often bend the rules (stacking more than the number of coupons allowed, doubling higher priced coupons, the multiple transactions besides the \"per day\" limits, etc.)",
"I don't know how they can get a negative total (some stores will give you the cash back).\n\nThe TV show \"Extreme Couponing\", I think the stores are just majorly bending the rules so they can be featured on TV.\n\nI follow a lot of couponers on my social networks and seriously, these people just have the time and patience. I've tried couponing and have failed constantly cuz it takes too much time.\n\n#1) They collect coupons. Some buy them - some have inside access and are able to get 100's and 100's of bundles at once - some go dumpster diving and some get it from friends and family.\n\n#2) They meticulously organize the coupons\n\n#3) They save the coupons. They don't necessarily use this Sunday's coupons for the same week's grocery shopping.\n\n#4) They wait and stalk the sales coming up from all the different stores so when a price drops drastically, they have their coupons sitting and waiting to go.\n\n#5) Use coupons on clearance items\n\n#6) They are very great networkers. Lots of couponers have coupon best friends. They have secret groups that text and call each other when they see a sale pop up. \n\n#7) And they do \"stack\" coupons. Which is not against the rules. Use a manufacturers coupon with a store coupon and on top of a sale that the store may have. \n\n#8) They also have find the right cashier that allows them to bend the rules and when they find that cashier, they always try to go to the same one. \n\nI think I covered most of how couponers do what they do. I've followed them on my social networks for 2 years now and can't even do what they do.\n\n"
]
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1k5wud | newbie reddit user doesn't know where to start? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k5wud/newbie_reddit_user_doesnt_know_where_to_start/ | {
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"text": [
"Go back to lurking. its not safe here."
]
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||
52rryc | right now i'm watching the live stream of earth from the iss and i want to know why we don't see any stars in the part that's slightly towards space. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52rryc/eli5_right_now_im_watching_the_live_stream_of/ | {
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"text": [
"stars are very dim, and the lighting on the ISS is very bright. Cameras don't have near the dynamic range that our eyes do, so they have to either choose to focus on the dim stuff, or dial themselves back so they can see the bright stuff. Because they're assuming we want to look at the ISS, they've set the brightness settings on the camera so that it isn't just a bright white blur.",
"Think of each pixel as a measuring cup and light as rain. All these cups are under an umbrella. To take a picture, You pull the umbrella away for, let's say a minute, and let the cups fill.\n\nThen you write down the levels on each cup. If a bucket overflows or only has a few drops then the real value is lost. You're using the lines on the cup to see how much is in there. A few drops would be zero and a overflowing cup would be some max number.\n\nYou can expose them for less time if a lot of water is coming down and they,'re filling too fast or you can leave them exposed for minutes if it's only a drizzle. \n\nTo get a clear picture of the earth you're gonna loose the light from the stars and vice versa.\n\n\n"
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[],
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||
jx2kf | why does facebook change its ui at all? | I understand maybe for innovations, but sometimes it tries to 'fix things that aren't broken'? Users HATE the changes because they don't add any value to the 'facebook' experience. Why the useless innovations? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jx2kf/eli5_why_does_facebook_change_its_ui_at_all/ | {
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"text": [
"I think this is a hidden cry for the old chat bar and therefore it deserves my upvote.",
"The thing to keep in mind is that usually, changes to Facebook don't turn people off forever. They complain, and they might even stop using it for a time, but they come back. In fact, when a change is made and people complain about it, usually they're defending the \"old\" system that they hated when it launched, too. \n\nThere are four main reasons for the constant changes:\n\n1. Improvements to the function of Facebook in ways we don't see. You're right that some things look like attempts to fix what's not broken, but there are a lot of things that are broken (or could be better) that we, the users, can't see. These could be changes to help the system run faster, reduce how much memory Facebook needs on its servers, or just make the search function less crappy.\n\n2. Frequent changes prevents Facebook from being staid or boring, because stuff is constantly being changed and features are being added. Even if you don't like them, it means Facebook doesn't look like a \"Ok, we made this site, we're done\" and more of a project in progress. On the internet, being the same for too long is the kiss of death.\n\n3. Adding features that people might eventually like, such as Skype video or chat in the first place.\n\n4. Many changes offer new opportunities for Facebook to make money. These could be new place to put ads, or new apps that developers can pay for, or more services to offer for money.",
"I think this is a hidden cry for the old chat bar and therefore it deserves my upvote.",
"The thing to keep in mind is that usually, changes to Facebook don't turn people off forever. They complain, and they might even stop using it for a time, but they come back. In fact, when a change is made and people complain about it, usually they're defending the \"old\" system that they hated when it launched, too. \n\nThere are four main reasons for the constant changes:\n\n1. Improvements to the function of Facebook in ways we don't see. You're right that some things look like attempts to fix what's not broken, but there are a lot of things that are broken (or could be better) that we, the users, can't see. These could be changes to help the system run faster, reduce how much memory Facebook needs on its servers, or just make the search function less crappy.\n\n2. Frequent changes prevents Facebook from being staid or boring, because stuff is constantly being changed and features are being added. Even if you don't like them, it means Facebook doesn't look like a \"Ok, we made this site, we're done\" and more of a project in progress. On the internet, being the same for too long is the kiss of death.\n\n3. Adding features that people might eventually like, such as Skype video or chat in the first place.\n\n4. Many changes offer new opportunities for Facebook to make money. These could be new place to put ads, or new apps that developers can pay for, or more services to offer for money."
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33zhlp | when there are so many episodes of a show like say seinfeld or friends, why do i always see the same episodes on cable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33zhlp/eli5_when_there_are_so_many_episodes_of_a_show/ | {
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"text": [
"Not every episode of a show makes it to syndication. I remember thinking I'd seen every ST:TNG, but then when I plowed through the series on Netflix, I saw a few episodes for the first time. It was obvious why they weren't played in syndication for socio-political reasons, but they also weren't very good compared to the rest of the series."
]
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[]
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||
7j7zqe | how do humidifiers work and why is the vapor not hot? | What exactly is produced by the humidifier? It's not hot like steam should be but it also seems too fine to be water mist. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7j7zqe/eli5_how_do_humidifiers_work_and_why_is_the_vapor/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It is water mist. Usually you just run water through an atomizer to make it into tiny particles. You can do basically the same with a fan and a bowl of water. \n\nThe fancier ones run it through a compressor thing to make it look more misty, but it is just water"
]
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[]
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|
7rct36 | how do we scientifically explain the “spiritual high” or “burning in the bosom” that religious people feel? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rct36/eli5_how_do_we_scientifically_explain_the/ | {
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"text": [
"There's some scientific research that seems to indicate that the same part of the brain that handles religious thought also handles sexual arousal, which is why many religious people associate those thoughts with pleasure. \n\n[Here's an article on the subject. ](_URL_0_)\n\nMore research is needed mind you.",
"There was a study done, which indicated that with electrical stimulation, the human mind could in fact feel the same spiritual presence as reported by religious individuals. This worked on even non-religious people who reported feeling a spooky spiritual presence.",
"Humans are social creatures, and rhythmic, emotionally charged rituals illicit a response that encourages social bonding. Under the right circumstances, you can get the same feeling on the dance floor, at a rock concert, or from a drum circle."
]
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"https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/what-happens-to-brains-during-spiritual-experiences/361882/"
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[],
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||
6m73x4 | temperature - in the shade vs in the sun? | Do temperatures measured in the sun not count as a temperture and why not if so, surely it feels like whatever temperature it is in the sun | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6m73x4/eli5_temperature_in_the_shade_vs_in_the_sun/ | {
"a_id": [
"djzdlgh"
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"text": [
"The air temperature isn't a lot different in the sun vs. the shade. But you'll feel a lot hotter (and things will be hotter) in the direct sunlight because they are getting that radiant energy from the sun. In the shade, it's only heated by reflected/ambient light and conduction from the air."
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|
1sa3q8 | why shouldn't i reheat food more than once? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sa3q8/eli5_why_shouldnt_i_reheat_food_more_than_once/ | {
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"Bacteria grows best in a certain temperature which is sometimes called the [danger zone](_URL_0_).\n\nSo if you start heating your food that has X number of bacteria and it goes through the \"danger zone\" they will multiply as fast as they can.\n\nNow, if you take that *earlier reheated food* it will have much more bacteria in it that it had the first time. \n\nSo instead of getting X amounts of bad bacteria times the orignal amount you get X times the original amounts times *the next time you reheated it*. \n\nAnd that's much higher that the original amount. 3 * 3 is 9. But 3 * 3 * 3 is 27.",
"TIL that apparently you shouldn't reheat food more than once."
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28lkwg | why is easier to balance things like plates or trays on my left hand, even though my dominant hand is my right? | So I work as a waiter, and I have to carry plates and trays a lot. I don't understand why my left hand is just flat out better and keeping thing balanced. Is it just practice? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28lkwg/eli5_why_is_easier_to_balance_things_like_plates/ | {
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"Probably because you use your right and dominate hand to hand people glasses and plates which takes more skill than holding a tray flat on your hand. ",
"Basically what the below posters said. I play a variety of sports, and although I am left handed, I prefer to catch almost any object in any sport (or anything you throw at me in everyday life, like a lighter) with my right hand. I always attributed this to the fact that I played a fair bit of baseball growing up, and since I used my left hand for throwing, I got used to catching things with my right hand at an early age.",
"Myofibrils are the basic building blocks of muscles, and they build up and form long chains in muscles that are used for strength. The short ones are used for dainty tasks, and twitchy, reactionish activities."
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d1q5h3 | why do older emulated games still occasionally slow down when rendering too many sprites, even though it's running on hardware thousands of times faster than what it was programmed on originally? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d1q5h3/eli5_why_do_older_emulated_games_still/ | {
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"A lot of old games are hard-coded to expect a certain processor speed. The old console had so many updates per second and the software is using that timer to control the speed of the game.\n\nWhen that software is emulated that causes a problem - modern processors are a hundred times faster and will update (and play) the game 100x faster.\n\nSo the emulation community has two options: \n\n1) completely redo the game code to accept any random update rate from a lightning-fast modern CPU\n\nOr\n\n2) artificiality limit the core emulation software to the original update speed of the console\n\nUsually they go with option 2, which preserves the original code but also \"preserves\" any slowdowns or oddities caused by the limited resources of the original hardware.",
"Accuracy of emulation. If the original hardware would have done it, your emulator should do it. Simulating hardware means reproducing all the features as well as all the limitations.\n\nSome emulators have an option to overclock the emulated CPU or raise the sprite limit, but there are risks if the game isn't prepared for it. Behaviour of not running on the original hardware is undefined and you are in uncharted territory for the developers.",
"1. Consoles have very specific hardware components, and they don’t like running if anything is different.\n2. Emulators simulate hardware components with software, and have to make the translation in real time. For example, a PS2 uses the MIPS instruction set, which is different than the x86 instruction set. So, the game outputs data in one way, then the emulator has to translate it so the computer can process it, then do the reverse and send the data back to the game.\n\nBasically, mimicking specific hardware = difficult, and adds processing time.\n\nEdit: thanks u/FailureToComply0 for being more specific. Modern computers CAN process the data quickly, but the game expects it to be processed at the original speed. To avoid ‘confusing’ the game, the emulator slows down the rate at which data is sent back to the game.",
"Not exactly a super old game, but\n\nAge of Mythology was made when computers only had one core, when they re released it on steam it had massive lag and gameplay issues and no amount of computing power really helped because the game could only be run through one of the computers cores.\n\nWhat they needed to do was build it up from a bit further back so that the game couldn't utilise the newer computing power.\n\nCould be totally wrong on this, as this is just what other community members have told me and I have no idea what I'm talking about haha",
"Using a Commodore 64 emulator on a pretty badass MSi gaming laptop and having to turn on the extra fan to cool it down. I was curious about the same thing. Good question.",
"Some of the old consoles were really weird. The Sega Saturn was specifically designed to run sprite-based Capcom fighting games. The problem is that it came out as the Playstation 1, which made 3D games cool. \n\nIn order for the Saturn to do 3D every polygon had to be a quadrilateral, which makes the geometry unlike any other console.",
"Part of it is how accurately you want to emulate. Take the game Space Invaders. You may recall there's many enemies and as you kill them they speed up. That was not coded in, it was a happy side effect of the processor being able to render fewer faster (and one super fast lol). If the emulator is not coded to run at the same speed as the old processor then you won't get this effect.\n\nEdit: I didn't learn this from Game Maker's Toolkit, never heard of that show.",
"While we have some emulation pros in here: What's entirely possible with a 2016 i5 and 8 gigs of RAM, no dedicated video card? I've not done anything close to gaming for decades but am starting to reminisce about old console games on n64 and PS1/2 from my childhood. Emulation was always pretty messy - needed to download stuff from seedy places and it all felt pretty precarious/unstable. Have things gotten better and I could be playing some Turok or 1080 Snowboarding tonight?",
"To add, \"rendering too many sprites\" doesn't cause slowdown. \n\nYou could (in theory) completely lock the CPU up and the game would continue to render at 60fps. \n\nThis is because sprites (and backgrounds) are served up to the TV at 60fps no matter what the CPU is doing. The hardware is reading a specialized block of RAM in the console called OAM (Object Attribute Memory), that says what sprites and tiles go where.\n\nWhen you see \"slowdown\" in old console games, what you are really seeing is the game failing to update the OAM on a frame, and so you see ~the same frame again, still at 60fps.\n\nThis is usually because (eg the NES) has too much CPU work to do to get it all done in the ~30,000 cycles before the next frame.\n\nA great example is collision detection - I read somewhere that doing box overlap tests for all the sprites in Super mario bros would have meant they could only update the game at 30fps, so they only do half on one frame, and half on the next...",
"I too have been playing /loving the snes rebirth on my switch. Childhood all over again... Just wish you could download the game and play it offline :(",
"The games are not emulated, the systems are.\n\nA chip has instructions on it, that can not be changed. Software has instructions that can be changed.\n\nWhat this means, is that an emulator \"emulates\" the system, not the game. That includes clock frequency.",
"If the original hardware slows down at a certain point, emulators will too, because they are simulating the original hardware at the original speed. Other people have given this answer and good explanations, so I'll focus on something else.\n\nOld arcade and console games don't slow down with too many sprites, since the sprites themselves are actually generated using dedicated hardware. Ever wonder why the NES could only display 8 sprites per scanline? That's because it has 8 sprite generators. An NES generates each pixel in sequence and wires the output directly to the CRT signal (more or less), because that's cheap and efficient. Nearly all old consoles used this general pattern (and most arcade games).\n\nA simple example: each sprite generator is primed at the beginning of every scanline by being loaded with 2 important pieces of information, the x-coordinate of the sprite, and a row of pixel data. The x-coordinate is loaded into a counter, which specifically counts down. Every time a pixel happens, it counts down by one. When it hits 0, we now know that the pixel is at the right horizontal position on the screen to begin drawing the line. The pixel data is loaded into shift registers (1 for each bit of colour), which move bits in a direction. Each pixel after the x-coordinate is 0, the shift register moves the pixel data 1 bit to the right, and the current rightmost bits of the registers is used to decide which pixel colour to output for this pixel. That is then fed directly into the a \"muxer\", which takes all of the pixels for each sprite generator and also the background (tile) layer and then decides which pixel wins (normally the lowest numbered sprite) and goes to the video output.\n\nOn the NES, the logic at the start of the scanline simply checks each sprite in the 64 sprite slots and loads the first 8 that exist on this scanline. It takes exactly the right amount of time, and always the same amount of time, to fit in the short time gap at the end of each scanline (the HBLANK). It can't load more than 8 sprites because there are only 8 sprite generators.\n\nIf you are experiencing slowdown on these older games, it's because of something the CPU is doing (CPUs are not inherently time-bound, the sacrifice we make when we give them the ability to execute complex conditional programs, unless you are very clever with the way you program them). If the CPU takes too long to do everything before the next frame needs to be rendered, most old games will simply miss the next frame (but this is not always the case). It's actually very rare for these games to slow down, since they tend to be written in a way that everything always takes the same amount, or a very similar amount of time. It's actually for this very reason that we have to emulate them running at this slow speed, for example, Super Mario Bros relies on the exact speed of the CPU to count a number of scanlines and then \"corrupt\" the PPU (term GPU was invented later) at exactly the right time that instead of glitching everything out, it would scroll everything below the scoreboard independently. If the CPU was allowed to run as fast as possible, this code wouldn't work.\n\nNow, when we move to old PC graphics, PCs often didn't have sprite generators, instead they had screen buffers, a large (proportionally) amount of memory dedicated to remembering the colour of every pixel on the screen. Drawing sprites here means copying them into the memory directly using the CPU (or a co-processor which does the same thing but faster), this is commonly called **blitting** since you would typically use special Bit Block Transfer instructions dedicated to copying (and sometimes comparing) the data as fast as possible. Since blitting is now a CPU concern and not a pipelined hardware thing, our sprite drawing is no longer time-bound, and we could see slowdown with too many sprites.\n\nAs game hardware developed, GPUs started to include programmable elements, becoming \"semi-programmable\", which would lift restrictions of fully dedicated sprite generators, but also lose the nice property of being time-bound (the better description is time deterministic). Now, our GPUs are largely fully-programmable, they are just large arrays of SIMD processors (a story for another day).",
"Didn't see a link to it so I'll throw it up here...\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThis article does a pretty decent job, with examples, of what it takes to accurately emulate old games.\n\nEdit: Fixed autocorrect.",
"Imagine data like cars on a highway. An emulator in this analogy is like a truck carrying the original car. Modern computers are faster because they built a bigger highway that lots of cars can drive down at the same time.",
"There's two schools of thought on emulation and broadly it could be broken into, accuracy and improvement. Both sides in general still have the same goal: create a piece of software that can emulate as much of the hardware and systems for x-console as accurately as possible. Emulators are software forms of a console/hardware, so their a way of adding \"consoles\" into the internet's archives (often questionable) public domain(?).\n\nThe accuracy bunch is all about making their emulator to perfectly emulate a system as close to hardware as possible; errors, lagg, slowdowns and all. Often these are the kinds of emulators you'd do a speedrun on as they have minimal cheating utilities and maximal authenticity. These emulators will often even include an option to link it to a BIOS for the console, taking the emulation from starting when the game boots up, to then when console boots up (important for some RNG manipulations; say in GB red/blue speedruns, using the known RNG to preform actions on certian frames to get precise outcomes; that couldn't work without the bios and overall accuracy in emulation); so if you had a bios, the emulator would turn onto the usual console's splash screen of [Gameboy] or [Sega] or [GameCube], with the little jingle+animations, whereas without a bios the game would just start playing on it's own start screen, without actually emulating the software running off the console itself, leading to a less authentic experience, that's unaceptable for the authenticity/accuracy emulators. \n\nThen there's the improve it/update it group; it's not like their emulator doesn't emulate the same system nearly as well, or as well, but it'll add modern features like; shaders(3d) or filters(2d), HD+ resolutions(not available on original), including different cheating devices built into the software like action replay or gameshark, and even up into unlocking the framerate (aka \"speed\" sometimes, depends how it's programmed).\n\n So in this unlocked/speed mode the game can run at 10s,100s, or in the case of 2d games on modern hardware, 1000s of time their original speed... Now no one can play a game at 1 frame IRL per minute IGT, in most cases, so instead of completely unlocking the framerate it's most commonly changed to a set multiplier.. like say if your playing pokemon on an emulator that just unlocks instead of has a set multiplier; that battle went like 200 times faster irl, but it also just took you like 20+ in game minutes for you to kill a single pidgey. Even if I was technically running at 8000-12000 fps(150-200x60fps), did it gain any real benefit over running at a locked 120 or 240 (2x and 4x)? \n\n\nSo yes, the games can run faster on modern hardware, sometimes to the point it would be unplayably fast, but the goal of emulators are to EMULATE the old system in its entirety within a piece of software, that's including the original hardware's limitations and all; so in more complicated systems, you need a 'mod' for framerate or resolution changes. Take cemu (Wii u emu) and BOTW [I own it+100%ing it physical (116 shrine ~400 poops)... but kept up with the emulation because 1080p60/4k60 +shaders looks smooooothhhh]. Cemu needs external plugins, textures+shaders or whatever else to tell breath of the wild; what textures to use for the higher resolutions, how to use shaders and what shaders to use, or how to change it's max framerate without severely impacting the game (ie:playing back at double speed instead of going from 30 to 60 fps with the same physics and flow of time). \n\nThey couldn't untie fps and physics up untill modern 3D PC/multiplat games on newer engines with high/variable framerates like 144hz/240hz/300hz, vsync,gsync, etc, all in mind. all of these are fairly new and either didn't exist or weren't casually affordable up untill the 2010s.... So then, no one was programming anything to go above 60, or oftentimes 30/24 fps from 1960s-2009(+/-), as they were usually designed for limited hardware; like a single console, or in the early days, even just a single processor/computer model.... ie:codes written in assembly, like NES/GB(C) games, are processor specific; as assembly directly writes instructions to the cpu(from a chart/graph), and the instruction sets (what the instructions did, were numbered,ordered,etc) weren't standardized between processors... (You can see how accuracy in something like a NES emulator's 6502cpu code is of the utmost importance)\n\n\n\nI hope that lightly covers emulation's core philosophies, also a little on programming (emulators and games), and how fps is usually centrally tied to the game engine/physics in most older games or console games...\n\n\nTldr: emulators aren't trying to directly run an old game on modern hardware (although they allow it); their trying to accurately emulate a console entirely within software, flaws and all, because the more accurate the emulation is to the hardware itself, the better it is as an emulation platform (causing less new bugs and a more accurate experience). yes, most games could run at 100s or 1000s of fps on modern hardware, but FPS is more complicated than that; most (especially older) games have some link between the framerate and the rate the game is played at; this is usually just how the games are coded to render, because their programmed for set fps or only one specific piece of hardware (like a console). So often, without other adjustments to the game or emulator, upping the framerate is directly multiplying the speed of the game's playback. It's still a problem up into some modern(ish) 3d titles (namely mid series elder scrolls, botw a bit [on emulator]; normally it's games expecting a locked framerate that are unlocked anyways).\n\nAlso worth noting:\n95+% of consumers/gamers have 60hz (60fps) displays, don't *need* much more, even today, apparently.",
"I once saw this asked and I will try to re-state the best answer that I saw.\n\nImagine that an old game is a very old text, written in an ancient language. The hardware in the old systems were native to that language, they were fluent in it.\n\nNow imagine a modern system as a modern person. They don’t know the ancient language and aren’t fluent in it. They can translate it but translating takes a lot longer than just reading it as if they were fluent in the language.",
"If the original game would also have lagged, see almost any answer in this thread. If the emulator lags but the original hardware didn't, then the answer is probably [garbage collection](_URL_0_).\n\nSay that your character is running on a dirt path and is kicking up little bits of dust. Rendering each dust cloud takes a small bit of memory. When that dust hits the ground and vanishes then that memory isn't needed anymore -- but it is not available for reuse right away. Every now and then the emulator pauses to look at all of the memory it's allocated. It then frees up the memory that was used for those dust clouds so that it has that memory available to make new dust clouds. That process takes long enough that you notice the lag as it runs, and if the game is generating new sprites rapidly, then that lag becomes noticeable.\n\nThe original game probably was much more casual with how it handled memory. It allocated maybe enough memory for 8 dust clouds, and just [cycled through](_URL_1_) memory chunks 1-8 for each new dust cloud. The designers of the game level ensured that by the time you could generate a ninth dust cloud, the first dust cloud would had vanished. In all likelihood, the same chunk of memory was used and re-used for way more than dust sprites -- it might have been used for bullets, sparks, magic sparkles, gore, and other things that appeared briefly and then vanished.",
"The code doesn't know what it is running on. It \"thinks\" it's s till a console and behaves in that manner.\n\nAn emulator does just that; it mimics the actual machine so it behaves just as the machine would under normal circumstances.",
"There is a good video explaining the reason that lag happens [here](_URL_0_). The reason you still see the lag is that the emulator is trying to accurately represent the CPU.",
"This is so you don't introduce a bunch of bugs by having a frame length that is too close to 0.\n\nImagine you're a programmer who wants to make a bullet fly across the screen. If you just change its position by 1 pixel per frame, the bullet's speed is now dependent on the frame rate.\n\nSo for anything in a game that changes over time, we multiply by the frame length. That bullet now moves 100 pixels *per second*. Code might look like:\n\n newBulletPos = oldBulletPos + 100*frameLength\n\nThis works great -until the frame rate gets too high. Computers approximate decimal numbers, and so if the frame rate starts getting really high, the frame *length* (1/frameRate) begins to approach 0. If that near-zero gets multiplied into some other very small numbers, the approximated result can actually hit 0. In the case of our bullet, that stops it from moving.\n\nYou can run into similar issues with anything that updates based on the frame rate. 2D and 3D animations, for example.\n\nThis issue can be avoided by writing parametric code rather than using accumulation. So to move a bullet across the screen you might say:\n\n bulletPos = bulletStartPos + t * (bulletEndPos - bulletStartPos)\n\nThen as you elapse t from 0 to 1 over several frames the bullet travels its path. This approach also lets you go back in time by reversing t.",
"It's called an emulator because it's trying to replicate the original hardware so that you get an authentic experience. There's also the fact that trying to fix these issues could have unintended consequences.",
"This is typically caused by the emulation software being timing accurate to the source hardware. The emulator tries to ensure that every event happens exactly as it would on the real hardware. This means that the host CPU spends a lot of time waiting to synchronise all the events.\n\nHowever, this can also lead to the emulated system running slower than the real system. If the time taken to compute all these events takes to long it will slow down. This can be a problem when emulating esoteric processors common to old games consoles, which may perform actions that are still quite slow on modern CPUs (graphics processors, especially if they use non-standard floating point formats are a good example).\n\nIn some ways it is actually easier to emulate more modern systems. Since they rely on standard system architectures that are more like a PC, the games make calls through an operating system which does not guarantee the exact time that certain events will occur. This allows for techniques such as multithreading, API thunking or dynamic recompilation to be used. The WINE project is an example of API thunking, where the system is a PC but running Linux instead of Windows. You can catch every DirectX call and translate it into something Linux can use such as Vulkan or OpenGL.",
"Because emulators, by definition, are emulating the resource limitations of the original hardware.\n\nLots of old software doesn’t function properly or is flat out unusable if you’re giving it full access to modern processing power.\n\nSpace Invaders, for instance, “sped up” as you cleared the screen because the game didn’t have to render as many objects. Game speed was tied to processor speed, and so the game would speed up as the processor was less taxed. If you tried to play an original code instance of Space Invaders on modern hardware, the screen would blink once and then it would be game over.\n\nThis is why most modern incarnations of classic arcade games “feel” markedly different from their original incarnations. In particular: Missile Command, Pac-Man and Space Invaders are notoriously difficult to properly emulate, because processor speed had such a huge impact on the way the game played.",
"I was wondering this while playing a link to the past yesterday on my Switch and noticed a huge drop in FPS when I got attacked by a swarm of bees.",
"It’s actually the hardware of the system that is emulated. Instead of a direct copper connection between the arcade joystick to the connector responsible for the “up” movement, your up arrow key triggers an event in software, which then runs a small program to tell the game it should be moving up. So there’s a layer of abstraction added. \n\nThe best metaphor I’ve heard for it is instead of using a screwdriver to drive a screw, you’re using a pair of pliers to hold the screwdriver to drive the screw.",
"Double Dragon always shows down when there is allot of fighters on the screen on MAME. ☹️",
"Mmmm. Nv see. As a cc number lz be by the be bb bb. Be a baby be bb bbm b b\nI dvvc amq favccmf machfcw. 6b bbvvbvbb be b be d. Maybe mx min be home in. I",
"The emulator is basically the console on your computer, the computer can process it as fast as it wants, but the emulator has such limitations on it. On top of that, the games have their own limitations to how much theyre able to show at once",
"a lot of new hardware isn't actually 1000 times better than the older stuff, its just radically different. A lot of companies make their money from selling new hardware while the stuff they once made could theoretically last for decades with moderate use. This spells financial ruin for a company and hence they move their hardware technology sideways (as forward isn't always possible), changing the software that runs on it to be better adapted and hence giving a seemingly better performance. This way they can continue to sell new products and stay afloat.\n\nApple is the prime example of this. Their hardware was never that great, but their software was specifically designed to run brilliantly on it and even today, older apple products can be run with newer apple software (hacked) and that great performance is still there even if the hardware is considered trash."
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68u5r8 | why do burgers have this little white piece at the bottom of the bun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68u5r8/eli5_why_do_burgers_have_this_little_white_piece/ | {
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"That comes from an imperfection in the baking process. When you bake a burger bun, you typically place it flat on a metal pan. Oftentimes a little moisture will escape the dough during baking and get stuck between the bun and the pan. As the oven heats up, the moisture turns to steam and gets trapped as small steam bubble, which prevents the part of the bun it's trapped under from touching the pan and getting evenly browned. The white spot is the result."
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1xf9dz | object-oriented ontology | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xf9dz/eli5_objectoriented_ontology/ | {
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"Object-oriented means you should treat anything in your program as an Object. Before you understand that, you should be aware why this is important. \n\nLet's assume you are the CEO of a big company, with hundreds of employee's. How do you assign work for each employee? You don't have the time, for each thing the company does, to go to each employee and assign the work personally. So what do you do? You create abstract divisions between your emplyee's (departaments), and you communicate with them through their interfaces (the departament manager). On a further level, each departament may be divided in teams which interact with the whole departament through their own interfaces, the team leader. \n\nNow, your company is organized in fully-functioning, specialised cells, which certain atributes, certain skills, and certain performances. On an further abstract level, your company is organised in objects. \n\nNow, some big money-fat whale of a client comes to you, and asks for a fancy bilboard. How does your company handles it? You talk to the client, and assign the task to the advertising department. The department manager asks the bilboarding team to handle the task. The team leader gives the result to the department manager, which gives the result to you, and if you give the result directly to the client. \n\nNow, let's go through some oop terminology, and see where it fits in our metaphor. \n\npolymorphism: Since the bilboarding team in your advertising department are just as artsy and talented as the banner-creating team, if needed, you may switch attributes. You \"cast\" the banner team intro an generic \"printed-ad-creating\" team, and task them with creating the bilboard. \n\nInheritance: with the example above, both the bilboarding team, and the banner-creating team are \"printed-ad-creating\" means they have some common attributes/skills, and some different. When creating a new team, you may give them the description for an \"printed-ad-creating\" team, and only after assign them an specific domain. The new team \"inherits\" all the atributes/skills from being an \"printed-ad\" team. \n\nThe hierarchical model in an object-oriented project should be fairly obvious in this example. \n\n"
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7urrxs | how is the thickness of borders between states/provinces and countries measured? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7urrxs/eli5_how_is_the_thickness_of_borders_between/ | {
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"They don't have a thickness at all. It's a line, therefore an object with one dimension. The border can be marked just with a single white line on a road.",
"What about states that border on a river though? At what point in that river does the border exist? Or is it just fluid?",
"It's an imaginary line. It has no \"thickness\" per se, however \"many\" (not all) use a natural barrier like a river as the border. When that happens, one side (bank) of the river will usually be one state while the river and the other bank will be the other. In essence, you jump into the river and you are in a different state (or you climb out of the river and you are in a different state).\n\nSome nations have what is called a Demilitarized Zone, which creates an artificial \"secondary\" border which has thickness (NK/SK) but the actual border is still imaginary.\n\nThere's a great documentary about how the states came to be. When you look at the East Coast, it's almost all natural boundaries, where as the West Coast is \"arbitrary\" lines.",
"[The entire length of the US-Canada boundary is marked by a 20-foot-wide slash through the trees. ](_URL_0_)",
"Not to be rude, but I don't understand the question? What thickness are you talking about? It's one state, then the next. There is no inbetween 10 ft line in which the land belongs to both states.\n\nUnless if this is in regards to rivers? ",
"How is the thickness of the border between you and not-you measured?",
"Borders are just lines, so there really isn't a thickness to them. Check out [this picture of the North/South Korean border](_URL_0_). The border is basically the halfway point between each side of that concrete line in the picture. ",
"Property lines and state lines is something that comes up in hunting fairly often and as a hunter (still new to it) ill share what I know. Dividing lines dont have a defined thickness, for example, you cant stand directly on a line and be in neither place but you can be in both places if you straddle the line. Whether you're a hunter or not go listen to episode 101 of the meateater podcast. Steve Rinella goes into a bit a good analogy about crossing dividing lines.",
"They’re usually just a one-dimensional plane that’s infinitely thin. [Here’s a fun one.]( _URL_0_) You’re looking at NY-276, the border between NY/USA & Canada is on the right edge of the pavement where it meets the grass.",
"Hi! Geo-spatial information/mapping guy here.\n\nYour question isn't that silly when you think about it and the answer is simple. It's as thick or thin as the issue it's dividing needs it to be. In theory the borders have no thickness however, if an issue needs to be arbitrated, typically a buffer zone is addressed in either case law or treaties/agreements. Most historical borders were biased on a natural reference (river's) or known physical datum (Markers at the location). It's easy to get a surveyor out and snap a line between two markers, it's only in recent times that our maps are hyper accurate and can easily cause border lines to drift slightly as data gets updated, new survey images get done, or rivers move over time.\n\nSo if the issue is over property that backs up to a state line and it's delineated by a fence that has been their since before any modern surveys, the fence will almost always be the deciding line. other deciding factors include local zoning laws regarding construction and what municipality services that location.\n\nLines between locations tend to be a \"If a tree falls on a line in the forest, dose a cartographer care?\" sort of situation. It's all down to what implications that border has and what disputes or interests that line is deciding.",
"Countries how ever do have a [**border zone**](_URL_0_) which is usually a few km's wide where moving about without permission is against the law.",
"Between many countries there is a no man's land which belongs to neither of the countries. An example is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Neither county has jurisdiction over that area, and it separates the two countries. ",
"How thick is the property line between your property and the neighbor's?\n\nThe answer is exactly the same - zero, it's a line, it doesn't have thickness.",
"Canada and the united states have a 20 foot border, which is completely mowed to the ground. lots of the border runs through forests and wilderness, so many trees start growing in the 20 foot border, all of which get cut down constantly.\n\ntake a look at this photo\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"Here in Canada /USA they felled many thousands of km of trees to separate the countries - ironically if yoh ever wanted to 'walk the line' you would inevitably be walking on the 'no touching' zone as there is ridiculously thick forest on either side.",
"There is no thickness. The border of these things is a paper thin line, though if it is marked it is often done a in or two thick painted line. ",
"As someone who lived on a double border town. There are lines where the trees are cut down, they are about 15' wide but the border is, as others have started, literally infinitely thin.",
"It's as thick as the line between the ocean and ocean floor. \n\nIt's as thick as the line between a tree root and the soil.\n\nIt's as thick as the line between your skin and the air.",
"Surveyor here. Points along property lines and state/country lines are defined by \"pinpoint\" accuracy lines. A property corner set by a good surveyor will be within a few hundredths and even thousandths of an inch. So as you zoom closer and closer to the actual boundary line the thickness becomes smaller and smaller. Generally, you can expect a state/country boundary line thickness to probably be about 1/4 of an inch in layman's terms based on the tolerance of the end points set.",
"It's a dotted border, so you have to be sure you're standing on the right dots otherwise you get arrested."
]
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5uzdmc | how does the combination of a mp3 player and earphones create sound from a digital file? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uzdmc/eli5_how_does_the_combination_of_a_mp3_player_and/ | {
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"The file is taken from memory and streamed through a chip called a \"codec\" that decodes the file from mp3 format (which is a special method of storing the data efficiently) and converts it to a format that can be fed to another chip called a \"DAC\" (short for digital to analog converter) that converts the signal from digital bits to an analog voltage. \n\nAfter conversion the signal is amplified and fed to the speakers, where the analog current pushes a coil of wire against a magnetic field from a small permanent magnet, which pushes a speaker cone that vibrates air. \n\nEdit: the codec and DAC are oftentimes on the same chip these days, or controlled by a separate but small processor called a microcontroller. "
]
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[]
] |
||
1xlker | if our pupils dilate when we see someone we like, wouldn't we notice a change in brightness? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xlker/if_our_pupils_dilate_when_we_see_someone_we_like/ | {
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"text": [
"Well, not really. Your vision is focused on them, and your brain is verrrrrry good at screening out things it's not interested in."
]
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[]
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||
avkkpy | how did "free bird" become the go-to shout-out at every live music event? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/avkkpy/eli5_how_did_free_bird_become_the_goto_shoutout/ | {
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"text": [
"I wasn't aware it was? I've actually never heard that said once. In the UK Wonderwall gets shouted out a fair bit but its kind of a joke now because that song overplayed to hell. "
]
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[]
] |
||
341gt1 | how do websites know when i am logged in? | Also: What happens when I log out? Are some systems more complex than others? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/341gt1/eli5_how_do_websites_know_when_i_am_logged_in/ | {
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"There's not a unique way, so it's different from site/system to site/system.\n\nIn general, though, when you \"log in\", you establish some shared unique token that is tracked by the system in its \"back-end\" and the computer/device you use to log in.\nFor instance, imagine that you're using your desktop PC to \"log in\" to a web site/system... the server checks that you provided the correct username/password (or other credentials), and if so, generates a random(*) token, saves it in a storage area (eg: a database, where it tracks \"the user [your username] is logged in from a device uniquely identified by this [long unique token], with this security token [the token generated above]\".\nThen, it sends the token back to you/your machine.\nYour web browser can save that (as a cookie or by other means), and every time you access a page on that site, it can send it over. So, now, every time you access a page for that website, your browser is sending over your user id, its unique identification and this security token, and the server can verify that you are indeed \"logged in\" (in other words: you did provide the right credentials at some point).\n\nOf course, things are more complicated (eg: sessions are usually limited in time so that every so often you'll have to log in again, and you may clear out your browser cache or cookies, so you need to log back in, etc etc) and this allows the server to know you are a valid user, but does NOT prove to your device that the server is indeed the server you think you are talking to (which is an important factor when dealing with secure information), but it's a rough approximation.\n\n(*) random enough that it is very very unlikely to be generated elsewhere, at a different time, on a different machine, etc...\n",
"To ELI5 /u/FrancescoRizzi's explanation. The website generates a unique token, which is generally stored in a cookie on your computer. Each time you access the site it sends the cookie which identifies your connection as you."
]
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[],
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6gbwba | why is there a limit on how strong a human can get | If strength is developed by lifting heavier and heavier weights why do some people reach a plateau on their max, and why isn't a new world record set every year for lifts like the bench press which has sat at 1075 since 2008 | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gbwba/eli5_why_is_there_a_limit_on_how_strong_a_human/ | {
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"text": [
"It is extremely hard to reach that limit. You have to dedicate decades of your life just training every day, and the time you're not training you're pretty much just constantly eating food. And then as you get closer to the world record weights, the risk of career-ending injury increases dramatically.\n\nAt a certain point tendons snap, muscles get torn,bones break, joints break ect. Even if you have the strength to lift a certain weight, your body needs to be able to take it as well.",
"It's mainly not muscles that are the limiting factor, but the rest of your body. Bones, tendons, ligaments, joints, they all are at a fixed size and durability that doesn't change regardless of how much you excersize. It doesn't matter how giant your muscles are, the human skeleton is just not naturally built to be massively strong. "
]
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4b59ml | what percentage of a video game does the esrb play before assigning it an age rating? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4b59ml/eli5_what_percentage_of_a_video_game_does_the/ | {
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"d165l4q"
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"text": [
"Zero percent, actually. The ESRB relies on companies to accurately report the content of their games. The companies typically comply, because the consequences of lying can be extreme, potentially including a full recall of the game from all retail stores."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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||
1q72at | how a company like urban outfitters can repeatedly steal work from independent artists and face no consequences? | Examples:
_URL_2_
_URL_1_
_URL_0_
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q72at/eli5how_a_company_like_urban_outfitters_can/ | {
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"text": [
"Legally, they can't. The original designer can sue UO for using their designs without permission.\n\nThe issue is that this is a civil matter, not a criminal one - which means the wronged party has to sue. UO has a team of lawyers who would bankrupt an independent designer should they ever file suit, so the designer just accepts it.",
"A lot of big-name companies engage in this sort of behavior. If legal action arises, they typically settle out of court. They don't care as long as the profits exceed the payment, and many independent artists either don't know about the theft or don't have the time and resources to push for legal action.",
"(Note that the [state heart pendant is not that original to begin with](_URL_0_).)"
]
} | [] | [
"http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/05/urban_outfitter_2.php",
"http://imakeshinythings.tumblr.com/post/5855716317/not-cool-urban-outfitters-not-cool",
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/urban-outfitters-steal_n_867604.html"
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"http://www.styleite.com/media/urban-outfitters-etsy-state-necklaces/"
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cn4969 | why does minecraft and minecraft only give me motion sickness while i do just fine with more motion intensive games like rainbow six and fortnite? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cn4969/eli5_why_does_minecraft_and_minecraft_only_give/ | {
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"It's likely the field of view is off and needs adjustment. Most games have it dialed in pretty well so you never notice but smaller games tend not to give it as much attention and dial in whatever works for that developer.\n\nAlso, is there a targeting retecule on screen in Minecraft? Studies have shown games without a pointer or targeting icon tend to give people motion sickness. A number of devs toyed with getting rid of them to improve immersion but the results were disastrous levels of motion sickness.",
"If you set your frame rate too high it'll cause it to jitter. That gave me motion sickness from Minecraft and Minecraft only.",
"As someone else said, the field of view can make a huge difference. My son likes to play at an extreme FOV and it makes me sick watching him play. On the flip side I've never had any issues with any other games, including old VR systems (from 30 years ago).",
"I havent played Minecraft specifically to confirm however I have a similar case with some games.\n\nThe FOV/Field of view is definitely culprit number one. I believe there is a direct 1 to 1 setting that should be universal but some games use their own. So 80 is good for one game, but 90 for the next. As it gets higher you get the tunnel vision that tries to show \"more\" of your peripheral and thats what will jack me up.\n\nThe 2nd is erractic framerates. 30 is barely tolerable depending on the game. Fast action like Bloodborne its borderline acceptable. I need to slow down the camera or I will get nasty migraine like headaches.\n\nOptimal is often PC where I can try something higher like 120 frames a second and have more flexibility with manipulating the Field of view.\n\n30 minutes of Metroid Prime would give me 2 hours of headache because it had the different fov for the zoomed scanner, etc. 2 or more section on the screen moving at a different rate is a death trap.\n\nWhereas I can play Borderlands for 6 hours easy."
]
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5zfpow | when we sew our skin back together why does the body go along with it? | So, I've been wondering this recently because of super hero shows I've been watching.
We've all seen in movies or tv shows where the badass superhero gets injured or cut and sews his own skin back with a needle and thread.
My question is why do the skin cells accept the thread from the sewing and more or less have the new skin grow back just as it was? I was just wondering because our bodies can be so un-receptive to various types of new material that we introduce to it.
Heck, in the colonial times the Indians were almost wiped out just because Caucasians decided to pay them a visit from Europe. But yet we can literally take a needle and sew our skin back in place...
why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zfpow/eli5_when_we_sew_our_skin_back_together_why_does/ | {
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"When you stitch a wound shut, most of the cells are still alive. The stitching just holds them in place while the cells heal the wound. Without stitches, the wound may still heal, but it would take longer and be more prone to infection as well as leave a much larger scar.\n\nAlso, the stitching thread itself is not \"accepted\" by the body. Stitches have to be removed once enough of the skin has healed that it holds in place without them.",
"Well, let's assume that you get a cut that does not need stitches. Your skin heals itself from both sides of the laceration. Platelets in your blood start clotting, white blood cells start fighting infection. When the once the bleeding stops, your blood vessels rupture a little, causing blood to be spread through the wound. Your red blood cells start building collagen, which is helping to repair your tissue. The scab falls off eventually, and you have a little red mark of the healing process. It continues to do this until the blood vessels themselves are repaired and the wound is finished healing.\n\nNow, let's look at a wound that requires stitches. A small cut, the platelets clot properly. A deep laceration may not have a small enough opening for the platelets to clot in time. You get your stitches which gives all the platelets a little pool to hang out in. They go about their magic, and everything else is the same.\n\nThe only real difference is that the white blood cells fighting infection are likely going to town on the stitches. Since it isn't going to break down, it allows them (both the cells and the stitches) to do their job.",
"Well, as the most practical answer, stitches came about BECAUSE they healed correctly, not the other way about. Modern medicine only is used because it's been developed to work.\n\nI know this doesn't really answer all your question, but when you say \"My question is why do the skin cells accept the thread from the sewing and more or less have the new skin grow back just as it was?\" the answer is- the materials we use are those that specifically have allowed skin to grow back in the past. "
]
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7mnc8l | why is multisyllabic rhyming common in rap but not in poetry? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mnc8l/eli5_why_is_multisyllabic_rhyming_common_in_rap/ | {
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"There’s something “on the nose” about it. \n\n\nWhen Eminem says “I have an aspirin capsule trapped in my adam’s apple”, it’s bouncy and fun, but there’s something about it that’s a stretch——it often puts syllable over meaning. \n\n\nSo in a medium where the rhyme is the point, it works well. But in a medium where the emotion is the point, it detracts. \n\n\nYou can see a similar effect within rap itself: take the most lyrically complex songs in one hand, and the most emotionally powerful songs in the other—-there’s barely any overlap. \n\n\nSometimes More is less. ",
"Multies are decently common in poetry; they just go by a different name. They're called *feminine rhyme*. Poetic meter (especially in English) is all about the stress of words, and using a multisyllable rhyme spreads the stress out across those syllables. So a line with a multi ends relatively softly, hence \"feminine\", compared to monosyllabic \"masculine rhymes\" that punch you with all the stress on the final syllable.\n\nThe most common place to find feminine rhymes is in a limerick. For example:\n\n > There was a young rustic named Mallory, \n > who drew but a very small salary. \n > When he went to the show, \n > his purse made him go \n > to a seat in the uppermost gallery.\n\nYou can find them in highbrow poetry, too. Check out [Shakespeare's Sonnet #20](_URL_0_):\n\n > A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted \n > Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; \n > A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted \n > With shifting change, as is false women's fashion; \n > An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, \n > Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; \n > A man in hue, all hues in his controlling, \n > Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. \n > And for a woman wert thou first created; \n > Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting, \n > And by addition me of thee defeated, \n > By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. \n > But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure, \n > Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. "
]
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d8v31b | what happens when someone has a fever that “breaks” and you wake up sweating at night. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d8v31b/eli5_what_happens_when_someone_has_a_fever_that/ | {
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"Your body has a thermostat, called the hypothalmus. It's part of your brain.\n\nWhen you have a fever, your thermostat gets turned up--this makes you shiver and get chills until you warm yourself up to wherever your body wants you to be.\n\nWhen your fever breaks, your thermostat gets set back down to normal body temperature--and you're suddenly *much* hotter than that. So, just like any other time you're overheated, you start to sweat while your body tries to cool itself off.\n\nWhen you have a fever, though, you're usually sick--which means there's a very good chance you're asleep when your fever breaks.",
"A fever is basically your body turning up the heat inside your body in an attempt to cook invading germs. When a fever \"breaks,\" your body doesn't need that extra heat anymore, because you've gotten rid of the infection. However, at that point your body temperature is suddenly *too* high, so your body's immediate response is to sweat to cool it back down to a normal temperature."
]
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20iy5p | why, when i cut my fingernails unevenly (like so it has straight edges and non-rounded corners), does it grow out to be even? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20iy5p/eli5_why_when_i_cut_my_fingernails_unevenly_like/ | {
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"It's not that they evened out by themselves; it's that over the course of the next few days the sharp edges wore down rubbing against stuff, for example, your clothes/bedding etc. ",
"Holy fuck, that's so true. I've never realized this until now.",
"No, your nail will grow with an edge until you make it round.\n\nHowever, keep in mind that your nail is constantly touching places with your finger. Friction will take a bit of your nail edge away every time you touch something, thus rounding the nail for you. But that's only if you keep your nail for a long time."
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1qm9iz | why is it such a big deal to talk on a cell phone and drive but not for truckers to talk on cb radios? | CB radios have been around forever and I don't ever remember hearing cases of truck accidents caused by talking on a cb radio. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qm9iz/eli5why_is_it_such_a_big_deal_to_talk_on_a_cell/ | {
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"text": [
"For one, truckers won't have long, drawn out and potentially serious conversations on their radios.\n\nIt's more the things you talk about on the phone that distracts you more than holding the phone itself. Focusing on what's being said in one ear can take your mind off the road.",
"I'd say generally it's because (from personal experience using cb radios) the conversations are generally very short, where as talking on a mobile phone you can conversations that you get really invested in and have to concentrate on. \n\nOver here in Australia the CB conversations generally go like this: \n\n* Trucker 1: \"Candy car up ahead in the middle\" (Candy car = cop due to most highway patrol cars painted bright red, blue, yellow etc. \"evel knieve0\" = bike cop) \n\n* Trucker2: \"Cheers mate\". \n\nOr talking for only around a minute before bidding farewell.\n\n\n",
"I think you have a good point there. ",
"Because truckers are typically grown men with additional licensing and road awareness than your average citizen, and infinitely more awareness than the typical on the cell phone texting while driving demographic of teenager.",
"Every single time i've seen somebody text/talk and drive, they cannot handle driving the car at the same time. It's utterly selfish and plain stupid. Cream"
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fyihze | good friday and easter sunday end up on different dates each year. why is christmas or birth of jesus in general on a fixed date then? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fyihze/eli5_good_friday_and_easter_sunday_end_up_on/ | {
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"Christmas is set to the Gregorian Calendar, the solar calendar that most of the world uses. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are times to coincide with Passover, which is set to the Jewish Calendar, which is a lunar calendar, and does not match up with solar calendars. So, the dates shift a little each year.",
"Roman Emperor Constantine set it to the first Sunday following the first full moon of the spring equinox in 325AD at the first Council of Nicaea."
]
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||
20j84l | why do we get bored of things? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20j84l/eli5_why_do_we_get_bored_of_things/ | {
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" Well, our brains need to be entertained(we call this entertainment for the brain, stimuli) and once stimuli get repetitive or uninteresting, we have a drive to search for more stimuli (that are more entertaining) and that feeling is boredom. \n\nsource: (I have exams next week, and have been subject to boredom for hours on end recently)"
]
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||
kc427 | how does electricity work (ohms, voltage, amps, continuity, grounding, & watts, ac, dc, current)? | Newbie/Long time lurker here. I'd like to understand what the hell I'm measuring with my awesome new multimeter (I got one because they can test outlets, electronics, cables, batteries, alternators, all sorts of cool stuff). I may have 19 years of formal 'education', but I feel like a complete idiot because I don't understand the basic science of electricity. Wasn't there some kind of middle or high school class that should have covered this stuff? Please explain these terms to me like I'm five. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kc427/eli5_how_does_electricity_work_ohms_voltage_amps/ | {
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"This is a big, big, *BIG* question to be asking.\n\nYou really are going to want to break it down, I mean there's amps, volts, ohms, coulombs, elementary charge, teslas, flux, webers, EMF, conventional current, grounding, circuits (both parallel and in series), diodes, breakers, transformers, power loss...\n\nElectricity is fucking *magical*, the more layers you peel away the more amazing it is.",
"Electricity is a form of energy. I'll use the circuity in your home as an example since this sounds like what your fooling around with.\n\nSimple put, electricity is the flow of electrons through a conductor (wires). It needs three things to work. Source, current and resistance. \n\nA source can be though of as a battery. You can imagine your utility company as one giant battery. A battery has a positive charge (only protons) on one side, and a negative charge (only electrons) on the other. Physics make the electrons want to migrate to the protons until a balance is reached (same amount of both in one spot). This is what make a battery a \"dead battery\". All the electrons have flowed over to the protons and there is no longer an imbalance.\n\nCurrent is the flow of these electrons to the protons. We harness electrical current by dictating were these electrons flow. We direct them through wires.\n\nResistance can be thought of as a light bulb. What it really refers to is how much it impedes the electron flow. When I say \"impedes\" I mean \"makes it difficult\". The higher the resistance value of the light bulb the harder the source has to push to get the electrons over to the protons.\n\nAs the source pushes the electrons through the light bulb the energy I mentioned at the beginning heats the filament of the light bulb. As we know when things are heated, they give off light. The hotter an object gets the brighter the light. This is why a 60 watt bulb is brighter than a 40 watt bulb. The 60 watt has a lower resistance value, thus the electron through it is not as limitied. More heat means brighter light.\n\nOhms = Resistance value. The higher the value of ohms, the more it impedes the flow of electrons\n\nVoltage =Source value - this is the potential difference between two points in a circuit. AA batters are 1.5 volts. This is the difference between the positive and negative sides of the battery. As they balance out, as discussed, this value drops.\n\nAmps = current value - The higher the value the more electrons are flowing.\n\nContinuity - This just mean two things are connected without much resistance between them. Two ends of a single wire have continuity between them.\n\nWatts - measure of power. Basically, how hard the source is working (this needs much, much more discussion)\n\nGrounding, AC current, and DC current are also another discussion but I'll get into it is requested.\n\nQuestions? lol ",
"For a beginner, [the water analogy](_URL_0_) is pretty decent. It's not 100% accurate, but as a first pass, it's pretty good.\n\nIf electrons are water molecules, and wires are pipes, than voltage is water pressure (PSI), and current is the number of gallons per minute (GPM).\n\nOhms is how much something resists the flow of water. I like to think of this like rocks in the pipe. Few rocks in the pipe = low resistance, water flows easily. Lots of rocks in the pipe = high resistance, not much water can flow through. Unless you increase the pressure, of course! These three factors (PSI, GPM and flow resistance) trade off against each other. Hence the famous Ohm's law: PSI = GPM * Resistance. Or V = I * R.\n\nWatts is just volts times current. Or just psi * gpm. This is a useful measurement when you want to know how much energy is being transmitted down a pipeline. High pressure + lots of gpm is a lot of energy. Low pressure + low gpm is not much energy.\n\nDC electricity is like water that always flows the same direction in the pipes. There might be more or less of it, and the amount of gpm (current) might be greater or lesser at different times, but the water is always flowing in the same direction.\n\nAC electricity is like water the flows forward for a bit, and then backward for a bit, and then forward again for a bit, and then backward again for a bit, forever and ever. This turns out to be useful if you have a REALLY long pipeline and it loses tons of pressure along the length of the pipe. It turns out that by using AC you can avoid the problem of pressure (= voltage) drop.\n\nGround is an area of 0 pressure. Any wire or point that is grounded would be have zero PSI if you stuck a pressure gauge on it. This is useful for several reasons: 1) it gives high pressure water somewhere to drain out to. 2) It acts as a good pressure reference to measure other pressures relative to. 3) It can provide a return pipeline so any excess water in the system can flow back to the pump that's providing the system pressure.",
"Please could visit [Khan Academy's youtube page](_URL_0_) and watch the physics sub playlists { electrsostatics, voltage, electric potential energy, circuits, magnetism } It's all there, for basic DC circuits. Nice and slow, and you'll get the math.",
"This is a big, big, *BIG* question to be asking.\n\nYou really are going to want to break it down, I mean there's amps, volts, ohms, coulombs, elementary charge, teslas, flux, webers, EMF, conventional current, grounding, circuits (both parallel and in series), diodes, breakers, transformers, power loss...\n\nElectricity is fucking *magical*, the more layers you peel away the more amazing it is.",
"Electricity is a form of energy. I'll use the circuity in your home as an example since this sounds like what your fooling around with.\n\nSimple put, electricity is the flow of electrons through a conductor (wires). It needs three things to work. Source, current and resistance. \n\nA source can be though of as a battery. You can imagine your utility company as one giant battery. A battery has a positive charge (only protons) on one side, and a negative charge (only electrons) on the other. Physics make the electrons want to migrate to the protons until a balance is reached (same amount of both in one spot). This is what make a battery a \"dead battery\". All the electrons have flowed over to the protons and there is no longer an imbalance.\n\nCurrent is the flow of these electrons to the protons. We harness electrical current by dictating were these electrons flow. We direct them through wires.\n\nResistance can be thought of as a light bulb. What it really refers to is how much it impedes the electron flow. When I say \"impedes\" I mean \"makes it difficult\". The higher the resistance value of the light bulb the harder the source has to push to get the electrons over to the protons.\n\nAs the source pushes the electrons through the light bulb the energy I mentioned at the beginning heats the filament of the light bulb. As we know when things are heated, they give off light. The hotter an object gets the brighter the light. This is why a 60 watt bulb is brighter than a 40 watt bulb. The 60 watt has a lower resistance value, thus the electron through it is not as limitied. More heat means brighter light.\n\nOhms = Resistance value. The higher the value of ohms, the more it impedes the flow of electrons\n\nVoltage =Source value - this is the potential difference between two points in a circuit. AA batters are 1.5 volts. This is the difference between the positive and negative sides of the battery. As they balance out, as discussed, this value drops.\n\nAmps = current value - The higher the value the more electrons are flowing.\n\nContinuity - This just mean two things are connected without much resistance between them. Two ends of a single wire have continuity between them.\n\nWatts - measure of power. Basically, how hard the source is working (this needs much, much more discussion)\n\nGrounding, AC current, and DC current are also another discussion but I'll get into it is requested.\n\nQuestions? lol ",
"For a beginner, [the water analogy](_URL_0_) is pretty decent. It's not 100% accurate, but as a first pass, it's pretty good.\n\nIf electrons are water molecules, and wires are pipes, than voltage is water pressure (PSI), and current is the number of gallons per minute (GPM).\n\nOhms is how much something resists the flow of water. I like to think of this like rocks in the pipe. Few rocks in the pipe = low resistance, water flows easily. Lots of rocks in the pipe = high resistance, not much water can flow through. Unless you increase the pressure, of course! These three factors (PSI, GPM and flow resistance) trade off against each other. Hence the famous Ohm's law: PSI = GPM * Resistance. Or V = I * R.\n\nWatts is just volts times current. Or just psi * gpm. This is a useful measurement when you want to know how much energy is being transmitted down a pipeline. High pressure + lots of gpm is a lot of energy. Low pressure + low gpm is not much energy.\n\nDC electricity is like water that always flows the same direction in the pipes. There might be more or less of it, and the amount of gpm (current) might be greater or lesser at different times, but the water is always flowing in the same direction.\n\nAC electricity is like water the flows forward for a bit, and then backward for a bit, and then forward again for a bit, and then backward again for a bit, forever and ever. This turns out to be useful if you have a REALLY long pipeline and it loses tons of pressure along the length of the pipe. It turns out that by using AC you can avoid the problem of pressure (= voltage) drop.\n\nGround is an area of 0 pressure. Any wire or point that is grounded would be have zero PSI if you stuck a pressure gauge on it. This is useful for several reasons: 1) it gives high pressure water somewhere to drain out to. 2) It acts as a good pressure reference to measure other pressures relative to. 3) It can provide a return pipeline so any excess water in the system can flow back to the pump that's providing the system pressure.",
"Please could visit [Khan Academy's youtube page](_URL_0_) and watch the physics sub playlists { electrsostatics, voltage, electric potential energy, circuits, magnetism } It's all there, for basic DC circuits. Nice and slow, and you'll get the math."
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7xn4g8 | why is linear algebra important in computer science | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7xn4g8/eli5_why_is_linear_algebra_important_in_computer/ | {
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"It's almost too hard to enumerate all of the uses. Linear algebra has many, many uses in relation to signal processing, and discrete states (which CS is heavily into).\n\nFor example, one notable use was Google's pagerank algorithm, which used properties of vector-matrix transformations to assign rankings to page popularity. ",
"Wanna do text mining? You'll likely use a bag of words *matrix*, on which you can use linear algebra to make inferences.\n\nNeed to predict a trend on production systems? You might use regression, which uses linear algebra.\n\nWant to work with robotics? Oh boy, you better believe you'll use linear algebra.\n\nIt's **everywhere**. Learn it!",
"Here's a very basic example. Think about your computer screen. Let's pretend its 1920x1080. Each one of those pixels is showing some sort of color, and let's say it's a RGB value with each color value between 0 and 255 (16 bit color display). So each pixel on your screen has some combination\n\n(0, 0, 0) < --- this is black\n\n(255, 255, 255) < --- this is white\n\n(255, 0, 0) < --- this is hard red\n\nNow, think about the numbers that represent the current state of this screen. It is a 1920x1080 *matrix* of triple values - a whole bunch of numbers that, when mixed various ways, can represent anything a screen can display.\n\nGiven that basic manipulation of the screen requires matrix manipulation, it should be easy to see how linear algebra is important for even basic display of graphical interfaces.",
"Linear algebra is essentially just an attempt to extend the rules for basic math to large groups of numbers in parallel. If you need to calculate the tip for your check, you're familiar with that math. If you need to calculate the tip for every check in the entire restaurant, you already know how to compute tips - you just need linear algebra so you can easily express all that data you're using for the calculation.\n\nOr consider a task like giving someone the directions to your home. You give them a list of 'vectors' - directions and distances to travel in sequence. But wouldn't it be convenient if you could compile all those 'vectors' into a simple form that allowed anyone to solve the \"how to get to cellojones2204's home\"? Well, that's what linear algebra is for.\n\nEssentially it boils down to the fact that any time you have a large body of data, there's probably linear algebra buried in there somewhere to manage it because it allows you to use the same function across an entire body of data easily.",
"It is more about CS being important to linear algebra, and linear algebra being important in general.\n\nLinear algebra is an extremely powerful tool, any time you have vectors or multiple equations with multiple unknowns, linear algebra isn't going to be too far behind. But can be very tedious and complication, require a tremendous amount of computational effort. In *Hidden Figures*, the roomful of women working on math problems for NACA (later NASA), a lot of that would have been linear algebra. \n\nThese are exactly the kinds of problems computers were build to solve, and so much of computer science is devoted to doing linear algebra well. But it works the other way as well. Database tables, for example, can be seen as n x m matrices, and any DBA will tell you that combining two tables in a special way called a join is one of the most powerful and brain twisting thing out there. Under the covers, it is just an application of linear algebra, and efficient linear algebra algorithms are crucial to optimizing database performance.",
"Two big reasons:\n\n* It's a very important tool in many, many programming tasks. The most obvious is stuff like 3D graphics, but you'll need it for just about everything, even such details as scaling the contents of a window to fit intelligently.\n\n* It trains a certain way of thinking, which is important in programming and computer based problem solving.\n\nAs an experienced programmer (30+ years professional experience), I'd say that there are two things more important than any other if you want to get good: math and philosophy. The rest is just applications of that."
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yu9o5 | . how did anders breivic (norwegian guy who murdered 77 people) get only 21 years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yu9o5/eli5_how_did_anders_breivic_norwegian_guy_who/ | {
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"Norwegian law does not allow people to be sentenced to more than 21 years in jail.\n\nHowever, Norwegian law *does* allow for jail terms to be extended if someone is judged to still be a menace to society. Because of this, most experts think he will still end up serving a life sentence.",
"The Norwegian legal system is built upon rehabilitation, rather than punishment, of criminals. The philosophy is that both the person who committed the crime and the values of the society in which he lives can have changed drastically after 21 years. Some believe that this gives Norway a noticibly low reoffender rate."
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4btdgj | how can i have a fever and be freezing cold at the same time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4btdgj/eli5_how_can_i_have_a_fever_and_be_freezing_cold/ | {
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"There reason you have a fever is BECAUSE you're feeling freezing cold. When you're feeling freezing cold, you tend to shiver, snuggle up with a blanket, and try raise your body temperature.\n\nThe way fever works is that your body is saying \"you'r now at 98 degrees F. You need to be at 104F. You're colder than what you need to be.\" When you are colder than what you need to be, guess what, you feel cold. The body works to warm you up to 104F. Then fever breaks, you and sweat, letting your body cool off. "
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80usq6 | why is there great disagreements about the so-called 'copenhagen interpretation 'among physicists?is this dispute amenable to experimental resolution? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80usq6/eli5_why_is_there_great_disagreements_about_the/ | {
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"There is great disagreement because there are several interpretations that fit with our current knowledge of the quantum world and it's not, at this time, possible to deduce which interpretation is correct, if any.",
"There most likely is not a simple experimental resolution. As in the phrasing it is an interpretation of the model. Many different interpretations fit with the observations and currently the difference is partially philosophical"
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347z7p | how can the universe be a 3d hologram | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/347z7p/eli5_how_can_the_universe_be_a_3d_hologram/ | {
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"It seems likely that sometime soon, we might be able to build a machine (a computer) that does a really really good job of simulation a realistic version of our universe inside it. \n\nLet's pretend you believe it is possible that we can build this machine. Can you now not believe there is at least a possibility that maybe, we and our universe are all just parts of a bigger, better simulation in a bigger better computer that some bigger, better entity programmed to simulate their own universe, the way we have done in this universe?\n\nSee the movies: The Thirteenth Floor, and The Matrix. And check out _URL_0_ "
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fqv62l | how does stabilized aqueous ozone work for cleaning? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fqv62l/eli5_how_does_stabilized_aqueous_ozone_work_for/ | {
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"This is the first I have heard of it, so I did some research and applied my (very limited) knowledge of chemistry. On its surface, most of the links I found regarding this process were sales links in some form or another. Immediately, I would take this info with a grain of salt. Further research was not able to directly provide information on how ozone reacts with biological material. However, it is already used in well-water treatment and, as one of (if not the) strongest oxidizers we've ever discovered, it can break down pretty much anything. In humans, ozone can cause some pretty adverse health effects when inhaled, but those same reactions are, logically, what should be happening when ozone is applied to stains and microbes.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n\"Stabilized aqueous\" simply means that the gas is dissolved in water, nothing more. This is a benefit to you, because you won't be able to breathe it while it is dissolved. Since ozone is very unstable, the claim that it only leaves water and oxygen is only slightly misleading. Ozone will, in every reaction that I could find, combine or decompose into Oxygen and whatever else was involved. So, there will be some remanents of whatever else was involved (if there was iron there originally, there is going to be some form of iron in the resultant), but it will probably be safe.y stored in the waste-tank of whatever device is used.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo, long story short, I would wait to see critical reviews and studies done before claiming it is the cure-all (and totally safe), but it may work and might be worth trying if it is the same price as other traditional and well-tested cleaners."
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4u8eg9 | what is story pacing? | I see this term rather frequently, but I can't seem to find a satisfactory definition for it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u8eg9/eli5_what_is_story_pacing/ | {
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"Story pacing refers to the speed at which events happen. Some shows benefit from a long buildup to a particularly energetic climax (think some seasons of *The Walking Dead*) and others have action sequences nearly every episode (think *24*). The writer/director/showrunner have to manage that pace to keep the audience engaged. If things happen too fast, then the emotional impact of your bigger scenes can be washed out, but if the story moves too slow you can lose viewers who get bored. It's an artistic choice as well as a practical one.",
"Pacing is the rate at which important things happen, the rate at which the plot progresses.\n\nA great example from recent film would be Fant4stic. We know it's a movie about the Fantastic 4, we know it's a movie about super heroes. But we also know that we have to get the origin story for them. So we're introduced to a Richard Reed, cool. And he's doing an experiment, so yeah we can see that he's a genius, I'm on board. But then he has a falling out with his friend. And then he goes to school. And then they're building this big experiment. And they're still building it. And they're still building it. And they're *still* building it. And then it's built yay! And they go into it...and they wander around...etc. It takes you half the movie to get to the part where they have superpowers, half the movie to get *to the point of the movie*, and then it just keeps dragging along.\n\nThen there's Dark Knight. We want a Batman movie, right, and it didn't take long to get to that. Even before we got to Bruce putting on the bat costume, we got into him doing Batman-like things, doing kung fu with Ra's Al Ghul. There's good action, time to settle down, back into the action... Good pacing."
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5nknwf | the math in this article about microsoft buying minecraft. spending 2.5 billion and breaking even on 25 million in interest or whatever makes no sense to me. | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nknwf/eli5_the_math_in_this_article_about_microsoft/ | {
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"If Microsoft didn't buy anything with its cash and just let it sit in something that gained interest, it would have made $25 million on that $2.5 billion (savings accounts typically are around 1% return).\n\nThey're saying that the purchase of Mojang and Minecraft is worth the $2.5 billion, and that as long as it's worth that, you don't have to make the $2.5 billion back in returns.\n\nIt would be like you having $500,000 in the bank and you buy a $100,000 house. The house doesn't have to gain $100,000 in value to bring you \"back\" to even. You're still worth $500,000, but $100,000 is in a house now instead of cash. The house just has to earn what that $100,000 in cash would have earned if you hadn't spent it.",
"You spend money in order to prevent yourself from having to spend as much on taxes while also becoming a larger conglomerate.If they just had that 25 billion on the bank they'd spend 2.5~ billion in taxes on that every year. Secondly , you're only thinking about Minecraft as a video game . It's an IP now, it's ingrained in our children and the society. We have toys and phone cases etc, there will probably be a movie and everytime that happens it's advertising for microsoft. "
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93hzzl | why is vaping nicotine supposedly better for your health than smoking cigarettes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/93hzzl/eli5_why_is_vaping_nicotine_supposedly_better_for/ | {
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"The nicotine is but one element of cigarette smoke and not the worst element at that. vaping is steam that contains nicotine. Cigarettes are smoke that contain nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and other nasties.",
"As far as I know the verdict is still kind of out on that one if it even is better. But immediate observations of my friends who do it seem to be that it’s not quite as addicting/habit forming as vaping, doesn’t yellow your teeth/fingers from tar, and doesn’t have the affect on your lungs from tar that cigarettes do.",
"The main difference between smoking and vaping stems from how nicotine is delivered. The burning end of a cigarette creates tobacco smoke. The process of combustion is what generates carcinogenic chemicals, and this is why smoking cigarettes are dangerous.\n\nOn the other hand, vaping does not burn chemicals, and instead, it heats the ingredients into a vapor which dramatically reduces the release of harmful constituents.",
"Because the majority of the unhealthy consequences of cigarettes come from the burning of the leaves and whatever chemicals are used in processing them to make cigarettes. If you're not inhaling thousands of chemicals in the form of smoke, you're doing significantly less damage to your lungs and body in general.",
"The component of cigarettes that does the most damage is actually tar, not nicotine, so getting rid of that is why vaping is considered less unhealthy.",
"Forget the nicotine, that is not what is bad about smoking. smoking is bad for you because of the chemistry that happens when you burn stuff. It's why people die from smoke inhalation during house fires. Smoking causes you to ingest all sorts of toxic chemicals. Not because they are put into cigarettes, but because they are created when you burn them.\n",
"Drinking alcohol is less bad for you than drinking cyanide...but it's still not harmless.\n\nThere's tons of chemical reactions that produce all kinds of toxins when light up a plant leaf. Nicotine is 1 of hundreds of chemicals when you inhale tobacco leaf. \n\nWith a vape....it's only a handful of chemicals yer inhaling.",
"You have to know also that the nicotine is the chemical that causes the dependence / addiction. Vaping doesn’t remove the addiction, it only removes *most* of the physically harmful stuff. Vaping is being reviewed in medical communities as a “harm reduction” tool in the addiction chain. Still not ideal, but better than any tobacco delivery method. ",
"To quote a senator a while back, \"It's not the nicotine that kills. It's the smo-o-o-o-o-oke.\"",
"The Nicotine in a cigarette isn't *remotely* the most dangerous thing in it for your health. As far as I'm aware, Nicotine itself is *not* a carcinogen. So it on its own *should not* increase your odds of dying from cancer. \n\nDon't get me wrong, throwing pure nicotine into your system isn't exactly a *good* idea. Taking nicotine still screws around with your brain, and screwing with your brain chemistry is a bad idea in the general case (exceptions, such as ADHD Medications and Antidepressants exist).\n\n**However**, there are several other substances in play that are significantly more dangerous to your health than Nicotine. This is an array of carcinogens and toxins that you *really* don't want in your body.\n\nThere's also some inherent risks to smoking a cigarette that may not be readily apparent. For example, *you are inhaling smoke*. You are introducing particulate matter to your lungs, which **will** irritate them... and that particulate matter *may* be hot enough to cause some scalding.\n\nVapes don't have as big of an issue, because the vaping fluid doesn't *necessarily* have the secondary carcinogens. It's also *not* ash that you're breathing in, intead being a vapor, which doesn't cause the same kind of issues for your lungs. There's still scalding concerns, but the danger isn't as significant.",
"Smoking means you're inhaling smoke aka burnt plant material plus the paper it's wrapped in. \n\nVaping means you're inhaling vapor for example, steam or fog. Sitting in a hot steam room or walking through a park on a foggy morning isn't going to give you lung cancer. \n\nIt's not the nicotine in cigarettes that kills you. It's the smoke that it's delivered in that does the damage. "
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11jrid | the difference between subjective and objective thinking | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11jrid/the_difference_between_subjective_and_objective/ | {
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"It depends somewhat on the context you are using those terms, but subjective means based on your own personal opinion, while objective means it can be agreed to by an independent 3rd party. "
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7cddr0 | how soap is both hydrophobic and hydrophilic at the same time without one taking over | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7cddr0/eli5_how_soap_is_both_hydrophobic_and_hydrophilic/ | {
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"Soap is an emulsifier. One end of the molecule is hydrophilic and the other end is hydrophobic. One can't \"take over\" the other unless there is way more oil than water or vice versa.",
"It’s a fairly long molecule, with one end being hydrophobic and one end being hydrophilic. So the hydrophobic part points towards the stuff you’re trying to clean off and the hydrophilic part points towards the waters "
]
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[],
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||
dmrh74 | a lot of building now seem to have 10-20 foot (3-6 meter) high ceilings, why? | As a person who works in an office, I noticed that the ceiling is a good 15 feet off the floor. A lot of building out here and a lot of newer buildings seem to have really high ceilings. Is there a reason? Is there some rule or law that places with lots of activity or people must have a ceiling over 7 feet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dmrh74/eli5_a_lot_of_building_now_seem_to_have_1020_foot/ | {
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"text": [
"Probably just the current aesthetic. \n\nRealistically, it'd cost more to heat and cool. It's not more efficient, but it does make for a more inviting and comfortable space, which can be good in most public or business settings.",
"Also for many retail/office buildings that are rented instead of owned, having taller ceilings allows for a wider variety of companies to rent that building.",
"Heat rises. Some places are beginning to adapt to temperature increases by making ceilings higher. If you go Dubai most buildings are constructed with this in mind.",
"For single or double story building it is actually cheaper. There are regulations that every employee is entitled to a certain amount of air. I think it's 4 cubic meters but I could be wrong.\n\nAnyhow, if you make your offices (and classrooms!) higher you can legally fit more ~~sardines~~ people in the same space."
]
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7lmr3f | how can you overdose on vitamins (pills)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lmr3f/eli5_how_can_you_overdose_on_vitamins_pills/ | {
"a_id": [
"drnfib7",
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"text": [
"It depends on the vitamin. Most things available over the counter tend to have pretty large margins of safety between the recommended dose & what's harmful - somebody taking 2-3 is *generally* not particularly harmful.\n\nSome will harmlessly pass through you, even in ridiculous quantities. For reference, a standard daily vitamin might have 50-100mg of Vitamin C in it while a single serving of Emergen-C has 1000mg and you can easily drink multiples of them without any serious issue. Even when you *do* start overdosing on it, the symptoms aren't particular serious - you'll probably just get sick to your stomach & get the runs for a bit until is clears your system.\n\nOther things don't treat you so well. Iron, for example, is a frequent cause of poisoning in children. You only need 10-20mg per day and having more than 50mg per day can lead to symptoms of toxicity.",
" > 25% of the vitamins you take in pill form\n\nThis is not correct. The amount of a vitamin absorbed depends on the vitamin. And it also may depend on the dose. For instance, if you are healthy, and eat a normal amount of vitamin C, then nearly all of it is absorbed. However, if you take very large amounts, you might absorb 50% of it. Vitamin K, on the other hand, is very poorly absorbed, with closer to 5% of it being absorbed.\n\nHowever, this is largely irrelevant to over dosing. This is caused by eating large amounts of the vitamin. In the case of vitamin C, this is usually caused by children eating vitamin C like candy. In the case of vitamin A, it is usually through dietary sources (the livers of certain animals). Fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A or K are also especially dangerous as you can slowly poison yourself by eating slightly too much every day for a long time, while this is much more difficult to do with water soluble vitamins.\n\nAlso, if the daily recommended dose of a vitamin or mineral is X, then the poisonous dose will not be 2 times X, it probably wont even be 10 times X. For instance, the recommended daily dose of vitamin C is around 50 mg a day, but you can eat more than 2000 mg a day before you begin to see even subtle side effects. The recommended dose of Vitamin A is around 500 ug a day, while you get toxicity at around 10,000 ug a day, if you take that much every day for a long time, and 50,000 - 100,000 ug a day.\n\nFinally, zinc isn't a vitamin, it's a mineral."
]
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[],
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5t4pzl | how do companies like turbo tax and h & r block that do tax returns for you make it's profit since people only use their services once a year? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5t4pzl/eli5_how_do_companies_like_turbo_tax_and_hr_block/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddk4bz4"
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"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Actually a lot of people file their taxes 4 times a year. Anyone working a 1099 job and any business that surpasses a certain minimum revenue level "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
cda3bx | why aren't nootropics encouraged enough for research (and why is the government trying to ban it? wouldn't nootropics accelerated society for growth and development?) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cda3bx/eli5_why_arent_nootropics_encouraged_enough_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"etsl2yu",
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"text": [
" > Why aren't nootropics encouraged enough for research\n\nThere is research done on nootropics, and the research doesn't show that they work. Until there is some good reason to think that pouring money into researching a specific substance is likely to yield results it seems sort of a waste of time.\n\n > and why is the government trying to ban it?\n\nBecause scumbags will sell the stuff regardless of it not actually working, lying to consumers and taking their money for a product that is at best useless and quite possibly harmful. You know, like any other kind of snake oil. That is exactly the sort of criminal behavior the government should be controlling.\n\n > Wouldn't nootropics accelerated society for growth and development?\n\nIf they worked, which most signs indicate they don't.",
"This is a point of discussion in ethics, see for example a commentary published in Nature in 2008 \n\n_URL_0_\n\nand news on their increased use in 2018\n\n_URL_1_\n\nSupposing they work (which is not clear), questions remain about side effects. What if researchers have to take them to \"compete\" in top level research, but will die 20 years earlier as a result? Is that something society should encourage?\n\nSimilar discussion about state-sponsored doping by the way. There \"unfairness\" is more in the spotlight, but the harm caused to the athletes' health is also important."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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"https://www.nature.com/articles/456702a",
"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05599-8"
]
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||
5pf6ei | why do modern rockets blast off with zero initial velocity (standing straight up)? | Instead of on tracks, a ramp, etc... wouldn't there be a huge energy savings to overcoming the force that resists motion prior to firing the engines? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pf6ei/eli5_why_do_modern_rockets_blast_off_with_zero/ | {
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"The biggest difficulty in getting enough speed to get to orbital velocity is how the earth's atmosphere slows you down.\n\nIt is most effective to blast straight up until the atnosphere becomes thinner and the drag caused by the air becomes very low, then level out and accelerate sideways towards an orbital speed.\n\nAlso turning while in atmosphere is very difficult to do, again due to drag wanted to slow down any surfaces that aren't aerodynamic to the direction of travel.",
"there are various concepts of ramps and slings and sleds that have been theorized, but none are currently viable. It would be a huge departure from what we know, adding a new phase to the launch rather than just *more* of the same. the track would need to be huge, complexity, investment, ect. \n\nIt will probably get superceded by a space elevator, or so we hope.",
"Every second spent moving through the atmosphere or crawling on the ground/tracks/ramp adds friction and steals a little bit from the energy of the craft. Going straight up completely eliminates ground friction and gets you out of the atmosphere as quickly as possible, making all motion after that easier.\n\nAdditionally, rockets are basically a big engine with stuff on top. To work on tracks or roll along a ramp or even clamp onto a plane, it all requires additional parts- wheels or skates or clamps- and every bit of weight counts."
]
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[],
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38w1cm | what does the caliber of a bullet mean? is .44, .50ae, .22, etc the caliber or something else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38w1cm/eli5_what_does_the_caliber_of_a_bullet_mean_is_44/ | {
"a_id": [
"cryaacw"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Caliber is the diameter of the bullet. It can be expressed either in mm or thousands of an inch (or even a fraction of an inch) depending on the manufacterer. For instance, a .22 is 0.22 inches in diameter, and a 9mm is 9mm (surprise surprise)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
e0si3a | how can a water or electricity company cut off or turn on services to an individual household without being physically present? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e0si3a/eli5_how_can_a_water_or_electricity_company_cut/ | {
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"text": [
"water cannot be cut remotely, but the shutoff valve is normally outside the house/building. Most electric switches can be thrown remotely whether inside or outside buildings",
"Companies use a relay to measure how much power is used. Newer relays are smart and can talk to a network, so the companies can read how much power is being used remotely, but can also stop power being used remotely. Not sure how they’d turn off water, unless where you live they install solenoids on the water supply.",
"As far as electricity there's a few diffrent ways. One, with smart meters they can do it remotely. I don't have any experience with those but the other two ways are: at the meter attached to the house (which most utilities have a right to access) you pull the meter and either leave it out and replace with a window, or put plastic \"socks\" on the blades of the meter and put it back in. If the meter is not accessible then you can climb the pole and either de-energize the transformer or cut the service to the house open. In the case of an underground transformer you can disconnect the particular house you wish to.",
"The junction to your house is accessible from the outside so they can do maintenance without having to rely on access. Therefore they can send a guy who goes to your backyard and shuts off your water or electricity.",
"\"Smart\" meters can be built with magnetically operated switches internal to the meter that will disconnect the load. The utility can communicate with the meter remotely. Since the switch leaves the top half of the meter energized, the utility still has control over the communications and can reconnect when they want to. They can also continue to monitor the meter for tampering in case someone wants their power back illegally.\n\nWhether this type of technology has been incorporated into water meters, I have no clue."
]
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4mqqrc | if our muscles relax when we sleep, then what mechanisms prevent us from having a bowel movement or urinating during that time? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4mqqrc/eli5_if_our_muscles_relax_when_we_sleep_then_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3xl0pg",
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4
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"text": [
"Not all of your muscles relax. Bowel movements are prevented by several sphincter muscles in your digestive system that continue the business of digestion while you sleep. Urination is prevented through similar mechanisms and also erections in males.",
"We have 3 different types of muscles in our body:\n\n- skeletal muscles: \"normal\" muscles like biceps, quadriceps and abs that you can voluntarily control\n\n-smooth muscles: that make up part of the wall of all hollow organs, like the oesophagus, stomach, urinary bladder, blood vessels, and all sphincters (actually sometimes we have 2 sphincters doing the same thing. Like the internal and external anal sphincter. One is made of skeletal muscle and is under our direct control, while the other is made of smooth muscle and is not). These are not under our voluntary control, but are mainly controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which controls automatic functions like heart rate, respiratory rate, sweating, bowel movements, sphincters and so on.\n\n-cardiac muscle: of the heart\n\n\nWhen you sleep, your skeletal muscles relax. And this is why you can't sit upright while you're sleeping.\n\nAmong smooth muscles, sphincters are special because they work \"on reverse\". Their default state is a contracted state, meaning the sphincter is closed. And external input by the autonomic nervous system is required to open them.\nWhen you sleep, peristalsis (bowel movements) are reduced, and sphincters stay closed."
]
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[],
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60jadt | what exactly is an equinox? today was the spring equinox and the persian new year. | Why is the day equal length everywhere today? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60jadt/eli5_what_exactly_is_an_equinox_today_was_the/ | {
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"text": [
"The sun shines directly on the equator, therefore the length of daylights experienced by each hemisphere is roughly equivalent. The Northern hemisphere will continue on to see longer periods of daylight, while the Southern Hemisphere will be the opposite. This trend reverses in September.",
"The Earth is slightly tilted as it orbits the Sun. For part of the year, the Northern Hemisphere will point more toward the Sun, so it will get more sunlight and have warmer days. This is summer. But at the same time the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, so it gets less sunlight and has colder days. This is winter. 6 months later, the Earth will have orbited halfway around, so that the Northern Hemisphere will be tilted away from the Sun, and the Southern Hemisphere will be tilted toward the Sun. Thus, winter in the north and summer in the south.\n\nThe equinoxes are the two halfway points between this. Neither the North nor the South are pointing toward the Sun; they're pointing sideways. So they get equal day-lengths, and neither one is in winter or summer.\n\n[This picture](_URL_0_) from wikipedia might help you visualize it."
]
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[],
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"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/North_season.jpg"
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18lui5 | why is there a bump on our fingers at the center of the fingerprint? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18lui5/why_is_there_a_bump_on_our_fingers_at_the_center/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8g2rnt"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"No bumps here, not sure what you mean."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2uyqai | why dont vending machines use debit cards yet? | 8ZU3gIVONiDQ8QLsPkYsHMZTbLYX6hOE32T5wnQGCGzVEKtPnPPe8DD0k3AAga8ZU3gIVONiDQ8QLsPkYsHMZTbLYX6hOE32T5wnQGCGzVEKtPnPPe8DD0k3AAg | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uyqai/eli5why_dont_vending_machines_use_debit_cards_yet/ | {
"a_id": [
"cocw498",
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],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"because in addition to just a power cord, you'd need a telephone/ethernet cord and integrate a card reader and pay merchant fees. ",
"In Europe there are lots of those which accept cards"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
6fayam | what causes your sweat to be yellow? does being more hydrated reduce the affect? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fayam/eli5_what_causes_your_sweat_to_be_yellow_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"digt0j1"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Either you have a very rare disease which is causing a colored pigment to be produced in your glands, or it's your deodorant. The most likely candidate is that your deodorant is leaving yellow stains because of the presence of aluminum and other chemicals. If you are seeing yellow or brown sweat on your face or chest or other places you don't wear deodorant, you should talk to your doctor. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3zr7ds | how has the huge demand for 2 day shipping created by amazon prime been able to be met by postal services? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zr7ds/eli5_how_has_the_huge_demand_for_2_day_shipping/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyodr02"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Amazon managed 2 day shipping by using the existing shipping infrastructure. Amazon isn't asking UPS to deliver from California to NYC in 2 days. Amazon opens up a warehouse in Albany or somewhere close and asks UPS to deliver to NYC in 2 days."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6wa25t | what's the purpose of the cartilaginous tab over the ear hole? | Most people's ears have a cartilaginous tab that fits right over the ear hole (to block it), if you presse with the finger. Safe to say that's the purpose it serves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wa25t/eli5_whats_the_purpose_of_the_cartilaginous_tab/ | {
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"text": [
"Actually, just learned the cartilage around the ear has a big role in letting you locate the height of sounds you hear, because bouncing off and passing through the cartilage changes the tone of the sounds:\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"I always used it to plug my ears in the Army when a blast was about to go off, or when in a loud room to protect my ears from the noise. Works really well!",
"Update: ok, after learning from a video that the floppy part of the ear is called the \"pinna\" it made me want to dig around to find what the name of that \"tab\" is, and turns out it's called the \"tragus\". Now armed with a googleable name, the search was on, and it appears that the tragus does aid in collecting sounds from behind (and interestingly in bats it's even more evolved to function even better in that way).\n\nStill, for me it will always be an earhole sealer, when needed:)",
"I don't have an answer for you, but I believe you are talking about what is called the tragus.\n\nSo at least you have terminology now."
]
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[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oai7HUqncAA"
],
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|
fpecuh | why is latin considered a dead language and what exactly defines a language as dead? | We use Latin for medical terms, mathematical terms, etc. It seems to me like it's quite prevalent and relevant still. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fpecuh/eli5_why_is_latin_considered_a_dead_language_and/ | {
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"flkezxi",
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"text": [
"It's dead because no communities use it.\n\nLike, if all the French speakers of the world were gone but some English speakers still occasionally said voila you wouldn't say French is still spoken.",
"A language is considered “dead” when it’s no longer the native language of a community of people. It should be noted that this is different from an extinct language, which no longer has any speakers at all.\n\nIn the case of Latin, no one calls it their primary language.",
"A language is dead when there are no longer any people who speak the language as their primary native language. An Extinct Language means that no one speaks or reads it in any context. Since no one speaks Latin as their primary language, but many in academia, medicine, STEM, and religious professions use it in a professional context it is dead but not extinct."
]
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[],
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40g5fe | if two 15 mt bombs were dropped together would they cover the same distance when exploding or would they double as a 30 mt bomb? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40g5fe/eli5_if_two_15_mt_bombs_were_dropped_together/ | {
"a_id": [
"cytwiwr"
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"text": [
"They'd have to be EXACTLY - to the microsecond - the same detonation time or the first bomb would likely simply destroy or disable the other when it detonated.\n\nBut assuming that, if the two bombs were duct-taped together so they were in very very close proximity then they detonated, it'd be close to the equivalent of a 30MT explosion from a point-source. If they were widely separated you'd have some explosive interference as their shockwaves hit each other and the explosive power would actually be a bit smaller in affected area. Still roughly a 30MT point-source explosion though.\n\nTo see the impact, check your own question using [NUKEMAP](_URL_0_), which can show you the impact of a 15MT bomb compared to a 30MT. \n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/"
]
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||
2v8jdx | why does socialism not exist anymore? | iotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw0hqQfwpiotYG1S0UDqN3ACU2ZeMurbMbxvmrtSdz8ucXbUxwST8HbVpdQ9bUDw | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v8jdx/eli5_why_does_socialism_not_exist_anymore/ | {
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"text": [
"Almost every economy on Earth is a mixed economy. They have pieces of socialism, and pieces of capitalism. It's sort of like saying that America doesn't have any capitalist ideas just because it has welfare. ",
"Socialism isn't a binary state. Virtually all countries have some measure of socialism AND capitalism reflected in their public policy.",
"Marxist socialism requires centralized control and planning and relies on buy-in of all participants so it just isn't manageable on a large scale. When it encounters problems, it will become unstable very quickly and collapse. Capitalism, though it has its own problems, is more tolerant of mistakes, errors and human imperfections and is thus more stable. \n\nAs we have seen, no social system exists at a perfect state, at least not for very long. It must have some kind of self-correction built in or else it will collapse.",
"Lack of buy-in. Combination of real world examples failing and successful anti-socialist propaganda effectively killed the idea as a viable large scale alternative. You'll still get the occasional small-scale commune trying to operate adrift from a larger social structure, but they can only go so far. Marxist socialism still exists, technically, in China, Cuba, etc., but I think you're probably talking about Utopian Socialism, which never really gained much ground outside aforementioned small communities.",
"It didn't disappear after WWII, it mostly disappeared after the Soviet Union collapsed although you can make the argument that North Korea and Cuba are still pretty close to the socialist ideal in terms of centrally planned economies and the ownership by the state of the means of production.\n\nMarxism was more than just socialism. Marxism was a theory of human behavior and an explanation for current conditions derived from historical processes as well as a theory about how to organize an economy.\n\nMarx thought that socialist revolution was the purview of the middle class but in practice it was really implemented by peasant revolts in Russia and China. From the end of WWI to the start of WWII, socialism in Russia was a change from an hereditary aristocracy calling all the shots to a communist bureaucracy - new faces but not that much real change to the process. From the end of WWII to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians tried to force Eastern Europe to adopt socialism but the quality of life differential between the capitalist West and the socialist East made that fundamentally impossible. You couldn't convince people that they were really better off under socialism than the folks on the other side of the border were under capitalism.\n\nIn the end the USSR was unable to continue as a political entity, and without the political will to use force to keep the rest of Eastern Europe operating under a socialist system, those countries gave it up and adopted capitalism, leading inevitably to Russia itself doing the same.\n\nThe opposite thing happened in China. The Chinese government gave up on socialism and introduced capitalism but didn't lose political power or the will to use force. Today there's very little \"socialism\" in China, but there is a powerful one-party state that believes it can use central planning to manage certain critical aspects of the economy better than pure market capitalism, while deriving the benefits of market capitalism in wide swaths of the rest of the system. The Chinese people by and large have accepted a situation where they have a steadily improving quality of life, and increasing international respect but not widespread political enfranchisement. The Communist Party is a larger, and more diverse organization than any political system China ever had in the past and so by comparison it looks pretty good to the average Chinese citizen. Unlike in Russia where one set of artistocrats got swapped for another, in China, a de facto oligarchy was massively expanded and its focus was shifted from increasing individual wealth and power to increasing national wealth and power.\n\nAt the end of the day Marxism itself is discredited because we have developed much better theories of human behavior than Marx's. Most of what Marx thought he knew about history has been shown to be wrong. His opinions based on his wrong facts led to bad theory."
]
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48lzzo | if there's an car accident and the person at fault dies, how is insurance handled for the person who wasn't at fault? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48lzzo/eli5_if_theres_an_car_accident_and_the_person_at/ | {
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"text": [
"The person's estate that was at fault is responsible for the loss caused by them. Before any inheritance can be drawn from the estate to any beneficiaries, their dept had to be paid. If negative, the claimant won't get as much as they may be awarded.",
"the insurance company for the deceased would cover the costs. Just because the person dies doesn't remove fault.",
"The insurance company assumes liability in accordance with the policy regardless of whether the policy holder is living or dead. The plaintiff could sue the estate for additional money if they have legal cause to have sued a living driver.",
"Your insurance company fights for every penny from the other side's insurance. The more they pay, the less your insurance has to cover and they want to want to not pay a single cent if they can avoid it.\n\nYou on the other hand, get the money from your insurance company regardless (depending on your policy), especially if it isn't your fault.",
"The at fault company still pays as the policy is still in effect even after their death. Typically it follows the registration being active or not, rather than a person being deceased (as other operators are typically listed, but even if they aren't you still usually maintain coverage until the reg is cancelled). The at-fault company would still pay out for hospital bills up to their limit of liability (whatever you purchased), but probably not for any potential earnings etc. IF the claimant were to die you would most likely have the at-fault company pay out their policy limits (limit of liability) and the not-at-fault estate would sue for potential earnings etc. Long and short - If you're at fault the estate has medical bills and hospital paid and maybe some consideration for funeral expenses. If you're not-at-fault the estate will reap some extra benefits such as potential earnings. - Insurance Agent/Claims Adjuster",
"My grandmother was in a mild fender bender on a Friday at the bank. She died that Sunday. The guy called her house to tell her he was going to call her insurance company on Monday. I answered, thinking it was a telemarketer. I scared the man to pieces when I said she was deceased. I told him to call the insurance company, who then called and confirmed her death, paid the claim, and sent flowers to the funeral.",
"This is part of probate law. \n\nPeople have legal rights and responsibilities. But sometimes it's convenient to create an imaginary person and make them part of a contract or disagreement. Corporations are one kind of \"fictitious person.\"\n\nIn a similar way when you die your property and responsibilities are transferred to an \"estate\" - which is basically a legal ghost. The person who manages an estate is called its executor and there will be a probate judge supervising them.\n\nThe estate has to pay damages before it can distribute inheritances. That's another reason to have liability insurance: it keeps inheritances from disappearing.\n"
]
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||
1hssxm | how do the iron sights on a gun work if they are above where the bullets are fired? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hssxm/eli5_how_do_the_iron_sights_on_a_gun_work_if_they/ | {
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"Iron sights form a straight line, while the trajectory of the bullet is an arch (as the bullet falls down during flight). Usually the sights are calibrated in a way so the bullet path intersects twice with the line of sight of the iron sights. The distances where they cross (where you can get an exaxt hit) depend on the weapon and its effectice range. Nearer and farther than these two points you hit low, between them you hit high. The exact measures on how low/high you hit, againm depend on the weapon.\n\nAdjustable scopes can be changed to (almost) always hit perfect. But you have to know the distance to your target or estimate it.",
"The front sight is adjustable. When you line up the front and rear sights, you are able to aim. When you shoot, if your shot is off, you can adjust the front sight so that when you aim your rifle is actually pointed slightly up, down, left, or right. The further your target is from you, the higher you would want to shoot (so the lower you want your front sight to be, forcing you to pull your gun up to aim). If you are shooting on a very windy day, you can adjust the windage (left/right) of your front sight to compensate for the wind.\n\ntl;dr iron sights can be adjusted to compensate for variables such as distance and wind.\n\nHere is a video that explains it fairly well:\n\n_URL_0_",
"[A picture is worth 1000 words.](_URL_0_) I can clarify further if it's needed."
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv0VNRe4wIk"
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||
yjd5y | with tensions between iran and israel i am listening to npr and i can't figure out why we are allies with israel. can some please explain why we give them such ,almost unconditional support. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yjd5y/with_tensions_between_iran_and_israel_i_am/ | {
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"There are many different reasons held by different people. Here are a few:\n\n* The US and Western Europe feel guilty for not preventing the Holocaust.\n* Israel is seen as more culturally \"western\" than its neighbors.\n* Israel is seen as less of a military/terrorist threat than its neighbors.\n* Some Christians believe Israel is divinely ordained.\n* Due to the other reasons, there is a history of cooperation that some people feel obligated to continue.",
"\"Almost\" unconditional support? LOL \nUS aid to Israel constitutes the largest peacetime transfer of wealth from one nation to another. "
]
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[],
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] |
||
amtwbd | the navier-stokes equations - why does it not work with fluid motions that are highly turbulent? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/amtwbd/eli5_the_navierstokes_equations_why_does_it_not/ | {
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"It is based on the assumption of that the fluid can no be squeezed and that the forces on the liquid is proportional to the viscous forces (honey is very viscous and liquid helium is very very low). So in very turbulent flows, these assumptions no long hold so you can't estimate away the effects of compressibility. ",
"The NSE still describe turbulent flows just fine. The problem is that they're hard to solve for turbulent flows. The term in the NSE which governs turbulence is nonlinear. Turbulence is inherently a nonlinear phenomenon, which makes the equation of motion much harder to solve than in a linear approximation.\n\nTurbulent flows are often chaotic, meaning that tiny changes in the initial conditions leads to huge changes in the dynamics.",
"The NSE are a way of applying Newton's Second Law of Motion to a flowing bulk fluid, rather than a solid object. \n\nNewton's second law is \n\nMass * acceleration = sum of the forces on a solid object.\n\nA way of stating the NSE simply might be\n\nDensity * acceleration = viscosity forces + inertia forces + pressure forces.\n\nOf course there's a lot more too it than this. All of these terms involve functions of [vector fields.](_URL_0_) This is a quantity that has a unique magnitude and direction at any points in a space. Magnetic fields being the classical example. Not only this, but they include derivative terms such as velocity and acceleration in three dimensions. This usually makes an explicit, longhand form of the equations to be very long and messy. In terms of simulation iy creates a huge number of variables that need to be accounted for. \n\nHowever, by applying additional boundary conditions or parameters, you can, in theory, use them to derive equations of motion for the flow of fluid at any point in the space you're considering. \n\nI don't want to go into details considering the many mathematical problems associated with NSE's. This is a subject about which could fill an entire bookshelf. \n\nWhile NSE's don't have a problem describing turbulent flow, the turbulence condition can make the results of a simulation become questionable in terms of accuracy. Since a computer cannot actually simulate a fluid with an infinite number of points, approximations can only be made using Finite Element Methods\n\nTurbulent flow has the property of high sensitivity to initial conditions. A very small change in the state of flow at the beginning of a simulation can cause the results to rapidly diverge in character. This is the so-called \"butterfly effect.\" \n\nThis is why weather forecasts based on computer models tend to be accurate for only 3-5 days out. After this, the real weather tends to diverge highly from predictions, and slightly different models run on different systems may produce wildly different results from each other. This is an example of a well ordered system on terms of rules and structure, behaving in a chaotic or non-deterministic way.\n\n"
]
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"https://mathinsight.org/vector_field_overview"
]
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||
43sw65 | when politicians says that america was founded on the judeo christian ethic, what are they referring to? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43sw65/eli5_when_politicians_says_that_america_was/ | {
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"America was founded by people of European heritage. As the dominant religion in Europe for the past millennium, Christianity greatly influenced European ideas of morality and ethic. Europeans brought that Christian heritage with them to the New World.",
"They are making a vague statement that is hard to disagree with. There is no single Judeo Christian ethic. Rather, most Americans were either Christian or Jewish. It's uncontroversial and sounds good. \n\nWelcome to politics.",
"Ethics of societies are codified and taught through religion, and at times created by religion. The primary religion of Europe for 1000 years or more has been Christianity, so their ethics are primarily Judeo-Christian. \n\nWhen Europeans made colonies they brought their religion and ethics with them. Additionally the US was specifically first settled by several religious groups fleeing religious persecution in Britain and Holland collectively called the Pilgrims, the largest of which were the Puritans. ",
"It's hard to explain. One aspect of Judeo Christian culture is that moral codes are seen as universal. Basically every Christian man works from the same framework of what is right and wrong, they are judged by their ability to follows the laws of the prophets and the teachings of Jesus. Even if people disagree on what the ideal life looks like, everyone agrees that the one perfect moral person exists.\n\n In Hinduism, however, people are segregated into groups and have different moral duties based on that group. Like the scholar class would never be allowed to commit violence, but then the warrior/administrator class would have bad morals if he failed to kill people (if the situation called for it).\n\nIdeas like universal rights and democracy are based in a rough equality of people and the idea that there should be one code that everyone follows.\n\nAbrahamic religions also give huge credibility to written words, and in Western countries, judges and policy-makers are expected to point to constitutions and laws when explaining their decisions. They are rarely allowed to just make a decision based on what they feel to be right on a personal level (when judges do this, it usually creates a lot of controversy).\n\nContrast this in china, where Confucianism taught for centuries that the authority to make decisions is based on social and family hierarchy. Communist authorities in China have always been able to make personal decisions for the people under them, and are far less expected to justify opinion by pointing to a law; their position is what makes the decision legitimate.\n\nAlso, China had a concept called the 'mandate of heaven' that said that the ability to conquer the country meant that the gods want the victor to rule. Mao purging his opponents made him more accepted as the leader of China, because his ability to destroy opponents was a sign that he was the true ruler. If an American President killed a political opponent, he would no longer retain his authority, since him being the true ruler stems from his moral status and the written word of the constitution.\n\nTalking about it in broad strokes is hard, but when you get more specific, the differences are huge. When you look at Matin Luther, Calvin, and Protestantism in general; you see huge connections.\n\nCatholicism taught that religious truth comes from tradition and the decisions of religious authority figures. Protestantism taught that truth comes from the scriptures and personal contact with God(often in a way resembling conscious). America broke away from Kings and started a Republic in a time when democracy was seen as insanity.\n\nAlso important is that America pioneered the idea of having a Constitution that all authorities are beholden to. Americans can take the moral highground and challenge authorities by appealing to the words of the constitution or their conscious, which perfectly parallels how Protestants look at the bible and personal contact with god.\n\nCatholicism loves ritual and sees it as good in it's own right, Protestantism doesn't really care for rituals and thinks that they basically exist to help us fix our minds on god, if at all.\n\nCalvinism is also huge in teh concept of the 'elect'. Calvin thought that god chose a certain number of people to sit next to him in heaven. He chooses these people according to his own methods, and humans are in no way allowed to question teh decision. This matches our political system. We do not vote on policies, we 'elect' people, and the fact that they are chosen means they become the leaders. If someone is 'elected' as president, they are president. No one can point to the elected president and say \"they aren't really president, they [insert moral/personal criticism here]\".\n\nAt it's most basic, protestantism teaches that staying true to some higher truth or morality trumps earthly institutions and authority figures. Our political philosophy of challenging authority and civil disobendience stems very directly from this.\n\ntired and kind of long winded, but look up some of the differences between Catholicism and protestantism (basics of calvinism especially). You will notice things.",
"It's true that Judaism and Christianity share some broad ethical and theological underpinnings. \n\nHowever, when most modern politicians use the phrase *\"Judeo-Christian\"* they mostly really mean \"Christian,\" but just want to seem more inclusive."
]
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||
1idf1l | what is selective service and why does everyone 18-25 have to register? how does this affect me? | I just got a mail and it gave me confirmation and a "card" saying that I registered (Which was when I registered for college or some other time I forgot). Will this affect me? What will it do? If there is a war and there isn't enough people will the government recruit me?
EDIT: I'm not a citizen of U.S. either | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1idf1l/eli5_what_is_selective_service_and_why_does/ | {
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"The selective service is also known as the draft. All men in living in the US have to sign up when they turn 18 in order to get social security, college loans and to be able to become a citizen.\n\nI don't think you'll have to worry about getting drafted; a draft hasn't been enacted since the Vietnam War and the nature of modern warfare doesn't require large amounts of recruits anymore. \n\nYou can read more about the draft [here](_URL_0_)",
"Selective Service is basically the register for the draft. It categorizes all males 18-25 on their eligibility status for service. If the US ever enacts a draft this list will be used to fill the ranks of the armed forces. It's largely not a big deal and is essentially an insurance policy for the US in times of need. \n\nDepending on your residency status you can be drafted to serve in the US military regardless of citizenship. The exemptions to this are if you have been in the US for less than 1 year, a country you hold citizenship with has a bilateral treaty with the US that exempts you, or you have served at least one year in the armed forces of a country the US has a mutual defense agreement with.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_System#Who_must_register"
],
[]
] |
|
1vljmr | why do we use 12 instead of 0 on the clock? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vljmr/eli5_why_do_we_use_12_instead_of_0_on_the_clock/ | {
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"text": [
"Military time does use 0",
"CrabCakeSmoothie has it almost right. During the Middle Ages, monks were pretty much the only ones keeping time, because they needed to know when to say their prayers. (Now, hours had no uniform length at this *time*, but that's another matter). Also, the concept of zero was relatively unknown in the West, so timekeeping began at \"1\". This is also why the calendar starts at year 1 rather than year 0.",
"It's a throw back to the ancient Sumerian/babylonian base 60 number system.\nThey didn't have the number zero back then and I believe they chose 60 because it was easily divisible for trade;\n\n60 would break into 2 lots of 30, 3 lots of 20, 12 lots of 5, 4 lots of 15, 2 lots of 15 lots of 2 etc\n\nThis worked out pretty well for them at the time because people weren't big on fractions. With base 10 number system you run into fractions pretty rapidly seeing it only factors into 2 and 5\n\nIt's also the same reason there are 360 degrees\n\n60 minutes to the hour and 12 in a day etc are a throw back to this system.\n\nAs to why there was no zero because zero hadn't been invented/discovered yet! It wasn't included as a real number in a counting system until somewhere later in India\n\nHere's the original 59 digits they used to count with;\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nEdit:\nZero wasn't used as a real digit until 9th century AD in India. Time however; was being well kept by Babylonians 1200? ish years before that. So time keeping was common before zero was invented so unsurprisingly clocks don't have a zero\n\n\n",
"My clock says 00:00 at midnight, and 12:00 at noon. Your question is flawed. 24h time ftw"
]
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[],
[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Babylonian_numerals.svg"
],
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||
c78h52 | what's the differences among yogurt and sour milk, and why do people eat yogurt but not sour milk? it's all done by bacteria isn't it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c78h52/eli5_whats_the_differences_among_yogurt_and_sour/ | {
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"text": [
"Sour milk is \"caused\" by some random bacteria with random results while yogurt has carefully selected strains of bacteria and/or yeast that has been proven to be safe and tasty.",
"All fermentation (tea, beer, pickles, cheese, yogurt...) is about getting the “right” microorganisms to grow before the “wrong” ones get a foothold and take over.\n\nRight and wrong are entirely subjective based on mouthfeel and end products. Some make tasty end products that humans like, or can learn to like, and some don’t."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
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