q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
list | selftext_urls
list | answers_urls
list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
67qcyl | why does the us not have much of a textile industry anymore? | I know many of our textiles come from countries with cheap labor, but I'm surprised we haven't built looms that can just out-produce them. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67qcyl/eli5_why_does_the_us_not_have_much_of_a_textile/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgse1vz",
"dgsextq"
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text": [
"Textiles are not a high margin product. Simply put - its the kind of product that extremely wealthy economies don't do much with. Technology doesn't really matter, even fully automated factories aren't really worth the time/effort. Textiles are a perfect product for low-wage, high population economies.\n\nWe still do some textiles, but in the scheme of things our time is better spent building Jumbo Jets and Super Computers than something comparatively worthless like t-shirts.",
"Garments are still mostly hand made - very high labor content. A loom will only make the fabric.\n\nWhile people love to rant on the various 3rd world sweat shops - a lot of foreign garment manufacturing provides the highest incomes available in those regions, but still a small percentage of 1st world min wage - or livable wage if there was no min-wage. \n\nIf the american consumer would pay 3x for their clothes, the jobs would be here. ( Still does not explain high fashion(expensive) brands that make overseas, they have the ability / power to make product here and chose not to.)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
4ddrvz | how do you convert rotational motion into energy that can charge a battery? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ddrvz/eli5_how_do_you_convert_rotational_motion_into/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1q0c99"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Put a magnet on the rotating body and have it move past a coil.. Or put the coil on the rotating body and the magnet stationary... \nThat's how a generator works"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3y32v3 | when someone is court ordered to pay an amount they can't pay for whatever reason (too much, not working, ect.) what happens? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y32v3/eli5_when_someone_is_court_ordered_to_pay_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"cya1qm3",
"cya7jo3",
"cyaa1bo",
"cyabo04"
],
"score": [
84,
6,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Recurring interest and penelties until they max out, generally doubling the initial debt. Then the debt is sold to a collection agency and added as a mark to your credit report. The collection agency then pursues the debt (phone calls and letters.. emails?) and may attempt to put a levy against your paycheck, bank account etc. From there I think it may get bundled with others' defaults and sold/written off but I'm entirely sure. \nTL;DR it's just like any other bill you neglect to pay, it goes up and gets passed around. \n\nEdit: This is all assuming no effort is made to pay the debt.",
"It sounds to me like you are talking about a judgment. As an example, someone breaks a lease and the landlord then gets a judgment against the tenant for $3,000. In my state, they normally add 8 and 3/4% interest to the judgment, simple interest (it doesn't compound - no interest on interest). \n\nIt is the landlord's job to collect the judgment. First, you record the judgment in the county where the debtor resides. By recording the judgment a lien is created on all the tenant/debtor's real estate in the county. If the debtor tries to sell any real estate, it is sold subject to the lien of the creditor/landlord. So, the bank will not loan money to the buyer of the property unless the lien is paid off. So, at closing the creditor is issued a check for the value of the property.\n\nSecond, the landlord/creditor can foreclose on the \"real\" property themselves. Sue the debtor again to force the sale of the property.\n\nThird, the creditor can send the Sheriff to the debtor's home to \"execute\" on the judgment. This is where the Sheriff shows up with the judgment and then takes stuff to be sold to pay off the judgment. \n\nFourth, if the debtor has no property to execute against, then, in my state the creditor can garnish the debtor's wages (garnishing is where the a third-party is sued because they hold property that should/will be given to the debtor). The creditor can also garnish a bank account or other debtor property that is held by another.\n\nIANAL, and especially not your lawyer. If there is a debt out there you cannot pay, and you are in the US, then you should talk to a bankruptcy lawyer ASAP. Good luck and good night.\n",
"A lot of people in the criminal justice system are trying to get rid of LFOs (legal financial obligations) for poor people. We shouldn't be funding our courts on the back of people who are already struggling just to survive and placing huge LFOs on criminal defendants may make it impossible for them to solve a lot of the issues that led to them committing crimes in the first place.\n\nThere is a pretty big movement to try to get courts to find a better solution but it is slow going.\n\nHere is a good breakdown of the issue: _URL_0_",
"A lot of fines brought down by municipalities and other governmental organizations that are a result of laws being broken can easily result in a person ending up in prison due to nonpayment of that fine.\n\nWhich is fucked up six ways to Sunday for two main reasons:\n\n 1. How is a person supposed to make money in prison? In many cases the prison term costs the state more than the fine in the first place, and a prison term disenfranchises the person, making it even harder for them to find work and pay off the fine, causing a negative feedback loop that results in increased incarceration, systemic poverty and a higher likelihood of further illegal actions (theft, etc.) just to make ends meet. It's punishing people for being poor by making them more poor; a classic Regressive Right tactic to keep the 99% in their place.\n 2. Debtor's prisons are illegal in America, from the Federal level on down. Because this is Federal law, no state can run a debtor's prison or send someone to jail for failure to pay a debt. And yet, they still do. Problem is, so few people know that they cannot be sent to jail for failure to pay a debt that few challenge it."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://aclu-wa.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Modern%20Day%20Debtor's%20Prison%20Final%20(3).pdf"
],
[]
]
|
||
beqcwb | when a country falls to a rival power, is there a currency transfer? how does it work and how long does it take? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/beqcwb/eli5_when_a_country_falls_to_a_rival_power_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"el7upxp"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"This is actually an exceptionally difficult question to answer. In the event of an armed takeover, the winner can set whatever terms they want, and the loser can suck it. In the event of a peaceful transition of power, what happens to the money (or at least *should*) be set forth in the agreement that led to the transition.\n\nOf course, in practice economies do what they want and sometimes the money that people actually use isn't the money the government wants them to and sometimes isn't even actually money. I'm pretty sure that RuneScape gold is still more valuable than the sovereign Bolivar."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
23br1n | why don't we count wind chill and heat index in temperature? | You hear things like "it's 40 but feels like 34 with the wind chill" or "it's 100 but the heat index is 104”. Why don't we just say 34 or 104? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23br1n/eli5_why_dont_we_count_wind_chill_and_heat_index/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgvfoje"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"windchill: if you're out of the wind, it has no effect. so air temp is a useful number on its own."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1g3nja | as a non-gamer, can someone explain what all the fuss is at the moment between sony and microsoft? | What did microsoft do with the new xbox to create all this rage?! Plz explain. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g3nja/eli5_as_a_nongamer_can_someone_explain_what_all/ | {
"a_id": [
"cagf4mr",
"cagf8wt",
"cagfiep",
"caghwp6",
"cagn2vn"
],
"score": [
6,
34,
8,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Essentially the new Xbox One is going to be online all the time to work (needing to be connected once every 24 hours at the least) and is going to have DRM which means you wont be able to borrow games, lend games, sell games, buy used games or rent games.",
"Imagine you bought a dvd player that plays movies, and along with it you bought some movies. Imagine that this dvd player needs to have an internet connection once every 24 hours or it doesnt let you watch any of your movies that you purchased fair and square. What's more, these movies will ONLY work on your personal dvd player. You can't take them to a friend's house to watch. You can't sell them. What's more you can't ever rent a dvd or buy a used movie.\n\nYour dvd player also has a neat feature. It has a camera and a microphone. These allow the dvd player to be voice activated and motion activated. You can say things like \"TV, I want to watch starwars.\" or navigate menus by sticking out your hand and moving your fingers, etc. Here's the catch. the Camera and Mic are ALWAYS on. say goodbye to privacy! This has creeped a lot of people out, especially in light of recent news stories.\n\nReread that again. Everywhere it says \"dvd player\" replace that with Microsoft's new game system, the \"Xbox One\". Everywhere it says \"dvd\" or \"movie\", replace that with video game.",
"A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced their new console and many of its features. One of the feature that people took out of that announcement was \"protection\" from pirated games and used game sales. They had been relatively vague and that started rumours going. The gist of it was that with the new Xbox, you wouldn't be able to lend games or buy them used unless the publisher let you[*](#cagfiep \"and we suspect many won't\"), and your console would have to connect to Microsoft at least once a day even if you the game you want to play doesn't need the internet at all. People didn't like these \"features\".\n\nFast forward to today, the first day of E3. During E3, all three console makers and some bigger publisher hold conferences to show off their new games, new features and, most importantly, new consoles. This morning, Microsoft did their conference. They showed a lot of games, many of which are only playable on their new Xbox, but they didn't talk about the much-hated features. They didn't talk about the features, didn't try to explain why they believe they are a good idea or didn't back down on those the people hated the most. In fact, from what they said, they actually confirmed some of the rumours in a bad way. In addition to that, they announced they would sell the new Xbox for 500$[*](#cagfiep \"For comparison, Nintendo's Wii U costs 350$ with many people believing Nintendo will announce a price drop tomorrow and the PS4 was later announced to cost 400$\"). A number of people came out of the conference disappointed.\n\nThen, this evening, Sony held their conference. It went as conference go and at the end, they announced details about their new console, the PS4[*](#cagfiep \"The console itself had been announced some time back\"). They said was they would *not* block people from freely lending or selling game discs as the new Xbox would and people cheered. They said the console would *not* need to connect to the internet every one in a while as the new Xbox would and people cheered. They said the PS4 would cost 400$ and people really cheered[*](#cagfiep \"I think more people cheered on the first point, but this reads better\"). If you had to that the strong earlier parts of their conference, people came out very happy.\n\nBasically, Microsoft didn't deliver on what people wanted while Sony did and capitalised on how they weren't going to make the same bad moves Microsoft did.",
"Just to add to all the other good replies: it looks like Sony are going to ‘win’ the console battle for this generation because they have promised not to have all of those features.",
"Everyone else has really said it all. I just wanted to add; Microsoft picked the WORST possible time to have these features. People, already upset with them, are now paranoid over the NSA and PRISM. The internet connection, and always on camera and mic turned all of these people off."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
4lzl7l | people say that proving p=np would change computing overnight, but how? wouldn't you still have to figure out the programming/computing technology to solve the np problems? how would it affect our current computing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lzl7l/eli5_people_say_that_proving_pnp_would_change/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3rdst8",
"d3re87k",
"d3rejj3",
"d3rfne8",
"d3rorpg",
"d3rqepb",
"d3rqkyv",
"d3rr3ca",
"d3rtgl7",
"d3rw0lg"
],
"score": [
4,
220,
4,
56,
3,
2,
4,
3,
3,
11
],
"text": [
"One example is encryption. Finding component numbers is a NP-complete problem. If P = NP then you know no system that relays on this is safe and someone will be able to determine the process eventually, breaking down these security mechanisms (just imagine that). \n\nIn theory proving P = NP won't necessarily change everything because one thing is knowing something can occur and another one is figuring out how it to make it happen.\n\nAlthough it hasn't been proven ... most of people agree it just doesn't make sense for P = NP so we hopefully won't have to worry about stuff like this.",
"First you have to understand a little bit about the P and NP problem classes. For instance computer scientists already know a fast algorithm to multiply two numbers together, which happens to be a P problem.\n\nHowever computer scientists don't know a fast algorithm to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem, which happens to be an NP problem. The Traveling Salesman Problem is defined as so: Given a list of cities what is the shortest possible route that a traveling salesman can visit each city exactly once and return to the origin city? Alternatively computer scientists also don't know a fast algorithm to solve the Knapsack Problem, which also happens to be an NP problem. The knapsack problem is defined as so: Given a set of different objects, each with a weight and a monetary value, determine the number of each item to put into the knapsack so that the total monetary value is as large as possible. \n\nWhat computer scientists learned is that some problems can actually be converted into other problems by using clever logic. For instance the Traveling Salesman Problem can actually be converted to the Boolean Satisfiability Problem, where the details to this problem are not really important here (just know that it is also an NP problem and does not have a fast algorithm to solve it as well). Computer Scientists also found out that the Knapsack problem can be converted to the Boolean Satisfiability Problem, along with many other problems (Decryption is another one of these problems, which also happens to be an NP problem). These problems, that can converted to the Boolean Satisfiability Problem, are actually called NP-Complete problems. \n\nNow IF a computer scientist figures out a fast algorithm to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem it would mean that we could convert that algorithm to solve the Boolean Satisfiability Problem as well. In turn we could use the fast algorithm to then solve the Knapsack problem and all the other NP-Complete problems. \n\nThe important part of all this discussion is that, if in fact P does equal NP, that means there MUST exist a fast algorithm to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem and therefore a fast algorithm to solve all the NP-Complete problems (which there are a fair amount of). This would be a major discovery because then programmers would be able to use fast algorithms to solve problems that they previously thought could only be solved with slower algorithms. Which means that programmers would be able to make much faster software than they previously thought was possible just by modifying the algorithm alone and not relying on hardware advances.",
"In short, you are correct that simply proving P=NP would not change much on its own. All that we would know is that there exists some algorithm that solves all NP problems in polynomial time - actually finding those algorithms is a whole other (perhaps nearly impossible) task. The hope would be that in the process of proving P=NP one could find a way to systematically map any NP problem into a P problem. Such a process would indeed revolutionize computing overnight and make a ton of hard problems relatively easy (prime factorization, protein folding, etc) - but that is only if and only if the proof is able to provide such a process.\n\nAnd that is if P=NP at all, which very few experts think is true. \n\nAlso consider, that even a proof that P does not equal NP would be a major accomplishment itself as it would probably involve some huge leaps forward in computational and information theory.",
"To go a little more ELI5:\n\nSome problems are easy to solve.\n\nFor example, say I want to know which movie won the Oscar for Best Picture last year. Pretty easy to answer, right?\n\nLet's call these problems P.\n\nOther problems are hard to solve. However, if given a solution, it's easy to verify whether or not that solution is correct.\n\nFor example, say I asked you to direct a movie that will win Best Picture. Pretty hard, right? But let's say you do it. You come to me and say \"I directed this year's Academy Award winner for Best Picture.\" It's easy for me to verify whether or not you did.\n\nHard to solve. Easy to check. Let's call these problems NP.\n\nIf P=NP then it'd be just as easy to direct the next Oscar winner for Best Picture as it is to say that Spotlight won Best Picture last year.\n\nThis obviously takes some liberties, but gets at the basic idea.",
"ELI5: What is P and NP?",
"Dunno why none has answeredthe question directly. If P=NP then the proof would lead to a fast way to do a lot of things we take for granted as being very hard to do quickly. Some of thise things are the backbone of digital security. \n\nI had a teacher who said that if you prove P=NP then you either take the secret to your grave or you tell the whole world at once. Every govmt inthe world would disappear you in a moment.",
"Can someone ELI5 why people are still trying to prove P=NP? \n\nWould't be like trying to prove cat = lion?\n\n\nOr is there something I'm missing?",
"In the general case, if P=NP is proven, it means that every \"hard\" problem has a \"simple\" solution. It doesn't mean necessarily that everybody knows what that simple solution is.\n\nAlso, I think it is more likely that individual problems, once they have a simple solution found will just be relabeled as \"P\" problems. ",
"The OP is still correct. If a genie popped in and told us P=NP for all cases, it wouldn't really help: solutions would still need to be found for each problem. ",
"Is it just me or are people missing the OPs question... everyone is explaining P=NP but not answering the thing of \"if we solved P=NP, wouldn't we still have to think up solutions to previously NP problems?\".\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
591wf1 | if we had a second sun, would things change color? | I was watching a video recently where the man was saying that suns distance from us, affects the colors we see though out the day. So if we had two suns would that change the colors we see? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/591wf1/eli5if_we_had_a_second_sun_would_things_change/ | {
"a_id": [
"d95bzw6"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
" > If we had a second sun, would things change color?\n\nThat mostly depends on what color the other star is.\n\nThe Sun emits mostly yellow and green light, with smaller amounts of red and blue/purple light. Accordingly, our eyes evolved to be most sensitive to colors in that range, so the Sun appears yellow-white to us and things that it illuminates have correspondingly 'normal' colors.\n\nSome stars emit mostly other colors of light. Smaller stars than the Sun (along with some larger 'puffy' stars) emit mostly red light with less yellow and green and even less blue and purple. On the other hand, some very big stars emit more blue and purple light than they do green, yellow or red. If our second star were very similar to the Sun in size and composition, it would emit similar colors in similar amounts and everything on Earth would still look the same color (albeit brighter, due to the increased amount of incoming light). But if it were one of the redder stars, everything it illuminated would look more red than usual, and if it were one of the bluer stars, everything it illuminated would look more blue than usual.\n\nOf course, if the second star had been there all along, our eyes would probably have evolved to account for its light anyway.\n\n > I was watching a video recently where the man was saying that suns distance from us, affects the colors we see though out the day.\n\nThat isn't really accurate. If we were farther away from the Sun, we'd receive less light from it and so everything would look darker, but it wouldn't appear to be some other color. (It's worth noting that the human eye perceives *less* coloration overall in dim light levels, so things with less light shining on them tend to appear more 'gray' than usual. They don't shift towards red or blue though.)\n\nThat is, unless we were very, *very* far away from the Sun (billions of light years), in which case its light would be redshifted by the expansion of space, causing everything it illuminated to appear more red than usual. But at such a great distance, the amount of light coming from the Sun would be negligible anyway (you wouldn't even be able to see it in the sky) and so we wouldn't notice the color."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2ixp21 | how do printers make all the colours without all the primary colours? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ixp21/eli5_how_do_printers_make_all_the_colours_without/ | {
"a_id": [
"cl6g0d0",
"cl6gb6o",
"cl6gck0"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"(Clever username, btw :)\n\nIt is astounding how many colors can be produced through very few starting tones. \n\nIn nature, for instance, there are actually very few naturally occurring colors. However, the combination of our perceptions, light, and mixtures of existing pigments make it the beautiful place that it can be. The example that always comes to mind is the now-extinct [Bluebuck](_URL_1_). In fact, its notably blue-gray coat is thought to come from a mixture of black and yellow hairs (as well as a dark undercoat). It is worth noting that the few [specimens](\n_URL_0_) that exist today no longer show this gorgeous tone (likely due to fading). \nSo how does this relate to printers? Well, think about how black and yellow can produce that blu-ish color. As previously stated, the three pigments usually present in modern printers (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are intermediate colors and can manufacture THOUSANDS of colors and hues (and that's only consumer printers!)",
"They don't need RYB, and RYB isn't the only set of primary colours. Printers use CMY, monitors use RGB. These are all sets of primary colours - colours that can be combined to create new ones.",
"The primary colours you're thinking of (red, green, blue) are the primary colours for additive mixing. Combining colours of light.\n\nPrinting is a subtractive colour process. White light falls on a page and some frequencies get absorbed by the inks printed on it. For normal \"four-colour process\" printing, the inks used are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Extra black ink is used because combining 100% saturations of each of CMY doesn't produce a good pure black - and putting that much ink in one place often doesn't work out well from a technical standpoint."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Hippotragus_leucophaeus%2C_Naturhistorisches_Museum_Wien.jpg/640px-Hippotragus_leucophaeus%2C_Naturhistorisches_Museum_Wien.jpg",
"http://www.andrewisles.com/assets/Bookmine/b/BMImg_25472_25472_bluebuck.jpg"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2occwb | why is there no universal stun weapon that allows police to subdue, without killing, a suspect? | My buddy and I had this long discussion on a drive today about various police incidents we all are witnessing. His question/take made me think: how is that there is such amazing technology in so many realms and still there isn't the one sure thing that officers can rely on that is non-lethal but subdues a "risky" suspect. I guess a follow up is, if so, why is it not being deployed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2occwb/eli5_why_is_there_no_universal_stun_weapon_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmlssef",
"cmlst4o",
"cmlt29h",
"cmlu7fp",
"cmlvldm",
"cmm1mr8"
],
"score": [
20,
5,
9,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Because anything that is guaranteed to subdue an incredibly strong/tough subject, is going to run the risk of killing a weaker subject.\n\nLook at tasers, if you are strong you can just pull the barbs out and be on your way. If you are weak, they can cause fibrillation and cardiac arrest.\n\nThere's pepper spray, but that doesn't always stop people and can often harm the cops.\n\nRubber bullets don't always work, neither do batons, bean bags, etc.\n\nThere is always time and effort being put into researching this kind of thing, but you have to make sure that the amount of force needed to subdue everyone, isn't going to kill some people.",
"Educated guess here, I have a science background but this is a pretty general question so I'll answer it generally.\n\nI think about it this way: The body resists being incapacitated because that's practically a death sentence to it in the natural world. It's well engineered, with many a failsafe in the way of things. We're trying to circumnavigate those... think about how complicated of a task that is. You've got the brain, heart, lungs, circulatory system connected to those... Think about how much variance can occur within separate individuals in those subsystems of the body, ones that might make potential changes to the individual's homeostasis (or balance) dangerous for one person and safe for another.\n\nAs an example, we already have enough of an issue accurately calculating the appropriate dosages to anesthetize someone - we have to account for numerous variables AND, at the same time, constantly monitor the changes in the individual's body to ensure their continued sedation and safety.\n\nPair that with the difficulty delivering your solution to the body (through the skin, veins, etc), and you have issues ensuring the efficacy and safety of your device on all individuals.\n\nAll things considered, tasers are actually pretty good.",
"What would that thing be?\n\nElectroshock weapon: immobilizes suspect by simultaneously tensing up all muscles. Risk: if used on suspect in motion, if suspect falls down on hard surface, if suspect has cardiovascular or neural problems, if suspect is not actually immobilized (high muscular recruitment = highly motivated suspect), if suspect is anywhere near water that can drench them, X26 Tasers only hold one shot per cartridge, drive stun mode is not effective at immobilizing and can only be used for pain compliance, can fail against thick clothing, requires both prongs on target, range limited to 20 feet\n\nCollapsible baton: can be used for pain compliance, strategic strikes to certain areas can temporarily immobilize a suspect purely from painful soft tissue damage without permanently injuring them. Risk: strikes at certain angles can cause permanent damage, pain compliance is not guaranteed, forces officer to close distance and may backfire against trained/experienced fighters\n\nOC spray: incapacitates suspect by irritation, causing coughing and blurred vision. Risk: if suspect has respiratory problems, spray may backfire on officer in close quarters or in windy conditions, does not physically prevent suspect from taking action, can be resisted, effect is persistent and will last several hours after exposure, range limited to 10 feet\n\nBeanbag rounds: blunt concussive force, high amount of soft tissue damage (pain compliance), can be used on targets similar to a baton but at range (hence their alternative name, 'flexible baton rounds'). Risk: can cause death if shot strikes unintended points, can cause secondary complications if internal bone fracture, intended to be used at a certain range from target, can cause permanent injury if shot at incorrect angle or at too close range, accuracy is not pinpoint\n\nHand-to-hand takedown: use joint locks and grappling maneuvers to physically take down and immobilize suspect. Risk: requires officer to close distance to dangerously close, will backfire badly if suspect is armed or trained/experienced, large suspects require multiple officers, chokeholds not authorized but are the most effective way to gain compliance without injury to either party when applied correctly, may cause permanent injury if suspect is violently resisting during joint lock application, risks bodily harm to both officer and suspect, outcome is highly situational\n\nAnd before you say it,\n\nTranquilizer dart: can be extremely fast-acting, suspect immobilized immediately, physically incapable of resistance. Risk: dosage is highly dependent on weight and body composition (too high of a dose, suspect dies, too little, suspect is not immobilized and still able to fight), can fatally interact with drugs in system, can cause fatal complications (especially in those with weakened liver/kidney), needle may cause permanent damage or death\n\nThe problem is that there is no way to make someone physically incapable of resisting arrest with no risk for injury. If someone is violently resisting arrest, there is always going to be a chance of injury. To physically restrain a combative suspect enough to handcuff them and take them in involves an element of risk. \n\nIf the suspect doesn't want to risk it, they should surrender, go peacefully with the officer, and fight the case in court. We don't have phasers that instantly and 100% reliably make people fall down, and even if we did, there'll always be that one guy who falls down on a hard surface and dies/gets injured. ",
"Everyone is different, so subduing someone without killing them is pretty difficult compared to just killing them outright. I might be able to take one hell of a whack over the head and still come at you, where the next guy might die of a busted skull. ",
"Well, what systems could we shut down to stop a person? Stopping their muscles from functioning has risks because heart and lung function requires moving muscles. Similarly with the nervous system, and accidental nervous system damage is potentially disabling long term. Electrical shock can easily stop a person's heart. Drugs are difficult because of dose, health complications of the individual, and other drugs in their system. Probably the best potential would be a safe but powerful restraint system.",
"There are, they just dont work all the time.\n\nBB Guns, rubber bullets, tasers, batons etc."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2d6vc9 | why does vulva appearance vary so much from one female to another but men's penises are mostly the same - aside from size variation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d6vc9/eli5_why_does_vulva_appearance_vary_so_much_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjmnosq",
"cjmnubm",
"cjmo13f",
"cjmofu3",
"cjmoihu",
"cjmop8z",
"cjmoyuc"
],
"score": [
23,
8,
9,
3,
5,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"You need to go look at more photos of penises if you think that is true!",
"Penises vary nearly as much. ",
"Length, girth, bulges, bends, heads, coronas, foreskin length and thickness, color, urethra, veins are all variables. And that's just what I can come up with as a straight man, and leaving out balls. ",
"Most of my men's penises have been about the same size but every single one has been completely different. ",
"How many penises have you had intimate contact with? For me it's 10 if I'm counting right. Each one has been totally unique. If you were to show me the penis of a man I'd been with, I would immediately know whose it was. ",
"You've likely seen more vulvas than you have penises. ",
" have a female friend who swears she can tell a guys nationality buy just looking at his dick"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
44040k | why does only one wheel spin on a car? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44040k/eli5_why_does_only_one_wheel_spin_on_a_car/ | {
"a_id": [
"czmcjjs",
"czmiiqs",
"czmki1l",
"czmksiq",
"czmmeir",
"czmnowp",
"czmt8tv",
"czmuuzl",
"czmuysp",
"czmzafj",
"czn0tv1",
"czn1q4q",
"czn2hqg"
],
"score": [
22,
2,
3,
18,
2,
2,
65,
9,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Very simple explanation is that power will always flow to the wheel with least resistance. Put a curb in front of one of the drive wheels, essentially stopping it, and the other wheel will continue pulling the vehicle forward until the stuck wheel is free. This vehicle would have an open differential. That video posted here about the differential is fantastic. The problem is when the wheel with least resistance is on a low traction or traction less surface, like snow or ice. Now all power is going to a wheel that either has difficulty of completely can't pull the vehicle forward at all. The other wheel could be on dry pavement and it wouldn't matter. This is when you see that wheel spin that you mentioned. Generally you won't get to the point of zero traction, since places that see snow and cold temps frequently, have their roads treated and plowed. People still get stuck because of this. To combat it, people will buy snow tires, studded tires and in some cases chains. All in an effort to reduce the chances of a wheel of losing traction completely. ",
"Because of the open differential. Power goes to the wheel with the least resistance. This is good on road cause it makes cornering work better for obvious reason (in a turn the outer wheel has a larger radius than the inner wheel). When off road this is bad because if one wheel loses traction it spins and spins and your tire with traction doesn't get any power. Off-road oriented vehicles come with a locking rear differential which allows you to flip a switch and make the wheels spin at the same rate. Traction control also plays into this. Imagine the open diff with one wheel spinning, but then instead of locking the two wheels, some braking resistance is applied to the spinning wheel which causes power to be sent to the wheel with traction. For example, I have no locker in my Grand Cherokee but when I go over a steep bank at an angle and one front wheel is suspended, I still get power to the planted front wheel cause automatic braking pulses (which you can feel and hear as a grinding sound) bites down on the suspended wheel a bit.",
"Depends on the car. Some cars have posi or locker differentials. With one of those both tires will spin. Not having a fully locked or fused axle is important so you can turn",
"when the car is turning, the inner wheels spin slower than the outer wheels (if the wheels were free to spin irrespective each other). If the wheels spun at same rate, one of the wheels would be spinning either slower or faster than ground speed, wearing itself out. A differential is gearing that allows wheels to spin at different rate but still allowing input torque from the power source. typical open diff transfers more power to wheel that spins faster. when one wheel is stuck from spinning, all power goes to the freely spinning wheel.",
"Open differential is just a simple differential. It's used in siple grocery getters, old cars, and cars made for the road. Limited slip and locking are for off road, or any cars where you want to keep traction when the wheels might slip. Sports cars, trucks, towing (think towing up hill in rain with puddles) etc.\n\nA limited slip works like this: Essentially it's like if you have a turbine in fluid, with a crank. You can easily turn the crank slowly, but when you start to turn it faster, it gets increasingly difficult to move the blades through the fluid. In fact, there is a point where you are putting as much force on it as you can, yet you are only turning it 3 or 4 times as fast as pushing with no effort at all. Fluid dynamics is complicated, but the inside has special fins and blades so that its hard to make them turn at very different speeds. This means when going straight, it is easy, there is no force. When turning, one wheel is slightly faster than the other, and there is still almost no force. But when you have one wheel spinning and the other isn't, they are at such different speeds, the fast wheel slows down and the slow wheel speeds up. It brings them closer to the same speed. Limited slip is better than locking, but the locking type is either lock, or unlock. This is usually centrifugal pin that engages a ratchet to lock them when one wheel is faster than the other. But limited slip, just like torque converters, get hot and can be damaged from overusing them if you put a spare tire on the axle, where it's constantly slipping a bit and generating heat (The energy needs to go somewhere) or if you are driving in mud for sport or not just a quick thing. Or driving aggressively in mud. Locking doesn't wear out as quick.\n",
"The car's differential takes most of the power and sends it to the spinning wheel, allowing the non-spinning wheel to keep traction. There are other types of differential, however, like a limited slip, which will spin both wheels no mater what. ",
"A differential, basically the gear set on your axle, allows for both wheels to spin at different speeds. If it didn't, turning would be almost impossible, because one tire would have to drag.\n\nThe problem is that the differential applies power to where it can go. So, if you have one wheel in the air, the differential well apply the power there, instead of to both wheels.\n\nThat's where a limited slip or locker comes into play. An LSD (Limited Slip Differential) will engage both axle shafts if one spins much faster than the other. The difference is that an LSD will engage on its own, but a locker requires a command to lock the axle shafts, by which I mean a button in the cab or by manually \"turning the locks\" at the wheel.",
"What is a differential?",
"I didn't see this anywhere in the thread, but a less than ideal trick if you're ever stuck in a car with an open differential is to press the brake pedal down at the same time as pressing the gas pedal down (gently). It'll make godawful sounds but it should get both wheels spinning, hopefully enough to get you unstuck to a point where you can drive more normally.\n\nThis trick got me unstuck a couple weeks ago during that blizzard that hit the northeastern part of the US. I was in my Jeep and got high centered on a mound of snow. Trick there was to rock the vehicle back and forth, by going from drive to reverse quickly until the vehicle broke free and I could force my way out. That was in addition to the double pedal method mentioned above.\n\nBe very careful with these methods. Driving irregularly is an easy way to hurt the car and more importantly yourself.",
"When you see a car that does that, you're seeing a car with an open differential. Not all cars have them, but most do. 4x4's or performance cars often use a different system to avoid this problem, they drive in situations that require this effect not to happen so use a more expensive differential to avoid this. The differential is the thing that transfers the drive from the gearbox to the shafts that spin the wheels.\n\nIt all comes down to torque. Torque is the twisting force that is applied to the driven wheels at any given instant. With an open differential torque has to be equal to both wheels. There's one input shaft, two output shafts and the simple mechanical system is unable to discriminate from one wheel to the next.\n\nSo with this, if you drive your car to a wall and press the throttle, eventually one wheel will spin. This will be the wheel with the lowest grip on the surface.\n\nIf one tire takes 50lb-ft (of torque) to spin, and the other 70lb-ft, then when the engine reaches 100lb-ft the first tire will begin to spin, as the torque is split equally between 2 wheels. Thing is, because it only takes 50lb-ft to spin the fist wheel, when you try to apply more torque all that happens is that the first wheel spins faster. The total torque is not able to increase above the torque needed to spin the first tire so the second one will not spin, despite the fact it also has 50lb-ft being applied to it.\n\nYou can spin the first wheel faster by using more of the engine power, but it's not possible to apply more torque that the limit of grip of the first wheel so the second wheel can never spin up.",
"Here's a very good explanation of how a differential works: _URL_0_",
"A differential is the device that transfers power from the transmission to the wheel. It also allows the wheels to travel at different speeds so that you can corner without dragging one of your tires. When cornering the outside tire travels faster than the inside tire since the radius is larger.\n\nOn most entry level cars it is an open type differential. That means that there is nothing other than the gears in there. It is the simplest and cheapest type. To put it simply, the maximum amount of traction it is able to put down is limited by the lower of the two tires. For instance if you jack up a car and put both tires in the air. You can accelerate the wheels and hold one tire still with just your hand. However if your buddy were to go to the other tire and apply some friction to it, you would feel your tire wanting to spin. If he stopped the wheel, your tire would run out of your hands and spin. \n\nSports cars typically come with limited slip differentials. These have a viscous fluid inside that grab onto plates and make sure that the speed of the two wheels need to be close at all times. This allows for much higher performance, since if you hammer the gas, both tires will see full power instead of one just spinning wildly. Similarly on gravel, and snow. \n\nTrucks have locking differentials, which allows the driver to lock the two wheels together. Which is good on snow, mud and gravel. If done on dry pavement, you will destroy your tires and put stress on your drivetrain.",
"This is caused by having a differential gear in between the wheels. It delivers power to both wheels though not just 1. But if one wheel has significantly more traction than the other, it may cause one wheel to bite and the other to spin faster. \n\nThe reason we have differentials is because when a car is turning the inside wheel in the turn has less far to travel than the outside wheel, so it needs to spin slower, and the outer wheel needs to spin faster. the differential allows this by doing a balancing act between the two wheels using a higher or lower gear ratio. The wheel with more distance to travel gets a slightly faster gear ratio IE engine turns 3 times, wheel turns once vs engine turns 4 times wheel turns once. The wheel with less distance to travel gets less of a gear ratio. \n\nYou can see this easily on radio control cars with diff's. If you spin one wheel by hand, the other wheel spins backwards. If you hold one of the wheels still and rev the motor up, the other wheel will spin very fast. Now you let go of the one wheel without changing the motor speed and both wheels start turning, but the other wheel slows down. \n\nThink of it as sending rotational speed from one wheel to the other. If you make one wheel spin less, the other wheel will spin more and in the case of a wheel with no traction, it will spin so much more that it's partner doesn't spin at all. \n\nTo get around this for off roading in low grip surfaces like mud and sand, some differentials allow themselves to be locked, so both wheels always spin at the same speed. This makes turning much harder, but if traction is low it's not a problem. Many offroad vehicles for instance automatically lock the differential when 4x4 mode is engaged. \n\nAlternatively many street cars may have traction and stability control and they can help offset a non locking differential by applying the brakes to each wheel independently so if a wheel starts to slip it has the brakes clamped down on it, forcing the torque to go to the other wheel. It works very well and the only downside is it wears your brakes out faster. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/K4JhruinbWc?t=113"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
3d3ozl | what is the difference between www. and ep. or ep1 in front of a web addresses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d3ozl/eli5what_is_the_difference_between_www_and_ep_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct1i36p"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They're different subdomains of the domain, sometimes referring to different servers (or groups of servers), or sometimes just pointing to different top level folders on a server as a way to segment it without adding a ton of slashes after the domain name.\n\nBasically your computer reads the domain name in reverse from the way you type it in. For instance, if you put in \"_URL_0_\", and assuming it doesn't know where that is, your computer works it backwards as .com.google.www - checking with the Root Name Servers for who owns _URL_1_ (com.google). After getting a response and an IP address, it sends a request to the ip address for the www server, which the responding server either redirects the computer to by providing another address, or proxying a specific folder on a specific file path as if it were that server"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"www.google.com",
"google.com"
]
]
|
||
378iwb | is there a practical reason why cars don't have rubber-like material like tugboats have tires on the side of them to reduce damage to a car? | I know most people probably wouldn't like their car covered in tires for aesthetic reasons but is there any other reason why we don't have rubber-like material to protect our car as well as occupants from further damage during an accident or bump? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/378iwb/eli5_is_there_a_practical_reason_why_cars_dont/ | {
"a_id": [
"crkjh2f",
"crkjhl4",
"crkjlgg"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Imagine [this](_URL_0_) but with some pieces of rubber mixed in. ",
"Cars protect the occupants in many ways, they are however mostly destructive to absorb energy. Ships don't go that fast and the tyres are more to prevent rubbing than crashing.",
"The biggest issue is they wouldn't work very well.\n\nBoats are moving pretty slowly when they come into contact, and more importantly, they are floating in water. There is less resistance to the force of the collision, so most of the energy is expended moving the boat a little bit instead of damaging. There is a lot of friction between a car's tires and the ground, so more of the energy would be channeled into the structure of the car, whether or not you had bumpers on it. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://thetrashblogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/wrecked-car-8.jpg"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2ffzl6 | why is "memory" required in graphics cards when you already have ram? | why do graphics cards have to both calculate and have memory while a CPU only calculates and RAM only stores memory | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ffzl6/eli5_why_is_memory_required_in_graphics_cards/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck8u5em",
"ck8u5i9"
],
"score": [
5,
5
],
"text": [
"Because video RAM works in a completely different way and is optimized for graphics purposes and is also much faster at this than 'normal' RAM.\n\nA graphics processor is also optimized for calculating very specific tasks, related to graphics (obviously).\n\nIntegrated graphics use your system RAM and that's part of the reason why these are so underperforming.",
"Instead of sending the data to the CPU to calculate and having the CPU send the data back to the graphics card to display, it does all of its own calculations.\n\nIt's faster to do calculation on your own computer than to send the data to Japan, have them crunch the numbers and send them back to you, right? Same idea, but on a smaller scale."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
7th8lt | why when you rub your eyes for long enough do you begin to see shapes, grids, and other stuff? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7th8lt/eli5_why_when_you_rub_your_eyes_for_long_enough/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtcj9vy",
"dtckwa8",
"dtcrjmo",
"dtcrlwd",
"dtctm9g",
"dtctr38",
"dtcuk6a",
"dtcutbz",
"dtcvisk",
"dtcwpde",
"dtcxx0v",
"dtczjxk",
"dtczrxh",
"dtd24lw",
"dtdeyfg",
"dtdkk5h"
],
"score": [
211,
1718,
4,
9972,
614,
4,
36,
2,
3,
7,
2,
3,
3,
7,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Something called the Law of Specific Nerve Energies; the sensory modality a stimulus affects is determined by the pathway, not the actual stimuli. Meaning, any stimulus to the rods and cones of the eyes such as pressure in the case of rubbing your eyes, will still produce visual sensations due to the tracts they take and the areas of the brain they wind up in. (_URL_0_)",
"You have fluid in your eyeballs. The added pressure triggers your nerves in your retina to send signals through mechanical stimulation. The mashing can also give your nose an odd smell sensation due to added pressure. ",
"Everything that happens in your body that you can sense gets to you through some sort of biological wiring. If you put pressure on said wiring, it can trick your perception. For example, your arm may go numb if you lay on it a particular way. In the case of eyes, the pressure you apply sends the same signal through your nerves (wiring) that those particular shapes would send, so your brain tells you that that is what you must be seeing.",
"The nerves in your eye are only programmed to do one thing, and that is to see light and color. When you mash down your eye, you force the fluid in your eye to push on that nerve. It senses a stimulus and goes “oh! I must sense light and color!” So you process the pressure as sight instead of pressure\n\nEdit: I just learned this in human physiology the other day, and I wrote it right as I was about to go to sleep. I would imagine the pattern is due to the pattern of your rods and cones. Those are what actually detect the light and transmit it to the nerves. I’m not sure if it will damage your eyes, but I’ve always been taught that it’s bad. I will go to my phys professor with some more of these questions tomorrow. Thanks everyone!\n\nEdit 2: What are the patterns caused by? Various photoreceptors being activated, the ones that don’t activate haven’t reached threshold so are dark spots. \n\nCan blind people see them? Depends on what kind of blindness they have. If it’s retinal in nature, they can’t. \n\nWhy can I see them sometimes when I just close my eyes? Mind me but I forgot the full answer to this, I had a long day (phone became an expensive paperweight). I do know that the photoreceptors are being activated but not sure why. \n\nIs rubbing your eyes bad? Well it isn’t good is pretty much all I can remember on this one. Sorry guys, hectic day!",
"There's actually a name for it, called a phosphene. There was an artist that [drew what it looked like to him.](_URL_0_)\nAnyways, you are directly stimulating your eyes through physical pressure, as opposed to subjecting your eyes to visible light.",
"Sometimes when i close my eyes i see blobs of light. Sometimes theyre flashing and its darker to just open my eyes. Why does this happen? Is it just me? ",
"Because you are squeezing your eyes, you're exciting the cells in the back of your eyes. These cells normally can only be excited by light, so your brain thinks it can \"see\" the squeeze. \n\nELI26: I used to do this **a** **lot** when I was a kid. I noticed that after a few moments, the image would solidify into something resembling a green tunnel. The walls were comprised of undulating spiral grids, each square being centered with a small circle. The end of this tunnel was about one half the width of my vision, and was static snow. After several moments, I began seeing detailed images of things in the snow. Vagu faces. Buildings... \n\nWhat I want to know is what exactly was my brain doing when this effect began generating such complex imagery?",
"Follow up question: how come when I have my eyes closed and something startles me or I hear a loud sound I see a flash of white?",
"When you see something, it's because cells in your eye have been hit by light and sent electrical signals to your brain in response. Since this system is a biomechanical one, it's possible to trigger the same kinds of signals using other things than actual light. For example, rubbing or pressing at your eye can cause some of your visual cells to fire. Your brain can't tell the difference between signals that result from those cells being squished around and signals caused by actual light, so it just interprets them as some kind of visual input. These are called 'phosphenes' and they can also be caused by magnetic or electrical stimulation.\n\nThis kind of thing isn't limited to your eyes, either - ever hit your funny bone? When that happens, you're putting pressure on a big nerve that goes through your elbow. This nerve usually brings information from your hand (specifically the pinky area and side of your palm) to your brain. When you smack it, that sends a burst of activity to your brain which is interpreted as tingly uncomfortable sensations coming from your hand - even though you hit your elbow and not your hand itself! With phosphenes, the 'phantom tingling' is experienced as phantom visual sensations, but the concept is the same. Your brain is always sitting in the dark of your skull, and all it can do is interpret the signals it receives as telling it something about the outside world - even if they're not.",
"Could you damage anything related to your eyes by doing this?",
"Do blind people \"see\" anything if they do this?",
"So lots of people are covering why you see *something*, but not why it’s specifically these shapes/grids/etc. \n\nSo basically, you process visual input at a lot of different levels to build up a better idea of what you’re seeing; you have to go from a bunch of individual cells which can only relay information about light by sending only one type of signal (on/off basically) at varying rates, and build up to what we actually consider vision. This processing begins in the eyes themselves, with horizontal, bipolar, amacrine, and ganglion cells in the retina. They have a lot of different functions, but the relevant ones here are things like basic edge and orientation detection. This could explain why you see these sorts of patterns, because your occipital lobe (associated with vision) is not getting a sensible type of input from the nerves in the eyes, so it doesn’t really “know” what to do with it and leaves it fairly raw. \n\nI’m not 100% sure on this explanation at all, as I haven’t actually read anything addressing your question specifically, but this is an educated guess about the reason for part of it. If you’re interested in learning more, look into retinal processing, and you can build up from there. ",
"All the explanations I'm seeing here are for the physical part, answering why rubbing lets us see *anything* if our eyes are closed.\nI'm quite interested in the next step: why are these signals interpreted (?) as patterns and structures in so many cases, rather than random bursts of light?",
"Your eyes are used to see light. Light is made from photons. Sometimes cells in your eye (and anywhere in your body) can produce very small amounts of photons themselves. Scientists think that you can make them produce even more of these photons by doing certain things like putting electricity into your head near your eyes or increasing pressure in your eyes by rubbing them. When your eyes are closed, you are able to see these very small number of photons because they are being made right inside your eye - your eye is extremely good at seeing photons!\n\nFun game: close your eyes and look all the way to the left. Push against the lower-right corner of your right eye. You should see light in the top left of your eye. You can do the same by looking all the way right and pushing on the lower-left of your left eyes when closed. You see light in the wrong place because your eyes actually see upside down and your brain normally corrects this when your eyes are open.",
"These are entoptic phenomena, which are visual perceptions that originate from WITHIN the eye. The specific ones the OP is writing about are called phosphenes, which are lights/grids/colors that can arise after mechanical stimulation of the eye. Any mechanical stimulation of the eye can potentially stimulate the retina, which causes firing of the retinal ganglion cells and the perception of lights/flashes. This is why you can see flashing lights when you get hit hard in the eye or when you get a retinal detachment. This is also why babies who are born blind often rub their eyes vigorously--the rubbing provides them with visual stimulation. \n\nOther types of entoptic phenomena exist. Have you ever noticed that you can see your blood vessels when your eye doctor shines a bright light in your eye? Not an illusion--you're actually seeing the light on your peripheral retina casting a shadow over your retinal blood vessels. These are called Purkinje trees. In the right setting, some people can even see their own white blood cells moving through their vessels (blue field entoptic phenomenon).\n\nSource: I’m an ophthalmologist ",
"An explanation : Low-level pattern-finding alg being fed noise and finding patterns in it.\n\nThe phenomenon can be very impressive. I too have rubbed my eyes etc. But even better, I have worn a pair of goggles that contained strobing lights. WOW. \n\nThey deliver what the rubbing delivers X1000. Bold, bright, highspeed geometric animation. VERY impressive.\n\nI mean, forget software generated psychedelic graphics. We appear to have something better built-in."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_specific_nerve_energies"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Phosphene_artistic_depiction.gif"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
adqjg9 | how can the military hire “privatized security” such as blackwater/academei for operations in foreign countries? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/adqjg9/eli5_how_can_the_military_hire_privatized/ | {
"a_id": [
"edjhhc7"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"By paying them money to provide a service. It is honestly that simple. \n\nThink of it this way, sometimes the military hires private companies to provide services, that is just a natural part of how they operate. This could be because they are not capable, they do not have the man power, or it is just cheaper. For example: the military does not design new airplanes they pay companies like Lockheed or Boeing to make airplanes for them.\n\nJust as the military hires a company to make airplanes for them, sometimes they hire a company to provide security in foreign countries. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3r8lkg | what happens in the brain when you're desensitized? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3r8lkg/eli5_what_happens_in_the_brain_when_youre/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwlu3kp"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Basically, anything in your brain happens because some stimulus is fed to neurons and if the stimulus is above a certain threshold, the neurons fire and cause your response. \n\nIf you - for example - take cocaine, your brain releases lots of dopamin which makes you feel good. However, you body \"knows\" that this isn't normal and tries to normalize the \"feel good equilibrium\" again. One way to do that, is to react less to dopamine. Which means, to get the same high you need to take more cocaine next time."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3ai0ig | how do they film planes flying in the air for movies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ai0ig/eli5_how_do_they_film_planes_flying_in_the_air/ | {
"a_id": [
"cscsrp5"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"With other planes or helicopters, or with fast panning cameras on the ground. It's not really very difficult to film a flying plane at all."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3trgrc | how do redditors catch the popular posts before they're popular? | I often find myself in the situation of wanting to comment and discuss on a popular thread, but I'm always too late to the party. It feels as though I'd have to be on the specific sub it arose from and just stare at the new posts to be able to get in on the fun, but like most people I don't have the time to sit at my computer and refresh a page. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3trgrc/eli5_how_do_redditors_catch_the_popular_posts/ | {
"a_id": [
"cx8ko7p"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"I mean...i browse new on Askreddit and ELI5, but browse top on Gaming and Funny, and I feel like neither are more time consuming than the other. \n\nI don't understand what you mean, 10 minutes on reddit is still 10 minutes in reddit, regardless of where it's spent. \n\nI have heard that some so called \"karma whores\" browse rising to get it on the impending top posts"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
4u6elw | if someone makes a profit (so they have more money than before), does that mean that there must be an equal amount of loss in the economy to balance out the gain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u6elw/eli5_if_someone_makes_a_profit_so_they_have_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5n86s7",
"d5n87s7",
"d5n892e",
"d5n8lu0",
"d5n92bo",
"d5n9cto",
"d5n9uh2",
"d5nejb8"
],
"score": [
41,
5,
3,
6,
5,
2,
3,
13
],
"text": [
"No, this is a common fallacy in economic thinking--the economy is not \"zero sum,\" meaning that one person's gain does not have to be another's loss.\n\nFor example, let's say that I pay someone an hour's wage of $10 to dig coal in my mine, he is paid for his labor. In an hour, he mines coal that I can sell on the market of $15. My profit of $5 came from capital, because I supplied the land, tools, etc. The economy has made a net gain: were it not for my profit-seeking activity, this coal would still be in the ground. Someone had to give me money for it, but the coal allows them to engage in more productive activity, like run a steel factory, and they can make a profit too.",
"No, economies are not considered zero sum. Wealth can be created. You can grow more crops, mine more minerals, etc. You can also create wealth in more abstract forms, like services.",
"No. The economy is not a zero sum game. Wealth is created all the time be it by gathering more resources or by offering new services. ",
"Not if the money was earned by productive work.\n\nSuppose a plumber, carpenter, tiler and linoleum layer build a new kitchen for a customer.\n\nThe kitchen costs $10,000\n\nThe workers get the $10,000 so they are better off, and can support their families\n\nThe customer gets a new kitchen that they are happy with, and consider it a bargain at $10,000\n\nThe value of the customer's house goes up by $10,000\n\nSo where is the loss? The world is better off by a new kitchen and everyone is happy.\n\nYou could multiply this by all the houses in the world, and everything else people find worth the money.\n\nThe problem is the parasites who graft off the work of others while contributing nothing themselves.",
"No. The economy is not about how much money exists. It is about how quickly that money is shuffled around. Think of it like this: if you have money to spend that means its your turn to buy something. You spend that money, that means its someone else's turn. By providing goods or services to other people you get another turn. The faster everybody uses their turns, the more turns everyone gets.",
"Making a profit doesn't mean I have more money than before. I could take all of my profit and spend it on a banjo. I have no more money than before, but now I have a banjo.\n\nIn fact, that is one of the main reasons people want to make a profit, so they can use it to buy other stuff.\n\nI could either wait for my profit to be in hand, in which case I would temporarily have more money. Or I could go buy the banjo as soon as I reasonable sure I would be making a profit, but before the money actually arrived. In which case I would temporarily have **less** money.",
"Asian workers are happy to be off the farm, no longer doing back breaking work for low pay. They are glad to make more money working in a factory even if their wages are far lower than ours and their hours are longer than ours.\n\nRestaurant owners pay for the establishment, hire the cooks, pay about a third of the cost of the meal for the ingredients. The wait staff live off tips. Someone eats good food in a nice environment. They pay for all this and like it. That is the closest to a loss since they spent a lot of money. But they got a good meal and everyone else was paid well more or less.\n\nThe wonder of capitalism is that no one needs to understand it. All they need to do is to conceive an idea for an enterprise and work at it. If their receipts are are larger than their expenditures at the end of the day or the week then the concept is good. They can refine it to make more money or improve to experience to get more customers.",
"No, absolutely not. The reason is that distribution of goods changes their value.\n\nImagine you have a dairy cow, and I have an oven that I use to bake bread. You have lots of milk, and I have lots of bread. If we cannot trade, you will starve and I will die of thirst. On the other hand, if we can trade, then we will both thrive if I give you half my bread for half your milk.\n\nThe upshot is: Once you have consumed all of the milk you can, any milk you have left over that you cannot distribute to others is worthless. (Note that it's not just worthless **to you**, it's worthless to everyone, to the economy as a whole.) But if you can get it to others that need it, like me, you're turning something that was worthless to the economy into something that is not; you have created value.\n\nNow along comes Jake—he has a big powerful truck. He was only using it to tool around, he would have been okay just having a tiny little car…all that hauling capacity is worthless to him and everyone else in the economy. However, he notices that you spend a good deal of effort carting your milk over to me everyday, and it takes you hours. He can do it in a few minutes. Suddenly, his big powerful truck has value, and you're probably willing to give him some of your milk in exchange for the use of his truck. Well he was stuck with only water before, and now he has milk too, which is awesome. Everyone is better off.\n\nNote that once you have all these people interconnected, because they're all better off, they all have a vested interest in keeping it that way. They each individually benefit when they're all trading. If Jake gets mad at you, though, and decides he can make due with water, and let's say you can no longer go back to carting the milk over to me (Jake's truck tore up the roads too much for your wagon, say), the whole thing falls apart.\n\nIn a nutshell, this is why economic interdependence is the best tool for promoting peace. War promotes isolationism, and everything loses value when barriers to distribution go up where there was free movement before."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
196cgf | what is the importance of each feature/spec in a cpu? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/196cgf/elif_what_is_the_importance_of_each_featurespec/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8l7hja"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Thare are *hundreds* of specs you could be referring to. If you're interested in some specific ones, feel free to ask.\n\nIn general, though, it's like asking \"what's the importance of each organ in the human body?\" Sure, each organ does something different, but they're all *important*. If you don't have a brain, you die. If you don't have a heart, you die. If you don't have skin, you die. If you don't have arms and legs, live is much more difficult. Same if you don't have eyes / ears / nose, etc.\n\nYou will often hear people say things like \"get more RAM!\" which *can* be useful in some circumstances, but it's like saying \"get more skin\". If your problem is that you're *blind*, then having 'more skin' isn't going to make a difference at all."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
456zoj | superdelegates, unpledged delegates, pledged delegates? | How do these work? An example would probably help. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/456zoj/eli5_superdelegates_unpledged_delegates_pledged/ | {
"a_id": [
"czvo2o4",
"czvo52q"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Super delegates are another name for unpledged delegates. Pledged delegates are the ones that are allocated by primary voting in each state. \n\nUntil, quite recently primaries were rare and carried little weight in nominating the president. As part of the deal that made primaries the main part of nominating the president, Democratic party VIPs retained about 15% of the delegates. \n\nThese delegates don't need to decide how they will vote until the convention, but since many of them endorsed Clinton months ago, people expect that's how they're planning to vote. ",
"Pledged delegates are the ones the candidate gets according to their results in the party primaries/caucuses. Example: Sanders has 42 pledged delegates from Iowa and New Hampshire.\n\nUnpledged delegates are superdelegates.\n\nSuperdelegates also have a vote for who is the party's candidate. Superdelegates are 1) Members of the party in the house or senate 2) Governors that are members of the party or 3) distinguished party leaders like Bill Clinton and people like mayors and state party chairs. \n\nThe democrats have 4,763 total delegates, 712 of which are superdelegates. Even if the superdelegate says \"I'm voting for Clinton\" today, they are free to change their mind right up until the second they cast their vote. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3d7c8p | why does a car driving through the hot sun not get as hot as a car parked in the hot sun? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d7c8p/eli5_why_does_a_car_driving_through_the_hot_sun/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct2mtzj"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Convective cooling.\rThe shell of a moving car is going to be air temperature mostly while a stationary car since it has much less convection can be quite alot warmer."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
456eb2 | what happens when when a stone falls into water? | With the possible detection of gravity waves there's always this analogy and I was curious of the energy transfer of it. Does the stone create a wave as long as it continues to fall or does the force from the water closing back together create the wave and the stone is then not so influential? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/456eb2/eli5_what_happens_when_when_a_stone_falls_into/ | {
"a_id": [
"czvjx5t"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The waves will keep going, but where they start will move down.\n\nThink of those pictures of jets crossing the sound barrier, and that cone shaped cloud that forms. If you tilt it so that the jet is heading straight down, that's what the waves from an object falling in water look like.\n\nAs the rock hits the water, it pushes the water at the top out to the sides. When the rock drop, the water closes behind it. This makes a ripple. \n\nBut the rock is now lower, and so it pushes *that* water to the side, which closes behind it. And you repeat all the way down. \n\nThe waves under the surface aren't as strong, because the rock slows down so much when it hits the water."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
bftkus | when you have explosive/sudden diarrhea, does your body keep any of the nutrients/energy from the food or is everything expelled as fast as it goes in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bftkus/eli5_when_you_have_explosivesudden_diarrhea_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"elg8he6"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Your body will attempt to digest and absorb as much of the nutrients as possible, but a large majority of it will be pooped out. You don't get much water because of diarrhoea as well, which can cause dehydration."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
esi2if | whenever we get hit by something, why is there a moment in time (like a split second) where we don't feel any pain but know that we've been hit and then after that moment passes we feel the pain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/esi2if/eli5_whenever_we_get_hit_by_something_why_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"ffanhm2",
"ffaprzw",
"ffasjk2",
"ffa3830",
"ffa7b55",
"ffa7s2u",
"ffa86ba",
"ffa8mg4",
"ffa96vr",
"ffacyqr",
"ffaf7t2",
"ffagaq2"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2,
21,
3,
33,
253,
5,
1775,
2,
228,
2
],
"text": [
"Simple, there is a time delay that your nerves require from being activated to travel through your nerve channel to your brain for it to interpret what the sensation is you just received and then process that so you can react accordingly. I think I read somewhere that the speed of that signal is something like 300mph or so from the time of the initial trigger.",
"ELI5: Sharp pain fast, dull pain slow. Sharp pain gets priority in your nervous system. \n\nELI-15: A-Delta Vs C-Polymodial nociceptors deliver pain at different speeds. Evolutionary its more important to know that you're being stabbed than have a sore back. The Sharp/A-Delta pain takes preference in your nervous system (The Gate Theory of Pain, Melzac & Wall '65).",
"I actually just gave a lecture on this a few hours ago, haha.\n\nWhen you hurt yourself, that pain signal has 2 destinations. One is your brain so you understand the pain, the other is your injured limb so that you can pull away from the pain. Moving a limb away from pain is an \"intrinsic reflex\" and doesn't require any brainpower, so that pain signal travels up your limb to the spinal cord, then immediately back out to your limb, causing it to move. While to understand the pain, it has to travel up your limb to your spinal cord, up your spinal cord, into your brain, and has to be processed. The difference in time is really only microseconds, but that pain also causes a minor adrenaline rush that makes time seem to slow a bit.",
"Human reaction time can affect this. The avg. reaction time for touch stimulus is .15 seconds. So for that literal \"split second,\" we don't feel anything cuz our brain hasn't processed it happening yet.",
"That’s how long it takes for your brain to process information.\n\nSo if a frisbee hits you in the face, it triggers your pain receptors and tells your brain to feel pain. Now depending on the situation, (how much stress you’re under at the time, how much adrenaline you’re producing, how hard you were hit, etc) you may take slightly longer to process it.",
"Concussive Force measures touch instantly. \nPain measures damage which happens as cells “break” and communicate this to nearby nerves. The two step system takes a second.",
"We work on electric signals from nerves. That signal take time to move, about 20ms to reach go from nerve endings to brain, then our brain has to process what just happened, then start sending signals that it hurts.",
"Nerves work by sending electrical signals via chemical reactions. So when you get hit that electrical signal needs travel to the brain. Because the chemical reactions need time to occur in each nerve cell there is a slight overall time delay in reaching your brain.",
"There are two types of pain neurons to relay the signal. Both of them fire at the same time. One is much faster than the other. \n\nIf you burn your hand on the stove, the first (kinda shocky) pain is the fast signal. The second pain (the more qualitative one) is the slower but longer acting signal/neuron.",
"Pain is an output of the brain. \n\ndifferent signals are carried by different nerve fibres. some are quicker than others. the classic example of it is picking up something hot. warmth nociception is one of the type IV slow nerve fibres so there is a delay in feeling the burn.\n\nThe brain has to decide what to do with all of the input from the nervous system. So depending on what you are doing at the time, your emotional state, previous experiences etc you may or may not feel anything.\n\nas ever lorimer moseley explains it best\n\n [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"Hi! To be clear, I'm not 100% sure because, stunningly, I've never specifically conducted research into this! But here's my best educated guess, as someone who works in neurology.\n\n---\n\nSignals in your brain have wires (nerves) that they can travel down, but not all wires are created equal. For complicated reasons involving how our nerves generate electricity, _insulated_ nerves conduct faster signals than uninsulated ones.\n\nPain is carried along a kind of nerve called the \"type C\" nerve - basically, it's a \"thin\" nerve that doesn't carry much signal and doesn't carry it very fast. It's uninsulated, so it's pretty slow, and it's also got a limited bandwidth - if your brain is downloading pain, it can't download too much at once through that nerve. It's a kind of gatekeeping mechanism that prevents us getting 100% overloaded with pain immediately. \n\nType C nerves also don't have a very high priority. We receive a lot of signals, and type C is pretty far down the list of what the brain cares about because... well, pain is BAD. We need it because it keeps us alive (if you didn't know pain was bad, you wouldn't know injury was bad), but it also distracts us and makes us stupid. So other kinds of signals, like \"where am I\" signals and \"what am I\" signals and \"what temperature am I\" signals are all given higher priority, travelling on physically _faster_, higher-bandwidth cables that get connected directly to your brain's \"router\", rather than having to run through three different servers and connect via metaphorical VPN in Portugal. \n\n**When you're hit by something,** lots of signals are sent all at once. Many of those are pain, but a lot of the others are signals like _\"proprioceptive\"_ signals, which are the kind of signal that tell your body-parts where they are in space. You know how you can close your eyes and still touch your nose with your finger? That's called _proprioception_, and it has VERY high priority! It's a very important thing: if you're in pain because something near you is hurting you, then you need to be able to _move away from it_ in order to not get damaged. This isn't possible if you don't know where your limbs are in space, and so proprioception is a physically faster, \"stronger\" signal than pain is. It hits your brain first, gets processed faster, and its bandwidth is very high so it can \"push out\" pain signals if there's a lot going on. You know how, when you rock back and forth, your stomachache doesn't feel so bad? That's because rocking back and forth generates lots of high-bandwidth \"where am I\" signals, which means there's not much brainspace left to think about your tummy pain. \n\n**In a car accident,** you'd have a lot of signals. To give four examples, in priority order as your brain cares about them, they could be:\n\n* \"Where are my body-parts in space?\"\n* \"What kind of touch am I receiving?\"\n* \"Am I on fire?\"\n* \"This hurts!\"\n\nAnd lots of others. As you'll see, \"this hurts!\" is very far down the list! Pain is.. ignorable. Your body can forget about it for a while because it has physically got _no more bandwidth left_. \n\nOnce your body stops moving, though, all that bandwidth gets cleared away and suddenly **BOOM** pain all the time because now it can TELL YOU that it's there.\n\n---\n\nEdit for people who care: yes, there's also other kinds of pain that travel on the much faster A & delta; nerves, but for this situation we're concerned mostly with the slow \"thuddy\" pain which travels along C nerves. C nerve pain is generally more overwhelming, especially as there's physically many more of them and they share less with other signals. A & delta; nerves are a little more complicated but this same explanation applies, bandwidth limitations (technically \"thalamic gating\" if you're interested) intentionally put in place to prevent cortical overload during painful situations. There's also obviously an impact from adrenaline, but that doesn't happen immediately. As a hormone, adrenaline takes a fair amount of time (a countable number of seconds) between secretion into the blood from the adrenal cortex above the kidney, travelling through the body, and impacting your brain and muscles and other gooey parts. That time delay is too significant to explain the effect as OP observes.",
"It's amazing how many responses are in this thread from people who have 0 idea what they're talking about. Why do you feel the need to comment?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
6aa6vc | why is it that you can leave water in a bottle for a year and it's ok to drink but if you use it right away you can't continue reusing it for a year? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6aa6vc/eli5_why_is_it_that_you_can_leave_water_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhd1r3i",
"dhd66nz"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"An easy enough explanation that would cover most sealed products is that a lot of it is vacuum-sealed, which protects it from any microorganisms that would spoil it quicker, and once you have opened it, be it water, ketchup or something else, it goes in contact with air and the next time you close it SOMETHING is going to be in contact with it and eventually grow and spoil it.",
"If you're referring to BPA, then both scenarios are dangerous. Reusing a water bottle will usually entail leaving it out frequently and meeting all the criteria for a non-BPA-free bottle to cause danger, whereas if you don't touch a bottle and leave it in a dark, cooled space, there may be less risk."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
bsshlf | why do some countries have super deadly animals while others dont? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bsshlf/eli5_why_do_some_countries_have_super_deadly/ | {
"a_id": [
"eoq36ld"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Deadly animals live in all habitats. Before humans were around, there were deadly animals virtually everywhere in the world, save for perhaps a handful of deserted islands.\n\nAs humanity grew and spread, and learned how to defend themselves, animals also learned to keep away from human populations. For this reason the countries with large predator populations are generally the ones with large, mostly uninhabited spaces. The countries with high population density and few places more than a few miles from human settlement are generally the ones with no pllarge predators anymore.\n\nOne other factor to consider - especially in Europe, as society grew more advanced and more organised, there was in the last few centuries a growing trend of hunting and culling those large predators. That's another major reason why Europe has very few dangerous animals in the wild."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
24jwom | why is the background really dark in extreme high fps slowmo videos? and how does zooming in help make the video slower? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24jwom/eli5_why_is_the_background_really_dark_in_extreme/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch7u2vz",
"ch7v2q4"
],
"score": [
9,
6
],
"text": [
"If using a high-speed camera to create slow motion, since the frames are taking much faster than standard cameras, each frame receives less light due to the short shutter speed. The nicer high-speed cameras have large sensor arrays to compensate, but the fundamental problem is still there.\n\nTo my knowledge, zooming in does not affect the video speed.",
"The backgrounds are darker because they are pointing bright lights at the subject that isn't hitting the background. \n\nSome cameras can read out a smaller part of their sensor much faster. The RED camera is a great example. The RED Epic camera can reach 297+- FPS when cropping its sensor read out to 1920x860. Normally the camera can record 5160x2700 @96 FPS. So the high speed can appear to be a zoom, because the camera has to crop into the frame to get the High frame rates.\n\n-Friendly neighborhood Cinematographer"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
28jsqd | given the amount of lint that comes out of the dryer, are my clothes slowly disintegrating with time? would they eventually disappear completely? | Sometimes the sheet of lint that comes out feels pretty substantial. It's surely a non-negligible amount of fabric. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28jsqd/eli5_given_the_amount_of_lint_that_comes_out_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"cibkr8o",
"cibl59y",
"ciblxda",
"cibqs5x",
"cibu5i5",
"cibuq1l",
"cibut0q",
"cic9v9e"
],
"score": [
11,
11,
60,
3,
9,
44,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"yes, that's how holes eventually develop in your clothing",
"It seems to me that my old clothes produce less lint. Meaning over time the degradation slows.",
"Yes, the intense heat and friction in dryers causes the fibers in your clothes to shed their external layer. This is why pants or bedsheets become shiny-looking over time, and also why the lower back of hoodies and tee shirts (where fabric rubs against chairs or backpacks) begin to form pills, or little balls of lint.\n\nThis is why air-drying increases the longevity of your clothing. ",
"I always wondered why I'd get belly-button lint until I realized it was constantly rubbing against the hair. ",
"Fun fact: dryer lint is excellent for starting fires when camping in wet environments. ",
"Can confirm. Source: Am in the linen service industry. \n\nThe majority of our customers pay by the pound of linen delivered. We have to closely monitor the weight of the linen because the linen loses weight after each wash. Even though it takes the same amount of chemicals and labor to process that piece of linen, it weighs less, so customers who pay by the pound get it at a lower price. This may seem insignificant on a piece by piece basis, but an average laundering facility serves a half-million pieces of linen per week. \n\nWe expect a towel to lose 15%-25% of its weight over its service life, which is, on average, six months. Occasionally we'll find a towel that's been in service for more than two years and you can practically see through it. We then remove that linen from service. \n\nAn average commercial dryer can collect 25-50 pounds of lint per day. An average facility will have 10-15 dryers of that size. (You can stand up inside of them.) We actively control the lint collection process. Lint is incredibly flammable and any minor buildup is a state/federal safety violation. \n\nSimilarly, I worked in a carpet mill that would fill up two dumpsters with lint per week. Recyclers would purchase the lint from us so they could reuse it in other industries. \n\nTLDR: All textiles lose lint during the wash process. Lint is serious business. \n\nEdit: Sincerest thanks for the Gold! Commercial laundry is a behind-the-scenes industry that is appears everywhere. If I can answer any questions, let me know. It's not quite AMA worthy.",
"Have you never lost a sock? ",
"Yes, this is one reason why hang drying is better. Another reason is that you'll save on electricity. If your climate has reasonably dry air it won't take that long, but in tropical climates hang drying won't work. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
ua4xu | hydroponics | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ua4xu/eli5_hydroponics/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4tlmrk",
"c4tncj2"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"Is the process of growing plants in nutrient rich water, without any soil. The roots of the plant can be grown in water or some inert material such as mineral wool. \n\nIt is based upon the fact that the normal conditions that plants grow (in soil) the soil is no actually needed for plant growth, rather it acts as a medium. Minerals dissolve into water within the soil, which the roots then take up via osmosis. \n\nBasically hydroponics is the process of introducting nutrients into a plant without a soil medium.",
"Is it any better than growing in normal soil? eg. is is cheaper? more space efficient?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
vwpps | how cats communicate / what does "meow" mean | I have always wondered this - am I blatantly ignoring a request / compliment / insult from my cat? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vwpps/eli5_how_cats_communicate_what_does_meow_mean/ | {
"a_id": [
"c58a8mc",
"c58aasg",
"c58azj9",
"c58b9ze",
"c58brsj",
"c58femh"
],
"score": [
11,
6,
5,
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Feed me / pet me / let me outside / let me inside / whaaargbl",
" > am I blatantly ignoring a request / compliment / insult from my cat?\n\nYep.\n\nOne of the cool things about cats is that feral cats don't communicate verbally *anywhere near* as much as cats raised with humans. Domesticated cats learn that humans communicate verbally, and so they communicate verbally too.",
"Completely my theory here, but I imagine that because cats don't have formal language, education, society, and history they try to communicate with humans in completely unique sounds each cat makes up. Each one is its own 'Nell' raised outside of any society so it's all gibberish. I doubt they can speak to each other. ",
"if it blinks slowly that means \"i love you\"\n\nif it blinks a few times normal speed it means \"hello\"\n\nif it's tail is curled at the end and moves around abit it's happy\n\nif it's tail wags like a dog **RUN AWAY**\n\nif the pitch of it's meow sounds like a crying baby then your cat is a saddist that figured out humans respond to that pitch and it wants something (true)",
"Cats communicate with each other via posture and body language (raising hackles, gestures of dominance/submission, play fighting), they don't generally meow much. Kittens, however, do meow to their mothers.\n\nSo naturally cats can and do meow to communicate but usually only when they want something. What happens is that they meow, learn that they can get you to do stuff by meowing and then keep doing what works. I daresay that the cats change meow to try to figure out how to get you to do something really specific - I like to think of it as they're learning how to speak to the stoopid hooman who doesn't understand them.\n\nAs for what meows mean:\n\nMerrow means feed me (you idiot)\n\nMeeoowww means pat me (you idiot)\n\nMeorw means let me out (you idiot)\n\nPurring is an expression of contempt reserved exclusively for when they are closest to you so that you can appreciate the full effect.",
"\"Cats do not abide by the laws of nature.\""
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
6hdz50 | how can european companies like zara afford to produce their clothes in places like portugal and spain, while american companies rely on sweatshop labour to sell at the same price? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hdz50/eli5_how_can_european_companies_like_zara_afford/ | {
"a_id": [
"dixk719",
"dixkf7q",
"dixkgew",
"dixl7qs",
"dixlj0q",
"dixu62s",
"diy4ihp",
"diy4jrg",
"diy4pg7",
"diy5h2f",
"diy6wuc"
],
"score": [
23,
7,
9,
323,
123,
70,
3,
5,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It's not that American companies can't afford not to use sweatshops it's just that they're not being regulated properly so they can use the cheapest labour. I.e. Child wage-slaves.\n\nEuropean companies generally have more restrictions on international manufacturing and trade due to EU regulations so using sweatshops is generally a riskier business tactic.\n\nNot all European clothing companies don't use sweatshops, I'm pretty sure all my clothes are made by the children of Bangladesh 🇧🇩 ",
"There's still clothing companies producing things in the US. While a lot of companies are outsourcing labor to poor countries, others have decided to focus on producing a higher quality product and/or marketing themselves as \"Made in America\".",
"Producing your goods in third world countries reduces your costs but that is only part of the cost of a garment, design, quality control and raw materials also play a part. So say making the clothes in Bangladesh would cost $1 and making them in Portugal is $2 obviously you will make more money if you make them in Bangladesh. However if you are going to charge $10 per item and taking out retail costs, shipping costs, design and marketing those may represent $5 of cost per item. This means that even producing it in Portugal you are still making $3 per item it is just if you make it in Bangladesh you could make $4 per item.",
"Zara is somewhat unique in the fashion industry in that it owns its entire supply chain. Most clothing companies will hire factories to make their clothes according to patterns, and then have a distribution and logistics company handle the process of getting the actual clothes to the country they're going to be sold in, and sometimes also to the individual retail outlets. This allows economies of scale to come in, for example, a factory making t-shirts for fifty different companies in Bangladesh can make those shirts much cheaper because they can order fabric in more bulk.\n\nSo what advantage does owning the factories convey? Well, there's an element of cost saving in full ownership, the factory and the distributor aren't taking a cut for profit, but the main advantage is quicker turnaround. If all the factories in your supply chain are set up to supply you and only you, you can set them up exactly how you want them, you can set the rules in the factory you can set the distribution network to prioritise getting you merchandise *fast* instead of *cheap*. Which means that unlike some companies who have to design their Summer 17 range about a year out guessing based on trends what will be popular in time to get their stuff made and shipped from Asia, a company like Zara can wait til the start of summer, see the trends, design clothes based on those those trends, and have their designs manufactured and in store within a week or two.\n\nWhat about non-fashion items, though? Plain t-shirts don't change much at all year to year. If you buy a red t-shirt, you'll probably be wearing it still in 2 years time. For those items you don't need speed at all. You also don't need to be unique. So for that stuff there's no reason not to order from Asia, and sure enough even Zara will order their bulk non-fashion clothing from those factories. For stores which specialise in offering cheap clothing (e.g. Primark here in Europe), all their stuff will be made in places like bangladesh because it doesn't need to be fast and it doesn't need to be good, so you can just focus on as cheap as possible.",
"Zara (Inditex) has sweatshops all over 3rd world countries. _URL_0_",
"Zara manufactures their clothes almost exclusively in third world countries, even though they do pay better wages than most for those places.\n\nZara's Spanish factories are long gone, clothes are designed in Spain but not manufactured there. No different to Apple's \"designed in California, assembled in China\"",
"Isn't zara clothing also not great quality? ",
"Most American companies use a hands off approach that focuses on branding and middle marketing. An unsustainable profit margin is achieved just long enough to ride the peak and sell the entire company before it collapses. Pretty sorry for manufacturing and consumers though.",
"To add to some of the good points already here. Portugal has cheap labor as well I believe around (minimum wage) ~500€/month mark + they are right on the coast (for north america ship by boat maybe) and in Europe (trucks, trains) for easy distribution. I've always wondered why more companies don't set up shop in Portugal for the reasons mentioned above. Also the country isn't doing to well financially and getting employees/workers would definitely not be a problem. Mind you they do have a high tax rate IVA ~21%.",
"Half my clothes are from Zara and not a single item has been made in Spain. Vast majority are made in thailand and vietnam",
"There's a book about it. From zero to zara... not sure there is a translation. \n\nThey do part of their clothes in Portugal and Spain so that they can get the newer designs at the stores before the bulk comes from SE Asia. \n\nThe bulk is done in sweatshops... "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.somo.nl/flawed-fabrics/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1yxsp4 | why does "new" snowden info seem to show up every day? | The guy has been in hiding for awhile, he made a huge document release years ago and yet it seems like something new is released every week. I know it was a big initial group of data but would it really take so long to go through it? Is someone releasing small bits every few days? I'm confused. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yxsp4/eli5_why_does_new_snowden_info_seem_to_show_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfopwls",
"cfoqy4d"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"My guess? There's a lot of dirt, and he doesn't want the story to be buried under Bieberwatch, so he leaks it so that people don't forget the story. ",
"Snowden released truly massive amounts of information to a few select sources, with the stipulation being that these sources had to release info very slowly and not all at once."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2dd0qt | what is significant about a 4th domain of life being discovered | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dd0qt/eli5_what_is_significant_about_a_4th_domain_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjocxke"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"To the average person, absolutely nothing. I'm sure someone else will come through and explain to me why I am wrong, but the truth is that this knowledge will not change how you live your life for decades (if ever). \n\nWhat this means though is that scientists will have to rethink evolutionary biology. Evolution isn't wrong by any means, but to have an entire domain of life that we weren't aware of is huge. It begs the question is there another domain we haven't found yet? How long ago did this domain of life split off from the other domains? What caused the change (i.e. why was this domain better suited to whichever niche it filled than one of the other 3 domains). And more questions like that"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7qclus | why hasn't harvey weinstein been arrested? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7qclus/eli5_why_hasnt_harvey_weinstein_been_arrested/ | {
"a_id": [
"dso2cyn"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"He has been accused of sexual harrassment and abuse but that doesn't lead to an arrest until criminal charges have been brought against him. \n\nHe was not caught by law enforcement in the act of committing a crime. \n\nFrom the New Yorker: \n\n > His behavior has been an open secret to many in Hollywood and beyond, but previous attempts by many publications, including The New Yorker, to investigate and publish the story over the years fell short of the demands of journalistic evidence. \n\nOr of police evidence. So no charges, and no arrests."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5d7z31 | how an entire town goes about replacing its plumbing system and what it will take to restore clean water to flint | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5d7z31/eli5_how_an_entire_town_goes_about_replacing_its/ | {
"a_id": [
"da2k87l"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"The entire plumbing system does not necessarily need to be replaced because there are liners and coatings that can be inserted inside the existing water mains without digging up the streets. As for the home plumbing, check out [aceduraflo's pipe restoration video](_URL_0_). Toxic lead is one of the things which its [web site](_URL_1_) claims to be able to solve. As long as the pipes are structurally stable they should not need replacing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.aceduraflo.com/epipe/3d-process-video",
"http://www.aceduraflo.com/"
]
]
|
||
5gk1sk | what would happen if you were to give an a+ blood transfusion to a b- patient? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5gk1sk/eli5what_would_happen_if_you_were_to_give_an_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"daswhlc",
"daswjow"
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text": [
"They would undergo an immune reaction against both the B component (antigen) and the + component (Rh factor). Large numbers of antibodies would be released that would bind to the blood cells, preventing them from working and creating linked clumps of cells in your bloodstream. Immune cells would then \"see\" the antibodies and efficiently attempt to eradicate each and every foreign blood cell. The results vary depending on the exact reaction. Sometimes the cells can survive for a fairly normal lifespan. Other times, the resulting damage to your blood cells can lead to a host of symptoms such as kidney damage, fever, circulatory system collapse, and ultimately death.\n\nEDIT: Oh, and here's a fun fact. Apparently an actually recognized system to a bad reaction to donor blood is an \"impending sense of doom.\" Soooo, I guess maybe trust your gut if you ever need a blood transfusion.",
"Anything from not much to horrible death. The reaction can be as simple as not feeling well and a fever, to your blood clotting inside your veins which can cause stroke, heart attacks, and other potentially lethal results.\n\nEdit to add- This goes for any mismatch not just A+ to B-"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
561kov | why does the night sky look different/better in photographs than it does to the naked eye? | Firstly, I know or at least think it has something to do with exposure and noise etc, but I don't know how this works? I'd like to understand it a little better.
I don't now if it's worth mentioning but I have always lived relatively centrally in the UK. Is there any kind of geographical reason for why most of the cool night sky photographs are taken elsewhere in the world?
If anyone could shed some light on this for me I'd be eternally grateful!
EDIT: Follow up question because iI'm greedy. Is it impossible to see the sky with your eyes as it looks in photographs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/561kov/eli5why_does_the_night_sky_look_differentbetter/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8fj1eo",
"d8fkwod"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Your eye might be constantly open to look at light, but your brain is \"blinking\" about 70 times every second. It takes a picture and sends that off to be understood and processed. Then it blacks everything out and gets a new picture to think about. The part of your brain that does the processing blurs these together and we understand that as motion. (Computer monitors and animation mimic this.) How long the retina is exposed to light before it starts taking a new picture is called *Exposure*.\n\nOn Cameras, you can control how fast the exposure is (except you only take one picture at a time). So you could take a picture with an exposure so short, you *could've* taken 500 pictures in one second. With that short exposure, you could get a better picture of a bright scene like a sunny beach, because less light would arrive at the lens in that time.\n\nIf you take a really long exposure, like 1/10th of a second, then more light gets absorbed into the camera lens, and more light arrives onto the picture-taking thingummy. The human eye can't really control how long the eye sits there absorbing light, but with cameras the ability to control that allows for pretty neat stuff.\n\nIf you aim a camera at the night sky and let it get exposed for several hours, the picture gets light exposure from the stars being in different places as the earth rotates, and you get a picture like this: _URL_0_",
"The sky looks bland and boring to you because of light pollution. You can actually see a lot of what a camera will pick up if you get away from the cities, away from street lamps, away from barn lights, flashlights, and camp fires."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.photographymad.com/files/images/sharp-star-trails.jpg"
],
[]
]
|
|
2z4p2g | what is this new canadian anti-terror bill and why are people protesting it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z4p2g/eli5_what_is_this_new_canadian_antiterror_bill/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpfmwd7",
"cpfttw9"
],
"score": [
35,
5
],
"text": [
"It's basically our version of the Patriot Act, meant to expand police and intelligence services' surveillance powers. People don't like it because it means the police will need less evidence to detain or charge people and the intelligence services will be able to do more surveiling of Canadians. People also don't like it because it doesn't really provide for any oversight, accountability or transparency with these activities. People are also pretty pissed that neither of the other two big parties (Conservatives are the party in power and are right wing, and the Liberals and NDP are the left wing parties in the opposition government) aren't meaningfully opposing it.",
"Much of it is the same shit in a different bag but this time around they've included language that makes meaningful opposition to oil and gas projects equivalent to terrorism."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3hgxkd | why does mustard cause oil and vinegar to combine or emulsify? | I know that mustard can help combine oil and vinegar for a vinaigrette, but what substance in the vinegar accomplishes that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hgxkd/eli5_why_does_mustard_cause_oil_and_vinegar_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cu78wci"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Apparently, [the proteins in mustard coat oil particles](_URL_0_), which prevents them from repelling water as they usually do."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.ochef.com/1411.htm"
]
]
|
|
4w1dlg | i know that some reptiles and fish can change gender if necessary for breeding but how do they decide who is going to change and how do they know that all of them are not going to change? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4w1dlg/eli5_i_know_that_some_reptiles_and_fish_can/ | {
"a_id": [
"d635pbl"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"In clownfish, the school of fish has a strong hierarchy built into the male fish's social structure. When the female dies (or wanders off), the the most dominant male changes sex to become the next female. (Yes, Nemo's dad should have been his mom).\n\nOther fish, like wrasses (cute neon fish) are set up similarly - except that they have one male and if anything happens to him then the most dominant female turns into a male.\n\nThe hierarchy makes sure that not all of them change, and that the fittest of the school takes over the important role of single man/woman of the school."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
8v4h8m | what are the circuits of court? | I am seeing news regarding things like the 9th circuit of court. What do they mean? Do some have more power?
Are they a US thing or do other countries also have these circuits?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8v4h8m/eli5_what_are_the_circuits_of_court/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1kgcej",
"e1khf7b",
"e1khg5v",
"e1khlos"
],
"score": [
4,
8,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Afaik the circuit courts are the US federal courts just below the Supreme Court. I think each \"circuit\" is really just a geographical area that court is responsible for.",
"When you hear about the \"Ninth Circuit,\" the rest of the phrase is \"United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.\"\n\nThere are thirteen such circuits: eleven numbered circuits, covering various geographical areas; the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, covering the nation's capital; and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has no geographical area, but covers certain subject matter appeals.\n\nAs the name implies, these courts can't hear original trials, but only appellate decisions from lower courts.\n\nThey are relatively powerful in that each court of appeals covers multiple states, and their decisions are binding, should they reverse or overrule.\n\nThe only court with higher authority than the courts of appeals would be the Supreme Court of the United States.\n\nThe concept of a \"circuit court\" in which judges travel to different locations, as held sway in the US between 1789 and 1911, is present in different countries, but the concept of geographic courts of appeals is unique to the United States due to sheer size.",
"It's basically from a remnant of colonial court system, the federal court of appeals are broken into circuits. The appellate courts basically take cases where a lower court has made a decision, someone involved disliked that decision, and the appellate court decided they had a reasonable argument (generally). They can then either agree with the decision or overturn it in part or full. \n\nCircuits are kind of geographical, but the largest, the 9th, includes places like Alaska and Hawaii. Some states have their own \"circuit courts\", but unless it's local news or something huge, you're probably hearing about the federal courts. At some point when talking about them, someone will probably say \"federal\" or the state name.",
"In the US, when you hear about federal circuit courts, those are the appeals courts that are right above federal courts and below the Supreme Court.\n\nThe name comes from a time when the judges would ride on a circuit, that is, go from city to city to hear appeals. In an era of modern communication and transportation, that doesn't really happen anymore, but the name stuck.\n\nSo, if you lost a case in federal court, you'd appeal it to the US Circuit Court for your area (each Circuit court handles a defined geographic area). If you didn't like what they said, you could try to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the don't hear many cases. They generally will only step in if they think the Circuit Court got it wrong."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
6fwywn | if getting sunburns increases your chances of skin cancers, does burning your mouth on hot foods increase your chances of mouth cancer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fwywn/eli5_if_getting_sunburns_increases_your_chances/ | {
"a_id": [
"diln6rh"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"More like the esophagus than the mouth itself. But to answer your question... the body doesn't like getting burned. People who drink very hot beverages have a higher chance of getting esophageal cancer. If you're burning the lining of your esophagus, it's going to undergo metaplasia in order to tolerate the heat. Unfortunately, this process isn't perfect and can lead to dysplasia and cancer. Same thing applies to cigarette smoke and alcohol consumption."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6sk8w0 | how is alienation and commodity fetishism related in marxist theory? | You can hopefully help me with my struggles. I think i got a decent understanding of them separated but I cant figure out how they are related?
Alienation is something happening for the worker in the workplace because of his relation to the product that he produces. It comes in four areas:
- From the product
- From the process
- From humanity
- From each other
Commodity fetishism, on the other hand, is the concept that commodities on the market have some kind of inherent value in it self. That the effort of the workers that produced it isn't reflected in the value.
But how does these two concept relate to each other? The fetishism of the commodity makes people not recognize the work of the worker which alienates them further? What area of alienation is this?
Thanks a lot! :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6sk8w0/eli5how_is_alienation_and_commodity_fetishism/ | {
"a_id": [
"dldg211"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You may have more luck in /r/communism101 as this is pretty deep into Marxist theory.\n\nBut my 2 pennoths would be that alienation from the process backs up commodity fetishism and vice verca because commodities seem to because commodities no longer appear to be the end consequence of the labour of human hands but instead seem to just appear."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
zimtl | how have the voyager probes managed to propel themselves away from the sun's gravity for 35 years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zimtl/eli5_how_have_the_voyager_probes_managed_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"c64wpxk"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"In space there is no air/atmosphere, thus no friction do to it. The Voyager probe only needed to propel itself to a certain speed, then continue going potentially forever. Satellites and spacecraft also have the option to \"slingshot\" themselves around planets using that planet's gravity."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2t8o0v | how did hotels work before credit cards? | If i book a hotel I have to have a credit card on file just incase something happened, how was this worked out before credit cards were common? did people just carry around a ton of money for a deposit? I've googled and search this subreddit and i cant find anything | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t8o0v/eli5how_did_hotels_work_before_credit_cards/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnwquda"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I never stayed in a hotel that required a deposit, though I remember a lot more info was required to get a hotel before like home address, car info, etc.\n\nIt was basically, if I remember, an honor system."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2n3xzw | how is pirating (movies, songs, etc.) illegal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2n3xzw/eli5_how_is_pirating_movies_songs_etc_illegal/ | {
"a_id": [
"cma2z9h",
"cma2zmk",
"cma333j",
"cma36xg",
"cma980a"
],
"score": [
6,
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"People own the copyrights (literally, the right to make copies) on those things, and when you make copies without getting their permission, they have the legal right to sue you.",
"When someone (artists, movie studios, etc.) releases something (songs, movies, etc.), they often copyright that work as their intellectual property. Obtaining these works illegally (that is, without paying them/paying someone that pays them), is considered copyright infringement, and therefore you can be sued.\n\nEdit: phrasing",
"Pirates of the carribean and sea shantys are legal. Stealing an artists work is theft.",
"(Spain here. \"Piracy\" is only illegal here if you make profit of it -meaning, you resell artwork- and thus is it perfectly legal to download, upload, share or rip any \"protected\" media you want as long as you do not gain money from that activity (e.g. If you own a site and you share torrents and that site is ad-supported, you gain money and therefore that site can be closed and you can be reported for \"piracy\")).",
"Because you are getting a copy of a movie/song/etc. without paying for it. \n \n \nIt was even difficult to get VCR-ing television shows to become legal."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
925yal | why do some house flies bumble round seemingly randomly, whilst others fly in straight lines and make short, sharp turns? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/925yal/eli5_why_do_some_house_flies_bumble_round/ | {
"a_id": [
"e33add1"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"Lines means they're seeking food or shelter, zigzags mean they've found a comfortable temperature in the room to just be annoying in."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
6toc9y | i know that oil is from plants and animal bones, but how do it actually become oil? what happens with the bones and plants? | As the title asks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6toc9y/eli5i_know_that_oil_is_from_plants_and_animal/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlm7ghd"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Most plants contain oils and waxes. Olives, sunflower seeds, rapeseed plants, amongst others, have enough to press out and sell in supermarkets. When they die and get buried, bacteria digest the material and split large molecules into smaller fragments that collect in the right sort of rock formations.\n\nSome marker molecules like the terpenoid alkanes retain the skeletal structure of the original plant molecules. That enabled the connection of crude oil to plant origins to be made."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
6wzzqq | why does whole grain food cost more if it presumably requires less processing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wzzqq/eli5_why_does_whole_grain_food_cost_more_if_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmbzg08",
"dmbzjrl",
"dmc0ojm",
"dmc15do",
"dmciduf"
],
"score": [
17,
2,
18,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"Often whole grains contain components which will go bad (rancid) within months if not refrigerated. So it isn't as easy to store.",
"The fact that they require separate equipment counteracts much of the costs saved by being less processed. They are also viewed as specialty items that are healthier which means the public is more willing to accept higher costs for it. ",
"When you have a production line optimized for one product, it takes extra effort to make it do something else, even if it involves doing less.\n\nIn the case of whole grains, it is not just less processing. Whole grains have different textures, tastes, and baking properties, so you have to change ingredients, mixing procedures, baking times and temperatures, and other parts of the production process.",
"Two big things:\n\n1. There's less demand so less is produced meaning you don't benefit from large scale production\n2. Whole grains tend to spoil faster meaning that warehouses lose more product, requiring them to raise the price",
"Also consider that when the whole grain is processed into other non-whole grain products, the material that is stripped away is not discarded. It can go into livestock feed and other products which are sold for a profit. Thus, whole grain costs more because you have to pay the equivalent of everything else that could be made from it. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
d0cbvj | how does one suddenly develop a mid-life nut allergy and is it possible to reverse it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d0cbvj/eli5_how_does_one_suddenly_develop_a_midlife_nut/ | {
"a_id": [
"ez8nihw"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"We don't really know why adults develop allergies later in life. We don't really understand why it happens in childhood, but we understand that more than with adults."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2xq29q | the major points from steven pinker | He's got a bunch of books and:
1. I don't know where to start
2. I have very little time
but
3. I've heard very great things about this man.
Also, where in philosophy, morality and linguistics do his ideas fit in, and how much credibility does he have, ie do his ideas generally reflect our current knowledge? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xq29q/eli5_the_major_points_from_steven_pinker/ | {
"a_id": [
"cp2cpml"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"1) Read the wikipedia pages if they exist, they will summarize the arguments for you. On top of that, skim through the chapter titles, then look for things that look like concluding paragraphs or important recap points. These are techniques I use when encountering a book I mean to read in full later, but they also serve well when I need to pretend to have read a book :)\n\n2) I have only read \"The Blank Slate\" and \"The Better Angels Of Our Nature\".\n\nThe first is about human psychology and sociology - specifically arguing against the idea that we are \"blank slates\" from birth, i.e. that there is nothing innate to the human mind and everything is learned through experience and acculturation. Pinker argues that no, there are important things that are innate, some of which are universal across the species, and some of which differ according to e.g. sex. I am not an expert in this field, but from anecdotal conversations with acquaintances who are, this book is held in reasonably high esteem. It was controversial when it came out, but in the decade since the tide of opinion has shifted to where his positions are within the mainstream, and the positions he argued against are beginning to enter the dustbin of history.\n\nThe second is about the historical trend of violence - Pinker argues that it is going down. This is his second-most recent book and is the most controversial. While in \"The Blank Slate\" he had on his side his expertise in psychology (his day job is in evolutionary linguistics), \"Better Angels\" is a step outside his zone of expertise. If you're pushed for time, you can read one of his responses to his [critics](_URL_0_) in order to gain a rough outline of what kind of points he is arguing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/sociology-2015-pinker-0038038514556797.pdf"
]
]
|
|
1j1rj6 | "short selling" stock or a house. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j1rj6/eli5_short_selling_stock_or_a_house/ | {
"a_id": [
"cba87m6"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"These are different things. \n\nA short sale on a house usually means the house is being sold for less than is currently owed on it. So for example you owe $500,000 on a house but because prices have declined and you can't afford your payments you sell it for less.\n\nEssentially, it is just to cut your losses.\n\nOn stocks, short selling refers to when you are borrowing stocks instead of buying them. You then pay what you borrow back with stocks, not cash.\nThis enables you to bet against a stock. So you could borrow 100 shares of a stock that was at $5 bucks, and sell it off and have $500. Then if the stock falls in price before you have to pay back what you borrowed, say to $2, you pay $200 dollars for 100 shares and give them back. You just made $300 (excluding interest) by shorting the stock. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
54r5ck | trickle down economics from the perspective of both a large corporation and small business. | Edit: Would be helpful to also understand how this would vary depending on if the tax is changed for an individual vs a business. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54r5ck/eli5_trickle_down_economics_from_the_perspective/ | {
"a_id": [
"d84ccy0"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The concept is that when those 'at the top' gain, the gains 'flow down to those not at the top'. That theoretical framework doesn't change if you're talking about a Large Corporation, a Small Business, or the .01% of taxpaying individuals.\n\nIf you're asking what the specific dynamics are if the tax rates were lowered for an American Large Corporation, the theoretical answer was that the corporation would invest the money, that was re-captured from the theoretically reduced taxes they were paying, into their business and that investment would mean more jobs for the American Middle Class. \n\nThat theory has been tested since Reagan, and the actual results are that any gains (from a lower tax rate and from complex tax engineering to avoid paying taxes) tend to enrich those at the top of the corporation along with investing in reducing labor costs by some combination of Layoffs, Automation, and Outsourcing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
7wmfdj | what is the difference between a $10 hdmi cord and a $150 gold plated hdmi cord? how are some high speed and some 'ultra high speed'? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wmfdj/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_10_hdmi/ | {
"a_id": [
"du1g3oc",
"du1gl01",
"du1hdk2"
],
"score": [
13,
5,
4
],
"text": [
"No difference what’s so ever. HDMI is digital. 1s and 0s no in betweens. One of the biggest cons going is expensive HDMI cables. ",
"So, the term \"high speed\" or \"ultra high speed\" is pretty meaningless.\n\nThat said, different cable construction can handle different switching frequencies(baud rate) resulting in different specs on what they can do in terms of resolution and frame rate. The most common speeds are:\n\n4.95Gbps allows for 1080i(not p) at 60fps.\n\n10.2Gbps allows for 4k at 24fps. I *believe* these also do 1080p at 60fps.\n\n18Gbps allows for 4k at 60 fps.\n\nSo basically, ignore the words, pick the cheapest cable that has the numbers that will work for what you need in both baud rate and length.",
"No difference. When I worked in Best Buy, we could get stuff like that at cost, and cables generally had the most extreme markup. That $80 Monster HDMI cable? $3.00 at cost."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1txzed | how are electronics in cars grounded if the tires prevent electricity running through them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1txzed/eli5_how_are_electronics_in_cars_grounded_if_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceck4mp",
"cecljpy"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"The electrical system of the automobile creates its own \"ground\", which is more-often-than-not connected to the negative terminal of the battery.\n\n\"Ground\", in this instance, is used in the sense of a connection being \"common\" to the chassis of the vehicle.",
"\"Ground\" in this case is a point of reference. Voltage, by definition, is the potential to move electrons. That potential is created by the difference between the negative and positive terminals on the battery in this type of Direct Current system.\n\nSo, the \"ground\" you are referring to is simply the baseline that we use to create the potential difference that then moves the electrons through the system."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
d2yzow | how we detect water in the atmosphere of a planet 110 light years away. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2yzow/eli5_how_we_detect_water_in_the_atmosphere_of_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"ezxog5f",
"ezxycsb"
],
"score": [
64,
7
],
"text": [
"We use super-powerful telescopes that can look out into space in a wide range of spectrums of light. \n\n\nSo when we start looking for potentially habitable planets, what we often start with is finding planets that are orbiting around a star in the \"Goldilocks Zone\". This term is a play on the Goldilocks story, where the perfect bowl of porridge is \"not too hot, not too cold\". So when a planet is too close to its sun, it's too hot for life to exist (as far as we know) and so hot that any water it might have had would just evaporate away. And when it's too far from the sun, it's too cold for life (as far as we know) and any water it might have would be frozen solid. So the Goldilocks Zone is where a planet is just the right distance away from the sun to have 1. Liquid water, and 2. Potential life.. \n\nSo once we find a planet at the right distance from the sun, we can look at it through these powerful telescopes. Now the specific planet we're talking about here is much too far away for us to see it in detail, so through a telescope it kind of just looks like a little dot. But what we CAN see is the sun going dim each time the planet passes in front of it as the planet orbits. It's almost like seeing a little mini solar eclipse. Every time the telescope sees the sun go dark for a second, we know the planet has just passed in front of it. \n\n\nEver more cool is that the scientists can then look at the color of the sun's light as it passes through that planet's atmosphere. Like imagine if you had a pink balloon and you filled it with blue water. If you just hold the balloon in your hand all you see is the pink rubber. But if you hold the balloon up in front of a really powerful lightbulb, that light will pass through the balloon and shine through the blue water, and we can see the blue through the thin pink skin of the balloon. \n\n\nSo when we watch the planet, and we see the light of the sun filtering through its atmosphere, we can tell what that atmosphere is made of, because different gasses and substances show up as different colors. And by analyzing the colors we can tell that there's a great deal of water vapor in that atmosphere. We can't tell exactly how much water, but we can see that it's there, and that's a big deal. \n\n\nNow, just because a planet is in the Goldilocks Zone and it has water, that doesn't automatically mean that we could just land on it and live normal lives. It's too far away for us to see the surface so it could be covered in evil man-eating slime monsters, or it could be a planet that has water but absolutely no life at all, or there could be weird gasses that would kill any life form we know of. But finding water is a good start, and as technology advances we'll be able to see more and more.",
"A star produces all colors of light (in different brightnesses depending on temperature). If you put this light through a prism you get a rainbow. \n\nBut this rainbow has dips in how bright it is depending on what it is made of. Hydrogen has dips at red (656nm), aqua (486nm), blue (434nm), and violet (410nm) for instance.\n\nEvery element or molecule has these kinds of spectral lines and they are unique. When it is hot and by itself these lines are bright (emmision spectra). When these molecules are blocking something brighter (like a star) they appear dark (absorption spectra).\n\nWhen the planet is not in front on the star you measure the brightness of each color to establish a baseline. You then do this when the planet is in front of the star. Any new dark lines tell you what gasses are present on the planet."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
25yqfy | what is the difference between a $300 watch and a $10,000 watch? is it more than brand name? | All watches tell time and when you spend in the couple hundred dollar range you can be sure you are getting a precision instrument that will keep time consistently.
I know there is a difference in shitty $10 watch pieces from more expensive ones, but when you are getting to say a Citizen to a Breitling or Rado what is the difference (gold aside)? Are you paying for "master watchmakers"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25yqfy/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_300_watch/ | {
"a_id": [
"chlzvnn",
"chm00wx",
"chm0gfj",
"chm1lso",
"chm27oe",
"chme29a"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
3,
6,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"it's brand, materials used used like diamonds, gold, silver, titanium. instead of steel or plastic. and precision. some watches loses 1 second every day. others lose .0001 second every day. not a big deal but big price difference. ",
"The biggest difference in between quartz movements (electronic) or automatic movements (tiny precision gears). At the end of the day, they function basically the same way (tell you the time) so it's a matter of status and appreciation for the craft of watch making by \"master watchmakers.\"",
"A cheaper watch will \"tick\" once per second. An expensive watch \"ticks\" multiple times per second, making it a smoother, gliding motion. That mechanism alone is expensive to make, or at least expensive to buy. ",
"Actually, there is much more in common between a 10 dollar watch and a 300 dollar watch than there is between a 300 dollar watch and a 10,000 one.\n\nA quick (ok not that quick) history lesson is useful here. The original watches were sundials. Eventually, people learned how to put together gears together in a way that it would tell time. People developed large clocks that, when wound up, would wind down in a way that allowed people to track the change in time. Watchmakers then found a way to take these giant clocks and make them into smaller versions. They first made pocket watches, and then they made even smaller wrist watches. They also developed additional features. One major one is an automatic movement. Instead of having to wind up the watches, they figured out how to have the watch wind by itself when moved. That way, as long as people continued to wear the watch, it was always wound up. They invented brilliant movements of gears allowing people to track days, months, and years. The invented ways for the watch to be water resistant so it could be used for scuba diving. They invented special glowing hands so people could read them in the dark. They made the watches more precise and accurate so people could track seconds. They invented a stop watch that would work, but would still keep track of the normal time. They invented super complex systems to keep super precise time. They invented an alarm clock that would chime at the proper signals. They invented a watch that would make sounds indicating the time when the button was pushed so that even blind people could learn the time. Each of these inventions needed to be made by hand, and was an insanely time consuming thing to make. Eventually, watches reached a point where pretty much every brilliant innovation had been made.\n\nThe twist was that all of this development went out the window when computers and quartz watches were invented. Those watches relied on a computers to keep track of time, and were insanely accurate. They could do all the features of the hand built mechanical watches, but much more accurately and more effectively. They could be mass manufactured instead of being built by hand. They were practically better in every single way. Many of the traditional watchmakers went out of business when this happened.\n\nIf you buy a 10 dollar or 300 dollar quartz watch today, you are buying a watch that is superior in every way to the $10,000 mechanical watch. But if you buy the mechanical watch, you are buying a hand built work of art that harkens back to a \"simpler\" time. Brand names, and the tiny amount of precious metals/jewels used in the watch matter, but not as much as the mechanical gears at the heart of the watch. That is what you are paying for. That is why those $10,000 watches can be sold for $20,000 years later. A Rolex Submariner, probably the most famous expensive watch, has the automatic feature, the illuminated dials feature, and the water resistant feature. The more expensive watches might have the super accurate timing feature, the stop watch feature, or the blind person sound feature. The more features a watch has, the more complicated the watch, the more difficult it is to make, and the more money it is worth.",
" > when you spend in the couple hundred dollar range you can be sure you are getting a precision instrument that will keep time consistently. \n\nNope. A $2 quartz from eBay, during its short sad lifetime, will keep better time than the most expensive mechanical. \n\nShort answer: because luxury and marketing.\n\nHere's a nice table of how Rolex prices have changed over the years.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n\nAsk /r/watches what's a watch's worth and the answer will be *w/e you're willing to pay for it*\n\n[Dime a dozen Quartz](_URL_3_), [$50 new Seiko 7a26](_URL_0_), [$100k ALS Datograph](_URL_2_)",
"yes, a quartz watch will keep better time than even the most precise Breguet mechanical watch.\n\nI believe that what you are paying for in a $10,000 watch is craftsmanship and engineering.\n\nThe engineering skill that it takes to make a mechanical spring give accurate time to within 10sec/year and make it small enough to fit on your wrist is nothing short of a miracle to me.\n\nWatch devices (called 'complications') like a tourbillon that help negate the effect of gravity on a watch movement in a dynamic environment (like your wrist) is an incredibly complex piece of engineering.\n\nNow make something that does that, make it aesthetically awesome AND make it sized to fit on the average wrist and I think you have earned your dollars. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://i.imgur.com/4eeMy0S.jpg",
"http://www.minus4plus6.com/PriceEvolution.htm",
"http://i.imgur.com/orBAdZn.jpg",
"http://i.imgur.com/34TgAoa.jpg"
],
[]
]
|
|
5uo4fp | how does the "ping" command on the terminal actually work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uo4fp/eli5_how_does_the_ping_command_on_the_terminal/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddvu8we"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Simpler explanation:\n\nI write you a letter that says \"This letter was sent from < my address > on < date > and < time > . Please send me a letter back as soon as you get this, with the exact time and date you received this.\n\nYou follow the instruction and send the second letter back to me.\n\nWhen I get your letter, I know exactly how long it took for the letter to get to you, and how long it took the letter to make the round trip.\n\nIf I don't get a letter back in a reasonable amount of time, I know that something has gone with the postal service between my address and yours.\n\nNow imagine that we're two computers, and instead of a letters we're sending data packets. That's basically how 'ping' works."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3zoddx | how do podcast apps work? | I'm using an app for android called Player FM that lets me subscribe to particular podcasts, but recently I've noticed there are duplicate subscriptions to the same podcast available on the catalog. Are these duplicates people submitting duplicate RSS feeds to the app catalog? In general, how do podcast apps fetch lists and download or stream the files to my device? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zoddx/eli5how_do_podcast_apps_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyo2e79"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The app once every time interval (you can usually change this) downloads RSS feeds and compares the feed to It's own database. If there are new entries it automatically downloads the file from the URL specified in the RSS feed and marks that episode as downloaded in the database. \n\n As for duplicate subscriptions the app probably combines results from several podcast indexers and is too dumb to weed out duplicate entries."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
6pzzt0 | how do slang words (like selfie) and memes go from being completely unknown to viral sensations? | I've always wondered if it starts with just one person posting and then by some miracle it just takes off.., | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pzzt0/eli5_how_do_slang_words_like_selfie_and_memes_go/ | {
"a_id": [
"dkthvd2",
"dktiygp"
],
"score": [
3,
5
],
"text": [
"[Slang Gang](_URL_0_) might be a good place to start?",
"Think of the term \"friendzone.\"\n\nThe act of a woman putting a man who wants to date them in a platonic state, is as old as humanity. I'm sure ancient cultures experienced it too, certainly it's not something that happened in the 90s and early 2000's only. \n\nIt was given a name by a writer for the show \"friends\" later made immortal by the actress who said it. \n\nThe writer thought of it, maybe he made it up, or maybe he heard one of his or her friends say it. Maybe the notion was fresh in their minds as they felt themselves being purposely put in this zone, or maybe he saw other people talk about how this guy wants to date them but they don't see them in that way. \n\nRegardless, before that episode, that term was nonexistent in the public's eye. The show \"friends\" was immensely popular at the time and watched by many people. Once that episode aired, millions of people saw her say and explain what the friendzone is. Now several million people can either agree or disagree with the term. Turns out, it was a great word to sum up a complex phenomenon. Many women and men related with that term. \n\nAll it takes is for another well known celebrity, author, what have you, to use the term again and now the populous hears it twice. Maybe some relationship article says it and a few thousand men go \"omg you're right.\"\n\nThat word gave a phenomenon a label and it opened the gates for discussion on the subject now that many people could accurately conceptualize the concept. \n\nIt gets more complicated from there as a sect of men now voice complaints on something they can now point to. Now women can say they are or aren't doing it. \n\nIt goes on. \n\nArt is about perspective. We look at something and think \"omg I never saw it from that angle.\" Perhaps it's with a word or a gif or a painting. In today's day and age, the younger generation struggles to understand reality and to come to terms with it. They're in a constant state of discovery and relation to one another. As soon as they find something in the wild that accurately describes an internal phenomenon, they use that object as a metaphor for communication. \n\nWhere are our youth these days? Twitter, tumbler, snap chat, reddit(I guess), 4chun the hacker, all communicating, all sharing thoughts and ideas. \n\nSomeone somewhere said \"oh, let's just call that (the whole act of taking a picture of one's self) a selfie.\" Maybe a professor did, or a popular girl or guy somewhere. Maybe a musician did or a celebrity. In all cases it was someone with an audience and many people liked the idea because it accurately described something that was happening at the time. Then it got repeated. Reblogged, retweeted, all because someone else related to it. \n\nThese terms are typically simple and simplicity is what pierces cultures across languages. \n\nAlso the term selfie was topical for the time. Smart phones were getting smart and everyone was bombarding social media with pictures of their faces now that phones had front facing cameras. \n\nThat's Earthboom's take on the matter anyway. \n\nTL;DR: Tumblr, blogs, and Twitter, breh. It all starts with someone else going \"omg that perfectly captures what I've been thus far unable to voice but has very much been on my mind!!\" "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://youtu.be/pEDit2uJCvY"
],
[]
]
|
|
f7elki | when pregnant mothers drink alcohol or use drugs, do the babies feel the effects? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f7elki/eli5_when_pregnant_mothers_drink_alcohol_or_use/ | {
"a_id": [
"fiarmvu",
"fiau289",
"fiauhd3"
],
"score": [
5,
11,
5
],
"text": [
"Yes, not sure about the strength of the hit for the baby though. But you do get all the bad stuff dead brain cells if you drink. Or addiction , babys can be born addicted to crack and have to go through detox",
"Yes, and they can also have withdrawal symptoms once they're born. This is often seen with babies of mothers who smoke or use drugs.",
"Yes there is something called fetal alcohol syndrome - _URL_0_ and there are other conditions for drugs."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/foetal-alcohol-syndrome/"
]
]
|
|
6ewk2z | what security does the us caller id system have and how could it be improved? | Logistically speaking, is there a way the US caller ID system could be effectively secured or are there technological or other non-policy hurdles in the way of a secured system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ewk2z/eli5_what_security_does_the_us_caller_id_system/ | {
"a_id": [
"didmhcp"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There is no security whatsoever. The ability to set your outgoing ID to any arbitrary number is an intended *feature* of the service. There are also redirect services that will trace back a *blocked* ID to reveal the actual number. Some of these are free, and they work with cellphones. All you have to do is decline the call, and the redirect will do it's job and reconnect you, but with their actual number. There are YouTube videos on how to set one of these up. It doesn't so much help you with illegal robo-dialers."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
28pzwk | how does peasant food become popular? | For example, lobster used to be given to prisoners. Why now, is it so coveted? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28pzwk/eli5_how_does_peasant_food_become_popular/ | {
"a_id": [
"cidanms",
"cidcip7",
"cide4qp",
"cidhnzn"
],
"score": [
6,
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"People tend to like the things they grow up with, and the vast majority of the world is poor. So it's not very surprising that cheap, easy to cook food is the most popular, in general.\n\nI'm not really clear on your lobster example - when and where was it prison food? As far as I know, lobster is highly prized because it's difficult to catch, and because it has a very delicate flavor when it's properly prepared. ",
"This hit my family hard - We used to have breast of lamb every Sunday, and we could get it in bagfuls from the butchers for pennies (he would sell it as dog meat!) but these days it's more expensive than steak and you get half the amount...",
"I read somewhere that the lobster served to poor people back then was just ground up (shell and everything) and served as mush. It wasn't prepared as a delicacy. \n\nI don't have information about why it took so long for people to learn how to cook it correctly. ",
"Nova Scotian here, can confirm lobsters used to be so plentiful that they were poor food. There's stories here of your aunts and uncles as kids going to school with lobster for lunch and being made fun of by the rich kids with their PB & J sandwiches. \n\nAs for peasant food, understand that it's also usually the best tasting stuff. Poor people are given the unfashionable cuts of meat, vegetables, the scraps and things the rich don't want. Necessity breeds invention, and so they end up figuring out the tastiest way to cook what they're given. After enough time, the stigma of eating \"poor people\" food wears off once everyone realizes how delicious it is. And then things gentrify the other way and we end up with \"gourmet\" offal restaurants who want to charge you $28 for a $2 cut of meat."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1w1epz | why is coffee so much more expensive than tea? | I don't just mean in cafés - gram for gram, coffee is easily twice the price of tea in a supermarket (and you get a lot more per gram out of tea than coffee, so the per-cup price difference is even greater). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w1epz/eli5_why_is_coffee_so_much_more_expensive_than_tea/ | {
"a_id": [
"cexrme7",
"cext9sh",
"cexu1fc",
"cexu6tu",
"cexuwpz",
"cexuzjb",
"cey0epb"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
2,
3,
8,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Imagine how many grams of tea leaves are on a tea tree, vs how many grams of coffee beans are on a coffee tree. As there are far more leaves than beans on a tree, gram for gram, it is easier to cultivate leaves than beans. The greater supply makes them cheaper. Added to that, you'd probably get an increase in price from the fact that coffee beans require roasting, whereas tea leaves can be dried in the sun.",
"I haven't really found this to be the case. Possibly with supermarket tea, which is extremely cheap dust, most of the time, but even medium quality loose leaf tea can be $25+ for a pound. You can get medium-good quality coffee for cheaper.\n\nCoffee does end up being more expensive, because it only takes one tea spoon of tea to make a cup (around 2 grams), but it takes 10-15 grams of coffee for a cup. ",
"It brews (never boils) down to labor hours and demand. \n\nA single cup of coffee extrapolated out to the individual beans used to brew it, especially a good one, requires triple digit labor hours to cultivate, process, ship, roast and brew. Not that some teas don't take just as much effort but, particularly in the US there is a higher demand for quality coffees so the market is larger and the product is more common.\n\nSmall batch and local coffee roasters put a substantial amount of time and effort into roasting batches of coffee between a few pounds up to about 100lbs at a time. Sounds like a lot but consider that Starbucks is mechanically roasting a shipping container's worth (36,000lbs) every hour. Small batch roasting quality coffee is very expensive and time consuming a land requires more expensive skilled labor.\n\nA pound of unroasted (green) coffee costs Starbucks about a nickel. Specialty coffees (Arabica rated 85 or higher by a certified Q grader, similar to the coffee industries sommeliers) typically cost $2 to as much as $25/lb.\n\nAs an interesting aside, Italy regulates the sale price of specific drinks in their coffee shops to be affordable as they consider coffee and espresso a necessity. \n\nI hope that answers your question, feel free to let me know if need to clarify or expand. I apologize for any grammar or formating errors; I'm on my phone. \n\n\n\n\n",
"I am not sure what kind of tea you are drinking? My family is Chinese and we get our tea from China. The tea from China we get easily cost $200-$300 for a small bag ( about enough tea leaves to fill a grande starbucks cup). ",
"You're buying poor quality tea. Mid-range tea can cost [$10 per 50 grams](_URL_0_)",
"The tea i buy is almost $10/100grams, $45/lb, thats way more than coffee.",
"The tea you usually get in restaurants is actually floor sweepings, it's the leftovers from loose leaf."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.urbantea.com/collections/tea/black+loose-leaves"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
47n46t | why is being pro-israel a republican stance? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47n46t/eli5why_is_being_proisrael_a_republican_stance/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0e5udq",
"d0e62ko",
"d0e634y"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
6
],
"text": [
"Israel is considered one of our only ideological allies in the Middle East. Republican foreign policy revolves around this area as it provides large amounts of oil (or did, US production has increased in recent years).",
"Most Jews in the US have an emotional affinity for Israel but very often oppose policies of the Israeli government. But the group that is strongest in support of Israel policies are Evangelical Christians becasue they see Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the coming of the end times. These same Evangelical Christians are a major component of the Republican coalition.",
"Don't fool yourself, both sides of the aisle in the United States are firmly devoted to Israel. It's one of the most powerful lobbies in the country."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1wwedl | why do i have to drink so much water every day? | I want to get into a healthier diet and even downloaded some apps to track how much water I drink every day. I used to drink less than half of what I apparently have to although I'm rather active. What is going to be different? Thank you so much for answering! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wwedl/eli5_why_do_i_have_to_drink_so_much_water_every/ | {
"a_id": [
"cf60c8i",
"cf60d3w",
"cf60e9p"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"man cannot live on beer alone",
"You don't. There are a lot of urban myths and bad science relating to how much water you should drink. Much of this is a product of advertising by water and drinks companies.\n\nOur bodies have evolved over a long time to regulate our water intake. Go with your instincts and drink when your thirsty.",
"If 80% of your body is water.....that's a lot of gallons. Doing everything from breathing to moving around all takes hydration away from your body. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1miw49 | what is c. wright mills' "sociological imagination"? | I need to write an essay about this topic but can't really grasp the idea. Thanks in advance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1miw49/what_is_c_wright_mills_sociological_imagination/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc9svzd"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"**The Sociological Imagination**, put simply, is \"the ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures.\" (New Society, 6th Edition, 9)\n\nThe sociological imagination was born with the onset of three modern revolutions:\n\n1. **The Scientific Revolution**: With the start of the scientific revolution, scholars referred less to religious scriptures and more to evidence. The use of evidence as a method of inquiry is extremely important in the field of sociology as it always involves speculating the realities of the world we live in today. For example, Emile Durkheim, a late 19th c. scholar, in studying rates of suicide, looked to the evidence he found in society. Many people assume, even today, that people commit suicide simply because they are undergoing extreme hardships. What he found instead was that people who belonged to groups that were strongly knit were less likely to commit suicide regardless of the personal hardships they experienced. So, for example, even though on average women were more prone to hardships, they were less likely to commit suicide than their male counterparts. One reason for this could be because women on average are more likely to console each other whereas men on average are more likely to keep it to themselves. With this, we can see the relation between personal troubles (hardship, suicide) and social structures (groups of people - i.e. women vs men).\n\n2. **The Democratic Revolution**: The Democratic Revolution brought the new idea that \"people control society and can change it\" (\"\", 10). Prior to this, God was seen as the ultimate decider of what goes on and who goes where. The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799) helped people realize that it was not entirely to replace rulers, who had claimed to be royal [dei gratia](_URL_0_). It is with this new found ideal that people began to desire to change their personal troubles (social status, wealth) and the social structures (royalty) that affected them.\n\n3. **The Industrial Revolution**: The Industrial Revolution, beginning in England in 1780, provided a host of new problems for societies. Many people were leaving their farmlands for the city and the promise of new jobs and with these new jobs came new troubles. Many were underpaid, overworked, and worked in dangerous conditions. \"The Industrial revolution [thus] provided social thinkers with a host of pressing social problems crying out for a solution\" (\"\", 11).\n\n**TLDR**: Everything and anything is connected. On the previous topic of suicide, where a psychologist might ask \"why did a certain individual commit suicide?\" a sociologist would ask \"what elements of one's environment would cause a certain individual to be more likely to commit suicide?\"\n\n**Edit**: Please consider reading what I've written down. This is the absolute basics of sociology and without it, any other sociological term or idea might be confusing to learn. Also good luck with your essay! :D"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dei_gratia"
]
]
|
|
6kegpn | why does keeping food in the refrigerator make it last longer? | Why does keeping food cold make it last longer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kegpn/eli5_why_does_keeping_food_in_the_refrigerator/ | {
"a_id": [
"djlfctg"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"It's harder for bacteria to survive and reproduce in extreme environments cold or hot, this is also why you fully cook chicken before eating it. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
4z54pj | why does being scared open up super congested noses? | And is there any way to harness whatever causes that for chronic allergy sufferers?
(I'm on mobile and I can't access a computer so I can't flair yet. I'll do it in the morning.)
EDIT: flaired! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4z54pj/eli5_why_does_being_scared_open_up_super/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6t08vh"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Being Scared activates our fight-flight response. With the sympathetic nervous system activated it triggers the release of adrenaline(to run faster or fight back). This induces vasoconstriction of the blood vessels in the nose, throat, and paranasal sinuses, which results in reduced inflammation (swelling) and mucus formation in these areas. Like taking decongestants. The pharmacological application for this for chronic allergy sufferers are epishots, decongestants and the likes. Like many medications this should be taken in moderation as we also have a condition called **epinephrine overdose** \"worsened breathing trouble, sudden numbness or weakness on one side of the body, slurred speech, problems with vision or balance, or dangerously high blood pressure.\n\n**TLDR:**Your body gets an epinephrine shot when scared. Epinephrine shots are its equivalent at the pharmacy. You may OD on this."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
81ep24 | why do incandescent light bulbs have such a large volume compared to the tiny filament? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81ep24/eli5_why_do_incandescent_light_bulbs_have_such_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dv2m2yg",
"dv32a9z",
"dv42m3b"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"more surface area for cooling itself, less likely to burn you if you touch it. \n\nAlso, sizing of fixtures was defined decades ago, probably with a healthy dose of manufacturing capabilities driving that decision. we could do better now (without question for LED bulbs) but now we keep that size because we dont want to lose backwards compatibility.",
"Standard glass can't hold up to the heat that it would need to if the envelope was any smaller. Also it's a safety thing, touching a hot bulb is less likely to cause a serious burn and stuff touching it is less likely to start a fire if the envelope is cooler. \n\nHalogen bulbs by contrast (not the energy saving ones that maintain the large envelope) for technical reasons need to get hot inside. They're make of a special high temperature quartz glass. The have in fact started a lot of fire where a curtain got near a halogen lamp, and when I was in film school everyone told the story of the student that tried to put a new halogen lamp in when the light was plugged in. He needed the lamp to be surgically removed from his fingers once if fused solid with them as soon as it was inserted and lit up. ",
"All the answers given are correct in their own right, but here's another perspective. \n\nThe further you get from a \"point source\", the more you minimize harsh, focused shadows. That large-ish bulb, which is generally coated internally with a diffusion (frost) produces a much more pleasant and soft glow, as opposed to a bright LED about the size of a pencil eraser. \n\nOf course an incandescent bulb has a minimum size to accommodate the filament, and a maximum size to still remain practical. But the above answer I gave is also the reason lamps have shades and many ceiling fixtures have frosted globes. To spread the light more evenly. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
a1oe72 | why has internet speed been increasing since its founding? hasn't cable been the same speed since its founding? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1oe72/eli5_why_has_internet_speed_been_increasing_since/ | {
"a_id": [
"earga6y",
"earlh2h",
"earmzqc"
],
"score": [
6,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The recent boost is due to fiber optic cables. Instead of travelling along bulky copper lines, signals are now basically sent as a beam of light down a fiber made of glass.\n\nThis allows much faster communication.",
"Well the cable definitely has improved over time, 56k was limited because the equipment on the lines couldn't handle any more, DSL was faster but required that your line didn't have any of the old equipment (so you were just limited by the old wire), cable was faster but required updates because lots of the older equipment didn't allow for two way communication. Now we are starting to use fiber to the home which is faster.\n\nA lot of the improvements are done with better hardware on each end. Much of this is because the old stuff just transmitted data and expected it to arrive at the right time, and it needed to be slow to allow for errors. Newer stuff runs tests on the cable to get highly accurate performance specs and them uses that to improve the signal quality. They special timing stuff, with the longer fiber actually syncing to GPS time to make sure both ends are on the same page. And they keep upgrading the equipment to be better at picking signals out of the noise and that allows more stuff through the wire.",
"Ignoring fiber optic cables, the conventional cables themselves may have been improved slightly over the years (not sure about that), but probably more important are the upgrades to nodes in the network, i.e. the things which are connected by the cables. Your computer isn't connected directly to the website you're visiting by a single electrical connection. Your connection passes through several nodes on the way.\n\nI'm tempted to go into more detail about the purposes of different types of network nodes, but I'll keep it short. A node needs to take in the data being sent over the cables and do something intelligent with it. It could be to direct the data to it's next destination in the network, or to process the data and come up with the appropriate data to send back. You can only send as much data over a cable as the node at the other end will be able to handle. It's the nodes whose speed and bandwidth have been upgraded over the years using new computing technologies or more hardware.\n\nIf the cable itself is the bottleneck you simply add more cables."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
37xwxr | can we speed up the rotation of the earth by putting rocketengines all over the equator ? ( in theory) | Inspired by a post from ksp.
EDIT: [This post](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37xwxr/eli5_can_we_speed_up_the_rotation_of_the_earth_by/ | {
"a_id": [
"crqp0rv",
"crqrsfv"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"If there was no atmosphere, this would certainly be possible. \nAs it is, however, I believe that the thrust would simply be absorbed by the molecules in the air and no net change in momentum would be achieved. ",
"i think if you used a photon rocket it would be easier. like others said the stuff that comes out of the rocket must escape the gravitational field. and light can easily do that. \n\nhowever if the new EM drives do become functional and work using the properties suggested they work by then one may be able to use those and because they have no propellant, they do not have to worry about whether or not the propellant escapes earths gravitational field "
]
} | []
| [
"http://nl.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/37v5ms/kerbins_rotational_speed_has_really_picked_up/"
]
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
zuavb | how does a neon light work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zuavb/eli5_how_does_a_neon_light_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"c67sdvs",
"c67segw",
"c67v374"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"There's a tube with a mixture of gases in it. Two electrodes run a very high voltage (provided by a step-up transformer) through the tube, which excites the gas molecules and makes them emit light. The color can depend on the precise gas mixture, on any color tinting of the light itself, or any phosphorous coating.",
"LY5: It's basically a big, continuous electric spark in a glass tube. High voltages (5,000 V - 15,000 V) are fed into the ends of the tube. Electricity goes through the tube, causing light to be created as the electrons move from atom of atom in the gas that's inside the tube. The tube is filled with special gasses (e.g. Neon) and chemical powders that make the spark different colors, instead of the usual purple-blue-white color of an electric spark in regular air.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Say for a moment you're an atom. An atom who has alllll sorts of electrons easily available on it's uppermost layer of electron shells. Why, a noble gas to be specific, the most charmed of the element classes. We'll call you \"Neon\"\n\nSo, you, Neon is having a -bitchin'- time in it's lowest energy state, just chilling and having a great time with life.\n\nBUT THEN! An electron smacks into the Neon. A stray electron from the wrong side of town. One of Neons electrons, one of the ones on the outer layer, make like a domestic cat and absorb it, puffing up an energy level to keep the energy. (Cats do that, right?)\nSo now Neon has an excited electron waaaaay to many layers away from it's core, whizzing about merrily at the speed of light. As we all well know, it is a social faux pas to have an electron in such an excited state and Neon has a party to get to.\n\nSo this excited electron is pulled back into the Neon, but it has to lose energy to do that. To that end, the electron emits a wavelength of light to bleed off some energy as it returns to its normal state.\n\nDo this a couple million times in an enclosed glass tube and you get a Neon light."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjEK7RuunM8"
],
[]
]
|
||
3ex7e4 | why everyone wants to kill the kurds? | hello reddit, my question is raised in light of Turkey joining the fight against ISIS. Turkey also started shelling the Kurds in Northern Iraq too. Which is to me like wanting to kick someone's ass then punching a guy who is already fighting your enemy? So basically the fight scene in Anchorman. Sadam, Turkey, Asad(sp? Syrian guy) all hate these people.? America has seemed to have a good relationship with them though. So why does everyone but us want them dead? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ex7e4/eli5why_everyone_wants_to_kill_the_kurds/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctj7jrz",
"ctjeciq"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Your analysis is wrong; Turkey want to kill the PKK who are a Marxist terrorist organisation that they have been fighting for decades - the essentially want their own state in eastern Turkey. On the other hand, Turkey are fairly ambivalent to Syrian and Iraqi Kurds whom they are helping by bombing ISIL.",
"Sorry for just submitting a link, but I think this article does a very good job of giving some details that may answer your question(s).\n\n_URL_0_\n\nKurdish people have long been dealt the shaft in terms of having an ethnic group split over several countries. They have absolutely no place of their own but reside largely in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, & Iran. Because they hold no internationally accepted boundaries to call a nation, they historically hold little power and for many reasons have been oppressed by whoever else IS in power. It's truly unfortunate but things do seem to be on the up & up for them for the first time in a long while. This scares Turkey a lot because of the large region of space that Kurds reside in within Turkey. (Turkey is afraid of losing power and land due to the Kurds)\n\n "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/09/muhammad-isis-iraqs-full-story.html"
]
]
|
|
32qm49 | how does glasses for crossed eye people work? | How do they work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32qm49/eli5_how_does_glasses_for_crossed_eye_people_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqdrr7a"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Strabismus (cross-eyedness) comes in different forms, misaligned inward (esotropia), misaligned outward (exotropia), upward (hypertropia) or downward (hypotropia).\n\nExtreme cases cannot really be treated with optics and require surgery or vision therapy (a doctor-supervised, non-surgical and customized program of visual activities designed to attempt to correct certain vision problems and/or improve visual skills.).\n\nGlasses treatment for minor or moderate Strabismus, usually comes from prism based ortho optics glasses. Small angles of strabismus can be corrected with glasses containing ground-in vertical and horizontal prism (this attempts to correct the misaligned eyesight by shifting the light through prismatic optics onto the correct direction). For larger angles of strabismus, bilateral Fresnel prisms may correct the vertical component of the deviation on one side and the horizontal component on the other side, but this technique often leaves patients quite bothered by the bilaterally degraded vision (caused by the lines in the Fresnel prisms). Fresnel optics use concentric patterns. [Here's a Fresnel prism lens on a pair of glasses](_URL_0_).\n\nThese glasses do help many people, but are no means the ideal solution.\n\nTL;DR : Crosseyed glasses have prisms cut into them to shift the direction of light to match the misaligned eye(s). Yes, they do help cases that aren't too severe, but surgery is often the better solution."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://toddlerglasses.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/march10-481.jpg?w=600&h=400"
]
]
|
|
1jo5e3 | how come that electric trains work with a single overhead wire? | As far as my understanding goes, an electric curcuit needs to have a positive-pole and a negative pole in order to work. Seeing electric trains, I wonder where the first one is located, as conventional trains only have a single overhead wire for intake of electric current.
So my basic question is, as wikipedia & co fail to give a brief and understandable answer, talking about frequency osciilations 'n stuff:
**How come that electric trains only have a visual *input* (-) of electric current, but lack an equivalent *output* (+) ?** | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jo5e3/eli5how_come_that_electric_trains_work_with_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbglsl7",
"cbglv58",
"cbglvla",
"cbglx7o"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The rails are the other pole.",
"Usually on such systems, the output runs through the rails. \n\nSo, AC comes in through the wire, activates the windings on the traction motors, and then exits through the metal wheels to the rails. The rails themselves are usually welded or bolted together, so a continuous circuit can be made.\n\nAnother option is to have a \"third rail\" in between the two drive rails, that carries the AC. But the ground point is still the outer rails.",
"Guessing from my electronics knowledge: the rails are at 0v relative to the ground and thus are \"grounded\". The wire is at something much higher (probably in the thousands of volts). You don't get shocked touching the rail because you are also at 0v, so there's to potential difference",
" > As far as my understanding goes, an electric curcuit needs to have a positive-pole and a negative pole in order to work.\n\nWhat you need for current to flow is a difference in potentials(for eg electrocution), quick googling shows that it's provided by the tracks being grounded. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
vu2et | - why a mac is called a mac and not a pc? other than os, what's the defining difference? | I've always thought PC stood for "Personal Computer". Isn't that what a Mac is? Other than OS they're exactly the same thing, with different hardware. I understand it's easier to tell the difference when discussing the two types of computers, but, what about any type of Linux system? they're called PC's also. different OS and all.
it's not that huge of a deal I guess, but it just bugs me.
EDIT: Marking. Never really dawned on me, It makes sense though. thanks.
EDIT 2: Little more than marketing, but still makes sense. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vu2et/eli5_why_a_mac_is_called_a_mac_and_not_a_pc_other/ | {
"a_id": [
"c57mjhz",
"c57mjl3",
"c57nd2y",
"c57njtn",
"c57nn5a",
"c57npq5",
"c57nqsy",
"c57ntwp",
"c57o5we",
"c57ocku",
"c57oy7u",
"c57p8io",
"c57pdgk",
"c57s2da",
"c57u7l1",
"c57ufg4",
"c57uhur"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
22,
283,
61,
13,
17,
9,
2,
4,
5,
2,
8,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Steve Jobs realized at one point that the only difference between \"designer\" products and \"standard\" products is in the name and appearance of the product, not in the product's functionality. There were Apple computers called \"Power PC\" they just didn't sell as well as the same shit with a different name and a fancy case.",
"Mac: Macintosh (Read: Apple)\n\nPC: Personal Computer\n\nThey are both the same thing, just variants of different marketing terms.",
"A Mac is a brand name, PC (personal computer) is a catch all term. The Windows/PC equivalent of \"Mac\" would be a product line (e.g ThinkPad, Inspiron).",
"Back in the 80s and early 90s we didn't call them PCs, we called them \"IBM Compatible\". It used to be you had a number of different types of computers that didn't play nicely together. You had Macs, Tandies, Commadores, and IBM machines (which ran DOS). DOS exploded and the others, including Apple's for a number of years, fell by the wayside. Around the time Windows 95 came out personal computing started to grow, perhaps as a result of that revolutionary operating system. With one primary form factor and operating system, and Mac, at this point, becoming a tiny portion of the market, it didn't make sense to identify the bulk of computing by compatibility with a single company. At the same time, computing is becoming more user friendly and it's starting to look like *everybody* will get one eventually, it starts losing that image as a toy for geek hobbyists and starts becoming relevant to the average person. A \"personal\" computer helps to portray this.",
"The original meaning of PC is personal computer. But in the early 80's, IBM used the term as the name of one of their models: [the IBM PC](_URL_0_). After that, IBM made more computers which were compatible with the IBM PC (compatible means they could run the same softwares) and other companies produced their own compatible products. All the computers in that family are called \"[IBM PC compatible](_URL_1_)\", which turned to just \"PC\" for short.\n\nSo now PC doesn't really mean personal computer anymore, it means a specific family of personal computers: the heirs of the original IBM PC (today those are the computers that run Windows natively).\n",
"This is off the top of my head and may be wrong but initially Macs and IBM compatible computers WERE fundamentally different. \n\ni.e. Before Mac switched to using Intel chips. \n\nFrom what I remember macs were RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) based processors and IBM compatible were CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) based processors, all the x86 processors. \n\nYou couldn't use software from one type on another because they were coded differently. This is one of the reasons there were so few games for Mac back in the day. \n\nELI5: Once upon a time Mac and PC were very different on the inside. Like an apple and an orange are different. Then one day the Apple said \"I'm tired of working so hard to make myself an apple. People who are allergic to my appley goodness don't get to taste me. I'm going to use the much more compatible and tasty bits from an orange put it inside me but still make me taste like an apple. That way everyone can eat me and get to experience my great Appley taste without having to redesign their entire digestive systems.\" \n",
"Initially different companies had incompatible machines. You had Amiga, Commodore, IBM, MacIntosh and a few others. Every one of them build their own machine with software designed just for that machine.\n\nIBM decided to make it's computer generic and give the design specs to the public, as in other companies could make parts that could interact with it's overall design. The software to handle that was also made by other companies (this is what made Microsoft big). \nThis generic design became so wildly popular that by 1990 IBM and it's clones [dominated the computer market](_URL_0_). \nMost of the competitors have died off and only really Apple remained. Apple kept building it's own computers which were incompatible with everybody else's up till 2005 when they [finally made the switch to, basically, IBM's design](_URL_1_).\n\nApple still builds computers which have a nice design and a predetermined set of hardware, but they are really the same as the rest now. Apple's marketing is what keeps Mac's different from the rest.",
"- IBM PC\n- Apple Macintosh \n\nAll IBM PC clones became known as PCs. \nApple's Macintosh's became knows as Macs.\n\n- PC\n- Mac",
"It doesn't make much sense to me either. PC is \"personal computer\". A Mac is indeed a \"personal computer\". Since I'm aware of this, I usually say \"Windows PC\".",
"mac is not a PC because they've always had the brand awareness to avoid being seen as merely one of in a category. they have their own category. an ipod is not an mp3 player, it's an ipod. an iphone is not a smart phone, it's an iphone. a mac is not a personal computer, it's a mac.\n\nin objective reality without considering brand, a mac is a PC",
"PC is usually used to refer to computers compatible with Intel's x86[-32][-64] architecture. Until 2006, Macs used the PowerPC architecture, so they weren't PCs, and the \"Mac =/= PC\" idea stuck.",
"PC, at this point, is pretty much a synonym for \"x86\". Which means, for all intents and purposes, Macs *are* PCs.\n\nThis has nothing to do with the fact that they're \"personal computers\"; it's because they use intel processors.",
"A lot of people here are getting the details wrong, so I'll try to explain the whole story using my best grandpa voice.\n\nIn the 70s and early 80s computers started to appear which were cheap enough that enthusiasts and the public could afford to buy and tinker with them. Individual people could afford these machines. Many new 8bit machines appeared and everyone got excited and this period is what we would refer to as the \"Personal Computer Revolution\".\n\nIBM, a big company busy with expensive mainframe and business machines up to now, entered the market with their IBM PC (i.e. an IBM computer aimed for personal use). Even compared to the machines at the time is was quite uninspired hardware-wise, but it did have some interesting details with respect to software. The OS (MSDOS) was licensed from Microsoft and it wasn't exclusively licensed. The OS for most other machines was produced and owned by the company who made the machine. Sharing info about how the hardware worked was pretty common at the time unlike now. But the system software was often an issue.\n\nThe IBM PC did quite well in business settings and other companies wanted a piece of the action. Microsoft was more than happy to sell MSDOS licenses to other companies and soon enough computers appeared which claimed to be \"IBM PC compatible\". (Actually, there was one software problem, the BIOS was by IBM. I think it was Compaq who did the first clean room implementation of compatible BIOS software.)\n\nThis whole market of \"PC clones\" took off and killed off most of the other competing types of personal computers. Through the years the terms \"IBM PC compatible\" and \"PC clone\" got shortened to just \"PC compatible\" and just PC.\n\nA note to students of history. If it wasn't for the non-exclusive license of MSDOS to IBM, clones machines would not have been possible, the PC might not have become the dominant microcomputer architecture and the younger people here on reddit might never have heard of a company called Microsoft.\n\nNote also that Apple computer doesn't license their OS out to other manufacturers, which is why there are no (legal) Mac clones. (Except for a very brief period of time in the 90s.)\n",
"The metric system, just ask Brad. ",
"Nobody outside the computer geek world knows nor cares about IBM compatibility. For the five year old explanation, because fanboys like the distinction. That's it. ",
"The \"[IBM Personal Computer](_URL_0_)\" or IBM PC was the most succesful of several early computer platforms. It used an Intel X86 microproccesor, and ran a microsoft operating system. It was so popular that clones of its hardware started to appear that were called \"[PC-compatible](_URL_1_)\".\n\nSo when advertising software in the early days, they would say compatible with \"Apple II\" or \"Tandy\" or \"PC-Compatible\" systems. And eventually \"PC compatible\" just became \"PC\" -- a catch-all term for the x86/Microsoft OS computer platform.",
"PC stands for two different, but related, things:\n\n*Personal Computer*: an old term that's being dying out. By this definition, any computer that's just yours (whether Mac or \"PC\" or even a BBC Micro is a \"PC\")\n\n*IBM-Compatible Personal Computer*: When IBM made their first PCs, they called them \"IBM PCs\". Because they were big and popular, other people made compatible computers, and called them \"IBM-Compatible PCs\". Over time, it became accepted that when you say \"PC\", it means \"IBM-Compatible Personal Computer\", not just \"Personal Computer\".\n\nMost people these days use PC to mean the second thing, which differentiates \"PCs\" from Macs and other personal computers. If you want to use the older, original, first definition, that's fine - but you'll probably want to clarify that you're doing so for the benefit of whomever you're talking to, because they probably use the second definition."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible"
],
[],
[
"http://jeremyreimer.com/postman/node/329",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple's_transition_to_Intel_processors"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible"
],
[]
]
|
|
46nsv2 | why isn't our sun and solar system slowly being sucked in to the black hole at the center of the milky way? | There's been some news about black hole discoveries recently, but we don't here much about the black hole in our own galaxy. What effect does it have on our solar system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46nsv2/eli5_why_isnt_our_sun_and_solar_system_slowly/ | {
"a_id": [
"d06k52e",
"d06kegk",
"d06klkp",
"d06ksq5",
"d06ktl5",
"d06kyi7",
"d06lzju",
"d06wi3e"
],
"score": [
26,
7,
2,
16,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Black holes aren't the cosmic vacuums that some media has made them out to be.\n\nOnce you get very close some odd things happen due to the immense gravitational forces, but at a distance they behave like any other large object.\n\nThe Sun more or less orbits the massive center of the milky way galaxy. The black hole at the center is massive (almost certainly the most massive object in the galaxy by far), but only a small percentage of the total mass of the galaxy.\n\n",
"Let's imagine that the sun's total mass was suddenly converted into a black hole. So, the entire solar system, all the planets and asteroids, are going to be sucked in to our black hole correct?\n\nNo, all the planets and asteroids are going to keep the same orbits as before.\n\nThe mass of this black hole is the same as the sun, just concentrated in a FAR smaller area. For distant objects, the gravitational force is the same. It's only once objects get too close to the black hole will it feel the heavier gravitational force.\n\nThe same is true for the giant blackhole in the center of our galaxy. Our sun is on a stable orbit around it. Infact, all galaxies appear to be built around these super massive Black Holes.",
"Gravity weakens with distance, and black holes have the gravitational attraction of the mass that was there before the black hole was formed so a large dying star and a black hole would have the same mass and hence the same gravitational pull. ",
"It's like why the earth doesn't fall into the sun. The solar system is orbiting the galaxy's center, including the black hole.",
"for the same reason that when you go around a turn in a car you get pushed towards the outside of the turn. \n\nOur solar system is going around a big curve, so it wants to fly off into intergalactic space... but the black hole is pulling it back (or warping spacetime into a big funnel for us to roll around the rim of, however you prefer to see it) either way, much like the earth/sun or moon/earth relationship, the two tend to balance out (not by coincidence, but that's another story) and we end up orbiting in a nice elipse (an oval, basically) ",
"Black holes are very dense, but they don't have stronger gravity than something of a similar mass.\n\nIf you took the sun and replaced it with a black hole of the same mass, the earth and all the other planets would continue happily along in their orbits. Similarly, if a star is in a stable orbit around the center of the galaxy, there is no reason for it to be sucked in.",
"Ok, I know it's already explained, but here is a simpler version:\n\nYou know how satalites orbit around the earth? They fly forwards/away from earth faster, than they fall down, so they are basically just balanced and don't fall from the sky.\n\nNow imagine the earth being a satalite and black holes/suns etc. the earth. It's pretty much the same principle.",
"The effect is basically the same as putting something into orbit around the earth, or any other celestial body. Orbit is basically moving too fast to fall into the gravity well, but too slow to escape it. If you attach a string to a ball and don't swing it fast enough, it will not travel in an \"orbit\" around you. If you are able to swing it fast enough that it breaks the string, the ball will leave the \"orbit\" around you. Swing it at the right speed and it will trace a measurable path, which is what we do around the sun, and the solar system does around the galactic center. In very simple terms."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
albl7p | why do people raise their heads when they say goodbye to each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/albl7p/eli5_why_do_people_raise_their_heads_when_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"efcjdg7"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Raising your head is form of \"greeting\" it can also be used as a form of saying goodbye (similar to the itialian word ciao).\n\nNodding upwards exposes your throat, in the animal kingdom generally seen as a sign of trust.\n\nFun fact: ever notice that when greeting formal aqaintances you tend to nod down awards instead of upwards like with friends? Nodding downwards is derived from bowing and is a sign of (formal) respect "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2rggpf | is it better to pop a zit or let it go away itself? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rggpf/eli5_is_it_better_to_pop_a_zit_or_let_it_go_away/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnfmolm",
"cnfmtge",
"cnfn3bc",
"cnfnvb7"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Definitely better to leave it alone. If you pop it it'll most likely just get infected and could potential scar.",
"I always pop them and nothing happens, don't know what everyone is going on about scars and stuff. ",
"I don't have a technical explanation for you, but I tend to subscribe to the idea that the human body knows what its doing. If it wants to generate a bunch of ugly looking puss, then so be it. I'm not going to be sticking my figures in and interfering. Same reason I don't pick scabs. ",
"I'm not sure about popping a zit, but never use a needle as it will leave a scar behind."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
10mzwf | how do some animals know when we're sad? | I've noticed that if I'm upset or crying over something my cat or dog will come over an lick me or cuddle with me. Are they trying to make me feel better? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10mzwf/eli5_how_do_some_animals_know_when_were_sad/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6evl9w",
"c6ezbqq"
],
"score": [
4,
5
],
"text": [
"I have a couple of theories.\n\nMy first thought, perhaps a bit harsh, is no. It is not aware that you are sad. Human beings have a tendency to believe things we want to believe. If we turn around and see someone behind our back, we think we sensed them before we turned around. If we read a horoscope that magically turns out to be right, we think that the horoscope predicted the future. If we are sad, and our pet comfort us, we naturally think it's because the pet could sense it somehow. But that's because you're in a frame of mind where you want comfort from someone, perhaps especially from your dog. If you did statistics on it, how many times your dog approach you when you were sad, compared to not sad, the likely answer is that it will be roughly the same number.\n\nIt might also be the case that your dog approached you when you were sad once, and you rewarded it by scratching and stroking it. This incidence might have taught the dog that if it approaches more you when you are having a sad, let-down posture, it will be rewarded. This does not mean it knows your emotional state, it means that it recognizes your posture perhaps and thinks: \"If I approach this guy now who usually feeds and take me for walks, then I will be rewarded. Yes, good idea!\" Simple conditioning. Although, this premise means that the dog reads your body-language, which might be the case for all I know. Dogs respond to authority and submissiveness, so perhaps it somehow can read other body-language as well.. \nAlso, a lot of neuroscience research in emotions is done on animals, such as rats and monkeys. In many instances, findings from this type of research is then applied to research on the human brain. This means that there are certain similarities with many types of animal brains, and the human brain. This might be the case with dogs, I don't know. If it is, we might share enough hard-wiring in the brain for them to read \"sad\" bodylanguage.\n",
"Well, it also turns out that dogs, specifically, have developed an ability to feel human emotions in addition to reading people's unconscious body and facial expressions. There's an enormous body of work being done in this area. In one study, sorry i can't find the exact summary, they tested blood levels of dogs for stress hormones when both owners and strangers were with the dogs, who demonstrated an \"empathy\" or at least similar reactions when the person was in various emotional states. Also, scientists have tested cats, birds, and primates who didn't show similar abilities...\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-puppy-my-self/201207/do-dogs-have-empathy-or-is-it-sixth-sense",
"http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201206/canine-empathy-your-dog-really-does-care-if-you-are-unhappy"
]
]
|
|
38qq7y | why do people censor their eyes when they post pictures of themselves when you can still pretty much tell it's them if you knew the person originally? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38qq7y/eli5_why_do_people_censor_their_eyes_when_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"crx48dg",
"crx4ek5",
"crx4n2b",
"crxcber"
],
"score": [
85,
12,
29,
9
],
"text": [
"There is a lot of facial detail in and around your eyes. If you know the person, then your brain will fill in the blanks and help you recognize them, but if you don't know the person, then you have no idea what that area should look like, and that conceals their identity. ",
"If you point to a picture of a person, with the eyes covered, and are told who it is, or have a reason to guess who they are, you can usually recognize them, however the eyes are still the most identifying feature of a face. If you had to choose one feature to cover in order to make a person harder to identify, the eyes would be it, and covering them makes it a lot more likely that a person who knows them might not put it together, especially if they have no reason to suspect they know them in the first place.\n\nIf I show you a photo of someone you know casually, or knew 5 years ago, you'd probably recognize them right away. If I show that same photo with the eyes covered, and say \"you know this person\", giving you a reason to think about it, you'd probably still figure it out. But if I show it to you, and make no suggestion that you might know them, there's a decent chance that you wouldn't notice, presuming that they don't have some other identifying feature (unusual hair, tattoo, strikingly crooked teeth, etc.) that gives it away.\n\nIt's not the best hider of identity, but it is mildly effective.",
"It's not enough to hide the identity of someone you already know well, but it would still be enough to keep a stranger from recognizing you if they saw you again. It would also be enough to prevent facial recognition software from identifying you.",
"There was a guy posting in mfa without censoring his face, but he found out someone was using his images on a dating site. Since then, he was been doing minimal censoring, just so he knows that no one could pose as him using those pictures. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
18hk01 | if images are just data that says what color each pixel should be on screen, then why are some bigger in size than others? | For example, if I generate a completely black image in photoshop with a resolution of 2048x2048, it will be a few kilobytes, whereas if I make a starfield in that image with the same resolution, it will be several megabytes. Why is one image larger in size than the other, even if they are the same resolution? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18hk01/eli5_if_images_are_just_data_that_says_what_color/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8ev4wj",
"c8evs07"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"The program you use to make the program is able to compress the file slightly to make it take up less space. So instead of recording info for every single pixel, it stores information for a chunk of them that are all the same.",
"Compression. The maths is a lot more complex and there are multiple ways to do it, but to sum it up, it's like writing that there are \"10,000 consecutive zeroes\" instead of writing \"000000000000....\" (10,000 zeroes).\n\nIt's kind of like how we write a 9 instead of writing IIIII IIII"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
32jl68 | how did t-rex sleep? | Like, I'm having trouble thinking of how in the world they would've slept. I mean, I can't really imagine spooning would've been too easy, so did they... Stand? Lean against a wall? Face plant and call it good til morning? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32jl68/eli5_how_did_trex_sleep/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqbtzhr",
"cqbxcme"
],
"score": [
48,
3
],
"text": [
"Pretty much the same way [ostriches do](_URL_0_), like [this](_URL_1_).",
"T-Rex was basically a big bird, so it would have probably looked like a [chicken](_URL_0_) when sleeping."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/25/ostriches-sleep-like-platypuses-and-look-wide-awake-when-they-do/#.VSzp1_nF8YE",
"http://i.imgur.com/worPkCd.jpg"
],
[
"http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/sleep-chicken-farm-as-close-up-34931349.jpg"
]
]
|
|
2mz4gn | why do dogs go crazy over red dots? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mz4gn/eli5why_do_dogs_go_crazy_over_red_dots/ | {
"a_id": [
"cm8vm1f",
"cm8vwrb"
],
"score": [
2,
12
],
"text": [
"They don't. They go crazy over intense points of light.",
"Because instead of having to align a front and rear sight into a proper sight picture while maintaining cheek weld, they can simply shoulder the rifle and place the dot on target. This greatly increases shot placement and target acquisition during battle stress."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
5u4ahy | why isn't 17th-19th century style classical music not composed anymore? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5u4ahy/eli5_why_isnt_17th19th_century_style_classical/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddr8odc",
"ddr9mpw",
"ddra3j8"
],
"score": [
6,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Composers of 20th/21st century classical music are always pushing the genre forward and looking to do something new. If they wrote something which was too close to the music of centuries ago, it would be dismissed as a \"pastiche\" and not a new work of art.",
"[It is still composed.](_URL_0_) Aside from film scoring it just tends to be less visible, overshadowed and squeezed out of airplay by the traditional masters of the genre.",
"Its definitely still being made, it's just not so mainstream. Most composers of such music nowaday tend to work in Film and TV creating musical scores. John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman for example... "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music"
],
[]
]
|
||
1w1dmn | why do female voices in choirs stand out more? | In most cases when I listen to choral music that has men and women, it always seems the collective female voices *are* the choir more-or-less, and I often need to listen closely to even make out the men. Is it simply because the music was arranged this way? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w1dmn/eli5why_do_female_voices_in_choirs_stand_out_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"cexsmsk",
"cextzpo",
"cexusoj"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The way our hearing works, we notice higher tones more readily than lower tones. You'll notice with most music, the higher notes carry the melody and the lower notes provide rhythm and harmony. Since women tend to have higher voices than men, we hear their voices more readily. However, you would notice if the male parts were left out, even if you couldn't directly identify them before.",
"The effect of female voices sounding louder can be explained as an amalgamation of science, aesthetics, and the failing of our physiology as we age.\n\nThe first part of this explanation, the science, is as follows: Humans hear frequencies from 20Hz to 20,000Hz at birth. We divide that up into subsets and get lows, low-mids, high-mids, and highs. The human ear hears frequencies between to low-mids and high-mids the best. This range can broadly be defined as 1,000Hz to 3,000Hz (Roughly, guys; don't jump all over me for this loose definition). The low end of the female voice falls at about 1,000Hz, so we hear it better than a man's voice.\n\nThe second part of the explanation, the aesthetics, is that the male voice in a choral arrangement is usually relegated to tones that are not part of the melody in four part harmony. One section of females in a chorus is going to have a note that, if we define this in pop terms, is part of the lead vocal(melody). This is going to grab one's ear more than the aural foundation of the piece.\n\nThe final part of the explanation, the failing of our physiology, is that as we live our lives we lose our hearing. In some, hearing loss is more exaggerated than in others. For example, if you work in a shop environment and are around loud noise all day with no hearing protection, then you might experience a loss of hearing. The first frequencies to go are the lows and the highs. So, because some people might lose specific frequencies in their hearing throughout their lives, it can further exaggerate the effect discussed above.\n\nHope that helps.\n\nEdit: wurds",
"The only addition I would make to the other answers here is about the directionality of sound. Lower frequency sound (male voice) is more omni directional, while higher frequency sound (female voice) is more directional. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3078hn | why couldn't we have develop computers to understand human language rather than binary? | I know very little about programming and computers in general, so forgive me if this is a bit common sense which I never received. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3078hn/eli5_why_couldnt_we_have_develop_computers_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cppr0c6",
"cppr1gq",
"cpptm8b",
"cppyu2f"
],
"score": [
8,
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Because the entire basis of binary is a physical property. The entire basis of electronic computing was the transistor. A transistor is like a see-saw; it's either on or off, on being conductive and off being non-conductive. Ergo, binary was used as an abstraction of this: 1 is on, 0 is off.\n\nMaking a physical switch with 26+ different positions is extremely difficult, and lends to many problems. With a transistor, it is easy to tell what position it is in. With a 26-place switch, it's much more difficult.\n\nProgramming languages and compilers are what we made in order to turn our human language into language that the computer can understand.",
"Human language is very heavily based on things that are very hard to quantify, such as figures of speech, sarcasm, tones of voice, timing, eyerolls, facial expression, and on and on and on.\n\nComputers deal with unambiguous statements and nothing else. Do this specifically defined operation, then feed the results to this other specifically defined operation.",
"Human language is so complicated that even linguists argue among themselves and don't have it completely sorted out. ",
"Because human language is freaking complicated. There are exceptions to rules, metaphors, figures of speach. Computers take everything literally, they just don't get his stuff. And binary is the base of language. It's like trying to make a person understand language when they don't have a brain. \n\n > I know very little about programming and computers in general, so forgive me if this is a bit common sense which I never received.\n\nThere is no such thing a stupid question, why should you apoligize for asking this? Why should you apologize for trying to better understand something? You shouldn't."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5tkbwl | how did mankind learn to make (what we now consider easy) stuffy like bread and beer? | Did someone just stumble across somehow mixing the correct quantity of ingredients and then applying a correct amount of heat for an exact amount of time or was there the equivalent of scientists back in the day just trying to make stuff? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tkbwl/eli5how_did_mankind_learn_to_make_what_we_now/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddn5s1g",
"ddn5tw6",
"ddn6o5s",
"ddn9xp3"
],
"score": [
3,
19,
10,
2
],
"text": [
"Recorded history doesn't go back that far, so we just have to guess.\n\nFire goes back to homo habilis 100s of thousands of years ago. That's a lot of time. You have to expect that people tried stuff. \n\nThe whole of recorded human history is only like 5% of that much time, and look at how much has been developed.\n\nIt wasn't formal science though. The concepts weren't there. People figured things out and taught their kids, but they didn't know why things happened one way or another.",
"Baby steps. \"hey, we can turn wheat into dust, that makes it easier to store!\" \"if we mix flour with water we get this gruel, this is easier to eat than dust\" \"whoops, I left my gruel on the fire. Wait, this is pretty good!\"",
"Trial and error\n\nSoda pop ( Coca-Cola ) started off as a cough syrup \n\nHowever we think of people in the old days as being Dumber than us today. And that simply isn't true. Case and point: the Egyptians built the pyramids with a flat Foundation using water and irrigation then drain the water. We still use that technology today but instead of water we use lasers\n\nI can go on all day but this is best if you do your own study on Ancient Technologies. It's really amazing how smart people was so long ago",
"Beer, or rather proto-beers were invented independently at several different places. My theory is that it was mostly accidental. Someone cooked a grain (or another kind of starch) for long enough to soften it and turn that starch into sugars (that's mashing process). Because wort (the \"sugary soup\" you get after mashing) doesn't have much of a taste, they probably flavoured it with honey, fruit, berries; whatever they had at hand. If you let that stay for a bit (sometimes it can be as little as a few hours) that mix will start fermenting either thanks to the yeast already on the fruit or honey or yeast that go there some other way (it could have [been fruit flies](_URL_0_)). Someone then drank that slush and liked the taste. The rest is history. One thing to bear in mind, though, those early beers would have been hardly alcoholic and probably tending to sourness (like modern Kvass).\n\nBread could have been similar. Check a recipe for sourdough and imagine that happening by accident. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.wired.com/2014/10/beer-yeast-attracts-fruit-flies/"
]
]
|
|
93bsk1 | hydro power generation, why is there only one big turbine at the bottom of the hill and not multiple? the water should regain its kinetic energy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/93bsk1/eli5_hydro_power_generation_why_is_there_only_one/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3c47mx",
"e3c48ei",
"e3c4e1l"
],
"score": [
7,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Most of the energy comes from the drop in height, from the top of the lake to the level of the turbine. That generates immense pressure. Once the water comes out of the turbine, that pressure is spent. The remaining energy (which is indeed wasted) is small.",
"Pretty sure the laws of thermodynamics won't allow this to be profitable.\n\nFor us to take energy out of the system the water needs to lose KE (push turbine)\n\nIf you've seen videos of an outlet of a hydropower plant you will clearly see that the water falls almost directly vertically.\n\nOfc if you have a 100m drop and then put two turbines - one at the bottom and one at 50m you could operate both since the water starts building kinetic energy from the outlet of the first one due to gravity.\nBut the initial potential energy of the water is still the same - aka. There is a cap on how much you'll be able to harvest, and having multiple turbines along the way means more losses due to friction (turbine efficiency can't be 100%)\n\nI'm on the subway so can't do the maths now, but i reckon there's several economic reasons to just stick with one inlet and outlet.",
"Some hydroelectric plants have multiple turbines. The [Three Gorges Dam](_URL_0_) in China has 34 turbines, for example. The turbines do tend to be spaced out next to each other horizontally, rather than vertically in a sequence.\n\nSince you mentioned kinetic energy, you may also be familiar with the idea of [potential energy](_URL_1_). When you pull on a spring and it bounces back, that spring is experiencing potential energy that is converted into kinetic energy.\n\nLikewise, when a single drop of water is at a particular height, its potential energy is equal to the total amount of kinetic energy it could gain by falling. Ignoring certain effects like friction or air drag, the amount of energy you can extract from that water drop as it falls one full-dam height is the same as the amount of energy you can extract as it falls two half-dam heights, because in both cases the water drop starts with the same amount of potential energy that can be converted into kinetic energy."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_energy"
]
]
|
||
2gp81q | why does pressing in a x with your fingernail make a mosquito bite stop itching? | Also, I don't remember anyone teaching me this method, but everyone seems to know about it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gp81q/eli5_why_does_pressing_in_a_x_with_your/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckl9rip"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"I thought I was the only one that did this"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
fcba8r | when we explore the ocean depths and find new species, we shine a light on them - if these animals live so far down in the dark and are used to pitch black, couldn’t the light harm them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fcba8r/eli5_when_we_explore_the_ocean_depths_and_find/ | {
"a_id": [
"fj9kqjb",
"fj9nq4y"
],
"score": [
2,
4
],
"text": [
"Creatures that live in absolute darkness tend not to have eyes, so they won't be dazzled by a bright light because they haven't evolved to see that light. \n\nSome do have light receptors, which are less complex than our own eyes and won't cause pain or lasting damage by being overwhelmed for a short time.",
"Im not sure about the other comment’s sources but my understanding is that yes many creatures are harmed by our lights. Typically these are ones that have extreme photo sensitivity."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
1hbwov | why are cd's still used for audio instead of dvd or blu-ray? | CDs work well at 16 bits per sample and a sample rate of 44.1 khz, but they can only hold up to (a little more than) 700 MB. Basic DVDs have 4.7 GB and basic blu-ray discs hole 25 GB. Why have neither of those been used for higher fidelity audio? Possibly 24 bits per sample at 192 khz? You could probably even fit more audio. So, why hasn't it or didn't it happen? (also involving why it wasn't adopted by the masses)
The responses thus far are appreciated. I must now ask another question. Why aren't they more popular amongst audiophiles? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hbwov/eli5_why_are_cds_still_used_for_audio_instead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"castqdt",
"casv7x2",
"casx16z"
],
"score": [
18,
4,
5
],
"text": [
"There's a *massive* installed base of CD players. Look at all the home stereos and cars that would need to be upgraded.\n\nPeople were happy with 128kbps MP3s (worse than CD) when the iPod blew up. People are happy with the current state of audio quality.\n\nHD TVs came out which drove the need for Bluray. Speakers are still basically the same, there's no reason to upgrade the music.\n\nThey tried to introduce a higher quality audio, the [SACD](_URL_0_). It was mostly a flop.\n\nA lot of music distribution is online where higher quality is available. A lot of playback is done by MP3 players. There's no demand for a new physical medium.\n\n...and the record companies are more than happy to 'license' you a file rather than deal with physically shipping you an artifact that you can resell.",
"Because most music albums already contain less audio than would fit on a CD, and most people don't have good enough speakers that they would notice further improvements in quality. Basically, why fix it if it ain't broken? You'd just end up with higher costs and compatibility issues. In any case, these days most distribution is digital.",
"In addition to the other answers, most people don't have systems that would even notice the better quality. The CD player in my truck cost $70 at Wal-mart. The speakers are factory-installed. The best storage media in the universe won't make a difference on that equipment. Same goes for my soundcard and speakers on the computer. Add my mild hearing loss/moderate tinnitus into the mix, and going full-audiophile is a waste of money.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1rz437 | why is it called beta-testing rather than alpha-testing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rz437/why_is_it_called_betatesting_rather_than/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdsc4wv",
"cdsc5za"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"Alpha-testing is already done by the developer. \n\nBeta-testing is the second round, done by letting other people use it. ",
"Because alpha testing is already a thing. \n\nIt refers to testing by the company, a contractor, or some other closed, controlled group. Beta testing is more open to the public \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing#Alpha_testing"
]
]
|
||
5m5uep | why are black crimes against white people so rarely classified as "hate crimes" despite evidence appearing so? e.g. chicago yesterday | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m5uep/eli5why_are_black_crimes_against_white_people_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"dc10g2p"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because it's a sensitive subject for many people and political and non-political entities alike don't want to offend anyone. It doesn't matter if it's rational. The Chicago PD basically has a choice of saying that the torture was a hate crime, and risk people bashing their doors down because they're offended on somebody else's behalf, or they can just ambiguously label it as a terrible incident and say that their prayers go out to the victim and their families. From a PR perspective, the second is much better. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6gtkjz | why do we still have to bring our license when the police can just search us up on tablets nowadays? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gtkjz/eli5_why_do_we_still_have_to_bring_our_license/ | {
"a_id": [
"disxdlh",
"disz4bd",
"diszukj",
"dit0mll",
"dit2or6"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
4,
3,
17
],
"text": [
"We can easily lie about our name and date of birth. Harder to use someone else's picture ID",
"I am not a cop but it makes perfect sense to me that the \"license and registration please\" initial contact allows the Officer a ton of intelligence as to the driver he is dealing with.\n\nAttitude, speech (slurring??), nervousness, actions and statements from the other passengers and more.\n\n",
"One reason is that laws change very slowly. If there is no pressing reason to rewrite a law, legislators aren't going to waste a lot of time doing that. Some very silly laws stay on the books for decades because nobody feels the need to get rid of them. But that's not the main reason. The main reason is that it makes good sense to require you to have your license in your possession while driving.\n\nEvery state requires that you *be* properly licensed whenever driving. That is an obvious and legitimate safety concern. But that's not the same thing as carrying *proof* of that license. And in fact, not every state requires it. But most do. Why should that burden be placed on the driver?\n\nIt made a lot of sense in the days before digital databases when these laws were written. It's a hell of a lot easier for you to just show your license, than to search the DMV and courthouse files every time a cop pulls someone over, to ensure that they're properly licensed.\n\nOnce the databases went digital, it still made sense. Now your license was something that could be double-checked against the databases to ensure that it hadn't been suspended or revoked. It was also useful for checking to make sure there weren't any outstanding warrants for your arrest. The burden on you was almost nil, while the benefit to society was significant.\n\nModern technology hasn't changed that. It used to be that those digital databases could only be accessed by someone sitting in front of a computer terminal back at the precinct, whom the cop would have to call on the radio in order to check the info. Later, police cars started to be equipped with technology enabling them to run the search themselves. Today's modern technology is really just an easier interface for the cop. Just scan the code on the license, scan the code on the registration sticker, and a pocket-sized computer tells you all you need to know. But none of that changes the purpose of the exercise, which is to check to ensure that this license is still valid, and make sure there's nothing else this cop needs to be aware of.\n\n(Aside: Driving without the physical license is usually a minor violation, while driving without a valid license can be a serious crime. If charged with the minor violation of not having it on you, some states will drop the charges if you can show that you were in fact properly licensed at the time. Not every state, though. YMMV.)\n",
"Because there is no guarantee that the tablet will be able to connect to the database that stores this information at every traffic stop.\n\nBy contrast, your physical license is not subject to coverage gaps or service interruptions.",
"Cop here:\n\nI don't have a tablet. I have a laptop in my car. I can look up driver's information but it won't have a picture. All I can verify is that the name and DOB you gave me has a valid state-issued ID.\n\nIf you've been arrested before, I can match information to a mugshot on a separate system.\n\nI'm not even in some small-town department with limited resources. My department is actually pretty big and well-funded.\n\nNot every police department (there are about 18,000 different agencies in the US) even have computers.\n\nSo when someone hands me a drivers license I have a picture, name and date of birth, which makes everything much simpler.\n\nIn instances where I stop people with no license/ID, and no local records, the process to ID them can be long and arduous for them and me.\n\nIf I absolutely cannot find any information on someone, I can arrest them, take them to jail, have them fingerprinted, and released.\n\nPhysically possessing a license while driving is also required by law in a lot of states."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
g3f3dj | when you are sitting in a car that is stationary, and the car next to you pulls away, why does it sometimes feel that you are moving instead? (the amount of times i have panicked thinking i am rolling away and pressed the brakes repeatedly is silly) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g3f3dj/eli5_when_you_are_sitting_in_a_car_that_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"fnqxc9t",
"fnr00cf"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"So you have 3 ways to sense movement in the world around you, and one of them is playing tricks on the other two!\n\nYour eyes (visual), your ears (vestibular), and your skin (somatosensory) tell your body where it is and what is happening around it with regards to motion. Normally, all three systems work together when you ACTUALLY back up in the car. You see yourself move backwards, you might feel a slight difference in the pressure against your seat back, and you sense the change in motion. \n\nThe problem is, we are mostly dependent on our eyes and they can trick us and override the other two sensations. That's the major cause of car or air sickness! In which case, the eyes see something the other two systems don't agree with. When that car moves forward, you see it and your brain uses that as it's main input to tell you what is going on around you. Even worse, your brain prefers to use what you see on the sides of you (periphery, not what you are looking at directly) to determine movement. Which is why you've probably never felt that way when a car in front of you moved!\n\nSource: 11 years aviation experience, cog sci classes",
"Movement is relative. When you stand as still as you can, you consider yourself not moving. However you are in fact spinning on the earth’s axis at just over 25,000 miles per hour. If you are the only bit of matter in the universe and the universe extends in all directions infinitely, it would be impossible to tell if you are in motion or still because you have no other point of reference to define your motion. If you then started waving your hand over your head, you could then measure the motion of your hand in relation to any other place on your body.\n\nwhen you are sitting at a red light and the care next to you moves, you sense motion because your position in relation to the other vehicle is changing. Then, you start to make value judgements based on information you slowly gather, “wait, I have my foot on the break, i’m not the one that is moving in relation to the earth, the other car is” Your brain senses position in space rapidly but not necessarily accurately, then you make more sense of it later.\n\nYour brain jumps and runs and alerts and startled and flee’s first because that is what keeps you alive, you make any real sense of it later.\n\nEDIT: not 25,000 miles per hour but closer to 1000 mi/hr"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.